In this video, we cover the very important question: is it better to be a podcast host or a podcast guest? Christine shares questions to ask yourself or your brand to make a strategic decision. Whichever one you choose to focus on will take you down a different path as a media creator, so knowing yourself is key!
See full transcript of the video below.
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Transcript:
Okay, welcome. Took a couple weeks off there with the holiday, but I have a good answer to a good question today for you. And this is relevant to brands and media makers, so whether you’re a personal brand or a bigger brand, I think you’ve probably been asking this question at some point, or you keep revisiting it for your brand. And that is, should my brand, me, myself, or the bigger brand that I’m associated with, be a podcast host, or should I be a podcast guest? And how do I make a smart decision? And it’s such a good question and I’ve literally talked to so many people about this because as a media producer I obviously work with tons of guests and tons of hosts and obviously sometimes hosts are guests and sometimes guests are hosts but more often than not most humans realize they’re either kind of gravitating towards being a host or being a guest. So if you’re in a position to make a smart decision for yourself or your brand about like should we really position ourselves as hosts first and guests second or as a guest first, maybe never a host, I have a few things to ask you that will probably help you make a smart decision. And just as a caveat to this question, I want to validate what a smart thing it is to ask because It takes a lot of time and energy to make media. So whether you’re being a guest on someone else’s show or you’re hosting your own show, you’re putting in a ton of work and you’re putting media out into the world that will build your brand. impact people’s perception of you, bring results of one kind or another. And so I think it’s totally valid to ask yourself this, like there’s not an obvious answer. The answer is like, yes, make some media that supports your brand and helps people understand better who you are, what you offer, your wisdom. But I think as I kind of ask you questions to put yourself through to answer this question, it should become really obvious. You might be a special unicorn who can easily flip between hosting and guesting, and that’s awesome. But even still, I want you to be strategic about where you put the bulk of your energy. So let’s ask some questions to help you figure out what makes sense. Okay, it’s really smart to be a podcast host if you love to have creative control and you have access to, whether yourself, your team, or an outside agency, a production team, a marketing team, and an audience development team. So, one, do you love having creative control of everything you do or this specific type of thing, a podcast? If the answer is yes, you should definitely be a host. Guests have very little creative control. Obviously, you can ask for edit rights if you want to be perceived a certain way, but it’s a pretty big lift to get deep into the weeds with an edit of a show you were a guest on. So, if you already know you love creative control and you have the resources or the team or you are the team that loves to do audience development, marketing, and production, that’s a pretty good indication being a podcast host would be a smart move for you or your brand. Another thing to consider, do you love asking questions and kind of being the leader of conversations? Some people, this should kind of resonate really quickly yes or no, some people love to be the question asker and they love to listen and they love to kind of connect dots and ask another question. Versus maybe you’re better suited as a guest if you love to be asked questions and you love to answer them and you love to share your well-earned experience, your expertise, your thought leadership, because you are being asked as the guest, the maven, hey what do you think about this? So if that’s kind of hitting a chord, pay attention to which chord it’s hitting. A third question to ask yourself is As a guest of a podcast, you can show up and be brilliant and walk away. It’s amazing. You don’t have to foot the bill. You don’t have to do the production work. You don’t have to market. So if you would rather be put in front of other people’s audiences instead of developing your own from scratch, That’s a really good reason to be a podcast guest. And you can put as much energy as you have into guesting on other people’s shows, getting booked, building relationships, showing up, becoming a really good podcast guest. You can put just as much energy into that train as you can into becoming a really good podcast host. They’re equally valuable for different reasons. So think about that. Did you have a gut response when I was like, do you love to just show up and be brilliant and walk away and not have to do anything else? Being a podcast guest might totally be the ticket. Because any podcast host will tell you there’s so much work that happens between hitting start record and stop record. And, you know, in an ideal world, every podcast host has a huge team and budget behind them that they only have to do the parts they like. But realistically, whether it’s you or your team, there’s a lot of work going on and expense. Okay, a last question to ask yourself, strategically thinking, like, would I be a better podcast host or a better podcast guest? And this is a little bit subjective, because time will tell for a lot of people. But if you realize that your energy is better spent, kind of in the creation process, or the I don’t want to say sharing process, because I know that’s a little ambiguous, but if there’s a creative energy for you around creating new content as the creative mind, pay attention to that. Because even if it’s a lot of work, if it’s nourishing to you and you get a lot of joy and energy from it, being a show host can just open so many doors and be such a fruitful, rewarding experience through the years. If you notice that you actually get kind of drained by that whole process and you are so much better at being like the special guest, the person invited, the person who people come to and say, would you please? You love when people kind of already know about you and ask intelligent questions that You know, your reputation precedes you and you can go deep with someone in a really thoughtful conversation that you needed to prepare very little for because like your whole life is kind of preparation. Like that’s a really good indication you’d be a super smart podcast guest. And the more you build that portfolio and skill of being the guest, the more those doors will open. So I’m again asking you to kind of look a few years down the road, and you might be in the middle of this, you might be like, yeah, I started this a few years ago and I totally see where this road has taken me. But just like into the future think about like both options will be there both are great. So energetically Creatively, where does the juice flow for you? And if it’s in the creation Versus the I show up and share and the more wise and smart and cool I get the better and better I share that’s a really good indication of where this could take you a few years down the road. Okay, that’s the video for today. I think it’s super relevant, again, for brands and people. It’s something I often am chatting to people about, whether we’re just finished a recording and I’m chatting with the guest, or whether I’m working with a host on a show. There is a very distinct path between being a host and a guest, and of course you can do a little of both. But I strongly encourage you to think through these questions that I’ve asked today and kind of notice where your gut is responding and focus on that for the majority of your media creation in this unscripted, long-form content. Because when you play to your strengths and you do the thing that you love, everything is so much better. All right, subscribe to the channel. We’ll bring you new videos soon, and I’ll see you then.