Episode 400: 400th Episode Special

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No need to whine and cry. Welcome to the Winey Palooza podcast.

I'm your host, Rebecca Greene. I'm a wife, mother of 3, and licensed clinical social worker. I also have 3 fur babies at home too. My passion has always been to help children and their families. I always dreamed of being a wife and a mother. Parents are always learning through their struggles, failures, and and successes and joys. I am no stranger to this wild ride of parenting, and I know behind every great parent lies a team of supportive friends and family. I want to be part of your support system. I want you to know that you are not alone. We are in this parenting world together. Join me every week for insightful discussions with experts on parenting and marriage, as well as other parents who have found the secret to success. Successes in parenthood. You'll learn tips and tricks to make life with your family better than ever. I hope you will follow along with me while we dive into what it takes to achieve a happy family.

Hello everyone, this is Rebecca Greene for the Whiny Palooza podcast, and we are joined by the marvelous Seth Greene, my husband, for a very special reason. Would you like to tell them why you're here today?

I would love to tell you that I am blessed and honored to interview the radiant Rebecca Greene on what is a milestone achievement, her 400th podcast episode. Congratulations, honey, that is an amazing accomplishment.

I think that is really kind of crazy that this is my 400th episode. Pretty crazy.

Yes, you've been doing this a long time. So looking back, Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Don't just jump in for a second. I want to tell them something. Sorry. So he is a man of let's get this done. Okay, so I'm going to back up for a second before Seth starts with his wonderful questions that he has for me. I want you to know if you're watching, so you can watch this on YouTube, we are wearing our Buffalo Bills gear because The Buffalo Bills are on in an hour and 20 minutes.

20 minutes.

Okay. So we're going to get this done so that Seth can go root for the Bills and we're wearing our lucky sweatshirts. So that is why we are both in Bills gear in case you are watching this.

And we are not rushing. You are way more important than a Bills game. If this interview needed to take an hour and 40 minutes, that'd be okay with me.

No, no, no. It cannot take that long because I need to go pick up Lily.

Yes, but I just want it known for the record that I am not rushing you and I would take as long as you wanted to do this interview. The bills can wait.

Well, that is fabulous and wonderful, and I'm sorry I interrupted you. What were you trying to ask me, honey?

I was trying to ask you that if we look back in time, what inspired you to start the Winey Palooza Parenting Podcast, and did you ever imagine you'd be having a 400th episode?

Oh my gosh, never. I had no idea the journey that I was about to start. Seth produces podcasts If you want a podcast, he has an excellent team of people who, who produce and edit and make this all happen. So I'm not doing this alone. So Seth came to me and said, I think you would have a really good podcast, honey. Why did you think that?

Well, you are an amazing social worker, and as a social worker, you have conversations with and basically interview people all of the time anyway. And I thought that you would be really good at interviewing people on air, and I could probably get you some amazing people that you could collaborate with, learn from, get to know, etc., through the podcasting forum. And it'd be a great way to get your amazing content on a different level, as opposed to you just teaching, you also getting to learn and syndicate that out to the world.

So when Seth came, I've come a long way in the last, I don't know, has it been 3 years? From day one when Seth asked me about doing a podcast, Seth is the reason that this began. I did think he was crazy and I didn't see the picture that he saw. And I have learned to not jump to no when Seth comes to me with stuff. So Seth is really an amazing, innovative, creative person who gets really big, great ideas. And I have learned hear him out and think about it before I react with a no.

That is awesome, honey. And this is being recorded, so I do have that now for future reference.

Now I'm scared, but go ahead.

That's all good. I won't use it against you unless I have to. Over the years, you have shared so much wisdom with your audience, me included. What is the most impactful piece of parenting advice you've ever gotten, and how has it shaped your journey as a mom?

Oh boy, I mean, you know that I've gotten so much, I've given so much parenting advice and I've gotten so much parenting advice that that's a really, really hard question. I think that in the grand scheme of this whole podcast, I think the greatest lesson in parenting and life that I have learned is that almost every single person listening thinks that they are not good enough, not good, a good enough parent, not a good enough person. See, and I want to cry because this is like such an amazing lesson. And as I've gotten to speak to so many experts, I have learned that almost every single mother feels like they're not doing a good enough job. And I think that I have learned that I am.

That is beautiful. I mean, that segues exactly into my next question. One of the things that I hear people say about you is, and in the comments, is they love how honest and vulnerable and authentic you are. So what has been the most challenging topic for you to discuss on air and why?

