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The Networker Zone
How to kill shiny object syndrome with Foley Smith
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How to Kill Shiny Object Syndrome book
Dopamine makes your brain feel good
Boring leads to shiny object syndrome
Micro rewards
Write down your accomplishments at the end of the day
Free Magic Words for Prospecting audios
You enter the Networkers Zone, the ultimate podcast for networkers and direct sales, network marketing, MLM, or any sales side hustle. You'll learn the skills for the how-to and the mindset to make it work from the author of over 20 best-selling books and over 25 years in the business. Here's your host, Pete Strider.
SPEAKER_01All right, today in the zone, I have a lifelong networker student of the industry, and of course the author of the new ebook, How to Kill Shiny Object Syndrome, How to Stop Starting and Start Finishing is Foley Smith. Foley, welcome.
SPEAKER_02Hey, how are ya?
SPEAKER_01Oh man, terrific, terrific, and uh good to see you. It's been it's been a few years and we're catching up before we hit record.
SPEAKER_02I I keep turning up like a bad penny.
SPEAKER_01There you go, there you go. But the big thing is uh shiny object syndrome, we've all heard of it uh to an extent. We all know that we shouldn't be doing it, but we can't help ourselves. So the big question is, what do we do?
SPEAKER_02I know I can't help it. And you know, when you talk about networking, you know what it's like when you've signed someone up, you've started investing in them, and you're maybe in a nutrition program, and then you they come up to you and they say, Hey, guess what? I've got this other program that would work perfectly with this. And you go, oh, okay. Side by side, whole conflict. Well, you you know, I think that's the best way to talk about the practical impact of shiny object syndrome to your the network marketing people because we've all had that happen. And uh, but I mean it can affect anybody, but I think it especially seems to affect people who have a day job and they're trying to get into a side hustle or a network marketing company, and you just can't get traction. And so I'd like to say I have it perfectly uh conquered myself, but so this is as much from my own personal experience as you know some somebody else's. So it's a mo you have to do a a couple of you have to work on it, and uh I think it's uh it's a work everybody's a work in progress to stay on track.
SPEAKER_01Well, what's something that everybody could do today? Like obviously we're gonna we'll go through just a couple of things in the book. Um I want to give away all the good stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Well, we don't have time. So yeah, you know, I think the first thing is uh to realize it's not you you probably have shiny object syndrome because you're a creative or an entrepreneurial person and you love new ideas, and that's a good thing because not everybody's like that. So if someone has shiny object syndrome, uh you might as well stop beating yourself up because you know you're not gonna get rid of it overnight. You might as well see it as a curse of potential. Um, Calvin Coolidge said there's nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent. And so sh shiny object syndrome says, hey, this person has an eye for interesting things, for opportunities, but the the problem is it is a follow-through to actually finish or at least make progress uh before moving on to something new. So first of all, you have to stop beating yourself up because that's probably not gonna it hadn't helped yet, right? And you have to realize that this is um, you know, if if you followed uh uh the master classes, you've been learning a lot about brain science. And so this has an aspect that's brain science. There's this uh hormone called dopamine that when you see something new and unique, you go, wow, the anticipation of diving into that just floods our brains. And uh yeah, it's almost like we can't help ourselves. There's something great about getting started, but then things get boring, and so that's when we look for the next shiny object. So I'd answer your question. One, realize um there's you're not gonna solve by beating yourself up. Realize you're riding this hormonal wave, and so you're gonna have to find some way to fix it. So let's talk about how to do that. We realize that boring is what is making people look for something shiny again. It's like, oh, I need that dopamine hit. That's you know, it works on whether it's Facebook or something, we're looking for something that makes our brain feel good. But in business, you know, in network marketing, when it's getting boring, that's when most people give up. So if we can find a way to get ourselves over the boring hump, then that the boring hump is the gateway to success. And since we're sort of addicted to that dopamine, we need to find ways to make the boring part a little bit more exciting. And so in the book, I've got to talk a have a big section about micro rewards because that's what we're looking for, we're a reward. If we if we go, oh, let me learn about this new opportunity, it's because there's a reward there. So we need to find a way to inject rewards into what we're already doing so we'll stay on track. So I have a bunch of ideas about that, and I share what my favorite one is. Um, and then another thing to do is to put on blinders. So if you're in a nutrition MLM, maybe you should unsubscribe from the 10 zillion cryptocurrency newsletters that you're subscribed to because every day when you should be working on your now work marketing company, you're gonna be bombarded by something else. So, you know, make it easier to stay on track by you know unsubscribing to all the other stuff that's just gonna distract you. Um so you're gonna have to project content. And I am gonna give away something that's the best tool for me. Uh, I've got an iPhone, and so a lot of the stuff that comes my way starts as an email. And the best thing to do is go, oh wow, that sounds like the greatest thing ever. Oh, I know what I'll do. I'll go to the bottom of the email and I'll click that little button that lets me do remind me later. Have you ever seen that button?
