437. The Invisible Wins That Keep Podcasters From Burning Out

0:05 Good morning podcasting, Morning Chat. Today is Friday, January 16th, 2026, and today, finding wins beyond the numbers. I'm still at Pod Fest, so Ralphie Stefan, the gang is filling in to help creators recognize real progress and build momentum from the work they're already doing. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching this via podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds. We'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

1:24 Well, good morning. Morning, Chad. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Ralph Estep filling in for Mark. And joining me here on the stage are producer Ashley Feller, Dr. Faye, Sid Meadows and BC Babbles. So it's Friday, so we're naturally thinking wins of the week. And that's as I was preparing for today's show and talking with the team, I thought, what is that we can talk about today? But I want to go one step deeper today because I think a lot of us aren't, and I'll use the word failing. We're just not counting what's working. We're creating, we're editing, we're posting, we're improving. And somehow many of us still feel behind. We start to feel that burnout. So here's today's what I call big hairy question. How do you find real wins in the work you're doing every day? So you don't burnout, you don't spiral, and you don't quit too early.

2:08 Now, today's not about some fake positivity and not saying everything is amazing. Today we're talking about real wins, useful wins, but really the kind that fuel consistency. And I want to start off by sharing, if you indulge me, a little bit of a personal story. So this past Sunday, I've been doing it. I do a daily podcast. It's a financial podcast. And when I set out to do that seven years ago, I never thought about what this was going to look like big, big, you know, long term. And this Sunday I hit 1000 episodes of that show. Now everybody would say, well, that's a big win, Ralph, that's fantastic. That's a that's a lot went into that. But what I want to share and yeah, and it made pod news and that and I've heard a lot, a lot of positive comments. That's fantastic.

2:48 But you know what's interesting about that? As I looked back and thought about what was the big win for me this week, The big win for me this week was I got an instant message from some of your, I guess you called Adm on Facebook that said, Ralph, I listened to your podcast today and it's like you were speaking directly to me. That was a win for me. You know, I could talk about having this many followers and this many downloads and this many episodes, but the win for me this week was just that one person reaching out to me. So today I really want to talk about finding some wins and the things that we kind of take for granted, the things that we do day in and day out as what as we are preparing for this, the team was kind of reaching out to me in San Ralph just do those things.

3:31 And I think today what I really want us to focus in on is those things that we kind of take for granted, but they all add to where we're going with this. So I want to start off with this question and I would appreciate everyone being involved in the discussion today. You know, just let us know if you want to chime in. But what's 1 win you almost missed this week because it didn't look like a win. That's that's really what I want to start this conversation. What's that one win you almost missed this week because it didn't quite look like a win? Does anybody have anything they want to share? Any wins that they saw this week that didn't feel like a win, but it really was a win when they look back at it. Well, pinning it down to this week is always a very, very difficult thing for me to do.

4:15 I'm going to step back from this week and just take a look at my career in podcasting, like all together. And some of the things that I have taken for granted is I got to say, it sounds it's, it sounds a little self indulgent, but I got to say it's my tenacity because I kind of jumped out of the gate and got clients pretty quickly. I have a big thirst for education. I'm always taking courses, this kind of thing. And it's been asked of me, you know, why, Why are you bogging yourself down with so many courses?

4:58 I am in the second stage of my life and I don't have the luxury of being in my 20s and my 30s and learning at that rate where it'll come as it comes kind of thing. So I was in a hurry to to be a contributor in my household with the money and stuff like that. So I was so hungry just to get to where I could contribute financially in my household and not have the whole thing on my husband. I think it was my tenacity. And of course I got to give my husband some kudos because he he stepped by me too, so maybe I took that for granted a little as well.

5:43 Sid, let's hear from you. So I love this. Conversation on this topic and great question, Ralph, because winds are everywhere. We just have to look for them. We have to pay attention because every day that you're doing something, you can check it off as a wind, right? And the one that popped up when you asked that question was I am not a creative. And the bane of my existence is creating landing pages on my website. And I was able to create a couple of different landing pages. They actually look good. I'm proud of how they look. And I'm taking that as a win A because I was able to sit down and do it. BI did tap into a little bit of creativity.

