How to Pitch to Be a Podcast Guest | Alice Draper

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spk_0 Hey, Alex here.

spk_0 Before we get into today's episode,

spk_0 I wanted to invite you to a virtual event

spk_0 that I'm hosting titled,

spk_0 Podcasting Made Simple Live.

spk_0 It's for podcast hosting guests

spk_0 who want to grow their influence, revenue,

spk_0 and expertise on either side of the microphone.

spk_0 To see the details and to get a free ticket,

spk_0 please visit podmatch.com slash event.

spk_0 Tickets are normally $97,

spk_0 but if you enter code PM live,

spk_0 you'll get free VIP access,

spk_0 which is just my way of saying thank you

spk_0 for listening to this podcast.

spk_0 And now let's get into today's episode.

spk_0 You're listening to podcasting made simple.

spk_0 Imagine you're a podcast host of a podcast

spk_0 that gets tens of thousands of downloads

spk_0 every single month,

spk_0 and in your inbox there are two emails.

spk_0 An email number one,

spk_0 the subject line reads,

spk_0 opportunity to chat.

spk_0 You click inserts,

spk_0 and the opening paragraph says,

spk_0 Hi name,

spk_0 my name is insert name,

spk_0 and I am the founder of insert company name,

spk_0 and I would love to be a guest on your show.

spk_0 That's the first pitch is opener.

spk_0 Now there's a second pitch.

spk_0 This pitch,

spk_0 the subject line says,

spk_0 podcast guest pitch,

spk_0 colon,

spk_0 how to embrace rejection.

spk_0 You click inserts,

spk_0 and the opener is a little bit different.

spk_0 This time it says,

spk_0 Hi, first name,

spk_0 I recently listened to your episode with

spk_0 insert guest name,

spk_0 and I got goosebumps when you mentioned

spk_0 how doing what you love

spk_0 is a game changer for those with ADHD.

spk_0 This has certainly been true for me,

spk_0 even if it is a daily practice.

spk_0 Full stop.

spk_0 Which one would peak your interest more?

spk_0 I think it's an easy answer,

spk_0 and the second introduction is actually

spk_0 something I pulled from a real pitch

spk_0 that I send to a podcast

spk_0 that has tens of thousands of downloads every month,

spk_0 and I went on as a guest recently on the show.

spk_0 So my name is Alice Draper,

spk_0 and I am the founder of Hustling Writers,

spk_0 which is a podcast guest booking agency.

spk_0 For the past five years,

spk_0 we've landed our clients on thousands of podcasts,

spk_0 including many of the biggest and best in the world.

spk_0 And if I could distill everything of learns

spk_0 down to one thing,

spk_0 it would be this.

spk_0 Podcast hosts do not ignore pitches

spk_0 because the guest isn't interesting

spk_0 or impressive enough.

spk_0 But podcast hosts do ignore pitches

spk_0 because the pitch is not specific

spk_0 or interesting enough.

spk_0 Big differentiates are there.

spk_0 It's not about you not being interesting.

spk_0 It's about your pitch not being interesting.

spk_0 I would argue that 90% of what makes a podcast host say yes to you

spk_0 comes down to how good you are at pitching yourself

spk_0 rather than how glamorous or impressive your portfolio and buyer is.

spk_0 I certainly don't have a glamorous

spk_0 and impressive portfolio,

spk_0 but I do know how to pitch well.

spk_0 So most guests and agencies make one face home mistake.

spk_0 And that is that they pitch a buyer instead of a story.

spk_0 I've worked as a podcast producer for a couple of clients.

spk_0 I've also done my own work and my running my own podcast.

spk_0 And 90% of the pitches that come through more than 90%.

spk_0 I'd say 99% of the pitches that come through

spk_0 are a long generic buyer.

spk_0 Lots of accolades, accomplishments.

spk_0 Who you are, what you've done with your life

spk_0 and very little story,

spk_0 very little actionable relevance takeaways.

spk_0 So let's dive into the anatomy of a pitch that gets an immediate yes.

spk_0 What does a great podcast pitch actually look like?

spk_0 What is the easiest way to stand out?

spk_0 The first topic that I'm going to dive into is personalization.

spk_0 So the easiest way to get ignored is to send a generic copy paste pitch.

spk_0 It's also to say something like, I love your show because no one believes that.

spk_0 That's what everyone says.

spk_0 So instead of starting a pitch off with something generic like,

spk_0 I love your podcast and I would love to be a guest.

spk_0 Try something a lot more specific and personalized.

spk_0 Take a listen to an episode.

spk_0 If you don't have all the time in the world, click play in the middle of an episode

spk_0 and pull out the hyper specific detail.

spk_0 Did the podcast host or the guest say something that you can quote back to them?

spk_0 Can you make a comment?

