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Episode 9 - Check-ins and Content Creation Process Discussion Video and Podcast Transcript

[This transcript has been lightly edited to ensure readability]

Dave Dougherty:

- All right. Welcome to "Stitches and Picks." This is attempt number three on this episode. Today, we're going to talk about processes and where we're at. So, Kristen, what's been up with you? 

Where are you at? What have you been doing? 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. Trying to work on like balancing life right now. Just in that season of like dealing with illnesses and work and trying to enjoy family time and responsibilities on top of all of the other things. So, I'm not going to lie, it's been a struggle and I have not been putting my side hustle in the front of this, of all it. 

But at the same time, I've been thinking over, like, when I've had a few moments to just get some brain space. I've been thinking over what I have accomplished and I've been thinking about how the templates and the documentation that I set up for myself previous to this little hiatus that I'm on has been really, really helpful. 

And how it's actually making it less intimidating for me to get back into it. So, in a way, that can be a good thing and a bad thing, I feel like. In the past, I've been intending to get back into something because I don't know where I'm at, I don't know what's going on, I'm going to have to like catch back up, and that's the whole thing. I don't feel that way now, but I almost feel, like, well, it's so easy to jump back into. I can just set it aside. So it's this interesting, like, dynamic that it's a new experience for me. 

But I just kind of need to handle kind of my sh*t before I can jump into some of my side hustle stuff. And I'll get back in the real groove of things, so right now I'm just letting the strategic processes and things of that nature kind of float around in my head when I have time. 

So, what about you? Where are you at? 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, it's kind of similar, you know, and I think culturally where we live, and at the time of this recording, it's finally summer. And it was a particularly long winter for the Northern states this year. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yes, it was.

Dave Dougherty:

- So, there's this like added pressure to go outside and, you know, try to reclaim some of your Vitamin D deficiency. So, there's definitely that and I've been enjoying going out and, you know, playing basketball with my kid and, you know, doing random things like that. So, that's been good. 

You know, in terms of process, I feel you, I'm not picking up stuff. A little bit ago, I finally just did sort of a confessional video for BGO where I'm, all right, look, we couldn't catch a break since February. We had technical issues, we had equipment issues. Then, you know, Chris burns his thumb, like a third-degree burn, so he's like still recovering from it. 

Couldn't play because it was on his picking hand. And then, you know, I've got the wrist injury now too. So, it was just like, okay, this is why we haven't been releasing anything. I'm just going to start releasing stuff in June because, you know, we have the content, but yeah... Well, now we do. 

But we had to refigure out how to shoot stuff because we've changed the process recently, and I think it's better. I feel less pressure to go through the weekly grind. Which was such a thing at the beginning of the year where I was like, “Oh, crap! It's Wednesday…I still don't have a thing!” Now I gotta create all these, you know, assets and finish the video and upload it in time for, you know, the launch time. 

And really, honestly, it's for no one other than my own self-imposed deadline. Because I want to create that expectation of, hey, there's this coming at a regular clip and on a particular day, but at the same time, to your point, trying to balance work and family and everything else.

Having a Content Plan to Avoid the Rat Race and Content Creation Grind

Dave Dougherty:

- So, yeah, just kind of been working to figure out, like, I think if I can launch things, you know, three weeks ahead, I don't feel that kind of rat race anxiety, to get something. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. Well, that's one of the most interesting parts about this is, like, the goal for this type of thing is to like enjoy it and make it something where you can do it on your own time. And, granted, when we're doing the 9 to 5 and also doing side stuff and you have family stuff and other responsibilities and whatnot, it gets to be a lot. 

So, there's this weird investment portion that you are sacrificing something because it's a balance, right? It's not a balance, it's a sliding scale of like where you're putting energy. And it's interesting to hear you talk about like the rat race and the grind because like, I think of two things when you talk about that. 

One is that when you launched, you were setting up your idea to have this process of having this launch package. And when you talked about it, I was like, this is brilliant. Like, this is a great idea because then you buy yourself a runway. So you, you know, package up like three weeks or four weeks or five weeks worth of content for all of your channels, email, social, website, whatever you have going on. 

