How to Be a Successful Podcast Guest

1. Welcome!: You're going to be a guest on a podcast. Congratulations, or you are looking to guest on more podcasts in the future, and you want to be ready to go. This is a quick and dirty course that gives you just the basics of the important things you need to know and prepare when you are getting ready to go onto a podcast as a guest. Right away, we're going to talk about what you need to have prepped in advance to help out your host. This will make sure that you are a very responsible and helpful guest to your podcast host and their producing team if they have one. We're also going to then go over what to do when you actually are going to be on video as part of your podcasting, and we'll talk, of course, about the most important piece, which is the quality of your audio and the equipment. We'll also do a brief lesson on warming up your body and your voice to get ready to use your mouth to communicate your message. So welcome, and I hope you enjoy. 2. How to Sound Your Best: Now let's talk about how to sound good when you're guesting on a podcast. If you are going to spend any money on this project at all, I highly recommend that the first place you spend some money is on a professional microphone. The good news is they're actually not as expensive as you might think. Do you have to spend money on a microphone? No, you absolutely don't. In fact, I know some podcast hosts who don't even have professional mics. However, I think it makes the biggest difference in how good you sound. So let me give you a little tour of my podcast microphone. This is it. This is actually what I'm recording this lesson on. It's also what I use to record my podcast. It comes in three major pieces, and these are the pieces you want to look for. Number one, it's a large microphone that has good coverage. Even if you're slightly over here or slightly over here, you'll still be heard. Is different from what we call a directional microphone, which might be the kind that you're used to seeing with rock stars onstage, or it's generally called a handheld microphone. So you have a stick and a ball on top, and you really have to speak right into the top of it in order to be heard. Now, with a microphone like this, it's a lot more forgiving. So you don't have to think like beyond say in order to be recording properly. This thing right here, this is a pop screen. There's also wind screens. It's good to have something that goes in front of the microphone so that, if any breezes come, if you exhale loudly, or if you have a particular diction that is very poppy when it comes toss, Ks. This screen can be an excellent thing that just helps kind of clean up your voice and helps it be recorded and captured as cleanly as possible. Then finally, a stand. A stand is really helpful that you can adjust to your microphone on it and really put your mic exactly where it needs to be for your room and your setup. If you do not have a microphone like this, now, this is plugged into my computer, everything we're going to talk about that I'm going to recommend is hard wired into your device. These our favorite little air pods or anything that is Bluetooth enabled, not good. Here's why. First of all, the microphone tends to be very, very short. It can rub against your face and create a sound of wind. No good. The other thing is with Bluetooth, it's unreliable. You don't know if your audio is being picked up consistently or if it's going in and out, and you'll never know that information unless they turn off in the middle of your interview, which would not be good either. It could be that it's just going in and out and you'll never know until the sound engineer is pulling their hair out, trying to make your interview sound good. Leave the Bluetooth speakers away. You can use a hard wired, good old fashion, microphone with the headset or with a headset with the microphone right here. When those go in your ears, it's a decent distance from your face. And this, I think, is your best cheap or free if you've got one already alternative to a fancier microphone. Yeah, you can get these a target. You can get them anywhere. If you bought a phone recently, probably came with it. These want to be hard wired into your computer too. So if you are using something that plugs generally into your phone, you might need an adapter to go into your computer, or you're going to be recording on a device that fits this like an iPad. Now, can you record onto your phone or onto an iPad, et cetera? Generally speaking, yes, you can. But the absolute best thing that you can do to make sure that you're being a podcast guesting pro is to be plugged into an actual computer. Like a laptop or a desktop. These are the most reliable and generally are framed the best for any visual stuff you're doing, and it just is a little bit, again, more reliable than a phone where you might get interrupted or notifications might be popping up all over the place. So back to the microphones. Number one best thing you can have is a professional external microphone. Your second best bet is something like this, where you can get the mic away from your body, but close enough to your mouth. If you have a body mic, It would be surprising if you had one of these and you didn't have the other things. But I use this body mic for recording courses and lessons when I'm up and about, I also use these for speaking