#112 - Tim Doyle - Why Most People Quit Too Early: The Passion Product Paradigm

Most people quit way too early—not because it’s not working, but because it’s not working yet. There’s a gap between what you put in and what you get back, and if you don’t understand that gap, you’ll quit something that was actually working. In this episode, I break down what I call the Passion Product Paradigm: why passion comes first, how it builds a better product over time, and why results always lag behind. This is about staying on the path long enough for things to finally catch up.

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Transcript

Most people quit way too early—not because it’s not working, but because it’s not working yet. There’s a gap between what you put in and what you get back, and if you don’t understand that gap, you’ll quit something that was actually working. In this episode, I break down what I call the Passion Product Paradigm: why passion comes first, how it builds a better product over time, and why results always lag behind. This is about staying on the path long enough for things to finally catch up.

Tim Doyle (00:06.734)

Most people quit way too early, way too early. And the reason why that is is because we believe that there is a direct correlation between our input and the output that we get. We think, all right, I'm going to do some work and then there will be a direct output or direct result that I will get right away. And there is not a one-to-one correlation when it comes to work.

There is a massive gap between effort and results. And I think it's important to shift our mindset to an inputs-based focus, where it may take 10 reps, 20 reps, 30 reps, 100 reps. Just before you, you may not even see some type of external result, but maybe just a little bit of a spark and a confirmation of, okay, this is working.

And if you don't understand this, if you don't have a conscious awareness that there is a large gap between the effort that you put in and the results that you will get from that effort, you will defeat yourself more than

the work will defeat yourself or more than the work seeming like it's not working. And I call this the passion product paradigm. A couple of weeks back, somebody left a comment on my YouTube channel and they said, wait a second, how can this channel have such few views? It's amazing content. And I responded by saying, glad you enjoy.

I have an idea for this that I call the passion product paradigm. Passion outpaces product, passion then creates better product, product then outpaces result. Result then catches up. There's always a gap between what you feel, what you make, and what you get back. Nothing happens at the same time. Most people quit in the gaps. It's easier to stick with it when you realize it's all in the name of process.

Tim Doyle (02:21.038)

And so the emphasis here again, nothing happens at the same time. There are large gaps between

the effort that you put in, or in this case, what I call your passion, a large gap between creating a better product and then a large gap between, okay, now I have a good product and I am getting some type of external result from that product that I'm creating.

Tim Doyle (02:56.878)

But in actuality and what can happen in a lot of cases is you think, okay, I'm putting in effort, I'm not getting results. And then that leads to self doubt. Doubting yourself, doubting your skills and your capabilities, doubting that you're not good enough, doubting, going even deeper of like, who am I to think that I could have done this in the first place? Who am I to have had this dream or this passion in the first place? And that's all just noise.

People think it's not working when in actuality it is working. It's just happening on such a minute micro level. And the reality is it's like, okay, I'm just early in the process. I'm just early on the path here. People quit because it's not working yet. I honestly believe more times than not, we put together a good plan, a good program for ourselves.

Tim Doyle (03:57.878)

And it's not that the program is bad. It's just that we don't put the time into it. We don't treat it with such dedication and discipline because that program comes crumbling down very quickly when we don't see that type of output that we want to. And there's a great real world example. I have a lot of experiences with this.

but I've also been able to confirm this philosophy of the passion product paradigm in other arenas outside of myself. And I think a great example of that is the TV show Seinfeld. Seinfeld, everyone knows that show. It's one of the biggest shows ever. It's timeless. It's always on TV. It will continue to be successful. But.

It wasn't considered a success early. In fact, it was considered a failure and there was a large potential for it being canceled and going off the air. It didn't take.

It didn't start to pick up until the fourth season. It didn't start to become successful until the fourth season. It didn't start to get that type of external result and validation until pretty far down the path.

Tim Doyle (05:33.048)

That's the gap.

There are large gaps between that. It's not going to be a linear, clear path. When you start something, it's just about getting something out of your body and your mind into the real world. And you're figuring out what it is in real time. It's gonna look messy. But through that, you will then refine that passion over time into a better product. It will get better.

But we're not done yet because there won't be an immediate result right away. You still have to put in the work. You still have to create that product over and over and over.

Tim Doyle (06:20.354)

And this is why, because it can take so long to see that external result and validation, this is why everything has to be grounded in passion. Like I can't do things that I'm not passionate about. Results take too long to get, takes too much work, energy, know, mental bandwidth, not to have something grounded in passion.

Tim Doyle (06:52.142)

If it's not real passion, you won't last because the people who do have it grounded in passion, they will stick with it much longer than you.

Tim Doyle (07:09.014)

And they will be able to go much longer without seeing those types of external results that you potentially may be getting into that game in the very beginning for.

