Somewhere along the way, we came up with a motto:
“Chill the fuck out, and make the damn thing!”
How did this come about, and what — exactly — does it mean?
Glad you asked…
The History
One of the things we often chat about on the podcast is doing the things you want to do, no matter what. Whether you want to write, take photos, cook, or become a badass Jai alai player, it takes work. It’s our experience that many people convince themselves they can’t do something cool before even trying. Our motto is a message to those people — and a reminder to the rest of us.
Episode 10 is all about being positive and negative. Somewhere along the way during that show, we came up with a simple tip to a better life: simply chilling out. In the sign off for Episode 10, we reminded people — whether they are positive or negative — to “Chill the fuck out…”
The first use of the full motto, “Chill the fuck out, and make the damn thing!” happened during Episode 12: Last Seen…Being Creative. It’s an episode all about how to be creative, even if you think you don’t have it in you.
Once one accepts the fact that to get good at something takes time, all that’s left to do is relax and work hard making the things you want to make.
So What Does It Mean?
Our motto means we see many people believing things are harder than they really are. Instead of just doing something they can do, they spend their time coming up with reasons things will never work. If they simply put the same effort they spend shooting themselves down into doing the thing they want to do, they might be surprised by what they can accomplish.
To the Naysayers…
While a pointed and humorous motto, we do realize it’s not always that easy for some. Perhaps you have 4 children and work two jobs to make ends meet. No one would fault you for working and coming home to watch TV as a way to unwind before falling asleep. But that’s not the case for most of us. Most of us do have more time than we realize, and it’s often self-sabotage that’s the real problem.
For Example…
It would be very easy for us to say, “Well, we can’t do a podcast yet because we don’t have great microphones and a mixer and an audio interface and great headphones. We can’t start until we have all those things…”
We don’t record in a place where we can install soundproofing. We record right beneath the main air conditioning intake in Christopher’s apartment; that means in the heat of Texas summer, while recording, the A/C is turned off so its sound is not picked up on the microphone. In an apartment that faces the sun all day on a second floor, it gets hot in here fast — even with the air conditioning running. It’s not an ideal place to record, but we make do with what we have.
We’re sure there will be a day we have better gear and conditions for recording, but for now, Christopher’s Zoom H2n and backup from a Samson C03U mic into Audacity works. (The backup is in case Christopher forgets to press REC on the Zoom microphone, which has happened…and it wasn’t the end of the world.) (Okay, so now we rarely record backup sound, which is dumb, but when we do, it’s with Shawn’s portable recorder. If you’re interested in our process, visit the Gear and Process page.) It would be very easy to look at distance as an issue (we live on complete opposite sides of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex). We could easily come up with a variety of reasons to not record the podcast right now.
But instead, we just chilled the fuck out and made the damn thing!
Now You Know
So that’s the story behind our motto. We hope you enjoy all the things we make, and hope you take a moment to listen to the episodes mentioned above in the History subheading and let us know what you make.
And remember…always remember:
