Episode 284 A Week in the Life of a Podcast Manager and Launch Specialist with Liz Chapman

Full Episode Transcription:

Arianna Vernier: Hey y’all, welcome back to the Virtual Assistant Mama podcast. I am so excited to continue our week in the life series. And in today’s episode, I brought on Liz Chapman. She’s a podcast manager and launch specialist and has been doing this since 2021. So I’m super excited for you guys to hear what her journey has looked like, what brought her into this space and what she does, how she runs her business and her life outside of business. So welcome Liz.

Liz Chapman: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah. We’re so excited to have you. I would love if you would just start by telling my listeners a little bit more about you and then yeah, about how you got into the world of podcast management.

Liz Chapman: So I kind of got into the world of podcast management by accident. So back in 2020, I had a travel agency business. And I love travel, but then we have the pandemic. So once the pandemic hit, as we worked our way through that with everybody canceling their travel, it was super stressful. So as we got closer into 2021 and they started putting restrictions on COVID testing, coming back into the U S it was extremely stressful to be in the travel industry at that time. So I decided I was going to take a big step backwards from my travel agency. And I decided because I didn’t want to book travel anymore. I wanted to work in the back end of travel. So helping other travel agents in their back end, because I love organization and things like that, which is a great idea until you realize that no travel agent was paid from like 2020 into 2021. So they couldn’t afford to have any help in their back end. So while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, I had one of my past travel clients. Decide she was going to start a podcast and she wanted to know if I had free time. Could I help her edit her audio? I’ve never edited audio before in my life. I had no idea what I was doing. And I said to her, sure, we’ll figure it out together. So her and I figured it out together. Luckily for me, my husband has a background in audio, so he was a huge help in getting it off the ground. So once I started helping her edit her audio and go through the entire launch process, I was like, Oh, this is it. I’m a huge introvert. I love being behind the scenes. So being able to help her through the back end and doing her editing of her audio and then launch her podcast, I was just hooked from then on. And that is what I’ve been doing since 2021.

Arianna Vernier: That’s amazing. I love how, you know, pandemic, obviously it affected everybody in all different ways, but you took that as a sign that, okay, this isn’t working. So what can I do instead? And you were open to whatever possibility came across your path. Like you said, even though you had no experience editing audio, you’re like, I’ll try it.

Liz Chapman: Yeah, that just shows other people that like, If something’s not working out, you can always pivot. Always.

Arianna Vernier: So what kinds of tasks do you do for your clients as a podcast manager? And then also, what kinds of things do you do in your own business? Cause I think that’ll help my listeners to understand like what a podcast manager actually does.

Liz Chapman: Yes. So there’s two sides to my business. One side would be a podcast manager. So that’s for those who have existing podcasts and then there’s launching podcasts. So for those that already have a podcast, a lot of tasks for them include things like editing their audio, writing their show notes, creating graphics that will go out to social media, writing emails for their weekly emails to remind everybody that they have a podcast episode up, and then also coming up with strategic ideas of how to grow their podcasts, because once they’re ready to bring on a podcast manager, they’ve kind of reached the point where they’re trying to build their business up, but then these behind the scene tasks are taken up all their time. So we take those off their plate for them, and then we also help them strategically come up with ideas for getting more visible, getting more downloads and things like that and then there’s also the ones that want to start a podcast for visibility. So they want to get in front of more people. They want to use a podcast as a lead generation tool. So for those ones, we take, we help them go from an idea to a fully launched podcast. So it’s figuring out who their ideal audience is what they’re going to talk about coming up with their podcast name, we help them figure out their tech and then how to, record everything. So that by the end of the 6 weeks, they’ve gone from an idea to a fully launched podcast. So those would be the 2 parts of my business and then for like. Tools that I use in my business Air Table one of my favorites. I use Air Table for all of my management clients. I run all of my podcast launches through air table. Everybody gets their own base and then we work through it together with tasks. Another 1 of my favorites that are just for me. I don’t have my clients in there is click up because there are so many moving pieces to managing a podcast and launching a podcast at the same time, that click up really helps keep me on track so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Arianna Vernier: That’s great. I actually just was recently introduced to Airtable through a client of mine. I do website management for some of my website clients and she uses Airtable to send me everything and I’m like, what is this? And why have I never heard of this before? It’s so cool. So yeah, if you’re listening and you’re like, what is that? Go check it out because it is a super awesome tool.

