Blog

Introduction

Hey there. So welcome to episode number two of the Brilliantio podcast. And I can hardly believe I’m doing this. I mean, really, I’m sitting in my living room, looking out over the bay here in Penarth thinking to myself, will I really be doing a podcast every single day for the rest of this year, at least, maybe even for the rest of my life. 

One Funnel Away

And I think what’s really put me on this path is following the One Funnel Away challenge with Russell Brunson. Because the point is that, really, if you want to actually truly share what you’ve got, and what you want to give, truly share your dreams truly bring people along with you, you really do have to publish every day, you have to become a really good publisher. And as someone who had the great privilege of having my films shown around the world, and audiences of millions, even 10s of millions of people, over 20-25 years, I had a free ticket. 

The networks, the TV networks will promote my stuff. And, you know, I was incredibly privileged to have that to have that happening. And in a way, it was an illusion, I wasn’t really aware of how lucky I was, until I decided to step down from that career not to make so many films to actually try a different path. 

And that, for me, that had a number of reasons. I mean, I was making investigative films around the world, on stuff like terrorism, and massacres, and wars, and all sorts of dark, grim stuff. So partly, for me, it’s been a choice to step away from, if you like the dark side, and to actually put my mind into into places which are more positive and freer and more liberating. 

But also, it’s, it’s to do with the change in the nature of what’s happened with television over the years. 

The net, it’s very, very difficult now to get networks to invest in stories that are really serious stories that really, truly do touch international politics, or matters of true international concern. 

Documentary films

And the thing about documentary film, which is what I did for many, many years, is that, in a way, it’s the best form to truly go deep and understand something, because in order to make a great documentary film, you have to spend a long, long time researching it, you have to spend time with the people involved in the story, you have to formulate your own decisions about and your own position about, about what you truly feel about something, you have to you have to then find the way find the path, to take that understanding to take that viewpoint into a creative experience, a documentary film that is going to retain engagement and hold people’s interest. 

And and basically work as a film to work in terms of drama. So it’s, it’s really a challenging art and craft, and one that I was truly privileged to do over a long period of time, was very, very privileged to have the audience served up to me on a plate. 

Brilliantio Academy

But when you come out, and you start doing your own thing, and you’re launching your own Academy, as I’m doing, and you’re launching, you know, membership, and you want people to join that and to participate and to sign up, and obviously you want some people to buy the various things inside that Academy, you know, how do you start to develop an audience? And how do you actually start to capture people’s imagination? How do you how do you get that out there basically, in a way that that inspires people that that when they understand that there’s something different there, they understand the quality of what it is you’re trying to do. And they understand that this is something for them. 

Daily Publishing

And this is where this is where the daily publishing comes in. This is why I’ve started the podcast, this is why I’m now syndicating all over the shop. This is why I’m I’m writing on Medium now. This is why I’m doing daily Facebook Lives inside the Brilliantio group. And and why I’m what you know why I’m basically putting myself out there to the maximum possible to share what I’ve got to share what’s what’s in my mind, and to share the journey of how all of this is unfolding. 

Creating a legacy

Because really, I’m at the stage where I’m trying to I’m trying to create the legacy, I would like a legacy, not only to be the guy who made all these, all these, you know, hard hitting investigative films in Russia, the Middle East, and so forth. But actually, as a guy who, who then turned the understanding and the process of doing those films, into something that can be genuinely helpful for all sorts of people, and particularly people with messages worth telling.

Nothing makes me angry, or really then seeing people who, if you like have understood, understood the depths of Storytelling who’ve gone deep, deep into the emotional dynamics of of Story and Storytelling, and to then turn that art and craft to the dark side, who helped out negative forces in the world, as I would really like for what I’m creating with Brilliantio Academy to help to help the people who have positive messages, and who are trying to help people trying to move things forward and trying to be progressive. 

Alright, so political rant over! 

Controlling idea flow

So I thought I would kind of tell you a bit about the way in which I’m trying to, because my mind rattles with ideas, I have 1000 ideas flooding through my brain, particularly when I you know, in the first hour after I wake up, and when I go down to the pool every morning and do a swim. And I have all these ideas racing around. And in a way, the worst thing you can do, or the worst thing I find I do is to go into immediate capture capture mode. In other words, to try to capture every single idea and start to develop every single idea because in that way, I found madness lies, you just try to chase too many hands across the field. It’s absolutely hopeless. 

