In this episode, I talk about what happened to cause this super long break in the podcast. And how it’s coming back! We have new people coming by as well as old friends who are sharing their incredible stories and journeys with us.
Welcome to Season 3!
Transcript:
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Call of Leadership podcast. I am your host Cliff DuVernois and thank you so much for joining me on this adventure.
This episode will serve as the introduction to season three of this podcast. But before I tell you what is to come, I want to share with you what has been.
Towards the end of 2020, I suffered greatly both personally and professionally. It is a pain in the grief that I had never felt before in my life and I would not wish upon anyone. And during the first few months of 2021 when I was pushing out the last episodes of season two, everything I did just hurt. There was no passion, there was no power. I was literally empty and I didn’t want to do much of anything.
Fortunately for some really good friends of mine, my counselor, my coach… I was able to start working my way back to what I would consider to be my normal tempo of life.
It took a long time. And to some extent, I’m still healing.
On top of that 2021 was the year of Covid. Everything being shut down. Normally when I do interviews, I want to do them face to face. In person. There’s something magical that happens when you have the interviews face to face. But the only way I could do interviews was over Zoom.
So with all that pain. With all that grief. And now one thing I loved to do being suspended … I decided to stop the podcast.
But it was never far from my thoughts.
Starting in 2022, multiple people commented to me about how much they loved the podcast and more importantly how much they missed it.
With the covid restrictions being lifted. My heart and my head being in a much better place …
I’d think about the podcast. And then put it off.
A few months ago, as fate would have it, somebody reached out to me about potentially doing a partnership with the podcast.
When I went to check on the download stats of the podcast, in my heart of hearts I hoped that there would be a few. As if every now and then someone would just find the podcast download an episode or two, and get some benefit from it. After all that’s the reason why I left it up there.
You can imagine my surprise when I saw it was anywhere between 300 and 500 downloads are these episodes every single week. My jaw hit the floor.
People want to hear the stories from these great people that are doing awesome things for our communities and for the state of Michigan.
This to me felt like God or the universe or something else was giving me a signal that it was time to get back in the game. It was time for me to capture more of the stories. It was time for me to share the stories with you.
It was time for the Call of Leadership to come out of hibernation and bask in the sunlight.
I immediately went to work updating the website. I compiled a ridiculously long list of businesses and top destinations. My email campaign began, inviting them to guest on the show.
I will admit it wasn’t easy. When people see that you’ve had a podcast and it’s been stagnant for over a year… You lose that forward momentum you just had. Before it didn’t seem like it was any problem getting people to sign up to be guest on the podcast but this time around there are not a lot of responses.
You see … anything worthwhile doing … you keep moving forward. I knew that if I asked enough people, someone would say Yes.
Then I’d have that momentum once again.
When that first “Yes” came back, it was like gold. And before long, another “Yes”. Followed by another.
Now my plate is filling up.
And I am so excited to share more with you, dear listeners.
For this upcoming season … we got all kinds of goodies. We’ve got new people coming … and we’re going to talk to some old friends of the podcast. Those people and businesses that weathered the covid storm and how they are doing today.
And I am honored, dear listener, that you’ve chosen to come with me on this journey. To learn more about these exciting people who are doing great things for our communities and the state of Michigan. To make our lives a little bit better. A little bit brighter.
Ladies and gentlemen welcome to season three of the Call of Leadership podcast.
