9 Podcast Guest Booking Red Flags to Immediately Watch For

Booking the right guest can make or break your podcast episode. In this episode, we're diving into the red flags every podcaster should watch for when inviting guests onto their show. From no-shows to hard-sellers, knowing how to spot the warning signs can save you from awkward interviews and protect the trust you've built with your audience. Whether you're just starting your podcasting journey or a seasoned host, this episode will give you actionable tips to ensure every guest is a perfect fit for your show.

We'll start by discussing why guest selection is so important—not just for your content but for your credibility as a host. Then, we'll break down the top red flags, including guests who dodge pre-interviews, demand final edit control, or steer every question back to their own agenda. These aren't just minor annoyances; they can derail your content and frustrate your listeners. Don't worry; we'll also share clear strategies for vetting and selecting the right guests to keep your episodes valuable and engaging.

You'll walk away with practical tips, such as creating a pre-interview process, setting clear expectations, and researching potential guests to ensure they align with your audience's needs. We'll also share lessons learned from our guest missteps (because we've all been there) and how to gracefully say "no" when a guest isn't the right fit.

Ready to take control of your guest booking process? Tune in now, and don't forget to check out Podcasters Connect for more resources, templates, and community support to elevate your podcasting game.

Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)

Looking for a podcast community that supports you on your journey? Check out Podcasters Connect today.

Transcript

Krystal Proffitt: 0:00

So I feel like this is the time of year when so many of you are planning for the new year or new goals that you have or what you want to achieve in the next year. When I'm recording this, you may be listening to this in the future, but when I'm recording this, it's the end of the year and we're setting aside, like, okay, what do we want to accomplish next year? And if having more guests on your show is something that you want to do, maybe you're like you've been focused on solo content for a while and now you want to do interviews. We actually did our first Podcasters Connect call recently and somebody was saying they wanted to. They've just been doing solo content because it was the thing that helped them just get started, and now they want to do interviews.

Krystal Proffitt: 0:49

We're going to cover some red flags when it comes to people pitching you as a podcast guest. We are, yeah, like they want to be the guest. You're the host. They want to be a guest on your show. I feel like we've talked agnosium right, like about you pitching other people to be on their show, like you are, in that case, the guest pitching other hosts to be on their show. We've given you so many helpful tips to do that here on the podcast. But, as the host, I'm going to give you tips today on some red flags that you should have your spidey senses tingling and being like, oh, we're probably not going to invite that person on the show because of X, y and Z. So buckle up. If you've been having a lot of pitches coming your way and you're like I just don't know what to do with them, because I'm going to give you some advice on how to handle that today. So let's get right to it.

Krystal Proffitt: 1:42

Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we help be your time-saving shortcut? So let's get right to it, shall we? Well, hello and welcome back to the Profit Podcast. If we have not met, I'm Crystal Profit, your podcast coach, content strategist, and I'm your content therapist that's helping you work on your relationship with your content, and today is one of those that, again, I don't like.

Krystal Proffitt: 2:24

I said this in the beginning. I don't talk about this enough, but it's something that I deal with every single day as a podcast host, like every single day. I was just barely glancing at my email before I started recording this and I was like there's four podcast pitches in there. Let's see. Let's see if we're even going to open some not even read the actual email but let's see if I'm actually going to just open them, because it starts with so many things for me and again, I have weird quirks that I've, like, said these out loud on the podcast and students, clients, members of this community had said I'm so glad that you brought these things up, because I do these whenever I'm pitching guests. So I want you to take a few perspectives right when you're listening to this episode today. It's really meant for you, like you have your hat on as the host of your podcast. But also I want you to evaluate some of these things when you're pitching other guests, because these are the red flags that I see when people pitch me, but I didn't come up with the idea for this episode. Okay, I do wanna caveat everything we talk about here today. I saw this in another Facebook group that I'm a part of and I was like, oh my gosh, I want to share this because I have lots of thoughts, okay. So we're kind of going to do some back and forth with this anonymous post that I have here and I just I want to read you what they said. So it says red flags to watch out for when booking podcast guests, because it was really really helpful, really insightful, but also didn't agree with all of it, so we're just going to dive right in. Okay, I'm going to read some of these. So it says I've been thinking about some of the warning signs when considering potential podcast guests. Here are a few red flags.

