Fearless or Foolish?

Business Brain, Episode 580 For Casual Friday, September 6 Fight Procrastination Day 2024.

Greetings.

Folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a couple of ideas, we tweak them, we analyze them, we tune them, we use them. Do we tune the ideas? We. Well, sometimes we use those ideas to tune our business brains too, so that we can each keep living those charmed lives here in Durham, New Hampshire.

I'm Dave Hamilton and I'm out here in Northern California. I'm Shannon Jean. Happy Friday, man.

Happy Friday. Happy Fight Procrastination day.

Yeah. That's interesting. We're going to do a show about procrastination because I've read some interesting arguments that lately that it's actually a good thing that forces you to cogitate longer and come up with certain actions. I don't, I haven't researched it enough to know whether it's not.

But this year I have been doing a lot of personal research on procrastination. I am a. I, I am a default procrastinator.

Yeah, so am I.

And, and I've learned, at least for myself, that the thing that fuels that procrastination is anxiety, not anything else. And it's. And, and, and, and stress. If I find that I have, I will procrastinate. Which is, which seems obvious. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I Woke up at 4 in the morning. Think last night thinking or this morning thinking of, okay, I gotta do this. I'm building this website for this person. I gotta do these action items for this client. I gotta do this or that. And there was just no way I was going back to sleep.

Yep.

It was. It's just I couldn't do it. Yep. And I realized the reason I bring it up is your point about when you have all this stuff stacked up and, you know, I don't have a great dashboard that I could look at.

For your life, you mean?

Yeah. Like in a web browser that would be like all my projects and timelines and every time I try to find something like that, it takes so much time to enter the data.

Yeah.

It's almost not worth doing.

Yeah. Capturing the data into those things is something I will procrastinate better than any other time.

Yeah. I'll start it and go, I'm not going to do that. This is ridiculous.

I wonder if, if, like, if I were to hire a virtual assistant to do that for me and I'm paying them to, you know, as one of their tasks to manage my dashboard, would I be more apt to Feed them that data and have them build that dashboard for me.

How would you feed it to them? Like talking like this?

Either talking or just when it comes up. Just firing off notes to them and being like, add this to the dashboard, add this and then maybe we meet for, for, you know, two hours a week to organize the dashboard. I don't know. Like that might.

I mean, I have a. I haven't tried it yet.

I can't say that.

Yeah, I have a great assistant that. She's my content manager. But eventually I think she will move up and be kind of the chief of staff type person. Yeah. And she picks out as we're meeting and does stuff. She does it. But we're still struggling. Like we were using Notion, which is an incredible platform and has all this great stuff. But I don't know that that is what I'm looking for in this kind of dashboard. So we're still looking for stuff. But I do like that idea. I know one content creator that has an hour meeting every day with a different person and they disseminate all that data and create content with it or take action otherwise with it. So you could try something like that. It could be kind of interesting.

Really. What I want is my, my device, whatever it is, to capture that stuff and, and make sense of it for me. We're not there yet. Like, we're getting close. The tech isn't there, but. But yeah, we're on the path. I.

Have you seen.

What I really want is Jane from Ender's Game.

Yeah, I know. Have, have you seen this product called Crush? Crush the Memory. Should check that out. That's interesting. It was, it was a Kickstarter and I, I spoke with the guy who's making it. He's made a bunch of other products, but it's basically a very small little dongle. It doesn't listen. You have to press the button. That's one of the differences between some of these new AIs that listen all the time.

Okay.

But takes action. Yeah. And it is. What I like about it is I'm often not in a position to grab my phone to create a note or whatever, this kind of thing. So this small device does it in a little different way. Number one, it's also waterproof or water resistant or whatever they call it now. So you can have it out everywhere. I just don't know whether I will carry a separate device.

But one more thing.

Yeah, it's one more thing, but it is small. I like how it's not listening all the time and I mean, and what is it. Is it. Is it 100 bucks or something like that?

Yeah, yeah. Somewhere in there.

Yeah, yeah. So it's a pretty. I mean, there's some different things.

You can get 95 bucks.

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, it's a pretty inexpensive experiment to jump into quasi AI type management.

It doesn't know enough the software. I want it to like, know about my calendar and my email.

I agree.

I think if, if we're going to have these things or this, this functionality, whether it's separate, it can't be a separate device. But you know, if it's.

Yes.

We also need to change our, our privacy laws.

Yeah, yeah.

So that the information that I give to this, you know, brain augmentation assistant, it can't be used against me. Not that.

Correct.

I just need it to remain private.

I. Yeah. Like that private cloud, right?

That's like.

Yeah, yeah. Limitless is another company that has. Is it Limitless? I think it is. But anyway, they have this thing, they're called the private cloud, where it's. It's totally encrypted and they can't even access it.

