Podcasting Unleashed: Scott’s Soliloquy When you put out content, whether it is posts on FB, videos on YouTube, courses on Udemy, blockbuster movies at Cinemax, there will be a percentage of people who are upset. I recently received a 1 Star review on one of my courses. The screenshot is attached. Thang Wrote: "unprofessional instruction (they use unstable communication methods to establish the conversation and recorded, one of them even dropped their ear/headphone when talking) I am not sure that do you/your company even watch this tutor video before putting this on your website for people to purchase? This is useless information as this is not for free because they need to work as digital marketer when traveling. By the other hand, not 10% of people in the world are qualify for this "free travel" as they don't have blog/website and of course they are not popular as the instructor. I have ground to say that I have wasted my time for such a useless lesson." Now it would be easy to dismiss his comments But I felt this was a 'Call For Help'. I heard a lot of frustration and lack of confidence in his voice. Here is my Reply: "Thank you for taking the time, Thang, to share your thoughts and frustrations. You express a fear and challenge that not surprisingly, everyone has. Everyone who sets out to achieve a goal begins at zero. Once Ricky had zero followers. You sound like you have zero followers. You are correct when you say 10% of people qualify, but it’s not because they have huge followings, it’s because only 10% of the population is willing to put in the work, the time, the effort to build a following. Everyone goes through a period where they think it’s not working. They put in hours of effort and no one watches their video, or reads their blog. Those that persevere, will one day succeed. We produced the course when we were each on opposite sides of the world. That is a challenge. We have always been about doing and then improving. No one is ever perfect the first time. And perfection is the biggest excuse to do nothing. Blogging is the easiest thing in the world to set up. Your writing above shows fire, passion and talent. It would be sad if a bad attitude and closed mind deprived the world of your insights and writing. We didn’t start out traveling the world, let alone ‘free’. We started out learning and growing, taking steps towards our goals. Then ten years later we started achieving our travel goals. This isn’t a quick fix or a ‘go travel free tomorrow’ course. What we shared works, if you do. You did indeed waste your time, if you did nothing to model what we taught, if you did nothing but throw up your arms in despair, if you thought you didn’t have to work, to grow, to evolve into the person who can do this successfully. If you truly want to travel, and as I write this in Kenya, I strongly encourage you to, I suggest you get over ‘standards’ and rewatch the course, looking at steps you can implement to achieve your goal. "PS Ricky is now in Nicaragua staying free with his three children and wife. I will be in Norway, an incredibly expensive country, staying free in June. You can do it to." **** I don't have the luxury of hand holding. There is a good chance, Thang will never read my reply. IMHO, what is important is the journey, as you take your steps towards your goal. No one is ever really an overnight success. We rarely observe their journey. Our western culture prides itself on "You can do what you want" without adding... "If you work really hard and long at it". I have met many people in Africa. One question I ask a lot is: "If you made US$500 a month, would you be better off?" It is like you asked someone in New York, would your life be better if You had a million dollars... Their faces light up. A mere $500 a month would be huge in most countries here.. Then, I talk about the work... The light fades. Ricky works hard. I work hard. Ricky plays harder than me, because he has three darling young children. LOL! We set our minds on our goal of traveling the world. We found ways to do it without breaking the bank. We are not rich in a dollar sense, but we are rich in life. You can be, too.