BEGIN PODCASTING: The Secrets To Systems & Workflows That Work - Episode 48

If you're wondering how to put action to your great idea and messaging then you'll want to tune into this one. We break down how to design a success workflow based on these 3 main areas of Organization:

• Coordination

• Systemization

• Application

  *This way of approaching your start will ensure you are always operating from a place of consistency, awareness and connection as well as organization. 

Barsi [00:00:00]:

Hi, welcome back. This is Barsi, your host. Thank you for joining me today. I've been really enjoying sharing this process with you and all of the info about starting a podcast for your brand or business. And speaking of info, I have just a couple of announcements to make before we jump in here. I'm really happy to tell you that the free podcast resource guide is finally ready. If you didn't catch the bonus episode announcement that I released a couple of days ago on Saturday telling you that it's out and available, then you can grab it now. So just go to bebold.avanthousemedia.com/podresourceguide or click the link in the Show Notes to get your free 25 page packed begin podcasting Resource Guide.

Barsi [00:00:56]:

I'm really proud of it. I worked really diligently on it and I tried to include things that most other guides don't have. So it's a little deeper than the typical step by step starter guide with things like discovery exercises so that you can start your own process right away. And you know, it wouldn't be me if I didn't include discovery exercises and tools for blocks we usually experience during the process. So that's in there too because, you know, I want you to just keep showing up. So I'm trying to create a whole program basically so that there's really no reason to not show up and try it if it's something that you want to try. So even if there's one thing like that that sounds useful to you that I'm describing about the resource guide, then it's definitely worth grabbing because it's free. And so if there's something in there that sounds helpful, then you should just grab it.

Barsi [00:01:48]:

And actually one of the reasons why I'm excited about it is because I'm a big fan of of downloadable freebies. I actually really love them because there's a few people who I follow who have skills that I wanted to learn over the past few years. Really, I'd say I've been kind of following a few people for five or six years now, maybe even more than that. And it's their freebies that I find really, really valuable because they serve as great introductions to whatever new thing it is that I want to try. And it also shows me how this person likes to teach and how they give and what their whole vibe is like. And I feel like I can get to know them better and their systems through the freebies. And oh, now that I think of it, I think I've. Yeah, I've bought one digital course from every single one of them.

Barsi [00:02:40]:

So the courses met my expectations because I already knew what to expect through their freebies. I just kind of like the whole thing that I get to be like immersed in their whole vibe and then get a bunch of stuff for free. I mean, sounds really good, right? I like to be able to do that. So I was super excited to create my own finally. So this is my big like, here you go kind of moment. So I hope you like it. I hope it. I hope it helps you see a deeper dive of what I do and just a little bit more than the podcast.

Barsi [00:03:13]:

Anyway, I've been dying to create one, so here it is. And I'm really excited actually to hear what you think about it. So if you could tell me how it's working for you in the review section of Apple Podcasts, that would be a big help for me. That feedback helps me create more stuff that's meant for you that you want. So the feedback is great. Anyways. Oh, the one other little announcement I had was that I forgot to add the link to the Forbes article I mentioned in last week's episode, the one about the subconscious mind and how it works in connection to how we think so. So if you were wondering what happened to that, it's there now.

Barsi [00:03:49]:

My apologies, I literally just forgot. The link is now in that episode from last week, which is episode number 47. Okay, so let's get to what we're talking about today. So I actually feel like this resource guide came out just in time for this episode because today is all about organization and systems. And this episode, it might be the most pragmatic out of the bunch. But. But don't worry, we are definitely going to connect the pragmatic with the Mindset piece, as we always do. So we're going to approach this by looking at three main areas of organization for this process.

Barsi [00:04:26]:

1 coordination, 2 systemization, and 3 application. Okay, let's break that down. For our purposes, coordination means a gathering of your resources and assets. So what is easily attainable and what needs acquiring or more resources to attain? For example, maybe guests, a certain guest, maybe production items, etc. Systemization here means organizing your process into a system that works for you. What is the order of operations in connection to attaining resources and booking guests in how and when you record? Are you batching episodes? Is it weekly? And organizing your post production assets? This is very pragmatic once again, but it will save you down the line. And I'm talking about labeling, labeling and folders and Then developing processes all the way to launch date and then even past that like with your marketing and goal setting. So then we have application which crosses over the systemization as you put the system to use.

