When You Change The Question, You Change The Outcome

Ever notice how the plans you waited years to achieve can feel misaligned the moment they arrive? We get honest about that awkward middle—holding a long‑earned job while craving creative momentum—and unpack how a small shift in thinking can unlock big results without burning out.

We start by naming the control trap and why trusting timing is hard when you’re used to managing every detail. From there, we reframe goals by changing the math behind them, drawing on a vivid example about raffling value and a proven story from Jack Canfield: break big targets into units you can actually influence. Instead of chasing one perfect win, multiply smaller wins you can repeat—price, volume, cadence, and channels. That lens powers a fresh approach to podcast growth too. If each episode earns predictable downloads, then consistent output becomes a lever for discovery and a path toward monetization, even when time is tight.

Along the way, we talk practical systems: simplify production, ship more often, and measure what matters—weekly downloads, completion rates, and saves—so your next move is guided by data, not guesswork. We also dig into the emotional side: how to honor a career you pursued for sixteen years while nurturing a two‑year creative calling, and how to pivot without abandoning your values. The takeaway is simple and liberating: ask better questions. How else could you reach the number? What can you do less of to get more? Where is the workaround hiding?

We wrap with a preview of next week’s readings from a new anthology featuring powerful stories by women authors, plus details on links and giveaways for loyal listeners. If this conversation sparked a new way to measure your goals, subscribe, share with a friend who needs momentum, and leave a quick review to tell us what mindset shift you’re trying next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Letting Go Of Control
• 0:40 Treating The Podcast Like A Business
• 1:49 Accepting A New Job And Pivoting
• 3:03 Reframing Desire And Long-Term Goals
• 4:14 The Raffle Story And Mindset Shift
• 5:10 Jack Canfield’s Million-Goal Math
• 6:10 Growing Listeners Through Volume
• 7:19 Think Outside The Path
• 8:41 Next Week’s Anthology Readings And Giveaways
• 9:11 Closing Gratitude

