The Proffitt Podcast
Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Launching a YouTube channel? Repurposing your old blog content into something fresh? Hi, I'm Krystal - host of "The Proffitt Podcast." And I'm happy to say you've come to the right place!
Business owners and content creators dream of building a platform where they can connect deeply with their audience, and marketing feels easy. But I also know what it's like to feel confused and overwhelmed.
Join us weekly as we strip down those processes and remove all the overwhelm with new tips, simple strategies, and great conversations with creators like you. Tune in to hear how I help creators start, launch, and market their content confidently. The motto here is, "We all have to start somewhere."
The Proffitt Podcast
Finding Your Voice Takes Time, Not Perfection
Finding your authentic voice as a content creator can be challenging, but Dan Woerheide's journey offers valuable insights. After launching several podcasts since 2019, he discovered his true calling after recognizing that speaking was easier for him than writing. Overcoming the discomfort of hearing his own voice, Dan built confidence and learned that consistency is more important than perfection.
His transition from seeking external validation to finding internal alignment was crucial. A turning point came during a sunrise walk when he understood that his military background enriches his coaching message without restricting his audience. This clarity inspired The Unbreakable Mission, which he describes as "a community disguised as a podcast."
Dan's philosophy challenges industry norms. He believes in "okay for now with steady improvement," allowing creators to move past perfectionism. As he says, "If I can positively impact one life, that's exciting."
Ready to conquer your content creation fears? Take Dan's advice: ignore the noise, hit record, and focus on improvement. Your audience is eager to hear your unique voice.
Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)
It always brings me so much joy whenever I can spotlight members of this community and today is no different. I am so excited to have Dan Warheide on the podcast today. Dan has been someone that has contributed so positively to our Podcasters Connect community and we've been friends a long time Like I'm just going to go ahead and call it out. We were actually talking about it in the interview, like how long have we known each other? And it's been a minute. So we have seen each other's journeys go up down all around and I am so grateful to Dan saying yes to coming on the show and sharing all about his journey of starting multiple podcasts, pivoting in very different ways and settling on what he's doing today and the decisions that he made to get there, because I know y'all love a good story and you'll love it when we break down those practical and tactical things that you can do on your content journey. But a little bit more about Dan.
Speaker 1:Dan helps entrepreneurs, coaches and leaders push past fear, build resilience and execute at a higher level. He created the Unbreakable Mission, his newest podcast. For those ready to embrace extreme ownership, challenge-based growth. For those ready to embrace extreme ownership, challenge-based growth and relentless execution no more excuses, just real accountability and high-performance strategies to help you step up and own your mission. So are you ready? Let's get right to it. Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Prophet, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we All right, everybody, I'm so happy for today's guest. Welcome to the show, dan. How are you today?
Speaker 2:Crystal, thank you so much. I'm excited and I'm doing great. I can't complain. I live at the beach.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean like so tell everybody where you're located.
Speaker 2:I'm in Cape Canaveral, florida, and if that doesn't sound familiar, it's right next door to the world famous Cocoa Beach.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome. Yeah, I mean a Friday, so we're recording this on a Friday too, so it's a Friday at a great time of year near the beach. I'm jealous. I'm just going to say I'm jealous. I wish I could go to the beach right after we're done recording this, because that sounds incredible. I'm going to take the dogs for a walk to the beach right after we're done recording this, because that sounds incredible.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna take the dogs for a walk to the beach right after this, so there you go so now you're just rubbing it in a bad foot, dan.
Speaker 1:Come on, come on. Well, if you can't tell, dan and I, we go way back. Uh, I was trying to remember when. When did we first kind of cross paths?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was like the latter part of 2019 if I was thinking about that this morning, so yeah, yeah, so we've.
Speaker 1:We've crossed paths in a few, a few different ways and it's been really cool to see your journey unfold as a podcaster. And I mean, as we sit here today, dan has launched not one but two, but multiple podcasts and you know figuring out what it means to be a podcaster and really hone in on your message and your strategy, and so that's why I wanted Dan to come on today and share his story. He's a member of our Podcasters Connect community and I put a poll out in the group and I was like, hey, you may want to come on the podcast and several people responded. I'm so grateful that Dan is a valued member of our community, but I want to give you a chance to introduce yourself. Can you tell us a little bit about your podcast journey, how it started and where it is today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely I'd love to share and I appreciate the opportunity. So, like you said, 2019, you know is when we were sort of first introduced and at the moment I was hearing all the buzz about podcasting and, of course, all the experts were saying you should have a podcast and okay, great, let me see what that's about. And you know, you don't know what you don't know. That's probably the first thing I would say, and I still feel I had this this morning actually with with another group, and you might think, after four shows, that I have some idea, and maybe I do, but I still feel like there's so much I don't know and that's kind of where it all started is. I was like, ok, I don't know what all is required for this podcasting thing, and so I started digging into that, and that's when I came across your content and what I loved about that, what connected me to your content in the first place, was just how simple you made the whole thing.
