265: Resonance Match Featuring John Assaraf

A genetic predisposition is not a belief. But if we think about from a neuroscience perspective, we weren't born with any beliefs. We weren't born with any habits. We weren't born with any fears. We weren't born with a self image or self worth or self esteem. We weren't born with how much can I earn? We were born with some character traits, yes, but we weren't born with any belief. So if we take a look at from a neuroscience perspective, strictly science. A belief is nothing more than a pattern, right? Brain cells that created connections that were reinforced over time.

It's the Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Shulman. Welcome to the InspirationPlace podcast, an art world insider podcast for artists by an artist where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration the arts. And now your host, Miriam Shulman.

Well, hey there artpreneur. Welcome to the Inspiration Place. This is Miriam Schulman, your curator of inspiration and you're listening to episode number 265. I am so grateful that you're here. So in my book artpreneur, I talk about the psychology behind thoughts generating emotions. And those emotions are either going to inspire or or inhibit your actions which ultimately create the results that you have in your life. So to get any result you want, you need to start with managing your mind and creating new thoughts. To help me out, I've invited one of the world's leading high performance success coaches and behavioral neuroscience researchers. I'll bring them on in just a moment. But I wanted you to know that as a special thank you for showing up here today, my guest has two gifts for you. A free gift that will complement today's podcast as well as free training on how to be back procrastination. Now, you can get these links in the show notes and Today's episode is 265. Or you can get the book that we're giving away@shulman, art.com forward/machine and the master class on beating back procrastination is Shulman. Art.comforward/just doit. Don't worry. At the end of today's episode, we'll share more details again about these freebies and what they are and how to get them and what they'll do for you. Okay, now on with the show.

Today's guest has written four books, including two New York Times bestsellers. He's the CEO of a neuroscience based company that helps individuals strengthen their mindset and skills so they can achieve their goals faster and easier than ever. Before. Please welcome to the Inspiration place, John Assaroff. Well, hey there, John. Welcome to the show.

Hey there, Miriam. So great to be with you and your audience.

I'm so excited to have you. I love those purple glasses, by the way.

Thank you.

Are those new?

They're not new, but last year my wife was wearing them. My brother gave her a pair and she was wearing them and mine broke, so I wore hers on one of the live events that I was doing and people liked them, so I just bought a couple of pairs and now.

I wear them because they match your branding. It's awesome.

They do.

All right. So I read your book, the Answer. Actually, I'm like three quarters of the way through, and it really resonated with me. And so I'm just going to, like, dive right into some of these juicy takeaways that I got and, and see what.

Where the conversation goes. So the first thing that you said, and I was like, ooh, I'm writing this down. And that is achieving goals is a spiritual and non conscious exercise.

Could you explain that?

Sure. So, you know, when. When we think about from where does everything emanate, right? And we're so used to living in this physical world where we can hear, see, smell, taste and touch, but there's an entire unseen world that, you know, we use our brain to tap into no differently than we will change the radio station. By turning the dial from jazz to rock and roll, to punk rock to classical music, we can use our brain to tap into the field of all intelligence, to be able to create this resonance field, to be able to create all, everything that we need to achieve goals from there. That's part one. But part two is we don't behave based on, you know, how we want to behave. We don't take action on the things that we say we're going to take action on. We take action on the things that we have become conditioned to take action on. The habitual part of our psyche is subconscious, so it's beneath your awareness for most parts. And that's, you know, why we automatically, you know, behave in ways that we've become accustomed to behave in. So we have automatic thought patterns that are either automatically negative or automatically positive. We have automatic emotional patterns, positive, negative, constructive, destructive. But then we take action all day long, every day, based on the habitual patterns that have been ingrained in our subconscious mind from the time we were born, even though we weren't born with any of those patterns. So setting a goal happens in the conscious part of the brain, our volitional part of the brain. But achieving goals doesn't happen because we want to achieve them. It happens because we're conditioned to achieve them.

One thing that you said in the book, which I really love, the way you put this, because I had never thought of it this way before, is you said a belief is actually a habit of thought. So what you just said now is like, we were conditioned to think certain things. That becomes our belief. So we practice these thoughts over and over again. We don't even have to practice them anymore. Now they're a habit. So now they're a belief. So at the core, we have to figure out how to change these beliefs.

