Ep. 82: Save Time and Reduce Stress By Outsourcing Podcast Production (Guest Lauren Wrighton from The Podcast Manager Show)

Have you started a podcast to promote your business? Podcasting may appear, but the reality is there are many moving parts. Producing it can become a full-time job that doesn't directly pay the bills. Regardless of whether you enjoy the production, there comes a time when you'll need to seek help. Our guest, Lauren Wrighton, is a podcast production expert who trains her students to be podcast managers. She also hosts a very niche podcast on this subject, The Podcast Manager Show. We cover the various aspects of production and who you can hire to offload those tasks. We also discuss turning podcast production into a profitable side hustle.

SHOW NOTES:
Follow or contact Lauren Wrighton: Instagram - LinkedIn - Website
Podcast Manager Mastermind Facebook Group (By Lauren): Join for free
Lauren’s Masterclass: Register
Get the Balance Right Facebook Group: Join
Leveraging Podcast Appearances to Build Your Brand
Using Podcasting to Grow your Business
Ep. 29 (Todd Cherches)
Ep. 40 (Fernando Angulo)
EP. 50 (Jason Barnard)

For more info, see complete show notes:  https://www.getthebalanceright.net/blog/episode82

CONTACT HEATHER:
Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn
Get the Balance Right Coaching: Website
Book a Discovery Call (via Zoom) - Click Here
Heather & Get the Balance Right - Link Tree
Zeitzwolfe Accounting: Website - Facebook

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Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn - Email: heather@GetRadBiz.com
Get Radical With Your Business: Facebook - Website
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Zeitzwolfe Accounting: Website - Facebook

Transcript

Introduction: 
Hello and welcome to Get the Balance Right; I am your host Heather Zeitzwolfe, CPA and profitability coach.

Today we are talking about one of my favorite topics, podcasting. Since you're listening to a podcast, I think it's safe to assume that you enjoy them as well. Unless someone is forcing you to listen to this.

 As entrepreneurs, we have several media options to promote our business.

 Podcast guesting has become an increasingly viable solution for exposure in our current world. Not only is it cost-effective, but it can allow us to get in front of the right target market and allow us a platform to showcase our expertise. We've talked about the power of podcast guesting a few times on the show. Namely, way back in the archives, episode #5 with Julie Fry. We discussed leveraging podcast appearances to build your brand. Then, more recently, in episode 66 with Kathleen Gage. The focus was on using podcasting to grow your business. If you haven't heard those, please check them out next; there are links in the show notes.  

 Of course, the next step is to have your own podcast. Doesn't it seem like everybody and their uncle podcast these days? Your grandma may be getting in on the action. Perhaps you have one too or are on the verge of starting one. Once you go all-in on podcasting, you soon realize, Jesus – this is a lot of work. It's as though you've created a second job for yourself, except this one probably doesn't pay the bills.

 I absolutely love podcasting. One of the biggest reasons is that it can provide the opportunity to meet intelligent and talented people. When you get into podcasting, doors open for you. People you'd probably never be able to have an in-depth conversation, with let alone meet, are willing to give you 45 minutes of their time, uninterrupted. In episode #29, I had the honor of interviewing Todd Cherches about his new book VisuaLeadership; two days later, he was interviewed by Dorie Clark. In episode #40, I had on Fernando Angulo, the head of communications at SEMrush. The crazy thing is that his people reached out to me. Then that interview led to me interviewing Jason Barnard, episode #50. He just happens to be the world's top expert on Brand SERP, and he used to be in a punk band. If you don't know the term Brand SERP, then go back and listen to this episode. After hearing my description of BRAND SERP, Jason Barnard gave me a lovely compliment and told me of all the podcasts and TV shows he'd been on; my explanation was the best. I'm not bragging; I was so scared that I'd botch it up that I did a bunch of research and carefully chose my words. This leads me to one of the top reasons why I love podcasting, and that is it expands my mind. Podcasting can make you way smarter. It allows you to ask questions about things you're curious about or have no experience with while picking the brain of an expert. In some ways, it can be better than college or on-the-job training because you can hone in on the stuff that matters and expose yourself to things you never knew existed. Case in point - BRAND SERP. 

 Another great thing about podcasting is that it teaches you to be disciplined with your creativity. If your show is a weekly podcast, you must be creative even when you don't necessarily feel inspired. You learn to create under the pressure of a deadline. It reminds me of when I was studying fashion design, except now my brain is older, and this mandatory creativity keeps the ole grey matter agile.

