June 10, 2024 • 20 mins
Today is a solo episode where I get meta with the show and reflect on its origins, share some lessons learned, and process a bit about what might be next. Enjoy!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Brian.
I'm the host of Slow Down toSpeed Up, and today we have a
special solo episode featuringHua.
So today I wanted to spend afew minutes just talking a
little bit about how the podcasthas gone, now that it's been
running for a few months andwe're about a little over a
dozen episodes in.
And before I do that, Iactually want to make a quick
announcement, which is I'm goingto take a short pause on
(00:21):
releasing new episodes afterthis one for probably two or
three months.
My plan is to start resumingpublishing episodes around
August or September, the reasonfor that being I've got a lot of
things going on this summerwith work, with family, with my
own personal growth work that toprioritize the podcast right
now would be a little bit tricky.
The second reason for that isand I'll get into this in more
(00:42):
detail is that I've actually runout of guests to coach and to
work with on the podcast, and sothat obviously makes it hard
for me to publish new episodes,and I'll talk a little bit about
, you know kind of how I came tothis situation and what I'm
going to do about it.
But, high level, what I'm doingin today's episode is really
just doing a few things One,talking a little bit about the
(01:04):
origins of the podcast itself,giving you a little bit of a
behind the scenes look into howI came up with the idea, the
name, what was my intentionbehind it, what were my
expectations, and so on and soforth, and then to talk about
how it's gone.
So, how have the last fewmonths been for me?
What have I learned?
What's been a surprise, what'snot been a surprise, how have I
(01:26):
been experiencing it, and so onand so forth.
And then I also want to thentalk about what am I doing next?
So, as I think about the nextiteration of the podcast, what
were some of the lessons learnedthat I want to carry forward
and what were some of theexperiments that I want to run
to see if I can improve things,make it better and, just overall
, make it more enjoyable for thepeople that come on and for
myself.
(01:46):
So let's just start by talkingabout how did the podcast come
to be.
It was about this time lastyear, summer of 2023, where I
was going through some turmoilwith my business.
I had lost a number of clientsover the first half of 2023.
The market in startups wasdefinitely very pessimistic.
Funding was becoming reallyhard to raise a lot of budget
(02:09):
cuts and, as a result, I had anumber of founders say, hey, I
can't work with you anymorebecause of budget and other
reasons.
And so I remember findingmyself, really like many of my
clients, deep in this fear,scarcity place of like oh my god
, what's going to happen with mybusiness?
How do I make sure that goes inthe right direction?
And so I remember I wascatching up with a former client
(02:29):
of mine and who actually shecame on the podcast not too long
ago, lauren Tracy and justcatching up with her and she has
a background in media, and Iwas talking about what was going
on on my end and how I wasthinking about just building and
growing the business, and theidea of putting out video
content just naturally cameabout in the conversation.
And one thing led to another andI think Lauren sort of incepted
(02:52):
this idea to me which was whatif people actually had a chance
to see what it was like forBrian to coach people in real
time?
The idea just was so crazy tome right off the bat that I was
excited about it, and I'm a bigpodcast fan.
I listen to a lot of differentpodcasts and the stuff that you
might expect of me startups,leadership, entrepreneurship,
(03:15):
coaching, personal developmentand one of the things that I
noticed about a lot of at leastthe startup space in terms of
podcast content was that therewas a lot of founder stories and
, hey, here's how I built thisthing, here's how I took it from
zero to one, one to 10, 10 to100.
Here's the lessons I learned.
Here's some of the hardchallenges.
Here are the things that theanecdotes that I might want to
share with the audience.
(03:36):
But very, very, very, very rareto actually witness leaders and
founders working through reallife issues and watching their
process, watching theirintellectual, emotional sort of
faculties come online as theywere grappling with something
quite alive at the moment.
And in the coaching world, yeah, there are podcasts out there
(03:59):
where sometimes there will belike actual recorded sessions,
and I've always been interestedin seeing how other coaches work
with clients and also how otherclients experience coaching and
what they experience in thatcontainer.
And so when Lauren kind of gaveme this idea, I was like, yeah,
I want more of that.
It kind of was this idea ofbuild the thing that you want to
(04:19):
see more of and this becamesomething that I just couldn't
let go of.
It was an idea that reallyexcited me.
And the name let's talk aboutthe name of Slow Down to Speed
Up this comes from I believe itcomes from the Navy SEALs like
this phrase of slow is smoothand smooth is fast.
So it kind of adapted that ideato slow down to speed up,
(04:42):
because founders, entrepreneurs,leaders, they're all interested
in moving really, reallyquickly and making progress as
fast as they can, and I totallyunderstand that impulse.
I share that same impulse.
But I also know that when we'rein a rush it's easy to get
overwhelmed, it's easy to getfrazzled and anxious and then
you're liable to make mistakesand a lot of errors and then
getting yourself into a bad spot.
