High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 761: Dump Your Slump: How to Get Unstuck and Bounce Forward with Dr. Jermaine Davis

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Even talented, driven, and successful people experience slumps. In this conversation, Dr. Jermaine explains what a slump really is, the early warning signs that you may be heading into one, and why slumps can spread through workplaces, families, and relationships. He also shares powerful findings from his national Dump Your Slump research and explains why the environments and people around us can either help us recover or unintentionally keep us stuck. Dr. Cindra and Dr. Jermaine explore the role of self-talk, motivation, and resilience in helping us move forward when life, school, or work feels chaotic, stressful, and overwhelming. Dr. Jermaine shares practical strategies to recognize when you're stuck, shift your thinking, and take meaningful action to build momentum again. You don't have to wait until you feel motivated to move forward. Sometimes the first step out of a slump is choosing one small action that helps you bounce forward. You'll Learn: Why talented, driven, and successful people can still find themselves stuck in a slump. What a slump really is and the early warning signs that you may be heading into one. How slumps can spread through organizations, families, and relationships. Discover what Dr. Jermaine's national Dump Your Slump research reveals about why people stay stuck. Learn how your self-talk can either deepen a slump or help you move forward. Understand why a manager or leader can unintentionally contribute to someone feeling stuck. Build practical strategies to shift your thinking and create momentum when motivation is low. Take the first step toward bouncing forward when life, school, or work feels overwhelming. Episode Resources & Links Guest Website: https://drjermainedavis.com/ Mentally Strong Institute: https://mentallystronginstitute.com/ Request a Free Mental Breakthrough Call: https://freementalbreakthroughcall.com/ Download the National Confidence Research Study: https://confidencestudy.com/ Pre-order The Confidence Habit: https://www.confidencetools.com/

Hi friends, Dr. Sindra here, and I'm so excited to announce that my new book, published by Simon and Schuster, is now available titled The Confidence Habit. Our national research study on confidence showed there is a confidence crisis in America today. One in two Gen Zers and young millennials feel like they are not enough. Women still scored lower on all markers of confidence compared to men. And this book provides the tangible research-backed strategies to grow your confidence, and I can't wait for you to read it. head over to Confidence Tools.com to purchase your copy where there's over $594 of bonuses over there.

Again, check it out at ConfidenceTools.com, and I can't wait to hear what to think about it. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. I'm so excited to have us joined today by Dr. Germain Davis, who is an award-winning professor of communication and organizational leadership. He's also a Minnesota Hall of Fame speaker and the author of 10 books. Most importantly, however, he is my friend. So he has a BA, an MA in speech communications and a doctorate in organizational leadership. And his journey began in corporate America where he worked in sales and management before discovering his life's purpose, which is to help individuals and teams get unstuck.

So for more than 25 years, Dr. Germain has helped leaders and teams. teams navigate change by helping them turn setbacks into strategic comebacks, which we will talk about today. From his first book, Get Up Off Your Butt and Do It Now, to his national research study on Dump the Slump, his mission has remained the same, helping people move forward with when school and life and work become chaotic, stressful, and overwhelming. So when he's not speaking, One of the things we're going to hear from Germain is that he loves teaching and writing and cheering on his son, Zane at football games, and enjoying his grandmother's homemade macaroni and cheese and laughing at a great stand-up comedy show. So, Jermaine, thank you so much for joining us here on the high-performance mindset. Thank you.

I'm looking forward to it. I can tell when I'm excited about something because I wake up early in the morning and I'm consumed with that. So on my morning walk, I was thinking about this. So I'm really looking forward to just unpacking and having a little professional fun. I love it. And, you know, I wanted to have you on for quite some time now, particularly to talk about the dump your slump study and just like slumps in general because athletes, professionals, leaders can experience slumps.

So my big question for you, Jermaine, as people are listening to get started, why should people listen all the way through to our conversation today? You know, what's really interesting, I did not invent this phrase, but it became really popular around 2021. And then in 2024, just took off. Life is lifing. And whoever came up with that, I love it. The reason why you should listen to this podcast is because life is going to do what life does. So we can't wish that away.

my big desire is to equip people with the tools, tips, and strategies. So when life is lifeing in the way that you don't like it, personal, professional life, you have the skills to bounce forward and to persist and to continuously, well, you know this, Dr. Grick. Like keep the grit going, right? That passion and perseverance towards your dreams, goals and aspiration. So it's about equipping people. I love it. I love it. And you know, one of the things, Germain and I have got to work together quite a bit. And so we're excited to announce this for the first time on the podcast is we have a Confidence Summit coming up on August 7th in the morning. And Germain is the MC. He also hosted as the MC our Mentally Strong Conference in January and crushed it. Oh, there we go. Okay. He's got a great cup from us.

