What I Learned After One Year of Podcasting with Lauren Najar

What happens when you start a podcast without a five-year plan, a huge audience, or a goal to become the next big show?

In this special one-year episode of Business Over Cocktails, Lauren Najar reflects on her first year of podcasting and what she’s learned about starting a podcast, growing an audience, finding the right guests, creating meaningful conversations, and building a podcast that actually feels aligned with your business.

Lauren shares the real behind-the-scenes of launching Business Over Cocktails—from taking months to figure out what she wanted the podcast to be, to batching episodes, managing guest pitches, learning which episodes actually perform, and realizing that a large social media following doesn't always translate into podcast listeners.

She also talks about the lessons she learned around podcast consistency, outsourcing, podcast downloads and metrics, monetization, choosing guests, and why you should never start a podcast simply because you think you "should."

Most importantly, Lauren shares the advice that stayed with her before she ever hit record: you have to love your idea. Because when you do, you'll have a reason to keep showing up.

As Business Over Cocktails heads into year two, Lauren is getting more intentional about the podcast, its guests, its growth, and eventually monetizing the platform—without losing the honest, deeper conversations that made her start it in the first place.

If you're thinking about starting a podcast for your business, already have a podcast, or simply want a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build one, pull up a seat.

This is one year of Business Over Cocktails—what worked, what surprised Lauren, what she'd change, and what's coming next.

Upcoming Events:

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Let’s Stay Connected:
→ Follow Lauren on Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurennajar
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey there and welcome to Business Over Cocktails. I'm Laura Najar, your host and hype woman, bringing you real talk about entrepreneurship. This is the podcast where we dive into the bold whys, the messy middles, and the game-changing aha moments that lead to success. You'll hear unfiltered stories from entrepreneurs plus bite-sized solo episodes inside the Business Chaser series, where we cut through the noise and get straight to what actually drives sales, visibility, and growth. So whether you're here to get fired up or finally feel seen in your business journey, pull up a seat, pour your favorite drink, and let's have a real conversation. Hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Lauren Najar. If we haven't met yet, I'm a business coach. I'm an event host. I am the host of this podcast. And I do have a marketing agency where we offer done for you services. So from time to time I will do a reintroduction. So hello if we haven't met. Thank you for listening. I full transparency recording this during a thunderstorm. So if you hear a large crack of thunder that we can't edit out, enjoy I guess it sounds like a sound machine, right? Some people like listening to storms. So I guess enjoy it. But we are in the middle of so many storms the last few days, and I need to get these recordings in. So as long as we have power, here we go. So today I actually am celebrating of launching the podcast, I should say. So I've been recording for way more than a year. I batch recorded a bunch of episodes, which I'm gonna talk about a lot of these things in this in this of like what did I learn? Why did I start a podcast in the first place in my story? But I really want to just like mark that this has been one having podcast episodes. The official date actually is August 27th, was when I launched my podcast episode. Or I'm sorry, maybe it was the 24th. It was August 20 something. I should probably know that. It was, I think the 27th actually was a Wednesday. And then so August 25th, I launched it on a Monday. So that is the date. And so it's almost been exactly a year. So by the time this episode comes out, it won't be a year quite yet. I I don't know, I have so many things to say. So I kind of want to just talk about like what did I learn from having a podcast and maybe like why did I start one? Maybe in some instances, maybe why did I take forever to start one? So I I don't think having a podcast was ever something that I was like, oh yeah, I need to do this. This is like a goal of mine. I I think when I was like, let's just go back to 2018, like I don't I think like it wasn't as accessible as it is now. Like, and I could be wrong. Maybe I just didn't have the knowledge for it. Maybe I was ignorant and naive with that, but I feel that having a podcast, what like not everyone had a podcast, right? It was like people that were pretty big, those are the podcasts I listened to. Now it's very easy. I have a bunch of friends who have podcasts and I can guest on them. And it's just like it's just something else that you do. And so I I don't know when I I never really had that idea. Like I was never like, oh, I want to start a podcast. I think I started having those ideas probably like a year or two before I actually started one. But for the most part of my business