Booked Wrong: What Happens When Talent Is Miscast

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When professionals are misaligned with their roles, it's not about lacking talent but being placed in the wrong story. The path to authentic success comes from recognizing your unique shape and leaning into it rather than contorting yourself to fit predetermined expectations.

• The Rock initially failed as a smiling, high-energy baby face despite his wrestling pedigree
• His career transformed when he aligned his character with his natural energy and audience response
• Job descriptions rarely capture what companies truly need from you
• We're trained to bend ourselves into bullet point lists instead of showing up in our rare, natural shape
• Wrestling legends like Mick Foley and The Undertaker succeeded by embracing their unique qualities
• Performance problems are often storyline problems—"it's not the player, it's the placement"
• Some people are atmospheres, not employees—squeezing them into task lists kills their power

Please like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone who's been labeled difficult, lazy, or "not a fit." Connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/iamjayfloyd or visit my new website at iamjayfloyd.com to learn about my upcoming book and workshops designed to help people find their shape.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look, there's a moment in wrestling where the
crowd turns, not because thewrestler got worse or got better
, but that the story eitherstarted or stopped making sense.
Look, dwayne the Rock Johnson,the famous wrestler that
everybody knows from WWE.
And when he debuted inwrestling he was smiling, high

(00:25):
energy, awkwardly cheerful.
They billed him as a bluechipper.
He was a baby face, can't miss,perfect, good guy.
He was raised in the industry.
His parents, his grandparentshad all been wrestlers.
He had it.
He was there in WrestleMania I,when Hulk Hogan defeated the

(00:49):
Iron Sheik and startedWrestleMania and Hulkamania
taking over the world.
Right, he was there.
He was a kid, he was there.
This dude was a can't-missprospect.
The crowd hated him.

(01:09):
It's not that he was bad at hisjob.
He was not a bad wrestler.
He was.
He knew exactly what to do.
He had been trained longer thananybody.
He was just booked wrong, right, nobody had really taken the
time to see.
What is the uniqueness aboutthis dude?
What can we bring that willmake this work?
They just thought it's going towork.

(01:30):
People didn't reject his talent.
They rejected the mismatchbetween his energy and the role
that had been given him.
Fast forward, given enoughopportunities, he started
digging and digging and saw thatthe crowd hated him.

(01:51):
And, given what he knew, again,he grew up in this business, so
he knew that if you're a babyface, it doesn't matter.
If the crowd hates you, theyhate you.
So you got to lean into that,make them hate you more.

(02:18):
Turn heel, lean into theswagger, lean into that
cockiness, become something forthem to boo.
And guess what?
All of a sudden they loved him.
Why?
They didn't love his character.
They didn't love cockiness andarrogance, but they loved the
alignment.
It made sense.
Here was this wrestler who had,since diapers, seen exactly

(02:45):
what it takes to make the crowdgo crazy.
He knew it.
He knew it.
He knew how to respond towhatever they gave him.
And now, instead of just comingout and smiling and trying to
be this baby face, he wasresponding to the audience.
If they hated him, he would behealed.

(03:06):
If they loved him, oh, he was ababy face.
If it was somewhere in between,he was that.
Either way, he was just goingto be the rock and use all of
that that.
He came to the table with itSame wrestler, different story,
better alignment.
I've seen this happen time andtime again.

(03:30):
It doesn't just happen inwrestling, it happens in tech,
I've seen it happen inleadership and I've been that
guy.
I've been that Early in mycareer.
I would get feedback like yougot a lot of potential.
One day it's going to click foryou.
You know, we know that you arebringing a lot to.

(03:50):
We're just going to have tofind it, piece it all together.
I'm solving problems, I'mbuilding team culture, I'm
coaching people on the sidewithout a title.
I'm wondering why things feeloff.
My managers are like, yeah,you're doing okay, but it's just
not all clicking.
You're not bringing everythingto the table.

(04:10):
In other words, the crowd's notgoing crazy yet.
In fact, they don't even likeyou.
The crowd's booing a little bit.
The crowd is not eating it uplike we thought when we hired
you.
Right, it's not a disciplineproblem, it's a design mismatch.

(04:31):
It's a design mismatch Once Istarted to figure out you know
what this stuff of me helping tobuild team culture, coach
people this is me right, this isme.
Whatever job description that is, I got to be that.
I don't know if that's a heel,I don't know if that's a baby

(04:52):
face, but you know what that's?
Jay Floyd.
I got to be that.
And the more I leaned into it,those job descriptions start
changing or they would expand oropportunities would open up.
Look, here's the thing nobodysays out loud.
Job descriptions are not alwaysthe best indicator of what a
company needs from you.

