Hiring a virtual assistant to help with your podcast production can simplify your podcasting experience and make it more fun! Many podcasters "podfade" because they're overwhelmed by the production that goes into releasing podcast episodes. A virtual assistant (VA) will help you schedule, edit, post, and even engage with your podcast's audience on social media. A VA can finally make podcasting less exhausting for you so you can focus more on what matters most, the quality of the content. Join this session as Mark Savant breaks down the production roles and how to hire, train, and delegate your podcasting work to a virtual assistant.
More: https://PodPros.com/168
Hiring a virtual assistant to help with your podcast production can simplify your podcasting experience and make it more fun! Many podcasters "podfade" because they're overwhelmed by the production that goes into releasing podcast episodes. A virtual assistant (VA) will help you schedule, edit, post, and even engage with your podcast's audience on social media. A VA can finally make podcasting less exhausting for you so you can focus more on what matters most, the quality of the content. Join this session as Mark Savant breaks down the production roles and how to hire, train, and delegate your podcasting work to a virtual assistant.
More: https://PodPros.com/168
What is up? Mark Savant here. Today we're talking about how you can outsource your podcast with virtual assistance. Let me ask you a question, this sounds familiar. It's late night, your podcast is going to go live tomorrow. You're doing the editing, it's a dark dank room, you're writing out all of your copy, you're editing out all the mistakes. You're pulling out your hair because it's 10 o'clock at night and you just aren't ready. You've got your newsletter, you got promotion, you got all the social media assets. Have you been there? I've been there, not a fun place to be. If that sounds familiar, then this talk is a hundred percent for you. Listen, I was there in the weeds and just completely overwhelmed with podcast production. And then something really changed my life. I read the four-hour workweek and I started hiring new team members. And listen, it's been a choppy road. I've made every mistake in the book. So I'm going to kind of walk you through how I onboard new team members to my podcast production agency, Mark Savant Media. And if you follow these steps, I know you are going to find the rockstar virtual assistant to completely transform your world. You're gonna have a higher quality show. You're going to have more time, freedom. You're gonna have more energy to really focus on what's important, engaging with your audience. So anyway, I'm going off on a huge tangent here. Let's get right in to how you can actually start the hiring of your new virtual assistant. So step one, of hiring your rockstar virtual assistant is getting clarity on what you actually need. There's a lot of steps in producing a podcast. We need to kind of get clear on what we actually need. So there's a couple of things that you want to do in order to start this process. The first of which is you got to get clear on what you don't actually enjoy doing. What are the steps in your podcast that you hate? I know for me that I'm a pretty good editor. I'm pretty good at video editing and audio editing, but it's not my passion, I don't love it, right? So what are the parts that you either don't love or you're not very good at. Something that you could either outsource to someone that's actually really good or maybe better than you at this particular skill, that's who you want to find. So in order to get clarity on this, we got to put pen on paper. You know what I mean? So take a few minutes and write down an outline of all the steps that go into your podcast production. I mean, I have a really comprehensive list of every step broken down, broken down, broken down, and I update it about semi-annually or so. You don't need to go that in depth, but you definitely want to get clear on all the steps, right? Strategy, guest outreach, calendar management, you know, editing, copywriting, promotion, social media, right? Like there's a lot of different steps. I want you to go ahead, take 30 minutes, just write down a list of all the different steps that go into your production. Now, if you're having a hard time, really figuring out where to start, what steps to outsource, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to give you a quick list of some of the things that I think are the best place to start. So, first off, I think that editing video and audio editing are probably, probably one of the best things to outsource because it's very tedious. It's very easy to outsource if you're just clear with someone, hey, this is what I want. You can kind of build to various templates and show flow. I think that hiring a video graphic editor is probably one of the best things to start out with. The next thing that I think that you should look at is calendar management, guest bookings, email management. As your show grows, you're going to start getting lots of emails, lots of questions, which is a good problem to have, but it is still a problem. It's going to be hard for you to respond to all those emails, to communicate with all the assistance from other shows and other guests and handle bookings and links and all that. I think that's a really good thing to consider outsourcing. Social media posting is, is also something that I, I wouldn't say I hate it, but it is just very time-consuming it's a day to day thing, which it can be a lot. So that's another thing to consider outsourcing. Again, one of the challenges with this is that, when it comes to social media, I think one of the most important things you can do is connect with your audience. And if you're putting