400 Episodes In, What It Really Took To Build This Podcast

I still can’t believe I’m saying this…
This is Episode 400.

Four hundred moments behind this mic.
Four hundred episodes of growth, doubt, courage, consistency, breakdowns, breakthroughs, late-night recordings, early-morning pickups, messy drafts… and truth.

In this milestone episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes into the part no one sees — the part I’ve never shared publicly.
The fears. The failures. The almost-quit moments.
The tears on the other side of the mic.
And the exact reason I kept going… even on the days I didn’t want to.

If you’ve ever doubted your voice, questioned your path, wanted to quit something meaningful, or wondered if anyone truly cared about what you were building — this episode will speak to you.

This is the story behind The Raquel Show, the chapter that’s ending, and the new movement that’s beginning…
PLAY BIGGER with Raquel.

This one is raw.
This one is emotional.
This one is for every builder, creator, leader, and dreamer who keeps showing up even when the world is heavy.

Things I Cover in This Episode

• How a tiny idea in my Notes app turned into 400 episodes
• The excuses I used before I ever pressed record
• Why the mic sat in a closet for a year
• The real story behind launching the show
• The messy first episodes (and why that mattered)
• The nights I recorded through tears, overwhelm, or exhaustion
• The episodes I almost didn’t publish — that changed someone’s life
• The 400 times I almost quit
• What this year taught me about courage, confidence, and leadership
• What it took to run a solo-episode podcast for a full year
• The identity shifts, the personal battles, and the moments no one saw
• The 10 biggest lessons 400 episodes taught me
• Why the show is rebranding and what’s coming next

If this show has ever inspired you, grounded you, pushed you, or made you feel less alone —
leave a review. It truly helps us grow this movement.

And if you're ready to play bigger in 2026 —
 join me inside our coaching programs, apply for the Agent CEO Accelerator, or come spend a VIP day with me in Scottsdale.

Send me a DM @itsraquelq or visit letsplaybigger.com.

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🔗 Links & Resources

Ready to Build the Agent CEO Model?
If you want a clear, repeatable revenue system (without burnout), DM “AGENTCEO” to @itsraquelq on Instagram to learn more about the Agent CEO Accelerator.

 For coaching, events, and collaborations: www.LetsPlayBigger.com

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Transcript

400 moments behind this crazy mic, 400 moments and episodes of growth, 400 episodes of impact, 400 episodes of me showing up heart open, raw, real, even on the days I didn't want to. And I thought, what better way to honor this milestone than by taking you all behind the scenes of what really happened on The Raquel Show. And this one is personal, this one is raw, this is a story behind the story, and the things that no one always sees, the moments that no one ever knows.

Welcome back to the final episode of The Raquel Show. I know I said final and I've got some updates for you. Today is not just another episode. It is episode 400 and can you believe it? I cannot believe it's episode 400. 400 moments behind this crazy mic.

400 moments and episodes of growth, 400 episodes of impact, 400 episodes of me showing up, heart open, raw, real, even on the days I didn't want to, especially this year. And I thought, what better way to honor this milestone than by taking you all behind the scenes of what really happened on The Raquel Show. 

Today's episode is called Behind the Scenes, the Untold Story of Building The Raquel Show. And this one is personal, this one is raw, this is a story behind the story and the things that no one always sees, the moments that no one ever knows, though why behind every episode that you've heard and if you've ever started anything scary, if you've ever started anything meaningful, if you've ever wanted to quit on something important. If you've ever questioned your voice, if you question your path, questioned your direction, I want to tell you that this episode is going to be for you. So let's go behind the scenes behind this mic. And before this became The Raquel Show, it was truly a tiny crazy idea that lived in my notes app on my phone. 

And someday I would do a podcast since some of my circles I was hanging out with in masterminds all seem to have a podcast. Then when I showed up with my coach in a coaching call and I showed him my vision board, the podcast was on there and he said, when are we launching that? And he pointed to the podcast. He has a well-known podcast even to today.

