E 261 How Podcasting Changed Me in 5 Years

 🎉 I’m celebrating 5 years of podcasting! In this episode, I’m sharing the 5 biggest lessons I’ve learned after showing up behind the mic every single week for half a decade.

These lessons aren’t just about podcasting—they’re about creativity, resilience, and personal growth. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like to keep a podcast going long-term (or you just want some inspiration for your own journey), this one’s for you.

✨ Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

Why I’m not lazy (and what I discovered about consistency).

How podcasting revealed my hidden creativity.

The pivots I resisted—but needed to grow.

What it’s like to create something that didn’t exist before.

Why success is never a straight line.

👉 Whether you’re a podcaster, a creator, or just someone navigating change, these lessons will encourage you to keep going, even when the path isn’t perfect.

💡 If you enjoy this episode, don’t forget to hit follow and share it with a friend who could use some encouragement today.

🔗 Learn more about my work with teens and parents: https://www.betterregulatethannever.com/ 

 Struggling with anxiety in your family? If anxiety is causing tension, fights, or disconnect in your home, you don’t have to face it alone. I help parents bring more peace, confidence, and connection to their families. Let’s talk—schedule a free consultation today or email me: ccoufal@cynthiacoufalcoaching.com

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Email me: ccoufal@cynthiacoufalcoaching.com
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Transcript

[00:00:00] Have you ever felt stuck where you were just questioning your abilities and wondering if you could really start something from scratch? Maybe you want to be an entrepreneur or you wanna write a song, or learn to play an instrument, or become the president of a club or the captain of a team. Well, five years ago I launched this podcast and it transformed my life in ways that I obviously would've not never imagined, because when we try to create something or start something, we don't really know what the end.

Product or what's gonna happen even a year after that. But now, five years have happened and I've been a full-time producer of this show. I've done all the editing, the creating, the, [00:01:00] figuring out so many things. I'm, I'm a solopreneur, like everything I do in my business, besides the podcast and the YouTube channel.

The coaching and the parent support and the workshops and everything I do. I create everything on my own, and I have learned, well, I've learned a lot of lessons, but since this is a five year anniversary, I'm going to tell you about the five lessons that I've learned in these five years of podcasting.

And my promise to you is that by the end of this podcast, you will have some insights into how these five lessons can, can apply to your journey and what you're doing.

I hope it will help you to stop doubting your own insecurity, [00:02:00] creativity. Understand that sometimes we need to pivot or change, and that success just means showing up and doing the thing, whatever it is that you wanna do. So let's dive into the first lesson. My first lesson that I learned is I am not lazy.

And for many years I said that I was lazy. And I said that because I love relaxing. I love naps. I love reading books. I love watching tv. I love video games. All of these things are pretty much sedentary activities. I get so excited at the end of a workday, and what this is, what's so crazy is that my job is sedentary.

I sit here writing my episodes, editing my videos, recording my videos, coaching teens, coaching their parents, [00:03:00] teaching webinars. I mean, I am networking with people. Everything is done right here. Setting in a seat. I probably set. I don't know, 10 hours a day. Obviously I get up to go to the bathroom, get a snack, eat lunch, whatever.

But almost everything is done sitting here. And what I cannot wait for the end of the work day to do is to read, watch a video, take a nap. I mean, like, so I love. Nonphysical activity, but that's not good for my health, my mental health or my physical health, and I know that. And so I've just always said I'm lazy.

And I, I mean, I'm lazy. Like I don't wanna go do movement things. I have to force myself to do those things. And also when I was in high school, some in in college also, I, people would spend [00:04:00] like a whole weekend working on a paper or studying for a test or even like, they were like, I never slept the whole time I was working on the stuff.

And I was always like. Well, Sunday night at six, I just wrote it or I just looked at my notes or, you know, whatever it was and, and I used to think, oh, I must be lazy because I didn't spend the whole weekend. But really my brain just processed the information differently. And so instead of saying that I was lazy, it's just like how I prioritize my time because I didn't need a whole weekend to study for a test or write a paper.

So when you think about. All the Tuesdays in five years, I never missed an episode. I, there has always been one up. I've not even really replayed too many. I think maybe in year three of the anniversary I did like the best of series for a couple of weeks where I took clips from different ones and kind [00:05:00] of just put them together in a, like over a theme or something.

