Every Dunk Talk Podcast episode runs through the same checklist before it goes live. I (Dylan Haugen) have been using a private Google Doc version of this list for a while, but it’s honestly useful enough that I wanted to put it out there for other dunkers, podcasters, and creators who are trying to build something on YouTube and social.
The structure here isn’t mine. It’s pulled from Dennis Yu and BlitzMetrics, specifically The 4 Stages of The Content Factory: Produce, Process, Post, Promote. Dennis came on the show in Ep 59 to talk about how dunkers can build a personal brand on Google, and most of what he laid out applies pretty directly to running a podcast. So instead of treating the checklist as one big to-do list, I’m grouping every step into one of those four stages, and then walking through a real episode (Ep 60, my Dunk Camp 2025 recap) with the actual links we ended up shipping for each item.
Stage 1: Produce
This is the raw content stage. Dennis describes Produce as generating content that proves you actually do what you say you do, captured as photos and videos. For a podcast, that’s basically the recording. If you don’t film a decent episode, no amount of editing or posting saves it later.
- Film the episode. Multi-cam if you can, decent audio at minimum.
- Capture B-roll on the day. Behind the scenes shots of the guest, the setup, any dunk session that happens around the recording. This stuff feeds Stage 3 later.
For Ep 60, the “produce” stage was actually two things: the studio recording where I broke down the week, plus the raw dunk footage I shot at Dunk Camp itself in Utah. That footage ended up sprinkled into the YouTube edit and a bunch of the short-form clips. If you only film the podcast and skip the supporting footage, your Stage 3 and Stage 4 options get pretty thin.
Stage 2: Process
Process is where the raw stuff gets turned into something a human (and Google) actually wants to consume. Dennis frames it as using AI tools like ChatGPT and Descript to transform raw content into blog posts and web content with the E-E-A-T components baked in. For us that maps cleanly onto cleaning the audio, optimizing all the metadata, and writing the long-form article.
- Descript audio enhancement on the recording (Studio Sound, filler-word removal, etc.).
- YouTube metadata, AI-optimized: Title, Description, Tags, Thumbnail.
- Spotify metadata: Title and description, plus cross-post setup to Apple Podcasts.
- Blog post draft for dunktalks.com (with the YouTube embed at the top).
- Short-form content cuts using OpusClip or another AI tool, ready to schedule.
For Ep 60 the processed assets ended up like this: the AI-cleaned YouTube title and description at My Experience at the Dunk Camp 2025, the Spotify page (with cross-post to Apple) at Dunk Talk #60 on Spotify, and the blog post at dunktalks.com/dunk-camp-2025-dylan-haugen. The AI tools are there to speed you up, not write for you. Every title gets a pass from me. The BlitzMetrics blog post guidelines doc is a solid starting point if you don’t have your own.
Stage 3: Post
Post is the distribution stage. The processed asset goes everywhere it makes sense to go. The rule of thumb is one master asset (the long-form video) feeding a lot of smaller surfaces.
- YouTube publish, sorted into the right playlist.
- Spotify publish (Apple auto-syndicates).
- Instagram feed post on the brand, cross-posted to Facebook.
- X (Twitter) brand post.
- Facebook personal page post.
- LinkedIn Company Page + personal profile post.
- YouTube Community post, scheduled a few days after release.
- Blog post published to dunktalks.com.
- Short-form content scheduled across Shorts, Reels, and TikTok.
For Ep 60 the master asset shipped to YouTube on the @DunkTalkPod channel, Spotify, Apple, Instagram (@dunktalks), and the blog post. The reason every episode gets its own dunktalks.com blog post (not just a YouTube link) is what Dennis calls the SEO Tree. The blog post ranks. The YouTube embed feeds it. Internal links between episode posts build topical authority over time. If you only post to YouTube, you’re renting your audience from Google.
Stage 4: Promote
Promote is amplification. Dennis’s version is boosting visibility through targeted marketing (their Dollar a Day strategy is the canonical example). For us, Promote is the social re-share, story, and review push that happens after the main posts are up.
- Instagram Story on the brand, saved to a Highlight so it lives past 24 hours.
- Instagram Story on my personal account, tagging the brand and guest.
- X retweet from the personal account.
- Threads post if it fits.
- Ask the guest and dunkers for a 5-star review on Apple and Spotify, but only after they’ve actually watched. Empty reviews get pulled by Apple and they hurt more than they help.
- (Optional) Dollar a Day boosts on the IG post and YouTube video.
For Ep 60, the promote pass was the brand IG story with Dunk Camp 2025 highlights, my personal IG story sharing the same, X retweets from my personal account, and DMs to the guys from camp asking for honest reviews. The Apple show rating moved decently from that push, which is kind of the whole point of treating Promote as its own stage instead of an afterthought.
The full picture
Stack the four stages back-to-back and one Dunk Talk episode runs through: Produce (film + B-roll), Process (Descript, AI metadata, blog draft, short-form cuts), Post (YouTube, Spotify, IG/FB, X, LinkedIn, YT Community, blog post, short-form), and Promote (IG Stories + Highlight, RTs, Threads, review asks). You don’t have to hit every box every time. We honestly don’t. But having it mapped to the four stages makes it obvious where we’re slacking. No blog post? Stage 2/3 miss. No reviews? Stage 4 miss.
If you’re doing this for your own podcast, read the BlitzMetrics 4 Stages article in full, then watch Dennis Yu’s episode on Dunk Talk where he walks through how a dunker can apply it. Running example all in one place: Ep 60 — My Experience at the Dunk Camp 2025.