Episode 259
Two Friends, One Podcast, Zero Pressure - Getting to Good Enough is Back!
Welcome (back) to Getting to Good Enough! After two years away, Shannon and Janine are reconnecting and beginning the podcast again. In this podcast relaunch episode, they share why they stepped away, what they learned during their hiatus, and how they're returning with fresh eyes and zero pressure for perfection.
What You'll Learn About Starting Over
- Why taking breaks can be the reset you need - sometimes stepping away is the best growth strategy
- How life challenges shaped their perspective - Shannon's surgery recovery, Janine's move, and her husband's heart transplant journey
- The power of 20+ year friendship in keeping doors open for new beginnings
- How new podcasting technology is making content creation enjoyable again
- Permission to grow beyond perfectionism into bigger life conversations about wellness and daily living
Key Takeaways for Recovering Perfectionists
- Starting over isn't starting from scratch - you bring all your personal growth with you
- "We can always change our mind" - flexibility beats perfectionism every time
- Small steps create big life changes - progress over perfection wins
- Embrace uncertainty - perfect plans are overrated anyway
- Low expectations work - if one person benefits from your work, that's success
What's Different About The Podcast this Time
New Technology Stack:
- Captivate hosting platform for better distribution
- Riverside recording for crystal-clear audio quality
- Video episodes now on YouTube for visual learners
- AI assistance streamlining modern podcasting workflows
- Improved documentation and content planning systems
Same Authentic Approach:
- Two genuine hosts + one engaged listener = podcast success
- Real conversations about imperfection and self-compassion
- Weekly episodes focused on doing more of what you love
The Bottom Line on Starting Over
Sometimes the best way forward is to embrace a "good enough" mindset and just start. Shannon and Janine are living proof you can take a break, let life happen, and come back when ready - no shame, just fresh beginnings and authentic conversations.
Ready to start something over in your own life? Hit subscribe for weekly conversations about embracing imperfection, overcoming perfectionism paralysis, and doing more of what you love.
Connect With Getting to Good Enough
Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for behind-the-scenes content and episode highlights. Leave a voice note at 413-424-GTGE (4843) with topics you'd love us to explore in future episodes!
Transcript
Hey, there. Welcome to getting to Good Enough. I'm Shannon Wilkinson.
Janine:And I'm Janine Adams. We're here for practical and fun conversations about living with more ease and way less stress.
Shannon:Yep. We're all about embracing progress over perfection. So grab a tasty beverage and let's get started. Janine.
Janine:Hey, Shannon. How you doing?
Shannon:I am so happy to be back. Back in the recording studio with you.
Janine:I do feel like recording studio might be overstating the situation the tiniest bit, but I'm so exciting.
Shannon:Yeah. I'm so happy to be in our respective home offices in different parts of the country, recording in tandem online in our recording studio.
Janine:Okay, recording studio sounded better, but we have this whole new video situation happening. Right. Because before we were just talking into a mic, and now I can see you, but I don't know where to look.
Shannon:I know it's like, oh, look in the camera. But then, like, I'm not looking at you, and, you know, it's like, zoom. Everyone sort of seems to be looking slightly, not at anything.
Janine:Yeah. And it's in a different configuration from zoom, this recording platform.
Shannon:Right. It's side by side.
Janine:So it's. It's. It's a little disconcerting, but it's a. It's a. It's a pleasure. Now I have to have some water.
Shannon:Yeah. And it's just really great to be back doing this. I'm so excited to get started again. I mean, I was ready for it to be over when we ended things.
I was good with that decision. I didn't regret it for a long time. Well, I guess I never regretted it, but I did start to miss it.
Janine:Right. Yeah.
When we decided that it had stopped being fun and it started being a chore, and life was getting busy and weird, and we thought the kindest thing we could do for ourselves was to jump off the treadmill of the podcast. Right.
Shannon:Right.
Janine:And then I can't remember. I think you were the one probably, who suggested to me that we might want to start it up again. Or did I suggest it to you?
Shannon:I suggested it to you.
Janine:Yeah.
Shannon:And it took a couple of tries.
Janine:My memory is so bad. That's hilarious. Well, I'm glad you persisted.
