Overcoming Self-Sabotage with James Brackin

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rockstar podcast excited for today’s episode We’ve got another podcaster with us He’s the host of the you can too podcast And what he does is he helps entrepreneurs to get out of their own way by getting to the root of their self sabotage So i’m very excited to be rocking out today with James Brackin.

Hey James, you ready to rock?

James Brackin: I am so ready to rock, Tim. Thank you for having me.

Tim Melanson: So we always start off here on a good note. Tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

James Brackin: Wow. Well, the one that comes to mind first and foremost is, like you said, a lot of the podcasts I go on, I’m the youngest person that they’ve ever had on their show. And, uh, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, I started coaching at 17 years old, um, personal coaching, and it didn’t really make much sense to me.

Didn’t know what a coach was, didn’t know how I was going to make it happen. But a coach, What I invested into myself made me realize that I didn’t have to have all the answers. What I had to have is the questions. And so at 18 years old, I started working with a 43 year old woman that was in business, already had a massive ATM business, but she was working on, [00:01:00] uh, um, writing a book.

Um, and in that process, she just, you know, Found, and I find this in a lot of people, is they get in their own way because of stuff that they may not even be aware of. Right, uh, from their childhood, from insecurities, from fears, everything in between. And so, we went from having this idea of a book for eight, nine years, to, um, being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize just by just getting her to take the action.

As simple as it may be, and as easy as it seems. Um, a lot of the time it’s just helping people do the thing they know they need to do.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I’m super fascinated by this because I mean, you are definitely the youngest, uh, you know, guests I’ve had on the podcast and you know, now you’re telling me that you’re a coach and like, like this is just, it’s blowing my mind because you know, for most people they will say. Uh, you know, the excuses are through the roof for just about everything you do.

Too young, too old. Well, you must have gotten somebody who said you’re too young to be a coach. Like, how did this, [00:02:00] like, how does this even work? Like, how do you even have these conversations, right?

James Brackin: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I mean, I think the thing for me that really helps me realize that my, my age was not a limitation, but it was more of a superpower. Because it’s, it’s funny, like, I turned 21 in about six days, or five days. And I feel like, The older I get, the younger I want to be. But when I was 17, I just wanted to be older so people took me seriously.

But it’s, it’s funny how it changes as you age, the younger you want to be. And I think for me, when I joined a coaching program of over a thousand coaches, it didn’t matter if they were in their 60s, if they were in their 20s, if they were in their 40s. Didn’t matter where they were at. They all had imposter syndrome, just like I had imposter syndrome.

And so, Age had nothing to do with it, but all of the fears and limiting beliefs that we had, had everything to do with it. And so when I realized that just because I was young had nothing to do with my wisdom or my experience, it was kind of like this, uh, awakening where I realized it wasn’t a [00:03:00] limitation, but it was more so, if anything, it was a superpower because it gave me a fresh perspective that a lot of people, as they get into their careers, the more, Condensed and, uh, closed off they get to of the possibilities of things.

And so my perspective usually helps people more than anything.

Tim Melanson: I totally agree. Yeah. I mean, the younger you are, the less of these experiences that you would have that hold you back. Right. And for you, it’s just like fresh and new. Like, Let’s go. Let’s get to work. Right. So, uh, so I, I, I do see that. And, you know, especially in this technological world moving forward to, like, I think that the older you are, the less I experienced, or the less quick you are to grasp these new concepts and where things are working so quickly, things are changing so quickly with technology, I think it probably would be a superpower to have somebody in your corner.

That’s actually kind of like up on the times, you know, they know what’s going on and they’re not necessarily as. Um, stuck in their ways, right?

James Brackin: yeah, [00:04:00] absolutely. I think for me too. I mean, I’m so like a lot of the people I have on my podcast are older You know in their 70s 80s. I had a lot of people on the podcast that are just So much more wisdom and for me It was I didn’t want to go to school because I knew that that wasn’t the path that made any sense to me But I still did want to learn about neuroscience and psychology and philosophy and all these different things And so instead of just not learning it I decided I’m gonna go learn it from people one on one rather than going to college for it.