Yeah. And if we take one step back for just a moment and I ask you, and I'll ask everybody, I said, were you born with any beliefs?

Okay. Is that a trick question? Because there is like, there is that, like epigenetics, Right?

But, but, but epigenetics is different than a belief.

Okay?

Right. So a genetic predisposition is not a belief. But if we think about, from a neuroscience perspective, we weren't born with any beliefs. We weren't born with any habits. We weren't born with any fears. We weren't born with a self image or self worth or self esteem. We weren't born with how much can I earn? We were born with some character traits. Yes. But we weren't born with any beliefs. So if we take a look at, from a neuroscience perspective, strictly science, a belief is nothing more than a pattern. Right? Brain cells that created connections, right. That were reinforced over time, the patterns that were reinforced over and over and over again became habitual patterns. Now our brain, beliefs in our brain, is the lens by which we see the world. It's the lens by which we set expectations. It's the lens by which emotions start to be created. Because if I believe something to be true, whether it's real or imagined, whether it's true or false, whether it's constructive or destructive, the fact that the belief creates the expectation allows us to either move forward and find what we want that resonates with the belief, which is what we're doing all day long, every day. So our outside world always matches our internal map of reality.

So what we're looking for, we get.

What we're looking for. We get what we expect. Our stories, you know, that we tell ourselves, the, the rationalizations that we have all match the belief structure that we have now.

How much is this because the brain hates to be wrong? Like our. Is it more because of. We don't like that cognitive dissonance of like, we see something that doesn't match our belief? Or is it more because of like that reticular function that we're just always looking to reinforce what we already believe? Or is that one and the same thing? Could you explain that?

Yeah. So we all have these cognitive biases, Right? So I have this belief, and now my brain is looking for the evidence to validate that belief and to reinforce it. Anything that doesn't match the current belief gets deleted or distorted. And the reason for all that, number one, is to not drive ourselves crazy with all the information that's out there. But number two, and this is the third highest priority of the brain, is to conserve energy. Once I have used energy to create a belief, and now I am unconsciously reinforcing that belief, I'm doing it without any thought because the brain wants to conserve energy. Number one, responsibility is for safety. Number two is for avoidance of pain or discomfort. And then number three is to conserve energy, which basically is the brain sayings, don't make me think.

Okay, let's make this more specific because right now I feel like we're getting a little too intellectual about all these. And I want to make sure the artists, like really see themselves in this. So one of the thought habits or beliefs that I know my audience struggles with and a lot of entrepreneurs in general struggle with is around raising prices. Can we talk about that for a moment? So it would be a thought might look something like, oh, no one's going to pay that for my art. Yeah, slash, program, slash service, slash whatever it is.

Sure. So we know that art is subjective. And what I may find spectacular, you may not. What I think may be worth, you know, a million dollars, you may not think it's worth a dollar. So let's back up for just a moment and say that there are plenty of people who buy beautiful art for millions of dollars. And there's plenty of people who buy ugly art for millions of dollars.

Yeah. There's a banana peel and a, and a shark and formaldehyde that both sold for millions of dollars.

Yeah. And so somebody might look at it and go, oh my God, that speaks to my soul. And they happen to have the money to be able to pay whatever they want for it. And they do. And other people say, oh my God, my three year old could do that better. And if you go through enough museums in New York, you'll see that to be true, which I have. So here's the question. And again, I think that there has to Be quality to some art. So don't get me wrong, right? So there is a difference between art that took three minutes to do, an art that somebody, you know, invested, you know, more time, that has the talent and the skill, but we will never charge more than our hidden self image will allow us to charge.

Okay, record scratch. We can even play that again. Just say that one more time.

Never charge more than our hidden self image will allow us to charge.

Yes.

