Podfading? Make Time To Affirm Your Purpose And Change Your Pace Just Like Brodie Welch Of A Healthy Curiosity Podcast (Podfaded)

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority Magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all the digital noise with the Binge Factor.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracy Hazzard and I have a podcaster who caught my eye because because she was being straightforward and honest about pod fading and so I thought this is such a good time to talk about that subject and she was so open and able to come talk about it. So she did a she podcast live Evade the Fade talk and also was just posted in the she podcast group and that's actually how I found her. So I've invited on the show Brody Welch. Her show is a healthy curiosity. She has over 220 episodes so she certainly didn't pod fade early in any way, shape or form. Let me tell you a little bit about Brody just so you get a sense of what this show is about. So Brody Welch is a licensed acupuncturist. She's a board certified herbalist and a self care strategist. She helps self aware, high achieving women break the cycles of stress, overwhelm and self sabotage so they can enjoy the lives they're working so hard to create and truly embody self respect. She has been a lifelong student of consciousness. She's been practicing meditation Yoga for over 20 years and holds teaching certifications in all of these disciplines. She synthesizes ancient techniques from Chinese medicine to Ayurveda and yoga with the latest research in neuroscience, functional medicine and habit change to help her clients thrive. This is real. Her podcasting you can see there's the intersection of all of those in A Healthy Curiosity. Through her coaching program, she helps people bridge the gap between what they know they should be doing to take care of themselves and actually doing it without feeling guilty. She's the founder of Life and Balance acupuncture in Corvallis, Oregon where she's been treating patients since 2003. She's also the creator and host of A Healthy Curiosity, the podcast that explores what it takes to be well in a busy world. So I know you're going to enjoy a lot. We have a lot of you listeners out there. I know because you reach out to me. You like things on Instagram, and you're doing this that are in this sort of coaching, professional world. And some of you are thinking about podcasting, Some of you are actually already podcasting. And Brody's a great example of what can happen of how a show can go really great for a while, and then how you can reach the stage of like, should I keep going? What should I do about this? And I think she went way longer, probably while she was feeling that she maybe might. She could have stopped sooner, and it would have still been okay. But I'm glad she's taken this break, and I'm glad she's really sharing it with us. So let's go listen to Brody from A Healthy Curiosity. Hi there.

Hi, Tracy.

Brody, thanks for joining me. A Healthy Curiosity. I'm very curious. Like, that's how we connected here. I'm curious about what you're working on, what you're doing, how your show's coming. And, you know, this is the thing is, like, we usually have people who. We have rules about how they're posting and how regularly they're posting, and you defy the rules, but you earn the right to. You have over 220 shows, you earn the right to pod fade a little bit, and you've been coming back in waves. So that's where I want to start with you is like, I think there's a lot of podcasters who've been doing this for a long time who lost some momentum last year. Tell us how you were feeling.

Well, yeah, there were, obviously. 2020 threw us all into unprecedented waters. And for me, as an acupuncturist and a health coach, I had to close my clinic for a couple of months, really, while figuring out how to treat Covid, you know, what herbs I could be using, while trying to kind of keep the coaching business alive and deal with my family just a lot. It was a lot all at once. But one thing I realized about having to close my clinic is that even though I loved and I still love treating patients and connecting with people in a really deep way and helping to catalyze in the direction of healthier and happier, it is somewhat of a burden to take on all of that energy. And so I felt this, like, weird, like, huh, Should I. Is it okay that I feel kind of unburdened by. By having to not do what I love and realize that, like, actually, it's a really important thing to acknowledge the cost that we pay for even the things that we're most proud of, most cherished in our lives that there's a give and take there. And so while it's always been part of central to my message for people is like, you've got to take care of yourself, right? We've got to take care of ourselves and have permission. I work with a lot of women who don't give themselves permission to take care of themselves and just being able to kind of like just convince people that we have the right to do that, even if it means that we are. If it seems selfish or if it seems like something that is less important or frivolous compared to the important work that we're trying to get done in the world, that it's absolutely essential because the everything. There's a yin and yang to everything. And we can't just be an exporting externally focused what it looks like on the outside, showing up and disseminating information and teaching and nurturing and all that without filling up the well. And I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with that concept. It's so hackneyed to talk about self care, but I really felt like, okay, I've given myself permission to go through this collective trauma and to take a step back from my clinic work.

