If you are in the horrors with menstrual cycle issues or you want to learn how to harness your hormones, then you are in the right place.

Welcome to the Period Power podcast. I’m your host Maisie Hill menstrual health expert, acupuncturist, certified life coach and author of Period Power. I’m on a mission to help you get your cycle working for you so that you can use it to get what you want out of life. Are you ready? Let’s go.

Hello folks and welcome to episode 52 of the Period Power podcast. So 52 episodes, it’s momentous for me. Technically it isn’t quite a year old because we did launch it at the start of January with the first three episodes. But 52 episodes, to me that’s a big deal.

And as I’ve been reflecting on a year of working on the podcast, I realised that it would be really valuable for me to share my process with you, as in my process for launching and creating the podcast, not in terms of the tech side of things because I have no clue about that. Because Angela, and Pavel, and their team over at Digital Freedom Productions take care of all of that for me. But I mean in terms of how I went about this as a project.

So you’re going to be able to use what I share in this episode in your own life. So maybe you have an idea of something that you would like to do. Or it might be a project you’ve got coming up, an ambition of some kind, a desire for a new job. Or you could even use this process if you want to recommit to something that you already do. So anything along those lines I’m going to just be sharing with you how I generally go about doing things. So this is basically how I approach every single project in my work. And it all starts with an idea.

It might come from my own brain. It might be something that’s suggested to me by someone else, but I would say the first step is to be open to ideas. And as I’m saying that I think a lot of people get stuck here because they’re not open to ideas. Maybe if you have this kind of restricted view of yourself and what you can do, what’s possible in your life you might be quick to think, well, I could never do something like that or that just wouldn’t be possible for me. So then of course it won’t be possible, and you won’t become someone who does whatever the thing is.

So being open to possibility is also key. And this is a key characteristic of the spring phase of the cycle. So we’re talking about that pre-ovulatory phase of the cycle where oestrogen is building. That’s often where we have an increase in energy and positivity. So we’re perhaps more likely to see how things could be possible, whereas in the autumn season of your cycle when you’re premenstrual you might be more inclined to be all doom and gloom and only see problems, and reasons not to do something.

So this is why it really pays off to know where you are in your cycle and how your cycle affects you. So if you’re not tracking your cycle yet, my recommendation is to start today. Just go to my website maisiehill.com and you can download a free cycle tracking guide.

So you have an idea and mine was the podcast. And to be honest I hadn’t considered doing one until someone approached me to write a pitch with them and take it to various platforms. So in this instance the seed was sown by someone else, but I was open to it. And I was open to hearing what they had to say, and I just thought they were a fantastic person. So I was very keen to work with them. And I would have loved to work with them. But this was kind of all – I can’t remember the exact timeline but maybe it was after I met with them, and we agreed to do something together.

I think that was when we found out that my mum was terminally ill. And I was also in the midst of getting The Flow Collective, creating that. And I also knew that I was going to be writing Perimenopause Power. So although I’d initially said, “Yes, let’s do it.” I quickly realised that logistically it just wasn’t possible. And the idea got parked to one side. But even though it was not right now, I didn’t drop the idea of it. I just let the idea of a podcast exist in this corner of my brain. And I just let it be there.

And every once in a while I’d consider it again. And I don’t mean in a productive way. And this is really key. I wasn’t there going, “Well, what am I going to do with you? How can I make this happen?” It was more like, “Oh, you’re still there. You haven’t gone away. And I don’t need to do anything with you right now but it’s quite telling that you’re still here.” So it was a seed of an idea, there was potential in it. But I had no idea what it would look like or how it would happen.

And so often we get very focused on how and when. And this is also how our creativity, and our goals get killed off even before they’ve had a chance to get going. There is a time when the how and the when becomes important but it’s not in this phase. When you have an idea you want to give it space to take root and start to grow. And if you rush to get to a solution and a plan you will struggle to get there, whereas if you allow yourself to hang out in the possibility of it all the practical side of things eventually becomes obvious.

