"A Success Of Our Own" Podcast: Defining Success Your Way

There is so much to like about the Natalie Ruskin podcast, A Success Of Our Own, beginning with the podcast name. What I mean is that a logical name for the self-improvement, career, mindfulness show would have A Success Of Your Own. 

But Ruskin goes all in, including herself and her life, in this deep foray into existential questions about life. She's like that yoga teacher who shows and encourages you how to complete a difficult pose and is there with you throughout the entire challenge. Coincidentally, I believe she may also be a yoga instructor.

The podcast just started in mid-August with a one-minute trailer. Then, in what I always think is a solid podcasting success strategy, Ruskin then released a nine-and-a-half minute trailer with more detail. This trailer -- and every episode -- begins with a strumming guitar right out of an urban café with hipsters and foamy drinks. But the music's languid tempo helps to set the pacing and timbre of the show, evoking a calming, introspective, and often meditative vibe. 

The intro song, by the way, is written and perfectly performed by her first episode's guest, Juno-award winning singer-songwriter Caroline Marie Brooks.

In her first words in the trailer, Ruskin informs the listeners that she is inviting them to redefine the measure of their success in their private lives and at work.  Ruskin declares she hopes that listeners can create a success that is sustainable and "can relax into."

In this elongated trailer, Ruskin then uses clips from her first few episodes to color in the numbers around the quest toward "a more honest, joyful, and purposeful self." 

I realize these goals may sound a bit new-age-y, but in the capable hands of an experience journalist / teacher / coach like Ruskin, the journey she asks her listeners to go on is meticulously marked with familiar guideposts to attainment. And even better, Ruskin is your ever-present guide, reassuring the mind and relaxing the body.

For aspiring podcasters, Ruskin is particularly adept at setting up herself and her listeners for success. In her nearly ten-minute trailer, the clips she plays are from future episodes. Recording several episodes before you create your trailer and release your podcast is a roadmap to success. Too many new podcasters create a trailer that can titillate new listeners with little idea of the nature of the content they will be able to produce. Ruskin has already made the product she is promoting. She knows exactly what it is. 

That's because Ruskin has loads of media experience. It shows in her podcast hosting and interviewing skills and in her business model for her podcast.

Natalie Ruskin "is a trailblazer for company-wide culture change, employee engagement, and peak performance. In her ten years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a Producer and Innovator, Natalie founded and led a company-wide employee engagement initiative called Make it Better where she helped their corporate culture include wellbeing as a metric for measuring success. Natalie was awarded the inaugural President’s Award for the impact that she had on that transformation project."

Ruskin is also a PCC-certified coach, Mindfulness Facilitator, and Group Coaching Program Leader.

I'm not embarrassed to say it. I'm jealous. 

Ruskin's first three full episodes are out -- averaging an appropriate 40 minutes -- and they are definitely ear worthy. Her first episode with Juno-award winning singer-songwriter Caroline Marie Brooks explores Brooks' need for validation from external sources, such as record sales, streams, and bookings. Ruskin and Brooks discuss getting sucked into that external validation trap. It's a common experience for all of us. 

Clearly, Ruskin knows Brooks, and that camaraderie and relationship creates smooth sailing for an engaging episode.

With her media experience, it's not surprising that Natalie Ruskin connects so easily with listeners. Her voice, effortless and fluffy like banana nut pancakes, exudes reassurance and introspective tranquility.

Her interviewing skills are top-notch. Ruskin listens well, asks carefully constructed follow-up questions, forces her guests to go beyond the superficial, and can navigate from guest responses and insights into her overarching themes for the show -- designing a success of our own and then enjoying that achievement.

Her next episode with businessman Kunai Gupta fascinated me because Ruskin presents us with Gupta, a successful digital advertising entrepreneur with Elon Musk-like abilities and ambitions. Yet, Gupta has jumped off the hamster wheel and now lives a more minimalist lifestyle and has revised his business's culture -- from 24/7 over achievement to a more quality-focused and people-centric workplace. 

 I listened to this episode while doing my early morning walk and when Gupta lead listeners on a brief meditation at the beginning of the interview, I was so relaxed I could have taken a nap on a neighbor's newly cut lawn. I did not, for the record, largely because a woman in the widest brim hat I've ever seen was walking her Pomeranian and the little dog tried to attack my Nikes.

Perhaps the most challenging episode was the August 23rd show with Amanda Munday. A Type A overachiever, Munday is a best-selling author, TED speaker, owner of a lucrative brick and mortar store and wife and mother. Yet postpartum depression, career burnout, and a relationship snuffed out years ago, enabled Amanda Munday to perform radical, life-saving surgery on her life where she's come forward as queer and adopted a lifestyle more suited to her needs. 

This is a dangerous ground here, and Ruskin navigates Munday's life metamorphosis with empathy and an honest desire to help listeners understand the guest's realignment with her personal truth.

There is a temptation to view this podcast as a self-improvement show that is women-focused. I would dispute that view. I see A Success Of Our Own as a show where you question the path you've taken in life, ask why you're on this road, and what's at the end of the journey and will it fulfill you. That's not simple self-improvement. That's self-awareness, self-alignment, and selfhood. I see Ruskin as your life goal GPS. She wants you to enter the right destination for you. Not the one everyone expects you to set.

So join coach, meditation teacher, and journalist Natalie Ruskin as she seeks answers to the question she's been contemplating for two decades—how do we create a success of our own, beyond the striving, salary, and status we've been told we should want?

I don't know Natalie Ruskin, but am happy that she's found success with this podcast, A Success Of Our Own. If you've achieved the success you always thought you wanted and are still unfulfilled, this podcast is for you.