Why Not?
Host: Isaac Mashman · November 29, 2021 · Episode 86 · 21 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
Hey, hey, hey, what is going on everybody? Isaac Mashman here and welcome back to another episode of Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, the show that is all about helping you become a more capable individual through me sharing my experiences and knowledge in business, life, and personal growth. I'm super excited to be coming to you today with this episode because number one, it is actually a question that I want you to be asking yourself. But before I get into the subject matter, I want to do a little bit of housekeeping. Now I am well aware that it has been over a month since I published an episode of the show.
Last episode I did was episode 85. That was in the middle of October and it is towards the end of November right now at the time of publishing this episode.
Wow. So Isaac, why the gap? Why the month of no podcast? Right? You have this momentum. You have these interviews going and then you're going silent on the podcast. Well to tell you the truth, I have not been in the frequency of content creation. I've been in the frequency of business and building my business. And I've taken that focus away from content to get a couple things in line that have propelled me forward when it comes to 2021 wrapping up strong and then into 2022 starting off strong. October and November were very pivotal moments in my life. They were challenging moments. I lost clients. I made a lot of new clients.
I had record setting months. And then most importantly, I also published my very first book, which was years in the making. And so I missed all of this chaos and I was going to be moving to a different state, decided to move to a different city instead, kind of get things planned out before we made another major move.
There were just a ton of things that were kind of in motion, attacking all at once. And I had to take a step back and realize that, hey, this is a moment of defeat in terms of I lost this battle, but I did not lose this war at all. And it wasn't my lowest point of business. I recently published a video on my YouTube channel talking about, so I published a book, right? And in that video, I mentioned that it was a moment that I had to kind of switch my mentality and be saying to myself, Isaac, look man, this was one of those moments in business that these people talk about that basically are going to make you or break you.
This is a moment that you would either throw the towel and throw away your sacrifices up until this point or this is the moment that you're going to say, no, I'm going harder than I've ever gone before and I'm going to continue pressing forward. And well, I decided to press forward. It wasn't my lowest point in life, by no means wasn't that horrible and that bad, but it was challenging. And then I took all of that energy that was focused in the wrong areas. And then I redirected it and got into the right frequency of, hey, let me go back to building my business. Let me talk to new clients. Let me talk to new people. And then also, let me finish up my fucking book and let me publish my book.
And guess what? I published my book. And so that really is testament to saying that whenever the moments that you're really considering like maybe throwing in the towel and switching gears or making making a pivot, it might not be that you should make the pivot. It should actually mean that you should stick with it and you should stay with it and that you You should see it through. If you start something, you should see it through if it makes sense in terms of your long-term vision. And so that's exactly what I did. And I've wanted to write a book for literally years. And I'm not going to spend too much time talking about this book that I have published because I've been doing a ton of marketing about it.
And I'm going to be making my shift towards other forms of content in terms of going back hard with Chase the Vision and doing articles, written essays.
I'm talking about video content, long form, short form, vertical, horizontal, and any other thing that I can come up with that would be creative that can help provide you value and propel the personal brand forward and propel Mashman Ventures forward and my other business ventures that have actually come about from the struggles of October and November. I'm talking literally getting my first piece of property in 2022 and connecting with the right people that I would have otherwise not connected with had I worked with another client or had some of those business deals actually occurred. And it's super interesting how everything works out in the end if you decide to see it work out.
And so anyways, I started writing personal branding and Manifesto on Fame and Influence earlier on in this year. And I've wanted to write books for several years now.
I have half a dozen plus titles in my phone with a paragraph or two each, but I never got far in any of these different books because I just didn't feel engaged. I didn't feel passionate to use that word and I'm not one who talks about passions too much, but I wasn't really feeling the subject matter. And then I got involved with Mashman Ventures in 2020. I launched my firm and it's been great to me. It's been a fantastic experience, but I started to understand that personal branding is something that many people might have heard of, but they don't necessarily understand. And so I started writing the book and asked soon as I had the name and the first sentence of the book, down pack, everything started to flow.
