I Almost Said No: What God Did With One Yes | Episode 250 with Kristin Kurtz

What can happen when you say yes to God before you have the whole roadmap? In this special 250th episode of Hope Unlocked, host Kristin Kurtz shares the story behind the podcast she almost never started—and what God has done through one surrendered yes. From facing fear and feeling unqualified to creating a “SEEDcast” that plants hope, courage, healing, and faith, she reflects on consistency, unseen impact, and releasing the pressure of the numbers. If you’ve questioned whether your voice matters or felt tempted to quit too soon, this is your reminder: show up, sow the seed, and trust God with what grows.

Podmatch info: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/hopeunlocked

Transcript

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Episode 250 And The Yes

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome me. This is going to be a little bit different today. I am actually celebrating this is episode 250. And I just want to preface with, I almost said no. So I want to go back a little bit in time. I'm actually kind of sitting here and I actually have a little bit of notes because normally when I show up to a podcast episode with a guest, I typically, these are my notes. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see. If you're not, I have a little legal pad that I hold here and it's usually blank. And it's actually for me to make notes of what I hear when people are talking, but I don't come with any preconceived questions or notions. I just love to let the Holy Spirit lead. So this seedcast, as the Lord calls it, began on March 3rd of 2023. So 3.3 of 2023. And I really, I really had no idea what God would do with it. And I really had no idea what I was doing. And I also know that I almost said no, truly. I was like, me, really? I was in the middle of, I'm I'm still coaching. I'm still a life coach. I've been coaching for nine years now, but I was actually in the middle of working on program for my coaching, and I just kept getting this nudge to start a podcast. I'd had people, you know, just these little nudges about the voice.

Finding Your Voice Again

SPEAKER_00 1:52

And I I really hesitated quite a bit because there was such a war over my voice for so many years. I didn't really think I had anything to say that people really cared about, first of all. And I just had some experiences in earlier years that really almost put a chokehold on my voice. So I said yes. Why did I say yes? Maybe you want to know. I'm I feel like I'm interviewing myself. But I did say yes because the Lord reminded me even years ago when I started doing some Facebook lives, I did not want to do it. I don't love being on camera. For those of you who know me, I don't love it. But he said it's for the one and it's for the one. So every time I showed up, I would maybe get a word or something to share. And I knew that it was for someone. And I would just put that person in my mind and know that it was going to help them. So as an encourager at heart in my DNA, I knew that I loved to encourage and I knew that I was supposed to step out at that time. And this was a whole different level, a whole different level. So in that reminder for the one and for the one in relation to the podcast, I was like, okay, okay, we can, we can do that. And then not only that, but everybody calls their podcast a podcast. And the Lord said over me, I heard my spirit, that this is a seed cast. Now, if you think about it, a pod holds the seeds in, like they're not getting out. And he was showing me that this podcast would actually be a seed cast. And I was to plant seeds as I've been doing much of my life. So that's where I was. And I was like, wow, if you guys remember that movie, I think it was gosh, I can't remember the name of the movie right now, but it was like you had me at hello. It was like you had me at seedcast. So

