Anxiety Has A Plan | Bryan Jepson | Full Battery Media

I sat down with Bryan Jepson, a retired emergency medicine physician turned certified financial planner.

Bryan spent a long career in emergency medicine before making one of the boldest pivots I’ve heard of: going back to school for a master’s in finance, becoming a CFP professional, and building an entirely new career centered on helping physicians and special needs families navigate their financial lives.

But what we really got into was the psychology of major life transitions: the identity shift, the anxiety, the fear of stepping into the unknown, and why people coming from high-impact careers can struggle even when they are financially prepared to stop.

Bryan also hosts The Second Shift Podcast, where he explores what it truly means to redesign your life after a high-impact career. 

What’s one identity you’ve had to let go of to grow into who you are today?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Whenever you pull up the news or pull up your news feed or whatever I don't know what the percentage, probably eighty to ninety percent or more seems to be bad news or just negative, negative news. It's it's we're we are overrun with negativity and um bipartisanship or you know, just all kinds of stuff that makes you angry because you know people feed on that and it sells. In reality. You know, it's it the bar is pretty low, if you really think about it. You know, where and and I think that there's a lot of and and I I still think that there's a way more good people than bad people out there, personally. And you know, but we just don't hear that side of it. We just we just constantly are barraged with negativity uh in social media and everything else. And so I I think people like you and I, you know, to the extent that uh we have a platform and that we've created that, the more we can share that's positive, the more that changes that balance a little bit. And and if other people see that and start doing the same thing, then then I think that I don't think there's any reason that we have to have so much negative out there in the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I'm your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today, and I'm really excited to talk to you about kind of what you do. Can you tell people who you are and all of the fun things that you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Well, my name's Brian Jepson. I'm an emergency medicine physician, now retired, actually. Um, I retired in February, but I also um my my encore career, I like to call it, is a financial planner. So um I went back to school at a at a late age uh after a long career in medicine, um, got a master's in finance, became a certified financial planner, and that's now what I do full-time. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Well, and it's interesting because one of the reasons I I had asked you to come back on and uh wanted you to come on to kind of a different podcast angle. Like this is about content because you create and spread message through your content. But first of all, I wanted to ask you this because you spent years in emergency medicine helping people in crisis, you know? What made you realize content and podcasting could also help people in a meaningful way? You know, you started making all this content. What what helped you go, hey, this is going to be something I can do and help people.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