(05:12):
They just don't know you yetthey don't know you.
So once you get in there, yougot to show them.
You cannot wait for them toalways see it.
We've been trained to bendourselves into the shape of a
bullet point list instead ofshowing up in the rare shape

(05:33):
that we are born with and we'vebeen shaped in our entire lives.
Now let's go deeper with somewrestling gospel Mick Foley.
You may know him as Dude Love.
You might know him as Mankind.
You may know him as Cactus Jack.
He was a blood-stained,flannel-wearing philosopher with

(05:57):
the body of an out-of-shapemath teacher and the mind of a
daredevil man.
He jumped off hell in a cellwhen he was fighting the
Undertaker.
He would land on a box ofthumbtacks.
You cannot book that guy as yourclean cut champion If you want
him to come out and be HulkHogan or Bob Backlund.

(06:20):
It's not going to work.
You book him for car crashes,legendary promos, wild
unpredictability, and then, onceit starts rolling, you let him
put his hand in a dirty sock anduse that as a puppet.
You let him do those things andall of a sudden it starts
rolling.
The alignment is there.
He's jumping off a cell.

(06:41):
He won't quit.
He won't quit.
He keeps coming back.
The blood is gushing.
He'll fight anybody.
And next thing, you know thecrowd loves, right?
If you tried to clean him upearly, you lose everything that

(07:01):
made him iconic.
Right?
Look at the undertaker.
Imagine trying to book him as amid-card tag team guy with
whatever baby face smile.
No, you don't give the dead mana regular entrance.
You dim the lights.
You build a feeling.

(07:22):
I remember when the Undertakerwas mean Mark Callis and he was
part of a tag team.
His gimmick was just that he'stall and he's big and he's agile
.
Okay, he is, he's huge Dude waslike 6'8 or something, big dude
who could walk on the ringropes like a tightrope.

(07:43):
That's great, but in what storydoes that work?
What if you make him the deadman who can take anything?
Every single finishing maneuver?
You give it to him and he stillrises up from the dead.
You dim the lights.

(08:04):
You shoot fire into the skywhen he comes out.
Well now that guy walking theropes?
Well, that's almost likesomething zombie.
It should almost add to themystique.
Here's the point Some of us wereborn to be atmospheres, not

(08:24):
employees.
When you try to squeezeatmosphere into a task list,
you're going to kill the verything that brings power to the
room.
So here's my question to youwhen in your life are you being
booked wrong?
Where are you over deliveringin silence while being

(08:45):
undervalued in feedback?
Think about that.
What shape are you?
What do you bring to the table?
The rock brought that.
He had the lineage.
He had the lineage.
He had seen it all.
He could respond to what theaudience did.
Give him a chance to do that.

(09:07):
Mick Foley, he's doing thisdespite being out of shape and
not shaped like your typicalsuperhero, muscle-bound guy, but
he's not going to quit.
You got to give him a chance tolean into all of that.
And for my leaders, who on yourteam has been miscast?

(09:32):
You might be sitting on therock, but you might be booking
them like Rocky Maivia.
Here's what I've learnedPerformance problems are often
storyline problems.
It's not the player, it's theplacement.
You don't need to reinventyourself.
You need to show up fully andhelp others do the same.
So my call to action to you ifthis hits you, share this

(09:57):
episode with somebody who's beenlabeled maybe difficult or lazy
or not a fit, or maybe, like me, their manager is saying we're
only getting 40% of you, orsomething that I hear routinely
from people that I coach.
Oh, they need to improve theirsoft skills.

(10:17):
Maybe they're not failing,maybe they're just rare, and
they need to find what thatshape really is so they can lean
into it.
Look my next episode.
I'm super excited about thisone man.
It's called the Baseline ofExcellence.
Why quiet doesn't mean weak.

(10:37):
We're going to talk about whathappens when we only celebrate
loudness and we overlook thosesilent strengths that actually
hold it all together.
So listen, thank you again forjoining me.
Please like and subscribe.
Share this.
Share this out.
I'm always on LinkedIn.
You'll always see me out there.
Linkedincom slash.

(10:58):
I am Jay Floyd.
Check out my new website.
I just designed this website,so let me know what you think
about my skills.
I am jayfloydcom.
Check me out.
I am pretty soon to roll out mynewest book, as well as my
workshop that helps peoplereally find their shape.

(11:19):
So if you're interested inbringing that workshop to any of
your organizations or you'reinterested in being in that
workshop, reach out to me.
Dm me on LinkedIn or reach outto my website, imjfloydcom.
Thank y'all again.
I love y'all.
Keep rocking man, and don'tforget be rare on purpose.