someone in between you and your audience, right, someone who's actually posting writing your copy, your hashtags, all of that, it can get in the way of you actually having that connection with your audience. So, if you're hiring someone for the social media management section, just be aware that you want to try to find ways to get your voice heard, to get your voice in there. Make sure that you're not just outsourcing it and not engaging with your audience because social media is one of the best places to associate and drum up relationships with your audience, fans, potential clients. So those are, I think my top three things to outsource. And then, number four would be miscellaneous stuff like list generation, a document upload. Maybe you have a list of people you want to add your email list. You know, there's just some like tedious stuff that comes up that is maybe not super technical that you can also outsource. I would maybe consider combining these kind of miscellaneous tasks, maybe like an administrative person that is helping you with again email management, guest bookings, things like that. It's good to have some miscellaneous tasks to have them help with. So now that you've kind of written down, thought about some of the tasks you might want to outsource, it's time to clearly define in writing what it is that you want. What do you want? Right? And again, all this writing stuff is really important. Again, this doesn't need to be crazy in depth, but you need, listen, if you're hiring someone from overseas or if you're hiring someone, the the best thing that you can do as the new employer is clearly defining what the role is. Clearly define your expectations. So one of the best ways to do that is put it in writing. So go ahead and put that in writing now, before we move on to the next step of hiring your assistant, which is actually finding someone that can work out. So let's move on to that phase next. So phase one is set up a Google drive account, Dropbox account, something like that. You need to have a cloud where people can upload stuff, documents, forms, videos, edits, things like that. And you also need a place where you can upload your stuff so that your assistant can see you, right? It's one thing if you're sitting side by side in a desk space saying, 'Hey, Mary', but when you're hiring a virtual assistant, probably they're going to be tens of thousands of miles away. So having a central cloud where you can share documents is critical. So make sure you set that up first. Second, you are going to want to set up a Google form, okay? And I want to kind of break down what this Google form is for in how you want to properly set up your Google form. And by the way Google drive, Google form are, are basically free. I mean, you might pay a little for a Google drive depending on how much data you're going to be sharing, but very, very inexpensive way to move forward. And again, a Google form is completely free. You can set this up for free. So there's a few things that you should include in your Google form. Let me break them down for you real quick. First, we start off with name, phone number, address, email, kind of that boring stuff. Then I'd like to move on to this skill set because oftentimes I'm looking for different roles at different times, but just put in the skill set that you're looking for. This is helpful because in the future you might be looking for a different skill set and you want to know like what skill set you're looking for. Because again, this list that you're building is going to be valuable, not just now, but in the future as well, okay? So build up this list in this, through this Google form. And you're going to want to ask about their skillset. What is the actual role that they function and perform? Definitely want to ask for previous work, right? If they are graphic designer, what have you designed, video editor, what have you edited? That seems pretty obvious, but ask them for not a ton of links, but ask for two links to previous accounts that they've worked on or previous works that they're proud of. Again, we're trying to eliminate all the noise and all that extra stuff. So, we're just going to ask for two, two examples. Another question I like to ask is where do you see yourself in five years, okay? And I think this is really important because when you're hiring someone to be an assistant, you really want to find someone that is going to be here long-term. Some people are very entrepreneurial and they want to build their own businesses. That's not really who you want in a virtual assistant, and you really want to find a virtual assistant that is not really entrepreneurial by nature. They're they're a great worker, they're hard worker, they're good communicator, they're very motivated. They buy into what you're actually doing, I think that's actually something that's really important too. Are they actually interested in what you're doing? That it's actually very important. But if someone says something like I plan to have my own agency in three to five years, or I'm going to build my own business, I, they might be a good fit, but you just kind of want to have a call. That's a cause to pause. That's a cause to pause. So again, you don't necessarily want someone that's entrepreneurial. You want someone that's going to help support you, grow your business and buys into the vision of your business. I would also recommend that you add like a little password or passcode or code section. And this is nice too. And I'm gonna explain why, but this is important because you're trying to find people that follow directions. You're trying to find people that follow directions. And I'm gonna explain a little bit more about this password thing in a moment, okay? But for now, just include a section for your password or your passcode