Detailed Notes
In this episode of the Building Better Developers podcast, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche dive into how to stop chasing your tail when you’re stuck, overwhelmed, or spinning in place.
Learn how to recognize when you’re panicking, reset your focus, and take small, actionable steps to regain momentum. Whether you’re running a business, managing projects, or just trying to survive the daily grind, these practical strategies will help you move forward.
🎯 Challenge of the Episode: Take one small step today to stop chasing your tail and move closer to your goal!
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00:00 - Introduction 01:30 - Recognizing When You’re Chasing Your Tail 04:00 - How Panic Traps You 06:45 - How to Stop, Reset, and Refocus 10:30 - Setting Realistic Goals 13:00 - Taking Small Steps Forward 15:20 - Overcoming Money and Time Stress 18:00 - Final Thoughts and Challenge of the Episode
Transcript Text
[Music] We are back and we are chasing our tails. What? Chasing our tails. Yes. Going to talk about chasing your tail. Your tail. Not tail in general. It's not that kind of podcast. Um or also I'm thinking a little bit of the hitchhiker's guide. the don't panic kind of thing because I think this is this is really gonna be I think I want to talk a little bit really about that. It's like what happens when the poop hits the fan as it were and how to like get stuff back on track. How to not get yourself basically how to not panic and get caught up in it. Uh even though yes sometimes that you know we still have we still suffer from it but there are ways to uh drive forward with that and we'll see how that goes because you and I panic differently. Well, so we'll be interested to hear how this one goes as far as um you know our feedback and our thoughts on this one. So we'll do a little interesting with that because you know the problem we run into with this one topic especially is the feedback loop because it's not so much just panicking or chasing your tail, but you get into a cycle of you can't break out. It's like oh this this you and that's the whole thing chasing your tail. So I'll let you get to it, but it that's the big thing in my mind is we get stuck in that feedback loop. So the whole chasing your tail to me is stuck in a rut is this loop that you're just constant negative feeding negative or problem feeding problem like not firefighting mode. It this is different than firefighting mode but you definitely can get into these cycles. So sorry. Oh, that one do a three, a two, a one. Well, hello and welcome back. We are continuing our season of building better businesses, but we are actually the building better developers podcast, also known as developer or vice versa, depending on how you found us. I happen to be Rob Broadhead. No matter how you found me, that's who I am. One of the founders of developer. Also a founder of RB Consulting where we help you figure out technology. And honestly, we're not actually worried about helping you figure it out. We figure out your business. We sit down with you. We understand what your business is. We work with you to figure out your special sauce and all your secrets so we can craft a recipe custom for you and your business through integration, simplification, automation, innovation, however the approach needs to be. It may be all of those. It may only be one of those. It may be that we give you a sheet of paper and a pencil and say, "This is really all the technology you need." Probably not the case, but you never know. We look at what's out there. We spend a lot of time in technology. We know a lot of the tools are out there. We know what some of the options are. And we know how to find the options as well. So even if you're in some really deep niche, we can help you figure out a solution that suits your budget, suits your customers, suits your products, and allows you to make more money with spending less money or at least smarter spending of money in the technology world and all the sprawl that is out there. Now, good things, bad things. A good thing is h this is like a good little combo too. So we'll start with a bad thing. The other day we had an order from somebody and I'm not going to say who it was but it's sort of like an a toz kind of place and we got this order and we got notified as one does through these orders that they couldn't deliver the order. Well, it happened to be this was for my wife and she was actually sitting there and we were on the street and we looked down and we saw the delivery person and so she was texting with him through the device and said, "Hey, I see you. I'll come get this." She goes to this guy does not speak English. Funny enough, does speak a language that she speaks. So, even speaking his native language, she is not able to get him to understand that there's probably more than one package in his car and is and that the one he's looking at is not hers, but there's another one in there that he needs to drop off. Didn't work out. So, it took us another day before this thing showed up. The good thing is what showed up is that she had ordered a travel multi-screen laptop extender thing which is I know I'm getting too technical here but it was really cool. It allows you to have like a nice it sits on your main screen of your laptop. It opens up into a couple nice little like I think they're 14 15inch monitors something like that. high quality, love it, and uh it is definitely a good way to turn your little laptop into a road warrior desktop. And I will be definitely testing that out for a while. Uh and she will probably get another pair as well for her so that we can have like lots and lots of screens if we really want to. But you only need one screen for this guy. And I'm going to let him introduce himself. So Michael, go for it. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malage. I'm one of the co-founders of developer building better developers. I'm also the founder of a company called Envision QA where we help companies with software problems. You can be a software company or you can just be a run-of-the-mill company on Main Street trying to do your business but struggling with the technology to do your job. It could be anything from Windows isn't working or your inventory system is crashing or your website is down. We come in, we walk through you, we help you understand your problems, we under help you understand your technology stack and then we will help you customize a solution to meet your needs. Good thing, bad thing. So along that line, I'm jealous. However, I have two 49in ultrawides. Unfortunately, they are only used for work, not gaming. I I have gamed on them once in two years, which is a shame. Um, but what you're describing is almost like the ultra wides, but for my laptop, which is beautiful. I would love to just take that with me anywhere because when I travel to different places, that would be awesome. So, little bad thing there is I don't have that. Jealous. Uh, good thing though, uh, things have been moving along. Weather's better. Life's better. Allergies still suck. But as Rob mentioned in the pre-show, uh new games coming out or remastered games coming out. So excited to get around to that eventually. Uh and some other gamings cuz I am a gamer. I like the Switch, too. I waiting to see that. Mario Kart World looks interesting. But anyway, I digress. Very excited about gamings that are coming out. blueprints has sucked up what little time I have. Uh but with all that being said, at least I've had good thing is I've had time to have a little slice to enjoy the things I like to enjoy. Well, the negative is I don't have the tech you have. I I'm tech envy. So, I'll pass it back to you. Yes, we all have that at some point. And I'm glad to be the envy, the envy as opposed to the envir. Uh, but I'm also not obviously