This week's guest is the Host of the fantastic podcast Off The Cuff, Christian Palma. I met Christian when he was working at Vox Media and we instantly vibed, mainly because of his insatiably curiosity and interest in what others are passionate about. It's those skills that have lead him to become an amazing host whose "giving out flowers" each episode to creators, innovators and leaders in the business world.
We go deep into manifesting your dreams, reflecting on what matters most when making really tough career choice and how his grandmother was the inspiration for him to start the podcast and be a creator.
Some of my favorite quotes from the episode are below.
On kickstarting the podcast during the height of COVID:
So 2020 came around and the pandemic hit, and I think it was a lot for a lot of entrepreneurs, creatives, innovators and dreamers that they kind of took a pause. And it was the first time that America kind of pulled the curtain a little bit to really analyze what was going on in people's lives. And I think for me, it was at that time that I was just recreating and asking myself tough questions. What is my why? What do I want to do for the rest of my life? What is the legacy I want to leave behind?
On being a supporter and amplifier of other people's work:
6:14 One of the guests was just immediately happy, just 'oh I'm so happy that you even thought of me'. And those are moments where it kind of takes me back to ground zero. Where it's just like sometimes you don't understand how valuable, how much you would inspire a person unless you really kind of give them their flowers. And that's one of the things that we do on the show is that we give people their flowers for the work that they do. But I think acknowledging that the work that they do in leading with that and meeting with the good intentions of saying, Hey, I'm a supporter, I see what you're doing
On appreciating those who have helped you on the way:
8:04 And it comes full circle, where sometimes certain people in your life share a few stories or share a few lessons that you may not necessarily understand at the time, but things come full circle. And it's important when they do come full circle, and you understand some of the lessons and some of those aha moments, all those full circle moments, you actually take that time to appreciate and share that with the person that actually influenced you. I want that to also kind of be a message that people take out as well for them to say, you know, it's never too late to kind of give people those appreciations, those thank you's, those things that sometimes I feel like our ego gets in a way or time gets in a way.
On manifesting your goals:
11:39 So I made it a plan for myself that in 2019, kind of leading into the new year, where everybody writes their goals, resolutions and everything, I was like, You know what? I'm going to start this vision board. And if it works, it works. And if it doesn't, and at least I can say I tried. It's crazy, too, because the first two things I wrote on his vision board was get a job at a tech company. And then my second was launch Off the Cuff in March 2020.
Keith: Nice. You did both!
On his biggest inspiration, his grandmother:
21:08 But what I've admired about my grandmother is the ability to provide a community with that helping hand. I can still remember to this day, she used to take care of me, my other brothers, my little cousins, as we were growing up running around, but she always had an open door policy for the community and everybody knew her in the community. Everybody. She used to study medicine in Guatemala. So when she came to the States, she was just that magic touch. Home remedy, she's got it. So she knew everything in that sort of way and what I was able to observe from her as a kid is the opportunity of giving, of being able to just showcase that helping hand within the community, especially because the community needed it. And that was the safe haven for a lot of people.
On the mindset shift from High School to College:
26:11 You know, high school days were some of the days where I still was finding myself growing up, seeing what mattered to me, what I valued. But I think when I went to college, I took the mindset of I want to start fresh, start with the intentions of being my best, doing my best in absorbing and observing the most that I can from this college campus. I want to take as much as I can, but also give in opportunities as I continue to grow.
On inspiring others to do the work:
30:40 I have to continue to amplify this because the biggest thing for me is how do I reach more people? How do I inspire more people? How do I give the opportunity for others to know that when you tune into an episode, you're able to see that you're not alone. You may be feeling or going through the same hardships, the same adversity that you may be feeling, but you're not alone. And here are probably some ways you can get out of it. Here's this story. Here's this other story.
Interview with Christian Palma, Founder and Host of Off the Cuff