Milestone alert! This week I have published my 100th episode of the podcast – a milestone that has been a long time coming; with over three years of interviews and rambling, I hope that you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

I’ve learned a lot these past few years, and sometimes it’s fun to stick your head up, look around, and see where you are in relation to where you started and where you want to go. Starting with the great friends who did early interviews, through the pandemic, and now looking at new opportunities, it’s been a fantastic journey. 

That journey will continue! So on this week’s episode, I explore it a bit, get reflective, and look at a bigger picture. 

We all leave some kind of legacy. (I get it – the podcast isn’t really one). But we can bring the best out of ourselves and others … and I hope this little corner of the podcast world is one way that does that. 

Happy listening!

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Click Here for an Unedited Transcript of the Podcast

Welcome to bellwether. Thank you for joining episode 100, I’ve hit the triple digits. We’re at episode 100 and, uh, it’s a bit of a milestone and it’s nice to hit milestones. And I, you know, I was just cranking along doing whatever. And I was saying, what am I gonna talk about this week? And I said, oh, holy cow, last week was episode 99. That means that this is episode a hundred, which is very exciting. And so when I think about what I’m gonna talk about today, it’s, I’m gonna talk me and that’s fun for me, right? Just once I’m gonna talk about me and, uh, and all that, I’ve learned doing a hundred podcasts and how I look forward to doing a hundred more. Um, it’s been a hundred, a hundred episodes slowly over a little over three years, three plus years, I guess it was around March and 20 you one of the years.

Speaker 1 (01:06):

Um, but I’ve been doing about 30 a year doing about 30 episodes a year. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot about how to do a podcast. I’ve learned how to create something consistently. Um, learning is my thing. So I’ll talk to you a little bit about what I learned by doing that. Uh, but, but a hundred episodes, some have just me, some have been other people. I think if I look back over this, it’s, it’s a crazy time to just pause. Matter of perspective, where are we, where am I from when I first started it to doing, you know, what I’m doing now and how the podcast has changed and how my business has changed. And it’s, it’s just a fun exercise to pause and take a look around and get that, that momentary look in the mirror and, and that momentary bit of perspective, and, you know, take a look around, do you like where you are?

Speaker 1 (01:58):

Where do you wanna be? And where do you want to go? And that’s, you know, that’s my jam. That’s, that’s exactly what I like to do. So where have we landed and where are we going? So let’s chat, you know, I didn’t, I didn’t write down much for this. Um, I like to ramble sometimes. So that’s what I’m gonna do, but I, I I’m, I guess what I’ll talk about in, in three buckets is, is why I do the podcast, what I’ve learned, doing the podcast, and maybe what I think about, you know, how this will inform me going forward, I guess, and the way I, I think about things and, and I get nice compliments from time to time, not just on the podcast, but people like, um, or at least some people do like the way I think about things. And so I’ll tell you how I think about things a little bit in terms of the podcast and everything else.

Speaker 1 (02:41):

So, uh, why do I do the podcast? I get a lot of requests for info on how do I art a podcast and why do I do it and all, all of that stuff. So, um, I do it because it’s cathartic for me. And this was really, you know, for years I was just pining to get back into radio. I had a radio show years ago with a good friend. We did all kinds of stuff. And I, I did college radio, we did all kinds of fun stuff, and it was just like a cool thing to do. And now it’s just a little more accessible where I could just say, screw it, I’ll do a radio show. Why not? And that’s kind of what, what the podcast came out of. And if I look back at how it changed over time, it’s almost like I was, you know, when I think about it catharsis and, and getting things off my chest, but it’s also helping me articulate the way I think about things with my clients, the way I think about things with people, strategy and business and organizations and how they should be approaching, uh, uh, work and, and their people.

Speaker 1 (03:35):

And when you think about how quickly things change and what I wish I knew and all of those types of things, that’s, that’s really what it came down to. So, um, it, it helped me find my voice and my opinion. Uh, and if you read the book, you know, all about, I love the idea of a belief system and, and, and all of those things. And, um, I mean, it’s, it’s so cool to, to be able to have a, a valid opinion that you’ve thought through, because if it’s a feeling you have, or, and there’s logic to it, then it’s valid automatically. And that’s where, where most people skip over the validity aspect of other people’s opinions is they don’t necessarily give it that validity where if they just pause for a second figured out where validity could, could lie on that and then use that as a basis for discussion it’s, um, it it’s, you know, it’s, it’s the way should, the way people should be it’s the way people should be.

Speaker 1 (04:33):

I don’t know why more people don’t listen to me. Um, uh, but if I look back on the last three years, everything is the same, but different. And it’s, uh, you know, constant change. People are stressed. The world is changing. This was well before the pandemic, when I started this and the pandemic kind of, you know, changed the topics as it went on, you know, it’s fun to look back and, and think about all of the things that I’ve about. It’s almost like a timeline, um, which probably is more meaning to me than it would to, to any of you li any of you out there listening. But when I look back and see all the topics I had from, you know, I used my social network at the beginning, right. And, and when I think about, if you’re starting do a podcast and I, again, stepping back, it’s not just a podcast, it could be anything, it could be a book.

