Corey Wilks [00:00:00]:

Most people think that it is a lack of money, intelligence, or resources that is preventing them from success. You've got enough money, most likely, like, you you can white knuckle it, but you probably got enough money. You're more than smart enough. You have resources. Those aren't the things that are the make or break.

Bryan McAnulty [00:00:14]:

Welcome to the Creator's Adventure, where we interview creators from around the world hearing their stories about growing a business. Today, we're going to go over the 4 most common limiting beliefs that creators face and how to overcome them. Hey, everyone. I'm Brian McAnulty, the founder of Hood's platform. Let's get into it. Hey, everyone. We're here today with doctor Corey Wilkes. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and executive coach who helps the top creators and communities in the world clarify what matters, overcome limiting beliefs, and reach their potential in life and business.

Bryan McAnulty [00:00:52]:

He shares these insights in his free weekly newsletter, Creator Alchemy, where he does deep dives into psychology, online business, and content creation. Corey, welcome to the show.

Corey Wilks [00:01:02]:

Thanks for having me, man.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:04]:

Yeah. Good to talk with you again. We got to, have a friendly debate last year on, Justin Morris creator debates.

Corey Wilks [00:01:11]:

Yeah. Super

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:12]:

fun. Yeah. Nice to talk with you again. My first question for you is what would you say is the biggest thing either that you did or are doing that helped you to achieve freedom to do what you enjoy?

Corey Wilks [00:01:24]:

So brief backstory for me. I used to do therapy. Right? Like, I worked in the therapy field as a psychologist. And in 2020, I actually ended up losing my job related to, like, COVID layoffs. So not because, like, I sucked on my job. And without getting into, like, all the nitty gritty details, the way therapy licensure works in in the US, I basically could no longer practice because I had moved to a place I wasn't licensed in. And in order to get relicensed would have taken, like, 4 to 6 months. So I basically had spent 12 plus years of my life optimizing to do therapy, and I could no longer practice therapy.

Corey Wilks [00:02:04]:

So I had to, like I had an identity crisis and had to kinda scramble to figure, like, what do I do with my life now? What do I do with all this training, these degrees I have when I can no longer practice therapy? And that was when I decided to go into entrepreneurship. So it wasn't a I planned it out. I saved up a lot of savings. It was I got fired. I had 30 days notice and 3 paychecks to figure out my life. So I and I grew up super poor. Like, I grew up on food stamps, public housing. So, like, I didn't know a lot of entrepreneurs at that point in my life.

Corey Wilks [00:02:37]:

I didn't have a lot of resources and a robust network of people to to reach out to. I had no business background. So from that point and, you know, through today, the way I've been able to build what I've built is really kinda comes down to a couple things. One is taking responsibility for my own learning. So rather than saying, I don't know how to be an entrepreneur, it's what do I need to learn to become an entrepreneur? Right? So then I learned how to spin up a website. I learned how to create offers, copywriting, marketing. I learned how to create courses, curriculum design. I just, through Google and YouTube, learned a lot on my own.

Corey Wilks [00:03:20]:

And then the second piece is I reached out to people. I reached out to people who were maybe a couple steps ahead of me in business and I and just tried to befriend them And then said, hey. Here's what I know if there's anything I can help you with with, you know, with my expertise. I'm down to to help as much as I can. And then a lot of times, they would also offer to help me. And then other times, I was just straight up ask like, hey, man. How do you spin up a website? Like, how does WordPress work? How do templates work? And then the other thing that's really, really helped me a lot after I got got those foundations down was taking sort of an a permissionless approach where I basically especially, like, if you're a coach or course creator, and you're any type of content creator, whatever the niche is or the audiences that you serve, it is really, really easy for you to look at them and say, what do these people need that isn't currently out there that I am uniquely positioned to offer? And then just make that thing and give it to them. The majority of my stuff is free.

Corey Wilks [00:04:22]:

Like, my newsletter, all of my articles, my YouTube stuff, the majority of podcasts I do, all of that is free. And all of it is is saying, I see you had this problem or you're having the struggle. Let me make something for you without asking your permission. It's just, here's the thing I think would really help you. Those collectively have really helped me get to where I am today.

