How to Conduct a Podcast Interview: A Host's Playbook

Many people who start an interview podcast are nervous about the interviews themselves. They worry about running out of questions, missing the interesting moment or sounding stiff next to a guest who has been interviewed many times. On a company show the stakes feel higher, because the guest may be a buyer, a partner or someone respected in your market.

The good news is that the host's job is mostly listening. I first wrote down this interview method in 2019 and returned to it in 2021. This guide keeps that approach and adds practical guidance for a company show. It covers how much research to do, which questions to prepare, how to open and close, how to ask good follow-up questions, what to do after you stop recording, and how to help an executive who is not a natural host.

Why the interview matters on a B2B show

My first show interviewed other freelancers, people in the same business as me. In a 2021 episode on podcast strategy, I called a show "focused on their peers and not their prospects" the biggest mistake people make when they launch, and admitted I had made it. A company show works best when its guests are the people you want to know: buyers, partners and the people whose audiences you want to reach.

That changes what an interview is for. A podcast lets you talk to "people who otherwise would not get on a call with you", and many of the people I interviewed became customers. In 2019 I wrote that every one of the referral partners at Lead Cookie, the LinkedIn prospecting company I founded and later sold, had been a guest on my podcast at some point.

So the interview has two jobs. It has to make an episode your listeners value, and it has to give the guest a conversation they enjoyed and want to continue. The method below serves both.

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Learning and entertainment were common reasons U.S. listeners gave for using podcasts in December 2022. These audience motives offer context for preparing questions; they do not measure interview quality or B2B sales.pewresearch.org (opens in a new tab)

Interviewing is easier than it looks

Being interviewed is harder than interviewing. As the host, you speak for about 10 to 20% of the interview, by my 2021 estimate. The guest does the rest.

Your job is to prepare a little, ask questions you care about and listen closely enough to ask a good next question. You are having a conversation with someone interesting, in front of an audience. Treat it that way and most of the pressure goes.

How much research to do on a guest

The most important preparation is research on the guest. If you arrive knowing little about them, your questions stay on the surface. If you learn the basics beforehand, you can spend the interview on the questions only they can answer.

As a minimum:

• Spend some time on the guest's website.
• Read their LinkedIn profile and career path.
• If they publish content, read or watch one to three pieces: articles, videos or talks.

In 2019 I estimated that this basic preparation would take 15 to 30 minutes in most cases. For a business professional who publishes little content, their LinkedIn profile and company website are enough to start. For an author, skim the book's outline and a chapter or two. If a guest particularly interests you, go further: their other podcast appearances, their book, full presentations, or four to ten pieces of their content.

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Jake’s historical account, summarized from this article. These results describe his experience and are not a performance forecast.

For a company show, add the guest's company and role. Know what their business sells, what their job involves and what they are working on now: that is where the questions for a business audience come from.

The shortcut: interview people you already follow. The deepest research is the reading you have already done. Before my 2018 interview with Mike Michalowicz, I had read three of his books and listened to his podcast long before we spoke. No amount of preparation the night before would have matched that.

Prepare a few questions, not a script

A common mistake is to script the interview: a list of questions asked in order, as if the conversation were a presentation. Guests go off in unexpected directions, and your preparation should let you follow them.

Prepare two to five questions or topics for each guest. Keep a standing set of fallback questions in front of you as well, written once when you plan the show, for when a thread runs out or you want to change the subject. One I suggested in 2021 is "what do you believe that other people disagree with about your industry?"

Make most questions open, so the guest has to explain. The Nielsen Norman Group, writing about research interviews, says "the greatest benefit of open-ended questions (opens in a new tab) is that they allow you to find more than you anticipate." Three kinds work well in a business interview:

• Story: "Can you walk me through the first year after you launched it?"
• Reflection: "How has your thinking on that changed?"
• Contrast: "What do most people in your industry get wrong about this?"

One page is enough to bring into the room:

Brief the guest before you record

A short brief helps the guest feel prepared without sounding scripted. Send it before the recording, covering the episode's topic, what it will focus on and the general flow. Leave out the exact questions, so the answers stay fresh. If the guest has not done many interviews, a short call beforehand helps them relax and lets you agree on what they want to talk about. The podcast guest prep checklist covers what to send.

Turn on video for the recording, even if you publish only audio, so you can see each other react as you would across a table. Record a backup too: in 2021 I recommended recording on a video call with a second tool recording each speaker locally, so a lagging call does not cost you the guest's audio.

Open and close the same way every time

A planned opening and closing give you something reliable to start and finish on. The middle of the interview can then wander wherever your curiosity takes it.

