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Being a guest on a podcast is an excellent opportunity to have fun conversations, leverage other people’s audiences, and serve them. Betsy share’s her tips on how to become a guest, what to do once you are scheduled on a show, and what you should do after the episode is released.
* Connect with Betsy on IG @betsypake
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Art of Living big podcast. My name is Betsy pake. I’m an author, a speaker, and a trainer of NLP and hypnotherapy. And I’m focused on helping you understand and design your life with the power of the subconscious. This podcast is designed to help you think differently about what could be possible for your life. Now, let’s go live big. Hello fellow adventurers. Hi, everybody. Thank you for being here. If you’re new here, hi, welcome. Welcome to our cool community. I feel like the people that listen to this show are the best people, I always say, you know, I have the alchemy Institute where I train coaches. And I’m always like, if there was one thing I could give you, it would be like the kind of clients that I get, or the kind of people that listen to my show, y’all are the best. So welcome to today’s show. So today, I’m going to talk about something a little bit different. And you might, you might see the title, and you might be like, I don’t know, but maybe I’m going to offer this because you don’t know when it might come in handy. And it may actually be something that helps to propel you forward in whatever it is that you’re doing. So I have some things to share. You know, I’ve had this podcast for like six years, close to six years, I think we’re coming right up on three, on six years over 300 episodes. Recently, I was featured in a conversation with someone that I had hired to coach me last year. It’s actually someone I had coached with several years ago. And then I coached with her again last year. She’s a speaking coach. And I was a star pupil.
I was I would did really good. So she had me on in the Facebook group, right to like, talk and talk about kind of how we got started and what our journey was like, and all that good stuff. And it was really fun. I like having conversations like that, where it’s just like a back and forth sort of conversation instead of just someone asking questions, you know. And so in all of that, she was asking me how I got started speaking. And I actually started speaking before I had the podcast. But part of why I decided to do the podcast is because I wanted I had stuff to say, You know what I mean? Like I had more to say. So I want to tell you, I want to tell you how I started speaking and then I’m going to dive into this topic. But there’s a reason why I want to tell you, you know, sometimes we don’t recognize our stories as being anything interesting. Or I hate the word special, but special or unique or something that someone could learn from. But I believe that everybody has stories, and I’ve had Katie on Katie casada was on talking about stories just like four or five episodes ago. So absolutely. Like, I believe that our stories matter so much. And you know, when Jess was asking me in that interview about how I started speaking, really, I decided that I wanted to be a speaker, probably when I was really young. But I really started from like an active standpoint, like seven or eight years ago. And I started pitching myself to places and to speak and I had never spoken before. So of course nobody hired me. And I didn’t realize until I saw Jessica’s reaction, right, we don’t realize that our stories are kind of interesting until we see somebody else’s reaction. But I told her that I didn’t get booked. And so I called up Panera Bread, but just the local Panera Bread in my area, and asked if I could come in on Saturdays and do like a live event. So I may have talked about this on the show before. But basically what I did was they had a area that had like closed doors, sort of like so people could have meetings, I think so like a little area where they had tables, and people would sit and they would be open most of the time. But they had the ability to like close these doors. And so what I started to do was to go on Saturdays and do what I called Coffee and coaching. And I advertised I’m using air quotes advertised for it on meetup. So it was a free event people could come to and in the beginning I actually got like five or six people, I don’t know four or five people let’s say but then it started to grow and grow and those same people would come back and then they would come back again. And it gives me this opportunity to speak and then to like answer questions and do a little coach It was just really, really fun. And it was a huge part of me shifting from like, wanting to do something to doing it. So I couldn’t get somebody to hire me to do it. But that didn’t matter to me. I wanted to do it more than I wanted to be paid to do it. And so I started that process. And from there is when I moved to the podcast. So now why am I telling you all this, because I believe that podcasting gives