When the CEO shares their diary…

On Sunday night I had the privilege of attending the Steven Bartlett show at Brisbane Convention Centre. Steven is most well known as the host of the wildly successful podcast Diary of a CEO, but is also the founder and/or investor in multiple multi-million dollar businesses.

To say I was excited for this event is an understatement. I’ve been looking forward to it for months and IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!

Steven, hands down is one of the fastest and most succinct speakers I have ever seen. The way we was able to articulate himself so eloquently, so quickly was very impressive. As someone who also does public speaking, I love watching people present like this. It becomes proof of what’s possible. When you see someone doing something that you want to do so wonderfully, it creates a proof point in your mind of what is possible. This show created that for me. There was no fan fair. No wild signage or huge decorations. It was one stage, one projector and one speaker with a microphone. Easy. Simple. Super effective.

Aside from his speaking skills, I took away a few other things from the show that I want to share.
These points that I’m sharing below are all in reference to a key theme of ‘showing up for yourself’. There were other business related tools, and communication insights that I’ll definitely share, but over aching each point that Steven made throughout the show, was the idea of showing up for yourself and taking action towards a greater life.

Here’s what I took away from the night:

1. Confidence follows action. 
   The misconception that you take action once you feel confident - bullshit. It’s all lies.
   I talk about this a lot, and it was a perfect reminder - if you want to build confidence, you need to first take action. Give yourself permission to start, break through the fear, and from each step your confidence will grow.
   Steven used this gorgeous analogy of breaking yourself free, just like a spider learning to run outside the lines. Watch this video here to explain. Essentially, a spider will consider a drawn line on a page as a barrier. It won’t step over the line and instead turns around at each line it meets. Until, eventually it accidentally crosses a line, and as it does this a couple of times, it finally realises it can cross the line. The line is no barrier.
   You can also set yourself free. Breakthrough the made up fear barrier. You can also trial the thing, learn from it, and continue growing until you’re free too. Taking action first is how you grow confidence.
   

2. It’s the things you do when no one is watching that matter.
   The self commitments you make, and stick to, are the way you build your sense of identity and confidence.
   Again, I talk about this regularly, but Steven also had a great analogy. He interviewed professional boxer, Chris Eubank, who shared this amazing story.
   The foot notes are basically that when Chris makes a promise to himself to complete a task he always does it. If he says he’ll be on the treadmill for 40 minutes, and he gets a cramp at 32minutes, he keeps hobbling on the treadmill until he reaches 40 minutes. He says he does this because if he’s willing to give in to something as harmless as the treadmill, how easily will he give in during seriously tough times. He’s proving his commitment to strength and perseverance through continuing to finish the self promise.
   You to can build your identity with this concept. The more times you complete the task, the greater sense of belief you’re growing.
   

3. Positive Confidence Reinforcing Spiral
   This is a continuation of the above learning, but I think it valuable to have it’s own dot point because the term is so poignant. The more you do the small things daily, the more you’re positively reinforcing confidence in yourself to do it. It’s a loop, a self fulfilling prophecy.
   When we promise things to ourselves, and don’t do them, our brain starts to build a sense of distrust. When things get hard, your brain will remember that it doesn’t always trust you to pull through on things you say you will.
   The opposite goes when you do the things you say you will. The more you do the small things every day, the things when no one else is watching or holding you accountable, the more your brain can build trust in you to do the things you say you will. It’s a spiral. You’re reinforcing this belief through that action.
   

4. Things that are easy to do today, are also easy to not do.
   This is often referred to as the 1%-ers. The tiny changers that you can make every day that appear insignificant but actually have the largest compounding impact. Steven made the point of highlighting that although these things can appear really easy to do (yay, great news), that also usually means that they’re really easy to not do, too. Just as easy as it is to do the 10 minute morning walk, or take the supplement, or write your daily to-do list, it’s also just as easy to avoid doing it. It appears so small, and therefore quite insignificant in the bigger picture so ‘just skipping today won’t hurt’.
   This is where people get unstuck. If it’s easy to do, then do it. That launches the positive confidence reinforcing spiral. The more you can do the little things, the more you build that trust in yourself.
   

5. The power of leaning in to change
   This was definitely the most challenging topic that was discussed. The idea of leaning into things that appear uncomfortable, different or weird. The argument was delivered in a compelling way though - the more you can learn about and embrace the changes, the things you don’t want to adopt, the more ability you have to grow, evolve and keep up with the industry.
   Change is inevitable, you either adopt it or you get left behind. Mastering the skills of leaning into it, will benefit you in the long run. Being afraid of change will keep your stagnant, learning about it will allow you to make informed decisions.
   This doesn’t mean you need to adopt all change, it simple means you need to be familiar enough with it to determine if it can be beneficial to your growth.

For me, I found all of this information really inspiring. We do have the ability to show up for ourselves in a compelling way. We do have the ability to show love and kindess to ourselves when it comes to growth. You get to be your biggest cheerleader, and your strongest motivator. Make it your choice to go after the life you want.

Overall there were plenty more great insights across the show.

What further insights would you prefer to read about next - communication skills or business skills?

Let me know and I’ll make it happen.

Sending love,
Jade xx