Bryan McAnulty [00:04:44]:

Yeah. That's great advice. I actually I made a note for myself here in, my questions to get into the idea of responsibility, as an entrepreneur. And so it's interesting to hear that you're you're bringing that up already. I'm curious, like, what else would you say about mindset shift mindset, shifts that might be essential for somebody who wants to become an entrepreneur transitioning from the traditional career path. And, like, I don't know anything else you could expand on that concept of responsibility. Because for me, it's like when you're an entrepreneur, you're suddenly taking on all these responsibilities that you just don't have as an employee at a company. You don't it doesn't really have to fall on your shoulders.

Bryan McAnulty [00:05:28]:

Somebody else can fix it or or things like that. If if it's gonna be a problem for the business, it's not necessarily your problem unless you're gonna get fired for it. But as an entrepreneur, like, ultimately, it comes back to you. Even if you have a team, it comes back to you. And the more kind of, like, responsibility you're willing to take on, the more kind of potential I think you have to grow in some ways. So what are your thoughts on that?

Corey Wilks [00:05:53]:

No. I agree. I think well, 1, the whole idea of, like, nobody's coming to save you. Right? I think it's really easy for us to think like, oh, if I just got that one shot, if this one person just mentored me, or if they gave me their platform, then I could succeed. Like, that's the reason I haven't succeeded yet. Like, that that isn't gonna happen. Right? Like, nobody's kinda coming to save you. You have to figure out, like, what do I need and how can I achieve it? Like, what do I need to do specifically to do that? Entrepreneurship definitely isn't for everybody.

Corey Wilks [00:06:23]:

Right? There is a lot of stress, a lot of uncertainty. Nothing is guaranteed. Right? Like, if you have a regular job, as long as you do the bare minimum to not get fired, you're solid. Like, that that's that's the bar of do enough to not get fired. Right? I was an awful employee. Ironically, the one time I was a model employee was the time I got fired. So I like to tell people all the time, like, I was an awful employee. And every time I was, I'd actually didn't get fired.

Corey Wilks [00:06:49]:

But hitting that low bar is all you really have to do as an employee. When you're off work, when you clock out, you don't think about your your job anymore. As an entrepreneur, you're not like, effort doesn't guarantee outcome. Right? Like, you can work super hard as an entrepreneur and it just not work out. Not even in, like I mean, the startup space is is a perfect example of that. But even if you're doing, like, bootstrap solopreneur route or something, you can work like, nobody cares how hard you work. They care about, like, what is the actual end result for them as the customer or the client. Right? I think that's a really big thing.

Corey Wilks [00:07:26]:

But that's twofold because when I was an employee and I saw something that really wasn't working, I did not have the agency, the power, the freedom to change that because it was a legacy institution. They're like, this is how we've done it. It doesn't matter if it works or not. This is how we've done it. And you do not have the authority to make any changes. As an entrepreneur, largely, yes, there's a lot of uncertainty in in business. But with that uncertainty also comes a supreme degree of flexibility and freedom as well. So it it isn't for everybody, but for the people it is for, it is definitely for those types of people.

Bryan McAnulty [00:08:06]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. I'm curious. So I I wonder if it's helpful or not to, like, have these moments of adversity that you face. Like, for yourself, it was getting laid off and then having to figure something out. For me, I I kind of had more of the the feeling ahead of time that, like, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. This is the route that I wanted to take, but still I think that I came to that because of of fear and everything and a worry in myself of wondering what am I gonna do? What am I gonna be when I grow up? And other people weren't worried about that, and I thought, like, you guys are crazy, and, like, I got I gotta figure this out.

Bryan McAnulty [00:08:43]:

And so my concern to figure that out led me to thinking, okay. I wanna I wanna be an entrepreneur. I wanna do this and create my own business. So I don't know. What what do you think about that? Did you think that that the adversity you faced there actually helped you do that? Do you think you would have ended up here if you had not been laid off and just continued doing what you were doing?

Corey Wilks [00:09:06]:

So, fundamentally, I believe entrepreneurship is about identifying a problem and providing a solution. That's that's entrepreneur entrepreneurship in a nutshell to me. K? It it doesn't matter what the industry is, what the niche is, what whatever. It's just you find a problem, you offer a solution. I think most of us as human beings are entrepreneurially inclined, but a lot of the things that prevent us from diving into entrepreneurship as as most of us understand, like starting your own business, for example, revolves a lot around fear and limiting beliefs and the uncertainty of, like, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it. Or you kinda other yourself. You're like, well, that's for other people.