not much enough of a wordssmith. So instead, I'm going to continue on with the topic of this episode, which happens to be effectively don't panic. I want to talk about this is I it does get a little bit into the developer side and some of the other things, but it's regardless of your situation. This is really what what to do when you're when you're finding yourself blocked, when you find yourself in a rut, when you find yourself stuck chasing your tail, when and it's not just that you're doing it. It's when you essentially realize it and now you're like, "How do I stop? How do I stop this? You know, because if you're just chasing your tail, you could be like a little dog that's just happy as, oh, I'm chasing my tail. I'm chasing my tail. And then suddenly you realize, I'm chasing my tail. I can't do this anymore. This is killing me. Or something like that. That's usually when you panic because you're like, I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do. And that's basically what we're talking about here is like when you throw your hands up and you're like, "All right, I don't know where to go. I I don't like where I'm at. I don't like where I'm going. I don't know how to change course. Things like that. That's what I want to talk about this episode. Now, we all, I think, handle these situations differently. Now, I will tell you that I do this a lot. I like there's the Hulk line where he's like, they're like, "How do you turn in the Hulk so fast?" And he's like, "Cuz I'm always angry." You know, that's like me. I think there's at some point I was always stressed. So stressed isn't new to me. I just it's just my motus up around die. I'm used to always being under fire, having pressure, got to do stuff, get it done today, things like that. It doesn't mean that I'm the most pleasant person when, you know, fires erupt and things like that. There are sometimes that dumpster fires bother me and usually that means it's going to bother the people around me as well, which is probably more motivation for me to figure my crap out so I'm not making everybody else miserable. The thing that I do to help fix those things is first just scream really loud. No, you can I think there is a there is a value in just saying, you know what, I'm in a bad place. I'm I'm stuck or something like that. And give yourself a minute to just be like, I'm so sad for myself. Cry tears. Go like, you know, have a beer, have a big bowl of ice cream, whatever it is that's your thing. Um, take a little bit of time. And the thing is is take a little bit of time to step. Just stop. If you're chasing your tail and you can't figure out how to stop chasing your tail, then sometimes it's just a matter of just stop. It's just like sit there and sit in it for a second and go, "This is not what I want to do. This is not where I want to go." And this can be with a project. It could be almost anything in your life. And from a business side, these are going to be things like, "I am stuck. I've got a customer that I hate and I'm trying to figure out how to get him out of my life and or her. I'll even allow. It's not just gender." um but you know or this like I've bit off more than I can chew or this project should is taking longer than it should or this product isn't working the way it is. There's like and on and on. There's so many ways things can go wrong and they can frustrate the living daylights out of us. However, once you essentially like own it and say, "All right, not good. Got to fix it." The panicked approach is in do everything. That's like, you know, it's like people are running around with their hair on fire and they're going away like, "I'm going to die. I'm going to die." Well, you probably will because most movies, those are the people that get killed first. What you want to do is you want to take a deep breath and figure out what is the path to get you to success. It is almost it is almost entirely a reset in a sense. It's like, "Okay, this is where I'm at." And you may not even know. So you may have to take a little bit of time to adjust to, you know, assess where are you at? And then say, what's the goal that I'm trying to accomplish? What will get me out of this? And then it's actually pretty simple. Then make a plan. Is what are the steps I need to take to get there? Now I'm going to take something that's let's take it's sort of business, but not. And let's just take it like let's say it's a money thing because it's like it's a nice simple. So, it's like, hey, I'm in too much debt or my, you know, I don't have enough funds to get this product finished for my customers or, you know, this. So, it could be a business level not enough money or it could be a personal not enough money. Well, what you need to do is say, okay, well, I don't have enough money. And then you need to look at like assess a little bit. So, is it because uh my income and my outgoing are out of balance? If so, this is sort of like an if and then kind of thing. I then take this step, but it's okay. If they're out of balance and I'm my income is not what my outgoing is is, then I need to go probably address my outgoing. Now, that this goes back to what we talked about in a prior episode where it's like sort of like an MVP or it's like what's going out that I can stop and then if that's not good enough, then what's going in? How can I improve the income? So, those are steps. Those are solid steps because you get to a point where maybe it's like I want to in order to get to my goal. I need to have my income outpace my outcome for two months, let's say. So you know that that's at least you've got a goal. You set a goal. A goal line of objective is key because now you start working with things to say keeping that in mind, how do I get there? Now, the interesting part in all this to avoid you from falling back into panic and despair and you just curl up like a, you know, in a little ball is make sure that your objective is something you believe is reasonable, is doable. If it's not, adjust it to something that you think that you are capable of doing this. You're like, it can happen. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but it is a realistic goal. So, if your goal is, I want to be a billionaire in three weeks, and you've never made more than $5 in a a year. Okay, unrealistic. You're not going to get there. But roll it back and figure out, and maybe it is. Maybe it's one of those like the only way I'm going to get out of this is this objective that is impossible. Okay, reset your expectations. This is actually key as a business person because sometimes it's not just reset your expectations. it is let's reset my customer's expectations. Maybe a hard conversation, but it's actually a very good one to have because what you're going to end up doing is resetting stuff for yourself, but also for those that are causing you stress, those that are part of the problem. It's getting them on the same page and being able to say, "Okay, we didn't get it. We're not going to get it. this seems like, you know, we've taken some wrong turns or whatever it happens to be, we need to make some adjustments. Then that will allow you to make the adjustments and also reduce some of the stress. So, I'm going to stop right there and sort of toss this over like what do you think on that? So, I'm going to start with the question, how did we get here? Because the biggest problem I run into a lot, a lot uh is when you reach the point where you're chasing your tail, you're in that don't panic. You're in that feedback loop of what do I do? You know, oh, there's all these fires, firefighting mode. I I hate saying firefighting mode because firefighting mode and chasing her tail are kind of two different lanes. So be careful with that. You can be in firefighting mode but not be in this feedback loop. How did we get here? we run into situations and