Episode 62: Quit Your Job to Create: Taking Big Risks, and Making It Work (With Tom Buck)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Even though having fun might seem like something that's frivolous or unnecessary, it canbe a core component to everything you do in your life, from your job, to your personal

(00:08):
relationships, to just the way that you feel about every day when you wake up.
And the cool thing about having fun is when you apply it to anything that you're doing,whether it's work or personal or whatever, it does translate into other parts of your
life.
So you're building skill sets that don't just help you in the day to day, but they alsohelp you in the long term.
And at the end of...
Your time on this planet, the more fun that you have, the more enthusiasm you share, thebetter you're going to feel about how you spent your very limited time.

(00:52):
Alchemists, welcome to another episode of the Elemental Educator podcast.
I'm your host Tyler, and thank you so much for joining our community for anotherincredible connection.
If you're here for the first time, welcome to a place where we redefine leadership andchallenge the status quo.
Take a minute before continuing the episode to check out our YouTube channel, check outour Instagram, and share this with one other person today.

(01:13):
For those returning alchemists, I challenge you as you listen to this episode to commentone thing in the YouTube video that you've pulled from this that brings meaning to your
leadership or growth.
Now, let's get ready to let the alchemy of education ignite our passion for learning.
Today I am joined by Tom.
Tom, the teacher turned YouTuber who grew up lugging around crates of VHS tapes oncedecked out a Trader Joe's mop closet and in Technicolor and magically built not one but

(01:39):
two booming digital media programs all while cracking dad jokes worthy of a grown of theday segment.
After wrangling AV here teaching hundreds of students the wondering of lens flare andpainting bamboo signs with a blowtorch, he now calls YouTube his full time home.
If you're not already curious about this camera loving, pun slinging, positive poweredcontent creator, well get ready to let the Alchemy of Education ignite your passion for

(02:02):
learning and welcome to the Elemental Educator podcast.
Tom, it's a pleasure to have you here.
Thank you, that is probably the best intro I've ever had.
So thank you very much.
There we go.
you know, I have for those, we'll get there a little bit, but I have been listening to theenthusiasm project and I love what you do to it.
I love the energy you bring and to see the correlation to teachers.

(02:24):
I am so excited to just unpack what it is that got you to where you are.
And so I always start with the big question first, Tom, which is how did you get to whereyou are now?
boy.
I think the broad answer would be to just constantly follow the things that you're curiousabout, that I'm curious about, because there's common threads that run through everything.

(02:46):
You were mentioning weird stuff at Trader Joe's versus teaching digital media versus beingon YouTube.
Those things do not seem related at all, but they're all connected with the through lineof following a passion and an interest and
which for me often leads towards like audio video production, graphic design, media.

(03:07):
That's just the stuff I've loved ever since I was a kid.
And like, we went to the Apple II computer lab at the school, but like, it's the thingwhere even when I think I'm interested in something that's not connected to any of this,
you just kind of follow that and eventually everything kind of gets folded in.
And what I've noticed, or at least what was fortunate to happen to me is when you do thatand you make it known that, you know, this is the thing I'm interested in.

(03:27):
This is what I do.
People know that and then when they need someone who does that stuff, which is often, atleast in the world of audio video production, you're just the person that pops into their
mind.
so that opens up, you know, for me that opened up opportunities prior to YouTube and thenYouTube was sort of a chance for me to do that for myself instead of, you know, waiting
for someone else to do it.

(03:49):
which in itself is incredible.
And the last couple themes of our episodes on Elemental Educator have been about bettingon yourself and believing in yourself and pushing yourself forward.
And so to hear that message and the payoff that you're seeing from it is a wonderfulthing.
I remember the Apple computers too, and they had a game, it was called Chromag Rally.
And it was like the Mario Kart version of Apple on a computer and we would get to go play.

(04:10):
I loved it.
I was super into it.
And then just never pursued it.
I think my options were limited where I grew up.
up in the Northwest Territories, it's, I'm happy to be back into it here hosting with somedabbles in the audio video side, but it's great to hear that the story you made, how you
took a passion from a job you were working and were able to apply it to something thatactually makes it that much more fun and that much more easy to be a part of.

(04:34):
Before we get into what that's actually rooted in, you do a segment on enthusiasm projectcalled Mike of the Week, and I'm curious, what are we hearing you on for this podcast?
So this is the Shure Super 55, which will be my mic of the week when I do the podcast.
I was actually going to use the mic that I used on the last episode because it was hookedup and everything was good.

(04:54):
But then I was like, no, Tyler already heard that one.
Like I need to use a different one specifically for this.
So I set this all up right before we started today.
Yeah, so the Shure Super 55, and I've never talked about my mic because I'm not an audiovideo channel, but I jumped from a Blue Yeti to a PodMic to a, now on an MV7 Plus.

(05:16):
And I loved all of them, they all sound great.
I think I'm hopefully locking in with this one for a while.
But every decision we make, whether it's the mic we use or whether it's the career wechoose to take on, it's all rooted in.
something that we value, something that we believe in.
And it actually brings us to the first segment of the show on grounded moments.

(05:39):
Rooted in wisdom, driven by purpose, welcome to Grounded Moments and to build somemomentum here, I want to play a game with you, Tom.
So this game, it is not the Hunger Games, but this game is called Principles orPreference.
So I'm gonna give you a statement and you just have to tell me if it's a core principle toyou, which is something you live by, no exceptions, or if it's a personal preference,

(06:02):
something you like but don't expect from others.
The catch, there's no room for explanation, it's just instinct.
Okay.
I've tech themed it for you.
So we'll see where it goes.
Okay, are you ready to play?
I am as ready as I'll ever be.
Alright, every video should have captions, no exceptions.

(06:22):
Good audio is more important than good video quality.
principle.
literally made a video called that yesterday.
You should always use a script for podcasts and Live streaming is better than pre-recordedcontent.
Every presentation needs visuals.
No one likes walls of text.
principle.

(06:43):
It's worth investing in high quality gear over relying on budget tech.
preference.
Every email should have a clear subject line.
principle.
Background music in videos should always be subtle.
principle.
Editing is the most important part of creating great content.
prefer...
print the print prints...

(07:03):
preferable.
Lighting makes a bigger impact than the camera quality itself.
That's...
principle.
There we go.
That was our first game and we established some firm non-negotiables.
Going through that, I tried to pick ones that were relevant videos that I think thatyou've made recently.
I know you talked about some of them.
So I wanted them to be fresh in your mind and come back to it.

(07:24):
But now we know what really matters to people when it gets to audio video in a snippet of30 seconds.
Now, on top of that, Tom,
I want to transition to bit more meaningful things when we talk about principles andpreferences.
And the first thing I want to talk about is the quote that I asked you to share with me.
Do you want to share it with our audience here today?
Sure, yeah.
It is When You're Enthusiastic You Can Conquer the World by the great philosopher ConanO'Brien.

(07:46):
And my first question on that is, how did you come across finding this quote and why didyou choose to share it with me today?
So that is a quote that Conan said during his farewell monologue when he was leaving TheTonight Show that he hosted for seven months back in like 2010.
2009, say 2009.
2009 to 2010.

(08:08):
Which I actually got to be in the audience for the first episode, front row first episodeof that show.
And I completely jinxed it because I remember telling my friend I was sitting next to, Iwas like, I can't believe we're here for the first episode for a show that's going to be
on for years and years and years.
and seven months later it went off the air.
So that's my fault.
In his final episode, Conan was talking, actually he said a couple of things that reallyresonated with me a lot.