Krystal Proffitt: 4:13

I've come across One no pre-interview. If a guest refuses a short pre-interview or doesn't see its importance, it might signal they won't give a quality interview. I don't agree with this one. I don't agree, and the reason why is because I don't like doing pre-interviews. Period the end, period the end, unless it's a really, really big show. It's a hard no for me. And I know you're like, oh, but Crystal, you need to be open to opportunities, isn't that? No, I don't, I don't and I don't have time for pre-interviews. I appreciate them, I understand their intention, but I am struggling to find time to do interviews period, like I only have so much time. So if that pre-interview isn't baked into the interview process then it's probably like it's a hard no for me.

Krystal Proffitt: 5:05

So I do disagree with this first dance, but I also think that that's just me, that's my personal style and I don't do pre-interviews for my podcast. It's typically when I get a pitch and I know someone's going to be on the show, then we just we go, like you have such a higher chance of getting on the podcast if you have some sort of personal connection to me, my show, my community, than if you're just a random person anyway, and that kind of cuts out the need for a pre-interview. So it's not that I don't do a pre-interview at all, it's just the vetting process looks a little bit different. But I do agree with like if they refuse to do this at all, then it may be a red flag for something that I'm going to like tone it down a little bit and say maybe that's a yellow flag because I don't do pre-interviews. I just I don't typically do them. All right.

Krystal Proffitt: 5:56

The second thing they said not enough time. If they don't give you enough time to give you what you need, your audience could end up with a rushed or incomplete interview. I don't agree with this one either. It's funny because I thought I was like, for sure I'm just going to go through. I haven't actually read this, since I originally grabbed it as an idea for this episode. Maybe I should have done some more pre-reading before this. But I'm like, oh, I don't agree with that one either, because I don't think it's on the guest to carry the interview.

Krystal Proffitt: 6:24

I think it's on the guest to bring their best foot forward. It's on you, as the host, to pull the information that you think your audience will find valuable out of the guest. That's what makes a great interview and period. Like the end it's all on the host, it's not just on the guest. Right, the guest brings the valuable information, but it's on you, as the host, to pull out the bits and pieces that your audience will find valuable. I actually and I didn't want this to turn into a brag session I don't do this often, but I have been told multiple times, multiple times, that, crystal, you are an incredible interviewer I have, and the reason why is because constantly in my head I am thinking what can I pull out of this person, out of this guest, to make my audience find value, way more value in this episode than they would in other podcasts they listen to?

Krystal Proffitt: 7:18

Or, if this is a guest that's been on multiple shows, how can I make our conversation stand out from other topics, multiple shows? How can I make our conversation stand out from other topics? Like what are the nuggets of wisdom that we can grab that aren't the typical, like they're going on every podcast and saying the same thing over and over again. So I will say that. So it says, if they don't give you enough time to give you what you need, your audience could end up with the rest or incomplete interview. I mean, I think that if I sat down with Oprah for five minutes and asked her questions, we could find some value in that. So it's not on the guest to do that, it's on you as the host.

Krystal Proffitt: 7:53

So that was number two. Number three control issues. Guests who try to control the questions or want to review final edits may not trust the process. This is one I don't know. I feel a little conflicted, like not totally for or totally against this one, because I do understand that people might get nervous or they might stutter. Listen to me like as I'm saying this, I'm like stuttering over my words, I'm doing some word flubs, but I don't think that I mean guests who try to control the questions or want to review final edits may not trust the process. I mean you're the host, like at the end of the day, I'm so sorry, not sorry, but the guests aren't going to come back to me and say you absolutely cannot air that they can't or I guess they can. They can, but they're not going to have the final say in what they recorded.

Krystal Proffitt: 8:52

And again I go back to I've never run into a control issue like that. So let me like throw out that disclaimer. I've never, ever, ever had someone come back and say I want final edits, I want this. So I guess that would be a red flag. But in my 400, like this is episode 487, right, I've recorded this podcast. I've recorded hundreds of other podcast episodes and I've never once run into this issue. So that might be like a one-off that this individual ran into.

