Episode 115 - Matthew Cannon On Why As A Writer And Entrepreneur Says Ability Gaps Are Just Data

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. So I love it when I do really cool experiences, and then I get to go back to those cool experiences and reconnect with people that I haven't talked to in a while. And my next guest I met at a retreat that I went to. Gosh, I think it's been a few years ago, and it was something that came at a really good time for me because it's. I mean, we're starving for connection, right? And this retreat was like a way for people to get together and really become your best self, but also to be around others that are doing really incredible things. And actually, a lot of you probably know Genesis, who's been on the podcast several times. I met her through that. And then this next guest. The funny thing is we didn't even meet at the retreat. We met at the airport as we were both leaving. And it was really cool because we had just a really. I think our flights were both delayed and we both were going to different places and just had a really great conversation just about where he's at in his life and then where I was at. And it was just a really cool way to connect with someone that I hadn't even met at the thing that I was at. And so I just recently thought of him and was thinking it would be a perfect time to bring him on. And the funny thing is, today's his birthday, so he's honoring me with being part of his birthday celebration by being on the do the Thing podcast. So I'm so excited to welcome Matthew Cannon to the show. Hey, Matthew.

Hey, Stacey. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, it's good to be here. And, yeah, you bring back memories talking about how we met and how different opportunities in life come up when we just say yes to meeting a community and expanding our networks. And so it's awesome to come full circle and have a chat with you today.

Oh, man, what a great way to get started. I Totally agree. It's so cool, that whole idea of saying yes to things and how then new doors open and new opportunities bring out and then. And things evolve as you expand your own. Your own comfort zone.

Yeah, exactly. And I have to admit, too, Stacy asked me this fall to be on the podcast, and I read that email and I was super excited. And I also didn't quite trust myself for a number, for a couple of reasons we can get into, but it's fun to notice that, okay, three months later, we kind of reconnected and I was, you know what? I'm ready, let's do it. And here we are. So it's. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right timing or trust that the timing or that you'll show up when the time comes. So.

So such a great lesson I would love to start off with, for the listeners, if you could just share more about you and your story.

Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, part of why I wasn't quite ready to get on the podcast, I think this fall is.

I've been in a bit of a career transition. If you had to ask me what I do, I would probably have a bit of a tough time because I live such a modular lifestyle these days. So, yeah, my education was kind of a mix of engineering and psychology. I was one of those guys that kind of wanted to be a little bit good at everything, a bit of polymath or a renaissance man. And it was kind of tough for me to pigeonhole myself into one degree. But I did eventually and found myself in a role in music tech company pretty much right after college, where after a couple years of playing Guitar Hero and video games, found this local investor who wanted to do a real guitar that taught you how to play. And I was, now that sounds like a good idea to actually have some fun and build a skill. So started working with them. And as the young guy at the table, I was kind of the bridge of knowledge between what we were trying to build and what the new technologies that were coming out offered and how they were growing and what the kids wanted and all that sort of stuff. So I had a pretty open palette to help define where the company went. The company's called Jamstick, and we're still around today, have built a number of, I guess I'd call them smart guitars or MIDI controllers. So they're like guitars that are app connected and they're also digital, so you can play them like synthesizers and stuff like that too. But it was a lot of, well, let's give this a Shot and experimentation. And so I'm grateful that I had a chance to really learn everything about building the company from the ground up, Doing the website, doing the customer support side of things. But it wasn't always so smooth, actually. About two years into that first role, we were trying to build hardware, which is hard, as they say in the industry. And it just seemed like it was going to take take a long time before it actually all came together. So I jumped off and I started a vitamin company with a couple buddies. We were going to be one of the first subscription boxes for men's health and wellness and kind of just been get guys into some good habits and stuff like that. So that's really where it was just dropped on me to come up with the whole company picture and figure out the logistics of shipping stuff, do all the marketing funnels, et cetera, et cetera. Long story short, that succeeded as a beta test and an experiment. But there were some interpersonal dynamics with the co founder that didn't quite work out and we couldn't really trust him and either way, kind of had to just drop that and let that go. But meanwhile, Jamstick was a bunch closer after that six months to being able to launch the hardware product. And so now I had this information from the experience about how to set up the whole surrounding company for them and have been running with it for about the last 12 years. So throughout that time, we raised money through crowdfunding campaigns, went to trade shows, showed things off, got the whole experience and, you know, it's been a lot of fun to evolve the product, you know, the product, listen to the customer, work long hours answering questions and just being in the thick of it. But after a decade, I think every man's got a right to kind of take a breath and think more about, well, this has been fun, but who would I like to be next? What would I like to get into? And so kind of as the pandemic hit, helped navigate the company towards remote work and keeping the morale up and the boat afloat, so to speak. But I did ask for a little bit of extra free time and flexibility in my life. And that really kind of allowed me to start investing myself and saying yes to experiences like the flow camp where we met Stacy, and expanding my network and learning new skill sets and finding out, yeah, what really suits me, what's in my flow? And as you so remind your listeners, what are some of the things that scare me a little bit that I might just be able to say yes to? So that leaves me in a Pretty empowered spot today as a bit of polymath or renaissance man that I was kind of set out to be. Currently working on writing a book. I've got a side project with a couple buddies building kind of a new age educational platform for self development and still helping out Jamstick with product roadmap and new innovations. And finally, in a place where I feel like I can do a pretty good job of balancing all three. And so, yeah, I think that's pretty good background on me.

