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Seven years, 300 episodes and a journey that's been nothing short of transformational.

Today, I'm celebrating this milestone with you and reflecting on the top lessons I've learned about podcasting personal growth and redefining success, and this is just before I turn 50, because my 50th birthday is just a few days away.

So, I want to spend this episode reflecting on these professional – and personal milestones and insights from 300 episodes of this show and how podcasting has helped me shape my voice and define my purpose and I’ve rolled it all into five lessons learned from 300 episodes of podcasting.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

#1 - Learning to Redefine Success

Most people will define the success of a podcast by the number of downloads, ad revenue or reviews. But for me, success hasn’t been about any of those things.

I've defined success by the connections that I have made with you, and all the listeners of the show; by the value and impact that you've told me that these episodes have had on you.

When I started this show, back in 2017, I made a conscious decision to keep this show ad-free, something I’m still committed to despite the daily pitches and I receive because I didn't, and still don’t, want to be obligated to anyone else.

Autonomy and freedom are so very important to me.

I’m an Enneagram One which is all about valuing justice, truth, and freedom, and I can't begin to express how much weight those values carry with me.

And not having advertising partnerships or sponsorships is how I’ve preserved the autonomy and freedom of this show.

It's interesting - I launched this show in 2017 and back when I’d never even heard of Human Design, let that I was a Projector and what that meant.

Now that I know that as a Projector my signature, the way that I know that I'm in alignment with my design, is when I feel Success. But with that is also understanding how we each individually define success because it is relative.

This show has been a key in helping me understand what success looks like for me. How has this POV shifted and evolved? And much of this has come from the messages I receive from listeners – the emails and DM’s telling me how much an episode resonated with you, how you felt seen, or how you were inspired.

I’ve also come to define success by the genuine friendships I've developed with some of the guests that have joined me on the show. I’ve really come to value their friendship which means everything to me.

And then lastly, feeling successful just from proving that I can do this. I had a dream to start a podcast in 2015 and I didn't actually launch one until 2017. It took me a couple of years to build up the courage to try and boy am I so glad that I did. Now I know that I’m capable of doing this and it wasn’t a fluke having done it consistently over this period of time. If you could have seen me back in 2015, or even prior to that, you will understand how much of an accomplishment this show has been for me, something that I'm really proud of.

The key takeaway: Success isn't about popularity. It's about staying true to yourself, making an impact, and having the freedom to follow your own Authority.

#2 – It’s okay to evolve

This podcast started as a show exclusively focused on health and wellness, specifically on digestion and blood sugar regulation, including how we shape our lifestyles to take care of ourselves.

But after working with clients for about five years and having this show for about two or three years and connecting with listeners, I started to notice trends and gaps that all the nutrition and lifestyle changes in the world weren’t going to address.

Then when Human Design came into my life, I could see how it perfectly filled those gaps.

When taking a Functional Nutrition approach, the approach I use in health coaching, it’s all about peeling back the layers to get to the root cause.

Yet in many cases, when we peel back the layers far enough, the root cases weren’t things like unbalanced hormones or poor gut health. If we keep asking, “Why?” and are really honest with ourselves, at the core of these problems are how we feel about ourselves -- self-confidence, self-esteem, how much we love and appreciate ourselves, relationships with others, how we communicate, to know what boundaries we need, and then to be able to establish them and uphold them. Because these things inform our daily actions and what we do and don’t do every single day.

And these are things that Human Design can show us how to do and help us peel back the layers of conditioning and come back to ourselves.

Human Design is such a beautiful fit with the health coaching approach that I was already practicing.

So, I’ve learned that it's okay to evolve and expand the topics discussed on the show.

And in doing so, also help me find the permission and courage to stop being so dogmatic about holistic health and truly embrace integrative care.

You know, my official certification certifies me as an “Integrative Nutrition Health Coach” – not holistic, but integrative. Over the years, I've come to truly understand and appreciate what that means.

About six months ago, I went to the doctor because I needed to have one of my ears drained. Of course, they took my vitals, and my blood pressure read high. This was abnormal for me.

So, I was kept there for like three hours while they kept retaking my blood pressure, and it consistently stayed high.

So, then I had to get an at-home blood pressure monitor so I could take my blood pressure twice daily for two weeks and record it before a follow-up appointment on it.

Welp, after two weeks my blood pressure was still high, so my doctor said that it was time to start taking high blood pressure medication.

Now, as a health coach, this made me feel like I was a fraud, but here I was helping people improve their health, and here I was now having to take high blood pressure medication.

I actively started my health journey over 20 years ago to break a cycle of diabetes and hypertension that runs far and wide in my family so this also felt like a failure.

But hey, sometimes we can't escape our genetics, yet our genetics aren’t our fate – we can work with it which is what I’m doing.

I’m working collaboratively with my healthcare team, which includes my primary healthcare providers, my integrative doctor, who is also a licensed medical physician, and my holistic practitioners, like my acupuncturist. Working with all three has really helped me truly embrace an integrative approach.

