#71 Be a Standout Podcast Guest: David Goldberg's Masterclass on Professional Presence (Part 5)

Part 5 David Goldberg - Be a Standout Podcast Guest
So this is the second time that this has stopped and I don't know, did you see the lighting going or whatever, but I had a power outage just for 30 seconds. It's not the first time it's happened. There's nothing you can do about it, but come back as fast as you can and then get the show going and apologies David, but you know, out of my control, but there's times the power might go and it mightn't come back.

And what I do then is I'm, because my phone would obviously be working, I'm writing and I'd say, sorry, the power's gone. We'd have to reschedule or something like that. But you know, the thing is to always have that you're reacting and not panicking because if I start panicking, who am I helping? Nobody.

That is something I preach. I want to point out what Roy did for everyone out there, but it's so good when something goes wrong, whether you forget to check your lights or your windows or your power goes out or your microphone stops or you forget where you are. We are human and things happen to us.

Things happen that are in our control and some things happen that are not in our control. Life is life and how you accept that and that shows your image. So if you are on a podcast everyone and something does happen and you panic, that's how the whole world sees you.

That's what weakens your professional image. So if you stay calm, then the world sees well during a time of crisis. For example, you're cool.

You're OK. I kid you not right when I am on stage, especially anytime I'm presenting, especially on stage. I love when things go wrong.

I love when the lights go out, the microphone stops, the speaker stop, the slide deck stops showing or whatever it is. There's a smoke alarm goes off. I love when things go wrong because it's a chance for me to say it's cool, everyone.

And there's always a plan B. There always is. And that way the world sees you like it's OK. You've got this under control.

Just on that actually, because I entered the Toastmasters competition and before the one that I got into Five Countries, the level before it, it was in a university where, you know, the stage is kind of tapered up and they didn't have earphones or anything. And what I did is I hit friends because there was people from my club that were there to support me. I said, tap your ear if you can't hear me.

And I projected my voice. I came first, but I could see that there was some people they weren't able to do that. And is that the reason that I came first and got into the next level? I don't know, but I was conscious.

OK, I have to make sure that people can hear me up the top. And that's what I did. That showed I would have to assume that that led.

That's probably one of the many reasons that led to you winning that because it shows the judges, the audience, that you're comfortable, you're experienced, you're on top of your game, and that's critical. OK, we were talking about wording. I talked so far about being gracious to your host and I've spoken about that.

Oh, I was speaking about just being having etiquette when dealing with the dialogue with anyone, your your host or other guests give people space. And I think when your power went out, I was just starting to say you may you may you may assume you know the question the host is about to ask you because they understand your topic and you know your topic. So you can kind of guess what they're going to say and so you jump in with an answer.

However, the audience may not be subject matter experts and they may not know where your guest is going. So let where your host brother is going. So let your host finish.

Don't cut people off. Be prepared with an elevator pitch. That's about a 10 second blurb of words that explains who you are and what you do.

So if your host says, David, tell us about yourself, then you can do that. That is not the time to say, oh, I my my name is Dave. That's not a good time to fumble for words.

Be prepared. It's interesting on that because I heard I was listening to a podcast recently because I do what you mentioned in your sheet. I listened to one, two, maybe even three episodes.

And the person said, if you're in an elevator, tell the listeners what exactly you're doing. And the guy just started chatting. It should chat for five minutes.

He didn't even listen to the question. And straight away, I was like, oh, that's not good. So if you one, if you're preparing listening to the thing, but to listen to what they've asked you and make sure don't go off on attention unless it's relevant.

Yeah, my goodness. If someone asks you what you do, the only reason they're asking you that is because they wonder what's in it for themselves. Like you don't walk up to strangers on the street and ask what they do.

You ask people who may be able to offer you something. There may be some way that they can benefit from you. So if someone asks you a question like, what do you do? That's an opportunity.

I would not blow that opportunity. Answer it and always be prepared to answer. Ultimately, I believe you should have three, four or five many different elevator pitches.

Have them ready. Have them memorized. Practice them.

Sorry to interrupt again, but the thing is, everybody who doesn't know about a certain podcast, they're just coming in saying, is this of interest to me? And if you're waffling along, they're gone. Whereas if you can say, you're going to learn about public speaking, you're going to learn about guesting. And straight away, they're like, ooh.

There's a lot of people that are wasting that opportunity because there's five to 10 seconds that you can grab people. Absolutely. Along with elevator pitches, along with being prepared for elevator pitches, be prepared for answers that you assume that the host will ask you.

Earlier, I mentioned to be prepared and watch a couple of recent episodes. Watch those and then think, geez, what will the host probably ask me? You know your stuff. You've seen the host.

You can take a pretty good stab at what you're going to be asked. So prepare answers for those questions. In terms of wording, slow down your keywords.