Yeah, it's so good. And it just reminds me to kind of where we were when we met. I think I was right in the middle of working on exiting my business at the time that we met. So I was going through my own identity, identity stuff. And then I think you were talking about Jamstick and how you were sort of in that same kind of spot where you weren't sure where you wanted to go. And so it's one of those things, when you think about it, about how we met at the airport after this retreat, it wasn't even there. That was just so interesting about that colliding.

Yeah, exactly. And when you talk about us both being that transition, I think what it comes down to is you're. You're wavering about who you are and your definition of self at that point. Because it was, you know, you first asked me to, to chat about maybe Jamstick or the guitar stuff. Now part of me was, well, that was me. And I mean, it still is me to an integral degree. But I think it's when you're in between careers or groups or what you're spending your time with, it's really about, okay, my identity was built up based on what it said on my LinkedIn or what I've done at my 9 to 5. So it's been a practice and a great learning experience to kind of go some of those definitions of self and see what else comes to fill in the gaps.

You know how you mentioned how I asked you to interview three months ago and then it's. Right now, it's almost, I feel, talking to you now, it's your do. The thing at this moment in time is that who would I like to be now? That's you doing the thing. Right? Because so many people are just moving and they don't take the time to really get outside that fire, to really think about those things. And I think that's such a. An amazingly brave and courageous thing to be able to just take a time out for a minute while you're still moving, but still having that reflective way about it.

Yeah, exactly. You know, sometimes you've just got to spend a little time building up your potential and taking in more data points and getting in touch with your intuition or your own self, really at your core. And there's a constant struggle with self development and seeking perfection. And you could go endlessly and say, oh, I'm not quite ready, I'm not quite ready. But eventually you wake up and you kind of sense into, you know what? I think I finally fully trust myself to move ahead with this. Or we forget to give ourselves credit for how far we've come when days and days and years of good habits finally catch up. And so I think that'd be a piece of advice to the listeners is every once in a while, just stop. Don't worry about productivity or getting anything done and just give yourself a moment to look back at a previous version of you and how their perception might be, oh my gosh, look what you've done. Look who you've become. That is one other key point that I've kind of had in my mind over these last years is during times where I haven't published a blog or put something out there visibly to tell myself, it's not just about what you've done, it's about who you've become. And that's been a really big goal for me is. Is just to like embody the knowledge that I've. That I've picked up along the way and learn to trust myself in the, in the real time. And having conversations like this, right?

Oh, totally. I'm so glad this is coming up because. So when I started do the Thing, it started with the whole me wanting people to do the thing. And it was sort of evolved. Was when I realized do the Thing was so much more than that. It was not doing it out of like a numbing because it's high achievers. I think that's so easy to do, being able to do it out of alignment for who you really are. So you're really speaking to that right now.