And so I feel I have a lot of wisdom for the age that I’m at, that’s for sure.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, you’re right about that. Um, sorry, my, my, uh, yeah, we’re just gonna

James Brackin: No

Tim Melanson: Knew that was gonna happen. Um, no, so along with the good note though, you know, and, and I mean, I’m interested to hear this because, uh, there’s also some bad notes that get hit. There’s also things, things that don’t go as planned. And I’m very curious, like, what would be something, like a big mistake that you’ve made already that you can share with us?

Has there been any?

James Brackin: Big mistake. I mean, I really see [00:05:00] Mistakes are similar to failures. And I think for me, there was a moment, uh, when I got into coaching, when I realized that failure is really feedback at the end of the day, it is just an opportunity for you to learn, uh, where you could have done better. And there was never really a moment where I felt I really messed up.

It was more so this is a, this can be a moment of learning and moving forward with a little bit more knowledge than I previously had, so not an egotistical way, but I really can’t think of anything specific that comes to mind that I can think that I really failed.

Tim Melanson: Hang in there. Yeah,

James Brackin: course,

Tim Melanson: and on the other hand, I mean, I will sort of recognize that possibly that might be your mindset, right? I mean, right off the bat, you’ve got a more positive mindset of going like, okay, well, it’s not really a failure. It’s more of a learning experience where I think that that’s not necessarily super common.

In most

James Brackin: yeah. [00:06:00] Yeah, I mean, I think for me it was, it’s not that it hasn’t been hard, like there’s, it’s definitely hasn’t been the easiest, like it’s not always going up by any means, but there’s nothing that I feel I would have taken back. Like I’ve invested thousands of dollars that I’ve wasted because I invested into coaches and people that didn’t work out the way that I thought it would.

But is that a mistake? I mean, it’s just, life happens. That’s just how I see it. I mean, I don’t really see, there’s, what happens, then there’s a story you tell yourself about what happens. And I always want that story to be positive even if it isn’t.

Tim Melanson: Totally. Yeah. Well, and I think that one of the things that I’ve noticed from that bad note when I asked people that question is that almost everybody has the bad note tied up in the good note. It’s like something happens, you know, it didn’t go as planned. And then all of a sudden, something really good happens out of it, which, you know, you just always find that fascinating that, you know, people will.

Yeah. Hold themselves back and not get started because they’re worried about this [00:07:00] failure and then it turns out that when people do go through that failure, it ends up leading to the best thing that’s happened to them. Right? So you’re holding yourself back to experience something that might be uncomfortable at the time that’s going to lead you to the life that you want.

James Brackin: Yeah, the mental space that we hold, uh, that we, that we take on from of all of these things that we could have done rather than just doing the thing, learning from a thing, and then moving on, I think we forget that we are able to change our mind, and, and we have to say yes to things and go all in on things, but like, if something doesn’t work a week later and you want to change your mind, change your mind.

Uh, we’re, we’re so solidified in black or white kind of thinking that just doesn’t serve us.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, yeah, that’s a really good point because changing the mind that’s what’s big because people feel like they need to be like consistent to the thing, or they need to not flip flop, you know, it’s like, oh, you know, well yesterday you said this and now you’re saying this changed my mind. What’s, what’s wrong with that?

[00:08:00] Why can’t I do that? Right? And, and, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, especially with things changing, like if the world changes, if the way that things are happening changes, why can’t I change my mind? Right? Especially since now I have new information.

James Brackin: You should. I mean, consistency is, is, is, there’s consistency bias, there’s confirmation bias, and they, they are hand in hand because I think we are always trying to reconfirm what we believe to be true. And if our beliefs stay the same throughout our lives, we’re not evolving, we’re not becoming a better version of ourselves, we’re not expanding, we’re not really seeing what life can really be, and I think you should change your mind.

Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: Totally. And to take that even further, even if the information is still the same, you still should be able to change your mind. Yes, of course, if the information changes, definitely, you should be able to reevaluate and change your mind. But even if it’s the same, you know, it’s just, you might wake up and see things differently, and there’s nothing wrong with that either, right?

James Brackin: Not at all. Not at

Tim Melanson: Love it. [00:09:00] So, let’s talk a little bit about practice. So, I talk about practice makes perfect, or does it make progress? I don’t know. One or the other. But what is your, you know, philosophy on getting good and staying good at what you do?

