EPISODE 044 | Transcending Life’s Challenges Through the Power of Podcasting

It's official, we're celebrating our 50th episode of the podcast!

And what better way to celebrate this milestone than by doing a deep dive into the lessons I've carried forward from the last two years, as I navigated many of life's challenges in the public eye.

In today's episode, I'm keeping it real and pulling back the curtain on my reflections as a podcaster, including: 

• Some of the changes we've gone through as a business, a team and a brand. 
• The importance of accountability when doing hard things.
• My ongoing dance between optimizing my performance and managing my performance anxiety.
• How the podcast has become intertwined with my own journey of personal and professional development.

I then wrap things up by sharing next steps with the podcast and our plans for the next 50 episodes! 

If you want to stay in the know with our podcast, go ahead and sign up for our OTGR Newsletter -- we'll send you our most recent podcast episodes, behind-the-scenes details + bonus resources, directly to your inbox!

www.otsgonerogue.com/newsletter

And if this episode resonated with you in any way, I would love to hear from you. Connect with me on Instagram @OTsGoneRogue or drop me an email at hello@otsgonerogue.com. 

Transcript

00:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the 50th episode of the OTs Gone Rogue podcast. We first started the podcast creation process in October 2020. And we published our first official episode on December 10 2020. So not only are we celebrating 50 episodes of this has been a really good opportunity for me to reflect on the last two years, personally and professionally, including the various changes we've gone through as a business, a team and a brand. Today, I want to share some of those reflections with you. And I'm also going to share more about the changes we're rolling out for our next 50 episodes. Because yes, I feel like I am just getting warmed up.

INTRO: You're listening to the OTs Gone Rogue podcast, where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa LaPointe. My passion is in helping OT entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show. I'm going to share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I want to see more OTS step up as visionary leaders, change makers and influential CEOs. So let's get started.