Absolutely. Yeah. That's a, That's a great realization and such an important point. I think we're shifting from a society that says you need to just drop all your emotions and just force through the grind and do it. Because that. That can be a stressful or traumatic sort of experience if it's not. If you're not in the right place. It's like if you have the patience to allow yourself to integrate all the different education that you've come across or all the Knowledge and just breathe into it. I think the right timing shows up. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great point. And I think coming from an aligned place, trusting myself, is really showing up in kind of some of my next endeavors as well. And even getting on this podcast with you, I think it's. Yeah, we could have jumped on three months ago, and I might have awkwardly taken up way too long talking about my prior career, which maybe I did a little bit, but here I am, and I'm really excited to talk about what I'm doing next. And the writing and authorship process over the past two years is kind of a fun topic, if you want to chat about that, too.

I do. Yeah. Before we go there, I just wanted to mention something that really just came alive for me when we were talking about Jamstick, and then kind of pivoting a little while you're still doing that, and then starting that men's health vitamin company. And then when that didn't work, then you realized that, like, all the learnings you had through that experience, even though it didn't work for a lot, like, some people might be so scared of trying something new because they're scared of failing, but it turned out that experience with that company not working was actually the thing that you needed to make the other one work in the way that it did.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it was like, you know, what you made me think of is, like, when we're trying new things, we fear. We almost fear that they're going to fail all at once, and it's going to be overwhelming and we're going to be crushed. And it's like, nothing ever fails catastrophically like that, or generally it doesn't. And it's like, so as I recognize the vitamin company wasn't going to work out, it was like a bit of a transitional period, too, where it was, okay, this is slowing down, but I'm not going to go into, like, panic mode of, what am I going to do? I simply started paying a little more attention to Jamstack and started to go back into the office a little bit more. And it turned out they really needed me and the skills that I had gained with the vitamin job. And by the time the vitamin thing had kind of fully dissolved, boom, I was up in action at Jamstick, fully sharing my gifts and helping build. And that was a beautiful thing. So the fears you have are usually never nearly as at the magnitude that you think they might be, like, even failure. And, I mean, I know some people have experienced catastrophic failures as well, and maybe If I dig deeper, I could reference some of my own. But, you know, 99% of the things we worry about never come true or don't come true in the way we think they will. So, yeah, keep building yourself up and recognize that, you know, some of the value of what you're doing or even not succeeding at it may not show up for years either. Like, it may actually just, you know, kind of come peripherally when you're able to make a more natural decision or. Or take something on subconsciously because you've gone through it before and you know how to act a little bit better or, you know, you know how to kind of orchestrate a little bit better.

Oh, yeah. I love this, like, concept of every single thing that you've done in your life has led you exactly to where you are now, you know, and it's such an amazing. It's such an amazing, like, understanding, I think, when you get to that place.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And it's like, I spent a lot of my 20s, you know, even at Jamstick or, you know, with other things, always kind of wishing.

I could do it a little bit better, a little bit differently, or feeling like maybe I missed an opportunity here or there, you know, this product should have had this feature, blah, blah, blah. And then you realize, you know, you can only realize in hindsight that.

While you. While there's infinite life paths that you can take and, you know, certain decisions or outcomes might have changed your life entirely. Like, there's never a moment at which all paths become close to you because you didn't choose one way or another. Like your destiny, so to speak, is always available to you, you might just be taking a little detour, or you might just be taking a little remedial course and a lesson on the way. Eventually, if you're true to yourself and develop yourself into a more fully expressed version and find an aligned place, like, you will find your way towards what you're meant to be doing and what makes you come alive.

So good. Yeah. And let's talk to the listeners for a minute because, like, this is. This is it, right? Like, we want to try these new things, but then get scared. Like, what if it doesn't work out? Or what if someone laughs at it, or what if I'm not good enough or whatever it is, but just understanding this concept of doing it, you know, when it feels right, not because you're scared of any of those things, you know, doing it because you want to do it, and then realizing, like, if it doesn't work out Think of all the things that you're going to gain from that experience, regardless of what the outcome is.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's like, you know, for a long time I was afraid of, you know, I'm interested in. I've thought about podcasting before and I've thought about writing a book for years and years. And, you know, a lot of me used to be afraid of, well, what if I can't show up? What if I make a mistake? What if I can't finish the task? You know, and.

Recognizing that, like just jumping into the water, you're going to gather more data. You're going to, you know, you're going to find out where you have gaps in your abilities and your knowledge, and it's okay. It's like, and once you learn not to take it personally or like, try and make a personality judgment on yourself, then you can just use it as data to strengthen your future showing up. And.

