3 Lies That Keep Qualified Experts From Podcast Guesting

Dustin: [00:00:00] if your standard is that you're gonna start only when you're ready, you'll postpone visibility and growth in your business forever because you're never gonna be fully ready. The way to become ready is by taking action, right? I always like to say clarity comes through action.
Dustin: Readiness comes through action, uncomfortable action.
Intro - Outro: You're listening to the Seven Figure Leap podcast. We're here to leverage rich relationships and smart strategies to take your business to the next level. Here's your host, Dustin Riechmann
Dustin: Maybe you're not actually waiting until you're ready. One of the biggest things that I see keeping really smart, accomplished entrepreneurs invisible is not a lack of expertise, it's a belief that they're not quite ready yet.
Dustin: So maybe you've thought, "I need a bigger audience first, I need more [00:01:00] credibility, I need to become better known, and then I need to find the right podcast for any of this to really matter." Here's the thing I've learned, in doing entrepreneurship for many years, running this company for four years, and working with 300 really smart entrepreneurs, in our podcast guesting program, and that is that once you solve any of these objections, others tend to appear, and that's because there's a deeper issue at play here.
Dustin: And it's often that starting something new is uncomfortable. And I'm an introvert, trust me, I get it. I understand the resistance to putting yourself out there. Visibility has, like, never been a natural thing for me. and podcast guesting, the good news is, was really valuable to me in part because it gave me a structured way to kind of step out of my comfort zone, be the real me, and do that in a very safe setting where other people could benefit from my expertise, and that is what grew my business.
Dustin: So what I wanna do today in this episode is really dismantle three [00:02:00] myths that I see over and over again specific to podcast guesting, but as you'll hear, th- there's some larger principles at play here that I think could really unlock some big growth in your business, your visibility, and your ability to help the people that you're called to help.
Dustin: So myth number one is, "I need an audience before podcast hosts will want me." And so the misconception here is that people believe that the value exchange in podcast guesting is that hosts only invite guests on their shows because they want access to the guest's big following, right? the good news is, that's completely false.
Dustin: A good host are primarily looking for people who can create a great episode for their audience. So I'm a podcast host, and about half the episodes that we do here on "7 Figure Leap," have guests. So am I evaluating each guest and looking at their social media following and asking them how big their email list is?
Dustin: Absolutely not. when I'm considering a guest for this [00:03:00] podcast, and in my experience, what almost every host is looking for in the guests that they welcome on, are these types of questions: Can this person teach my listeners something useful? do they have an angle that's fresh? Do they have something to share that hasn't already been covered 20 times on my show?
Dustin: Can they tell stories well? Can they communicate clearly to my audience? And will this episode make my audience glad they listened to my show? That is the actual value exchange. It is you providing your unique teaching Stories, perspective to an audience. It's not at all about your following. and so the big principle here around this myth is that you don't need a big audience.
Dustin: You need something valuable to say to their audience. And one of my favorite examples of this, besides my own business, is my friend John Meese, who was recently interviewed here, in preparation for his book launch. And John's a really smart guy, and if you listen to that episode, what you'll hear is he literally has zero social media [00:04:00] following.
Dustin: Yet John is a regular guest on many people's podcasts. In fact, it's his number one marketing channel. So no dependence on social media. Podcast guesting drives most of his revenue, and, his credibility is not synonymous with his follower count. In fact, he has lots of credibility because he has great things to teach.
Dustin: He has good stories to share. He's an approachable expert. And people welcome him onto their podcasts and their platforms, not because of his following, 'cause he has none, but, purely through his ability to share his expertise. And that is true for you too. So practical takeaway here from myth number one is instead of asking, "Am I important enough to be on a podcast?"
Dustin: Ask, "What gap can I fill for this host audience?" That is the posture that you wanna take when you're, approaching a host and asking them if you can come and serve their audience. So that's myth number one. So myth number two, I need to be famous or have [00:05:00] decades of ex- expertise, right? So myth number one is about, like, how big of a following you have, and you have this imposter syndrome that you're not big enough, and this one is more about a lack of belief in your own, expertise, right?
