It's a multi-billion dollar industry where speakers get paid a ridiculous amount of money. Why? It's because this is one of the most valuable skills in the world. Anytime you see a video of mine pop up, let it be a trigger in your mind to go, hey, you still working on your communication skills?
Because I hope I don't need to remind you again that this is the most valuable skill in the world. Master the skill and inject one of the most valuable skill sets in the world into your lives personally and into your life professionally. I'm an introvert. Do you have any advice on how to increase my comfort levels around others?
I've got a bit of an interesting take on this answer. Some people might not agree with me. I believe I'm an ambivert.
I'm both an introvert and an extrovert. Used to be an extrovert, but then as a result of my career path, I'm surrounded by people all the time. It's actually turned me from an extrovert into an introvert. It's weird. I find that for introverts, and because I've got so many students who are introverts, I've been able to see this pattern.
One of the main reasons why introverts find it difficult to meet new people is not only because they're an introvert. They also fear judgment. They fear rejection.
They get a lot of anxiety when they're around new people. And they're also scared of saying the wrong thing. There are so many other things that are attached to being an introvert than just being an introvert. Because if you were just an introvert and you didn't fear rejection, and you didn't get anxiety around people, and you didn't fear saying the wrong thing, If you were just an introvert and you didn't have any of the other things, I reckon you'd be fine speaking to people.
You'd do great. But because you are an introvert, and you fear rejection, and you're scared of saying the wrong thing, and you get really anxious around new people, then it makes it infinitely more difficult to be comfortable around others and to be a great communicator around others. So what I believe is, you don't want to go, I don't want to be an introvert anymore, I want to be an extrovert now.
I don't really believe it's that possible to change whether or not you're an introvert easily. I think what's better is to manage all the other symptoms, to manage all the other things. I think it's much easier to manage fear of rejection.
I think it's much easier to manage the anxiety around new people. And I think it's much easier to manage that part of your brain that's always wanting to be perfect. I think that's way easier to try to manage as compared to say to yourself, I don't wanna be an introvert anymore. Now, how do you do this?
How do you manage the other things? For example, if you fear rejection, Desensitize it. I mean it. Desensitize it.
And this will sound crazy to some of you. I've done some of this and I'm going to give you context. I'm going to give you context behind this answer. When I first learned magic, I thought magic tricks were the most amazing thing in the world.
I thought, wow, everybody must love magic. This is crazy. This is the coolest art form in the world.
And then I went out into the city because I wanted to practice magic on real people. I didn't want to just practice magic in my room by myself in front of a mirror all the time. I remember this.
It was a Friday night. I went to the city for the first time and I was so excited. I'm like, oh, I can't wait to bring joy and astonishment and amazement to people's lives. So I stood there in the city with a couple of my friends and I walked up to a random stranger and I said, hey. Can I show you a magic trick?
And they're like, no, get away from me. I was like, wait, wait, what? What? You?
But what? And I felt crushed, right? I was really naive and I just couldn't believe people didn't want to see magic.
And then just that first rejection caused me to fear rejection. I didn't fear rejection before that. And then the moment that happened, now I was so scared of rejection. Now I didn't perform magic for people for months after that. Because I feared rejection so much and the fear of rejection stopped me from going out for months to perform magic for people.
So I continued to perform magic in my room by myself or the mirror. And gradually I realized that I needed to desensitize the fear of rejection. Otherwise, I'm never going to be able to spread this beautiful gift that I've discovered. Magic, right?
So I had to desensitize it. How do you desensitize it? Got back out there and my goal was no longer to perform magic. I took a step back. My goal was to get 20 people to say no to me.
Yep, I just said to myself, all right, it's a Friday night. The goal here, Vin, is to ask 20 people if they want to see magic and you want to get 20 no's. Because the goal is not to perform magic tonight.
And if you do, well, lucky you. But the goal is to desensitize the fear of rejection. And then I would go out to the city and I would get rejected time and time and time and time again. And to my surprise, out of every 10 people I asked, three people said yes.
