Podcast CRM: turning a guest tracker into Jon's producer tool
Plan for Luke to react to. Built on the guest CRM and release flow already live. 2026-08-28.
Branding note
The plan is the "what." For the look, I do not want to invent a brand. I need Jon's actual After IV / World Changer Podcast identity, cover art, color, and type, so the tool feels like his show and not a generic CRM. I can pull it from Ivy's episode kits and his published feed, but the cleanest is a pointer from you or Jon to the real brand source. Say the word and I brand every screen from that, not a guess.
Where it is today
A guest CRM: public intake form, Jon's gated board, a pipeline from invited to published, and the release-signing flow (guest signs, Jon now gets the signed PDF). Good bones. It tracks guests. It does not yet help run the show.
Make it a producer tool
The spine: every guest becomes an EPISODE with a production status, so Jon opens one board and sees where all of it stands.
Idea to Booked to Prep to Recorded to Editing to Published, as a producer's Kanban. The one screen that answers "what is recorded but not edited, edited but not out."
QoL: nothing falls through the cracks between recording and publishing.
Ivy already composes prep kits (bio, research, question outline, run-of-show). Surface them IN the episode record so Jon opens the guest and reads the prep in one place, on the day, on his phone.
QoL: no digging through email or a folder before a recording.
Date, time, guest timezone, the recording-platform link, and a short tech checklist per episode. An at-a-glance "next recording" card.
QoL: one source of truth for when and where a recording happens.
One-click, logged emails on the same Resend plumbing the release flow already uses: pre-record ("what to expect, tech check"), the release request (live), post-record ("thank you, here is when it airs"). Jon edits and sends, never re-types.
QoL: the polite repeatable guest touches happen without effort.
Each episode already publishes to the gated filing home (transcript, kit, music bed, quote cards). Show that asset set on the episode, with a show-notes draft field and where it is distributed, so the episode's "everything" lives in one record instead of scattered.
QoL: find any episode's files without leaving the tool.
Surface the quote-card and music-bed state per episode (requested / in progress / done), the same way the badge tool tracks icon status. Jon sees what production work is still owed on an episode.
QoL: a quick check of what is still outstanding on an episode, at a glance.
Quality-of-life across the whole tool
- Search across guests and episodes (name, org, topic).
- Nudges: release not signed after N days, episode stuck in a stage too long.
- Repeat-guest history: past appearances surface when a name recurs.
- Season calendar view: the run of episodes at a glance.
- Phone-first: Jon manages from his phone between meetings, so every screen works small.
What I would do before it goes in Jon's hands
Recommendation
- Brand it for real from his show's identity (pending your pointer to the source).
- Ship the spine: the episode lifecycle board plus the prep kit surfaced in each episode. That is what turns it from a form into his producer tool.
- Add the two highest-QoL wins: templated guest comms and the episode-asset tie-in to the filing tree. Then a first look with Jon, iterate on what he actually reaches for.
React on any of the above and I turn it into a build for Domos.