Dustin: Like, your own ability to, drive results for people through your education, your teaching, and your stories. And so the good news here is you don't need to be famous, and you don't even need to have decades of experience. what I would say is don't focus on being the world's foremost authority on your topic.
Dustin: You don't need to do that. What you do need, though, is to be specific, okay? So, as a quick example here, if I, was approaching a host and I said, "Hey, I'm Dustin. I'm a marketing expert." It's like snooze fest, right? Like okay, well, so is like everyone else who pitches me, that's-- I don't see how that's gonna be really useful to my audience, right?
Dustin: 'Cause it's generic. Marketing expert is forgettable. If I instead simply say, "Hey, I help consultants turn podcast interviews into premium [00:06:00] clients," much more compelling. Why? Because it's clear, it's specific, right? It's a unique thing that I can do to provide value to that audience. So I'm not trying to prove that I know everything, and neither should you, right?
Dustin: You should be, just demonstrating that you know how to solve a particular problem, and one interview should be designed to solve one particular problem for that audience. and I think this is more important right now than ever. you've heard me, talk on previous episodes about the fact that we are in a trust recession, right?
Dustin: There's an overwhelming amount of polished, manufactured content. Information is really not valuable at all because we can all use AI to get answers to anything, about anything. So It's not about the depth of your expertise, it's about the specificity, by which you can provide a tangible outcome or result for an audience.
Dustin: So if you think about an interview, it's basically an opportunity for you to have 30 to [00:07:00] 60 minutes and let people experience how you think, how you communicate, what you believe, and whether you actually know your stuff, right? And you can talk about in the interview the kinds of results you've created for yourself and maybe for some of your clients.
Dustin: AI can't do that, right? It's not about the exchange of information as much as it is about you sharing your unique insights. A- as, as I like to say, it's not about how to, it's about how I. Like, how I did this thing or how I helped someone achieve this specific result. That's very different, fundamentally different than something you're gonna find in like a LinkedIn post or some generic, summary of someone's knowledge base, 'cause that's not what people care about and it's not what people want.
Dustin: So the principle here with myth number two is you don't need everyone to know you, you need the right people to trust you, and that trust comes from borrowing other people's audiences and providing specific value to [00:08:00] a host and, you know, by extension to their audience. And podcasts allow you to do that really well.
Dustin: it's a very easy format for you to be able to exchange that type of value, right? And you can do that really quickly, and what's beautiful about it because of the nature of podcast guesting is you are going to have the endorsement of that host in front of their audience, which allows you to really build trust quickly.
Dustin: And trust is the key here. It's not about the depth and, breadth of your knowledge, it's about you being able to teach someone specific with the endorsement of the host which builds trust quickly. And so, hopefully that sets your mind at ease a little bit about myth number two. So let's talk about this third myth.
Dustin: Myth number three is that bigger podcasts are automatically more valuable. This might be the most pervasive myth that I hear from people, where rather than self-limiting beliefs like the first two myths, this is more the idea that, [00:09:00] "Hey, for this to actually make an impact in my business, I've got to get on the biggest podcast."
Dustin: And you know what happens when you have that mindset? You don't get on any podcast, right? Because, you sort of have this perfectionism. And I'm a huge component or proponent of progress over perfection. And the good news is it's not even, that you need to put in your reps and take stepping stones into big podcasts.
Dustin: You don't actually need any big podcasts, you just need the right podcast. And my Nathan Barry interview, which I've talked about several times, I've had Nathan here on the show to unpack that experience, is a really good example of this. So I was on Nathan's show last year. still to date, I'm hoping he gets over this threshold soon, but still to date, my interview on Nathan's show has less than 3,000 views on YouTube.
Dustin: kind of crazy that despite that, quote-unquote, small reach, and trust me, other episodes on Nathan's show have had way bigger, like multiple six-figure numbers of views. you know, if you just looked at that, you're like, "Hey, [00:10:00] Dustin's a failure," right? So Dustin had 3,000 views, and some of these other people have had 300,000 views.
