This is a new year, a new season and fresh off of a break. It is time to kick some behind into gear. With that, I am amping myself up by looking at my own weaknesses. I hope that my struggles are relatable. If you are not familiar with the reference “Toolbox Fallacy”, the link is below.
Tag: Toolbox Fallacy
June 10, 2022 – Just Do It
It was 1988 when this slogan came out. Athletes like Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan were in their prime and leading the charge. I was in middle school and of course, it was the coolest thing to emulate or wear certain marketing slogans (like this one). We had no idea what it really implied and we were not the target audience, but it did leave an impression didn’t it?
Truthfully, I haven’t given it much thought in years. I did some quick research on current marketing slogans and I don’t see much that I actually recognize. ‘Just Do It’ is credited with turning Nike into a global apparel juggernaut. I am a little biased I suppose because I grew up in Oregon and it always seemed that way to me, but that is what the experts says. I think that there is something to that motivation. Stop thinking about everything and just try.
Well, I did it. I stopped putting excuses like researching the right host for scalability and just created a free account on castbox.fm. There may be some consequences in the future, but I think I will treat it like I did my earlier WordPress transition. I will build a beta library of podcasts that I will probably divert later. But, if I never get started, I will never get it done.
This podcast was inspired by some real stuff going on. I wanted to speak up, but I didn’t feel like it was going to make a change in the outcome. Plus, my thoughts were not truly organized. I had more to say so I did this podcast.
I am not promising that this is the end all or that I will switch formats but I think that I want to start adding at least a podcast a week. Maybe Fridays are the days to do that? Maybe this will change, but it actually took more work to make this podcast. Just writing the outline probably took as much time as actually writing a post. For now, I am going to just try to get familiar with the technical aspects and see how it goes.
There are still things to do to make this fly and I don’t even know what they all are. There is adding the RSS feed to the popular podcast vendors like Apple, iHeartRadio and Spotify. I should find some bumper music, learn more about editing, etc. But, I am not going to worry about problems that I don’t really have either. I would like to have a small catalog of podcasts before I really look into the distribution.
As an avid listener to podcasts, I am aware of some of the gotchas, especially free services. Maximum posts per month, maximum post size and total catalog limits. Then there is bandwidth throttling and random ad placement. So far, I have seen none of this but we will see what kind of problems come up with this arrangement. I am not opposed to paying, but I want to make sure that it is a business expense, not a personal expense.
End Your Programming Routine: It feels real. It is what I started this endeavor to do in the first place. Honestly, I think writing every day has helped me eliminate some of my fears but it also gave me a crutch not to move forward. I am happy that I finally broke that barrier. Looking forward to podcasting again.
June 30, 2021 – The Year is Half Over
With today being the last day of the month of June, this ends the first half of 2021. It is a good day to reflect on the accomplishments and failures of goals set at the beginning of the year.
January 4, I wrote a post about my goals at least professionally https://altf4.co/january-4-2021-altf4-co-looking-forward/ I stated my goals were
- Q1 – Solidify branding and develop a marketing plan for AltF4.co
- Q2 – Develop and implement a membership program
- Q3 – Replace at least one blog post with a podcast a week
- Q4 – Generate positive revenue
Those of you that have been following religiously know that life circumstances have changed dramatically since the beginning of the year. I will summarize the events of the last six months.
January – I was working for Amazon and doing a little side work. I had no real other prospects but I was running out of savings. I was hoping that I could make this a growing concern as well as build a business.
February – Suddenly a recruiter found me and tripled my salary from what I was making with Amazon. I had no choice but to follow the money and take a replacement position.
March – I started working to build a reputation and do what I could to get integrated into my new position. I needed to at least attempt my best effort. I also realized that I needed a separate space from the rest of the household and it needed to be conditioned.
April – After spending some cold weeks in the basement, I started in earnest building my office project. This has turned out to be taking most of my free time (of which there is not much).
May and June – More and more of the same. I am focused on finishing this project before spending time on other things.
So, by my own admission I have accomplished little of what I set out to do at the beginning of the year and therefore I am not on track to meet my overall goal. Largely, the biggest excuse is that my circumstances have changed but it may be because I didn’t really want to do it anyway. I think that I do, but a lot of that could have been done despite me working a new job.
My kids did buy me a microphone for Father’s Day. I am waiting to set it up when I have a little more time or maybe the weekend. That removes another excuse from getting started. It is always good to go back and review the ‘Toolbox Fallacy’.
End Your Programming Routine: As I sit here writing, I can’t say that this will become something more than it is. I am not even sure if this is precisely what I want to pursue. I can say that I enjoy it and I do put effort into it. So… I have to change my expectations, it doesn’t matter. I am going to throw a hand at podcasting this quarter. I have everything that I need to do so and I am going to find the time to do some pilot work.
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