Binge Factor Media

Sometimes you just want a good podcast to listen to while caring for your kids. As a mom, finding the right podcast that is also kid-friendly for your child is a lot of work. If only there was a podcast guide out there for moms. You’re in luck because the guest today does precisely that.

Join Tracy Hazzard as she talks to the host of The Friendly Podcast Guide, Andi Smiley, about how she helps moms find the podcast they are looking for. Find out how and why Andi started a podcast as a mom. Learn how she grew and is continuing to grow her podcast business. Discover her process on how she scouts for new shows and gets guests. And know why there needs to be more kid-friendly podcasts right now.

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

How Andi Smiley’s Podcast, The Friendly Podcast Guide, Helps Busy Moms Discover The Right Shows To Listen

I’m excited to bring you someone who’s doing a compilation show. It’s like the way we do this here at the show. Andi Smiley has a friendly podcast show and one of her favorite things is to bring you podcasts to listen to. How much fun is that? Andi has such a great persona. She loved podcasting. It’s amazing to know how much she is fascinated by it. I swear that I think she does this as much to be able to listen to the podcast and have an excuse to listen to it as it is to bring it out to you.

Andi Smiley is the mom of 3 littles, 5 and under. The podcast saved her sanity. She now makes a podcast about podcasts to help other moms learn about all the different podcasts there are without feeling overwhelmed. The Friendly Podcast Guide talks about a different show in every episode with each episode being about ten minutes. Although she does have some longer ones because moms don’t have time to listen to a bunch of different podcasts to figure out which one is right for them to begin with.

I like that premise. It sets the tone for the show in such a great way, but it also gets you to know her. It has such a great personality of Andi. We got to chat while the kids were away at her mom’s. She got a little time off and we got to talk podcasting together. I had a lot of fun. Let’s go into my conversation with Andi Smiley, the friendly podcast show.

Andi, welcome to the show. I am glad to have you. I’m glad PodMatch found us and matched us together, which wasn’t the most logical match I thought. At the end of the day, it’s not the most logical because your show is a little more for moms and for that type of show review. At the same time, that’s what my show is. It’s a show review too. It’s just in different models. We have a lot of similarities.

I am glad that I found you and I’m grateful for PodMatch. I don’t know if it’s been a good fit for you, but I have already learned a lot from you. I’ve only like talked to you for twenty minutes.

I’m glad that happened. I’ve raved about PodMatch for the past five episodes straight because all my guests came from there and we’ve all been like, “That was a good match. It’s working out. Their AI is on something here.” I love your tagline. It’s one of my favorite things about your show, sorting through podcasts, so you don’t have to. How many of us are too busy to figure that out?

That was my problem many years ago when I first found podcasts and I was super excited about it. It was right after my son was born. I was bored and stiff at home when I wasn’t at work. All he wanted to do was build blocks and then knock them over, and that’s great when you’re six months old. It’s not great when you’re the mom and you have to be with your kid. You want him or her to feel like you’re engaging with him, but at the same time, you feel like your brain is melting out of your ears from boredom.

It’s like, “How many times can I build this same tower?”

I found podcasts and it was such a fabulous thing, but at the same time, it was like, “There are so many. How do I find one that I even like?” Eventually, I figured out some ways to find them but I feel like I’m still not perfect at finding a podcast that I like, which is why I made my podcast. It was to hopefully help other people find podcasts they like faster.

The crazy part that most people don’t understand is that you’re not alone. There are many people out there. The statistic I saw was something North of 70% of podcast listeners can’t find a new show they are interested in. It’s not because there aren’t shows out there. It’s because it’s too hard to find them.

I feel like the search abilities on the podcast apps are improving. They’re not as bad as they used to be, but they’re not perfect. You can type in a bunch of words and you still might not find a podcast that’s out there that’s perfect for you, but it’s not connecting in whatever way it needs to.

The thing is I feel like I’m shouting in the wind constantly trying to say, “It’s up to you, podcasters. You have to get better at this because they’re not improving the algorithm.” Finally, a few more people are starting to get to know how the search algorithm works. Maybe it’s because I’ve done a good job of yelling about it, but I can do this alone. They have to either get better at what they do or everyone in the industry needs to know that this is the standard.

