Our Funniest & Most Cringe Mistakes as Entrepreneurs (+ How to Recover When Things Go Sideways)

Some of our kind of like screw ups embarrassments at the time felt huge traumatic. Traumatic, you guys. And now we laugh at them, but we want to share them because these happen all the time. Idiot. How did I let this happen? Oh my God. Is it me? Is it my team? Is it.

It's being a human.

And it really is about your comeback rate. Like, what's next? What do I have to focus?

And we're back with another episode of.

He Said, she Said.

Hey, before we get started, we gotta let everyone know we are about to open cart in a couple of weeks from this recording and only gonna take 30 new people into our mentor collective Mastermind, which is a very small number, but here's why we only take a small number. This is the one that's the most supportive mastermind literally on the Internet, right? And so what it means is not only are Lori and I teaching every two weeks, but there's a call every single week for you to learn from. And we have hired coaches that we pay for out of money and a lot of them and they are expertise coaches. So there's a sales coach, a marketing coach, life and health coach, There is a tech coach. I mean there's everything, right? So any problem you ever have in your business, you have a coach to go to and ask unlimited questions of, courtesy of us paying for the coach so you don't have to pay for the coach. So everything you ever need is, is in this mastermind. But that's why we have to limit it to real small groups. Every time that we enroll now, the mastermind as a group grows bigger and bigger. But we have to grow the number of coaches in accordance with the number of members. So bottom line, we're only going to take 30 people. Now if you're listening, when Lori and I only take 30 people, that is not a lot like, that is a small that goes like zoom right away. So here's your greatest as our editor, our video editor at the time, his name was Jesse. We're like, hey Jesse, just make sure you take all these out. No problem. He's like, yeah, I got this. So sure enough, he does all the editing and takes out all the crisp bits and you know, makes this great course. And we are so proud we release it. And this one was a more high end course and we released the first batch of courses to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. I Forgot it was 700 people or something like that. Well, by the end of the first day, those overachievers that like went way ahead into modules and dive in. Dove in and spent the whole day doing the course somewhere in, like, module four, five, whatever it was. I forget Jesse had missed a cris fit. Let this sink in. Picture you're taking a course called Aligned and you just invested a couple thousand dollars in it. And the material's really good. And module one goes good, Module two goes good. Module three, and you get to module four and I start teaching and all of a sudden I screw up on some words and I go, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Yes, fuck, fuck.

And it's still in the course called Lined. So there's a few overly ambitious people that, you know, cruised ahead. And so by the end of the first day, we had three, four, five emails. They're like, I'm not sure if you guys know this, but Chris is freaking the f out in module four. You guys might wanna do something about it.

Some people who had. They thought it was people who. They had, like, been in our world for a long time, so they, like, thought it was funny. But we did not. So we were dying.

So we had to quickly take the course offline. Uh, and people are going in, logging in, like, wait, where'd the course go? We had to edit it out, re. Upload it. Like, the whole thing was a mess. Now, what was my lesson from that? Number one, don't throw fits. Number two, no matter how hard you try and no matter how good your team is, you're going to make mistakes. And you have to be able to have a sense of humor. When you do, you have to let the wave of embarrassment and anger just kind of flow through you. You can't overreact. You just have to fix it right away in the moment the best that you can. Yeah.

And I mean, your whole body kind of takes over and it feels like a trauma response. Truly. And I remember, like, it was like a week straight where you were sick to your stomach. Just like, we don't know who saw it. We don't know what people are thinking.

Like, yeah, how many people saw it and didn't even.

I don't know. And this was a little bit of a time before, like, people were outwardly being themselves, like, really coming out with their personalities. And so it was like, you know, Chris online and then Chris throwing a fit.

So it was like just two different personalities.

Oh, my God. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of that quote, sooner or later you're gonna get caught being yourself, so you might as well be yourself now.

Well, I might as well do nothing. But Chris fits In public.

So I'm. That's why the Audacity Challenge is good for me. I'm like, I just can say whatever I want, and it feels better to be caught being myself so that I'm not caught being myself.

Well, miss Be yourself. What is one of your big F ups that happen in business?

I have so many, and I actually have one that I will never share. It was so bad. Like, eventually, you know which one. But, like, I can't even. I can't even talk about it. Like, literally, it's bad. But, you know, obviously, I have a podcast. You're listening to it. I was interviewing someone I was so excited about. I got to finally interview Boss Babe. Boss Babe, the founders of Boss Babe, when it was Natalie and Danielle of Boss Babe. And Natalie is my business partner now, and I am interviewing her.

I got clarified. But you didn't know him very well. That.

No, I did not know just about him. Like, hardly at all. I had met her once, like, hung out with her a couple times, like, but, you know, at different dinner things.

Yeah.

And you guys have to understand, they've always been, like, partners. Like, they're always together. Like, it's Natalie and Danielle. So my brain just pictures both of them together all the time. So while I'm interviewing, I have a realization at the end of my podcast that I have been calling her by the wrong name the entire podcast. And she didn't tell me.