Shannon:Yeah. Well, because I. Because I thought at first that.
That we could evolve it, you know, like, okay, we're done with getting to good enough, and, you know, maybe we do something like a good enough life, or, you know, somehow take it to the next level.
Janine:And.
Shannon:And that never quite really hit for either of us. I mean, I was Sort of grasping at straws. And you were not taking the bait to mix my metaphors. Right.
Janine:At least you recognize the mixture of the metaphors.
Shannon:Yeah, I know. I noticed it just as the words were about to come out of my mouth, but I felt compelled to finish it because I thought it was sort of funny. Yeah. So.
But then I don't remember why you were more on board this spring when I brought it up again. And then we had the opportunity to actually be together in San Diego. Yeah.
Janine:At the YNAB Fan fest. That's right. That was so fun. And we got to really talk about it in person then.
Shannon:Right, right.
Janine:Well, I don't know when you originally brought it up, but my life didn't start calming down probably until this spring, you know, to the point where I could consider adding something like that, like a podcast.
Shannon:Right. Because there been a few things going on in each of our lives.
We do want to give, like, a little synopsis of what's been going on for you for the last two years.
Janine:Yeah. Why don't you start?
Shannon: s we stopped in the summer of:I had had a shoulder surgery that was way more complicated and had a way more involved recovery than I expected. I thought, you know, oh, so I'm gonna be in a sling and, you know, but I could still sort of type with my right hand, and it was.
My arm was basically not usable for two months and. Yeah, and it was. It was. Well, I did end up graduating from PT at eight months, which surprised everyone because I had such a bad start.
I thought I was going to need a full year. Everyone thought I would need a full year pt. But do your PT exercises and they work.
Janine:It's amazing those people know what they're talking about.
Shannon:Yeah. Yeah. So that was a. That was sort of the biggest thing that encouraged me to take a step back and make a different choice.
Janine:Yeah. And you were the one who was doing the editing, which involved a lot of mouse work and stuff, I think.
Shannon:Yeah. And there's only so much I could do with my left hand. I got pretty skilled with my left hand. I just found a picture of.
Because this is back in the day when I was still getting the Sunday New York Times, and I would do the crossword puzzle and I have a picture of the completed Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle all done with my left hand.
Janine:Oh, my gosh. Like a child or something. Yes.
Shannon:Well, maybe. Maybe. Well, I'll share that picture on social media because it's pretty entertaining. Really? Yeah.
Janine:Yeah. And for me, at that time, it was dealing with my husband's poor health.
His heart failure was getting worse and worse, and so I was going to doctors all the time with him and stuff because I would take my bullet journal and keep track of everything.
And then in:And next thing you know where he's convinced us that we can move there, and you help me use your mad money skills to figure out that we could afford it. And so the ball started rolling quickly. So we downsized from our big house to a three bedroom apartment.
For an apartment, it's not that small, but it's still an apartment with no basement or garage.
Shannon:Yeah.
Janine:And then two days after we moved in, Barry was hospitalized and he stayed for nine weeks and came home with a new heart.
Shannon:I was wondering when you were gonna throw that part in. Like. Yeah, the whole heart transplant thing.
Janine:Transplants are intense and sort of an experience even when you're not the person getting it. That's unlike any other. And so that coupled with moving and changing lifestyle from house to apartment with something.
And everyone needs to know that Shannon dropped everything and came out to St. Louis two days after the surgery and stayed for two full weeks, took care of pix, took care of me so that I could spend my days at the hospital. And he took care of her apartment. You remember she did all these great things in the apartment.
Shannon:Oh, yeah. I switched the cabinet doors because the cabinet doors open the wrong way.
Janine:Right. They were crazy.
Shannon:So I fixed that.
Janine:And I would have just been annoyed by that. I wouldn't have thought about it. Being able to be changed. And not only did you think of that, you actually did the changing.
Shannon:It was amazing.
Janine:So now we just celebrated the one year anniversary of the transplant, and Barry's doing great. Yay. And I am able to, like, add this back in. Like, life is a lot more calm. I have more time to my pursue my things. Yeah. So my.
My hope for everybody is they have a friend like Shannon.
