Mike Shatravka: Shaping Destiny Through Determination and Action

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. Well, guys, I love these kinds of conversations because when you get to see someone that is literally doing the thing right in front of your eyes and you get to see the momentum that's building as he's moving and inspiring people through his efforts, and it's amazing to just see that grow and evolve as it continues. And so I met my next guest through a group that we're in together, and he's been posting in there, and I've been seeing what he's doing on Instagram, and he's already changing lives through his Instagram channel in itself. And now he's actually going to be showing people the system that he uses to build a personal brand. So I'm really excited to talk to my next guest about his do the Thing story and also introduce him to you guys as well. So I am welcoming Michael to the show. Hey, Michael.

How are you guys doing? Thank you for inviting me to the show. I'm happy to speak and share whatever you guys are seeking.

It's so cool because I see it, I feel it like everyone does, especially in the group we're in. We're all rooting you on. And I feel like it's so cool to see this momentum. So many people get stuck in their head and stuck in whatever is going to hold them back. And just seeing you move and as you're moving, people are literally being inspired, and then they're getting motivated and inspired to move, too.

Yeah, I'd say I think we all experience that. No matter. You see people getting ahead on social media. So many times I get overwhelmed and you start questioning, should I be doing this? Am I really going in the right direction? And we're all guilty that even the successful people ucd. But the one thing is when that does happen is I try to remind myself, am I just thinking, let's just do it, Just jump in, try it? There's no reason to be thinking and Trying to guess the right way or the wrong way, you find out when you do it. And that's actually the one thing I've really been Learning in the 1%, the group we're in is to make decisions. And I realize a lot of times the questions you have or the thoughts you have, the only way to find out is to do it, just jump in. And the worst that happens is it doesn't work. And then you just try the thing that does work. And the more you do, and the faster you fail and burn through the bad ideas, the quicker you get to the good ideas.

It's amazing. We haven't even really fully started yet. I want to hear your story. And I'm already like, oh my God, this is so good. Because I feel like it's so important for people to know that what you said earlier, at each point you could be questioning yourself. Because especially as you're growing and evolving and getting out of your comfort zone, that thing of, am I doing the right thing? It comes up and then you've moved past it, you've taken action, you've gotten the result. But then guess what? When you go to the next level, it comes up again. And I feel like there's a lot of people that might ask themselves, like, what's wrong with me? Why can't I figure this out? But I think you really spoke to the fact that it's normalizing it and making sure people know that it happens to all of us. No matter who you are, you're gonna have those moments where you're wondering if you're doing the right thing.

Yeah, I would say for sure. The one thing is that you don't wanna get stuck in it. Because I've been guilty that for the last 10 years that has happened to me where I'll just. You spend way too much time questioning it. Procrastinating. And procrastinating is not even just sitting around doing nothing. It's over, analyzing, trying to over research, looking at other ideas. And lately I'd say this last year, what really shifted over my life perspective is to focus just to really just laser in. And I used to think I was focused, but I really wasn't because I thought that, hey, just because I'm focusing on this one goal, I'm now doing 10 different tactics. Like, hey, I'm trying to do my social media, I'm trying to do my Instagram, my YouTube, I'm trying to do my video production business. And I was thinking, hey, all these things are related to the goal. But when you're doing 10 things, you're actually spreading yourself thin across the board and you're actually not focused, you're distracted. And the one thing that's really helped me this year is I try to zoom out. Whenever I do get overwhelmed, I try to zoom out and just look at it from the bird's eye view and I say, what am I really after? What is the purpose of all this? And then I look at the actions I'm doing and then I say, is this really in line with what I'm doing? Is this really the most important thing? Is this really a priority? Or if I focus more on this, it'll bring me closer. So I put those on pause. And then I really just try to dedicate my time on that one thing. And that usually when you focus on one thing, it becomes less, less overwhelmed and you're more consumed with the action and getting it done. And then when you start realizing all your energy is in one place, you start getting the results a lot quicker. And that's kind of a boost of morale. Especially I would even say the Instagram. Originally, when I started this in August, it started off as a. There's a weight loss transformation because I was 280 pounds, rock bottom obesity. I was just in a dark place. And my goal originally was to lose a hundred pounds. I wanted to create the fitness brand. And I just started off, I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Let's try talking about different workouts, let's try showing different foods, let's try talking about different weight loss failures I've had. I'm trying all these different things. And the content that I was posting wasn't really getting any response, just a few likes from friends and family. And the problem was I was all over the place. Even though I'm focused on one goal, I'm still doing all this random stuff that's not really clicking. And I want to say it's kind of like a chicken or the egg situation where it's like in order to be focused, you have to know what you're doing, but when you're starting out, you don't necessarily know what success looks like. So I think there comes a time when you do have to try everything, but you don't want to get stuck doing everything. You want to quickly try everything, see what sticks. And then as soon as you see something kind of taken off, you kind of narrow in and double down on that one thing. And that's why I originally started with these random health videos, fitness videos, and Then I started doing a pushup challenge, and I noticed, hey, that's actually getting double the engagement. So I paused and stopped doing everything else. And then I kind of narrowed more on that, and then I doubled down on that challenge, and then it started getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and then after less than 60 days, it went viral. So it just shows you, by really focusing down and trying to find what works, it gets the best results.

