A written SOP is the fastest way to cut down your production time without hiring anyone. I walk through how I build mine: record yourself narrating the entire process, then hand the transcript to a large language model and have it write out the steps one by one. Talking through each step also forces you to justify it, which is how I've caught steps I didn't need anymore and cut them. Once the steps exist on paper, delegating or automating them gets a lot easier.
Resources & Links
- Get my exact podcast production SOP — streamlined.fm/sop
- Tella — screen recording with automatic transcripts and shareable video (affiliate link)
- Claude — the large language model I use to turn transcripts into SOPs
- Ecamm Live (affiliate link)
00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 I hate lunch. I don't hate eating lunch, but
00:00:04 --> 00:00:08 I hate the process of lunch. And it's because
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 it's always the same. I get hungry around the
00:00:10 --> 00:00:14 same time. I go upstairs. I look in my cupboard.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 I look in the fridge. I look on my counter. I
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 shrug my shoulders. And then I do the same thing
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 over again. until i just resigned myself to the
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 fact that i'm going to eat something that is
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 going to be as fast as possible and i'm probably
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 not satisfied with it would actually be a lot
00:00:29 --> 00:00:32 easier for me if i just did some meal prep at
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 the beginning of the week so that i'd have something
00:00:34 --> 00:00:38 ready each day something i could have made That
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 wasn't just a fast thing in that moment. Now,
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 maybe you're wondering why I'm talking about
00:00:43 --> 00:00:45 lunch, though you're probably not because you
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 looked at the title of this episode. And the
00:00:47 --> 00:00:52 truth is that if I had a plan or maybe an SOP
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 for lunchtime, it would be a lot less frustrating
00:00:55 --> 00:00:59 to me. And I feel a lot of podcasters are in
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 this same boat when it comes to publishing their
00:01:01 --> 00:01:05 podcast. They sit down. getting ready to record
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 and they shrug their shoulders and wondering
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 what they're going to talk about. And then when
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 it comes to all of the post -production, it takes
00:01:12 --> 00:01:16 them extra time because they don't have a process
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 that's written down. So they kind of need to
00:01:18 --> 00:01:22 figure it out every time. The solution to this,
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 the way to make your production process shorter
00:01:25 --> 00:01:30 without hiring somebody is creating an SOP. Just
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 having the steps, knowing what you're going to
00:01:33 --> 00:01:40 do before you do it saves a ton of time and mental
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 energy. So today I'm going to walk you through
00:01:43 --> 00:01:47 how to create an SOP or standard operating procedure
00:01:47 --> 00:01:52 for your podcast. Now, the first thing is this,
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 right? You hear me talk about this all the time.
00:01:55 --> 00:02:01 You need ideas ready to go before you record.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 If you are doing an interview show, that means
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 having some questions before you sit down with
00:02:08 --> 00:02:12 your guest. I know that it takes a little extra
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 work, but it's so much better than just meandering
00:02:15 --> 00:02:19 through a conversation. I was on a podcast a
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 little while ago where it didn't seem there was
00:02:22 --> 00:02:27 any prep. Done. And it was a very awkward conversation
00:02:27 --> 00:02:31 made worse by the fact that I don't think a single
00:02:31 --> 00:02:35 edit was made to the conversation. That kind
00:02:35 --> 00:02:39 of makes me feel like I wasted my time. And I
00:02:39 --> 00:02:43 wonder how many people tolerate listening to
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 a show like that. If you show up with questions.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:51 you already have a plan for the recording, which
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 is going to make it smoother. And once you have
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 the recording and you have the plan, it's going
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 to make editing easier too, right? Because you're
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 not going through and going, well, we kind of
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 went on a tangent here. Maybe you still have
00:03:02 --> 00:03:06 that, but it's less likely when you know where
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 you want to take the listener and the stories
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 you want your guest to tell. But overall, creating
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 an SOP can be done in a couple of ways. The first
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 is just writing down the steps as you do them,
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 right? Keeping a list next to you. I like to
00:03:19 --> 00:03:23 use a yellow legal pad when I sit at my desk
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 or next to my computer. It's always with me.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 And write down the steps that you have to do.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 Maybe as you're doing them so you don't forget
00:03:30 --> 00:03:34 one. But the way that I like to create SOPs,
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 this is especially helpful when you have a VA,
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 but It's just as helpful if you're working by
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 yourself, especially if you batch episodes, right?
