Manage Your Nerves, Unlock Your Mind & Find Your Power | AMA Vol. 18 w/ Dr. Michael Gervais

Michael Gervais (0:01)

I was as nervous, all of a sudden, bam, zero to two seconds, I was flooded. My hands were shaking, my heart was pounding, my breathing changed, and all of a sudden, all of my thinking changed. From this is amazing to I'm gonna blow it.

Most of my philosophy and my first principles in life are to be connected and put myself in the most powerful position I can.

O'Neil Cespedes (0:23)

I'm sorry, please say that again. That was fucking wonderful.

What the fuck did you just say?

Michael Gervais (0:37)

Welcome back, or welcome to another Ask Me Anything on Finding Mastery. I am your host, Dr. Michael Gervais, by trade and training, a high-performance psychologist.

Now, the purpose behind these conversations, behind these AMAs, is to hear from you, to explore the topics and questions that you've been wrestling with on your path to becoming. So, in this latest conversation, O'Neil and I tackle a common yet formidable challenge that many of us face, the fear of public speaking. It's a real one now. We unpack strategies to overcome this fear, emphasizing the power of calibration, reflection, and the critical role that relationships play in our own personal growth. We also explore topics like practical insights for managing anxiousness and nerves, how to be your own tuning fork of excellence, creating space in your life for experimentation and exploration, putting yourself in positions of power in your own life, how to shift from a performance-based to a purpose-based identity, and of course so much more. And as always, I have so much fun during these AMAs, I really relish in them. And my hope is that it provides insights and tools for you as you look to push boundaries, as you look to explore your potential and to thrive within the complexities of our modern world. So with that, let's dive right into Vol. 18 of Finding Mastery's Ask Me Anything.

AMA 18

O'Neil Cespedes (2:09)

Damn, AMA 18 That's wild.

Michael Gervais (2:12)

Time flies.

O'Neil Cespedes (2:13)

It does, it really does.

Michael Gervais (2:15)

And the way it feels to do this with you, I love it. I look forward to it. This is a highlight for me. And like, yeah, I really appreciate how it goes, how it feels to do this with you. Yeah.

One of my hopes is that the person listening is also having that same type of connection to themselves because you're asking questions, the audience is asking questions, and we're wrestling them down.

And my hope is that the person listening is also doing the same thing, is that they're wrestling with the question, even maybe answering it, maybe even pausing after the question comes up and wrestles with it themselves and then calibrates how you or I might answer it. That is one of the ways I really enjoy going through these types of experiences as a listener, is calibrating first. And I don't know if people are doing that, but that would be at least my recommendation.

O'Neil Cespedes (3:14)

You know, I think calibration is happening because I'm gonna be honest with you. I didn't have any idea of, I mean, of course I know who you were, but I didn't have any idea of how effective, at least from my end, it would be, and I certainly didn't expect people to reach out to me at all, at all.

Michael Gervais (3:33)

That's happening to you right now.

O'Neil Cespedes (3:34)

And that's happening to me. And I'm like, whoa, calibration is happening. And I mean, it honestly feels good. It really, man, I almost said this, I'm gonna sound corny, I gotta stop saying that because it's okay to sound corny.

Michael Gervais (3:47)

It is okay. This is the corny corner.

O'Neil Cespedes (3:49)

This is the corny corner. It's okay to be in the corny corner. But it's so dope when people reach out to you who don't know you and tell you like, oh, man, I really enjoyed what you were saying. That helped open my eyes on something. I don't know, man, for lack of a better word, just people telling you that you made them feel good, feels good.

Michael Gervais (4:10)

It does.

O'Neil Cespedes (4:10)

It just feels dope. Yeah.

Michael Gervais (4:13)

And our community is really strong.

There are not only decision makers as the bulk of our community, but they're thoughtful, the intelligence. I assume that, because we can't measure intelligence across the community, but based on the questions, based on my interaction with people, this is a really smart group that is compassionate, purpose-based, want to be their very best, and at the same time are working between that tension between what is my very best and what is my true self, what is my best self, what is my true self, and really navigating that space in a high-stress world that we're in right now. So I appreciate our community.