Sydney and Audrey of Garvey's Gardens podcast discuss their behind-the-scenes operations during a 'week in the life of a podcast creator' episode. Sydney handles on-air hosting; Audrey manages all backend operations. They record once weekly on Tuesdays after close and intentionally batch content in advance. The breakthrough moment came when Audrey began uploading episodes to Spotify weeks ahead of publication date—previously, Sydney was publishing the next day's episode on Wednesday nights. This shift from daily uploads to monthly buffers was transformative for reducing stress. Their master editorial calendar lives in a Google Doc organized by year (2023-2026) with episode numbers, dates, and seasonal themes ('November on the farm,' 'August back-to-school'). They quarterly sit for 'brain dump' sessions to brainstorm new episode ideas and adjust plans. Technically, they record on MacBooks using free GarageBand, with affordable Blue Snowball microphones (~$50). They migrated from Libsyn to Spotify Creators platform (free, modern, syndicates to all podcast apps) and tested video features but found that too labor-intensive. Content strategy: the podcast is their anchor content, alongside a wedding-focused blog. These feed into email, social media (Instagram, planning Pinterest), and other marketing channels. They solicit listener episode ideas via email ([email protected]) and have standing recurring themes (evergreen content) like seasonal farm activities. Audrey is also planning to expand into systematic content repurposing (podcast episode → blog → emails → social media graphics).