And then you're able to launch it incrementally and you buy yourself that time to like put stuff out. And just I think with a lot of podcasts, we've talked about it where it's like people do a recording all in one day of like eight shows and then they get it out of the way and they can do editing later. Which I think is brilliant, but also it's a different mindset. And it's like you have to find the balance between the two because both can get really exhausting. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. And there's a little bit more front end on that process too because that's the process that Chris and I switched to just because of schedules. Like, our schedules are conflicting. Previously, you know, when we were locked down and we couldn't see each other, it was, okay, here are some topics you could cover, record the video, send them to me, and then I'll do the post-production. 

But now that things have opened up a lot more, you know, he can gig, he can start teaching again, you know, in real life. He's out in Colorado right now doing a big summer guitar lesson summit thing. You know, the schedules don't align. So, we basically had to sit down and say, okay, over the next two months, we have these three weekends that we can do, you know, video recording for. 

And we did one of them. And so I've been, you know, editing down and all the stuff that I've been...you know, or will be posting will be from that shoot in May. Totally maxed out the memory of some of my stuff, you know, shooting things in 4K and doing dual-cam and... 

Kristen Juve:

- More technical specifications.

Planning, Outlining, Launching, Learning

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah, exactly. You know, but this is part of the process of learning stuff. But it is nice to just be able to, like, have a whole bunch of content and then not be like, "Oh, crap, what am I going to talk about for Thursday? You've already mapped it out, and you've already done the shooting. Now you just have to finish it. 

And then you can actually... 

Kristen Juve:

- Would you talk about that for a second though? The whole, okay, posting on social or having an email go out on a Thursday and you're like, I have to stick to this regular thing. And there are two things that I think about for that is your mental health of having to be like, "Oh, my God, I have to put something. I have something out." And then if you don't actually have something strategically put forth, or at least an idea of what you're talking about that falls in line with your brand and what you're actually like wanting to aim for, you usually put out crap then. And like people aren't going to care about that.

So, like, you really do have to be very planful in a lot of this stuff. And that's what I think a lot of people don't like to do, but I mean, I literally do that for my day job and I don't really want to do it for my side stuff, but I know it's necessary so I just have to do it. When I'm planning it’s a totally different mindset than creative too…or can be. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. And I think there's... you know, love him or hate him, MrBeast has a quote in an interview that he did. You know, if you're not familiar with who he is, he's one of the like biggest YouTube guys. And he kind of specializes in...it's kind of stunts, but not really, like, he opened 150 burger stores in 1 day and, you know, documented all of it. 

Just go check it out. He's huge in terms of YouTube as a channel and doing well on that kind of stuff. But when he was being interviewed for a particular thing, he said, "Yeah, it took me like 150 episodes to figure out what it was I was doing." 

And so it was showing up and doing it and learning and showing up and doing it and learning. And then he started it when he was 15 and now he is early 20s and he has hit the success piece of it. Now, is it a 10-year runway for everybody? No. 

Kristen Juve:

- But is it an overnight success for anybody? No. 

Dave Dougherty:

- No. 

Kristen Juve:

- Even if you get a viral something or other, no. That is not an overnight thing. That's a lot more that goes into that. 

Dave Dougherty:

- And that's why I think at least for me because, you know, we've talked about in various things, I forget if it's on this record or if it's an outside conversation. I think because I'm talking about guitar playing or talking about something that I'm already thinking about all the time anyway, just sitting down and plucking a topic out of the air isn't necessarily that hard because it's like, okay, this particular idea has occupied a ton of brain space recently. I'm just going to talk about it. 

And yeah, to your point, then it kind of becomes just like a hodgepodge thing, but I think like everything, there's a range, right? You can be too freewheeling and, you know, if that's a brand choice, that's great. That's your choice, right? But if you are... 

Kristen Juve:

- The choice being the word. 