And so one of the things that occurred me was that, in fact, the great benefits of swimming for me is that by swimming and, and meditating and focusing on breathing, and actually some ideas coming through at the same time. 

The In fact, in that process, every single morning, the best ideas start to come through the ones that really matter. They somehow keep reappearing in my mind, such the point that by the time I’m coming out of the pool and starting to walk away from the pool, I have one or two or three ideas, I think actually these are these are really good. Yeah, these are these are actually starting to starting to really work. And then the other crazy thing is that, as I was swimming this morning, I was thinking, in fact, I’m starting to get better at this, you know, I’ve been daily swimming now for a few weeks. And I’m beginning to feel the changes in in the swimming, I’m beginning to feel the alignment of the muscles, the alignment of the body, and beginning to relax more with the breath and trust the breath more and not be scared about about running out of breath. As I swim, I’m starting to feel the way in which the shoulders are working, I’m starting to feel the elongation of the body, which is helping to pass through the water. 

And you may not be a swimming geek and a nor am I really, but this is stuff that I’m teaching myself. And it’s stuff that I’m observing about about the about what’s going on. And so the first thing I realised was “Hang on a second! This is this is actually a wonderful parallel for what’s actually happening in my business life and what’s going on with with, with Brilliantio Academy and the Facebook group and the publishing and all of this stuff and developing the funnels and developing the pages and developing the products, developing the offers!” 

It’s all, as you immerse yourself in something, and providing you do it daily, you can start to I think you can start to actually really get a lot better at it. And I’m beginning to feel that about myself. And it’s very, very exciting when that when that happens.

For a long time, I it was difficult for me to get excited about stuff. I I guess I felt jaded, and I thought I’d seen it all. And I felt pretty cynical about about a lot of the stuff I see online, maybe I’m writing a bit skeptical. But I did feel very, very skeptical about about a lot of stuff. And actually getting to a position where you can open yourself up a bit and start to trust a bit more is is really is really valuable and start to perhaps develop an awareness of what is truly valuable, and what is not really delivering. 

How do we know what is real?

And I think one of the great signals of that is you can feel whether someone is actually truly sharing with you, or whether they’re just holding back. Are they teasing you just tease, tease, tease tease and buy my stuff? 

Or are they actually coming from a position of authenticity where they’re truly sharing what it is they’ve got, they’re truly trying, you know, trying to get you to, to a better place and what you’re doing, whether we’re not actually sharing the tactics, they’re sharing the strategies, they’re actually saying, what is working for them, and what isn’t working for them, that basically they’re being totally straight with you, as a friend would be. 

And they were speaking with you, as if, as they would wish to be spoken to themselves. That’s a very important guiding principle for me. And it’s an extremely important guiding principle for what I’m trying to do with with with the Academy, which is to build everything inside that in precisely the way that I personally would appreciate. If I was coming in as a student of that Academy, what are the things that I would truly need? What are the things I would appreciate? How would I be wish to be fed back to how what would actually bring my Storytelling and stories, and messaging and marketing forward in a way that’s truly helpful and doesn’t waste my time doesn’t put me on false paths is absolutely honest, Where, where, where there’s this lack of clarity, where it’s clear where there’s an experiment going on which clear where something absolutely has worked, that is the place I would want to be in. 

And so that’s a very important guiding principle for me on the design of everything going on. So just before I leave the the swimming point, I found also that it really matters to have breakfast first, before you swim, because the thing is that if you eat after exercise, okay, and if you, you know, if you do a morning exercise, a morning walk, and then you have breakfast, for example, personally, I find it slows me down something horrible, I find that, you know, I find that I just I mean, I’m moving at half pace, if my time is full, basically. 

Keeping energy and ideas flowing

And so by having breakfast early, and then swimming, and then going and going into the working day, I find it so much easier. I really do. 

Okay, so some of the thoughts on my mind this morning, as I’m trying to develop all of this was, you know, want to use with this daily publishing idea. Because I come from a video and film background. But podcasting, I’ve realised maybe something really great because there’s a different type of intimacy with podcasting. And there’s a different kind of freedom, when you’re actually creating it, you don’t have to actually appear in the camera, you don’t have to remember to look in the camera and to, to to design things. So that in fact, you’re not actually putting people off in front of a camera. 