When you say your name, your business name, what it is that you do, your elevator pitch, anything that you think is important. Slow down any word that you would put into a larger font. If this was a written interview.

Those words you should slow down on. You would put a word in written text. You would put a word in a larger font because it's important.

You want people to have more time to see it. You make it a larger font. People can't miss it.

When you slow down, people will hear it because it's easier to hear. It's slower. Slow down your keywords.

Put a positive spin on things. Find a way to put a positive spin on things. Don't be negative on a podcast.

The lights go out. Make it a funny thing. In fact, when the lights were shining earlier, I said to Roy, is it OK if I talk about telling people I made a mistake and it's a great learning lesson? He said, that'd be great.

So I gave it a positive spin. I could have come back on and said, oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that my glare was overwhelming.

When Roy's power went out, he could have come back on and said, oh, geez, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. But we make it something positive.

Turn everything into a positive spin. I'm not condoning lying, but find a way to make things fun. OK, next thing when it comes to wording, be comfortable with not knowing something.

If your host asks you a question and you don't know the answer, don't fumble. Don't go, uh, there's nothing wrong with saying that's a heck of a great question and one I don't know the answer to, and I would love to find out. Let's look on search engine right now.

Let's go to AI right now. It's OK if you don't know something. It's better to admit that you don't know something with comfort, with confidence, with smile, then try to fumble for an answer.

And some people will waffle pretending because they want to pretend because they think they know more than the host and anybody that actually knows the truth. You've just lost him straight away. Great point.

Excellent point. Yep, people can read when you're waffling. It shows in your voice.

In fact, let's talk about that. When you are unsure about something, you can recognize that in someone. Well, here's what happens.

Vocally speaking, their pitch goes higher. Their speed or pacing of words is faster. They will be very abrupt or quick or harsh on the first word of each sentence.

The first word is going to come out quickly. The kind of talk like that. I'm exaggerating it.

All of those things give it away. And if you are on a video podcast, you're you'll probably shake a little bit more. Kind of like gesturing like this with your body or moving around with your body.

When you're a little nervous about something, your eyes will blink more often. All kinds of giveaways. Your audience will recognize it subconsciously.

These are things that you may be unaware of or even unconcerned with. But your audience is concerned with these things consciously or subconsciously. And they go on a tangent as well.

They don't answer the question you've asked. So that's their way around it. They just start and then they go into something.

And unless the host is paying attention, you can bring it back. But that's another trick that people do that they don't know the answer for. Also, what's funny is when people are unsure about something, they'll touch their face.

And I just noticed they touched my face. There was funny timing. But yeah, people will kind of like do these kinds of things when they're when they're nervous.

The next thing I wanted to talk about was your virtual presence. When you are a guest on a podcast, think a lot about your virtual presence. Number one, test your quality, your audio and or video quality at least a week before the show.

A week before the show, make sure everything works and sounds good. If you can do a test with the podcaster, ask them if you can do a test. There's nothing wrong with saying this setup is new for me or I don't podcast often or I have a new microphone.

I've I've podcasted a thousand times, but I have a new microphone or I moved to a new location. Ask to do a test because you're the host needs you to do a good job and doing a good job means that you come through well. So do a test a week before, because if there is anything wrong, you have a week to fix it.

If the podcaster says your microphone sounds really cruddy, well, then you have a week to buy a better microphone. More on microphones a bit later, so do that test a week before and then do a test one hour before. If you can get online an hour before with your host just to check things out.

I don't know what happens sometimes, but I zoom all day long. I use my microphone all day long and then sometimes I turn zoom on and my mic doesn't work. I sometimes I really don't know why.

Sometimes I just need to reboot my computer. Well, if you do, you may need a little bit of time. So always be early and check your system.

I checked my lighting before. We both checked our mic today, like we both made sure, you know, prior to recording, making sure that it's OK. And I mentioned that I was a guest on one and it was on restream.

Same thing that like things didn't work and I had to modify a few stuff and get it working. And these things happen, especially when you're going from StreamYard to all these different things and stay professional, not panic. Because I see some people getting panicky when that happens.

That's not helping anyone, because when you panic, you're not thinking straight. Exactly. Yep.

You're we're both full. I think we're both giving like really good information here for someone. I'm telling you, if you are going to be you're a guest on a podcast and you're new to podcasting, this is really good stuff between the two of us.

My goodness. This is like a go to guide, right? OK. Audio quality.

So here's a little scary stat for you. If your audio quality is not superb. In other words, if you're the world will hear you with noise in your background or hiss or kids upstairs or dogs barking or echo.

If any of these kinds of noise is coming through your microphone, you are perceived to have about 25 percent less credibility, which is a big, big hit on your professional image. You have to take pride in your audio quality. And so that means a couple of things.

It means you need to make sure that you record in a quiet room and an echo free room. Let's talk about both of those. A quiet room, meaning no extraneous noise should get onto your microphone.

