Detailed Notes
Feeling stuck in your career, business, or leadership journey?
In this episode of Building Better Developers, we break down how to get unstuck using a practical 21-day challenge. We talk about: * Why fear—not incompetence—is what usually keeps you stuck * The danger of confirmation bias * How your internal “soundtrack” shapes your progress * Why you should surround yourself with people who challenge you * How journaling + AI can help you find blind spots
If you’ve hit a wall in your development career or startup journey, this episode gives you a structured way to regain clarity and momentum.
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🔥 This Week’s Challenge
For 21 days: 1. Track what you worked on. 2. Review your progress weekly. 3. Identify where you’re stalled. 4. Get outside input (mentor, peer, or AI).
Momentum comes from awareness.
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đź‘Ą Connect With Us LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/develpreneur/ Website: https://develpreneur.com/ Email: [email protected]
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⏱ Chapters
00:00 – Almost Getting Scammed (and Using AI to Spot It) 05:00 – Why Smart Developers Get Stuck 09:00 – Fear, Imposter Syndrome & Headspace 15:00 – Confirmation Bias and Bad Coaching 22:00 – The Power of Your Internal Soundtrack 30:00 – Why You Shouldn’t Idolize the 1% 36:00 – The 21-Day “Get Unstuck” Challenge 42:00 – How to Use AI to Analyze Your Progress
Transcript Text
because that's how I roll. Where did I put it? Oh, I put it behind my incredible tower of camera. >> Yeah, this one we're >> behind the scenes stuff here for everybody. Um, this one we're covering the challenge of the week and this was the interview you had with Kim Miller Hersan. I was not on that one. Yeah, this is one where it was just solo again. Um, yeah. I think I'll start off with I've got a I had a fun little uh multi-day um little like fishing attempt kind of thing that was pretty interesting. A little bit scary for people, I think. So, I think it'll be a fun one to do. Sorry, as I'm completely off camera >> and doing all this, but I'm like trying I realized when I went to get water, it's like, "Oh, yeah. I had tea that was ready for me, too." because it has been that kind of a day. >> So, is this the uh the SP uh not hack but the uh social engineering thing that you're talking about? >> Um what social engineering thing? I don't know. >> Well, you you had mentioned that uh you almost got scammed. So, >> Oh, yeah. That's what this one is. Yeah, this is very much Yeah, it would be it would be one of those social engine sort of. Yeah, it's basically a social engineering kind of thing. and it would be one that I think most people would want to keep an eye out for. Um because it's actually uh it's an interesting little one-two scam. Uh so what happens is somebody reached out to me sort of out of the blue recruiter that's like, "Hey, you know, would you be interested in a job? We've got a couple things we're looking for. Cool. Let me know what you think." So they send me some, you know, some postings. Uh they went back and forth a couple times based stuff and said like, "Hey, here would you be interested in these?" It's like, "Sure, this one looks great. this one doesn't blah blah blah. The whole interaction felt very AI. It was very much like just like, "Oh, that's a great answer." and stuff like that. So, there was a lot of stuff that was already a little bit hokey, but I was like, "Okay, this is just somebody that's just using AI to like do their interactions. That's cool." And then they end up like I sent them a resume and they're like, "Well, this isn't really, you know, this doesn't really work real well." So, I was like, "Okay, well, that's cool. I can update it because I just was, you know, in a hurry and haven't touched my up my resume in a like couple years. And they're like, "Oh, totally understand and great." And I send it to them again and they're like, "Well, hey, and this doesn't, you know, this doesn't really work well on our u our system." I think they call it their ATS system. >> Here's the score. They send me like a screenshot. It's like it's a 30%, you know, score out of a 100red or something like that and it doesn't match these things. and hey, I've got this person that I know that's a um I've got somebody I don't get any kickback, but I know this, you know, resume writer. I can send you on to them. Just let me know. I'm like, okay. And um I was like, you know, like, is this included? Is it not? It's like, no, this is completely separate. You know, you can talk to her about it. So, talk to the resume person. And they say, well, they start off with like I said, you know, what do you need? They're like, you know, what do you need from me? It's like, "Oh, I've got enough from you. I can already give you, you know, what's needed." Which was like sort of a red flag right there. I'm like, "Okay, if if just because you've seen my resume, you've got enough to work with, then you're probably not very good at it. Um, you're probably missing some stuff." And they end up saying, "Well, it's like, you know, it's going to be I don't remember it was like 600, 800 bucks to do it." And I was like, >> I was like, "Uh, I'm not really so sure about that." and like well you know um you know because so and so is a friend I can you know cut it to you know 300 and we'll pay you know do 300 later. I was like, "That might be worthwhile." And so she sends me a I said, "Well, how would we do, you know, do the next steps?" And um she says, "Well, I'll send you a um a wire transfer." >> And I was like, "Okay." And I looked at the wire and she sends me information on it and it's not her name. And she's like, "It's my financial adviser." And I was like, "Okay, I'm not going to do wire transfer. How about something more like, you know, real? Since you're a US, you know, a US consultant, I would think that you'd be able to do something that's not so dicey as wire transfer. And it's like, I can only do wire transfer. And then sends me something called um gosh, I don't even know what it's like a it's a play on the name of PayPal, but it's some sort of other it's like >> no um I can't remember what it is, but it's it's a company. It's a payment platform I hadn't heard of before. And I get this invoice out of the blue. Not not the right email address, not the right name, but and then like a little bit later and because there was they disappeared for a while and a little bit later they're like, "Hey, I sent you an invoice. Can you just pay this?" And I was like, "Um, that's really like I'm not so sure about this." I was like, "How about you connect me on LinkedIn?" Cuz both the recruiter and the the consultant had like, you know, your their pictures and some information and stuff like that about them. And so I actually sent to the uh to the resume writer. I sent a connection in LinkedIn. Didn't see a thing. So I was just like, "Okay, I'm going to play along with this and see how this goes." And so I said, "Well, you know, hey, could you reach out to me on LinkedIn just to, you know, affirm who you are." And I was like, "Ah, you know, I'm too backed up on LinkedIn. Here's a couple of people that you can talk to that have worked with me in the past and vouch for me." And I'm just like, >> "Okay, I'm done." I'm like, and the fun thing is the neat thing about all this is, so I was playing around with AI with all of this as well. I was like, you know what? I want to see if AI thinks like I do about this cuz it like, you know, as soon as it started looking a little dicey, I was like, hey, does this look like, you know, does this look legit? And immediately it was like, here's three red flags. Here's why it doesn't. Here's how you should proceed. Here's what you need to do. Here's how you need to save yourself. You were so smart in asking me this. you know, it was the whole AI pumping you up. But it was really interesting because I I would highly recommend um to anybody listening that if you have any questions, throw that stuff at AI. Throw that like throw your email chains or whatever it is at AI and say, "Does this does this stink? Does it smell?" Now, honestly, if you're already to that point, you probably should go with your gut and there's probably something wrong with it. But if not, uh if you're even just like this is a lot of money or this is something that's going on that just I want to make sure I cross every tea and dot every eye, throw it out there and it will help and especially if it's a known uh scam style then and it was funny because it was giving me like I got I went down a rabbit trail with this because it was talking about how they some of these work and how all these words are specifically there for you know they're like it's just built in as part of their scripts and stuff like that. And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds that totally makes sense." So, don't get scammed. Use AI to fight AI basically because that's more or less what it was. It was just like these, you know, automated responses that were, you know, they were just a little bit too good. And I recognized them because I've used that a couple of times on email responses and it's like, "Wow, that looks awesome." It's like, if you get that back, uh, be sure, be safe. All that being said, let's dive into this one. Hello and welcome back. This is week three now of our weekly challenges. And I'm just >> Yeah. Yeah. Or is it I think it's >> my co-host is a little math challenged. So counting >> our second one, I think. >> Or third. >> This better be number three. >> I hope there's two others that went out because this is the third time we had this. So uh technical difficulties. >> We're still working it out. This is the weekly challenge of building better developers developer. I am Rob Redhead as you should know by now and if you don't go look at our back catalog one of the founders of de developer also the founder of hey wh this side uh RB consulting where we help you sort through your technology junk drawer avoid scams and build a road map for success. We help you like do a technology