#58 - Me Playing Ukulele While I Talk About My Life

Okay, and I figured I'd start today with a little ukulele song.

Welcome to the Talk to People Podcast.

My name's Chris Miller.

If you've never been here before, then this is your first time hearing me play a ukulele on the podcast.

If you have been here before, for all of the episodes, audio, video, you name it, you've also never heard me play a ukulele on the podcast.

I've been trying to think about how to make the podcast more of a experience, because I feel like in the recent months, I've just kind of been putting stuff up.

And I started the podcast really passionate about what I was doing.

And then I started creating other content, and I started trying to figure out a business.

And I feel like the project that suffered the most has been the podcast.

I'll give you an example of how it feels in my brain.

Okay, so you have your ukulele here, and I could play one note.

But then if I just hold down a single chord, sounds a lot better, right?

And I feel like, just because I've been playing the note of the podcast, I haven't been holding down the single chord, and that's been me creating things that I'm getting really excited about and passionate about.

I think going into the virtual podcast has been really good for me, because it's taught me how to do it, and it's something that I want to be able to offer the people who I'm doing business with.

You know, I'm trying to build a podcast production studio, so I want to be able to produce podcasts virtually.

But the downside of the virtual podcast is that the social fulfillment just doesn't seem to match in person.

And that could, I think that's a me thing, but I also do think it is a larger thing that we all experience.

I know there are studies out there that talk about how Zoom calls and doing things virtually are actually more taxing than in person because a lot of the social cues that we would get in person, we don't get over Zoom.

And even though we can wake up and show up to Zoom with our button up t-shirt on, and we have boxer briefs below, or for me, white linen pants with some on cloud tennis shoes, it may be more relaxing and convenient, but it's actually, we're selling ourselves short.

So this whole entire podcast is why your life would be better if you intentionally decided to interact with the people around you more than you do.

And whenever I say interact, I don't mean go work a desk job where you have to tell someone every single day for a hundred times that it's time for them to clock in, or that you're ready to get them signed up for a service that you sell.

That's not the type of talking to people I'm talking about.

I think that matters.

But I think that that's not what we're going for.

What we are going for is being able to wake up and think to yourself, we all are made for social interaction.

But whenever I think back on the biggest conversations of my life, what were in those moments?

And what could I do today to help improve someone's life with my words?

Thoughts lead to words, words lead to actions, actions, habits, and habits character.

So if we don't intersect our words right there, that second mark, then we are missing the mark.

We are missing the opportunity.

I'm really glad you all are here because I'm facing a conundrum.

All right.

That's a conundrum noise.

If you notice, I know the four notes.

And I can do the little pickin that I did with Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

I'm not as confident in my singing voice as I am in my talking voice, which is funny because I know a lot of performers who they are very confident singing, but they're like, public speaking, you won't catch me on stage doing that.

I'm the inverse, so I should probably sing more.

Somewhere over the rainbow.

But I feel a little bashful with singing because I do actually think I'm burdening my audience because I don't think my voice is like a Tori Kelly voice to where you're like, oh, I'm so glad I'm here.

I'm so glad I'm using the minutes of my day to hear this person sing.

I wanted to talk to you about this conundrum I'm facing because I created this podcast to highlight the power of social connection.

I was traveling a ton in the Hampton Inn all by myself, then I moved to the Hilton Garden Inn, then I moved to the Marriott, the Townhill Suites, then they'd have me in at the Holiday Inn and Express, all these different hotels, but the thing that was the same was I was always by myself.

And I hit a point in my life where I was very alone, I felt lonely.

Then I'd come home and I'd be home for 36 hours and I'd try and cram a whole bunch of time in with the people who were near to me.

But I felt like I couldn't really commit to it because I knew soon I'd be back at the Hilton Inn in South Carolina or Texas or Montana.

There became a moment where I started talking to other people about this who are my same job, who were traveling as much as me, and they were dealing with the same thing, but nobody was talking about it.

So I decided to quit my job.

I decided that the perks I was getting from this corporate job, they were outmatched by the benefits of what I could get if I left my job, even though I wasn't going to have a job, I didn't have a backup plan.

The perks I'd be getting from being at home and being able to build a consistent community and being able to have people in my life that I saw day in and day out, that was going to outweigh the con.

So I decided I'm quitting my job, and not only am I quitting, but I'm going to start creating a podcast about the power of social connection, because there's a lot of lonely people out there who may not quit their jobs, but what they could do is start to listen to a podcast about why life is better when you talk to people, and maybe they could talk to more people.

So they may not pull the plug like I did, but I could help them just a little bit while they're sitting on the plane, and they could get inspired after listening to the podcast to talk to someone at the terminal.

That has been my goal, and it was always conversations.

So I'd have different people across the table from me, the thought being, I'm going to have conversations about conversations to showcase to others what conversation looks like.

Then I got into the video, and I got into the vertical shorts, and then we moved, and that changed everything.

So I did solo episodes, and I liked that too, like talking about communication concepts, or just me talking to a camera and to a microphone.

Then I started doing virtual, but in the middle of this, I just started creating these YouTube videos.

