Why Waiting for Certainty Keeps You Poor - FDDTC #42

What's up? Devin Zander here. Welcome to the From Delivery Driver to CEO podcast. First of all, let's go. Let's get a Jared Goff in the chat because the Lions about to wipe the bucks today. I know I'm from Tampa. I don't care. Jared Goff, Lions. Let's go. Super bowl, baby. It's finally our year today. I want to talk to you about acting with certainty versus acting with uncertainty in your business. Very important. And this is something that I've honestly, like, up until this year, struggled with since, like, 2022. My entire career, from 2011 to 2022, I was able to act with uncertainty. I didn't care if I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, because I knew that I would figure it out. So even if I was uncertain what might happen, I was uncertain if a product would work, if a design would work, if an would work, if a relationship would work, if whatever, I would do it, okay? I'm just like, yeah, fuck it. Let's do it live, baby. And I reaped a lot of benefits from that. The most successful years of my life were from about 2015 to about 2021. And 2021 hit Covid happened, and I started dealing with this little thing called anxiety. Okay? And anxiety. Simplest way I can put it is you imagine all the different what if scenarios, and you don't act because, well, what if such and such happens? And it's also like, yeah, well, you know, what if it never happens, right? But we never go that way, do we? We just say, what if it happens? And we imagine all the worst possible scenarios and outcomes, and that's anxiety. And so because of that, I'd played it small, and I had not taken risks, and I suffered from it. And it's not that our business didn't do well because we have done really well in all aspects. The stores have done well. Scup's done well, Roseanne. My SMS software has done well. But I saw nowhere near the growth that we had seen earlier in my career. So I got divorced. Still finalizing it, but my wife left me about a year ago. And with that, I had to question a lot of things, like who I am, what am I doing? What are my goals? My therapist always asks me, who do you want to be when you grow up? Right? And so I started questioning everything, and I realized I've been playing it safe. Like, why didn't anything feel exciting anymore? Why didn't anything feel fun anymore? Why didn't I. Why am I not Growing like I used to. Why am I so scared when I didn't used to be so scared? And I realized it's because I stopped taking action unless I had certainty of how something would work out. And by the way, that impacted, like, I know this is a business podcast, but it impacted my marriage as well. And that is why I no longer have a marriage. Because, you know, I'm younger. When I married my ex wife, I was, like, 31. And when you're that age, you know, you want to do things, you want to travel, you want to go out, you want to party, you want to meet people, you want new experiences. But I wasn't willing to do it because I was uncertain of what might happen, and my anxiety wouldn't allow me to. So I didn't enjoy life. My ex wife clearly didn't enjoy life or being with me, and she left. But the same thing happens in our businesses. We don't launch that product. We don't invest into ad spend, we don't hire employees. We don't take the full dive because we always need a backup plan. We're always scared of what might happen. But earlier this year, about seven months after my divorce or my wife leaving me, I decided to act without certainty. And I'm not gonna lie, guys, I was terrified. I wanted to completely change my life. I wanted to completely change my businesses. So I was like, I'm gonna cut this, this. That I'm gonna have all this huge profit here, here, there. And it was the scariest thing I've ever done. I felt so overwhelmed at times, and I thought to myself, I. I have a buddy, Stephen Summers, who lives over in Ireland. I would call him and I would say, steven, I don't know, bro. I don't know how I'm gonna do this. Like, I don't know. I just. Like, I'm not sure how I'm gonna make this work. So. Said the same thing to my friend. Said the same thing to my therapist. I used the suicide hotline chat line a few times because I was so overwhelmed and scared, and I didn't know what I was doing, and I acted without certainty. And it can be very painful. And my anxiety, as you can see, was eating me alive. Like, you're not alone in these thoughts. Everybody has them. Maybe not as bad as the degree that I or you may have them, but we have them, right? But I continued on that path. I continued acting without certainty. And our business has grown. Let's see, 40x and we already had a big business, and we are grown 40x now. I have never had growth like that in my career. But because I was willing to be uncomfortable and act without certainty that it might work out. I was so scared that it wouldn't work out that I, my ego was like, dude, I don't even want to be alive anymore. I can't. If this fails, you're going to lose everything. Everything's going to be so bad. But put faith in yourself, act without certainty, and realize that if you want like big returns, if you want big changes in life, they don't come from small bets. And you can listen, don't get me wrong, okay? You can make tons of small bets over 50 years and it'll work out. That's how a lot of people make a lot of money in the stock market, right? Is it's safer to take these small bets and accrue wealth over 50 years. But I'm not trying to do that right now. I'm trying to make big swings and change my life radically because I'm fed up with where I am. And I thought to myself, well, what's the worst thing that can happen? I. I take a financial hit, I can try again. I'm not going to be dead. Money come, money go. So I acted with uncertainty. And I can't even begin to explain how good things have been. And I want you to realize that all the best things