And. That was fun to do, but, and I didn't have to like come up with new content, but it was still like I had to create those videos. I had to find the clips, I had to put them together, I had to put the videos together. So none of it's been lazy. And I finally realized, I don't say I am lazy anymore. I am prioritizing my time according to how I deal with things.

And our brains want to be sedentary. Our brains want to expel as little energy as possible, and that's part of our genetic makeup. And a lot of us have to make ourselves do the things that need to be done around our house or you know, the taxes or. Exercising or whatever because our body really doesn't wanna do those things.

So I I am not lazy. I've said that forever, but it's definitely not, I'm really not lazy and I've [00:06:00] proved that to myself over these five years. The second big lesson is I am creative and I always thought that being creative meant that you. Were painting a picture or you were writing a song or you were, I don't, there's so many things that you could be, you know, just something artistic or something.

I, I never thought about myself as creative. I always felt like I wasn't creative. 'cause I like a recipe, I like a checklist. And to me, creative people just take a blank canvas and out of nowhere. They're creating something, and I feel like I can't do that. But when I think about, I wrote these episodes, I created the, the, the promo graphics that went along with it.

There's, there's just so much creativity in creating this whole business, creating [00:07:00] the podcast. Everything I do is creative and I, I now call myself a digital artist. I went to an art class where you learn to draw.

I, I think it was last year, I took a couple of lessons in drawing and he asked the class, you know, who here is? I think he said, who is already an artist or something like that. And I would've never said that I was an artist ever in my life, but I immediately said. I'm a digital artist because of the graphics that I have to create for the podcast and for the different episodes or maybe something that I'm promoting or now YouTube thumbnails.

That's like a huge thing, like how you create 'em, what you put on 'em. And so all of that is, I am a digital artist and I just never would've thought about that before. Now I love Canva because they kind of take away the blank canvas part for me 'cause I [00:08:00] don't, I'm pretty sure I still couldn't just click.

A blank square and put the stuff on it and make it look good. I love the templates because some graphic artist who is good at that created how they put it together. I just look for the ones that I aesthetically please me, and then I put my own colors and pictures and ideas or, you know, move things around or whatever.

And I'm definitely a recipe person. Like I couldn't just take ingredients and make something. I'd have to. Like, see what, how do you put them together? Or if there's a whole box of Legos, I like to have the instructions or the pictures so I can see what they used and then I can put stuff together.

But like just taking those blocks and making something, I'm like, I have no idea how to do that. And that's okay. I used to think there was that that meant there was something bad about me, that I couldn't do it, and now I realize it's just. I am a creative person. I'm just creative in a different way, and [00:09:00] that's okay.

A third lesson that I learned is that change or pivots are okay and actually needed when you're building something. And so when I started this podcast, I'm gonna move the microphone around 'cause I can't, I hate it when it's like hitting my face. When I started this podcast, I named it Better Regulate Than Never.

And if you've been listening for five years, you remember I used to say, you know. Hello. This is better regulate than ever. I actually don't remember what I said, but I said the same thing every time, but I loved that name. It's so cute. And my podcast originally was four teens about emotional regulation.

Not just anxiety, but any emotions. How do you regulate your emotions? Because after 31 years of working in the school system. And having thousands of kids in my office, I knew that if they could regulate their emotions, then they could do [00:10:00] anything. And they didn't know that how to regulate their emotions or they didn't know they could regulate them.

And so I'm like, oh my gosh, every young person needs this information. And I still believe that like every. Every human needs this information, but especially young people because they have a longer time to use that information and they will know how to regulate before they ever even have kids, which is a whole nother thing, but.

If you don't know how to regulate your emotions, and then you have kids and their emotions are unregulated and yours are unre, it's kind of a big mess. The same thing happens in school with educators. If educators don't know how to regulate themselves and then the students are dysregulated, dysregulated, adults cannot help.

Dysregulated kids get regulated. And so anyway, the there was so much of that going on and so better regulate than never is just, it's just so cute. I still love that title so much. [00:11:00] So that's how I started. And it, you know, I was like, this is so cute and clever and this is exactly what I wanna do, whatever.

