TPU66 – Best Practices and Tools to Get the Best out of an Interview Format Podcast

Running an interview format podcast isn’t difficult if you can get guests to come on your show and if you can strike up an interesting conversation.

In this episode, you will learn some best practices in order to get the best out of your guests and also some of the crucial tools that I recommend to stay organized with managing your guest outreach, in interview podcasts.

This is the second in the series that we are doing on interview format podcast. In the last episode which was episode 65 we spoke about the preparations and planning to run an interview format podcast. If you didn’t listen to it, I would recommend that you listen to it first.

Continuing on with that conversation, today we will look at some best practices and some recommended tools so that you stay organized and more productive.

Best practices for running an Interview Format Podcast

Before we get started, I would like you to know that these are best practices from my experience and are things that I have done in my podcasting journey.

They have worked for me and for scores of other podcasters. So I am sure that it will work for you as well.

If you have some such best practices that you have been following please continue to follow those and if you can share those with us, then please feel free to drop me a note with those.

Now, let us look at the 7 best practices to get the best out of your guests.

Keep your communication channels open

Keep your communication channels open even with guests who didn’t respond to your guest outreach requests.

We have a tendency to think negatively about guests who do not respond or, who rejected our requests. In fact, our usual approach to anybody who rejects our requests is to carry a negative outlook towards them.

We at times even hold a grudge towards the people who have rejected us which isn’t the right thing to do.

Understand that those guests are humans who made the best decision for themselves. And you too would have done the same thing if you were in their place.

Also, you never know when you would need their help or, support. They could even be a guest on your show at a later point. So why burn the bridges.

All recorded interviews aren’t necessary to be released.

You as a host have the choice to decide which episodes to publish and which not.

But then when you do that, do let your guest know that you won’t be releasing the episode and the reason why you are not releasing them. Being truthful and transparent will only help and reward you.

It will help build a better relationship with the guests. You can record another interview with them in the future if they agree which could provide even better value to your listeners.

Set the right expectations with your guests.

It is important that you set the right expectations with your guests.

I have seen people record episodes and then go off the radar. The guests get no information about what is happening to the interview and when it is going live.

Keep your guests informed of when you are planning to release the interview. If you miss the schedule for some reason do let them know. They have spent their time with you on the interview and hence they deserve to be informed about the progress.

Share your episode link with the guest

We all want our guests to share the interview episodes with their social media circles. But we often don’t make it easy for them to do that.

In fact, some of the podcasters do not even share the link to the episode with their guests.

Share the episode links with your guests, so that they can listen to it and also share it with their social media circles.

I would recommend checking with them if they would like you to send across a few creatives that they can use them to share the episode.

Then design a few creatives, write a nice caption for the creative and send it over to them. It will make sharing easier for them.

Always keep and share an interview outline

Keeping an outline for your interview helps you stay on track with the interview. You would know what questions to ask and it will help with maintaining the flow of the interview.

And if possible, send across the outline to your guest as well, so that they come prepared. You don’t want a guest coming onto your show, not knowing what to answer.

Sending the outline will help the guests prepare for their interview and this will help reduce dead air and avoid the fillers during the conversation.

Don’t always go for celebrities and influencers

Our usual tendency is to go after the big names under the expectation that they will bring in new listeners to the show. It is a good strategy though it might not work that way, every time.

I recommend not only going after celebrities and influencers. Get some of the lesser-known names as well to your podcast. They can provide a lot of value and might be loved and liked by your audience.

Now that we know what are the best practices, let us look at some of the tools that I recommend for running an interview format podcast.

Recommended Tools for Interview Podcasts

These are some of the tools that I use and recommend. I recommend them because I know they are good and can help you with your efforts in running a successful podcast.

1. A Scheduling tool like TidyCal or, Calendly – It helps avoid the many to and fro to schedule your interviews. It also helps you come off as somebody who is organized and professional with what they are doing.
2. A website where your guest can read more about you – This is something I cannot stop emphasizing. Put together a website where your guests can read more about you. You can use a simple website built on WordPress for this purpose.
3. A diary and pen – This is something I always recommend and use. This helps with taking notes during the conversation, marking points in the guest’s response during the conversation that you can use for follow-up questions, keeping a track of edits and cuts etc.
4. A good image editing tool like Canva or, Vistacreate – I use Vistacreate for all my creatives. A professionally designed image or, creatives enhances the value of your package. So use a good design tool. Both Canva and Vistacreate are simple to use with the many templates that are available.
5. Zencastr to record interviews – Tools can reduce the unnecessary rework. While your audio need not be Dolby quality, it still needs to have good quality. When recording interviews, why not use something that is made to record interviews. Use Zencastr or, Riverside instead of ZOOM.
6. Audacity to edit your episode – Audacity is the best editing tool hands down. Use it for doing the edits in your interview.

Thank you for Joining in

I hope you enjoyed this episode and found value in the topic.

If you did, then do subscribe to the show so that you stay updated with the latest episodes that I come out with.

The show is available on all podcasting platforms. The links to the prominent ones are mentioned below.

If you have any questions or, comments please drop them below and I will respond to them.

If you are new to podcasting, you can join the 10-day free ecourse on “getting started with a podcast“.