Podcast Interviewer – now what do I do?

The idea of being a podcast interviewer can be very appealing. If you’re sold on the idea of using podcasting to expand your social media reach, your podcast audience will be able to hear the sound and tone of your voice, capture the essence of your personality and passion, as well as, get excited about the same things that excite you and your featured guest.

The role as host podcaster interviewer

Your primary role is being the host of your own podcasting program. As a host you are providing new and relevant content for each podcast audience. Interviews remove the pressure from you having to supply new content for each podcast. Your featured guests will be your content sources, but it will require some additional preparation and steps on your part.

First Step — The Set-Up

Before you can begin your actual interview you need to do a “set-up.” You have to set you audience up with curiosity and expectation. Your set-up should welcome your listeners and thank them for being part of your audience, announce your show title (you may also want to also include the date). Name your featured guest and give a brief biography, identify a purpose or key points to be covered and a few reasons why your audience will benefit from listening.

Second Step — Welcome to Questions

You can begin your interview with a simple welcome and a thank you to your featured guest for taking the time to be part of your podcast program. Then, transition from any small talk to your first question.

As the interviewer it’s expected that you come prepared with a list of questions. Some will be rather general at first to allow everyone to get comfortable before moving on to more specific questions.

As the interviewer it’s a good idea to have more questions than possibly can be answered in the allotted time. Excess questions allow you to be flexible. Your featured guest can give you an answer before you’ve had a chance to ask the question; you come to realize some questions are not as relevant based on how the interview is going; or, you have a guest that gives great concise answers and the clock is still ticking with air time.

Third Step — Guiding the Conversation

While focused on presenting your questions to your guest, your brain needs to be multitasking. Part of your role is to guide the conversation by listening to responses and making sure there’s clarity. Some response answers can be confusing and need to be restated or expanded upon or your guest may use terms or jargon your audience is not be familiar with.

You also want to make sure your guest is covering the information the both of you previously agreed upon. So, you may need to draw the conversation back on topic if there have been some digressions or distractions.

Sometimes it’s also necessary to adjust the pace and get your guest to slow down. Some guests are fast talkers with lots of information flying by. As the interviewer, this may require you stepping in and clarifying any possible confusion or doing a recap or summary to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Fourth Step — The Atmosphere

The vibe is also important. Even though no one can see the exchange between you and your guest, your audience easily picks up on the mood created by the interview process.

That’s why the tone of your voice and qualities of warmth and friendliness are important to convey a more natural conversation. It can be the greatest information, but an audience gets turned off when an interview becomes boring with predictable questions and monotone voices. Actually, the atmosphere you create allows your audience to be the invisible fly on a wall where an interesting and relevant conversation is taking place on a topic that they want to know more about.

Your role as an interviewer means setting-up your audience with what’s to come, being prepared with plenty of questions, listening and guiding the conversation for clarity, staying on topic, offering a recap or summary as needed, and creating an atmosphere that doesn’t turn your audience off.

Not a simple job, but with experience it gets alot easier.