9 Things Wrong, 3 Things To Do

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom, said Aristotle. So many years ago in Greece, so many creators put their blood, sweat and tears to make their work great. They love their topic, they love their audience, they love how they uniquely help people, especially if they have a business behind their content. But secretly, or sometimes not so secretly, they fear that all that work won't amount to anything. They've been grinding for years and have not had the income, the audience or impact they've dreamt on, or have been chasing. They do all of the right things and they still do not get noticed by people, by the algorithm, by ChatGPT, by Google, and the list goes on. And what's worse, it's completely rational at some point to consider if all the frustration, all the fear, and all of the effort is worth it. But what if you were closer to a huge breakthrough than you thought? The great news is if you've been going at it for a while, you have a ton of data, a ton of experience, and a ton of exposure to ideas to simplify your work process. Most people, I think the solution when they are feeling stuck is to grind more until it works or to continue to take classes and find more tactics and ideas to implement. But what if what you really needed was more self reflection? In today's episode, I'm going to try something a bit different and reflect on the progress of this show to show you the power of self reflection. Welcome to the creators that Crush Podcast, the show that helps you move from crush to crushing it as a content creator by helping you progress quicker, shift more easily, and engage more deeply with your work. I am your coach and host, Shawn Butt. The format for this episode is going to be a little bit different. I'm just going to launch into nine things that I think are wrong with my show. Creators that Crush and this has been through a lot of work this year in getting around different coaches, being part of different groups, doing a lot of journaling and reflection on what do I want for this show, for my career as a coach, for life in general. And through that work, I've accumulated a lot of data right through, you know, over 700 YouTube videos to I've done. I think I'm up to 30 episodes of this show since the rebrand with another 150ish episodes of the previous version of the podcast. So there's a lot of stuff and a lot of ideas in here. And the great thing about seeking feedback and seeking other people that are in the space is you get different perspectives that can help you improve and so earlier this week, I started writing down what I think are issues and problems with the show. And if you do anything creative, I think this is a really important exercise that you can do for yourself. And I'm going to try to role model it. This is a little bit. This feels a little vulnerable, and so thought I'd try this instead of what has been going on. So here are nine things I think are currently wrong with the show, and I'll go into what my approach is going forward to fix that. Just to kind of, you know, show you this, how this exercise might be helpful to you. First thing on the list is, is creators that Crush a misleading name? Because I do have a few creators that I've interviewed for the show, and they've been really awesome. And somebody I was talking to recently suggested that the show Creators that Crush kind of indicates that it's going to be an interview show about creators that are doing great things. And so the show was supposed to help you become a creator that crushed. And maybe I haven't been clear in communicating that, so people have been filling the void on that. But I thought that was a fair insight from my friend here. And so, you know, that's something that I probably need to think of and I'll get into. I have a couple of buckets that take a couple of these identified issues, so this will simplify it for me to kind of address a couple of things at once. But maybe the name creators that Crush is a little bit misleading because majority are episodes like this of me talking, and I'm not actually helping you figure out how to crush it. Right. I think that is probably more of the bigger issue than the name, which leads to the second point is misleading episode expectations that, you know, I hope this episode should be. You should be asking yourself, like, in the things that I create out in the world, like where am I maybe going wrong? Or what are the things that I need to address to make it even more effective. Right. That's the whole idea of this episode and say, you know, a different way at the start of the show, but that's the intention here. So I hope this episode is more aligned in helping you crush it, because I'm going through a. An exercise of listing what I think is wrong with my show and what I plan to do about it. So. And then in the future, you'll see if I implement it and it's successful or not. We can laugh about it together. But I really want you also, if you're listening, to feel like you're on this journey with me, and I haven't been really doing a great job of that. So, yeah, that's misleading episode expectation. Third thing is interesting is I've been creating YouTube videos for 10 years. I've had a podcast for the last 3ish years, and I don't think so. The third problem I think is I don't think there's a very clear reason to listen to the show, which breaks my heart. But I think it's. This is all kind of part of the misleading name and misleading episode expectation. And a lot of the work that I've been doing this year is trying to figure out how to best communicate this idea of helping established content creators, you know, succeed more. Right. And so working with and doing some exercises that I had found out in the world about podcasts, I stumbled upon the Jobs to be done framework, which is a really, like, really quick. The idea is each product or platform, people hire it to do a job for them, whether that's entertainment, to learn about a particular topic or to get a particular result in their lives. And clearly defining