Q&A #6: Deadlines, Imposter Syndrome and Burnout Symptoms & More with Patrick Akil

Hi everyone. My name is Patrick Ocular and welcome to Q&A Number six. I just looked it up. The first one was 300. And 40 days ago as of this recording, probably when this is. Released almost a year ago, so we've done this for a while so by now. If you've been watching this for a long time, you know the drill. If you're new, this is a session where people send us questions. I answer them to the best of my abilities, for your enjoyment and for my fulfillment.

Because I really, really like doing this. So sit back. Relax. Enjoy. So the first one, what do you

think about? The Dutch IT market interesting in terms of salary ranges and value given to engineering efforts. A difficult one, because I think it really depends on what type of. Organization you are in in NL, what we've seen since. COVID is that more and more international organizations have kind of started hiring. Within the Netherlands now nowadays the market is kind of in a slump, but especially a. Year ago two years ago it was more so booming.

So if you are within an organization that is more international. You know the big tech firms, you know, organizations that I mean have a little bit more hierarchy, have a a little. Bit more people, but they usually also have more pay. Now what I've seen is those organizations within NL are kind of on the higher end of what they. Value engineering efforts, especially if tech is their core domain, not if it's. Part of their core domain, but if it's specifically their core.

Domain that means your engineering efforts. By virtue of you creating software, they get a return on investment that is usually X amount your salary. And if that X is higher than your salary can also. Be higher now it depends on the type of work you do, and usually that is if you create. Money or if you get money, if your company makes money with. Software That multiplier is higher in consultancies because it is working with people.

And you're not creating software directly, but the consultancy company is getting money by virtue of offering consultants. You're not really creating software and making money with that software. You're making money with the people that offer that consultancy, that offer consultancy. There the margins are different, the multiplier is different, the model is different. So your salaries might be lower, but what I really. Enjoy because I'm I'm employed at a consultancy company is that

you get benefits? Beyond just the monetary value, we get knowledge exchanges, which we have every month, so 12 sessions a year we have. Innovation days which are comparable to hackathons, so. Six days out of a year, you get to hack away. I get time and investment to do this this podcast. I'm not sure if that. Would have happened in a product company, in a SAS organization,

stuff like that. Now within those kind of different business models and different multipliers, I feel like NL is up and coming, maybe more so up and coming. Values engineering efforts quite highly. London is a bit higher. the US is I think still the highest. Or North America, I should say even. But the discrepancy between income there is just higher so. Highly intellectual work is valued more as well, so engineering efforts are valued maybe more than they would be,

however comma life work balance. Is very much a different as well. So with anything take that into consideration as well. If people pay you a bigger sum, they might expect more of you as well. So value that in your in your judgments for applying at companies this question usually. Comes from a place where a

person is not feeling valued at their current job. Which is a hard place to be at. I've been in that position as well and it comes down to a decision. Do you fight for people to value you more, or what you think you're worth at? Or do you peek your hole into the job market? Should I say peek your head out out of the hole to the job market and see what you're valued there? Again, currently the job market is quite rough when it comes to people that are more early in

career. I'm not sure how it is from our senior positions, but it can never hurt to. See what other people value you at. It's just very hard to jump then take the plunge and see what it is on the other side. So just wanted to end off with that. How do you manage your time,

especially when you're learning something? That is out of your expertise. Now I can distinguish this between learning on the job and learning off the job, and mostly learning on the job. It's just by virtue of solving a problem you haven't solved before. That might lie. Still within your expertise, but if it's outside of your expertise. You require some research how I do it and how we do it within our team. Is we time box that research?

Because there's that lines, there's time constraints. In an ideal world, you could research infinitely. But this is not the ideal world. That's usually value that needs to be added for a delivery within a certain time constraint. So we time box it. Let's say we say 4 hours to research X solution versus Y solution versus. Another one maybe bring more options to the table. That is usually how we do it and we make sure within that time box we. Learn enough to make an educated guess.

