When You Change The Question, You Change The Outcome

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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.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello everyone, this is Steel Roses Podcast.

(00:02):
This podcast was created forwomen 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 agood way.
I'm kind of letting things shiftand settle where they're meant
to shift and settle, which ishard to do.
Trust trusting trusting theuniverse and or if you prefer
trusting God or or a lotwhomever you are aligned with,

(00:25):
having a trust that you knowyour path is being pushed into
where it's meant to be is reallyhard.
Especially for somebody likemyself who quite frequently
wants to control everything.
But it's very difficult for meto let go of that.
Kind of case in point, for thefirst two years of the podcast,
I treated it very much like abusiness that I was running and

(00:48):
forming very close to how I runprojects in my daytime job.
I was very, very meticulousabout a lot of things.
And this past year, I had to leta lot go because by the grace of
God and the universe, I wasprovided with a job that I
didn't actually quite like andpeople that I really like
working with.

(01:08):
And because of that, my focusshifted away from the podcast
and I had to just go with theflow.
I fought it initially, and Istarted getting really upset
initially.
But then I recognized and knewlike perhaps this is the place
I'm supposed to go for rightnow.
Perhaps this is the path I needto just take a look at in the
moment.

(01:28):
Like, don't fight it becausefighting it actually feels
awful.
So let's just see what happenshere.
So I've done pivots and I thinkI've talked about this a few
times where I'm like, well, howcan I make the podcast fit?
How can I continue to make itwork?
And I found it.
I found a a nice way for me tobe able to still do this and you
know, maintain my job and mysanity mildly.

(01:51):
That's not exactly what I wantedto talk about, but I wanted to
just food for thought that ifyou're feeling uncomfortable in
your current situation, ifyou're really frustrated because
it doesn't feel like it's whatyou want, perhaps it's not what
you want currently, but perhapsat some point this is what you
were predominantly focusingabout, and now you're getting
it.
For example, the job that I havenow.

(02:12):
For a really long time, I wantedthis job.
This job I have right now, thisis the job I've always wanted.
For the past two years, I reallywanted to just podcast full
time.
Well, that was only two years ofme focusing on podcasting, but
there was 16 years of mefocusing on this job that I have
right now.
So you see what you see mypoint.
For 16 years, I so badly wantedthis and I worked all the way

(02:33):
towards it.
And now I have it.
And it's like, oh wait, no, Idon't want this.
No, no, no, it doesn't reallymake sense because I've been
wanting this for so long.
So it's that small shift in howyou're looking at things that's
really gonna have the largerimpact there.
And then I always say, you know,we have to go with the flow,
pivot accordingly, do what youneed to do.
Something that I thought wasvery interesting that I saw
online, it was a story about agentleman who was trying to sell

(02:54):
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 youguys.
So there's this person who wantsto sell their house for$800,000,
and they're having a really hardtime.
They're having a really hardtime.
And so instead of selling it for$800,000, they say they're gonna
raffle it off for free.

(03:15):
And each ticket costs a dollar.
Well, the raffle was wildly,wildly successful.
And the gentleman made$2 millionin the raffle and then gave his
house away for quote unquotefree.
So do you see where I'm gettingat?
Now, this is like an examplethat I'm not, I don't know if
it's true.
An example that I do have foryou that is in the same vein is
true.

(03:35):
It's about the author JackCanfield.
He's the person who introducedand launched the Chicken Foop
Chicken Soup for the Soulseries.
I actually love these books.
I really, really enjoy them.
They're very positive.
They cultivate a whole bunch ofstories together.
I would love to know actuallywhere these people are
submitting their stories nowthat I think about it.
But nevertheless, it's like aseries of stories that are

(03:59):
pulled together from variouspeople and places, and it's all
introduced in one book and it'sall really positive and
wonderful.
Well, the backstory is that whenum Jack Canfield was not
starting out, but he was anauthor and he was really
struggling and he wasn't makingany money.
And, you know, it was one ofthese situations where he was
doing it right, but he, youknow, there could be more.

(04:19):
So he's really trying to thinkabout like, what am I gonna do?
He has this chicken soup for thesoul book.
Like, what am I gonna do withthis?
How am I gonna get out there?
And I may be butchering this alittle bit, by the way.
But the point is that he's lyingin bed one night and he has this
idea that perhaps it's notselling, I forget what the
equation was here, but hebasically said, I want, I wanted
to hit a goal of a milliondollars.

