Should you write a script or talk off the cuff - Pros and Cons | Episode 18

Speaker: 00:00:00

Welcome to Podcast Done For You, the show where we make it as easy as possible

Speaker: 00:00:04

for you to make the right choices to advance your podcasting career.

Speaker: 00:00:09

So let's get started on the show.

Speaker: 00:00:11

Should you write a podcast script or talk off the cuff?

Speaker: 00:00:15

The pros and cons, that's what we're going to examine in this

Speaker: 00:00:17

episode of Podcast Done For You.

Speaker: 00:00:20

Now, script writing is something that I am often asked about.

Speaker: 00:00:24

How do you actually get it right to what you want to talk

Speaker: 00:00:27

about for a particular episode?

Speaker: 00:00:28

Now, there are certain things that I believe on the pro category

Speaker: 00:00:32

that you should potentially have.

Speaker: 00:00:35

On a script might be the introduction.

Speaker: 00:00:37

It might be a little bit of information about what the topic is that you're

Speaker: 00:00:41

going to actually be talking about.

Speaker: 00:00:43

You might have a few prompts in there along the way, but the real problem

Speaker: 00:00:48

with script writing comes in to the fact that you end up with a situation

Speaker: 00:00:55

where are you actually qualified?

Speaker: 00:00:57

Have you actually got the experience?

Speaker: 00:00:59

Have you actually done the hard yards to be able to do one of two

Speaker: 00:01:02

things, read off a teleprompter?

Speaker: 00:01:04

Or be an actor who can memorize a lot of things in 99 percent

Speaker: 00:01:09

of cases for business leaders.

Speaker: 00:01:11

Well, the answer is fairly simple.

Speaker: 00:01:14

You're not qualified really to do either.

Speaker: 00:01:16

And you can tell when someone is reading and when someone is reading, they're not

Speaker: 00:01:19

really speaking from the heart and they're not really connecting with their audience.

Speaker: 00:01:24

Now, I actually had a really interesting debate with myself before I did this

Speaker: 00:01:28

episode was Do I actually do part of this episode where I am reading a script to

Speaker: 00:01:33

show it to you, but I don't want to do that because in part I have spent plenty

Speaker: 00:01:37

of time reading off teleprompters in my life and I did learn that at university.

Speaker: 00:01:41

So I totally understand the skill that is involved in being able to do that.

Speaker: 00:01:44

And whilst that is not something that I actually do with my podcasts.

Speaker: 00:01:49

It is something that I can do if I really wanted to.

Speaker: 00:01:52

But for the average person out there, you really haven't

Speaker: 00:01:55

spent that time in doing it.

Speaker: 00:01:56

And it's not just the ability to read, because, hey, we can all read, and if

Speaker: 00:02:01

you get the setup right, as you'll be able to see with the second camera that

Speaker: 00:02:04

I've got going here today, that you can see how my setup is and I've actually

Speaker: 00:02:08

got a teleprompter in front of me.

Speaker: 00:02:10

So the possibility of reading off a script is definitely there.

Speaker: 00:02:15

Actually being able to read it in a way that Feels like you are not reading.

Speaker: 00:02:18

It is, as I said, a skill.

Speaker: 00:02:20

Now watch the evening news, for example, and the news readers don't look like

Speaker: 00:02:25

they're reading a script, but they are.

Speaker: 00:02:27

And that takes a lot of practice over a period of time.

Speaker: 00:02:30

Now it's not just a practice of reading that is important, it's

Speaker: 00:02:33

actually the practice as well of being able to write in a way.

Speaker: 00:02:38

That you speak because how we write often doesn't marry up with how we speak.

Speaker: 00:02:43

And that is one of the cons as well, is that happens when you get script writing

Speaker: 00:02:48

in, in case you end up over editing, what you start writing may well be similar to

Speaker: 00:02:55

the way you talk, but what happens is, is as you edit further and further, and if

Speaker: 00:02:59

you go along and use AI or use an editor.

Speaker: 00:03:03

You end up in a situation where what you have on script is not the

Speaker: 00:03:07

way that you would normally say it.

Speaker: 00:03:09

And if that's the case, then you're not going to be connecting with your audience.

Speaker: 00:03:14

And that is the real key here, is you have to be able to connect.

Speaker: 00:03:19

So for me, there are a lot more on the side of the script writing idea

Speaker: 00:03:25

for a podcast, then there are pros.

Speaker: 00:03:28

But as I said, there may be a few key points that you want to have as a prompt

Speaker: 00:03:32

and that is totally fine, but that is very different to an actual script.

Speaker: 00:03:37

Now, what are the, in fairness, what are the actual values of the script?

Speaker: 00:03:41

Well, you can be very, Direct and succinct with your messaging

Speaker: 00:03:45

and quite precise with it.

Speaker: 00:03:47

If you have the ability to deliver it, then you can have

Speaker: 00:03:51

something that is very fixed.

Speaker: 00:03:53

And that is quite often what you think about when you watch,

Speaker: 00:03:56

for example, a corporate video.

Speaker: 00:03:58

Often those corporate videos are very highly scripted.

Speaker: 00:04:01

Sometimes you even have an actor or someone that is able to

Speaker: 00:04:04

deliver in front that for you.

Speaker: 00:04:06

And that makes it interesting for a period of time.

Speaker: 00:04:10

But I'd have to say that those things are a little bit of

Speaker: 00:04:12

a relic of the past as well.

Speaker: 00:04:15

And it's not something that I spend a lot of time doing when I've done any videos

Speaker: 00:04:18

for bigger businesses, uh, in the, in the more recent times, because I do find that

Speaker: 00:04:24

when you watch something that is highly scripted, it just disconnects from you.