And in the following months, I would write whenever I felt like I had a good thing to talk about and a good thing to mention and put down on paper.
And so I published the book. It's by no means the longest book in the world, either it's not 550 pages, but it is 55 pages. However, I must also mention that some of the most impactful things that I've ever read were the shortest. As a man thinketh by James Allen, you squared by Price Pritchett, some of these different things I have read and I've been, wow, like this has shifted my mentality. This has shifted my life in X, Y, or Z field, right? And so with this book, I wanted to really cover the what and why, which is known as your personal brand. What is personal branding?
Is it something that you have always had? Is it something you create? Is it something that you need to work on? And then I focus on the why.
Why would you build out your personal brand? Why is it important? Why is your personal brand important? What are some examples of other successful personal brands that might not actually be beneficial to the outcome of society, right? Now, and you'll see by reading the book, but I use some real world and old world examples without actually explicitly mentioning anybody by name. And writing this, going into it, I wanted to do something that would stand the test of time. It wouldn't matter if it was 100 years from now, right? 100 years from now, I am confident the things that I talk about. If mankind still exists and is civilized and we have not had a some nuclear fallout or have been invaded by aliens, well guess what?
Like this is going to apply. I don't go into specifics of technical media strategies, but I go into technical relationship driven strategies that will exist as humanity progresses and as we move forward. And so anyways, I am super proud to have that out.
It rose to the number one new release in public relations on Amazon. It also rose to the number nine spot, the top 10 best seller list in public relations, also on Amazon. I want to make that clear distinctive factor of on Amazon and in that category because it would be misleading to say I had the top 10 best seller when in reality you would probably think that's New York Times, but it was actually in Amazon. So I just want to be clear. I want to want to be transparent with you. But regardless of that, it is still a feat. It is still an achievement that I am extremely proud of.
And every single client that works with Mashman Ventures gets a signed copy because I want to make sure that they have something in hand.
Now there is a book that can be in somebody's household that can be a conversation starter that can be something that people can read, highlight, mark up, take notes from and actually value from me. And so it is a technical aspect of my personal brand. It is something that was strategic on my end. It's not just a lead magnet. It's not just a way to provide value. It is a variety of different things that come together, like the inner workings of a nice Swiss watch, right? It comes together like a Rolex in the sense of one piece without it. Everything else would fall apart. And so I'm very excited to have this out.
You can pick up your own copy by going to my website, @isaacmashman.com slash book by going to Amazon and typing in my name or by going to Barnes and Noble or even Google and just type in Isaac Mashman book and you're going to be able to pick a copy of personal branding and Manifesto on Fame and Influence.
If you're listening to this, chances are I'm also doing signed copies. If you'd like a signed copy, go to my website, click on Isaac's book and you'll see a link where you can purchase your very own signed copy that I'm personally signing and shipping out with a couple of different goodies as well. So today's subject matter isn't promoting my book. I don't want to do this to promote this and promote that and anything else. I'm doing this episode because we're getting back on track, baby. We are getting back on track. There has been a month break. Cool. Big deal that is one month and other ways I, you know, progress.
Like I progressed in other avenues in my life and my business and my career and my success. But now it's time to go back to where it all started.
And one of the ways it all started was podcasting. And I want to make sure we're given this attention that we're still talking and having phenomenal interviews, having phenomenal conversations. And this is what we're doing next. This is what we are doing next. Same thing as before monologues every single Monday, interviews every single Friday or bi-weekly. I might not be interviewing as many people as I did before. I'm increasing and I've had a standard of who I've interviewed. But now I want to go for the big dogs. I want to go for the big players. And I know plenty of information. I've had plenty of experiences and stories where there might not even be a need to interview everybody. I want to make sure that you guys get a better glimpse of me. Connect with me personally.