Krystal Proffitt: 9:21

Control issues, I think in any case, are a red flag. So I am going to agree that that probably is a red flag, but I'm just going to tell you, as someone who's done this for a long time, I've never run into that issue, so don't think that that's something that's going to pop up. Hopefully it doesn't. Am I, am I for you? I don't know, but it's not happening in my world, so hopefully it's not happening for you either. All right, that was number three. Number four off-limit topics.

Krystal Proffitt: 9:49

Some guests want to avoid key topics that could interest your listeners, which limits the depth of the conversation, and this is an interesting one too. So maybe it just has to do with the nature of your topic Because, again, I talk about marketing, I talk about podcasting, I talk about entrepreneurship strategy, youtube video, creating with confidence, like these things. Like people aren't coming to me saying, okay, don't ask me about my first marriage or don't ask me about, you know, the scandal that happened in our industry. Like people aren't coming to me saying that, so I don't know where this is. Maybe, okay, I will say there are people that I know in our community that they do create about sensitive topics, right, so it's sensitive, whether it's like abuse or caregiving or something that's like okay, I want to a little bit, but maybe I don't wanna go into the details of my experience. Then that's great.

Krystal Proffitt: 10:47

I think that that's great that you kind of set up that boundary upfront, like as the guest host interview relationship. But I don't think I've never had someone start a conversation Again it's probably the nature of my content and say don't ask me about this, okay, cause I feel like that's kind of hostile, like right from the beginning, and maybe again, maybe that is a red flag, but yeah, I again, this doesn't happen to me. So if, if you've had, I mean I don't know again, I'm just gonna throw this one out there. This is like a gray flag, right, it's not even a yellow flag, it's a gray flag. I don't even know if that's a thing, but it's like I've never had that happen. So, anyway, dodging questions this is number five.

Krystal Proffitt: 11:30

A guest who avoids answering questions or directs everything back to their book or project isn't serving your listeners well, I definitely agree with this, but I don't think it's a red flag, I think it's. They don't know how to have a good interview. I really do. I think that that is maybe a public speaking thing. It's their comfort zone, because I've worked with so many people who are heavily, heavily scripted and if you ask them a question and it deviates from the script, they freak out a little bit. I was actually watching.

Krystal Proffitt: 12:03

A CEO was interviewed recently. It was the CEO of Walmart. So talk about controversial issues, right, it was the CEO of Walmart and they were getting asked questions about them changing their stance on diversity, equity and inclusion. And now they're like okay, you've dropped diversity and equity and now it's just inclusion. So now they're like they're like okay, you've dropped diversity and equity and now it's just inclusion. Like so can you, can you speak about that?

Krystal Proffitt: 12:28

And what the CEO did was he was like well, back in our founding days, you know our stances and our values were this, this and that. And it was very like what are you even talking about anymore? So I do get that point. Like it does not serve the audience well for someone that just totally diverts in the question. And you're like why are they even talking about this? Like I didn't ask. So it's like they have these canned responses in their head and they're like okay, if this topic comes up, then we immediately start to. They turn into a robot, and that does happen and I do think that it's not going to make for a great interview. But I also think that so much of this could be done in the vetting process.

Krystal Proffitt: 13:10

So if you don't want this to happen to you, right, if you're a fresh, like you're a very green host, you just started your podcast and you're like, oh, how do I make sure that doesn't happen to you? Find someone who's been on a lot of podcasts and go listen to what they've done. Like, I typically don't have someone on my show unless they're a student or they're a client who hasn't already been on tons of other podcasts. Right, like it's not someone. That's like, oh, this is my second interview. Like my first one was with my mom. I don't typically have those people on my show. So if you want to avoid that altogether, then have someone that's been on other podcasts and you can go listen to them, make that request. If they pitch you to be on your podcast, then say, hey, can you send me a previous episode that you've been on? If they say, well, I've never been on it, then maybe you do need to do that pre-interview or you need to have more conversations about how you're going to make this interview really work.