Dustin: and you may look at that and say objectively, "This was not a good use of Dustin's time. Like, this clearly did not provide results because Nathan's show wasn't-- isn't that big, and Dustin's topic, wasn't even popular, right? On, on this, relatively small show." But here's the reality that would deceive you if that's what you believed.
Dustin: In 90 days, that one interview generated $140,000 in revenue for us at Seven Figure Leap. almost immediately out of the gate, just very strong interest, from our ideal clients. And as we sit here kind of a year later, we just crossed 220,000 in revenue. I actually just had a new client this week who heard that interview, booked a call with us, and immediately signed up for our Podcast Profits Accelerator program.
Dustin: So why is that? why is this reality? Well, it's because [00:11:00] these aren't 3,000 random people who stumbled upon some YouTube, video and sat there and watched it for 45 minutes. This is a relatively small number of people, and they're the exactly right people for me to serve with the content of that episode, right?
Dustin: So reach, not actually that important. Relevance, super important. And so I think most entrepreneurs make a huge mistake because they evaluate podcasts based on, well, how many people listen? How many downloads do they get? how popular is this host? A much better question isn't how many people are listening, it's who listens to this podcast.
Dustin: And maybe even a better question than that is what happens when people listen to this podcast, right? And so audience fit is way more important, than audience size, and I would say the trust that a host has with their audience, really multiplies the impact of that. So in the Nathan example, Nathan has a small but loyal following.
Dustin: People [00:12:00] really trust him. and in the type of interview that I was able to do there, I was able to share my story and teach my framework and give examples. And for the right people, a small number of people, that was exactly what they needed to hear in their entrepreneurial journey to have a very strong reaction and wanna come over and learn more about if we could help them, right?
Dustin: And so it's-- I know this sounds counterintuitive, but it's really true, and I've seen it not just in my own business way beyond the Nathan Barry experience, but in 300 clients, and counting, that a show with 500 ideal prospects for you can be substantially more valuable than a show with 50,000 people that would never buy from you, right?
Dustin: It's not about the reach, it's about the relevance of the audience and the relevance of that audience to the specific topic that you wanna cover, as we talked about in myth number two. So the principle here is you don't need thousands of the wrong people, you need dozens of the right people to have a huge impact on your [00:13:00] business, on your visibility, on your ability to generate leads and sales, and have the impact that you wanna have in the world.
Dustin: So I hope that that is comforting and,and that you're able to internalize that and push past maybe your own perfectionism a bit and be able to take action by finding relevant shows. And,that's kinda how I wanna close this episode is to give you, some marching orders, some, some prescription here, on how to not only use podcast guesting well, but more importantly, the bigger idea here is how to get out of a mindset of quote-unquote readiness because readiness is a moving target, right?
Dustin: So I kind of opened the episode here with this. And so you may be thinking, you heard these three myths. You're like, "Okay, like maybe I don't need to have a bunch of followers for a host to wanna interview me. Maybe I don't actually have to be that famous or have decades of experience," right? and okay, [00:14:00] maybe I'm starting to believe that the podcast doesn't actually have to be huge for it to be worth my time.
Dustin: So even if you clear those objections, what falls right behind them is often something else, right? okay, Dustin That seems reasonable, but I just need to perfect my message before I'm ready to do this, or I, I gotta update my website, or maybe I should wait until I get this new offer out, or maybe I need to get more, a better lead magnet, right?
Dustin: There's a pattern here, and the pattern here is that if your s- that if your standard is that you're gonna start only when you're ready, you'll postpone visibility and growth in your business forever because you're never gonna be fully ready. The way to become ready is by taking action, right? I always like to say clarity comes through action.
