Consistency is Key

Happy 3rd Birthday!

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This week I celebrated the podcast’s third birthday! Yep–it’s been three years since the first episode, and now we’re on number 80! I want to tell you about the thing that made the biggest difference over the past three years of doing this podcast. First I need to give you a quick history of how we got here.

History of 10 for Teens + Tweens

A little over three years ago in 2020, while the world was still adjusting to the pandemic, I saw how the shutdown had impacted kids’ mental health. I felt compelled to help uplift teens and tweens–girls especially. In my search for a solution I discovered the Girl Power programs by Joni Combe from South Australia. That fall I started doing in-person workshops with girls here in Las Vegas (held outdoors and social distancing). Very quickly I realized how much those girls needed to hear about these topics–individuality, strengths, friendships, conflicts–and I wanted to share those kinds of messages with girls beyond my community. That’s when I looked into podcasting. I did a lot of research and even took a course on how to produce a podcast, then I got to work creating it.

I launched this podcast on November 10, 2020. I didn’t know who would listen beyond my family and friends, but now it was out there! The first months of the podcast it got a few hundred downloads, and I was thrilled that people were listening to it. I continued releasing episodes about every week or two. Slowly that number continued to grow each month. One day in 2021 I clicked on the locations tab in my podcast hosting platform, Buzzsprout, and it showed that people weren’t just listening from the United States, but girls from all over the world were hearing the podcast. That discovery blew my mind, and I was beyond grateful that these empowering messages could reach girls on the other side of the planet. In 2022 the podcast just took off, it was wild to see how many more girls were tuning in.

Worldwide stats

This year in 2023 the podcast averaged 30,000 downloads a month. From the time this podcast first launched in November 2020 through today, it’s received 638,352 downloads from across the world. 52% were from the United States. The other nearly half of those, 15% Australia, 10% United Kingdom, 9% Canada, 3% New Zealand, 1% each in Ireland, South Africa, India. The remaining 8% other parts of the world. This podcast has been heard in 195 countries.

The top 10 cities with the most listens: the top 5 are in Australia–first place is tied between Sydney and Melbourne, with Brisbane in third, followed by Perth, and Adelaide; then Auckland in New Zealand, Dublin in Ireland, West Babylon on Long Island in New York, Denver in Colorado, and London, England.

The most popular episode is number 01, You Are Enough, with 86,852 downloads thus far. That just fills my heart; I’m so glad you girls are hearing that message specifically. And I’m grateful that you continue coming back and joining me for new episodes, sending topic ideas, leaving reviews, and sharing the podcast with friends. It’s been incredible to connect with you and I’m so grateful for your support. This podcast exists because of you.

The First Step is Just the Beginning

There’s a quote attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu that says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” When it comes to any goal you have, big or small, taking the first step IS crucial–you have to get started if you’re ever going to reach your goal, and that initial leap is a big deal. Getting started might seem like the hardest part, but once you’re past it, you realize you have to keep moving toward your goal, and endurance is the bigger challenge.

Plenty of people start a goal and take that first step, but over time many of them don’t stick with it and they give up. The thing that made the biggest difference for me over the past three years of doing this podcast is something called consistency. Not consistency like how thick cake batter is. I mean consistency like constantly working at something. The people that actually reach their goals are those that consistently make effort toward them, and most of the time it’s not continual upward progress. A lot of times you go three steps forward, two steps back–or more. But you keep moving onward. Ask anyone who has reached a big goal how they achieved it; I doubt any of them would say it was a quick and easy overnight success. Whether it’s a business owner, musician, scientist, athlete, world leader, you name it–they got to their level because they continued to show up, deal with setbacks, keep trying, regularly practice, make progress, fail even, and consistently take steps over and over which led them to where they are. Consistency is key.

This podcast didn’t start out with 30,000 downloads a month, not even for the first couple of years. It fluctuated, too, sometimes more people tuned in than the previous month, sometimes less. I haven’t been perfect at releasing an episode every week or even two weeks. I’ve seen other youth mentors and coaches have more success with their podcasts and businesses. Some days I’ve even doubted myself and wondered if I stopped doing this podcast would anyone notice. But instead of allowing all that discouragement to derail me, I kept going regardless; I continued to be consistent.

Lessons from The Karate Kid

There’s an 80’s movie called The Karate Kid and another remake from 2010, and in both movies the main character is told by their coach to do a simple task. In one movie the kid has to rub wax on a car and then wipe it off over and over–wax on, wax off. In the other movie, the kid has to hang up his jacket, throw it on the ground, pick it up, put it over his shoulders, take it off, and repeat. Both characters get annoyed by how tedious it is to do the same thing over and over. But then their coach starts doing kung fu moves with them, and because the kids had consistently practiced those seemingly mundane tasks, they were well on their way to developing the skills they hoped to gain–all because of consistency.

How You Can Be Consistent

What’s something you’re working on–a big idea, a challenge, a new goal. Whatever it is, think about specific ways you can consistently work on it. If you want to improve your skills playing an instrument, you could regularly start rehearsing by playing scales for a solid five minutes before moving on to your music. If you’re in a sport, you could try a new move and repeat it several times during each practice for a month so it becomes more natural for you. If you’re working on improving your math grade, you can reread the unit notes all the way through each night before starting your homework. If it helps, use my SMART Goals worksheet from episode 06 to help you break down your goal into manageable steps that lead you to your goal. Be sure to include a plan for what you’ll do in case of obstacles, as well as how you’ll celebrate when you accomplish each step. Knowing these three things–the steps toward your goal, how to deal with obstacles, and rewards along the way–will help you stay consistent as you keep at it.

What It Takes

Consistency takes believing in yourself, your abilities, your value, and your purpose even when others don’t see it. Consistency takes courage to do things that intimidate you. Consistency takes resilience, especially when things don’t go as planned. Consistency takes self-compassion when your negative self-talk thoughts get loud. Consistency takes stamina knowing there’s a long road ahead that leads to your goal. Consistency takes patience, both with the process and with yourself. And consistency pays off when you reach what you’ve been working toward. When it comes to achieving your dreams, consistency is key.