To keep a podcast on a regular cadence means you have ongoing deadlines that sometimes feel like a race to the end. In other words, it can be physically and mentally exhausting. However, I keep doing it because I adore it. I don't think you'll last very long without passion for the medium. It's definitely a labor of love. Besides all the work recording the podcast, there are many other time-consuming tasks such as contacting guests, researching topics, editing sound, writing show notes, building webpages and blog posts, social media, etc. 

Regardless of how much you love the process, there comes a time when you'll probably need to seek out help. Unless you're like the guy from Limitless. Editors are often the first ones podcasters hire or a copywriter that can assist with show notes or social media. 

 Podcasting may appear easy, and the barrier of entry is far lower than radio. But once you get into podcasting, you realize there are many moving parts. In meeting your committed deadline, the whole process has to be managed. You can have the most kick-ass Excel spreadsheet or whiteboard containing your workflow, but sometimes you need a human to put that stuff into action. This brings us to our topic for today, podcast management. Our guest, Lauren Wrighton, is an expert on this subject. In fact, she started and maintains a training program for podcast managers and has a very niche podcast on the topic with the appropriate title…yeah, you guessed it… The Podcast Manager Show.

 Not only is Lauren highly respected in her field, but she also has a giant, welcoming smile and a big heart; she currently donates 10% of her profits to Feeding America.

 Whether you currently have a podcast or are considering starting one, we discuss the various aspects of production and who you can hire to properly handle those tasks. And if you've dreamt about working on podcasting behind the scenes, we cover that too. We even discuss how you can turn podcast production into a profitable side hustle.

I met Lauren at She Podcasts, hosting a meet-up for folks in podcast production. Since I'm the main person producing my podcast, I went to the meet-up. I'm so glad I did. It turned out I knew two people who had trained with her, and since then, I've met others. If you're interested in podcasting, whether behind the mic or behind the scenes, I think you'll find her podcast full of great information.

If you have been thinking about podcasting, I have a great resource in the show notes provided by Buzzsprout. I use Buzzsprout as my podcasting host provider. The platform is straightforward to use and very affordable. They also have great features, such as dynamic content, which you can swap out at the beginning and end of each show. They also offer Magic Mastering, which makes the recording sound better. Have you ever listened to a show where one section was loud, and another was difficult to hear? Their magic mastering helps keep that from happening. If you'd like to try Buzzsprout, please check out my affiliate link in the show notes, you can start for free, and after your second paid invoice, you will receive a $20 amazon gift card, so you can almost get 2 months for free with the basic plan. Plus, you'll be helping the show when you use that affiliate link. 

Before we dive into the interview, I encourage you to join our Facebook group called Get the Balance Right. Also, be sure to check out the show notes for upcoming free meet-ups and workshops hosted by me. I'd love to hang out with you and learn about your business. Please don't do entrepreneurship on your own. In fact, let's hang out - find me on Instagram and send me a DM.

OK – let's get on with the interview. Here is my discussion about podcast production with Lauren Wrighton from The Podcast Manager Show.

 The Interview:

Heather Zeitzwolfe: "Lauren Wrighton, welcome to Get the Balance Right podcast!”

Lauren Wrighton: “Thank you so much for having me." 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I met you at She Podcasts. You were having a meet-up for podcast production. I didn't know you were even the person that was hosting that meetup until we started talking. And it turns out you know people that I know that manage podcasts.

So small world, I guess it's podcasting. Tell us about this company that you have helping to train people produce podcasts. What is this about? Tell us.”

Lauren Wrighton: “I found a podcast management when it really wasn't a thing yet. My story, like many, it's a windy path. But I started a podcast with a friend back in 2016. And I taught myself how to edit, it was this hobby podcast. 

She has now taken it under her own wing. I stopped being co-host many years ago, but that's when I first got into podcasting and I loved the production side to it. And I was like, you know what? I don't really want to be behind the mic anymore. I just want to learn all of this behind the scenes stuff. 

I knew that podcast editing must be a thing, must be a career.

So I got on Upwork and found a client. I didn't know what I was doing at all. I mean, I barely knew how to edit probably. But I definitely didn't know any sort of thing about client management or pricing my services and, oh gosh, I was such a newbie. But that's how we get started, right? I ended up quitting because I didn't think it was gonna work out, found the virtual assistant world and realized, oh, they know what to do.

