How to Make Decisions (Return of the Podcast)
Host: Eric Chow · January 20, 2023 · Episode 66 · 31 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
Quoted from this episode: 7 quotes on the quotes page.
Wow, well, welcome back to the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast. This is episode number 66. I'm your host Eric Chow and man does it feel good to be back. My goodness gracious, this is awesome. First of all, Happy New Year. For those of you who I haven't had the chance to actually personally wish you Happy New Year yet, definitely want to say Happy New Year. Hope 2023 where a few weeks in is off to an amazing start for you. I know it is for me. There hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows, literally and figuratively. Weather has not been... all sunshine and rainbows for sure. And certainly not in my life either, but mostly I can say that it's been absolutely fantastic.
So happy New Year. Hope you're doing awesome. And welcome back to the show. Before I really get into anything, I do want to talk about some of the growth that's happened. Yeah, I haven't done an episode of the podcast for more than seven months now, but I have been getting some reports.
On growth in the podcast and I just want to share a couple of those Those notes with you I won't go into too many too much detail But I can say first of all that the last episode episode number 65 is by far the most listened episode of the show which is actually very shocking to me because There was this episode previously the previous record was an episode that had the most listens for the longest time. I mean, for the longest time, no episode topped this one episode that I did a while back. And I'm not going to tell you which one it is, even though I know.
But that episode was number one by a few hundred listens and downloads. And for it to now be topped by episode 65 is Pretty incredible. So I hope you guys got some really great value out of that and The other thing that happened is we're in 94 countries around the world now and that's as of actually like November or something which was the last time I actually counted and and looked at it I don't even know maybe it's higher. Maybe it's a hundred by now. I have no idea I should go check but my goodness gracious 94 countries around the world is absolutely mind-boggling and So thank you.
Thank you. Thank you And I also want to say thank you for coming back. You know, those of you who've listened to the show and are coming back. I really appreciate it. I know that I was gone for a while and hopefully maybe you're following me on social media. So you're at least seeing some of the things that I've been up to social media. You can find me anywhere. Eric Chow Real, E-R-I-C-C-H-O-W, Real on any social media. But...
I'm just excited to be back and there's a couple things I do want to talk about in this episode. Mainly one thing, which is how I decided to come back. And really I have an idea that I really want to dive into with that whole, what this podcast has meant to me and have a conversation around that. But before any of that, Happy New Year, 2023 is going to be fantastic. I just absolutely know that. And I want to start by talking actually about New Year's resolutions because I know that some people have a sort of, I guess, hesitation with making New Year's resolutions and they tend to not set resolutions and tend to not set goals. And I do want to talk about that. I understand the sentiment and the idea behind that. I know that.
You know this whole idea of new year new me just implies Oh, you know, why are you trying to change yourself every year? You know, I mean first of all why do you even have to wait for the year in order to change yourself? Why are you trying to change yourself? You should love yourself and appreciate yourself There's all these ideas and I understand the sentiment of them I agree you absolutely need to learn to love and appreciate and accept yourself as you are And I agree, you also shouldn't be waiting for the new year to make some changes in your life. But for me, I find that New Year's resolutions, if you use them properly, and if you know how to use goals properly and set intentions, then it can be a very, very, very powerful tool.
For several years, I set one intention every year. And I would just say, I want to make this year the best year of my life. And I literally Like, what does best mean, right? And I kind of left it up to myself. See, the way I would say that, if I just said, hey, I want it to be the best year of my life, that didn't mean that it needed to be the happiest. It didn't mean it needed to be the most successful. It didn't mean that it needed to be the most growth of Eric Chow personally. It just needed to mean that at the end of the year, I would look back on the year and go, man, that was the most amazing year of my life for one reason or another.
And that was really, really cool. It made me feel that, you know what, not everything needs to go perfectly. I don't need to have a perfect year or a happy, happy year the entire time. That was never a goal because that was always going to fail, right? I would never, ever have a year that is simply, I could never say this is gonna be the happiest year, you know, that like that's just not, isn't gonna work. But I could say that it's going to be the best year for one reason or another. And I would just say that and I get to the end of the year and say, you know what, this was the best year of my life.