journey, I was just like, yeah, like I don't really want one. And then from a standpoint of like this is a lot of work and I it doesn't make sense to me right now. From another standpoint, it was I don't really know then what to say. But also I think what was fueling it is I actually was getting a lot of people throughout the years telling me I should start a podcast. And so right now I'm gonna say something that you may or may not agree with, but I have never like I've never gotten this in my whole entire life. But when I would post Instagram stories or when I would be on other podcasts, I would get messages. I kid you not, every time I was doing something on, especially on a podcast, you're like, oh my God, your voice is so soothing. I could listen to it. If you start a podcast, I'm gonna listen to it because your voice is just so relaxing and calming. And I like like live in my head for a second because I don't think I'm a calm person. I don't think I'm a relaxed person. And truly throughout the last few years, that's that's what I've been told. It's like, oh, you have such a calming presence, or you have such a laid-back vibe, or you you're just it's all so calming and I just feel relaxed. And thank you. Thank you so much for telling me that. But it was such a weird compliment because I would get that from people who knew me actually in person and they would message me on Facebook, like people that weren't even in the business world, like people that I went to high school with. They were like, oh my gosh, like I would totally listen to a podcast if you ever started one. I got that from people who were my clients, people who were my business friends, people I've never met in person. And it was just, it was so interesting to me. It was so interesting to me. So, like that, like definitely added some fuel. But I also was just like, I'm I don't want to start a podcast just because I'm gonna start a podcast. And so, like, I it's definitely I think like this project has definitely been in my mind, slowly burning in the back of my mind for a very long time. And it, I will say, is the most unique project I've ever worked on, and it is the slowest I've ever worked on a project ever before. What you see in my business, so from business coaching, and I many of you didn't know me when I literally started my business coaching, but some of you have been following my journey since then. And I launched my marketing agency in 2021, and that literally was I'm going to do this. I'm gonna send an email out to my closest clients or and business friends, and I'm gonna be like, hey, I want to start doing lead generation and engagement, and I'm starting this at a very low price. If anyone wants to try it out with me, let's just do it. I had five people sign up, and my my agency was essentially born, and I was doing it for such a low cost. I was doing it for such a low, like very low. And that but that's how I got started. That's how it started, and then from there it just really steamrolled into word of mouth and doing all of those things. But just to point that out, is like I didn't establish systems or anything like that. I just kind of just did it. And the same thing goes with I would say like events, like so hosting my first dinner, I think I like I think I was like kind of like mulling over it for I and I think that was maybe another one that was like a slow burn and and I was waiting for the right moment to strike. And then I really did, I really do put a lot of effort into hosting events and retreats, but I think that I moved quicker on that decision than I did this podcast. So with my events, I think like I was also like going back and forth for a really long time. I actually did host, I guess, an event in 2020, right before COVID came and shut the world down. I I had a small intimate wine bar event with like five people in Chicago on a Saturday in February. It was like end of February 2020. And it was wonderful. We like I got to meet like some of my clients in person um that were also in Chicago, and I was living in Chicago at the time, and then COVID, you know, shut the world down. So did not host any more events. But from there, so I think that like my idea of wanting to host events kind of just went away because of the way of the world. And I was gonna have a retreat after a mastermind back in 2021, but that didn't happen because of COVID and you know restrictions, things like that. But I think then when I started going to events on my own, I just I I started having that feeling again. But then by the time I launched my first dinner, which was in February of 2025, I think I like decided that I'm gonna do this in November of 2024. And I think that was when I officially made that decision. So I didn't, I I acted pretty quickly on that, I would say. So my podcast though, my podcast was born out of just like what do I even want my business to look like? I know, like I I am very consistent with content. I'm very consistent with education, with workshops. If you've been here since I've had a Facebook group, I had a Facebook group since the start of my business and it it's still open. It's not active. There are some people that post in it every day. I just I don't I and I see the notifications. I don't post in it. I have not posted it in it probably over a year, and I'm