69. How to Automate 80% of Your Podcast Without Losing Your Magic

Feeling like podcasting is starting to take more than it gives? You’re not alone and you don’t have to stay in hustle mode.

This episode is your permission slip to make your podcast easier, lighter, and more sustainable with smart systems and automation that don’t strip away your magic. I’m breaking down what parts of your podcasting workflow should be automated, what should always stay sacred, and the mindset shift that helped me fall in love with podcasting again.

In this episode, we're covering:

• The plan-produce-promote framework that keeps your show running on autopilot
• What actually makes sense to automate (and what should always stay human)
• How AI can help you repurpose content, write show notes, and batch episodes
• Why your voice and stories are non-negotiable, and how to protect your magic
• The lie we're told about effort = worth
• The truth about how automation makes your podcast more powerful, not less personal

🎁 Get My Free AI Prompts for Easier Podcasting
Inside, you’ll get plug-and-play AI prompts for:

•  Generating episode ideas in seconds
• Writing SEO-friendly show notes
• Creating scroll-stopping social media promos
• Monetizing your podcast effortlessly
• Streamlining your entire podcasting process

DM me on Instagram or Threads: @SONIVIAStudios
Email me: rue@sonivia.com

Podcasting shouldn’t be exhausting.
Let automation carry the grunt work so you can focus on the magic only you can make.

Music Credit: Up An Octave Theme by Rue Spence with additional vocals provided by Darnell Spence

Up An Octave is hosted by Rue Spence of Sonivia. Up An Octave is a podcast for women and nonbinary people who are ready to take up space in podcasting to share their voices with the world.

Transcript

  You are listening to Podcasting Up in Octave, a podcast by sovia, the podcasting agency that believes that women and queer people deserve to take up space in the podcasting industry because our thoughts, voices, and stories matter. Here, you'll learn how to make a dope podcast that inspires, educates, converts, and most importantly, makes your voice shine.

I'm your host, Ru Spence, and I'm here to take podcasting up an octave. Let's get into it. 

Hello. Hello, and welcome back to Podcasting Up an octave. Today's episode is for my fellow creatives and overcommitted perfectionists. Trust me, you are in good company. If podcasting feels like it is starting to take more than it's giving, we're about to change that. I know I can't say taking and giving without singing chaperone.

So sorry for the earworm if that's you too. Today we are talking about how to automate up to 80% of your podcast workflow. Without making it sound like you've outsourced your entire personality, this is about implementing systems that support you without stripping away your magic. By the end of this episode, you're gonna know what parts of podcasting are meant to be automated, where the soul of your show should always stay human.

And the one mindset shift that changed my podcasting life, if you haven't already, grab your notebook or pop open your notes app and let's make your podcast feel easier, lighter, and way more sustainable. So we're gonna be breaking this down using my favorite framework, plan, produce, promote. If you've been hanging out with me, this is nothing new for you.

So planning is where automation starts. Plan out your 12 weeks of content. Keep an idea bank going so that you're never starting from scratch. Reuse your favorite outline templates over and over again. Use chat, GPT or another AI tool to help you flesh out ideas when you're too bogged down to see the forest through the trees.

This is great for doing market research and other aspects of the planning process. It's also gonna help you get more clear on what your audience is actually looking for as opposed to just what you think is helpful. Which is gonna mean more audience engagement, more sales, more connection, and better results.

Planning is not where your creativity goes to die. It is where your time gets protected. By spending time, really in your planning phase, you're gonna make sure that the content that you are creating is aligned. So the time that you're spending on tasks that are not automated actually serve you. Next is the production phase.

And no, you are not gonna automate your voice, you're not outsourcing your stories, but you can automate the systems around production. Recording is still the place where you show up, sit down, and let the magic flow through you, but you can create automated systems that get you right into the flow instead of struggle busing.

Use a templated folder structure so that everything has a place. Staying organized is gonna save you so much time. Build checklists for your recording and editing process so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. And if you work with an editor or a podcast professional, send them your batched content all at once to make their life easier too.

This is gonna get you better episodes back, and it's gonna make sure that everyone feels aligned as we work to get your podcast out into the world. Finally in the promotion phase, this is where automation really pays off. Generate your show notes with transcripts and polish them up by pushing them off through chat GPT or your other AI assistant.