Corey Wilks [00:09:51]:

That's for, like, people who have MBAs or they went to Ivy League Schools or they're from wealthy families and and, you know, business moguls and something. It's really easy to see it as I am not capable or my supreme gap in knowledge is the thing preventing me from doing it. But I know too many entrepreneurs who do not have business degrees, who surprisingly don't know much at all about business, like like, traditionally, formally, yet they still are super successful.

Bryan McAnulty [00:10:25]:

Raising my head here. Yeah.

Corey Wilks [00:10:26]:

So my thing was so, like, I'll I'll I'm I am a psychologist. I'm a doctoral level psychologist. When I was working my own therapy job, I was what's called a behavioral health provider, and I was specializing in addiction treatment, working in integrated primary care. All that means is I was at the top of of my career as far as the only 2 people who got paid more than me were my 2 bosses. And the only reason I didn't get paid more was because they sucked negotiating. But I got paid more than almost everybody else, and the majority of my, like, my classmates and things who who graduated. So psychologists are still, like, underpaid relative like software engineers, but I was definitely decently above the median. That paycheck was really comfortable, and I dabbled, like, with writing on medium because that was when medium was much more viable.

Corey Wilks [00:11:22]:

And I I I played I played business. I read the business books. I I business planned. Mhmm. But I would have continued to want to do something, but not actually taking action probably for several several years because of all the uncertainty of business. Right? If, like, you don't know some months, you might make no money. Other months, you may make a lot of money. Right? Like, it it it isn't you don't get a salary necessarily.

Corey Wilks [00:11:47]:

Right? Unless you, like, salary yourself, which is a separate business structure. That regular paycheck, regardless of how good I was at my job, that also allowed me to just, like, fully mentally check out at the end of the day and then go dabble and do whatever. That was really intoxicating. Right? Very seductive of I can just keep writing this out and and dreaming, daydreaming about one day. Getting fired, it sucked in the moment. I definitely felt betrayed by everybody. But it was one of the best things that happened to me in hindsight because it gave me that, like, push out of the nest of, like, fly fly or die, like, figure it out. So it it was the push that I I believe I needed because it forced me to not overthink it anymore.

Corey Wilks [00:12:33]:

I couldn't do these elaborate business plans or or daydream and think about this and think and endlessly read all these business books. I had to figure shit out to make money fast. So, yeah, it was it was super helpful for me. I don't recommend it, but it was super helpful for me.

Bryan McAnulty [00:12:51]:

Yeah. Alright. Yeah. And on the topic of the the limiting beliefs, I think there's so many limiting beliefs that even entrepreneurs who are relatively successful get themselves bought into where they don't realize that this thing is really a limiting belief. It's not a fact, but they they assume that it is a fact, and it holds them back. You feel there's anything that's, like, the most common limiting belief that you experience among creators?

Corey Wilks [00:13:20]:

Yeah. So it's funny. I actually were talking about, like, offers and marketing things. I just finished my latest offer, which is like a group coaching program on learning beliefs. So, like, I just published it, like, 5 minutes before this call. So for me, what I have consistently seen, the 4 most common limiting beliefs that I've seen are are what I call the 4 horsemen of fear. And these are fear of failure, right, which everybody's super familiar with. Right? Like, what if I'm not good enough? What if I'm not smart enough? What if this doesn't work? Heights? And usually fear of failure kinda prevents you from even starting.

Corey Wilks [00:13:55]:

Because you're like, well, if it isn't gonna work out, why would I even try? Right? Then there's fear of ridicule, which is super common, especially early on where you're like, well, what will my friends and family think? I I hear this all the time from, like, aspiring or newer creators who are like, I really wanna start a YouTube channel or a podcast. Really wanna publish articles, but what will other people think? What will my my coworkers think if they find this out? Right? But even sometimes established creators are like, well, I really I made a name for myself in this niche over here talking about these topics. But now I really wanna incorporate this other thing into my content that has really benefited my life, but I'm afraid of how my audience might respond. Or I know if I make a video about this, it'll get high engagement. The algorithm will love it. But if I make a video about this, it's probably gonna piss off the algorithm. So then they're letting that dictate what they do. And this fear of ridicule kinda keeps us small.

