Lessons and learnings from a year of podcasting.

Welcome to The Empowered Edupreneur Podcast. My name is Michelle Smit, and I am an ex-teacher turned online business coach for Edupreneurs, the owner of Digiteach and a six-figure entrepreneur. I am in love with empowering educators, just like you to create freedom filled online businesses and lives they love.

If you are looking to uplevel your skills, your finances, your mindset, and change the trajectory of your life as an educator. Then you are in the right place. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of business and mindset development to help unlock the infinite potential within you to play bigger with your life and go after your dreams.

We are going to have so much fun together. So thank you so much for pushing play today. Now let's dive in.

Hello. Hello. I hope you are having a fabulous day, a beautiful, beautiful day, a productive week and yeah, just feeling good, feeling great. I am so surprised because I realized when I was working out on what my podcast episode would be this week. I realized this is our 50th episode. And in two more episodes, we would have hit our one year birthday anniversary for the podcast.

I am in total awe that a year has basically passed. We are two episodes away from having made a year's worth of podcasts. And when I say we, I mean basically me who does the podcast and Mike who edits the podcast. So yeah, we're quite proud, I would say. I'm feeling really proud that we actually did this.

And I just can't believe how fast time is flying. We are already in September of 2023. How did that even happen? I'm sure you're feeling the same way. Time just happens to be flying so fast. And I feel like the older we get the faster time flies. And yeah, here we are approaching the first birthday of the Empowered Edupreneur Podcast.

What a time it has been. And I thought in honour of this special occasion, this momentous occasion, at least for us it is. I'm going to make a couple podcast episodes sort of around it. And I thought in this episode I am going to share the lessons and learnings from one year of podcasting so these are lessons that my podcasting journey has actually given me. They relate to business overall.

They don't just relate to podcasting. I feel podcasting has really helped me further deepen these lessons and ingrain them into my beingness. Almost embody them a bit more strongly, if that is a good way of saying it. I always knew these things. But I feel podcasting really solidified these things.

These are golden lessons in the name of growing a sustainable online business and note the word sustainable, meaning something that you can continue doing. I think that's an important goal in your business is for it to be sustainable.

Something that you can keep doing and consistently sustain over long periods of time, because what you want is a sustainable business that doesn't kill you and burn you out and something that you can have for years, right? I feel like that's why we are building a business so we can have it for years and years so it can look after us for years and years.

And I do believe since I've been running Digiteach for now five years, I really do feel that we have a sustainable business. And I feel like podcasting this last year has really upped my game. I've really deepened these lessons really. Understood them more embodied them more. And I feel like I've upped my game as a business owner in the last year in a lot of ways, especially in my beingness, just who I am as a person and how I show up in my business.

So I thought it would be cool to share some of these lessons with you. And just basically share what I think is so valuable and important to know and embody and practice in your business. Okay, so, the first lesson, is this commitment to the long game.

So what does that mean? I think a lot of people start their online business or they say, oh, I'm going to create a course and it's going to be for like a year and then I'm going to do this other thing and I'm going to do this other thing. And it's all going to happen very quickly. And it can be like quick overnight success or, within six months I will have quit my job and living my best life on a beach with a laptop.

There is this belief that it's fast or that it's short or whatever, that it's a quick thing to do. Right. And I just realized with podcasting, because I know a lot of people ask me about podcasting and things like that. I realize even more so since podcasting, now that we've been doing it for a year, that it is a long game thing.

It's not a quick thing. It's not like you start a podcast and within three months, you've got. You know, a thousand loyal listeners. I mean, maybe that is the situation for people. And I'm not saying it can't happen. I think anything can happen, but I think the overall thing is that it's a long game.

And not only podcasting is a long game, like everything in your business is a long game thing. It's not meant to be a fast food kind of, oh, I'm just going to quickly create this course and quickly launch it. And then I'm going to have reached success. It doesn't work like that. It's all about the long game and business is an infinite game.

There is no end. There is no mountain. Like I know we are climbing mountains and overcoming our own challenges and hurdles, and often they are mountains that we need to summit and climb, but it's not like that once you climb the mountain that you're done and you've reached success and it's over and you've just achieved whatever you want to achieve. 

