Removing Your Podcast Creative Blocks Helps Get Your Show In The Flow

Want your podcast and videocast to be seen, heard, found, and rewarded in this noisy digital world, you are not alone. Join the nonprofit community at Podcasters United and podcast industry experts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard as they debunk all that outdated and bad advice you've been getting from the podcast gurus and find out what actually works. Today, get ready to finish feed your brand with smart cut tactics proven to cast your original voice to the world.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Feed you'd brand. I'm Tom Hazard along with my co host and better half, Tracy Hazard. And today we're going to have some fun talking about a topic that is, I think, very important one, and everyone's going to experience it at some point in their podcasting journey. Some of them in the beginning up front, and others will experience it after they've been podcasting for a few years at different times. So, Tracy, why don't you help share with our audience what we're gonna talk about today?

Yeah, so today we're talking about removing your podcast creative blocks to help get your show in the flow. Right? And so sometimes that is at the beginning, you've got. You need to get into that flow of things, and sometimes you lose your flow. And this is how pod fading happens, right? So, like, you can fall apart at this.

So.

So creative blocks is something Tom and I know really well. I mean, we went to art school. We have creativity as a part of everything that we do. And this is kind of funny because we were just having this conversation about it. I was just evaluating our creative director from an employee standpoint. And not that I'm going to out his. His review here or anything like that, but some people have the belief system and the have better times of day, better times of year, better processes when they're more creative than others, and. And they use that as kind of a, like, I'm just not in the mood to write. I'm just not in the mood to podcast. And so we don't actually do that. Tom and I don't have that as a part of our process. We actually can pretty much turn creativity on like a faucet. Would that be accurate, Tom?

I think that is accurate. I would tend to say it a different way. I find for you and me, creativity is compulsive. I have trouble shutting it off.

Right. Yeah, I think that's probably actually more the case. Yeah. We're always on from a creativity standpoint that's always moving behind the scenes and kind of happening, but we can turn the flow on faster.

You definitely Can't. And there are times. Look, I'm not trying to say we are prolific in this way in terms of creativity. No, we come up with blocks, too. In fact, it's kind of ironic that normally we plan these topics for our episodes out at least a week or more in advance, and so our social media team can do some prep and a little bit of peek behind the curtain, for those of you listening to this episode or watching the video is that we didn't prepare this one very far ahead of time. We had a little bit of a block coming. All right, what are we going to talk about this week? Right. We didn't have that out there. And so I think it's kind of funny that we're talking about creative blocks after we had a minor one. It didn't take very long. I mean, what was it a day maybe of in terms of total time put into it? What, an hour or two maybe of a block and that was it?

Well, I'm going to say that there wasn't a block. There was a failure in work habits. And so, like, I think that this is something that goes. Goes around everything. So while we're really going to talk about the three top blocks that Tom and I see pretty consistently the most common ones, the reality is, is that if you don't get your work or your personal habits aligned or they're just not working for you, it complicates everything. So I was trying to stay out of it. Right. Like, normally, I push this process through for you, for the team, for everything, and keep this on schedule, but I had such a busy last couple of months that I thought, I'm going to take a step back and see if I can get the team to take it over. And the reality is that they got themselves all behind. And part of it was that they got behind trying to get input from you as well, so they don't push you as much as I do. Like, I like. Tom, sit down. We're going to brainstorm the topics, and I make it happen. And maybe the team just doesn't feel as comfortable with that kind of push pushing their boss. Right. And so we need to get them more comfortable that when they're responsible for delivering something and you're the holdup that they got to make it happen.

Well, I guess in all fairness, I want to say the team reached out to me and individuals on the team reached out to me and say, hey, what are you thinking? Are some upcoming good topics? And I've been so darn busy. I just. One of the things that about creative blocks and being creative in general is that while I think creativity, you and I have trouble turning it off most of the time. I think that's true. But there's also something to be said for, and especially when you're a business manager, managing creative people, if you have an expectation that, damn it, employee, you're going to sit down at your desk and be creative, because I'm paying you to, and you're just going to do it. And that's the worst thing you can do for someone that has a job that's in a creative field. You cannot just turn it on like a faucet. So. And that happened to me a little bit as I was thinking through, well, yeah, we could talk about this, we could talk about that. But I, you know, just being so busy, being forced to sit down, come up with a topic. Yeah, that didn't work too well for me this week.

