Three crucial lessons from my interview podcast

Here I want to share crucial lessons for interview podcasts that I learned from doing my podcast for over a year: a podcast on a wide variety of subjects with long-form conversations. By now I did over 30 interviews for The Connecting Dots Podcast.

1. Good preparation is key

Don't fail because you're not well prepared! Get the preparation of your interview right. Dig deep in the internet for what you can find on your podcast guest. It's on you if you fail because of a lack of preparation!

2. Your podcast guest is also responsible for the quality of the interview

You can prepare yourself as well as possible. If the person you interview is not delivering good stuff, then your preparation is not worth much. And it's not your fault that the interview doesn't turn out well!

So, don't beat yourself up over not getting a good interview when the interviewee is not sharing high quality input. Both of you have to deliver -- not just you as interviewer!

3. Let your guest know that it's a conversation

Some people, esp. older guests, tend to think of my podcast recordings as short and businesslike back-and-forth. They confuse their job as podcast guest for a journalist reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

The guests who are not familiar with the modern culture of laid-back honest long-form conversational podcasts need to be reminded that: A conversational podcast lives off of people sharing their opinion, stories and thoughts, not just the facts.