Just In Time Mania + Imposter Syndrome

Business Brain, episode 513 for Casual Friday, January 5, 2024. Greetings, folks and happy New Year. Welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a topic or two, sometimes three, maybe even four, we crunch it, we dissect it, we analyze it, we discuss it so that all of us, me, him, all of you, each one of us gets to tune our business brains every single time we get together. Sponsors for this episode include gusto.com businessbrain. That's where you're gonna go to get three months of payroll, benefits, admin, and more. Totally free. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire.

I'm Dave Hamilton and I'm back in Lafayette after. Excuse me, Dave. A great holiday, New Year's up at Lake Tahoe. And we're. I'm ready to start killing it for 2024.

Nice. That's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm moving a little slow this week, trying to get back in the swing things after being away. And I feel like I've been managing holiday stuff since like Thanksgiving, but.

Well, yeah, I kind of wanted to talk about that today because I feel like you're probably right that for me as well, this has been going on since Thanksgiving. But certainly the last three weeks for me have felt like I haven't had a full week of doing things correct. And. And next week I'm not. Well, on Saturday I'm flying to Las Vegas for Cesar and I'm there until like Thursday or something. So I feel my life has felt like I've been living this just in time mania. You know, they've got just in time delivery and all those things just in time manufacturing and sourcing. I've been living my life by just in time operation. I get things done right before they need to be done. And it's not because I'm procrastinating. And don't let me fool you, I am still a world class procrastinator and it's something I intend to work on at some point, but I'm procrastinating that too, because I've got other things to do. But this hasn't been procrastination. This has just been, well, what do I have on deck today? What do I need to be ready for tomorrow? And let's go, let's just run, run, run, run, run. And I haven't had a full Monday through Friday. Like I would normally have to sort of pace out my week. But all the same things, kind of all my weekly deliverables like recording this show and recording my other shows. Those have all needed to happen. And then this week, it's been a short week after. A short week last week.

Yes.

And a short week the week before. Right. But this is a short week while I'm preparing to do to be Away.

Which have another short week.

Yeah. Which screws me up. We're recording multiple episodes of this show today. I've got to record, you know, different things for my other shows, and so it's been nuts. I didn't think I would get. We record our Mac Geek podcast on Friday mornings. Last week, I did not think that I would get it done in time. Like, I thought I was going to have to, like, you know, pull a late night to do it, which is fine. I'm not against that. But it's just kind of like, well, I. That can happen. So. Great. And then today I thought the same thing. I was like, nope. Actually, it turns out I'm ready to go, so. Okay, good. I get the night quote unquote off, which means I get to sit and watch the Bruins with my wife with my laptop in my hand, probably doing other things, but, you know, never, because.

One screen rarely suffices anymore.

I'm trying to be better about that at times. Yeah, but you're right. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. It's a challenge.

I'm not happy about it either, but, you know, we always talk about we don't have a lot of freedom, but. Because we're constantly working, but we have a ton of flexibility.

Flexibility.

Yeah. So that's part of the. It's a blessing and a curse in the sense that you're. Maybe you're always dipping in and managing things on one screen or another. But.

Yeah, but it's been a little bit. It's been a little stressful for me because I know, like, things will pop into my head. Like, oh, I've got to coordinate. For example, I got to coordinate with my co host of Matt Geekab, who's going to CES with me, and it turns out we are on the same flight out. So it's like, oh, shoot, I got to coordinate with him. We should probably go to the airport together. But crap, like, if I get into a chat with him, that's going to derail me from doing these other things. So when am I going to squeeze that in? Like, these kinds of things, they're like. So I've been, like, stressed about that kind of stuff, the things that pop into my head. Cause I'm, you know, I've Never been diagnosed as ADHD or any of those things. But I resemble this remark, you know, like, I recognize these habits. And so it's like, well, I know if I get distracted by that a lot of times that's a good thing. Like, I like you. I kind of let that fuel parts of my day. I have to be very careful these last three weeks about I, how far off course I let myself drift when I know I have certain deliverables that I've got to hit by certain times.

It is a challenge because that drifting you mentioned is. I think that's really important.

It's a superpower.

I think it is a superpower and being able to move. But if you can't look at your to did list, and if you don't know what that is, go to business brain and look it up. If you look at your to did list at the end of the day and you're like, wow, maybe I drifted a little too far.

Too much.

Yeah, too much.

Exactly.

I have that. And we're going to talk about this in a few minutes as we get into another discussion about imposter syndrome. But I'm kind of going through that too now because I'm shifting businesses away from quickly, measurable success and many items I'm shipping each day to much longer, you know, results and a success cycle. And it's challenging.

I like that term, success cycle. Yes.

You can use it. You can use it. That's okay.

