Podcasting Tips For Busy Parents: How to Balance Content Creation and Family Life

[00:00:00] Today I'm talking about parenting. That is tips for podcasting or creating content as a parent. It can be challenging. So we're going to get into all that and I'm going to give you some actionable tips and resources that you can use to crush your content creation while also crushing it in fatherhood or motherhood.

[00:00:29] What up potty people and welcome back to Clipped. As always, I'm Eric your host and Clipped brings you the tips, resources and people to help you crush your content. Before we get into it, got to give a shout out to Riverside. They sponsor this podcast. Head on over to riverside.fm slash no, no slash, riverside.fm and enter promo code CLIPPED and you'll get 20% off any individual plan. Riverside's got a bunch of great AI tools for showing up.

[00:00:57] Pro notes, transcriptions and turn your video into short form vertical clips for social media with the click of one button. It's called Magic Clips guys and it's rad. So head on over to riverside.fm and enter promo code CLIPPED for 20% off. Now let's give it a go.

[00:01:26] So if you've got kids, you know that it's a challenge to be a parent. And if you run an online business from home or you have a YouTube channel or podcast, which you're probably also doing from home, it's not easy because you've got

[00:01:38] to find time for the work, the family and the creative endeavors. So in this episode, I'm going to share some tips that have worked for me and kind of what I do. And believe me, this is by no means like the best advice or maybe it is, but it's things that have worked for me. So hopefully you can take this and implement it into your content creation routine and maybe it'll help.

[00:02:00] So the first is like time management. It's going to be difficult to find time to create a podcast, to film videos for YouTube. So you got to find your window that works for you. Personally, I run the podcast Haven from home.

[00:02:14] And I think in a way, and I can't relate because I haven't gone into like an office for years, but working from home is tough because like you're focused on work, but my wife's a stay at home mom with the kids. And so I'll take breaks and I'll go inside. I work from the garage. I'll go inside to get some food or just take a quick break. But then immediately when I go inside, it's like I'm automatically on parent duty, even though I'm just trying to kind of like take a break.

[00:02:37] And so I'll get distracted with the kids. I'll get distracted with the wife needing something. And so you got to set those boundaries. But in reality, there kind of are no boundaries. If you work from home and you go in the house or the other room and your kids are there because obviously they're priority and you want to give them love and attention.

[00:02:56] So you got to find that slot. There's got to be an hour slot or a couple hour slots in the week where you can film, whether that's morning, whether that's late at night. And if you can, and I'm not the best at this, I'm actually going to try to record another video or podcast after this. Try to batch things. Like if you do have a couple hour block, try to like get in there and film or edit or do what you need to do to like deliver on your creativity.

[00:03:25] Which can be tough because sometimes I'm a person in the moment or my creativity was like in that moment where I feel it and I want to do it. But then I've got to step back and be like, okay, I can't do it right now because it's family time or it's kids time or it's like business time and I have to work. But finding that time whenever it is, you just have to do it. There's no easy way, but you can when you kind of look at things and break things down.

[00:03:51] And this is where the calendar comes in. I want to talk about the family calendar. So my wife and I, we share a calendar. And anytime we have like an event or like something, mainly for kids, but also like doctor's appointments or like workouts or like the gardeners coming over or like so-and-so is coming to the house to work on something or whatever it is, it goes on the calendar.

[00:04:15] I've checked my calendar every day, every morning. I actually set alarms on my phone. So like I don't like my phone pushing me all these notifications. So in the morning I'll look at my calendar. If I have something at nine, I'll put in a timer or I guess it's an alarm. Yeah, it's an alarm for like 8.50.

[00:04:33] And then I know that at nine, I have something and I'll check the calendar. I'm usually at my computer and be like, okay, this is at nine or I have something at like one o'clock and three o'clock. I just set alarms for that. I don't like all my shit beeping all day and sending me messages and alerts. So these alarms allow me to know that there's an event shortly after.

[00:04:50] I'm also a morning person. So I'm a morning person. I used to be more productive in the morning, but now I wake up, have coffee, sit on the couch. But really, if you've got it in you and it's not easy to start working on your creative stuff before you have to go into work or before you have to start working on your business. Some people do it at night. So if you're a night person, that works. Me and my wife, we like to watch shows at night or hang out or just chill, look at our phones.

[00:05:20] And we're so exhausted from the kids in the day that we usually go to bed early. So night is not good. And the next thing is make sure you have a space. You've got to have a space. And I've covered this before, whether it's the garage, whether it's somewhere in your house or room, you've got to have a space.

[00:05:38] Because then when you kind of go in there, it signals to your family that you're in that mode, like you're in creative mode or brainstorming mode, whatever it is.

[00:05:50] And for you and your brain, your space, you have all your tools. Make sure your microphone is basically set up. You just have to hit a button to turn it on. Have your lights ready to go. I just have to plug mine in, but it's stationary where I want it.

[00:06:04] I move it a few inches here and there, but it's basically all set up. So when it is time, come in, boom, make it happen. That kind of just makes it easier on your brain and yourself so that you can get creative without having to worry about all this tech shit.

[00:06:18] And then if you're in your own space, it kind of creates that physical boundary from the family. So yeah, I think that's key.

[00:06:27] Okay. Number three, this is like, for me personally, I don't know if other people feel this. I've been struggling with this even since before kids when I'm dedicating too much time to something and I'm not being with my wife.

[00:06:39] And now it's like, I'm not being with my wife or family is overcoming the guilt of like, when technically like who'd be with the family, but like I want to go or I need to go into my studio and record something or work on something.