Let me just say you made it all the way through 2020 without fading. Like, you don't see any hiccups in your show until you get to January when there's a few less episodes, and then February, another less episode, you know, one less episode, and then there's one in March. So, you know, you really, you really made it very far before you gave yourself that permission. I'm going to say that, Brody, you could have done it sooner.

Absolutely. Well, and I think part of that was just like, what is, is that recognition that people needed. I think constancy, you know, and feeling like podcast is a way that is fairly effortless. It's not draining, it's not holding space for people's pain and loneliness and all of that, but realizing that like, wow, all that work that I'm doing in my business, in the various aspects of my business, that that is not in a vacuum, right? That I still, it doesn't exist in a silo. It's connected to the rest of my life. And so even though I love podcasting and still love podcasting and still intend to podcast, maybe I don't have to do that show up every week because people need to trust you and you need to be consistent and you know that. And of course, trust is part of my brand and that's how I want to be thought of. But realizing that, like, actually authenticity and honoring what's true in the moment is just as much a part of my brand as anything else.

Well, no one can say you were flaky with your show after you've gotten through 220. So, like, just not that you. You still lived up to every bit of that. So. Yeah.

You spoke at.

She podcasts live on Evade the fade, the pod fade. Right. What was one of your recommendations or what are some of your recommendations for how to avoid it or how to evade that?

Well, a lot of that kind of that idea that if you're going to do something on a regular basis, we all know the importance of systems, right? That making things as streamlined and easy as possible so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. And I, as someone who has the recovering type A with lots of spinning plates that I don't want to drop that for me, that the way that I can count on having consistent energy for everything that I want to do is to make sure that the essential habits that I need to thrive are in place and that happen first thing. And so a lot of my tips that I delivered there is about essentially automating habits that help you show up with maximum energy and creativity, which is everything. You know, it's the dead simple, totally unsexy basics like getting enough sleep and nourishing ourselves well and moving our bodies and feeling connected to purpose and feeling connected to community. I mean, things like this that are pretty dead simple, but not so simple in terms of the execution, because we live in this young, addicted society that totally buys into that action and productivity and speed and that where we perpetually feel like we don't have enough time, we don't have enough energy, and that if we're going to. If podcasting is something that is perhaps if it's a hobby, then it might be considered optional. Or if it's a branch of a business or a way to grow the show, it can just be something like that you have to do that doesn't. It feels like a hoop to jump through instead of something that really feels like you're connected to what you care about in your message. And so. And I think that really, when we get too focused on showing up for the sake of showing up or showing up for the sake of some external end, we disconnect from something really important, right? And that is our hearts, that is our love of why we're doing it, or we're connected to the love and why we're doing it, but we don't have the fuel. Right. In Chinese medicine, we think about the three treasures, right? There's the vitality, the energy and the spirit. And our vitality is this reserves, this reservoir of energy that we dip into when we're doing too much for too long, right? So if you're not getting enough sleep every night, we start to dip into the reserves. If you're living on coffee and Cheetos, it's like, yeah, you're going to be dipping into those reserves. If you stress out, you're dipping into the. Your reserve, your cortisol and adrenaline, and that is depleting. And so being able to making sure that we're living within integrity with our own energy is vital to making sure that we're going to be able to consistently show up. Otherwise, it's going to be fits and starts or we're going to have a relationship with our show that is. That's kind of hostile. That's kind of like. Like a mean boss trying to get a reluctant employee to cooperate.

So that's so interesting that you started to recognize that and said, this is the why I'm going to take a pause right now. Now I want to highlight the way that you did it. And this is where I like to invite our audience to take a listen to certain episodes. So right towards the end, episode 220 and 221. So you'll see right towards the episode, the last one in February and the first one in March, if you're listening to this way in the Future, and that's 2021, in case you're really listening to this episode in the future. But when you do that, when you take a listen to Brody's show, when you take a listen to a health curiosity, you did a Q and A show and it was kind of a lengthy show. It wasn't one of your shortest or anything like that. It was, you know, a good show and you addressed questions from your community and from other things. And it's a great show style to have that you did one of those shows is a fantastic style. So definitely listen to the way she handled the Q and A and did this process of reading the question and then giving her answers to them. But you slipped in at the end that you, this is the last show. You just slipped that one right in at the very end of it and said, yeah, yeah, I'm taking a pause, right? And you made an announcement, which is really good. But a lot of times people don't make it all the way through the episode. So I bet you you got a lot of feedback after that. So what happened that made you come back and do the one in March?

