Don’t Let Technology or Perfectionism Stop You

 Don’t Let Technology or Perfection Stop You

Guest: Diana Gladney

Shelley Hunter: You're listening to the Faithful Career Moves podcast. I'm your host, Shelley Hunter, and this is the place where we talk to people who have found the career they were born to do, and recognize God's hand in the process. 

Welcome to Episode 37 of the Faithful Career Moves podcast. Today, I'm interviewing a woman I've been watching on YouTube for a few years, I absolutely love her. Her name is Diana Gladney, and I dare you to find someone more humble and sincere, and helpful on that entire channel. You can find her on her website at Diana Gladney, and on her YouTube channel with the same handle, D-I-A-N-A G-L-A-D-N-E-Y.

Now, on both those channels, Diana takes the seemingly complicated topic of video marketing and breaks it down so busy entrepreneurs or really anyone with a message to share can get videos up quickly and good enough. Notice I didn't say, perfectly. That's what I love so much about her, and that's what I knew about Diana before this interview. What I didn't know is that she went through some life-changing, potentially even life-ending experiences that forced her to rethink her path. I promise as you listen to this interview, you'll end up doing the same. I know I did. I asked Diana to start off by telling me what it is she does for a career.

Diana Gladney: I am a YouTube and video marketing strategist and consultant, and I do public speaking. I'm a keynote speaker, and I help entrepreneurs simplify the video creation process so that they can reach a wider audience but also go deeper with the people who, I believe, need them the most. One of the things is that we have a lot of different mediums out there in the world. I believe video is absolutely the best way to communicate your message and honestly reach that global audience. I try to help them get the tech out of the way so they can actually get to the sharing-the-message part.

Hunter: I love that you just said that, and that's really how I found you on YouTube was the same thing like, "Okay, I know I have to start doing video, but I don't know how to do it," and you're looking for somebody to guide you. I find that your advice is just so practical and personable, though. I love that about you. I like what you just said, "Get the tech out of the way, so that they can go deeper with their audience." Explain that a little bit more.

Diana: Yes, so much of what usually like when I first got started doing video was that a lot of people would, unfortunately, get stuck in the photography, cinematography, or some indie filmmaker space. When, unfortunately, what happened is that when they got to that point you get stuck with like, "What do I listen to? What do I not?" You don't know you have a buffet, you're starving. You're like, "What should I eat first," or, "What should I do?"

You have no knowledge of what's going to replenish you, what's going to give you energy or make you groggy. You just wind up eating not anything really, or you pick the wrong foods. It's the same way with video. The tech side of stuff just became so frustrating, and I knew when I was first getting started like, "If I'm having this issue, if I at least share, then maybe they'll help a couple of people out." I never expected it to transition into all of this.

Hunter: That is a good place to go then. Tell me how this all started.

Diana: I blame my coach. I 100% blame my business coach because I had no interest in doing YouTube video. It honestly wasn't even a thought. When I first hired my business coach it was because I knew that sales would be a part of any business model and I felt like I sucked at sales. It made me super uncomfortable. I always would feel uncomfortable in any sales position. I just knew I needed to get better at it, but find, not how to be a salesperson but just how to be better at communicating if something would be right or not for somebody in any business.

I just wanted to do consulting to help entrepreneurs get started. Those that have the idea, you don't know how to actually get started in building a company. I just wanted to help them get past those first few steps, but you have to be found. I just figured blog posts, maybe a podcast or something, but, "It's his fault," you tell me. The second time we met on the phone or something he was like, "Diana, you need to do video." He's like, "If you ever going to get anybody to see your stuff, you're going to have to do video." I'm like, "Okay," but it's the same five, six, seven Facebook post thumbnails for your picture. I'm profile-picking."

I'm like, "I'll just rotate those out. I don't even take new pictures, so doing video is way outside of my comfort zone." A book that I love which is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It's a part in there where Andrew Carnegie gives him that opportunity to go and eventually make the book that would become the law of success, 16 lessons condensed down into Think and Grow Rich, but he had already met with other people.

I don't know if Napoleon Hill knew that at the time, but that's what wound up being told to him after the fact, but it was a point when he told him like, "You're not going to make any money. You're not going to get any of the things you think that you're going to get. Only thing I'm going to do is provide you the opportunity of a lifetime to meet some of the most successful wealthiest men in America, and you will make the book that will be the definitive thing that people use to become successful. Do you want to do it?" He was dealing with his own stuff like, "I'm broke, my family needs this," but in a split second, he was like, "Yes, Mr. Carnegie, I'll do it and you can count on me."