(08:31):
was, you you could argue that he is a multimillionaire many times over, so it's like, youknow, don't feel bad for the millionaire, but it's something he worked on for a really
long time.
He was put in this kind of crummy position.
He was forced out of a career and a work, I'm not a work family,
really like that term so much, but you know, he worked at NBC for decades at that pointand was kind of unceremoniously forced out.

(08:54):
And you could be really bitter about that, but he gave a genuinely heartfelt farewellmonologue and a couple things he said in that, early in it, I think he said, if you work
hard and you're kind to people, good things will happen.
And I always like, I modified a version of that into my own personal motto, which is workhard, be kind, have fun.
Because I feel like if you it is true if you work hard and you're kind good things willhappen But I also feel like if that's all you do is you work hard and you're kind you

(09:21):
could potentially find yourself being taken advantage of because you know Then you're youcould be a hard-working doormat for some people So if you're having fun that is a good
gauge to make sure that you're actually doing something you want to do because if you'reyou know and fun could be you know Maybe more like it's satisfying.
It's enjoyable.
It doesn't have to be like Disneyland fun so I took a lot from that and
He said, at another point in that, he said, when you're enthusiastic, you can conquer theworld.

(09:45):
that's, you know, he talked about, he doesn't like people being too cool for school.
And actually, I'm just remembering that I don't think this came from the monologue.
This came from his, this came from his Inside the Actor's Studio interview that he didbefore The Tonight Show.
But they're almost bookends then, because that was before he started and the work hard, bekind was at the end.
So.
Apologies for getting that wrong.

(10:05):
I'm just remembering that that was James Lipton that brought that out in him.
But that was the thing he was talking about.
It's just like, he doesn't like it when people are too cool for school and just feel like,know, I'm kind of jaded, whatever.
But when you're enthusiastic, when you're into something, then you can really like, it isa superpower.
And that was right as I was starting my career teaching, which, you working withteenagers, if there's any group of people that might tend to be a little.

(10:29):
a little more jaded or hide their enthusiasm or whatever, it might be them.
And learning that lesson to share not just with myself, but to try to exemplify it and tohelp other people be comfortable doing that was like 100 % a key factor in having any sort
of success or good times as a teacher.

(10:49):
And what you're sharing is rooted very deeply in that earth element.
And when we talk core values, there's many studies out there that justify, know, there'sonly 10 values in the world, or there's 60 values, or there's 200 values.
And there's one that I like to gravitate to, and the value that you're speaking to isexperience.
And you value experience for others, experience for yourself.
And that's kind of where the fun would come into it, and that's kind of where theadventure comes into it.

(11:11):
And so a value of experience, makes sense.
why you got into education based off of, you know, even how this quote resonates you withyour story to see the experience you wanted to provide for others, but also gain for
yourself.
And then when you found that passion for it, the experience of, wanna see what this islike for me now on my own to push those limits and test that boundary.

(11:32):
It's an exciting adventure, right?
And you know, you have another channel dedicated to your professional hockey career.
And the experience that you get to gain in pursuing that is something that's fun toexplore and be adventurous about and to celebrate.
And so it's actually a very top value of people in the world on a global scale.
The other top ones include a value of love, a value of financial security, a value ofrelationships, right?

(11:56):
And those resonate very deeply with people.
But to hear experience, it's a theme that's been coming up a lot.
And it's a thing people are seeking out.
And I wonder if, and,
I don't like to talk about COVID a ton, but I wonder if the impact of COVID has madepeople revalue that experience a lot more to want to take things back on because they had
so many things shut down at the time.
Now, and without getting into a full blown COVID conversation, I'll segue to somethingelse here, which is this quote, and how does it show up for you in your workflow now?

(12:26):
That quote, mean, because you mentioned my podcast, the enthusiasm project.
There's a reason that the word enthusiasm is in that title and it came from that becausethat was, you know, back in 2009, 2010, that was when I was originally coming up with my
original original concept, which never really kind of became a thing.
But it was the idea of like enthusiasm is sort of an antidote to a lot of I feel like alot of just issues in the world, cultural issues, personal issues, all kinds of things.

(12:53):
And I wanted to
do something that could help share.
Initially it was like, let's share stories of people being enthusiastic about stuff thatthey're doing, whether it's a career or a hobby or whatever.
That was gonna be a blog and then eventually it was gonna be a YouTube channel and thenwas like, it's really hard to schedule stuff on a YouTube channel, so I'll just be on the
person on the YouTube channel, because then I can make more videos.

(13:14):
And then that's kind of how it morphed.
But even though, you know, like the channel's not called that anymore, the idea like,
I think it goes back to what I mentioned a minute ago about fun.
think fun can sometimes be misunderstood in some ways where you think of something fun andit is like Disneyland.
It's like, my gosh, we're having the best time.
This is just so much fun.

(13:35):
And that is true.
That is absolutely a type of fun.
But I think fun can also be, you can reach the end of your day and be completely wipedout, completely exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally, all those things, which
doesn't sound fun, but you can be like, God, today was fun.
even though it might have been challenging or it might've been difficult or you you couldwork on a really serious thing, you know, like, and it could still end up feeling fun.

(13:59):
to me, fun is a strange word, but that's where like that enthusiasm piece comes into it.
When you're able to just sort of channel that and make sure that that's a part of whatyou're bringing to everything that you're doing, I really think Conan was right.
Like you can conquer the world with it because like.
People don't expect it a lot of the time.
So it's like, wait, what's happening here?
And then people are on board with it.

(14:19):
When they see it, they usually want to like be around it or, you know, experience itthemselves.
So it is a great way to not only, it's like ironic because it helps you stand out, but italso helps you stand together with other people because it unites people as well.
So it's just like the best tool in the world.
And when you find yourself questioning where did the time go, it usually means there wasfun involved in that or there was high engagement involved in that as well.

(14:44):
And when you're really engaged in something, know, fun and engaged could be almost beinterchangeable words because you liked what you were doing and you want to return and get
to do that again.
The scary side of fun is there are people in the world that don't like to see people havefun.
And that means when you're doing and it's a message, it's a very powerful message of whenyou're doing your own thing, there are going to be people.

(15:06):
that don't appreciate what you're doing simply because they haven't experienced fun.
They don't know how to have that fun.
They need to build their fun capacity.
Now segueing here, Tom, this is a very good message to give.
And have you heard of an elevator pitch before?
Okay, so the goal here is you've identified through this quote and through this story,this purpose of fun and this meaning of we need to value

(15:31):
We need to value the experience.
need to value the fun.
I'm gonna give you a 10 to 20 second pitch to the audience about why this should besomething they take seriously and value themselves.
Even though having fun might seem like something that's frivolous or unnecessary, it canbe a core component to everything you do in your life, from your job, to your personal
relationships, to just the way that you feel about every day when you wake up.

(15:55):
And the cool thing about having fun is when you apply it to anything that you're doing,whether it's work or personal or whatever, it does translate into other parts of your
life.
So you're building skill sets that don't just help you in the day to day, but they alsohelp you in the long term.
And at the end of...
Your time on this planet, the more fun that you have, the more enthusiasm you share, thebetter you're going to feel about how you spent your very limited time.

(16:18):
Ooh, that was good.
That was good, that was good.
Yeah.
Thinking of fun and thinking of the times when we're faced with adversity where we have tofind fun through, it brings us to our Air Elements segment on headwinds and tailwinds.
Hmm.
Through storms and surges, discover the lessons from headwinds and tailwinds where wefocus on the challenges that test us and the forces that help us move forward.