And it was so beautiful because I started to learn that, oh wow. People are not saying no to me, right? They're not saying no to even magic sometimes. Sometimes people are just busy and that's okay. I stopped taking the no's personally and I started to fully desensitize the fear of rejection.
You should have seen me after 12 months of doing this. I had no problems going up to people asking if they wanted to see magic. And here's the interesting part that starts to happen.
As you reduce the fear of rejection, when you go up to people and ask people questions, You no longer have this, there's almost this sense of desperation that you want people to accept you when you fear rejection. When you fear rejection, you walk up to people like, oh, is, you know, is that, um, is that okay if I show you a trick? The fear of rejection reeks and it smells and people can feel it and sense it. Whereas when I no longer had the fear of rejection, I came across so much more confident.
Instead of, excuse me, like, I don't know if you have time, you must be busy. Can I show you a piece of magic? Instead of that, it's like, have I performed for you yet this evening?
I haven't, I've got to show you this. Hold your hand like this. And you go straight into it. There's a difference there. So again, all I'm saying here is, as an introvert, you can desensitize the fear of rejection by going out there and getting 20 no's.
And you're probably thinking, but if I don't perform magic, it's time to get creative. Next time you're in the line to get coffee, ask if you can get the coffee for free. I know this is crazy, right? This is a little strategy I learned, I remember from Tim Ferriss.
we just ask the barista just go what are the chances i can get this coffee for free just ask and you'll be shocked what happens i've done this so many times and i love to do this when i'm in a different city just so that i don't i don't ruin the relationships with my existing cafes that i love in south australia but you just ask hey what are the chances i can get this coffee for free and it's it's it is so amazing the number of times that the barista just literally just looks at me and says oh if you like us on social media i'll give you a cup of coffee for free If you do a post on your social media, I'll give you a cup of coffee for free. So all of a sudden, you desensitize the fear of rejection as you do this, right? Because a lot of the times people will say no, and you realize it's not the end of the world, then you stop taking it personally.
And then on top of that, you get free coffee from time to time. Now, the next thing that you can desensitize is you can also desensitize the fear of... the wrong thing.
It's crazy how the brain wants to get everything perfect. Your brain just thinks, oh my goodness, I've made a mistake. I'm such an idiot. But in reality, other people don't care. They don't.
No one is perfect. The brain's desire for perfection is such a dangerous desire. So as you desensitize the fear of rejection, you also learn that no one knows what they're doing. Nobody does.
Everyone's just trying. best and they're making it up as they go. You've just got to give yourself some grace.
The last thing I'll say is the anxiety of meeting new people. Going out there and get 20 no's, it also desensitizes that anxiety. And come up with different strategies for yourself.
The one that is going to help you reduce the anxiety when you're meeting new people is very simple. That one is, okay, you've got a new KPI that you have to hit every single day. You have to say hello to three new people every single day.
And the first time you do it, it's just a simple hello. So level one of this is, hi, good morning, walk on. The level two of that is, hi, good morning, how are you?
That's it. Level three of that is, hi, good morning, how are you? Hey, beautiful shirt.
I love it. That's hi, how are you? Combined with a compliment.
And then after that level four is, hi, how are you? Beautiful shirt. Hey, could you recommend a great cafe close by?
Do you know any? See what I'm doing here? And then just continue. And you can be as creative as you want.
But what you're trying to do here is desensitize the anxiety when it comes to meeting new people. I've got a feather in my throat now. If you're able to use all these strategies to reduce all of the other components, if you're able to reduce the fear of rejection, you're able to reduce that anxiety when you're meeting new people. If you start to calm that part of your brain down that's always trying to be perfect all the time and value progress over perfection.
As you start to manage that, then all of a sudden, even as an introvert. You'll still be great around people. So don't think to yourself that, oh, I'm an introvert, I'm not good around people.
Trust me, I know extroverts who have the fear of rejection, who have the fear of saying something wrong, who have anxiety around meeting new people. I know extroverts who are terrible around people. So don't just sit there and think to yourself, oh, just because I'm an introvert, I'm not going to be able to be comfortable around others. That's not true.