road map or technology uh reality check so that you can sit there and go, do I need to go forward or do I need to like gather my wagons and circle my wagons first and get my ducks in a row and all of those other analogies. Good thing and bad thing. Uh, bad thing is I'm still trying to figure out like the best way to start into this thing because I do like the just like you guys get the bonus of us discussing stuff the green room before we start into this. But it's really almost not the green room. But we'll see. That's the bad thing. Good thing is we have now done one, two, three of these in a row. And uh I'm actually enjoying these quite a bit. And we've we're now like getting into thing. We're getting some feedback from our guests with all this. So this is pretty cool. looking forward to it. I have not even thought like, you know, a little bonus point. I've not even thought about the challenge yet. So, as we're going through this conversation, we're going to see what comes up. Uh hopefully it'll be something pretty good. Part of the ability of me able to do that is allowing Michael to take over a little bit so I can just sit here and think. Introduce yourself. >> Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malash. I'm one of the co-founders of Building Better Developers, also known as Developer Nerd. I'm also the founder of Envision Q8, where we help create reliable, tailored software that helps your business work smarter, scale faster, and helps you stay in control. Good thing, bad thing? Uh, good thing, uh, it's been a very productive week. I've been kind of eliminating some of the distractions that have kind of pulled me in a couple different directions. bad thing. I I'm still dealing with some distractions that unfortunately I can't just eliminate that are just there. I have to kind of work through them, but they're not things I can just like focus on, get done. It's just unfortunately reoccurring things that you just have to deal with as they pop up. Uh but hey, that's life. Ah, yes it is. Quaras. So this week we have talked to and if you have not already gone done so listen to Kim Miller Hershan, please go ahead and and just pause right now, step back and take a listen to that conversation. It was a really fun one. Uh once again, this was just a this is a solo just me talking with Kim. This is the I can't remember how many times I've talked to her beforehand because I was on her uh her podcast. It's actually out there on the developer LinkedIn group. Um, if you go out to the LinkedIn p or the developer page on LinkedIn, you'll find a link to that. Uh, it was a really cool conversation. I had a pre-con conversation with her and then a conversation with her and now we brought her over here uh because there's just a lot of uh sympo uh between how she views uh coaching and getting people unstuck. And it's really it's really like a perfect time in this season where we're talking about like that forward momentum and things like that to have somebody like Kim on. And this, as you've noticed, we've had a couple of coaches and the coaches, my light just died, so I'm going to pull that off. Got to remember to charge this stuff apparently. Um, so we've had some coaches on and they are some people that can help you get unstuck, especially when you're having to like technology. um they'd help you get on stuff. And I like one of the things I really liked about the conversation with Kim is how much of it is we really talked about the the headsp space issues of of being stuck. How there is u so often it's for lack of better term it comes down to fear is part of the reason we get stuck. It's a fear that we're not going to be able to get it done. A fear that we're not going to be able to step forward, a fear that we're going to fail. And it often is uh and she mentioned this and I've learned this over the years and so many people that I've coached especially in you know even non-professionals in sports and all that kind of stuff. A lot of times it comes down to just like a a lack of self-awareness and not like that much as much as just like not understanding like what you can actually do when you put your mind to it. And this is where like uh imposture syndrome comes from and a lot of these other things where people just get to a point where they're like, "Okay, how did I get here?" And sometimes you need something to be able to remind you that, hey, I'm like I got here. I'm I actually did the work. This is this is where I was, you know, 6 months, a year, 10 years ago, and wow, look at where I am now. And I say this as somebody, yeah, I'm I'm old and gray and all that kind of stuff. And I can look back now and I'm like, "Wow, that was, you know, decades ago. Look how far I've come." But you can do this like look at how far I came this last week, last month, this year. This is where just like that so often incremental forward motion. You get the momentum and the next thing you know, you are cranking through stuff and you can you can see that you have now put some space behind you and wherever it was that you started with. So that was one of the things I really liked in the conversation was talking about the there is Yes. This other thing she brought up was the discomfort. I think that's part of it is it's like we we get comfortable. We're in our spot. We're we get in a little bit of a rut or we're stuck on our butt or however you want to look at it and it's like now we got to move. It takes a little bit to take that first step but I promise you um after you get moving it does become easier. So thoughts from you? >> Yeah, you summed it up pretty nicely. A lot of what her comments were again were around the coaching, you know, support like how a coach works, how to um you know, what we've talked about constantly. You know, what is your why? What are you trying to accomplish? Um how you know, where are you going? Uh what decisions are you making? The interesting takeaway I had from her conversation was uh later in the interview she was talking about like the bad um the bad coaches, the the bad individuals that you have where you get into like a confirmation bias. You they are looking for someone to agree or confirm that they that they already have that their idea is right. They're not looking to change. They're looking for uh like affirmation that they're on the right path. Like they're not looking to move. They they just want validity that hey, I'm doing this right. That's not the right approach. Which was interesting because it made me think um another comment she made was, you know, surround yourself with people, you know, the mastermind groups, the the meetings, talk to different people. Don't stick to just people that you know that people you like or the people have the same mindset as you. challenge yourself, diversify, find more people, and bounce the ideas off of more people because then you're going to get a better uh feedback loop than just getting that confirmation bias, which you and I both know that you and I can get in conversations and we're like, "Yeah, this works." And we talk to someone else and they're like, "Uh, have you really thought about this?" Um, you you just have to be careful about that. And that so many times I've run into that where we talk to people and we're maybe not talking to the right people. So we're getting ideas on a solution or a product idea and they're not the we're not talking to the right people. So therefore we're thinking through the solutions in the wrong way. Um we had a conversation a couple interviews back with someone about that. We ran they ran into the same problem. It's like oh are we talking to the right customer? Are we talking to the right people? Are we building the right applications for the right solutions? And that's a lot of what I heard Kim talk about. You know, what is your why? You know, are you, you know, how much do you want it? You know, that was one of the quotes she said. I really love that. It's like, yes, you're passionate, but how much do you really want? Not the money. I loved how she stressed, you know, uh, a lot of people follow the the, hey, this 1% of people that, you know, they had this great idea, now they're billionaires. That's not the case. How much do you want to have a business? How much do you want to build a company? How much do you want to basically make a change or put your mark out in the world and build something that's going to last or have meaning? You know, to me, that's something that I'm passionate about. It's like, you know, I love testing. I like building solutions, but even I still struggle finding the right customer because at the end of the day, we do have to pay the bills. We're not necessarily looking to get rich, but we still have to, you know, we have to have revenue coming in. they have to pay the bills, but that doesn't always guarantee that you're pulling in the right customers, which can drain that energy that you have to kind of keep you going, to keep that innovation, which is funny because she talks about getting stuck. And that is where we can run into those situations where I may not have the right customer. So, oh, my ideas, my why isn't going the direction I wanted. So, you start having that fear. you start thinking, "Okay, maybe I'm not doing this right or maybe this isn't the right solution." And you get into the negative feedback loop, the whatifs, or it's just it was so interesting listening to her because it's like, "Yep, check, yep, check." And we've talked about these continuously and it was just really interesting the way she laid it out because she really talks about how the leadership how the coaching can really help improve things. However, you don't need a coach if you again are looking for that confirmation bias. If you're looking for that affirmation or if you are looking for the coach to solve your childhood problems, no, go find a counselor. You want a coach that will help you to help challenge you and help you grow and build on your business. >> Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I do want to say like I want to go back to the the group that you that you surrounding yourself with right people. There's