Right. So whether you're, you know, this is slightly different when we're talking about art. It's very, very different than if you're talking about a professional athlete. Right, A professional athlete. The marketplace has a value, let's say, for example, right now, you know, value for a center in hockey or a center on a basketball team or a pitcher on a pitching team. And there's, there's this range. With art, the range is all over the place. And when you are looking to charge more, whether you're a coach, an artist, a consultant, there are people willing to pay for the thing that you're selling. Now, a lot of people think that they're selling a piece of art. And you're not selling a piece of art. You're selling how art makes the person who's buying it feel.

Yes, 100%.

Right. And so you think you're selling a piece of art, canvas. Like, I have some art on my wall over here. It's called Flow motion. I paid $10,000 for these brushes from a guy who charges, you know, a lot of money for his art. But if you look that, you say you can probably get that for 500 bucks. And I could get it for 500 bucks, but I couldn't get it from this artist from 500 bucks.

And then, John, something I like to share with my listeners, and I just want to see if you agree or disagree with this. And by the way, you're totally allowed to argue with me. So what I like to tell them is that when you decided to buy that artwork, you weren't trying to decide if that artist was worth $10,000. You were deciding whether you, John Asrith, was worth spending $10,000 on something to get what you wanted. What do you think of that?

Yeah, I, I totally agree with you. Because there has to be a resonance match.

So the polar opposite. Somebody sees an art piece for $10,000 or a hundred thousand dollars. And, and either a, they don't feel they're worthy of it or they don't feel they can afford it. And maybe that's true, but somebody who feels that they're worthy of it and they can afford it, they'll just buy that piece of art. Yeah, right. But. But let's go to the artist side for just a moment, right? If the artist doesn't feel that the value of their work is worth 500 or 5,000 or $50,000, they will never resonate in the track with the person who feels that art is worth that amount of money. And so are they. So money art has species recognition. So when we're talking about species recognition, let's say somebody can afford $20,000 for a piece of art. All they have to know is that I love that piece of art, then the exchange is worth it for them. Because if we think about what is it that we're actually doing with art and money, for example, what we're doing is the money that I earned doing my business, my job, my investing, whatever it is, Right. I did work for that. I've got this green paper with ink on it, or I've got this electronic thing that we call is money. Then somebody has, you know, a dress, a painting, a sculpture, something. And somebody just says, for the money that I have in my bank account, okay. Or on my credit card, am I willing to make the exchange for this thing that makes me feel a certain way?

Yeah. Now, if they can afford it and they want it, there's a match. But if you have a piece of art that's $500 and somebody's used to paying $5,000 for art, they're not buying your 500 piece of art. But if you just raise that price to $5,000, then they see there's a resident match. But if you don't feel that your art is worth $5,000, you will never charge $5,000 for it. Not because it's not worth it. You don't believe it's worth it because you don't believe you're worth it.

Yeah. And also, it's not just putting that higher price tag because you will sabotage the sale if you don't really believe it yourself. Of course I've seen it. I've done it. Like, I'm not enlightened. I've done things like that where I've sabotaged things because I didn't believe in the customer's vibration like that they were ready for it, or I didn't see that they. We're gonna see the value in it, or I didn't believe it myself, or there's something missing there.

