How to Overcome your Fear of Tech

SUMMARY

Overcoming your fear of tech is crucial to your success in everything online. You might not fear using your mobile phone, but you are more challenged with using the internet, the computer and computer applications. Adapting a framework used by Brendon Burchard in his video on how to overcome fear, I give tips on overcoming the pain of loss, process and outcomes when you are shifting to more complicated tech applications. To get over the pain of thinking your loss of stable income when you shift to online business, visualize the gain or benefit you will attain. To overcome the fear of the long process of learning, recall the adjustments to change that you have successfully mastered in the past. To tame the fear of negative outcomes that might arise, you could use your imagination to envision positive outcomes. Many good applications also provide learning platforms sometimes call online universities. I cited Kajabi which provides a 30-day free trial if you use my affiliate link https://app.kajabi.com/r/sipGFLnn and Tubebuddy which recently created a university for YouTube Creators. You can try any paid plan using https://www.tubebuddy.com/avic

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

TRANSCRIPT

Today's topic will help you overcome your fear of technology. When i talk about technology I'm thinking about the computer, its applications or programs. The fear could also involve using the computer or the laptop. Perhaps you don't fear using your mobile phone as it really serves for you as a phone only. But when it comes to using the computer or the internet, it can be a little bit more challenging for some of you.  

A friend of mine was asked to extend a little bit more at work and not to retire yet. She's a very good marketing person. When I did some online coaching with her she asked:  "what will happen after this?" She really afraid of the technology. I gave her one of the tips I have and I am advancing it now. It's a matter of getting used to it.

Where i lived in London, the the director of the student residence would say "Just open all the doors, Avic." So in that way we just have to keep on discovering.

This topic is is also for people who probably have loads of experience, a lot of knowledge, a lot of expertise and they really would like to share it, and to do that there are opportunities here in the online world. I also have a former student who has comparatively less to share like 12 years of experience in the corporate world and yet he is really wanting to do something like to learn more about e-commerce which is of course dealing with the online world.

Doing an online business, improving one's career or changing career from the corporate world to the online world - all this can be really challenging. But I'm not going to talk now about all the things about online business. I will focus on that challenge that can be preventing you from really getting out there and trying it out. And that is the fear of technology. 

I have three major categories of my tips and I learned these three categories watching a YouTube video of my coach Brendon Burchard entitled how to overcome your fear. He talked there about three fears referring to the pain of loss, the pain of the process itself, and the pain of the outcomes. 

 If there is a fear of decision called decidophobia,  there is technophobia. It is a major deterrent for really getting into a big change in her life which is the use of the online platforms, the use of the computer or devices, and computer applications. Sometimes it can be as complex as the fear of using the mainframes.

You may be asked where is Dropbox files stored? I've seen mainframes or big computers storing all of this data from all over the world. It's like a big server. For example, I'm in the Philippines and one time I was asked by an online software provider if I would like to use the server in Australia. I replied it's really up to you where you think that it's going to be faster for me. A friend of mine was also going to use a server and it was suggested to her to use a server that is based in the US. I think probably that the provider of her program has no other servers in Asia and that's why the US is being proposed.

"Avic, what are you talking about? This is all Greek to me, the server, the mainframe, etc." I talk about the fear of the complex devices because the smartphone could be for us now a little bit more manageable. And when i talk about the fear it could be just a dislike. I don't think there's anyone here in the world who doesn't fear anything.

This time we're focusing on helping some people who really are afraid of technology. Some people asked me in in my channel "how come i don't see the blur background in Zoom?"  And sometimes I think because everything is explained in the video and I also proposed some additional links, what can keep them from really understanding it would already be the fear that it is complicated. 

The fear of the pain of loss

One thing that really challenged me to go from the physical work, that is face-to-face  being employed to trying to work online is the fear of the stability coming from a regular pay check. I have some friends who would rather continue as consultant after they reached mandatory retirement. They do the same work for the same company although they are not regular employees anymore. That is not going to demand so much change in life because it's just going to change their taxability. They will be taxed as a consultant or as a professional rather than being taxed for compensation income. But in the end they will be going to work on the same thing. Hence if we go online, focus on an online business or career, we are facing the pain of that loss of a stable income or a very regular schedule.

 If you're a consultant already and you wanted to shift online then you're going to miss the security of having other people market your professional services. You're just going to be called to render the service or give the seminar. There the security of having that fixed income rather than trying it online and you don't know how you're going to get the audience for your services. 

I wanted to share with you how I fought that fear of losing that stable income. There were some times that my schedule was cancelled or postponed or rescheduled so I really thought about having my own marketing. That is, I market myself so that in the end if I postpone it's because I lack the effort to market. I'm not going to blame it on other organizations that are hiring me for the seminars. So I gain even if I lose the secure business of getting seminar income. I gain my own time meaning I'm not going to be employed by others.

Some online influencers who quit the nine-to-five corporate job said that one of the best things they gave up is having several clients who were managing their time. They went into entrepreneurship - not consulting but coaching  -even if they lost a secure income. The gain is to get back your own time. You manage your own time, organize your own courses, seminars, meetings, video conferences, etc.

