How I Run A Multi-Platform Leadership Show In My Spare Time
Without a Production Team
I was recently chatting with a fellow coach who asked how on earth I manage to produce a weekly podcast, regular articles, a YouTube channel, and multiple social media video campaigns - all in my spare time. They assumed I had a hidden army of editors tucked away in a studio. When I told them it was just me, a laptop, and a very clever piece of software, they were amazed. I love sharing this because it represents a fundamental shift in how we, as leaders, can amplify our voices without burning out.
The reality of modern leadership is that we are all content creators now. Whether you are leading a global change programme or coaching a startup founder, your ability to scale your insights is your greatest lever. In my book, Enhanced Leadership, I talk extensively about the ‘rewired’ approach to leadership. This means designing our processes from the ground up with technology as a foundation, rather than simply bolting tools onto old, inefficient ways of working. Running a multi-platform show solo is the ultimate test of this philosophy.
The Core Concepts: Text-Based Content Creation
Before we dive into the ‘how’, we must understand the ‘what’. The traditional video editing workflow is linear, technical, and, frankly, exhausting. It usually involves staring at complex waveforms and hunting for the exact millisecond where you tripped over a word. Descript flips this logic on its head by treating video and audio exactly like a Word document.
Whenever I write about a specific product, I always feel compelled to make it very clear but I'm not being sponsored! Just talking about tools that I use myself and I think others would benefit from.
The first core concept is Text-Based Editing. If you can delete a sentence in an email, you can edit a podcast. The software transcribes your recording instantly, and any change you make to the text is reflected in the audio and video. This is the ‘intuition’ I often rave about; it feels like the software finally speaks the language of a writer rather than a technician.
The second concept is AI-Driven Polish. This includes features like Studio Sound, which uses generative AI to make a home recording sound like it was captured in a professional booth, and Filler Word Removal, which identifies every ‘um’, ‘ah’, and ‘you know’ in a single click.
Finally, there is Multi-Platform Repurposing. This is the art of taking one high-quality hour of conversation and atomising it into dozens of assets for LinkedIn, YouTube, and Substack.
Learning as I Go: The Intuition of the Workflow
When I first started, I was terrified of the ‘technical’ side of podcasting. I spent hours watching tutorials on EQ settings and compression, only to end up with audio that sounded thin and robotic. I felt like a fraud; here I was, an expert in leadership strategy, defeated by a digital slider.
The moment I switched to Descript, everything changed. I remember the first time I used the Remove Filler Words feature. I watched as hundreds of my nervous stammers vanished from the transcript, and the audio stayed perfectly smooth. It was a revelation. It allowed me to stop focusing on the mechanics of ‘fixing’ and start focusing on the ‘strategy’ of the message.
Of course, it has not all been plain sailing. I have had to learn as I go. For instance, I use a teleprompter to keep eye contact with my audience, but as a glasses wearer, I quickly discovered that the glare was making me look like a character from a sci-fi film. This is one area where I have had to be honest with myself. Currently, the software does not have a specific feature to remove lens glare or artificially correct eye contact.
However, because of the sheer pace of innovation I have seen from the team, and their skillful deployment of AI in other areas, I remain incredibly hopeful. I suspect it is only a matter of time before these technical hurdles are solved with a single click. In the meantime, I have learned to tilt my lights and adjust my seating, treating these small imperfections as part of the authentic ‘learning as I go’ process that I often coach others through.
My workflow is now a well-oiled machine. I record a guest interview via a remote recording platform, which feeds directly into Descript. From there, I spend about ninety minutes turning that raw material into a full podcast episode, duplicate versions optimised for the different requirements of various platforms, and several short-form clips. I am not an editor; I am a curator of ideas.
Detailed Elaboration on the Workflow
To truly understand how this fits into a busy schedule, we can break down the specific tactics that save me over ten hours every single week:
The Initial Cleanup: Once the file is uploaded, I run the Studio Sound tool. This is essential because, despite having a decent microphone, my home office is not always perfectly quiet. This tool removes the background hum and the distant noise of the street, leaving me with professional-grade audio.
Highlighting the Magic: As I read through the transcript, I look for ‘Golden Nuggets’. These are the moments where a guest says something truly profound about leadership resilience or AI ethics. I simply highlight these sections and ‘Duplicate to New Composition’. Suddenly, I have the basis for five or six mini-clips or LinkedIn reels.
The Overdub Safety Net: We all make mistakes. Sometimes a guest mispronounces a name or I stumble over a statistic. In the old days, that would mean a re-record. Now, I use Overdub. I have trained an AI version of my own voice, so I can simply type the correction into the script and the software generates the audio for me. It is indistinguishable from the original recording.
Batch Exporting: Once the edit is done, I export everything in one go. I get the MP3 for Spotify, the MP4 for YouTube, and a clean markdown transcript for this very Substack.
For Leaders: Scaling Your Presence
As a leader, your most valuable asset is your time. You might feel that you do not have the ‘bandwidth’ to create content, but I argue that you do not have the bandwidth not to. In Enhanced Leadership, I state that ‘the most effective leaders encourage a sense of agency in others’. By sharing your journey and your ‘learning as I go’ moments, you provide a roadmap for your team to do the same. Use these tools to document your thoughts on strategy or change. It creates a ‘digital twin’ of your leadership style that works for you even when you are off the clock.
For Coaches: Building a Practice with Leverage
For my fellow coaches, this is about visibility. We often live in the ‘referral trap’, where our next client depends entirely on word of mouth. By using a tool like Descript to turn your coaching insights into short-form video clips, you are effectively auditioning for thousands of potential clients at once. It allows you to maintain a ‘high-touch’ brand with a ‘low-friction’ production process. You can spend your evenings coaching rather than cutting video.
Conclusion and Call to Action
The transition from a ‘bolted-on’ approach to a ‘rewired’ approach is what separates modern leaders from those who are merely busy. By embracing intuitive tools like Descript, I have grown my skills, my audience, and my enjoyment!
It has allowed me to lead with my voice, not my technical skills.
I want you to experience this for yourself. Do not wait for a production team that may never come.
Sign up to Descript using this link for 50% off the creator plan for two months.
Start by recording a ten-minute leadership tip on your phone, and see how easy it is to transform it into a professional asset.
Your voice deserves to be heard across every platform. It is time to level up!
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Level Up Leadership is a passion project in my spare time. I enjoy doing it, and I intend to keep these articles and podcasts free. However, the software and equipment I use isn’t free! So, if you are enjoying this content and would like to make a donation, you can do so by clicking this button. Thank you.