Episode 883: Fear Forward

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Official BNI Podcast – Episode 883: Fear Forward

Introduction

In Episode 883 of The Official BNI Podcast, titled "Fear Forward," host Priscilla Rice welcomes Dr. Ivan Misner, the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, to discuss overcoming fears in professional life. Dr. Misner is joined by a special guest, Dr. Odie, the founder of Inspired Results and co-author of Work Your Network with the Four Cs. The episode delves into understanding and conquering fears that hinder business growth and personal development.

Guests Introduction

• Priscilla Rice (00:00 – 00:49): Opens the episode from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California, and introduces Dr. Ivan Misner.

• Dr. Ivan Misner (00:05 – 00:55): Highlights his role and introduces Dr. Odie, emphasizing his extensive experience as a chiropractor, coach, and speaker.

• Dr. Odie (00:55 – 01:43): Expresses gratitude for the invitation and briefly touches upon his background, including his collaboration with Dr. Misner on the book Work Your Network with the Four Cs.

Main Discussion: Fear Forward

Understanding Fear in Business (01:55 – 03:26)

Dr. Odie initiates the conversation by identifying a common issue: many professionals tend to avoid addressing their fears directly. Instead, they focus on other tasks and goals, neglecting the underlying fears that could potentially propel them to the next level in their careers.

Dr. Odie (02:16): "We've been taught that the fundamental human fear is fear of the unknown. And I believe it's totally antiquated and I mean, it's totally inaccurate. It's really what's holding people back."

Reframing Fear: Known vs. Unknown (03:26 – 04:15)

Dr. Misner introduces his concept of "frozen by fear or focused by fear," emphasizing that being focused by fear leads to greater success. Dr. Odie agrees and elaborates on the misconception that fear stems from the unknown. Instead, he argues that fear is often rooted in past experiences—the known—rather than the uncertain future.

Dr. Odie (03:58): "We're afraid of the known, and the known is our past. So what we're really afraid of is actually running into yesterday, tomorrow."

Real-Life Example: Overcoming Fear (04:16 – 06:28)

Dr. Odie shares a compelling story about an entrepreneur struggling with health issues and fear related to not being able to have a child. By addressing her underlying fear of resembling her mother, Dr. Odie was able to help her overcome her fears, leading to the alleviation of her physical symptoms and eventually, the birth of her child.

Dr. Misner (06:17): "That’s powerful. That’s really powerful."

Three Steps to Overcoming Fear (07:00 – 08:07)

Dr. Odie outlines a three-step process to confront and overcome fears:

1. Break the Existing Paradigm: Recognize that fear is not of the unknown but of the known—primarily rooted in past experiences.

2. Inventory Your Fears: Document both conscious and unconscious fears. This can include fears disguised as stress, struggles, or challenges.

3. Rewrite Your Story: Change the narrative you tell yourself. By becoming the producer and director of your own "movie," you can alter your perception and diminish fear.

Dr. Odie (07:00): "Step one is realize that what we're afraid of is not the mystery of tomorrow, it's the history of yesterday."

Additional Insights and Upcoming Projects (08:07 – 11:36)

Dr. Odie discusses his current project—a documentary inspired by the concepts discussed in the podcast. Notable figures like Brian Tracy and John Demartini are onboard, along with Dr. Misner, highlighting the collaborative effort to spread the message of overcoming fear.

Dr. Misner (10:13): "I just agreed to be part of the movie as well."

Dr. Odie encourages listeners to actively list and identify their fears, both obvious and hidden, to begin the process of overcoming them.

Dr. Odie (11:27): "Make a list because that's where it stands."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with final thoughts from Dr. Odie and Dr. Misner, emphasizing the transformative power of addressing and overcoming fears. Listeners are encouraged to visit the movie website inspired.movie for more information and to engage with the upcoming documentary.

Notable Quotes

• Dr. Odie (02:16): "We've been taught that the fundamental human fear is fear of the unknown. And I believe it's totally antiquated and I mean, it's totally inaccurate. It's really what's holding people back."

• Dr. Misner (03:26): "You either get frozen by fear or focused by fear."

• Dr. Odie (07:00): "Step one is realize that what we're afraid of is not the mystery of tomorrow, it's the history of yesterday."

• Dr. Odie (11:27): "Just make a list because that's where it stands."

Additional Resources

• Documentary Website: inspired.movie
• Dr. Odie's Contact: [e-mail]
• Book Reference: Work Your Network with the Four Cs by Dr. Ivan Misner and Dr. Odie

Final Thoughts

Episode 883 of The Official BNI Podcast offers invaluable insights into overcoming fears that impede professional and personal growth. By understanding the true source of fear and implementing actionable steps to address it, listeners can "Fear Forward" and unlock their full potential.

Transcript

[Priscilla Rice]

Episode number 883, Fear Forward.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

You're listening to the official BNI Podcast with BNI Founder and Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Stay tuned for networking and referral marketing tips from the man who's been called the father of modern networking, along with suggestions and insights into getting the most from your membership in the world's largest networking organization, bni.

