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This is a tough email for me to write but since I believe in transparency; here goes.

If you’ve been following my content for even a short period of time you’ll notice I’m on camera quite often.

I used to absolutely hate it but now it’s something I look forward to. So imagine how excited I was to land my first TV appearance last week.

But, maybe I was a bit too excited.

Or overly caffeinated.

Or unprepared.

Either way I completely tanked. I was talking a mile a minute and did a poor job of explaining my key points.

Ironically enough, my segment was based on how to recover from failure and turn it into a positive experience.

I’m going to share that experience with you now.

Thought: Is it true?

Time-saver: Remember, you’ve been through tougher times

Tactic: How to recover from failure and turn it into a positive experience

Reading time: 4 minutes

Thought: Is it true?

So, back to me tanking on live TV. Immediately afterwards my friend – who booked me on the show – left a voice message gushing about how well I did. This was confusing but she also mentioned her cable kept cutting out so she only saw about ⅓ of it.

The studio engineer who was present while I recorded said something along the lines of “It wasn’t that bad but we both know you could have done better.”

Once I got home my wife was excited and said I did an amazing job. But, we’re married so I chalked that one up to the whole “for better or worse” thing.

At this point I was still confused. Immediately after the segment and during my walk home I was convinced that I tanked but now I was starting to doubt myself.

My takeaway from this part. Whenever you feel down on yourself or someone says something negative about about; stop and think for a moment.

Is it true?

If it is, do something about it.

If it isn’t, keep it moving and enjoy the rest of your day.

Time-saver: Remember, you’ve been through tougher times

So, the jury is still out on whether or not I tanked but you might be wondering why I was able to laugh at myself so quickly.

Here’s my time-saver when it comes to stuff like that. I have a habit of comparing bad experiences to even worse experiences from my past. This comparison helps me dwarf the size of the current problem and either get over or get through it more quickly.

In this case I compared tanking on live TV to the time I got laid off in 2009. As you may have imagined, getting laid off was a much tougher situation but I recovered from that as well.

Or, as Robert Tew once said.

“The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow. Don’t give up.”

So the next time you mess up, try comparing it to an even bigger mistake. You made it through that one and you’re prepared to take on more challenges as well.

Tactic: How to recover from failure and turn it into a positive experience

Like I said, my segment was based on recovering from failure and making something good out of it. So, I’ll walk through the steps I sped through on live tv and use my mess up as a use case scenario.

Stage One: The Setback

This is the stage where the failure or setback occurs. It can be anything from losing your job, tanking a huge project, a relationship ending or tanking a live TV segment.

Either way, something bad has happened and you can’t do anything to change that. However, you’re in full control of how you respond.

Stage two: Perception

In this stage you stop to think about the impact of your recent setback. Is it the end of the world, or can you use this as an opportunity to pause and pivot? If you keep a positive attitude this is where you start to take control back.

Unfortunately many people skip this stage entirely and jump ahead to reacting. But between the action and your reaction there’s a space for you to create an even better outcome than you could have originally imagined. Or, at the very least, make the best out of a bad situation.

In my case I perceived it as an opportunity to learn from my mistakes, share my journey with others and do much better the next time around.

Of course, that’s assuming there was going to be a next time.

I planned on using this segment as a way of landing more appearances in the future. Since I was still half convinced I came off as a babbling fool I knew my chances weren’t as good as I’d like.

This feeling – and moment to pause – inspired my next steps which I’ll share momentarily.

Stage 3: Reaction

This is the stage where you start making steps in a positive direction based on the setback that occurred and your perception of it.

I normally aim for the easiest task I can complete that will get some momentum going.

So, here’s what I did. I found the Instagram handle for the news anchor that interviewed me and sent her the following direct message.

“It was so great chatting with you today. As you could probably tell I was a bit excited so thanks for keeping me grounded. I appreciate you, please let me know how I can support you as well!”

I was expecting an emoji as a response but I was hoping for some feedback on my performance.

I didn’t get either.

But, here’s what I got instead.

“Thank you! You were great to have and would love to have you on again and loved your advice. I’m happy to set up another segment!”

Wasn’t expecting that at all!

Of course I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m glad to share that I’ll be back on the news October 10th.

But things don’t always turn around so quickly and that’s why the last stage is so important.

Stage 4: Endurance

With the right attitude it’s relatively easy to get all pumped up and move forward form a setback.

When I got laid off in 2009 I went all in on my job search for the first few weeks. But as time went by, and no real opportunities emerged, I knew this wasn’t going to be quite as easy as I originally thought.

So what do you do when things don’t pan out as quickly as you’d like? You keep going.

Sure, it may not be comfortable, but the only way is through. And this is when you need to tap into your endurance and keep moving forward, even when you feel like giving up.

It took me five months to get another job after getting laid off, but I also got a $40,000 raise.

It took me one day to get back on TV, but I also knew I’d be ok if it took me years to get another shot.

Why? Because I’ve been through tougher times before and things worked out even better than I could have imagined.

Quick recap

Here’s a cheat sheet for you to leverage the next time you experience a setback.

1️⃣ The Setback (Out of your control; move to the next stage)

2️⃣ Perception (Think of how you can pivot in a positive direction)

3️⃣ Reaction (Start with one easy task)

4️⃣ Endurance (Keep your head up and you feet moving forward)

I hope you found this valuable (please let me know) and if you did please consider sharing it with a friend. They can sign up here.

Have a great week!

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