events. If you have something like this or offered something like this, this attaches right to your Lapel. It's also called a Lapel mic. Now, you can absolutely use this for your podcast interviewing. This again, gets hard wired into your computer. When you have something like this on, you want to be mindful of your hair, of your extra clothing, of any earrings that might dangle. Speaking of clothing, make sure that you're not wearing anything that rustles. I am somebody that loves a statement earring, but I don't wear it when I am recording because I don't want it to bang into anything that I am recording with and make noise, no bracelets, et cetera. Now, the other important component of your equipment is a headset. So the best thing you can get is an external headset that looks something like this. You'll notice, again, not bluetooth. This is plugged in to my actual computer. This goes over my ears. It blocks out the sound from around me so I can really focus, and best of all, It means that my sound is not is as clean as possible. Somehow, in the magic of computers and the magic of sound, when you're plugged in with headphones into your actual device, it eliminates a lot of the tech sound, so the worrying of a computer or any kind of additional background noise. It's really important that you are wearing headphones when you're recording. And it's something that seems a little counter intuitive. Who cares if I'm wearing headphones? What difference does it make? But it really does make a difference. So again, Here, these work, or you can have over ear headphones and an external microphone. You can use whatever combination works. But here's something surprising. Noise canceling headphones, bad. Canceling headphones actually make your sound muffled. So you want a best option over e headphones that are made specifically for audio engineering or podcasting. These are not noise canceling, so don't be fooled into thinking, Oh, more noise canceling is better. So microphone, headset, headphones. Those are the two only things you absolutely need, and they need to be hardwired into your computer. Now, in terms of your environment, the best thing that you can do when you are recording is go to a space that's as muffled as possible. So people, for example, who are doing voice over work, who are doing commercials or who are reading books on tape, they actually generally will build a little sound booth in their closet because it's filled with fabric, and fabric is great for sound. But if you happen to have a home office with concrete floors and wooden doors and windows everywhere like I do, You can get one of these. This is an isolation shield. Okay? It's hard to show you what this looks like. But essentially, it's a piece of metal with foam on the inside. Where this goes is generally, although not right now because I wanted to show it to you, it goes right behind my microphone. So what that does is it creates a barrier for the sound to bounce off into or actually not bounce to be captured into the soft foam material. It has made a huge difference in my recording quality when I moved from not having baffling to having something like that. Now, that is actually pretty inexpensive. It cost about $30. But if you don't have that or you don't want to spend the money, there's a couple of things you can do. You can use yoga blocks. Tap those yoga blocks right behind your microphone, and that can help bounce the sound off. You can create a little pillow structure right behind your microphone. Or, again, ideally, you get yourself into a room with a lot of carpets, furniture, fabric that muffles the sound. Echoes are really hard to get rid of, and anything that sounds what we call bright is going to mean that the engineer has to bring down the quality of your voice in order to mask some of that echoess. So setting yourself up in a space where sound does you favors is really, really helpful. Now, the last thing I'll say is, again, about distance. When you are working with a microphone, you don't want to be too close to it, and you don't want to be too far away. Best case thing to do is to put your hand like this about 6 " and go about six to 8 " away from your microphone. Make sure that the head of the microphone, the widest part of it is pointing at your mouth. That's it about Sound. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to reach out to me through the contact form on my website and send me a message and make sure that you understand all the ins and outs. But if nothing else, you want to make sure you've got headphones and an external microphone that's not bluetooth, that can be hard wired into the device you're recording on. Other than that, everything else is just added bonus. 