There's. It's a double binding message in the World of psychology, it's kind of like, yeah, it's $5,000 for the piece. And you're not congruent with how you really feel with the value that you're asking people to invest. See, when, when people, when people buy a piece of art, they're investing. Like, listen, there are, there are people who buy art for an investment. So if you're going to buy, you know, a Monet, if you're going to buy a Picasso, the marketplace says this is the range of what this thing is worth. Great. So the marketplace determines those. And even if you go to the auctions, then the people who are bidding, you know, in the auctions, they're determining what the prices are worth. When we have the average artist or the above average artist, you know, that's out there, which is the majority of artists. Now, you can set your own value because you're not talking about millions of dollars, you know, in the marketplace, you're talking about 5,000, 10,000, maybe up to $100,000. You set your own value. Now, of course, you have to have the clientele that can afford it. So you have to make sure that there is a match between the value that you're bringing to the table and you're marketing to those people. Because regardless of what we're selling, right, there's got to be a match between what it is you're selling and who you're selling it to. There are people that buy art for $5. There's people that buy it for $500 million. So there's a huge array of what we call our potential clients. Every single client that we work with. And even in the book, the answer that you're mentioning, the first thing you have to do is assume, let's say I have a program, product or service. Let's say in this case, I have a piece of art, okay? And you say, well, what I want to exchange my art for is this amount of money. And the question I need to ask myself is, who is the person that will derive that much value from this piece of art? And where is he or she or where are they? Yeah, right. So chances are, if you're selling a hundred thousand dollar piece of art, they're not on Etsy, they're not there. That's the wrong audience for the product. It's just like you're not getting a Winston diamond, okay, at Kmart, you're just not getting it there, right? So you have to make sure that once you set a value proposition, right, that you market, you go to where Those people are. And that's why there's so many different. Whether it's grocery stores in your town, you know, whether you know, it's restaurants in your town, you can get Chinese food for $3 on the streets of New York, or you get Chinese food for $300, you know, in a fancy restaurant. Chinese food. So it's art. Well, somebody who's buying $3 food. Okay. And that's what their budget is. Okay. Isn't going to a $300 restaurant. And in some cases, as we all know, the street trucks have food that's just as good as a $300 restaurant. But the ambiance may be different.

I just want to kind of change gears a little bit. There is something that I really love that you talk about in your book. And this is. And the way I interpret is like, there's five must for achieving your goals. So I'm going to gloss over them quickly, and then we're going to dive into the one key thing I want to hone in, too. So you say, find something that stirs your soul. Now, we're going to assume that my audience knows what that is, and the next is to become excellent at it. So we all recognize that you do have to be a master of your craft, whatever that is. Now, steps three, four, and five. Three is you must believe. And that's what I want to dive into. And we're going to dive into that a little bit more. And I just want to share that. Step four is understand how to make money from it. That's what I talk about in my book, on this podcast and in my programs. And then five is to take daily inspired action. But I love that you put believe as step three, because you need to believe before you take the action.

Yeah. If you don't believe.

It'S just so hard to be inspired. Right. If you don't believe. My question is, like, why don't you. Like, why don't you believe? And if. If, let's say somebody's watching right now says, you know what? I believe I'm a good artist, but I don't believe somebody will pay me for it or will pay me a lot of money for it. I'm going to ask you why. Like, the belief is based on evidence. Right. All beliefs are based on evidence that we have accumulated. Whether the evidence is right or wrong is different than evidence. Right. We can have evidence that says money is hard to come by. We can have evidence says money is easy to come by. So my question for everybody is, like, what Is it specifically that you don't believe. Do you not believe that you are worthy of receiving the money that you want? Do you not believe that your quality of your art is like really, really good? Okay, why. And is it true or not? Like, is the belief really, really true based on your evidence?

And.

And is it really true based on other evidence that you can find to the contrary?

Yeah. And then I want to give like a more specific example. So I have a client, I'm going to change some of the details just to protect her identity. So she has her artwork has been collected by celebrities, her art has been featured in magazines. But she wants the validation of being in a gallery. So first of all, I asked her to question that, thought maybe you don't need a gallery. But the point that I want to bring to you, that I want to address is she doesn't believe that galleries are going to work for her. I'm doing like little air quotes work for her because they've never worked for her in the past. So this is something that comes up a lot, just in many different flavors where people are looking at their past to determine what is possible for them for their future.

Yeah.

So can you address that? Like if you don't have evidence, but how do you look to your future self rather than just basing your beliefs on what your past is?

Sure. So. So a lot of times the reason we use the past as a guidance post is it's familiar and we have some proof right now what most people never do is like what happened in the past that may have caused the thing not to work. Right. Was it the wrong, let's say gallery? Was it the wrong timing? Was it to the wrong audience? Like there's so many reasons why things don't work and the past does not equal the future. So the way I like to have them rethink that is what. What would have to happen this time that takes advantage of the experience of the last time, but then adds a couple of new factors in it to give this time a better chance of working.

That's a good reframing because I know that my clients procrastinate and we're going to talk about that a little bit more because they give up on their beliefs because they keep looking to the past.