The shift to techie tasks can actually be challenging if you are prone to routine. For example, you are the person who has gotten used to Facebook Messenger and then suddenly with the pandemic there's a shift to using the viber for personal development seminars. It has destabilized some people in the sense that they're used to Messenger and they asked "how come people don't want to do Messenger?" It was a challenge but in the end they were able to shift to having the video meetings using Viber. They lost what has been secure for them which is the being used to Facebook Messenger but they gained another expertise which is using another app- Viber. Some of you might think it's quite easy but at a certain level or certain age, it could really be challenging. 

Another group of people who could fear the tech in the loss of a security is the teachers or professors have gotten used to having a technical staff to prepare their classes- the classroom, LCD projector, the computer or the laptop. Everything is set up for them and here they are thinking of doing online. Who's going to do the work for them? So that's the challenge - the loss of technical staff. And what will be the gain? If you learn it yourself then you're an expert on your own. You are a solopreneur which is not a lowly occupation- managing many things on your own, managing your own meetings, etc. It's already an asset, something to be proud about that you can manage everything. Whereas before there could be two technical staff and you even wait for them to come because they're setting up the projector for many other classes, this time you don't wait for anyone you just start your own meetings.

The fear of the process

The process can take longer because it's a new platform. But we have to think that there are many things that we have done in our life that really took years. For example even for my student with 12 years of experience in the corporate world, he took five years studying in college. 

I was just surprised that someone asked me: Doc Avic, could you help me put up my course online? I said okay, probably I can coach you in six weeks and I can give you many other things. So I was telling her what help I can give her. Then she asked "can we do it in two weeks?" And I was thinking actually I have taken now three years putting up my online business. Things are not going to be that easy. I realized that sometimes people don't get into anything online because they're already overwhelmed with the amount of time that will be spent learning the process. They have that fear of it's going to be painful, it's going to be very difficult to learn the entire process. But you know, every change is difficult.

You can go down memory lane to the time that you were a happy young child. Then they told you you're going to school. It's a big change, right? But of course for some people it's quite difficult to remember those years. But just think of the recent times like you started college and then you're going to start work. Change is difficult. There has to be some adjustment. I don't know if you were able to adjust in your workplace after two weeks. Perhaps you adjusted to your own department but for the entire organization I don't think that two weeks were sufficient to adjust. So the process will take longer but in the end again what will you gain. We don't have a magic wand to turn everything in one shot.

I realized after putting up this business in three years that I'm just thankful I have my retirement money to fund my business. I know that for some people you want also to go online but you want it shorter. There is the fear of losing whatever capital that they have. The thing to do there is to have a bigger funding so that you can really put up that online business in a maximum three years. It can be shorter if you really dedicate all the time. Probably it took me now going to the three years because of many other things that I'm doing. It's just only now that I'm concentrated on really building this business so it's not really exactly three years although in terms of time it was three years since I since i retired from the academe.

Thinking of the pain of the process, what you can think is after you put up the business what will you gain? A coach of mine proposed to think - what is Paris? Because she really would like to spend a lot of time in Paris in France so she was asking all of us in that coaching program what is your Paris? I will not tell you the place that I wanted to be but it's something that you can think about when you fear the entire process of learning the online business. What is your Paris? Where is it that you want to spend your vacation? Sometimes in the corporate world your vacation could just be two weeks. I know some people they only have vacation leave of two weeks. When you go online and you really hit it big in this online business not super big but sufficient enough for you to take longer vacations, where will you take your vacation? So instead of thinking of the pain of learning the entire thing, go to the far end, to the benefit: how will you spend your time? where will you spend your vacation? how many people will be able to help? how many days and weekends and after dinner days would really be free for you? Sometimes, on Christmas vacation the teachers are still working checking the exam papers. They are the only ones working while the others are already on vacation. So think if you make it good in this online business then you can really have your own time, a longer time to rest and do other things, really to do other things that are also worthwhile. I think it's highly recommended to look forward to the things that you will get in return from getting into this process of learning the technology. 

I wanted to show you in a shared screen. You might know that I have two online courses and I'm managing my own marketing and all other things through Kajabi. Kajabi is an online platform that actually does many things. It's like an all-in-one business system. I went through the process of learning and investing in many apps until in the end I discovered that with Kajabi, i can do all of them. For example before i had Leadpages for my website, I had Convertkit for my emails and I had Clickfunnels to market my programs. Then I discovered that I could do everything in Kajabi. So this is also an invitation for you to try it for 30 days instead of the usual 14-day free trial that is advertised in the Kajabi website by using my affiliate link https://app.kajabi.com/r/sipGFLnn. 

What is good using this technology in this kind of platforms is they provide really good training. I'm showing here the Kajabi University where I've attended short courses on social media marketing or podcasting. It's free based on the plan that you are paying.

You might say it's expensive. Well you can have it free trial for 30 days and then afterwards you will pay something. But that's really part of life that you have to pay for a benefit. If there was no pandemic I would have rented an office for 10 000 pesos but this time I'm just using the monthly budget for the online apps.