us an outlet to share our stories, or to share meaning in our lives. And I think for me, I know I listen to podcasts because I want to be entertained, I want to be inspired, right, I want to be motivated, I want to be given a different perspective on things. And, you know, inside my coaching program, the alchemy Institute where I trained coaches, so I have two programs, I have the rise, which is my group coaching program, I run it once a year, it usually launches in August. So that runs once a year. And then I also have the alchemy Institute where I train people to be coaches. And one of the really difficult things, I think about starting out anything no matter what it is that you’re doing, but especially if you’re doing a business that is like, quote unquote, online, is that you’ve got to get the word out. But there’s a lot of noise out there. You know, there’s a lot of things happening. Now, seven or eight years ago, what I did to get the word out was just at a local level it my local Panera, and then it grew and give me new ideas that felt aligned to me. But I think a lot of the struggles that new coaches have, or coaches that haven’t had clients yet, even if they’re really great, because I know some of the people I know the people that have gone through my program. And when they go through and they learn those skills, like they’re great. They’re great at transformation. They’re great at giving you perspective, like they’re great at what they do. But they don’t have all of the like, clients to back it up or to give them testimonials yet. Right. And so I think that sharing your message, and sharing the way that you think on a podcast is a really great way to have your own little Panera Bread event. Okay. Now, with all that said, I think that it’s I think it’s a lot more difficult. I might be wrong about this. I might be wrong. This is just my perception. But I think it’s more difficult right now to start a podcast than it was like when I started like six years ago. And I actually had a podcast before that like a year, like a year or two before this one started. And it wasn’t right. I was just interviewing high achievers. And that didn’t feel right. So I stopped it reassessed, reevaluated, and then came back in with this one, and did it the way that I wanted to do it. But I think that it was easier than there weren’t nearly as many podcasts. And like things were just different. And now it’s there’s so many. So here’s how I would do it. If I were to start all over again. And I wanted to give some tips to people on how to be a really good podcast guest. Because I think that getting on other people’s podcasts where you can have those really good conversations, you know, where you’re not having to just talk by yourself. And your you can have really good conversations, like I was saying I did in that Facebook group with my coach, that ebb and flow and where you’re like feeding off of each other. It’s just so much fun. And you can also leverage other people’s audiences so that you don’t have to, like struggle to find your own you can you if you can find someone that does a podcast that is has a similar audience, but it’s a different, like their take on stuff is different, right? So like, they may have the same kind of audience that I have, but they’re not a coach, or they don’t have a coaching program. They might do bookkeeping for entrepreneurs, right, or whatever that is. So finding, aligning yourself with people that have a similar like audience where you can help each other could be really huge. You can leverage their audience and they can leverage what you’re doing and you can promote them and you can do all kinds of stuff. So I think that especially as you’re starting out in something, even if you’re not I’m I love going on other people’s podcasts. It’s so fun, but especially starting out I wanted to give some tips on how to be a really great podcast guest. Now, this is different than my regular content, right? But I think this could go hand in hand with like Anything that you’re trying to do, right, like business, like a new way to see those relationships and kind of how things work and how you interact with people to build relationships that serve both sides, right. And I know that, you know, having this show, I get a lot of podcasts submissions, people that want to be on my show. And I always feel, I always feel bad because it’s so hard to respond to everybody. And so it’s very specific people that will catch my attention. And so I wanted to talk to you about that, how to actually get started, how to show up and things I think you should do after you’re on a podcast, okay? All right, here we go. All right. So here’s the number one thing is to be a really good podcast guest. And if you are pitching to somebody that has a podcast that you want to be on, you need to really know what their show is about. You really need to understand like how they talk, how it’s set up, like listen to an episode, I can’t tell you how many people come on to, like, pitch me, and I can just tell that they’ve never even listened to 10 minutes of an episode.
