Optimizing Your Content Journey with My Personal Tech Stack Guide

Ever feel like you're juggling too many tools in your content creation process, barely keeping them all in the air? Join me as I lay out my personal content tech stack and walk you through the PREP'M method—an approach designed to streamline your planning, recording, editing, publishing, and marketing workflow. 

I'm sharing my favorite tools, like Asana for project management and Calendly, which can simplify scheduling to keep you organized and accountable. I'll also take a deep dive into the utilities that shape my content creation, including the game-changing podcast hosting service Buzzsprout, and learn how TubeBuddy can skyrocket your YouTube visibility. 

In this episode, I also tackle the nitty-gritty of managing your tech stack without breaking the bank—because nobody likes sneaky expenses from free trials that suddenly aren't so free anymore. From Buzzsprout's Magic Mastering to ConvertKit's marketing prowess, I'm sharing the secrets that could take your content to the next level. 

We don't have any guests this time—it's just you and me exploring the powerful tools at our fingertips and learning how to harness them for content creation success. So, gear up for a jam-packed session filled with actionable advice and insider tips that promise to elevate your content game.

How to Start a Podcast Guide: The Complete Guide
Learn how to plan, record, and launch your podcast with this illustrated guide.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

What is a tech stack? This is one of those phrases that you'll often hear that feels like that's something that was made up just to confuse everybody. But hang on one second, because this is one that I actually know and I know it really really well. And so a tech stack is simply the tools or the apps, the software. Anything that you invest in that is technology and it helps you do your job, create your content, record a YouTube video, you know, help you with a podcast episode, like all of those apps and software that make up all of those that help you record your content or edit it or publish it. That is your tech stack. So today we're going to talk about your content tech stack and the tools that I use all the time that helped me create content for the podcast, for my YouTube channel, and how I use them. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Prophet, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it. Shall we hey everyone and welcome back If we have not met before.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Hello, I am Crystal Prophet. I am a podcast coach and content strategist, and today we are talking about tech stacks. Now, specifically, we're talking about a content tech stack and I really want to go above and beyond just telling you well, here's all these tools. Good luck using them. I actually want to apply the method that I use to create all of my content so that you can contextualize when to use what tools and which ones that you can live without and which ones that you should go ahead and purchase immediately if you haven't already started creating content You're just in those beginning stages or if maybe you have a little more budget now and you're trying to decide where should I invest this money. So the prep them method this is my signature method that I created that really shows you how to create a piece of content. It's what I do for every podcast episode, every YouTube video, every email newsletter. Like everything that you see me create, I've applied the prep them method to it. So what does prep them stand for? Some stands for plan, record, edit, publish and market.

Speaker 1: 2:47

I really created the prep a method just to show you that content creation is easy. It is simple. It's just a matter of putting the right pieces into place at the right time, and it's why I want you to use the prep a method whenever you're deciding on your content tech stack. So we're going to actually walk through all the different steps of the prep a method and we're going to talk about the specific tools that I use, why I use them, why I love them so much and why I've chosen to reevaluate these on a regular basis to make sure that I'm still using the apps and softwares and the tools that really make sense for my content and what I'm creating today. So the first step in prep them is plan. This is probably my favorite, which is not fair to say, because I'll probably say that about every single step in the prepa method, but I love to plan. It makes my heart so happy to plan two weeks from now what I'm going to be doing, so that I know what to focus on today.

Speaker 1: 3:53

And there have been some tools that are absolutely crucial to this, and I use them every single day. I'm using one right now to record this episode today, and it is Asana. It is, it's my lifeblood. It really is. I use Asana in every facet of my business and I also use it in my personal life. I use the free version of Asana forever. I'm actually an Asana ambassador, which is super cool, like feather in my cap but I love it so much because it helps hold me accountable, and if you've been around here for a while, you've probably heard me talk about accountability whether you have an accountability partner or you have someone that will check in from time to time and say, hey, how's that going? Do you need help with something? And Asana is the thing that holds me to a deadline.

Speaker 1: 4:47

I am a textbook procrastinator. I really am. It may look like I get a whole bunch done, but I mean the left to my own devices. I would procrastinate everything, and I still do. Let's just be totally honest. There's probably nine things that are overdue in my Asana today, but whenever I hold myself accountable with the due dates, assigning things to myself, I am able to get more stuff done. And now that I'm working with a team of people, it's even better because we can collaborate in there. We can share messages back and forth. I can assign things to someone else, they can assign things to me, so we know what is the most critical pieces of creating our content. But the biggest thing that I love about it is it helps me plan months in advance. I use this for planning my content for podcast episodes, youtube videos, affiliate launches, like just for everything. I love Asana so so much, so that's the first tool that I recommend having in your content stack is, even if it's not a sauna, some sort of project management tool that will help hold you accountable with due dates and making sure that those deadlines are met, and it holds you accountable to really create incredible content. So that's the first one. The next one Calendly.

