Sustainability, Authenticity, and Building Habits with Daily Videos

Derek Hanson:
Well, hello everybody. Welcome to Publishing Flow, a series on the Open Makers channel and Open Channels FM production. I’m your host, Derek Hanson. Today we are joined by Mark Szymanski and we’re going to talk about something that I’ve enjoyed following with him recently, which are his daily videos, which he claims he’s going to do for the rest of his life, every single day. I’m a little skeptical on that, but also following along eagerly to see if he maintains that momentum, which I think he will because we’re past 90 days now. Is that right, Mark?

Mark Szymanski:
That is true, yeah. I think we just did 92 yesterday. So yeah, we’re on our way.

Derek Hanson:
That’s pretty impressive to remain that consistent even just for, you know, three months time. So what prompted you to start with these daily videos?

Mark Szymanski:
It’s a good question. Appreciate you guys having me. Thank you so much, Derek. Yeah, I mean it, honestly, I. The actual main catalyst was a guy on Instagram called yoniman.mp4 is his username and he’s been doing it for 400 some days. So unless he, unless he trips up, I’m not going to catch him. But I think there’s some other people that have, there’s definitely other people that have been posting every single day. There’s a lot of creators out there that that’s their content strategy. They maybe don’t say that they’re literally posting, you know, day one, day two, day three. But you know, a few months ago when I saw that, I had a couple people sending it to me, like, hey, you could definitely do something like this because you love to update and just share like what you’re doing. And it, it really does come pretty naturally to me. So it’s kind of a little bit of a challenge for myself. And yeah, that was the main, the main catalyst was I didn’t come up with the idea, but I saw a couple other people doing it. I was like, I could, I could do this. So I’m going to give it a shot.

Derek Hanson:
Yeah, yeah. Once you see it out there and, and realize that you’re capable of doing the same thing, it’s, it probably makes it that much easier to jump in. So I would have a hard time finding. Well, maybe not. Maybe I wouldn’t have a hard time finding something daily to share. But where does your inspiration come from what are you looking to talk about each day?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah, I mean, it’s varied. So at the very first video was just like around the time I was, you know, finishing up the studio. So I just put very poorly produced, like, video out there, I think. And that was a really good thing to do. Cause I just, you know, it was kind of like the idea of just starting, Just start. Just put something out there, call it day one, and then improve from there. I have an extremely bad habit that I’m trying to consistently kick in my life of trying to be way too perfect and way too. Because I know, like, you can look at somebody and you can see, oh, wow, their production is really good. Let me just copy them. Let me like, literally buy all the lights, all the equipment, try to speak like them or, you know, script everything out or whatever. I’ve fallen into that trap so many times where I’m trying to not. I lose the idea of starting and iterating and I’m just trying to get to the end goal. And that’s terrible thing for me because then I just kind of get more analysis paralysis and it just gets. It just gets rough there. But in the vein of inspiration, because I was thinking about it and I was like, you know, I’m just going to. My version of this is literally just going to be documenting my day. Like, anything that I did that was somewhat worthwhile or even if it wasn’t anything crazy, I’m just going to document that. And it becomes really easy when you are doing things, even if they’re not overtly productive, so to speak, like, they’re not groundbreaking because you’re not going to have that amount of success or crazy, you know, momentum forward in one singular day. So it actually becomes in some ways a little easier to talk about because you don’t expect, you know, if you did a yearly update, it’s like, well, what did I need to get done in a year? It’s. Well, there’s a ton of things you could have got done in a year, perhaps. But if you. You zoom in to like just a day, it’s okay. Well, I did some things that slowly moved me forward. And I don’t know, it’s just kind of literally like a daily, daily diary or daily journal. And it’s been really helpful to just consistently kind of put some stuff out there. So, yeah, either it’ll either be just a recap my day or something that came into my mind from consuming some content, like a thought of the day. I’ve changed up the format a Little bit already in the first three months here. But, yeah, it’s kind of. It’s kind of what I’ve been rolling.