a there's a quote and unfortunately I off the top of my head can't remember who did it. Um I want to say Jim Ran was the one, but it's like you are the average of the five people you spend the most time around. And I think that's very especially these days that's actually very interesting because you also uh if you wonder about the five people you spend the most time about and with and and how you look at your social media feed because I guarantee you you will see whatever it is that you like to read in Facebook you will start seeing more and more of that. So whatever you see when you open up the first like 10 like articles or posts that you see those are the kinds of things that is who you are because that is who you're telling the algorithm that you are. Uh the same thing is going to happen if you look at YouTube and you go out there and what the things that you see are the things that you do the most as far as how you know what it knows. And so surround yourself like if you're seeing something that's that's defeist or that you're you're struggling, change up your group a little bit. Add somebody else. Look for something that's that's different. Um I like how she talked about Yeah. she you know the whole like I'm not going to solve your, you know, childhood trauma and stuff like that. Sometimes you do have though um a chronic issue that you need to deal with and you've got to get to a point where you're open to doing that. And I think that was one of the things that she, you know, she sort of hit on too. It's like some people are not, they're not coachable because they don't want to be coachable. You brought it up like if you just want affirmation, then that's not going to help because they're just going to okay, fine. You're great. You're awesome. You know, that doesn't help. That's you're never going to learn because that goes back to the whole everybody gets don't get me started, but that goes back to everybody gets a trophy. Um, yeah, fine. Johnny, you did a great job. I know that two plus two is red. you were so artistic when you did that. There's a point where it's like you need to know. And if you're not willing to do so, then you're not going to be willing to, you know, look into working with a coach or anything like that. I really did. Um, God, there was there was several things there and now I got like you just threw a bunch of extra ones uh out there as well, but the the defeist the the downward spiral thing. Um I think this is very much something that we this is this goes back to why this goes back to uh working on your business versus new business. This works on being productive versus busy. This is all of these little things that we have talked about over the years are the things to try to get you out of that spiral is what happens. We get too focused. And I say we because I know I've done this as well where you just get too focused on something and you need to pull your head back out. Not out of your butt, but out of the details that you're in and you need to be able to just say like, "Okay, where am I at? Let's like take a deep breath." Uh, more often than not, it's like, "Okay, I don't know how to where to go next or anything like that." Okay. Well, take a deep breath, step back, go for a walk, do what you need to do, try to get a different perspective. That may be talking to somebody else. It may even just be talking to AI these days. It may be going out and watching a movie. It may going for a jog. It may be going to fish. Whatever it is, something to get you out of that mindset that has got you essentially trapped. Um, it is just way too easy for us to just get into that and just be like, "Okay, I'm going. I'm going. I'm going." And you can't see anything else. you just are completely tunnel visioned. And uh I love how she even talks about and now I'm you know it's like I'm trying to remember how much she got in this versus other but talks about her team and about how leaning on other people can help you quite a bit with these kinds of things. It is one of those things where if you've got somebody else, if you've got a um you know an operations manager or even an accountant or a legal or whoever it is that there's some other people you can talk to that give you different points of view and particularly I think this will help you assess yourself. If you want honest assessment is go find somebody that you trust to be honest and say I want you to be honest. I need to hear this from you like what about this? What is good? what is wrong? How you know they don't even have to fix it just as long as they can like poke holes in it. Sometimes that's going to help you move forward because at least you can say okay I was under the wrong impression. This goes back to the people like you know from a couple uh episodes back where it's like well we're building all this stuff and then we go to their customers and realize that oh that's not actually what they needed. We have this same problem with ourselves I think at times where we we get into the selft talk and we have we're serving a customer that doesn't exist and we need to actually step out of that get out of our head and go get a a reality check essentially of like okay where are we at where do we need to go your thoughts on those? Yeah, I mean it's some of the things that she talked about. I I love you summed up because you were actually in the interview. I unfortunately missed this one. Um but there was a couple things that stood out like um one of the things she said was how do you stay motivated? You know, she she was like how do you ask yourself how do you stay motivated? How much do you want this? How much you know where are you putting your energies? Are you putting it in this or something else? And if it's in something else, then why aren't you putting all your energies into that? Or is that something else the wrong thing? >> Before I forget this time, because you mentioned that, that was a great point. I just want to throw out there and then I'll throw it back to you. I'm so sorry I needed to interrupt, but um Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk's Crush It, u I think it's his first book. That is one of those I think it's worth reading because it is she reminded me so much of Gary Vee in the whole like get off your ass and go do it. And if you don't want to do it then you need to do something that you like. He's one of those people that is very much a like you need to just like this is going to be something that you are just dying to go do and that motivation will help you through a lot. So I just had to throw that out before I forgot because that was a great point earlier and it got lost in too many others. Well, and then there was another one, um, how do I stop sabotaging myself, which led into, okay, how do I get unstuck? And it was interesting you mentioned Gary Vanderchuk. Um, I forgot the guy who wrote the book, but that made me think of the other book called soundtracks where >> what is a soundtrack you're telling yourself? Is it a positive soundtrack? Is it a negative soundtrack? Are you turning up the right soundtracks? Hopefully, you're looking that up. >> I am looking that up right now. Uh but it her comment just I immediately thought about that. I'm like crap, where's my book? And uh unfortunately I hadn't have time to uh pull that out before we got on this call. But it's one of those where are you telling yourself a story? Are you basically lying to yourself? Are you being fictional? Is it true? Is the these are all the things that these uh that they talk about in the soundtrack book. It's like focus on what's true, what's impactful, and moves you forward. Anything negative, not true, damaging, hurtful, turn it down, ignore it. Uh, it's not easy to do. Um, I've listened to the book a couple of different times and I've still been challenged with it. Um, part of the problem is mindfulness. mindfulness. If you get into that mindset, you start thinking about different things and sometimes the whatifs come in, sometimes they don't. You just don't know. So, you got to be careful about that as you're going through it. Were you able to find it? >> I was. It was John Auff. J O N A C U FF. Uh, he's got a couple other uh books in there. Soundtracks is really a good one, I think, that that applies to a lot of us. I think we've actually mentioned that before a couple of times, but I think it's one of those as as uh mental people as we are, particularly developers and those you can, you know, we're used to like going heads down and and that also I think is where those soundtracks can start, you know, can be very important. So, it's a it's very good book. Highly recommend it. We don't get any kickbacks unless he wants to kick something back. We would be happy to do that. But, uh that's a great book. Highly recommend it. And it's called soundtracks is actually the name of the book. again, John Auff, J O N A C U FFF. >> And the last thing I'll throw out there, the the biggest takeaway I got from Kim was surround yourself with the right people. Be it coaches, be it mentors, masterminds, groups, but avoid the the wrong types of people. Don't idolize those 1enters. focus on the people that are trying to make a difference, trying to build their business, and really have a why, not just a how to get rich quick scheme. I had a I had a great call with somebody else that this hopefully something that will turn into some things that we'll be talking more about in the future. Uh, but we're having a conversation and he brought up a really interesting point that I think people have, you know, that gets glossed over too much. was actually talking about back when uh John Lee Dumas used to do put out his monthly uh financials. Every month he put out his financials and uh Pat Flynn's done it. I know a few others over the years that have done that. It's just part of the like look this is what we're doing. And when you really actually break down those things, there's a lot of these people that are that are influencers or highly successful. If you look at the details of some of the things they did that a lot of times that they actually, you know, sell and recommend like starting