Uploaded and Unfiltered: Real Talk on Healing, Creativity, and Mindset for Black Creators
Creative journeys. Real struggles. Honest growth.
Hosted by Jermaine, Uploaded and Unfiltered is where Black creators talk real about what it takes to create in public—and stay sane doing it. You’ll hear from YouTubers, streamers, podcasters, musicians, and other digital creatives on how they built their platforms, overcame burnout, dealt with self-doubt, and found their voice.
This isn’t fluff or “how I got famous” talk. We dig into the messy middle—impostor syndrome, grief, perfectionism, procrastination, and the pressure to perform.
Every episode is packed with truth and tools to help you:
- Build your creative presence online (without faking it)
- Move through mental blocks that keep you stuck
- Learn from the wins and fails of other Black creators
🎧 This podcast is for you if:
- You’re a BIPOC content creator or want to be
- You’ve got ideas but keep overthinking or procrastinating
- You want honest convos, mindset shifts, and real strategies
New episodes every week. Hit subscribe and join the movement.
Uploaded and Unfiltered: Real Talk on Healing, Creativity, and Mindset for Black Creators
Consistency > Motivation: What Built This Show
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It’s episode 100 of Uploaded and Unfiltered. I’m reflecting on what it really took to stay consistent—not just the wins, but the tired days, the messy episodes, and the weeks I wanted to skip. I’m breaking down my actual process from idea to upload, what I’m working on improving, and why “good enough” got me here. This one’s for anybody trying to keep going.
Welcome, welcome back to another episode of uploaded and unfiltered. The podcast in which I, your host, remain, interviews another content creator in regards to their journey thus far. And I would like to start this podcast off by saying, hey, guess what? We made it to episode 100. I don't have a cheers button, otherwise I would play it here. But yeah, episode 100 is in the books. I mean, I'm recording it now, but it's going to be in the books. It'll be the number 101 episode uploaded. That has been 101 weeks of consistent uploading of this podcast.
Speaker 1:And, yes, I am congratulating myself, pat myself on the back. It is important to celebrate your wins and this is a huge win for me, even though I knew I knew this was going to happen. This is a huge win for me. So congrats, congrats, man, you did a good job. I can't see it. Can't wait to see what you do with the next hundred episodes. Can't wait to see what you do with the next 100 episodes. But yeah, baby, consistency, consistency, consistency. That is going to be the topic of today's episode. We'll kind of dive into how I set up my process to keep this train running. Talk about how a system is better than motivation, and we'll just get into it.
Speaker 1:But before I start, I want to officially thank everyone who has listened to this episode, whether this be your 100th, whether this be your first. I appreciate you listening and a special shout out to the people who have reached out to me and let me know that something I've said in this podcast has changed the way they thought or got through, got them through something that they were going through. So, to you, thank you. I appreciate it. In the past, I never looked for words of affirmation or words of encouragement or words of acknowledgement of something that was doing well, but it does do. It's great to hear. So I'm going to stop playing myself and let people shower me with good words and take it in and use that energy to keep pushing forward.
Speaker 1:Now, with that being said, I want to start this episode off with talking about consistency, what people think it is, what consistency actually is, and how you yourself can get consistent with whatever content you're trying to put out to the world. And this, being the 100th episode, is what consistency actually is and how you yourself can get consistent with whatever content you're trying to put out to the world. And this being the hundredth episode, I thought I switched something up. I thought about switching up the music, thought about switching up the format, but no, I'm going to switch it up by having show notes. So today I have show notes, which is good for me, good for you, cause I'll be more cohesive Cohesive yeah, that's the word More cohesive with what I'm saying. Get my point across and hopefully, it's more entertaining for you. So, with that being said, what do you think of when you hear the word consistency?
Speaker 1:I have a few words that I have listed down what people usually say to me when I ask them that question, first up being motivation. People think that you need to be motivated to be consistent. I'm not going to judge you on that, I'm just going to read what the other ones are Discipline People think that you need to be disciplined in order to have some consistency. Perfect execution every week. Perfect execution, perfect being already. If you hear the word perfect, you know it's fucked up, so you don't even want to hear what's after that. But people also think that consistency equals perfect execution every week. I'm here to tell you. For me, 100 episodes in. That is not. That's not the case. That's not what has been keeping me going. That's not what I would call consistency, and rather this is what I would call consistency. For myself, consistency is doing it tired, unmotivated, sad, no matter what.
