How to Be a Good Podcast Host (2024 Updated)

You may be a blogger who has the habit of writing long articles. Or you may be a YouTuber with a hi-fi channel with many subscribers, but a podcast is a different thing in general.

This article will look at how to prepare, call guests, warm them up, and give practical ideas about how to host a podcast. Let's start the article by learning how to get prepared to host a podcast.

#1 Get prepared to host a podcast

A good podcast host always gets prepared, sets up his goals, and gets easy tips to set apart from everyone in the marketplace. For this, you have to follow the below instructions and tips:

1. A proper pre-interview process

Before starting the podcast, the host should have quality and organic content. The content is related to the guest or any foremost personality related to the topic.

The host should be confident and relaxed to kill the anxiety process. If the host has low confidence, he may suffer from nervousness. This will kill the authenticity.

2. Share questions with the audience

A good understanding of how to pan out a situation makes you a good host. You must share the question on and off during podcasts to build engaging criteria with the audience.

You don't need to sound the script on the screen like a robot. Scripts can be helpful but only if read in a conversational mood. 

3. Find the right location

A good location means good conversation. A proper set prepared for the guest and the podcast will help you boost your conversation skills and get yourself and the guest into the mood of your show.

Before the show, you can change the settings or have a monotone set that fits every mood.

#2 Warm up the audience

Warming up is a necessary part of the show. A warmup works just like gas in a car before a long drive. You have to do this by asking any question or by telling them an inspirational or motivational story.

A good host must realize that a warm show has a high chance of becoming viral, and you won't get that if the guest is nervous, tired, or not in the mood.

Tip 1. Setting the mood

Your goal is to set the mood of the audience according to the topic. Warming up the audience before getting to the guest.

You have to set the tone according to the topic of your podcast to warm them up. In this way, you need to make the connection between the guest, you, and your voice.

Tip 2. Build an emotional connection

Building an emotional connection helps to engage the audience till the end of the show. To make this possible, you can share a funny story with them or about a recent event or any recent incident.

Tip 3. Polls and questionnaires

Modern media has connected everything through the internet. You need to interact with the audience by asking questions from them and giving them a chance to answer them by live calling or on social media.

You can also do this on Instagram polls or by posting a story and asking them to select an upcoming topic for the podcast. Introducing this concept will boost your podcast views and help you engage more followers on your other social media platforms.

#3 Try to be authenticity

You need to have authenticity if you want your podcast to be successful. An authentic show attracts a larger audience, while a show whose mood resembles a person with a multiple personality disorder will throw off the whole vibe of the podcast. And the listeners will eventually press back buttons to escape the colossal wreck.

Tips to have authentic content

• Your topic may be emotional, happy, or of any other information.
• A good host needs to have the skills of a good actor to convey the emotions that the audience will perceive more efficiently.
• An idea of how the audience will perceive you and how to make your voice tone with emotions on podcasts.
• Don't go for a more serious tone.

Things to Avoid

• What you should opt away from is, faking
• Don't try to get excited about something that you're not.
• Do not pretend to care about something when you do not.
• The fakeness will only result in the downfall of your podcast, as the listeners will eventually grow tired and leave.
• You must act well and sell yourself more efficiently to develop that trust with the audience.

The more the audience trusts you, the more authentic you seem.

#4 Storytelling

Tales are as old as time. As time moves on, more and more stories pile up. Your podcast has the potential to be the best if you know how to utilize those storytelling skills of yours. It's never about information alone!

You may have a bland topic to discuss or a guest who is tough to break character. These are the situations where your charm and concern will play their part. So you also want to learn how to make your podcasts enjoyable through stories? Then check out the short tips below:

How to add stories to your podcasts

• First, you should have the skill to read the room and the mood.
• If you start telling a story about yourself that has no relation to the topic whatsoever will only lead to the guest being annoyed.
• You may have called the guest for a reason. This reason should tally with your topic as it will make you ask about their experience.
• Asking the right questions is important.
• You'd better not begin with leading statements such as, "Obi-wan Kenobi is a good TV show." the guest may simply reply, "I do not care."
• You should approach with question statements such as, "Did you know that your son is a big fan of the Obi-wan Kenobi TV show." These are indulging questions to help your audience be more involved in your podcasts.

The audience and the guest will also develop an interest in the conversation that will lead to a successful show for the day.

#5 Transcribe your episodes

A good podcast also looks to give you quality content for each episode. You may call on guests upon guests and promote your podcasts in many ways. One of the ways you can also allow your podcasts to be recognized more is by the use of transcribing.

What is transcribing?

Transcribing means converting the speech in the audio of your podcasts to a text format. Your podcast may raise some eyes if the content is desirable to the audience.

