150: How to Pitch Yourself as a Podcast Guest: Dos and Don’ts for Success

In this episode of Better Brave, Candace dives into the essential dos and don’ts for pitching yourself as a podcast guest. Whether you're an entrepreneur, solopreneur, or someone with a story to share, being a podcast guest is a powerful way to grow your audience, build credibility, and connect with new communities.

Learn how to craft a standout pitch that grabs the attention of podcast hosts, avoid common mistakes that could land your email in the trash, and present yourself as a valuable guest who offers unique insights and expertise.

Candace also shares insider tips from her own experiences as a podcast host and guest, providing actionable advice to help you land those guest spots.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Common mistakes to avoid when reaching out to podcast hosts.
• How to research the right podcasts for your message.
• Tips for showcasing your expertise and aligning with the podcast’s audience.
• How to follow up without being pushy.

If you’ve been wondering how to get featured as a guest on podcasts, this episode has everything you need to get started!

Resources Mentioned:

• Podcast Guesting Bundle [HERE]
• Podcast Guesting Course [HERE]

👉 Grab your Podcast Guesting Bundle [HERE]

👉 Book your 1 on 1 call with me [HERE]

Transcript

Hey, welcome back to the show. This is Candace here, your host. And today's episode is going to be all about guesting on podcasts. Whether you have a podcast and you want to start guesting on others to increase the visibility and eyes and audience for your own podcast, or you have a business that you want to increase the visibility for, this episode is for you. And even if you haven't thought about this marketing tool yet, this might give you some ideas on how you can present yourself to be on a podcast and get

eyes and ideal listeners to hear your story. Having been a podcast producer for the last three and half and counting years, I have received a lot of different kinds of pitches. Sometimes it's from the individual themselves, sometimes it's from an assistant, and sometimes it's just a quick DM on socials. I'm okay with all of those three options, but I do have some tips for how to do this right and how to make sure when you're doing this that you're not just wasting your time and the podcast's

producer hosts time by trying to pitch to shows that are unaligned with you and your message. To start with, don't pitch to any podcast that you have not listened to any of the episodes. Hit play. Start listening to these episodes. You can speed them up. You don't have to listen from start to finish, but you should at least have listened to some of them to start to see if this person, this host, this show is even aligned with you at all.

The most annoying pitches that I get are ones that they clearly have not even listened to my show. They usually have my show's title or they've grabbed a title of an episode and they put it in the email. But then the rest of their pitch is about something completely different. I've had people that want to talk about being a

hair designer guru. That one was interesting. He was a male that wanted to do that. My show is predominantly geared toward women solopreneurs or entrepreneurs. I've had people that are trying to talk to corporate leadership large group type things. Again, not part of the show. So you'll be able to tell this very quickly. You can search in most of the podcast players search bars on Apple podcasts, Spotify, whatever. And you can type in let's say entrepreneur or

moms, podcasts for moms. Start somewhere broad, you can start doing that research. There's also people like me that you can talk to but make sure that you've at least listened to some of the episodes and you have a good grasp on their message and your own message to make sure that those two things would be a fit. Otherwise you want to keep moving on.

find something else. There are countless podcasts. You don't need to try and make yourself fit on a show that's not aligned. It's not gonna benefit you or the host in the long run because the audience is not gonna be aligned if the show is not aligned. The other thing to do while you're scrolling through a show, make sure that they've had a guest on before because some shows are strictly ran by the host and they do not have guests on. So you wanna make sure that they've actually taken a guest before you pitch yourself or.

that's something that you might note in your email that you send them is to say, hey, I noticed you haven't had a guest, but I love your show and I'm curious, you you'd want to say why you love it. And I'm curious to see if you're taking any guests on this year. Okay, so making sure that you're in alignment with the show, you've done your research, you've listened to the show. Oftentimes what ends up happening is when you find a show that you like, you can scroll and find episodes with other guests that might also be podcast hosts.

their show is going to be linked in their episode. You'll have this breadcrumb trail that you can follow from show to show. And a lot of times the guests that are on shows that you find that you like will be new podcasts that could be potentially added to your list. Now I track this in a tracker and I'm going to link a bundle, if you will, of resources to help get you started in the show notes to help get you started with your guesting experience and goals. One is a tracker. I like to do things in chunks. So I like to spend time searching for podcasts. Then I take

the show's name, the host's name, and any contact, email, or information that I can find and I put that in my tracker. That's stuff I do on one day that I'm getting a handful of those done at once. Then on a different day, I'm going to take...