Speaker 2:I love tech and so even for me it was like, ok, I don't know what all goes to what. It was a bit intimidating and I didn't want to spend the time to figure it all out by myself. You made it super simple to figure it out and like plug and play, almost. So my mission then is different than now, but then it was. I wanted to create a podcast in conjunction with my business. That gave me a voice, to build an audience. You know all the things marketing speak that we could talk about, and I don't know that that's particularly important. I think what's important was just how challenging it felt and, in the end, at the end of the day, how simple it really was to just hit record.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for sharing that and I mean I'm just I'm so grateful to be like a small piece of your journey and to you know, you have kind of been brought into the fold and hung out with us and I'm again just grateful to be part of your journey.
Speaker 1:But I actually want to go back to a question that I don't know that we really talked about before, but a lot of questions that I get asked today, which you know 2019 was a different, you know, like environment of how, like technologies come so far in just a few years and how I think it's easier than ever to start a podcast in 2025 than it was in 2019. But did you ever, along the way, ask yourself should I start a blog? Should I start a podcast? Should I start a YouTube channel, because I still get this question all the time or should I just have social media? Should I just have an email list? Is that something that was a decision you made on your journey? Or you were like, oh, I think I should have a podcast, I'm just going to start a podcast.
Speaker 2:You know it's so funny because I think we connect on that particular topic. I've heard your story before. I won't steal your thunder, of course, but I had been trying to figure out blogging. Like I knew what blogging was, I knew how to do the technical aspects of blogging. That was actually pretty simple to figure out. What was hard to figure out was putting my words in writing, and so what attracted me to podcasting and I think this is where it ties back to your story is the ability to use my voice instead of my writing, and that just that created a whole different set of problems. I'll just throw that out there now we can talk about it. But you know that it seemed much easier than sitting down to write on a blank page.
Speaker 1:And it's. I love that you share this, because we do have that in common, 100%. I was like, oh my gosh, I could just talk. This is I can just hit record and start talking. This is incredible, but I was. I was recently. I just wrote today's newsletter about this too. I mean, this is coming out way later than when we're recording today, but I was just talking to someone about this.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear what those other challenges were, because I hear this all the time when it comes to someone who is just recording their very first podcast episode. And they're like Crystal, I've spoken on stages, I've been on all these different platforms speaking in front of people, like with physical people in the room, like looking at me, staring at me. Yeah, I'm sweating, but I did it and it's amazing. But why, when I sit in my office or my room or in my closet to record with just a microphone, why do I feel so anxious, so awkward, like my palms are sweating and I'm like? I'm just like. Why is it such a thing? So I would love to know your take on some of those challenges you had when you first started trying to record yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, let me caveat that a little bit and say that I had previously done interviews in person, and so when I started, I started a little bit opposite of what many people I hear start out, and I went straight interview based, because that made it easy for me to talk to people and record it. And now what stopped me or what gave me chills or made my palms sweaty wasn't anything to do with that or the process. It was hearing my own voice on a recording. I couldn't stand it. What I've learned, you know, talking to many other people, is that there's a large percentage of the population that, if they record their voice, experience that same feeling, and so that that was probably one of experience, that same feeling, and so that was probably one of the biggest challenges up front. The next one was, of course, solo. Content was intimidating to me, probably for the same reasons that writing was intimidating to me. It was okay, well, what am I going to write about? Okay, now what am I going to?
Speaker 1:talk about. I'm sitting here thinking about what it's like to edit your own podcast and exactly what you're saying. It's like you're listening to it, even if it's an interview, and we are so gracious to our guests. We're like oh my gosh, they're crushing it. This is incredible. They sound amazing. And then, the minute it turns to our own voice, we're like oh, you sound like an idiot. Why did you say um? Seven times? Like, we just turn into our own worst critic immediately.
Speaker 1:So thank you for sharing that, because I think that that is where a lot of people do, because, like you said, a great amount of the population, I believe, suffers from that, and I think it's one of those things that we should talk about more that you're not alone. Like, if you don't like your voice, it's okay, I didn't like my voice, dan didn't like his voice. Like, you're in good company here. Like, just hang out with us and we'll help you push through that. Because how do you feel today? Like, so now you've had multiple podcasts, you've recorded a lot, do you still edit your own podcast, or is that something that you outsource?
