How To Plan Your Podcast Episode

In episode six of Podcasts Suck, Sebastian Rusk discusses the importance of planning your podcast episode and how to structure it effectively. He emphasizes the need to find the right balance between providing enough content without overdoing it. Whether you prefer pen and paper or a digital template, Sebastian then highlights the need for proper planning to ensure your episodes are neither too long nor too short. Thus, having a structured plan or template while recording an episode is essential for staying organized, maintaining a consistent structure, and delivering a professional podcast.

TIMESTAMPS

[00:01:56] Episode Structure and Planning.

[00:04:43] Episode Length.

[00:07:10] Episode Length and Structure.

In this episode, Sebastian Rusk provides a clear structure for the episode and helps to keep everything organized. He mentions that all interviews are capped at a maximum of 30 minutes, even if the conversation is going well and they want to continue as this allows for a focused and concise conversation that is easy for listeners to digest. 

In addition, Sebastian emphasizes the importance of having a structured plan or template while recording as it is beneficial for several reasons:

• Firstly, it ensures that all necessary information is included in the episode. By following the format, the host can cover all important points and avoid forgetting anything.
• Secondly, it helps maintain a consistent structure and flow throughout the episode. By referring to the plan, the host can stay on track and prevent the episode from becoming disorganized or going off on tangents.
• Lastly, having a structured plan or template demonstrates professionalism and attention to detail. It shows that the host has put thought and effort into planning the episode, providing a more polished listening experience for the audience.

QUOTES:

• "So you really understand what needs to go into a podcast episode so that you're not overdoing it, but then you're also not underdoing it."
• “But here's exactly what, you should be doing to plan out each episode in order to structure it properly.”
• “I really try to keep all interviews right at 20 minutes. The guest appreciates it too. You're respecting their time, you're respecting your own time.”