Shannon:You're amazing.
Janine:Thank you so much. I really don't know what I would have done without you.
Shannon:It was my pleasure. And. And it was. We have location sharing on our phones.
And so usually you would let me know when you were heading home, but when I would sort of keep an eye on things and when you're heading home, I would, you know, make sure that we had some dinner and a glass of wine.
Janine:It was amazing. I would walk into the apartment, and there would be the smell of food and a glass of wine just been poured, which.
old you one day I felt like a: Shannon:Husband.
Janine:And I really liked it.
Shannon:And you're like, everyone needs a wife.
Janine:Yeah. All those Hudsons back then had it. Had. Had it going on, that's for sure. Yeah.
So, yeah, it's been a tumultuous couple of years for me, but very all, you know, excellent outcomes. I love living in an apartment. I love having a healthy husband.
Shannon:Yeah, I know. Two very, very good things. It's all good. And it's. I have to say, it's an amazing apartment.
Janine:Yeah. It's pretty good. I want you to come see it when it's not in complete disarray. Like, when you were here.
Shannon:Yeah. When you, like, had moved in and then spent weeks at the hospital, so never got to, like, fully unpack until.
Janine:Right. I mean, I did have professional organizers helping me, of course.
Shannon:Right.
Janine:So we got. We made a lot of progress. It would still be. If I didn't.
Shannon:It was huge.
Janine:Still have boxes. Yeah. But it was in. Definitely in disarray. I don't think I was using my office, was I? Or maybe I was.
Shannon:When you were here, you had your office sort of set up, but, I mean, you didn't have time, like.
Janine:Well, yeah, that's true. I couldn't use my office. I had no time to be in it. Right. But it was sort of set up. Yeah.
Shannon:Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, so then when things sort of started to ease up and we were both feeling good about it, we realized we could just pick up where we were with getting to good enough.
Janine:Right.
Shannon:And do a little bit of a refresh and a 2.0 version.
Janine:Exactly. So we didn't get. I mean, we got to talk to each other once a week when we were podcasting.
Shannon:I know.
Janine:Even though we seen each other, we still see each other once a year, I think. There hasn't been. We've never seen each other.
Shannon:Yeah.
Janine:The idea. I really, really missed talking to you.
Shannon:Yeah.
Janine:And I hate talking on the phone, as you may know. So it's not like I was gonna pick up the phone and call you. And we would zoom occasionally, but this is. This is like mandatory talks.
Shannon:Right, right. And, you know, we're. We're happy to have people who want to hang out with us and listen to us chat.
Janine:I know, it's amazing there are such people, but we've had such nice feedback from folks when we met, announced that we were coming back.
Shannon:I know. It was so heartwarming to see all the comments from people who are so excited and saying that they missed us and how much they enjoyed it and stuff.
So that's all. That's great. So we're looking forward to spending time with each other and our listeners every week.
Janine:Yeah. And we'll still keep talking about basically whatever we want to talk about, which is what we did before through the lens of perfectionism. Right.
That's sort of what we're doing. Because perfectionism really is everywhere. Everything has a perfect. I mean.
Shannon:Oh, and like, before we started recording this episode, when we were trying to figure out our sound and we're trying to get all the settings just right, and we spent a fair amount of time doing that and then realized, this is good enough and we can move forward and.
Janine:Yeah, Yeah. I think we spent more time than we needed to trying to without any results. I know.
Shannon:So hopefully the sound quality that y' all are listening to is better than good enough, but at least good enough, right?
Janine:Yep. And there won't be any lawnmowers. You won't be able to hear any lawnmowers on my end because I live on the 35th floor now. So.
That was that lawnmower episode from early on in the.
Shannon:I think that was, like, episode two.
Janine:Or three or something right outside my window.
Shannon:We just kept going, like, whatever. It just is what it is. We can't do anything about it.
Janine:That's right. And then I told the lawn guy not to come when we. You know, that time that we were. At the time we recorded. Yeah. But now there's.
Where I live now there's no noise unless Barry starts making noise.
Shannon:Yeah. Well, you can just tell him to.
Janine:Right. I mean, he can control his. Yeah.
Shannon:His output.