Well, and I also think that part of it is that if you get yourself into this place where you're not collaborating and it's all on you, that can be harder. So Tom and I have the benefit of having each other. So. So when one isn't quite as creative as, or engaged at the moment in the flow of it. Right. That's why I talked about this as removing this so that you can get into the flow. Right. Removing these creative blocks. But the idea is that the other can spur that on. And so creativity works really well when you have that collaborative environment. When you have a brainstorming, think about it like that. So this is really where I want to say that those of you who have a team and expects your team to do all the hard work and you are not involved in the process, this can be a recipe for failure. And also then what happens when your team member gets sick? What happens when it. This is how you also get behind. So you do have to participate in the process. And that's critically important here. And that's, I think, what happened for us here. So your work and personal habits have to work together to make this happen. So that means that you might need to put in a routine, a system, and maybe you also need to build in for some of you, spontaneity into the process. Like I, honestly, for a creative person, I don't like spontaneity. I need a schedule because so much of our systems around it rely on that schedule, of, of it. So while I do want to have the spontaneity brainstorming it, that time for the spontaneity is actually scheduled in our program. So I know that sounds counterintuitive to some of you, but some of you require that structure. So if you do require it, make it happen. If you don't, you've got to leave open space. And that's what doesn't happen. Like, Tom doesn't have enough open space in his schedule where his brain can be free to think. And that can be counter, you know, counterproductive to the creative process, to brainstorming topic ideas, whatever that might be. You're not leaving space for that. So you may need to actually schedule in open space in order to allow spontaneity to occur.

And I experienced this recently with our creative director, who I needed to come up with copy for a webpage, and I just needed to give him the time and space to do it.

Right.

And boy, when he came back with it, oh, it is fantastic. And you just. You can't force that. You got to give it the time. You got to foster it. Right?

Right. But you also have to stay engaged and involved in it was that if he couldn't have enough of your time to have conversations, he's not going to be able to do the job that he needs to do to come up with the idea. So, like, it also has to do with the fact that you can't just drop this on someone's lap and say, go ahead and come up with the ideas and not allow them to have access to you and in conversation to be able to, like, make sure that those ideas are aligned with your business, aligned with your goals, aligned with those things. When those things happen, then all the flow happens through back and forth throughout the company. The other thing that I kind of want to mention here is sort of in the system and the process and the things that you might be doing in this, in the case here, is that Tom's not a night person and I'm not a morning person. So we had to structure. There's a reason why this call is in the middle of the day.

Right.

We had to come up with a space that worked for both of us to be able to participate in it at our best. Right.

And so true.

That has to happen for you as well. If you're thinking that like, well, I'm just. You're not a night person. And then you're finally getting to your podcast on your list to recording it, and it's at night. It's just not going to happen. This is why we didn't end up with a podcast that was prerecorded for last week. Was because we got so busy and our days got so packed that the only time left was at the very end of the day. And I just cannot make podcasts at that time. Can't do it, no matter how hard. I could have sat down and I almost did it. I had some stuff in the oven. I was baking pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving and I could have. It takes like an hour to cook. I could have sat down at this computer and just absolutely banged out the episode alone. But it wouldn't have worked because that's not the right spirit of the episode we wanted to record last week and to so to do it.

You mean Tom went away, the one we intended to pre record and livestream? Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. We wanted to see what it was.

Like and we couldn't find the right time of day for us both to do it. So that experiment never happened. We ended up just going live that day.

We still got it and we still knew what we were going to recording, but we couldn't make it happen because the only time that was allowing us to record because of our busy schedules was a time where Tom, he's not conducive to the creativity necessary to do a good episode, to be engaged, to be in the moment of it. So don't make that is like, I'm just gonna put it out at the bottom of my list and I'll get to it when I get to it. And then have that only time that you have free to do it. Be something where you're not going to be in your element. You're not gonna be good with podcasting. So that doesn't work for you when you're solo, when you're co hosting, when you're doing interviews. Those can also be really hard because solo is a little easier if you schedule for yourself, but also because you're not holding yourself accountable for it. You let it slip. And so that can be problems. Co hosts have issues getting schedules together. This is where system process, making it function. Tom and I will show up live for all of you. So I know there's no way Tom will miss an appointment. He won't cancel on you. He might cancel on me as the co host, but he won't cancel on you. And that's critically important. And make sure that you force yourself into a system that can make it work for you and force that to happen. So this is something that you. You really do need to think of. This is why I highly recommend interviews for those of you starting out because you're not going allow the creative blocks to get in your way. If you have to show up for someone else, you will remove that barrier because you have an obligation that you're willing to keep. And that's really critically important. If these blocks are getting in the way, putting in a system like that or putting in a process of interviews into it, even if eventually you're going to take them away and you're not going to do all interview episodes, that's okay. But in the beginning, if that's what it takes to get you started, put a system in place to make that happen. Put a schedule in place to make that happen. Routine versus freedom may be what's necessary to get rid of a blocker. Right? Like, that's just it.

