New Series: Storytelling Strategies to Hook & Keep Your Audience, Part 1

This transcript was auto-generated from an audio recording. Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors. 

Elaine Appleton Grant

Hi, storytellers. Next week, we’re releasing a new, different kind of episode here at Sound Judgment – a roundup of six engaging storytelling strategies that today’s best creators use. I’m covering structure, scenes, sound vision, surprise, suspense and specifics. They’ll help you make work that audiences not only can’t forget, but that they’ll share. All six are great for any kind of storyteller, including writers, public speakers, screenwriters and video producers. 

But before we give you the full episode, we thought it would be fun and helpful to release short bonus episodes every day for almost a week. Each covers one of the six strategies, so you can learn in bite-sized chunks – around ten minutes or less. So follow Sound Judgment now so you don’t miss any of them!

Today, number one: Sound Vision. And yes – sound vision applies, even if your work is for the page or the stage. This is Sound Judgment, where we investigate just what it takes to become a beloved storyteller by pulling apart one episode, at a time, together. I'm Elaine Appleton Grant. 

Storytellers, I'm sure it comes as no surprise that we have a very short time to hook listeners into anything new. Maybe a minute or two. Maybe less. I've talked about ledes before on the show, and I'll do it again. But here's strategy number one, which is something you may have never given any conscious thought to. And that is how you can use sound to create the feeling that will attract your ideal listener. It's called sound vision, and it includes everything from music and sound design—or the lack thereof—to how you actually sound on the mic. You know, friendly, combative, sophisticated, conspiratorial, silly, fast-paced, thoughtful—whatever it is that makes you you. 

In audio, a sound vision is all the things we do to take advantage of the cool things we can do when we're bringing information and stories to your ears. Sometimes, the possibilities are so great that they convince us to tell a story in sound when we first thought it belonged on the page. Like Gilbert King, co-host of the award-winning podcast Bone Valley, about the wrongful conviction of Leo Schofield. Leo Schofield has been in prison for well over thirty years for a murder he didn't commit. Before making Bone Valley, Gilbert thought he'd be writing a long article, maybe a book. Then, he and his cohost Kelsey Decker visited Leo in prison, and everything changed. 

Clip from Sound Judgment

Gilbert King: And I think after we interviewed a few people, the power of their voices and the power of their storytelling made us pivot. I love the way their voices break and crackle and emote. And it's just, it's something that's just more powerful in an audio experience. And as an author, I acknowledge that in this particular story.

Elaine Appleton Grant

Your sound vision is about creating a world that your listener wants to enter. In audio, it's how intentional you are about creating a tone, a mood, a feeling. This is how John Barth of Creative Media LLC explained the idea of a sound vision to me on the second episode of Sound Judgment. John was the founding producer of the public radio show Marketplace. In this clip, he's referring to one of their hosts, David Brancaccio. As I said, the unique sound of a show has a lot to do with the particular sound of the host. Or in literary terms, it's about finding your voice. 

Clip from Sound Judgment

John Barth: You know, when you're hiring a host, the host really does imprint their own sound, voice, style on the show. So it actually begins to define the brand that you're creating. So there was an editorial vision, but there also was primarily a sound vision. And I guess I owned that and it needed to be distinctive. I always imagined how the audience was listening to the show and the kind of listener I wanted to attract to the show. And so that had to be a certain sound. And so David embodies the willingness to pretty much do anything behind a mic to tell a story and enthrall an audience. He has incredible humor, and when I worked with him, our goal was to laugh uproariously before we went into the studio to do the live show. But my job was to get him as a host not only loosened up, but comfortable with a real range of emotion. So by the time that mic went on, he could really bring his full self to whatever he had to do in those 30 minutes. I mean, it was so much fun. It was great.

Elaine Appleton Grant

Once I wrapped my head around this term—sound vision—I started to become super aware of how it works when it's working really well. It helps, I think, to compare a couple of extremes. Listen to the difference between these next two clips. They come from podcasts that have one small thing in common. They’re both about people trying to make big changes in their lives. But they have entirely different purposes and wildly different audiences—and each employs a sound vision designed to attract their own very specific listeners. 

The first is an opening scene from The 13th Step, an investigative series about sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry from New Hampshire Public Radio. It won the DuPont Award—widely considered the Pulitzer of broadcasting. I'll be delving into the 13th Step creative process in a couple of upcoming episodes of Sound Judgment, so if you haven't followed the show yet, follow it now. The woman asking the question is reporter Lauren Chooljian. 

Clip from The 13th Step

Lauren Chooljian: So, so you get there. What do you remember? 

