Finding Peak w/ Ryan Hanley

The Most Expensive Sentence You Can Say in 2026

45 min
Jan 7, 20265 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Ryan Hanley explores the psychological pattern of hiding from meaningful goals and presents a four-step exposure protocol to break free from procrastination and fear. The episode argues that saying "I just need more time" is cowardice masquerading as prudence, and that taking small daily actions builds confidence and clarity far more effectively than waiting for perfect conditions.

Insights
  • Hiding is a strategic choice, not laziness—it protects the idea of potential from the judgment of execution, allowing people to maintain a flattering self-image without risking failure
  • Clarity comes from action and feedback, not thinking; the sequence is action → feedback → clarity → confidence → breaking free from hiding
  • The most expensive sentence people say is 'I just need more time,' which provides a socially acceptable excuse that masks fear and enables decades of wasted potential
  • Small daily reps (one measurable action per day) with accountability and stakes are more effective than waiting for motivation or readiness, which never arrives for meaningful goals
  • Fear and excitement activate the same neural pathways, making the choice between them a matter of perspective and reframing rather than emotional management
Trends
Personal brand building through consistent content creation (LinkedIn, YouTube) as a non-negotiable professional skillAccountability partnerships and public commitment as behavioral change mechanisms in professional developmentReframing fear as excitement and using it as fuel rather than a stop signal in high-stakes pursuitsMicro-habit formation through single daily reps as an alternative to traditional goal-setting and motivation-dependent approachesIdentity protection as the root cause of procrastination and underperformance in high-potential individualsThe shift from potential-based thinking to execution-based thinking in measuring personal and professional worthGamification of accountability through stakes (physical consequences, public commitment) to overcome hiding behaviorAction-first, clarity-second methodology replacing traditional planning and preparation phases in skill development
Topics
Overcoming procrastination and hiding behaviorPersonal accountability and stakes-based motivationBuilding confidence through action and repsFear management and reframing fear as excitementLinkedIn personal branding and content creationIdentity protection as psychological barrier to growthThe exposure protocol frameworkSeven-day stop-hiding challengePotential vs. execution mindsetDaily micro-habits and habit formationSpeaking career developmentPodcast growth and audience buildingSelf-discipline and meaningful goalsRegret minimization and life planningVulnerability and public failure
Companies
ShipStation
Order management and warehouse workflow platform mentioned as consolidating five separate tools into one solution
People
Brian Keating
Scientist and guest on Finding Peak podcast, representing expertise in scientific fields and ideas
Carol Roth
Economics and economy expert featured as guest on Finding Peak podcast
Austin Mao
Psilocybin therapy expert and guest on Finding Peak podcast, discussed as thoughtful business operator
Quotes
"I just need more time. If only I had more time. If there was time, I would do that. This sentence has cost me more than failure ever did."
Ryan HanleyMid-episode
"Clarity doesn't come from thinking. We can't think our way to a clear mind. Clarity comes from contact with reality. Action creates feedback. Feedback creates clarity. Clarity creates confidence."
Ryan HanleyEarly-episode
"Hiding is a strategy. Because if we don't commit, we don't have to find out if we're actually good at the thing."
Ryan HanleyMid-episode
"Life doesn't pay out on potential. Life pays on output. It pays on execution. And output is violent to the ego because every bit of pure execution can be judged."
Ryan HanleyMid-episode
"Fear and excitement light up the same neural pathways in our brain which means whether we're excited about something or we're fearful about that thing is a choice. It's a choice."
