Let's be real: podcasting takes time, just like any other marketing you do for your business. But unfortunately, time is not always on our side. In today's really fun episode, I'm sharing your voice messages about how you save time by making podcasting easier and more fun. (And, of course, I'm also sharing my own tips!)

You'll hear a variety of tips ranging from batching, editing, AI, and guest management. So, whether you're just getting started with podcasting or are looking for tips to improve your current process, I know you'll walk away with some good ideas for your show!

⭐️ Resources Mentioned:

• Descript
• Castmagic
• The Jasmine Star Show, Episode 472
• The Jasmine Star Show, Episode 476
• Follow me on Instagram @podcastingforeducators 

🔗 Connect with the Featured Podcasters: 

• Victoria - Naturally Teaching Elementary Science
• Michelle - Literacy in Color (coming soon!)
• Erin - School of Sellers
• Branda - Chaos to Conversions
• Melanie - Chaos to Conversions
• Megan - Copy That Converts
• Khristen - Secondary Teacher Podcast
• Sarene - Emotional Abuse Is Real
• Lauren - High School Counseling Conversations
• Kelsey - Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast

🎤 Recommended Podcasting Resources:

• Hosting: Captivate.fm (Get a free 7-day trial!)
• Transcription: Otter.ai
• Project Management: ClickUp
• Private Podcasting: Hello Audio
• Podcast Playlist Toolkit - use code PODCAST to grab it for $17!
• Launch Your Podcast: Free Podcast Launch Guide & Podcasting for Educators Prep School
• Level Up Your Podcast: Podcast Like You Mean It
• Leverage Podcast Guesting: Free Guesting Planning Guide & Guesting for Educators Mini-Course

Show Notes: https://podcastingforeducators.com/episode172

Some links mentioned are affiliate links. This helps to support this podcast at no additional cost to you. 

Your podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business.

But how do you manage it all?

Bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers.

That's what this show is all about.

Welcome to podcasting for educators.

I'm Sarah Whitaker, classroom teacher turned podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators.

Hello.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of podcasting for educators.

Today is a really fun episode.

A few months ago, I sent out a call for your help.

I asked you to send in some voice messages, sharing something that has either made podcasting easier for you or something that has made podcasting more fun for you.

And you all delivered big time.

You sent in so many great tips.

I loved listening to your messages as they came through, and today we're going to listen to them.

I am going to go ahead and play your messages so that everybody can benefit from your wonderful pieces of advice.

A lot of these tips that you shared had a really common theme of things that you can do that save you time when it comes to podcasting in all different parts of the podcasting process.

Because let's be real, podcasting is definitely something that does take up some of your time, just like any other marketing that you're going to do for your business.

But unfortunately, I know for most of us, time is not always on our side and it is that thing that we always feel like we're lacking.

So I hope that you get some good ideas from these podcasters as they share tips for working more efficiently as a podcaster.

Okay, let's listen to the first couple of messages.

These two messages are specifically helpful to those of you who are just getting started with podcasting.

Hi, I'm Victoria Zablocki from the naturally teaching elementary science podcast.

And one thing that truly makes podcasting easier is using templates.

I am using templates for literally everything.

I use templates for my episode outlines.

I use them for my social media posts.

I use them for my show notes on my website.

I am literally using templates for everything because honestly, the to do list never ends and templates really speed up the process for me.

So if you're just beginning podcasting, make sure you take the time up front to create templates for all of the different things that you're going to use.

And then that way, when you're going through and making all of your different episodes and all the images that go with it and all the show notes that you have a system in place that will help you work smarter, not harder.

Hey, I'm Michelle Sullivan, host of the literacy and color podcast, which, by the way, hasn't even launched yet.

But something that's made podcasting so much easier for me is joining the podcasting for educators, course and community, because honestly, without it I'd be completely lost.

The Facebook group alone has been a godsend, and it's offered me support and guidance and all the answers I need as I navigate this new journey.

Like Victoria said, there are so many different things that you can use templates for in podcasting.

I do not know where I'd be without templates, personally.

We use templates, templates for our production task lists outlining episodes, show notes, graphics for show notes, emails to guests.