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I've I've found that if I just say remind me an hour, remind me in a day, remind me three weeks from now, that remind me thing just sort of lets the uh addiction subside and lets the shiny object seem to be less attractive over time. Uh so that that's that helps me a lot. Uh and there's a couple other strategies in the book. Uh uh what I don't know anybody, I don't know if any of your uh anybody uses AI. I guess we all do. The problem with AI usually sucks up to you pretty good. And uh tells you how smart you are. Yep, and then so what one thing I did is I had this thing, I go, you know, that sounds like it would fit, right? And I and I said to the AI, here's these two things that seem like they fit. Now, as a ruthless business coach, tell me if these are consistent, because in my mind I'm rationalizing, oh, that works with this, and this works with that. Oh, that would be a perfect combination. And so it spits out, that's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. And I've got all these people typing in stupid ideas. Well, it didn't say exactly that, but it's that's not consistent. And that's another that's another tool that I've used in the past to try to stay on track.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, yeah, I realize you know, shiny object syndrome, that that's from everything, like um uh a new job, a new business, relationship, and everything. Um, it's it's exciting, and then there's the middle, which is the hardest part to get through, and then of course if things work out, the the end or the conclusion or the success or the goal achievement or or anything else like that. It's just that middle part, like that's when people get sidetracked or quit, or they never answer again. Like and you talked about micro rewards, so that's one way. Is there any other ways that you recommend? Or let's go, let's go to give us an example of like a micro reward, because that may resonate with some people.
SPEAKER_02Well, um, a micro reward for me is remember um uh Elon Musk said that he he had his employees send him an email or send their supervisor an email every week with the five things they got done. And so I find it's very motivating for me if by the end of the day I can go to a I use a physical journal. Uh uh, you could do it online, I guess, but I I like having a physical journal and writing down whatever I've accomplished that day. I, you know, hopefully five, maybe it's less, who knows? Some days you take off. But I the act of writing it down is like, okay, I really got something done today on the projects I'm working on instead of just spinning my wheels. That's that's a big help for me. Um, you ever you ever heard of Jerry Seinfeld?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02He's supposed to be, he was this was attributed to him, and then he said he never did it. But supposedly the way he became a great joke writer, a great comedian is to have a huge calendar on the wall, and every day that he wrote a joke, he'd make a nice big X. And so he had this continuous string of these nice big X's that he could had checked off as a sign of consistency. Well, a sort of a plot, I don't he said he never did it, but it's still a good idea, right? To have consistency.
SPEAKER_01So he sort of maybe you just did it if you forgot about it, you know, became a habit.
SPEAKER_02Right? Who knows? Well, we sort of got a gamify uh battling the monotony. And so I I put a worksheet in the book that eatbook that people can type off or copy or do whatever they want to, so that every day uh you put an X for every day, you do part of the boring work that you need to do until you go, oh, I sort of like this. I sort of get this little reward for doing the thing that I thought was so boring. And by the time I do a little bit of it, it actually starts to feel pretty good. And I actually sort of like it, especially, you know, if you're reading the big reading big L books and and know how to talk to people without scaring them off, it becomes a little bit easier that way. There's less rejection. So if you can combine the two, you're in a really good spot. And so there's a couple of worksheets in the ebook set that let you do things like that to help work through it.