Podcasting

Whereas with podcasting, it really has to do with the flow of ideas, and and how your mind is working and the things you’re accessing and the stuff you’re trying to communicate. 

And a podcast, I think has a very different nature to it. And I did my very first one yesterday, as you know, and actually I loved it, I really liked the feeling of being able to communicate in this way. And to be with people in this way. In in a very simple and intimate way. I love the fact that in this podcast, Anchor FM, that it’s possible for people to actually leave a quick voice message. So they can you know, in fact, I’ll play a couple later on from John and Sue. 

But but they, you know, the idea that people can feed in a question they can feed an appoint, they can feed in a reaction, they can, they can say something about what they are doing, they can they can talk about their business, they can talk about their story, they can talk about the thing, they writing the film, they’re making the challenges of that, that’s mind blowingly wonderful from where I’m sitting, because it means that one opens up a dialogue, there’s a true dialogue going on inside the podcast creation process, which is separate and different from interviewing someone live or even in pre record, where if you like it to kind of formal or semi formal interview, whether it’s positioned as a chat, or whether it’s framed as a as a kind of masterclass interview or webinar or whatever the hell, the point is that an interview is different from actually having reactions on the know coming in and feeding those in and actually thinking about them. And, and, and coming up with some sort of sensible answer. 

That’s another level of of what one can do with a podcast. And so actually, I’m deeply appreciative to Anchor FM for such a simple process. 

I’ll talk a little bit more about Anchor anchor late later on. But one of I suppose one of the things about the daily publishing that I thought about, and I thought, you know, is this a good idea and, and this was a block for me for a long time, is that I was scared of bombarding people. 

Imposter Syndrome

You know, if you go on a camera, every day, if you do a live every day, you keep putting those lives up, that you cut, you start to feel that you’re a bit of a clown, you start to feel your, you know, you’re kind of you’re imposing on people that, you know, you’re just crowding them out, they that they’re going to hear too much of you, and they just won’t like you. And and, you know, they, you know that somehow this is this has to do with an ego thing that, you know, you’re going to become sort of some sort of presenter or want to be presented if one does this. 

So this was very off putting, right you know, how not to bombard people how to get past that feeling, that I’m just basically getting on people’s nerves, and they’re just going to turn away and not like me, because it’s not even about buying the stuff. It’s actually about whether they, whether they, you know, they connect with me and whether they liked me whether they want to share some time, whether they want to learn with me. And that was a huge block for me, actually. 

And I think that two things I realized, really today, and maybe I’m realizing these things very late in the day. 

One was that, of course, people just simply have the choice not to watch not to engage not to not to not to process the stuff, there’s no reason at all, why people should feel crowded, because they can simply walk past they cannot they cannot actually be there, they cannot listen to it, they cannot watch it. So why on earth have you got this fear that somehow you’re imposing? All you’re doing is just putting your message out there. And all you know, it’s simply sharing what you can and what’s valuable, and putting it out in different forms, in text and in, in video and in, in audio, and maybe in some other ways as well. that people can absorb and see in different ways, in the way that they like best. And you know, but the real breakthrough for me was to realize, hang on a sec, I can do the podcast every day. And it’s here in this podcast where you’re going to really hear if you like the full unburdening of my soul, as I go through the Brilliantio Academy, development and process and, and where I really will share everything on my mind, as as I’m going through this process. And and and what I’m learning about Story and Storytelling and Story Craft, And the business side of developing the Academy. So so it’ll be here in the podcast. 

How to combine video and podcasts

But I realized that on video, I can actually just do Lives, which tease the podcast, which summarize it, which makes some of the points. But if you really, we want to get deep, deep into the stuff, come along to the podcast, and listen. 

And I also realized that the podcast is a medium where, you know, one can be doing something else and have the podcast going in the background almost. And then when you when you when your ear peak picks up a point that you’re particularly interested in, you can drop what it is you’re doing for, excuse me for a moment, and then you can come to the podcast, and then come back. And I realized I realized that actually, that was a that was a way to, you have to think about this, again, to think about it from the point of view of the person actually, you know, sharing that space with you, whether it’s video, or whether it’s podcasting, to think about the audience, not only in terms of you know, who is the audience? 

