What are the best ways to balance podcasting with your work and personal life?

When it comes to setting your podcast as a potential profession, realism is key. In order to monetise a podcast you have to have a solid and consistent audience, and that's only created through a solid show (from topic, to production quality) and consistency, real consistency (plus time, audiences are not created overnight, unloess you're Meghan Markle). Choose a realistic frequency and stick to it. It could be daily, three times a week, weekly, fortnightly - it doesn't matter - just make sure you can stick to it. It takes me around 12 hours of work for each podcast episode (guest sourcing, prepping, recording, editing, promoting, admin, etc) and I have two episodes a week.

Such a limiting and pessimistic suggestion, LinkedIn! Why not dream big? Imagine if Marc Maron had only bothered podcasting on a budget because he didn't think anyone would care about his conversations with his mates in Hollywood? I say set goals as lofty as your ambition. If you want to make a business from your podcast, it's not only doable, it's likely. IF you approach it correctly. Don't launch a pro level business project on weekend warrior hobby budget. Invest in resources and get as much outsourced to experts as you can afford/are willing to.

Always be as professional as possible and never make the mistake of going into podcasting purely as a means of making money—that is a tall order. That doesn't mean you won't--but don't count on it. I recommend podcasting if you are comfortable in the medium and realistic about its reach and viability for your particular niche.

This is where working with a producer can help thanks to the accountability factor. Any GOOD podcast producer will also act as a coach. And it's more affordable to work with one than people think! Bottom line, record as much in bulk as you can, and then aim to publish a steady drip feed of decent content, leaving yourself plenty of bandwidth for that all important engagement and marketing within your community!

Three ways to ensure your episodes deliver quality over quantity: 1. Record the content and then step away from it. 2. Listen through a week later and bin everything that doesn't absolutely need to be there. 3. Reorganise the content in an order that makes it super engaging. And have a short 'tease' at the start that tells the listener what they're going to hear. You don't need a Shure SM7B to sound great. You need to have a producer's ear on your stuff to ensure it sounds great. Also, don't be afraid to introduce some transition elements like short tail music sweeps or stings.

To be successful, I highly recommend you develop automated workflows for your scheduling, information gathering, guest research, etc. You can easily spend hours on one 30-minute episode if you do it all manually. That is not optimal and ultimately will burn you out. Trust me on this one!

Trust me when I tell you, as an experienced podcaster, podcast editor, producer and consultant, I can make any podcaster sound doubly good in about half the time. So outsourcing to someone like me is a no brainer. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT outsource editing to a virtual assistant. By all means get them to help you with writing decent episode descriptions or 'show notes' as the mid 2010s podcasters have dubbed them. But seriously, audio editing is a specialist skill that takes many years to learn to do well, and no VA should be going near your audio. In fact, not just any podcast editor either. Avoid the ones on Fiverr if you can. They're not that great and they're advertising on Fiverr for a reason...

Enjoying the process is all about doubling down on the bits you like and outsourcing the bits you hate. I love editing, producing, strategising and marketing, which is why I'm so good at all of it. Our job - if we're doing it correctly - is to ensure you turn up for your recording, feel like an absolute podcast superstar, nail your content and then walk away from it for another day.

Understanding your rhythms of life is very helpful when setting your expectations for podcasting. As a parent of three children and working full time, having a good sense of when I am most needed by my family helps me to set realistic goals for what I can achieve and the best time to get it done. This helps me to schedule interviews and other task’s associated with the podcast at the most appropriate times.