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Yellow, this is Rambles and Shambles with Ana. And today I'm sitting with just me. I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on the first 10 episodes of the podcast because a lot of people have asked why I started it. And there's a few reasons, but one of the big ones is that there is so much overcooked stuff out there on the interwebs about how to win, influence, power, success, all of that. This podcast has actually been such a good learning experience for me. Obviously, I love talking. That's not new. But one thing that I've been really conscious of this year, even outside of the podcast, is trying to listen better, uh, ask better questions, not jump in too quickly. So that's been really good for me because it's made me slow down a bit and pay attention in a bit of a different way. So I don't send people a huge list of questions before we meet. I give them a bit of a feel for what we might cover, what it's about. Then we pretty much sit on the couch and just have a chat. Um, I like it that way because it keeps more casual. Um, people aren't sitting there trying to sound super polished or prepared. They just talk and it feels more like a coffee or a tea, if you don't need to be caffeinated, kind of catch-up, more than an interview. Uh, if you know me from real-life working environment, you'll know that I'm someone who plans out and preps. If you know me from my personal life, you'll know I'm someone who just gets a random idea and then all of a sudden I'm competing in Japan or starting AFL footy, that 32, just random things. So when I started the podcast, I wasn't sure how to approach it because it's like semi-work brain and semi-personal brain. And I initially sat down and just randomly wrote out people's names and started thinking, you know, who am I going to ask? What order I'm gonna ask. Um, honestly, it was so overwhelming. It didn't feel natural at all. So I pretty much just scrapped that whole plan and list and just messaged to my friends who I really trust and said, let's interview. And that ended up being, I reckon, the right way to do it because it made the whole thing feel easier straight away, like no pressure, no big setup. I think that's been one of the clearer things for me in all of this. Uh, sometimes you don't need the full plan, we just need a simple way to start because I know what I'm like. I can turn something into chaos pretty quickly if I'm not careful. So when I started asking people if they'd be keen on an interview, I kept getting the same response. Basically, every person was like, What? Me? Why? Like, who am I? And some of them would even try to upsell me their more like inverted, commas, impressive friend. And that happened enough times that I really started noticing it. These people with jobs, real lives, people had gone through things, figured things out the hard way, and still their first instinct was to think they weren't impressive enough. And I remember lying down in the park one day and I was thinking, like, damn, why are we so conditioned to think that someone impressive has to look a certain way? Most people do not become superstar corporate hotshots or entrepreneurs or massive business owners. Like, that's just the reality. Most people aren't building empires and doing TED Talks or whatever else it is that people think counts as a big enough life. But that doesn't make them any less impressive. Every human goes through something in their working life, and just because the dollar sign linked to their job is smaller or the title is less flashy, it doesn't mean that their story has any less value. We all play our part. And a lot of people carry much more than they let on at work. You hear someone talk for long enough and you realize the job is almost never just the job. There's the family stuff, confidence, timing, identity. It's it's all mixed in there. And I think that's probably one of the biggest things this podcast has reinforced for me is that you can learn something from every single person you talk to. If you can't, I honestly think that says more about you than about anyone else. Because to me, the idea that we're all waiting around to find some amazing mentor or some special person with the answer is a bit overdone. Like, sure, some people are super wise, they've done incredible things. And yes, you can learn from them, but you can also learn something from the teacher, the trade, the parent, the business owner, the person that stayed in one place for 20 gazillion years. Like you can learn something from all of them if you're listening. Um, I've had messages from people saying things like, I really needed to hear that, or I didn't realize other people were dealing with the same insecurities. Um, or wow, they sound so confident, but they still have the same problems as me. And I think that's a big part of it. You're not always just going to get some life-changing advice, and a lot of the time it's just hearing something you felt yourself and realizing, oh, look, I'm not the only one. And I think that's what I want this podcast to do. It's cross-industry for a reason. Not every episode is going to be for every person. Depends on where you are in your life, what stage of work you're in, what you've got going on at the moment. One person might listen to an episode and think, yeah, that's that one wasn't really for me. And then the other one lands like straight in the feels. That's fine. That that's that's kind of the point. It's a whole smoggers board of lives and experiences, younger, older people, we're changing direction. I really like that mix. And I don't want it to just be one type of person saying, you know, the one type of approved thing about work. I'm interested in how different people move through life, how they made their choices, how they deal with difficult seasons and you know, how they found their passion or still haven't. That's the stuff I care about. I'm also really proud of every speaker who's come on so far because it does take courage to do it. It takes a lot of courage to sit down and talk about your life, uh, your choices, your thoughts, the things that shaped you. Um, that's not nothing, and and I definitely don't take that lightly. Every story, every reflection shared has really given me something to think about. This podcast is not here to entertain people who need a 10-second dopamine hit. If you get bored, if something isn't dramatic enough, that's cool. This probably isn't for you, then the podcast is not going to suddenly become more exciting because the core of it is already the point. I remember someone recently asking me, um, how are you gonna make this bigger and better? And I remember thinking, I'm not here trying to hunt down more and more dramatic stories like each episode has to top the last one. That's not really what I'm interested in. Most of us are not living some blockbuster life. We're just trying to manage work alongside, you know, family, health, all of that. And to me, that is the story. And people sharing how they got through their career and their work or how they managed, that's that's enough. Actually, that that's more than enough. Um, the other really interesting thing has been support, because what's wild is that some of the people I thought would be helpful or supportive actually weren't. Um, and they came in with little comments, bits of feedback, ways of telling me how I could do better. And it's like, thanks, man, like really helpful. Didn't realize you're an interview expert. Um, and I don't know why, but whenever I do something, I always have a few special people who just love coming at me from you know behind the little keyboards, um, trying to push something. It's like people who are too scared to try something new themselves somehow always have a lot to say about the person who does. But I'll be honest though, those types of people are really useful for me too. Yes, they irritate me, obviously, but they also switch something on. Um, the more someone tries to reduce what I'm doing from the sidelines, the more it makes me want to back myself properly and and do it well. And something in me just goes, all right, watch this. On the flip side, the most amazing humans, people I haven't spoken to in ages, like, you know, give me a call or a message, and it's like, wow, I didn't realise I had these really lovely, silent supporters, people who are watching, listening, cheering me on, and a lot of the time there were people I was not expecting. That part's probably caught me off guard the most. Someone you haven't heard from in years reaches out and says they listen to an episode on a drive or while walking, and something stayed with them, and and you're just like, wow, that that really means a lot. That part's been really beautiful, uh, a little bit confronting because I don't think I realized how many people were paying attention or cared or felt impacted in some way. And I didn't realize I'd landed anywhere for people like that. So that's been really, really nice. A little bit strange, but really, really nice. I think what I'm most grateful for is that people were willing to sit down and talk to me honestly and trust me with their story. Um, and I'm very grateful for the people who've listened um in the way they have. I can't believe how many people listen to each episode all around the world. Like it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I will be taking a short few weeks break to record and edit the next few episodes. So the next release will also come out in like a block of 10. So yeah, that's where I'm at with it. Uh still learning, still enjoying it. I'm very proud of uh this little weird idea that's turned into something real. So I shall now shake my own hand and say goodbye. Bye.