Struggling to Fit in Podcasting? Make It Work When You Have Kids at Home

Hey Friend!

Are you busy with kids at home and trying to figure out how to fit in podcasting with your crazy schedule?

I remember all too well how hard it was to get in the deep thought work that I needed in order to get work done. I don’t want you to feel like you have to choose between work and your children.

I’ve mapped out a tactical plan for how to fit in podcasting with kids at home. I will break it down into two hours a week and show you how to split this up into the cracks of your mom (or dad) life, making this super manageable and effective.

I will teach you what tasks can be accomplished with your kids around, and which tasks you need to execute in your rare pockets of quiet time. You will learn that less is more, and that the best way to fit in podcasting as a busy parent is to keep it simple.

You will obviously need to modify the plan based on the season of life that you are in and based on your schedule. I will just share one scenario, but you’ll be able to reverse engineer how I mapped this out so that you can build something that allows you to fit podcasting into your life and family’s needs.

There are no excuses not to start your podcast and consistently fit in podcasting when you have a plan like this!

GOAL: Fit in Podcasting with Only One Episode Each Week

Once you’re more efficient and easily able to fit in podcasting, feel free to add a second podcast.

I’d rather you do that than spend time marketing on social media or a YouTube channel. You have to focus on keeping the main thing, the main thing until you’re really having massive traction with that one thing.

The time commitment in this plan is two hours a week, and the schedule is flexible based on your family’s routine.

How to Fit in Podcasting: Hour One – Plan and Record

You have options of when to plan and when to record because you don’t have to do both in the same sitting. Here are some ideas of where you could find 30-minute quiet pockets:

• Nap time (if applicable)
• Before wake-up time
• After bedtime
• A quiet playtime
• Potential screen time

When you find these pockets of time, you have to be ready to execute!

I recommend figuring out what you’re going to talk about on your podcast this week when your kids are around because you don’t need 100% quiet to pick your topic. But you do need the quiet time to plan out what you’re going to say and then to actually record.

Let’s break down this first hour even further.

First, you need to select your topic. Give 5-10 minutes for topic selection.

Use the list of ideas that you’ve already brainstormed before. Pick the one that is speaking to you, that is yelling the loudest right now, that is seasonally relevant, and GO FORWARD.

Friend, you are going to have 500 to 1,000 episodes before you know it. Don’t get stuck! Let’s choose a topic and let’s move forward.

Next, spend about 10-15 minutes on outline creation. This will be your first time slot in one of those deep-thinking moments that you found in one of those pockets I suggested above.

You’re going to create a simple, bulleted outline for your episode:

• Intro: story or connection point you want to share
• Main Points
• Teachable Tips or Implementation
• Call to Action

If you’re a student in Podcast Pro University or Podcast to Profit, you have my outline for creating a podcast episode from start to finish. You’re just going to pull that up and plug it in.

Let’s keep it concise and high-level. You don’t need to write down every word you’re going to say. You’ve got to trust yourself and leave room for the Holy Spirit.

I get some resistance on this based on the personality types of my students, but the reality is that if you were sitting down to coffee with a friend, that conversation would not be scripted. You might have certain points that you want to discuss, but you would still bring yourself to the table and speak from your heart.

That’s what we want to happen in the podcast. We don’t want it to be some scripted thing that removes the connection, all of the emotion from your voice, and those moments where the Holy Spirit wants to show up.

Time to Record

Lastly, we are recording. First, you’re going to set up your recording space, and again, you can do this while your kids are around. Get everything set up, that way when you find that quiet pocket of time, your space is already set and ready to GO.

If you’re struggling with how to set up a conducive space to have a really high-quality podcast with very minimal equipment – again, in Podcast Pro University I lay this out for you and you’re spending less than $200 total. You are just getting started and do not need a fancy microphone yet. I used my blue YETI mic for five years and ended up with a Top 20 Podcast.

Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. You do not need a recording studio with egg crate foam on the walls. We can keep this simple.

You’re going to record your episode with the 40ish minutes you have left of this first hour. Let’s focus on having short, punchy, to-the-point episodes. Ideally, 10-15 minute episodes as you’re getting started and learning how to fit in podcasting during this busy season of life, and until you gain more confidence and get quicker. You can start to potentially expand your episodes up to 20 minutes or so.

