Leaping into the Unknown: A Primer for Beginning Your Dream Project

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Get ready as we take a deep dive into the world of starting new things. Ever contemplated launching a podcast, a YouTube channel, or even penning a book? Or perhaps there's a business idea you've been sitting on? Well, this episode has your name written all over it. With a dash of my personal experiences, a sprinkling of hard-earned lessons, and a generous helping of insights from past guests, we challenge the idea of feeling unprepared. So, put on those headphones and prepare to confront the biggest obstacle to starting - the belief that you're not ready yet.

We will also discuss the need for a strategy when commencing with limited resources. My journey has taught me the necessities - setting deadlines, making progress over perfection, and comprehending your motivations. We delve into how to leverage free and cheap resources to kickstart your project too.

Remember, perfection isn't the goal, starting is! So, whether you're toying with a creative pursuit or somewhere in the process, this episode is your treasure trove of useful nuggets. Listen in, get inspired, and remember - all it takes is one small step to start.

As always, thank you for listening to We All Have Something.  If you wish to connect with Rick beyond the podcast:
Website: www.CoachRickSchwartz.com
YouTube: @RickSchwartz
Threads: @Coach_Rick_Schwartz
Instagram: @Coach_Rick_Schwartz
Facebook Page:  @CoachRickSchwartz
Threads: @Coach_Rick_Schwartz

***If you are having any thoughts of self harm and need someone to reach out to please call: 1-800-273- TALK (8255)
Or use the new 988 number for calling or texting for support.


Episode Music "Inspiration Corporate" by Sandra Inspiration Music
Music rights purchased through AudioJungle.

Nothing in this podcast should be taken as therapy, medical or mental health care. Topics discussed on this podcast reflect the personal experiences of the host and guests of We All Have Something and are not intended to, nor should they, replace the services of medical care, mental health care or therapy.

If you are having thoughts of self harm or ending your life, please call or text 988 - Help is available 24/7.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:22

Welcome to another episode of We All Have Something a listener supported podcast. Now, if you're listening to this when it came out, we're in the middle of July or just about It's July 12th when this episode drops. If you're listening to this a little bit later, that's okay. This still applies And I, purposely, am dropping this now because, let's see, right before July started, i released an episode about the mid-year review, about how we like to take this time of year to look at where are we with the goals and aspirations we set for the new year And halfway mark. It's a good time, like any half time, to reassess, reevaluate and refocus. It's time to see how we have been doing and if we haven't been doing well, what do we need to adjust. And if we're doing well, then what do we need to keep going? Can we push ourselves a little further or do we need to maybe relax a little bit to help keep a balance? Now, before I get into this episode completely, i do want to say if you are interested in being a supporter of this podcast, you can just click the first link that you find in the episode notes. When you click on that, you can find out more information on how to be a monthly supporter. Now, monthly supporters help us keep this ad free and all of you supporters are already out there supporting this podcast. Thank you so much. You're helping me cover the costs of producing this and it really helps out a lot. And as I save a little bit as well, i'm going to get some better equipment, a better mic and all that because, really, when I first started this podcast what three seasons ago, almost three years ago now I had no budget, so I bought the very basic equipment that you could possibly find and that's what I'm still using. Thankfully, it sounds good, it's not horrible equipment, but I wouldn't mind upgrading a few things. So that's where we're heading with the supporter stuff. And keep in mind, if you do choose to support, of course I'll send you a direct email with gratitude and thanks, and abundance of gratitude at that, because I really do appreciate it. You'll also be sent a couple of stickers where you can, you know, put them on your water bottle, your computer, your car, wherever you want to put a cool sticker, and if you are up to it, with your permission, of course, i will mention your name on air. Now we do have one new supporter for this episode, but that person has asked not to be mentioned on air. So I appreciate you, i know you're listening and you know who you are, so big hugs to you. Thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 2:27