And what is their interest? And, and and, you know, what do they want to get here? And, you know, what is one trying to do with that audience, but to think also in terms of how the individual audience experience in is, with the different forms of publishing that one is doing. And that again, was it was it was a very big breakthrough for me. And to start thinking about, also about well, okay, where do I put specific tactics and strategies to do with Story and Storytelling, Story construction, Story, architecture, Storytelling. And I realized that, in fact, the group and the membership site is probably the right place to really kind of lay out step by step stuff.

But if you like the background stuff, the philosophy, the stuff about how I’m coming to the understandings of things is much, much better suited in the podcast. So that’s enough of me warbling on for a bit. Let’s now hear from a couple of people who have been sharing this journey so far, and who had a couple of specific questions about what’s going on here and how all this is being organized, and why you know why I’m doing things and the way I am. First up is so and let’s hear what Sue had to say yesterday:

Sue Mosely Question

Hi, Paul, it’s Sue Mosley. I just want to say how much I’m enjoying Brilliantio I’m getting so much from it. And I’m quite excited for what’s coming. I’ve noticed that using Russell Brunson one funnel, the way challenge to do this and being on the receiving end, I’ve got to say, it’s quite an enjoyable process. And I would actually like to do this challenge myself. But I’m concerned about whether I need a big following in order to make it work. I notice you’ve got over 25,000 students on you, to me, and nearly 700 members in your Facebook group, could you have done this challenge without having those contacts? Like, if you didn’t have any contacts at all, to think you still could have launched this text successfully using the challenge?

Answer to Sue Mosely

Well, so first of all, thank you very much for for that, for those questions. And for that comment. And, you know, I really, really appreciate it, I appreciate the fact that, you know, you’re feeding back on the posts in the group. And I also really appreciate the fact that, you know, you took the time to, to just record a quick voice message for this podcast. 

How to participate in this podcast

And actually, on that note, anyone else who’s got a question or a point, or any kind of comment, or a story to share, please do simply record recorded into this podcast, because it’s an amazing way for me to understand, you know, what’s on your mind and to, to help you to respond, you know, to tell you what’s going on, basically, look, I’m very happy that you know, you’re excited for what’s coming. And, and that you’re enjoying the experience of being on the receiving end of, if you like Russell Brunson. One funnel away, methods and techniques and so forth. 

Where all this stuff comes from

And I have to tell you that what I’m I’m doing here with the podcast and in the group, and and elsewhere, is, is basically coming obviously, from the experience of professional lifetime. And it’s coming from 2530 years of filmmaking and storytelling, and, and, and all of that. 

So all of that’s coming into, I suppose what I’m doing now, plus the experience of making these courses on you to me over three or four years, where, frankly, it’s a question of just basically doing it in front of a camera, and performing in front of a camera instructing in front of a camera to the point where that starts to feel more fluid and more easy. 

And you know, I won’t kid you. I mean, it’s still, it’s still not totally fluid and fluent for me to come in front of a camera and teach. I don’t always get it, right. It doesn’t always it doesn’t always work perfectly. But you know, that experience over three or four years also is feeding into I suppose what’s now going on, but wants to changed by doing the one funnel away challenge is that it’s there’s a structured approach to the, to the marketing and launching, which, honestly, I haven’t seen in quite as clear and organized fashion anywhere else. 

I mean, I’ve taken various programs over the years, I’ve read up a whole stack of stuff. But it’s quite rare to come across something which not only lays out a roadmap really clearly, even if you’ve got some experience like me. But to be able to follow that roadmap really clearly step by step, and to have a significant amount of exercises every day with that. I mean, you know, no kidding, it takes one to three hours of work every day to follow along with that challenge. And you know, some people might think, and I and I did as well, I thought, well, you know, I mean, honestly, am I really get into this? Am I really going to spend one or two or three hours a day? What about all the other stuff I’ve got to do? all my other commitments. 

The One Funnel Away Challenge

And then I realized that, in fact, there’s the the old story about the Buddhist, the Buddhist monk replying to the businessman, and he had the businessman says, I don’t have time to meditate for an hour a day. And the monk’s reply was, well, if you don’t have time to meditate, once a day, you should be meditating two hours. So one hour a day, you should be meditating two hours a day. And that’s, that’s kind of that’s kind of the way I feel about the about the one funnel away challenge that in fact, it’s, it’s, it’s, um, it’s something where if you invest the time in actually doing what they tell you to do, I think the results are going to be absolutely amazing, both in terms of in terms of constructing the funnel, in terms of communication, in terms of storytelling, in terms of the strategy of actually setting up a movement and message based business. 

