Hello dear listener.

Yes this is Peter and yes this is an episode of Not A Straight Line and it's not a Wednesday.

How about that?

This is the first of the new daily series if you like.

I'm going to give it a go for at least 30 days see how we get on.

So Wednesdays will still be a conversation with a guest dropping 3 p.m.

UK time and then Thursday through to Tuesday will be one of these episodes where I'm just going to ramble talk I guess and this first episode I just thought I would explain why I'm doing this and what I hope to achieve.

Well I can start with what I hope to achieve and that is an ever greater understanding of who I am and why I am.

Why I'm here if like and I think the the final kind of push if you like over the edge to to doing these are there's a few people that are responsible if you like or that I want to name-check to express my appreciation and gratitude.

The first is a good friend and peer Izzy Stevens who has in the past been my coach and she has been on Not A Straight Line link in the show notes and she's also chatted with myself and Rob Drummond and Matt Bliss my co-collaborators on the or co-host if you like of Help Before You Sell podcast and it was on that conversation last week where she talked briefly about her experience of recording over 50 I think or 50 daily episodes of her podcast and what she what she got out of it well why she did and what she got out of it and that was really inspiring because this week I think is six months almost to the week since the first episode of Not A Straight Line came out and I thought well maybe I can take that as inspiration to do a daily series myself and also alongside that are the conversations that I've been having with Rob and Matt for Help Before You Sell which is the the podcast for our collaboration Activate Your Podcast and in that we we're talking about all the different ways that you can help your potential future clients before you sell to them and we've been talking about podcasting naturally not exclusively but we have been talking about it and talking also about sort of the non-technical kind of softer mindset side of it as well like the importance of consistency and how valuable podcasting is for engaging with your thoughts quite apart from any benefit of developing relationships with with potential clients and it's really that aspect of this daily series which well that's the main reason I'm doing and that's one of the things I got from from Izzy is that the reason she started was because she she wanted to get better at and I'm gonna butcher what she said but it's along the lines of just getting getting better at this real-time articulation of thought because I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of ideas about a lot of things and I think I will benefit from getting them out of my head and I would love to consider myself a writer but that is not a natural sort of go-to medium for me but with six months so I'll start again and there's no editing of this podcast I'm giving it to the amazing incredible Matt Bliss hats off to him for his magic and wizardry in in crafting these episodes but he's polishing the audio he's not editing it for ums and ahs and hiccups so I've just got to keep talking and in that I completely forgot what I was talking about so I'll just tell you that I'm sitting in my garden my eyes are closed because the Sun is high and bright in a cloudless blue sky it's jeans and t-shirt weather which is a refreshing change it's Mother's Day today the day that I'm recording this 30th of March been out for a lovely walk with my wife Andrea this morning yeah so engaging with with thoughts that's the main reason that that I'm doing this I am a deep thinker I was saying that writing isn't a natural medium for me but with six months under my belt this time around in this podcast I've had other podcasts in the in the past but I've had a podcast episode go out every week for the last six months and talking into a microphone now is something that I'm I'm comfortable with and yeah I think it's time to mix it up and and go ever ever deeper into myself so that that more of more of myself and more of my value I guess can be expressed to to the world and and in that is the second person that I would like to express gratitude to for getting me going with this daily podcast and that's Jason Leister Jason's also been on the non straight line podcast his episode came out a couple of weeks ago again link in the show notes and Jason how you describe Jason he's he actually describes himself as a magician grew up totally immersed in in magic and now performs magic of a different kind with regards to helping people get really clear about the the specific problems that they are energetically wired to solve and one of his sayings which I love is the business is the art of solving problems for humans and part of the art is figuring out what problems you are are most most capable and most naturally and most as I said energetically wired to solve and he's been writing a daily email for God knows how long and again that that idea about just regularly and consistently engaging with thought to get ideas out into the world was was inspiring and just on that about solving problems I mean I know that one of the problems that I solve as an actor is I help casting directors solve the problem of casting a role and they're looking for me so I think part of this part of the rationale for myself in terms of this daily series is just to constantly get myself out there out beyond where I am because once something's out there who knows where it might go and who might might come come across it and who I am in conversation albeit I'm in conversation with myself now although you know kind of with indirectly with you the listener but you're not sitting here right next to me in my in my garden is is is a better a better snapshot if you like an analog snapshot of who I am and how I am that could potentially complement a self tape that I send off and actually today is quite an exciting day the the day that this first episode is released on Monday 31st of March because it's the day that I submitted my first proper self tape with for a role that I was put up for by my new agent who I signed with a month month or so ago and then the reason that I'm mentioning it is that it is a run I say first proper role I mean that in the context