Afternoon, beautiful people.

It’s me again, on day 6, fresh out of energy but burning with focus. Welcome back to The Stack, my daily practice in public.

The Stack is where I lay one small brick every day: a thought, a test, a story, a tool. It is an experiment lab for builders and feelers, part creative gym, part field notes, focused on honest metrics, repeatable reps, and momentum you can actually measure. No theatrics, just proof. If you’re new here, think of it as a slow, steady staircase we climb together, one step, one publish, one honest check-in at a time.

Today’s brick feels more like pebbles. Nonetheless, we’re bringing what we have and making a contribution. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was built daily. Damn, he’s good!

Imposter Syndrome is first an admission of guilt.

I love today’s title because it confronts the thing that stops most of us from doing the work that actually matters— Me especially. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably heard me say this quite often, because well, i’m not lying. Hear me out.

We often activity bias (looking busy) more than actual motion (doing the work). Activity bias exists to signal movement to others or to soothe ourselves with the feeling of progress. Sometimes we “commit” to something without honouring it, racing to package it neatly. We call that perfectionism. Don’t worry, I’ll drag you later, keep reading.

For all the seeming nobility of doing things well (or right), we can fall into performance. Take a moment: review what you’ve committed to recently and what you’ve produced. Did you do it because it mattered, or because you were patching a gap?

The truth is, actual motion is quiet and often invisible—well until the results speak for themselves.

That performance loop is why we feel “not good enough.” We end up spending so much energy comparing ourselves to a perception out there, while knowing there’s a gap of work in here that hasn’t been done.

Damn, but you’re not alone.
I’m here with you!

A Little Experiment (That Grew Legs)

A few weeks ago I put out a “whacky” idea: a 6 week 1:1 incubation that’s half therapy, half brand strategy, designed to help self-starters uncover who they are, map a runway, and actually ship and idea into the world. I priced it at £500 (£83 p/w), and Honestly, I thought no one would bite. But I didn’t really know, so I decided to kill the assumption, put out a story, and test for an honest answer.

The honest metric.

The play: “Give me 15 minutes. If it connects with you, we’ll go ahead, but it will cost £500, no more expensive that a weekly therapist. You’ll get my undivided partnership for 6 weeks, and a decade-long playbook born from experimental escapades that I tested, failed and learnt from.

What happened: Over 20 people booked calls with near-unanimous interest. I didn’t know it would work. I simply took each call and iterated the pitch in real time. Whilst speaking, I would listen to what landed, diagnosed what people actually wanted, and took notes like a man obsessed. Some calls stayed 15 minutes; most ran to an hour as people opened up. By the end, the calls became the proof of the programme.

People had already paid in their hearts before we ever swapped card details.

I’m now in Week 4 and with a small first cohort doing the actual work. And honestly it’s one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done, mostly because it’s no longer an idea, but an action. Each week, I help someone trace their story, weave “insignificant” moments into meaning, and unlock direction, and I leave with evidence that What i’m doing is making a difference.

For someone like myself this alone is huge, because I’ve failed many times, but this time was different. I didn’t take it personal, but I took it seriously, and evolved.

Today in another session, one of my students began walking me through some of the evolutions that have happened in her mind, not only that, but the real work she had been creating since we began our journey together. It was surreal. I had not only put something out there in the world that felt valuable to me, but It truly was valuable to someone else, dare I say perspective shifting.

That feedback was everything, and it could only come from real work, not assumption. I’m sharing this not to brag but to underline one truth:

Big Idea or Creative Defence?

As I round up, I’ll share another moment with another student I had yesterday. This was her first week, and we were exploring her why, and all the stops that had got her here. Just like most of ours, it was a journey of trials, errors and many interesting results.
However she was left with a trail of unfinished ideas and unfulfilled desire.

She expressed about having big ideas, and how that isn’t much of an issue for her, however as I listened commitment wasn’t so much the issue, but rather significance. Big ideas seemed to hold more weight than small task, as so it seemed. So I prodded.

“I wonder if you love big ideas because they’re safe?”

She went quiet.
“What do you mean?” she asked.

I replied.

“Maybe, big ideas are safe because they’re hard to test”

Admit it, maybe avoiding the test, allows the great idea to remain or even become the perfect one in your head. Maybe we crave the early applause for potential because tha’s what it’s really about?

Idk you tell me.

Truth is, small ideas demand action and risk, and they’re terribly rewarded at first. That’s why many of us chase applause for what could be, instead of doing the unsexy steps that earn quiet results. The terrible reality is that we love the applause but even we know that it’s not deserved so after a while, we can’t stand it. So we never feel good enough to be where we actually plotted to be.

Oop got em’
There’s the imposter.

The Honest Metric (Pick One That Can’t Lie)

Then it landed. The issue was never ideas, it was the lack of tests. From that moment, we left “what if” and chose an honest metric to score what is. So as we round up today, my hope is these uncomfortable questions remain in your mind, and that you also may change direction to what is.

Most people optimise for comfort, not clarity.
Don’t be that person!
Choose a metric that tells the truth.

Here’s an honest metric menu to try:

• Ideas shipped per week (posts/videos/newsletters actually published)

• Conversations booked with real prospects/readers

• Saved shares or replies (depth signals > views)

• Revenue collected (paid validation)

• Focused hours (90-minute blocks in the chair)

• Drafts completed (not started—completed)

How to Pick Yours (3 steps)

1. Name the bottleneck. What’s really stalling you—clarity, consistency, or conversions?

2. Choose one metric that exposes whether you’re doing the work (e.g., “2 sessions shipped/week”).

3. Score it daily for 30 days. Binary. 1 = yes, 0 = no. No vibes, just receipts.

🏁 Today’s Challenge

Cancel the performance.,and pick one honest metric that can’t lie to you and start tracking it today.

Comment or reply with:

• Your honest metric (just one)

• The cadence (e.g., 2 posts/week, 3 focused blocks/week)

• Your start date (today ✅)

Additionally, If you want a quick jam to explore your processes, reply “honest” and I’ll send my calendar for a 15-minute call. As always, my door’s open if you want to talk it through.

✳️ The Stack.

Part of the 75-Day Stack Challenge. A column about creativie, ideas and the messy art of getting started again.

Written by Josiah Hyacinth, creator, strategist, and storyteller exploring the intersection of faith, creativity, and action. If this helped, subscribe, and share it with one person in their crowd-of-none season.