27. Tools and strategies for podcast organisation with Lauren Wrighton

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Laura: Welcome to Podcasting for Business Owners. I’m Your host, Laura McCrae, a podcast consultant, educator and self confessed podcast nerd. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast or want to grow the one you have, you’re in the right place. Hold on to your headphones and let’s go. Welcome back to Podcasting for Business Owners, the podcast that helps you share your story, lead your industry and grow your network through podcasting. Hi, I’m Laura McCrae and in this episode we’re talking all things organisation, consistency and strategies to make podcasting manageable. Today I’m joined by Lauren Wrighton, a podcast strategist and producer who, like myself, helps business coaches launch and grow podcasts that truly make an impact. Lauren also teaches freelancers how to become podcast managers. I personally learnt the skills on how to become a podcast manager through Lauren’s course. If you’re struggling to keep your podcast organised and want to know more about podcast workflow, then stay tuned as we’ve got some tips for you.

Laura: I’d like to introduce Lauren writing to the show. She’s the reason I became a podcast manager. When I was a virtual assistant, I was thinking about turning my business into a podcast management business. And before I did so, I found Lauren’s podcast, the Podcast Manager show, and I binge listened to all her episodes before I went in and purchased her, uh, course. And she’s amazing. She’s the guru of podcast management and she’s the reason why I’m here today. So first I want to thank her and introduce you to her. Uh, so hello, Lauren, welcome to the show.

Lauren: Thank you, Laura, so much for having me.

Laura: And so can you share a little bit about your journey as a podcast manager and then a podcast manager coach? What inspired you to start helping others in this field?

Lauren: Yeah, so I too was also a virtual assistant and I was looking for something that I could, you know, increase my prices and get, uh, some more consistency. And one of my clients actually was thinking about starting a podcast and she was like, you know, could you help me with this? And I asked her like, hey, do you think this is a service on its own? She’s like, yeah, you know, I think you could just offer this. And that was really my first foray into podcast management. But then, uh, you know, a couple months down the line, I had my other virtual assistant friends asking me about podcast management and how I had gotten into it and where I was finding my clients. And I’d had previous years of experience trying to start a digital business, you know, an ebook, a Like recipe collection, like all of these quote unquote failures where I didn’t want to have to sell to people. Uh, I wanted to have a service based business. And so although people were asking me like to put together a course or to teach them how to be a podcast manager, I really felt reluctant to doing that because I just, I didn’t want to, I didn’t like the idea of a digital product and. But I had, uh, you know, a couple of people, one woman in particular that was like, please just give me anything. So I stayed up real late a couple nights, I put together a beta version of what is now my course and I had very low expectations. It was $50 for a very, very long time. And I let it, the programme, my desire to teach others, I let it just happen organically and, and that worked really well for me because of my past experiences, to really follow the need of virtual assistants instead of just trying to create something and hope that it was going to be the right fit for something to sell.

Laura: Amazing. So what do you find is the, uh, biggest challenge that podcasters face when it comes to staying organised and consistent?

Lauren: I find that organisation. Let’s start there. Is, you know, really setting up a system that works for you and there’s lots of different ways to organise a podcast and any sort of project, but getting advice from others and when it comes to consistency is either having a community or obviously hiring a podcast manager. That’s, you know, I’m a huge fan of that. But if you don’t have a community, if you don’t have anyone else to talk to about this about your podcast, then it’s difficult to stay consistent because you’re just working on something by yourself. So maybe that’s a, uh, you know, a va who’s going to become your podcast manager or, or, you know, someone else on your team, but you really need someone else to help you kind of carry the project, in my opinion, so that you can figure out a system to stay organised and, you know, we can go into more detail about that, but also create a system around the entire show so you can stay consistent. Because if you have a, you know, a lack of systems and a lack of organisation, you’ll really find it much more difficult to have the podcast than it needs to be.

Laura: Yeah, definitely. I’m all about organisation.

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Laura: I love an Excel spreadsheet and I tend to use with my clients and for myself I use Trello. What do you use to keep yourself and your clients organised?