Derek Hanson:
With, I suppose, with daily. You have a lot of flexibility in the format, right? Because like you said. Yeah, that first video was like just an update of your studio makeover. And I mean, yeah, a lot of your stuff is like, sort of what’s happening in your life. There’s some things related to business, so it’s kind of all over the place. I mean, like, who. If you were to define your audience for these videos, what are you. Who are you hoping is watching these and what are they gaining from it?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah, so it’s a tough question. I mean, I’ve. Obviously, I’m putting these on all platforms, but the only defined audience I really feel like I have is kind of YouTube. And even that is a little fragmented. I’ve been making YouTube videos for six years, like, extremely sporadically, specifically on WordPress, it’s been about two and a half or so. And so I feel like a bulk of my audience is agency owners, freelancers, people that like WordPress, people like websites. Like, that’s probably the bulk of it, but there are some other people that are either still watching or just dead accounts or maybe whatever. Like, they, you know, part of that subscriber count, the rest of the audience. And the people that I feel like the algorithm is sending my stuff to is probably more. So I’ve kind of, like, developed over time. Like, I obviously still have an agency and I still am heavily involved in WordPress and, you know, technology and stuff like that, but I’m just realizing and understanding more about myself that I’m extremely thoughtful person. Like, I’m just constantly thinking about what I’m doing, you know, how to consistently improve, kind of like life optimization stuff. And then also, I don’t know, just sharing the stuff that I do learn, try and share. I have zero idea. I have zero understanding as to why I like to document everything that I do. But I do feel like there’s inherent value baked in there because I’m always trying to understand myself, and I feel like that could be helpful for other people. So it’s a tough question to answer, like, who is my audience? It’s probably realistically at the core of it, people that know me and then people that see me, you know, get served my stuff and, oh, that’s kind of interesting or thoughtful. And also, I would say pretty much everything I do, though, does have some tie back to a little bit of business mindset, because I’M often operating under that lens. So it’s not a great answer because as a content creator you should probably have everybody find audience. But I don’t. I’ve really struggled with that and I’m kind of like embracing it now because if I could just. My current working theory with these, if I could just be as present as possible and as broad as possible with not. I’m not going to start like making content on like underwater basket weaving or something like that, but if I could be like as human as possible, then I believe there’s other people that will follow my story a little bit more and then I could all. I could be more niched with specific content, like business content here or maybe on a different channel or something like that. But I just don’t want to lose that humanization. I feel like that’s really important and that’s the part that I enjoy the most. So I’m still working through that on the whole audience niching. But yeah, it’s a work in progress.

Derek Hanson:
Yeah, I would, anecdotally, I would say people tend to just gravitate towards like authenticity and day in the life, you know, just reality type stuff. But I really like that. Learn, try, share. That’s just, that’s like the process of mastery, right? Like I have a bit of an education background and even like going all the way back to, you know, my younger years of people like telling me like Derek, you should be a teacher, you should be a coach, you know, whatever. That moment when you are teaching other people that share moment. And that’s when you really truly know that you know your stuff. Right? And then you can just like, yeah, you can keep growing and learning like more and just that cycle is really, really cool. So I’m interested to hear just the logistics, like what is your publishing flow for your daily videos, like for you, like people might get some takeaways and like you said learn and you know, try it on their own. But specifically you say posting videos every day for the rest of my life and I’m just curious about the logistics of getting a video out every day and what happens for that occasion where you might not be able to do it on a particular day.

Mark Szymanski:
Great question. So let me hit on the first part first because that is like kind of the. I did that subconsciously, but it is like a really good like hook. I feel like I don’t, I don’t know if it’s the best but like every day for the rest of my life. Right? You hear that and you’re like That’s. I’m kind of skeptical.

