The Past Doesn’t Control You. The Future Doesn’t Exist. Create Anyway.

Jermaine shares his perspective on overcoming fear in content creation while simultaneously recording both a podcast episode and video content for his social platforms.

• The past, present, and future all influence our creative decisions differently
• Living in the present moment provides clarity about personal and creative direction
• Fear is the primary obstacle preventing content creators from achieving consistency
• Authenticity attracts the right audience who connects with you rather than a persona
• Black creators have significant power to shape cultural narratives through content
• Consistency is more important than metrics when building a creative platform
• The mindset shift of not fearing others' opinions functions as a creative superpower
• Breaking the cycle of procrastination is key to consistency

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with others who might benefit from these conversations. You can donate to support the podcast through the "Buy me a coffee" link in the description. Until next time, protect your mental, keep creating content, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Uploaded and Unfiltered
• 1:54 Story Time: Past, Present and Future
• 5:13 Fear vs. Clarity in Content Creation
• 10:56 The Consistency Superpower
• 16:15 Breaking Procrastination and Moving Forward
• 19:09 Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of uploaded and unfiltered the podcast in which I, your host Jermaine, interviews another content creator in regards to their journey thus far. Today is going to be a super fun episode because I had a brilliant idea. I was taking a shower that's usually where I have my most ingenious ideas and, rather than write this one down, I said I'm going to execute on this. Right now, I am going to record a video about some things, some topics, that I think is going to be super fun, so I'm going to do that while I record this podcast. So I'm not only getting my podcast done, but I'm also recording video content that I'm going to cut up and put on the socials and all that fun stuff. If you are listening to the podcast, welcome to the behind the scenes of BTS, of Radiant Reflection. I'm about to shoot a story time video in regards to the past, present and future, just animated a little bit, to give my perspective on how all of those things interact with each other and how they have kind of guided our decisions so far. If you're not aware of it, so if it gets weird, again, this is BTS. You're listening behind the scenes. I don't know how many times I'm going to do this, but right now this seems like a good idea. So if you're not following me on my socials, at least on TikTok at Radiant Reflection, go follow that account. This is where this content will be, and it'll probably be elsewhere. I'll have to figure that out. I'll put it in the show notes. All right, let's get started. Did you stop scrolling? Because you saw me in my robe? Don't worry, I don't judge.

Speaker 1: 1:43

But since I have you here, let's get into a story time, and today's story time is going to be in regards to the past, the present and the future. Now, I know you probably heard many stories about these entities, but today is going to be a little twist on those stories, mostly because I'm telling it and this is the first time I'm telling it no script. We're just going off the top of the dome. This is how I feel about all three of those periods of time, if you will. So let's start with the past. The past is an amazing algamation of feelings, thoughts, life events, both amazing, both sad, triumphant. There are so many things that are in the past that is filled to the brim, as many things as you can remember. That's how many things exist, but it's important to remember that the past is the past. Now, I know it's easy to take things that happened in the past and apply them to you now and be like, well, this is what happened in the past, so I'm going to go off of that knowledge and be like it's going to happen again and again, and again. And while that's natural, I would say a lot of people think that way. I would also argue that it is not beneficial, but we'll get into why a little bit later.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Because next we have to talk about the future. Now, the future might be even more amazing than the past, because if you think about it, the future has not been written yet. And when people say that, it's easy to blow that off and be like, ah, cliche. But if you sit there and think about it, literally nothing in the future as you think of it exists right now. It's only a thought, it's only something that your mind could ponder upon. Good or bad, it does not exist. And that brings me to my favorite, my favorite entity, and that would be the present. See, in the present, that's where everything is real that you can perceive with your eyes. If it's in front of you, you can experience it with one of your five senses.

Speaker 1: 3:49

I would argue that that is reality. So if you think back to a time where maybe you got one of your favorite birthday gifts as a child 10th birthday you can remember that. But is it real? Just because it happened doesn't make it still real, because my definition of real is it's in front of me, I can touch it real. Just because it happened doesn't make it still real, because my definition of real is in front of me, I can touch it. I can see it, breathe it. It's happening right in front of me right now.

