Why botching something big-time — like I did with my first Substack Live — is an excellent way to learn.

Saved by a landline telephone — the Stoic philosopher Epictetus had it right about being content to look foolish if you want to improve.

Photo by Pixabay

Warmup

First things first.

Some of you received alerts last week about me “going live” with author Anne Marie Chaker of the Substack “Lift” to discuss how to eat better to fuel your workday.

You then tuned in only to find darkness or the blip of a disheveled me mumbling in frustration at the camera. So let me say this.

Mea culpa. This is what learning looks like.

What follows is a lesson in the rougher edges of trying new things. (And a tip for other Substack Live newbies.)

Post

We’ve talked about the science of “productive failure” and being content to look foolish.

Research shows adopting this mindset is critical if we want a chance of success in a new endeavor —be it a job, sport or skill.

Certainly, looking foolish physically is something I’ve grown accustomed to.

As those of you who’ve read my book NOT TOO LATE know, when I became a competitive athlete for the first time in my late 40s/early 50s — there was a lot of getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

Falling from a 17-foot rope. Not being strong enough to cross monkey bars. Dropping out of a big race from the cold.

I’ve posted a lot on the Substack platform over the past 10 months and engaged in meaningful discussions with many of you. It’s gone smoothly.

But until Friday, I had never “gone Live” on the app in a video chat. When Anne Marie asked me to join her, it seemed worthwhile to try. After all, I’ve done a lot of live network TV and digital video through the years for my jobs.

How hard could this be?

We chatted by phone for a bit leading up to the 12:30 pm ET start time. At 12:29 p.m. I opened the app on my iPhone and Anne Marie invited to me as a guest to go live. But when I hit accept on her invite, my app crashed.

We attempted to reconnect several times, including my hurriedly deleting and reinstalling the app. It kept crashing on my end.

We almost gave up completely until — in a last minute Luddite Hail Mary pass — I suggested Anne Marie just hold up her landline phone (she’d been talking to me on it during these technical difficulties) to her iPhone camera and let me speak to the audience that way.

Yes, Anne Marie still has a landline phone. Yes, she knows it is 2025. And yes, that phone saved us.

Here is the somewhat makeshift conversation we had about tips for better eating to fuel your workday.

Kudos to Anne Marie for not flinching and carrying the visuals on her own.

Lunch Break: How two athletes eat well at work

Highlights from the conversation (because it’s a little garbled)

1. I carry these foods to work most days (they weigh less than my iPhone) to ensure I get a healthy lunch and snack. The 60 grams of protein helps keep me from bonking mid-afternoon and fueling properly for strength training.

   1. Hardboiled egg

   2. A small tin of Patagonia Provisions canned salmon

   3. A David protein bar

   4. Maui Nui venison stick.

2. Anne Marie actually kept appliances in her cubicle when she commuted to the office. See her recommended gear in the video.

3. A listener asks if I wear a continuous glucose monitor.

   1. Yes. It’s helped me lower my A1C levels by understanding which foods cause large blood sugar spikes.

   2. Plus, the Hawthorne effect of the device keeps me from delving into the chips, popcorn or other high-carbohydrate or sugary snacks lying around the office when stress levels rise.

Not giving up

I licked my wounds briefly after Anne Marie and I hung up, wondering where things went awry.

Why did the Live work for Anne Marie but not for me?

Blame what happened next on what author Alex Hutchinson calls “The Explorer’s Gene” in his excellent new book. I clearly wasn’t done scouting this new terrain.

So I hit Live in the Substack app — just to what would happen. I figured the app would crash again.

The app didn’t crash. Progress!

Problem was, I actually went Live and emailed people to tell them I was Live without meaning to be Live. Hence the short video of a disheveled me mumbling in frustration at the camera that some of you saw.

Pinpointing the problem

It wasn’t until I was halfway through my strength workout that evening, that I had an epiphany.

I’d been talking on my cellphone to Anne Marie while also trying to go live on the Substack app on the same cellphone. (She’d been talking to me on her landline and assumed I was on one as well. We just never hung up because we were having technical difficulties.)

Was that the issue?

I asked ChatGPT. Here’s the response:

“Ah, yep — that crash makes sense. Here’s what likely happened:

Why the Substack app crashed:

• Audio resource conflict:
  You were already on a phone call, which uses your iPhone’s microphone and audio channels. When you tried to start a Substack Live, it also tried to access the microphone and speaker, but iOS doesn’t allow two apps to use audio input simultaneously in most cases.

• App handling limitation:
  The Substack app likely isn’t built to gracefully handle the situation where another app (like the Phone app) is already using the mic. Instead of showing an error or warning, it just crashed.

What you can do next time:

• End the call first before starting Substack Live, or

• Use a second device for the live broadcast while staying on the call, if you need to multitask.”

You know. Like a landline.

Cooldown w/ Music Snack

Before we wrap up, a reminder that we’re building a N2L member “Not Too Late” music playlist.

This is audio fuel in the “Let’s get it done” spirit. (Read kick-off post.)

You can listen:

• On Spotify.

• On Apple Music.

Note: You may need to create a Spotify or Apple Music account if you don’t have one already.

Today’s N2L Member Pick Spotlight

This pick pretty much sums up my Substack Live experience.

“I Take My Chances” by Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The recommendation comes from Deb who says:

“It has some good reminders (I can laugh until I cry or cry until I laugh so cut the deck right in half, I’ll play from either side). I strangely find it motivating.”

I’d love your 1-2 song suggestions either by email or in the comments below. I’ll add them to the playlist and highlight your pick in a future newsletter.

Thanks for reading. As always, find something you love. Dig in. Stick with it when things get hard — including when you screw something up publicly.

See you on my next Substack Live.

Wendy