08: Should You Do Solo Episodes or Interviews?
In this episode, I guide you through the process of deciding whether or not you should do solo episodes or interviews.
They both have their benefits and the good news is that it doesn't necessarily have to be strictly one or the other. Take a listen below to learn more!
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Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more.
00:42
Welcome to episode number eight of podcasting for coaches. So as I mentioned in last week's episode, today, we're going to talk about whether or not you should do solo episodes or interviews. I did touch on this briefly last week. But I want to dive a little bit more into it today. So a lot of people find one of these types of formats very intimidating. They're usually either extremely intimidated by figuring out how to interview guests and get it recorded and setting it all up and asking people questions, or they're incredibly intimidated by being alone in front of a mic and having to just put their thoughts out there and hope that somebody listens. The good news is both of those things can be overcome. If you're intimidated by doing solo episodes, honestly, you just have to start and you'll get better as you go. And you'll be more comfortable with it. Just like anything else out there. With interviews is kind of the same thing, you can learn the basic information about how to conduct an interview, which we are going to talk about in this show, when it gets to that point in the process that you're ready for that. And once you have an understanding of the technology on how to actually do this, it becomes a lot less intimidating. And then it's just a matter of doing it a few times, so that you become comfortable with it. And then of course, I will provide some resources eventually on how to become a better interviewer. Because there are skills that you can develop for that as well. So right now, I want you to really think about whether or not your fear or intimidation of one path interviewer Solo is preventing you from doing that. And if that is the case, if the fear or intimidation is the only thing stopping, you just try to basically ignore it, which I know is easier said than done. But just move down that path. If you think it's going to be a great idea, if you really would like to interview people, you're just scared of how to do that, then that can be overcome. If however, it's more than, you know, just being intimidated by the process, and you really feel called to either interview people or do solo shows, that's a better indication of what you should do. I have done both this as a solo show. On my original podcast. Living unconventionally was an interview show where I incorporated some solo episodes. Which brings me to my next point, even if you decide to do interviews, I want you to still incorporate a solo component to the show. So if you are only doing interviews, because you're intimidated by doing solo recordings, I have news for you, I recommend that you still do solo recordings anyways. Because you want your listeners to form the bond and connection with you. You want to become their coach or their consultant, you want to become their confidant, their friend, the person that they trust, and go to for all things related to your topic. So if you're constantly bringing on guests, and that's the only thing that you do, you will be seen as an authority, but they won't necessarily form that bond with you, they may connect with one of your guests more than they connect with you. So even if you are doing interviews, I recommend, at the end of the show having like a five or 10 minute recap segment, where you talk about your thoughts on what was discussed with the guest, you highlight certain things that you really liked the way that they said it or you had never thought of it before. And it was a unique way of looking at it. Just some kind of a breakdown of the end of the episode where they can connect with you hear your thoughts start agreeing with you and start forming that bond with you. If you decide you don't want to do it that way. Another thing that you can do is incorporate solo episodes in with your interview episodes. So you can do that by either releasing an interview at the beginning of the week. And then like a bonus solo episode towards the end of the week. Or if that's just too much content to put out which releasing two episodes a week is a lot. You can rotate and do one week it's an interview and then the next week, it's a solo show. I actually have an editing client right now who it's two co hosts and they interview people. They used to have it where they did a solo recap, you know, reflection segment at the end of every episode and every interview. But they found that it was just hard for them to maintain that schedule of having a new interview every single week. And it made the episodes a little bit longer than they liked. So now what they do is just like I said, they have an interview one week and then they have a solo show with just the two of them the next week where they really take a deep dive into the interview and the topics that were discussed, and I absolutely love that format. I think it is brilliant because you bring on experts and guests and you have new
05:00
point of views. And then your audience still also gets to connect with you in a deeper way, as well. So I think it's a perfect balance. Now, if you decide you want to do interviews, the great thing about that is, even though they're not necessarily forming as much of a bond with you, as they would do during solo shows, they are still seeing you as an authority. And if you let your personality come out enough, in the interviews, we don't want you to dominate the interview by any means you want to highlight the guest. They're there on your show to share their expertise. But we also don't want them to take over either. So incorporate Enough of your personality and Enough of your stories and anecdotes into the interview so that they do form that bond. And then the fact that you were able to bring on all of these expert guests, makes them see you still as an authority, because you have the contacts you were the person who knows all the people. I mean, think about it, would you rather connect with one expert? Or would you rather connect with one person who knows 50 experts, that's how you're going to be seen. So I'm not necessarily saying that doing only interviews, and no solo is a bad thing, because there is absolutely a way to make it work and 1000s upon 1000s, upon 1000s of people do it, you just want to still incorporate a little bit of your personality in there. So another type of format to think about that isn't necessarily solo versus interview, is having live coaching calls or sessions. If you have clients who are open to it, you can do one of your coaching sessions, and record that and have that be what goes out. Now, some coaches and consultants choose not to do this, because they feel like they're giving away a lot of information, and people can hear what's happening. But maybe you release snippets if they're okay with it, or maybe you bring on your clients, and interview them who have worked with you, and what they thought of the experience and how it really helped them and what their favorite part of the process was. So you don't just necessarily have to interview experts, you can interview your own people. And along the lines of interviewing your own people, you can kind of do the opposite and have your audience submit questions to you. So you can do different things where they can submit these questions. So they can either email you put them in a Facebook post, or you can use something on your website called speakpipe. It is a plugin that you can add to your website where people can actually leave you voicemails, and then you can play those voicemails live in your show, then you can answer them. So a way that you can incorporate this is maybe at the end of every episode, you answer one listener question. Or maybe during the beginning of the week, you release the full episode. And then at the end of the week, you release like a five minute episode where you answer one or two questions. Or maybe you take one episode a month, you know, the first episode of every month is you just answering listener questions that's going to help your audience connect with you as well because they can literally submit a question to you and you can address them specifically, but in a podcast form so that other people who have that same question can hear it. And people can hear you responding to these questions, they can you hear how you answer it, which just demonstrates your expertise even more. A great example of this is actually a podcast by a gentleman named Pat Flynn. And if you know anything about business, if you're in that niche, you know who Pat Flynn is. And he of course has the Smart Passive Income podcast, which is his main brand. But he also has another podcast called Ask Pat, and I absolutely love it. It's quick little episodes. Some of them are only like three minutes. Some of them are up to 10. And this is what he does. He plays a listener question, and then he just answers it. And it's very short, succinct, and incredibly informative and powerful and valuable. So I'll have links in the show notes on my website to speak pipe and pat Flynn's ask Pat podcast, so that you can really hear that for yourself. To view those show notes, all you have to do is go to podcasting for coaches.com and click on the podcast tab in the main menu. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I hope that you come back next week where we're going to start really deep diving into your podcast specifically, and talk about exactly what should be included in your podcast, intro and outro. And don't worry if you don't know what those are. We're going to talk about that as well. Thank you so much for joining me and I will see you back next week.
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And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you're ready to see if starting a podcast is the next logical step for your coaching or consulting business, head on over to podcasting for coaches.com where you can schedule a free 15 minute strategy session with yours truly. During this call, we'll discuss your business and see a starting a podcast will help you generate more brand awareness and more leads. Thank you so much for tuning in today and I hope that we are able to chat soon