(16:43):
And you betcha, Tom, we are playing another game this time for the new elemental segment,and this game is called Make It Worse.
So I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you a bad situation, and your job is to, well, takeit to the next level, make it worse.
Just one sentence, we don't need to go into like a big dramatic story behind it.
Are you ready to play this one?

(17:05):
And again, I've tech themed it for you.
Your camera stops working in the middle of a live stream.
You decide to lose your temper on the live stream and now everybody has clipped that andit lives in eternity even though you take the live stream down, you cannot take it off the
internet forever because it's there forever.

(17:26):
meme my goodness yeah all right you accidentally share your screen during a zoom call andit's a mess
It's, I guess it depends on what you're doing.
You're at work, you share your screen during a Zoom call and you're job searching forother positions.
That could have gone so many ways.
Thank you for keeping it PG on that one.

(17:47):
You record an entire podcast episode and realize your mic was off the whole time.
You then catastrophize and realize that you can't do anything right and you shouldn't bedoing this in the first place and as a sign from the universe, you throw your road caster
in the garbage.
that got dark really quickly.
Okay, we'll do two more here.
Your phone starts playing music on full volume during a meeting.

(18:07):
Ugh, you, you loudly apologize calling more attention to yourself and then drop your phoneas you're trying to pull it out and silence it and now it clacks on the table really loud
and what would have been kind of noticeable is now super noticeable to everybody.
There we go.
And the last one we'll do here is your computer starts updating right before your bigpresentation.

(18:29):
You buy a Windows PC.
I'm kidding.
there we go.
That was a shot at the windows PC people.
And that went downhill somewhat fast, somewhat theme to tech.
That was fun.
I feel like on my own tech side, you've created some anxiety nightmares for me.
So let's keep moving forward before things get even more worse and let's set the stagehere, Tom.

(18:51):
So this was all about just tiptoeing into adversity.
Can you share a time when you faced some significant adversity yourself?
Yeah, it's sort of like just point to a year in the calendar and I'll share something fromthere.
But the thing that popped into my mind, especially related to what we're talking about ismaybe the transition from teaching to YouTube, where that was something I was, that was

(19:12):
just a whole difficult thing to figure out and navigate.
you know, that's its own thing.
I wouldn't really call that adversity because it was sort of a cool problem to be able tosolve, even though it was very nerve wracking.
But that was during the pandemic, you know, a year and a half into the pandemic.
And I had wanted to do things what I felt was right.
Like here's the best way to do this.
So I'm going to notify, you know, my school, I'm going to try to continue my program andto do all this thing, all of these things.

(19:38):
So that way, you know, when this academic year ends, things can be handed off reallysmoothly.
I can go off into the sun, my YouTube sunset and everybody can be happy.
And then our school district and state education department made some, you know,
some decisions to sort of fast track things in ways that did not, were not safe orpractical or reasonable.

(19:59):
And so it ended, it basically forced me to leave my job three months earlier than Iplanned to, which was very terrifying, you know, just in terms of stability, financial
security.
And then it was also professionally like damaging because it kind of forced me to be in asituation where it almost felt like I'm burning bridges that I absolutely did not intend
to burn, but.
going to have some non-negotiables there.

(20:20):
that ended up being a very rough, very stressful four to five month period of that wholething happening.
Yeah, I can't even imagine how that scenario plays out.
But I want to unpack it a little bit with you so that our listeners, the alchemists here,can get into the mindset of this heavy adversity and what they did.
So what was the turning point for you where you were like, aha, I'm going to make theshift?

(20:45):
The thing was realizing that something just wasn't sustainable.
So as the YouTube channel had grown, my job took up, I would say, to 70 hours per week onaverage, it's a lot to be a full-time special programs teacher.
And then the YouTube channel was growing, growing, growing.
So was really two full-time jobs and it just was not sustainable.

(21:07):
So I knew something had to shift and it was like, either I have to scale back the YouTubechannel or I have to make the leap and only focus on the YouTube channel and means giving
up my stable career.
And you know, the thing that I worked for and like went to school for and you know, likethat was also a very scary thing.
And what I kind of, the thing that I came to the realization of was the chance to dosomething like, you know, run your own YouTube channel full time is probably not

(21:33):
an opportunity that's going to be there repeatedly or over a long period of time.
So it's like you have this, you know, it's like when they want to like launch rockets andthey have to wait to like two planets are closest together.
So like the trajectory is right.
And if you miss it, then it may or may not come around for a while.
It's like that.
Like you had this window and it's like, I have to do it.
I have to do this now.
And as sad as I was to leave the program, to leave my traditional career, it was like thechance to invest in myself versus even though the program I was teaching was my own.

(22:03):
You know, it's on borrowed land.
It's on somebody else's school campus.
It's, it's a state education budget.
It's, you know, the whims of an administration, either locally at the school site level orthe district or the state, whatever it might be.
Like there are so many things that, that made it less secure than it seemed to me versussomething that I had a lot more control over.

(22:25):
And if I'm going to spend those days where at the end of the day, you're just exhausted,hopefully it's a fun day.
I wanna be putting that energy into my own thing.
And that was sort of the like, I have this one chance, I will absolutely regret it if Idon't do this.
And I just need to make it work as best I can.
the benefit of having taught remotely for that, a year plus during the pandemic, thatfirst part there was that it removed all the good parts of teaching.

(22:50):
I did a good job, I was uniquely equipped to teach online.
I had students that did a great job with it, but it's like, if I had been in the classroomwith students day in and day out, I don't know that I would have actually been able to
make that leap nearly.
I don't know if I'd have been able to make the leap, but having all of that stripped awayso it's just like the worst parts of teaching, it really kind of shined a light on, okay,

(23:12):
what do you want to focus on?
You have the chance to make that shift even though you do not feel ready for it, you haveto go for it.
And the last five years in particular, there are a lot of educators leaving the educationworld and being very successful outside of it.
I think I saw a stat that the majority of millionaire status in the United States arepeople that had education degrees.

(23:36):
And it actually set them up for success because they know how to make informed decisions.
They know how to do things with passion.
They know how to be creative and innovative and overcome these things.
Tom, were there times in this decision process where,
It started and now you're not going to work and you're starting on your own, you know, alleyes on you on what's going to happen.

(23:56):
Where you said, crap, that might've not been the right idea.
And where there was there a moment where you went, yeah, that was totally the right call.
This was it.
I, to be honest, I don't think I've ever regretted it.
The part that like, I miss being a teacher, sorry, I miss teaching.

(24:16):
I don't miss being a teacher.
That's kind of the way I differentiate it.
So, you there are times, especially as time goes on and I have friends who are teachersand I, know, if I go like to their programs or something and I sort of see that bond that
they have with their students and their classes, I'm like, God, I do miss that.
And I also do miss like, you know,
I had built such a cool, well-oiled machine that I was so proud of.

(24:37):
I feel bits of heartbreak when I know things are changing or not being, when I know thingsare changing, I guess you could just say that.
But it's not enough to make me feel like, gosh, this was a mistake.
Because most, if not every day is filled with at least one, if not many moments of like, Ican't believe I get to do this.
Like, I can't believe it's a Wednesday.
right now and I get to be doing a podcast with you instead of being at a staff meeting.

(25:00):
It's the best.
So it's very hard for me to feel like that was not a good decision.
Although it is nerve wracking in terms of the longevity because it's uncharted territory.
Who knows?
What do mean you're almost 40 and your job is making videos online?
What does the retirement plan look like?
I don't know, so that part is a little bit stressful from time to time.