So Seth and I have learned a lot. We, we've done this together. Winey Palooza is a joint, a joint team. You usually see me, but Seth is behind the scenes making things happen. And what we have, what we've learned is that you all love to hear about the successes so that you can learn from our success. But you love it even more when I share, you know, a mess up, a screw up, something I've done wrong. Not always easy to talk about, not easy to talk about my parenting mess-ups, but I do it for growth for myself and I do it for you because I want you to know that I'm human and that I make mistakes and I learn from them and I'm hoping that as I'm sharing it, that you're learning from it. And, you know, Seth has encouraged me to share things, so I appreciate that because it's hard— sometimes it's hard to be vulnerable.

Very true. 400 episodes, you have literally interviewed hundreds and hundreds of amazing guests. I don't want to be self-serving, so I'm going to take myself out of the running. Other than me, who has been your favorite guest and why?

It is absolutely another level of amazing to get to interview my family, and we're going to take my family out of it, but I do want to tell everyone that I really encourage you to interview your kids, your husband, your parents. I learned so much when I interviewed them. It feels like a therapy session. Like, this already feels like a therapy session. So that is probably my ultimate favorite. But I get to meet such amazing people like every week, multiple times a week. And recently I'm going to— there's been 400. Okay, so there's been a lot. So I could go through and tell you a lot of women, but I'm going to tell you about Jeralyn Spies, and I hope I'm saying her last name right. And I just interviewed her. You haven't even gotten the episode yet. I am hoping Adrienne is going to listen to this maybe tomorrow and hears me when I say that I would love to bump up Jeralyn's podcast if we can. There's no pressure, but she is one of my favorite all-time guests. And when I get someone like Jeralyn, Rebecca Greene, who I literally just interviewed, I'm reminded why I'm doing this. And she is so knowledgeable. She's an occupational therapist. You're going to absolutely love her when her episode comes out. Definitely listen and you're going to love her, love her and learn from her. And I loved her and I learned from her and I couldn't believe how smart she is. Did that— did I answer the question?

You did indeed. Parenting is constantly evolving. You and I are learning every single day. Our kids are sometimes our greatest teachers. How has hosting this podcast influenced your approach to raising Max, Ella, and Lily over the years?

I mean, it's made me such a better parent, don't you think? Um, I want to answer that. But I want you to answer that first. How has it made me better? Because I'm sure you've seen it.

Yes, I think it's been an incredible growth vehicle for our personal marriage and parenting development. I think you've learned things from experts that you've applied to parenting and marriage. You've been reminded of things you already knew that you weren't actively doing or thinking about that have helped us I think it's made you more patient. I think it's made you more— I don't know if it's possible to make you sweeter, but maybe. I think it has made— it has given you ideas that have— I've seen improvements in parenting. I mean, just in the last month or two with, you know, with our kids. I think you're always growing and always evolving based on some of the stuff that you're learning on a regular basis.

Yeah, I mean, you've said so much. I think that What is wonderful and what I will tell all of you is that repetition is like such a gift. And when I was doing counseling, they would send us to mandatory trainings. And I have told Seth this story. And I would hear all the counselors complaining like, how many cognitive behavioral therapy trainings are they gonna send us to? And I was like, no, like, I wanna go, like, let's go learn because they're going to reinforce what I already know, which I need. I always need reinforcement and repetition and I always take something new away. So when I go to interview a therapist or an occupational therapist or whomever, I'm not going into this with, I know everything, I'm not gonna learn anything. I'm going into this with, what are they gonna reinforce that I already know and what am I gonna learn from them. And I think that one of the best words that I have learned that has been repeated to me by probably, probably 100 therapists is the word pause. So you will see me— I mean, Seth knows the reactivity difference is amazing. I have gone from a very reactive parent to someone who's not perfect, but who a heck of a lot more times is pausing, is knowing that my kids need me. I think that the best parenting lesson, going back to your original question, is me learning that I have to regulate myself to be a good parent. So I've just learned how to just present myself so much better to my kids. I'm not, you know, super emotional, super reactive. And I used to say to Seth, well, I'm just me. I'm just my authentic, real self. Like, that's who they get. That's who's going to parent them. And now, now I'm like, I am my real authentic self and I am going to give them a better me every single day.

That's beautiful. Better me every single day. I love that. You talked about what you've learned. What do you hope your listeners take away from your episodes? I mean, not just as parents, but also as, you know, just human beings trying to navigate life.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you a couple things to answer that question. Thing number one is what I said before. I talk to women every single day. I talk to multiple women every single day. And oh my goodness, Even if you give women a compliment, they make it seem like it's not a big deal. Oh, that's not a big deal. Oh, that's easy. Oh, don't— yeah, you could do that. That's— don't make a big deal.

