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I’m about to share a recent public moment that bothered me . . .
While watching a video clip from my recent appearance on the Pretty Intense podcast with Danica Patrick—an experience I thoroughly enjoyed—I couldn’t help but notice something: I kept saying a particular word. And not just once or twice. Over the course of just a couple minutes, I couldn’t even keep my total in the single digits (and you can see the final staggering tally for yourself in this video).
As someone who’s spent an entire career in public speaking and content creation, the more I said this word, the more the demons in my mind went into “media frenzy press conference mode.”
Prepare yourself: This video is an honest reenactment of how embarrassment plays out in our heads.
I hope this gives you a laugh and also helps you realize that you can take something like this and use it to turn a mortifying moment into an opportunity for growth
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
so not so long ago i did a podcast with
00:03
danica patrick she has this podcast
00:05
called pretty intense she was
00:07
interviewing me
00:09
and um well i i watched a clip
00:12
from that interview where
00:14
i did say some some quite good
00:17
things some things i was proud of like
00:20
this
00:20
you know guy winch a friend of mine he
00:23
talked he talked to me and said like
00:25
everyone has this subjective
00:27
kind of bar above which everything
00:29
becomes overwhelming
00:31
below which things are more enjoyable
00:33
sure and the problem is if you go above
00:34
that bar even a little bit even the
00:36
things that you previously enjoyed
00:38
can suddenly start being corrupted by
00:40
the overwhelm and the stress you have
00:42
and you stop enjoying even the things
00:43
that you’re enjoying but i also
00:45
couldn’t help but notice
00:48
that in the space of
00:50
this
00:51
two-minute clip that i watched
00:54
i said the word like
00:57
an inordinate amount of times i hit like
01:00
28 i had a moment like a little crisis
01:03
moment where i was like probably not a
01:04
little crisis moment that’s me
01:06
underplaying it i had a crisis moment
01:08
where i was like i’m like i’m i’m really
01:11
like i could literally take off
01:13
so many of the things that at 21 i would
01:15
have said like
01:17
these are the things you know whether
01:19
it’s like be a new york times bestseller
01:20
or like do tours around the world live
01:23
in america that was like a dream was the
01:25
idea of like living in the states like
01:27
my inspiration is like oh i’m like i got
01:30
so many ideas and i got like i really
01:32
feel like
01:34
now me who spent an entire career in
01:36
public speaking making videos airing
01:38
them to the world when i see myself
01:41
doing something like this
01:43
the conversation the experience going on
01:46
inside my mind looks a little bit like
01:49
this
01:56
water
01:57
i noticed you said the word like
02:00
about 20 times in two minutes now was
02:02
that part of the game plan today no
02:06
no we uh we had a great game plan
02:10
uh a lot of great words prepared
02:14
um
02:15
proud of a lot of the words we used
02:18
today
02:18
but um
02:20
uh we said that one a little too much
02:22
uh is your problem a poor vocabulary or
02:25
do you just hate sounding smart
02:28
you serious with that question mr hussey
02:30
do you own a thesaurus
02:32
yes
02:33
can i ask everybody to move on from the
02:36
questions about the word like
02:38
thanks some would say you were looking
02:40
for a lot of similes there did you think
02:43
you found that simile
02:46
next question do you think the pressure
02:48
of sharing the stage with someone so
02:50
accomplished got to you no
02:52
no we always learn in training
02:55
play the game not the occasion
02:58
uh
02:59
shared the stage with plenty of
03:00
successful people over the years this
03:02
time is no different do you think the
03:04
fact that she’s a successful woman god
03:05
to you
03:08
i don’t see what that would have to do
03:10
with anything she knows more about cars
03:16
yeah matthew i see imposters weekly do
03:19
you think you have a right to coach
03:20
people in these areas when you can’t get
03:22
something so basic right yeah imposters
03:25
weekly what a surprise
03:27
um
03:29
no i
03:30
listen people can decide that for
03:32
themselves um
03:34
that’s people will make their own mind
03:36
up about that
03:38
could you just walk us through your
03:39
reaction when you first saw the clip
03:42
what was going through your mind
03:44
i mean
03:45
a lot of things you know you’re a
03:47
idiot
03:48
um i don’t know what you were thinking
03:51
you’re making videos in the first place
03:53
15 years you’re still saying this done
03:56
saying like 20 times in one video who do
03:59
you think you are you know your cat was
04:01
right to run away when you were a kid
04:05
no one’s ever gonna love you
04:07
your mum
04:08
uh is the only person who does and
04:10
that’s only because that love is
04:12
unconditional if your mother’s love
04:13
wasn’t unconditional you’d be
04:17
so
04:18
so you know
04:20
the standard stuff
04:23
more questions
04:25
it’s incredibly dark
04:28
have you ever had a moment like that a
04:30
moment where the demons of your mind
04:32
come to interrogate you and ask
04:33
questions you don’t want to answer now
04:35
the danger
04:36
with these demons that scrutinize us in
04:39
our mind
04:40
is that
04:41
we let them win
04:43
that
04:44
we hear these thoughts from ourselves
04:46
whether it’s worries of being an
04:47
imposter whether it’s i’ll never be good
04:50
in a meeting or an interview or in
04:52
public speaking or in telling a story
04:55
whether it’s i just
04:57
come across as silly or foolish i
05:00
shouldn’t even try
05:01