Krystal Proffitt: 14:07

But dodging questions, to just kind of deflect and talk about other things, that's a red flag, I would say. But also it could just be they're a bad interviewer. Let's just call it what it is. This is not a great conversation. I've met people in real life that are like that too. It's like you meet them at a conference. You could spot them a mile away. They are coming to sell you something, talk about their product, tell you how amazing they are, and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, I have to go to the bathroom. That's my out, that's my out. I was like I got to go. I'm so sorry I got to go. Sorry, not sorry. Okay, so that was number five. Number six too wordy or vague Guests who talk without getting to the point or who don't say much of value make for frustrating interviews.

Krystal Proffitt: 14:56

So this is really interesting, because this original list was about watching out what to look for when booking podcast guests. But you typically don't know some of these things until you're already talking to them, right? But I guess in this stance, if it was submitted through a form or an email, they could be too wordy or vague. Yeah, I guess just talk without getting to the point or don't say much of value make for frustrating interviews. I agree with that, but I also think that you stop it before it even gets to the pitch.

Krystal Proffitt: 15:26

And y'all I've said this before and people probably think I'm so rude, so rude for doing this, but honestly, I'm just at the point where I don't care, I don't care, I don't even respond. I don't respond. I don't have my VA respond to all of the pitches that we get. I am really impressed with the amount of people that follow up five or six times about something that I've never responded to once. But I don't respond to every podcast pitch that I get. I don't have enough time in the day and we are working on much bigger things around here that I'm not gonna have my VA respond to every single podcast pitch.

Krystal Proffitt: 16:08

Like those are going in the trash. They are Like the wordy ones, the ones that aren't a great fit. I don't find it worth my time to send someone a rejection letter. I don't Like and explain why Like or say oh, I'm so sorry but it's a no for now. But reach back out. No, because I don't want them to reach back out in the future.

Krystal Proffitt: 16:32

We're getting the raw version of me today Because typically I don't tell you like all of my inner workings of when I'm saying like I'm thinking these things, I'm not actually saying them out loud, like I'm thinking these things, I'm not actually saying them out loud. I'm saying them out loud today and this is truly how I feel. If something's too wordy, it's too vague, you're calling me the wrong name and actually I have some previous episodes that we're going to link to in the show notes of about we've. We've talked about this a few times before, but if I don't just know, I don't respond to them anyway. So well, I'm sure we'll circle back around to that.

Krystal Proffitt: 17:04

But the next point is actually a really good one. It says number seven is hard selling. Guests who focus too much on selling rather than sharing value insights aren't a great fit. 1000% agree on this. So this is the for sure way. Like, if you want to get rejected, right? If you want me to not respond at all, come at me really hard with a pitch for your book or your product, or that you're a multi-million dollar something or other who has a New York Times bestselling, blah, blah, blah.

Krystal Proffitt: 17:36

Like I don't care. What does that have to do with my audience? I really I don't, unless you're someone who I have been following, you're a mentor of mine, you're someone that I'm like oh my gosh, like, this is such a big get. I'm so like yeah, there's certain people, sarah Blakely, okay, great example. She could come to me and say okay, I'm a this and that I'm the founder of Spanx. I'm the founder of Spanx, I'm a billionaire, I've done all these things. I'll be like okay, yes, yes, yes, yes, I don't even care what your topics are. What are you going to talk about? We can talk about whatever you want to talk about. Yes, you can be on the show. So I guess there are a few exceptions to this, but most people pitching my show are not Sarah Blakely, okay, they are not the Reese Witherspoons, the Mindy Kaling's of the world, and yeah.

Krystal Proffitt: 18:28

So it's a hard, no, hard pass, major red flag. If all you have is someone pitching you and they are just talking about themselves. They're hard selling all over the place. It's just a no and you do not have to respond to them. Okay, for those of you that are people pleasers and you're like but, crystal, you should say you should be polite. No, no, no, no, no, you don't have to. Okay, this is me giving you permission to delete all of those emails that you said oh, I'm going to get back to them today and I'm going to respond and say I'm so sorry, it's not a great fit, no, just delete them and move on with your life.

