How to Turn Your Facebook Group Into a Successful Podcast
What started as a mom get-together over Facebook has become a bi-lingual podcast across Canada. Genevieve Kyle Lefebvre has taken her love of connecting with new moms and turned it into a successful podcast, ParentTalk. Find out how she carves out time from her full-time job and taking care of her two sons under three to share her passion of on the world of parenting.
Q: How did ParentTalk get started?
When I had my first child I started a Facebook group as a way to keep track of and interact with all the new moms I was meeting. It was a mix of moms with new babies and moms with older kids. Every mom I met had something to share, and many were specialized in different areas from child psychology to nutrition etc.
I’ve been listening to podcasts for over 10 years, and then even more when I was pregnant and a new mom. I never had the time to sit and read baby books, so listening to podcasts when I’m on the go, commuting or at home was a great way to soak up new information and inspiration.
Before I returned to work after my first maternity leave, I thought about starting a podcast to share all the advice of the women I had met and to give everyone a voice. The more people I spoke to about the idea the more support I got and the more people got onboard to be part of the podcast like my fantastic co-host Heather Fox.
Q: What are some of the challenges with taking on this new project?
It’s about 10 times more work than I thought it would be! Because our podcast caters to parents, you have to work around other parent’s schedules to find times to record for the show. Inevitably kids get sick and things come up so you have to be flexible.
We have tried to schedule in batches when I have childcare. Recently I was in Quebec staying with my mom, and I was able to record a lot there with her support.
Q: How do you carve out time for the podcast with two kids under three?
Having a schedule is key. Me and my co-host Heather, plan recordings for Monday nights as that seems to be a good night for most of the other moms to record with and then gives us wiggle room throughout the week if we do need to push it back.
We’ve divided up the tasks so that Heather is doing all the social media and I do all the editing of the podcast. I spend about an hour a day working on it around the kids nap schedules or after bed. I try to balance a few longer evenings of work to have a few nights off each week.
Q: What’s been surprising along the way?
Every episode is surprising, we are learning so much! As parents ourselves, I am learning from all the experts we speak to. I’m a naturally high energy person, and it’s been amazing to get such great feedback from so many moms about creating a welcoming and safe place for other parents to share their journey with us in our community and on the show.
Q: How has your partner supported you in growing this business?
My husband is the other main editor of the show! He takes care of all the visual graphics every week. It’s been fun to have a project to work on together and we’ve been able to see a new side of one another.
Q: What other podcasts do you listen to?
A few of my favourites are Parent Savers and the Boob Group for other parenting podcasts. I find these much better than reading baby books! I also listen to Oprah’s podcast weekly and am part of a podcast group on Facebook.
Q: How are you promoting the podcast?
Mostly through social media through the moms group we have grown. From that we’ve developed an email list. Word of mouth is also a big one for us as moms always to talk other moms about where to get new ideas for parenting.
We also spend a lot of time on educating people about what a podcast is exactly. It’s surprising that many people still don’t understand the concept or know how to listen to it. Canada is much further behind the podcast scene than the US, but that also means it’s a better market to launch in as it is less saturated.
Q: Tell us how to find ParentTalk
The easiest place is on Apple podcast and Google Podcast direct to your phone. You can also find us on our website, our Facebook group and we share on our personal pages as well.
Q: What’s next for the podcast?
We’re going to be looking at opportunities to partner or sponsor the show, but at the same time want to be mindful of the workload between full time jobs and raising our kids. The main focus is really on building the community and sticking to our mission to inform, educate and support parents from the early years and beyond.
I have just launched a French version of the podcast Les Parents Parlent. There are so few podcasts in French in Canada so I am really excited to be able to deliver this content to a new audience. We’ve planned out and recorded well into 2019 for topics, so for now we will be expanding upon the most popular shows in 2018 and seeing what content we can build out from there.
Q: What would you say to a mom thinking of starting her own side-hustle, paid or otherwise?
Find your niche and have a clear mission you can work towards. If you start to move away from what drives you it can be easy to get sidetracked. Be gentle with yourself, there will be surprises and challenges along the way. For me, English is not my first language, so being on a podcast was a bit scary for me at first! You have to let go of your ego and just go with it. To me, if I am helping or inspiring even one mom or dad with per show, then it’s all been worth it.
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This is part of a series of everyday mom inspired stories who made radical changes in their work life to pursue their passion, all with kids in tow. Are you a mom with an inspiring story to share? Send me an email to connect: mompreneurstories@gmail.com
