Take Care of Your Podcast Listener with a Timewarp
Your interview is too long. I mean, it’s waaaay longer than your normal interviews.
This has happened for one of two reasons:
- You lost control of your guest and let them run rampant with your show (see episode 63 How to Save Your Podcast from Hijackers).
- You were so caught up in the moment with your amazingly interesting guest that you lost track of time.
Either way – you’ve failed your listener!
Yep, I said it. You stopped thinking about your audience and now you expect them to suffer through a way too long episode just because you failed to think of them first.
Fear not – we can still save your show, share all of the juicy goodness from your guest, and keep your listener happy.
What magic do I speak of? The Interview Time Warp ™ ← just kidding, it’s not trademarked but credit me if you use it, okay?
The Interview Time Warp is a technique that allows you to cut giant chunks of time out of your interview without leaving anything out.
Here’s how to do it:
- Identify a section of the interview that, while interesting (I mean, you’re a rockstar interviewer, right) can be summed up easily. Cut that chunk out.
- Sum it up. Write a short script that speaks directly to the listener explaining the key points of that section. Now, add a sentence that sets up the next answer from your guest.
- Record your Time Warp script and replace the chunk you cut out. Your time warp is now like a bridge over the section you removed.
- Boom! Pat yourself on the back – you are a podcast time-traveler.
Okay, let me give you an example. Your guest finished a salient point. You give it a breath and then come in with your time warp, “The conversation took a turn here and we spent the next twenty minutes talking about XYZ. My guest shared these three key tips (1, 2, 3). Then I asked her …”
Simple and sexy, if I do say so myself. And the best part, you can do this more than once if you need to. (If you’re hitting double digits on the time warps, you REALLY need to consider working on your interview skills!)
Two More Mind-Blowing Ways to Use The Interview Time Warp
- Lead-in with a time warp. This happens all the time – you start the interview and it takes a while to get to the really good stuff. There’s no podcast law that says you have to start at the beginning. Sum up how the conversation started and jump right into the solid gold.
- Reconstitute the lost content. The interview section that you extract doesn’t have to be lost in space – you can repurpose it as bonus content. Depending on the action you most want listeners to take, you might offer it as part of your Patreon library, share it with newsletter subscribers, have the full version or transcript as a lead magnet, or available on your youtube channel. If your goal is to get more people to your website, then you could have this bonus content in your show notes.
The main thing to keep in mind here is that you need to respect and value your listener. And that means, delivering a consistent show that serves their needs. They come to you for the goods, don’t make them ride that skip button or, gasp, listen at double-time just to get through your over-extended conversation.
Speaking of time travel, if you want to make a hyperjump in getting results from your podcast, I can help. It starts with a free 15-minute coaching call with me. Access my calendar here to get the flux capacitor fired up…
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