E50: Celebrating 50 Episodes

EPISODE 50

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:02] AW: You’re listening to the Transcend Podcast. I’m your host, Asha Wilkerson, an attorney by training and an educator at heart. This podcast is all about empowering you to build a business and leave a legacy. Here’s the thing; the wealth gap in America is consistently increasing, and while full-time entrepreneurship is not for everyone, even a side hustle can change your financial landscape if you’re intentional about using your business to build wealth. 

I’ve run my own law firm for over ten years and, in that time, I’ve helped countless California businesses go from idea to six figures. On this podcast, we talk about what it truly takes to build a sustainable business and find financial freedom. Let’s dive in.

[EPISODE]

[00:00:46] AW: Welcome back to another episode of Transcend the Podcast. I am so excited about this episode today because this, y’all, is my 50th episode! That means that I have been recording this podcast and have produced 50 episodes. I mean, I’ve been to the gym 50 times, but I certainly haven’t been to the gym 50 times this year, right? What else? I mean, geez. I’ve gone dancing 50 times, but probably not 50 times this year. Just getting to the number 50 is a huge feat, and I’m really excited to share this win and this victory with you. 

Now, I will say that I haven’t produced a podcast every week and that was the intention when I first started out, but nevertheless, I kept going. So, what I’m going to do in today’s episode is I’m going to give you three lessons that I learned in the process of creating 50 episodes. Then, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite episodes. I made a list. There are a number of them that I really enjoy. Most of the ones that I list are episodes where I’m interviewing other folks, because I love to just pull out their stories, but then I have one more that is a solo episode. I can’t wait to share that one with you as well. So, buckle up, tune in. I won’t keep you too long, but I can’t wait to share. 

Alright, so here are some of the lessons that I learned. I’m going to give you three and the first one that I learned is that consistency is more powerful than motivation. Oftentimes, we think that we have to be motivated to do something. I need to be motivated to go to the gym. I need to be motivated to write this email. I need to be motivated to call these clients, but motivation often comes after taking action. I don’t know about you, but I’m not always motivated to go to the gym. I’m not always motivated to sit down in front of the microphone. I’m not always motivated to sit there and write the emails. But guess what? It’s the discipline and the consistency that makes me show up anyway, even when motivation is fleeting. Motivation is a feeling. I’m feeling motivated. I’m feeling excited. 

As we all know, especially entrepreneurs, motivation ebbs and flows, feelings ebb and flow. One day, you’re going to be super excited. Next day, something’s going to happen. I don’t know, your sink springs a leak, and you just don’t feel like sitting down to do what you need to do. The feeling doesn’t matter as much as the ability to show up. Then, before you know it, you’ll have 50 episodes. Before you know it, you’ll have more clients. Before you know it, you’ll have all your emails written for the month ahead of time. Before you know it, you’ll be doing the things that you need to do anyway and you’ll be proud of yourself for being consistent and for sticking with it, even when you didn’t quite feel like it. 

I think that’s probably one of the hardest things to really let sink in. Maybe, I guess athletes probably know this, right? Like you show up even when you don’t feel like it, because someone else is waiting on you and you show up for yourself even when you don’t feel like it. I think really in this world of instant gratification in the social media world, Instagram is full of images and now videos that show people living the good life, but it doesn’t show what people are going through or are experiencing behind the scenes. It doesn’t really talk about, they don’t really show us how people decide to show up when the feeling’s not there. 

I mean, everything, we put our best lives right out there for the public and, of course, this business always feels good. Of course, why would I be doing it if it didn’t feel good? That’s not always true. Sometimes you have to stay consistent, because you know that your goals are waiting and ready for you even when you don’t feel motivated. So, that is lesson number one, consistency is more powerful than motivation. It’s important for you to put your systems in place to help you show up consistently, even when you don’t feel motivated. 