a podcast and writing a book and Clickfunnels and all those kinds of things. You look at it, they really don't make any money out of that. That it's one of those things that's like, okay, you know, you you know, and courses and all these things and yeah, we've done all of them. Those are not necessarily going to get you where you need to be if you're looking for money. And so I say that to say like these people that are that are highly successful, yes, you can look at what they did and see where they um you know overcame some of the problems they overcame and you can find leadership. You can find a lot of good information there, but honestly, I think you're going to be better off finding somebody that's that's roughly where you are or maybe just a step ahead of you because you want to see somebody that's like that's closer to it, not somebody that's that's forgotten about it. It's like you don't want to go, you know, you don't want to go to like an advanced calculus teacher and have him try to teach you the most basic, you know, addition and subtraction and multiplication because they're they're way beyond that. They they have to really reset themselves to go back and think to do it. It's it's automatic. You want to find uh people around you that are going to help lift you up. uh she talked about the negatives which made me think of poison hires and stuff like that that can cause so much trouble but that's another topic. Um but I do think it's one of these things where it's like you need to be intentional about it and if you're not if you find yourself drifting if you find yourself lost and I think that's one of the things you do is like what I think that's a it's a great segue that we've gotten into but like what is the soundtrack that you've been listening to? What is it that you've been getting because maybe it isn't what you need? maybe it isn't the thing that's going to get you unstuck. That takes me to, because I've had enough time now to think about it, a challenge for this week. Um, I would propose that our challenge this time is it actually goes to getting a good reality check on yourself is where are you at? And the best way to do this, I think, and this is actually one of those things that I hate to say it, this gets recommended all the time, is journaling. Now, we have a different way. We have a lot of different ways we can journal, but I would say for you, I would recommend your challenge for the next. We'll say this is a 21 day. We're not even going to do a week because one, and go a little bit longer, but honestly, you should see something the first week. Start with just like journal or just do your normal to-do list. Look at what you accomplish. Make sure every day at the end of the day, you check off at the very least you've noted like what did I do today? And then just do that each day for a week. and then take a look back at what did you get done. Now, the bonus to this is if you start your week by saying here's my goals for the week, which is a challenge we've offered before. You know, basically what are my what are my stretch goals for this week, and then you go through the week and you look at what did I get done every day, you're going to most likely see that you have made some progress. Sometimes it's crazy progress. Like sometimes, yeah, sometimes you get to the week and you're like, "This thing has not moved. I haven't moved that needle at all. I need to figure that crap out. But that's the important thing. Either you are progressing and things are working well or you're not. Or you're stuck, you're blocked. And then if you are stuck or blocked, that's going to highlight it's like, I am doing the same thing day in and day out and I'm not making any progress. Go to somebody else. Find somebody. Find a mentor. Find a leader. Find your manager. Find your mama. I don't care. Find somebody else. Honestly, it may just be a random stranger on the street. to just say, "Hey, can I borrow 30 seconds of your time to explain this problem?" Because whatever it is you get, it may make no sense, but at least it's different and maybe it'll be the kind of thing that gets you finally on the way to get unstuck and able to get moving. Thoughts on that challenge? >> Yeah, that's an interesting challenge. Um, I like one other thing I'll throw with that challenge. When you're done with the week, if you can't quite figure out the differences, throw that into AI and ask it to analyze, hey, sum up my week for me. >> How did I do this week? I >> I know you're laughing at it, but I've actually done >> That's an awesome idea. I haven't actually thought of that one, but that's a good one. That's like a good just like if you can't get any help and honestly okay there's your there's your actually that's your like solution to that is it's just like say since you're going to throw it into AI say hey I'm if you're stuck say I'm stuck on this thing this is what I'm doing what can I do to change it now beware you could end up in rabbit holes you could be going like there's a lot you can do but hopefully it's going to give you something and then the goal here is like when you change it change it and give it some time to bake in, you know, give it a few days, a few weeks or something like that, depending on what the problem is. Don't just go like change it and 10 seconds later, okay, it hasn't worked. Okay, I'm going to change again. I'm going to change because then you get you're basically back in the same analysis paralysis that probably got you there in the first place. So, I like that. If you can't get any help, if you can't find somebody else to talk to, just throw it at AI and see what happens. And honestly, that's not a bad answers because sometimes you will get some pretty cool stuff. I've gotten some very interesting alternative suggestions from AI over the last, you know, year or so that I've I've used it more often and found it to be a pretty fun little uh sounding board for some of these ideas. Closing thoughts? Anything else you want to throw in? Uh thoughts on Kim or anything? Well, the other thing just to tweak with the AI is not just talk to it, but like if you're doing your journaling, take what you wrote in your journal, put it in AI and ask it here is my week. What improvements can I wait make or what efficiencies can I, you know, re review it? What is efficient? What's not efficient? Have it analyze what it is that you journaled and maybe even say, hey, can I improve my journaling? because maybe you're not writing down enough quality information in your journal for you to really get a takeaway. So, this is kind of one of those where it's not just talk to AI, but try to use it to expand on the exercise a little bit. >> I think that's a really good um because that is a great idea is that the learn what KPIs are if you don't already know key performance indicators, by the way. Um, and some developers don't know because it's really more of a I don't know, sales and marketing and stuff like that is usually where you you run into KPIs, but it's very important and it's actually something that AI will be able to help you out with is you just say like like Michael said, you just throw your stuff at it and say, "Okay, what do you think?" And then say, "Well, how can I track this better or how can I do this better? How can I better log my work in a way that I can then learn from it so I can do better in the future?" Because, you know, that's what we really that's really what we should be doing. If we're spending our time logging our time, we should actually be using it to assess where we are, what we're doing, and how we can get better. I will probably do that myself. I've got all these little things. It's like just throw something at it and say, "How did I do this week? What would you what would you suggest?" I periodically like to do that to to AI. And uh usually have to start with don't tell me that I'm awesome or I'm great or that just do the same thing. Like tell it to pick at it. tell it to like tell me where I'm going wrong or or where I'm missing something. Those kinds of things because those gaps are going to be the places that you're going to be able to most quickly uh learn from in game. That being said, thanks so much for hanging out with us. Uh I know this is bonus material and things like that. As always, uh shoot us an email at info developer.com if you've got any comments or anything like that. You can actually leave comments down below and uh just let us know if you've got suggestions, recommen recommendations. love to hear how you do in the challenges. Uh check us out if you're not following us on uh the Facebook or our Facebook page or more importantly our LinkedIn page uh the developer page. Just go out there. Uh we have pretty good we got all of these things out there. Plus, we're throwing other posts out there on a regular enough basis. Plus, it's a great way to connect. You can find other people that follow us. Feel free to follow them and hopefully that'll connect you for, you know, whatever your next step in your career is. That being said, it's time for us to run off and head off into another week. You guys do the same. Enjoy your weekend and come back next week. Have yourself a great time, safe weekend, and we will talk to you and see you next time around. And now the fun part where Rob tries to find stop. Ciao.
Transcript Segments
because that's how I roll. Where did I
put it? Oh, I put it behind my
incredible
tower of camera.
>> Yeah, this one we're
>> behind the scenes stuff here for
everybody. Um,
this one we're covering the challenge of
the week and this was the interview you
had with Kim Miller Hersan.
I was not on that one.
Yeah, this is one where it was just
solo again.
Um,
yeah. I think I'll start off with I've
got a I had a fun little uh multi-day
um little like fishing attempt kind of
thing that was
pretty interesting. A little bit scary
for people, I think. So, I think it'll
be a fun one to do. Sorry, as I'm
completely off camera
>> and doing all this, but I'm like trying
I realized when I went to get water,
it's like, "Oh, yeah. I had tea that was
ready for me, too." because it has been
that kind of a day.