Lauren: Yeah, if it’s my choice, I also use Trello, you know, some of my clients, they already have their whole businesses set up in Asana or, you know, ClickUp or what have you. So yeah, my choice is Trello. I love Trello. I love organising things in like a workflow fashion. So I know what, what’s in the early stages and what’s in the late stages and what’s done, you know, you need to know what’s absolutely, completely done and I can get off my brain. So I love the workflow piece of Trello, which you can also duplicate in other project management tools. But yeah, that’s also my preference.

Laura: Yeah. And Trello’s a great tool for that, for organising your podcast.

Laura: This is something that your virtual assistant.

Laura: Could do too, couldn’t they?

Lauren: Mhm. Yeah.

Laura: So how do you organise your client’s podcast to ensure nothing falls through the cracks?

Lauren: Having some sort of project management tool to me is an absolute necessity. Some of my clients, they don’t want to see the project management piece of it and so I just set it. Like I said, I set up my own system on Trello because I know what I’m responsible for. So if we get into like the nitty gritty of Trello, you have a card and it has the to do list. So I live and die by the to do list. I live and die by like the episodes and where they’re at on my board and that’s how I personally make sure that things don’t fall through the cracks. But there is something just innately about podcast management where there are a lot of details, but you can sit down and complete someone’s episode and then not think about it until the next week. So it’s not like there’s all of these hanging tasks that I have to do. It’s like as soon as I can get done with someone’s episode for that week and cheque off that to do list, I can put it away for a couple of days. So that piece of podcast management is nice because you don’t feel as much as if you. There’s all these things that you might be forgetting.

Laura: Yeah. And I don’t know if it’s the same for you and your clients, but I find I’ve got a Trello board for every client and they’ve obviously got access to it, but I find actually I’m the only one that really uses it. Although they can look at it when they want. We tend to go through the to do list. So I would send them an email every Monday of what needs to be done and when and then when we meet up monthly or bimonthly, whoever I meet up with for their strategy calls, we’ll go through the to do list then as well and discuss different topics they could talk about in their podcast. So, really, a lot of the time Trello is just for me, but at least I know it’s there and I can keep myself organised.

Lauren: Totally, yeah. Uh, and they’re kind of hiring you to be the person who’s running the Trello board. Right. So it makes sense. But yeah, if you’re running your podcast by yourself or you have a va, then will be so useful to you and your VA to see. Okay, where are things at and what ideas do I have in the pipeline? And do I need ideas like, where are you at with the managing of it? And so you can not carry that in your brain and you can just rely on your organisation?

Laura: Yeah, and I’ve actually got a free Trello board template if anyone wants to download that.

Laura: And I’ll put the links to that in the show notes.

Laura: So how do you help your clients brainstorm podcast topics, ideas that resonate with their audience?

Lauren: Yeah, if I have a client that maybe is just kind of feeling like they’re in a rut, like, oh, gosh, I’ve, you know, one thing I’ve heard a lot is I’ve talked about everything. You know, they’re like 200 episodes in. I’ve talked about everything like, what now? And so that’s definitely worthy of its own call. It’s okay, let’s, like you said, like, let’s take our quarterly call or our monthly call and let’s really brainstorm and instead of just saying, you know, we can go to like, well, what are you guys talking about in the DMs? What. What are you talking about with your potential clients in the DMs? What. What questions are you getting on Instagram? What? Like, yes, we can go there, but usually they’ve already done that. So instead we look at what’s upcoming in your business. You know, are you offering a new product soon? Are you doing some sort of sale? And what I have found is really helpful, specifically for a client who is kind of in a rut creatively, is let’s do some sort of focus or. Or series for the show so we can kind of dive back into some fun energy, like, let’s make this fun again. So maybe let’s say they talk about money, finances. Okay, what’s a, uh, really popular kind of topic that you can expand on for three, four, five episodes that you can kind of go deep on. And so then we’ll think of some of those ideas. And um, you know, maybe we’ll think of lots of ideas. And that’s just great. Cause we can then kind of m. You know, use all of them in different episodes. But we’ll think of like one series for them to do and that just kind of kickstarts creativity on thinking of solo episodes. And then once their creativity is flowing for me, I love just doing a brain dump of. Let’s brain dump all these ideas. Let’s pick a couple that we want to do in the next month or two and then you can come back to this list. So I’m not a huge fan of thinking

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Lauren: of, you know, six months worth of content at a time because I find I’ve done that before because, because I love organisation, I love getting ahead. But things just, they, you know, your client ends up like not wanting to do those episodes they planned at the end of the three months they want to do something else. They’re in a different mind space. And so I like just let’s get some beginner ideas going and then just start recording.