So if you do have kids or dogs or you live in a city and there's lots of street noise. Find a different place to record. Go to a friend's house.

Do something. Make sure you record where there's no other noise getting onto your microphone, just your voice, nothing else. And then you need to also make sure that there's no echo in your room.

Even the tiniest bit of echo in your room will be amplified through zoom or whatever system you're using. Riverside or Google meets or however you transfer your voice to your host studio. Any echo in your room will be exaggerated.

There's technical reasons for that, so you need to make sure that you are in an echo free room. Most of us don't notice the echo in a room because we are used to our room. So I walk into rooms all of the time and I say to someone, a podcaster who's new, there's echo in here.

And they say, no, there isn't. I say, yes, there is. And I'll like clap and you'll hear the resonance of the clap and they realize there is.

And then when you listen back to the recording, you'll hear that that echo is exaggerated or amplified. I should say that is a turnoff to the listener. It is a, as I said earlier, a big hit on your credibility.

Make sure you remove all echo by putting something soft on all of the surfaces around you. Ultimately, you need 80 percent of the surfaces around you to have something soft on it, something soft that can soak up the echo. When I talk right now, my voice goes in every direction.

If someone was behind me, they could hear me. If someone was on top of me, they could hear me and so on. So my voice is immediately going in all directions up, down and completely around the 360.

If my voice hits any hard surface like a sheetrock ceiling or a hardwood floor or a tile floor. Or sheetrock walls. Or a big bookshelf.

My voice is going to bounce off of that and come right back to the microphone. That's echo. So I want to make sure that all of the surfaces around me have something soft on them that absorbs my voice.

On my ceiling, I have foam. I can show you my foam. Look up, everyone.

All foam. Mushy foam. You can buy it on Amazon.

It will be there almost before you order it. I have carpeting on my floor. My walls behind me are all foam also.

It soaks up the echo and I have no echo in here. Also, make sure you have a good microphone. Now, it's convenient to use your earbud microphone, but it doesn't sound as good as a real microphone.

If you want to come across sounding great, get a great microphone. Great microphones are not expensive these days. This is about a $100 USB microphone.

I actually own some really expensive microphones. But this is absolutely great for podcasting. Both of my sons, when they were younger, they used to narrate audiobooks.

And I didn't want them having chocolate-covered hands touching a really expensive microphone. So I bought this USB microphone. So if they touch this, I'm not like crying about a $3,000 microphone getting chocolate stuck in it.

This thing sounds amazing. It also sounds good because I don't have echo. So get a decent microphone.

Now, these days, when we are recording this podcast in the early part of 2026, a decent USB microphone can even cost you as little as like $30 and $40. It's worth investing in yourself because this is you. This is how you're putting yourself out there into the world.

Take pride in how you sound. Okay, next on the list. Just as you were talking about the children.

So my youngest son wasn't feeling great today. So his mother brought him and he was supposed to come, he said, at half past 10. And I had a show at 9.30 and another one at 11.

So I thought it'd be okay. But I said, okay, but I always put a sign up on the door, podcast another. And I have it both in English and Polish, depending on what's coming.

And I opened the door just in case he came. Because usually when he comes in, he's like, cześć tata, hi tata, hi daddy. And now we give each other a cuddle and a kiss.

But he saw that and he remained quiet. He's downstairs now. He's never interrupted me.

So just when you have children, that they know what you're doing. Because I had told him when he said he's going to come to me early, I have shows at this time, this time and this time. And he said the fact that he saw the sign straight away reminded him.

He said, I probably would have forgot it. So, you know, you might not even think of doing things like that. But once you let everybody know, I've heard of other people, they've got the light and they turn on the light.

When they see the red light, don't come into my room. Don't be making noise. There's some simple things.

And the other thing is there will be things happen. Don't beat yourself up. Just have a system in place that it doesn't happen again the next thing.

Excellent point. I definitely want to add to this list, the idea of having a light or some signal with your family or anyone that, yeah, stay away. Just having the baseball bat that you're tapping.

Yeah, we have a pretty good system here. Like my older son is in college now, but my younger son will come by and ask me how much longer for something so I can take him to his friends or the gym or something like that. And we have the hand signals like five minutes or five or ten minutes or whatever.

And they all go over there so no one on camera can see. Yeah, we all come up with these things. And we're all human.

We all have lives and lives outside of the little camera that we're staring into and the microphone here. Just you don't want other people to see that. So be prepared.

Excellent point, Roy. Excellent. Next thing about audio quality.

Wear headphones. The irony is I'm not wearing headphones. But usually when you record, you probably need headphones unless you have a real high-end pro system.

I have worked on my system for years and years and I still tweak it. Unless your system is really tweaked, wear headphones. The kind of headphones that go over your ears.

