How to Automate Your Podcast Using AI Without Losing Your Soul – Dan Sanchez

There’s never been a better time to be a podcaster—or a content marketer for that matter. Tools driven by artificial intelligence are flipping the script on what’s possible, simplifying processes that used to take days, if not weeks, to just a matter of hours. Let me tell you, as someone who’s been in the trenches of podcast production, this tech is an absolute game-changer. Imagine automating most of your production workflow without losing your personal touch. Intrigued? Let me show you how I’ve built an AI-powered podcast system that creates a waterfall of content with each episode.

Why Video Podcasts Sit at the Top of the Content Pyramid

First off, let’s acknowledge something: a video podcast is basically the Swiss Army knife of content marketing. With one video, you’re creating:

A video format for platforms like YouTube
An audio version for podcast directories
Full-length blog posts
Short-form social media posts
Custom images and thumbnails

Sadly, many podcasters pour all their energy into getting their episodes published and then stop there. That’s such a missed opportunity! Each episode can—and should—serve as fuel for your entire content pipeline. So how do you manage it all? The key is automation.

Step 1: Pre-Production Made Stress-Free

I used to spend an agonizing amount of time researching guests, outlining questions, and brainstorming catchy titles. Now, I rely on a custom-built AI tool that speeds up pre-production to just a few minutes.

Here’s how it works:

Paste your guest’s LinkedIn profile or website URL into the AI tool.
The AI scans their background and generates several episode angles tailored to their expertise and your podcast’s theme.
Choose the angle that resonates with you, and the tool spits out a full outline, complete with suggested titles, intros, and questions.

This system eliminates the heavy lifting, allowing me to focus on crafting valuable conversations rather than sweating the small details. If you’re podcasting with guests, automating this part of the workflow is an absolute lifesaver.

Step 2: A One-Stop-Shop for Podcast Production

Once I’ve got my episode planned, I move into production using a tool that’s changed the game for me: Zencastr. It’s an all-in-one tool that records, edits, and even handles publishing. No need to juggle multiple subscriptions or stitch together different platforms—it’s all in one place.

What makes Zencastr shine:

High-resolution recordings stored locally, then uploaded seamlessly in the background.
Built-in transcription services—no third-party tools required.
A simple editing interface that removes filler words like “um” and “ah” and trims long silences automatically.
Tools to effortlessly create social media clips and add intros/outros to your episodes.
Publishing capabilities that include video RSS feeds (rare!) for platforms like Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Here’s my philosophy: keep the editing minimal. The value of a podcast comes from the insights you deliver to your audience, not over-the-top post-production effects. By keeping things simple and using tools like Zencastr, I’m able to stay laser-focused on quality content.

Step 3: Post-Production Becomes a Content Factory

Here’s where the magic really happens. Once Zencastr provides me with a finished episode, I leverage a powerful automation tool called N8N to turn that one file into a full-blown content ecosystem.

Step-by-step breakdown:

Grab the RSS Feed: N8N pulls the podcast episode feed from Zencastr and uploads it to YouTube with a resized thumbnail—no manual intervention required.
Scrape the Transcript: Since Zencastr publishes a transcript on the episode’s webpage, I scrape it and run it through an AI model to clean it up and extract only the transcript.
Generate a Blog Post: The cleaned-up transcript gets sent to ChatGPT, where a pre-built prompt transforms it into a fully optimized blog post. The featured image and embedded YouTube link are automatically included in the post.
Social Media Posts: Using the content, I generate snippets and captions for sharing across platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Newsletter Drafting: While still in progress, my system will soon automatically create a newsletter draft with relevant links and images to promote the episode further.

While setting up N8N took some time and technical effort, it’s already paying dividends. The system eliminates repetitive tasks and ensures my podcast isn’t just a one-and-done effort—it anchors a strategy that engages listeners across multiple channels.

What’s Next for Podcast Workflow Automation?

While I’m thrilled with how this system works now, I’m constantly tweaking and adding to it. For instance, I’m working on automating more of the email newsletter process and creating personalized outreach to promote specific episodes. The possibilities are endless when you build a robust and flexible workflow.

Why All This Matters

Here’s the bottom line: producing a podcast is a lot of work, but it’s also an incredible way to deliver value to your audience. The goal of automation isn’t to replace creativity or authenticity—it’s to eliminate the tedious steps so you can focus on creating content that matters.

When you leverage tools like AI-driven pre-production workflows, do-it-all production platforms like Zencastr, and post-production automations, you’ll not only save time, but you’ll also make the most out of every single episode you create.

If you’re sitting on great content but find it too draining to execute, this approach just might change the way you work for the better.

Episode Transcript & Magic Chat

Coming soon.