Welcome to b.’s first issue of 2023! We have a ton of exciting content planned for you this new year, all with the same mission: delivering actionable business tips and insightful interviews with a chaser of fun. Let’s get started!

Scare Your Soul: The only way past fear is through it.

Tech Stack: Author Scott Simon’s must-have tools.

Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?: How a ‘90s TV ad backfired.

As a kid, Scott Simon loved singing … until his fourth-grade choir teacher yelled at him in front of the class for being off-key — and even told him to silently mouth the words instead. His passion for musical performance turned into a lifelong fear of it.

Until 35 years later when Simon forced himself to sing in front of strangers at a busy restaurant. It helped inspire his Scare Your Soul self-improvement program and a new book based on it — Scare Your Soul: 7 Powerful Principles to Harness Fear and Lead Your Most Courageous Life.

Simon spoke with b. about how bravery in business is more necessary than ever.

b.: The pandemic was one of the scariest events of our lifetimes, but it’s also led to business leaders taking major new leaps and risks.

Simon: When we are forced into new and uncharted territory, as we all were during the pandemic, innovation explodes. The typical fears that keep us status quo [like] the fear of [the] unknown … are mitigated by the overwhelming nature of the crisis. And so, yes, we saw business leaders taking new and bold leaps. 

The key question, however, is this: Now that the “crisis” nature of the pandemic has abated, how do leaders continue to lean into the discomfort of embracing risk?

In my mind, it is a mindset shift. It is about business leaders embracing, publicly and in operational policy, their employees’ taking educated risks with new ideas, new initiatives, pilot programs. … Embracing new models of hybrid working, teamwork, and decision-making. It’s hard and it’s scary, but great things will grow from the fertile ground of uncertainty.

b.: Avoiding uncomfortable conversations can keep individuals and organizations complacent. How can we overcome this?

Simon: It is easy to sweep those interactions under a rug, and that happens too often. … Accept that you will feel discomfort before having the conversation. Sit with that emotion, feel it, validate it. But don’t let it stop you. Role-play or visualize the conversation, focusing on the emotions you are feeling when doing so …

Don’t fill awkward moments with words. Believe it or not, that silence can foster ideas, reflections, and shared perspectives.

b.: What scares Generation Z employees might be different than what scares older workers. Is the process of overcoming fear different for various demographics?

Simon: Gen Zers were set to inherit a strong economy and record-low unemployment, only to have those beliefs dashed with the pandemic. … And while the cause of their fears may be different, I believe that grappling with those fears is no different than for any other age cohort. … We can all practice positive interventions to harness those fears.

b.: Some risks don’t pay off. Is fear ever useful?

Simon: I believe that risks “paying off” is a misnomer. … If we consistently and boldly push our comfort zones in the service of growth, innovation, and connection, I believe the right outcome will eventually arrive. … If you can just do it enough, that discomfort becomes normality, then you're going to be in the space of an open mind.

Scare Your Soul is available now.

25.3%

Americans whose greatest fear is public speaking

(Source: Washington Post)

• WhatsApp: “I have multiple WhatsApp groups of 12 people where we all text each other about one thing that we did that day that was courageous. I cannot tell you how powerful it is …”
• Do Not Disturb: “It allows me to think and explore. I can't open my eyes to the world if I'm looking down at my phone.”
• Joe Coffee App: “There are about 20 locations [it works at] in New York City. I buy a cup of coffee for a stranger almost every day. … It always leads to an interesting, oftentimes beautiful interaction.”

(Source: Netflix)

In 1996, Pepsi aired an ad slathered in x-treme ‘90s spirit, enticing viewers to trade in proof-of-purchase “Pepsi Points” for branded swag: 75 points for a tee, 1,450 for a leather jacket, or 7 million for a Harrier fighter jet.

Except the “joke” lacked fine print … and 20-year-old business student John Leonard really wanted that jet. Since Pepsi points could be purchased for 10 cents each in lieu of buying actual Pepsi cans, Leonard realized that the $33.8 million jet would only cost $700,000.

As Netflix’s Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? chronicles, Leonard convinced investors to rustle up that $700K. We won’t spoil what happened next in court, but it’s a sugary, easily sippable meditation on the cost of reckless claims … and how owning up to a mistake can be preferable to getting the lawyers involved. As one interviewee in Where’s My Jet? says, “Legal will kill anything.”

(Source: Twitter)

“We only go around once. I want people to have this ignited-air-on-fire life, and you don't do that when you start settling back into comfort.”

— Scott Simon

Written by Antonio Ferme and Dan Ketchum.

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