You may have heard the old adage, “there’s no such thing as a dumb question”. It’s true. It’s also crucial to ask the right questions of your podcast guests.
Here’s why those two things aren’t independent of each other.
Let’s start with an example. What’s your favorite color? Is it blue (statistically likely)? Is it beige (statistically very very unlikely)? Whatever your answer, it’s not going to be very engaging for a podcast listener. But the question isn’t necessarily a facile one if you follow it up.
Sometimes the right questions can start out as duds!
So, we’ve decided for the purpose of the example that you like blue.
Hey, why blue? Maybe it reminds you of your first car! That’s a great start to a story. You must have loved that car a lot for its color to become your favorite. Now you’ve given away a little insight into your personality. A savvy interviewer might pick up on that and ask questions that focus on the car. They might try to tease out an anecdote about what it was that made that car so special.
And you can get all that out of the simple question: What’s your favorite color?
The beauty of questions like these is that this rather simple, unassuming query — something that almost everyone will have an answer to — can become a platform to let your guests guide the discussion into a topic they know about, and care about. When your guest is genuinely interested and excited about a topic, your listeners will become engaged and want to know more.
Take care to listen!
Nevertheless, as the host it is your responsibility to stay mindful of sensitive topics.
Sometimes, answers to broad questions can come from the subconscious. If the guest responded that blue is their favorite color because it reminds them of a parent who always used to wear a blue hat, but that guest was unprepared or unwilling to talk about their family on a public platform, you might unintentionally trigger a negative emotional response.
Make sure that you listen to their answers. Are they coming across as guarded? Time to change tactics (unless you’re a political journalist that doesn’t pull punches, in which case we would say, keep going!)
Learning to ask the right questions can help professionally and personally
Learning to ask questions the right way won’t only make you a great interviewer — it can also help you in your personal life. “understanding how to ask the right questions will carry over into other aspects of life, including personal relationships, business negotiations and more.” (Ginni Saraswati, “Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Podcast”, Entrepreneur, 2021)
Why don’t you give your new method a try? Talk to us on our Instagram channel @ginnimedia and ask us our favorite color!