Welcome to another episode of The Uncommonly More Show today, though, not just with Stacey Harris, but in fact, also with the production manager. And legitimately a key part of my sanity in this whole thing, Cali Orr.
Cali Orr: Hi.
Stacey: Hi, I’m really excited because you guys have heard me talk about Cali. A bazillion. I don’t know, Cali, how many times I mentioned your name on the show, a hundred.
Cali: I’d say half of the last two years of have said so.
Stacey: Probably about that. So I thought it was time that we bully Cali into joining us on the show. So that we can talk a little bit about what our process looks like behind the scenes. I think that there is, and Cali, please feel free to agree or disagree. But I think sometimes the barrier to knowing when it’s the right time to do something is not fully understanding what the thing on the other side is in or looks like.
Cali: Absolutely.
Stacey: And we almost always make it bigger, messier and harder, and more expensive in our brain than the reality is, with the exception of remodeling a house. I think that one we never make as big or as expensive as it ends up being. And so that’s what we’re gonna talk about today, we’re going to sort of talk about what working with us looks like what our process looks like, behind the scenes, who’s involved, who’s on our team, who touches our client shows. And we’re going to move through that process so that you have a really clear look, at least for our agency, what the inside of that this process looks like. Because first and foremost, it may not and quite frankly, will not look exactly like this. No matter who you hire. There are lots of different options. We’ve talked about that extensively. But at least I can give you an idea of what to expect on the other side to have a conversation with us. So before we get started, Cali, I want to sort of introduce you a little bit. So take a minute, tell everybody who you are, we’ve been together two and a half years now. Crazy. Tell us about you and Uncommonly More?
Cali: Well, I’ve been thrilled to like you mentioned I’ve worked with you for two and a half years, this has been such a growing experience for me. And for both of us, I think we really have honed in on the specialty and our processes and how we’re able to show up best for clients. And it’s really evolved from we started more in the social media realm. And podcasting was always there but has really taken the forefront as we’ve listened to what everyone needed from us. And for me, it’s been great. As Stacey mentioned, I’m the production manager. So I’ve made sure the ship keeps moving forward for each of our clients. And there’s a lot of pieces that come with that and a lot of learning from my own perspective, which has been a thrill because we get to see really the take-off for our clients of how our process is helping them how we help show up that when they can’t show up themselves. Sometimes, life circumstances happen. And to get to be a part of that has been, you know, for me with an entrepreneurial mind to be able to work with other entrepreneurs work with you and build something from scratch that really works. That’s really like agile for our clients has been awesome over the last two and a half years, which is an insane amount of time.
Stacey: It is funny because it equal parts. And it’s funny because I described my marriage this way a lot as well, less now. But certainly, when we were married early in our marriage, it feels like both a lifetime and no time at all. Like I equal parts can’t remember life before Cali, which was eight years of this company. And like it was a blink. Again, I say that because I think we have grown and evolved so, so much. It’s funny, I like that you use the word take-off, because I almost think of you sometimes it’s like an air traffic controller. Because you’re not just keeping like one show on like, for a long time, it was a matter of keeping our show on the rails. But now we keep, oh, gosh, half a dozen to a dozen shows on the schedule. It was funny, I was talking to my son Colin the other day, and we were talking about release days for the shows. And I was like, “Okay, so we only have a couple more spots left and we’ll have shown for the release every day of the week.”
Cali: Right. A lot of coordination.
Stacey: I know, I do often think of you and this production manager role as very much so air traffic control and like making sure everybody is where they need to be. Not just internally also externally with the clients. Everybody’s where they need to be and sort of anticipating who’s going to run into each other before they run into each other.
Cali: That’s right. Yeah, totally. I mean, I think that’s one of the things we hear the most from clients too is they maybe have been piecing together different people, or themselves and getting all the pieces together. I mean, it is a lot of moving parts. I think a lot of people who get into podcasting don’t recognize all of the work that’s going to go on past the recording part. And so having somebody who can kind of take that off their plate, I think we hear this all the time, you took either all these people I was coordinating or all these pieces I was coordinating. And I know I can just give it to you guys. And you run with it. I think I love the air traffic controller analogy because that is kind of what it feels like we’ve got a lot of lanes and a lot of things going on. And it’s really easy for the client, and we’ve got a system now that makes it easy as well for us. So, it all works with this. It’s organized chaos.