Yeah.

You know, that kind of thing. So I think you're right. I think we're getting there and for people like us, it's going to be amazing.

Game changer. You know, I came up with a. Found earlier today, a game changer. You know about Informed delivery with the postal service where you get an email every day.

Yeah. They scan. I didn't know this. That post service scans every envelope that runs through their system. And the Informed Delivery, they send you pictures of that. Right.

They'll send you pictures and you get a whole summary. Well, I love informed delivery. I have it. It's awesome. Most of the time I don't need to look at it because I'm going to see it in the mailbox later that day. Right. Like it's going to be there. But if we're looking for something in particular, whatever, it's nice to be able to wake up and say, okay, yeah, that's going to arrive today. Okay, things are good. We have a PO Box for the business. And in. Up until very recently, like today is the day I found out about it, I kept trying to get Informed Delivery active for my post office box and it was a no, no, no, no. Today I went in to ship something and print a label and it was like, hey, by the way, informed delivery is available for your PO Box for your business. I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

So I so now you can see whether you have to go down there to get it.

To go get it. That's the thing is we don't get a ton of mail there, but when we do, I want to go get it. So.

Yeah, I won't.

I can't see it yet. You know, it's the postal service, so there's a whole thing. They're going to mail me something to the P.O. box in three to seven days that has a code in it that I got to go type into the website. They won't tell me when that's in the P.O. box, though. I have to go figure that out.

Yeah, we use it at our house because our house is up on a hill. And the mailboxes, there's like three houses on this road.

Sure.

And the mailboxes are all out, you know, way down the road. So you can. Oh, do I need to go? We. I think we go down there once or pick it up once or twice a week.

Yeah.

But when you get that, like this morning Renee pointed out, oh, this thing showed up. I'll go pick it up.

I'll go get it. Yeah, it's great. No, it's great. I did notice I have several USPS accounts, couple for the different businesses and then a personal one. And then I also created a personal one for the P.O. box. And that one won't let me subscribe. It has to be a business account tied to a P.O. box. The personal account without a business tied to it won't let me do informed delivery yet. But hey, you know, baby steps.

At least take what you can. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's great. Hey, so we had a guy. We've, we've mentioned this guy on the show. I think he was like, I don't know, in the first couple hundred episodes that we've done.

Yeah.

Brian Fris.

Yes.

And he made this comment that really resonated with both Dave and I. We. And I've, I've mentioned it, you know, hundreds of times. Yeah. Countless times. And it was first he said, which I really respected. Is it, hey, we're all afraid. And I, and I thought, that's pretty good. You know, it's a natural response. And yes. And. But then he followed up with like, you know, but we have to learn not to make fear based decisions. And I just remember thinking, man, that's such a powerful piece of advice. If you can stop yourself in the moment and be self aware.

Yes.

But you have a different take on it a little bit. That may be the counter to That.

I heard myself say something this week. And what I said was, I'm concerned about that. And I sort of stopped and thought, okay. Like, that's okay. Obviously, there are things that are going to go well, and there are things that are not going to go well, and it's like, you know, it happens. But what I noticed was, as I said, I'm concerned about. That was like, all right, now let's come up with ways to address and avoid the scenario that might come to pass if we were to leave things on autopilot, for example. Right. So that concern was a productive thing. What I didn't say and what I noticed that I didn't say was, I'm afraid about that. So it's the concern versus fear. Now, I think concern is. I think it's a version of fear, right? Yeah, they're very related, certainly. But, you know, there's degrees of being afraid. And the concern felt like a productive version of fear. I mean, fear is meant to protect us, right?

It is fear.

Fear is meant to keep us from being eaten by a lion. Right. Like, that's where it is at our core. And that's super helpful and very necessary. Most of us will never encounter a lion. And so I also have this thing. Let me. I'm getting there.

Yes.

I had an issue five years ago. It doesn't matter where I fell. And I wound up bruising my diaphragm.

Okay.

And this was an immense amount of pain. Like, I could either talk or sit down or stand up. I couldn't do both. Right. I couldn't stand and talk. Right. And I remember. And it only lasted for about a day, the severe pain from it. But I was on my couch and I knew that I had to sneeze.

Oh.

And I wasn't. Or a cough or something. I think it was a sneeze. And so I like, tucked. I tucked myself into a ball, thinking I'm either going to pass out or throw up when I cough or sneeze or whatever's gonna happen here. But I'm not in control of that. Right. And so I prepared for this. And I sneezed or coughed or whatever it was I had to do. And I didn't pass out, nor did I vomit. And I thought in that moment, okay, I still. Even though this is the most pain I've ever been in in my life, I still haven't hit 10 on the 1 to 10 pain scale. Right. Because 10 would be the moment where your body sort of takes over.