And so coaching is one of manydifferent practices that, to me,
(05:04):
encourages that slowing down,that space where I can find
ground, find center and reallyexamine myself and my situation
and see, hey, how is it that I'mcurrently creating my current
conditions and how do I start toshift something, whether it's
in my thinking, it's in myfeeling, it's in my belief
systems, in my behaviors andactions and all that that they
(05:27):
can start to influence thesystem in a way that moves it
towards what I want, and so slowdown to speed up really seemed
to capture that idea.
If I slow down sufficiently toreally see and know myself, then
I have some more agency, somemore choice and some more
empowerment.
And so that's really been thespirit of what I do with
coaching more broadly, but alsowith the show itself.
Now let's talk a little bitabout what were my expectations
(05:49):
and what was I hoping for as Istarted to build and create this
podcast.
The first thing that I knew wasimportant for me was sort of an
anti-goal, which is don't focuson the numbers.
Now, don't get me wrong, Idefinitely look at the numbers
and the analytics and thelisteners and all that.
But I know that if that was mysole focus, if I knew I got to
(06:10):
make sure I reached 200listeners, 500 listeners, 1000
listeners, etc.
Because this was something I'mdoing for the very first time if
I was really focused on thatand didn't hit those numbers,
then it would be easy to feeldeflated and demotivated.
And so I knew that, based offof my very like an achievement
oriented personality, like manypeople I work with that that was
(06:32):
going to be a trap, and so whatI wanted to replace that with
was make sure that you're havingfun.
So this was sort of thedistinction between a process
versus outcome orientation, andI knew that, for me, as long as
I was having fun building thisthing, putting it out there,
then I could keep going.
That would be a sustainingenergy for me.
If I was really just focused ondid this bring me a new client,
(06:53):
did this increase listenerhoodand all that sort of stuff
Listenerhood, listenership,anyways, you get what I'm saying
Then I knew that that would besomething that would cause me to
quit pretty early.
I think there's a statistic outthere that says most startups
never get past 10 episodes, andso one of my meta goals was like
don't die, don't quit, gottamake sure that I'm actually
putting this out consistently,and I knew that having fun and
(07:14):
learning across the journey wasgonna be that sustaining fuel
for me.
Now the other thing I'll say isthat I did have an agenda
building this thing, referencingthe origin story, which is I
wanted the podcast to help buildmy business right.
I wanted to build awareness outthere to help people know what I
was up to and, yeah, get alittle bit of a sense of what
it's like to work with a coachlike me.
So if you have any experienceworking with a coach, then you
(07:35):
know that it's a highlyindividual process and it really
comes down to the relationshipand the chemistry that you have
with another human being.
I knew that I couldn't haveconversations with every
potential person that wanted towork with me, but if I could put
out this sort of work out inpublic, then those who chose to
spend the time to listen to thiscould also receive a little bit
(07:55):
of that.
I could transmit my vibe, myenergy, my personality into that
one hour conversation, and thenthey could then see for
themselves.
Does this feel like a good fitfor me?
Do I want to actually reach outto Brian and talk about
potentially working with him?
The other thing I'll mention isthat I think coaching as a tool,
as a way of getting support togrow, it's just widely under
experienced and, as a result,misunderstood, and so there's a
(08:18):
lot of people out there who usethe word coaching to describe
what they're doing when in.
(08:43):
And so there's a lot of peopleout there who use the word
coaching to describe whatthey're doing when.
In my book, they're really kindof telling, advising,
consulting and it's not reallythe relationship that's designed
to help someone gain that morereally feel like, really help
demystify what coaching is about, what it looks and sounds and
feels like, so that even ifsomeone doesn't decide to ever
reach out to me about workingwith me in a coaching capacity,
they at least have a good senseof what a coaching conversation
can actually sound like and whythey might want to explore
having that in their own life,whether it's with me or any
other person that can providethat.
(09:04):
So next I'm going to talk aboutwhat I've learned and what I've
experienced over the lastseveral months putting out a
dozen or so episodes.
I think from a pure skillperspective, I've gained a lot,
from how do I make a goodrecording to how do I start to
futz around with Final Cut Proand other podcast software apps
to edit something that'sactually listenable and is
(09:26):
engaging and is interesting andfor sure.
There's so much more for me tolearn.
I think one thing I noticed isthat I don't do a lot in my
post-production.
That's not my skill, set bybackground, and it does scratch
my dilettante itch a little bitto mess around with these
different tools, whether it'sCanva Riverside, my different
(09:48):
audio settings and video and allthat sort of stuff to create
something that's at leastengaging to consume.
But there's still so much morefor me to learn on that side.
There's, of course, also stufffor me to learn on the marketing
side.
A huge part of this has beenhow do I take certain moments
from these sessions, theseconversations, and put them out
(10:10):
in short form and write about itin a way that's going to
resonate, that's going to hookpeople and invite them to listen
in.