Now making those decisions, you can still make the wrong decision and continuously throughout development. You can evaluate if your decision was the correct one, so then you learn. On the job. More so when it's off the job. I am horrible with planning.

I'm horrible with time management ish. So when I'm learning something if I truly enjoy it. Yeah, it's hard to stop for me. That's me as a person. I go down a rabbit. Hole and I curiosity drives me. And that usually brings me far till I have to pull myself. Out or someone else has to pull me out. For example, to get dinner or to go to bed, Something like that. I'm not sure if that fully answers your question, but there's a lot to learn. I feel like if you don't like

learning within this field. Then it's a hard one, so. Find a way that works for you, whether that's video content on. YouTube Audio content in the form of a podcast. Blogs. Or newsletters when it comes to written content? Or just some practical? Experience you doing demos, taking courses and doing hands on stuff. There's different ways of consuming and learning, so find whatever. Works for you, and I think you'll be fine. Hypothetical if you were just. Hired at a company and tasked

with building a new team. How would you go about doing that? Obviously the team needs to solve a problem. Use any frameworks. Have any experience with that? Now I have to preface this because I haven't actually done that and there's going to be a lot of it. Depends. Obviously, the consultant says it depends, because it really does. Depend on what the problem is. I'm a big believer in that. Small teams can execute and align on a mental model way faster than big teams.

So I would definitely start small, small as possible, and trust the people that I bring on board first and foremost because they need to be within the team, they need to be able to execute. Probably if I'm the only person within the team and I'm the

manager. I'm going to be contributing as well, which is a. Benefit of having someone with technical expertise kind of starting out within that team as well, but if the idea is to grow multiple teams, then obviously at some point your hands on component goes more so out of it and it's more delegated to the people within that team. But it starts with. Trying to figure out what we need to do and what the timelines are.

Now if it's not realistic deadline wise and I saw a question, we'll get to that in a bit, what realistic deadlines mean, then we have to challenge that but. Let's say the deadline is realistic and I believe we can solve it with a certain team. We have to figure out how to or self organize and the only way I can do that is by bringing people on board that have done that. That have kind of trail blazed within a team that are really good at bringing something from zero to 1.

So building up something from scratch and having done that before I think will make the difference in doing that again. I right now am on a project where I've done that for the first time and luckily I've done that twice in the same project, which is really, really nice because we bring learnings from the one into the other. But I've noticed that is a skill that you need to be able to learn and for me to do that

within a new team to deliver. I would like people that have the experience of starting something from. Scratch not going into analysis paralysis knowing what to use based on the requirements that we have. See, we have to gather that from the organization. But then I can fully place my trust in people to execute on that. I would be a bit more cautious hiring people that have not done that. So obviously it depends on the on the hiring.

Process there, but those would be my requirements when it comes

to the technical skills. Usually there's a cloud component, usually there's a software programming language component, and usually there's a domain component. When it comes to the domain, I expect people to be very, very curious and hungry for knowledge in how things work. In our organization, in our market share. In the domain that they enter in. When it comes to the technical skills, cloud wise, it doesn't really matter if it's Google, Azure or AWS.

Obviously it's their specifics. There's learnings, but I would emphasize that less within a hiring process. And when it comes to the technical skills, the programming language, I would look at that. But I would also look at the confidence that someone can brings. In kind of that polyglot mindset that someone could pick up a language just by virtue of having done that in the. Past as well.

I would put trust in that, and I think that shines through in a conversation you would have with someone. I like that hypothetical. I hope it kind of answers the question. I again, I haven't done this before, but it's a fun hypothetical nonetheless.

