Dowsett's aero lesson and Patreon
Today I want to talk about one mindset shift that could change everything. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Rowman Podcast. Rodman, welcome back, it is Friday, welcome back to the final Rodman Cycling Podcast of the week. Hope you enjoyed this week of podcasts, we're nicely back in our groove and we've settled in, what do we know, the 24th of January so we've well and truly settled into the new year. And this week, how awesome was it to hear? Mr. Alex Dowsett on the Rodman Podcast. What perils of wisdom he had for aerodynamics and one crazy takeaway I definitely had on it was the importance of aerodynamic equipment, skin suits, helmets, shoe covers, socks, etc. as a roadroider when he talked about the differences that that makes for a sprinter and broke it down not by what's or coefficient of frontal drag or any of the nerdy stuff but broken into distance where a sprinter without the arrow kit or with the arrow kit does a 1.5 meter difference in their sprint. For me that was insane and it just really cemented what I probably already knew if I was totally honest about it. Today what I want to talk to you about is one mindset shift that will change everything for you because this has been so powerful for me. Before I dive into this let me just remind you about Patreon. Patreon is how we're able to continue pushing the needle on this podcast and largely that's what I want to talk about today pushing the needle and bringing this podcast up to the next level and how I'm able to do that, it's over because you're making small contributions but they're adding up over on Patreon and it's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. You can make a small contribution over there and it's keeping the needle moving on the podcast. I'd like to think that this week's podcast is better than last week's better than last month's and it's definitely better than last year's it may not be perfect for we're going in the right direction. And that leads me into what I want to talk about today. The biggest lesson I've learned from podcasting and you know it's funny now because I never think of the podcast in terms of being successful or not being successful. I'm more process driven and I just sit down with the microphone. I have my topic and I just spit whatever I'm talking about for today. But it's when every day and day when some people come onto the podcast like Alex Dowser and he I chat to my fairies like I you know I don't do many podcasts but the ones I do do I try to pick the big ones and that's a small throwaway enough statement but it for me it's just like it's this realization that we are becoming this little community we're building with roadmen we are becoming a big podcast and we are getting recognition and for me it's been a a short of process, but I want to get this into your head because it helped me so much. You need to start before you think you're ready. That's so powerful. Whatever project you're working on right now, whether it's a fitness project, you're trying to race next season or whether it's a work project or it's in a dating capacity, start before you're ready. For me with the podcast, that's what I do. I started imperfectly. I had really, really bad equipment on the Foursieu Podcast. If you got back and listen to the audio on the force podcasts, oh my God, it's absolutely atrocious. It pains me to go back and listen to it.
Start before you feel ready
The audio was so bad because I was recording off a shotgun mic that was on a camera and stripping the video out. So I didn't even own a microphone, but you know what? I got started and the first few people started tuning in and I was like, okay, okay, people are starting to listen. And then I slightly started to move the dial each month. time I got an opportunity and said, can I move the dial, can I improve the audio, can I improve the production, can I improve distribution, I've tried to do that and that's what's led us to here. Are we perfect at the moment? Absolutely. Fucking not we are not perfect at the moment. But you know what, we're leveling up and it's all because I started way before I thought I was ready to start. I know you don't think you're ready but you are and I know you don't feel like you're qualified but you are and this idea of taking imperfect action and get started is just so powerful because there's an anxiety that comes in the idea of getting started and that causes us to justify the procrastination and we'll justify it by you know saying we're going into inverted commas research mode and we'll go down a rabbit hole and start looking at books courses videos trying to educate ourselves on the topic. And the reason we'll start when we get enough skills and experiences never happens. So we have this idea of a magical destination we're going to get to when I get to dare, I'll have enough skill, I'll have enough experiences. But we never get there. That's it. It's a mirage moving in the desert. And we're doing this because we're afraid and we're afraid of putting ourselves out there. We're afraid of the rejection that comes with that, the humiliation that comes with that. But I'll tell you, and I got it straight away from the podcast. As soon as I started putting it out, you start getting these, you know, these