I'm basically a doomscrolling spiderman
thoughts & feelings about my new basketball interview show
The pressure almost got to me, and I couldn’t edit for 3 days…
But I got past it, and here’s the response I received a couple days later:
In July, I launched a sub-brand of Regular Hoops called, “Do You Still Hoop?”
It’s a 90-second interview/day-in-the-life show that features (1) founders, (2) creators, and (3) executives with a passion for basketball.
I’ve now published 10 “Do You Still Hoop?” videos in 10 weeks.
My latest video was the hardest to create.
And I identified two reasons why:
Reason #1: I’m basically Spider-Man (with great power comes great responsibility)
Part of me was overwhelmed by the trust given to me by those I’m interviewing.
Why?
Because sometimes these stories I tell are from people who have been pursuing their passions for longer than I’ve been alive.
It feels amazing, but at the same time so weird because I’m a 23-year old telling stories about people who have been doing their thing for more than 23-years.
They have established communities around them, and I’m being trusted to represent them all…
It’s as if you got promoted from intern to CEO wayy too quickly, and now all the shareholders are depending on you to run the business like normal.
Heck, one of my features was on someone who spent 26 years in prison…. Like I’m I just supposed to compartmentalize that and think it’s a ~regular~ thing.
Sometimes I wonder how I got here and what I’m even doing.
But those thoughts have no real impact because I know my why.
My mission is to make regular people feel more included in basketball culture.
That’s kept me going this entire time.
Reason #2: Internal Doomscrolling (overthinking)
I’m not sure how relatable this feeling is, but I just want share a little bit about my creative process.
As mentioned earlier, for three days, I just couldn’t edit. And it wasn’t a time thing.
I had set aside some time to edit those days, but I got anxious just looking back at the footage.
I got in my head and asked questions like…
“What if this footage sucks?”
“If that doesn’t suck, then what if the audio sucks? “
“Did I just waste the guest’s time and now they’ll hate me?”
“Okay, but if the audio is good, what if they hate me since I failed to tell their story in the right way?”
“Mission failed”
Seeing it written out makes it seem very much an overreaction (it definitely is), but that’s what goes through my mind almost every time.
I had to reflect on why I was feeling this way before going back to editing the videos.
I learned that I take a lot of pride, ownership, and responsibility in the videos I create.
I love every part of the process. The networking, the researching (aka internet stalking), the filming, the production, the editing, and of course the sharing of the final product.
Looking back, I’ve published 10 interviews, and I think they’re all really good. So that gives me confidence for future video.
I can come back to this realization anytime those thoughts creep back in.
So cheers to 10 more “Do You Still Hoop?” videos!
Oh… and the 10th interview video I posted might be one of my favorites. Here’s what Ren (the guy it features) said about it.
If his response isn’t a perfect testament to the Regular Hoops mission, then I don’t know what is.
Please note: these new blogs (started Sept’24) will contain a lot of satire and should not always be taken at face value.
Expect to see typos, wordy/repetitive sentences, passive voice, and anything else you’d expect from a “D-” graded high school assignment.
Because that’s my writing ability according to my first ever hate comment from when I was a sports writer in 2018.