Well, a few things. First of all, I deeply respect and appreciate my listeners, my audience, my community. And so. And I started getting started getting letters or emails from listeners saying, like, wow, I really respect the way that you're walking your talk. Really, you know, the way that you're. Because the way that I put it was not. I'm going to stop podcasting. The way that I put it was kind of like, all right, so I'm not going to podcast until it feels necessary and organically. Right. I'm tired of getting pitched from, you know, publicist and try, like, it's not even just podcasting. It's like paying attention to everything having to do with podcasting, whether it's the tech upgrades or the how to publicize your show or how to grow your show or how to. I mean, there's just. It's like, obviously, if you're listening to this show, you know that there's. It's like, there's a lot of moving parts, and there's a lot of things that could potentially be clamoring for our attention if we decide that we're opening this door. And so basically, I was saying, for the sake of my own sanity, I need to shut this door for a little while and enter it only on my terms. Enter it when I feel like, oh, yeah, you know what? This person in my community is coming out with a book. I would love to share this on my show. Or like, hey, you know, a lot of people who were writing in were saying how much they appreciated my insights about Chinese medicine and daily life and the way that I dance with that as an applied philosophy and not necessarily what the expertise of my guests had to say. And I thought about that, and I thought, huh, you know, it's funny because I have this perfectionism that makes me take, you know, 10 times as long to come up with a solo show than it is to just have a conversation. And that's why a lot of my episodes are interviews or conversations. But then I thought, well, I can talk about Chinese medicine all day long, and I don't mind sharing a bit about my life with my audience. And so if it's as simple as talking about, like, oh, well, we're entering the season of spring, and what should we be eating this season? Or what should we. What does this mean in terms of the liver and anger and vision? You know, like, this sort of way that Chinese medicine looks at life? I Can hop on. I can hop on the mic and record a show about that. Easy peasy. It's no problem. And it's effortless and just kind of going back to that. If it's effortless and it's easeful and it's coming from the inside out, that's why I wanted to do it in the first place. And the point of, like, showing up for the sake of showing up, showing up, saying yes to interviews that aren't quite right fits for my show just for the sake of having content like, no, that. Like, who needs that? And there's so many podcasts in the world that it's actually really helpful to weed out. To weed out the things that aren't totally right fits. And so it was really freeing. It's like not only helping me be in alignment with my values, my personal values, but also of my professional values and also in terms of clarifying my message. And so it's like, oh, yeah, okay, maybe it can be as simple as just being me in public, right?

You kind of went on a little search for meaning, and little bits and pieces come back to you. It's like, oh, I kind of missed that. And now it's time to go and address that. I love that process that you've taken there and sort of the easing off for yourself without completely slamming the door and said, I'm done, and without also forcing yourself to commit to one day a month or something where you still felt like it was a commitment, you reduce that pressure on yourself. And I really think this is a great way if you're going to pod fade in any way, this is a great way for you to find a way to keep it tying through so that you may find that one thing that re energizes you again and you didn't completely close it off.

And it's really like, when we think about sort of that yin and yang and how we know that we need to go into a period of dormancy in order to have a period of productivity, and that those seasons that we kind of go in and out of, it can't be summer all the time, right? Like, that we do eventually have to let go of things and then go into the winter of kind of where things are quiet and dormant and we're a bit reflective and we're letting our creativity recharge before. In the spring, we have new growth and new expression and ideas. And then in the summer, when that's in full bloom, right? And so it's really having the expectation of ourselves that we're machines that we are the same in all seasons, no matter what else is going on and what stressors are in our lives is really kind of unkind. And again, from a Chinese medicine perspective, where we are organic living, being subjects to energetic flows and the seasons, the internal seasons that we go through that don't necessarily match the external seasons going on. And so if we can treat ourselves like when we're treating ourselves as machines and having the same expectation day in and day out, year in, year out. Yeah, like there's going to be a point where that's no longer sustainable because nothing in nature, including human beings, functions that way. And so just being able to see it not as a failure and not as like an all or nothing, black or white, I'm either doing this or not doing this. Just that idea that like, oh, right. It can be a more yin season where occasionally I'll pop up and have something to say and I'm sure that over time that will shift and then, you know, I'll be excited about exploring a particular topic in a particular way. But that idea of. Yeah, and it already started to. As soon as I gave myself that permission, as soon as I let there be a little bit of space. It's like, nature abhors a vacuum. There was already some, some ideas percolating. And so I think it's just really important to, to set ourselves up for consistency, but to recognize that it's okay for it to not be summer all the time.