But I'm really excited about it. So you've got to check it out. You can go to the Confidence Summit.com. And not only is Germain going to be one of the highlighted speakers, but we have Marilyn Sherman, who's going to be speaking about sitting in the front row. Angie Bastion, who invented Boomchickapop popcorn, which you probably have heard of, and sold Boom Chica Pop to ConAgra for half a billion dollars. We have Martha McSally.

She is one of the first female fighter pilots. And she's going to be talking about her journey. We got Joe Schmidt, who you also know, Jermaine Davis. And then two Olympians, Paul Judah, who helped the men's gymnastics team win bronze. And Kendall Williams, who is featured in the Confidence Habit books. You got to check it out. You actually get a free copy of. the confidence habit that I'm publishing with Simon and Schuster on September 1st.

So we got to check that out. Yeah. All right. So let's get back at this germane. And, you know, I want to ask you a question to get started about slumps. And what I'd love for you to do is just define what is exactly a slump and what inspired you to conduct this national study on slumps? First and foremost, here's what a slump is. a slump takes place in the moment where you are thriving, flourishing, having success, right?

So in order to be in the slump, you have to have success first. So things are moving and grooving in your favor. And then something happens. And that's something internally or externally, there's a drop, a dip, or decline in four areas. So in our study, we looked at these four things. A slump affects your motivation, your confidence, your engagement, and your performance. And it's a season, it's a period of time. But something occurred that stopped your momentum.

It interrupted your mojo. And this can be in a relationship, a friendship, your career, school. There's a drop-dipper decline. And it stunts your movement. And why slumps for you? Why did you decide to study slumps? You know, what's interesting, the thing, ding, ding, ding, the idea of a slump came to me literally on April 1st, 2024. The day before March 31st, 2024, I fly to Austin, Texas for a two-day conference.

And it's nice out so I don't go to the gym. I say, I'm going to walk outside. and I have a coaching client. Long story short, this coaching client says, hey, I know my company hired you to coach me around communication, being a better leader and leading my team. But I was talking with my wife and I said, you know, I have to meet with Dr. Jermaine and I don't want to talk about communication.

And she says, well, what do you want to talk with him about? And he says, I'm in a rut. So long story short, as we're talking about this rut, at the end we're talking about he feels stifled and stagnant in his job and at the end of the call I simply said let's call them

Tobias I said Tobias you know what you have to do I said you need to dump that slump you need to dump your slump and he says say that again I say you're in the slump and you got to dump it I said

there's two things that's that can define you. The slump or you dumping it, like getting rid of it? And he says, that's powerful. And he screams, honey, Dr. Jermain just told me I need to dump my slump. And she screams, I don't know what that means, but it sounds so catchy to me. So I continue my walk, and it just hit me. And I get back to the hotel room and I started to journal.

I open up a word document. and I just start typing. And I started looking up, what is this slump? And what does it mean to get rid of stuff that's no longer serving you? And after that, I wanted something more than some anecdotal or motivational or inspirational platitudes. I wanted to conduct a study about how slumps were impacting people personally and professionally. And before you know it, I was engulfed into studying slumps and setbacks and ruts.

And my passion is how to help people get out of those slumps so they can move forward. So that's what inspired that. Yeah, that's great. I can hear your passion as always. You know, and I think about slumps. Many times we think about them with like a baseball team or a baseball pitcher or a hitter, right? And we don't necessarily take a step back and say slumps in our own life. And so I loved reading your national research study on something.

slumps. It was so well done. And I love just all the things that you found and how well you represented it. What I'd love for you to do is to share one or two or three wow findings from the dump your slump research study. You know, it's really interesting. One of my favorite wows and it really wowed me was 72% of working Americans said that they were rather self-medicate than do the mental and emotional work it takes to get out of a slump. Again, thing, ding, ding, ding, that really hit me. And the reason why this topic is so important is life is overwhelming at times, relationships, our family.