Elizabeth: Green Mountain is a completely different vibe than I'm used to. It didn't feel like treatment. But I remember I had my first real God moment there because the view is incredible.

Actually, it was really cool. One time, somebody was having a really tough time. And so like we all had the idea, like, Hey, Mary Kate, can we go down to the helicopter landing pad and watch the sunset? And she brought us down. We all screamed from the mountain and it felt so good. It was like a movie.

Like we just sat there and screamed. It was really cool. That was really cool. And I remember that moment. I was like, if I didn't believe in God before watching the sunset and this view, I do now. It was like that. It hit me.

Elaine Appleton Grant

Hear how moody that is, how the music brings you right to that helicopter pad. It's almost dreamlike, and fairly somber—not quite threatening, but not upbeat, for sure. And the speaker's voice is untreated. You can tell she's talking on a phone. It sounds honest without any artifice. Just what you want from an series produced by a investigative reporter who's going to tell you the truth. 

Now, let's listen to a clip from Daily Creative, a personal development podcast for people in creative professions. In this clip, host Todd Henry is realizing something about himself. 

Clip from Daily Creative

Todd Henry: You know, often the enemy of bravery isn't some oppositional force. It's just sheer inertia. It's comfort, it's that things are fine. And I realized, oh, I've got a vision of the way things could be better. The thing that's keeping me where I am is comfort.

And then I realized, and I have the capacity to do the thing that I see in my head. But what's standing in my way really is the past. It's all of this stuff that I've been doing for 18 years.

Elaine Appleton Grant

Now, few people would ever actually make a choice between listening to these two podcasts— no one but me, and I love them both. But notice the way their creators—Lauren Chooljian and her team at NHPR and Todd Henry and his producer Joshua Gott—made very deliberate choices about how they sound. We already talked about how moody and dramatic The 13th Step Sounds. In contrast, everything about Daily Creative is upbeat, light. You know humor will play a role. 

Todd Henry is affable, friendly, even while he’s coming to an uncomfortable truth about himself. Yeah, he’s going to decide to throw out 18 years worth of work—the episode is titled The Curious Death of Todd Henry. But he’ll do it willingly for the cause. And we will come along happily to improve ourselves as well. 

I chose these two clips because they’re both fairly highly produced, and they sound entirely different. I wanted to illustrate the concept of having a sound vision that appeals to your audience. You need to think about how you want them to feel while they listen. 

So why should you spend time on this—especially if you're hosting a fairly straightforward interview show? The truth is, we all create some kind of sonic brand, regardless of whether we plan carefully or fail to plan. Without design, that sound is often subconsciously influenced by what we’ve been hearing for years. For instance, that’s why This American Life's Ira Glass is so widely mimicked or why so many of us still adopt the “anchor voice.” It’s also why so many shows don’t hook listeners: They’re flat, bland, unemotional — frankly, boring. And they often lose listeners in the first 60 seconds. 

A well-thought-out sound vision makes your audio memorable — and differentiates it from the competition. 

But wait! What if you don't have a podcast? You're a writer, an author, or a public speaker? You can translate the idea to the page, the screen, or the stage. How will you use words, tone, mood, and even body language to attract your audience? Same idea. Maybe your readers have little time—they want facts, quickly. No fluff. Or maybe they like romance novels. They love detailed description and snappy dialogue. Or you're giving a motivational speech to a roomful of corporate leaders—and you'll move energetically and speak dynamically, from the heart. That's my idea of a sound vision translated to a different platform. 

It's one thing to hear new strategies and another to try them out in community. We're solving that problem, with a handful of new, affordable, interactive workshops. We just held one on mastering the art of the interview that went over like gangbusters—we're doing it again soon. We're also holding workshops on the six strategies for creating unforgettable work and on the thing that gives us all headaches—how to curate great guests and what it takes to be a phenomenal guest yourself. This one's gonna be really fun, because I will share you with how NPR producers book guests. So check out our current and future workshops at podcast allies dot com slash workshops. That's podcast allies dot com slash workshops. You don't need to jot that down, though—the link is in the show notes. I can't wait to see you there. 

Thanks for joining me for the first in my six part series on storytelling strategies for hooking new listeners and keeping them with you. Number two covers structure—what it is and how you can use it to be more creative while making production a lot easier.

For shows and resources mentioned in this series, see our show notes at sound judgment podcast dot com. And if you’re enjoying this series, please share it with a friend. Sound Judgment is produced by Podcast Allies. I’m Elaine Appleton Grant. See you in part two!