There is no end game. There is no end point. So it's a long game and it's an infinite game. It's always, it's all the time, no matter what mountain you climb, you're going to want to climb another mountain. No matter what amount of money you make, you're going to want to make more money.

No matter what goals you achieve, you're going to set new goals. It literally doesn't stop and it just keeps going and it's infinite and there is no, I've reached this thing and now I'm done and I'm successful. That doesn't work like that. You wish you would sometimes feel like that, but it doesn't. Our human nature is always striving for more striving for more, we always wanting to evolve and grow.

And so I think this is an important lesson to just know. Business is a long game. Learning the skills to launch and sell and do courses and group coaching and whatever you want to do in your business. However you want to set it up. It's a long-term thing. It's a commitment to a long-term thing. I want you to think of it like having children.

If you want to have a business, This is a commitment to a long-term thing and it's not a fast overnight thing It is something that happens through all the tiny tiny little actions you take daily that compound over a long period of time, where you then hit this compound effect phase. And when you're hitting the compound effect phase you are making a lot of money and the impact is huge and it's magical and it's amazing. But it takes time to get there. And then you want to sustain it and then you want to grow it and there's never an end.

Okay, once you hit six figures, you're like cool. Let me hit multi six figures. Once you hit multi six figures, you're like cool. Let me hit seven figures and it just keeps going. So if you're thinking right now, oh, I've been doing this for six months and I'm so disheartened and I haven't got results or I haven't got a lot of sales and I had my first launch and I didn't have a lot of sales.

Or my email list is really slow or slow growing or whatever. Maybe your social media isn't growing as fast as you want, but you've only done it for six months. Six months is nothing. In the greater scheme of business. Okay. There are people out here who have been doing it for 10 years. I've been doing it for five years.

Okay. Six months is nothing. So just know that it's the long game. It's an infinite game. And that it's commitment for the long game. If you want to see results, you've got to chisel away for a longer period of time. And the people who stop and give up are the ones that are impatient normally, or they have an expectation that is not real.

And so here I am sharing this, breaking that expectation down, showing that it's not necessarily going to be an overnight thing. For some people it is. Some people launch the first time and make 10, 000. What a vibe. Amazing. That is awesome. I've got students in DBA who have done that. Other people, it doesn't work like that.

And for me, it didn't work like that, but it didn't mean I gave up. And so I was always committed to the long-term game. And now that I've been doing podcasting in one year of podcasting, I see this is a long-term strategy. I'm not seeing insane ROI from the podcast just yet, but now that we're hitting the year mark and it's going to start compounding over time, it's going to become this amazing thing for the business that I believe will have an amazing ROI and will be very good for the business and the brand, but it's not going to happen quickly.

And just like I've treated my podcast as a long-term game, I want you to treat your business and everything you do, Instagram, your email list building your launching, just launching over and over, building the skills, it's a long-term game, okay? It takes time to hit the compound phase where you are actually seeing proper return on investment on the stuff that you're doing, and when you hit that compound phase, it is massive, and it is worth it. It is worth it. Okay. It is freedom. And we love freedom. 

All right. Lesson number two, consistency is the foundation of all of business success. Consistency, it always comes down to consistency. So your business success does not depend on you doing a burst of actions and then stopping. And dropping the ball for three months and then doing another burst of actions and then stopping and dropping the ball for three months.

And it will take a long time for you to see things working for you. So say you start an Instagram and you start posting and then you disappear for three months and then you come back and then you disappear for three months or you do that to your email list or you launch once and then you launch another time, like a year later and you launch something else.

You're just all over the show. Consistency is the magical ingredient. And it's the thing that most people struggle with is consistency. And with the podcast, I have been seriously given an opportunity to exercise my consistency muscle. And when I started my business, I'm not going to lie. My consistency was not good.

I had to develop this muscle, and that's why I believe everyone can develop this. I believe like most things are learnable, if you are willing and dedicated to learning, and embodying things, and you're committed to growth. I believe anyone can sort of develop traits and embody certain things and shift very deeply. Consistency is one of those things. 

I made a commitment and when I decided to start the podcast, which was, I'll create a episode on that, on how it all came to be. But I was in Portugal and it was another energy that had channelled through me.