And I want to talk about some of the things that I've had to overcome. Some of the different experiences and business trips that I've taken that might make you stop and be like, wow, I need to step up my game or making this sacrifice or making this risk or taking this risk is absolutely okay because Isaac did it. I wanna make sure that I'm able to connect with you because I feel like there might be this disconnect to a degree to where you might only know me from a business standpoint. Now I wanna make sure that we're knowing one another personally. And so there's going to be a couple of different changes.
I do have some pre-recorded interviews I wanna have coming out. So this Friday, if you're listening on the Monday of publishing, this episode, this Friday, I'm interviewing Ms. Dio, who is the founder of Wisdom, new social audio app. Super excited to have that conversation with her. So that is coming out Friday.
And then from there, it's going to go back into the monologue area and the interview spread out every now and again. But regardless, I had a question that has been on my mind a lot lately. And it's the question of why not. And I've talked about this in the past in very, various different forms of content, nothing too specific where I'm putting the emphasis only on this but everybody tells you to find out your why. What is your why? Why are you doing the things that you are doing? What is important? Why is this important to you? And this was brought about by somebody's book and they're like you know start with why and then from there it led into this self-help movement of you know hey focus on your why, focus on your passion, focus on your interests, all this other stuff that is really cliche and buzzworthy.
And I don't say buzzworthy in a sense of like, this deserves a lot of attention. I say buzzworthy in the sense of everybody is buzzing about it and talking about it. And they don't even understand what the hell it means. They don't understand what, you know, your why would actually be. And so that is something that I've been challenged with a lot over the past couple of years, because I'm like, why am I doing this? Truthfully, why do I care? Why, Why am I sacrificing all these things?
Why am I trying to build a nine figure business and make a billion dollar investment by the time I'm 35? Why am I building out my personal brand? And you can get into the specifics of things that add up, but they're not technically your why. And then I could get into the alternative side of conversation, a lot of people ask you, why aren't you satisfied? Why aren't you stopping? Why don't you take a break? Why don't you settle? Why don't you go and be like everybody else in your family or why would you do that? Why would you quit college? Why would you sacrifice that scholarship?
Why would you start that business? Why aren't you going out with us tonight in the club? You get the drift, you get what I'm saying, everybody is asking why?
And I have a very simple answer, and it's kind of funny because it's asking a question back to them, and that question is why not? Why wouldn't you do it? Why wouldn't you go out to become massively successful? If you already know maybe what your purpose is, if your purpose is like mine to live up to my potential, I very simply wanna play the game of monopoly in real life and see how big I can take this because I have one swing in life. We may or may not come back, right? We might not come back in the future. This is to my knowledge, the only life here on earth that we have and so why wouldn't you go up to the very top? Why wouldn't you see how big you can take it? Why wouldn't you take that risk?
Why wouldn't you make that sacrifice? Why wouldn't you go out of your way to become successful? Everybody else wants you to conform to their level of comfort because they feel threatened by how big you are thinking. And although they are not maliciously going out for you and gunning for you saying, oh, you need to settle, you need to stop, you're stressing yourself out, you're, no, no, no, no, no, no. They are thinking from the level of thought that they are currently on. They are thinking based around and based on their own current circumstances or previous life experiences. You see if somebody who has never become successful before, before in any term or has any, you know, massive form of success.
And you talked to them about what they have going on or what, what you have going on. They're going to be talking to you based on what they have previously accomplished based off of how big or how small they have previously thought.
And that is a concern. That is a risk because now you are putting your own opinion, your own future, your, you know, your own passions in the hands of somebody else because their opinion is going to influence you. And so I'm not here to talk about the opinions of other people. However, I do want to shed light on why it is some people question what you have going on. And when it boils down to your why and what you have going on, I would highly suggest, I would highly recommend that you start asking yourself, why not? Why wouldn't I do this? If you want to go and become somebody who's massively known in the world of philanthropy or a cause that you really support, that you feel deeply passionate about, that you feel deeply rooted in, then why wouldn't you see how big you can take it?
