Failure is Feedback - episode 201
She’s in it right now. Surrender. Something she didn’t want, didn’t plan for and yet most of the pieces of her life came apart. Toni Marinucci shares her business, her finances, her flame, and her living situation all changed. One right on top of the other. What did she do? How did she get through? Toni is quick to point out yes, she is still in it but she’s looking at the failure as feedback, as a way to completely regroup and start over.
As she points out, we’re put on this earth to help people. Toni is shedding the old layers to grow new ones, better ones, to rebuild all the parts of her life. Being in the messy middle is simply temporary. She has learned it’s ok to not be ok, and by letting go of her ego she is surrendering to a new beginning. “I know the qualities of the person I want to become.” I for one know she will become that and much more. And I will be on the sidelines cheering her on.
Toni has been on the show before in We All Start as a Beginner episode 83.
Be as you are.
You don’t need to change anything.
— Toni Marinucci, advice to her 10-year old self
An Unbecoming Secret
Thoughts from Failure is Feedback
So here’s a failure of mine and it has definitely given me feedback. A few years ago when I first started this podcast journey, I was under the impression that the number of followers you had on social media was very critical, that it meant you were more credible, maybe even more important. I truly bought into that. And when a company emailed me saying they could increase my followers for a small sum, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. As much as I worked on not feeling embarrassment or shame, I will tell you I have succumbed to a bit of both when it comes to this choice of mine.
I thought it would help, it really didn’t. And, you can keep this thing going until you get higher and higher numbers. Apparently a lot of celebrities, and even influencers, utilize this strategy. Well ladies and gentlemen, I am neither. I have tremendous regret over deciding this was a good course of action. I have considered “scrubbing” my account where I slowly, methodically get rid of some of the, what I’ve come to call, “fake followers.”
When someone remarks, Wow, you’ve got a lot of followers! I have to decide, do I tell them, Well, not really. That was a consequence I had not even thought about. There can be all kinds of ramifications to choices we don’t even realize are going to have a ripple effect we can’t control.
When I think of Toni and all she learned from the changes in her life, I am inspired to be as vulnerable. Did I have to tell you? No, but maybe there is something in my confession that will be of benefit to you. Yet maybe you will think less of me. Ok, that’s a risk I am taking. I absolutely love what my friend Sim had to say to me when I shared with her this unbecoming secret. She told me, That’s ok. You did what you thought was best at the time. You can move forward now no problem. Grace. Understanding. Encouragement. Now that’s a friend who meets you where you’re at and loves you anyway. May I do the same.
It’s only a mistake if you would make it again, knowing everything you now know.
— RCN
My friend Sim who is an ongoing source of encouragement to me