(04:41):
And how can I get to that goal?
And then it kind of clicked allinto place.
Well, it's not it's notessentially that like a million
dollars is gonna come directlyto me in one shot.
But if I sell a million booksor, you know, 500,000 books
priced at$2 a book, don't judgeme on my math.
That might be wrong, but you getmy drift.

(05:01):
He was like, well, perhaps Ijust need to make sure that I'm
selling enough books to get meto a million dollars.
So maybe it is just books thatare a dollar a piece that will
get a million books out therethat will get me a million
dollars.
So that's the shift in mindsetthere.
Now, I also had this shift inmindset with the podcast.

(05:21):
So I'll use this example aswell.
Earlier this year, I was like,how am I gonna get more
listeners?
I'd really love to boostlistenership.
I really want to make sure morepeople are hearing this podcast.
I love, I love my podcast, and Ican see that people are
listening because I see themetrics 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.

(05:45):
And kind of saying it out loudis is mind-blowing because I'm
just me here in the US andnothing really wildly special
except for the fact that Ireally am trying to make a shift
here and I really want to make adifference.
So it is, it's it's amazing,really.
But in any, nevertheless, I hadhad this thought like, well, how
am I gonna get and it was alsoin the same vein of like, you

(06:05):
know, everybody wants tomonetize their podcast.
Well, you know, the truth betold, thousands of podcasts or
new podcasts are releasedmonthly.
Thousands are also abandonedmonthly because people give up.
Podcasting is hard work, likeit's not easy peasy, like,
especially if you're going itsolo, if you're editing your
podcast, if you're adding inmusic, like everything takes
quite a bit of time, which iswhy I've had to scale back so

(06:27):
much of all the nice, finethings about the podcast and
just shoot out audio because Ijust ran have run out of time.
So I'm giving a really longstory here, but the point is I
had this moment of I really wantmore people, more downloads for
the podcast, because moredownloads equals obviously more
listeners, but the moredownloads you have, the more,
the more you're able to monetizeyour podcast.

(06:49):
To monetize your podcast, youhave to have, I believe it's a
thousand downloads or more amonth.
So I'm sitting there like, man,like how am I gonna make this
happen?
Like, you know, I gotta promoteit.
I have to, I have to do socialmedia, I'm gonna have to go do
lives, I need to do videos, likeI need to get more eyes on me.
Yeah, yeah, that that's all truestuff.

(07:09):
And if I had time, I would doall those things all the time.
But I don't have time.
And so the thing that clickedinto place was, well, instead of
just releasing one episode aweek, why not release two or
three?
Why not release four?
If you are look, if I'm if Iknow that every episode gets
roughly 30 downloads, and Irelease four a week, that's 120

(07:32):
downloads plus, you know, timesfour.
So that's like four, you know,you see where I'm going with
this.
So I'm saying all this because Ithink that people get really
stuck, and myself included, weget really stuck on, well, I
only want this one thing.
And then we seem to get thistunnel vision of, well, there's
only this one path to take.

(07:53):
But what I'm challenging you todo is why don't you take a step
back from that path and reallythink to yourself, well, how can
I achieve that?
There is another way.
How can I achieve this goal thatI've set for myself?
Is there another way?
Can I do a workaround?
Is there something extra I canbe doing?
Is there something less I needto do?
There's always a path.
You just have to really start tothink outside the box.

(08:14):
Well, how can I get to thatpath?
So I do encourage you guys tojust, if you're finding yourself
challenged with certain thingsthat you're trying to get to and
you just can't seem to do it, Ithink 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 badenough and if you're focusing
enough on it and you're focusingyour energy onto something, it

(08:35):
is gonna come to you.
It is feasible and it ispossible.
I hope you all had a wonderfulweek this week.
I am super excited because nextweek's episodes, I'm going to be
reading from the anthology bookthat was released this year,
featuring myself and a bunch ofother women authors in the book
sharing our stories.
And it is the most inspiringbook.

(08:57):
So I'm going to be reading somepassages from the book next
week.
Um, I'll include the link topurchase uh so you guys can all
take a look at it.
And I think I will give somefree giveaways to those of you
who are my avid listeners who'vebeen listening for a while.
I hope you all are doingwonderfully.
Thank you so much for being herewith me today.
I will catch you on the nextone.
Take care.