Barsi [00:05:34]:

It also poses the question of any pivoting needed, as in does this system work in the application process? Do we need to adjust it as we experience it in action? In my experience, this is an ongoing process of tweaking and adjusting. I'm always adjusting the workflow to better suit the team or the shifting goals we might have as we continue to grow and expand. It's supposed to change and be a little fluid. But maybe you're like me and don't identify as a so called organized person. I like to do things as they feel good and when I'm inspired. Inspired. But when it comes to a business, especially a creative one like podcasting, meaning production, this requires more commitment than that. So maybe you're starting to see how the first episode about purpose and making sure there is joy at the core of all this connects to the long haul of what a weekly process invites and frankly requires.

Barsi [00:06:31]:

And what I mean by that is when I connect back to my purpose, I know that that is what will be the fuel that keeps me feeling inspired when I might be tired or I'm spread thin on on time or maybe even resources. It's the thing that makes the pragmatic part fun. So it's all connected and it becomes important to find ways to stay connected to your reason for starting your why. Sound familiar? This means staying connected to your awareness and constantly checking in. Also sound familiar? Okay, so how do we start to do all of this? So coming back to the first one, which was coordination, we're going to talk about this from the perspective of resources. So what is already in your grasp? It can be things like personal skills. Maybe you're tech savvy and plan to do all of the setup for your podcast and post production yourself. Or maybe you have a dynamic Rolodex of people in your network that fit the topics and content you want to cover in your podcast that you can reach out to right away.

Barsi [00:07:36]:

Or maybe you're just not afraid of those awkward first reach out emails to acquire those dream guests that you want to have on so you can pick their brain on the podcast about what you want to learn about in this new community that you're starting a business in. That's a really good one by the way. If you want to start something that you don't have a whole lot of knowledge or network in is to just find the people who do and start talking to them, start booking them on your podcast. So also maybe you have a great co host you can bring in to help bring the humor or the technical skills you're missing, stuff like that. The first step might be just listing what your assets are that you can leverage right away for the podcast and maybe even for the business. Maybe you're a master at social media marketing, maybe that's an asset you have. Maybe you have the time right now or the fiscal means to invest in great equipment. So just a few more examples next.

Barsi [00:08:29]:

Think about what feels easy and within your bandwidth to actually put to use. For example, you may be tech savvy, but that doesn't mean you have the time to do it and take on the post production. Think about the things on your list that are resources and assets to you that you have access to right away and ask yourself which ones feel fun and inspiring and which ones feel like roadblocks that may stop you in your tracks. So circle those roadblocks and decide if you can outsource them. You may not be able to right away just realistically, but it's good to know where they are and which ones they are, number one. And for those of you that can't outsource them right away, just write a little game plan for how you might coordinate your process in order to make these tasks a little easier to accomplish. So maybe you outsource just an aspect of post production, like the cleanup and mastering, and maybe you do any other content editing you might want to do on your own. Or maybe you give yourself a longer production schedule and batch episodes a couple of months before you want to release them, so that you can take your time and not feel pressured to meet a deadline that is closing in on you.

Barsi [00:09:41]:

So you kind of get the idea like how can you manipulate what you have to work with? You're basically starting the coordinating process when determining what you have to work with and how you want to develop your style of system. So naturally what comes next is systemization, which again means organizing your process into a system that works for you. So now you know who's doing what and maybe some of what the timeline might be to begin producing next. You want to systemize that into an order of operations of some sort of as in what is going to be your flow. I'll share an example of a workflow that is in play with one of my clients right now and the team connected to this project. This one is a big workflow because there are three different teams working together on this. There's my company, Avant House Media, there's the institution that is the actual client, and they have their own in house team of principal people and assistants, et cetera. And then there's another company that they hired to this account as a business consultant for this institution.

Barsi [00:10:47]:

And then the podcast is getting leveraged to serve the mission and purpose of this business's message. So kind of like what you might be doing, if you have a brand or a venture or something that you want to start or lean into, or find new ways to kind of connect with the message and your audience, you leverage a podcast in order to do that. And many of my clients are doing just that. Okay, so to get started, this is how the workflow rolls. So we have my assistant coordinating guest bookings and any other scheduling needs between myself, the host and the guest. The guest reach out is happening by the business consulting company as well as the client. And they also aid in creating guest outlines, which then get organized by my assistant, who I should just give a big shout out to at this point because she's amazing. So shout out to Brandi Lynn, who kills it in the assistant game every week, every day.

