April 27, 2022 • 25 mins
It's Kelsey Jones' turn in the hot seat as Casey Markee fills in as host for this week's StoryShout episode. Kelsey discusses the struggle to finish projects, especially creative ones (which dovetails nicely with last week's episode with Jon Henshaw!). Casey and Kelsey discuss finishing craft projects, getting sidetracked, and learning when to walk away instead of forcing yourself to finish something.
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You can also connect with @StoryShout on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Kelsey is @wonderwall7 on Twitter.
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And don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
You can also connect with @StoryShout on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Kelsey is @wonderwall7 on Twitter.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:03):
You're listening to the story shout podcast hosted by
Kelsey Jones. We're a weeklypodcast dedicated to
destigmatizing failure andlaughing at our normalcy. Don't
forget to subscribe and leave areview on iTunes.
Hi, everyone, welcome to thisnew episode of story shout, you
(00:25):
may be thinking, is that Kelsey?
Does she have a cold? No, it isnot. My name is Casey Marquis. I
have known Kelsey for years. Weare very good friends, she is a
fellow Kansans. So clearly, weknow she's good people, she was
kind enough to ask me to kind offlip the script around, and
we're going to interview her onwhat she is terrible at today.
(00:45):
And the topic of that is, KelseyJones sucks at finishing
projects. I know, this issomething most of us struggle
with. So we're gonna get intothat today. So on this note,
let's talk to our guests today.
Introduce yourself Kelsey Jones,for joining us today.
Hi, Casey, thank you so much forhaving me. And for hosting me.
(01:08):
Oh, absolutely.
Any excuse for me to get out ofwashing the dishes, because
that's currently what I shouldbe doing. Or anything like that
is good. And your podcast hasbeen fantastic. You've had some
great guests on it. You've hadsome very good attention from
the podcast. I'm excited toparticipate. But I think
everyone has questions. Youknow, what does you what again,
(01:28):
what do you provide with regardsto value to the audience here?
And what do you suck at and yousaid it was finishing projects.
So let's dive right into that.
Tell me a little bit aboutgenerally what you mean by you
suck at finishing projects.
So I'm a really creative person.
And so whenever I have a newidea for something, whether it
be at home or workwise, I divein headfirst, I'm researching,
(01:52):
I'm buying domains, if it's likea craft project, I'm buying all
the projects, or all thesupplies that are needed for
that. And then I started I'm youknow, going all in, and I just
kind of lose steam, and thingsend up undone and it drives me
nuts. Because a lot of times,you know, the final, you know,
(02:13):
quarter 25% of a project and Ijust don't finish
it. And is this both? When youtalk about the socket finishing
project, these are both personaland professional projects. Is
that right? Or is there adifferentiation there? Can you
give us an example of one ofeach specifically over the last
couple of weeks or months?
(02:33):
Yes, so personal. There's a lotit's usually craft projects. So
right now, I'm making thiswreath out of felt and you like
cut the felt pieces, all thesedifferent colors, and you cut
them a certain way and then putthem on the wreath form. And
that's like 60% done and it'sbeen sitting 60% done on our
dining room table for months. MyMy poor husband bless him has
(02:57):
not said a word about it.
Because he knows that I'll getlike mad
and this wreath was supposed tobe I assume holiday specific.
Right? So it was supposed to bewere you trying to get it done
for the holidays? Are you justdeciding you know what reads can
be good for every holiday? Sowhichever, whenever I get it
done, we're good.
Right? It's gonna be for theholiday. That's right after when
I get it done because it'srainbow color. Okay, so we can
(03:20):
make it work for anything,you know, Easter's coming up. So
you got some time.
Right, there you go. St.
Patrick's Day. Yeah,you're good to go. We could just
celebrate it on your birthday.
And have your own birthday readsright. There's a rolling,
rolling deadline. Fantastic. Sowhat about professional
projects?
Oh, the worst time at is I'llthink of ideas for new websites
(03:42):
and I'll start them and thennever follow through like to I'm
thinking of is I love nachos.
And I know you're a fellow foodlover very much so your passion
is is bacon mine is nachos. Andso I created this blog to rate
nachos like around the world orlike I used to travel a lot I
know you did to like beforeCOVID. So anywhere I go, whether
(04:03):
it's in the States or wherever Iwould have nachos and I thought
I could review them like inIreland. I got nachos that were
Doritos as the base and it waslike changing champ
right? Oh my goodness. Yeah,that's crazy. Yeah, I'm gonna do
that today.
There you go. It was so good.
And so that's an example oflike, I got the domain I even
(04:23):
got the website up I got a postup nothing else.
Do you want to share the domainor do you want to not want to
keep that secret? Ithink it was Nacho baby. I think
it's expired now.
Love it. So there you go, folks,your chance to jump on jump on
this fantastic money makingideas. You could be the next.com
(04:45):
millionaire if you takeadvantage of Chelsea's dropped
ideas here.
Yeah, do my, my expired domain.
How about another one? You canthink of anything else
professionally that you've donerecently? Or maybe it's
something that you struggle withon a daily basis.
So professionally, what projectsthat I really struggle with are
ones where I don't have a setdeadline by someone else. Like,
(05:10):
for instance, this one thing I'mworking on is this report in
Data Studio. And there's no setdeadline for it. So I just work
on it when I have theinspiration. Well, you know, I
before Kyler Patterson, who'ssomeone who used to work at
Hostgator, and I used to knowhim at Search Engine Journal, he
coincidently works with me now.
And so he helped me learn DataStudio, so it wasn't as
(05:31):
intimidating. But before that, Ijust kept putting it off,
because I was so intimidated byit. And I think, I think there's
two reasons why I don't finishthings. Either. I kind of lose
steam, and it seems I just loseinterest, or I feel intimidated
and what right, what is the samewith both of those is I feel
overwhelmed. Like with thewreath project, there's probably
(05:52):
like 100 more pieces of felt Ihave to cut. So that seems
overwhelming to me. Like, if Ijumped into it, it wouldn't be
intimidating anymore, but justthinking about that it would.
