Record A Podcast Faster

Robert Plank, host of Market of the Day – podcast with 800+ episodes published – and author of WWHW, Why, What, How-to, What-If discusses how to get unstuck and use his WWHW framework for igniting your content planning and production. 

How to Get Unstuck When Creating Content

According to Robert, there are several reasons why you may feel stuck but it doesn’t mean that you have to stay stuck.

You can do things to change the approach and look back at it with a different perspective. Sometimes, you dread thinking of a podcast idea or coming up with content but then you just come up with the right idea or get some inspiration, you talk with someone and, then, you suddenly reignite the spark and have fun.

Robert feels as if one thing that was holding him back for a long time was not seeing the patterns like when you see ‘Oh, Gary Vee put out this cool episode! But what does that mean for me? I don’t want to just directly copy him, so how do I make something that’s fresh and unique?’. 

“When you look at the patterns and ‘formulas’, you can look at the boxes they ticked. Now, you can tick similar boxes or use a similar format to create your own content ‘recipe’.”

The WWHW Framework for Creating Content

When feeling stuck, Robert thinks about someone he knows that’s probably stuck with a challenge he could help them with. He thinks about them and their questions, then he creates content that addresses that pain-point.

He has developed a sort of framework he uses when planning content, which focuses on:

• Why? (Why are listeners here? What’s the problem they’re having?)

• What? (What are the tools, keywords, terms, principles, etc. related to solving the problem at hand? As well as alternatives your audience may have tried but haven’t worked)

• How to? (How is the problem going to be solved? The steps your audience should follow)

• What If? (Get them excited about the possibilities, about the next steps)

Robert’s WWHW framework can be used for pretty much any type of content: blog posts, podcast interviews, solo episodes, and more.

Some people, however, do get it wrong sometimes – by changing the order of things. You may come across a blog post that starts with the What Ifs, with the possibilities, but that hasn’t even identified the problem and the reason why someone would be reading the post in the first place…

Ask Questions When Formatting Your Podcast Episode

Robert recommends planning your content using his framework and defining the different pieces of the puzzle through questions. 

A podcast episode on leveraging your podcast, for instance, could be broken into:

• ‘Why would I even want to leverage my podcast? And what does that even mean?’
• ‘What are some tools I can use to make leveraging my podcast easier?’
• ‘How would I actually go about leveraging my podcast?’
• ‘Now that I have all these results from it, what if I did, indeed, leverage my podcast?’

The Bucket Brigade To Help Segway Sections

In copywriting, there’s the concept of a Bucket Brigade – the idea is to have a bridge word or sentence that engages readers and invites them to keep reading the content.

Since the different parts of the WWHW framework sometimes don’t have clear borders, you can use a bucket brigade to have people go from one letter of the WWHW framework to the next.

Improving as a Solo Podcaster 

When it comes to hosting a podcast, Robert believes that quantity leads to quality. As you create more content, as you record and publish more, you’re going to become a better host, a better content creator and an overall better communicator.

If you’re looking for inspiration, look for a content creator you follow, someone like Gary Vee, Tim Ferriss or Marie Forleo, for example. Go to YouTube, look for their channels and sort their videos from the oldest to the newest. You’re going to notice a massive difference in pretty much anything.

Seeing their growth is encouraging and is going to be helpful in your journey as a content creator.

Focus on creating and publishing content, don’t overthink it. Many focus on the production quality – for Robert, however, that’s a “nice-to-have”, not a “must-have”.

Robert remembers watching an interview with Tony Robbins as the guest, where he was sitting in a backyard with iPhone earbuds. Your content doesn’t have to be super-polished in order for it to resonate with others.

Focus on creating content and getting some traction with it. Then, you can think about monetizing and justify getting a better microphone, a better camera and a fancy studio with all sorts of fancy accessories.

‘What’s Ordinary to You May Be Extraordinary to Someone Else’

It’s important to remember that, sometimes, you may think you said something really clever but it doesn’t resonate with the listener. 

Or maybe you say something that’s pretty ordinary to you and someone listening may think ‘Oh, that was incredible!’.

You just don’t know how something you say might resonate with someone tuning in.

Don’t pursue perfection, focus on authenticity.

Scripts: Yay or Nay?

Robert feels that scripts for a podcast add unnecessary work for yourself.

That’s why, for one of his shows, he doesn’t only partially use the script that’s created for each episode.

What he typically does, and suggests you do a similar thing if you’re struggling with planning and structuring your episodes, is to write down each of the WWHW framework questions plus 3 keywords for each.

About Robert

Robert Plank is the founder of Done For You Podcasting (DFYPodcast.com), host of the Marketer of the Day podcast (MarketerOfTheDay.com), and author of WWHW: Why What, How-To, What-If (WWHWBook.com). He has helped thousands of entrepreneurs create online businesses through 840 podcast episodes, 15 books, and 15 online courses. How can YOU use your podcast and book as advertising, marketing, and traffic tool to fulfill your wildest dreams?

Resources Mentioned:

– Robert’s Podcast Marketer of the Day

– Robert’s book WWHW – Why, What, How-To, What If

– Lindsey Anderson

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