James Brackin: Yeah, that’s a great question. It makes me think of Seth Godin’s book, The Practice, funny enough. I had Seth Godin on my podcast about a year ago now. And it was really this thing where, Uh, he instilled into me, I think we’re always instilled into it, that at the end of the day, it’s just, it’s doing the thing that we don’t feel like doing.

Uh, something that has been really, uh, massive for me is thinking about how I want to feel after the thing, rather than thinking about how I feel before the thing. Because most of the time, most of the things that we don’t feel like doing are the exact things that we know we should be doing. That will move our career forward, our business forward, our relationships forward, our life forward in any way.

And so, for me, it’s just always thinking, how do I want to feel at the end of the day, and what does success look like? for me today. And then whatever that one thing is, or those few things that I can do is, if I get those done, the day’s a success. Doesn’t matter if there’s a thousand more things I could [00:10:00] have done.

Let’s just get to the end of the day knowing that this one thing was the one thing that I needed to do today.

Tim Melanson: What you just said, though, about the thing that you are not doing or procrastinating on doing, I was reading a book, actually I’m in the middle of this book, called Who Not How? Is that what it’s called? Who

James Brackin: Yeah. I have, uh, Benjamin Hardy. I’ve had him on the show too. Great guy. Yeah. Great book too.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and he was talking about how if you’re procrastinating on doing something, it means that you shouldn’t be doing it. It means that somebody else should be doing it for you, right? And I just find that that’s fascinating as well. You’re right. The thing that you should be doing or the thing that you’re procrastinating on is the most important thing that needs to get done.

Totally agree with that. Doesn’t necessarily mean you need to do it though. It just means you need to get it done somehow. Right.

James Brackin: Yeah, there’s a, he wrote a book called, uh, 10x is easier than 2x as well. Um, great book, I’d recommend it, I’d recommend it to everyone. And it’s this, this ideology of like the, um, 20, uh, 80 20 rule that everyone knows [00:11:00] about, like 20 percent of what you do is gonna have 80 percent of the impact. Well, that’s the same thing in like what you’re trying to do.

So, if you’re thinking of building a business or growing a podcast or whatever it may be, that, uh, 2% is, uh, that if you’re trying to double what you’re doing, you’re thinking usually about doing the same things as you would if you’re just going through your normal day. Like, you’re thinking about the same levers.

But if you think about, what would I have to do to 10x this? The things that you focus on completely shift. 80 percent of what you’re doing right now needs to be thrown away. You need to focus on a completely different 20%. And so I think that’s a big, uh, mental shift too. Great book. Great book.

Tim Melanson: I’m gonna have to check that one out too. Yeah. I’m still in the middle of who not how,

James Brackin: Great book. Yeah. They’re, uh, Benjamin Hardy and, um, they did an amazing, amazing job with the three books that they did.

Tim Melanson: right on. Yeah, that’s so cool. Okay. So let’s talk a little bit about tools and instruments and you know, what are the kinds of tools that you use in your business to get success?

James Brackin: I would say the one thing that comes to mind that I think everyone could [00:12:00] use to benefit their lives is an app called Notion. Um, I’ve used Notion for, um, I don’t know how long. Genuinely. I mean, I’ve used it for as long as I can remember. And I tell everyone that I know that doesn’t have Notion, that has a business, I say, I don’t know how you run a business without Notion.

Because my brain, every thought that I have, every book that I read, every podcast I listen to, everything that I’m doing, everything in my business, every email, all that kind of stuff, is in Notion to keep me, like, there’s so many things we need to remember. There’s a thousand emails we’re answering day to day.

Finding some way to keep everything in one place has been the biggest thing for me. That’s been Notion for me.

Tim Melanson: I’ve never heard of Notions.

James Brackin: Man, we’re gonna have

Tim Melanson: Help me out here.

James Brackin: You’re gonna need to get on Notion. Think of it as, um, Apple Notes, but way more, uh, It’s really difficult to get into when you first get into Notion. It’s like a, a really difficult thing for your brain to quantify because there’s a thousand different things that you can do.

