Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Well, the day has come. You are now listening to the Life Fulfilled podcast. And unless this is the very first time that you’re listening, this is the official start of a new chapter for this podcast. Hey, I’m Bernie Borges, your host, and I want to give you the backstory on this name change. You see, I launched the Midlife fulfilled podcast in February 2020 22. So the time of this recording, it’s about three and a half years ago. Now at that time, I was really excited to record podcast episodes about all things fulfillment in midlife. You see, I was at stage of life, age wise, midlife, and I was dealing with my own questions, my own struggles about fulfillment just in my own life.
Bernie Borges [00:00:52]:
And I knew that I wasn’t alone. I just knew it. Now, before I settled on the name Midlife Fulfilled, I did a lot of research. I mean, a lot of research. I researched podcasts in the midlife category and I discovered hundreds of podcasts about midlife. I’m not kidding, I stopped counting at 200. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more than a thousand podcasts about midlife. What I found is about 99% of the podcasts about midlife are hosted by women covering in centric topics in midlife.
Bernie Borges [00:01:30]:
Hey, nothing wrong with that, but obviously I am not a woman. Now, I also found midlife podcasts that were talking about happiness. And while there’s nothing wrong with happiness, I’ve always felt that happiness is a fleeting emotion and I didn’t want to go down that path. So I decided that I would focus on the theme of fulfillment. And as a result, the Midlife Fulfilled podcast was born again February 2022. So now let’s fast forward to today, 2025, middle of the year, as I record this, and I’m going to share with you something very personal. I became very frustrated because my podcast was not growing again. Three years in and the podcast was not growing.
Bernie Borges [00:02:20]:
In fact, I was so frustrated that I seriously considered shutting down the podcast. I really, really considered that. My friend, you have no idea how much work goes into producing a podcast. Now look, I’m not looking for pity, but I just want you to know that podcasting is a whole lot more than just showing up here and pressing the record button. Every single episode requires planning. And if you’ve been listening for a while, you know that most of my episodes involve a guest. So there’s arranging the guest, and I can’t tell you how many times we have to reschedule. And then of course, there’s As I mentioned planning for the episode, there’s the recording itself.
Bernie Borges [00:03:03]:
And I can’t tell you how many times we sometimes experience technology issues. And there’s just always dealing with technology in a podcast. Then there’s post production. Do you know that it takes on average four to five hours of post production for every recording? That’s right. Then there’s also the expense. You know, podcast hosting is not free. There’s a real cost. And then there’s promotion, promoting every podcast episode.
Bernie Borges [00:03:32]:
And I have to admit, unfortunately, that I’m not good at that. Anyway, all that to say that I just became very frustrated with all that effort and expense going into the Midlife Fulfilled podcast. It wasn’t growing. And one option that I seriously considered was quitting shutting it down. Now, I put a lot of thought into it, and along the way I was studying my podcast show analytics, analytics. And I noticed something. I noticed that no matter how I configured a chart from the standpoint of a time horizon, meaning if I looked at the last seven days or the last 30 days, or the last 90 days, or six months, or a whole year, or even all time, no matter how I looked at it, a significant portion of the listeners to the Middle I Fulfilled podcast are under the age of 45. In fact, on average, about 25% of my listeners are under age 45.
Bernie Borges [00:04:40]:
I took a screenshot and I put it in my weekly newsletter. So if you get that, you already saw that. If you don’t get my newsletter, just scroll down in the show notes and you can find it there. Also, on average, about 10% of the listeners of the Midlife Fo podcast are in their 20s and 30s. This really, really surprised me and it made me realize that a portion of my listeners are listening not because of the age related content. They had to be listening because the fulfillment stories and the information shared through maximum episodes is of interest to them. So the more I thought about this, the more I realized that I should pivot from the demographic of midlife to the psychographic of fulfillment. Now, let me explain what I mean by psychographic.