On Working Without Pants, my opening was built around the show's name. My usual opening was to ask whether the guest was wearing pants, talk for one to four minutes about work and life balance, then ask them to introduce themselves. That opener suited that show. A company show needs one that fits its name and its guests.

The opener I recommended in 2021 works for founders and employees alike: ask the guest for "a quick 60 or 90 second overview" of who they are and what their business does, or, for someone inside a larger company, who they are and what their role is. It gets the introduction done in their words and keeps it short.

For the close, I liked asking guests what advice they would give their younger selves if they could go back five to 10 years; I found it always produced something worth building on. Then close the way I closed Working Without Pants: "Thank you for taking the time today. For everyone who wants to find out more about you online, where can they go to look?"

Follow your curiosity

Some shows ask every guest the same questions in the same order. A few big-name shows may make that work, but in most cases it feels forced. The better interviews come from following your curiosity.

Think of each interview as a private consultation with a smart person: ask about their story, how they did what they did, the frameworks behind it and the detailed questions you have always wanted answered. If you are learning, your listeners are too.

Several listeners told me my 2019 interview with Lacy Boggs was my best yet, though I had not prepared any more than usual. Early on she said, "I've only worked on my business for 20 hours per week for the past 7 years." I wanted to know how, so I followed that thread: what she gave up, and how the limit changed the way she built the business. The difference was curiosity, not preparation.

How to ask good follow-up questions

The skill that matters most in interviewing is the follow-up question. The hard part is listening to the guest and planning your next question at the same time. If you spend the guest's answer thinking about your next prepared question, the conversation stops flowing.

I learned a simple fix during my interview with Say Gabriel. A guest usually talks for one to five minutes before handing the conversation back. Use that time like this:

1. 1

   Give the guest all your attention

   Listen to what they are saying, not to your list of questions.

2. 2

   Number each point you want to come back to

   When something catches your interest, note it in your head: "One: come back to the hiring process." I would put one finger down on my leg or the desk, out of the camera's view.

3. 3

   Keep listening, and number the next one

   If a second point comes up, it becomes "two". I rarely went past two or three in one answer.

4. 4

   When the guest hands back, start with point one

   Say what interested you, ask them to go further, and when that thread is done, go back to point two.

Numbering the points means you do not lose them, so there is no awkward "I had something to ask but I've forgotten it." The same habit helps in any important conversation, not only on a podcast.

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Jake’s historical account, summarized from this article. These results describe his experience and are not a performance forecast.

Two smaller habits help. Repeat a guest's phrase back to them as the question: "You called that the worst hire you ever made. What made it so bad?" And when a guest finishes an answer, wait a beat before you speak, which leaves them room to add to what they said.

What to do after you stop recording

The end of the recording is a good moment for the relationship. Ask the guest how it felt and whether there was anything they wish they had said. Tell them what happens next: when the episode will be published, and what you will send them to share. Thank them for something specific they said.

Then keep the conversation going. On a B2B show this is where the relationship you started on the recording continues. How to turn B2B podcast guests into clients and partners covers the follow-up in more detail.

How to prepare an executive who is not a natural host

Company shows are often hosted by a founder, an executive or a technical expert, chosen for what they know. That can work well. What such a host brings is expertise, so the aim is to help the host sound like themselves in conversation, not like a broadcaster.

• Take the pressure off. Run a few short practice conversations before the first real interviews. Record them, listen back together and talk about what went well: where the energy was good, where a follow-up question worked.
• Make listening the focus. Hosts who worry about what to say next stop listening. Coach them to pause, react and ask the next question from what they just heard, using the numbered-points habit above.
• Give them a reliable opening and close, so the start and finish are never in doubt.
• Review episodes together after the first few, and keep feedback specific.

If the company has no one suited to the role, how to find and hire a B2B podcast host explains the other options.

What still holds, and how to adapt it for a company show

The core of the 2019 method still holds: light research, a few questions you care about, curiosity, numbered follow-ups and treating the interview as a conversation.

For a company show, adapt the method in three ways:

• The guest list. A show built for prospects and partners makes each interview a chance to start a relationship, so the briefing beforehand and the conversation afterwards matter as much as the questions.
• The opener. An in-joke that suited a creator show may not suit a company's guests. A short overview question suits almost any guest.
• Who does the preparation. On a produced show, a producer can write the brief, hold a preparation call with the guest and run the recording, leaving the host free to concentrate on the conversation.

Whatever the format, it's still a conversation. You are not trying to be a famous broadcaster. Follow your curiosity, and if you learn from the interview, so will your listeners.