A Year of No Permission Necessary | The Lessons We Didn’t Expect
Episode 38 with Jill Griffin & Molly Bierman
In this episode of No Permission Necessary, Jill and Molly reflect on the first year of the podcast and the journey that started with a simple idea and a willingness to figure things out along the way.
They look back on what it meant to start something new without having all the answers. From choosing the name and learning how to record conversations to navigating feedback and growing more comfortable sharing their voices publicly, the process has pushed them into unfamiliar territory in ways that ultimately created growth and connection.
Throughout the conversation, they explore what it means to stay open to learning, to receive feedback even when it’s uncomfortable, and to recognize the ripple effect that honest conversations can have on others. What began as an experiment has become a meaningful space for reflection, vulnerability, and impact.
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Jill Griffin (00:00)
Relax, we're not doing anything crazy.
This episode is going to be airing on my birthday. So we're going to take a walk down memory lane.
Molly Bierman (00:10)
that's good. I like this.
Jill Griffin (00:11)
of last year when I came down to visit you in Maryland. And really, really we started this journey of no permission, no permission necessary was born a year ago. Really. No, I wouldn't say on my birthday exactly, but.
Molly Bierman (00:16)
yeah, yeah. Yeah.
On your birthday?
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Griffin (00:29)
In March,
we started, we like actually put the idea into action.
Molly Bierman (00:35)
We did.
You know, I was actually thinking about this a couple of weeks ago when you talked about this podcast and, you know, thinking about what it was like even curating what the podcast was going to be. And everybody had so many questions and they had their opinions about the name and what the content was and who we were going to interview. And I think my biggest takeaway has been
We kind of just winged it. Like there was planning, okay? There was planning.
Jill Griffin (01:03)
But it's not like
us. It's not like us to do that.
Molly Bierman (01:06)
And if it weren't for you, honestly, we would, and who knows where we would be on any given record day. Okay. Because I feel like there was this, I think what needed to happen was we needed to have the experience. We needed to suss out what we felt comfortable talking about, what we did and what landed, what didn't. And it's still a ever breathing organism. Like it's still moving and grooving and
changing and I really think that this year has been us getting familiar in unfamiliar territory, getting comfortable in the discomfort and getting clear on how we speak the English language.
Jill Griffin (01:46)
I I'll keep it real though, how I speak the English language here is much different than maybe in other places, right?
Molly Bierman (01:54)
But just simple articulation, being able to draw back what words we say repetitively, it's been a journey. And you really do have to critique yourself and say, and listen to it back. How many people, this is for my 12 step people, right? How many people in support groups have been either recorded or have heard a speaker tape of yourself or someone else?
Jill Griffin (01:57)
It's been...
and listen to it.
Molly Bierman (02:18)
And what happens is that you have this anxiety about listening to yourself. I remember people saying like, did you listen to your speaker tape? I'm like, no, that sounds horrible. Why would I listen to myself speak? But what really needed to happen was I needed to understand where my blind spots were and where my gaps were. And so that was a big part of the podcast process. Just simply knowing how to articulate myself in a way that made sense.
Jill Griffin (02:39)
Well...
I mean, if you're not in the 12 step community, just listening to a voicemail that you have left can be completely cringe worthy. I mean, just listening to yourself in general, it's like, there's something about hearing your voice that is just, I will say though, I don't know. I think it's something about like we hear it differently as we're speaking. So then when we hear it outside of ourselves played back, do think it, ⁓
Molly Bierman (02:50)
Totally. Totally.
Why is that though?
Mm-hmm.
Jill Griffin (03:08)
It sounds different. I could just remember us though, all throwing like the names out there. choosing a name was hard, but I am glad there was one name about something unbothered. And I will tell you, I will tell you this year has shown me I am bothered about a lot of things actually. So that name would not have gone well.
Molly Bierman (03:10)
Yeah.
I'm bothered.
What was it? It was something unbothered. It was... I'd have to go back in the archives to find it.
Jill Griffin (03:38)
I don't know, but we have.
Molly Bierman (03:38)
And it was on our
way to see.
Jill Griffin (03:42)
Sebastian Maniscalco.
Molly Bierman (03:43)
Yes! Who, if no one has seen him live, Jill really got us turned on to him and listening to him and seeing his comedy shows just on TV.
But seeing him live was so hilarious. And that was when we started, that's when we started looking at the names, was that weekend. Yeah.
Jill Griffin (03:58)
He was hilarious.
Yeah.
I also think that it's been really good for both of us. And granted, you've kind of had double this because you also started, yes, around the same time. So I feel like you've done double duty of things that have maybe been uncomfortable, but even that is more comfortable than this. for us, the podcast has been, has really forced us to get uncomfortable in like,
Molly Bierman (04:14)
Mm.
