How To Create An Awesome Interview At Top Agents Playbook. Guidelines, Ideas + Booking Scheduler

Hello and welcome, I’m Ray.
Many thanks for being a guest on Top Agents Playbook.
Here’s how to grab a time for our interview call plus all the important
essentials you need to know before I press record.

Important Interview preparation notes. (please study and prepare well before our interview)
We’re going to wing it 🙂
It’s a chat…  and my best interviews are a winding river. If this is your first interview then I’m honored. But relax. There are no agendas. I’m looking to share your story or experience with our listeners.

Scheduler & Pre-Interview Checklist

• If we’ve discussed setting up an interview, please click on this link and grab a time that works for you. I’m based in Toronto Canada which is why times will look a little weird if you’re in Australia or NZ
• I’m grateful for your time, your knowledge and expert advice so let’s promo your message early in the show. If I’ve agreed to host you as a guest on my show then please know I’m here to support you and promote your mission.
• Our interview will sound better if you’re in a quiet space
• I prefer to record audio AND video on a program called Zoom. I will send you the link just before our scheduled call time. Desktops are better than mobiles. Headsets are better than the phone mic.
• You’ll need a good solid Internet connection and signal.
• Our recorded interview will sound MUCH BETTER if you use a headset. If you don’t have one, just search ‘Logitech headset (your area)’ They are cheap and provide the very best audio quality
• If you have one, please email your Bio to ray@bestagentsinc.com
• If you’re on Facebook, let’s connect and I’ll tag you when we go live so we can get your message out.
• I need a quality high resolution .jpeg or .png image of you on a transparent background if possible
• If you have some specific questions you’d like me to include, then send ’em over
• I’ll be asking you: “What’s the best way to get in touch?” A URL, Facebook page or email works best.

So they are the essential basics. Here’s more info that you might find useful for our episode:

• Content. My subscribers and listeners are mainly residential real estate professionals. So naturally, I try to keep things relevant. I’m looking to leverage your skill into that area if you’re not in real estate
• We’ll chat before I press record and set everything up!

Interview rules and guidelines

• No religious references or praising God. Sorry, my crowd doesn’t dig it.
• No swearing.
• If I ask a question you’re not comfortable with answering, that’s totally cool.  Just say “I’d rather not answer that.”

A deeper dive into creating awesome audio (podcast) content

Each Podcast is uploaded to TopAgentsPlaybook.com and also to iTunes and Stitcher which means we’re virtually exposed to millions of people looking for awesome content to help them in every aspect of their real estate career.

If you have any issues with putting the full recording of our session onto this global platform, you better let me know now, but I’m assuming you will have worked out that was going to happen anyway.

I also started uploading a video recording of each session to Youtube.  Here’s a link to my channel

So, in order to make you and I rock stars in the ‘podcastesphere’, we need good audio and video quality.

If you’ve ever listened to a podcast with poor audio quality you’ll know how bad it sounds. I want listeners to get real value from your contribution and to do that I’ve invested heavily in the best equipment to make you sound awesome.

I will be recording our session from my end but I need your input and help in 4 specific areas:

1. First off, I prefer to record using Zoom. This is virtual meeting software and works well giving us crisp audio and video files. (I don’t always use video but try to where possible)

2. Next, for our call you’ll need a headset with a microphone. If you’re speaking hands-free through your built-in computer microphone, my audio will be feeding back through your microphone when I’m speaking and it will make our recording unusable.

If you need some help configuring devices through your preferences drop down menu, let me know.

If you don’t own a headset/microphone, a good basic investment is the Logitech USB Headset H390. It’s about $50. I’m a big fan of Logitech. Their products are robust and reliable. My H390 goes with me everywhere and has never let me down. Here’s a link to the Canadian site so you can see how they look.

3. Probably goes without saying but if you’re Internet connection is iffy, we’re going to struggle. I have excellent WIFI at my end but just to be sure, I plug my Mac straight into the Internet connection to eliminate any potential issues in that area. If you could do the same, I’d appreciate it 🙂

4. My final request is that you choose a nice quiet place for our session. A busy, open plan office will not work and we’ll both find ourselves distracted. I’ll admit I’ve done a couple of interviews where my interviewee was in a noisy place and it was a complete waste of time.

Once we’ve done our interview and I know what the content is, I record the Podcast intro (summarising the main points of interest) and closing outro.

What I’m looking for and how you can help
The Top Agents Playbook (TAP) Podcast is about helping real estate agents get more out of their careers whether they’re month-one rookies or highly successful seasoned legends looking for an edge.

My mission is to help them discover more about what the very best agents in our industry are doing to get awesome results.

It’s widely believed less than 5% of agents make 95% of the income generated in the real estate industry so I’m keen to TAP into what they do and share it with my listeners. I’m not looking to steal special secrets or private magic formulas but I am looking for the key operational concepts that help agents consistently succeed at such a high level.

After more than a few years in real estate I find our industry’s best are always open to sharing their success, in fact, they love giving back to an industry that has given them so much.

Through my podcasts, I’m looking to inspire agents and open their thinking up to fresh concepts, cool ideas and proven success strategies in an open forum platform and I believe the convenience of listening to a Podcast is the best way to do that.

In addition to interviewing real estate’s very best performers, I want to cast the net nice and wide to catch up with specialists in every relevant field.

If you’re not in real estate but you’re in a related field like a copywriter, web designer, social media or SEO expert, I’m looking for the most obvious ‘cut-through-the-white-noise’ ideas and recommendations you can offer to help our listening audience.

If you’re an agent, I’ll be asking you questions like:

• How many sales you’re doing each month?
• What’s your best advice to rookies just getting started?
• Do you have a prospecting plan?
• How do you attract new clients
• What’s your best prospecting method?
• How do you like to keep in touch with former clients?
• Can you share some of your best marketing ideas?
• Do you have any time management of productivity secrets?
• Can you describe a typical day?

Stuff like that.

If you’re not an agent, I’ll be working with you to help us engage our listening audience with relevant, insightful and helpful content related to your field of expertise.

And here’s an important tip for non real estate guests to let you know a bit more about your listening audience:

• We are real estate agents and our careers seem to dominate our thinking for the majority of our waking hours. (it’s in our DNA)
• We are pre-occupied with getting more listings to sell and how we can initiate and build better relationships with potential sellers in our area.
• Most of us are interested in technology but not engineer grade minutia, which will make us switch off very quickly.
• Give us the short and abridged version. Give us the good stuff and make it as easy to understand as you can 🙂
• Very few of us spent much time in University or have letters after our names. We were more interested in building a career and often came to real estate after spending years in a job we disliked.
• By nature we are impatient and looking to leverage time in the best possible way. (Like listening to podcasts in our cars between appointments)
• We are always on the lookout for cool ideas, suggestions, shortcuts and tips that will help us find more sellers, attract more buyers and make more sales.
• And we want more time with our families because many of us work both weekend days, which sucks but it’s part of the deal we signed up for.

So think about your area of specialization and what you can share that will quickly help us improve the careers and lives of our listeners.

I prefer to have a free and flowing conversation that leaves me with a minimum of edits in post-production.

What’s in it for you and how can I help?
In return for you sharing your valuable time and awesome ideas, I’m here to help you promote your enterprise. Before we start recording, I’ll ask you how you’d like to be introduced and which aspect of your business I can help promote for you.

I’ll also be listing your contact details, website and contact information (if you wish) to include in the show notes with the podcast at TopAgentsPlaybook.com If you’d prefer me not to include anything then naturally, I will oblige.

Many thanks again for doing this. I genuinely appreciate it.

If you have any questions, sing out.

Cheers Ray 🙂