Today is the first ever interview featured on the Microphone Money Podcast.  The bulk of the information for this episode will be found in the audio recording and not here in the show notes.

I have Suzanne Doyle-Ingram on the show.  She is an author and the owner of Prominence Publishing.  She consults with people on writing their books, publishes and helps people along the way.  She has a lot of great ideas about leveraging your book to gain contracts and to be seen as the expert in your industry umbrella.

There are great tips and hacks in this interview, and you will definitely come out thinking that you should write a book to use as a very large "business card" in the development of your business.

Enjoy!

At some point in your journey you are going to have an idea about hosting a podcast for a major corporation.  You are going to try all sorts of different methods to reach the decision maker that can actually make this happen for you only to hit road block after road block.  

Today I will discuss how an interview based podcast can help you avoid all of those road blocks and actually get to the person you are seeking.

This is part 2 of my 3 part series on building a platform when you are brand new and have no talent or expertise. In today's episode we will focus on how having an interview based show will help you to build a very unique and very valuable network.

The reasons I focus so much on an interview based show is pretty simple.  Here is a list of the reasons why I am a proponent of this format:

• When you start out, you are going to be brand new with no platform
• You are unlikely to have enough expertise when you first begin to fill 52 episodes per year with your own knowledge
• We are building a business, and having experts on your show as guests helps you to build your network
• When you approach a large company for an interview, the people you will be dealing with will also be the decision makers you will later approach with an idea about making a show for them
• An interview based show is easier to fit into your busy schedule

If you are looking at a few options, paying your listeners to help you find guests might be the best one of all of them.  Compare it to hiring a booking agent or assistant.  There is a good chance that you are not going to find an assistant that knows your industry umbrella and particularly your niche.  But, you listeners absolutely will. 

Your listeners are just like you.  And they are just like your other listeners.  So, there is a great chance that if they suggest a guest, this is a guest that the rest of your audience will enjoy hearing.  You are leveraging your platform to make it even better.  And, if your show is like mine then it is going to be difficult to mine those diamonds out of the rough.  Your listeners will have insight because they are interested in this as well, and there may be no other way to find those great guests that are just waiting to be discovered.

If you plan on making a show that is just you, you might be able to skip this episode.  And, you should realize how lucky you are.  You aren't lucky because you don't have to interview guests.  Guests are great, and they are very valuable to you future business (more on that later).  But, if you are going to rely on guests, week after week, then you better have good system for lining them up.  This is a logistical challenge that can add some stress.

Now, for the rest of us.  We need guests.  More importantly, we promised our listeners that we were going to bring them interviews that would benefit them.  This is a constant piece of work we need to be doing in the background to make sure that we fulfill this promise and produce a great show.  And, this is definitely not passive.

So, how do you go about this.

When you first get started, you are going to sound nervous.  If you have never done this before, and possibly even if you have, you will have that shake and quiver in your voice that will give you away.  So, what can you do to get rid of this?  Well, I've got a simple answer that you will probably not like - start making regular episodes and power through it.

Nope, I don't know any tricks other than just doing the work. And, I cannot tell you what your magic number is.  But at some point you will hit that magic number, the nerves will subside and this will feel natural to you.

Coming up with content ideas can be a stressful experience, or it can be a rewarding one.  This is different than booking guests and getting interviews done.  This can still stress you out.  But at least if you know what topics you want to cover and when, that part of the planning does not have to add to your stress.

So, think of it in terms of your total episodes for a year.  If you are doing a weekly show, my minimum recommendation, then you only have to come up with 52 episode ideas per year.  52 may sound like a big number when you are first getting started, and if you have never done this before.  But when you really dig into your niche, you are going to find out that it is not.

In all honesty, there are no shows that I listen to that do not have a regular publication schedule that they stick to.  I do know of some story telling podcasts that only come out once every month and a half or so that are seeing success.  However, that is a completely different animal than we are dealing with when it comes to building a custom podcasting business.  So, for now, I am saying once per week - minimum.

The reason why this is so important to me is the professionalism that it exhibits.  Remember when you are creating a custom podcasting business you are trying to please two distinct groups with each show - your listeners and your future clients.

I think the quick answer to this is "no".  I certainly have intro's for each of my shows, but that is just me.  There are a lot of shows where the host just starts talking and it is fine.  This is especially true for niche podcasts, and it is another one of the reasons why making a niche show is so great.  If your content is great, you can almost get away with anything.

With all of that said, most of the shows that I have ever listened to have an intro.  It just seems weird to have somebody hit the play button and for the next thing they hear to be you jumping right into the content.  So, most hosts do opt to have some sort of an intro.