Communication in business

And that sounds very, very kind of fancy. But really, if you look at the successful businesses, the success for entrepreneurs, there’s almost always a very, very big part of that is the communication. And, and the way that they’re thinking about how to communicate what messages to communicate, how does that align to what they’re trying to sell? How does how, basically, how does the whole thing hang together in a coherent fashion, but one that actually is very fluid and natural, and authentic, and where, you know, you’re not having to craft, you know, pixel pixel, perfect design and all this kind of stuff. 

Or you can just clear all of that stuff out of the way, and actually get to the really important thing, which is helping people. And as Frank Kern says, “How do you help people? By helping them!” So, you know, yet I mean, it is it is a really worthwhile thing. 

Starting without an audience

But you have to come to your point, could I have done this? couldn’t have done this without having a huge Udemy audience and and 700 people in the Facebook group? And and indeed, I have an email list as well.

Well, first of all, I haven’t actually messaged the list yet about a hola stuff, I want to actually think a little bit more about how exactly to to craft that because the people on that list knew me through storyoptic, which is my previous brand. And, you know, I want to be very careful that basically, they don’t think, you know, who knows, it’s just messaging me, you know, who is what is this all about? 

So I want to design that quite carefully. 

But the but the Udemy audience and the Facebook group? Yeah, I mean, it has been helpful in the sense that I was able to get probably, I would say, 50, or 60 people more out of the hundred and 90, who came across from elsewhere, to come on to the the special beta founder member level of, of Brilliantio Academy, which, as you know, is free entry. 

And as you know, the reason why I designed that was to was to basically have people to have a caucus of members already inside the site, it already inside the membership when it launches, to already have content discussions and feedback and, you know, some real activity going on prior to bringing in paying members. 

So yeah, I mean, I won’t lie. I mean, that has been incredibly helpful to have that. 

That said, Would I do what I’m doing now, if I didn’t actually have that pre existing on audience? Answer? Absolutely. Would I be podcasting daily? Yes. Would I be doing Facebook Lives? Yes. Would I be syndicating that across to a blog and then using a wonderful app called missing letter to put that across Twitter and and various Facebook pages and LinkedIn and even to medium as well? Absolutely, yes. 

Because at the end of the day, this is about people connecting with you, and understanding what it is you’ve got to share, you know, to resonate with you or not resonate with you to come on the journey with you and to let you know, all ships rise together, right? A rising tide lifts all boats, boats, it’s exactly like that. So yes, I absolutely would be would be following the same methods as Russell Brunson and Stephen Lawson teaching in that challenge. 

The Value of Regular Communication

To do what I’m known to do what I’m now doing, I think it’s an absolutely vital part of launching a membership site to to do this content exchange with people over a period of time to truly understand what is helping people and what is not. And, and which, which styles of stuff is helping people and which not, you know, and to look at the reactions and everything else. 

So absolutely, I would be doing it, I’m could so yeah, could I have launched successfully? Yes, I could have launched successfully, maybe I would have, maybe I would have been a little bit slower in actually opening up the the waitlist for the for the Academy, it, that’s true, I think I probably would have worked the content strategy a little bit longer, I would have done the publishing, if you like a little bit longer, perhaps for a month prior to then starting to ask people to join a waitlist. That’s true if I was starting with zero audience. 

The Bestseller Courses Program

But keep one thing in mind, which is that you can actually, you know, partner up with people who, who have audiences work with them to actually start to gain your audience your own audience faster, and in a more leveraged way. 

I mean, I, for example, I’m running something called Bestseller courses right now, where I’m working one on one with two people at the moment. And, you know, those, I’m helping those people through the process of actually putting up their first online courses are new to me. And I will co co instructor and co market those courses out to my 25,000 students, and help them actually get an audience into their first online course. You know, and we’re doing that on a 50:50 split, right? 

So so there are ways to actually to work with people to actually grow your audience and, and develop faster than simply trying to do it all on your own and just launching out on your own on to you to me. And actually, by the way, if you’re interested in in doing that, please simply message me and and we can talk about it. And you know, I can I can learn what it is you’ve got to teach and and you know, we can we can talk about that deal. So that applies for anyone listening to this, this podcast, by the way, if you need to reach me, it’s super simple. It’s paul@brilliantio.com. There you go. That’s my email address. 

