Ep 82: Should You Interview Your Competitors on Your Podcast?

[00:00:00] Verity: I've just had the most bizarre situation occur where I just hit the record button, and then I kind of looked in front. And then I thought there's something missing here. And I forgot to pull my microphone out, which is a little bit of an odd thing to say that I sat down to record a podcast, and I forgot to get the microphone out. But, you know, never never mind. Hey.

00:00:20 Should You Interview Your Competitors on Your Podcast?

[00:00:20] Verity: Welcome back to another episode of the lazy girl's guide to podcasting with me, Verity. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about, should you interview your competitors on your podcast? Now, I feel that people are gonna hear that and either think, yeah, sure, that sounds great, or no, why would you interview your competitor? Or even go for a middle ground of, do you know what? I've never even thought of that before. But I've got some different views on whether or not you should interview your competitors on your podcast. And I'm gonna go through those different reasons as to why it may or may not fit for you for you, for your particular show or for your business strategy or your podcasting strategy, whatever that may look like. And I also wanna preface and say that, of course, you do not need to interview people for your podcast if you don't want to. That's obviously something that we have spoken about before on the podcast several, several times. But if you are interviewing people on your podcast, then competitors may end up on your list of people that you could potentially be interviewing or be thinking about interviewing.

00:01:35 Should You Interview Your Competitors on Your Podcast?

[00:01:35] Verity: I think there's a conversation to be had around whether or not that is a smart strategic move or not for your podcast. So let's just jump straight into it. And by the way, I really hope that you can't hear this, but my cat has decided to join me for this recording today. And she is currently walking around and scratching at the door and just generally being noisy. So I'm hoping that you can't hear her, and if you can, she isn't too distracting. You can hear I don't know if you can hear that. She's scratching her neck now. Anyway, first of all, should you interview your competitors? Okay. So let's break this down.

00:02:15 Strategic Approaches to Engaging with Competitors in a Niche Space

[00:02:15] Verity: First of all, let's consider, are they a generalized competitor or are they a direct competitor? So what do I mean by that? Are they a general competitor in terms of do they just exist in your niche and can bring extra conversation and opinion to the table. So what I mean by this is I have had Adam Shibley, for example, from Podcasting Business School on this podcast a number of times now, one interview, but broken down across a few different episodes. Adam, I would identify as being a general competitor in the podcast coaching space. However, I would not identify Adam as being a direct competitor because the audience of people of who we target with our products does actually differ. And so, therefore, I have had people like Adam on my podcast because having him join the conversation actually adds more conversation, adds more audio, adds more perspective to different podcasting topics within the space. So for me, it's actually a smart move because then my audience are benefiting from a different perspective, fresh perspective, or even just a reconfirmed perspective of different topics when it comes to podcasting. However, as I said, he and I have got slightly different audiences who we target with our podcast products, with our coaching products, and what have you. And one of the most obvious with that is the pricing of our membership.

00:03:56 Considering Whether Podcast Guests Are Competitors or Collaborators

[00:03:56] Verity: So my membership at time of recording is under $10 per month, and his is at $97 per month. And I'm not saying that either of us are right or wrong, but what I'm saying is that there's a clear difference of people who we are aiming our memberships at purely from a pricing point of view. So in that respect, I would say we're not actually direct competitors because somebody who's looking for a membership that costs under $10 per month is probably not the same person who would be paying $97 per month for a for a membership. So in that respect, as I said, it's important to think, you know, is this person a direct competitor? Is anyone listening to the podcast episode that they appear on that I interview that individual on? Are they going to be taking taking in massive commerce because no one really takes clients, but are they going to be taking potential business away from me or are they adding value to conversation? I think it's really, really important to to consider. And I think a few different previous episodes will actually help you with this with this whole idea of is inviting somebody onto the podcast going to be beneficial or not. So first of all, we've got episode 10 where we looked at guest booking tips and considered that it's not about the numbers of followers that individuals have because so often we think, oh, this person's like you know, they're huge in my niche. And if they've got, like, 10,000 followers on Instagram, then they are totally gonna bring all 10,000 of those followers across to, gonna do amazingly well. It doesn't work like that. So check that out in episode 10. That'd be hugely gonna do amazingly well. It doesn't work like that. So check that out in episode 10.

00:05:38 Should You Interview Your Competitors on Your Podcast?

[00:05:38] Verity: That'd be hugely beneficial to you. We've also got episode 18, why you need to have a podcast guest release form and how to write one as well. So crucial when you are having individuals come on your podcast. And we've also got episode 56, how to attract high value guests to your show, because it's remembering that competitors in your space and people who you want to interview on your show, some of them can be tricky to book. So do check out episode 50 6, where I give you some really stellar tips as to how I have managed to bag the amazing podcast guests that I've had, not only on this show, but also on my first podcast, the Competent CEO podcast. So, again, those are episodes 10, 18, and 56, which will really, really benefit you when it comes to booking people to interview on your podcast, but also giving you some tips for interviewing them as well. And I'll have those linked down in the show notes. But to round back to the original question, should you interview your competitors? I would say you need to consider, as I said, if they are a general competitor, I. E.

00:06:45 Consider the Type of Guests You Invite on Your Podcast

[00:06:45] Verity: They are somebody who just is in your niche from a more wider perspective or whether or not they are a more direct competitor. And when I say direct competitor, and by the way, I'm not a marketer. I don't know if the terms general competitor or direct competitor are actual things in the marketing world. I've literally just come up with them for the purpose of this podcast episode. So sorry if you work in marketing, and you're like, that's not the actual definition of a general or a direct competitor. This is just how it worked in my mind when I was putting the notes for this podcast episode together. Consider to yourself, as I said, are they a general competitor or are they a direct competitor in terms of you guys have exactly the same audience or group of people who you are targeting for your coaching services, your products, your merch, whatever it is? Because if they fall into that second category of being a direct competitor, they may not be the best person to interview for your show. If you are using your show and trying to leverage your show in order to bring in business for whatever products you're selling or your coaching services because you are going to be giving your audience a different option other than yourself, which you may want to do. But I would argue that that possibly isn't the best business sense.

00:08:01 Interviewing Competitors: Tips and Considerations

[00:08:01] Verity: It's nice to have options but, you know, you've also got to look out for number 1, which is ultimately yourself. So as ever, I hope that this has been useful. I would absolutely love it. If you have got a friend in podcasting or a fellow podcasting buddy, if they are interviewing in other individuals for their show, I would love it if you could share this episode with them because it may give them some nuggets and some thoughts around interviewing competitors that they had not necessarily thought about. Otherwise, I'm Verity. This has been the lazy girl's guide to podcasting. Thank you for spending time with me as ever, and I will see you next time.