You already know it's the creator spaces show. Do you consider
creator? I do. And I didn't always, it was a journey of discovering that we all are creators and every time you create a conversation or you do something a little bit differently than a robot, would you are in essence creating. And that was such a freeing realization for me. Previously, I thought of myself as a writer, then I kind of thought of myself as, you know, podcasts are, but then I realized like, oh, what I'm really doing here is I'm creating something new.
And that is such a beautiful feeling because it allows you to go any different direction you want to go in. So I think that the labels we choose to associate with are really important. And I do view myself as a creator. Awesome. And so what
exactly do
you create. Right now it's podcasts is my number one. Focus. Podcasts are conversations and conversations slash interviews are acts of creation in terms of what lens you're asking the questions through how you're approaching the conversation, how you're internalizing the answer. Someone just gave and figuring out what to ask next or where to go next. And so I do viewed the conversations and interviews as acts of courage. I
like it. So you record a video podcast, right? Yes, sir. What was the thought process behind going with video? Why video and why video podcasting and why
YouTube. So initially I just did a strict audio podcast for the first 45 episodes. But the feedback that I got again and again, was, I want more, like I want to see. And I also understood that if I really wanted to expand and get people into the ecosystem, it would probably help for someone to try it out for a little bit and the best way to do it. From my perspective currently is putting up the long form content on YouTube.
And initially I kind of resisted doing it because I figured that it would be so much additional things to learn and it would be really complicated and it's been kind of complicated and there's been a lot to learn, but overall, it's been a great way for me to enter new medium, get people to listen or watch that previously wouldn't have watched if I hadn't put them on YouTube. So that's kind of why I decided.
Nice. And so for those of us who aren't as familiar with the entire body of your work, you mentioned that you first considered yourself a writer, and then you moved into this audio podcasting. Now, would you say most of
your content is video? Yeah, I would say the majority is video slash audio and that's the podcast.
Yeah. How has your thought process around content and around the creation of these things changed as you've moved through
the mediums? I think that when I first started, I kind of expected writing to be the vessel that carried me because I always grew up as like a writer, but throughout the process and the process being the last. Year and a quarter I've transitioned from writing to audio slash video. And I think that's one, a sign of the times where it's easier to create a podcast today than it was say 10 years ago. And it's easier to create video today than it was five years ago.
So what I'm really doing is communicating, and I didn't realize that communication was what I was after to get better at rather than.
Yeah. Well, was there a moment when it all sort of snapped into place for you that the podcast was the thing?
So there were a couple of different things that kind of put it together. At 1.1 was three friends separately told me that I should start a plan. They didn't know that they, they all said that they, it was all random. And, um, I thought to myself, wow, everyone has a podcast. Second time. I was like, you know, that's funny that that person said that as well. In third time, I was like, okay, three people saying this all separately. Like that's got to mean something.
So maybe that's worth considering another. I didn't want to just create a pod. Because a bunch of people said it, right. I wanted it to come from within and be something genuine. That was true to me. And I got that sign when I put out on Twitter and probably June of 2020, who wants to talk on the phone and I would have phone conversations with people. And I learned so much from these phone conversations and people would tell me that they were incredible conversation.
So I said, man, we should probably record these so other people can benefit. And what do you know that turns into a pie? So it was really the combination of friends telling me again and again, and also having these phone conversations that really solidified it in my mind that this was the right path for me to go down.
And so you mentioned you've been at that now for about a year and a half. How many episodes have you gotten through
now? So we've done around nine to 10 months of recording and we've recorded 137 episodes and published, I believe 127. So I've been charting. Yeah.
How do you keep up that sort of pace
myself to a high standard of discipline. And I know I can do it for a week and if I can do it for a week, I can do it for 50 weeks. If I could do it for 50 weeks, I could do it for a hundred. That's how I think is like, can you do it for a day? Okay. Yes. Then can you do it? Multiple days. And it's also like, it comes from a pure place. It's not coming from a place of I'm doing this so I can make money. I'm doing this because I'm curious about people. I want to learn more about them.
And I think that this has the potential to turn into something real and valuable for not just myself, but other people as well. So it's coming from that place. And that gives you the drive to keep going when you don't want to edit a podcast or you're like, am I really doing anything valuable here? It's like, it comes from a bigger purpose than just myself.
So I want to shift gears and talk about building that community and that audience around yourself. How do you go
about doing that? Now? I really just put myself out there and I have no insecurity around putting myself out there because who I am, who I say I am, what I tweet and the things that I would say. And when you're not coming from the place of insecurity, it's like, this is who I really am. And you're proud of it. And you want other people. To see it as well. It leads you to do it a lot.
