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Guest Network ​

The Guest Network is a directory of people who want to appear on podcasts. Browse profiles, read bios and past appearances, and invite someone onto your show with your booking link attached so they can pick a time themselves.

Recognise profiles from the original app ​

Some people made their profiles public in the original app. Their cards say Listed in the original app · not yet claimed. This describes where the profile came from; it does not confirm current availability or recent activity. Original profiles start without show.fm appearances or reputation signals.

You can invite these people immediately. They can use the email's booking link without claiming a profile, creating an account or buying a subscription. The directory does not disclose their invitation address.

Claim your original profile ​

  1. Open Claim this profile on your original directory card or profile, or follow the claim link in an invitation email.
  2. Choose Log in or Create an account, using the email address you used in the original app. Complete email confirmation if required.
  3. Choose Claim this profile when prompted. A confirmed matching account can also be associated automatically.
  4. Open Review your profile. Choose any original name, biography or image you want to use, then select Save selected details. These choices replace only the selected fields.
  5. Select Edit profile or change visibility to open your account settings. You do not need a podcast or episodes to manage your profile.

Existing account content and privacy choices are preserved when an original listing is matched. A new account can start with its original public content. If your original address has changed, or two profiles seem to describe you, contact support. Booking an invitation does not prove profile ownership.

Open Guest Network in your sidebar (under Discover). The screen has three tabs: Directory, Received, and Sent.

  1. On Directory, scan the profile cards or use the search box ("Search by name or bio…")
  2. Search reads names and bios only. Topics, links, and the podcasts someone has been on will not match, so try a person's name or a word they would have written about themselves
  3. Use the Highly rated and Has endorsements buttons to show only guests carrying those signals. Each button carries the number of profiles it would return, so you can see whether it is worth pressing
  4. The line above the cards tells you what you are looking at ("3 of 8 profiles match") and how the list is ordered
  5. Click Load 20 more to keep browsing
  6. On a paid plan, click View profile to open the full profile. Guests and Free accounts can browse cards; other profile links are replaced by a disabled Invite · paid plans control

Your search and filters stay in the address bar, so you can bookmark a search or share it with a co-host.

What a card tells you ​

Every card carries the same four bands, so a sparse listing and a detailed one are the same shape:

  • Name and identity line: their domain or handle. Two people can share a name, and this line is the only thing on a card that tells them apart. A star rating sits under it when the guest has one to show, with the average and a rough count of the shows behind it
  • Founding member: a small gold star and Founding member under the name when the person owns a show.fm account on the Founders plan and has chosen to show it
  • Bio, cut to 200 characters. When someone has not written one, the card says what is left to go on instead of leaving a gap
  • Signals: how many published episodes they have appeared in, plus any of Highly rated, Invited back, and Endorsed
  • Links: their website, X, and LinkedIn, where they have chosen to share them

Your own listing appears in the directory too, tinted, marked You, and with Edit in settings instead of View profile.

View a Profile ​

A Guest Network profile opens with a tinted header card carrying the guest's round avatar, their name, their appearance count, and any reputation signals. The header is labelled Guest Network profile · every podcast and notes that it is read-only: only the guest can change it.

The header shows:

  • Display name, avatar, and podcast appearance count
  • Founding member, with a small gold star, under the name when the person owns a Founders account and has chosen to show it
  • Reputation signals, where the guest has earned and chosen to display them: a rating aggregate (an average plus a rough count such as "rated by 3+ shows"), a Highly rated badge, an Invited back badge, and an Endorsed badge
  • Website, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn buttons, where the guest has chosen to share them

Below it, an On this page list jumps between the cards:

  • About: their bio, written by the guest. Hosts cannot edit or add to it
  • Endorsements: short quotes from hosts the guest has appeared with, each shown only after the guest approves it, plus a Report button
  • Podcast appearances: published episodes they've appeared on through show.fm. Bookings and drafts never appear here. Episodes on shows hosted here link to their public episode page and open in a new tab, so you can listen before you invite. Episodes from a show hosted somewhere else, such as an imported back catalogue, are still listed but have no link, because there is no show.fm page behind them
  • Invite to your podcast: your action, covered below

A profile carrying only a name and a bio also gets a Nothing else is public card, explaining that every part of a profile is a switch the guest controls. It never names which switches that particular guest has turned off.

Nothing rating-related displays until at least 3 different podcasts have rated a guest and the guest opts in, so a profile without badges simply has no signal yet. See Rate and Endorse Guests for how the signals work.

