Celebrate One Year Of This Midlife Podcast, An Update For The Online Course And More!

Episode 59 | (00:07):
Hey there, Easy Ager. Are you ready to celebrate? Yes! Tomorrow, October 6th, is officially The Easy Aging® Show's birthday! All right, so I couldn't find my kazoo so I was using my harmonica. I'm rethinking that thought. But anyway, let's keep moving forward.

(00:59):
This little baby, cute as it is, is one year old. Oh my goodness, look at those cheeks. Just so cute. Let's check out some of the statistics, all right?

(01:10):
Thanks to you, the show has 59 episodes, around 7,000 downloads, and is ranked in the top 5% globally. Now, I am the most proud of that last statistic because when you're ranked in the top 5% globally, that means that of the nearly 3 million podcasts worldwide, The Easy Aging® Show is in the top 5%.

(01:33):
Being in the top 5% is, in my opinion, a huge accomplishment. So thank you. Thank you for helping me get there. I really appreciate it.

(01:42):
I wanted to start today's show with a review from Apple Podcasts. In this review, K-Pastor says...

(01:49):
"In a day filled with overwhelmingly negative news, it is refreshing to receive a brief, spot-on message of encouragement. The Easy Aging® Show provides that sort of lift. Michelle Zavala approaches age transition, inward struggles and life's "stuck places" with grace, wisdom and a positive disposition. I personally appreciate (her) use of Scripture as a baseline for her life. Easy Aging® injects a powerful life-lift to its audience."

(02:16):
Aw, y'all, that almost makes me want to cry. What a generous, lovely review. Thank you, K-Pastor, I really appreciate it.

(02:25):
Y'all, these reviews mean the world to me. I mean, they are everything to me and they help me share the show with others. So if you have received any encouragement or a life-lift to your day, as K-Pastor says, I would be so thankful if you left me a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

(02:42):
If you're not sure how to do that, you can go to TheEasyAgingShow.com, scroll down toward the bottom of the page, and you will find instructions. It's actually pretty simple. There's only a few steps, so thank you in advance for taking care of that. I appreciate it. :)

(02:57):
Okay, so today I'm going to give you a short overview of how I got here because I know we are picking up new listeners all the time. I'm going to give you an update on the online course, and then I'm going to leave you with a little something for you to do. Because heaven forbid that I ever do an episode and I don't give you a homework assignment, right? ;)

(03:18):
How I got here. All of this started with the little seed of a dream back in 2018 and 2019. I had been studying and applying personal development to my life since 1995, and it was working. I was making progress. I felt like I was living  a lovely life, and things were great.

(03:36):
But a big turning point for me was when my mother got sick. I had been caring for her for quite a while and honestly, she was very healthy. But it is a completely different ballgame when you're caring for someone who is ill.

(03:50):
I took care of her until she passed away in 2016. And interesting thing, a little observation I made... When your role as a caretaker becomes all-consuming, a lot of the other things in life kind of start falling away, and I felt like that's what happened to me.

(04:07):
I was so focused on my mother and her comfort and her health and everything about her that I kind of forgot about me. So when she died, it felt like my purpose in life had died too.

(04:19):
I felt like I had no direction anymore. I was lost and on top of it, I was grieving the loss of not just my mom but also of one of my very best friends in my entire life. So I spent a couple of years figuring out what was next for me.

(04:32):
I was praying. I was asking God for wisdom, and then this little idea popped up and started taking hold of me. It started taking hold in my mind and in my heart. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do or what it was going to look like.

(04:47):
All I knew was that I could help make life easier for other midlifers who were searching, just like I was, who were trying to answer that big "what now?" question for the second half of life, just like me.

(04:59):
And I kept hearing in my head over and over again, "How can I help them? How can I help them?" That was the big message in all of this.

(05:05):
I used a lot of my personal development experience to figure things out for myself, and that was great. But deep in my heart, I knew there was an easier way than the way that I was doing it. Again, the picture was a little fuzzy. It was a little blurry. I wasn't quite sure what it looked like, but I knew there was a better way.

(05:22):
So I created my three-step proprietary process called the ACE Approach, which stands for awareness, clarity, and ease. And if that sounds familiar, it's because that's what I teach here every single week.

