Podcasting as a Working Mom: What’s Actually Sustainable

Feeling burned out trying to grow your podcast or side hustle on social media? Wondering if you really need to post every day, chase the algorithm, and sacrifice your time to succeed?

In this episode, I share the honest truth about why I stopped promoting my podcast on social media—and what happened next. After juggling guest interviews, content creation, editing, and a full-time job, the pressure to “do it all” became unsustainable. Like so many working women, my weekends weren’t free—they were filled with the invisible mental load of managing a household, kids’ schedules, meals, and everything in between.

So I made a bold decision: I cut social media, stopped guest episodes, and focused on creating simple, sustainable mini podcast episodes. The result? Unexpected podcast growth and a renewed sense of clarity.

We unpack:

•  Podcast growth strategies that don’t rely on social media 
•  Creator burnout and how to build a sustainable content strategy 
•  The reality of the mental load for working moms and women entrepreneurs 
•  Why authenticity and consistency may outperform algorithm-driven marketing 
•  The tradeoffs between career, side hustle, and family life 

If you're a podcaster, content creator, or working mom feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to constantly produce and promote, this episode will help you rethink what growth really looks like.

🎧 Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review: Do you think men experience the same guilt balancing work and home—or is it a different reality?

Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone, this is Still Rose's podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I hope everyone is doing wonderful. I uh took a little brief hiatus for a week or so, and I've been doing that not regularly, but here and there when things are a little bit busy, and and you know, I'm just trying to make sure that I'm maintaining my sanity. And so last week I didn't do any fresh episodes. So this week I wanted to make sure I came back with you with some good ones. So I have a topic that I've been wanting to touch upon for a little while with you. So I've told you before about my son-in-law, how proud I am of him. He launched his own brokerage firm up in North Jersey, doing very, very well. Just great mind, really great energy. And honestly, like I can't say enough about how proud I am for him launching his own business. Doing that is such a scary thing, and it's so, so amazing to be able to do be a part of someone's journey with that and encouraging him. Whenever he and I get together, or when the whole family gets together, he and I always try to steal some time together to talk business. I like to talk, you know, I'll talk to him about the podcast, other projects that I have going on. He talks about me, talks about his business a little bit to me. A lot of the times I'm asking him questions about his marketing. What is he doing? How's he getting the word out there? That's always where my head goes. And, you know, we just kind of talk back and forth, compare notes. I always encourage him because I do want, I know he will be successful, and it's just a matter of time. So um, very, very proud of him. So we have this interesting exchange that I wanted to say to you guys. Now, you know, we're going back and forth about just random things. And he says to me, you know, I noticed that you don't do anything on your social media anymore. Meaning, like, I don't do any posts, I don't do videos, I don't, I don't do anything. And, you know, before before I replied to him, I kind of paused for a minute because there's been a few years of history here as to why I just halted all social media. So in the beginning of time with the podcast, I was going hard with it because you're basically making the assumption that the only way my podcast can be successful is if I feature it on social media, because that's where the followers are gonna come in. And then when you have your followers there, they're gonna subscribe to your podcast. And once they subscribe to your podcast, then what you're gonna try to do there, and this is like this is what I'm told, I'm telling you what I have been told, right? This is how you're successful with a podcast. Once you have your social media following, what you want to try to do is get everyone's email addresses because the goal here is you want an email address list. Why do you want an email address list? Because ultimately, from the podcast, you want to actually try to sell something to this email address list. That's where you're supposed to be generating your money. That's like in a nutshell, how you're supposed to draw in people, how you're supposed to generate money with your podcast. Now, I know all this. I took a bunch of classes, did the research, I'm all in. So in the very early years of the podcast, I was hitting the social media hard. So I, and then I at one point um had had a podcast call for other reasons, and it was this bro. And um, I have this meeting with this bro, and he starts kind of being, you know, being very um condescending, and which was comical to me because he was much younger than me. I was trying to figure out, I was like, where do you get the audacity to act like this? Um, and then in the engagement, in the conversation with him, he says to me, Well, you know, you're supposed to the only way you're gonna be able to make money is if you're put or if you're the only way to get a social media following and make money is if you're posting, you know, six to eight times a day or five to ten times a day. It