How To Automate Podcast Notes & Promotional Materials

“You need to fail to succeed. So fail f#%king fast!” This was a quote I came across on an audio training when I first started getting into business.

It feels like I’ve failed more times than anyone else I know.

But here’s the thing: every single failure has been a stepping stone to where I am today.

And when it comes to building something, the only thing that matters is failing forward.

And today, I want to share with you my latest adventure – the creation of a podcast notes GPT and, spoiler alert, its spectacular failure.

(which leads to an even greater discovery)

The above image is a GPT I built to help us create Podcast notes.

As you can see, it skips all of the prompts I’ve programmed, and gets straight to the final call to action.

What it’s supposed to do is begin by asking you some details about the podcast itself:

Name of podcast

Host name

Guest name

Episode number

Then it asks you to paste the transcript and proceeds to automatically generate all of the important sections of podcast notes; like key takeaways, timestamps, resources, and quotes.

There are tools out there that already do this for you, like CastMagic.

But here’s the problem we’re all about to face in the near future…

Tool overload!

There are micro-SaaS tools popping up everywhere, and before long, if we’re not smart about it, we’ll be paying for dozens of tools every month.

Not only will this cause productivity and organizational challenges, it will become expensive.

CastMagic charges $39+ per month.

But what if there was a way to turn that $39 into $4.

This is what’s possible with automation tools and AI.

And that’s exactly what I’ve been building since the GPT failed. Check it out.

The image above is Make.com. It helps you build and automate almost anything.

Here’s what happens in the above diagram:

The first step is a webhook trigger that I’ve setup in Airtable. When I am ready, I trigger the webhook.

It proceeds to find the data in the transcript cell in a table.

It then uses that transcript and begins to pass the data into all of the next steps in the router.

It goes through the OpenAI API, and moves from top to bottom through 6 different prompts.

The OpenAI prompt outputs are then sent back to Airtable with the information I need to produce a high quality summary.

But it doesn’t end there…

Once we do some manual editing of the summary, and add it to a cell in the table. We have a second trigger that then takes that summary and produces a promotional email (in my own style), and social media posts.

The cost? Less than $1 per transcript.
Quality? Solid! An 8 out 10.
(as long as your prompts are great).

So if you only do 4 podcasts per month, why pay $39 when you can pay less than $4?

I don’t think many people truly understand where the world is going with this technology.

When I first started online, the time it took to achieve the above was easily 5-6 hours and $200+.

First you had to hire someone to transcribe it, then you needed them to edit it manually, compile all the important summary detailed, turn it into a proper summary. Then go and manually write all of the copy for the promotional email, social media posts and so on.

Soon, I will take this a step further and integrate it Midjourney, so that it does the graphics for each post as well.

Then I will integrate Airtable with each social media platform, where it will automatically schedule each post.

The only manual work that I cannot automate yet is scheduling the email in Convertkit. And Canva graphics.

You might be wondering, “well this is all well and good Mitch, but I don’t have a podcast”.

OK! But what about the other 27 things you do?!

Almost everything you do in business has some sort of pattern or process.

Take that process.

Automate it the EXACT way you like it to be done.

Save time.

Save money.

The previous iteration of the podcast notes GPT encountered hurdles due to limited instructions, due to a limited context window.

And an over-reliance on external documentation, often inaccessible. This led to inconsistencies and limitations in its functionality.

However, the beauty of this new automation system is its dependable and systematic nature.

It’s crafted with a sequential approach, guaranteeing that each step is precisely supplied with the necessary information.

While it’s not flawless… (it did crash on me once — but still executed the task)

…the improvement in reliability and accuracy is substantial and noticeable.

The big picture…

It’s my belief that we have a short period of time to really level-up our skills in business and tech.

If we’re still operating our businesses like we did 4 years ago we’re going to be left behind.

There’s no way you’d be able to compete.

Your competitors will be creating 1000’s of high quality marketing materials every single month for next to nothing because they’ve automated the whole process.

What might cost them a few hundred dollars would be costing you $10k+ by doing it the old way.

Sure, maybe the AI models are not there yet.

They still hallucinate.
They still go off-track.
They still get your brand style wrong.

But soon, that will all change!

I’ve sat on the sidelines for way too many of the latest trends. It’s cost me millions of dollars.

I refuse to sit on the sidelines this time!

Over to you…

Looking ahead, I’m excited about what’s next. There are more integrations, more efficiencies, and, undoubtedly, more lessons to be learned.

Finally, if you’re wondering how to start applying automations like the podcast notes in your business, reply to this email. 

I’m considering creating a video tutorial to help you get started. Your feedback will shape the video to ensure it’s exactly what you need.

Here’s to failing more!
– Mitch