Welcome to another insightful episode of Podjunction, hosted by Matt Edmundson and co-host Sadaf Beynon. This week, we're diving deep into the art of leveraging pre-calls to significantly boost your podcast's impact. Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or just starting out, mastering pre-calls can elevate your show's quality and listener engagement. Join us as we explore key strategies, shared experiences, and valuable tips on making the most out of your pre-call process.

In this episode, you'll discover:

1. The Essence of Pre-Calls: Understand the critical role pre-calls play in preparing both you and your guests for a successful recording session.
2. Vetting Your Guests: Learn how to effectively vet guests to ensure they align with your podcast's theme and audience expectations.
3. Prepping Guests and Setting Expectations: Discover the best practices for preparing your guests for the show, from technical setup to content direction.
4. Maintaining Podcast Integrity: Insights on how to be selective with guests and topics to preserve the core values and integrity of your podcast.

Featured Guest: Marcia Riner, a business growth strategist and consultant, shares her experiences and methods for conducting effective pre-calls that lead to impactful podcast episodes.

Join the Conversation: We'd love to hear your thoughts on the importance of pre-calls in podcasting. Share your experiences and tips with us on Podjunction's social media channels.

Subscribe for More: Don't miss out on future episodes that can help you navigate the world of podcasting with ease. Subscribe to Podjunction on your favorite podcast platform and YouTube.

Connect with Us: For more insights and to join our podcasting community, visit Podjunction.com. Here, you can find additional resources, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive access to our podcasting cohorts.

Thank you for tuning in to Podjunction. Remember, every episode is a step toward perfecting your podcasting journey. Until next time, keep podcasting and make an impact!

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Podjunction is where business meets podcasting. Our goal is to provide actionable insights and strategies to help podcasters of all levels thrive.

Welcome to Podjunction, where business meets podcasting.

Whether you're on a morning jog, driving to work, whipping up a meal,

or just simply taking a minute for yourself, our weekly bite sized episodes

promise fresh insights from successful podcasters who have cracked the code of

using podcasts to grow their business.

So whether you're a podcasting newbie or a seasoned podcaster,

this episode is for you.

Hello, welcome to Podjunction.

My name is Matt Edmundson and beside me is the technical challenged Sadaf Beynon.

Welcome to Podjunction where we talk about how to use

podcasting to grow your business.

You're going to have to explain the technically challenged part.

Which one?

Just all of it.

We're going to be here a while, aren't we?

I think I've got the microphone down now.

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

Very much.

One thing at a time.

One thing at a time.

Just so you know, Sadaf called me last week.

The studio is not working.

I can't record anything.

I'm gonna have to go home and record there.

I've tried everything.

I've called Dan, the tech guy, can't get anything to work.

Came in this morning, we need to do some recordings.

Sadaf's have you made the computer work yet?

Have you figured it out?

I'm like, no, I'll go have a look in a second.

Walk straight upstairs, turn the computer on and everything is fine.

That was what we, out of everything, you checked all the connections.

I did not check that.

You did not check to see whether the computer

was actually turned on yet.

And we're professional.

You're in safe hands with Podjunction.

So I've been giggling about that all morning like a

school kid, but that's okay.

That's the way it is.

Apart from that, how are we doing?

We're good.

Yeah?

Yeah.

You sure?

Yeah.

Good.

Good.

What we got coming up today?

So we have Marcia Riner.

She had a conversation with you.

Yeah.

We, the segments about free calls.

So vetting and preparing guests.

And Marcia, you probably can go into more detail, but she's

a business growth consultant.

Yeah, she is.

Strategist.

Yeah.

Lovely lady.

Yeah.

Really nice.

So I enjoyed our conversation, actually.

And so it's good to get Marcia on the show talking about we call them pre-calls.

Now, everybody calls them pre-calls.

That is true.

So what do you, explain what a pre call is?

A pre call for us is an introductory call in which we

get to know our potential guest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, understand what they're bringing to the table.

Make sure it aligns.

