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My One-Click Final Cut → YouTube → Blog → Shorts Workflow

Here’s the exact system I use to turn one finished video into chapters, descriptions, a blog post, and multiple Shorts automatically.

Summary

Editing used to take me longer than filming. Not anymore.

I built a simple workflow that turns a single finished episode into everything I need for publishing: YouTube chapters, descriptions, titles, a full blog post, and even short highlight clips — all generated in one pass.

If you use Final Cut Pro and ChatGPT, you can copy this exactly.

What we talked about

  • Exporting captions as ITT files
  • Exporting FCPXML timelines
  • Using timestamps as the “source of truth”
  • Generating chapters and descriptions automatically
  • Creating Shorts/highlights without manual cutting
  • Turning one edit into multiple pieces of content

Key takeaways

  • Export once, reuse everywhere
  • Let transcripts drive chapters automatically
  • Stop manually blading clips for Shorts
  • Batch everything in one step to save hours

Full write-up

For a long time, my workflow looked like this:

Edit video.
Write chapters.
Write description.
Think of titles.
Write a blog post.
Cut Shorts manually.

Every step was separate. Every step took time.

It was repetitive and honestly pretty draining.

So I flipped the process.

Instead of treating each task individually, I now treat every episode like a package.

One export → everything gets created automatically.

Here’s exactly what I do.

Step 1 – Export from Final Cut

From Final Cut Pro, export:

  • Captions → .itt
  • Timeline → .fcpxml

The ITT gives you perfect timestamps.
The XML gives you the cut structure.

Step 2 – Upload both to ChatGPT

Upload the files and run one instruction:

“Process this episode.”

Step 3 – Everything gets generated

Automatically I receive:

  • YouTube chapters
  • Description
  • Title ideas
  • Full blog post
  • A brand new XML with 3–5 highlight clips already cut

I simply import the new XML back into Final Cut and export my Shorts.

Done.

Why this works

The transcript becomes the source of truth.

Instead of guessing where topics change or manually skimming the timeline, timestamps tell you exactly where each section starts.

It’s faster. More accurate. Less brainpower.

Who this is for

This is perfect if you:

  • make podcast-style videos
  • film long chats or walks
  • publish weekly content
  • want multiple outputs from one edit

If that sounds like you, steal this workflow.

I’ve included my exact template so you can copy and paste it. (Link to follow soon)

Once you try it, you won’t go back to doing this stuff manually.