What are the four types of podcast guests you should bring to your show to grow your listener base fast? In this episode, Tom Hazzard and Tracy Hazzard discuss why you need to mix in different types of guests to your first 100 episodes. It’s the best time to figure out which guests your listener would love to hear from. Evaluate your performance based on feedback and engagement. Once you nail down the best types of guests your audience loves, you’ll know how to monetize your podcast effectively. Are you itching to know who these guests are? Tune in!

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The Four Types Of Podcast Guests That Inject Fast Growth To Your First 100 Episodes

Industry Celebrities (This is the one that I know you are a big fan of, because we’re all about authority building shows here, right? We want authority building in our podcasts. So we want)

Funnel Guests (So the second one is what I find to be more successful for most of the shows that we help set up here apostatize um, tends to be the ones that are, uh, funnel like)

Other Podcasters (Number three is one of the best ones and the easiest ones out there. Once you have your show started other podcasters, they make great guests. First off they’re pros. They)

Community Members (So the last type that I like to look at is the type that I called, the ones that build and nurture your community. So sometimes that is right, like people who are)

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We’re going to talk about the four types of podcast guests that inject fast growth to your first 100 episodes. Although, Tracy, as you often say, it may be your second hundred episodes. You could be doing this even if you’re an existing podcast.

You might find a type that we’re going to talk about that you’re like, “I didn’t try that one before,” but my objective is to get you guys to try the four different types as early in your podcast as possible because you’ll see what starts to resonate and what helps you inject faster growth into the growth line, into that curve of your podcast. Sometimes some works and some don’t. When we started Feed Your Brand, we started it with more topic-based episodes and some interviews. We kept getting demands and asks for more interviews and so we said, “We’ve got to define this.” As we started to find it and test it, we realized it was its own entity and no longer belonged in Feed Your Brand. We spun that off and turned it into The Binge Factor.

These are the things that we started to discover. We discovered that we didn’t want to have any guests at all on our show for the Feed Your Brand model of it because it was we coaching all of the tactics and tips and those kinds of things. To take someone from outside was so hard because so often, what they did, didn’t align with our methodology or with our view of what was working and what wasn’t working for podcasters out there. We stopped doing interviews on the Feed You Brand show but this is specifically for those of you who are taking guests or who want to take guests on your show whether you’re mixing them in. I’ve given you four types because you should split them in the early days and do 25% of each. If you’re doing four episodes a month then you want to try one type for each episode so that you’re giving at least once a month that these people are showing up.

If you’re doing two a week, you have an opportunity to do more. One episode on the first week of the month with this certain type of guest and another one on the third week of the month with that same certain type of guest again. It gives you a chance to do a little more variety if you’ve got more episodes that you’re doing.

Tracy, tell us about the first type of guest.

This is the one that I know you are a big fan of because we’re all about authority-building shows here. We want authority building in our podcasts. We want authority-building guests for some of you that might be celebrities. For the most part, I’m going to call them “industry celebrities.” The industry celebrities, the ones who have better placement than you, better market share than you, have better positioning than you. You may need a ratchet up to get to the top. It took me about 100 episodes before 110 episodes before I was able to get Pat Flynn on The Binge Factor, which I wanted to do.

That authority of him being a major podcast coach. In fact, the coach that I followed to start our very first show. Bringing up that authority value and bringing him on the show was important to me. That took a long time so it may take you longer to build up to that over time where you’re ratcheting that up with the next level guest. Always be looking for the ones that are going to help you build your authority. The ones who you want to be seen side-by-side within your industry.

That makes sense to me.

We want authority building in our podcasts. Click To Tweet

Don’t you want the backlinks from those, Tom? You want them on your website. You want your name associated with them. You want that Ego Bait™ of the two of you side by side in the imagery of your guesting output that you do or your social posts.

You want them to help lift you up.

You want them to share it with their audience because you know they have a bigger one than you do. They have a more prestigious authority than you do. You want that association to happen. That’s why that one’s my first one. Most important especially when you’re starting a new show. Try to achieve that as fast as possible. Ratcheting it up and working on that.

What’s the second one?

The second one is what I find to be more successful for most of the shows that we help set up here at Podetize tend to be the ones that are funnel-like guests where you’re building a funnel for your show or from your show to your business. If I want to get potential clients from my audience eventually, it helps to get potential clients from my guests first. If I target my guests whether I build a targeted list, I’m trying to meet them on LinkedIn, offer them an interview on my show, bring them on, have built a rapport over the course of my show and then invite them to a sales conversation or an enrollment conversation as many of our clients like to discuss it as. You invite them to that. That’s an ideal.

