If This Is The End - The Point Was Never The Podcast

When Authenticity Becomes Performance: "The second this podcast becomes performance, it's over. Because I have no interest in playing myself on a loop." - Perry Maughmer

I’m inviting you into a deeply personal reckoning about the future of this show.

Rather than making decisions about continuing the podcast in silence, I’ve decided to speak my way through these questions, one episode at a time, bringing you along for every honest step.

This episode isn’t an announcement, a rebrand, or a refresh. It’s about examining why I started this podcast in the first place—and whether it still serves its original purpose.

For me, it was never about chasing attention or algorithm-driven success. The podcast has always been a container: a place where I could speak what couldn’t be said elsewhere, confront myself, provoke thought, and wrestle openly with the questions that matter.

It’s not about easy answers or performance; it’s about real friction, reflection, and growth.

As I look back on nearly 80 episodes, I’m confronting whether continuing makes sense—not out of obligation, but because I can’t not do it. And I’m asking myself, and you, what are we holding on to that no longer serves us? This series is for anyone willing to sit in the tension between answers and wrestle with what’s next.

If you’re still here listening, you’re one of the relentless few willing to be confronted, not comforted. Join me as I navigate this honest evaluation, seeking whether to renew or release the podcast—and inviting you, as always, to stay relentless.

If you have thoughts, feelings, opinions, snide remarks, whatever you want to throw at me, you can email me at [e-mail].

Relentless Moments

00:00 Podcast Reflection and Reassessment

03:45 "Self-Reflection and Connection Journey"

07:51 Podcast Strategy and Download Analysis

10:00 Rethinking Self-Promotion and Purpose

13:52 Podcast's Personal Impact

16:46 "Share Your Thoughts with Perry"

5 Keys You'll Learn in This Episode:

1. Momentum vs. Meaning: How easy it is to confuse forward motion with actual fulfillment (and why Perry refuses to settle for just keeping the wheels turning).
2. Podcast as a Mirror (Not a Mask): The reason I started this show was never to perform, but to speak honestly—confronting himself and bringing listeners along for that ride.
3. The Power & Risk of Consistency: Why showing up just for the sake of it can steal authenticity, and how Perry’s challenging himself (and us!) not to let things go hollow.
4. Deciding What Still Serves You: I open up about evaluating what we build, and whether those commitments are still worth the energy—an invitation for all of us to pause and reflect.
5. The Value of Provocation Over Comfort: This series isn’t about giving easy answers but about stirring the pot for both my audience and me. Growth happens where there’s friction, not comfort.

Perry Maughmer believes the world deserves better leadership; that in every human interaction there is the opportunity to either build others up or tear them down; and that leadership is the choice we make in those moments.

These beliefs led Perry to create the Potential Leader Lab. He wanted to offer those who share his beliefs the space and safety to explore transformative ideas, experiment with new behaviors, and evolve into the leaders they were meant to be and that the world needs.

This is a framework he has used again and again with his Vistage peer advisory groups and companies like Turn-Key Tunneling, Convergint, Haughn &  Associates, I Am Boundless, Ketchum &...