Speak

I have asked relatively few friends to join my podcasts. Most people are hesitant to upload themselves talking candidly at length.

It's not a natural thing to do. Normal people don't practice playing themselves on camera. Acting usually comes with a script, and thus plausible deniability for the words coming out of one's mouth.

We all fear judgment. Now more than ever, many externalize this fear and cast stones at "judgmental" people. Ironically the most aggressive stone-throwers are often the most dependent in their personal lives on others with "good judgment".

I am both highly susceptible to negative criticism and mostly immune to this fear. Others have responded positively to me over many years. I'm intrinsically good, with high conviction at this point, so any negativity is likely a misunderstanding.

If a clip of you talking for 5 minutes reaches 100,000,000 people, that's like spending 950 years communicating nonstop one-on-one. If you expect Super Bowl reach, it makes sense to agonize over every syllable and pixel of your message.

I'd be shocked if The Andy Pod had a total of 20 listeners, who didn't know me personally and still made it through any of my 8 guests. That's less than one stranger per year hearing a fragment of chatter. You get more reach being overheard conversing at Starbucks.

Famous people always become caricatures, anti-heroes. One tier down: Seth Godin, Jensen Huang, Keanu Reeves. They enjoy universally positive reputations by just being themselves, thoughtful and deliberate. Minor celebs because they lack the circulating stir of controversy.

Tswift knows the haters gonna hate, and some abbreviate. Ate ate ate ate.

If you're not MrBeast, are you really an influencer? I'll let you know if Capitalism Unlocked ever gets on that track. Maybe 10 years is a reasonable estimate... at least I'm beginning now...

Getting over fear of judgment—both doing and receiving—is the first step towards Turning Pro. It's OK to not please everyone. Screw MVPs, start with the minimum viable audience. Go backwards from the impact you seek to make on those few people who already care.

I know from experience that folks are desperately waiting to hear from you. The individuals I've touched with my published works have already reached back out to me and shared their hearts.

Discard all façades. Choose to be un-paralyzed. Focus only on what's in your control. Cultivate a posture of sharing by default. These are prerequisites to ship anything significant at all, let alone your art.

"We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out."
–Steven Pressfield

"There is no 'good art' and no 'bad art'. There is only art that pleases me or does not."
–Pablo Picasso