Another one that I recommend that you use is tubebuddy.com if you want to be a creator in YouTube. They have the Tubebuddy University as part of their Pro plan and higher.  You can try my link https://www.tubebuddy.com/avic and with Tubebuddy University, you will really be helped to go faster by the many experts who have been there done that. So that is the thing about many good platforms, they also provide the need help in education and training.

So even if the process can take longer, even if it's challenging, you can think that changing again and learning some things is becoming young again. You will be learning again like a student in an online classroom. So change is living a life that is exciting because you're learning something new.

I've known people who really look young because they're always trying something new. So feel young again and be excited that you're going to learn something. The technology actually is not changing drastically, radically. It's like improving little by little. So don't think that what I learned now will not be useful tomorrow.

Actually I tell you that when I was studying in London, a very kind Englishman offered me a student job in his property management business. It had to be computerized but I didn't know anything about computer programs. So when I was studying then in Imperial College, I hired a professor who taught me DBASE programming which was the program that I needed to try to organize the collection of rents for that property management office. He gave me four classes and then I just read many books (there was no Google search that time). I just borrowed from the library many books on database programming. After 21 years I came up with another project that really needed database programming so I found that having my skills from 21 years ago I still knew the basics of managing a huge database. So that database programming that was like dormant in my mind for 20 years became very useful and now more than 3000 people are using that activity reservation program that I computerized. It made the reservation applicable online so that no one had to go to a certain physical place in order to reserve an activity.

Another example that the learning process can really be exciting happened to me three months ago. A friend of mine told me: "Avic, can you teach me more about podcasting because I'm going to start a podcast but I need a little bit more advice on the nitty-gritty of things." I replied  "I don't do podcasting, I only do YouTube videos." That was three months ago and then now I already have my podcast distributed in Apple, Google Podcast, Spotify and Soundcloud. Just three months before, I said "I don't do podcasting" and right now i have my podcast. Whatever you see now in YouTube I repurpose it to become a podcast. And just one episode is distributed in Apple, Google Podcast, Spotify and Soundcloud. And you know I didn't even think of that upon my retirement I would have a podcast. Many influencers were saying that audio/podcast is really better than video because you don't have to put on makeup. But in the end because it's quite difficult for me to give tutorials using audio, I now have expanded to having podcast aside from videos. Before it was challenging to have thought of that but this time it's easier. I just create a 30-minute video and I then repurpose it to podcast and social media posts.

The fear of the pain of outcomes

After investing so much time learning the tech, you fear that nothing will happen. "If I invest all of my time, my energy, my money into this and this will not take off ...? What if I learn everything about Facebook ads and in the end Facebook will not be there forever? What if I learn live stream, invest in all the gadgets and then the trend shifts from video to audio? So you might think the outcome will be wasted, the outcome is zero, it's really failure.

I think it's a human weakness to project that the outcome will be negative. But it's also a human attitude to project that the outcome can also be positive. There has to be some improvement in terms of visualizing your future,  creating a vision board or manifesting. You can try many other things that will work for you. I can't recommend one over the other. For me it's just simply dreaming, the usual dreaming that in the end I can reach a wider group of people or I can have a wider impact. I visualize my future using the ordinary daydreaming that I'm doing this online business and the future is positive. I dream that it will happen although it's just taking time.  But I am sure that in learning all the tech I'm not wasting my time. Everything for me is a learning opportunity. And again thinking that makes you young because if you always think "I've been there, done that" you're ready to die. But we really have to always be excited with the future. We have to go back to our childhood liking for dreaming - dreaming of when we start schooling or dreaming of when we start working.

To end, I tell you that God has given us brains to improve the world, to improve the times that we live in. We have to take advantage of that. For me I really like to think of it as a calling or a mission. I didn't think of that when I was in the academe but this time it's a new calling to reach out to a wider world, to help a wider community of people.

I also think that God wants this technology because he gave us the brains to invent always, to constantly invent these computer apps. The programmers, they were given brains by God and they are trying to improve the world. And sometimes they get a lot of feedback from the users and this is the reason why things are changing. The users give their feedback. I don't actually like devices or phones that do not have apps developers because that means they don't get feedback from the users. So the fact that you see that applications are changing it's because they are improving for the sake of a better user experience. We also have to be thankful for that, so we have to use our talents

Don't fear the technology that your fellow human beings invented or many human beings have invented. Don't fear that. You have to think that we all were given brains to take advantage of these technological improvements to improve the lives of people. If you try to think how much time you spend before in the banks lining up and then right now you can do online banking, you will be thankful and less fearful. If you even have to send a physical invoice for your services through snail mail, and this time you can do invoicing by PayPal by simply emailing it, you will be thankful and less afraid. We have to make use of the technology, participate in using the technology that has improved people's lives.

I think if you are concentrating on conspiracy theory you will think that all this technology is for the worst, I mean don't be that exaggerated. We have to also widen our reading so that we don't read more of the negative things because in the end it will also increase our fear of the technology.