01:25

All right, so my reflections on some of the things that I've learned as a podcaster, since we first hit publish on episode number one way back in December 2020 reflection, number one, the importance of accountability. In the beginning, I thought that by telling our listeners what to expect, that would be enough to keep me accountable to our publishing schedule, I announced to the OT world that we will be publishing a new episode every Monday morning at 5am. Pacific Standard Time. But life happens and especially in the beginning stages of the podcast, I was handling most aspects of the publication process outside of the actual editing, there were definitely weeks where we would get behind. And I felt like I couldn't keep my head above water with the podcast. When this would happen. I would tell myself things like who's even going to notice if we're a couple of days late. Or if we're a week late. Sometimes I would get a little discouraged. And some of my self talk would be more along the lines of like, who the heck's even going to want to listen to this, if the quality is going to be crap, no, I'd like hands would go up in the air and Oh, my goodness, I'm taking a break. And I would just walk away from my microphone altogether. But having a podcast editor onboard and shifting the publication process from my plate to his has made such a big difference. So in the beginning, my editor was responsible for that he would edit the episodes, and then he would upload them back into the Google Drive folder. And I was then responsible for taking the edited episode, and bringing in all the different pieces, the show notes, the social media content, all that stuff and actually publishing that. But we made a shift as we were learning how to work with one another. And that's made such a difference, because I'm no longer accountable to this self imposed deadline, and to the general public. Instead, I'm accountable to another person with a face with a name. And if I don't show up and do what I'm responsible for, I know that I'm making it really tough for him to do his job. So that added accountability for me has, you know, oftentimes, it's hard for me to show up for myself. It's hard for me to show up for the general public, but knowing that he is waiting on me for something that can be often motivation enough for me to get my head out of my ass and do what I've committed to do. So this is a shout out to Mr. John Ravenscraft. So he is the producer of our show. He came on as my editor way back in October 2020. So at that point, we had actually done some contract work together so he had come on earlier that year. I don't want to say virtual assistant but he had done some contract work for me in terms of video audio production, and I knew based on our conversations that he was interested in doing more around podcast editing, so I was actually one of his first podcasting clients. So one of the first that he took on when he was still doing this on the side, and it's been really neat, because since then he's actually started a business. And you know, getting his ducks in a row as a business owner. And now he has a small team. And based on how often I'm hearing his name get dropped in the podcasting community. I'm certain in saying that his business and his reputation have both grown since we first connected. So it's been cool in that we've been growing up together in the podcasting world, so to speak. John is not only professional in his communication with me, he's also incredibly consistent, reliable, kind and patient, he helps me to stay more organized, he follows up with me when there's radio silence, he handles my last minute requests in style. And when I'm totally overwhelmed with life, he's really good at having my back, leading me to reflection. Number two, podcasts are really meant to be a team effort. In my experience. Yes, you can keep things simple. You can do it all on your own, especially in the beginning, but it is a huge commitment. I don't think people realize how many moving parts there are when we first started this podcast. So as I had mentioned, it was primarily me, but I also had a virtual assistant at the time, Sierra and Sierra was there. So she bounced ideas around in terms of the podcast, she actually helped me to decide on the OTs Gone Rogue name. And then she helped me to set up the podcast. So getting it on all the different platforms and some of the tech side of things that now I was hands off with that stuff. She took that on for me. And as I mentioned, I then had John coming on board, so I was recording, but he was helping to edit the podcast. So I was hands off on the editing process. I knew it was something I could learn on my own. But I knew it was never going to be my zone of genius. So I was willing to outsource that right off the bat. So I was coordinating the guest bookings, I was handling correspondence, I was recording the episodes, I would then write the show notes. So I would record the episode, send it to John record the intro outro, he would tie it all together, he would send it back to me, it would go into the Google Drive folder. And then I would write the show notes, I would decide on the podcast title, I created the social media graphics, I would publish the episode on Buzzsprout, I would work on the website, I would publish the content to Instagram to our Facebook page. And then I would share the details into our Facebook group. And it was a lot, especially considering all