my media sheet and I'll attach a template that's going to be part of the bundle in the show notes is a sample media sheet. On this sheet I have different categories questions that the host could ask me topics that I like talking about a short bio and timeline of my life and experience. This is really handy it makes you look

very professional. It's super handy as a podcast producer and host to pull that one sheet up and be able to scan it quickly. A lot of times just from that document alone, I can tell if the guest is going to be someone that I want on the show or not. Some of those things you're going to prep ahead of time, you're to make sure you get that media sheet ready ahead of time. And that's just going to be it's one and done and you'll be able to save that file that's going to be attached to every email that you send out to the host or producer of the show. So on a different day, that's when I send my pitches.

those you wanna really make personal if you can. It's very easy to spot a copy paste, especially if it's just the copy paste of one title of one episode thrown in, right? It goes a long way to show that you are a human being behind the screen and that you're not just a copy pasting trying to pitch as many shows that you can as possible. Even if that is your goal, just slow it down a little bit. It's gonna be much more effective if you are being really genuine and authentic.

you're gonna then draw in and book the shows that are gonna be the most benefit to you and have the most aligned audience. So that I do on a different day. And then I also use the tracker to mark if I have booked the recording, if it's already been recorded and when it's aired and always, always make sure that when you're guesting that once that is aired, share that with your email list, share that on your socials, tag the host on their social media to make sure that they see that you did that. It's very frustrating.

to have a guest that doesn't share anything about the show that they were on, right? Just hold up your end of the bargain by doing that because typically in my experience, and I have seen different things about this that some people are starting to charge people to be on their shows, but that's not been my experience. It's a free thing, but know that there's a lot that goes into producing an episode. It's the recording, it's the editing after, it's getting the show notes ready and all that and running this whole production. So if you're gonna be a guest and that host and producer,

like me and other people like that are doing that end for you. And it's basically free marketing, letting you be in front of their audience. It's a really big deal. So if you can share it more than once and blast that, that's another awesome piece that's gonna have a host really excited to have you guest and be part of their show. A couple of other.

great things to do is to follow them on social media before you pitch them. So follow them, start commenting or engaging on some of their social media posts, stories, things like that. If you can also leave a review for their show, that also shows another layer that you care that you listen to some episodes, those little pieces that don't take you very much time, but they show that you're engaged, you're a real human. So many times if I get a...

email pitch to me and I've never seen this person's name. I don't know where it is. I may just ghost them or I might follow up and say no thanks. But if I've seen that, Hey, I remember that name that was on my Instagram because they followed me the other day and they've been commenting on my posts and things like that. That is a step that in my experience makes me want to say, Hmm, let me, let me go see who that person is. Let's consider them to be a guest on the show. The other thing is if you happen to know the host,

personally or maybe you have a mutual friend. I think in those cases, it's very appropriate just to send a quick DM or email and say, hey, and share how you know them and just throw that out there. I think that you can kind of skip the formalities as well in those cases. So don't be shy in reaching out. I've had people reach out at the start of this year to be on my podcast and I'll either let them know that I don't think my audience and their business or messages aligned or we'll book it.

You don't know if you don't ask. So the worst that can happen is they say, Hey, I don't think it's a fit. The other piece that I would add, and that's where you're to want to keep tracking. If you've sent your email pitch or not. And I have that laid out in a nice tracker for you in the show notes, but track that because if you've sent the pitch and haven't heard back, I do think it's very appropriate to in a week, send a follow-up email. Oftentimes people lose emails and forget to respond and then things get buried. So it is definitely appropriate to go that extra step and follow up.

For sure, please, please, please, if you're gonna start doing this and you're gonna start guesting on shows, which I think is an awesome way to market yourself, get more visibility and get off social media that can sometimes feel like a time suck. This is a fun way to collaborate with other shows and hosts and meet new people and get your business and yourself seen by bigger and more audiences. Do your due diligence and make sure that the show is aligned with you and your message.

So hope that helps and all those resources that I mentioned, that bundle, that guesting bundle, you can go to the show notes, check that out. It's gonna help you get started and get on your way. And if you wanna go over the things in that bundle and plan out more things with me, then go ahead and book a call. That's gonna be linked in the show notes as well. We can go over how to use all those things and really make you stand out when you're sending out those pitches.