Podcast Guesting That Converts Without Selling | Aleasha Bahr

Most podcasters give their guests time to share their products, services, or offers during an interview. But most podcast guests start selling and lose the attention of the listeners. Thankfully, there’s an alternative to ensure you get listeners to convert! In this episode, Aleasha Bahr explains how to convert listeners without having to sell. Instead of trying to sell, focus on delivering a message that makes listeners feel like working with you is a fit! Get ready to convert listeners without having to include a sales pitch in your interviews!

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Chapters

00:00 The Art of Podcast Guesting
02:54 Understanding Your Audience and Anti-Audience
06:07 Crafting Your Unique Story
08:58 The Fit Filter: Targeting the Right Audience

Takeaways

Podcast guesting is about connection, not sales.
Avoid sounding like you're selling to keep listeners engaged.
Focus on attracting the right audience and repelling the wrong one.
Craft a unique story that highlights your transformation.
Use social proof as part of your narrative, not a list.
Be specific about who your message is for.
A clear signal leads to stronger conversions.
Practice your delivery to sound natural, not scripted.
Engage your audience with curiosity-driven calls to action.
Think of podcast guesting as an invitation, not solicitation.

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Transcript

0:29

You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. Hi, I'm Alicia Barr. And if you sound like you're pitching as a podcast guest, no one's buying. I was listening to the show the other day and the guests came in so strong. They had good energy, a great personal story. I was totally with them. And then halfway through, you could almost hear their gears grinding as they switched direction. It was like a record scratch in the middle of a great song. And the flow just died. And suddenly, every answer started with, well, in my program, or that's exactly what I walk clients through. And by the third time I wasn't leaning in, I was side-eyeing my phone, wondering when this was going to end or if I just needed to make it end by clicking Next. And the guests probably thought that they were maximizing results and opportunity, but in reality, they caught a bad case of commission breath. and nothing clears a room faster or makes listeners tune out more than feeling like they're being sold at. So let's get this straight. Podcast guesting is not about closing on air. It's about showing the right people that you're the obvious next step based on where they are right now and where they're trying to go and doing this without making everyone else feel like they're trapped in a timeshare presentation because they're not. everyone can just click next. So if you sound like you're selling, people are going to stop listening. So even if you do say something amazing later, they're not going to hear it because they've already moved on. So here's the shift you've got to make. Podcast guesting isn't a sales pitch. It's not about convincing as many people as possible because if you're trying to convince someone, nobody is convinced. But mainstream advice tells you the opposite. They'll say every answer should point to your offer or make sure and squeeze your program name in at least three times so people remember it. And that's exactly how you end up sounding like a commercial break in the middle of someone's favorite TV show. And it's why people tune out. It's why people don't take you as seriously. It's why they don't trust you. You don't carry credibility or trust or authority. The black sheep way is you don't try to rope in everyone. You focus on fit. because if it's a fit, it's a fact and there's no selling involved. And it's really important in that fitting process to call out who is not a fit. I call this knowing your anti-audience. And it's just as important as knowing your ideal audience. It's just as important to attract and repel. So your ideal audience are the people who get results with you. They're the ones who are super happy after working with you. And you wanna think about what those people have in common. Did they have a timeline for results that was long enough? Did they have a certain budget? Did they have staff in place that made it possible for you to get the results? Or did they already test an offer and they knew it worked or have an audience grown? And you want to think about it really specifically beyond demographics and industry and niche. Are they prim and proper? Are they not prim and proper? Are they more direct? Are they fast decision makers? Are they someone who needs a lot of information and handholding, right? So whatever the patterns are, you want to name them and you want to think about the same patterns in your anti-audience. Who are the people who do not get results with you and who are not happy and what do they have in common? Do they value price more than quality? Do they have a... expectation for immediate results? Do they expect you to be at their beck and call? You want to think about those things and get really clear on them. Because the clearer you are about who you're not for, the more magnetic you become to the people that you are for. So for example, I'll straight up say on a podcast, if you're looking for manipulative tricks and psychological exercises to get people to buy from you, and you want a sheet like an Excel sheet where you're doing outreach a certain number of times a day and I'm holding you accountable to that spreadsheet, then I'm not your person, right? But if you've already tried all of that stuff and it didn't work for you and you're looking for something that feels in integrity and in alignment with you and it feels natural and it actually works, then yeah, I am your girl, right? So that one statement does two things. It makes the wrong fit folks quietly bow out. And it makes the right fit folks lean in thinking, finally, someone who gets me, right? So you want to sell without selling? You