Shownotes
It’s one thing to start a podcast, but it’s another do record it live. I’m sharing the wake-up call that helped me realize why I lost momentum on my original YouTube channel and what I'm doing differently with this podcast.
Links
Introduction to the Four Tendencies
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Transcripts
Welcome to the Momentum Experiment podcast. My name is
Speaker:Cat and I teach about momentum, how to find it and also
Speaker:how to keep it. And if you're not familiar, I developed a
Speaker:framework that is called the Momentum Formula and it helps
Speaker:people understand the different ways that you can get stuck. Maybe if you're having
Speaker:trouble getting started or if you are struggling to stay
Speaker:with it, you get started and then you kind of stall again. And, and
Speaker:this is something that's a little bit more recent for me. So before
Speaker:I started teaching this framework, I was actually teaching virtual presenting,
Speaker:primarily on YouTube. And ironically I had some
Speaker:real momentum going on that channel for a while and my
Speaker:tutorials have actually had over 2 million
Speaker:views. But I lost my momentum and I'm going to get
Speaker:into that in this episode, share a little bit about what I've learned. I
Speaker:had a slight wake up call and that has informed what I'm
Speaker:doing now. So I'm going to talk about why I am doing
Speaker:this podcast, take you behind the scenes of why I've decided to try
Speaker:this format. And when I say this format, I mean recording these
Speaker:episodes live, which is not the first one to do it,
Speaker:but not a lot of people do it and I think there's a good reason
Speaker:why. But I'll. I'll be giving you some insight into
Speaker:what happened, what's the instigating moment, and what are some of the things
Speaker:I've learned using the Momentum formula in order to make this decision on
Speaker:this judgment call. I'm also going to share a little bit about what's next and
Speaker:what you can expect because today is the very first episode, so we're going behind
Speaker:the scenes. Let's start off with why a podcast?
Speaker:Because there are lots of ways that I could share about this concept,
Speaker:these ideas, but I do want to get into the why now
Speaker:before I do that, there is a case that you may have never actually
Speaker:heard of the Momentum Formula, the framework, or maybe you just
Speaker:like a little refresher. So I want to explain a little
Speaker:bit about it. And the first concept is to understand that when
Speaker:you are stuck, if you do not have momentum, there are actually
Speaker:three ways you can get stuck. At least that is what I
Speaker:believe. So when we think about these roadblocks, the first roadblock you can
Speaker:experience is when you have a logical roadblock. It
Speaker:you are stuck because you're missing information, you're missing
Speaker:skills, you maybe don't have the tools to move forward. So you
Speaker:actually can't move forward until you solve that and you fill that gap.
Speaker:The next type of roadblock is what I call a biological challenge.
Speaker:This is where you are working against how you're
Speaker:wired. Maybe you're trying to follow advice or follow a plan that
Speaker:just doesn't actually suit you, whether that's how you're wired, your
Speaker:preferences, your expectations, then finally
Speaker:there's psychological. And psychological roadblocks are
Speaker:when you are getting in your own way. So this is more of a
Speaker:mental roadblock where you are self sabotaging
Speaker:or you're letting fear get in the way. You've got some assumptions
Speaker:or beliefs and these are blocking you from making
Speaker:progress. And so those are the three different types. And what I
Speaker:often see is that almost all of us want to solve
Speaker:every roadblock or when we're stuck. Like, it's logical, but because that's
Speaker:the thing we're most comfortable with, it's using our problem solving skills. But we
Speaker:can often ignore the fact that there's something else potentially going
Speaker:on, whether that is working against what naturally works for us,
Speaker:or we've got some kind of hidden under the surface fears
Speaker:that are going on. So when you have one of these roadblocks,
Speaker:you need to approach them and each approach is going to be different. So
Speaker:for a logical roadblock, you need a method. This is a clear,
Speaker:complete method, including knowing what to do, having the skills
Speaker:to do it, and also the tools and the implementation. For a
Speaker:biological challenge, you need to address the mode. This is all about
Speaker:what works for me, how am I actually wired, what's my style
Speaker:of working? And if you think about going, if you've ever been to a fitness
Speaker:class where the fitness instructor will say, okay, this is how
Speaker:you do the exercise, but here's a modification because not
Speaker:everyone has, has moves the same way. Some people have limitations.
Speaker:And then finally psychological. This is all about mindset
Speaker:and needing to look at your mindset, why you might be holding
Speaker:yourself back, what is going on there. And once we address that mindset,
Speaker:we can sort of free ourselves from fears that are holding us back.
