The Art of Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Understanding the Game

You know what’s not a comfortable feeling? Starting a supplement company with no supplements yet, buying a camera, standing in front of it, and making content. This went against every instinct I had. After you record yourself, you have to watch the footage, relive all the times you slipped up or stumbled over your words, brush off that cringe feeling you get watching yourself, edit it, and then upload it. THEN comes the hardest part of the whole process—turning off your brain and not paying attention to the engagement just yet.

Then you may check your video and see that it’s been uploaded for two hours and only 7 people have liked it so far. One like from my personal account, one from my business partner, two from our girlfriends, two from my parents, and then one from a genuine organic follower. In that moment, it’s easy to convince yourself your video must not be good, you’re embarrassing yourself and your brand, and the only logical thing to do is delete it. This is where you have to understand the game.

You’ve probably heard the analogy before: “Nobody bats a thousand.” It’s a baseball idiom that means nobody’s perfect or always gets it right. Unless you’re the son, daughter, or sibling of someone already in the limelight, nobody has a reason—or urge—to listen to you yet. Content is as much a quantity game as it is a quality game. Sure, the better your videos are, the more immediate attention and respect your brand might get, but if you only have one quality video, you’ll be easily forgotten in the ocean of new content released every day.

The key is not only to release as much content as you can but also to not get discouraged by the engagement you receive in the beginning. We see it all the time, unfortunately. Friends or strangers on the internet take that brave first step of starting their own business or personal brand and begin releasing content to build brand awareness, community, and a following. They’re super consistent for the first few days, weeks, or even months, but then you stop seeing their videos on your feed. Did the monotonous consistency of publishing get to be too much? Were they intimidated by what their friends and family might think? Did the engagement not live up to the hype they’d imagined? Could be any number of things. And I’d absolutely be lying if I said Sean and I never felt those emotions.

For the first few months that Sean and I were creating content for GTY, every time I had to hit “publish” on a video, it felt like it took a piece of my soul. What if I came off as cringe? What would people say behind my back? Would anyone actually believe in what Sean and I were talking about as deeply as we did? But then one day, we had that “aha” moment. We’re building a company we believe in and enjoy creating. We’re taking a risk at the expense of possibly looking “silly” to build something we feel is bigger than us. If we lose friends along the way because they judge what we’re doing, so be it. They must not have been that strong of friends in the first place.

But once people saw that for three months, six months, nine months, a year, Sean and I were releasing video after video—newsletters, brand posts, YouTube content—creating a website, launching apparel and accessories, placing supplement orders, etc., they started to understand this was more than just two dudes making videos on the internet. We were actually building something.

This mindset is kind of similar to the Rule of 7 in marketing. The Rule of 7 suggests that people—consumers—need to see an advertisement, marketing, or brand messaging at least seven times before taking action. We figured the more people see our videos, see our names, hear our messaging, the more they’ll start to believe in our brand the way we do.

The art of being comfortable being uncomfortable transcends way beyond content creation. It snowballs into our brand messaging—that “Find Your 1%” mentality. Doing something each day to better yourself by just 1%. And usually, in the pursuit of betterment, there’s discomfort. A workout that pushes you, a diet that tests you, a sleep schedule that forces you to get into bed earlier or turn off your phone sooner—whatever it may be, there’s discomfort in growth. But learning to turn that discomfort into pleasure by knowing that what’s on the other side is a lifestyle or version of yourself you can respect? That’s the game.

Easier said than done, but that skill is like a muscle. The more you work it and beat it down, the stronger it grows back.

Have a great week!