How to Level Up Your Podcast Guesting Game & Booked On More Shows

Thousands of people do podcast interviews, but how do you stand out on a show from anyone else in your industry? How do you prioritize your ideas in a way that makes people feel like they have much to learn from you? In this post, Brenden Kumarasamy covers how you can share unique ideas on a podcast to stand out from all a host’s previous guests on their show.

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“To be the best is great because you are number one. But to be unique is better because you are the only one.”

I got this quote from Lewis Howes a few years ago. Even though the quote is not his, it has always stuck with me.

The reason is that I have always seen it in the context of my own thought leadership.

How do I share ideas in a podcast that set me apart from previous podcast guests?

Or rather, how do we craft the impact, the message, the ideas that we want to share with other people in a way that makes them pause and say, “I have never thought of that before. I never thought of it that way.”

That’s the attitude I want you all to take with you the next time you are on a podcast. How can you convey ideas that are so unique and interesting that people will stop what they are doing and listen to you?

Think about the personal brands we admire and respect today. Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, Tony Robbins, Brené Brown.

These are people who have created brands that are so unique that opportunities run after them. They get so many offers that they no longer guest on podcasts and even turn down speaking engagements.

Before we turn to my three-part framework on leveling up your podcast guesting game, let us start with the definition of value.

Chris Do, the founder of Futur, a popular YouTube channel and educational company, says this.

Value is telling me something I do not yet know.

When we share something we know for sure no one knows yet, it gets people’s attention. They stop and say, “I do not know that. I do not know that either.” 

That’s what sparks interest in the ideas we have to share.

Let’s jump into the framework to level up your podcast guesting game.

1.) Research

This is a simple principle to get us started. If you want to know whether or not your ideas are unique, the first thing you need to do is your homework.

Listen to what everyone else has to say. When I started my personal brand in the communications industry, I studied just about every communications expert who was on the mediums I wanted to be on: LinkedIn, YouTube, and, of course, as a guest on a podcast.

In fact, I have listened to hundreds of episodes of Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness Podcast, hosted by Lewis Howes. My goal has been to find out the best thought leaders in my field, or at least what they have to say about communication.

In your case, of course, it will be a different topic. Maybe it’s health or spirituality.

But in my case, I was thinking about it and listening to what other people were saying. When I came up with the idea of what I am doing today, I realized that I had something special.

Not because I was special but because no one else was sharing what I had in my head.

If you want to be the best thought leader in your industry and stand out as a podcast guest, you must have the humility to listen to what others say.

2.) Refine

After doing thorough research, the next step is to refine. This can mean several things. The first is simply the idea of prioritizing our ideas.

I’ll give you an example. Let us say we list all the ideas we get in our field. After doing research, e.g., hours of podcasts from other people who are in similar fields as you, you may find that 90% of what you wanted to say has already been said.

Does that mean you should not share it?

Not exactly. It just tells us that no one has yet shared the other 10%. That’s special because it’s an indicator that you should try to prioritize that information first in a podcast.

You could do this in several ways.

Plant those unique ideas and questions you know you will be asked a lot.  You can have a conversation with the podcast host, “Hey, I am thinking about voicing this idea or that idea. Can you ask me a question about that?”

Most podcast hosts would be thrilled to ask you questions like that. They want to hear the unique idea that sets you apart from very other previous podcast guests!  That’s the reason you are on the show 

Question drills

Every day we are asked questions about our daily lives, especially in the context of our expertise. You do not need a strong podcast guest appearances track record to make this idea work.

Think of a question you think someone will ask you about your industry and write down the answer to that question.

Do this every day with a different question every day. If you do this for a year, you will have answered 365 questions about your industry!

You will have answered many questions about your industry with just five to 10 minutes of practice each day.

This is how you find yourself answering questions that most people in your field do not even get asked.

In my case, an example of this is the question about where the fear of communication comes from in the first place

When I was first asked this question, I did not have a good answer.

But when I thought about it further, I now have an answer that helps me stand out from other experts in my industry.

Do the same thing with your expertise. Start researching what everyone else has said and refine your own approach.

That way, the next time you stand out on a podcast, you’ll stand out.

3.) Redefine

We have researched the topic, know what everyone else is saying, refined our own approach, practiced the questions, and are trying out our new ideas.

The final step will be to Redefine. 

At the end of the day, not every idea is a winner.

It’s like an artist. You have to paint a lot to see what sticks and what does not 

The key to redefining is to test your ideas on smaller podcasts, which can be friends and family.

You need to create an environment where you test and experiment like a mad scientist to see which ideas stick.

Let me tell you a funny story about this. Simon Sinek, the master behind Start With Why, says in many podcasts that he has tiles in his shower that he can write ideas on.

That’s how crazy he is about trying out ideas and experimenting! That’s pretty next-level. I have not done that yet, although maybe I should!

Nonetheless, this is a good example of what it actually takes to build a personal brand that lasts.

We keep coming up with new ideas and sharing them until we discover what catches on. Some ideas probably won’t make the cut. You’ll probably need 3-4 ideas to truly redefine the category you are in 

The Power of These 3 Rs

Getting back to the idea of researching your topic, refining your approach, and redefining your category when you start creating a huge inventory of unique ideas.

So much so that you reach a point where you only present ideas in a podcast that no one else has heard of. People are immediately drawn to you.

I’ll give you a recent example of this: Alex Hormozi, the author of $100M Offers and the CEO of Acquisition.com. Alex has done an incredible job of growing his personal brand over the last 18 months through his company Gym Launch and his media content.

Everything the man tells is so unique that I have never heard it explained or packaged in this way. That is why he has gained popularity so quickly.

The reason I mention Alex is to ask a question. Why can not you also be like him or people like him?

You too, can share ideas that are so unique that they open doors of opportunity to what you want to achieve in life.

So we need to constantly split test, experiment, and try our ideas until we have the perfect episode 

Final Thoughts

As a podcast guest, one of my personal philosophies is that they are doing me a favor, not the other way around.

They are doing me a favor when I appear on their show, which means their intention is more important than mine.

That means I am very open with the questions I am asked. I do not mind when my own thinking is challenged. In fact, it spurs me on to become a much better communications expert than I could ever be.

It also means saying yes to opportunities that do not directly benefit your business. Lately, I have been on a craft beer show, a sports show, and an entertainment show.

These are shows that probably will not bring me any business, but I do them to ask myself, “Why do they want me on their show?”

Why is it important to them? How do I establish the relationship between communication and craft beer? Or the relationship between communications and being the CEO of an animal sanctuary? 

I have talked about those topics, but these podcasts challenge me in a way that a person outside of that field would not.

Even though it’s not necessarily directly related to business, how does it relate to the more important outcome? Impacting the world and being willing to challenge yourself constantly.

Go out and explore, research, refine and redefine. My last words will be a quote from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

To be in the top 1% of any category automatically means you cannot do what the other 99% are doing. 

About Brenden Kumarasamy

Brenden Kumarasamy is the founder of MasterTalk, a coaching program for ambitious executives and entrepreneurs to become top 1% of communicators in their industry. Brenden also has a popular YouTube channel, MasterTalk, which focuses on providing free access to communication tools for people around the globe.

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