It had to come out. And it just came. And it came very out of the blue almost. And it just was channelled and it just came through with such ease. It was all just meant to be. And I originally was like, well maybe I'll do one episode every two weeks. So, not every week because I was so daunted at the commitment of doing four podcast episodes a month I was like, oh, you know, I've already doing all these other things in my business. Now I'm going to have to do four podcast episodes a month. But I felt like you know what?

I want to do one a week. I want to give it a go. I'm going to try I'm going to do it. I'm going to try commit to it and. I don't like the word try. I'm going to commit to it. And I'm going to, if it really is not working out, I can always shift to once every two weeks. And I knew it was a big job, but we did it.

And I set up a really good workflow process between me, Mike, and my amazing tech virtual assistant, Melissa, to sort of create the podcast and all the things and make sure that it's had a nice streamed workflow. So it's not just me doing all the things we've got an awesome little team.

And because of that workflow, we managed to get it working well. And then every week. I delivered this episode. I would create it and then Mike would edit it and, and then Melissa would create the marketing images for it to promote it. And so, I committed to it and here we are 50 weeks later, 50 episodes down, and I have maintained that consistency and I really.

Believe in all areas of your business. This lesson can be applied in your email marketing, consistently connecting with your email list in your Instagram, consistently showing up on Instagram and adding value in that space with your whatever platform you're on. It all comes down to consistency. It really does.

And so if you can really, really embody. And I don't know, understand that consistency is the foundation of everything that is going to help you a lot in your business because your business is not built by you doing a burst of things once it's not built by you doing something once it is literally built on repeating things.

over and over and doing the same actions over and over again repeatedly for a long period of time. Remember the long game. I think once you can make peace with that, you just know that is what it is and you don't have these expectations of , oh, I've been doing my Instagram for three months and I haven't got a lot of results from it, or I've been podcasting for six months and, I don't have so many listeners. And it's not doing well and then you make yourself feel bad and then you give up and it's just the wrong expectations I think that really affect people.

And then they start thinking they're bad at it, and then, whatever. It's just about committing to the long game with your consistent actions. And just being consistent. And so a lot of people ask me, well, how many times should I email my list? And how many times should I post on Instagram?

And how many times should I create my podcast episode? And consistency is a very personal and subjective thing. I cannot tell you that you need to consistently do X, Y, Z this many times a week. It literally is different for me and it's different for you and it's different for every business owner. But what I will say is whatever you decide to do frequency wise, it's something that you need to be able to sustain and maintain for the long-term.

Yes, you can change it. Of course, nothing is set in stone. But the goal is to be consistent, which means to sustain the thing and repeatedly do it over a period of time consistently and not drop the ball. So if you know that sending a newsletter a week, it's just way too difficult for you, and you're not going to be able to maintain it, then send a newsletter once every two weeks, if that feels like something you can sustain better.

Same with Instagram. If you can't commit to posting three times a day on your Instagram, because who can commit to that, then don't set that up as your frequency. Say, okay, I can maybe commit and I have capacity for three times a week and for the next three months I'm posting three times a week.

And then actually commit and do that. And just post three times a week. So your frequency of whatever you do in your business, whatever consistency looks like for you needs to be subjective to your own capacity. And everyone's got their different capacities. Some people have way more capacity because they don't have a full-time job.

Others have a full-time job and they're building a business on the side and so they have less. You got to do what you can maintain because it's all about consistency over a long-term game. Don't overstretch yourself and do something that you do not think is possible to maintain and sustain. Okay, and that goes for everything.

Emails your Instagram, whatever content strategy you have. Consistency is the foundation of it, that's when you start to see really the results happen over a longer period of time. But you need to do something that feels good to you. Okay. 

And lesson three is knowing how to move through your own resistance. So you're going to set up a game plan of. Okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And you're going to set up your own recurring consistent tasks that you need to do in your business over the long-term. So for example, for me. I've got a podcast that I need to do a week. I've got a newsletter that I do a week.

I've got Instagram posts that I need to post a bunch of stuff like that. I do this consistently week after week after week, and I've done it for five years now. I wasn't as consistent in the beginning. I've developed the muscle. I'm much more consistent now. In this process, there will be resistance.

You will meet resistance from yourself. There will be days where you don't feel like recording a podcast. There will be days when you don't feel like posting on Instagram. You're a human being, and you're going to come up with a lot of resistance. Ongoing resistance. And yes, it will go and it'll come and it'll go and it'll come, but we're human beings.