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello everyone, this is Steel Roses Podcast. This podcast was created for women by women to elevate women's voices. I hope everybody had a really, really wonderful week this week. I've been very busy, but in a good way. I'm kind of letting things shift and settle where they're meant to shift and settle, which is hard to do. Trust trusting trusting the universe and or if you prefer trusting God or or a lot whomever you are aligned with, having a trust that you know your path is being pushed into where it's meant to be is really hard. Especially for somebody like myself who quite frequently wants to control everything. But it's very difficult for me to let go of that. Kind of case in point, for the first two years of the podcast, I treated it very much like a business that I was running and forming very close to how I run projects in my daytime job. I was very, very meticulous about a lot of things. And this past year, I had to let a lot go because by the grace of God and the universe, I was provided with a job that I didn't actually quite like and people that I really like working with. And because of that, my focus shifted away from the podcast and I had to just go with the flow. I fought it initially, and I started getting really upset initially. But then I recognized and knew like perhaps this is the place I'm supposed to go for right now. Perhaps this is the path I need to just take a look at in the moment. Like, don't fight it because fighting it actually feels awful. So let's just see what happens here. So I've done pivots and I think I've talked about this a few times where I'm like, well, how can I make the podcast fit? How can I continue to make it work? And I found it. I found a a nice way for me to be able to still do this and you know, maintain my job and my sanity mildly. That's not exactly what I wanted to talk about, but I wanted to just food for thought that if you're feeling uncomfortable in your current situation, if you're really frustrated because it doesn't feel like it's what you want, perhaps it's not what you want currently, but perhaps at some point this is what you were predominantly focusing about, and now you're getting it. For example, the job that I have now. For a really long time, I wanted this job. This job I have right now, this is the job I've always wanted. For the past two years, I really wanted to just podcast full time. Well, that was only two years of me focusing on podcasting, but there was 16 years of me focusing on this job that I have right now. So you see what you see my point. For 16 years, I so badly wanted this and I worked all the way towards it. And now I have it. And it's like, oh wait, no, I don't want this. No, no, no, it doesn't really make sense because I've been wanting this for so long. So it's that small shift in how you're looking at things that's really gonna have the larger impact there. And then I always say, you know, we have to go with the flow, pivot accordingly, do what you need to do. Something that I thought was very interesting that I saw online, it was a story about a gentleman who was trying to sell his house for dollars. I don't know how true this is, by the way, but it gave me an idea. So I wanted to relay this to you guys. So there's this person who wants to sell their house for$800,000, and they're having a really hard time. They're having a really hard time. And so instead of selling it for$800,000, they say they're gonna raffle it off for free. And each ticket costs a dollar. Well, the raffle was wildly, wildly successful. And the gentleman made$2 million in the raffle and then gave his house away for quote unquote free. So do you see where I'm getting at? Now, this is like an example that I'm not, I don't know if it's true. An example that I do have for you that is in the same vein is true. It's about the author Jack Canfield. He's the person who introduced and launched the Chicken Foop Chicken Soup for the Soul series. I actually love these books. I really, really enjoy them. They're very positive. They cultivate a whole bunch of stories together. I would love to know actually where these people are submitting their stories now that I think about it. But nevertheless, it's like a series of stories that are pulled together from various people and places, and it's all introduced in one book and it's all really positive and wonderful. Well, the backstory is that when um Jack Canfield was not starting out, but he was an author and he was really struggling and he wasn't making any money. And, you know, it was one of these situations where he was doing it right, but he, you know, there could be more. So he's really trying to think about like, what am I gonna do? He has this chicken soup for the soul book. Like, what am I gonna do with this? How am I gonna get out there? And I may be butchering this a little bit, by the way. But the point is that he's lying in bed one night and he has this idea that perhaps it's not selling, I forget what the equation was here, but he basically said, I want, I wanted to hit a goal of a million dollars. And how can I get to that goal? And then it kind of clicked all into place. Well, it's not it's not essentially that like a million dollars is gonna come directly to me in one shot. But if I sell a million books or, you know, 500,000 books priced at$2 a book, don't judge me on my math. That might be wrong, but you get my drift. He was like, well, perhaps I just need to make sure that I'm selling enough books to get me to a million dollars. So maybe it is just books that are a dollar a piece that will get a million books out there that will get me a million dollars. So that's the shift in mindset there. Now, I also had this shift in mindset with the podcast. So I'll use this example as well. Earlier this year, I was like, how am I gonna get more listeners? I'd really love to boost listenership. I really want to make sure more people are hearing this podcast. I love, I love my podcast, and I can see that people are listening because I see the metrics and I see people across the globe listening to my voice, which is the most tremendous thing I I've ever encountered, really in my life. And kind of saying it out loud is is mind-blowing because I'm just me here in the US and nothing really wildly special except for the fact that I really am trying to make a shift here and I really want to make a difference. So it is, it's it's amazing, really. But in any, nevertheless, I had had this thought like, well, how am I gonna get and it was also in the same vein of like, you know, everybody wants to monetize their podcast. Well, you know, the truth be told, thousands of podcasts or new podcasts are released monthly. Thousands are also abandoned monthly because people give up. Podcasting is hard work, like it's not easy peasy, like, especially if you're going it solo, if you're editing your podcast, if you're adding in music, like everything takes quite a bit of time, which is why I've had to scale back so much of all the nice, fine things about the podcast and just shoot out audio because I just ran have run out of time. So I'm giving a really long story here, but the point is I had this moment of I really want more people, more downloads for the podcast, because more downloads equals obviously more listeners, but the more downloads you have, the more, the more you're able to monetize your podcast. To monetize your podcast, you have to have, I believe it's a thousand downloads or more a month. So I'm sitting there like, man, like how am I gonna make this happen? Like, you know, I gotta promote it. I have to, I have to do social media, I'm gonna have to go do lives, I need to do videos, like I need to get more eyes on me. Yeah, yeah, that that's all true stuff. And if I had time, I would do all those things all the time. But I don't have time. And so the thing that clicked into place was, well, instead of just releasing one episode a week, why not release two or three? Why not release four? If you are look, if I'm if I know that every episode gets roughly 30 downloads, and I release four a week, that's 120 downloads plus, you know, times four. So that's like four, you know, you see where I'm going with this. So I'm saying all this because I think that people get really stuck, and myself included, we get really stuck on, well, I only want this one thing. And then we seem to get this tunnel vision of, well, there's only this one path to take. But what I'm challenging you to do is why don't you take a step back from that path and really think to yourself, well, how can I achieve that? There is another way. How can I achieve this goal that I've set for myself? Is there another way? Can I do a workaround? Is there something extra I can be doing? Is there something less I need to do? There's always a path. You just have to really start to think outside the box. Well, how can I get to that path? So I do encourage you guys to just, if you're finding yourself challenged with certain things that you're trying to get to and you just can't seem to do it, I think this is your sign to really try to think it out, think about things differently and come at them differently. Because if you want it bad enough and if you're focusing enough on it and you're focusing your energy onto something, it is gonna come to you. It is feasible and it is possible. I hope you all had a wonderful week this week. I am super excited because next week's episodes, I'm going to be reading from the anthology book that was released this year, featuring myself and a bunch of other women authors in the book sharing our stories. And it is the most inspiring book. So I'm going to be reading some passages from the book next week. Um, I'll include the link to purchase uh so you guys can all take a look at it. And I think I will give some free giveaways to those of you who are my avid listeners who've been listening for a while. I hope you all are doing wonderfully. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I will catch you on the next one. Take care.