Yeah, it's incredible. And it goes back to what you were saying earlier about making the decision. Right. It's like tapping into what that thing is you want to do and then deciding that's what it is.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So I'd love to talk about it. So I'm seeing your Instagram blowing up, and everyone in the group's really excited because I feel like we're seeing the momentum happening. I'd love to hear more about just that process and just even. Why don't we go back to just your story in general? Tell us kind of just how all this even started. I know you mentioned you wanted to lose a hundred pounds, and so obviously that was a big thing, but was there something before that that sort of elevated this?

Yeah, I would say jump back to. I'd say 2010. 2010. I was a young, ambitious kid. I just finished up school, and I was actually 100 pounds lighter. I weighed. Right now I'm 240. I weighed 140, so I was 100 pounds lighter. I was a skinny kid, and I wanted to be a YouTuber because I saw that's when YouTube was starting to take off. And I just had no idea. I was just a young, unskilled, naive kid, and I didn't know how to do anything. And I was. I remember I was trying to make all these videos, and they were just not really going anywhere. And I would do it for a little bit, then they'd fail, and I would give up and stop doing it. And I get sidetracked with trying to make some money, do some odd jobs, and I kind of got caught up in that pattern. And every year, I always found myself trying to create the content, and every year, I'd stick to it, be enthusiastic for a month, but I was never truly consistent. I didn't keep. I was just making random stuff, and that's why it was never taken off. And I kind of had that pattern across my life where I'd go extreme, where I go full zero to a hundred in, like, a week, and it just wasn't consistent. And I would say as a kid, I Was very athletic. I was a competitive cyclist. I was very fit. I then ended up having like a small acting modeling career for a few years, a couple television shows, did a few commercials. And back in 2016 is when I got married to my wife. I call her Mamacita. She's from Colombia. And I was a very fit actor. I had modeling gigs and I gained 100 pounds a year later because I was eating Colombian food. We were in love every day, just snacking and eating junk every day. She introduced me to plantains and yucca and chicken and rice and beans. And I got really fat. And that was the end of my acting career and I had to switch to the other side of the camera, which was being a camera operator. So now I was shooting video, doing photos, shooting a lot of gig to gig projects, and just working and working and working. And I was trying to create YouTube content about production, about lifestyle, about marriage, relationships. It was just again, random content. I felt like you had to just share and be real. But the problem I was making, it wasn't really leading to anything. I didn't think it through to the end. Why am I doing this? Where is it all heading towards? What is this journey? And there was really no journey, just throwing stuff at the wall. And sometimes the video would get like 10,000 views. Most of the time it would get like 100 views. And that was really, for me, kind of a big demotivator because I put so much effort into making these videos during my limited free time. And it didn't really take off at all. And again, I'd stop doing the videos. And I was getting heavier and heavier. Working different jobs and your lifestyle starts to kind of inflate. You get a nice car, you, you get nice clothes, you try to keep up with the job you're doing. And I kind of got caught up in that lifestyle. And I'd say this 2023, in August, actually prior 2023, I kind of got sidetracked into another business opportunity that was totally outside of media production. And it became a huge business failure, a huge lesson. And I became so fat, so burned out, so tired. And I realized, who am I doing this? For the last 10 years I've been working, even though I've always been self employed. I think, oh, I'm the boss, it's my business, I choose who I want to work with. It wasn't necessarily true because I was still working for another client's projects and I was consumed on building their brands, their channels, and I wasn't even aware of it. But the one thing that they were doing right is that even though I was creating their content, they were only doing one thing. They were only focused on one niche, whether it be real estate or fitness or medical stuff. It always related to one topic and never clicked until now. And then finally, I guess, yeah, in August is when everything kind of all collapsed. That's when I realized I need to do this for myself because I've built so many other successful brands for other people. And then they just, you know, they move on, they go on to other things. They forget about you. And I realized I need to really go all in on myself. And that's what I did in August. I told all my clients, I'm done with production. And I focused on building this fitness brand where it's me documenting my journey, losing weight. And that's now the one theme of losing the weight. Fitness, self improvement. And just sticking to that one thing really allowed me to be in tune. And now people that go to my channel now, they understand what is going on. It's an inspiration to them as well if they're in a similar story as me.

