The Truth Behind My Imperfect, Podcasting Journey to 100 Episodes | 100

What does it really take to reach 100 podcast episodes?

In this milestone episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on my full podcasting journey → the highs, the breaks, the messy middle, and everything I’ve learned along the way.

If you’ve ever felt behind in your own content, struggled with consistency, or wondered if the effort is even worth it, this episode is for you. I’m getting real about the lessons I didn’t see coming when I first hit “record” almost three years ago.

What you’ll learn:

• The mindset shift that finally got me past perfectionism
• Why your consistency doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s
• What’s made podcasting sustainable for me long term
• The real reason breaks are not only okay, but necessary
• How this journey is impacting what’s next for the podcast

Whether you’re on episode 1 or 101, I hope this reflection helps you feel seen, supported, and ready to keep showing up your way.

Connect with Lucy:

✨ Join My Free Community: https://cheerstoproductivity.com/community-invite

Show Notes: https://cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast/ 

Transcript

0:00

Hey, I'm Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I'm on a mission to help online entrepreneurs that like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelmed goodbye. Here, you're going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It's your time to shine. So let's get started Welcome back to the cheerful, productive chats podcast. Whoa. I am so, so excited about this episode in cases, your first time at tuning in, Hey, I'm Lucy Rayez. I'm a productivity strategist. I'm obsessed with Trello and I help digital entrepreneurs, simplify systems, get time bag and a boost, intentional productivity. And this episode is super special because it is the hundredth episode. Oh, whoa. Like I cannot believe that I'm here. It's been such a long journeys at Jalong. Great. To finally get to a hundred episodes. So I'm really, really excited too. Be here recording my hundredth episode and to reflect on this journey so far, what I have learned and just give you some insights that you can apply to your own journey as well, because it's definitely. There's a lot of relatable aspects to. You know, reaching out. Episodes that I think you're going to appreciate it. So before we dive in, though, I would love for you to join my email as if you're not on it to yet. That is where you get exclusive behind the scenes, additional tips towards helping you get more productive towards helping you create simple and effective systems. So if you're not on my email list to yet, then go ahead and go to the link in my show notes, to get access to my free private podcast, which is all about helping you run an efficient online business. And, uh, once you sign up for that, then you'll be on my. Email list. So. Go ahead and do that. Pause this episode, if you're able to and go get on my email list. If you're not on it. Yet. All right now, let's go ahead and dive in because I have a lot to share and I really want to try to keep this. Within the time limit that I usually keep my episodes with. So, all right. This is my hundredth episode. So I'm going to go down memory lane a little bit to give you some context before we dive into what the lessons learned, because it's definitely going to be super. Relevant to what we're going to be talking about. So I initially started in the online space as a blogger, but really I might talk her at heart. I am an ambivert. So I'm definitely, I would say I'm like 60% extrovert, 40% introvert, which is very much like 50, 50. I could say 50, 50, but I would say 60, 40. At a lot of time. Whoa, mumbling Omar over my words there, but can you tell me excited? I'm not going to edit this out because like, I, I just need to get going. With this episode, I'm going to, I'm going to keep this in. I'm just really excited. Um, it does take me a while to like warm up to someone, but once I'm warmed up, once we're comfortable, once we're friends, once we're cool, then I am a talker. Like I could go on and on and on, but then afterwards I just want to lay in bed. Like I just want to go and really lay in bed. And I'm like, I tell my husband, I'm like, I am done people lean for the day. Like I am exhausted. But then I love it. And I like doing it again, you know, once my battery has recharged, so podcasting was like perfect for me, because I would rather talk into the microphone, share what I have to share and. Not have to like type it out. Typing is also slower for me. So yeah. Productivity like, hello, I'm trying to do things. As fast and as efficient as possible. So podcasting was perfect for me. But of course there has been so much. And that has happened since I first launched this episode and, oh my goodness. In 2022, I think it was June the end of June of 2022. So it's been through almost three years. It has taken me almost three years. To reach a hundred episodes. So yeah, we're going to cover that in these lessons learned, but yeah, there has been. There's been a lot that has gone gone on in this podcasting journey. So even if you're not a podcaster, even if you're not even wanting to start a podcast, A lot of what I'm going to share are not just lessons specifically for podcasting, but lessons for business in general, that I did learn through this podcasting journey. So stick around, even if you're not a podcaster, even if you don't plan on being a podcaster, this is going to be a relevant and helpful for you too. So the first. Lesson that I have learned along the way. Is perfection is the enemy of progress. I am a recovering perfectionist. I have definitely gotten better throughout the years and not making everything perfect or