And it was really, really awesome to be able to do something like that. Just set that kind of intention and purpose behind what I wanted a year to look like. Now coming into it, I do have a much clearer vision of what I want in life. I've been really.
Seeking that clarity over the past several months. In fact, I started thinking about it a lot back in even like August, September, October even. And when it came to December, I had really rekindled my desire and passion and figured out some of the things that I really do want to focus on. And so now I'm at a point where I know exactly what my big picture focus is for the next several years. And I know exactly what it is. I think about it and I just get fired up and excited. There's still a lot that I need to figure out in terms of how to get there, how to put it all together and some of the details, you know.
But as somebody who's definitely a total dreamer and somebody who likes to visualize, I know the big picture and that's incredibly exciting for me. So when I think about New Year's resolutions, for me I think about, okay, well, there's a year that's gonna happen, right? Full year.
and 365 days. And by the way, you know, that means if you haven't started a New Year's resolution or if you already failed, it doesn't really matter. 365 days from now, it's going to be a new year. So you can just start literally right now. There's nothing wrong with that. And you know what? We're so short in that even if you didn't do anything in the past few weeks for a New Year's resolution or even if you failed already. You can still make it an incredible year because there's so much time left. A New Year's resolution does not mean you need to be perfect every single day out of 365.
It just means out of the year you did something significant, right? So anyway, for me, it means setting. Okay, I know what my big picture is for the next couple of years. What are some of the important checkpoints that I want to achieve this year? That's what that New Year part means to me.
And then I think about which for me is the more critical part, resolutions. Resolute and resolve is the two words that I think of when I hear of resolutions. And I think that is the most important thing, to have that resolve. in your heart, in your mind, in your spirit, that these are some of the things that I need to achieve. These are some of the things that I need to do. These are some of the, this is the kind of person that I want to be. These are some things that I want to be true of my character and who I am and what my life looks like.
That for me is what a New Year's resolution is all about. So I just wanted to kind of give that little bit of a spiel. Don't set.
One of the other some a few other things that I come to mind don't set goals out of Purely excitement don't set goals out of purely. Oh, that's what somebody else says should be a goal the key is Remember there's two parts right New Year's and resolution New Year's means I want to do it this year. There are certain things that I've you know, I want to achieve in my life, but I've decided are not for this year. There are things that I'm thinking, I, those are some things I want to do, but you know what, I don't need to do them right now. These are not, these are not priorities for me at this current phase in my life.
These are not the projects that I want to work on at this phase in my life. Those can be New Year's resolutions in the future, perhaps, something that I want to focus on in the future.
Just pick a few things. One, two, three things that you want to focus on for the year that you think like right now these are the ones. The second part is resolutions. It has to be something you are you actually have a resolute about. You have resolve around you wanting that. That's it. As long as you have that, that is that's really all you need. So don't set goals and resolutions that you don't actually have that resolve for at this current moment. So that's something I would say and hey if you want to and you don't really have anything else just set certain intentions. You can pick a word and say for me the one word that I want to focus on this year is blah you know leadership or optimism whatever it might be for you okay.
But that's really just a little conversation I wanted to have about New Year's resolutions. Really this episode I want to talk about how to make decisions and really that was born out of me coming back, making the decision to actually come back to the show and start recording episodes again. I took a break seven months ago roughly to, because I wanted to focus on some other things, but I will say. that making the decision to come back has been pretty exciting. And I think the way I made it, I'm pretty proud of. I've always looked to the way I have approached the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast as an example for how I have made good decisions.
Because I feel that we're never taught how to make good decisions. I don't know in your experience, I mean, if you think back to, you know, your entire life and People who have been in your life. I don't know if you can say that You've learned from somewhere somehow how to actually make good decisions I can say that I haven't I can say that I've been expected to make good decisions I can say that I was expected to say hey I mean like how often right in life in general hey, you're supposed to you know Make a decision to date that girl or date that boy, right?
Make that decision to eventually get married make the decision to get a house make forget it go back wave and further make the decision to which college you're gonna go to make the decision of you know Maybe you're going into military maybe a decision of what you're gonna major in maybe the decision of what you're gonna do for a career and what your jobs are gonna be That there's so many decisions that we are expected to make in life And yet we're never taught how to actually make good decisions. And I'm no expert. I'm not going to claim that I'm an authority, I suppose, on making good decisions.
