Interview Them For Your TV Show
No, not that kind of TV show. Though that would be cool.
I’m talking about your video web series / podcast that you’ll share across your LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and any other social channel where your audience hangs out.
Why?
Maybe you’re in sales and looking to engage an audience of potential customers.
Maybe you’re on the market for a new job and looking to stand out among a sea of applicants.
Or (this is my favorite), maybe you are looking to transition careers and get into a new field or industry.
There’s a lot of power, learning, and benefit that come from interviewing people for your web series. For example, you will…
- Increase your reach
- Increase your relevance
- Benefit from brand association
- Offer low-friction calls to action
- Learn a ton!
- Get access to hard to reach, skeptical, or very busy people
- More easily pivot careers
- Have opportunities come to you
- And finally, reach deep/quality engagement with your audience
Just imagine…
You reach out to your target prospect… not to ask them for a meeting or an interview…
Instead you’re giving them a platform to share their story and their insights. It should only take between 20–60 minutes of their time, but you’re going to invite an audience to watch, you’re going to record it and make it available for people to watch after, and you’re going to cut it up into bite-sized highlights that you can share across social media.
And you’re not going to charge them for it!
It goes like this…
You reach out with a low-friction ask…
Hey NAME, your {posts, content, team, company + insert their angle or level of personalization}. I don’t want to ask you to get on video because you’re doing so much already, but we’re hosting a video web series (URL) which are 20-minute minimum video sessions where {personalize for who they are} leaders work with our community of {personalize for your audience} to {personalize for what you intend to accomplish in the session} live on video. {Personalize with names of relevant leaders you have hosted}, and other leaders like you are engaging. The invite is open for you to lead one of these in the coming weeks or when it doesn’t conflict with your schedule. You’re a great example for us either way! {This is important, close with no-pressure gratitude giving them the opportunity to say no!}
They respond…
I’m in!
Can you send me more details?
Sure, email me with details and times and I’ll see if I can make it work.
Awesome, the door is open. Now you email them with the details (reiterate what you sent in your initial message because there’s no guarantee they will remember).
Didn’t get a response? That’s ok! Follow up with…
Hi NAME, any feedback on my message?
Then you’ll likely exchange a number of emails coordinating schedules, sharing topic ideas, confirming the time still works, etc.
Then you host and record.
Afterwards…
You send them a nice thank you message.
Thanks so much for jumping in, you’re going to help a lot of people!
They respond in-kind… about a week or so later, you’ll send them the recording of the session, along with your bite-sized highlight clips that you’ll invite them to share on their social media. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Either way, you will share the content on your social channels, tag them, they will likely comment about how great it was, and voila!
Here are some results you can expect…
Since you tagged them in the posts, and they engaged in your tags, now their audience will see you.
This expands your reach, heightens your credibility, and associates your brand with an industry titan.
“Oh, you got to interview him!” — Your next connection
Not to mention…
You have just exchanged between 10–15 messages with your guest and have now conditioned them to respond to your messages!
After a week or so goes by, you can send them another message with key takeaways from their session and other similar sessions you’ve hosted with other leaders. As an added bonus, maybe something they said in the session piqued your curiosity or illuminated a challenge that they’re having in their life or career. Now you can follow up with your suggestions on how they might be able to address those challenges.
I’ve seen this lead to multiple job interviews, sales meetings, and lifelong friendships.
All because you took the initiative to start your own show!
Watch what leading sales voice, Josh Braun, has to say on the topic:
Here is a step-by-step process you can follow to get this going:
This might seem like a lot, but with the amount of FREE tools we have access to nowadays, it’s really not!
- Topic ideation
- Listing speakers
- Approving speakers
- Speaker outreach
- Schedule coordination
- Send calendar invite
- Speaker topic coordination
- Send speaker consent form
- Speaker sound check (optional)
- Guest invites (optional)
- Audio editing
- Video cropping
- Video background design
- Video subtitles
- Export full video
- Video Highlights (and titles)
- Post video (YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.)
- Video distribution / promotion
Here are the fields I recommend capturing in your speaker outreach spreadsheet tracker. Tip: Treat this just like a sales process!
Create a list of target speakers that match your criteria. Don’t be afraid to go big. People love sharing their stories, and rather than reaching out for a 1:1 meeting, you’ll probably get more from them if they know it’s being recorded for an audience. This helps their brand too!
Your spreadsheet columns:
- Contacted? Y/N
- Scheduled? Y/N
- Lead person reaching out (you or someone on your team)
- First Name
- Last Name
- Job Title
- Company
- Email Address
- LinkedIn Profile
- Notes
Pro tip #1: If you’re going to reach out to an “influencer” or someone really senior or busy, engage with their posts or their company posts first before reaching out. You can also join sessions that they’re a part of hosted by them or others so they see your name and trust you as a valued member of the community first.
Pro tip #2: Use video in your outreach messages, for example, here is the video that landed us Josh Braun, recorded through Drift:
Here are some tools and equipment you can use for your show:
- Zoom (for video recording, totally worth it!)
- Blue Yeti Microphone
- Microphone Stand
- Loom Cube (lighting)
- Anchor.fm (podcasts)
- Drift for video outreach (and this is why!)
FAQ: Should I start a podcast or a video series?
Both!
Record the podcast while you’re recording the video on IG live. Then you can take the audio and the video and turn it into full episodes and shareable clips. That you can do with minimal extra work.
Then once you have the basic set up, you can create a written piece of content from it like a blog post, deck, or otherwise too so you capture audio, video, and written all from just recording one episode!
Good luck and looking forward to seeing your show out in the wild!
📹 🎤 🌟
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Get in touch or learn more about Haithem at HaithElem.com
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