Ep. 195 The Million Dollar Misalignment: Why Podcast Drift Kills Authentic Growth

She was working with 60+ clients, hitting revenue milestones month after month, and everyone told her she was underpricing herself-so why did something feel so wrong? Olivia's business was the definition of success on paper: completely referral-based, continuously growing, with 10-12 hour days that felt like badges of honor rather than warning signs. But when she finally took 30 days off and looked at the math with fresh eyes, she saw something that changed everything: she wasn't building a business that fit the life she wanted five years from now. The uncomfortable truth? The million-dollar pivot everyone suggested would have worked perfectly, but it would have required her to compromise the very values that made her start podcasting in the first place.

This episode reveals the dangerous seduction of momentum without structure, why high achievers react fast when they spot misalignment (and why that's often wrong), and the exact moment Olivia realized her $40,000 offers felt heavy not because she didn't believe in her expertise, but because they forced clients to pay more than podcasting as a vehicle for impact should cost. You'll learn why alignment doesn't maximize ego metrics but maximizes integrity, how to spot when you're building visibility versus coherence, and the one-sentence test that determines whether you have a growth problem or a coherence problem.


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to Achieving Success with Olivia Akin. I'm
your host, Olivia Akin. Each week we will discuss the
real map of achieving your personal and professional success. In
these solo episodes, I pull back the curtain on podcasting,
entrepreneurs and personal success. You'll hear the strategies I use,

(00:26):
the lessons I've learned, and the honest stories that shape
me so you can build not just a successful podcast,
but a business and life you're proud of. Today's episode
is going to be slower, deeper, more reflective, because we're
talking about alignment. And alignment is not just aesthetic. It's

(00:51):
not just a buzzword. It's not something you put into
a bio. Alignment is the moment when something is technical working,
but you quietly know it doesn't fit. And I almost
built something that didn't fit myself and the uncomfortable part

(01:11):
it would have worked. Let me start here. Growth feels
like progress. New clients feel like progress, new downloads feel
like progress. New revenue new milestones also feels like progress.
New opportunities feel like progress. Feedback feels like affirmation, and

(01:34):
affirmation feels like you're doing something right right. But here's
the first truth. I want you to sit with today.
Growth does not automatically mean the right direction. It means movement,
and movement without reflection becomes drift. Drift doesn't look chaotic,

(01:59):
it looks productive. You're busy, you're booked, you're building. But
you're not asking is this aligned with who I am
becoming and who I want to be and how I
want to show up? You're asking how do I keep
this going? That subtle shift is where misalignment actually begins.

(02:25):
I'm gonna take you back to a personal moment of mine.
On June twenty fourth, twenty twenty four, my boyfriend, My
boyfriend and I moved to Gino, Alaska because of his
military orders. I told everyone months and months in advance
that I would be taking thirty days off. It's only
thirty days. It'll be fine. You know, you give someone

(02:48):
six plus months in advance notice, you think it's all
gonna be good. Back up to July fifth. I'm back,
you know, sitting at my desk in my new home
in Juno, Alaska, in my office working, I'm thinking, no problem.
I took that thirty days off. I gave everyone ample notice.

(03:09):
Everyone knew, everyone was understanding. The business had been growing
a month after month since its launch, and the podcast
launched November one, twenty twenty two. It was it had
become completely referral based, almost insutaneously to the business starting.
Income was continuously increasing, client list was expanding every single month,

(03:35):
and I was super confident. But space and space from
your business reveals math, and when I finally slowed down
enough to look at that math, I saw something clearly
for the first time I hadn't seen since I started
my business and was knee deep in my business. I'd
been working with over sixty plus clients at one time.

(03:59):
Most of those clients, i'd say fifty eight of them
were project based, and it wasn't until like a month
or two before we left Florida that I had started
work that wasn't just project based. So that gives you
a picture of how often I was doing project based
with those sixty plus clients at one time, continuously month

(04:22):
after month, which meant they paid once and we worked
together whether it was two weeks or four months. There
wasn't any reoccurring stability in that. Either. There was volume,
but there wasn't stability. I was working ten to twelve
hour days and as many of you know, in my

(04:45):
story and the background of professions. I had come from
working ten to twelve hour days five seven days a
week in pro sports or in the corporate world, like
so many individuals are in. It is nothing. It's the norm.
I mean, sixteen hour days in professional sports was the norm.