That’s probably not going to happen. We need to step it up.

We need to know we are playing a search engine game.

I feel like when your brain finally makes that switch, it’s like, “If that’s what I need to do, then this is my step forward.”

“This is how I get found.” The Friendly Podcast Guide, I love that name because it is in the spirit of the shows you are reviewing. They all have family friendliness to them. There’s a lightness to them. They’re not intense shows. Thank goodness. There’s not a lot of controversial yelling, screaming, and ranting about stuff.

That’s not usually my jam. For the most part, the podcasts that I talked about are ones that I would listen to or that people I trust would listen to. I’m not a true crime person. True crime isn’t my jam, but I know that it’s a lot of people’s jams, especially in the podcasting world. I only have one far, but the one that I have done still has a friendly podcast guide vibe to it because I used to work with him in a newsroom. He has a journalistic approach to it. It’s not like vulgar and talking about the gore the whole time. He is trying to find a solution. I do dive into stuff that’s maybe a little more serious sometimes. I try and have at least some standards as to what podcasts I like to talk to and about.

We’re not going to do our typical three things because you don’t have guests on your show. You have a podcast that you’re featuring. We’re going to talk about it with a little twist here, but before I get to that, I want to ask you, you’re a busy mom and you have a busy life, what made you decide that you could fit in this podcast guide into everything that you’ve got going on?

The main reason is that I needed a creative outlet that was mine. It has nothing to do with my kids or my partner. I feel like as a secondary, I was trying to help me many years ago. I feel like between those two, that was my reason for starting. My reason for continuing is that I love to talk to podcast hosts about their podcasts. They’re very fun to talk to because they’re very excited because I’m talking about one of their favorite things. It makes a fun conversation.

I love that you’re doing that. This is the thing that is going through my mind as I was thinking about The Binge Factor here. I’m getting to review a lot of shows. I’m doing a background. It’s a little bit more in-depth, but I tried to do more of a shout-out show than it was a review show. I wasn’t going to review or curate them, but I was going to, like, “If I knew about you and you were new, I was going to give you a shout-out.” It got to be cumbersome. When you set out to do this, did you realize you were going to have to put some systems in place more than you expect it?

I’m a perfectionist a little bit, and I have to take a backseat when at all possible. I decided to make a podcast after my newborn was born. She was one month old and I was like, “I’m done. I need something.” It’s weird, but I have rough pregnancies. When I finally have that baby in my arms, I feel much better and I’m like, “Let’s get moving. Let’s do stuff. I’m going to do a podcast.”

That was in September or October 2021, and I didn’t launch until the following February. I put all of the things in place like I had a bunch of drafts in my email for like, “If someone says they want to do a show, then this is the email that I send them. If they have a question about Zoom, this is the email that I send them.” I had all of that mapped out before. I use Calendly and the version I use is free. That has saved my bacon so many times.

You are organized.

It’s the best. I have a website that’s pretty basic, but it does exactly what I need it to. That in and of itself, even though it was basic, was hard. I reached out. My brother-in-law is fabulous and he does like my website maintenance. He puts up a new post every week for me for every new episode, which is not that big of a deal. He’s like, “Why are you even paying me to do this?” I’m like, “It is one thing that’s not on my brain. You take care of it and it’s glorious.”

That’s good that you have resources. Let’s talk about the process. You find a show or someone sends you, “I’d love to be on your show,” whether that happens to PodMatch or through some other way. What do you do to vet that?

I use Overcast, the podcast app because I like the way they do playlists. I’ll hop onto Overcast, look at their show description, and see if it’s a good fit. If it looks iffy, then I’ll listen to an episode. If it’s like, “This is not something that I want to promote on my show,” I’ll say, “Thank you so much. It doesn’t look like we’re going to be a good fit. I hope you all the best,” and move on. Sometimes I’ll have people say, “I like this show. Here’s the show description. They’re new so there aren’t too many episodes, but I like the way that they do this and such.”

Podcasts For Moms: When looking for a guest, I’ll hop onto Overcast and look at a couple of show descriptions to see if they’re a good fit. If it’s iffy, I’ll listen to an episode and see if it’s something I want to promote on my show.

