S1E42 Eric Nicoll - Conversations That Ignite Change

Real change often begins with honest, meaningful conversations. Whether it’s about challenging societal norms, fostering a deeper understanding about diversity, or uncovering a new way of looking at the world around us, conversations hold the power to shift perspectives, inspire action, and transform lives.

The most impactful conversations are rooted in authenticity, empathy, and a genuine desire to listen and learn. They create space for diverse voices, the celebration of our differences, and building bridges where there is often great divide.

Every conversation has the potential to impact change, but it starts with the courage to engage.

Join me this week as I wrap up this first season of our JUST DO YOU. podcast.   I want to thank my Season 1 guests, you are all remarkable and your willingness to open your hearts and share your personal journey's was so courageous and I am so grateful to each and every one of you!  To our loyal listeners, thank you for joining us each week to listen in and I hope you enjoyed our conversations as much as we did!  

So, here's to a New Year AND a brand new season of the JUST DO YOU. Podcast ... launching Thursday, January 2nd with an episode you won't want to miss! 

I can't wait to talk, listen, and grow—together! 

Thank you for joining us and we can't wait to welcome you back again next week! New episodes drop every Thursday and can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts!  

Remember to like, rate, share and subscribe to the JUST DO YOU. podcast in order to receive our weekly episode updates!  If you like what you hear, please leave us a review at Apple Podcasts!

