Permission to Do It Your Way - November 06, 2026

I woke up around 2:30 a.m. with that lovely feeling of panic—and I actually went back to sleep. That’s progress, my friends. Today I’m talking about feeling like I haven’t done enough, finding a mission that feels like me, and a voicemail from Jennifer Navarrete about falling in love with podcasting again.

A quick invitation, too: My Kaigi is November 14. Come spend some time looking at what you want to do, what you want to let go of, and who you want to be next year. Use NAPODPOMO for 50% off, just for those of you here with the podcast.

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This morning—well, actually, maybe it wasn’t even this morning. It must have—well, I guess it was this morning. Probably around 2:30 a.m., something like that.

I woke up with that lovely feeling of panic. You know, the one where you wake up and then something, unfinished something in life, crawls into your brain right as you’re supposed to just let go.

I started to get a little bit anxious. Yeah, that wasn’t great.

It’s because I have so much going on. But there’s just—I mean, it’s wonderful. I really love it. But I do feel like I have balls up in the air, and I just move from one thing to the next, and hopefully I’m gonna be able to push through and get all the stuff done.

And then there was a feeling of it wasn’t enough. Like, “I wish I had done more” feeling.

And for a moment there, I almost spiraled. Because what I have found out for myself is, if I allow even just one or two extra seconds of that to continue, I won’t be able to go back to sleep, and it will just totally wreck me.

So I was able to stop that, take a moment, put my hands on my belly, lay directly on my back, and slowly exhale.

And I was actually able to go back to sleep. Not by forgetting, but by putting a pin in it. I will be able to deal with it in the morning.

And that is progress, my friends. That’s progress. A lot of progress.

I had chosen before—just because I just felt I was always in a fighting space about a year ago. And it was this constant nagging feeling that I wasn’t doing enough, and things simply weren’t going to work out. And I had to continue to feel like I had to…

Oh my gosh, it’s very hard to come up with words for this.

To justify my value. I think that is it. I felt like I had to justify my value daily in a way that wasn’t healthy at all.

And thankfully, I am not in that place anymore.

So it was just a moment. I’m just sharing that because I think a lot of us have that. And it has taken a year for my nervous system to not go back to its comfortable route, which was to just get stressed out. Because that’s what it is, right?

And I’m just thankful for that. So if you’re going through that, I feel you, and it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be all right.

This week, for my mentorship experience—which I have not talked about, which is bizarro—I’m in, right now, week three. Next week is going to be—no, this is week four. Oh my gosh, this is week four. Is it? Yes. It’s week four, okay?

We’re talking about mission, vision, and values.

And the way that I like to work, about helping folks find that piece of themselves, or, like, find out what their mission statement is, or what their values are, and what their vision is for themselves, isn’t from an outward perspective.

And I use this metaphor that just came to me when I was talking about it, because that’s how I feel. I feel this happens all the time when you do exercises to work on your mission statement and things like that: they tend to come from the outside in, where we’re looking for that lovely little statement that’s just going to encapsulate everything that we’re in.

I sense, when I see those types of statements in either brands or companies, organizations, that in some cases it feels very—it feels like they’re wearing an outfit that doesn’t fit them.

And I’m sure that you have heard this and that you’ve had this happen, where somebody who loves you, or a friend, or somebody who has your best interests at heart, will say something like, “Hey, this shirt would look great on you,” or “This pair of pants,” or “These shoes,” or whatever.

And maybe it does. Maybe that piece of clothing really actually does look great on you. But you, wearing it, don’t feel like you.

Even if it looks great. Even if you look great.

You don’t feel great in it, and you don’t like the way that you look in it.

And finding that balance between wearing the clothing that is both lovely on you, that looks great and fits great, and it’s slick and all the things that you like, as well as that you feel good in, you can move in, and you feel like yourself in—it takes a little bit of time. And it mostly takes you. It mostly takes you figuring out what that is.

