Reframing Failure: From Flops to Feats - I Will Not Lose Podcast - #0036

Transcript

[00:00:05.580] Yo, yo, yo, good morning, good evening, good afternoon, good night, whatever time you're
[00:00:10.020] listening in, wherever you're listening from.
[00:00:12.320] Shout out to my Spotify listenership, Apple and Google Podcasts, Stitcher.
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[00:00:18.180] I see you guys in the analytics.
[00:00:19.700] Thank you for listening in.
[00:00:21.160] YouTube, if you're watching in, good to see you.
[00:00:24.700] Coming live from my voice to your phone, headphones, TV, or car stereo, your attention could have
[00:00:29.520] been anywhere in the world, but it's here right now.
[00:00:31.960] Take a moment to be present and recognize that it is now, right now.
[00:00:35.920] Whether you're right now is working, running, exercising, cleaning, laying down, flying,
[00:00:40.340] driving.
[00:00:41.320] Be grateful we're alive, baby.
[00:00:43.360] Failure can be frightening.
[00:00:44.760] However, Winston Churchill reminds us, success is all about going from failure to failure
[00:00:49.160] without losing enthusiasm.
[00:00:51.280] This is I Will Not Lose Podcast, where we set out to prove everything is learned from
[00:00:54.860] failure.
[00:00:55.540] We must persevere and recognize it as one step closer to success.
[00:00:59.100] I'm your host, Tony Ortiz.
[00:01:00.780] Let's jump right in.
[00:01:02.400] Today, we're going to talk about reframing failure.
[00:01:05.860] So stemmed out of a conversation that I had recently and inspired me for the episode.
[00:01:11.620] But this is about changing our perspective on setbacks.
[00:01:15.620] You know, the whole goal of the podcast is to have people fail forward and reframe.
[00:01:20.960] But this episode is especially dedicated to that mindset.
[00:01:24.720] So when we're talking about reframing failure in our careers and hobbies, what are we talking about?
[00:01:30.540] Well, you have perceived failures, especially if you're not working towards some sort of goal you could run into, maybe being not being where you think you want to be or where you think you should be or where you deserve to be.
[00:01:44.520] You know, you may look at it as a failure or look back at steps you made along the path in your journey and said, man, that was a misstep.
[00:01:52.140] You know, six miles ago when we were running, we made a wrong turn.
[00:01:55.620] it's really difficult to live your entire life in the past and live in regrets. So
[00:02:02.780] you may be on a career path and you may want to start something and you apply for that new job
[00:02:09.620] or that new career. And, you know, you get turned down in the interview. That happens a couple of
[00:02:15.760] times. It's easy to say, man, you know, I'm just not the guy for this. This is not something that
[00:02:20.440] works out for me. If you're in the creative, sometimes if you're in photography or video or
[00:02:27.360] any of the services, you work a lot to put together a proposal and you're going against a couple of
[00:02:32.880] other people. It doesn't mean that you suck at what you do and you're not good. There may just
[00:02:38.060] have been another perceived better fit. It doesn't even mean it's going to work out with the other
[00:02:42.200] person. But reframe this and think, what can I do to change my proposal? What can I do to offer
[00:02:48.080] different options or packages. And maybe that's the deciding factor that the other person did
[00:02:53.280] that I didn't do. But, you know, set set goals, have a goal of where you want to be so you can
[00:03:00.960] look at something and figure out, is this a failure towards my goal or does this have me
[00:03:05.640] off in the wrong direction? Do I have to rethink my my motives behind things, you know? So the
[00:03:12.440] other example i have is like a hobby not taking off as expected you know um everybody goes through
[00:03:18.500] the mastery and the learning of a new hobby and it's easy to say i want to monetize this especially
[00:03:24.500] if you get into a hobby thinking this can make me a bunch of money one day i can quit my day job
[00:03:29.260] doing this you know and you put a little bit of time into it it's easy to look at it a year in
[00:03:35.820] something that takes five years and think man i'm not making any progress i'm not headed towards