(25:23):
to counter that though, but it's also, yeah, I get to do this at my age and have fun doingit.
What are you doing?
And do you love it?
And what is your flexibility in your life look like to do things?
And the reverse of it, right?
It's, you know, we'll get there when we talk the water element, but people are scared ofchange.

(25:45):
And to make the change you made, people will look at it and not understand it becausethey're scared, right?
They're like, my gosh, what are you going to do?
And
It'll all be okay.
It'll work out.
always does.
We're humans.
We know how to push through things.
Did you have a moment, Tom, where you had that affirmation that this was going to work?
I think I had several, because I am, like I do want to preface this, I am the last personI would ever expect to be like, yeah, give up traditional career and go for self-employed

(26:14):
online career.
no.
And so I kind of like pointing that out because, you know, I think you look at somepeople, it's like, gosh, they just seem like the adventurous type.
They just seem like, you know, that person.
I'm not that person.
So if I can do it, it is possible.
But yeah, the affirmation part of it being the correct thing, I mean, there's nuts andbolts of it where it's, lots of people told me, it's not that you're not teaching anymore,

(26:37):
you're just teaching differently.
And then can go through YouTube comments and I can see people, I am fortunate that eventhough I get the crummy mean comments from time to time or just whatever, most of the
things, if you go to my videos and you look at them, people are writing paragraphs,sometimes long, long paragraphs.
And a lot of that is like,
people sharing real impact that like, because of this, I was able to do this.

(26:59):
And it's like, wow, I really like am able to continue having an impact even though it's ina different way than I'm used to.
And maybe it's not direct face to face like I'm used to, but I can still do this.
And I can even do it at a bigger scale in my own way.
And, you know, a couple of things that really did stand out were I remember teaching,especially trying to run a program and dealing with budgets and things.
I'd have to plan, you know, 12 to 18 months in advance.

(27:21):
So like,
I'm not kidding when I say once in one of my former programs, I had a budget meeting thatran from April to October.
It was the same meeting that we just kept coming back.
Like it was literally like out of date by the time we finally like closed the books onthis budget meeting.
I, there was a time when I had the idea for, an online course that has to do with likeplanning and outlining podcasts.

(27:45):
And I was literally just on a bike ride on a weekday morning, like 7am, just
because I could, because I woke up and I could do what I wanted with my time.
So I was riding a bike, thinking about this, having this idea, thinking about how I usedto do projects with students.
And literally by mid afternoon that day, I was already taking pre-orders for the course.
Like that kind of turnaround and that kind of like, you can just follow your spark issomething that feels so, so incredibly good.

(28:09):
And there is the funny thing too of like just a very more practical answer is.
I knew the channel was growing and so in my mind I was like, if I wait a couple moreyears, maybe financially the channel, like I want to be making more money with my channel
than I am teaching because then I can cover, you know, the lack of stability.
I can save a little bit more.
I can have to pay for my own insurance, all that kind of stuff.

(28:31):
And then because I have an English degree and I'm not a great math guy, I forgot thatteachers are paid 10 months out of the year, but you can do YouTube 12 months out of the
year.
So.
Even when it was like, you're kind of like eking up at around what your monthly income isas a teacher, there's already two additional months.
So you're actually, you've already got like a 20 % or not, 10, 15 % raise or something.

(28:55):
I was like, oh, numbers, cool.
That made me feel better of like, I didn't even realize this and I'm already further aheadthan I thought I was.
that's just me being bad at math.
That's awesome.
And I can speak for myself on this too.
I'm new to putting some content out there in the podcast and what I'm trying to do on theYouTube.
when you get that comment, that first one, or you get that email because they don't wantto comment it, say, hey, this was really cool.

(29:23):
Thank you so much.
That is huge.
And it lights me up.
And I will go to a leadership meeting.
And I will have somebody come up to me and say, I listened to this one and it was so good.
Thank you for doing it.
And that's such a strong affirmation for me that my big theme is impact.
And I want to impact as many people as I can for the betterment of other people.

(29:48):
And so when you hear that you've made impact for me, lights go off and fireworks fly.
And it was a, it was a huge, it's a huge success from that standpoint.
So thank you so much for sharing.
That's a vulnerable thing to share.
And I appreciate you giving us a bit of a snippet as to how you pushed through theadversity, but then also had that affirmation that what you were doing was a great thing.

(30:08):
Now, along that process, everybody needs to stay grounded and the air element and theearth element kind of play off of each other.
If you're really rooted in something, it's easy to push through adversity.
What was keeping you grounded throughout this process?
I mean, the cool thing is like my wife and I both have very, like we're different people,but we have the same core goals and core values.

(30:33):
And part of that is we are not extravagant.
This shirt was $12.
Like we are not extravagant people.
I'll spend money on a microphone or a camera or whatever.
Thank you.
Amazon two pack, but like, I mean, that's kind of like, like we don't have extravaganttastes.
So we're not trying to be.

(30:53):
because she also is a full-time content creator and stuff.
So we're not trying to be that stereotype of like excess and glamour.
like, we're just trying to do our thing and have fun doing it our own way and likemiddle-class creator kind of thing.
So I feel like that's very attainable.
We're not trying to, not that I would hate the idea of like having too much money orwhatever, but that's not the goal.

(31:15):
That's not what we're out to do.
So I feel like we're grounded in that.
And then we're also just kind of like...
We lead very normal, you know, we live in a small, normal-ish town.
We have our house, which is wonderful, but it's you know, getting an award or recognitionfor like, you're creator of the year, it's amazing celebration.
Then having, you know, to go clean up a whole bunch of dog poop in the backyard.

(31:36):
It's like, yeah, okay.
Like, you know, later to, yeah, we've had pigeons living on our roof.
So later today have to climb up and like hose out a bunch of pigeon poop and clean out abunch of stuff today.
So.
no matter how like good I feel about being invited on the Elemental Educator podcast andthe rest of my journey.
yeah, I'm going to be sweating on the roof cleaning pigeon poop later.

(32:00):
then just kind of like, you know, normal life stuff and having just being a normal personis a good way to stay grounded.
And it's just a reminder that we're all human and we all face adversities in our own ways.
And your adversity this afternoon is cleaning up some pigeon poop.
Now, one video that I'm waiting to see on your wife's channel, and maybe it's out there,maybe I just haven't seen it yet, is Tom's crack at skipping.

(32:26):
Because I believe your wife is quite good at skipping rope.
So I'm waiting to see Tom's attempt, but that could make a good short.
She can do tricks.
I just hurt my knees.
So it's like a very different.
I'll do hockey.
I'll do that kind of stuff.
would be like the make it worse video.
Your wife decides to make a skipping rope video and she invites Tom to do it too.

(32:50):
But no.
like, why is he moving that way?
You know will keep me grounded is that like, and sometimes people will say like, gosh,you're so good at what you do.
And I'm like, no, I play to my strengths.
Like there's a reason my channel is about what it's about.
Cause there are lots of other things where you'd be like, what is wrong with this human?
Like, has he been a person before?
And I just don't, that's not what the channel is about.

(33:10):
So yeah, play to your strengths.
Tom, for people that are facing their own headwinds, what's a piece of advice you'd giveto help them move forward despite that storm they might be facing?
Sure, a couple of years ago, I took some flight training lessons to try to work towardsthe private pilot's license.
so obviously talking about headwind and tailwind, as soon as you said that, I was like,training flashbacks.

