I just finished my first ever podcast interview in my niche, and I was NERVOUS.
I’ve been a guest on a fair number of podcasts recently, but this was different. Instead of just sharing my story, this was my first chance to stand in front of the wedding industry and give advice as an “expert.”
I think it actually went pretty well. To be honest, the hardest part was getting on the show in the first place. Let me tell you a little bit more about how I landed this first niche interview.
Behind The Scenes: Finding and Applying to Podcasts
First of all, why do podcasts matter? Personally, I think podcast interviews are an incredible way to get in front of a very specific audience and help people get to know you through the recommendation of someone they trust (their favorite podcast host).
I put together a strategy to apply to podcasts as part of my last 12 Week Year. I had a goal to grow my email list, and I knew getting in front of new audiences would be key.
Finding and Vetting the Right Podcasts
My virtual assistant and I put together a list of podcasts that were likely to have a wedding industry audience. We searched via Google and the iTunes podcast app. Then, we put together a spreadsheet that included:
- Podcast name
- Host name
- Podcast website URL
- Date of last episode (some of them unfortunately hadn’t been updated in a while)
- URL for contact form or podcast guest submission
The number of podcasts aimed at wedding professionals was shorter than I thought—Just about 10 good prospects.
Once I had the list, I took a thorough look at each of them.
I wanted to make sure I knew a little bit about the podcast before I applied to it. Like, I didn’t want to apply for a guest interview on a podcast that didn’t actually do interviews (doh!).
After that brief glance, if the podcast seemed like it might be a fit, I actually listened to a couple episodes and read up on the host.
I put the extra work in because I wanted to submit an email that showed I knew something about the podcast and wasn’t just blasting the same submission to 100 random shows.
Applying to Podcasts
After all that, I put together what I thought were 4 fantastic, attention-grabbing, personal, brief, thoughtful podcast guest submissions.
And… I heard back from… 0 of them.
Eventually, at least a week and a half later, I got one lone returned email from someone’s content producer who said “hey, sorry, I’ll pass on this information to the podcast host!”
I was a little bummed at the overall reception to the submissions, but I didn’t want to give up. I followed up with that person a couple times, and it took almost a month, but I finally got a pre-screening call with that podcast host.
Here was the interesting part—I found out I got that call back pretty much by accident.
The host got confused and thought I’d been referred by a contact of his. I only got a call back because he didn’t realize I had sent a cold email through his contact form. Thankfully, I talked him into interviewing me, and we recorded about a month later. At least it worked out!
So Can You Get On Podcasts As a Nobody?
It turns out… this is a pretty tough thing to do.
If you want to guest on podcasts in an industry where pretty much no one knows your name, expect that the response rate won’t be fantastic. But—you just might sneak through somehow and find a great opportunity.
I will keep you updated when this interview comes out in about two weeks to tell you if it does drive some new interest, traffic, inquiries, or followers.
But regardless, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to connect with someone who is deep in the wedding industry who has a lot of connections. I can see some great benefits to the work I put in to get on this one show and hope it will be a catalyst for many more.
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