I was just finishing up a training session in Memphis when one of the participants raised his hand. Now this is the part that if ever I get famous enough to have an “Uncle Paul Aspiring Rock Star” movie, I will have them freeze the frame with the dude with his hand up in the air. I’ll come out wearing a smoking jacket and a bad hair piece and say “Destiny is a funny thing. Had this dude worked for another company  or if he decided not to raise his hand . . . my life would be very different today!” Then they would press play on the movie (or whatever the hell they call it in Hollywood) and this is what would happen.

Me: “Yes Jon”

Jon: “You’ve put us on the spot all week. Can I put you on the spot?”.

Me: (cracking my neck and pointing my gun sideways) “Bring it bitch” or “Sure” (the events are foggy).

Jon: “You’ve talked about a book you want to write. Why haven’t you written it?”

Me: (not thinking, just reacting and thank God for that) “Because I’m sca . . .re “ Time out: You need to know that at that moment, I heard some words leaving my lips that I could either go with the flow or try to recover by saying “Because I’m scarce on time” or even “Because I’m scary brilliant and the world isn’t ready yet” Instead, I chose the honest route and admitted for the first time in my career that I was scared.

The tough dude from New York admitting that he was scared. Talk about a “fat guy in a little coat”

Later that evening, alone in my hotel room, I felt a need to understand why I was scared.

I asked myself if it was a matter of not having a story to tell or enough content to offer. Got a quick “Hell no” on that one. The bottom line was that I was afraid that no one would buy it. After all, outside of the company I work for does anyone know who Paul Castain is?

My theory was confirmed with a quick trip to Google with a search on “Uncle Paul” Then I remembered “Uncle Paul is my maiden name. Try Paul Castain” Then it happened, 3 results came back. One of them was dead F’n wrong because apparently someone had a stain on their cast and it showed up in my results. Brilliant!

My thought: 25 years in business and my career can be summarized with 2 Google results! You suck Castain!

Many of you have heard me talk about this before so I’ll hold off on what I did to build my brand.

There’s another part of the story that no one knows and in the spirit of offering you a lesson at my expense, why don’t you pull up a chair.

I decided that aside from building my personal brand, I needed to work on “me”.

I wanted to know once and for all about the things that scare me, the things I avoid and most importantly . . . Why?

It came down to a few things

1)    I felt that beyond my family and the work I do for my company, I wasn’t a contributor.

2)    I felt that having risen from the dead several years earlier (having lost everything I owned and being $60k in debt) I wasn’t doing anything to respect the fragility of that.

3)    I was afraid of going to my grave with my music still in my head. Actually, I was so scared of this that it paralyzed me. I chose simply to not deal with it! Ever been there?

4)    I had someone in my life who saw a light in me (long before I saw it in myself) I wanted to pay tribute to him and thank him through my actions. Unfortunately, I never thanked him while he was alive. I was too busy pushing back!

So, I started this blog and developed it into one of the most widely read sales blogs in the world. I have a Linkedin Group that’s pushing 15,000 members, a Twitter account with over 11,000 followers and I’ve done my best to give freely of my ideas, guidance and help when requested.

That’s all good, but . . .

There comes a time when you need to get real and understand that your preparation for your “big event” is becoming your convenient distraction. Sound familiar?

While all this brand building stuff is critical, I’ve done a wonderful job of not writing my book until my good friend Sandy Hubbard reminded me that people need to hear what I have to say.

So I decided it was time to get going and head butt that bastard called “fear” and evict his evil twin “procrastination”.

And with a very simple, but determined decision, a new journey has begun!

So today is all about “getting real” and listening to that song in your heart and then

Having the balls to sing it!

And do me a favor and at least acknowledge that we might not have as much time as we think we do to get up and sing it!

I’ll be up at the Microphone if you care to join me 🙂