May 25, 2026 • 13 mins
We answer a listener's question from a busy mom creating a podcast during nap time. We share simple ways to optimize production and help your existing episodes reach more listeners through SEO and repurposing.
Resources Mentioned:
If you have questions about your podcast workflow, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com
Have a topic or question we should address on a future episode? Text us or email the Buzzsprout Podcaster Success Team at support@buzzsprout.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cara Pacetti (00:00):
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at Buzz Sprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
We recently made some changesto our fan mail feature that
will now allow you to dropquestions for us by leaving a
(00:23):
voicemail.
Now, it's been a while sincewe've played a listener question
live on a Podcasting Q&Aepisode.
So this could be your time toshine.
Send in your question and wewill not only answer it, but
also play it back on an upcomingepisode.
Just click the send us fan maillink in the show notes to
record your question.
Today we're answering Lucy'squestion.
(00:43):
How can we optimize our show?
We're busy moms producing thispodcast while our kids sleep.
So first I want to say, Lucy,hats off to you.
That is hard work and trying tofit that into an unpredictable
short amount of time.
Kudos for producing andlaunching your podcast.
That's great work.
And so I'd love to help answerthis question.
(01:06):
This question is fun becauseit's practical.
And while this question isspecific to a mom squeezing in a
podcast while her kids nap, thetips I'm offering today are
really for anyone who's tryingto fit their podcast into a busy
schedule and who are limited ontime.
I want to offer threerecommendations for optimizing
(01:26):
the time you have to work onyour podcast.
First, you'll want to make surethat you are setting time aside
to plan out your podcastcontent.
This planning time is best usedfor scripting, episode
planning, and prep.
So this includes things likeoutlining your episode topics,
researching guests that you wantto bring onto the show, maybe
(01:47):
scripting out your actualepisode outlines, or even
finalizing segues that get youfrom one point to the next.
In order to make the most ofyour time here, I want you to
consider some things when youare working in this planning
session.
First, I want to point out thatwhen you're planning out your
content, this is a creativeprocess.
(02:08):
And whenever you're creatingsomething, you really need to be
focused.
It's so easy to be distractedwhen you're trying to use that
muscle of creativity.
You almost need the quiet toreally minimize distractions.
So if you can, I would silenceyour notifications.
I would only open the tabs onyour computer that you need open
(02:30):
for this prep in this planningwork.
So you can really dial in andget as much mapped out as you
can during that one to two hoursthat you have time to work.
The goal of this planning timeis to lay it all out in advance.
So whether you're planning justfor your next podcasting
season, or maybe you are goingthe full distance and you're
(02:52):
planning for the entire year,remember, you've already
identified your message that youwant to communicate to your
listeners.
And you hopefully by nowalready know your audience or
your hope-to-be audience ifyou're just getting started.
So that part is done.
You don't need to worry aboutthat.
What your focus on is how am Ilogistically going to
(03:12):
communicate this message in away that I can sustain in my
short pockets of work.
And what is my plan?
So you just need to find outwhat is it that you are focusing
on the next upcoming weeks ormonths when it comes to
producing your podcast.
And laying that plan out inadvance with dates on a calendar
(03:32):
is really going to help so thatyou aren't having to make those
creative decisions every singletime you get to work.
So if you can have a gooduninterrupted one to two hours
in this just planning session toget all of those creative ideas
out there on paper in a waythat is actionable, that's
(03:52):
really gonna help set you up andgive you a nice baseline to
work from.
One tip I want to throw outthere is that if you haven't
used AI, that is a reallyhelpful tool.
You can use AI to help get yourwheels turning, to help get
that creativity flowing, and youcan feed it prompts.
So if you type in what you wantto communicate in your episode
(04:13):
and how you want it to becommunicated, and maybe even how
long you want the episode tobe.
And then it will offer someideas for you.
I don't recommend using thoseverbatim because you don't want
the voice of AI to be for yourpodcast.