I'm sure that I could think of more if I sat here for a few more minutes, but templates are going to save you so much time.

And I want to shout out Michelle as she gets ready to launch her new podcast, literacy and color.

At the time of this recording, she is going through the prep school and just absolutely rocking it.

She's doing such a great job.

Michelle, I'm so excited for you to have your show live.

It's going to be so good and I can't wait to hear it.

And speaking of templates, the prep school has all of those templates that I just mentioned, the things that I use templates for, they're all in the prep school for you.

So if you're just getting started with your podcast or thinking about starting your podcast, come on over and join us because you're going to get everything you need to launch your show successfully.

You can check that out at podcastingfore educators.com prep school.

All right, let's move on.

Let's hear some tips for batching your podcast.

Hi, my name is Erin Waters, and I am the host of the School of Sellers podcast.

And something that I do that makes podcasting way more doable is batching my podcast episodes.

So ideally, I batch them a quarter at a time, which means that I will take a week to produce all of the content needed for a quarter's worth of podcast episodes, which for me it's weekly.

So that's usually around twelve episodes.

And while it sounds like a lot, I find that from a planning perspective, it results in more cohesive messaging because I'm looking at everything from like a quarter glance, and it also saves me time.

I'm way more efficient because what I'll do is I will choose maybe two days to have interviews, so I will line up and maybe five in a day, maybe even more.

And it's really nice because then I only have to be on, you know, in podcasting mode a couple days every quarter rather than it being something that just hangs out on my to do list every single week.

So it frees up space for me to do other creative endeavors.

And it's just a really cool way of getting more done in less time.

And I highly recommend you try it.

I'm Branda.

I'm the co host of Chaos to conversions.

And something that's made podcasting easier for me is changing how I actually batch my content.

So in the past, I would kind of batch record a bunch of episodes together, and then later when I'm creating my emails for the week, I would do those like each week.

But I actually found that it was easier for me to record an episode and then immediately write the email that I would use to promote that episode because all of the ideas and the content was fresh.

The examples that I talked about were at top of mind.

It was a lot easier for me to create really fun conversational emails, use storytelling in my emails when everything was fresh, not three weeks later when I'm trying to remember what did I actually say in that podcast episode?

So definitely recommend batching like that.

I absolutely love these two different perspectives on batching.

There really are like, there's so many different ways that you can batch your podcast tasks, and what works for one person might not work for another.

So you could batch your recordings just like Aaron does.

I know a lot of podcasters who do this.

I think there's so many benefits to sitting down and just knocking out a bunch of recordings at once.

You can kind of be in the zone of that specific task of recording.

So you're not like, switching to all of these different tasks.

You're just, you're sitting down and you're getting your recordings done, especially if finding a day to sit down and record a guest episode is kind of a chore for you.

Knock it out.

One day a month.

Like Erin said, she sits down and records a bunch of guest episodes back to back.

This style of batching also works really well if you have somebody producing your show.

Like, I have the pleasure of producing Erin's show, and so she can sit down and she can batch a bunch of episodes, and then she can pass them off to me and she can kind of check that off her list.

I've got my next month worth of episodes recorded, done.

And then on the other hand, there's lots of benefits to batching how branded does it?

I love that you can create all kinds of deliverables and marketing materials in one sitting after recording an episode so it's fresh in your mind.

I would say I have experienced this.

A definite downside to batch recording is that when it comes to market the episode or to create those promotional materials, maybe you recorded these episodes, you know, months ago and so you might forget those details of the episode when you need to sit down and write that email or make that Instagram post.

One thing that I really love to do that Brandis tip reminded me of is I actually did an episode about this.

I'm blanking on what number it was.

I can't think of it off the top of my head, but I'll include it in the show notes.

But I love to.

At the very least, when you're recording an episode to like on your content calendar, have a space where you can jot down a couple details from the episode of things that you might be able to create social content around to promote that episode.

So that is something that you can do really quickly after recording your episodes.

I know podcasters who do both of these types of batching, Erin Style and Branda style, so think about which one might work for you.

Maybe you'd even want to try out each of these different ways and see which one works best for you.

