7 Things I Learned in a Year of Podcasting

• Leaning into your intuitive hits (3:58)
• The deep well of creativity the podcast generated (10:01)
• The value of pacing yourself (13:45)
• The power of the podcasting medium and communicating through my own voice (22:09)

“It’s really helped me hone my persistence and to get clear on, like, who is it that I want to have on and, like, noticing that and having them come onto the podcast and then having fun with it, you know, and being willing to start to reach farther and stretch myself more in terms of the types of people who come on because I want you all to have a really experienced, expansive experience of the guests and to broaden your worldview through the conversations that we’re having.”

 “I am here to be that next nudge to have you go do “it” because you really don’t know what’s going to come of it. If you actually follow that nudge, what would be possible to put out into the world for you to see?”

“When I heard that intuitive hit [to start a podcast], I did not go out and research it. I didn’t actually go into the Internet and try to figure all this stuff out. I just was like, you know what? I’m just going to surrender first to the fact that this intuitive hit has come and I’m going to allow myself to see how the next steps are going to unfold.”

“This podcast truly has become a creative outlet and one that I really, really enjoy. But it also has been an inspiration for another piece of creativity in my life….And I’m really so grateful that the opportunity to do this podcast spurred me to see other ways of really generating creatively in my life and in my work.”

NICOLE

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the School of Self-Worth. I’m your host, Nicole Tsong. Today is a super special day, and I can’t totally believe I get to say this, but it has been a full year since we launched this beautiful space known as the School of Self-Worth! Yes, it has been 365-ish days since the first episode came out. I am a little shocked, I’m a little thrilled and more than honored that so many of you have been listening for this full year. Having this podcast come to life was definitely a dream come true.

Sometimes I still can’t quite believe that I get to say I host a podcast, because it’s really one of the most joyful and fun things I get to do in my business,  and I wanted to dedicate a special episode to all the things that I learned from this past year of podcasting, because I was not a podcast host when I started this whole journey. So I have distilled all of the learnings and everything from this last year down into seven, and I will say that they actually really apply to things other than podcasting. These learnings are very much about learnings, from starting something new and trying something new, so make sure you stay tuned. You’re going to get so much out of this episode. And hey, could you do this podcast host a little favor? If you’ve been following us and listening and have yet to rate us on iTunes, please hop on over there, give us a five star rating and review. It really makes a difference for new listeners to find us from there, and I would be oh so grateful. Okay, onward to seven things I’ve learned in a year of hosting a podcast.

Welcome to the School of Self Worth, a podcast for ambitious women who know they are worthy of an astoundingly great life. Join us weekly as we get on the right side of your intuition, redefine success, and reclaim your self-worth. I’m your host, Nicole Tsong, an award-winning journalist who left it all behind to become a best-selling author of three books and work/life balance expert, helping ambitious women unlock their intuition and step into a life of fulfilment and radical joy. Every single week, I will bring you diverse and meaningful conversations with successful women from all walks of life who share insight about what it takes to be brave, joyful, and authentic every day. Every episode is thoughtfully designed to leave you feeling empowered with tangible tips and advice that will lead you to your next breakthrough. One of the reasons I love running my own business is I have learned more about myself than in any other job I’ve ever had, simply through the act of being the CEO of my own business, and this podcast is no exception. I know I don’t really share typically a lot of behind the scenes around my business on this podcast, but when I think about what I’ve learned most in this past year, a lot of it has to do with business and the entrepreneurial journey.

So you’re going to get some really good entrepreneur truth talk in here today. But before I tell you all of the learnings from starting the School of Self-Worth last year, I’m going to take you back to the genesis of this podcast, especially for those of you who are new here and haven’t heard this story, and this was definitely a journey that was led by my intuition, and I always love to share the journey of an intuitive hit because a lot of times we think, like, you get the intuitive hit and it’s a straightforward path all the way to the end, and it basically never is that. And this one also was an interesting windy road. So I first heard the intuitive hit to host a podcast in 2022. Before that, you know, I kind of had vague thoughts that it could be good to have a podcast, but I never really felt called to it before then.

It’s kind of like when I was a journalist, everyone had calls or wanted to write a book, and I was like, I don’t want to write a book, and then, of course, I heard the intuitive hit to write my first books. Podcasting is the same as entrepreneurs are always talking about, either have podcasts or launch podcasts. I was like, I don’t know if that’s for me, that feels like a bit too much. It feels like a really big project. I’m not particularly interested. So when I heard the intuitive hit to have one, I was a little resistant. I was like, I don’t really think I want to do this. I don’t have a lot of time to be starting this giant project.