the other things that I had on the go. So it wasn't very sustainable. Over the years, I've experimented, no, we had someone helping manage the Facebook group. For a while we had someone manage the Instagram account for a while I did have someone help create some of the social media content for a while that wasn't long term, but it was there for a little bit. But there would be a lot of times that literally I would be up until midnight on Sunday night trying to get things in order for this Monday morning publication wasn't a lot of balance in how I was going about the early stages of this podcast. Now I do know that there are people who are managing their podcasts on their own. They're doing most of this stuff on their own. And they love it. It's their passion. It's their hobby, and kudos to them. But if you are a business owner, I want to caution you on going down this road, a podcast can be a really great marketing tool. But that's only one piece to the puzzle. You still have many other responsibilities as a business owner, including customer fulfillment, program development, content creation, sales, any other marketing tools outside of the podcast, and all the other moving parts related to systems operations and admin. When I was taking on all those different things with a podcast, I was having a hard time keeping up with the other aspects of my business. So yeah, generating leads, that's a great thing, but not if you don't have time to properly follow up with said leads, or worse. Let things drop with your paying customers and clients. So no, as we were continuing to grow and evolve, I really had to question how many work hours I wanted to be doing each week. And also, you know, where was my zone of genius. Now what should I be taking on in terms of the business side of things where were the gaps and make some decisions as a CEO. So fast forward to today. And this has definitely become a team effort. So I'm still involved in strategic planning, of course, and obviously, I'm recording the episodes, John is still my podcast editor. But now that he has a team working with him, and my original VA, who was helping me with the podcast is now on John's team, which is pretty neat how that's come full circle, but John and his team, so they've taken on a lot more responsibility in terms of the show's production. So they now helped me with the show notes, they helped with the social media content, they helped create the audio grams, they publish the episodes to both Kajabi and to Buzzsprout. They help to you know, they're there to help coordinate the guest episodes, they're there to help with tracking the numbers, leading me to reflection number three. So the personal development piece that comes with letting go of control. So I think this is something that we all run into, as we are growing our businesses, you know, we start as solo entrepreneurs where we are doing everything. And as we continue to grow and evolve, we have to lean into a leadership role. And with that, comes a different level of responsibility and a different understanding of delegation and a different skill set in terms of not micro managing. So now that I don't have my hands and all the parts of the podcast, surprise, surprise, not everything gets done exactly how I would have done it. Sometimes there's a minor typo on an Instagram post, or maybe there's a hashtag missing that I would have included, or the podcast title, you know, on the thumbnail, it's not perfectly lined up with the logo, perhaps there's a bullet point in the show notes, that's not quite how I would have worded it. And in the early days of the podcast, full disclosure, I would have dropped everything to run in and make the edits myself, while working hard to keep my anxiety in check. But our business has continued to grow over the years. And we're at a stage where I simply don't have time, I don't have capacity to micromanage and proof every bit of content that gets published through one of our platforms. Sometimes I have to accept that things aren't going to be 100% in line with how I would do it. And that's okay. I've learned to have trust in the team that I've built, and to trust in the quality of the work that they're putting out. And again, I'm continuing to evolve as a business owner and a CEO. So if something isn't to my liking, instead of jumping in and fixing it, I'm really working at using this as an opportunity to reevaluate our overall communication structure, and the systems we have in place. So if something needs to be fixed, instead of me doing it myself, how can I use this as a teachable moment? You know, how can I show up from a place of leadership? And how can I support the different individuals that I have that are on our team, and how we can work together? So this work isn't easy for someone that likes to micromanage when under stress, but it's part of growing a business. And again, you know, relinquishing that control has been a big one. So if I see something not quite how I would like it done, or maybe not exactly how I would do, how can I take a step back and instead of jumping in to fix it journal on, you know, some of the learning opportunities that show up for me as the business owner. Speaking of handling things when under stress, reflection number four is all around performance anxiety. So this is one of my biggest hurdles that I still have to work on overcoming. Oh my gosh, do I love getting up in my head and being one of my own harshest critics.