You’re getting your potential client base. What that does and helps you do is also refined especially in the early days of your podcast. Refine whether or not you’ve got this client profile and the audience profile aligned in the right way. Understanding of who I’m inviting on my show, is that what my listeners want to hear? You might find out you get a different set of listeners than you expected. Your clients may never come from your listeners’ base. For some of our clients, it only comes from their guest space. Thinking about that. That might be an ideal way.

Looking at it is it might not only be the client who’s paying you. It may also be the person who’s referring you. For a lot of our podcasters, you know many of them, Tom. They do this referral-based connection and the people they interview on their show are becoming their JV partners or Joint Venture partners. They’re collaborators, referral partners, affiliates if you want to call it that. Any one of those things, that’s another model. Whatever that is that generates to your business, this is a way to have a sales conversation or have a relationship conversation. That’s my second type. That one helps you make more money faster in your podcast.

That’s the thing when people talk about monetizing a podcast, the fastest way to do it is somehow with either your own products or services or others’ products and services that you can make money on giving access to them through your shelf. I like that. What’s number three?

 

Number three is one of the best ones and the easiest ones out there once you have your show started, other podcasters. They make great guests. First off, they’re pros. They know what they’re doing. It’s not hard to check them out and see if their show is good. You know what they’re going to come on and talk about. What you want to make sure is that they’re aligned with your audience. If you don’t know for sure who your audience is, you’re in the testing mode of it. You might want to have a little more variety in what you’re doing there and test around the industry.

If you’re in real estate, maybe you want to test shows that are talking about no closing, syndication, investment, fix and flips so that you’re covering your base and even though your topic may be in a very specific niche area, to start to understand where the market’s going and where the audience is. That helps. The reason why other podcasters make some of the best guests is that they have an audience. They’re going to share you because they know how important it is for you to share them when you go on their show.

You’re asking for a podcast swap. That’s like the industry lingo for it. I go on your show. You come to my show. That’s an ideal thing to do if your sharing each other’s audiences. Your audiences should have a match, your show grows. The other thing is when you’re early starting out on a show, podcasters understand that the early shows get a lot of listenership over time, even if they don’t have it yet now. If your show is not popular now, they understand that not that your early episodes will always have more listeners and you’re obviously putting more effort into making sure you’re publicizing your show when you first started.

It’s a boost for them as well so that’s a nice benefit. You won’t have that barrier of, “Let’s see how your show does.” It helps to have a couple of episodes under your belt or at least a sample you can send them. That’s always good so that they can hear you got a good sound. You’re produced well. They’re not going to go on a show that doesn’t make them sound good at the end of the day. That’s important, don’t you, Tom?

I do. I don’t like the, “Let’s see how your show does,” objection. Honestly, that’s short-sighted but it does happen.

If you’ve got something there, that always helps. Other podcasters are a great way to access this. The other thing about other podcasters is that they know people. They are great to have a chat with afterward, ask for some tips, get some help from. Try some things. See what they’re doing. When they share your show, you’re getting out to their audience. You can see how that’s working and if something’s working well there, you can reach back out to them and ask them. The other thing is if they’re lined with you, they might have some great guests. At the end of your conversation, you can say, “I want to reach this authority guest. How did you get them on your show? Would you make an introduction for me?” They are a great access point to those authority guests that you want to get on your show anyway.

That was something I was going to mention. Certainly, other podcasters have a huge amount of shows, probably if they’ve been doing it for a while that they’ve done interviewing other people. They may be able to get you access to some guests that you’d like to get access to. Don’t be afraid to ask.

The last type that I like to look at is the type that I called the ones that build and nurture your community. Sometimes that is right. People who are deeply in a topic that’s relevant now and I need to address this topic. You make sure and get to that. You have ways to nurture your community in the sense that you might want to bring community members onto your show and have conversations with them. Some of the latest ones I’ve done on the Binge Factor in 2021, I invited some podcasters on for on-air coaching because what happens when we’re listening to a podcast show especially with binge listeners, that this is an occurrence of. While we appreciate all that you have and all that you do, what we hear is this high level of expertise in something.

