i don't want to be the interviewer

a lot of founders ask me how to start a podcast as a ceo. almost none of them say the real fear out loud. a founder on a debrief this morning did.

his episode had been one of the top five performers on the show over the past month. and i'm doing seven or eight interviews a day, so that's a crowded field. he was great on air.

on the debrief he heard the give-first pitch for the first time. host your own show, invite the people you want to know, let the relationship come before the ask. he liked it. he said it felt different from everything else he gets pitched.

then he told me where he usually sits. on the asking side. asking for money, for connections, for help. always the one who needs something.

and his hesitation wasn't the time or the cost. it was the chair. being the interviewer felt uncomfortable to him. stressful. he said i make it look natural, and he didn't think he could do that.

i get it. most founders love being the guest. it's flattering. you talk about the thing you know best. being the host feels like being on stage with no script.

but that's the wrong fear.

the host's job isn't to perform. it's to research, to listen and to give. my answer to him on the call was along those lines... the stuff that leads to the money is relationships, giving, listening, research. that's all the stuff a podcaster has to do anyway.

think of a good dinner host. they're not the funniest person at the table. they're the one who asked the right question and then let you talk. nobody leaves saying the host was a great performer. they leave saying they had a great night.

and the part that scares people most is the part a system can carry. on our side the research is done by ai. the prep doc with suggested questions sits right inside the calendar invite. the only thing left that's manual is the live human conversation. the one thing a ceo is already good at.

what i find funny about his fear. the asking side is the uncomfortable side. asking for money is stressful. asking for intros is stressful. asking strangers for help is stressful. he's already doing the hard version every week.

hosting is how you leave the asking side. you stop being the person who needs something and become the person giving a stage. the money conversations still happen. they just happen later, with people who already like you.

the discomfort of the chair fades after a handful of episodes. the discomfort of always asking doesn't.

the system handles the prep. you just have to show up curious, and most founders already are, about their own market.

nobody is a smooth host on episode one. that's fine. what makes an interview work isn't polish. it's that you did the research and you want to hear the answer.

your guests will forgive a clumsy question. they won't forgive a host who clearly didn't read about them.

and notice who's on the other side of the mic. not an audience of strangers judging you. one person, who you picked, talking about the work they're proudest of. that's not a stage. that's a conversation you'd want to have anyway.

i invited him to our friday show and tell to see the whole thing running. if you want to see how we run the show for founders, it's laid out here.

so which feels worse to you... an hour of asking good questions, or another year of asking for money?