When you’re stuck making decisions about your podcast tech stack, remember this story…
I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom, hunched over the laptop.
My wife came in and looked at me.
I looked up at her.
She’s about 5’0 tall. So I never look up at her. These were strange times.
“You’re still doing this?”
“Yea…”
I had been spending hours trying to mess around with different tools to edit my podcast – The EdTech Startup Show. I was Googling to find the best ones, opening a million tabs to review their websites, creating all of these accounts that never went anywhere, and then finally picking one to start with.
The funny part is that once I got all the tools right, it totally changed my energy for doing the podcast. I went from dreading the process to looking forward to it.
I felt excited by each new chance to create something new and share it with my audience. And the feedback from guests and listeners was great.
So, I want to save you from that awkward, looking up at your wife at 10:30PM on a weekday type feeling.
I want to show you what I’ve figured out over the past year of using my podcast to grow my business doing copywriting and marketing strategy for education companies.
Here’s every software tool I use for a podcast episode. It seems like a lot, but once you get into a good workflow (or hire help where needed), it can all happen efficiently.
Scheduling, Researching, and Building a Content Calendar
Boomerang – returns emails to my inbox so I can follow-up with potential guests
Calendly – how I let guests book a good time slot for them (I only have one set time each week when I do the podcast)
Google Calendar – where I add show notes and Zoom info for podcast calls.
Google Docs – I create a doc with potential questions for guests to see, as well as a space for them to add any notes, their personal/company bio, and a headshot.
- What’s an example of…
- How did you get started with…
- When did you know that…
LinkedIn – I make sure to connect with my guests here. I also connect with other teammates of guests, so they can see my post about interviewing their colleague.
Recording the actual podcast episode
Zoom – it’s simple, it’s affordable, it works. Use “gallery mode” if you want to record the video.
- Hit record before guests get on the call. Otherwise, they may freeze up when you say, “okay, now we’re recording.”
- Ask guests if you can record and share the video before they get on the call.
- Record to the cloud on Zoom, then back up your files on Google drive or elsewhere.
- If other guests come on the call, like an assistant, be sure they mute their microphones.
Audio Technica Streaming/Podcasting Pack – After a few sessions where my guest’s audio sounded better than mine, I upgraded to this affordable but quality set-up.
Editing the podcast
Fiverr – you can fid lots of good podcast editors on Fiverr.
Descript – I use this to edit the podcast as well as to pull out clips to share on social media and YouTube.
Publishing the podcast
LibSyn – this is reliable, affordable hosting with some basic analytics on downloads.
WordPress – this where I host my blog that includes show notes or articles written about each episode
Promoting the podcast
Sendfox – This is a very simple, straightforward email marketing service made mostly for content creators. I plug my newsletter on many podcast episodes
Canva – I start with their pre-made templates, then tweak the images and colors to have an infinite number of social posts and YouTube thumbnails
Veed.io – this is what I use for creating social posts of clips of the podcast with captions
Thanks for reading,
Gerard Dawson
PS – If you want to get the next tip or resource I share about podcasting, you can sign up here.