You know, I mean, I think a lot of it is when you leave a high impact career, um, you're leaving behind an identity to a degree. And um that identity as a physician is helping people, right? And so, so I think for me, it would be, it would feel like a cliff, I guess, falling off a cliff if I just left medicine and just went and didn't stuff for myself. And so, so I found a way, um that's partially why I I chose a different career instead of just retiring, is that that allowed me to continue working and helping people and doing something that I enjoyed. It's a different, if it's it's a different um avenue completely than medicine. Um, but it the idea is the same. And and the reason why I started doing uh content production is that part of my I guess personal mission statement is not just helping individual clients, but also improving financial education generally among the the the niche or the clients that I work with, and that's physicians, number one, and people with special needs, number two. And so that's a way that I can, I guess, scale my impact where, you know, even if somebody doesn't become a client from with me, they um can still learn and and that I can still do something that helps them, I think.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I love that. You know, it's one of the things too is that I I was a children's teacher for many years. And so, you know, for me as well, it was a way that I realized I could continue to have an impact. And, you know, it it looks a little different than than my teaching does, but I still was helping people, you know, by the information I was sharing, you know. And so I I really like, and that speaks to me, how you say, um, you know, it's this core, this core mission is kind of still the same, you know, and it's just the I'd say the outlet of it has changed, but you're still you're still doing the same thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, no, absolutely. And it and it's fun. I enjoy it. You know, I I I I like learning myself, but most of the time as I go through and and I'm learning things, I like sharing that with others so that they can also learn along with me, I guess. And so um, so so I I come at it, I guess as an expert because I'm a I'm a few steps ahead, you know, but but um hopefully pulling others along with me rather than just trying to separate myself myself from other people is is the way I approach why the way I approach it.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I love that because that's exactly the approach I had for growing my growing money podcasts. Like I didn't know about personal finance. And I created this podcast because I wasn't the money guy. You know, that was not part of my identity. I didn't have this, you know, like it's funny because people will come on and people will see me now come up, like, oh, you will you, Sean, you've got your finances all together. And I was like, oh dude, no, I am headed in the right direction. I am steering this way, but like I'm still learning. It is a process for me. And you know, and actually, yeah, one of my friends, I I last year, uh a couple of years ago now, I did my MBA. Um, and it was right after COVID. We were experiencing still a major lockdown in Vietnam. And I was like, actually, we had just gotten out of the lockdown. And I said, you know what? I want to learn more about money. So I said, let me do my MBA. And like I got in my MBA and I was like, they don't teach you about money here. This is all other stuff. Yeah, you know, so but it was, I still learned a lot, and I love that. And one of my friends is a VP at Fidelity. And yesterday we were talking about if she went through the MBA with me. That's how we met. And she's a really awesome individual. And both of us were like, she's like, I'm looking at, you know, a swan song of my career. And she's like, uh she's looking at being a CFP. And she's like, hey, Sean, why don't you do it with me? And I was like, I don't know if I want to be a CFP because but I'd love to learn this stuff. And but my point being, like, as I never thought that that could be possible. And I I'm not necessarily looking at, but the idea about being able to learn that stuff and to share that journey, like that resonates with me. Because if I do it, I'm gonna be like, guys, listen to what I learned yesterday. Who knew? You know, and that type of that people resonate with that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, similar experience with me when I, you know, because when I decided I wanted to do something differently besides medicine, and you know, as you leave medicine, you have lots of options. I mean, you you can you can pick a non-clinical career. You know, there's lots of there's a variety of ways that you can work as a doctor, but not in the trenches. Um but for me, I just wanted to do something totally different, partially because I could, you know, I didn't need doctor money anymore. I could, I could just, you know, I could create some options where, you know, I could uh I could explore other things, other avenues. Um I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do within that. I just knew that I was interested in personal finance and and investing and I wanted to know more about it. Um and went got a master's in finance, not really knowing what that was going to lead to professionally. Um and like your experience with an MBA, probably. I mean, I learned a lot of cool stuff about finance. Uh very little of it was applicable to personal finance, right? It was more kind of um academic, mathematical, you know, if institutional level kind of stuff, which I thought was fascinating and interesting and I loved it, but it wasn't something that um helped me from day to day. Yeah. And um, and so until I became a CFP where where that actually um was more of the applicable kind of um functional use of of finance, that's when I really learned the stuff that was useful. And that when I started doing that, um, that's when I knew that I had stuff that I could now share with other people that they might care about, as opposed to, you know, all the mathematical formulas that go into, you know, time value of money equations. Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Well, you know, you know, you but you you started all this, you created your own podcast and you're you're making all types of content. Like what message or feeling are you hoping people walk away from after listening to your podcast? Your your content?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Uh it's a good question. You know, my my content, uh I I'm creating content in various avenues, kind of like you are, you know, I mean, and with different themes that are that I that I direct towards. Um, you know, I have special needs content, I have um physician written content on my blog, on my website. Um, and then this podcast is is a little bit different because it's focusing more on career transition. So, so it's it's that that's a different focus than just personal finance. I mean, obviously finance plays a role in that, but but that's not what we talk the most about. What we talk the most about is what it's like um on the identity side or on the behavioral side or the psychology side of making a major transition, whether that's to retirement or to a different career like I did, um, I think that there's a lot of people that face that. I mean, we all face that at some point.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Um, but you know, there's a lot of people facing it. And if you're coming from a from a high impact career, um I think that that transition is more difficult psychologically, um, even if you're financially prepared. And so, so what I'm what I hope from the podcast, from our podcast, it's called the Second Shift Podcast, is that people walk away feeling a little bit more prepared to tackle that transition and to ask the right questions, to have the conversations with their significant other that they may not have had or thought about, um, that's going to make that transition a lot smoother. So that a lot, you know, because a lot of people become depressed after they retire, you know, because they haven't done the planning and they haven't figured out what they really want next. And so it's just like falling, like I mentioned before, it's kind of like falling off a cliff where where you you're going from high impact to no impact, and and that's difficult for uh a lot of people. I think most people.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Right. That that's an interesting thing because it's like when people go through these major transitions in their life, you go from something that you're used to to something that that's very different, you know, and it's like you kind of I I remember when I moved from the US to Asia, like there it was it was pretty dramatic, you know, and the little things that you that you do when you're in this new place get um, you know, are you feel ungrounded. And having that ability to to to to ground is a really powerful thing. And what I'm where I'm getting at though is like when you're able to hear people who've gone through it, who've been there and found that meaning again. Like I connected with a group of people that were like, hey, this is how I've done this. This is the what I do. And it wasn't the way I ended up doing it, but it helped me get to the other side, you know? And so I I love that you have that mission and that purpose and what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah, I mean, I think everybody's everybody's situation is different, right? I mean, you you can't totally walk in somebody else's shoes because your your circumstances are different, but you can definitely learn from their journey. And, you know, and so that's most of the people so far that we've had on there have been people that have gone through the journey or at least, you know, well on the other side of it, and um and have perspective that they can share about the surprises or the the good things or you know, the challenges or or stuff that that can be adapted to anybody's situation, I think. And and so, like you, you know, um in some of it is is the the things you don't think about necessarily. So for example, for those who are thinking about retirement and you say, Oh, what do you want to do in retirement? They say, Well, I want to travel, or I want to spend time with my grandkids, or or stuff like that. But but they forget, oh, okay, well, what do you want to do next Tuesday? You know, because those those travel and spending time with family, those are big mission goals, but not the day-to-day goals that's that sometimes you have you you have to fill that time and and some of the things that, okay, well, what what is my spouse, what what are their routines that I'm now disrupting because I'm retired and am around, you know. So, so some of those other things it just gives us reminds us that that there are other things that we have to think about that maybe we haven't thought about before.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

