What I Learnt From My First Podcast Interview
And what you should do differently on yours
A couple weeks ago I was on the Agencies Drinking Beer podcast by the Proposify folks. Kyle Racki interviewed me about the crazy issues we faced bootstrapping our agency, Rolique.
This was my first ever interview, and not only was I very excited, I totally failed a couple of things. So if you’re about to get interviewed, here’s what you should do differently.
Take Fewer Notes
It’s probably good to prepare some notes for the most important points you want to make. I’ve completely overdone it, though. I had so many notes — most of them quite detailed — that I couldn’t find a thing during the podcast and ended up using none of them, missing half of what I wanted to say.
To do better than me, write down not more than 7 bullet points with not more than 6 words each.
Here’s what I had:
Define a final statement
So even though I had a truckload of notes, I didn’t really have a final statement prepared. That’s unfortunate, since it’s what sticks in people’s minds when they end the episode and move on with their day.
Thus, prepare a short statement on which you’d like to end, summarizing the whole conversation and making your most important point again.
Don’t make distracting noises
The podcast was called Agencies Drinking Beer, and people have had beers on previous podcasts as well. But they either didn’t really drink one or they drank it in a much more sensible and quiet way.
Listen, those microphones pick up every damn sound! Moving your hand across the table, clicking with your mouse, you moving around in your chair or taking a sip from your delicious beverage — all that gets picked up and distracts from your voice.
It either ends up in the podcast or is a damn hard editing job for the host. And you don’t want to be the same pain in the ass that I was, so make sure you don’t make ANY noise during the recording.
Record Your Own Track
The sound quality on your end is much better than what arrives at the receiving end of Skype, and thus you should record your own voice on your machine. Use Audacity for that, here’s a detailed guide on how to set it up perfectly.
Save the raw recording as it is (no editing needed) and send it over to your host via wetransfer afterwards.
Check your Skype Settings
This one is easy. Just make sure Skype takes the right mic, headphones and webcam. Actually, turn the webcam off completely. You don’t want it to use any of your bandwidth. Also, headphones are a must. Otherwise your mic will pick up the sound from your speakers, and the result will be unusable.
Be on a Good WiFi
Check your Internet connection. Don’t plan interviews knowing you’ll be in a bandwidth-impaired place. But wait, am I not recording my own voice locally? Isn’t quality not an issue then? It is. Misunderstandings and delays are harder to edit out and make it hard for the audience to listen to the conversation. So make sure your connection is in a good mood that day.
Recommend if you liked the article, and if you’re a podcast host, feel free to send this article to your interview guests. I hope you’ll have a successful interview with these tips :)
