QA 85 – Michael O'Neal answers "How do I get amazing guests on my podcast?"

In today's Q&A, we are helping Jonathan figure out how to get guests for his podcast even though he's just starting out with his podcast and online business. Do you have a question you want answered on our podcast? We would love to help you! Click here to ask your question! [Tweet "Don't underestimate the power of personal connections."] Resources Mentioned in this Episode Today's expert is Michael O'Neal from solopreneurhour.com Podcast with Michael O'Neal Pat Flynn Amy Porterfield John Lee Dumas Natalie Sisson Michael's Show with John Corcoran Let's dive into this week's question! JOCELYN: Hey y'all! You're listening to an Expert Q&A with S&J. Today's expert is Michael O'Neal of the Solopreneur Hour podcast and solopreneurhour.com Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast, where life always comes before work. We're your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. Join us, each week, as we teach you how to flip your lifestyle upside-down, by selling stuff online. Are you ready for something different? All right, let's get started. SHANE: What's going on guys? Happy Thursday to you, welcome back to the Expert Q&A with S&J where we bring on internet marketing experts. We do not have all the answers to some of the questions that you send in; we would never want to tell you wrong, so we decided to start bringing people on who know a little bit more about certain subjects than we do to help you get the exact direction you need in your online business. And we are happy to bring back on the show today, Michael O'Neal from the Solopreneur Hour podcast and solohour.com. Michael, welcome back to the Q&A with S&J. MICHAEL: I am so happy to be here, thank you guys [Crosstalk] SHANE: That's all right man, we're gonna talk dude [Crosstalk] got to keep it tight. JOCELYN: Today's question is from Jonathan Mann, and Jonathan says, "How do I get guests for my podcasts? I want to interview thought-leaders and business people who are successful, but I have no idea how to get them on my show. How do I convince others to take time out of their day to talk to a total stranger, especially when I'm just starting out? " SHANE: When I read this question, I got this on email, the first person I thought about was Michael O'Neal. I was like, "This is the question we need to ask Michael" because that's what you do. You interview people from all different walks and you got so many great interviews on your podcast, so how do you do it Michael? Especially when you first started out, how did you go out and get those guests and get people to take time out of their day? MICHAEL: By the way, I apologize in advance, no one has ever accused me of brevity. I know these are quick shows. SHANE: That's all right, no problem. MICHAEL: So this is kind of a two-parter and this is one of my favorite hacks that I think is a hidden gem in the podcasting world of how to do this. First of all, just like in all business, this all comes down to relationships. So, there has to be a degree of separation between the person you want and sometimes the person you can get. So you have to first do a little research on relationships and find out who knows who and what's going on. You can do that often on Twitter and find out who is following who and that kind of thing; but initially how I did it was I was very conscious about building a relationship with pat Flynn because I saw him as the center of this universe that I wanted to be in. And to do that, I was very specific and measured on how – and I'm not saying I stalked me but – SHANE: We all do; no, I'm just kidding. MICHAEL: I liked what he had to do, I was listening to him, I was paying attention to his shows, I launched an online social media training product, I wrote to him with a very specific question and it wasn't like "How do I start a podcast?" which I just got the other day, which was amazing to me, but it was a very specific question to my online business.