It's no thing.

Yeah, like, oh, I just whipped this up, or I could take 10 kids home. That's— ah, I got it. No big deal. Women downplay their awesomeness, and they magnify what they're doing wrong and they underestimate— under— what's the word? Underappreciate. I don't know. They minimize.

There you go.

They minimize what they're doing right and they maximize what they're doing wrong. So here's what I— here's what I hope. I hope that women in particular and men— I know it's mostly moms who listen, but hopefully there's some dads and grandpas too. I hope that you're learning that you're good enough. I hope that you are learning that you're doing things right, and I hope that when something is stressing you out, please reach out to me. I am at whineypluasmom@gmail.com. I am also on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. You can find me. All you have to do is send me a message and say, Rebecca, I'm really struggling with X. Can you focus on this topic? I hope I'm giving you what you want. I hope that if you're— this is what I want to do. If you're struggling with something, I want to deliver. I want to give you that topic and hope that something from what I, what I say in my podcast or vlog or blog makes your life a little bit better and a little bit easier.

Amen to that. When you and I have been out with friends or at a party and you're not standing next to me or in listening earshot, other moms have asked me this question. They say, she's a mom, she's a wife, she's a blogger, she's a podcaster, she's all these things. The question they ask is, how does Rebecca find the time and energy to do it all? And selfishly, from a podcaster perspective, how do you find the time to stay consistent and passionate about the show?

So I think that the man who is asking me that question is one of the biggest reasons for all of it, and I will tell you more than that, but I want to talk about Seth for a minute. So I have this amazing partner in life, and I want to tell you that if you don't have spouse and you want one, find someone who is an awesome partner in life. I feel like I have someone that I'm doing it all with. So, so you go to work from— I don't know, I'm gonna throw out a long day— 7 AM to 6 PM, and you pull up in the driveway ready. Seth is not like, peace out, I'm going to bed, I'm exhausted from a from an 11-hour day at work. No, he is doing dinner with us. He is cleaning up with us. He is driving kids around. He is like, honey, what do you need? I might disappear to a meeting. I might disappear to drive a kid. Seth is like, okay, what am I doing while you're doing that? So I think the number one reason that I'm able to do it all, and it's a lot, is that I have an awesome partner that I'm doing life with. So that's answer number 1. Answer number 2 is I do not work at Winey Plousa full-time. If I was working full-time with this job, my life would look a lot different. And I don't know, less sleep. What would happen?

Do you, do you think if Winey Plousa was 40 hours a week plus the other 80-hour-a-week job you've got as a mom and wife, um, do you think you would still be as passionate and as excited about it, or would you be more so because you had more time to devote to it?

I, I like the balance of my life. I feel at this moment in time today, December— what is it, December 1st, 2024? Uh, I feel blessed with exactly how my life is right now. And Seth gives me this gift of working part-time so that I can do all the other things that I'm doing. So it goes back to Seth again. So, so why am I so passionate? How do I come passionate to the podcast all the time? It is my guests. So my producer is sending me. People are finding us and my producer is finding them. I am getting amazing guests that sometimes when I read the bio, their bio, and investigate them and do some research, I'm like, oh my gosh, when can I interview them? Can I interview them tomorrow? Like, some of these topics are just amazing. Seth just listened to, um, tell them who you just listened to.

Diana, I am still— I haven't finished, I'm halfway through Diana Kaye. I will not pronounce her name, last name correctly. But yeah, she is an NLP practitioner and a John Maxwell coach and an author. And I'm inspired by your amazing interview.

So she is teaching us to do things different. So if we want to do things better, we have to do things different. We can't do the same things every single day. So she is teaching us. So I get excited to learn from these, these amazing— I try to stick to women. I really wanted this to be a women's podcast for moms, so I really don't interview many men, but I'm interviewing a ton of amazing women who are teaching me about so many different topics. I wish, like, let's like rattle off some, like, from parenting to marriage to, to work life and how to make your work life better and how to, how to have more success with weight loss and, you know, all the, or perimenopause, you know, I mean, if I have a topic that I wanna learn about, I say to my amazing producer Adrian, I really wanna learn about perimenopause. Let's interview some hormonal experts. Or I really want to keep losing weight. I wanna keep going on this journey. I wanna hear out more people, send me more people. So I really have a platform to learn about whatever we want to learn about, and that includes you. So I want to give you the content that you want. So tell me what you want, what you really, really want.

If you could go back to your very first episode, what advice would you give yourself now as a new podcaster?