in our lives that we want to do, all the most rewarding things that we do, we have to act without certainty. Think about the simplest thing that we want as humans, human to human connection. We want to be loved. We want to be in a relationship. You want a boyfriend, you want a girlfriend, you want a they them friend. I don't know. And that's not making fun. It was kind of a joke. Okay? But you have to risk getting hurt. You have to risk them saying no. You have to act without certainty. You don't know they're going to say yes. And how many times have you suffered in life because you were scared to someone ask someone out. Like, how many times have you said, I wish I asked that person out. Now it's too late now I can't do it. And you're left the rest of your life wondering what could have been. All the great things in life require acting without uncertainty. And yes, that does include your business relationships, marriage, having children. Dude, when you have children, that's like the scariest, most uncertain thing ever. Your whole life has changed. But most people say that having kids is the best thing that ever happened to them. I Don't know yet, but I will know. I'm uncertain if the Lions will win the super bowl, but I continue to support them. And I might get heartbroken tonight. I might cry. I invited all my friends, and I said, yo, y' all ready to see the Bucks get bent over and slam by Jared Goff? And if they lose, I'm a cry in front of all my friends. It's going to be really embarrassing. But all these great things, even friendships, require, unfortunately, certainty. You have to act. Imagine, like, moving to new cities, trying new things, traveling. All these things require uncertainty. Even the stock market, what we talked about, that slow compound over time. Let's say if you invest in index funds, it requires acting without certainty. So why in your business do you always wait? Why do you say, I'll act when it's perfect or when the stars have aligned or this, this and that? It's like, no, you have to act without certainty. That is where the big returns come from. And you need to ask yourself, what's the worst thing that can happen? Okay, you ask a girl, you ask a guy out, what's the worst thing that can happen? You're in the same position you're in right now. Ego's a little bruised, rejection. But it's better than never knowing it really is. With your business, what's the worst thing that happens? You fail a little, you learn lessons, and you'll always have a chance to go again. Okay. It's never the end until you give up on everything. It's never the end. If you give up on asking people out, if you give up on trying to get married, if you give up on trying to have children, that's the end. But there's always a route, but it always also requires uncertainty. So this whole time, I hope this can motivate you. This was a really big lesson for me. I joined a mastermind, Jeremy Haynes, great guy, but even that, like, it required a level of uncertainty. I wanted to join his mastermind because I wanted to learn from him. Cost me $72,000 to join. And that is one of the biggest investments outside of acquiring companies. SCUP has acquired some companies throughout the years. That's one of the biggest investments I ever made. It took me two months to make that decision. I wish I made it sooner because I would have made more money. And that brings me to a good point, by the way, because that was a mastermind that I joined to make more money. And if you want to join a mastermind to make more money, the SCUP incubator Our coaching program where you can work with myself, Matt, our coaches, we're even bringing on some new coaches. You want us to build your store. You want some one on one calls and you want four to five coaching calls a week with us so you can build your business faster. That's an uncertain choice. Joining a Mastermind is a big investment. I did. And guess what I got from joining Jeremy's Mastermind. We're going to 3X our business this month, in one month. Because the lessons and the support and the things you get like that from joining a Mastermind. By the way, we're nowhere near $72,000. You can actually get started in our Mastermind for less than $400. And we're giving a $1,000 discount this month only. So if you want that, you have to join before October is over. This is our Black Friday special. We're running it now because I don't want to run it during Black Friday when everyone else is running their promos. Plus we're going to be busy working on our stores then, so I don't want to do a promo here at Scup. So if you want to join our mastermind and get a huge discount and you can get started for under $400, we'll work with you for a year. Go to skup.netskup.netforward/Q4 now's the perfect time because we can work on your store for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and then just get you ready for a killer, killer, killer, killer new year. Okay? So if you're interested in that, now's the time to book while we're running the special and you'll have a year to work with us. Okay? But I really hope that you guys enjoyed this. I really hope this hit home because this is something I've needed for a long time. I honestly don't know why I stopped acting without certainty, but I can place it. I've talked to my therapist about it a lot. It definitely started in 2021. But now that I'm back on the fucking horse, ladies and gentlemen, there's no slowing down. There's no stopping. And I hope I can spread that enthusiasm to you. I hope I can get you to act without certainty. I hope I can get you to take a risk in life because that's where all the best things happen. It doesn't have to be about business. Ask the girl out, ask the guy out. Visit the new city, pick up and move. Whatever you've been wanting to do for so long. Stop waiting for certainty, Now's the time to act. So that's all, guys. Hope you enjoy. I'll catch you later.