And the data studios the samething. Like once he actually
walked me through it, I waslike, Oh, this is so easy. Like
I could do this. But it tookliterally months of me moving
out the deadline,procrastinating, like doing one
(06:14):
thing, and then thinking I wasgood for the week, I didn't need
to work on it again. So I thinkit comes from feeling
overwhelmed, especially if Ifeel intimidated or I'm not sure
how to finish something.
Gotcha. And that's again, that'sextremely common. I have been
meaning to clean our mudroom upfor a long time. And I'll just
(06:35):
go in there and move like onething around and consider that
cook done for the day.
Yeah, like you did progress onit. Yeah,
there's progress on it's allgood. Great. I totally get that.
I totally get that. What do youthink, you know, you always hear
people people are great atgiving advice, but they're not
good at taking it. What wouldyou tell yourself to maybe
better dial in these, thisinability to finish projects
(06:56):
sometime? You mentioned onereally cool takeaway, which is
splitting up into smaller tasks?
Is something that you're poor ator something that you're trying
to working on improving? Or howdo you think that would go?
You know, actually, I'm going totell you advice that maybe you
weren't expecting, and I'm gonnasay you need to know when to
quit. So the nacho baby thing,I'm like, I just need to drop
(07:18):
it. Like obviously, I don't careenough about it to finish it.
Right. Okay, I just let let thedomain I let it go. Let that
ship sail off into the sea.
Hopefully someone else will takeit on. And so I think that's
part of it is like knowing whenit's okay to stop, like, even
last this weekend, I was lookingat how to crochet, I know how to
knit but I don't know how tocrochet. So I was gonna buy this
(07:40):
starter kit and I stoppedmyself, I'm like, No, you're
going to learn how to do achain, which is just like one
straight line of stitches, andyou're not going to finish it.
And so I was honest with myself,and just didn't buy the kit. So
I want to learn how to do allthese things. But I need to also
know like, When am I reallygoing to finish it or actually
keep up with it versus is thisjust like a passing interest I
(08:03):
have.
And I noticed on your stream onyour Twitter stream and for
those of you on the call, Idefinitely urge you to follow
Kelsey on Twitter her I believeshe can be reached at at
Wonderwall seven. So that's w on B E R W A L L seven that's how
you'll find her on Twitter. Butshe has an incredible it's
(08:25):
fantastic and very funny streamof consciousness ramblings,
thank you on her Twitter and Inoticed one of those
specifically was on your yourrecent experience in putting
together micro toys and kindereggs. And I know that can be a
little frustrating. With regardsto finishing projects. I'll be a
little bit about that.
Oh my God, you have no idea. Idon't your kids are probably too
(08:46):
old to do the Kinder eggs. Butthat is correct. I have
teenagers and they are at manytimes much worse. Then I believe
you're still in the toddler.
toddler. Right, right. Yeah.
My son's almost four. So helikes the Kinder eggs. And in
the US. It's not like the Europewhere the chocolate egg and
(09:07):
there's something in it. I thinkKinder eggs were outlawed in the
US for a long time because theythought Americans would just eat
the toys, which makes sense. Idon't doubt it. You know,
I don't would not put it pastus. Oh, this is delicious. Oh,
that was a little chewy. Oh,isn't that
Hey, you didn't say that? Wecan't eat that. Right? See you.
So as it was so now in America,the eggs are like plastic and
(09:31):
one side is like this chocolatefilling you can eat. And the
other side are these like toysfrom home where it's like a
little eagle and they're six,six different parts and I put a
picture of it on my Twitter. Andyou look at it and you're like,
oh, I can do this. I don't needthe instructions. And it never
fits together like you want andit's like smaller than the palm
(09:54):
of your hand. So even if you dofigure it out, you know giving
that to a toddler like an hourlater. Are it's it's broken
again. And it's just, it ismaddening. So with not finishing
those, I just pray that he losesinterest. And I don't have to
fix them again. Because it andthey all of them, like for the
eagle the wings move. It's notlike you can super glue them
(10:15):
together, right? I think thatthat's another thing with like
finishing things or not if Ifeel frustrated, like I have to
think is it worth my time tokeep working on this? Or should
I just like, let it go, youknow, that's another like sign
to me that I need to maybe letit go. So maybe the next time my
son sees a Kinder egg at the gasstation, I need to point him
(10:37):
towards something else. And justspare myself.
You know, I think we shouldthrow your husband under the bus
here. What is Harrison doing tohelp you here with this stuff?
Is he not taking over the kinderto Kinder issues.
So there was a car so he got toKinder eggs for Valentine's Day,
my fault, my fault, I forgotabout the toys. So one was the
eagle and then one was thislittle truck. And I put it
(11:00):
together forever. And I couldn'tfigure out the black part. I
give it to Harrison to figure itout. It was so rewarding when he
could also not figure it becausehe has like more of an engineer
mind. So I'm like, I'm gonnagive this to him. And he's gonna
just put it together. So when hecouldn't I felt smarter than how
I was feeling before because Ifeel so stupid, right? Yeah,
(11:22):
gotcha. Put these little thingstogether. I'm like, I got an MBA
last year like I'm not stupid,and I cannot for the life of me
can. That's what also makes itso frustrating. Like, when you
feel stuck at something you'relike, am I you start to second
guess yourself like, Am Istupid? Like why? Why is this so
hard for me, but it seems easierfor other people so. So when he
(11:44):
fails at the Kinder eggs aswell, honestly, that that kind
of is more helpful than himfixing it.
Well, that is great. You canfill together fill up words.
That's what we always say, Oh,good. Yeah. And that's great.
Now, besides the marker toys andthe Kinder eggs, I know that
you've also been an advocate ofWordle, too, is that right?