(33:31):
And something that's really interesting is a headwind is a thing, obviously you think ofit as a challenge, you think of it as an obstacle, but when a plane is taking off, you
take off into the wind because that's what gives the plane more lift, you need lessrunway, you can take off faster.
And I kind of feel like that's a really good metaphor of these things.
Everybody has different adversity, adversities and challenges and things, but it is kindof the old cliche of like, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

(33:57):
And the plane takes off into the wind so that it goes higher, faster, quicker.
And whatever it is that somebody's facing when you can sit down and usually break it downinto like, I'm very good at catastrophizing and getting overwhelmed with things.
And.
Sometimes it's like, okay, here's a situation.
I'm nervous, I'm anxious.
And it's literally just like, what are the actual outcomes?
There's this could happen, this could happen, or this could happen.

(34:20):
Okay, this is less light.
And you just really start to break it down.
And then to me, that helps make it more possible to build a plan.
And then you can go forward.
And as you just kind of tackle that headwind, you'll find that then you gain more lift andyou're able to kind of take off and soar a lot more quickly.
What a metaphor, English person metaphor.
We didn't use like or as.

(34:40):
So what a great metaphor analogy for this to really talk about when you're facingadversity, That is actually without realizing it, you are about to make a big, massive
change.
And that change that you make is either going to incredibly benefit you or it could bedetrimental and you get to decide because you're in control and bet on yourself.

(35:01):
And that actually brings us to our third element, the water element, and our ripples ofchange.
Small shifts, big waves.
This is Ripples of Change, where we dive into the power of embracing change and makingwaves that last.
And Tom, we're gonna play another game here called Here's the Trick.
I'm gonna give you a situation that people always have advice for and you get to draw upone piece of advice that actually works.

(35:28):
Whether it's serious, unexpected, totally unhinged, no generic answers, I want the secretsto these, okay?
You got it.
And again, we'll continue with the tech theme for you.
The best way to avoid tech issues during a live stream is...
to check everything beforehand.
Just give yourself a little bit of time, double check, do a test recording, play it back,and you'll be good to go.

(35:51):
There we go.
If you want your video to stand out, the trick is...
to be human in the world of things having a lot of polish and a lot of can't even tellwhat's real sometimes.
It's kind of okay to let your personality shine, let your mistakes shine through, let themessiness, let the seams show.
And that definitely is something people can connect to.

(36:11):
the secret to making great thumbnails for videos.
I don't know the answer to that one.
Yeah, just put anime accent lines are good.
Some neon bright colors, you know, honestly, the billboard effect is really what you ifyou think of a billboard on the highway or the freeway, people have two, three seconds to

(36:32):
get all the info from that same thing with a thumbnail.
What can you do in two or three seconds just to at all get someone's attention and maybecommunicate hopefully what the video is actually about?
Now, as a recent organizer yourself, the best way to keep your tech organized?
Tool chests.
Go get yourself some tool chests from the hardware store and they are strong and sturdyand you can put all kinds of organizers in your drawers or as I like to call them, drawer

(36:57):
organizers.
there we go.
And the last one, more applicable to people in the leadership world, business world thathave to give presentations, the best way to make your presentation stand out.
Don't read your slides to us.
Don't, okay, yes, sorry.
Now I'm gonna stand up on my soap box here.
I love visuals.
We talked about that, a core value.

(37:18):
Presentation needs visuals, not walls of text.
Yes, absolutely.
I see so much people have their slideshow or their screen or whatever, and they kind ofstand off to the side of it.
No, you should be.
If anything in front of it, you should be facing the audience and you should know whatyou're talking about so well that you can click the clicker to go to the next thing.
And that's happening behind you and you don't even have to really check that much.

(37:40):
can kind of, it accents what you're doing.
It doesn't direct you.
You're the one leading the presentation.
Yes.
If they can read it, they should just read it.
Right?
unironically, when I was in my teacher credentialing program, there was a whole classsession where the professor was telling us specifically, and this was in 2010 or so, they

(38:04):
were telling us, don't do your lessons, don't just read slides to your classes, don't doyour lessons this way.
And they were unironically reading all of that information off of slides to the entireclass.
And that was not to make a point, that was just how they taught.
It was very...
strange.
as a school of principle, I tell myself and I tell my staff, if I can send it in an email,I'm sending it in an email.

(38:26):
If it's something we need to talk about, we'll have a staff meeting.
And so our staff meetings stay short, they stay easy.
yeah, great message on presentations, great message on quick tips here for people.
I feel like there's some cheats or some hacks that people can use in their life aroundtechnology or even apply them to other things just through that conversation.
And speaking of change,

(38:47):
For you, Tom, what is a recent change that you have had to embrace or lead?
boy, feel like this past year has been so intense when it comes to changes and things.
mean, I guess keeping...
You know, there's a lot of things coming to mind right now, but the thing that's actuallypopping up, which is not related to like the YouTube channel is you kind of mentioned my

(39:08):
hockey career, my adult league hockey career.
Yes, yes.
At some point, I could charge someone like a dollar and then I'll have gotten paid andthen I will be a professional.
There we go.
But I put together a team a couple of seasons ago and it has been very interesting.
It's crazy how my like,
teaching background with high school students suddenly pops up working with the age rangeon our team is like 20 years old to upwards of 70.

(39:35):
So we have everybody, it's a pretty diverse team and really trying to figure out thingsand navigate things with adults doing something recreationally that obviously they could
walk away from at any time has been a really cool challenge.
And like it has been.
It's been something where every tool set in my life suddenly works on this thing, but it'sthe same thing as teaching where it's like, you can really, if you're able to do it well,

(40:03):
you can bring something out in someone that they didn't even know they had, or you canempower and enable someone to do something that they didn't think they could do.
And it's like, it's cool to have seen that in the classroom.
It's cool to see that through YouTube.
And it's cool to kind of see that, you know, working through.
something like an adult recreational sport, which like we have a team meeting later todayand that's, know, there's all kinds of people want to branch off and start another team

(40:25):
and they're scared.
And it's like, I want to encourage them.
That's a good thing to do.
And you're okay.
And like, we don't hate you cause you're leaving.
Like it's all okay.
Like adults need a lot of reassurance.
Definitely something I've learned.
Absolutely.
And before I was a school teacher or a school principal, I was a tennis coach and I ran acity's tennis club and I got to work with adults and help them grow and see them develop.

(40:50):
And there's something cool when you get to do changes as an adult about seeing somebodydevelop a new lifelong passion that they want to do forever.
And there's an excitement to it on, you know, somebody wanting to branch off and start anew team.
It's so recreational and fun.
but it translates so easy to, bet they're going through a similar experience when youthought about telling your employer you wanted to leave your job, right?

(41:11):
And you're thinking, they're gonna hate me, there's gonna be resentment.
And you have to approach it, like we said, if you value fun and you value experience, andthat's your earth, when you look at the change, it's about building excitement around the
change that's going to happen so that the change is easier to embrace and it actually hasa greater chance of being successful.

(41:31):
Congratulations on starting this team by the way.
And for those that haven't checked out the enthusiasm project recently got to play in avery cool stadium.
Maybe we'll call it an arena actually.
And not only that, but posting a shutout in the arena and we will have to see how longthat record holds.
Yeah, I'm still the most recent goalie to get a shutout there, know, technically.

(41:53):
incredible.
You would think that the team has to acknowledge this at some point, right?
And like there's emergency backup situations that you see all the time and, you know, veryreliable.
If, you know, if you're the firebirds listening to this right now and somehow you hearthis, there is an amazing emergency backup goal they waiting to be called, that's ready to
go, backup to the backup.

(42:15):
Now.
Change comes down to two key moments, Tom.
It's usually the first step that you take to implement that change and then the final movethat makes it stick.
I don't know if you're at your final move with this change yet.
What was the first step you took to go about this process?
That is a really good question.
For me, the first step was actually admitting that it was something I wanted, which Ididn't realize was something I was scared to do.