Just like Roy's. They cover your ears. They completely cover your ears.

You need solid headphones like that. That prevents echo. That prevents distracting sound.

If you are on speakers that are loud, for example, or headphones that don't cover your ears and let sound out, the sound from your headphones or the sound from your speakers gets back onto the microphone. You create a loop. You say something.

It goes into the microphone, eventually out of your headphones or out of your speakers so that it gets back onto the microphone. So it does that loop and that can eventually sound like feedback. So typically wear headphones unless you've really mastered your audio system.

I mean, it sounds weird to say I've mastered my audio system, but I have. I've worked on it so hard for so many years. I look like you're about to say something.

Yeah, no. The thing is, I mean, I'm doing it and I've often stopped at a red set to somebody. I can hear the fan.

I can hear children in the background. But the thing is, you can reverse that as well because if you're going on shows and they're not as professional, but they might have a big audience just for some reason, you can say, hey, do you know I can hear your children? I can hear something in the background. I know the fan and nobody, everybody's usually really happy that you've pointed out and go, oh, I didn't know that.

Thanks very much. And they go in and turn it and make, you've just improved the show. So I guess can actually help the host as well when they're not at a certain level.

And that is a good tip. Everyone brings them some extra help to something to promote the host. Let your host know that.

Yeah, you're helping out. Like likewise, one of the things I'll talk about later that you do after the show is repost their show and thank them publicly. And that brings light to them.

So if you help them with their audio quality or their visual quality, that's great. OK, I do want to talk about visual quality. If you are on a video podcast, put a lot of thought into how you come through.

I'm sure you've seen this. People who just don't look good on on Zoom. Roy and I have these like full like like lights like you can see our faces.

It that's key. If you are in the dark, like if you're not well lit, people perceive you to be less credible. And I've seen studies that show you are perceived to be up to 35% less credible if you are in the dark and or if your framing is not correct.

Your body, your you should fill up the screen. I get on podcast sometimes with other people or videocast or even just a Zoom call and people's heads are like this. They're like down here.

I'm thinking like you should make this podcast or the video about you. Think a lot about your lighting. I have ring lights on either side of me.

Think about your framing. Have a background that is professional. Roy has like this amazing background.

It's all about like promoting his shows and things. I have no background because I'm in like a more of a recording studio. But there's nothing distracting in our background.

And that's what's key. Everything looks professional. I get on shows sometimes with people and the background is all clutter.

It's all little tiny chachkas and paintings are sideways or things are cut off and that's not professional. Think a lot about your image. The thing as well with that is a lot of people put on the blur.

I don't think you I think indirectly subconsciously people might have trust issues with that as well because it just it doesn't seem right. And there's things as well with the lighting. Sometimes you see reflection.

And I think if both people are trying to bring their A game if they see a ring light or something happening or you're both trying to help each other and to up the level. And I think if you go in with I want this show to be the best interview for my listeners but also to help the podcaster or the guest to get the best out of it. I think you're both watching each other's backs.

Absolutely. Yeah. Studies show that when you have fake backgrounds like the beach or a big bridge or something it's something you know is fake or when you have a heavily blurred background you're doing weird things to your camera or to you rather when you're on camera.

I'm sure everyone watching this you've probably seen someone on Zoom who has such a fake background of some sort that when they move around parts of their head kind of disappear and reappear and they put their hand up and like half their fingers like are cut off and then they appear again. That's weird. That's exactly what I'll show you because this is my real bookshelf here.

You see the glass and it stays here. But if you have the full fake one as you say it just disappears. I understand that like what's going on here.

And it's distracting and it erodes your professional image. Remember as I said at the beginning of this you are going on shows to boost your career. Right.

It's to build your professional image. And so why do something that will discredit it. That doesn't make sense.

So have a professional background. Don't have your body reappear and do some weird funky things. I want to talk about image presence.

As I was putting together these notes of things that I believe would be really good for someone who's going on to their first podcast as a guest. I had this group of things and I really wasn't even sure what to call it. And eventually I called it image presence.

Here are the things that I want to talk about. How to begin with the first impression and what to do when you make mistakes. So quickly first impression.

Your first impression is really important. People's people make up their minds in so many ways after a second. They watch you for a second even a fraction of a second some study show within a fraction of a second.

Your audience decides if they like you if it's worth watching the show. In other words if it's worth their time. Will they assume that you are credible that they can count on what you say they can trust on the information you deliver.

These things are critical. And so how do you make a good first impression. Here's the question.

How do you make a good first impression. So people say within a fraction of a second. OK I'll watch the show.

OK I'll trust this person. A couple of easy things will make your first impression fantastic. Begin with a smile.

Make sure when that camera starts or your audio starts you're smiling. That is your first impression. Before you say your first word people see you.

They hear your audio quality. They see your video quality. They love your game and smile.

