In this No Days Off podcast episode, host Brian Gubernick invites his 10‑year‑old daughter, Katy G, to co‑host a conversation about what we can learn from losing. Drawing on a presentation Katy created with her sister Avery for a Metrics Mastermind, they enumerate a series of lessons that loss can teach: discovering purpose, pinpointing areas for growth, overcoming fear, cultivating perseverance, fostering personal growth, staying humble, strengthening one’s support network, and motivating us to work harder and smarter. Throughout the dialogue, Brian prompts Katy to elaborate on each point and to share concrete personal experiences—a dance competition where she didn’t place, flag‑football games lost, and a school election for president she didn’t win. Katy reflects on how each loss highlighted mistakes, built resilience, and reinforced humility, while Brian reinforces the value of these insights for both of them. The episode concludes with a reaffirmation of the podcast’s mantra that every day offers a chance to improve, and a brief sign‑off by Katy.
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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. Let's get into today's topic. Today I'm going to be discussing losing and what we, what we learn from the process of losing. And for the first time ever, I think we're 70 episodes or so in, for the first time ever, I have a co-host today who will be helping me in talking around losing. And that co-host is my 10-year-old daughter, Katie G. Katie, welcome to the show.
Hi.
Hi, everybody.
Hi, everybody.
So let's get into it. We're gonna talk about losing now. Katie and her sister Avery put together a presentation that they did a couple years ago at one of our Metrics Masterminds, and it was on this topic of losing. And so that's why I asked Katie to join me today. We're gonna go through that presentation she made about losing. And so Katie, let's start, okay? We're gonna dive into the things that we learn from losing in no exact order. So tell us this first one.
Losing helps us discover our purpose. Losing helps me understand why I'm working so hard and doing what it is that I do.
Right, so we're going off your presentation. Katie says, number 1, losing helps us discover purpose. So when we lose, we really understand or learn to understand why we're working so hard, what we're striving to do. That pain triggers us to recognize Our purpose. It's a really good one to start. Katie, let's, let's talk about this next one. What's the next one you and Avery talked about at our mastermind?
Um, losing lets us know where we must evolve. Losing helps me learn where I must focus my practice.
Right, so when we lose, we recognize our places of weakness and we can focus our practice around those places of weakness, right?
Yes.
Awesome. Next one.
Losing helps us overcome fear. Losing makes me stronger and work harder. When you practice like that, you start to overcome your fear.
That's right. So losing helps us overcome fear. So when you lose, you got to get back up, you got to dust yourself off, you got to work harder, you got to be stronger, right? And then you practice, and you practice harder, and you practice on those weaknesses, and it helps you overcome your fear. Perfect. What's the next one you want to tell us about?
Losing teaches us perseverance, and if I do not win one time, then that means I need to keep trying and trying until I win.
Right, so you lose, but that doesn't mean you give up. Is that right?
That means you're determined to win next time.
That's right. So you get back up and you keep going until you win. You keep trying and trying and until you win. So you learn, what was that key word that you said that you learned?
Perseverance.
Perseverance, love it. Next one.
Losing creates growth. When you lose, you obviously are making some kind of mistake. When you learn what that mistake is, you can fix it, and that means you are growing.
I love this one. Losing creates growth. So when you lose, there's probably a reason why you lost, and when you realize or understand what that reason is, you can do what? You can fix it, right?
Yeah.
And that means you are growing. That's right. It means you're growing. It means as you're learning, as you're fixing mistakes, as you're correcting for whatever, whatever caused that loss, you are actually growing.
Cool.
Let's go through a couple more of these.
Losing keeps us humble. Sometimes when you can win, you can get a lot too confident. When you lose, it reminds you that you could be beat.
Yeah. Losing is going to humble you. I think Katie, You and I could both use a little bit of this, right? So losing is good for us because we can get overconfident. It reminds us that we can be beat. Is that right?
Yes.
That's right. So one more for us.
Losing strengthens our support system. If you lose, you will have your family, friends, and teammates to help if you're sad.
Losing helps strengthen our support system. So when you lose, those closest to you, it, it, it helps them surround you, come alongside you, and that's known as your support system.
Yes.
And if you're sad, what can they do for you?
Help you.
Help you, make you happy. And let's do one more. How about this one?
Losing prompts us to work harder and smarter. If you lose, you have to work harder so you could win the next time.
Yeah. In summary, losing is good for us. Gives us a little taste of defeat, makes us work harder, makes us work smarter, strengthens our support system, keeps us humble, creates growth, teaches us perseverance, helps us overcome fear, helps us discover purpose, and teaches us where we have to evolve. You learn a lot from losing, is that right?
Yeah.
All right, so I didn't set you up for this. I got a question for you.
What's the question?
What's the question? Have you ever lost?
Yeah.
Have you?
Yeah.
And what have you lost?
I've lost a dance competition.
All right, so talk to me about that one real quick. So you lost in dance, right? So describe that for me a little bit.
So we do like overalls, say, so the 10 best solos, let's say.
Mm-hmm.
And I might not get even first place, so I might not even get 10th place.
So you don't place.
Yeah, so I lose.
So you consider that a loss. What do you learn from, like in dance, if you don't place in the top 10, you don't win it, but you, you lose entirely, so you don't place in the top 10. What has that done for you? What is that? How has that helped you?
Well, that's taught me that obviously I did something wrong and that I should fix it, and I might have a chance next time.
It's good. It's really good. How about another loss? Can you think of any other losses you've had recently?
Um, in football games? Yeah, like football games I've lost.
We've lost plenty of games in flag football. What does that teach us?
That teaches us about our perseverance. Yeah, and in football we just got to keep training and doing better.
We had a season in football, didn't we lose like every game our first year? But then the next season we won like most of them. We won a bunch of games, so that was perseverance. All right, give me one more loss. Any other, any other losses recently? There is one loss. Is it okay if I put you on the spot? Hope this is okay. There's one loss you had recently that you were upset about we've never really even talked about. Oh, um, we don't have to go too deep into it, but what was it?
I lost president.
You ran for president at school and you didn't win it, and we really thought you were, and you worked super hard, but you didn't win, and that's okay, right? What do we, what do we learn from that?
That there was something wrong and I have to fix it.
Well, there's something wrong, but humble. Humble, that's right.
I can't lose my temper.
Yeah, well, that's a good one too. Um, how about overcoming fear, right? Like, you lost. This is going to build some resilience for you, right? You'll work harder next time.
Last time I ran for treasure and I won, and that maybe put me too high, and so now When I ran for president, I lost. So it humbled me back.
I'll tell you what, because you and I have actually never talked about it because you didn't want to talk about it, and I put you on the spot today, and that's totally fine by me if you didn't want to talk about it. But I'll tell you, you handled it. You didn't complain about it. You were upset a little bit, right? Everybody would be upset. I was upset. Anytime I lose, I'm upset. But you didn't complain. You sucked it up. You dealt with it. You were sad for a minute, but then you brushed it off and you were your happy self again. And I can tell you learned from it because it probably humbled you a little bit. It certainly created some growth. And I'll tell you, I think it certainly strengthened your support system, right? Even your sister. Even your sister came to your aid, didn't she? Didn't she? Mm-hmm. That's right. Now we know next time we're just going to work even harder and work even smarter. Really good. Thank you for sharing that today. First time I've had a co-host, and she might have to just take over for me because I think she nailed it. I think she nailed it. So, Katie, why don't you send us off? This right here I have in front of you. Read that. That's how we end every podcast.
That's all we have today. 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.