I'm probably more than likely need to archive it at this point. But I grew it over to a thousand people. I was so religious and going live every Thursday at 4 p.m. Don't ask me why. 4 p.m. just worked for me, and it was really easy for me to do that during COVID because I worked from home for two and a half years. I didn't miss a Thursday unless there was like a holiday, like Thanksgiving's on a Thursday. So I did not miss. And I would do challenges, I would do lives, and people would be so engaged for how small that group was. And so I knew I had something special here where I was building relationships, but I know I'm so good at content and I know the consistency really paid off. And as I migrated over to Instagram a little bit more, I didn't have a way, like I would do masterclasses here and there, but you know, those aren't really consistent. And I started hosting events, but I'm like, what, you know, what is it that I want to create a podcast about? I don't want to create a podcast that is just education. I want to create a podcast that, you know, is something different. And I didn't have that idea yet. And I remember I posted on Instagram. I've definitely told this story before on my podcast, but you know, my podcast manager, her name's Liz Chapman. So shout out Liz Chapman. Look her up on Instagram, Liz Chapman Podcast Manager. She is one of my clients now. And she came, she actually I got to meet her in person. She came to the July Chicago retreat, which is so awesome. Um, so she and I have been connected for a really long time as well. She was in my Facebook group, she came to my train, like my trainings and my challenges and all of those things. And then, you know, once I moved over to Instagram, she kind of I think did two with her business. And we just stayed connected this whole time. And funny enough, like she was the only podcast manager I truly was like connected with or had some sort of relationship with. So like I would refer my clients to her. And my clients hired her even before I even worked, like worked with her or hired her. But she gave me the best advice. I remember I posted on Instagram stories one day, and I'm like, all of you keep telling me I need to start a podcast. Because I was getting a lot of people messaging me, like, you should start a podcast, you need to start a podcast. But I'm not going to start a podcast that's just marketing tips and lead generation tips. I don't want to just do that. I always want to do things differently. And so she messaged me and just said, you have to wait until you love your idea because that's what's going to keep you going every single time you need to press record. And I was like, okay, like thank you for that advice. And that stuck with me for really like a good year, I feel. And then one day I just decided, like, I think it was definitely like December 2024, January 2025. And I remember I went to a coffee shop and co-worked with one of my really good business friends. Her name is Britney Good, socially good social media marketing agency person, definitely local to Northwest Indiana, but she definitely gives some good tips. So shout out to Britney Good. She sat with me and we came up with this name, Business Over Cocktails. So shout out to Britney helping me with my podcast name. And I told her my idea. And, you know, she's just like super like, hey, yeah, like that's such a good idea, like rooting for me, all of the things. So I went, I'm like, okay, I have a name. And then I remember it was actually what it was like, it was actually like rewinding back a little bit. It was New Year's Eve 2024. I like I didn't have any calls. We we ended up going somewhere, like just to a friend's house nearby that evening for like a little party. And Danny was still only like a year and a half old, so we didn't stay very late. But she, but I remember just sitting with Chat GBT and just like trying to come up with names, trying to come up with concepts, trying to come up with an idea. Um, and I really banged it all out that night. And then when I met up with Britney like a couple weeks later, we came up with a name. And then I'm like, okay, like I don't know what I want to do first. So then I had to like research microphones and I still need a better camera. By the way, that's another thing. All of these should be on YouTube. All of these episodes I have, over a hundred episodes, they will be on YouTube one day. I promise you. But they're not currently. I do record video for all of these, and most of the time we all look really great and presentable. But yeah, this hasn't been, these haven't been on YouTube yet. But anyways, so I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I my idea was I wanted to do a podcast where I was just having deep conversations with my business friends. And I think that's what it has become. But then I'm also expanding into getting to know people that I find to be very interesting. So I started out with just interviewing like my friends, like my closest business friends. And one of my closest friends was, I think, one of the first within the first 10 episodes. I knew I wanted to interview my husband eventually, which I just did to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary and talked about our business, which also, yeah, part two of that episode is coming