>> So, is this the uh the SP uh not hack
but the uh social engineering thing that
you're talking about?
>> Um what social engineering thing? I
don't know.
>> Well, you you had mentioned that uh you
almost got scammed. So,
>> Oh, yeah. That's what this one is. Yeah,
this is very much Yeah, it would be it
would be one of those social engine sort
of. Yeah, it's basically a social
engineering kind of thing. and it would
be one that I think most people would
want to keep an eye out for. Um
because it's actually uh it's an
interesting little one-two scam. Uh so
what happens is somebody reached out to
me sort of out of the blue recruiter
that's like, "Hey, you know, would you
be interested in a job? We've got a
couple things we're looking for. Cool.
Let me know what you think." So they
send me some, you know, some postings.
Uh they went back and forth a couple
times based stuff and said like, "Hey,
here would you be interested in these?"
It's like, "Sure, this one looks great.
this one doesn't blah blah blah. The
whole interaction felt very AI. It was
very much like just like, "Oh, that's a
great answer." and stuff like that. So,
there was a lot of stuff that was
already a little bit hokey, but I was
like, "Okay, this is just somebody
that's just using AI to like do their
interactions. That's cool."
And then they end up like I sent them a
resume and they're like, "Well, this
isn't really, you know, this doesn't
really work real well." So, I was like,
"Okay, well, that's cool. I can update
it because I just was, you know, in a
hurry and haven't touched my up my
resume in a like couple years. And
they're like, "Oh, totally understand
and great." And I send it to them again
and they're like, "Well, hey, and this
doesn't, you know, this doesn't really
work well on our u our system." I think
they call it their ATS system.
>> Here's the score. They send me like a
screenshot. It's like it's a 30%, you
know, score out of a 100red or something
like that and it doesn't match these
things. and hey, I've got this person
that I know that's a um I've got
somebody I don't get any kickback, but I
know this, you know, resume writer. I
can send you on to them. Just let me
know. I'm like, okay. And um I was like,
you know, like, is this included? Is it
not? It's like, no, this is completely
separate. You know, you can talk to her
about it. So, talk to the resume person.
And they say, well,
they start off with like I said, you
know, what do you need? They're like,
you know, what do you need from me? It's
like, "Oh, I've got enough from you. I
can already give you, you know, what's
needed." Which was like sort of a red
flag right there. I'm like, "Okay, if if
just because you've seen my resume,
you've got enough to work with, then
you're probably not very good at it. Um,
you're probably missing some stuff." And
they end up saying, "Well, it's like,
you know, it's going to be I don't
remember it was like 600, 800 bucks to
do it." And I was like,
>> I was like, "Uh, I'm not really so sure
about that." and like well you know um
you know because so and so is a friend I
can you know cut it to you know 300 and
we'll pay you know do 300 later.
I was like, "That might be worthwhile."
And so she sends me a I said, "Well, how
would we do, you know, do the next
steps?"
And um she says, "Well,
I'll send you a um a wire transfer."
>> And I was like, "Okay." And I looked at
the wire and she sends me information on
it and it's not her name. And she's
like, "It's my financial adviser."
And I was like, "Okay, I'm not going to
do wire transfer. How about something
more like, you know, real? Since you're
a US, you know, a US consultant, I would
think that you'd be able to do something
that's not so dicey as wire transfer.
And it's like, I can only do wire
transfer. And then sends me something
called um gosh, I don't even know what
it's like a it's a play on the name of
PayPal, but it's some sort of other it's
like
>> no um I can't remember what it is, but
it's it's a company. It's a payment
platform I hadn't heard of before. And I
get this invoice out of the blue. Not
not the right email address, not the
right name, but and then like a little
bit later and because there was they
disappeared for a while and a little bit
later they're like, "Hey, I sent you an
invoice. Can you just pay this?" And I
was like, "Um, that's really like I'm
not so sure about this." I was like,
"How about you connect me on LinkedIn?"
Cuz both the recruiter and the the
consultant had like, you know, your
their pictures and some information and
stuff like that about them. And so I
actually sent to the uh to the resume
writer. I sent a connection in LinkedIn.
Didn't see a thing. So I was just like,
"Okay, I'm going to play along with this
and see how this goes."
And so I said, "Well, you know, hey,
could you reach out to me on LinkedIn
just to, you know, affirm who you are."
And I was like, "Ah, you know, I'm too
backed up on LinkedIn. Here's a couple
of people that you can talk to that have
worked with me in the past and vouch for
me." And I'm just like,
>> "Okay, I'm done." I'm like, and the fun
thing is the neat thing about all this
is, so I was playing around with AI with
all of this as well. I was like, you
know what? I want to see if AI thinks
like I do about this cuz it like, you
know, as soon as it started looking a
little dicey, I was like, hey, does this
look like, you know, does this look
legit? And immediately it was like,
here's three red flags. Here's why it
doesn't. Here's how you should proceed.
Here's what you need to do. Here's how
you need to save yourself. You were so
smart in asking me this. you know, it
was the whole AI pumping you up. But it
was really interesting because I I would
highly recommend um to anybody listening
that if you have any questions, throw
that stuff at AI. Throw that like throw
your email chains or whatever it is at
AI and say, "Does this does this stink?
Does it smell?" Now, honestly, if you're
already to that point, you probably
should go with your gut and there's
probably something wrong with it. But if
not,
uh if you're even just like this is a
lot of money or this is something that's
going on that just I want to make sure I
cross every tea and dot every eye, throw
it out there and it will help and
especially if it's a known uh scam style
then and it was funny because it was
giving me like I got I went down a
rabbit trail with this because it was
talking about how they some of these
work and how all these words are
specifically there for you know they're
like it's just built in as part of their
scripts and stuff like that. And I was
like, "Yeah, that sounds that totally
makes sense." So, don't get scammed. Use
AI to fight AI basically because that's
more or less what it was. It was just
like these, you know, automated
responses that were, you know, they were
just a little bit too good. And I
recognized them because I've used that a
couple of times on email responses and
it's like, "Wow, that looks awesome."
It's like, if you get that back,
uh, be sure, be safe. All that being
said, let's dive into this one. Hello
and welcome back. This is week three now
of our weekly challenges. And I'm just
>> Yeah. Yeah. Or is it I think it's
>> my co-host is a little math challenged.
So counting
>> our second one, I think.
>> Or third.
>> This better be number three.
>> I hope there's two others that went out
because this is the third time we had
this. So uh technical difficulties.
>> We're still working it out.
This is the weekly challenge of building
better developers developer. I am Rob
Redhead as you should know by now and if
you don't go look at our back catalog
one of the founders of de developer also
the founder of hey wh this side uh RB
consulting where we help you sort
through your technology junk drawer
avoid scams and build a road map for
success. We help you like do a
technology road map or technology
uh reality check so that you can sit
there and go, do I need to go forward or
do I need to like gather my wagons and
circle my wagons first and get my ducks
in a row and all of those other
analogies. Good thing and bad thing. Uh,
bad thing is I'm still trying to figure
out like the best way to start into this
thing because I do like the just like
you guys get the bonus of us discussing
stuff the green room before we start
into this. But it's really almost not
the green room. But we'll see. That's
the bad thing. Good thing is we have now
done one, two, three of these in a row.
And uh I'm actually enjoying these quite
a bit. And we've we're now like getting
into thing. We're getting some feedback
from our guests with all this. So this
is pretty cool. looking forward to it. I
have not even thought like, you know, a
little bonus point. I've not even
thought about the challenge yet. So, as
we're going through this conversation,
we're going to see what comes up. Uh
hopefully it'll be something pretty
good. Part of the ability of me able to
do that is allowing Michael to take over
a little bit so I can just sit here and
think. Introduce yourself.
>> Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malash.
I'm one of the co-founders of Building
Better Developers, also known as
Developer Nerd. I'm also the founder of
Envision Q8, where we help create
reliable, tailored software that helps
your business work smarter, scale
faster, and helps you stay in control.
Good thing, bad thing? Uh, good thing,
uh, it's been a very productive week.
I've been kind of eliminating some of
the distractions that have kind of
pulled me in a couple different
directions. bad thing. I I'm still
dealing with some distractions that
unfortunately I can't just eliminate
that are just there. I have to kind of
work through them, but they're not
things I can just like focus on, get
done. It's just unfortunately
reoccurring things that you just have to
deal with as they pop up. Uh but hey,
that's life.
Ah, yes it is. Quaras. So this week we
have talked to and if you have not
already gone done so listen to Kim
Miller Hershan, please go ahead and and
just pause right now, step back and take
a listen to that conversation. It was a
really fun one. Uh once again, this was
just a this is a solo just me talking
with Kim. This is the I can't remember
how many times I've talked to her
beforehand because I was on her uh her
podcast. It's actually out there on the
developer LinkedIn group. Um, if you go
out to the LinkedIn p or the developer
page on LinkedIn, you'll find a link to
that. Uh, it was a really cool
conversation. I had a pre-con
conversation with her and then a
conversation with her and now we brought
her over here uh because
there's just a lot of uh sympo uh
between how she views uh coaching and
getting people unstuck. And it's really
it's really like a perfect time in this
season where we're talking about like
that forward momentum and things like
that to have somebody like Kim on. And
this, as you've noticed, we've had a
couple of coaches and the coaches, my
light just died, so I'm going to pull
that off. Got to remember to charge this
stuff apparently. Um,
so we've had some coaches on and they
are some people that can help you get
unstuck, especially when you're having
to like technology. um they'd help you
get on stuff. And I like one of the
things I really liked about the
conversation with Kim is how much of it
is we really talked about the the headsp
space issues of of being stuck. How
there is u so often it's for lack of
better term it comes down to fear is
part of the reason we get stuck. It's a
fear that we're not going to be able to
get it done. A fear that we're not going
to be able to step forward, a fear that
we're going to fail. And it often is uh
and she mentioned this and I've learned
this over the years and so many people
that I've coached especially in you know
even non-professionals in sports and all
that kind of stuff. A lot of times it
comes down to just like a a lack of
self-awareness and not like that much as
much as just like not understanding like
what you can actually do when you put
your mind to it. And this is where like
uh imposture syndrome comes from and a
lot of these other things where people
just get to a point where they're like,
"Okay, how did I get here?" And
sometimes you need something to be able
to remind you that, hey, I'm like I got
here. I'm I actually did the work. This
is this is where I was, you know, 6
months, a year, 10 years ago, and wow,
look at where I am now. And I say this
as somebody, yeah, I'm I'm old and gray
and all that kind of stuff. And I can
look back now and I'm like, "Wow, that
was, you know, decades ago. Look how far
I've come." But you can do this like
look at how far I came this last week,
last month, this year. This is where
just like that so often incremental
forward motion. You get the momentum and
the next thing you know, you are
cranking through stuff and you can you
can see that you have now put some space
behind you and wherever it was that you
started with. So that was one of the
things I really liked in the
conversation was talking about the
there is Yes. This other thing she
brought up was the discomfort. I think
that's part of it is it's like we we get
comfortable. We're in our spot. We're we
get in a little bit of a rut or we're
stuck on our butt or however you want to
look at it and it's like now we got to
move. It takes a little bit to take that
first step but I promise you um after
you get moving it does become easier. So
thoughts from you?
>> Yeah, you summed it up pretty nicely. A
lot of what her comments were again were
around the coaching, you know, support
like how a coach works, how to um you
know, what we've talked about
constantly. You know, what is your why?
What are you trying to accomplish? Um
how you know, where are you going? Uh
what decisions are you making?
The interesting takeaway I had from her
conversation was uh later in the
interview she was talking about like the
bad um
the bad coaches, the the bad individuals
that you have where you get into like a
confirmation bias. You they are looking
for someone to agree or confirm that
they that they already have that their
idea is right. They're not looking to
change. They're looking for uh like
affirmation that they're on the right
path. Like they're not looking to move.
They they just want validity that hey,
I'm doing this right. That's not the
right approach. Which was interesting
because it made me think um another
comment she made was, you know, surround
yourself with people, you know, the
mastermind groups, the the meetings,
talk to different people. Don't stick to
just people that you know that people
you like or the people have the same
mindset as you. challenge yourself,
diversify, find more people, and bounce
the ideas off of more people because
then you're going to get a better uh
feedback loop than just getting that
confirmation bias, which you and I both
know that you and I can get in
conversations and we're like, "Yeah,
this works." And we talk to someone else
and they're like, "Uh, have you really
thought about this?" Um, you you just
have to be careful about that. And that
so many times I've run into that where
we talk to people and we're maybe not
talking to the right people. So we're
getting
ideas on a solution or a product idea
and they're not the we're not talking to
the right people. So therefore we're
thinking through the solutions in the
wrong way. Um we had a conversation a
couple interviews back with someone
about that. We ran they ran into the
same problem. It's like oh are we
talking to the right customer? Are we
talking to the right people? Are we
building the right applications for the
right solutions? And that's a lot of
what I heard Kim talk about. You know,
what is your why? You know, are you, you
know,
how much do you want it? You know, that
was one of the quotes she said. I really
love that. It's like, yes, you're
passionate, but how much do you really
want? Not the money. I loved how she
stressed, you know, uh, a lot of people
follow the the, hey, this 1% of people
that, you know, they had this great
idea, now they're billionaires.
That's not the case. How much do you
want to have a business? How much do you
want to build a company? How much do you
want to basically make a change or put
your mark out in the world and build
something that's going to last or have
meaning? You know, to me, that's
something that I'm passionate about.
It's like, you know, I love testing. I
like building solutions, but even I
still struggle finding the right
customer because at the end of the day,
we do have to pay the bills.
We're not necessarily looking to get
rich, but we still have to, you know, we
have to have revenue coming in. they
have to pay the bills, but that doesn't
always guarantee that you're pulling in
the right customers, which can drain
that energy that you have to kind of
keep you going, to keep that innovation,
which is funny because she talks about
getting stuck. And that is where we can
run into those situations where I may
not have the right customer. So, oh, my
ideas, my why isn't going the direction
I wanted. So, you start having that
fear. you start thinking, "Okay, maybe
I'm not doing this right or maybe this
isn't the right solution." And you get
into the negative feedback loop, the
whatifs, or it's just it was so
interesting listening to her because
it's like, "Yep, check, yep, check." And
we've talked about these continuously
and it was just really interesting the
way she laid it out because she really
talks about how the leadership how the
coaching can really help improve things.
However, you don't need a coach if you
again are looking for that confirmation
bias. If you're looking for that
affirmation or if you are looking for
the coach to solve your childhood
problems, no, go find a counselor. You
want a coach that will help you to help
challenge you and help you grow and
build on your business.
>> Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I
do want to say like I want to go back to
the the group that you that you
surrounding yourself with right people.
