In this episode of The One Small Change Podcast, host Yvonne McCoy sits down with podcasting expert Lyndsay Phillips to dive into how entrepreneurs and thought leaders can leverage podcast guesting more strategically than ever before. Lyndsay shares practical insights on moving beyond passive guest appearances to crafting intentional, results-driven conversations that actually convert listeners into leads and clients. From clarifying your objectives and weaving your offer naturally into interviews, to selecting the right shows and guiding the host with smart prep work, this conversation is packed with actionable advice. Tune in to learn the essential mindset shifts and tactical steps that will transform the way you approach podcast guesting—and help you maximize every single opportunity.

Guest Bio:

Lyndsay Phillips is a seasoned podcasting strategist with nearly a decade of experience in the industry. She specializes in helping entrepreneurs become high-converting podcast guests by crafting conversations that seamlessly bridge audience needs to expert offers. Lyndsay’s approach focuses on putting control back in the hands of guests, teaching them how to position their authority, repurpose content, and generate tangible results from every interview. As the founder of Smooth Business Podcasting, she’s helped countless clients turn podcast appearances into profitable opportunities.

Chapters:

00:00 Regaining Control in Podcast Guesting

05:21 Podcast Guesting Strategy for Profit

07:46 Why Have a Podcast Guest?

12:41 Reversing Engineering Your Offer

16:52 "Efficient Podcast Guest Booking Options"

20:32 Interview Question Prep for Hosts

21:51 Transformative Interview Strategy Shift

28:19 Non-Techie's Love for AI

30:24 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Podcasting

Quote from the Guest:

“It’s not just enough to post about the episode, it’s gone live…and as a guest, rely on the host to do all the heavy lifting and the promotion…Repurpose, create a blog post, get the raw video, put it in YouTube, pull out little tips, email your list…re-use that content. Don’t be afraid to use it for your own gain.”

Links

Grab Lyndsay’s guide “Crickets to Clients: 5 Shifts to Turn Podcast Interviews into Real Results”

https://www.leverageyourpodcast.com/clients

Welcome to the One Small Change. I am thrilled, as always,

that you are sharing this journey of exploration and transformation with me.

And I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience and a passion for discovering

growth through the power of seemingly small change. And

every week I try to bring you somebody who's got something to share with you

to help you along with this journey. And this week we are

talking to Lindsay Phillips. Lindsay, I am so glad

that you took time out of your schedule to come and visit with us and

to help my audience. So

you and I had an amazing conversation, so I know we

will not have a problem talking today. Nope.

So tell me, what was the thing that

got you doing what you do, and what

now helps you to do it better? So tell us what

you do and why you're great at it. Thank

you for having me on. So I've been in

the podcasting space for probably about 10 years now,

hosting, helping other people launch, and

now I really focus on guests and helping them have conversations that

convert. We're purposing their content because

back in the day when I was guesting on shows

and, you know, helping my clients, I realized

that I wasn't getting the results that I wanted.

I was getting, you know, the show was live. Woohoo. And

the hosts were like, promoting it in the weirdest way.

They didn't have show notes. They.

I just felt like I wasn't being positioned in a way that I wanted to

showcase my authority. And I felt like I had no control

even in the conversations. You know, sometimes hosts ask you

really random questions that have nothing to do with your expertise

or about a specific topic. And so you

feel like the conversation's all over the place and you have no control over

the results that you're getting from guesting on podcasts.

And so I'm like, there has to be a way I can change

this. And so I, you know,

with research and what have you and testing,

I realized some of the mistakes. And so now I'm

able to take more control over the

podcast interview and the way I leverage it

and repurpose it once it goes live so that

I am in control of how I'm positioned. I can use it

to generate leads and clients, and I'm not relying on the

host that I can actually control it from my end. And that was

huge, not only for me, but for my clients.

And you know what, the thing that's funny about that is

sometimes it's just a question that changes

everything. And it's like, what if this wasn't true? What

if it wasn't true that I had no control?

That's the. That's the question I've been asking people to ask

themselves when they're doing something. You know, when somebody says, oh, it's

always like this, or it has to be like this, and say to them, what

if it isn't true? What if you could do it differently? And

that spark a whole lot of other things? And. And I have

to tell you, what you're doing is so needed. I think I did over

20 podcast interviews and had a really

good time, I might add, before I realized that I. There

was really a method to my, you know, that I should be doing the.

You know, and it wasn't until I interviewed somebody, and she kept saying,

well, this is exactly, you know, why I put this in my program.

