Episode 077: Blogging And Parenting With Karli Bitner

Blog Title: Cooking With Karli

Social Media:

IG: Cooking With Karli on Instagram

FB: Cooking With Karli on Facebook

Notes from Episode #077: Blogging and Parenting

• Fun fact: Karli and her husband just went shopping for new furniture and nightstands after 8 years of getting by with the odds and ends and plastic tubs in apartments they’ve lived in. Now that they’ve purchased a house it was time to get new stuff. She felt very adultish!

• Sometimes Karli includes her kiddos in her kitchen cooking and preparing videos and other times she has to shoo them away and have them get entertained elsewhere. But overall Karli is intentional about including them since she’s chosen to work in the home.

• Karli’s advice: Don’t use your kiddos as a crutch or as a safety net to give yourself an excuse as to why you’re not succeeding as a blogger or putting in the time needed to make your blog grow. 

  • Get that out of your mind. Your kids aren’t going to change.

  • Get a nanny, put them in daycare if that’s an option or just change your attitude and help your perspective to change.

• What you need to do first is sit down and look at your life. You have to make a decision about what you’re going to sacrifice to make this dream work. 

  • Karli decided early on that sleep would be affected for her as she worked odd hours and her kids were little.

  • Maybe giving up money from your budget for a babysitter is what you sacrifice. There could be any number of other things that you as a person and family are sacrificing to do this job you love. 

  • Karli’s kids want to be involved and help. Karli decided those memories are priceless, the teaching moments are invaluable. So she sacrificed getting things done efficiently during the day by incorporating them into her work. She has found awesome opportunities to teach the kids to count or use their gross motor skills. It’s an awesome opportunity to teach your kids and love on them during your day. 

• Karli set a goal for herself to film once a week and to date nothing she’s produced has been usable for the last 4 weeks. Before she moved, she did all of her shooting of food in her bedroom because that’s where the light was best. Now that they’ve moved into their new house, she can do all of this in her kitchen. She is having to make adjustments to her schedule so when her husband is home a half day, she can have his help being behind the camera and she doesn’t have to run between the front and back of the camera. 

• Taking photos of her food just works best with her kids in the mix because that’s her true to life style and the season she’s in as a blogger. She doesn’t want to always move them out of the way. Including her small kids just makes them happy and that makes Karli happy. 

• Karli knows this is just a season of her kids being this age. Things will shift and they’ll be able to be more helpful and not always want to help or be around so she’s embracing this season.

• Karli has a pretty set schedule of when she does what she is working to complete throughout the week.

  • She shoots recipes on set days and computer work is done one day a week but also at night.

  • Karli schedules out ahead and plans a head quite a bit. She shoots 3-4 recipes a day to get a head but publishes 3 recipes a week. This allows her to have content ready for the summer when she’s got the kids around in the summer and she wants to be intentional about being with them.

  • Karli is intentional about shooting extra content in Aug-Sept-Oct so that Nov and Dec are more open to her family. This maximizes her time with family which is the reason she wants to be a blogger and work at home and be available to the family. This also helps with unexpected sick kids or if you get sick, you’re not unprepared.

  • Karli is teaching this topic at a workshop at Tastemakers this year. Come check her out!

• Be consistent! People will expect what you bring to them and so you have to keep doing it. If you can only do 1 recipe post a week, then do that and just stick to that. 

• Avoid feeling guilt when you sit down to watch a movie with your family or hanging out with them by planning ahead and giving yourself permission to walk away from the job that is situated in your home. 

• You are recharged with this intentional planning and giving yourself time off from work too.

• Get creative with computer work. Sometimes Karli chooses to do it at night. But this doesn’t have to be the time to do it. 

  • At times, they’ve gone to the park while the kids played and she could work at a picnic table. She’d pause to push kiddos on a swing and then get back to work.

  • Hire out if you can (when you have the means). A content creator can help you immensely at times! Her VA can help set up a post and then she goes in with the final touches and specific details.

  • Karli said it can be awesome and empowering to take on other SAHM to come on board to help with her blog but also provide work for them to do what they want. 

• Fun fact about Karli – she and her husband will time each other while climbing up in a playplace climbing kid area and racing down the slide while they are out with their kiddos.

• One of Karli’s resolutions for this year is to have a no-phone zone from 4-7! She’ll have Pandora on and just be family focused. Her husband does it too when he gets home from work. 

• For those that have a job outside the home, when you’re off the clock, you leave the space. But for those that work from home, those work/kids/household lines blur together. So having a no-phone zone has helped Karli to schedule time to be with family, be “at work”  and not feel pulled to the place she doesn’t want to be interacting. It’s helped with her over-all contentment in life and with work. 

• Karli addressed “household” jobs so that she’s intentional about working during work time and taking care of the house at other times. The whole family pitches in at dinner time and they work to get set up and clean up done all together. They blast music and have fun! Then they do some work on Saturdays and a few things Karli just does on her own to get it done quickly. This is a system that works for them.

• Involve your kids in the planning and include them in decisions with how working from home will work. 

• If you want something to work, you can do it. 

• What’s holding us back is our own excuses and our own thoughts. 

• Make a schedule, make a plan, and stick to it. 

• Get some good blog friends to go through this life with you. When something silly or crazy or maddening comes up, reach out to those friends. You can immediately MP your friends and laugh about it. Let them go through it with you so it doesn’t consume or overwhelm you. It’s great moral support. They are also great for accountability and keeping you on track with a schedule you’ve decided is important to complete. 

• Karli’s favorite quote about motherhood applies to food bloggers too: “The most important work you do will be within the walls of your own home.” ~ Harold B. Lee