need to tell a great story. Not a vague, once upon a time, I'm talking about a specific before and after moment that shows the transformation for your ideal audience without turning you into the hero of every single sentence. So for example, I had a client who owned a social media marketing agency and she did things very differently from other social media marketing agencies. Like she didn't focus on vanity metrics, like followers and likes, and she actually focused on less social media posting. So she was only converting two out of 10 sales conversations because she wasn't communicating any of that. She wasn't filtering out her ideal audience and her anti-audience. She was talking to everybody and nobody really understood what made her different. And she was just using these generic scripts and questions and language that everyone else was using. So she seemed like everybody else. So we scrapped the scripts and built her structure and messaging that actually sounded like her and highlighted her differentiators and uncovered the information important to the type of audience that is her ideal fit, the type of audience who doesn't care about getting famous. And within a month, She was converting seven out of 10 of her sales conversation. But here's the kicker. She was actually excited to get on sales calls. So you don't need to say in my program for people to connect those dots, right? The transformation in that story is the proof. And social proof is very powerful, but it's also where people accidentally sound like a walking LinkedIn bio. You don't just want to list off your results and your social proof like a bullet point list of your accomplishments. The black sheep way is to drop proof in like it's part of the story because it is part of the story. So when I was working with a podcaster in the alternative health space, we realized her biggest conversion driver wasn't her freebies. It was the way she told her personal story about permanently eliminating migraines after going through all types of pharmaceuticals, every kind of doctor appointment, and even a brain surgery for a tumor in her brain. And she was still debilitated most of the days of the week, unable to play with her daughters. However, she was able to eliminate migraines permanently through nutrition and supplements. So see what I did there? I just told you that I work with podcasters and health experts. I get results and you didn't feel like you needed to take a shower afterwards, right? So. This is where mainstream guesting advice really messes people up. It's at the end of your podcast guesting conversation. So they tell you to close strong with a big offer and a hard call to action. But you're not their boss. You're not their parent. You are a guest at this person's party. So instead of go by my program or go by my thing, you want to say things like, if you're curious whether this could work for you, I've got a free training that walks you through the first three steps. Or if this hit home, come hang out with me on LinkedIn, I drop bite size sales tips there all the time that people implement and get results with. And the right people will follow that breadcrumb trail and the wrong people won't. And that's perfect. Now, all of this, including the stories, the proof, the way you invite people in with a call to action, it only works if your ideal audience knows specifically that you're talking to them. Because let's be real, if you have a fantastic call to action, but somebody doesn't know it's for them, then they're not going to take action on it, right? So that's where the fit filter comes in. Once you've nailed who you're for and who you're not for, the next step is to get specific when you talk. So most podcast guests keep things so broad because they don't want anyone to feel singled out or left out. So they'll say things like, I help business owners grow their sales. Okay, but who doesn't that apply to, right? That's so not specific. When I'm a guest, I don't say I help people with sales. I say I work with service providers who only need 25 clients a year to be super happy. They have longer term relationships that are higher touch. So not having nightmare clients is really important. And they're closing less than half of their sales conversations. So even though they've already tried mainstream scripts or mainstream training. So do you see that difference there between something generic and specific? The wrong fit folks, like the people who have e-commerce products or something that isn't a long-term client relationship are gonna tune out. But the right fit ones are leaning in thinking, wait, that's me. And that's the fit filter. You're not casting a wide net. You're creating a clear signal and the clearer that signal, the stronger the conversion when the right people hear it. So here's your game plan the next time you're a guest. Number one, identify your ideal audience and your anti-audience specifically. Then you want to pick one to two stories that highlight a transformation you've created with them. Then you want to write down two to three proof points you can weave into a conversation without forcing it or listing it like a bullet point list and decide on one curiosity driven call to action that's tailored to that ideal audience. And last, you want to practice it until it feels like you're chatting with a friend, not reciting a sales pitch or sounding like a robot. So do that and you'll walk away from guest spots with people reaching out saying, I don't know how, I feel like you were talking directly to me and you're what I've been looking for. So overall, here's what I want you to remember. If you sound like you're pitching, no one is buying. You don't want to think of podcast guesting as a solicitation. It's an invitation for the people who are a fit and then let curiosity do the heavy lifting from there. That's how you turn a single podcast appearance into a conversation that keeps selling. long after the episode drops. more episodes, please visit podmatch.com forward slash episodes. Thank you so much for listening.