Yep So

it's not a call that's real it's not a call that is recorded

for the podcast It's like the pre podcast call if you like Introductory, I think

was the word you were looking for An introductory call and so we'll talk more

about this after actually how we do it after Marcia's been on but I'm curious

To hear what Marcia has got to say.

So are we jumping straight into the clip?

I could ask a question.

Okay.

Okay.

So Matt, if you could choose a movie or a book to turn into a podcast series.

Oh, that's a really good question.

And you can even talk about what the format would be if you wanted.

If I could choose a movie or a book to turn into a podcast

series, that's a really interesting question because the books that

I read most like novel wise would be like the Jack Reacher series.

Don't think that would make a good podcast.

It would make an, actually it would make an interesting podcast from

Malcolm Gladwell's point of view.

The Pushkin stuff that they do.

Have you heard what they're doing now with podcasts?

No.

It's unbelievable.

They're doing some really great stuff.

If you haven't done so already, check out the Bomber Mafia, which is actually

one of Malcolm Gladwell's books.

And what they're doing is rather than just doing audio, like we're doing it,

they're going back to old school radio.

So there's clips, sound clips and music and all that sort of stuff.

So they're really increasing production value I don't think I'd

do that with Jack Reacher though, I think that wouldn't make sense.

So what else would I do as a podcast series, a book or a film?

I would like to do a podcast series where I sit down with Mr.

Miyagi.

Okay.

From the Karate kid.

I would call the show the wisdom of Miyagi.

Okay.

And he could just explain his little sayings and we could do one episode per

Miyagi saying and where it would just be like this, just be a conversation.

He could teach me a karate move and then he could teach me a wise Miyagi

saying, and then we could get into it.

I think that'd be quite good fun.

That sounds like a lot of fun actually.

Yeah.

Yeah, do it.

The wisdom of Miyagi.

If you're watching this on video, write in the comments what you would do.

I'm curious.

Unfortunately, you can't comment on podcasts yet.

I suppose you could write it in the reviews, but then anybody reading

the reviews wouldn't come across and go, it doesn't make any sense to me.

Yeah.

Or you could just email us.

Yeah, I write it on social media.

Go find us on Instagram, Podjunction.

Tell us what you would do.

What TV show or book would you turn into a podcast?

And what would the format be?

It's a great question.

Love that question.

You're welcome.

Okay, that's good.

You're redeeming yourself a little bit now.

Don't speak too soon.

Still early on.

Yes, still early doors.

So let's get Marcia on quick before it all changes.

Here's Marcia.

So just explain to those that might not know what you mean by a pre-call

and what's your pre-call process?

So I get and I like to I'm extremely happy and proud.

I get a bunch of podcast hunters that send me emails.

Hey, I got this great guest, John Joe, he does this and he'd

be a perfect for your podcast.

And then gives me their bio.

Some of them are good.

Some of them are bad in setting me up for a call, but I'll read through it.

And if I like the content, or I think I could get a good angle,

I bounce back my calendar and say, book a 15 minute pre call.

And that is purely, I want to see that the person can talk, they're engaging.

I want to also set them up for a good recording.

I record for video as well as audio.

So I want them to have good facial lighting, I want

them to have a microphone.

And then I want them to think about the direction we want to take them.

I prep them to say, give me a bunch of value, tell me everything, all the

juicy secrets you can about your topic.

And usually it takes me 15 minutes, and then at the end of that, I book my release

date, then I book the recording time.

And I book out an hour, my podcasts are 30 minutes, so it

gives me a little slush room.

And that's what the pre call is for.

And funny enough, I've had guests ask me, Why I do a pre call and

has it been successful or do I feel it's a waste of time?

And i've brought on a couple of guests that i'm like one guy Had this

fantastic idea of growing business and really what his pitch was to sell

Memberships to this vacation club.

And his pitch was how to grow your business and get more

clients to stay with you.

I thought that's great.

Tell me more.

And it was all about that.

And I'm like, Hey dude, I'm sorry.

I can't have you on my show.

What?

And I'm like, I'm not going to sell vacation sales memberships.

I want all my guests to provide value in some way that they

can engage with the audience.