It's okay for it not to be an arbitrary consistency in a sense. Right. Yeah. You mentioned something that I want to tie in right now to our five things that we go over with every podcast are because you dropped something that I didn't touch on because I knew we were going to get to it here. And that is that one of the reasons is you felt that the pitches you were getting on guesting were just not good fits for you. And thinking about that is like, you even said it. You said the term mediocre guests and then you said, well, wait a minute, I didn't mean that like they're mediocre, but they are not something that fits your. What you are about. If you don't have a healthy curiosity about them, then it's not going to make for a great show. So it wasn't a fit for you. So we're going to go through our five things and of course the first thing is how to get great guests. And really I'd love for you to answer that in terms of like, do you Have a set of criteria and how do you deal with these pitches that you, you know, how do you screen through that and say, is this going to be a fit for me?

Well, we do have a guest application that we ask people to fill out and we only really offer that to people that could be in the ballpark, you know, so it's the kind of thing where the things that are clearly boilerplate, generic. Oh, your show is in the health space. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna mass email.

You with every other podcaster.

Yeah, exactly. That it's really clear that that's very likely not a good fit or people who are solely wanting to sell a product. Again, I'm, I'm not interested in people having to buy a product in order to get benefit, spending their time with me. So that's like one of the questions on the guest application is like, how will this benefit someone's life without them having to buy a product? And if someone doesn't have a good answer to that, they do not make the cut.

I love that. Yeah, so that's a really great way. So you're being really discerning about it. You're doing what you're curious about and then what you know your audience is going to be interested in.

Yeah. And on the guest application, I spell out who the show is for and what kinds of things we're covering. So that. Because anyone who's going to be pitching in, I think a conscientious way is going to want it to be a win win is going to want them to be. How can I best serve your audience? And who is your audience if you don't know? If you can't answer that question, then it's hard to know that it's a good fit or a good match.

Absolutely. Well, how do you increase listeners? How have you been doing that over the years? You started your show in 2016.

In 2016. And I think it was in 2018 that I guessed it on over 100 other podcasts and online summit. Yeah, I just kind of went a mass guesting spree and a lot of times it was that it was talking to, just finding like minded audiences or resonant audiences and people usually with people who are not doing exactly the same thing as me, but who had maybe some overlap and sometimes it was a really small show with a dedicated niche or a dedicated following and just things would resonate. For example, for some reason, what I have to say in the Chinese medicine space, I do a lot of overlap with functional medicine and with Ayurveda and finding out that, wow, so many of the people reaching out to me are doctors or they're physicians or they're nurses or they're other Chinese medicine people. And so realizing that, like, oh, well, that's interesting, maybe that helping me sort of craft like, well, what shows are they listening to? That kind of thing. So. Because it's not always obvious.

No, that's true. That once you start to really learn about your audience, then it makes them more obvious where you might want to spend your time if you ask them. So that's great. So you've been increasing listeners through this. I'm going to call it a guesting spree, which I love the idea of that. So maybe we should think of it like a sprint. A hundred might be a lot for some people out there, but, you know, go on a little guesting sprint and try that out to increase listeners. Great advice. So the next one we go over is producing like a pro in your case. What I really love for you to focus on, because so many people are like, get a good mic. And you know, and that's great. But I would love for you to focus on how, as a health practitioner with a practice, how do you manage to still produce this show? How do you manage to get that out every week with that kind of busy schedule?

Again, systems are key. So I do have help, thankfully in my clinic, I have an office manager who's very capable of doing things like making sure that the guests bio that I request, you know, so make it first of all, like having an online form where I request information in advance about my guests and having my office manager take that and turn it into a document so that as I'm looking at preparing for an interview, that the website's right there, that everything I need is all in one place. And then I can actually make notes in that document, which is then shared in Dropbox with the. I do have editing help. And so my wonderful podcast editor has all the access to the COVID art and to the headshots and the bio and all of that. And then there's a shared spreadsheet so we know where we're at. And so usually it's just like. And there's a weekly timeline that we follow. And so it's. Again, it's a system that is.

It's a systematic team.

Yeah, exactly. It's a systematic team. And relatively. And at this point the system is saying like, is me remembering to mention we do or we don't have an episode this week.

So on the Side note on this, you don't script your shows. Like, it seems very obvious to me that you don't. And. But do you make any notes for yourself or thoughts before you go?

