Uploaded and Unfiltered: Conversations about Personal Growth, Mindsets, and Advice with BIPOC Creators for Creators

Analyzing and Changing Behaviors to Achieve Goals

• Jermaine Pulliam • Season 1 • Episode 49

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Imagine taking a break so transformative that it breathes new life into your creative passion. In this special solo episode of "Uploaded and Unfiltered," I, Jermaine, share the unexpected benefits of disconnecting from work and embracing nature, as experienced during my recent family trip to Washington. Discover how stepping away from your routine can rejuvenate your creativity, provide invaluable new perspectives, and prevent burnout. I'll walk you through my journey of aligning current actions with future goals, highlighting the power of setting clear intentions to achieve growth and reach larger audiences.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of uploaded and unfiltered, the podcast of which I, your host Jermaine, interviews another content creator in regards to their journey thus far. Today is going to be a special episodes because it is a solo episode. I will be regaling you with tales of why it's good for you to take a break. I know that on this podcast, we offer a lot of insights into the mind of creators, as well as some advice for those who are either thinking about becoming content creators or whoever started and just like to gain more knowledge about the craft. One of those things that a lot of people say is make sure that you take breaks. Taking breaks on the surface main reason is it prevents burnout, but there are a lot of benefits to taking breaks, especially long breaks, and a lot of benefits that pop up that I didn't even think about until this last week, where me and the family actually headed up to Washington and basically hiked all trips. It was amazing, it was super fun, but it opened my eyes to another a few reasons why you should take a break, and I want to share that stuff with you today. So get your drinks, sit back, relax. It's going to be a quick one, but it's going to be an important one, so stay tuned. So, first up, as we all know, and if you didn't, taking a break is very beneficial, especially when you are doing something that you are very passionate about, something that you are having fun doing and something that you would do for free. But when you are met with something like that, where your free time and work time start to blend together, you it's very important for you to take a break. One reason so you don't burn out yes, you might love what you're doing now, but we all get to the point where maybe you've been streaming for, let's say, two years straight. You haven't really taken a real break from it. It gets daunting Not even daunting is not the right word. It gets taxing. You don't want to talk, to chat all the time, you don't want to put your camera on, you don't feel like playing this game that you've been playing for the last six months. You just want to chill, and that's a normal feeling, especially when you haven't taken a break. Taking a break will give you a chance to not only revitalize your love and want for the craft that you're doing, but it also gives you an opportunity to come up with new ideas or look at your content in a different light.

Speaker 1:

I think, one thing that I realized while we were on this trip and, by the way, check out my tick tock the pictures and videos are coming soon the scenery that we saw on this trip was mind-blowing. It was awe-inspiring and it made me. It just gave me energy. I was never a dude. I used to hate going out in nature Bugs, the heat, the weather, the smell but on this trip I was like in zen. I wasn't worried about bugs, I was enjoying the climate and I kid you not everything that we saw was just like this is real, this is real life. Places like this exist. Did you know there's a rainforest in the united states? I had no idea until my wife put me onto it and I gotta say you should, uh, you should, invest some time and head out there and check it out for yourself. It was a fun time. But while I was out there, it just, let me think, no distractions. Most of the time we didn't have a cell phone signal and even if we did, the only time I was using my phone was to videotape stuff. Other than that, I was present in tune with what was going on, but it led me to this thought that I had. It makes so much sense. I wanted to share it with everybody.

Speaker 1:

If we continue to do the same things, wanting something more, wanting to have a bigger audience or have a bigger reach, or reach people that we know need to see and hear our content, if we want those things, doing the same thing is not going to get us there. Doing the same patterns, going through the same routine, is only going to cause you to stay in that same rut, stay in that same position. In order to move forward, in order to get those amazing things that we want out of life, we have to change our behaviors. We have to change our routines. I'm not saying every day, do something different. I'm not saying everything needs to change. I'm saying just analyze what you're doing right now. Think about what you want. Set that as your ultimate intention, ultimate goal. Make sure, when you're doing that, don't say stupid shit like I don't want to have to work anymore. That's a weird thing to say.