Stacey: Well, it’s true. Because like when you’re the person sitting on the plane, you don’t have to worry about what’s happening on the air traffic controller’s desk, because you just know that there’s somebody down there directing traffic. It’s funny, you said there’s so much that goes on. Afterward, I think a really great place for us to start is let’s talk through clients talk to you and me. And really clients talk to you, I’ll be honest, I’m there for like quarterly calls. But the bulk of the day-to-day communications, which think fully for our system, there don’t tend to be a ton of necessary day-to-day communications. But shows change, or I want to move something here or there. We’ve got this happening with a client right now where we’ve got some extra bonus episodes that need to happen because there’s a launch or a special Promo Season happening for something. Those kinds of communications happen with you. But let’s talk about what happens behind the scenes. Because I think this is the part even once you start working with us, you don’t always necessarily see. Because, again, you don’t have to now manage all of these people. So Cali, why don’t you give us a rundown of kind of the people who touch shows?
Cali: Yeah, totally. Well, I mean, before we even jump into all the people on the team, there’s a kickoff call, right, we have an onboarding call. So we all get on the same page. So usually that Stacey and myself are your production manager. And this is where we sort of set the stage for everybody, because we know that everybody’s been using a different process for their production up until this point, so and may or may not have changes they want to move forward with. And so this is where we can really all get on the same page and make sure that we know how we’re moving forward, often with their team or themselves and our team internally. And those calls I find to be just really crucial. Because not only do we see, hey, what’s been working for you what’s not working for you, and offer maybe some suggestions, this is when there’s an opportunity to refresh things. We can get new graphics done, we can talk about new intros or outros, Stacey, you really helped with the strategy piece where we talk about is your content aligning with your offers or to where you’re trying to head. And we then talk about this nitty-gritty of the process flow. But I think the onboarding call is a one-time thing, but it really sets the stage for how this works.
Stacey: Well, I think the initial kickoff call is a one-time thing, but it is not terribly dissimilar to our quarterly call. Because one thing I really tried to get new clients to embrace is that we don’t have to change everything right now, the change in your production cycle might be the easiest change for you to manage right now. So, yes, the kickoff call is a lot of, hey, let’s figure out what you’re doing now and what things you were very initially want to change. A client we onboarded at the beginning of Q2 is a great example of this, where she had DIY her show for a year. And so when she came in and sat down with us when we moved into a kickoff call, there were a lot of things that she wanted to uplevel because again, she had been DIY every piece of the show for a year. And so, her cover art was a Canva template updated with our colors and her title. And first of all, I love that I think that is an incredible way to start your show, I think a big misconception is that our job is to launch podcasts. And we actually launch very, very, very few podcasts, mostly because of the kind of clients we work with. Generally speaking, they come in knowing and we talked about this last week on the show, they came in knowing their show works, they come in knowing this is something they want to do, it’s a critical part of their marketing piece. And now it’s just time to, I think the most common phrases like upgrading it up, level it, take it more seriously, or just get the hell off their plate is often a phrase, I just want to record and not do anything else is very frequently used. And so in the case of this client, we went through and we changed a lot. I don’t think we did anything with the intro outro like music, but we did cover art and social graphics, and we reviewed descriptions and things like that. Whereas we had another client who came on in the same week who changed nothing. because she’d had her graphics created. She had her music created when she launched. Again, she’s been doing her show pretty much on our own for a year and she was ready to uplevel but those weren’t the pieces that she wanted to upload right now, right now her investment was about handing overproduction. And so I go cool. next quarter when we meet, we’ll see if you want to make changes then. And that’s what we do every quarterly call. So I think you’re right, the kickoff call is special. But also not everything that needs to happen to your show has to happen the first day, which is, I think, a massive benefit of working with us.