There's a there's a quote and
unfortunately I off the top of my head
can't remember who did it. Um I want to
say Jim Ran was the one, but it's like
you are the average of the five people
you spend the most time around. And I
think that's very
especially these days that's actually
very interesting because you also uh if
you wonder about the five people you
spend the most time about and with and
and how you look at your social media
feed because I guarantee you you will
see whatever it is that you like to read
in Facebook you will start seeing more
and more of that. So whatever you see
when you open up the first like 10 like
articles or posts that you see those are
the kinds of things that is who you are
because that is who you're telling the
algorithm that you are. Uh the same
thing is going to happen if you look at
YouTube and you go out there and what
the things that you see are the things
that you do the most as far as how you
know what it knows. And so surround
yourself like if you're seeing something
that's that's defeist or that you're
you're struggling, change up your group
a little bit. Add somebody else. Look
for something that's that's different.
Um I like how she talked about Yeah. she
you know the whole like I'm not going to
solve your, you know, childhood trauma
and stuff like that. Sometimes you do
have though um a chronic issue that you
need to deal with and you've got to get
to a point where you're open to doing
that. And I think that was one of the
things that she, you know, she sort of
hit on too. It's like some people are
not, they're not coachable because they
don't want to be coachable. You brought
it up like if you just want affirmation,
then that's not going to help because
they're just going to okay, fine. You're
great. You're awesome. You know, that
doesn't help. That's you're never going
to learn because that goes back to the
whole everybody gets don't get me
started, but that goes back to everybody
gets a trophy. Um, yeah, fine. Johnny,
you did a great job. I know that two
plus two is red. you were so artistic
when you did that.
There's a point where it's like you need
to know. And if you're not willing to do
so, then you're not going to be willing
to, you know, look into working with a
coach or anything like that.
I really did. Um,
God, there was there was several things
there and now I got like you just threw
a bunch of extra ones uh out there as
well, but the
the defeist the the downward spiral
thing. Um
I think this is very much something that
we this is this goes back to why this
goes back to uh working on your business
versus new business. This works on being
productive versus busy. This is all of
these little things that we have talked
about over the years are the things to
try to get you out of that spiral is
what happens. We get too focused. And I
say we because I know I've done this as
well where you just get too focused on
something and you need to pull your head
back out. Not out of your butt, but out
of the details that you're in and you
need to be able to just say like, "Okay,
where am I at? Let's like take a deep
breath." Uh, more often than not, it's
like, "Okay, I don't know how to where
to go next or anything like that." Okay.
Well, take a deep breath, step back, go
for a walk, do what you need to do, try
to get a different perspective. That may
be talking to somebody else. It may even
just be talking to AI these days. It may
be going out and watching a movie. It
may going for a jog. It may be going to
fish. Whatever it is, something to get
you out of that mindset that has got you
essentially trapped. Um, it is just way
too easy for us to just get into that
and just be like, "Okay, I'm going. I'm
going. I'm going." And you can't see
anything else. you just are completely
tunnel visioned. And uh I love how she
even talks about and now I'm you know
it's like I'm trying to remember how
much she got in this versus other but
talks about her team and about how
leaning on other people can help you
quite a bit with these kinds of things.
It is one of those things where if
you've got somebody else, if you've got
a um you know an operations manager or
even an accountant or a legal or whoever
it is that there's some other people you
can talk to that give you different
points of view and particularly
I think this will help you assess
yourself. If you want honest assessment
is go find somebody that you trust to be
honest and say I want you to be honest.
I need to hear this from you like what
about this? What is good? what is wrong?
How you know they don't even have to fix
it just as long as they can like poke
holes in it. Sometimes that's going to
help you move forward because at least
you can say okay I was under the wrong
impression. This goes back to the people
like you know from a couple uh episodes
back where it's like well we're building
all this stuff and then we go to their
customers and realize that oh that's not
actually what they needed. We have this
same problem with ourselves I think at
times where we we get into the selft
talk and we have we're serving a
customer that doesn't exist and we need
to actually step out of that get out of
our head and go get a a reality check
essentially of like okay where are we at
where do we need to go your thoughts on
those? Yeah, I mean it's
some of the things that she talked
about. I I love
you summed up because you were actually
in the interview. I unfortunately missed
this one. Um but there was a couple
things that stood out like um one of the
things she said was how do you stay
motivated? You know, she she was like
how do you ask yourself how do you stay
motivated? How much do you want this?
How much you know where are you putting
your energies? Are you putting it in
this or something else? And if it's in
something else, then why aren't you
putting all your energies into that? Or
is that something else the wrong thing?
>> Before I forget this time, because you
mentioned that, that was a great point.
I just want to throw out there and then
I'll throw it back to you. I'm so sorry
I needed to interrupt, but um Crush It,
Gary Vaynerchuk's Crush It, u I think
it's his first book. That is one of
those I think it's worth reading because
it is she reminded me so much of Gary
Vee in the whole like get off your ass
and go do it. And if you don't want to
do it then you need to do something that
you like. He's one of those people that
is very much a like you need to just
like this is going to be something that
you are just dying to go do and that
motivation will help you through a lot.
So I just had to throw that out before I
forgot because that was a great point
earlier and it got lost in too many
others.
Well, and then there was another one,
um, how do I stop sabotaging myself,
which led into, okay, how do I get
unstuck? And it was interesting you
mentioned Gary Vanderchuk. Um, I forgot
the guy who wrote the book, but that
made me think of the other book called
soundtracks where
>> what is a soundtrack you're telling
yourself? Is it a positive soundtrack?
Is it a negative soundtrack? Are you
turning up the right soundtracks?
Hopefully, you're looking that up.
>> I am looking that up right now. Uh but
it her comment just I immediately
thought about that. I'm like crap,
where's my book? And uh unfortunately I
hadn't have time to uh pull that out
before we got on this call. But it's one
of those where are you telling yourself
a story?
Are you
basically lying to yourself? Are you
being fictional? Is it true? Is the
these are all the things that these uh
that they talk about in the soundtrack
book. It's like focus on what's true,
what's impactful, and moves you forward.
Anything negative, not true, damaging,
hurtful, turn it down, ignore it. Uh,
it's not easy to do. Um, I've listened
to the book a couple of different times
and I've still been challenged with it.
Um,
part of the problem is mindfulness.
mindfulness.
If you get into that mindset, you start
thinking about different things and
sometimes the whatifs come in, sometimes
they don't. You just don't know. So, you
got to be careful about that as you're
going through it. Were you able to find
it?
>> I was. It was John Auff. J O N A C U FF.
Uh, he's got a couple other uh books in
there. Soundtracks is really a good one,
I think, that that applies to a lot of
us. I think we've actually mentioned
that before a couple of times, but I
think it's one of those as as uh mental
people as we are, particularly
developers and those you can, you know,
we're used to like going heads down and
and that also I think is where those
soundtracks can start, you know, can be
very important. So, it's a it's very
good book. Highly recommend it. We don't
get any kickbacks unless he wants to
kick something back. We would be happy
to do that. But, uh that's a great book.
Highly recommend it. And it's called
soundtracks is actually the name of the
book. again, John Auff, J O N A C U FFF.
>> And the last thing I'll throw out there,
the the biggest takeaway I got from Kim
was surround yourself with the right
people. Be it coaches, be it mentors,
masterminds, groups, but avoid the the
wrong types of people. Don't idolize
those 1enters. focus on the people that
are trying to make a difference, trying
to build their business, and really have
a why, not just a how to get rich quick
scheme.
I had a I had a great call with somebody
else that this hopefully something that
will turn into
some things that we'll be talking more
about in the future. Uh, but we're
having a conversation and he brought up
a really interesting point that I think
people have, you know, that gets glossed
over too much. was actually talking
about back when uh John Lee Dumas used
to do put out his monthly uh financials.