Yeah.

Right. You know, but it didn't since that moment, I have realized that my relationship to pain has fundamentally changed. Things that I thought were painful before that moment don't register as being all that painful. And it's because my brain didn't know what my body was capable of. And it still doesn't know. I, that if, like, I could say that that was a nine that day, but maybe it was a seven. Maybe I can take even more. Right. Like, I don't know. And so, but I, I do know. I never remember joking to my wife in that moment. It's like, you know, if I've ever answered higher than a 3 or a 4 on those 1 to 10 scales, I'm going to need those pages back and correct them.

Yeah.

Because I never experienced anything like this.

And it's a new baseline.

It's a new baseline. And I think fear works the same way because we have not experienced. I have not experienced being chased by a lion and literally fearing for my life in that moment. I don't have that, that I don't know what I, what, what amount of fear I am capable of. And because of that, these amounts of fear that I do experience seem larger than they probably are.

Sure. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Your million dollar mistake. Right. Like, yeah. You aren't afraid of that kind of thing anymore because you nap. I mean, you aren't as afraid.

Yes.

Of that kind of thing anymore because.

You got to the other side.

Got to the other side. You survived it. And there's these things that as we, as we have experience and as we have failures, we learn, oh, we don't have to be as afraid. And we, and I think that's why I noticed when I said, oh, I'm concerned about this. I'm not. And it was like, oh, you know, 10 years ago I might have actually been like, actually afraid of this. But it's like, oh, no, I've learned that this is going to be okay. And, and you know, but we have to address it. We can't ignore it.

Yeah, sure.

But we can address. It's manageable. It's like you're, we can solve problems with more sales thing. It's like you, you, you say that because you've done it.

Yeah, that's right. For me. I often, I have a couple of comments. One is the trick I use in my head is I often think about what hap. Right after it happens.

Yeah.

Where will I be? It's, it's. I'm, I'm going to whatever. I'm speaking in front of 500 people today. Yeah, that's not the most comfortable thing. But you know what? By 4 o', clock, I'll be driving back home.

Yes.

And it'll be done. And I'll be chilling, I'll relax and come home.

So I do the same thing. Like when I'm gonna, when I'm about to do something, I say, well, yeah, in 90 minutes this will have ended.

That's exactly right.

Not, it will be over, it will have ended. Those are the words I say. And it's like, well, yeah, it helps. Okay.

It helps whether you're going to do a meeting, an interview, whatever it is. And the other thing, you know, that I think about fears, like I, I have a significant fear of failure. And so that does get me to make decisions based on that. But it's on the flip side, right? It doesn't hold me back. It pushes me forward because, you know, for years when I used to drive to work in the morning, there was this guy, homeless guy on the side at the 7:11 on the side of the road. And we were going to my warehouse. And over the years I just kind of saw his condition. You know, it's rough living on the street, right? This guy looked this and everything, man, I thought, boy, that could be me, man, if I had made some, you know, bad decisions or if I took my foot off the gas. And, you know, I really value the life that I've, I've lived. I mean, there's no doubt about it, but it's taken a tremendous amount of work. Thankfully, I enjoy that work. But I still to this day have this. It motivates me every day. I have this fear of failure. I don't want to fail. I have this new thing. You're not watching it or if you're not watching this, but I got this. You're not going to be able to see that, but I'll read it to you.

It looks like a fortune. From a fortune.

Yeah. You will soon embark on a lucrative business venture. And I'm just like, oh, great, here we go again.

Here we go, here we go again. Yep.

And. And I love it because it's that.

It'S that abundance mindset.

Yeah.

There's enough out there for all of us.

Oh, the pie is infinite. Yes. And, and you can just keep slicing it up and developing something else. Keep building, building, building. And so, you know, I, I don't make fear based decisions in the sense that, oh, I'm afraid something bad will happen or whatever, but I do make fear based decisions of. Man, I got to get Up. I got to hustle. And I've. Yes, I've achieved some stuff in my life and at some level, but there's a lot more I want to do, and I, I constantly tell myself, everything you want is right on the other side of taking that action.

Yes. Do you, do you find it Because I'm like you, I fear it drives me. The, the fear of failure as a permanent state drives.

Yes. Oh, my.

Right. Like the fear of magic. The fear of failing.

No, I fail all the time, but.

But that's different than failing, like, in my mind, to be failure, to be the fear of being a failure. That's the thing that drives me.

Yeah. I don't. You know, I will always admit everybody's like, oh, you shouldn't think. Care what people think. I care what people think. I can't not care what people think. I'm sorry. Especially my wife and my kids, so my mom, you know, the people that matter to you. You care what people all around me. I want to be seen as a success. Who doesn't? And so this concept, if, If I failed in some huge negative way and could not recover, that's what allowed me to build, Continue to build my company as I paid back a million dollars from a massive mistake that I made. So that fear is, it's, it's powerful, man. I feel it in my gut.