When I first started working as a health coach, I really saw things in black and white, meaning much of conventional medicine was “bad.” But my perspective towards this has shifted, not just from this experience, but from a few over the years. And I'm fortunate to have a health care team that supports all of the approaches I’m taking – conventional medicine, holistic wellness, and an integrative approach. Collectively, they’re helping me navigate how to bring all of these approaches together.

You might be wondering, “How exactly does that work?”

Well, when I updated my integrative doctor with the news that I was on high blood pressure medication, she brought to my attention that sometimes the thyroid medication that she’s prescribed for me can cause blood pressure to rise a little. So, my integrative doctor tweaked how much and how often I take the thyroid medication to see if it has any impact on my blood pressure. We’re still in the experimental stage on this so I’ll report back if you’re curious.

In my perspective, this is true healthcare. The whole “us vs them,” “conventional vs holistic” – I think is short-sighted.

Western medicine is amazing, and the advancements of it are phenomenal in helping people to heal. Equally so is the wisdom in ancient health practices.

In my point of view, I believe that a lot of the frustrations and resistance to conventional health care can be attributed to two things: 1) the systemic barriers--the red tape and bureaucracy of the healthcare system that are a result of allowing healthcare decisions to be made by business people who aren’t healthcare professions and are more concerned about profits and the bottom line; and 2) Poor listening and communications between healthcare professionals and patients.

This is why, as an individual, you have to know how to advocate for yourself. Take notes during your doctor visits, don’t be afraid to ask questions, track things on your own and present the data to your practitioners. This is what I teach my clients to do.

Now, with my healthcare team, while they are supportive of the integrative approach I’m taking, none of them speak with each other. The onus is on me to coordinate all of this—to take meticulous notes, track things on my own and then share and communicate the outcomes and conversations with the providers on my healthcare team. They listen to what I share and are open to collaboration, but the responsibility is on me to share it.

This is what I really try to advocate that my health coaching clients do. I can't make their healthcare team work together, but I can teach them the skills to be able to learn how to track pertinent information and guide them along the way, helping them know what questions to ask, not be afraid to ask the questions, take notes, and how to correlate it together, so that they can truly become a partner to their healthcare providers.

This is how my approach has evolved, and I’ve learned that it’s okay to do so.

#3 – It’s okay to be different.

Going back to what I just touched on with the divide in the wellness world between conventional and holistic health, boy, that divisiveness really became apparent, during the pandemic.

The wellness world truly became split between maskers and anti-maskers, between those who got vaccinated and those who wouldn’t. In hindsight, the tension and dissension are really what caused me to take a step back from social media. If you've followed me on Instagram around that time then you'll recall that I was quite active but once the pandemic hit, of course, we all processed that in our own ways, but professionally, when I just saw how the wellness world just kind of fractured itself about these things, I didn't want to be looped into all of that drama.

It's only now that I’m feeling inspired and motivated to show up again--consistently. I never really went away, but I definitely have been inconsistent, and I'm finally in a place where I feel like, “You know what, I want to be there. I want to interact more with people. I understand that I have a voice and people want to hear what I have to share and hopefully I can provide a little support along the way.”

When you choose an integrative approach, you're not only taking care of yourself, but you're also choosing to be in community and meaning taking care of others too--caring about the impact you have on others. And to me, that's why I chose—sometimes in some places still choose to--wear a mask, and that's why I chose to be vaccinated. Yes, protecting myself was important, but equally so was also protecting the people who I'm around, people who are in high-risk categories of being most vulnerable to COVID.

I believe that an important part of holistic health is being in community safely and caring for others who we’re in community with.

The lesson that I learned here was--and I really had to find the courage for this, and I'm still trying to find it--to share my unique perspective even in polarizing spaces and places.

And my unique POV is that holistic health isn't just about personal wellness, it's about the wellness of the collective which is something that’s also prevalent in Human Design too.

#4 – My POV Matters

At times, I struggle with seeing the value in my perspective.

I have an Undefined Ajna, so I can see many different points of views, many different perspectives.

But I also have the 48-16 Channel—it’s the only channel in my Human Design. I discussed the 48-16 Channel in Episode 210 which I'll link to in the show notes for this episode. But the cliff-notes version of the 48-16 Channel is that those who have this channel have depth. We’re deep people. But we also tend to feel that we don’t know enough, that we’re not yet ready, that we have so much that we must learn before we can share our talents. But the truth is that the more we share, the more we develop our talent, and become experts.

While our active gates and channels are our gifts, I sometimes feel that the 48-16 Channel is a bit burdensome. It’s a challenging struggle but that’s because there’s usually so much conditioning to be undone.

So back to the point I’m trying to make, sometimes I don’t see the value in sharing my POV, or I think that everyone sees something the way that I do so what’s the point in sharing it if everyone already knows it.

Sometimes I wonder what does it matter if I share my take on something? Or think that it’s not my place to share it.

But one big lesson that I’ve learned from publishing 300 episodes is that my point of view does matter, and people are interested in hearing it. People want to hear my thoughts, my perspectives, my opinions. For some people, they need to hear it.

And it’s a reminder that my 48-16 Channel—the only channel in my design—is a gift but boy do I have a lot of deconditioning work that I keep doing there.