Speaker:So when you have all three of these, the method, the mode and the mindset,
Speaker:this is how you find your momentum, but also keep it. Because you can
Speaker:be sustainable, consistent, but, but also aligned when you have all
Speaker:of these things together. So that is a little preview of,
Speaker:okay, this is what the framework is. And when I explain it to people,
Speaker:they will often tell me, oh, I get it, but how does
Speaker:that work in real life? And they want explanations.
Speaker:And so I thought one of the best things I could do
Speaker:is share with you examples in the real world, both my
Speaker:own and other people's examples of how you actually use this
Speaker:framework, how do you use method, how to use mode, how to use mindset in
Speaker:order to address these problems, or how do you even figure out which
Speaker:roadblock you're facing? Because it's not always obvious on the
Speaker:surface. And so when you hear real examples, it'll start to make
Speaker:sense. Now, the reason I went with podcast
Speaker:is because, well, two main reasons. First
Speaker:is unlike my past tutorials, when I would teach tech
Speaker:tutorials and presenting gear, I had to show it,
Speaker:or if I was doing a tutorial that was step by step, you needed to
Speaker:look at the screen so I could show you what to do and you could
Speaker:follow along. But with these concepts, they are much more
Speaker:audio friendly. This is something that you could just listen to and you don't need
Speaker:to be looking at a screen in order to understand these concepts.
Speaker:The second main reason is that I would have often conversations with
Speaker:friends where I would talk about how I was using the framework in my own
Speaker:life. And I have a few friends who would
Speaker:are so patient. And they, they would get voice notes from me and I
Speaker:would hear feedback like, oh, that's so helpful. This is the kind of stuff
Speaker:you should be sharing. And I realized, yeah, they're right.
Speaker:It's like having a conversation. So I do want this podcast to feel
Speaker:like you're having a conversation with a friend who's a bit of a nerd about
Speaker:this stuff and wants to share insight, information, maybe
Speaker:ask you some questions that you can consider. But also just share my own experiences
Speaker:of how I am taking my own advice and using this framework for
Speaker:real challenges. And I will be sharing things that I'm actively
Speaker:working on right now that I haven't fully figured out. So
Speaker:this podcast is one of those things and it comes down to
Speaker:content. So I want to share a little bit about why I've decided to do
Speaker:this live. And this decision
Speaker:came out of a recent experience I had where
Speaker:I was invited to speak to a group of entrepreneurs who
Speaker:use YouTube for their business. And I was specifically
Speaker:asked to come in so I could talk about my strategy of going
Speaker:live, which I used for the first 18 months of my other
Speaker:YouTube channel. I went live almost every week. I took a few
Speaker:breaks, holidays, summer, etc. But I would go live,
Speaker:kind of like I'm doing right now. I would talk at the start,
Speaker:talk at the end, but I would, I would just chop out that middle content
Speaker:and then that would stay up online on my channel. And as I was
Speaker:preparing for this talk, I started to look at the numbers. And I hadn't
Speaker:really looked at my numbers in a very long time. And
Speaker:when I looked at this, I realized I did the calculation.
Speaker:Over the 18 months that I was going live, I averaged
Speaker:about three videos a month. So that takes into account times what
Speaker:holidays, breaks, et cetera, when I then swapped.
Speaker:And I decided I was going to start making recorded content and recorded
Speaker:tutorials instead. Over the subsequent two years,
Speaker:I averaged 1.3 video a month. That's
Speaker:less than half when I switched. And I
Speaker:knew that I was not as consistent when I was recorded. I just never really
Speaker:looked at it in the face like that when I was looking at those numbers.
Speaker:And also at that time, I hadn't developed the framework yet. I didn't
Speaker:have the same perspective I have now. So it suddenly became quite
Speaker:obvious what was going on. And I'm going to explain
Speaker:that to you today because really, it turns out that
Speaker:going live works with how I'm wired
Speaker:and it suits me really well. Recording video,
Speaker:not so much. Not so much. And I'll actually explain
Speaker:with the framework in mind and explain these things.
Speaker:So one of the things I want to share with the formula is that when
Speaker:I say method, I am talking about having a plan. That's another
Speaker:way you could say it, but it incorporates three. Three things for
Speaker:me, or four. Four things. One is knowing what
Speaker:to do so that having the information that you need.
Speaker:The other is how to do it. And I think of this as skills. Do
Speaker:you actually have the skills? Sometimes we need to practice and it might take a
Speaker:little bit of trial and error until you know how to do something. And then
Speaker:it's also implementation. So when are you doing this? Where are you doing
Speaker:this? And also what tools do you need? When I say
Speaker:tools, I do not necessarily mean tech or technology. If you
Speaker:are trying to establish a running hab, then tools would
Speaker:be an example of running shoes are a tool. You need them to run.