out in September. If you haven't listened to the first part of that episode, it came out at the end of July. We talked about like my business and what he kind of thought of all of this stuff too. And um, it was a really good conversation. But, anyways, I like business over cocktails was born from like, you know, for me, I love going to like really swanky, almost like private, not very busy cocktail bars. So if you think of like a speakeasy and you're sitting in like a velvet booth or a very nice corner table, and those are my favorite things. That is like my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world is like go to a cocktail bar where you have very vibey music. It's not too loud. There aren't it's not like busy enough to where people are standing, but like you hear like the hum of the room, and you just feel like everyone is kind of in their own little world. You have a very good, like expertly made cocktail, which is delicious, and you're in a very dimly lit bar or cocktail bar. And that is honestly like my favorite thing I ever did with my husband was like our my favorite dates always had like after dinner drinks or something, and we're at like a martini bar or a cocktail bar, and we get into the best conversations. So that and that was something I really discovered that I love because uh yeah, of course, like you love to go, like I love to go out, I love to go to a speakeasy, I love to go to a bar like that or have a good martini and and like be left alone. Like that's a part that I love, but also it makes the it's like the ambiance of like, yeah, like this is really this is a really cool way to like get to know each other really well. And I feel like I've had the best conversations and atmospheres like that. And so that's where like this idea was born from is that I really one day goal is to do that at an environment like that, and we don't necessarily have to like drink cocktails, but it's that is the vibe of what I want this podcast to become. So the question becomes well, how do I do that virtually right now? Because I don't have, you know, we don't have a production to go to a speak easy or build a set that looks like that. Well, I wanted it to be, okay, what is the basis of this? The basis of this is to really get deep into conversation with my guests, regardless of how well I know them or not. And I want, I want my my I want people to come on the podcast to ready to be like ready to dig deep and not just like talk about why did you start your business? Like, why are you a marketing coach or why are you a hypnotherapist or what brought you to this? It's I want to know like the real, real stuff. And we are gonna go deep and we are gonna talk about stuff. And of course, like if there's really deep trauma you don't want to talk about, that's totally fine. But it's this, this is designed to go deeper in those conversations. And I feel like every single step of the way, I'm getting better as an interviewer. And I, you can disagree or agree on that. If you've been a listener for a year, I am really that is something I am actively working on is how do I ask better questions than traditional podcasts or traditional interviews? And that also comes from that that is born from a need of mine. I like listening to podcasts where they're interviewing my favorite celebrities, but they're not asking questions. Because, you know, someone can go on a press tour for a movie and you watch 10 different interviews. It could be, you know, they're on all of the late night shows, or they're on some YouTube channel interviews, or they're on some podcasts. And a lot of times the questions are the same, but some of my favorite podcast people are, you know, they're just they were normal people that started a podcast, and now their podcasts have grown huge. One of my favorites is um Amanda Hirsch from Not Skinny But Not Fat. I love, love, love how she interviews. I aspire to be like that, where it needs to be an organic conversation and it's just gonna go wherever. She asks really great questions, and every single time she's asking questions, it's they they aren't questions that you hear or have ever been asked. And she's had some of my favorite people on there or people that are popular and have done millions of interviews over the years. And so that is what I from the get-go, that is what I wanted this podcast to be. So here we are a year later, and I don't know. What did I where did I expect to be in a year? I actually didn't have a goal. I wanted to start, and so I started recording episodes in March of 2025. I did not officially launch until August of 2025. And I was like, I'm recording this episode now. I think it's next week. Next week I have an episode coming out that was recorded last fall. That's how many episodes I baked. And there were some episodes that were moved around. And um, there are actually a couple episodes, like weirdly enough, that can't get a hold of the guests. They just kind of fell off the face of the earth, which is so random. Like, don't go on a podcast if you're not gonna follow through. There's your like little like spice right there. Is if you it's such, it's like I spent, you know, for me, a recording is 90 minutes. Um, so I spent 90 minutes with this person and we talk and we, you know, they they're definitely they took up