You know, tell me something about my show. Like if somebody messages me, first of all, let me say this, on my website, if you go to podcast, it’ll show you how to become a guest. And it is a form that you have to submit. So when somebody comes to me, and they email me, and they’ve never submitted the form, it goes into a database that we have that we can pull from. Right off. I’m like, you don’t you’re not even, you’re just finding me and pitching, you’re not doing any research at all right? So go to somebody’s website, go to the podcast page, see if they have guidelines for how to become a guest. Now, I’ve never ever had this happen. But if this happened, I would totally take notice if somebody said, Hey, I love your show. I’ve listened to so many episodes. And I love how, you know, you’re super conversational, whatever the it is that they say, right? I love the lessons you share whatever they say, the stroke my ego, right? Like, I guess it’s like, but let me know that you actually know what I’m doing. Okay. And then if they said, I saw that you wanted us to submit. And so I did that. But I wanted to come into your email to let you know, I did that and tell you why I think I could serve your audience. I want to tell you that the I’ve never had somebody do that, where they actually tell me they did what I asked them to do and then came into my email. But then the second part of that is to say, to serve my audience. And people always are like, this is what I could tell people. This is what I could share with people. Tell me how you want to serve. Like, I don’t want people on the show that aren’t like, tell me how you can inspire the people that listen like you guys, right? How are you going to inspire? I have had people on the show before and I’m like, I’m interviewing them. And I’m like, Oh my God. Like, they’re just talking about themselves, but stopping short of like sharing anything that could actually help people. And I’m like, Oh, my God, like no. And, and not to be mean. But I feel like this about myself. Nobody cares about you, except for what you could offer them to think differently about what they’ve got going on. Right? If you could offer them something to think differently about what their worth is and their self esteem and how they could approach life. Like give them something. Nobody wants to hear just about your life. Unless it’s like pertains to something for them. So if somebody came to me and said, I do listen to your show, I like this about it. I followed your directions, and I submitted, but I wanted to come on here because I think I could serve your audience this way that I like that I would be like, Oh my gosh, I would pay attention. So you’ve been listening to my podcast, and you’ve been hearing me talk about ways to master your subconscious. Maybe you’ve been really curious about how you can learn this too, and maybe even create a business of your own to help other people transform their lives as well. If you’d like to become board certified in six different certifications, we have it all for you inside the alchemy Institute. You can go at your own pace with our on demand training, or you can attend live events. Find out more over at our website, the alchemy institute.co. That’s the alchemy Institute dot c o I’ll see you over there.
Now the second thing is to actually Like I said, listen to the show, but I have had someone come on that did the things. Minus submitting to the, the proper way. But they emailed and they had what seemed like a really good, like a really good way of thick with how they wanted to serve. And so I actually had them on and recorded the interview. And I, when I was done, I was like, I’m there’s no way I’m going to air this. Because they kept saying, Is it okay? If I talk about like spiritual stuff? Is it okay? If I talk about? Is it okay? And I’m like, you’ve never listened to the show? Like you have no idea what I do here. You don’t know what this shows about? And it was so obvious. Like, why would I have somebody on the show that super obvious that they don’t know what we’re doing here? Like, what are we doing here? I just was like, Oh, my gosh. So if you want to be a really good podcast guest you got to get on a podcast first. And you do that by serving? Not by like saying, Well, this is what I do. Right? I don’t want to know what you do. I want to know what you can do for the people that listen. Okay? The second thing is be super low maintenance, like make it really easy on the host. Right? Besides asking, How can I serve? Like ask I every time I’m on a podcast, I say what does your audience need? Right? Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about what they need. What does your audience need? And how can you really serve them? And how can I serve the host. So that means things like I’m going to show up like five minutes early on the Zoom call or the recording, however they do it, I’m going to be like, super available. If they asked me for a bio and a photo, I’m not going to wait till the very last second, right, I’m going to be prepared. It’s really important because there’s a lot of pieces that go in to having a podcast besides the expense, like I have four shows a month. And there’s an enormous expense that goes along with that, right? Besides just like the hosting, I have somebody produce it, the website, like the time commitment of like doing all the things, promoting it. So if you want to take a quarter of that, if you want to take a quarter of that, you got to make it really easy on me and you got to show up and serve. Right. So here’s another way, besides showing up five minutes early and being prepared and not making people wait, and getting them the bio and the picture and all that stuff, is to have a really good mic. So make sure that you’re clear. You know, make sure that you’re not eating cookies while you’re doing the interview or