And I gave him every excuse in the book that you could think of. I'm not sure that it's a priority. I don't have the right equipment. So guess what he did on that call. He Googled and he already had some things and he like live typed out everything I needed and gave me a list of what to buy. All I had to do was go on Amazon and buy it all.

And then I really didn't have an excuse. And I don't know if you're anything like me, but when I hire a coach, I never want to disappoint them. So I bought everything I needed, but guess what? The mic sat in the closet for over a year until again, my coach said, what's up with the podcast? And I said, I don't have an editor. And he recommended a few.

And then he asked me who could I reach out to edit my podcast locally? And could I go on Fiverr? Could I go on Upwork? Like gave me every single resource and it was just up to me to go into execution. At the time I was trying to figure out how to run a coaching company. We had a wait list for clients and my one-on-one schedule was packed. We started with a high level mastermind so that we can serve more people. I was speaking on stages. I was investing in other states. I was being a sports mom as Bryce had just started his high school journey in basketball and football and starting a podcast. I'm like, why would I ever put this on top of all of that? It just didn't seem logical. 

But the truth is it didn't come from strategy. It came from a calling, a purpose that one day it might be able to impact just one person. So I started this podcast because real estate to me felt isolating, confusing, lonely when I was growing and scaling businesses. Ambitious and driven could sometimes even feel misunderstood. And I remember some of my friends who would say to me, Raquel, when is enough enough and high achievers could feel like they were too much or not enough. I just wanted to create something that went deeper than scripts, systems, sales, like what to do next or how to host the best mega open house and generate tons of leads and generate another hundred thousand dollars in your pocket. Like I wanted something more. I wanted a community.

Where it was just more than GCI, more than transactions. It was really more about just Playing Bigger in business and in life while being humble. A community where like entrepreneurs felt super supported and listeners could feel like they weren't alone in the hard parts of growth or in that messy middles and one that was super raw, super authentic. And I wanted to create the show.

I truly wish I had when I was building teams in California, when I moved to Arizona, leaving everything behind and nothing but grit. When I had expanded into multiple cities, 23 and how everything seemed to be different, even with systems. When I had built in the recessions, when I was balancing motherhood with massive actions, this show was born from one belief is that your story and your thoughts can inspire others to Play Bigger.

My first episode was published on my birthday and was called, What Does It Mean to Play Bigger? And the right message at the right time can change somebody's life. And I'm going to say that again, because sometimes we do not want to show up on our stories. We do not want to show up on social media, but guess what? The right message at the right time can change somebody's lives. Can impact somebody's lives. 

And that is why I pressed record. So the first episode, I'll tell you, I recorded that like maybe if I'm not exaggerating 20 times, I would record the intro like five times. Then six times I would get to the end of the episode recording and the boys would walk in from practice. And then I thought, my gosh, I have to re-record this episode because I didn't even know that they could edit that stuff out. Then I would get to the end of recording that episode for the 100th time and Rocky would bark my dog. I remember and my family remembers when I first started the podcast, I yelled and said, I can't do this. You guys need to be quiet. And what if I was not cut out for it is what I would tell myself. 

I had questioned every single thing of the podcast. Who am I to have a podcast? Will anyone care? What if I fail in front of everyone? What if I succeed and then mess it up? What if my voice isn't good enough and my gosh, I judged that the most. Remember I couldn't stand listening to it when it was playing in my car. But the thing about beginnings is this. You don't become confident by thinking about something. You become confident by doing it over and over and over again. So those messy episodes were perfectly aligned with the season that I was in and they taught me the most important lesson Consistency builds confidence not the other way around so behind the scenes there was a lot I'll tell you guys didn't see there were nights plenty of nights where I was recording with tears still in my eyes from exhaustion from life from overwhelm there were mornings where I would have to record before anyone else in my house woke up so that I could record it and give it on time for the editors to turn it around and publish it and drop it on a Tuesday or a Thursday. And there were nights where I recorded when everybody went to sleep and there were episodes created while I was traveling for speaking gigs or being in a hotel room and trying to figure out if there was an echo or maybe even right before a game.