So every now and then I would return to the idea and for over a year I kept saying, “Not yet”, to it. But what’s important here is that if you are saying, “Not yet”, that you know your reasons for doing so and you like them. Here’s what I mean by that. I could have been telling myself that I didn’t have time to do a podcast. But sitting underneath that could have been that I was scared to do it. So if you’re saying, “Not yet”, then you want to be honest with yourself and be honest about your reasons.

So I didn’t actually feel scared about it but there were some things that I needed to address which I’m going to cover in a moment. But the final thing that I want to say about this waiting phase is that I wasn’t in any rush. I wasn’t hustling to get it done and cramming it into my working life somehow. And sometimes there are strategic reasons why you might want to do something according to a particular timeline. But notice if you have a sense of urgency because that usually comes from lack, as in you need to prove yourself somehow.

Or you have this idea that if you don’t do it quickly then someone else will. Because if you’re thinking those things then you’re either thinking that you’re not good enough or that there’s not enough space for your thing to exist in the world alongside someone else’s. Or maybe you think that you won’t have more amazing ideas. And you’ve got this idea and you’ve got to run with it before something changes in your brain. So that’s what I mean by a lack mindset.

Now, here’s the beauty of working with your goals and ambitions in relation to the cycle. The cycle will work them for you if all you do is notice them there. You just notice your goal and you kind of pay them a little bit of attention every now and then, your cycle will work these ideas for you. And this is something that I let my clients know when they’re kind of dreaming big and we’re looking towards something that they want to create in their life.

And I just say, “Well, it’s great, you’re clear on this now, you know what it is you want to do and is this the time to kind of start getting going with it now? Or are we going to let your cycle work its magic for a little bit?” And they’re like, “What, is that really a thing?” Yeah, let’s wait and see what happens. And sure enough I would say within two to three cycles they just get to the point where they can’t help themselves and they feel compelled to take action. And I love watching this happen with my clients because over the years it’s just become so predicable to me.

But they’re definitely like, “Really”, when I tell them about it but with each cycle the idea just grows a bit more, it becomes more solid, more defined, and it gathers. And it just takes form, it becomes more tangible. And this is when the how starts to become obvious. But the other thing that will have been going on in the background is that you also start to think of yourself differently and particularly when you’re receiving coaching or you’re coaching yourself like the members do in The Flow Collective.

Then you will just start to think about who you are, what’s possible for you, what you’re capable of, what you have the capacity for. And we will just be addressing all of those things. So when it came down to my podcast, all the time I wasn’t creating a podcast, but I had this dream of it I was starting to think about myself as someone with a podcast. Even though I didn’t have one yet, in my mind I was considering who I would need to become in order to have a podcast. And this is the opposite of how most of us go about things.

Usually what happens is we think that we will change as a result of the things we do. So if I start making a podcast then I’ll become someone with a podcast. And it sounds very logical, but this is also why so many goals aren’t achieved. And also why we create the same results in our lives again, and again, and again. And I’ve used the example of me becoming an author before. I didn’t write a book to get the title of being an author. I had to become an author in order to write the book.

So let’s say that you dream of having your own business, but you’re currently employed by someone else. You’ll have more success making that transition if you start to think of yourself as having your own business before you actually start your own business. So you’re in employment but you will start to think of yourself as having your own business.

So think about how you would show up to your job, where you’re working for someone else as if it were your own business, the level of commitment, the self-responsibility, the curiosity, the determination, all of those things and everything else. So you do that whilst you’re employed for someone else and then you start to own and create your own business from that place. Becoming the person who does these things is a sure fire way to make your results inevitable. I cannot stress the importance of this enough.

Okay, so whilst the idea of a podcast is just percolating in my brain and I’m changing how I think of myself. Time’s going by and my second book is done. And we’ve gone through the first lockdown. My kid is back in school. And I’m starting to think maybe this is something I can now do. But as soon as it became more real, reasons not to do it started to come up. But this is just part of the process. So don’t make it a problem. Okay, they’re just obstacles to solve and plan for.

And this is why adjusting how you see yourself is so important. Because when you’ve become someone who creates a weekly podcast you can problem solve for the obstacles that your brain presents. So I’m going to be very honest with you about the things that my brain came up with. I’ll run out of things to talk about. I’m not good with this level of commitment. It’ll just be another thing that I start and stop. It’s going to take up a lot of time and there’s so much to figure out.