I took a virtual assistant course. It took all of that stuff that I learned, paired it with my podcast editing skills - this was in early 2018. So then podcasting was kind of ramping up, just been at an incline for the past, I don't know, five years. It was kind of the perfect moment that I thought, oh wow, I can really offer kind of like the VA services, plus podcast editing to help someone manage and run their show.

So I started that towards the end of 2018 and my virtual assistant friends were like: “Hey, how do you know how to do this? Like what is this world?”. Cause it really wasn't, like I said, it wasn't quite a thing. People were doing it. I wasn't the first person to do it, but it just wasn't really a known service in the online service provider space.

So that's how my course got started - was just helping my virtual assistant friends learn some of these skills. And it's just kind of grown ever since then, which I started the course in early 2019.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Oh okay, so right when the pandemic was like, probably - that’s when it seems like a lot of people got into podcasting, they probably had a lot of time on their hands and thought: “Hmm, maybe I might try to dabble in podcast production even”.

I want to ask you about you have in your background, I looked you up on LinkedIn. You have a science background and you have been trained as a fitness trainer. Doesn't seem like the path to podcasting, so that's interesting. So the people that you're training now to be podcasts managers, they don't necessarily have to come from the podcasting world even to start this, right?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Right. Yes. Yes. I'm a living breathing example. And I love hearing where my students come from. Like what their careers were, what their college background was, because it's all over the map. 

Really, I find that the people that come from maybe radio or have like an audio engineering degree, they get really more in their head about offering this as a service because they see it in more of a professional light. And they just have a couple more hangups than maybe someone that's like: "hey, I'm just going to give this a whirl, I’m going to go for this”. 

But yeah, my degree is in biology. I didn't end up wanting to use my degree. I just right out of college got a position in fitness, essentially, corporate fitness. Then my first podcast was about fitness. So there was the tie there. But since then I have exited the fitness world. It has evolved into something else and I have evolved into really just focusing on podcasting.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Nice. And the people that you've been training, is this primarily like a side-hustle that they could do or do they go into it eventually full-time? And maybe I'm making an assumption, but if you kind of got into this as a side hustle, it could be regular work that you could count on because if a podcast has a regular cadence, you can count on that money. Is that kind of the case?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Right, yeah. And I actually love that about podcast management because there's other services you can offer like web design or what have you, where it's one-off projects. And so you're always looking for a new client. 

They all have their positives and their negatives. But with podcast management, like you said, people that start a podcast, they're in it for, I don't know, a year or more. That's just the mindset around podcasting it’s like: “I’m not just trying this out in January, I'm not just like trying this out for a month”.

So they're already committed to a longer timeframe, especially if they're hiring someone to help them. Not that anything's a guarantee, but it just definitely leans towards more of a longer relationship with a client. Which is a lot easier on freelancers that don't have a ton of turnover. The tasks remain the same, because when it comes down it podcast production it can become a really oiled machine. But there's a lot going on, especially for one person to do all of it.

The podcaster, if they're really good behind the mic, then it could be likely that they don't love doing all the behind the scenes stuff. Although it, like I said, it remains the same and it's pretty easy to manage when you enjoy doing it.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “A lot of podcasters are DIYers, so they get into it, they get the equipment, they’re the ones editing probably in the beginning. I mean, unless they’re with some big fancy company or something. But they're in there and they're doing all the things. And at some point they probably realize, like myself, like: “hey this has taken up a lot of my time, I should farm out some of this stuff”.

So when a podcaster gets to that point where they're like, okay. Especially if they have a business behind their podcast so they have actually some revenue that they can throw at this. What is it that a podcast manager can do? Can you farm out like different tasks? Like, do you have a separate editor? Do you have someone writing show notes or do some of these producers do all of these things?” 

Lauren Wrighton: “We can talk about like the difference between like a podcast producer, a podcast manager, a podcast editor. There's a lot of terms that, of course there's overlap and stuff. 

So a podcast manager really comes in with that management perspective of: “I want to be able to handle, quote/unquote, everything for you so that you don't have to have a separate person doing many things”. 

Because if you have an editor, someone doing your social media and even like a virtual assistant, helping you just having all those hands in the pot can add a level of complexity to the weekly process of releasing an episode. So a podcast manager in the beginning of their career, as a podcast manager, they're likely doing everything. There's some podcast managers that are like, I'm not editing period, end of story. But I still want to do this. So they have an editor on their team.

In the beginning, it's likely that they are editing, they’re writing show notes, they’re uploading, scheduling, updating social media graphics, doing that Jill-of-All-Trades type of approach. 