Yeah, it's so amazing because you had that moment of, who am I doing this for? Right. And you were able to really tap into just what you even wanted for your life. Now here you are inspiring other people through your actions. And I think there's something really powerful about that courage that it took you to do it. I'd love to hear about the first video. How did you actually record the first video and did it.

First video, like, recently, during this year?

Yeah, just when you started this new. This new thing. Was that terrifying? Was it easy? What was that like for you?

You know, surprisingly, I wasn't. I was at a point in my life where I just didn't give a, like, an F, Like, I didn't give a fuck, you know, Like, I just didn't care anymore. Because after that failed business venture, I went and called everybody on the phone if they could invest, if they could introduce me to somebody. And all the people I've done favors for, everybody I've gone out of the way for. None of those people could offer any type. I'm not asking for a handout. I'm asking, hey, can you introduce me to somebody? They couldn't even do that off. They couldn't even give me a referral. So I realized, you know what? Just F everybody else. I really don't care at this point, because at the end of the day, people look out for themselves. As cool as it sounds, And I figured I have to really go in on myself. And I made my video and I was kind of frustrated. I was like, listen guys, I got so fat. I'm 280 pounds. I'm wearing triple XL T shirts, 42 pants. I used to wear size 32. Now I'm wearing size 42. I just made that video. It was like a five minute long video. It's at the bottom of my Instagram somewhere, at the very bottom post. And I was just kind of not venting, but I was like, guys, like, I've literally just let myself go and I'm sick of it. Like, I'm tired. And I said, that's it, I'm going to do it. And it was, I wouldn't say embarrassing, but it was like, I just knew that once I make this video and I post it publicly, now I have to do it. It's like that super form of accountability where it's like I can't because I, whenever I say I do stuff, I, I follow through. And now this is like publicly out there, putting everything on the spot. Now it's like I have to do it. So I would say it was like a really big kind of super push. Like I'm pushing myself. That accountability is now. It's like I gotta do it or look stupid. And then the other video, I think like a few videos later, actually the next video, I took off my shirt and it's like my super obesity. And that was a little scary, to be honest, because my family is more traditional. And when I post that first video, my dad was like, he was actually at, he called me, he was with his friends watching tv and they're all like a Russian, Ukrainian background, and they're all old school, 70 year old people. And he's on his phone and he says he scrolls on Facebook. And that's a video. Me with no shirt, you know, super obese, making a. He's like. And his friends all see me on the phone. And he was like, what the hell is your son doing? He felt super embarrassed and he called me. He's like, what the hell are you doing? Why did you post this stupid video? Why are you making a clown out of yourself? And I said, this is the before. I said, in order for me to build this successful brand, there needs to be a before. There needs to be a struggle. And I said, listen, you can either be part of the team or you can be not on the team. And that for me was, I had to tell them, like, listen, I'm not gonna Because a lot of times you have family and friends that try to put you down. And my fat. My. My family doesn't. They're not putting me down, but they're just saying out of their own instinct. And I just told them, look, I'm building this brand. I'm gonna lose this weight. I'm gonna have this. I told him exactly how it's going to be and what's going to happen. I said, you're either with it or you're not about it. So if you're not about it, next year, don't want to lose the way you have a brand, don't come asking to hang out with us and chill with us. So I made it very clear, so either with us or not. And he said, yeah, you're right. I'm with you. So got my family on board now. They've been big supporters, and now they see the channel growing. The first few months, they didn't really see much of a difference. I was trying all these things. I can see they were a little bit kind of like, oh, man, are you sure you're doing this? But now it's really blowing up. Now I'm like an overweight athlete, so things are taking off. So I guess the long story short, all your haters, all the naysayers, they will eventually become your number one fans.

