Resources Jenn mentioned:

Christian Podcasters Association - they have a Facebook Group and a Membership (I'm in this and it is worth every penny)

You can find Mary R Snyder on her podcast, her Facebook group, Instagram, or her website.   

This is where you can learn more about the Marketing Mentorship with Brian Dixon (or follow him on Instagram)

You can find Michele Holmes at her website, on Instagram, or learn more about her coaching and courses here.  You can listen to my interview with her on Episode 2.

If you want to learn more about our surprise adoption, you can hear it on Episode 6.

Hear it:

Watch it:

Read it:

This is a transcript of the This Mom Knows Podcast - Episode - 29

Jennifer Uren

Today’s episode marks 6-months of the This Mom Knows podcast!  That’s an exciting milestone, especially in the world of podcasting.

2 weeks ago I was at the Podcast Movement conference in Nashville, TN and some of the statistics they shared were staggering.  Specifically, of the 2 million podcasts listed in the directories, only about 330,000 are active, meaning that they are still dropping new episodes regularly.  This is definitely an active podcast!

The other statistic that was sobering showed that most podcasts don’t make it past 10 episodes.  Well, today’s episode is number 29!  Add in the bonus episodes and we have more than tripled that number.

This has been a fun process. 

For starters, I have learned a lot about podcasting.  A lot!  I’ve even had the chance to take what I’ve learned and coach a few new podcasters through the creation and launch process of their own shows.

I started thinking about This Mom Knows during the early months of the pandemic so over Zoom I met lots of people who have become fast friends and mentors.  Some of them I even got to see in real life at the conference a couple of weeks ago.  My life is definitely richer because of these relationships!

And while I have had fun connecting with people and hearing their stories. I discovered fairly quickly that one thing was missing: clarity of purpose.

That‘s what we want to talk about today, especially since clarity of purpose impacts so many aspects of our lives.

When I started This Mom Knows, I knew that I was a connector and that I wanted to introduce moms to each other so they could learn from each other but also so they could feel like they weren’t alone.  I often say “As moms, we have it covered” and that is 100% true!

So I started making a list of moms and the things they knew and started interviewing them about those things.  I have loved all those conversations!  I’ve learned a lot.  I’ve connected moms to each other (yay!). I’ve given moms a way to share their knowledge and experiences.

The other thing I did was join a group called Christian Podcasters Association.  This was the group I needed to help me create my artwork, to keep me accountable, and to help me understand all the technical things.  One of the members, Mary R Snyder, teaches speakers how to build a speaking career.  She knows all about messaging!

She kept asking me “who is your audience?”

I would answer “Moms!” and she would ask me more questions to which I struggled to articulate a reasonable answer.  So I continued on thinking I had clarity, when really I had a vague, foggy idea.  It was a sense of purpose which was enough to get me going but as I discovered, that wasn’t enough.

Then, about a month before I was set to launch, I joined Brian Dixon’s Marketing Mentorship program.  The first thing he covered was the X, Y, Z statement.  I very confidently went in with mine and the feedback I received was that it was too vague and lacked clarity.

What’s the big deal with clarity anyway?  If people like it, isn’t that really all that matters?

Well, people like This Mom Knows!  I get great feedback on the episodes.  Some people really like the ones where I get personal.  Others like the episodes that talk about skills.  Still others like the episodes that talk about experiences.  The responses are as varied as the topics!  Lots of people listen each week, but very few people listen every week.

Hmmm….that’s interesting.

My friend Michele Holmes, founder of Homeschool Directive who you may remember from Episode 2 helps parents take on homeschooling the high school years.  One of the first things she has you do is become clear on why you are choosing to homeschool high school.  Getting clarity on the why defines your purpose.  And when you have clarity of purpose then you have a standard by which to measure what you doing.  In the homeschooling world, this helps you decide if a class or course is worth taking, if an experience is worth having, or if an opportunity is worth seizing.

In the podcasting world, clarity of purpose helps you decide if something fits – from the topic to the guest, you know almost immediately if it is something that will be helpful. 

But more than that, clarity of purpose is a gift to you, the listener.  It tells you exactly what we will spend our time together focusing on.

Just a little background perspective…

We had a surprise adoption that left our family reeling.  I share about this in Episode 6 if you haven’t heard the story.  Through that I learned a lot about balancing the tasks of home with family relationships and I started sharing about this on a blog called More Mommy Moments.  But I didn’t have clarity of purpose and I was all over the place. In fact, a well known blogger did a review of my site and her biggest feedback was that she had no idea what my purpose was or what she would find on my site.  It was too scattered!

I rebranded and started the This Mom Knows podcast to help moms, but it also lacked clarity and purpose and felt all over the place.

As I thought long and hard on how to remedy that, I knew I didn’t have all the answers, but that collectively as moms we did.  Add to this my skill in helping people get unstuck and my practical experience as a professional organizer, and things began to converge.

I realized that I help moms overcome mom guilt!  That’s a universal pain of moms everywhere so moms will connect and relate to this in a way only moms will understand.

Specifically, I am leaning into this through the lens of a mompreneur.  The principles will be universally relatable, but the conversations we will have and language we will use will be specific to the mompreneur.

What is a mompreneur?  I describe her as a mom who wants to have the flexibility and freedom of running her own business while raising her kids.  Usually she is the owner having started it from scratch, growing it to produce an income – while she is still home with her kids.

For the mompreneur, every business “yes” can feel like a parenting “no” – and that’s when mom guilt kicks in!

I help mompreneurs find and implement systems, tool, and processes to help them eliminate distractions and focus their time so they be their best as both mom and entrepreneur.  As a mom of 5, I understand all too well the tension between task and relationship with the pressure to make sure that what has to get done does get done – all without sacrificing something or someone in the process.

Interestingly enough, the best way to do those things is by having clarity of purpose!  As we move forward, you will see clarity of purpose - both in how I serve you on this podcast and in how you learn to reduce mom guilt - reflected in the topics, conversations, and tools that I will be able to offer you.

When I was at Podcast Movement I was able to answer the question “What is your podcast about?” with the description I just shared with you.  It was clear and people understood.  That meant I spent my conversational words actually engaging and not trying to explain.  This resulted in invitations to be a guest on several podcasts as well as opened the door to opportunities to collaborate in ways to serve you.

Clarity of purpose works!

I would love to hear from you and get feedback from you on this.  Specifically, how or when do you most experience mom guilt?  And if you’re a mompreneur, what is your business? Shoot me an email or send me a DM.

See you next week!