6:25 I don't have a plan when I go create a landing page. I just like open it up and it says you need a picture and it tells me what size and then I go create the picture. So I'm not organized with any of this, but just the fact that they're done and I had to get them done because the trailer drops on Monday and the pages had to be done, the community page had to be done, the podcast page had to be, and I needed to create them. So I pushed myself to do it and it felt like heavy lifting. At the end of the day, I was really proud of it. So I'm taking that as a win. That's great, Sid, and I think that's exactly what I'm talking about today is what are the little nuanced things that so many of us take for granted. Actually, I saw I'm going to, I'm going to let Alex talk and then I'll go to Ashley.

7:05 But Sid, that is exactly what I'm talking about today. And it's the little things that as we're going along through the process, we don't see them as wins, but those things just compile on top of each other one after one. And then you have that product at the end day. So thank you, Sid. Go ahead. Alex, I saw you want to make a comment. Appsumo called and said the win for Dr. was she only bought 4000. I was in products this week as opposed. To yes, I am keeping up sumo in business. I'm keeping up sumo in business. Ashley, you want to make a comment? The win that comes to mind this week is I went to the doctor, and the reason why it didn't feel like a win at the time is because who likes going to the doctor, getting shots, you know, having all these tests done. But the truth of the matter is I can't create unless I'm in good shape, and going to the doctor out of necessity helps you get in good shape.

7:58 So that's the win I didn't initially recognize. That's exactly what I'm talking about, is those little things that give you the ability to do other things. You know, and I want to go a little bit deeper into this because I want to sort of expose the things that we tend to ignore the most, things like the process. You know, you showed up, you recorded a show. I mean, that's a win. You know your craft, you got better at what you're doing. I look back at my 1000 episodes and I go back and listen to the some of the first ones. I'm like, I can't believe anybody actually listened to that. It was horrible. Have you increased, Have you improved your craft? Like I talked about connection, that's a big one too. Have you helped one person? Have you found that one person that was needing your service or needing to hear from you?

8:39 You know that is a win. And maybe for so many people, maybe you're listening right now and you haven't even clicked the start button to record your first episode, but you had to curve to put that out there and do something. You wrote the first idea of what you're going to do. And maybe you recorded that first episode and you had the courage this week to just release that first episode. Those are all the things that we sort of get stuck in this bubble of this is what we do every day. And it was interesting as we prepare for today's show. That was kind of some of the feedback I was getting from the team. It's like Ralph, I, I kind of take these things for granted, but if you're a new podcast or you're just getting started, because I can remember back when I was first getting started, it was courage that it took me to put that out there. It was that, you know, trying to find that one person I can make that connection with and really working on the craft.

9:24 And, and, and there was no big, you know, no big award at the end of the week of that, but just posting one thing, you know, what is the procedure? Does anybody want to share anything that they've that they sort of overlooked? And what? What is it that you ignore the most? You threw me off there with what do I ignore them? So that's really great question because we need to look, we need to look deep. And I think so. This is yesterday I recorded a podcast. It's a new series inside of my show because I'm going to every week publishing and I'm doing this new series. I've talked about this award. It's called Hot Takes. And thanks to Mark, I got the picker wheel and I loaded the picker wheel up with topics. I recorded my first Lot Takes episode yesterday and I was not really sure how it was going to go.

10:09 I don't know that the clicker wheel sounds going to come through on the audio or not. He couldn't hear it but I could hear it. There's a lot of questions of what ifs but during that, just before we started recording, he had a light on that was like glaring off of his whiteboard and he said hang on let me go. We talked for a minute and he's let me go turn that light off. So he turned the light off and written on his whiteboard was a message that says Sid is awesome. And then we got ready to record and he held up his coffee mug and he was holding a trend report coffee mug that I sent him for being a guest on my podcast. And I say all that to say, the win for me in that conversation was the impact I have made on this guy through the time that I have been building a relationship with him and getting to know him and we've become friends. That's the win.

11:01 Not that he recorded and helped me record this first new segment. It's the win that I have had a positive impact on him. And I would have missed that, Ralph, if you just had not asked that question. Well, that's exactly where I'm going, Sid, and podcast mobile. I'm going to get you in just a second. But Sid, I think that's the thing that all of us take for granted. We don't think about those little things that you talked a lot about this on yesterday's show about building the relationships with your listeners. And I think that is where the gold is because that's the stuff that's going to keep you going. When you have that day, you're like, why am I doing this? This is so hard. This is like you said. It's funny, Sid, you mentioned not being a creative type. I'm right there with you, dude. I'm an accountant by trade, so creativity does not come easy to me.