It’s an investment of resources. My plate was already actually really full at the time with clients, and I didn’t have a team to help pull it off for me. The idea of going out and hiring, oh, my gosh, hiring as if you’re a manager, you know all about this, but, like, hiring felt like a big effort and really overwhelming. If I was honest with myself and dug a little bit deeper, I felt some vague imposter syndrome, like, who am I to start a podcast? Like, who would want to listen to me talk? And then what if I launch it and it’s a total failure? And nobody listens. Even though at that point some people had said to me like, hey, Nicole, I would really love it if you started a podcast, you know, because I was talking mostly on social media, and it can be hard to listen to any of that. But I was like, I just don’t think I’m going to have that much to say, and on top of it, I literally knew nothing about podcasting. I had been on some podcasts by that point, and so I knew how to talk on a podcast, but I didn’t really know any of the back end of what it takes to create it.

All I really had at that time, I think, was a good microphone. So I was like, what does it take? What do you need to actually launch a podcast? And when I heard that intuitive hit, I did not go out and research it. I didn’t actually go into the Internet and try to figure all this stuff out. I just was like, you know what? I’m just going to surrender first to the fact that this intuitive hit has come and I’m going to allow myself to see how the next steps are going to unfold. Because even though I resisted it, even though I was afraid of all of these things that could come from launching a podcast, I also have learned over the years that overriding my intuition has a very high cost, one that I’m not willing to deal with. So I knew that this meant a podcast was coming, but I didn’t know the details, I didn’t know the next steps. And if it is the correct call, the next steps will show themselves as they always usually do whenever I have an intuitive hit. So of course, that is actually exactly what happened.

The universe started to point out where I needed to go, and it came first through a friend of mine who had been contract working with me, and we were ending our time together. I was like, I still actually need some support, and she said, well, I have this amazing friend who I think would be a really great fit for you, so I said, okay, awesome. And we had a lot of back and forth. It took a little time, and then I got on a call with this friend of hers who had been home with her first child. She was interested in part-time work, and at the same time, I had really been working on up-leveling myself as a CEO and a manager.

One of the key parts of this was really identifying a project. If I was going to bring in somebody new on my team, I wanted them to have full ownership of a project, and the way my business was structured at the time, I didn’t really have anything I could fully hand off or felt comfortable fully handing off. So as I went into this first meeting with her to see if she would be a good fit, I had in the back of my head thinking, well, if someone could actually take ownership of the full podcast project and launch it for me, and all I have to do is get on the microphone and record, that actually could still work for the kind of time I had in my business back then, and that would really be the way to fit the podcast into my schedule. If she’s game for that, then I will know. Like, I will know this is the right next place to go. So I got on a call with Julia, my now podcast producer.

We spent the first ten minutes of our call talking about plants, because we’re both obsessed plant moms, and then it was really clear that this was going to be a great collaboration. I just felt the alignment with her right away. She was really excited about the mission of what I wanted to do, which was really feature and showcase diverse voices. She was excited about working with me, and taking on this new project was exciting for her. She also didn’t know anything about podcasting, but I could tell that she had the smarts and the capacity to do it, and I was more interested in someone who was excited for it than I was interested in somebody who actually knew a lot about podcasting. And I was totally right.

She threw herself into it. She did all the research. She found out all the things that we needed to do to get a podcast off the ground. We had a little bit of a slow build in the fall of 2022. And then in early 2023, we decided to put a little fire underneath it, set some deadlines on the project, and then finally, I’m going to get into some of the lessons from that timeframe. But on April 5, 2023, the first episode came out featuring my dear friend, Octavia Raheem, who teaches about rest. And I love that conversation, and that actually also sparked a really wonderful and connected relationship where Octavia and I get to spend a lot of time together and talk about our lives and our businesses.

I’m really grateful to the podcast for also facilitating some really powerful relationships. So that is what happens when you actually allow yourself to listen to your intuition, to follow, to act upon it, to guide work decisions. And that truly is how I run my business. It’s from intuitive sensing inside. I know I talk a ton about intuition on this podcast, but I also want you to see, like, this is truly how things occur and happen in my life, and that’s how we ended up here today.

We have had incredible guests come on. Talking about topics like postpartum nutrition for moms. We’ve talked about creativity, we’ve talked about fitness, we’ve talked about intuition dating. Some of my favorite episodes have been the one’s we did last summer on dating, with Andy Fourness, my dating coach. So if you have not listened to those, I highly recommend going back and listening to that series, and so, so much more. We’ve had more than 10,000 downloads since we started, and I hear from people all the time about how they really use this podcast to reset themselves, to get clear for their lives, and how much insight and learning and growth has happened since we launched. I feel just super proud that it is a resource that is in the world for people who are new to me.