Dave Dougherty:

- The operative thing. Yeah. Making a strategic decision about that. But on the other hand, if you're too prescriptive and you're too tightly controlled, then it won't ever be fun, right? So, at least through all of my experiments and trying to do creative things, I have discovered I can outline a plan, but then baked into that, I have to have certain elements where it's like, all right, this is improv. 

You know, on these two things, you have to be really strict about what it is you're talking about. On this third one, do whatever you want. And then that at least gives me the brain space to not feel like I'm being totally tied down, but also, yeah, the space to explore something, right? 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah, I totally agree. That's a really good point about being strategic, but you can also be creative within that strategic space. And if you're too prescriptive, it does kill it. And the other thing that like...I'm thinking of social specifically, everyone's like, "Oh, if you post on social, you have to always constantly show up." Otherwise, the algorithm's going to forget about you and you're not going to be important anymore. 

And I'm like, yeah, but we're also human, and eventually, the algorithm's going to learn that too. So, why not just teach it what you want it to learn? And if you need to take a break from it, come back to it, let people know, or don't? Like, it doesn't really matter. Like, that can be part of your story too and part of your strategy is just being really human, which I think a lot of our...we're going that way. Our culture is allowing people to be human in every space. 

It's about time. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Some segments. Certain segments are allowing for that. 

Kristen Juve:

- Maybe. Maybe. I'm pushing for every area. 

Dave Dougherty:

- I would be in agreement with you

Kristen Juve:

- I know what you’re referring to, but... 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. Anyway. 

Kristen Juve:

- I know what you're referring to. I got you. Don't worry. I know. I know. It's gonna be rough. 

Update on CastingKnits.com launch plan

Dave Dougherty:

- So, with your planning, or are you planning? Because I know you have plans for your launch, right? 

Kristen Juve:

- Oh my God, I know. Yeah. 

Dave Dougherty:

- So, tell me more about that. 

Kristen Juve:

- So, okay, I have not been focused on my planning for launch so much as planning how to scale initially, which probably, like, that's the part that interests me the most. So that's like the rabbit hole I went down. I have been telling myself, like, I'm going to launch this, I just am being really flexible with the launch right now. 

And part of that, the reason why I'm allowing myself that space is because I know that the first pattern that I'm launching is a sweater. I'm not going to launch that in the summer. Like, that would be stupid. I mean, people do it. When they're well-established as a pattern designer you can pretty much launch… I mean, it just depends on what you choose. And I could do it, I'm just not going to. 

Fall is going to be the time that I launch it, which means that if I really was adamant about launching it in October, I would need to start to do some things right now that would be able to get on time. I'm not overly concerned about that piece right now because I really want to like...and this is probably where you'll need to hold me more accountable because this is me planning, planning, planning, planning, which that's what I like to do and then I like to not do anything because that's scary. 

So, like, I have a bigger vision than just doing pattern designing. And part of that is the scalability of being able to write patterns. And I love this idea of doing it. And I know that it's not like a top secret thing, but it's like you can use Excel to obviously use formulas, right? 

If you use formulas for sizing for clothing and you're designing clothing, you can essentially plug in a couple of numbers, give or take, and you can essentially spit out a pattern. There are a lot of nuances there. There are some like stylistic things. There are some communication aspects that are different, but the numbers-wise math of it can all be in Excel spreadsheets. And so I want to create my Excel spreadsheets for my multiple types of things that I would design because I have a limited portfolio that I'm going to start with because I love this idea of being able to be like, oh, okay, I want to do a sweater that has 1-inch positive ease. 

It's going to be a Raglan style. It's going to be this, this, this, this, this. You get the idea, right? And then I can go, oh, I need this spreadsheet and this spreadsheet and these are the numbers I put in, and now I have my measurements and now I just need to write out the details about the specific stitches that I wanted to use or the other specifics to it. And so I'm kind of obsessed with this idea and I have a bunch of other ideas of how this would turn into a different business and evolve, but I just, you know, don't have the funds for that slash like that's the future fund’s thing to think about.

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah, launch the thing first. Yeah. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. I got to launch a thing first. Exactly. I can actually know what I'm like, have more than one use case or two use cases, and actually really get in the thick of it. So, I'm getting more in the thick of it in terms of like writing the patterns right now to be able to anticipate what my end user is going to ask. And then I'm going to go on with the pattern that I have, and now I will be going into testing. 

