Automating Your Podcast Grind & Reclaiming Your Time
Hi, I’m La’Vista Jones, founder and lead strategist at 31 Marketplace and host of the BossTALK podcast. I help overworked women entrepreneurs automate their business systems to do what they love without sacrificing themselves.
The Podcast Dilemma
Podcasts have become an increasingly popular way for entrepreneurs to connect to their target audiences and provide valuable information related to their services.
The downside is that, for many, podcast production is a huge time commitment. Of the many podcast hosts I know personally, 5-8 hours seems to be the standard amount of time invested in each episode. Add that to the mix of all the other responsibilities you have as a small business owner, and you may be wondering how you’ll ever find the time to accomplish everything you need to do.
Reclaiming Your Time
Hosting your own podcast doesn’t have to be a huge time suck. In fact, if you’re completing a lot of the legwork of podcast production yourself, you have a systems gap.
You can significantly cut down on the time and manual labor it takes to create a podcast by automating your systems. Automation is truly a capacity maximizer, taking over the simple, routine tasks to leave you more time to focus on yourself and other aspects of your business that need your attention.
As a podcast host myself, I’m here to share my production process step-by-step to help you realize that podcast creation can actually be very manageable. In fact, each episode only takes a couple hours of my time.
Automating Your Podcast Grind
Guest Intake Process
Perhaps the biggest haul of hosting your own podcast is having to identify guests and collect all the information you’ll need to promote their episodes. Going back and forth to schedule the interview, answer any questions, and request headshots, bios, and other assets alone can take several hours.
During the How to Automate Your Podcast Guest On-Boarding and Nurturing episode of BOSS™ Talk I share about how I’ve completely automated and standardized the process by which I invite guests to be on my show. Once I’ve identified someone who would be a good fit, I send them the link to a private landing page that includes all essential information and clear next steps for initiating their interviews, including:
A description of the podcast and an archive of past episodes
Answers to the most frequently asked questions guests tend to have
Information about the podcast audience and their expectations
Technical and logistical information (best practices for navigating Zoom, what to wear, where to film, etc.)
A calendar to schedule an interview time
An intake form to submit all necessary information and resources, including contact information for the guest and their assistant, a high-quality headshot, a brief bio, and any resources or offers they’d like to promote on the show
All roads lead to that landing page – it is the only way guests can be scheduled for the show.
Nurturing Guests
This landing page links to our CRM, which immediately jumps into action once a guest schedules an interview.
Our CRM automates all communications with each guest right up until the interview itself. This consistent communication ensures that my guests don't have to spend time reaching out to ask questions and that they feel fully prepared leading up to interview day.
The CRM also alerts my internal team about each interview and assigns tasks to each role so that they know exactly what they need to do to prepare for an upcoming episode. Additionally, it automatically schedules a block of time on my calendar that I dedicate to reviewing guest materials and personalizing the questions I want to ask during the interview.
By leveraging the automated process that me and my team have put in place, I’ve usually only invested around 30 minutes of time into the podcast by the time I meet my guest on the mic - a far cry from 5-8 hours. Our process isn’t fancy, but it is darn effective.
---
Ready to automate your podcasting grind and reclaim your time? Download this checklist that walks you through every step of our guest on-boarding and nurturing process!
Comentarios