(12:05):
You've been a big role player,you have a big I'm literally
like one of only 11 people inthe entire United States that
has not done work at once. Ijust don't have the time. So
let's talk about that. Becausethat requires you just to log in
every day and do it. Are youfinishing that project? No,
I don't do Wordle every day, Ihave to be at a good mental
(12:27):
place because I get really madif I don't guess it Gotcha.
Because like my degree wasEnglish Literature and Creative
Writing at K State. I like Ishould get Wordle every time. I
mean, I tell myself this, Ithink that's the other thing is
I like set these super highgoals for myself that maybe
aren't even achievable. Likethat's totally reasonable to not
get Wordle every day, butliterally it is yeah, I don't
(12:49):
even feel like doing it. I'mgoing to fail. And there's other
word games that I hate because Istruggle with it, which is so
stupid. But like, in my brain,I'm like, Look, if I can't be
good at something, why am I evendoing it? And that's like, not
the right perspective to havebut like crossword puzzles don't
like it. Word Search. I like it.
And then like word jumbles, I'mokay. And I think Wordle is kind
(13:10):
of a word jumble. Yes,absolutely. And I know lately,
this, this episode won't go outfor like a month or so. But
lately, a lot of people havebeen pissed because we're gonna
move to the New York Times. Andthey say that the words have
been harder. And I agree withthat. And people on Twitter,
were trying to say no, that'sjust confirmation bias. Like it
(13:33):
just seems harder. But there wasone word. What was it? It was
like Kritik. That's six words.
But it was like something whereyou would never use it. Tacit ta
see it. That was one and I gotit. Right. And I could not
believe I got that. Right. But Iwas thinking, who uses the word
(13:53):
tacit in every day? You justdon't know how many people
right. So yes, we're all good.
Good. Call African about worldbecause as you can tell, I'm
very fired up about. I don't doit every day, because I think I
would just be so mad. Gotcha.
They don't get. So I check inwith myself in the morning. I'm
like, Am I okay to do a wordletoday. And some days? I'm okay.
(14:18):
And some days I'm like, no, no,this makes me mad.
Now. Now, I do know from frompersonal experience that most
people who don't finish projectstend to have too much that
they're trying to get done in aregular day. Is there something
that you struggle with? Do youneed to dial back
responsibilities? Maybe that'llallow you to finish more of
these projects and suck less atit?
(14:39):
You know, that's a really goodquestion. And something I've
evaluated like over the lastyear or so. So for a long time I
had so I did freelance work forlike 10 years and then I worked
full time at a job. And I didn'tfreelance because the job didn't
want me to and I was okay withthat. But then I just like I got
(15:00):
sick of not having more on myplate. Like, I liked having the
variety of freelancing. And it,I think it helps me like stay
sharp with what's going on inmarketing and sometimes the
freelance projects I do I, theyuse, like, parts of my
experience that I don't use myfull time job. And so anyway,
all of that to say, I thinkthere's a good balance for me,
(15:23):
like, I like having a lot ofthings on my plate, but they
need to be the right things. Sofor right now, you know, any
freelance clients I have rightnow, like, I have them because
they're a good fit for me tobalance everything else I'm
doing. And I, I do have two sideprojects. Like right now,
obviously, this podcast is aside project of mine, the labor
(15:45):
of love. And then the other oneis I'm building this app. And I
talked about that in the episodebefore this one that's gonna go
out. But I, I think I'm, I'mlimiting myself to those two
projects right now. So if I haveanother like, big domain idea,
or something, I am forcingmyself to not act on it.
(16:06):
Well, I'm going to tell you thatif it says it's if it's a word
winner, like, like the nachosite, you need to let me know
immediately. Okay, I will, Iwill find someone to take that
to fruition for you guys. Okay,I'm already thinking, oh, man,
away a site just on gradingnachos. I like it. But it's a
time suck waiting to happen. Iknow. And it could have been
(16:28):
great. Could have been huge,could still be huge. There's
probably someone on the site,someone watching this right now
thinking, Oh, no, there's myretirement right here, I'm gonna
have the the leading naturalreview site in the world done.
And I have good ideas all thetime, cuz I'm a creative person.
And I think it just comes downto knowing which ones like make
you excited. I have good ideasall the time. But that doesn't
(16:51):
mean I need to act on them. Sowhenever I do have a new idea, I
try to think like, is this gonnafit in with what my priorities
are now? And is this something Ieven have bandwidth to tackle,
and if I don't, I let myselfwrite it down. Like I have a
notes, you know, Doc, with allthese ideas, and I just let it
go. Because you really have toprioritize. But it's hard. Like
(17:15):
when you see something,especially with crafts and
things like that, like, I wish Iwas more crafty, or I was like
passionate about craft. So Ithink that's why I go down this
rabbit hole of the crocheting,like I said, are trying to
finish my wreath. But I thinkthat comes back to like, what I
was saying, like, being honestwith myself and being like, you
know, I just I may like thosethings, but I just don't have
(17:37):
the bandwidth to have it be thisongoing project. Like maybe I
used to go to these stitch andbitch session, right? Okay,
right? Where it was like twohours, and this lady organized
it at a bar, and you'd pick asmall little. For those of you
listening, it's like I'm holdingon my hand to be like a circle,
a small size embroidery patternto pattern so you'd have two
(18:00):
hours to finish it and you'redone. And so then like, you
could talk with your friends andenjoy a beer at the bar, like
while you're doing your littleembroidery. And that was perfect
for me. Because I got to be withmy friends, we got to, you know,
go out, have a drink. And then Ihad my one project that I
finished. So you know, maybegoing forward for like crafts
and things I need to set itwhere it's like, in one
(18:21):
afternoon with friends, or youknow, with my son, it's one
project that we planned for aday, instead of me just like
feeling inspired and buying acrochet kit online, or just
seeing this idea for a wreath onPinterest, which is how it's
been before,do you tend to do a lot of
things at once, where I mightfinish a little here, finish a
(18:41):
little here, finish a littlehere throughout the day, instead
of just completing something tofruition. And then just moving
on to the next thing. So Ithink before I used to jump
around a ton, and now I forcedmyself not to do that. Because
it just that just works better.
