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Hey everybody, welcome back to the 400th episode of The Testing Psychologist podcast. I can’t believe we’re here. My gosh, it seems like yesterday I was talking about 300 episodes, but we have arrived yet again at another milestone episode.
Today, I am reflecting on the journey to [00:01:00] 400 episodes. I’m musing about future directions for the podcast and also announcing a consulting package giveaway. In honor of 400 episodes and lots of consulting clients over the years, there is a giveaway to win a complimentary 6-session individual consulting package with me. You can find the link to that in the show notes and more information in the episode.
All right, everybody, quick episode here today. I just want to take this opportunity and mark a milestone. I think milestones are important in our lives. I recently talked to my [00:02:00] dad because he celebrated his 70th birthday. My dad has that kind of personality where nothing is ever really a big deal, including his own birthday.
For as long as I can remember, when I call my dad on his birthday, ask him what he wants or anything that alludes to making a big deal or a celebration of the birthday, he’s very low-key. He downplays it and he says, Oh, this is it’s just another day. ‘It’s just another day.” I can hear him saying that in my head right now. I know exactly what his face would look like.
And I am the opposite. I love celebrating birthdays. I think it’s rare that we get to truly celebrate ourselves. Now, you could argue that we should change that and we should be celebrating ourselves every day [00:03:00] or any day, but it’s not really how it works, at least for me.
And so birthdays and other milestones are worth celebrating. They’re worth paying attention to. We are worth it at the risk of being a little saccharine, but I think they’re important. And this is one of those milestones.
I was very tempted as I was designing the episode here today to not make a big deal out of it. I was very tempted to just do another episode of clinical content or business content like usual, but I heard my dad’s voice in my head, and then I remembered how I feel when he does that, which is confused, and it leaves me a little uncertain of how to react or what to do or just a mismatch between our states of mind because I’m ready to celebrate and he doesn’t want to.
[00:04:00] Anyway, I don’t want to force that on him, but here I am. It is the 400th episode. And as I said last time, podcast milestones are super exciting. The longer that I go on the podcast with these episodes, the more difficult it is to ignore that this is a true exercise in longevity and consistency.There are many ways to measure the success, so to speak, of a podcast, but I think like many other things, showing up each week and doing the work even when it may not be amazing or perfect or remarkable, at least in my mind, that’s the majority of making this work. Downloads are [00:05:00] always a compelling way to measure podcast success, but to me, the number of episodes is a more accurate measure of just the journey involved as far as I’m concerned.
So, I’m reflecting too. It just so happens that this 400th episode falls pretty close to the upcoming anniversary of the podcast. In January of 2024, it will be 7 years of The Testing Psychologist Podcast. I can certainly say that when I started, I had no idea where it would end up. I remember having a little bit of trouble even coming up with 20-episode possibilities in the very beginning. And I thought, Oh my gosh, how much can I even talk about testing? And is this going to go anywhere?
But here we are 400 episodes in, pretty evenly split [00:06:00] between business, and practice and there is no shortage of content at this point. I have so many folks on the clinical interview list and so many that are still out there that I haven’t even found yet. So I think there’s going to be a lot of talk about testing over the next few years.
I’ve stepped back from the numbers over the past year and a half. They get less important I think as time goes on, especially the downloads, but I think it’s worth mentioning that somewhere over the last few months, I’m not sure exactly where the podcast passed one million total downloads. That to me seems significant. It’s just another way to measure the reach of the podcast.
As usual, it’s spread more and more around the globe, which is truly [00:07:00] amazing and humbling. Folks are listening in countries that I had no idea had any kind of testing going on, much less any English language testing going on. I acknowledge that the podcast is totally in English for now. I’m shocked that folks are listening in these countries, but I’m so grateful for that.
To that end, I would love to do gratitude. I’ll always do gratitude. I’m big on that. And I think first of all, just everybody who’s listening, I have to say a huge thank you. It’s been so awesome to continue to meet folks who listen to the podcast. It’s gotten to the point that a lot of folks who reach out for consulting are podcast listeners. It is so nice and remarkable. I forget sometimes real people are listening and it’s been cool to keep connecting with folks out there.
[00:08:00] My podcast assistants, Laura and Dyphnah, keep the podcast running. Laura is the primary producer of the podcast. She’s the one who’s engineering everything, doing the editing, cutting things, publishing, sending the emails to all my guests, and running social media and that sort of thing. She’s so valuable. And Dyphnah is transcribing all of my podcasts slowly, but surely also playing a huge role in this team.Let’s take a break to hear from our featured partner.
Determining if a person is feigning psychiatric illness is critical in certain evaluations. It’s essential to have an instrument that you can trust and provides fast and reliable results. The Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test or MFAST is a 25-item screening interview for adults that helps you assess the likelihood that an individual is malingering. Learn more at parinc.com\mfast.
[00:09:00] All right. Let’s get back to the podcast.Also, gratitude here in The Testing Psychologist Universe, my moderators on The Testing Psychologist Community on the Facebook group. I could not keep that group on the rails without them. The group has been such a gift over the years and they do a lot of work behind the scenes. So that’s Chris Mulchay, Laura Sanders, Claudia Rutherford, and Andres Chou. Thanks y’all. I appreciate it.
