Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. What's happening to podcasters. Welcome to the show. Welcome back to the show, wherever you're joining us. I sure do appreciate you taking some time out of your day to hang out with me for just a few minutes to better understand what you don't know that you don't know about the world of podcasting. Like I mentioned on every episode, if you're just now tuning in, and you're just now starting a podcast or you're starting over, go back to the beginning of the show, not the beginning of this episode, beginning of the actual show, like episode one, because I've actually broken down in order what our process is for launching a podcast in 90 days or less. This is the exact same program we use for our clients here at the podcast launch lab, as well as the one that I've created and use for my own shows. So I always want to disclose that, go back to the beginning. Now you can listen to this episode if you want, and then go back to the beginning, choose your own adventure, if you will, but an effort to stay as organized as possible and really have that step-by-step one step leads into the next step, into the next step, into the next step. Next thing you know, boom, launch podcast. I want to talk about podcast guests. How do I find people for my podcast, Sebastian? How do I find people to interview on my show? We're gonna do a couple parts series on this one too. Cause remember these episodes are 10 minutes or less. Sometimes they're five minutes, sometimes they're 12 minutes. Cause they go on a little bit of a tangent, a constructive tangent, if you will. Podcast guesting, the very first thing that I want you to do right now, not while you're listening to the episode, I want you to focus, but as soon as we're done here in a couple of minutes, I want you to take out a clean sheet of paper and a pen or a pencil, if that's how you roll. And I want you to put down just like if you've heard of the dream 25 list, the dream 25 people that you would love to do business with. I want you to put together a dream 50 list of podcast guests. Now, if your podcast is business related, which I'm assuming that it is, and you're looking to interview people you could potentially do business with, this is a phenomenal time to bust out that pipeline. Find out who you've been in touch with for the past three, four, five, six months. and put them on that list. It may not be everybody. They're hard to reach impossible. They don't return phone calls or emails or anything. You may want to move on to somebody new, but as far as your active hot leads, if you will put those on the top 50, what do you admire? Who do you look up to? Who are some really like, what's a really big stretch. I'd really love to have that personality. I have no idea how I'll get that done. Write it down. Now I don't want you to put every, top celebrity in your mind in person and influential individual that you know is going to be difficult to reach. I don't want you to make that all 50 people. That's really a dream list, but I do want you to include ones where you're like, you know what? I'd like to have Gary Vee on the show. I have no idea how that's going to happen, but I'd like to have him on the show. So out of 50, maybe five or six or seven or eight, or a little bit of a big stretch, heck, maybe it's even 10. The rest should be filled with people that you look up to. People you're looking for are smarter than you, more successful than you. They've done more than you. Those are the people you want on the show. In addition to your prospects that you can do business with. In addition to the people that are a real stretch to get a hold of because of their notoriety and them being famous or not famous or whatever it may be. But first step in this process is identifying who these guests are. The best way to do that is put together a list. You put together a good mix on that list of prospects, people you look up to, and then people that really influence you that you don't know or don't have direct access to. You'll be amazed what happens, because here's what happens when you put together a Dream 50 list and a Dream 25 list when you want to do business with people. Maybe you can't rack your brain for 50 people, but I can assure you once you start writing down names, that 50 will come to you sooner rather than later. Don't let 50 overwhelm you and let this be an ongoing process over the next week or two weeks or month. If you absolutely have to literally take it out. My dream 50 podcast guest list, draw a line under it. And like we're in elementary school, one, two, three, four, start adding names. You're going to keep that list handy because as you book people for your podcast, you're going to cross them, that person out and you're going to add another one. This list never ends. Eventually the pendulum shifts. People start reaching out to you going, Hey, love to be on your podcast. You're like, we'd love to have you on the podcast, but for now you got to get out there and hunt. You got to get out there and find exactly who you want to have conversations with. but be intentional about it right now. Intentional meaning, I'm gonna write them down, I'm gonna start pursuing them, I'm gonna get them on the show because I said so. Get them on the show, get them booked, cross them off, add somebody else. Another lesson that we're going to teach as part of this series is the flow of getting somebody booked. It's not just reaching out and being, hey, Bob, you wanna be on the show? Hey, Mary, you wanna be on the show? Cause then you're back and forth. Can you do Monday? No, I can't do Monday. Can you do Tuesday? No, I can't do Tuesday. Can you do Saturday? No, I can't do Saturday. How about Sunday? I don't work Sundays. So I'm going to teach you exactly what you need to know. about streamlining the process of getting people booked on your podcast. Oh, by the way, when you get someone booked on your podcast, you want to get them into your ecosystem too. You want to get them into your CRM. You want to be able to continue a conversation with them in addition to them getting the emails and tags and et cetera, of them being on the podcast episodes. We're going to cover that as part of this series of podcast guests. But first things first, let's take out a sheet of paper, your notepad, however you document stuff. Let's put together a dream 50 list. These are 50 people that I want to get on the podcast prospects, people you look up to people that are smarter than you, no more than you've done more than you, that you can learn from. Does that make sense? I tell you some episodes are shorter than others. This is one of those, but I want to kick things off with podcast guests and to at least give you a little bit of homework to get started. So you're not just shooting in the dark on where in the world do I find a podcast guest? How do I do that? Where do I go? What do I do? This is what you do. First things first, you put together this list and you start to work this list just like a prospect. questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns about this episode or any episodes on the show, please send me a DM over on Instagram at podcast suck. That's two S's podcast, plural at podcast suck on Instagram. I also hang out on Facebook and LinkedIn under Sebastian Rusk. Obviously shoot me a DM and say, Hey, listen to the show. I've got a question. We also have a phenomenal, phenomenal, resource with our YouTube channel to an entire library of just about every question you could ever possibly imagine asking about starting a podcast. So leverage it and use it. YouTube.com forward slash podcast launch lab. Hey, thanks for tuning in. Get that sheet of paper out. Get that list going. Start jogging your mind. Take as little time as possible to complete this list. On the next episode, we're going to break down exactly what you need to do to create a streamlined process for your outreach and booking people for your upcoming incredible podcast. Thanks again for tuning in. Talk to you guys next time. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. It's where we get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.