And of course if my brain was coming up with those kind of thoughts I’m going to avoid doing it because who wants to do something where I’ll just end up talking shit about myself? Of course my brain’s going to go to, yeah, let’s not bother if this is the thoughts that we’re having. And this is where I went into, well, what’s the rush? Let’s just take a bit longer. So what I want you to notice is how that is the exact same thought before. It’s the same thought I had in an earlier phase. But this time it’s coming from lack and not good enough-ness.

So what shifted is now I’m trying to delay in order to avoid my thoughts and my feelings about myself. Whereas previously that same exact thought was coming from abundance. I was thinking about how there is no rush, that what I have to offer the world is so fantastic that I can take my time with it. So it’s the same thought but coming from an entirely different place, it’s creating very different emotions. And this is how we self-sabotage ourselves. So I knew that this is what I was doing. And I just interrogated all these thoughts.

And I also started to look at why doing this was important to me. So when I do this what I’m really doing is selling myself on why my idea is important. And I do this a lot with basically everything I do. I really sell myself on why I want to do it. So this is what I came up with for the podcast. I wanted to have a way of creating and sharing content that’s free, for everyone to access assuming that you have a way to access podcasts. But I could have done a blog but at the time I was kind of really discovering podcasts for myself. So I thought I’d do what I was into.

And I also like the idea of delivering my content in a different format. And I wrote both of my books. And although they’re both available on audible, I thought it would be good to continue with an audio format. And if you do prefer to read, or you’re unable to hear then we do provide a transcript of each episode on my website.

There was also a lot of stuff that was coming up in The Flow Collective because by this point The Flow Collective’s up and running. And there were topics I was noticing that were coming up in the community or on coaching calls that I knew I wanted to address and to speak about and teach on. But they weren’t topics that I would dedicate a whole theme to. But my creative juices were just so responsive to what was coming up in the community and they still are. And I really wanted a way to speak about these topics.

And although I wanted the members to benefit, I realised that these were topics that I could talk about in a way that everyone could benefit from. I also wanted to work my brain in a different way and see what it’s able to do through this format. And what I mean by that is that it does, having a podcast requires me to think about topics from multiple angles.

So I will really expand on topics in my mind and really explore them. And then boil them all back down again and just distil them down into something that’s simple, and understandable, as well as being something that you can use and get results with. And underneath all of this is my huge drive to increase the impact of my work. I want to help as many people as I can, and the podcast is a great way to achieve that. So that’s how I sold myself on why this was important and necessary. So you can do the same with literally everything in your own life, just sell yourself on why.

And I was thinking more and more about who I’d need to become in order to get it done. And as things start to become more real I was also thinking about the obstacles that could get in the way. And I will let you know the obstacles. I’ll also be very honest with you here. So the first thought that I mentioned a moment ago was this thought that I’d run out of ideas. And I had no evidence of this. In fact I actually had plenty of evidence to the contrary because I’m always coming up with ideas, far more than I can ever put into action.

So I just caught that thought and had a bit of a reality check with myself. And I decided that if I could come up with topics for 50 episodes, that I’d take the plunge and go for it. So I sat down one night in bed with a pen and paper, and I remember it was day three of my cycle and I was just buzzing with thoughts of what I could do. And I wrote down over 50 ideas in less than 20 minutes. Pretty sure I messaged my friend, Mars, to say, “Okay, it’s done, I’m doing it.”

Now, the second obstacle I had was time. I had no idea how much time it would take. And some of my colleagues already had podcasts so I asked them how long it would take each week. And I have to say that was a really rubbish question to ask them because the answers were so varied. It doesn’t really mean anything. It sounds like a reasonable question but it’s a crap question. And I spoke about this in the episode I did about high and low value questions.

And my friend, Simone, pointed this out to me. She said, “Look, it’s going to take however long you decide it will take. So just decide and do it and be careful about where perfectionism might be showing up because that’s what’s going to result in it taking more time.” On a complete sidenote by the way. I’m recording this episode the day after my birthday. Thank you for all your lovely birthday wishes. And I am really excited because I’m going to meet Simone in real life this weekend. We’ve never met in person before. We only know each other online.