Well, and to your point, Tracy, I think the routine is really important. So I have a podcast that I did for a couple of years with someone else as a co host, not you. We're both morning people. So we would always have our schedule at six in the morning before we got into the monotony of our days, before things got in the way, we would record from six to seven, usually, and. But I'll tell you, the routine was important to get us together to do it, but we almost always would spend the first 15 minutes going through creatively, what were we inspired by and what were we going to talk about? Sometimes we would plan it ahead, but sometimes we would do it right then. And sometimes we spent the whole hour working through it and not recording an episode. Cause we're working through the creativity of. All right, what are we going to talk about? But we would tear ourselves up with that topic for the next time then. But the routine, I think, is important to.

Yeah, that can really work for you. The other reason, like, look, we have a lot of, I'm going to call it dissension in the podcasting industry about the importance of using a podcast space, using an environment like going out and recording in a space. There's a reason we abandoned that. Look, I don't criticize studios. Studios have great sound, you've got supporters. Maybe you need that. Maybe that's the thing that will give you the appointment that will make it happen. But for the most part, what we found is that more people use that as an excuse to not record. And so that's why we built the whole system of we're sending you a microphone. All you gotta do is plug it in, your environment's ready to go, you're ready to podcast when the moment strikes. Right. Or when you need to be On. And we did that because we found more people would use that as an excuse that they couldn't get to their space than they would use it as. This is requirement for me. So I will podcast. There's different personalities, right? So use the one that makes you work, right? If you're going. If you need a space and that's gonna make it happen for you, then go to the space. But if you find that that's not working for you, then just plug the darn mic in and get started. So. So anyway, let's get to our blockers, Tom. All right, so we have three creative blockers that we see happen again and again and again. Mental block. That's the first one. You have a mental block that is stopping you. Usually it's overthinking and overanalyzing, trying to. Perfectionism gets into this mental block area. That's kind of perfectionism, while it has an emotional component as well. But the mental side of it must be perfect. So I have a mental block on publishing books.

You really think it's a mental block? Wow.

I'm positive it's a mental one and not an emotional one. I really looked this through. I've had a lot of publication therapy with my friend Juliet Clark, one of the best publishers ever. Right. And part of it is, is that there tends to be a lot of overthinking for those of you who are hefty podcast listeners, because you're listeners, you want the perfect experience. You want to create a podcast like somebody else's. You overthink the pieces and parts that you want. This is where it can happen most often. So if this is your issue, recognize it. That's the first part. Recognize it. I have got a mental block here. What am I going to do to remove that mental block? For me, my mental block on publishing a book is not the fact that I'm a gigantic reader and I want to put out this amazing book because, you know, I read so much that I do know what a good book looks like and sounds like and reads like. Right. Looks like. But the issue for me is that the book world isn't fast enough to keep up with my podcasting information. So I can't publish fast enough to keep up with that. And that's a mental block that I have to get over. I have to get over it and just publish the darn thing knowing that actually there is an update process, even though it's quite slow in the publication world, but you can update your book.

So your concern is that it's Going to age out of freshness or relevance. And that's why you think you have a mental block against the book. Right. Whereas a podcast, something changes, you just get on the mic and talk about it and can publish it within a week or two.

Well, for me, by the time I get the book assembled into the pieces and it goes through the editing process, it's already out of date. So when I do my pass through it, I'm making too many edits again, because it's already out of date for me. Like, that's an issue, right? So this is part of it is that there are ways around. Remember we said that there are systems, routines, processes that you can do to change the way that this works for you, to remove this mental block. So first off, if it's like, what if I went live instead? So if I'm overthinking, like the editing of this, what if I just pushed myself into a livestream situation and then allowed editing to happen at a more comfortable pace afterwards? Because I already put it out there. So now maybe I'm not over editing, overthinking that process. My mental block is starting to be removed. So by bringing in a new perspective on something and a what if this were how it worked? What if this were the way it was? We can help sometimes remove the mental block. And this is something that Juliette and I are actually working on. We're trying to figure out that, what if I did it in a different way than put the whole book together, had it go through an editor, come back to me a month later, and then I look at it again and it's out of date for me because of the speed of information. What if we had a different process?