Speaker 1:

Say I want to have a community of 10,000 that are very intertwined and think and see the world as I see it, and the feeling of having that is going to be amazing because I know I'm going to have a community that once I have an idea or if I need to talk about something, get it off my chest. I can just go straight to them and they will understand. I don't have to think that I'm the only person in the world who thinks like this and suffer these thoughts to myself. No, I'm going to share those with a community that is waiting for that content, that is salivating for that content. Set an intention like that and then start looking at what you're doing. Are you moving the right way to get to that end goal? Is the process you have set up right now going to sustain the life that you want in the future, that community that you want in the future? If no, then start thinking about how you would move if you already had that community, and maybe some of those things you can start implementing now.

Speaker 1:

I know we like to wait and play the waiting game and hope and dream that something's going to pop, but in reality, if we don't make the moves, if we don't change what we're doing, that's just not happening. We can wait until we're blue in the face, even though honestly, I don't think I can get this. I hate that saying. I don't even know why I said it. I am incapable of being blue in the face, but you know what I'm saying. If we just sit there and wait, it's not going to happen. So I encourage everybody out there look at your processes, look at what you're creating.

Speaker 1:

After you, think about what you truly want out of this and I know we don't want to make money, but think past that. Don't think about wanting money. Think about the things you would do when you have money. I want to be able to go on trips with my family, while having to check in with a boss to see if I could do it, and just go. And while we're on this trip, we're going to be staying in expensive hotels, eating whatever we want, buying anything that we want, because that makes us happy. Notice, I didn't say anything about making a lot of money or securing a bag and all that fun stuff. No, this is the feelings in the life that I envisioned for myself and this is how I want to feel when I get it. Those things encourage us, encourage their subconscious, encourage us as people. Those things encourage us more to start making those hard decisions, start making headway into those challenges we think are impossible to tackle.

Speaker 1:

The amount of people that I see, uh, and I'll say this, I have a great eye for potential energy. I can see somebody's content, I can see how they're moving, I can see their persona, I can see how they're acting and can tell, oh, this person is going to be big. They just need to want it enough. They need to. I mean, they just need to have the right intention, the right stick to chase after, and once they start making those moves, yeah, they're going to get to a spot and they're going to be huge.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people that I hang out with, a lot of people that I interact with in the creative space, all have that potential. And I'm not saying that Well, you know what. I am saying that because they hang around me, because I have cultivated a certain type of people that I want to be around, that I want to share my energy with, and those people are the type of people that would do amazing in any venue, any platform that they're on, as long as they have the right mindset. And I see that in them and that's why I befriend them, that's why we talk to each other, like if you look at my circle, and my circle is huge, bigger than I actually thought it was. But if you see the people I interact with most, all of those people are talented. You can't look at none of the people I rock with and say, man, that person sucks at X, y and Z, it's not. No, I don't hang out with people that suck and I try to keep my circle as tight as possible because, along with taking a break, making sure that you're surrounded around people who have the same vision as you, as you in any aspect, is very beneficial, and I think it makes the load of making these fundamental changes in ourselves a little easier.

Speaker 1:

When you're going through something with other people, it makes that thing a little easier to carry. So take those breaks. So take those breaks. Make sure that hell, make sure that you have at least one day out of the week that you're not doing anything, because, if you're like me, you always have content, ideas on the brain, you always have something you can edit, you always have something that you can shoot and because you love doing it, it's not a thing to do it. Luckily, my wife is very good at keeping me focused, like she knows, like I'm not saying that she tells me not to work, but she knows if I'm working too hard and if I'm saying, oh man, I should take a break or I should do this thing that's fun. She encourages 100%. She doesn't know if I'm slacking off or how long I've been working, but she knows my work ethic and she knows how I get when I'm in that mood. So if I mentioned taking a break, she encourages that and I love her for that. That shit is crucial. Shit is amazing. We got to take those breaks.