I remembered that because the difference between where we're at and where we want to go is usually discomfort. I knew I didn't hire him for me to remain the same. It's like split second thinking that all of this happens. It takes me longer to explain it than what actually the seconds that it was. I remembered that and I said, "Yes, I'll do a video." He's like, "You're going to do a video today?" I'm like, "Yes, I'm going to do it." He had me repeat it three times. I'm like, "Yes, I'm going to make a video today." From that video until today, I haven't stopped it. That was in June of 2016.

Hunter: That video, what was the subject of that video?

Diana: It was just you need to introduce yourself will be the first one he had, private Facebook group. We needed to at least talk about who your message is for, who your target audience is, and who you are. It's like 60 to 90 seconds, that's it. What the video was going to be about wasn't my biggest concern at first. It was just where to do it, how to do it, all these questions.

He's like, "Shoot it on your phone." I really didn't know what to say other than like, "Hey, my name's Diana. I want to help entrepreneurs start a business." It was very weird and awkward. When I got through and I hit the stop button and I rewatched it I'm like, "You know what? It's not actually that--" it wasn't that bad and it was only 60 seconds or so, and just who I am and who I wanted to help.

Hunter: I love that you just said it wasn't that bad. It wasn't perfect.

Diana: Definitely not. I used the original selfie stick. I was just holding it with my hand and man, it was such a ridiculous situation. It was 90 degrees, with incredible humidity. I'm walking around because I'm looking at what other people are using to record videos in and I'm like, "Where do you even shoot videos?" I'm going to corners of the room. I'm like, "No, it looks like I'm in a jail cell."

I'm like, "Okay, let me go outside. Okay, it's hot, it's humid. Now, I got the Whitney Houston lip sweat thing going on," and I'm like, "This is awful." I eventually settled on my car. I'm like, "I see people do videos in the car, so let me just do that." I turn the air conditioner on and finding napkins from fast food places to wipe the sweat off. I'm like, "Okay, eventually turn the car off so it's quiet." That was the first video. It was a mess.

Hunter: I love it though. We care more about how we look and everything than the people who are watching it.

Diana: Absolutely.

Hunter: We got to go a step further back. You want to help people start a business, but you had to have started a business yourself at some point. Let's go way back, how did you get started in this at all?

Diana: I would definitely say it goes way back to MY childhood. Yes, middle school to high school. My parents, they owned a janitorial company, and in that janitorial company you worked. You didn't just get paid money, you worked. I had a legit job. That would be in the evenings. During the daytime my mom was a mortgage broker, and so she had her own office. Me and her sound-- I sound exactly like her, and so I would be great on the phone. She would have to teach me phone etiquette and how to handle people when they're coming in. I started working at the front desk even though I was little.

That was my first taste of entrepreneurship, so it was all around. I think everybody probably has touched network marketing at some point. Once I became of age around about 22-ish, I found a company that I was really interested in, but I made some money, but it wasn't obviously the dream that gets shown to you. The biggest benefit was the mentors that I got within that company, and then to start doing personal development. That's what really gave me the idea that I can take things that I know, turn that into income by helping other people because money's a value exchange.

I was like, "If I can make the value worth it for that other person, then I can obviously make money without having to trade time for dollars at a job." I started my own business when I still worked at the time of network marketing. Then once I left that company I'm like, " I need to do something for myself." I wind up getting sick and I left it all alone once I quit and I'm like, " I'm just going to focus on corporate."

Problem wind up being that when I was working my job, I just didn't know what was going on. It wasn't till I-- had surgery-- I'm skipping over that for a second. Wasn't until I had surgery and then I came back and I'm like, "Okay, this whole experience has changed me drastically. I can't just work a job and then that be good enough because this is not what I'm supposed to do in life, it's not why I'm here, and I need to figure that out." 

That's how it got into content creation, hiring a coach, and then all this stuff now. It started way back when I would definitely say my parents planted that seed of you can do something other than just the traditional swipe your badge clock in and do something for somebody else. You can do something for yourself.

Hunter: You say that the health situation it was kind of like I'm still here, I'm here for a reason, and this isn't it?

Diana: Yes. It's weird still even to say it out loud, but I literally almost died, and I had no idea. You are young, you're at early 20s. Really You think you're invincible. I didn't think anything was really wrong. I had just moved into an apartment after moving back to St. Louis from Ohio. Moving all this stuff, and I wind up getting this pain in my waist that just would not go away.

