Quick quality control that will build trust with your podcast guests

I don't know about you but I sometimes get caught up in the creative flow of producing content and mistakes happen. The best way I know to deal with this is to do regular quality checks. Because time gives me space to actually see mistakes and the patience to fix them.

​ Here's what I often do. 

Part 1: The introduction

• check the guest’s name and info are correct and easy to understand
• if you said their name wrong, no problem, but consider rerecording the name (if you can get your voice close to the tone in the recording) OR remove it

• consider deleting the hello banter. It’s wonderful that you chatted before diving into the main content BUT the listener gets very little value out of this banter.

Part 2: Transitional parts of the podcast:
This includes the intro into the main part, the main part to an ad or announcement (mid-roll), and out of that segment and finally the end of the guest segment into the outro.

• 90% of editing mistakes or oversights happen in this transitional areas. Listen back to just these sections before uploading your episode. It will save a lot of grief later. 

Part 3: The Outro:

• Does the info they say in the episode match what’s in the show notes? I’ve had many a guests write one bit of info on the guest form and then say another in the conversation. I usually use the one they say for the show notes. But if you’ve got any doubts, ask them before publishing.
• Is their name, company name, website, etc understandable. Sometimes guests have wonky internet connections and sometimes there are mistakes made. It’s our responsibility to make sure our guests look good and that this info is correct. If there’s a mistake, fix it before publishing. Never blame technology. We have the ability to edit and smooth out these errors. Publishing a mistake with incorrect or incomplete contact guest info is THE quickest way to break a connection.
• Doing these 3 quick spot checks BEFORE publishing will save you a lot of time and grief, trust me. And more importantly, it will help you build connections with your guests. Other than this being good humaning, it also shows your listeners that you take your connections seriously. When you show that you respect others, they will respect you. ​
• Listen all the way from the outro to the end of the episode. Sometimes we (or our editors) move clips to the end because we want time to think about if we’re going to use them. And then we forget them there. Make sure the outro is the end of the episode.