I'm Rick Schwartz, life coach, public speaker and all around curious guy. My curiosity, my life and the lives of the many people I have worked with have taught me time and time again that there are challenges to overcome and successes to celebrate. You're listening to. We All Have Something a podcast about the human experience, a podcast about celebrating our authentic self. So let's get started. I purposely planned this episode to come out in mid-July because I wanted to be on the heels of the episode that came out in late June, before July started, and this is something that I wanted to address. This is not an actual how to start a podcast. It is not that, but I will be referencing some of those things, and that is in part because I had a conversation with a couple of people on how to start a podcast. They are looking to do so And, as you know, obviously because you're listening, i have this podcast that I've started from nothing, all on my own.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Do it right here in my spare bedroom in my home. I'm also lucky enough that my day job has me work on a podcast as well for another organization, and so I'm familiar with the podcast world. If you will, i will say this too. Even though I'm three seasons in on this podcast, i consider myself fairly new to the podcast world and I really consider myself still at a point of learning a lot. I do recognize I have learned some already in these three seasons and doing the other work that I do elsewhere, but I feel like I'm still learning, and so when someone comes to me says, hey, how do you start a podcast, i will flat out say look, i will just share with you what I've done. I don't know if it's the right thing or not, i'm not sure it's the best plan, but it's what I have done thus far And this is what I've learned along the way.

Speaker 1: 4:11

So what is this episode about? Well, this episode is about starting that thing, whatever that thing is for you. You need to start, the biggest blocker for anyone wanting to start something, whether it's a podcast, a YouTube channel. Start writing your book, your poetry, do your artwork, do your photography, any of those things. Jump away from the corporate world to do your own business. The biggest blocker is the fact that you think you're not ready yet. Now I want to do a callback to the couple episodes ago.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Back in June, laura Gastner-Oding was a guest on the show. She has written some great books, had great insight, and one of the things I took away from the interview with her that is still stuck with me is that idea that once someone sees themselves in a particular position or job or doing a certain thing, they can't unsee it. And what we know about the science of the mind is that once your brain is visualized something, it doesn't necessarily know if it did or did not happen. Therefore, it's a type of reality, almost. If there's something you've been wanting to do, you want to become a chef or a baker, you want to do your own podcast, your own YouTube channel, write poetry, paint again all these possible things. Maybe you want to be a landscape architect. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 5:29

But if this is an idea that just popped in your head today, okay, let it stew, let it simmer. If this is something you've been kicking around for a long time and you keep coming up with reasons why you can't do it yet, that you're going to eventually, but not yet. There's this I got to do and there's that Oh, i'm just not ready yet. I haven't learned enough. I'm encouraging you in this episode to start. The value in doing your homework is truly there, but set yourself a timeline. If you've been kicking something around for years and still haven't quite gotten ready to start it yet, it's time to set a deadline for yourself. If you have just started the idea, you know I've been listening to your podcast, rick, and I kind of want to start one too. I think I've got some really cool ideas for a podcast and some good guests I could line up, and you just now started thinking of it and you're asking questions. That's perfect too.

Speaker 1: 6:15

You do need that exploratory stage, so my journey to starting my YouTube channel is a great example. I kept going. I want to do this. I want to create a channel where I can do some coaching type stuff in that video that I could share with people and people can gain insight and knowledge from. I wanted to share that information with people, and I talked about the YouTube channel right now because I started it before the podcast.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Here's the thing I had convinced myself I need to write camera, i need a tripod, i need some lighting, i need proper mics. I need, i need, i need And I came up with a laundry list of things I needed before I could even start putting videos on YouTube. That was cost prohibitive. I work for a non-profit during the day, i've got my own side job, but I've got plenty of bills. I live in a very expensive city, which is a great city, san Diego. I love San Diego, but, man, the price of living here has gone through the roof. So it was cost prohibitive to buy a video quality camera, a tripod, a mic, some light stands, some lights create a space somewhere where I could shoot these videos and do everything. Just right, because I was watching all these YouTubers, you know, watching these people who are just knocking it out of the park. Oh yeah, and, by the way, you need editing material. You need editing software for your computer. You need to buy into getting music and all this stuff. You know other things you need for sound. And it just was all there standing in front of me as a big blocker why I couldn't start.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Yet I started watching videos on YouTube on how to start a YouTube channel. What are the things to do if you're on a budget, and there were a couple of people like look, just start using your phone. What you need to do is just start. So I put together some ideas I wanted to put for videos. I shot them on my phone. They were not the greatest of quality, the sound wasn't that good. But let's be honest, phones nowadays, smartphones nowadays, the video quality is pretty darn good And the sound is pretty darn good. And you can buy a fairly inexpensive mic to adapt to your phone with an adapter, excuse me, so it connects to your phone. So the equipment cost suddenly was nearly zero. I mean, it was under a hundred bucks to start making videos. You can upload videos directly from your phone to YouTube. You can edit with apps fairly inexpensively or free, if you wanted to. Some of these apps if you do spend maybe 30 or 40 bucks for buying it outright also come with music and different little extra things.