For why something isn't going to work and so therefore they're reluctant on taking action in the future. Is that one of the most common reasons people procrastinate or there other neuroscience that we need to dig into as well?

Well, the big one that you're referring to right now is disappointment avoidance. Okay, well, so I want to avoid disappointment, so then I just won't take action. Now, here's where this gets a little bit tricky. There's something in the neuroscience field called the law of secondary gain. And the law of secondary gain. I'm going to get a little intellectual on you for a moment, but it'll make total sense. Says that when I don't take action on something that I think I might fail at, something that I think I might lose time or money at, something I think, you know, may cause me or my significant other to be disappointed with, I actually get rewarded by staying safe and doing the familiar.

Yeah.

So the trap. The trap is assuming that the past is evidence of present or future success or failure. So what we want to do, and you just made me think about, you know, some of the things we teach small business owners how to do is like, advertise on Facebook or on Google. And I could tell you a thousand times a year, people tell me, we tried that before. It didn't work. And I say, well, what specifically didn't work? Like, which part of the process didn't work? Was it in the creative? Was it in getting people to look at the ad, the video, the image, the. The copy? Was it the. The button to click? Like, which part didn't work? Because we know that there's artists that advertise on Facebook and on YouTube and on LinkedIn. We know that they're. They're artists that are doing it. So which part of the failure are you referring to?

So people tend to lump, okay, it didn't work. Okay. In a very generic way versus saying, like, which part? Like, we know that.

And then, John, what I see happening, it's just. So we talk about taking inspired action. They just didn't do it enough. So you don't even have enough data points to even look at what went right and what went wrong. So besides Facebook ads, I don't want to get too much on Facebook ads because that's not something we talk about a lot. But, like, you need to have. And I run a lot of Facebook ads myself. You need to, like, spend a lot of money before you get enough results to really make any of those judgments you just talked about. But even. Let's just simplify it a little bit. Let's talk about getting into a gallery. And so, like, if an artist will say, well, that didn't work. I said, well, how many did you approach? It's like, the answer is less than 5. It's like, well, you just, you didn't go, you didn't, you didn't believe that eventually a gallery was going to accept you, so you gave up too soon.

Yes. And that's because of a mismatched expectation.

Tell me more.

Right. Well, if you think about, like, what is it that we want to avoid? Right. Well, we want to avoid being embarrassed. We want to avoid being ashamed. We want to avoid being rejected. We want to avoid failing. We want to avoid not being loved. We want to avoid losing. We want to avoid, we want to move away from those feelings. Right. And so when we have a mismatched expectation and we give rejection the wrong meaning, then it puts the brakes on our motivational center. We're motive for action. Is that motivation? My motive for action. Right. Is going to be determined by a, you know, the, the vision that I have. My motive for action is going to be based on why I must do this versus why I should do this. And I guarantee you that if we took any artist, any artist, and we set this little experiment up and we said, okay, we take, let's say 50 artists and we move them, your group A and 50 artists, your group B. And we said to 50 artists, group A. Yeah, go out there and see if you can get your art into a gallery. And when you feel like stopping, just stop. And then we take group B and we say them, okay, we're going to send you out there to get your art into a gallery. But if you don't get into a gallery, you'll never see your child or your spouse again. Oh boy. Oh. Now the motivation to get into a gallery just changed. And the rejection or the failure is not as big as the other consequence. So what happens with most people is they don't understand how to frame things in a way that empowers them to take the inspired action and they're focusing on the failure side of it or the disappointment side of it or the rejection side of it. And part of what you have to learn how to do, number one, is master your self talk. Number two is learn how to manage your emotions, regulate your emotions and fear. Rejection is an emotion we want to move away from. So we prefer not to even do it, then do it and experience it. And it's not because of the emotion, is we think that we can't handle the emotion for too long. Yeah.

One thing you said in the book, which I love and bears repeating right now here is you said that if you're interested, you'll do what's convenient.

That's right.

If you're committed. You'll do whatever it takes. And that's why it's all about relentless commitment.

It's relentless commitment. And let me. Let me show you something. Have you ever seen, you know, Rubik's Cube?