And then as they kind of grow their business, then they could bring on people to help them. They find out what they're really good at.They can bring on people to help them as an editor and stuff. But the general approach as a podcast manager is: you only have to hire me to get the job done.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Oh, I like this idea because right now I'm still managing it. I have an editor, who I love, but I'm still primarily the manager because then I have my VA working on the show notes and the social media.

So this manager would be almost like a project manager over the whole thing? Oh, okay. I like this idea. Okay. So then, so there's the manager, then the producers - the producers the one doing the editing and stuff? Explain that one."

Lauren Wrighton: “Yeah. So there's a lot of similarities between podcast producer and podcast manager. In the podcasting world people are like, I don't know the difference. And so we just kind of made it up along the way. 

But a podcast producer, in my opinion, has more of a creative role, a creative direction. So maybe they're giving you tips before you record, they're saying: “hey, let's take this direction with this episode”. They're working with you.

You're the quote/unquote talent as the host, and they're helping you to kind of see the general creative vision of the show. And then they could also be doing the editing and all of that stuff. They have more of a hand in the production of it. That's how I see it. So there's a lot of podcast managers that are like: “I like that term better, I want to go with producer” and they call themselves a producer. And I'm fine with that. But podcast editor is obviously someone who does the editing and that's it usually.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Okay. And then you might even have a copywriter that's writing the show notes, possibly under the manager. Okay. All right. And a producer, do they sometimes, will they actually like contact the guests and do anything like that? Is that also kind of included in that description?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Yeah. Even the manager, one of the services that a podcast manager will provide is guest management. So they'll pitch guests for you, they’ll contact them, they'll schedule them, they'll get their bio and their headshot and all that stuff. So that's definitely considered a podcast management service.

Maybe the podcast producer would go a step further and write out interview questions. Like: “oh, I've really researched this guest, this is a really cool direction we can go with the interview”. 

It just kind of comes down to the host. Like, do they have a lot of that creative vision or do they like that input? Because if they appreciate that input and they kind of just want to show up, then it can be a good pairing for someone who brings that scale as the producer to the table.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “ Nice, this is really great. So it's almost like you could get a package deal from somebody that depending on what their offers are. 

So when you train people, what are the different areas that you're training them in that we would identify when we go out to find a producer or a manager? I mean, are you thinking about like doing the snippets and like all the parts? What are the different intricacies that you teach?” 

Lauren Wrighton: “We teach editing, uploading, scheduling (which is pretty straight forward), writing show descriptions, writing show notes. When I say show notes I mean like a blog post that has all the links of the show, we teach social media graphics, creating audio grams, helping your client develop different social media graphics.

And then we also teach how to launch, which is obviously a huge service in itself. And then growth, some growth strategies, cause that's one of the things that I think really plays a big role in an editor and with a manager. Because an editor might just be someone who doesn't know that management exists.

Cause that's who I was. So you have an editor, maybe they're interested in doing other tasks for you. But some editors are like: “I don't want to have the responsibility of growth”. Cause that's a thing. So podcast managers are like: “I have my hands into different pieces, so I can really help you grow the show”.

I didn't mention the guests management. So the guests management and the front end may be sending assets the day the episode goes live. A manager likely helps with that.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “So for people that are podcasting, they're doing the DIY thing and they're kind of on a limited budget, they're trying to monetize their podcast or maybe they have a business already and the podcast is just to market the business, what is kind of the ballpark cost associated with trying to bring on somebody new? I mean, I guess it would depend on the length of your podcast and how many tasks that you'd want, But what's kind of the range that you can imagine somebody that's doing these tasks? What can you expect?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Some would say a minimum is like $500. And that would be for editing and probably show notes and someone that's kind of newer. That would be kind of a minimum. And then with management, it can go up to definitely $1,000/$1,500/$2000, depending on what's kind of included. So it kind of can just go up to whatever number, all the stuff that you want done.

I get that. Making that investment in someone to help you can be intimidating. And a lot of people think that the first hire has to be the editor. It doesn't necessarily need to be an editor because a lot of people have, or some DIYers, have a really hard time letting go of the editing. They want all the creative control, which I totally get.

And it took me a while to release that as well. Cause I love the editing piece of it. So I would say if you are looking to outsource something, outsource the thing that is so energy draining for you, that you clearly are like: “this is not a talent of mine” - outsource that. And maybe something else to get started and then the more you get help, you're like: “okay, I can do this”.