Derek Hanson:
Yeah. It’s hyperbole, right?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah. Well, it’s the reaction that I feel like I was trying to manufacture a little bit with from people when I said that. And. But I would say, if I’m being completely honest with myself, there is a. There is a. A non zero. I would say it’s actually close to, you know, a hundred percent chance that I could take my phone every single day for the rest of my life, hold it up to my face, and record a video that is under three minutes. You know what I mean? Just talking about something. I don’t see a reason why I couldn’t do that. Now, the caveat to that is. Is doing that every single day a net positive for me in all facets. I honestly do believe it’s at least one notch to the right of neutral. You know what I mean? Like, my face would be on the Internet more. I would be talking. I would be flexing the muscle of just literally talking to a camera, which can extremely atrophy if you do not do it for a period of time, which I’ve struggled with. So I think there’s so many benefits to it that they could probably outweigh all the negatives. So if I. I truly believe, to start there, I truly believe that I could do that for the rest of my life. Now is just a handheld phone with no subtitles, no nothing, and just upload that. Is that really that good? I mean, it’s okay. It’s more than some people, but it’s not, you know, produced or anything like that. So what my typical flow is like that this part maybe I couldn’t do every day for the rest of my life because again, like, WordCamp us just happened as an example. Those were not really highly produced. It was on my phone. I uploaded them as soon as possible. I didn’t even get it to everybody platform. I did record one every day and I did upload to like, Instagram or whatever, but I had to kind of like backflow some of them into the other channels. But like I said, I do believe even. Let’s take again, that example, even coming back to a hotel room at 11:30 after parties or whatever at Word Camp, I still took my phone out and I just gave the things that were off the top of my head from the things that I learned kind of throughout the day, the things that I did and any sort of value there. Is that the best content that I could possibly produce? No. But is it still, you know, checking the box and Moving me forward and keeping that habit going. Yeah. So I feel like unless I’m completely devoid of like Internet connection, I could probably do it. And even then, if I was smart enough, I could possibly kind of do them, you know, a little bit earlier to kind of work around that. But yeah, I don’t know if that fully answers the question, but I do feel like logistically, long term I could probably do it. And it’s really just going to depend on how much of a stickler I am with the content production part of it, you know, the post production of adding the subtitles and trying to make it more watchable and more consumable, which I am cognizant of. But at the same time, that is a process. You know, it’s, it’s all iterative there because it could always be better. It’s never going to be perfect. So that’s my thoughts right now on that.

Derek Hanson:
Yeah, you can always iterate, right?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah.

Derek Hanson:
And the good thing is that these, in a sense, kind of what I’m hearing is yes, you have an audience that are following along and they can get some value of it. But it sounds like the most value of these videos might be for yourself in a lot of ways because it is sort of like journaling your experience and just reflecting on your day and maybe thinking ahead about what the next thing is or what you’re going to do later in that week. Do you go back and watch any of your videos or do you sit after you record them and reflect on them a little bit, like deeper? Are you keeping another personal journal or note taker?

Mark Szymanski:
So I definitely watch them every time because I’m like kind of editing them slightly with a. To get into like the process piece. I’ll record it and then I’ll put it in like an opus clip or something to automatically do the subtitles and everything like that. So I am watching them as I’m doing them going back. I’m at the point where I’m starting to get like that. Like yesterday I just kind of went through and I scrolled. I was like, wow, I’ve actually been doing this for a while because like you look at the numbers but you’re like, okay, this is, you know, three months is not really that long of a time. But you know, I’m also doing some other things, like not just business trajectory, but also like health and fitness as an idea. And I like, I went to look back, I was like, did I look or you know, did I look any different? You know, back in three months ago, or whatever. Because that’s the other thing too is I feel like we, you’re not to get super philosophical, but like we often just as people, we kind of forget where we’ve been unless we’re. I’m taking a lot of pictures, I’m taking a lot of video, but I feel like a lot of people don’t do that. So those memories are like kind of. It’s pictures worth a thousand words, all that stuff. But like it actually is kind of interesting to see yourself at. From a trajectory angle of like where you were, what you were doing a year ago, whatever, how you looked, how you felt like, et cetera. So I’m really looking forward to that. I think that’s one of the big things that drives me from the documentation standpoint of just my life. So I’m starting to do that a little bit more. I think I’ll do that more over time and it’s a really cool thing to be able to do that. I mean, I don’t know how many other people are doing. I think a lot, you know, might be now. But yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to go back and kind of like, you know, reflect on a lot of those things. But I don’t have a separate thing though. I don’t have like a, a journal or anything like that that I keep. I am also extremely weird because I’m extremely and increasingly public, vulnerable and authentic. Like, I. Like there.

Derek Hanson:
You’re doing this out in the open.

