Welcome everyone to the Get Overit podcast. I will be your host and guide as we get started on this journey together. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to do a show like this. So on this intro episode, we’re going to start with a little bit about myself, then we’ll talk a little bit about the show. You know, we’ll do the business, where you’re going to find the show, how often are the new episodes going to come out, et cetera.

So let’s start with who I am. All right, my name is Christopher Fasano, I am 40 years old, I have a PhD in neuroscience. Why the heck did I do that? The reason why I did that is because our brains control everything that we do, not just physically, but often in my opinion, more importantly, mentally. The amazing thing about being human compared to all the other animals and mammals is that we have evolved this tremendous ability to have higher level brain function. In particular, we have this ability to reason. We think about things, we weigh options, and then we have to choose. Other animals, they don’t have this higher level function. Think about it. I always like to use this example of lions in the jungle. Lions share a lot of the most primal desires we humans have. Survival, which can be food and shelter at their most basic elements, and reproduction. That boils it down.

If you can actually survive and do a better job of surviving, you can live long enough to reproduce, and your actual ability to survive makes you a more attractive person to reproduce with. Now, while this might look very similar and very, you know, identical on its face, same primal instincts. We approach those things much differently. When lions get hungry, they eat. Well, before they eat, they have to hunt. They get hungry, they hunt, then they kill, they eat. We take a different approach to the same sort of primal instincts. We get hungry, what’s the first thing we do? Well, we start thinking about what we’re in the mood to eat. What do I want to have tonight? Do I want to cook something? What do I have in the cabinet? What do I have in the refrigerator? Do I order in? We go through a whole bunch of these things and then we choose.

Often, sometimes as humans, we create too many things to choose from, and that can lead us down the road of mental health problems of anxiety, et cetera. But we choose. And whenever there is a choice, whenever we’re faced with choosing something, there’s always something to be disappointed with, because a choice inherently makes you choose one thing over the other. So this constant state of choice is really what makes us human and gives us tremendous power. But it gives us tremendous power in a good way, but it could also lead to a lot of negative and bad things as well. This is the reason why I got a PhD in neuroscience. I wanted to understand how the brain perceives choice better. And through this sort of winding career with a lot of left turns, a lot of right turns, definitely not a straight line, most journeys in life are not. I find myself using this knowledge to influence customer choice in the world of marketing.

After all, that’s really what marketing’s about. A business has a product, they want people to buy, amongst a sea of other companies that have very similar products, and we want to convince all of those customers out there ours is the product to buy. And that is where I have taken that knowledge, or the knowledge I’ve learned in my studies and understanding the brain, put it into marketing, give it a little bit of a twist, and it has really helped me in particular, in the area of understanding the customer journey, understanding the persona, which is really, really important in the world of marketing when you’re trying to speak to someone with the right message at the right time.

Now, again, the journey to where I am now has been a very roundabout journey. I lost a lot, I failed at some things, I gained at some things, I wanted some things. You know, I struggle as a person with anxiety, I struggle with staying in the present moment. I’ve always used this analogy that life is this perpetual rainstorm with a flimsy umbrella. We all have those umbrellas, right? And sometimes the rain, it’s coming down, it’s harder than other times. Sometimes it’s a little bit windy, it’s blowing your umbrella, it’s sort of flipping it inside out. Sometimes that little cheap umbrella, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but there is no doubt you can always count on in life, you are going to get wet. And just when you think, when you feel like you’re getting completely soaked and completely drenched and there’s nowhere else to go, the sun comes out. Just for a brief moment it comes out and you feel that warmth on your body and it feels so amazing.

And it’s in that light, it’s in that sort of warmth that you get a renewed sense of spirit and you try to keep on going. I get stuck in the rain frequently and it sucks. But what I’ve learned in my life is that this rainstorm, all of that rain, you can’t let the rain win. You really can’t. Now, whether it’s in your own personal life or whether it’s something in business, you got to come to the realization that life is what it is, and the only way for us to keep going, to keep making progress, to get to that next level, is by getting over it. But how do you get over it? It’s not that easy. Well, here are some of the things that I’ve done or that I continue to work on that helps me continue to progress.