It's not about, it's not just the introvert thing, okay? There are many other things attached to it. Manage these other things and then you can still thrive when meeting new people as an introvert.
All right, you've got a couple of strategies there now that you've actually got to apply. And here's the crazy part. If you actually apply the things that I just said, that's going to completely change your level of confidence. One of the things that levels up confidence more than anything is desensitizing the fear of rejection and being able to approach others.
Vin, there's something that I do called one-upping when I'm talking to my friends. So sometimes when I talk to my friends, they'll say something and then I'll say, oh yeah, but I've got something better. Vin, isn't one-upping a rapport building technique? Because you're showing the other person that...
Hey, we've got something in common and it's a really good point that you bring up because if you're unfamiliar with one-upping, let me help you become familiar with it. The classic example is one of your friends says, oh my goodness, I just went bungee jumping and I had the best time of my life. And then the moment you heard that you go, oh yeah, well, I actually went skydiving and skydiving is way better.
That's one-upping. It's awful. I am so guilty of this. I do it all the time. But then the question here is really powerful because isn't it important to find common ground?
And when someone shares that they've done something scary and you share you've done something scary, doesn't that build rapport? Yes and no. Because if you do it in the wrong way, people just kind of go, oh yeah, well, great. Good for you. You've been skydiving.
I've only done bungee jumping. I guess I'm not as cool as you. So there's an elegance to it.
And what makes it elegant is First of all, if one of your friends says, hey, I just got a jet ski, don't immediately jump in and go, oh, yeah, well, I got a boat. Did I tell you I got a boat? No, don't do that.
Once someone shares something that excites them and you notice their emotion is peaking and they're like, oh, my goodness, I just bought a jet ski, Vin. To make sure that you don't one up them. And at the same time, you want to share that you also have boats and you have the love of being out in the ocean. You ask three follow-up questions about their peak emotion before you talk about the common ground.
For example, they go, Oh Vin, I just got a jet ski. I hear this and I go, I'm going to ask three follow-up questions about the jet ski. So question one, Oh my goodness, have you taken it out yet?
They go, Yes, oh my goodness, I took it out on the weekend. It was so fun, Vin. The kids were there. They loved it. You know, they were sitting on the back.
It was such a great experience. And I... Second question, did you let the kids drive it? No, no, of course not.
My kids are only four, of course not. But Vin, I got to tell you, the way their faces lit up when I was driving them and they were like, dad, faster, faster, faster. The third question I'm going to ask is, I know this is a little bit of a cheeky question, but can I ask how fast did you go on the jet ski? And then, oh my God, Vin, we went at least 30 to 40 kilometers an hour on the ocean. Oh, I know it's 30 to 40 kilometers, but when you're on the ocean, it felt so fast.
And- after you've asked those three questions, now it's okay for you to bring up the common ground. You go, oh, far out. I love that.
You had such a good time with the kids. I love doing that too. You know, I've got a boat as well and I love going out. We've got to go out sometime together. All of a sudden now.
You can connect on common ground, but instead of immediately jumping in and saying, hey, I've got a boat and talking about you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you made it about them first. You asked three follow-up questions, then you shared your similar interest. That's how you can do that eloquently as opposed to Hey, I got a jet ski. Oh, yeah.
Well, I got a yacht Then it's not nice at all Hey If you're still really keen to go down the rabbit hole of communication and you want to continue the journey I'm running a free two hour master class titled unlock your voice unlock your potential If you want to come along to that and register and save your seat All you got to do is click the link below and register. Hope to see you there then breaking out of old habits around people I already know it's really hard acting and sounding different It's just difficult because they already perceive me a certain way. This is a question about breaking the mold.
When a lot of my students study with me and they start to get inspired about changing the way they sound, changing the way they move, using different body language. and storytelling, et cetera, using analogies, metaphors, and similes. When they first start doing this, they often get a negative reaction from the people that they love and from the people who know them intimately.