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah, there’s very little if anything that like I’m keeping. If you ask me a question, you know, I’ll, I will most likely answer it unless it’s obscenely, you know, like private or whatever. I feel better when I do that because I, I’m not like, I don’t know, I’m just being me is really kind of the, is really kind of the case. And I do truly believe that. You know, you talked about a little bit in that question of. It’s more for me, honestly. I think you, you’re lying to yourself. If you’re a content creator and you’re not honest with yourself that, that there’s some level of it that’s self serving because yeah, you know, it is. It’s not like a selfish thing, it’s not an egotistical thing. It could be, but it’s not like for me, it’s just I need to do this because this is something I want to do and I do believe that other people will get value from it. Maybe nobody will watch this stuff, whatever, but it’s still, like, out there, it’s available and. And I feel better when I do it. So.

Derek Hanson:
Yeah. And if you talk about, like, gifting and talent and the things that, you know, you’ve been, you know, if you feel prompted to do it because you just have that skill set, like you, in a sense, you’re doing yourself and others a disservice if you’re not enacting, you know, that capability that you have if you can teach, teach, you know, if you can write. Right. A lot of those things. So I want to hear maybe a little bit more specifically if you can or if you’re willing to share, like, what. What are you seeing from creating these videos? Are there any outcomes either, like, for your business connections, like, just like becoming more of a thought leader in a particular area? You said you were, like, looking, you know, you’re looking back at these videos to seeing, like, how you changed. But are there any, like, metrics or conversations that are coming out of this that you would say and point to, you know, 90 days in, this is an outcome of me doing this every single day?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah, it’s a good question. So I feel like 90 days, it seems like a lot, but it also is realistically, kind of a short timeframe too. So there’s a lot of things that can be gleamed. But I think if we check back in a year, maybe there’s even obviously more data and more interesting things that could have developed. I would say on the high level, you probably have to bucket it into a couple of different things. So if we just said like, audience or reach or followers, I’ve definitely grown my audience. Has it been, like, incredibly substantial? I would say. I would personally say no. I don’t know. Other people might say yes, but, you know, you post every single day. The algorithm picks the stuff up. Some of them, I think one or two of them have gone, like, slightly more viral than the other ones. I know there was one where I was like talking about how we leased a car for the first time. Again, just kind of like an update. And I kind of went through some of the stuff, people in there telling me, oh, yeah, you got absolutely swindled, you know, like on the price that you sold your car for or whatever. And you’re paying way too much for that. It’s like that, you know, some people, as a slight aside, some people get mad when that happens to them on the Internet. You cannot get mad. And I actually like now putting that type of content out there because it’s like, you need to hear other, you know, random, potentially anonymous NPC opinions from time to time to remind you that, like, you are doing something worth watching. Because if people have opinions on the stuff that you’re doing, good or bad, that is ultimately kind of good for you because it’ll help you either. It’ll help you reflect on, okay, I am helping people because I get that. I get, you know, a couple comments in the YouTube comments say, hey, you did a great job. Like, thanks so much, you’re a great teacher, whatever. And then you get other stuff. It’s not mean, but it’s, you know, I have an opinion. Okay, great. So I, I really like that and really enjoy that. So that’s been like, one thing. I’ve had a lot more of that, you know, whether it’s direct followers or more engagement, you post more, you will get more engagement. Like, it’s almost. If you give any level of effort on any level of consistency, you know, it’s. It’s going to happen from like a business monetary perspective. I mean, the short form stuff doesn’t do, like, a lot of ad revenue necessarily. But, you know, if we take a meta example, I might have, you know, maybe we knew each other, so maybe I wouldn’t be doing this podcast. You know, this is what this whole thing is about right now. So as a meta example, like, you get opportunities like that if you were. I think I did it at an interesting time because I already had an audience of people that knew me. So just doing it and coming up, like, I get so many people that say, bro, I open the app and you’re the first. You’re. Every time I just keep seeing your face, I just keep seeing your face. This is gonna sound egotistical, but it just goes back to the other thing. It’s just if you show up more, there is literally no. There is. The likelihood of failure is so much less because at minimum, if you’re not like, incredibly annoying, which I hope I’m not incredibly annoying, but maybe sometimes when I’m making funny jokes. But if you just show up more, I feel like that has a direct correlation to some level of success. As long as you’re trying to get better and you’re trying to help other people get better with whatever it is. So I think that all of that kind of, you know, collaboratively or, you know, accumulatively or whatever. Like, I feel like that has. It has been worth it. It has been. Again, like, I would call this all a net positive so far, but make no mistake, If I could just add this as well. I would not recommend people just go do this if they like wanted to make more money selling websites or something. Like, I am definitely not doing this in the best way possible for a given outcome. I am doing this as a flex of a muscle to train my ability to continue to do this and to become a better content creator and be better communicator and document my life. It’s not. If somebody said, mark, should I film a video every single day? If I wanted to sell more websites, I, I would say maybe, but I would be like, make sure that you’re like, like every bit of your content should be like, pick a website and make a one minute video about like how you can make it better and then that’ll show up to be like, you know what I mean? Like this. The actual content strategy itself would be way different depending on that. This is not a pure business play. And maybe I will, I’ll, you know, adapt it or I’ll create like another, you know, string of something, another series of different daily videos or something like that around that. But yeah, it’s been a little bit more intangible but I think it’s also been still beneficial and it’s a work in progress. Again, it’s only been 90 days so there’s a lot more levers I can kind of pull and iterations I can make to see, you know, how I, how I want to move it from here.