You are the host and you arethe reason why your listeners
keep coming back.
But to use AI to help you mighthelp optimize this time so that
(04:37):
you aren't left with a blankpiece of paper after spending
two hours in this planningsession.
So come in with a creativemindset and stay laser focused.
Lay out your content and don'tbe afraid to use AI to help you
a little bit with this process.
The next recommendation I haveis to go ahead and batch record
your content.
(04:57):
Batch recording optimizes yourtime by allowing you to create
multiple podcast episodes in onefocused session.
So I recommend determiningwhich days are gonna be your
recording days.
The reason I say that isbecause you're gonna wanna make
sure that you are heading intothose precious working hours
with the right mindset.
You will want to make sure thatyou're hydrated.
(05:18):
You wanna make sure that yourvoice is rested.
And if you're doing a video,you'll wanna make sure that
you're camera ready.
And I know that if you're a momworking during nap time, this
might be the hardest challengeof all.
So you wanna make sure you arerecording multiple episodes on
those days that you decided toget camera ready.
Maybe that's just me, but Ithink some other moms can relate
(05:38):
to this.
I also recommend choosing a daywhen your energy is high.
So if you're waiting to recordon a Friday afternoon after a
long week, that might not be thebest option for getting that
focused, high energy recording.
So I recommend choosing a daywhen your energy is high, you've
gotten a lot of rest, andyou've kind of anticipated this
(05:59):
and prepared for it.
Recording multiple episodes atonce can really help streamline
your process.
This really helps if you don'thave a designated studio for
your podcast and you've justcreated a studio within your
home.
There are logistics that cantake time.
And so having all of yourrecording done on one day helps
(06:19):
to reduce the time spent, maybesetting up your equipment, maybe
setting up your microphone andyour roadcaster and making sure
that the house is quiet, makingsure that there's no delivery
scheduled for that day.
All of those are hard to dowhen you're trying to record
every time you have a chance towork on your podcast.
So your planning days, youdon't have to worry about all
(06:40):
that setup.
You don't have to worry aboutgetting ready.
You just have to have your mindready.
Then when it comes torecording, go ahead and record
multiple episodes so that you'renot having to walk through
those logistics every time.
An added benefit of recordingmultiple episodes at once is
that you can stay ahead, whichwill allow you to stay calm.
When you record those episodesand then you take a day to edit
(07:03):
all of those episodes, now youhave multiple episodes that you
can go ahead and upload toBuzzSprout and they are there
waiting to be published.
It allows you to remain aheadof your release date.
So if you have an episodethat's gonna release this week,
but then you have two more thatare already recorded, edited,
and uploaded, that is such acalm workplace.
(07:25):
And especially if you arefitting your work into a busy
schedule, this is gonna help outtremendously when all of a
sudden that schedule becomesunpredictable and you lose that
time slot that you wouldotherwise be working on this
podcast.
So staying ahead will keep yourproduction process calm.
It will keep it sustainable.
And most of all, it will keepit enjoyable.
(07:46):
If you are hosted here with usat BuzzSprout, we even offer a
way to go ahead and schedulethose episodes inside of your
BuzzSprout account.
So you can set those and forgetit.
Those are taken care of.
And now the next week, when youget back to work and you have
those time slots, you arealready set and you can start
working on the next weeks ahead.
So this makes podcastingenjoyable and fun.
(08:07):
And so I recommend trying tostay ahead and batch recording
your episodes.
So for Lucy who asked thisquestion, I hope that points one
and two are things that you'vealready implemented.
And if not, I hope there aresmall takeaways that you can add
to your production process thatwill help you in making the
most of the time that you'reworking on your podcast.
But this last point I think isreally gonna help if you already
(08:31):
have an existing podcast, butyou're ready to take it to the
next level.
And the time that you have towork on it is limited.
So we're gonna optimize yourexisting podcast content.