And, you know, and so her offer actually made sense. You know, the

thing that. Where I was just like, oh, whatever you want to ask me, I'm,

you know, I'm Chatty Cathy. So

tell us a little bit about how we can do that or, you

know, what we should think about when we're thinking about being on a

podcast or, you know, what we're going to use it for.

Yeah, 100%. And you hit the nail on the head there. And

that is, what are you using the guesting for?

Why are you guesting on your show? On different shows,

for most entrepreneurs, it's getting, obviously, exposure,

visibility, getting their authority out, but it's also about

attracting leads and attracting clients.

And so the first point is

realizing the goal of the interview

and the goal of the conversation, because it's more

than just exposure. And so the way I

think about it is that the conversation is

a bridge between the audience's pain or what they're struggling

with or what they aspire to and your offers.

So I feel like a lot of guests really skip that

mindset part of it, and they're just simply talking about

a topic, talking about tips and information that they know,

but it's not relating to the audience.

They're not feeling understood. They're not being hooked in

going, oh, yeah, that's totally me. Totally. Always happens to

me when I guest on podcast. Conversations are all over the place,

and I feel deflated by the end of it. And then also

thinking about, what are your offers, what topic? And obviously your

call to action is going to naturally segue

to your offers. So it's almost like you're taking

the audience along this journey. And I call it the

bridge to profits. So like going from, you know,

the, the interview topic, like hooking, hooking

the listener in through the topic so they know what the episode's about

and then bringing them on that journey, you know, with your

talking points, with your stories, with your sound bites,

with the information that you're giving in a very strategic way

so that once you get to the offer, they not only understand

what you do, but also that you solve a problem

and then they see you as the natural solution.

So you're, you're more apt to, you know, get a bigger

ROI from those episodes if you look at it through that different

lens. Can, Can I.

All right, can I take you kind of back to the beginning and.

Yeah, I mean, because I think the reason you're doing the pot, you know,

either being a guest on a podcast and, you know, or

you have, you're having a guest. Right.

So my, my purpose of having the podcast

is that it is a way for me to, to, to develop

partnerships with people that I think my community would

benefit from knowing. And so I want them

to, you know, be exposed, you know, because I

obviously am not going to know everything about everything. Yes.

And the things that I'm interested in, I kind of assume that

my audience is also interested in. Totally a way for

you to, to be able to have some pre filtered

information, you know, that kind of thing. So my first

question is, if you've never been a guest on a podcast,

what kinds of questions should you ask yourself about

one, your intention and whose podcast you should go on?

That's a big question because there's so

much to unpack there. So, you know, the big. But, yeah, I

mean, you have to start somewhere, right? So

it. First it's thinking about why do you want a guest on a

podcast? Is it because you want to sell more books and

you have a book? Is it because, like you said,

make those connections with potential collaboration partners.

Maybe you want them as a client, maybe you want their

clients as your clients because you've got parallel businesses.

Maybe it is to get leads, maybe it's to build your authority so

that eventually you can have your own podcast speak on stage.

So there's so many different goals and so

how you, how you go about it

will be slightly different. I mean,

most of a lot of the, the guests that are

on shows are doing it to build their authority and yes,

visibility and all those little things, but especially those

that are hiring podcast booking

agencies, like they're really investing in the whole

strategy behind podcast guesting. So most

of them, their goal is to get leads

and clients. And so how you view

that conversation is like, it's one

thing just to, like, oh, I want exposure, and they'll find me and they'll go

to my website, and then they'll reach out. A. That doesn't often

happen. But you want more than exposure.

If. If you really do want leads and clients, then you do need

to be more strategic about that conversation so that

you're. You have the end in mind, like your offers, but you're

also taking into consideration the audience

and what they want and connecting and compelling them,

but then also giving them value, but giving

that value in a way that showcases your authority, showcases

that, like, positions you as an expert. They can understand your

framework, how you work with people, the results that you get.

Like, it feels like you got to pack a lot in, but it's just, like,

nuances, right? Of, like, how you talk about

your craft and how you

seed your programs and the results and all those things. Well, I

think I. All right, so this is from somebody who made a lot of

mistakes. I think that

you get better results if. When you

look. I mean, because I think we all. It's like somebody says, come on my

podcast, we all want to say, yes. And I

have done that. Oh, same done on

podcasts that I had no expertise in. Whatever.

Do you know, I remember I went on one on parenting,

and I have no offer that leads to

parenting. Right. Yeah. And the only.