Krystal Proffitt: 18:56

Like I don't know I don't know if it's like my age or not caring about that part, because it's not like I don't. You know, I don't want to hurt someone's feelings, you know for sure, but I also. It's part of the game. Right, rejection is part of the game, and those people that can't take the rejection and they keep emailing me back. Like I've said yes to a few of those people that have been like I reached out four times. Here's the real reason. They come back every time with a more personalized touch of like, this is why this person should be on your show, or this and that. And I'm like okay, your persistence is what got your client booked. Okay, like, and now we're friends and they send me the most incredible people. But I mean, yeah, those hard sells. Just it's a hard pass for me, hard pass, and it should be for you too. Oh, number eight. Okay, number eight, payment request If someone wants to be paid for the interview or ask for other compensation, that's a red flag.

Krystal Proffitt: 19:57

I am laughing and just hysterical, right, it is freaking hysterical to think that someone would email me and say hey, crystal, love what you're doing. Blah, blah, blah Would love to be on your guest. Here's why I'm so amazing. Also, my fee to be on your show is $250, but please book me because I will bring so much value, it will be so worth your time. That's not even one red flag. That's like when you have the red flags, like all across the board, right, like red flag, red flag. Are you kidding me?

Krystal Proffitt: 20:36

Like the audacity, right, the audacity of someone to land in my inbox, say, I would be such a treat to be on your show. Also, it's like sending them an invoice. You're sending me an invoice for work that you haven't even done. That probably isn't going to be great. Anyway, I'm going to have to do all the work as the host, to do the research, to make it a great interview, to make it worthwhile to my audience. And no, it's laughable, it is totally laughable. Like, is it just me that thinks that it's hilarious? Like, if you're watching on YouTube, I want to know what you think about this. Like, is that hilarious to you? If you're listening on the audio version, like, send me a fan mail, I want to know what you think about this whole episode today, because that's hilarious to me that someone would send me a payment request. It's almost like a I dare you. I dare you, and I never, like you know, clap back in an email or do something crazy like that. But that might be one. That's like you had the audacity to pitch me and asked to be paid for it. Okay, no, no, no, no. That's no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay.

Krystal Proffitt: 21:45

Last one in this list, and then we're going to get to a few other things, is the interview trade-offs, or trade offers. That's what it is. So this is number nine interview trade offers. A guest who suggests a mutual trade of appearance on each other shows may not be prioritizing your audience's interest. I think there's a caveat to this one. So I'll say this is like what do the kids say these days? Just like a beige flag, right, it's not a yellow flag, it's like, eh, we don't know, because I've done this, I've done it because that's kind of leverage that you could use, but I think this is situational based, right? So, mariana Henninger right, she was on the show recently.

Krystal Proffitt: 22:30

We did a podcast swap of sorts. Like we, I was on her show, she was on, you know, the Profit Podcast, and I think that whenever we first talked about it we were like, oh you know, this is what I can bring to your show, this is what you could bring to mine. Like, let's do this like trade and like have these conversations at two different times, and it worked out great. So, and I did that with Sam recently, sam Brait-Ghiad, like, he was on the show, he's from Podwritten, I was on his show Mike's to Millions. We'll link to that in the show notes. You got to go check it out exclusively.

Krystal Proffitt: 23:07

But I'm like, but I also, it was the way that they reached out, like it was it's all in the presentation, right, it's all in the presentation of the offer. If you do it really gross and spammy, then, yeah, it's going to be wrong. You probably shouldn't do that. But, like, if you don't know me and you pitch me and you say, oh, we could do this podcast swap, I've never heard of your podcast, we aren't in the same industry. It doesn't make sense. Like, what's the through line? Like that, that doesn't make sense. So I'm not going to totally write this off as absolute red flag. You cannot do it, but I do think it's weird that if someone pitches that to me, I don't know, it's just, it feels funky, it just feels funky, so I'll just, I'll leave it at that, right, Like, and I want to know like, what do you think?

