How starting a podcast gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams

How do you know the path you're on is taking you where you want to go?

I've taken some big leaps into the unknown. I know it can be hard to trust where the journey is leading you. In episode, I share some of the biggest turns I've taken, decisions I've made, and moments I've listened to my intuition that have led to the most transformative results.

One of those was starting this podcast. 

I hope this episode helps you to see that discovering your voice through taking aligned action will always lead you to something wonderful. Listen to the nudges, and let them show you the way to your next step – so you can step into your purpose with confidence and clarity.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hi and welcome to Untethered with Jenless, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we're going to talk about why the heck I started a podcast in the first place. Let's dive in. Hey there, unicorn, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast for a bonus episode. Bonus bonus Is that the bonus song? I think that's our new bonus song Bonus bonus Maybe somebody can sing me a bonus song for when we have a bonus episode.

Speaker 1: 0:48

I wanted to come on and share a little bit more with you about why I started a podcast in the first place. I get a lot of questions about my journey and how I came to the point that I'm at right now. I've given little bits and pieces along the way in a variety of episodes, but I haven't sat down and talked about my entire journey. That led me to the point that I'm at today, where I'm not only podcasting but I'm actually teaching a podcasting course here in a few weeks, showing other people walking them across the threshold of starting their own podcast. With everything that I've been through in the past few years, it feels like a really good time right now to take a step back and show you and walk you through the journey that I've been on, because I never thought that I would be here Starting a podcast for goodness sakes, not something that a couple of years ago I would have ever done. In fact, I had a conversation with my husband in bed this morning where we're talking, and he was like you have grown into this person that I never knew. He's like there's pieces and parts of you that I never would have known if you had not gone on this journey. A lot of that journey really took off when I started podcasting, but it did begin even before that. One of the cool things was him telling me just how proud he is of the person who I am and how much it has helped him to grow, and how much he has seen other people in our own lives be inspired and grow because of the yeses that I have said to myself.

Speaker 1: 2:28

As you listen to my journey, really my deepest desire is for you to be reflecting on your own life and what this could mean for you, if it inspires anything for yourself, and I would freaking love to have you in my podcasting course because I believe that podcasting offers so much for people in ways that you have no freaking idea that it could improve your life. That's not really just what this episode is about. It's to hopefully inspire you to take whatever that next step is for you courageously, because there is so much for you on the other side of this little fear, because fear is a sign that you are about to step across a threshold. Fear is just a signal when you experience fear. Fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin. It means that there is something exciting for you on the other side and fear is just saying hey, did you know that you're about to go beyond what you have done before? I just want to make sure that you're taking a little check in with yourself and that you know that there's something that you're about to do. If you're experiencing fear, know that there's something exciting for you, and that's why you're afraid is because it's like yo, take a look. Is there something that you want to look at here? Are you doing what you really want to do? And nine times out of 10, 9.9 times out of 10, yes, you want to do it because you're experiencing the fear, because you're moving towards something very exciting for you.

Speaker 1: 3:58

Now, for me, this happened back in. It was really probably 2018 where I really started feeling a lot of nudges. I was starting to get unsatisfied in my job. I had gotten pretty comfortable. It was a job that was very hard for me in 2015. Very hard. I completely changed careers. I left hair styling, I went back to school, I got my degree and I started a new career as an intern and moved my way up into being relatively comfortable in that job.

Speaker 1: 4:28

It was a hard, creative job, being a copywriter for one of the largest companies in America, one of the largest companies in the world. Very difficult job in many ways, but also really fun. Getting to write scripts and commercials that made it nationally. It was really really cool. In particular, I'm very proud of some of the goofy stuff that I helped that company to put out into the world Some of my goofiest scripts, the ones that I had surprise, surprise you'll be not surprised by this if you listen to my podcast that goofy stuff that I put out for that company, those scripts that I wrote that got made, that got produced, that were all over. One of them was during March Madness these ads were being placed all over the place from the super goofy, ridiculously goofy script that I had written. It was the most fun thing for me. Everybody felt that in the writing it's just another nudge to follow your fun.

