The Podcast Hosting Checklist
How to prepare, how to run the interview, and what to do before anyone closes the tab.
A good interview is mostly decided before anyone hits record. The guest who arrives relaxed, briefed and clear about the format gives you better material than the same guest arriving cold.
This checklist covers the parts that are actually yours to control: how you book and brief, how you build a question arc instead of a list, how you set up on the day, and the file check at the end that experienced hosts never skip because they have each lost an interview once.
The best question is almost never the next one on your list
The most common hosting mistake is marching through prepared questions while the guest is standing next to something far more interesting. Preparation exists so you can afford to leave the list, not so you can follow it.
Write the arc, know your close, then listen hard enough that you can throw away the middle.
Being on the show is the easy part
Success in Media prepares executives, authors and founders for the interview itself: the stories, the structure, the calls to action, and the practice that makes it land. Jess Todtfeld is a former ABC, NBC and Fox television producer with 13 years behind the desk deciding who was worth booking.
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