This is only tangentily related to the imposter syndrome conversation. After yesterday's call I kept wanting to encourage everyone to just start recording and playing with the platforms. Even if the name, art, music, etc are still in progress. That way when you're for real for real recording you already know the buttons to push and have gotten over some of the tech stress. Plus you have the speaking practice and you get used to your own voice and face. It took me some hours of editing my stuff before I got okay with hearing my voice and many more hours for the video. The video still bothers me a bit and gets me stuck on doing more recording but doing more of it gets me closer to okay with that. Go head in to descript (or riverside) and play. Maybe invite a friend on to get the hang of how interviewing works. Then mess with the editing and the AI stuff. Push all the buttons! That'll at least help with the tech hangups. And you can stick with the free trial until you're ready for the real deal, so no reason to not start now. I think it's also good to practice the intro/outro and reading other copy, to make sure it sounds good out loud and you don't trip up on the words. I've found a lot of copy I end up stumbling and so I can tell it's not in my voice. Or that I'm not super excited about it. But I had to record it to figure that out, and then to play it back to see that it wasn't as awful as I thought. (Although some of it was still pretty awful.) So at this point I've recorded dozens of solo hours of me doing and saying stuff, and a lot of it I won't use. So I think it's helpful to start doing that sooner. When I first tried out riverside, I recorded a test run where I read through all of the settings and pushed the buttons, and it made a "magic clip" out of that, which it named "David laughs through confusing tech setup." I'm sharing that here for your amusement. 😂

Come to tomorrow's coaching call where we'll be doing something about that big ol' monster under the bed! (Also, I'ma gift a 30 minute 1:1 to the first person who guesses where the gif on this post came from...)

To kick things off, please comment below introducing yourself. Let us know… #1. Who you are, where you’re from and who you work with. #2. A photo of your workspace #3. What you're hoping to get from this community #4. Engage with one another in the comment to level up! I'll go first. #1. My name is Justin, I'm from Kelowna, Canada, and I work with holistic health & wellness professionals to help them launch and grow their YouTube podcasts organically. #2. My setup - built for producing music, recording vocals, podcasting... etc! #3. I hope we can grow a powerful community of like-minded creators who connect, collaborate, and help drive this movement of taking back control of your mind, body, and spirit. #4. I'll respond to all of the intros below ;)

Okay, I've been spending lots of time with myself and AI and getting to some copy I like. Here's what I have so far. I don't dislike it. I guess the podcast is actually more about "noticing patterns and questioning stories." I would love feedback and questions. Mainly does this make any sense to other people? Does it fit enough in "the formula" of how this "should" go? Does it make you wanna learn more about me and subscribe? Does it make you wanna give me lots of money? Thank you! Title and subtitle: Healing Octopus Radio A pattern-based podcast about health, freedom, technology, and being human. Description: You’ve stepped outside the usual stories about health, politics, technology, maybe even yourself. Now you’re noticing that a lot of what you were told doesn’t actually add up. You don’t want a new ideology or someone else’s answers. You want a way to think and live that feels grounded in reality, even when things are uncertain. Healing Octopus Radio is a pattern-based podcast about health, freedom, technology, and being human in a world built on fragmentation, coercion, and noise. I’m David Barbarisi, a former depressed software engineer turned terrain nerd, voluntaryist, and reluctant human-in-progress. This show is where I look underneath the stories we’ve inherited and see what still makes sense. If you’ve felt confused by conflicting explanations, burned by both mainstream and alternative narratives, or tired of outsourcing your judgment to experts, institutions, or algorithms, you’re not alone. This isn’t a show that tells you what to believe. It’s a place to slow down, notice assumptions, and build discernment so you can think more clearly and make practical choices without needing certainty first. Across episodes, I explore recurring patterns through terrain-based health, voluntaryism and self-governance, deliberate use of technology, relationships, and how we think and know. These aren’t separate topics. They’re the same pattern showing up in different parts of life.

Hey everyone! In one hour, I’m going live with our head YouTube strategist for a full breakdown on what actually works on YouTube and how to set your podcast up to win on the platform. We’ll be diving into the two things that make or break your episodes on YouTube:titles and thumbnails. If you want to understand why some videos take off and others flop, how to package your episodes for maximum clicks, and what small tweaks can completely change your growth trajectory… be there!