When you have a lot on yourplate, you have to prioritize
(19:02):
each day. And then like, Ialways there's a book called Eat
That Frog by Brian Tracy. Andit's really good. But the main
point of it is like you eat thefrog in the morning, which is
like the thing you are notlooking forward to the most. And
so you do that first. And so Itry to do that and like complete
it to fruition like you said, orI'll set a timer like this Data
(19:24):
Studio project I mentioned. I'llmake myself for an hour just
work on that. And then I'll goon something else. Like instead
of keeping it open on my screen,and maybe in between meetings, I
work on it. That doesn't workfor me like it never moves
forward as much as as it wouldif I blocked off time. Or my
focus of that day is like twothings that I just have to get
(19:47):
done.
And that's interesting becauseit's different for a lot of
people. I tend to have a lot ofirons in the fire throughout the
day. But I you know, you'reaware that I basically do 100%
side auditing so I usually tryto finish it out. Got it, I'll
pull all the polling data on oneaudit. And while that's running,
I'll be finishing or writing upthe findings from another audit.
So usually, that's how it'llwork for me. So I can at least
(20:09):
compete complete completely, oneor two audits a day. And then a
while, while this is allhappening, then I'll, I'll set
an alarm and I'll you know, getup and move around the house a
little bit, or I'll go out inthe garage and get on the rower
a little bit, or, in many casesis just me returning emails. So
I totally get that it would be,I would like to say, I can just
(20:30):
sit there, do one thing, andthen move on to another thing,
but it's usually impossible. Asyou're aware, when you're an
individual consultant workingfor yourself. It's a nice view,
and you're wearing a ton ofdifferent hats every day.
Yeah, and I think, I don't knowif you struggle with this. But I
feel like as a creative person,or you know, as a consultant
who's self employed, you tend tosuper focus on one thing, and
(20:52):
then you forget to take breaks.
Oh, absolutely get to eat. Andthat'll still happen to me now,
where I realized I haven't gotup for like, three hours. And my
Apple Watch is, you know,begging me to stand up.
Yeah, yeah, by fit put isactually my Fitbit has actually
asked if I was still alivemultiple times during the day.
So I get I totally get that.
It's, it is something I strugglewith. I am very sedentary guy.
(21:13):
And so you know, you have toreally get up and move around.
And yeah, you've hit the nail onthe head there for sure.
Yeah, so I think being moreactive, like taking more breaks
actually helps me finish thingsmore. Because that mental if I
don't take mental breaks, I'mway more likely to burn myself
out for the day. And then Ican't finish as much is
(21:36):
something I've kind of learned.
So that's definitely a work inprogress for me is to like be
proactive about taking breaks,because I'm actually more
productive when I take morebreaks, surprisingly.
And that's a that's extremelygood advice. So kind of to kind
of as a wrap up here, why don'tyou spend just a couple of
minutes we know, again, KelseyJones sucks at finishing
(21:57):
projects. But we know that yousuck substantially less now
because you've self identifythat that's a problem. So what
active steps are you taking?
What would you recommend toother users listening today?
Oh, man, I think owning yourreality instead of wishing that
you are someone you're not. Sowishing, like instead of wishing
(22:18):
that I was a more crafty personwho finished craft projects,
just acknowledging that I'm notbeing realistic about deadlines
and what you can complete aslike a normal human person who
has a life. Like, you know, Iread online, there's an article
about how, you know, when the 40hour workweek was designed, it
was built for, you know, workingmen who had someone at home to
(22:43):
take care of everything else.
And now in this day and age,especially with parents, you
know, both parents are working,like, that's just not
sustainable for you to expect tohave like, all your house stuff
done, work full time, have yourfamily plus have these side
projects, or like passionprojects or hobbies that you
want to do. So I think it'sdefinitely a balancing act. And
I know that's really cliche. ButI think at any given time, like
(23:03):
whether that's even daily, orweekly, or even more like
hourly, like, depending on howyou have to make it like think
about what's my one focus forthe day, for the day, or the
hour, or whatever. And I'm justgoing to focus on that and then
move on to like something else.
And all the areas of your lifeneeds are constantly in flux.
(23:25):
Like you're not going to be thebest partner and the best mother
and the best employee at thesame time. I think it's it's
constantly redistributing whatyou're focusing on. But you also
need to make yourself apriority. I think nowadays, we,
especially in America, we tendto frown on like passion
projects, or hobbies or doingthings just because you enjoy
(23:48):
it. And so I definitely don'twant myself to lose that or
anybody listening to lose thatjust because you can't finish
it. You know, I if I enjoy doingthe wreath, then maybe the
enjoyment is like, can befinishing for me like the act of
doing it itself is enjoyable. Somaybe I shouldn't focus so much
on the fact that it's not doneyet. But instead think about
(24:10):
what was really relaxing. Youknow, the time I take the 10
minutes I took to to work on myreads today. So that's something
else that I think really helpsis like if they experience and
what you're learning or whatyou're doing is helpful to you
in some way either mentally orlike furthers your experience,
then it's worth doing eventhough it might not ever get
(24:32):
finished.
Very, very well said. And onthat note, I'd like to again
thank Kelsey Jones for interviewand allowing me to interview her
on this episode of story shout.
You all know Kelsey, you canfollow her online again on
Twitter. Also check her out onher site six stories.com. And as
a fellow Kansan, it's alwaysgreat to talk to you, Kelsey,
and I really hope that we canactually get together sometime
(24:53):
soon. Preferably in a warmclimate, drinking margaritas. So
that's circle here. So on thatnote, thanks everyone for
joining us. We'll see you againsoon. Thank you and thank you
CaseyThank you for listening to the
story shout podcast. Don'tforget to review us on iTunes
and connect with us on socialmedia at story shout, or online
(25:16):
at story shout.co. Until nexttime, stay normal.
