Shownotes
What happens when you have a strong 'why' and feel motivated to get started but don't know what path to take? In this episode, I'm answering an audience question about the next steps when you're not sure where to start.
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Transcripts
I want you to imagine you've decided to take a long
Speaker:trip, but you have multiple options for how you can get to your destination.
Speaker:You could take a car, you could take a train, or you could take a
Speaker:plane. Now, driving gives you a lot of flexibility with your schedule
Speaker:and what you can pack and bring with you. And you might be able to
Speaker:visit places along the way, but it takes more time to get there. Now, the
Speaker:train, it also takes a long time, but you can just sit back, relax, watch
Speaker:a movie, listen to podcasts, read a book, and you don't have to worry about
Speaker:traffic. And. And finally, the plane. It's the fastest option,
Speaker:but maybe you're not a big fan of the lines, the security, and the tight,
Speaker:cramped quarters on the actual plane. All three
Speaker:are viable options, and all three are going to get you to your final
Speaker:destination. But you do need to choose one path,
Speaker:and you can only take one at a time. You can't fly and take the
Speaker:train. You got to pick one. Now, today's episode is all about
Speaker:choosing a path once you have a clear idea of where where you want
Speaker:to go. And it's actually inspired by an audience question. But I've also
Speaker:heard it from others. And the essence of the question is
Speaker:I am an experienced and passionate teacher and I want to
Speaker:reach a wider audience, but I don't know where to start. Do I
Speaker:do a podcast? Do I do videos? Do I do something live? Or
Speaker:is something. Should something be pre recorded? In other words,
Speaker:what do you do when you do you have a strong why, but you're not
Speaker:sure of the next step? And that can feel really paralyzing, especially
Speaker:if we're excited to get going and we feel passionate about the thing that we
Speaker:want to do. But there are multiple paths, and that can be really overwhelming
Speaker:and keep you frozen and therefore no momentum.
Speaker:So I started off with the trip metaphor on purpose because it's sort
Speaker:of a similar situation. You know the direction you want to go, maybe you know
Speaker:exactly where you want to land, but you need to choose the type
Speaker:of transportation because there's more than one option. Now,
Speaker:first and foremost, I think it's really important to recognize
Speaker:that you are just exploring options first.
Speaker:It's like looking up flights, looking up train schedules,
Speaker:driving directions. You want to collect information on the different
Speaker:paths. So there is a little bit of research that is inherent
Speaker:when you are trying to figure out the direction or the path you want to
Speaker:take. Now, because this podcast is the momentum
Speaker:experiment, I'm going to put my spin on it and how you should
Speaker:start doing some of this research. And I want to look at both
Speaker:method and mode. Now, when I talk about method
Speaker:and mode, method, this is where
Speaker:you are choosing something, what you actually do, what are
Speaker:the steps that you take, and what is a method that's effective, that's actually going
Speaker:to get you to your final destination or the place, at least the direction you
Speaker:want to go. Often this is something where we are going to
Speaker:look external. So when we're choosing a method, we are
Speaker:going to research, but we're going to look outside of ourselves and
Speaker:we're going to look for some external information about
Speaker:what are my options, what are the different possibilities I have.
Speaker:And when it comes to mode, this is about asking yourself questions. And
Speaker:so this is more where you are going to look internally
Speaker:and you're going to say to yourself, what works well for me, how
Speaker:do I naturally work? What are some of the things I need to consider? For
Speaker:example, I work well with external expectations and
Speaker:I try to build that into my work. When we are doing this research,
Speaker:we're essentially asking the question for method of
Speaker:what works. And
Speaker:when we are looking at mode, we're looking at what fits.
Speaker:And so these are two different questions I want you to ask. And for one,
Speaker:you look outside, what are my available options? And for the other, you're
Speaker:going to look inside. Now, if we take an example with
Speaker:this content, you can start asking questions like,
Speaker:okay, method, what kind of audience
Speaker:are you trying to get in front of? And where do they spend their time?
Speaker:Are these people on YouTube? Are they spending time on Facebook,
Speaker:Instagram? Do they listen to podcasts? Do they read
Speaker:blogs or substack? Is your message suitable
Speaker:for audio only or is it actually better with a visual
Speaker:element? Especially if you're teaching something, do you want to have that video element?
Speaker:And then also, do you want to have an interactive teaching
Speaker:component while live? Do you want to be able to go back and forth with
Speaker:people? Do you want to have community where people can talk with each other or
Speaker:that you can talk with people? When you start to ask these questions, you can
Speaker:start to narrow down some of the options. For example,
Speaker:if your audience is spending a lot of time on, say, Facebook,
Speaker:that might be a great place to show up and to start teaching
Speaker:and putting things out there, whether you do recorded videos and then you can
Speaker:comment and answer questions, or maybe you do something that's interactive and live.
Speaker:But you'll start to narrow this down when you start to look at what your
Speaker:options are externally, but you also want to look inside and look
Speaker:internally of how do I like to deliver content, how do I
Speaker:like to teach, do I work better with accountability?