It's still very much a work inprogress for me, and I think I'm
slowly getting better at that,but again, it's just going to be
continual education for me.
The other thing that's worthmentioning is that I'm not doing
this on my own.
Lauren Tracy, who I referencedearlier, actually does help me
(10:32):
with the podcast part-time interms of just creative direction
, feedback, marketing, copy andthat sort of thing, and so shout
out to Lauren for her supportthroughout this journey as well.
Now, in terms of unexpectedchallenges, things that
surprised me along the way, I'lltalk about a few.
I think one is this maybeshouldn't have been a surprise
for me, but planning ahead isreally, really important.
(10:55):
So you know I was referencingearlier that I'd run out of
guests to coach and work with onthe podcast, and that's because
I sort of took for granted theidea or the fact that there
might not be a whole long listof people ready to go on unless
I put the work in.
I sort of assumed, I guess, thatyeah, as long as I release one
(11:15):
episode within the next fewweeks, I can find someone else
to come on, get them prepped andthen create a new episode to
release on a two-week cycle,which is my aim with the podcast
, putting things out every twoweeks.
And so, as someone who oftenshies away from planning and
structure, this is one of mygrowth edges is, how do I make
sure that I'm sitting down andbeing very thoughtful about who
(11:36):
I really want to bring on, whatare the topics that are going to
really resonate, that are goingto be useful for my clients to
bring into a session like this,and how do I best prepare people
to come on and build out astrong queue of guests and a
queue of episodes to make surethat I've always got a few in
the can so that I'm not runninginto this like last minute issue
, which is, you know, admittedly, something that I'm facing a
(11:57):
lot of currently.
The other thing I'll note isthat it's a big ask to ask
someone to come on to a podcastlike this.
It's not like any normal thingwhere I'm going to interview you
, ask you a few questions, getyour life story.
It's really, hey, let's takesomething really sort of
potentially charged, somethingthat's sticky, something that is
giving you some challenges, andunpack that in real time, and
(12:18):
so for someone to go, agree togo, do that is, I think, a
courageous act.
So I think there was a part ofme that maybe underappreciated
what I was asking of people,therefore kind of underestimated
how many people would actuallysay, yes, let me come on.
And so there's something for meto take away from that, which
is really expect that a smallpercentage of the people I reach
(12:38):
out to will actually agree tocome on.
And so, therefore, I need toreally make sure my funnel is a
lot wider when I'm reaching outto founders and leaders who
might want to come on to thissort of thing.
And then, more specifically, interms of what creates
hesitation for folks, I thinksome of the most potent topics
that can be processed in acoaching session have to do with
people leadership, ieinterpersonal dynamics.
(13:00):
So often when people are inconflict or when they're
misunderstanding each other orwhere they're finding it's very
hard to collaborate with eachother, that's what creates so
much of the psychological,emotional stress for leaders and
, unfortunately, in a publicforum like this, it's very hard
to bring that in because youwant to protect people's privacy
, naturally.
I think the thing that I'mstarting to play with is how do
(13:21):
I start to address that tocreate comfort, to create a
container where people can bringthat sort of thing, and I'll
speak a little bit more in termsof how I'm thinking about that
moving forward.
Next, I want to talk a littlebit about the feedback that I've
received from listeners, andsome of it actually has
surprised me.
So whenever I'm puttingtogether an episode, I'm putting
it out there.
I have some internal sense oflike, oh yeah, this is really
going to hit or it is going tobe really popular, and a lot of
(13:44):
times the opposite has been true, where something I'll put out
there, you know, internally I'mthinking, yeah, like I'm not
sure if this was like the mostexciting session to listen to.
There was not necessarily somehuge aha moment, and then I'll
end up receiving feedback frompeople being like yeah,
listening to so-and-so's storywas really, really impactful for
me.
I really benefited from it, andso I think that's helping me
(14:07):
update my priors in terms ofoften, as a coach, I have some
sense that the most importantconversations are the ones where
there's that light bulb moment.
But I think for the listeners, alot of times, just witnessing
somebody actively process andsort of bare their soul, put
their story out there in thisauthentic way helps people
(14:30):
strongly relate and seethemselves in that client's
position, and that in and ofitself can be really beneficial.
It can be very thoughtprovoking, and so I have to make
sure to check my own ego as acoach right.
Like.
Sometimes I have this agenda oflike oh yeah, I'm going to
really show how great I am as acoach because I really helped
get this person to thisenlightened spot and really just
remind myself that creating thespace for someone to actively
(14:52):
process and make greaterself-contact with themselves is
basically most of the game here,and I'll just continue to be
surprised, I think, by what theaudience responds to.
The other thing I've heard frompeople in terms of audience
feedback is yeah, there havebeen cases where clients have
come in or new clients have comein and said you know, I spent a
couple hours listening to yourepisodes and I just came away
(15:12):
thinking, yeah, like Brianreally gets it, he really
understands this journey andhe's going to be a great support
.
