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Planning Podcast Interviews? How Do You Structure The Interview?

Author: Sean D'Souza

podcast interview structure
 
Have you ever watched the way professionals structure their interview on TV? That's akin to how you should be planning your podcast interview as well. A podcast interview can be super-interesting, or super-boring for the interviewee. While you may not consider yourself to be a professional right this moment, your planning is going to tell right from the very start.

The way I go about any structure is to instinctively break it into three parts

A podcast interview without structure can soon become like a discussion at a cafe. It can bounce around madly. While it's possible for a listener to lock into an interview of that nature, it soon becomes a factor of information overload, especially if your podcast is going to have a lot of actionable material. By the time the podcast listener has reached the end of the episode, it's likely they've managed to latch onto a few points here and there. Even so, as a listener, you've felt this frustration of not being able to get a nice overview at the end, just so you can remember, possibly even make some quick notes.

Structuring and planning the interview into three sections instantly brings a sense of order

For instance, let's say you're interviewing a client about a book. Instead of wandering in and out of the chapters of the book, you focus on just three chapters. You announce the three topics you're going to cover during the podcast and then you work your way through the interview, part by part. This creates a sense of order for the listener who's already on the move when tuning in to your podcast.

Admittedly not all interview podcasts have actionable material

Some podcasts like “Here's the Thing” by Alec Baldwin is about tracing the history of the person; it's a timeline podcast. Even if you're doing a timeline podcast, you can break down the structure into three parts. For instance, in the podcast I'm planning, there are three sections.

They are:

  • Early childhood
  • Young adulthood
  • Current situation

A three part podcast structure isn't very hard to achieve

All you need to do is sit down and work out what you're going to cover. If it's a book you're talking about, go with the chapters, or even break up a chapter into three parts. When I'm preparing for a podcast interview, I'll make sure I have my three sections in front of me, and you should do the same. Here are some examples below:


How To Grow Your Business Using Help (Interns)

The psychology behind getting interns.
The process involved to get the interns on board.
The stuff that you can't predict | The mistakes | The good stories

The psychology behind getting interns.

How do you decide: I'm going to get some interns?
How do you decide on qualifications?
How do you filter out attitude?
Is the feeling of having to trust someone else scary? How do you resolve it?
Should you hire interns that are paid? Or interns that work for the love of it all?
What's the mindset of the intern and how does the intern justify all that time and effort for little or no monetary reward?

The process involved to get the interns on board.

What do you need to have in the intern interview?
What was part of the original interview questions that changed along the way? (I need to know how you refined the interview process).
What's the first thing you do once you get an intern?
What does an average day look like with an intern?
How much time should you allocate to get things settled in?
How do you deal with space issues, if you work out of a small office?

The stuff that you can't predict | The mistakes | The good stories

What's the stuff you can't predict? What was your experience?
What were the mistakes you made in the process of hiring?
You had setbacks as well. What caused the setback and how do you overcome it?


Getting ready for a podcast interview involves some amount of work

The three-part structure allows you to conduct a progressive, stage-by-stage interview. It also gives a sense of order to the interviewee, but it's most useful for the listener. If you have a fair bit of information, like the ones above, the three-part structure gives you the chance to summarise the points.

It's easy to just rock up to an interview and hope that clients will listen

It's quite another to be prepared and have structure. When in doubt, do the thing that others won't do. Put in a little extra effort and you'll have interviews that aren't rambling, but have a solid structure instead.
P.S. To start at the very beginning and work your way through the Podcasting 101 Series, go to: How To Start A Podcast

Next Podcasting 101 Article: Interview Podcast: What To Send Your Potential Interviewees
Next Step: Read actionable articles on podcasting 101.

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