I will. I'll credit you the first few times, and then it'll just become mine. It's totally all right. Yeah. All right. So this has been. It's just been interesting and I've been productive, but it's been a learning experience because I've had to be more aware of how much freedom I'm giving myself to do those drifting versus, like, bringing myself back to, nope, I gotta grind this out. So it's. Self management is really, you know, the term, for lack of a better one. But it's been enlightening. It's been stressful, as I said, but it's also been. It has given me more confidence in my ability to get things, in my belief in myself of getting things done, which I always find is true when my time is compressed or limited or whatever term you want to use. So when I have meetings at certain points in the day, I'm far more productive in between them because I have to be.

Because you're pushed. It's why everybody does. It's like when you're a kid, you don't do the report till the night before. It's the same concept.

Yeah. I have been living at the last minute for the last three weeks, but not because I've been like, kicking the can down the road and doing fun things or whatever. Everything I do is kind of fun in its own way, but it's different than my normal brand of procrastination. Maybe that's a better way to say it.

And you go to Vegas, it'll be calm. Next week it'd be, oh, sure.

And I'm sure I'll come back without any, like RSV or flu or whatever, you know, I'm sure I'll come back super healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is a. Well, maybe I'll share that in another episode because it's a whole other thing. But, but remind me someday to share Dr. Flash Gordon's monkey poop mindset. Yes. Yeah. Because it, it's, it's smart. What I want to do right now is talk about our sponsor. And instead of reading a script about our sponsor Gusto's payroll and benefits and all that, I want to tell you what other small business owners say, the people who use Gusto every day. So here's one from a Gusto customer says, with Gusto, I think of payroll as a 32nd job. Boy, does that fit this episode. Right? Their website is so friendly and a joy to use. Right? Friendly payroll, 32nd job. We don't hear that every day when we're talking about payroll. Right. You know, Tom says, Tom S Says Gusto has allowed my small company to offer big time benefits without an HR department. I like that. Like, that's that. That I like. Laura L. Says with Gusto, even my employees are impressed with how easy their new hire paperwork is. Brian L. Says, Gusto is super simple and easy to use. I've used multiple other payroll processes and there's nothing like this out there. Right? So the list goes on and on. You know, Amneet says whenever something comes up, I reach out. And literally 24 hours later, Gusto support team tells us what to do or assures us that they've already handled it for, for us Right. Friendly humans. It's amazing. You gotta check this out. And right now, because you are a listener of business brain, you get three months free when you go to Gusto.com businessbrain yep, this is three months of payroll, benefits, admin, and more. Totally free. And again, that's Gusto.com BusinessBrain and our sincere thanks to Gusto for sponsoring this episode. So, Shannon, what's on Your mind. I shared my mania. What's, what's. Let's do a little business. We're already in business therapy.

Clearly we are in business therapy. We could have called the show business therapy, but we didn't. So we talked about four months ago or so about some, you know, imposter syndrome and some ways to get around it. But as I mentioned in the first half of the show, I'm in this transition of getting away. You know, if I pull this off, which I think I can.

I know you this.

Yes, yes, I know I can. Thank you. This will be the first time in almost 30 years that I have not owned a company that shipped products every single day. Right, okay. And that's been a really important, you know, rubric for me. I love that word. To measure. Did I have a good day? You know, did we ship a lot? What was the numbers and all this kind of stuff? And I'm forced.

So if you were to have four rubrics, though, would that be rubrics? Cubed.

Cube. That's why they did that. Of course. And so.

Sorry.

No, no, it's good, it's good.

My ADHD needs somewhere to go after I've kept it at bay for a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so trying to figure out, to shift away from this system that has really served me well. I think it's, it's, it's been awesome. But I'm in a different time. I don't want to be geographically constrained and I want to be able to operate from different locations, obviously, as that means. And so shifting in this and focusing on a whole nother. My, my business skills and getting it. It's. I keep running. I even have a hard time talking about it up against this imposter syndrome wall of. Oh, wow. You know, one minute I'm like, okay, yeah, I can. I got all this great stuff and I'm going to share this and I'm. It's going to work out great. I'm going to be able to help a lot of people. And the other part's like, well, I'm just not really. Maybe I don't know this. And, and part of the problem, I can tell you, is being on social media platforms like on X, which I'm, I'm spend a lot of my time on now, growing and getting. I'm trying to grow my fans, not necessarily followers. Okay. Yeah, but you're surrounded by people that appear to be just killing it, right?

Oh, yeah. Well, social media is the highlight reel, so.

Highlight reel.

Yeah.

And so I, I'm constantly telling that, but when I mentioned that to you before we started recording, you said, oh, I've got a, A, a way that might help, you know, keep, keep that in check. And I'd love to hear any feedback that you have on this imposter syndrome beast.

