How to Stay Sharp as an Interviewer
There’s a genre of guests I call “The Exciting Entrepreneur.” I call them this because they often come to podcasters via buzzword-filled pitches like this:
Hi David,
I’d love to introduce [REDACTED] as a guest for your podcast.
[REDACTED] is an entrepreneur, Partnerships Manager, and Podcast Host at [REDACTED], a 400+ person SEO agency that builds 7000+ backlinks per month for over 100 active clients.
He works directly with 7- and 8-figure agency owners who are struggling with fulfillment, bandwidth, and scaling operations. [REDACTED] and his team act as a fully white-labeled link building and digital PR partner, helping agencies grow without adding internal complexity, freelancers, or bloated teams.
[REDACTED] is especially interested in speaking to agency owners, marketers, SEO professionals, and B2B leaders, where the conversation can provide real value to your audience.
He can share practical insights on:
How high-performing agencies handle SEO fulfillment behind the scenes
Link building and digital PR in the post-AI era
Systems that remove founder bottlenecks in agencies
White-label fulfillment as a growth lever
Scaling agencies without operational chaos
[REDACTED] also hosts [REDACTED], where he’s interviewed 80+ agency founders and marketing leaders about what’s actually working in today’s market.
I believe this conversation would bring very actionable value to your marketing and agency audience.
Please let me know if you’d like to connect with [REDACTED], and I’ll share his calendar.
Best regards,
[REDACTED]
Backlinks, SEO, agency owners, marketers, B2B, founders, systems, and growth levers …
It’s a lot of words for a message that doesn’t actually say much … definitely not the name of your podcast or any specifics on what you do and why he thinks he’s a good match for it.
You’ll also see “The Exciting Entrepreneur” on sites that match podcasters with guests. The ads have similarly generic headlines like:
Culture Expert
Leadership Speaker
Transforming Organizations
Improving Digital Marketing
Biohacker
Most of the time, your instinct is right: these pitches are skimmable, forgettable, and interchangeable. If you passed on every “Exciting Entrepreneur” who promised actionable insights and growth levers, you wouldn’t be missing much.
But there are a couple of smart reasons to occasionally say yes, especially if you’re thinking like a broadcaster and not a gatekeeper.
When to Say “Yes” to an Interview
1. You Need Reps (Especially Early On)
If you’re a newer podcaster, you don’t get better at interviewing by waiting for perfect guests.
You get better by doing interviews.
A guest who shows up with a vague pitch and a fuzzy point of view is actually useful training.
Why? Because they aren’t going to carry the conversation for you.
You have to:
Ask sharper follow-ups
Reframe weak answers in real time
Push past buzzwords and get to specifics
Find a story where the guest didn’t think there was one
That’s the muscle you’re building early on: the ability to pull something interesting out of someone who didn’t hand it to you.
If you can make this guest sound good, you’ll be dangerous later.
2. Learning to Drive the Interview (Not Ride It)
As your podcast grows, something sneaky happens.
You start booking better guests:
Well-known founders
Authors on a launch
Executives with PR teams
People who have done a lot of podcasts
These guests often have media training. They know how to:
Bridge back to their talking points
Tell tight, polished stories
Sound confident and “on-message”
That can feel great. The interview flows. The episode is clean. Everyone’s happy.
But they’re doing a lot of the work for you. That’s a trap.
Over time, you can get soft.
You stop interrupting. You stop challenging answers. You stop steering as aggressively. You let the guest set the agenda.
Saying yes to a low-quality or generic guest forces you back into the driver’s seat.
3. Buzzword Guests are Sparring Partners
Think of “The Exciting Entrepreneur” as a sparring partner, not a headliner.
They come in swinging with:
Vague frameworks
Overused phrases
Big claims without examples
Your job is to:
Slow them down
Ask “how, specifically?”
Ask “what broke the first time you tried that?”
Ask “what would not work for my audience?”
This is where you sharpen your instincts.
You learn how to:
Interrupt politely but firmly
Redirect without sounding hostile
Turn a generic answer into a concrete moment
Those skills transfer directly to higher-stakes interviews later.
4. It Keeps You Honest About Your Skills
Interviewing isn’t just about booking impressive names. It’s about creating good audio.
If your show only works when the guest is polished, famous, and media-trained, the show is fragile.
Strong interviewers can make:
Unknown guests compelling
Awkward guests listenable
Rambling guests focused
Occasionally booking someone who isn’t a natural is a skills check. It answers a simple question:
“Am I actually good at this, or am I being carried?”
The Bottom Line
You don’t owe “The Exciting Entrepreneur” a yes.
But saying yes once in a while, on your terms, can make you better at:
Interview control
Story extraction
Listener advocacy
Real broadcasting
Do it for the reps. Do it to stay sharp. Do it so that when the great guests show up, you’re ready to lead the conversation, not just host it.