That's, that's the thing that drives me every day, is the fear of being a failure, not the fear of failing.

Not. Yeah. A fear of being a failure. Yeah.

Yeah. As a, As a, As a permanent state. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. Do you find.

I was going to ask. Do you find yourself ever fearing success?

I never worried about stuff until I was super. I would consider very successful. Yeah. I felt rich my whole life when I had a pickup truck and my wife were young and, man, I was, and I was working for myself. I was like, nobody told me it could be this good.

I know.

Nobody.

I remember when I first made, like, 60 grand a year or something.

Dude, you're killing it.

I was killing it. I, I, I had everything I wanted. Yep. Yep.

That's right. Everything. And so I've always felt rich and wealthy and this kind of stuff because I've lived that kind of a life.

Is that abundance mindset, man.

Yeah, I, Yeah. And, But I, I never worried about money until I had it. Then I was like, what if I lose it? What if I lose? And I was like, that's stupid. So that was one of the reasons why, when we had big revenue events, we always Got rid of that. It never sat in where I had my accident. I would go buy some assets. Yeah, buy. Buy another rental. Invest in the thing. Put it with the investment advisor. Don't even look at it because I. I don't want to look in the bank. I think it gives you that it's easy to get complacent when you're looking at a lot of money. And it's easy to spend a lot of money because you're like, oh, I can afford that.

Yeah. Any amount can be a lot of money. Right. It doesn't matter. Of course. It's all relative. Yes.

I get excited when I get a hundred dollar bill. Are you kidding me? Totally. That way, you know, my wife's like, oh, just sold a pair of shoes, made 50 bucks. I'm like, dude, that is awesome.

Yep. No, I felt great walking out of these gigs this weekend. I actually got paid in cash the first time.

That's amazing.

I know.

Sweet.

There was one gig where the band leader was paying us in front. It was a private party at a campground. It was awesome. The gig went great. I had forgotten what the total number was that the band was being paid. I know that I was told it initially, everything's transparent. But he divvied up the money and handed it to each of the. There's four people in the band. So he handed the three of us our share. And he. But the, like, the people who. Who hired us were standing right there. And so he didn't go through, in detail, of course, what the breakdown was, for obvious reasons. And so he handed. He just handed it each to us. He's like, yeah, I divvied it up. He's like, I took rent from rehearsal space out of it. And he's like, you'll. It'll. It's all fine. And it's like, okay, great. Yeah, no problem. And I put it in my pocket. And so I was putting in my pocket, I was like, this is only like four. Four bills. Like that seems like I thought. And I saw one of them. I saw it was, you know, a pile of 20s. I'm like, it's only 80 bucks. Okay. Like, whatever. Sure. I get to my car and I pull it out of my pocket. I'm like, oh, no, it's way more than 80 bucks.

Oh, that's good. That's pretty funny.

Yeah, but it was. It was like, you know, I had fun. 80 bucks, whatever. Like, that's fine. Great.

Sure.

No problem. And I look at the car. It's like, oh, bonus.

Yeah, yeah, that's cool. That's a great. It's that abundance. It's like. And I think that that abundance framework also, I think it just makes you feel valuable. Right? I. Everybody wants to feel valuable, have purpose, all that kind of stuff. But when like I love giving away information. I love doing this show. I mean, yeah, we have sponsors, you know, from time to time. UC haven't had a few lately, but I know we have some been tight, but yeah, you know, yeah, Q4 coming around. But I, I never wanted to do this to make money. You know, it was like I just want to come on and talk. And number one, validate are these things. I mean we've been doing this for 10 years. So is this stuff real? Is it true or am I. What am I missing? That's why we always ask you, the.

Listeners, what are we missing?

Did we get it wrong? You know, send a feedback at BusinessBrain Show. Tell us, help us. And I, I always comment. I learned the most on this show and a lot of it is thesis and ideas and concepts that I want.

To focus on it. You know, it's, it's. We talk about. There's the whole concept of working in your business versus on.

That's right.

This is on. This is the working on part of the working on your business.

I used to, I used to record this show in my office at Tech Restore. I would close my door as a guy and I put that recording on and so I would stop and at that time we were doing hour long shows and we would just talk about business for an hour. It really helped me reset, kind of think about all this stuff. So. No, it's cool. I definitely appreciate it. So.

Yep.

So I'd love to hear what you folks have to say about this. You know, fear managing it for good and bad and everything else. Feedback at BusinessBrain Show. Or you can come up on X and send us a DM Bizbrain show. Is the our X. Yeah.

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