was something ridiculous where I was like, to the point where I was like, I I have a job, like there's no way I'm posting that much. But it still made me paranoid, right? So from there, I really stepped up to social media and I started doing like three, four posts a day, but it was every single day. I had a post happening every single day. So where am I getting this from? Right. So beyond the post every single day, for every podcast episode where I was having guest episodes before, I would create content for that particular episode. So it wasn't just podcast promotion, but it was episode-specific promotion. So for every episode, there was a 15-minute prep meeting, there was an hour-long recording. From the hour-long recording, there was about 30 to 45 minutes of editing. And then from the editing, and I have my final file, I'm generating three or four social media posts for the episode itself. The way that I used to work it before is I would do blocks of recording. So for the fall season, I always did a spring and a fall. And for the fall season, I would start recording in, let's say, like June. I would record from June to July, and I would have this stock of episodes. Normally during the summer months, I would just do mini episodes. So I didn't release any guest episodes until the fall. And then I would do a fall kind of unveiling on social media, and then I would run a new guest episode every single week. And so essentially for like three or four months of the year in the spring and then in the fall, I wasn't really doing any podcasting. I it was all pre-scheduled, pre-canned, like just putting it out there. There was a lot to say, and it made me tired saying it. So I got to a certain point where I was considering just not doing the podcast altogether. And I started to have this revelation of want to do the podcast. I want to consider continue engaging with people. However, I cannot handle this workload on top of my actual job because I think I I have expressed to you guys enough. My job is very busy. There's a lot going on at my job. I consistently have things to do. So to have the podcast as a full-time job, and then my job as a full-time job and a half wasn't gonna work. So what do I do? Cut out all social media and I then I cut out the guest episodes. I couldn't do it. I just could not commit to it anymore. So I pulled, scale back everything, and decide, you know what? I'm just gonna do mini sodes, not gonna do anything else, and let's see what happens. Oddly enough, the podcast grew. I have some thoughts on that, but I want to go back to my original discussion. All this flashes in my mind when my son-in-law says to me, You don't do anything on your social media anymore. Why? I don't have time. Like that's what I said. I don't have time. And I could see the look on his face, and I was waiting for him to say it. Yeah, but the weekends, right? Okay, yeah, the weekends. I know. Yeah, it's two days. It's what 48 hours on the weekends that you have for yourself. Now I could see in his young, late 20-something male mind, he couldn't comprehend how I couldn't carve out the time on the weekends, which I used to. I used to do about four or five hours a day. I'd work from like eight to twelve or eight or eight, nine to one or something every Saturday and Sunday. And I did it religiously, making sure I was putting out all my podcast stuff. And that's where I cracked and I had to stop. And I told him, I was like, look, I was like, I can't, I can't meet that, I can't meet that demand anymore. I'm like, the weekends are for my family. Because I I do think of it very much as from Monday to Friday, I'm wholly dedicated to my nine to five. Holy. And then plus I'm throwing in episode recordings here and there on the weekdays to make sure that I'm getting, you know, episodes out to you guys. And so I get to the certain point where I'm like, I can't, I just can't do it on the weekends anymore. Now, the the funny part to me, you know, our conversation got interrupted and he went his way and I went my way in the house because we have the kids running around or anything. It was just the comical part to me was that I could tell he couldn't wrap his male mind around the fact that I couldn't, I didn't have the time. Now I'm gonna give you an example of this because this is sort this is actually how my weekends always go. Saturday's my no technology day. Low technology, no technology, focused on being in the moment day. That's my Saturdays, always now. And on Sundays, I'm almost always committed to doing some work. I'm always gonna record episodes on Sundays. However, this is what usually happens, and this is what happened today. I promise myself I'm gonna get up super early and do some work. Super early for me is like if I could get myself up at five o'clock. For some reason now, there's like a mental block. My body is not re-jiggering to the fact that we did spring ahead and the time changed, you know, officially. My body is not in it. We don't want to deal with it. So I can't get up at 5 a.m. Not gonna happen until we fall back. Sorry. So there's that, right? So I can't get up. And then beyond that, um, I don't really want to get up that early on a Sunday. My God, I work so hard all week, right? So I end up getting up around seven or so. And then ultimately in the morning, I want to have my cup of coffee and I sit with my husband for a little bit, and then I'm, you know, doing my meditation or I'll start making breakfast right away. And then breakfast is like an hour and a half, but then I have to clean up that breakfast, and then I gotta figure out what I got to do for the day. Do I have any