First word should be something warm and gracious. Thank you. Great to see you.

Hey Roy. I'm excited about another episode. Something that's positive something that has spirit to it.

If you begin with a smile and people hear your smile by the way seriously if you smile on an audio podcast if you smile your listeners will hear that smile you're making a great first impression. The other 50% comes from what I said audio quality and your visual quality. That's it.

You do those few things and you are in. You're set. You've established a great first impression.

Then when you speak make sure you speak as we talked about earlier when we talked about prosody make sure you don't go from thing to thing to thing. Take space between your sentences. Speak in your natural pitch.

Don't rush your words. Don't rush the first word of every sentence. And then you will hook people in.

And that's what I have seen because I've done like 2000 episodes. Sometimes when I'm starting the show introducing the show you can see people or they're just people are watching you. I mean I put up my stuff on YouTube and Rumble and even the video on Spotify.

And people know that if you're there to give the best value or you're just there to try to grab claims and tap into their audience and you know straight away within the first few seconds this person isn't bringing their A game. Yep. So true.

I would also make sure to not begin I would not begin a podcast showing the world that you don't trust yourself that you're not prepared that you don't have attention to detail. But I mean by that everyone is don't do what most people do. The podcast begins and you say to your host.

Can you hear me? All that shows the world is that you haven't tested your equipment. You doubt your technology. You don't have the attention to detail.

That is not your ideal first impression everyone. Instead come in with a smile and the positive words like I said and you know your technology works because you will have tested it an hour before and even a week before that as we talked about earlier. And on another thing on that I had one client.

He was a doctor. He was doing a co-host for the show and they used to be just kind of shooting the breeze for five minutes and I said you've already lost them because sometimes there's people and you have to let people know what it's about because if you're shooting the breeze you're talking about the weather in Canada. The rest of the world don't care about the weather in Canada and you've lost them and you have to kind of have these hard conversations with some people and say hey what's your aim here? Is it to shoot the breeze or is it to actually improve your business and get leads which is what they were and they listened and thankfully done but there's a lot of people that actually are guilty of that as well.