And so I want you to think about this. I do this in one of my workshops. I use it, I call it plate management. So I give everyone in the audience a paper plate. And I have people write down on the paper. plate, what are some of their priorities, what are some of their demands? And when you start looking at all the things that's on your plate, it can be overwhelming. And if you don't manage your plate well, you can end up in a slump because you're underperforming, you're letting people down, you're not

living life on purpose, and you can get depressed. And so sometimes people want to just self-medicate. And they do that different ways, right? They might spend, let's say, hey, I'm just going to be on TikTok and I'm just going to scroll. And next to you know, I'm scrolling. And it's an hour. And I need to get work done. And sometimes people self-medicate with alcohol, drugs, right? And so there's different ways.

So I don't want people to get stuck. And so that was a wow factor. What is happening? And so one of the things we found is that individuals said learning how to get out of a slump and half of the time would be so paramount. that they felt it would change the trajectory of their life. So that was one of those things like Delaware reality, that people get overwhelmed and sometimes they quit.

Right? So they get in that slump and they stay there. And I think too, Jermaine, about like productivity and culture, right? And it's like if you're able to get out of that slump more quickly, you're going to be more productive as a group. And, you know, you're going to be able to perform at the highest level. I'm curious about like the connection to confidence, you know, because you said earlier, like these four areas, motivation, confidence, a decline in performance. How do you think it connects to confidence? Well, well, I'll be honest. Well, we are, we are colleagues and we're a friend. So I read your white paper on your study and what was really interesting, here's why I saw Synergy. You had a stat and I don't want to butcher it, but it was like 70%

of working Americans in your study dwell on past mistakes and that inner critic is very harsh. Yes. So think about this. That's what we found. Yeah, 70%. Like they're dwelling on that.

So they're ruminating, they're catastrophizing. And so here's what we know that if I am stuck in the mental state where I'm consistently thinking about negative things and when I generate ideas, I go to negative self-talk.

Guess what? My confidence sinks and I can't dump that slump. So in my study, here's what we found, was that 78% of people who said that they dumped their slump, they replaced their negative self-talk. Right? So in your study, you have 70% of people saying, hey, my confidence is tanking because I'm dwelling on this.

And so one of the things I talk about is acknowledging you're in that slump, interrupting that slump or that negative self-talk, and then replacing it. I call that the air model. Acknowledge. Okay. Because here's the thing. You can't change what you don't acknowledge. But before you can acknowledge it, you have to be aware.

What do you mean? Aware. wow, I'm socially, I'm socially isolating myself. I'm not calling my friends, my family members. And if you have a spouse at home, a partner, significant other, maybe there's a disconnection. If you have children, you're not, like, you're socially isolating yourself. Your negative self-talk is high.

These are indicators that you might be in a slump. Like when you start to feel like I'm lost. So one of the things we found in the study is individuals that had no direction, that was one of the indicators that they were in the decline. Like I'm so stuck, I don't know what to do. And so it affects their decision making. And so these were just some of the things. So it connects to your confidence.

Think about this. In order to get out of this negative state, mental and emotional, you have to have some confidence, some belief in yourself. But say, for instance, you apply, this is a true story. I interviewed someone. they applied for three internal positions. And she stated two of the three, I really believe I was qualified, I was competent.

I felt like I had the connections. I felt like I interviewed well. And one she says, she literally said, uh-uh. And I said, well, what does that mean? And she says, well, it was 50-50. Well, she didn't get either of the three opportunities. And so for her, right, she's in a slump. this drop, dip, and decline in her competence.

So her internal talk went up, Sandra. Well, maybe I'm not as good as I think I am. And we talk about this imposter phenomenon, imposter syndrome, whatever language individuals use. And that cheats you out of your opportunity to move forward. So it's imperative that you're aware that, okay, things have changing. I have to maintain the motivation. I don't have that moxie I used to have.

I'm approaching life with intrepidation. My insecurities are high. And so you start to play small. And then if you don't acknowledge, interrupt, and redirect and replace that negative language, you get deeper in your slump. So it's really important that individuals have skills to get out of the slump. Yeah, I think that's so important, Jermaine. And, you know, what's interesting about the stat you just shared, about 70% of people struggle with a harsh inner critic and have difficulty letting go of mistakes.