And I’m also meeting my good friend, Vicky Louise who was recently on the podcast and whom I have also never met in real life. And we’re very close, we speak all the time. You will have heard that on the podcast. But I’m meeting them both for dinner this weekend in Paris, so I’m very excited.

Anyway back to this episode. I decided after Simone said that, that I’d just spend a day a week on it, or a day an episode. And that is how long I spend on it every week in terms of the thinking, the planning, preparing my notes, preparing the concepts I want to teach and recording it. I don’t do any of the production, Angela, and Pavel, and their team, a shout out to Devon. They take care of everything. And they provide such impeccable service. And I’m going to get on to how I was actually making that a problem momentarily.

But they produce it, they do the transcripts, they create each page on my website etc. So they guided me a lot in the initial setup and the launch. And they saved me a lot of time there and they continue to. So that’s kind of how I got around the time thing. But I was nervous about investing in their services every month. So they are 1,000% worth it. But I’ve invested a lot in my business over the last two years. And at the time that the podcast was launching I was a bit nervous about adding in another regular expense. And I was thinking that the business couldn’t afford it.

And the dramatic story I had in my brain, you’re going to love this, the drama I had in my brain was that I’d start working with them and have this exceptional level of production, and service, and support, and then I’d run out of money. I’d have to stop working with them, hire someone not so good and then you’d all hear the difference and stop listening. Listen, my brain is just as ridiculous and hilarious as yours. I just have the tools to figure it out. And I was able to coach myself through this and just see that this is just my brain trying to find an excuse not to do something.

So as I was coaching myself, I had a conversation with future Maisie, so the Maisie who in six months’ time would be saying, “Thank you for taking that leap and going for it because look at everything you have created. Look at how you’ve helped everyone. What a great investment this was for you to make.” And as soon as I was like, “Oh, yeah, I want to be thinking long term about this. And I will just create that money. I will be able to find that money to do this. I am committed to this.”

Plus I also had my coach, Victoria, just say to me, “Look, just hire them. You don’t want to be figuring this out. Just let them do their job so that you can do yours.” I was like, “Okay, I’m going to go for it.” So once I’d addressed all of that all I had left was my concern that I’d struggle with being consistent. So I did a lot of coaching on it, and I explored all my beliefs around my ability to do something regularly. And where I got to was that I actually do a lot of things consistently if I want to do them. And I can always create desire for something.

And that desire to do something through my self-coaching. So I just started to find examples of where I’m consistent. And you’ve heard me talk about this on the podcast before that we just really want to find everything. So I was finding evidence of this, well, I’m very good at brushing my teeth regularly, I really am. I’m really consistent at having a morning cup of tea. So I know these things just sound funny, and they don’t count.

But it’s the more evidence, the more examples you can find of how you are consistent or whatever it is that might be the barrier for you the more you start to see how you are being consistent. So it’s just like redirecting the brain. And instead of its negativity bias to the things that you don’t do, how you’re not so good at this. We’re just finding example of how that’s not actually true. So I just went for it. And we launched it. And now it’s this regular feature in my life and I love it. But I love it because I decided to fall in love with it and stay in love with it.

So I’m always thinking amazing things about my podcast. Because some of you might resonate with me in that maybe you think you’re good at starting things and not continuing them or finishing them. And this is why we want to be thinking thoughts on purpose about how this still is a fantastic idea and that I still love it. And I will keep going with it.

And it’s the same with my relationship with Paul. He’s amazing but I’m always thinking about how amazing he is because that creates connection, and love, and intimacy. We would be having a very different relationship if we were both thinking a lot of negative thoughts about each other. So see what I mean about selling yourself on anything? You can sell yourself on your romantic partner. You can sell yourself on the job that you’re currently in, on getting a new job, on launching a podcast, on literally anything. I do this all the time and I swear it’s the secret of life.