Speaker 1: 5:26

But I had started to get a little bit more brave. I was getting more brave being me putting some of those ideas out there in the world that were fully me in this job. But I was feeling like I was tapping out. I was like I know that there's more that is possible for me in this job or in my career, something I just wasn't satisfied. I was hitting that same place that I had felt with hair, where I had grown so much, and I just felt like I was inside this box and I couldn't find my way out of it. I was starting to feel stifled. I started going around to all of the people who I worked with, who I really looked up to, and I was having these little informational interviews. I was just like, hey, how did you grow, how did you get to the point that you're at? I went to mentors and then I even started to go to leaders in the company. I started getting braver and I was having these 20, 30 minute little informational interviews with leaders at the company. Now that took some courage. I was sweaty a few times sending those meeting requests or sending a little message to them asking for a meeting with them. So sweaty, so I fully understand if that idea would even make you nervous. But these were teeny, tiny steps that I was taking that were leading me in a certain direction.

Speaker 1: 6:43

At the same time, I was not a podcast listener at all period. I had heard of podcasts but I thought that was for dorky people. I'm so dorky, by the way, but in my mind I'm like that's for tech dorks and so I did not listen to podcasts. I'm like that's for people who love sports and tech. I like sports enough, but I'm not going to sit and listen to sports podcasts like my husband. But I had heard that there were other podcasts out there in the world and I was honestly getting to the point of desperate because nobody who I was asking all these questions like I was getting some good stuff and I was getting some good information and it was kind of helpful but not really showing me the way.

Speaker 1: 7:23

So I went into Apple Podcasts app one day. It was a Saturday afternoon, I was cleaning house and I was just like I'm tired of listening to the same old music. And so I go to that Apple Podcasts app that was automatically on my phone and I put in creative career help. Creative career help. I am stuck. I was feeling so stuck and I was just like this moment of like I need something. I need some help. These informational interviews are not getting me far enough. Nobody can show me the way, and I found this podcast called Don't Keep your Day Job.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Her name is Kathy Heller and I started listening to her podcast and she was talking to other people who had had very similar paths with me, where they were like I got to a point and then I got stuck and then I didn't know what to do and I was suddenly feeling so seen, so freaking seen by Kathy, by the people she was interviewing. They were people who had been entrepreneurs and gone back to corporate or were in corporate and had been entrepreneurs and people just talking about career growth, and I was like, oh my goodness, I feel so seen. So I listened to her podcast for a couple of years. So all of this is kind of going on at the same time I'm doing these informational interviews, I'm listening to this podcast, I'm starting to see that there are other people in the world who were struggling, which was so helpful to see. Oh my gosh, there's other people struggling and there's somebody out here who wants to help. Well, around that time, she launches a course.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Kathy, who has this podcast, launches a course. She calls it Made to Do this, and it's for people who feel like there's something out there that is more in the world for them than the life that they're currently living, than the job that they currently have. There's something, something more, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is me. This is me. This is me. This is me. I'm in self-growth beyond buying a whole bunch of books and investing my time and energy into listening to this podcast that I've started listening to, and all of a sudden, I'm thinking about taking this course, but it's thousands of dollars.

Speaker 1: 9:21

This course is thousands of dollars and I'm like, oh my gosh, how am I possibly going to ask my husband to take this course that costs thousands of dollars? Well, on one Sunday night, I finally confessed to him. I said I really want to take this course. I really feel like I'm not getting what I need to get. I need to take this course. And he was fully supportive. He was so supportive. He was like, yes, yes, if this feels like the next thing for you, trust yourself. And yes, and I was like, wait what? But you want me to do? Huh, you want me to put thousands of our dollars into this? And he's like, yes, please sign up for it. Again, so sweaty, I hit the button, I signed up for it.