[00:06:56] Yeah. I try to reframe it as like, I'm doing this for myself, but it's also for my family. Cause the goal, you know, of creating content is to, for me personally, is to monetize it in some kind of way, whether that's small right now, the money I'm making just from content where I want that to be more and it will be more in the future.

[00:07:19] Um, yes, it's for myself, but it's also for the family, for, for daycare and eventually private school.

[00:07:26] Um, and just, and just for the family to experience life so we can take sick vacations and we can travel and we can like live the way we want to live.

[00:07:34] So it's overcoming that guilt of like, yeah, I could be spending time with you guys, but I want to really work on my own stuff because I really do get fired up by content creation and just, um, working in my business.

[00:07:47] All the things that I've got going on that are separate. So I struggle with that, but I'm trying to reframe it. Also, if your kids are older, involve them. Maybe you've got, my kids aren't, but if they are like, you know, bring them into the studio, show them, like show them what the, how the microphone works.

[00:08:04] Maybe they want to start getting on the microphone. And even if it's just playing around and you can hit record and I've showed my daughter, she's young, but like show them the waveform on the screen, on the screen.

[00:08:14] And she likes to put the headphones on. And I, you know, I tell her to talk to the microphone, testing, testing, one, two, three.

[00:08:20] And so, yeah, you can involve them. Hey, like I play music too. You could see my guitar in the background. Um, like get them involved in your creative world and, and kind of in your work world too. If you're, if you have a separate job completely outside of your, your business and, uh, your content business might be difficult.

[00:08:39] But if you like work from home and content is part of your actual like work to get them involved in that, they might want to do it one day. It's like monkey see monkey do. And if they're little and they grow up in that, uh, I think it inspires them. So number four is boosting mental flow and creativity. So how, how do you get your creativity? Me, it kind of, I am a little bit of a planner, but not really. It kind of comes to me in that moment. And I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and I, I'm able to make quick decisions.

[00:09:09] With my gut. But what works for you? Like you gotta, you gotta know yourself and it kind of takes a while and know like how you like to operate when it comes to content, when it comes to being creative and then like laser focused on that. Also, I think for like mental flow, um, you want to find tools that you use that, um, help speed things up that like you're the creative guy or girl, but like you need those

[00:09:39] tools that kind of tools that kind of take, like I love Riverside, Descript, Pro Tools. I have my system down for the way I record. I talked about this a little bit earlier, but that really helps like a flow state when it's time to do the work. Also, you gotta have something. This is like another thing to put on your plate, but something like outside of your content creation stuff and outside of your work.

[00:10:07] And so, uh, I like to go on walks. I've run a little bit. I used to be like more of an avid runner. I've run a marathon in the past and used to run long distance, but now it's like shorter, shorter workouts, even like a 30 minute walk. Or I live really close to a planet fitness, um, like mile away maybe. And so like I'll go there. I used to hike. I play guitar. Uh, so that, even if I'm just noodling around for like 15 minutes, it kind of,

[00:10:33] um, the stress kind of melts away. And, um, I don't know when I'm, when I'm like playing guitar, I tend to, obviously I think about what I'm playing, but I also tend to like, um, just my brain just tends to like think and not be like held back. So you got to find out what it is for you. If it's meditation, uh, some people play video games to take like the edge off of things. Maybe it's a glass of wine. Maybe it's an edible. Uh, you know, maybe it is.

[00:11:03] It is, I don't know, whatever it is, but don't listen to more podcasts during that time or watch more YouTube. You need to find something that's like your time. I have an e-bike. I ride that. I used to ride it around a lot more, but it's really fun to do that and blow off steam. And somehow that like gets my brain flowing and oh, like I'll start thinking of business ideas or content ideas and everybody needs something. That's my point. And lastly, uh, just some encouragement that you can do it if you're a parent and it's hard, but it's definitely

[00:11:33] doable. And I think one thing and my buddy Chris kind of told me this when my first child was born about like being present with the family and the kids when it's time to be present, uh, means like putting your phone away. He calls it feeding the meter, like a parking meter. I don't know if he read that. He probably did read that in a book, but it's like, you got to feed the meter. So let's say it has been a long day and you want to go create,

[00:12:01] or maybe you just did create and you're tired and you worked. Um, try to at least get that window, especially if they're toddlers where it's like 30 minutes of like direct focus, no phones, no distractions, fully present, talking to them, interacting with them, getting in the zone, playing whatever they want to play. They're very bossy. So sitting wherever they want to sit and listening to what they want you to do and just be present. You feed that meter. That's that 30 minutes.

[00:12:29] Then you can kind of like take a break and like, look at your phone a little bit, sit, talk to your wife, maybe eat something. A little time goes by, by then they're distracted anyway. And then you feed the meter again. Okay. Another 20, 30 minutes, whatever it is. Um, and that gives you those like little breaks so that when it's time to focus as a parent, you focus. And when it's your time, you can, you can relax a little bit, but last word of encouragement is you can do it. Uh, and hopefully these benefited you. And if you've got any like other ideas or things that are going to be a little bit,

[00:12:59] that have worked for you, I'd love to hear it. Leave it in the YouTube comments or head on over to Spotify and you can comment on this episode. That's a cool feature that they have. Um, hit me up and I'll respond. I'd love to learn more about you and your situation and how you are creating content and crushing it as a parent. Keep listening, keep engaging, keep creating. I'm out.