Jill Griffin (04:28)
in not knowing how to do something, which I'll be honest with my, haven't been there. Like, yeah, little things here or there, but this was on a bigger scale. This, this felt.
Molly Bierman (04:36)
Well, that goes back to
being the master of your art and having to step into something that's new is highly uncomfortable. mean, was really, talk about the best comparison I have of that outside of the podcast was having children, right? Getting pregnant, the powerlessness over being pregnant, what happens to your body, what happens with your child, their growth, all the things. And...
Jill Griffin (04:50)
Yeah.
Molly Bierman (05:00)
When we started the podcast, it was a similar experience. It was like, I'm powerless over what happens here. The only thing I have control over is my own actions to be able to put out things that I think are relatable, that are exciting, that are comical at times, that are vulnerable at times. And whether or not it takes or doesn't, the idea is that we stepped into a process that felt uncomfortable and growth worthy for us.
It wasn't necessarily the listeners. And I think in the beginning that was really hard because in the beginning you're like, okay, are people listening to it? Do people like it? Do people not like it? And now this opportunity that has really come out of it and been born out of the process is this is my ability to turn off the grind. This has just been my experience and this wasn't what I thought would come out of it.
I turn off the grind, I'm present, I'm not on technology. I'm literally, you know, I'm on technology in terms of just being able to do this over a video, but I'm fully present for honest, raw conversations with people I may or may not know. And that in and of itself has really created other moments of connection like that in my life outside of the podcast.
Jill Griffin (06:12)
Yeah, for me, it's evolved into something that, one, I didn't know I was gonna like it as much as I do. I was like, all right, we're gonna do this thing and maybe we'll monetize it, maybe people will like us, maybe, like, we didn't really have an end goal. It was like, this is just where we've been led, the podcast keeps coming up, we're gonna make the podcast, we put the structure around it. And yeah, some weeks are messy. Today?
Molly Bierman (06:23)
and maybe we'll make it.
Jill Griffin (06:40)
We're just winging it. And honestly, I think we do best with that sometimes because we're not overly prepared and it's just real raw what's going on. Some, in some weeks we feel stressed probably over it because our schedules are just tight, but it does allow us to know this is a commitment we've made. We're both really good at keeping the commitment to something. We made this commitment. This is where we are. We've held each other accountable and it is really nice at the end of the week.
to just reflect. And honestly, what's come of it for me is how many people, we don't know who's listening. Just so you all know, like, unless you tell us or you send us a review or you text us or email us or get in touch with us somehow, we don't know who's listening or what impact we are having. It has been so nice to hear the impact that we've had on people.
Molly Bierman (07:15)
Right.
Jill Griffin (07:31)
and their businesses, their ability to try something different, to implement something in their business, to, you know, take the leap doing something. It's been really cool. And I think impact has been a word that's been on my mind for a while now in terms of, we talk about legacy, impact, if you're not here, if you're not here any longer, right? I mean, this happens in the recovery space a lot where
Molly Bierman (07:50)
The ripple effect.
Jill Griffin (07:56)
somebody's either heard me speak or they've known me from years ago and they loop back around and, I remember you saying this thing and I don't remember saying it, it sticks with somebody else. And I think this is just another way to have impact on a larger scale than we're able to in the forums we currently have ability to have impact on.
Molly Bierman (08:17)
Yeah, and thinking about legacy is something that I was just talking to my mom's visiting and we were just talking about legacy and she was talking about age discrepancy and how when she started having children, she was much younger than me, therefore my grandmother was younger as we grew older, et cetera, et cetera. And she was just talking about how she has...
like this immense sadness because there's a potential like she won't be there for my kids weddings and things of that nature, you know, because of the age difference, right? Kids are being born later in life. And I was sitting there thinking about the relationships that are built based on what you have available at this present time and how...
when you start to get a bit older, you do start to kind of say like, where is my footprint? Where am I creating helpful impact?
sustainable family dynamics, sustainable.
like a sustainable grounding source of energy, I don't know if that makes sense. And so that has really been what the podcast has also offered me is to reflect back and be quiet in those moments and say, oh my God, that's a real thing, right? That there are some of these fears that people walk around with and especially as women, right? Predominantly our listener base is women and predominantly the people that we interview are women.
