#187: Practical Tips for Streamlined & Stress-Free Episodes
Have you ever wondered how to keep your podcast running smoothly without feeling totally overwhelmed? I’m sharing all of my go-to pro tips - the workflows I use in my agency - for building podcasting systems that actually keep things organized—and fun.
I’ll share a big big picture overview of the workflow process in creating a single episode - from planning the season focus to guest planning, all the way to launch.
Figuring out what resources you already have to work with is key. Think in terms of time, energy and budget.
to creating a workflow that fits my style, to making adjustments on the fly if something’s not working. I’ll also share some real-life examples of working with a team and how we stay connected to the “why” every step of the way.
Whether you’re ready to find your flow or you like to understand the big picture first - this episode is worth a listen.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Easy systems and workflows to keep your creative projects feeling doable (and not overwhelming)
Tips for building a flow that works perfectly for you—and adjusting as things change
Simple tricks for staying super organized (so you don’t lose your files or your mind)
00:00 Coordination, Systemization, and Application
05:30 Streamline and Systemize Your Workflow
10:19 Batching Production
13:46 Adjusting and Finding Your Flow
14:35 Making Things Fun and Easier
Read the Full Transcript
Christina Barsi [00:00:59]:
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 and this episode - it might be the most pragmatic out of the bunch. 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. 1 coordination, 2 systemization and 3 application.
Christina Barsi [00:01:35]:
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 in 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. 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.
Christina Barsi [00:02:50]:
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. 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 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.
Christina Barsi [00:03:53]:
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. 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.
Christina Barsi [00:04:45]:
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. 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 and 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.
Christina Barsi [00:05:30]:
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. 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, as in what is going to be your flow.
Christina Barsi [00:06:45]:
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. 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.
Christina Barsi [00:07:40]:
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. I love her. She also made a beautiful spreadsheet for all of this information to get plugged into. Then Brandy shares all of this info with all three teams and makes sure that the guest has access to 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.
Christina Barsi [00:08:36]:
And 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, 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 of 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.
Christina Barsi [00:09:33]:
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. 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 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.
Christina Barsi [00:10:19]:
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.
Christina Barsi [00:11:25]:
I didn't know that. 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 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.
Christina Barsi [00:12:05]:
I even have 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. 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 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.
Christina Barsi [00:13:01]:
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. 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.
Christina Barsi [00:13:46]:
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 the 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.
Christina Barsi [00:14:35]:
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 instead? 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 and putting the process in motion, how to start putting this all together, how to organize the many pieces to move forward and 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.
Christina Barsi [00:15:48]:
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.