And then over the first three years of my podcast, you know, it, it grew because I. It just was consistent and it was out there. But lots of podcast strategists or people that help you grow your podcast would tell me you need to change your name. And I was just so married to that name. I loved it so much, and it was just so.

I mean, I named my LLC better regulate than never LLC, like everything about my life and that my business was better regulate than ever. And then I just decided after hearing this over and over again and my podcast growth was just, you know, just always staying just steady. It was never actually growing.

I decided, okay, so, you know, I talked to a strategist again. I'm like, okay, I'm ready to change my name. [00:12:00] So let's talk about like what in the world would that even be? And they were like, well, what, of all your clients and the people that talk to you about your work or your podcast, what are they mostly asking you about?

And I realized that most people were talking about and asking about anxiety and. He said, okay, it needs to be some that in the title, it has to have something about anxiety. And I was like, oh my gosh. So I spent, you know, a week or so, like really putting different names and words together. And I finally came up with the teen anxiety maze because I feel like anxiety to parents and to kids feels like I don't know how to get through this thing.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. Where am I supposed to go? Which direction do I go? And so it totally made sense and I love. I love that name now I'm, and, and it totally made a difference. Like I couldn't believe that just changing the name, everything changed about how many people were [00:13:00] listening and, and you can see when you look at a graph of, you know, my downloads and listens over the years, it just jumped.

Exponentially in like three or four months just changing the name because people then knew, oh, I'm, I'm looking up about teen anxiety. Oh, well here's a podcast called the Teen Anxiety Maze. And it really did make a difference. So change and pivots are really important and actually help you grow. The other pivot, the other big pivot that I made in these five years is that I started this podcast for, I was talking to teens.

I was talking to my own 15-year-old self who needed this information so badly. And every kid that has ever been in my office or ever been. On my caseload, like they all needed this information. So I was talking to that teen across the desk from me about emotional regulation and I still, again, I still think that's super important, but what I found out, I mean, kids would tell me, 'cause I would [00:14:00] ask them at school.

'cause I started this when I was still working full-time in a school. I. Would say to kids, I said, Hey, do you like podcasts? You listen to 'em. They're like, oh my gosh. Yes, I love 'em. I listen to 'em. It's so great. Well, they're not listening to self-help podcasts. They're listening to true crime and comedy and entertainment, whatever, and I totally get it.

I love those too, but they. Kids are not looking for self-help. And I think part of it is because they don't feel like they have any control over that one because most of them are minors and their parents or teachers or whatever have so much power, or they feel like they have so much power over them that it's like, well, I can't do anything about how I feel because.

You know people, other people have control of me when really they have total control over how they feel, and I still want them to know that. But because they weren't listening and their parents were listening, or my friends who were educators were listening and still getting [00:15:00] the information about anxieties so that they could talk to their kids or so that they could talk to their students in the classroom or in their counseling office, I decided.

I think the audience should be adults, parents, educators, people who are working with teens so that they can have the information because then they can teach it to their kid at home. They can teach it in their office. They can teach it in their classroom or at their church or wherever they're working with kids.

And so the audience changed to parents and educators for the most part. I really do hope I have some young people listening and please continue to listen because this is so important for you to hear. But I just felt like the people that are going to make this grow and the people that are gonna hire me as a coach are the adults.

And so and then I also went a lot to interview style and I, I never thought about having an interview style podcast, but. There were so many people that wanted to be guests, and they were [00:16:00] all so good, and they all had so much information that I didn't have that I thought, well, if I'm talking to parents and all these people wanna get in front of these parents, I want parents to know there's all these adults that they can turn to.

It's not just me though. I would love, I would be honored to be your child's, uh, your teen or young adults coach because I love working with young people, but. There are a lot of adults around, and there's also adults that are specializing in study skills or OCD or college entrance or grief or alcohol consumption or whatever.

And those are things that I'm not working on with people. So, you know, just find those people that you, that you need and, and use them. So pivots are good.

Lesson four, I love, I can create something where nothing was there before and. That is just like [00:17:00] mind blowing to me. And I mean, obviously we know that everything that we have in our lives that's been created wasn't there at one point and somebody created it and now we have it and pay for it or use it or whatever.

