How to Find Podcast Guests: A Practical Guide for Hosts
Good guests make a show. This guide walks through where to look, how to check fit, and how to send an invitation that gets a reply.
1. Know exactly who you want
Write one sentence describing your ideal guest: their topic, their experience, and what your listeners should learn from them. A clear brief makes searching much faster.
Decide on practical needs too — language, time zone, and whether you record audio only or video.
2. Look in the right places
Start with your own network: past guests, listeners, and people you already follow. Warm introductions get the best response.
Guest directories and marketplaces such as Podoxo let you search people by topic, expertise, language and country, so you can see who is actively open to podcast appearances.
Podcast communities on Reddit, Facebook and LinkedIn often have guest-request threads — read each group's rules before posting.
3. Check fit before you invite
Look at the guest's profile, past interviews and clips. Can they speak clearly about the topic for 30–60 minutes? Do they have a story your audience cares about?
Checking first avoids mismatched episodes and wasted recording time on both sides.
4. Send a short, personal invitation
Mention their name, why they fit your show specifically, the episode idea, and the recording format. Keep it to a few lines.
Send one polite follow-up if there is no reply after a week, then move on.
5. Make recording easy
Once they accept, share a date, the recording link, rough questions and how long it will take. After the episode is live, send them the link so they can share it with their audience.