14:28

Truth be told, my performance anxiety shows up more with my solo episodes than it does with my guest episodes. I've given this some more thought. And I think that part of the reason why my guest episodes are easier for me to record. Well, there are a couple of reasons. One is that I am a people pleaser, and I love to host I don't always like being the center of attention. I do much better in a hosting role where I can, you know, help put the attention on someone else. And I want this to be a really good experience for my guests. So, and let's be honest, I have some pretty amazing guests meaning it's easy for me to get into a state of flow with our conversation, and not put so much attention on me and my performance, but more on the bigger picture. And what I'm able to create for my audience, when it's just me, it's a different story. I overthink what I'm going to say, I don't always choose the best time to record the episodes, there may be just too many things going on in my house. So I don't always have the best place to record, my dog or my cat, they seem to thrive off of moments when I think it's going to be quiet. And then they get crazy. Sometimes I get off track and I ramble. You know, I don't want to over prepare. But then if I under prepare, I find I just start going off on tangents and losing track of what I was saying. It's way too easy. So sometimes I question what I'm making John listen to as part of the editing process. And it's way too easy for me to hit stop record. So that stop record button, I know it's there. And I know I can start over at any point. Whereas with our guest episodes, we schedule it, we book it and nine times out of 10 we record that whole thing in one shot, but my solo episodes, not exactly, now I am getting better at preparing. So mentally, physically the space, you know what I need to do in terms of journaling, my outline, so I am getting better at getting my head in the game for my solo episodes and figuring out what needs to be done ahead of time. So that's part of it, too. I have to work on finding balance between solo episodes and guest episodes, because my solo episodes take a heck of a lot more time to prep for and to record leading me to reflection number five. This podcast has been where it is very much intertwined. In my own journey of personal and professional development. It has been an interesting couple of years. I've talked about this before, but I published that first episode. So it was December 2020. And I published it under some distress. So I was dealing with some unknown variables with my health. We had planned out the podcast at that point. So we had it planned out. We had it named I had created the cover art, I had recorded the intro, and even at the first episode recorded when I was diagnosed with melanoma. So I've talked about this before, it was a surprise diagnosis for me. And that December, and then going into January, and even into early February. So I had to wide local excisions during the first month of the podcast, and they weren't healing well. So I was in a lot of discomfort physically and emotionally. You know, we were waiting to get results back. It was over the holidays. I wasn't telling anyone. So I hadn't told my friends I hadn't told my family, my husband knew and a close friend. And that was it was really just you know, I didn't want to be giving people news right around the holidays, when I didn't know we were in a bit of a waiting game. So I was really keeping a lot to myself and carrying that burden on my own. I was also so you know, in some of the locations where I had to get these wild local excisions or I had to get the biopsies when the incisions weren't closing, it was really limiting my movement. It was limiting my physical activity during a time of year when I can struggle as it is with the shorter, darker days. And that I wasn't able to get out skiing that I wasn't like there were just a lot of things that I wasn't able to do. It was tough. I was also doing a lot of research and even though you know by when I say mid January, so my surgeon and my dermatologist and my family physician, they were all confident with the results of my treatment. They were really happy. They felt good, but I was doing research and knew that being diagnosed with melanoma now meant that I was a higher risk for several other types of cancers. Now in my extended family, we already have a lot of various types of cancers. So I'm already at risk for we have uterine cancer, we have lung cancer, we have brain cancer, we have breast cancer, like there, there's a lot in my family history with my Auntie's my uncle's my cousins. So this for me, you know I've been doing work on my health and my well being for quite some time. So 2006 is when I first really started leaning into Complementary and Integrative Medicine, when I first started working with a naturopath and really started opening my eyes to what was available in terms of health prevention and promotion outside of the traditional medical system. And I was really motivated, knowing I was, you know, again, this was a big wake up call for me. And I was motivated to take my healing journey to the next level, and really lean into the next steps that I wanted to take in terms of optimizing my brain health, my gut health and my performance levels. So for most of 2021, I was really doing a lot of shadow work and facing a lot of inner demons. I was working with a functional nutritionist. So I talked about that on one of the podcast episodes, I was working with a personal trainer, which also meant doing some work in terms of somatic experiencing, and really leaning into body awareness and some of my past traumas on my body and why, you know, there was some fear of certain types of movements and some hesitation around certain, you know, activating certain muscles because of some debilitating injuries that I've had in the past. So it was leaning into that I was seeing a therapist, which was bringing up all kinds of stuff. Later that year, I started working with a money coach, and she's not just a money coach, he's a money coach with a background in recovery. So that was a really interesting eye opening experience. I was working with an orthodontist, so I finally got braces and started addressing, you know, my front tooth that was twisting gradually, and I was really self conscious of. So I got braces in 2021. And then I paid the enrollment fee. So for my women's health coaching certification, I had started that in 2016, and was making great progress into 2017. When, again, I talked about this on the podcast, the last half of 2017 was total chaos. And most if not all of 2018 went into recovery from 2017. So one of the things that I totally pull back from was my women's health coaching certification, let that go started doing more performance coaching, business coaching, and was really good at it really liked it. So 2019 into 2020, women's health coaching, you know, my my training, it just had dropped off the side of my plate. So I went back into the program, because I've been away for a few years, I did have to not the full enrollment fee, but I had to pay, I think it was $1,000 to re enroll into the upgraded program. So I did that in 2021. And I was exploring my relationship with food, I was exploring my relationship with money, my relationship with work, my relationship with exercise, my relationship with my body, my relationship with substance use my relationship with caffeine, with social media, and with people in my life. So some toxic relationships that I was really again leaning into and doing more self exploration as to why I was giving my power away in certain situations. So this is when we went on a bit of a hiatus with the podcast. So if you look at our podcast publications, there was I think it was May or June 2021. Right up until I think October is when so summer and then into well into the fall for us we had stopped publishing. And part of it was I had no idea how to bring our listeners into the deep shadow work that I was doing.