Ryan HanleyLate-episode
Full Transcript
500 orders a month was manageable. 5,000 is my place. Embrace intelligent, orderful filming with ShipStation. The only platform combined in order management, where-house workflows, inventory, returns and analytics in one place. What used to take five separate tools, ShipStation does in one. Go to shipstation.com and use code Start to try ShipStation free for 60 days. 5,000 is my place. Embrace intelligent, orderful filming with ShipStation. The only platform combined in order management, where-house workflows, inventory, returns and analytics in one place. What used to take five separate tools, ShipStation does in one. Go to shipstation.com and use code Start to try ShipStation free for 60 days. Today I'm going to share with you the most expensive sentence people say. And I say it too. And every time I say it, it's because I'm hiding. And I'm going to give you that sentence in a minute. But the truth is, I say this sentence often to myself, not because I'm stuck, but because I'm scared. Just like so many of you are. We're just afraid to admit it, which is why we're hiding in the first place. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through a four step protocol to stop hiding. And the best part, you can run this in just 70s. This isn't motivational nonsense or find your why. It's a process that I've developed because something about my nature is that I will hide. And I don't love that about myself. And if you experience the same thing, this four step protocol will break you free of that. So what we're going to cover today, two questions that expose where we're hiding. We're then going to talk about why hiding feels smart, but is really stealing our lives. Then we're going to get into the exposure protocol. That's the four steps. And then I'll walk you through a seven day challenge that you can use to create the momentum that will get you out of hiding. There's a simple reason that this works. Clarity doesn't come from thinking. We can't think our way to a clear mind. Clarity comes from contact with reality. Action creates feedback. Feedback creates clarity. Clarity creates confidence. And it's the confidence that breaks us out of hiding. I'm going to say that again, action creates feedback. You do something. You could stimulus back. Did it work? Did it not work? Did it almost work? If it worked, how did it work? If it didn't work, widen it work. That feedback is what creates the clarity. The feedback that we get lets us know in the real world, the real world of physics. Not theory, not emotions, not feelings, and the real world of physics, what happened? And it is the answer to that what happened. That creates the clarity. That then creates confidence. And it is confidence that breaks us free of hiding. Now, if you're thinking this won't work for me, I'm too busy. Good. This takes like 10 minutes a day. This is, I don't have a lot of time either. So, and I'm not, I'm not a big meditator. I get the meditative state oftentimes from physical activities like hot yoga or going for long rough walks with no earphones in or even when I'm lifting. So this isn't a big time thing. You may also have the objection, you know, I don't want to look stupid. That's perfect because that's the cost of admission. You reason your hiding could be used that you don't want to look stupid. And unfortunately, to get better at things and to gain confidence, we have to be willing to look stupid. You may also say, I need to feel more ready. You're not a child. You're never going to be ready. If you haven't figured out past your teens that you're never going to be ready for anything meaningful, then that's probably another clear indicator as to why you're hiding. Okay, so here's the plan. We're going to ask two questions, answer two questions. We're going to talk about why hiding actually works, but not in a good way. Then we're going to go through the exposure protocol. That's the framework that I created to kind of break free of these moments where I find myself hiding. And then we're going to talk about the seven day challenge. So let's do a test. Answer these in your head. Not performatively, not to post year because I can't hear you. This is a podcast. And frankly, no one needs to hear your answers. Though you can say them out loud, if you need to, that's fine. But you're not, you're only answering for yourself. So answering any other way than honestly and authentically would be just doing yourself a disservice and would make this entire exercise a waste of time. So just be honest. Question number one, when you're 80, what is it that you'll regret regret? When you're 80, what is it that you will regret not doing? What is it? What is it that you regret? Why you regret? For me, it would be not going all in on this podcast, would be work related thing, not taking my speaking career seriously and really stepping up my game and expanding out of the insurance industry, which is where most of my gigs are, even though I love talking to insurance audiences. It would be not traveling. I might want to be like a backpack, the Europe kind of guy, but I want to see some other places. I've been to 43 of the 50 US states, mostly because of speaking gigs, and the United States is amazing. And I've been to some Caribbean islands, Canada obviously, but I've never been to Europe. I really want to see Asia. I'd love to see parts of the Eastern Europe and China and Japan travel through those different areas. I'd love to see Australia. And if I don't at least hit some of those places, I think I'd have a lot of regrets. And I want to spend as much fucking time as I can with my kids, as I just kids are amazing. And I think it's sad that so many people in their 30s now are not having children. I think a lot of it is self-orientation. I think the cost of living