Ep. 100: What personal growth really looks like as a woman: lessons from 100 podcast episodes
[20 MIN LISTEN]
Reaching 100 episodes of this self-discovery podcast has made me pause in a way I didn’t expect.
Not in a celebratory, milestone-checking way, but in the quiet way that happens when you look back and realize you weren’t just creating content. You were changing.
When I recorded my first episode, the world felt uncertain and heavy. I was a new mom, navigating freelance work during a shutdown, trying to keep my footing while everything around me shifted. At the time, I thought this podcast was about sharing what I knew professionally.
What I didn’t realize was that pressing record would become a breadcrumb trail through my own transformation.
Growth rarely announces itself. It doesn’t arrive with clarity or confidence. It often begins as a subtle discomfort, a quiet pull toward something you can’t yet name. Looking back, I can see that every season of this podcast mirrored a season of my life.
The early episodes still exist. I’ve never removed them, even though they no longer reflect the work I do today. They remind me that growth doesn’t erase who you were. It builds on her. They’re part of my personal-growth journey as I was navigating major life transitions.
As the show evolved, so did I. Motherhood reshaped my relationship to ambition. Healing work changed the way I listened to myself. Coaching emerged not as a plan, but as a natural extension of the questions I was already asking.
What surprised me most was how many women stayed through the pivot. They didn’t need perfection. They needed honesty. They needed permission to evolve without burning everything down.
After 100 conversations, one truth stands out clearly: women are not trying to reinvent themselves. They are trying to return to themselves. Beneath the noise, expectations, and old roles, there is a longing to feel at home again.
Growth isn’t loud. It isn’t linear. It happens quietly in the moments when you soften instead of push, when you listen instead of perform, when you allow yourself to change without demanding certainty.
If this episode resonates, it’s likely because you’re standing in your own season of coming home to who you really are. You don’t need to rush it. You don’t need to arrive anywhere. Growth is a relationship, one you tend over time with curiosity and compassion.
If you want a gentle place to begin or start fresh, my free training Step Into Your Power is there for you. It was created for moments exactly like this.
Episode transcript:
This is an auto-generated, unedited episode transcript. Please excuse any tyops.
Welcome to The Life with Liz Podcast, the place to be if you wanna go from invisible to vibrant in your life and embrace the power you didn't know you had inside of you. I'm your host, Liz Fleming, business owner, mom, military spouse, entrepreneur, founder, CEO, and life coach, who is passionate about helping ambitious women like you step into their power and their purpose on purpose so they can experience as much joy, success, satisfaction, and abundance as humanly possible.
Now without further ado, let's dive right into this episode.
Welcome back to the Life with Liz Podcast, and this isn't just your average episode, people. This is episode 100. Oh my gosh, can you believe?
This is so cool. Reaching this moment has made me more reflective than I expected, not in a “we hit a milestone” way, but in a quiet, honest way. The kind where you look back at the trail behind you.
I was creating. I was transforming.
And it's so cool to have that trail to see the proof of this transformation.
When I recorded my very first episode, I was sitting in my old house, in a small room, in a world that felt upside down.
I was a new mom. I was still a marketer. I was freelancing. I was trying to keep my business running during the COVID shutdown, and it was doing really well.
I wasn't thinking about self-love or healing or identity or any of the themes we explore now. I was just trying to find my footing and share what I knew in terms of where I was in my career and on my journey.
It was marketing and PR and helping small businesses, and then when COVID hit, it was, alright, this podcast is really gonna ramp up because people can't go outside. It was a whole thing. We don't have to rehash it.
But that's when it really grew. People were listening. They were eager for that information to get back on their feet, and I was so honored to be able to help them in that way while also learning a great deal myself.
What I didn't realize at the time was that pressing record would become a breadcrumb in the larger story of my life.
What I've learned now, at episode 100, is that growth rarely presents itself as a polished chapter. It usually begins as a quiet pull toward something you can't really name yet.
This podcast is a prime example of that. It documented that pull for me publicly, imperfectly, and in real time.
You all know this is one of my favorite ways to show up and be there for you. It's how I'm able to be my most vulnerable, honest, raw, real, and authentic.
And that's what I want to talk to you about today. The truth of growth. The kind that doesn't announce itself. The kind that builds quietly underneath your daily life.
One day you look around and realize, damn. I have changed. Things have changed.
You learn a lot about yourself that way.
When I listen back to early episodes, I can hear a woman doing her best to sound confident while navigating a profound shift inside herself. I didn't understand it then, but I was in the middle of an identity unraveling.
One that had nothing to do with my career and everything to do with how I was evolving as a person.
As a spouse. As a mother. And eventually, as a coach.
Those early episodes are still online. I've never deleted them. Even though they don't represent the work I do now, they're part of my story.
So hell yeah. Here I am at episode 100 because of them.
They remind me that metamorphosis doesn't happen in one single moment. It happens in layers. It happens through the small decisions you make when no one's paying attention. It happens when you're willing to show up without exactly knowing what you're showing up for.
Little old me was picking marketing topic after marketing topic, and it was good. I was really proud of those episodes. It was good content. I had great guests.
I'm still a professional marketer. I just don't do it for people anymore. You should go back and listen sometime.
