Sustainable Podcasting Strategies with Whitney from The Family Lab

Meet Whitney from The Family Lab

Whitney has been podcasting for over six years and recently rebranded her show from How She Moms to The Family Lab to reflect a broader, more collaborative approach to parenting and family life. After a rock-climbing accident forced her to take a long hiatus, Whitney came back to podcasting with a fresh perspective: only create what truly brings joy and value. Her experiments in sustainable podcasting are a must-hear for moms navigating content creation and real life.

Links

• Snag a 30-minute Podcast Jumpstart Session with me!
• Last week’s episode with Whitney⁠⁠
• ⁠Ologies with Alie Ward

Connect with Whitney

• Podcast: The Family Lab

• Podcast: The Y Magazine Podcast

• The Family Lab on Instagram

Connect with me

• Instagram

• Threads

Unedited transcript of the episode:

So,, I was plugging along with How She Bombs and then, um, I literally fell off a cliff, not just figuratively.

It’s true.

Hi, I’m Andy Smiley, your friendly podcast guide. I help you start and launch a podcast that is fun and fulfilling. I share tips, stories from my own journey and insights from podcasters I admire. In this episode, I’m sharing the other half of my conversation with Whitney. She is such a wealth of knowledge and has such applicable advice that I couldn’t fit it all into one episode. If you listen to last week’s episode, you know that I’m dabbling in trying out a narrative format, and honestly, it’s been super fun. So I decided to do a little bit of that for this episode as well.

And if you wanna check out the first half of my conversation with Whitney, I’ll put a link to it in the show notes.

Also, just as a reminder, if you only have the capacity to implement one thing at the end of this episode, I’ll tell you what that one thing should be so you don’t feel overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start.

 Okay. Whitney, I have two questions for you the first one is what is the last podcast that you listened to for you?

Okay, so I just discovered a new one, which is, it’s not new. It’s just new to me. Um, it’s ologies. Have you listened to

Oh, I love ologies.

And I started with a great one, which was hippopotamology, which is

Ooh.

say, um, all about, like she had an expert on about hippopotamuses. And I learned that hippopotami or hippopotamuses, both are correct, I believe, from the episode.

Um, they, are most closely related to whales. Isn’t that crazy?

that is crazy.

Yeah, it’s crazy. And I love that. I love something that makes me go, what? Anyway, so. So this is what, I mean, she has people that are experts on anything and I just love the concept. She’s so curious, and you can, you can tell that, like, she lets her wonder and awe come through during the episodes. So, it’s a, it’s a really good instructive, um, podcast, if you’re a podcaster, too, just to, like, see her style of interviewing, and there’s just a pure curiosity, so, yeah,

fan club meeting, but. I really love that she also gives to a different charity every week

that’s

of every episode. Yeah. So I was, when I interviewed, um, nothing much happens, which is a sleep podcast.

Um, she also likes ologies and she was listening one day and she was like. I can do that. So now she donates to a, to a different charity every week on her episodes. And it just makes me so happy. Now, Whitney, what is a simple life hack that’s making your life better right now?

Okay, um, this is going to be one, uh, that I just rediscovered because, you know, sometimes when your kids are younger or, or, you know, I have five, so with the first ones I was like super fun mom and then I got tired and, you know, sometimes I just remind myself that I can be that fun mom. So, um, a game that I invented a long time ago when my, one of my sons is like the worst speller known to man, like he cannot spell worth.

And he, so we tried, we gave it a good effort before we just gave up completely on him ever spelling anything, but, um, we used to play this game, a spelling game on the stairs, where, um, he starts at the bottom of the stairs, and I give him his words, and if he spells it right, he gets to step up, he’s now in high school, so he’s doing vocab words for his history class, and we’re like, okay, we’re gonna bring the stare game back now that he’s in high school.

But this time we had, My other high schooler joined him and my daughter who’s in seventh grade. So we made it a competition and they all started at the bottom and we’d trade off who got to go first and then they could steal if that person got the spelling wrong or the definition wrong. And it was, we were just like rollicking with laughter on the stairs.

Partly because of some of this kid’s spelling still, but, but also just because then, then another one would like get it wrong in a different way, and we’d just be cracking up. Anyway, we had this fun study session on the stairs. I think it can apply to any age, the stair spelling thing, and you know, their goal is to make it up to the top of the stairs first, and anyway, we, we ended up, who else has vocabulary words that we can study?