Yeah. That's amazing. I'm so curious. So when your dad said that to you, how did you have that conviction? Where did that come from? Did you tap into that before? That moment where you knew that you were just doing the right thing? Or when he started questioning you, was there any part of you that was like, oh, I hear what he's saying, and now I'm scared.

I've always been a very rebellious. I was a very rebellious teenager, and my parents told me to do something, I would do the opposite. And when you do that early on in life, it's a very hard life. It's an uphill battle going against the grain, going uphill. And I always just. I was very rebellious in school. Very rebellious with everything. I never listened to authority, and most of the time, that bites you in the ass. You're going to have a very hard time. But I guess the difference was this time, instead of just defying it without. What I'm trying to say is, in the past, I would obliviously defy it without really thinking it through and just try my own way. But this time, I've seen so. Because I follow all these other Instagram accounts, and I've seen guys that were 350 pounds, 400 pounds. And I've been following them for the last two, three years. And now these guys have built incredible brands. They're super lean and ripped. They even inspired me. And I was like, if these guys can do it, then I can do it. So I just, I've seen it from other people and that's why it's so important to put it out there and share that on social media, because you never know where you can inspire. Like, I got inspired. This guy, Bishoy Keller, I saw him like two years ago on his. I never. He doesn't even know me, but I saw him two, three years ago and he was like 350 pounds. And I was like, damn, this guy is super morbidly obese. And he's now doing it. I got to do it. So I just knew that there was a proven concept of it. And, and then even joining our group, the 1%, I've seen so many people that aren't tech savvy, aren't computer out, like social media savvy, but they're figuring it out and they're making it happen. And I said, if somebody else can do it, I can do it. So you got to believe.

Yeah. And you're doing something where every time you get a new follower, you do a new step or something. What. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that?

Yeah. So the. My challenge, the recent. What blew up my viral was I called the super stair step challenge where I'm doing one step for every one follower. And to be honest, I didn't think it blew up so quick. Originally I was thinking I'd get like 2050 people a week and I'd be like doing a gradual workout. And then one week I get 15,000 followers and it became insane. Where it's now to the point where it's maybe doing it like once a week. It's very hard. It's very time consuming. It's very mentally and physically miserable. Just walking on the step in a circle 16,000, 17,000 times. And it takes like five hours to do. So right now I'm at a point where I got. Last week or two, I did get overwhelmed because I was trying to do. I'm still. I'm actually finishing the 75 hour challenge. I'm on day 70. I have five days left.

Oh, congratulations.