Dustin: Readiness comes through action, uncomfortable action. And so the first few interviews you do, if you choose podcast guesting as a channel, probably won't be your best interviews, right? The first few pitches you send to those hosts probably aren't gonna be your best pitches, and that's okay. And [00:15:00] the good news is podcast guesting and any growth, mechanism that you wanna deploy or any strategy you wanna deploy to grow your business is a skill, and skills can be improved through repetition.
Dustin: And I hope that's really good news for you because you're not stuck where you're at. You can totally make progress, and the way to make progress is to take that uncomfortable action. So I wanna challenge you to do just that. So what I want you to do right now as you're thinking about this, and I bet if you spend one minute and you think about this, you'll, you'll be able to know exactly what to do next.
Dustin: You have this answer inside of you. I want you to identify one podcast today where you already know you can add value to the audience, right? And we're not talking about Joe Rogan. We're not talking about, Nathan Barry. We're not talking about Amy Porterfield. Don't worry about anything about the size of the, of the host or the audience.
Dustin: I just want you to identify one podcast where you feel [00:16:00] probably 'cause you don't have to have certainty about this, like, I could probably, approach that host and know with some level of confidence that their audience probably has at least a few of my ideal clients in it, right? and I have something specific that I could teach that audience, and I genuinely wanna help that host create a great episode.
Dustin: That's your prerequisites, and you have that already. I know you do, and I want you to pitch that host before you feel ready. Why? Because becoming more visible is not something that happens after you become successful enough, and for a lot of entrepreneurs, becoming visible is actually what unlocks the next level of success, right?
Dustin: This is classic chicken and the egg thing, and it's a total scarcity limiting belief mindset of when I'm ready, I will dot, dot. I challenge you today to take bold action, do something uncomfortable, find one podcast, and reach out to that host and share with them the specific thing that you would love to teach their audience.
Dustin: And [00:17:00] that action alone will unlock your mindset and put you into an abundance, line of thinking and create momentum for you, right? And hopefully they say yes. But even if they don't, the act of doing this will be, an inflection point in your business. And I see this over and over and over again.
Dustin: Every week in our community, I host a live office hours, right? So for an hour every week, at a minimum, I'm talking to entrepreneurs who are really smart and capable, and these types of myths are still pervasive. These limiting beliefs come up, and we help them push through it by taking small but meaningful, bold action, and that's really what I want for you today.
Dustin: So as a quick recap here, if you walk away from this episode, I want you to remember three key things. You don't need a big audience, you just need something valuable to say to someone else's audience, a podcast host in this, in this application. that's all you need. Number two, you don't need everyone to know you.
Dustin: You just need some of the right people [00:18:00] to trust you, and there's no better way to build trust in today's environment than through strategic podcast guesting. And number three, you don't need thousands of the wrong people. You just need dozens of the right people to hear your message. So if you're ready to take action, you're like, "Okay, I got this," and you're still held back maybe with some of the practicalities of like, what do I put in the pitch?
Dustin: Where do I look for this podcast? How do I get a hold of the host? I got you on that too, for free. so we have an amazing playbook. It's called the Premium Podcast Guesting Playbook. I'm gonna give it to you today as my gift, and all I ask for you in return is tell me what you did with it. Tell me about the one podcast you reached out to, and let me know what that changed for you, and it will be, payment enough for what I'm gonna give you.
Dustin: So go to 7figureleap.com/playbook, and it's free. You're gonna be able to put in your email, and then I'm going to deliver to you over the next five [00:19:00] days a step-by-step, action plan. It's gonna help you get clear on who you wanna reach, how to find the right podcast, exactly what pitch to send to those hosts after they say yes to you.
Dustin: We're also gonna help you prepare for that interview, so you can go to-- into that with full confidence and know exactly what specific story and teaching you wanna provide, and we're gonna start to help you make money from that and actually get financial returns in your business through your good work.
Dustin: I'm Dustin Riechmann. I love you. I hope you take this to heart and realize that you have everything that you need to go make a big impact in the world, grow your business, and be a visible expert, because you can't help anyone if no one knows about you and all the good work that you do. So go to 7figureleap.com/playbook, and I would love to be your partner to get you started on that journey.