just losers in their life here are just plenty of losers at every single thing they do. They're just shit at life. They're playing on such a low level, and they're just bottom feeders, and they're waiting for anybody who's trying to better themselves to stick their neck on the chopping block so they can pull their ugly heads out out with our hold and they can come along and they can criticize you for trying to be a better version of yourself. But you know what, the ones who criticize you for taking action, they're not the people you want to listen to their voices. It's actually a good asset test for revealing who your true friends are and who your true supporters are. Because your true friends, your family, the ones you care about and the ones who love you, they're supportive regardless of when you get started in these ventures. Like I've never been around to my dads and my moms for a cup of tea when they're like, like, oh, you need to pack that podcast in, you sound like an idiot. They're my biggest fucking, I have four downloads, I'm pretty sure they were doubled download to make me feel better. They're going to be your biggest fans and your biggest cheerleaders. And you're always going to get these parasites that come out of the world work to criticize you regardless of when you start. So rather than going into research mode, just get started now. And that's because that's what walking to publish is. It's getting started now, even though you know you're in an imperfect place, you could do more research, you could be more knowledgeable on this topic, but you choose to not be and you publish. That's what we're trying to do. We're working to publish. We're not working for perfection as a creator. I'm working to publish. I'm working to get in content out to you guys.
Imperfect action moves the needle
Get started now when you're not ready because that's how you learn the process. That's how you learn the process of creating. seen my setup at the very start or if you have follows on Instagram on roadman.s like and you will see in some of my setup and it was pretty rudimentary and some of the podcasts I put out they completely sucked and some of the podcasts if I do say so myself they were pretty damn amazing but you know what I'm always moving forward and I'm always publishing regardless I don't want to look back any years time and go oh yeah I published six masterpiece podcasts, but unfortunately, my audience is tiny. I want to publish every day and I want to show you guys the process, the learning curve I'm on, the journey, you know, my dream is to do this podcast full time as a job to do it as a living. Am I close to the other as a living full time? I don't know. I don't know if I am, but you know what? I do know is I'm going to keep moving forward. And this week, I've just ordered and upgraded to newer podcast equipment, newer mixing boards, a camera so we can start doing some live streaming of the podcast. Is it the very best equipment I could get? Absolutely not. I can't afford the very best equipment. You could spend 40, 50,000 on studio quality equipment, but is better than I have? Absolutely. We are moving the needle again, we're executing imperfectly, and I'm going to keep bringing you better content, production quality, better tonneau content this week than I did last week. So right now if you're on the edge and you have a project that you're thinking about whether it's committing to a cyclone target, whether it's trying to lose weight, whether it's a work project or it's starting to put yourself out there in date again, maybe after a painful breakup and you're saying to yourself, I'm not sure, I'm not ready. You are ready. This is the top on the shoulder. You are ready. Get up and get after it, roadman. Roadman, thanks for listening. And if you do want to donate to help us with the podcast and we're covering the costs and the new equipment, it's gangster. We dropped about four and a half thousand euro this week on new podcast equipment for open-the-sound quality. I'll give you a shout-out when that kicks in for the first few episodes. It looks a complicated piece of kit, so it might take me a little bit of oil to figure out how to put all this together, but it will be coming to you in the form of improved quality in the next couple of weeks. So if you want to help out with that, over on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore world is where you can make a donation to the beer fund and that is much appreciated. Roadman, hope you enjoyed the podcast this week. I hope you have a massive weekend of writing planned and I catch up with you all again on Monday. Ride safe you beautiful roadman. Roadman, before you rush off, I want to mention something completely new. We've recently just formed the new Roadman Cycling Club. So there's two elements to this club. One, it's a virtual club, you can join it anywhere in the world and two it's an in-person club based in Ireland. So if you're a racing cyclist in Ireland then you're looking for a team to race in the colours of next season. If you're looking to hang out with some amazing people and do group rides on the weekend go and check it out. It's roadmancycling.com forward slash roadmancc. The link is in the show notes. Hope you can join us as part of the new roadman cycling club