As you all know-or at least I hope you know-I host a podcast called Midlife with Courage. My goal with my podcast is to inspire other women over 40 to take action and live every moment. The women I interview are usually over 40 and they have done amazing things or gone through major challenges in life and have come through the other side with grace and fortitude.
I have interviewed women from all over the world-a fact that always astounds me. Who would have thought that someone living in Wisconsin her whole life could meet women across the ocean and have great conversations and connections with them? I am so thankful for everyone that I meet through this venture.
Earlier this year, I was watching a national news program and Michele Tafoya was a guest commentator. She is nationally known as a sports journalist and she worked in the midwest for many of the major markets that I watched as well and I have admired her for a long time.
Those of you who know me, know how much I love football and my perfect Sunday is sitting on the couch with my snacks watching the games all day long and into the night. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often. Anyway, Michele was the sideline reporter for Sunday Night Football on NBC for 11 years and in 2022, she stepped away from it. I didn't think much about it until I saw her on the aforementioned program. So I did a little research and found out she had decided to leave the sports journalism world and create a podcast where she could speak her values and share messages of courage and goodness.
As I looked through her website and watched a video where she talked about her decision to leave a high-profile job and why, I thought that she would be a great guest for my podcast. But would this nationally known journalist even want to be on my show? (Cue the inner voice who tells me to be afraid.)
But then I remembered the messages I am sharing with everyone through this blog, podcast and hopefully everyday life and I decided to reach out to her.
Eeeek! I wrote an email through her website and explained that I would love for her to be a guest and why. I mentioned that my podcast was on the smaller side but my listeners are loyal and would love to hear what she has to share. I typed out the email, read it, changed it, re-read it, changed it again and then said "YOLO!" and sent it off.
And waited.
I felt good that I had reached out because it was something I was initially afraid to do but I did it anyway-I "did it scared." Even if she never responded, I was content. I knew that if I had not reached out, I would have wondered and regretted it for a long time. The worst that could happen is she would say no or not even respond. And either of those outcomes would have been fine, life would go on and I would talk to other guests with great messages. If I didn't ask, the answer is automatically 'no.'
But she didn't say no and she did respond. A few weeks later, I was checking my email and saw one from her saying she would love to be on my podcast! (Cue the happy dance!!) I was so excited and nervous but am happy to say that this episode drops this week and you can find it HERE.
She was a lovely person to talk with and she was so kind to give me the time and energy when I know how busy she is. She shared some really amazing messages as well as some insights about what it was like to be a woman in a male dominated industry. She talks about her struggle with infertility, her podcast and what's coming up in the future. My biggest takeaway from our conversation is her emphasizing that we all have values we should base our decision-making upon. Figure out what your values are and live your life based on them. As long as those values are good, you can never go wrong, even if others don't agree with you. Just keep going, be brave and do good.
As this episode airs this week, I was thinking about how I would have felt if I had not asked her to be a Midlife with Courage guest. I am so thankful I followed through on it. If you listen to the episode closely, you can probably "hear" me smiling through the whole thing. I was worried I would be the crazy "fan girl" but I think I held it together as we talked.
So what are you afraid to do? Who do you want to reach out to? What is holding you back? How can you overcome the fear?
My advice: just go ahead and do it. Regret is an awful feeling and I don't wish that on you or anyone. Remember: if you don't ask the answer is always "no." Ask anyway.
Until next time, take care of your beautiful self and I will talk to you soon.
~Kim~