Creator vs. Critic vs. Consumer
Imagine you have this pie chart and if we could split this into three different levels, this is how our time would be spent.
If it was balanced, it would be a third critic, third consumer, third creator.
If it was balanced this way, I don’t think that’s too bad. But people tend to focus on being a critic first, next consuming and finally if there is any time or energy left over creating.
Critic
Stop being a critic especially right now. It's not helpful.
This is just my observation through my experience and if this isn't you, you don't need to get upset and i'm not trying to trigger anyone here. I'm just saying this is about me and if you can relate to it, great! And if not, you don’t have to get upset about this.
What I've noticed is if you're critical of others you're probably extremely critical of yourself. As we get into creation mode, I'll just take a jump forward with that, if you watch a video and you're like “oh I can't believe that person said this” or “I can't believe they're doing that” or “I can't believe the quality of the video is that poor”, “I can't really hear him” or you're listening to a podcast you're like “oh that sounds muffled, it's not good quality”. You're probably critiquing yourself even harder and that's why you're not creating and putting stuff out there.
Consumer
I think you need to look at reducing consumption especially if it's news or if its negativity.
Maybe you don't need to reduce your consumption but adjust your consumption and make sure it's good, helpful.
What we're looking at is to reduce or open up some space. The idea is consuming good stuff that leaves you feeling better, empowered and inspired.
The reason I deleted Twitter completely from my social media is every time I went on to Twitter I felt like I was walking into a dungeon of just scary monsters of darkness. I never felt good logging in and then coming out of there.
But a good idea is to consume good stuff that leaves you feeling better empowered and inspired. So if you're watching the news in it doesn't make you feel good afterward, maybe you need to go listen to a positive podcast or go for a walk and listen to two hours of an audible if you listen to one hour of negative news.
Look to replace things.
And what this does then, if you can stop being a critic most importantly of yourself and you can stop consuming most importantly negative stuff, you make space.
Creator
Create good stuff that leaves you and others feeling better, empowered and inspired.
This is why I think you have to start with removing the critic first because the biggest challenge that I see when anyone is starting to consume or create stuff for business purposes, what they're doing is they're focused on how they will appear and it's very self-serving, arrogant and its ego driven.
You might be thinking you're being arrogant, putting stuff out by sharing stuff or by putting yourself on camera.
What I see is you're being arrogant and ego-driven most of the time and the reason why you're not doing it is you're afraid of how you will appear and if that's not arrogant and ego-driven and I don't know what it is.
When I was speaking a lot on stage and I would see someone who was very nervous to go on stage for the first time or maybe it was in front of a larger audience than there they were used to or maybe they were used to doing trainings in their local office and there were training 20 to 30 agents and now they're in front of an audience of 200 to 300 agents. And now on an elevated stage.
I could see that they're nervous, their color would disappear and they were starting to get a little sweat on the forehead and it's hot up there because usually there are lights.
I would try to talk them through the process of like “what's going on?” and they're like “what if they don't like what I say?” “what if they don't find this interesting?” “what if I stumble on my words?”.
Do you hear what you're saying?
You're concerned with how you appear on this, how you come across and you're concerned about whether you're going to trip going upstage or if they will find value in you.
You need to focus on the audience and make this about them.
You can't be nervous if you're focused on them and helping them get value, helping them move their business or their life forward and whatever way that you're here to do. But when you're making it about you, it's very easy to get nervous and then start second-guessing things. And the same can be done whether you're making a video, doing a podcast, doing a live or whatever.
You need to stop thinking about yourself and how you come across criticism or being a critic.
Don't be a critic or don’t criticize.
Stop consuming the not-so-good stuff in your life
Makes space for you to start creating good stuff that leaves you and others feeling empowered.
How do you know that you're doing this well?
Socrates’ method Test of Three. Story: One of Socrates’ students runs up to him and says...
Student: “Hey I have a story to tell you about another one of your students”
Socrates: “Okay before you do this let's run it through the test of three, I want to know if this is worth hearing”
Student: “Okay”
Then Socrates goes number one…
Socrates: “Is this absolutely true?
Student: “Well I don't know because I heard it from someone else who heard it from someone else”
Socrates: “Okay, so you don't know if it's absolutely true?”
Student: “No, I’m not not sure”.
Then Socrates goes number two…
Socrates: “Is this good? Does this make the person look good? Is this uplifting to them?”
Student: “Well no. It's not good”
Socrates: “So you're saying that you don't know if it's absolutely true and it doesn't make them look good.”
Then Socrates goes number three…
Socrates: “Is this information useful? Is it gonna be useful to me?”
Student: “Well, probably not”
Socrates: “You want to tell me something that you don't know if it's true, it doesn't make them look good, put them in a good light and it's not useful to me. Why do you want to tell me this?”
That's the Socrates Test of Theory and I think that's a good way to look at your creation.
🤙🏻
—-
AND WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE’S 3 WAYS I CAN HELP:
Get on my email list, get access to free training videos and resources.
Join the private Facebook group - Real Estate Marketing and Productivity Tips
Get the M.A.P. on how to work with me