Episode: Being Is the New Doing — Loving the Journey, Episode 5

Blog: www.donnakunde.com/blog/valerie-demont

Podcast Link: https://pod.co/loving-the-journey-with-donna-kunde/valrie-demont-being-is-the-new-doing-how-to-stop-performing-and-start-podcasting-as-yourself

YouTube Link:https://youtu.be/0YjuzJs9R1E?si=8p-jHBDUOx3bkWaM

Valérie remembers two in particular.

The first: a famous hockey player, a dead recorder battery, and an entire hour of conversation that vanished. The second: a CEO who had been on every TV show in Switzerland, sitting in a building full of renovation noise, who treated her like she was lucky to be in the room.

Neither interview ever aired. And both, she realized in hindsight, were the universe turning down the volume on something that was not aligned.

Valérie calls these physical signals her guidance system. The goosebumps meant yes. The contracted stomach, the wrong smell, the restlessness in the room -- those meant something else. And she learned, over eight years, to trust what her body was telling her before her mind caught up.

She stopped trying to perform for rooms that did not recognize her. She started treating interviews like coffee with a friend. She moved from structured questions to spontaneous conversation. And eventually, she stopped doing interviews altogether, switching to solo content because that is what felt true.

None of that was failure. All of it was becoming.

What Valérie said near the end of our conversation is something I want every podcaster reading this to sit with.

"The more AI enhances, the more we should raise and develop and show our humanity."

Your voice is not a liability in this moment. It is the asset. The specific way you see your field, the framework only you could have built from the experiences only you have had -- that is the thing no system can replicate. That is the thing that builds real trust.

If you are in a season of wondering whether your podcast is still the right shape, or whether the format you started with still fits who you are, this episode is for you.

You are allowed to pivot. You are allowed to pause. You are allowed to stop doing interviews and just talk. It is your podcast.

Valérie has done all of these things. Not because she could not commit, but because she was paying attention. The evolution is not a detour from your work. It is your work.

Listen to Loving the Journey wherever you get your podcasts, and connect with Valérie at her website.