spk_0 Maybe they're talking about weight loss in an episode and you could say,

spk_0 oh my gosh, I have also fallen for the weight loss industry.

spk_0 And I would love to be on your show to discuss XYZ related topic.

spk_0 The more specific and less broad you open with,

spk_0 the more authentic the pitch feels, the more likely they are to keep reading,

spk_0 which right now is our number one agenda.

spk_0 We want the host to keep reading.

spk_0 So have a great specific opener.

spk_0 I know that some of us like to have templates that can make it easier to get started.

spk_0 So if you need a template on how to personalize your pitch, try this.

spk_0 Open the pitch with, I really appreciate your episode with guest name.

spk_0 About specific insight, the more specific, the better.

spk_0 The way you framed, he take away,

spk_0 really stood out to me because I've experienced something similar.

spk_0 And now you need to go and explain what that something similar is in a very simple succinct way.

spk_0 You can play around here, but really your goal is to be as specific as possible

spk_0 and avoid broad generic sweeping statements like, I love your show.

spk_0 Because no one believes that.

spk_0 Secondly, which is very important.

spk_0 And if there's one thing I think I hope you take away from this is please focus on having a strong narrative hook.

spk_0 In other words, lead within Treg.

spk_0 We live in an attention economy.

spk_0 People do not have time.

spk_0 My god, Adam Grant rejected me.

spk_0 Question mark.

spk_0 That is what I opened that pitch that I read out earlier with.

spk_0 Another shocking takeaway you could open with could be two weeks after reporting an instance of workplace harassment.

spk_0 I was fired.

spk_0 Another one could be.

spk_0 I almost shut down my business five times before figuring out the system that saved it.

spk_0 These hooks work because they create an open loop to something intriguing that the host needs to know more.

spk_0 Again, our agenda is very simple here.

spk_0 Keep the host reading.

spk_0 Next, can you add an elements of timeliness?

spk_0 So if you have a great story and you know that this is something that really is relevant to the podcast you're pitching.

spk_0 And you you've hit the mark.

spk_0 It's personalized and there's a great story angle.

spk_0 Adding elements of timing this can become that competitive edge that puts your great pitch above the other great pitches.

spk_0 Because at this point, something that will be going through the host's mind is.

spk_0 Why should my listeners be interested?

spk_0 Why would my listeners be interested in this?

spk_0 There are of course many, many evergreen angles.

spk_0 So I'm not saying don't pitch your evergreen angles.

spk_0 But if you can tie your pitch to anything upcoming, whether it's mental health, or when is meant or women's history,

spk_0 or things happening in the news, what's happening in the election cycle, what's happening in politics, what is happening in the workplace.

spk_0 That all gives the host an extra reason to choose your pitch over other great pitches.

spk_0 One important caveat here is that many podcast hosts, especially for bigger podcasts, plan their cycles, months and advance.

spk_0 So you probably want to be pitching three plus months out of whatever, like if you're pitching around a specific date or month, you would probably want to be pitching around three plus months out.

spk_0 And with more generic kind of new cycle things, then just start pitching now.

spk_0 But you know, being able to blend an evergreen topic with the timely topic can push your pitch from good to really, really, really great.

spk_0 The fourth thing that I want to talk about having value driven speaking points.

spk_0 This is, I'd say second to having a great story.

spk_0 This is top tier. This is the most important thing because at this point now if the podcast host likes the fact that this was a really personalized specific pitch, they like the fact that you have an interesting story, they're intrigued.

spk_0 They want to know more the next question on their mind is what is my audience going to get out of this episode?

spk_0 You want to make this as clear and valuable as possible.

spk_0 So a bad example would be saying something like, I want to talk about my entrepreneurial journey, not very specific.

spk_0 Going back to the pitch that I sent to that podcast was tens of thousands of downloads.

spk_0 The pitch subject line was hot and brace rejection.

spk_0 I had very shocking opener, which is Adam Grant just sent me a rejection notes, question mark capital letters.

spk_0 Okay, why am I asking about that? Then I lead in to how this was exciting for me because it was a champagne rejection, a rejection that I got excited about.

spk_0 Because it was someone I respect, look up to who wrote to me personally in a very nice way.

spk_0 Then there is the speaking points. Here are some examples of what I wrote in this pitch are very specific, actionable speaking points.

spk_0 Here is what we can talk about. And then I have four three bullet points.

spk_0 These three bullet points, the first one says, building a rejection resilience muscle.

spk_0 This includes assessing your relationship with rejection, creating and fostering your rejection community, habituating using microrejections and accurately tracking and analyzing data.

spk_0 Topic two, the science of rejection. It is the first to hurt our ancestors survival, literally dependent on not getting rejected.

spk_0 Topic three, setting your rejection goal to land PR.