When I ask people to, like when I'm in an audience and ask people to guess the answer, most people are like 80, 90, 95. So I actually think that's underreported. And so your air model, I like that because I feel like if people have tools and strategies, they're more likely to implement. that when they're in a slump. And you're right, acknowledging is the first step in noticing how you're feeling, noticing what's going on, like that self-awareness is that first step. What's the A and the R? So the A is to acknowledge. The I is to interrupt. And so like literally like, yes. And so think about when we're interrupting something. We're trying to halt it. We're trying to stop it because it's building up traction and momentum

that is getting the best of us. And this is where you might hear individual say, I feel like I'm spiraling. I feel drained. I feel depleted. I can't focus. My anxiety is high. So any challenges that they may be previously dealing with,

it's magnified, it's amplified, it's intensified. And so we have to interrupt it. And the interruption is, I'm going on this job interview, my self-talk is say for instance it's in person

and as you're walking in you're leaving and you're seeing people now say this is true stuff say if this person is really attractive and maybe they look fit and maybe you're on a

you know a weight loss journey and you're not there and so now you're in your head so you acknowledge easy to do that that and interrupt and say, hey, you know what? Yep, they're, yes, they look stunning.

Yes, they look beautiful. Yes, they look attractive. And I'm going to interrupt this. What do you mean interrupt? I have something valuable to add. One of the things I always talk about, I've written about this, I write about a concept called tags, talents, abilities, gifts, and skills. So when you're interrupting, focus on your tags.

Here's what I mean what your tags are. Your unique set of assets that you bring. Dr. Cendra Campoff has a set of tags that Dr. Germain Davis doesn't have. And I have some tags that you don't have. But I need to be confident in what I bring. Even when I step on stage, if I go to a conference and there's some powerhouse speakers, people that I admire, I've read their books, I've listened to their podcast, and I said, but I know Jermaine Davis brings something to the platform.

I have a unique story. My unique idiosyncrasies, the way I move, the way I dance and my quirkiness. You know, people, like, and some people don't do that. But so I interrupt that by celebrating my successes. My successes wins and victories. So let me share another step with you. Individuals who dumped their slump, 76% of people in our study went back and revisited. and celebrated what I call their SWVs, successes, wins, and victories.

Now, let me tell you why this is really important, Sendra. I learned about 20 years ago this tendency, it's a thought tendency, a processing tendency, it's called mood congruent memory. Mood congruent memory. And it says this. it's the tendency for people to recall and remember. You ready for this? The experiences that they're feeling emotionally right now.

So mood can grow in memories, right? So now here's what's really important for your work and my work. Mood can grow in memory can be positive or negative. So when a person has a lowered self-esteem and a person is in a slunk, Here's what move congruent memory says. You have a tendency to recall all the stuff that's not working. Because it matches your current state. It's so true.

I didn't get the job. I didn't get to speaking engagement. You know, you and I have teenage kids. You know, my son, Zion is right. You know, hey, like he's fixated on, he goes to X or Twitter. And he's like, dad, all these people. are getting offers. I know.

And I'm using that's something. So I'm using something and that's stuff for my own son. Yeah. And I said, hey,

do you add value? Yeah. And I said, Zion, here's what I would like for you to do. Take out a piece of paper. Literally,

take out a piece of paper and I want you to write down 10 of your SWVs in life. Sports, academics, and here's what we notice.

when individuals start writing down. This is not about being arrogant, conceited, or narcissistic. This is genuinely, genuinely celebrating your accomplishments and achievements. Why not? You put into work. You earned it. Right? You earned it.

And so when I do this activity, I see people's energy change. So then I utilize this activity to inspire a positive mood, congruent memory. I've literally seen people in presentations and workshops, they're writing down their SWVs. Oh, when I got their promotion, I got their raise, I got their award from the United Way. My spouse, my partner told me this, gave me this wonderful card and reminded me, and their energy starts to shift. Here's what happens. When negativity happens, and we talk about it. About the negativity bias, we tend to focus on that. It hijacks our ability to remember and recall the value that we've already added in life and work.