One, I learned to observe, not just other people and other things, but myself. The first step in making any advancement is to look inward into yourself, into your business and accept all of the bad things with all of the good things. It’s easy to find the things you are good at and things you like about yourself. You’re much less likely to really look at and say, wow, I’m really bad at that. Or, I’m not good, I need to work on that. Or, my business needs this, my business needs that. Once you can see yourself or your business for what it actually is, who you actually are, what your business actually is, it’s then the only shot we have to begin getting over it and making progress. You cannot make progress until you’re able to observe where you need to progress. That was one.

Two, I learned to listen. When you’re stuck in that rainstorm and others have figured out a better way to keep themselves dry, listen to them. You should listen to them. You shouldn’t be like, nah, they don’t know what they’re talking about. No. There are other people that are smarter than you out there, and if they figured something out, make sure you listen. Even if it’s someone or something you normally wouldn’t listen to, remember in the end, the goal is to be dry. And sometimes advice and knowledge will be found in the places that you rarely think to look, so make sure you’re constantly listening and welcoming other ideas.

Number three, I’ve learned to keep going. My failures have instilled in me, the drive I have now really to keep on going. Maybe it’s not some sort of super thing, maybe it’s purely out of fear. Maybe it’s a fear that you’re going to lose again, or you’re going to fail again. And maybe that’s what drives me or others to just keep on going. But, but whatever it is, in that loss, I’ve learned you got to keep going. Why? Because, again, the rain will stop. Back to the rain and the rainstorm. That rain will stop. It will. And the sun is there. The question is really like, would you have what it takes to get through that storm so you can experience that sun? Are you going to do what it takes to say, man, I know this is temporary, I know it. But I just got to keep going and get there. Just put your head down and go. So, observe, listen, and just keep going.

And that brings us back to this podcast, this show, the platform where all of us sort of work on the craft of fixing up our umbrellas, looking for that sunlight as we collectively get over it, how are we going to do that. We’re going to be talking with others from all walks of life, throughout their personal stories, their business-related stories, how they failed, how they succeeded and then ultimately how they got over it. So every episode we’ll bring somebody on, and we’re going to talk them through their journey. We’re going to talk about where they are, and we’re going to talk about all of their wins and all of the great things they’ve done, but really we’re going to focus on the journey, the process to get there. And I want to really focus on where they failed, where they went wrong. Because it’s with where they went wrong, it’s in those moments that they got that sort of drive to get over it and keep going. And so, in other words, that’s what we want to do. We want to understand how they fix their umbrella, or how they made a better umbrella so that even in the face of these failures, they were able to get to some sun where they are right now.

So what is the podcast going to look like? So we’re going to have two episodes per month. You’re listening to this introduction episode, there are also other episodes, episodes one and two out right now, you can get them. You’ll be able to access this show from a website. We’re going to have it live there on podcast.overit.com. You can go right there, you can find out more information about me, about the show, about the episodes there. You can also subscribe. We’re going to start out on Apple Podcasts, we’re going to be on Google Play. We’re going to be on Stitcher Radio and we’re going to be on Spotify. For those of you who have Spotify in the app on your phone, you can just get the podcast for free right there.

Please, please interact with me through the process, it’s really important to me. Send me your comments, tell me what you like, tell me what you don’t. If you have guests that you want to recommend that we interview, let me know. If you would like to come on the show and talk about your journey, let me know. How do you reach me? You can reach me at podcast@overit.com. That’s podcast@overit.com. Also, on Instagram at overitmedia. Send an email, send a message, just let us know. So who is ready to get over it for real? Don’t just settle for that rainstorm, don’t even settle for a drizzle, don’t settle for a cloudy day. Find that sunlight, no matter how hard it takes or how long it takes, because I promise you, it’ll be so worth it once you get there.

I am Dr. Christopher Fasano, this is the Get Overit Podcast where we get people from all walks of life to discuss the various ways to stop getting through it and start getting over it.