WOW! A YEAR OF PODCASTING!

As your host, Nick Koopalethes, I couldn't help but feel a wash of nostalgia as I hit the record button for our 24th episode—a celebratory marker of a whole year spent with you, our cherished listeners. This episode is all about reflection, gratitude, and looking forward to what's yet to unfold. I take a moment to let you in on the behind-the-scenes of this podcast journey. We've learned and grown together, and I'm brimming with appreciation for the support that has made this conversation between us possible. It's been a path of discovery, from mastering the art of podcasting to embracing the raw, unfiltered experiences I've had the privilege to share with you. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

the Coupelita's podcast. Welcome to the Coupelita's podcast. I am Nick Coupelita, your host, and this is episode number 24. That's right, 24. It feels like it was just yesterday that I began this podcast, trying to figure out a good rhythm, a good way of podcasting, of connecting with you, of sharing a little bit of my life with you, and that was actually a year ago. So we've been doing this for 12, 13 months now, 24 episodes, which is, honestly, I it was amazing, it's amazing, but this would not be possible without you. So I just first want to say thank you so much for listening and for commenting and for all of you have come up to me and said thank you for the podcast, or I've really enjoyed it. Just thank you. You know, I honestly I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and I feel, like you know, I feel like it's been a huge learning process in terms of podcasting, in terms of being consistent and really what it takes, and so I was really heavy earlier in the year on podcast, and then I thinned out on podcasts the last three or four months, and so I'm learning here, but we're learning together and as we come to the end of 2023, and you say hey, nick, I've really enjoyed this podcast. I like it to continue to go. Hey, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at kupelethisatgmailcom and I will get that email about the podcast. Also, if you want to help support this podcast, you can give a tax-deductible donation at living-fireorg. That is actually my wife, jackie and I's personal ministry, living Fire International, and this is an offshoot of that. And so if you want to help fund this podcast and it does it takes at least a few hundred dollars a year to be able to do this. But if you want to be a part of that, that would be great. But mostly, I just want to thank you for your faithfulness and listening, your encouragement, and I'm excited. I'm going to keep podcasting. I'm going to talk about this towards the end of the show today, but we're going to keep going on. We're going to keep experiencing life together. We're going to keep curiosity as the spice of life and we are going to learn and grow together over this podcast. And I'm excited for 2024 and where we're going. But guess what? We get to go together. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your support, thank you for your encouragement. And now let's get into the podcast. All right, on this podcast, I want to take a little bit of time and I want to answer three questions, three questions for you, which I'll tell you them in a moment, but I just want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope you're having a great time right now.

Speaker 1: 3:10

We had a great Christmas as the Coupa Lethis family. Great Christmas, I'll tell you what. Also my church family at the Victory House, we had a great Christmas Eve service. It was Sunday morning. The way the calendar fell this year. We were able to have our Christmas Eve service Sunday morning. And just a special service because so many wonderful and special people pour into that service and make it possible and make it awesome and it glorifies the Lord. And I'll tell you what I love our church, but I love this Christmas season, so we've been able to just be low key at our house enjoying life.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Our Christmas morning usually goes like hey, we wake up around. Actually, we come down to the tree at 830 this year that's, I think we usually do that. But as the girls have gotten older, we're like, hey, let's sleep in a little bit. So it's like 830, we come down, put music on, we hang out around the Christmas tree opening gifts, we have breakfast together. It was an awesome time. I hope you had a great time.

Speaker 1: 4:15

I know that holidays can be hard for many different reasons, but I do. I really hope that you had a wonderful time and I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve. You say why? Because my wife and I we are so lucky on New Year's Eve and I think we've done that really over the course of this church that we started 13 years ago. We just needed a moment to take a deep breath and so we don't do anything, really maybe what you would call exciting. We don't go out, we don't. We just have a low key, low key. Am I getting old? I think I might be getting old, because low key sounds enjoyable. And I'm not talking about low key from MCU. I'm talking about low key like just chill. You know, just chill, and we like just chill. So that's what I'm looking forward to in a couple of days, but I definitely wanted to get into the studio and do this podcast for you and finish out this year.

Speaker 1: 5:12

So I want three questions. I really want to jump into three questions and maybe these have impact on you, and I'm always hoping that, with this podcast, that it encourages you to grow, because Dr Henry Cloud said this. He said growth is actually contagious. So if you want to reach your goals, you've got to get around people who are going in the same direction. You want to be going and you will catch the success. You will catch the success why? Because growth is contagious. And listen, I want to be somebody that grows, and growth is not the point right, like in transition, transition you're getting from point A to point B. Growth is the transition from one version of you to the next version of you, and so I hope that you are encouraged this year to grow.

