Fear of the Unknown + Fever Dreams

Business Brain, episode 662 for Wednesday, July 2, World UFO Day 2025. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a few topics, sometimes timely, sometimes timeless. We analyze them, we dissect them, we use them to tune our business brains every single time we get together. Our sponsors for Today's episode are eversight.com BB where you can get your own in house web team, web team for just 399amonth, and our sponsor, square@square.com Go Brain. Of course, you can just come to the show notes at Business Brain to get that link, but at that link, you get up to $200 off square hardware when you sign up. So, yes, we'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now here I believe in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

I am still out in Northern California. I'm Shannon Jean. I'm happy to be here. I love doing this show, man.

Same.

It's. And I know you love it because even when you're not feeling great, you still show up. It's not. I don't get a message that says, hey, man, I'm really down. Let's do this. You taught me the power of consistency in the podcast. And so I'm sorry you're not feeling great, but what's going on?

Yeah. And thank you for saying that. Starting on. So we record this show on Monday afternoons. So starting on Wednesday and certainly Thursday, I had, like, headache and, like, body, upper back and neck aches that were sort of unexplainable. And then on Thursday, I kind of leaned against Lisa, my wife, and she was like, dude, you got to take the temperature.

Yeah.

And it was like, oh, okay. And I did. And it was like 102 or something. And it was like, oh, that's bad. I normally run it, like 95, 96, maybe 97. So that, like, that's hot. 102's hot for anybody. But, you know, 98 would have also given me a question. And. But it was fighting.

Your body's fighting something.

Fighting something. And so I was like, okay, well, whatever. You know, I was at some concerts the previous weekend. I played a show that previous weekend. I'm like, all right, I got some kind of Wookiee flute from Fish concerts. Like, certainly not the first time this story has been told. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, fine, whatever. And then, you know, as I was taking, like, Tylenol and Advil off cycle from each other just to kind of keep it managed, and it did. Friday went okay, but even Like Thursday I slept in, which is atypical for me on like what I would call a workday, and then took a 90 minute nap. Like, I was definitely. That's unusual. Yeah. As I said to my family, I'm like, this is typical. But you know, I, I still kind of managed to get stuff done. And Saturday, all day, my temperature was like, you know, below 98. It was like, great, okay, I've kicked this thing. And then Sunday night it was like, wait, this is much worse than it's been. What's going on? And it was back up to like 101 and change or something. And so. And the same today. And I've been like, you know, on and off sleeping all day, you know, in between, like fits and starts of work. It, it's just unusual for me to be this low energy and from a. And, and so I am going to see my doctor in the morning. We, we don't know what this is. And it would be good to try and like put a finger on it because it's, it's weird. I'm not, I'm not nauseous. I'm not like, I don't have a runny nose. There's none of those kind of symptoms, so who knows what it could be? There's a whole laundry list of things.

Yeah, that's.

It could be an ear infection. It could be Lyme disease, which I've had before, but doesn't. Like.

How'S it impacted your work schedule?

Well, that's the thing is it's really hard to get out of bed in the morning when you wake up and you've got a splitting headache. And that splitting headache is pretty much there 24, seven for me.

That sucks.

And that's the part that after five, whatever it is, days now is like, okay, I don't know that, like, how much longer can I do this? Like, yeah, this is, this is maddening. And so, you know, as I said, I've been kind of taking care of myself and as best I can and getting rest when, when my body tells me now is nap time, Dave. But I've also been hyper aware of my productivity because there are things that need to get done. There are people relying on me for things. Everyone, as you would expect, is fully understanding of the whole, you know, you're sick. Like, it's what happens. Yeah. But still, I know that this stuff needs to get done. And you know, I've got a team that we're, we're in a, I don't want to say a rebuilding year at Backbeat, but we're, we're doing some new things that are not yet sort of baked into our corporate vibe. And so I'm finding that I need to be sort of driving some of these things.

Somewhat relentless manual systems.

Exactly.

Yeah, I see.