So when my mom's sitting there telling me like, these are some of the things she's thinking about, even those conversations helped me to say, okay, do other women think about that? Probably. Do other, you know, grandparents grapple with that? Likely. What has it looked like to go from all these different transitions? Because my mom just recently retired. So going from being a stay at home mom, then going into a working career.
than going into retirement, right? Like watching all these shifts take place. And so a lot of what we've been able to experience on the podcast is women and men, but have really talked about what these transitions look like in life. And really what that's offering us is the ability to...
Be as prepared, be more prepared, be more aware, be more knowledgeable. I don't know. So it just felt like very full circle when my mom was showing that this morning on our way to get coffee.
Jill Griffin (10:31)
Well, you know what just came up when
Well, when you just said that, I thought of it just allows us to not feel alone. I mean, we have been doing some work together with various clients. And I think a lot of the message is providing hope to people that you're not alone. You're not the only one that's felt this way. This is how we got through it when we felt that way. I mean, I think alone is a lie. And a lot of times the fears that we have and
the shame that we carry are because we feel that we are the only ones that's ever experienced this thing. It could be, you know, staff leaving your business. could be children screaming in the background in inappropriate places.
Molly Bierman (11:08)
Right.
Did you just hear Madden? She has a screech like, tomorrow, okay? So everyone just heard that.
Jill Griffin (11:21)
That's only gonna get worse.
That's only gonna get worse as she gets older.
Molly Bierman (11:25)
I am like, whoa, how does that little voice come out of that little body? So cute.
Jill Griffin (11:30)
Ultimately, allowing people to hear, and that's where social media and podcasting and all these various ways that we can consume information can be useful. It can be a really positive thing if it's used in the right way of people saying, okay, I'm listening to other people's stories and experiences and realizing not in comparison, but I am
Molly Bierman (11:41)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Griffin (11:54)
recognizing that I actually have a lot of things that are the same and I feel the same way. and so it's like learning from other people's experiences. That's why I love reading autobiographies. I love learning more about other people's lives because you look at really successful people, at least I do. love, and you're like, ⁓ their, their life's not like that different than mine. They had struggled. They had things they had to overcome. I think sometimes we get into this mindset of
Molly Bierman (12:00)
Right.
Jill Griffin (12:22)
were so different, like no wonder we could never be like them. When really, there's like a sense of a level playing field, I think, when we put all our stuff out on the table and we can be honest about it.
Molly Bierman (12:34)
So if there was one way that you felt like we could be more impactful on the podcast, and obviously this is an opportunity for listeners to comment and send in their thoughts, but when you reflect on the podcast, where's one area where we feel like we could be more impactful?
Jill Griffin (12:51)
I think we started to do this transition a little bit more where just dialing down some more bite-sized pieces of like tangible takeaways that can be implemented in people's lives. You know, we have started recording shorter episodes that, you know, if you think about a working parent or a busy entrepreneur, like 10, 20 minutes is you get, have those spaces of time. So I think.
drilling it down to, this is where we struggled, this was the solution, this is how we put it into place. I think being a little bit more directed in that way is good for us, but it's also good for the listener because our interviews are long, it's more of, again, learning more about people's stories and experience, but we do have those moments where it could just be a bite-size.
Molly Bierman (13:26)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Griffin (13:38)
I listen to a podcast sometimes and it's six minutes in and I'm like, that's all I needed to hear today. Like sometimes I have to stop it there. It's like, nope, that's the message I needed and I need to go with that for today.
Molly Bierman (13:43)
Right.
Well, I think that's also impactful for people who are listening because if you're anything like me, I feel like I have to do things to completion. Okay, so this is why the podcast has worked well because once we spoke it into existence, there was, it was not even, there was no even thought like, I could not go through with this. I don't have that. It just doesn't exist in my brain. And so.
Jill Griffin (14:12)
Now we must,
we must proceed now. We are now doing this thing. Our husbands were like, ⁓ God, they're definitely doing it now.
Molly Bierman (14:21)
Right, exactly,
because I can't. It's like once it's written, it's written, you know? So even when you think about how I schedule things, the consistency, yes, I'm historically a few minutes late for every recording day, but I'm still here. Okay? And so one of the ways I've really figured out how to,
pause and take away whatever's in front of me is similar to that with a podcast, like listening only to the first 20 minutes. I like, okay, I'm gonna pick it up back up later, or that's, you know, that was enough for me and I can move on. And I think a lot of people who they don't really know, they think they need to listen to podcasts in the right way. Like I can't tell you how many people that I've come across that are like, I never listened to podcasts and then I started listening to yours. And I think not because we're anything special, but more so because they wanted to support me.
Jill Griffin (15:05)
We are.
Molly Bierman (15:06)
Because they wanted
Jill Griffin (15:07)
We are.
