You overcome fear of failure by taking action while the fear is still there. I call it Turning Fear Into Action. Anchor in a vision that is bigger than the fear, write down what you are afraid of, and take one small step. Then go all in with No Plan B, where you are the backup plan.
- Fear of failure is often uncertainty in disguise. Knowing your next step gets you moving.
- Turning Fear Into Action has three parts: vision, awareness and one action.
- The fear stays with you. Repetition makes you better at acting in the face of it.
- Living with No Plan B means you are the backup plan.
Why does fear of failure stop you from taking action?
Anytime you do something new for the first time, it is a foreign experience. You tell yourself "I've never done this before" and "I don't know what I'm doing." Uncertainty leads to inaction, and it often masquerades as fear.
In business, the three words that pop up the most are "I don't know." Listen closely and "I don't know how to" is usually "I'm afraid to fail." You worry that no one will sign up and you will have wasted your time.
The solution is certainty about the next step. When you know what to do next, you are far more likely to do it.
What is Turning Fear Into Action?
Turning Fear Into Action is my process for moving forward while you still feel afraid. It has three parts: anchor in your vivid vision, get aware of exactly what you fear, and take one action.
I feel the same fear you do, and I have gotten really good at taking action in the face of it. Every time I do something new, the same questions pop into my head. What if nobody listens, watches or cares?
At a coaching event, a fellow coach named Jeff Munn said the obstacle in his way was "I can't take action when I'm afraid." It was so relatable to me that I highlighted it. Then Jeff saw that he takes action when he is afraid all the time. Fear can make the action uncomfortable, and you can still take it.
The dream has to be bigger than the fear.
Steve Harvey said that to Oprah, and I anchor in it often.
How do you overcome fear of failure step by step?
- Anchor in your vision. Write down your dream outcome. I created a three year vivid vision and read it first thing in the morning and again before bed. The clearer your vision, the more willing you are to act.
- Write down your fears. Open a notebook and list everything you are afraid of. B-Rabbit does this in 8 Mile when he calls out his own weaknesses ahead of time. Now you know what to keep from stopping you.
- Take one action. Go from zero to the first step. When I feel the fear of creating, I turn on my podcast and video equipment. Every time I have turned on my camera, I have created something.
- Stack ones over zeros. Take one small step, then another. Each one builds momentum.
- Get your reps. The more times you act with the fear present, the more accustomed you become to overcoming it.
What does No Plan B mean?
My No Plan B distinction is a commitment to go all in on your vision with yourself as the only backup plan. Being the best version of myself every single day is my backup plan.
The second I quit my corporate job, I burned the boats. My mom would call and say, "Oh honey, you're making such good money with your ad sales job. Have you ever thought about going back there?" I told her there was zero chance of that happening.
Life will bring obstacles, and the number one thing you control is yourself. Early on I asked what would stop me from making my dreams happen. Only one answer came back: I quit. So I became someone who specializes in not giving up.
When you can see that you are plan A and you are plan B, everything else that you want to create in your life is right in front of you.
Rob Cressy
How do you reframe failure so it loses its grip?
Change what the word means to you. These four lenses come from my podcast.
- Experiment Creator Travis Brown takes on the identity of a scientist. Tell yourself "I am simply testing" and a result that falls short becomes a lesson.
- Data Jeff Munn treats what people would call failures as data. When something falls flat, you try something else and keep going.
- Obstacle Ryan Holiday's book The Obstacle Is the Way reframes adversity. What stands in the way becomes the way.
- Love of the work A painter paints because they love to paint. Make the action your measure of success.
How do you get comfortable being uncomfortable?
You train it. I once heard Mark Cuban tell a founder on Shark Tank, "I just don't believe you're willing to do whatever it takes to succeed." It went right through me.
Back when I was building my sports blog, Bacon Sports, I carried cards and made a rule. Anyone wearing a sports hat or shirt got a quick hello and a card. When a voice said to skip it, I heard Mark Cuban, took my headphones out and walked over. I did that hundreds of times, and taking the action got more comfortable.
Improv classes at Second City did the same for me, with a stage performance at the end of each level. Repetition is the heart of getting out of your comfort zone.
Do this today
- Write the fear list. Open a notebook and write down everything you are afraid of about the thing you keep putting off.
- Go from zero to one. Take one small action on it today and let the momentum build.
