How to Keep Your Audience Engaged

Special note: if you’d like us to help you tailor your script or conversational structure to follow these core principles, please contact us, and we will provide input (for free) once you book your podcast session with us.

🎯 Want to Maximize Your Podcast’s Reach?

Build HOOKS into both your Podcast Intro AND Your Questions.

If you’re recording a podcast—whether it’s for your business, brand, or personal project—you want people to actually care enough to keep listening, right? You’d be surprised at how many podcasts fail because they don’t follow this simple structure.

Here’s how to structure your podcast so it actually keeps people curious enough to want to listen to your entire episode.

🔥 Start with a Hook That Speaks to a Real Problem

Ever open a podcast and they take forever to get to the point, or to what they’ll be discussing, that you swipe off and listen to something else? DON’T BE THAT PODCAST!

People very quickly decide if they’re going to keep listening, so you only have a few seconds to show them that your podcast is for them. The easiest way to do that is to be specific about who you’re talking to, and lead with a real problem they’re probably facing. If YOU’VE faced that problem before, talk about your own experience! Nothing is more attractive than authentically and vulnerably sharing your own experiences.

WHO is your target listener?

Take the time NOW to address WHO your experience is best going to help, and WHO needs to hear your message the most, so that you can start to address the PAIN POINTS & PROBLEMS your podcast is going to SOLVE for them!

• Is who you’re speaking to, starting a small business? Perhaps they’ve already grown that business, but are plateauing?

• Where are they in the process? Are they trying to grow that business, but feeling stuck? Are they at the point where they need to hire employees or implement new systems to scale their growth?

• Are they overwhelmed with their marketing, or spending money with no results?

Speak about your own experiences authentically, to be more relatable.

“When my business hit a plateau, I felt stuck and frustrated, and went to sleep and woke up anxious. I couldn’t shake the feeling! If you’re in the same place and trying to figure out your next move, you’ll want to hear this because our guest today is [GUEST NAME], who helps business owners break out of stagnation and get back to growing.”

🌀 Open Multiple Loops (Big + Small)

We discuss loops in more detail in the story structure section below, so don’t worry if you don’t fully understand their application just yet.

Whats a content loop? It basically just means you ask a question and build tension, that will later be resolved upon consuming the content where the answer to the question will be presented.

When you start your podcast, it helps to open one big-picture loop—something your listener really wants to hear resolved by the end of the entire episode. You should also tease a few smaller topics that will get answered along the way. This creates tension and gives people a reason to stick around throughout the episode, not just for one part of it.

Example:

Big picture loop

“By the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly how to spot when your business is plateauing—and the one move that can restart growth fast.”

Then layer in a few smaller loops for throughout the episode:

“We’ll also get into how to stop wasting money on marketing that doesn’t work, and the most common mistake people make when trying to scale.”

As you move through the episode, make sure you actually close those loops. If you say you’ll answer something, don’t leave it hanging. It builds trust, and makes your content more satisfying to listen to—especially in long-form.

❓ Lead With, and Ask Questions

As you approach new topics inside of each episode, instead of simply stating “Next we’ll talk about XYZ,” try leading with a question that the upcoming section actually answers. Remember to build in the pain points the answer addresses as well. This shifts the listener into a more curious, engaged state—and shows them that you’re not just talking, you’re solving something for them. This is what opening and closing the loop is all about. When the loop is open, the prospect is engaged. Once it closes, they lose their interest.

Also, don’t just ask questions for the sake of filling airtime. Ask questions that are tied directly to the pain points your audience is feeling. Here’s a format that works AND allows you to create snippets and sound bites for short form content:

1. Frame the guest’s experience:

“You’ve worked with founders who’ve turned around struggling businesses…”

2. Lead with a relatable problem:

“What would you say to someone whose business has stalled and feels like every move is costing them money?”

3. Get to the actionable insight:

“What’s the very first step you’d take to start fixing that?”

This is the perfect structure which makes it easier to pull short, punchy clips from your episode. That’s what you want for social posts or promos.

🗣️ Prep Your Guest to Keep Things Sharp

Before recording, have a quick prep call with your guest. Let them know you’re aiming for clear, digestible answers. Ask them to keep their first response tight—perfect for short-form—and then they can go deeper in the long-form version.

This helps your podcast work well on every platform, not just long-form platforms.

🎥 How to Use Story Structure to Boost Podcast Engagement

If you want your podcast (and the short clips that come from it) to hold attention, you need more than good questions and clean audio. You need structure. Here’s a simple 5-part framework you can use to shape both your long-form episodes and the short-form content that comes from them.

Where to Use This

You can apply the following storytelling structure in two places:

1. In your podcast intro and planning – to make the episode more engaging as a whole.

2. When pulling short clips – make sure each clip follows this basic arc: hook, tension, insight, and payoff.

This structure gives your content a shape that holds attention—without feeling scripted.

1. 🧠 Start with a Hook (Your First 15 Seconds)

This is where you pull people in. Introduce all the essentials fast:

• Who’s the guest or the subject of the story?

• What do they want? What’s their goal or desire?

• What challenges are standing in their way?

• What are the consequences if they fail?

• Why should the listener care?

This intro should feel active. Try to open with a moment of energy, curiosity, or tension. Don’t spoil the answer—your job here is to set up the question which the viewer wants answered.

2. 🌀 Open Loops

Once the big picture is clear, introduce smaller, curiosity-driven loops. These are hints about the value that’s coming later.

Example:

“Later in the episode, we’ll get into the one mistake that nearly killed their business—and how they fixed it.”

Also: if you can open a second, smaller challenge or sub-topic, do it now. It helps keep momentum, and to get listeners curious about what’s coming next to keep them maximally engaged.

3. ⛰️ Build Tension

Show the struggle as frequently as possible. Encourage your guest to speak about the hard parts—not just the wins. Bring in the setbacks, doubts, or points where things didn’t go as planned, as much as possible. That’s where people start to really care, because otherwise they won’t relate. Your listeners are likely going through or have gone through the hard parts, and THAT’S what helps them bond with the content of your show—the hard parts!

You can also add context or backstory here to make the episode feel more personal and real.

4. ✅ Pay It Off

Make sure you close the loops you opened. Bring resolution to the questions you raised early on. If you said the guest would share how they turned it around, let them actually share it. No vague wrap-ups, give specific answers to all the loops you open.

It’s fine to resolve smaller loops along the way—but save your biggest payoff for the end. Once that pay off is closed, engagement drops!

5. 🔁 Set Up the Next Episode (Optional but Smart)

If your podcast is part of a series, this is where you tease what’s coming next.

• “Now that you know how they fixed this, next time we’re talking about how they scaled it.”

• “If you’re more curious about the marketing side of this, we’ve got that coming in the next episode.”

BONUS TIP: CLIFFHANGERS

When asking for a like/comment/share/follow/subscription, do it RIGHT before you deliver some epic value, or right AS you deliver it. Stopping your content right before it gets SUPER juicy is called a CLIFFHANGER.

Example:

“So here’s how I was able to solve my business’s growth problem. I started by building out ABC, and that led me to XYZ, which was the hardest part. By the way, if you’re getting value from this, please consider engaging with this content in a way that’s meaningful for you. Even just a thumbs up, or comment will help boost this content so you can see it more often and help the algorithm share it with more people like yoruself! Onwards, so XYZ was difficult because…”

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