Krystal Proffitt: 23:49

Like, what are some of your red flags that you've had? Like, tell us in the comments, send us a fan mail on the audio version and let us know. But, yeah, I, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't know about that, I don't know about that. So let's get into why guest selection matters. Right, so previously in a past life, right, they had, when I say they podcast host, almost required you I don't know if it was podcast host, necessarily, or the bigger players like Apple, spotify, like all of them they required that you had an email attached to your RSS feed and what this did. Okay, if you weren't aware of this, this allowed people to go and scrape all of that data from all of these players or all these podcast hosts, and you could get everyone's email address for every single show you could ever want. This doesn't exist today, right? If you use Buzzsprout I can't talk for other podcast hosting services, but if you use Buzzsprout, they take your email off intentionally. They don't want you getting spammed by a bunch of people. They have the integrity to protect us, thank goodness, shout out to the amazing folks over at Buzzsprout.

Krystal Proffitt: 25:02

But, at the end of the day, I was getting pitched so much at the beginning and I want to really speak to those beginner podcasters because there's nothing more special than someone validating your show, right, like someone that you don't know it's a perfect stranger and they're like oh, we're validating you. You would be an incredible host or podcast to interview X, y and Z, whether that's them like they're pitching on their own behalf or it's an agency pitching for someone else, and it's so validating. But it's also when you're so vulnerable to say, yes, I'm not going to call any names because I don't do this on the show. Right, I'm not going to throw people under the bus, but if I go back to the very beginning of my journey, there were a lot of really bad interviews that I did and a lot of red flags that now, only in hindsight, I can see them Like. There were some episodes I probably should have never aired. They're still all there, right, like all the episodes that I ever did and, honestly, if you want to hear like what 2018 Crystal did, like, like what my interview skills were back in the day. They're all there, like all of my really old interviews when we were the Rookie Life, like they're all still there.

Krystal Proffitt: 26:23

But I go back to them and I'm like, oh my gosh, like I said yes to some of these interviews and I really should have said no, like as a courtesy to my audience, a courtesy to myself and even a courtesy to the guests, like I should have said no and if anything, if this is the only thing you get out of today's interview, please know that no is a complete sentence, okay, no. Or the delete button or the archive button, like whatever you wanna do. Like you don't owe every single person that's pitching you a response, a thoughtful letter of like oh, I'm so sorry, but here we have to reject you and it's very formal and it's this whole thing, and you spend so much time responding to these people. I don't have enough time in the day. I'm not doing it anymore. So again, this is your permission to say no. Say no, but thanks for the people pleasers out there. If you want to be more polite than I am, then you can do that, but it's okay to say no if a guest doesn't feel like the right fit for your audience and you can really tell that from the beginning.

Krystal Proffitt: 27:26

I actually said yes to a guest earlier this year. We did an interview and I never aired it. I still will not air it, and it was my spidey senses that were telling me this is not right, like I should have done more vetting, and I tried to do my best to not just have big name people on the show or like industry experts. I try to have people that this audience can relate to. If you're just getting started and you just launched your show and you want to hear like the real deal, real experiences of people that are, you know, doing this, like you're, they're going along the same journey as you.

Krystal Proffitt: 28:04

But there was someone that I had and I was just like this is not. I was giving her a benefit of the doubt. I kind of felt it in the pitch and the thing and I was like no, it's going to be okay, crystal, you're just being extra judgmental about this because I have my judgmental days and I'm like no, no, no, like we're going to have this person on the show. It was a terrible fit, it was not a great fit and I think it's just one of those things that we have to move past it. But follow your gut, like follow your intuition. I'll give that. I think that that should really go a long way.

Krystal Proffitt: 28:34

But the last thing we're going to wrap up on this is how to vet and select the right guest, right Number one again pre-interview, if you need to. I typically just have friends, colleagues, people that like have said hey, you know, I know you from so-and-so, or I know so-and-so or friends. They told me to reach out to you. Like, I really rely on my network at this point to have guests and provide people to my show. So typically people that I don't know at all aren't gonna come onto the show. But if you're like Chris, well, I don't have a network, I got to start meeting people expanding Then do the pre-interview right, and a pre-interview doesn't have to be like a 30-minute Zoom call or anything Like hop on the phone with someone for five minutes, like start DMing them on Instagram.

