James: James Schramko here. And I’m here with my buddy, John Lint, from 10XPRO.io. Good day, mate.
John: Hey, everybody.
James: John, we were having a catch up recently, and I was mentioning to you that I had a catastrophic error today, that was all my fault, which is very rare. And we have a bit of a laugh about it. And the reason we’re laughing about it is because it happens. It’s normal.
John: Yeah.
James: Today’s topic is what happens, you know, when things don’t go right, and how do you deal with that? So, I think first I’ll share my story. And then I’ll ask you to share a story, too.
John: Alright.
James: Today, I had a webinar. And there were two webinars in my webinar system. And they had very similar names. My team had kindly set up the webinars, they both had almost the exact same extension. And I clicked on the wrong one.
And I was waiting for my people to show up and they’re nowhere to be seen. I thought, Oh, maybe, they don’t want to get this training. And they’re on the other one, thinking, where am I? And they literally said, Ah, the waves must be good. James must be surfing.
Anyone who knows me knows I always show up, like, always. So they were concerned, they started contacting the help desk. But you know, I laugh at it now. It was just a silly mistake, it was a human error. It wasn’t my team’s fault. It wasn’t the software’s fault. It was just me, I clicked on the wrong link. And I didn’t figure it out quickly enough.
I did record it. And people did manage to get across which is great. And I was able to save it. And when I finished, the recording wouldn’t render. It rendered 99%, and I couldn’t get the last percent. And after trying a couple of times for about 20 minutes, I finally found a temporary file, I was able to save it and convert it.
And there you go. But, in the past, I can tell you, I’ve lost a lot of recordings. You know, I’m up to 670 odd episodes on my podcast right now. And I would have lost at least dozens of podcasts.
I even backup recorded today’s webinar on an audio recorder as an absolute backup. So I was prepared to actually go and redo the questions because I had all the answers recorded.
So, stuff happens. Have you ever had stuff happen where you’ve got the — you set it up and the cart wasn’t quite right, or the payment amount was wrong, or the email was slightly mistyped, or you sent people to the wrong website, ever happened to you?
John: All the time, all the time. And I think that’s something, you know, hopefully, that’s the message of this video. It’s normal guys, you know, it’s going to happen. It happens to everybody.
We have been doing this for over 10 years now, and there are still some little mistakes. For example, last week, I was recording a new course and I had to pause it because we had to go do the groceries. So, I paused the recording. I didn’t stop it. I paused it because then I can resume it later. When I came back, I forgot to click on resume. So I continued to do the training for an hour and, of course, I realized that I did not press resume, so it was not recording. So I was just talking to the microphone, and it was not even recording. So, of course, I wasn’t happy. But these things happen.
Sometimes you write a bunch of emails, the link will be wrong. That’s okay, you know, you can fix it. The point is that it will happen, mistakes are made. But yeah, just keep your chin up, it’s going to be okay. At the end of the day, you can always kind of fix it.
That’s the beautiful thing with an online business, is that it’s all digital. So usually there’s always a way to fix it or to redo it. It’s not the end of the world. But yeah, of course, these are classic things that will happen. Just take it with, you know, smile at it. And yeah, it might suck a bit at the moment, but then you can always redo it.
James: And this is what I tell my students that these are the challenges that keep your competitors from being competitive with you. This is where people give up.
John: Yeah.
James: They’ll give up too quickly. You can always take whatever happens to you and use it. That’s what Nam Baldwin said on a podcast I had with him and he coaches world champions. He actually coached Mick Fanning through his shark attack, and his World Series attempts. And he said: Whatever happens, use it.
So I take from today’s experience, I’m going to be extra careful next time to click on the right link. I’m going to make sure I communicate to my audience really well about where the webinar is. And I think I actually recorded extra long, and I answered my questions with extra details to compensate for the slow start. So you know, I will come back.
Same as, you know, after that, I went for a surf today. I thought, Okay, I’m going to wash this off, I’m going to reset, have a great surf. I went in, in this pounding five, six-foot waves.
John: Yeah.
James: And I took a board that I’ve been challenged with a little bit. Surf it quite a few times, and I’ve only really ever had one good surf on this board, that the challenge is I’ve gotta get this board to work. But again, I had a terrible surf on this board. This board won’t beat me, yet. But at the same time, after I’ve tested it in all the variable conditions, and if it still can’t prove itself, then it won’t make the cut. And I’ll avoid any sunk costs beyond that.
John: Right.
James: It will actually be sold. And I’ll reinvest the money into one that works for me.
I’ve got another board that I’ve surfed about the same number of times and I’ve never had a bad surf on. So I’m going to be taking that board next time. So I adapt and tune and learn. And even though it’s frustrating at the time, even though you just want to cry sometimes because you know, you’re so frustrated, that is part of being an entrepreneur.
John: Yeah.
James: That’s part of business. And that is what makes the highs so high. When you have those lows, remember the high will come and when you have the highs, appreciate it. Celebrate lack of drama, acknowledge that you put in the work to get this result and it was all worthwhile.
It’s always great chatting, John. This is inspirational. Hopefully, we’ve encouraged someone who’s going through a tough patch.
If you’re watching this video, wherever it is, be sure to subscribe so you get more videos like this. Also, check out 10XPRO.io because John has put together the world’s best course and membership software. Get my coaching at SuperFastBusiness Membership, where I help people get through those dips.
And leave a comment – what tough patch have you been able to overcome as a result of listening to this podcast and feeling like you’ve now got a renewed energy and vigor, and you’re embracing that this is part of the journey?
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