[UPDATE] Life, podcast and PH SPOT

The PH SPOT podcast returns after a ten-month unplanned break with host Sujani sharing personal updates and outlining future plans for the show. 

• Unexpected 10-month podcast hiatus
• Solo episodes will be the primary format moving forward to accommodate scheduling constraints
• Selected recordings from Public Health Career Club events may be released as podcast episodes
• PH SPOT is simplifying its approach to helping public health professionals build meaningful careers
• The Public Health Career Club has opened 2025 enrollment with workshops, office hours, and networking events

Join us in the Public Health Career Club to connect with like-minded professionals and accelerate your career development. Find us on LinkedIn to share your thoughts on future episode topics!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back After 10 Months
• 1:22 Personal Life Updates and Challenges
• 3:48 Future Plans for the Podcast
• 6:24 PH Spot and Career Club Updates
• 8:01 Commitment and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

hi, friends, it's me sujani. I know I have not released an episode in about 10 months. I think the last time we had an episode on this podcast was in may of 2024, and it was not a planned break, to be honest. It sort of just happened that life got busy and the podcast production kind of fell on the back burner, and so I do want to apologize for not kind of having a planned pause, and so for those of you who kind of depend on the weekly content, I'm really sorry that this happened, but I feel re-energized to start the podcast again and I think that's okay, right. I've talked about burnout and taking intentional breaks sometimes during our career journeys, and it's important to not keep pushing yourself through things if it just doesn't feel right in that season or moment, and with the podcast, I think that's what had happened. I think that's what had happened. It started with just getting busy with a vacation that we were planning in May and, as I tried to get other parts or areas of pH spot kind of organized with the team, the podcast was not something that I was able to delegate to somebody else, because it requires me in front of the mic and my time, and so, um, that's kind of what happened in May. And then, after that came back, things got busy again. The summer happened, um, and then we did a bit more traveling again in October, um, and with the, with the toddler. I find that sometimes it's a little bit difficult for me to plan my time, you know, especially my evenings or weekends, because we really try to go with kind of his energy and his needs and the way he wants to, I guess, organize his days needs and the way he wants to, I guess, organize his days, and again the podcast ends up being the kind of thing that falls on the back burner. So that's what happened.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Then we got back from travels in October and then I found out that we're having a second baby. So this time around the pregnancy was a little bit more difficult for me compared to the first time. I found the first one a little bit easier. So that kind of took me out for three, four months. I'm feeling a lot better these days and, um, as a team in PH Spot we took a lot of time to figure out how we wanted to show up and deliver on some of the events inside our membership community, the Public Health Career Club. So that took a lot of my energy in the first few weeks to a couple months of the new year. A couple months of the new year and this past week we have opened up enrollments into the Public Health Career Club for 2025. And so you know, a lot of planning went into that and so those are kind of the reasons as to why the podcast kind of fell on the back burner, to why the podcast kind of fell on the back burner.

Speaker 1: 3:48

But I'm feeling like I could come back to it again and I think what I'm able to commit to at the moment are these solo episodes where I provide you with some guidance and advice on a topic each week. The interviews with guests are a little bit more challenging for me at the moment because it requires me to schedule interviews with individuals at a time that works best for them and me, and I think, as many of you know, I still have a full-time job. I think, as many of you know, I still have a full-time job, and so for me to find a time in the evenings or weekends to record with the guest has been a little bit more challenging since starting a family. So I think the best way for me to show up on the podcast is going to be through these solo episodes, these solo episodes, but what I think we can also start to do is maybe release some audio products from our community events. So, inside the public health career club, we run workshops and talks, we have guest speakers that come in, we have office hours, mentor hours and um. There may be, you know, an event here, here and there that is super insightful, interesting, that makes sense to release as an audio, and from time to time we'll end up doing that as well.

Speaker 1: 5:19

But I think for the remainder of 2025, what you can expect is a combination of um, you know, maybe like a special event recording as an audio version, as well as um, the solo episodes from me and um. Later on, maybe towards the end of the year, if we feel like we can bring on guests, um, I think that that'll definitely be another way for us to bring content to you, because I really enjoy talking to different public health professionals, hearing about their career journeys and, especially in the current environment that we're in, with all the changes that we're seeing with public health, with funding, it will be really interesting conversations just to see how everyone's navigating the situation. So I promise you that I will make an effort to bring those conversations to you at some point this year, but for the short term it's going to be these great kind of tidbits on different career development strategies and things, and I'm going to be coming on the podcast every week to deliver those episodes. So just want to jump here to give you that quick life update. Ph Spot update podcast update. I'm really excited to see where PH Spot is headed.

Speaker 1: 6:38

We're committing to really simplifying how we help public health professionals build their lives, public health careers, and finding different ways to bring kind of cool content, cool products and different ways to help you. And you know, aside from the podcast, aside from the blog, free resources we have on our website the Public Health Career Club is where we're spending a lot of time with our community members to help them in different ways, right? So some people work really well in workshop situations, some people work well in drop-in office hours, some people work well in kind of like lecture style support. So we're doing a little bit of everything inside the Career Club. We have a social hour. So if you're interested to just mix and mingle with our community members, that's another way that people are able to connect and build their careers and so really spending a lot of time understanding the needs of the community and and figuring different, figuring out different programs that we can deliver to them.

Speaker 1: 7:48

So, if that that's of interest to you, we have opened up the enrollments again. So we'd love to see you in there and I really hope we can connect inside the Public Health Career Club. But if not, we will definitely connect over this podcast. So just want to say thank you for coming back. I am committing to delivering one episode every week and I really hope you'll be listening in every week and, you know, connecting with me on LinkedIn, telling me if you're enjoying these episodes and giving me ideas for other ones as well. So tune into the first episode of, I guess, this new series and I'll see you on future episodes.