The Podcast Dude

Today I’m sharing my process for writing outlines. If you've never written an outline for your podcast before, I'm going to teach you how today. What does a podcast outline do for you? It helps you stay focused. It helps to make sure you to hit all different angles and ask or answer the right questions. It also helps the show stay on track. Listeners want to know what they’re going to get from a show. People will tune out if they don’t know to expect or what the point of the episode is. You could have an epic show prepared with tons of great advice and takeaways, but if you don’t tell the listeners in advance what they can expect, they won't know what's coming. If you don't have an outline for your episode, you won’t know what’s coming either, and your podcast may feel directionless. Community member James had said in the chat, “I don't know if you want me to name names but there's one podcast that is consistently in the top 20 podcasts. He's usually got 15-20 minutes of ads and he has some really awesome guests on his show. I guess his name recognition accounts for getting some of those big names on his show. I swear he has no outline and he jumps around from one random topic to the next taking zero advantage of asking the real questions we want answers to from this particular guest. I finally got fed up and stopped listening to his stuff.” I don't want you to lose listeners. I don't want you to miss out on getting new listeners because you don't know how to do a good job of explaining the value of your shows.

This week I'm joined by special guests Sean and Laci McCabe to talk about how to supercharge your podcast with writing. I've seen how much value listeners get from the show notes for the seanwes podcast, so I wanted to bring Sean and Laci on the show to talk about how to find topics for episodes that will resonate with your listeners, and how to write show notes full of valuable information that will help grow your audience. Sean started writing long and detailed show notes somewhere around episode 50 (he currently has over 170 episodes and shows no signs of slowing down). In the first half of this episode, Sean shares tips on how to finds topics that resonate with your audience, and how to prepares for episodes by writing outlines. In the second half, Laci – who is now the full-time show note writer for seanwes – shares her tips on writing show notes after the recording stops. This episode is jam packed with great tips about how to use writing to make your podcast better. I hope it inspires you to take a little more time to prepare for your shows and invest time in writing great show notes that stand alone as valuable posts that your listeners will love and share with other people.

Podcasts are exploding in popularity. It’s easier than ever to start a podcast and put it online, but just because you record something and share it doesn’t mean that anyone will listen or care. If you want to grow an audience, engage your listeners, and make a podcast that stands out, you need to have the right mindset. When most people talk about starting a podcast, the conversation is usually focused on gear. I will be covering gear in the next episode, but for this first episode, my good friend Sean McCabe joins me to talk about the mindset that will set you up for long term success in podcasting. Sean and I started a bi-weekly podcast (two episodes per week) in late 2013. Since then, Sean has recorded over 170 episodes with nearly 1 million downloads. He’s also started a online community with hundreds of members from all walks of life, launched an online course that made over $100,000 in the first three days, and is now launching multiple new shows on the seanwes podcast network. In this episode, we discuss why I decided to start this podcast, who this show is for, and what topics I’ll be covering in future episodes. We also talk about the benefits of podcasting, why preparing takeaways is the key to a successful show, why your first five listeners matter the most, how long your show should be, the importance of showing up consistently, and more.