I think we all overestimate how much people are actually judging us or even, you know, paying critical attention to, to our faults, like, you know, and especially if we find the places in the communities where other folks are looking for the best in us, you know.

Oh, totally. I love this using it as data way that you're wording it. I've been sort of playing with myself right now as like a science experiment just as I try new things or if I'm struggling to do something, you know, I'm like, okay, what is going on and how do I move through it? And, and I love the using it as data. I'm going to add that to my, my experiment statement.

Yeah, totally, totally.

And I'd love to now talk about what you're doing now. You mentioned you're doing some writing and then also sort of starting a new age educational platform. Can we, can we kind of talk through some of the stuff you're working on now?

Yeah, definitely, definitely. So I guess the most.

Prescient thing in my life is probably the book.

And it's kind of funny. It's, you know, I've always been a writer and.

Usually just kind of, you know, starting from my teenage years of kind of late night angsty writing about what the new revolution was going to be. Every kind of rubble without a cause. So I'd stay up late in the night and try and figure out the world and explain what was going on with society. In college, I tried to write a book about what Facebook was going to do to the world, but I never got it out there. It kind of gets in the way. And between now and then, I've always kept up a little blog post here and there and kind of my own thoughts. And finally when the pandemic hit, I kind of woke up into, you know, maybe what I have to say could help some other people because, boy, there's sure there's a lot of struggling going on. And so I made it a point to get organized. You know, I bought some book authoring software and I actually ended up writing about 50,000 words in about a week and a half and, you know, just flowing with it. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is going to be it. I'm going to get it out there. And I hired an editor, my friend Eric, and we got to work kind of refining, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And since then I've done that about three times. And every time I get halfway there or a little further, it just started to be too much. I had too many chapters, too much information to try and actually coalesce into a curated reading experience. And you know, in the past I get down on myself and say, well, I'm never going to do this, but either way, I kept it kind of in my back pocket. And fast forward to, Honestly, this past the start of this year, I kind of recognized something different in myself. You know, I've been focusing a lot on personal development and wellness and just trusting myself. And I recognize, you know what, all this knowledge and all, all these previous writings and journal entries which I've always wanted to somehow hoard and gather up into my magnum opus. Thank you them for getting me to where I am. But I'm finally at a place where I've embodied the knowledge that I want to talk about. Talk is another key word too. So I sat down at my computer about two weeks ago, realized, you know what, this is no longer healthy for me to just sit here and stare at a white screen and type at a keyboard energetically. My body just didn't feel like doing it. And I was, well, that's not going to be a great thing if I want to be a writer, but what could I do about it? And it came to me that in a similar way, as you've really embraced just getting on here and speaking and having conversations, I asked my editor Eric if he had time. I said, hey, why don't we just schedule a series of zoom sessions where I go through my outline and speak to what I want to write about. And so we've now done five couple hour long sessions and have the majority of the content for this book recorded in just under a week.

Wow.

Yeah.

That is so cool. It's so cool that you kind of figured out what that gap was that you were missing that you needed to. To do in order to move.

Yeah, exactly. I was finally just honoring my flow and how I best wanted to express or how I most trust myself to express. And when you find somebody who can be a good listener and a good kind of interviewer and draw the extra parts out of you that. That want to be expressed, then you're set up for magic. And, yeah, it was kind of funny. I mean, you've got the whole topic of, like, AI writing and art and, you know, our creativity being taken over by these digital. Digital means. And that hit me. I was kind of, okay, well, if AI writing is going to be a thing, then it's time for human writing and human expression to evolve in kind. And so I was kind of just like, so how do we biohack the human connection elements to stay ahead of the game? And so it felt just right to invite my editor back in and have it as a living conversation. Yeah, it's funny. It's kind of like I could have seen, oh, AI writing is here. Time to pack up the bags. But it's like, no, I'm going to allow that resistance to actually spur me into my own evolution or seeing how I can become more energetically efficient and aligned to myself and what I want to express. And so I'm super happy that it showed up this way.

Yeah, it's funny, as I'm hearing you talk about you doing these interviews on video, I'm thinking you should record them. Have you guys been recording them, too?

Yeah, absolutely. So our process so far has been we're just using Zoom, and then he got the paid account so we can record the sessions, and then it automatically transcribes them. And so then, boom, we've got, I think, almost a couple hundred pages of source content. And then I'm. Because my mind goes to so many places, I'm actually just having him. We edit the transcriptions and then get it into a place where we can both review together and. And turn it into an outline, an official outline, and kind of fill in the gaps.

