I’m creating a podcast on 2030 School, and sharing my notes about how to make a great podcast interview.
2030 School is on apple here, and spotify here
Firstly you need to have the technical things organised already. Microphone / camera etc., to make sure its high quality content. For my first guest I bought him a microphone to make sure the quality was very good.
When thats sorted then you need to prepare for the interview. So do you give a great podcast interview?
1. Be clear about why you are doing it and what the target is
When you know why, and what you are aiming for, then all the details can usually be figured out from there. So The reason I am doing 2030 school is to learn and grow as a person, meet and talk with interesting people, and develop an audience and support China Admissions and I’m exploring ways that education is changing and how to create an awesome business related to that that is beyond China, and can have a far bigger reach. So I’m planning on doing weekly episodes.
2. Guide the interview
The purpose of the interviewer is to lead the conversation into interesting directions for the listener, and to cut off any uninteresting topics. It’s important to lead the conversation. Preparation is important so you understand the interesting topics and have a list of questions. The questions should always be going in a certain direction but at the same time, more open ended questions such as “How” “Why” which opens the interviewee up instead of “Do you / Are you” which leads to a Yes / No answer.
3. Study the Greats
There are lots of great podcasts already, check out what we can learn from them.
3. Don’t send interview questions before
Some guests ask for interview questions before, but its normally better not to because you want the conversation to be more natural and relaxed instead of reciting answers that were prepared before. You can tell the interviewee that they have the final cut and that anything can be cut out later if they don’t like it. So don’t worry about saying things you’re not happy with. It leads to a more open and natural conversation.
4. Practice makes perfect, and just do it consistently
Interviewing is a skill that many people are naturally good at. Conversation is something many of us have a lot of practice at, and we’ve also watched / listened to many interesting interviews before. So giving a podcast shouldn’t be too challenging. Don’t worry about thinking it into this big thing, just focus on the conversation with the person and have a conversation that you find interesting, and chances are that others will find it interesting too.
You’re not going to be perfect at the start, and you won’t know exactly what your style is and what makes a great podcast. Thats why making content is the best way to improve.
5. Post production audio
After you’ve made the podcast you then need to prepare it for the final version – remove some . You can do this yourself using Audacity or by hiring someone on Upwork.com for a couple of hours.
