Bad Interviews Can Happen in Every Podcast

So this happens to every podcaster eventually, or at least every podcaster who deals with guests on their show (so the solo podcasters do not have to worry about this particular thing happening). When you talk to other humans and it’s a major part of your work, and you’re doing it a lot, every now and then you’re going to get a dud.

And when it comes to your podcast, a dud could be a couple of different things. Maybe it’s somebody who came onto your show completely unprepared, or they came onto your show with an agenda to sell something or to get some message across that you didn’t know about or agree to. Maybe you just had awful chemistry, and this was just a person that you could not have an effective conversation with.

Maybe you were having a bad day and did not make your best appearance the way that you normally would for guests that you have on your show. There’s a lot of different reasons that it can happen, but everyone gets a really bad interview from time to time. And when you start to realize when you’re in that situation of having this conversation, you realize ‘’I’m not going to be able to air this. There’s no way’’.

That’s awkward because what do you do in that scenario? How do you respond in the moment? There’s a couple of strategies. I have tried several of them with varying degrees of success. You’re going to have to figure out what works best for you in each situation that you find yourself in. So one thing you can do is just end the conversation as you normally would, as if it were a normal, perfectly good episode that you’re really excited to share and then never speak of it to anyone ever again.

This is the avoidance technique and sometimes it is the best way to go. More straightforward is to, if you want to really preserve the relationship that you have with this guest, if this is somebody that you really want to have as a partner for your business in some way or another or if it’s really important that you are on good terms with them, you can do a couple of things.

One, you can suck it up and run the episode to preserve the relationship. That is a legitimate choice for a business owner to make. Or you can honestly say – ‘’Hey, you know what? This conversation didn’t go in exactly the way I was hoping it would. It’s not going to hit with my audience the way I want them to be introduced to you. Could we make a, B and C modification and do it again?’’.

Sometimes people are going to be really responsive to that, because they want to do a good job for your content as well. Other times, you might press the mic off when things get a little snippy. It’s been known to happen. And finally, what you can do is be very transparent and say – ‘’Hey, thank you for your time. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fit. It’s not something I’m going to be able to run. I thank you, but ultimately it just didn’t work’’. And you can do this in the moment if you want or by email afterwards. Whatever is best for you. That can be difficult to hear and difficult to say. It would be.

In a perfect world, we’re all grown ups who can take that kind of feedback or get that kind of news gracefully. That is not the reality we live in. So you’re going to have to kind of figure out what the best way for you to manage it is in the moment. And depending on the type of person that you’re talking to.

If in doubt, a little distance from being in the moment is usually better than trying to do things right there. When you’ve got time to craft an email that comes across really gently, it can be easier than saying – ‘’Actually, that sucks. We’re not using it’’. So when it inevitably happens that you have an interview that you’re not really happy with or that you can’t run for whatever reason, it’s nice if you can have a plan in advance for how you’re going to manage that.

And all things being equal, the best plan is probably going to be ending the call, thanking them for the time and then following up with the next steps, whatever they are, via email. Another thing you can do, especially if you have a really clear idea of what you want to be covering and what you want the episode to be like, is to stop the recording for a moment, or just stop the conversation as it is.

Assure your guests that you’re going to fix/alter this in post-production and say – ‘’I’m loving what you’re saying. I’m really enjoying having this conversation, but I would like us to focus a little more on A, B or C, or I would like us to change and focus a little bit less on this thing that we’re talking about. Can we pick up from the last question, and I’ll guide you to what I want you to say.

And then kind of doing that direction over the course of a call to make sure that you’re getting the type of content that you need for your podcast. Most people are pretty receptive to that because they want to show up well for your audience as well.

Watch: What Do I Do If a Podcast Interview Is Terrible?

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