It generally happens. And the classic, Classic scenario is, and again, I can only speak from a man's perspective, but it's when the husband comes to one of these classes of mine and gets really inspired and goes, oh my goodness, I've been speaking quietly my entire life. I want to be more generous with my energy, with my family, and I want to be more expressive. And then the poor thing goes home that night to his partner and he goes, honey, I'm home. There's a new version of me.
Oh yeah, out with the old, in with the new. And then their partners freak out. And then their wives will often react negatively to that and go, oh my God, what are you doing? Why are you talking like that? Oh my God, like, where did you learn this Vin guy?
This Vin guy's an idiot. Don't do that. You sound stupid, right? And then they walk away from that and they go, oh man, I was trying to, I guess I'll just stay talking like this forever.
And one of the main reasons why this happens is because they didn't prime their partners. They didn't give context for the behavioral change. So therefore, your partners come up with their own context. And the context that they come up with is, why are you, you're just being weird. Oh my goodness, you've stopped doing that.
Oh, far out, right? So all of a sudden, they just think you're being weird. Because you didn't give context.
So what you've got to do is, especially around the people that already know how you communicate intimately and see you a certain way and have a mold for you, what you have to do is you have to have a conversation with them first before you do the behavioral change. So what you've got to do is... You've got to say to your wife or your husband or your partner or your colleagues, you say, hey, look, I've just done a great course by a gentleman named Vin Zhang.
Link in the description. And I feel super inspired to use my voice. in a way where I can be more generous with my energy.
I've just been using this low volume my entire life. And if you notice me adding more volume and adding more vibrance to my voice and trying new things with the way I communicate over the next few months, if you notice me doing that, could you please support me and encourage me? I really want to get out of my shell.
Is that okay? All of a sudden, if you give context like that, The moment people seeing you explore and play with your voice, instead of judging you negatively, they're going to go, oh, Vin, that was amazing. I love seeing you try to do that.
That was so cool. Dude, it's inspiring, man. It's so cool to see you try to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Because once people have context, they have more compassion.
Whereas when you don't give context, sometimes people can create their own context and then they'll just judge you and think it's weird. Make sure you prime the people around you. And I've gotten emails, and this is from men, I've gotten emails from my male students where they're saying, oh my goodness, Vin, that priming thing was amazing. Because when I came home to my wife and I said to her, I said, hey honey, I've realized that when I come home, I'm so flat with my communication, I'm so flat with my voice, and I'm so flat with my energy.
I'm really inspired to bring the best version of me home to you and the kids. So if you see me playing with my voice, you see me trying to be more energetic and please support me. Please support. I want to improve in that arena. And he, and I remember getting emails of people saying, Vin, the moment I said that, my goodness, it's, it's.
my family become my greatest supporters. Now my kids even cheer me on and they start saying things like, oh dad, I love when you do that thing with your voice. And all of a sudden now you've got a community of supporters as opposed to a community of haters like I have on TikTok.
So there you go. Prime the people you love, prime the people who already have preconceived ideas of who you are. And I'll add one extra tip to this.
Make the changes slowly. So don't go from being really quiet to all of a sudden jazz hands because it's going to freak the shit out of people. Don't do that.
Just again, if you normally like this, then you just want to bring it up to maybe this and just come, come home with it. a little bit more energy. And then, you know, a couple of weeks later, or even a week later, then come home with a little more energy like this. And you start to bring it on slowly.
Don't take people by surprise and dramatically change. And then after that, try a little bit of this, right? Don't be afraid to try a little bit of that. And then after that, don't be afraid to try a little bit of this. Oh yeah.
Makes me think of the song Mumbo number five, right? So all of a sudden, just start to bring it on slowly and try different things on. And as you do that more and Oh, the people around you are going to love the energy and the good vibes you're sharing. It's fantastic.
Vin, do you sometimes feel tired of being energetic and positive? Do you have downtime in which you revert to your flat persona or communication style? Absolutely not.