You're listening to the story shout podcast hosted by
Kelsey Jones. We're a weeklypodcast dedicated to
destigmatizing failure andlaughing at our normalcy. Don't
forget to subscribe and leave areview on iTunes.
Hi, everyone, welcome to thisnew episode of story shout, you
(00:25):
may be thinking, is that Kelsey?
Does she have a cold? No, it isnot. My name is Casey Marquis. I
have known Kelsey for years. Weare very good friends, she is a
fellow Kansans. So clearly, weknow she's good people, she was
kind enough to ask me to kind offlip the script around, and
we're going to interview her onwhat she is terrible at today.
(00:45):
And the topic of that is, KelseyJones sucks at finishing
projects. I know, this issomething most of us struggle
with. So we're gonna get intothat today. So on this note,
let's talk to our guests today.
Introduce yourself Kelsey Jones,for joining us today.
Hi, Casey, thank you so much forhaving me. And for hosting me.
(01:08):
Oh, absolutely.
Any excuse for me to get out ofwashing the dishes, because
that's currently what I shouldbe doing. Or anything like that
is good. And your podcast hasbeen fantastic. You've had some
great guests on it. You've hadsome very good attention from
the podcast. I'm excited toparticipate. But I think
everyone has questions. Youknow, what does you what again,
(01:28):
what do you provide with regardsto value to the audience here?
And what do you suck at and yousaid it was finishing projects.
So let's dive right into that.
Tell me a little bit aboutgenerally what you mean by you
suck at finishing projects.
So I'm a really creative person.
And so whenever I have a newidea for something, whether it
be at home or workwise, I divein headfirst, I'm researching,
(01:52):
I'm buying domains, if it's likea craft project, I'm buying all
the projects, or all thesupplies that are needed for
that. And then I started I'm youknow, going all in, and I just
kind of lose steam, and thingsend up undone and it drives me
nuts. Because a lot of times,you know, the final, you know,
(02:13):
quarter 25% of a project and Ijust don't finish
it. And is this both? When youtalk about the socket finishing
project, these are both personaland professional projects. Is
that right? Or is there adifferentiation there? Can you
give us an example of one ofeach specifically over the last
couple of weeks or months?
(02:33):
Yes, so personal. There's a lotit's usually craft projects. So
right now, I'm making thiswreath out of felt and you like
cut the felt pieces, all thesedifferent colors, and you cut
them a certain way and then putthem on the wreath form. And
that's like 60% done and it'sbeen sitting 60% done on our
dining room table for months. MyMy poor husband bless him has
(02:57):
not said a word about it.
Because he knows that I'll getlike mad
and this wreath was supposed tobe I assume holiday specific.
Right? So it was supposed to bewere you trying to get it done
for the holidays? Are you justdeciding you know what reads can
be good for every holiday? Sowhichever, whenever I get it
done, we're good.
Right? It's gonna be for theholiday. That's right after when
I get it done because it'srainbow color. Okay, so we can
(03:20):
make it work for anything,you know, Easter's coming up. So
you got some time.
Right, there you go. St.
Patrick's Day. Yeah,you're good to go. We could just
celebrate it on your birthday.
And have your own birthday readsright. There's a rolling,
rolling deadline. Fantastic. Sowhat about professional
projects?
Oh, the worst time at is I'llthink of ideas for new websites
(03:42):
and I'll start them and thennever follow through like to I'm
thinking of is I love nachos.
And I know you're a fellow foodlover very much so your passion
is is bacon mine is nachos. Andso I created this blog to rate
nachos like around the world orlike I used to travel a lot I
know you did to like beforeCOVID. So anywhere I go, whether
(04:03):
it's in the States or wherever Iwould have nachos and I thought
I could review them like inIreland. I got nachos that were
Doritos as the base and it waslike changing champ
right? Oh my goodness. Yeah,that's crazy. Yeah, I'm gonna do
that today.
There you go. It was so good.
And so that's an example oflike, I got the domain I even
(04:23):
got the website up I got a postup nothing else.
Do you want to share the domainor do you want to not want to
keep that secret? Ithink it was Nacho baby. I think
it's expired now.
Love it. So there you go, folks,your chance to jump on jump on
this fantastic money makingideas. You could be the next.com
(04:45):
millionaire if you takeadvantage of Chelsea's dropped
ideas here.
Yeah, do my, my expired domain.
How about another one? You canthink of anything else
professionally that you've donerecently? Or maybe it's
something that you struggle withon a daily basis.
So professionally, what projectsthat I really struggle with are
ones where I don't have a setdeadline by someone else. Like,
(05:10):
for instance, this one thing I'mworking on is this report in
Data Studio. And there's no setdeadline for it. So I just work
on it when I have theinspiration. Well, you know, I
before Kyler Patterson, who'ssomeone who used to work at
Hostgator, and I used to knowhim at Search Engine Journal, he
coincidently works with me now.
And so he helped me learn DataStudio, so it wasn't as
(05:31):
intimidating. But before that, Ijust kept putting it off,
because I was so intimidated byit. And I think, I think there's
two reasons why I don't finishthings. Either. I kind of lose
steam, and it seems I just loseinterest, or I feel intimidated
and what right, what is the samewith both of those is I feel
overwhelmed. Like with thewreath project, there's probably
(05:52):
like 100 more pieces of felt Ihave to cut. So that seems
overwhelming to me. Like, if Ijumped into it, it wouldn't be
intimidating anymore, but justthinking about that it would.
