Grace Beverley

I really love that episode with Sophie we talk about this type of thing a lot so if you haven't listened to it then do go back and listen she talks a lot about starting your own thing online and particularly anything creative which I feel like is particularly useful around this type of thing where you probably have to try a lot more publicly than maybe in other industries

Now going on to step two, this is to redefine cringe as evidence of growth.

The reason for this is because the feeling of cringe is usually a signal that you are stretching yourself beyond your current identity.

Psychologists actually talk about identity-based fear, where actually the discomfort of acting in a new way feels threatening because it does not align with how you've previously seen yourself.

so if you've always been the quiet one speaking up will feel cringe if you've never been the creative one posting content will feel cringe but that discomfort is not proof that you should stop it is proof that you are expanding the problem is that both feel equally uncomfortable and the easiest thing to do is just to stop which obviously makes sense it's the path of least resistance but that's not going to get you anywhere you actually want to get to in your life

I can promise you that every founder, creator, public figure, or successful person has a deeply embarrassing archive at the beginning.

The difference between those who succeed and those who do not is genuinely not all about talent.

It is tolerance for awkwardness and failure, particularly at the beginning, particularly very publicly.

The people who succeed are often the ones who notice what's working and what isn't.

They test, they iterate, and they go again, no matter what anyone thinks.

Because if you know what works and you know what you should be testing again, you know what you should be iterating on, but all of them make you feel embarrassed and therefore you don't do them, you're not going to progress.

You're not going to get to where you want to get to.

A good example from my past is that when I launched Tala, we had so many problems with that first launch.

And I'm not proud of that.

It's not that I'm proud about that at all.

But we launched at scale on our first ever launch.

You can't test launching in that way.

We had so many things go wrong.

And I remember right after just thinking like,

I already had a successful business.