not spending too much time trying to perfect something. And I definitely did this in the beginning when I first launched the episode or the podcast. I was definitely going back and forth with the artwork. I rerecorded the trailer and the very first episodes, multiple times, like multiple times, like the first three to four episodes. This podcast. I think I rerecorded the entire episode, like three to four times before you hear what's finally there. And even now to this day, I don't want to go back and listen to them. I don't want to go back and listen to them there they're there. But I'm sure all of this perfectionism delayed me hitting publish on the podcast because I was really trying to make everything perfect. And guess what nothing is ever going to be a perfect. Okay. It might be perfect for you in that moment, but as you evolve, as you grow, as you learn new things, What you've done in the past, you're going to look at him and be like, oh, you're going to crane. And you're going to be like, oh, it's not perfect anymore. And what are you going to do? Hopefully not go back and fix all of it because now you have new and more and better things to, to do, to be, to prioritize. sometimes you just have to let go of that perfectionism and you just have to go for it and really remember progress over perfection. Nothing will ever be perfect, but it will get easier. The more you do it, the more recorded, the more I have created graphics, the more I have done anything in this business, the easier it has become. Like I remember when I first, first started in the online space and I needed to record my very first YouTube video. Like I was nervous and I still get nervous, but not as much to speak as you know, when I did, when I, when I was, when I first started, like, it gets easier over time and little by little, you have to let go of that perfectionism because yeah, that is not going to help you be productive at all if you stay there. So that's one of the first lessons. The second one is to stop stressing over consistency. It's okay to take breaks. Listen. Like I said, It has taken me three years to reach a hundred episodes. There are 52 weeks in a year. Okay. That means technically I should have reached this. A year ago, like I am a whole year behind. On Regina. Budget episodes. And I really did feel this pressure to publish every single week to stay quote unquote consistent when I first started and it was exhausting, it was exhausting because there was weeks where I didn't know what to share. Maybe I was so behind on other projects. I remember in 2022, I was also launching the cheers of planning summit. That was the first time I ever ran a summit. And it's a lot of work. It's so sometimes this content gets pushed to the back burner and I really felt a lot of pressure and that's exhausting that stressful. It's overwhelming. And eventually I just got to a point where I was like, I just can't do it. I burnt out from the podcast. I don't remember how long of a break I took out. I remember when I took it, but I know I reached this breaking point where it's like, I just can't. I can't, I can't do it. And I just completely like goes to the podcast for a few weeks or months. I don't even remember. But then I came back and literally nothing happened, nothing happened. And then I did it again. The second or third time, I actually did record a, uh, an episode that said, Hey, by the way, You know, I'm gonna take a break. You know, there was another time when I came back and I was like, Ginuwine like, I'm tired. I'm going to, I'm going to change the consistency to every two weeks, every two weeks, I'm going to release a podcast episode. And then I did that. And then I went back to every week and then I took a break again. Like it's been an ongoing cycle. And, you know, what. It's okay. It's okay to take breaks. Nothing is going to fall apart if you miss a week or two or even a few months, and this is not just for podcasting specifically, this is if you're writing blog posts, if you're posting on social media, even sending emails to your email is like anything that you're doing with your business. You really want to give yourself permission to rest without the guilt. And really focus on that longterm sustainability, because like I said, I got burnt out from the podcast. And if I kept pushing myself and pushing myself and pushing myself to do it even more, I would have burned out period with my entire business, not just this one specific task. And that is not good for long-term sustainability and it's definitely not good for your productivity. So. It's okay. To take breaks. It's okay. To not be quote unquote consist. Sistant. Consistent doesn't even mean that. The same thing all the time. It doesn't mean that I have to publish an episode every single week. It means I show up, however, I show up when I can show up. Okay. It's about just showing up and doing the best that you can. And now, yeah, I'm on a weekly consistent streak for, I think we're, I'm recording this in April, so it's been three months of weekly content and I'm so happy. Because that's the phase that I'm in. That's the season that I'm in. That's what I want to prioritize. I've been, I am in a season where I can do this, not to say that I'm not going to take another break. Summer is coming. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to take a break or not, I may not decide until the week that I'm supposed to record. I don't know. And you know what. Like nothing's gonna fall apart. It's going to be okay. It's going to be. Okay. So give yourself permission to rest and to take breaks from certain tasks in your business. And for yourself to literally just do nothing. Rest is productive. There's an entire episode on that. So I will definitely link to that in the show notes. All right. The next lesson that I have learned. As to let go of control. And then brace evolution. Things. We'll always change in your life and in your business. And there is a lot of things that you have no control over. As a much as we don't want to, as much as we might have trauma and have control issues. Hey, I'm raising my hand. That's me. That's something I've been working on. It's okay. It's okay. That things change is okay. They, you don't have control over everything. Okay. So, like I said, there's going to be. Uh, times where something's gonna happen in your business. And you might just not be able to get that blog post out or post that reel on Instagram or record the PO the. The podcast episode. I need to slow down here. Sometimes all of these things are going to happen and it's going to cause a reaction it's going to cause a delay is going to cause something to happen that you wish didn't happen. And that's fine. You have to let go of what you can control and really focus on adapting. This one really goes hand in hand with that last one, because you know, the not. Trying to feeling the pressure of being consistent and having to show up. But at the same time, there's all of these, these things happening in my life and business that are making it harder for me to show up. For making it harder for me to be more quote, unquote, consistent with something. And the more I fight it, the more stressed I get, the more overwhelmed I feel, the closer to burnout I get. And we definitely don't want to go down that path. So let go of control, know that things will constantly change. It's okay. You're a business owner. You're a smart business owner and you can handle it. You can handle it. You can do this. Okay. So focus on adapting. The next lesson I have learned. Is as sharing relatable stories. Connect. Like in the beginning, there's, there's things that I still toot as they keep very personal and I don't share, um, there's things that I share behind, like within my memberships to pay to members. Not necessarily free public content, but I have realized that my audience loves behind the scenes and relatable stories. And that is very reassuring. One of my love languages is words of affirmation. And so it is very, uh, for me, you know, when listeners like you reach out and say how much they enjoy the podcast or how much they resonated with as a one in a perfect imperfect piece of my life. Which is also like a wonderful thing to share, which is, you know, it's. It can be confusing. Like it definitely takes some work to go through. Right. Because I feel like when I first started in the online space, There's this so much pressure to be perfect. You have to be Instagram. Perfect. And do everything perfect. And now. Things really seem to be shifting to imperfection, which I love. As long as it's authentic. there's definitely parts in your business that you're better at. And then there's parts that are just not going as planned. And that's fine. But share like really. Push yourself to share whatever you're comfortable with with your audience, because it might actually help you get more. Feel more connected to them. And vice versa. They'll feel more connected to you. And those are the types of connections that will help your business grow over time. So be real, get vulnerable, be authentic. I even got sent authentic has been, become like this buzzword, but you still want to be authentic because it really does build trust Stowe. Whatever you want to keep personal, keep it personal. But besides those few things, Share about your life, share about your day-to-day. That's something that I am definitely pushing myself to do more of, especially on my Instagram stories of go follow me over there at cheers to productivity. If you're not yet, I'm definitely pushing myself to share a little bit more behind the scenes content record more B roll of just my life. Um, in my email list, I'm sharing more stories of things that I have been going through or what I did over the weekend and how it relates to productivity systems. Organization, all of the things, but it's something that you can definitely take on and do yourself as well. All right. The next lesson learned is to focus on the people who are listening. Listen at the time of recording this. It's been tough times. It has been tough times. I'm not going to get into the details. There's another episode where recorded about. Chaos and personal things that political stuff has impacted my family with. And it's just tough times. But when you stop looking at the vanity numbers, the vanity metrics, when you stop seeing the number of email subscribers, On your list as a number when you stop seeing the number of followers on your Instagram as a number, when he was up seeing the number of podcast downloads as a number, and you recognize that these numbers are actually the number of people that are listening, watching, reading, tuning in, et cetera. It really changes your perspective on things. And for me personally, it just reminds me that there are people who appreciate my content. And that in itself keeps me going. And whenever I get those little messages on Instagram or my heartbeat community, or an email for someone responded to my email. All of those, like genuinely touch my heart. So if you are someone who has sent me something like that recently in the past ever just know that it means so much to me. When you do that. I always tell my husband I'll screenshot or share it with my husband. Oh, look what so-and-so said. And we, we talk about how much this really makes me so happy. To know that I get to do this. And then I get to make an impact in someone's life in this way. So remember that every number is a person. And a year work matters to someone. And for me, that's motivating, that's inspiring. And that's definitely what