The only kind of twist that I had was

about the difficulties of parenting while you're building a business,

you know, and so it did relate a little bit in

the end, but it. If. If it was like there were three

places to pick from, that probably would have not been my first

choice. And I. Exactly. Save yourself a lot. I mean,

not. I think if you go on a podcast, it's not really

your audience. You do get experience,

and you do get, you know, get better. But at

the same token, I think it's better

to say, okay, what have I got that, you know, is there

something that I have that's a value to this person's audience,

something that they may find me of value?

Because I think one of the other things that's so important

is that you make the. The

host or the. Or the guest look really good. I mean,

you and I had a short conversation and clicked

immediately. I mean, it was like. It was wonderful.

I was like, come on my podcast. This is going to be great. And

I had no reservations that you wouldn't, you know,

do something and set my people fire.

So I think that's important too, that. You feel the energy between

the two people 100%, you know, because if you.

Are, you know, if you are standoffish with the person,

then that's not really going to get them much traction, I don't think.

All right, so that's one thing. You know, it's like not every podcast is equal

for your purpose, so you really know what your purpose is.

The other thing that we hit on is that you

kind of need to reverse engineer your offer into your talk, which is

true whether you're on a podcast or any talk. Yeah, absolutely.

And believe me, I went to a three day workshop, I already had my talk

and everything. And, and it wasn't converting. The first thing

she said is, you know, we reverse engineer this, we

look at what your offer is and make sure that it comes out in your

talk. And I was like, oh my God, this offer has nothing to do with.

It was. So talk a little bit about, you know,

I, I don't like it when people say

that are kind of salesy and say, well, this is why I do this in

my program, or my program will take you through these five

steps or, you know, kind of thing. But you still need to let people know

what, what it is that you do and what you deliver. So do you have

any suggestions about that? Absolutely.

And that's part of the problem why I think a lot of guests hold

back. They don't share how they work with people, they

don't share their programs or stories because they're just

too afraid of being like really salesy.

But if you share it in a way where

you're sharing a story,

I'm trying to think of like, for me, as an example,

when I actually booked a podcast booking agency, I was super

excited. I'm gonna get more exposure, get on the right shows. Woo hoo. And

then I like, there was literally crickets. I was not getting booked on

shows and I'm like, what is taking so long? And they're like, we're not getting

any yeses. And, and I'm like, oh my God, I'm

like feeling frustrated.

And then I changed my title, I changed my topic,

I did this strategy and now I teach my clients in the

conversation that convert how to do that so they can get booked

on shows. So that was kind of a poor example,

but you can just kind of like weave it into a story

or like when, when Jennifer went through my

program, I helped her change her title.

Once she changed her topic, then she

started to get booked on. So Many more podcasts right off the

bat. So you just kind of like weave it into a story. Well,

you know, the thing is, I can't help but go to the

example that you use, because sometimes the

title, it's not the talk, you know, it's not the topic,

it's the title, which is what people see first. And,

and the thing is, you know, I was, I'm, I'm a

big believer in repurposing,

and I had a freebie and I think it said five

steps to gaining productivity immediately

and was in a giveaway and it got absolutely nothing. And so,

you know, someone said to me, but you're trying to, you're trying to help people

get clients. So why, why don't you put, you know,

immediately it's like, oh,

makes so much sense. How come I didn't think of that? Because you can't do

it alone, right? You can't see the label inside the. Jar, as they say,

or the picture if you're in the frame. You know, you can't see the frame

if you're in the picture. So, you know that the thing,

I guess part of what I'm trying to say is whether you're speaking on a

podcast or any place, whether that's networking or whatever,

whatever you're saying has got to relate to whatever the offer

and stuff is. Yes. So you've got the

basic material, I think, to speak on a

podcast, to do a five minute talk at something, to speak

on a summit. You've got the beginning of that and you can take

it and tailor it to the situation that

you're in. So podcasting is. If you see

speaking as a strategy, podcasting is such a

natural. Yeah, that.

So is there an easy way to find

places to speak.

To guests on podcasts or to speak? Guess.

Yeah, there's a ton of different options. I mean, obviously

you can do your own legwork and research and, you

know, email message on LinkedIn, whatever.

The fastest path, I think, is working with either

a podcast booking agency who's really going to look at

your, your business, your avatar, your strategies,

and then find very specific shows that have that perfect

audience. And they do all the legwork and they do all

the heavy lifting and there's quite a

few out there. And the other option is, it's almost

like a podcast dating service. One is like Talks

Co Pod Match is one of my favorites

and they've got a great community and so some of them

will actually match you up with podcasts that you can guest

on. And, and then because you're within the app, you're

more likely to get read because they're going to see their inbox versus if you

email them cold through email,

like, they just get dropped. Right. But if you're

being matched up with people that are looking for what your

information, that you're sharing your expertise and so you're more likely to

get yeses and then it just their algorithms and

all that stuff, it just makes it so much easier to find shows.