[Priscilla Rice]

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the official BNI Podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I'm joined on the phone today by the founder and the Chief visionary officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

I actually have some grass growing under my feet today and I'm at home in Austin, Texas, so.

[Priscilla Rice]

Oh, great.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

It's good to be in one place. I have a good friend on as a guest today. I've known him for a number of years. Dr. Odie is the founder of Inspired Results, which is a global performance coaching training company in Abu Dhabi. And he's got two decades of experience as a chiropractor, coach and speaker. He's a renowned performance expert. He and I have spoken on stage together on a couple of occasions. He was formerly an ed for BNI and Abu Dhabi and he is my co author on a book that I have talked about several times here on BNI Podcast. Work your network with the four Cs. And I have him here on my podcast today. Dr. Odie, welcome.

[Dr. Odie]

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

My pleasure. So you have an interesting topic, Fear Forward. Now, the whole topic was Fear Forward to live an inspired professional life. Talk to me about that. How do you move forward in business and face your fears?

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, let's. Let's review what most people do. Most people actually avoid even addressing their fears. And they face every other thing on their to do list, every goal they have, and, and maybe their bucket list, but they don't actually face the thing that could probably leverage their life and get them to the next level. Which is. Which is their fears.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah. Why do you think that is?

[Dr. Odie]

Well, I think it's because we've been taught that the fundamental human fear is fear of the unknown. And I believe it's totally antiquated and I mean, it's totally inaccurate. It's really what's holding people back.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

So what happens then when you break free from that chains of what. What are holding you back?

[Dr. Odie]

Well, I think what happens is you. You'll take a Quantum leap forward. And you'll. You'll start to approach your vision. But again, it starts with changing the model that. That's, you know, operating in our minds. We think that we're afraid of the unknown, but you can't actually fear the unknown.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah. I know a lot of people in BNI that get caught up in some fear or another about whether they're good enough or whether they, you know, are, you know, bringing enough referrals or doing a good job for people, and they get caught up in those fears. And it. And they get. I came up with this phrase a number of years ago. You either get frozen by fear or focused by fear. And when you get focused by fear, you have a lot more success than when you get frozen by fear. So I think you have some. Some steps to help people get out of fear. What. What are those? I think three steps.

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah, well, step one is we gotta. We gotta break the existing paradigm in people's minds, because that's really what's holding them back. So if we're not afraid of the unknown, what I'm proposing is that we're afraid of the known, because you can't actually generate an emotion without some substance, some information, definition or content in the mind. And so fear, the unknown is completely false, which means we fear the known, and the known is our past. So what we're really afraid of is actually running into yesterday, tomorrow.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

I wonder if I can remember the phrase today is. Is the day. We were afraid of yesterday. Or something like today is the tomorrow. We were afraid of yesterday.

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah, yeah, but that's the idea. We think we're afraid of the mystery of tomorrow when we're really afraid of the history yesterday.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah.

[Dr. Odie]

And if I share with you a really short story to kind of drive the point home.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah, absolutely, if you like.

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah. So. So this entrepreneur came to see me with a health complaint. She had neck pain and a blocked ear. She's been all around the world and wasn't able to find a solution. And what I said to her is, let's just take a minute and look at what's going on in the mind. What are you most afraid of? And she said, I'm afraid of not being able to have a child. And this was not only, you know, impacting her health, but it was impacting her business as well. So I said to her, maybe you don't want to have a child. She's like, no, no, I. I really do. We've tried ivf. I even carried and had fault, you know, failed pregnancies. And I said, look, I believe you, but I believe maybe your mind is working against you. And what I said to her was, if right now I snap my fingers and you would have a child in this moment, what would be your greatest fear? She took a deep breath and she said, oh, my goodness. I'm afraid of turning out like my mother. Right. So when we cleared her fear, and that's probably a common one, when we cleared her fear, all her symptoms dropped off. I was talking to a chiropractor friend, and she said, oh, that's amazing that you didn't adjust her. You didn't adjust her physically to suggest her thinking. And I say I adjusted her story. And then all of a sudden, her symptoms dropped off. And I said, yeah. She said, that's amazing. But did she get pregnant? And I was like, I'm not sure. She's like, what's wrong with you? That's the most important part of the story. And I said, well, Liz, I'd lost touch with her, you know, and. But it was interesting is it was a year and a day after I coached her. And when I did coach her, by the way, all her symptoms dropped off. But she also connected with her mom. She said that they were scheduled to see each other again, and they. She put the past behind her because it was an event, of course, that she didn't. She didn't want to relive. And then guess what happened. It was amazing. Is that day, a year and a day later, I was just kind of doodling with my pencil on the paper and playing with the acronym FEAR and I get a message from her. And it wasn't a message saying that she got pregnant because that would be next level. Would you agree?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Dr. Odie]

Well, it was even better than that. She sent me a picture of her newborn baby.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Amazing. Amazing.

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah. And I. I can tell you that. And as business professionals, we have the same competing fears, right? She had a fear of not having a child, and she had a fear of having a child. And in business, we have a fear of succeeding, and we have a six year of failing. Excuse me, A fear of failing. So failure and success are oftentimes competing fears that are pulling us apart.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah, that's powerful. That's really powerful. Now is, did you throw in your step two in there? Which is, I think, about what. When did I experience something similar? Is that. Is that something different?