keeps me going. So even if this is your first time listening, or if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, thank you. Like seriously. I truly, truly appreciate you so, so much. Like you are the reason why. I'm S I'm recording my hundredth episode. That is. Seriously mind blowing to me. So, thank you. I appreciate you. All right. I mean, bringing it out super emotional. Let's uh, move on. Yeah, I'm definitely going to go over my time limit, but you know what? It's a hundred episodes. It's fine. It's fine. Okay. The nice lesson that I've learned. It's it's okay to fall behind. Like I said, it took me almost three years to reach a hundred episodes. And while that isn't necessarily something that I'm proud of, I definitely know that. If I had really pushed myself to record weekly and, or even multiple times a week. I would definitely have reached more episodes sooner, which means that I would have more downloads and probably more listeners and all of the things. I also know that life happens. And progress is still progress. Even when things didn't go to plan. When I first launched this podcast. I was not thinking that it was gonna take me three years to reach a hundred episodes. I definitely came in with the intention that I was going to record a weekly episode for forever, no matter what. And yeah, no, it didn't happen. And that's okay. Like is okay to fall behind. I think I sent. An email about this to my email list. A few, I think about two weeks ago. if it's relevant, I would probably post it in the show notes. I'm going to look for it and see if it's relevant because it might be, it might be. But pretty much like things aren't going to fall off. Like you're going to fall behind. You're going to get off track with something you're going to prioritize other things, which means other things are going to get pushed back. And all of that is okay. Whether it's for a little tiny task or a big project, like you are the business owner, you are the one who ultimately makes the decisions for your business. And while things have to shift because of these decisions. Just know that it is okay. It is absolutely normal. It doesn't mean that anything is wrong with you. It's okay to fall behind. Took me a hun. A hundred years. It took me three years to reach a hundred episodes and I'm still happy. I'm still celebrating it. I'm still super excited and yeah, of course, there's things that I'm going to do to try to avoid this as much as possible. But I also know that when it happens, it's not going to be a big deal. So, yeah, it's not a big deal. If you fall behind. All right. We're almost done here. The next lesson learned is to simplify and delegates. Whew. This is like the premise of my entire podcast of my entire business. Simplify it. Delegates. You know, to get more productive, to create the systems, to get organized. All of the things. So for me, I absolutely cannot do this podcast without my podcast management, Trello board. And also leaning on my virtual assistant. My VA. For support. These two have been game changers. I do not outsource the podcast editing. I have actually pushed myself to not even do as much edits. I would say for the first, at least 50 episodes, I definitely edited the podcast. I would. You know, go through everything. I would cut out the super long. Um, even the small, like breaks or pauses, which now I'm kind of really pushing myself to send it out. Like as. Imperfect as possible. Like of course, if there's like a one minute pause, I'm not going to make you sit there and listen to me breathing for one minute. But other things I'm like letting it go. I'm just trying to be more real, more raw. And also it helps me be more productive. So, yeah, like this is all in-house. This is all in-house. I have my one VA and that's it. So we use my podcast management board. I do most of the process. And our record, I edit, I prep the documents. I prep the transcript. I send it over to my VA and then she kind of turns it into marketing content that we can push out. And these, this process has drastically changed over time. It has improved. It has refined. So this is a lesson too, to know that just because you create a system once doesn't mean that you're never going to touch it again. As you evolve, as you learn new things, your systems and your processes need to evolve with you, which means that you will have to make updates to those systems and processes. This is something that we cover inside of the system, savvy society, my, a membership. So definitely check that out. If it's something that you're not quite sure of how to do it, or if it's not something that you're actively doing, then come join us. I will help you out. But for me, This has definitely looked like simplifying as much as I can. When I first started the podcast. I did a lot of, I think most of it myself, I think I was already working with my BA at the time. So she definitely helped with part of it. And then we had a little break for awhile and then yeah, it's been. It's been an ongoing process. I'm not going to bore you with those details. But pretty much I have simplified the process as much as I can, as I grow, as I evolve, as you learn. And one of the processes that I've specifically simplified is. I stopped recording a F. An Altro for every single episode. I used to record the same outro and just be like, uh, you know, the show notes is in episode or link. Dash 92 or dash a hundred. And I was recording it every time, which no. I've stopped doing that. I recorded a general one is the one I added to all of them. I also started taking away my episode intro. So I used to record a dedicated intro. To introduce the episode specifically. And that is still time-consuming a sale takes time. And so I've just said, I've decided to cut that out. That is fairly new. I