Episode Summary
When you record a podcast its always good to be prepared especially when your guest is an influencer in your industry Since your podcast is an extension of you and your company you want the guest to have a great experience And most importantly you want the episode to be relevant to your audience
But many podcast hosts especially newer ones dont prepare as much as they should They end up with a list of questions but nothing else And they arent able to get good content from their guests
Thats why its important to have a podcast script In this episode of Recorded Content Justin Brown and Tristan Pelligrino talk about the importance of having a script to foster an excellent conversation with your guest and provide quality content to your listeners
Guest Profile
Name: Justin Brown
What he does: Justin is the Co-Founder of Motion and leads customer success for all of the shows produced by the company
Company: Motion
Key Insights
- You should always be focused on your audience and having a script allows you to do that Justin says he always focuses on his audience and thats why he writes scripts Im always focused on how this episode can help these people Ive learned about and gotten to know I know what matters to them And so Im able to relate that content to those folks he says
- Writing scripts puts the onus of the quality of the episode on you instead of your guest Justin believes that the confidence you gain from having a script is key to making a quality episode When you go in with a loose script you put a lot of the ownership of the episodes quality on the guest Youre hoping that the guest will take you down a journey on this amazing episode because theyre charismatic Youll be having this conversation and theyll lead it say amazing things and give catchy sound bites When you do the prep and you write a great script you put the ball in your court and are able to guide the guest down this pathway of a great episode
- Just because you have a script doesnt mean you have to stick to it word-for-word Justin says its important to go where the conversation takes you as long as you stick to the shows overarching theme Ive set out on episodes where we struggle with the core theme of the episode I go a layer deeper with a guest to get to know them much better throughout the recording If I uncover something and we start going down this rabbit hole and that rabbit hole still goes back to the core theme of the show but I want to dig in some more thats totally fine Im not saying you need to stick to a very formulaic approach he says
- With a podcast script you give yourself more confidence heading into the recording session
Episode Highlights
Create a central theme for each episode before you hit record
I try to stay away from chit-chat and I try to have this overarching theme for an episode That theme stems from who my listeners are and the majority of people who would listen to Recorded Content are people within our ideal customer profile So for me Im always thinking about how this conversation can help my ideal audience
During each episode there are times when I bring it back to the theme You ask your question and then you get it back to that central theme So Im always going back to my central theme and I head into the episode knowing what that theme is
Many B2B podcasters feel they dont have time to prepare a script but the time putting together a script is well-spent
Often for a B2B podcast the host is your CEO or some C-level executive or a VP of Marketing who has limited time This may or may not be a passion project Its slightly different when youre running a B2B podcast versus something you do for a hobby or something you do on your personal time or just as a creator
Because they are already stretched thin people convince themselves that the conversations are better and more organic if they wing it
I empathize with everyone Ive done many podcasts between the various shows that Tristan and I have hosted It does take time but for me I know that sitting down and spending that time is also going to create something that I can be proud of later That way I dont walk out of an episode and go Ooh I hope that helps somebody
Dont be concerned about sounding robotic with a script
Its better to have great content and sound robotic than to sound natural but have content that doesnt help your audience
You feel like youre reading your first couple of questions from a script but you know what Youre getting great answers because you went in with a plan and knew how this episode was relevant to your audience and were clear on the shows main theme Even if you dont feel like you were the most charismatic person on the recording at least youll walk away knowing that you created something great
That goes much further with your audience at least from what Ive seen than having a little bit of charisma but the discussion doesnt really go anywhere
A script should consist of the basic format of your episode lead-in setup overarching theme lessons learned thanking the guest lead-out
There are a few different sections that we like to highlight The first is your lead-in where you introduce your audience to the guest and yourself You can almost think of it as the opening credits
Then youve got the setup of your episode This is where you ask the guest a question or two about their background
Then you introduce the core theme or topic that youre going to be talking about In the right type of situation just like any story the plot has conflict The overarching theme of your episode should have to do with a struggle or something that had to be overcome Thats where youre going to spend the bulk of your episode
Then you wrap up with the lessons learned and thank the guest Then you have your lead-out These are the core components of the podcast script but youll go down all sorts of different rabbit holes during an episode