How to Outline a Podcast Episode

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 you make sure you cover all the topics you want to cover, or ask or answer the right questions. It helps you keep the episode on track.

Listeners want to know what they’re going to get from a show. You may have recorded an epic episode 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. People will tune out if they don’t know to expect or what the point of the episode is.

In this episode, you'll learn how to outline your episodes and explain the content of your episode at the start of your episode so you can keep people listening (and subscribing) to your show.

Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins

• The purpose of outlining is to keep you focused on the big picture things before you dive into the small details.
• Start your outline with your big idea. This will be the main topic of the episode.
• In your intro, tell your listeners what they can expect. Explain to them why this topic matters and why they should care.
• You don’t have to do any real writing inside of a mind map outline. It’s just for laying out the main sections and big ideas of the episode.
• Invest some time every week doing additional research on your topic.
• Find out what other people are saying about your topic.
• Find and address any counter-arguments.

Why Outline?

If you’ve never done outlines before for your podcast, I recommend trying it.

If you don’t have an outline, you won’t have structure. Your show won’t feel like it has direction. You might forget important things.

If you’re doing an interview, you might miss important questions or forget to talk about certain things.

While doing an interview, it’s ok to go with the flow and the conversation, but your listeners will appreciate if you prepare topics to talk about with your guest.

The purpose of outlining is to keep you focused on the big picture things before you dive into the small details.

If you try to write out an episode from start to finish, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details of one section and lose sight of the big picture.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to what these folks have to say about outlining:

Scotty: I’ve been doing mind mapping to begin my process of outlining. I select the main takeaways that I can focus on and then prepare the outline. Sometimes my mind goes off the outline but that’s alright. Mind maps have been huge to stop me from staring at the cursor blinking wondering where to start.

Garrett: Outlining definitely benefits me. It helps me get my thoughts organized in advance so I can just start typing away and get the rough draft finished. I do think it’s important to not stick strictly to the outline. Sometimes you’re writing and you realize the order should be different, or you need to add something, or remove something, and that’s okay. The outline isn’t the definitive.

Let's start by walking through the sections of a typical episode outline, and then dive into more detail about each piece.

Please feel free to adapt this outline to meet your needs. This is how I outline and I hope it will give you a nice starting point but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

How to Start a Podcast Episode Outline

Scotty asked: Do you have your headline set before you plan your attack? Or do you start to write your outline then form an engaging headline from there?

Now, Scotty said headline, but I think he means title. I always start with the Main Topic or the Big Idea.

This can also be the title of your episode, but you don’t have to have the title before you start writing the outline. You can change the title later if you want.

Start your outline with your big idea. This will be the main topic of the episode.

After you have your main topic, what is your hook? What perspective or opinions do you have that are unique or interesting about this topic? What are your listeners going to take away from the show?

After you have your topic and hook, start writing your intro. Think about how you’re going to introduce this topic or idea to your audience.

After you have your main topic and intro, start thinking about the main points related to that topic that you want to make. These will be your headers. These are the main sub-topics or ideas that will make up the meat of your episode. You should also address counter arguments after you’ve made your main points, but I’ll talk more about tha...