Challenge. Thank you. I was doing like, I'm trying to build a personal brand course and I was doing all this different stuff and I again, I had to pause and zoom out and I figured you know what? Right now, let's finish the course. Let's maybe pause the production value because I was making these really super edited 75 hard videos that had a story very produced. And I don't know if you've noticed in the last two weeks, the production quality is really kind of went down. That's. I've been focusing on my course. I see. You know what, all that stuff will come. But let's pause the 75 hard. Let's come back to the stair step challenge where I'm done my personal brand course. And it's become like a weekly thing right now where I'm just once a week I'll go and do it. I'm trying to work smarter. I'm trying to figure out how to do one shoot, but maybe get 10 to 20 pieces of content from that one shoot. So work a little bit smarter. So that's kind of the aim now.

Yeah. I think it's important for you guys to hear this because Michael's in the middle of doing the thing, right. And this is all new where you're coming up with it. And so every step isn't pre calculated. You're sort of figuring it out as it goes and then following wherever your momentum is leading you. And I love that. I think that's so great. I think it's good that you're kind of being able to say, okay, I'm going to stop this and focus on this. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is a lot of people think they need to have this whole entire plan all ahead of time, figure it all out. But it's just what you're showing is that fact of figuring things out as you go is totally an amazing do the thing strategy.

I think you have to, because before, like three, four years ago, I used to try to plan everything. I spent all the time writing and trying to weigh everything on overanalyzing it. And you could create the best game plan in the world. But now, once you actually put it into play in real life, things start to happen. It never goes your way. So I think you have to just kind of run with the ball. I think it's important to know where you're trying to get to, but how you get there is not important. You'll figure it out as long as you just go out there and make it happen. You got to just figure it out.

Yeah. Well, let's talk about when you're coming up with these ideas. Where do they come from? So even that stair step challenge, so where are Those things coming from.

Looking at other creators, I'd say actually, before I, before I go into that, there's a book called how to Steal like an Artist. It's like one of the best books for creatives. You don't actually steal other people's stuff, but it teaches you how to kind of model and get ideas because, you know, if you think about it, everything in life has been modeled after something else and you slightly improve it. So definitely worth reading that book, how to Steal like an Artist. And what I do now is I just go on Instagram, I go look at people that are already doing it, that are already making it work. They're getting a ton of engagement. And then I try to see how can I don't want to copy them and do what they're doing. I try to see how could I try that concept and make it better or add my own take to it. So how do I come across the stair step challenge? There was this kid from Arkansas who actually I hired as a mentor. It's actually another topic of why you should always hire people that are doing stuff above you and learn from them. But he was an 18 year old kid in Arkansas and he was going viral. He's almost got like 700,000 views and he was doing one step for every follower. And I remember I found his page when he had like maybe 20,000 followers and he was walking 20,000 inches or whatever he was doing. Yeah, he was walking one inch for every follower. So when he started his videos, he was walking like 300 inches, which is like, I don't know, 3ft or something, 4ft. It was kind of funny where it's like, you see this kid, he's getting all worked up and then he walks like five feet and the video is over and it's like, all right. And he does this for a week and it's not. His account's not really growing. And it's like, all right. But then if you look at his videos, Chewie Thompson, he all of a sudden gets like 10,000 followers in a day. And now he just went from walking like 10ft to now walking a hundred feet. And then it went to, all of a sudden, the next day, 50,000 followers. And this kid really blew up. And now he's walking like 10, 12 miles a day. And it really kind of took off for him. So when I saw his challenge, that's how I got the idea for my super pushup challenge, which is doing one pushup for every hundred followers. And when I did that, I got not as great of a response as him. It's not as scary to. Because a hundred it was. I was only doing like seven pushups, so it's not really that intimidating. It's not that like, oh my. If it was one push up for a follower doing 700 push ups, that's kind of like, oh, my God, that's a lot of push ups. So I do that challenge for 30 days and it was whatever, it went up. But then I figured out how could I make it even more? And then I did the 75 hard and that and then elevated even more. But then how it led to the stair step challenge is actually by accident. My wife and I were going for one of our daily walks and I was always thinking in the back of my head, how can I? Because he kept messaging me on what's up? He's like, hey, bro, like, when are you going to do a follower challenge? You need to do it. You need to do it. And I have this, this kid, this 18 year old kid. These kids are so smart. I'm 31 years old. This kid's telling me, he's like, listen, man, you gotta get on this. I have a little 18 old kid motivating me on what's up. He's like, bro, you gotta make the challenge already start. And it was already January 1st, and he's been messaging me for a month. And I'm like, damn, I gotta do this. I keep telling him. And I was like, all right. So one day, my wife and I are walking down the street through the park and I see these small little steps, little staircase, like seven steps. And then I just crosses my mind for a second. I was like, what if I just do one step for every follower? It's so easy, but it could get so hard and it looks so ridiculous of just walking in a circle. So my wife was like, yeah. And also it was right next to our house, so I didn't have to go walk far away. So I said, okay, let's do it. So we ended up just doing it for one day and the video got, I don't know, like a thousand views. It was like, whatever. Then I did it again, got like another thousand views. And it was nothing crazy. And I thought, okay, cool. It's actually, I look at my, my Apple watch and it's like, oh, I burned 700 calories. This is a great workout. If I do this, I'm going to actually reach my goal of my Instagram of the a hundred pounds. And I'll just be walking on the steps. This is incredible. So on day three, the video ends up going viral, and it gets to, like, 600,000 views, and I'm like, holy shit. Oh, my God. So I went from, like, 3,000 to, like, five, and then it just. It blew up. And then I was like, oh, my God. Now it really became really kind of insane to do. It's. It's really understandable at this point, but it's a good problem to be figuring out.