One day turned into one week and then a month, and it was just the most excruciating pain I had ever felt, and it just was not going away. Fast forward 16 months of going to specialists, doctors, nobody else could figure anything out. Until I finally got to this one doctor, and he finally was able to understand what was going on. He was like, "Yes, you need to have emergency surgery."

I'm scheduling this three days from now. I'm like, "Wait, what?" It's not a take this medicine. Stay away from strenuous exercises kind of a thing. I'm thinking like it's a quick fix for this. He's like, "No, you need emergency surgery." I wind up having that emergency surgery. In the midst of that he had to stop, go get another surgeon out to his surgery to come and help, so it was very complex issue. I wind up being diagnosed with Stage 4 endometriosis. It, unfortunately-- not trying to get too graphic but to explain the complexities of it all.

It just rotted my appendix. My appendix had flipped because it creates adhesions and stuff, so it blocks everything up. Started pulling all my intestines, and if one of those two pop you're gone. It was right at that last little, barely the thickness of a piece of thread is how much I had left. I'm still having complications after surgery, but waking up from that and they're flashing the photos of the internal pictures they took, and they're trying explain everything. They was like, "We almost lost you." Again, you told me I had to have surgery. I'm having it, I'm thinking again just quick fix or something.

Hunter: This is simple. I'm young, I'm healthy. Let's just do it.

Diana: Right. This is a bounce-backable kind of a thing. They kept on waving this thing around and I'm just really starting now to feel the gravity of it. I'm like, "Geez Louise like, what? Okay, what do you mean I could have not been here anymore? I wouldn't have woken up and then that's just it." That drastically changed me. It wasn't until I was having a conversation with my sister and I had to verbalize for the first time that I almost wasn't here. That going back to work was not just going back to work. I didn't have any of the corporate inspiration or just aspiration even. I didn't want any of it because I had to ask myself what would have been said if I didn't make it.

I made great peach cobblers, play with my niece and nephews, crack jokes, and stuff at work. I could say nothing that I did actually with my life to that point really, and that bothered me. I was now determined to figure out why I was here. I said it definitely isn't in this corporate America space it's not in like finding a better or different job or profession. It's a whole life-changing. That whole experience, like I said, it completely changed me. It still has changed me. Honestly is the driving force behind doing anything that I do now because when you get a second opportunity to live you don't waste it.

Hunter: That's so powerful. How does that shape your business coaching, because you're not just trying to help people make money then, I assume?

Diana: Yes. Money is always like a byproduct of doing the purposeful work. I think money in essence is fairly easy. Maybe it's definitely strategies, different things, what have you, but it's a byproduct of what you're doing. When it comes to coaching and working with people and getting them to understand what they're doing if it's only for the money I really can't help you. Obviously, we're going to focus at some point on it, but if it's the only reason you're doing what you're doing, I'm not the best person for you. Because when it's hard on the days when you get the bad comments, on the days when things don't go so well.

You will not be committed enough to only money for you to keep pushing through when you don't want to. That's why like for me when it's coaching with somebody to help them do this, you have a vision of something, a purposeful work. There's some reason of the why you want to make this, and you're willing to climb this mountain for a reason. Because if you start scraping your knee, break a leg, whatever, are you going to get back up and keep going or realize this actually isn't what I'm supposed to do. Coaching takes a whole other level when it's for a actual reason. You have some purposeful work back of it.

Hunter: When you start your coaching business, how long did you go before you hired a business coach?

Diana: I think it was probably six or something months because that time I spent one working, and I was like, "Let me use what I'm learning to the benefit of making more money at the job that will give me more space to do stuff and invest things on the backend." It's probably about six months part of that was still recovering-- coming back of the surgery. The other half was learning where are things now in the world when it comes to business. I listened to a ton of podcasts, invested in some different programs and stuff just trying to get educated. It was about six months before I hired my business coach. At that point was like now I'm ready to actually do something. It was about a six-month period.

Hunter: You're talking about as a business coach, I think of you as the woman on YouTube who can help you sort out all your tech. Did the business evolve in that direction?

Diana: Yes. When I initially hired my coach that got me started with, it wasn't with the intent to do video or nothing with YouTube at all. YouTube honestly was just a free kind of a Dropbox that I could use to have and embed that video to my website. The podcast that I had at that time was supposed to be the medium, didn't have to be on camera, don't have to do a lot, and easy enough to produce. That was my goal.

My only intention with the coaching that I was doing at that time was just to help aspiring entrepreneurs actually climb over that initial hurdle of, here's how you understand the state side and the federal side, and here's what you need to know to get started. Even in the coaching started being like, yes, video is actually a huge part. In that explaining that they were like, "How do I do this?" I'm like, "I just need to make a video about that." That's how that became a thing.