So, there are plenty of areas where you can become a knit tester and you basically get the pattern for free and you buy all your supplies and you knit up the same thing that...you know, you knit with the pattern. And if you have questions or problems, the pattern designer is right there with you along the way. 

And so I've got a bunch of things planned out, mapped out for how that experience would go for that person, for those people because you ideally want like one or two of each size. And then you launch it after it's been tested and also edited by an official tech editor. So, those are some steps that I'll have to get to before launch, but it's all the... 

Dave Dougherty:

- What's the tech editor piece of that? It sounds like a really formal product launch process for... 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah, it pretty much is. So, what's interesting is that people launch knitting patterns without being tech edited, but I would say, I think I've heard across the board in the industry, like, if you do it, your pattern is more likely to have problems. And I just purchased a pattern for $5 and went, "This is sh*t. I wasted my money." 

And it was $5. Like, that's nothing. But I was so, like, clearly, this person did not have a tech editor and I did not like the way it was written. It was not clear. So, I was like, "Okay, that was a waste of money. Now I know to stay away from that designer." But people actually go through training to become a tech editors and they charge anywhere from $80 to $200 an hour to edit patterns. 

An average pattern is probably only going to take them like an hour to edit. So, yeah, it's a whole thing, and a lot of people really recommend that you do it. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. I mean, there is that standardization piece of it where you know, you know... 

Kristen Juve:

- There isn't that standardization in our industry though, that's what's interesting. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, it's like, you know, the verified stamp on a website, you know, where it's like it's just a little bit of thing for some trust in what it is you're looking at. Because I've said that with the BGO site with Chris and me, it's like..He and I know that we've been playing and teaching for 16, 17, however many years, a lot of years. 

Nobody else does. Like, nobody on YouTube does, except for what we say, right? 

Kristen Juve:

- Yep. Right. 

Dave Dougherty:

- So, it's always trying to make sure like, hey, we're not just the random schmo in the basement that's only like a week ahead of you. We do have, you know, some college education behind this. We have years of experience performing and teaching and, you know, writing our own stuff. Yeah. 

But it is trying to establish that connection with whoever comes to the site so they know I can trust you. Right/ That's the whole thing. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. It's so interesting too because, like, I think this is probably across the board, it's not just your hobby industry or my hobby industry. It's like there isn't a way to just rubber stamp something and be like, hey, this is good. Like, this is super clear and you have to just trial and error a lot of stuff and that sucks because I feel like a lot of consumers probably get really burned out. 

So, it might be really interesting for us to talk about how you signal that to consumers. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, that was one of the core things with the... 

Kristen Juve:

- I’m really glad we’re talking about this. 

Trust as a Central Issue to Address for Your Target Audience

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. That was one of the main things when, you know, I put together the kind of strategic plan for BGO was, you know, here are the incumbent players, right? You have the subscription websites that charge $40 a month, but they give you all access to, you know, amazing lessons that they've been developing for over 20 years. You have the magazines that really just push out industry news and, you know, artists' interviews, but they're not focused on the beginner, right? 

So there's that knowledge gap there. And lessons are always in the back of the magazine and they only get like a page each. So, you don't really get the context, it's just here's the thing, do it. Click the link to the video and you can watch them do the example. And then, you know, the third tier is just anybody on YouTube. 

Well, if I'm a beginning guitar player and I know I want to get into it, how do I evaluate any of these offers? And how do I know that I'm actually progressing through something and I'm not just going to learn just random things that don't help me support the goals that I want to reach, right? 

Maybe I want to play a specific song or learn a certain style. Well, there are some steps that everybody goes through. They're not sexy, you know, but they're important because they're the fundamentals that go for everything. Yeah. 

Learning Techniques or Learning for the End Product? + Drama in the Knitting World!