Cali: Yeah. Oh, I totally agree. I mean, the quarterly call, I guess, you’re right, it’s like a mini another mini kickoff for each quarter of what we’re going to do. And a lot of our clients, as they get familiar with the process, I’m going to explain that they go through, they get familiar with the flow and the system. And they feel real, you see a kind of a blossoming happen because the system that we’ve created in the framework supports them. And now they can stop worrying about all the pieces and really think about their show and their, and how it relates to the rest of their strategy. That’s why I do think we see in the quarterly calls, not only to sometimes do our clients come more energized with more content ideas ready, they’re also able to see their show in a new way, because all of these other pieces have been taken off their plate, and they understand how to work with us to make their new vision come to life. So you’re right, I think the quarterly call is a great check-in point. And I think we’ve seen just tremendous growth in those because of what I’m about to describe of this process. And it’s very cool to be a part of watching our clients grow because they feel like they have space finally, that something’s off their plate, it’s that you’re supporting something that matters. And you’re also knowing you’re supporting a person who is really feeling space in their life now.
Stacey: Yeah, one thing I want to add before we jump into the system, as we talked about this quarterly call on the kickoff call, also, I think a really cool thing is it’s not just solely just the client, frequently for our clients, it’s you and I, and it’s the client, but it’s also their OBM, or their VA or their right hand or their marketing director, or whoever sort of helps them internally make their decisions steer the ship handle. In some cases, that’s like I said, an OBM and that’s somebody who handles the day-to-day. And so don’t feel like, we certainly have clients who, if they had to come to this call, as they would put it unsupervised, they would feel wildly unequipped because they don’t have a really solid grasp of like, hey, we’ve got this launch happening on these days, they’d have to check the calendar because there’s somebody else managing the day-to-day. And so if that’s the situation, we really welcome that. And in most cases, I would say probably about, I don’t know, a third to 50% of our shows, you’re most frequently talking to that right-hand person, the necessarily our client directly.
Cali: That’s right. I mean, I think one of the things that work really well about this is we have both the visionary clients who are not in the details don’t want to be in the details, and want to record when they’re inspired and send us and let us take it from there. And we do have the people who are very in the details and know exactly what graphic they want, or what they’re specific, they’ve scripted out maybe their show. And either of those clients may or may not have a team, but the sort of the framework we have fits all of that, which has been very cool because we’re able to help the clients who we feel really aligned to and it doesn’t matter what their system is for themselves to get inspired to record.
Stacey: Yeah. And they don’t have to try and create that system. I think so often. The hurdle hardest to get over is creating, and then implementing that system over and over again. Whereas now it’s plug and play, you come into a system that’s already created. And I will say that there is occasionally some customization, we have clients who, you know, and maybe we should get into the process first. But part of that kickoff call is deciding exactly who is on their team because we have some clients who have SEO-optimized blog posts written by an SEO writer on our team. And then there are some clients where it’s SEO optimized timestamps written by an SEO trained, sort of summary show notes. Writer. So it allows us to really get clear on what customization needs to happen to their specific process or system.
Cali: Yeah, totally. You’re right. I mean, they want to so want to talk to you a little bit about the process, then what happens in that kickoff call then, for most clients is that we will for all clients, and then we can set up differently internally of how it works is that every client gets a Google Drive. So we’re all working out of the same shared space. We know we’ve got it really organized. So where they know where to just drop their audio we know where to take off and run per episode to keep everything organized and on track. And they also get a Monday board, which is where we can track where each episode stands with all of the team members who all kind of describe really quickly for everyone. But that’s a place internally and for the clients too. We all are on the same page of where each episode is and its status is are we waiting on it to be recorded. Are we hung up on something is it still being transcribed everyone has a visual of what’s happening. When, at any time that they want to check, and that’s been crucial because there’s no need for all the slacks back and forth, or emails or check-ins, everybody knows where to look to either ask their questions or get their answers.