Liz Chapman: It is, it just, and it’s really easy, like you’ve seen to work with somebody else that, you know, your clients, it’s really easy for them to go in and see where I am in the process, where they are in the process. And it’s just a really good management tool. I love it. And everybody I send it to also ends up loving it.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, definitely. So roughly how many hours would you say that you work in a week and then how much of that would you say is like client work and then how much of that is just managing tasks like in your own business trying to grow your business?

Liz Chapman: So, I would say I probably work about 15 hours a week. I try to do four hours a day. So, my kids are older. I have teenagers. One is in college. One is a junior in high school. So, I have a little more freedom when it comes to my work days since they are older. But I try to only work in the morning so that when they get home from school, I’m not on my computer. So I tend to work about 8 to noon most days. Sometimes I’ll work on the weekend if they have things going on. So 1 thing I’ll be working on for 2024 is putting more time into my own business, because I find for myself that I love client work and I will just zone out into client work and not put very much time into my own back end business. So that’s something I’m working on for 2024. So I would say at least three quarters of my working time is spent on client work and not working in the back end of my own business.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, and you don’t need a ton of time in your own business, but you do just want to make sure you’re utilizing the time that you are using to do things that are actually going to help you grow. So, I just want the listeners to understand that, like, you don’t, it doesn’t have to be 50/50. You know, if you’re giving 15 hours to client work, you don’t need 15 hours to grow your own business in a week. You could do that in 5 hours, less than that. But, just having some time set aside. Where you can continue to grow, reach new clients, maybe create some passive income resources, things like that. It’s really important to set aside that time.

Liz Chapman: Absolutely. And 1 of my things in my ClickUp is tasks that are devoted specifically to growing my own business. So it’s an actual task that because I love, to do lists and to check things off. I put it in my ClickUp so that it’s sitting there staring at me like. So I actually do the things.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I do the same thing. I use Trello, but I do the same thing. It’s there. And it’s like, Ooh, if I don’t get it done, it’s going to turn red. And that’s going to bother me.

Liz Chapman: Exactly.

Arianna Vernier: So this has been, this is great. I would love if you would share with my listeners what it looks like outside of your business. I know you mentioned you have older kiddos, but I would just love to know what. Types of things you like to do outside of business, what your family life looks like outside of your business and just all that. Yeah.

Liz Chapman: So like I said, I have a daughter who is in her first year of college and she actually goes to school here in our town, but she doesn’t live here anymore. So our thing is, is I’ll meet her every day at Target and we’ll get a Starbucks and we walk through Target and spend way too much money, but that’s our thing. And then my son, he’s actually gone through some health issues and was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. So we have been navigating what that looks like for him because it’s a lifelong thing and for us as well. So that’s been a lot of like doctor’s appointments for him, but we’re finally getting into where he’s feeling better. We’re not so stressed out as the parents. So, that has taken up a lot of our time over the last 6 months, so we’re kind of beyond that really tough time where we’re getting back into normal life and then we’re moving. So, we just. Bought a new house. So we’re in the process of packing everything up and moving. So that throws its own wrench into things is you’re trying to pack up a huge house and move everything. But other than that, like I love to walk outside. So we live in Southern Utah where it’s pretty nice most of the time. So my favorite thing is to walk outside and listen to an audio book, or I’ve really gotten into true crime podcasts. Because I like to zone out. We spend so much time on our businesses. I love business podcasts, but sometimes it’s just really nice to listen to something that is, you can just zone out and enjoy.

Arianna Vernier: I love that. And I love just hearing how you’re able to structure your business around the things that you love, like getting outside, listening to something you can zone out. On and the fact that you have this business that you were probably able to work around all of your son’s doctor’s visits and all of those things. Like, if you had a 9 to 5, you probably would have used all of your vacation time trying to navigate around that. So. That’s really the beauty of stepping into the virtual assistant or service provider world is that you get to work around the most important things in your life, which are your family.

