Sucking Believe Stutz Mail

Have you ever tried something new and you suck at it at the beginning? I am going to tell you why and help you get through that awkward phase. And the second thing we’ll talk about is, do you believe in what you’re selling? It’s a good question that I think a lot of people should ask themselves. There’s an awesome documentary about a psychiatrist (I find the topic of psychology interesting) and I’ll tell you how I check my physical mail when I’m traveling around the world.

I recently uploaded the first two episodes of this show and I went back and listened to them both and I was, “Wow, you know what, that sucked!” What sucked was not so much my delivery or the topic, it was the quality of the audio that sucks. As soon as I had that “Oh, I suck at this!” thought I also had the thought, “Well, yeah, of course I suck at this. Everyone sucks at everything at the beginning.” You don’t go from never doing something to being incredible at something the very first time. There’s a process that you have to go through, because you’re going to go from never doing something, to kind of sucking, to kind of being okay at it, to kind of being good at it, and then great, and then you’re going to be incredible… eventually. But you have to go through all those phases.

You can’t just jump to the end, as muc犀利士 h as you’d like to, as much as I’d like to. I’m sure the first time Michael Jordan picked up a basketball, he probably didn’t know what to do with it. The same with, let’s say, Jimi Hendrix, the first time he picked up a guitar, or the first time someone tried to write a book, like Stephen King, his first book probably sucked. I’m not sure what his first book was, but you get the idea. The first time you do something, you’re going to be awful at it but just know that that’s a good thing because that means you’re on the way to being really good at it. But you have to suck at it first in order to be really good at it. I hope that makes sense and I hope that makes you feel better about trying new things, and it’s okay to suck at the beginning. Now, if the sucking part goes on for an unreasonable amount of time, and you still suck, then adjust accordingly. But at the beginning, you’re going to suck, so expect it.

Talking about things that kind of suck, have you ever been employed – let’s say that you’re a salesperson – and you’re really struggling to sell this product or get the word out about your business or whatever? I think an important question to ask is, do you really believe in the product? Do you believe in the service that you are selling? Because I think a lot of times the answer is no, and we only do things just to make money, just to get that paycheck. But belief, or your conviction about the product will help you because that’ll transfer trust to the buyer. Let me show you what I’m talking about. There is this clip on YouTube where there’s one guy holding an AK-47 rifle and one guy sitting behind some glass, it goes like this:

“Today, I will redefine what it means to stand behind my product.” the CEO then goes and sits behind the glass.

“My name is Lawrence Casa, this is my AK-47, and today I get to shoot my boss. Don’t try this at home.” 

He cocks the gun and shoots a bunch of shots at the glass where his boss is just a foot behind it. It’s wild, it’s really an impressive thing to see.

That’s what I’m talking about when I say conviction! I am not in the market for bulletproof glass, but if I was, this is the company I would buy my bulletproof glass from. He’s literally putting his life on the line to show you that it would work. 

How else could this idea be used to demonstrate conviction? I was thinking of a boring industry, something like a rope manufacturer. How boring are ropes, right? But let’s say that there was an incredibly strong, fire-resistant rope that a company was selling. Imagine if they used the same idea as this bulletproof glass company. Let’s say it was the rope CEO sitting in a chair outside in the parking lot and you just see the CEO, and then the camera pulls back and you see a car suspended over his head with knives that are on fire and it’s all connected by only one of their ropes. That would be an amazing visualization which would build a lot of trust and people that see that.

Next time you are in a brainstorming meeting, I think a great question to ask is “how can we build trust?” Do we really believe in this product? How can we relay our trust and conviction onto our buyers or our customers or our guests that come in here? That’s a very, very powerful thing if you can do that. 

If you’re familiar with me and my story, you know that my wife and I have been traveling around to different countries for the last few years, and one of the questions that I’ve gotten many times  “How do you get physical mail?” 

Physical mail is a big problem when the country you are in is always changing. I’m never in the same place for more than a few months at a time. There is a service that I’ve used ever since we left the United States and it’s called Virtual Post Mail. It’s a virtual mailbox and here’s how it works:

• The first thing I had to do was set up mail forwarding with the post office that formwards me mail to one of the mailboxes that Virtual Post Mail assigned to me.
• With that set up any mail that gets forwarded to my VPM mailbox they scan the outside of the envelope and then I get a notification that I have a new mail
• I can then go to the website, log into my account and see the outside of the envelope.
• Now that I can see the outside of the envelope, there are two different buttons I can choose to “open it” or “throw it away”. If it’s something promotional that I don’t care about, I’m just going to throw it away. If it’s a bill or credit card or something like that, I could choose to open it
• If I click the open it button, they will open the envelope and scan the contents of the envelope. Now I can see what’s inside. 
• There are now two more buttons, I can either throw it away or I can forward it to any mail address that I want to have. I have to pay for that forwarding part, but that’s very useful. 

Let’s say I apply for a credit card, and they send to my VPM mailbox (this has happened before) then I just have them forward the credit card to my Mom, and then my Mom got it to me. That’s how it works when you’re traveling around to different countries and you want to get your physical mail.

There is a great documentary on Netflix called “Stutz” that stars Jonah Hill and his therapist. I guess they’ve worked together for a long time, and the therapist has really helped him out so he put together a documentary. Watching it feels like a psychology lesson or like a therapy session. 

The therapist (Phil Stutz) makes these great hand drawn diagrams with interesting concepts and one of them is called “Part X”. He says it’s the thing in us that makes growth and change feel impossible in the face of adversity, it’s the aspect of ourselves that we recognize as a fixed limitation, and it intimidates every pursuit. 

That’s pure genius. 

Another diagram is a bunch of perpendicular lines with random little circles on the lines and some of the circles have a little dark part in it. This is what he calls the “String of Pearls”, this is a fantastic concept! Stutz says “Each Pearl is a similar size, you can think of each action as having the same value, no matter what it is. That means that every large or small action in your life, like brushing your teeth, getting a new job, whatever it is, just adds a thing to do. You’re the only person who can put the next pearl on the string. Some of the pearls have a little black part in it and that’s what he calls a turd. That’s a reminder that no effort you make will be perfect. And the key is to acknowledge that and keep adding to the string anyway. 

The Stutz documentary is on Netflix now and they talk about so many topics that I wasn’t aware of. It really helps you understand why you make certain decisions and why you feel a certain way.