Of course, all of my guests who donate their time are pretty incredible, especially on the clinical side, there aren’t many clinical experts who have anything to promote on the podcast. It does happen with some of the business guests for sure, but on the clinical side, [00:10:00] it’s rare to have someone who’s trying to promote anything of their own. And so I’m extra grateful that they are just donating their time and sharing their knowledge. Just recognize nobody’s getting paid for this. And without that content, I would have no clinical episodes. I’m certainly not going to do all the clinical episodes.
Who else? My business coaches, I’ve had several over the years, but my original coach Joe Sanok was the one who influenced me to start the podcast. I’m super grateful to him.
And then of course my family. My kids still get a kick out of it. They just laugh hysterically when my podcast comes on in the car accidentally or something. If it rolls over from a previous podcast I was listening to, they just laugh hysterically and just make fun of me endlessly that I have this thing and people are listening.
[00:11:00] And of course my wife, she’s super supportive and it’s been great. We get to share podcasting. She also has a podcast. It’s called The Art of Groups. Her expertise is group therapy and helping practices integrate groups into their practice. It’s been cool to be able to share that with her over the past year or so.What else? Like I said, consistency is the biggest thing with the podcast. I look forward to it. I think it remains probably the best part of my job. It’s hard to pick between consulting and podcasting, but I do love the podcast. It’s so fun to plan out the episodes, think about what people may want to hear about and find unique, exciting, compelling guests. I get to call up experts in the field, ask them basically whatever I want, learn any number of new things [00:12:00] and just have great conversations. I love it. So I will continue to do the podcast if there’s any fear about that.
But it’s also hard. I mean, consistency is necessary, but also the biggest challenge. It does take a fair amount of time to show up ready to do the podcast, do the research, look into each of these topics, and just be prepared. So, it’s something I love, but it does take time. I’ve had to be deliberate about protecting my schedule and protecting the time that I put into the podcast. I’m happy to keep doing it, but it is something I need to put a lot of time into and energy.
What else? I mean, just to validate, I talk with people a lot these days about Imposter Syndrome. It’s gotten [00:13:00] better over the years, but not that much. I’ll be honest. I think I am more comfortable with the process of interviewing, but gosh, especially in these clinical episodes, the Imposter Syndrome is strong because I’m certainly not a clinical expert and many things, and to interview these guests is pretty challenging. So I have to be prepared. I’m always doubting myself. I’m always thinking I’m asking dumb questions and I’m certain that my guests are just thinking how clueless I am and they’re just bearing with me.
So that happens just to be transparent, but the benefits, I guess, are enough to outweigh that push-through. It’s a good exposure to keep dealing with that and getting better at that.
[00:14:00] In terms of moving forward, I am going to continue experimenting with new formats and series and so forth. I think we’re going to be right in the middle of the Out-There assessment series when this episode goes out, or maybe it’s coming up soon. I forget the timing, but Out There Assessment. I’m going to be talking to folks who are in unorthodox testing environments. Like I said, I’m amazed at how many testing topics are still out there and there are so many to explore.Now, it’s been interesting. I recognize as time goes on, I’m dialing into the topics that are most interesting to me. So these days that’s business development and leadership and finances, and of course, the clinical components of testing as well. And that’s one of the blessings about doing this is just being able to use this as an extension of my own learning and share it with everyone.
[00:15:00] Now, some of you have been listening this whole time and you’re like, when is he going to talk about the giveaway? So let’s talk about that.In honor of the 400th episode, I am doing a giveaway to win a succession individual consulting package with me. This would typically be about $1800. So if you’re a practice owner and you would like some support moving through the next phase of your practice, I would love to help you with that. It’s super easy to register. If you just go to thetestingpsychologist.com/giveaway, it’s very straightforward. You just enter your name and email address. I will be doing a bonus episode on, I believe it’s November 30th, where I’m going to announce the giveaway winner. So stay tuned. Mark your calendars for that, especially if you enter and [00:16:00] I will announce the winner.
All right. Thank you again for listening for another hundred episodes. If this is one of your first episodes, welcome. There’s a great community around The Testing Psychologist podcast and there are plenty of episodes in the catalog to go back to if you want to learn about any number of things on the business development or clinical side of assessment. So super grateful for all of you. I hope to continue meeting more of you in person over the next year or so at events on my calls and any number of other places. So very grateful. Thank you all. We’ll catch you next time for episode 401.
All right, y’all. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Always grateful to have you here. I hope that you take away some information that you can implement in your practice and in your life. Any resources that we mentioned during the [00:17:00] episode will be listed in the show notes, so make sure to check those out.
If you like what you hear on the podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast.
And if you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice owner, I’d invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist Mastermind groups. I have mastermind groups at every stage of practice development: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. We have homework, we have accountability, we have support, we have resources. These groups are amazing. We do a lot of work and a lot of connecting. If that sounds interesting to you, you can check out the details at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can sign up for a pre-group phone call and we will chat and figure out if a group could be a good fit for you. Thanks so much.
The information contained in this podcast and on The Testing Psychologist website are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast or on the website is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric, or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Please note that no doctor-patient relationship is formed here, and similarly, no supervisory or consultative relationship is formed between the host or guests of this podcast and listeners of this podcast. If you need the qualified advice of any mental health practitioner or medical provider, please seek one in your area. Similarly, if you need supervision on clinical matters, please find a [00:19:00] supervisor with expertise that fits your needs.