AP 0512: Do I Have To Pay The People I Interview On My Podcast?

AskPat 512 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up everybody, Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 512 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today, I hope you're having a great day. Cause, I'm having a great day, I'm feeling good and as always I'm here to answer your online business questions five days a week.

All right now, here's today's question, from Nick.

Nick: Hi, my name is Nick True and I have a blog at truetightwad.com. I'm considering starting a podcast and my question is, did you pay people to interview them when you were first starting out? I'm wondering what the common practices are when asking people to an interview. Do I just cold email these people? There's a lot of big names out there that I would love to have on the show and I'm wondering if it's expected to offer to pay them, or if it's common for people to interview for free. Thanks Pat for all that you do and I'm looking forward to your answer.

Pat Flynn: Hey Nick, what's up? Thank you so much for the question, this is one of the most common questions and so, I appreciate you asking it because I think it's gonna help out a lot of people. How do you get big names to say yes to come on your show?
First of all Nick, congrats on the new podcast, I like the name of the site: truetightwad.com, that reminds me of Tightwad hill which was a hill in the Berkeley hills, that overlooked the stadium, Memorial Stadium, it was called Tightwad hill because people who didn't want to pay for a ticket, so they'd go up to the hill and watch the football game anyways. That's what that reminded me of. But, lets help you out here, how do you get people to say yes? Well, there's a few ways to go about it.

I would initially—actually, before I even get into those strategies, lets just say that I've learned over time that some of the most important interviews and most successful interviews that I've done on my own podcasts are not with big names, they're with people with stories that are amazing, that nobody's ever heard of before. These are people who my audience can relate to, because they're just like them. And I found that even though I get to interview, I'm so blessed to be able to, to interview people like Gary Vaynerchuk, and Tim Ferriss, and Michael Port, and other big names.

It's people like Shane and Jocelyn Sams from Episode 122 of the Smart Passive Income podcast, one of the most talked about podcasts ever. Two teachers who just had an incredible online business journey, and Shane and Jocelyn, I mean, nobody knew who they were before that episode. But that was one of the most helpful and most relatable episodes. So, don't just think that you to always target the A-listers. It's actually the B and C-listers are gonna be great, because they're gonna want to be on your show, they're gonna want more exposure because they're also growing or trying to grow at the same time. And they probably have some amazing stories that could better relate to your audience too, plus they'll be easier to talk to and contact. So, don't just target the A-listers. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

Now, other things that you could do to help yourself out, no, you don't need to pay. I've never paid anyone to be on my show, and a lot of people, I mean, you don't have to do that. Yes, there are some maybe huge names out there, like, if I wanted Bill Clinton to be on my show, I'd probably have to pay $200,000 because that's what I think how much he charges to get on stage. And I think it'd be a little bit easier for him to do a podcast but I don't want to fork over $200,000 and I'm not targeting Bill Clinton anyway. But there are big names out there that you can target, but whether you target big names or small names, here's what you can do.

Start by targeting the low hanging fruit. What do I mean by low hanging fruit, well these are people who have been on shows already, so you could start with other guests who have been other shows before. Look at the other shows in your category and see who are the ones who seem to be saying yes, and that's where you could start.
Additionally, you could also learn who's coming out with a book. Authors who're coming out books and people who're coming out with courses and products, these are people who you would want to get on your show, because a lot of great things could happen.

One, they're going to want to be on the show, because they're likely going to do some sort of marketing push for that product, so expect that they're going to be talking about the book, that might even take the whole conversation in terms of what that book is about or what that product is about. But you can get a lot of great information from that person if you ask the right questions and guide that conversation the right way.

But additionally, some people might actually have you become a part of their affiliate program, for those things. Or even if it's a book, you don't become a part of their affiliate program, unless you're selling it on their own, and they have their own software. But if they're even selling it through Amazon, you could be and associate for Amazon, if you live in a state that allows that. And, then sell their book to your audience.

And the cool thing about this is that, even though you're just starting out, Nick, podcasts are evergreen, or they can be very evergreen. I have people listening to some of my very first episodes from five years ago, and that's what you should be doing, setting yourself up now for traffic and listeners later and then once you mention these affiliate links using something like Pretty Links to make the memorable and easy and interchangeable down the road, man, those things start to add up over time, but this is a long-term game, which is why I think it's important that you're asking this question now at the beginning. Because the beginning is where all the most important stuff happens, so this is great.

So I gave you some tips already, other things you can do is if you are really looking for a person to come on your show, and maybe they don't have a book coming out, maybe they don't have a product coming out, maybe they don't really do podcast episodes. Well, again, targeting the low-hanging fruit first, that are big names will be helpful because they'll be more likely to say yes. And then you can do what's called name-dropping. This is what I know a lot of people have done to reach people who haven't done a lot of podcasts, they say “Oh well, you know, I'd love to have you on the show, I've also had so and so and so and so on the show. Who I know you're good friends with,” or “Who I know that you went to the same conference with.”

Finding any of those small connections is great. Speaking of small connections, learning a little bit about that person, about who they are, what they like, and if you can, this is best case scenario, build a relationship with them beforehand, obviously it's gonna be much easier to invite them on your show. You could cold email people and you could definitely do that to people who you know have stuff coming out, or who have been on many other podcasts before, because they know the drill. But, if you're reaching out to someone who doesn't seem to be doing podcast guest very often. Well, you can then try to build a relationship with them first, cause then, it's gonna be really easy for you- even if it's just on social media. Just making quick connections, even providing value to that person if possible it's gonna be very easy for you, and a lot more comfortable for you too, to ask a person to come on your show if you do that first.

So, maybe you're not able to do that now, but maybe you have some people lined up that you would love to interview months down the road, well start those relationship building efforts now. And, that's what I would do. So yeah, that's what I'd recommend Nick, hopefully that helps you and everybody else out there who's listened to this, I know a lot of viewers starting podcasts in 2016, podcasts are still growing, it's still a great opportunity if you want to get started with podcasts then head on over to podcastingtutorial.com that's my absolutely free, 100% free, no emails required or anything. It's all there on that page, podcastingtutorial.com, six complete videos to help you walk you through your podcast and set up a bit, and tips for recording and all the equipment that you need and all that kind of stuff. So again, that's podcastingtutorial.com for those of you who're just getting started and hopefully this answer to Nick's question will help you out as well.

So Nick thank you so much for the question, I really appreciate it, we're gonna send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show and for everybody else out there, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, all you have to do is head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much everybody, I appreciate you and again I'm gonna be mentioning this at the end of most episodes here in January. Because I have my new book coming out on February 1st, it's called Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Ideas so You Don't Waste Your Time and Money. This book is for people who are just starting out, or even if you have a business already and you're stuck and you want to make sure that the thing that you're gonna be spending your time on is worth that effort. You gotta check out this book, it's called Will It Fly? It's about how to validate your ideas, how to make sure that that thing you're working on is worth your time so you don't waste your time and money.

Go ahead and go to willitflybook.com to get more information about that, and yeah, I appreciate you guys so much for listening to the show, I'm here for you, and until the next episode here is a quote to finish off the day from an unknown person, this quote I love is, “Don't put in half of the effort, unless you're okay with half of the results.” Now, effort doesn't necessarily mean work harder, I like to think of it as working smarter. Putting in a little bit of time upfront is full effort, and so, to think smarter and think thing through so you can make the most out of the work that you do.

So, I wish you all the best, thank you so much and I look forward to serving you in tomorrow's episode of AskPat, until then keep crushing it, just take care guys, love you. Bye.