Today I learned, after much anticipation, I indeed did not proceed into the Top 20 from the Top 40 contenders for Kelly Ripa’s Co-Host for a Day Contest. But that’s alright, because I have learned some valuable things from this surreal experience:
I realized what a support system I have in place. I have been amazed and humbled over the past couple of weeks how quickly people who have known me over the years helped support my dream by voting for me on Kelly Ripa’s website and sharing my link on their Facebook pages.
So here’s a major thank you to everyone who took the time and who made the effort to try to convince Kelly Ripa’s producers for me to be her co-host for a day. I am absolutely gracious and will never forget that.
I also received official validation from producers in New York City that I do have enough talent to be considered to host a TV show. They were the ones who chose me, along with the other 39 contenders.
Before these past couple of weeks, it was simply a goal in life to be considered to be a host. Now, my dream has been legitimized.
For the rest of my life, I’ll have the satisfaction in knowing I made it to the Top 40, out of all of America.
It would have been convenient for me to have realized at age 18 that being a TV host would be what I would want to do for a living. However, it took all this life experience in the past 17 years since graduating high school (like being married 8 years and having 2 kids) to get to the level of confidence and emotional intelligence I am at now.
Back when I was young, I didn’t have what it took. Now, I do. Now, I’m ready.
So here’s to seeing if I can still reach my dream job of being a TV host. I’m still working hard on my dream.
One door closed, another shall open. At least, it will if I keep knocking on enough doors.
Last Thursday on the radio I heard that Kelly Ripa is currently holding a contest in which the winner will get to co-host “LIVE with Kelly” for a day. So I didn’t delay in applying.
Over the weekend, I shot my “60 seconds or less” audition video and submitted it to the website, along with my “100 words or less” bio:
“I am Nick Shell, a 35 year-old seasoned daddy blogger (FamilyFriendlyDaddyBlog.com) and vlogger (YouTube Channel: Nick Shell) from Nashville, Tennessee. It has been my dream for a decade now to be a TV host. After you see my video submission, I believe you will feel my energy and passion for communicating and interacting with people. My background is in theater and teaching Elementary school students. On my YouTube channel, my Kindergartner son and I do a superhero series, Jack-Man, where he is the hero and I play the villain. I also do a children’s program called Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest.”
The surely thousands of submissions will be narrowed down to the top 40, and eventually down to the sole winner.
This is my motivation in applying: It has been my dream to be up in front of an audience, for a living.
Granted, I feel that until about a year ago, I wasn’t ready.
It took until about age 34 for me to become emotionally intelligent enough and to have the life experience to be relevant to a universal audience, and therefore to gain the confidence in my abilities, to consider myself qualified for something like this.
But even if I don’t make it to the top 40 for this contest, I will at least know that I did everything in my power to be seriously considered. It’s good practice, if nothing else.
Last night my wife and I were watching one of my favorite documentaries, The Comedians of Comedy, on Netflix. Towards the end, Patton Oswald talks about how every performer has their “obsession years,” in which they just immerse themselves into their craft, as they figure out what works and what doesn’t.
When it comes to being in front of a camera, especially as a YouTuber, I feel that I am definitely in my obsession years.
Let it be known to the free world, I fully intend to grow beyond my YouTube audience. I believe I was made for the stage.
I explained how we male vegans make up less than 1% of Americans, as most vegans are female.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that there is only one other male vegan blogger featured in Care2’s post this week about saving money as a vegan.
Care2 is “the largest online community empowering people to lead a healthy and green lifestyle” so I take it as a major compliment they found me and asked me to participate in their money-saving post for vegans.
I decided to take a different route, and instead of making my tip about food, I made it about fitness. Here is what I said in the article:
“One smart and easy way I save money as a vegan is that I refuse to pay for gym membership. Granted, I still work out regularly: I mountain bike, I run, I do push-ups while my five year-old son sits on top of my back. I even do pull ups at a nearby playground. Plus, I do a minimum of three 10 minute walks per day while I record my daily YouTube videos.
I believe America has a double standard when it comes to working out: that you must have six pack abs to be ‘healthy.’ That’s asinine. That’s like when a person goes on a diet by eating nothing but salads and drinking diet soda.
Instead, you can have a healthy heart by not only committing to a vegan diet (which causes you to never consume more than 0% of your daily cholesterol allowance) but also by finding practical ways to ‘work out’ for free, like I do. No, I don’t have six pack abs, but my doctor tells me I’m one of the healthiest patients he has for my age.”
I now invite you to check out the entire article, which features the other 9 vegan bloggers as well:
In addition to Family Friendly Daddy Blog, I have another following on my YouTube channel, where I do a weekly series for young men (age 15 to 22-ish) that focuses on masculinity. Therefore, about 80% of my YouTube subscribers are male. However, my readership of this blog is about 80% female.
Here’s the breakdown: I am better at creating videos for a male audience and I am better at creating blog content for a female audience.
That means most of my YouTube subscribers have never read any of my blog posts and most of my blog readers have never watched any of my videos on YouTube.
Today is one of the rare exceptions in which I tie the two together.
As I’m currently growing out my “postpartum beard”, I received a comment a one of my YouTube videos this week: “With the beard you look kinda like Joel from The Last of Us”.
I had no idea who that was- I figured it might be some new sitcom on CBS or something. Thanks to a quick Google search, I learned that Joel is the main character of a 2013 video game called The Last of Us, in which he must escort a young girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.
Based on the fact he appears to be a rugged, masculine hero, I obviously take that comparison as a compliment.