Corey Wilks [00:14:52]:

It it prevents us from really expanding into who who we we are and who we're trying to be Bryan the work we're trying to do. The third one, which, again, I I see a lot in newer creators and entrepreneurs, is fear of uncertainty. And this is probably the biggest one, like, to answer your question. Like, if I had to say one that was the biggest one, it's probably gonna be fear of uncertainty. And that's where you're basically like, I'm so afraid of making the wrong decision, I end up making no decision. This is when paralysis analysis comes in. Right? Or or analysis paralysis. Where it's like, well, let me watch more YouTube videos on this thing.

Corey Wilks [00:15:23]:

Should I use this platform or that platform? This sir this email service provider or that one? This or that. Like, which camera do I get? Which microphone do And you you spend days or weeks trying to find the quote unquote perfect thing when you've actually just wasted weeks out of your time when you could have just picked the thing that was just viable at that point and then kinda work from there. Right? And the 4th one is fear of success. And this one seems weird because you're like, why would I be afraid to achieve the thing I claim to want? But for a lot of people, either they believe success is going to change them for the negative. It means and however you define success. So maybe it means, well, if if I succeed, maybe I lose my ambition. Or maybe that means I've peaked in life. Or what if you know, one thing I've heard is, I've been the underdog my entire life.

Corey Wilks [00:16:12]:

If I succeed, I might have too much, like, niche fame and authority. And I feel like I'm afraid that that might corrupt me because of that influence that I would have. People would hang on my every word. But then other people deeply believe fundamentally that they are unworthy of success. So these things tend to self sabotage us into not trying or staying small or giving up right when we're on the edge of victory. These are the things I see most commonly, especially in the creator and entrepreneurial spaces. Yeah. Because, like, most people think that it is a lack of money, intelligence, or resources that is preventing them from success.

Corey Wilks [00:16:53]:

Most like, you've got enough money, most likely. Like, you you can white knuckle it, but you probably got enough money. You're more than smart enough. You have resources. Those aren't the things that are the make or break. It is typically the limiting beliefs that you have that are the true thing keeping you from achieving whatever you're trying to achieve.

Bryan McAnulty [00:17:13]:

Yeah. That's that's such a excellent way to put it because now more than ever, that's really the case. It's not like any business you wanna start today requires this enormous startup capital. You have to have buildings. You have to have manufacturing. Like, you can just sit in front of your computer, and you can type. You can film yourself, whatever, and, whatever feels most natural to you, and and there's something that you can do to make money from that. And so, yeah, that's an excellent point.

Bryan McAnulty [00:17:39]:

The, the uncertainty point, I'm really interested in that. One of the things I think is really interesting about AI is a way that people maybe don't think of it as naturally is I think a lot of, like, the time that it takes any person, any creator to achieve a certain thing is not actually the work that you're doing, but it's the decisions that you have to make in the middle of those things. And the gaps that happen from, like, this decision you're stuck on for weeks, months, years. And so I think AI is actually a great tool to help you kinda talk with it and get to those decisions earlier. I made for myself a decision analysis GPT. I put it in the GPT store, and I give it the, like, the one path, the other path, and then it asks me for some different background details, and it gives me this whole report pros and cons and and different ways of analysis and then Heights recommendation based on that. And I think that's really an excellent way to use AI, but also to realize that, like, what AI can even do for you as a creator. Because if you if you can create a task and have the AI help you with it, it doesn't have to sit there forever and make decisions.

Bryan McAnulty [00:18:51]:

Forget about having sleep. Forget about how fast it works or not. It doesn't have to make those decisions. So if you look at, like, a big company, that's why they they have meetings all day. Everybody's sitting in meetings. All they're doing is trying to to make a decision and align everybody to get to that next step. But as a creator, especially, I think as an individual creator, if you can find a way to remove that uncertainty and then get yourself to making a decision to make progress faster, it can make all the difference.