And so that's a pleasantsurprise for me, because I
wasn't expecting direct businessto come early on, but it has
happened a couple of times andI'm really grateful for that to
have happened.
And I think, when it comes tolike what the listeners are
saying and how that's going toinform the podcast moving
forward, there's probably goingto be a little bit less of an
(15:34):
emphasis on my end of like, yeah, what's going to be like the
juiciest topic that we're goingto really help people get
unstuck on?
Like that's, of course,important, but also this
question of, well, how do I helpmy audience feel seen as much
as possible, meaning, how do Ibring on clients who are going
to have certain backgrounds andcertain topics that I know that
are going to really resonatewith the target audience, which
(15:57):
is startup CEOs and founders?
And so, yes, kind of creatingthese insights, these aha
moments and these shifts superimportant.
But really, can I just find thebiggest pain points that are
going to really resonate withthe audience in general and just
give some airtime to that, Ithink, is going to be just an
important sort of guidingprinciple for me in general.
So now let's talk a little bitabout how I'm thinking about the
(16:19):
podcast moving forward.
I'll knock out some of theobvious ones that I referenced
earlier.
One is just making sure I havelike a long enough queue of
guests and record episodes aheadof time so that I have that
stuff in the can ready to go, sothat I'm not scrambling to make
sure that I have a new episodeevery two weeks and I'm rushing
each and every time.
I think it's better for me,it's better for the audience,
it's better for the people Iwork with and so on and so forth
(16:41):
.
So just kind of developing andbeing patient I think is really
important, and related to thatis can I plan ahead better on
the different topics that I wantto suggest people bring on into
these sessions and putting somethoughtfulness into what have I
not explored with people yet?
What are some of the mostpainful things that are on
(17:03):
founders' minds that might wantto be exposed and explored?
On the podcast, again, my innernon-planner, like the one that
doesn't like to plan ahead isbristling at this, and part of
me is just having to work withthat and make sure that I'm
leaning into that edge.
The other thing I'll note isthat I think, given the fact
that a lot of people have said,hey, I'd love to come on, but
(17:24):
there's this thing that has todo with other people that I
can't really put out in public,I am considering putting on an
anonymous option, meaning I'llhave someone on and check in
with them ahead of time on whatthey want to talk about, and if
it does relate to other people,then say look, you can be
completely obscured in the video.
Your name will be changed, thenames that you refer to will be
changed.
(17:44):
I'll even change your voice sothat no one can really recognize
who's speaking, and just see ifthat makes it more comfortable
for people to bring those topicson.
I haven't actually brought thatup to anyone yet, so we'll see
if anyone takes me up on that,but it's something that I would
feel personally excited about,not just because I think it's
kind of a fun editing challenge,but also I want to be able to
(18:04):
open up the format to this.
I think, really really big setof challenges that founders
often face.
And then, finally, I'll say Ithink the whole point of the
podcast is to have coachingsessions, but I experimented
with having just a standardinterview style, like
conversation style with LauraShook-Guzman a little while back
, and I really enjoyed that andI got good feedback from that as
(18:26):
well.
So I do think that I'm becomingmore open to having episodes
that are not pure coachingsessions.
I think there's also room forme to do solo episodes, kind of
like this one, but maybeexploring and opining on
different topics that I'm seeingout there, or to bring on
guests where I'm not necessarilycoaching them, but we're
talking about topics that arestill really salient and
(18:47):
relevant to the audience.
And so watch out for some moreof that as well when the podcast
resumes.
And so, you know, watch out forsome more of that as well when
the podcast resumes.
And finally, I just want to saythat if you're listening to this
, I really want to invite you togive me feedback on the podcast
.
What do you like about it?
What do you not like about it?
What do you wish were different?
What do you want to see more of?
You know running a podcast canbe a little bit challenging
because you're not of directfeedback from the people who are
(19:09):
listening, unless they kind oftake the time to reach out to
you.
And so, for those who have,thank you very much, I really
appreciate that.
And for those listening, justsend me a note, send me an email
.
My email is justbrian-leadershipcom.
You can find me on Twitter,subscribe to me on YouTube,
leave a comment or just reallyreach out in any way that makes
sense and just give me a note.
I would really love to hearfrom you and understand what's
(19:31):
hitting, what's not, and how canI make this better for you.
Or even if you just want totalk about how it impacts you,
how it benefits you, I wouldlove to hear that as well, of
course.
And then, finally, let me justend on a note of gratitude.
When I first started, I didn'texpect anyone to really listen
to this, and now I've hadprobably over a thousand or more
listens total, which to me, isactually pretty good.
(19:52):
I feel really good about thatand I just want to say thank you
to all who have actuallybothered to watch and listen.
It's not lost on me that it's abig time commitment to go and
listen to a full hour long sortof episode on this topic.
So thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much for spendingthe time and for believing in
this sort of thing, and untilnext time, I hope you have a
(20:13):
great summer and I'll see youthen.
Hey guys, this is Brian.
I'm the host of Slow Down toSpeed Up, and today we have a
special solo episode featuringHua.
So today I wanted to spend afew minutes just talking a
little bit about how the podcasthas gone, now that it's been
running for a few months andwe're about a little over a
dozen episodes in.
And before I do that, Iactually want to make a quick
announcement, which is I'm goingto take a short pause on
(00:21):
releasing new episodes afterthis one for probably two or
three months.
My plan is to start resumingpublishing episodes around
August or September, the reasonfor that being I've got a lot of
things going on this summerwith work, with family, with my
own personal growth work that toprioritize the podcast right
now would be a little bit tricky.
The second reason for that isand I'll get into this in more
(00:42):
detail is that I've actually runout of guests to coach and to
work with on the podcast, and sothat obviously makes it hard
for me to publish new episodes,and I'll talk a little bit about
, you know kind of how I came tothis situation and what I'm
going to do about it.
But, high level, what I'm doingin today's episode is really
just doing a few things One,talking a little bit about the
(01:04):
origins of the podcast itself,giving you a little bit of a
behind the scenes look into howI came up with the idea, the
name, what was my intentionbehind it, what were my
expectations, and so on and soforth, and then to talk about
how it's gone.
So, how have the last fewmonths been for me?
What have I learned?
What's been a surprise, what'snot been a surprise, how have I
(01:26):
been experiencing it, and so onand so forth.
And then I also want to thentalk about what am I doing next?
So, as I think about the nextiteration of the podcast, what
were some of the lessons learnedthat I want to carry forward
and what were some of theexperiments that I want to run
to see if I can improve things,make it better and, just overall
, make it more enjoyable for thepeople that come on and for
myself.
(01:46):
So let's just start by talkingabout how did the podcast come
to be.
It was about this time lastyear, summer of 2023, where I
was going through some turmoilwith my business.
I had lost a number of clientsover the first half of 2023.
The market in startups wasdefinitely very pessimistic.
Funding was becoming reallyhard to raise a lot of budget
(02:09):
cuts and, as a result, I had anumber of founders say, hey, I
can't work with you anymorebecause of budget and other
reasons.
And so I remember findingmyself, really like many of my
clients, deep in this fear,scarcity place of like oh my god
, what's going to happen with mybusiness?
How do I make sure that goes inthe right direction?
And so I remember I wascatching up with a former client
(02:29):
of mine and who actually shecame on the podcast not too long
ago, lauren Tracy and justcatching up with her and she has
a background in media, and Iwas talking about what was going
on on my end and how I wasthinking about just building and
growing the business, and theidea of putting out video
content just naturally cameabout in the conversation.
And one thing led to another andI think Lauren sort of incepted
(02:52):
this idea to me which was whatif people actually had a chance
to see what it was like forBrian to coach people in real
time?
The idea just was so crazy tome right off the bat that I was
excited about it, and I'm a bigpodcast fan.
I listen to a lot of differentpodcasts and the stuff that you
might expect of me startups,leadership, entrepreneurship,
(03:15):
coaching, personal developmentand one of the things that I
noticed about a lot of at leastthe startup space in terms of
podcast content was that therewas a lot of founder stories and
, hey, here's how I built thisthing, here's how I took it from
zero to one, one to 10, 10 to100.
Here's the lessons I learned.
Here's some of the hardchallenges.
Here are the things that theanecdotes that I might want to
share with the audience.
(03:36):
But very, very, very, very rareto actually witness leaders and
founders working through reallife issues and watching their
process, watching theirintellectual, emotional sort of
faculties come online as theywere grappling with something
quite alive at the moment.
And in the coaching world, yeah, there are podcasts out there
(03:59):
where sometimes there will belike actual recorded sessions,
and I've always been interestedin seeing how other coaches work
with clients and also how otherclients experience coaching and
what they experience in thatcontainer.
And so when Lauren kind of gaveme this idea, I was like, yeah,
I want more of that.
It kind of was this idea ofbuild the thing that you want to
(04:19):
see more of and this becamesomething that I just couldn't
let go of.
It was an idea that reallyexcited me.
And the name let's talk aboutthe name of Slow Down to Speed
Up this comes from I believe itcomes from the Navy SEALs like
this phrase of slow is smoothand smooth is fast.
So it kind of adapted that ideato slow down to speed up,
(04:42):
because founders, entrepreneurs,leaders, they're all interested
in moving really, reallyquickly and making progress as
fast as they can, and I totallyunderstand that impulse.
I share that same impulse.
But I also know that when we'rein a rush it's easy to get
overwhelmed, it's easy to getfrazzled and anxious and then
you're liable to make mistakesand a lot of errors and then
getting yourself into a bad spot.