Speaker 1: 10:00

The moment changed my life. I changed my life in all of the ways. I can't even tell you all of the ways. Let me count the ways this entire podcast goes through many of those ways in which that has changed my life, because she was showing us that there's something different for us, that there is something different for you. You don't have to continue down this exact path that you're on or the path that anybody else has set for you. My life was hearing this message for the very first time, alongside other people who were also those same people, the other people who were being seen by this podcast that I was listening to. We all were united in this course and we were all feeling like, oh my gosh, we can do this, we can do this, we can do this. I still had no desire to start a podcast In this process.

Speaker 1: 10:50

I had no desire to start a podcast. In this course, we were to come up with a business idea. I had so many business ideas. One of them has actually circled back around and it might come to fruition. Let me tell you that there were so many business ideas that I had, I think I started a Facebook group called the Guilty Party. That was for people who are experiencing extreme guilt for no reason, because I realized that was something that I was struggling with. I started all of these things.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Well then, covid happened. It was right at that moment when we were all suddenly working from home and I realized that we all needed something. I was like what the frick is happening? I started a Facebook group and I was like what do I have that can help people right now? Creativity. I started this Facebook group very next day and I told my husband I'm going to go live in this Facebook group this morning and I'm going to issue a creative challenge. I'm going to tell people let's all make something magical. I'm going to issue this challenge. I'm going to tell people why I care so much about creativity and why it's something that can help them right now and that it's really important that we all stay creative and that we have some kind of rhythm to our day, because I wasn't going to be driving to work anymore. So I was going to do this little creative challenge every day at 7 am and I was going to do it again at 5 pm, at the time when I would have gotten in my car to go drive to work. We're going to do this creative challenge. Everybody who's suddenly working from home, let's all gather around, let's get in this Facebook group and let's do this. I called it the creative commute and I ended up doing that. For over a year we ended up doing these challenges almost every single day, getting together, drawing prizes, having so much fun. It got myself, my husband and a lot of us through the pandemic.

Speaker 1: 12:33

As I started talking, let's back up one second to a very important moment that my husband hates me telling about, but I'm going to tell it anyway because it's not a slight on him. It's exactly a representation of who I was and where I was at that time. I tell him I'm going to go live. I'm like, I'm going to go live this morning, honey, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go in that Facebook group. I think at that time there were 16 people who had joined. It was like seven. Then when I went to go live I was like, oh my gosh, there's 16 people in here.

Speaker 1: 13:05

I was so nervous and so sweaty again to push the button that I said I'm going to do it. He said what are you going to say? I am introverted, y'all. I'm so introverted I at that time did not talk to I mean, I hardly talked to my own friends when we would get together. I'm really good and always have been hairstylist one-on-one with people or with my two best friends that I've grown up with forever, but in a big group of people I tend to be more of the listener.

Speaker 1: 13:38

I would need to say something. I had actually this adult stutter that I was very embarrassed of, because I would think too much about what I was going to say. I would get too nervous and I would think about what I was going to say before I would say it and then it would come out all kinds of mumbled up. My words were in the wrong order. I don't know if you've ever had this, if you've been one of those people, but it was very embarrassing. I would often not say anything at all.

Speaker 1: 14:04

When I would go to say something, then it would be all kinds of fucked up, then I would feel embarrassed and it was a whole self-fulfilling prophecy. So he's like what are you going to say? He's also going on Facebook Live and podcasting. It's not something that was really in our realm. Anyway at the time it was a legit question. I was not offended by the question. I was just like I don't know. I'm going to talk about creativity. It feels like something that I should be talking about right now. At this point in time, I feel like I can help people. I feel like this will help myself. So that's what I did. And again, it went on for a year. But in between that, while that Facebook group is still going on, I found myself loving this. I was loving it.

