AI production system for independent podcasters
The complete production system behind The Life Shift Podcast, ready to copy into your own Notion and Claude. Every file, every prompt, and a step-by-step guide to set it up for your show.
Not ready yet? Take the free 60-second audit and see where your time goes.
Sound familiar?
You care about this show. You're also doing the job of an entire production team, alone. Every solo podcaster hits this wall eventually, and it says nothing about how good your show is.
And the gap between what you're putting out and what you know the show could be? That gap lives in your head rent-free.
If you've tried AI and the output didn't sound like you, you were missing one piece, and it's fixable. What's really going on is an architecture problem. The podcasters who seem to have it together have handed the repeatable work to a system, so their time goes to the parts only they can do.
Not sure how buried you are? Take the free 60-second audit. Eight questions, no login.
What you get
Built for Claude
Claude Project instructions, skills, scheduled tasks, and workflows that use Claude's connections to the tools you already use. Set it up once, use it every episode.
What you need
Claude runs the system. Notion holds the workspace, release calendar and guest resource kit. Google Docs works for Content Engine output if you prefer that piece. You don't need to know Claude going in. The setup guide teaches you as you go.
Look inside
Every screen below comes from the workspace you get, running on The Life Shift. Every table-style worksheet is also in Google Sheets if you prefer that.
“I'm not a podcast production expert. I built this system because I ran out of time and had no other choice.”
Matt Gilhooly · Solo host & producer, The Life Shift Podcast
Who built this
Solo and Scalable is the AI podcast production system built by Matt Gilhooly, solo host and producer of The Life Shift Podcast. 300+ episodes, twice weekly, with 83 chart placements across 53 countries. He built the system behind it by himself.
He ran out of time, and he figured something out.
A few years ago every episode meant starting from scratch. Writing all the copy by hand, copying and pasting guest information into every platform, posting one thing at a time. Production was eating the creative work whole.
So he built a system. Piece by piece. Workflow by workflow. This is that system. It's the actual thing, running an actual show, every week.
Once the system was running, he brought on two part-time VAs. One edits the episodes. One builds the weekly assets from his templates. Neither needed much explaining, because the system already knew what to do. That only worked because the system came first. You don't need a team to start. He didn't.
From founding members
Real quote from a founding member goes here. Ideally about the moment it clicked, something specific about voice, the content engine, or release day.
Founding member · Solo podcaster
Second quote here. Best if it comes from someone who had already tried AI and given up. The "I didn't think it could actually sound like me" story, resolved.
Founding member · Solo podcaster
Third quote focused on a specific result. Concrete and specific beats general praise. Something like: "I ran the content engine on Monday and had everything scheduled by Tuesday."
Founding member · Solo podcaster
The curriculum
Each part is a set of ready-to-use files plus a written guide that walks you through setting them up for your show. And for the big workflows, you see it on the real show: the actual thing running on The Life Shift. No script. No polish.
The principle
“The system does the work. You keep everything that makes it yours.”
Foundation
Before you touch a single tool, you audit where your time actually goes. Three buckets: what only you can do, what a system could do, and what's falling through the cracks.
Module 1Required first
One transcript. Show notes, titles, YouTube description, blog post, social captions, newsletter brief, guest quotes. All drafted in your voice from a single source of truth.
Watch it run: a real episode, transcript in, full content package out
Module 2
Build a triage layer that screens pitches against your editorial criteria, drafts a response, and saves it for your review. You stay in control. The system does the sorting.
Module 3
Two parallel tracks, video content and static assets, running simultaneously. Plus the media lesson most podcasters learn the hard way after something breaks two weeks out.
Watch it run: both tracks on a real episode, including the media fix
Module 4
One trigger updates your episode page, your guest profile, and your resource page simultaneously, so every guest feels taken care of without you doing it manually.
Watch it run: one trigger on a real episode, and everything updates
Module 5
AI does the archaeology. You write the letter. This module finds where one ends and the other begins, and builds everything up to your handoff line.
Module 6
Systems break. Tools change. This module is about building something modular enough to absorb change, and maintaining it so it keeps working long after setup.
0
Real episodes. This system runs all of them.
4
Big workflows shown on real Life Shift episodes. No staging.
Bonus module
One place for your show's numbers: podcast downloads, website, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, with plain-language insights and next steps. Opens after Module 1.
Watch it run: the Life Shift Pulse dashboard, built for real. Numbers blurred
The shift
“I finally have Saturday and Sunday back to focus on other things.”
Matt Gilhooly · after building this system for The Life Shift
Before
After
The stack
These are the tools I personally use to run The Life Shift Podcast. Claude is the one you need. The system is built for it from start to finish. Everything else on this list has alternatives, but if you want to use exactly what I use, these are the links.
Some links are affiliate links. Using them costs you nothing and helps support the show.
Get access
The system
Solo and Scalable
$97$147
Founding member price · goes to $147 after October 18
14-day guarantee when you run it on a real episode
Try it on a real episode.
Set up your voice brief and run the content engine on one episode. If it doesn't save you time, send me your first-run output within 14 days and I'll refund you in full.
You won't be stuck, either. If any part of the setup trips you up, email me and I'll help you get it running.
Not sure yet? Take the free 60-second audit
Questions
Take the free 60-second audit. You answer eight questions about how your episodes get made, and it shows how much of your week is going to work a system could carry, plus the one workflow to fix first.
First, you won't be stuck: if any part of the setup trips you up, email me and I'll help you get it running. And if you set up your voice brief, run the content engine on a real episode and it doesn't save you time, send me your first-run output within 14 days for a full refund. Because you get the whole system the moment you buy, refunds are for people who gave it a real try.
No. Curious is enough. You'll pick up what you need about AI as you set the system up.
You need a paid Claude plan and Notion. The whole system is built on Claude Projects, skills, scheduled tasks and tool connections, and those all need a paid plan. Notion is where the workspace, release calendar and guest resource kit live. Google Docs works for Content Engine output if you prefer that piece. Everything else is what I use and you can swap in your own.
The workflows are built around an interview format, so that's the clearest fit. But the underlying principles, voice-locked prompting, parallel release tracks, editorial triage, apply to any format. Solo or narrative podcasters will find the system about 80% applicable.
Honestly, probably not yet. This is for podcasters with an established show, at least 20 episodes in, who are feeling the production weight. Come back when the show has legs. This will still be here.
About 4–5 hours of setup, spread over a week or two as you go. Most people work through it over a week or two, implementing as they go. Foundation and Module 1 are gated. Everything else opens in any order.
Yes. Out of the box, AI doesn't know how you talk, what you care about, or how you'd frame a guest's story. When you give it nothing about your voice, it gives you generic. What was missing was a voice brief, a document you build once that encodes your tone into every prompt. That's what Module 1 builds. After that, the output stops sounding like a press release about your own episode and starts sounding like you wrote it on a good day.
Because it's what my show actually runs on. Projects hold my voice. Skills and scheduled tasks do the repeat work. Connections to my podcast host, website, social scheduler and inbox let the pieces talk to each other. I tried keeping the system tool-neutral, and every file got weaker in translation. So I built it around the real thing.
You need a system.
Get the System