You’ve landed a guest who checks the boxes for being a good guest—familiar, relevant, and potentially entertaining. Or, perhaps you lost the battle with sales and have to have a client on for an interview. Ugh. Now comes the hard part. Actors, musicians, business owners, and charity reps might be pros in their fields, but most aren’t naturals at crafting audio entertainment. Left to their own devices, they’ll ramble about their latest project, recite a press release, or freeze behind the mic. That’s where you step in to coach guests. A killer interview is built before the mic goes hot. Your job (or your producer’s)? Help them find their story, polish it, and be ready to make you sound great.
Preparation is about mining their experiences for narratives that captivate and then coaching them to share those tales confidently. Think of it like panning for gold: the raw material’s there, but you’ve got to sift through the dirt to find the nuggets. This article breaks down how to conduct a pre-interview that uncovers those gems, offers tactics to guide guests toward great content, and ensures they walk into your studio primed to perform. Let’s turn potential into payoff.