How do you know when a deadline is not realistic, especially? When you are a junior now, deadlines are interesting because they can be. Placed based on estimations, so within the team or within? You as a person you can be like OK for all the work that needs to be done. I think it's going to be X amount of days. Or maybe you do story points and you have a history of how long it takes you to deliver. How much you can deliver within

a Sprint doesn't really matter. It's based on an estimate, so let's say it's. Half a year down the line, usually, if it's based on estimates. That deadline is set and it needs to be re evaluated based on how fast you go. And there's a few knobs you can tweak within adding more people, but adding more people does not solve the problem. Yet it is still what I see in the market or within some projects. Someone has always said to me, you cannot.

How do you say that you deliver a baby within nine months or you deliver a baby in nine months? Nine people cannot deliver a baby in one month. And I love that analogy because it holds true for the team size in there as well. So keep that in mind. If it's not realistic, you have to. Re evaluate it based on your previous history of working towards that goal. Now if you have six months down the line, you can do that because you have the time and you have to set the expectation

with regards to the deadline. Now one, when it is not set based on estimates or expectations in that way or previous history or someone saying, well I think it's going to be X days, then it's just put in place and then you have to be like, OK, if this is the deadline. You can do this in any case, even with estimates, if that is realistically the. Deadline we have to release due to market. Constraints due to business constraints due to a marketing campaign.

You can always tweak with what you will deliver. So what is going to be the MVP and what is really, really necessary? Really really necessary because some features people think is are necessary, but usually they tend not to be used or. They tend not to be necessary, so from your role as junior engineer or even regular engineer doesn't really matter from your role within the. Delivery Team. You can challenge what is being delivered if you don't think. People are going to use it.

If there's no research done that people will use it, then you can argue that you can always. Challenge that and you have to trust your business, your product owner to defend that or to be able to defend that. If they say just do it because we think is valuable and this is the deadline, that is not a good environment. To be in, especially from my point of view. I'm a person that needs to understand I think more and more it's one of my core values.

So if that is not being explained to me, I don't think I would be able to perform effectively and to the best of my abilities because that's always going to sit in the bottom of my head. If I'm going to build something that I think no one will use, it's just going to tear me down. So especially if you're from the other side, the non engineering side, have the patience, allow people to ask questions and explain to your best to the best of your abilities.

And be aware that what you think might be true or what you. Think might be useful, might not actually be useful in practicality. So also acknowledge when you're wrong and have that open dialogue and equal level of conversation within the team. Because then at the end of the day, you will deliver a better project if you throw a problem within that team. Rather than just feeding them solutions together with shared minds, you'll solve the problem better at the end. Tweak the scope.

Move the deadline. You can do either things. Or not the liver. But yeah, those are kind of the knobs. Which strategies do you suggest

to overcome imposter syndrome and how do you prevent being? Paralyzed due to failure, fear of failure. Mess that up at the end in any case, the only way I can. Answer that is kind of from my own perspective, because I think this is very specific, is very personal and part of the strategy is not just. About you, it's also about the environment and the other people. I joined this organization CBL and I had never applied here

because the bar for entry. Was always four or five years of worth work experience and I didn't have that. Now, through a roundabout way, I got in, I got through all the recruitment phases, all the interview rounds and I got in and just by virtue. Of not meeting that bar knowing what it was on paper. Because I I used to work with consultants in the past, especially from Xevia. I knew what that bar was, and I knew I didn't meet the

requirements. So the feeling of not belonging just by virtue of on paperwork experience. Wise I did not belong. I knew there was something wrong but still I got. In I felt really lucky to get in, and I also feel felt like an imposter because of that. The people around me were always really, really good and I looked, I looked. Up to them. I wanted to catch up to them. I wanted to grow to that level. Now realizing. It's not about catch up, it's

more so about growth. It's kind of step #1 because they had all grown and they are all. Their own people, and I'm never going to be. Fully 100% like someone, because I am my own person. It's not about catch up, it's about. Growing and comfort and bringing something to the table. Now realizing what I could bring to the table. I think that it took a while, but I realized what I brought was not technical expertise. It was something else. It was clarifying for requirements.