It may happen your podcast gets around a person whose brother suffers from hearing loss. By a transcription, you offer a chance to let them involved in your podcast. You can accomplish this feat in one of two ways.

• Either use an AI-powered audio editing program, like Wondershare Filmora, to get you through the speech-to-text transcription by default or a more auto way.
• Convert your text into audio, but this article will not look at it.

Our main focus would be manually converting speech to text using a human transcriber. And we will be doing so by using the Wondershare Filmora app.

Transcribing podcasts with Wondershare Filmora

Filmora is an all-in-one video editing tool. In the following steps, we will learn the step-by-step process of transcribing podcast by using Wondershare Filmora.

Step1Add audio files or footage

• First of all, drag the imported audio files or footage into the timeline.

Step2Add subtitles

To show the transcription of the podcast's audio, you have to add sbtitles for better understanding. For this, perform these steps:

• Select the tile icon on the bar above.
• In the window that pops up, select your favorite subtitle format.

Step3Adjust the size

For better playout and matching the audio with subtitles, you have to adjust the size of the video as:

• Add a subtitle tile above the video.
• Then adjust the size of the video.

Step4Convert speech into text

• At last, type the speech into text in the subtitle box.

In this way, you have created speech-to-text using a human transcriber rather than an AI. Doing this will ensure no mistakes are recorded and make it even more efficient.

#6 Put yourself in audiences' shoes

And if you feel like the general audience would want to make sense of a particular statement, ask the guest about it. This is what differentiates a good host from a bad one! A general understanding of the audience's point of view would always allow you to process your podcast accordingly.

• You should understand the general sentiments of the audience.
• When you feel a particular subject will attract more audience, do the process accordingly.
• Maybe they like how you process a story and evaluate it. Do that!

All qualities of a good podcast are there, and it's your job to identify them and make the most of them.

#7 Understand why the guest is here

You are the host of the podcast. Your job is to be sincere with the guest. Moreover, useful information or a valued thought might be a reason why the guest has come to your show. Understand that reason and try to make the most of it.

• The guest might have heard about your podcast, or they could be a constant
• Your approach to the guest should tally with the topic of the podcast.
• The guest might be going through a tough time that makes them a suitable guest for that particular episode.
• Or it could be that your podcast attracted them, and now they want to use your interview to promote a book or any other service they think is best.
• As a host, you should allow the guest to have some control over the podcast.
• Develop a sense of trust between the host and the guest.
• The more you allow the guest to speak freely about themselves, the more they will feel interested in your podcast.

Your goal should be to captivate the guest as much as you can. If the guest is entertained, the more chances are that they will recommend you to other guests. An experience gone wrong will be bad for the podcast.

#8 Invite the right guest

A podcast can be an excellent tool for attracting the audience to your content. And as podcast hosts guests, your first step is finding the right guests for your audience.

Is it necessary to search for a host before calling? Yes! It's quite a complicated and sensitive step to call out guests. A guest is the only one who can make or break the Podcast show. It's important to study the nature of guests too. Because a guest is also considered as a co-host of the show.

If a guest is bored and doesn't take much interest, then there are 100% chance that the show will fail. To find who is more compatible, we have to take assistance from a tool.

You can do this by plugging your podcast into a tool like Sparktoro. Sparktoro allows you to see what your audience is engaging with. It could be other platforms of podcasts such as youtube or other social media platforms.

For example, If we search for "the art of product podcast" on the Sparktoro website. It will direct us to demographic data, providing information about the content the audience is interacting with.

• It will show different hashtags and frequently used phrases.

• Here you can see the top words in bios, hashtags, and frequent phrases.
• On the left window, you can search for other related podcasts your viewers are watching.

• Similarly, you can also use the YouTube option to look at what kind of content your audience watches on youtube.

Following the above methods could give you 50-100 potential clients. Your main goal will be creating a list allowing you to call guests on your show. You can divide the list according to the priorities.

• Close friends: the ones who are going to be available whenever you call upon them.
• The probable list: the ones who would most probably agree to come on your podcast.
• The premium list: these guests will resemble a dream list of guests you want to call on your podcast.

Start by writing emails and promoting content that will attract these guests. Your chances are increased by how much you polish your podcast into creating premium content. The more premium the content is, the more premium your chances are of inviting those dream guests.

The Bottom Line

Podcasts are tricky to promote. Many other alternatives are available in the market that provides a more Visual representation. And it's no lie; an audience like to sit and watch rather than sit and listen.

Following the steps, tips, and tricks mentioned above, you can build a strong base for being a good podcast host. Although it will take time to set off on your dreams, consistency and determination will eventually bear fruit.