I do. Yep. I encourage people to send me some questions that they might want asked and. But then because I'm really. It's not an interview show at all. It's a conversation, and I'm not good at playing dumb. I'm going to have an opinion and I'm going to have some things to share from my background. And so I look for the overlap that kind of like, what is it that I'm actually curious about and what is my audience going to be curious about? And what in what they want to talk about really stands out for me from Chinese Medicine because a lot of times that will jump right out at me. And then in the course of the conversation, being able to let it flow and to let it be organic, but to have at least a few pillars of some things, a vision of how to get through it in a cogent way.

Yeah. Wonderful. I'm glad that you do that because it shows. I mean, it definitely shows because there's clarity to the episodes that you create. Wonderful. Well, you seem to get questions, like you have a series of questions. So somewhere along the way you're doing something right. Encouraging engagement. What do you do there?

That's a good question. Because I feel like sometimes I ask questions and I get crickets, you know, sometimes it's just nothing back at all. And. But I think that also that making it really crystal clear how people can respond to a call to action, you know, that. And making sure that they. Because I think a lot of times people aren't in front of a computer when they're listening to a podcast, so they're not ready to shoot me an email or shoot me a voicemail or something like that. And I think that times when I've asked for, like, what do you want me to hear more about? I want this to serve you that people. I think I've never gotten much in the way of feedback as far as that goes, but if I ask very specific questions, people are, I think, more likely to feel like sparks, something in them. It makes it an easier thing for them to answer. So I don't know that I have like, a universal answer, but I will say that. Yeah. And when I've asked people more pointed, I often get a better response.

So more specific and pointed questions. That's really a great way. A call to action. That is more in that realm. Very Smart, I think.

Yeah. And then again, also, sometimes emails will just come in, you know, that I haven't asked.

It was just meant to be there.

Yeah, exactly.

I love that. Let it happen on the other side. So, you know, you've got a thriving practice. You've got courses, you've got a lot of online tools, resources, you've got a book. So you've got a lot going on on your website and all of that that is available to all of your listeners. Is that the primary way you've monetized the show is through your own things? But are there any other ways?

Yeah, I have not done. I've not gone and searched out sponsors. For the most part, the way that I've monetized the show is essentially by opening the doors for people to connect with me as a coach. Certainly there is, if I'm in the clinic, halftime, and my acupuncture practice has been full with a wait list since 2003, so I haven't needed to grow that at all. But wanting to help people and realizing that I can do that from a distance and I certainly have room to do that. That a few coaching clients a month that talking about that, I'm available for that. I also have. I have online class classes in qigong and in the basics of Chinese medicine, which are pretty niche. There's not a lot of people teaching qigong online, and there's not a lot of people trying to democratize Chinese medicine for a layperson audience. And so. And so those are things where it's like. And that's actually partly why I feel like maybe my show is not the best model of how to monetize, because it's so. It's for lay people and health professionals. It's for Chinese medicine people and allopathic people. It's for, you know, there's. I'm a generalist generalist, and I love overlap and I love systems thinking. So I'm kind of a niche person's nightmare. You know that in terms of being able to figure that out.

You know what? This is a perfect time to segue to your binge factor. So I'm going to ask you, did you know you had a bingeable show? Did anyone reach out to you? Did you realize they were binging on your episodes? And if so, what do you think is your binge factor?

I think that, yes, people have binged the show, and I think that when they discover that it exists, there's certain themes that they can search for. Right. So if some people want all the Women's health episodes, or some people want all of the personal evolution, personal growth, personal development, mindfulness shows. And some people want the very specific health condition that they want to learn more about. And so I think that there's a lot of times people will start with some of the things that hold us back. Because I guess that's sort of what the show is supposed to explore in the first place, right? Is that not only how do we take care of ourselves and what do we need to be doing and how can we make this as easy as possible, how can we automate it, but also what gets in the way. And what gets in the way of us doing the things that we know that we should do gets at the heart of the things that we don't necessarily spend a lot of time interrogating in ourselves. And so I think it gives people a safe place to be with some of those shadow issues or some of those things that really, it's like, I want people to be kind to themselves. So, yeah, we may never get over our people pleasing or our perfectionism or whatever, but if we can make friends with that part of ourselves and have it be a softer relationship with these things that we think of as obstacles, that that is also like, that the people appreciate being seen, empathized with. And so it's like, that's really the comment that I get all the time is that, like, well, I have all these people telling me that I should be like, hacking my life so I can be more productive. But you're one of the only voices that gives me permission to do that just because I'm worth it and just because you want me to enjoy my life or like people. I have a coaching client who had listened to my show for four years before reaching out to me. And she said, yeah, you were literally the only voice in my head telling me that it wasn't selfish to do the basic things, right? To get enough sleep, to exercise, to make time for joy, not because, not for any other end other than it's your life and you are worth it.