Hunter: That's so interesting because that's how I found you. I was trying to figure out how to shoot videos with a blurry background. The bigger thing I want to call out here is that once you dare greatly and you put yourself out there, that's when the market will tell you what they want from you. In your case, they wanted help with the tech.

Diana: That's exactly what it was because I am a nerd. I love the tech side of stuff. The tech side of things just was interesting to me because I could simplify that and put it in terms that people understood. The thing with the video, I still could help make that transition. I'm like, "Nobody's explained it from this perspective, so let me do this." When I started making those occasional--maybe once a month or twice a month, I may make one or two videos about the technical side of what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. Those videos would blow up and I'm like, "Where are these people coming from?" I'm like, "This is what I want on the other stuff." I'm like, "That's not making no sense." I'm like, "Do you like that stuff more?" I'm like, "Because I'm more interested in it too. We want to go there, we all can go." That's how it happened.

Hunter: That's why I enjoyed your videos is because there's still that authenticity with you. You share about your life and your peach cobbler, but also if you want to understand the f-stop this is how, and if you don't just set it here, trust me, and move on. That's what I like.

Diana: At the end of the day entrepreneurs or even if you're not an entrepreneur and you're just creating content around something you love or enjoy or whatever. We don't care about the photography and filmmaking stuff, and they start throwing all this stuff around it's like, "Who cares about that?" I would watch videos and I still would come across videos and they zooming in 3000%. I'm like, "What are you even looking at?" I'm so lost in the sauce at that point. It's like, "Nobody cares about that." I will teach you it if you want to know more, or here's the proper term if you need to search for it, but otherwise who cares about some of that stuff? Here's what you need so you can actually go do something-- when you click off of that video.

Hunter: You're getting mired in the details of it. Instead of sharing your message, you're spending more time worrying about your setup.

Diana: Yes.

Hunter: Before I get to the questions that I ask all my guests, do you have any advice for somebody who's listening to this and they're thinking, "I was born for something more, but I don't know how to go about getting there." What advice would you have?

Diana: If somebody is feeling that sense of lostness, if you will, and not really sure of the direction, or maybe you're multi-passionate, I could do a variation of these three different things. It could be seven different things. The way that you would identify that my advice to them would be, pick the thing you think you are most interested about, and start sharing and speaking that message. Whether it is on Instagram stories, whether you want to create a blog and start writing about it, just something.

Find a way to express and expend out that energy because if you don't, all things look equal and they feel equal on the inside. You will have to make a decision on which one is going to be, but on the inside, they're also equal because you're full. You're full of ideas, you're full of thoughts, you're full of the what ifs. Until you start to put some of that out and see what happens, you won't know because what you'll usually find out is, I'm actually not as passionate about this thing as I am the other.

Now let me put this down and go focus on the other thing. Don't be afraid to make the wrong decision. You're going to make wrong decisions because it's how you get to the right decision. Don't be afraid of that, but you need to start sharing that message and get it out of you. So you can figure out if this is what I'm really supposed to, I know it now. The podcast is a great way to do that.

It's like I'm so inspired to just keep talking about it. I got to do an hour of just talking about it. That's what you do essentially on a podcast. Get that energy, get that idea, and put it into something, some kind of a medium so that you can start sharing it. You will figure out what you are passionate about or what you're more passionate about on something else. You'll figure out which lane you should be in.

Hunter: I love that so much because it's like you're planting all these different seeds and you're seeing which ones grow. If you don't plant the seeds, you never know. Way back forever ago, my daughter, she's 22 now, so this was a long time ago in elementary school. She struggles at recess because she doesn't play sports, and she doesn't play make-believe. The kids at her school were either playing kickball, or they were pretending they were cats. She was like, ''I'm neither of these things.''

What do we need to do to help recess? Recess is the most traumatic experience of elementary school. I started a blog and I don't even remember what it was called, but it was something about making recess better. Three weeks later I was like, ''Yes, I'm over it.'' I'm sure there are kids across the world that struggle with this, but I just need to help my daughter get through this. I don't care enough about it to talk about it every day. 

Diana, tell me about a leap of faith you had to take to get where you are now?

Diana: Oh, it's easy to say when I quit my job. That's not it. That's a different level. The first leap of faith is believing that whatever it is on the inside of you is worthy enough to explore. The day I started researching podcasts and stuff, that was the leap of faith for me. Because now I'm willing to take my time, which is something that we can't get back. I think it's horrible to waste your own time, let alone somebody else's, but it's worse when you waste your own. When you start investing that time and you start exploring this, I think I'm willing to go into this.