Laura: Yeah. Just to make them feel comfortable and know they’ve got ideas there if they want them. I’ve got the same with. Yeah, with clients too. We’ll plan all these episodes out. Uh, and then I’ve got a client that does a lot of meditation. She’ll do a meditation and she’ll be like, I’ve just had another idea drop in and I want to do that instead. So at least then we’ve still got the backup episodes if she wants them. But that moment of recording, she didn’t want to record that episode in the end. But yeah, it was just nice for them to have those ideas. They know they’ve got them if they need them.

Lauren: Mhm.

Laura: Do you have a system for helping clients validate or refine their episode ideas?

Lauren: Uh, uh, yeah. I mean I like to encourage clients to like, if they want to talk about something like you just said, like if an idea drops in and they want to record it, like they know their audience. Right. So go for that episode. So I don’t do a lot of like pre validation, but instead after the episode has been live for a couple of weeks, maybe two months, let’s look at what people thought about it through the stats and then we can validate if that topic is something that we need to come back to. This is specifically handy when your client is maybe making a slight pivot and moving into a different direction. You can see, okay, how are people resonating with this new content? Or if maybe they talk about their business topic a lot and they want to piece in some more personal topics, then okay, how are people responding to those personal topics? So looking back at those stats and doing some validation of new topics and looking at it more broadly than just, okay, what about this one single episode? How did that one single episode do? It’s like, well, maybe people loved the title of it. Maybe people, you, you pumped it up on social media and it got a lot of downloads for that reason. Instead I like to kind of look at it more broadly and look at trends and see, okay, yeah, people do love this style of episode. So great, let’s do more of those.

Laura: Yeah, I found that with a client too. She loved doing interviews and really didn’t think that people would want solo episodes of her. But I found through looking at her, uh, downloads and her consumption rates that when she did do solo episodes, they were really well received. So she didn’t think they would be. But having looked at, uh, her stats, it was, they done really well. And I guess because they’re shorter and they’re to the point. Whereas the interviews can go off on a tangent sometimes people really like those solo episodes. So you’d never know that until you actually looked at the stats.

Lauren: Yeah, I found pretty consistently that if when you have a lot of interviews on your show, it actually makes the audience want solo episodes because they hear you interviewing interesting people and they like those episodes, that’s what attracted them to the show. But they’re thinking, well, what else does Laura, uh, think? You know, they hear the guests speak a lot on the interviews, but they, they start to really like the host and they want to hear more from the host. And that’s in my opinion, what those solo episodes fulfil is just getting to.

Laura: Just hear from the host and talking about interviews.

Laura: I wanted to ask how you go.

Laura: About organising booking guest interviews for your clients and yourself.

Lauren: Mhm. Yeah, this is one thing that I really love doing. Um, especially when you are connected to your client, you really get their show. You really get. You’re maybe an ideal listener of theirs. You’re already in their world or kind of organically. You just know different guests that will be great on the show. And so I think it’s very natural to do guest management in those cases. But what I do is kind of look at it quarterly. Let’s say they’re going to record two interviews a month. Okay, well I need to then reach out to maybe Four people in order to get two interviews booked. Kind of depends on, on that percentage. But I’ll think of, you know, maybe 10 guests and I’ll start reaching out to them all at the same time to try to get people booked. I’ll usually make a list of 10 and start reaching out to people and see how many yeses I’m getting. If I’m getting a lot of yeses, I won’t reach out to everyone. Right. Because my sweet spot is having an interview be like less than two months old when it gets released. So it’s, it’s like a rolling system where you know, you reach out to people, you get the interview booked, but they might not book their interview for maybe two weeks. So it’s such a, like a nuanced thing. You have to have some flexibility in the schedule in my opinion. Like maybe you have an interview next week, but you guys need to record it. You need to release an episode at the same time. Okay, you need to throw a solo in there. Right. Sometimes you can get a lot of interviews in the can, but you don’t want them to be too old. So it’s definitely a flexible process. But like I said, I like to think of a lot of ideas, I like to start reaching out to those people, see how many interviews we get booked, then continue reaching out to those people. Once those ideas had dried up, then I start that

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Lauren: process over again.