And so coaching is one of manydifferent practices that, to me,
(05:04):
encourages that slowing down,that space where I can find
ground, find center and reallyexamine myself and my situation
and see, hey, how is it that I'mcurrently creating my current
conditions and how do I start toshift something, whether it's
in my thinking, it's in myfeeling, it's in my belief
systems, in my behaviors andactions and all that that they
(05:27):
can start to influence thesystem in a way that moves it
towards what I want, and so slowdown to speed up really seemed
to capture that idea.
If I slow down sufficiently toreally see and know myself, then
I have some more agency, somemore choice and some more
empowerment.
And so that's really been thespirit of what I do with
coaching more broadly, but alsowith the show itself.
Now let's talk a little bitabout what were my expectations
(05:49):
and what was I hoping for as Istarted to build and create this
podcast.
The first thing that I knew wasimportant for me was sort of an
anti-goal, which is don't focuson the numbers.
Now, don't get me wrong, Idefinitely look at the numbers
and the analytics and thelisteners and all that.
But I know that if that was mysole focus, if I knew I got to
(06:10):
make sure I reached 200listeners, 500 listeners, 1000
listeners, etc.
Because this was something I'mdoing for the very first time if
I was really focused on thatand didn't hit those numbers,
then it would be easy to feeldeflated and demotivated.
And so I knew that, based offof my very like an achievement
oriented personality, like manypeople I work with that that was
(06:32):
going to be a trap, and so whatI wanted to replace that with
was make sure that you're havingfun.
So this was sort of thedistinction between a process
versus outcome orientation, andI knew that, for me, as long as
I was having fun building thisthing, putting it out there,
then I could keep going.
That would be a sustainingenergy for me.
If I was really just focused ondid this bring me a new client,
(06:53):
did this increase listenerhoodand all that sort of stuff
Listenerhood, listenership,anyways, you get what I'm saying
Then I knew that that would besomething that would cause me to
quit pretty early.
I think there's a statistic outthere that says most startups
never get past 10 episodes, andso one of my meta goals was like
don't die, don't quit, gottamake sure that I'm actually
putting this out consistently,and I knew that having fun and
(07:14):
learning across the journey wasgonna be that sustaining fuel
for me.
Now the other thing I'll say isthat I did have an agenda
building this thing, referencingthe origin story, which is I
wanted the podcast to help buildmy business right.
I wanted to build awareness outthere to help people know what I
was up to and, yeah, get alittle bit of a sense of what
it's like to work with a coachlike me.
So if you have any experienceworking with a coach, then you
(07:35):
know that it's a highlyindividual process and it really
comes down to the relationshipand the chemistry that you have
with another human being.
I knew that I couldn't haveconversations with every
potential person that wanted towork with me, but if I could put
out this sort of work out inpublic, then those who chose to
spend the time to listen to thiscould also receive a little bit
(07:55):
of that.
I could transmit my vibe, myenergy, my personality into that
one hour conversation, and thenthey could then see for
themselves.
Does this feel like a good fitfor me?
Do I want to actually reach outto Brian and talk about
potentially working with him?
The other thing I'll mention isthat I think coaching as a tool,
as a way of getting support togrow, it's just widely under
experienced and, as a result,misunderstood, and so there's a
(08:18):
lot of people out there who usethe word coaching to describe
what they're doing when in.
(08:43):
And so there's a lot of peopleout there who use the word
coaching to describe whatthey're doing when.
In my book, they're really kindof telling, advising,
consulting and it's not reallythe relationship that's designed
to help someone gain that morereally feel like, really help
demystify what coaching is about, what it looks and sounds and
feels like, so that even ifsomeone doesn't decide to ever
reach out to me about workingwith me in a coaching capacity,
they at least have a good senseof what a coaching conversation
can actually sound like and whythey might want to explore
having that in their own life,whether it's with me or any
other person that can providethat.
(09:04):
So next I'm going to talk aboutwhat I've learned and what I've
experienced over the lastseveral months putting out a
dozen or so episodes.
I think from a pure skillperspective, I've gained a lot,
from how do I make a goodrecording to how do I start to
futz around with Final Cut Proand other podcast software apps
to edit something that'sactually listenable and is
(09:26):
engaging and is interesting andfor sure.
There's so much more for me tolearn.
I think one thing I noticed isthat I don't do a lot in my
post-production.
That's not my skill, set bybackground, and it does scratch
my dilettante itch a little bitto mess around with these
different tools, whether it'sCanva Riverside, my different
(09:48):
audio settings and video and allthat sort of stuff to create
something that's at leastengaging to consume.
But there's still so much morefor me to learn on that side.
There's, of course, also stufffor me to learn on the marketing
side.
A huge part of this has beenhow do I take certain moments
from these sessions, theseconversations, and put them out
(10:10):
in short form and write about itin a way that's going to
resonate, that's going to hookpeople and invite them to listen
in.
It's still very much a work inprogress for me, and I think I'm
slowly getting better at that,but again, it's just going to be
continual education for me.