Speaker 1:

Make sure, when you're thinking about that future again, not only think about what you want as far as not monetized, but the, the energy that's going to be at your disposal once you get it. What feeling did you want to feel once you have that? A simple example of this is you remember when you were younger? I might then this I'm gonna go ahead and say this now. This is not for everybody, so if you didn't feel this feeling, I'm sorry. You had a shitty child. I'm just but that feeling of the morning, uh, the night before christmas where you're like I cannot wait to open these gifts, and you know that exact feeling you're gonna have when you open those gifts. You don't know what you got. But you just know the joy of the surprise. Or you know the joy of handing out gifts and seeing the joy in the people that you're giving gifts to. You know that feeling. You look forward to that feeling. Invoke that same principle with everything that you want out of life. I've said this example before, but it's my most powerful example I can think of for myself, because it hit home for me so hard and I can't deny it, because it fucking happened.

Speaker 1:

My entire life, up until a certain point, I would always say I'm not a runner, I hate running, running. What's the point? I'm not getting chased. Why am I running? I played basketball in high school. I wasn't the slowest, but I mean I wasn't the. I'm not getting chased, why am I running? I played basketball in high school. I wasn't the slowest, but I mean I wasn't the fastest either and I hated every minute of it.

Speaker 1:

So when I decided to want to run a 5K a month, like on the surface that sounded crazy, but I wanted to try. I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to see if something I told myself my entire life was not possible. I wanted to see if I could make it possible. I'm going to say that again, something I told myself that was impossible. There's no way I'm going to be able to run a 15 K. There's no way I'm going to be able to run a half marathon. These are things I used to say out loud Impossible shit. I want to see. Is it possible for me to flip that shit to? Yeah, it is possible and it fucking worked. And it was by flipped something that was impossible in my brain. You couldn't tell me anything else. I made that thing possible, and when I remember that, I'm like oh yeah, nobody could tell me shit.

Speaker 1:

Everything that I put my time and energy into and find a pill in is going to be successful. Like there's no, there's nothing that's going to stop that. Any roadblock that comes up in front of me, any failures, anything that could be looked as as a bad thing, is just an opportunity for me to switch gears so I can get back on the right road and move forward to this destiny that I have predetermined for myself, this reality that I have determined for myself. It's gonna happen because there's no other. There's no other like option. You know what I'm saying. Like for me, in my reality, this is what's going to happen and it's only a matter of when. That why. I mean how as well. I don't even give a fuck about the how, the how's the fun part. I mean how as well. I don't even give a fuck about the how, the how's the fun part.

Speaker 1:

Like we always want and I've been guilty of this we always want a blueprint for how to do exactly what we want. I know, before I started streaming I two weeks of just straight watching YouTube videos, reading Reddit posts of what's the settings. Do I need what computer I need? Do I need a mic doing that camera? I research all types of shit because that's how I am, that's how I was. Actually I'm trying to get out of that anytime. Okay, for some things research is fun electronics, I'm gonna research the shit out of it and then make a decision.

Speaker 1:

But for stuff like creative endeavors, I don't think that research is necessary. I say research about 60, 70% of what you want and then just jump in, because with the blueprint there's no surprises. It's all routine and I don't know about you, but I enjoy surprises when it comes to this creative stuff. I don't care about steps three, four and five. One is this is what I want. Two is how do I start and then step six is hey, I'm here, I got it. What's the next thing I'm going to tackle? Thinking like that has brought me so much joy. Thinking that the world is going to throw me a surprise party every day I'm alive has been profound, has been very, very joyful. Like I used to be a super negative person and, looking back at how I used to be and how I used to view the world and how I view myself, I can't even I can't feel those feelings anymore, and it's amazing and I love it.

Speaker 1:

So it started with, you know, taking a break for your mental, but also you don't want to burn out. As well as taking a break, gives you an opportunity to reevaluate what you're doing. Look at all your processes, look at the content you're creating and seeing if it aligns with what you want in the future. Again, once thinking about the future, make sure that you're including how you want to feel in the future and please, for the love of God, do not make any thoughts about the future that involve any negative thoughts whatsoever. It's, it's pointless.

