Guest Booking & Interview Prep Pack

A guest episode is four jobs, not one: picking the right person, getting the yes, running a good conversation, and following up like a professional. Most solo hosts improvise all four — and it shows in the empty slots, the timezone mix-ups, and the interviews that never rise above small talk.

This pack is the guest system behind a real solo show: The Valor Standard: Off the Record, On the Mic — one host, biweekly, booking his own guests with no booker, no producer, and no publicist. Every page is made generic so it fits any podcast on any topic.

Inside: a good-guest criteria page with the red flags to pause on, a guest target list worksheet that forces a one-line angle for every name, cold outreach email templates (the standard ask and the warm path), DM variants and the one-time follow-up nudge, a booking confirmation checklist that nails down date, time in both timezones, platform, backup plan, and recording and release consent, a guest prep packet template to send the guest, a two-part interview prep sheet (research prompts, then the seven-beat question arc), a do-and-don't page with fill-in opening and closing lines, a day-of checklist, same-day thank-you, referral, and return-invitation templates, a release-day packet that makes sharing take thirty seconds, templates for reschedules, no-shows, and tech failures, and a one-page guest tracker that runs the whole pipeline — Listed, Asked, Nudged, Booked, Recorded, Released, Thanked.

Build the list. Send the ask. Do the homework. Then go make the episode.

Practical templates drawn from a working solo host's process. Not a guarantee that any guest will accept, appear, or promote an episode, and not legal advice on recording consent or releases — those rules vary by place, so confirm what applies to you.

What's inside (17 pages)

• Cover
• How to Use This Pack — the booking pipeline, from target list to thank-you
• Who Makes a Good Guest — criteria for a strong candidate, and the red flags
• Guest Target List Worksheet — ten rows, one angle each, plus where targets come from
• Cold Outreach: Email Templates — the standard ask and the warm-path version
• Outreach: DM Variants & the Follow-Up Nudge — short forms, and one polite nudge
• Booking Confirmation Checklist — date, both timezones, platform, backup plan, consent
• Guest Prep Packet — the one message to send the guest before recording
• Interview Prep Sheet, Part 1: Research — the homework page, with research prompts
• Interview Prep Sheet, Part 2: The Question Arc — the seven beats of a good interview
• Do & Don't — and Your Opening & Closing Lines
• Day-Of Checklist — morning of, thirty minutes before, first two minutes, right after
• Follow-Up & Thank-You Templates — same-day thanks, the referral ask, the return invitation
• Release Packet — Making It Easy to Share
• When Things Go Sideways — reschedules, no-shows, and tech failures, handled with grace
• Guest Tracker — one page per season, Listed through Thanked
• Closing — Guests Remember How You Ran It, with the companion Episode Planner, Promotion Kit, and Fix the Echo packs

Who it's for: solo and small-team podcasters who book their own guests; hosts whose guest process lives in scattered emails and memory; interview shows that want conversations with a shape; any host who would rather fill in a system than improvise a pipeline.

Format: PDF, 17 pages, US Letter. Print-first design. Print the Interview Prep Sheet (pages 9–10) per guest and the Guest Tracker (page 16) per season. Purchased copies may be printed for the buyer's own use.