I might go listen to the podcast and find out a little bit more, and we’re always thinking about guests that you guys would be excited about. Just so you know, that’s what’s happening all the time on this end for us around hosting the School of Self-Worth. That’s really the reason we truly keep doing it, because we know that it is serving the world and people are benefiting so much from what has been occurring in here.

So I wanted to get into the learnings I’ve had from this past year. There have been so many, and I was able to narrow it down to seven. So without further ado, let’s dive in.

All right, so my first learning was a really good one. I have to constantly relearn this one in different capacities, but this one is about trusting the process. So there are some pieces about the podcast that I was confident about because of my journalism days. You know, I spent eleven years interviewing people constantly, so I felt pretty confident and comfortable that that would come out and actually really enjoyed being able to use those skills again, many years later, and that was really fun. I sharpened it up a little bit, but it was just like being able to be present and listen and ask questions has been super fun for me.

At the beginning, we really were doing a ton of those interviews, but at the time, I also was like, should we do solo episodes? And Julia was encouraging me to do them, and I was a little worried. I was like, I don’t know if I’m going to have enough topics, do I really want to just talk by myself for a long time on this podcast? But I know for people that I enjoy following, I really like solo episodes, so I really had to just be okay with, like, all right, I’m just going to dive in and try to do some of them. These minisodes where I share thoughts or a topic that I’ve been working on or noticing, is coming up for my clients. And then those have been actually some of our most popular episodes. So I felt proud that I was okay. I really listened to myself and trusted that I could do that.

The other piece with podcasting, in terms of my business and my life is, it’s just a long game. It’s not something you’re doing for immediate results. You’re just in it to be in service, to be in conversation. And even though we live in this world where everyone wants everything faster and sooner or quicker now, podcasts really don’t fall into that category. Many people told me that it would take maybe a year to really start to see growth and expansion, so I’ve been just committed to that long game of this podcast, and just had to really trust that this massive investment into my business was really worthwhile, and throw myself into it, and that’s what I have done.

I have for sure felt like it is worth all that energy and time, and I feel so proud that we really, truly have stayed committed to weekly episodes since we launched and that we continue to be committed to that. That has felt really, really good.

The next lesson is to pace yourself. I say this with the caveat that I did not pace myself very well when we launched the podcast. We ended up launching The School of Self-Worth three weeks before I got married. That was a lot ! Planning a wedding and really moving into friends, family and people coming to Seattle to celebrate us, while I was also putting out this brand new, massive project, into the world. It was a little bit intense, and I knew it’d be intense, but I was like, it’s going to be fine, and it was fine, and it was super challenging, and I don’t regret it at all. I really feel great that I got to put two things into the world. Two things that I love so much. This podcast and my marriage happened in the same month in 2023. I’m so proud of it.

However, it was definitely a lot. My hyper-achieving tendencies, these old tendencies, still crop up sometimes, and they show up with the business. That was definitely a time when that was occurring. I was of course, also wanting to support my clients, so there’s a whole lot of other things happening behind the scenes. That was a pretty intense choice. Since that point, I’ve learned to pace myself more, understanding the needs of the podcast. I think that launching it was almost more energy and effort than I expected, even though I knew it would be a lot, it just really was a lot. And then also getting married, and all of the things that would occur. Like, we had so many adjustments to the podcast after we launched, so there was like some level of not pacing myself very well during that time. Then over the course of the last year, I’ve really come into a pace that works in terms of the podcast, but I did not pace myself well in 2023.

All right, the next learning is to pivot fast. This is something I feel like is super true in entrepreneurship in general, and I’ve learned over time to pivot faster all the time. I mean, it’s a skill I really honed in journalism. You’re always being thrown stories last minute, and then you have to run around and go change up what you’re doing with the day. In entrepreneurship, same thing happens pretty frequently, but especially with the podcast, because we were tracking what you guys were excited about. We were hearing from you, what you really wanted to listen to, and when we first started out, the idea was we basically would interview strong, powerful women of color, focusing on them and then really sharing their stories. And while we continue to do that, and I love doing that, I’ve made so many amazing connections through doing that, we also recognize and started to realize that many of you actually just wanted to hear it straight from me. And so while again, like I said, I wasn’t sure I would actually enjoy doing solo episodes or even wanted to do them very often, you obviously were resonating with them enough, so we’ve made them a mainstay of how we do things, with one week featuring a guest and then another week with me dropping in from where what I’m hearing, to share what I’m noticing with my clients.