All right, these next two messages are going to share some helpful tips for saving time while you're editing and creating promotional materials for your episodes.

Hey, this is Megan wisdom of the copy that converts podcasts.

And one thing that has really helped me, especially as a person who still does her own podcast editing is to take a long pause whenever I mess up something.

That way, when I pull up the audio, it's very easy to see where I need to go back and cut rather than having to listen endlessly to find those spots.

So it's been really helpful visual cue in the editing process.

It's Kristin Mazek, host of the secondary Teacher podcast.

And something that's made podcasting easier for me is the use of AI.

So I have been using descript to do all of the transcriptioning and all of that when it comes to my podcast as well as editing, it just makes it so much easier to be able to see my text and be able to edit my text as I am editing rather than having to, just to look at the waveforms.

And then the other way that I've been able to use AI is the tool called cast magic.

So I take my transcript, I upload it into that or actually my audio file.

And then using that, I've created some prompts and then there's also some prompts in there that will essentially listen to my podcast episode and give me various things to post on social media or put in my newsletter.

Just a bunch of different things that have really been helpful in saving me a ton of time this year in podcasting.

Okay, that was such a smart tip for Megan, especially if you are editing your own show.

Before I hired my podcast manager, I would do this sometimes.

Honestly, I would even edit as I was recording.

I've also heard from people that if they have a big section that they want to cut out, like as they're recording, and then they, they realize, oh, I'm going to need to cut that out.

They'll do a really big loud clap right in front of their microphone so it makes a big spike in the audio wave and so they can easily see that when they go to edit it, so they know that that's a section that's going to need their attention.

And such good tips from Kristen, too.

If you don't know Kristen, she always has so many good pieces of advice for saving time.

And she's really great with AI, too.

If you're in the prep school, there's actually a training from Kristen on how to use descript.

Lots of cool things you can do with descript.

Like Kristen mentioned, you can see the transcript of your audio, and then as you edit the transcript, it will edit the audio, which can be a lot easier sometimes for people to be able to like, see those words visually and take them out that way especially.

This is especially helpful if you're like looking for a very specific part of the episode that you know you want to cut out.

And you can see it right there on the transcript.

She also talks about cast magic.

This is a really fun AI tool for podcasters.

Like she mentioned, you know, it shoots out so many things that can help you with social posts and emails, and it gives a lot of really cool discussion prompts about topics from your episodes that are really great to use in like your Instagram Stories for engagement, or in a Facebook group if you have a Facebook group.

All right, these next two tips are going to be about making things easier for when you have guests on your show.

Hi, Sarah.

My name is serene Leeds.

I'm the host of Emotional Abuse is Real, a podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of emotional and narcissistic abuse survivors.

One thing that's made podcasting easier for me is a guest application form.

As much as I want to tell everyone's story.

Not everybody is the right fit for this podcast.

Having potential guests fill out an application form beforehand helps me determine if they will be articulate enough to share their story in a spoken word format and if their story will ultimately help my target audience.

Hi, I'm Lauren Tingle, and I host the podcast high school counseling conversations.

Something that is making my podcasting life easier lately is scheduling more guest interviews.

Now this is twofold.

Scheduling guest interviews is way more fun for me and easier because I don't have to sit down and write out a whole script or come up with an entire outline before I hit record.

I just get to show up, ask curious questions of someone who is an expert in their field, and I know my guests appreciate that, too.

And then secondly, along with those guest interviews, something that I'm doing to make them easier is by deciding when it works well in my schedule to schedule them.

In the past, I would go back and forth and try and accommodate a guest schedule.

Now I just decide I'm going to offer one morning interview time slot a week and one evening interview time slot a week, and then they can decide when it works best for them.

Then I know that I'm going to have childcare during the daytime slot, and then I know that my kids are going to be in bed during the nighttime slot.

So those two things are making my life a lot easier around podcasting this semester.

Those were such good pieces of advice from Serene and Lauren.

To Serene's point, you want to make the best content possible for your audience, and so you have a responsibility as the podcast host to be sure that you are inviting the right people onto your show that are going to be in front of your listeners.

So I love that she uses a guest application form and I really encourage you all to also vet your guests like serene does.

