Ever wonder how to make your podcast stand out in a sea of content? After a serendipitous conversation at Podcast Movement 2024, I uncovered a game-changing strategy that could revolutionize your approach. Spoiler alert: It involves segments.
I'll break down why rethinking your podcast structure can make a big difference. We'll explore how segments can help you give more value to your audience, make your show more accessible, and even repurpose content more effectively — making it better for your workflows. Plus, I'll share different segment ideas that work for both interview and solo episodes, ensuring you never run out of compelling content.
Want more insights like this? Join my mailing list at https://podcastworkflows.com
And check out my other podcast, https://streamlined.fm/
Top Takeaways
- Implement Segments in Your Podcast: To create a more engaging show, think about incorporating segments. Just like how late-night shows have defined parts, segmenting your podcast can make it more consumable and structured. You can dedicate parts of your episode to different topics or formats, such as opening monologues, interviews, and specific segments tailored to your audience's interests.
- Structure for Solo Episodes: If you're worried that solo episodes might become stale, develop a clear structure. For instance, discuss a main topic, then showcase an interesting tool related to that topic, and finish with an automation tip. This keeps the solo content engaging and valuable.
- Balancing Personal and Professional Content: For busy solopreneur parents, combining personal experiences with actionable business advice can create a relatable and impactful podcast. Consider dedicating a segment to how you manage parenting alongside your entrepreneurial duties.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 Hey, everybody, I am reporting live here at podcast
00:00:04 --> 00:00:08 movement 2024. I am in a recording booth and
00:00:08 --> 00:00:12 I'm going to be honest, I up until about 10 minutes
00:00:12 --> 00:00:17 ago did not have a plan for this. I didn't have
00:00:17 --> 00:00:21 somebody I was going to interview. I didn't think
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 about content. I just I booked it a while ago
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 and then I kind of realized that I should talk
00:00:27 --> 00:00:31 about something and Thanks to a little bit of
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 divine intervention, I did, they do something,
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 a podcast movement called Brain Dates. And I
00:00:37 --> 00:00:41 had my first one a little earlier. And one of
00:00:41 --> 00:00:46 the things we talked about was segments and creating
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 a format for your show. And I think that this
00:00:49 --> 00:00:55 is one of the most underrated approaches for
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 new podcasters or indie podcasters. They think
00:00:58 --> 00:01:02 that they need to get the big guest or just have
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 a bunch of guests or have a casual conversation.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 But this this fellow I was talking to, Mike,
00:01:09 --> 00:01:14 really his takeaway came from the interview with
00:01:14 --> 00:01:19 Ira Glass, which was one of the keynotes. And
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 Ira Glass talked about how you shouldn't really
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 think of your podcast as a podcast. You should
00:01:23 --> 00:01:30 think about it as a show. And by virtue of having
00:01:30 --> 00:01:35 a show, you can then kind of put it into segments.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 So like The Tonight Show, for example, right?
00:01:38 --> 00:01:44 The Tonight Show is not just Jimmy Fallon aimlessly
00:01:44 --> 00:01:49 talking, right, for an hour. It is a series of
00:01:49 --> 00:01:53 segments. It's the opening monologue and then
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 uh, some like funny in between segment, like
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 thank you notes or, you know, the tonight show
00:01:58 --> 00:02:03 connections or some funny skit that they do with,
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 uh, Tariq or, uh, or quests or someone else.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:12 Right. And then you move on to the first interview,
00:02:12 --> 00:02:17 maybe a game with the first guest, a second interview
00:02:17 --> 00:02:21 and a musical guest to wrap things up. And each
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 of those segments, is maybe interesting to different
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 people, right? I watch Jimmy's monologue every
00:02:27 --> 00:02:32 morning, right? What I don't do unless I'm interested
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36 in the guest is watch the guest. What I will
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 usually do is if the game is interesting, I'll
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 watch the game. I almost never watch the musical
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 guest, right? I almost always skip that. But
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 because the show is in segments, there's a very
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 clear format. The people watching the show know
00:02:51 --> 00:02:56 what to expect. uh, and it makes it more consumable,
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 right? Because then you don't just have an hour
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 long show that you're releasing on the internet.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 You're releasing these individual segments or
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 you're breaking down these segments, right? So
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 maybe it's like the front matter, right? The,
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 the interview, I'm sorry, the monologue and the
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 first game, but then just the monologue and just
00:03:14 --> 00:03:18 the first game, right? Uh, so I think bringing
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 this back to your podcast process, whether you're
00:03:21 --> 00:03:25 doing interview short shows or solo episodes,
00:03:25 --> 00:03:29 you could really benefit from doing segments,
00:03:29 --> 00:03:33 right? And so, uh, this is, I'm thinking out
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 loud right now. This is probably going to get