Stacey: I’d say even just time wondering because I think, I think the biggest part is, for me, at least, I hope this is true for our clients. And you and I talked about this, honestly, this is why internally we started the Monday structure was I was spending so much time going, what’s happening is this, because the task would maybe be there. But it would be in we use the asana before and this is absolutely has nothing to do with the asana. This will work in whatever system you work, I will say I give the same advice to project management software. If I do social media management software, the tool you actually will use is the one that will work. For us, we desperately had to get out of an asana, mostly because I think both of us could no longer look at it. We needed a blank slate, a fresh, a fresh place. And so being able to jump into Monday and go, “Okay, so this podcast isn’t just in production. It is with our transcriptionist.” And we all have that by such and such like I know exactly what’s happening with any one episode of any show we manage at any point in time. I don’t have to wonder the client doesn’t have to go, “I wonder if they’re working on my show?” Because you’ll see it on Monday exactly where in the process it is. And I think that’s especially important because there are so many steps between recording and releasing. So let’s go over internally, not just the process, but some of the people we have in place. Then we can sort of work through kind of how the shows move through that process.
Cali: Great. Yeah. So after we kick off a call, it’s you as our CEO, and me as the production manager, we’re kind of on a set schedule of when we’re going to get audio from a client, the client drops it in their Google Drive, and then we’re off and running and Monday. So we assign that to our audio editor. So everyone has a dedicated audio editor who will help clean up the show, remove the ms are the places where we misspoke, this person is for their show. So they really get to know the show, they’re able to edit in the style that the clients looking for. When we make tweaks, let’s say we added a new promotional that week or something, they’re really on the same page because they’re specific to your show. So it’s great to have an audio editor that is designated because they really learn and adjust with us and the client as we make changes at these quarterly calls, for example, even after it’s edited, which just takes a few days, usually, for our clients, they get a transcription of every show. And once that I think is really unique is we have an awesome transcriptionist who is a human and not just a robot. And so we have the ability to then take their show that’s been cleanly edited, and transcribe the entire thing. Obviously, this is good for accessibility on their website, a lot of our clients just want a transcript on their show notes page, they don’t want actual the other options, maybe have a timestamp show notes or blog post that’s optimized. So either way, this is useful for all of our clients. So we have a real human who transcribes their show after it’s edited. And then it does flow depending on this is where some of that customization you talked about comes in, depending on what a client’s looking for the type of show note that they want. This is where we have our SEO-trained content writers. So some of them specialize in writing timestamped, really targeted show notes, they get to the point of what’s an episode, then we have others who write full-on blog posts that are SEO-optimized, all of us have been through SEO-trainings. So we can sort of check on those things, ask each other questions, but we do have people who are this is their specialty. One of the things I think that’s really good about this breakdown is each of us is able to focus on our zone of genius and be on what we actually like to do. So, we’re dealing we’re working together as a team. And through a flow where we all get to focus specifically on something it doesn’t get sort of confused and muddled that way. And then after we’ve got show notes written by any sort of optimized, it goes to our production assistant who takes it to the full, putting it on the website, making sure it’s showing up on the hosting platforms, it’s going to release on the right date. If we have audiograms, and graphics, and socially created for clients, they just make sure all of that in one place, easy to access, and ready to go for the day of. So it really follows the flow pretty similar for every client, it could change, like you said, depending on what a client might need. And we have all of this on Monday. Each of us has. Each of these roles has essentially a column and Monday where they can keep track of where they are with each episode. So we all know when something’s coming down the pipeline for us, a transcriptionist knows when an audio editor is going to be done with their editing so they know all be on deck for the transcription soon. So not only do you know as a client, sort of where everything is in process internally, we know what’s coming our way soon, which is really great because we have clients who some of them batch their content, and they record quite a few at a time and they drop them all in Drive and we’re able to run with those on a schedule that works ahead. And some of them, they’re always ahead, but they work more one at a time. It just helps everybody get into a flow per client so that we sort of know-how to respond best for what they need. And it just I can’t stress enough how organized we are. You mentioned earlier that we had a lot of slack back and forth Hey, where’s this What’s this is this being worked on because we didn’t have this level of the nuance of tracking everything by step that was in a completion stage and person and now it just feels it feels pretty seamless. If it when we have to make entire adjustments for changes to schedules and stuff. We can all be on the same page very quickly because we’ve got a broken down by person. Everyone knows what to do. It’s just simply reassigning when they do something.