I'm there more often than not because I'm always over uh extending my time and resources because we only have so much time in a day that we can get things done and we commit to something but then something else comes along personally or work-wise or whatever that changes that time. we already have committed to getting X done, but now we have something else that has taken up that time and you're freaking out because it's like what the hell, you know, how am I going to get all this done? When I made these commitments, it made sense, but now I'm off the rails. It's like, oh crap. Um, you know, it could be money, it could be time, it could be you're overcommitted. Most of the time my problems are over commitment and money and unfortunately money isn't always in my control I should say uh I have set a lot of things in place so to correct this problem to help avoid a lot of these feed feedback loops for particular issues money is one of the Few things you can do to buffer yourself through feedback loops. You know you have to pay bills. So you have a set expenditure that you have to cover every month, every year to keep the business going. So that is almost finite. Yes, there are some unexpected costs, but really running a business like the expenditures of the business are pretty finite. There are some things per project that go up and down, but for the overall business, you have a set I need X to pay the bills. Your home life, personal bills are about the same. You have X to live, you know, mortgages, electric bill, cell phone bill, etc. It's those outliers where you overextend yourself either in business or in personal that bites you in the ass. And these co money is one of the number one reasons why people go crazy. It's one of the biggest stressors in our lives and it applies to business. It's not just personal and it's not just about running the business. When you take on a project, you place a bid. Hey, I'm going to do X to get this job done for you. And you can easily fall into the stress of we're not there. Are we there yet? You know, you may plan things out to where you have things in you you have the triggers in place to protect yourself. But even those triggers do not protect you because there's the old saying, you know, the straw broke the camel's back. There's always something externally that can come in and destroy a project. It can destroy a project. It can destroy your finances. It can destroy whatever it is you're working on. And you get into that mode where it's like, like Rob said, I got to do everything. Sometimes if you get into that mode, if you're if you have a team and you seem to be the only one yelling fire in a movie theater and everyone else is fine, do you see fire or do you see gasoline and they don't see the fire? Meaning, do you see a catalyst for something that is not there or something that is potentially going to cause a problem? Something out of your control and you need to walk it back. So, if people around you say things are fine, but you're like they're not fine, where's the happy medium? Are we out of control? You know, are you the person that is, you know, the sky is falling and it is falling but no one else is seeing it or are you overanalyzing, being too critical about where you're at, where things are, and your team is trying to tell you, hey, come back. You know, it's cool. We're calm. But there is a place where we're in between where you could be in a situation where a person sees the fire and no one else does. So there's there is a case where yes, we're talking about chasing your tails. We're talking about don't panic, but there is a situation where someone is raising the flag. Hey, there is a fire. Things are wrong. You do need to listen, but maybe pull them aside or take a step back. Hey, are things really as bad as they seem? I think what you want to look at in this is from the panic point of view because it it's sometimes yes, you're just panicking because you're panicking, but there's usually something behind that. There is some pressure. there's something needs to be done, there's something like that. And so I like to look at it as and it's it's sort of the old uh I guess an old saw basically of worry. Let tomorrow's problems worry about themselves. Today has enough problems of its own. I think a lot of times when we panic and things like that and actually the panic itself when we're usually what happens when we panic is it's like we're just trying to get everything done at one time or we're just trying to like this problem has to be solved immediately. And I think that's where the challenge is is to rein that back in because it being solved immediately is probably not actually going to solve it. It's things like, "I'm in the rain and so I need to solve this immediately. So, I'm going to run across the street inside that building." And then you run in front of a car and you get killed. Okay, you have Yeah, you don't have to worry about the rain anymore, but you have bigger issues. And that's really the problem we have is we're in a situation where we're trying to get out of it. And the panic, the problem with that is that we don't think rationally. that we put ourselves a lot of times in a worse situation than we were in before or at least there's a chance because now we're not really paying attention. So our risk of getting into something we shouldn't be improves increases quite a bit. And so that's really where it comes down to is when you're when you find yourself in this situation, you want to find that goal. But one of the things it's like and this is sort of that basic most basic of things is find your first step that is in the right direction. So you could be spinning around and around and chasing your tail. And so it's that stop and go, okay, I'm chasing my tail. I need to stop this somehow. Okay, what am I supposed to do other than chase my tail? Oh, I'm supposed to walk down the street to that corner. Okay, which orient yourself. Where's that corner? How can I get there? I don't need to get there right now, but how can I put myself so that a minute from now, 5 minutes from now, an hour from now, I'm closer to my goal than I am right now. That I've made some sort of progress. And this goes back to little bit incremental baby step kind of pro progress. It's just as long as we can build a little bit of momentum in the right direction is going to help us for that next step, that next step, and that next step. So, it really is, it seems so cliche, but it really is. Stop, take a deep breath, give yourself a second, assess where you are, and then just pick a first step. Because even if that goal is impossible to you right now, take a step in that direction anyways, and let's see what happens. because that at least puts you in a better situation than you were before you took that step. So that is where the challenge is today. If you're freaking out, if you've got something that's stressing you out, if you've got something that you think is going to stress you out, if you've got problems, if you got 99 problems and working code ain't one or something like that, stop for a second and just consider what is the step. What is one little step that you can take that will put you in a better position towards that goal than you are right now? And it may be a very difficult step sometimes. It could be things like, well, I guess the first thing is I'd have to talk to my boss. Okay, nobody likes unless I'm your boss, nobody likes to talk to their boss. Those kinds of things are like, what's that step? And maybe it is like ah I can't talk to my boss, but that's like that's the step that comes to me. Okay. Well, rain it back then that instead of talking to your boss, maybe it's I'm going to sit down and start to craft an email to my boss or I'm going to think about what is it that I'm going to talk to my boss about or something that