Jon Clayton: If you enjoy listening to podcasts, you might have wondered what goes on behind the scenes, especially if you're toying with launching a podcast for your business or organization.

The short answer is a lot of unseen work, but what exactly is involved in producing a show?

I've recently been working with CIAT to relaunch their where it's at podcast, so I thought I'd pull back the curtain and give you a quick tour of what went on behind the scenes of that project in this episode.

Of Architecture Business Club, the weekly podcast for small firm founders who want to build their dream business in architecture and enjoy more freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment in what they do.

I'm John Clayton, your host.

Having spent over 20 years working in architecture, I know how hard it can be to explain your services so people truly understand and value what you do.

Many firms struggle with this, but by sharing your stories on podcasts, you can become the trusted voice in your market.

Grow your brand and attract much better clients.

We can help you with everything from podcast strategy and launch production and management, podcast hosting and guesting through to promoting and growing your show.

If you'd like to discover how podcasting could benefit your business, click the link in the show notes to book a no obligation chat about working with me.

Or if you're interested in being a guest on this show, email, John, that's JON at.

Architecture business club.com.

Now let's go behind the scenes of the Where it's at Podcast.

Hey, thanks for joining me today.

I'm really excited about this episode because I have recently been working with CIAT, that's the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists.

And we are gonna be talking about relaunching the Architectural Technology podcast, which is called Where it's at.

So what is where it's at?

So where it's at is the podcast that puts architectural technology in the spotlight.

And it's brought to you by CIAT.

They are the lead qualifying body for architectural technology.

So why am I talking about this on Architecture Business Club?

Well, as I mentioned, I've recently been working with CIAT on their show, and I'm proud to say that for.

The next year at least I'll be behind the scenes producing that show.

So I'm really excited about this and, uh, yeah, really looking forward to seeing how that podcast develops over the course of the next year.

So first I thought I.

I'd give you a little bit of background about the show, uh, give you an idea of what type of content you can expect on the, where it's at podcast.

So the podcast brings together and celebrates the people and projects that are driving architectural technology forward.

So the episodes are mainly interview-based and feature aspiring and practicing architecture technologists and thought leaders who are shaping the future of the sector.

Now I know what you might be thinking.

Hang on a minute, John.

I'm not an architecture technologist.

I'm an architect or a building surveyor or any other person that happens to be listening to this show.

Th that show where it's at is not just for architectural technologists.

The show's aim is to educate everybody that architectural technology exists, so that whilst that podcast will be featuring conversations with architectural technologists, it's certainly is not just for architectural technologists.

So.

If you work in the built environment or if you're interested in a career that combines design and technology, then you are also going to enjoy the show.

So it's definitely worth checking it out.

Even if you're not an architectural technologist, I.

So just some of the information you need.

So like episodes when they're gonna be released, new episodes are going to be released on the last Friday of every month at 6:00 AM UK time with the occasional bonus episode.

And we're aiming for each episode to be around 30 minutes long, so not too long.

And.

Mainly those episodes are going to feature interviews with, as I mentioned before, aspiring and practicing architecture technologists and also thought leaders who are shaping the future of the sector.

And you can find the show on everywhere where you listen to podcasts.

So you can listen and subscribe on Spotify, apple, or wherever you get your podcast.

And I've also dropped a link to the Where it's at podcast in the show notes.

Right.

Okay.

So enough about that.

What actually went into relaunching that podcast?

What work has been going on behind the scenes that you don't really hear about?

As I mentioned in the intro, it was a, it is a lot of work.

It's a lot of work putting a podcast together.

Even in this case, this was a an existing podcast that we were relaunching.

So that work began with a podcast strategy meeting with CIAT and we, we covered a lot.

We've been, I've been working really closely with the team at CIAT and some of the things that we had to consider were setting a relaunch date.

Uh, we had to agree.

The main objectives for the show so that we understood what success was going to look like.

We discussed lots of ideas for the show, so looking at ideas for future topics, future guests, and re-looked at the, the format of the show and.

Always keep in front of mind who the show is actually for, you know, so that when we're thinking about what content, what episodes are going to be produced, that we've got our audience in mind.

And the same goes for architecture Business Club.

That is something that, uh, that I do on a, on a regular basis.

We also developed a new tagline for the show, updated the podcast description.

