056 | Money and Life Lessons from One Year of Podcasting

After a year of podcasting, I’ve shared a lot of information, made a lot of mistakes, and heard from a lot of you about how you’re applying this information to your life. I’ve also learned a few things over the last year.

In this episode, let’s talk about where the podcast stands after a year, some things you’ve accomplished this year because of the podcast, and 4 lessons I’ve learned that you can apply to your money and your life.

Lightly edited transcript appears after the show notes.

 Topics Discussed

• where the podcast stands after one year
• some of your accomplishments over the last year
• 4 lessons that you can apply to your money and your life

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Resources mentioned

Lifestyle Freedom Starter Guide

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Social media: @iamrhothomas on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. How are you? I hope you’re doing well having an amazing day. I am super excited because we are celebrating one year on this podcast, I cannot believe how the time has flown, but I’ve been reflecting on this last year, and I want to share a few lessons that I’ve learned from a year of podcasting, that you can apply to your money in your life so I am excited to dive in. So on July 13 2020 I published the first three full episodes of my podcast, and I felt afraid. I wondered if anyone would listen. I thought it was a little crazy to start it, but I also felt called to do it. I’ve known for a while, that my story wasn’t for me. It started with that first time back in 2018, to start a blog sharing my family story, and the things I was learning about money, and it was probably like, you know 2017 When I first felt the tug, but I actually started the blog in 2018. And I remember talking to two of my friends at work back at the end of 2019 about feeling like I was supposed to do something specifically for lawyers. At that time, I thought it would be, you know just reconfiguring my blog, but I knew lawyers especially could benefit from this information, because by that point I was coaching some of my friends and colleagues, and they were saying some of the same things, and running into some of the same issues, and I just thought, like if they’re thinking and experiencing these things, that there were even more lawyers who were thinking and experiencing the same things too. And so that was like the whole thought there about how I could help. Lawyer specifically. But even so, I sat on the idea for a while, like I did a few things here and there. I talked to our chief HR officer and the recruiting team about presenting this info to our summer program that was like, you know, January of last year. And then last summer I started really thinking about what this thing would look like. And during my Bible study one morning the idea of doing a podcast came up, and I remember talking to the chair of my firm in like the month or so before I launched it, and I was telling him about the idea and he thought it sounded like something lawyers, and especially young lawyers could really use, and I told him you know I was feeling apprehensive about it, but I really felt called to do it. And he was so encouraging and was like, I mean if it’s a calling roll I say go for it. And so I did. And over the last year I’ve shared our journey out of over $670,000 of debt. I’ve shared struggles that I’ve had in my life with overwhelm and burnout and losing myself after becoming a mom, and my journey to live more intentionally. I’ve shared these things that I’ve learned about managing your thoughts and managing your money, and you were here for it. So many of you contacted me or left review saying this was for you, and that this was your story too, that you’re going through some of the things I talked about you feel less alone, that you’re learning things that are helping you manage your money and think differently, and I’ve even worked with some of you one on one to reach your goals. So I feel so blessed and honored, and now here we are, a year end, and I want to share four lessons I’ve learned, after a year of podcasting, that you can apply to your financial journey and the journey of life in general. The first lesson is, it doesn’t have to be perfect. So I’m a recovering perfectionist. I’m sure many of you can relate because, you know, hashtag lawyers right. When I first started this podcast, I had so many thoughts about how long an episode should be, and how it should be structured and that breath sounded too loud and maybe that point wasn’t clear and let me re record that. But trying to make it perfect slowed down my progress, as you know I’m a wife, I’m a mom, I’m a practicing lawyer, and I’ve been home with our boys who are currently four and two. During this pandemic, so I have limited time available for the show, and I set aside like the time that I was going to spend on it. So when I was striving for perfection, I wasn’t able to get as much done. And I’ve learned that my podcast doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective. I can have an allowed breath or a part where I stumbled on my words, or whatever, and you still get the information I’m sharing. But if I never put it out because I had to get it perfect, it can’t help anyone. The same is true for you, with your goals for your money or your time, or any other thing you’re trying to improve or accomplish. You don’t