Speaker:You also need to know when and where you're going to run. You need to
Speaker:know how long you're going for, what's your technique, and then you also have
Speaker:to actually get out there and try. So a method, when we're looking
Speaker:at something that's complete, that is clear and that's also effective,
Speaker:it's going to move you forward. Now, in my case, with creating content and
Speaker:sharing content, when I was both going live and
Speaker:recording videos, I had a method that was complete. I knew what
Speaker:to do, I knew how to do it. I also had a schedule
Speaker:for each week that I tried to follow. And I also had
Speaker:all of the tools. So I did have a complete method. But I noticed
Speaker:that I, when I switched to recorded, I
Speaker:started skipping videos that I had planned to make. I would push
Speaker:back when I would publish them. I was also taking
Speaker:way too long to make the. The videos. They were just
Speaker:ballooning to take up just so much more time than when I
Speaker:was going live. And so what I realized is the issue is
Speaker:actually with my mode. And the mode also has
Speaker:four components. Now I use the acronym BEEP when I talk about the
Speaker:mode, but this stands for Biology, environment, expectations,
Speaker:and Preferences. Now, I'm not going to go deep
Speaker:into all of them in particular, actually, I just want to talk about three.
Speaker:Three for me for this example. And the first is
Speaker:expectations. When I was going live, I would
Speaker:tell people, I'm going to be live at this time. And so I would show
Speaker:up even if I didn't feel like it that day. Maybe I had a bit
Speaker:of a headache, maybe I didn't sleep well. I said I was going to be
Speaker:there, other people might show up, so I'm going to show up.
Speaker:That was what I would consider a real expectation. And
Speaker:it worked. I showed up even when I didn't want to.
Speaker:But when it switched to recorded video, that changed.
Speaker:I would think, oh, you know, I really, I'm not feeling up to it today.
Speaker:I, maybe I can do this next week. Nobody's really sitting there waiting
Speaker:for a specific release date. No, I'm just. This is personal to me.
Speaker:Some people, their release date, that is an external
Speaker:expectation, but for me, it wasn't strong enough. I would just kind of push it
Speaker:back and have those excuses. And this is because people are wired differently
Speaker:for their expectations. And also highly recommend the
Speaker:Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin where she
Speaker:explains that we respond to inner and
Speaker:outer expectations, where we either tend to meet them or resist them.
Speaker:And I am a person who tends to resist inner expectations, but
Speaker:I tend to meet outer expectations. So if I have a goal
Speaker:and I don't have any outer expectations by creating them,
Speaker:like saying I am going to go live at this time, that was
Speaker:my way of turning something into an outer expectation
Speaker:and just saying I publish videos every Thursday or something. That
Speaker:wasn't enough for me when it came to recorded content. The other thing
Speaker:with environment is that when I go live and there are actually people
Speaker:there, they're in the chat, they're being supportive, they're asking
Speaker:questions. That is amazing. For me, it's A way
Speaker:to create content that is fulfilling. It lifts me up. I
Speaker:love it. It's. It's a sense of community. And one of those things is
Speaker:that I. That environment is. It feels
Speaker:collective. When I think about the environment of just recording content on your
Speaker:own, it can feel really, really isolating as well. So when I looked at environment
Speaker:and the way I like to work, I do really like the
Speaker:live format. I mean, I'm always someone who has enjoyed running
Speaker:workshops, running live classes. And so it's not surprising
Speaker:that the environment I would gravitate towards or where I really feel present and
Speaker:alive is when other people are around. And then the final one I want to
Speaker:touch on today is preferences. And that's just what you like. And
Speaker:for me, I love presenting to a live audience. Now,
Speaker:many people hate this. I know that I might be an outlier, but I love
Speaker:running a workshop or doing a presentation or speaking.
Speaker:And so when I would go live, it felt like that. And that's what
Speaker:I like. And I like creating content that way. So what I'm saying
Speaker:here about the mode is it's all about working with how you're wired.
Speaker:And when you have that effective and complete method
Speaker:combined with a mode that works for you, it's sustainable.
Speaker:If we're working against ourselves, it's like swimming against a current. It's
Speaker:like, yes, you could probably make it across the lake
Speaker:even if there's a current against you, but you're not going to want to show
Speaker:up and do it over and over and over again. And so to be sustainable,
Speaker:you want the combination of both of those things. Now, I do want to touch
Speaker:on mindset, because mindset is also part of this. And when I
Speaker:think about mindset, I like to break it down into, you know, we have
Speaker:our why. This is the thing that drives us. I also
Speaker:like to use the term desired identity, the person we want to be.
Speaker:And a lot of traditional advice says, tap into your why, you need
Speaker:to know your why. But a lot of traditional advice also
Speaker:sort of doesn't address the question of the why, not that other half.