BONUS insider tip: we are seeing that listenership is starting to drop off around the 20-minute mark. People are just highly distracted, and most people’s commute time is about 20-30 minutes max. We really want to keep it below that 20-minute mark.

How to Fit in Podcasting: Hour Two – Edit and Promote

I’m going to give you another hour for editing and promotion. Again, the quiet pockets are going to look the same: nap time, before wakeup time, after bedtime, during playtime, or potentially screen time.

If interruptions happen while recording, don’t worry! That’s the beauty of podcasting. You can always stop the recording and resume at a later date or you can stop it and edit something out as you go.

I teach my students how to edit as they go because I think that editing can be this weird, long, excruciating, overcomplicated, or expensive process, and it doesn’t need to be. We can simply edit as we go.

There were lots and lots of years where I didn’t even edit my podcast at all. We now have interns that come in and learn podcast production so they do edit my episodes, but my point is that this is something I did myself for a long time.

Let’s break down this second hour even further.

First, I want to really challenge you to edit your episode in the length of time your episode is. So if you record a 20-minute episode, you only give yourself 20 minutes to edit. This is how it should be because if you’re editing as you go, it should never take you longer than it did to record.

This is your goal. People do not care and are not paying that close of attention to how often you say “um”, I promise. Ideally, you are not wasting more than 20 minutes on editing if you record a 20-minute episode.

I teach my students to edit inside of where they’re recording. So if you’re recording inside Audacity, you edit in Audacity. If you’re recording in Garage Band, you’re going to edit in Garage Band. Both of those tutorials are inside my podcasting course, Podcast Pro University.

What to focus on when you’re editing in a pinch?

• long pauses
• straight up mistakes
• interruptions
• adjust some volume levels – if you saw that red bar pop up during recording, it means your volume got too loud and we need to fix that

Again, every training on how to do that is in my course. I’ve got you covered.

The next thing we need to do in the last hour of getting the podcast out into the world is to get it uploaded to your podcasting host. We’ve got to write a little description, referred to by some as show notes. You should spend no more than about 20 minutes doing this. Then that’s it!

The last thing we are going to do in the final 20 minutes is to promote. This is simply sharing your episode anywhere that you are:

• Instagram stories
• Facebook group
• Pinterest pin
• email

The BEST news is that you just fit in podcasting as a busy parent!

You have now chosen a topic, written your outline, recorded, edited, created your podcast description and show notes, and promoted the episode in two hours. I just gave you a plan of how you can do all of that in baby pockets of time. There is no reason that fitting in podcasting cannot be possible for you IF you eliminate wasted time.

Dos and Don’ts of Fitting in Podcasting

DO:

• A time audit on the things you think are growing your business – share it with us in our Facebook Group because we can help you.
• Build one core offer that your audience really wants. This is all you are focused on until that one thing passes six figures.
• Create long-form content consistently that is relating to what your audience desires.

DON’T:

• Create reels on social media
• Scour YouTube and all the places for DIY
• Create a bunch of freebies

BONUS tips:

1. Sometimes we just need to involve our kids. If they want to come talk into the microphone, let them! Children so often interrupt just because they want to know that they matter, so allow yourself to break your concentration for a huge hug and let them say “hi!” so that they get the confirmation that mom (or dad) sees them.
2. Think about batching tasks. If you end up finding 3-4 hours per week for podcasting, don’t just do the one podcast and then forget about it. Batching is your best friend in this season of life because you don’t know when a kiddo is going to get sick or life is going to happen. I always have a reserve of 3-4 episodes that we can pull from in an emergency.
3. Stay flexible. You’ve got to adapt and know that if you’re trying to build an online business, it’s got to be around your family. Your family and your faith must come first. It’s okay to shift things around and it’s okay for this to maybe sometimes look like a last-minute thing. Life happens.
4. Ask for help. It is okay to ask your spouse to cover for you for a few hours on a weekend. I know that’s not what we prefer, but if we want to fit in podcasting, sometimes we have to get creative and have conversations with the people who can help us in this busy season of life.

I hope this tactical plan gave you the framework that you need to be consistent and to continue to fit in podcasting no matter what is going on at home.

I get it. It’s demanding. It’s a crazy season, but I wouldn’t have traded my season with my littles at home for anything in the world. I just wish I had known about podcasting like you do now. Take that blessing and run with it!

Thanks for hanging with me; I’ll see you soon!

I pray this blesses you!

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

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