3. How to Look Good on Video: While podcasting is generally speaking an audio medium first. A lot of podcasts these days will do a video recording as well. They will share that on a YouTube channel or use it for marketing their individual episodes. So in advance of podcast guesting, you want to ask this question. Will we be recorded? And if so, will that be put anywhere public? Okay. So you'll then know whether or not you need to get dressed up and look a little nice or whether you can show up in your jammies. When you are considering doing podcast guesting that has a visual component to it, you want to take a moment to check two key things. The first is your lighting and the second is your background. In a separate video, I talk about your audio mechanisms, your microphone, your room, et cetera. This video is purely about visuals. What you want to make sure of with your lighting is that the primary light source in your recording room is coming from in front of you, not behind you. If it is coming from behind you, you will be backlit, which means that your face will generally be in shadows. Even if you are recording or on a call with a host, and it's not going to go up publicly on YouTube, you still want to be paying attention to this because it can be really distracting when you're talking to somebody and you can't quite see their face. Now, here's something interesting. Psychologically, it is harder for us to understand somebody's language when we can't see their mouths moving. So this is why it's even more important when you do something like a YouTube video that your lighting is dialed in. Now, this does not have to be a big project or expensive. You don't even need a ring light. Here in my home office where I'm recording this right now, I actually just have three light sources. I have a desk lamp over here and a desk lamp over here and a floor lamp in front of me. And guess what? I got all three of these things at Target. I think the desk lamp costs me about $12. Let me show you what it looks like. Tata, This is it. This is giving me this kind of soft lighting that's hitting my face and making sure that I'm brighter in front than behind. I also positions my desk where I'm recording this so that the window in this room is in front of me instead of to the side of me or behind me. That will go a huge distance into making your setup look more professional. Now, in terms of your background, you don't have to have a fancy setup, but you want to make sure that your background is either well crafted or simply just not distracting. So make sure that your background is generally plain, simple, or slightly designed as I have here. I do a lot of video recording. So this is a setup that I had designed and then permanently keep up. But for you, if you're somebody who doesn't do a whole lot of videoing, you still want to make sure that whatever's behind you is not messy, is not too distracting, for example, if anything is moving behind you, perhaps you have a curtain, and there's a fluttery wind, and it makes the fabric move. Or you have a very busy wall pattern behind you. Stripes, small stripes, especially are very distracting on camera. So you want to create a space for yourself that's as neutral as possible and shares a little bit, but not too much of your personality. There. I also want to talk just briefly about what you're wearing. When we are being recorded on video, solid colors are the best. You might even find that this necklace I'm wearing is too bright and distracting. If you notice that, just tuck that in. When you are wearing again, tiny stripes, for some reason, those stripes look like they're moving when they're filmed. So you want to try to keep solid colors or bold prints as much as possible. That will keep the focus on this part of your body, which is the most important part. Of course, your face. Now, a background does give you an opportunity to tell a story, so I don't want to lose the opportunity to encourage you to think creatively about what's behind you. Now, if you're an author, obviously, you might want a couple of your own books in the image behind you, if you're an artist, a painting. But if you're somebody like me who is neither a visual artist nor a published author. What I tried to do was bring a little bit of what I talk about in my personal stories into my image. So what you see is some plants. I live on a farm. I like to talk about living on a farm as part of my story. I love reading. So I've got books, but you'll notice that they're turned around. The reason they're turned around is because I don't want people leaning in to try to figure out what is on her bookshelf. Just the indication of books is enough to demonstrate that I like to read. And then I have a few pieces of art. This one up here was actually created by a relative of mine. So I have a personal story about it. This one was made by somebody who works for an organization that supports education in Africa. So if anyone were to ever ask me a story about what's behind me, I have something to talk about. But generally speaking, it's just kind of a nice frame, puts my face right in the center of the camera. Now, I want to say two other things about camera etiquette. If we get too close to the camera, it cuts off our face, and it's a little bit hard to focus. If we get too far away, we look teeny, tiny. So the best thing you can do is sit in a place where your eyes are about one third of the way from the top of the frame, two thirds of the way from the bottom of the frame, and you want to position yourself as close to the center of the frame as you can. So two thirds up, one third down, and towards the center, not too close and not too far away. So that is some of what will help you look good when you're being recorded. 