From the secret beach hut studio, Podcasting Veteran James Martell talks to Rockie Lee, relationship coach, and host of the Clarity Coach podcast about how to attract influential guests for your show.

Rockie is the host of the Clarity Coach podcast series and a relationship coach. He specializes in working with singles and couples who want to get married and are tired of the dating scene. He focuses on the big dream that each couple has for their marriage. And with divorced clients who want to restart life all over again, he helps them get unstuck and discover how to dream again.

Approaching Guests and Choosing Topics

Rockie offers some advice to would be podcasters: Just jump in, and do the show. Then, you begin to develop your voice. Don’t jam every episode with guest speakers. Select people who have something specific to say and insight about your podcast’s focus – such as relationship topics, in Rockie’s case.

Sometimes podcasters are uncomfortable about approaching people to be guests on their series. Many podcasters think they must have hundreds of episodes behind you before anyone with stature is willing to be a guest on their podcast. However, people are eager to be guests on a podcast. You may know of people who are experts, find them via a Google search, check out their Website, determine how to contact them, and send a request to them to be a guest on your podcast. This is how to attract influential guests.

How to Attract Influential Guests – Making the Approach

It may take you months to hear whether someone you contacted is willing to be a guest on your show. But don’t give up. Be persistent. When asking someone to be a guest, be completely clear about why you want them on your podcast and what they can speak about and offer your guests. Give them a very specific topic – not something general that they talk about all the time.

Rockie utilizes James’ Virtual Producer service, where a Producer who works remotely connects the podcast Rockie with his guest via Skype to record the broadcast. Erik Reynolds is Rockie’s virtual producer. He records Rockie’s shows. Erik connects or introduces Rockie to his guest over the phone via Skype. Erik takes care of all the technical aspects of Rockie’s shows. He edits the podcast shows. So, as the host, Rockie has to do very little work, such as the research. Erik and Arlene (James’ wife) handles most of the work to get the show done.

Quality of the Work

Learn how to organize the content of your show. Work on the end result before even getting started. There are tons of coaches now doing “live” content. But to set yourself apart from others and to be different, your podcast needs to be different. Make sure your show is coming from a very different niche, and avoid duplicating content that is already available from others.

Craft your show by doing a lot of research. Be specific about a topic and what you specialize in. Give the guest a topic and force the conversation. For the first part of his podcast, Rockie focuses on linguistics and technical aspects. The second half of his show focuses on practical content. It’s about creating an advocacy podcast.

Here’s What You’ll Learn

- Rockie’s definition of attraction and how it is developed during your childhood.
- How having a podcast sets you up as an expert in the area you specialize in.
- Rockie includes a call to action in his podcast shows. You never know who may contact you as a result and become a coaching client.
- Rockie made mistakes, but learned what to do differently.
- Rockie schedules a full year of guest speakers or topic titles, rather than a group of just a few episodes. Try batch recording.
- Rockie encourages podcasters to take time to figure out what they really want – especially when it comes to relationships.
- How it’s well worth your investment to just dive into doing a podcast and have James, Arlene, and other virtual staff help you out.