Understand where the market's going and where the listeners are. Click To Tweet

We hear that you’re an expert and you’ve got these expert authority guests on the subject. I’m still sitting back at the beginning going, “What’s step one? Where do I go? Is this a fit for me? Are they a fit for me? Am I going to be able to achieve success? This sounds flashy but is it for me?” That’s the evaluation we’re trying to make when we’re listening for a show. Not just, “Is this show for me? Am I going to keep listening to it?” but, “Is this product for me? Is this service for me? Is this host for me?” Sometimes when you bring on someone who’s only a couple of steps ahead of where I might be as a beginner or I might be at the start of evaluating you, it helps me see myself in that guest, in that person and makes it easier for me to make the choices. It removes some of the barriers.

The great part about that, Tracy, is if you are obviously in business and you do that coaching for a living, you get paid to do it or anything that you might hot seat somebody for. That’s what I call it that you’re hot seating somebody. Going through something you might do privately and get paid for, by peeling back the curtain and letting people see that with. Maybe initially, you do it with a client of yours who is trusted and is willing to have some coaching that is public for the world to see. Everybody else starts to see, “That was brilliant what the host did with them. I need that.” It breaks down barriers. It makes them much more interested in and they may very well chase you down to work with them. That’s very important, Tracy. That’s a great one.

Sometimes you can lump the two things together. Often on the Binge Factor, I’m going after other podcasters because that’s an easy one. They don’t always invite me on the show because it’s not a right fit for me. Sometimes it is and sometimes it’s not but they are also my potential clients. A lot of times, if I pick them at the right stage or overcoming the right problem, my listeners who will become future clients can hear themselves in that podcaster.

By being associated with me and authority building level, they look at me as the expert. Me as the conduit to making that happen for them. I’ve done it in a combination where I built all three of them into one and the authority building I add on whenever I’m looking for it. They will never become my clients, someone who does a wonder-y podcast. Don’t we all want to know how the wonder-y shows work? I bring those in or I’ll bring Pat Flynn. He’s not going to switch what he’s doing to come and do production with us but he learned something from us and we learned something from him.

We had a great rapport built and the authority was off the charts. Looking at it from those perspectives, we want to make sure that we’re doing that. When you can start to figure out what’s working by isolating the types of people, see what’s resonating and working. Now, you can start to build it into a tighter profile for the guests you invite as I do. I only have two types of in my case. That’s where I’m moved to after my first 100 episodes.

That’s important to consider, Tracy, is what’s the right mix of these four different types of guests. That may be different for each of you. Some of you may put more heavy emphasis on one type than another. You may not just alternate 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, the type.

You may do a whole month of a certain type and try another one. When I do a test like when I did with the on-air coaching, I lumped them all together in a series of six so I could see the results of that and get feedback because it was a pattern of doing multiples in a row. I was able to get engagement from the audience because I already had engagement going on so they were already talking back. When you’re first starting your show and you don’t have that ability, you’ve got to give it more time. That’s why I recommend this as a first 100 episodes strategy.

If you do it within a year, you’re doing well or if you’re doing 25 episodes and you did it within a month, you’d be doing well. This thinking about how it looks from that standpoint of how often you’re going to do it. You got to give it more than a one-off. You can’t just have one of those guests and go, “That didn’t turn out well. That was great. I want to have more of them,” then ten people later after you’ve done a whole bunch of bank interviews, you realized, “That wasn’t right for me.” Give it some time and patience, and evaluate it based on engagement and feedback. Not just the numbers because the numbers can sometimes be anomalies from great podcasters who share better than potential clients but the potential clients might make you more money. We have to look at it from all angles of how we evaluate the stats of how this is doing for you.

 

All too often especially new podcasters, don’t consider so much about the types of guests that they have from all of those perspectives, Tracy. All the different potential, different benefits to you as a host and to your listener for the different types of guests. I like talking about all these four types because if you haven’t been thinking about them all then you will start to now. Have more of an intentional plan for your podcast. I don’t want to say that your guest choices are otherwise random because I’m sure they’re intentional. You may be only thinking from one perspective. A lot of times, people think, “How big does that guest reach? How many connections do they have on LinkedIn? How many followers do they have on Facebook?” You’re not considering one of these other factors. It’s good to give everybody a framework and to be able to develop a strategy, for sure.

Everyone so you’re understanding how the Feed Your Brand show is broken up. This particular episode is going to be under the Feed Your Brand guests’ tactics section. If you want to learn more about different types of guest tactics, you’re going to want to go to that specific feed, Feed Your Brand guest tactics and go to that specific feed to find it. You can find that all at Podetize.com.

Thanks for reading everybody. We’ll be back next time with another great episode.

Important links

• The Binge Factor
• Pat Flynn – The Binge Factor episode
• Podetize

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