Yeah. And everyone everyone I've done so many podcasts also and it's easy to forget some of these things sometimes before I go into a podcast or any live seminar that I'm running whether it's in person like on a stage or through Zoom I always run through my mental checklist of things before I start anything I think okay smile think of a good opening word something fun something friendly always and I always check my technology all of these things that I'm talking about I always do I'm sure sometimes I forget something we're human and it's okay if you forget something sometimes but if you have this checklist now I have it on paper first time ever if you have this checklist you you have you must have so much more this is what I'm looking for the opportunity there is to come across better than you would have if you hadn't had this checklist so these things are really important because I make mistakes we all make mistakes and so what do you do when you make a mistake on a podcast well earlier I said you should ask your host before the show what happens if you make a mistake is it okay if you go back and let's suppose for you worst case scenario you're nervous it's your first podcast and the host says nope this is a live live show no going back what would you do if you stumble you have two options you could panic or you could say oh let's try that one again and that's okay because everyone in the world stumbles at times when we stumble on a word we tend to say something kind of self-deprecating like I can't even get the word out or you think they pay me to speak or whatever it is you don't need to say those things publicly that does not look good you look at bloopers on TV the most famous TV shows show the blooper sometimes the biggest in other words the most famous actors who are trained and trained and trained with big directors and they rehearse their lines they still make mistakes repeatedly and all they do is they laugh right you've seen blooper shows they left do the same thing so very briefly here with mistakes if you realize that you forgot to say something that you wanted to say sometimes you could panic okay let's not do that second option you could just skip it how will your audience know if you don't say something that you meant to say maybe I meant to say something earlier and I forgot to say it but you wouldn't know because I haven't said it or you have a third option and if I think of something that I wanted to say and it really belonged in section 1 and now we're in section 7 or 8 I could organize my thoughts and say hey by the way earlier today we talked about whatever was section 1 and there's another comment I want to throw in for that and then I would tell that comment I would say that comment and then say now let's go back to where we were you can organize your content for listeners and let them know that you are going back but say it calmly and comfortably and it comes across really well I was the student and then there was the teacher and there were times I would seriously struggle with a word and I intentionally left it in I could have edited it and took it out because I said other people must be struggling with this and if they can hear me struggling by leaving it in I'm showing how real it is and that's got between the audio and the video and charts it's got over 4 million and I think it's because so this may have been before our last episode and maybe I even shared this with you right but I'll share it now for listeners of this particular podcast I had a zoom call with about 200 people I was talking about a certain subject matter about speaking speaking techniques for something and I mean I do pride myself on having good quality microphones and everything I got onto this podcast I was the seminar rather I had the worst echo I could not figure out where the echo was coming from I know it was coming from me I tested my audio beforehand but I got on there were I think like 180 people if I remember correctly and I had the worst echo I couldn't figure it out people just staring at me a lot of these people the vast majority of this audience had never seen me teach a class before and at some point I said huge echo and I said to everyone you know the irony is that I specialize in microphones and audio quality and the irony is that I specialize in the subject matter it's really kind of funny that this is happening to me of all people everyone just just give me a second and that loosened everyone up I didn't lose a single person no not a single person in that audience that I don't believe anyone saw that and said those numbers held true and at the end of that particular seminar I had the best rating I have ever had it was the worst beginning in some ways yet I had the best rates the best scores ever people loved it because I showed that it's okay to be human people had empathy when I finally got it working I said hey let's try this again everyone that was fun and then I talked about it I said that is a great lesson it's important to be okay with mistakes and so if you stumble on a word instead of panicking as we've said it's okay just keep going you know just fix the word and say well that was fun you know and it happens I think I have one more thing for mistakes oh yes if your host asks you a question and you forget what the question is it's okay to ask again you could say can you remind me what that question was as opposed to saying oh sorry silly brain I haven't had coffee yet can you remind me what you asked it's okay to ask if you're still embarrassed to ask what the host asked you say I know you asked a great question can you give me some clarification on that and then let them go into more detail on it you don't need to apologize because you can't remember something and on that last week I was interviewing somebody I don't think it's ever happened to me I was in the middle of telling a story and I lost where I got so I said I'm after losing my train of thought it might come back to me and it did it came back about five minutes later and I was able to but I didn't go into panic but I've seen people kind of racking their brain and going into panic and then people are watching that so there's times that can happen and just acknowledge it and then later you can actually you know we are all human we all make mistakes we all forget things at times it's fine be comfortable with yourself be comfortable with your voice be comfortable with sharing information and be comfortable saying I forgot what you said I know it was a darn good question and I know I was excited to answer that question just please remind me what it is that's okay the last two things to talk about what I feel will make you a great guest when you are on your first podcast the last two things are the show itself and what to do after the show so let's talk about the show itself arrive early I talked about that before but everyone make sure you are on time be there early don't be sweating it have your ringer off phones vibrate I almost said vibrators I meant vibrating phones just full transparency I couldn't find my phone prior to recording and I said I'm fairly sure that it's on silent and I had to go around looking for it and it was on silent but that's the last thing that you want is you are doing an interview and then it rings and it's more editing but it comes across as unprofessional but I was able to say to you I thought it was next to me it wasn't but I made sure that I addressed that and you know even if your phone is on vibrate mode if you can see it light up it's going to quickly catch your attention so don't have your phone on I'm not going to show you that mine is down for that reason and when I was doing my first few episodes I was doing them in person and I remember somebody had their phone on vibrate on the table and it was a brilliant interview but it was like and I wasn't at the level that I'm not now I would have stopped it and said take that off whereas at that stage I don't know it was in my first ten episodes that I had recorded on my very first podcast I didn't do that but make sure if you are doing it in person tell them don't have it on vibrate