the danger is that we actually listen to
05:03
all of that and then we stop trying we
05:05
stop going after opportunities in life i
05:08
have
05:09
in my lifetime made a point of
05:12
you know i still i still have those
05:15
thoughts
05:16
but
05:17
what i really see is an opportunity to
05:21
refine my impact to refine my influence
05:25
when i first started making videos
05:27
watching myself was was pretty difficult
05:31
these days i suppose on some level i’m
05:33
desensitized to it but
05:36
i also have learned to
05:39
to look those
05:41
things in the eye that make me cringe
05:43
about myself
05:45
and to
05:47
you use that as a moment of knowledge
05:49
where i go ah that’s something i want to
05:51
do differently next time by confronting
05:54
that
05:55
situation or that tick in this case in
05:59
the moment
06:00
i get to consciously start applying
06:02
focus and attention there and that is
06:04
how we get better we don’t get better by
06:07
ignoring the things that we don’t do
06:09
well and
06:10
you know maybe think for a moment about
06:12
an area of your personal presence or
06:14
impact that you feel
06:17
could use some
06:18
some tuning up what are some things that
06:20
you notice you do
06:22
do you
06:23
talk too fast
06:25
do you rush stories because you
06:28
deep down worry that your stories aren’t
06:30
interesting enough so you never really
06:32
take the time to let a story breathe and
06:34
have it make that full impact on people
06:37
do you
06:38
find that your body or the way that you
06:40
hold yourself
06:41
or the way that you gesture is weakening
06:44
your impact
06:45
do you move too much or do you move too
06:47
little all of these things are really to
06:49
me they’re fascinating i’ve
06:52
always been fascinated in my lifetime
06:53
with them because
06:55
it’s one of the most transferable skill
06:58
sets we’ll ever have is this one
07:01
whether we’re going into a job interview
07:04
whether we are asking someone out on a
07:06
date or going on a date whether we’re
07:08
telling a story a dinner table whether
07:10
we’re making a pitch to a client
07:13
whether we find ourselves quite
07:14
literally public speaking being on stage
07:16
and having to
07:18
captivate an audience or whether you’re
07:20
making content online
07:22
or want to
07:24
and you want to build the biggest
07:25
audience possible you really want to
07:26
reach people and connect with them i
07:28
just
07:29
have never met someone
07:32
that this skill set
07:33
isn’t important to or shouldn’t be
07:36
because
07:37
making it important would bring them so
07:39
many more opportunities in their life it
07:41
would open so many doors a lot of people
07:43
take what i do very literally that you
07:46
know oh he gives dating advice but
07:47
actually one of the most meta-level
07:49
skills that i’m passionate about is this
07:52
one i have i love language i love ideas
07:54
i love the communication of ideas and i
07:57
love the ability to make an impact with
07:59
my ideas
08:01
because i have such a deep love for this
08:03
i created a program called impact
08:06
and it was i suppose my
08:09
my take
08:10
on the dao carnegie style of advice you
08:14
know the when i was 11 years old i read
08:16
how to win friends and influence people
08:18
it had a huge impact on me as a teenager
08:21
and and has always you know planted
08:23
seeds that have been there my whole life
08:26
but this program was i suppose my take
08:29
on that um my modernization in some ways
08:32
of it
08:33
and
08:34
my spin
08:36
you know seeing it through my lens if
08:38
learning this toolkit this skill set is
08:40
something that you feel would be
08:42
valuable in your life
08:43
we are opening up the impact program
08:46
again in the next few days and i tell
08:47
you this because it’s not open year
08:49
round it’s something that we actually
08:52
quite rarely open when we do open it
08:54
there’s a lot of new members that choose
08:55
to enroll and learn all of these skills
08:59
if you’re one of them if you want to
09:00
come and join us i’m going to leave a
09:01
link here which is part of the early
09:04
bird list so that you get notified as
09:07
soon as it’s released in the next few
09:09
days so that’s
09:11
getimpactfirst.com one of the reasons we
09:14
have an early bird list this time around
09:16
is because we are doing a special bonus
09:18
that i’ve never done before which is an
09:21
art of speaking masterclass where i’m
09:24
going to be live coaching people in
09:27
the art of speaking
09:29
public speaking yes but
09:31
public speaking as applied to every
09:33
aspect of our lives because we’re not
09:35
all on stage speaking but we’re all
09:37
speaking in public the skills are the
09:39
same
09:40
and if you public speaking has been one
09:43
of the skills that has improved my life
09:46
the most and most of the areas i get
09:48
value out of it aren’t when i’m on stage
09:50
because i’m only on stage five percent
09:52
of my year the rest of my year i’m
09:54
living my life but that’s when it’s all
09:56
really valuable
09:57
and i know it will be for you too i’ve
09:59
never done a class like this before
10:02
i’m very excited about it i’m i get to
10:05
nerd out on a subject that i love
10:08
and i’m inviting you to join me so that
10:10
art of speaking masterclass is a bonus
10:12
that we’re doing this time around when
10:14
we enroll new members into the impact
10:16
program and you can have a chance at
10:19
being on that bonus by being the first
10:21
to be notified at
10:24
getimpactfirst.com thank you so much for
10:26
watching this video i’m very excited
10:28
about the new members for the impact
10:29
program i can’t wait to meet you
10:31
and i’ll see you soon
10:49
you
—
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
***
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