The Ultimate Blog Podcast - Your Blog, Your Pace: Creating Success That Fits Your Season

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by blogging, from the endless to-do list, the constant stream of advice, or the pressure to be present on every platform… then this conversation is for you. In this 200th episode of The Ultimate Blog Podcast, Amy and Jennifer share some encouragement and practical strategies about what blogging success really looks like – because you can have a successful blog and an enjoyable life!🎧 Episode 193: Create a Weekly Blog Workflow That Works for Your Life🎧 Episode 195: Content Batching for Bloggers (Even If You Don’t Feel Like a Planner)🎧 Episode 199: The Heart of Blogging: Your Voice Matters More Than Perfect Strategy🔗Click here and check out the show notes for this episode!Do you love this podcast? Say thanks by leaving a positive review and/or rating!  

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog podcast. This podcast is the podcast we wish we had when we started blogging. I'm Amy Reineke and I'm Jennifer Draper. Our episodes dive deep into how to monetize your blog, sharing unique insights and practical tips. We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable, actionable advice. Our mission is to educate, support, inspire, and empower you in your blogging business. Welcome to The Ultimate Blog Podcast. Hey there and welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. This is our 200th episode.

So crazy. And today we just want to take some time to kind of circle back on a lot of things that we've talked about and just really give you some true encouragement today. So if you've ever felt just overwhelmed by blogging, by the endless to-do list, trying to check things off the list, then this episode is for you. So over the last almost four years, we have given you guys a lot of advice.

We've had a lot of amazing guests on a lot of experts in the field of blogging. And hopefully we've encouraged you along the way to build a blog that you are really proud of. But we also know that blogging comes with some pressure sometimes. That's just the reality. of building something like this. You are trying to keep up with the changing times with technology, with the online world.

And sometimes it feels discouraging. Maybe you're feeling like you're competing with chat GPT. And maybe you're hearing people saying their traffic is falling, their revenue is falling. All those things can really start to take a toll on your mental state and can really get in your head. And blogging can sometimes feel like a bit more of a chore. than it does fulfilling your purpose that you originally started out with.

First and foremost, we really want to reassure you that these feelings are normal. There are things that all bloggers, entrepreneurs feel from time to time, and it is absolutely something that you can overcome. So our encouragement today is just that we want you to take a deep breath, reset, and just remember what really matters most, that building a blog is about building a business that actually fits with your life. Yep. And I think the key word there is that it fits with your life. And a lot of times it can feel very overwhelming. We've talked about that a lot here lately on the podcast. And it's really

because of what we're hearing from others and how they are feeling because we're overloaded with so much advice regarding, you know, Pinterest and SEO. And if it's working or not, what should you be doing on social media? What shouldn't you be doing? How you should be building your email list? How are you monetizing? Even the podcast. How am I ever supposed to be able to do all this? Because I can't possibly do it all. Right. And we want you to know that sometimes that input can be with the overwhelming piece. So kind of channeling how much input you're taking, I think, is important because the goal isn't to just keep, like, hoarding all the information and never doing anything with it. The goal is to take in the information, decide, you know, what stays, what goes,

and then make the decisions with what you're going to do moving forward. And oftentimes, I think that there could be so much information coming at us that it does paralyze us in a way. That's never the goal. That's never been the goal here on the podcast to paralyze you by giving you so much information that, you know, you don't know what to do with it. And so you do nothing. the goal really, I think for anybody who shares about building a content creation business is truly like, what can you do? And you have all these different options of ways to build it and grow it. And it can look different at different seasons of your life. And so asking yourself, like, what works for me today? And that might look different than it does, you know, a year ago.

And kind of having curiosity without judgment is important, I think, because when you come at it from a place of judgment, that's when it can feel like you're doing something, quote unquote, wrong. And you're not doing anything wrong, but it just might need shifted. And so think back, I kind of talked about this in last week's episode, but think back to why you began. A lot of bloggers start because they love writing. You had an idea that you wanted to share or maybe something like a passion or maybe you share recipes. Maybe you share, you know, all kinds of things. You know your reason why. And when you started, you had this very clear feeling with how you wanted to feel on what you wanted to do. And over time, it's maybe felt like it's become this big checklist because it entails

way more behind the scenes than you ever thought. This is a very common, you know, feedback that we get from a lot of people is, whoa, I had no idea how much it took to blog. There's a lot to go on behind the scenes that people do not realize. And that's true. You're all bloggers listening to this. And so you know how many things go on behind the scenes just to get that one post out there. and so getting yourself some grace there and getting back to the basics with why are you doing this is important. And instead of that feeling of overwhelm, like getting to a place that you can reframe that thinking because oftentimes overwhelm comes from two different things. Number one, it's trying to do too many things at once. So you've likely taken in all of this input and then you

don't know what to do with it all. And so you're paralyzed, like I said. And then number two, not having clarity on what your actual priorities are. So are you focused on what somebody else's priorities are or what they're focusing on in their business or what a podcast is telling you to do or what a blog post is telling you to do or a blogger friend is telling you to do. But I feel like overwhelmed comes from those two places. If you can really get down to the root of it and ask yourself, like, why do I feel overwhelmed? Whose expectations are you trying to live up to?

