Need some clarity to get started!

Sorry for the long rant, but I need some assistance:

I’m looking for help with clarity of message. I’m *eager* to start the first episode of my podcast. I’ve got my equipment set up. I used to be a video editor and producer along with making YouTube videos in the tech space, but left that niche behind. I’m not uncomfortable with production.

The problem: I was an out of work creative for years. Most of my friends are the same: Former freelance editors unable to truly break into their professions, now aged out. They’re all similarly experienced cartoonists, directors, animators, writers, and actors, too. Friends, former co-workers, acquaintances - it’s a pretty dismal graveyard of unfulfilled talent and ambition.

I’ve had a powerful mind shift in the past few years. I believe that it is *imperative* that creatives become entrepreneurs. The model that creatives make product for another company that determines their value at a whim, is self destructive. When artists separate their passion from their business, the new focus on financial stability frees them up to be creatively unleashed. I want creatives to change their mindsets about giving away their skillsets and being ‘fortunate to work for someone else’. However, stability must come first, and that only comes from understanding your own tribe and selling directly to them.

I’m stuck because that all sounds good, but I don’t have the bag either. I’ve created my avatar, which is me from 5 years ago. I also have a niece, now 30, who went to school to be an animator but has been a Starbucks barista or retail associate for years. I already know where her path is going because all of my friends and I have been there and never elevated out of it. That is a dead end.

The Pain Point is that creatives need a mindset shift.

The Obsessed solution is ?????? It can’t just be motivational speeches, right? I had an awakening moment when I realized that even if I had become some high level producer or video editor, there’s no stability. What’s next? What could I even do with the skillsets I had be trying to utilize for years? That’s person in that space is the audience that I want to serve and transform. I want to help them figure out what’s next.

I know the avatar: 45. Male. Educated. Can’t afford a house or new car. Still has ‘deserved’ and ‘fair’ in the vocabulary. Wants to do stocks and investments but has no disposable income. Likes Old School hip-hop. Nerdy tech. Married. Christian. No mentorship.

I know I want to do consistent solo intimate podcasts talking to camera similar to what Shands did with the Morning Meetups. I know that builds community. They’re ideally low friction. I haven’t figured out if they should be scripted/heavily outlined like Myron Golden, more freestyle like Shands, or motivational like E. Thomas. My hope was that I could get a few of these going enough that the familiarity would attract guests for a one-on-one interview style show. In total copycat fashion, I’d interview entrepreneurs. Ideally ones that had a similar trajectory to my audience.

But all of that is future. I just want to start and I have no idea what to say. I didn’t get the bag. I feel like a false authority. I want these to inspire and affect people like my avatar or my niece in a real way, but I can’t help but think that they’d ask, “Where’s the proof?”. That’s what *I* would ask. Shands at least had his Sleep is For Suckers business to leverage as ‘an authority’ when he was figuring out all of this podcast stuff. All I have a 20 years of trying to make it but never getting there. I have a bunch of cautionary advice, but I want this to be inspiring.

I want to spend more time producing videos than consuming in 2025, but I just can’t figure out my message. I just know that I want to help that group of people begin their entrepreneurial journey. I wanted to help them earn their first 10k in 90 days, but I haven't even done that myself so I'm letting that promise go for now.

Sorry about the rant, but I feel like I'm a restored mustang revved to go, but stuck on surface streets. Advice?

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