To follow us on Instagram, visit: https://www.instagram.com/justdoyoupod/

Want to learn more about our host, Eric Nicoll?  Visit:  https://ericnicoll.com

Transcript

0:05

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Just2u podcast. My name is Eric Nicole and I'm your host. If you are a first time listener, welcome to the conversation. And if you're a regular, I'm honored that you've decided to join me for another episode. The Just2u podcast is centered around a network of conversations, which are meant to connect us, to inspire https: otter. ai And who knows? We might even learn a little something new that ultimately allows us to live in the sweet spot that I like to call the just you, you space it being. Each week I have the privilege of sitting down for unscripted conversations with friends, family, colleagues, community leaders, and influencers that all share their own personal journeys. I hope that you enjoy our time together as much as I have. We are certainly gonna laugh, and yes, we might even cry a little, but in the end, we're gonna know that we're not alone during our life's journey. So, are you ready? Great, let's do this. Welcome to The Conversation. Hello everyone, and welcome to today's episode. It is the day after Christmas, and I am jumping on to wish everyone the happiest of holidays And a happy, happy, almost new year. It is hard to believe that this year has come and gone. It has been interesting at best a year filled with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. And I'm hoping that 2025 brings us a year of peace and a year of joy. A year of connectedness. and a year of going after the things that we want and knowing how to get them. It is going to be a time where we all need to come together and support each other and to let others in our communities know that we're not alone. When I decided to launch this podcast back in February of this year, it was difficult for me to get started. I have to admit. I was my own worst enemy. I procrastinated. I came up with all of these excuses as to why this wasn't going to work. Would people listen? Would people find the topics and the conversations interesting? Would they relate to them? Would they actually be able to learn something new that they didn't know before about a particular person or circumstance or community? But I decided at the. Strong encouragement from my mentor and friends and fellow podcaster, Darren, who you'll soon meet on an upcoming podcast. With his encouragement, I decided to just bite the bullet and do it. That first episode was rough. It was super, super difficult. And I didn't think I was going to get through it. I was nervous, all of those things. But what I realized was as a result of that first podcast, I started to hear from people. that were just excited about tuning in and distracting themselves and listening to something that was positive and that was uplifting and that was something for them to think about. With each week and each conversation, I found myself fascinated by people's stories. And it made me realize that everyone has a story. The difference is we don't always take the time to tell them. We're too busy wrapped up in our own worlds or our phones or our busy work schedules. And the thing that we lost sight of is the importance and the critical need for human connection. And so each week I tried to bring that human connection at least to the airwaves. To the podcast platforms to video to audio and hope that people would resonate. And I think we did a pretty good job. I think our conversations were really powerful. I've heard from a lot of you that are listening and with great comments. And really great feedback about the type of topics that you like to hear or a particular conversation that I had with someone that made an everlasting impact. I know for a fact from several conversations that I've had with people that they came into the conversation on a particular topic, maybe having their own assumptions or having their own thoughts. And after sitting and listening to the conversation that we had, they walked out the other side. with maybe a little bit more enlightenment and a little bit of a different decision. And so I know that we accomplished what we set out to do. When you start a podcast like that, you wonder, will people listen? Will people resonate? And you start to pay attention to the numbers, the numbers of downloads, the numbers of listens, the number of likes and dislikes. And I realized very early on in following some of my favorite podcasters that you can't pay attention to the numbers. So I barely look at them, but what I do know is the comments that I've received from people that have shared their story, that have shared their experience with me, that shared that they have referred or recommended to their friends to listen to specific episodes, and that meant the world to me. It meant that we were doing the right thing. I will admit, it's been difficult at times. People's schedules, cancellations, needing to replay specific episodes, or just a myriad of things. Technical difficulties, you know, the shutdown of internet and access and all that brought with it a great amount of work. I had no idea the amount of work that was going to take place in getting all of the episodes up and running so that you could hear them each and every week. But each week, I knew that the conversation that we were about to have would impact someone, and so it made the process, it made the logistics simply that, just a process and logistics. There were many conversations that I didn't anticipate. That I didn't expect would have the effect that they had on me or other people. Every week when I sat down to have a conversation with someone new, many of whom I had never met before or had had a face to face conversation with, I ended up leaving the conversation better off than when I came into it. I learned a lot about a lot of people and a lot of things that I, I don't want to say embarrassingly didn't know. I'll use a case in point example, my conversation with Archer. Archer was and is an extraordinary human being and is a female to male trans man who is One of the most extraordinary people I've ever come in contact with. I learned so much about the trans community from that conversation. And I'm part of the LGBTQ plus community. And so I'm grateful for experiences like that. I found out how to find my happy. I found out about identity and perfectionism. I found out a lot about dating in your fifties and other conversations. that were so profound and so impactful. So I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of my guests for taking the time to sit down with me, open up their hearts, open up their vulnerability and share their lives. What was so interesting through most of the conversations was taking my guests back to their childhood, learning a little bit about how they grew up, where they grew up, what was their family dynamic like only child, first child, last child, middle child. Two parents, one parent, no parents, raised by their grandmother, raised by their grandfather, raised in foster care. All of those different experiences truly shaped the future for each and every guest. Every single one of us has a story, and it's a story that is unique and fraught with life. Love and laughter also with heartache and heartbreak and tears and trying times. But the one thing that rang true with each and every conversation was the awareness that who we are in this world is not our circumstances. Our circumstances definitely shape us and shape the decisions we make, but those circumstances don't define us. Many people suffered great. injustices or a lack of money growing up or maybe a lack of education, but every single person pushed through. There was a conversation larger than them that had them find the confidence to push through those breakdowns, those circumstances to get to the other side. No one's life is ever easy. And if it is, then give us the recipe. Everybody is faced with something that they have to deal with in their lives at some point. Whether it's the loss of a parent, the loss of a sibling or a friend. Maybe it's the loss of a job, having to relocate and start over. Maybe it is having to completely pick yourself up after a divorce or a separation and start over again. I speak from first hand experience. All of us have something we have to overcome at some point in our lives, and the thing that makes it so easy, or I should say easier, sorry, is when we open up our minds, open up our hearts, and most importantly, open up our mouths to have a