Well, I agree with you on all those fronts, on what you're feeling about your show. But the true binge factor from a binge listener and a binge listener is someone who's really gonna listen to, to most of your episodes. They're not skipping around. They don't wanna miss anything because there's these deep little pockets of insights that you bring out. So they don't want to miss what you say. Right? That's a true, deep binge listener. And you're going to still find them, even though you're slowing down a little bit. They're going to come, they're going to find your show, and they're going to start at the beginning and they're going to go all the way through because you're not posting every single week. So they have time, so they actually will catch up. Right. You may not see a drop in your listener base. You actually may see it still stay level for a very long time, and that's because you have a good catalog of it. But from this particular case, the real binge factor in this is really what you've set out as your title. It's a healthy curiosity. You set out the permission to be curious about things and to go deeper into this. So when you have two experts together, you and your guest coming together, we're getting a sneak peek into the interplay between how experts start to talk to each other, how their minds are working, how each of you is thinking, bringing insights and stories to each other. That interplay of experts is really beautiful to get to sit on the sidelines because it's like, I didn't know I had to ask that. I wish I had known to ask that because look at the answer. So we're getting this kind of flow through a thought process that we maybe have a little bit of, but maybe we don't aren't as far into it and deep into it as you are. So getting you to ask those questions for us, you're our beautiful guide.

That's a really fun perspective of, like. And it makes perfect sense too, right. We don't know what we don't know. And so if you have the opportunity to be a fly on the wall overhearing a conversation between two experts in something, then, yeah, like, you're going to learn things that you didn't even know were existed.

I have a truly, like, serious curiosity on all kinds of things to the point of where, like, really, I really shouldn't deep dive into this. It's probably why I have six shows right. Of my own, which I need.

You know, that's amazing.

I'm managing 500 shows and I need six of my own. Right. But it is that case for that curiosity. And this is the Asking questions is a way to do that. And sometimes only we can ask those questions. And that's where you are in this space, is that if it's not expansive for you. And that's really where I feel that some of these guests that had been coming to you were not expanding Your curiosity. And that's where it fell off.

Being inauthentic for you. And so when you can find that space again, you're going to be back doing the interview because you want to ask those questions. You are a curious person, it's obvious. But also you have a. A fabulous point at which you identified sort of some of the history of how Chinese medicine came into the US and came into our country. And you explained it as being actually a whitewashed story. And then you told this wonderful story about Tupac's grandfather.

Stepfather.

Stepfather. Stepfather, yeah. It was like there's something in there, something father whose stepfather actually is responsible for really bringing this in and not the public way we kind of know about it today. And I like, that's a brilliant story. And diversity at just the right moment of something that we needed to hear and something that I had no idea about. I didn't even know I wanted to know about it, but I did. By the time I was done listening to it, I had taken that story in and thought, wow, it opened my perspective.

And part of that came about of again with Black History Month and me trying to educate myself about the history that I never learned. And it's appalling to me that as someone who is passionate about both Chinese medicine and history, that I am just learning this now right from. And it was. I learned a shout out to Tanisha Dandridge, who had written about it on her website, who's an acupuncturist. And so. But yeah, it's. It takes digging into the things that we are individually curious about as human beings, not just as professionals, and being able to share that, because I think a lot of times it's like, where that if your audience is going to resonate with you, they're likely going to resonate with some things that fire you up or that get you really interested in things. And so, yeah, I think that's part of it.

It's so essential that you're not phoning it in at the show. Right. That's why what you're doing right now with this sort of slower pace is actually right for your audience as well. And because we need to take your lead from that. So I'm so thrilled you're going through this process the way that you are. And you've been so public about it. Like we went out there, so many people just like Podfeed, never tell their audience. They never reach out. They don't tell a community, which is how I found you. Right. They don't tell anyone else. They're doing. They're like, oh, God, I quitting my show and kind of embarrassed about it. No, you went out there and said, this is right. And that's so brilliant. So I really so appreciate that for you, just bringing that on board to all of us podcasters to take a lead from you as well, Brody.