Derek Hanson:
Yeah, you touched on a couple of questions I want to dive into a little bit deeper there one is, I mean we sort of like talked about like maybe how to make this sustainable and the unique way in which you’re just like, you know, you’re finding a way to do it, even if it’s like 11:30, 11:59 at night or whatever and talking about, hey, if you want to sell more websites, probably take this approach. Like what you’re doing is very much just you and your Persona and about authenticity. So what are tips for people to do something like this to be sustainable and then maybe like how to find like what might be their avenue for creating something if it was their goal. Like I want to get out there more and be more present in people’s feeds, how can it be sustainable and how do they find. What is their sort of like path to this?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah, it’s a good question. I mean, I think the way that I normally answer questions like this is actually kind of meta because again, I do these videos. One of the reasons, again I do these videos is to learn more about myself and then share that with others and hopefully they learn more about themselves or they can be inspired to do the same or what have you. And I’ve gotten that feedback from the thing. Like if somebody came to me and asked me that question, you know, how do you make it sustainable? In some ways, the answer is not to make it sustainable at the. That’s not your main priority at first. Like you have to be able to just do. There’s no way to like, oh, I haven’t even recorded a video yet. But I want to make it sustainable and make it, you know, be able to do this long term. I would ask a ton of questions if somebody asked me that. My first question is like, do you even like recording videos? Do you even like holding your phone up or you know, talking to a camera, talking in a microphone? Have you even begun to do that? The problem that we have right now is everybody seems like they’re creating the content. You know, there’s a lot of people out there making videos and posting on social and all that sort of stuff. It’s not everyone though, you know, so it’s not like you have to feel that if you’re not doing it, you’re completely behind. As you said earlier, if you like to write, then you should write. If you like to film videos, then you should film videos. If you want to get more in physical shape, would you go to the gym and think that you could bench 100 pound, you know, weights, like dumbbells or something like that? Like, I don’t, I don’t think it’s a one to one. Even though the barrier to entry is lower, everybody has a camera and all this stuff, like you just have to start. So I don’t know if I would worry about being sustainable at first. But if you’ve already been started and you’re trying to think about how to make it more sustainable, there’s definitely a lot of tooling that could potentially do that. But I do think like the number one driving factor of is something going to be able, like this going to be able to be sustainable for you is do you actually want to do it? Do you actually feel not only it’s even more than is it driving results for me because again, I just told you, like all this isn’t necessarily driving a ton of results. You know, there’s, it’s a net positive, but it’s not like I’m getting rich from these daily videos or something like that or business is blowing up. It’s because I genuinely want to do it. Like I, again, I come in the hotel room at 11:30 and I’m like filming a video. Who the hell else is doing that?

Derek Hanson:
Right.