4. What to Prepare in Advance: As a podcast guest, you will need to prepare a little bit or a lot, depending on the podcast you're going to be a guest on. Here are some of the things that you should have prepared in advance and that may actually help you get booked on the podcast in the first place. So in no particular order, here are the things that you can create for yourself in advance, and then just copy paste to every single host whose podcast you're going to go on. O. Number one, as somebody with a name that gets mispronounced all the time, make sure you share a pronunciation guide for your name. Is helpful even if you have a very typical name for the language that you speak, like in English Joe Smith. It's helpful just to let people know, Joe Smith is pronounced just how you think it is. For me, I have a little bit more difficult of a name, Adriana Bear. What I have is actually a recording of myself saying my name that I share with hosts. That way, they can practice saying your name properly in advance, and you don't have that awkward moment where they're saying your name wrong and you don't know whether or not to correct them. So give them that information in advance. You also want to have ready five questions that you think would be good for that host to ask you. Now, probably what you want to do is have maybe 15 questions that you can pick and choose from depending on the podcast. For me, as a public speaking coach and leadership coach, I have a set of questions that's more geared towards public speaking tips, a set of questions that's more geared toward leadership conversations, and then I have some questions that are more interesting about me, because often the interviews are much more about you and your story than they are about what you do and your business. So you want to encourage your hosts to ask you questions that you want to answer. Of course, you want to have answers ready to those questions, not scripted, just a little idea of how you would answer the most interesting questions about you or what you do. You want to have ready a quick introduction of who are you and how did you get where you are? Often, podcast hosts will start there. Tell me, who are you? What do you do? Where did you come from? How did you get to be a maker. How did you get to be a novelist? Why did you start your business, that kind of thing? You want to have a little bit of a script. Again, maybe just an outline, not necessarily scripted for you to introduce yourself to the podcast listener universe. Again, you can tailor this based on who your audience is. And so to get that information, simply ask your host, if it's not clear based on their podcast description, who their target audience is, really deliberately ask them that question. Who is your demographic? Who is your coalition or ship, and what is the information that they need? This is going to help you so much. Maybe more than almost anything else in your preparation is to know who you're speaking to because there's a big difference in speaking to a 25-year-old who's just starting off their career versus a 65-year-old who's at the end of their career. Both are potential audiences for you, but you need to know who it is you're talking to so that you can sculpt your story in a way that resonates with them. The personal stuff is important. So don't forget when you are introducing yourself or answering the question. Tell me about your journey to share a little bit about you. Where do you live? What kind of place do you live? Do you live in New York City and an apartment? Do you live on a farm? Do you have children? Do you have a partner? Do you have animals? Whatever you feel like sharing that gives us a little bit more information about you? It's going to go a long way to making your listeners lean in. Because remember, we like hearing stories about other people. We're not always, even if we're listening to a business podcast, not always looking for business skills. Sometimes we need to know a little bit more about the person we're listening to in order to be invested in what they have to say. So again, to recap, you want to have a quick answer to who are you and what do you do? And you also want to have some information that livens that up a little bit with some personal information as well. In advance of your interview, you should be ready to send your host a bio, a short one 1-200 words. Any links that you have. So if you have a personal website, if you have a free giveaway, if you have a YouTube channel, your social media links, your linked in profile, any place that you want listeners to go after they listen to your episode, you will want to have ready to send to your hosts. Then of course, a headshot or multiple options of headshots. If you're going to be guesting a lot, you may want to have a media file that includes a couple of different sizes of headshots, and maybe a couple of different directions. So a vertical headshot, a square headshot, horizontal headshot. Then they, the host and their team, can choose whichever one fits best into their branding. Now, a good host, a good team is going to send you collateral material once your episode is done. They'll probably send you the cover photo if you're featured on that photo. They will send you the direct link to the episode. If there's a YouTube channel or a video component, they'll send that to you in advance in addition. To be a good podcast host, to be somebody who's invited back and who's referred to other podcasters. You want to promote the heck out of your episode. This is the absolute best thing you can do to make sure that you continue to be invited back as a guest. The hosts and their team, maybe it's just them. Maybe they've got people