excuses, bullshit. I think that there's an entire generation of humans who are just very self-oriented. I think we taught them to be self-oriented. And that sort of orientation is the reason that they don't want to have children, not cost of living or whatever. And I think that's very sad. I think many people are going to miss out on the greatest aspect of being a human being, which is having children. And if I don't maximize my time with them, then I think I'll have a lot of regrets for that. So those are some things I'm going to work on. Question two. What did I want to change a year ago that I still want to change today? So question one, when I'm 80, what is it that you're going to regret not doing? Question two. What did you want to change a year ago that you still want to change today? And I'll tell you, I actually do a very good job with my children. I haven't traveled, but I'm okay with that right now. But I'd say the big ones are not pressing harder into my speaking career and not going all in on this podcast. I love doing this podcast. I love sharing the insights that these amazing people that I'm able to get on this show have. I love exposing you guys to new ideas. I'm so curious about the world. I love bringing all different types of people in from venture capitalists to leadership consultants, to psychologists, to scientists, like Brian Keating, to people that know about economics and the economy, like Carol Roth, to psilocybin therapy experts, like Austin Mao. I mean, there's just so many amazing things that go on in our world. And we can learn from all these different people, even if you're completely adverse to the idea of ever taking psychedelic mushrooms or psychedelics in general, you can learn from Austin in the way he approaches his business and the thoughtfulness that he has, and how he creates an experience for the people that do want that experience, I guess, of a psychedelic trip and to experience what he calls medicine. And I think in many ways it is, I believe that, but I know probably a lot of you listening either don't or just haven't thought enough about it, which is fine. But I love doing this show and to be honest with you, it has always been a side hustle as much as we have north of 200,000 people to listen to this show every month. And I feel so friggin' blessed. Thank you guys. But I still am not all in on it and I'm working towards that because I love doing this show. I love it. And I love you guys for listening. So for me, I think right now, what would I regret? Never giving the full college try to my speaking career and my this podcast or what I would not regret not doing 80 from years from now. And that was something I wanted to do a year ago and still haven't fully done. So what does that mean? When we take this test, when we answer these two questions, the things that are the same point the way. That's the punchline. If any of these answers to these two questions are even close, you're not confused about what you want. You're hiding from it. And frankly, I have been hiding. There's part of me that says like, what do you want to be a professional podcaster? Who's a professional podcaster? What are you going to be Joe Rogan? I mean, that's the stupid voice in my head. That's what it says. And I love this. I can do it all day. I can literally do this all day. I can talk to people and interview people all day long. It doesn't extract energy from me. It brings me energy. Yet I hide from it because I'm worried. I don't know. I don't even know what I'm worried about. But what I'm not is confused. I'm hiding. And I need to be aware of that. And it is the awareness of the fact that I am hiding that allows this protocol to work. It's why these questions are the first two questions that we ask because if we aren't aware of the fact that we're hiding. If we know exactly what we want and we're not doing it, we're hiding. We're not confused. It's not that we're not ready. It's not that we're not prepared. It's not that it's not the right time. It's that we are making a conscious choice to hide. We can camouflage it. We can we can spice it up. We can call it something else. But we're hiding. Because when people are actually confused, when we're actually confused, we explore. We poke at things. We try things. I'm not sure. So let me figure this out. Let me twist it, shake it, rattle it, figure out what the hell this thing is. But that's not what we do when we're hiding. When we're hiding, we delay. And if there is something that you will regret not doing when you're 80 years old. And you wanted to do that thing a year ago and you still haven't done it. You are delaying. You are hiding. But that delay has a payoff. That's the problem. Most people think hiding is laziness. It's not. Hiding is a strategy. Because if we don't commit, we don't have to find out if we're actually good at the thing. And frankly, that's probably why I'm hiding from the podcasting and the speaking is that I think I have some natural skills and ability. I've been doing both for more than a decade. I mean, I've done 400 plus keynotes. But if I want to ascend, I have to take my game to another level. And I think there's some part of me that's worried that if I take this thing and stick it in the fifth gear, I'm not going to have the same speed as everyone else. The greats. And that's a problem. Because there's no requirement for me to be as good as anyone else. There is only the requirement. And my contract with God that I work to be the best version of myself. So we get to protect the thing, the idea of the thing by hiding. Hiding allows us to protect the idea of being a podcaster, of being a speaker, of being an author, of being a great husband, of being a great parent, of being great at golf or bowling or pickleball or whatever the hell we're into. We hide from it because then