Mark Szymanski:
Like some people are. But if you don’t want to do that, I think you have to be honest with yourself and realize, okay, maybe that isn’t the main thing for me right now, but maybe it could be if I got myself into that, into that, you know, that mode, if I flex that muscle a little bit more, if I trained like that, so to speak, and if I realized if I do a little introspection and realize is this really the right thing for me, is this going to have an, you know, somewhat of a net positive effect? And again, like I said, if you give five minutes of time dedicated to your content strategy, you could probably, anybody listening could probably have a better, a more, we’ll call it like a more monetary outcome or business type outcome, like a better one than what I’m doing. So I think, you know, again, if, again, let’s just use website example. If you even every other day, once a week, something like that, you just turn up the frequency if you want, just picked a random website and just said, hey, this is a website that, you know, I saw on the Internet and I really think it could be improved. And I thought about doing this too. Even long form videos. Here’s six things I would do to change it. Make it better. If you’re interested in having us, you know, handle this for you, then, you know, just, you know, throw a CTA in there or something like that. It’s not rocket science. It’s just, you know, it’s not complex, it’s just kind of not easy to do consistently. And yeah, I’m just, I would say just provide value first, make that your main thing. And I’ve strayed away from that sometimes and it’s definitely hard. But yeah, long winded answer there. But that’s what I’d say.

Derek Hanson:
No, no, that’s great. And it is hard to just get started.

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah.

Derek Hanson:
And especially if you, yeah, maybe you’re an agency owner or somebody who’s trying to like grow a newsletter or some sort of following as a content creator and like, I think you touched on it Like a lot. So like you are comfortable in front of a camera and speaking and you’re passionate about it, you’re passionate about the things you talk about. So like doing this, like you said, is like those workouts, like if you’re getting into weightlifting to, you know, reach a health goal, like you’re trying to continue to get more practice in to make, you know, I might make an assumption here, but your long form content will probably continue to improve over time into a way that you find yourself being like, this is, I’m like almost at the pinnacle of how I can create video content in any format. And I would imagine some people who are not ready to get into like full length video, but they have a desire to for maybe their business, you know, strategy in some way. And this could be one example of, hey, you just need to practice more, do it in sort of something low stakes and actually don’t make it specifically about like your business even necessarily. It could just be like, make it something that’s easy for you to talk about and then you could just be creating stuff on a regular basis just to build that comfortableness, if you will, in front of a camera and talking to people.

Mark Szymanski:
The reality of the situation for most people is if they, let’s say that your product owner, agency owner, you know, want to be a content creator, somebody that wants to create some level of content. If you’re not like an active content creator right now, but you have, maybe you’re the type of person, because I know a lot of these avatars, right? Maybe you’re on X, you’re on Facebook, you know, people know your name, right? Because this is very common. People know your name, but they don’t really know your face other than your profile picture because you’re not out there on a lot of video. You’re not out there on a lot of like other photos and stuff like that, but you are somehow known. Like again, maybe you have a product or maybe you’re just commenting you’re a fan, etc. Think about the reality of that situation. People know you, but they just don’t really know you. Like they know of your identity, they might even know some of your thoughts, but they don’t know like the real you. If they were like, you know, hanging out with you or just chatting with you in person, right? Well, if you, the video that you would put up, like if you wanted to put up some videos about your product or whatever, it doesn’t need to be good. Like it, the first one absolutely doesn’t need to Be good. It just needs to be a video because people are going to be inherently interested. Oh, oh, you know, John Joe, John Doe, whoever. I’ve seen him in so many comments. I’ve seen him on Exxon, that stuff. If a video pops up, just imagine you’re scrolling through your feed, you see this guy that you know all the time, a guy or gal that you know, and then you see a video and you’re like, I’m gonna click that. I almost have a parasocial relationship just from the interactions I’ve been waiting to.

Derek Hanson:
Hear from this person.

