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For years, I avoided being interviewed on other podcasts — not because I didn’t want to or had anything against going on other podcasts, but simply because I was in a season of saying “no” to most speaking engagements, including most podcast interviews. I was busy growing my family, my business, and staying in my own lane with my podcast. But things changed this year when I released my first book, “How Are You, Really?” and I got the urge to get back in front of the mic for shows other than just my own.
And you know what? It was absolutely mind-blowing (and opening) how transformative it was to step onto other people’s platforms, share my story in their spaces, and gain that sort of brand new exposure to their audiences. I’d avoided it for so long, but meanwhile, it ended up being one of the biggest propellers for getting the word about my book out there to so many new people I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to!
A “secret” strategy for growth
My podcast producer, Kylie, knows a lot about podcasting strategy, and she shared with me that at a podcast conference she attended last summer, she learned that the best way to market and grow your own podcast is by appearing on other podcasts. But for so long, I was so focused inward on my own team, family, business, and goals (and simply protecting my time & energy) that it didn’t make sense for me to show up regularly on other podcasts.
Launching my book stretched me in new ways and inspired me to put myself back out there because I cared SO deeply about this work I’d done with the book. I wanted to get it out into the world far and wide. That’s when the switch flipped and I became open to taking interviews on other podcasts — because it finally felt like I had something monumental I could (and even needed) to share with as many people as possible. I realized fairly quickly that if you’re in the season of growing something (whether it’s your own book, or podcast, or business, etc.), you have to show up in new places, and other podcasts are the perfect opportunity for that exposure.
My strategy for being a guest on other podcasts
This might sound crazy, but leading up to the launch of my book, I was on 77 podcasts, and since its release, I’ve been doing a handful each week as requests come in. We’re likely into the triple-digits at this point. That number may sound a little crazy, but we were really strategic about how I showed up on other podcasts during this entire book-launch process. Mainly, I opened up my calendar for a bunch of 20- and 30-minute interviews, rather than 45 minutes or an hour, which was a game changer.
People know that their time is limited, so they prepare better and don’t waste a single minute of time during our interview. And, they don’t start with a “tell me about yourself” question. This has actually really challenged me as a host of a podcast myself, because when somebody says, “Tell me about yourself,” you’re like, “I could go in 8 million different directions,” which can eat up so much time. Ultimately, nobody who interviewed me went over their time limit and they were super thoughtful with the questions they asked, which I loved!
What I learned from being a guest on 100+ podcasts this year
After being a guest so many times this year, something I was really challenged by as a host of my own show is that I can do a better job of preparing for my own guest interviews. I could tell when someone interviewing me had read the book or listened to my podcast or knew about my family, and it just makes for a richer experience and conversation. So as a host myself, I’ve been challenged to do a little more research, dig into my own guests’ recent content, and know more about their family.
Another thing that I thought was really interesting is how people would creatively incorporate the thing that would move the needle for me in the episode. They WANTED to talk about my book, about being a new author, about the work I was so proud to share and talk about. I loved when interviewers wove the book through the interview in a beautiful way. I was also challenged to talk about one thing in different ways and make it resonate with the specific audience of the show I was on and relate it back to them.
Making your interview on another podcast a win for everyone
I learned so much as I’ve run the podcast circuit as a guest on so many shows this year, from making sure my message was tailored to the audience to listening to the show and knowing topics that would be beneficial to touch on and making sure I didn’t just repeat myself and the same exact stories 100x on 100 different shows. And, speaking for my team now, too, we ALL learned so many invaluable lessons about the process of booking, scheduling, preparing for, and rocking a significant amount of interviews in a short span of time (without driving ourselves loony… or losing my voice by the end of it all!). Tune into the full episode to hear more about how we planned and prepared for all of these interviews, my best tips for pitching yourself and showing up on other podcasts, and why this strategy as a whole was so imperative to the launch of my book this year.