If you haven't watched them, the premise is I will look at a certain event that's happening, and then go through that event to take out some communication nuances, some techniques that maybe someone's doing that I think contribute to making the moment as special as it is.

So I started this with Vladimir Putin being interviewed by Tucker Carlson, and I took part this interview wondering what am I fascinated by?

I'm fascinated whenever you see someone talking.

It could be cool whenever they're eloquent, but I'm more fascinating in how they did it.

Whoa, the way they introduced that story stood out to me, or it's funny to me that he keeps his hands together throughout this whole entire talk.

It's funny to me that the only time he got energetic was when he was talking about soccer.

I wonder what that means.

I wonder why when he asks questions, he always gives options after he asks the questions.

I wonder why he doesn't just stop at open-ended, or why whenever he asks questions, does he then hedge the question by saying, do you know what I mean?

Has he always done that, or is that just here?

I begin to go down these big black holes thinking about the technique and the technicality.

But I've learned that on YouTube, some people like that.

Some people like learning about the art of communication because they recognize we all have, even if you can't speak, even if you can't see, even if you're by yourself, we all have the ability to communicate.

Yet there's only some of us who choose to actually use it.

All of us can communicate, but not all of us can connect.

And seeing these moments, what they did to connect with one another is fascinating to me, and I've learned that it's fascinating to others.

So I've been creating these videos, and the communication expert reacts to blank.

Kobe Bryant's final postgame interview speech, which is fascinating.

If you are interested at all in professional sports, you should look at this.

Kobe Bryant had played 1,346 professional basketball games.

He had been in the league for 19 years, I believe.

He was so young, but he was so eloquent, and he retired, and he won an Oscar, and he died shortly after that.

But his last post-game interview was the longest post-game interview he had done, but also the most high energy.

And the temperament he took on during this farewell tour of his last year, it was unlike any other thing.

It was so refreshing to see, and I'm so inspired by him regarding how he articulates his thoughts.

But these videos are doing well, and it's putting me in this communication expert type deal.

And for a while, I didn't feel like I could call myself a communication expert because I don't have a PhD in communication.

But the more I thought about it, I thought, okay, well, you do have a bachelor's and a master's.

You worked with professors.

You helped publish a book with a professor.

You taught public speaking for about two years.

You taught public speaking for three semesters.

Then you taught human communication for one semester.

Both tech companies you worked in were speaking heavy, client facing.

And then, I hurt someone's shoulder section.

And then you built the Talk to People Podcast, and you started writing the Social Fitness Lab newsletter.

And now you're creating all this content, but you've always been fascinated with communication.

So I was like, you know what?

I'm taking on the expert title because no one's going to give it to me.

So either I take it on or I don't have it.

So I took it on.

So people like these Communication Expert Reacts videos, but I'm trying to figure out with the podcast.

Do I keep my lane social connection?

Do I do a hard pivot to this is a podcast all about the power of communication?

I think I can still maintain this idea of life is better when you talk to people.

And the purpose of the Talk to People Podcast is to help people improve their levels of social connection.

Because that requires communication, right?

But it's funny to me because some friends that I know who are quite successful take on the moniker of communication, communication, communication.

So everything they do, their biggest offering is something around communication, or they do communication courses, communication training.

They go and speak about the power of communication.

So I'm still about social connection.

For sure, it's just so funny how much the power of a term, just calling it communication versus social connection, will put you in some circles versus others.

And I don't want to be excluded.

But at the same time, I know that the power of purpose is it designates you a place to go, and it excludes you from others.

So I just need to get over that fear and keep doing my own thing.

And in the podcast business, for those of you who I'm sure everybody knows who listens to this, I've been trying to build this business, Capture Connection Studios, and recently I've decided that my focus is going to be nonprofits.

I've had the most fun producing nonprofit podcasts.

And I also think people who work in nonprofits are very aware of a message.

They know what they want to do, their cause that they want to dedicate their time to, and the impact they want to make.

But sometimes they struggle with packaging.

And what I've learned is that podcasts are one of the best current ways to connect to a desired audience.

So if you have the Humane Society podcast, and they want to help pets that are abandoned or neglected, they want to help them find loving homes, then how cool would it be to have a podcast where they have all these great stories about peoples whose lives was changed by having a pet?

Or during COVID, imagine having a podcast where you get to talk about how much having a dog to take on a walk every day improves your mood or the optimism that you contract from having a golden retriever slobber on you or having a cat jump up and run around how you laugh at it.

That would be a powerful thing for the Humane Society.

And then they get to have their donor on, a big donor.

And it just seems like they're featuring the donor, like they're showing the donor off.

So the donor is like, well, thank you so much for putting me on the podcast.

And the nonprofit's like, well, thank you for being on the podcast, because not only will you share the podcast with your friends, but we get to connect with you even more.

And the likelihood that you give to this nonprofit is even greater now because you're better connected.

And then you get to connect with the community, and you get the mayor on, you get the director of a different nonprofit or the director of a business, and then you get to recruit volunteers, and you get to feature your members.

And so all the opportunities are really big with nonprofits.

And I've seen that there's not many people who are specifically making podcasts for nonprofits.