Liz Chapman: Absolutely, because he did spend several days in the hospital. And like you said, we’ve had multiple doctors appointments and we live about 4 hours south of Salt Lake City. And that has meant lots of trips up to Salt Lake because we need primary children’s hospital and they don’t have a lot of pediatric services here. So, with, if I did not have my own business, that was flexible. I don’t even know what it would look like. It would be extremely it would have been even more difficult than it already was for sure.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, definitely. I think. A lot of times people get stuck in the mindset of a nine to five being like a stable job that you can, you know, you’ll always have but when issues like this arise, like when issues with your health or your kids health or whatever comes up, it’s not going to work around your Your family and then what do you do? Do you just have to quit and have no income? That’s why being a virtual assistant offering any service under that umbrella you really can like I mean I’m sure if you were just sitting in the hospital room and your son was sleeping You could have busted out some client work like you can take that time to be present for him You can work from anywhere that you need to be You get to be mom first and then business owner after that

Liz Chapman: Yeah, and that’s the most important thing is being mom first and then the business stuff comes after so just knowing that I had that and that I have super awesome clients that I mean, nothing was late or anything else, but just knowing that they supported me in the back end, knowing that we were having this hard time is so different than. It would have been if it was a 9 to 5 because my background is I am a registered nurse and I know how difficult it would have been if I was having to work and then also having a sick child at the same time, it probably would have been extremely difficult and even more stress on top of everything else.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, especially because nurses have crazy schedule.

Liz Chapman: Yes. Which is another reason why I love this job so much that I built.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I don’t blame you one bit. So, I would love to ask you a question that I ask every guest that comes on this show. And it’s, if someone wanted to start their journey out of their 9 to 5, but it just felt too overwhelming for them, what would you say to them?

Liz Chapman: I would probably say to take a baby step. Find something that you enjoy. And then figure out from there what you can do with that to make a little bit of money on the side and to start building your business. And then next to that, I would also say to find a business bestie or a mentor or somebody that can really that is maybe 1 or 2 steps ahead of you that can help you as you’re going, as you’re figuring out your own process, because having somebody that is even just a step or two ahead of you in your corner is a huge help, I think.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I 100 percent agree. I think if you’re doing it on your own, it’s easy to hit a roadblock and say, Oh, I’m not meant to do this. I’m just going to turn around, but. Maybe there was like a small gap around that roadblock. You could have got around it and if somebody was helping you, you could have found that way around. So, I think so many people that do it alone give up before they really should have. And so when you have that support in your back pocket, even just, like you said, a business bestie or hiring a mentor, they’re going to help you move past that and you’ll be able to brainstorm ideas with them and just, it’s so helpful.

Liz Chapman: I totally agree because I think a lot of times we have these great ideas, but then we get stuck because we get scared. And if we have somebody that’s kind of in our corner, or, you know, giving us the courage to go on, it does really make a big difference.

Arianna Vernier: Yeah, totally agree. So it has been so great having you on today with us, Liz, where can my listeners come and connect with you?

Liz Chapman: So I spent all of my time on Instagram. You can find me over at liz_chapman_podcastmanager. And I’m always in my stories over there. So that’s my favorite place to be. And then just on my website, lizchapmanco.com.
Arianna Vernier: Perfect. And for those of you listening, I will have that linked in the show notes so you can go check them out and get connected with Liz there. Well, thank you so much again for coming on today and just sharing, you know, what a week in your life looks like, what it really looks like to be a mom and put motherhood first and your business next. I think that’s going to be really inspiring for the moms that are listening to this show. So thank you so much again.

Liz Chapman: Thank you so much for having me on. It was fun.

Arianna Vernier: All right. Thank you guys for listening to this episode. Make sure you go and get connected with Liz. If you’re loving this show, please leave a review on the podcast that just helps us get more amazing guests, just like Liz to come on and share their life with us and provide those inspiring stories for y’all. I love y’all so much and we will see you next time.