Like, anyway, it was just this party that was just so funny, so.

Oh my gosh, you have the best ideas when it comes to parenting, like in any way, shape or form. So

I steal a lot of ideas, too.

you know what? I love it. You curate, you curate ideas. That’s what we’re going to, that’s what we’re going to say I just love talking to you because I feel like I come away with so many good ideas and yeah, we’re all moms. We’re all just trying to do our best. And I feel like you, you do curate like the best stuff ever.

And that is the first of many plugs for her podcast called the family lab. It’s the bomb. And I love it so much.

Whitney has been podcasting for six years and she was in a bit of a rut about two years ago, and the thing that got her out of her rut was completely unexpected.

So,, I was plugging along with How She Bombs and then, um, I literally fell off a cliff, not just figuratively.

It’s true.

It wasn’t an existential crisis. It was a, it was a physical

was a literal

So , I fell, rock climbing. Um, I had to take time off, to recover. That was the Abbot in July. I tried to start up again in January and I was all gung ho. I was just missing it. I it was too much.

I just couldn’t physically do it. So I did like three episodes and then Just fizzled and then I I thought I was gonna start back in September and I still wasn’t ready and but but in that whole meantime, I was like, okay What does this bring to my life?

My life has changed. I’m still recovering. I’m still Struggling with the outcomes of the surgeries and broken bones and stuff. So, I’m like, if I’m going to bring this back, I’m going to do it very deliberately, and I’m going to make it exactly what I want. And I had already been toying with changing the name to The Family Lab for a long time.

Part of that was because How She Moms, The idea behind that was I want to know how different moms do it. I want to pull back the curtain, figure out, you know, all these different solutions so that we can be creative, um, there’s no one right answer, that kind of stuff. So it fit the purpose and , it was great, but I felt like it was putting too much onus on the mother, first of all, instead of the family.

Like, it is not the mother’s responsibility to run everything in the home. It’s a family project, um, and so I didn’t like that, and I didn’t like that it was kind of reinforcing those gender stereotypes that the mom should be in charge of everything, you know? Um, I also wanted to bring some men’s voices into it,

, I wanted to get more perspectives and, and get men’s parenting perspectives, um, which I could have done in the other one. It was my podcast. I could do what I want. But as I, as I was doing the other podcast. Just this concept of experiments kept coming up and that’s really what I was doing.

We were just trying all these different things and finding the thing that sticks for that season and then you have to try again. So, so I just wanted to reinforce that idea of like, this is an experiment. It is not an exact science that there’s one, there’s one right answer. Like we have to be constantly experimenting and growing and failing and messing up and it’s.

It’s messy and confusing but fun. The experimenting also brings out the fun to me. Like, okay, yeah, that didn’t work. Let’s think of a new creative idea. Maybe labs don’t make everybody think of fun because it’s school and whatever, but to me, like, I love school. I love experiments.

I love science. So, so to me, that’s part of, that brings in some fun too, like, let’s just try it. Let’s just go for it. And so that’s why, I rebranded it and changed some of the structures. Also, you know, I like change. It’s fun for me to just try something new, so it reinvigorated my excitement about my podcast.

I had all these new fun things to try. Um, and , with the theme of the podcast being experiments, I have complete latitude to experiment away.

Before we hear more about Whitney and her amazing podcasting journey, I wanna tell you about my podcast Jumpstart sessions. So you’ve been thinking about starting a podcast, but every time you think about actually starting questions pop up. What Mike, do I need? How do I get my show on Apple podcasts?

What if I start and then get overwhelmed? I get it. Podcasting can feel super overwhelming, but that’s exactly why I do free 30 minute podcast jumpstart sessions. It’s just you and me on a call chatting through your questions and figuring out what’s actually holding you back. By the end, you’ll

you’ll know exactly what to do next. Plus, I’ll send you my favorite MIC recommendations the best podcast hosting platforms, and the next two steps to get your show started. I only do a few of these calls each month, so grab yours before they’re gone.

Go to the link in the show notes to book your free podcast Jumpstart session. Let’s make this podcast happen. Okay, now we get to hear about how Whitney’s experience with her accident is a beautiful reminder that if you’re making good content and putting your heart into it, your listeners won’t forget about you.

