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Do you ever run into your Brain Bully? What does that feel like? With the right strategies you can build your self esteem and achieve success in all areas of your life. In this episode I discuss how to do that with my guest, Lynn Smith.
Lynn is a national media expert, consultant, keynote speaker, and host of “StrollerCoaster” a parenting podcast brought to you by Munchkin the world most loved baby brand in the world. Previously, she spent 15 years as an anchor on the TODAY Show, NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News. In 2021, Smith left TV News to launch her company Rylan Media which takes her media insight and expertise to tackle corporate and individuals greatest branding and communications challenges.
Meet Your Brain Bully
The brain bully is that voice we all have in our mind that’s saying, “What if I screw this up?” or “Does Mark like what I’m saying?” or “What if the audience thinks I’m a total idiot?” Lynn realized after coaching hundreds of executives, after being a news anchor for 15 years, and having her own Brain Bully incidents many times, that almost 100% of us have a Brain Bully. If you don’t, you’re likely a sociopath or a narcissist. Just saying.
Her brain bully creeping in was so common that Lynn decided “I have to create something in order to help myself and other people overcome this situation…”, and through self-examination she did just that. As a news anchor she was told many times (to her face) “You’re not good enough, you’ll never make it in TV”. Then she had her own internal audio loop; “Maybe they’re right, maybe I’m not good at this…” She had to create techniques to overcome her Brain Bully to sustain a long term career in television.
Now, when she shares her methodology with executives it’s this lightbulb moment for them. “Oh, I shouldn’t ignore this voice, this voice is actually not real, or right, I just have to tame it, I need to know how to manage my Brain Bully”.
How do you overcome your Brain Bully?
Initially, early on, when Lynn was in her early twenties and started in television, beating her Brain Bully was the result of pure grit and tenacity. It was a case of “just keep going”. Sometimes she didn’t have any reason or logic to believe in her eventual success, she just had to push through it. There was no other option. From seeing what good came from pushing through her Brain Bully dialogues she realized “Now I can have fun with this, and I can talk to my Brain Bully. I can say, ‘Brain Bully’, listen here, you’re through right now”. She parented her Brain Bully out of the situation. If you have kids, what would you say to them if they had a bully? What advice would you have to get rid of that bully? That’s what she did.
You must literally name it and then tame it. You tame it by having those conversations with it.
The next step? Reframe it. That Brain Bully could be an asset to you by keeping you on your toes. We don’t want to get complacent. It’s when we lose control of the dialogue that we have problems.
So, you must name it, tame it and reframe it.
We do a deeper dive into that methodology and discuss topics such as:
- What’s really holding you back in life, and it’s not your professional skillset or lack of one.
- How to find ways to do whatever it is you were meant to do with your life.
- Why just pushing your Brain Bully away won’t work.
- How to control your fight, flight, or freeze responses in your primitive brain. It doesn’t know the difference between you giving a presentation and you being attacked by a tiger. It’s protecting you from what you perceive as a threat.
- How to create a Brain Buddy and use it to your advantage.
- How and why you have complete control over which thoughts you focus on.
- How to show up as your authentic self.
…and more golden nuggets of advice!
You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”
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About the Guest
Lynn Smith is a National Media Expert, Consultant, Keynote Speaker, and host of “StrollerCoaster” a parenting podcast brought to you by Munchkin the world most loved baby brand in the world.
Previously, she spent 15 years as an anchor at TODAY Show, NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News.
In 2021, Smith left TV News to launch her company Rylan Media which takes her media insight and expertise to tackle corporate and individuals greatest branding and communications challenges. She advises leaders on how to develop, craft and communicate a compelling message as well as how to take that message to powerful platforms in the media and any video platform.
Smith is also the founder of Crush it on TV and Crush it on Video, an immersive on-demand program to help experts craft, pitch, and book media appearances. It doesn’t matter if you are booked, it matters if you are GOOD on TV and that’s what she helps her clients do.
In 2022, she released her e-book “Confidence Quotient: Proven techniques to increase your self-confidence and decrease the self-doubt holding you back”.
Prior to HLN, she served as the anchor of Early Today on NBC and First Look on MSNBC since 2010. During her time at NBC, she was a fill-in newsreader on Weekend TODAY and covered overnight breaking news for MSNBC. She came to MSNBC from WNBC-News 4 New York where she had been a General Assignment Reporter and fill-in anchor for since January 2009.
Smith joined WNBC from NBC-owned station WCAU in Philadelphia, where she was a general assignment reporter since June 2007. In January 2008, her role was expanded, and she was promoted to co-anchor of “NBC 10 Weekend Today” on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Prior to WCAU, she spent two years working at the TODAY Show on NBC as an Associate Producer before being promoted to a Producer. In 2007, her role expanded to the other side of the camera when she became an Online Correspondent for todayshow.com, and several of her pieces were featured on TODAY. She also freelanced as a General Assignment Reporter for NBC-owned station WVIT in Hartford, Connecticut.
Smith graduated magna cum laude from Miami University in Ohio, where she was a mass communications major, wrote for the university newspaper, and served as an anchor/reporter for the university television station. Following graduation, she was awarded a prestigious internship with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. In 2001, she joined NBC’s Page Program in Los Angeles before moving East to pursue her passion for news.
Click here to learn more about Lynn!