There were moments when I hit record with a smile and I was excited. I was happy. I couldn't wait to share what I had gone through with you. Or there were also moments where I hit record while still processing something really, really hard, especially like I said, this challenging year, you never saw the edits, the crazy ideas that never made it, the outlines that didn't make sense. The episodes that didn't even air. There were episodes where I was interviewing somebody and totally forgot to hit record or the tech didn't work. The ones where I thought were actually good episodes, but they didn't land. And there were ones where I almost didn't publish that just change somebody's life. And I got a message. You never saw the juggling act of it all, you know, from being a sports mom to a wife, to a CEO, to a coach, to a speaker, to an agent, to an investor.

When sometimes the investments went wrong and a human being just trying to make it all work. But guess what? You, my listener and the show kept me anchored. It reminded me of who I was even in seasons where I couldn't see myself clearly, where it was just so heavy or overwhelming.

There were plenty of moments where I almost quit this podcast and I'll tell you, cause I told the team and they know it. Like I told them so many times, this podcast isn't working. It takes up a lot of my time. It takes up a lot of our resources and money to publish even an episode. So I can tell you there out of 400 episodes, I probably could count on 400 that there was a thought.

What if this one is the last episode we just record and we take a break. I almost quit when life got hard. I almost quit when my mom's health changed this year and I wasn't even sure if I was going to share that on the podcast because I don't really share it on social. When business got complicated, when leadership felt heavy, when my schedule was jam packed, overflowing, when I lost coaching clients as friends, when I felt empty, when the vision felt blurry and I thought, I can't do this today. I don't have anything left to say. What's the point? But every time I'll tell you, I got close to quitting. I felt like there was a sign. There was a message that would come in. Your podcast is what got me through this week. Your episode helped me so much. You made me feel less alone or the episode helped me close one of my biggest deals. 

And every time I read something like that, I realized this show isn't about me. It's about those who need it. And I want to share something I have never said out loud. There were 400 times I almost quit, 400 times I doubted myself, and 400 times I questioned whether or not my voice mattered. 400 times I asked myself, does anyone really care about what I'm about to say? 400 times I hit record, even when I did not want to.

When I was tired, when I was overwhelmed, when my energy was off, when my confidence was nowhere to be found 400 times, I told myself, believe it or not, I suck. Should I even put this out 400 times? I got frustrated when downloads dipped and when our growth wasn't matching our effort, which were plenty of times. There were episodes I loved that barely got any listens and episodes I almost deleted that became somebody's breakthrough. 

And then there was one whole year, which was this year, 2025, a full year where I did this show with no guest episode. This was the year I challenged myself. It took a lot to believe that people would still listen to the show and hear what I had to say. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to challenge myself and I wanted to find my own voice without relying on somebody else's audience, without relying on guests, names or trends that were just going to what most podcast hosts believe up our ratings, up our downloads.

And guess what? It was humbling, it was stretching, and there were moments I thought, is anyone listening and why am I doing this? But I just kept going. And here's the rawest truth. What I learned is that 400 episodes didn't come from confidence. They came straight from consistency and courage. Courage that carried me when confidence couldn't.

Courage that made me press record and publish when doubt screamed even louder. Courage that made me show up when life was heavy. Courage that built this show brick by brick, episode by episode. So if you are building something or you're going into 2026 with bigger goals and your confidence feels a little shaky, borrow the truth. You don't need confidence to start. You just need courage to continue and courage, my friend compounds. 