Speaker:And it's this dreaded identity, the person we don't want to be.
Speaker:And when it came to my content creation in the past, I think this
Speaker:did play a role where when I was going live, I had
Speaker:this certain expectation of, I'm showing up, this is
Speaker:live, it's interactive, mistakes are going to happen. When I
Speaker:switched to recorded content, suddenly you. My mindset
Speaker:shifted. And I think that my expectations went up
Speaker:where I felt like the Quality had to go up, it had to be
Speaker:better, it had to be more polished. I couldn't have mistakes. If it wasn't a
Speaker:good take, I should take, I should do another one because this is recorded.
Speaker:And I started to put a lot of pressure on myself of what the end
Speaker:result should be. And I think part of it is I didn't want to come
Speaker:across as someone who's making recorded content for YouTube and
Speaker:sucks at it. And I know that that seems like a stretch
Speaker:because I've been making content for a while. People were finding it, they were watching
Speaker:it, so what's the difference? But in my head, my mindset and my
Speaker:assumptions about the difference between live and between recorded, it
Speaker:shifted things for me and I think it elevated those expectations.
Speaker:Now, I won't get into this in this specific episode,
Speaker:but there were other things going on at the time that were affecting me, especially
Speaker:with my why. And I started to question, why am I doing this and what
Speaker:am I doing this for? And so it wasn't just all mode.
Speaker:There were things going on in my life at those times where I was
Speaker:inconsistent, where I wasn't showing up regularly. So it wasn't
Speaker:exclusively about the content. And I just
Speaker:want to emphasize that sometimes there are other things that are going on that are
Speaker:playing a factor of why we might be holding ourselves back, but
Speaker:that gives you an essence of why.
Speaker:Live actually suits me so much better when I look at that mode,
Speaker:just showing up, presenting like I'm talking to a live audience,
Speaker:which I am right now. And if you are listening to the
Speaker:recording, you're welcome to join for the live version. Now,
Speaker:the other reason that I was gravitating
Speaker:towards this way of creating content, the recording
Speaker:live, and then putting up the recording the next day is, is that we
Speaker:are currently living in a world that is full, just
Speaker:full of AI generated content. And
Speaker:there are people predicting that AI generated content is going to, in
Speaker:a year or two, it's going to be 90% of the content that's out there.
Speaker:That is frankly just frightening to me. But I can already
Speaker:see it happening. And even as a consumer, when I go and look at stuff,
Speaker:I know that some content of people I admire is actually being
Speaker:generated by AI and. And it's getting harder to trust
Speaker:what's real and what's not. And I think that by showing up live where
Speaker:you could come and be in the chat and I can answer
Speaker:questions in real time, so you know it's me that you're actually talking to and
Speaker:even if you aren't joining live just knowing that you could be there
Speaker:and that that is how I'm recording it. It. I think it just adds an
Speaker:element of knowing that, yes, this is me. I am showing
Speaker:up and doing this. I am not just entering a script that was generated
Speaker:by AI to use my voice and my likeness to create
Speaker:content. I am not doing that with this podcast.
Speaker:Now, as for this experiment and this whole
Speaker:podcast is an experiment that based on my past experience, based on what I know
Speaker:about how I work and how I'm wired, my hypothesis is
Speaker:that I will be more consistent and I'll also take less
Speaker:time because I have that constraint of just showing up
Speaker:at at this time. You need to be ready and trusting that the content
Speaker:is going to be good enough. We're going to find out if this works as
Speaker:well as I think it's going to work. Will I actually be consistent? Will I
Speaker:manage my time better? I mean, I guess you'll find out and it helps
Speaker:if you subscribe or follow the podcast. Shameless Plug
Speaker:now for what's next. I'm going to be sharing other experiments in my
Speaker:life, things that I am currently working on,
Speaker:things that I have been struggling with and looking through the
Speaker:framework and applying it so you'll get an example of
Speaker:this is what it looks like to use the momentum formula in order to
Speaker:make adjustments. And it is about testing, it's about trial and error.
Speaker:And I'll also use the podcast to dive a little deeper into some of the
Speaker:concepts that I've mentioned today and also some concepts I haven't
Speaker:mentioned around the framework and how you can use this moment model.
Speaker:And I'd love to answer your questions. So if you have questions,
Speaker:please let me know. You can leave them in the YouTube comments. I also have
Speaker:a forum that I'm going to link to so that you could submit a question.
Speaker:And then that way I can also use those questions going forward for this
Speaker:podcast. But that's a little look behind the scenes of why I decided
Speaker:to do this way, do it this way, why I'm recording the podcast
Speaker:live, also just why I'm doing the podcast at all. And I do
Speaker:sincerely hope that you will join me for this experiment.