editing and doing marketing for them. They work really hard to make sure that they are promoting you and you want to give that gift back in exchange. So posting it on your social media channels, your linked in, putting it in your weekly or monthly e mail newsletter. If you have those things, that's all really important. They'll be able to see in their numbers if they have, typically, they don't have a guest, and then you are on and their numbers go have a nice bump during that episode, they'll be able to say, Oh, that's so nice. Adriana shared my episode with her community, and I got a lot of new listeners. Make sure to do that and tag the person who's the host or the podcast in your posts as well. All of this is things that you can prep in advance of your interview. In fact, it's something that you can just have a file on your computer, podcast guesting, and have all of this already ready to go. That way, if somebody contacts you at the last minute, it's no big deal just to send this to them, or it helps you not have to repeat yourself all the time. I have a page on my website for podcast guesting. It has my bio, a little bit about me, some links as to where I've been featured in the past, either in print or on other people's podcasts. It has a short, welcome video, and then it has a place to go to download my links, my bio, and my headshots. This way, I can just send that website to anywhere that I'm guesting or to potential guest opportunities, and they can see it right away and decide whether or not I'm a good fit for them. So that's the overview on what to prepare in advance. 5. Traps to Avoid: Four traps, I see getting in the way of people being successful when they are being a guest on a podcast. Number one, a rambling introduction. Often, a host will ask a question something along the lines of, So, how did you get here, or how did you start your XYZ business? The least successful podcast guests go into a rambling introduction that typically starts something like h, well, that's such an interesting story. Or it definitely wasn't a straight line for me, or actually, let me tell you how I woke up when I was three months old, and then I was four months old, and then I was five months old, and so on. In other words, what happens is they get kind of detail oriented and a little bit boring. Guess what, guys? Every single person has a unique story. Not one person woke up when they were three months old, got on a path, and ended up where they are now. There is no straight shot from A to Z. You can skip all of the preamble, and you can skip all those finite details. Really what the host wants to know is what brings you here today? What is the most interesting thing or surprising thing about your journey that got you from being a person who was say, 18-years-old, In high school to the person who started a business or the person who's got this particular expertise. They want to know the highlight reel, not the details. Don't get mired in the length of your intro, or you'll miss the opportunity for more in depth questions and conversations later on. There's a finite amount of time the host has to spend with you. Give them the opportunity to ask you those questions and follow the path that's the most interesting path to them and their listeners. That leads me to trap number two, which is driving your own agenda forward. Now, if you are guesting on somebody's podcast, it's likely that you're doing that in order to help spread the message of your work or the project that you are most excited about out into the world. Great. That's absolutely what you should be doing here. But when we are too tight and too focused on driving our own agendas forward, we miss the opportunity to really connect with and conversate with our hosts. So what you want to do is you want to make sure you are really listening. Really listen to what the host is asking you. What do they want you to talk about? What are they most curious about? Be willing to go down an unexpected path to tell a story you weren't planning on telling. To tell an anecdote that relates to the question they're actually asking because they know their audience better than you do, which means if they are asking you a specific question about your work or your life or your thought process, that means that their audience is going to be interested in that question. You don't want to miss the opportunity to truly connect with their audience and thereby miss the opportunity to spread your message. Often, if we're too focused on our own agendas, we miss out on those opportunities for depth. Now, that doesn't mean you can't turn a question that they're asking you that you really aren't interested in answering into a way of talking about your area of expertise or something that you're curious about. You want to do that skillfully though, and Maybe once, maybe twice during an interview, not every single time. To learn about how to transition a question into the answer you want to tell, you can look at very skilled politicians and public speakers, debaters, when they're in something like a presidential debate, for example. You'll often see somebody asked a question about education that they turn into an answer about gun control. That is a way that you can connect with your host, connect with their audience, and then still answer the question that you want to answer, but you can only do that if you're actually