Why Most Guest Pitches Get Deleted (and How to Fix Yours) | #277

Guesting on podcasts isn’t optional anymore...

Not if you’re serious about growing your business. Today I’m walking you through four things you need to be thinking about before you pitch another podcast.

These aren’t hacks or templates.

They’re foundational for getting booked on aligned, complementary shows, the kind of interviews that actually grow your authority, not just your download count.

I’m not walking through all seven guesting building blocks from the guide, but I am sharing four concepts to sharpen your strategy and save you time in your outreach.

If you’re pitching, guesting, or thinking about adding podcast interviews into your marketing plan—this is where you start.

   🎤︎︎ How to know if a show is even worth pitching

   🎤︎︎ The mistake most guests make that gets their pitch ignored

  🎤︎︎ Why guesting is more than visibility - it’s about being valuable

We're covering guesting LIVE inside the Virtual Podcast School. Are you in here yet?

2025 is the year of PODCASTING WINS with explosive growth + booming sales! 📲Book a call with me - but only if you want to leverage podcasting to grow your influence, impact, + income.

💥💰🏋‍♀💰🧘🏽‍♀️🔥💪🏼💰
⬇️ ACTION-PACKED RESOURCES + NEXT STEPS ⬇️

JOIN US INSIDE THE VIRTUAL PODCAST SCHOOL

Snag Your Guides for Hosts and Guesting!🎧🏃🏽‍♀️⤵
coachjenrogers.com/podcastguides

Looking for organic growth through evergreen content? 💎 🏃🏽‍♀️⤵
Book a call with Jen coachjenrogers.com/VIPCoach

📞Ask me your Question or Get Featured! Ask Jen Anything
📌Recommends (affiliate) 🎯buzzsprout 🎯descript 🎯podmatch

Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6

Transcript

Simplify Podcasting

Jen Rogers | Creator of the Podcasting Power Hour | Certified Coach | Keynote Speaker

 I teach experienced Christian entrepreneurs how to leverage podcasting so they can grow their impact, influence + income.

 If you’re a successful business owner and you haven’t launched a show, it’s time to talk about how to put your voice and proven offers to work for you!

If you've launched and it's not going well, book your power hour now.

2025 is the year of PODCASTING WINS with explosive growth + booming sales! www.coachjenrogers.com/VIPCoach

📲Book a call with me when you're serious about monetizing podcasting.

Why Most Guest Pitches Get Deleted (and How to Fix Yours) | #277

It is no longer optional for you to guest on podcasts.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: That's exactly what I said on a call when I was invited to speak at an event and share wisdom about podcasting. Here's what I know. If you host a show, you have extraordinary gumption and some Chutzpah!

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Hosting your show is a commitment. It's a long-term commitment. It's empathetic work. It's soul-searching work. It is audience awareness work. It's tenacious at work because podcast hosts well, you have a ton of tenacity. It's also servant-hearted work. It's part passion, part business, part healing, and post healing some more.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Without you, there is no guest pathway, but with you as a podcast host, consistently showing up and committed to the success of not just your show but your audience, those other voices have an opportunity to be heard, to be elevated, to share their wisdom, to share their unique take that serves both your audience and their business and that, as we know, is how growth happens through connection. So when I say it's no longer optional to guests on podcasts, know that your inbox, if it's not exploding already, is likely to explode. Right now, on average, there's about 45 requests per day for people seeking to get on high quality podcast shows.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I regularly go through the bulk of my requests, me and my team, and we look and we say delete, delete, delete.... on most of them. We don't even open most of them. Now, there's a strategy behind how you can get your emails open, and we're going to get into that in today's episode. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Realistically, I certainly do not have time to go through 45 requests per [00:02:00] day.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Do you?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I bet if I asked you what's the number one way to increase your chances on getting on a show, you would know the answer. That the answer comes through connection, creating connection, genuine connection.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Over the last several weeks. I have been so blessed by the conversations I've had in my dms, whether on Facebook or whether on, uh, not Instagram.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I'm, I'm, I'm on Instagram, but not really active there... on LinkedIn. Those conversations are great because how you show up, the reputation you lead with in the messages you share in your dms, that tells a lot to the other person on the receiving end. Because the messages have been so good and the genuine desire for interaction has been present, it has compelled me to offer up an opportunity to guest on the show.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Those are my favorite guests, . I can tell you I have a couple of episodes that are coming up that started out exactly that way. Whether I've met someone in a mastermind, whether I've had a conversation with them in the dms, whether I've had a really good connection via email