But the woman recording those marketing episodes had no idea she was building the foundation for the version of herself who would later write a self-help book, create multiple membership communities, and speak about self-worth, self-love, personal growth, and alignment.
She was showing up anyway.
That taught me something important. We don't always realize we're growing until much later.
Every struggle, every challenge, we don't realize it's there to serve us until later.
People talk about growth as if it should feel empowering or inspiring or obvious. But when it's happening inside you, it usually feels more subtle.
You start noticing shifts in what you're drawn to. What you tolerate. What drains you. What triggers you. What brings you alive.
Sometimes that shift feels exciting. Other times it feels super uncomfortable and disorienting. You wonder how you're going to get out of it. We've all been there, and it's completely normal.
There were seasons where I didn't have language for what I was going through. I only knew something in me was asking for a different kind of truth.
I didn't know I was moving toward coaching. I didn't know motherhood would reorganize my relationship with ambition and my career. I didn't know healing work would unlock a part of me I had never met before.
I remember recording every single episode of the podcast, creating the programs I was creating, working with the clients I was working with, and always feeling that tug inside.
It was a coaching pull. What I'm doing now. Not just empowering women, but helping them learn something new about themselves.
I've always been inspired by lighting people up. Not in a Band-Aid-over-the-wound way, but by asking questions that really get people thinking and seeing their lives differently.
That was always there.
I could feel the old shape of my life stretching. Something in me wanted more honesty. Something in me was tired of performing an identity that didn't fit anymore.
I loved marketing and PR. I was good at it. I was comfortable financially. It's a high-demand job, even now with AI on the scene.
It was hard to admit it was no longer my calling.
But it was worth it. I have The Small Town Social and GLOWCON to thank for opening my eyes to what this transformation could become.
Growth didn't arrive with sudden clarity. It came in layers.
I followed the feeling every time. That feeling, in my experience, is the beginning of coming home to yourself.
One of the most unexpected parts of this journey has been realizing how much of my transformation happened in public.
When I rebranded this show from a marketing podcast to Life with Liz, it wasn't because I had everything figured out. It was because I couldn't ignore the truth anymore.
I had babies. Things got loud. I took time off.
And what surprised me was how many listeners stayed. Even when I wasn't putting out new content, they stayed. Women who arrived for visibility tips stayed for conversations about identity, motherhood, healing, and expression.
That taught me something I deeply believe now.
People don't connect with the polished version of you. They connect with the version willing to evolve out loud.
Keeping those old episodes reminds me that you don't have to erase earlier versions of yourself to justify your growth.
You're allowed to expand without starting from scratch. You're allowed to pivot without burning the past down. You're allowed to look back and still move forward.
Your evolution is not a betrayal of who you've been. It's an integration.
That realization unlocked everything for me.
This feels like a natural progression of my life. I don't know what the future holds. I don't know how long it will take. But I feel the calling, I feel the pull, and I'm going for it.
So I want to say it again.
Your evolution is not a betrayal of who you've been. It's an integration.
An integration of everything you've learned and processed so far in life.
And now you get to decide how you want to move forward.
There is no backward.
All we have is right now.
So I want to ask you:
How are you integrating what you've learned? What does your transformation look like?
After 100 episodes, here's what I know with certainty. Every woman is searching for a way to love and trust herself again.
She doesn't want to reinvent her entire life overnight. She doesn't want to abandon what she's built. She wants to feel at home in her choices, her voice, her intuition, and her own skin.
That's why Powerhouse came to life. That's why the Self-Love Studio exists.
Not as projects to check off, but as extensions of a deeper mission that has grown with me all this time.
Helping women return home to themselves.
When I zoom out on these years, what stands out isn't the milestones. It's the quiet moments in between.
The moments I paused instead of pushed. The moments I softened instead of striving.
Real growth happens in subtle shifts long before anyone else can see them. It's deeply personal. And it's not linear.
You learn. You unlearn. You shed. You reclaim. And you begin again.
That's life.
If these 100 episodes have taught me anything, it's that embracing yourself is a lifelong relationship. One that requires tenderness, curiosity, and honesty.
I hope you see your growth and honor it as a form of self-love.
To everyone who has listened, thank you. You've allowed me to grow without hiding the process.
You've given me a community to evolve with, and I do not take that lightly.
Did that go by too fast? No worries. You can always find me over at elisabethfleming.com for more information about my programs, events, and how you can take your learning further with me. If you loved this episode, leave a review. It helps more than you know.
Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll catch you next time.
Connect with Liz:
Watch Liz's FREE Workshop, Step Into Your Power:
Discover the 3 hidden patterns draining your energy and learn how to start feeling like yourself again. Watch now at elisabethfleming.com/free-workshop
Read Liz's Book:
Discover Liz’s bestselling book, Powerhouse: 3 Steps to Thrive as the Incredible Woman You Already Are — A Framework for Self-Love and Expansion: elisabethfleming.com/book
Resources:
Website: elisabethfleming.com/welcome
Instagram: @mslizfleming
Podcast: The Life with Liz Podcast
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The content and material presented on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided are not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. The creator of this content does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the creator is only to offer experiential information to help the reader in his/her/their quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you apply any of the information provided from this content for yourself, the creator assumes no responsibility for your actions. Note: This post may include affiliate links! I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you decide to click, sign up, or make a purchase.