SPEAKER_01Uh funny that uh my daughter's 19, but even when she's 18, we're doing like scholarships just because hey, free money's free money, of course. Is uh I even did like a star chart, like the old like we do like when you're supposed to be five years old, like the stars.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know what? It worked, it worked, you know. Well tell me what what uh may tell me about that. Maybe I'll put it in the next edition of the book.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um, oh it's probably around here somewhere because I kept it because I said you know, 100 days to 100k. So hey, let's let's shoot for a hundred thousand dollars. 100,000 free money because you know, flight and everything else. You're looking at a good quarter million. So let's let's do halfway or you know, ish. So 100,000, 100k. We actually only made it to like 30 days, and yeah, 100k came through because it was just consistent activity every single day. And if we missed a day, okay, we didn't put it do the little sticker. That's just a star sticker. That was it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, cool. It works sort of like our big red X on a calendar, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Uh big red X, uh green check mark, sticky uh star sticker that you get when you're supposed to be five years old, whatever works.
SPEAKER_02Get a happy man instead of a sad man. That's what was in kindergarten.
SPEAKER_01Oh well. Okay, so why did you come up with this? Did you have uh issues in the past or things like you realize, okay, I did this. You mentioned a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Oh, definitely. Well, I think it's mostly self-help, but I thought, huh, I bet other people struggle with this too. So um I I reduced what I had been working on that seemed to help me stay on track and decided to try to make it available for other people.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right, so live and learn and uh helping people out.
SPEAKER_02I I I guess I guess another thing was, you know, I always had the I've had the problem for years, but the answers that I was being given were, you know, suck it up or do better. Um I thought, well, uh, okay, okay, I've heard that, and it doesn't seem to work for anyone. So what does work? And so I started looking, well, you know, if you you get on the master classes and you start hearing about brain science, you go, huh, maybe there's something that relates to this too. And uh so that that was better than just telling myself to suck it up, buttercup or whatever, and uh so I think this actually this actually helps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, you're a smart guy. I'll run this idea about you here. So books cost, you know, uh 10, 20, 30 dollars, ebooks five, ten, etc. What if books costed five hundred dollars? And if you read it and implemented it, we'll refund you four hundred and ninety-five dollars. You think people would be more apt to actually read the book? Because that's the hardest part.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, I guess I guess so. I hadn't thought of it that way. I uh the way I thought it was, you know, if you spend a little bit on a book and it keeps you from spending $197 on this or $50 on that, or setting wasting three weeks setting up a website that you then decide to never use. Um anything is this. If we can get a handle on killing our shiny object syndrome, we could probably save a lot of money and save a lot of time. I tell people I think finding that remind me on my emails probably saved me ten thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's just weird because you think about all the knowledge all the time, and and sometimes people have gone to other workshops and done other things. They've combined all this into a twenty dollar book, and you're like, this should be more. But since it's not that much, people may it's may not value it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They may not value it. Like if you if you spend more money, you'd take it more seriously. So it's always one of those balances out there. I always throw it out to some people at interview.
SPEAKER_02That's a good idea. Yeah, I think I'll change the price to uh right now the price is exceedingly low, just for your audience, of course. But as soon as they're done buying at this incredibly in low introductory price, I'll change it to $500, and if they have questions, I'll send them to you.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean they gotta read it, use it, and then refund them.
SPEAKER_02That's right. That's right. Uh I I could probably make a lot more money that way.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, there you go. Exactly. But I think people would actually read it. I don't know. Uh there's gotta be something there. Someone come up with it. I don't need credit, just make it work.
SPEAKER_02I'll I'll uh I'll I'll let this introductory price last for a few more weeks till all your listeners buy it, and then then I'll implement that strategy. How about that?
SPEAKER_01Uh I just want people to actually number one, read it. So many times we we get a book, we don't read it, or we don't even open it. Um, that's part of it. And then implement it. It's it's it's hard things to do. Of course, yeah, there's a shiny object of the next book, or the more information, or the different information, or the the puzzle piece that's missing that I really need. Um so I I kind of like the whole uh shiny object and of course. Uh the stop starting is uh yeah. I mean how many times have you started over?