Speaker 2:No, I still edit all of my own and I'll tell you a secret, crystal you might like, this is I do very little editing and I say that on purpose because I think I've seen so many people in different communities talking about this topic and how many hours they invest in editing and it's like I don't want to do that and if I get to that point I'll absolutely outsource it. But I do very little editing and I've learned just to be comfortable with what I put out. There is okay for now and I continue to work on steady improvement.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're in the same boat, like we're 100% in the same boat. You taught me that, yeah, but that's the thing it's like. I don't think you would be sitting here today having how many episodes do you think hundreds of episodes under your belt that you've recorded over the years. What would be your guess?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm at least close to 500 overall. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think about if you hadn't just started or gotten so caught up with it like you might still be, like so many of our dear listeners, like I love y'all. This is my tough love to you is you're sitting there so hard on yourself, or you're so anxious that you know your voice doesn't sound great, or I hate the sound of my voice and you continue to not publish the things that you're recording and it just breaks my heart because, man, if you could just get it out there, get it out into the world, dan, and I can promise you like it gets so much easier, so much easier. So, with such a milestone, like what was the one where you finally felt like, oh, I'm a podcaster or, oh, I found my stride, is there a specific milestone that you hit that you're like, okay, I got this, like I can do this?
Speaker 2:You know that is such a great question and I don't have a specific episode or a specific time period. It's been actually fairly recently. I went through this journey of self-discovery and I was dead set on doing a bunch of things against the grain, but it was on purpose. So I'll share briefly. I started a podcast.
Speaker 2:The intent was simply to be a solo podcast because I wanted to challenge myself in that creative space that I had struggled with, and I also did it intentionally, not to grow it, intentionally not to do all of the things that you might hear people telling you you have to do or should do with a podcast. My only focus for the podcast was to intentionally continuously be in touch with the creative process, produce and publish, and if it benefited somebody, that was wonderful. Well, that led me to where I'm at now and so that, I would say, was more of a catalyst than anything for actually feeling like I'm a podcaster and I'm doing something with intention that is, a creative product, whereas before it felt businessy, it felt like I was doing things but not for the right reasons, and so I would say that it wasn't really aligned with me from that perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I love that we're getting into the nitty gritty of this, because that actually makes me think about there's a lot of people listening that do have a business component tied to their podcast and they constantly ask me how do you bridge that gap where it doesn't feel so salesy or you're not making a pitch in every single episode but you're making deeper connections with your audience? Is there a happy balance that you found in your episodes? Are you still just showing up and you know, recording with intention and just saying what's on your heart, like how does your podcast play into your larger business model?
Speaker 2:So that's a great question. I'm I'm a coach and I coach by invitation and referral Typically. You know that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like creating new connections and I look at my podcast and everything else that I do is an opportunity to create potential connections and you know you never an opportunity to create potential connections and you know you never know where those conversations may lead. So that's my focus for all of the things that I'm doing, to include the podcast. And the distinction here is, before I was actually doing a lot of things focused on the external potential, like I need to create sales or want to create sales, or I want to create a client from this, and it just well, like I said, it never felt aligned.
Speaker 2:And so this, this is more in alignment with what I'm doing and why I'm doing all of them. So what I really want to do is speak from where I'm at and what's on my heart and mind, to share and be happy with what I'm putting out there myself first and just show up as who I am and who it is that well, I want you to see me for and I'm careful how I say that because I'm not faking it this is who I am. This is what you get If you decide to hire me as your coach. This is who you get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do you find it's easier to record your content to coming at it from that capacity?
Speaker 2:So much easier just to sit down and hit record and, and we'll call it get into that flow Right and, and I I have to have it. I used to do a lot of free flow stuff without a script, without the bullet points. I had my talking points in my head, I knew what I wanted to communicate and I would just hit record and talk. Well, now I have to be really careful, so I at least have bullet points. Sometimes I script certain things and that's just to keep me on track script certain things, and that's just to keep me on track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I hear that, and I think that if I look back over my journey, I think that there was a time where it was like two bullet points, and then there was time where it was like fully scripted. And now I have like it's funny because I have a very detailed script, but I only like work off of some of it Sorry, not a script, a bullet point very detailed list of bullet points. But even then, like I'm looking at it and I'm like can tell in the moment, like that doesn't feel right, like I just skipped over things. So I don't know if it's the format of it. It's kind of like a safety blanket. It's like, well, it's there in case I need it. But I'm just really going off of that important message that I'm trying to communicate and it sounds like that's probably what you do, that's exactly, and I've gone through all of those iterations as well.
