100: How 100 Episodes of Podcasting Changed Me

Passion Design Project

In 2013, I had found the podcast, The Lifestyle Entrepreneur by Kris Gilbertson, and became obsessed with listening every chance I had. I was kind of early for podcasting and hearing about lifestyle entrepreneurs and it was basically the only place I could get my fill! (I had to look that up to remember the name!) On my list of 2014 Goals, #8 was start a Podcast, and by Summer 2014, my furthered goal was "Podcast Equipment." In 2015 I had written down my Podcast plan and potential website names. In 2016 the goal evolved to recording 50 episodes. So, I started recording in June of 2016 and launched in August of 2016 with a once a week podcast. Now we're here, exactly two years from when I recorded my first episode with some local business people in Jackson Hole, recording my own 100th episode. Before now, looking back I always thought I should have done the process a lot faster, but with a little more grace towards myself, I'm revising that thinking. To be fair, I was alone in a new state, with a fresh degree in fashion design, working in Fashion, creating art shows, and wanting to develop a podcast on the side. In recent years, online stuff has gotten way more intense and in your face (although this may be because I'm in the space a lot more). Today people basically say if you aren't creating a podcast within a week, you're falling behind. That mentality held me captive a lot during the last few years. Thoughts that if I wasn't doing enough as soon as possible, I was losing out on money, losing out on furthering a potential career, and just plain losing in general. I don't know about you, but to me, it always seems that people are doing things before me every time and I have to race to catch up, or else buy their program to get fast results. In short, what I learned from 100 podcasts is not some amazing one-liners from guests, or how to build the perfect business, but more little things. Things like becoming a better listener, accepting that there's a lot more than one way to reach a goal, and being proud to show what I'm doing. As much work as the podcast takes, I actually stayed away from promoting it for a long time. Instead of thinking about who could benefit from it, I thought about what I might be saying wrong, or things I say that people might find annoying. I didn't want to advertise something they might not like. By doing this, I actually was hurting everyone, not giving them a chance to hear episodes that I put my heart and soul into. I was so focused on consistently putting out an episode every week (to stay with my goal) that I lost the big picture of what I was actually doing! If you're working on a project right now, share the in-between moments. The times when things don't go right, or when you're frustrated, as it makes the end goal a lot more special. Through the years, I've evolved in the podcasts I like to listen to. A few favorites have been: Smart Passive Income Podcast, Tim Ferriss Show, GaryVee Audio Experience, Goal Digger podcast, School of Greatness. Each show is good for different reasons, although I must say I've learned the most about Podcasting from Tim Ferriss - who likes to break things down to a molecular level and explore why and how to achieve optimal results. He's studied podcasting techniques which is a lot about asking the right questions, getting the show to flow, getting people to open up, and being a good listener. If any of you are avid podcast listeners, I'm guessing you notice the people who use phrases like "I love it!" or "That's amazing" or "Interesting..." Basically fillers in times where you haven't thought quick enough of anything else to say. Now I notice things like this a lot more often (which is sort of annoying ha!) but also helps me notice it in myself. Becoming a better conversationalist is usually just about being interested and asking better, deeper questions. It requires that you open up maybe more than you usually do,