Corey Wilks [00:19:21]:

Agreed. And, like so I'll use myself as an example. So like I said, I I just posted, like, a a a group coaching offer that I'm I'm gonna play around with. I I because I'm not I'm not immune to any of this stuff. Right? Like, none of us are. Right? I struggled, if I'm being honest, probably for months, but whatever, about the decision of should I build a membership community versus doing a more like because I've done cohort based courses before, and those are fun. But do I want to go to the membership model or just offer group coaching? Right? Because, like, a cohort based course has a very specific curriculum typically versus group coaching is much more free form. You have topics, but it's much more free form.

Corey Wilks [00:20:05]:

Right? And I spent way too long trying to figure that out. Because what I had done, and this leads to the uncertainty thing, I had created a false dichotomy. I, in my mind, had said, I have to choose between this or that. And whatever I choose, I have to, like, fully commit to and I can never go back. When and I was like, well, I love the idea of a community, but I don't wanna be a community manager. Like, that's a full time job. And unless it was it was making, like, significant money just from that to to outsource, you know, with with a community manager, I don't wanna do that yet. And then I realized, I don't have to choose.

Corey Wilks [00:20:43]:

Like, I can do the group coaching thing for a minute. That's, you know, much more, you know, MVP type stuff. And then I can scale into a membership community if that is where demand is kind of, you know, directing. Right? And turning it from a dichotomy to a spectrum changed how I perceived it. Right? And I think it was, you know, like you're saying, like, with with I I don't I don't use AI much, but the idea of this can tell you, like, hey. Actually, it doesn't even have to be this or this. Like, there's sometimes there's a third option, or there's just a different way that you can conceptualize it, which is a huge unlock. Right? And I think that's one of the reasons we because we're so again, we're so afraid of making the wrong decision.

Corey Wilks [00:21:22]:

Should I do this or should I do that? It's like, actually, there's typically a third route that you haven't considered, and you yourself may not consider it, which is why you need an outside party Exactly. To bounce

Bryan McAnulty [00:21:35]:

that idea off of. It doesn't have to be AI. It can be Corey. It can be somebody else that you just wanna bounce the that thought off of, but, the helpful part of AI is you can do it anytime.

Corey Wilks [00:21:45]:

Mhmm.

Bryan McAnulty [00:21:45]:

And, yeah, that's that's definitely a great point. And, of course, like, I've I'm not, like, above suffering from these different things myself. When it comes to, like, what you just mentioned with the the, the cohorts and the community and the group coaching, that's one of the things that I really like about this model of knowledge businesses is that you can try all of those things. It doesn't have to be one thing, and then you're stuck in that. You can try something. You can try a different thing, and you can change it to what works best for you. And I think for most creators, like, it's not like, oh, you should do this because this is what everybody's doing or this is what makes the most money. Like, just figure out what you enjoy.

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:28]:

So maybe it's coaching, maybe it's courses, maybe it's community, and then build that and, like, try the different things and find out. Like, you're not you're not stuck with it. So that's something that's really neat.

Corey Wilks [00:22:39]:

Well, this idea of, like, basically every model works. You just have to find the one that works for you. Like, I know people who, you know, even now, like, CBC's have kind of, like, shifted a little bit. More people are going to membership models. They're self paced. But I still know people who are absolutely crushing it just with cohort based courses. I know people who never did that. They only did self paced.

Corey Wilks [00:22:59]:

I know people who only do group coaching. Right? Like, it it it it doesn't matter which one. They're all equally viable in one scenario or another. It's really about what do I want to do? What does my audience need that I am willing and positioned to offer to them?

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:20]:

Yeah. Yeah. It's a great way to put I'm curious. We, I think, saw this somewhere in your writing or something that how do you personally apply the stoic concept of memento mori in your daily life? And what advice would you have for entrepreneurs looking to, kinda use that philosophy to prioritize their own goals? And maybe what what does it mean too for those not familiar with the phrase? Yeah.

Corey Wilks [00:23:46]:

Yeah. So my entire right tattoo sleeve is is dedicated to the stoic concept of memento mori. It basically means remember death or remember you will die. It isn't meant to be like depressing or morbid so much as a reminder to use your mortality as a motivator to live fully. Right? To practice deep gratitude for what you have while you have it, and to just kinda make the most of your time. So I said I got fired, you know, in 2020. My last day as an employee was December 4, 2020. That was, like, the official firing date.