Are you trying to live up to live up to your own or are you trying to live up to the standards that somebody else has set or a standard that you think has been set for you that likely honestly hasn't. If you've ever thought, I just can't keep up. Raise your hand. I think we've all felt like that. We want you to know that you don't have to. That's not the goal is to like white knuckle it. This should not be a business that you're having to white knuckle. But you can truly build a blog that works with your life. It gives you peace. It gives you the creative. outlet that you have been wanting that you wanted when you signed up for this. You can build it at your own pace. There is no right or wrong way to be a blogger. And there are lots of great

things that you can do to build your business that, you know, we recommend, other people recommend. But there is no one and only way to do this. So give yourself grace as you are learning along the way and try to reframe that overwhelm. Like, yes, it can feel overwhelming. but get to the root of it. Ask yourself, why does it, why does it feel overwhelming? What is it that is contributing to that? And how can I kind of pull back the curtain and really figure out what's going on there? Yeah, I think the funny part here is that we get on every week and we have these amazing guests or we have these really specific or intentional episodes with so many great tips on if you do this, then this. If you do this, then this. And all that stuff is true. Like we are really

speaking of people's success stories and what works and what doesn't and how to do you SEO and all of those things. But at the end of the day, that's just information for you and you really have to filter through it and take what you want, what you need and leave the rest because there is, again, so much information. And you can't define your success based on just simply what somebody else has done. We may have had just an amazingly successful guest on our podcast and you're like, wow, I would like to do what they're doing. But it doesn't always work that way because we all get there differently and we all have a different definition of that success. So, you know, just because somebody's posting three times a week or they have 10,000 followers, that doesn't make them

necessarily any more successful than you are. Those are the things that they are doing to build their business in the way that works for their life. So for you, that could look like, hey, I'm only going to post one blog post a month. It's going to be very intentional. It's going to be for my audience. And I'm going to send emails each week instead because that is easier for me. And so really, when it comes to creating the success for your business, it's showing up in the way that fits where you are with your life, what your purpose is and what impact

you want to make. So it's giving yourself grace when, you know, your seasons are shifting, your capacity changes. You have other obligations. So at the end of the day, you can ask yourself, what is the impact I am having? It's not, am I meeting a revenue goal? Am I meeting these, these measures that I've set forth that aren't really meaningful like blog post per month? And you don't want to get yourself stuck in setting these goals that aren't really truly going to serve your life. So ask yourself, what does success look like for me right now? Not where somebody else is with their life, but for me, what would define my success? Is it just that I get to make an impact on somebody?

We've had a lot of episodes where we've talked about this. And so it's really just getting back to those roots of what your purpose is and why you're doing this. And it's not like when you take this step back and say, okay, well, for this season, I'm only posting once per month. those things happen. And that's just part of being an entrepreneur and having your own business. You're going to make a lot more progress in the long run if you allow yourself that room to adjust whenever you need to. So there's been times I know that each of us have had to make adjustments. There's sometimes that we can go full force. We're posting consistently and doing all the things and pending on Pinterest and posting on Instagram. And then there's times when we've had to scale back and we've said, I can't put out any blog post right now. I'm only going to email or whatever. You have to, you know, have time to refocus and give yourself that grace. Because whether it's a week or a month or, you know, a longer season of life, the beauty of building your own business is that you can step away when you need to. You get to make those choices for yourself. And if something is just

this big obligation, this big to-do list, and it's just something that's draining you, you, you can't grow something that's just draining you of all your good energy. You can grow when you can create the space that you need so that you can feel inspired and excited about what you're doing. And it's not just an obligation and a job. Yeah, I think that's what we want to make sure that you're hearing today is if it feels like an obligation, if it feels like a job, I think it's time to sit down and have a nice long talk with yourself about why you feel that way. Get to the root of it. Ask yourself, do I feel drained? Do I feel like I'm filled up? So a little story. I often use this analogy with my kids and we talk about like filling their bucket. So how do you fill your own bucket

and what drains your bucket? And we use it in regards to like how we talk to people. So like and how you treat people like are you a bucket filler or are you a bucket dipper? But I think that you can ask yourself that with your business too and allow yourself to find some clarity. And that's the goal here. We're not just going to talk about doomsday. We are going to have some tangible things that you can do. But asking yourself what you can do to reset, what can you do to fill your own bucket again? If you feel like your bucket's empty and you're really running out of things to give because we have to have that space as a blogger because we are pouring so much out to others. We're sharing so much content. We're giving of ourselves so freely