But I did write down a couple of notes. And I've always looked to the way I have approached the Eric Shower and Powers podcast as an example for how I've made some good decisions in my life. And I've certainly made some wrong ones, but.
I've always felt that the way I've approached this show has been an example for me about some some decisions that I've made that are good. So I made a couple of notes down. I don't have a script. I don't have any really anything. But I did make a couple of I wrote down and jotted down a couple of ideas that I really did think about. So I want to talk about how to make decisions. The first thing I wrote down is knowledge. And when it comes to knowledge, what I mean by that is Do you know what you need to know? Or can you definitely acquire what you need to know to make that decision?
Now, that's a little bit of a thought experiment there. So I'll repeat it and then I'll explain it. Do you know what you need to know? Or can you definitely acquire the relevant knowledge and information? So let me tell you what I mean.
When I was starting the Eric Chow Empowers's podcast a few years ago, I identified that there were some things that I absolutely did not know. I did not know how to start a show. I did not know how to get it up on all the platforms. I did not know the details of how it actually creates, like the practical aspect of how do I actually create a show and grow a show. I had no clue. But... I knew that I could acquire that kind of knowledge and information. I knew I would have no problem with doing that. I knew there was an abundance of information out there and that I could figure it out.
So I was not concerned that I didn't know everything. I just knew that I could find it. However, What I needed to actually know to start my show was what is the title of the show going to be? How are you? What is the description of the show? What is your show going to be about? Most importantly, why do you actually want to start a podcast? And for me, I actually had that answer. I worked for a little bit. I figured it out brainstormed. I said, okay, I'm going to I want it to be about empowerment. So you know what Eric Chow Empowers Podcast, bam, done.
What are some of the things I want to focus to show on? Well, I don't know. Let me figure that out. Well, okay. Well, why do you want to start a show? Okay. Well, I want to start a show because I really want to platform in a space for self expression and a platform where I can have conversations with people who I respect and who I love and talk about. topics and subjects that we may not otherwise be able to talk about in just a regular conversation, find some value provided to an audience. That was why I wanted to start the Eric Chow Empowers Podcast.
So I knew that and from that information, I could get the title, I could get the description, I could create everything I need. And then, bam, I was ready to go. So I knew what I needed to know and what I didn't know, I knew that I could get that information.
That is what I mean by getting the appropriate knowledge. I find that sometimes we don't, we make a decision to do something or not do something because we feel like we need to have it all figured out. So you like, I just imagine what it would have been like if I had the opportunity to start the Eric Chown Power Podcast and I thought. Oh, but I don't know how to start a podcast. I need to figure everything out before I actually start the podcast. Oh my God, that would have been tragedy. I mean, I just, I would have missed out on so much if I did that because guys, I was still figuring out how to podcast by like episode 17, 18, 19, 20. I was still figuring it out.
I didn't know it all, but after I started my show, I was still figuring this stuff out. I was still learning stuff at episode 20. So I can only imagine how much I would have missed out on. Would I even have a show? I wonder if I had waited for myself to figure it all out. And even if I did have a show and I started at episode 21, I mean, I can only imagine. one, how long that would have taken and what I would have missed out on. I mean, my goodness. I mean, there are some of the first 20 episodes have been very, very significant for me.
So you don't need to have it all figured out. That is the one thing that I really want to stress with this first point of knowledge. But again, it's really, do you know what you need to know? And can you acquire everything else?
Can you acquire all the other knowledge and relevant information that you need? So that's the first point the second point that I really have is getting Inputs and I think that we need to be careful about this one And so I'm really good I might spend a little bit of time here But the first point I have in getting input is what do your stakeholders have to say it's a very business term stakeholders But that just means anybody who has a stake in you making this particular decision. So for example, when I was starting my podcast, who had a stake in my show, well, I would say that it was just me and my potential audience. Bam. If I'm starting one of my businesses, it's okay. Well, if I'm starting one of my businesses, well, then okay, well, it's me.
potentially my family. It would be my other businesses and the people who interact with my other businesses. It would be my potential customers. Those are all stakeholders in my situation. So you want to get input from your stakeholders. And the key part here is you want to get input so that you can help get an idea as to what the reality of the situation is. but you do not want to overvalue the input that you are getting. I'll give you a few examples. I did not know what kind of support I was going to receive when I launched my podcast. I had no idea. I talked to a few people who are in my potential audience, friends of mine, who I felt had a good idea as to who I am and what I talk about and what my show would be about. So I got some input.