Molly Bierman (15:08)
to support us and be like, yeah, we're listening to your podcast and they knew I was gonna ask follow-up questions to the episodes. But through that process, they have said, you know, yes, it's like tangible bite-sized pieces and we can work with it and you know, helps us and you know, motivates us, whatever. But I think one of the ways that I would like the podcast to evolve, there's a lot of things that I want to manifest with the podcast and some of those things we talk about offline, but
Jill Griffin (15:31)
Same.
Molly Bierman (15:33)
Some of things that I feel like I feel comfortable putting out right now would just be maybe sharing a little bit more intimately about some of the face down moments. I think that it's easy to talk about a little bit more at surface level, especially when it's in the rear view from years and years prior. But I think there are ways that we can bring a little bit more vulnerability to the surface. And so I feel like I feel confident that that can take place and it can be more relatable for people.
Jill Griffin (15:59)
This is Molly.
This is Molly speaking after integration after an intensive. So she just feels really more, she's spiritually fit right now. She's really feeling solid in saying that. So we'll bring up this recording at a future date when I ask her to be vulnerable when we're recording live. but yes, I agree. I, are, we are definitely, I almost feel like it's just the beginning.
Molly Bierman (16:04)
Yeah, I just got back from my intensive. Cheers.
Jill Griffin (16:24)
this. That's just how I feel. We're like a year in, we figured out how to kind of do this. I wouldn't even say I'm confident or competent in podcasting, but we know some things at this point.
Molly Bierman (16:25)
Totally.
I'm not sure Jill even has a mic right now.
Jill Griffin (16:38)
I don't have a mic right now. I broke my mic. So I have a mic, but it's broken. Don't ask how. I actually do know how. I'm not gonna say it, but it's broken is the bottom line. It doesn't matter how. So have I ordered a new one? I have not, and we're still thriving.
Molly Bierman (16:56)
No, you
sound great, honestly.
Jill Griffin (16:59)
I think it's okay. I might even sound better on these, on my AirPods, which, by the way, shout out to Logan airport because I certainly did leave these AirPods in the Logan airport prior to going on vacation. And by some sort of miracle, they got shipped back to me. So
Molly Bierman (17:03)
Be a light.
That
is a true miracle, honestly.
Jill Griffin (17:21)
I mean, it is par for the course that I left them behind. As soon as I got up in the air on that plane, go, well, left those behind. Yep, those are long gone. But as soon as we landed, I checked my find-by. I'm like, you gotta be shitting me. They're still in the airport. We are, I'm definitely getting these back now. I had faith then, my faith was restored. And I did, I got them back. Had to fill out a form.
Molly Bierman (17:45)
You did.
But they had been returned. Thank you.
Jill Griffin (17:50)
Which honestly,
for my ADHD and my forgetfulness and I love to lose things or leave things behind, it's really not good reinforcement. It's probably a negative reinforcement. Like, I'll get it back, you know? I don't really need to pay that much attention. It always comes back. And if it's not, it wasn't meant for me, honestly. But just to wrap this little episode up, I was going to say.
Molly Bierman (18:07)
It always comes back.
Jill Griffin (18:17)
that those little bite-sized pieces and those takeaways, you really have to have an open mind. And I think this whole process, we have been open-minded to fail, to not know what we're doing, to ask for help, to listen to other people's direction, even when it's hard to hear about, you know, I know we've had some feedback from listeners and friends and family members like, hey, I don't like this, you sounded weird here, whatever.
the things that we repeat over and over. It's just uncomfortable to hear that feedback. But I will say that some of the most profound, even like things that people have said to me have been strangers in a grocery store or people that I've never seen again, or that one person, you know, in a meeting or whatever. It's just, I don't need to, sometimes those profound moments,
Molly Bierman (18:43)
Yeah.
Jill Griffin (19:06)
They only occur if we're open minded enough to receive it. And, you know, that's to me what happens sometimes when I turn on and listen to people from all different backgrounds that don't even have to do anything with me.
Molly Bierman (19:17)
So I'm thinking about what would be useful for people for a permission slip. And I would say that what felt very aligned with what you just shared was permission to make a positive ripple, to make a positive change, to put some good fricking news into the world, guys. Okay? So permission.
Jill Griffin (19:37)
Yeah, we all
need that.
Molly Bierman (19:39)
Permission to sprinkle some kindness, permission to just make an impact. Let's start making some positive impacts out here, okay? The world needs it. We need you.
Jill Griffin (19:48)
And you can start
today by leaving us a repository of review on Spotify, Apple, YouTube. Leave us a comment, give us a shout out, share our page. It is really helpful to us if you do that and we will see you next time.
Molly Bierman (19:51)
That was good.
Bye.