conversation. I've always understood and known that a conversation doesn't exist with yourself. That's a monologue. It exists in your head. It's not until you put it out to your friend or to a colleague or family member or therapist that it lives out in the universe. In that conversation, living out in the universe, it's able to maybe be looked at from a different perspective, or it's dissected, maybe through that conversing of whatever the circumstance may be. You may realize that yes, it was difficult. Yes, it was traumatic. Yes, it was impossible in the moment to potentially overcome. But once you start to converse and have a conversation, You find that you have support, not only in another person, but in an entire community. We're living in a world that is incredibly fractured right now. Our country has gone through a tremendous upheaval. We don't know what the future holds and many of our rights are at stake. Women. Children, men, LGBTQ community, marginalized communities, we're all at risk and we have no idea. And now more than ever, we need to band together to show our voice and to show our, our confidence and to show our power. When we stop talking, when we stop having conversations, when we stop being ourselves and just doing you, we give in, we give them the power. Vice president Kamala Harris said it best. We cannot give away our power to anyone. We have to keep it ourselves, and I know for a fact that having conversations with the people that I call my life squad, if you will, I know in having conversations with them, I find my empowerment, I find my voice, and I find my compassion also. And so, I hope that over this last year, these 42 episodes, that you have been able to see something for yourself. that may have made a difference. What I want to accomplish for season two is to bring you even more stories of people that are out living a life that they love. To talk about the things that they've had to go through to potentially get to that spot. I want our listeners to know that they're not alone. I want our listeners to know that they have a community, that they have a family, and that they have friends that are here to listen and to share their story. It doesn't matter if you think your story isn't worth telling, I will tell you it is. Everybody's story is worth telling, and to find the people that are willing to listen, is equally as important. I'm telling you firsthand experience. Like I said earlier, I have left some of these conversations after we're done recording and I hit the stop button. I literally have had to take a half an hour to be with the thoughts and to be with the emotions that I was feeling. Yes, I know I cried through a lot of this first season's episodes. I'm super emotional. I cry at Hallmark commercials. I cry at, you know, sappy stories at the commercials at the holidays. It's just who I am. But I've learned to become really proud of that emotion, to be able to presence that, and to be able to know that that's about me feeling something. And so my hope for all of you in the new year is that you find peace, and that you find happiness, and that you find joy, and that you find love. An opportunity to sit down with a friend, to sit down with a group of people over a cup of coffee, a tea, a cocktail, whatever your pleasure is, and have a conversation. Put the phones down. Stop the texting. Stop the emailing and the social media. Connect. Sit face to face. Look each other in the eye. Hold each other's hand, give each other a hug, and let people know that they are seen, that they are heard, that they are acknowledged, and they're celebrated. One of the things also that I found through this process is that you have to just simply do what you say you're going to do. There's an integrity in completing the tasks that you set forth. Two and a half years I talked about this podcast, and although I don't have any regrets, I am sorry and sad that I didn't start this two years ago. If I could be two and a half years in, or three years into this podcast, knowing that it's making a difference for people, knowing that it's changing perceptions and bringing joy and happiness and laughter, as well as forethought to them, I would have done it a long time ago. I'm a little strange. I have a lot of friends who are podcasters who don't listen to their own podcast. But I make a point once it airs on Thursdays to spend some time listening to that podcast. And here's why when you're podcasting and you're listening intently to the conversation, you don't necessarily get to hear the entire story, the weaving of a story. many poignant moments in those people's lives. And so I spend some time in the car. I'm in the car a lot. So I spend some time in the car listening to people's stories. And what's fascinating about that is I've learned more about the people that I now consider to be my friends. One in particular comes to mind, and that was the sharing of the story of Sarah Cunningham, the founder of Free Mom Hugs. Randomly, I ran into a group of the moms at a local pride festival. And I thought, what a great thing. Free Mom Hugs. Everyone loves a hug. What was so beautiful was sitting down with Sarah and listening to her story. In listening to her story, I made a point to reach out to a couple of people that I knew were struggling telling their parents about them coming out. And it was in them listening to Sarah's story, the mom of a beautiful, out, and proud gay child, they were able to gain the courage to share. Our community, particularly the LGBT community, It's just my community, what I know best is in need of a lot of hugs right now. We're in need of a lot of love, but we're also in need of again, telling the story when our story is told and people who may judge us or people who may have and hold an assumption about us, hopefully we'll see something different. And so it's in that holding our space, holding our true self and being able to share our stories authentically and full out is important. And it's critical. And it's empowering. And so I encourage you, as I wrap up this thank you call, or thank you episode, I should say that again, as we wrap up this thank you episode, I encourage you to go out and share your story. I want to thank each and every one of you for listening. I want to thank you for the beautiful comments and the beautiful notes that you've sent. I want to thank you for the ratings and also for the the kind words that you've left in the comments. It is wonderful to hear. I questioned many times during this year if there would be a season two. Was it worth it? And I now know that through some of the reviews and some of the comments that it definitely is. So as we come into 2025. Again, my hope for you is that you find joy and peace and happiness and that you find a sense of courage that will allow us to be able to push through the tough times that may lay ahead. I encourage you rather than reacting to simply be in action, instead of reacting to a post or a news story, get online and share through social media, through your friends, through other avenues, share something good. that happened, share something positive that happened, share something that made a difference in your life or in the life of someone else. That's my goal for you. That's my request of you as our listener. I'm going to do the same. I'm going to make it a point to find stories that will again, enlighten and bring joy and bring happiness and bring hope to this next year. So with that, I will say happy new year. I will say be safe, be well, and. Just go out and make a new friend this holiday season. Ask questions about them. Find out something new that you didn't know about a friend or a family member. And when you go out on your daily life, just remember to just do you. All right, I love you guys. I'm super, super grateful. And I cannot wait to see you in the new year. We have got some amazing episodes the first month of January. You're not going to want to miss season two. Thanks again. My love. Bye for now. All right, everyone. Thank you again for joining us on today's episode. And I cannot wait to sit down with you all again next week. Remember to subscribe to the Just You Podcast on your favorite platform so you can make sure not to miss a new episode, which drop every Thursday. If you like what you hear, you can easily share the podcast and episode Directly with your friends. And if you would rate us and leave us a review, we'd love to hear from you. You can also follow us on Instagram at just do you pod. As you go out into the world today, remember to just do you. All right. Talk next week.