So that's like the text description that appears in places like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Uh, we also re-looked at the categories.

So the categories that the podcast was appearing in.

Um, we re-looked at that and adjusted the categories to better suit the nature of the show.

Um, practical things like agreeing the.

The timetable for publishing.

So agreeing publishing times and episode frequency.

And we also developed some new ideas for show notable.

So these are like unique elements that help make the show more memorable and unique.

So, um.

I mean, in the case of architecture Business Club, one of the things that we do on the guest interviews is we, we always ask a question about travel and favorite places.

Um, That's partly because of my own passion for travel and, and discovering new places and also with a, well, a loose connection to architecture as well with it being about place.

Uh, so that's one of the show notables that we have on this show.

And we've been working with CIAT to develop some show notables for the, where it's at podcast too.

Also we agreed what calls to action would feature in each episode.

So, you know the little sections we have in this show, um, we have the intro.

There's often a little section in the middle, uh, and then the end, we've got the outro.

These are sometimes called the pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll sections of a podcast.

So we had a discussion about, well, well, what do we want people to do after they've listened to this show?

So all of that, um, there's a lot of thought and consideration that goes into all of those little elements of each episode.

We also updated the audio branding.

The visual branding was already predefined.

So they already had, um, visual brands that they're happy with.

So that's things like colors and fonts and the cover art for the podcast.

So the little graphic that you see when you go to Spotify or Apple to go and listen.

Uh, but we did refresh and update the audio branding.

So this is considering things like, well.

Who's doing the voiceovers of the, the sections of the show, like the intros and outros, and what music are we going to use and are we going to use any sound effects in the show?

So how, what's the show gonna sound like?

Is it gonna sound like a radio show?

Is it gonna sound like a podcast?

So there's a lot of thought that goes into that too.

We then wrote scripts for CIAT.

So, um, worked with them on intro and outro and midroll scripts, and we designed the flow of each episode.

So we mapped out.

All the different little sections of each episode of the show, what order, all of those different sections.

Um, we're going to go in where show notables might feature where those call to actions are going to feature.

That's all mapped out.

Bit like the same as designing a building.

Like, you know, we have the building plans for the, the building design.

These are the plans that we have for the podcast to, uh, make sure that it all goes together, uh, seamlessly when we come to actually build the episodes in the edit.

I.

Also create templates.

So we have a, a show notes template that we put together that we are going to reuse for each episode.

And we made decisions on the recordings, so the recording method, how we're going to, to capture the voice recordings of the guests and agreed on our recording kit.

So, um, agreed what mics and headphones and things that we were going to use to.

Sent to our guests so that they could record their voiceovers for each episode.

So there was a lot of thought that went into that um, the podcast and updating that strategy.

And following that, I put together a follow-up podcast strategy report, which was shared as a collaborative document so that the team at CIAT and myself could work on that together to finalize any items and.

Make any decisions that we hadn't been able to make in that initial strategy meeting.

I then set up a shared podcast planner spreadsheet that we are going to be using to keep track of the episode planning.

And we also set up the show on a new podcast hosting platform.

So we had to set up a redirect from the original podcast host of the new hosting platform podcast host is where?

Where the episodes are stored in the cloud and that's where they get distributed from to all of the different platforms like Spotify and Apple and Amazon Music.

We also set up a new podcast webpage and I think at some point that probably will get integrated into CIT Zone website, but we have a separate webpage specifically for the podcast at the moment.

And.

We also wrote and recorded with CITA podcast trailer for the show.

That's something that's really important to have a trailer to help promote your podcast.

And then we got the the next episode, which is coming out very, very soon, on the 30th of May.

I edited that episode, and that episode was from a live recording that was recorded at Future Build 2025.

So that kind of gives you a bit of a quick run through of all of the different tasks, the work that has been involved in relaunching a show.

So if you are thinking of launching your own podcast or if your business or organization is thinking of launching one.

There's gonna be some similarity there in, in terms of the to-do list and the items that need to be done for launching a show.

It's very similar to the work we've done there.

There's actually a few extra tasks that you'll need to do if it's brand new.

Uh, if it's a brand new show that you're launching but that gives you a really good flavor of what is likely to be involved in launching your show.

So, back to the where it's at podcast, what is that next episode all about?