You were calling Natalie Danielle?

Yes.

A full podcast. And she never spoke up?

No.

Oh, my God.

And I was like, did I just call you that? Like, through the whole thing? And she was like, yeah, it's fine because we're partners, and it happens all the time. I was like, that doesn't happen all the time. I was like, I feel like such an asshole.

I feel like I need to frame this better. I want you guys to picture, like, if you have a podcast, your biggest get. You're, like, so excited to. To meet this person. You're so excited to get to know these people, and you're like, oh, my God, I can't believe they're going to be on. My podcast is going to be great. And you get all sorts of downloads, and, you know, this is really going to help the show. And you're all excited. You prepare all your questions, you put a lot of effort into it, and then you spend an hour calling them the wrong effing name. It was. That is hard to live down a nightmare.

And then I had to tell my editors, oh, you know, could you go try to edit out whenever I would say the wrong name because I called her the wrong.

Supposed to be like, silent. It's like, so tell me, Hank, what. What was the time that you. Blah, blah, blah.

I'm just like, dying.

I was like, what was she thinking.

The whole time while I was asking her questions like, you, babe.

I've got one more. Because we're on the topic of podcasts and asking editors edit things out. Oh, I know this. All right, here's another major blooper mistake as well. And guys, we're sharing this because it's gonna happen. So we wanna normalize the mistakes and then we're gonna share, like, what you do when they happen. But, you know, when I released my podcast a thousand and some episodes ago, I was brand new, and everyone's brand new at some point at something. Now, I. Despite owning a tech company today, I'm not very technologically inclined. It's just never been my thing. And so we had this great big podcast studio set up at our home in Santa Monica and had this great big mixing board. And I was new to podcasting, and I said, hey, what do I do if I have to, like, cough or something? And my brother, who had set it all up, said, oh, no problem. This button here, you press this and this right here. You just pull this down. You can talk whatever you want, say whatever you want, and no one's going to hear. The person on the other end is not going to hear. So I'm like, okay, good. Well, when you. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but when you launch a podcast, the best practice is to record eight incredible episodes before you launch so that you can launch with four episodes published right away for people to listen to and fast follow ons immediately after that. It's one of the ways to boost the numbers of downloads and get on the new and noteworthy and all that stuff.

Like your strongest guest.

Your strongest guest. So I arranged the strongest guests that I could get my hands on for my first eight episodes. That means I'm interviewing these people that I look up to. Brand new interviewer, right? So I. You prepare all the questions. I put my all into this. It's gonna be great. And unfortunately, when I schedule them to do the eight interviews, I had gotten a cold. And like, not a little cold, like a big cold. And so I'm like, okay, no big deal. If I have to cough or if I clear my throat or something, I'm just gonna pull this little sound thing down and push it back up and no one will ever know. So through the first maybe six of eight episodes, I would be interviewing them and all of a sudden I'd have to clear my throat. And so I'd pull the little sound thing down, I'd go and then push it back up. And I think I'm in the clear because good news, the person on the other end isn't hearing me. So they're not reacting because I'm pulling the sound to them down. But not on the recording, because you're recording two different sounds and putting them together on a podcast or you do an interview. So I look at them on zoom. They're not reacting. I'm like, woohoo, this is working. And I clear my throat and I clear my throat and I clear my over, like hacking up a lung. Disgusting sounds you get while they're talking. And so I get through this. I'm like, yeah, babe, I'm so proud. I had a cold. It didn't stop me. I got through this. Every time I clear my throat, I just muted it. So we ship off the eight episodes to our podcast producers. I'm all proud of them. And a couple days later they send back and they're like, are you joking? Like, what? What did you do? Like, is this. This is it? I'm like, what are you talking about? They're like, in every single episode, 8, 9, 10, 15 times you go, while the other person is answering, like, what are we supposed to do?

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And I was devastated. Devastated. Now I were devastated. You know your first eight trying to make your probably through a crispin.

You were so hard to deal with. I was like this is a disaster for my life.

But you know you want to make the best first impression possible. I'm like I can't go back to these eight big names and ask them to re record. No, not going to happen. So I asked the editors. I'm like fix it. I don't care how you fix it. I don't care if the sound just goes mute. I don't care if you splice it out. So if you go back and listen to my first eight, six or eight episodes you can. If you listen closely, you can hear where the person's talking and Then maybe the words don't match up because they had to splice out, you know, three seconds or where the person's talking, but it just kind of goes mute. You can go back, you can find the edits where they had to clear out. My throat clearing as best as they could and done was better than perfect. What I learned from that one, sometimes you just have to move forward and you don't have perfect options. And I think in business, this is where people go wrong. Like, oh, well, what is my good option and my bad option? I'm going to choose my good option. And that's not how business goes. A lot of times it's, ooh, I kind of have two not very good options. But you have to move forward with the less bad option. Does that make sense? And that's what I had to do to launch my podcast. And you still survive. We're sharing these stories because you have to understand you still survive, but you can't survive if you don't have people to go to. That will kick you back in the game. That will tell you how to fix it. That will say, hey, don't worry. I made this mistake once before. Here's what I did. Don't worry. I made this mistake once before, and I survived it. I think that's the most important thing is you gotta have peers and you have to have mentors that say, don't worry, I've done something like that before and I survived it. You're gonna be okay, too.