Stacey: I agree. It’s interesting because it might sound weird for us to be doing an online about this system and the organization because it’s like, oh, well, yeah, you created it. Obviously, it’s great. We didn’t always have this. We know very intimately what it is like to run shows, Well, certainly our show without this. In fact, figuring this piece out was a big part of Uncommonly More, really stepping into this is what we do really well because we built this out for ourselves and went, Oh, this is much easier. Why don’t we do this for people? A couple of things that I want to lovingly highlight there is, I think, one of the things I love most about how our team is structured is that each show has a dedicated team. So even as our client list grows, and our team grows, our team works in pods. And so the same production manager, the same editor, the same transcriptionist, the same writer, the same production assistant work on your show every single week. And so that editor gets to know your rhythm. The transcriptionist knows exactly how your transcript needs to be delivered. Because we know if it’s going to go up on the website, as the blog post content or we know if it’s going to go up as an appt, a PDF that can be downloaded. Or if it’s just internally for the client sort of records or reference, it’s specific to the show the same is true with our content writers, they get to know the voice of the client because they’re in that same show every week, our production assistants know the nuance of who needs this and who needs that and different kinds of audio brands and graphics that are created, I will say our production assistant is working off templates that our graphic designer creates, after that kickoff call, our graphic designer sits more in that project versus on an every episode basis, because we want to have a consistent sort of branded experience. So we use templates that have some variation so that we’re not creating the exact same image every week or a couple of weeks. But that piece, I think, of having a dedicated team who knows you and your show is really, really cool because there is so much nuance to the process.
Cali: Yeah, and totally I know I geek out about our process, too. I probably did that a little bit earlier on it. But I think having I am the system and process person here and having seen where we started with our own internal. And now honestly, the best part about this, I get so amped about this whole process and our people because we are completely seeing what it’s doing for ourselves and our clients as far as organization space to come up with new ideas, ability to change as needed, and adjust. And it’s been from where we started to where we are now. I feel like sometimes we work with clients or internally, it’s hard to create a system, and our clients have been trying to create a system. It may be working, or it may be pieced together, but they’re obviously at some sort of crunch point where something needs to change. I feel like a proud mom who could just kind of like, swoop you into our thing and say okay, it’s fine. Look at all the things we have set up for you. It’s not that this is new for us. But it just gets better and better with time. And I’m like, I feel like my excitement comes over. Because I really am thinking about how it’s transformed and how it’s transforming the businesses of our clients. And for us too, internally, we have way less slacks and a good way.
Stacey: Now they’re much more like. “What are we doing?”
Cali: Right. We can talk high level, though, because we’re not in the weeds, and our guys aren’t in the weeds.
Stacey: Yeah, I think that’s such a great point. And you know what? You made another point in there that I think, for honesty and transparency sake is really important, which is we’re still refining this system. In fact, we brought on the most clients at one time than we had ever brought in at the beginning of Q2, which was super exciting, and is a slightly a little bit of humble brag and 100% solely possible because of the system, we felt like no BS, like it was only possible and only worked as well as it worked because we have built this really good system. But we learned in scaling that a little bit to use an ever-popular term. there were still some crunch points. And so we had, we had some places where we had expanded our services, but not expanded what the system looks like on Monday. And so we had kind of piled in some new additions we had made into honestly one roll where it didn’t need to be one roll. And so we went in and we change that we went in and we, for lack of a better way to put it sort of untangled the knot and separated those things and we got to sort of immediately see the gratification of oh well that creates more space. We’ve now made this even better. That’s one of the things I really love. About our system, it’s not a system that’s been built once and will be used forever, a core value of ours, I told you this when we first started working together, is the one thing we’re never allowed to say is we’re doing this because it’s the way it’s always been done. Our system is an ever-changing process. What’s great though, is it’s being refined, not revolutionized. And I think so often when we start to look about system and structure change, we do it from a place of discomfort, and we do it from a place of burning it down. And generally speaking, for podcasters, specifically, you’re doing something you’re intending to do for quite a while, right. And so the desire to burn it down on a regular basis is going to hinder your ability to ever grow it.