Speaker 1:Putting a podcast episode up, it's getting one up there, recording episodes that fell mid at best, but posting those anyways. There's a few sub 10 minute podcast that I did myself. They weren't the best, I put them up anyways. I distinctly remember recording a podcast in my sister's living room because I thought I recorded in the airport but the audio didn't. Anyways, posting it anyways, letting good enough, be okay, and moving on. This podcast has taught me that, good enough, nothing bad's going to happen. Like, nobody's going to come after you and be like hey, man, your audio. There's a few episodes, my audio was jacked and like. I posted it and I'm glad I did, because now I'll do it without hesitation. Of course I want to go in with clean audio. I don't want junky audio, but knowing that I can post something and the world moves on, as stupid as that sounds, is that's. That's what that did for me.
Speaker 1:Also being consistent is knowing that no one is coming to save me and nobody is pushing me to do this. I am making no money off of this yet. Soon I will be. We'll talk about that later. But yeah, nobody's telling me to do this. It's not my job per se, I'm not getting paid to do it. This is a service that I believe needs to exist, and I knew I was a dude to do it.
Speaker 1:So here we are, 100 episodes deep. Do I have grander plans for this podcast? For sure there are things that I've learned throughout this journey that are going to inform what I do with the next 100 episodes. Video is coming. I just need to get over that hurdle of oh my God, it's going to take too long to edit. I might just let AI edit, if I'm being honest, but that content needs to go up and I need to reach the people the way they want to be reached, and I think video will go a long way to help that. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So that's what consistency is for me, and the thing that to like combat that.
Speaker 1:What about motivation? Systems beat motivation all day, every day. Motivation is a maybe and the system is a setup. If you have a system set up, there is no re like. You just do it. You just do the thing that you need to do. Luckily, the podcast is set up in a way that I just need to get on, get in my streaming room, turn on the camera, turn on the mic and start talking, and then I'm good to go. And if I really wanted to, I could press a button, have it all. I like there's. I can make this as easy as I wanted to, knowing that some days I don't feel like editing and monday is my last day, like if I haven't done anything all week, monday is the last day I got to do it all in that day and because of the system I put in place, that's no problem at all. So, speaking of systems, let's go ahead and talk about the system that I utilize to bring this podcast to life.
Speaker 1:There are a few programs that I use, one being Canva. If you don't have a pro membership to Canva, I don't know if I have one because my wife's business has one, so that means I have one. I'm on the team, god damn it. I'm a fucking head of technology. Although I still use Procreate for my thumbnails, I don't like. It's easier for me to make a thumbnail in Procreate on my iPad than it is in Canva, mostly because I just enjoy using my iPad. I could probably do it easier in Canva. Don't judge me, I'm still going to do it in Procreate because it's a fun part of my process. Okay, you got to find parts of your process to make fun and enjoyable for you and if Canva is that for you, then you know you're good. But so I use Canva.
Speaker 1:I use things on iOS and Mac OS or whatever the fuck they're changing it to now. Things is my task list creator. You can create different buckets, different projects. You can create reminders. You can create reoccurring I'm testing a reoccurring task list. My goal is to have three short videos for my kryptonite channel, which is my general miscellaneous tech video game channel. A TikTok shop video, because I'm part of the TikTok shop affiliate program and you can buy stuff and I get money from it, which is pretty dope, and I only do things that I like, so it's fun. I get money from it, which is pretty dope, and I only do things that I like, so it's fun. And then the other one will be for my coaching page, radiant Reflection, something motivational, something that I've been thinking about and I need to get off my chest. And if you're not following me on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube for that matter, at Radiant Reflection. No S. That's me. Follow me, get your daily dose of goodness and be well. I don't know why I said that I know where to go after that.
Speaker 1:I also use Fairlight on my iPad to edit the podcast. I use Riverside to host and record guests. I could use Riverside to edit the podcast as well. So if you're a pod, if you are budding podcast host and you were like I want a platform that I can record in. Hit a button and it spits out everything that I need to upload to Spotify or YouTube or Buzzsprout, which is where I get mine. I need to get a promo code from them.
Speaker 1:Now that I think about it, riverside is pretty good. Riverside does a lot of stuff for people who don't want to do any of the technical stuff. I still edit mine on my iPad because I like to touch it, for lack of a better word. That's why I put my music on all that fun stuff. But Riverside is great. Do not fuck with PodCastle. I tried them. That was the first one I went through. The was so many like the idea of it was amazing and I'm sure they'll iterate and get to a point where they'll be great, but I was like. It felt like it was a beta program and I was beta testing their software and I did not enjoy that. It made it stressful. Shout out to Riverside for doing the thing, making it great for podcasts hosts and creators to do something without all the fuss. So I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:The other program that I use currently is is that it? I mean I use epidemic music, epidemic sounds for my music. I guess on here the music doesn't change and I don't think I'm going to change. I really like that song. But Notion. Notion is OK. There's a few other programs. Notion is where I save all of the podcast information, the episodes, the guests, their information, all that fun stuff, and I also use JotForm to capture all of the information for my guests and I believe that is it. Calendly OK, calendly is for appointments and I'm just going to say that is it. Calendly Okay, calendly is for appointments and I'm just gonna say that's it. That's probably it.