And so we have to be aware of being hijacked. Yeah, and that negativity is contagious. So I totally get that. I'm curious, like, you know, people I think in sports kind of get worried that, like, like slumps can be contagious. Like if one picture is that it's going to just continue to spiral, what do you think about that

and what did your study show about? Are slumps contagious and organizations or families or relationships? Absolutely. In the National Dump the Slump Study, 68% of working Americans said slumps are contagious. Now, before I

inducted the study, been a communications professor the last 25 years, there's a concept that I've been teaching the last 25 years called emotional contagion. An emotional contagion is the transference of our attitude and emotions onto any environment or people that we around us. So slumps can be contagious. This is why it's really important for leaders to be consistently scanned in their as Zig Zigiler who say for stinking thinking. Yes. And so it's not, you know, we don't want to shame people and put them down because sometimes you're in a slump and you're so overwhelmed.

Sometimes you don't even know the impact of your slump or your daily behaviors. Absolutely. Right. So a supervisor, manager, a leader, anyone who you're managing individuals, you're bringing that individual in and say, hey, let's do a job. check in. How are things going? And so you always hear when you're talking about leadership, leaders set the tone. That's how slumps are contagious. And it's how you talk about this, which is why in my presentation, this wasn't part of the slump study, but afterwards, I started

talking about the science of hope. Nice. So think about this. If a slump is contagious, say for instance you're in the market you're in the industry syndrome and the industry isn't doing well and you and I know that sometimes we get invited to speak in that particular industry they're not doing well and so we're speaking at either a local association or a state association or the big annual international association and they are talking about gloom

and doom now here's what I share with leaders don't lie don't BS people, keep it real. Give them a snapshot of reality and then you got to shift the hope. Now, I'm not talking about some fluff cupcake bubble gum

hope. Here's what I mean about hope. Hope is the belief that your tomorrow will be better than your today. Now this next piece is paramount in the science of hope. And I can influence that.

So my tomorrow can be better, right? So today, right? Today, life is lifeing, is beating me up. Hope says tomorrow can be better than today, but you play a role in shifting that. Yeah. Right?

So hope is the belief. And so when you get into like the science of hope, it really talks about actions that you can do to begin to shift, the direction, to shift the momentum, to get your mojo back, to get gritty, right? How do I stay gritty when I feel like life is kicking my butt? Absolutely. And so.

Yeah. And Jermaine, I'm kind of curious about that. Like what have you found then in terms of how does Hope connect with getting out of that slump? So I call it, am I, I'm working on my book now on dump your slump. I talk about the three Ws. what way willpower? What way willpower? And so here's what the science of hope says.

First and foremost, what are you trying to turn around? You know, remember when people doing the pandemic, everyone used the word pivot so much that it got worn out, but I get it. But getting clear about what are you showing? shifting. What are you changing? What is your goal? But getting crystal clear about your goal. So identify that. So if it's an individual slump that you're getting out of, get clear on the what? As a team, as an organization, what are we going to do? Now, way. Way is the pathways. Okay. And,

but here's, here's, here's, here's where hope comes. So you get to go. Then you start thinking about pathways to get there. And you want to think about multiple pathways. And you want to think about your contingency plans. What if this doesn't happen? Or what if this does happen? And so you start strategizing. And then the last W is the willpower. And that is your internal and external capacity. So that's why the research or hope says the last piece is you play a big role in influencing that. And so I'll share one of my Favorite, favorite, favorite quotes by Booker T. Washington when Booker T. Washington says, it matters not what the circumstances are that surrounds a person. What matters is how does that person respond? Not react. Yeah. Because sometimes in our reactions, we get driven by our emotions.

And your response is calculated. It's strategic. It's thoughtful. You're analyzing. You're checking in with people. You know, what are those areas I might not be aware of? And someone says, hey, Cinder, Germain, have you thought about this? Hey, Dave, hey, Sheila, have you considered this? And so when you get clear about your what, the different pathways you can get there, and then incrementally getting there, it starts to boost your hope. And here's what the research says. Hope is like a muscle, right? You can increase your hope. So you can go from filling hopelessness to hopefulness. Does that help?

It's so helpful. Yeah. And I love the idea of like the autonomy that like I have a choice. You know, I think what's what's difficult sometimes germane is like I think about times where maybe I'm lacking motivation, you know, or just kind of going through the emotions. And it's usually for me like I just need to recharge and I need some self care, right? But what have you found? in terms of I know your study found that there's six reasons people stay stuck in a slump.