[00:03:41.180] where I need to go. So it's important to have micro goals along the way, something I'm going
[00:03:46.380] to be doing for myself, setting down, you know, um, goals for the podcast goals for the business,
[00:03:53.390] different things that I want to do, but this way I can not view things as failures, but opportunities
[00:03:59.510] for learning and growth. So we had the talk about the conversation that came up was actually about
[00:04:06.770] YouTube versus audio listenership. And that, you know, I've always said I strive towards an audio
[00:04:13.430] listenership. The podcast isn't extremely visual. You know, we have a set, but there aren't a ton
[00:04:18.790] of live visual cues or things like that that make it that you need to watch in. It's more of if
[00:04:24.910] somebody prefers to watch it as they listen, it's available on that platform as well. But everything
[00:04:31.350] was built horizontally, meaning I went to all the audio platforms as well as YouTube at the same
[00:04:37.950] time. So I could see what would work, where would I gain a listenership? And the analytics are
[00:04:44.170] completely different. You know, you're almost playing two different games, one for YouTube,
[00:04:49.350] one for audio listenership. And so when you're trying to make content towards one, it's easy to
[00:04:55.030] say, wow, you know, I'm failing. My retention rate isn't that good on YouTube. People aren't
[00:05:00.650] listening to the whole video, but then you go over onto the podcast players and you have downloads
[00:05:05.790] and you have people that stream the entire episode. When I say in the beginning, whether
[00:05:11.930] you're running, flying, driving, people listen and consume content at different times. Sometimes
[00:05:19.630] you're in the office, sometimes you're working. Shout out if you're hustling and grinding right
[00:05:23.550] now and just working this into your stuff. But people's attention spans differ. And when you're
[00:05:29.670] on YouTube, you have other videos there. You have other distractions. It's a lot harder to I don't
[00:05:36.450] even think unless you have the paid app, you can keep something playing in the background. So you
[00:05:40.610] have to have your YouTube app open. That doesn't make any sense while driving. So there's all sorts
[00:05:46.930] of experiences that you may want to create for one audience. And if your goal is there, but you're
[00:05:52.670] measuring it based on what the other audience is doing, it's really easy to say, man, you know,
[00:05:57.510] I failed, I failed at the goal. Well, was that really ever the goal in the first place? You know,
[00:06:03.310] so relying on visual engagement, things like that, it's something that I could dive into,
[00:06:12.270] but I measure success differently on each platform and we're following and tacking,
[00:06:18.550] you know, we, we can't say we know what exactly is going to be the best, but knowing a destination,
[00:06:24.790] at least that we can all agree upon and say, this is where I want to go. Or I say,
[00:06:29.390] you know, Tony, this is where I want to be in six months from now or in July of 2024,
[00:06:36.950] writing some things down and then checking in every month or checking in every three months
[00:06:40.850] along the way and knowing whether or not you actually made a misstep. Sometimes missing a goal
[00:06:48.230] is the perfect lesson that you didn't set the goal at the right spot. You know, it's a tricky
[00:06:52.850] thing. If you blast the goal away, then you didn't set it high enough. Like you're not
[00:06:56.550] going to get better constantly playing the game on easy. But if you go and you really put your
[00:07:03.370] effort into something and you fall just short of your goal, that's a success. Now, if you're way
[00:07:09.770] off, you know, your goal is to have a thousand subscribers in your first year and, you know,
[00:07:15.210] you barely broke a hundred. It's a lot easier to say, man, that that goal was way off there.
[00:07:21.370] I shouldn't have even been setting. Under what data did I use to make that goal? Was I comparing
[00:07:28.070] myself to others? Was I comparing a channel that's a completely different type of content?
[00:07:35.030] It's just the sort of thing you have to be aware of. You fall into the pitfalls of comparison.
[00:07:42.330] You're on a global scale. So everything is measured. Let me tell you the difference.
