When starting a podcast, people focus on their topic, what the podcast artwork looks like, and length, but something that goes under the radar a little bit is podcast outlines, sometimes referred to as “show sheets”, “run downs” or the “show flow”.
A good podcast outline will help you stay on track throughout your interview or show. It enables you to go beat by beat, topic by topic, and ensures that you don’t leave anything out, from any ad reads you might plug to ensuring that your topics and segments are easy to follow.
In this article, we’ll discuss how we create podcast outlines and show sheets, and things that we have done that work, and we’ll even give you a FREE template that we’ve put together that you can use for your own podcast outlines!
Why do we need a podcast outline?
Some people automatically go to write an outline for their podcast, while others trust in their ability to keep things moving in the right direction while that red button is flashing ‘LIVE’. However, it’s our opinion that a lot of podcast outlines just lack the structure to be truly effective and we recommend ours, given how laid out and neat it is. We were able to use our own podcast outline that you can check out later on, and as a result, we found ourselves much more organized and prepared for our podcasts.
Staying on topic can be difficult when you get into a rhythm. You want to talk about a topic you’re interested in, or you find yourself rambling off on a tangent or side topic. It happens.
A podcast outline can give you strict guidelines on how long to talk about each topic. It can also give you places to talk about your stories through efficient bullet points or notes that will help keep you on track as you talk and (hopefully) keep you from going off on a tangent.
Organization is another key benefit here, as most podcast hosts know what topics they want to talk about, but sometimes can find themselves out of order in how they lay out their ideas. This helps you stay in a straight line when talking and will keep your ideas in the correct spots.
Lastly, we have to remember the revenue aspect! As we outlined in our article on how podcasts make money, most podcasts generate revenue through advertisements or sponsorships, and people record their ad reads.
If you have your ad read listed out word for word on your podcast outline, it will be very helpful for you because some companies require ads to be read using specific words, whether due to guidelines or laws, and this will help you not miss any of those very important words. For the companies that don’t require this but instead want you to read their ad in your own words, this can also help you not to stumble over word choice and keep you on the right path towards sounding knowledgeable.
Script vs. Outline?
Let’s make sure we have this straight as we answer this important question.
Podcast scripts and outlines are different in that scripts are straight-up word-for-word your entire podcast(or a large majority), from your questions and follow-ups to the stories you want to tell, while an outline basically bullet points the entire thing, giving you buzzwords and ideas while allowing you to be somewhat free-forming with your ideas and how you word them.
So which one is best for you?
The first thing you need to ask yourself here is this: What kind of podcast are you trying to create?
Scripted
Scripted podcasts are by the book. That means that nearly every word is planned out, every discussion has a spot, all the stories are pre-planned. This will lead to a tighter and more focused show, with a bonus of your storytelling sounding complete but having the downside of potentially sounding and feeling robotic or inauthentic.
A good spot to use a scripted podcast is an instructional video or a tutorial-based podcast. In these instances, you are describing, step by step, how someone is meant to do something. In a scenario where messing up or freelancing a step could cause a catastrophic mistake, people will appreciate the word-for-word nature of a scripted podcast where you can read how something is supposed to sound right off the page.
With scripted shows, your process is going to take much longer than a show that was free-formed and going with the flow. It takes a long time to write the entire script for the podcast out and it may take even longer to edit the podcast, mostly because your edits need to be tighter due to the scripted nature of the podcast.
You may want to avoid using a script in instances where you are doing a roundtable podcast, or podcasts with a lot of people. This is because those types of shows end up with people having a lot of conversations that are naturally going to split off, and you can’t exactly script for things like that. It’s better to let conversations like those be flowing and free-formed.
Outlined
As it sounds, an outlined podcast will have the general ideas that you want to discuss as well as notes about stories and ideas, but the main thing is that not every thought is completed on an outline, which allows the podcast to stay on track but also allows for conversations to dive deeper into conversations and stories.
Unexpected highlights that you may be able to turn into potentially viral social clips tend to result from these kinds of podcasts because hosts and guests get the opportunity to create free-flowing ideas and opinions from the main topics that aren’t written in stone on the outline.
