Episode 80: The Gate Keepers Are Gone

Hey, you know what? The gatekeepers are gone. One of my favorite parts of creating content, you know, it's, it's not watching the view count go up. I have on my podcast, I don't even watch to see what the subscriber rate is, but it's not watching the view count go up. It's not watching the You know, getting closer to, you know, some kind of accolade or anything like that. What I love, my favorite part, is when someone that I've never met, they send me a message and it says, I needed to hear that today. You know, sometimes it's a few words. It's things like, I've been struggling, or, hey, this, you know, your vid gave me help. Or, your vid gave me hope. And every time I get one of those messages, I'm reminded of something incredibly powerful. And that's that we all have that ability to impact someone else's life. Not because we're famous, not because we have millions of followers, which I don't, but because we're willing to create. It's, you know, what's really amazing is that You know, 20 years ago, most of us would have never had that opportunity. Now, I jumped on early. I was on YouTube. I think my first video about fire making was around 2005. I set up my little Sony cam on a tripod. I was in my backyard and I was teaching how to make fire with a ferrocerium rod. And drier land. That was my very first video that I ever, ever did. It was like in the fall of 2005. And then later on, I made my first podcast. My first podcast, Adventure IQ, was about all the different adventures that we were doing in Idaho. And it talked about men's wellness as it related to adventure. Later on, I had a podcast called the Barnstorming Blarneys, which was about my aviation journey of starting out as a student pilot. I've done podcasts on grieving for pets. I've had— I have the One Dive at a Time podcast, which I still do now. And then I have this podcast, and I've had a few others here and there. But what's incredible is that our ideas would have stayed in our journals or our minds. Our stories would have stayed around the dinner table. The music, I mean, gosh, when I was playing in bands, I wish that we'd had that opportunity like we do now to be creative and building out our own studios. Today, your phone can become a publishing company. It can become your television station, your radio show, your classroom. You don't need to go and get a book publishing deal. You don't need to go book studio time or get a record deal. You don't need to try to get on nighttime AM radio with your own show. And I got to tell you, it changes, it changes absolutely everything. Hey, welcome to Stand Sure Coaching. My name is Rob Anderson. I'm your host of the Stand Sure Podcast. Hey, my journey has been defined by 3 distinct chapters. Chapter 1 began with my time in the military, where I learned the true meaning of leadership and resilience in some of the most high-pressure environments. Then on to Chapter 2, I transitioned into corporate America, serving as a learning and development professional and leadership coach for Fortune 500 companies. Now I'm in my third chapter, dedicated to helping men navigate their own transitions, rediscover their purpose, and find what it means to lead with conviction in their second half of life. Hey, today I want you to challenge— I want to challenge you. I really want to give you this challenge. And I want to challenge you about the way you think about your own potential. And I think there's way too many people that are waiting for permission to become who they were meant to become. And at the end of today's episode, I'm going to share why having someone walk alongside you, a coach, Can help you move from dreaming about your potential to actually living with it, really living that out. So I want you to stay with me. You know, for most of history, your dreams depended on gatekeepers, and not just in the creative space. But speaking specifically to the creative space, most of of the history has depended on people saying yes or no, or you having to compromise to get to that yes. If you wanted to write a book, there was a publisher who had to approve it. If you wanted to make music, a record label had to discover you. If you wanted to be an actor, someone had to cast you. If you wanted to teach, You had to go find a classroom. In other words, your future depended on someone else's decision. And honestly, that's not true anymore. The gatekeepers are disappearing. Now, they're still out there, and the likelihood is there will always be gatekeepers on things, but you have a lot more control. Over your destiny than what you used to have. Today you can publish a book by yourself. You can launch a podcast. And here's the thing, for the truly creative person, who cares how many people listen to it? I don't even check my stats on any of my podcasts. I can't tell you if I've got 13 listeners. I can't tell you if I've got 13 million. Which I'm pretty sure I don't. I just know that I have this desire to reach out to people through a podcast. And I reach out to enough people that I do get feedback. Hey, this helped me out. Or, hey, how— you know, I've had— I've picked up coaching clients off the podcast. I've built out relationships. One of my closest relationships I have right now With someone I've had for over 20 years, and it's because my very first podcast that they listened to, and we're still friends to this day. But you know, you can choose to launch a podcast. You, you can go into your spare bedroom and record music. You can create videos that reach millions. You can build an online business. You can teach other people what you've learned. You can share your experiences. You don't need permission anymore. The only permission that you need is your own. I want to repeat that because you need to hear that again. The only permission that you need is your own. And I think that's where so many people get stuck. They're not waiting on a publisher. They're waiting on confidence. They're waiting until they feel qualified. They're waiting until everything is perfect. And they're honestly, they're, they're waiting until nobody can criticize them. But perfection is one of the greatest thieves of potential. Nobody creates something great on their first try. Kids that live next door to me put out YouTube videos all the time and they get thousands of views and it's just them doing dorky stuff in their backyard. I mean, and honestly, they may be at a— you know, I did check out their stats. They're going to get close to some point where they could start getting monetized for that. But that's not why they do it. They do it because they're having fun. They're doing it so they can share it with their friends. But nobody creates something great on their first try. Every author has bad pages. Every author has bad books. I've self-published 3 books, and I think I'm the one who's bought the majority of them. Every speaker is going to give awkward presentations. Every musician Record songs that maybe nobody will ever download. Every creator