You can have pages inside of pages inside of pages. Um, but for me, it’s just helped me, you know, Uh, consolidate everything, every part of my business. [00:13:00] So it could be coaching is one page and then inside of coaching, it’s the avatar, uh, or the person I’m trying to reach. It could be this coaching call. It could be the second coaching call for the podcast.

It could be the pitch that I send to podcast guests. It could be the followup email that I’m going to send to guests. It could be potential guests that I want to get on the show. Like there’s just a thousand different things that go in your head of like, different things you need to do, and it’s just helped me consolidate things and put them in one place, but also have a bunch of different places in that one place, if that makes sense.

Tim Melanson: I’m going to have to check that out. It kind of sounds like Evernote in a way.

James Brackin: Yeah!

Tim Melanson: Is it, is it similar to that?

James Brackin: Absolutely. Yeah,

Tim Melanson: Okay, probably got some AI in it.

James Brackin: big time. Yeah, Notion is um, I found out about Evernote after Notion, so Notion just was, has been the thing for me, but um, anyone can use anything that works for them, it just, it’s worked for me thus far.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, the AI tools are, are huge. We’re huge now. Like, I know that, um, I think that there’s a lot of [00:14:00] entrepreneurs, especially probably the older generation that are resisting, you know, that, That, um, flood, I guess, but I think that’s a mistake. I think that there’s, they’re not going anywhere. And right now there’s these tools are just so incredibly powerful.

I think probably maybe it’s a control thing. What do you, why do you think anybody would resist using, you know, any of these tools?

James Brackin: I think it’s a pride thing more than anything. Um, I think for a lot of people, we, the consistency bias like you stated earlier, it’s like we want to be consistent with what we’ve always done, even if it isn’t the best approach to things. And I think even more so, we feel. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs have this, uh, feeling too, is if it wasn’t difficult, it wasn’t meaningful.

It’s like, we, we feel that if, if I didn’t put myself through pain to endure this, and it wasn’t a difficult day, like if I didn’t work from this hour to this hour, even if I got everything I needed to get done, or I got more than I expected to get done, it [00:15:00] still wasn’t a success because I didn’t beat myself up to do it.

And so something that makes things easier is like, in our brain is like, This shouldn’t, this shouldn’t be it. Like, it’s supposed to be hard. It has to be hard, right? And it questions our idea of what work, how easy work can be. Like, even asking yourself the question, like, what would it, what would this look like if it were easier?

Can you even dare to let this be easy, is the question. Because most people can’t.

Tim Melanson: We can get into music for this one too, because you know, there’s, Is is playing a gig work, right? Like, I mean, it is interesting when you think about that, because we have been, like you say, conditioned to think that work has to be hard, has to be uncomfortable, probably since we were kids, you know, your dad couldn’t hang out because he had to work.

Like, you know, there’s probably lots of programming in there that make us think that work has to be something uncomfortable, but it really doesn’t. And, you know, there’s a lot of things that, Things that get thrown in there. I mean, for example, the reason why probably musicians, you know, [00:16:00] I don’t know if you know this, but musicians, gigging musicians make the same now, maybe less than they did in the eighties.

So why is that? And I think that probably a lot of the reason why that is, is because at work is fun. And people are like weird about that. How do I charge for something that I’m having fun doing? Right.

James Brackin: Yeah,

Tim Melanson: And isn’t that messed up? Like, I mean, when you’re like, when we’re starting to our business, I assume most people start a business because it’s what they feel called to do.

It’s what they want to do is what they like doing. Right. Uh, maybe it’s not easy. And in those cases. It’s easy to charge for, but what if it is, what, if it is something that you really love doing and it’s actually really comes easy to you, how do you start a business doing that? And how do you charge appropriately for it?

James Brackin: yeah, that’s the difficult part, right? I mean, when, if we have, we all have beliefs that, [00:17:00] uh, are ingrained into us, like you said, but if we don’t have someone to help us question those beliefs, uh, we will forever live in a reality that is less than what it could be. When I first started coaching, when I realized how much I was, uh, To give context, I was 17 years old.

I invested about 70, about 8, 000 into a coaching program at 17 years old. I didn’t have the money to pay for it. I put it into a payment plan. I was like, I’m going to figure it out. Hopefully I figure it out. And it was this realization for me was when I invest into myself, then I’m invested into the growth.