I don't get tired because I'm not human. Wish I could... do some VFX then all of a sudden I turn into a frog.
Why pick frog? I've got to pick so many other amazing things. Simple answer, yes. I do.
I do get tired. I do feel exhausted. I've had a I've had a couple of really, really hard weeks. The last few months for me has been really difficult.
Do you know why? Because I got a bebe. Yep, I got a new bebe in the life.
I've got a six-month-old baby. Her name is Melody. And if you know, you know, baby life ain't easy.
Very broken sleep. Yeah, it's difficult. I got to tell you that when I'm fully exhausted, when I go into the house and I'm laying on the couch and I've had a very long day, when I go in... You might not get this version of Vin.
Yep. Oh my goodness, how crazy. And the version of Vin that you're going to see on the couch is a... Hey, Ben, um...
do you think we can just get Uber Eats tonight? Because I cannot be bothered cooking. And then my wife exhausted as well. She's like laying there on the couch doing like, yeah, let's just get Uber Eats, who cares? And let's just get fast food.
I'm like, yeah, let's just get fast food. I do not care about being healthy right now. Do you care? Nope, don't care either.
Let's just get fast food. And literally that's how we will talk as we just lay there completely exhausted. And that's okay. And that's okay.
Please don't misunderstand and think I'm like this all the time. I'm not. Even when I'm with my team during the day, if there's no need for me to be like this, I'm not. I'm not.
It's like a car. There are many gears that you can move into, right? Are you always in first gear? No, you'll destroy the car.
Are you always in fourth gear? No, you'll destroy the car and it might not even start. Are you always in reverse? No, because you shouldn't be reversing all the time, right?
Once you've started to develop mastery with your communication skills, all that it means. Is that now you can switch into the gear when you need it. I need to switch into this gear to be effective when I'm creating this video for you. Otherwise, imagine I was in just stuck in reverse and I was just like, then it's just weird.
Yeah, I know that's really weird. But again, if I just was flat and I was on this video because I haven't built the skill and I haven't developed that gear, then all of a sudden, how could you handle me just talking to you like this for, you know, for an hour of your time? This is going to be extremely difficult for you.
So please, long way to answer a short question. I have many different gears and I use them all. When I'm tired, I will use this gear.
When I'm exhausted. I will conserve energy because I don't have much left by 5 p.m. with a six-month-old baby.
But I do my best. I do my best. I always try to give those I love as much energy as possible.
But there are days where I can't. because I have nothing left. When I'm nervous, my voice can tremble.
I can hear it, more nervous, more trembling, and so on. How can I break the cycle in the moment and get it together? Instead of trying to improve it in the moment, there are things you can do before. Here's five things you can do immediately if you feel nervous. Before you go into a high-stakes situation, you wanna control your body.
And the reason why your voice is trembling is because your body is. is trembling. It's not that the voice is shaking, the body is shaking, which then causes the voice to shake. So you want to control the body. And the way you can control the body is by breathing. And the simplest technique is box breathing.
Navy SEALs do this. The military use this all the time. And box breathing is you breathe in for four counts, you hold for four counts, you breathe out for four counts, you hold for four counts. Okay, try it. I'll talk you through it.
Okay, so in a moment, just try it. Don't judge it. Just try it.
Ready? I'll count you down in three, two, one. Just fully exhale.
Breathe in for 1, 2, 3, 4. Hold 1, 2, 3, 4. Breathe out 1, 2, 3, 4. Hold 1, 2, 3, 4. How do you feel? It's incredible, right? It's such a powerful tool that we all have access to anytime we need it. It immediately relaxes your body. And when your body is more relaxed, it doesn't tremble.
When does the body shake? I mean, try to hold out your hand like this. Okay. Hold your hand out like this and just hold it there still as you can.
It's pretty still, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Now I want you to tense your hand, tense it really hard.
And when you're tensing it, what happens to your hand? When you tense it, look, I'm trying to tense it really hard. And I'm like, I'm like vibrating, right?