Probably one of the easiest ways to become a guest

is to have your own podcast. Oh, 100.

Yeah, absolutely. Because it's like, oh, let's do a

podcast swap. Yeah. And, and, and, and typically

what you find is people are a little

bit, you know, you've actually made a personal connection with them

and so you're, you know, you know, you don't. It's doesn't require

as much legwork. And I think no. Yes. That you get is so

much better because. Yeah. And you only invite people that you have

a rapport with. So. Yeah, you know, I think that is,

is really, really important.

Let me ask you about.

So we talked about, you know, there are lots of ways that you need to

have intention before you just go out into

the podcast world. You need to know what your

offer is so that you can weave it in without sounding

salesy. What else? What else is what? You know,

and we talked about changing the title so that it makes sense. Right.

Is there one other, like, mistake that people make all the time?

The biggest one I find is

relying on the one sheet to help guide the host in

that conversation. If you look at most one sheets,

they will have like three or four topics

and then on the bottom they'll have maybe seven or ten questions.

But the questions are kind of a mix of like those three or

four topics or like about your journey or like whatever.

So when the host, you know, has you on the show,

their default is to grab that one sheet and just ask all of

those questions. And plus, they don't know your expertise, they don't know

what your offers are. So they can have a tendency

to ask really random questions. So you don't have a chance

to, you know, share your podcast leverage system

and your four steps to do XYZ and, and what the

problem is. And so what I recommend

is creating what I call your interview gps.

It's crafting those interview questions ahead of time

to help guide the host. And I'm not saying

it needs to be like a scripted thing, you

know, that the host isn't going to like Question number one and like

question number two, you know, they're not going to go down that list

perfectly. But giving them a topic, even

if they don't have that question in their form, you can email

and say, hey, I know we agreed upon this topic. Here's

some interview questions to make sure that I deliver the most value to your

audience. And if those interview questions are

mapped out a certain way, the host will

see like, oh, they're going to touch, touch upon the pain points.

Oh, they're going to talk about three ways to blah, blah, blah.

And so in their head, if you've already spoken about one

or two of those things, it's just like

humans like to have closed loops, right? They know in their head that

you have three steps to share, so they don't want to

steer you in the wrong direction, so you aren't able to share all of those

three steps. And there's techniques to like, bring the host

back and like, you know, oh, before I answer that, I want

to make sure I cover this just to make sure your, your audience fully

understands. And so by

again, using those interview questions as a

guide for the host, but also for you

to create that structure to the conversation so

that you do have the opportunities to talk about

your methods, your results, your tips, whatever it

is that I think is like, that took

me a while to like clue into. And as soon

as I made that change and then also I

have my clients, we changed up their interview questions

and oh man, the interviews were so different. And I create

reels from interviews for my clients because I repurpose it. And so it

was so much easier for me to like, get content,

get those reels. The whole

episode actually has a direction and a theme and a

title that's not like this, that and the other, that was a

game changer. And, and I, I think you said

something, but it was very subtle. And that is you can course

correct while you're in the interview if you are,

feel comfortable with your material and stuff. I mean, I mean,

I'm one of these people that I could ad lib about almost

anything, I think. But I think

there are times when you want to say, you know what, that's a good question.

But before I answer that, I think, you know, to make sure that your

audience really gets value, I need to be this.

Yeah, you know, and so you still have some, you still

have some.

Control. Thank you. That was right. Like that. Yeah,

it's. I was gonna say authority or something, but. But

I think, and I think, you know, the other Thing is, I think

that there's nothing worse as a podcast

host when the person gives these really

short answers and you're like, well, tell me

more about that. You know, and you're just like, come.

You know, it's like we had this great conversation before, and

now you're. You're. You know, you're killing me. Right. It's like pulling

teeth. Yeah. So it's like, you know, you.

Your client, your host will

tell you about. You know, I mean, there are things, well, you know, that I

say. For instance, I'll say, oh, my God, I wish we could talk about this

more, but we really need to move on because I want you to talk about

your gift. Right. I would much rather say that and

leave them, the audience wanting. Yeah.

Well, this has been great.