have to wait until you know the perfect plan for your money with every contingency thought of, or until you know every single step you need to take to get from point A to point B on your goal. Take action now with what you have and what you already know. Even if you don’t have the perfect plan figured out, you can still make progress towards your goals with what you do know, and you can figure out what needs to be tweaked along the way, but you can’t get that feedback. If you never get started because you’re waiting for the perfect time or the perfect plan. Don’t let perfectionism, keep you stuck. The next lesson is to keep it simple. So when I first started, I was promoting my podcast on Instagram, even before I started the podcast actually like I was just talking about the topic that I thought I would talk about on the show, and someone suggested that I start a Facebook group, with the podcast so I did that, and I have been promoting my blog for a few years on Twitter so I started promoting my podcast there too. And then I started posting on my Facebook page. And basically, was just doing all the things you know trying all the platforms and it was a lot. Oh, and I got on LinkedIn and shout out to my friend fellow lawyer money coach Jessica Medina, she convinced me to get on there and I was really resistant but I love it now. But anyway, at one point I was trying to make sure that I didn’t post the same thing on the same day on each of the platforms. And the moral of the story is I was doing way too much. I was on way too many platforms, and before I started my podcast, I wasn’t even on social media like that. I was pretty much just on Twitter for my blog and I’d occasionally go on my personal Facebook. After I started, I was doing way too much and it was tough to keep up. I got so overwhelmed with it all. So I’ve since paired that down. I closed my Facebook group, I stopped posting on Twitter and Facebook, and I post on Instagram, and LinkedIn. And actually, like my Instagram is linked to my Facebook business page, so it automatically posts there, but my focus is on Instagram and LinkedIn. And when I post, I post the same thing on both platforms, and no one cares. And it’s much easier to keep up with because it’s a simpler system. The same is true for managing your money. So often people will try to focus on way too many things at once, you want to save for these goals while you pay off those three credit cards while you invest in you know the hottest new stock all while living your best life because you work hard and you deserve it. Right. When you’re splitting your attention and your money across so many different goals. It will be way more difficult to make progress on any one of them. And also if you think your finances are too complex or you feel overwhelmed when you think about your money, How likely is it that you’ll take the time to manage and plan your finances. Probably not very likely. Instead, keep it simple. Focus on one goal at a time, and not necessarily to the complete exclusion of the other goals right for example I’ve mentioned that our focus has been on paying off our debt over the last four years, but we’ve still invested some for retirement, but keeping this focus on the main goal has made managing our money over the years so much simpler. The point being, don’t complicate it, you’re much more likely to be willing to look at and make decisions for and manage and plan your money when you keep it simple. The next lesson is to find what works for you. So, you know, I started a blog back in 2018, everybody in their mom was blogging. I had heard a lot about blogging I had read a number of blogs and so that’s what I did. But I would get super busy at work, and my blog would go on the back burner, and if I was you know writing all day which I often was then I wouldn’t want to come home and write more. So when I started thinking about wanting to do something. So when I started thinking about wanting to do something specific to lawyers, and the idea of podcasting came to me it made a lot of sense. So like to talk. I’ve always liked to talk. I used to get like the unsatisfactory score and conduct when I was little because I talked too much in school, but talking comes naturally to me. Right, more so than writing does, and it feels like a much lighter load to talk for a little while about a topic than to write a blog post and make sure it’s organized the right way and flows correctly and all of that. So switching to podcasting was a great move for me. Also, when I first started my podcast, I was talking about money, but also like professional or like life topics as well. And I don’t know how to articulate it, but basically I wanted to talk about having control of your time, and I knew that part of not having control of your time is the way that we as lawyers tend to view our jobs and our roles within the legal profession. And the way we approach those roles, and so I wanted to address that. Over time though I’ve faded out some of the more general topics and I’ve settled more into money, which was how I got my start back in 2018, and I still talk about some of those other topics but not as frequently. And then, as I’ve already mentioned, rather than trying to be on all the social media platforms I’ve narrowed it down to the two I like best. So in the same way that I found what works for me with my podcast. You have to find what works for you with managing your money. I always say personal finances