It's great to have someone else's input when you can start to give more stuff over.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And when you were mentioning $500/$1000, is that per show or is that per month?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Per month, yeah.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah that’s more doable.” 

Lauren Wrighton: “Right, right. Per month, four episodes a month. So if you have. Even if you had less episodes being released a month, then the price would go down.

So, so yeah. And just dependent on, on, like you said, how long the episodes are and some other variables. But yeah, that definitely gives you an idea.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And this VA training that you were talking about - I’ve never even heard of this before. So if someone was interested in doing podcast management, it sounds like you've adapted your training so that you have that piece, that VA piece in the training.

How long does it take someone to go through your training?” 

Lauren Wrighton: “So my training's about 12 hours of content. You can get through it in like a weekend if you wanted to like binge listen to just get all the information. But there's three steps and the first step is all about the skills. You’re going through learning those skills, which takes the, obviously takes practice. In the second part, you're starting to get experienced because that's one of the biggest things that holds people back is: “I learned these skills, but I don't have a lot of experience”.

And so we have a process where our students will send us an example of their editing, an example of their writing, an example of their social media graphics. So we can give them feedback and we can give them kind of that confidence boost that a lot of them are looking for like: “hey, I need my stamp of approval. Maybe I'm coming from corporate or, you know, I've just never done this before. Like someone needs to tell me that I'm doing okay”.

So we give feedback on those things. And then the third section is about landing clients, getting yourself out there, marketing yourself, creating a proposal, all those good things.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And in the beginning, do people kind of have to like, uh, volunteer their time towards a podcast and just to get some clients under their belt? And then after that, how did they find clients? Is it just from networking or is it going to Podfest or like, how do you, how do you find clients like this?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Earlier you asked, I don't think I even responded to this, on like, are a lot of people doing this as a side hustle? 

Yes. A lot of people are doing this as a side hustle and a majority of the people that I attract and that are in my group want to do this part-time because they're either moms, that’s my background, or they want to travel.

They don't want to do this 40 hours a week. So when I talk to them, a lot of them are doing this 20, 30 hours a week, so they could scale it to 40 or more. It's not really attracted to them as a lifestyle. There were some good, there was some good representation of podcast service providers at She Podcasts.

But a lot of them aren't doing a lot of live events for networking, Because like I said, they're kind of doing this part-time, they're trying to ramp this up. Maybe they’re managing a full-time job still. So a lot of networking and client finding is happening on social media, of course, and networking with other service providers because we're also in this virtual assistant world. And social media is huge.

Even tastefully cold pitching people that, influencers, or what have you. They're like this person needs a show that has been effective when done correctly, of course. Then referrals. You have to like, you have to get a client to get a referral, but referrals are huge in this space.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And is there any type of personality that is more drawn to this?

I mean, again, it's kind of behind the mic, so I mean, it could be an introvert. But I mean, I'm an extrovert and I love editing and doing all that kind of stuff. So is there any skills that you need or personality type for starting this?” 

Lauren Wrighton: “Yeah, I do think a lot of introverts are attracted to this. People that love podcasts immediately are attracted to this, right? They're like: “oh wait, this is a job?” 

So I think you do really have to enjoy podcasts. I actually had someone that said like: “I've never listened to a podcast, like should I look into your course?” And I’m like: “listen to a podcast first, decide if you like it, because this is kind of a cornerstone to this". I actually have kind of have surveyed a lot of people on, do you need to be detail oriented to excel at this role?

Because I, myself am very much of a big picture thinker, futuristic. I don't like spending a lot of time on stuff. I'm not that detail oriented and I love editing. And that's very kind of counter counterintuitive. So I've talked to a lot of people about this, and I think it's because editing is so creative. And I really love music and conversation and learning. So I think that even if you don't find yourself to be very detail oriented or like, you'd like to like edit things by nature, you may enjoy doing this because there's just a very creative piece to it. And you get to listen to new episodes every single week. So there's an element of it that is the same every single week and there's an element that changes. So I think that's kind of a cool piece of it. That you can get good at it cause it's the same, but you're always kind of learning something new.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah and it seems like if you're doing the same, then you can actually train others to do that and have them work under you. And you could really scale this business if you're doing this kind of model. Very cool.

One of the things that people struggle with is obviously trying to get people to listen to their podcast, finding their audience, growing their show. What is one little nugget that you can give us about strategizing a podcast? And it could be in any area.”