Speaker 1: 6:02

But that actually brings me to my first question of what did I learn in 2023? What did I learn? What did Nick Coopley just learn in 2023? Well, probably a bunch of things, but the one thing I want to share with you is this quote from me. I guess you can't quote yourself. It's a podcast. Obviously it's me talking, but this is the phrase that I've learned this year Consistency in the right things equals growth. Consistency in the right things equals growth. Let's break it down, okay. First of all, consistency. You know what consistency is? It's repetition, repetition, repeating right, that's what a discipline is, is that you're repeating something over and over, and over and over again. And that's what it is to be a disciple of Jesus. Right, you are in a place of consistently repeating over and over again, practicing your faith in Christ, and that is being a disciple, because you're disciplined in the teachings of Christ. And so consistency, consistency is so important. Earlier this year actually the end of last year somewhere, jackie and I were having a conversation and she knows I've been on this journey of trying to be the best version that God has created me to be. I want to be the best husband I can be, the best dad I can be. I want to be everything that God has called me to be. And she really challenged me last year to be consistent in my pursuit of these things, to be consistent, and that she wanted to see consistency. And you say, well, you know that's hard. No, it's not hard, it's wonderful, it's a wonderful challenge. And I found that in consistency ready, in repetition of the right things. But in repetition you then build your reputation. You catch that for a second. Your repetition will then be your reputation, how you're known. Right, I say I want to be a great husband, that means my wife holds my reputation right. My wife is the one that receives, I should say, my reputation as a husband. If I want to be a great dad, then my reputation among my kids is important. If I want to be a great pastor, then my reputation among the church is important. If I want to be a great friend, then my reputation among those that I call friends is important. And that reputation comes from repetition repetition of the right things, not repetition of the wrong things. Oh, you have an incredible ability to observe the obvious. Yes, it's repetition, it's consistency in the right things, and so this year I've really tried to be consistent in the right things. Let me also break down the right things for you, because I think, especially if you're at the beginning of your journey or you're at some maybe critical crossroads, we think I want to do as many right things that I can. I want to, I want to pursue so many right things. I want to just any characteristic, any, any, any purpose I can find that seems right. I want to pursue it. And what happens is is that when we sometimes I'm not saying all the time, but when we go for a quantity of right things, we miss out on the quality of right things, and what I found is that when there's certain areas that you've been able to grow in and Really produce a quality of character and person, is that that will overflow into other areas you want to see grow and become mature. So don't make a mistake of going. I have 15 right things to work on, so I'm working on all these right things. Well, you might be working on 15 right things and not doing it. Well, not even really doing it. Average, you're just checking it off. That's a hard thing, you know. If I'm, if I'm working on so many things that I can't even do one thing, well then I need to scale back the quality of the quantity. Until I go, you know what? I can work on one to maybe three things, and I can get quant quality out of those one, two or three things. And again, I told you, I think the secret to that is that when you have a few areas in your life that become quality, it overflows into other areas of your life. So here's the thing. Right, the thing is, or what I've learned, I should say, is that consistency in the right things equals growth, and I feel like that growth. For me and I have a long way to go my, my, my ultimate goal is not perfection, it's maturity, and I do have a long way to go. But what I found was there were certain moments this year when I felt like, as a man, I matured. I felt like it was like Areas, even at 43 years old, that I've struggled it. It's like all of a sudden, I found my roar and I, what I found about the roar wasn't something I had to prove, something to prove I don't know why it came out that way something I have to prove or something I have to like, like show people just to. You know, you know people, please, and have their stamp of approval. Actually, I found that the roar was an inner, quiet Confidence. Biblically, we would say, it was a meekness, a power under control, and when I began to taste of the glory, when I began to taste of that, of that quiet Resolve, I Was like this is good, this is addictive. I want more of this and and I'll tell you what so Consistency in the right things this year has equal growth had, is equal to a maturity things I'm still working on. So if you said, nick, what is something that you've learned in 2023, that's what it would be. It would be consistency or or repetition in the right things. Quantity, not quality, equals healthy growth. Consistency in the right things equals healthy growth. That's number one. The second question and this is what I'm thinking about and, honestly, I'm still processing the second question. But the second question is, which I said, is what am I thinking about right now? What am I pondering Is what do I need to do to take the next step? I don't mean the next 15 steps, but what do I need to do to take the next step as a husband, as a dad, as a person, as a human being, as a pastor, whatever that is, and I'm big on thinking about all of these areas. But what do I need to do to take the next step? Because here's something If I don't take any steps, nothing will change, and the truth is, the things that you're maintaining in your life, that you're not intentionally pursuing, is that you are going to find yourself in a decline in those areas you can't maintain for a long period of time. This is even in companies, right, like if they're maintaining their quota and they're not going up or down. Sooner or later, they're