So yeah, that’s that’s that’s really what I think about launching and building an audience and what have you. So the next question I had was actually from John in California. So let’s have a quick listen to his question. And then I’ll get into that.

John Chang Question

John from sunny Southern California, just wanted to ask you about what made you decide to use Anchor FM for Brilliantio. And, of course, maybe talking to the broader idea of you know how to not let tech get into the way of Storytelling. Thanks so much, as always, and look forward to your answer.

Response to John Chang

Hi, John, first of all, lucky you out in Southern California, I spent, I spent a number of very, very happy trips out to La Jolla. when I was making my last film, I had the great privilege to spend time with the oceanographer Walter monk in at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla. So yeah, what a wonderful part of the world to live in. Lucky you. 

Why am I using Anchor FM

But look, why did I decide to use Anchor FM? 

Let’s do with a specific question first. Well, in truth, the what they call in the Special Forces, the flash the bang time on this one was extremely quick. Sometimes I just I just go purely on instinct. I, you know, Russell Brunson mentioned it. I downloaded the app, I had a quick look at it. I thought, yeah, she let’s just try this out. I recorded yesterday’s teaser, published it up and realized, “Oh, my God, this is so easy! This is so quick!” This is just I mean, there’s just no barriers to entry here at all. 

And prior to that, I you know, with podcasting, I had tried to do a little bit, about one or two years ago, I thought I’d give it a go. So you know, I set up the professional mic, I had the desktop computer, you know, it was all perfect. I was looking into solutions for interviewing people without feedback and, you know, without without kind of too much noise on the line. And, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I absolutely got into kind of tech, jungle tech overwhelm. And you know, researching which syndication service, should I use it cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And this basically was a potential path to madness. You know, you can just go crazy with this stuff. I did not want to go crazy. 

So I gave it up. And I went back to video, and I went back to writing and so forth. 

With with this Anchor FM thing, it has just been so as I say, so fast and fluid to do it. And what’s been going on today is I’ve been experimenting with the editing side of it. So you know, can I trim audio files? How do I move stuff around? Can I put little interludes in, and you know, all of this kind of stuff. And again, they’ve made that super simple, they really have simplified it. 

So honestly, I can’t see any reason not to use them. If I need to syndicate elsewhere, or put put the put the audio books, or put them available elsewhere, I imagine it’s a simple download and simply upload it to somewhere and and you know, Bob’s your uncle. 

The beauty, as you know, of audio files is they’re much smaller than much it’s much easier to work with on a on a on a device that you easier to transport. So there’s all sorts of, you know, economies of micro scale associated with with audio. And so I think I think it’s, it’s a game changer, honestly, it really, really is. 

So yeah, I mean, I will keep you updated on that as I go along. But I mean, quite literally, right now I’m recording on an iPhone with a little rotor lavelier mic on the iPhone, I think the audio quality is pretty damn good. No, it’s not professional studio quality sound. I can do that if I wished because I have all the condenser microphones and the voice booth and all the rest of it. Because I do as you as you know, I do audiobook narration as well. But you know, I’m not going to use all that stuff to do this. 

The whole point of, it seems to me of a great podcast, is to have life and energy and to allow yourself to be free. You know, I have a whiteboard in front of me, I just I just wrote out your question and Sue’s, I wrote down a very quickly sketch of what I wanted to talk about today. And that’s it. And then off I go. And the nice thing about the Anchor FM thing is that you don’t feel constrained by the tech around you you don’t feel constrained about you know, is this, is this audio perfect? Or did I? Did I land on the right note here? Or did I introduce that correctly? Or Where should I put the interlude? Or, you know, and so forth, it just takes all of that out of the way. And I think that’s the single most valuable thing about it. 

Actually, do I believe them when they say that the third most popular podcasting option on the market, I have no idea, honestly, what I do know is that this podcast was up on Spotify within six hours. And I believe it’s going to be up on iTunes within five to seven days. I mean, I just find that I find that amazing. 

And, you know, the first thing I did was put it through transcription. So I put it into Otter AI, which is a wonderful transcription service, by the way, I had a transcript, I quickly tweaked that I put it up onto my blog. 