Lesson number two is to plan ahead. There’s no way that I could have reached 50 episodes if I didn’t record some of them, many of them, most of them in advance. The times where I got behind, and was just one episode ahead, it added a different level of stress, because the reason why I was behind, because life was life-ing, right? Life was happening. There were things, distractions that came up or maybe not even just distractions. It was just other things that I needed to handle. You all know that I work a full time job as a community college professor and educator and also run my practice, my own business just about full time as well, and try to have fun, and try to take care of myself, and get some rest, and go to the gym. 

My time is often pre-scheduled and taken up by a lot of different things. So, planning ahead is really, really important. Here are the things that I plan ahead for. I meet with my podcast editor. You heard an episode from [inaudible 00:05:16] a couple weeks ago. We plan out the episodes for the month in advance. Sometimes we plan out six weeks in advance, and then I record as many as I can. 

Now, sometimes I will wait to feel motivated to record those episodes, only because I’m recording them in advance. Even when I’m not feeling motivated, I make sure that I put it on the calendar to do, so that I can stay consistent. When I am recording episodes with guests, or when I meet people or think that they would be great folks to have on the podcast, I record the episode without knowing necessarily when I’m going to put it into the lineup. That planning ahead is key. It’s critical. I’m sure you all know that as business owners: plan ahead. 

The other areas of my life where I plan ahead are my emails and my social media content. I try and get my emails done. Actually, currently, I’m behind on the emails for the rest of this month. I’m going to, as soon as I stop recording, I’m going to write the emails for the rest of July, but my social media content and my emails, I try to do about two weeks before the new month starts. So, I do it halfway through the previous month, so that I can have that space during the month so that I can just support. If I put out an email and then want to follow up with something, I can just do the follow up without having to think and to create in the moment. So, planning ahead is really, really important. 

I plan ahead for what bills I’m going to pay, I plan ahead for what money I’m going to put into savings, I plan ahead for what investments I’m going to make, I plan ahead for what things I need to buy, I plan ahead for what trips I want to take. To be honest though, one area I need to plan ahead better is for vacation, for time off. I’m feeling right now like I just need to take some time off. I did not look at my schedule and decide to put time off on the calendar ahead of time. So, now I don’t really have time to take time off before the semester starts. I’m kicking myself, because, of course, who knew better? I absolutely knew better. Plan ahead! It’s really important. 

Lesson number three is to be stubborn about your goals, but be flexible about your methods. I have pivoted a couple of times on this podcast because my goal was to get and create more awareness for Black and brown business owners. To share tips with you all of how to get started in business, how to grow your business, how to use your business to build wealth, but the methods I have used to do that have changed and ebbed and flowed with whatever was going on presently in my life. 

Initially, I started out with video podcasts. I was very curated in terms of what was coming up next and matching it to the Transcend schedule, our coaching call schedule, doing all of that. Then it started to feel like, well, maybe this audience needs something a little bit different. So, I allowed myself to be flexible about how I wanted to get there. I took inventory, because I was recording videos as well. Spending a lot of money and a lot of time and effort on creating the videos and the videos weren’t getting very many views. So, I decided to pivot and now it’s just an audio only podcast. You will still see snippets of this podcast over an image or on an audiogram file on Instagram. If you happen to check it out there just to create awareness. I decided that if I wasn’t getting the return, that I wanted to be flexible about the methods that I was going to use to raise awareness. 

Now, it’s interesting, because maybe you’re like this too, but a lot of my friends just love to watch YouTube. Love to watch podcasts on YouTube and I don’t. I really don’t like it. I just like listening to podcasts, so I can go walk around, I can exercise while I’m listening to podcasts. I can drive while I’m listening to podcasts. There’s something about video that makes me feel like I need to sit down and watch it. Instead of trying to fit myself into a box that really isn’t for me, I decided just to go with the things that I like to do, because even though other people might like to watch videos, if I don’t like to watch videos, maybe I’m not showing up with the energy that I need to be on video. 

I’m going to go back to just – I am, I have gone back to just using my voice to spread the word and to try a few different methods. Again, my goal is to share this information with you and my community, our communities in a way that is easily accessible, but the methods that I do that may change based on either what’s going on in life, how it’s received, what new technology is out. It’s being flexible, so that I can actually get to the goals, because if I keep doing the same thing and not getting the result, that’s the definition of insanity, right? Isn’t that what Einstein said; doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. 