would gets you moving forward. It gets you off the ball essentially of sitting there and just not being in a good place and instead saying, "Okay, what can I do to move myself out of this?" Maybe it is just, "Okay, I'm I'm chasing my tail. I don't know where I'm going to go, but at least now I'm going to chase my tail slower or something like that. I mean, sometimes it is very, very minimal, but if you chase your tail slower and slower and slower, eventually you can stop. It's just like it really is step by step by step. That is what you need to be looking for. So, I think your first step, and Michael knows what's coming, is to send us an email at infoddeveloper.com and let us know how it's going. We would be happy to commiserate with you. We would be happy to help you down a gallon of ice cream. Whatever it is that helps you feel better. We would love to be there and just like be your support team and, you know, root you on and and help you guys, cheer you forward wherever it is you're going. You can also leave us feedback on YouTube, anywhere that you get podcast. Uh the out on X, we are developer. We have a Facebook page. Uh yeah, we're boomers like that or whatever it is. Even if we're not, um we've got plenty of places to get a hold of us. Any of those places are great. Developer.com itself, we've got feedback forms. You can leave feedback comments on anything that's out there, whether it's videos, whether it's blog articles, whatever the heck it is. Love to hear from you. And we'd love to hear how your challenges are going. These have been and honestly, if you get the newsletter, you know that that's this has been there have been a lot of interesting challenges in this season. And I think that even if you pick a couple of them, you will find a huge improvement in your business because we've had some actually really good things that we've stumbled across as we've gone through the season and had some topics and some related challenges. That being said, go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Bonus material. So, one of the things we didn't get to in the episode that I think are important is are you internalizing the problem? Is it better to reach out to your team and just be honest? Hey, what do you guys think of X? Are we off the rails? Are we, you know, is this a problem? Now, if you're the manager, it's hard to relinquish that. It's hard to talk through that or you know introverts you know you you don't like talking about these things. Sometimes voicing the problem erases the problem but sometimes voicing the problems does highlight that this is an issue. Throw it out there. Hey you know talk to your team. Keep it open communication. Keep it non um adversary, meaning it's a safe space. If someone throws out, hey, I feel this. Take it into consideration, answer honestly, and no hurt feelings. You know, don't shut someone down just because they're having concerns about a problem. Now, if you're in a help desk, my wife got me this years ago. It's called a Damit doll. And the whole point of it is whenever things don't go so well and you want to hit the wall and yell, "Here's a little damn it doll that you can't do without, just grab it, grasp it firm by the legs, and then place it and smash it and whack it and stuff all and yell, "Damn it, damn it, damn it. Damn it all." Or guys, I hate to follow that because that's actually a pretty good one. Um, I think I I do want to I think I want to go with the whole like the taking a step forward as is the best way because I I'm going to lead into something that is going to be like, "Oh no, you're going there again, but I'm going to go there again." Uh, but I'm going to start with this taking that first step. I recommend a little pomodoro. Give yourself like a 25 minute especially if this is like if you just don't know get your little pomodoro timer 25 minutes a five minute break thing that it does just getting that 25 where it's just like the whole point is to let everything else out and let's sit down and let's focus. Another thing you can do which I found really useful when I did the Pomodoro stuff is go find one of these like uh uh focus music kind of channels and stuff like that. Um, I use there's a couple different ones that I use that are very useful and I actually a couple of them I use based on what my task is. So, it'll help do the tunes are a little bit different. And I don't know how much that audio stuff helps, but it does to me to you as well. But the important thing is with that is that means I've put this music on that is just it's not there's no lyrics or anything. There's just music, there's background. I put my headphones on. sites helps me shut stuff out and be able to actually address the problem and figure out what is it. And sometimes that first step is just figuring out what the first step is. It's like literally like I said, it's finding your bearings and like which direction do I need to face for my first step. That is something that I think will help you quite a bit if you can if you can find a way to make that work. Interesting with that. Tim Ferrris mentioned it with reading uh books. Make sure you don't read two thoughtprovoking books at the same time. If you're dealing with multiple problems that are overthoughtprovoking, try to narrow it down to one problem at a time. As Rob said, the Pomodoro works with that. But the problem a lot of us have is we have a lot of triggers. And if you have multiple things that trigger the same thing, even if you pivot, if you're in the same trigger, you're not going to reset. So, be very careful with how you pivot, which direction you go between these pomodoros. That is a good point is that you want to um it's it's one pomodoro I think is the challenge here is is what you would do is because you if you do too much then you might be suddenly taking yourself down another rabbit hole that you need to go don't need to go down. I think it is is something where it's like part of this is making that step intentional. So you take that step and then you I don't know celebrate it or sit in it for a second or something like that. So, it's like, hey, I made progress. Pat myself on the back, whatever it is. So that you're like, hey, I can do this. And then start building that momentum of, hey, I'm doing this. I'm making progress. And that's noting that's going to help you too because what's going to happen is like, you know, a couple days from now or whatever, as you've taken more steps, you can look back and go, I remember patting myself on the back. I'm hurting my arm. I'm patting myself on the back so much because I'm taking steady steps towards whatever that goal is. And that's going to help you uh not only with this one and to be able to say, "Yeah, I've got momentum. I'm going. I'm making progress." The next time it happens, it's going to make it that much easier because you're going to say, "Hey, I've done this before." Just like we have done this before. We've done a lot of these episodes. We have quite a few probably left. Who knows where this is going to stop? And so make sure you like us, subscribe, follow us, reach out to us, tell us what you think. We need your information. We need your feedback. Follow us on developer at Facebook, Twitter, developer.com, and we're on LinkedIn. Make sure you follow us wherever we are. And hey guys, have a great day, great week, and we will talk to you next time. Have a good one, guys. Bye-bye. [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
We are back and we are
chasing our tails. What? Chasing our
tails. Yes. Going to talk about chasing
your tail. Your tail. Not tail in
general. It's not that kind of podcast.
Um or also I'm thinking a little bit of
the hitchhiker's guide. the don't panic
kind of thing because I think this is
this is really gonna be I think I want
to talk a little bit really about that.