Or it was talking about and trying to optimize how we work. Together as a team, or pointing out when people do not understand each other well, they really think they do. But they're talking about two different things. Or even when they do understand each other, they're still arguing and it's. Kind of a waste of time, me being able to point that out, having that open dialogue. Helping people realize what we need to do or that we actually do understand or do not understand each other.

That helped the team out in the end and it took a long, long time and a lot of reflection and also asking for feedback from my colleagues to realize what my value. Is within the team now. It's different every time and especially when it comes to technical expertise and. Feeling kind of a a feeling of imposter or being an imposter there. What really helped was working together with people on a more pair programming sense, so I

would be stuck. With my task and they knew I would be stuck because we were a very, very small team starting out and they would offer help. Almost immediately, when they had kind of the feeling that I would be stuck, I've had many conversations. And they wanted me to ask for help earlier and sooner, even though I thought that. I could do it, and I probably could. Do it, but if it takes me 5 minutes to ask. For a question or half an hour of a power program session

versus a day of my own time. Then for the. Team, what is most effective if I ask, it's is if I ask those questions or if we do it together and realizing that really alleviated a lot of stress. I'm not a person that gets stressed. Out easily, but doing something you've never done before. When stakes are high? When you work with people you look up to. For me that was a stressful environment and how they broke it down my colleagues, that's

why I say. Part of the strategy is not just you, it's also the people and the environment how they broke that down. By working together with me, making sure I felt safe. I think that's the the only reason that it went away because based on that I could learn from them. They could help me out. It was an opportunity for them to teach. So they got better at the teaching aspects.

And I grew tremendously. And because of that growth, because of seeing kind of where I started from and what I could do now within a really short time, like when I say short, people say oh. Maybe a year, maybe 2 years, No. No, no. It was months down the line from project to project, which helps if you're at a consultancy company because you can do that. It was really, really fast and I truly, I think that's one of my fondest kind of journeys within

my career. I think it makes sense because it was kind of very early on, growing incredibly fast learning from people. That I really looked up to. At some point the feeling of being an impostor went away and I accepted that. I'm not on their level. I might never ever be on their. Level, but I'm on my own path. And that is fine. We don't need to compare. I'm going to compare myself. To a few months ago and I am crushing it versus a few months ago and that's the only

comparison that matters. So yeah, it's a lot of it has to do with your environment if you're not in in an environment where people. Cooperate with you or people. Work together with you where people take the patience and explain concepts that you do not understand. Maybe you think you should, but even if you think you should, allowing someone to explain that or being open and being. Like I don't understand this fully yet.

The environment needs to be open for that, for everyone to be able to. Grow and to be comfortable with not knowing the unknown in any environment you're not going to know. Any unknowns, basically. Even in an environment where you're the expert, you might not be the expert and you might have to acknowledge that some stuff you don't know and other. People need to help you with that. It's all based on the environment and as soon as that's a safe environment.

It's a good environment for you to grow, and I feel like slowly those feelings of feeling like an imposter will kind of ever wait as well. Is it possible to succeed in the

programming field? If you have ADHD, do you know someone in the field that? Has it, And what strategies do they use to be able to focus? I think I know someone. I definitely know someone and the first strategy that comes to mind is they close everything that might be able to distract them on their laptop. They put on music. They blast the music. And they start programming.

I feel like at least the people I've worked with, one person in particular always made sure that when he was in focus mode, nothing could take. Him out of that and even to a fault where we would have a. Meeting and no one will be able to reach him because it was just. We forgot about the meeting and he was focusing. I feel like being mindful of what your distractions. Are your way of working Like it's hard for me to say because I don't have ADHD, but being aware of that and accommodating

for that. In your day-to-day in your way of. Working is going to make you laser focused on what needs to be done and it's going to make you a really, really good engineer, a really, really good programmer, a really, really good person to work together within the team as well that person in. Working together with me also sometimes has zero patience. For kind of my learning process, which is also why he navigated more towards doing the thing. Together, right?