And the data studios the samething. Like once he actually
walked me through it, I waslike, Oh, this is so easy. Like
I could do this. But it tookliterally months of me moving
out the deadline,procrastinating, like doing one
(06:14):
thing, and then thinking I wasgood for the week, I didn't need
to work on it again. So I thinkit comes from feeling
overwhelmed, especially if Ifeel intimidated or I'm not sure
how to finish something.
Gotcha. And that's again, that'sextremely common. I have been
meaning to clean our mudroom upfor a long time. And I'll just
(06:35):
go in there and move like onething around and consider that
cook done for the day.
Yeah, like you did progress onit. Yeah,
there's progress on it's allgood. Great. I totally get that.
I totally get that. What do youthink, you know, you always hear
people people are great atgiving advice, but they're not
good at taking it. What wouldyou tell yourself to maybe
better dial in these, thisinability to finish projects
(06:56):
sometime? You mentioned onereally cool takeaway, which is
splitting up into smaller tasks?
Is something that you're poor ator something that you're trying
to working on improving? Or howdo you think that would go?
You know, actually, I'm going totell you advice that maybe you
weren't expecting, and I'm gonnasay you need to know when to
quit. So the nacho baby thing,I'm like, I just need to drop
(07:18):
it. Like obviously, I don't careenough about it to finish it.
Right. Okay, I just let let thedomain I let it go. Let that
ship sail off into the sea.
Hopefully someone else will takeit on. And so I think that's
part of it is like knowing whenit's okay to stop, like, even
last this weekend, I was lookingat how to crochet, I know how to
knit but I don't know how tocrochet. So I was gonna buy this
(07:40):
starter kit and I stoppedmyself, I'm like, No, you're
going to learn how to do achain, which is just like one
straight line of stitches, andyou're not going to finish it.
And so I was honest with myself,and just didn't buy the kit. So
I want to learn how to do allthese things. But I need to also
know like, When am I reallygoing to finish it or actually
keep up with it versus is thisjust like a passing interest I
(08:03):
have.
And I noticed on your stream onyour Twitter stream and for
those of you on the call, Idefinitely urge you to follow
Kelsey on Twitter her I believeshe can be reached at at
Wonderwall seven. So that's w on B E R W A L L seven that's how
you'll find her on Twitter. Butshe has an incredible it's
(08:25):
fantastic and very funny streamof consciousness ramblings,
thank you on her Twitter and Inoticed one of those
specifically was on your yourrecent experience in putting
together micro toys and kindereggs. And I know that can be a
little frustrating. With regardsto finishing projects. I'll be a
little bit about that.
Oh my God, you have no idea. Idon't your kids are probably too
(08:46):
old to do the Kinder eggs. Butthat is correct. I have
teenagers and they are at manytimes much worse. Then I believe
you're still in the toddler.
toddler. Right, right. Yeah.
My son's almost four. So helikes the Kinder eggs. And in
the US. It's not like the Europewhere the chocolate egg and
(09:07):
there's something in it. I thinkKinder eggs were outlawed in the
US for a long time because theythought Americans would just eat
the toys, which makes sense. Idon't doubt it. You know,
I don't would not put it pastus. Oh, this is delicious. Oh,
that was a little chewy. Oh,isn't that
Hey, you didn't say that? Wecan't eat that. Right? See you.
So as it was so now in America,the eggs are like plastic and
(09:31):
one side is like this chocolatefilling you can eat. And the
other side are these like toysfrom home where it's like a
little eagle and they're six,six different parts and I put a
picture of it on my Twitter. Andyou look at it and you're like,
oh, I can do this. I don't needthe instructions. And it never
fits together like you want andit's like smaller than the palm
(09:54):
of your hand. So even if you dofigure it out, you know giving
that to a toddler like an hourlater. Are it's it's broken
again. And it's just, it ismaddening. So with not finishing
those, I just pray that he losesinterest. And I don't have to
fix them again. Because it andthey all of them, like for the
eagle the wings move. It's notlike you can super glue them
(10:15):
together, right? I think thatthat's another thing with like
finishing things or not if Ifeel frustrated, like I have to
think is it worth my time tokeep working on this? Or should
I just like, let it go, youknow, that's another like sign
to me that I need to maybe letit go. So maybe the next time my
son sees a Kinder egg at the gasstation, I need to point him
(10:37):
towards something else. And justspare myself.
You know, I think we shouldthrow your husband under the bus
here. What is Harrison doing tohelp you here with this stuff?
Is he not taking over the kinderto Kinder issues.
So there was a car so he got toKinder eggs for Valentine's Day,
my fault, my fault, I forgotabout the toys. So one was the
eagle and then one was thislittle truck. And I put it
(11:00):
together forever. And I couldn'tfigure out the black part. I
give it to Harrison to figure itout. It was so rewarding when he
could also not figure it becausehe has like more of an engineer
mind. So I'm like, I'm gonnagive this to him. And he's gonna
just put it together. So when hecouldn't I felt smarter than how
I was feeling before because Ifeel so stupid, right? Yeah,
(11:22):
gotcha. Put these little thingstogether. I'm like, I got an MBA
last year like I'm not stupid,and I cannot for the life of me
can. That's what also makes itso frustrating. Like, when you
feel stuck at something you'relike, am I you start to second
guess yourself like, Am Istupid? Like why? Why is this so
hard for me, but it seems easierfor other people so. So when he
(11:44):
fails at the Kinder eggs aswell, honestly, that that kind
of is more helpful than himfixing it.
Well, that is great. You canfill together fill up words.
That's what we always say, Oh,good. Yeah. And that's great.
Now, besides the marker toys andthe Kinder eggs, I know that
you've also been an advocate ofWordle, too, is that right?
(12:05):
You've been a big role player,you have a big I'm literally
like one of only 11 people inthe entire United States that
has not done work at once. Ijust don't have the time. So
let's talk about that. Becausethat requires you just to log in
every day and do it. Are youfinishing that project? No,
I don't do Wordle every day, Ihave to be at a good mental
(12:27):
place because I get really madif I don't guess it Gotcha.