the idea gets to sit there like this pristine, amazing little thing that we can think about and talk about someday, someday, someday, and it never happens. Because what we're really protecting is our identity. Because as long as we're almost doing it, we never have to worry about being judged as to whether or not we're great. So we can keep believing that we're the kind of person that could be great at that and we have this little thing because we're almost doing it. Well, if I went all in, I could be awesome. Fuck that. Potential feels incredible because potential can't be judged. Your potential for something feels incredible because we don't judge potential. Only execution gets judged. So we live in this state of, I'm still figuring it out. I'm waiting for the right time. I just need to be ready. I'm not ready. When I'm ready, I'll go. But that's just an addiction. That's an addiction to hiding. Hiding lets me feel special without being seen. When we hide from something, we live in its potential and we never have to actually be seen doing the thing because we're not going 100%. It's a side hustle, a side quest, whatever you want to call it. A hobby. But you just said that that thing. You'd regret not doing it at 80. And it was something you told yourself you would do a year ago and you still haven't done it today. Maybe it's getting in shape. Getting rid of that dad bod beer belly got that you have, which isn't that you're getting older. It's that you're getting lazier. You're hiding from being in shape because what if you work your ass off and you still don't look as good as you thought you would. Catch from the outcome. See, life doesn't pay out on potential. That's the thing. That's the problem. If life paid out in potential, then we would all be rich because we all have this thing that we could potentially be amazing at. But life pays on output. It pays on execution. And output is violent to the ego because every bit of pure execution can be judged. Output produces receipts. And what if God forbid those receipts don't measure up to what we want. God forbid we give 100% of ourselves to something and it doesn't work out the way we thought. So we had. I know that's why I had. So let me just clean this up a little bit here. Life is hard. Not as a vibe, but as a fact. If you think anything else, you either lying to yourself or you've been lied to and you believed it. And in either scenario, you are wrong. If we don't choose a direction, we drift. If we drift long enough, we end up somewhere we don't want to be. And the world doesn't punish with lightning and fire and brimstone. That's old school God. Life just punishes what wasted decades. New Testament God just lets you waste decades of your life hiding from the thing that you really want to do. So we don't need to be nice. We need capacity capacity to act capacity to say no to the bullshit that doesn't matter that keeps us from doing the things that do capacity to be disliked. Capacity to be wrong to miss to fail in public and to keep in going anyway. The harmless man isn't a good man. The good man is the monster who knows how to control it. The good man goes out into the arena and gets bloody and beaten and beat up and bruised and battered and gets back up and does it again. The harmless man isn't a good man. It's just untested. You know, someone once said to me, self control only means something if there's something to control. If you're sitting in your comfort zone with no true obligations, no true passion, purpose, you're just going through your nine to five, punch in the clock, stamp in your TPS reports, slide them across the desk. You don't have self control. You're not disciplined. You're just coasting and it's easy. It's comfortable. Self control comes from having a really hard goal that most people would never set for themselves and then digitally, digitally, sticking to the routine that makes that thing a reality. Self control only means something if there's something to control. Okay, so I promised you a sentence. We all say to ourselves, I just need more time. I just need more time. If only I had more time. If there was time, I would do that. If I had time, I don't have time. You don't understand I have kids. I have a full time job. You don't understand. I don't have time. I'm married. I don't have time. I have family. That's nearby. I don't have time. This sentence has cost me more than failure ever did. Because more time doesn't remove the fear. It doesn't remove the pain. It just makes the fear seem comfortable. The thing that I'm hiding from, if only I had time, it's a perfect excuse that everybody will accept. That's why it worked so well. Because everybody wishes they had more time. You know how you told yourself you always wanted to learn the piano, only if I had more time. Or I would be that thoughtful husband or wife, if only I had more time. I'd love to pick my kids up from school if only I had more time. That business that I fantasize about before I go to bed every night, that'd be great. If only I had more time. And if you've been saying that for a year, you're not being careful, you're not being smart. You're being a coward. It's cowardice. My self included. When I find myself hiding from things, I'm not being smart, careful, diligent, human. I'm being a coward. I'm being weak. I'm letting the voice in my head. I'm letting the resistance win. So now let's replace that sentence with a better one. What's one wrap I can do today? One wrap. You want to start posting on LinkedIn more to build your personal brand, but you don't have time to write posts. Just write the hook today. That's it. Just write the opening sentence today. Just write the opening sentence. That's it. Today, just write the opening sentence. Tomorrow, write the first paragraph. The day after that, build tension. The day after