Shivani Gupta

Hello, and welcome to the Grow Your Business Podcast. I am so excited today, today is our 100th episode. Oh my goodness, I know for those of you listening can't see it. But, for those of you that are gonna be watching this on YouTube, I have my special sparkly earrings on. I feel like I'm going like to a big party or to the Oscars or something like that. Because to get to 100 episodes when I started and I'm going to share that journey with you. I never ever thought that was possible, I really struggled to get my first episode out. And to be able to get to 100 Episode feels like such an amazing accomplishment. And there are so many people that I want to thank the first thing that I wanted to do, I wanted to talk a bit about how this podcast came about. And I hope that I don't get teary telling you the story. I know I've told the story to a couple of people face to face, and it has brought me to tears.

So many years ago, I met this extraordinary woman. But I was living in the city of Newcastle in Australia and on the East Coast there’s Jill Emberson. Jim was an award winning ABC journalist. And she had interviewed me a couple of times, and we have become really great friends. And I remember the day I'll never forget the day that I ran into her. And she told me that she had just found out that she had ovarian cancer and was trying to work out what to do. And the symptoms of ovarian cancer are not that clear, unlike other cancers. And I remember just bawling my eyes out I cried for a long time that particular day because I felt really sad. And in the subsequent catch up with her, she said to me, honey, I know I've said this to you before, but you need to start a podcast. Anyway, here I am talking to her about her cancer, how she spent managing the treatment, her family, her husband, her beautiful daughter, her work and how she was going to be able to manage and combat such a massive challenge that had been thrown to her. And here she is talking to me about starting a podcast. She hadn't mentioned this to me a couple of times. And I was too busy. And I just thought to myself, podcasts don't make any money, I don't have time to do this. I'm doing other things. And this is not something that I choose to do today.

Anyway, she asked me again. And she mentioned that one more time, as she unfortunately got a bit more unwell. I felt very moved by her request. I didn't quite understand it. And sometimes I still wonder 100 episodes in. I haven't connected all of the dots; I must say in terms of exactly where this is going to lead. But my gut feel was to honor her request. And so, as Jill unfortunately became more unwell, my first podcast recording was with Jill, while she was in palliative care a few days before she passed. And we call that episode. We call that episode a year to live. And it was about Jill's life and her successes and her downs. And her joy that she was finding in this very, very challenging part of her life. And I remember talking to her online and offline about how she prepared for death, which is a very challenging conversation to hear and have let alone the person that's actually going through that particular experience. And once I hadn't released it, Julian passed away. And I was not able to release the first podcast a few weeks after her passing. And then I felt really unmotivated to do it. And I just didn't want to do the podcast. And it has taken me some courage, some coaching from other people to say get your voice out there, talk about your expertise, get some guests on trying to use it as a tool to help the world. And that's something that you're really stood for. And she really inspired me to do so.

So, Jill, wherever you are today, I just want to raise a little thank you to you. Because if it wasn't for your intuition, your guidance and you're poking me a little bit to try and really look at why I need to do it. As I said, I now get the why I've been able to help people. But perhaps the bigger why hasn't emerged yet. But wherever you are, cheers to you. Thank you, my love for all your inspiration, and for what you have created, and we are now at 100 episodes. I also want to give gratitude. I know that often when we do podcasts and when we have moments in life, it's so important to reflect and give gratitude for what you have. I'm a big believer that when you give gratitude for what you have more of what you desire, more of what you deserve, will come into your life and you will attract more of that in house. And there is not one guest in the 100 episodes that I have asked to be on the podcast that has said “no”. A couple of them said I can't do it this month, could I do it next month and we just reschedule them, but not one person that I've asked in over two years have said no. And so, this podcast wouldn't be what it is, if it wasn't for all those amazingly generous guests, who not only have done years and decades of work in their field of expertise, but then I'm willing to share that on this podcast, again, to help grow businesses to help grow you and your business, and be able to share that expertise. And we've done that with people in over 20 countries out of the 100 episodes. And I'm really proud of that we've had world renowned authors, like Hector Garcia, who is the co-author of Ikigai, which is a book but still in the top five in so many countries around the world, he was extraordinary. We've had people that you would have never heard of who are leading extraordinary lives or really believe in a particular practice, or their mission and the vision and the work that they're trying to do. So it's amazing how many people who are from very different diverse ranges of their work, their life, their experience, perhaps many of them have faced a lot of adversity, some of them have had huge successes, some of them haven't found their successes. But every single person who came on to the episode, said yes, and I'm very grateful for that and also for the future.