Can you share a few of these biggest ones? And what are the earliest kind of warning signs that someone might be headed down to a slump? Yeah. So I just want to reinforce some of the things that I mentioned. So negative self-talk is one of those things, right? So that negative self-talk is a sign that you're in a slump. when you consistently feel overwhelmed and you don't feel like you have the capacity to overcome that. So we all have days when we're retired.

We all have stress. And here's the thing. Stress is not the problem. Building the capacity to cope effectively with the stress. And so I would show you this. In our study, 81% of the people who dumped their slump said that they adopted a healthy and positive stress response style. I call that your SRS, your stress response style.

And so, again, it's not you want to run from the stress. And you know this from coaching athletes, right? So, and I think people, they don't understand like there's two types of stress, right? You got distress and you stress. But the distress is that harmful to bad stress than most people. But the use stress is when you get an opportunity. And you've been wanting this opportunity. And it's going to stretch you.

You've never done this before in this magnitude. But you know what it does? You stress is it makes you prepare more as athletes. Right? And you started saying, okay, you're reading, you're preparing, you're talking. So it makes you step your game up. It makes you level up. But so adopting that and being aware of stress response style, here's one of my favorite questions to ask in, to ask an audience, what is your typical SRS stress response styles? And here's what I mean by stress response style. How you typically think acting be. when you're overwhelmed and you're under pressure. How you think, how you act. How do you, what, what do you typically do?

So let me tell you a true story. This happened to me a week and a half ago. Have a four-hour presentation. Four hours. The night before, I always take, when it's local, I have my, have a props bag because I, you're right, I use props. I love it too.

Let me do that. So I have some props along with slides. So, Cinder, I get my props bag, and I actually put my backpack in my props bag, have it all in once, and I take it downstairs, and I normally put it in my car.

You hear what I said? I normally put it in my car. Normally. Uh-oh. I drive all the way to Eden Prairie from Roseville, For those of you who don't know the distance during rush hour, it can be anywhere from 40 minutes to 60 minutes. I get to the client. I pop my trunk.

And guess what? It's not there. It's not there. I don't have time to drive back. I have a four-hour workshop. Now, this is a Tuesday. Friday, I had worked with their leadership team. And now I'm going to work with their managers, senior directors.

So when I walk in, the person who booked me says, Hey, Dr. Jermaine, where's your prop back? My heart is boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm like, do I tell her? I can't lie. And I said, I magically left it in my garage. She says, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to facilitate a four-hour presentation.

She's like, but you don't have your slides. Don't have the slides. the way you and I thought I should. I said, but I do have the slide. She says, where? And I did this. I said in my head. Yes.

And in my heart. Yes. She looked at me. And she says, so I say, if I don't get favorable results, this is on me. You don't have to pay me. Really? Yeah. That was cool that you said that.

You crushed it. I know it. Oh, my goodness. So I get in that room, Cinder, so this is a facilitator. And this one, you know, when I'm in the Speaker Academy, this is the stuff I share with upcoming emerging speakers. I said, listen, you need to know your content. So I go in the room. I said, okay, there's a dry race board. There's about 35, 40 people in here. So I test the markers. Okay, they're dry. And I said, hey, can you give me some fresh markers? Yes. And I said, can you give me some of those, those three-un posted notes? So I'm looking, what I can do.

Can I tell you, I'm happy. I did that. I'm happy that I forgot to pack it. You know why? That's awesome. It was better. It was way better than what I would have delivered. I had to go deep with it.

You want to talk about confidence? Yeah. You want to talk about so my confidence increased like, hey man, you know your stuff. I felt better. But that was you stress. Yeah, that was you stress. Was my negative self-talking? Absolutely.

Well, you know what, Germain, one time I drove all the way to Duluth, Minnesota, which is four hours from me. Uh-oh. I, uh, yep, I was speaking at Maddens, and I arrived there at like 10.30 at night. And I was speaking the next morning at like 8.30. And I usually put, like, all my clothes. in the back of my car. And I was on the phone as I was like grabbing things from my closet, right?

And so I get there, unpack my car, and I'm like, oh my goodness, I have nothing to wear. Like I had pants and shoes, but I didn't have a jacket. And like the only thing I had was like a summer tank top. And I forgot all of my clothes in the closet.