(05:08):
So I didn't think anything of it. It didn't feel
chaotic to me. It felt impressive. I wore it like
a badge of honor. I'm working with sixty plus clients
at one time, and I can completely handle it. I
was working ten to twelve hours a day and I
could handle it. I was everywhere. I was showing up.
I was showing up for life events as well, right,

(05:31):
not just in work. And that was the dangerous part.
And I didn't realize that was the dangerous part until
July fifth, and that timeframe. Unstable doesn't always feel overwhelming.
Sometimes it feels successful, like it did for me. But

(05:51):
here's what I've realized. When I started my work and
up again on July fifth of twenty twenty four, I
wasn't building a business that fit the life I wanted
five years from now. I was building momentum. Momentum again
feels very powerful. And it could suck you in. But
momentum without structure collapses, and momentum without alignment drains you.

(06:17):
So here's a question for you. If your current workload
double tomorrow, would it strengthen your life or would it
strain it? Because growth that strains your future is misaligned growth.
Once I saw this ability issue, I reacted, and high
achievers react fast. People told me you could easily make

(06:41):
a million dollars. You're underpricing yourself. You should go high ticket.
You don't need that many clients because of your value.
And let me tell you, when we hear those things,
when any of us hear those things, we get empowered.
We're like, yes, that's right, I'd be making a million dollars.

(07:02):
I am underpricing myself. I mean I heard the underpricing
thing for a good year and a half. You should
go high ticket. You don't need that many clients when
you do those things. And logically they were not wrong. However,
fewer clients, higher price, less volume, more revenue. It solved

(07:25):
the math problem immediately, so as anyone would do, I
leaned into it. Ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars, forty
thousand dollars offers. It looked elevated, it looked mature, but
in the room it felt heavy, and it felt heavy
to me. Not because I didn't believe in my expertise.

(07:47):
Trust me. I believe in my expertise and I know
the knowledge and expertise I have, but because I didn't
believe podcasting as a vehicle for impact needed to cost
that much for someone to use their voice meaningful, meaningfully
and make the impact they wanted to make. That was

(08:08):
my value. And when your pricing forces you to compromise
your value, lens, that's erosion. Burnout does not begin with exhaustion,
It begins with erosion. And when erosion starts to happen,
small compromises, shuttle, subtle shifts, internal resistance you ignore because

(08:29):
the numbers look good. And here's the part most people
won't omit. The million dollar version would have worked, but
it wouldn't have been mine, and that difference matters way
more than revenue. I would to have been me. I
would to have been showing up the way I wanted
to show up. When we realize misalignment, we don't always

(08:53):
recalibate calmly. We tend to overcorrect ourselves. Instead of asking
what life do I want? We typically ask how do
I fix this? Fast? Fast is rarely aligned. So I
slowed down and I ask harder questions. What kind of

(09:14):
lifestyle do I want? With military relocations, with flexibility, with
direct client relationships? Those are things I wanted? Do I
want to build an empire structure? Or a sustainable business,
a sustainable personal brand? And I realized something deeply, deeply,

(09:36):
deeply important. Not every business needs to become an empire.
Not every consultant needs to build a team of fifteen people,
not every coach needs a million dollars and worried as
a badge. My highest offer now five thousand dollars. I
make high six figures, and I'm proud of how I serve.

(09:59):
When someone's signs with my business, they sign with me.
That is alignment. Alignment doesn't always maximize the egometrics that
are out there, It maximizes integrity. Now, let's talk about podcasting,
because the exact same pattern happens in shows every single day.

(10:21):
You launch a podcast because you believe in something, but
once downloads start moving, you start watching the numbers. And
when I launch my podcast, as my producer, Ben knows.
I watch those numbers every single day. It become it
became like a drug mine. And I would check them
every single day, quite a few times actually a day,

(10:45):
and I would get so amped. I would text my
amazing producer Ben. I would text my family, and you
start to go, how do I grow faster? How do
I get bigger guests? How do I go viral? Become
the million dollar narrative we see in our businesses. You're

(11:05):
just titles for algorithm. You book guests based on reach.
You pivot themes because they perform and it works. But
here's the question, are you building visibility or coherence? Visibility
multiplies impressions. Coherence multiplies, meaning you can be visible and fragmented.