Speaker 1: 14:50

All of a sudden, this girl who had nothing to say suddenly had a fuck ton to say I have a lot to say, heard about, I have a lot to say. I have a lot that I care about. I started getting really, really curious. And these lives that I was doing on Facebook Live was only seven minutes a day. It's like, okay, I've got seven minutes, we're going to keep it short. Things that would go a little longer Sometimes we're having a lot of fun going back and forth in the chat. People were writing in and we were talking about our favorite Easter candy on Easter and we were talking about the creative challenges that we would do and we were having a lot of fun. So sometimes it would go long, but generally it was very light and very fun. Seven to 15 minutes, that was it, and I was like I have a lot more to say.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Turns out I've got a lot to say about creativity. I have a lot that I'm curious about. I have a lot to explore and all of a sudden somebody who previously had no voice that I was sharing with the world at all, or I was doing it through creative expression for a corporation had a lot to say for myself, things that I really wanted to share with the world. I was realizing some things that I really cared a lot about, that I hadn't previously. I've always cared about them. I didn't really let myself share about it and it was opening that tap, just a little tiny bit, that all of a sudden it was like rainbows were just pouring out of, like actual rainbows and glitter and magic were pouring out of the spout. I was like I think I want to start a podcast. I want to this. So weird like me, I think. I think, joey, I think I want to start a podcast. And he was again, he's so and my husband's so supportive. He was so supportive of it and he's like you know what, I'll edit it for you. And so he offered to help me. We had no idea what the frick were doing. Zero idea, like nothing.

Speaker 1: 16:45

I did not take a podcasting course. I took this other course from somebody who happens to podcast. That person was not teaching us how to podcast At all. She does have a podcasting, a podcasting course she does once a year. But I did not take that course. I just figured it out completely like blind. In fact, I decided two weeks ahead of time that I was going to do it. I was like, okay, when's the next new moon? We're just going to launch this thing.

Speaker 1: 17:13

And we did and it was really messy and really funky and really hard in some ways, because I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't have like process and I didn't have a class and I didn't have somebody walking me through it. I was just like we're just going to do this. Actually, I did have the support of Joey, who was helping me a little bit along the way, but I just made it happen. I just made it happen because I knew I had this knowing. I had this feeling and I had been through enough things in the past couple of years that I knew I just needed to listen to it. I was getting really in touch with my intuition in a way that I previously had not been, and putting the dots together on things that I had felt my entire life, that I knew I needed to say yes to this, and that started this journey.

Speaker 1: 18:02

I called it the creative commute. It wasn't called untethered with Jenless. You can go back. I've left every episode up of this podcast. You can go back to those very initial episodes and hear me being like creativity. What is it, dude? Let's talk about it that has led me to realizing what really is important to me.

Speaker 1: 18:24

That entry point of creativity, which was something I knew was really helpful for people and really helpful for myself at the time, was this entry point to me understanding what it is I truly, truly care about, which is helping people realize how fucking brilliant you are, how amazing you are, how magical you are, that you have these gifts that really need to be. They're supposed to be given to the world and were so tethered that were not. And the idea of the creative commute actually was so wrapped up in that too, because your gifts travel with you, they go with you. Your gifts are always there and you're always honing them and developing them and creating, like getting new skills that can help you. But you've got this purpose inside of you and I just need I'm like it's just, it is a drive and as a calling, and you have this inside of you too. There is some calling, there is some drive that has been moving you through your life, through your entire life. It's always been there with you and whether we're super connected to it or not and listening to it super deeply or not, it's there In the quiet, in the 2 am knowing, in those 2 am little whispers that you hear in the middle of the night when you're like I can't sleep because my mind is reeling on something, that your intuition is speaking to you and for many of us we aren't clearing the spigot. I love this story.