listening. So don't push your agenda too hard. The goal of this podcast is for people to be curious about you, to come and learn more about you, either through your website or social media or what have you. The third trap is forgetting to do your homework. Don't forget to do your own research on the host as well as expecting them to do research on you. So what I like to do when I'm going to be the guest on somebody's podcast is I like to go back and listen to at least three previous episodes. I will listen to the most recent one. One somewhere smack in the middle of their episode list, and a very early episode. With the very early episodes, what's usually happening there is that the host is starting to explain to their audience why they're doing this podcast. What is it about this journey, this set of questions themselves that brings them to the microphone? When you listen to those early episodes, even though the host may have transitioned, how they're doing their work now, you tend to get to know more about them, which is really helpful. The reason why I like to listen to a middle episode, and I pick by the title to something that is relevant to me and my work is I like to be able to refer back to a podcast episode that happened a while ago while I am a guest on the podcast. The thing that's great about this is it shows the host and the audience that you're invested in their success as well. You're not just talking about the most recent episode. You're talking about an episode 50 or 75 episodes ago or 25, depending on how many episodes they have. But when you're able to say, Oh, and this reminded me of the episode you did with so and so, about X Y Z, or this reminds me of episode number one oh three that you did about blah blah blah. They're then able to link back to that episode in the show notes, and it helps them build their audience and build their listenership. You are investing in their success as well as your own, and it really goes a long way. Hosts love this moment. They really feel connected and they're always surprised when it happens. Then, of course, you want to listen to the most recent or one of the most recent episodes so that you can understand the vibe that the host is working in right now. How is their interview style this week? What are the kinds of questions that they're asking? What is their tone? What is their rhythm? How long do you have to speak? Maybe their interviews are only 25 minutes and they only ask three questions. You want to know that in advance. Do your homework so that you're prepared for whatever comes up. The final trap that I hear over and over and over again is a lack of vocal energy. But the trap with vocal energy is this. When we are on a podcast, we really only have our voices to communicate our message. We don't have our faces, we don't have visual aids. We don't have a PowerPoint presentation. We just have our words. Now, this is super important. You've got to remember that even if your podcast is recorded for YouTube or some video components, Most people, the majority of listeners are listening to your podcast, not watching it. You have to prioritize your vocal energy over everything else. The trap I hear often is people who are not used to public speaking or they're not used to using their voice in an animated way. Or they're trying to sound like an expert or like a professional in quotation marks? What ends up happening is that their voice sounds frankly really boring. They sound like they're laid back. They sound like they're not moving their mouth very much. They sound a little bit bored because they're trying to be clear about what they're doing. Do you hear the difference? Now, one of the ways that you can avoid this is by doing what I'm doing right now. If you are watching me on this recording in this lesson, what you are seeing is my face moving a lot. You see my mouth working hard. You see my eyebrows lifting, my foreheads involved. My cheek bones are here. Sometimes I'm smiling, sometimes I'm not. I'm using pauses to emphasize points. I'm speaking quickly when I want something to get across, or I'm slowing down when I want to really dig into something. Using high tones in my vocal range and low tones to make a point. It's all me. I'm not faking any of this. But what I'm doing is I'm using my voice to communicate my message, and that is my priority. That is my goal. That is what I have to offer here on the podcast. So the best thing that you can do to practice this besides warming up your breath body and voice is to record yourself. On your phone, make an audio recording, a voice note, and listen back. Are you utilizing the full range of your voice? Are you being a little flatline? Do you sound bored of your own material? Do you sound checked out? Do you sound leaned back? Some of them might be nerves. Yes, but our job. Is to put our energy on our message out through the microphone, through the computer, out to the people who are going to be listening. The thing we need to do in order to communicate our message is make sure that people can hear us. Make sure that people want to continue to listen. Make sure that your vocal energy is popped, that you are ready to speak clearly and concisely. These are the four key traps that if you address, it will help you be a successful podcast guest. 