Speaker:And. And I use the example of myself all the time with
Speaker:the fact that recording these live and saying I'm gonna record on this day,
Speaker:at this time, knowing people can show up gets me to show up every
Speaker:single week. Whereas just saying I'm gonna record a video is much easier for me
Speaker:to maybe delay, procrastinate, or put off. Now, the other thing too,
Speaker:when you are putting out content and you're teaching something, what about
Speaker:editing and production? Now, I have a friend of mine who
Speaker:actually was helpful inspiration for me for this podcast. And
Speaker:she has time constraints for the type of work she does,
Speaker:but really wanted to start a podcast. And when it came down to it, even
Speaker:though she could do video, she realized that the low lift
Speaker:of an audio podcast, flexible timing, no
Speaker:camera required, so she didn't have to look ready for the camera. It's
Speaker:a lower lift. And it enabled her to just stay on schedule because she had
Speaker:way more flexibility and she could record them in any place as long as
Speaker:she had a good microphone. So that was something that really, really suited her
Speaker:mode. And it also worked for her audience. So she was taking into consideration,
Speaker:does my audience listen to podcasts? And then the other thing around, what kind of
Speaker:thing appeals to you when you picture it, does it excite you? Or maybe does
Speaker:it fill you with dread? So you want to look externally
Speaker:and internally, and asking these questions gives you enough information
Speaker:so that you can start to choose a path. You know, if we think about
Speaker:the travel example, you might be someone
Speaker:who really gravitates towards one type of travel over
Speaker:another, but maybe you have constraints, so you need
Speaker:to take both into consideration and pick the one that is
Speaker:sustainable. Because if you are going to be showing up over and over again to
Speaker:do the thing you care about doing, you're passionate about doing it,
Speaker:you need to look for that sustainability. And that is where I like
Speaker:method and mode together. When you've got something that's effective and
Speaker:repeatable, along with something that fits you and how you're wired,
Speaker:that is where you're going to want to keep showing up over and over again.
Speaker:You won't resist it, you won't get exhausted. Now
Speaker:you have to pick one path. Just like you can't take a plane
Speaker:and a train at the same time, you do need to pick an option.
Speaker:And when it comes to publishing content, I've seen a lot of people
Speaker:stay stuck in that research phase. This is
Speaker:where I really recommend. If you're feeling stuck, feeling frozen, you have a
Speaker:bit of that analysis paralysis where you're not sure what to do. There are
Speaker:two principles I really like to use in this time frame or
Speaker:when you're, when you feel yourself in this situation. One is the
Speaker:commitment principle, and the other is the good enough principle. Let's start with
Speaker:the commitment principle. And this is the idea that
Speaker:you're just dating, you're not getting married, you're. You're just
Speaker:trying out an option to see if you like it. This is not a lifelong
Speaker:commitment. This is not you saying vows in front of an audience.
Speaker:Just go on a date, go on a few dates and see if this
Speaker:is something that works for you. And that's testing both the method
Speaker:is this working? And also testing the mode does it suit you and how
Speaker:you work. The other one is the good enough principle, and that's
Speaker:getting into action as soon as you are good enough to get going.
Speaker:It's recognizing you will never be fully ready
Speaker:because that's impossible. You can't just be immediately good
Speaker:at something. So every time I pack for a trip, I always
Speaker:wish I had more time. And every time I leave the house, especially if I
Speaker:have to catch a plane or a train, I always feel a little bit nervous.
Speaker:But I have to remember, do I have my passport, do I have
Speaker:my wallet? And if I really did forget to pack something, I can figure it
Speaker:out when I'm on the way. I can figure it out when I'm there. It's
Speaker:going to be okay. We just need to start when we've got enough
Speaker:time. Now, if you have a strong why something
Speaker:you're passionate about doing, a pursuit that you really want to do, but you
Speaker:are really not sure where to start, what the next step is.
Speaker:Look externally and look at your options. Also
Speaker:look internally at what do you know about yourself, what are
Speaker:you good at sticking to? And try that out. Pick a path,
Speaker:and you need to give yourself some time. So there, there are actually three different
Speaker:ways that I want you to give yourself time. First, pick a time limit
Speaker:to decide a path. Maybe you give yourself one week,
Speaker:say by the end of this week. I'm going to look at all the information
Speaker:I have and I'm just going to pick a path. The next one is
Speaker:pick a time limit for you to prepare so that you are good enough,
Speaker:ready enough to start. Maybe that's two or three weeks if you're
Speaker:putting together content. If you're going to start doing something regularly, you are
Speaker:probably going to need to gather ideas. You might have to put together some
Speaker:assets, maybe a cover, maybe choose a name if it's
Speaker:going to be a podcast or if you're going to set up a channel that
Speaker:does take time. So give yourself a time frame that's reasonable
Speaker:but also what's reasonable. So maybe two to three weeks, maybe four.
Speaker:Then when you get started I want you to pick a time frame
Speaker:for how long you'll give it a chance. And I would say
Speaker:when it comes to content and putting out regular content, give yourself
Speaker:at least three months, knowing it can take a lot
Speaker:longer to get traction when you are trying to get a
Speaker:message out there. Luckily, when you have a really strong why
Speaker:and then you have a method that's effective and you have a mode that suits
Speaker:how you're wired and how you work, you can keep showing up in a
Speaker:way that's sustainable, consistent and aligned. It's a way
Speaker:that you can find your momentum.