So we will always face some resistance to things as time goes by and we're not robots. So it is really important if you want to be in business to know how to move through your own resistance and just know what you need to do to overcome that resistance so that you can take action and do the thing that you need to do. And I know your businesses, and I often say, your business is meant to feel joyful and happy and magical, and it really can.

But there will be times when you don't feel like doing something, and you need to just do it. And that is the honest truth. You can't let your feelings and your emotions dictate whether you do an action or not. So sometimes, I don't feel in a good mood, or I'm not feeling up for recording a podcast. Or I'm on the last day that I actually need to record it.

Like I don't have another day to record it. Otherwise I'm going to screw up my whole workflow for my team. And so I need to overcome my resistance at that moment and do something despite how I feel. And this happens a lot in business. I know there's like schools of thought saying that, you know, follow your flow and your alignment.

And if it doesn't feel good, don't do it. Especially in the human design world, which I am a big fan of and I am starting to follow my human design more. If it doesn't bring you joy, don't do it and things like that. But there will be things in your business that at that moment in time may not bring you the most joy.

But it is a commitment that you have made and you have to honour the commitment and you have to overcome your resistance because if you know how to overcome your own resistance, you are much more able to stay the course of business. If you don't know how to overcome your resistance, you are not going to be able to stay in business because there will be resistance points.

Not every day you're going to feel like posting on Instagram, but maybe that's something that you need to, you've committed to. And something that's important for your business growth. Maybe each week you feel like doing an email and a podcast or whatever it is.

Maybe sometimes you're just not feeling it. I get that. I mean, with Instagram, I have dropped the ball many times, but there's certain things, like the podcast, I haven't. I have managed to move through my own resistance. So for example, I remember in the past, there was one week where I had a podcast episode, just didn't feel excited about it.

The topic was heavy in my body. I was like, oh, I don't feel like doing this. I don't feel like talking about this. And I think it was from a survey where someone requested that they hear that topic, but it was not my kind of jam at all. Anything that's like tech related, I often don't like to talk about it because it's boring for me.

But a lot of people ask about that stuff, especially with course creation. And so I had so much resistance. I felt so heavy in it and I could not bring myself to do it. I was procrastinating. I was like, oh, let me go do this. oh, let me go wash the dishes. That seems like a lot more fun than doing this.

It was such sabotage and I could see it was happening. I'm very aware of it. And then I thought, okay, you know what? There's a reason for this. I'm not interested in this topic. Can I change the topic and record something else. And so I looked at, okay, what am I excited about right now this week? What do I feel called to share in my energy?

What I feel excited about? And I found a topic that actually excited me. And as soon as I got the topic, I was filled with this excitement and joy. And then I went and recorded the episode. Now, that is a situation of me knowing how to move through my own resistance. Sometimes you need to shift and change and evolve things and tweak things a bit to find the path of least resistance for you.

To find the joy in the thing that you're doing. It wasn't the act of doing the podcast. It was the topic of that podcast at that moment in time. Maybe at another moment it would have felt different. And so you need to see how can I shift and tweak and change things? Maybe that Instagram post that you wanted to post isn't exciting for you and you're feeling heavy around it.

Is there something else you can share that day that is feeling good and exciting for you? You can be more in tune with yourself and you need to be able to move through your own resistance. You still have to take action and do things that don't always feel super exciting because let's be honest, posting consistently over years and years isn't an exciting thing.

It's actually mundane. And this brings me to my next lesson. Lesson number four, finding the pleasure in the mundane. oh my gosh, what? A valuable thing that you can do. So, as I've mentioned, your business is going to be built over you doing repeated things over a period of time. And maybe in the beginning of your business, you find excitement in the thing.

And then after a period of time, that excitement will wear off and you will just have to be doing it. And it will feel sometimes a little bit like a chore, or it will feel like something you don't enjoy as much, or just becomes a bit boring. Because repeatedly doing something, like posting on Instagram for months and months it can become mundane but the magic is in the mundane, okay. 