Yeah. That's been my biggest learning from hanging out with entrepreneurs, especially, like, big people who I look up to is that they share all of that, and it makes me feel so much better. And when you feel alone in it, you're like, I'm such an idiot. How did I let this happen? Oh, my God, is it me?

Is it my team?

Is it.

It's being a human.

And it really is about your comeback rate. Like, how fast can you come back from your failures? The best athletes, they say they don't have a memory. Like, they. They don't remember the bad plays. And while we can laugh at it now, truly, when things happen like that, I'm like, my. My mantra is, well, what's next?

Yep.

Well, what's next? Because I can't sit here. It's making me feel sick, and there's nothing I can do. If there's nothing more I can do about it, then, like, what's next? What do I have to focus on?

And this is why we put together the mentor collective Masterminds because these mistakes tend to happen, you know, throughout your entire career, but so much more so when you're just getting started, when you're making your first 100 grand, 200 grand, 3, 4, 500 grand, right? Because you're kind of newer at things. And so this is why we have the life coaches in there for you to turn to life and business coaches. This is why we have the marketing coach to turn to when you screw up your marketing. This is why we have the sales coach to turn to when you screw up your sales. This is why we have the tech coach to turn to when you screw up on your tech, right? We have a coach for every single business discipline that you could possibly need a heck, we even have an attorney, a small business attorney, a legal coach in there, so that when you get yourself in legal little mix haps, you know, you got someone to turn to in there as well. And that's why we put together mentor collectives, because not everyone has the resources or the network that we had when we were getting started. And this gives you mentors, right, Lori and I and the coaches to turn to. And it gives you peers, people that are kind of at the same place as you, maybe a step or two ahead to be able to say, don't worry, I did that too. Or, don't worry, I know how to fix this. Or don't worry, this happened to me the other day. And people that understand your struggle, it is the best.

Like, I wish I would have had this. And we created what we wish we had. And it's. It's like our favorite calls to do. They're so fun.

Oh, God, we get off them and we are on a high. So listen, if you guys want a live call where your business questions are answered every single week, if you want coaches sharing their expertise with you on the in between weeks, if you want on demand coaching from every type of business coach, you could want complimentary once you're in the program and so much more. Matter of fact, here's the coolest new thing we're adding to it weekly. Accountability coaches. Somebody to check in on you and say, hey, last week you said you were gonna do X, y and Z. Did you do it? Oh, you didn't? Why not? What's your commitment this week? Oh, maybe you need to meet this person. Maybe I need to point you that direction. You know, when people shift from, like, a job to entrepreneurship, the biggest thing they struggle with is holding themselves accountable.

I know they don't have a boss anymore.

Well, we fixed that with this program, but there's only gonna be a spot for about 30 of you. So go to right now that this episode's done. Not kidding. Get your tail on that wait list. It's gonna be your only shot to get a spot. Go to Chrisharder Me forward slash waitlist. Again, that is Chrisharder Me waitlist, and that'll get you on the waitlist.

We're so grateful for you guys and we will see you next week.

Bye, everyone.

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And I was devastated. Devastated now I were devastated. You know, your first eight names were Christian.

You were so hard to deal with. I was like, this is a disaster for my life.

But, you know, you want to make the best first impression possible. I'm like, I can't go back to these eight big names and ask them to re record. No, not going to happen. So I asked the editors. I'm like, fix it. I don't care how you fix it. I don't care if the sound just goes mute. I don't care if you splice it out. So if you go back and listen to my first eight, six or eight episodes, you can. If you listen closely, you can hear where the person's talking and then maybe the words don't match up because they had to splice out, you know, three seconds or where the person's talking, but it just kind of goes mute. You can go back, you can find the edits where they had to clear out. My throat clearing as best as they could and done was better than perfect. What I learned from that one, sometimes you just have to move forward and you don't have perfect options. And I think in business, this is where people go wrong. Like, oh, well, what is my good option and my bad option? I'm going to choose my good option. And that's not how business goes. A lot of times it's, ooh, I kind of have two not very good options. But you have to move forward with the less bad option. Does that make sense? And that's what I had to do to launch my podcast. And yet you still survive. We're sharing these stories because you have to understand you still survive, but you can't survive if you don't have people to go to. That will kick you back in the game. That will tell you how to fix it. That will say, hey, don't worry. I made this mistake once before. Here's what I did. Don't worry. I made this mistake once before, and I survived it. I think that's the most important thing is you gotta have peers and you have to have mentors that say, don't worry, I've done something like that before and I survived it. You're gonna be okay, too.

Yeah. That's been my biggest learning from hanging out with entrepreneurs, especially, like, big people who I look up to.