personal. So what works for one person may not work for the next and that’s okay, what’s important to me may not be important to you. That’s okay, we’re all individuals, we don’t have to fit neatly into a little box. There are so many different ways to budget or pay off debt or invest or whatever goal you have, and rather than trying to find the quote best way or the, you know, quote right way to do it. Find the method that works for you, which might take some trial and error, but ultimately the best way is the one that you’ll stick with and actually get the results you want. Alright, the final lesson is, don’t underestimate the future impact of the decisions you make today. I started almost two years ago, with an idea for a platform to help lawyers. When I decided on doing a podcast I sat on it for months before I actually did anything. Then last July I sat on the floor of my closet, I recorded three episodes about topics that I wanted to talk to lawyers about, and I was nervous to release it, but I did. Now here we are, a year end. This podcast has hit 10,000 downloads, and I don’t know a whole lot about podcast statistics but 10,000 feels big to me, so I’m gonna celebrate it. Right, the podcast has ranked in the top 100 and top 200 podcasts in the US, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, Belgium and Barbados and shout out to my Beijing listeners because it’s been on the charts in Barbados for the last like six or seven months straight, so I really appreciate your support. But over the last year I’ve talked to and work with so many of you. You’ve left jobs that weren’t a good fit, you’ve got new jobs you started businesses you’ve paid off debt you’ve bought houses, you’ve prepared yourself financially for getting engaged and getting married. You’ve deepen your relationship with your significant other, you’ve talked about money in a more productive way than ever before. I never could have imagined when I sat on my closet floor with my mic for the first time that this would be the outcome. A year later, blessed doesn’t even begin to describe it. My prayer is always that the Lord will use me in the way that he sees fit to deliver the message you need to hear. And that He’ll bless my efforts, and he has clearly answered that prayer. Thank you for being receptive to the information I share, and for sharing with me how it has changed your life. So now, of course, this lesson is not just about me, you can apply it to your money as well. So often we put off doing the things that we want to do, or that we know we need to do, especially when it comes to managing money. Taking a look at how much you’re spending, looking at how much debt you have, creating a budget, setting up that recurring savings amount. Money is such an emotionally charged subject for many people and there’s a lot of shame and fear surrounding it and so we avoid it. Also making changes generally feels uncomfortable, so we put off doing new things. You know, the same is true for other things we want to do in life. I was reading someone’s email like I’m on a lot of email newsletters, but the person was talking about how he’s been wanting to improve his piano, but keeps putting off practicing because he’s telling himself he doesn’t have enough time to practice the way he wants to. It’s not the right time. But now a few years have gone by, And he’s made no progress to where his goal. He said something like, he had been thinking about how much time it passed, and how much further along, he would be if he had just practice in the time he had no matter how little instead of not practicing at all. I also think about my family’s financial journey here, there was no way to know exactly what our life would be like in this moment, when we started back in 2017, but the way our finances look now have allowed us to make some decisions for our family. During this pandemic that we wouldn’t have been able to make how we not started then the impact of that initial decision to start has been huge. So let me ask you this. What have you been putting off. Where could you be a year from now, if you start today. How different could that area of your life be, if you take the first step now, and keep taking step after step towards your goal. The results could be life changing for you or other people. And if one of the areas you want to make progress in is your money, and you want support towards your goals in that area. Let’s set up a call to chat, you can head to rho Thomas comm slash coaching and set that up. Alright, thank you again for being here, one year in county. I am looking forward to seeing what the next year brings. That’s it for this week’s episode, come join me over on Instagram, or LinkedIn let’s chat more. I love talking with you guys over there. My handle on Instagram is at I am rho Thomas, and rho Thomas on LinkedIn. Please subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you’re listening on, leave me a review those things really helped the show, and please continue to share it with your friends or anyone else you think would benefit, as we close out friend, I pray that you reflect on this last year, and celebrate all that you’ve accomplished. I pray that you really look at your life and consider where these four lessons I shared apply to you and how you can implement them. And as always, I pray that you continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live the life of freedom and choice, you deserve. Talk to you later.