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Hey, Alex here. Before we get into today's episode, I want to share some really exciting news with you. We just launched a podcast network. If you go to podmatch.comnetwork, you can take a look at all the shows and categories that are involved. And if you'd like to have your show listed in the network, you can press the Join network button at the top. I look forward to seeing your application, and I hope you enjoy some of the shows there. And now let's get into today's episode. You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple.
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So today we're going to be talking about why podcasters are going to invite you as a guest and how can we make it happen. Before we get on to podcasting, let us just think about the employment world, because podcasting is fairly new and maybe you're trying to be a guest for the first time. However, for most of us, we've been in the employment scenario for many, many years now. So why do you think organizations are going to hire you to work for them? Especially in such a crowded market where if you look at the supply and demand of talent, as we call them, the supply is unlimited, the demand is limited. So what are those aspects of you that an organization would look for and hence hire you? And now you flip it to yourself. What are those aspects that you are going to focus on before you even apply to an organization and then feel whole and confident that you will make it to the interview and then to the particular job? It's similar when it comes to podcasting. So there are three elements that we need to keep in mind when we want to be a guest for any of the podcast shows. The first is, of course, the podcaster or the podcast brand itself. The second is the listener or the audience that this particular podcast has. And the third is you as a speaker. Now, let's delve deep into each of these. The podcast brand or the podcaster, what is it that you are able to offer to them? Now, of course, one of the very quick things that you may answer and say is, I will definitely promote this particular episode on my social media. And through that, you know, they are going to get more visibility. But how about you actually speaking about them, showcasing them and their brand through that very podcast episode? Now, I'm going to give you a story to make one think about how this can be done. So Ambassador Terry is one of the people that I've connected with who has various formats of video shows. One is a podcast, which is called as what are you doing? It's A five minute podcast and then there is first Fridays of every month. That's various formats of that kind. So I had been invited by him on the what are you doing? Show, and after that he invited me to a couple of other shows of his. The talk that we were talking about was about creating opportunities. So this is how I brought in his podcast show, what are you doing? When I was talking about creating opportunities. So I told Ambassador Terry, how can I create an opportunity for myself on your highly listed, it was actually listed as the top hundred podcast shows by Thinkers 360. The what are you doing? Show. So I told him, how did you invite me to be on such a prestigious show of yours? What are you doing now? What happened with this? I'm actually helping promote Ambassador Terry's show. What are you doing? By saying that and by saying that it was privileged for me to be on that show, which is actually one of the top hundred podcast shows, which has been rated by Thinkers360. So you are helping. In this case, I was helping Ambassador Terry further build his brand, promote his podcast and brand. So the first thing that one needs to think about is what is in it for the podcast brand and the podcaster if they were to invite you. Now, the second one is about the listeners and they are most important. Now there is, you know, a debate in terms of how do you assess if a podcast is a success or not. The debate is whether you measure it based on the number of downloads a show has or the number of listens, the listen time. Both these metrics can be actually found, but it has been actually said that it's not the number of downloads that assesses the success of a show. It is actually the listen time, even if you didn't have a ton of downloads. But if the listen time was fairly good, then you know that your podcast is a success. Because you can never assess if the people who download it actually listen to it or not. Hence, the audience is varying. What is it that you can offer to the audience? Now, every podcast has a niche audience and the audience are going to listen and stay on till the end of the episode only when they are getting something of value. What is that value that you are able to offer to the audience? Now there's an example. I was asked or invited to be on this particular podcast, which is titled Second Innings. Suman and Atul started this podcast to interview people who have changed their career tracks. And HENCE it's called second innings. So from the first innings, which could be 10 years or 25 years when somebody actually transferred transitions to a second career, they are interviewing such people to talk about the why and the how and, you know, all of it, because there are many, many people who are wanting to make this switch. Now, when they invited me, I decided to focus on two types of audience. One is there will be listeners who are currently considering changing their career tracks, and there will be listeners who probably changed their career tracks in the recent past, maybe a year ago. So these are the two audiences that I wanted to touch upon on Impact. Now, there are other people also. There could be someone who is thinking that I'm going to be in this career for the next 10 years, and then maybe I want to make a switch that is also a third kind of an audience. And then the fourth audience could be someone who's made the switch and has been in the second career for the last five to seven years. All of them are valid audiences. But I know that the people who are going to be most impacted this show is going to be most useful is for those who are either currently thinking of making the career switch or. Or the ones who've recently made it, say, within a year, because they're still kind of figuring out whether they did it right and what's in store for them and how to kind of navigate the system now that they have taken the plunge. So this audience is most important, and I ensure that the stories, the, the tips that I was giving is towards that audience and hence the listen time is definitely going to be