If stuff needed to be done, he thinks I could do it faster. He would usually help me do it. And by helping me do. It it would alleviate some of the feelings of being alone, being isolated, working on something that I don't know yet, really. Struggling with that and maybe I didn't realize that, but he did. Help me realize that at the end now kind of through a forceful way because this. Person is very specific, but in any case. It has nothing to do with ADHD. I think people that.

Have ADHD and are able to find a way of working that works for them. Can. Obviously thrive within this field just like any other person with non ADHDI don't see any issues with regards to that. At least I have not seen any issues with regards to that, but honestly I don't. Think there are any?

You talk to people about burnouts. You have any experience with that? Have you ever come? Close to burning out any experience? No, I have not had a burnout. I don't think I've come to a point. Where I had to drop everything and just recharge completely for weeks. There's nothing wrong with that. I have not come to a point like that, and I feel very fortunate because I do feel like I've come close, like I had this conversation with Sergey and it always stuck with me.

This is episode 2. By the way, and I think you can still find it on YouTube, he explained. The burnout feeling One of the first symptoms as kind of feeling like you're in a. Microwave and this microwave is beaming on your chest and you have this uncomfortable. Feeling, breathing. And it's just compressed completely and you can't get rid of it. That was the one and only. Symptom that I felt and it was when I would come back from a weekend for example, and I would

not feel recharged. I would still feel that feeling over and over again day in day out. I. Used to have because I've now stepped out of it, a second YouTube channel as well and at the highest working point I would have to create. 33 videos a week, one for the podcast. Two for the other YouTube channel and then day-to-day consulting. And I still wanted to deliver. Two videos for the other YouTube

channel. I still wanted to deliver one video for this YouTube channel and that meant that every Saturday morning I would have to record 2. Videos for the other one then also do the editing have a bit more of a backlog, so sometimes work more, sometimes work less. And for this one, find guests, do the whole shebang and the editing as well as a busy. Consultancy assignment sounds like a whole like a whole lot, because it's basically like two

at least two jobs, maybe 3. That's debatable. 3II labeled it as two jobs and then friends and family and a partner at. Home and feeling of not delivering enough, not doing enough, like it was not a great place. On a mental level, and I had to acknowledge that it basically was a conversation with my girlfriend and I saying that every, every night you work. It's hard to realize because I love. Working and every night I had to

work. And that feeling of like uneasiness in my chest, it never went away, so I had to advocate. Within my organization to get budget to edit this podcast, I made the decision that was more so recently. To not do the other YouTube channel anymore so I didn't have to do the recordings I didn't have. To do the video editing, there was a period where we went from 2 videos a week to one video a week, but that was just kind of

treating the symptom. I had to step out of it for my own mental health and last weekend actually rolled in the back asked me what you do this weekend. I don't. I didn't really do a lot and I really recharged and that is kind. Of a new feeling last weekend. Also the weekend before. Also, that feeling in my chest sometimes is still there, but it's going away and I think it. It going away and me having. More mental space is a really good symptom that I'm not

heading. Towards a burnout anymore, I think you can do it. I've done it for a long time. You can work yourself to the bone and then probably depending on, I don't know. What factors maybe how much you've endured in the past, work wise. You can endure that for a period, long or short, but at some point you'll you'll not be able to do that anymore just by virtue of you. Growing older, mentally more, being more fatigued, or even physically, you might not.

Like you cannot withstand that for a long, long time. So I'm happy mentally. I have more. Clarity. I let go of some things, some things that I genuinely loved, which were painful, but at the end my mental health is. A priority and I always said it's a priority, so I also have to act. Accordingly, that is the only experience I've had kind of moving towards a burnout. That's a hard one. I hate letting go of things I love, but sometimes for my own. Sake. You have to do that.

I have to do that. What are some do's and don'ts

for people that would like to start their own podcast? Do start a podcast if you genuinely and like listening to podcast. Don't start a podcast if you generally don't like listening to podcast. It's it's an obvious one, but I've talked to people opportunities for me to come on as a guest to podcasts. And maybe maybe this is my point of view, but if I ask. Like, do you like doing podcasts? I expect. I love doing podcasts.

