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[Ep 200] Unless a fairy godmother shows up and sprinkles fairy dust all over your laptop to magically boost you to the next level—without any effort on your part—you’ll have to commit to your plan and follow through. Relentless Implementation Shane Melaugh of the ActiveGrowth podcast said in a recent webinar we must “relentlessly implement” or “relentlessly execute” to level up. It’s the only way we evolve and mature into the writers we need to be in order to produce the work we want to produce to reach the readers we want to reach. This podcast itself is an example of my own relentless implementation, although “faithful" implementation might be a better way to phrase it. I did leave some unavoidable gaps here and there due to some caregiving chaos, but the majority of time, for five years, I’ve faithfully, relentlessly, sent out weekly content. I don’t have any superpowers; I just keep showing up, week after week, year after year, and here we are at episode 200. That faithful, relentless commitment allowed me to level up. If Growth Is Slow, Don't Give Up But it can be slow going. In fact, for any of us, our growth can be imperceptible—so much so, we may be tempted to give up before we realize our full potential. You may stop before you gain traction and experience real growth. When I started the podcast in 2014, I treated it as an experiment. And things didn’t take off right away. I was releasing episodes weekly, so eight episodes would be two months of output. If I’d stopped after the eighth episode, I would have missed the fruit of my labor. And I could have easily ended the experiment. But I was having fun and I wanted to keep going, even if it wasn’t a success by measurable standards. Thankfully I stuck with it. I figured out the best length and frequency to release episodes, and I decided what I really wanted to offer through the podcast. Even in the midst of a crazy time of life, I kept up with it. While I’m not showing actual numbers on this graph, I do want you to see the growth over time. Between 2014 and 2017 you see gradual growth. The first month a few people listened to find out what I was up to—friends and family and few followers on social media. The month after that, it dips down. That may have been during one of my chaotic caregiving seasons, but even if you look at the third month, it barely rises to where I was when I launched. Basically, in three months of effort, I saw no growth. The fourth month rose a little. The fifth month barely rose above the fourth. Not until the sixth month did this podcast finally see a bump. It took six months before I saw any substantial growth. Keep Implementing the Plan I didn’t have a fairy godmother sprinkle fairy dust on my microphone, not even at the sixth month. I never showed up on the Apple Podcast New & Noteworthy page where people often get a boost. I just kept creating another episode and sharing it with people on social media, faithfully—relentlessly—implementing my plan. It took time, but the good news is if you look at the long-term growth, you do see a gradual increase. Prior to the podcast, my plan involved creating content for my website and social media. When I introduced the podcast to my plan and it leveled up, my exposure as a coach and writer rose with it. Benefits of Sticking with the Plan Thanks to podcasting, I: developed audio recording and editing skillswrote regularly to script and share my contentshared that content not only in audio form but in written format as wellgained confidence as a presenterlanded speaking opportunitiesconnected with new writers who “met” me through the podcaststayed current on industry trends to pass that information along to listenersintroduced you to authors and publishers through interviewsread more books on writing than I normally would to share that wisdom in various episodeshad fun Yes, I had fun. I really do enjoy this medium.