Bernie Borges [00:05:33]:
It’s simply the idea that people care about fulfillment as a topic because they care about it, not because of their age. Here’s an analogy some of you may know. I live in the state of Florida in the US and there’s two states in the US that are really known for warm weather, Florida and Arizona. They’re not the only ones, but they’re very well known for warm weather. So it’s like someone saying, hey, let’s go to Florida or let’s go to Arizona for the warm weather, not for any other reason. It’s like that. In other words, it’s all about reason that listeners are tuning in. It’s not about their age.
Bernie Borges [00:06:11]:
So, my friend, this was a huge light bulb for me, and quite frankly, I ignored it for a while. Now there is another light bulb that went off for me, and this one I resisted for a long time. Turns out that the word midlife is mostly perceived negatively. You know as well as I do that when someone hears the word midlife, they immediately think of, you know, midlife crisis. And if that’s not enough negativity about midlife, a lot of people don’t even want to admit that they’re in midlife. Even those that are over 40 or 45, which technically is the definition of midlife, they just don’t want to admit it. Now, personally, I don’t understand that, but I can’t fight it anymore. Midlife is a negative topic.
Bernie Borges [00:07:03]:
It’s just a reality. And frankly, I ignored this for a long time. So when I was considering shutting down the podcast and I really, really considered that, I asked myself, what would keep me inspired to keep going with the podcast? The effort, the expense. What would keep me inspired but not doing the same thing? Because you know what that is, right? That’s insanity. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And the result that I want is I want this podcast to grow. So I came up with the answer to that in two parts. Part number one, I am 1000% committed to the theme of fulfillment.
Bernie Borges [00:07:54]:
If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that my business is leadership training. I’m the creator of the Fulfillment Centric Leadership Framework, which I teach at organizations. And you would also know that I have developed a five pillar fulfillment strategy that’s based on health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. And the five pillar model is the foundation of my fulfillment centric leadership framework. So my commitment to the fulfillment theme is all in, again, 1,000% in on fulfillment. After all, I like to say fulfillment is the second most powerful emotion in our humanity, second only to love. And fulfillment is global. Hey, if you have a beating heart, no matter where you live on the planet or what language you speak, you want to experience fulfillment.
Bernie Borges [00:08:49]:
Everybody does. Remember, I say that fulfillment is tied directly to achievement. And in most cases, when you experience fulfillment, it’s immutable, meaning nothing can take that away, whether it’s big or. Or small. Now, that allowed me to answer one half of the podcast name, the Fulfillment side. Right. It’s the same as the Midlife Fulfilled name. The word fulfilled is still in the podcast.
Bernie Borges [00:09:17]:
So then I had to decide the word in front of fulfilled that would convey the intention of the podcast. And look, I asked a lot of people, including friends, for recommendations and of course I also asked ChatGPT for recommendations and I came up with a short list of 5 or 6 words to put in front of the word fulfilled. For the new name, I chose Life. I mean, we’re all on this journey that’s called life. No matter what stage of life we’re in, it’s still a life journey. I just realized that I didn’t need to over complicate the name selection and it’s a process that I went through over the span of a few months, not a couple of days. So it’s the Life Fulfilled podcast. Now what’s changing? Actually, not much.
Bernie Borges [00:10:13]:
Not much is changing. I’m still going to record maximum episodes, which are teaching style episodes where I feature someone who’s got someone to something to share with us that we can learn from. And I’m also still going to record vulnerable conversation episodes, which is where someone is willing to share a story, a personal story where they get vulnerable. And I’m also still going to continue to record my solo on my Mind episodes where I share something on my mind. The only thing that you’ll probably notice that is going to change is more content that’s geared to the career pillar. Now I’m not abandoning the five pillar approach to life fulfilled. It’s just that the career pillar is the one that people struggle with the most. I don’t have to tell you that we spend more than half of our waking hours working.