The other thing that's worthmentioning is that I'm not doing
this on my own.
Lauren Tracy, who I referencedearlier, actually does help me
(10:32):
with the podcast part-time interms of just creative direction
, feedback, marketing, copy andthat sort of thing, and so shout
out to Lauren for her supportthroughout this journey as well.
Now, in terms of unexpectedchallenges, things that
surprised me along the way, I'lltalk about a few.
I think one is this maybeshouldn't have been a surprise
for me, but planning ahead isreally, really important.
(10:55):
So you know I was referencingearlier that I'd run out of
guests to coach and work with onthe podcast, and that's because
I sort of took for granted theidea or the fact that there
might not be a whole long listof people ready to go on unless
I put the work in.
I sort of assumed, I guess, thatyeah, as long as I release one
(11:15):
episode within the next fewweeks, I can find someone else
to come on, get them prepped andthen create a new episode to
release on a two-week cycle,which is my aim with the podcast
, putting things out every twoweeks.
And so, as someone who oftenshies away from planning and
structure, this is one of mygrowth edges is, how do I make
sure that I'm sitting down andbeing very thoughtful about who
(11:36):
I really want to bring on, whatare the topics that are going to
really resonate, that are goingto be useful for my clients to
bring into a session like this,and how do I best prepare people
to come on and build out astrong queue of guests and a
queue of episodes to make surethat I've always got a few in
the can so that I'm not runninginto this like last minute issue
, which is, you know, admittedly, something that I'm facing a
(11:57):
lot of currently.
The other thing I'll note isthat it's a big ask to ask
someone to come on to a podcastlike this.
It's not like any normal thingwhere I'm going to interview you
, ask you a few questions, getyour life story.
It's really, hey, let's takesomething really sort of
potentially charged, somethingthat's sticky, something that is
giving you some challenges, andunpack that in real time, and
(12:18):
so for someone to go, agree togo, do that is, I think, a
courageous act.
So I think there was a part ofme that maybe underappreciated
what I was asking of people,therefore kind of underestimated
how many people would actuallysay, yes, let me come on.
And so there's something for meto take away from that, which
is really expect that a smallpercentage of the people I reach
(12:38):
out to will actually agree tocome on.
And so, therefore, I need toreally make sure my funnel is a
lot wider when I'm reaching outto founders and leaders who
might want to come on to thissort of thing.
And then, more specifically, interms of what creates
hesitation for folks, I thinksome of the most potent topics
that can be processed in acoaching session have to do with
people leadership, ieinterpersonal dynamics.
(13:00):
So often when people are inconflict or when they're
misunderstanding each other orwhere they're finding it's very
hard to collaborate with eachother, that's what creates so
much of the psychological,emotional stress for leaders and
, unfortunately, in a publicforum like this, it's very hard
to bring that in because youwant to protect people's privacy
, naturally.
I think the thing that I'mstarting to play with is how do
(13:21):
I start to address that tocreate comfort, to create a
container where people can bringthat sort of thing, and I'll
speak a little bit more in termsof how I'm thinking about that
moving forward.
Next, I want to talk a littlebit about the feedback that I've
received from listeners, andsome of it actually has
surprised me.
So whenever I'm puttingtogether an episode, I'm putting
it out there.
I have some internal sense oflike, oh yeah, this is really
going to hit or it is going tobe really popular, and a lot of
(13:44):
times the opposite has been true, where something I'll put out
there, you know, internally I'mthinking, yeah, like I'm not
sure if this was like the mostexciting session to listen to.
There was not necessarily somehuge aha moment, and then I'll
end up receiving feedback frompeople being like yeah,
listening to so-and-so's storywas really, really impactful for
me.
I really benefited from it, andso I think that's helping me
(14:07):
update my priors in terms ofoften, as a coach, I have some
sense that the most importantconversations are the ones where
there's that light bulb moment.
But I think for the listeners, alot of times, just witnessing
somebody actively process andsort of bare their soul, put
their story out there in thisauthentic way helps people
(14:30):
strongly relate and seethemselves in that client's
position, and that in and ofitself can be really beneficial.
It can be very thoughtprovoking, and so I have to make
sure to check my own ego as acoach right.
Like.
Sometimes I have this agenda oflike oh yeah, I'm going to
really show how great I am as acoach because I really helped
get this person to thisenlightened spot and really just
remind myself that creating thespace for someone to actively
(14:52):
process and make greaterself-contact with themselves is
basically most of the game here,and I'll just continue to be
surprised, I think, by what theaudience responds to.
The other thing I've heard frompeople in terms of audience
feedback is yeah, there havebeen cases where clients have
come in or new clients have comein and said you know, I spent a
couple hours listening to yourepisodes and I just came away
(15:12):
thinking, yeah, like Brianreally gets it, he really
understands this journey andhe's going to be a great support
.