donations that I have to make for the day? Do I have to be on the donations? Do I need to clean anything? Is there laundry that needs to get folded? Is there enough groceries in the house? Did I remember to buy eggs? Did I remember to get the bread? Do I have enough food for lunches this week? Do I have all the snacks that I need for this week? Where are the kids? Clothes for the week. Did I fold everything okay? Yes, it's all washed. I did fold everything. Where's their lunch boxes? I have to run their lunch boxes through the wash. You know, like it's all of the stuff that makes the week easy for everybody, is what has to happen. Let me make sure I meal prep something for myself on Sunday because otherwise I won't eat all week. There's all these things that have to happen. And those are my things that I need to do to make sure that we get through the week and we're successful. I, as a woman and as a wife and a mother, need to get these things done. My son-in-law has the great fortune to be engaged to my stepdaughter, who is homemaker extraordinaire, cooks these fabulous meals, takes care of their sons, takes care of the household, make sure that all the things are done. So he does not have to think about those things. Therein lies the difference. I have to think of all these things. Now, beyond the fact that yes, on Saturday I'm prioritizing spending time with my family and I'm prioritizing low technology, beyond that, I wouldn't want to give my Saturday up either, to be perfectly honest with you. If I was gonna give up my Saturday, then I wouldn't have my focused family time. And then what does that say? Because that Monday through Friday, I'm also not focused on family time because I'm on schedule and I have to get my work done and I have to make sure that my team is okay and I have to make sure my kids are okay. And it's not about fun, it's about staying on track to get through the week so I can hit the weekend and actually spend time with everybody and appreciate everybody. It's a massive, massive shift to be able to do everything that I do and focus the way that I do and not lose that time because that to me is the most important thing at this point. I've spent so many years focused on my job and focused on growing my career that I lost time and I missed things. I miss them learning to swim. I missed, I missed the first time they jumped off the diving board. I was in my office. You know, there's there's stuff that I wasn't present for. I I missed it because I was working. And you get to a certain point where you do make a decision. Am I gonna continue at this pace or am I going to pull back? Not everybody pulls back and there's no judgment there. For me, this was the best route. And so when I saw the look of confusion on my son-in-law's face, because he knows and I know, if I was working this podcast the way that I used to, it'd probably be growing really quickly. It'd probably be doing different things, perhaps. I don't know. But like, you know, I had to pull away. Now, the interesting thing here, and and I'm gonna circle back to this now, is that I pulled out the guest episodes and I pulled out all the social media, and the podcast grew so fast after that. And the only thing I could think of is that the reason it grew so fast after that, and the reason I got so many more listeners is because the content is real, it's coming from my gut. It is very much things that I think are hitting in the moment that you need to hear. And that's why it's growing because of the authenticity behind the voice versus I'm trying to do everything I can to get your attention and show you these flashy, shiny things and then sell you a song of dance. I'm actually not doing any of these things. The whole goal of this podcast was to showcase standard every single day life of a woman professionally working and also maintaining a husband and a family. I'm not really sure I know anybody else that does it the way I do. I'm sure there's people out there doing it the way I do, but either way, I do the takeaway really is like I made a decision here, stand by it wholeheartedly. And yes, I do happen to think of the fact that my son-in-law will never have to make that decision. My stepdaughter will always be the homemaker. There is a vast difference between female entrepreneurs in that sense and male entrepreneurs because we are forced to make a choice. That choice never feels good. And I do wonder to myself sometimes, from the male perspective, is that a struggle? I may dig there. You know what? I think I might do some research there on my own and start poking around and for the for the fellows that I know and just see what do they say. Is there is there a struggle? Do you feel bad? Is there guilt? Because I'm gonna be honest with you, like I feel it horribly. And I'm wondering if they feel it on the other side or if they don't at all because they know that they have someone else taking care of everything. Food for thought. I'd be interested in hearing everyone's opinions on this. Please feel free to message me on LinkedIn or Instagram. I might not be posting, but I absolutely will check. You can also email me. It's steelrosespodcast at gmail.com. Feel free to email me um topic requests as well because I have gotten those. So I'll I'll be doing those episodes too. But yeah, I think this is an interesting one because it it it struck me. It really did this conversation. Anyway, I hope you all having a great Monday. Um, I'm excited to be with you for the month of May. Uh again, I hope to hear from you. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today, and I will catch you on the next one. Take care.