Optimizing your existingcontent means improving the
parts of your show that willhelp grow your audience,
increase engagement, and createa better listener experience
(08:52):
without necessarily creatingmore work.
This is possible.
I want to share how to do this.
So first, I want you to gothrough your existing content
and I want you to look for waysto enhance that content that's
going to make it more SEOfriendly.
SEO stands for search engineoptimization.
So optimizing your content thisway allows you to harness the
(09:15):
power of search results so theywork in your favor.
When you're going through yourcontent, I want you to think of
keywords.
So keywords are words thatlisteners might be using to
search for content related toyour episode topics.
And while you don't want tostuff your titles and your
descriptions full of keywords,you want to make sure that they
are using words that accuratelysummarize your podcast and
(09:38):
episodes.
That way, when someone searchesthose terms, your episodes are
included in those results.
This is why transcripts are sobeneficial, that written content
on the web becomes searchablewhen listeners are typing in
related content into the searchengine.
One way of thinking about itwhen you're trying to come up
with titles and descriptionsthat would be best for search
(10:02):
engine optimization is to thinkabout the questions your
listeners would be asking thatyour podcast answers.
For example, podcasting QA isall about podcasting and we're
answering common questions thatpodcasters are asking us.
And so when I title my episodesor I'm writing my descriptions,
I'm trying to think of what isit that somebody would be asking
(10:24):
about podcasting.
While my titles don't alwayshave to be in the form of a
question, I want the content toanswer that question.
So I'm thinking of words thatwould be included in search
results when my listeners aretrying to find answers.
So this takes intentionalityand time.
When you are short on time,which is what we're talking
(10:44):
about in this episode, AI cancome in handy when it comes to
finding these keywords and thesetitles for your podcast
episodes.
You can even type in a promptto AI, and that can help you
find a title that offers thebest SEO results.
If you're hosted here onBuzzSprout, we actually have a
feature called Co-host AI.
(11:05):
And that will allow you to runyour audio episodes through
Co-host AI and it will producefive title options, two episode
description options.
It'll give you chapter markers.
So all of this written contentbased on your audio episodes.
It's giving you that writtencontent that can be found when
(11:26):
listeners are searching fortopics related to your podcast
on the web.
So I recommend checking thatout.
Another way of optimizing yourexisting content is to repurpose
your episodes.
So the best part about creatingamazing episodes is that they
automatically result in amazingcontent that can be repurposed
to promote your podcast.
I recently did a podcasting QAepisode on repurposing your
(11:49):
existing content.
I'll make sure to link that inthe show notes if you want to
check that out.
But basically, you can use someof your existing content to
share and promote your podcast,either on social media sites or
maybe even by creating a blogpost or a newsletter.
There are many ways that youcan use that existing content to
help promote your show.
And the last point I want tomake is to use this time that
(12:12):
you've built in to schedule outyour promo content.
So while BuzzRout allows you toschedule your episodes, you do
also want to schedule your promoaround those episode release
days.
So depending on your workschedule and depending on when
you're able to fit this work inbetween life and nap time and
work or whatever it is thatyou're trying to fit your
podcast into, you want to havetools that will help you push
(12:36):
these posts out and get thesethings done so that you don't
have to worry about that.
I know some apps like Facebookwill allow you to schedule
posts, but you can also use aservice like Buffer to schedule
out all of your promotion.
This is a great tool to promoteyour episode leading up to
launch day so that yourlisteners are seeing it.
They know that it's coming, theanticipation is building.
(12:57):
And then when you do publishthat episode, they will see that
and you're not having to rushoff to your computer or your
phone to go ahead and promotethat episode.
So buffer is a great tool.
I know there's many more outthere, but I recommend being
intentional during this time toschedule out your podcast
promotion.
I love that this question camein and that podcasters are
(13:18):
looking for ways to still offeramazing content to their
audience, even when life throwscurveballs and busy schedules
their way.
