Join Sadaf Beynon and Matt Edmundson on the Podjunction Podcast as they explore the art of storytelling in podcasting. Discover how asking deeper questions and conducting thorough research can enhance your interviews and draw out compelling stories from your guests.

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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

4:20 Importance of Storytelling

7:11 Memorable Stories

12:26 Emotional Connection

18:15 Humour in Podcasting

23:36 Guest Experience

28:40 Quality of Questions

32:02 Researching Guests

38:37 Outro

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Key Takeaways:

1. Ask Deeper Questions: Steven emphasises the importance of asking profound, emotionally driven questions to elicit meaningful stories from guests. He suggests that the quality of the questions directly influences the quality of the answers, which can lead to more engaging and memorable content for listeners.

2. Conduct Thorough Research: Before interviewing a guest, Steven advises doing some research to uncover unique aspects of their story that aren't commonly discussed. This preparation allows the host to ask more insightful questions, making the conversation more interesting for both the guest and the audience.

3. Focus on Storytelling: Steven highlights the power of storytelling in podcasting, comparing it to building strong friendships. He notes that stories, especially those that reveal the 'why' behind actions, are more engaging than mere facts. This approach not only captivates listeners but also helps in creating a connection through shared emotions and experiences.

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Sadaf Beynon [0:06 - 0:19]: Welcome to Podjunction Podcast, where podcasters learn to grow their business. I'm Sadaf Beynon, and beside me is Matt Edmundson. Woohoo. I feel like we need one of those Woos back on the sand desk. Yeah.

Matt Edmundson [0:19 - 0:20]: Matt made it in.

Sadaf Beynon [0:20 - 0:21]: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson [0:21 - 0:29]: We're never quite sure if Matt's going to make it in. It's always a bit of a debate, but. No, it's good to be here. Welcome. Welcome to the show. It's exciting.

Sadaf Beynon [0:29 - 0:30]: It is, yeah. So we've got.

Matt Edmundson [0:30 - 0:31]: It's the first recording.

Sadaf Beynon [0:32 - 0:33]: It is.

Matt Edmundson [0:33 - 0:45]: So we've just spent half an hour setting up the studio because every weekend I decide to take it to pieces and hopefully everything's working okay. So it's good to be with you. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to this because we've got Mr. Pemberton.

Sadaf Beynon [0:45 - 0:49]: Yes, we do. Mr. Pemberton returning for part two.

Matt Edmundson [0:49 - 0:50]: Steve.

Sadaf Beynon [0:50 - 1:00]: Steven. Yeah. All right, so in this episode, we are going to be talking about storytelling and how us as hosts can ask. Ask deeper questions.

Matt Edmundson [1:02 - 1:06]: And so it's a really complicated statement. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.

Sadaf Beynon [1:06 - 1:23]: And just draw out more meaningful stories from the guests. So you're going to be learning two things. One, how to ask those deeper, more emotional, emotionally driven questions. And two, how doing the research on your guests will help you ask better questions.

Matt Edmundson [1:24 - 1:38]: Oh, okay. So if you're new to the show, very warm welcome to you. Let me explain to you the format, how this is going to work. So Seth's told you what we're going to do. We've got A clip from Mr. Steven Pemberton. We are going to release the full interview for that. When?

Sadaf Beynon [1:39 - 1:41]: In about three weeks.

Matt Edmundson [1:41 - 1:42]: Okay. So we've got a lot of clips from Steven.

Sadaf Beynon [1:43 - 1:44]: We've got four all together.

Matt Edmundson [1:44 - 2:06]: Oh, wow. And this is number two. So in a few weeks, you'll be able to hear the full interview. The way it works is we take clips from the interview and then we chat about it and figure out how it's going to help us with app. Because we'd like you. We podcast and so just stuff that we've learned along the way and how it's helping us. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to this one. Without further ado, let's chat to Mr. Steven Pemberton.

Sadaf Beynon [2:06 - 2:29]: Actually thinking about what you said earlier about how you started the podcast. You had all that time when you were just speaking into the camera, you know, just creating content just for yourself. You had a lot of practice, and I guess that's what a lot of people would start doing. When they're first starting their podcasting journey. Right. Like, with a guest, I mean.

Steven Pemberton [2:29 - 4:03]: Yes. And even with that. Here's my take on that as well. Is like, I was a guest on tons of shows before I ever became a host, so you would think, oh, there's going to be major carryover into being a host. I would tell you that's not true. And the reason why I would say that's not true is because when you're used to being the one getting asked the questions, you're not having to formulate the questions. And it's the same way even in business, where in business, if you're not the one, if you're doing sales calls, you have to be the best one on the call asking questions. So the power of your question dictates the power of your answer. So if you want to get amazing content for your podcast, ask a really good question. And for me, what I've found is if you do a little bit of research beforehand to figure out who they are, what they've done, maybe something they don't really talk about very often, instead of just getting the story of their. Because everyone wants to get the backstory, which is great. But when you're listening to the backstory, I had this gentleman on who he was a big, big motivational speaker. And then he got convicted of murder. And so. And the story is. And I'm sitting there, it's like, wow, as I'm listening, but I've already done my research. So what I did was, instead of asking him, it's like, okay, what was it like when you were at the peak and you're making all your money? Or what was it like when you were, like, coming out of jails? My question was, is what was your initial thoughts when you got convicted? I wanted to ask a deeper question because I wanted to understand what is he feeling? Because if you can draw emotions out of your guest, that is the same kind of emotions that the listener is going to pick up on.