in this space that it's okay if you need to like take a step back and see, hold on, who's filling who's filling my bucket up? What can I do? And at the end of the day, like, you're responsible for that. And so you're responsible for filling your own bucket to start and what can you do to feed yourself. And so some ways that you can, I want you to go back if you haven't already and listen to episode 199. I talked in that episode about getting back to your why, getting back to the heart of your blog. What did you want this to look like? What was the ultimate goal there? Connect with that. Understand that. And then ask yourself where you are. in this season as well. It wasn't just about keeping up with somebody else in your space when you

started. It was likely about connecting with other people who are like-minded and you're passionate about the topic that you're blogging about. And I want you to get back to that. I want you to get back to the impact that you can make. There is no one-size-fits-all like we've talked about in regards to success. It looks different for everybody and lean into what your version of success looks like and kind of put on those blinders. Don't worry about what somebody else's version of success is. What is your version of success? That is enough.

If you are successful in the way that lights you up and makes sense for your family, that is success. It's not defined by a dollar amount. It's not defined by traffic. It's defined by nothing else other than that. The second tip I would give you would be to just identify those priorities that you have in your life. If you could only do, let's call it three things for your blog each week,

what would it be focus on those things focus on what actually moves the needle if you feel like you're doing things in your business that actually aren't serving your business any longer have the tough conversation have the honest conversation make a decision on if it stays or if it goes sometimes we have to sit down and identify what those priorities are and how they've shifted and how does that fit in your life now and when I'm talking about these priorities I don't just mean like in your blogging business. I also mean in your personal life because just naturally they bleed into one another. And so how does it fit with blogging? Like how does, what is the season that you're in in your personal life? Are you able to keep up the schedule that you have

with your blog right now and vice versa? Or is there something that needs to shift in order for both to align and to coexist together? What you don't want to do is avoid the conversation with yourself, avoid just the natural progression of what's happening, and then you set no boundaries, and then you're drained in both areas, and your bucket is totally dipped, and you have nothing to give, not only to your family or your relationships or anything in your personal life, but you also have nothing to give in regards to your blog either. And you can begin, I feel, like, to resent both areas. And that is not why we started blogging. We want to be in this space to encourage others with whatever it is you're blogging about. And so if you're

you're kind of losing side of that, I would just really encourage you to go back and identify those priorities and ask yourself, am I still in alignment here? Am I still doing this? Is this still the focus? Fall is one of the most productive times of the year. With your routine falling back into place, it's the perfect season to finally focus on launching the blog you've been dreaming about. And that is why we created the fall into blogging 30-day checklist. This checklist is a clear step-by-step guide to help you know exactly what to do each week to get your blog up and running in 30 days. From choosing your niche to setting up your blog to writing your first post and sharing it with

everyone, you'll have a simple to-do list to follow without feeling overwhelmed. If you've been waiting for the right time to start your blog, this is your sign. Use this fall season to make real progress towards your goal and set yourself up for success before your end. You can get your free copy today at the ultimate blog podcast.com slash fall. Once again, you can do this. Use this fall to launch that blog that you've been dreaming of.

And you can get the guide at the ultimate blogpodpodcast.com slash fall. Yeah, those are some great tips. we have a couple more tips for you as well. Number three would be to just simplify. Simplify your workflow. We did an episode on this, episode 193, if you want to go back and listen to it. We really feel like creating some systems in your business that simplify it, take out some of those decision points that can hold you back that can kind of cause a sticking point. You want to remove some of the repetitiveness in terms of making decisions. So what I mean is, for example, you might create a three-month content plan so that every time you sit down at your computer, you're not

trying to decide what blog posts you're going to write that week because that takes a lot of time and it's kind of wasteful of your time repeating that process over and over again when you could instead get into the groove, really think about the bigger picture and write out the list of your blog post for the next three months. And that way, every time you sit down to work, you know exactly what you're supposed to be working on. And that goes in alignment with batching your work. So that is one piece of the batch work is, you know, deciding what you're going to write, doing your keyword research. Maybe you also batch writing content one day and finding all the photos or taking photos that you need on another day. So that when you kind of get into the

groove, you're being more efficient with your time. And again, you know exactly what you're supposed to be working on. And so you're not just wasting a bunch of time trying to figure out what to do, which I know that happens to me. Amy, I'm guessing. It probably happens to you sit down and you're like, well, I'm going to go do some busy work and take care of some emails or whatever instead. And then you don't ever get the blog post done because you can't decide what to write about. And then you look back and you're like, what did I actually do? Like, yeah, what actually got done. Yeah, totally. Those days are hard because then you were like, oh, I wasn't productive today. So if you can just really create that system, create that workflow and know what you're going

to be doing, you'll get a lot more done and you'll feel a lot better about it. And, you know, if promoting your content on Pinterest and Instagram and Facebook feels overwhelming, that's okay. Just pick one. And when you're going to do it, say you are going to share it to Instagram. Set yourself a timer. Make sure that's the only thing you do. And you don't go. oh, I'm going to go see what somebody else posted or how they shared it or whatever. Because I promise you an hour's going to be gone and you're going to be like, wait, I never even, why was I here? I never posted my post.