Speaker 1: 8:35

And suddenly I realized that my excuses of waiting to get all this stuff before I could start and no longer existed. So I started And I'll tell you what. The first couple videos weren't that good. The quality wasn't that good. A lot of them never went through the process of being posted. I did edit, though I was editing them, adding sound, doing scene changes, adding music titles, things like that because I needed to get comfortable with how to do that. And now it's to the point where I can comfortably shoot a video. I can edit it, get it ready to go up in YouTube. Yes, it looks like it was shot on a phone, but that's okay, it's acceptable. It doesn't have to be perfect. A lot of these are handheld. The sound is right straight to phone, not always with a mic, in fact, very rarely with a mic. And I'm doing it. And I'm doing it because I want to get that content out there.

Speaker 1: 9:25

So now we jump fast forward into the podcast. What is it that I needed to do to start a podcast? I really thought it was another great avenue to communicate with people, different concepts and ideas around coaching, improving our lives, getting good mindsets, things like that just all the quality stuff. And so I was like, okay, well, you gotta come up with a title. What's it gonna be called? Then how am I going to actually record this and on what equipment? and then, how do I distribute it? Because it's different than doing YouTube. Youtube, you upload a video and it's there. Podcasting's different on how it works with the RSS feed and everything else, and I didn't even know what a RSS feed was.

Speaker 1: 9:58

So what did I do? I spent time exploring. I gave myself first a few months to educate myself, to really see if this is something I wanted to do. At the time, i was not doing this for work. Also, at my day job, i was not doing any podcasting, so I was exploring the idea of doing my own podcast on my own. I gave myself a few months to read some books, watch some videos, look at other podcasts, how they're being done, how they're being presented.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Once I educated myself on the least expensive way to do this because, again, it can be cost prohibitive. There's a lot of equipment you can buy for sound, and headphones and mic and all these other things and mixers, and, again, you could buy a very expensive version of sound editing equipment, just like you could for video editing as well. I found, though, that a lot of podcasters was like look, there's free editing, sound editing equipment on your computer. If you've got an Apple, it's gonna be the garage band. If it's on Microsoft, if you've got a Microsoft based computer, there's different free ones. Also, there's different things you can download for free sound editing.

Speaker 1: 11:00

So I started looking into that process. What would it cost to get a mic and a mic stand? What would it cost to get some headphones? What's the cheapest ones that aren't gonna be complete junk but also aren't gonna bankrupt me? And look, there's microphones out there that are like four, five, 600 bucks. After doing some homework and research I realized you could buy a beginning podcaster kit off of Amazon, for I think it was under 200 bucks, i think it was like 120, 130, and it included headphones, mic, mic stand. All this stuff plugs right into my computer. I can record this directly into garage band. I can edit in garage band Bada bing, bada, boom. My distributor. I did homework on best distributors for price point and what was gonna work for me. When I was trying to accomplish, i found Buzzsprout. I love them. I've been with them all three seasons And really it's pretty amazing. They continue to improve their product without changing the price point, which has been pretty awesome to ride that wave. I just I can't say enough about them. But all of that said that process that I went through.