SPEAKER_02Oh well, all the uh all the time. And and and uh you know, I I I like to tell myself, well, e every false start, I've learned something I can use the next time, and that's probably a little bit true, but there's still so much frustration and there's still so much um uh build-up of a sense of of failure that if we can get um probably my next book is gonna be on shame now that we mentioned that, but uh there's so much of a sense of uh unaccomplishment that if we can start um getting through the boring or gamifying the boring to start seeing success, then we're gonna we're gonna it's gonna have a cascading effect that we feel better about ourselves in other areas too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I like the gamifying too.
SPEAKER_02Uh there's really you gotta have fun, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean that's why we are switching around so we can have more fun. So we if we can get have fun doing what we said we were gonna do, that's even better.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I I just want people to think, well, how could I gamify this? Because yeah, there's obviously the apps are really good at it, and there's so many things that'll come out every single day is something new. But yeah, if you could gamify it, reward yourself, you people will see results because it's fun.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh well let's let's draw some ideas. What other ways can people gamify things or make things fun?
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Well, now I gotta now I gotta think. Gee, what's it? I'll give you the hard-hitting questions. Oh boy. I've heard some of the other hard-hitting questions. I don't think they're that bad, but um well, okay, so we want something new. And so one thing to do is okay, maybe there's a an and do this with free, right? Or do this with a low, low price things like my book. If I accomplish this hurdle, I will reward my shiny object syndrome by maybe testing a new game app or um you know something else that's fun that sort of it feeds that shiny object syndrome, but it doesn't let it run wild. Uh maybe it's like, I'll go to the casino, but I only take one quarter, you know. I I I don't I don't know, maybe recommend that, but the book talks about giving yourself a small reward that sort of feeds that shiny object syndrome after you've really helped yourself by focusing on that project that seemed it was just a little bit too boring, or and you know, of course, you always want to break down boring things into the simplest thing possible, like, oh I'm writing a book, so I don't want to write a book, I want to watch TV, so oh, what'll I do? I know I won't say I'll write 50 pages, I'll say I'll open the document. And so once you have this micro goal that even your brain can't say no to because it's you know, the reason we're not doing the boring stuff is because our our brain is saying, oh boy, uh your your your ancient uh forefather uh learned to run from saber-toothed tigers. There's none of them around. I guess I guess this project is your saber-toothed tiger, so I'll you'll just have to act like uh you know I'm trying I'm still doing you some good and make you go, write 50 pages, that's just impossible. So instead of doing the thing we fear, do something that's so simple and so silly that even that part of our brain can't say that's a saber-toothed tiger. So maybe that's open the document.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so just do like small things.
SPEAKER_02Micro, yeah, micro things. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I can't I could I get that when you have so many things you gotta do and you don't do anything. Yeah, we'll all do it.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, including I I I know a lot of writers who go, Oh, I can't finish this uh project. I'm I'm I just can't force myself to write. So it's like, well, let's open the document. That's a good start.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mind map, do something, jot your notes.
SPEAKER_02Anything, anything, anything that's so ridiculously simple your brain doesn't go, oh my gosh, that's the modern equivalent of a saber-tooth tiger.
SPEAKER_01And kind of backing up before that, you'd mentioned some things like basically like what do the boring stuff first, celebrate later. Like so, like there's you have something to look forward to. There is something that you you've been you know that's gonna you know that's going to take up time, but it's not gonna help you know it's it's a fun thing, it's entertainment.
SPEAKER_02It's it's due. The fun, it's do the fun stuff with the not so fun stuff. So that's like your your old prospecting book about having a hundred coffees, right? Hey, I like coffee. I'm afraid to talk to human beings, but I like coffee. So if I can go there and have a coffee, maybe someone will sit down and I'll I'll say something to them. You know? So there you go. You do the combine the fun stuff with the not so fun stuff.
SPEAKER_01Or just drink a bunch of coffee and then uh you can't uh because the caffeine the caffeine will make you talk to people. Hopefully they're asking questions, not vomiting. There you go. Or vomiting too.
SPEAKER_02Hopefully, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I had to clarify that. Oh man, that that that is awesome. Uh well, actually, let's get uh one more tip. I know you have uh time is valuable.