11:42 It's like an uphill little battle, but thank you so much for sharing, it said. Let's go to the podcast mogul. 1st, I want to congratulate you on hitting over 1000 episodes on your podcast. Well done. That's an insane accomplishment and a big win. Of course, I actually have a problem seeing anything I do when it comes to my podcast as a win because it's what you're supposed to do for your podcast. And I'm wondering what is it that I can do to help me see those? Those things like landing a big guest or as Sid said, having someone puts it is awesome in the background or Phil is awesome with the podcast mogul is awesome.

12:23 How can I look at those as wins to help me because I just see them as part of the job of podcasting. And thank you for your comments, by the way, and I totally understand where you're coming from. One of the things that actually put in the chat was recognition documentation. I think that is huge. So the thing I would say, and I do this personally, anytime I get any kind of feedback that's positive, I put that, I pick a picture of it or I print it out, put it in front of me. Because there's days I'm sitting in my studio, sitting in front of this desk and I'm just like, why am I doing this? And when you can go back and look at those things because those are the things that happened throughout the day, that happened throughout the week, that happened throughout the months. And I didn't mean to narrow this down to just one win that you took for granted this week.

13:05 I apologize if that's what everyone was thinking, but you know, those are the things we take for granted. So I think that the way that you can lean into that, because you're right, I mean, the things you're doing is the things you're supposed to do. I get it. But think about this, I'll throw a couple other things. Outage, for example, for example, a lot of people are perfectionist. I'm a perfectionist, but maybe you hit publish even though it wasn't perfect this week. That's a win. Maybe you put things in the I've got to this has got to be exact, but you're like, you know what? This is going to work. That's a win. You know, you showed up consistently for a week or a month or whatever that looks like for me. I showed up consistently for 1000 episodes. That was hard work that took a day in and day out effort. Is anybody listening to this? Maybe you filmed on a hard day and you didn't ghost your audience because you kept involved in you. Maybe for you, you wrote a better hook than the last one. See, that's the thing.

13:56 Those incremental craft improvements, just one thing after another. Those are all wins. Maybe you tighten the 1st 10 seconds of your show and you held the attention longer. You improved your audio, though. You talk about that when we're doing our Thursday evaluation episodes. Maybe you improved your audio a little bit. Maybe if you're doing video, you looked at your lighting, you looked at your cameras, you made some sort of little change. Maybe you started making a better thumbnail or a title that's more clickable. Does anybody else have anything that they've, you know, worked on? And they say, you know, I, I now Ralph, I see this as when I would be open to your ideas of what you saw as wins and, and how did you use that to change what you're doing on an everyday basis? Ralph, I'm going to jump in real quick before anybody answers that question. Ty has been on the stage with us for a few minutes, so maybe we can go to her and see if she'd like to add it to the conversation.

14:44 Absolutely. Let's go to Ty. Thank you I appreciate you guys the shares and this is really enlightening. So for me, my wins are that I didn't realize that podcasting was something that I could be good at. And I've been posting on social media for a long time, but nothing really stuck. And creating content for Facebook and Instagram and all these different platforms, it always felt short lived. And I would post and then, you know, the the post disappears in the Infinity feed and it never really gained any traction. But now that I'm podcasting, I feel like I'm creating. I'm not just creating a post for social media that's going to be there for five seconds, you know, in someone's attention, but now I'm creating a library of resources for people to come back to and refer to and use and listen to and all of that.

15:31 And so it really feels like it has some direction to it and I've been able to grow pretty, you know, significantly for me. And I thought that was the coolest thing. And then the other when which I didn't expect was, and I like to think part of it came from the podcast is that I got a new client last night and the client was from Dubai. And so, and that was crazy because I was like, God, Dubai and they paid in full. They paid right away, no questions asked. And I like to think that my podcast had a little bit to do with that because you know, when you look at your, I have Buzz Sprout and when you look at Buzz Sprout and you see where your podcast is being downloaded, the majority, the bulk of my downloads are from the US, of course, but a lot of them are from other countries.

16:12 So I was like, you know, that that may have had something to do with that. I'll have to ask her, you know, I'll have to ask her later. And then the other one was more psychological. So I was in a clubhouse room like this just the other day, and I said something to the effect of I'm no Mel Robbins, I'm no Joe Rogan. And I said something like that. And there was a person in the room that said stop saying that. Stop saying that. Stop saying you're no Mel Robbins and you're no Joe Joe Rogan. Stop saying that because you are. And I was like, you're right, I need to stop saying those things because it's putting me in a negative headspace and it's not helpful. So I've changed that and it's been really great. So yeah, thanks for allowing me to share. No, and I appreciate you sharing and I apologize. I hadn't seen you if you put up a emoji to talk, I apologize.