spk_0 A 100 rejection goal is how I built a career as a freelance journalist years ago.

spk_0 We can talk about leveraging a rejection goal to land PR in podcasts and publications and what it takes to write an excellent pitch.

spk_0 So I share those examples because I want to make it very clear that the more specific your speaking points are, the more likely you are to get a yes.

spk_0 The hosts want to know whether you can share advice and insights that is different to what all the other people pitching them have said.

spk_0 So when you are working on building out your own speaking points, try to get as specific as possible.

spk_0 And I know I use this word a lot. You don't want to have broad sweeping statements, but you want to get down to the nitty, gritty tactical and tangible strategies that you can share.

spk_0 Rather than big picture holistic things.

spk_0 You could also say to chat GPT, like use chat GPT as a way of getting yourself to think more specific fine tune your ideas more.

spk_0 So you could take a pitch that you have already written and say to chat GPT, this is too generic.

spk_0 Please can you break this down into 10 microtopics and then maybe those microtopics are still too generic and you could say please break those down into 10 even more microtopics.

spk_0 The more micro those topics are the more specific they are, the more likely they are to be interesting and relevant to the podcast host.

spk_0 So at this point, we have an interesting subject line that made the host open the email.

spk_0 We have a personalized opener that showed the host that you actually listen to the show.

spk_0 We have an interesting shocking specific and relevant story opener that makes the host want to know more about your story.

spk_0 We have valuable speaking points that are relevant to the show and there is an element of timeliness to what's happening currently in the world if possible.

spk_0 Now the podcast host, if they are still reading and they're interested in what you have to say, they have one final question on their mind.

spk_0 Can you pull this off?

spk_0 Your job here is to make it as easy as possible to prove that the answer is yes.

spk_0 So demonstrate your credit ability.

spk_0 You want a buyer, a very short buyer that does not have a laundry list of accomplishments, but it does demonstrate your capabilities, your accomplishments and it includes links.

spk_0 We want to link, if you have spoken in a TED talk, link to that TED talk, if you have features and forms, link to those features and forms, if you have spoken on other podcasts, link preferably to one place where all the podcasts interviews you've done are, they want to know that you can talk well, that you can deliver a good sense of view.

spk_0 And you don't want them to go Google because when you make them Google, you're adding friction to this process and they might not come up with the things you want them to see, they might not come up with the best talks you've given.

spk_0 If you link to that, they're more likely to take a listen to exactly what you wrote.

spk_0 So going back to my pitch, this is how I presents my buyer and my links.

spk_0 And so after the speaking points where I spoke about what I would talk about in the podcast, which I just wrote who am I.

spk_0 I am the founder of Hustling Riders, a podcast, casting agency that has secured clients on thousands of podcasts, including many of the top 1.0.5% shows.

spk_0 My newly launched podcast, my rejection story features interviews with Neil Patel, Jason Fenrula and Gay Hendrix.

spk_0 I have written for half-pursed refinery 29 business insider and more.

spk_0 Some of my favorite things include strong coffee, affordable travel hacks and deep connections.

spk_0 I test small talk, waking up early and unnecessary jargon.

spk_0 And then I have links to my website, my LinkedIn and my past podcast appearances.

spk_0 And I have also hyperlinked the places that I have written for.

spk_0 Do you think this conversation is a good fit for podcast name?

spk_0 I'm happy to brainstorm other ideas too.

spk_0 So to close off this talk, I'm going to give you a five minute fix or better pictures.

spk_0 If your pitch is on landing, you don't need to scrap everything and start over.

spk_0 You just need to tweak how you're presenting yourself.

spk_0 And here are five questions you can ask to do a better job.

spk_0 Is my opening hook strong enough to stop the scrolling?

spk_0 We're all scrolling. We're not looking at all of our emails.

spk_0 You need to grab their attention.

spk_0 Two, does my pitch show that I actually know the show?

spk_0 Very important.

spk_0 Three, have I made it clear why this interview would be valuable to their audience?

spk_0 Four, is there a reason for them to book me now instead of later?

spk_0 And five, am I making it easy as possible for them to say yes.

spk_0 So my challenge for you is before you say not your next podcast pitch,

spk_0 take five extra minutes, certify that, cut out the fluff,

spk_0 lean with a strong hook and give the hosts something that they can't ignore.

spk_0 Because at the end of the day, hosts do not book guests based on credentials alone.

spk_0 They book guests who bring a compelling story, a fresh perspective

spk_0 and something that the audience can't wait to hear.

spk_0 So who's ready to go out and get more podcast bookings?

spk_0 For more episodes, please visit podmatch.com-flash-episodes.

spk_0 Thank you so much for listening.

How to Pitch to Be a Podcast Guest | Alice Draper

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