much higher because their show will have this set of audience as the most number of listeners. Now, the third one, the third one is you yourself, the speaker. What is it that you are bringing in which is so very different than the other guests that this particular podcast host can invite? The content. Right. But we all understand there's no dearth of content in today's world. Literally, at the press of a button, you can get to know many, many, many things. In today's age of AI, it's exactly that. So what is it that you're going to bring in which is so very different? These are your experiences. If you're going to give research to Gyan or, you know, the fundas, if I may say, which is already available in folks, you know, newsletters, then I don't think, you know, you would be appreciated as a guest. But what you bring is in your lived experiences, your stories. And hence, that is what is going to make you so valuable to the podcast host, your stories and how do you deliver these stories. So even the stories have what I say, you know, there is a particular continuum. So first of all, you narrate the story, the listener listens, maybe feels thrilled because you're sharing the experience. And then there is an impact. This listener is trying to see how he or she can actually implement that in their own lives. And finally, you become the memorable to the listener. Not every storyteller becomes memorable. You yourselves can try to reflect on the number of episodes of a particular podcast that you have heard, the number of TEDx talks that you may have heard. Which of the talks has become memorable? Beyond the content, it is the speaker and the stories that the speakers shared. Let me again give you an example here. So recently I was asked to give a one minute talk, exactly a minute talk, by this platform that works with women in technology, careers for women in technology. And they were running a campaign called as Shift the Narrative. And the question they wanted me to address was, why should we have women as leaders exactly in one minute? Now, one minute can be very short, or it can be very long, depending on what you're going to be saying. But I decided to give an analogy in this one minute. The analogy was in our households, and I took my own example. I decide the menu for all the three meals at my house. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I do not cook it myself. Leaders don't necessarily have to do the work themselves. I don't cook myself. I have someone who comes and cooks. However, I decide to men. And what are the challenges in this? So we have five people who live in our house and I have to cater to all the five. They are of different age groups, they have different interests and, you know, passions about food, their mindsets, their mood swings, you know, whether they are going to be in the house or not in the house on this particular day, not in that particular day. All of this is what I need to keep in mind before I decide on the menu, the quantity, etc. This is exactly how it is in workplaces, how you deal with stakeholders, the changing scenarios, ensuring that, you know, the stakeholders are happy with whatever resources are made available to you. I did this in one minute. Did it resonate? It was a hit. It was a hit with all the women because they resonated with it. They are the ones largely in India. In the Indian household, it's the women who are kind of deciding the menu. So it resonated with them and they were able to draw the parallel between how leadership in the houses is equivalent to leading in organizations and in workplaces. It shifted something for the women, those of them who are still not very confident of going into the workplaces. Now could use this analogy and say, if I can do it at home, I can definitely be a success at the workplace too. And it also shifted something in the men too, because now they are able to see women as leaders because they are anyway leading. You don't really need to bring in any different qualities at the workplace. So it is this style of mine, this storytelling style of mine, bringing in comparisons and analogies, which really impacts the listener. And hence I'm so very different to many other guests that this particular organization might have brought. So going back, why would a podcaster invite you as a guest or how can you get invited as a guest to a podcast? Number one, what's in it for the podcaster and the podcast brand? Number two, what is it for the audiences, the relevant audiences which this particular podcast is catering to? Number three, what is it that you as a speaker or a guest are going to bring in, which is so unique and a niche and different to the rest of the guests? Finally, there are also some etiquettes that all of us need to follow if you want to be a podcast guest. Like when you appear for an interview for employment, you have certain video and audio adequates, looking at the camera, ensuring the mic is good, ensuring the background is good, there are no noises and Internet because if it's going to be a recording over the Internet, ensuring that your connectivity is good beyond this backup for a backup for a backup. Because you never know what can fail. There's a lot at stake that the host has. The host has blocked his or her time, you have blocked your time. Maybe they've kind of hired a studio. So you cannot let it fail. The recording failed. So what are the backups that you're going to take care of? So recently I went in for a recording. I went to a co working space to do this recording for a particular podcast. When I went in, something was not working with my laptop in terms of the audio. So I switched to my phone and my phone suddenly ran out of charge. Now, of course, because it's a co working space, there was a plug point available. I had my charger with me. However, the charger cord was not long enough for it to get blunt. But I had my power bank with me. So I just plugged my phone into the power bank and I continued the recording. After a while, my 4G data on my phone ran out. But I had already gotten the WI fi passwords of two of the providers that this particular co working space was using and I moved to that. And that is why I say backup of a backup of a backup. So if you keep these things in mind, you are going to be a pro. And I'm saying this from my own experiences of having appeared in at least 200 shows. And some of these shows I've been invited as a repeat guest. So what are you waiting for now? Love to hear your podcasting guest experiences.
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For more episodes, please visit podmatch.com episodes thank you so much for listening.