If you have a question aboutyour podcast, feel free to send
it to us by emailing thepodcaster success team at
support@ buzzsprout.com.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And as always, keep podcasting.
Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you
by the people at Buzz Sprout.
I'm your host, Cara Pacetti,and I'm bringing you the best
tips and strategies to keep youpodcasting with confidence.
We recently made some changesto our fan mail feature that
will now allow you to dropquestions for us by leaving a
(00:23):
voicemail.
Now, it's been a while sincewe've played a listener question
live on a Podcasting Q&Aepisode.
So this could be your time toshine.
Send in your question and wewill not only answer it, but
also play it back on an upcomingepisode.
Just click the send us fan maillink in the show notes to
record your question.
Today we're answering Lucy'squestion.
(00:43):
How can we optimize our show?
We're busy moms producing thispodcast while our kids sleep.
So first I want to say, Lucy,hats off to you.
That is hard work and trying tofit that into an unpredictable
short amount of time.
Kudos for producing andlaunching your podcast.
That's great work.
And so I'd love to help answerthis question.
(01:06):
This question is fun becauseit's practical.
And while this question isspecific to a mom squeezing in a
podcast while her kids nap, thetips I'm offering today are
really for anyone who's tryingto fit their podcast into a busy
schedule and who are limited ontime.
I want to offer threerecommendations for optimizing
(01:26):
the time you have to work onyour podcast.
First, you'll want to make surethat you are setting time aside
to plan out your podcastcontent.
This planning time is best usedfor scripting, episode
planning, and prep.
So this includes things likeoutlining your episode topics,
researching guests that you wantto bring onto the show, maybe
(01:47):
scripting out your actualepisode outlines, or even
finalizing segues that get youfrom one point to the next.
In order to make the most ofyour time here, I want you to
consider some things when youare working in this planning
session.
First, I want to point out thatwhen you're planning out your
content, this is a creativeprocess.
(02:08):
And whenever you're creatingsomething, you really need to be
focused.
It's so easy to be distractedwhen you're trying to use that
muscle of creativity.
You almost need the quiet toreally minimize distractions.
So if you can, I would silenceyour notifications.
I would only open the tabs onyour computer that you need open
(02:30):
for this prep in this planningwork.
So you can really dial in andget as much mapped out as you
can during that one to two hoursthat you have time to work.
The goal of this planning timeis to lay it all out in advance.
So whether you're planning justfor your next podcasting
season, or maybe you are goingthe full distance and you're
(02:52):
planning for the entire year,remember, you've already
identified your message that youwant to communicate to your
listeners.
And you hopefully by nowalready know your audience or
your hope-to-be audience ifyou're just getting started.
So that part is done.
You don't need to worry aboutthat.
What your focus on is how am Ilogistically going to
(03:12):
communicate this message in away that I can sustain in my
short pockets of work.
And what is my plan?
So you just need to find outwhat is it that you are focusing
on the next upcoming weeks ormonths when it comes to
producing your podcast.
And laying that plan out inadvance with dates on a calendar
(03:32):
is really going to help so thatyou aren't having to make those
creative decisions every singletime you get to work.
So if you can have a gooduninterrupted one to two hours
in this just planning session toget all of those creative ideas
out there on paper in a waythat is actionable, that's
(03:52):
really gonna help set you up andgive you a nice baseline to
work from.
One tip I want to throw outthere is that if you haven't
used AI, that is a reallyhelpful tool.
You can use AI to help get yourwheels turning, to help get
that creativity flowing, and youcan feed it prompts.
So if you type in what you wantto communicate in your episode
(04:13):
and how you want it to becommunicated, and maybe even how
long you want the episode tobe.
And then it will offer someideas for you.
I don't recommend using thoseverbatim because you don't want
the voice of AI to be for yourpodcast.
You are the host and you arethe reason why your listeners
keep coming back.
But to use AI to help you mighthelp optimize this time so that
(04:37):
you aren't left with a blankpiece of paper after spending
two hours in this planningsession.