Just like, okay, don't, but don't forget to do this. And like, I, I, I made more Loom videos in the last, you know, four months than ever before. But, but it's great. Like, it's showing people, okay, here's how we're doing this because we're trying to grow and we are growing, but I know that in order to grow, we looked last year at, okay, where would our pain points be if we doubled the number of podcasts that we represented for their ad sales here at Backbeat? It's like, okay, so we, we identified at least the ones that we could predict would be our internal pain points. There are always some that come up. There's like, oh, I didn't expect this, but, you know, and a lot of those are changing our habits and changing our systems. And so when I see, you know, one of our people here doing things the old way, the, you know, I'll call it the lazy way, even though I came up with it, you know, but like, the things that worked when we, when we had, you know, 40 shows aren't going to work when we have a hundred and really don't even work when we have 60 or 65. Like, it's it, you can't just do things, you know, willy nilly.

You're right.

There's a system in place for a reason. And it's not everybody thinks like we do, Shannon. And, you know, they said, well, this worked for 15 years. Why would I change? It's like, well, I have an answer to that. Are you open to hearing it, for example, you know, that kind of thing. And it's not that people are, it's not that people are ignorantly change resistant. It's that people are people, it's human nature and are change resistant. Right? It's just human nature. So I'm needing to kind of keep my hand on the rudder more than I normally would feel the need to if I were sick for a week, you know, that kind of thing. But, but yeah, it's, this sickness is, it's really interesting from the standpoint of, look at all it takes to take me off my game. Like, this is, it's it. And I say this and I know there are people that suffer longer and deeper than I currently am, but it's just a headache. Like, that's the issue if I. If like a fever. Yeah, whatever. Like, I can. I can live with a fever, but it's that splitting headache that.

That, you know, kind of think is clearly. No. And. Yeah, yeah. I think it's also. It's good that it. I. It. These kinds of things help identify weaknesses in your. In the system that. So you look at and go, wow, man, this doesn't happen unless I'm involved, you know, and little things like that. Because, like, you, I'm building new systems. I'm in. Yeah. I mean, I'm in Loom, like, every day. Yeah. There's no way around it. Trying to show this. And, okay, this is how we do it. This is how that.

I mean, I did today with a fever because somebody asked a question. I'm like, it's really not that difficult. Here you go.

Yeah. Yeah. But that's so very smart of you to use an app like Loom to create it so that you can share it or they can share it with anybody. And it comes into your library of SOPs.

And.

And this is, you know, that they should go search there before they reach out to Dave, Right?

Yes.

And that's the whole concept. But people are inherently. They lean towards asking questions instead of doing research.

Yes.

So you have to kind of adjust that as well.

I'm finding that's. I'm glad you mentioned that, because I'm finding something that I used. Oh, man. This was. This has got to be 20 years ago, maybe. Maybe 18 years ago, but, yeah, probably. And when I was taking my first, like, vacation where I was going to be detaching, we were going on a cruise with the kids. There was no cell service on the. On the ships at that time, and I didn't really want it. I. I wanted to try and be present with my family. It was an experiment for me at the time, too. We had started the business, you know, eight years prior or whatever, and it was like, well, let's. Let's see. And so I remember sitting down with. With Jeff on our team, who's still on our team, and he's like, well, you know, what am I going to do if something that I don't know how to solve comes up? And I said, okay, Jeff, what happened last week when something came up and you brought it to me. Well, what. What did I say after you asked? He said, well, you asked me what would I do? And what's. What is. You know, I asked him, what does your gut tell you to do? Like, What. What's the right thing? And he told me, and I said, great, do that. And he was like, oh, interesting. He's like, huh? Is it like, that's. That's really it? I'm like, yeah. Do you want me to record my side of that conversation so you can play those answers back?

That's it.

That's it. Like, you're here. I trust you. Are you going to make exactly the same decisions that I would? No, of course not.

But you don't have the expectation that they're going to make that exact same decision. And you didn't hire them to make the exact same decision. No, you hired them to make a decision.

That's the key. And am I going to come back and see a decision that somebody made potentially, you know, and. And then say, oh, man, that was not the right thing to do? Maybe. Well, I might, but I'm not going to.

I could critique the decision and a learning moment from it, but the last thing you're going to do as a good leader is get, you know, be upset that they made a decision.

No, I would be upset if I found out that something came in on Monday right after I left, did anything with it. Everybody waited until a week later to get my feedback on it. It's like, oh, that's what I'm going to yell at you about.

