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Willing to Be Bad · Forged In The Dark

• Forged In The Dark: Sometimes when I sit down and hit record, exactly what I want to say comes out, and sometimes it doesn't. And that has me thinking that you must be willing to be bad to get good. You Must be willing to be bad at anything new you are doing in your life to get better. And I have a couple ideas on this and a story. Welcome to Forged in the Dark. I'm your host, Jamie. Let's dig in. To get good at anything, you must be willing to be bad. And I'm not saying you're bad at what you do, but if it's a new thing, you are still a beginner and you have a lot to learn. And even if you have a natural talent for anything, it still requires you to put in the reps to put in the practice. Think of any professional athlete ever. Have you ever Heard a pro say, I'm just naturally talented, and I show up and I do my job and I get paid lots of money and that's it. No, no, you don't see all of the hours of practice. Okay, so I created a little system for myself, and that's really what I want to share with you today because. When you go from throwing the spaghetti at the wall to seeing what works, to how do I take what works and improve upon it, there's a few things to get you started. determine what your minimum standard is. Look at your core values, look at look at what you want to produce, look at your end results, look at your end goal, and ask yourself. Is this in alignment with where I'm going? Is there a way for me to set up a consistent feedback loop? Whether you are doing something that's public and you can actually look at the analytics to know what's working and what's not, or you are using an AI companion to look for common threads, or you are depending on peer feedback. Feedback is not criticism. And this goes to another line item because you need to be able to look at the look at the information from the feedback as data and and look at it from a place of non-judgment. When when let let's just say, let's just let let's just talk about this podcast, for example. I just said And I say like a lot and I say and a lot and I repeat myself a lot. And some of the repetition is intentional and some of it is not. So using my feedback loops, I'm looking at the way that I'm speaking and the word choices, and then I get to practice how I want to show up versus how maybe I showed up last. Week or the week before. So you have to have a standard for yourself, and you have to have a feedback loop, and you have to be able to look at the information from the feedback from a place of nonjudgment. You still need to be willing to take the messy action as you're getting better. And And probably the most uncomfortable, the most possibly the most important one is your willingness to be uncomfortable. You must be willing to be uncomfortable. So, speaking of discomfort. There was a time and this was I I will spare my brain power to get you an exact year. This was a few years ago. I I I was friends with a fellow coach. We were both building coaching businesses. So it we were very our conversations were very much in alignment most of the time. A a lot of the concepts we were teaching were very similar. And she was also an aspiring stand-up comedian. And we went To a lot of open mics. I mean a lot. And and I saw a lot of pretty good comedians. I saw some solid comedians, and I just didn't like their topics. And we we watched a lot of people that were really bad in an attempt to get better. Now there was this one night that I will never forget. We were at this very rustic, really old school Austin venue. I think it was on South First Street, and it was a dirt floor, outside venue, no AC, Texas summer heat. Maybe the heat had something to do with the performances that night. Maybe it was just an off night at the open mic. But the last performer, my heart went out to him in such a way because he was probably the worst comedian we had seen. And when I tell you we went to a lot of these, like every week we were going to two or three. So This poor kid is coming off stage and he's not getting booed, but he's not getting applauded. And and I clapped for him. Me and my big heart clapped, and I looked at my friend, and I I said pretty much that. I said, you know what? My heart goes out to him. I can't imagine what it took for him to get up on the stage just like that. Like, just that's what he prepared. He poured his heart and soul into it and he got up there and it wasn't well received. And look at him, like he's still head-held high coming off that stage. Because even if it wasn't fantastic, he did it. But anyway, I look at my friend and I say, well, you know, in the spirit of what we do, you must be willing to be bad to get good, and he's really willing. Every single comedian That I saw over those months that we were doing this was so willing to show up for their craft, show up for themselves, show up for that burning desire inside of them. Now I don't know if they had a standard or a feedback loop, other than the audience. I don't know how much messy action they took. I don't know. How much spaghetti, how many years they spent throwing it at the wall. But I do know that what was what was obvious was their willingness. So, whatever it is that you are new at, you are a beginner at, you're not that far along. Okay, stop and give yourself credit for doing the darn thing, period. That give yourself credit. You're showing up on the good days, on the bad days, on the hard days, on the all the days, You are showing up. You've already started this thing. And now you want to get better. Try these things. Try sitting in your vision. Get that long-term goal. Determine the standard for yourself. Set up a real feedback system, a consistent feedback system. And look, ladies and gentlemen, as much as the people that you love, like my people, I love my people, they love me, and they love. Everything I do. So you might want to cast your net a little bit wider on the on the feedback. Sometimes the people closest to you might not be honest with you. So whether you are using an AI tool or analytics, have that feedback. And whatever you do, don't beat yourself up. I there have been some episodes that I don't love. There have been some episodes that I've listened back to when they go live and and I kind of wanna hide under a rock all day because I'm it it's oof. It can be so cringe to look at yourself, to hear yourself, to self-assess. But in the spirit of getting better, I'm here. And you are here, and you keep showing up. So now let's refine how we're showing up and get better together. Okay, that's what I have for you today. Until next time.