So I asked them to have a lead magnet, but not to sell vacation membership

Yeah.

Didn't work for me.

That's interesting.

So pre-calls

are valuable.

Yeah.

And I like that because you use them to screen your potential guests and

not everybody that goes on to, not everybody that applies to come on the

show ends up with a pre call and not everybody that ends up with a pre call

ends up being recorded for your show.

It's, you filter, don't you, at these sort of, these stages.

And we still do pre-calls on all of our podcasts.

And we've got four now.

And so yeah, we're like, no, we're pre calling everybody

because it's so valuable.

And it gets everybody on the same page, so you probably came in and

you thought you were going to talk about eCommerce, and I think I had you on and

we talked about the process of bringing, bringing memberships in or subscription

models or something like that, so we even went down a pathway that you weren't even

thinking of going, but it added value.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's absolutely necessary.

I think.

No, I totally agree that the pre-calls are good.

The pre call, the pre-calls I think are essential.

Do you do your own pre-calls or does, do you have like people

in your team do the pre-calls?

Because we have a mixture.

Sometimes I do them.

Sometimes one of the producers for the, depending on the show, we'll

have a producer do the pre-calls.

I have a VA I haven't passed this on to her yet.

One of my objective, objective is to hire podcast support

because I'm doing it myself.

So I do the pre interview, that's 15 minutes.

Then I do the podcast recording, which is an hour.

Then I do the production, which is probably another hour.

I'm pretty quick at it.

And then I do the distribution of it.

So now I'm in three, say three and a half hours a week on my podcast.

That's a lot.

I'm looking to farm the production off and then I'm looking to farm some of the

hunting off, some of the interviews and finding new guests and things like that.

But right now, 185 episodes and it's all been me.

Yeah, wow.

That's a good goal.

That is a really good goal.

If you're intrigued and want to dive deeper into this

conversation, check out PodJunction Cohort, where you can listen to the

complete interview and much more.

Simply visit ThePodjuction.

com for more information about how to join.

Welcome back.

Marcia, what a legend.

And do check out Profit With A Plan podcast.

She had some great guests on the show, including me.

I was low down on the list.

She's had much better guests than me on the show.

But do check it out.

And like you say, you can listen to the full interview on Cohort.

Although it's changing its name to Podjunction Plus.

Just a heads up.

Because it's a lot easier to remember.

But more details about that coming in the next few weeks as we figure

out what we're actually doing.

But because we don't actually know fully yet.

But the conversation with Marcia was great.

And I remember being on her show, I remember her pre-call process.

And I can't remember how we got into doing pre-calls.

Do you remember how we did that?

Was it?

I don't know if it was intentional in the sense of, I don't remember sitting down

going, oh, pre-calls would be a good idea.

I think it's just something that we just did because it just made sense.

Let's have a call and talk about the podcast because we were new to podcasting.

The Chance are The Guest was new to podcasting.

Yeah.

But then we come across people who do podcasts without pre-courses as well.

Which I also find interesting.

And so it's pre-calls on everybody's cup of tea.

I don't think it's something you have to do.

But it's something that we choose to do,

right?

Do you?

Who?

I'm trying to think who we came across?

I really should ask everybody if they do pre-calls.

I can't remember out of, which ones don't.

But

what about Ben Shapiro?

I can't remember.

I can't remember for sure either.

But yeah, I think they have a much

better screening process at the start.

Yeah.

So I think it's interesting with pre-calls.

We do them.

Some people don't, but the reality of life is you definitely need

like a screening process before you recall the podcast episode.

In theory, we would save time by not doing any pre-calls, just record

the podcast and then don't air the ones that we think are useless?

Yeah.

Do you see what I mean?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's an interesting question, isn't it?

I've never really thought about it like that, but that said

we're talking about pre call.

So let's talk about the process.

How do we do it?

More importantly, how do you do it?

Because you do most of them.

Yeah, so what I was saying at the beginning about getting

them on, we do about 20 minute call, and I chat with them, see what they

can bring to the table, and if it aligns with what we are doing on that

particular podcast and make sure that again, like Marcia pointed out too,

that it's not a salesy kind of a pitch.