SPEAKER_02Uh I don't want to Well, I'd rather talk with you, otherwise we're chasing some shiny object, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there you go. Um but yeah, kind of give like one other cheat that everyone can do right away that can make a big difference in their business, or even small difference, small difference over compounded over time is is a big difference.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah. Um thing you talk about in the in the book is you know, talked about remind me. I've talked about uh, you know, if you're doing if you're doing X, unsubscribe to all the email letters about doing Y. Okay. So uh here's another one. I call the the parking lot. You know, you know, from your own life that not all the shiny objects that attracted your attention were bad, right? No, some of them were really great ideas, but they were just interrupting you and what you're doing right at that moment. So not every shiny object is bad. It might be good at the right time later. So we don't have to criticize ourselves for being attracted to it, but just like the remind me, the parking lot is hey, I'm gonna take a notebook or open a document, and I'm gonna have a brain dump about okay, what what was this idea? Why did it seem so good? What were all the pros attracting me? And you just get it out of your system and you make a resolution, I'm gonna revisit this when I've reached my other goal with what I'm doing right now. That's another I think that that helps a lot because you get it out of your system and you don't go, oh that you're stupid, you had another stupid idea. You get it out of your system and you go you you record it somewhere so you can come back to it, and yet you close the book, you close the document, however you've recorded it, and you get back to what you're doing, and that leaves it on the shelf, and you can revisit it later if it's appropriate, and if it's a valuable idea, you can do it then. So you haven't lost it, but you've broken its power to distract you in the moment.
SPEAKER_01Well, again, yeah, I uh appreciate your time. Um Hey, thank you. But you know me. I got the three bonus questions.
SPEAKER_02Oh, oh, I forgot. Oh, I thought I all right. No, you're not off the hook. Try to be brave.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's the hard-hitting ones. All right. Uh question number one. Nothing with my last name on it. Uh nothing with your last name on it, but what's one book or audio that you recommend for everybody?
SPEAKER_02I like books that are uh practical. Uh recently been focusing on things with uh brain science, uh, you know, like the master classes do, because um uh just being told to get over it wasn't working, you know, and and and I'm I'm this brilliant kind of guy that after 30 or 40 years of something not working, I I decide I need something different.
SPEAKER_01Hey, we we'll catch on eventually. All right, so there's a brain science. Is there one that in particular one that's uh is more, I guess, novice for most people, or one that's there's a book I read that was cool called How the Brain Heals Itself.
SPEAKER_02That's the general gist of the title. How the brain heals itself.
SPEAKER_01Question number two. I know that uh you lived here in Texas, Tennessee, uh, I believe even West Virginia when I met you. Right. Uh what's uh one place you'd like to revisit this year? Where would you like to travel to this year?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I I would like to I'd like to go back to uh Texas for a little bit, see my friends there, and then uh the Southern Caribbean, I think.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well there I can uh no one's gonna say that's a bad idea, are they?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's about to say it's it's a wide variety, good and bad in both of those.
SPEAKER_02But uh That's right.
SPEAKER_01Where exactly how how southern are we talking?
SPEAKER_02Like Aruba, are you talking um uh you know, bar those uh Aruba, bar I I like those uh Southern Caribbean cruises with uh Aruba, Barbados, you know, the those sort of ones. And you know, I've I've been on so many Eastern Western Caribbean ones I like to get out and about farther down. I saw the I saw Prince Harry one time on one of those islands on a cruise. So Oh, okay. Yeah, I I've never you know, I'm just so used to seeing our president with a you know 50 vehicle motorcade that when a limousine and one motorcycle driver drove by, I I was a little bit shocked, but oh well, you never know what you're gonna see on a cruise.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, and uh all right, cool deal. And question number three hey, uh, what's for dinner tonight?
SPEAKER_02What's for dinner tonight? Uh my wife's taking me out for to dinner tonight, so whatever the finest dining that rural Tennessee can provide, probably a hamburger.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, again, uh I appreciate all your time. Of course, put a link to the book in the episode description. And yeah, I'll definitely have to pick your brain on a future episode. Hey, we maybe even go a little bit deeper on brain science. Who knows? We'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_02Well, who knows? But anyway, look forward to seeing you hopefully in Texas later this year. So thanks. Thanks for talking to me today.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for visiting the Networker Zone. To get awesome networking tips delivered directly to your inbox, or for more information about books, audiobooks, online training, including Zooms, and masterclasses, make sure and visit bigalbooks.com.