Something that we’ve been intentional about this year since our executive retreat is shining more of a spotlight on our INCREDIBLE team behind The Heart University. And make sure it’s VERY clear that The Heart isn’t the Evie and Lindsey show because our team does so much behind the scenes to make this company, our courses, our shop, our social media, and this podcast actually happen, and run smoothly for you. So we thought it would be fun to do some guest interviews with the incredible women who work for The Heart University. First up on today’s show is Ally Runnels – our Podcast Manager and Operations Manager. 

The story of how we met Ally and how she eventually became a member of our team is WILD, and she shares it all on today’s episode. We then dive into the nitty-gritty behind everything she does to make this show a reality for you twice a week. The ONLY thing we do for this podcast is to write the outlines and record the episodes. Ally is the woman who does everything else behind the scenes, and today’s conversation is a fascinating peek behind the curtain of everything it takes to create a top-rated show like The Heart and Hustle Podcast. 

If you’re wanting to get into podcasting today’s show will be a rundown of what it takes, the software and programs we use to make it all happen, and some great insight into how to strategically name your episode titles so they are more likely to be listened to. Lastly, Ally goes in DEPTH into the dos and don’ts for pitching yourself as a guest to podcasts. She’s our gatekeeper on who decides who is or isn’t a guest on our show, so she had LOTS of advice to give here. If you’re an entrepreneur wanting to be a guest on podcasts, you’ll want to tune into what she has to say because it’s GOLD. 

 

Ally’s Story Getting Connected With Us

It first starts with her cousin, Luke, who is married to Cailtin (her husband’s cousin), who met Lindsey in 2016 for a shoot at the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. Since Lindsey photographed that session, Luke had reached out to have Lindsey shoot their proposal on a glacier. Then fast forward to their wedding, Lindsey was their photography as well. Leading up to the wedding Lindsey was invited to Caitlin’s bachelorette party, now cue meeting Ally. At the time Ally was a wedding planner and Luke and Caitlin had asked her to be their wedding planner, as well as be invited to Caitlin’s bachelorette where she first met Lindsey.  

Fast forward to the wedding, Lindsey was there again, but this is also where Ally met her husband as well. So she has a lot to thank Luke and Caitlin for, connecting her with her future boss and now husband.  

Then fast forward another year, they had moved to Seattle for a wedding planning position, and Garrett and she were engaged. Lindsey reached out about The Heart Photography Workshop they were hosting in Seattle seeing if they would be models for them. That was in November 2019 and then they got married in January 2020. 

Covid then hit and doors started closing for them in Seattle, so they moved to Ally’s hometown, Bend, OR at the end of August 2020. Garrett had gotten a job and Ally had felt that God had put on her heart to find a remote position. Her goal for the year of 2020 was to find one with Garrett applying to paramedic schools and not sure where they would end up, she felt a remote position was where God was leading her. 

Seeing on on social media that The Heart was hiring for a podcast manager, she didn’t specifically have podcast skills but felt like she had all the other things that it entailed. Had the interview with Evie and Lindsey and then here she is today! 

 

Preparing for Job Interviews 

In the description of the podcast manager position, they had specifically put different platforms they used for podcasting. Not knowing much about the subject Ally dove in to learn more about those platforms right away. Seeing what do they do for a podcast? Would she be able to learn these? Is it easy to teach yourself? 

That way when the interview takes place she could ask educated questions regarding specific podcast details. 

In most jobs, there are going to be things that you don’t know and need to learn, so showing that you can and are willing to take initiative. Will make them want to hire you. You’re going to have to do the work if you get hired so why not start now. 