Speaker 2:I've you know, I've tried it all just to find here. Here's right. What comes out of all that for me is you're talking is the biggest thing is find out what works for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so now you have is your current show. Well, first of all, tell us the name of your current show, because I know you just launched it. As of us recording this, it just launched recently, so tell us what the name of your show is and how often you're producing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question and this is perfectly timed, I think, and here I am holding myself accountable. Now Watch this. So it's called the Unbreakable Mission and it's designed to. Well, my focus is to help entrepreneurs, coaches, leaders build resilience and eliminate excuses so that they can focus on, you know, execution. And right now it's a weekly show. I publish on Tuesdays, but as of this morning, I have recorded a batch of episodes I'm going to publish as bonus episodes. That will be a daily five-minute, maybe three-minute segment. It's kind of a mindset kickstart for the day.
Speaker 1:I love it, I love it, and so those are your daily episodes, or five minutes? How long are your current episodes that you're doing?
Speaker 2:So right now they're between like 10 and 20 minutes. I did an interview with a good friend of mine who's a Navy SEAL two weeks ago roughly from at the time of this recording it was about two weeks ago and that one was about 45 minutes. The interviews will be a little longer.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. And so this is what I really want to hone in on, because I get this question a lot, that I think people get so wrapped up and like I have to just hit that record button and talk for X amount of minutes, and I think that it's really constricting and confining of like, okay, I have to just talk, it doesn't matter if it's good or bad, I just have to. It's almost like a. I think some people think of podcasts as like radio shows. Right, because some of these bigger shows are produced in that manner where it's like it's going to be 30 minutes long, like from zero seconds to 29, 99, like you know whatever, 59, I guess there's not 99. There's not a hundred seconds in a minute.
Speaker 1:Crystal, you should know this. But you get what I'm saying, like people just like they hit record and they're looking at that clock and they're just like, oh my gosh, like I have to just talk for 30 minutes and I think it's so important for us to talk about that you don't have to have this like really dead set amount. So I'm curious for you, like in the different podcast formats that you've recorded, like, how did you settle on what? What's going to be like the average show length for you.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I have settled Crystal, I think that's great, that's great, that's even better. What do I have to say today?
Speaker 1:Okay, I love it.
Speaker 2:And how long is that going to take me? Now, the three to five minute segments I've intentionally set that to be something that's quickly and easily consumable in conjunction with the regular content that comes out weekly the regular content that comes out weekly. So, uh, and interviews, I mean, I would tell you my experience has led me to. I love to do interviews and hear these stories from people, so those tend to go longer and 30 minutes for me was a good number to shoot for. Often I go over that and I'm okay with it. It's there's no set time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, Okay, I love this. I love it and I want to we're. I feel like I'm experimenting with your show now, Dan, cause I'm like I want to know all the things.
Speaker 1:I'm like doing deep, my deep dive research on this, because I'm sitting here thinking about okay, we've talked about, you know, solo. We talked about time, we've talked about interviews, and I'm so curious because we actually had to do this, like I had. I don't even remember what happened when we we had to reschedule our initial call and I was like I'm so sorry, I need to reschedule, and it's one of those things that I don't think a lot of people that sign up to have an interview show really think through or think about that. When you do interview shows, you are at the mercy of your guest's calendar. If they have an emergency that pops up, they have to reschedule. Maybe when they reschedule it's months in advance and sometimes that can really throw off, kind of, maybe what you had planned, or now it's like, oh my gosh, now I don't have you know like all these weird things happen. So I'm curious on your journey, have you run into some of those things and do you have any personal stories to tell about? Maybe interview scheduling gone wrong?
Speaker 2:I don't want to say interviews gone wrong, because I'm sure all of your interviews have been fantastic, but yeah, I would like to say that all of my interviews have gone fantastic and I think, generally speaking, that's a safe bet. But you know that I'm not the one that gets to decide that right, it's the people that listen to those interviews and they get to determine for themselves. But have I gone to bad experiences? No, I don't know that. I had any interview scheduling stories to share per se. I will say something you just said and I don't want to, you know, challenge you too much on your own show.
Speaker 2:But what I have learned for me is it's very good to protect our boundary, and so if there is a conflict in scheduling as far as getting a guest, that I and I'll make exceptions. Let me just put that up front, right, Especially depending on who the guest is. And you know, if there's a dream guest that I'm having the opportunity to bring on to the show, I'm probably going to allow my boundaries to flex a lot, Right, but I like to set the boundary that, hey, here's the times that I'm available and I give people options, but I don't want to record at night, I don't want to record on the weekend. I have other commitments and priorities in my life and if that's not going to work for my guests, then I have accepted that that may not be an ideal guest at that time. Again, there's some exceptions, right? If you know, I would say you know, I don't know, I'll just leave that one that's great.
