019 Tell us About Yourself is NOT a Question

Don’t be fooled by the podcast gurus who love to throw this out as a way to start the show. “Tell us about yourself” is not a question and it’s definitely no way to start an interview!

Look, I’m not calling anyone out here - unbunch your panties, folks. There are a lot of podcasters who do this. But that doesn’t make it right. In fact, it’s flat out wrong! I suspect that someone started doing it and then a whole bunch of people decided to copy this bad habit.

Nobody on tv or radio does this except for game show hosts.

I’m not going to hold anything back - if you’re doing this, you need to stop being so lazy, you need to start showing your guest some respect and you definitely need to be delivering better content to your listeners!

Uh-oh. Someone’s ego is getting bruised. Look, it’s nothing personal. It’s a common mistake. But, stop now, okay?

If I can’t spank you into complying, listen to some logic. Who’s show is it - your’s or your guest’s? Okay, so who’s in control when you lob them the “tell us about yourself” softball? They are. They can say whatever they want now. They can start talking about their belief in a trinity of alien goddesses. They might sing a tune. They could share inappropriate stories about their kid’s hot teacher. They probably won’t but here’s the thing - you can’t stop them. You left the door wiiiiide open. Why would you do that? Isn’t this your show?

Good - so get back to interviewing your guest with proper questions. You know, the kind with a question mark on the end. Doesn’t that sound like a better idea?

Still not convinced? This podcast has even more reasons you need to ditch the lazy lob balls and start asking proper questions - just like the pros.