Listen to the episode
Dare to dream? Conquer your fears first
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Read the full transcript
The dream has to be bigger than the fear. What's good? It's Rob Cressy and today I want to talk about how to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there. And this is something that is very applicable to anybody who wants to build their brand, whether we're talking about podcasts, video, social content, speaking from stage, you name it. And this is something that I've got a ton of experience in over the last decade plus because I feel the same fear that you do as well. I've just got really good at taking action in the name or in the face of the fear and those monsters.
So I want to both help you break this down formulaically so you can understand how you can do this, as well as share some stories or some things that I've done along the way on my journey that have helped me. So number one, let's start at the very beginning. This fear that you are feeling around putting yourself out there. Why in the world is this happening? Well, it's actually quite simple. Anytime you do something new for the first time, it's a very foreign experience and certainly as it relates to building your brand or launching a podcast or being on video, you say, Hey, I've never done this before. I don't know what I'm doing.
And one of the things that I talk to my clients about all the time when launching a podcast, uncertainty leads to inaction. You don't know what to do. You're not likely to do something. So oftentimes uncertainty is being masqueraded as fear. Well, what is the solution? Oh, well, what can I do to get some certainty in this process? When you know what to do next, you're more likely to take the next step. Wow. That's a very logical and simple thing to do.
But the next thing that I actually want to do is to help you break this down very simply. So here's three steps that can help you. Number one, your vision. I want you to anchor in your vision. What is your dream outcome? The vision that you have for yourself and your brand? Is this something that you've written down? Is there a document that you can share with me?
In past episodes, I talked to you guys about the three-year vivid vision that I created. This document that has everything that I am creating for myself, for my family, for my business over the course of the next three years. I poured my heart and soul and energy and emotions into this thing. Boom. With this document, I'm reading it twice a day, first thing in the morning. And then when I go to bed, I know exactly who I am and where I am going. Do you have that same vision? Do you have that clarity? Do you have that connection over what it is you want to create? Because the more clear your vision, the stronger you will be willing to take action in the name of fear.
Number two becomes awareness. What is it that you're actually afraid of in putting yourself out there? Just be candid with yourself and give yourself an honest assessment and say, all right, I'm just going to open up a notebook and I'm going to write down all of the things that I'm afraid of as it relates to putting myself out there. And by the way, this is something that is completely normal and natural for all of us. We all face it. And oh, by the way, you're still going to continue to face it.
As we speak right now, every time I do something new, the same fears, judgments, and self-limiting beliefs pop into my head. What if nobody listens? What if nobody watches? What if nobody buys this? What if nobody cares? What if all this time and energy and heart that I put into everything, including this podcast right here, just falls on deaf ears and nobody takes any action? It's just a big zero for me.
These are the things that you want to write down because when you look at them, you're like, oh, all right, I got it. Just like B-Rabbit in 8 Mile. What you want to do is list all of the things that you know are going to stop you from creating your vision. So B-Rabbit's like, you know what, Papa Doc? Yeah, I do live in a trailer park and your boy did have sex with my girlfriend. Whatever. He's calling it out ahead of time. I want you to do the exact same thing for yourself. Step one, be aware of what that is because once you've got that awareness, you can say, oh, I know what not to do or what to not let stop me.
Because number three, what I want you to do is now that we've got this vision and now that we know the fears that we have, I want you to take one action. Just go from zero to the first step. Why? Because now we're starting to build momentum. Start stacking those ones over those zeros. And this is something that I talk about over and over and over again. Let's get in the game because so many people fail to realize, and this is something that is especially true in podcasting, that they sit there and say, now is not the right time or I'll get to it later or some self-limiting belief or excuse. But what they fail to realize is they're not even in the game.
When you launch a podcast or start doing video content, that's the beginning. That's not the end result. So when you finally get your podcast out, then you're feeling all good. It's like, boom, this is amazing. Then it's like, cool. Now you're back at zero again. It's like, oh, now I can actually start playing the game and doing the things that I want to do. And the simplest thing is to break this down on a micro level. Let's go from zero to one, taking that one small step. And you just keep taking one small step over and over and over and over again.
You know how I overcome the fear of not knowing what to create or putting myself out there? It is actually super simple. All I do is turn on my podcast and video equipment. That is it. You know why? Because 100% of the time in which I've turned on my camera, I've created something. So that simple action creates the momentum. And when you understand this, the more times you do it, the more accustomed you are to taking action in the fear of these monsters or in the face of these monsters, these fears, this judgment, this self-limiting belief.