And, and why should you bother tuning in?

So the episode that's dropping tomorrow if you're listening to this episode on the day of release, the Where it's at podcast episode is coming out tomorrow, which will be the 30th of May 2025.

If you're listening after that date, you should just be able to go and find that episode or whatever the latest episode is, wherever you find your podcast.

That episode is called The Healing Power of Buildings, and it explores the relationship between architectural technology and health features, guest speakers and Vanna from Healing Buildings, and Richard Olston from Olston and.

Donnelly Architecture.

Now, Anne previously featured on episode 12 of this podcast where she talked about returning to practice after a long break.

And Richard, I know through his practice, which is based in Lancaster where I used to live.

And Anne and Richard are discussing how design can improve wellbeing, and they talk about strategies for a healthier built environment and the importance of education to drive the industry forward.

Uh, so yeah, please.

If that sounds interesting, please go and check it out.

That episode was recorded live at Future Build 2025, and as I mentioned, it's

going to be released at 6:00 AM UK time on Friday the 30th of May, 2025.

So the editing of that episode.

So would you like to hear a little bit about what we're into the edit?

I'm sure you do.

So I'm gonna share a little bit about editing the episode.

So it was the first time that I had edited a podcast episode from a live event recording.

So normally, normally I'm present for recordings, so I'm either, um, doing a remote recording with my own guests or, uh, can in person studio setting.

This is the first time that I've had to put an episode together from a live recording, from another event that I hadn't attended.

So I was a little bit concerned about how it was gonna go and the edit did present a few challenges.

I was concerned about the sound quality and how I was going to edit this raw live recording into a polished podcast episode.

Well, as it happened, I needn't have worried I was able to apply noise reduction to the recording to improve the sound quality and actually.

Minimal edits were needed.

There was just a few cuts to take out one or two lines that just wouldn't make sense in a podcast episode.

But obviously it made sense to the audience, but it was a little bit of audience interaction that it, it just really wouldn't have made sense.

In a podcast episode, there was the occasional filler words that was cut out, not all of the filler words because, I dunno if you ever listened to any other podcast episodes where it can sound a bit unnatural and sometimes they can be so heavily edited that there can be sort of jumps in the audio as well, which sounds a bit distracting.

So we've edited out some of those ums and ahs, but not all of them.

I.

Uh, so it still sounds like a natural conversation.

I then hosted a remote recording session with Adam from CIAT, who was doing the voiceover work for their show, and we recorded the, uh, new intros and outros, mid-roll sections, all of that.

And then I stitched those recorded segments into the main episode.

So that main recording from the, the talk at future build, uh, that Ann and Richard did, we've stitched in.

Adam's voice for the intros and outros.

And we've also added in the new theme music that we've chosen together.

And this was a track that had a more, how can I put it, a more technology based sound to better reflect the themes of the show.

So I'm thinking more kind of tomorrow's world, because this is really right where architecture meets technology, uh, on that show.

And was there anything else that I did?

There was, there was a lot of other work too.

I created a whole batch of promotional assets, including show notes for the episode, social media, captions, hashtags, and audiograms.

And for future episodes, we'll also be producing short video clips.

So.

As you can tell, there is a lot of work to produce and promote, even just one podcast episode.

So I really have to tip my hat to any podcast podcasters out there, independent podcasters in particularly where you're producing your own shows and you know, those guys in those podcast production companies that are behind the scenes, there is an awful lot of work that goes into producing shows like this and like where it's at.

So a shout out to everybody that is sticking with podcasting.

So.

Round things up.

If you like the sound of where it's at, then please, please, please click the link in the show notes to subscribe today.

Go and give the show a chance.

We have got some interesting and exciting episodes coming up throughout the course of the year, so go and subscribe today so you don't miss any of those episodes.

And I hope you've enjoyed this behind the scenes episode.

I just wanted to give you.

A little glimpse into what actually goes on behind the scenes of producing a podcast.

Podcasting is a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of work.

But don't let that put you off getting into podcasting or launching your own show because help is closer to hand than you think.

If you'd like to explore how podcasting could benefit your business or organization, email me at John, that's JO n@architecturebusinessclub.com, or click the link in the show notes to book a no obligation Chat with me.

Next time I chat with Maya Cora about how to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

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