Laura: Yeah, that’s exactly that. You should have at least one interview in the bag already that you’ve got already there because you don’t want to leave one till the last minute because they can cancel at any moment. That’s what I always have the fear. So when booking guests for myself and.

Laura: For clients, I like to use calendly.

Laura: So I send a calendly link and then that would then link to Zoom where the clients record their episodes. So it’s all linked together. So it’s linked from calendly to their calendar, from their email and then onto Zoom. So it’s all connected. So it makes organising and booking guests really easy. Do you use the same?

Lauren: Yes. I love using a calendar link. I think that is an absolute no brainer. Totally love that system because sending times. Hey, hey, are you available these two times? Are you available these two times? Like that is such a hassle. So I love a calendar link. I love how with a calendar link you can link a form so you can get the person’s, you know, their name, their bio there, uh, all of that information that you might want out of a guest so you can maybe prep your client. Love that. With some of the new software, like Riverside, like squadcast, you don’t always have a link to the room when the person. It might not be a universal link, it might be a specific link. So now that some of our clients have moved away from Zoom, that piece has become a little bit more complicated. So what I’ve done in those cases, if I have a specific link that I have to send them, instead of a universal link to the room, I’ll just schedule an email to be sent to them 24 hours in advance. Because then again, I’m getting that done. I don’t like having to come back to something. Cause I’m not going to trust my memory. I don’t trust my memory for anything. So I can then just go quick, make a appointment or whatever it’s called in Riverside, or squadcast, and then schedule an email so it gets sent out and I know it’s done.

Laura: So do you schedule the email from Riverside or do you do that from your email and then just delay the sending?

Lauren: Yeah, I just do it from my email. Yeah, I think you can send emails with Riverside and squadcast. But yeah, I just do it from my email.

Laura: At least you know, it’s definitely getting done. When you do it from your email, I’d be the same.

Lauren: Yeah, yeah.

Laura: So how do you advise clients to manage all the moving parts of their podcast without feeling overwhelmed?

Lauren: Yeah, I would say is getting into a routine that works for you. And what I hear from podcasters, especially ones that don’t have a podcast manager, is they feel like they’re missing something, they’re looking for the next best thing. And, uh, part of that, I believe, is the lack of community, is they’re wondering, gosh, there’s gotta be a better way. But they’re not necessarily working with anyone or in a community. And so when you start talking to people, you can pick up little tips so you can be more organised and that’s great, but it’s more of like a confidence and knowing this is the way I do it. And maybe other people do it differently, but that’s okay. This works for me. So, you know, if you’re kind of looking outside of yourself for like the best solution, that what, what problems are you trying to solve and just get those problems solved and then you can chug away at it. But definitely a podcast can feel like a machine and it’s just a checklist. It’s a creative process that can be done in a checklist way. So find yourself a Routine that. So you can spend a day or two max on your show a week, and then don’t think about it, because then each time you show up, you can have that creativity and have, you know, excitement to do it, and it doesn’t feel like a slog.

Laura: Yeah, I guess it’s good to schedule like a, uh, certain amount of hours a week to your podcast. That way, I guess, you know, you’re going to get it done.

Lauren: Yeah.

Laura: So, yeah, batch recording, maybe. And then another day for social media, another day for writing your blog posts or whatever. I suppose that’s a good way to do it too.

Lauren: Yes. Making sure you schedule that time. And, uh, you know, people love to talk about batch recording. And I think there’s so many of us that are like, oh, my gosh, I wish I would do batch recording. I wish, uh, like, it’s a great idea. But you want to ask yourself, is that right for me? Is, you know, recording three episodes in a row, is that gonna work for my energy levels, my schedule, my time, all of those things? If it’s not, then let that go. What’s gonna work for you? Is it gonna be to record one episode a week? Is it. Can you do two episodes a week? Can you do five episodes in two weeks? Like, what is it for you? And just see how it can work all together and then rinse and repeat.

Laura: Yeah. And definitely you don’t wanna force yourself to do something that doesn’t feel right. So if you plan to batch record one day and you wake up that day and you’ve got, uh, a rotten cold and you don’t feel like recording, then don’t record. If you can put it off, do that. Because you’re not gonna sound good, you’re not gonna be in the mood. Yeah. Best to do it when you’re in the mood.

