If you’re like us, you’re always looking for new podcast interview questions that uncover noteworthy answers. You owe it to your listeners to reveal unique POVs and advice from your guests.
But the last time you asked a guest about their favorite part of working from home, you got a response involving holy socks, chunky peanut butter, and a pug named Porky.
In other words, you need some different podcast interview questions to add to your arsenal.
What are revealing podcast interview questions? 25 podcast interview questions that get unique answers include…
- What’s a commonly held belief about your role that you passionately disagree with?
- What do you wish your younger self knew about your current profession?
- Do you agree with the common perception about your work? Why or why not?
- If you had 10x the budget you have now, what would you spend it on?
- What’s something everybody in your industry should stop or start doing?
- What’s the biggest challenge the industry is facing today? In 10 years?
- Where do you self-educate?
- If you were going to write a book, what would it be about?
Thanks to my generous LinkedIn network, I was able to crowd-source some favorite questions to ask during a podcast interview. Many of those are featured in this blog post.
Below, we’ve organized the best 25 podcast interview questions into three categories dealing with the guest’s profession, industry, and self-improvement.
Podcast Interview Questions: Guest’s Profession
When it comes to your business podcast, listeners want to learn from people in their same situation. Writers like to hear from other writers. CMOs like to hear from other CMOs. Musicians like to hear from other musicians.
The questions you ask guests about their profession should encourage them to open up about their specific experiences. The more particular they get, the more relatable the content is.
1. What do you wish everybody understood about your job?
2. What’s a commonly held belief about your role that you passionately disagree with?
3. When you first started as a [guest’s profession], what’s something that was more challenging than you expected?
4. What’s one tool that you always carry in your toolbox no matter what project you’re working on?
5. What do you wish your younger self knew about your current role?
6. Do you agree with the common perception about your work?
7. What has fundamentally changed about your work from when you started until now?
8. What is the biggest problem you or your team solved in the last year?
9. What’s a concern you have for your next board meeting?
10. What’s motivating your team right now?
11. What’s one initiative on your whiteboard that wasn’t there 30 days ago?
12. If you had 10x the budget you have now, what would you spend it on?
13. How do you get yourself out of work slumps or ruts?
[READ: Every good podcast episode starts with an outline. Here’s how to outline a valuable episode in 4 steps w/ examples.]
Podcast Interview Questions: Guest’s Industry
We always recommend focusing your B2B podcast around your ideal customer’s expertise and industry. This way, they’re positioned as the expert when being interviewed on your show.
Even if you don’t know much about your guest’s industry, the following interview questions will tee them up to give a valuable answer.
14. What’s something about your industry that has surprised you lately?
15. What’s something that everyone in your industry should start or stop doing?
16. If you were sitting next to a leading expert in your field, what would you ask them?
17. Who’s your mentor or industry role model? Why?
18. What’s the biggest challenge the industry is facing today? In 10 years?
Podcast Interview Questions: Guest’s Self-Improvement
Podcast listeners are motivated to improve themselves in regards to career, education, and life in general. That’s why they’re listening to your show.
So, it’s important to ask your guests questions about their continued education and life aspirations. Oftentimes you’ll get an inspiring response that listeners take to heart.
19. Where do you self-educate?
20. What’s giving you hope right now?
21. What’s a status quo you reject and why?
22. How do you balance life and work?
23. What’s been the most influential resource for your career?
24. If you were going to write a book, what would it be about?
25. What’s one question you wish that I asked you?
How to Prepare for a Podcast Interview
We understand that making a list of questions and actually feeling prepared for a podcast interview are two different things. Luckily, there are podcast interview best practices you can use to prepare yourself.
Pre-Interview
The pre-interview can happen either completely separately from the interview or right before it.
A pre-interview really only has to last about 15 minutes. Its purpose is to get you and your guest more comfortable and build rapport.
[READ: Want to impress your podcast guest? Here are 10 easy ways to W😮W ’em.]
Also, if you’re following the content-based networking framework, the pre-interview is the perfect opportunity to kick off your relationship with the guest (aka, potential customer).
POV Discovery
A POV (Point of View) question is meant to draw out a distinct perspective from your guest. Its objective is to turn a high-level topic like ABM or content marketing into a unique conversation around the guest’s specific experiences.
To feel really prepared for the interview, try asking POV questions during the pre-interview. Depending on the quality of the guest’s answers, those questions should pop up in the real interview.
A few of the POV questions our team likes to use:
- What’s a commonly held belief about your industry/profession that you passionately disagree with?
- What’s something that everyone in your industry should stop doing?
- What’s something that everyone in your industry should start doing?
Spoiler: Remember that list of 25 podcast interview questions up there? 👆 They can all be used as POV questions.
Outlining the Episode
Once you’ve uncovered your guest’s unique POV, you can wrap up the pre-interview with a rough outline of the questions you’re going to ask. Read it back to the guest so they’re clear on the topics you’ll cover in the interview.
Then, make sure you have an episode outline for yourself. This way, you won’t forget any of the areas you and your guest agreed upon.
What, Why, How?
In addition to the main POV questions, have some what/why/how questions set aside. These help you take a deeper dive on the subject which your listeners will appreciate.
Here’s an example framework you can use for the POV question “What’s something that everyone in your industry should stop doing?”
Podcast Interview Questions Takeaways
There are lots of business podcasts out there asking guests the same generic questions.
To glean authentic, helpful answers from your expert guests, remember these takeaways:
- Use the list of 25 revealing podcast interview questions
- Prepare for the interview with a pre-interview
- Focus on asking POV questions and follow up with what/why/how questions
For more B2B podcasting insights, subscribe to B2B Growth on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