Janine:That's right.
Shannon:That's right.
Janine:Yeah.
Shannon:Yeah. Well. And.
And, you know, it was sort of interesting getting restarted with the podcast, because part of the reason it was not fun anymore when we were doing it before was that the platform we were using was pretty tedious. It was a. Somehow it was both simple and tedious and annoying.
Janine:Right. It was, like, so devoid of features, making it simple. It was really annoying to use. Yeah. And then. But, you know, it's like, we didn't have.
Have it in us to sort of try to research new stuff and make a switch. And now, I mean, it's what, eight years? No, I can't do math. Seven years. Since we started the podcast originally, all the options are different.
Shannon:Yeah, they're all completely different. So we're using. So we had to, you know, sort of figure out where to go from here and really remind ourselves to let it be easy.
And I have to say this is probably going to be controversial with some people in our audience, but I have loved the fact that we have AI to help us now.
Janine:I know, I too, I agree with you. And I have been very hesitant to use AI prior to just a couple months ago. And it's definitely helped. I mean, there's. Because there's. We don't.
Excuse me, we didn't know what we didn't know.
Shannon:Right.
Janine:And AI helps us helped real fast to narrow down some options for us so that we could research easily, more easily the stuff that we might want to use.
Shannon:Right. Because. Yeah, I mean, right. You think about starting a podcast and there are so many options available to you. And I had no idea even where to begin.
So I asked my new friend ChatGPT and got some really good information that helped us move forward in a relatively simple way.
Janine:Didn't you find a podcast specific AI bot?
Shannon:Yeah, there's a. On ChatGPT, they have different GPTs. And I found one that was podcast specific. I believe it is called Podcast Pilot.
And so it's trained with all the latest information for podcasting and such. And so I used that and it was really, really helpful in getting started.
Janine:Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. Yeah. And then different AI tools have helped us figure out the setup and the social media and just how to go about relaunching.
Shannon:Right, right. And. And in a way that feels doable, sustainable, I will say the, the one drawback is being older, my memory is worse.
It feels harder to learn new things and it feels like this, this learning curve is going to take a little bit longer. So I'm being much more diligent about creating notes to, you know, take us step by step through the process.
And that often feels like an extra step that I shouldn't have to do, but it's so helpful.
Janine:Yeah. My memory is no better than yours. Probably worse. I am five years older than you and I so appreciate that you're writing everything down.
And the other benefit to that is, you know, when, if you have to, I mean, we haven't even figured out the division of labor. Yet with our tasks at the podcast. But we can.
We should be able to step in for each other if you need to, because everything is written down or will be written down.
Shannon:Right.
Janine:So that's.
Shannon:Which is. Yeah. Which is very different than last time, because if I ever had to do the part that you were responsible for, I had no idea.
I mean, you had noticed. I probably could have figured it out. But it.
Janine:It.
Shannon:I had no idea what you did, and I was so happy that you did that part.
Janine:That's exactly how I felt about what you did. But it really would be better if we could each do it in case. In a pinch, because things happen exactly.
Shannon:As we have found out. Yeah. So. And the other thing I think that we've really done is, you know, we've.
We've done some planning ahead, but we're really sort of taking it one step at a time. We're not, you know, trying to figure out the greater purpose of the podcast in the future. You know, we don't have some big goal we're aiming for.
We just want to do this under the same. I don't know, what would you call it? The same rule as we had before?
Janine:Understanding.
Shannon:No, that we'll do. Oh, yeah.
Janine:The same understanding that we.
Shannon:Yeah, right. That we'll continue to do it as long as it's fun.
And when it's not fun any longer, then it's time to wrap it up or figure out how to make it fun again.
Janine:Well, yeah, that's a good point. Right. I feel like the hiatus will help us make it fun. The new technology will help us make it less tedious.
Shannon:Right.
Janine:And I think it's going to be great. But, yeah, we can always step away. There's. There's such freedom in that. Right. It's not like it's a job.
Shannon:Yeah, right, exactly. We are doing this for fun, and we're doing it to. I mean, basically, we're doing it so that we have a date every week to chat.
Janine:Might be considered a little extreme. There may be other ways to have a date every week, but. No, it was so great before, and I'm sure it will be again.