Corey Wilks [00:24:19]:

In January of 2021, so, like, a month later, like, after I had, like, lost health insurance and had no paychecks or anything else, Long story short, I I do Brazilian jiu jitsu, martial art grappling kind of thing, like, sort of like wrestling. And I got a bruise. Bruises are super common. But this one was a fluke and got super super infected in a way that, like, doctors still never figured out. I let it go too long because I was like, oh, I don't have health insurance. It's probably just like a fracture, like a hairline fracture. I'll just walk it off. I'll give it a couple weeks and it'll be fine.

Corey Wilks [00:24:59]:

Martial artists are weird. So it basically got, like, my whole leg turned a color it shouldn't. I finally went to the doctor, and they're like, okay. We'll give you antibiotics. If it gets worse in 24 hours, come back. 24 hours, it had doubled. The the size had doubled of of the infected area. And they're like, oh, this is really bad.

Corey Wilks [00:25:21]:

We need to prep you for surgery. This is peak COVID. All the beds were full. They put me on a in an IV antibiotic drip, and I was on it for, like, 12 or 16 hours, unresponsive. Like, the they weren't working. They couldn't find a bed for me. They finally transferred me to to a bed for surgery for the next day. And they're like, we sent off for labs.

Corey Wilks [00:25:44]:

The issue is if this infection has gotten to your bloodstream or your bones, you could die. They're like, but the labs haven't come back yet, so we have no idea. Obviously, spoiler alert, I lived. But that night in the hospital, waiting to get prepped for surgery the next morning, I thought because, like, my girlfriend couldn't be in the room because it's COVID. Like, you could have visitors. Yeah. I remember thinking, this could be my last week alive. Like, I could straight up I could die in the middle of the night.

Corey Wilks [00:26:09]:

I could die tomorrow. Like, I I don't know what the test results are. This is a really bad infection. And I remember thinking, if this had been my last week alive, am I satisfied with how I spent my time? If I'd asked that question a month prior when I still had the job that I had, the answer would have been no. Right? But that week, I was like, well, I spent my time with loved ones writing, creating content I'm really passionate about, trying to figure out my, you know, my life as an entrepreneur. I don't wanna go out. But if I go out, I'm satisfied because I I live fully every day. And that is the question I continue to ask myself every week.

Corey Wilks [00:26:45]:

Because as soon as you ask yourself that question, like, if this has been my last week alive, am I satisfied with how I spent my time? You can immediately pinpoint all the bullshit that you were like, no. I I wouldn't. Like, I'm not I would not be satisfied. Heights? I I let what other people think and say dictate what I did. I did stuff out of obligation. I, you know, wasn't true to myself. Whatever that was. Right? You can immediately pinpoint all that.

Corey Wilks [00:27:06]:

That's great. Now you have an idea for the next week, the things that you need to that you can prioritize removing and the things you can prioritize doubling down on. Right? So that's been super helpful for me just as an entrepreneur because anytime an opportunity or an idea comes my way, I'm like, is that worth my time? Is that worth the units of my life it's gonna take to really do that well? Right? Because time is our most precious resource. The question I ask myself for my content is, is this piece of content worth the the units of my audience's life? It is going to require them to consume it. Is this article worth the 5 minutes of your life that it'll take you to read it? Is this video worth the 13 minutes of your life it'll take you to watch it? Or 7 and a half on, you know, or 6 and a half on 2 x speed or whatever. Right? That is a question that really, really helps me make sure that the quality bar of my writing, my content is as high as it can be, and that I'm putting things out that I deeply believe will be truly valuable to the people I'm most directly trying to serve. So that's sort of how a lot of my life and business really revolve around that concept of memento mori. That's a great question.

Bryan McAnulty [00:28:21]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was a great answer. So, I think the, it's something that, like, as an entrepreneur, like, I I tend to think this way as well, but it's still helpful to, like, revisit that and continue to ask yourself this because, like, things creep in as an entrepreneur and, like, different, like, processes change, priorities change, relationships with different things, different customers. And before you know it, like, there's different things that are coming up, and it's like, well, am I why am I doing this? Do I, like, do I really enjoy doing this part? And so for me, at least, it's been helpful to continuously ask myself that and and think about that once in a while to make sure that I'm really focused on doing the things that I enjoy.