Speaker 1: 6:11

I use Calendly still. I've used it for years and years. I mean since 2018 is when I originally started using Calendly, and it is the app that I use to help me schedule my podcast interviews. Whenever I'm going to guest on someone else's show, I can use that as, like you know, here's my like. Let's find a time that works for both of us. One of the newest features that I love about Calendly is the ability to have your availability on there, and it applies to any event that you have. So I'll do these um call like coaching calls from time to time and I love having my interviews are updated, my coaching calls are updated and any other event that I have scheduled in Calendly is updated whenever I update my availability. So one thing you have to know about me is I take my non-negotiables very seriously and so at the very beginning of the year, I said, okay, when are we going on vacation, when do I want to take time off? When do I not want to do any interviews or when do I want to skip a month of coaching, like what does my life look like? And I had to create that. And Calendly is able to help me do that because I can update my availability anytime I need to adjust for being out of town or unavailable. So, love Calendly.

Speaker 1: 7:29

The next ones these go together because they're in the Google suite. I love Google Drive. I love all of those. I use Google Docs and Google Sheets to do so much of my planning. So I use Google Sheets as my, like preliminary, content calendar. You can actually go and watch this video. I'll have it linked in the video description as well as in the podcast show notes description.

Speaker 1: 7:50

But I've used Google Sheets and Asana for my content calendar. Now Google Sheets is more of like the whiteboard version, the rough draft, like scratch it all down in a notebook piece of paper and it is where I put all of my ideas and it's pretty messy, like I'm not going to lie. I mean it looks pretty. Don't get me wrong. I have made it look gorgeous in my Google Sheets content calendar but it changes and I can move things around. It's not the permanent final Like. This is concrete. We can't move anything. But whenever everything is transferred into Asana, that's like we're not going to touch this. We try to make minimal changes once it gets to that like point. But I want to have a place where we can still move things around, like you ever get that feeling.

Speaker 1: 8:36

If you're like I just don't want to record this podcast episode today, I want to do something different than you can switch things around and your Google Sheets a lot easier. So it's why I highly recommend it and it's free if you can. You know work in Google and you have a free account. I just recommend Google Sheets for that, as well as Google Docs. If you need another place to brainstorm ideas and you don't have a project management tool like Asana, then I got started in, you know, google Docs and I still plan so much of my content there, so you could use that as a great resource. All right, uber suggest. We just recently had a podcast episode, youtube video about SEO and SEO Like I use Uber suggest for my SEO is part of my content stack.

Speaker 1: 9:23

I use it to crawl my website. Let me know of any opportunities. So when I'm in the planning mode right Cause we're talking about the PREPA method I'm in the planning phase I will use suggestions from Uber suggest that are like hey, you need to create a piece of content about this because your previous stuff has performed really well and you haven't done anything about it in a while, so I will use Uber suggest for that. I also use keywords everywhere If I'm really looking to see like okay, here's a topic that I've seen people talk about, is it really popular online or people searching for this? And keywords everywhere is a tool I've used for a really long time. It's cheap and you are able to use it on Google, on Amazon, on YouTube, and it just really helps to find those topics that people are already searching for and it allows you to have that more of that information, that data, like those numbers that you can say no people are actually looking for this. It's not just my hunch that I want to talk about it. People are already looking for it, so it can help you in your SEO strategies. So those are all the tools that I use and I recommend in my content stack for planning your content.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Okay, now that we talked about planning, we need to dive into recording, because everyone wants to talk about what do you use to record things and what's easy to use, what has higher quality outputs and what are the things that I really need. Crystal, just tell me what do I need for my recording? And it's really funny because so many people put emphasis on the tech and the apps and everything for recording, but once you decide on these, you don't really have to make these decisions over and over and over again. So if you're brand new to this, don't worry. Hopefully, once you find the recording tools that you want and really love to use, then you're good to go. We don't have to keep hopping around and trying all the tools, because I've done it for you, okay, like, let me just say that I've tried all of the tools and here is the content tech stack that I have for recording my content, so I jotted all these down.