Kristen Juve:

- It's so funny to hear you be like, oh, they're not sexy because that's exactly how I remember learning instruments. But with knitting, I don't feel the same way. Because like, you don't just learn a technique in knitting to not produce anything. Like, if you're going to learn a new technique, you're learning it on a garment or on a hat or a mitten or something that you actually are producing because you can undo it and then redo it as many times essentially as you want. 

So, to me, I think actually that's probably one reason why I liked knitting so much was because like I immediately got some gratification out of it. I feel like I produced a thing, or like had the great song right away versus like having to be, like, these are my scales or whatever. Notice how you like this. Can you tell that I played the clarinet? 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. See, I've always been a technique geek. So, even when I was growing up, when I was playing sports, give me one of those pitchback nets and a baseball and I'm good for like six hours or, you know, I was always on the driveway by myself with a basketball hoop, you know, saying... 

Kristen Juve:

- I want the end product. 

Dave Dougherty:

- I'm not going to go have dinner until I hit 85% free throw completion rate, you know, as like a 10-year-old, right? 

Kristen Juve:

- Oh my God. That's intense. 

Dave Dougherty:

- So, this is just my own brain. So, when I got too injured to do sports anymore, I switched over to music. Same mindset. 

Kristen Juve:

- All right. 

Dave Dougherty:

- You know, and if anybody knows the band that's on my t-shirt, you'll know that this is very technique-driven music that I'm repping right now. 

Kristen Juve:

- We're on brand for you. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yes, exactly. So, yeah, sitting down and playing 10 hours a day was something that I willingly did for years. 

Kristen Juve:

- See, this is interesting too to think about this conversation in terms of like a consumer, so like...and tying back to how do you know that whoever you're getting information from…

One of my ideas and I don't know how I would make this come to fruition, but I've actually just in this conversation, I feel like I've been able to articulate it more is there's always like knitting 101 and you learn basic techniques and stuff. 

And that can be fun or not fun. And usually, you have a project at the end of it. But it's past that, you never have a journey where you can specify...there are people that will be like, you start with this pattern, then you go to this pattern, this pattern, but's like you don't like the things you're necessarily producing. So, it'd be really cool if there was some sort of like, maybe I should do this. 

Some sort of website where you can be like, I want to learn this technique, or like, I want to learn how to make that thing. And then it shows you various different…like your goal item, right? And then it shows you various different patterns that you can choose along the way to get there to help you learn those techniques to get you a goal item. 

Dave Dougherty:

- What's that website? There's a particular website that I love for cooking where you can put in like here are the three ingredients that I have remaining in my cupboard, what meal can I make with this? 

Kristen Juve:

- That exists for knitting already. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Okay. Okay. Then there you go. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. 

Dave Dougherty:

- It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. But, yeah. 

Kristen Juve:

- But that's the same like... It's kind of a monopoly actually. It's a really interesting part of the industry. They have a little bit of a monopoly and there are some up-and-comers right now too that are trying to combat some of the very interesting tea that's been spilled about everything let's say. Yeah. 

It's just I can't even...I could spend a whole hour talking about all the things that have happened in the last two years for this one website. So, I won't. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, I can smack a TMZ logo right here and you can start doing all the gossip. 

Kristen Juve:

- I mean, the only people that'd be interested are knitting people and they probably already know it. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. Although that might be an interesting case study to go over like what they've had to deal with. One of their things is accessibility. So, they did a rebrand of their website and they chose colors that a lot of people are... Okay, so like, the way that I'm going to phrase this may make it sound like I have an opinion, I do have an opinion, I just want to present this in the most objective way possible because like everyone should be able to make their own minds. 

The color schemes that they chose people are saying that they are now getting headaches and having readable like can't read it, and they're not having great experiences it. And then there was a whole fallout from that of how they handled it after that users were telling them. And, like, it's fascinating cause they were trying to use data to understand who was actually being affected by it and who wasn't, and then should they make a change or should they not? 

And then they have the option to like revert back, but you have to go in there with the current colors to revert it back, and if it gives you a headache like there's a whole thing. So, that would be an interesting case study of how a brand handles conflict or crisis, especially since they're like small entities even though there are massive footprints. 