It’s going to hinder your ability to ever see success from the thing you build from the ashes, right? And so I want you to really, really make sure as you’re looking at your own podcast system, as you’re looking at your own internal structures, you’re going, do I just want to burn all of this down? Or am I open to seeing the shifts and changes and I think when you have a system that is as well set up as ours, it’s really easy for us to go, “Oh, you know what, this is a little off? Let’s just fix that.” Because there’s nothing in there that’s going to create such discomfort that we suddenly have the desire to burn the whole damn thing down.
Cali: Totally.
Stacey: And I know this because we have frequently felt the desire before this system to burn the whole thing down. We’ve been there.
Cali: Exactly, learn from us.
Stacey: That’s the other thing that I think is important is like, we’re not like we are experts. Absolutely. We’re not above continued education. We’re all still making things better. And so I think that I think that’s really, really valuable about our structure. Let’s talk about though the impact of changes. Because I think there is sometimes an unfair story, I won’t even say belief story narrative that happens around change, that if you have a structure, you can’t follow your intuition or your creativity. You can’t say, “Actually, you know what, I just thought of this thing, and I really want to share it sooner rather than later. How do I do that?” I think one of the things I love most is that we have a system that allows for that, I think we’re going through this with a client right now who’s got something really cool that she’s going to be launching in about a month from now. So you got an email, I’m on a summer schedule. I’m out Wednesday, Thursdays, you get an email from a client, I think the morning of my Wednesday day off. That is, “Oh, by the way, here are some changes. How much of a crisis was that?”
Cali: Not. You know, and that’s what’s so awesome. And I think we happen to be as a company, we work really well with and tend to be aligned with people who do use their intuition a lot in there in their business, and go with the flow of their creativity and when they’re inspired. Not all of our clients are that way, but quite a few are. So if you are somebody who’s feeling you’ve said this really well Stacey, who feels trapped by systems and structures, we believe that’s actually not the case, we believe this gives you something to stand on. This gives you the ability to have an open space to create within. And then we kind of take it just like in this instance, where she was inspired to bring in a whole new series, next month, that really was not a challenge. She felt inspired, she told us the inspiration and what it would look like. And then we just adjusted, basically everything in Monday to make sure we were all on the same page of what this now looked like. So she was completely able to follow her intuition and, and lead with her sort of new idea. And then we just adjusted. I mean, it probably took us an hour to get everything shifted, it was not a big deal at all. I think you talked about this before on the podcast. It’s such a great point because I’m not that person. I’m a systems and process person. I like the system. I think it gives me the freedom to move within. But I know a lot of our clients feel scared about that originally, but that it is something that allows them to change without anything being dropped. And with them not feeling that they have to pull together all the pieces, they simply come up with the change and articulate that, and then we run with it. I think that’s just that’s how a system can hold you up.
Stacey: I will say oftentimes in that quarterly call is where that inspiration strike is because we’re starting to talk about what’s being sold in the next 12 weeks and what are we looking at? And so oftentimes, we’ve literally built-in checkpoints that account for that. Yeah, we’ve built in places for inspiration to happen. I think on the flip side of that not all changes are because of inspiration. We ran into situations where we’ve had clients who’ve had family issues or medical issues that just sort of taking them out. And it’s, hey, I can’t show up for this for the next, in some cases, six weeks, eight weeks. And so it was cool. What do we do? We’ve also had instances where we had clients planning for massive time off around maternity leave or a sabbatical. And we had some, we had some time to sort of, “Okay, so we’ll just do this, this and this, that’s fine.” But this is sort of last minute, a family emergency and a medical emergency. But we were really able to go in assess the data that we have built into Monday built into their dashboard. Inside cool. let’s rerun this episode, this episode, and this episode, because you’re in a structure and a system, we actually already have X amount of episodes recorded. So we’ll just alternate rereleases with the new content. And we’ve just stretched out four weeks of episodes into eight or I think we did one where we factored it into 12 weeks of the episode. It happens to be the end of the year, and we just built in some of the weeks for holidays. And so we were able to build her and a little extra time so that she could actually start recording ahead of when we needed new episodes, instead of just accounting for the time she was actually going to be out.
