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From Performing Arts Studio Owner to Dr. Content Part 2

Have you ever been a people pleaser or a rule follower?

If so, you’ll want to stick around for today’s episode with moi (Yong) as I share how I’ve been working to overcome my desire to please everyone around me, giving up my dreams to appease them, and how I’ve stopped following what others are doing to build their businesses so I can build one expertly designed around everything that makes me awesome.

My Story Part 2

On Episode #300, I shared the story of how I went from Performing Arts Studio Owner to Doctor Content and celebrated another milestone on the podcast.

In the episode, I shared my #1 tip for building a business to Amplify Your Awesome™

What I didn’t share was how I discovered the REAL me 20 years later and how you can do the same today on episode 314.

Welcome to the 62nd, and final episode of 2020!

This year has been quite a roller coaster yet the one constant, and a never-ending source of joy I’ve had through the year is this podcast.

If you would have asked me back in 2013 when I first started podcasting if I’d still be podcasting today, I probably would have laughed.

Never did I imagine that podcasting would become such an integral part of who I am and how I show up and serve others.

I love podcasting more than ever!

One of my greatest joys now is helping you to Amplify Your Awesome™ with your own podcast. What’s even more fun is to show you how to turn your podcast into endless pieces of content you can use to connect with more of the right people and monetize. And at the end of this podcast, I’m going to share something special I’ve been working on to help you lean into 2021 and really turn up the volume in your business.

Before we get there, I promised to share with you how I discovered the REAL me 20+ years into my entrepreneurial journey.

For this story to make sense,

I want to take you back to my childhood.

I was painfully shy as a child and disliked any type of spotlight. All I wanted was to be like everyone else and fit in which was a difficult task being a half-asian kid with red hair, green eyes, freckles and an unusual name in a town full of people that looked nothing like me.

Even though I had a strong desire to want to fit it, I always wanted to do things my own way which always took longer than if I had followed the “rules.”

I was always experimenting with alternative ways to do things like making my own beaded jewelry instead of buying it.

If you were a child of the 80s and 90s, you know what I’m talking about. I had so many beads and the money I would make from babysitting or part-time jobs was used to buy more beads and supplies.

Beads on safety pins strung onto elastic.

Beading on a loom to make intricate patterns which proved to be way harder than I thought so that didn’t last long.

I’d usually keep these pieces for myself but would rarely wear them for fear of standing out.

Or I’d give the pieces away to friends secretly wishing I could sell them, but never did. I just didn’t know that making things and selling them was a real thing.

I dreamed of becoming a famous artist and writer.

To this day, I still have journals full of poems and short stories, and drawing. Having a short story published in a local writer’s festival book and an award for a local art contest were highlights.

No one I knew was a writer or an artist. Everyone in my life worked real jobs where they were expected to show up at a certain time every day. My mom usually worked 2. Even though I loved reading and knew people became writers, it didn’t seem like a real possibility.

Instead, when asked by well-intentioned adults, I spouted off practical careers like teacher, lawyer, or doctor all of which were always praised.

I think this is why when choosing a college for myself, I headed to a place where I wouldn’t know anyone – less expectation and pressure to build a life that those around me would praise.

I went off to college 2 weeks after graduation because I was done living in a small town where everyone knew me. And it was that first semester in summer school that I discovered dance at age of 18.

I set out to study pre-med at Weber State University and in that first semester, I needed an elective so chose Modern Dance. Though I was on my high school dance team, I had never taken a real dance class in a studio.

It didn’t take long before that dance class became my favorite. I quickly found that dance was home to me. It gave me the space and freedom to leave everything on the floor and express myself in a way I had never done before. Dance brought me joy. It made me want to be the best version of myself. It became my playground, my laboratory, and my safe place to escape the rest of my college experience which wasn’t so hot. The more I danced, the more I wanted to dance which really got in the way of school.

Oddly enough, it turns out late-night rehearsals don’t mix well with 7:30 am science classes. This was especially true when these classes were held in large lecture halls with professors that insisted on turning the light off to lecture using old school slide projectors…

After meeting my family through dance, traveling, and performing throughout that first year of college, I made a decision to stop dancing because it was getting in the way of academics.

I reasoned that I’d have more time to focus on my real schoolwork without having the distraction of dance. I needed to get serious about my schoolwork to become a doctor because dance was in no way a profession as much as I loved it.

So I made a drastic move and left dance and Utah to transfer to the University of Nevada where I ultimately graduated with a degree, not in pre-med, but Health Education.

Once in Reno, it didn’t take long to realize that I was miserable without dance. I was actually doing worse in school without it so jumped back in eagerly. It didn’t take long before dance was a main focus in my life and despite the fact that I had only been training for a little over a year, I was asked to teach dance at a local studio and was invited to become part of a professional company.

With dance back in my life in a big way, I was so much happier which proved to be key in getting better grades.

But I still wasn’t ready to declare dance as what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I still didn’t see it as a REAL career. I needed to be pragmatic after all and get a real job with my degree.

From that moment on, I made a lot of decisions in my life that many people thought were crazy or totally random. I’d often get looks of pity or curiosity as I shared my latest plans. I did things like

→ Packing up a suitcase and a backpack to travel and perform across the globe.