Do you notice that? Well, when you're nervous, your body tenses up and when it tenses up, it starts to shake. So when you use something like box breathing, it relaxes your body.
And when your body's relaxed. your voice is not going to tremble. That's the first thing you could do.
That's with your body. The second thing is you want to control your mind. And in your own mind, you need to think to yourself that This high-stakes situation that I'm going into, this presentation that I'm walking into, this speech that I'm about to give for my best friend at their wedding, this job interview that I'm going into, get into a mindset of service. I'm here to serve the people that are in front of me.
It's not about me. It's not about me. Because if you become really self-conscious and you keep thinking about yourself, you're going to become more nervous.
Because you're thinking, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, right? Instead of doing that, think about the audience. Focus on the audience. And by taking that self-consciousness, taking that consciousness away from the self and placing it on others, it starts to reduce the nervousness as well.
So you want to control your body and you want to control your mind. There's a tactical thing you can do as well. If you are in the moment and you're noticing yourself getting really worked up and your voice is trembling, well, there's one thing you can do.
You can pause, take a deep breath, and then significantly slow down your rate of speech. By slowing down your rate of speech, it calms you down. And I can tell you right now that when someone is nervous, one of the most common things they do is they speak faster.
Because they want this to be over and done with. So they speak faster. And then the faster you speak, the more you're communicating to your mind that you are nervous. And this is where that spiral of doom starts to happen.
Because the faster you speak, the more nervous you think you are. The more nervous you think you are, the faster you speak. And then it's just this terrible, terrible cycle. So what you want to do is to break that cycle deep. breath and then just significantly slow your rate of speech down.
So that's a wonderful tool to be able to snap you out of that cycle in the moment. I feel that the final thing that you can do here is manage your adrenaline. Adrenaline gets released when we are in those fight-or-flight situations.
All right. Before you go on stage and deliver the speech at your friend's wedding, if you're starting to feel those nerves and you're going, oh, my goodness, I can feel the hands trembling. Another reason why the body starts to shake, it's not only because it's tense, but because your body is starting to release excessive amounts of adrenaline to get you ready for fight or flight.
Now. Going up and giving a speech at your best friend's wedding is no reason to There's no reason to to produce all that adrenaline. You don't have to fight anybody. You don't have to run away So you want to get rid of some of that adrenaline by managing it and the way you do that is a little bit of brisk Exercise, okay.
So again, you don't do this in front of everyone but just out in the hallway just do ten push-ups Right? Do 20 star jumps. And by doing a little bit of that, or even go for a five-minute brisk walk, by doing that, you get rid of all the excess adrenaline, which therefore will help you manage the shakes.
The last bonus one is understand your triggers. Understand what triggers you. And once you understand what triggers you, you then can manage it. So if you know precisely that speaking in public is a trigger, well then now...
Even by being able to label it and by understanding it and by knowing that makes you nervous, that's going to help already. After that then, desensitize it. I mean it.
And slowly desensitize it. I'll give you an example again because sometimes... to me, these examples are very obvious, but I know for you on this journey, it may not be as obvious.
So say, for example, you know that speaking in front of 10 people is really nerve-wracking, right? It's like, ah! Then the next time you're at dinner with your friends, and there's only two or three people, I mean, that's public speaking, right? But to just up the ante a little bit, while you're speaking to your friends, say, hey, I want to make a toast this evening. Right?
And as you're sitting there, by you just saying, hey, I want to make a toast this evening, all of a sudden now, this changes the frame from this is just being a conversation, but I'm going to deliver a speech and deliver a 30-second speech to your friends at dinner, three of them. And just go, hey, I want to make a toast. a toast this evening. I want to make a toast to great friendships.
I want to make a toast to being the kind of friend that no matter what time you call me during the day, no matter what time you call me during the night, I'm going to answer, right? And just make a speech and do a 30-second speech. And then you'll start to feel that fear, trust me.
And then you know what level two of that is? The next time you're with some different friends, stand up and make a toast. Don't just sit, stand up and make a toast.