That's so good. Yeah. And so it's interesting. So I am also in the middle of writing my book, and it's do the thing. And so I'm doing kind of something similar with the Zoom Zoom interviews. I think it's. Ours is on Google Meet, but I haven't been recording them. And I didn't actually think of it in the way that you are because that actually might be cool to share it at some point especially. You're right. As AI is developed. Actually just got obsessively interested in that new chat. Whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, my God. It's a little addicting.

Asking it questions and it, like, knows everything. It's so funny. But yeah, no, I didn't even think about it as like this, like, living conversation, documenting. So, yeah, I'm gonna have to record them from now on because I. I really like that idea of it, but it's fun. I think the interesting thing is I couldn't connect that together until I'm hearing you talk about it and then I'm. Oh, that would be cool. Cause it's not happening to me. So I think. I think that's actually kind of interesting.

Glad that that sparked it in you because, yeah, like, we're recording the video too, and we're doing this to write a book, but. Well, it's always kind of fun to maybe we could have some B sides and release some of this. This stuff someday as a kind of added piece of content or. But. But yeah, for me, it was really just dropping the idea that I need to have a conversation or get inspired and do it live and then go work for the whole week to try and unpack that conversation. I'm just. I was just. Maybe it could be simpler and maybe the conversation is the work of art. And. Yeah, I mean, it's taken me a lifetime to get to a place where I trust myself enough to do that efficiently. But with the topics that I'm interested in speaking about, I'm finally telling myself, yep, I'm there. Or at least I'm as far as I. I am on my journey. And it's not going to be perfect, but it's going to represent a milestone of expression. And so I'm excited about finally being confident enough to be in this place. And then once I have this out there, a lot of times we get all encompassed by this one goal, but it's. Allow yourself to be excited about what comes next because anything that comes after an actually expressed effort by nature is only going to evolve or open up new doors and understandings. So, yeah, that's so good.

And I love what you said. The conversation is the work of arc. That is power. That's a power statement right there. I love that.

That. Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, otherwise, it's just. It's. It's a couple levels removed from what's. What's. Fully alive. I mean, is there power in reviewing and editing and. And adding color and variety? Of course. Of course, part of my skill set is going to be reviewing the semifinal transcripts and organization and adding that extra flavor. But being in this place to trust myself to get 80% of the way there in live conversation and dialogue, for me, it was that final piece of the puzzle in terms of the format to get out, to get myself out there. Because otherwise I was just getting caught up in, like I said, too many words, too many, too many things that I was almost grasping, like, wanted to include something beautiful I wrote like years ago. And then I thought about, well, what about all my great notebooks with all the good points? And it's finally just kind of letting go of those, blessing them as the artifacts of a previous self that they were and knowing that, well, maybe if I actually write this book and start getting out there and start embracing my identity as an author, maybe a biographer someday would just go through all those and pick up the nuggets. So that's maybe a little bit of dreaming, but it's just being comfortable letting go of what you think is necessary to be a part of your accomplishment. Because like I said before, it's not always about what you've done, it's who you've become and then what you create from that place.

Okay, so for people listening, tell us about it. So what will they expect?

Yeah. So this book is kind of my effort to offer a guidebook for this really interesting era that we're in. It's got a self development bent. Speaking of stories of my own overcoming of habits and limiting mindsets and.

Exploring my way into a more positive, I suppose, understanding and belief in myself. But it's kind of a guidebook on how to realize a little bit more the fully expressed version of yourself through different tool sets and mindsets and knowledge from stages of past. And the goal is also to kind of bridge the gaps of knowing between different types of people out there. I want this book to appeal to a number of different folks and really illustrate the common human experiences and processes that we all go through. And lastly, it's a book that encourages you to develop into your highest self, not just for your. Your own, I guess, satisfaction, but because the world's asking you to do that. The world needs you to do that. The more we step into our full power as individuals, the more we give permission to others to do the same. And with the upcoming crises and kind of the uncertain times that we've entered into, the long disaster so to speak. We really need people to start recognizing how interdependent we are. And so I'm hopefully going to kind of try and illustrate that story too. You know, speaking about kind of where we've come from, how the digital age took us down this route towards stratification of self and, well, it's. The digital tools we have are incredible when used properly. They've also added a couple of tough places. They've also introduced a number of tough mental health situations and addictive tendencies and all that stuff. So try to just break down where we came from, who we are as individuals, as a society, and how we might become a little bit more empowered and excited about a future that if we imagine together and live in cooperation versus competition, knowing that we're all reflections of different versions of ourselves and we're all doing the best we can, we might usher in an era that is a little bit more full of love, a little less full of fear, and a little more hopeful for the next generation.