Well, and so that's one of the.

Things we're looking, right? What if there were a different process for you that would help remove this mental block? That's the perspective you might need.

And I think to that point, Tracy, it's really, if what you're doing isn't working, it's time to change what you're doing and seek another path, seek another process, right? Change things up. When you think about it, you know, if you're stuck, staying there isn't going to make it any better, right?

So this is a mindset shift and a new perspective shift. So what do you do to shift your mindset? What do you do about this if you're in that mental block situation? Finding that mindset shift is critically important here. Do you need to meditate? Do you need to get a coach in? Do you need to get some. I mean, when we see someone with a mental block in the setup process, not getting started, that's usually when they send me or Tom in. So they send one of us in to kick butt, to basically move you forward, get you out of that block. It's a whole lot easier to move you out of a mindset block, a mental block, than it is an emotional block, which is our second one that we're going to talk about. Because an emotional block has deep roots. Right. So mind mental blocks are something you can easily move out of. So help yourself get into a new perspective, a new mindset, and help get someone to help you with that. Whether it's help you figure out a system or a coach that just helps you move past whatever's blocking you at this moment in time. But emotional blocks are a lot harder and they're going to require a lot more shifting.

Right, I agree. Yeah. A mental block is what I was going to add to that, which you did say to an extent, is that you can get outside help to help to move you past a mental block. You can absolutely do that, seek help. It could be a sibling, it could be a parent, it could be a friend, it could be a colleague. Probably in some ways, any of those would work well.

And we're here for you.

And of course, we are here for you as well. And it's just like it's easier for you and me, Trace, because we have each other. Like you said, you know, one of us is off we go, talk to the other. We get past whatever that mental block is in, you know, more easily.

Well, in keeping with our episode from last week, the harmony of us is that when one's up, one's down. Right? Like, so you can do that. So get some help in this way. Show up on our coaching calls here every single week. Show up in the live stream, ask questions, get yourself unstuck from this. This is where we love to put people in the hot seat and help you move through some mental block on something. Well, let's start the easier one.

Let's talk emotional block, because that one is very hard. I mean, I think people get to points in their lives when there are things that emotionally get in the way. And so it's as easy to get past that.

There's fear, there's confidence, and it's embodiment tends to be procrastination. That's what I hear a lot of is one side of it is procrastination, another side of it can be lashing out and anger. And so, like, it's. We see a lot of that happen, and then the last version of it is total retreat. So when we see someone go from just slowing down, procrastinating, there's usually an underlying emotional barrier in there that's affecting things. Now sometimes people get busy. That's number three. We'll talk about overwhelm and busyness and things like that. But when it's emotional, that procrastination eventually leads to a total shutdown where they retreat and they don't want to talk about it because they don't want to have to face what's blocking them the emotional barrier that's blocking them from doing that. Without outing this client. We had a client who was dealing with a whole lot of emotions that had bubbled up for her from various things that were happening in her personal life that actually caused the emotional barrier to her questioning whether or not she had a right to have her voice heard. And that is combination of fear and confidence that pulls together here. And that's why I say fear and confidence are probably the most likely underlying. Sort of like, you know, it's not the emotion that's happening, but it's part of what's causing the barrier. Right. Is that I feel a lack of confidence. I feel fearful. What is causing those? Totally different for every person, what might be happening. That it can be a lifetime of lack of confidence. It can. A lifetime of not being confident in the fact that your voice deserves to be heard. We hear that a lot. John Livesay did a great episode with us really early on in the feed your brand podcast, talking about fear blockers. That and starting a podcast and just getting going and being interviewed and having your voice heard.

I would think more than anything else, it's the emotional blockers that probably lead to pod fading more often than anything else. I don't know how you feel about that, but to me, I think that it's more than the overwhelm because we can do things with our routines and we'll get to overwhelm, but we can do things in our routines to kind of break that or try to give us a safe space. That there is not overwhelm, but the emotional part, I think, most often is what stops people.