When you’re creating good content, your people will find you and they’ll stay with you no matter what happens. Just keep them in the loop. Be like, Hey, this is too much. I love what I’m making, but I need to switch to biweekly for right now so that I can keep making the kind of content I want to. Your people are going to be like, great. Don’t kill yourself.

I want to hear it when it comes out. Like, take your time. I feel like as long as you involve your people in the process and just give them a peek behind the scenes of like what’s going on. 98 percent of the time, they’re going to be like, awesome. Yay. I want you to keep making episodes.

So do it a little bit slower. So you’ll keep going. Right.

Yeah, well, and you’re definitely better at that than I am. Like, you’re really good at bringing people along the journey. When I get overwhelmed, I, social media is like the last thing I want to do. Or, like, I don’t know, sometimes I don’t even do it on my own podcast to explain what I’m doing.

I just start something new. So, that’s really good advice for me. So, I appreciate that.

and

true. I like it when people do it. Like, I agree with you. I just don’t do it

well, I was just going to say like, even though you’re not doing it, like. We’re still here, right? Like the listeners are still listening, it’s just a recommendation and it does help. It does help people to like, be like, Oh, like for me, I ended season two of the friendly podcast guide in. I think my last episode came out the first, first Tuesday in December. And I was just, it was like a blatant, hi, this is the last episode of the season. You’re not going to hear from me until spring. Look for me in March. Like I feel like I was very obvious about like, Hey, we’re done. We’re all taking a break.

We’re going to celebrate Christmas and enjoy it. Look for me in March and I’ll be on social media. sporadically. So go hang out with me there if you want to. But like, I feel like when I did that, everyone kind of knew what to expect.

Right, right, yeah. No, and I guess I do that when, when I’m changing seasons or something.

Truly the other thing I was going to say is, so right now my seasons are three months on three months off because that’s how my brain works.

The thing I’ve noticed about having a seasonal show is I don’t feel as rushed about pretty much anything like I have three months of episodes and I’m going to take a break and then I’m going to come back. Like I’m not going anywhere. It’s just, things are stretched out a little bit further and it’s totally fine.

Like I love that. I am just so much less rushed now than I used to be.

Yeah, I know. It’s, it’s so great. We’ve talked a lot about that.

Well, yeah, Whitney, you had a seasonal podcast way before I did well. And yours, I love. Isn’t as like systematic as mine, but people still keep coming back. Right. Cause you don’t do summer and you don’t do like December.

yeah,

Something like that. And I love that. It just works for you and your people keep coming back. So you were one of the, I was like, Whitney has a seasonal podcast. People still listen to hers like when I was like working myself through having a seasonal show. So

honestly, some people like, people like to have the break too. Like,

yeah.

you’re pumping out a podcast a week, people like, People are just going to take a break from your podcast and then they’re going to binge the episodes they care about every so often. I mean, that’s just how it, that’s just how it is.

Most people haven’t listened to your whole catalog.

Yeah, it’s

They can go, they can go, and especially once you’ve been doing it for a while, if they want to hear from me, they have plenty of things they can hear.

It’s true. And I think when we hear quote unquote, podcast experts be like, you have to be consistent, you have to have an episode every week, like, sure. That’s a great strategy if you can make it happen. But also we got to remember that our listeners are human. And if you’re putting out a 30 minute episode every week, your people don’t, they don’t always have 30 minutes

mom isn’t even caught up.

It’s true, right? Like we’re humans. We have, especially both of our like main audiences are moms, right? Or parents . And so like life is crazy. There are weeks when I can dive into a back catalog of ologies or whatever, because I’m doing a bunch of spring cleaning and everyone’s cooperating.

And like, I can just like plug in and go. And then there are other weeks when everyone’s throwing up. I don’t have enough time to do anything except for like, try and sneak in a shower, let alone try and listen to a podcast episode about parenting. Like it’s just not in the cards for that week.

And so I think. When we remember that our listeners are humans, they, we’re not robots and they’re not robots. So we need to treat each other the same way.

yeah. And it’s still good to like work up your catalog, um, so, so that then, because what I really hope people use my podcast for, and I have to remind myself that this is the purpose, I want people, if they’re in an emergency situation, they’re like, what do I do when they just don’t know what the heck to do with their kids, they need solutions, they can look through.