The magic is in the mundane. Your business is going to be built over you doing things that are maybe not that exciting for you. So how can you find pleasure in these things? How can you reframe these things? How can you reignite the feeling for these things? For example, I remember a period of time where I was posting on Instagram a lot and I was doing a lot of lives I found it really fun to do Instagram lives for a period of time in my business every week I was doing an Instagram live and then suddenly I don't know a couple of months in I started to really not enjoy it and then I found myself feeling a lot of resistance to it. And as soon as there's a lot of resistance you want to pay attention.

Why am I procrastinating? Why am I resisting this and I realized, okay, this is just not in alignment and I'm not enjoying it. And so how can I shift and do the same thing, but in a way that's more exciting where it can bring me a bit more joy. And that's when I started shifting to the podcast.

One of the reasons is because I wanted content creation form that was going to be more enjoyable or something that I had more excitement with at that time. And so I felt in my energy, okay, the podcast wanted to come out. It was in me. It needed to be channelled. It needed to come out. And then I saw the podcast and there was so much excitement around it for the first couple of months.

But then as with all things, it then became just another thing of the week that I had to do. As exciting anymore. And so I had to find pleasure in that thing. I can't keep changing, right? I can't say, oh, I'm going to just give up on my podcast because I don't find it exciting anymore, because that's not the way it works.

You need to stay in it for the long game. Otherwise there's no point in doing it. And so I was like, okay, how can I find more pleasure in it? And there were certain things that I was doing in the podcast that was feeling heavy and then I was like well, let me tweak it. Let me find the little sweet spot.

Maybe it's the topics I'm talking about. Maybe I need to change the next month of my topics that feel a bit more exciting. I used to prepare the topics ahead for like a month and then I stopped doing that. And I said, okay, each week I'm going to feel into what I feel excited around. And that's how I actually pivoted into finding more pleasure in consistently creating the podcast is by just feeling into my vibe for that week. 

And what was happening in my life and my business and what was relevant and what was coming up for me and what I felt called to share and what I thought was important to share with you guys. Like what's going to be of value to you? What do I think you need to hear?

And so that's been a way of me finding pleasure in repeatedly every week creating a podcast. And then because I've been able to find pleasure in it. It has allowed me to be consistent and stay the course. And if you can do that, if you can just find pleasure in the mundane tasks that you're doing in your business, whatever that looks like, you are going to be able to be more consistent and you're going to be able to commit for the longer game. 

So they all feed into each other. And if you're feeling a lot of resistance, ask yourself, where is it coming from and how can I maybe find the path of least resistance, tweak it, evolve, change something a little bit.

So I can move through my own resistance and keep taking action and keep showing up. And you'll have to keep doing this over and over again. Say you're building out for a launch, your launch assets, and you are having so much resistance to writing the emails. So instead of pushing and pushing and pushing and going against your natural body's energy flow of I don't feel like writing emails right now.

Maybe be like, okay. What are the other tasks that I need to do? Maybe I should go and do one of those other tasks. Maybe I should go and work on the sales page, or maybe I should go record the videos or whatever it needs to be. Go work on something else where you feel the energy behind. Move and then come back to that task.

So you're moving away, going and working on something else, and then you're returning back to that. And then when you return back, you'll find there's more flow. You just need to be in flow with your body as well. And that is another way of moving through your own resistance. So you're getting things done, but you're just following your body's natural cues of what you feel like in that moment.

But you're still honouring the thing needs to be done. So it's not letting your emotions ride the show, and you just giving up and stopping. You're just tweaking and optimizing based on what feels good to you. All right. 

And then the last lesson that I'm going to share with you is number five, and that is shifting on an identity level is always very key in your business. So this means that you become the type of person to do certain things. On an identity level, it is just who you are at your core. Your identity will change very tiny bits over time. And then every five years we almost have like a whole new identity. It's quite amazing. But know that in business with the foundation of the things that you're doing you really want to be looking at an identity level. 

Who are you being in this situation, right? So for example, the podcast has really helped me on an identity level really become the type of person to honour my commitments. I see myself now. Truly see myself now, which I never used to see myself as in the beginning of my business. As the type of person to honour my commitments.

That is an identity level thing. Because I have honoured the commitment of this podcast for a year, I have exercised that muscle and I see evidence for me being the type of person to honour my commitments. It's just who I am now. I am the type of person to always deliver value to my audience. I am the type of person to show up daily for my business.

