Reflecting on 100 Episodes of Conduit
Earlier today, the 100th Episode of Conduit came out.
This episode came with the amazing bonus of some amazing messages from our super conductors who have been on this journey with us and helped to support it. I wanted to collect some quick thoughts of what this podcast means to me.
The power of accountability
When I'm explaining to folks what Conduit is, I love calling it an accountability podcast1.
This show if anything has helped me stay accountable. Where it was the many tried (and failed) attempts to put systems in place, to simply doing that task that I've been putting off almost instantly after promising to get it done.
More than anything I think about how the space this show has taken up in people's lives has done the same for them. I think of some names (and nameless ones) that have done so much. I think of the weddings, graduations, job searches, and simply living that has been influenced and documented on this show. It's amazing!
I'm older and (probably) wiser
I think this is the inherent problem with productivity. Over time your needs change and your systems must adapt to it. This is easy to do for the tangible needs, but the things that you gain value from are sometimes intangible.
I have people that I try to give advice to in these shows. Most of the time, I'm not giving advice based on experience or anything. I'm instead sharing what I would hope someone would tell me. This is amazing and has helped me to be more confident about advice. I recently gave the advice reminder that self-care is not selfish2. I often remind myself of many things mentioned on the podcast. In the long-run, I think I'm able to get more exposure to challenges and contexts since my experiences are reinforced by the others that share their life experiences as well as the short-term results of those decisions.
Disappearing into my content
I've been less and less engaging on social media (to my detriment) and investing more in private communities.
Social media has been an amazing gift and curse to the world. What I've learned recently, is that I think social media gave us new ways and ideas for sharing ideas and content. I'm now in a position where I don't necessarily want to engage with the world. Instead, I want to engage with people that want to engage with me. I think this is why, now that I'm using social media to only share what I've created, I've learned that folks that do want to engage with me will actually will do that in the places I'm at instead of forcing me to be everywhere. Thank you.
A special thanks to the other voices of the show
I want to personally thank Kathy and our amazing editor.
I don't think we talk much about our editor (who is intentionally not named at the moment). They have complete liberty in how the show sounds in the long run and the reality is that we would not be doing this show without their work (if they couldn't do it, we'd have to find an editor).
And then there is my co-host, the internet's unicorn. I think Kathy is truly the hardest working person I know on the internet. I also know that Kathy and I are so much not alike that it makes the conversation better. The things in which we do agree are:
- Everyone has the capability of being productive
- Being productive is a personal limit that is influenced by the things around us
- At the end of the day we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously
It's these similarities and the differences in how we get to them that drives the show and allows us to hit complicated topics like burnout, imposter syndrome, systems/themes, and of course failure.
I have done this thing on my own and with guests and I have to say I never want to do a podcast on my own again.
Here's to many many more
There's no reason to think about what the next 4 years/100 episodes will look like. In the first 100 episodes, I've held 3 different jobs, greatly increased my platform and audience, and have gained so much confidence in who I am and what I do. I have to assume that a lot will change 4 years. Kathy and I will be approaching different milestones in our lives and we will have new things to think about. That said I'm looking forward to those conversations.