16:55 I'm, I'm new at this, so bear with me a little bit. But I want to lean into something you said because I think you nailed something and that is that self talk that we all talk ourselves into things. And I love that you were able to overcome that. And I think that's part of what I'm talking about today is we have this self talk. Do you want to elaborate a little bit on what Yourself talk was telling you and how you've worked to overcome that? Absolutely. So I've realized that self talk is sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious. If I have a, a clearly negative thought or a negative way of phrasing something, I know most of the time I'm conscious of that and I will cancel that out. I'll say, Nope, not doing that. And I will change it out for something else.

17:36 And I'm conscious of it. I'm aware of it and I change it and I change it immediately. I don't say, oh, I'm just going to, I'm going to work on this or I'm trying to heal and all that stuff. I don't, I don't do that. I change it immediately as soon as I'm conscious of it. However, there were, there are some things that I'm not, we're not, you know, I'm well, I'll speak for myself. I'm not conscious of like when I said I'm no Joe Rogan and no Mel Robbins, I wasn't thinking of that as being negative. I was thinking of that as being humble. I was thinking of that as being appealing. But truthfully, it's really neither of those things. It's kind of a false humility. And it wasn't until the guy said, hey, stop saying that, that's not helping you, that I became consciously aware of how my words and myself talked were actually impacting how I showed up for my podcast and for other things. And so once he made me aware of that and I became conscious of it, I immediately changed it and said, Nope, never again. We'll never say that again.

18:27 And it's funny because there's been a couple of instances where that wording or that type of phrasing has like tried to come out of my mouth. I felt myself leaning in that direction. And I was like, oh snap, I really am doing this. This is a habit. This is not just something that I said, it's real. It's a habit that I had, I've developed over the years. And now I'm, I'm ending it. I'm ending it now. And I ended it that day. Sounds like we lost her, but let's go to Sid. Tied that was a really powerful stare there and maybe think about some of you may have seen this. Have you seen the Gary Vee video where he's in the street, it's dark, and this girl comes up to him and says something like, one day I'm going to be somebody.

19:13 And he stops her, and he puts his arms on her shoulder. His. Yeah, He puts his arm or his hands on her shoulder. And he looks at her. He says, stop, stop. You are somebody. And she starts crying. It was such a powerful message. And that's exactly the message you just gave us, Todd, because we can all get in our own way. We let those noises in our head talk to us and say things to us that are not true and leaning into, you know, realizing it and stopping it. I know when it happens to me and I'm overthinking things or these negative thoughts, I actually shake my head like I'm shaking the thought out of my head. Like, get that thought away. That's not real, That's not right.

19:55 And I shake my head and, and it's a, it's an act that for me symbolizes I'm getting rid of that thought and I'm tossing it aside. So thank you so much for sharing today. Tied again, I want to kudo what Sid just said. That is true. Thank you for sharing it and tied, I had a follow up if you're available still. And that is how what have you done to recognize those things? What are the things that you've built into your own psyche or your workflow to find those things that you can work to overcome them? Because I think we can all live. We can all learn from that because it's real easy to get stuck in our own heads. We live in our own heads. That's a silly thing to say, but it's true, right? We live in our own minds. I say this all the time that people we're our own worst critics, but tied what are what are some things that you found ways to identify those things and what are some things that you're doing to overcome those things?

20:40 I appreciate that question. So for me, it I didn't realize what an impact that habits were having on my life. And when I became aware of that, I was listening to someone speak and they're very powerful. Speaker They're very knowledgeable about many things. And then they, they brought up the fact that you could do, you could go to an energetic healer, you could go to a psychic, you could pray, you could do all kinds of stuff, right? You could change your outfit. You could do anything and everything and be trying and working your tail off every day, 24 hours a day and never stop. And the one thing that will hold you back from being what you want to be or being what you, you know, already should recognize, as you guys pointed out, that you already are, is your habits. Your habits will stop you.

21:32 And I was like, oh, that makes that makes a lot of sense because in other rooms we talk about self sabotage. You know, we've talked about all kinds of things. And I didn't realize that there were these habits that I had personally developed that seemed innocuous and they were impacting my level of success that I could achieve because I've worked so hard to do things. I've worked so hard. I mean, just blood, sweat and tear. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh, there's something holding me back here. And it's my habits. I didn't know that. And so I've stopped. Anytime I have a bad habit, I see something, it's a thought. It's a thing that I say, a thing that I do. It could be procrastination.