And, When I had to start charging people to work with me, it was like, this doesn’t feel right. But I know that if people don’t invest into themselves, they’re not invested into actually making the change. And so, yeah, I think we need someone outside of ourselves to kind of help us question what we believe to be true.

It’s like you said earlier, it’s like, we should be changing our mind about what we think is true. If you’re not, you’re not evolving. That’s just how life is. Yeah,

Tim Melanson: totally agree. And, and I, another analogy with music is that it’s so much easier to [00:18:00] promote your buddy’s band than it is to promote your own band, you know, you can easily go to, you know, You can easily go to go to a venue and say, Oh, you got to hire these guys. These guys are fantastic. And you go to a venue and say, you got to hire me.

I’m fantastic. And, uh, you know, like, that’s the case. Well, then wouldn’t that same sort of thing work when you’re hiring some sort of coach to tell you what you’re good at?

James Brackin: it’s this, it’s this thing that we, we want to be seen yet we don’t want to be seen. We want to be appreciated, we want to be valued, we want to be, uh, praised in everything and what we’re good at, but yet there’s the part of us that we don’t want to be seen at all because we’re afraid of being vulnerable and we don’t feel safe when we’re put out into the world.

So it’s much easier to, uh, promote your, your buddy’s band than yourself because, then you’re actually being vulnerable. And that’s a really scary place to be, especially in a world where, especially in music as well, I can imagine it’s so much criticism. So yeah, absolutely.

Tim Melanson: There’s always somebody better, right?[00:19:00]

James Brackin: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: I mean, also, we’re also taught to not brag too, right? Like, you know, you, you, is it confidence? Is it bragging? Is it arrogance? Like, all these words, you know, some of them are positive, some of them are negative, but they all really are kind of the same thing. So what’s the difference?

What’s the difference between promoting yourself and bragging?

James Brackin: I think it’s the meaning that you ascribe to it at the end of the day. If, if you, and I think we give too much meaning to things at the end of the day, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of like, um, getting into, like we were speaking before this, a lot of people are in a cubicle and they just, they don’t need to be there.

Um, but we, we live in this, this state of, Uh, I don’t want to fail, rather than, when I, at least the frame that I see it as, is when I get to the end of my life, I’m going to wish that, there’s going to be a lot more things that I wish I did, than the things that I did do and I failed at. Like, I’m going to be so much more grateful, I’m going to be thinking, I’m glad I did, rather than I wish I had.

And I think that’s a frame we need to take more into life, because we would be so much [00:20:00] more open in allowing ourselves to just be vulnerable, put ourselves out there, and create more opportunity for ourselves.

Tim Melanson: Right. Um, so let’s talk about learning from the best. So coaches, mentors, we’ve, we’ve touched on that a few times. And for you, I think, I think the younger you are, probably the easier it is for you to say, okay, I think I need a coach, you know, but because you think, okay, well, you know, I’m young. I’m, you know, I need a mentor.

I need someone older to help me through this. Right. You know, you mentioned that you’re, I mean, you’re flipping the script here. You’re, you’re someone who is young who’s coaching someone who is much older than you are. How, like, how would you say? So let’s just say that you’re not young. Let’s just say that you’re someone who’s 70. Do they need a coach? And why, what would you say to them if they’re having a struggle, if they’re, if they’re struggling with, with trying to hire somebody [00:21:00] to help them coach? Whether they’re older or younger than them than they are.

James Brackin: Yeah, I think needs a really strong word, uh, because I don’t think anyone needs anything necessarily, but I think everyone could benefit from coaching. Mentorship, they’re different, um, but I think, yeah, I think everyone could benefit from it in some way, because the frame I like to see it as is, if. You, you’ve met someone that sees something in you that you can’t see in yourself, right?

I mean, whether it’s, it could be, it could be your mother, it could be a friend. But a lot of the time, we just live our lives through the internal narrative of who we think we are. And so if we never get that external perspective of, well, who do you see me as? Because it might be a better version of me.

There’s me, and then there’s who I think I am. And a lot of people see who you actually are, but you don’t even see that. And so having someone believe in you more than you believe in yourself is one of the most empowering things that you can do because it opens up opportunity for yourself. And then the investment aspect of it for me was this awakening where maybe I wanted to [00:22:00] start a podcast.