I thought I would really hate doing the mini episodes, honestly, because I really enjoy the conversations and the connections that come from the interviews, but I actually do look forward to them and I always have ideas about them, and I am always wanting to make sure that I’m speaking to a topic that is resonating with your heart, and the minisodes really are that opportunity to do that.

Okay, the next one, be willing to fail. I have a long, interesting relationship with failure, and you all don’t love every single episode, and I have learned to really just be okay with that. Sometimes what we’re talking about, the topic doesn’t resonate and that’s okay. I’m always listening and I’m always adjusting and shifting to try to give you episodes and topics that will resonate with your life. But when you love an episode, like, you really love it, it’s clear, far and away the top episode, we will be sharing some of those episodes as well, as part of this anniversary. And what I’ve learned over the years, is to not take things personally, and part of the way that I’m able to be okay with failure is, I don’t take it personally, I don’t make it mean anything about myself. I just say, okay, that topic didn’t really hit with the audience and that’s cool. So I’m just going to try again. I’m going to change the topics. I’m going to see what might work better for all of you. I listen to feedback and thoughts about that, and it’s a quality that is absolutely necessary when running your business. But I actually feel like this is a quality that is really necessary in life too. We get to be adults, we get to have these set ideas of our lives and routines versus challenging ourselves to actually do things that we’re not sure are going to be successful. And it really can challenge our identity and sense of self, and I know for myself that can come up for sure. Like, am I going to be a good entrepreneur? Am I a good podcast host, any of those things? But I have learned to not let failure be something that I identify with. Like, it’s not about me, it’s not personal. I’ve learned to have a good relationship with it, and then letting failure just be a lesson, letting it tell me something, give me some good information, and then I take that information and I move forward. So the podcast actually has given me a deeper lesson with specifically what you guys are liking, and what you’re not liking, and then us making changes as we go.

All right, number five, don’t let the no’s stop you. So this podcast has pushed me to reach out to people I might otherwise have felt intimidated by. Full stop. People who  I see on social media, and they get big followings, they are really powerful in what they talk about, how am I going to get that person to come say yes to my podcast? And interestingly enough, I will say that people say yes much quicker to a podcast than almost anything else I’ve ever done. So in that way, it’s easier. There are still plenty of people who say no. I was sharing this with one of my clients, and I’m like, people say no to me all the time, and you have to really get comfortable with it, because again, it’s not personal. It’s sometimes because they’re just super busy and I’m okay with that. Or my podcast isn’t aligned with what they’re doing, or they have other projects that are higher priority, which is totally fine, and it’s really helped me hone my persistence and to get clear on who it is that I want to have on and noticing that, and having them come onto the podcast and then having fun with it, you know, and being willing to start to reach farther and stretch myself more in terms of the types of people who come on, because I want you all to have a really expansive experience of the guests and to broaden your worldview through the conversations that we’re having, so I am always really adjusting.

My team does not do this. This is definitely all me. When I look around, I really start to see who would be a great fit for the School of Self-Worth, who would be a really remarkable conversation, then I go for it and I see if this person is going to come on, and we’ve gotten some really amazing, powerful guests on this show, and I know we will continue to do that. And, you know, with the dream guests, I have this list that’s just tucked away and I’m going to continue to culture connections and conversation.  I always trust that one day they’ll say yes. For example, I’m just going to throw this out there. Like, Michelle Kwan, I would love for her one day to come on this pod and share the journey of her Olympic dreams. Now she’s an ambassador. I love watching her videos and what she shares on Instagram. Maybe by just me saying this to you, there will be a connect in some way, and we’ll be like, oh, my gosh, Michelle Kwan is now on the School of Self-Worth. So those are the kinds of things right now, where I don’t let the no stop me, and then I would just recommend to you the same thing: if you’re letting no’s or fear of someone rejecting you, or thinking something about you, or thinking negatively about you, stop you, could you start to shift yourself to be like, oh, what could be possible if I opened myself up to not taking it personally and just starting to take some risks?

Next has been a really interesting learning, and this is about the power of the podcasting medium now. And I say this as somebody who really recognizes it, recognizes this as a listener. I love listening to my favorite people on podcasts. I love hearing their voices. I love hearing their stories. I am really drawn into the people that I follow regularly. But I have also found that it has become a medium that is very effective for me to share with all of you, in a way that I just didn’t even see coming when I launched it. I have been able to come in here and really share from my heart about things, like when I was starting to switch my business to focus more on Asian American women. I had a major vulnerability hangover after doing that. I had a vulnerability hangover after launching the podcast. In general, sometimes it feels a little bit more like a diary to come on here and to talk to all of you, share my thoughts, share my deepest fears. You know, when I talk about things that are really personal that are on the podcast, it’s just me in my office here at home recording, so it just feels sometimes like I’m just talking, and then I know there are people out there who are listening, but it can feel very much like a very solo conversation, but it is cool because it allows me, I think, more freedom to share. And those of you who are listening, are the people who really get my deepest thoughts, what’s really happening to my deepest experiences. I really must say, there’s just something about this medium that is so powerful and so connected, and I have found a lot of solace in being able to share what I do share, here on the podcast.