It's like what happens when the poop
hits the fan as it were and how to like
get stuff back on track. How to not get
yourself basically how to not panic and
get caught up in it. Uh even though yes
sometimes that you know we still have we
still suffer from it but there are ways
to uh drive forward with that and we'll
see how that goes because you and I
panic differently. Well, so we'll be
interested to hear how this one goes as
far as um you know our feedback and our
thoughts on this one. So we'll do a
little interesting with that because you
know the problem we run into with this
one topic especially is the feedback
loop because it's not so much
just panicking or chasing your tail, but
you get into a
cycle
of you can't break out. It's like oh
this this you and that's the whole thing
chasing your tail. So I'll let you get
to it, but it that's the big thing in my
mind is we get stuck in that feedback
loop. So the whole chasing your tail to
me is
stuck in a rut is this loop that you're
just constant negative feeding negative
or problem feeding problem like not
firefighting mode. It this is different
than firefighting mode but you
definitely can get into these cycles. So
sorry. Oh, that one do a three, a two, a
one. Well, hello and welcome back. We
are continuing our season of building
better businesses, but we are actually
the building better developers podcast,
also known as developer or vice versa,
depending on how you found us. I happen
to be Rob Broadhead. No matter how you
found me, that's who I am. One of the
founders of developer. Also a founder of
RB Consulting where we help you figure
out technology. And honestly, we're not
actually worried about helping you
figure it out. We figure out your
business. We sit down with you. We
understand what your business is. We
work with you to figure out your special
sauce and all your secrets so we can
craft a recipe custom for you and your
business through integration,
simplification, automation, innovation,
however the approach needs to be. It may
be all of those. It may only be one of
those. It may be that we give you a
sheet of paper and a pencil and say,
"This is really all the technology you
need." Probably not the case, but you
never know. We look at what's out there.
We spend a lot of time in technology. We
know a lot of the tools are out there.
We know what some of the options are.
And we know how to find the options as
well. So even if you're in some really
deep niche, we can help you figure out a
solution that suits your budget, suits
your customers, suits your products, and
allows you to make more money with
spending less money or at least smarter
spending of money in the technology
world and all the sprawl that is out
there. Now, good things, bad things.
A good thing is h this is like a good
little combo too. So we'll start with a
bad thing. The other day we had an order
from somebody and I'm not going to say
who it was but it's sort of like an a
toz kind of place and we got this order
and we got notified as one does through
these orders that they couldn't deliver
the order. Well, it happened to be this
was for my wife and she was actually
sitting there and we were on the street
and we looked down and we saw the
delivery person and so she was texting
with him through the device and said,
"Hey, I see you. I'll come get this."
She goes to this
guy does not speak English. Funny
enough, does speak a language that she
speaks. So, even speaking his native
language, she is not able to get him to
understand that there's probably more
than one package in his car and is and
that the one he's looking at is not
hers, but there's another one in there
that he needs to drop
off. Didn't work out. So, it took us
another day before this thing showed up.
The good thing is what showed up is that
she had ordered a travel multi-screen
laptop extender thing which is I know
I'm getting too technical here but it
was really cool. It allows you to have
like a nice it sits on your main screen
of your laptop. It opens up into a
couple nice little like I think they're
14 15inch monitors something like that.
high quality, love it, and uh it is
definitely a good way to turn your
little laptop into a road warrior
desktop. And I will be definitely
testing that out for a while. Uh and she
will probably get another pair as well
for her so that we can have like lots
and lots of screens if we really want
to. But you only need one screen for
this guy. And I'm going to let him
introduce himself. So Michael, go for
it. Hey everyone, my name is Michael
Malage. I'm one of the co-founders of
developer building better developers.
I'm also the founder of a company called
Envision QA where we help companies with
software problems. You can be a software
company or you can just be a
run-of-the-mill company on Main Street
trying to do your business but
struggling with the technology to do
your job. It could be anything from
Windows isn't working or your inventory
system is crashing or your website is
down. We come in, we walk through you,
we help you understand your problems, we
under help you understand your
technology stack and then we will help
you customize a solution to meet your
needs. Good thing, bad thing. So along
that line, I'm
jealous. However, I have two 49in
ultrawides. Unfortunately, they are only
used for work, not gaming.
I I have gamed on them once in two
years, which is a shame. Um, but what
you're describing is almost like the
ultra wides, but for my laptop, which is
beautiful. I would love to just take
that with me anywhere because when I
travel to different places, that would
be awesome. So, little bad thing there
is I don't have that. Jealous. Uh, good
thing though, uh, things have been
moving along. Weather's better. Life's
better. Allergies still suck.
But as Rob mentioned in the pre-show, uh
new games coming out or remastered games
coming out. So excited to get around to
that eventually. Uh and some other
gamings cuz I am a gamer. I like the
Switch, too. I waiting to see that.
Mario Kart World looks interesting. But
anyway, I digress. Very excited about
gamings that are coming out. blueprints
has sucked up what little time I have.
Uh but with all that being said, at
least I've had good thing is I've had
time to have a little slice to enjoy the
things I like to enjoy. Well, the
negative
is I don't have the tech you have. I I'm
tech envy. So, I'll pass it back to you.
Yes, we all have that at some point. And
I'm glad to be the envy, the envy as
opposed to the
envir. Uh, but I'm also not obviously
not much enough of a wordssmith. So
instead, I'm going to continue on with
the topic of this episode, which happens
to be effectively don't panic. I want to
talk
about this is I it does get a little bit
into the developer side and some of the
other things, but it's regardless of
your situation. This is really what what
to do when you're when you're finding
yourself blocked, when you find yourself
in a rut, when you find yourself stuck
chasing your tail, when and it's not
just that you're doing it. It's when you
essentially realize it and now you're
like, "How do I stop? How do I stop
this? You know, because if you're just
chasing your tail, you could be like a
little dog that's just happy as, oh, I'm
chasing my tail. I'm chasing my tail.
And then suddenly you realize, I'm
chasing my tail. I can't do this
anymore. This is killing me. Or
something like that. That's usually when
you panic because you're like, I don't
know where to go. I don't know what to
do. And that's basically what we're
talking about here is like when you
throw your hands up and you're like,
"All right, I don't know where to go. I
I don't like where I'm at. I don't like
where I'm going. I don't know how to
change course. Things like that. That's
what I want to talk about this episode.
