I’m pretty upset with myself because I should have written this blog post two weeks ago, but better late than never!
So back on December 19th, 2016, I received an email from a girl named Jess Lively. It actually went to my promotions tab in Gmail so I almost missed it, but luckily I didn’t! Jess was emailing me to invite me to be part of her podcast, The Lively Show, which in her words “is in the top 5% of all podcasts (5.2 million downloads to date) and the audience is mostly 25-35 year-olds looking to add more intention to their daily life in 216 countries worldwide.”
The opportunity was a very exciting one for me because up until that point most of the people who knew about my project were based in the Philadelphia area, and this would give me a chance to share my story to a more expansive audience. Jess and I agreed on a time to Skype and ended up chatting for about an hour on January 2nd (her from the floor of her Austin, TX Airbnb, me from the floor of my sister’s room in my parent’s house), talking about my project and how it’s affected my life. The output was episode #187 of The Lively Show: Energy, Flow, and Finding Adventure in Your Own Hometown with Rob Lawless.
The morning of the show, I started receiving messages from all over the world like this one:
“Hi Rob, I just listened to the new episode of Jess Lively’s podcast and checked out your website right after. Your project/mission is really fascinating and inspiring. The idea behind it is so simple and yet very powerful. If you happen to be on a Europe trip I would be happy to participate 😉 Best wishes from Germany, Ronja” – January 5, 2017 at 6:12 AM
Crazy enough, I’m still receiving messages from other countries because of the podcast!
“Hey Rob, heard about you on the Lively Show. I’m totally up for a chat when you make it to the UK. My name’s Alan and I live near York. All the best with your project! 🙂 Cheers!” – January 20, 2017 at 10:53 AM
All in all, I saw a jump in my followers of about 600 people and have received messages from the U.S. cities of Boulder, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Columbus, & NYC among others as well as the countries of Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Canada, England, Australia & South Africa among others.
I wanted to write about this experience because these types of opportunities are huge in giving me the confidence to continue on with this journey. In the days following the airing of my episode on Jess’ show, I felt like I had a glow around me and the project felt effortless. Hearing about how my actions affected others, even if it simply inspired them in a small way, made them feel so much more valuable, and I think the feeling of knowing our time is spent in an impactful way is something we all crave in one way or another.
I also had another realization – it seems like the idea of connecting with people for no particular reason is starting to strike a chord with others. When I used to tell people about my project they’d always ask, “Well, how many people have you met?” I’d tell them “10” or “20” or whatever number I was on in the beginning, which would always be followed by laughter. Now, I’ve been able to share my story and have ~600 people think it was cool enough to write words of encouragement and start following along with the journey.
At this point, my project feels like a snowball that’s rolling downhill. And in the opportunity that Jess provided me, I noticed that that snowball is starting to gain mass as it rolls. I also saw that, like The Lively Show, it has the potential to grow into something that positively affects lives all around the world. As always, I’m excited and curious to see where it goes and am looking forward to the baby steps (daily meetings) along the way!
Thanks again for having me on the show, Jess!
Have a great week ahead everyone!
Rob