6. How to Warm Up Your Breath & Body: A little bonus for you about how to be a really excellent podcast guest. Warm up your voice, your breath, and even your body before your interview. When we warm up our voice, we get our mouth ready to move. We make sure that our diction is turned on, that we are focused with our breath coming out of our mouth so that we can be articulate and expressive in our communication. One of the things that I hear a lot with podcast guests is they're a little bit mumbly or a little bit low energy when it comes to their voices. They're, as I would say, laid back or pulled back in the way that they're speaking. This is okay for one on one communication. It's fine for a phone call. But on a 45 minute long podcast episode, I as the listener start to tune out when I think that the person who's speaking isn't tapped in with their voice. When all I have is their voice, we want to make sure that it's interesting to listen to. Now, you don't have to take voice classes. You don't have to do a whole heck of a lot to prepare for this moment. All you have to do is a little bit of attention in advance on getting your lips moving and getting your breath and body working in tandem. Yeah, even though I'm only going to be hearing your voice and maybe seeing this part of your body, I still want you to warm up your body because our body is where our voice comes from. You've got horse breadth. You've got square breathing. You've got a body scan, and you've got some tongue twisters. What I want you to do is pick and choose the ones that you like the best and then use them for your prep. Take five to 10 minutes before your interview and get ready. With horse breadth, all you're doing is blowing your lips like this. Kind of like you're a horse or blowing bubbles underwater. When you do that, you start loosening up your lips and getting them ready to move. You then can start to vocalize up and down the scales like this. You just want to go as high as your voice normally goes and as low as your voice normally goes. Now, the cool thing about horse breadth is that it doesn't take very long. It puts absolutely zero strain on your vocal cords and best thing yet, it has the added benefit of down regulating your nervous system. That breath style, which they also teach in yoga classes, is something that tells your body that you're safe, that you don't need to be nervous, and it gets you feeling grounded. So start with some horse breadth. Then I want you to do a body scan. You're going to stand up wherever you are, if standing is something that you can do. Ideally, by the way, you're doing all of this in a room where you cannot be interrupted or seen by anybody else, so you can be as loud and weird and goofy as you want. So for a body scan, you're going to stand up, put your two feet right underneath your hips. And you're going to scan through your body. Now you're either going to do this from the top down if you need to calm down or from the floor up, if you need to give yourself more energy. What I want you to do is I want you to imagine whatever visually works for you, whether it's light or a feeling warmth, sometimes. And I want you just to scan through your body, imagining that that light is moving down or moving up. And along the way, you're going to conscientiously relax any tension you find throughout your system. This can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on how slow you're going, how much you're paying attention, how much your body needs some help. And what that will do is it will get you in your body, as we say. It will get you remembering that this body is here. And then what you can do is you can notice, okay, I feel more present. I feel more grounded. I either have that kick of energy to give me that little boost or I've grounded my energy to feel calm. Then you can try square breathing. Square breathing is really simple. It's also called box breathing, and you've probably heard of it, maybe even done it before. All it is is you inhale for account of four, hold that breath for account of four, exhale for account of four and hold that breath for account of four. Alternatively, you can try it inhaling for three and exhaling for six, inhaling for three and exhaling for six. This again, will help you do regulate your nervous system and connect your body to your breath. So we've warmed up our lips and our vocal cords a little bit. We've grounded our nervous system or given ourselves a little energy, and then we've connected those body parts to our breath. Now, if you need more vocal warm ups, a lot of people do. All actors before they go on stage, warm up their voices with vocal warm ups, even if they're not going to do any singing at all. You can try some tongue twisters. And that simply is saying a couple of words that are hard to say in order and repeating it. You can try reading those, of course, out loud to get your mouth moving. Then once you do all those things, if there's any other exercises you love, maybe it's a two minute yoga routine. Maybe it's jumping Jacks. Maybe it's just wiggling or having a dance party to some lizo tunes. Whatever it is, do what works for you. Then forget it. Then you're not going to think about your mouth, your breath, or your body while you're doing your interview. You're just going to go into it knowing my breath is connected to my body, which is connected to my voice, which is connected to my brain, which is where I'm communicating from. Thank you so much, and Hey, break a leg.