that, put in your open loop. The day after that, answer the question, solve the problem, provide the value. The day after that, write your CTA. The day after that, go back and edit the whole thing. The day after that, post it. Now you got a post. All right, that's just one post. It's one more fucking post than you had today. You needed time. You're telling me you can't write one sentence a day to get your post done, to get that, get your brand going. Because all you need is one good post, my friends. You don't have to post every day. One good post. One thoughtful, meaningful post. One post that lets people see into your soul that that digitizes the soul of you or your business that they can connect you that they can grab onto. That's all you need. Do it again. Maybe after you've done it once, you realize it's not really that hard. You write your opening hook and your first paragraph. Maybe you put your tension in there and your pivot or your open loop, depending on what structure you're using. And you get halfway done. And now instead of seven days, it takes four days. And you realize, Jesus, man, this isn't that hard. Now I can do it in two days. Now I can do it in one day. Now I can do it in 25 minutes when I wake up and I'm drinking my court morning coffee, I can bang out a post that helps push my personal brand out into the world and helps me connect with more peers and prospects and colleagues and establish this credibility. What's one rep you can do today? Because that my friends is how hiding dies. So this whole episode has been about four steps in order. No freestyle step number one, name the arena. Where am I hiding? Is it your body fitness? Is it money? Is it your marriage or business? Is it hobby? Maybe it's just a feeling like discipline. You just want to be a more disciplined person. Pick one not five not two not 3700 one you get to pick one. If you try to pick more. All you're doing is continuing to hide. Step number two. Choose one daily exposure rep exposure isn't a personality trait. It's reps. Pick one rep you can do daily. Make the call that you keep delay. Ask for the sale apply to the job have a conversation that you've been avoiding. Share your opinion and stand your ground. Do the hard task first. What's one rep that undeniably the excuse I don't have the time or I need more time can't be used against just one rep. Just one you hate co calling your sales person and you hate co calling I get it I hate co calling I developed an entire sales structure I developed an entire business. I got a risk around the idea that I hated cold calling. So I generated a massive amount of leads via YouTube and inbound content marketing and developed an entire sales structure that didn't make it so we didn't have the co call but let's say co calling is part of your business. And you hate co calling just make one you have time to make one call everybody has time to make one call most likely the person's not going to pick up anyways but you did it. Here they have your body all the procrastination all the hiding right the phones ringing your part is going boom boom boom and and you make the call the person picks up great I don't pick up whatever you made the call. You have time to make one call you have time to do one thing it's got to be measurable right. The thing can't be work on my business is that's not a rep send 10 outreach messages have the tough conversation by 5 p.m. train for 30 minutes. Has to be measurable one thing now step number three now we add in the stakes. Private goals die in private that you got to share your goals so so add the stakes tell somebody that won't let you slide an accountability partner can be a best friend it can be your spouse it can be a colleague a mentor anybody but the person has to be able to be honest with you and they have to be willing to hold you account. All right schedule a real deadline and then create consequences no stakes associated to the task means you can quite quietly make excuses to yourself negotiate with yourself and then show up the next day and not do it again and then you're right back on the treadmill of hiding. We're trying to get you out of hiding so stakes could be something is silly is 20 push ups. Right it could be if I don't every day that I don't do my rep I got to come home and in front of my family right before dinner starts I got to do 20 push ups so they all can see me. Could be that could be I don't get to have sex with my spouse until I do the thing that could be one I mean that would surely motivate me you got to have stakes they don't have to be anything wild. It just has to be something that you don't want to do. And if you can tie it to something fun like push ups or squats air squats or jumping jacks or something that maybe look makes you look a little silly in front of the people that you're doing it but it's in your body and shape to well that's perfectly fine. There has to be stakes because even if the stakes aren't that dire the fact that there are stakes will psychologically trigger you to push to do the thing because you will feel. A sense of shame in yourself when you have to do the thing that that you when you have to do the stakes when you don't do the thing and now you have to when you don't do the rep and now you have to to yield to the stakes of of not doing the rep even if it's something silly like 20 push ups. The whole time you do the 20 push ups you're going to be like what a stupid son of a bitch widen I just do the thing I got to do these stupid push ups and it's motivation did not miss on your rep the next day. I use push ups a lot because I like to be fit and I do enough push ups during the day or you know exercising general that when I have to do extra push ups well it's not you know 20 push ups isn't like this huge challenge. It's like I don't want to be doing this