Basically giving someone almost a shortcut to learning, but then also a more of a 10,000 foot view on where we are, you know, just even as a society and how these things are going to both help us and then help us evolve and then also things to kind of like, look out for.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, it's funny, that's why you can tell, like, I had kind of this pressure to, to write the book right when the pandemic hit because, oh gosh, I could tell. This is what we've been training for with fgp and this is, okay, stay calm under fire and help guide. And turns out I wasn't quite ready, but because I decided to start the process a couple years later, I'm ready today. And have I missed my chance? Does the world not still need me? No, of course not. I'm actually right on time. Part of my background is I've been kind of a voracious reader about, you know, all concepts of like, what is the new story of the world that we're living into? And, you know, I was inspired by. There's a book called the More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible by Charles Eisenstein and breaks down just a lot of different issues that have kind of been coming to a head, from food scarcity to polarization to.

The westernized story of the world of consumption, consumption, capitalism, et cetera, et cetera. How they've led us to this.

Pseudo flourishing place, but that has kind of a timeline on it. And it's kind of like, when are we going to get in touch with the more, you know, the story of Intervene, where we recognize we're not going to make it if we're just in competition with each other till the end in a scarcity mindset, we've got to come up with something different. And he had some of the answers. He didn't predict that Covid was going to happen the way it did. But just to say there, there have been some amazing individuals out there who have kind of been watching the greater story, you know, from a, from a higher perspective. And I gotta thank them for, for kind of being the forerunners of some of what I'm gonna hopefully pick up on and translate for a few more different types of readers.

Yeah, and here's what, here's what I'm wondering too, Matthew. So I was in the middle of doing this, like, do the thing, start a podcast challenge because I was encouraging people to almost have their own voice. Similar to what you said with the. I, I wrote it down. Maybe what I have, maybe what I have to say could help other people because there are, there is so much struggling. And so from hearing from someone in their lived experience, it's so powerful. And so I was encouraging people to do that, but then I realized they weren't ready yet. There was a lot of people that were ready, but a lot of my community wasn't. So I'm doing like a bridge now challenge where it's going to be do the thing, find your voice. And it's really more about them finding their inner voice. So I really liked what you said earlier with like, who are you now? Who are you wanting to be? And so I'm just wondering, how did you make that shift to be able to say, maybe what I have to say could help other people because there is so much struggling. What was the thing that got you to say, okay, I'm ready now?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I love that shift of focus for you because it, it really is kind of a prerequisite, really putting yourself out there is, is knowing and trusting who you are. And while I think prior to this or in younger years, I loved and appreciated my full self when I was at my best and in the flow and explaining the world the way I do when I drop into that zone. But I wasn't consistent in it. Right. I might spend a have a late night writing and writing and coming up with a bunch of amazing things, but it was potentially alcohol fueled and it was potentially not treating my body the best that I could. And then the next day or the next couple days, I wouldn't even want to go back and read it. So it was through my mid-20s, late 20s, I kind of lived this half life of, okay, I'll be a writer. But then I wouldn't live a life that kept me energetically sound enough to continue on or to kind of be able to operate from that consistent place. And it was a struggle that it was kind of. I saw my potential and I believed that I could be this author or this thought leader. But then half my week I just spent not believing myself and wondering, okay, what do I got to clean up? And so, I mean, it's been a path towards. I mean, that's a whole other side topic. But in general, it's about learning to fully accept myself for all of the pieces of me that might not be so proud to share, loving the parts of myself that I am, loving all parts of it, but really allowing myself to be excited about myself again. So that takes kind of dropping the judgment and the shame and the guilt for not having done something yet or for still having a bad habit or two. And it's as you ease off those negative emotions, you've got more space for the joyous emotions and for the celebratory emotions. And once you spend more time in that place with kind of an abundance mindset versus the scarcity mindset that, hey, I've got all the time in the world, I've got today on infinity, then you really start to build up that confidence to say, you know what, maybe I haven't even given myself credit lately, or maybe I haven't looked back. Like we kind of start the conversation with, maybe I haven't just looked back and seen how far I've come and allowed myself to sit into that new version of myself. And it's taken a lifetime, but really a pretty strong focus on self development and clearing out my limiting beliefs and thoughts over the years, finding ways that I can get my physical vessel into optimal shape and just energetically, more consistently happy and ready. So, yeah, it's taken all the things and yeah, so I think could take any number one of those things and expand upon. But I think, to summarize, it's just been truly letting go of the things that kind of no longer served me. Starting to have a little bit more faith and trust in myself and also trusting the timeline and having patience and really how I knew I was finally there was. I hit a point where I was more excited for the days ahead of me and what I might create with my potential than worried about what I hadn't accomplished yet or what I still had to leave behind. And so I think the encouragement there is just to you can tell people all day, oh, start with where you are or where you wherever you go, there you are. But if you don't have something ahead of you to draw you forward, a goal of who you want to be or what you want to feel or what types of gifts you want to give to the world and you don't feel you have a chance to improve yourself daily towards that expression, it can be tough. So it's, it's kind of. Yeah, I think if you have sort of a dual goal mindset of find your voice without any pressure. Just let go of what you think you, you know, what people presume of you. None of the judgment matter. Give yourself the space to find out who you really are. And that includes taking care of your body and your health and your own energetics and then also get those to a place where you know that you're actually improving every single day in terms of your capacity to then express and give those gifts. So it's for me, meditation, doing these new fascial maneuvers, which is kind of like a stretching, a yoga and breath work from human garage, cold plunging, stuff like that, we are integrated beings. We are not just mental workhorses. We are not just spiritual beings. We are not just our physical selves. We're a combination of all three. And when you start to honor that and find balance among the triumvirate of selves, you start to trust your own capacities. And you know what gets you tuned up and in the flow and then act from that place, you got a much better chance. So less forcing. More, more invitations and yeah, yeah, I love it.