If I’m being honest, I love podcasts, which is why I made a show about podcasts. I’ve got a lot of podcasts that I want to talk to the host about. That’s been fun too. I’ll be like, “I already like your show. Can I talk to you about it on my show?” Another way that I’ve found podcasts is that I love them. I’ll be like, “I found a new podcast I like listening to. I want to share it with all of my listeners so they can listen to it too.”

That time that you’re spending at least doing a little bit of vetting and researching is boating well for your show because it’s giving that synergy to the curation that you’re creating, the collections of the shows.

I do feel like just putting in that little effort probably takes me ten minutes tops. If I listen to a whole episode and they’re longer, then it’ll take longer than ten minutes. A little bit of time does help me to vet it and make sure that it’s going to be a good fit. One of my boundaries, which might sound funny is that I don’t like podcasts that talk about weight loss or, “You have to change your body to be happy.” That’s not my jam. I never have those on my show. That’s one of my lines.

This is your curated list. You get to be picky about it. That’s the wonderful thing. Sometimes you’re not interviewing them. You’re just talking about their show and playing a trailer or clip, and other times you have a little conversation with them and things like that. What makes you decide which way you’re going to go with somebody?

I will almost always lean toward having a conversation with the host because I feel like you get a better sense of the vibe of the show and what the host brings. If they’re monotone, then that comes through better in an interview, in my opinion, than in a short clip. Sometimes monotone is great. There are podcasts that will help you sleep. If that’s what you need, then that’s perfect.

Podcasts For Moms: When you have a podcast about podcasts, lean towards having a conversation with the other host. You will get a better sense of the show’s vibe and what the host brings.

If they are talking about history, you don’t want someone that has a monotone voice. You need something that’s a little more exciting, at least I do. Everyone has their own preferences, but I feel like it’s a little bit easier to get a vibe out of an interview. In my opinion, they’re more fun to listen to than just a clip by itself.

When I do a news podcast, most of the time, I’ll play a clip because I feel like it’s the news. There isn’t much personality coming out from the host themselves. They are just saying the news of the day. I feel like a clip from that type of show is usually better because it gives you a better vibe of the show instead of the individual who’s not telling their opinion.

It’s a different style. I can get that and understand how you might look at that. You’re covering a lot of genres. You’ve got personal development shows, shows for kids, and shows that are in the news category as you were talking about entertainment ones. You’re covering a couple of different categories. I’d love that you’re keeping them top-level. The binge factor that I see in your show is even within those big broad categories, which are very different news, kid or personal development shows are different, but there is a thread of mom through there.

That’s nice because it’s bringing you into that model, but it also the friendly podcast means that I could play those in the car with my kids and I feel confident that you wouldn’t steer me wrong there. Even the new shows, you’re going to go for the ones that aren’t maybe as crazy sensational. You’re going to pick some that are more like, “Here’s the news and here we’re moving on.”

One of the questions that I ask every episode is, “Is it kiddy or friendly?” I do that straight up because there’s a storytelling podcast called SOLAR. She said, “This might not be as good for kids because they’re astronauts trying to survive this crazy thing that happens in space and they swear.” While listening to my episode about SOLAR that’s ten minutes long, your kids will be fine, but as a mom, this might not be the best one for my kids to be listening to. This might be headphones one or when the kids are asleep one. For the most part, I do typically do ones that are kiddy or friendly. One of my hosts, Zippy Owens said that my podcast is totally fine to have on the car anytime. I was like, “Okay.”

That’s what you want. You want to know that’s okay and, “If you’re helping to review that, I’m not going to take a risk.” They’re supposed to be marked, but it slips through a lot. Maybe in general, a show is not explicit, but there’s an occasional episode where they didn’t do a good job of editing. It happens because you can’t always control your guest. If you’re not doing a good job on the editing side, it slips through. I have had that happen.

That’s one of my questions. A lot of times they’ll say, “It should be fine, but read the show description,” or some people will say, “No. Don’t have kids. It’s completely fine all the time.” I feel like listening to my episodes will help my listeners know, “Is this a never? I’ll just read the show description quickly,” then they get a better idea rather whether it’s explicit or it’s not, then they know why and if it’s going to be okay all the time or sometimes.