22:13 So maybe, maybe I don't want to clean my apartment or whatever. I'll say I don't do the head shake. I say cancel, cancel out loud. So as soon as the thought comes into my head and I know that the habit is not serving me, I will say cancel, cancel. And I will change it immediately because it really does help me to, to get on the right path. And what I've realized is that it's not about for me, it's not about trying to be disciplined. It's not that it's about cultivating the habits. And when you cultivate the habits, then the discipline becomes automatic. But before I was trying to do it reversed. I was trying to put the the the cart before the horse.

22:54 I was trying to be disciplined without changing the habits and that wasn't worth. No. And I think that's critical. In fact, what I was going to say today is one of the things that I would recommend everybody do is put this sentence into your daily workflow. Today I move forward by, today I moved forward by and find that thing today that you did and how you're moving forward. So Ty, thank you so much for sharing that. I think where you're going with this, and I actually didn't expect to go down this, I want to say a rabbit hole, but this is critically important today is that we have to be able to find those things. That self sabotage, I think is a great word to use because I think we all do that. We have that imposter syndrome and we think, I'll, I'll speak for me. Like when I remember when I first launched my original show, I remember, forget, I went on to look at my downloads and I had like 5 and I'm like, this is crazy. Why am I doing this?

23:43 There's only 5. And then a year later, guess what, there was 40. I'm still going. That's not much. But that self talk was telling me to stop. That self talk was telling me nobody's listening to you. And I had to battle that. And I had to say today I move forward by I improved my audio today. I move forward because I've reached out to somebody, I did a survey, somebody got back to me with information, somebody shared something that was impacting them. So I think you're absolutely right that we do self sabotage ourselves so much. And like I said earlier, we are our own worst critic. And one of the things that I'm going to say, I'm going to take this in a little bit direction. And if we think about wins, what's a win you can share in a way that helps someone else see.

24:24 I think that's the other side of this and tide you're you nailed that. You didn't even know my question was coming next. But what you've just talked about is a win for me because now I'm going back and thinking, wow, do I self sabotage myself? Do I have I think they called the self fulfilling prophecy. Like I I say things, I do things out of habit because I haven't changed the mindset. And I think that where you're going with that is the mindset has to change to tide you mind mention that? Do you think that where you're going is that the mindset has to change? Most definitely. And a lot of that just comes from just being aware. So for me and my journey, I started with, I've always been incredibly motivated, but I started just by listening to audios on YouTube. This was years ago, like in 2020. It feels, it feels weird to say that it was years ago, but back in 2020, I would listen to motivational audios by Les Brown and different people and stuff and it would just, it would put gas in my tank.

25:17 I felt like I could go somewhere because I was motivated to do it. But then I started to realize that I needed, I needed more than just motivation because as they say, if you're motivated, but you have no knowledge, then you're just a, a motivated idiot. But if you are smart, but you have no motivation, then you're basically a dead duck. You're dead in the water. And so I wanted both. And so I started with the motivation. But now I'm all about I'm, I'm all about just filling up my gas tank because I see people every day and they have so much talent. They shouldn't give up on their dreams, but I see them do it all the time. They quit. They have all these these reasons for doing it. I just talked to a student the other other day because I'm in the education space and we're both from a small town.

25:58 And she came up to me and said, you know, I want to be an FBI agent. But I feel like, why should I do that? Like I'm just from little, you know, this, this little Old Town. And I don't think that I have any actual ability or reason for why I should do this because, you know, who am I that that was what the student was telling me. And so we had a, a pretty extensive conversation about that so that, so that she could change her mindset. But I went through the same thing. I went to the exact same process. Who am I to be doing this? Why should I even have a voice? Doesn't I don't think that way anymore. And I really had to change that. And I learned by reading books. There's a great book called What to Say When You Talk to Yourself. I read that book and loved every word of it was extremely powerful and it just filled up. It filled up my tank because like I was saying about people and about myself, I was like a car and I wasn't going to run anybody over.