(42:41):
And I specifically remember, it always happens on bike rides, or it did, because it's sucha good, like, doing an activity like that, your body is doing something physical and
repetitive, and then your mind can wander.
So that's kind of like where a lot of videos and a lot of things have been outlined andworked through on bike rides for me.
But I remember being on a bike ride.
I remember thinking it was during summer break and summer break was winding down.

(43:04):
And so was gonna have to go back to work, which is usually a very exciting time, but alsokind of like, I had that feeling of, well, now my time's not gonna be my own anymore
because I have to dedicate so much to this.
And just the thought of like, I think I wanna do YouTube full time.
Like I think I actually want to do this.
And I remember like, I just thought it's not even set it out loud.
And I was.

(43:24):
on a bike alone in the desert.
Like no one was around and I still felt like embarrassed and ashamed and scared to evenlike have the thought.
And then once I had the thought, it like gave my brain permission to start thinking aboutthat.
And you know how it is when you have a problem, you have something you're thinking about,your subconscious kind of works through it without realizing it.
And so once it's like this gate came down and this permission was given, I could sort offind myself thinking like, there's just.

(43:50):
ways I was approaching things, decisions I was making for the channel, like time I waschoosing to invest in different places.
It was like, I think my brain's trying to like make this thing happen even without meconsciously doing it.
And so that was definitely the first step was just even admitting it's something I wanted,which as an adult, as someone who values stability and security, that can be a really

(44:11):
scary thing.
It's that thing of like when something is incredibly terrible, like if you're at a
a nine or a 10 on the pain scale, either emotionally or physically, you're gonna make achange right away.
But if you're at like a five or a six, it's kind of easy to just like maintain and to riskshaking things up can be very, very scary.
And giving yourself permission to admit that maybe you wanna kind of explore the optionsto take all that down to maybe a level one or a two, because you're just having the best

(44:39):
time ever is a cool thing to do.
That was probably the best way to explain what this platform is all about as well.
One of my taglines is we're challenging the status quo.
And the reason we challenge that is that status quo can tend to sit at that four, five,six.
And it's about taking an action to make it a one or a two before it gets to the seven,eight, nine, potentially 10 fire alarms going off, right?

(45:04):
So it's a very powerful message.
Now, Tom, with that, people often worry
that change won't last.
So what's one thing that you do consciously to make sure that it's becoming a part of yourculture rather than just a trend?
that is a great question.
mean, I guess it comes down to what the changes you wanna make.

(45:24):
So for me, it's like, yeah, it's doing YouTube, but it's not, you know, it's not startinga channel from scratch, like quitting my job and now clicking create account.
Like there was already something up and running.
The thing that was up and running was connected to, or is connected to, in my case, audiovideo production, which is something that like I just have not gotten tired of since I was
four years old and picked up a camera for the first time.

(45:44):
It's the thing.
I am just interested in and I don't know why and I just keep being interested in it.
And so that kind of sustainability of like, this is something that has never gone away inmy entire life.
That is something worth betting on versus like, know, sometimes people are like, well,what's trendy right now or what, you know, how can I leverage something that's happening

(46:04):
or whatever?
And it's like, that might work in the short term, but that's not really gonna be long-termsustainable.
And that's kind of the thing is like.
finding the thing that you will do for free if you have to, finding the thing that youjust, you can't stop thinking about, you can't stop working on, you can't stop talking
about.
Those are the things where it's like, it helps make things a lot more stable andsustainable over a longer period of time, which is definitely my goal when it comes to

(46:31):
this whole world.
Alchemist, the coolest thing that Tom just said here was the changes last when they'rerooted in the earth element and in the value.
And he loves the experience and the fun, right?
Tom, that you get with audio video.
And so every change that you're wanting to make, every video you're wanting to put out,it's a new experience.
It's a new way.

(46:51):
And it's also a niche though, where, you know, tech is ever evolving, right?
There's always new stuff to look at.
There's always something fun to see.
I think Sony just announced that the next line of cameras is coming out and what that'sgoing to look like.
So there's so many things for you to stay engaged and to stay experienced chasing for.
Now, all of these things, and including starting a hockey team, these are big decisionsand some of them are risky decisions.

(47:15):
And it brings us to our fire element on spark or burn.
Ignite your ideas, face the flames.
This is Spark or Burn, where we talk about bold decisions, big risks, and the fires thateither spark success or burn lessons into our memories.
And Tom, I've got another game for us to play here.

(47:36):
It's the last game we'll play today.
This game is called Final Answer.
So I'm gonna give you a high stakes decision and you have to lock in your answerimmediately.
No explanations, no take backs, just commit and own it.
Okay?
Would you rather create one high quality video per month
or four decent videos per month.
for decent videos.

(47:57):
Would you rather have unlimited storage space or unlimited editing tools?
storage space.
One must go forever, live streams or podcasting.
podcasting.
Would you rather use professional gear with basic software or basic gear with professionalsoftware?
Progear basic software.
Would you rather create content that's incredibly niche but loved, or broad but onlyliked?

(48:20):
Niche and love.
if you had to choose a fast computer with a small screen or a slow computer with a bigscreen.
Fast and small.
Would you rather always have to use stock footage or always create from scratch?
There we go, some high stakes decisions.
Not so high stakes for you though, Tom, because I think these are things you've alreadymade decisions on and have decided to do.

(48:42):
But what the heart of that was, and audience, and alchemist, if you caught that, everyanswer Tom just gave was about himself authentic creating.
It wasn't about finding out and copying, it was about creating what he wanted to do on hisown.
You locked in those final answers, you have to live with them forever.
I think you're gonna be satisfied with living with those forever.

(49:03):
Yeah, we'll be okay.
Tom, can you tell me about a time when you made a bold decision or took a major risk andwhat was the spark behind it?
Sure, mean, trying to keep things relevant, I suppose.
We'll go to last year.
So I have had my YouTube channel since June of 2017.

(49:26):
I have uploaded at least one video per week, every week since that time, up until summerof 20, I guess it was actually 2023, because time flies and I realize, 25.
But back in 2023, I was feeling
very just kind of overwhelmed and exhausted.
And I took an entire month, no, no, so I felt like a month.

(49:49):
It was only two and a half weeks off where I didn't do anything.
I had a couple of videos scheduled, so I actually didn't miss my upload thing.
But when I came back from that time off, I just kind of needed to disconnect and getpeople's voices, like other people's voices out of my brain and reconnect with myself.
So it was literally like nothing online.
not making anything, not sharing anything, not checking comments.

(50:11):
Like literally my wife checked in on the channel every couple of days just to make sure itdidn't get like, you know, taken down or something and that everything's up and running.
But that was it.
Like nothing.
I was not of the online world and it was just me doing my own thing in the physical worldand letting my mind fill up with my own thoughts and my own ideas again.

(50:31):
And that, that was cool.
So that right there was, that was.
Weirdly tough, although it sounds nice when I came back from that.
I was like, okay I don't know going back to your thing of would you rather make one greatvideo or four decent videos?
I was like I want to make whatever I make and if it takes me six weeks to make a videoversus like one video every week I want to do that and so I And so I did I did that I was

(50:53):
just kind of like I want to work on what I'm working on I want to always be working onsomething but however long it takes is how long it takes and turns out
I'm someone who thrives on structure because I almost immediately, I'm someone who hasgotten migraines my whole life.
like from the age of 11 now where it's like you lose your vision and it's it'sincapacitating for a day or two days at a time.