Yeah. I'm terrible at it. I was just telling my nephew the other day, the only way I used to solve it was I would take a screwdriver and take the whole thing apart and put it back together. And my nephew said, yeah, his brother takes the stickers off, puts them back on. Right.

Okay. So the first question to ask is, is it solvable? Like, is the Rubik's Cube solvable? Right. Well, I could tell you even the most complex Rubik's Cubes are solvable. Now, let's say you're an artist, and what you're really good at is painting or. Or creating a sculpture. Let's say that's your skill. You're. You're really good at creating it. Now, the first question we have to ask ourselves is, is this solvable? Yes. Is making my artist success possible? Yes. Then we say, okay, well, there's got to be, like, a sequence of things that I have to get better at other than painting or being a sculptor or being an artist. And if you're an artist that wants to make money, then you're either going to have to either, A, find somebody to represent you and do all of the marketing and selling for you, or B, get better at it. So you can go to YouTube and learn how to solve these in less than five minutes. You can solve this in less than an hour. Take about 7, 8 hours to solve this if you have the right guidance.

And I just want to interject something. Those artists who are listening right now who think that gallery representation is going to somehow save them, don't forget, just as like in my example, you have to market yourself to the galleries to get them to want to represent you. That's all about marketing, and it's all about having the right mindset and belief system before you get there. And I know that because I just went through that with publishing my book. I had to manage my mind like a ninja to keep taking that action to get the rejections from agents, et cetera, et cetera, like, to get there. All right, go ahead. I didn't want to. I know you were in on something very juicy, but I just wanted to make sure my artist heard that.

So the first thing that I want to come back to is first I have to believe that I can do it or get it done. Then I have to make the right moves in the right order at the right time.

Right? Because if I sit there and I just try and I try this and I try that and I try that and I try that and I and I try that, I can be sitting here for a thousand years trying to solve this three by three. But if I just say stop, what are the steps? What's the blueprint that any artist can follow? What's the blueprint for mindset?

Great.

What's the blueprint for the skill set? Great. What's the blueprint for the behaviors? Great. Now I got the blueprint. Now we have solutions instead of obstacles.

Hi there, this is Alex. I have a new review of OurPreneur to share from Ford Mouse. Ford writes, I have been a professional artist for five years and have joined mentoring groups that have provided excellent guidance. But somehow this book provides a path forward, eliminating some of the roadblocks I have inserted mentally and helping me refocus on how I want to proceed. It especially helps to affirm my identity as an artist. Good book for starters. And established artists.

I also have a review of Artpreneur here from Alison Lane. Alison writes, took me from side hustler to biz owner fast. This book is packed with direct, straightforward steps that I needed to hear and used to create an actual legit, thriving business. From my side hustle, Shulman has a specific, very thorough way of giving guidance. I loved this one. Open a bank account for your business in your business name at a bank that is not where you keep your family personally shared household account. When I did, my whole mindset changed for the better and so did my revenue and profit. The thing that sets this book apart is that it's full of actual step by step advice that really propels you forward. Also, the encouragement to go big was easier to take in and implement when seeing other people's stories. I was already a fan of Shulman's podcast the Inspiration Place. Thank heavens that she packaged some of her best tips into this book, which I refer to again and again.

And now back to the show.

They don't know how to market herself and they don't even know what questions to ask somebody to see if they know how to market or sell. So what really is holding them back is ignorance.

They just don't know. So guess what? If I don't know how to solve this Rubik's Cube, I can go to YouTube right now and say easiest video explanation step by step to solve the Rubik's Cube. Now if I really Want to do it myself? I can do it. Or I could say, I don't want to solve the Rubik's Cube, but I want to have a pretty one on my desk. So we all have weaknesses and that's okay. That's part of the human condition. But it's what we do about the areas that we're not strong in that will determine whether we really have a well rounded ability to succeed in the vocation that we have chosen or that has chosen us.

All right, John, so thank you so much for sharing all of these insights. I, believe me, I could talk to you all day. I know you have a book for our listeners. Could you tell us a little bit about that book?