And what I find interesting is that a lot of people who frequent

podcasts, as guests, they come on because they want to get exposure.

So they're like, yeah, we'll go for this podcast and that podcast.

And then when they.

They want to, some actually want to skip the pre-call because they're

like, Oh, I've done this so many times.

I don't need to.

And I get that, but I still want to touch base with them because I

want to be able to make sure they are gonna be able to riff with you.

And that also what they're wanting to communicate is

actually sitting well with us.

And I think the other thing is our structure and what we're doing

on different podcasts varies.

So like Push To Be More is so different.

Like people come on thinking that they can talk about their business

or their expertise, but actually it's not just that there is room for that,

but there's other things as well.

I often find people are quite surprised when I do the pre-calls for that

particular podcast, which is nice.

Yeah.

For something different for them as well.

Yeah, it is.

I think, cause the thing that we find works well on podcasts,

especially podcasts like Push where you're interviewing

somebody, is vulnerability, right?

And the ability to go deep quickly.

Yeah.

Yeah, because you don't want to spend 45 minutes just waiting

around for somebody until someone told you anything interesting.

You want to get there pretty much straight away.

Yeah.

And so we find that actually the pre call is a really good

way of preparing them for that.

So if we recorded the podcast straight away, it would be, it would take 20

minutes for them to get warmed up.

Do you see what I mean?

Sure.

Whereas the pre call I think really helps them, especially

because they're not used to it.

A lot of people that come on Push haven't been on podcasts before.

And so how do you prep them for that?

How do you get them to a place where they're going to be ready and vulnerable?

Okay, so again, depending on the podcast.

So like with Push, And even What's The Story explain the structure to them.

So what we're actually looking for as far as the conversation, not that we're

prescribing it, but we've got these areas that we want them to think about.

And so I don't go into depth about what that's going to be, just headlines.

And sometimes not even that just depends on the person.

And with others, it's more you're an expert in this field.

What do you want to talk about what's top of mind and make sure that it

connects with the rest of where our content is going and what we're

doing in that space at that time.

Yeah, no, very good.

Very good.

So yeahpre-callels, do you, so would you, So Marcia, when she talked about

them, 15,15-20nutes, same sort of time.

I love what she said.

She wanted to find out what if they could talk,

which I think is a prerequisite to being on a podcast really but

very worthwhile because bizarrely not everyone can sometimes you.

I'm not trying to prescribe what Marcia meant by this, but in my

head I'm thinking there are people that come on a show that can talk,

obviously, but can they be understood is maybe a better way of saying that.

And one of the things that I find makes a great podcast guest and a

great podcast host It's just tone of voice and the energy in their voice.

So the guests on the whole that make the worst guests are the ones

that try and sell all the time.

The next worst guests are the ones that just are as dull as dishwater.

Does that make sense?

The ones that are just talking in a monotone voice like this

and there's no intonation in anything that they're saying.

I find it really hard to talk like that.

And

also, sorry to interrupt.

No, you're not.

Also, when they just give one word answers or just yeah, it's

really hard to have a conversation.

So that's another thing.

Yeah.

These are things that

you quickly pick out on their pre-calls.

They just give one word answers, and you're going to get real tired real quick

if there's no conversation going on.

So that was the second thing she said, do they talk?

The next thing was, are they engaging?

And so I'm, we're listening for tone of voice.

We're listening for energy, passion, really about what they're talking about.

Are they engaging?

Are they helpful?

Are they asking questions themselves?

Would, in your head, when you're listening to them talk, you're thinking

about your guests going, would my guests be interested in this topic?

Unless you're doing, sorry, would my audience be interested, not my

guests, obviously they're interested in the topic, but would my audience

be interested in listening to this person talking about this thing?

And I think you can take sometimes the dullest of Topics and make them

super interesting with the right guest.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Sorry, I'm just thinking of I'm thinking of a dull topic that we've had.

Okay.

I know which one it is too.

We're not going to say it live on here because that would just

be, that would just be rude.

