everybody is interesting... how to invite a ceo to be a podcast guest

a week or so ago i spent an hour with a media scholar who has spent his whole life inside media theory. he's the kind of person who thinks about a zoom call the way most of us think about the weather... something that shapes you whether you notice it or not.

i was explaining how i do outreach. most founders default to the same message. i'm awesome, give me money. it's the pitch deck in email form.

so i flip it. i tell the other person they're awesome. i invite them to talk about what they've learned. and something counterintuitive happens. the wealthier and more successful the person, the more likely they are to say yes. they have more stories, and fewer people ask to hear them.

he listened and then told me what i was doing, in his language.

a one-to-one zoom and a broadcast studio can be the same webcam, the same lighting, the same two people. but when you call it broadcast, behaviour changes. guests show up to prove themselves. the power dynamic flips. they aren't being sold to anymore. they're on stage.

same setup. different medium. different person shows up.

and then he warned me about the objection i'd hit most.

"people's response, especially ceos, are going to be, oh, well, i'm not interesting."

he's right. if you want to know how to invite a ceo to be a podcast guest, expect that reply. it's the most common no you'll get, and it's almost never about their calendar.

his suggestion was to stop fighting it and name the show after the answer. call it everybody is interesting.

because that objection is the hook, not the wall. the ceo who says i'm not interesting is telling you nobody has asked them a good question in years. they've been answering the same five questions from the same reporters and the same board. of course they think they've run out of material.

and then he said the line i wrote on a sticky note. answers are easy. questions are hard.

most of us spend our energy on answers. the pitch. the deck. the perfect explanation of what we do. but answers are everywhere now. any model will give you a dozen in a second.

questions are what's scarce. the person who brings the good question controls the room, because they decide what everyone gets to think about next.

think about the last time a question stopped you. not an answer. a question. you probably still remember who asked it, and you probably took their next call. that's the kind of pull no pitch has ever had on you.

it's like a great dinner host. the food matters. but the night everyone remembers is the one where somebody asked the question that got the quiet person at the end of the table talking for an hour.

so when a ceo tells you they're not interesting, don't argue. send them the questions. three or four specific ones about the thing only they would know. let them see they're more interesting than they remember.

long term, i think this is the most underrated skill in business. not pitching. asking. the people who get good at questions end up with the best relationships, the best information, and the best guests, because everybody wants to be around the person who makes them feel interesting.

if you've ever been told you should share what you know, consider this your invite to be a guest on the show.

so the last time someone told you they weren't interesting... did you believe them, or did you ask a better question?