24:15

I was going through some stuff that I just you know, and I'm a share, let's be honest, I you know, pretty open about a lot of stuff. But there were some things like I was just trying to process in a journal to myself, let alone or in a therapy session or with a coach and you know, it was really having a hard time integrating that into the work I was doing in a public setting. The other piece to that is, you know, with all of that work, I was peeling away my various coping strategies, so some coping strategies that I had identified not necessarily being you know, they weren't necessarily serving me. Well, they were but they were, you know, there was some things I was doing that I recognized wasn't adding To my optimal performance, and some ways that I was coping or rather numbing that I wanted to change. So again, caffeine, social media, alcohol, cannabis work was a big one with that. So body focus, repetitive behavior is something I've struggled with. There were a lot that I was really like, Okay, I'm going to, you know, lean into this and figure out why I'm doing what I'm doing. And also try to eliminate some of these behaviors. But in the process, I wasn't doing such a great job at replacing my coping strategies, meaning, as 2021 went on, I was getting more and more sensitive, because I wasn't numbing as much. So I was getting more and more sensitive and more in tune to this crazy, chaotic world, where I didn't necessarily have the best tools for self regulation, because I was letting things go or eliminating things or working on reducing certain things, without necessarily replacing them with something that was more conducive to the journey that I was on. Some of you might recall, an episode I recorded with my friend Brock. So Brock, and I recorded episode number 35. And in that one, I talked more about my escalating anxiety at that time, and my struggles with showing up on social media. So that was a big episode for me, in part because I had taken such a big step back, and you know, Brock, and then I did another episode with Sarah Rheinberger. And it was my way to try to get my head back in the game. But things actually got worse after that. So a few weeks after we had published those episodes, I hit a pretty big wall. The first of December, my anxiety hit an all time high. So I had a panic attack. One afternoon when I was home with my husband, Max wasn't here. It was just my husband and I. And something happened that day, my nervous system went on overdrive. So I was able to sort myself out, it took me a few hours, really grateful that my husband was home from work at that time. And then for the next 10 days, I was walking on eggshells, and was having a hard time leaving the house. So I went out hiking with my dog one day, beautiful bluebird sky, gorgeous weather, you know, we're in the forest. And I had a panic attack. So I was on a trail about 30 minutes from my house. And I started to freak out hard for me to explain how I was feeling in that moment. But basically, I was freaking out that not only could I feel this panic attack coming on, but no one would know where I was, if I needed help. So you know, my brain just started racing. How do I even explain, like I'm on these single track bike trails, there's no way to get to me via vehicle. And so for the next two weeks, you know, I was scared to go hiking with my dog. So what I started to do was the smaller hikes where I would literally go back and forth number of times, so that I was never more than 10 minutes from the house and my husband would always know where I was so that if I needed him to come and help me, I had a backup plan. So a lot of extra energy to do you know, this used to be like hiking with my dog every single day. This is one of my ways that I feel grounded that I feel connected terms of you know, self regulation in terms of exercise in terms of my mental and emotional health and I was scared to do it. I then had a another panic attack. So I was home alone with my son, and we were watching a Christmas movie. We had the Christmas lights on. We have hot chocolate, we had popcorn. And I just felt this wave of panic coming over me. So I No, I didn't want to freak him out. It was just the two of us home alone. So