another spot, right? And so then it's a lot of work to try and chase people down and have your podcast edited. You know, it's a I have a podcast manager. I had a VA that was helping me for a while with the podcast, and it's just really crazy that you just kind of go to people and don't want to be on that episode anymore. It's like don't go on it in the first place, do your research. But and for whatever reason, can't find these people anymore. But I think I think that's I think that's like something weird that I learned over the years. It's like, okay, like this episode's gonna be scrapped or whatever, and I can't like like this this is just like junk now. And and it's just like it, it's just as simple as like this was a waste of time. But I I guess that also kind of happens when then you bank episodes so far in advance, like things can change, which I understand. Businesses can fail or whatever it is. So that was a lesson I learned. And so I actually like I didn't have a problem with batching episodes, but I think that it's more enticing first if I'm gonna start asking people to come on my podcast, which I am in the position to do now because I don't have as many banked anymore. I'm I want it to be only like a two or three month advance. So I stopped, I just stopped just saying yes to everybody. What's interesting too is as a new podcast, I realized that I get a million pitches. Um and I asked my podcast manager about that. And she's like, well, like you're a newer podcast, so like people think that you don't have guests or you know, you you don't have a guest list that's very long. And so I do get a ton of pitches, and I get a lot of people I've never come in contact with. I get a lot of pitches just from the person themselves or PR agencies, and I've had a few people on here already that have pitched themselves, but this is a little lesson too. I'm a very good person to I I pitch myself very well. That's what I'm trying to say. I pitch myself very well. I have a very good pitch email. I come off very like authentic in me. Like I write it like I'm not following a script or anything, and I get a lot of yeses from my pitches and I'm I do my research, right? And so I think then it's exhausting on my end because I'm the one reading people's pitches when they email me and they just like have no idea what the podcast is about. They have no idea what the podcast is about, they have no idea what like I'm trying to do here. And I put that on myself a little bit because I'm like, okay, well, it's business over cocktails. Did they actually listen to the podcast? Doesn't seem like they did, but. But I also then develop this complex of like, do people understand what the mission of this is? Because then also we have our business chaser episodes, which are educational and we release twice a week, which is, I think, also very ambitious for a new podcast, for a new podcast person, I should say. But I think that I am more willing to say no a lot easier, especially when it's people that I've never heard of. I also like I've had people pitch me and it's their assistance, but it's people that I know. And and not and I don't know them very well, but I as someone who pitches for other people and as someone who trains people to pitch for me, that is something I make sure that they know. Like, hey, like, don't pitch this person, or hey, like I will talk to this person. When you have a personal relationship with someone, you should be very careful with like, oh yeah, ha ha ha ha. I shouldn't like pretend I don't know you, right? Like that's gonna decrease your chances of getting on their podcast, anyways. So I think like I think a year in I'm actually very surprised with how many pitches I get every single week. I'm surprised, some other things I'm surprised about is the episodes that have performed really well. I've had people who um have had very large followings and seem to have a very engaged community on social media. And those episodes don't perform well. When I have the the episodes that have actually performed really well. So if I look at my top five episodes, I think three of them are still my first episodes of where I tell my story and all of my stuff, which naturally those are gonna be better. But one of my top five episodes was something that was released in October of 2025, and it was all about just like social media, and it was with one of my former clients who's a marketing agency. Her name's Heidi Schmidt. She come, she's come to a couple of retreats. She, her episode is constantly in my top five episodes. And when you when we were recording, and then when we released the episode, it's just again another conversation about social media and content and marketing, but like storytelling in a way, and about her. But that episode constantly is in the top five, regardless of how long it's been. And that wasn't in one of the successions of like episodes. Another episode that did really well is someone who is local here. Her name is Jess Wards. She owns a nail salon here in Crown Point, Indiana. She does nail art, so not just someone that's gonna like paint your nails really pretty, but like really awesome nail art, like with gemstones and all of the things she can do it all. Um she was, she's I don't know, I don't know lately, but at the end of last year, I did a top 