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: uh, I, I, I roll with it. I very much believe the Lord has prepared our work in advance for us to do, and that is part of what leads us down the road to selecting and requesting guest opportunities. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Before we go off the deep end on all the nitty gritty of the assets we need, we first need to reorient ourselves and focus on that servant-hearted piece. And that's exactly what we're going to do in today's episode number 277 of Simplify Podcasting. We do not need to overcomplicate this. It's work, yes, but it does not need to be complicated.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: [00:04:00] I'm your host, Jen Rogers, recovered certified public accountant, which helps me organizationally, your podcast strategist and founder of the Virtual Podcast School.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you have not yet joined us inside the virtual podcast school, you are missing out. Let me share with you what's going on. In June, I celebrated my birthday every single day. I went live and invited you to join me inside the Zoom room.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: and respond to you one-on-one with your questions on how you can podcast and monetize every episode as a host and as a guest. It was so much fun, in fact, I'm keeping it going for the month of July. Now, come August, I'm going to do something a little different and I'll give you more details on that in the next episode.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: For this episode, know this is your opportunity to join me inside the Zoom room in the Virtual Podcast School. So if you do not do Facebook at all, you definitely want to make sure you are on the email list so you get the notification for the Zoom room training. Remember. When we train inside the Virtual Podcast School, we actually do the work as we go.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: So it's not this big homework session that I talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and you just wonder when are we ever going to be able to implement. I am all about implementation, hashtag anti lecture. It's important you do the work while we're on the call together, so the questions you have, they'll come up while we're doing the work.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Be sure that you join us. Head on over to www.coachjenrogers.com/community  to get inside the Virtual Podcast School so you can elevate your hosting and guesting strategies and make money with every episode. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Alright, are you ready to dive into guesting strategies that work and how to get on those shows that might initially appear to be a bit more challenging to guest on?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Alright, me too. Let's dive into it. I'm so thankful you are [00:06:00] here. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Showing up as a guest is not about being everywhere. It's about being in the right room with the right story and the right heart.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Inside the podcast Guesting Guide, I share seven building blocks for guesting success. There are exact foundational steps we've been walking through inside the Virtual Podcast School.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: We're not covering all seven today; you'll get those in the guide. Right now I wanna zoom in on four core things you need to land complimentary aligned podcast interviews. No gimmicks, no guesswork, just strategy that will help you. Are you ready? Okay.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Number one, your guesting message. It is not your elevator pitch.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If your pitch sounds more like your LinkedIn bio or something extraordinarily boring, you've already lost them. Host do not need some sort of certified coach with a passion for transformation. They want to know what do you really do? How do you actually help people? Why should their audience care?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I've seen pitches that list so many possible talking points, and they leave it up to me. Instead, what shows me that they've done the work is they've looked at my show, they've looked at the titles, they have an idea of who my audience is because the description gives you so much information. Pick one powerful message and lead with that.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: You could list a couple alternatives at the end, have one key concept, and again, remember, your message is not your elevator pitch. If they're interested in you, if a host wants to know more about you, they're gonna go look at your socials. Trust me. I [00:08:00] know.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Okay. The second thing is stop spraying and praying.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Curate, like a CEO. Pitching every single podcast is a waste of time. You want strategic visibility. You don't want some random exposure here, there, and everywhere, and simply saying to someone, Hey, I love your podcast. It's not... personal, tell the host, share with the host why their audience is a match for your message.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Prove that you've done your homework. Inside the Virtual Podcast School, one of the things we worked on was flipping the script. So we would look at podcast titles and we would say, okay, we're gonna take this title and we're gonna flip it. A great example of that is when we were live, 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I was having a conversation with Remy and she's the podcast host of the Driven introvert podcast and her goal is to help you get unstuck and make progress on your God-inspired ideas and find a supportive community.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: So when you look at the title of her show, you have a pretty good idea what she stands for. And I said one of the things I might do is introverts are secretly extroverts in disguise. That I might make a pitch like that to her. I use that as an example off the cuff to say, would that get your attention?

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: And that is the goal. We must get the attention of the host when we are pitching our ideas. Look at the podcast titles and come up with some alternative anti titles and how you could defend them. Those things that would align with your area of expertise on what you teach. The pitches that stand out in my inbox and other inboxes are the ones that connect with the host and with the mission of the show.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: You can do this. It does take a little bit of research, and again, I cover that inside the podcast guide.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Okay, number three, know why that [00:10:00] particular show.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you can't explain why you're pitching this podcast right now, then it's probably not time to pitch it. Remember what you hear on this show- on the regular is you must know two things for every episode you record.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Number one, what is the business purpose of this episode? And number two, what is the audience win for this episode? So if you don't know exactly why you're pitching that podcast right now, don't pitch it. Alignment, alignment with the show, it is much more important than the size of the audience. You don't need huge followings to make an impact.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: It just takes one person to hear your episode, and what happens is when they tell another person, that person may be the very person that hires you to do what you do the best!