I wanted to start coaching people. I wanted to start building an entrepreneur, an entrepreneurial business and lifestyle. But I was fearful. I had all the insecurity in the world to be able to do it. But once I invested into myself, I gave myself no other option. I’m not gonna spend money and not do the thing.

It’s like, uh, and so at the end of the day, I think there’s so much that people can benefit from, and it goes back to what we stated earlier, where you should always have an open mind. I mean, you should always be open to changing your mind. And so, it doesn’t matter how old you get, there are some of the people that I know that are older, most of the people I know that are older, are so solidified in their beliefs, and they are in such a, negative headspace because what they know to be true is absolute truth and there’s no way, there’s no way around it, there’s no glossing over it, there’s no other option in their life.

But for me, I’m always going to be open. And I never want to be solidified in this specific belief or way of living because that just doesn’t serve me. So I think everyone could benefit.

Tim Melanson: Yep. And I agree a hundred [00:23:00] percent with that. I don’t know, like the word need is, is it has a weird one, right? But yeah, anybody can benefit from it. Oh, wow. I love it. I love your perspective on that. Uh, and another one too, is I I’ve been told like, um, it’s not a good one. Is that you look at any sports team, professional sports team, and there’s a coach, now you think that coach is as good a player as the players on the team.

Or not. And never are they as good. So why would you think that those, that those players need a coach, right? And, and, and they do need a coach actually, or they could benefit from a coach, but you don’t need one, right? I

James Brackin: Yeah, especially in life too, right? It’s like, okay, we can have a like, we have a coach in sports, for example, but we can’t have a coach in life, which is like the most difficult thing. And it’s not to say this is the thing that so many people need to understand is it’s not that this person [00:24:00] has all the answers, but it’s more so they are a mirror or they are a person that asks you questions You have all the answers.

We all have our own answers. We all know what we need to do, yet we still don’t do it. And that’s like the age old question is like, why do I, why do I not do the thing I know I need to do to move my life forward? And it’s like, well, because you’re trying to do it by yourself. And it could be so much easier when you have someone that may be a few steps ahead.

Or just has a different perspective than you have that can give you some kind of perspective on how you can move things forward. It’s like you, you either spend time or you spend money. And I don’t know about you, but money’s being printed every single day. Time is fleeting every single second. And so, I’m gonna take spending money on myself every day.

Tim Melanson: love it. I love it. And yeah, you’re right. We have the answers within, within ourselves. It’s not like, I think that that might be a misconception, is that people think that a coach is like a boss who’s going to tell you what to do. It’s how you how do you live your life? And that’s well, hey, maybe there are some coaches like that, but they’re not very good, right?

I mean, if [00:25:00] you’re going to get a quality coach, they’re not going to tell you what to do. They’re going to ask you the right questions. But another thing that a coach will do that is uncomfortable is they’re going to probably have some sort of accountability program. That’s going to like hold you accountable to the things that you say you’re going to do.

And, and that is definitely uncomfortable because sometimes the things that you say you’re going to do don’t end up being the things that you end up doing, right? Or you may not do what you say you’re going to do. And that’s super uncomfortable going back to a coaching meeting not doing what you said you were going to do.

But on the flip side of that, I think you kind of touched on this earlier. If you say you’re going to do something to somebody, and then you know that you’re going to be meeting them in a week. The chances of you doing it going to be a lot higher And if you didn’t have that accountability meeting coming up, right?

James Brackin: And if you’re investing into yourself too. So think about you have the meeting and you have a thousand dollars that is in their bank account because [00:26:00] of this month of coaching that you’re working with them. And it’s like, well, goodness gracious, I mean, I better do the thing. Like there’s been so many times, one of the funniest things, uh, one of the first clients I worked with was, uh, he was 25, I was 17.

And he would come on the call, uh, I remember like the second call we, we were working together. And he didn’t do the thing that he said he was going to do, and he tried lying about it. And then he just caught himself in the moment of it, and started laughing, and he’s like, I just, I can’t lie, I can’t lie to you because I know that I’m lying to myself at the end of the day.