[00:07:48.030] and somebody this is what goes through somebody's mindset when they see or discover my podcast on
[00:07:55.130] spotify they'll see a description they'll see a thumbnail there they'll see the episode length
[00:08:00.210] they'll say okay i have about 20 minutes to put into this they'll start listening intro sounds
[00:08:05.670] well produced they'll continue going on youtube somebody looks at the thumbnail decides whether
[00:08:11.480] or not they want to click on it based on that if they do click through and click it that minute
[00:08:16.500] long intro that I do every episode, that's well enough to turn away a YouTube viewer.
[00:08:21.520] People are going to look at how many views does the episode have. And if it came out two,
[00:08:25.740] three days ago and you're not in the triple digit numbers, they're going to think, well,
[00:08:29.180] this doesn't, you know, this isn't relevant. Nobody's really paying any attention to this.
[00:08:34.240] They will not listen to it because of that. So it's just imagine, you know, imagine you're
[00:08:40.280] comparing yourself to the greatest content creators or people who create in different
[00:08:45.360] languages that's all the same playing field on youtube so people are used to consuming content
[00:08:51.740] with millions of views and that's their standard for what's considered good or what's considered
[00:08:56.880] not don't get into comparing yourself man whether it's in your career whether it's in your education
[00:09:03.500] you know somebody may be it may seem somebody's grasping a concept better if you're in a class
[00:09:11.060] and you're struggling with it. And you may be a B student struggling to be an A student or a C
[00:09:16.340] student and wondering why everybody else can pull off B's and A's. But understand your own struggle,
[00:09:22.380] understand your own goals, work towards them, you know. Plus, remember, social media is all
[00:09:30.860] people's highlight reel. You know, rarely does anybody post stuff. I mean, even having a podcast
[00:09:37.080] about the idea of failure you know it'd be much easier to build something around success but
[00:09:44.080] the idea is if you're comparing your behind the scenes to someone else's highlight reel
[00:09:49.660] it'll feel like you're failing when really you're just it's just a part of it you know
[00:09:55.640] something came across my reels today when i was scrolling that i was a message to white belts and
[00:10:02.260] not, it was jujitsu, but let's just say any martial arts, you know, it says you don't suck
[00:10:07.460] because you're a white belt. You're just new, you know, how discouraged you get if you're
[00:10:13.460] constantly comparing yourself to your teacher, even, you know, your coach, your professor, it's
[00:10:18.860] hard to live based on what you perceive other people have or what they're doing. You know,
[00:10:25.880] there may be something really cool that you can do that they wish they had or something else
[00:10:30.800] different that you did in a different path in your life that they wish they had more experience in.
[00:10:36.260] I forget what that quote was. I believe it was by Edison about he didn't fail a thousand times,
[00:10:44.880] he just found a thousand ways not to make a light bulb. That's the sort of mindset I'm
[00:10:50.060] trying to have you have when it comes to reframing failure. Give me somebody who tried a bunch of
[00:10:55.860] times and failed and has experience versus somebody that is all read up on it on the
[00:11:02.200] books and thinks that they can go out and do it, but they're completely green in terms
[00:11:06.600] of trying it.
[00:11:08.080] You know, I want to, I want you, my listenership to view your failures as learning experience.
[00:11:16.400] View your failures as learning experiences, you know, change your perspective.
[00:11:20.200] As my, uh, my listener, Sean would say, keep failing.
[00:11:23.200] You know, we turn to keep failing into words of encouragement to tell you, you know, keep at least you're trying.
[00:11:29.440] It's so much easier. At least I'd rather be a white belt in jujitsu than have no belt and have no experience, never been on the mat training at all.
[00:11:38.780] I'm completely OK with that. You know, I'm confident in what I'm gaining from it.
[00:11:44.980] So let's see. I'm going to leave you guys with some practical steps to reframe failure.