Now, we all, I think, handle these
situations differently. Now, I will tell
you that I do this a lot. I like there's
the Hulk line where he's like, they're
like, "How do you turn in the Hulk so
fast?" And he's like, "Cuz I'm always
angry." You know, that's like me. I
think there's at some point I was always
stressed. So stressed isn't new to me. I
just it's just my motus up around die.
I'm used to always being under fire,
having pressure, got to do stuff, get it
done today, things like that. It doesn't
mean that I'm the most pleasant person
when, you know, fires erupt and things
like that. There are sometimes that
dumpster fires bother me and usually
that means it's going to bother the
people around me as well, which is
probably more motivation for me to
figure my crap out so I'm not making
everybody else miserable.
The thing that I do to help fix those
things is first just scream really loud.
No, you can I think there is a there is
a value in just saying, you know what,
I'm in a bad place. I'm I'm stuck or
something like that. And give yourself a
minute to just be
like, I'm so sad for myself. Cry tears.
Go like, you know, have a beer, have a
big bowl of ice cream, whatever it is
that's your thing. Um, take a little bit
of time. And the thing is is take a
little bit of time to step. Just stop.
If you're chasing your tail and you
can't figure out how to stop chasing
your tail, then sometimes it's just a
matter of just stop. It's just like sit
there and sit in it for a second and go,
"This is not what I want to do. This is
not where I want to go." And this can be
with a project. It could be almost
anything in your life. And from a
business side, these are going to be
things like, "I am stuck. I've got a
customer that I hate and I'm trying to
figure out how to get him out of my life
and or her. I'll even allow. It's not
just gender." um but you know or this
like I've bit off more than I can chew
or this project should is taking longer
than it should or this product isn't
working the way it is. There's like and
on and on. There's so many ways things
can go wrong and they can frustrate the
living daylights out of us.
However, once you essentially like own
it and say, "All
right, not good. Got to fix it." The
panicked approach is in do everything.
That's like, you know, it's like people
are running around with their hair on
fire and they're going away like, "I'm
going to die. I'm going to die." Well,
you probably will because most movies,
those are the people that get killed
first. What you want to do is you want
to take a deep breath and figure
out what is the path to get you to
success. It is almost it is almost
entirely a reset in a sense. It's like,
"Okay, this is where I'm at." And you
may not even know. So you may have to
take a little bit of time to adjust to,
you know, assess where are you at? And
then say, what's the goal that I'm
trying to accomplish? What will get me
out of this? And then it's actually
pretty simple. Then make a plan. Is what
are the steps I need to take to get
there? Now I'm going to take something
that's let's take it's sort of business,
but not. And let's just take it like
let's say it's a money thing because
it's like it's a nice simple. So, it's
like, hey, I'm in too much debt or my,
you know, I don't have enough funds to
get this product finished for my
customers or, you know, this. So, it
could be a business level not enough
money or it could be a personal not
enough money. Well, what you need to do
is say, okay, well, I don't have enough
money. And then you need to look at like
assess a little bit. So, is it because
uh my income and my outgoing are out of
balance? If so, this is sort of like an
if and then kind of thing. I then take
this step, but it's okay. If they're out
of balance and I'm my income is not what
my outgoing is is, then I need to go
probably address my
outgoing. Now, that this goes back to
what we talked about in a prior episode
where it's like sort of like an MVP or
it's like what's going out that I can
stop and then if that's not good enough,
then what's going in? How can I improve
the income? So, those are steps. Those
are solid steps because you get to a
point where maybe it's like I want to in
order to get to my
goal. I need to have my income outpace
my outcome for two months, let's say. So
you know that that's at least you've got
a goal. You set a goal. A goal line of
objective is key because now you start
working with things to say keeping that
in mind, how do I get there? Now, the
interesting part in all this to avoid
you from falling back into panic and
despair and you just curl up like a, you
know, in a little ball is make sure that
your objective is something you believe
is reasonable, is doable. If it's not,
adjust it to something that you think
that you are capable of doing this.
You're like, it can happen. That doesn't
mean it's going to be easy, but it is a
realistic goal. So, if your goal is, I
want to be a billionaire in three weeks,
and you've never made more than $5 in a
a year. Okay, unrealistic. You're not
going to get there. But roll it back and
figure out, and maybe it is. Maybe it's
one of those like the only way I'm going
to get out of this is this objective
that is impossible. Okay, reset your
expectations. This is actually key as a
business person because sometimes it's
not just reset your expectations. it is
let's reset my customer's expectations.
Maybe a hard conversation, but it's
actually a very good one to have
because what you're going to end up
doing is resetting stuff for yourself,
but also for those that are causing you
stress, those that are part of the
problem. It's getting them on the same
page and being able to say,
"Okay, we didn't get it. We're not going
to get it. this seems like, you know,
we've taken some wrong turns or whatever
it happens to
be, we need to make some
adjustments. Then that will allow you to
make the adjustments and also reduce
some of the stress. So, I'm going to
stop right there and sort of toss this
over like what do you think on that?
So, I'm going to start with the
question, how did we get here? Because
the biggest problem I run into a lot, a
lot uh
is when you reach the point where you're
chasing your tail, you're in that don't
panic. You're in that feedback loop of
what do I do? You know, oh, there's all
these fires, firefighting mode. I I hate
saying firefighting mode because
firefighting mode and chasing her tail
are kind of two different lanes. So be
careful with that. You can be in
firefighting mode but not be in this
feedback
loop. How did we get here? we run into
situations and I'm there more often than
not because I'm always over
uh extending my
time and resources because we only have
so much time in a day that we can get
things done and we commit to something
but then something else comes along
personally or work-wise or whatever that
changes that time. we already have
committed to getting X done, but now we
have something else that has taken up
that
time and you're freaking out because
it's like what the hell, you know, how
am I going to get all this
done? When I made these commitments, it
made sense, but now I'm off the rails.