And so I tweet a lot, a lot of interacting with people which inevitably leads to more good things happening and random things happening in serendipity that you otherwise couldn't have predicted.
Has that changed as you've been a creator?
Yeah. So when I first started putting content online in 2018, I was focusing on e-commerce because that's what I was doing at the time building e-commerce stores and trying to figure out the best ways to market. I was really insecure about, oh, I can't be tweeting that many times. And I was like, so in my head, but it was coming from a place of fear.
And as I've gotten to know myself better by meditating, by looking inward, by spending time with myself, by becoming more self-aware that process has made. Better creator, a more open creator. Uh, so yeah, it's, it's absolutely,
he was like the core thread of a lot of your work. And even of the discussion here is that it starts with the inner work and that radiates out. Where'd you pick that up?
I pick that up from meditating, my men and going inward and trying everything outward and seeing that they weren't satisfied. Right. It starts by looking at the external, if you're not born with that. I think someone like Gary Vaynerchuk, who's a huge inspiration, was born with that self-awareness and ability to look inward, but I wasn't, and I was always looking for the external validation.
Like it was just nonsense, but when that stuff doesn't work for long enough, you eventually get to, okay, let me just sit with my thoughts for 20 minutes. Oh, wow. That was interesting. Something happened there and it's not like that happens the first day, because the first day you go to the gym, nothing really. But by three months of doing that in a row, you're all of a sudden like, wow, that really shifted me on a deep level. And then it becomes, okay, can I go deeper on myself?
Wow. Okay. That helped them. And it's a never ending process. And I'm sure where I am today. I'll look back at and laugh, but it's like along that journey and like how I got to that point of realizing that the inner affects the outer is by looking at the outer so many times and trying to configure the outer to my own liking. But. So, yeah, going inward has definitely shifted my life and I'm really grateful to have found that at 24. Yeah.
So have you monetized
Gary Vaynerchuk has this great quote. It's like whoever holds their breath, the longest wins. And when I think about that in regards to monetization, I'm not really in it for the money I'm in this for the impact that it can potentially have to someone who's 22 years old, who's 47 years old. Like I know that if I hang out with that person a real life, I can create a shift in them because like I've done it with all sorts of people in my own way.
That I know that if someone spends time with me and I can go through some stuff with them, and if I say something that clicks to them, that is my oxygen. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. And it took me a long time to figure that out. And so I'm sure I'll be doing this for a long time and I'm sure. I will find a way to monetize that is congruent with who I am. But right now I have no plans to monetize.
I just want to give, give, give, give, give, and that's the plan for the immediate to mid-term future, for sure. What's your
north star metric for success? How do you know
you're on the right? I really look at the messages that I receive on a daily basis, if not weekly basis, if I have a bunch of print out in my room, but that's really how I determine if I'm on the right path and like a daily check-in of like, how am I feeling with this? How am I doing? Like, do I enjoy the process of it? As much as I did when I first started, it's been very common for me to do something for nine years. And after nine months been like, okay, this is not for me.
And I pretty much followed that a lot in my life, like doing things and trying things out. But with the podcast, I actually enjoyed doing it today more than I did nine months ago. So that's a tell for me that I'm on the right path, but just the messages letting me know, like, okay, those are winks from the universe. I like, I have a bunch of different messages that I have printed out and I have in my bedroom wall. And that is just a great way to wake up or go to sleep.
Just looking at them and I highly recommend that other people do that as well. Just looking at an understanding that your work matters and that you're actually making an impact is such a heartwarming feeling. And to keep it top of mind, it's even better. It's a beautiful thing. And a great reminder when the times get tougher. You're not in that right head. What's your current goal?
My current goal is to continue enjoying what I'm doing on the day-to-day to continue spreading light in the world, making sure that I'm at 100 out of 100, so I can continue to give that 100 out of 100 to the people around. The people on the internet to the world as a whole. So that's the goal.
Normally I would push to try to make this a smart goal, but I think having gone through this conversation, I know that your goal is really to keep doing this forever. Yeah. So last of the questions for you today, if you could send a tweet back to your start, what would it be? And when would it be you get to choose the start.
I don't want to change anything. You know, like that's where my head goes. Like I started giving myself advice at all. It'll end up poorly, but no, seriously, when I graduated college, I would say to myself to start meditating. I don't know if I was in that place ready to start meditating before college. But after college, if I had started meditating started going inward, I could have sped up a lot of what I have done over the past year. And I would have cared a lot less about what other people.
Thought in any given moment. And that would have been tremendously beneficial, not only to myself, but the world around me. So I would just send a quick message at one word message or maybe two words meditate daily to myself three years ago.