So I found my niche, and I've built this offer, and the offer is called Essential Six.

And this Essential Six package is I work with the nonprofit leaders from an idea of what the podcast could be.

I help strategize the podcast with them.

We come up with a content roadmap.

Here's everything you're going to do.

Here's the first six episodes.

And I actually give them a framework for the first six episodes, I say.

Episode one is going to be who you are.

Episode two is what you do.

Episode three is why.

Episode four is let's talk about the specific culture.

Five is success stories.

And then six is moving forward.

What are the campaigns?

And what this does is it not only lets the nonprofit have a podcast, but it gives them the best practices.

So I found that to be really powerful.

So now I know my niche and I have my offer.

So now I just have to generate business.

And if you are praying, if you're a praying person, then pray for me, pray for favor and provision for this business.

If you are just someone who likes to root for others, I'd love to have you in my corner, rooting for the power and provision of Capture Connection Studios.

There's some awesome opportunities that I've already had, and there's already awesome opportunities that are on the horizon.

But I think that after leaving my corporate job, I'll feel more pressure about finances.

And this is a total new undertaking, but I can tell that there's potential.

And never in my life have I been closer to being able to generate revenue like I am today.

The fact that I can talk with a nonprofit or an individual or an organization and say, yeah, well, let's sign a contract.

Just that fact.

Growing up, I saw my dad, he was an entrepreneur, but his entrepreneurial pursuit was a house painting business.

And he painted people's houses, and he would show up.

He would quote, do all the quoting himself.

He would say, it's going to be this much.

He'd show up with the ladder.

He'd show up with the paint.

He'd paint everything.

He'd clean everything.

He did all of his books.

He did it all by himself.

But I saw how hard it was.

And I kind of came into the entrepreneurial pursuit scared and intimidated and not really thinking I could do it.

I felt like I wasn't going to be able to generate a lot of money.

For some reason, it was like a poverty mindset that I had.

And I know for a fact that I'm closer than I've ever been to flipping that switch, being like, no, you can.

You can generate a lot of money.

And you can generate a lot of opportunity, and you can generate a lot of favor.

Generate favor.

I don't know if I mean that, but definitely generate opportunity and have favor, because I'm just going to try and keep doing the things that are on my heart and making sure I honor the people around me and maintaining consistency.

So this podcast is really important to me.

I was listening to whenever I was on a different podcast, and I was talking about the power of podcasting, but this podcast in particular.

And I thought to myself, I just missed this past Monday.

I told him I was going to do bi-weekly, and I missed it.

And that's the first time that I've really missed.

And the YouTube may be doing well, or the business may be doing well, or this may be doing well, that may be doing well, but I can't miss this, because I really am grateful for all the people who listen to this and watch this and who have been supporting it since January 1, 2023, when it launched, and before that, whenever I was first working on it.

So first off, thank you for listening to the podcast.

Second off, I'm excited to do more of these sole episodes because it kind of jazzes me up, and I get to sit here and talk to all of you.

Third, what do you think about the ukulele?

You like it?

I got it on my wedding, it was a wedding gift, and I love, you know, to just walk around the house and play it euclidly.

For those of you who don't know, I started playing trumpet in sixth grade.

I quit in eighth grade, but I still like playing Pirates of the Caribbean on the trumpet.

Then I started teaching myself piano in college.

I would sit in the first floor, the general area of the All Men's Dorm, and practice and practice and practice.

And if you ever hear someone practice an instrument, it can be grueling because it's the same measure, the same four notes over and over and over again.

And all of those guys who would play video games in the lobby, they hated me.

Now, when people hear me play piano, it sounds nice and they like it.

But shout out to all those people who had the undertaking of having to listen to bam bam bam, bam bam bam, bam bam bam, over and over.

I remember I had one person come up to me and they said, would you stop?

And then another person came up to me and he said, hey, you may have better luck if you slow it down.

Which is actually good advice.

But that was number four.

Five, thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching.

I believe that life is better.

Actually, I say thank you for watching.

Let me quickly say this.

One thing I do want to invest more time in is the Patreon.

For those of you who are subscribed to the Patreon, thank you for subscribing to the Patreon.

I initially started and I had like an offer of different takeaways and things I wanted to do.

But then I felt like it wasn't generating enough traction, and then I felt kind of bad because I wasn't really supporting those who were already supporting me.

So recently, I've switched it up a little bit, and I hope to start adding more value there because I want it to be a value add to anybody who subscribes.

So I'm putting this video on the Patreon only.

The audio will be on the podcast platform.

I may take a couple of shorts, put them on social media.

But if you're watching this, know that you are one of the only people watching this.

So you get to actually see the ukulele and the green zip up and me kind of like bad posture.

But for some reason, I held onto the ukulele the whole time.

Hey, regardless, I'm grateful to be here.

Thank you for listening and watching.

Sorry that I missed you on Monday.

I'd love for us to pick it back up again and be on a weekly schedule.

And without further ado, folks, remember, life is better when you talk to me, when you talk to me, when you talk to people.

And, all right, folks, I'll see you next time.

Love y'all.