(51:15):
They're really terrible.
Awful, just awful things.
I had gone over a year without having one.
And as soon as I made this decision, I started having like three a week, three to four aweek.
And I couldn't figure out why.
I was like, oh, like, what am I pushing myself too hard playing hockey?
Maybe I'm like over-exerting myself or I'm doing whatever.
Like I'm having fun.
I'm doing what I want to do.
I don't have the pressure of a schedule.

(51:36):
can't be that.
And like literally from August to August of 23 to January of 24, it was just like, I hadto go to neurologists.
I was like, what is wrong?
My brain's exploding.
Like something is wrong.
And then in the beginning of 2024, I was like, you know, I think this new schedule, thisthing that I tried to do, this change that I tried to make is not working out for me.

(51:58):
Um, so I'm going to go back to what I did before.
And I like, you know, I worked hard.
I usually have several videos scheduled in advance.
So that way, if life happens.
The channel and everything, it kind of keep going.
And like, literally as soon as I got everything kind of like, you know, it's a lot of workto get to that point where you have stuff ready to go.
But as soon as I got to that point, I was like,

(52:18):
immediately fine again.
I was like, wow, pretty clear where that problem was coming from.
And it was this thing, it was this thing where like, I did want to have the freedom tospend more time on stuff if I needed to.
There are a couple of videos I made, which are some of the favorite ones I've ever madethat I spent like, I really did spend like six weeks on a single video versus like a
couple of days or a week.
And so that's really cool.

(52:38):
And like, I'm glad I got to do that.
But part of it, I'll be honest, was in the world of YouTube, a lot of people do
whether they are this way or they present themselves this way, they come off as sort oflike very carefree.
Like, I'm just making vids, I'm just doing this, following my, you know, everything's justkind of cool.
What's up, bro?
Let's make vids.
And some people are that way.
They just have that fun, they just work that way where they just don't stress out aboutstuff.

(53:02):
And so I've always felt like this nerd of like, I have my like video every week and I needto schedule it.
I need to have at least three to four videos in advance.
So like, I just always felt like,
you know, kind of like little meek, like, I don't know, it's like a dork over here andeveryone's cool over here.
So I was like, you know, maybe I need to reassess it, which is a good thing.

(53:22):
Like that's, you know, been doing things this way for a number of years.
Let's look at that.
why am I doing that?
Am I doing it because that's what I do or am I doing that because that's what I choose todo?
So all that was really valuable.
And it did teach me, so go ahead.
Oh, I was gonna say it did teach me the lesson of like, whether it's dorky or not.
I need that structure.

(53:42):
need that stability.
in a career where I don't have the traditional, know, coming from an education background,that is a structured career.
That is a like, your day is literally regimented by bells and buzzers.
Like bell rings, you do a thing.
Like it's very Pavlovian versus like you could wake up and do nothing and no one will sayanything or you could do everything and people still might not say anything.

(54:04):
So it's like, what do you do?
I need that structure.
That's what works for me.
It might not be the most exciting, glamorous, cool thing that you see some people withlarger audiences or arguably more success, but it is a thing that works for me.
that was a very tough chunk of time, both physically and emotionally.
But ultimately, I'm glad that I got the lessons I got from it, I suppose.

(54:28):
And there's two things behind that that are also important for people to know is when youmake a change or a bold decision to bet on yourself and you do something like
entrepreneurship or go into something where it's just you, you're leaving a regimentedroutine of work and you fall into the habit of, well, when you were working, there was
Christmas break, there was summer break, there were holidays, there were weekends, therewere days off, just spread throughout.

(54:52):
And when you bet on yourself, you forget those things sometimes.
and I have fallen into the loophole.
I've only been doing this for my first year, but I fell into the loophole of, man, I justworked through my entire summer doing this when I would have normally been off, or I just
worked through my Thanksgiving weekend, or I just worked a bit through Christmas where Inormally wouldn't, right?
So to take that time away is also really important because people take vacations, peopletake breaks.

(55:16):
To have the backup so it keeps flowing, I think that's a really smart strategy to do.
The second thing with...
this transition and you talked about how you see people that look like they live thisreally relaxed background.
You also have no idea what they did when they stopped recording, right?
And so that could have been a fully scripted thing that they then sent to a team of fiveeditors to put together and they were able to sit back.

(55:39):
That could have been something that maybe we are seeing the raw relaxed style, but maybethat was very scripted.
Maybe it was put together.
Maybe that was the intent, right?
And so we see people
And I think the moral of that is everybody will do it differently.
And that's how we approach education as well.
Everybody is unique and will do things their own way.
No two people have lived the exact same life.

(56:00):
And so it's going to be different, look different, sound different, feel different.
And, you know, I call myself a nerd all the time and you wanted to call yourself one theretoo.
The important part to it is we're just passionate.
We're enthusiastic about what we're doing.
And those people are as well, they're just doing it differently from the lives thatthey've lived.

(56:21):
Now, both decisions can be intimidating.
What's a bold action you want to dare our alchemists to take this week to build thatrisk-taking muscle?
I would say as an adult, is very rare to, I mentioned playing to my strengths, right?
Like my channel, like, you're good at, yeah, cause I, I edit the videos and I put thethings on the channel that I'm good at.

(56:44):
There's a lot of things I'm really not good at.
I talked about flight lessons.
talked about hockey.
Those are things that I knew nothing about and wanted to dive into.
And it was incredibly humbling.
Still is every day, especially with hockey, but it's incredibly humbling to
be in that beginner mindset as an adult.
Cause you kind of forget what that's like.
As a kid, you're used to it all the time.

(57:05):
You're trying to do something new and you're really bad at it.
And you just kind of keep doing it.
And eventually like, I think we can all probably look back, riding a bike, learning aninstrument, whatever it might be.
Like you practice something as a kid and eventually things do just click because you putin actually a lot of repetition.
It's not magic.
You just put in the practice and you spent the time where you're bad and you don't know,you don't know what you don't know.

(57:26):
So you just kind of dive in.
that happens a lot when you're younger and it happens a lot less when you're older becausetime is, you know, time is a constraint, but also adults are, you know, we like to play to
our strengths.
We've built these skillsets over many, many years and over careers.
And it.
It's that's what we want to do.
We don't want to be the newbie beginner who can't do something.
but I would genuinely encourage people.

(57:48):
think all of us have something that's been tickling the back of our brain, whether that ismaking YouTube video, trying a new sport, learning an instrument.
whatever, I think there's always something where it's like, you know, if I had more time,I would try this or do that.
I would encourage people to do something that they wanna do, like give into that littleitch, that little scratch of trying something new as an adult, even if it means going all

(58:10):
the way back to the beginner mindset, even if it means being really bad at something for awhile.
just give yourself the chance to do that.
And if it clicks, give yourself the chance to...
go through the experience of getting better at something as an adult, which we don't getas much as we used to when we were kids.
It's not more work if it's something that fills your bucket.

(58:31):
It's more time, but it's not gonna feel like more work and it's gonna make the otherthings you do a lot, a lot more bearable to go through as well.
Now, Tom, before I go to this last segment, I wanna be cognizant of time here.
We are at the hour mark.
My last part's listener questions.
I've got two for you today that people submitted.
Do you have time to go through them with me?
All right, awesome, thank you so much.

(58:52):
All right, alchemists, you asked, we're answering.
It's time for listener questions.
I don't have a catchy little jingle like my elemental segment.
I've been teasing that I will make one.
I have not made one yet.
We'll figure it out.
We'll get there.
But Tom, I put out on my social media that I have you coming on the show.
I open it up for questions for people that want to ask you anything.
And I've got two that came in that I'm hoping you're ready to address.