I went to my bedroom. And I remember just laying on my floor. I had a weighted blanket on me. I was tracking my heart rate. And so I was telling myself, okay, you know, if you can keep your heart rate to this level, you're fine, you're fine, you're fine. You're not going to have a heart attack. I had an audio meditation going on. I had my dog like my joke that he's my therapy dog. He was right there with me. Thankfully, I was able to calm myself down. So it took me I forget, like my son was oblivious. He just watched the movie. But again, I freaked myself out enough that I didn't want to be home alone with Max for you know the rest of that week with the shift that my husband was on. We were home alone after school through until bedtime. And again, you know, I had to get a backup plan in place just to settle my mind. So I had a friend down the road. And I, you know, called her and told her what was going on? And should something happen, you know, could you be on call, I hope I don't need to call you. But I just need to know that you're there. So there were, you know, it happened at the grocery store. Again, we were wearing masks that didn't help. So I was able to get out of that situation, I pretended a phone call came in, because I could feel it coming on. So a phone call was coming in. And then No, I just wanted to get out of there without causing too much of a scene. So I'd put my stuff down and pretend that I had to go take this call. And then that was it. For the next couple of weeks, my husband had to do most of the errands. So December was tough. And through all of this Oh, and then we ended up with COVID was icing on the cake, finally coming out of it. But then the last week of December, we ended up with COVID, which in some way, it was a blessing in disguise, because we just had a really quiet, we were self isolating for Christmas. And we had a really, really quiet relaxing time. And you know, I think in some ways, I really needed that. And through all of this, oh my gosh, did I ever feel a lot of empathy and compassion for the people in my life? who struggle with anxiety on a daily basis. For me, it was two weeks of hell. And I know that for many people with anxiety, this is their life. So you know, I've supported people with anxiety, and I've been there to help them and didn't quite get it. Yeah, so that was a big wake up call. But forever the optimist through this challenging period in my life, though, again, went on a bit of a podcast hiatus, that was the least of my concerns that month, something good came out of this. So with all of this going on, I could not fathom the idea of losing control of my thoughts, or of disconnecting with my body. And that was often a reason up until that point that I had been self medicating with cannabis. Now I should mention cannabis is legal in Canada. So since 2018, cannabis is legal. And everyone on my health care team. My therapist, the surgeon that a treated me for melanoma, my family physician, my personal trainer, like everyone was well aware. So I've been using THC and CBD in various combinations to treat my anxiety to treat my ADHD to treat my body focused repetitive behaviors. To treat my overall mental health, this is something that I've been using therapeutically for a very long time. And I was using a relatively small dose. So I've been doing my research and in terms of like Method of Consumption, the quality of the products I was using. So no one had any concerns about how I was using it or when I was using it. But I had been using it on a frequent basis. So I was starting to have concerns over my psychological dependence on this plant. So again, remember, I was really exploring my dependency on a lot of things work, social media, caffeine, alcohol, you know, this was all part of my journey. So I was really starting to question my use of cannabis. And during that week of intense in anxiety when I just thought I was losing my mind I thought I had broken my brain. I totally quit didn't even think twice about it. Because I couldn't like I would get anxious at the thought of dissociating and I would use cannabis in part two, no totally disconnect and sometimes regulate my brain in other ways. So I stepped back and I didn't look back.