We’re talking about our three things. I did a twist on the first 1 of the 3 things. Instead of guest, I talked about how you vet your shows because that’s more to the point, but increasing listeners. You built it for yourself, but how are you getting new listeners?

Let’s be real. I’m still working on this.

Everybody is still working on it. We never have enough listeners.

I’ve tried to have a stronger presence on social media, on TikTok specifically because a lot of business podcasts that I’ve listened to that are specifically for moms or parents have talked about how parents are going to TikTok, which I was like, “I can try that.” That went well. My following’s gone up quite a bit there. Another thing is word of mouth. A lot of my good friends listen and then will tell me, “I heard this episode that I knew that my friend was going to like and I passed it along.” I was like, “Thank you.” I feel like I’ve been pretty blessed that I did not start with very many listens in the first couple of months, but it has grown slowly but surely.

As long as you’re seeing a steady increase, you know that the shares are going to keep happening, going, and occurring as you get more repertoire. You don’t have tons of episodes, but as you get more, that mass is going to get you even more listeners because then they’re going to go, “Look what a comprehensive source this is.”

The hard part about getting started is that you got to start somewhere and you can’t drop hundreds of episodes at once. You’d have done all this work and not achieved any listeners in that process. You have a show that’s a little more challenging, but at the same time, it’s a shorter format show. That is also good for you and it’s not a heavy lift on my end to check it out, try it, and go, “That was good. I can skip around here. I can share with friends. It’s going to be easy to share on social.” You have made that a little bit easier for everybody.

That was the goal. I started back in February 2022. My goal for 2022 was to have at least one episode a week so that by the end of the year, I had at least 50 episodes that were a bit of a catalog because having two podcasts about podcasts isn’t much of a catalog. It doesn’t serve my community very well. My goal was to get content out there for the first year to help people to know there are a bunch of different types of podcasts out there and that they can listen to any of them. They can learn about them quickly in ten-minute increments.

Let’s talk a little bit about monetization and alternative monetization. You do have some partners and sponsors that you announce on your show and a Partner’s page on your website, Olive and June, Creative Contracts, and Bookshop.org. I noticed a couple of those in there. Was this the idea that it would be friendly for that ad model or is it something that you loved and you thought, “I’m going to include them and we’ll see how we go and if this is the future of alternative monetization for me?”

When I first started, somebody gave me a tip or advice. They said, “From your first episode, have an ad spot because then your listeners will never be surprised when it gets added in later.” I was like, “I can do that.” Now, it hasn’t even been an ad. It’s been, “Will you rate and review the show in the month of August?” because that’s my birthday month. I was like, “For my birthday, will you rate and review the show?” That was the “ad spot” and the next is everyone is about my newsletter.

It was like, “I started a newsletter. Do you want to subscribe? Here’s how you do it.” It wasn’t even Olive and June or any of those other ones, which typically it has been, but I’ve used it to promote this stuff that I am either making or will help me specifically instead of pushing someone else’s stuff. I plan on probably going back to pushing other people’s stuff once I’m done talking about my newsletter regularly.

I feel like the partners would be nice to have it eventually creating more money, but the ad spot is almost more to push my listeners toward other things that I’m making that can make me money, like my newsletter or if I ever decide to make something else, then I can talk to them about it in the newsletter. In a way, I hope my partners will make me money sometimes, but at the same time, I feel like the ad spot almost talk about me more in a different way.

At the end of the day, you’re going to find that most podcasters do. We have large numbers of statistics on that. You will make more money off of your own stuff than you will off of affiliate partnerships with others. It’s very rare that you get up to the number of listens and value where it’s worth advertising to your audience for something else. It’s going to happen that way. Thinking about alternative futures and ideas, you were saying that you wanted to hit this catalog of 50 episodes. Did you have a plan for what you were going to do when you hit that?

This might sound silly, but my plan was that when I hit 50, I was going to start doing 2 episodes a week instead of 1 so that my catalog would build faster. It was like, “I got 50 under my belt. I’ve done this. Now I should be able to do it a little bit faster I can get more under.”

