How to Land Over 100 Podcast Interviews with Christine McAlister of Life With Passion
Episode 440: Show Notes
Today, we have serial entrepreneur and business coach Christine McAlister back on the show! She is an amazing friend of ours. We love having her on the show and we hope you get some really good nuggets from today. Christine has a unique skill where she gets people to say yes to pretty much anything she puts out there, including coming back on our show all the time! What she is teaching you today is how to pitch yourself and how to be an amazing guest on other peoples’ podcasts, and why this strategy – being interviewed for other peoples’ shows – is one she recommends over actually having your own show.
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She is going to walk you through how to use it to network, how to leverage, how to grow your audience and increase sales, and it’s just an all-round good, honest conversation about to-dos and not to-dos! So get out your notebook, jot some of the amazing strategies shared in this episode down, and we cannot wait to see what episodes you land your booty on!
Why You Should Be a Guest on Podcasts Rather than Start Your Own at First
We love how Christine’s brain works and her strategy around being a guest rather than a host of a podcast to leverage your brand, product, audience, and services. Many of us want to start a podcast for these reasons and Christine’s answer is a resounding NO. Why? What people don’t understand is how much work it takes to make a podcast, from editing to choosing guests, promoting the show, and building up a following. Christine was a guest on over 100 podcasts before starting her own and the reason for this was she just wasn’t ready yet, and in the process, she learned all the ins and outs of doing it herself from the other hosts! By being featured as a guest, you get to learn behind the scenes how podcasts are run, hone your message, make friends with other hosts, and the best part – all it costs is time! In comparison, making a podcast is expensive in many other ways! So being a guest means it is not only free, but you get to show up for an existing audience of potential clients and be endorsed by a host! You just talk and they handle everything else!
How to Make Successful Pitches that are About Offering, Not Asking
This all sounds great but what if we have tried to reach out to hosts before and they aren’t responding? Being a solid guest starts with a pitch! Christine’s advice is that before you pitch you should research the show. Make your pitch about the personal connection you can offer the host (people want connections right now). The host has invested in their show and audience so don’t make your pitch all about you. Tell the host they have a great show and why, as well as why you would be a good fit and would have great chemistry with them. Let them know how you’ll share their show too. Basically, let them know how you’ll add value to their lives, and don’t just ask them to add value to yours. The host has to see the show with you as a two-way exchange! Also, remember that when looking for which shows to be on, be mindful of applying to ones that have audiences that you are looking to reach.
The Best Tactic to Prepare for Your Upcoming Podcast Conversation
Let's say you land your pitch, what’s next? How do you prepare to make sure that when you do go on the air, you sound as credible as possible? Christine recommends listening to past episodes of the show to get a sense of the format and things you could have in common with the host. From there, you need to try and get some practice about speaking on your topic while being recorded. There is nothing worse for a host than a guest who speaks amazingly off the air and then chokes the moment the record button gets pressed! Find a coach or a biz bestie and get them to do some soft media training with you. Let them shoot you some questions over Zoom and get some practice; get those heart palpitations and sweaty pits out of the way! Hosts might not ask you pointed questions so you need to be prepared to go with the flow. Write down your key points so that you have something to refer to in case your mind goes blank. Remember, you want to sound credible, and if you can’t speak with confidence you won’t, which reduces your chance of being a returning guest too!
Fueling the Referral Network Engine by Making Hosts Look Good
Christine’s superpower really is connecting with hosts and celebrities; Pat Flynn was on her show, and she is always getting famous people to share about her on Instagram without it being weird. So, how does she do it? She maintains that the whole game is about connection. People get scared to connect with those who they perceive to be higher up the ladder, but if you just show them that you’re interested in what they do, this can go so far! People are human, and they want to connect at a time like this. Again, do research, don’t copy-paste the same pitch, and be human. The chances are, you’ll have extra time at the moment, so it’s a great opportunity to be reaching out in this way. Moreover, it is all about figuring out how to make a host look good. Christine talks about how she asks hosts what they are promoting and makes sure to plug that into what she talks about on their show! Other things she does are leave reviews for them on iTunes and send them gifts sometime after being interviewed. These small gestures go so far, especially where the concept of the referral network is concerned. When you ask hosts what you can do for them and do that, it’s only common courtesy for them to do the same back, and often this can translate into them referring you to people they know who you might not have reached before!
Finding Other Podcasts in Your Niche if a Host You Pitched to Doesn’t Reply
What happens if you have pitched to a host whose show you really want to be on and they just are not getting back to you? How do you follow up without sounding desperate? Christine’s answer to this is that maybe it’s not actually a good idea to follow up. She has never gotten a response from a host after following up. If a host wants you, they will have a system in place to respond to you. If you don’t hear a response, don’t take it personally – sometimes businesses are just too big to respond to everybody! Just look for other podcasts in your niche to apply to, and luckily, Christine’s take is that you’ll never run out of podcasts in your niche to pitch to! How do you identify which ones though? Christine recommends using the iTunes Related function, to get suggestions of similar shows to the one you want to be on. The thing with this is that chances are the podcasts being suggested to you will have huge followings because iTunes found them significant enough to suggest. Find the sweet spot between shows with too few and too many reviews. Another great strategy is to simply ask people in your niche what they are listening to!
The Ins and Outs of Christine’s Freebie Download Call To Action
Christine touches on her call to action for letting people know how they can get to know her and her services next. It has changed somewhat since she has started her own show. Often she forgets to tell hosts that she does have her own show now, but the tried and trusted one that still works for her is a simple freebie download. She finds methods that ask people to text and so on get a little complicated so her freebie download works best for her, and acts as a funnel to warm people up and get them on her email list. She talks about a podcast guesting how-to checklist too. This checklist helps people learn how to be great guests while also taking their relationship with her to the next level and can be found at http://www.lifewithpassion.com/powerhouse. There is a lot to be said for a tangible thing people can get their hands on, so take a cue from her about her freebie download call to action!
Quote This
People are scared to connect with somebody that they perceive to be above them, but when you show up interested in their thing, it doesn’t matter.
Highlights
Why You Should Be a Guest on Podcasts Rather Than Start Your Own at First. [0:03:37.1]
How to Make Successful Pitches that are About Offering, Not Asking. [0:07:22.1]
The Best Tactic to Prepare for Your Upcoming Podcast Conversation. [0:13:55.1]
Fueling the Referral Network Engine by Making Hosts Look Good. [0:18:02.1]
Finding Other Podcasts in Your Niche if a Host You Pitched to Doesn’t Reply. [0:35:11.1]
The Ins and Outs of Christine’s Freebie Download Call To Action. [0:40:08.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Christine McAlister
Life with Passion
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Podcast
Christine McAlister is a serial entrepreneur, business coach, and the author of the #1 bestseller The Income Replacement Formula: Seven Simple Steps To Doing What You Love & Making Six Figures From Anywhere. Since 2015, Christine has helped over 75% of her clients all over the world to quit and stay out of their 9-5s, by making money doing what they love with only a laptop and internet connection. She leads a community of over 2,000 entrepreneurs online. Christine has been featured in magazines and websites like Inc., Business Insider, Bustle, and The Huffington Post, and on podcasts like Entrepreneur On Fire. Before founding Life With Passion, Christine was an undergraduate and graduate professor and ran an online marketing agency where she generated over $1 million in international leads for her luxury brand clients. Christine and her husband and "rainbow babies," live with their two rescue dogs, near their Arabian horses, in Louisville, Kentucky.
KEY TOPICS
Podcast guest, Landing pitches, Leveraging hosts, Practicing conversations, Building connections, Dealing with rejection, Finding niche shows, Calls to action