Speaker 1: 11:27

The first one is Riverside. So if you go to crystalprofitcom, forward, slash riverside, you can check out all the tools and features that they have. I use this to record my podcast episodes, my YouTube videos and it's just great for solo content, it's great for interviews and it really just allows for you to have everything in one place and you can share it with a VA or a podcast editor. But Riverside can also help you with some simple editing, and some of the AI tools are really cool, including transcripts and magic edits and all the things. So highly recommend Riverside. It is a tool that I recently started using and I really like how well it's been working for me.

Speaker 1: 12:12

And then the other one that I will use I still use Hindenburg from time to time, so Hindenburg journalist pro is the audio software that I love so much. It is fantastic. It has this feature that allows me to record my voice and then, with a click of a button, it will auto level everything. So if I do like I do and get way too loud, which always happens it will auto level everything, and it sounds so much better after it's gone through its magic levels. But it's just really simple and easy to use. It's super intuitive and it's just one that I will use for recording whenever I'm creating my podcast ads or other things that require everything to be audio. But what I also love about it is I could take a file from Riverside and upload it directly into Hindenburg. Whether it's an MP4 or it's a wave or it's an MP3, I can put it directly into Hindenburg and I can edit it that way. So super cool. I absolutely love Hindenburg.

Speaker 1: 13:17

The other one is Camtasia. I use Camtasia for recording some of my YouTube videos. Whenever I'm doing screen shares or I'm just recording like myself direct camera, I will use Camtasia as well for recording. And then I also use StreamYard. Now. Streamyard is a great tool if you want to go live and record your content that way. You want to stream it out on YouTube. They even have Instagram now. Streamyard is fantastic for streaming live content. You can go to crystalprofitcom forward slash StreamYard to check them out. I'm an affiliate for so many of these companies. I talk about them all the time, but these are the ones that I use to record my content, so make sure you go check those out.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Editing Editing is the next step in the prepim method that we need to talk about today, and it's a pretty short stack, like no fun intended. I use two tools for editing. Today, I use Hindenburg and Camtasia, so we've already talked about these. These are the ones that I've already mentioned for recording content, but these are the ones that are just so easy Y'all. I've tried all of the tools, and when I say all of them, I mean all of the tools, and these are the ones that I have just settled on. They're very simple. They don't have so many options to make custom edits that it feels very overwhelming. I have found this with some of the pricier, fancier tools, and I'm just a simple lady. I just want to be able to record back on to it and edit it with ease, and so I have recommended so many others over the years, and these are the two that I've settled on. So keep it simple. You don't have to be so complex when it comes to editing. I knew I was taking a risk at having Wally make a cameo if I came in here, but we needed to get comfortable for this section of the proper method, because when it comes to publishing, this is where my tech stack is it's heaviest. So let's talk about what I use to publish content.

Speaker 1: 15:27

The first tool we need to talk about is TubeBuddy. So TubeBuddy is a YouTube API that allows you to really hone in on those tags and keywords and optimize your video. That way you can get more views and rank your videos higher. I've used this for the last few years on my YouTube channel. You can go to crystalprofitcom forward slash TubeBuddy to check it out, but it's one of those that I just I can't live without it. I'm pretty spoiled by it and it just reminds me of like there's literally a checklist of every single video Whenever I upload it. It's like hey, don't forget to put a card on there, or you really don't have a tag that's listed in your title and you could make your video so much stronger if you do this, this and this. So highly recommend TubeBuddy.

Speaker 1: 16:22

The next one we need to talk about is Buzzsprout. I'm really surprised it hasn't come up before now, because if you've been around here for a while, you know how much I love Buzzsprout. I talk about it all the time. I actually was just in a Facebook group the other day and someone I wrote this down on my notes. It says someone posted where do you host your podcast? I'm thinking about moving our podcast to a new service and would love current recommendations. There was an outpouring of love I mean, this group has thousands of people in it and there was an outpouring of love for Buzzsprout, so make sure you go check them out.

Speaker 1: 17:34

I am a Buzzsprout creator. I've been with them since the beginning of time or the beginning of my content creation journey, and you can go to crystalprofitcom forward slash Buzzsprout to check them out. I love all the features they have for publishing and marketing. I'm skipping ahead a little bit. We're not quite there, but we will talk about them again in marketing but when it comes to publishing, all you have to do is upload your content and then you are able to publish it to all the places where you want your content listed, whether it's Apple Podcasts, spotify, it's YouTube. Now they even have an integration to publish your podcast directly to YouTube. So go check out Buzzsprout. They are just the best. They are the best when it comes to podcast host.