So come in with a creativemindset and stay laser focused.
Lay out your content and don'tbe afraid to use AI to help you
a little bit with this process.
The next recommendation I haveis to go ahead and batch record
your content.
(04:57):
Batch recording optimizes yourtime by allowing you to create
multiple podcast episodes in onefocused session.
So I recommend determiningwhich days are gonna be your
recording days.
The reason I say that isbecause you're gonna wanna make
sure that you are heading intothose precious working hours
with the right mindset.
You will want to make sure thatyou're hydrated.
(05:18):
You wanna make sure that yourvoice is rested.
And if you're doing a video,you'll wanna make sure that
you're camera ready.
And I know that if you're a momworking during nap time, this
might be the hardest challengeof all.
So you wanna make sure you arerecording multiple episodes on
those days that you decided toget camera ready.
Maybe that's just me, but Ithink some other moms can relate
(05:38):
to this.
I also recommend choosing a daywhen your energy is high.
So if you're waiting to recordon a Friday afternoon after a
long week, that might not be thebest option for getting that
focused, high energy recording.
So I recommend choosing a daywhen your energy is high, you've
gotten a lot of rest, andyou've kind of anticipated this
(05:59):
and prepared for it.
Recording multiple episodes atonce can really help streamline
your process.
This really helps if you don'thave a designated studio for
your podcast and you've justcreated a studio within your
home.
There are logistics that cantake time.
And so having all of yourrecording done on one day helps
(06:19):
to reduce the time spent, maybesetting up your equipment, maybe
setting up your microphone andyour roadcaster and making sure
that the house is quiet, makingsure that there's no delivery
scheduled for that day.
All of those are hard to dowhen you're trying to record
every time you have a chance towork on your podcast.
So your planning days, youdon't have to worry about all
(06:40):
that setup.
You don't have to worry aboutgetting ready.
You just have to have your mindready.
Then when it comes torecording, go ahead and record
multiple episodes so that you'renot having to walk through
those logistics every time.
An added benefit of recordingmultiple episodes at once is
that you can stay ahead, whichwill allow you to stay calm.
When you record those episodesand then you take a day to edit
(07:03):
all of those episodes, now youhave multiple episodes that you
can go ahead and upload toBuzzSprout and they are there
waiting to be published.
It allows you to remain aheadof your release date.
So if you have an episodethat's gonna release this week,
but then you have two more thatare already recorded, edited,
and uploaded, that is such acalm workplace.
(07:25):
And especially if you arefitting your work into a busy
schedule, this is gonna help outtremendously when all of a
sudden that schedule becomesunpredictable and you lose that
time slot that you wouldotherwise be working on this
podcast.
So staying ahead will keep yourproduction process calm.
It will keep it sustainable.
And most of all, it will keepit enjoyable.
(07:46):
If you are hosted here with usat BuzzSprout, we even offer a
way to go ahead and schedulethose episodes inside of your
BuzzSprout account.
So you can set those and forgetit.
Those are taken care of.
And now the next week, when youget back to work and you have
those time slots, you arealready set and you can start
working on the next weeks ahead.
So this makes podcastingenjoyable and fun.
(08:07):
And so I recommend trying tostay ahead and batch recording
your episodes.
So for Lucy who asked thisquestion, I hope that points one
and two are things that you'vealready implemented.
And if not, I hope there aresmall takeaways that you can add
to your production process thatwill help you in making the
most of the time that you'reworking on your podcast.
But this last point I think isreally gonna help if you already
(08:31):
have an existing podcast, butyou're ready to take it to the
next level.
And the time that you have towork on it is limited.
So we're gonna optimize yourexisting podcast content.
Optimizing your existingcontent means improving the
parts of your show that willhelp grow your audience,
increase engagement, and createa better listener experience
(08:52):
without necessarily creatingmore work.
This is possible.
I want to share how to do this.