But yeah, so talk, engage in, set them up well.

So again, especiall with eCommerce podcasts, a lot of the guests that we

have currently on the show, they and like with Podjunction actually, people

that come on the show are podcasters.

So it's not like they don't know about podcasting.

But the ones that come on, say Push or What's The Story, they

rarely have done podcasts.

They might've done one or two, but quite often they haven't.

And so actually putting them at ease, if your guest has not, is not a seasoned

podcaster for better expression.

It's actually quite helpful, right?

Yeah,

do they find that helpful when you do that?

How do you do that?

How do you set them up well?

One of the things I get them to do is listen to some of the

old, like the previous podcasts that have been done, because I think that's

a good way for them to prepare to get to know you because they don't get to

do that until they get on the recording.

So I think if they haven't already, I encourage them to go listen to some of

the episodes just to get a feel for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's a really easy way to do it.

But again, talking them through.

Do you ever have to talk through equipment, mics, lighting?

No, not really.

Sometimes they'll ask the question, but most of them will have a set up.

They'll say that, they've like what they've got pre Zoom.

Yeah, that's fine.

That kind of a thing.

That's the benefit of COVID, I think.

Everyone's come

out of COVID with a sense of how to do Zoom calls.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can't think of what I was going to say, but

something else I was going to say.

I think it's also another great reason that to to do the pre-calls

is to, you were talking about it just now, but the listeners and you

want to maintain the integrity of

Yeah,

the podcast itself.

So you don't want to go off track.

Just because, something, one thing that they've said sounds good or whatever.

You really want to make sure you're sticking to what the podcast is

about so that you can continue to give value to the listeners.

And then when they listen to an episode, they know what they're getting.

Yeah, that's super powerful.

I think it's super important as well.

And Marcia said something about juicy secrets, which I really like that

phrase, what are the juicy secrets?

Because one of the things that you want to do, and I think you can do this

with pre-calls, this is going to come down, I think maybe there's a separate

episode to how you interview people.

One of the things you want to do is make sure that your guest comes on your show

and doesn't say the same thing they've said on everybody else's show, right?

Because one, that's just dull and boring.

Although your audience might not have heard them on different shows, that

podcast guest, I think if they just say the same stuff can quickly fall into

this sort of monotone routine, right?

And so we're talking about energy, we're talking about time, we're

talking about bringing your A game.

And so getting them to talk about stuff that they wouldn't ordinarily talk about,

That doesn't have to be the whole show, but I think it has

to be a little bit surprising.

Yeah.

And so questions like, tell me the juicy secrets are a little bit surprising

and you can just make note of those.

So when you're doing the interview, you can just pull it out and go, it just

makes it a little bit more interesting.

I think the way that we do it, obviously, Marcia does her own pre-calls and

then she does the podcast interview, which I think is ultimately probably

the best solution, but there is like Marcia was talking about, there's time

constraints on everything, isn't there?

Because we've got four, five, I don't know, six podcasts now,

we've had a few more since we recorded that one with Marcia.

I have found that my.

Obviously there's only so much time that we have and frankly I'd spend all

day behind the microphone if I could.

Just chatting away just because I like the sound of my own voice.

But I much prefer this aspect of it.

And so one of the things that we did when we started building out

the podcast is I stopped doing the pre-calls and you took over as the,

cause you produce all my shows.

And so you took over, how did you find that?

Because it makes sense.

I suppose if I do them, but I guess if I'm listening to the show, it's

like, what was the process of handover?

How did that go?

I loved it and I still love it.

It's like having a conversation with someone, but it doesn't get recorded.

It doesn't go anywhere, but you still have that conversation.

So I really love that part of the pre-calls actually.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just having

those chats with just people.

And I

can just and they'll be talking, I'll be curious.

I'll ask a question.

Some of those things don't feature on the podcast itself cause they're like

way off on a tangent, but it's still fun.

I enjoy it.

So how do you, if you're going to outsource, so

someone's listening to the show and they're I like the idea of pre-calls,

but I'm time poor at the moment.