I love that. I um I was I was curious about this next thing because, you know, when I I talk to you, I'm just really amazed at your ability to put yourself out there, you know, and because I see a lot of smart professionals are afraid to put themselves out there online. What what helped you finally start creating content publicly? Because it's not easy, you know, and it's not easy to put that stuff out there and like, am I gonna get judged? You know, how is this gonna be received? What what helped you in that process?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Um, I think part of it is is um my personality that I'm not afraid to look stupid to some degree, or you know, where it's like um I I'm not afraid to fail, you know, and and I think I I think that uh that's what keeps people in locked into a situation where maybe they're not completely happy or satisfied is that they're afraid to take a step out of that because they're afraid of failing. And um, you know, to me, you know, I it's not like everything I've done has been a smashing success, but but when it when it hasn't, I don't I still don't look at it as a failure. I look at it as a learning experience. And because, you know, that's allowed me to use that those tools and do something different that maybe is a little bit better next time. So so I I think my personal experience probably started when oh maybe 20 years ago, 20 almost, yeah, bet about 20 years ago when I started um so I'm an emergency medicine physician, but for about eight years, I I did some um medical work with uh special needs kids, you know, and kind of looking at their biomedical stuff and doing some integrative medicine with them. And as part of that, I've kind of I so that was kind of a shift, a second shift for me in the mid middle of my emergency medicine career that was very different than emergency medicine. But as part of that, I also created a lot of content, wrote a book, um, was a speaker in various national and international conferences. So I kind of had that experience before to know that um yeah, it's kind of uncomfortable putting yourself out in front of people. But at the same time, um people are very appreciative when you do because um they have something or you have something that you can share with them that that they're looking for. And um and once I realize that the I guess the discomfort of outing myself publicly, if you want, if you will, uh goes away a little bit because um I realize that it's worth it because I'm I'm doing something good for somebody.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I love that. You know, and I think the idea of of realizing that you're really doing something that's good for somebody and you're you know, it matters. Like that's one of the things I have to remind myself every day that I show up, every time I'm getting on this podcast, like what I'm doing matters. Being here, showing up matters. And, you know, I I try to approach content creation not through a lens of just like, let's uh let's make money, let's do this, let's create a sales funnel. I'm like, how can we touch someone's life? How can we make a difference for someone? Because it's like, you know, there's a lot of reasons to do things. Don't get me wrong, I love money. I love making money. But if you can approach this from, you know, having a real why, having a real mission, having a real purpose behind what you're putting out there, you know, um, it's really, really, really, you know, powerful thing to do. But I want to ask you another question too, because like when you started this, what surprised you most once you started podcasting and sharing your thoughts online?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Well, you know, I'll I'll say I'm still early in the process. So with my podcast. I mean, we've only been going for a couple of months, you know, and um, and but but uh what I'm surprised, yeah, I I don't know, it's always easy to be surprised that people want to hear what you say. Right. You know, that that lots of times that just feels surprising in some ways. And so so the fact that people are starting to engage with it, uh, that it is that it is helping, um, you know, you're getting more views, um, that's that's a pleasant surprise. I mean, that that motivates you to keep going because, you know, like you'd mentioned, if you're if you're creating content for the money, you got a long way to go before you're making any money on it, right? So, so so it it takes a while to to generate an audience that's big enough that you're you're creating much money on it, at least any kind of meaningful money. So yeah, so if you're just doing it for money, um, you're gonna get discouraged pretty quickly, I would say. And and so you you have to you have to have some other reason to keep going until you know you have created the audience that at some point maybe you will get some some reimbursement and and make it more valuable uh to you personally. So, so I think uh that that's how I I I approach my um just content creation in general. Yes, for me, uh I I'm creating content within a niche of of uh a finance, a financial planner, so it could lead to clients and and generate income that way outside of just you know money directly from the content. But um that's not really why I'm doing it. I'm really doing it more just to help improve financial education. And and so if you have whatever whatever your your content is, you got to create a mission and and and your why first. And and like anything, if money is your focus, you can never have enough. So money should not be your focus, it should be a tool to help you um accomplish whatever better goal you have.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