Cali: Yeah, definitely. Well, I think I mean, the change happens, I think if we really thought about it for each of our clients, all of them have had something come up. And I think anyone who’s listening who’s a podcaster, you yourself, Stacey like sometimes things just happen. And we have a schedule. Yeah, life happens. And, we’re not we’re doing ourselves a disservice if we don’t account for that ahead of time. And so that’s part of what this is. And we talked about repurchasing on the show all the time. And that’s one of the gold standards of how we can show up, you know, a team can show up for you, your shows can show up for you, your audience can still be in your presence without you needing to actively be there. And I just think it’s something that we don’t necessarily think of until it’s too late. But with something like this a structure and having you’ve gone through it personally, we’ve gone through it with almost all of our clients. It’s just something that can, it naturally flows into this system, the framework into having a team honestly, to help you win, you can’t be the one who shows up.
Stacey: I totally agree. And I think that was part of what I love about having an agency versus a contractor. Yeah, is we have the space to make that happen. Because of the resources, we have in place when we need to make a quick change. It’s not one person having to change something in your one show. But she’s got all of the or he’s got all of these other, these other pieces going on. For example, again, in the last couple of days, we had a client who needed to change a title. So we didn’t go back to the editor, or even me and Cali, although I think you initially thought our production assistant just went in changed, what needed to be changed. And away we went like it doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be completely turning the boat. And this is what brings me back to this air traffic controller, you’re not rerouting them to another airport. It’s cool. Wait for a second, here we go.
Cali: Yeah, here’s your gate now.
Stacey: It’s a pause, not a restructuring. And I think that that’s not always possible with change when you don’t have a system built to support you. And you’re right, I talk about this a lot. I beat this drum a ton. The systems and the structures that we build are not about boxing our clients in are not about boxing us. And because we live in a too, it is about giving us a platform to stand on so that we are supported in the process. And I think when you can change the way you think about systems, and the way you look at it and shift that perspective from this is trying to contain me to this is trying to support me, you start having a much different conversation. And quite frankly, podcasting aside, I think if you are somebody who has big revenue goals in your business, this is something you’re going to have to accept in literally every phase of your business. As somebody who has been doing this 10 years and now owns an agency and has seen incredible growth over that 10 years, not just in my actual like revenue, what the business looks like, but in my goals. And in myself that none of that happens without having some kind of even if they’re really really simple. Some kind of structure of support. Yeah, otherwise you wind up in an endless cycle of trying to get the matches out. It becomes a feast or famine. No, no a burn it down and rebuild a cycle and it’s not good for anybody. It’s bad for the environment. Just don’t do it.
So now we’ve sort of talked about our system. We’ve talked about our ability to make changes. I want to wrap this up by talking about sort of what’s ahead, we’ve shifted a ton. And last year we really slowed the amount of clients that we took in Because we were doing so much work in building out the system and really making sure it was the best it can be, we’ve done that we started bringing in more clients. What I want to share now is that we’re really coming into a season of welcoming clients because of this work that we’ve done. And so as we look ahead, we’ve got a price increase happening at the end of June, moving into July, we’ve got a couple of spots available to work with us. Starting in June, I will say if you book your sales call with me, and we start having this conversation, if you book it in June, you will get the June pricing even if you technically start with us in July. But I’m really excited because we’re maybe for the first time in the last two years, really in a place where we’re equipped to just open the floodgates and welcome and welcome people into this really cool structure.
