You Can Literally Do Anything You Want to Do

I started a YouTube channel. Why?

My response is, why not?

I have all of this content that I've produced over the last few years that's just sitting there, and I don't really have the time to sit in front of a computer these days and produce fresh content with me speaking into a microphone, and frankly, I know now how much effort that takes, and it's not the season for me.

So, I asked Claude to write me a daily script based on my daily article. Each morning, my article goes out at 5am PST, and at 6:01am PST I get an audio file back from ElevenLabs in my voice along with a title, a description, and suggested tags. I then take that audio file to Canva and use a pre-populated template, and within five minutes, I am posting a video to YouTube.

At some point in the coming weeks, I will take the automation to the next level where it all just happens on its own from start to finish, but for now, I'm having fun making some tweaks and learning.

I'm always looking for ways to expand the reach of my content, and more importantly, I'm looking for ways to expand my reach without spending hours on workflows every day. We are living in a time where I can set up an automation and have my content shipped to many websites in different formats, all before I get out of bed each day.

No, this isn't another post about you should be leveraging AI; it's a post about how you can literally do anything you want to do if you are willing to put in a little effort and dream it up.

I've started a few YouTube channels at this point; I've published a few books; I've monetized content and an audience, all while having a full-time job. If I can do these things, you can do whatever the hell you want to do, too.

The question is, will you?

The answer is, probably not.

I'll tell you why you won't: it's because you're stuck overthinking everything.

Sure, you want to start that business, you want to start a side hustle, you want to consult on the side, you want to create a brand, you want to take the next step in your career, or insert here whatever it is that you think you want to do; but will you?

Here's why you won't. You're busy thinking it has to be perfect before you can start. You think you have to have a curated plan that is flawless. You think you have to wait until the timing is in your favor or you feel like you're ready.

I think we dramatically underestimate what happens when we just start.

The first version is probably going to suck. The first video might get twelve views. The first client might come from someone you already know. The first post might get three likes. Who cares? You aren't supposed to be great at something you just started.

You are supposed to start, learn something, make it a little better, and keep moving.

Most of the things I've created over the last few years didn't start with some master plan. They started because I had an idea and decided to see what would happen. Some worked. Some went nowhere. Some turned into something completely different than what I thought they would become. But every single one taught me something, and none of those lessons would have happened if I had spent six months sitting around trying to make the idea perfect.

There are people with less experience than you, less knowledge than you, fewer relationships than you, and probably less talent than you who are building the thing you keep talking about building. The difference isn't that they figured out some secret you haven't figured out yet. They just started. While you're building the perfect plan in your head, they're putting something into the world, screwing it up, fixing it, and getting better.

So, start the YouTube channel. Write the book. Build the website. Offer the consulting service. Apply for the job. Start the business. Send the email. Make the call.

Whatever the thing is that you've been thinking about for the last six months, stop waiting for some magical moment when you suddenly feel ready. You probably won't. Do it anyway. You can spend another year thinking about what you want to do, or you can look back a year from now and be amazed at what happened because you finally started.

You aren't supposed to be great at something you just started.

Oh, and give me a follow at youtube.com/@ControlYourCareer