Well, thank you. And I think that part of the reason that I was willing to be transparent about it, not only because it's part of my message. Right. Is do less than you're humanly capable of. Really, you'll like it. Is the fact that I didn't see it as pod fading. I saw it as an intentional choice to give myself permission to do it at my own pace. That feels organic and right. And that I want everyone to feel that I want us to all feel like we're in choice and that giving ourselves permission to that, especially after this year, it's like that we're all likely handling more stress, more anxiety, more loneliness, more something that. And maybe that's not the case, but for certainly a lot of people I'm talking to, it is. And so giving ourselves that grace and being like. And when we can share that, we actually give other people permission to be real, too, about their struggles and recognizing that anytime that even if it's in alignment with who we are and even if we intend to continue, maybe especially if we intend to continue, that we don't have to be acting on everything that we believe in 24 7, there's this also this access of time.

The next question I want to ask you is that now that you have a little bit more breathing room, have you thought about ways to repurpose what you have? You have a giant show catalog with some really great episodes in there that, you know, are old to you, but not old to the new people who've just started following you or your new friends on Facebook or, you know, have you thought about, you know, making sure that they have some more visibility?

You know, I haven't yet. I think that that is more in that when I'm clear about, like, why would I do that? You know, like, should I do that? Yeah, yeah, exactly. When I'm clear as to what the why is, then, yes, that would be a great question. I love the idea of repurposing content.

Well, from a podcast strategist standpoint, like, I sit there and I look at what you've created, and I think I just want to get my hands in there and, like, move stuff around. I want to, you know, I want to create show spinoffs for you. And, like, that's how I look at it. Because from my standpoint, you've created a beautiful catalog that didn't get all the recognition that it should have as you grew it. It should be bigger than it is, and there's no reason for it not to. You shouldn't have to do more new work. You could be reusing the stuff you already have. Like, there are just some off the top of my head ideas like you mentioned that people sometimes want to go through all your women empowerment episodes. You could have a separate feed for those that have a special page on your website that tie into some of your special products that are. Are for that or special programs for that. You could also create advertisements that run on the shows, because I guarantee there's a lot of programs you developed in the last year as support for virtual support for people that weren't available in 2016 when you started the show. But there are episodes there that relate to the topic. And so how can you put past ads in? Well, ad mixing system is obviously one of our expertise is here, but doing things like that, there's some ways at which your community gets more nurtured by it, that it's not just more work. Right. You're actually being of more service to the listeners that are coming on still.

That seems brilliant.

So anyway, yeah, not to tell you you need to work with me, but the excitement of what you've built, that's what I don't want you to lose in this process is like, you're like, you know, sometimes people shut that door that you were talking about and they do a few new episodes and they move through it, but there really is still this, like, this tug that they don't realize the listeners are tugging on the other side and knocking for you, and you don't see it. You miss it because you think, oh, that's old for me. So when we don't look at it as old, we look at it as still a living thing, which it is in the podcasting world, then we have a better opportunity to actually be open to some things that actually give us the why for now for us and give that audience that's still there, we honor them in that process.

I love that idea. I love that idea. And as soon as there's bandwidth, that sounds like an excellent course of action.

You don't need to do that today. Right? This is something, you know, this is something that I really want to say to people, and I want you to hear this as well, that you have a show that pod faded. You have a show that stopped. I had a show on 3D printing that I did from 2014 on, you know, and I stopped it in 20. 2019 at the beginning of the year. And a year later, I got asked to do a segment for HP, and we did 25 episodes for Hewlett Packard. But I came back and I did it because it served the community that I loved so much. It did regenerate a lot of listenership. You know, it re energized that for us. But at the same time, I also realized, now I did this thing, and I don't need to keep doing it. The show's not. It's not for me. That's not my community. It's not why I'm here. But doing that part of it, it was like a final give back for me. It gave me closure that I didn't have.

Yeah. Creating a body of work and allowing it to be available and then allowing it to be available again to a new audience and then realizing that, yeah, that is that chapter. It's okay to close it.

Yeah, exactly. You know, sometimes that's what we do need, is we need that final closure piece. And that may be something that you end up finding. You find, yeah, this is the final closure point. This is what I needed to do was this event or these series of podcasts. And now it feels capp for me, there might be that too. So, you know, you've given yourself space to search for that. So I would love for you to give our audience a piece of advice about, you know, especially the professionals out there, the doctors and the healthcare and those that are building practices from it. It's like, what is your advice for them about whether or not they are. How they should explore starting a podcast, whether or not they should start prodding the podcasting.

