Building a Scalable Podcast CMS in Webflow for Dr. Imamu “Mu” Tomlinson

Imamu “Mu” Tomlinson, MD, MBA, is a physician, CEO of Vituity, and thought leader whose career spans the front lines of emergency medicine and the boardrooms of healthcare innovation.

Primary Audience

• Healthcare executives and clinical leaders
• Conference organizers / speaking bureaus
• Healthcare innovators, founders, operators
• Media and editorial teams
• Professionals seeking leadership + healthcare transformation insights

Goal

‍Create a podcast experience that feels authoritative, easy to maintain, and designed to rank—positioning Mu as a credible voice in healthcare leadership and innovation.

As Mu’s website content grew, the team needed a podcast system that could do all of the following:

1. Scale without breaking Webflow limits
   Webflow CMS collections have a field limit (60 fields), and a podcast episode can quickly become complex: episode metadata, guests, audio embeds, video embeds, summaries, key takeaways, timestamps, transcripts, and “chapters” content.
2. Support SEO + modern media indexing
   The episode pages needed to be structured so that search engines can properly understand the page content and give the video/podcast page credit especially important as media pages must be the primary focus to index well.
3. Provide a user experience similar to top podcast sites
   The team referenced strong benchmarks (e.g., Huberman Lab and Mel Robbins) where users can scan chapters, click timestamps, and navigate long-form content without friction.
4. Enable a realistic publishing workflow for the internal team
   The content team needed a repeatable process to publish episodes reliably even if automation pulled in some data, there would still be a manual editorial component (chapters, transcript formatting, thumbnail moments, etc.).

My Approach

1) Start with the outcome: “authority + usability + maintainability”

Instead of building a “pretty” page first, I designed the system around:

• How visitors will consume the content quickly (chapters + key takeaways)
• How search engines will parse the page (transcript depth + structured layout)
• How the internal team will publish new episodes consistently (CMS workflow + documentation)

2) Design the CMS architecture before building the UI

To avoid hitting CMS limits and to keep content manageable, I split the system into three clear collections:

• Podcast Categories (Collection)
  • Centralized taxonomy (Leadership, Innovation, Disruption, Healthcare Diversity, etc.)
  • Reused across the site to reinforce topical authority
• Podcasts / Episodes (Collection)
  • The “parent” episode record: title, date, guest info, embeds, summary, key takeaways, etc.
• Chapters (Collection)
  • A separate collection referenced to the Parent Episode
  • Each chapter stores: timestamp, chapter title, thumbnail, and transcript excerpt
  • This prevented field overload and kept the structure scalable

✅ Result: a system that supports up to 14 chapters per episode without CMS bloat.

3) Build the UX for real-world behaviors (not ideal-world content)

Podcasts are long. Transcripts are heavy. Chapters need formatting.
I implemented:

• Clickable timestamp functionality to jump the YouTube player to exact moments
• Two display options (simple text timeline vs. chapter cards with thumbnails) so the team could choose the approach that best fits their internal workflow
• Transcript handling designed to support long-form readability and SEO value

‍

The Solution (What I Built)

A) Podcast Hub Page (Main Podcast Page)

A central page that:

• Showcases featured episodes
• Supports browsing and filtering
• Makes the podcast feel “editorial” and authoritative—not just a list of embeds

Features

• CMS-driven episode grid
• Filtering/sorting (via Finsweet Attributes, where applicable)
• Featured and Top Episode toggles for curated highlights

B) Podcast Episode Template (CMS Template Page)

Each episode page is structured so the video/podcast is the main focus, followed by supporting content that strengthens SEO and user engagement.

Episode Page Content Sections

• Episode title (H1)
• Video embed (single focus)
• Episode summary
• Chapter timeline (clickable)
• Chapter cards with images (optional)
• Transcript sections / chapter transcripts
• Related content module (optional)
• Audio embed + listening links

C) Chapter System (Clickable Chapters + Thumbnails)

Each chapter includes:

• Timestamp
• Title
• Thumbnail image
• Transcript segment (chapter-level)

This enables:

• Faster scanning for visitors
• Stronger content depth for indexing
• More “authority signals” because the page contains substantial, structured knowledge

D) CMS + Automation Workflow (Zapier + Manual Editorial Steps)

We set up Zapier to import the basics (where possible), with the reality that some fields still require manual input:

Automated via Zapier (typical)

• Title
• YouTube URL
• Episode date
• Thumbnail
• Base description

Manual editorial steps (required)

• Chapter creation (up to 14 entries)
• Chapter thumbnails (screenshots or curated images)
• Transcript segments per chapter
• Timestamp formatting (for consistency + readability)
• Key takeaways and guest details

To make this easy, I created:

• A CMS Management Guide for the content team
• A Loom walkthrough training showing exactly how to update and publish

Technical Complexities (And How I Solved Them)

1) Webflow CMS field limits

Challenge: Podcast + chapters can exceed 60 fields quickly.
Solution: Split to a Chapters Collection referenced to the main Podcast Collection.

2) Chapter timestamps + embedded player behavior

Challenge: Click-to-jump timestamps behave differently across browsers and autoplay policies (especially Safari).
Solution: Implemented a stable jump-to-time system and adjusted playback expectations based on browser autoplay rules (muted autoplay vs user-initiated play).

3) Transcript formatting at scale

Challenge: Transcripts are long, messy when pasted, and need structure.
Solution: Defined a repeatable formatting approach and documented it for the team.

4) SEO alignment for media pages

Challenge: Episode pages must keep media as the main focus and provide structured content beneath it.
Solution: Built episode templates and chapter structure to support indexable page depth while maintaining clean UX.