I think it stops people from getting started to begin with. So we do see a lot of this at the very beginning before someone gets their podcast off the ground. So it can be then continuing on in the fact that you're not getting the positive feedback that you need and require from an emotional standpoint. And that's what causes the pod fade for you. So it could also be, look, I mean, we have it happen. It happens a lot more to the women than the men podcasters than the male podcasters that we have in our system. But we get a lot of trolls, especially for the YouTubers that are a part of. So if you've got a video component to your podcast, we tend to get a lot of trolls over there who start to hit and, and say nasty things about how you should be seen and not heard or other things like that happen. We've done a whole podcast on that. But it does occur over there and it can cause an emotional hit that causes a shutdown. So we do need to be watching when we're tapping into these fear points and this. And look, this is something that you might need more support on. This is where if you've got a life coach, if you've got an executive coach, if you've got someone and you're starting to see these elements of fear and lack of confidence happen for you, you should work towards getting to move through this. Because podcasting might be that one thing that removes that emotional barrier from everything that you do. It might be the thing that fixes it for you, that shows you that you are capable of doing this, that your voice has value. The biggest shift in an emotional barrier could be something like this happening for you, and it may be why everything in your life. So for those of you who maybe are not as woo woo as others, right? And. But when you hit something that is stopping you from doing it and you push through that, you might never have to face this in the universe again. Right? When you move through that. So this was something that somebody, advice somebody gave me when we started to get criticism from some trolls and they were really only targeting me on our 3D print podcast and saying that I should shut up and let Tom talk about the tech stuff. And when I moved through that and said that person's attack on me is not personal to me because the value that I bring to our podcast and the value of what the perspective that I bring to making sure that people aren't tech talk to and it's over their head, that perspective that I bring in, the ability to do that in the process is tremendously valuable and is what's unique about our podcast. And when I move through that, you know what? I never got another troll message again. Never happened again to us. No one ever said, no one ever sent nasty mail to us again because I moved through that emotionally and didn't let it happen. Before that it was happening kind of on a monthly basis.

So this is, that's a whole nother subject. How to deal with trolls.

I think we did do a podcast episode and feed your brand. So we'll connect it in the blog post for this episode. We'll make sure that that happens. So that's it. So here's a couple of things that I think can help you. First off, get some support. Because if this is an emotional barrier, it's an ongoing thing, it's affecting more than your ability to podcast, it's affecting more in your business, more in your life. Get some assistance here to move through anything that is fearful, confidence based, anything like that. But here's something that if you find yourself procrastinating, there's a something underlying here, examine it. But here's also something else. This is a self limiting barrier. This is not an outside barrier putting in. So you're the only one who can fix this. You can get assistance and help with it. Absolutely, that can happen. But an emotional barrier is a self limiting barrier. It is stopping your voice from being heard. It is stopping your message from getting out into the world. So you're the only one who can fix this. So maybe what you need to do is get mad at yourself.

Right? We mentioned that we heard we have people go completely quiet. That's what eventually procrastination leads to, is complete quiet. But I also see a lot of anger. Now usually they lash out at us and say it's our fault, we're not helping them, we're not making this happen. But when we see anger like that, it actually is anger at yourself. And so we are not going to tell you that. I'm just. We know it and that's what we try to help our employees see, is they're not angry at you. They're actually angry at something that's going on in their own lives, in themselves. And so how can we make sure that we don't take this personally is something that we have to work on to assist our staff with because we tend to take our anger out on others when it really is anger at ourselves. So get angry at yourself for holding your voice back. And maybe if you start to look at it from that perspective, you'll actually be able to snap yourself out of fear. Because one of the best ways to get through fear is to get mad and move through something, right? And so thinking about maybe utilizing that as a superpower to help you move through this barrier could be a really interesting tactic. So rather Than get angry at your team, at those around you, your support system. Get angry at yourself and say, I'm going to stop, Let this stop, letting this block me from getting my voice out there, from getting my message out there. Maybe that's a way to look at it from a new perspective.

I relate to that, Tracy. I tend to get angry with myself more often than I want.