Like, but you have to teach you.

You have to teach that. Oh, yeah, yeah. They knew that going in, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, no, that's great.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's system. Systems, automation and SOPs, man, is a game changer if you embrace that and. And now there's more tool.

To do it. Yeah, I know. It's so much easier than it was 20 years ago, but it's the same vibe for sure. All right, we have a conversation about fear that we want to have, and the next thing that we want to do is talk about our sponsors because. All right, look, Square, our sponsor isn't just for the business owners using it. It's for all of us trying to live that charmed life and move through our days without friction. Just recently, I grabbed Thai food with my daughter at Bame here in Durham. Paid with Square Seamless. Then, you know, I got this fever. I gotta cool off. Cowlick's Dairy Bar tap done. Ice cream in hand before the brain freeze hit. And of course, no summer's complete without Tideline Public House, where I grab a beer inside, then hit Tim's drunken sauces and rubs out back for barbecue. Magic Square powers It all. It's easy to use, flexible for any kind of business, and intuitive from the jump. No long manuals, no tech guy required, just smooth sailing and smart tools that grow with you. Inventory, payroll, loyalty programs. They've got it all. Square keeps up so you don't have to slow down. Get everything you need to run and grow your business without any long term commitments. And why wait? Right now you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at square.com. go Brain. That's S Q U-A-R-E.com Go Brain. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. And our thanks to Square for sponsoring this episode. And you ever try to build a business website and wind up accidentally launching a slow motion dumpster fire? Yep, been there. That's why I love telling you about our sponsor, eversight. For just 3.99amonth, you get your own dedicated web team. No $10,000 upfront fees, no long term contracts, and absolutely no sorry, our ticket system is down. Excuses. Eversight actually picks up the phone, they reply to texts and if something breaks, they fix it before you even knew it was broken. They proactively manage hundreds of business sites so you can finally stop doing duct taping your digital presence and focus on growing your business like the entrepreneur you are. This is how we live the charmed life, folks, by surrounding ourselves with teams that actually deliver. And Shannon, you are a not just a podcaster who is sponsored by Eversight. You are a customer of theirs.

Yeah, they're incredible. Like you mentioned the team thing just last week. I'm like, hey guys, how do I need to set up a redirect? Because I want to do this to my mastermind or whatever. How do I do it? Is there a form? But I should have known. But I don't pay attention to that stuff as much. And they're like, no, no, just give us an. What do you want? Oh, I just wanted to do this. And literally like 20 minutes later, like, okay, it works. It's all set, you know? Yeah. And I can't tell you how valuable. I don't have to go do it in the domain console.

You don't have to learn how to do it.

Yeah. So it is, it is incredible what they offer, the value for the price point and it's just really, really good, people. I've been really happy.

That's amazing. You can go sign up and check it out@eversight.com BB and that way they know we sent you and that's good for all of us. So again, eversight.comb and our thanks to Eversight for sponsoring this episode. Are we still talking about fear next?

Shannon? I do. I want to talk about fear. Just one aspect of it. One of the things we talk about, decision making. And, you know, for your employees, do you want them to make a decision even if it's not the right one? And I came across a quote over the weekend that, you know, the main source of fear in our lives is the fear of. Of the unknown. And I think, Zach. Yeah, you know, I really think that's true. The fear of, you know, is this going to work? Am I putting these. What risk I'm taking? Will I be embarrassed? But it's all just because you don't know how it's going to work out, Right? And you know, and you don't get to know.

You get to predict based on information that you have and history and experience, all of that, which is great, but you don't get to know until you know.

Yeah. And I think the key. When I'm looking back on all decisions that I've made and the risks and all this kind of stuff, and certainly I've had fear. I have a massive fear of failure that drives me a lot. But I think I've conditioned my brain to just. That unknown is just part of it. So I'm not afraid of it. You know, I'm. I'm more curious about it. Like, will this work? You know, we're going to talk about apps, making apps on our Friday AI show on. On Friday usually, which you should definitely tune into. And it's like, okay, I started messing around with this thing. It's like, am I gonna just. I don't even know how it's gonna work. I'm gonna waste some time or whatever. But I'm curious.