And I think that’s the way that I like to work through things.

So I just was sharing that because it’s something that I have top of mind as we were working through some of those mission statements and things like that.

And guess what? I got a win this week.

Listen, we are—what is this, day six, right?—on 30 days of podcast episodes. Starting this as my audio newsletter, as my—I hope that this is my fulcrum in a lot of different ways, even past November.

But I kept saying, listen, if you have something to talk back at me, you can leave me a voicemail. If you head over to SpeakPipe, you can leave me a note. Or you can email me at hello@elsieescobar.com.

And guess what? I got a voicemail. So I’m gonna play it for you guys right now.

Jennifer Navarrete:

Elsie, this is Jennifer Navarrete, and I have to say that listening to your NaPodPoMo podcast is a real joy, because I feel like you’re my spirit animal in the first episode where you were sharing your thoughts and feelings and experience around video. Yep, I feel it.

And then when you talked about not hitting record, been there, done that.

And I think the one that really kind of touched me the most was the one where you were in the rain, or outside listening to the rain. Of course, we could hear the rain on our side as well.

Because the thing that makes NaPodPoMo special to me is that I can podcast just for the pure joy of podcasting. Just for my own pleasure. Just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Every November, I fall in love with podcasting again. Truly, I do, just for that.

Because, as you know, as someone who works in this industry, it can be a bit much. The whole reason we got into podcasting was for that pure joy, to share our mission and message with the world.

So thank you for being part of NaPodPoMo 2026. Yeah, and I’m looking forward to even more grand audio adventures with you.

Elsie:

I mean, thank you, Jennifer.

Jennifer Navarrete, she is the founder, the creator of this incredible 30 days—what is it? National Podcast Post Month, where every day we post an episode. And she is on her 18th year—is it 18th? I hope I’m saying it correct—of doing this.

Thank you so much for listening to the show. Thank you so much for all of the things. I mean, I also feel you. [Laughs.]

There’s very few of us out here who kind of remember the back-in-the-days of it all, where it really was people picking up a mic and talking. And it was like we were talking to each other through podcasts.

There is a lot of really good stuff that’s happening in this space. There’s a lot of creativity and a lot of amazing shows out there that do so many different things for, my gosh, thought leadership and business and entertainment and audio, video, all the things.

But what I feel is missing is that just-for-its-own-sake piece of it all, and the power of RSS, and just getting behind the mic and talking without a need to have it be more than it is.

There was something so great about that. And I just, I want to get some of that back.

So thank you so much, Jennifer, for this, because literally I am feeling way more pumped about going back to my root, what I feel makes me feel great and powerful, and that I can do that. I can do that just by doing it the way that I want to.

So permission granted for everybody else who wants to participate. Head over to napodpomo.org for that, okay?

Those are my little messages of the day for today. And we have eight more days—ready?—for My Kaigi, which is my planning experience.

So if you want to join me for that, I do ask a lot of questions where you get a lot of time to be a little bit introspective about the things that you want to do, the things that you want to let go of, the things that really are the fulcrum of who you want to be for next year.

As well as lots of really fun things that are going to trigger lots of lovely memories inside of your brain, which is always very amazing.

And thank you, Jennifer, because I did see that she bought a ticket, and I’m super stoked.

If you want to use the 50% off ticket, it is NAPODPOMO. The link is in the description. You’re welcome to sign up for that. We are getting ready for that.

So, yay, and I hope to hear from more of you today.

Links mentioned

• My Kaigi — November 14, 2026: use NAPODPOMO for 50% off, just for this podcast’s audience.
• NaPodPoMo — National Podcast Post Month
• Leave me a voicemail on SpeakPipe
• Email me: hello@elsieescobar.com

Recording notes

My audio was recorded with the iPhone 13 mini internal microphone and processed in Auphonic. Jennifer’s voicemail came through SpeakPipe and was also processed in Auphonic.