And I missed the interaction that we had with listeners. Hopefully we'll have that again.
Shannon:I know. Yeah, I think that'll be really fun.
And the other thing that we've done is we've really given ourselves permission to not have to figure it all out now. I mean, certainly there are things that we have to do.
We have to know how we're going to record, edit where it's going to be hosted, all of those things. But we can always change our mind. We can do it differently. We can, you know, change how we structure the show. Like there's a structure at all.
Yeah, that is totally big finger quotes around that, but you know that.
So our expectations are simply that we have fun, that we share some ideas, some tips, some experiences, you know, whatever that people will find helpful.
Janine:Yeah, I remember how good it felt because we never knew what we were talking about before, before we started talking and in sometimes, maybe a lot of the time we would finish thinking, hey, wait, we actually, we gave some good information there. And it felt so good thinking, oh, somebody besides me is going to benefit from that.
Shannon:Right, Right.
Janine:Usually I felt like that was the case.
Shannon:Yeah.
Janine:The bar is pretty low. If all we want is the two of us plus one person to benefit from it, then we should be successful.
Shannon:And for really, for anything, I mean, anything that you're sort of putting out into the world, I think that's a totally reasonable bar.
Janine:Yeah.
Shannon:You know, like, it's so easy to get stuck on, you know, I have to. This has to reach a thousand people or 100,000 people or 10 people even, whatever it is.
But, but if it's just if it makes a difference, if we enjoy it and it makes a difference for one person, I call that good enough.
Janine:Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think we'll achieve that.
Shannon:I hope so.
Janine:Otherwise we're quitting.
Shannon:The end. That was a very short lived return to podcasting for us. Oh, man.
So I don't know, I, like, I think that this is just a sort of a good way of thinking about anything that you want to start over that you did and want to pick up again.
Janine:And.
Shannon:I noticed, like there's, you know, I'm a serial hobbyist. Like, I get really into something and then I drop it and I get really into something else and drop it and get really into something else. And it's.
Sometimes it's hard to go back to stuff because I feel like I'm not going to be able to do it as well as I want to or I won't remember how to do it or, you know, whatever perfectionistic things get in my head. And I think this is just a good reminder that it's just taking a small step, you know, just we don't have to have the whole thing figured out.
Janine:Yeah, we're free. We're lucky because we're free from feeling like we have to make it perfect because we have this great excuse not to be Perfect.
But truly, if you can get away from worrying that everything's going to be perfect, then it's so much easier to start or do anything. Or as you say, as we were talking about going back to something. Yeah.
Because when you've left something, if you start focusing on the reasons you left rather than what you miss, I think it can be harder to go back to it. But I feel like. I'm feeling like this is going to give me a reference point down the road for other things as well. I don't know.
It feels big to leave something and then come back to it.
Shannon:Yeah.
Janine:I'm really, really excited by it.
Shannon:And I guess that people could.
I mean, you could have the sense maybe not, I don't know, that I felt this way with the podcast, but that if you end something or quit something, that it's. That maybe there's a bit of a feeling of failure in there. And that going. That makes going back to it harder.
Janine:Like you're walk. Going back with your tail between your legs.
Shannon:Right. Instead of. Yeah. Did that make sense?
Janine:I mean, when I said that, I thought. Did that make sense? And I knew what I meant.
Shannon:Yeah. Like. Well, you know, like a little sheepish. Like, oh, I didn't really mean to quit.
And I'm back and I hope that wasn't a problem, that I've been gone for two years. Yeah. And I.
You know, it's funny, that didn't really occur to me in this case with the podcast at all, but that comes up with a lot of other things, like I was talking about with my hobbies. Like, I've been really wanting to. One, one of the hobbies I took up during the hiatus was wooden spoon carving.
Janine:Who doesn't do that, really?
Shannon:I know. I mean.
Janine:Yeah.
Shannon:It was so random. This is really fun. And I did several spoons, and then it's. You have to get certain kinds of wood, and it's a whole thing.
And then I didn't get wood, and now I have some wood sitting in my freezer because you have to not lose the moisture because it's green wood carving, and I have yet to pull any out and carve again. And it feels like, I don't know, like somehow I failed by not continuing to do it. Like, I should have just kept doing it this whole time.