Speaker 1 (05:22):

It could be, you know, it could be, um, a side hustle. It could be whatever, you know, the first thing to do is just start it, right. Not everybody, it doesn’t matter. Who’s listening, cuz nobody’s listening. You know, when I first started the podcast, I had a great social network and my friends that came to do it, Dennis doing, talking about lean, uh, two sweet, who’s gonna come back on talking to pro boxer, uh, Deshaun two sweet, John’s talking about discipline and how do you get off the mat? And he’s gonna come back and talk about resiliency and those types of things. And, and so it doesn’t really matter. Who’s listening, it’s about finding your voice and what it is that you want to say and you don’t have to share it. And when people are looking for purpose, they’re looking for things to do.

Speaker 1 (06:02):

They’re looking for to make a change. One of the big fears that stops us from trying something new is what the other people will say or what if I fall flat on my face or whatever. Uh, but the nice, beautiful part about a podcast or any other things is nobody’s really paying attention. Cause nobody knows how to find you and unless you wanna put it out, otherwise you can just practice all of the time and you can do whatever you want. And it’s a fun exercise to go through and you could just test little types of behaviors. So, you know, when I, when I think about the social network at the beginning, um, Dennis, who I just saw recently, who’s super cool, too sweet Trish Trish came on and um, talked about five minutes of silence, which is, uh, phenomenal, you know, just these first like four to five to 10 interviews, Eileen Scully on her book about women in male dominated industries.

Speaker 1 (06:56):

Those were, those were just fun interviews. And that’s why, you know, I kicked it off and said, why the hell not? Um, but if I look at the timeline, you know, I got feedback after all those interviews to say, what about you? What is your opinion? So I started to have a little bit more of, of my thoughts on things. And so I started doing that, that balance between myself and the interviews and, and that was fun. And, and by doing that, you know, if I, you look at my topics that I wanted to talk about really tells a story of what either I was dealing with or, you know, the world is dealing with. Um, you know, my disdain with the wellness industry was right at the beginning and, and it helped me articulate my thoughts on what I actually thought about wellness. It wasn’t necessarily me preaching to everybody what wellness should be.

Speaker 1 (07:39):

Uh, well, I guess it kind of was, but it was almost telling myself, you know, I’m hearing all this noise from other people on what wellness should be, what am I supposed to do for myself? And so, so that’s really what that came. And then it turned into the book and everything else and learning, how do I wanna learn? And what did I learn becoming a coach. And by time I, 20 years of corporate my time at Columbia, my, you know, all of these things have, have manifested into really cool things. And when you pause, stick your head up and say, where am I now? And what am I doing? What’s my business offering. And what’s my, you know, my marketing and what’s my awareness. And, and what’s my message. And all of those things, uh, if you look back to the beginning, it was really in discovery phase of what I believed and what, what I wanted my, my voice to be.

Speaker 1 (08:24):

And, and then it transitioned, um, if you lose, I mean, all the episodes are on the thing transitioned into, you know, beyond me into helping others. How do you give feedback? How do you manage other people? And, and we had some interviews on that. And then, then the RO hit, we got the nice, the nice pandemic and we were all isolated. Um, so I went right into mental health because we were, you know, a lot of people weren’t ready to have those internal conversations. We had no social support. If you’ve got Corona, nobody could help you. Um, I don’t know. I still don’t know how single parents did it, where, you know, you’re, you’re petrified of your kids getting sick for sure. But if they did get sick and you had a job, like you couldn’t ask a neighbor to help or family to help because they, nobody knew what was going on.

Speaker 1 (09:06):

Um, and so, so there was a lot of, you know, a lot of people felt stranded. And, and so I talked about my child challenges from, from mental health, why I quit drinking the, the dark places that I deal with. Um, and I got great, great feedback from that where people just needed to hear it. Um, and they were thanking that they weren’t the only people feeling that way. And they didn’t know how to have were so focused externally. They didn’t know how to have the, the conversations inside, um, be because it was, uh, you know, it was a large connection with a lot of people, but we, um, we know our fears and our doubts and everything else. So, so it’s a different type of conversation than, than the false one we typically give to our colleagues at work or when we go out networking or, or, or any of that, I, I do believe there are very few people out there who have some close enough that they can trust to share everything with, which shocks me the amount of people I’ve talked to about that.