I don't have to think about brushing my teeth, for example. It's just, I brush my teeth every night. I also just work in my business every day. I don't have to think about it. It's just what I do. It's just who I am. It is on an identity level. I am the type of person to push through my own resistance and take action.

I am able to do that. I do it over and over again. I met with resistance over and over again, but I know that I am the type of person that can move through my resistance and take action anyway, because I've done it over and over again. And I just am that person. But I never used to be, I have cultivated this on an identity level.

And because I've cultivated this on an identity level, it is just who I am now. And it's just how I show up in my business. I'm the type of person to stay consistent in my business and life. So I'm consistent. I remain consistent in my relationships, in my friendships with my family, my values and who I am. In my business tasks, I remain consistent.

I never used to be, I used to be a little bit flaky and this and that. I've developed into the type of person and that is on an identity level. So as soon as you say I am that is identity stuff. So if you were to say I am reliable I'm trustworthy I'm committed I'm the type of person who makes money with ease.

I am consistent. I am disciplined. Do you see that? This is becoming right. This is how Becoming on an identity level. This is how it's so integral to showing up as this person and actually being this person. So this is why who you are being behind the action is so important. And this is what helps you become consistent.

This is what helps you become committed. This is what helps you be able to move through your own resistance because if I have a week where I'm like, oh, I don't feel like doing this podcast, which obviously I'm going to have, I'm a human being. I'm going to say, well, you know what? I'm the type of person to just deliver on my, to honour my commitment.

And my commitment is a podcast a week and I honour it. It's a no brainer. It's done. It's not up for negotiation. That is who I am. Then it's much easier for me to just. Go and honour that commitment and do it, right. It's the same with every area of your business, okay. So who you're being behind the action is important and you can practice this in all areas of your life.

So say you commit to three days of gym or exercise a week, and then for two, three weeks, you're doing it. And then by the fourth week, you just give up and you just never do it again. Now, are you being the type of person who commits, has discipline and takes action.

Maybe not. And then you're showing up and you're, not honouring the commitment that you've made to yourself. You're breaking it. The trust is broken there. Okay. And feeds through in all areas of your life and business. So in business, if you say I'm going to send one email a week, and I'm going to do whatever.

A podcast a week, and then you do it for three weeks and then you stop for three weeks and then you start again for two weeks and then you stop for three weeks. Are you displaying consistency? And are you being the type of person who honours their commitments? So really pay attention to who you are being first and on an identity level, really start shifting that even with I am statements and start really taking it seriously.

And start developing the traits of someone who just. Is consistent who just is disciplined and you see yourself with that lens as well. You see yourself as trustworthy, reliable, committed, consistent, disciplined, as someone who values other people, as someone who cares for their audience, as someone who's good at making money, just see yourself as that.

Become that and then from that energy that will feed through into your business. And the byproduct of that is just consistency, commitment, discipline making money with ease. It all just comes as a byproduct. 

All right. So that's it. Those are the five lessons. I'm going to recap them quickly for you. Commitment to the long game, consistency as the foundation of all business success, knowing how to move through your own resistance, finding pleasure in the mundane and shifting on an identity level as always being very key for everything in your business. So I hope that you can really absorb these lessons and these truths and start really letting them sink in and start embodying them.

Because once you do on an identity and identity level you will see it's just foundational magic that happens. It just becomes who you are. You don't have to try be it. You don't have to act like it. It just is what it is, and that's powerful. And just know that it's not meant to be an overnight success.

Remember, it's a long game. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither will your business. Things take time. And now I'm at nearly a year of my podcast, and I really do see that things take time, and I'm okay with that. I'm in it for the long game. I'm the type of person who is just committed for the long game. And that is the magic in itself. 

All right. So I hope you love this. I'm going to do a fun little giveaway for the year anniversary episode for the podcast. Which is in two episodes now, two weeks. I think I'm going to do a fun giveaway. I'll let you know a bit more about that when I come up with it.

Otherwise, I hope you have an amazing day. If you love this episode, please let me know, tag me on Instagram, share it with me via email, whatever. I love to hear back from you and I will chat to you again next week. 

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. If you loved what you heard today, then be sure to take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your Instagram and tag me in it. 

I honestly love hearing from you and I appreciate you so much and can't wait to connect with you in the next episode. In the meantime, go create a business and life you love.