(05:35):
Awareness is paying attention to your thoughts, your feelings, your words, and your behavior. Clarity is getting crystal clear on what you want in your life now. What makes your heart sing at this particular age?

(05:50):
And Ease means using tiny, bite-sized nuggets of action to get you where you want to go. I call them fun-sized actions. These little actions don't overwhelm you but they allow you to create permanent, lasting change in your life. These are the three main topics that I talk about every week. And I also give you tips on how you can live a creative life on a daily basis.

(06:11):
So I started trying a few different things and after a number of unsuccessful attempts, I decided to start a podcast. I didn't have a clue how to do that, but that was okay. I consider that a minor technicality. So I took some courses and I dove in immediately.

(06:26):
I'm not going to lie to you, my friend. I struggled. I struggled a lot. I fought to get over the hump of that learning curve, but I was determined to create some helpful content so you could start applying it to your life as you need it. And like anything else, the more I did it, the better I got and the easier it became to produce a show every week.

(06:46):
All that to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting to this point. I work hard to be consistent for you, to give you quality content that you can begin applying to your life immediately, the moment the show ends.

(07:01):
My original goal started off as having a new episode published by 5pm Central Time on Wednesdays, and I'm sticking to that. I try to get it out earlier, so it's waiting for you when you wake up but sometimes,  that just doesn't happen.

(07:13):
And sometimes technology (sigh)... Honestly, it doesn't work and it pushes the episode out later than when I schedule it. Always fun. Technology, ain't it grand? 

(07:24):
In the last few months, I set a new intention of giving you free content at least twice a month on Saturdays. The Simple Saturdays episodes are a lot shorter and are designed to give you a little something to think about or to chew on over the weekend when you may have a little more time.

(07:39):
Now, per all of your requests, I'm working on an online course for you. Wait, okay. I hit the wrong side of the harmonica, that's why you heard the little whistle. Yeah, we're going to have to get rid of that harmonica for next time. ;)

(07:55):
It's a self-paced course that takes you deeper into this work. It gives you a structure. It is going to provide an organized way to go about — literally — changing your life, if that's what you want. And it's based on the three-part proprietary process that I told you earlier: awareness, clarity and ease.

(08:16):
On top of that, you'll get content that will take you to the next level with the way you're managing your life. It's going to help you become even more aware of what's going on inside of you. It's going to help you get even clearer on what's next for you so you can step into your new intention with more confidence and more grace.

(08:35):
And it's going to help you get a plan of fun-sized actions that gets you excited about this new adventure, whether you're going after new goals or creating these new habits. Because let me tell you, if you're working on something to improve your life, you should be excited, right?

(08:53):
The online course will be completed before the end of the year so you can spend some time with it over the holidays. I want you to be ready for the start of the new year. I want you to cruise into the new year with clarity and strength and power and enthusiasm.

(09:09):
Just think: By planning ahead a little earlier, this upcoming year could be your best year yet. How fun is that? Whoo-hoo!

(09:18):
The Easy Aging® Insiders will get first access to the course, along with some bonuses. So if you are not already an Easy Aging® Insider, go to TheEasyAgingShow.com and sign up right after this episode to make sure that you don't miss out.

(09:34):
So that's a bit of an overview and an update on the online course. Now I'm going to ask you to do something...

(09:40):
I'm going to ask you to start thinking about what you want for this upcoming year. Again, paying attention, being aware of your thoughts and feelings and words and behavior will help you hone in on the specifics of this.

(09:53):
Create some space in your day. Yep, two little minutes. Set the timer for two minutes. Create some space so you can start letting your mind wander. Start daydreaming about what you want your life to look like. Start painting that picture of what it looks like and how you are going to feel when you get it.

(10:11):
I discuss this in-depth in episode 57, so you might want to check that out if you haven't heard it yet. But this preparation, my friend, this is going to help you get the soil ready for the online course and for the new year. That's it for today.

(10:26):
Thank you so much for celebrating the show's birthday with me. It has been my honor and privilege to serve you during this past year, and I look forward to many more years together. I'll see you in the next episode and until then, peace, love and blessings to you and yours. Take care. Bye-bye!