What passion also does is that it reframes results, especially at the very start when you're deep in that passion phase at the beginning. Early results, especially when it came from me, when it comes to podcasting, the result is just doing the thing.

Just like you're in that phase beforehand of starting of like, you know, like, I want to start this thing. I want to start this thing. And you finally break through that resistance and you finally get out of that.

Tim Doyle (08:11.106)

and you finally get out of that deadweight position and you start actually doing it, that is what the result feels like. It's like, I'm finally doing it. This feels so good. And when it came for me with podcasting in those early days, just hitting the publish button and seeing something live, whether it's on Spotify or YouTube, it would invigorate me. It would bring me so much energy.

And if the doing of the thing is enough, if the doing of the thing continues to motivate you and inspire you to continue to do it, then take that as confirmation that you found something.

you found something special. And on the flip side of that, if you're doing something and it doesn't feel like that, then that thing probably isn't for you for the long term.

Tim Doyle (09:16.066)

And as you continue to feed off of that passion, is that passion continues to drive you because in those early days, you're not gonna see anything. You're not gonna see any type of external result. So you gotta find results in different ways. So it's the doing and then a big thing also, what the results you can see and pretty quickly is the improvement that you're making within your skills and the skill building.

For me, when it came to podcasting, it was like, okay, I'm becoming a much better communicator here. Okay, I'm becoming much more comfortable within this setting and in this intimate environment of just being in conversation with one other person and me being the one who has to be in control of this conversation and weaving it and quarterbacking this interview. And the biggest thing also when it comes to podcasting,

which has refined itself over time, is having presence, especially in person when I'm doing in-person interviews, having the presence of really listening to what a person is saying and being able to work off of that rather than always relying on the playbook that you have or the questions that you prepared beforehand. A lot of P words within this conversation.

Tim Doyle (10:46.456)

And there's a subset philosophy within this passion product paradigm. And I call it the two year rule. And what the two year rule is, it's not something that I learned actually from podcasting. Podcasting brought it into my conscious awareness, but this came from the gym. So I've talked about in the past, my first true love, passion was working out, lifting weights, building my body.

And I took it very, very seriously. I still do, but not like I used to. And it wasn't until two years in to being very consistent, disciplined with my programming when it comes to in the gym and also eating that I had the thought to myself of, okay, like this is working.

Like you're starting to see what you wanna see. And just to emphasize that, I'm not saying two years in, I was like, dude, like you made it. Like you got everything that you wanted. Two years in and just having that little internal confirmation and that internal nod of like, okay, this is working. You're on the path. This is the confirmation that you needed. And I kid you not, I've been podcasting for a little over two years.

In that same timeline of the gym, maps almost exactly to the same as the podcast, where it was like two years in and I had the same little thought of, you're starting to see that little spark. You're starting to see something sprout out of the ground here. It's working. And now it's just about, okay, continuing to do what I've been doing.

continuing to stay grounded in that passion, continuing to refine the product, and the results will ultimately come if I just continue down this path.

Tim Doyle (12:59.842)

And so I wouldn't call this as, I've found success, but I've found the proof. I've found the confirmation.

Tim Doyle (13:10.382)

People think they're off track. It's not working. When in reality, in actuality, they're just early. It's so easy for that internal voice to take over when you're doing something and you're like, it's not working. I gotta find different ways. I gotta take a shortcut or I gotta hire somebody or I gotta do this, I gotta do this.

That is the absolute worst thing that you can do in my opinion.

And I would honestly say, like for me, I've had the opinion of two years, I'd probably say give it three or four years.

Give it longer than that.

Tim Doyle (14:03.374)

And for anybody who's listening, when it comes to...

And for anyone and for anybody who's listening when it comes to.

being a podcaster really interested in what it takes to podcast or grow a podcast and get into this game. Podcasting is about building a library and a portfolio. Podcasting is about building a library and a portfolio for yourself.

Tim Doyle (14:36.684)

It's about.

Tim Doyle (14:40.622)

creating a collection of conversations, whether that's solo episodes that you're doing, or a lot of the time if it's interviewing other people, you have to be focused on

creating a collection that people can then look back on and find. Because when you're early, when you're just starting out, somebody finds an episode and you're only 10 episodes in, there's not much for them else to look at. And they'll see, okay, like there's really nothing here. This is early on. So, you know, I found this one episode and, you know, not much else for me to look at.

And I wouldn't consider having like a collection or a library for yourself until having a hundred episodes out. You know, there's the stat that people don't make it, what do they say? Like people don't make it past 10 episodes or maybe even be shorter than that. Like 1 % get to 20 episodes. Like if you're really, if podcasting, if you're saying that this is grounded in passion, well, one off, if you love it, then you will continue to do it.