And there's two quotes that I always anchor in that have resonated with me so much over my journey. And the first one is from Steve Harvey and he was talking to Oprah and he says, your dream needs to be bigger than the fear. It's like, oh baby, that resonates with me. And then if we've got that dream written down in a document where I can read it and build a consistency practice and start living into it every single day, now we've got a process around that quote.
And then number two comes from Jamie Foxx. He was talking with Tim Ferriss on his podcast a long time ago. And he said, what's on the other side of fear? Nothing. And once you understand that, and once again, that's why we audit this. What are the fears that I have for myself that are stopping me from putting myself out there? And as I think about my journey, there's really two big moments in the last decade in which I've really lived this.
Number one was when I was living in Chicago and I took improv and comedy writing for four years at Second City. And improv was something that I wanted to learn the skill set of a comedian, not to become one, but to become a better creator for my marketing for the way that I create for myself and with my clients. And I'm someone who does not have or did not have any sort of performance background. So going up and going through is either eight or 10 or 12 weeks of class, and then having your first performance and being on stage and inviting all of your friends and family to go and see you do your entry level improv class. Holy smokes, Batman.
That is something that you get a lot of butterflies, especially in the world of comedy, where there's a very clear line between good and bad. And when you're on stage and you're putting yourself out there and you're performing, man, you are really putting yourself out there. And I ended up doing that. I think there was either four or five levels to the improv program that I took in every single time. There was another performance. And for me, this became a repetition in action. The more times that I spoke on stage in front of people, the more accustomed to overcoming the fear that I became.
So if you're someone who sat there and said, you know what? I've always thought about improv. I'm telling you one of the best things I've ever done in my life and for my business is taking improv classes. It gets you comfortable being uncomfortable.
And then number two, and this is one of the most uncomfortable I've ever been in my entire life. I don't know, five, seven years ago in Chicago, we threw the Bacon Sports and Beer Celebration. We had over 700 people. We had 20 beer vendors. We had 20 restaurants. We had pop a shot, nerf games. It was the hat trick of awesomeness. And it was a straight party. We did DJ bump in. We went all in on this thing, took nine months to plan and a ton of money to do so.
I'd never thrown an event before at this magnitude, but I knew what I wanted in the market. I saw there was a lot of companies out there throwing beer events, but their food was terrible. A lot of bacon events, but their beer was terrible. And I was like, let's do the hat trick of awesomeness, the Bacon Sports and Beer Celebration. So the DJ is going on and everybody's dancing. And all of a sudden, two of the people there go and they create a giant dance circle. And now they're doing the invisible double Dutch jump rope in the middle of this, like 500 person dance circle.
And what felt like an eternity may have just been, I don't know, 10, 15 seconds. Everyone's just sitting there looking at these two guys doing an invisible double Dutch. And here I am the person who's thrown the event being like, listen, this is a party. I've got to do something. I can't just leave these two guys hanging here. I've got to be the one who faces my fear. I am someone who loves dancing, but am I someone who loves to double Dutch an invisible jump rope in front of 500 people for the first time ever? Super duper uncomfortable.
But you know what? I just ripped that cord and said, let's go and gave my best invisible double Dutch dance moves I've ever done in my entire life. And I guess this is actually the first time I've ever even shared this story with anybody before. And to me, that was the epitome of the fear of putting myself out there that I said, you know what? In the name of keeping this party going and yes, anding with everybody, if these people want to double Dutch, well, guess what? I'll be the first one to throw my hat into the ring.
And of course, once I did that, I created the safe space for everybody else to jump in and do it. And boom, person after person after person started jumping in. And now there's two people double dutching together and it just created that safe space. So as leaders, we have to be willing to go first, even if we are super uncomfortable in doing it.
And there are levels to this game. And if you're just starting out building your brand and you say, you know what, Rob, I'm not comfortable on camera. I'm not comfortable doing a podcast or on microphone. It's okay. Feel that fear and say, you know what? I'm going to anchor in my vision. And I know the more time I get my reps or the more reps that I get, the better that I will get.
And what's important is that you anchor in your vision, not in the fear. So I hope this resonated with you. This came from my heart. It's something that I've got three clients launching podcasts or in the process of it right now. And I was thinking about them when creating this because I know where I was when I started my journey and what I would have loved to hear or get the support in. And this is one of those things.
Transcript cleaned up for reading.