I am actually really excited to hear your answer to this question. What is your number one piece of advice for the listeners on Doing the thing?

The number one piece of advice to the do the Thing listeners? There's a big question and condensing good information down to simple information is a skill set I think I have. And in the end I think that is the advice. You're going to come across all sorts of information. You're going to read all sorts of books, you're going to see hundreds of posts every day on your feed. Try and think about what you take in and experience as a river flowing by that by the end of the day you pick up just a piece of. You might just think about. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed by everything that's out there. Try and just take the simplest summary of it. Try and just.

Get the core message and take it and move on. I think we're moving into a world rapidly where those that can filter through the information and see the gold and just go with it are going to find themselves kind of ahead of the pack. Yeah. If you're ever overwhelmed by all sorts of stuff, condense it down into something simple and do that thing first, Turn it into a mantra and say that mantra every day and you do something one time, 1% better every single day of your life over a year, you're 37 times better at that. So it's just try and take a simple lesson out of every day. Know that that can be more powerful than massive amounts of effort in some cases. And. And trust that, yeah, you can get just a little bit better every day. And one day you're gonna wake up and you're gonna feel confident and capable and that day might be today. So don't discount yourself for how far you've come. Look back every once in a while and try and simplify things from the noise. And now I realize I've given like 10 answers to your question, but there it is.

Yeah, no, it was perfect. Honestly, it's like so good. It's so good. If you could share for the listeners that want to follow along on your journey and also be updated when your book comes out, do you have any, like, social media they can follow along with?

Yeah, I just have a website. You can go to bstage.com and as b s a g e com, I don't actually have social media for it yet because I've been struggling with having two social medias, one for myself and one for this. And maybe I can find some advice on that later. But when the time comes, the time comes. So maybe just sign up for my email list and I'd love to let people know when, when the book is out or maybe release some early stuff before the publishing happens. And yeah, you can see some of my other writings and projects up there as well. So thanks for taking a look.

So cool. Thank you so much for coming on with me today. I really, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, Stacy, been a pleasure. Thank you so much for the chance to share and discuss with you and I look forward to seeing what this inspires and others and myself too.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share. We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at do the Thing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.