Speaker 1:Moving on to prep work. So for prep, when this is just a solo podcast, I have so many things running through my head that I want to talk about, so it's really easy to pull a topic out. But when it comes to a guest, I have a format is five bullet points. It's always been the same. I tried tweaking it halfway through the life of the podcast and ended up going back. I like it. It's general enough that everybody can answer the questions. It gives them a spot to brag about their content, gives them a spot to think about all of the things they've gone through on their journey, pull out a lesson, maybe something they didn't even think about, and there's always a good time.
Speaker 1:I cannot say. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I have not had a bad episode. Like everybody that I've talked to on, the episode has been super interesting and amazing. Is there people to stand out more than other? For me? Yeah, of course I'm not gonna tell you who the fuck they are, and I'm not gonna tell them who the fuck they are, but for the most part I know for all parts it's been an awesome talking to these creators and I can't wait to see who I get to talk to next.
Speaker 1:I got a list of people that I definitely want to talk to and I'm gonna just say it now. T-pain is what, eventually, one of these days, gonna be a guest in the episode. I kind of want to do an in-person one for that, but I'll take a Skype call or a Discord call or whatever. Also, I definitely want to talk to Ryan Coolidge, especially after this run he's had. I have so many questions about centers. I mean, I have so many questions about his craft and just the way he thinks and how he's able to stay in that mindset. So many questions, but I'm going off topic.
Speaker 1:So for guest episodes, typically I reach out to the person that I want to show up on the podcast. I either hit them up on Twitch or Discord. Discord is the easiest because it keeps everything contained. But sometimes I don't know what people's Discord names is. It's been a lot of. Who do you know that? I know that we're cool with that would vouch for me, that I'm cool, and so shout out to everybody that we've had like one or two conversations. Shout out to you for showing up and doing the podcast. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:It gave me the confidence to just ask whoever the fuck I want to be on a podcast. Which leads me to my favorite part not my favorite part, but it's an ingenious part of my podcast is the questionnaire. I think it's a 12 or 13 question survey that I give to every guest. It's a pre-show survey that I give to every guest and it gives me information that I'm going to need to build a podcast. Things they don't want to talk about their pronouns, their email address, a picture so I can use for the episode cover Topics they don't want to talk about.
Speaker 1:I think I already said that If they want to be on camera, make sure they have a mic, make sure they have internet, make sure they have a browser, all that fun stuff, just generic stuff. And then, before even that, I've created an invitation that I send to every guest, unless, like, you've already been on the show and I'm just like, hey, man, we should, we should link up and do something, boss you. Uh. Invitation that breaks down what the podcast is, what I want to do with it, the breakdown of the episodes and then, if they have any questions, they shoot me an email, hit me up on Discord, and then there's a link to book what time they want to do it. They take them over to Calendly, which is synced to my business, my coaching business calendar. So if I have a client that I am seeing, it'll automatically mark that time off on the other calendar, which is super helpful and helps me to maintain this hectic schedule that I have. So once they go through, pick what date they want.
Speaker 1:On Calendly, there's a link within both the invitation and in Calendly to take them to the pre-show survey which is on uploaded and unfilteredcom. You should go over there and check that website out. It's basically the podcast and all the past guests. I made it. I mean, I made it in a template which, you see, is what you get, editor. But whatever it's dope, you should go check it out. One day I'll find some amazing thing to do with it. But once they fill that out, then they get the job form which is where my survey is living right now, which I'm thinking about switching it over to Google forms, no real reason. I just I guess I feel like Google is easier to use. Job Forms is a little specific and it is a monthly or a yearly cost, so we'll look into it. But once they fill out the pre-show survey, they get an email from Riverside. It's like hey, this is what time we're going to get down. I get an email about the colony and I usually with Riverside. You don't have to book the time, but sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, and then we're off to the races.