Or I've been doing pre-calls and actually I want to do what you've

done, Matt, and just outsource those.

ways that people can outsource successfully.

What are some of the things that you do that make it work successful so that when

they do it, they can learn from that?

Does that make sense?

I think so.

You're talking about the conversation itself, right?

Yeah.

How do you make sure that the guest is going to be good?

And I'm going to, I think you use the phrase vibe or something.

Yeah.

How am I going to vibe?

Riff, I think was the phrase you used.

Yeah,

that's what I used.

I think for me, it's easier because I know you.

If you're going to outsource to someone who doesn't know you so well, that's

going to be another layer, right?

That you're going to have to be able to figure out because they need

to understand you, your style and.

Yeah, whether that person is actually going to be able to riff

with you using that word again.

And I think that's really important.

Yeah, sorry.

It's all retro.

Yeah, I think that's really important because I think then

the conversation feels What's the word I'm looking for, Matt?

Natural.

Natural.

Authentic.

Authentic.

Organic.

I could just keep going.

Okay, I'm good, I got

it.

Natural, authentic.

And that's what you want because I think that's what makes the

podcast episode come alive.

Yeah.

Otherwise, it just feels like an interview

and less of a conversation.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's so important.

I think from from my point of view,

You have got to trust the person doing the pre-call implicitly.

And I think we've got such a good working relationship, so it's easy.

I know that when you do them.

I don't need to read, I don't need to question that or what happened

or any of that sort of stuff.

And you write usually some brief notes for me for when we do the call.

It used to be that we'd do things like you would try and prep

questions and all that sort of stuff, but we don't do that anymore.

We've

moved away from

that.

Yeah, because I never read the questions.

That just didn't work for me.

It may work for you.

I don't know.

Maybe that's how you want it.

But I just remember thinking of, I think I probably asked that a different way

or I never got around to that question.

So actually what I find really helpful is the notes, who this person is, bit

of background, that sort of thing.

That works super well for me.

And I think you do that really well.

And so I think if someone's going to do your pre-call, you've got

to be able to riff with them.

You've got to, I think, I don't know how I'd feel about outsourcing

the pre-call to a complete stranger , especially if the guests are VIP guests.

These are people that I'm wanting to work with or wanting to connect

with or wanting to network with.

It's quite an important part in the relationship, in which case,

if I didn't have anyone I could outsource to, I would find a way to

do it myself if that makes sense.

So yeah, there's some tips on if you're going to outsource pre-calls,

but if you don't do them and jump straight into your podcast, and then

that's obviously, I think you just need some way of screening and for us,

pre-calls are a great way to do that.

And of course, if you're using podcasting to network with people, pre-calls is

just another opportunity to network with that person, whether it's you,

whether it's your team, it's just another contact, it's just another

reason for them to like you, right?

Yeah, have a play around with them.

Let us know what you think.

What's been the secret of your success with pre-calls?

We'd love to know your thoughts on this.

Do you do them?

You're a pre-call person or not?

I know some people like them, some people don't.

But we, I think they're great.

We're big fans.

And we figured out a way to make it work for us.

So yeah, have a, let us know what do you do?

Is there anything else to say on this?

Have you got anything else in your notes?

Yeah, I do actually.

Okay, go for it.

So I'm just actually in response to what you were saying earlier.

You're like me doing your pre-calls for you and you moving

away from those questions.

I think you're a seasoned podcaster.

And so I think you, and so I think it's easier for you actually to not

have to follow something like that and just be able to have the conversation.

And the other thing I wanted to point out was that she said that she books

a recording date and a release date.

Okay.

I didn't hear the release date thing.

Yeah.

So she, she does that, which was quite interesting.

Cause we don't do that.

We don't book the release date until the podcast is recorded, do we?

Yeah.

Until we figure out when it is.

Yeah.

Mainly because we've had people not show for whatever

reason, something's happened and they've had to cancel the interview.

So trying to.

We only book release dates now once we've got the podcast itself recorded and then

it goes into our system, doesn't it?