I think it’s fun to make these comparisons public. By default, I may create a new series here on my blog, based on when people tell me I look like someone else.
By the time I shave my postpartum beard in a couple weeks, I’m sure I will easily look like someone else I’ve never heard of, as was the case with Tai Lopez and Joel from The Last of Us.
I’ve never been a believer in making New Year’s resolutions for one simple fact: I’ve always believed that if I really felt a need to change something in my life, it would be asinine to wait for an arbitrary, culturally celebrated date on the calendar.
When I really care enough to change something in my life, I have always just changed immediately and never looked back. That’s in my blood.
Looking back on some of the biggest changes in my life in the past decade or so, none of them took place in a January:
In November 2008, I became and have remained kosher. In December 2010, I became and have remained a vegetarian. In April 2012, I became and have remained a vegan. In September 2012, I became and have remained caffeine free.
These “never look back” commitments in my life don’t typically take place in January…
(Except for January 2008, when I proposed to my wife… but I wouldn’t consider that as any sort of New Year’s resolution; that would be quite the understatement!)
But perhaps January 2016 can be the exception to my track record. It truly is a coincidence that I am becoming so mindful of this conscious change I want to make, but by default, it might technically be a New Year’s resolution:
My goal for 2016 is to make major progress in growing my blog; in particular, my YouTube channel. I want to deliberately work towards blogging and YouTubing full time; as a stand-alone career.
I remember back a few years ago in November 2013, when I was invited by General Motors to attend an event in Detroit featuring their Buick brand as well as OnStar. While there, I met a full time travel/food blogger named Stefanie Fauquet of Mommy Musings, who told me, “You know, you could be doing so much more with what you’ve got going on.”
She inspired me that day, but it was like a put I bookmark on that thought for later when I could be ready for it.
I believe the time has now come.
But back then, our family was still working our way out of a lot of debt, our son was still very young, and we still lived in our townhouse. (Not to mention, I didn’t have a smart phone yet!)
We had a lot of other goals we had to focus on first at the time.
Here we are in January 2016, having been debt-free for a couple of years now, having lived in our new house for a year, with a decent amount of savings in the bank, and our son is now 5 years-old. Not to mention, my wife and I are both secure in our positions where we both work. And we have smart phones too!
What that means for me is that I now can focus more directly on “doing so much more” with my blog; in an effort to do this full-time, not just as a hobby with benefits.
It’s a simple case of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I need a new problem to solve. I need a new challenge. I know I’m capable of more.
In other words, I’ve reached the blessing of getting to the point where I am very comfortable in life. However, I’m not wired to be okay with being comfortable.
Being in this position only makes me think, “What else could I be doing right now to improve my life?”
Yes, my wife and I are having another child in April, which will surely bring challenges. However, this is “kid #2”, so I feel we as parents already now the basics of what to expect.
I look at more people whose careers inspire me, as did Stefanie Fauquet. I consider food and travel blogger Bren Carrera of House of Bren, someone else I met on that same event in Detroit back in November 2013.
Since then, I have been following her on social media. I have watched her progress as she was invited to be a guest on The Today Show, thanks to her cooking abilities, and then to be invited back. I have enjoyed seeing her evolve into the media personality she is today.
A few weeks ago I read where she explained on Facebook she had publishing company keeping their eye on her, who recently offered her a book deal. I love that! I am so happy for her:
“After dreaming for 10 years, I finally got a book deal. This publishing company had been watching my work for some time and decided it was time to reach out.”
I also think of my friend and professional photographer, Joe Hendricks, who I’ve now known for a decade.
Recently, he moved his family out of their house, and into an Airstream. They are able to travel the country as a family, as Joe teaches seminars across America, as well as does photo shoots, while also selling his photography online. How awesome is that?
And then there’s my most recently inspiring blogger friend, Jarrid Wilson. Our families met each other at Whole Foods one fateful Saturday morning… and the following fateful Saturday morning after that.
Both Jarrid as well as his wife, Julie Wilson, are full time bloggers. Jarrid simply reinforced the words of Stefanie Fauquet from back in November 2013: “You could be doing so much more with what you’ve got going on.”
All these people inspire me. They have turned their passions (and by default, their lifestyles and hobbies) into adventurous full-time careers.
My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 is make great strides in growing Family Friendly Daddy Blog into a full time career.
I feel that my newest kids’ show series on YouTube, Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest, has a lot of potential. I designed the outdoors segment of each webisode to be a good mix of action, adventure, and psychology (regarding interacting with others as well as understanding one’s own emotions). However, the first (indoors) part of each webisode is designed to engage the viewer in creative thinking.
Right now I am thinking about Jesus’s Parable of the Talents (found in Matthew 25). I don’t want my talents to be buried in the ground. I want to invest the talents I have now and make more talents because of it.
I feel that I have a lot of talent that needs to be seen by a larger audience. But like Sylvester Stallone said in his cult classic movie, Over the Top, “The world meets nobody halfway.”
And there’s also Sylvester Stallone’s quote in Rocky 3, as well: “Nobody owes nobody nothing! You owe yourself.”
Therefore, it’s up to me to prove to the world that I am truly the innovative writer and entertainer I know I am. I must successfully convince the free market.
It’s important to me that I grow my audience, proving to major publications, studios, and networks that I am worth investing in.
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I do believe in this one.
This is my new prayer of 2016: That God will grant me more responsibilities in my talents.
I’ve got all the ingredients necessary to reach my goal of becoming a full-time blogger. Now I must figure out how to utilize them in a way that allows me to reach that goal.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 