Your CEO has impressive credentials. Twenty years in the industry. Built three successful companies. Speaks at conferences. Advises startups.

None of that gets them on podcasts.

Podcast hosts receive 50 pitches per week from executives with impressive credentials. They ignore 48 of them immediately because nothing in the pitch proves this person can hold an interesting conversation for 45 minutes.

Your Electronic Press Kit is supposed to solve this problem. Instead, it's a four-page PDF biography that no one reads past the first paragraph.

What Actually Gets Placements

Tier-one podcasts want three things: proof your executive won't bore their audience, evidence of existing media presence, and a clear understanding of what unique perspective this person brings.

Most EPKs provide none of these. They list job titles, education credentials, and vague descriptions of expertise. They read like LinkedIn profiles formatted as PDFs.

The EPK that gets results shows rather than tells. Video clips of your executive speaking. Links to previous podcast appearances. Specific, contrarian viewpoints they're known for articulating.

Podcast hosts need to know what story they're getting. Not "experienced marketing leader" but "the CEO who thinks most marketing automation is actively destroying customer relationships and has the data to prove it."

That's a story. That's bookable.

The Three-Tier Placement Strategy

Not all podcasts are created equal. Tier-three podcasts have 500 downloads per episode and book guests with minimal vetting. Tier-two podcasts have 5,000 downloads and require demonstrated speaking ability. Tier-one podcasts have 50,000+ downloads and only book guests with proven media presence.

You can't pitch tier-one podcasts first. You need tier-three and tier-two placements to prove your executive deserves tier-one consideration.

Your EPK should reflect this progression. Initial version highlights expertise and includes video samples. After five tier-three placements, you update the EPK to showcase those appearances. After three tier-two placements, you pitch tier-one opportunities with proof of media success.

Each placement makes the next placement easier. But you need the EPK infrastructure to capture and leverage that momentum.

Video Evidence Solves Everything

The single most important EPK component is video clips of your executive speaking naturally about topics they care about.

Not produced corporate videos. Not keynote speeches at industry conferences. Actual conversational clips where they're explaining concepts, debating ideas, or discussing industry trends.

Three 60-second clips tell podcast hosts everything they need to know. Can this person explain complex ideas simply? Do they have natural charisma? Will they create listenable content or put audiences to sleep?

Film these clips during monthly content sessions. Ask provocative questions. Record the responses. Pull the best moments.

Hosts watch 30 seconds and make their decision. Make those 30 seconds count.

The Story Arc Matters

Your EPK needs a narrative, not a resume. What's the professional journey that led to unique insights? What conventional wisdom does your executive challenge? What's the personal story that makes industry expertise relatable?

"Started in enterprise sales, built marketing teams at three startups, now helps B2B companies rethink demand generation" is a resume bullet point.

"Spent ten years selling enterprise software the traditional way before realizing the entire industry was optimizing for metrics that destroyed customer relationships. Built a framework that cuts sales cycles in half by doing the exact opposite of what everyone teaches" is a story.

Stories get bookings. Resumes get ignored.

HARO and the Rapid-Fire Approach

Electronic Press Kits aren't just for podcast placement. They're for any media opportunity where you need to quickly communicate expertise and credibility.

HARO—Help a Reporter Out—sends three daily digests of journalists seeking expert sources. Respond to relevant queries with your EPK link and a three-sentence explanation of why your executive is the right source.

Volume matters here. Pitch 100 opportunities, secure three placements. Those three placements become EPK additions that make the next 100 pitches more successful.

Most executives never appear in major publications because they never systematically pursue opportunities. HARO makes opportunity pursuit systematic.

The Timing Game

Podcast booking operates on 3-4 month lead times. Hosts planning spring content book guests in December and January. Holiday season feels dead for PR, but it's actually peak pitching season.

Your EPK needs to be ready before you need it. Building an EPK while trying to capitalize on timely news or trending topics means missing the window entirely.

Create the infrastructure now. Update it monthly with new placements, fresh video clips, and refined messaging. When opportunity appears, you respond immediately instead of scrambling to assemble materials.

Speed matters. The executive who responds with complete EPK in 24 hours gets the booking over the executive with better credentials who takes five days to compile materials.

What Goes In, What Stays Out

Include: Professional headshot, 100-word bio, 500-word extended bio, three video clips, links to previous media appearances, list of topics you can speak to, specific contrarian viewpoints, contact information.

Exclude: Detailed company information, product descriptions, lists of clients, awards and recognition that don't directly support media credibility, anything requiring more than 30 seconds to evaluate.

Podcast hosts spend 90 seconds reviewing EPKs. Design for 90-second evaluation, not comprehensive documentation.

The Compound Effect

First placement is hardest. Second placement is easier. Fifth placement opens doors that ignored your first ten pitches.

Media presence builds on itself, but only if you systematically capture and leverage each placement. Your EPK is the mechanism for capturing that momentum.

Update it religiously. Every podcast appearance, every quoted article, every speaking engagement gets added immediately. The EPK should always reflect current media presence, not outdated credentials.

Most Marketing Teams Stop Too Early

Three months of pitching with minimal results feels like failure. Most teams stop.

The teams that break through pitch for six months. They refine messaging, improve video clips, target better-fit opportunities, and keep updating the EPK with each small win.

Patience and persistence beat credentials and connections. But you need the EPK infrastructure to make persistence productive rather than random.

Want to build the marketing skills that actually secure media placements? Join ACE's community of ambitious marketers learning advanced PR, content strategy, and executive branding tactics that separate leaders from followers.