​Listen to this email.

I grew up glued to the radio. From about 93 to 2003, I would tune into The Nerve 95.1, 95.5 in Rochester, New York, every morning to listen to the Howard Stern Show. I would record and re-listen to those shows every day.

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I was a huge fan, and I wanted to be on the radio one day. I thought it would be so much fun. I never really took the steps to make it happen (probably not believing it would be possible), but look at me today. Due to the magic of the internet, I am in broadcasting. For the past 11 years, I've recorded well over 1000 podcasts. And like he impacted my life, I have affected the lives of so many people. But it's a story that almost never happened.

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Rewind to 2012, and I decided to start the Permaculture Voices Conference—another shiny object story for another day. At that time, the conference organization took up a lot of energy and time. I had a young daughter and one on the way, and I had a job. It would have been easy not to take on anything else.

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Lately, I've talked a lot about chasing shiny objects, and launching the show was one of the shiny objects I once chased. I could have passed, but I didn't. Something drew me in. It could be the subconscious dream of broadcasting. Regardless, I started, and here I am, 11 years, no longer chasing it, just sitting in one spot polishing that ball. Perfecting my craft and exploring artistic expression, one might say.

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It's been eleven years, and I've learned a lot, and maybe you have too.

Here are some of my lessons:

Lesson One: When you put yourself out there and give freely to the world, it returns in spades.

Everything I do today comes from this podcast, and the majority of people I interact with daily are somehow tied to this podcast. The podcast has become Kevin Bacon in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game. It all goes back to the podcast.

And it's because I got back so much more than I gave.

Lesson Two: Your work will make impacts you never see.

At the peak, Howard Stern had something like 20 million listeners daily on terrestrial radio, which is mind-blowing. That's NFL game level numbers. Big-time TV shows can't even do that much anymore, and he's doing it on the radio. I am far from the 20M, but I've had a lot of people listen for the past 11 years and grow with me, grow old with me, and grow up with me.

I've made an impact on lives that I'll never know. If you do meaningful work, it will transcend your own life.

Lesson Three: If your life doesn't have a purpose, what's the point? Outside of my family, the podcast gave me a life's purpose. I don't get paid to do it. I never have, and probably never will, but I continue to do it and would have a very hard time walking away from it.

It's given me meaning. It's given me connection. We're all part of this little community within a much bigger community in the world, and I am so proud to contribute to this one.

Lesson Four: How will you capture your legacy? The podcast has been my way of creating a legacy. It has helped people outside my family and has been my way of documenting how I think about life. So one day, if they ever want to hear, my kids can go back and say, what did he think about things?

Well, there are countless hours and pages of writing where they can say, hmm, that's what he was like.

Lesson Five: You create your own life story that will guide you into the future. There would be times when I'd get home late at night, early on on the podcast, and I'd record an intro and publish an episode at 11 pm that night because one had to go out the next day. I've taken more breaks than I used to, but I consistently do it, in some form, week in and week out, for 11 years.

Because it's important to people, it's caused me to change my lifestyle to be responsible, to get up on time, and to stop drinking because I have to deliver. And you can say, hey, that's just a story you're telling yourself. Maybe, but that is the story that I'm telling myself, and that story has changed my life for the better, keeping me on the straight and narrow, which I always wasn't.

There are probably times when I would veer off if I didn't have this life's purpose. Is this really your life's purpose? It feels like this matters, and if that's the story I'm telling myself, and if it's the story I believe, then it only has to matter to one person.

Lesson Six: If you do something long enough, you get good at it. It's easy to record a podcast episode without notes, and it's easy to write newsletters like this. It's only easy because I have done thousands over a decade. The more you do something, the better you get at it. Sadly, most people tap out early on because it is too hard or they aren't good enough, so they never eclipse the peak of struggle to get to the land of achievement. Consistency beats quality every time. The bottom line is if you want to get good at something, do it over and over.

Lesson Seven: You'll never know where it will go when you do something. Millions of doors will open along the way. The only way you will ever get to walk through any of those doors is by doing something in the first place.

Beware: Doors may not open right away, leading you to think you are on the wrong path. You might want to quit. If you believe it is worth it, you must push past these obstacles and keep going.

Lesson Eight: Create content that matters to you. F' formulas, analytics, the algorithm, and what "experts" say. Do something that matters to you. If you do that, others will find it and gravitate toward it if it matters to them. Repeat.

This letter is long. Most people won't read it all, but some will. I am writing for you.

If you chase statistics and metrics, you will fail every time. Your content will be inauthentic, bland, boring, and fake. It is better to make a massive impact with a few people than a tiny impact with many people.

Lesson Nine: Be vulnerable. Be your true self. People connect with people. People don't connect with fake people. If you want to connect with other humans, you have to show your humanity. Who cares if somebody knows if you cried when your dog died or got upset when your coffee was late? You're human. I'm human. We all get upset. We all cry. We all make mistakes. Just because you don't talk about it doesn't mean it didn't happen. It did, so you might as well talk about it, learn, bond, and come together.

In conclusion, even if no one read this, it was worth it for me to write it. Find that thing in your life and do as much of it as you can.

Diego

​Listen to the long version of this letter on Carrot Cashflow.​

In case you didn't know, I try to write several short posts like this each week on Instagram - check them out @diegofooter.

Did you know I have several podcasts?

Carrot Cashflow here.

Farm Small Farm Smart here.

Farm Small Farm Smart Daily here.

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