Mark Szymanski:
Right, exactly like you. Like, that’s very real. Now, again, video might not be that great. You might not be very good at first, but the more that you do that, you know, I feel like it’s always. This is always, like, a tough conversation to have because it’s a really simple thing, but it’s also, like, really difficult to actually, you know, do. And I’m empathetic to that. I wish I had better answers other than literally just start and then try to optimize as you’re going to. But again, I would reiterate that you have to be. The first question you have to ask yourself if you’re listening to a podcast like this is you have to be extremely honest with yourself as to where you’re at. Have you been posting videos and you’re not getting the results that you want? Or are you, like, deeper in the process? Where are you? And depending on where you’re at, the actual advice that you need to hear is very different. If you’ve never posted a video, you literally just need to start posting videos and literally basically not ask any questions until you’re at least 10, 20, 30 videos in. And honestly, I have to say this because this is like, the most important lesson that I’ve ever learned. I used to think that I could learn everything from other people’s mistakes, and I thought that was the best way to learn because then I wouldn’t have to make them myself. But I quickly realized very recently, too, that if I don’t try and do some stuff and actually make some mistakes or actually just literally learn from my own experience, I start to just not make as much progress. Because if I’m not doing the thing, then I don’t feel the struggle, I don’t feel the failure, I don’t feel, you know, whatever. And then if I’m just kind of talking about it or learning through other people, then I’m never really going to learn it, and I’m not going to be doing the thing. So it doesn’t even matter because, like, I won’t be actually, you know, progressing in any way. So I say that to say that if you need to start, then you absolutely just need to start. And then honestly, this is really, really weird. If you made 50 videos, you honestly probably wouldn’t even have to ask a lot of questions because you would inherently start to know because you’re probably a half. You know, you’re an intelligent person, you’re somebody that wants to do it, you’re ambitious. You just get into this cycle where you’re like, that didn’t look that good. Let me make the next thing better. You didn’t ask anybody for that advice. Like a lot of times maybe like certain shit, like camera setups or something, some weird stuff like that, but like, you will naturally get better because you will want, you will understand inherently the things that you could improve on. And then you will just do them. You just have more shots, you know what I mean? You have more reps and you have more opportunities to improve is really kind of the what it boils down to.

Derek Hanson:
And you have a greater percentage of potential success than failure, like the more times you try it. Right? That’s just basic math. And yeah, I mean, I like this. Just get started. Like, my writing and academic background is, you know, kind of like two phrases about, like just getting something out there. Because if you don’t get it out there, you can’t iterate on it, right? So it’s version one is better than version none. And then when you get that out, you just produce your shitty first draft because it’s always going to be that way. It’s going to be bad, but it’s going to improve. But then as you continue to do things over time than that first version, that first draft is going to have less, you know, revisions that you have to make. So you’re going to hone in and make it better over time. So, yeah. Anyone listening to this and looking to get into publishing content specifically, We’ve been talking about video, but this, you know, we said this could be anything. Maybe it’s just writing or speaking. Just get started, but also have that reflection ahead of time. I think, Mark, you’re making a really great point. Should you do this? Ask yourself why you want to do it. And if you believe that, you should literally just get started.

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah, 100%. Yep.

Derek Hanson:
Well, so we’ve kind of heard a little bit like what the plans for this going forward might be. But do you, what have you learned so far? That you’re like, hey, I think I could maybe tweak it in this way for the next 30 videos. Or is it just, hey, this is just daily. I’m going to change it as it goes. Do you have plans, if any?