Corey Wilks [00:29:06]:

I think a lot of entrepreneurs gravitate toward aspects of stoicism just because it's super practical. It's very much like, what is within your control? What is outside of your control? How can you focus on the processes rather than the outcomes? Because you control the process. You don't control the outcome. Again, like, you can work as hard as as you possibly can and it not actually have any real result.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:28]:

Yeah. Yeah. And I've said it before on this show actually that, one of my favorite things that I've ever seen, I think, from Tim Ferriss's writing, was this blog post on the art of letting bad things happen. Because as an entrepreneur, you really have to become comfortable with things going wrong. And if you can't become comfortable with that, it becomes really hard to grow because the more things that are gonna go right, if that's going to happen, there's gonna have to be more things that also go wrong along with that. And so you need to, yeah, become comfortable with things that you can't control, become comfortable with knowing that there will be problems, there will be things that go wrong, and just figure out how you're going to deal with them if that happens.

Corey Wilks [00:30:14]:

That and, like, I think, Tom Bilyeu and Mark Manson both have versions of this this this concept of basically, you know, choose your struggle. Or Mark Manson says, what's your favorite flavor of shit sandwich? And it's basically like, and I think Tom Tom Beugy says, the the struggle is guaranteed, success is not. So it's really about, like, what problems do you want to sign up for? Right? Like, I personally would rather have the problem of financial, for lack of a better term, insecurity, rather, the the nonguaranteed income, because it comes it also comes with supreme flexibility and time freedom. Right? For example. And and that's up to each of us to answer individually of, like, what kind of problems do you want? Right? Because, like, me today, like, the problems are, like, I complain it, but I don't complain. But, like, the problems, like, I struggle with, I'm like, yeah. But damn, Corey from 4 or 5 years ago would love to be struggling with this compared to what he was struggling with at the time. Right? Like, he would willingly sign up for these problems in exchange for the problems he's he's dealing with years years ago.

Corey Wilks [00:31:23]:

So I think that's a really powerful reframe too of, like, you're gonna have problems. Like, that's just that's a fact. What problems do you want to have? What problems are worth having and struggling with?

Bryan McAnulty [00:31:35]:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can almost embrace it that way and say, like, I have this big problem right now because I was able to get myself to this point, which is what I was after the whole time. So

Corey Wilks [00:31:46]:

Exactly.

Bryan McAnulty [00:31:46]:

Yeah. I like that. On your website, we saw that you mentioned you worked with communities like David Perel's rite of passage and Jay Clouse's creator science lab. Can you share what kind of work you do with those communities and, like, what are the biggest issues that you help solve in that kind of environment?

Corey Wilks [00:32:03]:

Yeah. So I I mostly, at this point, specialize in, like, creator economy type stuff. I work with, like, VC backed founders and and and other types of of entrepreneurs and things, but I really, really like working with creators. So with some of these, I've done a lot of it does revolve around, like, overcoming limiting beliefs and things. Because, again, those are the biggest, like, I even, like, Pat Flynn and I, we talked because I was on his podcast. Like, we we were talking about how, like, you can you can talk about the marketing. You can talk about funnels and conversions, and all that stuff is very important. But if you don't really dial in, like, the the mental side, the mindset side of it, all of that other stuff is gonna be significantly harder.

Corey Wilks [00:32:43]:

Right? Because, like, we all know the things we need to do. Right? We we know I need to have this offer. I need to make sure the top of funnel, I need to do this, I need that. Typically, the thing that is truly stopping us is just us and our perception of what is going on or what needs to happen or what we deserve or what we're capable of or or whatever. Right? Obviously, I'm a psychologist, so I'm biased toward the the psychology side of things. But that is what I consistently see. So, like, with Jay's, like, with the lab, for example, I led a workshop on specifically overcoming limiting beliefs, overcoming these 4 horsemen of fear. Right? And it's always really and and and I did, sort of, like, groups for rite of passage, and a lot of them revolved around limiting beliefs as well.

