SPI 756: Nervous much? Me too.

SPI 756: Nervous much? Me too.

Announcer: You’re listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, a show that’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host. He’s taken a Bob Ross painted class, and loves painting happy trees. Pat Flynn.

Pat Flynn: Nervous much? Yeah, me too. It happened again. I wanted to come on here and just share with you very up front that it happened again. I got nervous. I was scheduled to do a live call today. Actually, it happened earlier. And on this live call, in fact, it was a one year celebration of our SPI All Access Pass. And on this call were All Access Pass members.

These people have access to all of our courses and the community. They’ve been going through our accelerators. Many of them very successful, on to this call to share those successes. And this call was a one year anniversary celebration of the All Access Pass. And one thing that was scheduled for about a half hour during this call was I was going to be live coaching five people.

Maybe you were even on that call if you are a member of the All Access Pass. If not, you have access to the replay. Anyway, it happened again. I got really nervous before it happened. And I wanted to share this with you because even though this is the 15th year of entrepreneurship and probably my 5th year of really doing coaching on a consistent basis, both on podcasts with one on one students, live in front of audiences on YouTube and here again in Zoom today, I still get nervous.

I still get nervous before I go up on stage and speak in front of a crowd. I still get nervous before I hit record on a podcast like this one, before anybody even listens to it. I still nervous. It’s never gonna go away. Over time, I’ve learned how to deal with those nerves. I’ve learned what they actually mean, or I changed the story in my head about what they mean.

And the reason I wanted to share this is with, is because, you know, we’re here toward the beginning of the year. You likely have large, ambitious goals, goals that require you to be uncomfortable and perhaps get a little bit nervous because you’re stepping outside of your comfort zone, because you’re trying something new, because you’re going to put yourself in front of people or eventually hit publish and then get judged by people in one way or another. And that’s what I used to always think about. Was that judgment. Are people going to like me? Are they going to enjoy what I have to share? Am I just going to be wasting their time? Are they going to get up and leave or hit pause and exit and then never come back?

I always used to just hone in on that in my brain, but I’ve learned to change the story. I’ve learned to think about these opportunities in front of people as exactly that, an opportunity. An opportunity to provide value, an opportunity to learn and get better. And an opportunity to really change a person’s life in some way or another, especially when it comes to these sort of coaching situations.

So we had five people on who, well, we had, I don’t know how many people were live. I think we had a hundred registrants to this thing. So probably 50 to 60 people live watching this celebration. And during this call, five people, one at a time, I was going to spend five to ten minutes with each of them to coach them through a struggle or a challenge.

And the tough thing about doing this live, especially in front of an audience, is you never know what’s going to be said, right? You never know what direction it’s going to go. You might not know if there’s a tough question. Perhaps you might not know how to answer. And then a few things happened today.

Number one, yes, I was nervous. You just go. You know, it was scheduled on the calendar and as soon as it hit 1pm, we were there, and we were live, and I was queued up to coach, and then they were there, and it happened. As it was happening, there were no thoughts of, oh my gosh, I’m gonna be a failure, I’m, I’m gonna say the wrong thing.

All these thoughts happened before the actual thing went down, but as soon as the event started, as soon as I started having these calls, everything was fine. And I just went into what I know how to do. Helping people. Sharing my experiences. Sharing story. Another thing happened. Somebody had asked me a question that I did not know the answer to.

And instead of what I used to do, which was try to make up something, not lie, but kind of sugarcoat an answer or share something general that, you know yeah, yeah, you know, Google this or, you know, whatever. I just literally said, I don’t know the answer to that. And I offered some suggestions for how to potentially find the answer to that question and how I would find the answer to that question.

And you know what? She was incredibly happy with that answer and there were even people in the comment section in the live chat that said they really thought that was amazing that I could admit to not knowing something and it’s interesting because I’ve learned that that’s a strategy if you don’t know something just say you don’t know It’s better than trying to make something up and looking worse.

Not that you look bad at all In fact, you will be commended for just acknowledging the fact that you don’t know something That supports the things that you do know even more. But it also supports that you’re honest. And it also shows that everybody has room to learn more. And I really appreciated that.