So first, I want you to gothrough your existing content
and I want you to look for waysto enhance that content that's
going to make it more SEOfriendly.
SEO stands for search engineoptimization.
So optimizing your content thisway allows you to harness the
(09:15):
power of search results so theywork in your favor.
When you're going through yourcontent, I want you to think of
keywords.
So keywords are words thatlisteners might be using to
search for content related toyour episode topics.
And while you don't want tostuff your titles and your
descriptions full of keywords,you want to make sure that they
are using words that accuratelysummarize your podcast and
(09:38):
episodes.
That way, when someone searchesthose terms, your episodes are
included in those results.
This is why transcripts are sobeneficial, that written content
on the web becomes searchablewhen listeners are typing in
related content into the searchengine.
One way of thinking about itwhen you're trying to come up
with titles and descriptionsthat would be best for search
(10:02):
engine optimization is to thinkabout the questions your
listeners would be asking thatyour podcast answers.
For example, podcasting QA isall about podcasting and we're
answering common questions thatpodcasters are asking us.
And so when I title my episodesor I'm writing my descriptions,
I'm trying to think of what isit that somebody would be asking
(10:24):
about podcasting.
While my titles don't alwayshave to be in the form of a
question, I want the content toanswer that question.
So I'm thinking of words thatwould be included in search
results when my listeners aretrying to find answers.
So this takes intentionalityand time.
When you are short on time,which is what we're talking
(10:44):
about in this episode, AI cancome in handy when it comes to
finding these keywords and thesetitles for your podcast
episodes.
You can even type in a promptto AI, and that can help you
find a title that offers thebest SEO results.
If you're hosted here onBuzzSprout, we actually have a
feature called Co-host AI.
(11:05):
And that will allow you to runyour audio episodes through
Co-host AI and it will producefive title options, two episode
description options.
It'll give you chapter markers.
So all of this written contentbased on your audio episodes.
It's giving you that writtencontent that can be found when
(11:26):
listeners are searching fortopics related to your podcast
on the web.
So I recommend checking thatout.
Another way of optimizing yourexisting content is to repurpose
your episodes.
So the best part about creatingamazing episodes is that they
automatically result in amazingcontent that can be repurposed
to promote your podcast.
I recently did a podcasting QAepisode on repurposing your
(11:49):
existing content.
I'll make sure to link that inthe show notes if you want to
check that out.
But basically, you can use someof your existing content to
share and promote your podcast,either on social media sites or
maybe even by creating a blogpost or a newsletter.
There are many ways that youcan use that existing content to
help promote your show.
And the last point I want tomake is to use this time that
(12:12):
you've built in to schedule outyour promo content.
So while BuzzRout allows you toschedule your episodes, you do
also want to schedule your promoaround those episode release
days.
So depending on your workschedule and depending on when
you're able to fit this work inbetween life and nap time and
work or whatever it is thatyou're trying to fit your
podcast into, you want to havetools that will help you push
(12:36):
these posts out and get thesethings done so that you don't
have to worry about that.
I know some apps like Facebookwill allow you to schedule
posts, but you can also use aservice like Buffer to schedule
out all of your promotion.
This is a great tool to promoteyour episode leading up to
launch day so that yourlisteners are seeing it.
They know that it's coming, theanticipation is building.
(12:57):
And then when you do publishthat episode, they will see that
and you're not having to rushoff to your computer or your
phone to go ahead and promotethat episode.
So buffer is a great tool.
I know there's many more outthere, but I recommend being
intentional during this time toschedule out your podcast
promotion.
I love that this question camein and that podcasters are
(13:18):
looking for ways to still offeramazing content to their
audience, even when life throwscurveballs and busy schedules
their way.
If you have a question aboutyour podcast, feel free to send
it to us by emailing thepodcaster success team at
support@ buzzsprout.com.
Be sure to join us every Mondayto kickstart your week.
Thank you so much forlistening.
And as always, keep podcasting.
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