[00:11:51.590] um and i'm going to experiment with some shorter episodes so let's see acknowledge and understand
[00:11:58.770] the failure what went wrong what could be done differently they call it watching tapes in sports
[00:12:04.390] you know you literally go back and replay the game and see down to the steps that you made down
[00:12:09.350] to the balance that you had maybe as a lineman in a football game or something or whatever sports
[00:12:14.490] you're playing we have a high definition reels that you can go back and look into slow motion
[00:12:19.890] and correct your steps. Take that same mentality when you're applying it to your career or your
[00:12:26.270] hobby. What could I do differently? If this didn't get the results that I expected it to do,
[00:12:32.930] how can I change and tack and move forward from there? What knowledge or skills did you gain from
[00:12:39.140] this experience? I look at attempts that I've had with YouTube in the past and tons of content that
[00:12:46.800] I made for months that really didn't lift off the ground at all. And it's like, wow, man,
[00:12:51.340] I learned keyword research. I learned titling. I learned how to make a good thumbnail. I learned
[00:12:56.160] all sorts of things that can be applied to either my own or to other brands, other podcasts that I
[00:13:03.520] work with and produce or help consult on. Make sure you practice resilience. Failure is going
[00:13:11.220] to come. You're not going to ever just fail once on something. It takes multiple drafts for anything
[00:13:16.620] to come to a proper iteration.
[00:13:18.800] So don't define, don't use your failures to say,
[00:13:22.540] this is my overall worth.
[00:13:24.420] This is all I'm capable of.
[00:13:26.100] You know, don't base your capability based off failures.
[00:13:28.920] Base it off your resilience.
[00:13:30.100] If you can get up and keep going, that's what defines you.
[00:13:34.220] You know, that's what will define your success.
[00:13:38.220] And share your experiences.
[00:13:41.160] You know, don't fail in isolation.
[00:13:44.160] You know, I have no problem going out and putting myself on a limb and giving personal anecdotes of things that I ran into or failures that I struggle with.
[00:13:53.400] So do the same.
[00:13:55.300] Share it.
[00:13:55.860] Communicate with people.
[00:13:57.340] Other people can use that as fuel and maybe use it to avoid the setback or even just to empathize with your setback.
[00:14:04.320] Sometimes knowing somebody else went down this same path, made this same mistake, and
[00:14:10.040] there's still footsteps going on in that direction, man, that'll keep you going.
[00:14:15.560] So key takeaways, understand the difference between reframing failure and changing your
[00:14:23.500] perspective on setbacks.
[00:14:26.160] Make sure that you look at failure as something that drives you forward, something that gives
[00:14:33.660] you a learning experience, something that makes you level up, makes you stronger, you know? And
[00:14:39.860] I would encourage you to reframe failures in your own life. Share your own stories in the comments.
[00:14:46.500] Reach out to me privately, whatever you want to do. I would just reinforce that failure is
[00:14:53.480] the beginning of a different path to success. This has been I Will Not Lose podcast, where we set out
[00:15:01.960] to prove everything is learned from failure. We must persevere and recognize it as one step
[00:15:06.260] closer to success. I don't really have any announcements going on. Let's see. Fed Up
[00:15:12.080] podcasts have been producing with Ron Speakman, hosted by Ron Speakman, is going to be dropping
[00:15:17.980] soon. That's highly anticipated podcast for federal employees by federal employees. So I'm
[00:15:24.200] excited for that to drop. I know the Freedom Project is going to be dropping, hosted by Jesse
[00:15:30.700] rolled down. Got to work on putting some things out with that. So I don't have any dates on these,
[00:15:36.320] but I might as well start getting it into the announcement schedule. And now to support the
[00:15:42.420] show, instead of that long URL I was dragging on for for months, I manned up and bought
[00:15:48.560] IWillNotLosePodcast.com. So go and check out IWillNotLosePodcast.com. It'll take you where
[00:15:54.820] you can subscribe on your favorite podcast player, share the episode links.
[00:15:59.660] Well, your contribution is appreciated. Thank you for listening.