Reflecting on Some Inspiring Episodes

Val [: 00:00:00

Hello. Hello. I'm so glad you are here today. It is episode 100. Wow. And I'm not coming into this one saying, oh, I thought I would never get this far. I did. That was the plan from the beginning.

Val [: 00:00:22

That's why I set myself up with my podcast manager. My amazing podcast manager was because I am in this for the long haul, and and I knew that I was gonna need help to push me, just push me to keep me on track. So bless the team for keeping me on track so that I am here at episode 100. It's a milestone, right, which is kind of weird because wouldn't 104 be the milestone since that's 2 years? Maybe. I don't know. Let's let's overthink things. It's always a good idea. Let's just overthink things instead of celebrate.

Val [: 00:01:03

No. Celebration. It is episode 100, and let's see where the hell this is gonna go. I'm recording this right before I'm taken off for my trip to Mexico with my husband to celebrate our 30th anniversary. Super excited. It's our first trip to Mexico. And as you can see here, if this is not your first time here at Valvol Volume, we are going through a rebrand. I I am back to my favorite pink, bringing it back.

Val [: 00:01:42

Love my fuchsia pink, my hot pink. I don't know. Might be the eighties girl in me. And I was laughing, with my husband as well, I was laughing, telling my husband because I had needed swimsuits because, I mean, I live in the Seattle area. Seriously, how often do I wear a swimsuit? We don't go hang out at the beach or anything. So I needed swimsuits, and then, of course, I had to buy other clothes as well. And I was I was laughing as I'm telling him. I'm like, so there might be some photoshoots that need to happen because I might have bought most of my clothes because they're my new branding colors.

Val [: 00:02:19

So when we're in Mexico, I'll probably have to be that girl and have you take some new pictures. It's like, what? Like, yeah. That's happening. Like, totally happening. I use some suits and, some other stuff. But like I said, it's kind of on brand with my new brand. So, anyways, that's not why we're here. We're not here.

Val [: 00:02:44

Well, we are. I mean, could could it come at a better time? I mean, right now, as you're listening to this, if you are listening to it on day 1, this is actually launching on my 30th anniversary. So how cool is that timing? My 30th anniversary. That's the one that I wanna go, wow. 30 years? How can that happen? It was, like, 10 years ago. You know? Like, so much has happened in those 30 years, but okay. Anyways, I wanted to go over I pulled out some things from past episodes, and I wanted to just reflect back a little bit because obviously a 100 episodes, I'm not gonna reflect back on a lot of stuff. And if you were one of my guests, please don't get offended if I don't mention our episode.

Val [: 00:03:43

I've had a lot of guests, and I'm not gonna go through everybody on here. And I've loved every one of you that have been my guests. If you wanna be a guest, by the way, I'm booking. I absolutely have a blast listening and recording with people and getting their expertise and how much I learn from others when I bring guests on. So I love doing that. I love doing that. So if you wanna share your expertise, come on. Come on.

Val [: 00:04:13

I'll get on my schedule. Tell me about it. Let's have a conversation. Let's jump into some of the people. I'm gonna start off with some of the people that I have met, thanks to the podcast. So this first one, I am going to let you know. I didn't mark what episode it is, But, actually, if you go get my freebie, if you go get my opt in, you'll get the links for for the the 3 part collaboration series that I did. But this first person came because I recorded with her because I did my first and foremost favorite thing to do for collaboration.

Val [: 00:04:54

I replied to an email. There was an email. I was back and forth on, the membership because I was in the membership, and I saw at the bottom I was talking to her team. And at the bottom, I saw they were looking to book her for a podcast. And so I'm like, yeah. Why the hell not? I figured it would be a no because I figured she's busy because I know she's busy. I know she's a busy lady. I follow her, and I'm in her membership, her email marketing membership, as a matter of fact.

Val [: 00:05:22

So you might know that I'm talking about Liz Wilcox. So I had her on because I did my own rule of replying to emails, and and they were a hell yes. And I got on, and I had the best time getting to know her, and I will have her on again. I'm gonna record with her sometime this summer. We're not gonna record now because she's under contract to not have interviews. If you don't know Liz, right this very minute, she's on, you could you can watch survivor, and she's on survivor. So as as soon as that opens up this summer, she and I are gonna have a conversation. And, yes, of course, I want to hear about survivor, but a big thing that I want to hear when we recap, when we catch up, is I wanna hear how she set up her business to be gone for weeks weeks weeks like she did.

Val [: 00:06:14

That's the magic I wanna pull from her, and I'm excited to hear about everything. So Liz Wilcox, the fresh princess of email marketing. That was one of my own collaboration rules that I did. Yay. Me. So that was that was one of the new people that brought got brought into my life, which is hilarious because she's friends with I mean, we are 2 degrees of separation with our friends list. Like, it's crazy that we had not even talked before, recording. So my number 2 for new people that were brought in because of the podcast is Beatrice.

