This is the sixth and final part of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. Today: specifics. The more specific our language, the more sparkling and memorable it is. In the last 18 months of speaking with incredible storytellers for this podcast, no one has been better at this than Sam Mullins.

In 2023, Sam won the the Best Podcast of the Year award at the Ambies, The Podcast Academy's attempt to rival the Oscars. He won it for his documentary series Chameleon: Wild Boys, from Campside Media.

Learn how Sam's background as a comedy writer informs his approach to writing, and especially to choosing the extraordinarily specific ways he approaches building characters and enticing audiences to enter his world.

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024

By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience.

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops.

Did you miss the rest of the series? Be sure to follow Sound Judgment and check out the other other five bite-sized episodes:
Part 1: Sound Vision
Part 2: Structure
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back.

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds.

"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series:

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power"
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more.

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more.

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling.

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Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC.

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

LoLT: Amy Tector’s Poetry Habit and Two New Books

Links