what are the main jobs for your podcast, for your YouTube channel, for your books, for your newsletter helps you get give a clear pitch on why people should listen. Right. And so doing this work, you've heard this a couple of times, but creators that crush really is trying to help content creators that have been at it for a while figure out how to progress or how to progress quicker. So all the topics and interviews are going to highlight that. And, you know, I recently had Kev Michael on the show and he talked. This is exactly a progress transformation where he felt stuck, he didn't feel excited. He was disengaging from the business because it wasn't fun anymore. He wasn't sure he could help out people, and he wanted to. The guy who has grow the show wanted to grow the show and felt stuck. And so how did he navigate through that? And I think that was a really great example of the essence of what I wanted and what I want for this show. So it's, you know, progress transformations, shift transformations. We kind of talked about this in this episode of trying to switch from being a podcast guy to being something a little bit more broader and how scary that was. But ultimately, making that change gave him new ideas to go back to his original product and grow. So three changes are progress transformation, a shift transformation, or I've been calling it an energy transformation, but it could also be a presence transformation, where if you loved your topic or creating your thing and you don't anymore, but want to get back to it. That's what I want for this show. So it should be very clear that every episode you're going to find a way to progress quicker, to be more engaged, present and love your business more, or you're going to have a plan or get the courage to make a bold shift in what you're doing. So that's the three reasons why people will or should listen to creators that crush. So kind of address that, I guess, here. But this is part of being a creator and figuring things out as you go. So I love Fourth problem, I feel, is a variable of quality in each episode, meaning I feel like some episodes have a very strong point of view, but maybe aren't as tactical. And I think this all goes back to the unclear reason to listen. I also think, you know, Reese, this year I hired Podcast Boutique to do my guest episodes, which has been really great. I've learned how to become a better editor by watching them work on those episodes. So I've tweaked how I edit in my process, which is great. And there's a. The axe who runs that is an audio engineer. And so the way he does audio sounds way better than what I can do by myself because I am not a audio engineer. I'm a humble coach, and so I don't think that is a problem as much. But I gave up doing some of the processing that I used to do from a conversation I had with him, and what that led to was, I think, an overall degradation of the audio quality. So if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see that the mic is right by my face, and we're going to see if that solves some of the issues that have been going on. I also have some plans for audio processing on the back and using descript. The fifth thing I think is currently wrong with creators that crush. And I have been really torn on this. And so maybe you have an idea or a thought on this, but I think the YouTube channel and the audio format which this podcast lives on, both is a little bit different. And so trying to do video podcast as an audio podcast or an audio podcast, a YouTube video has really kind of muddled each of the platforms. So I feel this weird tension between both styles. And so I've been really trying to figure out is that me or is that true or what to do about it. But that's something I think is wrong with the show. Sixth point is the packaging isn't quite there, and this is something that I'm constantly struggling with. And you know, how you title things and how you do thumbnails and all of that kind of stuff really does matter. And it's mattered a lot more. And I've been paying a lot more attention to it this year than I have maybe ever. So I still think this could be way, way better. But it's not as bad as it used to be, which I'll take that as a wing, but it's still something to work on. Seventh point on, what I think is wrong with creators that crush is that it takes too long to produce an episode. I've been able to manage one per week, and a lot of times I feel it's rushed because I'm trying to do a whole bunch of things. So earlier this week, took a listen look at my notion setup. I've been a member of Creator Science that Jay Clouse was like creator Community. He has a notion template called Creator hq, which is amazing. And that has been clashing with my ideation process that I had before I had Creator HQ when it launched and so have a lot of data in a bunch of different places. And the whole reason for me to put everything into notion was to make it easier for me to find stuff and manage it. So earlier this week I kind of simplified some of those processes. So we'll see if that is helpful or not. You know, this is the first episode using that new process, so it's going to take me a couple of times to sort that out. So the eighth thing I think is wrong with the show is that it doesn't sound like me. And that's because I have been very allergic to offering strong opinions out in the world in general and especially online through the show. I think this comes from understanding that I don't know everything. Like I know enough about the world. But, you know, there's always things to consider or new data. And so that can make me sound a little bit unconfident or prevented me from offering strong opinions because I don't know if they're actually true. You know, I guess in my way I want to make sure something is right before I say this is how the world is. But I've been going through. There's an exercise that a guy I've been working with shared with me about coming up with a list of things that just make you really angry about the world. And so we'll see if that works more into each