Interview - Process: Walk me through what goes on in producing one episode. Before / During / After.

Arjun Sundararajan: just walk me through, like, your process. Right? Like, you mentioned that this is whole thing happens in ninety minutes. Which it seems fantastic. So just walk us through the whole process, Any real quick just what happened before the during part, we talk quite a bit about it.

Carl Cox: So

Arjun Sundararajan: What happens after?

Carl Cox: I I... Once again... I'm fortunate because we have some resources where we can help to invest in this. And so I have one of my team members prepares my pre interview.

Arjun Sundararajan: Got it.

Carl Cox: Stuff. So... Because I do wanna be prepared is one thing I get anxious with and I'm like, okay, do we have it ready? And that's the one thing I'll I'll check out with my Cindy does a great job. But but it's like, okay, Cindy. Do we have the information up and and so that gives me... So I could... That use... Because I should have to prepare them on my own, and that was

Arjun Sundararajan: Yeah.

Carl Cox: that was more time and effort. And so I have the pre interview. And then I I... Depending on the guest I... It depends. I mean, sometimes they'll I'll do a lot of research.

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: Meaning a lot, meaning I'll I'll do you some additional stuff. Some times I'll read their book ahead of time, you know, to to have more connection with them. It depends from from week to week. But but that's that's my prep work. And and but sometimes I run relatively cold. It's like I have their bio and and let's go, You know, and so it's this kind of preliminary piece.

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: But what was helpful once again is I prepped them beforehand. Right? So we talked about that. So before they can even come onto to the show, I have the prep interview.

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: That's where I honestly get to connect with them initially. And and we'll typically... We'll have a conversation it. Get to know each other a little bit. And then and then they'll we'll we'll kinda prep ahead of time of okay. This is what we wanna talk about. And some things that we perhaps someone wanna talk about their childhood, Perhaps wanna talk about some other win. You know what wherever it is. We get some... So that's that part of that pre. So it's that... So I do have, I I'd say two things. Just forgive me for not. We we have that thirty... You know, fifth twenty minute to thirty minute prep discussion.

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: So that's a big... That's really how I do the majority of my prep proposition preparation. We have a prep interview document that's in front of me right beside me on the side. So I'm looking at two things when

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: front of me, my camera. One is the... That looking at them. And then the second part is making sure that we have my high level of their bio, and I wanna make sure I read that correctly, and I'd say that. So then the during is, I... I'll go through that. So I'll go through that

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: document. But as I said, I like, for me, it's nice. I've memorized my don't have to really read my intro anymore. I know I'm gonna say or real time. I know what my sponsorship thing. I I generally know what that is unless I change it. That's usually pretty quick. And I've learned in speaking, right? It's it's important not to be too scripted because it

Arjun Sundararajan: Yeah.

Carl Cox: people pick that up. They know when you're reading. And so I try to minimize that. Even that's with the bios somebody share with me one you know, if you really have somebody well, you don't have to read everything through the bio so I I try to not read their kind of the shorter version of it. But this one, I said I go back to during, I really wanna be in

Arjun Sundararajan: Bye.

Carl Cox: I wanna be curious. I wanna be a conversation. I want them. I love to stump them. Not not an intentional bad way, but just... I want them to think old Deeper. Right? Not to be automatic.

Arjun Sundararajan: Of course. Of course. Yeah.

Carl Cox: And then the after I try to make ten minutes before the end of. So we we do an hour

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: event. And the last minutes is... Alright. I need to give you I need to give you a gift. And so we literally go online and I we reorder the thing and get

Arjun Sundararajan: Right. Nice.

Carl Cox: sent out to them. And so that's one of the things to do. We tell them about how follow ups gonna happen take place. We tell them one's gonna be, you know, we send them about three or four follow up emails of here's your gear. This is gonna get out. Here's when it's been published. So all of that information goes out to them. And... But I will ask them, you know, how can we help you? And and... But I also ask him do you have a anybody you'd would recommend? To be in the podcast. And and that's one of the... With the low... That's lost success tip for those who are thinking you're doing a podcast is a great way to increase your list is the ask for referrals from your actual guest themselves.

Arjun Sundararajan: Bye.

Carl Cox: This is one of the reasons why we have the three month backlog. Or actually we're four month backlog. No know I look at it now. It's because we're continuously asking, tell us the best person that can be on the podcast that you know. And and so that then we don't have to be seeking out, I I would say... And and because we've gone... We've grown

Arjun Sundararajan: Right.

Carl Cox: now people were seeking to be on our podcast. So we have the podcast hunters who are trying to get their guest on because there are a group of humans or they're trying to intentionally be podcast. So so we have that too. And then every once in a while, I'll see human out there, I'm, like, oh, you're I really want you to be on. And so so we'll reach out once a while to somebody. But

Arjun Sundararajan: Fine.

Carl Cox: the vast majority today come from the two other parts, then trying to come on or it's a referral from this a guest.

Arjun Sundararajan: That's amazing. You have a channel strategy for, like an inbound and everything going on for that, and that's that's impressive.