To a certain degree, I might not like blah blah blah or I might compromise with so and so. But I love doing it. That's what I want to hear. That's someone for me that is genuine about doing this podcast. If I hear, man, it's a lot of work. Do you like it? No. And I mean, it's a lot of work. And then I'm like maybe. I don't want to be involved, but in any case, I feel like the best people to start a podcast are great listeners. You have to be a listener to be able to.

Improve whatever you're creating. And at some point, if you really love listening, you might get really good at speaking as well, because you're going to listen to your own voice, you're going to listen to your own episodes, you're going to cut out all the stuff you don't like, and just by virtue of doing that, the quality. Level is going to be better and better and better. Now what you don't want to do is postpone it until you think a topic is perfect, until you think your.

Way of speaking is perfect until you find the perfect guest because the art of doing a podcast, and I think that is. True for most content creation is consistency over time. This is a marathon. It's not a Sprint. I. Mean you have seasons but then are still. That's a marathon. Maybe might be multiple marathons, but it's still a marathon of content creation. And you have to. Be able to do this kind of over and over and over again. And it's not about your single dots of quality.

It's about an average line of quality. And you being able to incrementally improve your overall average, I feel like if. You're not. How do I say that? I feel like if you have thoughts of starting a podcast, just try it. Record 3 episodes. What is 1-2 or three episodes of you talking to A friend? You talking to a colleague? You talking to a microphone? In front of a camera. If you want to do video podcast, you're not going to lose out on that. What you will gain is kind of

clarity. Is this fun to do? Do you enjoy doing it? Do you enjoy speaking your mind, having those conversations? Are they hard? Do they cost effort? Do they drain you? Do you not like them? Then don't do it. You don't have to do it. If you like doing this, then there's nothing. Stopping you from doing more. Obviously don't do too much because you should also stop yourself from doing more, but if you want, you can do it. I would also say don't invest in all the most fancy equipment.

If you look at episode #2, because one is not on YouTube. If you look at episode #2, that is just two cameras, tripods, 2 microphones. We did have really, really good microphones, which are. Basically these ones to start off with. Also, all the equipment is always in the description below, so check that out. I'm not affiliated. I don't get any. Stuff. It's just for information and SEO, but in any case. We started out with really good

microphones. I think you can find a really good microphone record in your car. Because the audio setup there is really, really good. You don't need video. When it comes to a podcast, when it comes to. Writing. You can just start writing. You don't even have to publish it. Figure out if. This is for you. Are there any other don'ts? Don't pay people for coming on your podcast. That is not a thing. I thought that would be a thing.

You don't have to pay anyone. People love coming on and having a. Conversation. Be genuine. Be authentically yourself. That's the only way you're going to do this for the long term. Otherwise, it is not sustainable if you're not yourself. If you have like a personified character of yourself, this is a different version of myself. It's maybe like a bit more active and upbeat. But it's still me, still genuinely my thoughts. It's authentically myself if I

was someone else. This would be very very draining and I feel. Like I would resent that character. That's on camera. That is not me. So don't do that anymore. Don'ts anymore do's. Let's try it out.

I feel like maybe that's my general advice. Almost always just try it out. Get that practical experience, theoretical knowledge. Will always also flow based on practical experience. If you really enjoy it, you'll start down rabbit holes on how to improve. Your stuff, how to do it better and do it over and over and over again until all of a sudden your episode 130 in front of a microphone, talking to a camera in front of people, kind of in front of people, people listening to that.

Yeah, that's what happened to me. So do it. Yeah, just do it. That's fun. What would you tell tech folks

considering breaking into the content creation space? And I'm going to combine that with how can developers get out of their comfort zone to create content and share knowledge that way. Now if people are considering breaking into the content creation space, just try it. Figure out what you like. Creating. Figure out what you like consuming. If it's video from content, try and create a tutorial on.

