Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I have been focused on my studies to complete my finance degree for the last couple of years. So it’s been a long three years!
Finishing my degree was one of the things on my vision board for the longest, and anything short of graduation was something I couldn’t even entertain. But in order to be successful, it required so much of my time and energy that I needed to put other goals and things I was passionate about on the back burner for a time…like growing A Highly Unlikely Life.
For the last year and a half, I spent my breaks from school planning and learning. All of the time and focus I gave to growing this blog and developing my podcast over the last three years was with the understanding that I wouldn’t be able to take any significant steps forward until I graduated.
It was so hard to wait!!
At last, I have graduated! Finally! I took the graduation cap picture off my vision board, removed the “Graduate” milestone from my ten-year road map, and I get to start taking those big steps forward.
The idea to start a podcast was the result of my downtime over Christmas break in 2019. At that time I wasn’t confident enough to make podcasting a reality on my own. So I briefly partnered with a friend until the pandemic turned all of our lives upside down…with gusto!
Part of the disruption I experienced was an abrupt end to my ability to continue in the joint venture. At first, I was incredibly disappointed…irritated…super bummed…and suffered a colorful array of negative emotions over it. Mostly because we had worked so hard to get a podcast started, only to have it stop a couple of episodes later, and it was no one’s fault. There wasn’t anyone to be upset with; it was just the situation we found ourselves in, buried in a pile of anxiety and unknowns.
But then my brain started stewing. I wasn’t satisfied with letting go of the idea of a podcast. I considered going out on my own, but I cast that idea aside because I had already created a box for myself and decided I wasn’t enough on my own.
But it was this nagging thought that just kept coming back over and over. So one day, I decided to climb out of the box I had locked myself in and spend some time working through the idea to see where it went. I ran through all of the possible outcomes, how the show would be structured, what kinds of things I would talk about, and how it would tie into the website…and I visualized what doing a podcast on my own would look and feel like.
From that process, I realized it might not be the worst idea I have ever had, and there must be a reason I couldn’t let the idea go. So I developed some more structured ideas and formulated a more concise plan. Then I called up my sister to see what she thought (because that is one of the unwritten rules about being my sister is that you have to be a sounding board for your widowed sister who needs people to listen to her crazy ideas). Surprisingly, she and her husband both said I should have done my own podcast from the beginning, and they thought it would be great…so that’s what I did!
This was well outside of my comfort zone…and let’s be honest, those first few episodes were pretty rough. (Thank you to all of you who listened and came back for more!!!)
But I LOVE it so much! I get excited to write, create content, record…and now I will even be doing my own editing and production work. It’s the highlight of my week to set everything up, sit down in front of that microphone, and share my thoughts and experiences with all of you.
During my last Christmas break, as I enjoyed some downtime and gave myself some time to rest, I also invested quite a lot of time planning my next steps forward. I did a deep dive into figuring out the best way to grow A Highly Unlikely Life into the vision I have for it.
Part of that plan is to make video part of the podcast.
But here’s the thing, I know nothing about video production! NOTHING!
Since I was about to start my last semester of college (thank goodness that’s over), there really wasn’t anything I could do at that time to change my level of expertise in video. So I settled for doing a lot of research and reading over the break. Eventually, I found a YouTuber/doctor turned expert YouTube trainer with a top-rated training program and a long waitlist.
Since I had to wait anyway, I figured why not? I jumped on the waitlist and got busy waiting.
I kid you not, the very last week of school I received an email telling me that my name came to the top of the list and if I still wanted to enroll, I was being invited to do so.
The timing COULD NOT have been better!! I was two weeks from graduation and being completely done with school…serendipity.
So, I am thrilled to announce that The Highly Unlikely Podcast will soon be audio and video format!
For those of you that have subscribed to the audio format, nothing will change for you. The podcast will still be published weekly wherever you listen.
But soon, it will also be published on YouTube each week, so you can watch me talk about all the things. Plus, I will be producing other content, that will hopefully be expertly edited and beautiful, to go along with the weekly podcast.
In the meantime, I am setting up my recording studio for video, which means I have to move out of my walk-in closet (great for recording audio) and figure out how to get the same audio quality somewhere else…just another thing you never think about until you find yourself on a completely new journey.
If I’m honest, I have seriously considered continuing to record from the closet, and yep, it might still happen.
I will also be working on an update for the website, so if you pop in one day and it looks completely different, don’t panic! It’s all part of the plan!
As always, thank you all so much for the love and support…it means the world to me, and I don’t know that I would be able to keep going and growing without you. You are all amazing and kind in more ways than I ever could ask for…sincerely, thank you!
Hugs, Lavena
If you enjoyed this blog post, please share it! Click HERE to subscribe to The True Story of A Highly Unlikely Life to keep up with the latest.