We could do a deep dive into that someday. 

Dave Dougherty:

- That would be interesting. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. I'm sure we'd have probably a couple of different use cases we could think of. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. It's interesting. 

Kristen Juve:

- I can see your wheels turning, so I'm like really wondering what you’re thinking right now. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah, they are. Well, none of it relates to this conversation, so I'm just cataloging some ideas for later. They were sparked by this conversation, but I'll... 

Kristen Juve:

- Isn't that crazy how that happened? You're like, "Oh, my God, that one thing triggered my brain into this." Like, that's why we have these conversations, I feel like even if I'm not super focused on my work, having a conversation with you really makes me think about different aspects of what I'm trying to produce and look at it from a different way. Which either ignites motivation in me or allows me to come up with additional things that I just need to track or think through later. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Right. Yeah. 

Kristen Juve:

- What are your ideas? 

The Duality of Solitary Content Creation and Audience Outreach

Dave Dougherty:

- The accountability is nice. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah. 

Dave Dougherty:

- I think, well, so I'm just going to leave them to the side, but the things that I will bring up that aren't worthy of a whole episode on its own just to acknowledge things that are going on as part of the process was when you talk about the weekly grind for creating stuff. I think the one thing that not a lot of people talk about, or maybe there is a whole...you know, there's probably a whole subculture of people who talk about this, but when you're doing the creator stuff, you know that you are outreaching to a bunch of people. 

You're trying to build a community of like-minded people. However, your day-to-day existence is you and your house. 

Kristen Juve:

- Solitary. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. Creating and writing and doing videos or whatever else. Which I'm totally cool with, right? I mean, I did a creative writing degree, so, you know, the writer mentality is totally introverted. 

Kristen Juve:

- I'm a bit more social than that. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. So, yeah, I don't mind that existence, but at the same time, I've had a couple of things happen recently where a co-worker at work apparently had a dad blog and, you know, got featured for the work that he's been doing. And so I've been digging into that and I was just like, "Oh, I'm totally resonating with this content even though it's, you know, from the UK." 

And so that's cool just to see somebody else, you know, doing it and getting recognized for it. And then we had a couple of comments on the BGO YouTube channel, one of which was in Portuguese. So, of course, you know, I had to go do Google translate and all that and was like, "Oh, okay, this is cool." 

And it was the person saying thank you for explaining it this way. It finally clicked. And I was like, "Yay." 

Kristen Juve:

- That's awesome. That's really awesome. 

Dave Dougherty:

- You know, so it is one of those like taking stock at those moments that, you know, keep the motivation up and keep things going. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah, that's a good point that it's so solitary that the motivation, the congratulations is all so solitary that it's like you have to have some sort of outlet to talk about it or share it. My sister is an entrepreneur and I feel like 80% of our conversations are around her business, which actually, I do enjoy, 99% of the time I enjoy talking about it. 

And I know she's got other entrepreneur groups and stuff that she's...but she's not just living it, she talks about it constantly too. And like I totally get it. I think that it is hard to find a balance, especially when it's your only gig to step away from that too because it's your survival too, but also I think important to let your brain get a break from that and let those cogs rest. 

Combatting Burnout

Kristen Juve:

- Have you ever read the book "Burnout?" Highly recommend. It's geared toward women, but I highly, highly everyone for literally everybody because it's such a good book. They talk about one of the ways to combat burnout to rest, right? But rest to people means very different things and it doesn't always make sense to people like lay there and stare at the ceiling. 

So, they talk about doing a hobby because if you're burned out on work because you're doing that and you're stressed and there are a million things that you need to get done, whatever, if you take a break from work and you do a hobby, you're actually letting those cogs, those connections in your brain rest and you're working out some other pieces. And by doing that, by putting your focus on something else, you're letting that part heal, that part rest, that part come off a burnout. 

And that piece has been so helpful for me in like my jumping in and jumping back out of like my side hustle stuff to like give myself permission to do that, to like make sure that... And actually acknowledging stepping away from it is actually important. It's not neglecting, it's actually important. Granted, I am privileged enough to know that I have a 9 to 5 job right now that's paying my bills. 

