Hey ,

So yesterday was full on Daddy mode...

Half the time I was terrified...

The other half...

I listened to the calm voice inside my head saying:

You've got this!

But through it all a thought occurred to me...

#sigh

How do I say this gently....?

Alright, let’s just say it:

most experts aren’t actually experts.

There I said it.

They’re polished.

They’re practiced.

They know just enough to sound convincing...

Until you scratch the surface and realize they’re just rehashing the same recycled insights everyone else is spitting out.

And you know what?

That’s fine.

That works... for a while.

But at some point, the market catches up.

And when that moment arrives...

When the noise gets louder...

When the competition gets sharper...

That thin layer of “yeye expert status” cracks.

Because let’s be honest...

If you’re not irreplaceable, you’re just another name in the shuffle.

And if you’re just another name…

Well...

Good luck staying relevant. #evillaugh

I've been a father for 30+ years now...

But you know what I realized yesterday?

Time means nothing by itself when it comes to mastery.

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years”

So what?

Was it actually fifteen years of learning and evolving...

Or was it just one year of learning, repeated fifteen times?

Because there’s a massive difference.

True mastery isn’t about time served. It’s about depth.

And depth...

The kind that makes people seek you out...

Pay you good money...

And trust your voice over the rest...

That comes from something most don’t have the stomach for:

obsession.

I’m talking about the type of obsession where you can’t stop thinking about your craft...

Where you wake up at 3 AM with a new idea...

Where you throw out your best work because it suddenly seems basic compared to what you just discovered.

But most people?

They plateau.

They hit “good enough”...

Get comfortable...

And start decorating their mediocrity with fancy branding and LinkedIn

thoughtleader posts.

And that’s why they never get paid what they could.

Yesterday amidst all my fears...

I'm glad I'm not a father in theory....

But in actual deliberate practice.

I'm not what you'd call a guru by my standards but I'm pretty sure I'd leave a lot of men in the dust with my Daddy prowess...

And for that I'm grateful.

Mastery isn’t some passive process.

You don’t “work hard” and magically arrive at greatness.

It’s a battle...

And most lose before they even get to phase two.

Here's how it works.

We all start by playing the imitation game.

You mimic the best, absorb their methods, and convince yourself you’re growing.

And hey...

You are—for now.

But then something happens.

You realize you sound exactly like every other person in your industry.

You’re a clone.

A copy of a copy of a copy.

And that’s when you either wake up or fade out.

I started out modeling my Father....

After a while that just didn't cut it...

That led me to phase 3: The Friction Phase.

This is where you feel like a fraud by you sha keep going anyway.

#evillaugh

This is where the collapse happens.

Everything you once believed about your industry, your expertise, your very identity starts breaking down.

You question everything.

What worked before stops working.

Advice contradicts itself.

And here’s the kicker: this is the phase where most people give up.

Because it sucks.

You feel like an imposter.

Like maybe you were never that good to begin with.

And instead of pushing through...

You retreat back to safe...

Back to what’s worked before.

But the ones who fight through?

They break the system and start creating their own.

This was me when my second daughter arrived...

What the heck was I to do with two girls....

I could barely handle one!!!!

Ok....

Err....

To be continued tomorrow...

It's about 8am and I've gotta send this.

Talk tomorrow...

Till then...

Get out of your own way.

CTM