I mean, for those of you who get angry at yourself and shut yourself down, that's not obviously the best tactic for you. But we do find that those who go real quiet, that maybe a little bit of anger, you know, thinking about it like a 12 step program, right? Anger has to be in there somewhere. Parts of grief. Anger's in there for a reason. Using it to your advantage can actually move you through something. And so that's what we, you know, what we kind of, you know, asking for help is also one of those, right? So maybe if that's something you don't normally do, you normally do everything yourself. This point of asking for help can really make a big difference for you. And I really do think that podcasting might be that one thing that really changes this perspective on the world. This removes this barrier for you for all time. But you got to believe that yourself too. So help yourself through that. The last one that I have on my list, Tom, is overwhelm. And this is for a lot of people, look, personal things get in the way. Families have illnesses and death and you have things to deal with. Businesses have busy times of year. It has things that come up for you. And the most often the result I see is to start to say no. But I actually have a different strategy for overwhelm for myself that I'm just going to throw that out there for you, is that when you have too many commitments, too many ideas, and this is a pattern for you, my recommendation is to finish something that what I found is when I do something and I finish it, I've actually shifted everything and the level of overwhelm drops. Even though I maybe only took one thing off my plate, it drops tenfold. Like I have a significant drop in overwhelm feelings. Because a magnitude of overwhelm, it's you just like, it's like, you know, you stack one thing, one thing, one thing, and then you tip over that tipping point to where you feel that overwhelm. When you remove something, it drops just as dramatically as it did when you were loading stuff on. And so that could actually shift you in a tremendous way. So by actually executing something and by letting go of Some of that perfectionist or all the things that needed to be perfect to make this happen and just moving through it to get it going. That execution of something can make a tremendous difference. By starting something, I now can assign it to someone, right? I, if I, you know, if that one thing that I needed to do, if I just do that now, I can hand it off to a team. I can have an assistant support. I can actually take a lot more off my plate than I think I can by moving something through rather than saying no. Because I find that sometimes saying no isn't actually removing it off your list. You put it on that second page of the list where you're just like, I'll get to it later. But mentally you still got it there and it's still overwhelming you.

Well, so you tripped into a tactic of trying to get it out of overwhelm. And I think everybody has their own way that they need to get out of overwhelm. Not everybody works the same way. I am a list maker. I make lists all the time. And there are different kinds of list makers. There are some people that put all of their, that force, rank all the things on their list by numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 through, you know, 20 or 50, or however big your overwhelm is. And I'm not one of those people. I make bullets. I don't put them in a particular order. But I agree with you, Tracy. Sometimes when you have overwhelmed, putting those things down on a list and then being able to focus and concentrate on one thing at a time across it off the list can do a whole lot to get that overwhelm, that weight off your shoulders, out of your head. And then one of those things on the list can be, I'm going to record a podcast. And then you can actually do that and cross that off your list. Right?

Well, and I also just like look at examining things for people. Like a lot of times when I have a coaching call with someone, a private one on one strategy with them, when I really, like, get them to take a look at this, they say, podcasting is just another thing to add to my list. And I say, but what if my interview with someone was sales, marketing, networking and content production all in one single hour spent of my time, does that change your perspective on what you've accomplished? Instead of, I added one thing to my list, but I actually removed four others that I had to do separately. Now I can think about it differently. Right, so this is where again, systems, strategies, thinking things through, then what's holding you back? What's overwhelming you with getting your podcast going. Maybe it's that mental block of perfectionism. What if I take that one away, get this thing going? And now I actually have taken four things off my plate that I don't have to do in separate execution. And now I can say no to some networking events. I can say no to some of these other things that might be taking up extraordinary amounts of my time. I can say no to something different that is actually overwhelming me in a. In a bigger magnitude. So these are just some thoughts that we have about, you know, barriers to getting your podcast going, getting in the flow, moving creative blocks as well. Right. Because when we're overwhelmed, there's no way creativity can flow. Just can't happen.

I agree. It can't.

The brain is too busy, right? Creativity doesn't happen in the busy mind. Creativity happens and flows when there's space, when there's rest. So typically, you might be thinking things through. You go to sleep and you wake up with an answer, or you take a shower, you go on a drive. This is what we hear creative techniques for. People go on a drive, go take a shower, and all of a sudden the answer flows in. And it's not because the shower made. It made creativity happen. It's because the shower forced your brain to not be thinking as much as it normally is to zoning out. You're driving on a long straightaway, you're zoning out in a way. Right? Hopefully you're watching the road, but you're zoning out of all the other things that are going on around. You cannot do that. And when you don't do them, the brain has an opportunity to process the things you've been thinking about and turn it into the creative solution.

