Being You
No one can tell you how to be you. You can look to others for inspiration, you can ask someone you trust for their advice or you can forge your own path on your own but only you will truly know. Do you make decisions because they feel right or because the data says so? Both are solid data points pulling from different directions. Being informed by both and letting them influence which way you lean is my favourite method.
The data told me that interviewing 100 people would take around 600 hours. At an hourly rate of say $90 p/hr, there was an opportunity cost of $54,000 to undertaking the project. Then there were the direct resourcing costs for the team that supported content publication. Three people across three countries on three different continents. If you counted the development guys in Vietnam and my Netflix style site designer in Queenstown, you can add in two more countries and another continent. The data was saying this was a significant undertaking, and that it would not be possible to do this without charging a interviewee fee. I didn’t want to do this, because it would have created an expectation, and that morphs a personal challenge project into a commercial venture which would have defeated the whole purpose. OK so the data was saying, are you really sure you want to give up 54k in potential earnings, spend 10–20k on content publishing and promotion and all for what? What’s the ROI?
The Calling
I couldn’t see a way forward without producing something new, a super fresh digital format that wasn’t a copy from America, that rewarded the motivated listener and demanded a curious audience, not just a thumb scroll viewer. It was going to force me to learn entirely new digital publishing aspects including audio and video first channels like Soundcloud, iTunes and YouTube as well as build a Netflix style website, of which only Soundcloud was clearly visible back in January 2016. Who would listen? I didn’t know. Who would subscribe? Not sure about that either. All I knew was that I wanted to create a platform for business owners to tell their story, long form audio style with all the nuances of language and inflexion yet without all the judgemental aspects that come with stories told through film. Audio is more accepting than video. This prescience came even more into focus as feeds started to fill up with more and more sensationalist news sometimes called fake news. Audiences were going to want a respite. A place to escape. The interviews were going to be it.
I didn’t know that back then, and that’s the beauty of driving forward with only a headlights worth of visibility in front of you; you must discover things along the way.
Long Journeys
The thing about long journeys is they feel longest at the beginning when you’re thinking about the ending. It’s like thinking about your wedding, and you haven’t even asked the girl out on a date yet. It creates tension in your mind, like stretching a rubber band between two hands. At some point one hand will have to let go. After you’ve set off on your path, you’ll have pangs of regret, of turning back and of wanting to change your ultimate destination. These are there to test you. Do you want it enough? There were plenty of times I decided I didn’t, but only one real period where the interviewing really cooled and that was back in March less than 2 months after the starting gun sounded. I was overseas thinking, did I want it enough? No. I didn’t. That was it. I’m done. I was on the side of the road and the car was idling, but I wasn’t going anywhere. That feeling was what I call a moment of truth. You either turn the key in the ignition to the off position, or you reach for the gear stick and flick it back into drive. Black or white. One or Zero. Park or Drive. I chose drive. Whew.
The Practicality of Impatience
Impatience to just get there, was part of the driving force, however it’s a rival sibling to frustration. Sometimes frustration wins and you’re pulled over on the side of the road, sometimes impatience wins and you’re back on the highway at cruising speed, even overtaking previous obstacles that seemed distant and insurmountable. That’s the little trick you can play on your mind to employ impatience or relieve frustration.
Simply mentally switch gears and imagine a more achievable destination as the goal, albeit temporarily.
The 20th episode was the first mini-goal, then the 30th episode, then the 40th and man, the 50th felt like I had actually finished. As it happens, today I complete the 70th episode. It hasn’t been through post production so I can’t link to it yet, but this time I don’t have that feeling of finishing, just the relief that another 10 uniquely amazing stories have been told.
Not Being You
I started out this chapter with the title ‘Being You’. How do you know? I think it’s easier to feel when you’re not being you. There’s dissonance and that’s OK because it means you have outgrown your situation and you’re ready for a change, you’re ready to move on or move up. Not being yourself can also feel frustrating because you were happy and content yesterday and nothing outwardly has changed, so why the change? Growth. Where do you start? Take massive action. That way, you’ll shift how you feel, what you go on to do and ultimate what you get back in return. Then look back a little. Are you closer to being you? Keep going. If not, take massive action again.