I think that what I would say, which I say to myself now frequently is trust the journey and the process. You're gonna do great. Hold on tight. It's gonna be an amazing ride. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love it more than you even imagined. And more things are going to grow from this and stem from this. So just enjoy it. Enjoy the journey and trust the process.

Awesome. I'm gonna advise other clients they should do the same. What— speaking of other things, what is and what inspired you to start the Whiny Palooza Mom Group?

So I had a friend— I feel like I had a couple friends ask me about a mom group, and I think that we need— and, and please feel free to answer this question— I think that we need like an in-person or on Zoom mom group too. I think that this step one. I think that I knew I wanted a safe place for moms to go to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about, and that is successes, advice, challenges, um, needing encouragement. So if you go to Facebook, there is a Whiny Pluza Mom group that is free. So type in Whiny Pluza Mom group, it'll come up. I think that you have to like request to join and then Sethurai approves you joining and it keeps growing, which we want 'cause we want the word to get out to moms to come join us 'cause we wanna help. We wanna be a supportive, safe community. So I wanted to really filter that it was safe and people didn't feel judged and they didn't feel like they were getting comments that were making them feel bad. Like I really wanted, somewhere to go where you could say anything you want and get help from other moms.

That is awesome. What is next for the Winey Palooza Parenting Podcast? Do you have any exciting plans or goals for the next 400 episodes?

I think that one of the things that I need to work on is— so I think that I get so many guests, which is— I mean, Adrian, keep them coming. I'm not telling you to stop. I have so many people— I have Adrian emailing me guest ideas, and I have people emailing me that they want to be on the podcast, which is awesome because after 3 years, people know us and seek us out. So that's amazing. My friend Kristen is like, you have a waitlist. So I think that because of that, because I have people coming to me, I don't always go to people. So I want to say two things about that to everybody who's listening. First of all, I want to tell you that if I haven't asked you, it's not because I don't want you to be on. You might be an expert and I want to talk to you, and either I have a waitlist, so I haven't thought of it, or I don't think you want to be on the podcast. So I think that I need to work on that I still get stuck with, should I ask them, do they want to be on? Does that make sense?

It does.

So like, so like, it's safe to just have all the people coming to me. It's not as safe for me to say, hey, I would love to interview you on my podcast, are you willing to do that? So if I ask you and you don't want to I want you to feel safe saying, no thank you, that's not my thing, because I don't want to make you do it. I don't want to make you feel guilted into doing it. So I think that's number one of what I need to work on for this podcast. And I— what else? Where else is the podcast going?

I've got a list.

Seth has a list.

Are you surprised?

Do you really have a list? Because I did not know about this list.

I do.

Like, can you give us anything?

Well, I don't want to do it on air because then if you decide— if you do, don't do it, then people will wonder what happened. But I'm happy to discuss possible future plans.

So this is what I'm gonna say about this so that everybody learns from Seth. So I would say— I learned this from Seth and my brother Corey, both are super successful. And what they have taught me is find someone who is successful at doing what you want and go talk to them and learn from them. So like for me, when Seth says, you know, Winey Palooza has grown from a blog to a vlog to a book to a podcast, to another book, to a newsletter. Was that the right evolution?

Yes.

Is that right?

Yes.

So if Seth were to say to me, what's next for Winey Palooza in general? What do you want to do next? Do I have some ideas? Yes. I can rattle off some ideas to you right now, and I will do that. But I could also go find someone doing what I'm doing and talk to them about what else they're doing. How have they grown it? What else have they done? Do they have a membership program? Do they have multiple groups running? Are they seeing clients? Are they offering journals and worksheets? And what are people doing? So learn from people who are super successful at doing what you want to do. Was that good?

That was Awesome. What do you like best about the 21st century social work that you're doing?

Oh my goodness, this job did not exist when I was in school. Like, if I was in social work school and I said to my professors, I'm gonna have this new age social work job and I'm gonna do a blog and a vlog and a newsletter and a podcast, they would be like, what on earth are you talking about? Um, I love that I— that it's new and innovative and different and that it's not traditional and that it's creative. I can be really creative and I can reach more people. Do I want to see clients? I think in my heart I do, but instead of having a caseload of, I don't know, let's say 50 people, instead of having a caseload of 50 clients, I can reach— how many people have I reached, honey?

Millions.

So I, I think that my favorite part is that I can get to more people and try to help more people.

That is awesome. You have been such a role model to our family and your audience. How does it feel to know that you've built such an inspiring community for parents who are literally around the world?

How does it feel?

Yeah, how's it feel?

So I'm— I am amazed at where we went from day one, 11 years ago. We didn't start the podcast 11 years ago. We started Wanniepalooza 11 years ago.