Cali: Yeah, and we’re really clear on who we can help too, I think that’s an important point is together, we’ve kind of come up with this very clear picture of the right type, we’ve talked a lot about the process to production, the purpose of shows, and being able to see when somebody is ready for our type of help when they maybe are not quite there. I think it’s just really important to note that this isn’t always for everyone. And the agency is not always where everybody is. And that’s the point of talking to you, right? So that you can help them understand they can learn more, and everybody can decide, yeah, this feels like a fit for me. And I’m thrilled, we could do that with more people now. But it’s important to note that it’s not for everybody, some people are still figuring out the purpose of their show. And that’s you’re not quite ready for a production upgrade when you’re not quite sure why you have a show yet.
Stacey: That’s a great point. I talked to somebody earlier this week, actually, who didn’t have a real firm grasp on what they were selling, or who they were selling it to really just sort of, they’re like, I have all this content, I think maybe I want to turn it into something and I was like, cool, but there’s somebody before us, that’s gonna be much, much more beneficial. Like I said, we don’t actually do a ton of launches, I think a lot, a lot, a lot of podcasts, agencies, their bread, and butter, certainly in their promotion, is launching a podcast. And we actually launched very, very, very few podcasts. Because for the most part, we’ve worked with podcasters who are selling service are not looking for sponsorships are not looking for merch or whatever. Their podcast is part of them selling either services or, or information. So courses, programs, whatever the case may be memberships in some cases. But also, I think in most cases, our clients have a really firm understanding of how they make sales. I think too often people get into the podcast Based Thinking having a podcast is how you make sales. The podcast is a lead generation tool, it is not a sales tool. It will help in your sales process. We have episodes of this show. This episode is a great example of how our podcasts will help in our sales process. Because we’ve done episodes like this in the past. And we know and I’ve talked about this and how we’re planning content guys, I’m like, I’m not telling you anything that’s like, the super-secret here, we’ve talked about this, we have assets like this one that absolutely helps people in their sales process, makes the decision. But ultimately, this is about lead gen. The sales will happen when you and I have a conversation and I send you a proposal and you sign like that’s the sales process. And so I think until you have a firm understanding of what your sales process is, stop thinking about lead gen, like, almost completely, because you probably already have enough leads if you’re just not selling them, and more leads will not change a bad sales process. And so that’s one thing I really respect about, about our clients specifically is, for the most part, they already have a really firm understanding of where the show fits for them.
Obviously, we have exceptions. We have a couple of clients who we’ve helped with the launch and whose shows have been with us through launch or since launch. But for the most part, yeah, you’re absolutely right. We’re not necessarily. In fact, we are very rarely the first step. And not necessarily because they DIY a lot of our clients have worked with an editor before or who’s worked with a VA who helped them with some podcast promotion or whatever the case may be that they’re putting things together. But we’re often not the very, very, very first step here, right?
Cali: Yeah.
Stacey: Awesome. All right. So I’m gonna wrap this up because it’s getting long now. Thank you, Cali, for joining me today. I’m really excited that everybody got to actually hear you and they won’t any longer think you are a mythical creature I have made up in my head, your actual other right hands, you are a real-life whole human who lives very far from me, but I will say that is something else I really love about our team is actually International. And so there is literally something happening 24 hours a day.
Cali: That’s right. It’s a beautiful thing. You come in and stuff’s been done overnight and ready to go.
Stacey: We have an editor in the UK so oftentimes I wake up and I’m like, “Oh, hey look. Podcast episodes.”
Cali: Yeah, it’s amazing.
Stacey: I’m actually the furthest behind I’m the only one residing on the West Coast here in the United States. And so I am often like, “Wait, what happened? I went to bed and everybody worked.”
Cali: You have to get caught up first thing.
Stacey: I know. So I’m like, wait, what’s happening? So no, it’s fantastic. Thank you for being a part of the team. Thank you for being on the show with me. I really am excited for you all to make this decision and reach out, head over to uncommonlymore.com/podcastproduction to learn more about what production looks like, see what our rates are at now our availability is there as well. So if for some reason we’re not taking clients, there’ll be a waitlist there. But that would be surprising. So thank you, guys. I’m excited.
Cali: Yeah, thank you, Stacey.
Stacey: Alright, talk to us next week.