[Dr. Odie]

Yes. Yeah. So step one is realize that what we're afraid of is not the mystery of tomorrow, it's the history of yesterday. Step two is you got to you well, in that first step as well, you can do an inventory and list your fears. I have a fear of my business failing. I have a fear of my business succeeding. I have a fear of public speaking. Etc. List your fears. Okay, so that's step one. Then step two, you want to establish the source. Where does this fear come from? When did I experience something similar? So when I, you know, and ask business professionals, you know, you're afraid of your business failing. Okay, so if you're afraid of your business failing, you must have experienced it directly. You had a failed business before or indirectly, you witnessed someone or watched or heard about someone that failed in business, and that's what you're afraid of repeating. That's the second step. The third step is rewriting the story. So as a chiropractor for many years, I was, you know, moving bones around and I was adjusting bones. But what I'm doing now is I'm adjusting stories. I'm helping people realize that they are the producers of their own movie. They're the directors of their own movie. You can change the narrative, you can change the story, and then fear just drops off and you're no longer one step behind fear.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

So this is a segue. Is there anything else on those three steps that you want to talk about? Because you had a great segue about rewriting your story that I want to jump into. But anything else on those three steps?

[Dr. Odie]

Just that sometimes it's not obvious like you think. You know, when I coach people when they're afraid of public speaking, I remember speaking to one gal in particular, and she said, well, how can I be afraid of history repeating itself when frankly, there is no history? I've never spoken on a brand stage before. And what I say is, you know, if you're looking for the exact same scenario, you're not going to find it. But you need to look for critical elements. And this one particular gal that I'm thinking of, she actually spoke up in English in English class, and she had broken English and they laughed at her. So that's what she was afraid of.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Now that makes sense. Well, you're talking about rewriting your story, and you're producing a documentary based on some of what we discussed today. You want to talk about that briefly?

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah, absolutely. So the idea is, I really want people to understand that what's holding us back, as Napoleon Hill said, is fear. And fear, he said, is the most costly human emotion. So that's number one. Realize that fear sits at the center of every problem. And if it sits at the center of every problem. It stands tall at the center of every solution if we know how to leverage it. And then I want to, of course, debunk this idea that what we're afraid of is the unknown. We're afraid of the known, which empowers us because with fear of the unknown, it's disempowering because you can't do anything about it, right? You're. You're literally fear is one step ahead of you. You got to find out what you're afraid of when you step onto the stage. And so it's. It's really a disempowering concept. And then what I want people to understand is that what can happen when you break free, right, when you break free from those chains that are holding you back, you can transform your business, it can transform your health, it can bring in another human being into this world. It can really, you know, take your life to the next level.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

And as I understand, you've got, in the movie, Brian Tracy, John demartini have come on board. I believe you're on board. And somebody else is on board that you had a conversation with.

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah, that would be Ivan Meiser from bni.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yes, I. I just agreed to be part of the movie as well. And so if someone's interested in more information on the movie, they can email you at info doctor od dot com. That's D R O U D I dot com. And the movie website is inspired by do. Movie inspired. M O V I E. Is that right?

[Dr. Odie]

Exactly. That's perfect, Ian. Yes, thank you.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Anything else before we hand it back to Priscilla?

[Dr. Odie]

Yeah, I would just. Just give the. You know, I want the. I want listeners just to understand one thing. If you want to focus on business, then just take a piece of paper or put it in your. Your computer or something and just document all the conscious fears that you have, all the things you know, you're afraid of. I'm afraid of public speaking. I'm afraid of criticism. I'm afraid of whatever. And also realize that in this inventory of fears, you can also list unconscious fears. These are fears that are operating under a different title. So you might call it stress or struggle or obstacle or issue or challenge. Those are, for me, just, you know, code for fear. So just make a list because that's where it stands.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

We'll be working on this movie together to hopefully get there. And as the movie progresses, I'll make sure and put it out on this podcast.

[Dr. Odie]

Amazing. Ivan. Thank you so much.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Dr. Ody. Thank you so much for being on BNI podcast and thanks for being a co author on work your network with the four Cs. Priscilla, back to you.

[Priscilla Rice]

Okay, great. What was that? Inspired.movie.com?

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

No, inspired.movie.

[Priscilla Rice]

And that's it. You just put that in www? Inspired movie.

[Dr. Ivan Meisner]

Yeah, I just put it. I just tried it. It's Inspired movie. You don't even have to put the www.

[Priscilla Rice]

Ah, okay. Okay, great. All right, thank you. It sounds very interesting. I'm going to go look it up. Good. Okay, well, thanks for the great information from both of you. This podcast is sponsored by MeisnerAudioPrograms.com these audio programs will provide you with the tools and the inspiration to powerfully enhance your BNI experience. So check out the great material that's available to [e-mail] and then use the promo code IVAN5O for 50% off of everything. All of the proceeds go to the BNI Foundation. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of the official B and I podcast.