And so that's a pleasantsurprise for me, because I
wasn't expecting direct businessto come early on, but it has
happened a couple of times andI'm really grateful for that to
have happened.
And I think, when it comes tolike what the listeners are
saying and how that's going toinform the podcast moving
forward, there's probably goingto be a little bit less of an
(15:34):
emphasis on my end of like, yeah, what's going to be like the
juiciest topic that we're goingto really help people get
unstuck on?
Like that's, of course,important, but also this
question of, well, how do I helpmy audience feel seen as much
as possible, meaning, how do Ibring on clients who are going
to have certain backgrounds andcertain topics that I know that
are going to really resonatewith the target audience, which
(15:57):
is startup CEOs and founders?
And so, yes, kind of creatingthese insights, these aha
moments and these shifts superimportant.
But really, can I just find thebiggest pain points that are
going to really resonate withthe audience in general and just
give some airtime to that, Ithink, is going to be just an
important sort of guidingprinciple for me in general.
So now let's talk a little bitabout how I'm thinking about the
(16:19):
podcast moving forward.
I'll knock out some of theobvious ones that I referenced
earlier.
One is just making sure I havelike a long enough queue of
guests and record episodes aheadof time so that I have that
stuff in the can ready to go, sothat I'm not scrambling to make
sure that I have a new episodeevery two weeks and I'm rushing
each and every time.
I think it's better for me,it's better for the audience,
it's better for the people Iwork with and so on and so forth
(16:41):
.
So just kind of developing andbeing patient I think is really
important, and related to thatis can I plan ahead better on
the different topics that I wantto suggest people bring on into
these sessions and putting somethoughtfulness into what have I
not explored with people yet?
What are some of the mostpainful things that are on
(17:03):
founders' minds that might wantto be exposed and explored?
On the podcast, again, my innernon-planner, like the one that
doesn't like to plan ahead isbristling at this, and part of
me is just having to work withthat and make sure that I'm
leaning into that edge.
The other thing I'll note isthat I think, given the fact
that a lot of people have said,hey, I'd love to come on, but
(17:24):
there's this thing that has todo with other people that I
can't really put out in public,I am considering putting on an
anonymous option, meaning I'llhave someone on and check in
with them ahead of time on whatthey want to talk about, and if
it does relate to other people,then say look, you can be
completely obscured in the video.
Your name will be changed, thenames that you refer to will be
changed.
(17:44):
I'll even change your voice sothat no one can really recognize
who's speaking, and just see ifthat makes it more comfortable
for people to bring those topicson.
I haven't actually brought thatup to anyone yet, so we'll see
if anyone takes me up on that,but it's something that I would
feel personally excited about,not just because I think it's
kind of a fun editing challenge,but also I want to be able to
(18:04):
open up the format to this.
I think, really really big setof challenges that founders
often face.
And then, finally, I'll say Ithink the whole point of the
podcast is to have coachingsessions, but I experimented
with having just a standardinterview style, like
conversation style with LauraShook-Guzman a little while back
, and I really enjoyed that andI got good feedback from that as
(18:26):
well.
So I do think that I'm becomingmore open to having episodes
that are not pure coachingsessions.
I think there's also room forme to do solo episodes, kind of
like this one, but maybeexploring and opining on
different topics that I'm seeingout there, or to bring on
guests where I'm not necessarilycoaching them, but we're
talking about topics that arestill really salient and
(18:47):
relevant to the audience.
And so watch out for some moreof that as well when the podcast
resumes.
And so, you know, watch out forsome more of that as well when
the podcast resumes.
And finally, I just want to saythat if you're listening to this
, I really want to invite you togive me feedback on the podcast
.
What do you like about it?
What do you not like about it?
What do you wish were different?
What do you want to see more of?
You know running a podcast canbe a little bit challenging
because you're not of directfeedback from the people who are
(19:09):
listening, unless they kind oftake the time to reach out to
you.
And so, for those who have,thank you very much, I really
appreciate that.
And for those listening, justsend me a note, send me an email
.
My email is justbrian-leadershipcom.
You can find me on Twitter,subscribe to me on YouTube,
leave a comment or just reallyreach out in any way that makes
sense and just give me a note.
I would really love to hearfrom you and understand what's
(19:31):
hitting, what's not, and how canI make this better for you.
Or even if you just want totalk about how it impacts you,
how it benefits you, I wouldlove to hear that as well, of
course.
And then, finally, let me justend on a note of gratitude.
When I first started, I didn'texpect anyone to really listen
to this, and now I've hadprobably over a thousand or more
listens total, which to me, isactually pretty good.
(19:52):
I feel really good about thatand I just want to say thank you
to all who have actuallybothered to watch and listen.
It's not lost on me that it's abig time commitment to go and
listen to a full hour long sortof episode on this topic.
So thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much for spendingthe time and for believing in
this sort of thing, and untilnext time, I hope you have a
(20:13):
great summer and I'll see youthen.
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