Speaker 1:No, this is great, and I don't think that we've really talked too much about this on the show, but everything you know, everything that we're talking about here in this conversation is again from two friends have known each other for a long time and have seen all the different ins and outs of podcasting, but it's really also the the pieces that I think that we should talk about, because I do hear so many people man, I just hear this community of podcasters being so hard on themselves, and that's why I really wanted you to come on, dan, because I think that you do such a good job.
Speaker 1:One, you're a great cheerleader, like cheering other people and motivating others in our community, so thank you so much for that. This is my opportunity just to have a brag fest on you. Thank you so much for doing. This is my opportunity just to have a brag fest on you. Thank you so much for doing that and championing others' journeys. But the other piece is I think you're very practical in how you don't let some of the nuances and probably because you're a coach and you've had all this training and like really looking at problems from a different perspective, and I think that if you're to talk to Dan from 2019. That was just getting started and, knowing the things that you know today, what kind of advice would you give yourself?
Speaker 2:I would say you know, don't get wrapped up in all of the what could be and all the fancy tools. That's honestly. That's the one thing that's kept me excited about. It is, I have not allowed myself to get wrapped up in all that. Now I love tech and I love automations and I love technical problem solving. In fact, at that time, that's what my business was based around, was problem solving tech stuff, and it's really easy for me to go down that rabbit hole. But it's also really easy to get stopped in your tracks when you allow yourself to go down those rabbit holes. So my advice to me then would be don't get trapped in those cycles of here's what everybody else is saying you're supposed to do. Yeah, I'll give you a great example. Can I do that?
Speaker 1:For sure, we love examples.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so right now and you may be, I'm sure you're familiar there is a a big controversy in the podcasting world about what is a podcast. In fact, I just listened to a short mini series on that, which I'll share in our community, in your community. But uh, it's fascinating, Video or audio, and is it still a podcast? It doesn't matter where you sit on that topic. What's most important is what's comfortable for you. Where are you at in this journey? And just because everybody else is doing it, for me, this is how I live my life. If everyone else is doing it, then do I really want to do it?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I think that leaves opportunity. You know, if everyone else is going to video, everyone is probably a strong word, but there's a lot of people moving to video or video first, and there's nothing wrong with that. But that leaves plenty of opportunity for audio only. Yeah, so I'm staying at the moment with audio only. Now I'm been reflecting on that for a bit and I'm going to be producing video, but not in conjunction. It's not going to be simulcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay, this is so good Cause that was actually going to be my next question. So you, you beat me to it, you cheated. Dan. You looked at my paper and you saw that I was going to ask you are you doing video and audio? But I mean, you just answered so audio only. And I love this, and this is where I actually was recording something recently, and it was just audio and I was like I miss these days.
Speaker 1:I literally had that feeling, because now, when I'm recording, it's a totally different monster. I mean, even while we're recording here, I'm like Crystal, look down the barrel of the camera so people can see your eyes when you're talking and make sure you have your light. Exactly, make sure you have your light, make sure you know no one forgets to like like there's just like weird cloud coverage or something going on, like there's all these extra elements of tech, of environment that you have to think about when you're on video. And I'll be really honest for those of you that are watching the video of this yeah, exactly, dan, just turned off the lights. I thought like a blue light was about to come on and you're going to have all these fun stickers on your walls or something.
Speaker 1:But I have this calendar right behind me and it's so funny, so I'm going to call this out just because this is, you know, for those of you on audio only, sorry, you're going to have to go to YouTube to see this, but I have.
Speaker 1:This is my actual, like working yearly calendar and I put it up and almost immediately was like oh, it's kind of ugly it's. It's not great, but for me it's functional and it's practical and I don't want to have to turn the camera to like I'm comfortable. So back to the you do you and what's comfortable for you. Like I'm sorry if my calendar behind me offends someone and it isn't the perfect like influencer setup to record a podcast, but Dan and I are on the same page, like whenever it comes to what a definition of a podcast is or what it should be. I'm totally on the same page.
Speaker 1:As like do what works best for you, do where you feel the most comfortable, because then you're going to be more likely to show up and, on that note, like this was a perfect segue showing up. Have you had, in all of your years of trials and tribulations with all your different podcasts? Has there been a time where you're like oh, I don't know that I'm cut out for this, or maybe you felt burned out or you kind of stepped away for a little bit and then came back. Is there anything that you have there to relate to?