And so I, you know what the cool thing is? I went to the front desk and I said, do you have any like lost and found items? Because there was no stores open. I couldn't go buy anything. And she was like, how about you borrow one of our jackets for the day? So she gave me a brand new jacket like that they wear, you know, like the check-in people. And guess what?

Nobody even knew when I spoke to the next morning that wasn't my jacket. Right. You know? So we have to be so adaptable and flexible. I love what you said. Did we miss any of those other six? reasons people stay in a slump. I know you said negative south talk consistently feeling overwhelmed, but I might have missed the other ones. Right. So no sense of direction. Got it.

And so think about this. We talked about this earlier, mood congruent memory. I like to share a tip when I share this information. So when we get overwhelmed and we get that clutter, This is what, when I spoke at the beautiful mentally strong conference. Yes. I remember that day we were talking about mental and emotional clutter. So think about this. So how do we know when individuals are in the slump? One of them is no sense of direction.

Like they don't know what to do. Like I've been failing. I haven't been succeeding. I haven't been thriving. I'm striking out. So my confidence has plummeted. So is getting that individual to think about, okay, so you have clutter going on. So you're not thinking straight.

So there's two things you can do. Tap into your dream team. Nice. And this is this is one of the signs that individuals are in a tank. It says lack of support, right? When they feel like they don't have any support. Now, here's the truth in the matter. Sometimes people don't have a dream team.

I remember when I used to start speaking, I would say, hey, you got to get your dream team. This is a group of people that you've allowed to come into your personal and professional life to help you go to the next level. And I'll never forget. It was a period when people were come up and they would say, hey, I want to share something with you. I'm kind of embarrassed. How can I be 40 years old and I don't have a dream team? There are some people.

they don't have a support system. And so I had to start encouraging people you should be cultivating healthy relationships. One of my favorite writers, Dr. Lois P. Franco, she says this, when you need a relationship, it's already too late to build it. I'll say it again. When you need a relationship,

it's already too late to build it. So she says you should be constantly authentically cultivating win-win relationships do you know when I'm in a slump one of the first things I do

as I tap into my dream team I have people that I can just be vulnerable with if I need to yell and scream if I need to

emote some profanities I'm just keeping it real they're there and can I tell you that's a beautiful thing when you can call up individuals and you don't have to

give a lot of context. I have friends and I say, hey, life is horrible. Life sucks right now. Can I, can I, can I just, can I just emote? And it's therapeutic, right? So, the lack of support, no sense of direction, they feel overwhelmed. I think I talked about burnout. And one of them is fear. Fear came up when the fear is there. So here's how I define fear. Fear is anything that you perceive as threatening to your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Anything that you perceive as, it's a threat, right? So when I have that fear, I'm scary. I feel like someone or something that's going to do me harm is going to threaten me mentally, emotionally, physically.

And so fear, and I identify four fears, fear failure, fear rejection, fear success, truly unknown. Fear failure, fear rejection, fear success, and fear the unknown. And we all know how powerful fear is. fear has it has stolen a lot of dreams, goals, and aspirations. Fear and helping individuals face their fears. What's her name? I have this book. I can't think of her name right now.

But anyhow, the book is called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. Oh, Dr. Susan Jeffers. That's what I was going to say. Right. Yes. Yeah. But think about that. I love what she says, feel the fear.

the fear. You know, most people run from the fear. And I love the expression, nothing is to be feared only to be understood. Like, like, know why you're having these beliefs and emotions of not taking action. What's causing that?

Is it embarrassment? Is it shame? Is it insecurity? So it's not just to me, it's unpacking that. And I know that sounds kind of like therapy, but I'm a proponent of therapy. I'm a proponent of things that can help you unpack what's going on

so you can move forward because that's what slumps do. Slumps keep you stuck. They keep you stagnant. Yeah, and I could see how fear is directly connected to the slump, right? Because if you get into fear and it's so easy, I think we fear so many different things like you mentioned Germain. And it's like if you continue to believe in that, right? That can lead to a slump.

How do you think fear and slumps are connected? So think about this. Fear. So I have this belief that someone or something is going to do some harm to me. And so I am in this slump where I'm not thriving. and I'm not succeeding. So what it does, it prevents me from taking action upon something. Okay, so say for instance, someone is saying, hey, you need to invest in yourself.