Speaker: 00:04:29

You feel like you're being spoken at rather than someone

Speaker: 00:04:33

having a conversation with you.

Speaker: 00:04:35

And that's what I'm trying to do here.

Speaker: 00:04:36

Now you think about it.

Speaker: 00:04:38

If you meet up with a. friend or a colleague or a client for that matter.

Speaker: 00:04:43

Do you read off a script?

Speaker: 00:04:45

No.

Speaker: 00:04:46

So if you want to connect with them, what you do is you actually speak.

Speaker: 00:04:51

And so that does mean that you have to be a master of whatever it is, topic that

Speaker: 00:04:56

you are looking to address on a given day.

Speaker: 00:04:59

So that's something to keep in mind.

Speaker: 00:05:01

Because that's the reason you're doing the podcast in the first place, right?

Speaker: 00:05:04

Because you are an expert in a particular field.

Speaker: 00:05:07

If you have to write a script for that, then maybe you don't

Speaker: 00:05:11

know it as well as you think.

Speaker: 00:05:13

The other point is, and I've alluded to this in other podcasts that we've done

Speaker: 00:05:18

in this series, is that quite often the problem is when you're trying to

Speaker: 00:05:22

speak on your own to camera, as I am doing here today, it's not actually

Speaker: 00:05:27

easy to pull that off on your own.

Speaker: 00:05:32

It's actually a lot easier if you have someone that you're

Speaker: 00:05:35

having a conversation with.

Speaker: 00:05:37

It's one of the reasons why I do conversation led co hosting options

Speaker: 00:05:41

in the podcast done for you package.

Speaker: 00:05:43

And if you want more details on that, that is certainly in the show notes below.

Speaker: 00:05:47

So please click below and you'll get some free resources and information there about

Speaker: 00:05:52

how we can help you with that opportunity.

Speaker: 00:05:57

Getting back to the pros and cons here of it.

Speaker: 00:05:59

Look for me.

Speaker: 00:06:01

The negatives in not having a script are, do you remember everything?

Speaker: 00:06:05

Are there things you're going to miss?

Speaker: 00:06:07

And like I said, there's a difference between having absolutely nothing,

Speaker: 00:06:11

and having thought about a few ideas first, popping a few, uh,

Speaker: 00:06:14

notes on a screen somewhere that you can reference if you need to.

Speaker: 00:06:18

It's a bit like when you go to, uh, make a, Uh, a speech somewhere.

Speaker: 00:06:24

Now there's a difference between those people who can deliver a speech in a way

Speaker: 00:06:28

that feels like they are just talking to you and they've memorized certain

Speaker: 00:06:32

parts of it versus someone who is sitting there and is just reading everything

Speaker: 00:06:36

and looking down the entire time.

Speaker: 00:06:38

Because when you're looking down, you're not connected.

Speaker: 00:06:41

Which again, if you've got a teleprompter, which I'm gathering, not all of you

Speaker: 00:06:45

have, but again, in the free resources below, you will find a link to all

Speaker: 00:06:51

of the software and all the, all the technology and stuff that I advise using.

Speaker: 00:06:56

And one of them is a teleprompter.

Speaker: 00:06:58

We'll do an episode about that in the future, but right now.

Speaker: 00:07:01

If you want a teleprompter, it's not a difficult or particularly expensive setup.

Speaker: 00:07:05

The question is whether it's something you need in what you're doing.

Speaker: 00:07:09

I'm churning out a lot of podcasts for myself, for clients.

Speaker: 00:07:12

There is absolutely a value in it.

Speaker: 00:07:14

One of the great things I love about the teleprompter is that I can be looking

Speaker: 00:07:17

directly at you because the camera is right behind where I am seeing the screen.

Speaker: 00:07:24

But getting back to it, the pros and cons, script or no script.

Speaker: 00:07:28

Well, to me, I think it's pretty comprehensive that the only

Speaker: 00:07:32

reason you would ever use a script in a podcast is if it is for a

Speaker: 00:07:38

very succinct bit of information that you feel you need to read.

Speaker: 00:07:43

It's not dissimilar to when you see someone often when they're in trouble.

Speaker: 00:07:47

Think of a sports star or a celebrity, and they want to

Speaker: 00:07:50

read a pre prepared statement.

Speaker: 00:07:53

Okay.

Speaker: 00:07:53

There may be some odd things where you need to read something and that's okay.

Speaker: 00:07:58

But if you're talking about a whole podcast and if it's scripted, to me, it's

Speaker: 00:08:02

a big no, no, because you aren't likely to be connecting with your audience.

Speaker: 00:08:06

And at the end of the day, your audience is there to connect with you.

Speaker: 00:08:10

So they see you as the expert and they see you responding in a way that.

Speaker: 00:08:14

It is authentic in the way that it would be if they were to have

Speaker: 00:08:18

an actual conversation with you.

Speaker: 00:08:20

So that's it for podcast done for you in this particular episode.

Speaker: 00:08:24

As I said, lots of free resources below and of course, information

Speaker: 00:08:28

on how to connect with us on podcast done for you, where we do.

Speaker: 00:08:32

All of the things for you, including co hosting the show,

Speaker: 00:08:35

then you know how to connect below.

Speaker: 00:08:37

And of course, please, please, please don't forget to subscribe on all

Speaker: 00:08:41

the details up below, whether you're watching here on YouTube or on any

Speaker: 00:08:44

of the other podcast platforms, and we'd love you to leave a comment

Speaker: 00:08:47

and suggest anything else that you want us to cover in future episodes.