Often, I hear it be the opposite where they’ll say, “I’ll do two episodes for the first year and try to cram them in,” which stresses them out. I see it overwhelms them and you did it in reverse, which is smart because now you’re like, “I got this. I got a system down. I love it. It’s getting good response and it’s worth doing more of so I can now double that.” As you go longer, got more episodes under your belt and more listeners, when you do two a week, you’re now getting more listens and plays. You are magnifying your plays at a time at which it’s more valuable because you already have more at that stage.

I want to talk a little bit about the technical process of your show. When you’re playing a clip, are they providing the clip? Are you getting permission? Are you doing some of the logistical things through your Calendly form that is saying, “If you’ve got a trailer, give that to me, and I have permission to reshare that or re-edit that into my show?”

One of the partners you talked about was Creative Contracts. I worked with her to get my contracts. I have one contract that is if the host is going to be on and one contract if I’m using a clip. I have them sign it via PandaDoc. Usually, I’ll find the clip and send it to them. I usually do all of the heavy liftings. I’ll make the whole episode with the clip in it and be like, “This is how it’s going to sound. Are you good with this? If you are, here’s the thing to sign,” because those episodes are easy to make for the most part.

Those should be your second episodes all of 2023. You interview one as shorter and then the trailer ones will be more. You could have a whole system for that that makes them supply it to you.

I feel like I have to get a little bit bigger. More people have to want to be on my show first. I feel like not too many people know about me yet.

Everybody wants to be discovered and it doesn’t matter how many places we are. There’s a place for that.

Anyone out there, if you want to be on my show, email me. If I talk to the host, I use Calendly to set it up, but I’m a little bit cheap. I’m not going to lie, after they sign it up via Calendly, I don’t pay for like the full version so then they hop on over to my email. I will send them all the information via email, which is like, “This is the day. This is the time. Here’s the outline of what the interview’s going to look like. Here’s the contract. You can click here to sign it online. Here’s the Zoom link.” I do that via email. I feel like eventually when I am starting to get overwhelmed, Calendly will be worth the investment.

That version that does the notifications is only $10 a month. You may want to do it sooner rather than later. It sends the follow-up emails or the Zoom link for you. You don’t have to do much.

That does sound nice. I’m going to have to look into that.

The one thing that occurred to me though that you might have to do at a certain point in time, and you may not even realize it yet, because you’ve only been recording in 2022 is that you’re going to find that shows podfade. They stop recording. Are you going to leave them in your catalog? Are you going to segregate them? What are you going to do about that? Have you thought that through at any point? It’s one thing if someone’s doing a serial-style murder mystery show, and it only has a season.

That’s different from some shows that just drop off, truly podfades, and you don’t know where the host show went and it’s over. Do you want to keep it in your catalog? You have to think about that because I had to think about that. This has happened because we put everybody in the show. They go into our Evergreen social promotion.

After a while, I had to realize that I had to start creating a system where my social team checks to see if they’re still posting before they get posted out on social media. We pull them out of the Evergreen. It’s not that we pull them out of the catalog because whatever they said on the show was probably useful information, but why promote an episode of someone who’s no longer podcasting? That’s how I looked at it.

I feel like if it’s a storytelling podcast, I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it, like a short series. I will leave those in because even on Apple Podcasts, it’ll say inactive or whatever, but the other is inactive. It was a short podcast. I feel I’ve run into a couple of podcasts where I’ve listened to them for a long time and then they’ve dropped off the map and then they’ve stopped paying Libsyn or Buzzsprout, and their podcast is gone. I feel like in that case, I would probably get rid of it because it’s like, “If you can’t find it, then why would I still have it on the show?” I don’t know how I would check that. That is a very good question that I need to figure out.

It’s a manual process. I haven’t figured out a great way either. On our back-end system, we have a full database and we have a program coming out called PodLister. It will be able to put out a report, but I’d have to almost flag everyone who’d been on my show in order to get a report of those people, but it has to be filtered. I’m thinking about ways at which to do it because there is a place for shows like yours and mine where we might want that information and could we get it someplace quickly?

This is why I love doing this show because we’re like, “Let’s brainstorm some new things that the podcast world needs.” It’s going to give me ideas. It is some things that happen. When you do a show you don’t realize until some point in the future and someone says, “All the links to the show are broken.” You’re like, “Podfading. It hadn’t occurred to me.”