Val [: 00:06:55

And this one, like, this one has some backstory. This recording happened on a a reschedule, and I will fully admit it happened on a reschedule because of my anxiety. This was before I started getting medicated, and my anxiety was so high that I couldn't record. Oh, I hate I hate thinking back to that. There's still days that I I battle with that, but it's the worst because I knew then I'm just was beating myself up because I did it. So lovingly, she rescheduled, and I am so thankful that she rescheduled. We had, of course, we had an awesome conversation. It went into her trip for self discovery that she was gonna go into.

Val [: 00:07:46

And most importantly, so her episode is 86 and growing your authority for impact. Most importantly is we ended up connecting with how much was going on. I did kinda put off the, like, uncovering session that she wanted to do with me. I knew I really wanted to do it, and I think that that's why I kept putting it off. I kept going, can't this month. I can't this month. And I know now I can look back and go, it's because I knew I was going to work with her. And I had to be in that position where I could comfortably work with her, and my schedule would be open, and my brain would be open so that I could.

Val [: 00:08:28

So the podcast brought to me my new strategy coach, and I am looking forward, like, crazy looking forward to getting hyper focused, super focused in my memberships and and getting everything streamlined, and she's gonna help me do that. So, yay, the full volume for bringing Beatty to me. I appreciate that so much. And then, of course, I mean, this is the one. Don't get offended if I'm not mentioning you. I have recorded with longtime friends. Of course. Because that's who you book when you first do podcast.

Val [: 00:09:05

Right? So I've had long time friends on here. And I actually probably should go for through my friends list again and grab some more or reconnect and do an do an update. But I loved having a recording with my friend, Angela Wills. We did creating a business with lifestyle freedom. That is her gig. That is her expertise, is creating her business so that it works around her life, not the other way around. That's huge message for her. So that's a episode 28, and I have known her for well, well over a decade.

Val [: 00:09:42

I was previously in memberships. I met a lot of my friends through her membership. Even some of my coaching clients, I've met through her membership way back in the day. So listen to that one. Listen to that one if you are looking to get more of your lifestyle freedom within your business. And I think we all are striving a little bit more for that. Right? Because it's one of the reasons why we work for ourselves is we want to have the freedom to do what we want. And, also, my friend, Jennifer Burke, we were we talked to emails.

Val [: 00:10:22

She loves to do emails. She loves talking about emails. She's my tech she's my tech go to. She loves techie stuff. If there's a program, a platform, she has most probably tested it out. So I always ask her first what she's thought of it. And our brains work similarly, so it tends to be an easy if if something wasn't really working for her, I know that I'm like, okay. Well, I'm glad I asked because I'm not even gonna bother then because that learning curve is going to be insane.

Val [: 00:10:57

She's also speaking of learning curves, she was my go to gal for when I switched to ActiveCampaign because ActiveCampaign blew my brain. I was I was kind of using ConvertKit and kind of getting it. I'd set everything up the way that one of my clients had it set up, So I don't think I was using it well, ConvertKit that is. But then, I knew you know, a couple of my friends switched to ActiveCampaign, and they just loved it. And I'm like, okay. I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna leave my long time grandfathered huge account at Aweber. It was so cheap and so many subscribers that I had on it, because I'd been on there since the beginning of time, and it it just wasn't doing what I wanted.

Val [: 00:11:49

It wasn't growing with what I thought I needed to do for my email list, and I do not regret letting that go. I couldn't afford more than one program at that time. Like, right now, if I was going to do it, I'd probably keep it. I don't know why. I think I would just keep it because it was so cheap. But that's hoarding. That's hoarding and ridiculous. I was gonna take that statement back because it was ridiculous.

Val [: 00:12:14

But I got into ActiveCampaign, and I even was using the tutorials. I was watching the videos. If you know me, that's not usually my thing. I usually make everything difficult for myself, and I just start click and doing stuff. And I didn't on this one. I'm like, okay. I wanna get set up from the start well. I I want this to be good when I set it up.

Val [: 00:12:43

Let's set up for success. And I was in there, and I was just like, oh, what in the world? What is this, and what's that, and how is that connect? And, oh my gosh. I'd never done tags before. So so it was totally new, totally new to me. And the beautiful thing was I just hit Jennifer up, and I'm like, okay. Give me your borrow your borrow borrow her brain. Borrow your brain. I think she's got I think that's what she calls it, the borrow your brain coaching sessions.

Val [: 00:13:12

And I'm like, give me your link. Here's my credit card. I need you now. Like, not not tomorrow, not next week. I need to book you now. And I'm so glad I did because she set me up for success, and I love ActiveCampaign. I know a lot of people have switched away from it, but I I don't have a reason to go anywhere. I love it.