There can also be situations where you need to cite either data or reporting when saying something word-for-word, so having a place for that in your outlined podcast sheet is very helpful.
While these podcasts can create a more natural and deeper connection with your guests or audience due to the authenticity of a free-flowing conversation, there is also the possibility that things can spiral out of control a bit. Whether that means that a conversation goes off of the rails and takes too long or someone has an opinion that doesn’t go over so well, a podcast without proper hosting or planning down to the last word can become an issue.
What do we suggest?
At the end of the day, this isn’t exactly black and white (like most situations in life), so we have something that marries both scripted and outlined podcast show sheets!
We recommend a bullet-point outline that is organized with multiple segments. This way, you get your organization, but you also get the free-flowing nature that makes podcasts very interesting to listen to.
And you can get just this by downloading our FREE podcast outline.
Our outline is perfect for either scripted podcasts that want to stay close to the book and predict every word and discussion, as well as podcasts that are more discussion-based, with the potential to dive into different topics and stories.
If you aren’t convinced yet, here is a little preview:
To get things started we have an adjustable “Episode Foundation” section. We find that having this important (but basic) information front and center sets the stage for a well organized podcast episode.
For our podcasts, we start with the following:
- Episode host
- Who your guest(s) is/are
- Names of sponsors
- Any important social media handles to share
- Recording/publishing dates
- Any requirements for ad reads
Moving onto the actual topics of the episode, we kick off the Show Flow:
In this section, we let our listeners know who we are, and more importantly, what they can expect in the episode.
One of our core tenets at Creator Clinic is to provide value to our users by successfully fulfilling their desired intents. In other words, we try to keep our readers or fans happy by providing what we think they need. So with that in mind, we use this section to set expectations for the episode.
If you notice, we have a space for you to put time stamps next to every segment. Time stamps are incredibly important for a podcast because sometimes, listeners simply want to skip to a certain part of a podcast, and if you have the exact timestamps on your podcast outline, that makes it that much easier for you to direct listeners towards each important section.
To get the rest, you’ll need to download the template.
We envisioned this outline to be the best of both worlds for podcasters because while you can choose whether to be ultra-organized or free-flowing with your podcast, you need to stay on track, and this helps you do just that without forcing yourself to either write every word down or pick your topics completely on the fly.
Using this outline will be perfect for podcasters of all skill levels because not only will it keep you as the host/creator focused on the podcast at hand, but you’ll also look very prepared to your guest and if they happen to mention to their friends or colleagues about how easy to guest it was on your podcast, that might lead to new connections for you as well. The best part about this? All you have to do to get started is download it for FREE and make a copy!
What NEEDS to be included in a podcast outline or script?
If you don’t want to use our template, no sweat, we’ll still break it all down for you.
- Episode Foundation:
- You saw what we included above, but in this section we suggest including, your hosts, any guests, sponsors, all links or files that you may need, as well as a recording date and a target publishing date.
- Host & Guest Info:
- Name & Title (How your guests would like to be introduced)
- Social Media Handles
- Sponsor Info:
- This section should dive deeper into your episode sponsor(s), lists your ad requirements, while organizing your ad read script, or any other important notes you may need.
- Sponsors tend to be particular about their requirements, and you do not want to mess them up.
- Show Flow & Script:
- This section should showcase your episode structure and what topics you’ll be discussing throughout the episode.
- Example:
- Intro
- Segment 1
- Ad Read
- Segment 2
- Example:
- If you’re scripting your podcast, this is where your script should be displayed.
- We suggest using detailed timestamps throughout every segment of your podcast.
- This section should showcase your episode structure and what topics you’ll be discussing throughout the episode.
- Outro, Closing Notes, and CTA’s:
- This is where you wrap up the show.
- Summarize your episode, call back to key moments.
- Thank your audience, guests and sponsors.
- Provide any CTA’s for what you want your audience to do next.
- Additional Notes & Timestamps:
- Anything extra you need!