That was very helpful, even for me today as we're recording. This is one of those days when I am overloaded with things to do for sure. And I actually have enjoyed taking this break to record this episode. And this is one of my favorite things.

Right?

It is one of my favorite things, too. And it's also probably obvious to anybody listening and or watching this that you have the notes. You took the lead with this topic today, and I am your sidekick more than anything and contributing as I can, but I didn't have the time to, you know, prepare for this one, and that's unfortunate. But still, I enjoy showing up and participating, and it's. I sort of feel pretty good after doing it, so I think it's sort of maybe a good example. Of course, I have to get back.

Free your mind, right? It frees your mind, it refreshes you. It can get you back into the excitement of something, the groove of.

I really love doing it. I love doing it and I love being prepared. And there are some days where you're not here and I'm doing it alone and vice versa, and I'm better prepared for those. And, you know, that's probably a little more enjoyable when I'm more prepared for that or when I record one at six in the morning when it's really my time of day and I'm like excited and energetic and I know you don't understand that, but that's okay.

Well, look, I get this question all the time. How do I manage to accomplish as much as I managed to do in a week, in a day? I've got kids, I've got. I work with my husband, I've got all this stuff going on. I'm running a company. We have 108 staff members around the world. Like, how do you do all of that? And to be honest with you, because I treat obligations extremely serious. So if I've got a phone call scheduled, if I've got a. I'm scheduled with you to show up here to coach you, there is very few things that will take me out of my ability to show up on that. And it also forces me to make the time to prepare because that's. I don't show up to something unprepared. It's not who I am. So yesterday we did our advanced social media workshop and I didn't have a ton of time to prepare as much as I wanted to, but I did take an hour and a half earlier in the day to prepare all the slides, make sure it was everything that I wanted to, but it didn't mean I hadn't been thinking about it. And I was able to just assemble that and knock that out quickly because I was going to show up on that call and make sure it was done. That's a difference. Like I force myself into a live situation, into an appointment to do these things because then I will execute, it will be off my plate and we will have what we need as a company from a content standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, from information standpoint. I will also maybe have, in this sense, process through and thought, how am I going to help all of you get past this setup stage? Right. How am I going to get you to get your show started? What do I need to bring to you to make that happen? Well, now I have a formula. I just was forced to think this through. And now I have a map that I can give to my team to help them. I have sound bites that they can pull from here to share to inspire someone. Like, we got what we need to also continue to do more with that because I took the time to make that happen. So this is what works for me. But hopefully you'll find something that works for.

And I remember you said, you know, unusually so for you, ahead of that, you were not as prepared as you usually are ahead of time. I mean, in terms of preparing everything. And I'll tell you, you definitely pulled it off and showed up and did a great job, because I've already gotten feedback from some of the people that attended saying, wow, that was really valuable and useful, and they really appreciated it. They gave me feedback on. I mean, obviously it wasn't me, it was you. But in communicating with me, that's great. Customers that showed up and were a part of, like, wow, that was fantastic. And then, you know, we're talking about whatever else we need to talk about, so.

But, you know, that's something that I think just. Just right there, that's really freeing. Look, I. And it's not like I don't care to have good feedback, but it's not a necessity for me from an emotional standpoint. I don't require feedback immediate. I don't need immediate gratification for anything. It's just my personality. I'm lucky to have had that as a core part of who I am, that it's not required for me to feel good about what I did. I'm comfortable in. I put it out there. I know it's going to have the ripples that it needs eventually. I'm confident in that. When it does come back and I hear it, I think, oh, good, it did what I thought it was supposed to do. Okay, great. Now I'll do more of that. Right? Like, it's just. It's a positive reinforcement that's needed, but because I don't expect it or need it immediately, I cannot over. I won't overreact to the fact that five people showed up on a call and not 50. Right. It will never bother me because I know the 50 people will eventually get it. It just takes time. Podcasting is like that. And that's part of the problem for some of the people who require an immediate gratification. I need to see my stats spike. I need to see everybody love my podcast and rave about it. I need to hit the top of the charts. Those vanity metrics are not the best indicator of a good podcast and that's where it can really fall apart. And we see a lot more pod faders because of that. But if you can be patient.

All right, well, I think that's a great place to wrap the episode. You said it so well there and wonderful. All right. Well everyone, thank you for listening. Hope you got some great value out of this episode. We'll be back next time with another great topic. Until then, spend time with Tracey Hazzard on feed.

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