Chapter 14. ENTHUSIASM IS CONTAGIOUS

I bring enthusiasm on purpose. It's for fluency.

When I'm in conversations, I f*ck with my own emotional state. I bring enthusiasm on purpose. It's for fluency. Enthusiasm is contagious. You can be enthusiastic on a call, and I think it helps with our speech, because being enthusiastic helps with confidence.

Enthusiasm was a big thing to help me start to play with some confidence, because I found that when I was enthusiastic, and it was real, that I was naturally like 5 percent more confident. It was not like super confident, but like I was a little bit more. It wasn't with drinking. There's no drinks. It was just like being enthusiastic. So I really played with that, and I think there's something there. To this day I crank up my enthusiasm. So enthusiasm is not shouting. It's not like to yell.

Say it with enthusiasm.

Craig talking to Don. Craig: So, Don, speak enthusiastically about something, about your girlfriend. Tell me what you like about her. Say it with enthusiasm. Don: Ooh, this is like some theater. She is very mature for her age. Craig: I can't hear the enthusiasm, sir. Don: My girlfriend is very mature for her age. She is very, very kind to others, very sweet, selfless young lady. Craig: How kind. How kind. I want to hear your voice. Don: Some say the kindest in the game. Wow. Some say the kindest. Craig: The way you said "the kindest" the first time, Don, was perfect. Because what I heard was a loud voice, but not an angry voice. A loud, confident voice. It's just the way he said it. I could tell that would have been a hard word for him, but he said it with enthusiasm.

The point I want to make is, if you were teaching the most boring part of your job to a new person, you could deliver the same enthusiasm as if you're talking about what you love about your girlfriend. It can be manufactured. Because what you're doing is changing your emotional state while you speak. Because what you're doing is controlled excitement.



"It's always the safe, passive bet, but it never feels good at the end of the day doing it. It's just cowering out early." Because it's not you. The quiet voice is 2 inches tall. It's feeling timid and small. I lived that life too. Enthusiasm will conquer that. It conquers it by making you feel 10 feet tall. It conquers it because it's playing with your emotional state. It conquers it because there's no way you can talk quiet while feeling enthusiastic about how great your girlfriend is. Try saying it quietly. It's impossible. It's impossible to feel 2 inches tall while feeling enthusiastic. That's the real breakthrough.

You said something that stuck with me once, which was that when you have 2 drinks, you're good. I joked once that you can't go through life, you just have to drink before a client call. That wouldn't be good. "Excuse me, boss, I need these 2 shots real quick." But enthusiasm can help deliver the same feeling.

If the place is loud enough, there's no such thing as being too loud

"The one place I still struggle with is a loud restaurant or a loud bar." So that's a real hard thing. The simple advice, but there's more to it, is you gotta be louder than where you are. For someone who stutters, or who has stuttered, who's working on their speech, this is one of the hardest things. This is super advanced, but let's talk about it.

So if you're out at a bar, what I think is most challenging is knowing that the next time you speak loud at a bar is probably the first time. So this is a new skill. For me, I had to work on this a lot. I would still get people who'd say, what? I can't hear you. Then what I realized is, which I'll shortcut, it's better to be too loud than too short.

If the place is loud enough, I've yelled and no one said, wow, that's too loud. They just talked back. But it's one of the hard things, because the tonality of speaking loudly, for people who stutter, for me, was really hard and challenging. I think it's because I had no experience talking loudly without a yell, and so I had to learn how to talk loudly. But the thing I now know is, if the place is loud enough, there's no such thing as being too loud.

So for example, when I'm out socially, I'm never going to say anything quiet. The quiet voice is 2 inches tall.