Today’s topic is something that I’ve gotten quite a few questions about in the past. How do you find your guests for the podcast? Now, there is no simple answer to that question. It’s through friends, acquaintances, books, conferences, etc and I believe different for everyone.
However, it got me thinking about what tips I would give to someone looking for their next guest and here they are. I’ve outlined them in five short sections below and didn’t include books as that is kind of self-explanatory to me.
If there are any methods you would like me to add to this list that you’ve found super helpful, please do let me know.
1. Web Summit Attendee Search
This tool got released today and it’s a powerful search tool for podcasters all over the world. Basically what the Web Summit released today is a database of all their attendees (Over 36,000 of them), yes, and you can search by occupation, country, etc. This tool is limitless in finding people of interest to interview on your podcast.
2. Conference Speaker Lists
A good idea that is often overlooked, very much like my first point I made above is to look at conference speakers. There are tons of conferences happening all over the world and they are driven by influential speakers that have the attendees hanging on every word that leaves their lips. I wrote a short article on six conferences to attend before the year’s end, and that could be a starting point for you.
Scroll through their list of speakers and see who will be a good fit for your listeners. It’s important that you keep your content focused on your market and not just stray because of an influencer in question.
3. Other Podcasts
This happens more often than you think. People scroll through their favorite podcasts and write down the guests that have been interviewed. It’s an easy way to come up with a list of potential interviews, especially because you relate to them on an emotional level already because of the interview you listened to.
4. Twitter Search
Don’t neglect the power of finding new unheard of guests on social media. I’m directly referring to Twitter here as it makes for a less saturated way to find people other than all the guys tagging CEO on Instagram because they feel like being CEO of their one stop shop.
Let me show you how
— Head over to Twitter.com and make sure you are signed in.
— Go to their Advanced Search – Click here for easy access
— List your criteria, as an example, I just entered: CEO, Coach, Entrepreneur in the Any of these words box.
— Language is set to English.
— I then added a location to where I am looking for the guests: New York, NY
— I selected Positive at the bottom and hit search.
— That is how I came up with the screenshot you saw above. Click here for direct search link.
5. Your Network
It’s time to look into your little blackbook. Who do you surround yourself with that your guests would love to hear from? Maybe you could ask some of your friends for recommonedations and by simply involving them, it could help you scale your listernship dramatically. People love to be valued and this is no different.
Conclusion
I hope these tips will help you put together a quality list of guests for your up and coming podcast episodes. In the coming weeks I’ll be putting together a Resource with email templates for reaching out to your new guest list and closing some influencers for the show.
Have a great day.