Again, lesson number three, be stubborn about your goals, but be flexible about your methods. Just to recap, lessons learned. One, consistency is more powerful than motivation. Two, plan ahead. Three, be stubborn about your goals, but flexible about the methods. I promise you’ll get to where you were trying to go. Now I can’t wait to tell you about my favorite episodes in the 50 that I have recorded so far. I’m such a baby podcaster, but again, I am just really, really excited to share this with you. 

My first episode that I recorded with a guest is one of my favorites. It’s episode number five, go and look it up. It’s called Building Wealth Through Your Passion with Jannese Torres-Rodriguez. Jannese created Yo Quiero Dinero Podcast and she started podcasting after she started building wealth using a blog. She was a food blogger, is a food blogger and realized that she was making money from her food blog and then took an inventory of her life. Decided she didn’t want to work in corporate America anymore. I think she was a researcher a scientist and decided that she wanted to be able to create her own income and wealth. 

Got curious about how to build wealth and started recording her journey and interviewing people that she thought would be great to help along that journey and created an awesome dynamic podcast. I love listening to her podcasts. So, check out episode number five on this podcast, right here, Building Wealth Through Your Passion with Jannese Torres-Rodriguez, and then go check out her podcast as well, Yo Quiero Dinero. 

Number two, the second episode that I love, this is in order of how they’re recorded, is episode number 23. It’s A Case Study on Intentional Business Growth with my friend Ariana Gil. Now Ariana and I have known each other for a couple years through the Cuban salsa scene right here in the Bay Area. She started a business she was a contractor for a couple of institutions that do DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion work. I think now there’s belonging on the end of that. She came to me and asked me, okay, “I’m going to start my business, but I’m not quite sure what to do.” So we’ve worked together, she’s a member of the Transcend Business Coaching Community. 

I love her story, because she has been intentional every step of the way about building her business. Even when there was some doubt, she took the steps necessary anyway, and just blew her income goals and her investment goals out of the water in her first and second year of business. So, take a look at that podcast and listen to that podcast. That’s number 23, A Case Study On Building Intentional Business Growth with Ariana Gil. 

My third favorite podcast is number 29. This one is Looking Ahead to 2022 with Leslie Tagorda. Now we recorded this podcast in December of 2021. You are listening in 2022 Leslie is a business astrologer. So, she is an astrologer who studies the stars and the planets and understands the energy and the pull between all of the planets and uses her astrology talent to help business owners determine how they need to show up in business, who their ideal customers are, and also what their message is that they need to share with the world. She is extremely talented. 

Leslie was giving not so much a prediction, but reading the alignment of the planets to see what it was going to happen for 2022. When I tell you all she was right on, she was like, we’re not quite out of this COVID thing yet. The world still has some stuff to figure out and she was spot on. If you want to talk about somebody who is divinely inspired and has some divine talent and has studied her craft and learned how to use it to spread light and encouragement with business owners, definitely take a look at listen to that episode. That is number 29. Actually, I’m just going to go back and listen to just review and refresh and see what she said to look out for, so that maybe I can use that to help understand what’s going on right now as well. 

All right, number four in terms of my favorite episodes so far is number 34, The Genius Behind ElectroSpit with Bosko Kante. Now, this is one of my favorite episodes, not just because Bosko is from Portland, Oregon, where I am also from, but just because of the energy that Bosko brought along with him to the podcast episode. He started out DJing, he won some turntables in middle school, he said on the podcast, and then started DJing and then started creating beats and has worked with a number of artists from Kanye West to E-40 to different people that we all know especially if you’re from our generation, right? This millennial generation, the older side of the millennial generation, you will definitely recognize some folks that he has worked with. 