Speaker 1: 18:22

Now, the next one that we need to talk about is co-host from Buzzsprout. Now, this is not necessarily a free plan feature or one that just automatically happens whenever you join Buzzsprout. You have to be intentional about using co-host. It is worth every single penny. And it is one of those things where you upload your episode and it processes it. This is their AI tool that processes your transcript. It transcribes everything, whether it's a solo episode or an interview, and then it uses that to generate blog posts your titles, a description. It will create social posts. Like so many incredible things happen with the Buzzsprout co-host tool. I just I use it. Every single time I publish a brand new episode, I use the co-host app. I know, I know we're talking about things and we're not talking about you. I'm so sorry, but highly recommend co-host from Buzzsprout.

Speaker 1: 19:24

And now the last two tools that we need to talk about is WordPress, because WordPress is where I published my podcast show notes. So this is my website builder and it's where I publish all of my show notes, and I just couldn't do it, do what I do without my WordPress website. So of course, it's part of my tech stack. And then the last one we need to talk about is Cast Magic. Now, cast Magic is something I started using and it is incredible. It is incredible. I haven't talked about it enough, but I will upload a podcast episode or YouTube video once it's finished and it will do similar to co-host AI, but it goes above and beyond that and it creates, like your own little chat GPT for that specific episode. So you could say, take this transcript and turn it into a 20 tweet thread. I don't even know what it's called because, again, I don't use Twitter I haven't said that in this video, but I don't use X or Twitter but it can create all those things for you. It could create an Instagram real script for you. It could write an email newsletter, it could create blog posts. It could do all these things, but it's using your original content. So Cast Magic is fantastic. You can go to crystalprofitcom forward slash cast magic to try them out too. But yeah, I mean all of these.

Speaker 1: 20:51

We just we needed to talk so much about publishing. I really want to circle back, because I just realized I forgot one that we needed to talk about in editing, because I told you earlier. I was like oh, there's two tools that I use. There's another one and honestly, I just forgot that I use it because it's automatically applied to my audio, but Buzzsprout has a feature called magic mastering. So this goes to show you like whenever I it's just a tool that I use and I forgot how amazing it is. But if you were to listen to a raw episode, meaning like I just finished it and I publish it, you were just listening to it on Google Drive. It sounds very different than an episode that went through magic mastering. So I do also like we'll categorize that as part of my editing tech stack. But try, I just I mean, do you need me to say it? Do you need me to say it? I'll say it. I love Buzzsprout. I love them so much. They are incredible and I I mean, of course, they're like the top of my tech stack when it comes to creating content.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Okay, and last but not least, in the prep method, we have marketing. Now, if you are not new to the podcast or the YouTube channel, you know how much of a digital marketing nerd I am and I love talking about my tech stack for marketing. So the first one that we need to cover is ConvertKit. So I've talked about ConvertKit many times on here. I've been partnering with them, I feel like forever. They are so incredible and they are my email service provider. So it is how I promote all of my episodes every week. If you're not on my email newsletter, you can go to crystalprofitcom, go all the way down to the footer and there is a place to get on my email list. This is the best place to get updates, know about resources and hear stories from me that you will not hear anywhere else. They are all original stories that I share in my newsletter, and some of them are quite the doozies that I put in there, but that's what it's there for to share more about the fun things that we're doing at Profit Media, and ConvertKit is just one of my favorites. It's super easy to use, it's continuously evolving and getting better and if you need an email service provider, I highly recommend checking out ConvertKit. But again, it goes in my marketing tech stack for all of my content.

Speaker 1: 23:22

The next one is Canva. Right, you have to have some visuals to represent your brand, whether it's for your YouTube thumbnails or it's for my soundbites, I will create these pictures that I use for promoting the podcast every single week, and so the visuals that I use for profit media, for the podcast, for YouTube all of that is created in Canva. I'm in Canva at least once a day working on something or thinking of new ideas, so I love Canva. Go check it out If you have not. I actually have this video right here that it's how to create a soundbite using Canva, so check it out If you are a podcaster. It's one of my most popular videos. People love this video, so make sure you go check that one out. But the last three are all within Bussprout.

