Steve Jobs, Rick Rubin, Good Taste and Imposter Syndrome

Business brain episode 457 for Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show by, for and about entrepreneurs. It's also the show where we are not the business brains. We are here to. To take things in our lives and in your lives and run them through our collective business brains to get a different perspective on them, learn a little bit, and keep on living that charmed life. Sponsors for this episode include Checker, C H e c k r.com businessbrain where you can save 40 bucks off your first background check, and factor meals.com brain50, where you use code brain50 to get 50% off your first box. We'll talk more in depth about each of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out here in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean, covering business brain ideas from coast to coast.

Pretty much coast to coast. It's true in either direction.

Like that? Yeah, like that. ZZ Top.

Yeah, that's right.

Nationwide, we're bad. We're nationwide, we'll say.

Well, nationwide narrows it down to just the U.S. but if we say coast to coast, it could be between the west coast and the east coast, inclusive of the US or it could be between the west coast coast. The other way around. Yeah, man, I like it. Yeah. Westbound around. Yup. Hey, so we have. I don't know which one of these things. I'll let you start. I don't know which one of these things we have on deck that you want to talk about first, Shannon.

Yeah, I want to talk about taste and whether understanding if you have it, good taste or. And what you do if you don't. And also having the strength to believe in it, that it's not a matter of right or wrong. And. And you know, you and I have been discussing a tweet by a guy I followed. I don't know how to pronounce his name. Trung fan, I guess. And he talked about tied Steve Jobs and. And Rick Rubin together in this concept of taste.

If you took those two guys and put them next to each other, you would probably say they have nothing to do with each other. But if you learned even just a little bit about each of them, you would very quickly see that they are both people who have used taste in their lives. Steve Jobs, I probably don't need to say it, but started Apple and then Pixar and Next and all of that stuff, and was a genius marketer and a good product person. Uh, and I realize I'M probably understating some of that. Uh, sure. And then Rick Rubin is a record producer, by and large, and is someone. He's. I mean, he. He did the Beastie Boys in the. In Run DMC in the early days. He did Aerosmith and Red Hot Chili Peppers and lots of. Lots. Lots and lots of other ones. Yeah. Yeah. That you've heard.

You've heard his music.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I love his. The way he. He's not a musician. He doesn't play an instrument. He doesn't use the soundboard that a lot of producers doesn't manage much of that. He calls himself a professional fan.

Yeah.

And he believes in his taste. And this commitment is what really impresses me. And I, I just. Yeah, it's the stick to itiveness of, oh, this is. I. I like this. I'm going to push and going to push and push and get the best out of you, the most creative out of you. So.

Yeah, I think that's terrific.

And I think it's worth talking about on a business level.

Yeah. He says look for what you notice, but no one else sees.

Oh, I love that.

And I found that really interesting. Yeah. Like, you know, he says, the confidence I have in my taste and my ability to express what I feel has proven helpful for artists. Again, I think he's underselling himself a little bit. I do, too. Yes. You know, but that's okay. I mean, that's okay. Humility is not a bad trait, but it's. It's a really, like. It's an interesting thing. And you say that there's no right or wrong with taste. That is true. Your taste is your taste. The question that you need to answer and then become confident, sort of believing is whether or not your taste is valuable to other people and. And perhaps even asking, how can my taste be valuable to other people? Because I think there's probably a world where that that is true for every one of us, that there's some way to implement and utilize our own sense of taste to. Even if you have. Even if you find that you have terrible taste. Well, okay, trust that then. And know that if you like something, don't market that. Right. Like, that may be a bad thing to market to. Like, I don't know.

You can go the opposite way.

You can go the opposite way. Right. Like, you know, and using that. But being confident in where your taste falls and then sticking with that is one of the, One of the things I took away from. From reading this article, but also just, you know, following Rick Rubin and Steve Jobs as well. So. Yeah, yeah.

And one thing is, you pointed this out is he's. Jobs makes, you know, made the comment your. Your taste gets more refined as you make mistakes. And he says, I've had a chance to make a lot of mistakes. And, you know, maybe by happens. Yeah, yeah, maybe by happenstance, we've focused on mistakes on the show. We wrote a guide, you know, that you can find up at businessbrain show all about mistakes and why we like them and we think of them as tuition. And I would say, like you sticking with the Steve Jobs example, in the beginning, yes, he may have had great taste, but it was. He couldn't couple that with. What's the word I'm looking for? I want to say empathy, but not quite there. That's not quite the right word. But he wasn't as successful until he grew as a person, as a business owner and came back to Apple.

Yeah, he was successful before he was fired from Apple. I mean, by almost anyone's definition of certainly financial success, obviously he was fine. He didn't need to earn money and didn't for a long time. He wound up pouring a lot of his money into Next and Pixar, keeping those companies alive. But he trusted that they could do great things. And then, yeah, when he came back to Apple, he had grown. He had learned how to run a company and largely because he'd been fired from Apple and they told him, you can't do this. You're not the right guy. And so he went and made himself the right guy. Yeah, yeah.

