The Fink Tank

Cam and Col Fink
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The Fink Tank

A podcast for people dealing with the weirdness of running their own small business. Brothers Cam and Col Fink chat about work, life, and the confounding idiocy of themselves and others. They've been brothers for 45 years. You get to pick who's older. Col helps people run successful small practices, and is an expert public speaker and trainer. Cam is an event producer and freelance videographer, and loves helping people bring their best selves to video.

  1. 17 OCT

    Am I wrong??

    For a few months about a decade ago, Col was insufferable. He was always “right”. He dominated most conversations and was constantly trying to impress people. It was exhausting.  It was also confusing, because that was usually my role!  In this Friday’s Fink Tank, Col asks what you should do if you’re always right. Because – spoiler alert – you aren’t. Especially you, smart people.  Lots of you* SUCK at realising your smug and entitled hot take is A) not as objective or impressive as you think, and B) no fun to be around. If you suspect this might be you sometimes, feel free to skip to the last fifteen seconds of this episode to hear The Dude from the Big Lebowski give you the appraisal you may need. *me

    7 min

  2. 10 OCT

    The dog and the trainer

    Often, my fingers remember how to play a song my brain has forgotten. If I forget a section of a tune, the best way to remember is to start playing it again from the start, distract my conscious brain from thinking about it, and just let my fingers go about getting it done. Actively trying to remember is unhelpful, but once my fingers have reloaded it back into my conscious brain, we’re all good. It’s like I get handed a reminder note from the person sitting next to me, except that person is my own hands.  Mastery is often a confounding pursuit. In this uncommon episode of The Fink Tank (I barely say a word*!) Col talks us through what he's learned about brains and mastery through his obsession with ultimate frisbee.  How do you get really good at something, and then perform on the biggest stage? Why are famous sporting chokes so fascinating?? What can we do to avoid the equivalent in our own professional lives? I can CLEARLY remember the humiliation of an early public speaking appearance, where I lost not only the access to my knowledge, but also the ability to speak. I had definitely not practised enough. Have you had a memorable “choke”? * The main reason being I find it impossible to play guitar and talk at the same time. Can any of my fellow guitar players out there do this??

    6 min

  3. 3 OCT

    Don't be the best, be the favourite

    Col’s family is bottle feeding four sheep, and one of them is the clear favourite. When Col finds himself deciding which sheep he wants to hang out with, he always chooses the one with the personality, the energy, the “spunk”. If you’re running your own small business, you need enough clients to make it work. For the clients to choose you, you have to be their favourite. Even better, if you attract them by being you - by showing your energy, your personality, your “spunk” - you stand a much better chance of attracting people you'll like working with, and enjoying the work. As Jay Acunzo says, you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be enough peoples' favourite.Go you good things.

    5 min

  4. 19 SEPT

    Sibling shithousery

    Col and my relationship was once very fractured. Now it’s one of the most rewarding in our lives. What happened? Repairing relationships is a critical part of life. We're all flawed humans, and sometimes we get things badly wrong. How good are you at owning your role in a rift? We kick off this Fink Tank with two minutes of juvenile idiocy, before delving into a story of sibling reconciliation. Warning: If you enter a puerile childhood idiom as a security question, you may one day have to say the answer out loud to a real person.

    9 min

  5. 13 SEPT

    13 cigarettes to go

    After many failed attempts over several years, Col finally quit smoking with 13 durries to go.  Smoking killed our dad, but that wasn't enough to make him stop. And my strong condemnation actively worked *against* his intention to quit. What’s that about?? Decisions clouded with shame often feel like they happen in closed-off parts of our brain. And it’s not only habits like smoking that are addictive. Work routines, negative relationship patterns, self sabotage, imposter syndrome, procrastination. There are lots of ways to be an addict. They’re often destructive, and we wish we behaved differently.  One day, Col DID quit smoking. With thirteen cigarettes still in the pack. He smoked them. And never smoked another. Why was this time different?

    8 min

  6. 5 SEPT

    The money don't lie

    I’m often baffled by how my money behaves. I can be convinced I want to spend money on something, which I can afford, which will make my life better. I then somehow just… don’t. My money has other ideas.  Other times I can be repulsed by an inflated price tag or an unnecessary indulgence. And to my dismay, the cash can’t spend itself fast enough. The surprises are the exception, but they happen across the board. Hobbies, travel, food, work expenses, professional development. Trying to predict what my money will do is an uncertain science. When you’re running a small business, you have to decode this mystery with OTHER people’s money. As Col says, people lie with their mouths, but they don’t lie with their wallet. And they’re often saying different things. Your job is to listen to the truth of your customer's wallets, because their mouths might be misinformed. Friend of the Fink Tank Ellen Rogin, CPA, actually interviews people’s money to help them better understand each other. I love the idea of treating money as a separate entity that you have to get to know and understand. Because it's got a mind of its own.

    6 min

  7. 29 AUG

    Presenter Voice

    Our older brother Michael once addressed our full school assembly, and spoke in a false baritone so comical Col can’t think about it without squealing with laughter. Pretty much everyone who’s spoken in front of an audience or gotten on camera has inadvertently used a weird Presenter Voice. But really, the only thing weird about it is a hope or expectation that we’ll be able to speak normally. You’ve spent your whole life having low-pressure conversations one-on-one or in small groups. Tens of thousands of hours of practice. Speaking from stage or down the black hole of a camera lens is a totally different skill. You should EXPECT to be crap when you start out.  In the state of Victoria you have to log 120 hours of driving as a Learner before you’re even allowed to take the test to get your full license. 120 hours is probably more than you’ll need to get passably good on camera or the stage, but it’s not a bad goal. Mastery takes time.  And without at least ten hours under your belt, don’t judge yourself harshly for your Presenter Voice. Just keep practising.

    5 min

  8. 22 AUG

    Tick it off

    Col has been clearing his to-do list by ticking things off without actually doing them. 🙌 🎉  And then celebrating like he has. What a strategy.  A trick for maximising your productivity is to actively avoid doing nearly everything. Like most human beings, you're amazing. You're smart, talented, capable and adaptable. You could do almost anything! This expansive possibility is both exciting and frustrating, because it's soon meet with the realisation that while you *could* do almost anything, you *can* do almost nothing... or at least, only a very limited number of the things in the near-infinite field of possibility stretching out before you. Col and I have spent large portions of our lives frustrating ourselves and the people around us by overestimating what we can achieve, and are only now—in our mid-to-late forties!—coming to terms with the limits of our capabilities. In this episode of The Fink Tank, we reflect on our limitations and gently laugh about things which our respective partners and colleagues have no doubt found utterly infuriating. Oops! Sorry! Mid-episode my brain recalled a model from Alicia McKay’s excellent “Get Your Shit Sorted” workshop from 2020 lockdown times. She has a habit of producing incredible work that gets used once and forgotten (the price of prolific output). Here are her (paraphrased) 4D’s for low-priority tasks: Do the minimum – Half-arsing is often the right option. Delegate – Outsource that sucker. Delay – Not everything needs to be done now. Delete – Many things don’t need to be done at all. Col has been having an absolute party with number 4.  Could you?

    6 min
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About

A podcast for people dealing with the weirdness of running their own small business. Brothers Cam and Col Fink chat about work, life, and the confounding idiocy of themselves and others. They've been brothers for 45 years. You get to pick who's older. Col helps people run successful small practices, and is an expert public speaker and trainer. Cam is an event producer and freelance videographer, and loves helping people bring their best selves to video.

Information

  • Creator
    Cam and Col Fink
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    58
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Cam and Col Fink
  • Show Website
    The Fink Tank

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