Every month he put out his financials
and uh Pat Flynn's done it. I know a few
others over the years that have done
that. It's just part of the like look
this is what we're doing. And when you
really actually break down those things,
there's a lot of these people that are
that are influencers or highly
successful. If you look at the details
of some of the things they did that a
lot of times that they actually, you
know, sell and recommend like starting a
podcast and writing a book and
Clickfunnels and all those kinds of
things. You look at it, they really
don't make any money out of that. That
it's one of those things that's like,
okay, you know, you you know, and
courses and all these things and yeah,
we've done all of them. Those are not
necessarily going to get you where you
need to be if you're looking for money.
And so I say that to say like these
people that are that are highly
successful, yes, you can look at what
they did and see where they um you know
overcame some of the problems they
overcame and you can find leadership.
You can find a lot of good information
there, but honestly, I think you're
going to be better off finding somebody
that's that's roughly where you are or
maybe just a step ahead of you because
you want to see somebody that's like
that's closer to it, not somebody that's
that's forgotten about it. It's like you
don't want to go,
you know, you don't want to go to like
an advanced calculus teacher and have
him try to teach you the most basic, you
know, addition and subtraction and
multiplication because they're they're
way beyond that. They they have to
really reset themselves to go back and
think to do it. It's it's automatic. You
want to find
uh people around you that are going to
help lift you up. uh she talked about
the negatives which made me think of
poison hires and stuff like that that
can cause so much trouble but that's
another topic. Um
but I do think it's one of these things
where it's like you need to be
intentional about it and if you're not
if you find yourself drifting if you
find yourself lost and I think that's
one of the things you do is like what I
think that's a it's a great segue that
we've gotten into but like what is the
soundtrack that you've been listening
to? What is it that you've been getting
because maybe it isn't what you need?
maybe it isn't the thing that's going to
get you unstuck.
That takes me to, because I've had
enough time now to think about it, a
challenge for this week. Um,
I would propose that our challenge this
time is it actually goes to
getting a good reality check on yourself
is where are you at? And the best way to
do this, I think, and this is actually
one of those things that I hate to say
it, this gets recommended all the time,
is journaling. Now, we have a different
way. We have a lot of different ways we
can journal, but I would say for you, I
would recommend your challenge for the
next. We'll say this is a 21 day. We're
not even going to do a week because one,
and go a little bit longer, but
honestly, you should see something the
first week. Start with just like journal
or just do your normal to-do list. Look
at what you accomplish. Make sure every
day at the end of the day, you check off
at the very least you've noted like what
did I do today?
And then just do that each day for a
week. and then take a look back at what
did you get done. Now, the bonus to this
is if you start your week by saying
here's my goals for the week, which is a
challenge we've offered before. You
know, basically what are my what are my
stretch goals for this week, and then
you go through the week and you look at
what did I get done every day, you're
going to most likely see that you have
made some progress. Sometimes it's crazy
progress. Like sometimes, yeah,
sometimes you get to the week and you're
like, "This thing has not moved. I
haven't moved that needle at all. I need
to figure that crap out. But that's the
important thing. Either you are
progressing and things are working well
or you're not. Or you're stuck, you're
blocked. And then if you are stuck or
blocked, that's going to highlight it's
like, I am doing the same thing day in
and day out and I'm not making any
progress. Go to somebody else. Find
somebody. Find a mentor. Find a leader.
Find your manager. Find your mama. I
don't care. Find somebody else.
Honestly, it may just be a random
stranger on the street. to just say,
"Hey, can I borrow 30 seconds of your
time to explain this problem?" Because
whatever it is you get, it may make no
sense, but at least it's different and
maybe it'll be the kind of thing that
gets you finally on the way to get
unstuck and able to get moving. Thoughts
on that challenge?
>> Yeah, that's an interesting challenge.
Um,
I like one other thing I'll throw with
that challenge. When you're done with
the week, if you can't quite figure out
the differences, throw that into AI and
ask it to analyze, hey, sum up my week
for me.
>> How did I do this week? I
>> I know you're laughing at it, but I've
actually done
>> That's an awesome idea. I haven't
actually thought of that one, but that's
a good one. That's like a good just like
if you can't get any help and honestly
okay there's your there's your actually
that's your like solution to that is
it's just like say since you're going to
throw it into AI say hey I'm if you're
stuck say I'm stuck on this thing this
is what I'm doing what can I do to
change it now beware you could end up in
rabbit holes you could be going like
there's a lot you can do but hopefully
it's going to give you something and
then the goal here is like when you
change it change it and give it some
time to bake in, you know, give it a few
days, a few weeks or something like
that, depending on what the problem is.
Don't just go like change it and 10
seconds later, okay, it hasn't worked.
Okay, I'm going to change again. I'm
going to change because then you get
you're basically back in the same
analysis paralysis that probably got you
there in the first place. So, I like
that. If you can't get any help, if you
can't find somebody else to talk to,
just throw it at AI and see what
happens. And honestly, that's not a bad
answers because sometimes you will get
some pretty cool stuff. I've gotten some
very interesting alternative suggestions
from AI over the last, you know, year or
so that I've I've used it more often and
found it to be a pretty fun little uh
sounding board for some of these ideas.
Closing thoughts? Anything else you want
to throw in? Uh thoughts on Kim or
anything? Well, the other thing just to
tweak with the AI is not just talk to
it, but like if you're doing your
journaling, take what you wrote in your
journal, put it in AI and ask it
here is my week. What improvements can I
wait make or what efficiencies can I,
you know, re review it? What is
efficient? What's not efficient? Have it
analyze what it is that you journaled
and maybe even say, hey, can I improve
my journaling? because maybe you're not
writing down enough quality information
in your journal for you to really get a
takeaway. So, this is kind of one of
those where it's not just talk to AI,
but try to use it to expand on the
exercise a little bit.
>> I think that's a really good um because
that is a great idea is that the learn
what KPIs are if you don't already know
key performance indicators, by the way.
Um, and some developers don't know
because it's really more of a I don't
know, sales and marketing and stuff like
that is usually where you you run into
KPIs, but it's very important and it's
actually something that AI will be able
to help you out with is you just say
like like Michael said, you just throw
your stuff at it and say, "Okay, what do
you think?" And then say, "Well, how can
I track this better or how can I do this
better? How can I better log my work in
a way that I can then learn from it so I
can do better in the future?" Because,
you know, that's what we really that's
really what we should be doing. If we're
spending our time logging our time, we
should actually be using it to assess
where we are, what we're doing, and how
we can get better. I will probably do
that myself. I've got all these little
things. It's like just throw something
at it and say, "How did I do this week?
What would you what would you suggest?"
I periodically like to do that to to AI.
And uh usually have to start with don't
tell me that I'm awesome or I'm great or
that just do the same thing. Like tell
it to pick at it. tell it to like tell
me where I'm going wrong or or where I'm
missing something. Those kinds of things
because those gaps are going to be the
places that you're going to be able to
most quickly uh learn from in game. That
being said, thanks so much for hanging
out with us. Uh I know this is bonus
material and things like that. As
always, uh shoot us an email at info
developer.com if you've got any comments
or anything like that. You can actually
leave comments down below and uh just
let us know if you've got suggestions,
recommen recommendations. love to hear
how you do in the challenges.
Uh check us out if you're not following
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page or more importantly our LinkedIn
page uh the developer page. Just go out
there. Uh we have pretty good we got all
of these things out there. Plus, we're
throwing other posts out there on a
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people that follow us. Feel free to
follow them and hopefully that'll
connect you for, you know, whatever your
next step in your career is. That being
said, it's time for us to run off and
head off into another week. You guys do
the same. Enjoy your weekend and come
back next week. Have yourself a great
time, safe weekend, and we will talk to
you and see you next time around.
And now the fun part where Rob tries to
find stop.
Ciao.