Speaker 2:We could spend the rest of the day talking about that Crystal Perfect, by the way. I meant to say thank you for the compliments earlier and I failed to do that. So I'm thanking you and for what you've done for podcasters as a whole and the message you continue to share. So it's been a great journey and that's probably the biggest takeaway is it is a journey and you know when you can embrace it as that and it doesn't have these external rewards which I mentioned earlier that you have to receive in order to be comfortable and happy with what you're doing, then it can go all kinds of ways. But yes, to answer your question, in my business, in my podcasting, in all of it, I have quit a number of times and said that's it. I don't think I'm cut out for this and you know, have moved on. Like I took two years out of lots of things and I still had podcasting. I was doing, but I took a good bit of time off of that too, almost two years off, because I was doing. But I took a good bit of time off of that too, almost two years off, because I was just fed up and it felt like it wasn't for me and then I came back because everything I do continues to circle me back to the two things that I have found I really enjoy, and it's teaching, coaching, training, mentoring. We'll wrap that up in one little umbrella. And then, how can I deliver that in a way that allows me to share what's on my heart and mind without having to go travel around the world every day and do that every day? It's a podcast.
Speaker 2:A podcast is an easy way to do that, and video content whatever is comfortable for you, and even I'll tell you there's one. So video let's talk about video in particular. This is not podcast specific, but I did. I don't remember it was 2018, 2019 time frame, and I had decided I want to do more video, I want to learn to be comfortable doing video, or more comfortable anyway, and so I set out to do a series of live daily, like daily live streams, and I started showing up every morning at the same time and gosh, I did not know what I was going to talk about at first and I was that talk about palm sweaty when you first click record on or go live on.
Speaker 2:The time it was Facebook and that was intimidating, but I showed up anyway. And then a week went by and I don't think anybody had shown up. I didn't get any real traction from it, and that's the moment that I can remember going wow, maybe I can just stop here, this isn't for me, and I just decided then to keep going. Wow, maybe I can just stop here, this isn't for me, and I just decided then to keep going to try it anyway. And it's so fascinating what happened. I started coming up with things to talk about in the moment, without any real thought beforehand or any planning, any of those things that you might think of and it became much easier to show up and I can't say I'm good at video by any means, but it certainly felt a lot better each day that I showed up, and when people started to engage, it made it even better. So hopefully that matches.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's no. This is so good. And, again, this is why I wanted you to come on the show and share about your journey, because I was listening to a stat the other day and they were talking about the amount of people that you know what, because you and I are in this podcasting space and everyone listening is probably, if they're not already in this space, they're curious about creating content in some capacity. And they were saying that you know, of all the influencers, all the podcasters, all the YouTubers, it's still only a really small portion of the world's population that are willing to put themselves out there. And I'm happy to say that you know you and I are, and our listeners, like they, are in that population that are willing to take that risk and put themselves out there.
Speaker 1:And I think that once you do it and you realize, oh okay, like I didn't die, you know I didn't die, like going live didn't kill me, you know going putting, hitting, publish on my podcast, like I'm still here today, and so I think it's super encouraging to think about.
Speaker 1:You know, the ability that we have to do what we do in our day and age and connect with people in such a meaningful way. So, with. That being said, I want to think about your podcast and you know just kind of your journey as a coach and how you've connected with people over time. I want to hear has there been like an instance maybe you could share a story of maybe some great feedback that you got on a specific episode, or maybe an email that you received from someone like because I don't think that we talk enough about that. I think people feel if they share that on their own show, sometimes they're being braggy or whatever, and I'm like no, no, no, no, no. I want y'all to champion your own content, and so I just want to kind of give you the floor to brag on yourself a little bit, dan.
Speaker 2:I want to hear some good stories. Yeah Well, it's so again. How timely is that question in that we have this today? Because actually just last night I received probably the best accolade for my podcast that I could have received and it did open my eyes to some things I want to be intentional about.
Speaker 2:So I don't have it in front of me, but I got a message last night from a young lady who we connected and it was kind of funny how we connected. We connected over on LinkedIn and I had put something out there and she immediately sent me a connection request that I couldn't deny because of what I had posted something out there and she immediately sent me a connection request that I couldn't deny because of what I had posted. It was like, hey, I want to connect or something to that effect. But anyway, she admitted in this message that at first she was very hesitant to listen or feel like she would even connect with me because I use the word extreme ownership. But then she said she did go ahead and listen to my episode and was pleasantly surprised that I was very approachable in my delivery of the message and she even listened to an interview that I had just talked about earlier and said she felt the same thing resonating in those episodes, that it wasn't extreme ownership in the Gary V style of hustle and grind until you can't take anything else anymore, and that's not good for your health, it's not good for your mind, it's not good for your body or soul, and I don't want to communicate that message, but I wanted you know.