Video. If it's a podcast, try hop on a conversation with someone, your colleague or your friend and record that podcast if you consume a lot of newsletters. Or blogs. Try contributing. Write up your own thoughts on paper. Try and structure it. Ask for feedback. This very low barrier of entry for delivering content, creating a really high quality content. Is going to require time and experience, but the only way to do that is to truly. Enjoy creating in the first place.

I feel like if you want to create a blog, write down your thoughts on paper, ask a friend or colleague for a review, just publish it. People will give you feedback or they might not. You might not have any people reading. Your blog within the first few weeks, but at some point people will stumble upon a problem and your blog might pop up. So. Then they'll consume it and all of a sudden it goes viral and you get feedback like, man, I love.

The content. But the structure sucks and you can adopt that feedback and then create a better blog and create that again. And all of a sudden you find yourself not being a software developer anymore, but a writer, which I've had conversations with people that have had that journey, which to me is. Phenomenal because that means a small. Seed like you writing a blog, doing that again and finding true enjoyment in doing that. And starting a newsletter and at some point allowing yourself to

do that as a full time job. And then you're not a software engineer anymore. You're a writer Like that sounds like a movie to me in a in a very tech savvy movie, a very tech savvy movie world, that would be movie. And the journey is amazing. Just the fact that we can do that now when it comes to your comfort zone. That's a hard one because I never realized that I'm going to put myself on camera. I'm going to talk and people are going to listen to it. I thought it would be fun to do.

So then I did it. If that is kind of haunting you, if that is daunting, you don't have to release it immediately. You can release it within your inner circles. You can ask feedback over and over and over again until you have a comfort level that you can put your episodes out there, put your blog out there. But honestly, I don't think I would recommend it. I would say just do it like that's the easiest, simplest solution.

This community is very accepts and everyone, anyone and everyone with open arms and feedback. It's not from a place of prejudice, is genuinely from a place of elevating the content, elevating the quality, helping the writer create better content, helping the podcaster create better podcasts. No one has ever told me that they hate my podcasts just for XY and Z. They've always said, well, a lot of the times I get. Your SEO score sucks, but other than that people have said well

this is just a bit too long of a format for me I would love. 30 minute episodes or the intro was too long so we cut down the intro, the 30 minute example like there's a mismatch in what? I want to do versus what they want to consume, but it's always based on elevating the content, making it more tailor made to what? The people need, and that's not from a bad place. That's never negative feedback. It's always just feedback, objective feedback and you can

choose as the content. Creator to adopt it and to listen to that feedback or to have your own. Vision and be like well I understand the feedback but. This is the route we're going. Based on XY and ZI, feel like it's hard to get out of your comfort zone, but that is also where you. Learn the most. So maybe that should be kind of your. Driver. You want to grow. You want to be a writer. Even if you don't, you think you might want to, or you might enjoy this, Then start doing it.

You don't have to release it. Start doing it for yourself and do it over and over and over again. Even if you do it a year without releasing any content, I'm sure you would be able to write a. Book and it will be a solid book down the line because you put in the work and effort. There was a quote, I think somewhere from an anime that accumulated effort has a certain level. Of beauty, which talent does not have. An accumulated effort only comes through accumulated effort.

You have to do something, and you have to do it consistently, and you have to be. Able to retro, how do you say that you have to be able to reflect and improve on that as well and then at the end? If you do that for a whole year, you'll be phenomenal. At whatever you want to do.

All right. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for sending me your questions. This was Q&A number six, which means we've done 6. Rounds. And I'm really proud of that Episode #1 30, if you've enjoyed it. If you have more questions for the next one for the, drop them in the comments below. Send me a direct message on LinkedIn or Twitter, because I always look at that for the questions. That's where all of these. Questions came from as well. And with that being said, thank

you for listening. We'll see you on the next one.