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 This is another thing I strongly recommend. It's
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 a lot like meal prep, right? On Sunday, make
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 lunch for every day of the week. You want to
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 record multiple episodes at a time. So if you're
00:03:54 --> 00:03:58 only doing this once a month, then it will also
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 take you longer. So what I like to do is record
00:04:01 --> 00:04:05 myself going through the entire process and then
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 taking the transcript from that recording, putting
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 it into a large language model. I use Claude.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 Maybe you use something different and say, take
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 this transcript. This is a recording of me going
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 through my podcast production process. Write
00:04:20 --> 00:04:24 out the steps one by one. Ask me clarifying questions.
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 I actually do this often enough that I have a
00:04:27 --> 00:04:31 Claude skill. I recorded a video over on YouTube
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 about this, so I'll link that in the show notes
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 as well. But you record yourself. and you narrate
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 everything that you do. Because what shows up
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 in the transcript is what's going to show up
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 in the SOP. Feel free to think out loud. Large
00:04:44 --> 00:04:48 language models today are advanced enough that
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 they'll figure out that you're talking through
00:04:51 --> 00:04:55 something. And as you record yourself, you force
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 yourself to explain what you're doing. And I've
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 been in situations where I've created an SOP
00:05:00 --> 00:05:04 video where I do something and then I go, why
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 am I doing this? I don't need to do this anymore.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 And so I actually eliminate steps that way. Talking
00:05:10 --> 00:05:14 through your process helps you clarify your thinking
00:05:14 --> 00:05:20 as well as if it forces you to justify why something
00:05:20 --> 00:05:24 is being done. So that's what I recommend and
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 if you have a multi like you're not going to
00:05:26 --> 00:05:27 record yourself recording that would be super
00:05:27 --> 00:05:31 weird right but like record the pre -production
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 part do the recording maybe do everything up
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35 until you hit record so that you can explain
00:05:35 --> 00:05:39 okay well now I'm going to turn on ecam or now
00:05:39 --> 00:05:43 I'm going to log in to Zencaster or Descript.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 I need to send my guest the link. Everything
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 up until you hit record. Record your podcast
00:05:48 --> 00:05:52 and then everything that happens from post recording
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 to publishing. You can do this in a few videos,
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 right? Maybe each step is a different video,
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 but take all of these and put them into a large
00:06:01 --> 00:06:05 language model and have it create an SOP for
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 you. And that's the easiest way to do it. The
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 tool that I recommend for doing something like
00:06:09 --> 00:06:13 this is Tela. I love Tela TV. I will have my
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 affiliate link in the in the description and
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 in the show notes. But the reason I like Tela
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 is because it's a very easy to use app. It has
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 a lot of use cases beyond just recording. So
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 I use it for like client asynchronous coaching.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:30 I use it for proposals. but it also generates
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 a transcript automatically, and it creates a
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 shareable video. And that's the other side of
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 this, because I'm usually creating these videos
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 for my VA, and so it's very easy for me to share
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 this video. If you don't want to pay for Tela,
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 Windows recorder, I think that's what it's still
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 called, or QuickTime on your computer is fine,
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 right? Because you can, I believe you can do
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 screen sharing in both of those. But the core
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 important function here is record yourself doing
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 something. I strongly recommend screen share
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 for posterity sake, right? If you're going to
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 share this video or review what you did, you
00:07:03 --> 00:07:04 want to see what you did as you're doing it,
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 but record the video, get the transcript, feed
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 it into a large language model. Now I will link
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 to that video again, but that's really the whole
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 thing. Create the SOP. You'll know what you're
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 doing. It will speed up your process because
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 you won't have to spend mental energy figuring
00:07:19 --> 00:07:23 out what to do. And it will be easier to delegate
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 all or some of this when you are ready to hire
00:07:26 --> 00:07:30 a VA. But the other part, and this is an episode
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 for another day, once you have the steps, you
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 can also figure out what you can outsource to
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 automation tools or large language models. And
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 again, that's an episode for another day, but
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 that's another reason to create these. But that's
00:07:43 --> 00:07:48 it for this episode of The Streamlined Podcaster.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:53 If you want to see what my SOP looks like, I
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 have made it available for you over at streamlined
00:07:56 --> 00:08:02 .fm slash SOP. That's streamlined .fm slash SOP.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 You put in your email address and I will send
00:08:04 --> 00:08:09 you my exact SOP for creating my podcast. Thanks
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 so much for listening and until next time, I
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 hope you find some space in your week.