Sadaf Beynon [4:03 - 4:15]: Yeah, yeah. Listening to you say that, it seems like you place a strong emphasis on the why behind your guest journeys. And like, so you know the importance of storytelling.

Steven Pemberton [4:16 - 4:16]: Yes.

Sadaf Beynon [4:16 - 4:20]: So why do you think that is so powerful in podcasting?

Steven Pemberton [4:20 - 6:55]: Because it's the same as just having good friendships. Like, you don't. If you were hanging out with your friends and all they did was give you basically the analytical rundown of their week. Well, this week I woke up at 6am and then I did three phone calls. It's like, oh, this is boring. But if you hear a story of why they did those things. They hear the story of, hey, I've been up at 6am every single day. I've been hitting the phones at 6:30 in the morning every single day because I'm excited to go on this trip. And I know that if I don't get this amount of work done, I'm not going to be able to take the trip where I've been planning this for the last five years and yada, yada, yada. But you want to understand the story, the heart behind why they decided to do those things and just asking that simple question. I mean, as kids, for me, I have a son, he asks this question all the time, but he will ask why. And the. And just asking that one question, when people sit there and they start telling you, it's like, you know, I did this and I did this and I did this and these are the things that work for me. It's just asking why. Like for some people there's even in business and podcasting, they will have rapid acceleration. And to them that seems normal. But to other people who haven't had the same rapid acceleration, asking the question why or the que, it's like, why? Why do you think that you had that massive acceleration in your business? Oh, then they have to actually investigate instead of it just like magically happened overnight. They got to go back 10 years and say, well, oh, I did this and this and this and this. And I remember when I was sleeping on the couch and I was working 21 hours a day and these are the things that I had to go through. It's like, now you're getting to distill down stories and stories, even in business, stories sells sell more than anything else. So if you can have a powerful story and even for my people listening, where if you're looking at corporate jobs, I used to be a manager in corporate for a long time. Is having powerful stories. If somebody asks you, hey, give me an example of a time where you had to, you had to reprimand somebody for something that they did. Instead of you saying, well, this one time I talked to Jim and I told Jim that he did that bad is have a really powerful story of Jim was on this forklift and he almost ran somebody over. And I noticed it. And instead of me just going straight to the supervisor, I went to Jim and I said, hey, Jim, I saw that you were on your cell phone. And with you being on your cell phone, you almost hit Gary. And Gary's got two, I've got a Wife and two kids. And I just want to let you know that if you hit Gary, it's like, then we're all set back. But just having a story for those situations is going to sell you more. And this is the same thing with your guests, if you can get them to. If you can draw out more details on the story. That's where the beauty really happens in podcasting.

Sadaf Beynon [6:59 - 7:07]: If that got you curious and you want to catch the full episode, be sure to subscribe to the show. We've got plenty more great conversations coming up.

Matt Edmundson [7:11 - 7:14]: Welcome back. That was a short clip.

Sadaf Beynon [7:14 - 7:16]: That was short, but it was good.

Matt Edmundson [7:16 - 7:29]: Short but good. Short but good. I like that. I like the. I mean, he talks at the end there about stories. Story. And I was listening to a podcast with Carrie Newhoff and Malcolm Gladwell.

Sadaf Beynon [7:29 - 7:29]: Okay.

Matt Edmundson [7:29 - 7:39]: Recently. And Carrie was asking Malcolm about his writing process, because Malcolm Gladwell is. Is a prolific writer. And have you ever read any of his books?

Sadaf Beynon [7:39 - 7:40]: I have, yeah.

Matt Edmundson [7:40 - 7:45]: They're quite engrossing. I mean, you get engaged. I heard him speak once at the Philharmonic.

Sadaf Beynon [7:45 - 7:46]: Oh, wow.

Matt Edmundson [7:46 - 9:01]: And for two hours, he just stood on stage. Didn't. Hardly moved. But you were totally captivated by what he was saying for two hours. Because the way he talked about it with Kerry is he basically has a question that he wants to answer, and the answer isn't always obvious, and he wants to tell a story, in effect, to help you find that answer. And this. He distills this whole process down to this whole idea of finding a question and finding a story, which, in effect, is what Steven was talking about. I thought you are listening to someone talk, you have some questions because you want to find out the story. Right. And I thought it was a really powerful thing. And so this whole idea of digging in to find the story, it's almost like podcasting. When you're interviewing, you become like an investigative journalist, and I. And your whole thing is to find the story in there. And you can do it one or two ways. I suppose you could be that crazy, aggressive, you know, person, or you can be the timid person or. I mean, you know, I suppose different roles, different people is now you take on whichever one you want to do. But the point of this is find the story. And I like that.

Sadaf Beynon [9:02 - 9:04]: Why is that, Matt? Why do you like it?

Matt Edmundson [9:06 - 9:18]: Do you see what she did there? I saw that. And I saw you just wrote why in big letters in your notes when Stephen was talking. Just asking why a lot. Very clever. Do you want me to actually.

Sadaf Beynon [9:18 - 9:21]: Yeah, Yeah, I do.