Episode #100 Celebration!
Listen to this episode!
In this episode:
Wow! We’ve finally arrived at the 100 mark. It seemed to take forever, but speed was never the point.
I just want to say thank you to those of you listening now, and to everyone who has tuned into an episode in the past, or come back again and again.
Making and evolving the Career Foresight podcast has been so much fun because of you.
I couldn’t resist doing something a little different for episode 100. So I’m going to keep it short and sweet and do some reflecting with you.
In this episode I’m sharing:
What reaching 100 episodes feels like and means to me
What to expect over the next few months on the podcast
What reaching 100 episodes feels like and means to me
The first thought that popped into my head was that reaching #100 feels like molasses. I published the first episode of Career Foresight (back then it was called Feminine Foresight) in February 2017. So in just a couple of months that will make this show 4 years old. It has taken me so long to get to the triple digits.
I’ve taken season breaks, changed the branding and direction, and taken some breaks due to burnout and or, in the case of this year, prolonged morning sickness.
The inconsistency I’ve sometimes shown in my publishing schedule makes me feel like a “bad” podcaster sometimes. But that’s a thought and mindset I quickly try to break down.
When I think about my own journey podcasting, I often wonder what it would be like now had I focused more on trying to grow the podcast and market it better.
And when I think about my listeners, I believe that this is a thought pattern that you can probably relate to in our own way.
So much of what we pursue in our lives, or our careers, take a lot longer than we ever anticipated. And as we chart the course, and take action on the things we care about, we often realize that what we thought we wanted at the start isn’t what we actually want in life.
I have a good, steady base of listeners for my podcast. I get a fair amount of emails from people who are gracious enough to let me know that my episodes mean something to them and help them in one way or another. Getting an email like that is so valuable to me.
I started this podcast four years ago to help me build the “platform” of my brand. In my head at the time, that goal was directly related to growing a large number of listeners. At that time, had I known that my “audience” would still be so relatively small four years later, I’m not sure I would have seen the value at the time.
But over the past four years, I’ve changed so much. Or, maybe, I’ve just learned a lot about myself I didn’t previously understand. For me, intentionality, purpose and direction are some of my greatest values in life. And for the life of me, I have not been able to consistently honor those values while also playing all of the online marketing growth games.
That’s why I chose to get off of Instagram a year ago and haven’t looked back since. And it’s also why I’ve invested in growing my career coaching business in a way that honors my own intentionality and purpose I want to live out, as well as helping my clients do the same in their lives. It’s why I’ve been okay taking breaks from publishing on this show when I needed a rest, or when I knew I needed more time to create something that would be valuable to you, rather than making it about me.
So what I want to say to you is that if you find yourself in a season or moment where you feel like you aren’t keeping the pace you should--it’s okay. While you may not be making progress on the goals you have in the way you expected, I promise you that you are still growing.
Keep going back to why you do what you do, and assessing whether the priorities you have for yourself are being honored in your day-to-day. When you keep yourself accountable to that, there’s no way you can’t be successful.
What to expect over the next few months on the podcast
Aye! I really don’t know what to say here. I’ve mentioned it a few times in episodes over the past couple of months, but I am expecting a baby very soon. Right at the beginning of January!
With that being said, I plan to take maternity leave to spend time with my baby and adjusting to motherhood.
While I do have plans to restart the coaching side of my business in early March and working with clients, I’m honestly not sure how the podcast fits into my plans at this point.
Currently, my approach to podcasting (which typically includes researching, recording, writing show notes and editing) takes about a full day’s work. I need to be fully ready and committed to investing that time creating podcasts over playing with my baby before I make any promises about the future.
So I guess we’ll just have to see! I appreciate you listening to this episode so much. Thank you for the support you’ve shown me. I have loved getting to create this content and hear from you over the past four years.
Cheers to episode #100 and to the future of all of our creative careers!