26:47 I'm not the type of person that's going to step on somebody to get to where I want to be. That's not who I am. But at the same time, I also didn't have any get up and go. You know, if you're a car, you're not going to run over anybody. That's great. But if you don't have any gas in the car, you're not going to be able to go in any direction that you want to go in because you can't do either. You can't run somebody over and you can't go where you want to go. So every day I'm really focused on just putting gas in the tank so that I can go. And that all starts with the most important organ in the body, the brain. No. And I think that's mission critical. And you said something there that I want to sort of go a little deeper into. And it's a power that all of us have that we might not realize. When that person said to you the other day, stop saying that you're not you yourself, you know that self talk is not working for you. Think about it right now.

27:36 How many people do you interact with in your life every day that you could go out there and reach take 10 seconds, take 30 seconds, take a minute and reach out to them and give them a positive affirmation. Give them a, hey, that's a great job you did today. We take that for granted. You know, it's interesting as I'm, I'm working on my LinkedIn profile, trying to, to build that and reach more people. And I always had this perception that these people who are super famous and they, they got great numbers and everybody looks at them. I found out something this week. I reached out to some, but I won't mention their name, but I reached out to them and I just said, listen, I just want you to know that I really appreciate what you do now. I did not expect that I was going to get a kickback from them or any kind of response is a high profile person.

28:17 And I just went on the LinkedIn. I messaged them directly. They connected with me and I just said, you know, I really appreciate what you're doing and it was amazing. I got a a message back and they said Ralph and they called me by name, which was amazing to me. And they said, thank you so much for sharing that with me. Now it could have very well been an automated bot, but I thought for a second each of us has within us the ability, I'll call it to make someone's day. That's the kind of thing because to Ty tutoring and I apologize, I don't know your name, but that's the thing I think which I'm I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I was saying that my name is Nikki. Nikki Oh, thank you. Nikki I I don't like calling people by their name like that. But Nikki, what I was saying is that we all have the ability to impact someone. And what changed Nikki's perspective was a comment that somebody made.

29:02 So if you do nothing else, maybe your win for this week is to help somebody else find a win. Maybe your win for this week is to show them, hey, you do make an impact to me because maybe they're like me and they were looking at that, that 20 download number and going, wow, does anybody hear this? So take a minute every day and go out there and find somebody you can reach out to that that maybe they're they don't feel like they're getting anywhere. They don't have that win that they can come in on Fridays to the podcast morning chat and say, you know, I did this and I did that. Because sometimes I'll give you a great example, like yesterday at Pod Fest was the like, I call it the Academy Awards, but the Hall of Fame. The truth is most of us will never be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

29:45 But can we impact one person? Like when that person wrote to me this week and said, Ralph, it was like you were talking to me. I'm going to tell you right now, you couldn't pay me. You couldn't give me an award. You couldn't do anything other than send me that message. And that makes me want to do content forever. I apologize. It's tonight is the Hall of Fame, so I apologize. It's going to be tonight. But the whole point of that is that kind of stuff is worth more than awards. It's worth more than affiliate income, it's worth more than sponsorships. And I think that, and the cool thing about that is each of us has the ability to do that. And these folks that you think are sitting up and they're and they're on top of the world, they got to hear that stuff too.

30:26 So take the opportunity and go and do that. All right, well, let's get on to what I have as my final question for today, and then we'll get into sharing some wins from this week. So here's what I'm saying, what's 1 win that you should repeat on purpose this week? Something that we've talked about or something like, oh, that's a really good point. I hadn't thought about that. And what's one thing you should cut because it drains you? I think all of us as we're looking back at our week, and I'm going to go to you in just a second, Ashley, as we're looking back at our week, what's one thing you Oh, that really worked. That worked for me. I'm going to tell you right now what I'm going to do is what I heard Nikki today talking about that self talk. Every time I have one of those feelings, I'm going to do a Sid and I'm going to shake my head or I'm going to say no.

31:09 Nikki said I don't have to think that way And in fact, Nikki said don't think that way. So what are those things and what are the things that we should stop doing because they're draining us? Go ahead, Ashley. I would say that would be continuing my done. Did it list at the end of every day, I do a daily review. I think about all the things I accomplished in the day and I write them out. And that helps me recognize those steps in the process that lead to the big picture things. And the thing that I need to let go of is the rumination. Because sometimes when you're writing down those steps of your wins, you just can't help but think about the negative along the way too. And sometimes you think about those things a little too long. And that's where I have a problem. So I need to tell myself, OK, you get to think about this for so long and then it's gone.