(59:13):
So the first question is, what have you learned about yourself since leaving teaching?
and becoming a full-time content creator.
I have learned that I am able to make a positive impact on the world by sharing myenthusiasm and doing the things that I care about, which on the surface can just be like,

(59:34):
well, you just talk about cameras, microphones and stuff.
But there's more to it.
that's kind of like, you know, there's a, if you ever read or saw Randy Pausch's lastlecture when he had, he was a professor at Carnegie Mellon that had pancreatic cancer back
in 2007.
He ended up passing away, but before that he wrote a whole book that was kind of about hislife philosophy.

(59:55):
It's fantastic.
But in that he talks about something called a head fake, which is like coaches or teacherswill sometimes teach you something and it turns out they're actually teaching you
something else, but you kind of don't realize it.
that's sort of, that's kind of how I feel.
I've learned the abilities as sort of head fake people.
Like we can just make jokes and talk about cameras and microphones, but suddenly someone'sgoing to find themselves, you know,

(01:00:18):
wanting to try something new that they haven't tried before or feeling empowered in a waythat they didn't or feeling, you know, heard or whatever it might be.
those are very big impacts that can come from seemingly simple places.
Thanks for sharing.
normally it's a question that I can kind of chime in on too and give my perspective on it.
This isn't necessarily for me because I'm not a full-time content creator yet, maybe oneday.

(01:00:40):
But that being said, for me, I learned that I was a massive perfectionist and I had to bewilling to be vulnerable and let a lot of things go from that standpoint when I first
started making these.
I wanted everything to be perfect.
And if you go and you listen to my first five episodes, you could probably hear the scriptcoming out in the episode itself, even though they were just audio episodes.

(01:01:07):
But I've gone to a point of wanting to get an organic, natural conversation, knowingmistakes along the way will happen, fumbling along words will happen.
Setting yourself up for success through prep is a lot more important than scripting outwhat you wanted to do.
So I learned how to let go.
And it actually translated a bit to my own leadership.
as a school principal, I'm not, I still set high expectations.

(01:01:27):
I'm a firm believer that high expectations is actually an act of love for the peoplearound you.
But it's not a high perfectionist expectation.
It's an expectation that you're going to give the best effort you can at the thing thatyou're doing.
So yeah, I think that's a great question.
The next one, I will, we can both take a stab at it.
I'll let you take the first stab at it.
How do you measure success?

(01:01:48):
That is a great question.
For me, measuring success, I guess would come down to is what I'm doing positive?
Like is it, I don't want to do something that's adding negativity.
Like are the things that I'm making, is my existence, the stuff I'm putting out in theworld, is that a net positive on humanity or a net negative?
And that doesn't have to be a huge net positive, but as long as we're moving that positivedirection, and am I doing it in a way that's gonna let me keep doing it?

(01:02:13):
So that's kind of like a big thing for me is I want to keep doing this as long as Ipossibly can.
so, you know, success is finding ways to sort of stay true to that core of myself and beable to wake up tomorrow and keep doing it and do it next month and next year.
that's as long as I can do that, then I there's nothing to complain about there.

(01:02:36):
Yeah, I totally agree.
My interpretation of what success is, your desire to keep waking up and do the thing thatyou're doing, right?
If it's successful, it's something you want to keep doing.
It's that you have enthusiasm for it, you have passion for it, you have energy for it,right?
That word keeps coming up.
It's a powerful word to use.
Tom, my question for you is, what's next for Tom?

(01:02:57):
Uh, the...
It's so funny, because that was the thing.
This is actually a great question, because when I did switch to going full-time, I talkedabout it on my podcast, I talked about it with friends and stuff, but on my YouTube
channel, I didn't mention it at all.
I didn't make the, like, I'm full-time now video, which is, you know, it's really fun whenyou see those videos from a lot of people, because it's cool, it's exciting.

(01:03:18):
But my goal was actually that, like, if someone didn't know, because they just watchedvideos and they don't follow everything else, they would actually have no idea.
It seems like nothing has changed.
And there's still people who don't know to this day, like four years later, they don'tknow that it happened.
And that's not to keep it secret, but that's because I, the question I got so much waslike, yeah, what are you gonna do?

(01:03:39):
Are you gonna hire people?
Are you gonna make more videos?
Are you gonna get like a studio space?
And I was like, no, I don't wanna do any of that.
I wanna do what I'm doing because it's already a full-time job, but also I love this and Iwanna be able to do this.
And so when that like, what comes next thing is always like, I always want to get betterevery time I do something.

(01:03:59):
I want to sort of hone in and focus a little bit more.
but I really love what I'm able to do and I don't want to keep chasing that like bigger,better, more.
Like I don't want a team of people in a giant studio space.
That sounds like a nightmare to me.
I like being, it's me and sometimes my wife helps me with stuff and that's, that's how itgoes.
so I,

(01:04:19):
What's next is to hopefully stay that course.
And the thing, the bigger picture thing that I've been trying to sort of like figure outover the past, you know, few months or whatever is I do feel like, especially with the way
technology is changing, some things, some platforms and things are maturing.
I have been trying to figure out ways to make the stuff that I make have a broader appeal,but still be, you know, useful and practical.

(01:04:46):
Like I'm trying to bring people in with
questions maybe they didn't know they had or interests they didn't know they had andthat's something I have definitely not figured out but that's the thing I'm working on is
trying to figure out how to have a broader appeal while still having you know stillfocusing on the things I'm interested in and having a positive impact.
I love that.
And yeah, your message is right.

(01:05:07):
I discovered you a while ago, but I didn't clue in that you were a teacher in the pastuntil you had mentioned it in one of your, was so casually that you just mentioned it.
was like, whoa, wait.
And then I dove into it and I was like, my God, this guy has this huge story that we justneed to share with the world because it's incredible and it's inspirational and it'll
instill that core value of experience and fun for people.

(01:05:29):
Tom, for anybody that is wanting to,
learn more, get in touch, experience what Tom Buck is all about.
What's the best way for them to do that?
The easiest way is probably just go to my website.
HiMyNameIsTom.com.
It's very much...
it's not like an old 90s GeoCities page, but I definitely tried to make it look like a...
well, not tried, it just looked like a page that a person made.

(01:05:52):
But I like that.
you know, the days of like, we just have a personal web page and you make stuff, becausethat will link to everything.
You can find my About, you can find the YouTube channel, you can find my...
I think my resume is up there, just if people are interested.
Everything's up there, you can go to himynameistom.com.
Alchemists that concludes our episode on the Elemental Educator podcast with Tom.
I hope that you've been able to pull some meaning from this episode.

(01:06:14):
Again, those returning Alchemists , this is your chance.
Put that little summary down, put that one sentence snippet into the comments here.
What did you take away from it?
What was important to you?
For those new listeners, welcome to a place where we redefine leadership and challenge thestatus quo.
This show and this channel is here for you.
We're here to help.
everybody optimize the way that they go about leadership, growth, personal development.

(01:06:37):
If you have a suggestion that you would like to see talked about on the show, you canreach out to Tyler at elementaleducator.com.
I read all of my emails and try my best to respond to all of them in timely manner.
And Tom, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join me on the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
This was really fun.
You're incredibly good at what you do.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

True Crime Tonight

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 62: Quit Your Job to Create: Taking Big Risks, and Making It Work (With Tom Buck)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}24/7 News: The Latest

True Crime Tonight

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

Episode 62: Quit Your Job to Create: Taking Big Risks, and Making It Work (With Tom Buck)

24/7 News: The Latest