The next 91 days

It’s been a while since I sent one of these.

I could tell you it’s because I’ve been busy.

And technically, that would be true.

But recently I looked back and asked myself a slightly uncomfortable question:

Busy doing what?

Not, “What results did I get?”

What did I actually do?

What substantial thing could I point to and say, This is what I spent my time building?

I didn’t have a good enough answer.

And I don’t want to keep living like that.

The year is almost over.

And I’ve made a commitment to myself for what remains of it:

Show up and do what is required.

Not “do my best.”

Do what is required.

I've been thinking about that distinction a lot.

The life you want has a price.

The business you want has a price.

The opportunities, freedom, relationships and results you want all require something from you.

And sometimes your current “best” simply isn't enough to pay that price.

Some people reach a point where they have enough leverage, resources, relationships or experience that the required effort is comfortably within their capacity.

Others don't.

Sometimes what is required stretches you beyond what you currently think your best is.

So instead of repeatedly asking:

“Am I doing my best?”

I want to start asking:

“What does this require?”

And then do that.

Because “I'm going all in” is a nice sentence.

It sounds motivational.

But unless I can tell you what I'm doing differently tomorrow morning, it doesn't mean much.

For me, it starts with Podnovation, my podcast production and growth business.

For the next 90-ish days, I'm deliberately narrowing how I grow it.

I'm focusing on:

Content. Partnerships. Referrals. Warm outreach.

That's it.

There are hundreds of ways I could try to find clients.

Cold email works.

DMs work.

Paid advertising works.

Networking works.

Events work.

There will always be another strategy I could try.

But I don't think my problem right now is knowing too few strategies.

It might actually be the opposite.

So I'm choosing a few.

And I'm going deep.

That means publishing one video every day for Podnovation.

It means partnering with people and creating useful content for their platforms.

It means building genuine referral relationships.

And it means going back to people I've already spoken with — people who already know me, people I've had conversations with, people I've possibly left sitting in the “I'll follow up later” pile — and restarting those conversations.

I'm not trying to do everything.

I'm trying to do a few important things consistently enough to find out what happens.

For years, I've interviewed people.

A lot of people.

At this point, I've conducted more than 1,000 interviews.

But now I also want to spend more time on the other side of the microphone.

I'm actively looking to appear on more podcasts.

And this has forced me to confront another idea I've carried around:

“I need to be ready first.”

But what exactly does ready mean?

Ready to tell my story perfectly?

Ready to have every opinion figured out?

Ready to sound brilliant every time somebody asks me a question?

Ready to never stumble over my words?

That's probably never happening.

Maybe the better goal is becoming comfortable sucking at something before becoming good at it.

Showing up before I feel completely ready.

Talking.

Learning.

Getting better.

Because every conversation forces me to clarify what I believe.

Every interview helps me refine my message.

Every time I put myself out there, I learn something.

So, if you have a podcast and think we'd have an interesting conversation, I'd genuinely love to hear from you.

Going forward, this becomes My Million Story.

I originally considered doing a solo episode every day.

Then I realized something:

I don't want to spend so much time talking about the work that I have less time to actually do the work.

So I'm settling on two solo episodes every week.

Two opportunities to come back here and tell you:

Here's what I tried.

Here's what happened.

Here's what failed.

Here's what surprised me.

Here's what changed.

Here's what I'm learning.

And here's what I'm doing next.

Not advice from the mountaintop.

Documentation from the middle of the climb.

Remember when I said I've done more than 1,000 interviews?

Well…

That comes with a lot of unfinished work.

Episodes to publish.

Conversations to release.

Things sitting somewhere waiting for me to finally finish them.

And I've realized that unfinished work has weight.

You carry it around mentally.

So one of my goals during this period is simple:

Release the work.

I've spent years collecting stories.

Now I need to stop collecting and start releasing.

I've asked myself that question too.

Why put this pressure on yourself?

Why do all of this?

Why not just take things slowly?

And then another question came to me:

Why not go all in?

Not in an aggressive, motivational-speaker way.

I'm genuinely curious.

Why not?

Over the years, I've had people tell me things like:

“I saw you doing this, and it made me want to start.”

“You doing that showed me it was possible.”

“I started because I saw you start.”

And sometimes I hear that and think:

Really? Me?

Because I know all the times I wasn't consistent.

I know the projects I abandoned.

I know how much time I've wasted.

I know how many times I haven't done what was required.

And that makes me wonder:

If people could be inspired by me when I wasn't even fully chasing my own dreams… what happens if I actually do?

What happens if I stop playing with the things I say I want?

What happens if I take the work seriously?

What happens if I shine as brightly as I can — and doing that gives someone else permission to do the same?

I want to find out.

91 days.

I'm not promising some magical transformation.

I don't know exactly where I'll be when this is over.

That's precisely why I want to document it now instead of writing a neat success story afterwards.

You'll see the experiments.

The failures.

The uncomfortable conversations.

The things that work.

The things that absolutely don't.

And whatever happens in between.

I'm going all in on the work.

And I'll tell you what happens.

If you'd like to follow the journey, subscribe to My Million Story and follow the podcast so you don't miss the next update.

And if you've listened before, I'd really appreciate a rating or review. I'll leave one link that automatically opens the podcast in your preferred listening app.

My Million Story Podcast

Here's to finding out what happens when we stop waiting until we're ready.

— Wisdom