And that's exactly how we got to 400 freaking episodes, which I can't still believe. When I look back, some of the episodes that had the biggest impacts were the ones that came straight from the heart. Maybe some of the ones that I even cried on anything and any time I shared something raw, I'll tell you, I probably got the most messages when I had Brexton. Probably one of my rawest moments on this podcast on my episode when something terrible had happened to him in sports. That episode got shared so many times and I got so many messages in a whole community, a huge basketball community standing behind him because people don't connect to perfection. They connect to the truth. And this show became powerful the moment I just started sharing.

Some of the biggest names came on the podcast and I couldn't believe it. If you would have asked me would so-and-so be on this podcast, never in a million years would I have thought that. And from the podcast, we have built relationship from the podcast. I've connected with so many of you and after 400 episodes, here's what this podcast taught me. 

Number one, consistency is an identity, not a habit. So show up even when you don't feel ready. I say it all the time on this podcast.

And number two is leadership is storytelling. Your voice influence more than you realize. 

And number three is people will connect with you, not your highlight reel. By the way, if you see any of my recaps, monthly recaps, just know that those are for family memories as something we can always look back on. 

And number four is you can lead while healing, teach while learning and inspire others while you are rebuilding.

And number five is you don't find your purpose first. You create it through actions. Those that are just unclear of what to do next. Just know that if you take action, it will come.

And number six is your story will save someone else's story. 

And number seven is confidence follows courage, not the other way around. 

And number eight is the thing you're questioning the most is often the thing that someone else needs the most. 

And number nine is impact. Compounds like interest slowly, quietly, and then all at once. 

And number ten, and my favorite, is you just never know who is listening, but someone always is. 

And I can't tell you how many times I have gone to events or people have stopped me in the hallway or even in a bathroom line saying, are you Raquel? I listened to your podcast. 

And so my friend, I'll tell you, this is not the end. This is just the final episode of The Raquel Show. 

This is the beginning of a new chapter. 

We are elevating the show with some full video episodes in the future, some guests that we are going to bring you some on zoom and some in person. That are going to bring you some very tactical value and experience and some more behind the scenes like business lessons, life lessons,  know, parenting lessons, sports lessons. 

And last but not least, we are officially changing the name from The Raquel Show to Play Bigger with Raquel with a new podcast cover that you all voted for. And I can't wait to publish it. So, the next 400 episodes are about building a movement.

So to anyone that has ever pressed play, I wanna personally say thank you. Thank you for listening, thank you for showing up, thank you for sharing the episodes, thank you for sending messages, thank you for telling me how this show has made a difference in your life or in your family's life or has impacted you. Thank you for letting me be a part of your growth and thank you for being a part of mine. 

And if you've…ever enjoyed listening to this podcast, I want you to do me a huge favor and write a review for us. It really does help our show and our team loves it. Speaking of team, there's no way I could have done it without them. They've learned how to launch a podcast from episode one. They learned everything about a workflow of a podcast from the time it gets recorded to all the way, the time that it gets published and marketed and email marketed. And we now have everything in house. And this was purely learned by our dedicated and most committed team members. And I cannot thank them enough because not only do we do a lot of things that go behind the scenes to publish just one episode, but we drop two episodes a week.

Because we want to give you so much value and it would mean the world to us if you left a review. So thank you in advance for leaving a review and if you're ready to Play Bigger, I'm going to challenge you now to either apply for coaching or be a part of our Agent CEO Accelerator. Go to letsplaybigger.com or send me a DM "AgentCEO". 

Thank you so much for the 400 episodes. Here's to the next 400 and until next time, I want you to keep taking action. Even when you think things are a little shaky or you're unsure if things are going to work out, I want you to keep taking action, continue to keep Playing Bigger, my friend.

Thank you for listening to this episode and hanging out with me today. If you're loving The Raquel Show and you've gotten value from it for your business or your life, please don't forget to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. I'd love to connect with you further. So text me at www.textraquel.com and send me a message. You'll be added to our VIP list for updates and special events we're hosting for our community.

I look forward to hanging out with you on the next episode.