Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Date Yourself Instead, and also welcome to the video side of Date Yourself Instead.

I've been putting off video literally for forever because I'm lazy as fuck, and I don't like editing videos.

Long-form videos to me scare me. I know I could technically maybe hire someone to help me with that, but I just like being hands-on and doing most things myself.

Because I like knowing what I'm creating and knowing how it's resonating with people. I don't know, I'm very picky with how I edit things.

So when it comes to long-form video, I was always freaking out because I was like, how am I gonna have time for this? How am I gonna edit this?

I don't know what I'm doing. I don't like YouTube. YouTube scares me.

But then, I don't know, something kind of shifted to me over the last couple days because I was watching a video podcast.

And I realized that video adds a really personal, special component to everything because you're face-to-face with someone almost.

You see their face, you see their expressions, you could read their body language, and you kind of get to know them on such a deeper, more personal level.

And I feel like, yeah, audio is amazing. For those of you who've been listening to the podcast for the last five months, I'm sure it's been great.

I feel like very connected to my audience and all that stuff. But the video just adds a really special aspect to it.

I woke up this morning, I got my coffee, I went to the gym, and I was like, maybe I should just try it.

Let's just see what happens. Stop fucking procrastinating, and let's just see what happens.

And if people really respond well to it, they really like it, just maybe it'll motivate you to keep going and continue doing it.

It's like, I guess I have nothing to lose, right?

So here I am, I set up all these pillows around me to make a little makeshift podcast studio because the ceilings in this apartment are very high.

So there's a lot of echo, like a ton of echo, and it sounds almost like I'm in a cave in the middle of the wilderness when I record episodes in here.

So I took all my bed pillows, I took like all these couch pillows, and I made a little soundproof studio for myself, hopefully it works.

Maybe this is going to sound like total shit. Who knows? I don't know. But here we are, and I'm excited to talk about today's episode, which is assertiveness and also learning how to respect yourself.

Now, I've struggled with learning how to respect myself for my entire life. For some reason, whenever it came time to stand up for myself, or stand up for what I believe in, or defend my values, I always felt stuck.

I always felt like I couldn't actually get to the point where I was really making a point to other people, and I couldn't really stand for what I truly believed in because I was always catering to everyone else because I wanted people to like me, and I wanted everyone to respect me.

But the irony of that is by not actually honoring who I am, and taking a stand for what I believe in, and trying to go along with what I thought everyone else wanted me to be, it ended up making me less respected, and it ended up making me feel like I had no true friends, and I had no one to turn to.

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