And so I would say that, you know, as, you know, using our business brain here as business owners, if, if we're just getting started, you know what that confidence level, because you do have to be very confident, even confident. Point to the point where, like, well, if I screw up, I'm going to learn from this.

Right.

And. And so that's why I think we always harp on that over and over. You have to make a decision. You can't be paralyzed or, you know, otherwise you just are. You won't make it. So make the best decision you can, and whether that's related to what you think is good taste or not. And if you don't have good taste, maybe you can surround yourself.

Absolutely, yeah. Find someone that has it. I think one fine example of this was a practice that Apple took, especially when Steve was there and I think specifically did not take when Steve wasn't there, was. They never did market research, they never polled consumers, and Steve had a very pithy quote that he said often, I've heard him say this, where he said that sums all this up. He says people don't know what they want until you show it to them. All right, look. Now that it's summer, you might be looking for wholesome, convenient meals for sunny active days. Factor, our sponsor and America's number one ready to eat meal kit, can help you fuel up fast with flavorful and nutritious ready to eat meals delivered straight to your door. You'll save time, you'll eat well and you'll stay on track. Lisa and I have used Factor a lot recently. It is fantastic because you get these meals that, that are good for you, but you get to skip the trip to the grocery store, skip the chopping, the prepping, the cleaning up too while getting all the rest of that. Because factors fresh, never frozen meals are ready in just two minutes. Literally two minutes. All you have to do is heat and enjoy and then you can get back to whatever you're doing. Get back outside, soak up the warm weather. You can elevate what you're eating at home with new upscale things like surf and turf and surf and surf meal options like roasted garlic filet mignon and shrimp and Cajun spice shrimp and salmon. They've got over 34 chef prepared dietitian approved weekly options. You gotta go check this out. Head to FactorMeals.comBrain50 and use code Brain50 to get 50% off your first box. That's code Brain50@FactOrMeals.com Brain50 to get 50% off YOUR first box. And our thanks to the folks at Factor for sponsoring this episode. And speaking of eating out, there are times where it makes sense to use your business brain to go eat at a restaurant. I like to meet with potential new hires for lunch. Watching them interact with the wait staff tells me what kind of person they are. Well, if meeting face to face isn't an option, you're hiring somebody remotely. Our sponsor Checker is here for you. Because Checker provides fast and fair background checks and can help see the things that we can't. Checker makes it easy to get fast, comprehensive results so you can hire with confidence. Just sign up, select a package and start a background check. It's that simple. Checker's advanced tech and proprietary Data Network deliver 98% of nationwide criminal checks within one hour. And they've got built in tools to help you stay compliant with the FCRA and local laws. Best of all, Checkr is commitment free with affordable pay as you go pricing I love this. It's super customizable to fit your small businesses needs. Take the guesswork out of the hiring process. Sign up for Checkr today. Right now, Checkr is offering our listeners $40 off your first background check. Visit our special URL to save $40. Checker.com businessbrain that's the word check. Then the letter r.com businessbrain C-H-E-C k r.com businessbrain and our thanks to the folks at Checker for sponsoring this episode. All right. Hey, Shannon, I got a question for you.

Yes, sir.

Are you the. Are you speaking about confidence? Are you confident that you are like an expert in your field? You're always the right person to be running your businesses. You deserve all the success that you've had and all that stuff? Yeah, no.

No. Absolutely. Absolutely not. You know what's funny is it, it's that I can answer that question, but it's kind of situational.

Sure.

And what I mean by that is if I'm talking with someone and it's a topic I'm comfortable with, something I've been involved with, you know. Yeah. I'm confident that, oh, I've done that.

I.

These are things I've done, yada, yada, yada. But I often, especially now, you know, we're. We're working on some new things here for business brains. Some tutorials and video stuff. And I don't know what it is, but I have this great sense of imposter syndrome when I'm doing a tutorial. And one of the only differences is we're doing video and I see myself and I wonder if that's it where I. You looking at yourself. And I'm trying to do this tutorial. I'm like, am I really the best person to be doing this?

Sure.

And it's. I can look back and there's many times in my life where I've had imposter syndrome. It's pretty common. Um, you have some level of success and, and it's often. It's easy for me in my head, even though I work hard against this, to discount that success.

Oh.

Like, well, I was in the right place at the right time.

Yeah.

You know, this kind of thing.