In fact, there was a couple people in the chat who called that out. And I’m just very grateful for that. Thirdly, what also happened was most of the people in the room did not say anything. Most of the people in the room did not use the chat area of Zoom, but most everybody there got value. And it’s interesting because especially in these live situations, especially when you are live on stage, especially when you are doing a live stream or better yet, even a webinar, maybe to promote your email list or even promote a product.

A lot of times we think that because there’s no engagement, that what we have is not useful. And that’s absolutely not the case. I’ve learned this over and over again, especially when it comes to live streams. I used to do live streams way back in the day, and I used to get so down because I’ve only had like three or four people would, would comment and chat and have conversations with me.

And even though there were dozens of others, they were just quiet. So, I would always equate that to, well, maybe I’m just not good enough or I’m not interesting enough. But that’s not true. And it’s funny because when I consider my own listening or viewership behavior during live situations, I’m not always engaged to the point that I’m typing on my keyboard or tapping away on my phone.

But I am engaged because I’m listening, because I’m taking it in, and because I’m learning. It doesn’t mean there’s no value if a person is not engaged. And so keep that in mind as well, because if you go live, which I encourage you to do, in fact, I’m going to be doubling down on going live this year, both on SPI and on Deep Pocket Monster as well.

Because I feel like that’s where the puck is going. I feel like the more that AI and automation and systems get put into place that just easily do things for people and easily offer information and easily create things, it’s gonna be those human elements that are done live that stand out the most. Not only are you connecting with a real human being, and you’re hearing these stories and they’re in real time, And yes, you can watch the replays, or replays are available, and that’s just as valuable, especially because the thing is happening live.

But not only are those things happening, but It differentiates from all the automation that’s out there. Surprises happen, real answers to real questions that are offered right then and there. And if you happen to engage and have a crowd that is more engaged, that is conversating with you, and I don’t even know if conversating is a word, it’s probably not, but I’m going to keep going anyway, because mistakes, mistakes are okay.

Anyway, see how I tied that in there very purposefully, although not purposefully. When people are there and they’re engaging with you, it just fuels you up. And so don’t feel down if you have a community or if you are live and you aren’t getting a ton of engagement. Yes, we should always strive for more engagement, but yes, just because people aren’t engaging doesn’t mean that you and what you have to share in the stories that you’re sharing are not valuable.

They are. Especially if they’re coming from you and coming from a place of service. So I wanted to share this with you today because as we start the year, I know, again, you might be and should be trying things that make you a little bit nervous. Actually, I would be more nervous for you if you are not nervous.

What I mean is you are not expanding outside of your comfort zone. You are not experimenting and trying new things. You are not testing yourself and testing your limits. I want you to do that. I want you to be a little bit nervous. Because that means You care, that means you’re trying, and so if this episode resonated with you, congratulations, you’re on the right path.

And to tie this back to what I shared in the beginning, you may continue to stay nervous. You might not ever not be nervous, and that is okay. It is the same parts of the brain that light up when you are nervous and fearful and also when you’re excited. So let’s change the story of what those firings in our brains are about.

I am nervous because I am excited. I am nervous because I care. And that care will allow you to do the work and to provide the value that you need to provide so that you can keep growing. So I’m here for you. Team SPI is here for you. And I know you’re there for you too. So congratulations. We are well into 2024 now and you are on the right path.

And if you’ve listened to this episode and you’re like, Pat, nothing really out there is making me nervous, then I would be a little bit more worried. And you’re probably more nervous now because of it, which is good. I want you to think about how you can grow and extend outside of your comfort zone. And I just wanted to share with you, because I know a lot of you get inspired when I share things that make me nervous or things that make me more human, because it’s very easy to perceive somebody who just posts what they choose to post online.

And oftentimes it’s just the good things. But in reality, it’s a struggle. In reality, it’s always a challenge. In reality, new levels, new devils. But through those new levels and with those new devils, when you connect with other people who care and share the same values, great things can happen.

So speaking of, I hope to see you inside of the SPI community one way or another, whether it’s inside our SPI Pro program, which allows you to also have access to our All Access Pass. Or just the All Access Pass itself.

It’s that community driven course. Work and community driven passion that really really makes it work and it’s why it’s the best program online bar none I stand behind that. Thank you so much I appreciate you and I look forward to serving you in the next episode of the SPI podcast. Cheers

Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. Our senior producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media, and a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Catch you next week!