Being a Guest

How to Be a Guest on this Radio Show/Podcast

Three Shows or Formats

The School for Startups Radio Show and podcast has been produced daily (4 or 5 days a week) since September 2012. It is a 54 minute show with 2 or 3 guests. Guest interviews are about 22 minutes on average. Shows air on about half of the 33 stations in the show’s network.

The School for Startups Minutes started in September 2022. They are 90 seconds long and taken from the longer interviews above. They high one point from the guest, maybe their thesis or main point. Minutes air on all of the 33 stations in the show’s network. Radio stations use Minutes as filler in between shows, usually at the top of the hour. Each station can use the segment as many times a day as it wants. On average, stations air the Minute segments 7 times a day.

The Quick Ten is the third format will be released soon. For the last 3 years, some guests have been playing the game, each answering the same 10 questions about entrepreneurship. Its interesting to see how 100s of leaders answer the same question. So far, about 150 guests have recorded their answers, but only 6-7 have ever aired. The complete collection will drop in a special way soon.

Being Invited

The show is great because of our guests! We like to interview entrepreneurs, business owners, authors, thought leaders, leadership and management experts, gurus of all kinds, and crazy people. Anyone with a good story is a potential guest.

Most guests are introduced to the show by publicists or PR agencies. They provide a level of vetting to make sure our guests are the best. They do an invaluable job, as we do not usually approach people and ask them to be on the show.

Entrepreneurs take the initiative, and we love that! We do not require that guests have a publicist. So, if you think you’d be a great guest, please feel free to reach out and suggest yourself. Please use the Contact Us page.

When approaching us to suggest a guest, we appreciate seeing a full biography and a suggested topic of conversation. What do you want to share with our listeners that will make them better small business owners?

After we see your pitch, we will soon email you the Calendly link to sign up. You must have an invitation email from Jim to sign up.

Charges, Fees, Surcharges, Levies, Payments, and Tolls

Do we charge to be a guest on the show? Sometimes, yes, we do.

Why do we sometimes charge? We sometimes charge because radio stations almost always charge us for airtime. One of our goals is to be on more radio stations so our small business owner guests can reach more customers. Sometimes charging allows us to add more stations.

Sometimes we charge the following:

Jump to the Front – There is a delay between signing up via Calendly and the interview recording slot. This delay could be two or three months. Or longer. Then, there is another delay after recording until airing, usually a week or two. If you need to air sooner than 3 months from now and want to ‘Jump to the Front of the Line,’ we charge $250.
Appearance Fee – There are certain categories of guests that we limit, for example, life coaches. Some guests are charged $100 to $350 to appear. This is completely at our discretion and we do not negotiate or barter.
Repeat Guest Fee – We get lots of requests to be on the show. Frequently, we get previous guests that ask to be on the show again. The repeat guest displaces a new guest. So, there is sometimes a repeat guest fee of $150.
No Show Charge – We spend money to make the show happen. Show pages have to built, social media scheduled, editing done, etc. Every week, 1 or 2 scheduled guests do not call in. But, we have staff that came into the office for that interview. Children are put in child care so we are free to record. All the expense has happened before the guest calls in, or not. We charge $100 for a no-call. We will send the invoice to the publicist.
Rescheduling Fee of $200 – When a guest is scheduled to be interviewed and fails to call in, and wants to try again later, we charge a rescheduling fee.
Media Training Offer – Guests always comment that this interview is like no other. We have interviewed over 4500 people and we can make your interviews much better. We offer a 30 minute training session, homework for improvement, and a re-interview for $300. Guarantee: if you do the 30 minutes and don’t think it was worth it, we’ll immediately refund your money. Listen to an interview or two and see if we aren’t playing at a different level.

How to Be a Great Guest

This is a high energy, interview show. All interviews are 100% organic and non-planned. But the questions are about YOU, the guest. Tell us about your business. How did you start? How did you get the idea to start? Easy, softball stuff!

So, here are some suggestions about how to have a great interview.

Sound quality. Jim is obsessed. Read his thoughts on call quality here and here.
Listen to an interview from the archives to see what it’s like.
Dial your enthusiasm up to an 11!
Have a thesis you want to share. Why are you interesting? What do you want us to learn?

Examples: You can be a better leader.

My business is interesting and making something better.

Eat less beef.

You can be more creative.

Buy this book b/c …..

Prepare 2-3 stories to tell. Stories are great radio. They should have a point that reinforces the thesis.

Examples: How I got my business idea….

How I got my first customer…..

Where I got the money to start…..

Try to limit your answers to a minute.
You get a minute at the end to pitch and promote your product, try to wait until then to blatantly do that.

The Quick Ten

After the normal main interview, we can play our separate game show feature, “The Quick Ten.” Ten questions with quick advice! If you want to play, you must ask. Jim will not mention it until you do! Please let him know before the interview that you want to play.

These are the questions. We hope to get very short answers, one sentence at most. Should take 2 minutes TOTAL.

1. Your favorite creativity hack?

2. Favorite bootstrapping trick?

3. Name your top 5 passions.

4. The first 3 steps in starting a business are….

5. The best way to get your first real customer is…..

6. Your dreamiest technology is….

7. Best entrepreneurial advice.

8. Worst entrepreneurial mistake.

9. Favorite entrepreneur and why.

10. Favorite superhero.

We always play for the “Standard Wager, the Standard Wager.” The winner is determined by your score, determined by our world-famous judging panel.