Hey everybody, this is an episode from my other
podcast, Streamlined Solopreneur. It's quickly
approaching 500 episodes. It is more broad than
this show, but a similar mission. Help solopreneurs
simplify tech so that they can show up as better
human beings in their business and for their
family and in their lives. And so I wanted to
publish this episode. on the feed because I talk
about, among other things, Taylor Swift and what
her appearance on New Heights means for podcasters.
Spoiler alert, nothing. But there's a lot of
good stuff in here for podcasters as well. So
I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you do
like it, subscribe to Streamlined Solopreneur
wherever you are listening to this. I have a
confession to make. I'm getting a little tired
of the conversations around Taylor Swift. Particularly
around Taylor Swift going on the New Heights
podcast. And not because it's bad content. It's
very good content. And it's brilliant for both
Taylor Swift and the New Heights podcast. But
there has been over the last couple of weeks
as I record this. Far too big a focus on what
it means for podcasters, content creators, business
owners, marketers, and what we can learn. What
did they do that we can take and then do for
us? It's kind of like saying Gordon Ramsay just
made the best beef wellington he's ever made.
What does that mean for cooking at home? It means
literally nothing. Ramsay is a skilled chef and
perhaps the most recognizable one in the world.
The same thing goes for Taylor Swift and the
New Heights podcast. They are all huge names
in their own right. Jason Kelsey and Travis Kelsey
have both won Super Bowls. And Taylor Swift is
the biggest pop star in the world. The views,
streams, downloads. buzz that they generate can't
be a lesson for us to extract and apply to our
lives and our situation because it's so vastly
different from our lives and our situation Taylor
Swift did a single podcast interview and that
podcast is co -hosted by her boyfriend so like
is the lesson here be Taylor Swift's boyfriend?
The wider world is talking about this particular
episode of New Heights because Taylor Swift announced
a new album. She could have announced a new album
using a CB radio, for those of us who remember
CB radios, and people would still be talking
about it, and it would mean nothing for the trucking
industry. No, the things that help podcasters,
content creators, small business owners, the
things that helped us before Taylor Swift's appearance
on New Heights are the same things that will
help us after Taylor Swift's appearance on New
Heights. We need to know our audience, which
Taylor Swift and the Kelseys know very well.
We need to create great content for them. Again,
Check and check on that episode. We need to tell
people about it. And we need to experiment. I
suspect many of us already know that this is
the answer, but in our constant pursuit to find
shortcuts and apply something that makes sense
to us, to our business, without having to take
too much risk, I think we were hoping for a...
Just an amazing strategy that definitely works.
This is why Alex Hormozy makes so much money,
right? He is promising that you are going to
make nine figures. Except what no one, very few
people talk about is how aggressive and disrespectful
he is in trying to make those sales. They want...
The real problem isn't that we don't know what
makes good content. It's that we don't have the
time to spend on what it takes to create it.
So what do we do? We fill in the gaps. Gaps is
my framework for building more space in your
business. It stands for gear. automations, playbooks
and support. You need to make your life as easy
as possible when it comes to creating content
or just running your business in general. That
means you don't want to spend your time fighting
gear or setups, doing everything manually, reinventing
the wheel or doing everything yourself. By filling
in the gaps, you can focus on what really matters.
defining your audience as clearly as possible
making sure your content serves them as best
as possible building space into your schedule
to not just create the content but promote it
or not just create the product but market it
and then Once you're doing those things, you
can experiment because you're actually putting
content or products or things or services in
front of people and you're getting feedback.
And so that allows you to try things. So what
is filling in the gaps look like? Well, you get
a good mic and an easy to use camera so you don't
have to worry about quality. One of the reasons
that I have the setup that I have is because
I don't want to have to stop recording when my
kids are playing upstairs or when my dog is barking.
So I got the gear that means I won't have to
stop and start and extra edits and. reshoot things.
It means that you use tools like Ecamm Live and
Tella to make creating and editing videos easier.
I'm recording this with the Ecamm Live virtual
camera so I can easily switch scenes and add
overlays and then I'm recording it in Riverside
and they do editing by transcript. You set up
simple automations in Zapier and Notion to manage
communications and move files for you so you
don't need to remember to do that. You create
standard operating procedures so they act as
step -by -step instructions that can be clearly
followed either by you or by someone else. And
you hire a virtual assistant, an editor, or anyone
else who can do a job better than you. so that
you can focus on what matters most. And this
will definitely take some investment, both time
and money. But the ROI is invaluable. I've been
able to save 10 to 12 hours per week by implementing
my GAPS framework. And this summer, this summer
has been hectic. We are at the tail end of my
parents visiting for two weeks. My wife is going
back to school. The kids didn't have summer camp
and we vacationed a lot. And my business, while
I had long days, I've been able to take that
time off more or less worry -free. That's what
filling in the gaps does for your business. Or
maybe to think about it a different way, you're
creating gaps. in your life so that you have
more space in your life. And I do want to share
one more example here with a woman named Margaret.
She wants to start a podcast for her school district.
Her official title is Work -Based Learning Coordinator.
And she's teaching high school kids really valuable
stuff. But she booked a coaching call with me.
for how to launch her podcast. And this is, you
know, she doesn't have a huge budget. She is
time starved because she is doing a bunch of
other things. And she thinks the podcast can
save her time while still creating great content
for her students and their parents. So here's
how we applied the GAPS framework to make this
happen for her. First of all, gear. We start
with a sub $100 microphone. Like the Samsung
Q2U. It's beginner friendly. It's portable. It
plugs right into a laptop. So she doesn't have
to break the bank on gear. Automations. We talked
about the tools that she can use so that she's
not trying to do too much or move things too
many places. And we settled on Riverside for
remote interviews. But also Riverside has editing
right in the platform. So she can also, like
I'm doing right now, record solo episodes. in
riverside and then edit them and publish them
and for publishing i recommended rss .com and
full disclosure here i am an rss .com evangelist
and uh i you know i create content for them and
i'm on their payroll but they also have an educator's
discount and they have everything that she needs
to make sure her podcast gets everywhere it needs
to be. Wherever students prefer to listen, wherever
parents prefer to listen, and there are a whole
bunch of other tools built into the platform
like automatic transcription associated or our
PodViz technology that will send a more engaging
video to YouTube because she doesn't want to
do video at first. So that's Gear and Automation's
playbooks. We walked through her basic workflow
right on the call. A clear path from record to
publish so that she doesn't have to figure it
all out on her own. And then I gave her the documentation
and the recording so that she has it for her.
And support. In this case, Margaret might not
be able to just hire on her own, but she has
access to students to whom she can give these
work -based learning experiences. And so we talked
about how she might be able to delegate editing,
graphics creation, even bring students on as
co -hosts. So that she has the support that she
needs to make this happen. And now she's launching.
She's getting things ready. And she's confident
that she's going to be able to do this without
dramatically adding more work to her plate. Ideally,
this is actually going to take stuff off of her
plate. So that's it. That's the GAPS framework.
It's gear, automation, playbooks, and support.
If you want to learn how you can fill in the
gaps of your business, let me know. You can go
to streamlined .fm slash overwhelm. There you'll
take a simple six question quiz and then you'll
get a personalized plan based on your answers.
Thanks so much for listening to this episode
of the Streamlined Solopreneur. I hope you enjoyed
it. And until next time, I hope you find some
space. in your week.