But have to give yourself, I think, at least 100 episodes. Because a lot of the time, what I've seen now is, every single episode just got downloaded here once. And my hypothesis there is, okay, somebody just found the show and they found one episode and they're like, this is good. There's a lot of other stuff here. let me look at these other episodes now. Podcasting is about being dependable. It's about...

hey, I've been doing this, I currently am doing this, and I will continue to do this. One of the most fascinating things when it comes to podcasting for me when I'm doing research on other people, because how I do research on other people all the time is I will listen to them on other podcasts. And what I almost do right away when I find a different conversation, I go to the homepage of that podcast out of curiosity and being like, is this still active? And more times than not,

Tim Doyle (16:52.512)

It's not an active podcast anymore. And obviously everyone has their own reasons of, you know, maybe it just didn't serve them anymore. Maybe they, you know, didn't want to do it, but I would bet that more times than not, it was about.

Tim Doyle (17:13.582)

But I would bet more times than not, it was also about that person giving up. They didn't see the result, or maybe they didn't have the deep internal passion for it anymore because they didn't see the result and they stopped doing it.

Tim Doyle (17:48.696)

What I've also learned...

What this passion product paradigm has also taught me when it comes to podcasting is there's a large difference between being a good podcaster or being a good interview and building a podcast and growing a show.

Tim Doyle (18:12.066)

Doing the research, being able to have a good conversation is one thing.

Distribution and getting eyes on the show is a completely different thing. And it's a completely different animal. And that's something that I have really, really been focusing on in real time right now. Obviously the craft, that always stays most important.

but you're doing yourself a huge disservice. I would be doing myself a huge disservice if I didn't think that I didn't have to focus on that other side. And what I would say is that comes with time. That's not right away. When you're deep within the passion phase, you should just be focused on the craft. I was really just focused on like, I just need to get into the routine of putting out a podcast episode every single week. And now it feels like I'm in the phase of, okay.

Starting to creep out of the passion phase now. The product's getting really good. And now I got to take that next step within the product phase of what I would call packaging and creating better packaging around this so that people can see it.

get a taste for it, and then become an active listener of the show. And I have an example of this. I've gotten confirmation of this pretty recently. I put out an Instagram clip probably 10 or 11 days ago of Matt Johnson, past conversation I had at the beginning of March, and it went viral. Right now, and it's still growing, right now it's got about little under three million views, close to 90,000 likes.

Tim Doyle (19:56.428)

little under two and a half thousand shares. And I saw a direct correlation from that going viral to downloads of the podcast going through the roof.

And I love that it happened at this point because like I was talking about earlier, I have a great library and portfolio of other conversations that people can look at. And I have an established show from that vantage point. And I was like, oh, this is great. This is great that this is happening now rather than when it happened at episode 10. Obviously, I would love for it to happen whenever it did, but it's great that it happened at this point of the journey for me.

Tim Doyle (20:40.94)

and it acted as confirmation there. And that's when I talk about that, when I talked about that comment on my YouTube channel, it was this conversation with Matt Johnson that that was left under. And this acted as confirmation of, okay, the product's good. Now you just got to continue to do that. You just got to continue walking down the path.

Tim Doyle (21:09.122)

And I think when we're living within this paradigm, the real shift.

comes from the questions that we ask ourself. And specifically, I think it comes down to

Get rid of asking yourself, how long will this take?

how long is it going to take me to see that external result that I want to see? And start asking yourself, what if I found something here that I just don't wanna stop?

Is this something that I just don't want to stop no matter what? Is this something that I love to do that now I can't see it not playing a role within my life? That's the question that you need to be asking with yourself. And be honest with yourself. Be transparent.

Tim Doyle (22:06.092)

you will do yourself a huge favor if you answer that question frankly and you're like, you know what? No, this isn't something that I can just enjoy doing on a consistent basis without seeing that type of output that I want to see. I've seen that before in my life. There have been things, there have been other projects and I'm like, this isn't grounded in passion. This is grounded in me trying to like get something from this. So I got to quit this.

Tim Doyle (22:44.032)

Everyone is somewhere within this path, within this paradigm. Maybe you're at the beginning. Maybe you're at the thinking stage where you're like, I think I'm passionate about something and I want to start this. If you're that person, start it.

Focus on the passion, focus on just taking that thing that's out of your mind and out of your dreams and get it out into the real world. If you're somebody that's in the passion phase where you've already started to do it, continue to do that. Continue just to have that grounded in passion. Refine that over time, refine your skills and that will naturally lead to a better product. If you're somebody who's in the product stage.

I truly, truly believe that you probably have something really, really good on your hands that you're working on. And it's not a matter of you doing something wrong. It's just that you're living within this paradigm and the results and the world hasn't caught up to you yet.

Tim Doyle (23:54.178)

Because 99.99 % of the time, we're living in between the gaps. We're living in between the gaps of passion, product, and results. So all it comes down to is don't quit.

Passion builds the product, product brings the results, but most importantly, only if you stay. Only if you continue to walk the path.