I love that. I talk about that so often. Money is a tool. And I think that that's something that people forget to really emphasize because, you know, it's a tool that you can use for a lot of different things. You can cook a meal with a knife, you can, you know, cut someone with a knife with a hammer, you can build a house, you can also, you know, hit someone over the top of the head. Neither the bladder's good, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Very violent, violent thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Right? You know, like, ooh, what am I gonna do with these? The intrusive thoughts win. Yeah. But I mean, you know, the idea being, you know, money's the same. It is simply a tool that you can do great stuff with or do bad stuff with. And and it itself, though, is a neutral tool. You know, it's it's how you how you figure out you're gonna use it. But I want to ask you this too, because um, you talked about this a little bit, but do you think content can genuinely change people's lives or is it more about helping people feel less alone? You know, what type of what are you trying to do with what you're creating? Is it like, you know what, this this is matters here. I can change someone. It's like existence.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

I I think it depends on, I I think it depends on your content, you know, and and what what the focus is of it. Um so my focus is on is on financial planning and retirement planning and things like that. So do I think it changes people's lives? It can. Absolutely it can. And you know, if if they're I I I think a lot of it too depends on how what kind of practical information you're giving. I mean, if you're just uh going online and you're just filling space, then maybe that's not helping helping anybody, right? It's just filling space. But but if you're actually giving them tools. And advice that they can then use to make their lives better, then hopefully they'll do that. And even if it's just by a little bit, then I feel good that however how whatever effort I went into creating it was was worthwhile. So um, but yeah, I I think everybody, there's lots of content out there, and a lot of it is good content, and a lot of it is just noise. And so so I I think you have to really um focus in. And again, I think it comes down to the why are you doing it? You know, what what what's your mission for that content? What what's the purpose of it? And then you can and who am I trying to help? You know, who's my audience that I really am trying to impact? And then you create the content for that audience. So it's not just general, you know, information necessarily. You you have an you have a person in mind that you're saying, okay, I could help this person if I say this thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yep. Yep. I tomorrow morning I'm waking up early, grabbing some trash bags. I'm gonna walk up and down my street and clean the street. And it is, I've I'm gonna make a video of it. I've done it before without videos, but it's something that I do every now and then because my street gets really dirty. And the whole point of the video is that I was looking at all these people doing talking head videos. They sit there and they talk in the video, and I was like, I want to talk to people about Marcus Aurelius, and he says, uh, waste no more time asking what a good man should be, be one. And um that struck me because I was like being part of the solution, being part of creating something that inspires people, that helps people, because I I I love what you're saying. Like, there's a lot of spam out there. There is a lot of stuff that just is not helping. But you gotta figure out who it is that you want to help and what you want to be doing, you know? And that that like leads me to my next question. Like, what kind of stories or conversations do you think seem to resonate most deeply with your audience?

SPEAKER_00 24:11

You know, just to go back to a little bit to what you just said. Um whenever you pull up the news or pull up your news feed or whatever, I don't know what the percentage, probably 80 to 90 percent or more, seems to be bad news or just negative, negative news. It's it's we're we are overrun with negativity and um bipartisanship or you know, just all kinds of stuff that makes you angry because you know people feed on that and it sells. And and um so I love it when what you just said uh that you're planning on doing is is going to be out there. I love those kind of stories because it it helps to start pulling back that balance a little bit. Because I think if we had a lot more content that showed people doing good things and being positive and and being helpful, um that would make our world better. And so, so the the things that I personally love to watch in the special needs space in particular is when you know you you see feeds of people that are being really nice to special needs individuals, right? Brings a tear to my eye every time. Because as a dad of special needs sons, I know a lot of times how people are not nice to them or judge them or you know are are are just essentially, you know, dismiss them is is probably the more common thing, is that they they're just disregarded. But when when other people that are quote unquote normal or neurotypical go out of their way to um make someone with special needs feel seen, I love it. You know, I I could watch those all day long. And and so so that's the um so that's the kind of content that I personally like to watch. Now, how do I produce that as somebody who's trying to educate? I think a lot of it is just just um helping people um I don't know find their way where they can um just be successful and and to disregard the negative aspects of what's out there. So, so you know, I guess a physician example is all you hear about in in medicine is burnout. Yeah. Um, you know, how how terrible the medical system is and burnout. Um okay, well, is there a way that I can positively spin burnout to create a longer career or a different career or something else, you know. So so just just giving tools that help turn the negativity into something positive.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I saw a video um with two special needs gentlemen, young men, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It was such lovely content. I was watching it uh last night, no, a couple nights ago. I sat down with my wife, and like I said, there's just so much crap on the internet. And I'm just sorry if I sound awful, but it's horrible stuff. And I started watching this video, and luckily lately of late, my feed has been I've been liking certain videos about people doing nice things for other people. This guy who does this one kit, and he's like, I'm gonna buy you this. Here's a car. You know, you seem like you're done a luck. Here's, you know, a thousand dollars. And this did video started off with these two special needs boys in this store, and they were both wearing Edmonton Oilers shirts. And then immediately I was just like, oh no, what's gonna go? Is it gonna be someone harassing these kids? Someone gonna give them a hard time? Is it and this guy pulled him, it's like, hey, guys? And they're like, Yeah. And he's like, Do you guys like the Edmonton Oilers? And they were like, Oh yeah, love the Edmonton Oilers. And he's like, I what are you guys doing tonight? And they're like, Well, we're not, I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna go and eat, you know, I've got a family is at home. And they're like, Well, I've got something for you. Do you guys want to buy some Oilers tickets for a dollar? And they're like, We can't buy Oilers tickets for a dollar. He's like, Do you want to buy them for a dollar? He's they're like, Yeah, of course we do. And he's like, Well, you don't need to buy them for a dollar. We're gonna send you the Edmonton Oilers game. And then they took these two guys to the Oilers game. And the Gretz, they were personally invited by the Gretzky family, which is absolutely awesome. You know, Wayne was there, he signed the and he signed both of the jerseys for these guys. And they watched the game. It was the most organically beautiful thing I've ever seen. And it was like, and what it was, and it was like by the end of the video, they weren't two special needs guys. They were just two beautiful humans enjoying a hockey game. And it was so humanizing. It was so like just beautiful of like this shared experience. Like, and I just finished that and I looked up on my wife, and we were both crying. It was a 90-second video, and it brought us both to tears about the humanity, the community, and just the power of something that connects people. It doesn't matter who you are, but these, these, these guys came together through the love of this sport, the love of this game, and um, and being Canadian. You know, hey, you know, it's pretty awesome, right? Yeah. So it was just so powerful. And that to me, I was like, I I finished watching that and I was just like, man, I've got to make more stuff. I gotta be making stuff. I gotta be putting it out there because we need more people doing that stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I just the the thing is is that it's not that hard to be a good person. Right. In reality. You know, it's it the bar is pretty low, if you really think about it. You know, where and and and I think that there's a lot of and I I still think that there's a way more good people than bad people out there, personally. And, you know, but we just don't hear that side of it. We just we just constantly are barraged with negativity uh in social media and everything else. And so I I think people like you and I, you know, to the extent that uh we have a platform and that we've created that, the more we can share that's positive, the more that changes that balance a little bit. And and if other people see that and start doing the same thing, then then I think that I don't think there's any reason that we have to have so much negative out there in the world.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