Speaker 1: 19:54

This is one of the stories that Kathy I've actually so at this point I coached with Kathy quite a bit because she was really speaking to me. She was pulling something out of me that I didn't realize it myself. She was showing me the way and I actually worked for her all of last year, in 2023, they had an opening on their team and they knew I was building my coaching practice and they said hey, jen, do you want to come on and support us? And so I did, which was I'll tell you all about that learning episode, or that learning in another episode sometime. I learned so so much working for my mentor and I really want to share all of that. I share it with my coaching clients all the time, the things that I have learned, and I would love to share it with all of you as well, because there's so much that I learned in that time. But this story that she shares I think it was actually it was a singer, it might have been Ed Sheeran, somebody says this to her on her podcast said you know, when you go to a cabin like you go to a cabin that nobody stayed at in a long time, or you're the first person to show up for the summer it's been stagnant all winter long and you turn on the faucet and at first the water starts to come out kind of rusty and nasty and it's kind of like sputtering and spitting and it's not clear.

Speaker 1: 21:09

But after it runs for a little bit it starts to run smooth, starts to run more powerfully, it starts to run clear. That is the same with your voice, and so many of us have been stifled. We have stifled our voice, we have said something that was embarrassing, we have felt like we said something wrong. We've been told to be quiet. We've been told that what we say doesn't matter. We have somehow received that message, and a lot of times it happens in childhood, and part of it is just the way that the school system used to be, maybe still is in some ways. We were told that what we said didn't matter, that the authority mattered more than what your voice matters, and so we hear that message and we start to stifle we physically. This is happening somatically in your body and also mental patterns that are all wrapped together. We stifle our voices and then we wonder why everybody's got thyroid problems and other health problems, because stifling your voice causes physical implications and so a lot of us have inflammatory issues that are happening because we're physically stifling our voices. Again, that's a whole nother episode, but it was happening to me and when I started to open up that tap and my voice and my message started to roll through, I started to feel so much clarity for myself and so many magical things have happened. Now, do I still sometimes feel stifled and funky and something needs to come out? And then I have to realize and open up that tap again. Yes, we all do. That is the human experience.

Speaker 1: 22:50

But what I will say is that podcasting has been the most powerful platform for me and I think that's the most powerful way, the most powerful avenue for my voice to begin to flow through. And we have to In order to find your purpose. We're never going to find our purpose by looking on the outside and hoping that somebody is going to show it to us. We have to start speaking. It has to flow through you. Now, speaking can be on a podcast. I seriously think it's one of the most powerful ways. It's about the kind of leadership. If you're feeling any nudge or any call to speak, if you're feeling a nudge or a call to be a leader, I truly think and I mean this from the bottom of my heart start a fucking podcast. Start a podcast. Start using your voice, start speaking. You can even and maybe, if you don't do a podcast, you can start Instagram Live in. You can start Facebook Live in. Do something that lets you verbally share your voice, clear your throat Chakra. Start doing it right now, right now. If you are already doing that, congratulations, because the world seriously needs to hear your voice. Another way that you can start and actually make a difference is by listening to this, and if you are doing that already, I'm just encouraging you to continue because it is going to make such a massive, massive difference in your life. Start doing it now in OW, right right now. If you are already doing that, congratulations. You can start.

Speaker 1: 24:25

And actually the way that I started was doing morning pages from Julia Cameron's book the Artist Way. If you've never read the Artist Way, it really triggered me the first time that I read it because it uses a lot of the word God and at the time the word God was incredibly triggering for me. I would literally cross it out and write universe. I would write spirit, I would just cross it out. I just I couldn't with it. But there's a practice inside of that book which requires that you get up in the morning and you write three pages, you're just rewriting. It's not, you're not thinking, you're just rewriting. And that was the first like little bit of opening of the tap for me was doing that. So if sharing your voice verbally sounds way too scary for you, start doing morning pages right. Three pages every day, three pages every single day, and let it just roll out. You're not judging it, you're not even going back and rereading it, you're just letting it flow through. So do that and then start using your actual voice.