32:00 Now, actually, I think that's great. I like that. Who did you call it the done done it list? I think we all can learn from that because having a done done it list, because I don't know about you, but I get through a hectic day, a busy day and I say, you know, what did I actually accomplish today? And I think there is gold in that Ashley is make that done. I love that here. My my family is from the South and I'm just picturing my grand, my grandfather saying I done done that. And I'm just thinking like we can learn from that. And I think that's one of the takeaways from today for me, as well as don't let your your mind self talk. You don't let those habits form based on your own self talk. Listen, we should trumpet this, Ashley. It's the done, done it list that's going on. Ralph's workflow today too, is what, what is my done, done it list?

32:43 What are the things that I accomplished it? Because when we get to the end of the day, we're tired or spent, we can go back and say, you know, I did this. I, I posted this content today. I improve my audio a little bit. I improve my scripting a little bit. Those are the things that are going to make you want to continue on because we are living in an industry that it's very easy to get burned out. I look at the statistics and I look at, you know, the average person and don't quote me to this, you know, only does 7 episodes. They only do this, they only do that. And it's so easy to get stuck. And I think a lot of it goes back to what Nikki was saying today is we get into this feeling of self talk. We get into this because it affects your habits, it affects what you do. And I think if we can overcome those things, that's really what I wanted to talk about today. I think we absolutely nailed it today is we were able to do those things.

33:31 We were going to get past that negative self talk and that's really when we, when we look at the big picture of things. That's what we need to do if we're going to move forward. And moving forward, success wins. You decide what a win is for yourself. No one else tells you what a win is because there are people that that a win for them is turning on the microphone. A win for them is even thinking about doing what we're talking about. We talked a lot about yesterday about getting feedback. It takes a ton of, you know, self indulgence, whatever you want. You got to have thick skin is the way we talked about it yesterday is that is no joke. And you've got to have that to do it. So that could be a win.

34:11 And that's the things that a lot of us take for granted because this is what we do every day. We would, we can consider ourselves quote professionals, but those are the things that are really difficult. Well, does anybody want to comment on that? And then we'll move into our do our wins for this week. So twice a month in our new business, the Collaborative, I host executive leaders in a peer group format and I moderate the conversation and I add in where I can add in. And each one of those calls is 3 hours long. And after the call is over, I am absolutely just drained, like mentally, emotionally, physically, because it's three hours of staying up and staying high and keeping the conversation going.

34:52 And so yesterday after the call ended, I was really proud of the call and everything that got discussed. And they got lots of follow up stuff to do. And typically immediately I would like start the follow up, I would edit the video so I can post it into the community feed. And I have to cut it down because it's too big and all that kind of stuff, right? And I was just exhausted. And I said, you know what, after each of these calls, I'm just going to block my calendar off and I'm just going to just go do whatever I want to do for three hours. I stayed focused, I stayed up, I keep kept the conversation going. I made sure that they were feeling their value. And so from 4:00 to 5:00, I'm just going to do me. So yesterday, Mark, this is for you. Yesterday, I got a Nintendo 2 for Christmas. Yesterday I played Super Mario for an hour just to like let it go and be done with it and to just so that's my, that's the thing.

35:44 I'm going to do the wind that there is. I'm going to block off that hour and absolutely do nothing. I'm going to take Sid time after performing for three hours in a row. Sid, I think that is awesome, dude. We're going to all take Sid time now. I think that's a great idea because for some of us that are Type A personalities, it's hard to turn it off and said I just want to commend you for that and best put something in the comments that I want to read and I think this is awesome. He says go through your pictures in 2025 and count the highs cut out. Don't say 2025 was bad. I think that is absolutely true. He says count yourself in that amazing pocket of people at Pod Fest for Mark. That is absolutely true as well, but go through and look at the things that you've done.

36:28 Pictures are a great way to do this. You know, think about the, the times where things went well. I, I think that's, that's huge. Well, let's focus now on. I would love everybody to share a win from their week or some win a day or maybe it's a challenge you overcome. Does anybody want to jump in with a win for the week? I'll start and then Ashley can go. My win for the week is. I mentioned it yesterday, but it's a huge win, a huge weight off my shoulders. I have hired a podcast marketing coordinator. She starts on Monday. I could not be more excited about having her join me. She actually was a marketing coordinator for another podcast in our industry. So she knows podcasting, she knows the furniture industry. She's young, she brings a lot of energy.

37:09 She's going to have ideas and I am super excited about her joining me to help make sure that we make Season 7 of The Trend Report the best season ever. That's awesome, said. So my wins for this week is we were talking about refilling the tank. Music refills my tank every bit as podcasting does, and sometimes I get to do them at the same time. But my win for this week is that I have two gigs. I'm playing tonight with my band at the Little Village. It's on lake where here in Panama City. And then tomorrow night I'm playing solo at this really cute little coffee house. So getting to play music this weekend, those are my wins. Awesome, I will go.