10 carousel. She was like the number seven episode. And again, that is a local business. She is known pretty far and wide. Like she's won awards, she travels, but again, it would it's surprising to me when I have someone who is nationally known with a very large audience, their episodes don't perform as well as somebody who like compared to these other two people. And um, you know, if you look at Heidi's Instagram, and this isn't to say anything, but it, you know, she openly is like, yeah, like I don't post consistently, and she doesn't have a large following. But our I guess whatever keywords or conversations that we had were really great and resonated with a bunch of people. So I think that was also surprising. Uh, I think then another thing that I want to talk about is like views and downloads. I am, I don't know how I feel about that. I guess again, I started out just to do this and have conversations and just to see where it goes. I didn't have goals to necessarily monetize. I didn't have goals to necessarily I need to get like X amount of downloads a month. I just really wanted to see. But I think going into year two, I have been making plans to make sure that I do monetize a little bit more. I do think that as far as like views and downloads, I really don't have any like frame of reference. I've had a couple clients that have had podcast episodes. Um, I have a client currently that has a podcast, and I believe she gets, she she tracks streams versus downloads. And she launched a couple months after I did, and she launches, I think, one episode a week. And so she gets, I think she gets maybe like the same amount of downloads or something, and she's in a completely different industry. But then I had another client for a long time where she was getting like 15,000 downloads a month, which that's not anything that I'm even near. So I think like when I look at the numbers as a whole, I don't really know because like everything's, I don't know, like again, I'm not really pushing for the numbers, but I think like as I continue to think about monetizing the podcast a little bit more and positioning it and you know, positioning it better, making it more clear, all of those things. I am I am gonna be looking at the numbers, I think, in year two. I think like I think I'm when you look at the numbers as a whole, right? And I see, you know, say like a thousand downloads. I hit a thousand downloads. I don't know when I hit that, because now we're close to like three or four thousand, I think now. But and that's lifetime right now. So when I look when I hit a thousand downloads, I think that was a huge thing. I was like, man, I think that might have been, I don't know when I hit that. I and I actually I'm just pulling numbers out of thin air right now. I have no numbers in front of me. So let me just say I'm just gonna use a thousand downloads. A thousand downloads when we hit that. I was like, wow, that's a thousand people that have listened to my voice. And if I think about it, there have been thousands of people that have listened to my voice. I've probably and I don't even know how many clients I've helped or like people have heard me on live streams or you know, all of those things aren't tracked exactly unless someone engages with you. More than a thousand people in my span of my business have heard me, which is really cool to think about. And you never really sit and think about that because we're so inundated with like likes and comments and views. And when I when I say, okay, it's my podcast that a thousand people have downloaded, and to download something is intentional. I think that's pretty cool when you when you picture a thousand people in a room or two thousand or three thousand. And then the other thing too is like streams always are a little bit more, so it's just like, you know, you think that only me is gonna like only myself is gonna listen to every episode. But there are people like you can kind of tell in the stats that you know, there'd be one day where there's you know, 50 downloads, and you can see that those 50 downloads were 50 different episodes. So you just you see someone come through and wants to listen to like and binge all of your episodes or download all their episodes. And so I think that's really cool that people are discovering it every single day still. And it and it doesn't matter, like it could be one episode that is speaking about the nail industry and one episode that's speaking about marketing and lead generation. Like we span a bunch of different industries because I have a bunch of different founders on here. It's not just marketing lead generation, or you have someone that is really welcomed in their community, and those episodes always do well. A couple weeks ago, I think it was last week, I had somebody who's a local like wellness and beauty clinic. It's like a spa, but she talks about like health and wellness and things like that as well, in addition to skincare and wellness and wellness stuff. And her episode performed better than some of my solo ones. Um, and again, I think it's just with how engaged you are in your community or just within your audience, and it the numbers don't even need to be there. Like you don't, if someone has 8,000 followers, you might not have that much engagement. So so I want to end with