34:02

Now I've done little breaks with cannabis in the past you know I have taken because that was important for me to make sure that I was taking these little THC CBD vacations so to speak. But this was by far the longest that I had ever gone where that was it. I was done. And I'm not saying it's been easy. There are definitely days where I really miss what cannabis is able to do to my brain the way I'm able to tap into different parts of my brain that I still honestly haven't quite figured out how to do yet without cannabis. And sometimes with my ADHD, oh my gosh, there's like 5 million tabs open in my brain and with cannabis, I would figure out like it was this 13% sativa blend that just two puffs and I could go from 17 tabs to two And I could focus and I would be so productive. So it really helped in terms of my performance. But it's been 11 months now we're going on time of this publication, we'll be rounding down, getting close to 12. And I'm still feeling confident with my decision. So, you know, as we start to wrap this up, so my final reflection, on the last two years, would be along the lines of performance. And really looking at the changes I've made in terms of how I'm using social media. This is also still a work in progress, especially considering a large part of our business is in the online space. So I know do some consulting, I have a consulting contract that's in person, which is lovely gets me out in our community. But most of my work is still in the online space. And many of you will recall that when we first started this podcast, I had a free Facebook group with it. So we had almost 2000 People in our Facebook group. And there was a lot of engagement in that group. And I was also quite active. So there were a few other Facebook groups that I was quite active in as well. So the OT entrepreneurs Facebook group, I was pretty active in the women's health OT Facebook group, the OTs and pelvic health Facebook group, plus my own business groups. But when I was really leaning into my relationship with cannabis and the addictive Tenzin tendencies in my brain, it was impossible for me to not take this info and apply it to my relationship with social media as well. So in the last 12 months, I have completely redefined my relationship with Facebook book, you guys, this was hard, I would say it was almost as hard as quitting weed. It took a lot of work, it took a lot of planning. And yes, there are still days where I feel like I'm missing out. So a lot of my business used to come from our Facebook group. So that was a big piece for us. But once again, I really had to ask myself, at what cost? What was the sacrifice that I was making. For for that? No, for those leads to be coming through, I now have so much more time and mental clarity from not being on that platform. So we use circle for hosting our community portions for our programs. And this cost money, it's an investment, it's $97 a month for the current plan we're on with circle. But each time that invoice comes through, I am so grateful for the time that I'm not on Facebook, I am so grateful for you know, I'm not going down rabbit holes, I'm not losing hours of my work week in terms of consumption, I'm not being triggered by all the other things that are showing up in my newsfeed at the different ads that I'm being targeted with. I have been able to step away from that. Now with Instagram. So I'm starting to show up there a little bit more to interact with my audience. But it's tricky. I'll be honest, I'm still struggling on and off with body dysmorphia, and with showing up on camera. So that's a big trigger for me showing up on camera, I have no problem showing up with smaller audiences, especially when I'm in a teaching role or a coaching role. So with my programs, that's fine, I can show up authentically, I'm there for my people, I love it. But the idea of hundreds or 1000s of people seeing me on camera makes me want to vomit. So it's still something that I struggle with. So outside of our podcasting content, you'll notice I've started posting pictures of nature and outdoor scenery. So things that make me smile. And that makes me feel more grounded when I scroll through my feed. So I can feel really good about myself, I'll be going through a phase where I'm really working on loving myself and showing up and being comfortable with pictures with videos. But then I go through a dark phase. And when I go through a dark phase and I see you know, if I scroll through my feed or if I scroll through history on my Facebook page, and I'm seeing lots of videos, it's really mentally challenging. It's not a good situation for me. And this has been something I've been dealing with for a very long time. So, you know, perhaps someday I'll be confident sharing more on my Instagram feed like I am. No, maybe I'll bleed into my Instagram stories and will be able to communicate as well as I can on my podcast. Maybe someday we can take this conversation to the next level. But until then, I'm just learning to be okay with where I am on this journey and with showing up in a way that feels authentic and good for me, because if I don't feel good about it, no, it's pretty darn hard to continue to, to grow, in terms of what it is we want to offer and putting ourselves out there. So I'm figuring that out. So yeah, it's been a huge couple of years leaning into this journey of personal discovery, and really working on coming face to face with some of those inner demons to be taking us on while also in a position of leadership for the OT profession, while building a personal brand as a business while really putting myself out there. It's been interesting. Ly. It's been interesting. It's been challenging. But with that there's been some pretty big wins. And I'm learning that it's not impossible. No, it's not impossible to have an online business, where you're not showing up consistently on social media. It's hard, but it's not impossible.

