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we are breaking down the three solo podcasting formats or structures the storyteller the teacher

and the commentator you can figure out the best structure to use for your solo podcast show or

maybe pivot to one after you hear what these are sometimes solo podcasting is thought of as an

easier way to just go because you don't need to find anybody. You can just turn on the mic and

talk. But I understand why people say that it's easier because you save time and headaches because

you don't have to find a co-host with equipment or schedule guests. Nobody's ghosting you,

including that co-host. You don't have to find like a remote recording platform. You can just

Start with audacity on your own computer, and all of this stuff is a huge bonus.

Now, without a plan, solo hosts can also fall into, like, rambling or monotony.

I sure have.

But to avoid this, to be successful, you want to have a specific architecture or format style for your show,

which is more reliable than, like, going off of charisma alone.

Welcome to the Podcast Performance Lab. I'm your host, Jen deHaan, and in this show,

we take the most effective tools from unscripted improvised performance and behavioral psychology

and apply those things directly to your video and audio content.

It's entirely possible to still be very creative within a structure, or even a very formalized or

rigid one. Now, if you already have a podcast, you might want to pivot your format or more strongly

align with one of these structures to strengthen what you're already doing. The first structure

is called the storyteller. The goal of this structure is to craft a narrative. So in this

format, you're forming like a theater of the mind for your listener. They're envisioning the story

that you're telling. They're putting themselves in that action that you're presenting. Like they're

seeing the buildings or they're seeing the people and so on. You're doing that more than like just

giving a bunch of facts or how to, like a how-to about the history or the thing that you're talking

about. So within this kind of structure, there's sort of substructures or subtypes. One of them,

is a historical deep dive.

You might listen to a lot of these historical deep dive shows.

Like they're fully scripted shows.

They're the ones that focus on like,

they focus on those really high quality scripts,

the writing, they're focusing on the quality

of how that writing is being delivered.

So that delivery is so important.

And all of this is really important

because the lack of visuals that are available

when you're delivering podcasts can impact these stories.

So they need to really up that storytelling element.

You're probably not ever seeing a video version of this show.

This delivery, by the way, it can take a lot of practice

or it can take existing developed skill sets of the host.

These shows are really relying on that delivery

more than, say, sound effects or sound design.

Like, they're not using actors, they're narrating these,

but they might have some elements of sound design as well.

I consider a show like Dan Carlin's Hardcore History to be this type of show.

Now, another subtype of this storytelling category,

the storyteller, is themed narrative.

This is really common in the folklore or the true crime genre,

But the show itself, it stays like in this very specific theme for its narrative.

That's the point.

The show is kind of acting like a folklorist,

or it might also have a really documentarian part of the show.

I consider shows like Lore, which has also turned into a TV show and a book series,

really well known to be this kind of podcast.

And it's exploring why people believed the story that's being told and the history behind that story.

It's a really immersive documentary style of podcast, which is why it's also so adaptable to those other formats.

The cold open is also used in this kind of structure a lot.

The cold open is when you start in the middle of the action.

This is used in improv scenes all the time.

And for the same reason, it works in podcasts.

and all these other places that you find storytelling

because it really hooks the audience

in to the story right away

because you're starting in that action.

Like in improv, starting in the action in the middle

forces the players in that scene

to establish like the who, what, where,

the base reality really quickly

and create an immediate tension

for some sort of something

instead of starting with like a character introduction

like, hey, how you doing today, Sam? So that's why it builds up the tension. And that's what

makes it a really good way to start an episode. The next structure is called the teacher.

This structure is really good for coaches and consultants who need to establish their expertise

in the space really quickly to show what they do. The core function of this format is just to

transfer knowledge to your audience. And the structure in many of these kinds of podcasts is

kind of like a classroom. You're dealing with logic and clarity. Now you might be using stories

throughout this structure, but storytelling is more of like on an as-needed basis to explain

the concept. This show, for example, falls into this category, as does another show that I've done

called Your Improv Brain. And I just started off like talking into the mic, the beginning of the

very first episodes without a format or a plan. But I learned pretty quickly that just improvising

my improv show in that case was not going to work. So I shifted to this kind of format and structure

instead. There are different subtypes in this form as well. So you might do an academic explainer

type of podcast, teaching podcast. And this structure is really similar to like an academic

lecture. So you're defining terms, you're introducing people or thinkers in this space,

You are giving concepts and you're explaining them.

And you're probably quite familiar with this kind of presentation model if you've gone to college or university.

An example of this kind of podcast or episode is The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps.

That's the show name, and it's hosted by a professor.

And you might also want to check out Mike Duncan's history podcast as well.

They fall into this structure as well.

Now, the other type of podcast that you might find in the teacher space is the framework model.

And this is really more of a how-to type of show.

So this type of show provides like a step-by-step system to solve a problem, exercises, that kind of thing.

And it really works because it puts you as an authority on the topic, you being the host.

And it could even serve as like a marketing funnel if you had a business or you have something to market or funnel to.

The Think Media podcast is really a blend of solo and interview shows, but the solo shows on that podcast fall into this format as another example.

And this is an important consideration in particular for these how-to type of shows.

Like if you plan to illustrate some steps using a screen capture or diagrams, you really have to think about how to verbalize those visuals delivering a podcast or do something else for the audio only version.

This structure frequently uses a thesis of the episode as the hook at the very beginning.

So you're telling your audience what you're about to teach them instead of like using a narrative story to teach those kind of concepts, the cold open.

You are really delivering an audio essay that focuses on instruction and learning and how to in that kind of show.

So the next structure is called the commentator.

