Podcasting Tasks: What You Should and Shouldn’t Delegate

If you’re new in the podcasting world, the whole idea of doing everything yourself is definitely tempting. Understandably, you want to ensure all aspects are taken care of accordingly.

However, your failure to delegate can do your show more harm than good. Even if you’re an expert at everything, at one point or another, you won’t have time to do everything on your own.

In his book Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business, author Chris Ducker identified 3 tasks that should be delegated:

1. Tasks you can’t do

2. Tasks you shouldn’t do

3. Tasks you don’t like doing

Of course, the list can differ from one podcaster to another. However, as a general rule of thumb, you should not be doing things that will hinder you from doing your supposed primary focus—creating amazing content!

To help you out, here’s a list of some of the podcasting aspects that are better left off in the hands of experts:

Tasks You Should Delegate

• Post-production

Many podcasters liken editing to a leech—it sucks the life out of them. For starters, editing is a time-consuming and painstaking process. It will require a lot of time, effort, and expertise. Unless you know podcast editing like the back of your hand, this is one aspect that should be delegated to a seasoned and competent podcast producer.

• Show notes writing

Aside from giving listeners a summary of what the episode is all about, show notes are also used for better engagement and search engine optimization (SEO). Fortunately, show notes writing does not necessarily have to be an “all or nothing” approach. If you still want to include your input, you can just provide the basic outline and have someone fill in the rest of the details.

• Coding

If you want some coding done on your site, you can end up wasting days, weeks, or even months figuring things out on your own. That being said, yes, this is one task an expert can easily do in a few days or maybe a week. For sure, they’d do a better job too, unless if you’re an expert coder yourself.

• Design

If you’re a professional designer, this is definitely something right down your alley. However, since this can still take time, it would be best to delegate visual branding to someone else. This can include designing your site, logo, cards, podcast art, etc.

• Moderation

If people are allowed to comment on your site, through direct email, or in a social community, you’re going to need help with the moderation. Your moderator can help sort feedback, keep the conversation going, block spams, etc. Also, once your podcast picks up, you will obviously no longer have time to moderate so this is one aspect that definitely falls under the delegate list.

Tasks You Shouldn’t Delegate

There are two key aspects of your podcast you can’t delegate and they are:

• Content

Conceptualization, preparation, research, and preparation of content should be done by you. It’s your podcast so it needs to have your authentic voice and input. While you can ask for suggestions, ideas, and insights from others, the final say should always be yours.

• Building relationships

Establishing and nurturing valuable relationships (regardless if it’s with guests, sponsors, listeners, etc.) is something you should do on your own. When it comes to your listeners, it’s understandable that you won’t be able to establish connections with each and every one but you can at least try to do for a few what you wish you can do for everyone and take it from there.

Undoubtedly, podcasting can be challenging. Fortunately, there are plenty of expert help available at your disposal. What podcasting tasks do you usually delegate? Sound off in the comment section below!

Share this post!