like why not just do the thing why not just do the thing what is wrong with me and then I'm like I'm not doing these stupid push ups tomorrow and it forces me to do the thing. Now this is the rule. This is a rule I have. Ship first then get clarity that thing just go do it do the one rep do it you're not going to be confident if it's something meaningful and important to you you're not going to be confident but do one rep you're not good at writing LinkedIn posts. Write a hook use chat you be to help you write a hook practice writing hooks right do do one hook every day for 10 days and before you ever publish a post before you ever work on your second sentence. Just work on 10 hooks and see which one you like the best. You could write 10 hooks and make an entire post out of it where you say like I'm I want to write more on LinkedIn but I'm kind of uncomfortable writing I haven't done it before here's 10 hooks that I wrote for posts that I was thinking about which one do you like the best guys. That post would most like blow up because people would want to come and help you when they want to give their opinion and they want to give share your their expertise on writing hooks and all the sudden you get all this feedback and now that sense of. Fear and anxiety that you had about sharing your opinion gone because you now know there's all these people there that are willing to help you. Ship first get clarity ship first get confidence ship first on your identity if we wait until we're ready we'll wait forever that's the whole point of this exercise we're hiding we're hiding from the things that will meaningfully move our life forward. Because ready is usually just code for. I'm scared. Not being ready code for I'm scared not being ready is just code for I'm scared. That's all it is not I'm not ready yet the situation isn't right the moon hasn't aligned in the sign of a quarry and I've been waiting for that before I start this new project or hobby or I actually start paying attention to my partner or you know I sit down with my kids and put the phone away and don't just smash my. I'm just going to do this in my phone all evening because I have so much anxiety because I've been hiding from all the things my entire life that I actually meaningful that would create purpose so I just. Smash my phone in my face with a beer at the end of the night so that I don't have to deal with anybody and I can just excuse myself away and waste decades. And that's no way to live I don't want to live that way fear doesn't disappear from thinking about it. This appears from reps from action from progress. Fear goes away. Through the work it's the work that that that crushes fear it's the work. The first time I ever went out on stage I was scared to death it was the national young agents big event in San Francisco I think in 2011 or 2012 I can never remember. I was scared to death and never been on a stage before ever and they asked me to speak. And I was like okay I'm going to say yes to that because that sounds fun scared to death today. Fear is still there every single time I walk on stage the fear is still there except I have taken so much action towards becoming a better speaker not the elite speaker that I want to be someday. But a much better speaker that I'm able to turn that fear into excitement. Fear and excitement light up the same neural pathways in our brain which means whether we're excited about something or we're fearful about that thing is a choice. It's a choice. You get to choose. Now I'll tell you that choice becomes much easier. When you've put in the reps. So here's the seven day stop hiding challenge. Seven day stop hiding challenge. This is how you take the exposure protocol that we just went through the four steps. Four steps that we just went through. Name the arena name the thing that you have to that you want that you need to stop hiding from choose one daily rep one daily exposure. Add steaks to it and then get the cap to it. That's the exposure protocol. Now here's a seven day challenge I'm putting in front of you. Do it. Don't do it completely up to you. Obviously I cannot marry in at my way through the interwebs of that you're listening to this podcast on and force you to do it. So this is a choice you have to make. But if there's something you're hiding from and it can be something small you could be hiding from multiple things. I am. So you don't have to pick the biggest thing first right work the muscle work the reps. Pick pick something small like I said like like posting on LinkedIn more regularly or or doing YouTube videos or just walking in the door not being an asshole to your family every day pick one thing and it doesn't have to be the biggest thing. But pick one thing you're hiding from. One rep every day for seven days pick the arena to find the rep that's day one. So you don't have to do anything day one just just pick what it is. We continue our LinkedIn example. I'm going to post on LinkedIn. I want to post on LinkedIn. That's what I want to do. To find one rep. I'm going to write the hook for a post and then day two. Write the hook. That's right. It's mostly going to suck. Even if you use chat GBT unless you know how to properly prompt chat GBT. And if you want to know how to create influence and leverage through AI in your personal brand just to make sure that you're not going to get it. Just go to finding peak.com and subscribe to the paid membership. I have all kinds of prompts in there that will help you refine your voice. Create Instagram shorts that you know dynamically take your ideas your premises and turn them into really well crafted things. So go to finding peak.com subscribe to the newsletter regardless. It's free. And then if you want some of the deeper stuff I think it's like 17 bucks a month or something. It's like nothing. So day