But I really did not have a very clear idea of What the support would be if I decided to actually launch my podcast it was very similar in a business sense I did not know super clearly I got some idea But I didn't know too much when I was deciding to come back to this show one of the things I did was I posted an Instagram story and I posted a poll and I said hey should I revive the Eric Chow in Power's podcast, 100% of people who voted said yes. There was literally not a single no. However, comparatively, the number of people who voted versus the size of my actual audience of the podcast is very, very small.
So I don't actually have a clear picture. I have an idea, but I do not have a clear picture. So I do not want to overvalue that kind of information.
The second thing I decided to do was, okay, well, I don't want to take care of that too much. So as soon as I saw, okay, well, 100% of this many people said, yes, I should start my re- you know, revive my podcast, let me make sure who are two of the stakeholders in my, in this decision. And I immediately talked to one of my friends, his name is Isaac. And I work with him at Mashman Ventures, which is a public relations company. I'm a chief consultant of a public relations company now. And he is the founder and CEO. So one, he has a huge stake in terms of my personal brand. And he also has a stake in, okay, well.
what if Eric gets distracted, right? By doing his podcast and neglects his work at Mashman Ventures. So he was one of the people who for me also, I mean, he's just one of my best friends and he has a very, very good idea of who I am and what I'm doing, what my personal brand is all about. So I said, okay, well, let me make sure I check with him. And honestly, I gave Isaac, I don't know if I said it to him, but I was giving Isaac mentally. Complete veto privileges. I did not care how many people Said yes, you should start your show if Isaac said no, I was gonna not do it.
That was it was literally that clear in my head Because this is a guy who who for me that company is one of my priorities right now Building that company that is absolutely one of my priorities So anyway Isaac said dude you should I'm all for it. You should do it. Bam done I gave that same veto privilege to one of my mentors. Now, this is a guy who, again, is one of my absolute best friends, his name is Lahar, and he has total perspective on what I want in life. This is the man who has helped me so, so, so, so, so much. And again, if he said no, I was not going to do anything because beyond anything, like this is the guy in my opinion who is going to Between him and Isaac these are the guys who are going to take me to the life I want to live in my opinion A lot is obviously gonna write on me, but I believe sticking with these two men is very very important for me in my long-term vision So that's why I gave them this privilege And hey we spoke with Lahara goddess perspective and bam here we are So what do I want to say here you want to get input from your stakeholders that is understanding who is your potential audience or potential customers if you're talking about a business.
And then you want to have that mastermind alliance with the appropriate people. When I was starting my podcast, I did not have a mastermind alliance because nobody knew anything in my life about podcasting.
I did not know anybody. So I could not really do that kind have that kind of conversation. When I talked to Isaac, he is a businessman. I am a businessman. He is a he used to have a podcast for a very long time. So I know he understands that. Lahar is my mentor. He's a businessman. I'm a businessman. He also has total perspective on everything that I'm doing. And He understands kind of the time commitment because he's seen me host my show before. And so he has an understanding of what I'm doing here with my podcast. So bam, we are good to go. We have actually a mastermind alliance now versus before we I didn't have any of that.
So I could not take any input. When I was starting the first couple of my businesses, I could not take any input from anybody because nobody had any idea about.
starting a business or the kinds of businesses that I was doing. So in the beginning, I could not take any input because nobody had that relevant information. I could talk to my parents and get their information, but that was like a potential audience and a potential customer. So it didn't again give me a super clear idea of what was going on. I could not value that information too much, even if it's my parents. My parents obviously have a stake in my life. But because they don't have the experience and the relevant expertise, I could not overvalue that kind of information. So even if they said, hey, maybe you shouldn't do that, I had to take it with a grain of salt by saying, okay, you know what?