(11:28):
You can be booked and diluted. If someone listened to
your podcast, to your last ten episodes of your podcast,
could they clearly articulate what they stand for? And I
want to also say that for people who are looking
to be a guest on podcasts, someone listened to your
last ten episodes you were guests on podcasts for, could

(11:50):
they clearly articulate what you stand for? If not, you
don't have a growth problem, you have a coherence problem.
And coherence. Problems are solved with clarity, not acceleration. My
forty k offer was the business version of misalignment, the

(12:10):
podcast version. The big name guests. It looks incredible, It
based numbers, It elevates perception. But ask yourself, did you
book them because they fit your philosophy or because they
elevate your image? A podcast without a filter becomes a
collection of conversations. A podcast with alignment becomes a body

(12:36):
of work, and you get to be proud of that.
And then monetization comes in. Sponsors, ad reads affiliates people
funneling into your business and signing as clients, people paying
to be guests on your podcast. If spot if the
sponsor's doubled tomorrow, would you still feel proud reading the ad?

(12:59):
If the client numbers doubled tomorrow because of your podcast,
or people paying to be a guest on your podcast,
would you still feel proud having them on? If a
feeling revenue tripled, would you still believe in the product?
Money magnifies alignment. Acceleration reveals in tripe integrity. If some

(13:22):
thing feels slightly off, here's how you relign without burning
it down to the ground. Audit your last ten episodes again,
if your guest audit the last ten episodes you've been
a guest on, and if it's been less than that,
if you've less than ten episodes out, or you've been
a guest on less than ten podcasts, take what you
have now and audit those not for downloads, but for depth.

(13:48):
Identify your core conversation, not your topic, your thesis. Create
a filter. Does this deepen my philosophy? Would I stand
behind this three years from now? Does this align with
my lifestyle? Protect your energy? Track which conversations leave you? Energize?

(14:10):
Cut one thing, one category, one format, one obligation. Pruning
strengthens roots. If you are a host, your responsibility is
narrative cohesion. Every episode teaches your audience what this space
stands for. If you don't define that intentionally, your audience

(14:32):
will define it for you. If you are a guest,
exposure can be become addictive, but exposure without cohurance creates delusion. Delution.
If you cannot articulate your core message in one sentence,
you will adjust yourself in every single room you enter,

(14:55):
and adjustment erod identity. Reputation builds authority, reinvention resets it.
This is especially true for high performing women. You are
told to scale faster, charge more, expand aggressively, be louder.
But leadership without identity becomes performance, and performance is exhausting.

(15:20):
Identity erosion looks like constant pivots, over consumption of advice,
softening opinions, becoming less clear of who you are, what
you stand for, how you want to show up for
your clients, how you want to show up for your
podcast listeners. Over time, alignment requires you to have courage

(15:43):
to stand for what you believe in, stand tall, stand
still even when everyone is telling you what to do,
Because once you see misalignment, you must choose differently. Even
if a grows lower, even if it looks smaller, even
if it feels quieter, Quieter can be stronger. Zoom out

(16:09):
five years. If your podcast became known for one thing,
what would it be? Would it be integrity? Would it
be depth? Would it be strategy? Would it be impact?
Would it be leadership? Would it be multiple of those?
Now ask yourself, are you are your current decisions reinforcing

(16:33):
that I want people who are guests on podcasts to
do the same thing. So I'm gonna mention it like this.
If you're a guest on podcasts and you could become
known for one thing through your guest appearances. Would it
be integrity? Would it be depth? Would it be the
strategy you have and provide to others. Would it be

(16:54):
the impact? Would it be leadership? Would it be all those?
And then ask yourself the current decisions reinforcing that legacy
is built through repetition. Authority compounds quietly. Acceleration magnifies whatever
foundation exists. Make sure the foundation is yours, and make

(17:16):
sure you can stand tall in that foundation, not just today,
not just tomorrow, not just in a year from now,
but in five years and ten years from now. Here's
what achieving success stands for. Ambition anchored in identity, growth
rooted in integrity, podcasting as impact, sustainability over ego, milestones,

(17:40):
coherence over noise, alignment before acceleration every single time, and
I mean every single time. If you keep building exactly
as you are right now for the next three years,
what would you respect? Would you respect that outcome? Or

(18:01):
are you hoping acceleration fixes the discomfort you're in. Acceleration
magnifies misalignment, Alignment stabilizes growth. Choose alignment first. If you're
ready to evolve, to grow your podcast, your business, or
yourself in a way that feels aligned and sustainable. I'd

(18:24):
love to help you. You'll find a link in the
show notes to connect with me, and together we'll map
out your next steps. Not the version you think you
should be building, but the one you're truly meant to build.
And remember, success isn't about staying the same. It's about
being brave enough to keep becoming who you're meant to be.

(18:45):
I'm Olivia Achen and this is achieving success with Olivia Accin.
Until next time, keep building, keep growing, and keep redefining
what success looks like to you through the pas Y