One podcast interview question you should never ask
The opening minutes of your show are where you win or lose listeners.
Why ask a question that turns them away?
With so many great podcasts available, keeping your show editorially tight is more important than ever. So a punchy first question is critical to hook your audience. But many podcasts open with a question that can turn listeners away before they get to their best content.
It’s a question that can be heard in podcasts across a range of sectors, from fitness solopreneurs and boutique branding agencies, to major charities and arts organisations. And if your show is among them, you could be losing listeners by the bucketload.
The good news is that there is a simple fix.
We’re going to tell you the one podcast interview question you should never start with and explain why asking this question negatively impacts your audience growth. Plus we’ll suggest some alternatives to keep your listeners engaged.
Avoiding this question, and its variations, is key if you are aiming to grow an audience with high levels of satisfaction, and you want best value out of your production time. Using it tests the patience of the followers you have already gained, and presents a barrier for new listeners coming to your podcast for the first time. And you work too hard on your show to let that happen, right?
Just don’t ask.
Here it is then, the one podcast interview question you should never ask:
“So, tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into (insert profession, hobby or vocation here)?”
It sounds like a pretty innocent question. But don’t be fooled.
The “tell me a bit about yourself…” question is way too lacking in focus to garner much in the way of valuable content for your listener. And it will almost certainly fail to illuminate the subject your guest came on to your show to discuss.
Instead, this question reliably prompts contributors to embark on a loose and winding description of their life since leaving school, taking in anything from their gap year in South America to their first wobbly video shots at their cousin’s wedding and the time they suffered a nervous sweat on the way to an important interview.
It’s possible that some of the points that emerge from this are interesting in their own right. But unless your podcast happens to be about gap years, amateur video or interview prep, none of it will bear much relevance to your current episode, which means it has little-to-no value for your listeners. It’s just getting in the way.
Let’s look at an example to understand why that’s a problem.
Going, going, gone.
Imagine you are a first-time listener checking out a branding podcast by an independent solopreneur. The episode is about business strategy. The contributor is an expert in the field and runs their own consultancy advising other businesses on strategy. It looks like just the thing you have been looking for. You hit play. And this is what you hear:
A pre-produced generic intro lasting 40 seconds
The host gives an introduction to the guest lasting one minute 15 seconds
The host asks the “tell me about yourself…” question.
The contributor responds by re-introducing themselves and giving a potted summary of their career from the age of 17. That first Q&A lasts one minute.
Host asks their second question, this one on business strategy, lasting 35 seconds.
The guest starts talking business strategy, three minutes and 30 seconds into the show.
The episode has been rolling for a full three minutes and 30 seconds before the listener hears any of the content that attracted them in the first place. That’s a big hurdle to get over for a busy new listener in a market that’s flush with high-quality content. Some will keep listening. Plenty won’t. And when they’re gone, they won’t come back.
Game over.
According to research by the US public radio network NPR, up to 35% of listeners will drop out of a typical podcast episode in the first five minutes. NPR One’s Managing Editor Tamar Charney says podcasters underestimate at their peril the importance of a strong start to each episode.
“Listeners are making a decision to commit in those crucial opening moments,” she says. “A mediocre episode with a good introduction will almost always perform better than a great episode with a poor intro.”
For added context, it’s worth considering that many audio news reports will tell an entire story in three minutes or less.
And anecdotally, 20-30 year olds at a recent Creative Kin podcasting workshop weren’t interested in intros longer than 30 seconds.
What does this mean for your podcast? Put simply, if your show is taking three minutes 30 to get to the juice, it could easily be losing a third of its potential audience right at the start. This is particularly important if your show is new, or you are preparing to launch your podcast. “Only established shows with a loyal following can overcome uninteresting or non-engaging beginnings”, says Charney.
Some of that drop-off is to be expected, no matter how good your introduction is. Some listeners will quickly realise the show is not their thing. That’s fine. As the saying goes, if you are not right for them, they are not right for you. Wish them well and let them go.
But what about the listeners who are a great fit, but simply bail out because they have to wait too long before they hear anything of value?
Coming back to our branding podcast episode, with its guest expert on business strategy - that’s a real example from a current show. And there is a lot of really useful content in that episode for entrepreneurs on how to navigate their way through the mass of tasks and demands, and stay focussed on what they want to achieve with their business.
The problem is that the listeners who drop out won’t hear it.
The episode could include a dozen killer takeaways on growing a business and a free first consultation with the contributor. It could offer a holiday in the Seychelles, Cup Final tickets and free foot massages for a year. But those lost listeners will never know because they’ve moved on before the contributor gets to say anything juicy. And if those listeners fit the podcast’s target audience, that show has left followers on the table.
Some might respond to this by saying ‘But I need a warm-up question to relax my guest before we get stuck into the core interview’. Maybe you do, but that doesn’t mean your audience has to listen to it. The kind of biog material that typically results from the ‘tell me about yourself’ question should have already been covered in your research, and your pre-interview chat with your contributor (yes, you really should do that).
If you need to chat with your guest for a bit to break the ice, then do it before you hit record, or edit it out before you publish. And if you want to include some light exchanges in your final edit, that’s fine. Just keep it short.
So what should your first question be?
Here are five great options that respect both your listeners and your contributors.
1. The Latest and Greatest
“You’ve just completed your latest brilliant piece of work - how does it feel to have got it over the line?”
Very often your guest will have a current or recent piece of work that they want to publicise. It might be their latest book, a new show they are working on, an exhibition they are preparing or their new business venture. They will want to talk about that, and it’s probably what your listener wants to hear. So give it to them.
2. The Social Butterfly
“I saw your latest TikTok about (xyz) - what makes you excited about that?”
What is your contributor talking about on their social media accounts? Who are they tagging and which subjects are they activated by that are relevant to your show? Tell your listeners what your contributor has been posting and ask a variation on the question above that gets your guest talking about something that’s current for them.
3. The Get Up and Go
“You have a track record over many years of helping people in your industry achieve their goals - what keeps you motivated?”
This is a great way to open with a seasoned professional. This type of question can draw surprising insight into your contributor’s personality as well as their industry. Because it prompts your guest to consider their own values and ambitions, as well as the pain points in their industry, there’s a high chance that their answer will give you a springboard to take your interview through a number of different avenues.
4. The Pertinent Quote
“I read a quote about you that said (xyz) - what do you make of that?”
This is a really flexible question that can be tweaked and modified to fit a wide range of situations. The quote could be anything from high praise to an insult, depending on your guest, your audience and the style of your show. Your quote could be by your contributor as well as about them. And if the quote you choose is recent, your guest’s response will offer something fresh too.
5. The Niche Interest
“Many of our listeners are really interested in (xyz) aspect of what you do - why is that an important part of your work?”
If your guest is well known for aspects of their work or personality, variations on this question can be a great way to rapidly build a connection between your guest and your listeners. It’s effective because it opens the conversation with an angle that is directly relevant to your target audience, while connecting to your contributor’s personal and professional values.
These five questions are all great examples of questions you can use to open your podcast interview with a specific question that gets your guest on point and keeps them there. And they’ll work well if you choose to use them elsewhere in your podcast too.
Whichever question you decide to start with, ask about the most current and pertinent issues first. Then delve into the guest’s background where it’s relevant. That way you’ll reveal the most valuable parts of their biography as useful illustrations where they really matter. And you won’t have to sit through their gap-year story to get to the good stuff.
So when you are planning your next episode, dump the “tell me about yourself” question. You’ll distinguish your show from thousands of other podcasts that lose too many of their listeners in the opening minutes. And your audience will thank you for it.
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