that it is a part in a film that is a story that I really really want to tell because it it so resonates with everything that I've been talking about and planning for and working towards and that's this whole idea about second chance I set up a production company in 2019 when I first had the idea about getting back into my creative career as an actor and producer I set up second chance productions I thought that could be the vehicle for it and and the whole idea about second chance was like I've I've had a first chance at a creative career when I was in my 20s and I went back into IT and now this is a second chance but it's it's evolved to this idea of of everyone deserves a second chance and a third and a fourth and fifth and sixth it's like just just extending grace to to people and it's not about what someone's done it's about what's happened to them to make them do what they do and this story that's being told in this film that I submitted a self-tape for today well not not not today because today is is Sunday that I'm recording this but Monday that the day it's this episode is published the story is about this program in correctional facilities in America called a goldcoat program and a goldcoat is an inmate who is especially trained to provide care to fellow inmates who have dementia and the the two main characters two main leads in the play are a goldcoat and his charge and the role I've was put up for was supporting role for also for a goldcoat but this idea that of second chance just to me seems to flow through the film because the the goldcoats are being given a second chance to to be someone else in a way you know they are all men who have murdered someone typically goldcoats in well what one of the things I did is in preparing for the self-tape was watch a TED talk from a psychologist who's involved in the goldcoat program and she interviewed six goldcoats all of whom are murderers one of whom had been incarcerated for over 40 years I've been a goldcoat for 10 and she said it was so fascinating to reconcile if you like these two completely different versions of the same human so on the one hand you've got someone who was willing and able and did take someone's life and on the other hand you've got the same human who is providing the most intimate personal gentle care for a fellow human and just to think that I might be able to tell that story is hugely exciting to me and I'm actually toying with the idea I have over the last couple of days since I found out about the role and and kind of merging that with thinking about doing this daily podcast is emailing the the casting director who's casting this film and just try to give them a like a an extra dimension to to me because all you've got is a self tape and you know there's only so much you can capture in two two and a half minutes on a self tape so if I do decide to email the casting director and you are listening to this now hello hopefully you'll have just heard from that little bit of ramble talk there why that the part that I submitted myself for means so much to me and I'd I'd love to get a call back and have a chat so you can see more of more of who I am and how I am but if not that's cool too and just putting stuff out into the universe and hopefully the the energy will will go where it needs to go so that's Izzy and Jason and the last person so both Izzy and Jason know me the last person who I want to give a little shout out to is someone who doesn't know me yet anyway and that's a guy called Ben Settle like Jason Ben has been sending a daily email I think for longer than and then Jason has I've only recently got on to Ben's mailing list although I've known about him for for many many years not quite sure why I've ever signed up before to be honest and I got an email through from him today because emails literally every day and he was talking about the the problem that people often people on his list often express that they have is certainly a question that they ask is where do you come up with when how do you come up with all the ideas that you come up with where do they all come from and how can I do the same and his answer is very simple he said well I just write a daily email because ideas beget ideas and that was the kind of the the final click of the the key in the lock for me with deciding to do this daily podcast is that although I'm I'm excited about doing them I'm also a little bit scared shitless about doing them because I'm thinking well how am I gonna know how am I gonna come up continue to come up with ideas to talk about but with with that kind of final kind of push if you like what is actually is expressing the ideas that you have that make more ideas come you know along with everything else I've already rambled about in this episode so far that's that's what I'm doing and that's why I'm doing it like I say I've set myself 30 day 30 days 30 days of daily podcasts to start with and I I wouldn't be able to do it without the magical assistance to me anyway it seems magical of Matt Bliss the audio engineer par excellence of activate your podcast I mean just that intro to these daily episodes Matt and I had a brief exchange on telegram about it nothing more than kind of rough ideas and he asked me a question he said is there anything that you hear before you start a production on the on the on the stage I said well yeah I guess I replied and said you know you would always hear five minutes before curtain up you know this is that one beginners at one beginning to the stage please so he took that and came up with what he came up with so so yeah credit where credit is due these daily episodes would categorically not be getting out there into the world without the incredible help support and talents of Matt Bliss if your if you if you have a podcast or you're doing anything with audio then I guarantee you that Matt will take your ideas and take him to a different level creatively artistically and technically as well yeah so that's pretty much it for this first episode fuck this 19 minutes already it's amazing how time goes when you just rambling along I'm gonna go and watch a little bit of the women's Six Nations rugby now Ireland playing Italy and then we've got a rehearsal this evening my wife and I are directing blithe spirit the community theatre in all Z village and I shall speak to you tomorrow love you bye