Speaker 1 (10:02):

And, and social network is such an important aspect to find someone you can implicitly trust, and it doesn’t have to be a spouse. Like it doesn’t have to be this crazy, um, thing. It doesn’t have to be family. It doesn’t have to, you know, I know so many people have close enough families, but they don’t, you use their family in that way. And, and they have to to figure that out and it’s difficult, very, very difficult to do so. Um, so that was that whole phase. And, and now we’re, we’re trying to come outta the pandemic. It’s the new economy. Uh, the book came out halfway through it. How do you prepare for this change that we don’t know is coming and how do you manage a virtual workforce and what are the new skill sets for the new economy and, uh, change management and what are companies doing from a people strategy perspective.

Speaker 1 (10:42):

And, and it’s really coming into, you know, really nice. It’s a nice little flow if you will, for anybody on a, a similar journey as myself, but it’s an exciting time because now what’s next is, you know, we just did a, a recent topic on insecurity and, and I have a nice little conversation going on with all of you who are listening on what you want me to talk about, because I feel like now it could be helpful for you. And, and, um, it’s certainly we have amazing interviews coming up, uh, with really interesting people. So, um, I do, I will work hard to find really interesting people, um, to get the good ones for you. So, uh, I keep notes on what you send to me and what you want me to cover. And, um, you know, as I sketched out notes for this for a hundred episodes on why I do the podcast and everything else, uh, I was reminded of a trip to Belfast and it was right before the pandemic, uh, um, and there was a Belfast homecoming event and it was a brilliant event in Belfast.

Speaker 1 (11:44):

One of the greatest places that you could visit had an event at city hall, like it was, it was really, really cool. And, and one of the things, they had a guy talking about how we are all ancestors and, um, and it was a, a marvelous moment of perspective that resonated very well with me is that, you know, we think back to what our ancestors did and we’re, we’re proud of them. And we have great pride in our history. And, uh, just recently we had St pat trite and Irish Americans love their history and, and the, the Irishness that comes with it. And we’re very proud of the people who came before us and they had challenges and they overcame those challenges. We are currently ancestors for those next generations. And what will they look back and be proud of you for doing, and we all want a legacy.

Speaker 1 (12:37):

I mean, the podcast, isn’t gonna be a legacy, but as you look at a hundred, whatever your milestone is, we can stop and look around and say, am I doing what I actually want to do? You know, whether it’s, you have kids, whether you don’t have kids, whether it’s, you know, you’re part of a community, uh, we all want to have of that legacy, be an ancestor, make makes some kind of a difference. And that difference doesn’t have to be out outrageously worldwide. Um, it could be local and, and it could be small, but, um, no matter the challenges going on in the world, uh, the bigger perspective is that we, we all are ancestors in some way. And so we all leave a legacy and, and we can bring out the best in, in ourselves so that we can bring out the best in other people. And, and hopefully this podcast is one little corner where, where I’m able to help do that. So, um, yeah, that’s, that’s it, uh, I got, I’m not crying if watching the video, I’m not crying. I actually just got something in my eye.

Speaker 1 (13:36):

Um, but that’s what this is all about. I mean, when we talk about self development, what’s the purpose of self development? The purpose of self development is, um, is making ourselves the best we could be. It’s the secret of life, right? The meaning of life is to make ourselves the best that we could possibly be so that we can be in service to the people around us. And, and, and that’s why I focus a lot of these podcasts on development, on what we can learn. What are the important things to focus on? Just what was it last week, two weeks ago, Marisa talking about what you should be eating, let’s cut the crap. Let’s focus on what’s best for you and how, what you eat can affect your brain and all that other stuff. Um, so those are the things that, that motivate me and get me going.

Speaker 1 (14:18):

And so hopefully you’ll, you’ll keep tuning in for the next a hundred episodes. Come be a guest on the podcast, I guess. I mean, why not? Well, why not? Why shouldn’t I have 500 podcasts? Let’s do it. All right. Tell me something interesting to talk about, and I’ll have you on the podcast. Um, because this is, uh, it’s just a fun, little way to, to when I first started my business, my tagline, not tagline, but it was, you know, my belief was that everyone has something interesting to share, no matter who it is, somebody somewhere has something very interesting to share. And I still believe that the, the challenge that most people have is they don’t know how to articulate it, or they don’t think it’s that big a deal, or they don’t, you know, whatever. They’re like, oh, it’s not that big a deal.

Speaker 1 (15:06):

I just do this. And people say, holy cow, you do that. That’s amazing. Everybody has something really cool to talk about. Uh, and everybody is a very interesting person. We just have to give them the space to talk about it. We have to be curious enough to find out about it. And that’s, you know, that’s, that’s what, that’s what I like to do with this. So with that, thank you for tuning in. If you’ve listened to all 100 or, you know, maybe just two or one, whatever, if this is your first one, go back and listen. They will live forever, live forever in, uh, into perpetuity maybe. Um, until I stop paying the bill, I guess. Uh, so thank you for listening. I appreciate it. A hundred episodes, much more to come. I’m very excited. And as always reach out, if I could do anything for you. Thanks.