in your Google form questionnaire. All right let's recap where we're at. You've gained clarity of who you are looking for. You've designed a system with a Google cloud and a Google form, so you can actually start accepting applicants. How do we actually fill that funnel with applicants? So I'm going to kind of go through some of the freeways first and then talk about ways that I would probably recommend. So some of the freeways sound obvious, go to social media and just ask. Is anyone looking to be a graphic designer? Do I know any video editors that I can work with? It's completely free, probably not going to get a huge return there. You can also go to Facebook groups, which are a great way to find good people. The problem is I found that what you end up having is way too many unqualified applicants, too many people are going to see that they're going to fill out your Google form and you're just going to get inundated with junk. It's just a bunch of spam and junk mail. So Facebook groups can be good, but before you go and post your listing in a group of a hundred thousand VAs, just stop. Just pause for just a moment. I would try to find a smaller network, smaller group. Facebook groups can be good, just be aware of getting completely, completely overloaded with applicants. So these are some of the freeways that you can get your name out there. I want to talk about some of the, a little bit more sophisticated or paid options. One of the options that I love is a program called onlinejobs.ph. This is just a job listing board. I'm not gonna go into a ton of detail on it, but it's a good place where you can find good applicants. They have a rating system. It's a nice program. You also have places like Fiverr, again, just a job listing board, Upwork, go to these job listing boards and list your job. Now, this is kind of important, okay? In all of these listings, you're gonna want to include two things. A, you're want to include a link to your Google form, because again, you're looking for people that are actually serious. They're actually going to take that extra step and go off platform into Google form to apply, okay? And also you're going to give them a passcode and this passcode is really important to me because you're, again, you're looking to see find people that can follow directions that they're attentive to detail. So inside your job listing on that platform, you're just going to include something maybe subtle that says passcode carrot or whatever it is, right? And anybody that fills out your Google form, and does not include a passcode is, just delete them immediately, okay? Because they can't follow that kind of a simple direction, they're not paying that much detail, what do you think the problems you're going to have in the future going to be, okay? So I just wanna kind of repeat, this is really important. In your job listing include a passcode or a password so that when that person fills out your Google form they will include it. They don't include it just delete that listing right away or excuse me, that listing. No, just delete the applicant right away. They're not going to be a good fit. Now in your job listing, there's a couple of things that I think are important. A, you want to be super clear about what you're looking for, and I think it's also important that you give people an idea of where the compensation is going to be, right? How much are you paying? 5, 10, 15, 20 bucks an hour. What is your budget? Now, you don't want to give away everything, you don't want to tell them exactly what they're going to be getting as far as compensation, right? Because that hurts your, your leverage when it comes to negotiating the compensation. But it's good to give a general range, right? Because if someone is outside that range, then you're just again, cutting out applicants that are not going to be a good fit. So at least give a ballpark range, but don't be exact as to what you're going to be compensating. All right, so now that you've got a ton of traffic to your Google form, now it's time to go through and look at them. So the great thing about the Google form is it's going to give you a list in an Excel spreadsheet or a Google spreadsheet, okay? And in that spreadsheet, what you're going to do is you're going to start going down your list of applicants. And you're going to as quickly as possible, let's say within 30 seconds, either delete that person or highlight them from your list, okay? You're either going to delete that person or highlight them from your list and you want to go through this as quickly as possible. You're going to have a bunch of applicants. And I generally will highlight potential applicants with either a yellow or a green, green meaning looks really good in yellow. Meaning like I'm seeing some good stuff here, I need to look at it more tightly, okay? And then obviously at the end, you're going to reach out to the greens first, and then if none of those work out or you want to try some others, you can go to the yellows. So what is it that I look for that puts them into the deleted, yellow or green category? Let me give you a few things that I'm looking for. We talked about this a little bit before. Are they entrepreneurial? If they're entrepreneurial, I'm going to probably delete them or give them a red or different color code. If I like them and I follow them back to their job listing site, what kind of reviews do they have? Do they have five stars? They have a 75 rating. What kind of rating they have on that job listing site? Is their writing legible? You know, if I can't understand the writing, not going to work. Do you like their work? Do they have good references? Do they actually fit within your budget? Is that going to work out? The other thing that I really look for in a potential applicant is not only do they