^{This transcription was automatically generated. Please excuse grammatical errors.}

Laura Nicole: 0:02

Welcome to Your Virtual Assistant Coach, the podcast for moms who want to make money from home on their own terms. I'm your host, Laura Nicole, a successful six-figure earning VA and coach who replaced my college professor salary in just five months back in 2020 after my daughter was born, and I have never looked back. I'm here to help you build a profitable, flexible VA business that fits into your family's lives so you no longer feel like you're living just to work. Let's dive in.

Laura Nicole: 0:33

As virtual assistants, we are supporting small business owners, right? A lot of times online business owners. And a lot of online business owners, especially in the past couple of years, have started podcasts, right? Just like I did. There are so many course creators, coaches that have podcasts as a way to reach out to more people, increase their visibility, provide more resources, help people learn more about whatever their business category is in. And podcasts can look simple from the outside, but behind every single episode, there's a lot of moving pieces. And the moving pieces part is where the clients, the business owners, don't want to be spending their time. And it's where you, as a virtual assistant, can offer podcast management services and take over those behind-the-scenes moving parts for your client. Because truly, small business owners who have a podcast, they want to be responsible for the creation of the topic and actually recording the episode, right?

Laura Nicole: 1:45

They want to record the episode and then be able to just hear it when it goes live. They don't want to have to mess with all of the in-between pieces to get it to the point of being published. And so I want to break down for you today what offering podcast management as a service actually looks like and actually entails, right? Because I'm guessing there's a really good chance that a lot of you listening are like, Laura, I have no clue what you even do to get a podcast out. How in the world would I ever offer podcast management as a service, right? But it's really not something that you have to be like super techie to do. It's not wildly complex or difficult. It's really just finding a solid system and then repeating that same system week after week when the podcasts come out. So I want to start by just kind of giving you some examples of the core tasks that you as a virtual assistant would actually be doing if you were offering podcast management as a service. And you really don't become a part of the picture until an episode has been recorded and also edited because business owners are going to hire an actual editor.

Laura Nicole: 2:55

They're not going to turn to you and be like, hey, can you edit this podcast? Right. That's like kind of like social media management we've talked about before. That's a whole different job, right? Doing podcast editing is a whole different job. And so 99% of the time, your client is going to record their podcast, send it to their editor. Their editor is going to do what they need to do and send it back as a complete file. And that's where your work starts as the VA. And some of the core things that you would be responsible for doing are either writing or formatting the show notes that go with the podcast, right? If you're listening to this podcast, the show notes is the description underneath that tells you what's covered in this episode. And a really easy way to write the show notes is to download the transcript of the podcast and then utilize AI. Your client will likely give you a structure for how they want their show notes to flow, or they'll help you write the first three to five show notes so that you get a feel for if they want it to be like really informational in the way that it's set up or if they want it to be more conversational in the way that the show notes read. But they will help you, especially when first starting.

Laura Nicole: 4:04

And if you're coming into a podcast that they've already established, then you can just go pull previous show notes, put that into AI and say, like, hey, look for patterns and create a template for this. And then for each new episode that you have, feed the transcript into AI and ask it to put it in show notes that are in that same format and template as the podcast has used previously. And show notes are also something that you'll always send to your client just for them to edit and proof and tell you that they're good to go. Another thing that would be a core task if you're offering podcast management is actually uploading the episode to the hosting platform. One of the most common hosting platforms is Buzz Sprout. And so once you get the audio file back from the podcast editor, you can go into your client's hosting platform.

Laura Nicole: 4:52

They will give you access to their login and you'll be able to go in, create a new episode, get it uploaded, schedule it because most podcasts drop on certain days of the week or at certain frequencies, whether it's once a week or once every two weeks or Monday, Wednesday, Friday, whatever it might be. And you can actually go in and schedule that, add in the show notes, get it formatted, put any links in the show notes. You can test them and then get it scheduled and ready to drop at whatever their episode release schedule looks like. Depending on how your client sets things up, maybe they will also have you put a link to the podcast and like a blurb about what the episode will cover on their website. Or if they ever have guests on their show, then they may also have you handle the email correspondence with those guests to ensure that they get scheduled right and that you get the information or the links or the photos that you need from them. But again, you don't have to be really techy or have specific podcast experience to do this because number one, your client is going to again train you and show you.

