Live video is the run-of-show for an Instagram or LinkedIn Live: the timed outline that tells you what happens in each minute of the broadcast. It is a Skill, and the outline takes one sitting, usually under an hour, with the AI you already pay for. You give the AI your topic, your audience, your guest if you have one, the length and the one thing viewers should leave with. It gives back a segment-by-segment outline with times, cue lines, seed questions and a close. Then you go live, which no AI does for you.
- Shape
- Skill
- Sitting
- one sitting
The shape: Skill
This job is a Skill because it is one well-made request with one clear output. There is no chain of steps that depend on each other and no tool to set up. You write one good brief, read what comes back, fix it once or twice, and you are done.
The skill is in the brief. A vague request gets a generic outline with a "welcome everyone" opening and a "thanks for watching" close, and nothing useful in between. A brief that names the room, the promise and the clock gets an outline you can actually run.
What that means for you: the time goes into gathering the inputs, not into the chat. Spend twenty minutes on the list below and the AI's part takes five. The rest of the sitting is reading the outline out loud and cutting what does not sound like you.
What you give the AI
Gather these before you open the chat:
- The platform. Instagram Live, LinkedIn Live, or both. The audience and the opening differ.
- The date, time and length. For example, "Thursday at noon, thirty minutes."
- The topic in one line. "Three things to check before you hire a contractor" passes; "home improvement" fails.
- Who is watching. One line, such as "homeowners planning a kitchen remodel this year" or "office managers at small clinics."
- The one thing they leave with. A checklist, a method, an answer to a question your customers keep asking. If you cannot say it in a sentence, the live will wander.
- Your three main points. Rough notes are fine.
- One real example for each point. A job you did, a question a customer asked, a mistake you see often. Leave out names.
- The guest, if you have one. Their name, what they do, and the two or three things you want to ask them.
- Questions customers actually ask. Five or so from your inbox, your phone calls or your reviews. These become the seed questions.
- The call to action. One thing you want viewers to do afterward: book a consult, join the email list, come to an event. One, not three.
- What you will not discuss live. Prices for a specific job, client details, anything regulated in your field.
What comes back
A one-page run-of-show in plain text: segments with start times, who speaks, the cue lines, what is on screen, and where the question breaks fall. Here is the brief to paste, with your inputs filled in:
Act as the producer of a live video for a small business.
Write a run-of-show for the live described below.
Use only the facts in these notes.
If something is missing, ask before you invent it.
Platform:
Date, time and length:
Topic in one line:
Who is watching:
What they leave with:
Three main points:
One real example for each point:
Guest (name, role, questions for them):
Questions customers actually ask:
Call to action:
Topics to avoid on air:
Format it as a table with these columns: start time, segment, who speaks, cue lines, on screen.
Cue lines are short reminders to glance at, not sentences to read.
Write out exact wording only for three things: the opening hook, the call to action and the close.
Rules:
The first two minutes must work for a small room, because people join late.
Open with the problem the viewer has, not with our bio.
Put a short recap of the topic after the first few minutes, for latecomers.
Add a question break after each main point.
Give five seed questions, taken from the questions customers actually ask, to use if the comments are quiet.
Give one line to move on from a question in the topics to avoid.
Say the call to action once in the middle and once at the close, never more.
End on time, with a minute to spare.You get back a timed table, an exact opening hook, an exact close, five seed questions and a one-line exit for off-limits topics. If you have a guest, add one more request in the same chat:
Now write a short note to send the guest before the live.
Include the topic, the run-of-show times, the questions we plan to ask them, and what to have ready.
Keep it under 150 words.How to judge it
You can reject a bad outline in a minute. Look for these:
- A slow start. Two minutes of "we'll wait for a few more people to join" or a bio before the topic. Ask again with "Open with the viewer's problem in the first sentence."
- Invented facts. A statistic, a study, a client story or a credential you did not give it. Anything not in your notes comes out.
- A script, not cues. Full paragraphs in the cue column. You will be tempted to read them on air. Ask for short lines.
- Times that do not add up. Add the segments. If a thirty-minute live has thirty-five minutes of content, it will run over or rush the close.
- No room for questions. A live with no question breaks is a recorded video with worse lighting.
- Too many asks. A link, a follow, a download and a booking. Pick one.
- Hype. "Game-changing", "secret", "guaranteed". Cut the outline to what the live will actually cover.
- Generic seed questions. "What inspired you to start?" is not a question your customers ask. Replace them with the real ones from your list.
If invented facts or a vague topic show up, fix the notes, not the outline. A sharper topic line fixes most of what comes after it.
What stays with you
The AI writes the outline. The live is yours, and so are these parts:
- Going live. Your face, your voice, your timing. No outline makes that part easier than doing it a few times.
- The setup. Light, sound, a steady camera, a strong connection and a test run on the platform you are using. Check the platform's current requirements for going live, because they change and we do not track them here.
- The examples. Real ones, from your own work. The AI can order them; it cannot know them.
- Every claim. Check any number or result before you say it on air. A live cannot be edited afterward.
- Permissions. A guest agrees to be recorded and to have clips reused. A client named on air agrees first. In regulated fields, such as health, law or finance, the usual rules for advice apply on camera too.
- The comments. Reading the room, answering kindly, and deciding in the moment when to move on. That is judgment, and it stays with you.
- The promotion. Telling people the live is happening, a few days ahead and again on the day.
A worked example
This is an editorial example with an invented business. Say you run a small landscaping company, and you plan a thirty-minute Instagram Live on a Thursday at noon.
The topic is "three things to do in your yard before the first frost." The room is homeowners in your service area who do their own yard work. What they leave with is a short fall checklist. The three points are what to cut back, what to leave standing, and when to stop watering. Each point has one example from a recent job, with no client named. The call to action is one: comment "checklist" during the live to get the checklist.
The outline opens with a photo of a frost-damaged shrub and the question "Was this preventable?" Minute four is a short recap for latecomers. Each point gets five minutes, followed by a two-minute question break. The seed questions come from calls the company actually gets every fall. The last three minutes are the checklist, the one ask, and a firm close. The owner reads the outline aloud once, cuts a segment that runs long, and goes live. The outline makes no promise about plant survival rates, because there is nothing to prove one with.
After the live
A live gives you material for weeks if you keep the recording. In the same chat, paste what actually happened: the questions that came in and the answers that landed. Ask for a short recap post, a list of moments to clip, and a follow-up note for anyone who registered. The talk-to-posts method is the same one in our speaking guide, and if the live was part of a wider event, see events. For what to post on LinkedIn around a live, there are formats in LinkedIn post ideas. If the recap starts to sound like everyone else, read how to use AI for social media without the slop. The full list of jobs like this one is on the DIY marketing hub.
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