Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Scott Harding. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Scott with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I believe that work ethic is something that is 100% learned and not a natural thing for most. The environment I grew up in was a hard working one. Both of my parents worked fulltime and also had hobbies they were passionate about.
I was taught at a young age that the harder you work the more you will be rewarded and saw this in practice being blessed to have wonderful tings growing up and annual family holidays.
I am a driven person and this is something that I have always been, I wish I had a more interesting tale about this but I am just highly motivated and not shy about it.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
For my entire life I have had a creative bug that I was unable to satisfy. I have had hundreds of hobbies that never quite scratched that itch.
Growing up in the late 80’s early 90’s creative options outside of art and music were not practically accessible and it took me until my late 30’s to find an outlet that fully satisfied my need.
In 2019 I made the decision to start a podcast. I have a love of horror movies and this seemed like a good place to begin. I began by releasing a fortnightly episode where I discussed a horror movie of my choice. It was after I had produce my first few episodes that I wanted to find a way to get other people involved in the discussion and The You Run Podcast was born.
The show has now developed into an entire podcasting network featuring 3 of our own shows (Horror Movie News, True Crime and Horror Movie News) with a further 9 independent shows podcasting under our banner.
Community has always been the heart of what we do and unlike other networks we do not charge or take creative control. Rather offer a space for people to express themselves freely and gain traction with advertisements on other network shows.
Believe it or not, despite growing my one man show into an entire network I still had a need for further creative outlet and in 2022 set out to write, direct and act in my first feature length movie.
This is the most challenging thing I have ever done but after many trials and tribulations I successfully released “It’s With You Now”.
For me creating something for others to enjoy (or not) is something I really get a kick out of. I love how something I have created starts conversations. I like receiving praise for what i have done but also like to learn from critical feedback.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
There are many qualities that are important to creating anything for public consumption and these qualities are far more important than skills. Skills can be learned later…
Motivation is key, you must be motivated to get whatever it is you want to create done. Things can often be difficult and challenges will arise that will make you want to quit. the motivation to push through these is essential.
Not necessarily a quality but don’t procrastinate. Everyone has a great story or a script or a podcast that they “are working on” but they often never get released or written or finished. Start! if you have a script idea, write it. if you get stuck don’t stop writing, instead start filming. Things used to be difficult needing specialist equipment to create but this isn’t the case anymore. With low end cameras being more than adequate for most shoots and online editing available for free. Don’t make excuses, make something far much better.
Be resilient! This is something I struggled with in the beginning. Being criticised for something you have made can be crushing. You need to be able to accept that no matter how good the thing you have created is you will never please everyone. Even some of the best film’s in history have 1 star reviews so don’t take it to heart. What you do need to do though is read the negative and turn it into a positive, most of the changes I have made to our shows and will make in my next feature film have come from a neggative but valid point made by someone.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Being overwhelmed is something I am very aware of and something that often happens to me given the sheer volume of content I create and curate for others. I refer to this as “the never” the task list that you will never ever finish.
Now what I am going to say will without a doubt sound counterintuitive but trust me it works…. Take a break! If it is 10 minutes, 1 hour or a whole day put everything down and do something you enjoy and that relaxes you. Watch a film, take a walk, whatever it is do that and try your hardest not to think of all the things you need to do.
After your break make a list of all the tasks on your list in no particular order. Once this list is created start numbering them fastest tasks at the top of the list (competing the smaller tasks first will make the list reduce in size quickly making it seem more daunting.
After the smaller, faster tasks are gone focus on what is most important and complete that. Do one thing at a time too. I always find multi tasking to be more trouble as you will often produce two things not to the best of your ability.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yourunpodcast.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourunpodcast/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/YouRunPodcast
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYat35ak5W9qudRNunmyWWg
