How to Showcase Expert Guests Without Sacrificing Your Authority
Podcasts are one of the best – if not the best – mediums for building your authority in a niche topic.
This is because listeners with niche interests will specifically come to podcasts to hear experts discuss subjects that don’t get much air time in the mainstream.
But there are well over 4 million podcasts available right now. So even if your podcast is about the history of shipping containers or the best types of chocolate to deep fry, you still need to put the work in to establish yourself as an expert worth tuning into.
Part of the process of building your authority in your podcast subject is (somewhat ironically) inviting guest experts to interview on your show. It’s something that listeners look for in a podcast, and (again, somewhat contradictorily) helps them trust you more.
When you interview fellow experts, you’re using your platform to provide a fuller, more balanced understanding of the subject, rather than suggesting you know it all. Listeners appreciate and respect that.
But the tricky thing with running a lot of interviews on your podcast is that they naturally shine the light of topic authority on your guest for that episode, not you.
Of course, you want your guests to bring value to your audience. But can you do that whilst also building your own reputation as a thought leader in your space?
In short, yes you can.
We spoke to some podcasters to get some advice on how they walk that tightrope…
3 Podcasters On How They Retain Authority When Hosting Guest Experts
1. Gabe from Board Game Design Lab
Key takeaway: Don’t be scared to share your own knowledge. It’s about creating a balance and learning how to self-regulate your input.
Gabe has been building a strong game board design community through his podcast since 2016. He’s an expert in game board design himself, but his podcast is structured around hosting interviews with designers, publishers, and board game insiders on specific topics.
He spoke to us about a particular episode he recorded with Rob Daviau, which made him think a lot about finding the balance between sharing guest expertise and providing his own expert input, too. Here’s what he said:
“[Rob Daviau] is one of the best [game] designers in the industry. Something about that episode unlocked an idea in my mind; a new way of doing things where I wasn’t as hesitant to share my own side of things.
A lot of the earlier interviews were very conversational, but it was a lot of: I ask a question, maybe do a quick follow-up, and then on to the next question. Still organic, still conversational in nature. But something about this one episode gave me permission to share my own stories, my own examples, my own life; things that had happened and things I had noticed and seen and felt.
I don’t know if it was Rob (or maybe something I ate for lunch that day!) but it kind of opened up the realization that I can share my side of the story, too.
I have to be careful: people aren’t listening for me (especially in the early days), they’re listening for Rob. They’re listening for these experts, so I don’t want to overtake the conversation. I don’t want to talk too much, but I can also share my side.”
“It’s actually been a little bit of a challenge over the last several years because there are times when I interview someone that I am actually more of an expert on that specific topic than they are.
Maybe I’m not quite as close to it. Maybe it’s something that they’re really, focused on. But at the same time, maybe I have more experience, and I’ve done more and done differently. And so those conversations are always interesting and a lot of fun because it’s a lot of back and forth. It’s a lot of, “I did this”, “oh yeah, I tried that. It didn’t work out for me”, etc.
Sometimes people get annoyed by that. Like, “Gabe, you’re talking too much”. Sometimes I do, and I realize that, and I have to kind of reign that in in the moment. I’ll be like, “okay, I’ve shared one example, and that’s enough. Maybe I don’t need three. You kind of have to regulate that as you go.
As you become more of an authority, more of an expert, it’s harder to find guests who are bigger—especially on certain topics. But it’s a welcome challenge, right? That’s a good problem to have.“
2. Vicki from Bring Your Product Idea to Life
Key takeway: It’s not about who’s the bigger expert, but about using your platform to share knowledge and experiences.
Six years ago, Vicki Weinberg started her own business selling bamboo baby products on Amazon. After spending hours researching how to do it, and realising all the resources only catered to businesses ten times her size, she decided to start a podcast to support other small businesses like hers in launching their products.
She spoke to us about the importance of sharing other businesses’ stories and experiences through her podcast:
“I definitely have a lot of knowledge in certain areas, and there are things I’m an expert in, but I’m not an expert in everything. And also my experience of starting my own business will be very different to somebody else’s.
Vicki – Bring Your Product Idea to Life
I really want to speak to as many people as possible to get different experiences; people from different backgrounds. You find people approach things differently. How they structure their businesses are different. I genuinely am fascinated by people, by why they do what they do, and how they do it. For me, that’s really interesting. Hopefully, it’s interesting to guests as well.
The more people I feature, the more likely I feel it is that people will hear an episode that resonates with them. Whether it’s because the person is also a single mother, or they’re of a certain age or ethnicity or whatever it is, or they’ve gone from one background to another. Or even if it’s just hearing that this person had never run a business before and now they’re doing it.
I just want to give as many people a voice as possible and hope that it means that my audience has a better chance of connecting with them.
I’ve got my views and my experiences, but somebody else’s experiences – even if someone is running another business selling baby products on Amazon – their experience could be so different to mine.
I’m always genuinely interested in asking questions and seeing what my guests have to say. If they perhaps present a problem they’ve had and they don’t know the solution, and I feel like I can add something, I will. But often with those episodes, if I do interject, it’ll be more to back up what they’re saying, because I really want the guests to be the star of those episodes.“
3. Andrea at Mindful Marketing Podcast
Key takeaway: Invite guests who think or do things differently to you
Andréa Jones has been running the Mindful Marketing Podcast (previously the Savvy Social Podcast) for six years. Each episode, she invites a new expert guest on the show to discuss ways to rip up the marketing playbook and do things differently.
She spoke to us about how she looks outside of marketing and goes super-niche with her guest choice so she can remain the marketing expert for her podcast.
“I’ve come up with a flow for the interview over the years that allows for me to still be in that ‘expert spot’. I hesitate to interview other marketers because they tend to be the most combative about what they think social media should be.
Andrea – Mindful Marketing Podcast
And so I usually frame the questions like, “Here’s what I know to be true, but here’s what I also observed you doing. Can you talk about why that works for you or why that doesn’t?”
If their answer is something I wasn’t expecting, I’ll say, “Oh, interesting, because in my experience….”. Or if it’s something I was expecting, I will say things like, “That’s exactly what I was expecting you to say – I’m glad you highlighted that because…” and insert my thoughts here.
I have the same questions for every guest. We don’t always answer all of them, but they always touch on the topics that I want to talk about. Things like social media content creation, social media boundaries, how are you measuring results on social media analytics, and then how are you applying trends and current events.
Because I always have questions around those buckets, I know how to guide the conversation so that it’s my show. I’m still in the expert seat.”
You can hear Andrea, Gabe and Vicki share their stories in full on this episode of Podcraft: Email List & Social Media Strategies to Build a Podcast Community
And if you’re keen for more tips on perfecting your podcast interview strategy, Colin has written a guide on how to prepare for the best podcast interview you’ve ever recorded!
