{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbuilt-this-way.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fsit-down-with-erik-milligan-ldO8WaFt","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"The Messy Middle: Sit down with Erik Milligan ","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/f9f2a28e-cb66-47e0-92b0-c0ee15b80f9b/267d0535-72f8-4d92-b62c-8c0e30d5648b/builtthiswaypodcastcover3.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"We pick up where we left off on “just starting,” then put it into practice with our first guest, Erik Milligan—engineer, minister, coach, and new dad, who joins us from Huntsville, Alabama. We talk about identity shifts and why your first career doesn’t have to be your last. Erik shares how growing up with little taught him persistence, why hard things are the only things worth much, and how coaching emerged from years of helping coworkers and congregants with mindset, confidence, perspective, and execution.\n\nWe lean into the creative struggle: buying the gear, scrapping drafts, avoiding the studio, and mistaking external validation for progress. Erik argues we have to decouple our output from likes and algorithms and anchor to internal validation, doing the work successful us would be doing anyway. We swap stories about “lurkers” who hire after two silent years, proving reach often hides in plain sight. We get tactical about content: test different formats, keep posting, change platforms if needed, and accept that the thing you spent five minutes on may outperform the masterpiece you labored over.\n\nErik offers a simple decision rule: stop dabbling and decide. If you’re a coach (or creator, founder, career-changer), act like one today and for the next six, twelve, twenty-four months regardless of instant payoff. We also talk repurposing....of content and of selves. Skills and seasons change; that doesn’t make former versions of us worthless. Let go of the last monkey bar to reach the next.\n\nThere’s heart here, too: how we met by chance on a mountaintop overlook, why faith and friendship carried us through family, health, and business challenges, and why consistency is still the punchline. We close with permission to “release the drafts,” serve the people already watching, and keep showing up imperfectly."}