Episode 3 - Exploring Different Podcast Formats

In this episode, Jon dives into the world of podcast formats, covering monologue, interview, and storytelling styles, as well as the importance of intro and outro scripts and the role of music in setting the tone. He discusses optimal podcast length based on format and highlights the significance of maintaining consistency and familiarity with the audience. Jon also shares examples of podcasts that inspire him and provides practical advice on choosing the right number of speakers per episode to fit your podcast's goals.

Takeaways

• Choose a podcast format that suits your content: monologue, interview, storytelling, or a combination.
• Crafting intro and outro scripts helps maintain consistency and builds familiarity with your audience.
• Music is a powerful tool to create a consistent and memorable podcast experience.
• For monologue podcasts, aim for a length of around 20 minutes to retain listener engagement.
• For interview-style podcasts, a target length of 45-60 minutes works best.
• The number of speakers should align with the goals and structure of each episode.
• Draw inspiration from other podcasts that resonate with your style and vision.
• Consistency and familiarity are essential to building a loyal audience.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Overview
03:12 - Crafting Engaging Intro and Outro Scripts
05:11 - The Power of Music in Podcasting
07:31 - Determining the Ideal Podcast Length
10:26 - Choosing the Number of Speakers per Episode
12:38 - Finding Inspiration from Other Podcasts
15:24 - The Importance of Consistency and Familiarity

Resources

• Download the Wayfare Podcast Strategy Workbook
• Need help with your podcast? CLICK HERE
• Need help starting your podcast? CLICK HERE

Versions

• Check out our video version of the podcast.
• Check out our audio version of the podcast.

Acknowledgments
A big thank you to:

• Kath - Creating the podcast artwork (You can find more of her work here)
• Anna - Wayfare's Admin Assist.
• Matt - Graphics creation for the show
• Dan - Post-production work

For any additional questions, please reach out through this link.

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

Jon (00:01.655)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Wayfair recording podcast. This is episode three of our series going over the podcast strategy guide workbook. If you're jumping in on this episode randomly, just to kind of get a vibe of the show, to get a vibe of who I am for whatever reason. First of all, welcome. And second of all, if you want to check it out and work along with us.

You can find a link to download it in the description below or in the show notes if you're listening to this on the audio versions. Yeah, otherwise.

feel free to like subscribe, follow all that fun stuff. All those technical logistics, whatever I can bring it up later in the episode too. It's a quick reminder. but yeah, anyways, moving on to the main episode. So we are on page seven and we're going to be on page seven until page, I'm looking through my document right now, page nine.

We're going to go through page nine and end on that. So yeah, podcast format. So what do I mean by podcast format? When you, when, when you check out this book, so podcast format is kind of more like, what's the format of your show in the sense of, you doing like a monologue? Are you, interviewing people? Are you kind of doing something more dynamic, like inserting audio files or using like a interview as the backdrop and you're kind of interweaving it throughout your

narrative.

Jon (01:47.979)
And that's usually what we're talking about. also are kind of asking questions like what's your intro script, how you introducing the listeners to your show? What's your exit? you know, your outro like, thank you for, thank you for listening to the show. Be sure to like, be sure to like subscribe. but it's also as well, like, you know, what's your music, what's your, what's the length of the show?

And we're not quite getting into like the nuances of like where those pieces lie. that'll be for the next episode. We're kind of just like ideating. What are you saying for your show? we're ideating what your podcast format is. we're ideating, ways to flesh out those ideas from inspirational components. and I can kind of get in the nuance that in a second, I'm just going to give you a

broad stroke as to what that is. So right off the, right off the rip, what's your format? Is it an interview? Is it a monologue? Are you storytelling? Are you narrating? what's your format? So, since I'm working along with you guys, I'm literally, I got my, I got my workbook with you guys right here, on my iPad. And, so I'm kind of detailing it with you,

answering the questions, I guess, with you. And if I were to answer this, this is a monologue. It's just me talking to you, the listener. you might hear my dog in the background every now and again, like, I believe in the last episode, my doc was sleeping and snoring. yeah, we'll see how the editors of the show work, work on that. But, yeah, this is a monologue. So, and monologues are just again, one person talking.

There's no other person on the other end, except you listening. interviews are one -on -one, one -on -two, two -on -two. You're just kind of asking questions back and forth. And those are pretty common. you know, if you're listening to some of the bigger shows like, you know, Joe Rogan, those are interview based. I, how I built this, that's more, dynamic storytelling. That's more narrative. That's more, taking interviews and splicing it in throughout.