Barsi [00:11:42]:

I love her. She also made a beautiful spreadsheet for all of this information to get plugged into. Oh, by the way, I had her create a spreadsheet like this for you. And of course it's in the resource guide. So that's one more reason to get the resource guide. These spreadsheets are amazing and they really help with this organizational part where you're trying to coordinate all the things, especially guest bookings and production dates, red release dates, documents, you can put them in Google Drives, all of that. So that is in the guide. So definitely check that out.

Barsi [00:12:13]:

Okay, so then Brandi shares all of this info with all three teams and makes sure that the guest has access to the outline before we do a pre call with the guest. So the host does a pre call with the guest, which also Brandy books for us. Something I suggest doing. Getting into a 15 minute phone call with your upcoming guest before you record it helps with developing a rapport with them if needed. And it helps nail down the story you want them to tell or the info you want to focus on. There's many things people do, so they may come into your interview thinking they're talking about one thing when you're actually hoping they'll talk about something a little different. So I really highly recommend finding a way to connect with them more than an email if you can. If it's just email.

Barsi [00:13:01]:

Fine, Some people are hard to get on the phone, but it's really beneficial to you in your process and your end product if you can connect this way. Then we send out all of the production info everyone needs before the session dates for when we do the recording. Then my team handles all the post production in which we load the finished product into a Google Drive that also gets added to our spreadsheet so that the marketing team can access the edit and show notes for their promotional assets. And then my team also creates the titles, the show notes, and uploads the episode to the hosting platform to set the release. Then, last but not least, on launch day, my team sends out a promotional email to the guest with direct links to their episode and some call to actions to help us promote. Also, templates for these emails are in the resource guide. I know I keep saying that throughout, but it's just packed with all the stuff I'm talking about today, so it's hard not to tell you, but it's in there. There's also email templates, which, you know, I use with a lot of my clients, of course.

Barsi [00:14:06]:

All right, so it's a very big system, to say the least, with this particular project. But that's the life of creating just one episode. And I didn't even include the process around how we develop each season and the content itself that we decide to focus on. That is a bigger process, which is kind of the. It's the same thing that I outlined in episode one and two. We go through all of that and we do it more than once based on adjustments we need to make. Sometimes the goals shift and we have to revisit what the mission is. So just know that I'm doing this all the time with everyone.

Barsi [00:14:38]:

So for this project that I just talked about, we also just moved to batching production, which means we record during certain blocks of the year so the client can focus on their business during other times of the year rather than always, always focusing on the podcast. So meanwhile, my team will have everything they need to release episodes during that downtime from the batching period. So that's something you may want to consider as well. Like, okay, we're going to record the next 10 episodes in the next four weeks, and then you have those next 10 episodes to either plan your next batch, your next season, whatever you need to do, or focus on other parts of your business or brand or whatever you're building. That should give you a pretty good snapshot of what a system might look like you most likely will have a much simpler one. And when creating yours, keep in mind things that will serve your bandwidth and your time, the amount of time you have. And I'm just going to mention labeling again, because creating folders for everything and labeling everything by names and dates that apply is going to be a game changer. I didn't know that.

Barsi [00:15:46]:

There's all the stuff I'm sharing with you. There wasn't a lot of information when I was getting started and there was nobody to mentor me or to look to. There were no courses yet, nothing like that. So I didn't know. So I made that mistake in early productions of mine to just label with Episode two, for example, and that is now a complete mind F to locate you. You may want to do a rerun later on or just simply find an asset and Episode two doesn't cut it. You're going to have a hard time finding what you need, especially if you create more than one series or one type of thing. I even have people, people who are new who have to send me things, sometimes label things, like, you know, episode two, but they're in season 10 and they're labeling their second episode of season 10 as episode two, which just doesn't help me in post production understand what they're sending me.

Barsi [00:16:46]:

So you can see how things can get a little discombobulated. So it's just not enough information. Another thing, another tip. I like to back everything up in an external hard drive as well as a cloud based drive like Google Drive, which I just started doing this year doing both one. So things are in multiple locations. If something crashes, which has totally happened to me, my computer has crashed and all my external hard drives have crashed before. But if they were all in the cloud in a virtual like Google Drive, that would have been really nice. The other reason is so that I can delete things off of my computer's hard drive because those large files will eat up all of your space and they can also crash your computer.