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 released on both the streamline solo per newer
00:03:38 --> 00:03:42 feed and the podcast workflows feed. And so for
00:03:42 --> 00:03:47 my podcast workflows listeners, uh, you'll know
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 that when I do three things in podcasting, That's
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 a segmented show. There are very clear and obvious
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 chapters and even with the more recent format
00:03:56 --> 00:04:03 of not doing three Discrete stories right having
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 like picking a topic and then talking about three
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 things within that topic There's still segments,
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 right? And so if you're not interested in the
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 first segment you could skip to the second segment
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 But it also gives me some structure. That's not
00:04:16 --> 00:04:20 the three act story which is Kind of, which is
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 the segment for interviews for sure. Uh, for
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 the streamline solo per newer, right? Act one
00:04:25 --> 00:04:32 is always the setup. Act two is always the conflict
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 and act three is always the resolution. And that's
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 how I try to run my interviews. I try to do that
00:04:37 --> 00:04:41 with the solo shows too, but it doesn't work
00:04:41 --> 00:04:45 out as much. And as I'm thinking through some
00:04:45 --> 00:04:49 of this stuff, uh, here at podcast movement,
00:04:49 --> 00:04:53 I think segments is going to be a really good
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 option for the streamlined solopreneur. And the
00:04:56 --> 00:05:01 way I might consider it or work through it is
00:05:01 --> 00:05:07 the first segment could be an interview, maybe.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 And then the second segment would be my takeaways.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 And then the third segment would be members only,
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 right? So maybe that's how I can do interviews.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:21 For solo shows, I think that, and again, I'm,
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 I'm, I'm really, this is off the top of my head.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 This is stuff I am considering this morning.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 Uh, and so like this could be terrible content,
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 like maybe this is awful. I don't think it is
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 right. I think that this is, um, I have consumed
00:05:37 --> 00:05:42 as we speak about three hours of podcast movement
00:05:42 --> 00:05:47 on the first day and uh, I'm already thinking
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 through a lot of really interesting things. And
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 so, so I'll tell you what I'm thinking for possible
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 solo show episodes, and then I'll give you another
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 example. I think that's probably a good way to
00:05:56 --> 00:06:01 do it of, of a good segmented podcast. Um, and
00:06:01 --> 00:06:07 so what, what I'm thinking for solo episodes
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 of the streamlined solopreneur is I could talk
00:06:10 --> 00:06:14 about the thing, right? Like the top growing
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 my mailing list, whatever, right? Um, then I
00:06:16 --> 00:06:20 could talk about an interesting tool for growing
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 my mailing list. So let's say, uh, convert kit
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 and the creator network. Uh, and then I could
00:06:26 --> 00:06:30 talk about an automation or a process improvement
00:06:30 --> 00:06:35 related to that topic, right? So growing my newsletter,
00:06:35 --> 00:06:39 uh, convert kit and the creator network. And
00:06:39 --> 00:06:44 then when someone joins my newsletter because
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 of the creator network, create automatically
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 a different experience for them because they
00:06:50 --> 00:06:54 are coming in not knowing me, right? Uh, people
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 who joined my mailing list through one of my
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 opt -ins came to my website. They probably know
00:06:58 --> 00:07:02 what I'm about, but people who just kind of joined
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 my mailing list because of a recommendation,
00:07:05 --> 00:07:09 they don't know, like, and trust me yet. and
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 they need to learn to know, like and trust me.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:19 So I think that could be a good way to approach
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 my solo episodes because I want, I want to do,
00:07:21 --> 00:07:25 here's, here's the, I guess here's the rub, right?
00:07:25 --> 00:07:31 I want to do more solo episodes. I want to make
00:07:31 --> 00:07:39 it like half and half, but I fear that my solo
00:07:39 --> 00:07:47 episodes could get stale more quickly than the
00:07:47 --> 00:07:53 interview show. That is not the case for podcast
00:07:53 --> 00:07:58 workflows because this is my industry. I'm always
00:07:58 --> 00:08:04 thinking about this. I am doing content. with
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 my clients and I'm answering a bunch of questions
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 with the Streamline Solopreneur because that's
00:08:10 --> 00:08:15 been an interview show for so long. I am a little
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 bit worried that moving it to a solo show where
00:08:18 --> 00:08:24 it's not necessarily my area of expertise. I
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 think this is maybe the other thing, right? The
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 Streamline Solopreneur is the show that gives
00:08:29 --> 00:08:33 me the authority to be a podcast coach. But it
00:08:33 --> 00:08:37 is not the thing that's most related to my business.