yes I even have my phone on this soft kind of mushy pad that looks like a dead star by the way yeah yeah it's like my phone my phone went off recently but it's upside down I have it on this foam thing that's on my desk so even if it vibrates even if I can't stop it from vibrating if an alarm was set that I forgot about or something I forgot to put it into airplane mode then if it vibrates it's on this foam thing it doesn't make any noise like think ahead of these things everyone so arrive early ringers off beside you always have a drink and always have tissues you may need them and when you have a nose emergency and you don't have a tissue that stinks because then you're on a show and you're kind of stopping your nose and hoping no one sees and everything we all blow our nose if you have to just don't do it in front of the video so if you are on a show where you know the host says you can stop if there's a mistake you can go back well then I would smile and stop at some point blow your nose but if you are on a show where it's continuous feed or a live stream then just kind of have some etiquette and pull yourself off camera for a second I know what I typically say when my nose is running and it does sometimes I'll say everyone I have a nose emergency please give me one moment then I go to the side where I have tissues right here and I always make sure that my shoulder is shown when I blow my nose so no one thinks that I've left the show if I go completely off screen like this it's like where'd the guy go but if you can see my shoulder it goes like that and I blow my nose no one sees me blow my nose but you know you know I'm there and that is my etiquette I know my tissues are right and my water is right at the spot where you can see my shoulder after so many shows I know exactly how far I can go to the side there's just another little thing on that as well is this is more in person ones but because I didn't realise it at the time but before it's like you see people they sneeze into the hand but there's times people don't they sneeze and they go and then afterwards they're shaking the person's hand and if the person is watching you do that so if you have to sneeze into your elbow and then you can shake the person's hand and there's another little trick this is one that I learnt at a network event if you have a drink in a cold drink or whatever especially if you're meeting the person usually people hold the drink in their right hand and shake with their right hand hold your drink in your left hand so you're not shaking the person's hand when you meet them for the first time with a cold hand or a wet hand if it's from condensation from the glass then you think it's like their hand is clammy or something oh that's nasty okay after the show three things to do or at the end of the show thank the person thank them for hosting thank them for bringing you on letting you share your information have something prepared it should be super short number two email the host the next day thanks Roy we've just finished we're finishing our five part series expect an email from me thank you it's going to happen I'm not going to spam this goes right to the trash and third thing repost the show let your host know that you want to repost the show ask them if there's a message that you can include with it let them know that you value them you appreciate it you want to further their career as well as your own make it a team effort these are the things that we've discussed today that I believe will make you a standout guest on a show even if you've never been on a podcast before the hardest thing of all of them is to speak comfortably all of the other things are things you just have to memorize remember to have your lights remember to turn off your phone remember how to ask questions remember that it's okay to ask questions and all of those things but speaking comfortably tends to be the hardest part for people and it is the part that most shows or conveys your credibility so the thing you want to do in terms of your own practice is to practice understanding what it sounds like to be confident so when you find yourself in some situation at some point during the day when you're alone take out your phone turn on your recorder record yourself and practice sounding confident but that typically means and you should know this by now is to speak in your natural pitch so instead of speaking up here you speak down here in your natural pitch in your natural volume so instead of yelling which I won't demonstrate because that won't sound nice then speak in your natural volume the microphone will work it should work if your microphone doesn't work get a new microphone so eventually your microphone will work make sure you speak with space between your sentences no matter how much you want to get out there take a break give listeners time to absorb what you're saying speak with declarative ending sentences or sentences that end on a downward spin as opposed to everything sounding like an upward spin like this everything sounds like it's a question that sounds like you don't really trust what you're saying have your sentences conclude declaratively like a period at the end of the sentence not a question mark but a period when you do these things and on your own when you're practicing record yourself and then play back that recording take note of how you speak I would also strongly encourage you to pretend that you make mistakes and practice for mistakes you should prepare and actually let me say this differently as you're talking into your microphone as you practice you should intentionally truly intentionally stumble on something pretend you can't get a word out and then speak the words of recovering become used to recovering when I coach people I'm a speaking coach and when I coach people we spend one third of our time teaching them I spend a third of their time teaching them how to recover from mistakes every scenario every mistake every mistake that can conceivably happen the person I coach is completely prepared for it and when you're prepared for mistakes and you're comfortable with them you've practiced them you know what to say I know what to say as I mentioned if I have a nose emergency you have all of your little one-liners ready then you can go into a show with so much more confidence that usually you make fewer mistakes to begin with it's a win-win so practice these things into your phone and then practice being able to duplicate that on command so you practice until you sound great on your phone and then prepare this in front of a friend in front of your spouse or a child or a family anyone practice your voice say to someone hey I'm going on a podcast I'm speaking with people who don't know my name they don't know what I do let me run you through the introduction tell me what you think there's only one caveat to that when you practice for someone who knows you like a friend or a family member they are already used to your speaking patterns and of course they already know your name so if you slur your words or if you say your name so quickly that they can't understand it they won't catch it because they know your name you could rush your name or skip half of the letters in your name and they won't recognize it their brain will fill in the missing letters however someone out there listening to your podcast doesn't know your name so if you skip half of the letters in your name they will only hear half of the letters they won't understand who you are or what your name is so when you practice for people it's incumbent upon you to make sure you slow down on your keywords we talked about that earlier slow down those keywords so it is clear for the listener you have one opportunity to brand yourself that's your when you say your name so say it proudly with a smile say it clearly okay Roy thoughts well you run about asking families if I remember I don't know was it for a best man speech or was it when I tried a toastmasters because I tried two or three in Ireland and then it said this isn't for me but when I was practicing I tried first with my mother and she just brought down laughing