Barsi [00:17:36]:

And like I said, that has happened. So label and organize those files. Very important. Okay application. Once again, it crosses over the systemization as you put the system to use. You've got to try out the system and then pay attention to what works and what doesn't. That giant system workflow I outlined a moment ago is a product of about a year's worth of adjustments, as well as adding in new team members as they became part of different groups, businesses. And you know, things change.

Barsi [00:18:09]:

It's totally normal to be adjusting as you go. So this step is really just paying attention to how things feel. Like do they bring on stress and strain or are they fun and interesting? Is it working? Are you meeting your goals as a result? Or are you still figuring out how to get into a flow? And sometimes it takes a while to get into the right flow, so just know that. But pay attention. If you're dreading to make your podcast, or if you're feeling connected to your why and showing up because it's a labor of love and an integral piece of the bigger puzzle, that's how it should feel. And if it doesn't, then it's time to ask some questions. So those questions are things you should be asking yourself often. Keep checking in with yourself and also with anyone else who is working with you because they may have different feedback too.

Barsi [00:18:58]:

It will help keep things feeling worth it. And if they're starting not to, then that is the time to ask why and see if you can adjust. So some great simple questions to ask might be how can I make this more fun? Or how can I make this easier? Or how can I add a little fun to something that doesn't feel fun right? Or how can I make this thing that feels hard a little easier? Since those are kind of the ways to think about it. And those types of questions, by the way, can be applied to any part of your life at any time. So anything that you may be feeling burnt out around or some overwhelming with, these are good questions to check in and see if you can make adjustments with. Okay, so I hope that gives you a good overview of how to get started in putting the process in motion. Now you have your content and messaging honed in, as well as markers of success and goals for this first chapter of your endeavor. Which brings you to how to Start Putting this All Together, which was today's episode.

Barsi [00:20:03]:

How to Organize the many pieces to move forward in starting it may sound complicated right now or even overwhelming, and if it does, that's totally normal. It may even help to write a few notes from this episode as you listen, just to organize your thoughts around how this may apply to you and what you're wanting to create. And then honestly get the resource guide because it will definitely help you with more organization and pragmatic action. Steps to get started in putting this all together for yourself and your project. And like I said, it has questions in there that are designed to feel like this experience is more tailored to you so you can, you know, answer questions to make your process your process. And if you still want more personal guidance, just remember that we do have that in person group coaching offer coming up. It's already open to purchase basically, but it's at a discounted price right now for you to reserve your spot before it's even officially launched, which is super cool because the price is going to go up. And I just wanted to mention that to you that you can sign up now.

Barsi [00:21:10]:

I also want to mention to you that if you, because I don't have dates yet, we're still figuring out when the best time is to launch the group coaching program. That's that we can do together an intensive five session program. So if you realize if you sign up and then you're like, oh, I can't do it at this time, we'll give you full refund. So I'm telling you this in the podcast so that you have audio proof that you will get your money back. I promise you I'm not out to like take all your money. I just want you to like show up. And when we have a fiscal commitment to something, we show up differently. And that's just the truth.

Barsi [00:21:48]:

So I would love to see you there, but the spaces are really limited so I wanted to give you an opportunity to join first since you're listening to this podcast as it's happening. All right, so there's a link in the show notes for that too. So I'm having a really good time again sharing all of this with you and I hope that you're finding it useful again. I just want to remind you that I would love to hear from you. I would really like to know what you think about the series and the resource guide. If you can just drop me a note in the review section of Apple Podcasts if you have a moment to share with me so that I can get a gauge on what's working for you. And of course there's the Facebook group too. You can join me there and let me know how you feel about this mini series and the resource guide and everything else.

Barsi [00:22:35]:

So I just want to say thank you for showing up today. It's all about showing up to get a process moving. And the fact that you're here is a very big deal. So I want to acknowledge that. I want you to give yourself a moment to acknowledge that you're already doing great and I will see you next week. Thank you for listening to Be Bold. Begin. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcast so as not to miss an episode.

Barsi [00:23:04]:

Help us build a positive community by joining the Facebook group, also called Be Bold Begin. I'll be checking it daily to answer and acknowledge any of your questions and comments. Stay positive and safe out there.