But we are also creating things in our lives. And sometimes, like when I was working in the school system, I never really thought about. You know, school already existed. My office already existed. School counseling already existed. I was just a person doing it and I was good at it, and I was really helping people, but I never felt like I was creating what I was doing.

It was just like a job that was there that I fulfilled. So building this business was like, this business didn't exist, this podcast didn't exist, and I thought something in my mind. And I created it and I made it a thing. And I just find that to be so fascinating. And I want every, I mean, every human can do this, and it doesn't, I mean, not like [00:18:00] some people don't wanna have a podcast or, or be an entrepreneur, which I totally get not wanting to be an entrepreneur because it is well that's my fifth lesson.

But it's, it is, uh, it's a wild ride. But every person can create something if they want to. From nothing and, you know, better regulate than never turned into the teen anxiety maze. And then, because I had the Teen Anxiety Maze podcast and I was already coaching kids, but I coaching teenagers and young adults, but I didn't have a program that I was like really running them through.

I was just kind of like helping 'em with whatever. It was kind of like general life coaching for teenagers. Because I really didn't have like a super focus. And so then when I changed to anxiety being the focus, and I ran a couple of what I called worry workshops. I did some live and then I did some virtually and I thought, I love how this, how the, [00:19:00] like.

I think there were eight. It was, I think it was eight weeks long. And then I also got UMAP certified, which is the assessment that I give all my clients that tells them their strengths, values, skills, and interests. And if you're, if you wonder about that, there's other episodes about that, but. So I got certified with that.

I was doing these worry workshops and I was like, oh my gosh, I wanna create a program that I run everybody through. And so I used the information that I had in my WORRY workshops and I made it into a program, and then I brought in the U Map to be part of that program. So I'm creating all of that, and then I called it the Anxiety Maze Navigator.

So anxiety is a maze. We don't know which way we're going. My coaching program helps you guide you through anxiety so that you figure out how to manage it. And now I have a parent program where [00:20:00] I'm helping support parents, and it's called Parenting Through the Maze. And so their. Parenting their young person through this anxiety maze.

So I love that all these things just came together and it was kinda like a progression of things. And you had to have one thing before you had the other thing. And I just love the idea of creating something where nothing was before. And then the fifth lesson is success isn't a straight line or linear.

And I mean, I worked in education for 31 years. I know that. Sometimes you get an a plus and then the next time you might get a C. Or I might have a student that turned in all their homework for nine weeks and then something happens and they go back and don't do it again. And so I understand that success is a zigzag line like.

I lived that, but my own job in that always felt like it was always going up. So every [00:21:00] year I was more experienced, I was better. More people knew what I was doing. I got more accolades, I got great evaluations. I mean, everything was always like good feedback, positive feedback. Now that doesn't mean that I didn't have angry parents or angry kids 'cause that.

There's no way anyone lives their life without that. But those were very few compared to all the good stuff that I was getting. And so I probably daily got positive feedback that I was doing the right thing, that I was doing a good job, that somebody got help, somebody had a transformation, A parent send me an email to say, oh, thank you so much.

This was so helpful. And I kind of got used to. I am successful. Like that was the only thing that I was thinking. And so I just thought when I start this business, I will immediately be successful and it will be constant positive feedback. And that is so not what happens when you're an entrepreneur. [00:22:00] It's very, well, I shouldn't say very inconsistent.

For me, it's been very inconsistent. I. And it's not lack of me being consistent 'cause I work in here every single day. I, you know, like with the podcast, it's always there, but that doesn't always, that consistent action doesn't equal. Consistent clients or consistent feedback from people that's positive.

And I have to shore myself up now and I have to remind myself all the time that, you know, it's fine, it's going the right direction, and it really is going in the right direction and. It's kind of like when I was trying to lose weight one time, somebody said, weigh yourself every day. And I was like, Ooh, I don't wanna weigh myself every day.

But when I weighed myself every day, I saw that I had fluctuations every day. Now, maybe if you looked at a Friday to a Friday, you would see that something like your weight went down, but sometimes your weight went up. But it went [00:23:00] down in the week and then it came back up. And it has so much to do with like water weight, and.

Like it isn't just about this like one static number or whatever. And so now I look at what is happening throughout time and I can see that there is a. You know, going up over time and I just need to remind myself that that's happening. But it, you know, on a day-to-day basis, or even month to month basis, it's up and down and that's okay.