drinking, I can’t even tell you how many times people have been drinking. And I totally understand. If you need to take a sip of water, just mute and take a sip of water, like just be aware that somebody is going to be listening later. And then like how can and I’ve been guilty of swallowing I know I’ve gotten a lot of messages about my swag. Like I get it. That’s why I have a Podcast Producer now, right. So just get a really good mic, it might just be your earbuds that you can get them but just talking through the computer typically is going to give like a lot of empty space. It just doesn’t sound right. So get a good mic, make sure you’re clear. Don’t be eating. And here’s the hard one sometimes, because I know because I have pets, but find a space where you can be without distractions. Like get your pets out of the room. Like if you’re moving around or carrying your laptop, laptop or like doing all that stuff. Not only can the mic be picking up all that stuff, but it’s super distracting. So somebody’s trying to interview you and stay on task and then you’re like doing a bunch of other things. Even if you are lovely. Like show up to serve and remember you’re taking if they have four episodes a month, a quarter of their podcasting budget and time and like how can you honor that? Okay, so here’s the next part is be real. Like if something does happen, be real, you know, you drop something on the floor, like be real like I’ve had people before their dogs started barking I think I’ve had episodes I think my episode with Pam grout I was so paranoid. I tried to get my dogs out of the room and Miley the little old one wouldn’t leave my room and she never barked. So I was like, it’s fine. But I was paranoid. She was gonna bark because I was on with Pam grout. You know who Pam grout is right? She’s like a Hay House author. She’s written like 20 books. She’s amazing. I have her on this show. And mildly starts barking, which Pam laughed and said it’s because you you intended it by bringing it up into your awareness. But it’s so it I had to Just be real, right? I had to just be like, Oh my gosh. And so I told the story about how I wanted to get her tried to get her out. She’s old, she wouldn’t leave. And it became part of the conversation. So I think that if you can be really real about stuff, you know, I’ve had people that I’ve interviewed for the show before some that aired and some that didn’t, but some that aired and I didn’t feel good about it, because they were showing up trying to sound so perfect. Like, I was like, Are you? Are you perfect, cuz I am so perfect. Like, I just feel like we learned so much from people that we can relate to, you know, that that are just real. And if you’re really, really, Podcasts can give you a really great opportunity to really showcase like who you are, you know, and your personality. And so allowing yourself to just really be in that I think can be really, really powerful, and actually help you way more when you’re a guest on someone show than if you try to sound like robotic and everything. You know, when I was in Iceland, I remember when we first got there, and the host, had like a little meeting where he talked and he said, I don’t remember the people on our trips, who like tried to remain, like really perfect and structured and like, you know, garden, the people that I remember are the people that were super weird and crazy and just full out themselves. But those are the people that stick in my mind. You know, those are the people that I remember in that I have, like fond feelings about. And I remember thinking that I was like, That is like such a true thing. We remember the people that really show up just like they are because if we’re all trying to be like the Instagrammy Perfect, perfect. You know, it’s it’s not super interesting. It might be
you might go Oh, wow, they’re perfect. But you don’t really remember it kind of blends in to all the other. The others that are just like that, you know, so don’t try to be perfect. Have a conversation when you’re on the show. So there I don’t know very many podcasts where I think I’ve been on one way back where it was literally like questions like they had certain questions. And they were going to ask me those questions. And then that was it like, and as soon as I answered the question, there wasn’t any like back and forth. It was just then like the next question. But the best conversations, the best podcasts that I listen to, the best podcasts that I record with people are the ones where it’s just like having a coffee date, you know, and I’ve had a lot of those one that’s coming to my mind right off the top of my head is Liz, who was on that was the hospice nurse. And now she’s a friend of mine. And I know that that played into it. But it was so easy back and forth. And like just having a conversation. It was like friends just meeting up having coffee. And I think those are the most fun to listen to, to, you know. All right. So then the last little tip is to shut off your notifications. Did you notice you may have noticed, in the beginning, when I was recording this, you hear a ding and it’s my email coming in. I don’t know if you heard that. But I heard it, I immediately paused the recording and shut down my email. Normally, I always make sure all that stuff is off. And I didn’t realize it was on. I hate interviewing somebody. And all I hear is like ding ding ding because we can get a lot of emails, like in an hour long talk or you know, 45 minute zoom call, like a lot of emails come in. And so have that stuff shut off so that you’re not being in in bang, and plus it like pulls your attention away. Right? So, um, turn off all your notifications. All right, so now you’ve done the interview. It’s really great. You had so much fun, you’re like that was so easy and awesome. And the host is awesome. I’m gonna let you know when this is live. Now