Seedcast Vision And Simple Setup

SPEAKER_00 3:52

one of the things that I almost caused me to not do it as well was like, well, I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do a podcast. How do you do a podcast? And I I just posed the question to the Lord, what do I have in my hands? And he reminded me that I had a laptop and I had a mouth, and that was solid. So without getting all into all the technicals, I kept it very simple. I knew that I was to keep it simple. I was to use my laptop, I was to use my mouth, and just got started from there. And I mean, it's been three and a half years now. I I never would have thought, I guess I didn't even have like a full-on plan of like how many episodes am I going to do. It's just, I just knew that I was going to keep going until God called me to stop. And since then, I have had the absolute pleasure of meeting so many people, being able to interview them, have them share their stories. Because if those of you who know me, you know that I love listening. It's part of just who I am. I love coaching. So I naturally have this curiosity about me. I love asking questions. So it just fits, right? And I've had the absolute pleasure of meeting so many people, whether coming through referrals or people that I know or people I've met or publicists or agents. Now even using a platform called Podmatch, which, if you ever want to check it out and you want to start interviewing people or be interviewed, I'll link that in the show notes. It's called Podmatch. I have a link you can check out. And I've found great people on there as well. So yeah, I mean, it's been incredible. And I like I said, I keep it super simple. I don't come to interviews with, you know, preconceived questions. I don't even have people fill out a questionnaire of like what I'm gonna have them answer, which is what I think a lot of podcasters actually do. I keep it real and raw. I don't edit this. Um, and I think that's a little unusual, but this is just what I've been called to do. And through that, through being counterculture, I'm actually wearing my counterculture shirt today because I thought this was just perfect for episode 250. 250 episodes. There's listeners in over 125 countries. I was recently told that this seed cast is top 0.2% globally. Like, holy moly, but God, right? I mean, I've had incredible guests, incredible stories, and I love you guys. I love stories of overcomers. I love the underdogs, I love the ones who have gone through and have come through on the other side and are working, you know, doing powerful ministries, powerful businesses. There are so many different stories and so many different ways that people are walking out this life with the Lord. And I think one of my other favorite things, just I'm a connector at heart. So it is natural that I would be doing this and connect people to other people through their story and through them sharing whatever it is that they're doing. Because my heart as well is to help cut through the noise and help people find these people that I've had on my show, whether they're, like I said, in business, maybe they've written books. I think one of my favorite people that approached me was a gal in her 80s, and she asked if she could come on my show and share her story of releasing her first book in her 80s. I'm like, yes, please, let's get your story and your book out there. So, yeah, that's a big part of my heart. I feel like the Lord showed me recently that it's almost become like a Kingdom Yellow Pages. If you guys are too young to understand what that means, the Yellow Pages was a book that had different categories where you could find companies and all the things. And I feel like this has almost been kind of like that, where I can point people to trusted people out there and and also hear their stories. So yeah, I guess, you know, what I've heard from maybe I could share a little bit about what I've heard from people who've been on. One of the biggest consensuses that I get from people is I didn't know that I'll be sharing that. I didn't know I'd be sharing that part of my story. I felt really safe sharing with you. And, you know, just the that they've been they felt comfortable, they felt like peace, they weren't nervous. So I feel like God has just set the table for people to come on and just freely share their story. And I've been given this beautiful place to do that. I'm so honored. Like I said, I am the least likely on paper person to be doing a podcast, but here I am, and it's been such a joy.

Consistency Over Numbers And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_00 9:05

I've made great friends through different connections. And I just want to remind you I think there's a few lessons that I've learned that obedience doesn't mean you have to have it all figured out, but your voice matters. That stories carry hope, like hope unlocked. That's the the Lord gave me the name of this podcast slash seedcast. God can use an ordinary yes, right? And then consistency, that's a big one, consistency creates fruit that you can't always see immediately. So for a long time, I'll just give you a little back end of that. For a long time, I was doing one episode release a week. I was interviewing one person a week. Then I started doing two interviews a week, and then started two releases a week, probably within the last year. Recently started doing three interviews a week, and then even four sometimes. And now I'm actually recently within this last week, in so you know, September of 2026, releasing three episodes a week. And I know that it'll eventually go tomorrow if if God leads. So it's such a it's such a beautiful thing to be consistent. I think a lot of times people give up, and I didn't know the statistics about podcasters is that it's very rare for somebody to do more than 10 episodes. Apparently, people give up after 10. So I just want to remind you if you're called to this, I think the biggest thing that I would say to you is don't just look at the numbers. Okay. A lot of times those numbers are like the scale, they don't tell the whole story. Okay. And we rarely, I think this is a hard part for people as well, is we rarely know the full impact of what we release. For me, I trust that it's reaching the one. So that might be a word for somebody today. If you are thinking about podcasting, if you are podcasting, I I feel like you just need to release the numbers, release, release the statistics. If you're called to this, keep going. Okay. So I just think like, what if I had said no? Well, I how many conversations might not have happened? How many stories wouldn't have been shared? How many people may not have received the exact word at the exact time? So my question to you is what are you almost saying no to? Someone encouraged you. Okay, so this is me. Maybe you don't feel ready, maybe you don't feel qualified, maybe you can't see how it all will work. You don't need the entire roadmap. You need the willingness to just say yes. So I'm so thankful to the Lord for bringing me to this for every guest, every listener, everyone who shares these episodes, everyone who has shared encouragement with me, because encouragers need encouragers. I think sometimes we actually need it a little bit more than the non-encouragers. And for everyone who's been part of this journey, I don't know exactly what the next 250 episodes hold, but I'm excited. I'm still listening, still saying yes, and I'm still believing God has more stories of hope to unlock. So here's the next 250 and to what God can do with one surrendered yes. So I'm going to close with the hope unlocked anchoring verse. It's made the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 15, 13. And I always tell others that come on the show, thank you for being a brave voice who's setting others free. Have a great day. I'll be back with another episode next week. Bye. Thanks, listeners.