Growing Your Business with Podcasting... Without Having a Podcast with Ray Blakney: An EOFire Classic from 2022

How To Grow Your Business With Podcast Guest Appearances

Podcast guesting is a powerful, underused tactic to build authority, generate backlinks, and connect with ready-made audiences without launching your own show. In this conversation, serial entrepreneur Ray Blakeney breaks down why appearing on other people's podcasts is easier, faster, and often more strategic than starting a full podcast — and how to do it efficiently so it actually moves the needle for your business.

Why Guesting Beats Hosting For Many Entrepreneurs

Recording and sustaining a podcast takes significant time and resources: guest scouting, interview prep, editing, promotion, and consistent publishing. Ray argues that guesting flips that burden onto established hosts. You get the mic, the audience, and the distribution, while the host handles production and promotion. That model shortens the path to visibility and gives you frequent opportunities to refine your message.

Five Practical Benefits Of Podcast Guesting

• Instant audience access: get in front of targeted listeners without building an audience from scratch.
• Automated social traction: many hosts post and tag guests, covering your social calendar for episodes.
• Backlinks and traffic: show notes typically include links back to your website or product, boosting search visibility.
• Fame by association: appearing on respected shows raises your perceived authority and credibility.
• Personal clarity: repeating your story in interviews sharpens your pitch and reveals what truly motivates you.

Two Questions To Answer Before Pitching

Before you craft a single email, define the what and the who: what is your goal for the interview (book sales, leads, brand awareness), and who is the exact audience you want to reach? Targeting wrong shows wastes time and energy, so be disciplined and pick podcasts that align with both your message and audience profile.

Pitching Strategies That Work

Keep initial outreach short and compelling, include a concise media kit or LinkedIn link, personalize at least one line to show you know the host, and follow up multiple times. Ray recommends a punchy opener or brief curiosity hook to increase open rates, plus a three- or four-message follow-up cadence over weeks to catch busy hosts.

Automating Outreach Without Losing Authenticity

Searching for suitable shows manually can take dozens of hours. Tools that index podcasts by description, episode frequency, recent publishing and audience indicators speed the process dramatically. Ray describes using a searchable database and an automated email drip to pitch the right list of podcasts over time, allowing you to maintain volume without turning outreach into manual drudgery.

Practice, Scale, And Track Your Progress

Start with smaller shows to practice and improve your interview skills, then graduate to mid-tier and top-tier podcasts. Aim to be a recurring guest habitually—Ray suggests one to two guest appearances a week or a focused day each month where you record multiple interviews. Track response rates and conversions from show notes and referral links to measure impact.

Guesting on podcasts offers a fast route to visibility, backlinks, and brand refinement while minimizing production overhead. With clear goals, targeted show selection, concise personalized pitches, and a repeatable outreach system, appearing on other people’s podcasts becomes a scalable growth channel that refines your message and accelerates business results.