When I started really spending time in podcasts and paying for courses and stuff, that was the first leap of faith because I was broke. I didn't have any money. I had got stuck in the payday loan game and all of that. That was my first leap of faith was to take what I didn't have and invest in it, and think that I'm worthy to start going in this direction and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is.

Hunter: I love that, you alone are worth the investment. What has been an unexpected blessing? Something you just couldn't see for yourself in making this move?

Diana: It sounds weird, but you always hope that you help people, or you hope that people get value out of what you're doing. A real unexpected blessing came for me for sure in-- 2019 was full of them. Every day it felt like it was one. 2020 really showed me that when you operate with full faith, trust, and confidence in God, your entire life can change. I had a pastor of a church in Africa. It's like a relatively large ministry, actually. He reached out to me and he said, "Because of your videos, my ministry survived. We were able to help so many more people." I will never forget that sequence of emails because for somebody to say, "Oh, man, this was helpful, thanks." You really don't get it sometimes.

When you get too many of those sometimes you get numb to it. That really showed me your steps of faith when you think they are small are large enough that they literally are able to extend beyond our reach, our physical reach to really help people in a tremendous way. When that man shared that with me, it just was an unexpected blessing because your life truly does help change somebody else's life, but it's so that they can change others' lives and you just don't know how far-reaching that is. That is what solidified it for me. Of all things, that is what showed me I am doing what I'm created to be doing. That was just huge for me.

Hunter: A glimpse into the ripple effect that you're having.

Diana: Yes. You just see a glimmer of and just you take that step back and you're like, ''I better be very careful and very honoring of the people that I interact with because you playing around really can hurt hundreds and thousands of lives and you just don't know what you're supposed to be doing, and how that can be impacting others. When you do know what you're supposed to be doing and you not doing it, woe to you, as the Bible would say.

Hunter: Wow, okay, that is going to stick with me all day. I'm going to be thinking about that. Diana, my final question is, how have you seen the hand of God in your career?

Diana: That takes a different turn for me. The way that I've seen the hand of God in my career is because I would not be able to do it without him. Much of my life before was Diana being some kind of superwoman. I felt like I was running on my own steam. Getting diagnosed with the Stage 4 endometriosis is literally something I'm still challenged with today. It impacts every decision I have to make.

However, it would be absolutely 1,000% impossible to do without God. I cannot, I physically do not have the capabilities to rely on myself. That's a whole 180-degree turn from the way I used to live my life. Having to get into a place of submission and learning to fully trust God, that would be it for me because the career wouldn't exist without him. I could do nothing without him. I mean that sincerely, it would be physically impossible. There's no way I could do it on my own.

Hunter: I think what I'm hearing is you are honoring God's work in your life and you want to share that.

Diana: Yes. After surgery, I had to sit with myself for a long time. You ask God to show me my purpose, show me what it is, and then he does. Now it's like, okay, I got a second chance at life. I know why I am here. I am going to earn every day that you have given me, all of these days could have been gone. When I lay down at the end of the day and I'm like, ''Did I earn today?'' That's usually my number one question to myself, did I earn today? Not saying I can't watch TV, or take a day off, or enjoy a vacation, or whatever, but it's literally, did I earn today? That's how I live my life.

Hunter: You're amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with me.

Diana: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Hunter: What can I even add to this story, have I earned today? Have I earned 30 minutes of your time by sharing this story? Did you learn something that will help you help others, like Diana pointed out? 

I love her perspective on that, and the idea that the biggest leap of faith she took was when she was willing to invest in herself enough to find out. 

Sometimes these stories make me hyperventilate a little because I start to panic a bit, and I wonder if I'm doing enough. But a resounding thought I want to share is this, your value is already defined. You are of infinite worth. Whether you start a business, or a YouTube channel, or ever even post a quote on Pinterest. You are enough and, not but, and if you want to do more with the value you already bring, then dare greatly simply by sharing what's on your heart. 

As you get that off your chest, you'll either find yourself wanting to share more about it or it'll free you up to move on to your next thing. Both would be worth the effort. 

Diana, thank you so much for sharing your story, for showing up on YouTube, and for being an inspiration to me and countless others. And thank you for listening. 

Thank you for listening to the Faithful Career Moves podcast. If you want to know more about how to connect your natural talents and abilities to job opportunities and business ideas, then visit our website at faithfulcareermoves.com.