Three things I learned about podcast interviewing from creating 52 episodes.

Have you thought about starting a podcast?

It sounds simple, right? You just grab a couple of microphones and have a chat with someone knowledgable about a particular topic and then upload it to the internet. But creating a series that people actually get value from takes time and involves experimentation.

Here are three things I learned from creating 52 episodes of the York Creatives podcast.

Be prepared to only ask 10% of your questions.

It’s depth that is important here, not breadth.

The biggest mistake I made early on was trying to get through all of my questions and not digging in to opportunities for deeper conversation.

The gold is in the follow up questions — why did you do that? How did you feel when that happened? Would you do that again if you had the chance?

People listen to connect to human stories, not just for information.

Don’t be afraid to put yourself into it.

I came from a filmmaking background where the convention is to ask a question and then shut the hell up. That is entirely the wrong approach with podcasting, which should be much more like a conversation.

Be ready jump in with personal stories to set the scene for an upcoming question, or to give your guest a little more time to think of an answer if you’ve sprung something on them out of the blue.

Summarise what they’ve said to see if you understand it properly and have them correct any gaps.

“So what I’m hearing is…” is a potentially the most powerful tool a podcaster has.

Use it to reinforce the story in the mind of the listener and to bring about an opportunity for any misunderstandings to be ironed out.

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