Laura Nicole: 5:57

But number two, once you know what podcast platform they use, like what hosting platform they use, then you can use Chat GPT or Google or YouTube to figure out how to schedule shows within that platform. Like there are so many tutorials out there that you can 100% learn that, and none of them are complicated. And clients love to outsource this, y'all. Podcasts are so relevant, they are only growing. They are such a smart way for business owners to get visibility, to increase their authority, but they also are a lot to keep up with. They can become time-heavy and consuming for your clients. And so it gets really easy to fall behind. But if all they have to worry about is actually recording it and then sending it out and letting the rest be handled, that helps them to be more consistent in their posting schedule. And that's where you as the VA get to step up and shine because you get to simplify the process for them.

Laura Nicole: 6:57

You get to take that off their plate, reduce their mental load, and make it so that having this aspect of their business is actually possible without it completely draining them. So if you're listening to this and you're like, ooh, wait, this actually kind of sounds like fun. Like this might be a service that I would be interested in. I want you to hear me when I say that again, your traits matter more than your experience, right? You don't have to have done podcast management prior. But if you are someone who is super organized, you pay attention to the detail, you are consistent at follow-through, you are self-motivated, you're someone who enjoys and finds comfort in having those recurring workflows that are happening the same way each week when you're getting these episodes out, right? Like you enjoy having the checklists, you like having the deadlines, you like the repeatable systems, you're someone who is going to really pay attention and make sure that each box is checked in the process each week.

Laura Nicole: 7:53

Then this would be a great service for you. And some pro tips to help you handle offering podcast support or podcast management like a pro would be to use checklists. Okay. Write yourself an SOP, a standard operating procedure that goes through every single thing that you have to do for each episode. Make it a checklist. And then every week when you go to actually do the things, use the checklist, okay? Even if you've been doing it for months, like still glance at your checklist because there's a chance that something might slip your mind. And we don't want that to happen. When you have a proven system that you can follow, right? There's fewer mistakes, there's less stress because you're not going to question, like, oh shit, did I do X, Y, and Z? Like you just know you followed your checklist and you're good to go. And then again, creating those templates, right? Create show note templates. Use AI and teach it what the structure is and what kind of voice and messaging your client likes in the show notes, because then it makes it so much easier to just feed new episode transcripts in and have it help you write the show notes that you don't really even have to make that many adjustments to.

Laura Nicole: 9:01

Another thing that you can template are guest email templates, right? So if you do work with a client who does have guests on their show, then you can have email templates set up, whether that's reaching out to somebody initially to invite them on the show or applying to people that request to be on the show, right? You can have a template for people who are not a fit and you know that they're not a fit. You can have a template for people to maybe answer some further questions or let them know, like, hey, I'm gonna forward this on to my client. We'll get back to you within X amount of time. You can even have templates once someone agrees that they want to come on the show, your client is good with it, everyone's excited, right? You can even have a template for like what's the next steps, have a templated email asking them for whatever links they want to share in the show notes or a photo if your client wants to use it, and you can get all of those details templated so that each time you have a guest on the show, you're not starting over from scratch.

Laura Nicole: 9:57

You just send them the template. But when you can build this recurring workflow where you just follow the same steps every episode, you have the same timeline every week, right? You get very, very consistent and that builds trust in you with your client. So if you are someone, again, who is super detail-oriented, you like being behind the scenes, you like supporting creators without having to be on a camera, and you enjoy having those workflows and kind of the repetitive nature of doing the same thing week over week for your clients, then this is definitely a service I would recommend considering. I have a really great resource available that will help you identify what other services, just like podcast support, what other services would be a really good fit for you personally based off of those soft skills, based off of your past experience and what other skill sets you have. It's my four-step Discover Your Superstar VA skills workshop. And it's designed specifically to help you get clear on those skills you already have and help you translate them into VA services so that you are actually picking services that make sense for you and not just kind of like guessing at what you could maybe offer. So if you want that direction instead of guessing and just hoping that it works out, head to the link in my show notes, grab the workshop. It's $22. It is so freaking worth it. The clarity that you get out of moving through this workshop is going to make everything else easier and really put you in a position to be offering services that light you up and that you will be so, so good at delivering to your clients.

Laura Nicole: 11:42

Thanks for hanging out with me today on your virtual assistant coach. If you loved this episode, be sure to share it with your best friend, your sister, or even your favorite coworker who you know wants to start making a flexible income. I'll see you all next time.