going to have to make some huge decisions, because history would say that company is their profits ultimately will end up beginning to decline Morale and the company will decline. And so you have to now find this place where it's called revisioning, where you take another step. So there's an incline, not just a decline. There's a growth upward, not a downward spiral, and so this is what I'm at, like, what do I need to do to take another step? Yeah, I've come a long way in 2023. The Lord's not done with me and I'm not giving up. So what do I need to do? What's the next step? What's the next step? To be a better husband, to be a better dad, to be a better follower of Jesus. You say, nick, you work a lot on this and you're a great dad, you're a great husband, you're a great follower of Jesus. Listen, once you think that you're successful, that's where you become lazy and that's where you go I don't need anybody where you become unteachable, and if you're unteachable, then nobody can help you. You get stuck in a spot and I just feel like I want to continue an upward growth, because here's the thing I said that repetition equals your reputation. Well, your reputation is your legacy. Your reputation is your legacy, and I want my legacy to be that some, that my kids, whoever they say dad, nick, whatever, he kept pursuing Jesus in such a way that he just wanted to grow, because the healthier version of me that I am before God is that the more the gospel goes out, the more people go wow, god, that's it right. That's the point of this. The point of this is not to say, wow, nick, wow, what a great human being. No, the point of it and maybe I've missed this, maybe I haven't talked about it enough the point of all of this is that people go. Yeah, we were with Nick, but when we were with Nick, we felt like. We felt like, ultimately, that we were with the Lord. Wow, actually, I'm processing this with you. I'm going to keep it in there. Wow, that's an amazing thing to think about. That just hit me as I'm talking. When I'm with people, do I leave a reputation or an imprint of the Lord, or do I leave an imprint of myself? When people walk away, do they say, what a great guy, or do they say, yeah, what a great God. Wow, see, I want to grow. I want to grow. So this is what I'm thinking about. What are the next steps? What are the next steps? So, what did I learn in 2023? Consistency in the right things brings healthy growth. What am I thinking about now? What's the next steps? And now, because of this podcast, I'm thinking when people walk away, do they feel like they've been with the Lord? Wow, there's so many dynamics I could think about there. That is definitely something I'm going to process. And the last thing I want to talk about today is where are we going with this podcast? Where are we going with this podcast? So I started out of the gate last year and this podcast, for me, is kind of cathartic, quite honestly. I like a kind of this area where I can talk about whatever I feel like talking about, and I've needed this, but ultimately, I want people to be drawn to the gospel, drawn to Jesus. I feel like there's some things going on in me right now that God wants me to unleash in terms of passion and pursuit. So my goal for this coming year because I'm going to continue on with the podcast at the beginning I didn't know if I would do more than a year my goal for this is to have passion for life, for Jesus, and I want to explore other topics. I've been doing a lot of self-reflection. This year I want to explore other topics, like leadership and I want to Life and world events and some of those kinds of things. But I just want this to be a creative platform. Ultimately, the goal is that we grow. So I do. I'm thinking about adding some interviews to this in the coming year and there's tons of podcasts out there and guess what? If you have a podcast that's on your heart, you should start a podcast. But I want this to be that, something that you walk away and you grow. You grow in who you are as a person, because in that growth gives God the glory. So, looking forward to this year, my goal is going to be at least one or two podcasts a month. I'm going to try to space it out a little bit better than I did this year. That was definitely a learning curve and when I hit August and September this year, I was in so many classes plus full preaching load, all the different things that are going on and I just need to pace myself. So I need to work on pacing. But the other things I'm thinking about is maybe adding a video to this where I can post these things on YouTube and I don't know why you would want to, but you would watch me do this podcast. I'm thinking about some things like that, but definitely other topics like leadership and world events. I'm always going to be talking about how to be a better husband than dad. I definitely want to talk to you about what God's been doing in my heart, about stepping into godly manhood. I've had such an encounter in the last few months here. It has changed my inner life, so we're going to talk about, I guess. Listen, what is this podcast? It's a podcast about everything and that's what it's going to be, but there's going to be I think I'm amping up in my heart more passion, more fuel. Let's go forward. Let's talk about life. Let's talk, let's tell stories. I want to tell more stories in this coming year, but I'm going forward and I would love for you to come along with me, because really, without you, there's no podcast, and if there is something that you would want me to talk about, you want more information on or you want to connect with me, you can email me at kupelethis at gmailcom and tell me what's on your heart, if there's a certain topic you want me to explore. But I'm going forward in this journey and I hope that you come with me Again. I hope you're having a great, great Christmas and New Year's season. I love you guys. I so appreciate you. I will see you in the new year. All right, this is Nick Kupelethis. Over and out for 2023. Thank you so much for listening to the Kupelethis podcast. Please consider supporting this by a donation at the Kupelethispodcastcom. It is a tax deductible donation. If you would like to write into the show, you can write me at kupelethis at gmailcom. Yes, you got to figure out how to spell that Share, subscribe. See you next time, just show up.