I love that. I absolutely love that. Well, you talk with your your you you know a lot about with your your content, a lot about anxiety and identity and transition and purpose. Why do you think those conversations are connecting with people right now?

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Um well, I think that I think that there is a lot of just in general, I think that there is a lot of anxiety out there. Um that's uh honestly often driven by the news cycle. Yeah. Um, you know, you have you have a lot of negativity um and it drives anxiety in people. But I think a lot of people anxiety is, you know, I if it's not a clinical anxiety, just just general anxiety is is often driven by fear of the unknown, right? And so um I think a lot of anxiety happens when you don't plan. Yeah. And that that if you plan and you create options and you um, you know, do some thinking about it ahead of time, a lot of that anxiety can be dealt with. It it doesn't mean it goes away entirely. It still takes some courage to take the step forward into the dark. But um, if you have a plan and and you try and align that plan with what you really want, what you value, and you've taken the time to define that for yourself, um, a lot of that anxiety can be mitigated and it is now becomes manageable as opposed to just uh overwhelming to the point that you can't act.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Mm-hmm. I deal with a lot of anxiety. And, you know, it you're spot on. I I have to be very careful with what I consume uh from the news cycle, from social media, from online, from just life. But I find that if I can find things that help me reconnect with that peaceful center, it's really good, you know. And I think that there are people that sit there and do it. I I have these certain motivational channels that I'll tune into all the time. And I did they just they help me get through my day, you know? And I think that um it's a step-by-step game, you know? It's step-by-step. You know, you just gotta get through your days. But the fact that if you can be out there creating content that can help someone else step by step get through their day, that's powerful, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Yeah, you're providing the tools to help them do that. Now, I'm gonna give a shameless plug. Please do. Not for myself, but for my son. So my son, um, Aaron is has autism. He's 28 years old now. Um, he has minimal verbal skills, but he's he's been been able to learn how to type and has is a wonderful writer. Um, very intelligent on the inside, um, that you wouldn't necessarily know it from meeting him directly. But he's written a book um that's called uh I Never Get Lost in the Woods by Aaron Jepson. And it's a book, it's a novel. It's a it's a murder thriller mystery novel, so it's actually a very exciting story. But but the main character also has autism, and her safe place is the woods, which is why it's titled that I never get lost in the woods. She that's where she goes and can re reconnect with nature because her world is all anxiety-driven. It it is completely an entire world of anxiety, and everything that she does is to cope with that, which is, you know, she's Aaron's surrogate, you know, in in describing his own world. Um but her method is nature, and and my own son's method is also being outside in nature and and and hiking and doing doing the things that that are outside. So I think he's a great example of how you know that anxiety is present, it never goes away entirely, um, and and often drives everything that that he's doing throughout the day to kind of help just deal with it. But he's found a way and was able to convey that to others through um his book that says, okay, this is this is what helps me. And um maybe it might help you too. So I think that's a great example of content creation.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