Speaker 2:She said exactly what I'm trying to communicate, which was the best message I could have received, and it was something to the effect of it's about owning who you are and owning self-love in order to be able to do the things that you most want to do. And when you can get the alignment on that, the excuses go away, they're eliminated, the resilience starts building, like you hoped it would or like you want it to, and the execution becomes so much easier because now you're focused on what's most important in your life, in your business, in your purpose, and it's not about grinding until you can't move anymore. And so that message was just yesterday, as we're recording this, and that's been the best experience. Now I will say two other things, if it's all right.
Speaker 1:Go ahead.
Speaker 2:The first thing I would say would be if you've done it, is it really bragging? And I know that's probably debatable, but I've started to adopt that as a philosophy of sorts. Right, if I've done it, then it's up to me whether I share it or not. And if I don't share it, what am I hiding from? And it's my perception of what other people may think, but I want to be proud of the things that I've done. Those wins mean a lot to me. Why wouldn't I want to share that with other people? So that's the first one.
Speaker 2:And then I heard something yesterday actually, and it was. And then I heard something yesterday actually, and it was yesterday was a good day. But yesterday I heard you know, assume that everybody wants what you have. And I really liked hearing that for so many different reasons, because that allows me, when I'm questioning myself, to just show up and with that assumption, even if it's wrong, if I can show up with that assumption, it changes how things are delivered, how things might be perceived, and we can feel good about what we're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'm sitting here thinking about you're living close to the beach, dan Like I mean it's full circle. Back to what we said earlier. I'm like it's and it's so true, like it's it's so such great wisdom in, uh, in a way that again is like it's very grounding, it's very humble, and I think that you are so deserving. I think about you know, the young woman that you said that had sent this message to you. I feel like she probably almost gave you back the message that you had put out. You know, through your content, and I'm sure that's very validating that maybe I'm on the right track Is that is that kind of how it felt for you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, even above and beyond that, it was just incredible. That was again. That's probably the best message I could have ever received and I've received accolades and you know I've gotten a few reviews over time and I do a good job of trying to share that, you know, publicly recognizing and thanking people for leaving that review, because that does mean a lot. It means that I'm saying something that someone else can benefit from, right, and it doesn't matter to me you might have heard me say this before, crystal, but whether it's one person or a thousand people, if I can positively impact the life of one other person, then that's exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome. Oh my gosh, dan, I feel like we could talk about all of these topics and just your show and your journey like forever. But this has been so incredible, before we move into our rapid fire questions that we like to ask everybody I'm just so curious with because I know recently, you know in our community we had gone through an audit and you know we were kind of looking at your show and all the new things that you're going to do. How do you feel about this podcast today versus previous ones? Do you feel like it's most aligned with what you really want to do? What specifically about it are you most excited about?
Speaker 2:Well, the answer is yes. The answer is yes first of all and I'll say this one has been interesting because it was walking on the beach and it was only feels like only a few weeks ago. It's probably been almost two months now since this started developing, but you know, for a long time I've been in the coaching space. I've been coaching since 2010,. Technically and gosh, I'm old but I have often been challenged.
Speaker 2:Dan, you're a military veteran. You have a natural ability to connect with people, which took me a long time to accept, also, by the way but beyond that, you have a natural ability, or at least an in, if you will, with military veterans. Why aren't you focusing on them? And I had every excuse, and lots of them. The truth is, it just never felt right to me, and I kind of go with a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of gut instinct. If it doesn't feel right, then I'm not in alignment somewhere, I'm not doing it, and so I try to find that balance. So I was walking on the beach about two months ago. I like to go and watch the sunset in the morning.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful.
Speaker 2:Dan Sunrise in the mornings and just think that's a great place to clear and ground and reset for the day and all the things. One of those culmination-style podcasts with different motivational speeches, and I heard a gentleman named David Goggins. He's a Navy SEAL, he's an extreme athlete. He said something profound that resonated with me anyway, and it was this idea that all of the strength that he experienced in training with the SEAL teams was found in that shared struggle, the common struggle that bonded these people in training. For some reason, that stuck out to me and I went over to my friend, chat GPT, and I plugged it in there and said how can I bring more of that feeling to my coaching? Because that's what I'd been searching for.
Speaker 2:I felt like I'd been searching for a long time and that was the connect the dots piece for me was that military experience, without specifically looking to work with military veterans. I won't turn them away, but that's not my. I don't just specifically look for military veterans to work with. They have some of the right things, but there's other pieces that come into who I most want to work with. And anyway, long story short, that piece is what resonated with me, that's what allowed me to connect the dots and start building this mission.