Because like my degree wasEnglish Literature and Creative
Writing at K State. I like Ishould get Wordle every time. I
mean, I tell myself this, Ithink that's the other thing is
I like set these super highgoals for myself that maybe
aren't even achievable. Likethat's totally reasonable to not
get Wordle every day, butliterally it is yeah, I don't
(12:49):
even feel like doing it. I'mgoing to fail. And there's other
word games that I hate because Istruggle with it, which is so
stupid. But like, in my brain,I'm like, Look, if I can't be
good at something, why am I evendoing it? And that's like, not
the right perspective to havebut like crossword puzzles don't
like it. Word Search. I like it.
And then like word jumbles, I'mokay. And I think Wordle is kind
(13:10):
of a word jumble. Yes,absolutely. And I know lately,
this, this episode won't go outfor like a month or so. But
lately, a lot of people havebeen pissed because we're gonna
move to the New York Times. Andthey say that the words have
been harder. And I agree withthat. And people on Twitter,
were trying to say no, that'sjust confirmation bias. Like it
(13:33):
just seems harder. But there wasone word. What was it? It was
like Kritik. That's six words.
But it was like something whereyou would never use it. Tacit ta
see it. That was one and I gotit. Right. And I could not
believe I got that. Right. But Iwas thinking, who uses the word
(13:53):
tacit in every day? You justdon't know how many people
right. So yes, we're all good.
Good. Call African about worldbecause as you can tell, I'm
very fired up about. I don't doit every day, because I think I
would just be so mad. Gotcha.
They don't get. So I check inwith myself in the morning. I'm
like, Am I okay to do a wordletoday. And some days? I'm okay.
(14:18):
And some days I'm like, no, no,this makes me mad.
Now. Now, I do know from frompersonal experience that most
people who don't finish projectstend to have too much that
they're trying to get done in aregular day. Is there something
that you struggle with? Do youneed to dial back
responsibilities? Maybe that'llallow you to finish more of
these projects and suck less atit?
(14:39):
You know, that's a really goodquestion. And something I've
evaluated like over the lastyear or so. So for a long time I
had so I did freelance work forlike 10 years and then I worked
full time at a job. And I didn'tfreelance because the job didn't
want me to and I was okay withthat. But then I just like I got
(15:00):
sick of not having more on myplate. Like, I liked having the
variety of freelancing. And it,I think it helps me like stay
sharp with what's going on inmarketing and sometimes the
freelance projects I do I, theyuse, like, parts of my
experience that I don't use myfull time job. And so anyway,
all of that to say, I thinkthere's a good balance for me,
(15:23):
like, I like having a lot ofthings on my plate, but they
need to be the right things. Sofor right now, you know, any
freelance clients I have rightnow, like, I have them because
they're a good fit for me tobalance everything else I'm
doing. And I, I do have two sideprojects. Like right now,
obviously, this podcast is aside project of mine, the labor
(15:45):
of love. And then the other oneis I'm building this app. And I
talked about that in the episodebefore this one that's gonna go
out. But I, I think I'm, I'mlimiting myself to those two
projects right now. So if I haveanother like, big domain idea,
or something, I am forcingmyself to not act on it.
(16:06):
Well, I'm going to tell you thatif it says it's if it's a word
winner, like, like the nachosite, you need to let me know
immediately. Okay, I will, Iwill find someone to take that
to fruition for you guys. Okay,I'm already thinking, oh, man,
away a site just on gradingnachos. I like it. But it's a
time suck waiting to happen. Iknow. And it could have been
(16:28):
great. Could have been huge,could still be huge. There's
probably someone on the site,someone watching this right now
thinking, Oh, no, there's myretirement right here, I'm gonna
have the the leading naturalreview site in the world done.
And I have good ideas all thetime, cuz I'm a creative person.
And I think it just comes downto knowing which ones like make
you excited. I have good ideasall the time. But that doesn't
(16:51):
mean I need to act on them. Sowhenever I do have a new idea, I
try to think like, is this gonnafit in with what my priorities
are now? And is this something Ieven have bandwidth to tackle,
and if I don't, I let myselfwrite it down. Like I have a
notes, you know, Doc, with allthese ideas, and I just let it
go. Because you really have toprioritize. But it's hard. Like
(17:15):
when you see something,especially with crafts and
things like that, like, I wish Iwas more crafty, or I was like
passionate about craft. So Ithink that's why I go down this
rabbit hole of the crocheting,like I said, are trying to
finish my wreath. But I thinkthat comes back to like, what I
was saying, like, being honestwith myself and being like, you
know, I just I may like thosethings, but I just don't have
(17:37):
the bandwidth to have it be thisongoing project. Like maybe I
used to go to these stitch andbitch session, right? Okay,
right? Where it was like twohours, and this lady organized
it at a bar, and you'd pick asmall little. For those of you
listening, it's like I'm holdingon my hand to be like a circle,
a small size embroidery patternto pattern so you'd have two
(18:00):
hours to finish it and you'redone. And so then like, you
could talk with your friends andenjoy a beer at the bar, like
while you're doing your littleembroidery. And that was perfect
for me. Because I got to be withmy friends, we got to, you know,
go out, have a drink. And then Ihad my one project that I
finished. So you know, maybegoing forward for like crafts
and things I need to set itwhere it's like, in one
(18:21):
afternoon with friends, or youknow, with my son, it's one
project that we planned for aday, instead of me just like
feeling inspired and buying acrochet kit online, or just
seeing this idea for a wreath onPinterest, which is how it's
been before,do you tend to do a lot of
things at once, where I mightfinish a little here, finish a
(18:41):
little here, finish a littlehere throughout the day, instead
of just completing something tofruition. And then just moving
on to the next thing. So Ithink before I used to jump
around a ton, and now I forcedmyself not to do that. Because
it just that just works better.