I think that, like, anything connecting with why, like, how and why does this serve you and who are you trying to reach? How could it serve them? And getting really clear on that, because it's a noisy world out there. And I think that everyone has their own very valid take on. You know, I think that if you feel like you.

Everybody should be a podcaster. Right, Right.

But certainly it's. You know, there's. I remember Pat Flynn, a talk that he gave where the punchline was that there are no unique messages, only unique messengers. And I loved that quote because it was the kind of thing where it's like, oh, right, my voice is valuable too. But, yeah, so I'd say just making sure that you have a Clear, who is this for? And why do I want to do it? And that, because again, there's plenty of especially the same guests going on different shows and having the same conversation. It's like, why add to the noise. Why should someone tune into your show as opposed to the hundred others out there that are talking about the same thing? And in that process of figuring out your why and also that sort of getting clear as to what makes your show and your perspective unique, I think that that can also amplify your confidence and your desire to do it because you're also in touch with the service that you're going to provide to people, because it's like maybe they could get the information somewhere, but they're not getting your perspective or they're not getting sort of whatever it is that is your special sauce on it. And so if confidence is an issue, especially I think that getting out of the way, getting your ego out of the way, because it's really about your message, it's about who you're trying to reach and your mission.

Brody, thank you so much for coming on the show. I so appreciate your honesty, your ability to just give insight and share and to, you know, really give us a little taste of what it's like to listen to your show, too.

Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you, Tracy. I appreciate the insights that you have about working smarter, not harder, with my show. And yeah, that authenticity being real and sharing, I think, is. Is another way that. I think one of the reasons that my audience likes to listen to me and is part of my superpower in the world is feeling like I can be real in a world of Instagram whitewashing and image. You know, you don't have to buy into that. And it's not a prerequisite to showing up and doing the work.

Absolutely. Well, a healthy curiosity. You're gonna wanna check that out. And of course, you'll be able to find all about Brody in our blog post for this episode@thebingefactor.com thank you again, Brody.

Thank you so much.

So I told you that was going.

To be interesting, right? I told you her openness about sharing what she did. And you know, my favorite part about what she's done on the show right when she ended it and what she's done in the first new episode since she took a sort of slower pace to her show, is that there's a little bit more rawness to her authenticity. She was always authentically her before. She's got, as I mentioned, you know, as you can hear from her in the interview with me, she's got this beautiful tone and pace to how she thinks and how she does that without notes, without, you know, all of those things. It's truly a great podcasting tone, style and voice that she's got going there. She brings all of that together. But she's doing that now with this little bit of rawness to how she's showing up in the world of a little more sharing of who she is. And I think in doing that, she's actually going to find herself creating a more popular show than she had even before. And so I think this is going to be an interesting stage for her to find meaning. And I really hope she does, because the last thing we want is to have a voice like Brody's silenced. Right? I want her to ask the great questions, I want her to explore and where her mind goes, what she's reading. I want to know more about that. That's what's so beautiful about A Healthy Curiosity and what she's created. She's given herself the openness in this show in terms of its topic base, in terms of her experiences and her expertise areas to be able to blend them so well together and sort of shift the show as she goes around. So I think there's a shift in place. She may not see it yet, and that's okay. She needs to take her time, she needs to take that pause, she needs to move through that. But I see a brilliant shift coming for her where she's going to find the next voice, the next way she wants to show up. I want to hear it. So the only way you're going to do that though, is to subscribe to the show. So you're going to need to subscribe to Healthy Curiosity, check out Brody Welch's episodes, check out her style, check out what she's doing there, and be sure to share it with other people who you think could benefit from it. Because a truly good podcast doesn't matter what stage it is in, whether it's at start or it's in sort of a pod feed, slow pause. Stage deserves good listeners. And that only comes as you know, if you're trying to grow your own show from you sharing it with people who need it. So please do that for Brody and you can find all the information about her, as I mentioned before, at thebingefactor.com you and also don't forget that there's always a follow up article in Authority magazine and there should be some buzzfeed articles coming out soon. So you'll be able to check those out. So thanks everyone, for listening. And you know, if you think you belong on the Binge Factor, don't forget, you know where to find me. I'll be back next time with another great podcaster, another great angle and discussion about how podcasting can grow your business, can grow you, and can help you find meaning and help you serve in the world.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd Brains. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.