And it’s like, uh, you’re right, there is a lot of accountability, where I see coaching as clarity and accountability. It’s like, I’m gonna give you some clarity that you already have for yourself, you just need to get in the depths of, and then I’m gonna give you the accountability to doing what you said you would do.

The amount of people that I know that make six figures a month that invest in people just to hold them accountable to doing the things that they said they would do is mind boggling to me. And it’s like the people that are willing to invest into themselves are the people that are able to invest into themselves because they invest into themselves.

And so I think that that’s, it’s just a something that people need to get through to be able to actually invest into themselves for sure.

Tim Melanson: Yep. And [00:27:00] that’s also something that I find encouraging, I guess, is that it doesn’t matter where you are, you can be the top of your game. You could be like a billionaire and you’re still investing in yourself and having to have these accountability. Like I think some people think that these, you know, Rich people are people who are where you want to be have these superpowers and oh, they’ve got amazing willpower and they can just do up their people just like us and they have all the same struggles.

It’s not they. I mean, maybe at some point, if you haven’t met any of these people yet. Like, and, and that’s a, that’s probably a challenge for you is to go out there and try to meet some of the people that are where you want to be. You’ll find out pretty quickly that they’re pe they’re people just like you are.

And the things that they’re doing are the things that you could be doing too to get to where you want to be, right?

James Brackin: yeah. That’s a big reason I started the podcast, was I wanted to, if I could read a book [00:28:00] and then ask the author questions about the book that I just read, I found that was one of the most fascinating things ever. And now I’m able to do that. The book that you mentioned earlier, Who, Not How, Benjamin Hardy was a psychologist that I was always so curious about.

I had the opportunity to speak with him. And it was like, this is, this is a human. I mean, at the end of the day, every single person’s just a human. But we put these people on pedestals because maybe we never had access to them or we see the life that they live and we feel, uh, misled in our own, in our own journey and we feel insecure, whatever it may be, but at the end of the day, I mean, we’re all on our own journey and you just need to appreciate what you have.

Man,

Tim Melanson: Man, I could keep going for forever. All right. It’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting your business right now.

James Brackin: what’s inside in the business right now? There’s been a lot of people that have asked me how I’ve been able to get the guests that I’ve got on my show. Um, and I mean, starting at a young age and just really having no network by any means, I’ve been able to connect with some really profound, uh, people.

And so I built a course on how I’ve been able to get guests [00:29:00] because I’ve had so many podcasters reach out. How am I getting in contact with these people? So I’d say that’s the thing that’s most exciting and most prevalent right now is just the course and helping people kind of connect with these people to realize that they are humans at the end of the day.

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s cool. So how do we find out more?

James Brackin: Yeah, uh, you can go to my Instagram, JamesBrackinIV, uh, my YouTube, uh, talks a lot about it as well in every single podcast, but,

James Brackin, IV.

James Brackin: yes sir, the fourth.

Tim Melanson: The fourth. Okay. Wow. Well done. And so your podcast again, how do we get, how do we get your podcast?

James Brackin: Yeah, you can too, uh, it is on, uh, Apple, Spotify, everywhere you can find it. It’s under my name on, on YouTube, JamesBrackinIV, but if you look up YouCanToo, I assume I’ll show up as well. Um, but yeah, YouTube and Instagram are my main platforms.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So one more question. Now, if someone wanted to hire you as a coach, who do you think would be the type of person that would get the most out of working with you? Yeah.

James Brackin: that resonated with this conversation, I think a lot of people are in a place where they are just unsatisfied with where they [00:30:00] are and not excited about where they’re going. And I think that’s what really excites me is, is, is helping people get excited, uh, to create a future that they’re actually excited about.

To move towards goals that actually, instead of just getting out of bed, they’re jumping out of bed and they, they look forward to the day. So if you’re in a position right now where maybe you’re at a job that you don’t enjoy or you do enjoy your job but you know there’s probably a little bit more for you, That’s probably the person.

Tim Melanson: Work doesn’t have to be hard. You could actually be excited to jump out of bed in the morning, right?

James Brackin: Absolutely. Absolutely. That can be an option. Leave that open. So many people close that off as being an option, and so they never, never make it happen.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Right on. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today, James. This has been a lot of fun.

James Brackin: Thank you. I appreciate the time, man. Great questions.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, comment. We’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.