starts out as a beginner. The difference is that creators don't wait until they're ready. They become ready because they create. I think one of the greatest tragedies is when someone goes through life Carrying these amazing gifts and they never leave themselves. Maybe a few people see it, but most of the time it's just themselves. That means that out there right now, today, there's books that never get written. There's a business that never gets started. There's a message that never gets shared. There's an invention that never gets built. There's songs, amazing songs that never get recorded, not because they lack talent, not because they lack skill, but because they kept waiting. And by the way, here's something else that I've noticed. Most people spend their lives consuming. They're watching. They're listening. They're scrolling, they're listening, they're reading, they're learning. And there's nothing wrong with learning, but most people spend their lives consuming. You know, I get— this is crazy. So I try to answer every comment that comes into my YouTube or comes into my TikTok, even on Facebook. I try to answer. I don't post a lot on A lot of my content on Facebook, but it will get out there. I might post links to it. But here's the crazy thing, and I probably see this more on YouTube than anything else. If you don't know, I post these 30-second motivational moments just to try to give people a brighter part of their day, right? And sometimes I'll extend those out to about 40 seconds. I'll talk about how a coach helps. What amazes me is that I will have people troll. They'll put in some smart aleck, you know, some type of smart, you know, smartass comment or something that, you know, takes away from the message. And I'm thinking, okay, let me go see how many videos that this person has put out. And most of the time, there's no content on their channel. They haven't produced a video. At best, if it's a snarky comment, it's a smartass comment, at best what I see is that they'll go out and they share other people's videos. And it's not a lot. It's usually 5, 6, 7. That's the majority of the cases. There will always be critics. Theodore Roosevelt talked about this. It's not the critic who counts. It's the man in the ring. You be the person in the ring and realize that there are people out there that live their entire lives just for scrolling. They have nothing better to do. They make a snarky comment. They're going to be out there. There's going to be people who say hurtful things, and you just have to get over that. But most people spend their lives consuming. They're scrolling, they're listening, they're watching, they're learning. And by the way, there's absolutely nothing wrong with learning. I read constantly. I listen to other podcasts. I'll go to different conferences. But there comes a point where learning has to become creating. Because information alone isn't going to fulfill you. It's the contribution. You discover who you are by building something, by sharing, by risking. That's when your confidence begins to grow. I mean, I don't care if you grab your phone, turn the camera on, face it towards you, and just talk about your day or something that you learned that day and then post it up. You're now a creator. You're taking that risk, and that risk builds confidence. Every piece of content I've created Has taught me something. Every podcast makes me a better communicator. I do a lot of stand-up presentations, and I have to tell you, working on the podcast and working on videos make me a much, much better presenter, whether that's in a presentation environment or even just in a meeting. Every time I have a conversation with someone who Says something legitimate like, hey, I could really, you know, this really helped out. And of course, being a coach and someone who's naturally curious about people, I'll ask more questions. It helps me to think more clearly. You see, here's the deal. The goal isn't perfection. The goal is progress. And here's something that I truly believe. Your highest potential Isn't something you discover. It's something you build. I'm gonna say that again. Your highest potential isn't something you discover. It's something that you build. It's one decision. It's one post. It's one chapter. It's one video. It's one conversation at a time. You know, potential isn't It's not something that's stowed away or hidden and you can't find it and just waiting for you to discover it. Potential grows through action. And maybe that's why I enjoy those messages on social media so much. Not because, you know, obviously because someone complimented me. Okay, I get that. It feels good to produce something and I'm having a positive impact. There's so much negative stuff out there. That's why I do The, the 30-second videos. That's why I do the podcast, is to bring about positivity and some hope, help people. But it's not just because someone complimented me, but because it reminds me that something that I almost didn't post helped somebody else. I have to tell you, I am nervous every time I turn that camera on. And shoot one of those little short videos, I'm nervous. I look around, make sure nobody's watching me, you know, talk to myself or talk to my camera when I'm sitting in my Jeep. I can't tell you how many times I almost didn't post something. But think about that. How many people might need what only you can create? How many lives might be different because you finally decided to stop hiding? And we'll never know unless you release that creative spirit. Take the risk. Maybe it's not a podcast, maybe it's not a video, but maybe it's something that you do in your work. Maybe it's a business that you've been wanting to launch. Maybe it's a creative activity that you do with your family. Again, gatekeepers are gone. Nobody is holding you back, especially when it comes to things on social media. Get over the fear of posting that podcast or that video or writing that book. Man, you can publish an ebook within a couple of days. If you've got your content, you can post an ebook within a couple of days. Hey, today's episode challenge you. Let me ask you a question. What's inside that's still waiting to come out? A book, a business, A podcast, a new career, and completely— a completely different version of yourself. And that's why I coach. It's not to tell people what to do or send them in a direction. It's to help them discover those things. I do it to help them uncover what's already inside. Remove the beliefs That's holding them back and create consistent action towards the life that they really want. You know, transformation doesn't happen because you have more information. It happens because someone helps you see what you can't see and supports you. If you're ready to stop waiting for permission and start building a life that you've imagined, I'd love to walk alongside you. Go out to StanShureCoaching.com and book a discovery call. Because the gatekeepers are you. Gone. Now the only question is left, what are you willing to create?