3 Knowledge is Bondage

Before we get into the concept of show to ecosystem, think into these queries - and answer them.

• Is your podcast, your podcasts or your podcasting business the axis from which your digital footprint expands? (Another way to understand this is - is your podcasting work that which fuels everything)
• Do each of your digital properties stand alone? Can they?
• Given the answers to the first 2 inquiries, In what way is your podcast work a reflection of that?

An example of how to go about looking at this inquiry from a tactical point of view. Let’s say you ADORE your show. It’s the thing that gives you LIFE, but as you look at your digital footprint and all the ways that you are present online, your show is hidden, it’s not obvious that your podcasting work is how folks can get the best of you.

OR

You are really focusing on building a sustainable business, your show is a huge part of that, but it’s not the center, the show is primarily a way for you to expand your brand but in looking at your digital footprint, someone that looks at everything doesn’t quite understand how to even hire you!

Now those are some extreme examples, I think you get what I mean by this.

This may be incredibly obvious to you, where you don’t even have to think or it might just leave you a bit unsure. Or both!

In order for your work in podcasting to continue to grow, the above queries MUST be answered - again and again. There are no shortcuts in addressing those questions.

At this point, as a leader, you don’t have the luxury to be all la-di-da about your content, where it’s going or what you want.

You are here to make strong, informed decisions.

That said, you can absolutely change your mind once you decide. This process evolves and builds on itself.

Having the capacity to change your mind and re-align is a powerful skill.

Let’s say that you wanted to make your podcast your hub. It’s 100% the axis. You are all in with your podcast being IT.

Once you’ve committed, in your podcasting day to day you get some clear insight and/or possibly a change in your personal life (time, resources, priorities) and all of a sudden, the focus of your podcast being IT, simply isn’t going to work.

Or the reverse might be true. Your podcast could be a part of your platform but now you feel that it’s become a lot more than you thought it would be.

You need something more. You need to pivot.

That’s totally cool. Do it. Re-align.

What I don’t want is allowing yourself to wallow in a noncommittal space.

I’m all for following intuition and valuing moving from an organic place, but even within that realm there are boundaries.

Nature thrives in clarity.

Nature loves patterns.

Nature revels in boundaries.

My teacher Douglas Brooks once had this powerful lesson about this, he told me “Knowledge is bondage.” jnana bandaha. It is the second sutra in the Shiva Sutras, in case any of you scholars in the group wanna check it out 😜

It comes from the assumption that we are already free and it’s in the skillful way that we bind ourselves to our choices that creates our optimal capacity to live fully (personally, professionally and everything in between)

In this context, binding does not equal bad. It’s in fully binding ourselves to our decisions that creates freedom.

We bind as a way to cultivate the depth of our work and our experience of our lives. The binding feeds goodness.

Truth be told, the word bondage, historically and culturally and even cellularly can have a deeply disturbing and traumatic reaction - it did for me.

I questioned Douglas as I came into this idea from my own lived experience that was for sure not his. He lightly guided me to let go of the word in English into the the larger meaning of the Sanskrit stanza.

My understanding came from an example he shared about marriage in its highest most auspicious expression, of humans choosing to bind themselves to each other.

One of the rituals in primarily a Catholic Latin American wedding, the bride and groom wrap a very large rosary, or other symbolic rope to signify the invisible bond they’re choosing to go into.

The ritual came from Spain into the Americas but also mirrored an existing practice of indigenous people who would tie parts of their clothing together.

It is a sovereign choice to bind yourself as a free human vs an external entity binding you.

How is answering those prior questions going to deepen your ability refine your Voice and how you step into this industry and build community?

Here are the questions again.

• Is the podcast the axis from which all the other digital elements run?
• Do all other digital elements stand alone?
• In what way is your podcast a reflection of that?

Working through this inquiry

• Journal about it
• Vox me privately to discuss or question
• Voice your thoughts in the Voxer Group