The other lesson and learning that I've had from doing these podcasts, when I started to do it, I was thinking about the people that I could help, the people that are running businesses, the people that are looking for that inspiration, and I was very clear that I wanted a podcast that was less than 30 minutes, so that you could listen to it on the way of picking your children up if you're a busy mom. Or if you're a busy business owner, you can listen to it while driving to work or to a particular meeting so that there were a sizable chunk of all amounts. And one of the things I'm just so grateful for is the fact that we were able to put that together and share some of those experiences. But one thing I didn't expect was that in that process of talking to people, in that process of preparing to put a podcast together, and we released one every week. So just over two years, this is a 100th episode, that it's so important also, to look at what I was learning, it was important to give but also what I was learning. And that was not a gift that I expected. When I first started doing this, I learned so much from the people that we interview, I also learn so much when I'm researching to do a podcast together, there are so many benefits to me and mind and learning. And that continuous lifelong learner is so important to me, it has been such a gift to listen to some amazing people.

For example, and I don't want to single anybody out because there's been so many extraordinary lessons. But I was speaking to this amazing woman who's helping women around the world, to not be addicted to alcohol and wait for this 5pm after they've had a very busy day, perhaps looking after small kids are working and looking for that alcohol. And I gave up alcohol almost six months ago to the day. And I was fascinated because she then spoke about the fact that if you work on your alcohol, even though you're not addicted to it, but you look for that, in a way you're addicted to it, that the next thing that will come up is your sugar. And the next thing that will come up is processed food. And I've now been researching that topic since having that conversation with her. Because I'm fascinated by the fact that this is so much more that I can learn and apply not only into people I work with, but also into my own life. So, it's so many gifts that come out of the learning.

And the other people that I wanted to give a shout out to is the person who is always here in the background that you never ever get to see, all the guests get to say and that is Leslie who's recording this and the company that she works for. She's now worked with me for almost all of that time, and she's most delightful organize, rock up on time, even if I'm running a little bit late. She just keeps my guests calm, and the whole situation calm and to be able to do that. So, Leslie, thank you. If it wasn't for you, these things wouldn't happen. Because one of the things I really struggle with is to be able to do the editing, get in contact with everybody, follow up the emails. And she does all of that backhand and makes me look super professional. And for that I'm really grateful.

The other thing I just wanted to do is talk about the people that have listened to this podcast and some of the feedback that I've had. And I love really detailed feedback. And if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't rated it, I will so appreciate if you took 30 seconds to go to Apple podcasts and rate and review this podcast. The feedback that's really detailed is so helpful. So, I love when somebody's listened to a particular podcast and they said that episode when you were talking about XYZed made me cry. That episode I love so much when you had this guest on, I actually said to my partner and to my children, let’s listen to that podcast as a family doing that. I've also had some beautiful emails and people that have contacted me from overseas who listen to the podcast. And they've said to me, you know, thank you, I really needed that inspiration, because life or work or whatever is going, it's a little bit tough. And I also got some wonderful feedback from people through COVID. Because we were also house bound. And just having people that got uplifted from some of the guests that came on and some of the topics that was spoken about to say, you know, they were finding COVID difficult, and that really helped them.

So, I'm just so grateful for those comments. On the opposite side of the coin, though, if there are some topics, if you are in a business, ideally, between zero to 1000 employees, that small and medium business, whether you're a business owner, whether you work in that business, if there are topics that you go, Shivani one thing you haven't covered is this topic, I would so love to be able to look at it, find an expert, or do some research on it, and bring somebody in there and have a conversation about those particular topics. So please let me know, email it to me to [email protected] or go to https://www.askshivani.com/ website and get into contact tab. Let me know the topics that you're interested in so that we can continue to create things that are of value to you. So just a huge gratitude, huge amounts of learning. Thank you very, very much for listening. I really appreciate you and I just hope that here’s to 100 episodes in front of us and but it continues to help you grow and your business grow. And I am just so grateful to that you take the time to listen to this podcast. Thanks again for listening.