00:08:37 --> 00:08:42 I've got sponsors for that. They are kind of
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 overlap. There's definitely a Venn diagram for
00:08:45 --> 00:08:50 the two shows. But the Streamline Solopreneur
00:08:50 --> 00:08:54 is definitely a different audience. It's a bigger
00:08:54 --> 00:08:58 audience. And so I think maybe having some segments.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 I mean, parents are a big part of the Streamline
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 Solopreneur. or at least I want it to be, I want
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 them to be part of the Streamline solo -preneur,
00:09:06 --> 00:09:10 right? Busy solo -preneur parents. And so maybe
00:09:10 --> 00:09:15 one of the segments is kind of like how I'm managing
00:09:15 --> 00:09:19 being a parent with being a solo -preneur, right?
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 So maybe it is more personal and there's this
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 actionable advice built into these segments.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 That's something I'm really thinking through.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:37 The, the, um, the podcast, one of the podcasts
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 I think does segments really well. This is what
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 I was talking about in this brain day, which
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 is, I mean, it's being honest, it's like basically
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 a free coaching session, um, for people who are
00:09:46 --> 00:09:51 at the conference, uh, shorter and not, uh, you
00:09:51 --> 00:09:52 know, I don't do any research on them. We just
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 kind of have a conversation. I kind of give them
00:09:55 --> 00:10:00 my, uh, my initial thoughts. or like my gut reaction.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:04 That's the word I'm looking for. So, okay. So
00:10:04 --> 00:10:09 a show that I think has really good segments
00:10:09 --> 00:10:15 is Talking Yanks. They do kind of like three
00:10:15 --> 00:10:19 different shows or three different types of episodes.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:25 There's the Tuesday episode. where they interview
00:10:25 --> 00:10:31 Yankee manager Aaron Boone, then they recap that
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 conversation, their initial reactions, and maybe
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 things that they didn't say to Aaron Boone. As
00:10:35 --> 00:10:45 an aside, they get a bad rap for not being outwardly
00:10:45 --> 00:10:49 a jerk to Aaron Boone. And I just think the people
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 who feel that way don't know how to play politics.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 Aaron Boone doesn't need to go on this podcast.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:02 And so like they ask him hard questions, but
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 they don't press him or like they're not like
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 they keep it civil. And I think that's really
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 important. And like, yeah, like frustrations
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 flare a little bit. But I think they all ultimately
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 know like they're playing a game. And so anyway,
00:11:15 --> 00:11:19 that's just an aside. So they have the the interview
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 with Aaron Boone. They have their recap. And
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 then they have something called Sharp Stats by
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 Katie Sharp. Great data analyst, does a lot of
00:11:27 --> 00:11:31 cool things. So that's one episode. Another episode
00:11:31 --> 00:11:35 is with two different hosts. So it's like Jimmy
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 and Jake do Talking Yanks mostly. But then they
00:11:37 --> 00:11:41 do this other, like, shorter episode with BBD,
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 who's their producer, and Joe's McFly. And they
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 usually pick a topic. It's like a mailbag episode.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 So fans will call in and ask questions. and they'll
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 usually pick a topic around that. So that's less
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 structured, but they're structured and having
00:11:54 --> 00:11:58 the questions. But my favorite types of episodes
00:11:58 --> 00:12:02 that they do are the game recaps. So the Yankees
00:12:02 --> 00:12:06 will play a three or four game series. And then
00:12:06 --> 00:12:10 after the last game, they will recap the series.
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 And the segments there are really good. I think
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 it's really A plus content because They just
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 finished watching a three hour baseball game
00:12:19 --> 00:12:26 and now they are going to give their initial
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 thoughts, right? Or they're gonna like, they're
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 gonna, they don't have time to write a script
00:12:32 --> 00:12:36 or like ask these specific questions, right?
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 This is like, or sleep on it. Like they have
00:12:39 --> 00:12:44 these gut reactions. And so the structure And
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 the format there is really important because
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 that's what keeps them on the straight and narrow.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:55 And so the way this works is they intro the show.
