just an honest update.

Hey guys. I have been doing some personal reflecting recently and I shared something with a friend of mine that felt really uncomfortable to share but also really freeing to share. And I told him that I no longer had the energy to hold up a facade anymore. And I didn't even consciously realize that I was, I guess, holding up a facade or a character. But sometimes when I watch my YouTube videos, I feel like I'm watching a character that is not actually me. It feels like a projection of who I think I'm supposed to be rather than who I really want to be. And I have really missed the days of creating content where I just got in front of the microphone and shared what was on my heart and what was working for our community and what was working in my businesses or not working in my businesses. And. And for whatever reason, somewhere in the last couple of years I've gone through periods in which I felt like we had to do things to grow rather than do things because they were enjoyable or because they felt real or because they felt important. Sometimes that looks like booking guests that you think are going to get views rather than booking guests that you feel have something to share with the world or that you feel like would add value to your community. Sometimes that means structuring the title of a podcast or a video around what's going to get clicks rather than what's going to draw in the people that you think you can help. And sometimes that means making a way to click baity thumbnail in order to drive up the metrics so that you get virality on YouTube. And I've gone through periods where sometimes that's more alluring and sometimes that is more enticing than other times. And recently I've had more of the awareness that I don't want to feed the machine. That is the character that I sometimes play on the Internet. And I wanted to share this with you one because you might see a little bit more of a relaxed tone here on the show, here on YouTube or the podcast. Also, I feel compelled to talk about things that I think are important that don't match the thesis or the idea of what I think will get us customers@capitalism.com it's a really just a shitty feeling when you feel like you have to make content in order to get customers. That sucks. That's just not who I ever wanted to be. And when I get stressed.

That'S who I default to becoming and I don't want to do that. It's not life giving at all and it doesn't attract the People that you want to work with anyway. And the third reason is I just wanted to be real and authentic with you guys because I've been making content on the Internet for almost two decades. And even after this many reps, I still go through periods in which I get tempted by the clicks or I get distracted by what I think I'm supposed to be like, or this is working for this person over here. And so we should completely change the way do we do content to be more like this? And none of those questions or those distractions have anything to do with what I or we want to create in the world. It's all about getting the ego metrics to reflect what you think is going to make you feel good about yourself. And if I struggle with that or I go through periods in which I struggle with that, there's probably a lot of people who are earlier in their content career who also struggle with that. And I just wanted you to know that I go through that too. And there's part of me that wishes that I had years ago gotten the lesson, but I didn't. But I'm trying to get that lesson now of relaxing more into creating what I want to create, building the business that I want to create, rather than trying to build something that I think is big enough to matter, that I think is big enough to get attention. Because anytime I think about that, I start optimizing for the wrong things rather than optimizing for.

Authenticity or connection or impact or just having a conversation with another person. I really enjoy working with entrepreneurs, and I love capitalism. There's a reason why I bought the domain name capitalism.com I like investing. I like entrepreneurship, I like. I like politics. I like talking about how capitalism actually brings us together. It doesn't divide us. I believe that to my core.

And sometimes, usually when I'm stressed.

I feel like I have to not talk about those things. I have to talk about whatever is going to work in the algorithm. Why? Because that's gonna get more leads for business and you can sell more stuff. And it's just exhausting. And it's not who I wanna be anymore, because that's not in alignment with what I set out to create@capitalism.com in the first place, which was to work directly with entrepreneurs who are doing cool things and to build relationships with people who could support one another and to raise awareness for cool opportunities and raise awareness for cool people that are doing unique things in the space and to represent ideas and values that I think are pro entrepreneur and pro freedom and pro Capitalism, and also to build a bridge of.

Kindness.

Rationality.

And thoughtfulness at a time when I feel like people are so divided. And I feel uniquely called to build bridges between.

The people that are so polarized. And I haven't done a good job of that in favor of making content for the algorithm or making content that I thought would sell more stuff. That's just the honest truth of it. And those are the habits that I fall into when I get scared or stressed and feel like nothing's working. But the reality is building a character and putting up a facade, that's actually what doesn't work. So I wanted to share that with you. You might see the content style change a little bit. I hope you like it. If not, that's cool too. I'm more committed to building what I want to create and how I want to share the message with the world. And I hope that it gives you permission to do the exact same thing. Real quick, I'm thinking of somebody who was asking for my advice about content, and they were talking about how do you create authority in your space? They were saying, I have no following. I don't create content. But you gotta do it if you wanna be influential. So how do you manufacture influence? And what they were really asking me was, how do you posture, how do you fake influence when you're not actually influential in a space? And the advice that I gave them was to just be real about the journey. Be real and honest about where you're at, where your business is, and the people who resonate with that you'll have connection with. And it made me pause and go, am I doing that? Am I taking my own advice? Or am I trying to optimize for the algorithm so that I get more growth? And I didn't like the answer. And then I told my. I told another friend, I don't think I have the energy to hold up this character anymore. I didn't even know I was playing a character. I didn't intend to play a character.

But when I watched, some of my content felt like a character. And so just don't want to be that anymore. So thank you for watching.

I hope you stick around. Thanks, everybody. Take care. Talk soon. Goodbye.