So this kind of format, this kind of structure is entirely based on your own personal perspective on something.

And really, if you're going to go out there with your unique perspective on a particular subject,

it's a really quick way to build up trust with your audience and a really very loyal to you audience at that.

So you're really setting yourself apart from everyone else's takes and opinions on a particular topic, on your niche, in that category.

You're really developing trust with your audience super quick.

And I don't like the term thought leader, but it would probably apply pretty well to this structure, the host of this structure.

So shows can be delivered in a couple of different ways if you're doing a commentator type of show.

The first type is a daily news analysis or a very frequent delivered podcast.

So a news analysis, like a timely podcast.

So a news analysis type of show is a pretty rigid format when it comes to like delivering a solo podcast at least.

You might start this kind of show, you might hear a show in this category, like start with a monologue at the beginning,

and then just end with another kind of monologue or spiel, wrapping it up.

The main part of the show, the meat of the show, probably includes some level of news commentary or news clips that are played.

So an example of this kind of show, you can find the Humanist Report, and that show includes news clips.

And the show is delivered to both video and audio format, so these are very verbal news clips that are being shown.

Another type in this structure is a pure op-ed style of show.

So an example of this kind of show might be the one that Bill Burr does, the Monday Morning Show,

and then their monologue episodes in Ed Zitron's Better Offline Podcast would fall into this category.

And although it's not delivered to his podcast, Adam Conover's channel, which includes a podcast

and solo episodes, he doesn't do those to audio only, I don't think, but those are really op-ed

monologue formats as well. Pretty good example of those. Now the risk of this format is that it's a

very hard format structure to pull off. Like it entirely relies on being a really established

persona, at least eventually, because this is kind of like a TED talk without the live audience.

And you'd have to answer the question, like, why would someone listen to you? Because it's very

opinionated. You're making commentary. This is something that you'd need to establish somewhere

in the show or you're establishing it over time or you you might have like a marketing plan that

sort of accompanies the show but if you nail this kind of format it's a really effective way to build

an audience as a topic authority if you want to be one and that's because you are the only person

or you're the best person to listen to about that topic you aren't getting your hot takes from

anyone else. You have to go to your show for them. So the focus on this kind of structure is that

persuasion, that persuasive argument that you're making. Like the host is probably stating a thesis,

they're giving evidence, and then they might refute the counter argument to what they're saying.

So they present that counter argument, they talk about it, they refute it.

This is a great way to build up trust.

So let's talk about another solo podcast structure that you might want to consider for your show.

This one is blending multiple structures together, but there's a risk involved with this one.

So the great shows, the shows that really pull this off, really blend a couple structures together.

But the way that they're successful is being organized and really like purposeful about it.

So a blended hybrid structure needs to be clear and it needs to be repeatable.

You can get creative and you can make something new or really unique.

And it could be a huge advantage because things are so crowded out there.

And everything online, but also podcasts.

and that show would be quite new and unique and different.

People would talk about it.

So this is good.

So to figure out what this hybrid format is,

you want to customize the format to your own unique skills,

like what you offer.

And in that place, that's where you could find an advantage.

For example, say you're really good at sound design

and you are also on the debate team.

You made that debate team your entire personality.

You could potentially use those two things together really well.

So figuring out those things that you offer and how they can work together is challenging.

It's going to take more skill and thought and creativity.

It might take some more time, probably a lot more testing with your audience,

playing around with things and seeing what works and what doesn't.

But it comes with that payoff.

when you nail the right combination for your audience.

That work will pay off eventually.

So I think as an example of this kind of style

is like Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History,

perhaps Radiolab as well, those two shows.

They show kind of like a storyteller function

along with commentator or pundit.

They're making very persuasive arguments

or they might like highlight investigative journalism.

They all have that kind of narrative storytelling feel to them as well.

They use that narrative structure to like build a thesis

on the given topic of the episodes.

And they're also using things like sound clips and expert clips

and sound design and more to make them very pulled together episodes.

So you do want to watch out for some things if you're pulling together your own unique hybrid format.

And it really comes down to like if you mismatch some of the elements that don't work well together.

Because you'd be creating a dissonance in your listener's mind.

Like you might have, for example, say a cold open, which is great for the storyteller.

but then it leads into a teacher how-to show.

And that sort of combination

could very well confuse your listener.

What can be a good approach

is to work on one single format structure,

have that in place,

make it really clear,

your audience understands it,

tests well, it's useful, it's appealing,

whatever that is.

And then when you're used to it

and you've established something,

then you can try some very small experiments

try new things in very calculated ways in a single episode and see how it does test it get some

feedback and move on from there so we've covered the three primary structures today a storyteller

structure teacher and commentator and what you're taking away is that working within these structures

can really help your creativity because creativity comes from limitations just like these and the

could be potentially a hybrid format.

Like these formats, all of them are just a scaffolding

and for your show, for your episodes.

And that scaffolding is going to allow you

to hold the attention

while also being a solo single voice on your show,

which is always a challenge.

So I'd love to hear about

some of your favorite solo hosted shows.

You can always send me a message,

a stereoforest.com.

I'd love to hear about them.

And I'm always looking for new shows to download and check out.

If you're doing one, send me your show.

I'd love to check it out.

So I'll be back here soon for the next episode.

And you can find all the information about this show on stereoforest.com slash lab.

Thanks for listening.

Bye for now.

You have been listening to the podcast Performance Lab.

This show is created, written, hosted, edited, and produced by Jen deHaan.

You can also find the video version of this episode on YouTube and contact information on StereoForest.

Find the links for both of those things in the show notes.

Thanks for listening.