Speaker 1:That is the setup. That is task list in my things app with check marks. Every step that I need to do has a box next to it. Once I do that step, I check it off. I started that. I feel like episode. I felt like from the beginning I started with that. I've tweaked it here and there since we've been moving, but there's a task list for getting a guest, there's a task list for finalizing the show, there's a task list for social media outreach and it's awesome. It keeps me organized, it keeps me on point, and I also invested into Opus Clip, which helps me with the clipping of all of the episodes and I can set it on the schedule. So, monday through Friday, I got content going out. It has been a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, with that, there are a few things that I would like to improve about the show. I definitely number one with a bullet. I want to look into doing video. I don't know what that looks like for me right now. I mean, I'm a streamer, I'm a content creator on YouTube. Being on camera is not something that is foreign to me. But the beauty of the podcast is people feel a little more open and free when it's just voice. Even if we have our cameras on, they know nobody's going to see that shit. So I feel like it makes it a little more open and it doesn't feel like you're streaming. We're just having a conversation between two content creators and it's amazing. So definitely want to look into doing video. We'll figure it out. It'll be dope when I figure it out.
Speaker 1:But batch, batching content. This is something that I could do if I prioritize, ok, fix my wording, because what we say definitely has an effect on our psyche and our mental health. When, okay, when I fix my time schedule and when I have more time and everything is organized the way that I want it, I will start batching episodes because I can do two or three episodes in like a week being like edited, start to finish and just have those in the tuck for when, let's say, we go on vacation, I'm not going to have access to the internet because I'm sure that's going to happen. I can just have that scheduled ready to go. So batching is something that I definitely want to improve.
Speaker 1:Going forward Community I definitely want to create some sort of two-way conversation between me and the listeners, whether that be Q&As, call-ins, live streams. I definitely want to bring a sense of community to the podcast because I think when a lot of like-minded individuals get together, magic occurs from there forth. I mean, as long as those like-minded individuals are positive, it's all positive thinking and we're thinking for future, forward and and growing our platforms and spreading positivity. I don't know, I felt like I had to say that, but I said it. So I'm going to look in ways, look into ways to grow the community and that's going to be a fun, fun challenge.
Speaker 1:Next up, guests not just guests, just, I guess, better aligned and and and and guests who align with where my thinking is. And I want to say I've done a good job with that. I feel like, okay, maybe I don't need to improve on that, because I have great intuition and everybody who's been on this damn show had said something that has either been echoing in my head or that I have said out loud myself. For guests, I guess it means doing different things. It's just interviews coming up within the next few weeks, because this is men's mental health. I got three of the homies coming back to do another episode. I'm not going to tell you who they are, but it's three men because men's mental health. We're going to talk about mental health.
Speaker 1:In regards to content creation, it's going to be super fun because I feel like, while we probably have some same, similar thoughts on the on the matter, it's going to be wildly different depending on who's talking, and I cannot wait. It's going to be super fun. Next up visuals, meaning I need to get my face out there more. I need to do more content centered around the podcast and I feel like shorts might be the way, but we'll think about it, we'll figure that out, that'll be fun and that's it. I think I can improve on the podcast being fun, like it's already fun for me to do.
Speaker 1:I enjoy doing this. I enjoy talking into this mic. I enjoy seeing my goddamn art in the car when I pull up the podcast app and I'm like yo, I did that. I enjoy looking at the past guest list that I've created on my website and just scrolling that motherfucker like that keeps me fueled. That is me not only showing gratitude to myself, but also celebrating the things that I've done so far, and if there's anything that you learn from me, it's two things. I think I need to learn two things on.
Speaker 1:Our brain Can't tell the difference between what we think and the reality that is really happening. So if we keep thinking something, our brain's going to think that shit's real and react accordingly. Remember that shit. No, that's it. I'm not giving you a number two, that's the one. But again, if you're thinking about starting something, don't wait for it to be perfect. Be consistent enough to get better.
Speaker 1:When I first started this podcast, it was not where. It's still not where I wanted to be, but I am proud of where the podcast is today. Had I not started, I would not have 101 episodes in the tuck of experience. Every episode was a learning experience. There's so many things that have popped up and they're just like specific to me. I don't feel like other people would experience these, because I would go Google looking for an answer and it was like nah, bro, you got to figure that out and we figured it out and we kept it pushing. So, yeah, man, this is it. We did it. 100 episodes in the bucket, as always.
Speaker 1:If there's any Black content creators that you know that could benefit from conversations like these and more, please share the podcast with them, uploaded and unfiltered. We're in your podcast catcher of choice and we're not going anywhere. 100 episodes in the chamber, in the bucket, in the oven I don't we cook, but no. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. I've had so much fun and again I'm talking like I'm going somewhere. I'm not going anywhere. If anything, it's only going to get better from here. So do what you do and, as always, protect your mental, keep creating content, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.