Speaker 1: 11:54

The point that I want to share with you is you need to start. You can go on forever with. I'm just not quite ready yet. I'm just I'm not there yet. I don't know if I could start doing that yet. And this is whether you're looking to do coaching. This is whether you're looking to start your own business, whether you want to again write poetry, paint paintings, do a podcast, youtube channel, any of it that might apply to you. Whatever it is you've been thinking about doing. I would like to start doing that, but you keep coming up with reasons not to do it. Give yourself some deadlines. Put some marks on the calendar of when you are going to start a certain step on doing this.

Speaker 1: 12:30

You're never going to be fully ready, i guarantee you. You will never be fully ready. You won't be fully ready to start your podcast or your YouTube channel. You won't be fully ready than once you do start it To do to record an episode. You can try and fine tune all the things about your episodes or your podcast or anything until you know you expire, but you'll never get it done. So just start. And yes, at first it's not going to sound or look good, and that's okay.

Speaker 1: 12:56

What you need to be striving for is not perfection, but for process. I know we hear that a lot and like, okay, yeah, great, you know you're already doing it. Just blah, blah, blah. Listen, if you are working on this stuff, for the process of doing it, for the fact that you know you're going to be putting in as they say, putting in the reps to get better, then you are eventually going to get to that point where people will look at your content and go, wow, that's really good. How'd you learn to do that? You learn to do it by doing.

Speaker 1: 13:22

If you're waiting for your content to be up there, with someone who's already three, four seasons into their podcast, seven, 800, 900 episodes already into their podcast or their YouTube channel or whatever, or published poetry, you are being very unfair to yourself. Those people did not start there. You are not going to start there, but you need to start. You need to start. If you have visualized and seen yourself in the position of doing this stuff, then you know it's possible. Your brain's already like well, we can do that, so start the process. Now here's the other side of it, because I do work with college students. I want to make sure and I know I have some that listen I want to make sure you understand this.

Speaker 1: 14:01

One of the key things to success is understanding why you're doing what you're doing. Are you doing it for the legitimate reason of wanting to do the thing, or are you looking to do this because you want the results of what it looks like when someone does this as well? What I mean by that is, in today's world, where there is a lot of, you get to see 5% of what someone's life is like, and you only get to see the 5%. That is the best of the best of the best. That's the best 5% of their life, and you get to see that part and they're like oh yeah, by the way, i'm a podcaster, i'm a YouTuber or I write books, and you're like I want to write books because I want to be like that person. What I see them putting out there on social media or what's in the news, or media in general, or how they present themselves.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Now, here's the deal, though. The other 95% of their life is working, is learning processes, collaborating with people to make things happen. This is not just you're going to make a podcaster YouTube channel, write a book, and then you'll live that perfect 5% lifestyle that you get to see. In fact, i'd be willing to bet they don't even live that 5% lifestyle, completely. Some of that's probably set up for image purposes.

Speaker 1: 15:10

If you want to make a podcast, write a book, start a YouTube channel or write poetry or whatever it may be for you that you're looking at going, i want to do that. Ask yourself, why do I want to do that? It looks interesting, cool, awesome, love it. It looks fun. I think it'd be something I would be good at and would enjoy. Excellent, the process is intriguing to me. I'm curious about how to edit stuff. I want to learn how to edit sound or video Wonderful. I want to be able to collaborate with those people and talk to them about what they do. Their success makes me curious and I want to learn how they got there. That sounds like you might be interested in interviewing people, either for a book or a podcast, whatever.