Jon (04:10.695)
How I built this has Guy Ross kind of giving a backdrop of what the show is and then going into an interview.

I think of anything else. think, I think, serial is a narrative based, I believe. Yeah, that sounds right to me. but yeah. and on the, on the workbook, there's also an author section, you know, maybe you have something entirely different. maybe you have something that's that you're trying new and fresh. maybe I'm missing something in this list. Candidly. That's, that's probably.

going to happen. But yeah, this is just to identify what your show is. Maybe it's a mixture of both that could go in the other section. And so after that, I have what are some podcasts that you draw inspiration from? So I would probably say for this one, my biggest inspiration for this show is

Jon (05:11.339)
I got two that come to mind. One is hyper, both are pretty niche, but one is hyper niche and the other one is pretty big if you're in the right space. So one is, Rob Bell podcast, the way that he delivers his show is very much so interpersonal. he really wants to reflect with you. He really, I get the sense that he manifests you on the other end that you are really there right next to him.

A lot of meditative ideas and I'm not trying to like, I guess we were kind of meditating, but it's much more conversationally oriented, which is really nice. It takes a lot of, talent, I believe to do that. I feel like I'm not getting it right with this show, but, I hope I'm getting that vibe. the other one is

If you know, know, there's this guy out there. I think he's out in the new England region. name is Julian and he does a lot of, deep dives into like 2000s. if you know, know, 2000s, email music. And, I enjoy listening to that kind of music, but the way that he presents his show is kind of more of where the inspiration comes from. It's very, lo -fi. It's very,

Very stripped down. It's literally, I don't know what he uses for a microphone. You can't really see it. you can see it. You can see mine here, but he uses like a webcam. I'm using my phone. and he uses his, I think his computer camera, I believe, I could ask him. I, kind of talked with him every now and again, but he, it's very stripped down and that's kind of where the idea is coming from.

as far as how I present the show. yeah. So, I mean, when you're going through this, just like, you know, who are some shows that you enjoy following that really inspire you? Like, yeah, I think I could pull something off like that. and if you don't have one, just kind of float around, poke around, take like 30 minutes and, go on YouTube and just see what resonates with you.

Jon (07:31.243)
Yeah. So the next one is introduction. We're on page eight, by the way. The next one is introduction script and exit scripts. So, these are pretty, I don't want to say they're optional. They are optional. It's your podcast. You can do what you want, but they're pretty important to like, kind of hunker down and figure out like how you want to present it. like for this show, I don't, I don't think I have an intro.

formal intro and exit formal intro and outro to the show. I guess for the introduction, I've just been saying like, Hey, welcome to another episode of the way for recording podcast. Some people do like full on like,

Jon (08:20.726)
trying to think of a podcast that does something much more.

Jon (08:25.918)
like

like a welcome to da da da da da. And you were in, in this show we do X, Y, and Z. And we talk about this, that, and the other thing. I'm your host, Joe Schmo, and thank you again for listening. And then the music plays and then you transition to the formal episode, you know, that is one way of doing it. And I do recommend doing that if you're really unsure or you're really uncomfortable with like,

how to present yourself and you just want to jump right into the episode. I do recommend doing that, as an option. but really the, the idea for an introduction is to find a way to consistently introduce your audience to a new episode of your show. And because, mean, consistency and familiarity are like super important for podcasts. And this is one way to kind of create that consistency.

if you're really confident with how you present it, like just jumping right in and going for it. great. mean, your listener will develop that familiarity and you will develop the consistency and you'll develop that practice and perfect.

As far as exit goes, mean, the exit script is going to be, much more standard. It's going to be like, Hey, be sure to like review and subscribe. It's going to be like, thanks again for listening to another episode of whatever your show is. but, and you want to do that. Like that is the core. It's not the call to action of your podcast necessarily, but it's, it's a core way to.

Jon (10:13.033)
ensure that you are doing your part to retain the listener, I guess. like it's there's partial call to action to it.

but it's, it's yeah, it's a way to retain the listener for your show and you can include your formal call to action. Like, you know, if you, if you have a, if your podcast is a funnel, I've said in previous episodes that this particular podcast, I don't want to handle it like a funnel, but it is inherently one. Like, you know, if you, if you're listening to this, you're watching this and you like me and you like the,

And you like what we do and you want to work with us. mean, this is how you found out. you know, that's how it works. But, but, I mean, what the funneling is, or the call to action is, can be very critical if that's how you're treating the podcast. so, you know, you would say something like, Hey, thanks so much for listening to another episode of,

Let's just do this one. Wait for recording podcast. be sure to like review, subscribe, share with a friend. and if you like me and you like what we're doing, feel free to reach out, go to our contact form. I'll have a link below in the description. I'll try to remember to actually do that, but it's something along those lines. Like, you know, you want to make sure that you have the, guess I could call it the call to action of the show, but then also the call to action to your operations and what you're trying to get with the podcast.

