How to Book Dream Podcast Guests (Even With Zero Audience)
Jason shares his full playbook for finding and booking ideal podcast guests — without turning the interview into a thinly veiled sales pitch. Including where to find guests, how to prospect, and the two-message outreach sequence that gets 60-70% response rates.
Want to book amazing podcast guests that actually match your ICP? Jason shares his full playbook for finding and booking ideal guests — without turning the interview into a thinly veiled sales pitch.
Jason starts with the elephant in the room: yes, you can invite guests who are also potential customers, but you cannot Trojan horse them. If you bring someone on the show and pitch them live, you create a bad experience for the guest, your audience, and your reputation. The rule is simple: content-first, always.
He breaks down where to find great guests — starting with your immediate network, then your CRM (lapsed prospects are a goldmine), then LinkedIn Sales Navigator and tools like Apollo and Clay. But the sleeper channels are Slack communities and conference speaker lists. In industry-specific Slack groups, people don’t ignore direct notifications the way they do email or LinkedIn DMs — content-first outreach can reach 60–70% response rates in the right communities.
The two-message outreach sequence: message one is intentionally short — introduce the show and ask if they’d like more details, no episode pitch. Message two comes after they’ve shown interest — reinforce why it’s worth their time and share a personalised episode angle based on their experience, proving it’s a real content opportunity, not random outreach.
Key Takeaways
- Why the Trojan horse trap destroys podcast relationships before they start — content-first, always.
- How to start with your existing network — employees, customers, and partners say yes faster and build social proof for future outreach.
- How to mine your CRM for lapsed prospects and use a podcast invitation as a re-engagement mechanism.
- Why Slack communities and conference speaker lists are the highest-leverage prospecting channels most hosts overlook.
- The two-message outreach sequence that achieves 60–70% response rates in the right communities.
- How to personalise message two with a specific episode angle that proves this is a real opportunity, not generic outreach.
Chapter Markers
- 00:00 Introduction: Finding and booking dream guests
- 01:00 The Trojan horse trap: content-first always
- 02:30 Where to find guests: start with your network
- 04:00 Mining your CRM for lapsed prospects
- 05:30 Using LinkedIn, Apollo, and Clay for targeting
- 07:00 Sleeper channels: Slack communities and speaker lists
- 09:00 The two-message outreach sequence
- 11:30 Message one: gauge interest only
- 12:30 Message two: personalise and reinforce value
- 14:00 How to get 60-70% response rates
