šŸ˜¬ Podcast Mastery: How to prevent a conversational black hole

With the help of Rory Sutherland and Steven Bartlett

I'd love to be considered a world-class podcast guest one day and Iā€™ve noticed that the ones who are do something differentlyā€¦

Never start a podcast with ā€˜thanks for having me.ā€™

Most podcasts start the interview by introducing the guest, reeling off all their accolades finishing withā€¦

'[Name], so great to have you here, thanks for coming along!'

The result? A conversational black hole šŸ•³ļø

It forces us to answer ā€˜Thanks for having meā€™ and then we wait for their first question. Itā€™s slow, predictable and pretty awkward.

Unless you come armed ready to skip the niceties and get straight into the good stuff.

Case and point? This 100-second clip from Rory Sutherlandā€™s interview with Steven Bartlett on the Diary Of A CEO Podcastā€¦ šŸæ

The easiest way to do this is to acknowledge the welcome with a bridge statement. For exampleā€¦

ā

ā€˜Itā€™s great to be here, itā€™s funny actually because I realised on the way here thatā€¦

Three huge benefits to this approach šŸ‘‡

  1. The audience gets value upfront āšœļø
    Which makes you look really good. It can take time for podcast hosts to warm into the interview. By grabbing the conversation from the horns youā€™re signalling to the interviewer youā€™re ready to go all in.

  2. Your message will reach peak listenership šŸ“‰

    Thereā€™s only one direction that audience drop-off is going and that is down. Controlling the early narrative of the interview gives you the chance to influence who stays and who doesnā€™t. Especially if you can tap into relatable and relevant topics.

  3. Your interviewer will ask a better next question šŸ„· 
    What the clip above doesnā€™t show you is that this tactic enabled Steven to ask a question that extracted even more gold from the point that was just made. This is important because the best podcast hosts ask selfish questions. They don't ask questions on behalf of their audience, they ask questions for themselves.

Give it a try on your next podcast and let me know how you get on!

Alex

p.s. Iā€™m bringing together a small group of leaders who want to create a TED-style talk to deliver at conferences in 2024. Reply to this message with the word ā€˜visionaryā€™ for more info.*

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