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Case in point, I love this example, the record so far with my clients is Tony Mascolo, who monetized his show in under 150 downloads and in six episodes because someone heard his show and recommended it to someone else.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: So please, please, please don't get hung up on the size of the audience. Instead, ensure they are podcasting. Ensure that they are accepting guests, so you wanna make sure that they are consistently showing up. That is for sure something to do. If you are brand new to podcasting, then go on these smaller shows, 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: and get your feet wet and see how the process is and heads up. Every host process is different. Some are highly organized and some lean more towards the chaotic side. It will give you a great experience and also I. If you host and have not yet done the guesting circuit, it will give you an idea of how to, uh, create your own runway for bringing guests onto your show.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Alright, those are three things we've covered. Remember, number one, your guesting message is not your elevator pitch. You are going to curate the podcast you're [00:12:00] going to appear on like a CEO. You're not gonna pray and or, uh, you're not gonna spray and pray. And the third thing we covered was know why that particular show.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: The last thing we're gonna cover in today's episode of Simplify Podcasting is this. It's not about being seen, per se. It's about being useful. Now, I know, I know we go on podcasts because we wanna be more visible, but guesting is not just about getting airtime. It's about you showing up and being the resource that you have an awareness of how your giftings.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Compliment the audience you are showing up on. So the guests, the those who get remembered and referred to other shows are the ones who make the host job easier, and they serve the audience as though they were intimately familiar with them already because they've done the research. And I have brought back guests who didn't have big followings, but my audience resonated with their message because they showed up with something my audience could use.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: That's the kind of guest you want to be. You want to be useful. Yes, you'll get the visibility. That's the ancillary benefit, but you want to ensure, first off, you are useful. Okay. There's much more to cover in how to show up and be a mic drop, memorable guest.. Being a great guest takes preparation.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: There's one bonus topic I wanna cover today, and that has to do with the conversation I was having with Nicole in the dms about the show she wants to appear on. It's a huge show. Here's how you can get there. Think of it as a ladder or Legos that you connect together.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you know it's incredibly difficult to get on a particular show, go through the titles of that show and find the guests that have appeared on that show and determine whether or not you have a connection [00:14:00] with any one of those guests.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If those guests have their own show, that's where I would start. I would start with the low hanging fruit and identify shows that may not be as large as the one you want to appear on, or may not be as well known in your niche and find who has guested.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Pitch yourself to guest on their shows, because if they're guesting, then my guess is you guesting on their show would be a complimentary guesting opportunity for the show you want to guest on. I'm pretty sure I couldn't say that again. Okay. That is how you can strategize to get on the show. The really big shows, listen.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: If you don't know which shows you need to be on, then it's time to take a step back and ensure you have set your podcasting goals. These are part of the building blocks inside the podcast Guesting Guide. If you don't have that, I'll have that link in the show notes. 

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: if you've been pitching yourself and been on successful, I've got you. Let's work together to create a strategy that compels the host to pick up the phone and say you are on. Head on over to www.coachjenrogers.com/powerhours . Book a Power Hour. It will save you so much time, frustration, and anxiousness and trying to figure this all out on your own. And instead, what we'll do is create a plan that can work for you!

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Before you move on to the next episode in the feed, what is one podcast you'd love to be a guest on and why? What is one podcast you'd like to be a guest on and why? If you can't answer that in two sentences or less, you've got some clarity work to do, and that's okay.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: that's where the podcast Guesting Guide [00:16:00] will help you if you have an answer to that question. Congratulations, You are on your way to strategic guesting.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Hey, you know that one thing that hosts do often at the end of episodes? They invite you to share this episode with a friend, to leave a review or to reach out and share how this lands for you.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Sometimes hosts will read those reviews for the audience because people do like to be acknowledged. This is me acknowledging Maria.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: Maria, thanks so much for your review. Maria wrote:

 Purpose Driven Podcast

“I love listening to Jen Rogers. She shows up so authentic. Her heart and soul is in her podcast. You can just feel the energy going through your body when she speaks.

The value she brings to podcasting and helping you simplify your message to connect with your audience is second to none. Highly recommend Jen Rogers, her work and her podcast to anyone who's looking to launch a Mission-Driven Messenger podcast and create impact.”

Maria, thanks so much for leaving a review.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: I appreciate you and I appreciate all of the reviews of Simplify Podcasting. Thank you so much. God bless you, and I will catch you in the next episode.

Jen Rogers, Podcast Strategist: PS, if you write a review, your review could be featured next.