Lauren Wrighton: “My go-to always for this is get your audience to talk back to you. So no matter how big your audience is, let's say that you have 10 downloads an episode. You're probably feeling crappy about that because that's the sad part of podcasting. If we don't have 10,000 listeners an episode, we’re like: “oh my gosh, my podcast isn't even good”.

Yes. It can very well be good. And you might not be getting a lot of downloads. So even if you have 10 downloads in the episode, are those people talking to you? And if they aren't talking to you yet, how can you get them to talk to you? Because when it comes down to it, if you can get feedback from them, you can move the show in the direction that's going to be appealing to them and still be true to your message and stuff. 

But if no-one's talking to you, even if your numbers are increasing, you're just kind of talking into the space in front of you. And so I think doing any sort of strategy you can think of, whether it's send me a DM on what you thought about the show, write a review for the show. Just any way that you can get them to talk to you. A giveaway, if you can bribe them to talk to you. Just any way that you can get them to give you feedback, because then you can, you can get that feedback. You grow the show in that direction, and you can learn more about your listener. That is so key.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Okay, so it’s almost like market research. So you're taking these people that is your small group. They're kind of like your focus group. And then you're asking them maybe what they like about the show or what they don't like, but you have to actually engage with them first to even get that response from them.Ok. That's very great advice. Awesome. 

So I do want to talk about the fact that you have a podcast. So you said that you are now behind the mic, I'm sorry, in front of the mic. You're in front of the mic and behind the mic. Wait a minute. What is this? You're both. You're like both in front and behind the mic.

So tell us about your podcast. I also want to add that your podcast is not only really great for people who want to do podcast production, but for podcasters to listen to you for great tips as well. So tell us about your podcast.”

Lauren Wrighton: “Yeah. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. So yes. Now I'm back in front of the mic, or behind the mic.

I have my own show, it’s called The Podcast Manager Show and it is so niched and I love it for that reason. So it is designed, like you said, for podcast managers for strategies for their clients, different strategies on landing clients, client expectations, all that stuff, their skills. So everything podcasting from the, from the perspective of a podcast manager.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And your show is always so fun to listen to. And like your big smile, you can hear it in your voice. It’s training, but it's really fun too, at the same time. And you've got a lot of really good information in there. How do people work with you? How, how did they find you? Where are you on the socials on all of that?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Yes. So if they're interested in becoming a podcast manager and they're like: “this is the first time I've heard of this, or maybe I'm a podcast editor and I want to know more about this”, they can go to my Masterclass, which is all about how to become a podcast manager without having an experience, working less than 20 hours a week. We cover all of that in my free Masterclass, which is at laurenwrighton.com/masterclass."

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Awesome. Okay. We'll have all of that in the show notes.

And I do want to ask you one other thing that I completely forgot to ask you earlier, and that was: what are some tools that you like? There's so much technology out there. There's different microphones, headphones, but then there's wonderful editing technology as well. What are some of your top favorites right now?”

Lauren Wrighton: “There's so many services and new things that are always coming out. I'm kind of in the camp of when I find something that works, I don't change. So I'm not like a tech lover who's always changing and trying something new. I kind of have to do that for my students, but for the most part, I'm like: “nope, I have a mic that works, I’m not going to get a new mic”.

I don't get distracted with like the new shiny objects. So for editing, I use Audacity still, which is a free service, if anyone hasn't heard of that, it's at audacityteam.org. So I still use Audacity to edit and produce anything that I'm producing nowadays. 

I love Trello for project management. So anyone that has like a bunch of post-it notes for their show, if you need a place to put your thoughts, I love Trello. And probably my other service I would have to mention will be Canva, which I think most people have heard about. Maybe not though. And that's where you can create graphics, especially if you aren't a graphic designer.

I would definitely check out Canva.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Awesome. Okay. So those are great three great tools that you can use. 

Well, thank you so much, Lauren. This has been so great. Hope you've inspired some people to try out podcast production, podcast management as either a side-hustle or a full-time gig, because I think it's needed. Podcasting is really growing. Do you have any idea how many podcasts are out there now?”

Lauren Wrighton: “Oh my gosh, I've heard crazy numbers. And then you hear like, oh, but half of them aren't active. And one thing I'm looking forward to in the coming years is better podcasting statistics. That's what I want to know. That's what I want.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: "Yeah, that would be awesome. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Lauren. Thank you for being on the podcast today!”

Lauren Wrighton: “Thank you!”