Why not? Why not work with this cause? If you love this cause, your cause, your why of doing it isn't because you love the cause. It's very simply, why not? It makes sense. Why wouldn't you do it? Why wouldn't you go out and spend time with it? It's not that you love the cause. It's just very simply that why not? Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I? I love it. I enjoy it. Cool. Why not? You don't have to get technical with every single thing because whenever you say that you're doing something for something else, you're giving your power to that very thing instead of having the power yourself.
a long time and I love Dean Graziosi. I love the guy to death. He has a fantastic mentor. He does a lot of great work with Tony Robbins and he was the godfather of the infomercial space. But I listened to one of his podcasts a couple months ago. It's probably six months ago and he's talking about his own wine, his own background. And he says that I want to be in control. And he's like, that is my why. It's like, it is, I want to be in control.
And I'm thinking to myself over the past couple of weeks because I really thought that that was my why as well. And I didn't talk about it publicly because I'm like, I wasn't even sure how I felt about the whole why conversation. And I talk, I'm thinking to myself and I'm like, you know what, that really isn't my why. I'm not doing this because I want to have control. I'm doing this because why not? Like why wouldn't I do this? Why wouldn't I go and become successful or go travel or take flights every week or why wouldn't I work for that? I'm like, my why isn't about control.
I don't care. I don't care about control in the sense of my actions or my life. And I realized that I was actually giving my control away by inferring that I had to work for my control.
I was inferring to my subconscious mind that I was actually not in control and I had to achieve control. I had to receive control. I had to work to get control. When in actuality, I was always in control. And I think I deeply down knew that, but I was reprogramming my brain in the wrong avenue. And so I stopped the other day after realizing that it really wasn't something that I could solve. It was something I've been thinking about on almost pondering on in a philosophical way, trying to find the answer and find the solution only to come to the realization that that wasn't what I was working for, that I was giving away my control by understanding that I had to get it and that the real reason why I was doing it is why not?
Why wouldn't I do it? Because any other answer and any other thing that you talk about that you try to throw in, I'm doing this for my family. I'm doing this for that. It's taking away some of your focus and you should be working in a sense to help other people. But at the end of the day, you're the only person that's going to be lying in your coffin. You should be asking yourself, why not? Why wouldn't I do this? Make this a game. And if you could simplify this conversation, it would be to gamify your success. It would be to turn what you have going on into a game where there is a level where there is this consistent hierarchy of achievement.
You could go bigger and stronger and higher. And that could, you know, to a degree make you feel like you can never be satisfied.
But I think the satisfaction is to be found in understanding that you're working for something greater. And at that moment in the future, you know, if you, I think that if you ever want to stop, you're going to know when it is you want to stop. There's a reason that some successful people, you know, go and go and decide to take other routes that were super hungry and ambitious that all of a sudden they stop and sell everything or they go and retire on a yacht and take a trip around the world. But alternatively, there's this conversation where a lot of people are afraid to get into this mentality because they think that they will never feel satisfied.
And I think that fear holds a lot of people back because they're anxious about something that may or may not happen in the future.
And that anxiety is a preexisting condition. It's a condition that is not preexisting actually. It's a condition that is created and shaped and manipulated and instilled in your own mind out of fear of having to do extra work, you have to understand that. In order to achieve this, you have to put in more work. Yes, but you're not stopping and you're not going to not take this initial leap of faith because look, you may or may not feel satisfied in the future. If you want to stop and you want to call it quits or you want to retire, take a step back, then cool. You're going to know when you want to do that.
But in the meantime, I'm here to tell you that you should probably go all in with it. I'm here to tell you that there is absolutely no reason for you to not do what you want to do.
Answer this question. Why not? Why not? Why wouldn't you? That is all I have for you today, guys. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman. Be on the lookout for new episodes every single Monday and every single Friday. And make sure to let me know your thoughts. review, rate, review, and subscribe to this. This helps me understand how many people are listening and I am not running advertisements on this podcast and I never will run an external advertisement. So do your due diligence, spread the word, and I'm happy and grateful for each and every one of you. Much love.