And depending on whether you're just next in line or whether you're a fast

tracker or all that kind of stuff, it will depend on when the podcast goes out.

But yeah, no, I think it is important.

And going back to the question thing, like you say, I've been doing it a while and

I'm quite happy to have conversations with people in a podcast and ask questions.

Okay.

So if that's not you, then obviously if you're not doing your pre call,

make sure you can work with a person that can help you generate the right

kind of questions for your show.

That's going to make the most sense for your listeners.

That's right, yeah.

And you'll need that partnership going on.

Otherwise, if you're, if you can't do that, again, you should probably do

the pre-calls yourself and just write down, half a dozen to a dozen questions

that you think you can ask that person in conversation when you record the

podcast, it's going to be interesting.

You may use them, you may not.

You may riff on something entirely different.

But I think if you're just starting out in podcasting, having those questions

pre planned ahead of time, at least gives you some kind of confidence,

something that you can fall back on just in case you need to fall back on that.

And I think that's going to be super helpful.

Do you, we do pre-calls for Podjunction?

We do.

Yes.

So when we sit down with guests the way we started Podjunction,

the way we're going to carry on Podjunction are two different things.

Cause like with every podcast, you evolve and you learn.

And so the first 12 interviews that we did with people, we didn't even know

Podjunction was going to be a thing.

It's a reality.

And now we're interviewing guests on the show, knowing what Podjunction is.

And in the pre-call, are you figuring out the questions that we're going

to ask for the segments of the show?

Yes, loosely.

Loosely.

Okay.

So the way this works is obviously with Podjunction, we have a theme today

is pre-calls and we show a clip from Marcia and then you and I chat about it.

So this was, when I, full cards on the table, or full disclosure, I,

when we recorded that interview with Marcia, Podjunction didn't exist.

I thought I was doing that for another podcast.

And it was only after we did the 12 interviews with these amazing

guests, we thought we really should make this its own podcast.

And so the pre-call with Marcia would have run along the lines of,

tell me about how you do podcasting.

We would have figured out one or two things.

And then in that pre-call, we would have gone maybe these are two or

three key topics that we can hit on.

So I'm going to ask you this question when we record.

Which you're going to talk about for between, I don't know, four and ten

minutes and that gives us that clip then for that theme podcast, right?

Is that how you're doing it?

Yeah, that is.

Another reason to do pre-calls.

How would you plan the show?

Just hashtag saying.

And you do that with a guest?

I do.

And so what kind of feedback have you had on that so far?

On the pre-call itself?

Yeah.

I think so far people are just quite intrigued by the whole format.

Yeah.

Of the show.

So they're all in.

Yeah.

They're all very excited about it.

And yeah, I don't really have that much.

That many pre-calls done to be able to really answer your question.

That's maybe we should come

back to this in 20.

We'll come back to pre-calls time and time again.

I've no doubt.

But yeah, I think, hopefully you've got something out of this.

We've gone a little bit longer than we normally would go, but I

think this is an important topic.

Maybe we should have done this over two episodes.

No, we're good.

Okay.

It'll come back again.

It'll come back again.

There's so much more to say.

But yeah, hopefully you got something out of this.

What's coming up next?

More Marcia Reiner.

More Marcia, so we've got Marcia part two next week.

Make sure you're subscribed to Podjunction and all that sort of good stuff because

you're not going to want to miss it.

We're going to carry on.

What are we talking about with Marcia next week?

You don't know, do you?

You've got that look on your face that says, please don't ask me that question.

Oh, I can't believe you asked me.

I'd rather talk about how I didn't turn the computer on.

Oh, brilliant.

Listen, have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world.

We will see you next time.

Bye for now.

And that brings us to the end of today's episode at PodJunction.

If you've enjoyed the insights from this episode and want to hear the full

conversation with today's special guest, don't forget to visit podjunction.

com where you'll find more information about how you can join PodJunction Cohort.

Whether you listen while on the go or in a quiet moment, thank you for

letting us be Remember, every episode is a chance to gain insights and to

transform your business with podcasting.

So keep on tuning in, keep on learning, and until next time, happy podcasting.