While podcasting can be a fun and exciting experience, it can also be demanding, even taking on the form of a job. Regularly producing quality content that keeps viewers coming back requires a lot of time, energy, and, oftentimes, money.
Understanding how your workflow can be improved or streamlined can help save those valuable resources, keeping you focused on creating content. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced veteran, it’s always good to evaluate your workflow and address any pain points.
Continue reading to learn what goes into creating a podcast, which aspects of podcasting should be prioritized, and how to manage your podcasting workflow.
Starting with choosing a concept, format, and business model will serve as the foundation of your podcast. Identifying these pillars of your podcast early on will help you develop your processes and cement an efficient workflow. Don’t be afraid to adjust as your audience grows.
Developing an interesting and approachable concept will help your podcast connect with audiences. Finding a niche isn’t always a straightforward process; sometimes it requires a little experimentation. Having a clear theme will help your audience know what to expect from your podcast.
Choosing the frequency with which you publish episodes can have a huge impact on your workflow as well as your workload. Some dedicated content creators can produce episodes as frequently as once a day. Weekly podcasts are more common, allowing more time for planning, developing, scheduling, and editing. Whichever frequency you choose, try to remain consistent so your audience will keep coming back.
Podcasting can be a great way to generate revenue, either as some extra spending cash or as a salary. Whether this is your side hustle, passion project, or career; you can support your podcast with one or more revenue models. Common business models that podcasters use include ad-supported, listener-supported, and merchandising.
Podcasting is a great way for creative people without a lot of resources to reach an audience. Although anyone could produce a podcast episode with just an iPhone, it's a good idea to invest in pre, production, and post-production tools, equipment, and software.
Not all podcast episodes follow the same development trajectory, but they do require some pretty common workflow elements. It’s important to get a birds-eye view of all the pieces that make up the process of creating an episode.
Once the workflow is mapped out, it allows you to drill down into each step to evaluate what is and isn’t working. Podcast workflows typically flow like this:
There are a ton of tools available to podcasters that can help organize one’s workflow. Once you’ve listed all the steps, next, you will want to keep track of your progression. A well-organized podcast workflow can help reduce stress and improve efficiency. We are going to cover project management software, task managers, and to-do list apps that can help podcasters structure their workflow, save time, and stay organized.
Trello
Trello is a mobile and web-based, Kanban style, project management tool that is great for teams and individuals alike, looking to better organize their tasks. Trello centers on the concept of organizing your tasks by using boards, lists, and cards. This service is free and has great collaboration utilities, as well as the ability to add extensions that automate tedious tasks.
Asana
Asana is another great mobile and web-based work management platform that promotes collaboration and organization. Whether working as a team or by yourself, you can create lists, prioritize tasks, and stay on top of your workflow. To learn more about Asana, visit
Monday
Monday is a comprehensive cloud-based task management platform. It’s less restrictive, as it allows teams or individuals to manage their projects however they feel most comfortable. With an incredible host of integrations, automating mundane and repetitive tasks becomes a piece of cake.
Todoist
Todoist touts itself as “the world’s #1 task manager and to-do list app.” Their simple-to-understand interface is great for individuals looking for a straightforward approach to task management. This service also provides a ton of integrations for automating repetitive tasks.
Often overlooked, automating tasks can really boost productivity and reduce stress. Having to do tedious, mundane, trivial, and repetitive tasks can lead to fatigue and a lack of excitement or enjoyment in producing podcasts. A lot of the project management tools listed above have automation features built in. Be sure to identify those tasks that can be automated so you can focus on the bigger picture.
Distributing the workload can make podcasting a lot easier, less stressful, and more efficient. It’s possible, but unlikely, that you will be great at every aspect of developing podcasts. Identify the tasks that you are more adept at and consider hiring people who can aid with the other tasks.
Once you’ve onboarded someone to help you with the production of your podcast, provide them access to whichever project management tools you’ve chosen. This will enable them to also play a role in accomplishing tasks in a collaborative environment.
Just like in any industry, it’s good to build relationships with your peers. They can not only share their processes with you, but fill in as guests from time to time. Reach out to some of your favorite podcasters and start following their social media.
There are tons of online and real-world ways in which you can find and connect with like-minded podcasters. Everyone had to start somewhere, and being able to have other podcasters’ experiences as a resource can help you to avoid some common pitfalls. Every so often, it’s not enough to have the support of those around you. Having professionals to lean on can often boost your confidence and excitement for podcasting.
Developing an audience takes time. Oftentimes, podcasters will give up because the sheer amount of work that is required of them is just not sustainable. Developing an efficient and supportive workflow with clearly defined milestones will help you to continue creating content, possibly for years. Don’t beat yourself up when you make mistakes, treat them as opportunities to learn and improve your process. What has been outlined here is simply a guide, not a hard, fast set of rules. Your workflow will evolve over time as you grow.
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