Speaker 1: 4:12

I can you know in the present things that happened in the past. We know how easy it is to misremember an event that happened, or intertwined events that happened at different times because we were in the same location and now those events have all become one in our head. We know how easy it is for that to happen, for that mere fact alone is why I continue to remind myself that the past is not the present. Things that happened in the past doesn't necessarily mean or dictate what's going to happen right now in the present. That line of thinking alone has vastly changed how I move through life. There are plenty of things that have happened in the past that if I continue to think about them and let them affect me emotionally, I would not be where I am today like at all. Personally, I would not be where I am today like at all.

Speaker 1: 5:05

In present time I am more clear, have a lot more clarity of what I want to do with my life, who I want to interact with in life. And with that clarity comes momentum to move me towards the things that I want to do in life, the goals that I want to achieve, the businesses I want to open, the people I want to help. That clarity allows me to push past when I'm feeling anxious about putting a piece of content out or when I'm feeling nervous about how something that I created is going to be perceived. With clarity I remind myself ultimately, the people who the message is not for do not matter. They do not get a say in how my emotions are going to be through day to day. They don't have any ability to affect those because ultimately, their opinion does not matter, like when you sit back and think, especially as a black creator, how many people in this world would, without a second thought, love to see us not on this planet, but we still continue to live our lives. We still continue to push forward and get the things that we want out of life. Like that alone should get you to the point where you're like you know what.

Speaker 1: 6:16

I can't be nervous about this content stuff because somebody doesn't even like the color of my skin. I can't change that. So why am I going to change my content from Pokemon content Because somebody said, hey, aren't you too old to be playing that? Or why are you not going to speak out on men who don't watch sports? That's not as abnormal as you think. You would speak out on stuff like that because you don't care if the people who is not for are upset by it or have something to say about it. It's not for you, it's for those people who think like you, and so that's why it's essential that you show up when you're doing your content authentically. For a number of reasons, but the most important one is the people that you attract are attracted to you. They're not attracted to a gimmick, not attracted to the latest viral sensation of the week. They're attracted to you and your personality and your likes and your dislikes and the way that you muffle your words on the mic or the way that your lighting is sometimes off and all those things that make you you are what attracts your audience.

Speaker 1: 7:20

It took me far too long to realize that, not that I was chasing the wrong audience, but that I wasn't being fully my authentic self, like I know. It might look like an outside and might look like, oh my God, rain has his shit together. I mean I do, but I don't have it together to the point where you know what. Let me fix that. In the past I did not have it where I have it currently, in a place where any idea that pops into my head I'm making that content.

Speaker 1: 7:48

There is a, for those of you who know, on the kryptonite side of the content creation, I was with my homies. I had Chris Panda and Bossy Versus. We had FNF, friday Night Frights. It was such a dope idea and I will speak for myself. There were things that I wanted to create in that space that I didn't because I allowed fear to stop me from doing it.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Now, I'm not saying that if I would have made it, they would have like, kicked me out the group. No, they probably would love if I would have made more content, but I was, if I'm being honest, worried about the people who were going to consume that content. For some reason. I was worried about their opinions, what they were going to think but again, I'm in this place now is like yo, if you do not rock with the content that I make, that's cool. There's like four billion pieces of content out there that you can peruse through and get something that actually speaks to what you're looking for. But me, I am speaking to a very specific people Like the more that I'm allowing my children to watch more stuff that I watched when I was growing up, the more that I see the necessity for Black creators to get out there and create.