Lauren: And that’s the benefit of being a week or two ahead, two weeks ahead, that will make you feel so much calmer and at peace knowing, okay, I’m working on an episode that’s not gonna go live for two weeks.

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Lauren: So if I get sick, if something comes up, if the kids this and the kids that, whatever, right. We are all living lives, that things pop up. It’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t feel like, you know, oh, my gosh, my, you know, I’m going to miss an episode, I’m going to miss a week. So definitely I would recommend getting two weeks ahead, staying two weeks ahead. And that gives you a lot of peace of mind.

Laura: Yeah. I even go as far as to giving my clients three weeks ahead so that. Yeah. Just in case anything goes wrong, we know we’re always be fine. We’ve never missed a deadline because we’re always that far ahead.

Lauren: Right. And with clients, since, you know, they have their opinions and we have our opinions as well, is you can be even a month ahead and if they think of an idea, if something comes up, they can slip an episode in and disrupt the plan, which we kind of talked about, and that’s fine. But you have episodes either recorded or planned, so you have the plan and. And if they need to record something that’s more timely or something, they can do that as well. Yeah.

Laura: So do you have tips for creating a podcast schedule that’s manageable and sustainable over the long term?

Lauren: Yeah. I think it really comes down to getting your system set up on Trello, on ClickUp, on Asada, and feeling comfortable with it, looking at, okay, what feels clunky in my process or what feels like it’s taking a lot of my energy. Ask people like, what, hey, what do you do in this circumstance? What do you do? Listen to, you know, podcast episodes to learn about it and find a way to create a rinse and repeat system. That’s the way that you’ll be consistent over the long haul. Because it is a lot of work to have a podcast. You want to make it as easy as possible on you. And you might find through talking to people, through hiring a podcast manager, that you are spending more time than necessary on a piece of it. Right. And so find a system that you can do a, uh, rinse and repeat on so that you can be consistent. Yeah.

Laura: What’s one tool or system you couldn’t live without as a podcast manager?

Lauren: You know, we talked a lot about Trello and I feel like it’s got to be, for me, tied between Trello and Dropbox, because Dropbox, I hold all of the files that, uh, my clients send me and all of the files that I send them. So I do a lot of social media assets for my clients. And so the organisation of that is so critical for my sanity as well that I would say it’s got to be both Trello, that’s kind of organising the words and the, you know, the episode lives there. But all of the other files too are on Dropbox. So the both of those.

Laura: Yeah, I agree. But I’m not a Dropbox person. I’m a Google Drive person. I couldn’t live without Google Drive.

Lauren: Yeah.

Laura: So thanks so much for coming on the show, Lauren. You’re so organised yourself and you help us so much and you turn up on time every week for our coaching call. She’s the most organised person I know. So where can people find you? Where can people connect with you?

Lauren: Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram. Aurenwrighten. Uh, and then if you’re interested in kind of the behind the scenes podcast manager stuff, I also have my podcast, which is the Podcast Manager show.

Laura: And it’s an amazing show and I listen to it every week and this is what got me into podcast management, so I highly recommend it and I recommend Lauren’s course too. She’s brilliant.

Lauren: Yes. Thank you so much, Laura. It’s been great.

Laura: Thank you, Lauren.

Laura: What an amazing conversation with Lauren. We’re on the same page when it comes to creating systems to stay ahead and using tools like, uh, Trello to help keep things running smoothly. I completely agree with her advice about finding a process that works for you, whether it’s batch recording, scheduling time each week or just staying a few episodes ahead to avoid stress. One thing that really resonated with me was Lauren’s approach to brainstorming episode ideas and, um, making the process fun again, especially when you feel stuck. That’s such a good reminder to keep the creative energy alive whilst staying organised. If you’re ready to get your podcast organised, don’t forget to cheque the show notes for the free Trello board template I’ve created. It’s been a lifesaver for me and my clients and you’ll also find links to all the software we mentioned today. Thanks for listening to Podcasting for Business Owners and speak to you again next week. If you found value in this podcast, please leave. A five star rating and a review would be even better. Your support shows that this is a good show which will attract high profile guests and in turn deliver greater value to you. This podcast is produced and edited by me. Don’t waste your time on editing. Let me help you with your podcast. Cheque out the links in the show notes to get in touch.

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