I'm putting a lot of extra thought into it. It's really low stress. Like just have your call to action and be sure to include. Liking subscribing and sharing. Otherwise, like, you know, it might be tough for people to find your podcast. so yeah, that's, that's the intro and outro. I, the last page that we have in this section is on page nine and that one's going to be going over your target podcast length.

Jon (12:25.179)
how many speakers per episode are you going to have in the show? do you have music? do you have music selected? and.

This one's pretty straightforward. would say music there's, I'll start with that one. I'll kind of work backwards. Music is pretty tricky. that one I would recommend actually, kind of fleshing out with whoever you choose for your, for your producer. whether it's me or someone else, like I would recommend, talking to them about what their thoughts are. You know, if you work with me, I typically suggest that there are.

three options that you can take with music. There's the royalty free option. there's the original. And then there's the, and this is kind of original too, but you have the option to make your own. If you're talented, if you have a music musicality to your skillset, where you can construct one. but the getting an original one, if you're not making it, but you're reaching out to someone can, can cost quite a bit.

getting licenses to do music's really tricky. Getting licenses to, obtain a song can be pretty expensive most of the time. sometimes you can just reach out to them and maybe they're like a more, indie type musician and they won't mind as much, but, it can cost quite a bit of money. And for my suggestion is to go royalty free, at least starting out.

I don't recommend switching music up too frequently in a show, but you you can, it's, it's your podcast. but going there royalty free.

Jon (14:18.748)
Option is usually the safest bet. And, you know, if you work with me, like I have a, I have the options to provide you with me, with music and they totally sound we're LT free. they're pretty generic, but I mean, it gets the job done. Cause again, you want to, you want to do music for, like I said earlier, consistency familiarity. You want to make sure that you're telling your audience that they are.

In your show, like music is a very powerful tool to indicate that consistency and familiarity with your show. so, then for the speakers, I mean, how many people are you planning on having on your show? Is it one monologue? is it you, two people, you know, as an interview, three people that can be interviewed as well. four plus is usually if you're doing more narrative based stuff and you're interviewing multiple people.

but just kind of recognizing what your goal is and who you're speaking to.

And then lastly for the target length.

Jon (15:32.887)
I, this one isn't tricky. I'm just thinking back on a discussion that I had recently with a client. we were discussing what good podcast links are for, shows. And, typically the general rule of thumb is, and this is kind of more on a, listener retention and a listener basis where,

If you're doing a monologue, about 20 minutes is a pretty healthy length to aim for. cause I mean, listening to one person for just going on and on and on for like an hour, hour and a half can be pretty tiring. It's not a bad idea, especially if you're very much so like information oriented and information, forward.

but it can be pretty taxing and you want to make sure you hold onto those listeners, not just for, one episode, but you know, keeping them on for more than one episode. And yeah, I would recommend a 20 minutes is a pretty good length for that again, for retention purposes. And if you are doing an interview, 45 minutes is a pretty good number to aim for.

45 to 60 minutes again, if it's very information forward, those are pretty good numbers to kind of run with.

And anything more than that, like I think it's kind of being more of a mind being mindful about what your show is and what your goal is. Cause like, you know, Joe Rogan does like, way longer than that, like three hours. And I think he has, he's built pretty good credibility to pull something off like that. but there are also podcasts out there that do like an hour and a half. And, know, again, if your information forward, great.

Jon (17:37.399)
go for it. and I think having the tools like, you know, chapters, transcriptions, kind of being able to help the listener bookmark where they are is very helpful if you have a longer, podcast, but yeah, I mean, a general rule of thumb is 20 for monologue 45 to 60 for interviews. and kind of aiming for those numbers. but if you want to do longer, that's your show.

It's go for it. That's great. but yeah, I think that's going to be it for this episode. just to reiterate, if you guys, like what you're hearing, feel free to like subscribe, share with people that you think would be beneficial. That would benefit from this show. if you are really interested in following along again, PDF will be available, in the description.

below this video or associated with the show notes on this podcast if you're an audio only listen. yeah, otherwise, thank you so much for checking this out until the next episode.