Krystal Proffitt: 29:18

I've had a lot of conversations with people on Instagram. We'll do voice memos back and forth and I'm like okay, they speak coherently, they're a real person, they're not a bot. They could show up, they could add value on the show. I've done that too. So, whatever that looks like for you, a pre-interview screening. The second tip I'll give is researching your guests. Like I said, if they reach out to you and you're like I think this might be a good fit, have them send an interview, have them send some video content that they've done for YouTube or Instagram or somewhere else. But I definitely think that vetting people is the secret to finding really good guests and having those really good interviews.

Krystal Proffitt: 29:52

And the third thing is clear communications. Just set those expectations up front of what you expect and what you're hoping that they get out of the show and what you can provide for them as the host. But, at the end of the day, just clear communications are, above all else, so important and profit podcasting, like my digital course that I have. We even have a section where it goes through like the show guidelines, like what you can expect, and I did this recently on Sam. Actually, when he was on the show, he provided his show guidelines but it was really cool because it was like his bio, his picture, his headshot, his podcast artwork. So it told me about him, but it also told me about his show, who they serve, like what the audience really wants. So I think that's super valuable. So communicate that to any of your guests that you have on your show.

Krystal Proffitt: 30:46

And then the last thing is always prioritizing audience value, always, always, always. This is so stinking important and it is the thing that if you're reading a pitch or someone's trying to convince you that they're the right fit for your show, go back to does my audience care? Will they even like this? And what is the thing that I could talk about? This individual that's gonna to make my audience lean in and want to hear more from them. So audience value is just always the priority. It's always the priority around here.

Krystal Proffitt: 31:19

But I do have some other previously aired content that I want you to go check out, and again, we're going to have these linked in the show notes. But the first one is how to pitch a podcast do's and don'ts with Maykay Singh. You'll know I love Maykay, like she's been on the podcast. I don't remember if it was four or five times. She's been on the show, so you can just look up her name and like try to find her. Because this was the first one. I think that we did where it was like oh my gosh, like tell me the worst things that people have done to pitch you. What are the things that you've avoided? So go listen to that one.

Krystal Proffitt: 31:51

The next one is three important podcast interview tips for hosts. So if you're trying to be a better interviewer, go listen to that one. And the third is podcast pitching mistakes from a host perspective. So it may be a little redundant in some of the things we talked about here today, but it's really gonna I today, but it's really going to. I do a little bit more roasting in that one too, about like, don't do this. This is my pet peeve. It drives me crazy.

Krystal Proffitt: 32:15

So if you want to know, yeah, how to be, it could be a guideline for you to pitch yourself to be on the podcast and have a successful pitch to be on the Profit Podcast. But go listen to those first, because if you do any of the do's and don'ts, then you're probably not going to be on the profit podcast. But go listen to those first, because if you do any of any of the do's and don'ts, then you're probably not going to be on the show. But here's a great call to action, right?

Krystal Proffitt: 32:36

If you're listening to this and you want to be featured on the show or you have a question and you want to submit an audio version, if you go to crystal profitcom, go all the way down to the footer and it have a question for us If you can submit an audio clip and this is on a fan list and this is I think it's. It's super, super fun. So go to crystal profitcom, go all the way to the bottom, submit an audio clip and we would love to hear from you. You can also submit a fan mail. If you're listening on the audio only version, click where it says send crystal a text message and you can also reach out in Podcasters Connect. So go to crystalprofitcom, forward slash, join and you can join us in Podcasters Connect. This is our membership community that we started, that is. I mean, it's just so special. Already we're having so much fun, but again having deeper dive conversations just like this in that community. So that's all I have for you today.

Krystal Proffitt: 33:30

So if you're watching and listening, wherever you are, make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button, because we deliver content like this every single week. But remember y'all, like those red flags, trust your gut, trust your gut. I can't give you any other advice outside of that. That won't resonate and be like the highest rung of exactly. What you need to do is just trust your gut every single time, but, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere. You.