I wouldn’t have thought about that. That is another thing. I usually don’t talk about shows that are inactive because if you’re not putting out new content, then you probably don’t care enough to talk about it on my show, unless it’s like a short series or something, then they’re like, “Talk about it. I’m not putting new episodes out.”

Podcasts For Moms: If you’re not putting out new content, you probably don’t care enough to talk about it on a show.

I’m going to share a tip with Andi that I heard from someone that companies like iHeart and other places like that produce a lot of these serious style shows, when they know a show is about to get canceled or they know that it’s ending, they put out four times as many press releases as they do beforehand. If you’re getting a lot of press releases or press push on a show, push back and then ask, “It’s this last season or not?”

You may find out that’s what they’re doing. They’re trying to recoup their costs, which is what the production model is. You’d like, “I’d want to know that ahead of time. Are you coming back or not?” It’s a totaling vetting question I’d ask on those types of seasonal shows. Do you have a graphic design or a little creative background?

I was a radio producer back before I had kids. I edited audio. Pretty much I was doing a podcast, but live radio instead.

You already had experience over there and the sense of it. It shows because I love the way the music is mixed in with your show and the way it flows into the trailer pieces when you use them. I would’ve pegged if I had not heard that about you already and known that. I wanted you to tell everybody that, but if I hadn’t known that, I would’ve said, “She’s using an editor because it’s pro enough.”

That makes a big difference, especially when you have a short format show, the professionalism of it’s packed in there. I know I’m going to get a good show. Your sound is great. All of that works for you. It’s worth the effort that you’re putting in on that end is making difference. I also think creatively on the graphic side of things, your episode art is fantastic. I love the way your logo is overlaid over the cover art of the show.

You’re featuring and highlighting the show that’s there, but yours is still an ingredient in that in a nice way. That works for you and for who’s going to promote it. It makes me more likely to share your graphic image of me being on your show than share any other type of post. It makes me more likely to share it because you’re not overpowering mine, but it has an endorsement look to it.

That was the hope. Also, because it’s a podcast about podcasts, I wanted to try and make it not confusing because I feel like if I had their podcast art, then they’d be like, “Is this their podcast or mine?” That’s how that came to be. I was trying to be like, “This is my podcast about their podcast. Here’s my logo. Here’s their cover art.”

This is where I can tell, and most people are like, “How do you tell? Is it like voodoo magic or something?” “I don’t know. I’m reading the magic ball, but no it’s not. It’s simply these types of things. I can tell that you are a podcast listener before you started podcasting or that you had some broadcast experience because you are checking out how you look on the app.

You are seeing how that views and when it’s the same thing again, it’s The Friendly Podcast logo and it’s not the episode art being used. It’s not as nice. On your website, it looks good that way. You’re seeing it in your player. You’re reviewing it. We’re such visual people. We glance at something. When we see a headline, we think, “We’ve seen and read it before.” Visual reinforcement is important.

I do feel like maybe one day I’ll make my show art a little bit prettier because one of my brothers is a graphic designer. We could probably update this. I was like, “It works for me right now. It gets the message across.” He’s like, “Let me know when you’re ready.” I’m like, “I will, but not right now.”

Here’s the thing, unless he’s good at designing episode art and/or podcast art, he has to experience it. I’ve had amazing graphic designers who come and like, “Did you even look at it on the app because it’s only about 1/2 inch big? I can’t read what you did.” It’s beautiful when I blow it up.” I look at the whole thing, but I can’t see it on the app and it’s not serving you even though you spend all this time, energy, and money on it. We should take graphic designers when we have them at our access. I love creatives. It’s one of my favorite things, but if they don’t have experience there, and we are not good at checking that, it can go all kinds of wrong.

I’m going to stick with it until I find something that’s better, which you’re telling me might be harder than he’s telling me because he doesn’t usually do podcast art.

You don’t know what that looks like until you’re there and you want to make sure that’s the case. What I did notice is that it’s like that on your website, but you’re not using the episode art in all the apps. That means that it’s simply in your host feed. You’re not using that. You’re creating, but you’re not utilizing it in the podcast feed itself. In other words, it depends on where you’re hosting. At Podetize, which is my company, there’s a space for you to put your episode art. When you put something there, it’s going to automatically show in the feed.