fill out the form, but they also reach out to me on social media, connect with me on LinkedIn. They say, "Hey I'd love to be part of it". Maybe they reach out to me via email. The email is not quite as exciting to me. I really like it honestly when people DM me or reach out to me on social media, LinkedIn in particular. Because if I know someone is on LinkedIn, they're kind of in this professional mindset. So that's another thing that I just kind of ding up. When I find people that connect with me on LinkedIn or on social, I find that they're willing to go that extra mile, and that's really what I'm looking for in a potential applicant. So at this point in the game, you've probably broken it down to a few different applicants. And now it's time to start reaching out and really narrow it down to your top three. So one of the things that I, again love to do is get on a short zoom call with that potential team member, that potential assistant get on a quick phone call or a zoom call. It's really important. Have them do some sample work and you should pay them for it, right? Shouldn't do it for free, but give them a small sample job to see how they do. And another thing that you might consider is a competition, you know, we could waste a lot of time finding someone, hiring them, trying them out for six weeks, deciding that's not a fit. You know what I mean? Consider a competition could consider hiring three or four different virtual assistants to perform the same task and see who does the best, see who you liked the best, right? Consider the competition. Okay, wow, you've come a long way by the way, so props to you. And again, if you are not taking loads, reach out to me, I'd be happy to help you forward. Because now we're getting to the good stuff, we're getting into the onboarding. So in the onboarding section, I just want to talk to you about how I actually bring someone on board and how I set a system in place to make sure that they're awesome. So number one, clarity is king. Whatever you ask your assistant to do, they're going to do it and probably to the letter. So make sure that you're clear and specific and concise with what you want them to do. Give them a few assignments and set up a review system. I like to meet with new team members basically once a week. Now, at this point, I've got six to seven plus team members depending on subcontractors, but we meet every week. You know, anyone on my team, we're meeting weekly to make sure that the accounts are up to date, things are moving smoothly. But make sure you have a review system in place. And you know, when you're reviewing it with your assistant, they're not going to be perfect, okay? They're going to mess up. They're going to screw stuff up. In fact, guaranteed, they're going to mess some stuff up and your first inclination is gonna be to yell at them, to fire them, to find someone, no don't do that. Take a step back, ask yourself, did I give clear instruction? Is this something they keep is this a mistake they keep repeating, or is this something that we can resolve, okay? And once you start getting more thoughtful about that, and I think that that's going to lead to a much better respect and relationship with that virtual assistant. Now let's break down some of the systems that you're really going to need. And by the way, all of these systems are basically free. They're basically free. I mean, they have upgrades and stuff like that, but all these programs I'm about to tell you are free. So right them down and let's go. Let's talk about them. So if you do decide that you want to pay hourly timestation.com gives you a completely free solution to managing their clock-in and clock-out. LastPass is a great program, super cheap, and it allows you to share your passwords with other people without sharing your password. Basically your team members will be able to gain access to certain systems, without gaining access to your passwords. LastPass good one. I use Slack for communication with my team members. It's basically free to get started with upgrades. Slack is a great program for communication. We talked about the Google drive earlier. You must have a cloud if you're working with virtual assistants, and I find the Google drive is probably the cheapest solution. Calendly is a great program as well. Super cheap, if not free, depending on your subscription and Calendly is just a really good way of scheduling appointments with your new team member. You can just send them a link. They can book directly to your calendar. This, there's a lot of cool things that you can do with Calendly. The calendar is a great one to have. I like to make payments through TransferWise. There's a bunch of different payment options out there. I would avoid PayPal because they just charge way too much for your transaction. I find that TransferWise is one of the best. Another great thing is OBS, Open Broadcast Software. This is an unbelievable program it's completely free. You can do a lot of cool things with OBS, but one of the things that's really easy to do with OBS is record your screen. And being able to record your screen is really important when you're trying to communicate with your team member. I can do a quick two to three minute screen recording, upload it to my Google drive and then send my assistant there to check it out. So with these programs and these systems in place, you're going to be off to the races. And I hope you found a lot of value in this episode today. It is so transformative. And I'll tell you what, as soon as you start getting serious about outsourcing your podcast to virtual assistants, your whole life is going to change. It's like the heavens just shine down on you. So make the effort and make it happen. You will not be disappointed in the results. I'm Mark Savant, thanks for listening.