Speaker 1: 25:25

I think so many not just women, all kinds of people, but really in particular, women we have been stifled culturally for years and years and years and years. We're at a point now where you can use your voice and I think we have a moral obligation to do it. If you're one of the people who feels called, then you do have a moral obligation to do it. You're being called forward, you're being called to lead in some way, and we have to clarify our message in order to do that. And you're going to do that by sharing your voice. That's where I'm at. That's where I'm at.

Speaker 1: 25:59

I've been doing this podcast for almost four years now and it has helped me to grow so much. I started another podcast, venturing a little bit. I've got this funny comedic side of me. I don't really know that I'm a comedian but life is so funny and I have this really funny friend. We started another podcast called Midwest AF where we're talking about the funny Midwestern things about ourselves and just Midwestern culture, because we notice it so much more now that we live in the Pacific Northwest that there are so many little Midwestern things about ourselves or we notice the things that aren't Midwestern here, and so that's another exploration for myself and my voice that has led me to. Just yesterday I reached out to a friend who is a singer here in Portland and I said I want to MC events. I think I want to MC. I think I can be that person who lightens up the room a little bit at the beginning of the show. I would not have done that if I hadn't started morning pages, if I hadn't started podcasting, if I hadn't started this podcast and then if I hadn't started the comedy podcast. That's leading me to have more confidence. I hope my journey is helping you to see what is possible for you. If you're listening to this podcast, you've got something inside of you that wants to come out Again, I think from my experience and from also witnessing y'all.

Speaker 1: 27:24

I witnessed thousands of people. There were 14,000 people in this launch for my coaches program last year. I talked to thousands of them and helped usher in a couple of hundred people into the program. I've talked to so many people who have very similar situations and they're being called forward. I've watched some of these people be very successful with their podcasts, very successful with their podcasts, and have seen other people have other things that have come to fruition from doing it. It's magical. It's so magical to see.

Speaker 1: 27:58

I have a client who asked me. She said do you know of a good podcasting program that I can do right now? I said no, I don't. I know one that happens in September. I sat on it for a couple of days and then I thought I could teach a podcast program and I can do it my way, which is the fun way. I know the things that get people stuck. I know the things that got me stuck and I know what got me through it. That's the way that I'm going to teach this podcasting program. It's called Podcast. Now you can go to genlistcom To check it out. We're going to start March 11th, so if this is something that's calling on your heart at all. Please come.

Speaker 1: 28:37

I'm also hosting a free event this Wednesday and Thursday, a two-day event. Each session is going to be an hour long and that's totally free. It's for anybody who feels the call to use your voice. It's called Free your Voice and I'm going to help you gain clarity and confidence of your message and maybe walk you across that threshold to get you to maybe do that Facebook Live, to maybe do the Instagram Live, to maybe even just start morning pages. That can feel very scary to people. Starting to free write and letting yourself see the thoughts that are coming out of your head can feel very scary. So come to that event. You can go to genlistcom Slash voice to sign up for that. I would absolutely love to see you there. Thank you so much for listening to this episode.

Speaker 1: 29:23

I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about my podcasting journey and maybe felt a little inspiration, a little niggle for yourself, maybe a little bit of confidence for yourself to step forward. I would love to see you at the event on Wednesday Again, that's genlistcom slash voice to go sign up for that event happening Wednesday and Thursday and if you feel called to podcast right now and want to get it started. I am going to help people start a podcast in six weeks. Y'all, I did it in two weeks. I know you can do it in six weeks and I'm going to walk you through that process step by step by step.

Speaker 1: 29:54

I know exactly how to do it. I've done it twice and I've helped so many people in Kathy's program to get their podcast started. So let me know if you're interested at all. You can reach out to me, dm me on Instagram, you can go check out the podcast program All the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you for another bonus episode where I'm going to go a little bit deeper, on Friday. Thanks again so much for listening to this episode. You just keep shining your magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time. Bye.