The Essential Discourse Podcast

Getting Ready for 2026-What Worked and What Didn’t In 2025

• Season 2 • Episode 12

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Welcome to The Essential Discourse Podcast. In this episode, I close out 2025 with a personal and honest review of the year. I'll walk you through what went well, what went wrong, and what lessons I am taking into 2026.

I share my experience of starting a business and producing content, which I believe connected with listeners. I also discussed where I struggled, including consistency with the podcast, time management, and being distracted by view counts and comments. I open up about the challenges of balancing a full-time job, family, church responsibilities, and a new business, all while trying to keep the podcast moving forward.

Technology, AI, and the drive for perfection became obstacles for me. I question the reliance on AI for content and the trap of constantly checking for online validation. I also reflect on the importance of focusing on the process and putting out solid work, regardless of immediate feedback.

You’ll hear an open call for listener feedback. I want to hear about your own wins and lessons from 2025, what habits you built or need to break, and whether you achieved the goals you set for yourself. I ask you to visit edpshow.com and join the conversation.

This episode is practical, direct, and focused on real growth. I appreciate you allowing me to share his story. Hopefully, you'll find it helpful and learn something practical to help you adjust and start the new year with purpose and accountability.

For your convenience, the Essential Discourse Podcast is available on your favorite streaming apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeart. We are also online at https://www.edpshow.com/.

You can follow The Essential Discourse Podcast on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. We welcome and encourage your comments about the podcast, individual episodes, and other content.

Please consider subscribing to our community on the website and social media platforms.

Thank you for your support, reviews, and general comments.

Sincerely,
Bruce S.

email: bruce@edpshow.com

Social Media: Instagram @BruceDaTruth2 Facebook & Tiktok @TruthBruceTold

YouTube @TheEssentialDiscoursePodcast


[00:00:04] Good morning. Good morning. How y'all doing today? Last Monday of 2025, you made it. You made it. And it's obvious I made it because you're sitting here looking at me. Are you excited about 2026? I know I am. So let's get into it. Let's get into it.

[00:00:33] Hey, last year, the first podcast of the year, I talked to us about being intentional in regards to the endeavors that we put forth into manifesting, bringing them to a reality in regards to our goals in 2025. It was about this time last year that we had a conversation concerning that. And what I want to do today is I want to revisit that episode from a standpoint of judging our papers. You know, grading our papers. That's, that's, that'd be more appropriate. And since you're not here to answer me and to put in your. Your input, I'm going to grade my paper and hopefully this will resonate with you and cause you to get into the comments of whatever platform you're watching this or listening to this from and share your thoughts about the things that, you know, transpired in 2025 that may have led to success, led to failure. You know, what were some hindrances, what were some good habits that you developed, some bad habits that you need to break going into 2026, and things of that nature.

[00:02:01] So the, the intent of this is not to give you false motivation or to beat you over your head. It's just to see how did we do in 2025 and discover where there is room for improvement. And so, as with every episode of the Essential Discourse podcast, most of this stuff is based off of my experience. In fact, all of it is based off of my experience. Now, I'd be naive to think that your experiences and the outcomes of your experiences would be the same as mine. That'd be ludicrous. And I'm dealing with intelligent people, so I won't even insult your intelligence like that. I do believe that there is a commonality between us all in some aspects of life where we can glean from the experiences of the person who is engaging in dialogue with you.

[00:03:09] That just happens to be me today. Today on, you know, how we did. And so I am going to start it off with identifying some successes that I had, some successes that I had last year or this year is still this year, 2025 was. I was able to put forth some content that I think that was very, very relatable and offer some very practical solutions to remedy those. Those problems. Additionally, I Think that I was ahead of the power curve in talking about certain things and to experience life in the aftermath of doing some of those episodes. It was like, yeah, yeah, I see the reason I was led to, to engage in that particular topic for what was coming in my life. So I think that the quality content that I was able to put out last year was, was definitely a success.

[00:04:31] And I had a vision outside of the podcast to start my own business. I was able to do that. A lot of trial and error, a lot of missteps and mistakes, but overall we had a productive year in the business that I started and I'm looking forward to this next season of being a, being a small business owner and doing my thing. Failures. My failures were I lack consistency as the podcast was concerned. I kind of, I kind of allow life to life to the point to where I didn't get on the recording apparatuses to put forth the thoughts that I had concerning various topics. And you know, I just wasn't consistent. More so I was even less consistent than I was in the years previous to this one.

[00:05:43] And again, that could have been because I had some additional stuff on my plate. You know, working a full time job, launching your own business and doing all the things that are necessary to be successful in both of those devote time to the family and assignments at my church. There was a lot going on, but at the same time I still had time to get on and do the podcast and give it the attention that it deserved not. And I think I chose the easy way out. I chose comfort over discomfort in order to justify not being more consistent, more determined to put out more episodes consistently. Another success that I did was revamped the website. It cost me a little bit more to do that, but I got more functionality out of the new provider that I'm using and I'm, I'm real happy with how it turned out. It's not, it's not a hundred percent.

[00:06:58] I need to go in and make some changes. But I was, I was happy with the end result. I got it to look the way that I envisioned it looked and to break up some of the monotony of the old site and add some, some new flavor to it. Also was successful in streamlining the social media apparatuses that I was using to make it more uniform to what we were doing. So those are successes and failures. I kind of covered hindrances in talking about the failures and the failure of being inconsistent and hindrances were just, you know, discomfort. You know, I chose comfortability over discomfort. I chose, you know, I chose to.