only started doing that this year. And it has been truly, it feels like it's not a big thing to do. But I genuinely feel that is what has made it so much easier for me to record weekly. So, yeah. And definitely simplify your processes and delegate. If you're able to delegating and streamlining hopes, you avoid feeling overwhelmed. And it's actually one of the tips I shared in episode 98, 5 ways to get more done by doing less. So I will link to that in the show notes as well. All right. And the last one here, the last lesson that I'm going to share with you in this episode. Is that it's okay to change your mind and to adjust. I think that's actually been the whole premise of this episode is that there's so many changes. There's so many things that are not going to go as planned and it's okay. It's okay. To pivot into adjust. It's part of the process. As part of the process as being an entrepreneur. Like I said, I have. Simplifying our processes. I have made some changes to the podcast. You know, I went ahead and took out the episode intro. I started recording or putting in the same outro for every episode. Like things will change and it's okay. Just keep showing up. That is the most important thing. Keep showing up. Whenever you can, whenever you feel okay, enough to show up, if you are like dreading to get to work to your business work, then that means you need a break. You'll need a resonate. It takes a step back. You need to slow down. And then show up, but keep coming back, keep showing up and make progress. In your own way in your own timeline. Yeah, I know that there's episodes or podcasts that have launched this year and have already reached a hundred episodes. And yeah, it was, I like. What why, how. Yeah. Initially I was. Yeah, but also I know that I just can't, I cannot record and publish two to three episodes a week. Like I just cannot, my energy will not let me, my voice will not let me. And so I'm not going to do it. I'm going to show up when I have. The mental. Capacity when they have the physical energy to show up and I'm going to continue to make progress in my own way. Just as you should too. So those are the lessons learned from this journey to a hundred episodes. Now what's next for the general productive chats podcast. Well, my goal right now is to keep providing value to you every single week. Of course, I might take a break during the summer to be determined. TBD. But my goal is definitely to come tenue to provide a value to you. And not have the pressure to be perfect. So there's definitely, you know, like this episode I would say is a, one of the, probably one of the first episodes where you are hearing a lot of the. The, not the ums, but the, my mumbling of my words, because that happens a lot, especially when I get excited and I try to talk fast. I am a. Mexican American. So my first language is Spanish, but even that my entire family speaks English. So sometimes my words don't come out exactly. Right. And so this is one of the first episodes where I'm kind of just letting you listen to it. And I think I'm really gonna encourage myself and push myself to do that moving forward. And hopefully it's taken well. Um, I'm also going to be improving. My call to actions because I have not asked for a review. I have not asked her feedback. I have not asked for comments or messages from the podcast. So I'm going to take this opportunity to say. If you've been enjoying the podcast. Please go to apple podcasts and leave me a review. If you're on Spotify, then go ahead and leave a rating. It really, really helps me or the podcast find it new people when you do that. So if you can leave a review or a rating, I would absolutely appreciate it. There's also a new feature where you can send me a message directly. So if you go on your podcast player, it should say something like, send me a message. And if you click on that, It, it sends me a message. And sends me a message directly about the episode. So I will love to hear from you. He used those features. I will try to remind you in the future episodes. That's something that I'm going to be improving on. So. Um, another thing that I'm going to be working on, it's not priority. It's not right now, but in the future, I definitely want to redesign my podcast cover. I might change the name of the podcast TBD. Um, I definitely will be rerecording the trailer and improving podcasts. C E O. No, not CEO. SEO. SEO. And yeah, I'm definitely going to be taking breaks as needed guilt-free, but I'm going to really try to continue building and buzz around the podcast on social media and my marketing channels. So if you have a friend who could really use this episode, or this podcast is a poor, if you know any entrepreneurs in your life, then please send them this podcast. I would absolutely appreciate it. All right. 30 minutes, I'm going to wrap it up here because that is still my max max max. So if you've been enjoying the podcast, go ahead and leave a rating, a review and join my email list. So that way you can get exclusive access to my free a private podcast. And I'm really excited that you have decided to be part of this journey with me, whether this is your first episode or your hundredth or somewhere in between. I truly, truly appreciate you listening. Cheers to. A hundred episodes and to even more. Hopefully, maybe definitely, definitely. Let's put it out there. To 200 episodes and hopefully less than three years. All right. I will talk to you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes.To view the full transcript and all the links mentioned in today's episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast. And before you go up, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you're listening so that you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success