So since we've been talking about this has actually worked out perfectly, which I didn't know if it would for your audience, but I wrote a, I think it's a 57 page book called the Art and Science of Neuromarketing. Proven brain science and cutting edge strategy to create offers so powerful. Your art as offers anything that you're offering so that you actually get people to pay attention to you. You actually are able to keep them engaged and you're actually able to create offers for them. They'll want to buy from you versus somebody else. So we're going to give everybody the art and science of neuromarketing and this is all based on the latest neuroscience, so that you can activate very, very key parts of people's brains and really get them to pay attention. The, the biggest challenge we have today as entrepreneurs, if you're an artist or entrepreneur, is first we have to get people's attention. We have 6200 thoughts a day ourselves and then there's thousands of thoughts out there. So I'll show you how to do that and then I'll show you a whole process of creating some really great marketing. You'll get that for free.

So, so, okay, so if you want this ebook, go to shulman art.com forward slash machine. Why machine? Because we're going to turn you into a money making machine. Cha ching, cha ching, Cha ching. Okay. And then for our friends who are having trouble taking action for whatever, whatever is getting in their way, we addressed a few of those things. I wrote one of them down of like this Disappointment avoidance. Avoidance, I love that phrase. Yes. Whether it's disappointment avoidance or you're avoiding any other kinds of feelings you're trying to avoid or some other reason you have a masterclass that addresses procrastination, could you just share like a little bit about that. And then I'll tell them where they can sign up for that free masterclass.

Sure. So when we think of why do I procrastinate? Like, I want to do the thing, I want to get, I want to write that book. I want to get that myself in the gallery. I want to make more money, I want to achieve this. Like, why do we really procrastinate? It must be something going on in my mind. And there's really only three reasons we procrastinate. Number one, and this is very, very unusual, is there's an arousal mechanism in the brain that for some people, about 2% of the population, when they procrastinate to, let's say the last minute, they actually release a burst of dopamine, the feel good neurochemicals. And then they feel they, you know, they celebrate, they get the thing done. But the other two reasons are actually avoidance reasons. The number one is fear. Procrastinating because I fear that it may not be good enough. I may get rejected, I may be embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judged. So they fear the consequence. And our brain always looks at, if I take that action that I want to take or know I should take, and there's any possibility of being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judge, rejected or failing, we actually just put a kibosh on the behavior and we go and do something that's easier than that. The other one is our hidden self image. So if I secretly don't believe that I deserve to achieve the end result of what taking action will give me, I will self sabotage. I will procrastinate taking action. So my hidden self image or my self worth barometer will dictate my behavior. So even though I can consciously say I want to achieve this, I want to do this, if those things are in play and those circuits are turning on or off in the brain, we will either move towards or move away from, you know, the thing that we want to achieve. So we have to learn how to be aware of the pattern. We have to understand how to deactivate the circuit of procrastination. We have to deactivate the circuit of self sabotage. And we become creatures of the habit of procrastinating. So now it becomes a habit. And now I'm rewarded to take on more and more procrastination as a habit because I'm getting rewarded for not taking action, all right?

And we've learned now that the self worth drives our prices and the self worth drives our actions. So we have to clean that up, all right? To get your hands on that masterclass and you can watch it anytime. I checked it out myself. Go to shulman art.com forward slash. Just do it. We will put the links in the show notes. If you're watching YouTube, it's right below. If you're listening on your podcast app, you know where to find the show notes. And this is episode.

I forget what episode 265.

You wrote it down. This is shulman art.com I just remembered my short term memory is horrible. Shulman art.com forward/265 okay, John, do you have any last words for our listeners before we call this podcast complete?

Yeah. I want everybody to write this down. I want you to look at this every single day. Ready? Price is only an issue when value is a mystery.

That's good.

Price is only an issue when value is a mystery. So for all of you artists or entrepreneurs out there, ask yourself this question. How do you create value that resonates with people at the price point that you want to be charging?

Mic drop. All right, thank you, John, so much for being with me here today. And thank you, my friend, for joining us. I will see you the same time, same place, next week. Until then, stay inspired. Thank you for listening to the InspirationPlace podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com shulmanart on Instagram shulmanart and of course on schulmanart.com.