So I know for a lot of people that's a very different scenario where, like, if it's their only job, they need to grind in order to pay their bills. However, I would say like, you'd be remiss if you didn't take a little bit, at least 30 minutes a day to do something else that you love and then jump back into the things that you have to do to keep paying the bills. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, and to your previous point about, you know, if you don't plan a little bit, then you'll just be producing crap. And if you're only grinding and you're only doing the same thing over and over again in the sense of, you know, I have to launch this webpage, I have to launch this campaign, I have to do this, it's going to be a high-quality product. So, it's better to step away, go work out, go, you know... 

Kristen Juve:

- Yep. Take a walk. 

Dave Dougherty:

- ...cook or whatever it is. 

Kristen Juve:

- Breath fresh air. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. Get away from it. Rest your brain. Like, yeah, that is the process. 

Kristen Juve:

- I see this in my day job. I see this in my day job. I literally, my job is to help people plan, but I see them even when they're planning or if they're not really engaged in planning, they're head-down, go, go, go, go, go, what's the next thing? And they basically are in my head like a factory worker. They're like, "Oh, take this piece, put it together, pass it on." 

And there's no creativity, there's no strategy, even in their most like entry-level jobs where you can think of a strategy of how to make your job easier, or how to work with someone else. And if you're able to do that, like pick your head up, you're going to be happier, you're going to produce a better product, your leaders are going to be like, "Holy crap, this person knows what they're doing." 

And that same principle applies to doing your side thing because you're not going to have leaders, you're not going to have...but you are going to help yourself in the long run. And I have done the grind, put your head down and just take the next thing from the next person and work a ticket system, and just keep going, keep going and keep going. It killed me. It killed my creativity. 

It killed my like emotional mental health, and well-being, but also like it didn't get me anywhere. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. 

Kristen Juve:

- I was just working hard, I wasn't working smart. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, you were the hamster on the wheel. 

Kristen Juve:

- Exactly. You get stuck on it. And I think that's so easy to do, especially when you feel the pressure of having to make the money because of your own side hustle or because your main gig is your own thing. And it's not easy. The way that I'm talking about it makes it sound so easy. 

Like, just pick your head up, and everything will be fine. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Well, and that's the thing, yeah, because it's going to be different for everybody too. And that's another problem, what works for me doesn't work for you, you know, doesn't work for the next person. Which is why like I'm realizing with, you know, the new content plan that we're talking about, the batching really helps just because I have a hard time with code-switching between all these different things. 

So, like if I'm in the mindset of email marketing... 

Kristen Juve:

- Wouldn’t that be context-switching? 

Dave Dougherty:

- Context switching. Thank you. Yeah, code-switching is changing your language. So, I have a hard time jumping from one tactic to another, to another. Like, I need to just... 

Kristen Juve:

- Understandably. 

Dave Dougherty:

- It is better and easier for me to write four email newsletters in one go than it is to do one, do a campaign, do video editing, go do another one. You know, it's like, no, it has to be one lane while I do things so that I can do it. 

And I even have that with, you know, guitar playing or, you know, music production. It's like, okay, this is the songwriting thing, now I'm in producer mode. How does it sound? Was that take good enough? No. Rerecord it. You know, yeah, it's all process. 

It's all process. 

Kristen Juve:

- Yeah.

Dave Dougherty:

- So anyway, I think this is the end of this one due to time constraints. So, thank you everybody for hanging around. We'll see you on the next one. Like, subscribe, and share. 

- Let us know what questions you have. 

- Absolutely. Absolutely. I would love...yeah, we have a student questions video series with Beginning Guitar Online and I'd love to have something similar here, so, you know, questions from the community or whatever else. We'll figure out a name. 

Kristen Juve:

- We love giving our opinion. 

Dave Dougherty:

- Yeah. So, like, subscribe, and share. You know, do all the things. Help everybody find this. It really does help us out and would be awesome. So, we will see you next week. Thanks for hanging out and take care. 

Kristen Juve:

- Bye.