where do I want to go in year two? So year one, I think I learned, I think I learned a lot of foundations. It is a full-time job to do this. That's why I ended up hiring a podcast manager. I if I were you and you wanted to start a podcast, I would just make sure that, you know, there's a lot of tools now. I I use Riverside for recording. They have their own editing and hosting software now. When I started even a year ago, they did not host podcasts. Um, I think Riverside's great software. It edits your podcast episode, gives you your social media clips, can post to social media for you, um, can write captions, it automatically edits all of those things for you, um, records video, records audio. So I think Riverside's a really great platform to do it solo. I do think that if you have any other obligations in your business can financially support hiring a podcast manager or at least a virtual assistant to help you post or to help you edit something along those lines. I think that is something that you need to do. I think that as you go into this, don't expect to have a million downloads like off the off the bat. You very well could, but I think the best advice is what I'll give you is the advice that I was given is that you have to love your idea and don't just start a podcast to start a podcast. So I want to end this with where are we going in year two? So year two, I am prepared to be a little bit more intentional. I was very reactive with, hey, who wants to be on my podcast and just like recording. So now I'm being more intentional about who's gonna be on here, who do I want, and how can I position myself to then monetize the podcast a little bit more. My goal is to have some really cool guests on here, but also again, I want to have my friends on here, my business friends, and I want to have really good conversations that aren't just about why they built their business. We definitely will talk about that, but I want to talk about things that inspire other people, motivate other people, talk about real stories, what's going on behind the scenes, just more of that. And I know we've done a lot of that this past year. So being more intentional with the numbers, being more intentional with monetization. And I think I think that's all. I think, I think I want to have fun with it. Um, I'm not opposed to doing this in person one day. I'm not opposed to just keep doing what we're doing, but also to launch the YouTube channel. So then you can go back and relive all of these podcast episodes and you can see some of the reactions we have for some of the things. Like if you have a favorite episode, you can share that with me. If you've had a favorite guest, I would love to know that. But as I end this, I just want to say thank you for listening. I don't know if anyone has listened to every single episode. I think that is a mighty feat if you have, because I haven't even listened to every episode of mine yet. But I guess I've been here and I've been here to record them. Thank you all for, you know, in the beginning stages, rooting for me to have an episode or have a podcast because of my soothing voice, apparently. Thank you for the advice. Thank you for rooting for me. Thank you for listening. Thank you for accepting. Thank you for listening to episodes that you don't even know the guests and you're curious on their industry and taking a chance. And there are bajillions of podcasts you can be listening to, and we only have a certain amount of time in the day. And so I thank you for listening. Happy one year business over cocktails. It's only 11:30 right now, and I'm still needing coffee, so I'm not drinking a cocktail, but maybe one day I will get to while I record this podcast in person with a guest. And yeah, thank you all for yeah, just thank you all for accepting me as a podcast host. And thank you all for your enthusiasm to be a guest, to pitching, to all of the things. I appreciate you. And when this episode goes live, I'm gonna be doing something on my socials, especially on the business over cocktails Instagram. I I really want to hear feedback on your favorite episodes, your favorite things, what you like, what you don't like, what you would love to hear, if there's any guests you would love to hear, I want to know all of that. So if you want to message me, I'm either on the business over cocktails Instagram or at Lauren Najar on Instagram, or you can email me, laurenajar at laurenajar.com. I would absolutely love to hear what you're looking forward to in year two. If you want to be a guest, if you want to hear from a certain guest, because I'm ready to pitch myself to some really big guests coming here soon. And yeah, just thank you all for listening. I will be back later this week for our business chaser episode where I'm actually going to talk more strategically on things I would do differently when I launched my podcast. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Business Over Cocktails, where real stories and bold business moves come to life. If this episode lit something up in you, share it with a friend, tag me at Laurenajar or the podcast page at business over cocktails. Make sure to leave a quick review as well. It helps more than you know. Until next time, keep chasing what matters and building the business that feels like you. Cheers.