If a profile has been removed, or the guest has switched off discoverability, you get a Profile not found page instead. Your own record for that guest, and every episode they appeared on, is untouched.

Invite a Guest to Your Podcast ​

Sending Guest Network invitations requires a paid plan for the podcast. Guests and Free accounts can still receive and respond to invitations.

From a profile, open the Invite to your podcast card and click Start an invitation. The form opens in a panel beside the profile, so you can keep reading while you write.

  1. Under Podcast, choose which of your shows the invitation is for
  2. Under Booking link, choose the link the guest will use to schedule. This step appears once you have picked a podcast. If that podcast has no active booking link, the panel tells you so and links you to create one
  3. Add an optional Personal message introducing yourself and your show
  4. Click Send invitation

A toast distinguishes an invitation email being sent from an invitation being recorded. Check Sent for delivery updates. You can have one live invitation per podcast to each guest: podcasts with an invitation still open are held out of the list until the guest responds, and the card lists each one with the date it was sent.

Once an invitation has lapsed, or the guest has declined, you can invite them again for the same show. The earlier invitation stays in Sent as a record of who you asked and when.

If the invitation cannot be recorded, an error toast appears and the panel keeps your draft. If it was recorded but delivery failed, use its retry option in Sent. A delivery marked uncertain needs support to check the provider before another attempt.

Track Invitations ​

The Received and Sent tabs sit alongside Directory on the Guest Network screen. Both group invitations by what has happened to them, so the ones that need you are at the top.

Received ​

Invitations other hosts have sent you (yes, hosts can be guests too), in four groups:

  • Waiting on you: Accept and Decline. Accepting reveals the host's booking link so you can pick a slot, and books nothing by itself
  • Accepted: a Book a time button that opens the host's booking page in a new tab
  • Declined: kept as a record, with the reason you gave
  • Expired: invitations that lapsed after 14 days. Accept and Decline are gone, because they no longer work

An invitation running out inside three days carries an amber Expires in 3 days pill, so you can see what is about to go.

When you decline, you can add an optional note (up to 500 characters) explaining why. It goes to the host with your reply, and they cannot reply to it.

Sent ​

Every invitation sent from the podcast you are currently on, whoever on your team sent it, with the sender's name on each row. Switch podcasts in the sidebar to see another show's.

Rows carry the booking link with a copy button and show booking conversion. New invitations also show delivery status. recorded means saved, sent means accepted by the email service, and delivered means accepted by the recipient’s mail server. None of these proves that the person read it. Pending invitations marked recorded or failed offer Retry delivery.

Invitations lapse quietly

An invitation expires 14 days after it is sent. Nobody is reminded, there is no way to nudge, and nothing tells you when one lapses. Once it has, send a fresh invitation from the guest's profile.

Decline or stop invitations without an account ​

  1. Open the preference link in your invitation email.
  2. Choose Decline this invitation to decline only that request, or Stop invitations to stop further invitations to that address.
  3. Wait for the saved confirmation. Opening the page alone changes nothing.

A stop-contact choice prevents re-invitation. Preference links expire with their invitations; support can help after expiry. Hiding your directory profile is a separate choice in account settings or through support.

Be Discoverable Yourself ​

Your own profile can appear in the Guest Network for other hosts to find:

  1. Go to Account Settings
  2. In the Guest Network section, turn on Profile Visibility ("Make your profile discoverable in the show.fm Guest Network")
  3. Under Public Profile Settings, choose what to share: Show website link, Show Twitter/X handle, and Show LinkedIn profile
  4. Optionally enable Protect my email address so your email is only shared with hosts after you accept their invitation
  5. Two more switches control reputation display: Show endorsements I've approved (on by default, since each endorsement already needed your approval) and Show my rating on my profile (off by default). See Your Reputation as a Guest
  6. If you own an account on the Founders plan, one more switch appears: Show Founding member under my name. It is on by default and adds a small gold star and Founding member under your name on your card and profile

While visibility is on, your display name, bio, and avatar are visible to other hosts, along with your published guest appearances.

Opening your own profile shows you exactly what a host sees. A This is your profile card reads your switches back to you in one line (for example "Website shown · X hidden · LinkedIn hidden · Endorsements shown · Rating hidden") with a button through to Account Settings. That read-out appears only on your own profile: other hosts see the result of your switches, never the switches themselves.

Your guests can join too

When a guest creates a free account, they can opt in to the Guest Network and get discovered by other shows. Send them to Create a Free Account.

What's Next? ​

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