number one. We're picking the arena and we're defining what the thing is we're going to do. We're going to get really good at writing hooks. We're going to do that through one hook a day. Day two. We're going to do it. We're going to write that hook. Just write one. Right one and stop on purpose. You're going to be like, I was easy. No shit. Day two or day three. Sorry. You're not going to want to do it. You're going to immediately create an excuse. Write one more hook. You're going to know that was easy. No shit. Day four. Do it again. Maybe you feel like at this point you're like, I've already done two. I want to write the second sentence. Don't write the sentence. Second sentence. All that really matters in most LinkedIn posts is the hook. Anyways, get really good at the hooks. The rest of it will shake itself out. So you're working on hooks. Day five. Do it again. Day six. Do it again. Day seven. You're probably going to be halfway decent at writing hooks. Because you're not going to listen to me about just doing one. You're going to write a couple. And you're going to take those hooks and you're going to put them into chat you be teen. You're going to go. Rank these hooks by virality on LinkedIn for my industry and insert your industry and explain your ranking. You're going to say that again. In this case, you're going to write your hooks by the end of this. You should have six. Day two, three, three, four, day five, day six, day seven. You have six hooks. And you're going to take those hooks and you're going to put them in chat you be T. And you're going to ask chat you be T to rank order those hooks by virality on LinkedIn for your industry, insert your industry. And then explain the reasoning behind the ranking. Go. And I'm going to learn. And I bet what you find is not as bad as you think. Guess what you won't be scared of doing anymore. Writing hooks for LinkedIn posts. And that's step number one of not hiding. And then that for whatever your thing is, if it's fitness, if it's going to the gym, right. I want to work on my upper body strength. Awesome. I'm going to have three days a week. I'm going to do upper body exercises. At the gym. Awesome. Go to the gym. Maybe you don't have a program the first day. Play around with some different, you know, do some dumbbell bench, do some military press. Dips. You're going to work on curls, pull ups. Like just do it sloppy. It doesn't matter. Just do it. And the next day you're not going to want to go to the gym again. But go. And maybe you just do push ups, right. Just do push ups on the floor upper body strength because you can't make it to the gym that day. And then you're going to feel like you don't have enough time. So just find a place to do, you know, try some extensions on the side of a couch or find a something that you can curl in your house. Curling is really easy. You can, you know, basically anything you can hold on to with any kind of weight you can do curls with. And yet's going to look crazy. And then do it again and do it embarrassed and do it when you feel numb and do it when you feel behind and then all the sudden you realize, holy crap. I actually have a little bit of upper body strength and it's only been a week. Your arms are going to hurt your forms are going to hurt your shoulders are going to hurt. Let me soar. But you're going to be stronger than you were. And you'll approve to yourself that you can go to the gym. And now you're not hiding, at least not as much as you were before. We're detoxing from comfort. That's what we're doing. We're the this protocol detoxes us from comfort. So here's the rub. Hiding is me protecting a version of myself that doesn't exist the future me the someday me that the once I'm ready me that version of me doesn't exist the future doesn't exist. We're not talking quantum theory and all that kind of crap right now probably does, but doesn't matter. The purpose of conversation today. We don't build that guy by planning. We build them through exposure through reps through action. We don't need better personalities. We don't need to change who we are just need better patterns. Patterns of action. It doesn't matter that you have doubt or fear or you lack confidence. Take action. Action gets confidence. Action gets confidence. Action gets confidence. Action. Action is the answer. Because the world doesn't reward the most acceptable voice, the most acceptable answer. It rewards the undeniable, the unstoppable, the completely fucking unreasonable. Unreasonable. An undeniable ability. It's built the same way everything else is built. Do reps, do action, do exposure. So here's the rub my friends. I'm done hiding not because I'm fearless. Trust me. I am riddled with fear and anxiety. But I refuse to let that shit stop me from getting where I want to be. I'm tired of paying the price of not having what I want. And I hope after listening to this you are to and use the exposure protocol use it. If I'll have it in a written form. If you just go to scroll down wherever you're listening to this. I'll have the link below. Click it. I'll have it for free. Google Doc. You can get it. You can see it. You can use it. I promise you it's just it's the first push down the hill of the habit of action. That's all it is. But the exposure protocol works because it shows you that small little actions give you the same amount of positive reinforcement that trying to wait for some big mega action. And when you feel that fear just remember it's a choice. Fear is a choice. The same exact neurons are lit up whether you're fearful or you're excited, which means it's a choice. It's your choice. So the next time you feel fear. Tell yourself you're just excited. Harness that energy towards your one rep. Make progress. Take action. I fucking love you guys for listening to this show. This is the way.