Maybe you need to start this business or someone says you need to step outside of your comfort zone. So here's a really good story. I have a friend who worked for the Target Corporation corporate for 20 years. And things are good. She grew up professionally in Target. She's giving me permission to share this story. So one day I said, hey, you know, you've been a manager for a while. When are you going to become a senior manager?

Do you think you should be a director now? And I can see it in her eyes. And she's afraid. Now, you know how you have relationships with individuals where you can say certain things? And I say, you know what? I know you're talented. And I literally say, I know your tags. your tags are screaming to do something else.

And I said, but you know what? I said, you're comfortable. You're afraid. And she said, Jermaine, that pisses me off. Long story short, I said, hey, why don't you do this? Dust up your resume and cover letter. I said, just send it out. Just send it out.

And she was afraid. Sure. And so she was in a career slump. She knew there was more. Now guess what? Senior Vice President now. Left the Target Corporation. Fear and slumps.

Here's what happens. You talk yourself out of your own progress. You talk yourself out of your own movement. Careful of the tail you tell, that is the spell. That is from the play into the woods. So you start telling yourself. yourself this story and you're afraid to take risk. When we look back now and said, hey, did you double your salary?

Double their salary. Stock options now with the new company. Fear can keep you in a career slump in that context because you're comfortable. The biggest barrier to future success is today's success. So with that says, sometimes, Ginger, we can actually create our own slums. Yes, I can see that. So there's external slums? Yeah.

Here's what I remember in your study. Remind me this, 33% of people quit a job. Because it was hurting their confidence. Now, so when I saw that stat, first of all, there's multiple ways of looking at that. They had the courage to quit. So sometimes. sometimes you need to quit to be successful. So my friend and colleague had to quit, target, leave.

And so think about this. When you sit there for a long period of time and you take that, you start to internalize that. It starts to wound you. And then that becomes part of that learn helplessness. Mm-hmm. So true. Right?

Yeah. So true. Yeah. Germain, you know I could talk to you for like five hours. And I'm just like, you should see my notes here, everyone. Right. I love what you said about, I mean, just the different areas that are a part of the slump. 72% of people self-met would self-regulately self-medicate over like really working on that slump themselves. I love your air acronym that you shared with us today. The three whats or three Ws. W's, what, why, and what way and willpower. And then what you talked about, what really leads to a slump

and just really practical strategies to get out of it. So, Jermaine, how can people learn more about your study, download your study, and how can people learn more about your speaking? Well, they can go to germane davis.com, and there's also a website, dumpyourslump.com. And you could download the white paper. and I encourage people, download it and share it. Like, read it and explore it.

Like, make it part of a lunch and learn. Someone can facilitate that. And I would love to be a service as a keynote speaker, have day. People don't book me for full days anymore. I kind of miss those every now and then. But sometimes people might need a coach. So you can find out about me. And I'm active on LinkedIn and social media.

So Dr. Jermaine M. Davis. Well, thank you so much for your wisdom, Dr. Germaine Davis, and like your practical strategies. I love your energy and your passion. So keep being you. And what final advice would you have for people that you'd like to end today with? Yeah, I'm going to end with a quote. And I'll say it twice. Prevention is better than intervention.

Intervention is better than no attention at all. prevention is better than intervention. Intervention is better than no attention at all. Do something, my friend. If you're in a slump, practice incremental success. Sometimes we're already there and we can't prevent it. So then that's when you have to come in and intervene. And you know what?

You have tags and you have something to offer the world in your community. And so I encourage you not to stay in that slump, but to dump the slump so you can move forward and boost your confidence. And I'm not just saying this because you're my friend, but I think individuals should take a look at both of our white papers, yours on confidence and mine's on slunk. And I think there's some synergy between those two,

and I think it can help individuals, teams, and organizations. Awesome. And we'll put all that in the show notes. If you want to check out our white paper, it's at Confidence Study.com. But Jermaine, thanks for crushing it today. Man, I love your energy. Gene, thanks for being on the high performance mindset.

Thank you. Way to go for finishing another episode of the high performance mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe. And you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and enjoy my exclusive community for high performers, where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can add over to Dr. Cyndra.

That's d R-C-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.