I am a communicator. Like, it’s the mainstay of all of the things I’ve done in my careers, through both writing and then also communicating through language and speaking, and it’s been really profoundly satisfying to be able to communicate through my voice and through my words, with all of you here. I hope you all feel like you’ve gotten to know me better through the podcasting medium. I think that I have wanted the podcast to be a way for you to get to know me the way my clients know me. A lot of the stories I share on here are stories that I share with my clients, just to let them know how I think.

Okay, here is our last one, and this is one that I’m still reflecting on, really loving, and I feel like it’s really important. Do the creative thing. What I do know about each of you listening, you are more creative than you know you are. Everybody I know is so creative somewhere inside them, and if you’re not acting upon it or doing something about it, typically, it’s because our nervous systems are dysregulated. We’re really stressed. We don’t feel like we have space, bandwidth or capacity, and I say that knowing truly each of you is deeply creative, and this podcast has reminded me of that deep well of creativity within myself.

Coming up with content week after week on here is a test, and an act of creativity.  It has required me to be in very deep listening with myself, pausing to feel into it, to listening to the feedback that you guys are giving, and even when I think I don’t have ideas, if I give myself enough time and space, I always do. There are so many ways. Talk about living a bold life, about intuition, about shaking off being resilient around cultural blocks, shifting into guilt-free boundaries, creating a life that you’re really excited about, being celebrated and promoted at work. There are so many cool topics. And when I really allow myself the space for creativity, there is always a new idea right under the surface.

There are also so many ways you can express creativity. For me, language has always been the source of creativity. I’m not somebody who paints or draws or even makes art, honestly, of any form, but writing and words have always been an expression of creativity, and this podcast truly has become a creative outlet and one that I really, really enjoy. But it also has been an inspiration for another piece of creativity in my life. This podcast has inspired my next book, which I am currently at work on, and I’m really so grateful that the opportunity to do this podcast spurred me to see other ways of really generating creatively in my life and in my work. I’ve been writing consistently twice a week, probably since July. Because this podcast came out in April, I had ideas that came from launching the podcast, and all of a sudden I was like, oh my gosh, it’s time, Nicole, for your next book.

I’d say that this podcast has been a source of me starting to write again in that way, and that has felt very rejuvenating, challenging. Oh my gosh, it’s been very challenging to write my next book and work on it and to make the space for it when I could be occupied with so many other things. But I really am so grateful for this medium of the podcast, because it showed me that it was time for me to work on my next book. So that was number seven. And that leaves me with my final reminder to you.

If there is a creative idea project, something that you’ve been wanting to do that’s been nagging you, it’s been hanging out, it’s been telling you like, hey, it’s time. It’s time to do something. It’s time to act upon that. I am here to be that next nudge to have you go do it, because you really don’t know what’s going to come of it. If you actually follow that nudge, what would be possible to put out into the world for you to see? I was just in New York City, at MoMA, and I was like, man, the art was just so remarkable in that museum and I’m so grateful that these artists followed their nudges. So for you to do the same in your life and it doesn’t have to be big or crazy, it could just be taking a little bit of space and time for yourself. But if anything, this podcast has reminded me of my creativity, and I would hope and want for you to also experience that.

Well, I am all for so much more creative expression in the world and in fact, we really need it. Alright friends, thank you so much for listening again. If anything resonated, I would love if you would screenshot this episode and share it on social media and for my pod birthday. If you have yet to rate us, please, please, please hop over to iTunes, give us a five star rating and review, and I would be oh so grateful.

All right friends, thank you so much, sending you all love. I’ll talk to you next week. Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode. Before you go, don’t forget, if you are a high-achieving woman who wants to uncover your biggest blind spots preventing fast intuitive decisions, I’ve got a 72-second assessment for you. So make sure to dm me quiz on at Nicole Tsong at Instagram and thank you for being here and for listening. We read every note that we get from you about how the podcast is making a difference in your life. Please know how much we appreciate each and every one of you.

Until next time, I’m Nicole Tsong, and this is the School of Self-Worth.