And finally I want to share with you what’s happened since launching. So there are two things that have happened, actually I think there’s only one but the second is part of the first. So I have greatly increased my self-trust. And because of that I give myself permission to pivot from the plan. Well, also I think the podcast has really allowed me to fully pivot from being a practitioner to being a coach. So sometimes for example, I get requests from listeners asking me to do episodes on seed cycling, or certain supplements. But I have zero interest in doing those.

Plus I want to offer to you that you really don’t need to hear me talking about seeds for 20 minutes. I love seeds but it’s a hard no on an episode about them. I want to create new things for you and share them here. So that required a level of self-trust to stay on track with what I wanted to do and what I think is important. Because I could have easily if I wasn’t trusting myself so much been swayed by other people’s requests. But then I’d end up doing a podcast that I didn’t intend to create. And I don’t mean particular episodes, yes, those as well.

But I mean the whole podcast could just quite quickly evolve into something that wasn’t actually what I wanted to create. And I also frequently pivot from my plan. So sometimes I have an order of topics in mind and sometimes I stick to them. But if I have an experience in my own life or something comes up in my community, I will change my plan. And most of the time I’m just thinking, what is it that you all need to know now and how can I help you today? And that’s what I’m guided by. And I can do that because I trust myself and I trust my judgement.

I trust that everything I create, every episode is exactly what you need to hear. I don’t bother checking the podcast stats, although I have for this episode and I’m going to share them. But the reason that I don’t check them is that it’s more important for me to trust myself and trust that the people who will be into it will find it and listen rather than contorting myself according to audience figures.

Because if was just relying on the statistics instead of my own thoughts and my own beliefs I would just twist myself and go around in circles, trying to please everyone else instead of just doing what I want to do. And I’d also make those numbers mean something when they really don’t. However, like I said I have looked today, and we are at 336,000 downloads. I have no idea what that means, which is kind of cool because I can just decide what I want that number to mean, which by the way is always available even when you have some context of what a figure means.

You can decide how you want to think about that figure. So I’m deciding that it’s awesome. And I’m also deciding that it’s only the beginning because it really is. So think about how this applies to your own life. Is there something you want to create, a project that you want to tackle? It doesn’t matter what it is, you can use this process. Remember, here’s how it goes.

You want to start off to being open to ideas, open to possibility. Don’t shoot ideas down, just let them take root, let them find their way, give them a chance to get going. Don’t rush it. You don’t have to hustle your way with things. So watch out if you’re straying into avoidance though as well. But just approach things from abundance rather than lack. Let your cycle work the idea for you. Consider who you need to become in order to do this. How does your view of yourself need to shift? I had this idea that I’m no good at being consistent, so I had to start seeing myself as someone who is consistent.

Notice the obstacles that your brain presents. And actually look at them, don’t ignore them. But also don’t believe them. Just notice what your brain comes up with and interrogate those thoughts. And then just decide to do it and continually think about how this is a great plan. That doesn’t mean romanticising things and having rose tinted glasses on. It involves being honest with yourself about what’s going on. And acknowledging that how you think about something will create how you feel about it.

So you have to think helpful thoughts on purpose to create those feelings that result in you taking action that move you towards the result. And you’ve got to trust yourself. You’ve got to have your own back in this, and you’ve got to pat yourself on the back. Don’t be relying on others to pat you on the back and big you up. You’ve got to big yourself up.

Alright, speaking of which, I am giving myself a pat on the back over here. Thank you for all of your continued support, for all of your reviews, for sharing the podcast with your friends and sharing it on social media. It means so much to me that you take the time to do that and that together we are increasing the impact of how many lives are feeling the benefit of everything that I cover on the podcast. So thank you to all of you who have played a part in that.

Alright, so I will be back next week after I have been to Paris. I can’t wait to share with you how it went. And by the way, a last reminder, it’s just occurred to me because it’s the 9th of December now. For the holiday season I really encourage you to look ahead to where you are going to be in your cycle and think about what you need to get in place in order to have a good experience of the holiday season in relation to your cycle. So start thinking about that now and getting a plan in place, really important. Okay, that really is it now. I’ll see you next week.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the Period Power podcast. If you enjoyed learning how to make your cycle work for you, head over to maisiehill.com for more.