Well, so I suffer imposter syndrome. I feel like I suffer it more than anybody else, but that's. Cause everybody else just shares their highlight reels. And I get that. I know that it's not just me, but it certainly feels that way. And when it feels that way, logic often doesn't help to dispel that myth. Right. Like, everybody at some level experiences imposter syndrome. It's. How do you deal with it? And I will say that what I described in the first segment of this show has really helped me with my imposter syndrome, because I haven't felt that way for about the last three weeks.

Is that because you have so much stuff packed in?

Correct. No time to stop and look at what everyone else is doing and feel like I'm missing out. The only person, like, in terms of business, the only businesses I've been looking at are mine because I don't have time to just, you know, I don't have time to scroll social media and be like, yeah, look, that guy's killing it.

Yeah. And that's the main.

It's not just social media. It's. No, it's. I'm just. I don't have time to stop and second guess myself.

Second guess yourself. That's right.

That's really what it. And social media gives us not just the time and opportunity, but fuel with which to second guess ourselves. But it's not the only fuel. And I can stay away from social media and still second guess myself into a corner. I just have not had time with that and, And I've caught myself in little moments. I did a. Actually, I did two theater shows last week. I did seven performances in seven days. Yeah. Which was great, except, you know, I had all this other stuff going on too, so. Added fuel to this particular fire. But it, you know, like. And it's the theater shows I did. One of them is, is a show called Hedwig and the Angry Inch where the bands on stage and the band is actually playing the role of a band. And so we're singing harmonies with these people. I sing fine. I know that I sing fine. Especially when I'm singing harmonies. I'm great at it. I have a lot of confidence with it, except for when I'm on stage with theater people who are like, trained really good and really freaking good. Right. Like, there's no world where I'm nearly as good of a singer as any of the other people on stage. Right. And I remember a few moments, like driving home one night, I was like, oh, man, you know, I don't know what, I wonder what those people think, like having to sing with, you know, Hack Dave, you know, and then it's like, well, I know how they respond to me and I've known these people for a while. They would tell me if there was a problem and I would even. I would be able to intuit it from them. It's not them, it's me putting this in my head. But it lasted for all of about 12 minutes, you know, during a ride home. And then it had to leave my head because I didn't have time for it anymore.

Yeah, I like that.

So packing your. Don't give yourself the opportunity to second guess yourself. I like that too much. Some of it's good.

And I'm also going to put some more effort into how to help people that have it. Because if I have it, ah, after starting, you know, 10 different companies, it's our ninth year. This podcast, crazy. All the sponsors. I mean, if I have it, certainly many, many other people have it.

And yes, so you're in, in terms of like, people who are able to be successful entrepreneurs. And I don't necessarily mean you got to earn millions or billions of dollars, but you can support yourself and your family with a business that you birthed on your own and you've done it more than once. Like that puts you not just in the 1%, like that's 1/10 of 1% of the population. And if you and I'm the same way, right? Like if we are feeling imposter syndrome ever, then we know that everybody else is too.

Yeah. And a big part of it, I think, is I spent the last 25 years pumping up teams of people, talking up how great we are, talking up how great our services are, how great our product is, how good our customer service is. And now I'm having to shift to, you know, talk about how good I am. And you're like, oh, that's different. That's kind of gets me kind of itchy.

You know what? I didn't even realize until this moment. In the last week, I have recorded three episodes of Gig Gab, one of the other shows I do talked about it here that my co host was leaving as of the end of the year. I've done three episodes without him. The first of them was me solo. I've done a solo podcast and I loved it. I've done two other episodes, one of which is out at this moment in time. The other one will come out Monday with guests. And they went swimmingly. Up until right now, it didn't even dawn on me that I should feel like an imposter for doing this thing that I've literally never done before. Don't feel that way. But I didn't feel that way because I haven't had a moment to breathe. Yikes.

I like it. So stacking up your, you know, keeping yourself busy.

Yeah.

And, and also, like, for me, I'm going to go write an article about this and come up with some systems that I can share with others that might be going through the same thing.

We'll share those tips here on the show too, man. Because I'm going to.

Because that helps me. And I know, like I said, I just know if I feel it, it's gotta be out there everywhere.

Share with us FeedbackUsBrain Show Are you feeling imposter syndrome? Do you have trick? What tricks work for you, either intentionally or unintentionally, to help avoid imposter syndrome or at least mitigate imposter syndrome. That's going to be a fun little word because we've got something else next week we're talking about mitigating. Yes, mitigate. I need a. I need to have a new mitigation system installed.

Shannon.

Thanks.

Thanks for listening to me. Remember, this is business brain, all of our business brains, helping each other figure stuff out. That includes me and Dave as well.

Thanks for hanging out with us, folks. Check out gusto.com businessbrain and have a great weekend. Keep on living that charmed life.