Speaker 1: 24:13

Again, I told you I know this episode today was not sponsored by Bussprout whatsoever, but it has the things that I use on a regular basis, which is why I talk about it so much. So Bussprout soundbites. I use these to market my episodes. I have several videos on how to create soundbites within the Bussprout app and what that looks like. I also use Bussprout ads. Now, I don't use it necessarily to always promote my podcast, but it is something that I've played around with and I want you to go check it out and see if it's the right fit for your show. So the way that Bussprout ads work and I'll link to this video right here to show you you know like the breakdown of everything you need to know. But the main thing is it is a podcast ad that is played on your show and you are making money from it. So there's two ways to use podcast ads. You can make money from other people running ads on your show, or you can promote your show and be on someone else's podcast. So it's a very cool, intuitive platform that allows other Bussprout creators to help promote other shows, and I highly recommend it. If you have some spare budget in your marketing this year, then try out Bussprout ads and see how it works for you.

Speaker 1: 25:36

But the other one is dynamic content. I love dynamic content. When dynamic content came out like I still remember this this is how long I've been with Bussprout I remember when they were testing the idea and I had access to the tool before anybody else and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is what I have been looking for. I have been wanting to record something and blast it on every single one of my episodes, and this is the tool that allows you to do that. Whether it's a pre-roll ad or if it's a mid-roll announcement you want to have, or it's something that's post-roll after your episode is done, and it's like a quick reminder for an upcoming event, whatever it is, I love the dynamic content that you can use within Bussprout to not only market the content that you're creating, but other aspects of your business, which is why it's so important to have this as part of your content tech stack because it will allow you to give timely announcements to your audience or talk about promotions.

Speaker 1: 26:37

And I could just go on and on about what I love Bussprout's dynamic content but I have videos about it. I have podcast episodes about it, so make sure you go check those out. So there you have it. That is my tech stack for the Prepom method, and most of these haven't changed too much over the years. Sure, I have endorsed different recording studios or some of the different editing, but at the end of the day, you really just need to follow the Prepom process again, that's, plan, record, edit, publish and market and find the tools that will help you in each of those stages. Now you will notice that a lot of these are used for multiple purposes. It's not like you need 10 things just for recording and five things for planning, like there are a lot of these that are free or, you know, very affordable options that you can go with, but always look for things that work for you and work for your budget.

Speaker 1: 27:36

But I want to cover a few questions that I always ask, okay, because one of them is what makes a good content app and I always look for, like. My default is what are their help resources? So I want to give a huge shout out to convert kit again, because they have incredible YouTube videos, help articles. Their customer support is incredible. Again, with Buzzsprout, they have great help articles, youtube videos. Their customer support is incredible. We see a trend here, right? I always look for companies that really invest in your customer success, because whenever you have success with their application, it's easy to use, it functions the way that you expect it to, you're going to have a better experience and they're going to have happy customers. I always look for people that are making big investments in their customer happiness, because they are the ones that are going to win time and time again.

Speaker 1: 28:34

But the other question is do I still need this? And really, what that comes down to is evaluating your tech stack. Yes, you do need to go back through your quick books or whatever budgeting you know, building software that you're using and evaluate like. Don't be one of those people that is subscribed to 10,000 things and you're like why is this so expensive? Like now I understand why my content is stressing me out it's costing me thousands of dollars a month for all of these applications that I don't even use and, yes, even those $20 ones add up really fast. So make sure that you are checking on at least a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 29:18

I do this quarterly. I will sit down, I will look at everything that I spent over the last 90 days and ask myself do I still really need this? Am I using it on a regular basis, or am I using it enough to justify the cost? Maybe I need to downgrade my plan, maybe I need to upgrade others, and maybe there's some that I don't need to use it. For the next six months, I'm just going to use something else, or I'm going to see how my content or my business operates without it entirely.

Speaker 1: 29:48

But don't be one of those people that just signs up for all these free trials and then all of a sudden, you're in the hall and you're like, wait, where did that $500 go? Oh wait, I was signed up for all these $20. I sent them for these free plans that all turned into $20 hits that hit my account all at the same time. I've seen it happen so many times. So evaluate on a regular basis what is your tech stack? Is it meeting your needs, and are these still the tools and resources that you need to have, but that's all I have for you today.

Speaker 1: 30:21

Hopefully you enjoyed today's video all about the content tech stack and I would love to know if you have any questions. Make sure you post them below or reach out. If you're on my email list, let me know what are your questions about the content tech stack, because maybe that will be a future video for the YouTube channel or maybe a podcast episode, and if you have a question, do not hesitate to reach out. You can always reach us by emailing crystal at crystalprofitcom. And that's all I have for you today. So make sure you are subscribed or following wherever you are listening or watching today and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.