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Social Media Links

Instagram: Instagram.com/PodcastsSUCK

Facebook: Facebook.com/srusk

LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sebastianrusk/

Transcript

Sebastian Rusk 00:02 - 09:20

Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. What's happening, podcasters? Welcome back to the show. In case you haven't been tuned in the past few episodes, you may want to go back to the beginning. It's only five episodes. So you understand all the steps that we've been covering from the very beginning of conceptualizing the idea of actually starting a podcast until now. Today's episode is all about planning your episode, the episode structure, and how long should my episode be? If I had a dollar for every time I got asked that, and it's also a great question. So I want to make sure that I'm clarifying that for everybody. So you're really, understand what needs to go into a podcast episode so that you're not overdoing it, but then you're also not underdoing it. Is that a word? It is now. All right, let's talk about episode structure. So, I'm going to provide a format for you to follow and all it requires is that you take out a blank sheet of paper or if you're super organized and you're like, hold on a second, I can create a word document and I can save it as a template and I can print it off every time I record an episode. That's totally cool too. Not hard to do, but here's exactly what, you should be doing to plan out each episode in order to structure it properly. Take out a blank sheet of paper and a pen or a pencil. If that's how you roll at the top of the page, write episode two and the title of the episode, draw a line underneath it. And then I want you, if you have a guest that you'll be interviewing, put the guest name, maybe the date, we'll bring it back to fifth grade. We'll put our name and date at the top of the page. I'm totally kidding. Top of the page, episode number, title of the episode, draw a line underneath it. If there is a guest, write the guest name on there. And I want you to write three to six bullet points that you want to cover during that episode. And then I want you to leave some space at the bottom of the page, right? The word notes and draw a line underneath it. And then I want you to fill in the three to six bullet points of what you want to cover during that episode. There is a method to the madness with this. Number one, you know exactly what the topic of the episode is going to be because you put the title of the episode. If you have a guest, obviously you want to know what the guest's name is. And then you have three to six bullet points. That doesn't seem like a lot, Sebastian. I understand that. But when we're recording a 20 or 30 minute episode, you don't need to go crazy and put an entire page full of notes that you're probably not going to cover. And it's probably going to confuse you while you're recording the episode anyway. This is a proven theory. I've done this since I started podcasting. It's what we teach at the podcast launch lab. It's what I included in my book. It's what I include on the YouTube channel to help people understand how to properly structure a podcast episode. So top of the page, episode number title, the episode three to six bullet points that you want to cover during the episode and then leave an area for notes. That's literally all that you need. And then when you, when you're done with that, go record the episode, but had that piece of paper in front of you. You want that in front of you as a guide. So you can stay on pace that you don't go off on tangents. If you're interviewing somebody, maybe those three to six bullet points are not only just what you want to talk about, but also the questions that you want to ask your guests too. So make sure all of those things are clear. Don't overdo it. Only use one sheet of paper. If you absolutely have to maybe flip over the piece of paper and on the back of it, jot some more notes. But the last thing you want to be doing is fumbling through a bunch of different paperwork when you're trying to just record a simple podcast episode. Does that make sense? Great. So listen, you can take out a notebook. You can take out a clean sheet of paper. You can pull up a word document, a Google document. You can create a template and just print up that template every time and just fill it in again, very elementary, but we need elementary sometimes to just keep us organized and keep it very, very simple for us to understand. Now, when we talk about episode length, this is one of my favorite things to talk about because I talk about short and sweet a lot with intros and outros and keeping it very simple because it's easier to digest as a listener when it's simple. So an episode link, it really doesn't need to be any longer than 20 to 30 minutes max on an interview. If it's just you as a talking head, it needs to be capped at like maybe, 10 to 12 minutes, maybe 15 minutes if I'm exaggerating, but eight to 10 minutes is a sweet spot. Just like this podcast, 10 minutes or less every single episode. I might've gone 11 on a couple of my apologies, but it's still short and sweet. You pull up the episode, you're like, I got 10 minutes and that's why I'm telling you to keep it short and sweet. Think about when you have pull up a podcast episode to go and listen to, and it's three and a half hours long. Joe Rogan, You're like, great. I needed a week to listen to this podcast episode. You pull up an episode that's eight minutes and 30 seconds long. You're like, I got that. because it's quick and it's easy to digest. And if you're doing it right and you're planning it right, like we talked about with episode structure, you're going to be able to knock out an episode in 10 minutes or less if it's just you. You're going to be able to knock out a podcast interview in 20 to 30 minutes max. All of my interviews that I do are a max of 30 minutes total. That's even if the conversation got really good and we wanted to just continue to talk and continue to ask questions. People's attention span just isn't there. Well, Sebastian, it was a really VIP guest, very important individual, and I really wanted to squeeze every ounce of juice out of the orange that I could in that interview. Great. Let the interview go for an hour. Break it up into two parts. Make it two episodes. Make your life even easier. But don't think you want to sit here and go, I had somebody post it last week. I'm looking for podcast guests that are willing to sit down and have real conversations for three hours. If you don't have three hours, that's your problem. I'm like, buddy, you're asking people to take three hours out of the day for your podcast. Settle down. Most people barely have an hour. So you want to keep it short, sweet. And to the point you're not Joe Rogan, you're probably never going to be Joe Rogan. I know I just probably pooh, poohed all over all of your podcasting dreams, but the guy's an anomaly. He's the largest podcaster in the world in 91 countries has been always will be for the foreseeable future. So just keep that into consideration. Very, very important to consider. So episode structure, a sheet of paper, or pull up a word doc, create some sort of template that you can just print off a piece of paper and fill it out. Have that in front of you. When you record episode length, if it's just you eight to 10 minutes, 15 minutes max, if you really have something to talk about. I mean, 15 minutes, if you go 15 minutes by yourself, technically you can break that up into two episodes too. And then when you're interviewing somebody 20 to 30 minutes max, I really try to keep all interviews right at 20 minutes. The guest appreciates it too. You're respecting their time, you're respecting your own time. And if you're doing it right and you have that proper structure in front of you, being able to sit down and talk to somebody constructively, for 20 minutes and be able to convey the information and the value that they're sharing should not be a hard process at all by any stretch of the imagination. So don't overcomplicate that process. All right. That does it for this episode talking about planning your podcast episodes. How long should the episode be episode length and episode structure? That's what we've talked about here. Questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns, whatever you got pertaining to this episode or any episodes on the show, please send me a DM over on Instagram podcast suck. That's two S's podcast suck on Instagram. I hang out on Facebook and on LinkedIn, obviously under Sebastian Rusk as well. Make sure that you go do the homework. Uh, that's in the description of this podcast episode. I've already told you what that homework is, and that is to create some sort of template, whether you use a notebook on a clean sheet of paper or you create a template in Google docs or word or whatever you want to do and just print it out every time. Episode title, top of the page, three to six bullet points in an area for notes, eight to 10 minutes total for a single episode, solo episode rather. 20 to 30 minutes max on interviews. You got that? I'm going to recap that in the description of this podcast episode, hit me up with any questions and I will see all of you lovely individuals. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. That's the way we get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.