37:50 Before I go though I want to share Mark's win which was in the chat. Mark says my win is I got through my talk at Pod Fest. It was packed house and the feedback I received blew me away. Someone said I spoke to their soul. I spoke their soul language. Another said it was the best talk that they had heard all day. Now that is a huge win for our Mark because you know, he's been suffering with insomnia and ADHD and we are so proud of him, that's for sure. So I just shared Mark's win and my win is actually something that Sid said yesterday.

38:31 Sid had mentioned the course that Courtney Elmer had put out and I went in true Dr. style. I went and bought the course and I started the course. So that's my win. That's all. You like it so far, Dr. Have you liked? It so far I do yeah, I do like it. And plus she has these PDFs and she has a, you know, you can speak my love language when you give me a spreadsheet. So she has that spreadsheet too. I really do like it. Oh, that's great. I'm glad that I could have been the one to encourage you to spend money yesterday. Yes, on a course, no doubt. Let me go figure. Nothing wrong with nothing wrong with spending money, but I'll put my accountant hat on.

39:15 Make sure you keep those receipts. Let's go to BC. BC had something he wanted to share. Yeah, So I do have a a win this weekend. It's not just mine. It's also a win for a client. I do some consulting on the side and I got a person I signed about a month ago who is just now looking to enter into the into the podcasting space. And we got her branding together. I got the team that I'm working with who's going to get ready here to launch her show pretty soon. But for her, she's been very, very nervous to get behind the mic. We could do almost everything for you, but you have to be the one to get behind the mic and you know, give your story. This is your show. And she emailed me yesterday saying that she's officially recorded 4 episodes, but she's still very uncomfortable.

39:57 And I'm like, well, if you're uncomfortable enough to 4 episodes, you're doing pretty well. So I'm going to take that as a win. And, and me ushering her to be the person who takes on that mic role she's on on the other side of the country so. Proud of her, looking forward to getting her show off the floor here soon and looking to see what happens. Thank you BC and I want to share something that Bez put in the comments that I listen to that series on SEO podcast. I learned so much and said thank you for bringing that out yesterday because that's why we do this. I'm going to share a win here in a moment, but I want to give everybody else an opportunity. If anybody else wants to share a win and then I'm going to close it out with one more win that I feel like I wanted to share today. But does anybody else have anything they want to share before we start to close it out today?

40:40 Go ahead, Tim. Thanks, Ralph. You've been doing a great job all this week. First and foremost, that's a win for all of us this week. My win, I actually have two and they're both work related kind of outside of podcasting. I run the financial Wellness program here at my agency and we just launched FDIC Money Smart program and I got 1600 registrations for the month of February and March to get going. And then we also have a veteran support program here at my agency and I helped launch their internal podcast and we had 1100 views downloads internally just this week for that. So those are my wins and thank you so much. OK, so here's what I wanted to say, and I just want to thank Mark.

41:32 I want to thank the group here because my big win this week was being able to be the facilitator, the person that put all, you know, LED this discussion. Because honestly, back in September when I went to my first podcasting conference and I just got done exercise and I sat in the sort of the breakfast area and I saw this guy and I, I think, I think that's Mark Ronik. And I just said, you know what, I'm going to walk over and I'm just going to say hello to this guy. I never expected that would turn into me sitting here in this seat today, having made friends with people who are amazing in the industry and been given the opportunity to to be involved in this and the ability to do this today.

42:13 That that is my win. That win is huge. Like I said, these are the things that matter in life. This is the this is the stuff. So this win today is just amazing to me. I want to thank everybody who's supported me this past two days. I appreciate everybody who's contributed today, Nikki and the podcast mogul and BC and Sid and Dr. and Ashley and Tim. I just want to say this has been an absolute great time for me these past two days. And I want to thank Mark for giving me the opportunity, but let's all work on this week. I'm going to I'm going to cast this in as we end as a, let's work on building up that breaking down those negative self talks. Let's do our done, done it list and let's really focus on helping other people find those wins as well.

42:56 So I just want to thank everybody today for joining us. We are not going to be here on Monday, but we'll be back on Tuesday. So thank you so much. Have a great day and have a great weekend. And again, thank you for tuning in today. I truly appreciate it.