Bernie Borges [00:11:05]:
And as we go through stages in our life, our career journey can have twists and turns and ups and downs and good times and bad times and you know the drill. So the only change that you’re probably going to notice is more content on the career pillar and some of it is going to have a business lens and that’s because most of us work in a business. Now of course I know some people work in a non profit or a church, which is a non profit, but even a church has a lead pastor and that lead pastor, in addition to the pastoral roles is the CEO of that organization, many times leading and managing staff of 20, 30, 40, 50 people depending on the size of the church. Now this leads me to another name change that I’m going to reveal to you in this episode and I didn’t do any teasing about this one, so this one is coming to you out of left field. This name change may or may not be as significant to you, but it. It’s very significant to me. Now, since I went full time with my fulfillment centric leadership framework as a speaker and trainer, my business has been operating as Thrive Media. Thrive Media is the name of my business entity, but it’s to anyone that’s considering doing business with me.
Bernie Borges [00:12:31]:
So I’ve changed the name of my business to Fulfilled at Work Academy. And the AT in Fulfilled at Work is the AT sign. Now, you may know if you’re connected to me on LinkedIn, that I launched a newsletter on LinkedIn and it’s called Fulfilled at Work. So now my business name is Fulfilled at Work Academy. The website no longer Midlife fulfilled dot com, it’s now Fulfilled at Work. Com and AT is spelled out in the domain because you can’t do an AT sign in a URL. So business name change to Fulfilled at Work Academy. Anybody that ever visits the midlife fulfilled.com website will be redirected.
Bernie Borges [00:13:18]:
Look, I’m really excited about both of these name changes. It’s a new chapter for me and it’s the start of something that’s really, really meaningful to me. And if you’ve been listening for a while, I hope that you’ll celebrate with me. I hope that you’re excited for me. And if the change to Life Fulfilled doesn’t resonate with you, I respect that. No worries. If you’re out of here, I get it. However, if the name change to Life Fulfilled resonates, I want to ask a favor of you.
Bernie Borges [00:13:53]:
It’s a simple favor. Here it is. Please share the Life Fulfilled podcast with someone now. I mean, now, please tap the share icon that’s on your podcast player and share it with someone Now. Remember, I seriously considered shutting down this podcast because it hasn’t been growing. And I’m asking for you to help me grow this podcast by sharing it with someone. Now. Look, if you’re driving, of course I know you can’t do that, but when you get to your destination, before you get out of your car, please share it with someone.
Bernie Borges [00:14:39]:
If you’re at the gym, maybe you’re in the middle of a bench press right now. When you finish that set that you’re in the middle of, share it with someone. Now, if you’re walking the dog and you can’t do it while you’re walking the dog, when you get home, please share it with someone. Now maybe you’ve heard me say that I have a BHAG. BHAG is an acronym. B H A G. It stands for Big Hairy, Audacious Goal. My BHAG is I want to reach 3 billion people with my message of finding a life fulfilled across the 5 billion life pillars.
Bernie Borges [00:15:22]:
Now, 3 billion is a big number, and because I’m not famous, I need leverage for that. Part of my leverage is by teaching leaders my fulfillment centric leadership framework. But you can be part of my multiplier effect, my leverage, if you will, by sharing the Life Fulfill Podcast with someone that you know right now. I want to close by thanking you. Thank you for listening to this episode and if you’ve been listening for a while, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I sincerely hope that you’ve enjoyed the podcast and that you’ll continue to tune in to the Life Fulfilled Podcast. Go to the Show Notes page for this episode, find my contact details, and let me know how the Life Fulfilled Podcast name change resonates with you.
Bernie Borges [00:16:15]:
Now, before I go, I want to let you know that I have another announcement up my sleeve, but I’m going to save that for another day. So I’m going to close out this episode by inviting you to join me on this Life Fulfilled journey because it’s a journey worth pursuing. I’m Bernie Borges, your host of the Life Fulfilled Podcast. Remember, when you experience fulfillment, it’s immutable. I’ll catch you on the next episode.