I already know what some of you are thinking. You're like, oh, that's so weird. It's only weird if you make it weird, right?
And you go, stand up and say, hey, I just want to take a moment to share my appreciation for the two of you. You know, it's, and also I'm going to call this out tonight. I'm going to be paying for dinner.
So I want to say, I love you. I'm grateful for you. And here's to great friendships. Do a little toast, sit back down. I'm serious because all of a sudden, as you do this, you're starting to desensitize the fear of presenting, right?
And then you can go to level three of this. And level three of this is when you're at work next time and you're on a Zoom call, stand on the Zoom call because it feels more like you're presenting, right? When you're in your team meetings and there's four or five people, stand as you deliver your part of the meeting. And again, it's only weird if you make it weird. All you have to say if you want to stand in the team meeting is, and it's your turn to talk, you go, hey, everyone, do you mind if I just quickly stand?
Let me stretch my legs. I've been sitting all day. Do you mind if I stand for this five-minute presentation that I'm about to do?
Thanks, everyone. Stand and then deliver it. The more you do it, the more you'll desensitize that fear.
Okay, so I think you're starting to understand the way I view this and the way I coach people in this, right? A huge part of it is just desensitizing the fear. Such a big part of it is desensitizing it.
The last message I want to end with you on is this. 12 years ago from today, I was working in a takeaway store for my parents and I was frying, I was in charge of the deep fryer. I was a university dropout at the time. I didn't know what to do. So my mom and dad said, hey, why don't you just come work in the family business?
And it was, again, one of the businesses the family had was a takeaway store. Parents made me work from the lowest place. Yeah, that's cool.
All good. So I was frying hot. chips and dimsums and Chico rolls, if you know what they are.
And as a result of standing in front of the deep fryer, I got so much acne because of all the oil and I'd had poor hygiene at the time. More than this, after I finished that job, I would go work at a petrol station. Yeah, nothing against those things, but I was working at a petrol station.
And then after I finished working at the petrol station, I'd go work at bars. Why did you work at bars? Well, because I was doing magic at nightclubs.
I hated doing that. I don't drink, so I don't like being around drunk people. I don't enjoy it, right? And drunk people at nightclubs, oh, not my cup of tea. But that was my life for years.
And if you look at where I am now, you may look at that and go, wow, Vin, how did you, like, that's amazing. What an incredible transformation. What an incredible shift of what you're doing in your life. That's inspiring.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not saying yeah, yeah, because I'm being disrespectful to you. But I want you to realize that the same is possible for you in 12 years.
But the moment I say that, you start to go, 12 years, that makes me want to vomit and die. We always, as human beings, overestimate what we can do in 12 months, but we completely underestimate what's possible in 12 years. That's one of our greatest flaws.
So I want to remind you that I'm the tortoise, not the hare. I'm that damn slow tortoise. I'm just going to improve one thing at a time because I want you to recognize that there is nothing amazing about me.
Really, right? Not saying this because I'm being all humble. No, no, no.
There's absolutely nothing amazing about me. If you're sitting there right now still thinking I'm amazing, you've been fooled. It's an illusion. I'm just really good at taking things one... step at a time.
And I promise you, you'll probably be able to do it faster than 12 years. But if you just started improving things one step at a time with your communication skills, it's going to completely transform your life. This is one of the world's most highly valued skill sets.
It's going to... open up so many doors for you in the future. And as you master this skill set, my one ask of you is use your voice to spread more love, to spread more kindness and to spread more compassion.
The world needs more of this. This is now your duty moving forward. Your duty is not just to achieve abundance in your life, but to use your voice to spread more love, kindness and compassion. Be the reason today someone smiles. Be the reason today someone feels inspired.
And I believe that as luminaries, as we do this with our lives, as we do do this as a mission, we are going to create ripples of change that will change the world. Because as Steve Jobs says, those people in the world who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world, they are the people who actually do. If you want to continue the communication journey with me, then click the video here to continue learning.