And then I put that straight out to Medium. And something called Missingettr is now syndicating that across various social media sites. 

So you know, I mean, this in a way is I don’t want to get caught up with technical steps in terms of the teaching and learning the two way channel between me and people who want to learn with me, and want to hear about my experience, and who wants to learn the art and craft of storytelling, I want to get all that stuff out of the way as much as possible. That stuff just gets in the way of the message and the inspiration. 

And as I was saying earlier in the podcast in this podcast, you know, for me, it’s about calming the mind, in a way, allowing the best two or three ideas to come forward from the chaos that is my mind, from the thousand thoughts rushing around, isolate out the two or three really good ones. 

And then actually then, you know, capture those and develop those really as fast as possible, and to publish those as widely as possible without getting caught up in all the all the byways and alleyways that one could go down. Yeah. 

Tech, story craft and storytelling

When it comes to Storytelling, that’s a great question and Story construction, and tech, and where does tech play a role? Where doesn’t it? I think that if, for example, I’m scripting a film, I will use certain bits of tech, I mean, I love a timeline to do to do chronologies and timelines and, and parallel Storytelling and stuff like that. And we’ll get into a on that on another occasion. Scrivener is, for my money, the Best Writing app on the market. I know some people like Ulysses, and you know, I’ve tried Ulysses, and I’ve tried various other various other options. 

But I think keep coming back to Scrivener, because it’s so reliable, the stuff is safe, it’s backed up the they seem to keep developing the corkboard and the outline and mode and everything else. So you know, yes, I am a bit of a tech geek for some of the tools of if you like constructing stories, but I think it’s again, very, very important to try to minimize that tech, getting in the way of the flow. 

Ignore the Words when writing

A great tip I found the other day, which is going into the book I’m writing between now and Sunday is to is to get to get the words out of the way when you’re writing. And that might sound like a really strange idea. But bear with me a sec, you know, just try the next time you write a blog article or you write a chapter for a book, try writing it without actually looking at the words, without looking at the screen without editing in any way. Just look at the keyboard and write or dictate or whatever you’re doing. But don’t look at the words. Because from the moment you do that, you’ve made more space for your your mind, your conscious mind and perhaps even your subconscious mind. to to to allow the flow to happen to allow the processing to happen. And to allow the story to come through to connect with the the emotion inside you. 

Tapping into Emotional Subtext

A bit of a side note this but in audiobook narration, one of the most valuable lessons I learned was from Paul Alan Rubin, who when he instructs actors doing audiobook narration, his advice is connect with the emotional subtext not with the words, you know, if you start to try to interpret the words, your performance will fail. 

But if you if what you care about is the emotional subtext that the author intended when writing that when writing that book when writing that paragraph and writing that chapter, and you connect with that emotional intention, that emotional subtext. And then you perform the words, the result will be 100 times better. 

And never a truer word was spoken. 

Well, you know, if that’s the case, why shouldn’t that be the case also for when we are actually creating stories? And when we are when we are, we’re crafting stories, and and women delivering our stories in various ways. It is absolutely to do with the emotional subtext, the emotional intention, the emotional dynamics. And so whatever the tech is doing, I absolutely don’t want it to get in the way of of that process. I think it’s absolutely fundamental. 

Story Flow

Yeah, and actually, one of the things with Brilliantio Academy and, and, and everything I will be doing is to show people to help people and to learn myself, you know, better and better ways to enable that flow, and process to happen.

So look, I think it’s almost time to wind up this, this very first full length podcast for Brilliantio. 

Wind up

And, you know, thanks a lot for your patience and for banners, forbearance, listening to this, because I’m completely aware that this is still very amateur stuff is the very first time I’m doing this. So thank you for your you know, thank you for being here. And thank you for thank you for your patience and, you know, your your your tolerance of how I’m performing here. 

My Audio Diary

But I wanted to leave you with one thought that I put down into my audio Audio Diary this morning. 

And, in fact, part of that Audio Diary might even feed their way into the podcast at some point, because that really is the first time that I that I’m unload what’s in my mind and in my brain into, you know, into anything, actually. And I simply record that direct into Otter. 

So I might actually put that in, into the podcast on occasion to just to, to show that process happening. 