of these things. But it's been a very rewarding exercise. I don't think the show is engaging due to its current structure so again, this goes into how long it takes to produce an episode. I feel like my old show, the Meaningful Revolution, had more of a structure. So every week we had a strong hook, we had a story, we had some action points, had a couple of other segments in there that I've dropped in. Creators that crush, they probably will not bring back, but got me thinking of where can I give you all a break? Where are there natural stopping points to switch gears or to make it more engaging? Hey, it's Sean and I just shared nine problems I think I currently have with this show. And part of this self discovery is being a little bit more vulnerable and asking you, the listener, for what you think I could improve on. So if you have something you really love about the show or something that really resonates when I talk about it, or something resonated with this episode, I'd love to hear it. Go to the Show Notes and you'll find a link to drop some quick feedback for me and I'll read every single one of these bits of information. So please be nice. This will help make the show better for everyone. So you can be with me on this journey as we try to make Creators that Crush the best podcast for creators ever. And I know I have some big shoes to fill. So yeah, let's be a part of this together. Help me improve, help me help you. And you know, we'll jump back into the episode where I think or I talk through a couple of solutions that I think will help. So but before we get into that, be sure to drop some feedback. Hit me in the comments. Those are the nine things I think are wrong with creators that crush. Now we'll get into three kind of broad strokes that I think will fix most, if not all of these issues, right? And that's kind of where we want it. We want to be self aware and we want to accept whatever that reality is and we want to do something about it. So for me, the first thing going forward you should see is a refocusing on the idea of creators that crush, which is helping content creators that have been making or creating for over a year progress faster, shift into novelty quicker, and engage more with their content business. So feeling more joy and excitement for the work they do. And I think if I focus on this and make this crystal clear, then each episode is going to help you progress, help you engage, or help you shift into something new more easily. So that is a great reason to listen and sets expectations. So I think that's the first thing to be a little bit more strategic and explicit about that. And so two, this leads into Lean more into episode structure. This week, part of the notion re figuring I was doing was creating a process to make sure that I am addressing one of those three general transformations of progress, shifting into something new or engaging more with the business. So I think this will make it faster for me to produce an episode. It should standardize the quality of this show by being a bit better. I'm also thinking that this new structure will help me Fix the YouTube and audio divide by doing two different introductions for the same meat of an episode. So I'll try that. That might be way too much more work, but we'll see going forward. And you know, episode structure and asking the question what type of transformation am I hoping to help you with? Will help me with the packaging and engagement overall. So okay, first thing is to refocus on the idea. Two is to lean more into the structure of the episodes. Third thing is to spend more time in pre production. So again, this will help with that packaging issue that I was theorizing about. Should help clarify the episodes because the more pre production theoretically the clearer the communication will be. And I can add a bunch of stuff which try to cram in three ideas when it should just be one. And so I'm hoping to catch that more in pre production so that the episodes are more crisp and clear. So those are the three things that came out of this exercise of trying to think of what are the issues or problems with my current show. And I hope you took this and found this fun like at this feels a little bit more natural to share this style of podcast. I don't think I'm going to do this every week. I do want to focus on pointing out creators that are either progressing really awesomely who have shifted or rebranded successfully or have rediscovered the passion for what they're doing. The power of self reflection is identifying possible problems and coming up with tests on how to improve or eliminate those problems. It keeps creating fun and engaging and can help you simplify your processes to make everything just better. So stay tuned as I get to work on these ideas in my current process. I think it's really cool that we're on this journey together. I'm very glad that you're here. I hope you found a little inspiration today because knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Some old ancient Greek guy named Aristotle. We'll see you guys in the next episode of Creators of Crush. This is Sean Butner signing off. The power of self reflection is identifying possible problems and coming up with tests on how to improve them. It keeps creating fun and can help you simplify your process to make everything just better. Stay tuned. As I get into these ideas worked into my current process, I think it's really cool we're on this journey together because knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. That old ancient Greek guy Aristotle might have been onto something. And if you loved this episode of the Creators that Crush podcast, you might love this episode with Kev Michael talking about his transformation from being stuck in his current business, rebranding into something new, and then rebranding back into his original show. I think it's really insightful. Kev's a really great guy, was a coach of mine earlier this year, so scope that out in the show. Notes if you're listening or over here if you are watching on YouTube.