THURSDAY THOUGHTS - Take a Chance on Yourself

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Let's take a moment to connect the dots.

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Every Thursday in under 10 minutes, I'm going to share with you real

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life, everyday situations to help you as an entrepreneur, a leader,

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an innovator, or just a person who's venturing out to try something new.

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These stories will help you make sense of situations you may find yourself in

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and also provide encouragement to keep you moving forward in your journey.

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Someone recently asked me what did I do, and what did TPM Focus do, my company.

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I said, well, I do innovation consulting.

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I help innovators launch new products and earn revenue while finding

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product market fit, so the person responded with "what's an innovator?"

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That was so funny to me because if anything, I expected them to ask

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me "what's product market fit?"

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So listen, here's my answer to that.

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Anyone can be an innovator, literally anyone.

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So if you're a person who likes to invent or create new things to

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change the way something in the world currently works, you're an innovator.

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Sure, many people will think of someone with a background like

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me in engineering or technology and science or even medicine.

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They'll usually think of us as innovators, but I've been in this work

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so long and have worked with hundreds of innovators at this point and can

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say without a doubt that none of those things are qualifiers to be an innovator.

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None of it.

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The degrees, the background, that does not make you an innovator.

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In fact, some of the most innovative clients I've had, had

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no STEM experience whatsoever.

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None at all.

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It did not matter, what they knew was how to be creative and how to solve a problem.

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As you guys know, who listen to my Thursday Thoughts, you know

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sometimes I throw in a story about something that's really happened

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in my life or with my kids.

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In this particular case, I want to share a story about what happened with my son.

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The reason I'm bringing this up is because there's a lot of

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apprehension out there from people who could be doing great things and

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providing great value to the world.

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But they're afraid of what people might think, because they don't

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have those accolades or that background, or any type of experience

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in what they're proposing to do.

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I don't see things that way.

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So, I'm sharing this story about my son who actually got selected, now

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I can share this, he got selected when he was 10 to be on Master

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Chef Junior on TV, which is crazy.

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I was just as surprised as you guys are, because he never really

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expressed an interest in being a cook or anything like that.

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So when he saw that they were holding auditions for kids here in Atlanta,

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he asked if I would take them.

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I said "yeah, sure!", so we went, he did his charismatic tricks with his Chinese

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yo-yo and he cooked and he did different things and they really liked him.

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Both him and my daughter, eventually they called us at the end of

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that day and said they've been selected to go to the next round.

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I'm like, "okay", so we went through that whole process.

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Needless to say he was a finalist to be selected for season 8 of Master

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Chef Junior, and this was in 2019.

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What ended up happening was, the show was renewed and then it was canceled.

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They didn't end up following through with that season, but every time

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we think back about that, we're just like, "wow, that was crazy."

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We had to do all types of things like secretly, including signing

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a document saying, we couldn't share the process or what was

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happening with anyone in the world.

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So it's fun to be able to tell this story now.

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Crazy enough during the pandemic in 2021, we got an email from top Chef Junior so

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we're like, "okay, this is a different show he's a little older now, what

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is it that they could possibly want?"

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I opened the email and they said, "Hey, we're doing auditions for Top Chef Junior.

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it's a new season that we're doing and we'd like for you to audition for it."

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So I'm thinking, "how's that going to work" because we're

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in a pandemic and all of that.

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I brought it up to my son because with Master Chef Junior it was a

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little devastating to go through all of those things, we did a lot

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of work guys, for it to be canceled and then not to go anywhere.

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So I asked him, "do you want to go through this process again?"

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He said "Why not?

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We'll just see what happens."

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Needless to say, this kid made it all the way to Hollywood, literally.

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We went through the process of basically auditioning in our homes.

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They had cameras, we use Zoom ,and they had the producers

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watching him while he cooked.

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We had to record him cooking a full meal from start to finish.

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At this point he's a great cook now because after the process of learning a

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lot of new things for Master Chef Junior.

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I mean, he makes his own meals and thank goodness because he's a growing boy now.

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So he eats a lot and he makes his own meals.

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He knows even more than he knew then.

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So they saw just how smooth he was with the dishes and the utensils

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and said "Wow, this kid is great!

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We'd like for him to have a partner who would be the partner?"

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My husband, he's basically the one that taught them to cook in that way.

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So they partner up, I bought them matching t-shirts and all of this stuff.

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Now, mind you, neither one of them are cooks per se.

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They just do it for fun.

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It's normally just cooking dinner and trying different

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meals and stuff for our family.

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This literally got them all the way to Hollywood.

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They ended up making it all the way through all the rounds and

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all the obstacles and challenges and so on that they had us do.

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I think they said they had about 900 people audition and it was down to 10.

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Through that entire process, and these two fellows here in my house were selected

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to go to LA to film the pilot during the pandemic and I really have to give my hat

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off to the professionalism and everything that they did to protect the participants.

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Not only that they actually paid them.

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Which was again incredible because they are not cooks and they just, they ended

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up fitting right in with all of these other families of teamed up partners.

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So they ended up going out to LA and they filmed a pilot.

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They had to learn how to speak on camera for a TV show, which is way

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different than any of us thinks.

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They were there for like a week, and at the end of it, they were

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narrowing it down to even less people.

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They got eliminated at that round, but still, it was like,

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"you guys made it that far?!"

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If you knew all of the stuff we had to go through.

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Including signing contracts and already putting them in the contract

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for the TV show before they left.

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It was a lot of work, but we don't regret it.

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It was an experience of a lifetime.

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They paid for everything.

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They put them up in a secret location.

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They got to go to a set and cook and all of those kinds of cool things.

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All for two people who are not professionals at what they do.

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Well, most people would consider not professionals.

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They're not trained.

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They haven't been to culinary school.

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They don't hold the knife right when they cut.

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Whatever that is at the set, the people there actually show them, this is how

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we want you to curve your fingers when you're chopping, this is how you do this.

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And it's like, "alright cool, got it."

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You see what I'm saying?

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Take that shot.

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Bet on yourself.

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Send that email to that person.

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Respond to that DM from someone that's asking you for something

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or asking you a question.

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It might be opportunity like this.

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Tweet that person that you were afraid to tweet, and not really sure if you

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can get them to respond like now is the time to take the limitations off

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yourself and say, "Okay, I may not have those titles or that experience,

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but I can be on Top Chef Junior if I want to be and I'm not even a cook."

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I'm hoping that this story kind of brings together how sometimes you really just

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have to bet on yourself and take a chance.

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You'll be really surprised at what you'll experience in life and how much

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more interesting the journey will be.

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