When you have a lot on yourplate, you have to prioritize
(19:02):
each day. And then like, Ialways there's a book called Eat
That Frog by Brian Tracy. Andit's really good. But the main
point of it is like you eat thefrog in the morning, which is
like the thing you are notlooking forward to the most. And
so you do that first. And so Itry to do that and like complete
it to fruition like you said, orI'll set a timer like this Data
(19:24):
Studio project I mentioned. I'llmake myself for an hour just
work on that. And then I'll goon something else. Like instead
of keeping it open on my screen,and maybe in between meetings, I
work on it. That doesn't workfor me like it never moves
forward as much as as it wouldif I blocked off time. Or my
focus of that day is like twothings that I just have to get
(19:47):
done.
And that's interesting becauseit's different for a lot of
people. I tend to have a lot ofirons in the fire throughout the
day. But I you know, you'reaware that I basically do 100%
side auditing so I usually tryto finish it out. Got it, I'll
pull all the polling data on oneaudit. And while that's running,
I'll be finishing or writing upthe findings from another audit.
So usually, that's how it'llwork for me. So I can at least
(20:09):
compete complete completely, oneor two audits a day. And then a
while, while this is allhappening, then I'll, I'll set
an alarm and I'll you know, getup and move around the house a
little bit, or I'll go out inthe garage and get on the rower
a little bit, or, in many casesis just me returning emails. So
I totally get that it would be,I would like to say, I can just
(20:30):
sit there, do one thing, andthen move on to another thing,
but it's usually impossible. Asyou're aware, when you're an
individual consultant workingfor yourself. It's a nice view,
and you're wearing a ton ofdifferent hats every day.
Yeah, and I think, I don't knowif you struggle with this. But I
feel like as a creative person,or you know, as a consultant
who's self employed, you tend tosuper focus on one thing, and
(20:52):
then you forget to take breaks.
Oh, absolutely get to eat. Andthat'll still happen to me now,
where I realized I haven't gotup for like, three hours. And my
Apple Watch is, you know,begging me to stand up.
Yeah, yeah, by fit put isactually my Fitbit has actually
asked if I was still alivemultiple times during the day.
So I get I totally get that.
It's, it is something I strugglewith. I am very sedentary guy.
(21:13):
And so you know, you have toreally get up and move around.
And yeah, you've hit the nail onthe head there for sure.
Yeah, so I think being moreactive, like taking more breaks
actually helps me finish thingsmore. Because that mental if I
don't take mental breaks, I'mway more likely to burn myself
out for the day. And then Ican't finish as much is
(21:36):
something I've kind of learned.
So that's definitely a work inprogress for me is to like be
proactive about taking breaks,because I'm actually more
productive when I take morebreaks, surprisingly.
And that's a that's extremelygood advice. So kind of to kind
of as a wrap up here, why don'tyou spend just a couple of
minutes we know, again, KelseyJones sucks at finishing
(21:57):
projects. But we know that yousuck substantially less now
because you've self identifythat that's a problem. So what
active steps are you taking?
What would you recommend toother users listening today?
Oh, man, I think owning yourreality instead of wishing that
you are someone you're not. Sowishing, like instead of wishing
(22:18):
that I was a more crafty personwho finished craft projects,
just acknowledging that I'm notbeing realistic about deadlines
and what you can complete aslike a normal human person who
has a life. Like, you know, Iread online, there's an article
about how, you know, when the 40hour workweek was designed, it
was built for, you know, workingmen who had someone at home to
(22:43):
take care of everything else.
And now in this day and age,especially with parents, you
know, both parents are working,like, that's just not
sustainable for you to expect tohave like, all your house stuff
done, work full time, have yourfamily plus have these side
projects, or like passionprojects or hobbies that you
want to do. So I think it'sdefinitely a balancing act. And
I know that's really cliche. ButI think at any given time, like
(23:03):
whether that's even daily, orweekly, or even more like
hourly, like, depending on howyou have to make it like think
about what's my one focus forthe day, for the day, or the
hour, or whatever. And I'm justgoing to focus on that and then
move on to like something else.
And all the areas of your lifeneeds are constantly in flux.
(23:25):
Like you're not going to be thebest partner and the best mother
and the best employee at thesame time. I think it's it's
constantly redistributing whatyou're focusing on. But you also
need to make yourself apriority. I think nowadays, we,
especially in America, we tendto frown on like passion
projects, or hobbies or doingthings just because you enjoy
(23:48):
it. And so I definitely don'twant myself to lose that or
anybody listening to lose thatjust because you can't finish
it. You know, I if I enjoy doingthe wreath, then maybe the
enjoyment is like, can befinishing for me like the act of
doing it itself is enjoyable. Somaybe I shouldn't focus so much
on the fact that it's not doneyet. But instead think about
(24:10):
what was really relaxing. Youknow, the time I take the 10
minutes I took to to work on myreads today. So that's something
else that I think really helpsis like if they experience and
what you're learning or whatyou're doing is helpful to you
in some way either mentally orlike furthers your experience,
then it's worth doing eventhough it might not ever get
(24:32):
finished.
Very, very well said. And onthat note, I'd like to again
thank Kelsey Jones for interviewand allowing me to interview her
on this episode of story shout.
You all know Kelsey, you canfollow her online again on
Twitter. Also check her out onher site six stories.com. And as
a fellow Kansan, it's alwaysgreat to talk to you, Kelsey,
and I really hope that we canactually get together sometime
(24:53):
soon. Preferably in a warmclimate, drinking margaritas. So
that's circle here. So on thatnote, thanks everyone for
joining us. We'll see you againsoon. Thank you and thank you
CaseyThank you for listening to the
story shout podcast. Don'tforget to review us on iTunes
and connect with us on socialmedia at story shout, or online
(25:16):
at story shout.co. Until nexttime, stay normal.
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