Studying the Turning Points of Mastery

But it occurred to me that the best way to to really learn about how to evolve and and gain mastery in a particular skill. And, and Story construction and Storytelling are absolutely skills is by studying the evolution of masters. Looking at what Okay, what was this stuff like at the start? What was the turning point? How did it get better? And what did mastery look and feel like? 

And I remember seeing some work of the artist Kandinsky in Paris, and looking at Kandinsky his early paintings, you know, stuff from 1910, I think it was on 1912. And then if I recall correctly round about 1914 or 1915, that was a dramatic shift and what can that Kandinsky was doing, you know, in 1910-1912, he was painting landscapes and you know, I mean beautifully done, but you know, nothing, nothing particularly amazing. 

And then then suddenly this constructivist, you know, fantasy started hitting the canvas. And, and, you know, the transition was absolutely striking. 

And I think that if one looks at the pathways of people who have attained mastery in different things, in music, in writing, in, in, in acting, in business, in marketing in sales, and you look at how they’ve the the transition arc of those people, over time, I think you can learn a tremendous amount about, about, you know, what that transition looks and feels like, and how to, if you like, not copy, adapt, but how to more fast into an awareness of your own journey. 

A Personal Note

So anyhow, that was one that one one thought, and actually one last last one, which is that I’m going through a very tough time at the moment, my, my dad is very unwell, he’s 89. And every day, I’m having to call him at least twice a day. And, you know, the, the, to be honest, the conversations are not particularly positive, right? I mean, you know, there’s not a lot that he that he can say, or he can communicate. That is that is very positive. It’s, it’s, and I know that when I have these 10 or 15 minute conversations with him, that he the chances are that my emotional state is going to be lowered for a while, at least because I’m reflecting on what he’s just said, and on what’s going on and the experience and on, on how to support him and so on and so forth. 

Sequencing Emotions as a Storyteller

And, and so what I wanted to say was that, I think it’s very, very important when we as storytellers and Story crafters, when we think about the way in which we’re sequencing emotions inside the work that we’re creating, I think it’s very, very important to also have an awareness of our own emotional state, and the sequencing of our own emotional states, when we are trying to do creative work. 

So that’s why, for example, you know, I might do some creative work that I know, requires positivity and a positive mindset, prior to perhaps calling dad and you know, knowing that my emotional state will be lowered, and then coming back later in the day to do another part of creative work. So in other words, to think about sequencing our own emotions, to create good work and to have good energy at the time that we need it to invest and draw on that energy at the appropriate time.

I think that has a very important effect on on tone and voice in what it is we’re creating and what it is we’re doing. And, and I think it also feeds into the way in which we can visualize that creative work ahead of actually producing it. 

So for example, if you’re writing a scene in a film in, in a film script, to actually, you know, close your eyes and visualize the scene, prior to starting writing, you know, if you’re a novelist or writing or writing fiction, you can use the same technique, if you’re going to go on stage, you can absolutely use the same technique. 

Visualisation of Emotion as a Creative Technique

If you are, you know, in any way in which you’re using Story and Storytelling in business, and craft and hobby and your passion in your profession. I think this is a this is a very, very valuable and important technique. And it comes you know, in the world of athletics and sports, this is very well understood this, this this point about visualization. But the thing is that visualization works on two levels I’ve discovered. One is if you like the flow of images or sounds in your, in your mind, in your head on how the scene is going to look sound, but there’s a more important level, which is the which is the feeling of the scene, the feeling of the of the paragraph, the feeling of the story, the feeling of the writing, which and if you can nail that if you can get that in with your visualization, then the the overall result transforms because the emotional dynamics are already there, as you’re starting to put the flow into action. 

Thank you

So there you go. 

Well, look, thank you, everyone, for joining me on the very first full length episode of the Brilliantio podcast. I do hope you’ll subscribe and stay and stay with me, I hope that this stuff is valuable. 

Please do use the voice message function on on anchor to leave messages and comments and feedback, really like to hear that. I’m going to put up a short link, which is teachmestory.com/voicemessage. So teachmestory.com/voicemessage. 

And I’m going to feed that through to the link where you can actually leave the voice message to take part in this podcast. 

And in time I’m also going to be inviting people to to join me for for short interviews and to share the space but that’s down the road. Okay, look, take care everyone. Have a wonderful day. I hope you Story and Storytelling goes brilliantly and I hope this has really helped you Okay, bye for now.