This podcast has helped me to understand that my voice does matter. And it's one way of bringing myself into alignment with my Defined Throat Center.

Honestly, this might be the most important lesson learned in doing 300 episodes. And the reiteration that my POV matters has come through your feedback; from you listening to these episodes, and sharing your thoughts on them with me, from your comments, questions, and furthering the discussion.

It’s also come from the encouragement I've received from guests-turned-friends who have reminded me time and time again that not everyone sees things the way that I do, and my perspective, my point of view, does matter, and I need to continue to share it. That has all been instrumental in helping me work through deconditioning around the 48-16 channel.

The takeaway here and this isn’t just for me, but all of us is that we all have unique perspectives that are our gifts, and even if they feel heavy at times, our POVs are what makes our contributions valuable and impactful.

#5 – Rest is Essential

For the first few years of the show, I drove myself into the ground at times to release a new episode every Tuesday. There were even a few times where I finished recording and editing an episode mere hours because publishing it which I hate doing!

Over the years, I've learned that taking breaks are essential because the breaks have given me the creative space for new ideas to flow, which in turn has supported the sustainability of the show.

Because here’s the thing – and it is a bit of a cliché but it’s also true – that if you don’t take care of yourself and give yourself permission to rest, you can’t show up as your best – for yourself and for others.

I used to push through for the sake of consistency but that pushing for consistency’s sake led to subpar content.

I finally reached the point where I felt burnout coming so I decided to take a break, which felt like a failure at first, but then I redefined what success looked like for me (sound familiar?) and let my brain rest. And in doing so, ideas for new episodes and conversations flowed which has allowed this show to continue and keep moving forward.

I avoided the churn of putting out new episodes for the sake of putting out new episodes, and instead produced more thoughtful episodes.

So, giving myself permission to take periodic breaks is how I’ve learned to keep things fresh because after seven years, it sometimes feels like I’ve said all that I’ve had to say and there’s nothing else left to discuss. But then I take a break and suddenly my Undefined Head Center is suddenly flourishing with a slew of new ideas coming to mind, inviting opportunities to evolve.

The lesson learned is that rest is not a luxury; it's a necessity if we want to fully show up not just for ourselves but also for others – in community.

Bonus: 1 / 3 Appreciation

Now I’m going to sneak in one more bonus reflection.

I have truly come to learn and appreciate my 1 /3 Profile Lines.

At times I’ve struggled with what I felt was an imbalance between sharing personal stories versus educating.

But what I’ve reminded myself is that I have a 1 / 3 Profile.

Sidenote: I discussed the profile combinations in Episode 292, which I’ll also link to in the show notes.

But the cliff notes version is that the 1 /3 Profile combination is an interpersonal combination which means that it’s inward focused. That means that my transformation first comes from within, and then that personal inner transformation is how I’m then able to help others.

The 1st Line is about needing to have a deep knowledge of the things that I’m interested in. I want to know everything about those things, and good lord, that describes me to a “tee.”

I cannot even watch a television show or a movie without having Wikipedia open, because I need to know everything about it-- who's in it, who directed it, who wrote it, who produced it, where was it filmed – I need all the information.

The 3rd Line is about learning through experiences.

In the past couple of episodes, I talked a lot about differentiation which is such 3rd Line energy. Differentiation is having things to compare against each other, and in order to compare things we must experience them.

So, I've come to appreciate that sharing my personal stories is my way of helping others find their own lessons learned. Through my experiences, they might relate to or connect to something I’ve said—maybe see a different perspective or feel seen altogether.

And you know, that's essentially been the vibe of this show--sharing “real people stories.” Remember, I used to use that term a lot. We share real people's stories here—reflections and lessons learned.

And I hope that by sharing my experiences, my reflections, and my lessons learned, that you're able to extrapolate your own lessons learned from your own experience as well.

This show has been a journey of inner transformation, and I hope that reflecting on it inspires you to reflect on your own transformative journey too.

So, let’s quickly recap my top five lessons learned from 300 episodes:

Redefining What Success Looks Like (to me) It's okay to expand and evolve – in fact, it’s a welcomed part of one’s personal growth It’s okay to be different There’s value in my POV Rest is not optional – its essential

I want to close by expressing my gratitude to you for listening, because, as I always say, the most important currency that we have is time. We can always make more money, but we can never get more time.

So, your time, energy and attention that you give me here, means the world to me, and I'm so honored that you choose to share it with me. The biggest gift that you can give a Projector is recognition, and I'm so grateful for the recognition that you give to me by spending your time listening to this show.

If you have any lessons learned from past episodes, any favorite moments, I’d love to hear them! You can leave a comment on the show notes for this episode at www.livefablife.com/300 for Episode 300 or come find me on Instagram.

I have no idea how much longer this show will continue. This is not me saying in any way whatsoever that I’m planning to end the show, but merely saying I have no idea if there’ll be another 100, 200, or even 300 more episodes.

I don't know what the future holds but for now, I’m continuing to enjoy this journey and I’m so glad you’re here with me on it. Here's to more Tuesdays together!

Thank you so much for listening. So, appreciate it and I will see you back here next time. Bye for now!