for me, my lives now are like three to four weeks out. Okay. So I will message and let them know when it’s live. What the link is the data comes out sometimes. Now we have the graphics because the Podcast Producer does the graphics for me. So I’ll send that I’ll tag them on social media. Like, oh my gosh, once it’s over, be prepared to share it. Share it on your social media, share on your email list. Follow the host right follow the host on social media. So you can easily share and tag like remember, they’ve given you like a quarter of their podcast, energy, money, attention, resources, like honor that by promoting everyone. I’m early on, I had a lot of guests. And I was shocked. Like, I’m telling you, like, shocked that people didn’t promote it like that I would tag them. And they would maybe share what I tagged, but they wouldn’t send out an email. They wouldn’t like nothing. And I actually finally went to somebody and asked, I actually had somebody on my show early, early, early. Who who was a podcaster? I’ll say that she was a podcaster. And I asked her, Why didn’t you share it? Like, how come you didn’t share the show with anybody? Like, I didn’t see her posted anywhere. And I think what happens is that we’re a little afraid of self promotion. Right? Like, we don’t want to, we don’t want to seem
like, not humble. And so we don’t want to share because we don’t want to be like, Why don’t want everybody to like, share it, you’re supposed to share it. Like, like, I think one of the things that can help push you from like a coach that doesn’t get any work or a entrepreneur that doesn’t get enough work to somebody who gets a lot is being really comfortable self promoting. Now, why do I say that is because you can promote without saying I was on this show, I was great. But you can say, because you came into it, like I’m serving. This is how, what I share in this show, these are the things that might be important to you, right at five minutes, there’s this at seven minutes, or however you want to do that. These things I share. And I think it might serve you if you want to listen. And then people can decide if they listen. But if you never tell them because you don’t want to seem like you’re self promoting, don’t promote yourself, promote what you said, promote the idea that you have promote the relief that you could give people you know, so once it’s over, be prepared to share it. One of the things now we require before people become a guest and this is a brand new thing is that I I make them agree that they’re going to put it in their email list because I can’t tell you how many people just share like the one little thing that I post on Instagram, I’m like, oh my god, like so I’m I’m making them agree that they will promote it, because I’m giving a quarter of my podcast budget to give you and your message attention. And so that’s like the the trade off, right. The other thing that I really like to do when I’m on a show is I refer back to it. Months later, you know, I was on Emily Aaron’s show. And just recently I started posting about that, again, like I was on her show, like, I don’t know, six months ago, eight months ago. But I’m, I’m like re sharing it because it’s important. And I think we had a really great conversation about spirituality and the unconscious mind, and stuff that I think a lot of people have questions about, and it can really help shift them. And so I want people to find it, I have it posted on my website under my media, right? So people could go and find it and listen. So these are the things that I think could make you a really, really great podcast guest. And I think that I think that your message is so important. I think that your story is so important. And hey, if you’re listening, and you’re like, I don’t have a business, I’m not a coach, I’m not a you can still have a really great story to share. Like, I don’t know, like, you don’t always have to have something to sell. Like, you could just have a really great story that you think could shift people or that people want to know, or that move people towards a cause, like any of that can be really important and could be a really huge shift in in helping people understand the way that you think. And I think the way that you think is so different from anybody else, it’s so unique. It’s so special. And I think when we can start to hear each other’s voices, and not all try to sound the same right? But to show up in our greatness, our uniqueness, like our weirdness, whatever that is, I think when we are ready to step forward and share our message, whether it leads to a business or not doesn’t matter when we can do that. That is when we live a big life. So thank you so much for listening. Thanks for hanging in there. If you have never thought about podcast being a podcast guest. I am going to love to hear the stories and if anything ever came of this for you, so keep me posted. I will see you all next week. Bye bye. Hey, thanks so much for listening to today’s show. And thank you for sharing the show with your friends. I love when you guys do that. I appreciate it so much. And thank you for leaving me a review on iTunes. I know that it matters because when I go to find a podcast I Always look to see what the reviews are. So it really means a lot to me that you take a minute to like figure out how to even make that happen. Now, if you want to find me find me on social media, I’m usually on Instagram, starting out on Tik Tok. It’s just my name. Betsy pake, and that’s my website to Betsy pake.com. And you can find out all about the work that I do, having me speak for an event that you might be hoping to plan or getting trained inside my alchemy Institute, but to make it really easy, if you want me just shoot me a DM shoot me a direct message on Instagram and I will be at your service. Thanks again for listening. And I will see you all next week.