The blog.

Yes, the blog is what started it all. And the community— and it started out with a few moms reaching out to me and telling me they loved my blogs, they loved reading them, that it helped them out, and they would give me examples of how it helped. And it's grown to so much more than a few moms. It feels incredible and amazing and inspiring. And it makes me want to keep going.

That is beautiful. Anything else you'd like to share about your 400 episodes that I haven't thought to ask you yet?

I would love for the listeners to let me know what their favorite episode was. I would love to hear— I would love to hear more from you. I love when I get messages and texts and emails because it helps my direction. And I would love to hear who was your favorite guest? What would you love to hear from us? What is working for you? What would you like more of? I just want to give them what they want.

You got to give the people what they want.

I want to give the people what they want.

Well, what they want obviously is more from you. And we know your time is incredibly valuable, so we greatly appreciate any that you could spend with us. Thank you for the 400 episodes, and thank you for sharing some of the insights you've had along the way.

Is there anything that you want to share about the 400 episodes before we go?

Um, it's been an amazing journey watching you do all of this and take my idea and run with it, and it's been so much fun. And I've grown watching you grow, and we've grown together doing this, and it's had ups and downs for sure. But the ups are way, way, way more than any bumps in the road of running a business and essentially together that a husband and wife could experience. And I'm super grateful to have been a part of this and to have been able to amplify your content and get out to the world. And I can't wait to see what the next 400 episodes bring.

So as a couple working together, and so how, how could I learn in the next 400 episodes to have I don't think we've had many bumps. I think it's been really wonderful. But for future bumps, any advice to me on how to communicate in a way that works for my husband, who is also kind of sort of the boss of this?

Okay. This would not exist without your amazing content and your gifts. So I am the microphone that you are— or the megaphone that you are broadcasting through But without the content, nothing, no sound comes out the other end. So I don't know if I'm, I wouldn't boss of this or just the megaphone. So tips on communicating with me again, the bumps are very small like that. They're minor. But if I were to give you advice on how to communicate with me more effectively during a bump, I would say make it, and you've given me this advice, I'll echo you back to you. Make it about the specific thing that happened, not about the person themselves.

Mm-hmm.

Right? This went wrong. How do we fix it? As opposed to saying, you did X, Y, and Z, right? You teach this. Lose the blaming language. I statement. I feel like this when this happens. How can we work together to make sure this doesn't happen?

And I will tell you that when you're emotional, you all can relate to the social work expert over here not communicating so well when emotions are hot. So I would say to all of us to just take a deep breath and communicate when you're in a resourceful state, because when I'm not in a resourceful state, I tend to not love what I say and how I say it. So I'll leave them with that, and I'll leave them with— I'm going to continue to grow and learn and do all the things every day and get better for you and give you better content. Um, even better. It's already— I think it's already awesome, but I want to keep getting better. I want to keep being a better mom to my kids, keep being a better wife to my husband, a better friend, better daughter, better person. And I love that this platform gives me the opportunity to grow, and I just really appreciate every single one of you for listening and letting me do this, because I wouldn't be doing this if people weren't listening. And I really want to tell you that I would so love for you to come find me in all the places. I'm on Instagram as Winey Palooza Mom. I'm on Facebook as Winey Palooza. You can find me at Rebecca Greene. You can find me at the Winey Palooza Mom group on Facebook. TikTok, I think I'm Winey Palooza Mom. And where else? Can you tell them about the newsletter, honey?

Yes, um, first of all, we'd love for you to go check out whinyplousa.com and check out Rebecca's Linktree, which has all of her free resources, including the awesome 3 times a week Whiny Palooza newsletter, which is all about parenting and marriage. It is absolutely free. It is growing by leaps and bounds. It is 3 times a week. And again, go to whinyplousa.com, find the Linktree, and sign up for the newsletter along with everything else. And please remember to like, comment, rate, review, share, and subscribe.

Yes, we love when you share this with your friends and your family. And I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, want to thank you for, um, making this the success that it is. And I really appreciate all of you. I appreciate Seth for letting me do this and giving me the opportunity to do this. And I want to thank you for interviewing me today.

My pleasure. Thanks for allowing me to.

This is Rebecca Greene, and I want to remind everyone to spend every day laughing, learning, and loving. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for tuning in to the Whiny Palooza podcast. If you like what you heard, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. While you are there, leave a review. I love to hear your feedback. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.

This show has been produced by Market Domination LLC. To discover how you can have your own show completely done for you and turn it into a real published book and become the authority in your marketplace, go to www.marketdominationllc.com/podcastoffer.

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