What happened? So just really simplifying and staying on track with your workflow. And then why we could probably give a lot of tips here, our final tip today is going to be just give yourself that permission to grow at your own pace. Because who's to say what growth should be for one thing? And if you just set yourself up in a way that is manageable, attainable for you, even if that's, quote, slow, slow growth is still growth. And typically that's the kind that's going to last the longest. So we get excited about new things. We're excited about this business. We re-energize ourselves and set these goals. We're going to post two posts a week, all these things. But we haven't been really. with ourselves and our capacity. So we quickly burn out and we just do nothing. So if we can set something that is maybe even feels too slow for us, but we actually implement it and do it at the end

of a year, you're probably going to have way more blog posts written that way than if you set a goal that's too big to start with and you burn out and then you've had no consistency and your growth just sort of stalls out. So just really take that time to think about what works for you, what works for your life, and give yourself that permission to set goals for yourself for growth that are attainable and even feel almost too easy in some seasons of life. Because, I mean, don't we all love crossing something off of a to-do list or clicking it off on ClickUp?

Like, I got that done. We do. Like make some of those things easy like Jennifer's saying. And it can help you feel accomplished. And I think that that's a big thing is to feel accomplished in regards to blogging because this is so self-driven. It's a very independent business. You are in this, really most of us by ourselves doing this on our own. And so how can you make yourself feel like you're finding that success? If your blog has felt heavy lately, I'm just going to encourage you to put a meeting with yourself on the calendar. and ask yourself some of these important questions that we have asked you today and allow yourself to find the clarity that you might need as you're going through Q4 here. And as we are all heading into a brand new year, how do you want to feel in 2026? Those decisions start now. And so asking yourself, like, what's the business I want to build in 2026? What are the things I want to focus on? You know, I know it's only October of 2025, but those decisions are happy.

now, knowing that you don't have to do it all. You just have to take the next right step for you and your journey and kind of block out all the noise. I recently listened to a podcast episode on the Business Reboot podcast, and it was about battling burnout and about it, maybe not being burnout, but being a misalignment. And there was a lot of things in there that really inspired me that Corey and Melissa said in there. But one of the things I loved was this analogy of dumping the purse. And essentially what they said is imagine your business as like a purse and you're going to dump it all out. And as you're putting everything back in, you're asking, do I actually still need this? Does it still work for me? Does this still make sense? And if not, it doesn't

come back in the purse. And I love that analogy because I think we can do that in a lot of areas of our life, but especially in our business, ask ourselves, like, what of what of this do I keep feeling like I have to do and what are the things that I want to do and what's actually moving the needle forward, what's actually working in the business, and what can I continue to give my best effort in? Because if you're trying to give your best effort in 52 different sections of your business, I can assure you, you're likely not doing most of them well. And so if you could put your effort in even five, even three areas of your business that makes sense and you are doing a really good job, you are aligned, you are focused, you are committed, I think you'll likely

find more success that way, and I think you're going to find a lot more peace that way, too. As you're kind of going through this exercise, I want you to once again come from a place of curiosity, but leave the judgment at the door. This is not a place to shame yourself and say, well, you should be doing this. You should be doing that. That doesn't exist here. So let's not have the negativity come into this. Have it be an unemotional meeting with yourself in regards to your business and make some important decisions on what stays, what goes, how are you actually feeling and how can that be improved? How can you fill your own bucket? What can you do? You don't have to choose between having a successful blog and also enjoying your life. You can have both.

I think that that's an important thing to remind yourself is that that is why you started just because you wanted to have control over your time, over your schedule. You wanted to have flexibility. You also wanted to use your voice. You can still have all of those things. But as we get inundated with all of the noise and all of the resources and everything, we can begin to feel like we don't know which way to go. And I just want this to be an invitation to go back to the drawing board, to go back to square one and remind yourself that you are the one in the driver's seat of this and you can make the next best decision regarding your business for you. But it's going to take some honesty with yourself and allowing yourself to reflect on what's

working and what's not. And then you can move forward with clarity and peace. And isn't that what we all want? So just want to say thanks for tuning in today. And I hope that you found some clarity in this. And it's going to inspire you to show up in the best way that you can in this season of your book. Thanks for listening today. Thanks for listening to The Ultimate Blog podcast. If you'd like to learn more about building your blog, visit The Ultimate Blogpodpodcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a rating and review on Apple podcast. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next time.