Yeah, it would be fun if you had your followers in on it where they could do part of your steps. People that maybe want to lose weight, too. You could have them vote on who's actually going to record themselves doing steps.

Yeah. And I've tried to encourage people. I say, hey, guys, get in on it. Tag me. Just go find a staircase. So I don't know if anybody's ever done it yet, but you're welcome to get in and join the stair step challenge.

That's awesome. Okay, so share now, because now you're taking it to another level, which is great. You've created the system, you've vetted it, and now you're gonna teach people. I'd love to hear what you're doing in terms of helping people create a personal brand.

So when it comes to building a personal brand, what I've noticed over the Last beginning of YouTube is I followed so many people that started off at nothing. And I'm sure you've also watched channels and creators that start off with a hundred or thousands of subscribers or followers, and then all of a sudden, a year or two later, they're at a million, 2 million, 3 million. And they built these incredible brands. And I see they're talking about stuff, they're being consistent. But it finally clicked this year. What they're all really doing is sharing their journey. They're sticking to one theme, and the journey is really just one goal. And it's. Everybody has a goal. Like, oh, I want. Everybody wants to, you know, make money, have a family, and be happy. What I mean by goal is overcoming something that's really been bothering you your entire life. Maybe you're like me and you're overweight. That's something I've been dealing with my entire life. I've lost some weight. I've gained the weight. Maybe you've never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend, or you break up after a week, or maybe you can't hold down a job, or maybe you just don't have any skills and that bothers you. So I think to really build the journeys to find that one thing that's really just bothering you, that keeps you up at night and now your journey is to overcome it and get to the end, to go from A to Z, get to the finish line. And that's when I realized, wait, that's exactly what these influencers are doing. They're documenting their journey. They start off as broke kids and now they're running 10 figure multimedia agencies and doing all this crazy stuff. And what I started doing was really noticing these patterns, seeing these concepts and putting it into a course. Trying to create this course where regular people that don't necessarily have camera skills or they're public speakers, they can just tap into their own life, experience their own challenges, and share how they're overcoming this goal to really create a brand that resonates with people that are like them. And that's what I found with doing the 75 hard challenge is I had so many people that were also men in their 30s, that were also former athletic, There were an accidents and now they're overweight and they were like, oh my God, bro, keep it up, bro. Like, very inspirational even for both of us. And it was crazy because when you start sharing your own challenges and obstacles, you start attracting all the people that are on the same journey and then you become kind of a lighthouse for them. You kind of become an inspiration for them. They push you and you both kind of go up and what happens is you build this personal brand, you start growing, you start meeting all these people. I've probably met over a hundred people now. We've had great conversations. I even met like a few of them off of Instagram. You started making great connections all around the world, great friends and then business opportunities and ultimately you make an income. So I'm creating this short course to kind of condense over a decade of knowledge and finally the results that I used of how I went viral, how I was able to create these videos and I share it with you guys in this course that I'm currently almost done finishing.