→ Took a position with Americorps as a grant writer and health education specialist that paid only a small stipend meaning I had to move back in with my parents as a college graduate and world traveler

→ Called up the local college to ask about teaching dance when I couldn’t find classes for myself to take in our small town

→ Opened a dance studio with a partner because I knew I couldn’t run a studio by myself and took it over completely after just 3 months

→ Strategically downsized the studio until I closed its doors after 17 years after serving thousands of students to build a business online which of course led me to where I am today being Dr. Content

→ Rebranding this very podcast 4 times to land on a version that allows me to openly and honestly share the real me

And the thing that’s made this new season possible and has given me the space to open up and share so honestly is discovering my Human Design.

I had my first introduction to Human Design in Feb of 2020 and since then I’ve discovered more about myself than I have in the last 40.

Since discovering that I’m a 4/6 Emotional Energy Projector, I’ve learned that my gift to the world is seeing connections where most don’t.

I have an uncanny knack for seeing opportunities, especially in a biz, that most often don’t see. In this life, I’m meant to be a guide for others, not the worker bee.

During my Human Design experiment thus far,

I’ve come to understand:

→ Why my childhood was one of experimentation and wanting to do things my own way

→ Why past decisions and experiences turned out the way they did, both positively and negatively

→ Why trying to do all.the.things in a business is so draining for me and not how I’m meant to live

Every day, I discover more about myself and how to:

→ Make decisions that support me even though it may take longer than I want it to

→ Work most efficiently to preserve the little energy I do have

→ Be patient as I wait for the invitations I’m meant to receive

Learning my human design has literally allowed me to live life as the real me fully for the first time in my life. And to fully live into the title of Dr. Content where I now get to help people strategically use their awesome content to grow their businesses by reaching more of the right people.

How Content Strategy & Choreography are alike

Interestingly enough, content strategy or strategic content mapping which I do with my private clients is exactly the same as choreographing a dance.

Both start with a spark or an inspired thought or experience followed by a series of actions that can occur in any order and include:

The number of performers or pieces of content
The journey on which you’ll take the audience including emotional highs, lows, the music or the supporting characters
The resolution or goal of the piece whether dance or content.

This collision of seemingly diverse worlds – dance, and content strategy – goes to show that past experience can absolutely lend itself to whatever you want to do next in life.
– Yong Pratt

Understanding my human design has allowed me to fully embrace how the events in my life have unfolded.

It has allowed me to see my gifts more clearly and it means I can give myself the grace to not be like everyone else.

Knowing that I’m not meant to hustle and giving myself permission to embrace the lazy ways in which I’ve been running my business (i.e., systematizing and automating as much as I can then delegating the rest) has been such a relief.

And it turns out that doing things my lazy ways has been a way more efficient way to do business.

Little did I know that embracing systems and automation years ago was exactly what I needed to support my Projector self.

It also explains why seeing the opportunities in your content and your message comes so easily to me and why I’m able to help business owners mine for the gold that already exists in their content.

Have I discovered all the nuances of myself yet?

Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Just when I discover one more facet, several more nuances arise and I’m okay with that. I take what I need at the moment and know that when I need to learn more, all I have to do is dive further into my chart.

Discover your Human Design Now

As we lean into 2021 and further into season 5 of the podcast, I hope that you’re inspired to discover the real you using your human design or whatever way makes sense for you so that you can showcase all your awesomeness!

In the new year, I’ll be bringing on guest experts to dive into Human Design and how you can use it in your business to Amplify Your Awesome!

Coming YOUR way in 2021

I’ll also be opening the doors to a brand new program in the New Year called the [1:31] Content Formula™.

It’s not just another course you get and forget.

It’s an 8-week experience where you’ll implement a proven process to turn one audio or video into 31 days of digital content you can use across social media.

During our 8 weeks together, you and your VA will implement a custom strategy for automating and repurposing your awesome content so that you’ll never have to wonder what to post on social media again!

And that’s not even the best part.

I’m going to give you my exact one-page standard operating procedures (SOPs) to implement every single step in my repurposing framework so that your Virtual Assistant can do all the work FOR you.

Why?

Because I get requests just about every day from business owners who want me to implement my repurposing framework and want me to train their VAs 1:1.

But here’s the thing.

Not everyone has the budget to hire me 1:1 to train their VAs on my framework. That’s why I’m bringing you my [1:31] Content Formula™.
– Yong Pratt

So if you have a VA or you’re looking to hire one in 2021, you can literally outsource these exact step-by-step SOPs right away.

And if that’s not enough, I have some very special bonuses waiting for you including my signature program, Podcast in a Weekend™ which will only be available inside the [1:31] Content Formula™ starting in 2021.

If you don’t already know, Podcast in a Weekend™ is my most successful DIY program where I show you how to go from zero to your very own podcast in one weekend.

Graduates have launched their podcasts in as little as 4 hours using this program so if podcasting is on your goal list or vision board for 2021, you can make it a reality when you get the [1:31] Content Formula™

Whew!

So much goodness is coming your way in 2021 and I cannot wait to share it all with you.

As this crazy year comes to a close, I wish you joy and happiness.

My wish for you is that you create a business expertly designed around who you’re meant to be and serve at your highest level, making a global impact with your message. Cheers to 2021!
– Yong Pratt