How to be an outstanding podcast Guest: Alex Sanfilippo

Show Notes

Alex Sanfilippo is an entrepreneur who started his first business at the age of 10. He recently launched services to help podcasts guests and hosts to make podcasting simpler and more fulfilling.

Episode 80:

We explore:

• Addressing the "Why?" of podcast hosting or guesting


• Why podcasting is a powerful channel to nurture trust and build relationships


• Five key points to cover when pitching to a podcast host


• How to sound and feel when on the podcast


• How to handle awkward moments during the interview


• How to prepare yourself for your podcast appearance

Alex Sanfilippo founded PodPros.com a provider of services for podcast hosts and guests.

PodMatch.com -  Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Hosts And Guests For Interviews

PodcastSOP.com - Software For Podcasters To Manage The Workflow Of Each New Episode Release

Alex Sanfilippo is based in Florida, USA.

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Excerpts from this conversation between Alex Sanfilippo and George Torok

09:56

There are listeners who because of their experience, expertise and wisdom are potential guests for podcasts. What what can they do that might help them appear attractive to a host? 

The first thing I would say, and you mentioned pod match, which I'm so thankful that you mentioned that George.

Have a place whether it's pod match or not, where you can have all of your information. So you don't have to put it all in a message is that what you can put that link into a message with here's the 30 things I've done, here's a picture of me, here's this, right, have all those things somewhere.

Again, you don't need to use my services, that's something you can just look at as a free resource. But once you're actually getting to the pitch, and you want to keep it short, so we can have that link where you can send them more details.

But the first thing I always tell people is to lead with value. Lead with value. Leading with value simply means to me to to actually care is to start off so George, like when I when I reached out to you to be on your show. I liked the name of the show. I liked the description. I liked your voice. I was like, Man, that sounds pretty cool.

But that wasn't enough. I could have led with that. I was like, No, I'm gonna listen to an episode. I picked an episode.

As a matter of fact, I want to recommend that episode because it goes well, we're talking about today, because we're not going to get into storytelling today. But as with Graham Brown, and he talked about the three bucks storytelling technique, that's episode 68 of your intended message, go listen to that episode.

Phenomenal. As soon as I listened to that I had the lead with value section done, I had listened to that. I liked it a lot. And I liked it so much I left to review the podcast.

So when I reached out to George I told him, Hey, I left you a review of your podcasts I listened to Episode I got a lot from it, I learned how to tell better stories.

And then once I did that, the next thing I did, so number two, that's lead with value number two, is to make a meaningful request.

A lot of people when they're doing pitching, they don't actually ever make the request. They just kind of leave it open ended. And a lot of podcast hosts or potential clients are it's kind of like, well, what am I supposed to do with this?

Give them a clear action, something they can take. So I actually made a meaningful request. I told George, hey, here's a spot that I think I could add value to your audience, would you be willing and interested to having me on the podcast, and that left it very, that gave him the chance to actually say yes or no to me.

The third thing I'll mention is to offer credibility. And offering credibility simply means that if I know somebody that knows George, I'm going to reference their name and be like, hey, you know, if you want to talk to Tiffany, she's a mutual friend of ours. 

You can reach out to her I was on her podcast, anything to add a little bit of credibility to show that you know what, you have some skin in the game that place or I spoke at this conference last year, I've been on 30 podcasts and last year, anything that's going to help something really short.

And then the next thing I'm going to mention is to to make it easy to say no, this is kind of how I end the thing is I usually make it really easy.

A lot of people, they just don't hear back, you don't hear back from people that you're pitching about your business idea, or that you're pitching to be on their podcast because they don't want to break your heart. If you already did all those nice things.

Now they're feeling like they can't really hurt your feelings. I always say, hey, no pressure at all. I only want to be on your podcast, if you think I can add value the audience. If not, it's probably better that we don't do this.

Leaving open like that. I've heard a lot of no's in my time a lot people have said no, no, thank you, I really appreciate it.

They wouldn't usually respond to other people, which is laid out in limbo forever. I personally like to hear back. And so that's something that's really worked for me.

And the last thing I always like to do is when I kind of have like a signing off tagline is I like to mention they'll share the episode. Because in all honesty, I will I love to share episodes I've been a guest on. And not all guests do that.

So if you do that only if you're willing to like don't lie, if you're willing to share it mention that because that as a host is like oh great, this guest is actually gonna help me promote a little bit, which is a tough thing that we have to deal with on the hosting side of the mic.

Watch the video of this interview here

https://youtu.be/jzTYEdsWWVg

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