It's like, oh crap.
Um, you know, it could be money, it
could be time, it could be you're
overcommitted. Most of the time my
problems are over commitment and money
and unfortunately money isn't
always in my control I should say
uh I have set a lot of things in place
so to correct this problem to help avoid
a lot of these feed feedback loops for
particular issues money is one of the
Few things you can do
to buffer yourself through feedback
loops. You know you have to pay bills.
So you have a set expenditure that you
have to cover every month, every year to
keep the business going. So that is
almost finite. Yes, there are some
unexpected costs, but really running a
business like the expenditures of the
business are pretty finite. There are
some things per project that go up and
down, but for the overall business, you
have a set I need X to pay the
bills. Your home life, personal bills
are about the same. You have X to live,
you know, mortgages, electric bill, cell
phone bill, etc.
It's those
outliers where you overextend yourself
either in business or in personal that
bites you in the
ass. And these co money is one of the
number one reasons why people go
crazy. It's one of the biggest stressors
in our lives and it applies to business.
It's not just personal
and it's not just about running the
business. When you take on a project,
you place a bid. Hey, I'm going to do X
to get this job done for
you. And you can easily fall into the
stress of we're not there. Are we there
yet? You know, you may plan things out
to where you have things in you you have
the triggers in place to protect
yourself. But even those triggers do not
protect you because there's the old
saying, you know, the straw broke the
camel's back. There's always
something externally that can come in
and destroy a project. It can destroy a
project. It can destroy your finances.
It can destroy whatever it is you're
working on. And you get into that mode
where it's like, like Rob said, I got to
do everything.
Sometimes if you get into that
mode, if you're if you have a
team and you seem to be the only one
yelling
fire in a movie theater and everyone
else is fine, do you see
fire or do you see gasoline and they
don't see the fire? Meaning, do you see
a catalyst for something that is not
there or something that is potentially
going to cause a problem? Something out
of your
control and you need to walk it back.
So, if people around you say things are
fine, but you're like they're not fine,
where's the happy medium? Are we out of
control?
You know, are you the person that is,
you know, the sky is falling and it is
falling but no one else is seeing it
or are you overanalyzing, being too
critical about where you're at, where
things are, and your team is trying to
tell you, hey, come back. You know, it's
cool. We're calm. But there is a place
where we're in between where you could
be in a situation where a person sees
the fire and no one else does. So
there's there is a case where yes, we're
talking about chasing your tails. We're
talking about don't panic, but there is
a situation where someone is raising the
flag. Hey, there is a fire. Things are
wrong.
You do need to listen, but maybe pull
them
aside or take a step back. Hey, are
things really as bad as they
seem? I think what you want to look at
in this is from the panic point of view
because it it's sometimes yes, you're
just panicking because you're panicking,
but there's usually something behind
that. There is some pressure. there's
something needs to be done, there's
something like that. And so I like to
look at it as and it's it's sort of the
old uh I guess an old saw basically
of worry. Let tomorrow's problems worry
about themselves. Today has enough
problems of its own. I think a lot of
times when we panic and things like that
and actually the panic itself when we're
usually what happens when we panic is
it's like we're just trying to get
everything done at one time or we're
just trying to like this problem has to
be solved
immediately. And I think that's where
the challenge is is to rein that back in
because it being solved immediately is
probably not actually going to solve it.
It's things like, "I'm in the rain and
so I need to solve this immediately. So,
I'm going to run across the street
inside that building." And then you run
in front of a car and you get killed.
Okay, you have Yeah, you don't have to
worry about the rain anymore, but you
have bigger issues. And that's really
the problem we
have is we're in a situation where we're
trying to get out of it. And the panic,
the problem with that is that we don't
think rationally. that we put ourselves
a lot of times in a worse situation than
we were in before or at least there's a
chance because now we're not really
paying attention. So our risk of getting
into something we shouldn't be improves
increases quite a bit. And so that's
really where it comes down to is when
you're when you find yourself in this
situation, you want to find that goal.
But one of the things it's like and this
is sort of that basic most basic of
things is find your first step that is
in the right direction. So you could be
spinning around and around and chasing
your tail. And so it's that stop and go,
okay, I'm chasing my tail. I need to
stop this somehow. Okay, what am I
supposed to do other than chase my tail?
Oh, I'm supposed to walk down the street
to that corner. Okay, which orient
yourself. Where's that corner?
How can I get there? I don't need to get
there right now, but how can I put
myself so that a minute from now, 5
minutes from now, an hour from now, I'm
closer to my goal than I am right now.
That I've made some sort of progress.
And this goes back to little bit
incremental baby step kind of pro
progress. It's just as long as we can
build a little bit of momentum in the
right direction is going to help us for
that next step, that next step, and that
next step.
So, it really is, it seems so cliche,
but it really is. Stop, take a deep
breath, give yourself a
second, assess where you are, and then
just pick a first step. Because even if
that goal is impossible to you right
now, take a step in that direction
anyways, and let's see what happens.
because that at least puts you in a
better situation than you were before
you took that step. So that is where the
challenge is today. If you're freaking
out, if you've got something that's
stressing you out, if you've got
something that you think is going to
stress you out, if you've got problems,
if you got 99 problems and working code
ain't one or something like
that, stop for a second and just
consider what is the step. What is one
little step that you can take that will
put you in a better position towards
that goal than you are right now? And it
may be a very difficult step sometimes.
It could be things like, well, I guess
the first thing is I'd have to talk to
my boss. Okay, nobody likes unless I'm
your boss, nobody likes to talk to their
boss. Those kinds of things are like,
what's that step? And maybe it is like
ah I can't talk to my boss, but that's
like that's the step that comes to me.