Oh, I. Yeah, same. I, you know, I, I mean, I've. I've been fortunate, probably. Obviously, you know, and I've had some success. I've had some failures, too. Anytime I have. And let me say this too, for everybody listening. Success is not linear. You will have periods. And I'm talking About financial success specifically. But I think this is probably true of anything where you'll have periods. You grow business, you do a thing or whatever, you get it to a point where it's making some money, you've got profits kicking off. This is not like the world isn't out there guaranteeing that this is going to continue for you. What I can guarantee you is it will not. Right. Like things are cyclical. You will have periods of. Even in the same business, you'll have periods where it's up and you've got lots of, you know, cash flow and extra profits and all that. And then you'll have periods where it's down and, you know, you're not making any money, but your employees are still making money. You know, like that. That sort of thing happens all the time. In fact, it's the norm. But when it doesn't matter how many times, at least thus far, it doesn't matter how many times. I've been through that up and down. When it goes down, I think, oh, yeah, well, that just, that last round of, of success was just, that was a fluke. I didn't deserve that. That wasn't, I didn't cause that to happen. It's not even that I don't deserve it. It's. It's that I, I wasn't like, I wasn't responsible for it. So I don't think I can do it again. I don't know what to do now. And it's ridiculous. Like, I've had thoughts ridiculous where it's like, and this is a, it turns out to be a good thought where I'll, you know, have years of success and, you know, kicking off nice profits and like, oh, yeah, look at me. Woo. You know, we're doing it and then, you know, something external changes. Like, it's not like I screwed things up or whatever. It's like, you know, the market's just like, take, like we were saying, like, this year's a down year. I haven't started thinking it yet, but I guarantee you it's coming where I'll be like, oh man. Like, I don't know, like, what am I supposed to do? Should I close up the business and just go work for somebody else? Like, and, and that when I have that thought, that's crazy talk. It's. But, but I, like, as soon as I hear myself telling myself that, that's when I get fueled up because it's like, whoa, no, I'm not gonna. Like, my whole thing is to never be an employee again. I am patently unemployable. I don't want to do it. I could do it, like, if I. If, you know, if everything truly fell apart, I'm sure I'd figure out a way. But it is. That is the thing that drives me. I do not want to be an employee. I don't want to work for somebody else. And so it's like, nope, you're going to figure it out. And, you know, there have been times where I've had to, you know, lay people off. I don't see that coming this year. I don't want to, like, foreshadow anything for the staff. I think it's all going to be fine, by the way. But there have been times in the past where it's like, okay, well, it's been bad for several years. You know, we need to restructure. We need to become leaner, that sort of thing. And I've had to lay people off, but. And I. I dislike that. In fact, that is probably something I'm willing to say I hate. I do not like laying people off, but, like, doing. Even getting to that point where it's like, okay, well, it's. It's me or them, you know, so it's. I got to pick me, you know, And. And then, you know, like, that or the business. Right. Yeah, it's. I'm protecting the business. Exactly. And. And it's like, yep, I got to do it. And. And then, you know, that usually fuels a period of success, and it's like, okay, yeah, I can do it. Look at that. You know, but it's easy to forget those things. Man.

Man, it is. And I. I. Looking back, like, during when I was struggling and building businesses and everything, I. I didn't feel this quite as often, but once I had success.

Yeah.

And then it changed in the sense that, you know, and maybe it's just human nature, and maybe. And maybe it's.

It.

It serves also a purpose to keep you humble, and I think that's a positive thing.

Yes.

But like, on this tutorial thing, it took me a few days to realize, why am I struggling with this? Why am I putting this off? Cause I'm just not that guy. I want to get it done. I want it on my to did list, you know, that I talked about on the show here. And I've come to believe, like, wow, okay, I know this topic that I'm going to talk about, but now I'm putting my face out there, which is much different than just my voice.

Interesting.

I've come to realize.

Yeah.

And. And you're more comfortable with it. You've done it.

Well, I've done it longer. It doesn't mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. It's just. Yeah, it's. It's all it is is experience. Yeah.

Yeah. So as. As all of our fellow business brains that are listening out there, you know, have you felt this way before? And how have you. What tools have you used to manage it, overcome it, you know? Feedback BusinessBrain show. I want to hear from you because I want to embrace some of those tools. We're here to help each other. Yeah, this is definitely have to do it. It is.

I. I have. When I. When I was with the team out at Podcast Movement in what was that march, I. I remember saying, you know, for my other show for Mac Geek, like, we. If I started doing TikTok videos, like bespoke videos for TikTok, not taking other things. We've done repurposing, but if I started doing that, I think it would work really well. And I have not yet done one. And it's because of this. I'm. I'm like, I don't know that I'm the guy. This is ridiculous. I know that subject matter. It's the same thing you're going through. So you're not alone, man. We're going to. By next week, my first TikTok video is going to be out. Sadie, you heard it here. I know.

And we will have our. By next week, we will have tutorials to share with you here on show.

You're scaring me.

We are going to make it happen. We've worked out the technical details, I think, and we're going to do it. We're going to do it.

Feedback at BusinessBrain Show. Make sure you keep living that charmed life. We'll see you next time.