There Are NO MORE Excuses! [Bullpen Sessions Episode 24]

Hey. Hey. It is Friday. You know what that means? It is time for Friday Bullpen sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 24. Today we're going to talk about excuses and why you can't have any. But before we dive in, I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor, APN Consulting. Listen, if you are trying to grow your personal brand, you're trying to grow your business, it is a game of attention today. You have to create ton of awareness for who you are. But in order to do that effectively, you got to have a better message. Who is your target audience? What problem are you solving for them and what does life look like after they work with you? Solve those and you will have the clarity you need to grow the brand you know you want. And if you are having trouble doing that, I've got a gift for you. On Thursday, June 4th at 12pm Eastern, 9am Pacific, going to be hosting a webinar Three Steps to Mastering youg Brand Message To Win More Business. I have put the registration link in the notes below. Do not miss out. Go there. Register now. You will gain that clarity you need to grow that business, grow that brand you want. All right, back to the episode. So let's talk about excuses. You still throwing them out there? Listen, I know we are still in the middle of this Covid crisis. It is so easy to have excuses right now. In fact, some cases you could even say they're legit. But I would argue that the excuses you're making today are the same excuses you were making six months ago, one year ago. Yeah, I know, Andy. I want to grow this business faster. But yeah, I know I should quit. Quit my job and start that side hustle that I've been thinking about for years. But call that the yeah but syndrome. Yeah, buts are full of excuses. And listen, it wasn't that long ago that you had to have the resources, the right connections to grow a big company, to grow massive awareness.

But the game has changed. If one thing this COVID pandemic has taught us is that the playing field has been leveled. If you have an iPhone, an Android, a laptop, you can get your message and your company in front of thousands, if not millions of eyeballs. You couldn't do that 15, 20 years ago. So what's your excuse? Makes me think back to when I was playing high school baseball. This was the mid-90s. I grew up in a. What I call a fairly small Midwestern town in Wisconsin. And back then it was not easy for a kid playing baseball. In the upper Midwest to get recruited. In fact, going into my senior year I had one scholarship offer to Winona State University in Minnesota. And going into my senior season, that is where I was headed. I did not garner much attention. I wasn't what you would call a, a high profile athlete. I was a pitcher, but I was 5 foot 9. I weighed 145 pounds my senior year. I threw fairly hard, but not overly hard and it was just really hard to get recruited. Now fortunately, by the end of my senior season, the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee saw me pitch and took a liking and offered me a scholarship. But back then it was extremely hard for an athlete in the upper Midwest to get recruited. When I look at some of my teammates I played with at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, these guys were some of the best athletes I'd ever seen. I was jealous of their size, their speed, how hard they threw. And UWM was able to pluck these guys, able to recruit these guys because no one else was recruiting a Wisconsin kid. But that has changed today. I mean you look at technology, the social media, the recruiting services that are out there today, YouTube videos, the cool thing about high school athletics today is kids are being seen by so much more than they were in the past. You go look at the top baseball players in the state of Wisconsin each and every year and I would say the top 10 or 15 are going to Division 1 schools all over the country. Schools that would have never looked at a Wisconsin kid 10, 15, 20 years ago. I'm talking about schools like LSU, Oregon State, Arizona State, Arkansas. Some of the top baseball programs in the country now are seeing these athletes from the upper Midwest like they've never before. Because guess what? In the recruiting world, the playing field has been leveled. It is actually so cool to see these kids get a shot that we really didn't have 15 to 20 years ago. Same is going on in business right now. Again, it wasn't that long ago that you could argue, you could make the excuse that you didn't have the right financial resources, you didn't have the right connections, but you have no excuse anymore. If you have an iPhone, an Android, a laptop, an iPad, whatever, and a camera, you can get your company, your brand in front of thousands, if not millions of eyeballs.

You can build that business you've been wanting to build from your house. Hell, you can build it from your parents basement if you wanted to.

It is time to eliminate the yeah but syndrome forever.

Remember what I said earlier, if you're making excuses right now and Using the pandemic as the excuse. I promise you, these were the same excuses you were making six months, one year, three years ago. Nothing's changed. It is time for you to start taking action.

Get off the bench, get on the field, start playing. Start grabbing the attention again. It used to cost a lot of money to put your company and your message in front of eyeballs. But guess what? The top platforms on social media now, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok. They're free.

So why aren't we hearing from you? Why aren't we seeing you? Why are you sitting on the sidelines watching everybody else grab that attention while you continue to make excuses?

The most beautiful part about the future, with all the uncertainty that we have right now around the future, is your future is in your control. What are you going to do with.

Is time for you to take 100% responsibility for where you're going. It is time for you to start creating the awareness for who you are, your brand, your company.

Now is the time to do this. Unlike any other time in history, a day may come where social media goes away.

Or it may just keep getting bigger. So if you take the time right now to build your foundation, craft that message for your target audience, quit that job you hate, and start the business you know you want to start.

The playing field's been leveled. This is your chance.

What are you waiting for?

Go out and make it happen today. That is my plea to you. I know it's easy right now to live in the comfort of a paycheck, working for an employer you can't stand. But what's going to be different one year, three years, five years from now.

You will control the happiness you have in the future. And it starts by stepping into the life you want to live. If you wanted to start that business, go do it today. If you got a side hustle you're thinking about turning into a full fledged entrepreneurial venture, do it today. Because with the right message, with the right audience, you have the platforms via social media, via the Internet, to grow your business like you had never have before. So please, please, please do me a favor today, on this Friday, get that clarity you need. Where is it you want your future to go? And then have the confidence that you have 100% control of that future. Promise you, when clarity and confidence collide, you will take action. So go take that action today. No more excuses. No more yeah, buts. You are ready to grow. You are ready to create the awareness, and you are ready to go grab that attention you need. So make it happen today. And please, if you are enjoying these podcasts, do me a favor. I would be extremely grateful if you would go and subscribe, give it a five star rating and share it with anybody you think would find the content beneficial. And until next week, you know what happens when clarity and confidence collide. You take action. Have a great weekend and we will see you next week.