He also co-created the theme song for In Living Color, if you are African American in the United States and grew up or was aware of TV in the 90’s, yeah, the 90’s and you definitely know In Living Color. It is a cultural icon for Black folks. He co-created the theme song for that. He also created the intro music that we use for this podcast, but I really love Bosko’s story, because it is really a story of using the talent that he had and the passion that he had and then adapting with the times. So, when music went to iTunes and was able to be streamed that totally changed the music industry. Then he pivoted and decided that he wanted to create something that was unaffected by streaming, that artists could use everywhere. So, that’s how he came up with ElectroSpit, which is taking off, has taken off, and it’s super successful. So take a listen to episode number four, The Genius Behind ElectroSpit with Bosko Kante. 

Now number five, my fifth and final favorite episode is number, it’s episode number 41. Episode number 41, Talking Business And Product Design with Candice Cox. Candice is a good friend of mine. I met Candice after she started her jewelry line called CanDid Art Accessories, and have loved watching her business grow and take off over time. Now, I interview a lot of folks who have service-based businesses or are consultants. Candice is a little bit different in that she has designed a product, but what I really took away from Candice’s episode is the grind and the hustle and the tenacity that she had when she was getting her business, her products, her jewelry into market. 

She was un-shy about taking her jewelry with her and stopping into jewelry stores and setting up appointments and just popping up and saying, “Hey, here are some samples. Here’s what we’ve got going on.” She’s from Oakland, California, so you know she has that hustle with her. She is also selling her jewelry in the Museum of African American History in Washington DC the Smithsonian Museum. That is huge. She had a baby and pivoted to create a kid’s line. She has a few items for kids clothes, some jackets, some jumpers, some shirt, some pants. They are beautiful, and she has hand sketched all of the drawings. 

She has also created a home decor line, but she started out with her main thing being jewelry and that still is her main thing. Then, used her passions and her knowledge and expertise that she gained with the jewelry to expand her line to home decor and children’s clothing. Listen to that episode. Again, it’s episode 41, Talking Business and Product Design with Candice Cox. When you need some inspiration, when you’re just starting out, or even if you’re just trying to figure out how to get to the next level, Candice is your girl. Take a listen for that. 

Those are the five favorite episodes. I actually have one more that is a bonus episode that I recorded as a solo show. It just came out last week. If you haven’t listened to it yet, go ahead and listen to it. This one is definitely a more vulnerable episode for me. It’s episode number 49. It’s titled, Is Shame Holding You Back? I have been doing a lot of deep work over the past couple of years, even more so in the spring of this year. I’m a certified neurocoach. Now, in one of the coaching sessions that I had, where I was being coached this question of shame came up. I really sat with shame, and journaled about shame, and took a look at where does shame come up for me? How am I letting shame hold me back? Am I letting shame hold me back? Where does it hold me back? 

What I realized for myself is that shame creates this judgment that I have, so sometimes, it’ll make me not go all the way in, because what if I don’t make it and I might feel shameful for not making it? What if I mess up? I don’t want to feel shameful for messing up and misspeaking or saying something incorrect? What if I do it and I look funny and I have egg on my face? So, anyway, it’s a beautiful episode, the one right before this, if you haven’t listened to it. Talks about how shame can be holding you back and I’ll give you a little meditation at the end of that. I am really proud of myself for that episode. 

The bonus episode is number 49, Is Shame Holding You Back? That is all I have for you today. I am, as you can tell, super proud of myself for being consistent enough to get to 50 episodes. I can’t wait to continue to bring you content through this podcast. Please do me a favor, if you are on Apple podcasts. I think it’s called – I don’t listen through Apple, but Apple podcasts or Google podcasts. If you can rate and review this podcast, I would really, really appreciate it. Your feedback is super helpful and means a lot in terms of the rankings. 

Also, if you wouldn’t mind taking a screenshot of your phone while you’re listening to this episode, and then posting it on social media and tagging me, I would be forever, forever grateful. My goal is to help Black and Latinx, Black and brown business owners to build a business that is capable of leaving a wealth legacy. You are part of that mission. You are part of that process of spreading the word. So, don’t keep it just for yourself. Share it with the world. We all have the ability to build a business that’s capable of leaving a legacy and there’s space and room for all of us.

Alright, enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you back here next week for episode 51. Ciao.

[END]