And I need to be okay with that. And it's really all of these things have really made me grow into this person that I would've never imagined could have, could have even happened.

Okay. So to recap the five lessons I learned, I am not lazy. I am creative, change or pivot [00:24:00] or okay and necessary I can create something new from nothing. And success isn't a straight line or linear.

These insights that I got didn't just grow my podcast. They grew me. And my whole idea of this podcast was to help young people grow in their emotional, their emotional lives, their emotional intelligence, that emotional regulation, and so. You are not alone in this journey. I am experiencing these same things, maybe in a different realm because now my kids are out of the home and I'm, I'm experiencing, you know, anxiety, fear, frustration, annoyance, whatever about my business.

And it isn't so much about outside things. It all works the same. Like I still have to regulate myself. Like you have to regulate yourself and I deal with it every day. It [00:25:00] doesn't, once you learn to regulate, doesn't mean you never have to do it again. It just means that you get really good and you can be faster at it so that you can get out of those negative emotions or those uncomfortable emotions a lot faster than you could before and they don't like stop you.

My anxiety and frustration and annoyance and sadness that I get sometimes about my business doesn't stop me from going forward. And sometimes I think for kids, when they feel that uncomfortableness, it stops them from wanting to go to school or meet new friends or do a new activity, or even be with old friends.

So if you wanna dive deeper into all this stuff that goes on in my podcast and in my business, I one invite you to sign up for my monthly workshop. I'm gonna have a workshop every month and this month of September. I'll put the link to the workshop this month and I really wanna do a different topic every month.

I [00:26:00] think that it would be fun. I haven't tried that before. I sometimes just did the same workshop over and over again to kind of perfect it, but I think now I just wanna like, give more information to parents and you can kind of pick and choose the ones that are interesting to you that you feel like you need to know about.

Or you can book your family's next step session. And in that you just tell me what your situation is, what's going on at home, and you know what you're concerned about. And then we can look at all of my offerings. And see if any of those are a good fit. And I will give you a private tour of the parent membership so you can see what's in there and if that, if you think the parent support would be more helpful to you, if you think the one-to-one coaching with your teen or young adult would be the most helpful.

If you think, you know, I can talk to you more about what the workshop is that month and like, is that what you wanna start with? And kind of see what's going on. And if none of those things I can, [00:27:00] I still have, uh, I know a lot of people and I can refer you to many different types of people. You know, if you go back and look at all my guests that, uh, practically every topic of work and coaching that you can imagine for yourself or teens is in there.

I can introduce you to those people if that's what you need. Maybe you need, maybe your child needs therapy and we can talk about that. And I can tell you best practices where that is concerned because I have a lot of experience and I, I've worked with a, a thousands of young people and so I would be able to help you go into the next step.

So all of that. I think I would've loved to have had somebody that can do that. So I would love to talk to you. So sign up either for the family's next step session or the free workshop. 'cause you can talk to me there too 'cause it's live and I will be there and you can ask me questions. But [00:28:00] however, whatever feels good to you, let's do it.

And I wanna thank everyone, whether you just started listening to me. Recently, or you started back with me in September of 2020. I thank you so much and I'm so grateful for you because people who do content creation businesses and coaching businesses, they need people that care about what they're saying and follow them and listen to them and subscribe to them and all the things.

I mean, that's what helps our business grow and helps more people to know about it. And I, I thank you for that because it is. Your time and time is so precious. I understand that. And I don't wanna waste anyone's time by, you know what I'm doing and how I'm trying to help. And so please just know that I love you and I care for you and I wanna help you if that's what you're needing.

Or if you just, if this what podcast just shores you up for the day, which I have podcasts that do that, I just listen so I can be like, okay, I'm ready to tackle this. I'm ready to go on [00:29:00] then. I am glad I'm that for you too. So, um, and send me a message. Tell me what has been helpful to you in the last five years with the podcast or what you some, some, uh, one of my clients has Cynthia, one-liners that she writes down.

'cause she's like, oh my gosh. When you said that, that changed everything. And so maybe there's a one-liner you heard that you were like, oh my gosh, that changed everything. So let me know. I'd love to, to hear what you think about that. And I plan to be here for. M, maybe five more years, so I'll talk to you soon.