so I knew that wasn't going to work and my grandmother was alive at the time and I did it in front of her and she said to me why are you doing that and it was such good feedback because I wasn't aware that I was doing that and like even when I'm watching other people I can see someone's feed doing that I'm just watching every single thing and you know you were also talking about the guests and sharing and things like that there's times that I'll say to people when I finish when it's released I'll send them all the links and everything and usually what I say is look after a month you can take the video put the shots once they're created you're using them straight away but recently I've realised you can use collaboration because it was somebody that I was a guest on and how that works on YouTube is once they accept it it appears on their thing so they're both promoting it but the views are kind of going on your thing and either is good for me because we're both promoting but one thing is sometimes the guest is kind of ego driven they mightn't ask you where people can find you or anything like that obviously by giving like the value that you've done today and the other four conversations that we've had they know straight away that you know what you're talking about but even if I wasn't one of these people that mentioned your website or anything like that your name is there David Goldberg and Speaking Coach and CEO Edge Studio and the same with me I've often been on a show and if people get what I'm doing they can scan my code they see what I'm doing and that's the way as well because I mean like you've done a lot of preparation I mean people saw the sheet and if I never done anything mention you I mean I think it's it's a terrible thing to be doing but I've been on shows and they even on the show notes they wouldn't say nothing about it they're more about themselves but at least if somebody gets your value at least they know where to find you because they'll go I need to check this guy so if they type in your name they'll find you they'll get your website and everything and the same with me and it's like kind of make sure to do that another thing and this is something because I've got some people on a lot of shows one guy 250 sometimes people have their stories their kind of whole process and they're not taking into account what the team of that podcast that they're on and they need to adjust things in connection with the audience that they're they're connecting with and not just do a repeat rinse and repeat yeah absolutely good points everyone you should all take this all in this is coming from Roy who you've recorded you said how many how many podcasts I mean I've released 1800 but I've a lot in the pipeline as well so and between the guesting I've been on there's 2,000 done anyway definitely okay that is a lot of experience that how many people in the world have been on 2,000 podcasts you know almost no one and so these are the lessons that Roy has figured the things that Roy has figured out and and for me with being on speaking panels and keynotes and leading seminars the things I figured out I think I feel like anyone should be happy to watch this video and say oh I got a jump start because like I already figured out like I have to put my phone on something soft right Roy figured out he has to put his phone down upside down like we just figured these things out after a while I figured this stuff out on my own I wish I had like someone to guide me when I was beginning it took me a long time I look back on my old podcast and seminars and think oh yikes like my phone is going off it's catching my attention or I'm like going back and forth or whatever yeah it takes a while to figure this stuff out so to be able to share it is really fun I had a thought that came to me and this is something that would I will add to my outline when I talk about prosody make sure you avoid filler words everyone when you are on a podcast avoid filler words filler words are words that are not they are words without definition they are sounds filler words sound like um and uh and then words that aren't really necessary like you know and like a lot of people say a lot of these filler words a lot of people begin every single sentence with a filler word and when you do that that is a big hit on your credibility so for example if Roy asks me a question like what is your background and I say my background is if I begin with an uh which so many of us do you are immediately discrediting yourself you are lowering you are weakening your professional image in fact let me just expand that very briefly please begin without the uh without the filler words also don't respond to questions or answer questions from your host with the word so a lot of people will say they will begin their answer with so for example Roy if you said how did you get into business so I got into business avoid the so and the third thing is to avoid repeating the question as I just demonstrated there Roy if you asked me a question what kind of microphone do I have oh so my microphone is a you don't need to repeat questions so avoid filler words avoid beginning with uh responses with the word so and avoid beginning responses by answer by repeating the question that you were asked in other words when someone asks you a question just give them the answer it saves time definitely definitely one of the things that I'm sorry it's fine one of the things that I've learned is and it's I was conscious from listening to other people so if you're talking I just said so when you're talking about something I go yeah yeah yeah that doesn't sound good when you're listening so I'm giving positive reinforcement that I'm understanding what you're saying and I'm going yeah yeah yeah I've often listened to a podcast that has good information and you're listening to the host that's going oh yeah oh yeah are the guests depending and you don't need to do that it's actually annoying excellent point I'm going to add to this I have to go through through this podcast and add a bunch of things to the outline excellent stuff well I I do want to thank you we've done five episodes together and they were a blast it's fun talking with you number one we have kids roughly the same age we're in opposite ends of the world it's super fun to have these early for me early morning conversations with you that's be a good head start in the day you are excellent asking questions and podcast etiquette you clearly know your stuff your quality sounds great it's been a pleasure working with you and I've thoroughly enjoyed it and I know that we're planning to do a few more things later on but I've mentioned you off camera that I've told my son because he he's 12 as I say and he started I told him what he needs to do is listen to these five because at the time that as far I told him there's going to be five listen to these things you will learn so much I wish I had that information between the podcasting and the public speaking it took years and years and it's still not finished I'm constantly improving and watching and so are you and the amount of stuff that you've shared I mentioned it's gold it's unbelievable knowledge that you share people will see it and the most important thing is how can they find you David thanks for asking my email is david at edge studio dot com and I want to spell that because sometimes it's a little weird to spell edge is e d g e like the edge of a rock or the edge of a knife and studio is singular s t u d i o edge studio dot com I'll make sure I'll put it both on the audio on the video and just so you're aware I've started doing that from when you mentioned to me because there was times I go got the right gun like I'm just spewing it up so it's you find everything about me on podfather.me scan the qr code or go to roycoughlan.com r o y c o u g h l a n this is part five of a five-part series be sure and go back to listen to the other ones everything is in my school group podfather so it's schools.com slash podfather david it's been a total pleasure and I look forward to speaking to you again and likewise Rory. Thanks.

Thank you.