593 – Don’t say yes to everything: Tom talks Just Say No

Episode 593 – Just Say No
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 593 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about Just Say No. All right. So I violated my own rule that I've been living by for years and teaching others, and I violated it myself. What is it they say no good deed goes unpunished. Well, in this episode, I'm going to tell you about the mistake I made yesterday. So you don't do the same thing. I guess if you had to give it up. Purpose for this episode is called Reputation Management. All right, so I hope you didn't miss episode 592. That was Phil Fraser. He took a kitchen table startup, no investment at all, and sold it to a multimillion dollar or sold it for multi millions of dollars to a big corporation. So he tells you his story about that. All right, pick up a copy of our automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree so you cannot fight with your computer and spend time making money. How about that? That's what we want. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. You pick up at screwthecommute.com/app.

[00:01:51] Okay. Let's see. I want to talk about just saying no. So here's what I did. I accepted a podcast interview that I knew wasn't really right for me. In fact, I rag against the topic of the entire podcast, and I'm not going to I'm not going to reveal it because I don't want to give the stupid thing any more publicity than it doesn't deserve.

[00:02:20] But anyway, the host seemed nice and I do accept lots of podcast appearances from newbies and podcasts that really haven't made it. So I help him out, you know, and it keeps me sharp and you know, I'm sitting at home anyway, so great. And I'm not trying to blow my own horn here, but I'm a darned popular guest. I mean, I've done over 1000 interviews on top podcasts and radio and TV networks around the world. Right. So, I mean, many of these smaller shows can't believe I even accepted their invitation. Again, I'm not saying that out of arrogance. I'm just trying to put this in perspective here. Now, in this case, no less than three times, I asked the host if he really realized that I'm totally against his topic and will probably rail against it on his show. No, I would not want to be obnoxious about it. And you know, I don't do things like that. But I will get in your face if I know you're full of it. All right. So so what he said, and I'm paraphrasing here is that's fine as long as you can take it when I respond to your ragging. Okay, great. That's fair. So I did the interview. Oh, my God. This guy was some pseudo intellectual. Who would have made a great person for politicians. I mean, he. He used lots of words and said pretty much nothing.

[00:03:52] Right. And he was great at what I think he calls circular arguments. These are fallacious arguments that use a lot of words. All right. I'll tell you about that in a minute. But the reason I think it'd be great for politicians is because. After the interview. I'll tell you more details later. He blamed me for what he's guilty of or what I feel that he's guilty of. So and it was just ludicrous what he was saying. So anyway, according to the psych department at Northwestern University, circularity in an argument is a defect in reasoning because it actually undermines. Your attempt to justify a claim or something or an action or something you've written or whatever. So I merely stated that something that was written on another website that he had some relation to. Was ridiculous and I gave an example of why. So he got all defensive and went into this crazy rant saying that he knew the person responsible for the statement and that that person meant such and such. And. And I simply stated that, well, that's not what was written in the passage that I read. Then he just kept using the circular argument, saying what it meant, even though it didn't say what he said it meant. And then then he started talking about the meaning of words. And then, Oh, my God, in my mind, I'm thinking about the day I was sitting there in front of the TV watching Bill Clinton say, well, what? It depends on the meaning of is what is is.

[00:05:35] And another thing that applies here, according to Northwestern, or at least one or the other sites I was looking on on these fallacious arguments, is that some of the arguments he made were legit. But when put together, they were undermined by claiming something that was written by his interpretation was completely different than from a normal person's interpretation. I don't want to get into the weeds too much on this because he and his show are waste of time and cater to pretty much gullible people. But we moved on to other topics and agreed to disagree all very amicably. Really. It was what debates used to be about. You weren't evil. If you have a different point of view like it is in today's atmosphere, well, I thought, well, that's fine. You know, we had a lively debate. That's great. No problem. And we agree to disagree. So I finished the interview on a high note. We're laughing and I go on about my day. Well, later I get an email from this pseudo intellectual nutcase, pretty much from him thanking me for being on the show and commenting on the lively discussion we had. Then he went into this bizarre accusation that I intentionally misled his audience, which wouldn't be hard, I might add, with the kind of people that listen to that show. And and that I was a scammer that I purport to go after. Oh man. When I responded with my anti scam credentials and long public reputation for integrity, he said I was 100% bullshit.

[00:07:24] Even with that, I invited him on my show, and I'm sure he's too gutless to accept the invite. Well, let me take a sidebar here. After the show, he went and looked at the passage I was commenting on and he said, look above this. This person explained exactly what she meant. And I said something like, You're making the classic rookie mistake of either naively or arrogantly thinking that someone has read every single word of what you wrote. Yes. Had I read every single word that was written, I would have had a different feeling about the part I did read, which I might add was the first bullet. Really great big emphasized. First bullet in a list of bullets. You know, a few words added to the bullet would have clarified it, but on its face value it was indeed bullshit. Which is why it stuck out and I commented on it. Now with the proper context. It would not have been bullshit. It would have been an entirely different meaning. But to accuse me of intentionally misleading his stupid audience now that's 100% bullshit. I mean, it's pretty like the, the again, the current politicians that accuse you of doing what they're guilty of is going, you know, having a show for all these gullible people. So the entire point of this is that I shouldn't have accepted the engagement, especially just to help out their pitiful show. And it's the same as I've taught for speaking engagements for years and years and years and years and years. And I learned the hard way in the beginning.

[00:09:16] If the audience is not right for you, don't accept it, no matter how tempting the money is. And yes, I know that's hard to do when you need to pay the bills. But you just can't win being in front of the wrong people. I know people say all the time. Say yes all the time. No, don't say yes when it doesn't make sense. So in my efforts to help somebody out, I get accused of being a scammer and 100% bullshitter. Like I said, no good deed goes unpunished. So this idiot's going to, you know. Oh, and he had a co host. Oh, my God. Sweet. Seemed like a very sweet person. But you could have had a trained monkey. The guy just sat there and rocked back and forth the whole time. Right. And like I said, he might be a very sweet person and talented, but he said two words in the whole show and the whole hour show and didn't do anything but sit there and smile and rock back and forth. I was just I don't even know why he was there. But anyway, be ready to say no, don't take a speaking engagement or don't take a podcast or an interview. That does not make sense. You will look bad no matter how good you are. It just is not a good for your reputation in the long run. So. So anyway, that's my little rant for today. So have a great weekend and just say no. Catch you later.