I even know some podcasters who will go as far as having a pre interview before they accept the guest on the show to make sure that it's a really good fit.

So they'll actually sit down and get on, you know, a Zoom call or whatever with the potential guests, see if they vibe, talk about what the interview would look like before they say, yes, I'd like to have you on my show.

I know that we don't all have the time for that, but it is an option if having the right guests is something that you want to make sure that you are doing really well.

And I love what Lauren had to say.

I tend to agree that guest episodes often feel easier because you can have the topic that you want to focus on, and then you can go into it as a conversation with a friend.

And I always encourage my clients to pick just a few weekly time slots that work for them, just like Lauren talked about.

I do this as well for my podcast, and it works really, really well.

Your guests can choose a time that works with your schedule, so it really does eliminate a lot of that back and forth, and that doesn't mean that you can never, ever make an exception if your schedule doesn't work for the guest.

But I promise you that it will help so much.

And I very rarely have somebody say, none of your times work for me.

Usually, the guest will accommodate the schedule that you have available.

And if having guests on your show is a big pain point for you, because I know it is for a lot of podcasters, there are a lot of details that go into having good guest interviews.

So if that's a pain point for you and that's something that you struggle with, definitely stay tuned for next month's episodes because I'm going to be doing several episodes about guest booking and guest interviews and all of that good stuff.

All right, next, let's hear from Kelsey, who is sharing something that she started to do when she needed podcasting to feel fun again.

Hey, podcasting for educators listeners.

My name is Kelsey Sorenson.

I am the host of the educate and rejuvenate podcast and the author of the brand new book titled Educate and Rejuvenate.

And I have been podcasting for a little over two years now.

I do love it so much, but I do feel like we hit a little bit of a slump where it was kind of starting to feel like a chore and everything, and downloads were a bit lower.

So I was kind of like, what can I do to make this more fun and enjoyable?

And what I realized is that since I'm a life coach for teachers, I love connecting in person every week with my members.

And I was like, what if I actually did a live podcast recording so that I could connect with my listeners directly?

And we've done it a few times now, and it's so much fun because I kind of get a two for one.

Like, we get to do a Facebook live, and then we take that recording and we put it on the podcast, and people are really excited to kind of see behind the scenes, even, like, as we're doing the live recording.

Like, oh, hey, we're like, chat before, and I'm like, okay, now we're going to officially start our episode.

And when I do that, I'm going to do a little intro, and I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.

And then I even make a special offer only for those on the live recording, which we then edit out before it goes on the podcast.

So it's kind of like I almost get to do a webinar and a podcast episode at the same time.

So it's been fun to do that.

I'm actually going to plan another one here soon.

Well, actually, we're doing it next week for my book launch, so really exciting, and I hope that's helpful for somebody.

All right, first of all, I love that Kelsey acknowledges that podcast downloads have been up and down.

And I just want to reiterate first how normal that is.

And I love that she saw a need to try something new and different, and she acted on it.

And how fun is this?

How fun are these live recordings that she does?

Live podcast recordings, they can happen in all different kinds of ways, and this is a really cool way to try it out if it's something that you're interested in.

I think it's really cool that she's building community while recording a podcast episode.

It's probably really neat for her audience to hear an episode on her podcast that they were a part of.

So again, if this live component of podcasting sounds really fun for you, give it a go, try it out.

Think about how it could work for you.

And I couldn't go through this episode without giving you my piece of advice for something that makes podcasting easier or more fun for me.

So I think probably my biggest tip for what makes podcasting easier is to have some sort of project management tool that you are using for your podcast.

Personally, I use ClickUp.

I talk about ClickUp all the time on here.

I love it.

I did not know how much a good, well set up project management tool would help my podcast and my business until I had it set up.

So, like I said, I use ClickUp, but there's so many different options out there.

But having some place that you can set up a repeatable workflow for the planning, the producing, the guest scheduling of your podcast is such a game changer.

There's so many automations that you can set up so that every time you create a new episode, it's got your list of sub tasks, and you can set your due dates for yourself or for your team or whoever needs them.

But having this ClickUp system has for sure made podcasting easier and just overall more manageable for me.