If you’re looking at The Binge Factor, you are seeing the specific art we created for Andi’s episode here. In Andi’s show, you see her main cover art default in every episode as you go through it, even though she’s creating it and it’s on the players on her website. You have the ability to use them in every podcast company that you will host with, but you have to know to put them in the space for the episode art.

That’s funny because I did put it in the space. I’m going to have to talk to them and figure it out.

You’re going to want to check it out because it’s not appearing everywhere. It may not be in the right space. Some apps do it and some apps don’t. It may be appearing on Overcast, which is a little bit different, but I’m looking at Google Podcasts and Spotify, and it’s not there. I don’t have an Apple device. That’s all good.

Even if you are doing it right and you’re doing all that work, it may not be happening for you on some of the apps. That simply could be, it’s not in quite the right place in the links that you’re utilizing. You got it and you created it. What’s next for you? What shows are you listening to? Now that you’ve been doing this show, do you have any time to listen to shows?

One of my favorite places to listen to a podcast is working out instead of music because then I can get into it and then I usually forget I’m working out. One podcast I started is called Partition and it’s about Pakistan being separated from India. I didn’t even know that they were both in the same country. I felt ridiculous when I learned that. That one’s been very fascinating and not kid-friendly. Sad stuff in that one, but very fascinating. My go-to podcast is always The Lazy Genius.

She has been podcasting for quite some time. I’ve been listening to her for many years. She’s a mom and her tagline is, “Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don’t.” I love it. I like the way that she talks and solves problems. I feel like she solves my problem almost every week.

Has she been on your show yet?

No, she’s s real big. I feel like I have to work up to that one also. I have a lot of people in the queue right now, and I don’t want to be like, “Can we talk right now?”  and then your show will come out in a few months.

I’ll try to get her and then I’ll tell her that the only reason I put her on my show is that you recommended her and then she’ll have to go on your show. My friend, Juliet Clark has the show Promote Profit Publish, which is for authors, and we tag team Mike Michalowicz. She got me to his publicist. I got him on my show first and then sent him to her show. We made it happen. I know we can do it.

She’s a fabulous human, but I feel like my podcast is still pretty small, she’d be like, “I don’t have time for you. Sorry,” but maybe what you told me first and you’re like, “She’s great.”

She got noticed by me because of you, she owes you. It’s reciprocal. The Law of Reciprocity has to kick in here. She may love that.

She has helped me a lot. She could help pretty much anyone.

What do your kids think about you being a podcaster?

They love it.

Do you play it sometimes and then they hear you?

Sometimes truly. I got to interview Mr. Jim from the Kid Short Stories podcast. Many people don’t know who that is, but he is a celebrity at our house because my kids love kid podcasts. When I got to interview him, he has three shows. I got to interview him about all of his shows. My little boy was over the moon excited that he got to meet Mr. Jim via the internet and he was like, “This is the best thing of all time.” That has been a highlight of doing a podcast. I got to be super cool because he got to meet one of his heroes.

My kids are 9 and 13 this 2022. It wasn’t until my nine-year-old realized that I was on YouTube that it counted. She could care less about the podcast, but when she realized I was on YouTube because this is a video podcast as well, and she was like, “Mom’s cooler than I thought.” It got to be a bigger deal but that was it. She listened to five minutes of the show.

That is a bummer of being a parent. We’re usually pretty boring.

That’s right. I love it. I want to quickly talk about that. I don’t think there’s enough out there. What do you think?

I feel like truly there are many more coming out and I’ve been learning about more of them. There’s a specific app that helps you find kid podcasts. I thought was super cool. Kid podcasts are such a beautiful thing. I feel like they are screenless. I can turn one on in the car and my kids are silent almost immediately. They’re using their brains to imagine, but not like watching a screen to do it. I feel like if you want to make a kid podcast out there, anyone, please do so because there is a void. Make a good one though.

We had podcasters who are doing kid-dad jokes and they were doing it together. I thought it was brilliant because they were having fun together. I love that idea. If you’re going to do a kid podcast, then have some fun and connect with your kids too in the process.