00:12:55 --> 00:13:00 They kind of give an overview of the series.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:04 Yankees won or they got swept. And then they
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 do what's called grounds creeping, which is like
00:13:07 --> 00:13:11 generally an injury report. This guy's injured.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 He's on his, you know, he's doing his first rehab
00:13:14 --> 00:13:18 assignment, whatever. And then they get into
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 the bulk of the show. So the first thing they
00:13:20 --> 00:13:24 do is they burn the games. So like they'll do
00:13:24 --> 00:13:30 a recap of each game and give their comments
00:13:30 --> 00:13:34 on each game. And then after those comments,
00:13:35 --> 00:13:36 they move into the second half of the show, which
00:13:36 --> 00:13:41 is awards. And so They'll do the pride of the
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 Yankees, which is the player that made them the
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 most proud that series top performer or did something
00:13:46 --> 00:13:50 cool. It could be like Garrett Cole was one recently
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 because of his great pitching performance that
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 kept the Yankees in the game. And then they'll
00:13:54 --> 00:13:59 do the Yankee MFer. And this is somebody that
00:13:59 --> 00:14:03 they're essentially mad at. They performed very
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 poorly. Um, and then they'll do regular old awards,
00:14:06 --> 00:14:11 which is just like, you know, this is the, I
00:14:11 --> 00:14:15 think they did like the, um, Kingslayer award
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 recently. Jake has been really into Game of Thrones.
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 Um, or they'll, you know, they'll do like the
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 make it happen award or something, right? It's
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 just like an awards that they invent that they
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 want to give to a player, um, to recognize their
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 performance or whatever. So, uh, that show with
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 the segments is. I think if they didn't have
00:14:34 --> 00:14:38 segments, it would just be two guys talking about
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 baseball games that the people listening probably
00:14:41 --> 00:14:46 already watched, right? And then what differentiates
00:14:46 --> 00:14:50 them from ESPN analysts or like the Yankee post
00:14:50 --> 00:14:53 game show, right? Like what makes them different
00:14:53 --> 00:14:57 from John Flaherty and Ryan Ruko or whoever,
00:14:58 --> 00:15:03 right? Bob Lorenz, right? So I think Having those
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 segments is one of the things that makes that
00:15:06 --> 00:15:10 show so good. And then again, you have those
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 segments and you can release them as individual
00:15:13 --> 00:15:17 videos on YouTube or social media. So this is
00:15:17 --> 00:15:21 something I'm probably going to noodle on a lot
00:15:21 --> 00:15:28 more while I'm here. And I think that's like
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 the bulk of my thoughts here. I don't want to
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 belabor this point. But I think if you're looking
00:15:33 --> 00:15:37 for a takeaway, um, and so, so I know this is
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 released on both feeds, right? This could be
00:15:39 --> 00:15:42 a podcast or a YouTube show, any content, right?
00:15:43 --> 00:15:46 I think like something also like something that
00:15:46 --> 00:15:51 we all share as solopreneurs, you know, whether
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 you're a podcaster or not, if you're a solopreneur,
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 if you have a business, if you have a side hustle,
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 that's why you're listening to this show, right?
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 Like if you're listening to one of my shows,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:04 you're interested in running a business and creating
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 content. And no matter what you do, I think segments
00:16:07 --> 00:16:11 can be really helpful, right? You know, this
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 is being recorded in E cam live now. I love E
00:16:14 --> 00:16:18 cam live and having segments allows me to create
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 these nice graphics. So it's not just like me
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 on the screen the whole time, kind of like this.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 I'm like sitting on it. I feel this is like I'm
00:16:25 --> 00:16:26 sitting on a couch. So if you're listening to
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 audio only. There's like this white leather couch
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 in here with like a colorful background. Um,
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 and like not my normal, like, so I hope like
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 my editor doesn't hate the way I sound right
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 now. I see the level, so they're pretty good.
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 I don't think I'm blowing out anything. Um, it
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 was a really neat, it's called the go box studio
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 anyway. Uh, so whether or not you create a podcast
00:16:46 --> 00:16:50 or videos or even like blog posts, right? That
00:16:50 --> 00:16:54 you're maybe turning into something. Um, having,
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 having segments could be really good. It gives.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:02 structure to the thing you're trying to create.
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 So I think we're going to leave it here for the
00:17:05 --> 00:17:09 main show. For members, I'm just going to kind
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 of give my gut reaction, things I've learned,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 people I've met. And if you are on my newsletter,
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 something I teased in the newsletter that I want
00:17:18 --> 00:17:22 to think about more. So that's it for this episode.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 Thanks so much for listening. You can catch.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 all of the episodes at streamlined .fm or at
00:17:27 --> 00:17:31 podcastworkflows .com. And if you want to say
00:17:31 --> 00:17:36 hello, reach out, you can comment on this episode
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 on either one of those pages. That's what I'm
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 going to be talking about in the main show. So
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 if you want to become a member here, every episode
00:17:42 --> 00:17:45 ad free extended, you can become a member over
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 a streamlined .fm slash join. But that's it for
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 the main show. So until next time, I'll see you
00:17:50 --> 00:17:50 out there.