And then I think my best tip for making podcasting more fun is very similar to what Kelsey was talking about is to try something new when you're feeling that itch, do a fun giveaway to build some buzz around your show.

Figure out how you can include listener voices on your podcast like I'm doing in this episode.

Refresh your cover art or your music.

Switch up the structure of your episodes.

Do something different that feels exciting because you want to keep up that excitement with your show as much as you can, because it's going to help you keep going.

It's going to help you stay consistent.

Your listeners can feel it when you're excited about your show.

And as I always say, there are no rules in podcasting, so switch things up when you need to experiment.

Try things out that feel fun.

Thank you again to everyone who sent in a message.

I appreciate you so much.

I was really excited to be able to feature some of you in this episode, and I hope it was helpful for you and that you're getting some good takeaways.

If you heard a tip that you loved, tag me on Instagram so that I know you're listening.

The links to all of the podcasters mentioned in this episode will be in the show notes.

And to end the show, I'm going to share something that I'm loving and something that I am listening to something that I'm loving.

This is super simple, but it makes a big impact on my day, and that is getting up before my kids get up.

but I do get up at six, and my kids usually get up at seven.

And so I like to get up at six so that I have some time to get my coffee made, think about what I want to do and accomplish for the day, and just have a few moments of silence to myself as I can actually drink my coffee while it's still hot and not have to microwave it ten times.

But just have that time to think about the day ahead and get myself ready for the day so that by the time my kids are awake, I've had that time for myself and I can then focus on them and get them ready and get my oldest out the door to the bus stop and ready for school.

Because if you're a parent, you know, once those kids are up, your day is moving and grooving and you don't even have time to think and something that I am listening to is the Jasmine Star show.

I used to listen to this podcast a while ago, and then for whatever reason, I, I stopped and somebody had actually, I saw, I don't even remember who it was, but somebody that I know mentioned an episode and I thought, I haven't checked that out in a while.

So I started following her show again, and I have two specific episodes of hers that have come out recently that I really, really enjoyed.

It's episode 472, which is called how to turn sales objections into opportunities, and episode 476, four secrets to unstoppable marketing.

And I should back up and say that this is a podcast for entrepreneurs, the Jasmine Star show.

And I just think she does a really great job of sharing informational content in a way that's very engaging and easy to follow.

And specifically in episode 476 that I mentioned a second ago, she I think that this is a really great episode to listen to, not only as an entrepreneur, but also as a podcaster, because she does some really great storytelling in that episode that connects to the content that she's teaching about.

And she does this in a really, really great way.

I know that we've talked about storytelling on here before, and I think with podcasting, anytime that you can incorporate storytelling is always a really good thing, but it's not always something that comes super easily.

So I think that this episode is a really good example of that.

I'll link it in the show notes so that you guys can check it out, but just wanted to give a quick shout out for a podcast that I have been enjoying lately.

All right, and then last, last thing and then I promise I will let you go is that I wanted to do a quick reminder that I am doing a giveaway this month.

Super easy to enter.

All you have to do is either leave a review for this podcast on Apple Podcasts.

It will take you no more than two minutes or slash.

And if you want to enter both ways, you can.

That will get you two entries.

But the second way that you can enter is to just screenshot any of the episodes that have gone live in October, added to your Instagram stories, and tag me to let me know that you're listening.

And it's a really great way to share this show with others.

Doesn't cost you anything, but maybe a minute of your time.

And if you choose to do that, thank you for sharing the podcast.

As you know, word of mouth is a great way to make more people aware of this podcast.

So leave a review and or tag me on Instagram with one of these October episodes, and that is all you have to do to enter the giveaway.

Giveaway ends October 31, and I will be announcing the winner the first week of November.

The winner will get a microphone and a pop filter mailed straight to your house.

So go ahead and enter right now before you forget.

Thanks so much for being here today, and I will catch you here next week.

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.

To keep this conversation going, connect with me on Instagram.

Odcastingfore educators I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting.

If you're looking for support in launching, managing, or growing your podcasts, check out my online course, the podcasting for educators prep school@podcastingforeducators.com.

prepschool I'll see you here next time.