My kids want to start a podcast because I have one. They’re like, “I want a podcast.” I’m like, “Let me get this one off the ground first, and then we’ll figure one out for you.” They would die if they had their own podcast. Eventually, we’re hoping to make a kid podcast, but it probably won’t be for at least a year.

Take your time. Figure it out. Get them a little bit older.

The three-year-old would be interesting on a mic.

I found that the kids do. We started our first podcast when mine was a baby too. They’ve grown up on the mic. They do like to do it on various occasions. I would interview one of my daughters when it was related to something about the show and they were great. They were chatty and much more animated than I expected. I was like, “I’ve been learning something by osmosis here.” You don’t know what they’re learning from you. That would be fun.

We decided to put in a program for more teenage podcasters, not young-age ones. We decided to put a program in it our company, Podetize, where it gives them the student model where they can use everything within our system for a very low cost per month so that they can partake in our coaching, teachings, and all of our resources and use everything within the system.

We also put in place practices that make parents more comfortable. Some practices about like, we don’t put kids’ last names on our show unless the parents agree to it or they want to do it. It’s always first name, initial. It’s by default that those things go into place. It’s a little bit more controlled. As you hit eighteen, you can make your own choices and do what you want. You’re an adult. We let them go on through college at that lower price. We want them to continue to do it because it’s good career-building and they might want to do it.

I’ve learned so much making a podcast. I bet that as a kid or teen, it helps you learn many skills that you don’t think about when you think podcast, but like you’re learning website building and how to articulate what you’re thinking and feeling. That’s awesome. I love that.

Podcasts For Moms: Listening to podcasts helps you learn so many skills that you don’t really think about. You can learn about website building or how to articulate your feelings.

I had Ben Wong of YoungTrep Podcast on the show. He had three shows. We’ll have to connect him up and have him on your show because he was great.

I would love to be connected with him.

We will make that happen. These are synergies of getting to know each other, networking through the podcasting space, and creating review shows. Look at all the connections and points we can make for each other. I’m glad you came on a show. I am disappointed your kids didn’t interrupt. It would’ve been worth it to see them pop on.

They do it most of the time.

You’re glad you got some time alone.

They do try and make an appearance in every interview I ever do.

Thanks for taking your love of podcasts all the way through to your own podcast. It’s a great show, The Friendly Podcast Guide. Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

—

I loved how she calls herself a lazy genius. It cracks me up that idea that in your laziness you discover amazing things. I don’t think she’s lazy at all. There is much thought and screening process and working through this that comes from being a longtime podcast listener. I can always know a distinct difference between a show that is done by a longtime podcast listener or a fan of podcasts versus someone who’s just, “I should podcast. I’m going to try this media type.” They’ve never listened or don’t know much about it.

It’s interesting because when I started my first one with my partner and husband, Tom, he was not a podcast listener. I was. There was this distinct difference in conversations we would have about the choices we were making in starting our show. Keep in mind that if you think you’d like to start a show, maybe take a listen to some.

If you’re thinking about starting a show that’s for moms, for kids, or anything in that genre, then you better check out Andi Smiley because you’re going to be able to check out some of the best shows out there that you’d be competing against. Go check out The Friendly Podcast Guide show. Meet AndI Smiley on every show. She’s amazing in her passion for podcasting and for this particular area of bringing out these types of shows.

If you’re in one of these genres where you’re doing shows for kids, moms, or other things like that, go check this out and ask to be on her show. I think not enough podcasters are out there reaching out to her, and it’s a shame they should. All of you out there, if you fall in that genre, go ahead and reach out to Andi Smiley. Go find The Friendly Podcast Guide show and listen to it before you ask her to be on her show. Everyone, thank you much for reading. I’ll be back next time with another successful podcaster for you to learn from.

Important Links

• The Friendly Podcast Guide
• Calendly
• Overcast
• SOLAR Podcast
• TikTok – Andi, Friendly Podcast Guide
• Partner
• Creative Contracts
• Bookshop.org
• PandaDoc
• Podetize
• Partition
• The Lazy Genius
• Promote Profit Publish
• Ben Wong
• Https://www.Instagram.com/FriendlyPodcastGuide/

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