I love it. It is. It is, you know. I wanted to ask you this because have you noticed that creating content changed you personally, the way you think, communicate, or even understand yourself?

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Absolutely. You know, I mean in order to create content, you have to think about how to say it, right? Yeah, you have to you have to think about how you're gonna express it so that it comes across and makes some sense to somebody besides yourself. And and actually getting to that to that point requires that you understand it somewhat yourself. Because if you can't understand it yourself, you can't really explain it well to others. And so, so, you know, most of the time when I'm have some sort of a financial question, whether personally or a question that comes up through a client interaction, um creating that content helps me to say it better, I guess, um, the next time, if it comes up again or when it comes up again. Um, and also just personally helps me to understand it better for my own information. So, so I mean I think there's nothing quite as um filtering in your own mind as having to either write it down or say it out loud to somebody else. Yeah. Cause because because that that way you, you know, you really have to, you're forced to, you know, really understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Yeah. I want to ask you one last question. If someone listening has an important message inside of them but keeps overthinking like content creation, what would you want to tell them?

SPEAKER_00 37:28

You know, you just gotta step into the dark. I I think I think that that's the biggest thing is is it it never gets easier to do it until you start. Yeah. Right. And and you know, uh you just have to start and and realize, you know, I the good news, I guess, with with most content creation and podcasts and things like that is when you first start, you don't have a big audience. Yeah. So uh, you know, you if that helps you think about, okay, well, you know, my mom is listening, so I can do this, um, then maybe that that'll help you get started. But but again, I I think that the most important thing is if you have that message message inside of you, you have to ask yourself, why are you doing it? Why do you want to share it? Who are you trying to share it to, and who and how how do you expect that it will help them? And and then I think that should give you the motivation to kind of overcome that fear of um the process and and seeing yourself on video on the YouTube or whatever that that's hard, you know, and or listening to your voice. I I remember the first time I recorded my voice, I I thought it just sounded like really weird and didn't sound anything like me. Um, and and so a lot of it is just being able to overcome that self um deprecation or judgment to just say, okay, you know what? People, other people aren't looking at me like that. They're they're looking at me as somebody who can be helpful.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

I love that. Well, where can people go to find more about you and your podcasts and the content that you're creating?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Uh, you know, there's a couple places. Probably the most the central place is my website. So it's Brian Jepson, B-R-Y-A-N-J-E-P-S-O-N.com. So everything I'm doing is linked on that website. Um our our podcast is called the Second Shift Podcast. And we have a website for that. It's it's second, the number two, two nd, second shift podcast.com. Um, or you can just find it wherever you find your podcast. It's it's it's out there and available. So so those are those are the big places. If you're interested in becoming a client, um, you can link to I work at a uh at Targeted Wealth Solutions. Um, but there's a link to that on my on my website, so you can find it there.