Speaker 1: 9:01

It is possible for an independent director to make a movie off a Kickstarter budget, off of a donation run. Like. I think we think too small when it comes to this content creation. I don't think a lot of creators realize how impactful their content can be. No matter what your content is, I think the important thing to remember and to get to as Black creators is be yourself, be whatever flavor of chocolate that you are and do it to the fullest.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Like we got to get to a point where we're not worried about what the outside, people say the people that do not rock with what we rock with. We got to stop worrying about them, I promise you. It's a waste of energy. Let me tell you this being where I'm at mentally is a superpower. I feel like I'm playing a video game most days because I see the pitfalls or the little negativity traps that get laid throughout our entire day, like the interactions between people when we're going out in public or, depending on the news, the stories they feed up, or the commercials, like what they're trying to say in these damn commercials. Like there's so many things that are set up to keep us in a negative funk.

Speaker 1: 10:17

And once you realize that you don't have to be, I feel like it's a cheat code. Like I put the cheat code in and now I'm just going through life, enjoying it more, enjoying my family time, enjoying my alone time, enjoying my move up to grow my business, like I'm enjoying all the things that you're supposed to enjoy. I'm enjoying things that, again, growing a business. Everyone talks about it as if it's like the worst thing in the world. I'm having fun. I love solving problems, I love solving puzzles, I love figuring out a solution to something that needs to get solved and when it's your own, it feels so much more better when you start to see progress. The next piece of progress we need to push is I need to speak more about the business. I need to let creators know that, hey, I feel like 90% of the grind that we put ourselves through as creators is all mental.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Think if you did not have fear of what other people thought about your content and you were fully tapped into the content you were making and that doesn't mean that you're just making garbage content and you're not taking any advice from friends or family members or people who are knowledgeable about the thing you're trying to do. But if you are putting out content that you genuinely love, that you genuinely want to have out in this world, consistency is what gets you there, and the thing that keeps most people from being consistent is fear. Now you can tie that fear to imposter, syndrome them thinking that people are going to call me out for not knowing everything. That's procrastination. Oh, you know what? I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow Also. I would link that to fear. Why don't you just do it now? Perfectionism I'm linking it to fear. What needs to be perfect before it comes out. Why Are you afraid of what people are going to think when you put that content out? I would say, yes, once you get over that fear barrier, everything's easy. You're in easy mode. At that point you don't need to find motivation, you don't need to find momentum, because you don't fear the outcome of your content. Therefore, you're going to put that content out there.

Speaker 1: 12:17

I know a lot of us worry about the numbers when we put something out and we get a little discouraged when the numbers aren't where we think they should be. And if I could put just one thought in every creator's head, it would be that the numbers do not matter. The numbers do not dictate how amazing you are as a content creator. Like, I started a collector's series, a collector's edition series on TikTok or everywhere, but mostly blowing up on TikTok, and I didn't do anything different except for be myself. And one of those videos, I think, is up with 200,000 right now 200,000 views, like what Off of some shit that I just love, that I just had around the house, that I wanted to make a video on. There was no secret formula, there was just consistency. And again, the way to get to being consistent is both realizing that consistency is going to get you your crowd that you're looking for. And two, that if you're not fearful of the results of your labor, if you're not fearful of what people are saying about you or thinking about you, then that consistency comes with no problems at all.

Speaker 1: 13:27

I don't remember what episode of the podcast I'm up to now. I think we're at 104 or 105, but I can look at that number from here until I decide to do something else with it and know whatever that number is. I add one and that's how many weeks in a row I've been doing this podcast. That's how many weeks in a row an episode has gone up, what outfell, even when the audio is all garbled, or I had to piece together some pieces and like throw some other stuff, or even if it was five minutes, an episode has gone up. Whatever the episode number is plus one. And that is both an amazing feeling and I like to pat myself on the back every once in a while because I think being gracious and having gratitude towards things that you have accomplished and celebrating those things, it's good for your subconscious. Your subconscious is like, oh, you like that man, let's do that again. But getting to that level of consistency was not hard at all because I had no fear, no negative feelings towards this podcast period.