Mark Szymanski:
Definitely have some thoughts, yeah. I mean, so again, I’m at the point now where, you know, again, if I was comparing myself to somebody who hasn’t filmed any videos, you know, 90 days in, I could start to think a little bit about some level of sustainability or, you know, some level of like iteration and stuff like that. I feel like I’ve had enough of those reps to think a little bit deeper about it. Sustainability wise. I think that I’m on a decent track again. I have the, you know, the kind of the cadence where it’s. Even if it’s on my phone or if it’s sitting at this desk or whatever, then you know, there’s. I could do it. And I’m the type of person, I feel like I could do that. So sustainability. I’m not like super concerned about what I’m actually trying to think about and slowly implement or slowly iterate on is we’re at the point now where you do have to ask yourself if you’re being like cognizant of your time investment, which it’s not really a big time investment, it’s less than an hour a day. But you have to be cognizant of your time. Especially as my responsibilities continue to increase. What is the best use of my time and is this continuously going to be a good net positive for me? Well, at some point I do need to realize that I should probably make the content more effective. So it could still be the same topic and it, you know, and maybe it could be more again niched in certain areas on certain days, like thoughts and different things that are going on, you know, whatever, whatever. That it’s not just fully documenting what I’m doing, but for instance, like last night, you know, didn’t have anything super crazy. It was Labor Day yesterday and I didn’t really have any crazy thoughts that I had been pondering on. So I talked about like a random Amazon order that I just got that was just like kind of like weird. And some of it was like kind of business content related. Some of it was just like personal stuff in the house and stuff like that or whatever. And it’s. That’s fine. I’m not ever gonna like be like, okay, I can’t post this. That’s not my personality. But at the same time, I do. This goes back to what I was saying earlier is I’ve taken like, from a sponsorship content perspective, I’ve taken money for projects and things that I don’t feel incredibly called to do. And I, I don’t feel like there’s a great way to provide like a ton of value. It doesn’t like completely resonate with me. What I need to do a little bit more in these shorts is like kind of make sure that I’m. What I’m actually trying to think about and slowly implement or slowly iterate on is we’re at the point now where you do have to ask yourself if you’re being, if you’re being like cognizant of your time investment, which it’s not really a big time investment, it’s less than an hour a day. But you have to be cognizant of your time. Especially as my responsibilities continue to increase. Like, what is the best use of my time and is this continuously going to be a good net positive for me? Well, at some point I do need to realize that I should probably make the content more effective. So it could still be the same topic and you know, and maybe it could be more again niched in certain areas on certain days, like thoughts and different things that are going on, like, you know, whatever, whatever that it’s not just fully documenting what I’m doing. But so, but for instance, like last night, you know, didn’t have anything super crazy. It was Labor Day yesterday. And like, I didn’t really have any crazy like thoughts that I had been pondering on. So I talked about like a random Amazon order that I, that I just got that was just like kind of like weird. And some of it was like kind of business content related. Some of it was just like personal stuff in the house and stuff like that or whatever. And it’s like, that’s fine. I’m not, I’m not ever gonna like be like, okay, I can’t post this. That’s not my personality. But, but at the same time, I do. This goes back to what I was saying earlier is I’ve taken like from a sponsorship content perspective. I’ve taken money for, for projects and things that I don’t like, feel incredibly called to do. And I can’t like, I don’t feel like a great way to. I don’t feel like there’s a great way to provide like a ton of value. It doesn’t like completely resonate with me. What I need to do a little bit more in these shorts is like, kind of make sure that I’m, I don’t know, creating them for value first in a lot of ways. And I know a lot of this is vague, but that’s kind of the one thing that I’m thinking about is like, be a little bit more calculated and continue to improve the content strategy of these daily videos. Like, again, I look at the people that I’ve gotten, like I mentioned at the top, like yoni man, MP4 or whatever.

Derek Hanson:
He.

Mark Szymanski:
Yoni Smolar is his name. And he, he’s been doing this 400 some days, like I said. And he. And it’s not every day. Some of the days he’s kind of like talking about what he did. Some of the days he’s talking about like a specific top, but it’s a little bit more engaging. Maybe, you know, he’s not sitting with this wall behind him every single time. You know what I mean? Maybe I’ll start doing them in different places. I’ve done that a couple times. But it’s just a fine line. You want to make the content better without burning yourself out, forcing yourself to have to do random stuff every single day. And that’s the thing that I’m. That I’m balancing right now. But I would say just to kind of concisely just continue to improve the content strategy so more people see it, it resonates with more people and I get a better return on my time investment for doing them while still staying true to, you know, the actual goal that I set out, which is again, flex the muscle of content creation, document what I’m doing and learn, try and share the things that I’m going through.

Derek Hanson:
I think that’s perfect way to wrap up sort of like what you’ve been doing and how to keep moving forward. And if anyone is interested in following along with Mark’s journey, where can everybody find you? Mark?

Mark Szymanski:
Yeah. Appreciate it. If you just type in MJS bio, it’s kind of like my links page and you can see all my, you know, whatever social platform you want to follow me on there, my website, everything like that, it’s all there. But yeah, really appreciate it, Derek. Thank you so much.

Derek Hanson:
Absolutely. So I definitely think in a year we’re going to check back in and we want to see how this journey went. So, yeah. Thanks for joining us today, everyone. Thanks for listening to Publishing Flow. We’ll catch you on the next episode.