I've gotta find out.

Yeah, I'm gonna find out. And. And, okay, I'm gonna start. It's just like, when we start, hey, we should do video. And my kids are like, dad, you guys got to do the video podcast. I was like, nobody wants to watch us. And I don't really feel comfortable being in front of the camera. And I realized it was fear of the unknown. You are. Maybe nobody will want to. Maybe I was right. Yeah, nobody would watch us. So I think just, you know, you're, You're. I posted about this this morning. You know, it's like you have to program your meat computer to know that, yes, the unknowns are welcome. It's okay, because the rewards can be fantastic. Often they're not Going to be very good. Right. That's just normal too. But if you start to get afraid of taking a risk or trying something new, oftentimes I have this thing where I have this thing like I'm chasing too many shiny objects, but I never would.

That's so unpredictable.

And, and, but I, you know, the more I, I get a lot of stuff going on and balls in the air and some of them work and some of them don't. I just like, you know, it's all right. I'm, I'm going to chase it. What? My time is my own. I can allocate it the way I need it and I'm just not going to be afraid of that. I'm just not going to be worried about it and I'm going to get more comfortable. You know, I, I've gotten more comfortable over the years experimenting and framing things as an experiment, which gives me kind of a, A side out if it, it's an out if it goes to. If it goes to hell when somebody says, hey, how'd that thing go? And like, ah, you know, it was a good experiment. I learned xyz, but it never took off.

Yeah. I didn't make any money from it. Okay, yeah, great.

Took off and, and so. But I learned this and I did that and you know, I mean, yeah. So, you know, just keep telling yourself that it, the unknowns is normal. You just work through it. Okay, how do I get through that? What's.

You know, I think feeding your curiosity is, and prioritizing your curiosity is a way to short circuit fear. Because, and, and, and, and I, that's what you're saying. I'm just trying to crystallize it a little bit here. But yeah, but yeah, short circuiting your fear by, by leaning in and embracing your curiosity, I think is a, a great, a great thing. You said something last week that I pre show or post show. You said, failure gives you data, fear gives you excuses. And I like, there you go.

Yeah.

And that's just a way of a brain hack. That's all that.

Yes, that's right. It's like you're going to learn something. And like I use this example. I tried to start a software business years ago, way before I remember. Yeah. And I put like, I don't know, a significant amount of money into it and it all went, it all went in the toilet. Didn't really work. And I learned a lot about one of the most important parts of, you know, an app or a service or whatever that I never even thought much about was like customer service. Huge, huge, huge part of it. That if you don't have set up right, you will fail miserably. But not only did I learn a lot, but I. It led me to write a best selling book.

Right.

Not about the experience, but I had all this content that I would creating for this software and I was like, well, now what do I do with it? And so I'm going to take it. I've always wanted to write a book. You and I hired coaches. A coach when we wanted to write a book. We both learned a lot and I was like, all right, I'm just going to do it. So yeah, getting, getting comfortable with that is, is a game changer. I think it has been for me.

You said that you have a fear of failure and I know we've had this conversation on the show before. I would like to offer a correction which you're welcome to refute. I don't think you have a fear of failure. I think like me, you have a fear of being perceived as a failure.

Yeah. Yes.

And those are two very different things.

Yeah, I also, yes, that's, it's a very good, that's good nuance to it. I also have this fear of inaction, inactivity in action. Like I, for better or worse, you know, I wake up and I'm like, okay, I gotta go. Yeah, let's go. I've got this, this and this and this. And I never feel better than when I have a full calendar and a full list of projects and I really don't ever want to wake up and be like, I have nothing to do today. That would be a horror. Horror for me. So, uh, so you get, you know, you figure out what works for you. You frame it the way you want. How do you deal with fear? Let us know so we can talk about it. Feedback@businessbrain.show. it's, it's, you know, we love talking about this stuff, but it's your show too. And share your story.

Please do. And also share your reviews. Businessbrain show slash review. We love getting reviews from you and we've got a couple to talk about. What did they get the next episode? They get entered into a drawing to win a MacBook this year.

So do it.

Absolutely. Thanks for hanging out with us. We'll see you on Friday.