Speaker 1: 15:48

If you ask yourself why you want to do this and it's because I want to live that really cool lifestyle I assume a podcaster lives or a YouTuber lives or an author lives, or again, add whatever version you're looking at lives. Double check, double check, because you are going to put in a lot of work for several years before you'll even get a glimpse at the upper echelon sparkly, pretty picture that you see being put out there by other people. And the reason I say that is not to pop your balloon and burst your bubble, but the reason I say that because that's the reality. If you start with the idea that you're going to have that beautiful 5% lifestyle we've been talking about, you're going to be very disappointed and you'll be very upset with yourself and you're going to feel like a failure and you'll be hard on yourself and we don't need that. We need to be honest with what we're doing and why we're doing it. We need to be honest with what motivates us and what we're trying to accomplish. We need to be honest with the fact that it's going to be a process, and that's okay. Really relish that process of learning and experiencing.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Like I said, i've been doing this for three years now and I still feel fairly new. Like I'm still learning. I'm still asking people about how they do it, what do they do. I'm still reading articles and researching stuff as well. But I do want to encourage you to start. I really, really do. And listen, there's no harm in starting and going. Oh well, that's not what I thought. That's actually another reason why some people don't start They're afraid that they start and tell all their family and friends, hey, this is what I'm doing now and it doesn't work out.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Everyone's going to think something about them Oh, you're a failure, oh, that didn't work. Oh, i told you it wouldn't work. Who cares what they think? Who cares? And you're like well, i do, rick, listen, here's the deal. Everyone's going to have an opinion about you and what you're trying to do, but their opinion is based on their experience. Only They're going to tell you you're not going to do well and fail at it because they feel they wouldn't do well and they would fail at it.

Speaker 1: 17:37

Find yourself that when you want to start something and it's calling to you, it's coming through you, that this is something you want to do, you need to do, and people around you like ah, really, you're not very good at doing, i don't know. You're not very good at speaking, so you shouldn't be a podcaster. Well, guess what, the more you do podcasting, the better you become. So let them say that. Let your first couple episodes sound horrible. Let them say, yeah, you're, what are you doing? Keep at it. If it's what you want to do, if you feel a calling, something you're supposed to do, then start. Don't worry about what they're going to say.

Speaker 1: 18:11

And here's the other side of it. Just like I said before, if you do start and it doesn't work out and you just say, ah, not for me, that's called a learning experience. And here's the other part of that. When we do something and it doesn't work and it fails, guess what? There's some nuggets of knowledge along the way that you have picked up, whether you see them or not, or realize them or not. You have learned something along the way about yourself, about processes, whatever it may be, maybe other people, who knows? But I can't encourage you enough to go ahead and start the process. If you need to learn more first, then learn more, but set a deadline. Okay, after six months of learning, i'm going to start. After three months of learning, i'm going to start. Whatever it may be, the value in doing this for you, your personal growth, your mindset, challenging yourself, saying, look, i stood up and I tried. You're going to look back on that and you can be proud of that, regardless of the outcome. That's what's important, regardless of the outcome.

Speaker 1: 19:02

And again, this is the middle of July, right now. So now's the time to start. Now's the time to start. The days are long, the days are warm. Well, i guess for my friends in Australia that, listen, it's the other way around. But either way, now's the time to start. Honestly, why wait? Why wait? You might have even thought about starting this back in January, the new year, for halfway through the year already. Let's do it, let's go.

Speaker 1: 19:24

If you're looking for somebody to keep you accountable, someone to go through some things with you and really help you kickstart, get ahold of me. Go to coachrickshortscom. That's my coaching website. Sign up for a free discovery call. We'll connect for 30 minutes on Zoom. We'll chat about what's going on. If it sounds like we're a good match, then my coaching is going to help you and you're like, yeah, Rick, i want you as my coach, then we'll go from there as a coach and client. And if not, hey, no big deal. We can chat about what's going on and say, okay, well, here's my advice on that, here's my thoughts on that, and have a nice day, whatever it may be. But just go to coachrickshortscom. You'll also find all my social media links there as well. If you wanted to search Coach Rick Schwartz on social media, i'll pop up. Zoom is there, instagram, facebook, all of them. They're there And, of course, i do hope you found some value in this episode, whether it was an inspiration to get started finally, or something like oh, you know what, my brother needs to hear this because he needs to finally start that project.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Well, go ahead and share it. You know, that's how this grows. It's that ripple effect I talk about in every episode You being kind, you doing something, whether sharing information, whatever it may be. That ripple effect is how we change the world, and I appreciate the fact that you're here listening and that you are looking to improve your life and you might even want to share so others can improve theirs. That'd be pretty awesome. All right, thanks again for listening. I really do appreciate it. Have a good one everybody.