Okay. Well, rain it back then that
instead of talking to your boss, maybe
it's I'm going to sit down and start to
craft an email to my boss or I'm going
to think about what is it that I'm going
to talk to my boss about or something
that would gets you moving forward. It
gets you off the ball essentially of
sitting there and just not being in a
good place and instead saying, "Okay,
what can I do to move myself out of
this?" Maybe it is just, "Okay, I'm I'm
chasing my tail. I don't know where I'm
going to go, but at least now I'm going
to chase my tail slower or something
like that. I mean, sometimes it is very,
very minimal, but if you chase your tail
slower and slower and slower, eventually
you can stop. It's just like it really
is step by step by step. That is what
you need to be looking for. So, I think
your first step, and Michael knows
what's coming, is to send us an email at
infoddeveloper.com and let us know how
it's going. We would be happy to
commiserate with you. We would be happy
to help you down a gallon of ice cream.
Whatever it is that helps you feel
better. We would love to be there and
just like be your support team and, you
know, root you on and and help you guys,
cheer you forward wherever it is you're
going. You can also leave us feedback on
YouTube, anywhere that you get podcast.
Uh the out on X, we are developer. We
have a Facebook page. Uh yeah, we're
boomers like that or whatever it is.
Even if we're not, um we've got plenty
of places to get a hold of us. Any of
those places are great. Developer.com
itself, we've got feedback forms. You
can leave feedback comments on anything
that's out there, whether it's videos,
whether it's blog articles, whatever the
heck it is. Love to hear from you. And
we'd love to hear how your challenges
are going. These have been and honestly,
if you get the newsletter, you know that
that's this has been there have been a
lot of interesting challenges in this
season. And I think that even if you
pick a couple of them, you will find a
huge improvement in your business
because we've had some actually really
good things that we've stumbled across
as we've gone through the season and had
some topics and some related challenges.
That being said, go out there and have
yourself a great day, a great week, and
we will talk to you next
time. Bonus material.
So, one of the things we didn't get to
in the episode that I think are
important
is are you
internalizing the
problem? Is it better to reach out to
your team and just be honest? Hey, what
do you guys think of X? Are we off the
rails? Are we, you know, is this a
problem? Now, if you're the manager,
it's hard to relinquish that. It's hard
to talk through that or you know
introverts you know you you don't like
talking about these things.
Sometimes voicing the problem erases the
problem but sometimes voicing the
problems does highlight that this is an
issue. Throw it out
there. Hey you know talk to your team.
Keep it open communication. Keep it non
um adversary, meaning it's a safe space.
If someone throws out, hey, I feel this.
Take it into
consideration, answer
honestly, and no hurt feelings. You
know, don't shut someone down just
because they're having concerns about a
problem. Now, if you're in a help desk,
my wife got me this years ago. It's
called a Damit doll. And the whole point
of it is whenever things don't go so
well and you want to hit the wall and
yell, "Here's a little damn it doll that
you can't do without, just grab it,
grasp it firm by the legs, and then
place it and smash it and whack it and
stuff all and yell, "Damn it, damn it,
damn it. Damn it
all."
Or guys, I hate to follow that because
that's actually a pretty good one.
Um, I think I I do want
to I think I want to go with the whole
like the taking a step forward as is the
best way because I I'm going to lead
into something that is going to be like,
"Oh no, you're going there again, but
I'm going to go there again." Uh, but
I'm going to start with this taking that
first step. I
recommend a little pomodoro. Give
yourself like a 25 minute especially if
this is like if you just don't know get
your little pomodoro timer 25 minutes a
five minute break thing that it does
just getting that 25 where it's just
like the whole point is to let
everything else out and let's sit down
and let's focus. Another thing you can
do which I found really useful when I
did the Pomodoro stuff is go find one of
these like uh uh focus music kind of
channels and stuff like that. Um, I use
there's a couple different ones that I
use that are very useful and I actually
a couple of them I use based on what my
task is. So, it'll help do the tunes are
a little bit different. And I don't know
how much that audio stuff helps, but it
does to me to you as well. But the
important thing is with that is that
means I've put this music on that is
just it's not there's no lyrics or
anything. There's just music, there's
background. I put my headphones on.
sites helps me shut stuff out and be
able to actually address the problem and
figure out what is it. And sometimes
that first step is just figuring out
what the first step is. It's like
literally like I said, it's finding your
bearings and like which direction do I
need to face for my first step. That is
something that I think will help you
quite a bit if you can if you can find a
way to make that work. Interesting with
that. Tim Ferrris mentioned it with
reading uh books. Make sure you don't
read two thoughtprovoking books at the
same time. If you're dealing with
multiple problems that are
overthoughtprovoking, try to narrow it
down to one problem at a
time. As Rob said, the Pomodoro works
with that. But the problem a lot of us
have is we have a lot of triggers. And
if you have multiple things that trigger
the same thing, even if you pivot, if
you're in the same trigger, you're not
going to reset. So, be very careful with
how you pivot, which direction you go
between these pomodoros.
That is a good point is that you want to
um it's it's one pomodoro I think is the
challenge here is is what you would do
is because you if you do too much then
you might be suddenly taking yourself
down another rabbit hole that you need
to go don't need to go down. I think it
is is something where it's like part of
this is making that step intentional. So
you take that step and then
you I don't know celebrate it or sit in
it for a second or something like that.
So, it's like, hey, I made progress. Pat
myself on the back, whatever it is. So
that you're like, hey, I can do this.
And then start building that momentum
of, hey, I'm doing this. I'm making
progress. And that's noting that's going
to help you too because what's going to
happen is like, you know, a couple days
from now or whatever, as you've taken
more steps, you can look back and go, I
remember patting myself on the back. I'm
hurting my arm. I'm patting myself on
the back so much because I'm taking
steady steps towards whatever that goal
is. And that's going to help you uh not
only with this one and to be able to
say, "Yeah, I've got momentum. I'm
going. I'm making progress." The next
time it happens, it's going to make it
that much easier because you're going to
say, "Hey, I've done this before." Just
like we have done this before. We've
done a lot of these episodes. We have
quite a few probably left. Who knows
where this is going to stop? And so make
sure you like us, subscribe, follow us,
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And hey guys, have a great day, great
week, and we will talk to you next time.
Have a good one, guys. Bye-bye.
[Music]