I know exactly what I know what I want in my future. And they don't actually have a clear idea of what I'm about to do. So.
You want to make sure that yes, you get input because it helps you to weigh opinions, but you want to make sure you're judging the fruit on the tree, understanding what is their relevant expertise and how important is their opinion and what is their understanding of your big picture. Final notes and this one's going to be super quick. Make a definite decision. You want to make sure. that after you've gotten you you have the appropriate knowledge you know that you can get the rest of the knowledge that you need you've gotten some input consider some alternatives. What are you going to do if you don't do this when I looked at the podcast and I said okay well what is what is the alternative when I was starting the show there was no real good alternative to for me.
to do what I wanted to do, which was, again, self-expression and facilitating the kind of conversations that I wanted to have. There was no alternative. So bam, done, easy. When it came to coming back to the show this time, what was going to be the alternative? There were actually several that I could have considered, but I decided that I really still wanted to come back to the podcast. So sometimes if you don't actually have an alternative, then you may want to just say, hey, I mean, I don't have an alternative. Maybe I should just do this, right? The other thing is focus on the outcome.
You definitely want to focus on what you're getting and what is the benefit of it, not getting as in like material or physical or like just literal like for money or something, but also what you're getting as a human being is also very, very important to consider. Next is you want to know your priorities.
When I was starting when I when I was coming back to this show One of the things that I really talked about with Lahar my mentor was He said Eric I believe you can do this you're very very good at managing your time You've got multiple things going on already, but you're very good at managing your time I and if there's an issue we can work on that But as long as you are keeping in front of you your priorities and he knows exactly what my priorities and my goals are, he said, you know exactly what those are. As long as you keep that in front of you, you're going to be fine.
Because you've got multiple things going on and this is just going to be another thing on your plate. But if you can keep your priorities straight and you know exactly where this lands, then you're going to be okay.
So you got to make sure you know your priorities and then commit as best you can. Will I be dedicating my absolute all to my podcast? The answer is no. But that doesn't really matter. I don't need to be all in on my podcast. That is okay, right? And then the next thing is communicating your decision to all parties. So bam, guess what I'm doing right now? Anybody who voted yes on the poll? Here we are. I'm starting my podcast bam communicate decision to all parties especially those who are involved in you making that decision right so Hey, I'm letting you know right now, and I'm gonna post it on my social media as well So I'm making sure that everybody who is involved in the decision making knows the answer that I decided to ultimately go with The final thing is you want to make it the right decision.
Litt my friends listen instead of Trying to make... See, let me even rephrase it. You're not really making it the right decision. Sorry, no, I'm not even saying that right. It's hard to think about and it's stressful to think about making the right decision. You want to make it the right decision. What I mean by that is, or if I rephrase it, make the decision right. That's the better way of putting it. Because I think there's a lot of stress when you're thinking about this decision needs to be right. And when you're concerned about making a decision and making it and having it be the best decision possible, you're just stressing yourself out and it's unnecessary.
Instead, make the absolute best decision you can based on the knowledge that you have, the knowledge you know you can acquire, the input you've received, making sure to properly weigh the opinions that people are giving you.
Considering the alternatives, knowing your priorities, you're able to make the best decision you can, and then you make it right. You make it the correct decision based on your efforts and based on your approach and based on the decisions that you were making. I decided when I started the Eric Chiang Park. Empowers podcast that this was gonna be a good decision for me because I was actually gonna do some work on it And I was actually gonna use the platform as an opportunity for self-expression and for the conversations I wanted to have I did exactly that This is absolutely done both of those things for me So you make it the right decision You don't make the good decision you make the decision and then you make it the correct decision.
That for me has been a very nice click in my mind. I know it's a little bit of semantics, but hopefully you get the idea. I'm excited to be back. Thank you so much for tuning in. This was a little bit long, but again, I'm just excited to be recording again and to be doing this again. And I don't exactly know.
When episode number 67 is going to come out, but thank you so much for tuning into the Eric Chowing Powers podcast. I'm excited to chat with you again on the next one. I don't think every episode is going to be half an hour long, but I guess I'm just extra excited today. All the best to you and see you soon.