Speaker 2:Disguised as a podcast it's actually, I said to you before we recorded this more like a community disguised as a podcast, and there's much more to come in my mind and in what I've envisioned for this, but the message is really honing in on what's most aligned for me and how I can bring more of those experiences that I kind of feel like I'd been hiding from the public. So that's what this is about now and, combining all those pieces, it definitely feels more aligned than anything else I've done and it's much more fun because of the intentional experiences that I've chosen, like the solo podcast, and it didn't fuel specifically like it was the thing when I was doing it, but I was intent on doing it and what I learned from it has been rewarding, because now I'm focused on how can I make sure that this is fun, how can I make sure this is something I can sustain, and if it's not the external pieces that I talked about earlier, it's the mission that I'm driven by. That's what's going to keep me.
Speaker 1:I love this and I love the community disguised as a podcast. Like I love it, I'm not going to steal it. Dan, I want to steal it. I'm not going to steal it because I'm just like, oh, it's so good, like it's one of those that it just it hits right and it just feels really awesome. So I am so excited about your next journey and again, we're gonna have links to Dan's new podcast. It's the Unbreakable Mission and I'm super excited to see you know what the update will be in the next six to 12 months of where the show goes. So that's gonna be so much fun. But we are going to transition now into our rapid fire questions. So are you ready for these?
Speaker 2:I don't know, let's do it.
Speaker 1:We'll see, we'll see, we'll see. Okay, so the first one is what piece of advice would you give to a brand new podcaster or content creator?
Speaker 2:Tune out all the noise, just hit record, publish it and work on steady improvement.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. Succinct to the point. So good, so good. Okay, the next one's a two-part question, and it is what is the dream podcast you would love to be on and who is your dream podcast guest you would love to interview?
Speaker 2:I have heard this question so many times and I have thought about it and you're not prepared. No, that's a really hard one for me because I mean I have learned. I'll share this, crystal, I hope it's okay. I have learned that anything I've ever wanted if I learn to ask and ask the right people through relationships or whatever right, those things come to fruition, yeah. And so it's really hard for me to say, well, that's my dream podcast, because if it were, I'd probably already be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That said, I'd love to just sit down and pick the brains of some people Like I don't know, I don't, I've never watched his show, I'm just maybe that's terrible. Joe Rogan, he's very. Why does he have such a popular podcast? So I'd love to sit down with him and ask him that question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love it, I love it. Okay, my last question is do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
Speaker 2:Ooh, I would say I'm more of a recovering perfectionist.
Speaker 1:In good company, very much in good company around here. Dan knows that too. I am so grateful to have you on the show and to share so much about all the incredible things that you're doing. Where can people learn more about you and hang out with you and listen to your show?
Speaker 2:Well, you can find me on social media. I think we can manage to get some links out there, but, dan Warheide, I won't spell it, we'll make sure it's where it's supposed to be. But you can find me on social. You can find the show at podcastunbreakablemissioncom and through that, of course, you can find out all the other ways that you can connect with me, and I'd love to have you in community with me. I'd love to be connected, so absolutely feel free to reach out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you're part of our Podcasters Connect community, make sure you ping Dan there If you have questions or you're interested in coaching, like reach out to him. He's available on the platform there too and you can. I'm saying this hopefully you're okay with that, dan, but I'm like reach out to him there, send him a DM, say where's your application. I want to coach with you and reach out to Dan that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to say, Crystal, I'm so excited for the work that you do for people. I love to be in community and I don't think we mentioned it, but I remember at one point I was like the token male in your community.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes you are. You are again been around for a while and I remember at one point you were just like am I the only guy here at all?
Speaker 2:remember at one point you were just like am I the only guy here at all? Which is completely fine, because I was learning. You were teaching great. You're an outstanding teacher and have been a wonderful resource over the years, which is why I am definitely still here and I'll be submitting this new show for review soon.
Speaker 1:So perfect, awesome, awesome. Well, likewise, dan, like I'm so grateful to have you as part of our community. Everyone, please go check out Dan's new show and connect with him, and thank you so much for being here with me today, dan. This was so much fun.
Speaker 2:Absolutely my pleasure.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope that that felt like you were just sitting in on a coffee talk with old friends, because that's exactly how it felt. I am so grateful for Dan coming on the show today and sharing about his journey and sharing those pieces that I know are going to help so many of you understand a little bit more about the journey. When you're stuck in those decisions of you know, should I pivot left or go right, like what's the next phase of my journey gonna look like? And I just so much appreciate Dan sharing his story and his journey. But if this is your first time tuning in, make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you are listening and watching today and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.