Val [: 00:13:34

It works. It works. I don't wanna go someplace else and have to learn. I'm just gonna stay where I'm at. So we did a lot of talking about email because that's our thing talking email back and forth. And of course, what's a couple of episodes of mine? I've done so many solo episodes. I I wonder how many. So many solo episodes, and especially because of a lot of the times with my anxiety, I just couldn't get on with somebody I didn't know.

Val [: 00:14:07

I didn't wanna record with anybody. Actually, it wasn't even somebody I didn't know. It was the anxiety was just a no to talking to somebody else during that period as I was learning to go talk to a doctor and get some medication. So there was so many solo episodes. Right? You know? Because I like to talk. It's okay. It's my thing. It's my jam.

Val [: 00:14:30

So just a couple of the episodes that I pulled really quick that are helping with my new theme that you probably are seeing on here on coaching, the decades of biz BS, because I am personally still and always will be working through uncoaching all of that garbage that I have heard over the years. And okay. So let me take that back. It's not necessarily that it's all garbage or a lot of garbage. It's the delivery that you should do this. You need to do this. You have to do this. If you want your business to be a success, this is the way to get there, and there's one way.

Val [: 00:15:09

Right? No. No. No. No. No. No. That's the garbage, I mean. It's the delivery.

Val [: 00:15:16

There's not one single way to do our business. And, unfortunately, if you coach with me, you'll learn that because I'm gonna make you do it your way. I'm gonna guide you through. Absolutely. But your gut feeling, your gut intuition is your brain and body telling you this is the right way to do things. So part of our process with my coaching is we're working on it together of trusting yourself again. And I believe I believe I had a couple episodes. I didn't pull those ones, but I do believe I have a couple episodes like that.

Val [: 00:15:50

But I love my episode 75, which is hilarious because that's my husband's old football number, 75 and fucking fail. And that does have to do with what I was just talking about. Because one of the biggest problems we have with our business is we are so many of us, and I do mean us, me. So many of us hate failing. Hate it. We don't like it. Right? Feeling feels icky. Feeling is failing is just like, it doesn't feel good.

Val [: 00:16:22

Right? Right. We wanna be we wanna be success. I wanna do everything the best every single time, which keeps us small. And so I'm not gonna be the best at it. There's been so many years, so many years where if I'm not gonna be the best at something, I'm just not even going to try. And I realized this. This is why I didn't play basketball. I was killer on defense, but I didn't grow up playing basketball.

Val [: 00:16:55

I grew up playing soccer. I grew up with my ballet lessons, and you have to practice. You're going to fail when you're trying to make baskets. Right? Well, I wasn't good at it immediately, so I just like whatever. I'm not even gonna care. I'm not I think I went to 2 days of tryouts 2 days of tryouts, and I'm like, no. I'm not making baskets. I'm done.

Val [: 00:17:18

So it's it's deep seated, deep rooted that I I don't wanna fail either. And so that's what that episode is about because that episode is about not about the basketball. That episode is about how important it is for us to be failing, because failing means that we are doing. And the only way to become successful is to do. I'm not going all Yoda on you. Is to do. We have to do the things. Also, let's go.

Val [: 00:17:51

I gotta wrap this up. Wrap this up. So we've also got episode 40, uncover the true causes of procrastination. And, it's just, you know, me working through my self sabotage, I can remember the procrastination. You know, I think it's I can remember the procrastination. You know, I think it does have to do with the failure idea. And, anyways, you go listen to it. Right? You can go listen to it.

Val [: 00:18:22

So so many great episodes that are on here. Yes. I do say so myself, and I know my listeners have said so. I know I appreciate it when you have come to me and said, you know, that episode, especially when it's a episode that was, scary for me to put out. I appreciate the hell out of all of you when you respond, and let me know that, you know, something helped you, something touched you, resonated with you, coachy word. I love it. I love it when you respond and engage. I mean, that's what it's all about.

Val [: 00:19:00

Right? Is connection and connecting. So I am excited for the next a 100 episodes where I will be digging in even more to this whole uncoaching concept that I have of let's work on us knowing and trusting that we do know what we're doing. Scary. It's so scary. And, yes, we need help. Of course. I just told you I have a new coach. I need guidance.

Val [: 00:19:38

I need I need assistance. I need, you know, help through and especially through the growth, but I'm learning. And this is why Beate is such a great coach for me. I am learning to trust myself, to trust my instincts, to trust that I do know areas of my expertise, and I'm gonna know them better than somebody else, even sometimes coaches. Right? So trust yourself, trust yourself in here. Cheers to another 100 plus episodes and a lot of great information coming your way and a lot of great new people that I will introduce you to. So thank you for being here. And I am, I am off to pour another coffee and celebrate episode 100 as I get to packing for Mexico.

Val [: 00:20:31

Thank you. I appreciate you so much for being one of my listeners.