Corey Wilks [00:33:28]:

But it's always really fun to see, like, you know, if we read a passage, some of the people may be, like, newer in their creator journey. Whereas Jay's, a lot of them are more like professional creators. So it's like, you know, the newbies, they struggle with fear of ridicule. Whereas the the more seasoned creators are like, I don't really care about ridicule necessarily. I'm I'm more struggling with fear of success or or fear of this or over here. Right? But then when I I sometimes, I work with even higher level creators who are, like, actually, it's kinda coming it's coming back around to fear of ridicule because I really wanna do this, but I'm afraid my audience won't like it. Right? Or it's it's success. I've achieved all of these other successes, but I'm really afraid of of doing the thing that most truly resonates with me because I feel like I'm supposed to do x, y, or z.

Corey Wilks [00:34:18]:

So it's they they cycle, and it it it's that's why it's so much fun for, like and I talk about them so much because they're so prevalent and they cycle, and they come up in so many different ways for so many different types of of entrepreneurs and creators.

Bryan McAnulty [00:34:31]:

Yeah. I mean, I was thinking about it as you were going through the the 4, earlier. And like for myself, I don't think I've really had an issue with fear of success as far as like caring what people think of me. Like, I I'm willing to just do what I want and feel comfortable with that, which I think is a great thing. But I have experienced it in the way that you're talking about of, like, worrying about the audience and worrying about, like, well, this is where I'm at now. If I do this thing and it's just a a big failure and I do another thing and it's a big failure, like, then what are people gonna think of of not even just me, but, like, our our brand and what we're doing? Are they gonna aren't they gonna lose trust in that or something like that? And so, yeah, it it comes up in different ways. So I think that's that's really interesting for you to mention.

Corey Wilks [00:35:15]:

Well, it's your it's your reputation. Right? Like, if you just substitute Bryan for reputation, it's the same thing. Right? God, I could be damaging our reputation. The the the biggest thing with the the limiting beliefs, the the 4 horsemen of fear that I see, a lot of people, when they hear them, like, oh, I totally struggle with this. But before that, they they don't even realize that limiting beliefs are their problem. They think self sabotaging behaviors are because the behaviors are observable. Right? So people know they struggle with impostor syndrome, perfectionism, shiny object syndrome, procrastination. Like, they know that they struggle with these things.

Corey Wilks [00:35:48]:

But most of the time, these are actually rooted in fear, which is why you can read all the productivity advice and follow all the productivity gurus you want. And and you know all the productivity mental models. You know, Eisenhower matrix, 80 20, all time blocking, Pomodoro, all this other shit. Right? But for some reason, it isn't working. They're all super powerful and they work. But if fundamentally, the reason you engage in perfectionism is because you're afraid of ridicule and your perfectionism allows you to say, until this is perfect, until this is beyond reproach, I'm not gonna hit publish. Because I it isn't that this has to be perfect. It's it has to be immune from ridicule.

Corey Wilks [00:36:29]:

If that is your struggle, no amount of productivity advice is ever gonna help you. You have to understand and overcome the actual limiting belief that is the root cause and not just the symptom, which is what most productivity advice deals with.

Bryan McAnulty [00:36:41]:

Yeah. Definitely. Alright. Well, that was excellent. I've got another question for you, and that is, on the show, I'd like to have every guest ask a question to the audience. So if you could ask our audience anything, anything you're curious about or something you wanna kinda get people thinking about, what would that be?

Corey Wilks [00:36:58]:

I mean, just kinda sticking with the theme, like, what could you accomplish if fear wasn't standing in your way? Like, if you didn't have the limiting beliefs you currently have, what could you actually accomplish in life and business?

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:13]:

Yeah. That's excellent. Alright, Corey. Well, thanks so much. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

Corey Wilks [00:37:19]:

Corey Wilks Psy d. My doctorate is a Psy d doctor of clinical psychology. So coreywilkspsyd. Corey Wilks Psy d. My website, Twitter, LinkedIn. I'm Corey Wilks Psy d everywhere.

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:33]:

Alright. Awesome. Thanks, Corey.

Corey Wilks [00:37:34]:

Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:36]:

I'd like to take a moment to invite you to join our free community of over 5,000 creators at at creatorclimb.com. If you enjoyed this episode and wanna hear more, check out the Heights Platform YouTube channel every Tuesday at 9 AM US Central. To get notified when new episodes release, join our newsletter at thecreatorsadventure.com. Until then, keep learning, and I'll see you in the next episode.