I've had some of those awkward conversations. Oh,

well, anyhow. Yeah. So tell us about your free

gift. I'd be happy to. That's a great

segue. Yeah. I mean, we've obviously

talked about how to regain that control back as a guest so that you

can create conversations that convert. And

often, like I kind of alluded to at the beginning, is that some of it

is a mind shift of some of those things. Like,

I want to have an organic conversation. It's like you want a

structured conversation that converts. And so I have a guide that's

crickets to clients, and it's five shifts to turn podcast interviews

into real results. So it kind of goes into those in a little bit

more depth so that you understand the strategies that. That are

possible so that you can get better results from your guesting.

And so they can get that@smoothbusiness growth.com

change for your podcast, of course, and your audience.

And yeah, they can grab it there. That's

fantastic. There is one other thing that I did want to

ask you, though, and that is.

Excuse me. Got a quick. I got crickets.

Have you found any interesting ways to use podcasts? I mean, one of the

things that I do with my, you know, my podcast episodes

is if I'm doing something with somebody else that's been on my

podcast, I will put their podcast episode in there.

Yeah. Because it's like, I might people. Because I do this

thing with people's events. I might not be able to come to the event, but

you might want to know more about that person. So that's one way that I'm

using my podcast. Do you have any other ways

that, you know, you already talked about making clips and stuff like that?

Anything. Yeah, and I believe, too, that for guests and

this is obviously for hosts as well. It's, it's,

it's not just enough to post about the

episode, it's gone live. And then as a guest,

rely on the host to do all the heavy lifting and the promotion, like, woohoo,

I tapped into their audience, I'm good to go. It's like, no,

repurpose, create a blog post, get the raw video,

put it in YouTube, you know, pull out little

tips and you know, email your list those, those tips.

Pulling out reels and YouTube shorts, make carousels.

I mean there's so many ways that you can reuse that content

and don't be afraid to use it for your own gain. Right? Like obviously you

want to push to the show, but that's your content, it's your

expertise. Like, don't be afraid to push to your own lead

magnet or say, hey, this is how I work with people.

You know, hit me up if you want to get on a call. So

it's, it's thinking about the content also as a

bridge between the client's needs and your

offers. So it's like, how can you connect one to the other? So

that's kind of like how my. Brain always works and I think that's a great

way to work. So. All right, let me challenge your brain for a minute.

When was the last time you did something new for the first time.

Using AI? And lately I've

been looking into creating my own prompt and app

and so I've been delving into that and it's like, it

feels scary because it's like I'm no tech wizard,

but it's like, it's so exciting at the same time just to understand

what's possible. So I'll be kind of diving into

that lately, which is kind of cool. I, I, I have to

say, I, I am a non techie person and I have fallen

in love with AI and it, it's,

especially when you train it. And

so, you know, one of the things that I do is I, I have models.

So I will dump my models in and repurpose something

and say, how can I make this better based on what I've now, what

I'm now talking about? And yeah, you know, it'll, you know, and

it is a lifesaver and the type, like we

said, your freebie or the talk of your title can be

everything. And so that can really, it can really generate a

whole lot of stuff. All right. Yeah, the commercial,

you know, so I hope that you've gotten some good information and

What I would really like you to do is subscribe and share and engage

with this podcast on social media. And the reason that I do it

is I want to help you connect to other people that can help your

business grow. And it's my way of trying to give back to this

community so that you can, you know, have growth and impact.

And so I hope that you will join me, continue to

join me on the one small change so that we can, you know,

really see what kind of shifts we can make that's gonna, you know, yield

monumental transformation. And if you haven't seen my first

episode of why I'm doing that, you might want to do that as

well as the quarterly clarity check in where I get to

talk all by myself. Love it.

Not talk over my guests. So unfortunately,

our time is up. It goes by fast. Good.

Oh, we packed a lot in when we're having fun.

And so make sure you guys take

a look at the freebie that she's given you because if you're

interested in podcasting at all, it is going to help you.

And so, Lindsay, you've shared a lot,

but can you give us some last words of wisdom or something to.

To grow on? I. I think there's a

lot of imposter syndrome and that holds

people back from guessing on podcasts. You know, who's going to listen to me.

But it's like, just think about the one client that you've helped or

even if one person listens and your tips have been super

useful and helped them move forward in their business. It's like,

don't worry about what everyone's going to think. Don't worry that it's

been, you know, the first time that you've guess it on a podcast.

Everyone's got to start somewhere. You've got a message to share. Share

it. Exactly. I. I believe in that

immensely. So guys, we gotta go.

Remember, change is simple, but it's not always easy. And it requires

courage and resilience and a willingness to step outside your comfort

zone. So don't be afraid to look silly on a podcast because you probably

better than you think. So I hope you will join me for the one small

change as we go forward. Until the next time, stay

curious.