41:02

All right. So now that I've bared my soul on this episode, I want to just take a moment and talk about what's next. So where I want to go with our next 50 episodes. So it's taking me two years to publish the first 50 episodes. And my goal, or one of my goals is is before we get to the end of 2023, I want to publish 50. More, that means that as of January 1, we're going to shift gears and start publishing weekly episodes. Again, we're also going to instead of having right now we publish Tuesday mornings, we're going to bump that over to Thursday mornings, I feel a little bit better about that, I still plan on taking time off. So July and August, I'm still taking time off. So that means that there's going to have to be some weeks where we're not just publishing weekly, but the odd bonus episode is going to get thrown in the mix. We're also committing to our OTs Gone Rogue newsletter. So this is something I've been dancing around with since the beginning of the podcast. But I'm really leaning into this and committing to it, especially with my ups and downs with social media. So the newsletter is going to be sent out to our email list, we'll send it out once every couple of weeks, and we'll share the links to the podcast episodes. And so that way, if anyone out there's taking a break from social media as well, you'll still be in the loop. And then I'll try to share some fun tidbits or some behind the scenes details. Basically, you know what we're up to the inner workings of the podcast. So some bonus content, so to speak. And again, you know, we always try to keep our emails succinct and not overwhelming your inbox. So we'll keep that in mind front and center as we move forward. So if you want to get your name on that list, you can go to www OTS gone rogue.com forward slash newsletter, another update. So this isn't something new. But we're going back to spotlighting other OTS. So once a month, we're going to have an OT spotlight and feature someone in our profession who's doing really cool things and exemplifying what I consider to be going rogue. I'm also going to host some healthcare professionals outside of the OT profession. So I think we could all use an added dose of inspiration for thinking outside the box when it comes to health care. So no other health care professionals who are going broke so to speak. We're going to start including some listener q&a is so where our listeners can submit questions, and I'll answer them on the air. I get a lot of questions in my inbox. And sometimes I get behind on my email correspondence. But this is a better format for me. So this could be an add on to some of our episodes. So it may be at the end of the episode maybe at the beginning of an episode or if the demand is there. I may end up dedicating an entire episode to q&a s and we'll see how that goes. We'll continue to host featured guest experts on topics related to business, women's health, coaching, mental well being. So I've done this in the past. I'm going to continue doing this because I think it's a great opportunity for me to invite our listeners along on my learning journey. And yes, I love building my network. So there's added an added bonus in there for me as well. Last but not least, I'm going to commit to doing more of what I love on the podcast, which is coaching. So we've hosted a few of these episodes in the past where I've coached someone through a particular roadblock or challenge that they're having in terms of growing their business. So it could be a focus on systems and operations on sales and market Hang on pricing on performance mindset. So I don't know if I should say this, but I'm going to, I don't want to be too presumptuous. But shortly after this episode gets published, I will have written my final exam and will have graduated as a women's health coach. So through the integrative Women's Health Institute, this has been something on my bucket list for quite some time. So really coming full circle with my women's health journey. So it will be another podcast episode in and of itself. And I want to lean into performance coaching for female entrepreneurs on a whole new level, where I'm using not only my extensive experience as a business coach, but also my ongoing training as a women's health coach. So this is going to be reflected in some of our podcast episodes, where you're going to be invited to listen in on the coaching sessions, I'll share it of course, with the person being coached, you know, there's so much value to hearing someone else be coached through different scenarios, different situations, and how we can then reflect on that, and apply it back to ourselves. I know a lot of you out there are also going down the path of offering coaching services. And you know, there's benefit to hearing someone else coach in terms of skill development. And so again, something I'm going to be bringing in more consistently on a monthly basis and really excited to be doing so. Okay, this is a long one. But there you have it, I had a lot of processing, I had to do two years, you guys two years. So this was a wrap up of my reflections on you know, the inner workings of a podcaster. So we've published 50 episodes, super excited. You know, it feels like just yesterday when we had this idea for the podcast. And here we are. So thank you so much for those of you who have been part of this journey from the very beginning. I know we have a lot of Og listeners out there, and your words of encouragement and support truly means the world to me. Thank you again, John. So my podcast editor and the kick ass team that you've been building in terms of supporting me with production. So you guys are a big reason why we're still here. And I'm really excited to see what we're going to do with the next 50 episodes. And for those of you who have only recently discovered the OTs Gone Rogue podcast, welcome to the community, and to the inner workings of my busy, busy brain. As always, you can help us to grow this podcast by sharing one of your favorite episodes with a friend or a colleague. You can also take a moment and leave us a review. So that is helping us to expand our reach as well. Word of mouth and organic marketing are still no, it's still the primary way that we're spreading the word of what this show is all about. All right, my friends, if you made it to the end of this episode, thank you for sticking it out. Thank you for being on this journey with me. I totally did not anticipate how the last two years would go and the impact that this podcast was going to have in terms of my journey and some of the roadblocks and the challenges that I've been working on overcoming and I'm really looking forward to what's still to come. So two years in, let's see what the next year has to bring. As I said at the beginning, you know, I feel like I'm just getting warmed up and wrapping my head around this whole podcasting thing. So excited for what's to come. All right. Take care, everyone and we'll be back in a couple of weeks with episode number 51

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

podcast, work, episodes, business, terms, leaning, ots, cannabis, publish, record, health, helped, people, journey, host, weeks, social media, feel, coach, anxiety