It's amazing because we talked even before about that idea of not just helping people create a channel, you're helping them really tap in to who they are. So then that's being able to attract those people that are really tied into that message of the deepest part of the person.

Yeah.

So is that what your goals are now, is you're just basically you've got your Instagram and you're continuing to document your journey and until you know, just through this weight loss process and then through that, now you're creating the system helping other brands be able to elevate in the same way you did.

Yeah. So my goal at the end of this year is to lose a hundred pounds and be the example, be the proof in the pudding and use that as the ultimate case study. The proof in the pudding that what I'm teaching works because I've done it for myself and ultimately become fully remote, fully autonomous. I want to be totally independent where I can work off of Soul Instagram course revenue. I'm trying to grow my account to a million followers by the end of this year, doing challenges, getting sponsors and selling digital products. So that's my ultimate goal by the end of this year. And then teaching people how they can do it for themselves.

Yeah, it's cool because then all of a sudden you're teaching people and then you're getting to see them grow because of something that you were able to do. I just think that's the coolest thing is when you get to see the impact of people visibly.

Yeah. And I would just say the one big thing is, especially when you're a content creator starting out, it's a lot of time. This is a full skill. It's not how it was five years ago where you just post and it goes viral. Now you really have to know how to shoot, how to edit, how to do all these little things. And it takes time. And now it's like in order to really dedicate to doing content, you need to learn these skills. And everybody has responsibilities and obligations. Y' all got full time work. So my course, I'm really trying to just shorten this all down to two to three hours and just give you what you need to focus on. Cut out all the noise and just go on one track. And what really helps for me especially, I really want to get this thing out there and get it moving and producing something because now it'll allow me to focus on the content while also the more I grow, the more it validates my course and the more people can get my course and learn the proven techniques that I'm doing and then they can improve their own situation. So it's kind of an ultra win win in all directions. That's gotta be mutual. Both gotta be going up.

Yeah. What do you think is the biggest thing that you are tapped into to be able to get through all these things that you're doing? I wanna kind of actually go back to the beginning, what you were saying with the. Sometimes it can ask yourself if you're doing the right thing and if this is really what you should be doing. How do you really move through that noise that gets in the way?

So when I start to get overwhelmed, it happens at least maybe once a month. You really kind of think, like, am I really doing the right thing? So when this happens, I'll just turn off my phone and I'll go for a walk with my wife for a few hours. We'll breathe some fresh air. It's really important to have a supportive partner who sees the vision with you. And when I get back home, we take out the good old notepad, the good old pen and paper, and we just write out a simple pros and cons list of what we're currently doing. And then we look at that list and we say, is this really aligned with what we're after, what we're really trying to get to? And then even if the stuff you're doing, you think it makes sense. I start really asking myself, why are we doing this one thing? You start asking myself, why, why, why? And you start digging deeper and deeper. You already know the answer yourself. Once you get to that answer, you start thinking, hey, wait a minute. Maybe this isn't the most important activity right now. Maybe I should actually go all in on this. And that just by the process of elimination and cutting out, being able to say no and just refine down to the one thing that really has helped me to get back on track.

Okay, Michael, the time is here. What is your number one piece of advice for people on doing the thing?

Number one piece of advice to do the thing. See, you gotta believe in yourself. And as long as you have it in here and you go at it every day, you're gonna get there. And I'd say that's the number one thing, is believe in yourself and go out there and make it happen.

Thank you so much for coming on. This was incredible. I feel like you just provided so much value in this time.

Thank you. It was great talking to you and hopefully we'll be in touch. I'll see you around.

And for you guys, do the Thing. Don't wait for opportunity. Create it. And hey, have you checked out my Facebook group yet? Go to do the thingcommunity.com 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 dothing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.