Janine:But you have wood waiting for you in the freezer, so you can't let that feeling stop you from getting back to it.
Shannon:No.
Janine:Right. Yeah.
Shannon:Right. Yeah.
Janine:It's gonna be great.
Shannon:So. Yeah. Maybe by the time this episode Airs. I will have a new spoon to share.
Janine:Oh, and maybe we could share a picture of it on social media around the time this episode airs. If that's the case. No pressure.
Shannon:This feels like a challenge, which, you know is like, ooh, pressure. But also, I'm always down for a challenge.
Janine:I was gonna say you love a challenge.
Shannon:I do love a challenge.
Janine:Yeah. Oh, that's excellent. I want to see your spoon. I'm excited by your. The notion of your spoon.
Shannon:Of seeing. Seeing a new spoon.
Janine:Seeing a new spoon.
Shannon:You haven't seen any of my spoons in real life, have you?
Janine:I don't think so. I haven't been to your house since October of 23. Were there spoons?
Shannon:No, the spoons. The spoon making happened in March of 24, so you wouldn't have seen them.
Janine:So I've just heard about them. I think I've seen a picture, probably.
Shannon:Well, all right. Throwing down the gauntlet. I will have a new spoon to share by the time we air this episode.
Janine:Excellent. This is one of those benefits to the podcast I'd forgotten about.
Shannon:I know.
Janine:Yeah. That public accountability.
Shannon:Right.
Janine:Excellent.
Shannon:I know. Not like anyone is ever gonna say anything. Like, it's not like someone's gonna march up to me and be like, you said you were gonna have a spoon.
Where's your spoon?
Janine:I don't know.
Shannon:Maybe they were.
Janine:Frankly, I could say that to you.
Shannon:Yeah.
Janine:Yeah. Excellent. Well, good. Now we have an image for social media. Yay.
Shannon:Yeah. Well, we don't have it yet, but we will have it.
Janine:We will.
Shannon:All right. Well, I am just happy to be here again. I'm so happy to, like, get back into this rhythm of recording each week and releasing new episodes each week.
And now I'll have the video and everything. That'll be really fun. And we get to see how much I talk with my hands.
Janine:Right. Everyone will find out that you're a hand talker.
Shannon:I am a hand talker, and I've been trying to, like, hold my hands in front of me, like, clasped together, so I. They're not waving around and, like, doing.
Janine:Stuff, but it's authentic for them to wave around. I see nothing wrong with it.
Shannon:Yeah.
So we are really excited to be back with you, our listeners, and we hope that if you enjoy the podcast, that you will leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice.
Janine:That's right. Because Apple archived us, we have no reviews on Apple podcasts anymore. Correct?
Shannon:Right. That is correct.
Janine:So we need your reviews.
Shannon:Yeah. So help us.
It really makes a difference the more reviews and ratings, particularly if you like us and give us five stars, the more likely that other people will hear about us. And that's always good. The more the merrier.
Janine:That's right. And we're planning to be a little more active on social media.
We can't do comments on our new platform's website, so it used to be we could interact with y' all through comments on the website. That. That's not possible anymore. But we'll be on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube.
Shannon:Yes. Yes. So, yeah, you'll always. You'll be able to find the video version of the podcast on YouTube and you can subscribe there, comment there.
And then of course, we'll be updating Instagram and Facebook with new episodes and maybe a little behind the scenes stuff. I don't know. It's like so much more fun now.
Janine:Well, good. Yay. And you can comment there too. So we'll be obviously keeping an eye on it. So we'd love to interact with you. And now how to wrap this up? Do we.
Shannon:No, because this is all different than it was before.
Janine:Feels like we could wrap it up, though.
Shannon:I think so. And as I recall, we would say that we hope that Good Enough is getting easier for you.
Janine:For you.
Shannon:Yes. Thanks for joining us on Getting to Good Enough. We hope you heard something that makes your life just a little bit easier.
If you did, leave us a review or share this with someone who's looking for their own version of Good Enough.
Janine:Thanks for listening. See you soon.