Speaker 1:

What if I told you this, if I told you a hundred percent certainty that if you think of a future event and you have negative thoughts mixed into with that. You're going to be anxious as fuck the entire time up into that event and probably during that event as well. 100 on that flip side of that coin. If you think about that event with as much positivity as you can and envision the feeling that you're going to have once you accomplish said event, you're going to look at that event leading up to and during with so much joy and admiration and excitement. There's not going to be any room for the anxiety. You hear what I'm saying?

Speaker 1:

Like we cause anxiety in ourselves by looking at things that we need to do in the future and panicking over it, thinking people are going to judge them by it, or thinking we're going to fail at it or all this other negative bullshit. Well, we could be looking at that future event and thinking, oh man, it's gonna be dope once I'm done with it and I'm getting feedback and it's all love and like. We're so afraid to like fail and we're so afraid to be let down and we're so afraid to be hurt that we are scared to death to even allow ourselves the joy and freedom of looking at the future events as something that's going to be amazing. Again, I'm talking for somebody who used to do that shit.

Speaker 1:

All the time we don't realize the hurt that we cause with our words, by the way we talk to each other, or the way that we talk to ourselves, or the way that we think about ourselves, or the way that we think about future events, or the way that we interact with what shit happened in the past. Like the only thing that we truly have any like control over is right now, in the present. What are you doing right now? And for the shit that's in the future, we have control over that as well, because we can only have to think about it in positive terms. Think about how awesome it's going to be to accomplish it. Think about how amazing it's going to be when the next one comes up and you're doing the same thing, whatever that thing may be.

Speaker 1:

Right now, I'm thinking about talking in front of thousands of people about getting a mental right so they can make some content that actually changes the world, that actually puts some positivity out there, that actually entertains people and that brings people down. That's what I'm thinking about. So, yeah, that first one is going to be exciting, but the one after that is going to be bigger. That's the type of control we have and, as creators, as people who create things that started as a thought in our head and put it out for other people in the world to see, this should be one of the easiest and most fun things that we can do in life. Are you telling me that I have full control over how my life's going to be, based on how I think about it, and there's no rules, rhymes, regulations of how I think about it? And if I think about it in a positive way, then more than likely that's just going to pop out. What are we waiting on? What do y'all stop not doing this?

Speaker 1:

It really, the more that I think this way, the more it irks me when I hear other people talk in such negative light about themselves, because in my head it is scientific fact if you talk to yourself in a shitty way, guess what? You're probably going to feel shitty. There's going to be glimpses of happiness there, because you can't keep happiness out. It's contagious. If you are a stinky face around somebody that's super happy, then there's something truly wrong with you. But I think happiness is one of those things that you can be sad, poopy face, all you want, but eventually some happiness can get in your life and you're going to crack a smile, you're going to feel a little bit of joy. Unfortunately, that joy is not addictive enough to pull us out of a bunch of negative thoughts that we feed ourselves, thoughts that we feed ourselves.

Speaker 1:

But I do think, talking about ourselves, loving ourselves in a great way and knowing that we're the shit, knowing that we are amazing at what we do and we are great and an valued asset to this thing that we call content creation, knowing that stuff helps the content. It helps those times where it gets rough. So let's do that, okay, all right? Other than that, I appreciate y'all listening. We're rounding the corner to a year of me doing this podcast. Haven't missed a single week yet and that shit feels awesome as hell. Pass on the back to me again. Celebrate your wins when they come up. There's nothing bad about it. Be happy about your accomplishments God damn it. But if you know any other creators out there who could benefit from conversations like these and more, please share the podcast with them, uploaded and unfiltered. Just do a search in your podcast catcher of choice and I'm sure it will show up. Other than that, have a great week and, as always, protect your mental, keep creating content and I'll talk to y'all in the next one. Peace you.