Ep 315 | Who's Your Slim Shady?

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Just recently, I was listening to a new song that was put out by a guy you all probably know named Marshall Mathers. Now, I'm not the biggest Eminem fan. If you didn't know Marshall Mathers was in fact Eminem, well, now you know. I'm not the biggest Eminem fan, but I certainly respect the work that the guy's done over the past couple decades. And he put out this new song recently called Houdini. It's the first single coming out of his, his new album that I think is gonna— that's gonna land sometime this summer. But I'm listening to this song And I'm listening to the lyrics of the song, and then I catch the video of the song, which by the way, it's a great video, especially if you like Eminem at all. And in the video, Eminem is— he's rapping, he's performing, but then the old Eminem shows up. He comes through a portal through time, and the old Eminem shows up. And the old Eminem represents his alter ego known as Slim Shady. See, Marshall Mathers adopted the alter egos Eminem, you know, what he goes by as a rapper, and Slim Shady, this other version of him. And he did this years and years ago to really express the different facets of his personality and his artistic expression in his music career. They even act like different people. And if you watch the video you'll see that Eminem, who he is today, is, you know, kind of in battle with, in the, in the video, with Slim Shady, who he was before. And even the lyrics of the song talk around this dichotomy between, you know, the two, the two egos, alter egos representing Marshall Mathers. Well, anyhow, why am I talking about this? I got to thinking around this alter ego concept. and my mind immediately goes to my favorite basketball player of all time, Kobe Bryant. And Kobe Bryant had an alter ego as well. That alter ego was known as Black Mamba. Kobe took this nickname on years back into his career, and he did so to kind of create this separate persona to handle the, the pressures and the challenges that he was experiencing in his basketball career. Now, Black Mamba, inspired by this venomous snake, and, and Kobe chose it because of its speed and its, its precision and its lethal ability. These are all traits that he wanted to embody on the basketball court. So this Black Mamba persona alter ego helped him focus and perform at an elite level, and he separated his personal life from his professional life. When he stepped on the court, when he stepped into practice or into a game, he became Black Mamba. Much like when Eminem wanted to share something different than what he was traditionally doing, maybe something more aggressive or more outrageous, he became Slim Shady. Deion Sanders, famous athlete, what was his nickname? Prime Time. And if you know anything about Deion Sanders, who was Prime Time, he was this flashy, confident, high-energy guy on the field. He was, he was that way off the field as well. But if you watch Deion Sanders today, post-Prime Time, he is a much different— like, he still shows glimpses of Prime Time, but you'd say, gosh, he's so much more mature, he's so much more developed in terms of the way he thinks and acts. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it's prime time that alter ego is just retired. Same goes for like a Shaquille O'Neal who has created all sorts of alter egos for himself. Shaq Diesel, and he calls himself Superman. And what was his big deal? He just wanted to be dominant. Shaq Diesel, Superman, these things represent dominance. And when Shaq played basketball, he really wanted to display this powerful presence. Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock. Now, this is an interesting one to study because The Rock is a wrestler. Dwayne Johnson is a totally different guy. This is an alter ego. The Rock is charismatic and larger than life. Dwayne Johnson has some of that in him, but when he transforms into The Rock, that is a different person. That is a separate person. Now, I gave athletes and some entertainers, but I think you see this show up a lot with authors and writers. Mark Twain was really Samuel Clemens. Samuel Clemens used the pen name Mark Twain to create a distinct literary identity. This name became synonymous with famous works like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and that was Mark Twain, the alter ego for Samuel Clemens. Same goes for J.K. Rowling. Who's the author of the Harry Potter series, right, but used a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, I think was the name, to explore a totally different genre without the pressure of her fame. She created an alter ego so as to not have the pressure that came along with her fame from the Harry Potter series. Elon, he's got all sorts of alter egos. We don't have to dig too deep into that, but so does Richard Branson. He's referred to himself as Dr. Yes, which is kind of funny, but he treats this Dr. Yes character as an alter ego to highlight his willingness to take risks and embrace new opportunities. There's, there's lots of others, but where am I going with this? I think this alter ego concept is, is a really interesting one. And do I think we all have to come up with some super creative name like Black Mamba or or Shaq Diesel or Prime Time? No, I don't think that. But I do think it's fascinating to think around the separation of personal and professional. And when you take the field in your profession, you are a corporate athlete. You are a corporate performer, right? You are expected to show up and show out. At least I would think that's what you expect of yourself. And I don't know if alter ego is the answer for you, but I do think flipping the switch and, you know, remaining who you are and being authentic, but turning into something different for sake of, of your success or your efficiency or your production or your leadership. I don't know, it's not a bad idea to think around this alter ego concept. Again, you don't need, need to name yourself. But who do you morph into? Who do you become? Do you have a separation of personal and professional? And by the way, I'm an advocate for that, but I know many others would say that that's a challenging way to live. I disagree. For me, when I walk in the door at my office, and that could be my office at home, that could be my office at the actual office, When I take the field, specifically Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, my job is to be productive, is to be efficient, is to make right decisions, is to grind, is to model, is to lead, is to influence. And while I like to carry myself that way outside of the office, I also like to separate church and state. I like to have chapter, a chapter break. And become a different guy at home so as to best serve my family, my wife, and my girls. So I, I just, you know, I think the focusing question for you today is, do you think that morphing into or becoming someone slightly different as you go into your work or your professional world every day, how would that serve you? Is there a Slim Shady version of you that when you take the field, you morph into that version? And when it's time to take off the, you know, to put down the pen and to close the computer, you go back to you? Just an interesting concept to think around. I know some of you may love this and some of you may think, Brian, you are off your damn rocker today. But I can tell you that for me, uh, in terms of performance, I think this is one thing that's actually like gotten comfortable with the fact that I behave this way and even embracing it so as to recognize when I flip the switch, you know, I become a slightly different version of me. And when I turn that switch off, I go back. I certainly don't think I'm Slim Shady or I don't think I'm, you know, Kobe Bryant, but I am my own version, you know, in my own world of that. I don't know, maybe try it on for size. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.