Podcast Production 

1. Evie and Lindsey record in Zencastr. 
2. Then Ally goes in and downloads all the individual files and uploads them into our drive. 
3. She’ll then notify our audio engineer Hayden, where he will take it and do his magic, and when finished he will upload it into another folder in our drive.  
4. Once that is done, Ally will listen to the entire episode. From start to finish and while she is listening she’ll be transcribing it for show notes. As you transcribe put timestamps for sound bites to use for social media assets down the road. 
5. Next to create the Instagram graphic assets to use on the day it goes live. We use Canva for both stories and feed posting. 
6. To make it official you upload your show notes to your blog and finished audio file to your hosting platform, we use Libsyn and schedule it for the day you want it to go live. 
7. For the morning of an episode going live, Ally will post on our Instagram, update the website podcast page with the most recent episodes and post in our Heart and Hustle Podcast Facebook group. 

Not only does she do all that but also covers all guest communication with scheduling, interview details, sending them assets and gifts. As well as all sponsorship collaboration details and planning of ads to run. 

 

Programs and software we use for production

Zencastr– for recording. An online platform where you can create different episodes and send links to your guests. Or you pop on if it’s just yourself. It records audio separately which all audio engineers love for editing. 

Libsyn– hosting platform. Upload your audio file and will then push it out to all the platforms you desire. On Libsyn you can clarify which podcast platforms you want it to go to. You upload to one platform and that pushes it to ALL platforms. 

Wavve– for the audio sound bites that we use for the social media assets on Instagram. A website you log in to with a monthly subscription. You can create templates, we have two saved for story and post. Then you choose the template that you want and upload your audio file and then choose how long you want the sound bite to be. 

Canva– for all social media assets. 

Calendly– we use it for guests to schedule. We have set days that we podcast, so guests can only book one-two day a month. 

 

Tips for Starting a Podcast

With not knowing a lot about podcasting before, a lot more people could start a podcast than they realize. Most people are intimidated by podcasting or think Joe Rogan and the biggest podcast they listen to. 

You can start small, you don’t have to have lots of fancy equipment. 

 

Advice on Naming the titles of your episodes

For titling, it is thinking about what people are going to search in a search engine and will pop up. You can have catching and cool titles, but the odds that someone is going to search that if they don’t know your podcast. What are the odds they are going to come across it? 

Trying not to get so creative and stepping back and thinking what is this episode about, who is this going to serve, and what are they going to be searching for them to find it?

 

Podcast Guest Pitches 

Don’ts

• When people email and they say they just listened to X episode with Y guest and then they don’t even get it right. Or they say they “Love the episode with him” when it was a girl that we were interviewing. They forgot to change the copy and paste template. 
• They say they are in line with our business mission and the reality is they are not.
• Not linking stuff. When you pitch yourself with just text copy and then by. You are making that person for you. Don’t make us do the work. It makes it difficult, and sometimes it’s not worth it to keep digging. 
• When people do pitch themselves and don’t do it well, it’s too similar to what we have already done, have already covered, or are too broad. 

Do’s

• Be specific on topics and give good topics. Specific things that we haven’t talked about, do your research. 
• Hyperlink everything. Link the stuffing out of that email. 

If you are pitching yourself you shouldn’t be making that company or the person work for it. 

 

What’s your favorite part of your job and least favorite part?

Least: Guest show notes, it depends on the topic but they can be very difficult to transcribe because everyone talks differently. People talk at different paces and then following their thought processes. When Ally first writes it is gibberish, she has so many edits to make after. 

Favorite: Listening and learning from Evie and Lindsey and also the guests. There is so much wisdom in episodes that you wouldn’t think to pertain to you but can get so much out of them.  

 

 

Show notes

HoneyBook: share.honeybook.com/heart

 

In addition to a FREE 7 day trial, get 50% off your first year of HoneyBook, a $200 value!! 

 

The Heart University Shop: www.theheartuniversity.com/shop

 

Follow along with Ally: 

www.instagram.com/aprunnels

 

If you want to connect with us and other listeners in the Heart and Hustle community join our Facebook group here.

 

Follow along:

www.instagram.com/mrslindseyroman

www.instagram.com/evierupp

www.instagram.com/theheartuniversity