Use Canva templates for your social media assets. Schedule posts ahead of time with a tool like later, and schedule your podcast episodes ahead of time in your host. Use chat GT to brainstorm promo captions that sound like you. The goal here is to touch every task. Fewer times. Automating your podcast does not mean that it becomes hands off.

It means that you get to be hands free, but there are things that shouldn't be automated. So let's talk about what needs to stay sacred. Your voice. I don't recommend AI hosts or voice clones or anything that takes you out of the equation. Your audience is here for you. These tools can be great if a word cut out or a motorcycle went through and you need to replace a word, but I just, I don't love the idea of listening to a robot when it is supposed to be you.

Your voice is your magic, your stories. AI can write captions like a boss, but it can't get specific about what you have to share about your lived experience and the things that make you stand out in your niche. That's something that only you can do. Don't outsource your magic. And finally, don't outsource your relationships.

Automation is great for scheduling your content, but you should be the one engaging and building community. Now, I love me a MiniChat moment where you know you're just sending out a link, but when you're actually trying to build a relationship, that should come from you. You're not here to build a podcasting machine.

You're here to build an engine for connection. That requires you to show up with your full humanity and by offloading and automating the tasks that you can, you're gonna have the bandwidth to do that. So the mind shift that changed everything for me and how I show up to my podcast. The thing is that a lot of creatives, especially women, especially queer folks, especially people from marginalized communities, have been conditioned to believe that effort equals worth.

If it doesn't feel hard, it doesn't count. I'm here to tell you that that is a lie. That is a lie in all things. If something hurts, that is a signal that something is wrong, it shouldn't ever feel like something that's injuring your body, your nervous system, your heart, your spirit. None of that should feel pain, even if you are working hard.

Ease is not cheating and systems are not laziness. Automating the stuff that does not light you up gives you more space to be brilliant. You are still the heart, the strategist. You don't have to be the editor, the copywriter, the scheduler, the social media intern, the tech support. You get to have AI and self engineered systems that you put in place to do the parts that feel like pulling teeth so that you get to focus on creating the content.

That changes people's lives. When you stop seeing yourself as this one person do it all.  Mastermind and start seeing yourself as someone who chooses to pick up the tasks that feel aligned and set down the ones that don't. You're gonna be able to show up so much more authentically and give so much more of yourself to what really does matter.

And so now you're like, okay, but ru, how do I actually start? Here's a super simple starter kit to automate like a pro. Start with that 12 week content calendar. It's available in my show notes. This is gonna allow you. To map out your entire next season, and I say season in air quotes that you can't see because not everyone works in seasons.

But if you can start thinking of chunks, let's use that word instead of season, if you can start planning in chunks, that's gonna liberate you to not have to feel like you're just in the Sisyphean every single week doing the same things over and over again. If you can start to think in chunks, you are going to be so much more equipped to not feel like you're chasing after your podcast.

I. Grab my five prompts for AI freebie. If you are not super confident in using ai, these prompts are gonna help you start automating like nobody's business. Build a reusable episode outline so that you have no more staring at a blank screen. You have your structure ready every time to plug and play the different content that you wanna create.

Use chat, GBT to draft your show notes, record, transcribe, then paste that transcription in and polish it. Boom, you're done. Create Canva templates for your promo. You don't have to reinvent the visual wheel every single week. There are some things that you're gonna be doing differently, but having a few templates that are just ready for you to plug and play means that you get to actually make content that feels fun.

Schedule everything in batches, podcast episodes, social media, posts, emails, whatever you're creating, pre-schedule it and get it off your plate. Even if you're doing work on your show each week, it shouldn't feel like your podcast deadlines are breathing down your neck. You don't have to overhaul your show in one day.

Pick just one thing this week and automate it. I promise. Future you will be sending you love notes. So remember, your work is sacred. Your voice, your stories, your message, they matter. You shouldn't have to break yourself to keep your show alive. You deserve systems that hold you, automation that supports you, and a podcasting process that actually feels good.

And hey, if this episode hit home, send me a DM over at So Navia Studios on Instagram and let me know what you're automating first. I wanna be in your corner cheering you on. Thank you for being here, and thank you for helping me take podcasting up and octave.