[00:07:53] To sleep rather than to work. I didn't maximize the time that I had at my disposal. And, you know, that's just a mindset. That's a mindset. I think I let this become more of a chore than a release, you know, a thing of enjoyment. So that was a major hindrance. Another major hindrance was, you know, the learning curve. You know, technology is just zooming by.

[00:08:26] Once you think you got the handle of one thing and here comes a change and then a change to the change. And so that was a hindrance for me. Another hindrance was AI, you know, AI. And not that I don't know how to, you know, use AI, but that. It. I think that I kind of made me a little lazy. You know, I didn't want to. I didn't have to think as much about what it was that I wanted to say, how I wanted to frame it and who I needed to frame it for.

[00:09:03] And I think one of the things that I'm going to do this season is kind of lay off the AI as much as possible to ensure that I'm being absolutely critical and genuine when I am seated before this mic and in front of this camera and addressing you, the public. So that success, that's all those failures, procrastinations, hindrances, and bad habits really got into the bad habit of saying, I could do it tomorrow. And I know better than that. And yet I still did it. I got into the bad habit of saying, you know what? Ain't nobody gonna listen. They're not gonna engage. They're not gonna. They're not gonna.

[00:09:56] They're not going to, you know, get on here and just be honest. They're not gonna do this. They're not going to do that. And, you know, I got in a bad habit of checking views and trying to see what kind of reactions, what kind of responses I was getting. And I think that kind of led into those bad habits, kind of led into the failures into, In. In the procrastination. And, you know, when you're more concerned about the results versus the product, you got a problem. You got a problem on your hand.

[00:10:30] When you're more concerned about, you know, what people thinking, what people are doing. Yeah, you want engagement? I want engagement. Let me say that I want engagement. I want people to interact and, you know, use their keyboards on their phones or on their computers when they're watching and listening. And, you know, you know, I won't push back. I won't. If you Agree. I want to hear you agree and why you agree.

[00:10:56] And if you're pushing back, I want to know why you're pushing back. I just want to have conversations, real conversations with people about real topics that, you know, we all face. And so when you, When I, When I. When I developed the bad habit of just looking at reactions, views, likes, comments, the lack of comments, you know, that kind of fed into me not being motivated to make sure that I was doing what I was doing because I was. I was only looking at the product instead of embracing the process, which I talked about extensively last season. And, you know, you know, experience has taught me, you know, you got to put the product out and live with the results. Whether three people comment or 3,000 people comment, whether I get zero likes and, you know, zero hearts, you know, I got to be motivated to continue to put out a good product. And I think that that also led into the failures that I experienced last year.

[00:12:16] And I gotta be product driven. Not. Not result driven. I gotta be product driven because, you know, we're all busy. And some of you may have had intentions to respond, some of you may have had intentions to, you know, comment, but because life is life and you have other responsibilities and you have other demands upon your time, you could have forgotten. You could have forgotten. Not to say that you weren't impacted, but you, you just could have, you know, got distracted from doing what it is that you said you wanted to do, what you intended to do. I want to send a special shout out to my nephew.

[00:13:06] We call him Big Squeeze. He knows who he is if he listens to this. He kind of inspired me and chased chastise me at the same time. And I don't even think he. He understood what had happened. He asked me about the podcast and he began to tell me about certain things that I had said on the podcast. Now, I would have never known that he was listening or that he was watching if we hadn't had this conversation over this holiday break. And it just made me realize that just because people aren't responding, aren't reacting, aren't engaging, doesn't mean that they're not listening and that I'm not helping someone.

[00:13:51] So shout out to Big Squeeze. Thank you, man, for lighting the fire up under me and I appreciate you for inspiring me to king to man. I got tongue tied to. To continue to push on. Another thing that I learned, you know, I was wasting a lot of time just trying to put out the perfect audio, the perfect video. I was wasting a lot of time and I Felt like, you know, I was. I was wasting a lot of energy and making a Show that was 30, 45 minutes long when he. All it needed to be was 15, 20 minutes long.

[00:14:40] I mean, so that's a success because I'm learning. I'm learning through every failure, I'm learning. And that is the goal in life, is to be forever learning and to apply the things that I learned. So with that being said, if you don't mind, weigh in. How did you do in 2025 in regards to the goals that you set? Were you successful in achieving those goals? Were there some hindrances? Whether it's roadblocks, you know, did you develop good habits? Did you develop bad habits? Did you manage your time better than I did? Were you result driven? And are you seeing that being result driven isn't as important as being putting out a good product as I am currently. So if you would, I'd appreciate it. I appreciate if you could take a few minutes of your day, of your time and just, you know, tell me what you think about what we've discussed today. And if you get a chance, go over to the website and.

[00:15:53] And check it out and tell me what you think about that as well. The website is www.edpshow.com. you're going to see a brand new look, and hopefully you'll enjoy it because I put a lot of work and time into it. And if you didn't enjoy it, tell me why, so we can make those corrections if applicable. All right, guys, when 2025 is on its way out, you've been blessed. I've been blessed because we're still here. We're still walking, talking, breathing. Yeah.

[00:16:27] We may not have everything that we want, and things may not be in the condition that we want them to be in, but the fact of the matter that we're here, that we have another opportunity to make those things. So. So I want to encourage you to embrace the process, embrace accountability. I'm asking that you hold me accountable in the process so that we can enjoy the benefits of the product together. All right, gang, y' all be good. I'm Bruce Smith. This has been the Essential Discourse podcast. Love you.

[00:17:03] We'll holla. Peace.