Speaker 1: 14:35

I went in with an intention, knowing what milestones I wanted to hit and then going from there, I didn't really know how to edit audio and I probably still don't I need to look into that but I went in raw. I wanted as little information as I could go with. I had an idea of what I wanted to podcast to be about. It took me like, I think, a week to figure out the name that I fell in love with. I'm like yeah, that's it, let me go, and even to this day I'm still tweaking who my target audience is. But for the most part and like, without a doubt, I want as many black creators to hear this as possible because, again, capturing our identity through these social media waves, through content that goes on TV and movies and books and everything that can influence people, I feel like we should have our foot in that.

Speaker 1: 15:26

No doubt the amazing thing about perspectives is it allows your brain to think differently. Think about some of the things that you were told when you were growing up that you're, as you get older, you're like that was a bunch of bullshit. Why did you believe that when you're told something your entire life, you start to believe it, even if you don't realize you do. And as I look at the content that I consumed throughout my elementary school and middle school and high school years, even college, and saw how I, as a black man, was portrayed in that content, I understood some things about myself a little more. I understood the power of content creation even more and sometime probably during the pandemic or sometime where I quit my corporate job, I had a lightning idea. I was like I need to help us make more content, because this is a powerful tool in the way that one thinks about themselves.

Speaker 1: 16:22

And I feel like I've been dragging my feet little by little, getting to the point where I'm like okay, I'm ready and it's gas time. I'm trying to put our foot on a pedal the one that makes the car go faster and start pushing. You know Like I have so many things to offer and ultimately it comes down to this knowing how powerful fear is and knowing how, what we say out loud or what we think about ourselves or what we allow others to say about us, how powerful those things are and how they influence the subconscious, like on a everyday level, like I, I can't sit back and not help people break that chain, break that thought process. So, yeah, I'm putting it on me to figure out how to get the message out. And I know how to get the message out. I just need to talk more, I need to be me, I need to show up in my robe yes, I'm wearing a robe because I like to be comfy and I was like, why the fuck not and just talk. So that's what we're going to do.

Speaker 1: 17:25

I am working on a webinar to go over my thoughts behind procrastination, why people procrastinate and actually how to break that procrastination. Why people procrastinate and actually how to break that procrastination. Because, on our road to consistency, which is my large pillar, that I'm trying to get everybody to being consistent, because I know it's possible and I know all the excuses are ultimately bullshit if you change your way of thinking. So, on our road to consistency, procrastination is a huge one. I know a lot of people feel that, experience that, and it is my aim to knock that shit out in one webinar If not one webinar, of course. I'm trying to get people to sign up with your boy and get one-on-one coaching and knock it out in one session, because procrastination is one of those things like, yeah, it might creep back in, but once you realize what it is and what is doing to your progression towards your goal, you're going to shut that shit down with a quickness and it's going to be something over time, that doesn't exist in your life anymore. So, yeah, that's the goal.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Thank you all for listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. Oh yeah, I didn't close out the video. Well, I don't have like an ending for the video. I should probably whatever you know what, we're just going to cut it up, spit it out, get the message out. You know what I'm saying. But again, I appreciate y'all listening. Thank you for allowing me to do this. I mean, fuck that Y'all didn't allow me to do this. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Speaker 1: 18:53

That is uploaded and unfiltered. Again, we could be found in your favorite podcast catcher of choice. If you know anybody who can get any benefits from conversation like these and more, please share the podcast with them. I would appreciate it. Also, if you want to donate to the podcast, there is a link in the description Buy me a coffee, I believe. I believe that's the one that I'm using. It's in the LinkedIn description. Go ahead and donate some money to your boy.

Speaker 1: 19:19

Doing this amazing production is not free. It's not expensive, but it's not free. So if you want to help out any way you can, the best way you can do that is share the podcast. The more people we got, the more eyes and ears we have on us and the further the message goes. So shout out to my brother, swell Rel. I got to see his show in Carlsboro, north Carolina. I recorded a bunch of it. If you want to see the video, it's on at Kryptonite on YouTube. That's K-R-Y-P-T-I-N-I-T-E on YouTube and it's probably the most latest video. I don't have anything up there right now, but again, thank you all for listening. Appreciate every single one of you Until next time. As always, protect your mental, keep creating content and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.