So, I bet. Whitney has an episode on, on that. I’m going to dig through and find the answers to my problems. I’m, that’s what I’m here for. And, and that’s going to be different for whatever your purpose is. If you’re a how to, then that’s probably one of your purposes. It’s to just be that resource that they like, Oh, I bet she has an answer for that.

Let’s go back and find it.

Yes, totally. Well, even like one of my favorite podcasts is the pop cast with Knox and Jamie. Um, and it’s just about pop culture. Like. It’s nothing, nothing earth shattering, but it’s one that I will eventually I’m behind because I’m always behind, like we were talking about, but I will always make sure I listen to all of the episodes because they’re delightful.

So like, and it’s like my go to laundry. Like if I’m folding laundry, I’m listening to the podcast because it just makes it, I hate laundry. So it’s like my go to to make it less miserable. And so, no, I don’t listen to an entire episode while I’m folding laundry. Cause their episodes are like an hour long and.

I thankfully do not have an hour’s worth of laundry to do, but I will eventually listen to all of them. I am a avid listener, but I also am not going to be listening to an entire episode every week. It’s just not in the cards.

Well, and you just have to remember, it’s more important that it’s good than that it’s frequent.

Yes. Oh

podcast that’s not good, people are going to stop listening and they may not come back not to put too much pressure on, but, like, some, there have been podcasts where I’ve like, oh, that just jumped the shark.

I don’t know if I’ll come back. And some, I usually give them a few chances. But if. If the quality goes down, or if they change something that I don’t like, then I’m like, okay, that was fun, well, it lasted, see ya, you know, so, so,

it’s true, yeah, I’d rather listen to a really good episode , that comes out once a month, even rather than four crappy episodes.

Not only does Whitney have her podcast called The Family Lab, she also creates a podcast for Brigham Young University and there’s plenty of experimenting and learning that goes on with that podcast. Two

And I’ll tell you, like when I first, especially when I first started the BYU one, I was really, I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to like be a personality, but still keep it neutral. It wasn’t all about me anymore. It was,

hmm.

know, it’s, it’s It’s a podcast about a university, so I, at first they kept telling me like, no, put more of yourself into it, put more of yourself into it, because I was being more sterile and like making it all about the guest or whatever.

Um, so it’s this balance that you’re always have to, have to find.

Totally. I love that. And, and I really do love that you said it’s a balance that we’re always looking for. Cause like, we’re never going to be perfect at it. There’s always going to be something that like you want to tweak or try something new. And that’s kind of podcasting is it’s your show, so you get to choose, but also.

Trying to always improve and grow and try different things and they’re not always gonna work, but It’s still fun in the

Right. And then while thinking about all that, you have to really keep focused on that listener first, you know,

right? Right.

so while you’re trying to like, figure out how much of yourself, it’s really how much of yourself in the service of the relationship with your listener. It’s not about you still, like, that’s, that’s where it gets so hard is because you’re like, I want them to know me better.

So that we’re friends having this conversation, taking this journey together. But it also is not

I mean, it’s just, it’s just a dance of friendship. That’s it. That’s my quote of the day. Podcast is a dance of friendship with your listener. I don’t

love it. Yes.

That’s silly, but, you know.

right? You’re just trying to figure out what that balance is. And

you lead. Now I’m gonna lead. I don’t know.

I love it. Well, Whitney, you are Delightful. I adore you and I’m so glad that we are friends.

Yeah.

Oh yes. And listeners, if you are not already listening to the family lab, you really should, Whitney is a wealth of knowledge and she brings on very knowledgeable guests and it’s just a delight listening to her podcast.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being on the show today. This has been so much fun and it is so fun to have you as a co host for at least this one episode.

Maybe we’ll have to bring this back because it was really fun.

I’m totally in.

As I’m wrapping up this episode, here’s the one thing you should implement in your podcast if you’re feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start, and that is to make sure you’re scheduling breaks into your podcast calendar. Whitney’s story proves that your listeners will stick with you even when you take breaks.

So make sure you take those breaks so you don’t burn out. 

Will you share this episode with your friend who’s been thinking about starting a podcast but needs that little like push to actually get started? Whitney’s story is so inspiring and I know that it will help her get excited about podcasting and ready to dive in.

In next week’s episode, I talk about creating the tool that has helped me the most as a mom who podcasts, and that is my podcast workflow., I talk about why it’s important, and I also walk you through the steps to create your own.

Thanks for being here, and I’ll see you next week.