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