How To Plan Your First Interviews

To plan your first interviews, keep your ideal listener and show promise in mind. The few interviews of your podcast can set the tone for potential listeners.

The key to planning great interviews is to DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Research your guests, even if you know them. While you want interviews to ebb, flow, and be natural, you are inviting a guest on for a specific reason, and it’s to help you deliver on your show promise for your ideal listener.

You don’t want to put your guest in a box, but you can frame an episode to allow them to SHINE and capture what is unique about them. Below are episode frameworks for your first few interviews and the goals of each episode.

The prompts below are geared toward the transformational podcast. But ya’ll, even a COMEDY podcast can use these prompts because people are more than one thing, and comedians generally draw on deep personal experience to create funny stories because they are TRUE.

Here’s the deal, if you are light-hearted and silly, you can still deliver on each of the prompts below in a way that is uniquely YOU – you being you is what will keep listeners around. These interview setups aim to tap into your ideal listener’s nervous system and connect.

Interview One | Set the Tone

Talk to someone that can help you deliver the heart of the show. This guest is likely someone you know. While you’ll still want to make your guest shine, your relationship with this person will allow you to share your story and your history together, making this a non-traditional interview. They will help you SHINE as much as they help you deliver your show promise.

Interview Two | The Seratonin Episode

This guest has a strong message of hope or whatever emotion your audience craves. Whether you deliver hope, laughter, or connection, this episode is a serotonin punch. Choose a guest that will help you tap into your ideal listener’s nervous system – in a positive way. You’ll want to choose a guest with a great “rhythm” – that seamless back and forth that creates interview magic.

Interview Three | Call Out Your Target Audience

Choose a guest with a powerful hero journey as it relates to the heart of your show. This person can quickly get into your target audience’s shoes and validate their experience. This episode’s goal is to get a guest that can take you through big ups and downs. Remember, we don’t learn from victories; we learn from failures.

Interview Four | The Clarity Episode

This guest is deeply in tune with their emotional journey and has a specific mindset that your audience can benefit from hearing. Typically, this guest can pinpoint the mindsets that kept them from breakthrough, transformation, or “seeing the truth” this is a big “Ah-ha” episode.

Interview Five | The Letting Go Interview

Your guest has a clear message or journey about leaving a job, person, location, etc., in the past to press forward into healing/happiness/purpose. This interview explores the emotions of what it’s like to let go, how you get there, and how you go THROUGH. It’s not about the before or after but the transition.

How To Plan Your First Interview(s)

Interview Best Practices

• Your magic phrase is “tell me more” to get your guest to keep sharing and dig deeper. It helps you let the guest shine.
• Don’t speak over your guest.
• Don’t fill in your guest’s thoughts/feelings/emotions; ask them about them instead.
• Do your research on the guest so you can help them deliver your show promise.