Season 1 | Episode 50 | Year End Review with Lance & Rhett

Foreign.

What is up, my friend? How we doing?

I'm crossing my fingers. You want to tell people why?

Yeah. So we've recorded episode 50, like a partial a bit about three times now.

Yeah, we're kind of back where we started with some, like, errors in our recording process.

I feel like that's great. You know, it's like, it's like a good, like if you're preaching or a good speech, like, you got to have that tie back to how you started it all off.

Yeah, totally. So here we are, back to the beginning. But thankfully Ro Smith has jumped on the bandwagon here with us and been a huge help the last several months editing video and sound. So thankfully he was listening. Thank you, Ro.

We are extremely thankful for everything that you do for us. Like, this has been so awesome to be able to have a dependable person that can make up for our foolhardy or whatever. Goof. Goofball. Lack of knowledge in B cell. Imbecility.

Yeah. If you go to our Spotify or Apple, under the bio, you'll see his name listed as our video and audio engineer.

Yes.

It's a very high paying job.

Very high paid. He was actually a guest too. You did a good job.

Yeah, we brought him on. He's new to the RT world and so it was awesome. So, you know, we want to kind of wrap up the year in episode 50 here. Talk about next season. Also talk about this season, what we learned, actually give some stats, which I think are helpful. Cool. But go back to when I asked you to do a podcast. What were you thinking? Be honest.

Okay. Do you want me to be like the real honest?

Yeah, man, be the real honest.

Number one, I was super humbled. But then there's another part of me of like that feeling of being a cliche, like, you know what I mean? That, like, hey, I got a podcast now type person and we did it. I mean, I think I. I didn't really. When we, when you asked me to do, I was super humbled. I think it's like. And we've seen that it's like a necessary, It's a helpful thing for people. But yeah, there's a. Definitely a big part of me that felt so like being the sellout or I don't even know what you call it because it's not like we. Like, there's a part like, Amber, you're gonna do this. That's a, That's a thing. We're gonna do a podcast.

Yeah, it's one of those cultural things, you know, over the last couple of decades, when blogs started, eventually everyone had a blog. Right.

I'm a blogger.

Yeah. And then everyone had their, like, certain social media profiles and everyone jumped on the podcast. But the secret for me is that, you know, I would say not a secret. So I'll tell everybody here. I would do this regardless if anyone ever listened. Like, I enjoy getting on with you each week talking. I enjoy having guests. I enjoy processing things and writing things. That's how I learn, that's how I grow. And our goal is just to stay steadily consistent for however long this journey goes.

Yeah, I'd agree, man. Like, it's really fun. I enjoy hanging out with you, I think. I love the way you think about things. I love the way you process things. And I like. It's been fun asking others, like, about restoration therapy. So it's been an honor to be able to join you.

Let's do a couple things then. I'm gonna start by reading you a few stats from this year because I think it's just fun. And then let's talk about what we learned about ourselves and about the RT community this last year, and let's look ahead to next year and tell people what we're going to be doing.

Sweet sound. I think.

Yeah.

People are gonna be stoked for the end, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, okay, I want to read you a few stats for our humble little podcast, which I think is fun, you know, because I think it's more people listen than I think you thought would. Yeah.

But we all. I like to imagine that there's 30 people that listen. And. Yeah, part of that 30 is 10 of my people that work for me.

Yeah.

Because I. Because I pay them to listen to.

But, you know, it. There's very small numbers compared to the podcast that most of us listen to. Right. But sure. So, for example, audio podcast, which we posted to Apple and Spotify, and it shows up on a few other places. 58.6% of people streamed on Apple and 29 and a half percent on Spotify. So between those two platforms, our podcast was downloaded 4,606 times. What? Pretty awesome, right? Yeah.

That's crazy.

People spent 700. Yeah, 4,606 times. People spent 740 hours listening to the RT Dialogue.

Oh, 740 hours. That's crazy.

Yeah, that's like two hours over two hours a day. People are listening to the RT Dialogue this year.

Wow, that's cool. Okay.

Yeah. On Spotify itself, we have 89 followers who follow us just on the Spotify App.

Okay. Okay. I thought there was like maybe like 30 people listening, so. Yeah, that's way more.

303 different people were reached through the podcast. So 303 different unique profiles on Apple and Spotify or listen to it. Cool. Okay. Audience is 52.3% female, 43% male.

Ah. And then right in the middle there. Okay.

Yeah. Four and a half percent. Just don't specify anything. So we don't know the largest.

I respect that.

The largest listing group, which was about 34%, was people between the ages of 35 to 44. Okay, so younger than us.

Yeah, that is younger than us.

Eight, Eight countries. Listen. So the number one top country is United States, followed by Australia, then Germany, then uk, Then Russia, then South Korea, then the Philippines, then Japan.

Okay.

Pretty cool.

That's great. I don't know how to say thank you in all the different languages, but. Konishiwa.

Yeah, there you go. Okay. Of the 50 episodes, what do you think was the most popular on Spotify and Apple? What? What was listened to the most, do you think?

Well, I. I feel pretty confident in this one.

Okay.

It's got to be one of the Terry and Sharon ones. I don't know which one, but it's.

Got to be that episode four with Terry and Sharon.

Yeah.

Yep. Most popular episode of the year.

Yeah, that. That was a great episode. You got to go back and listen to it.

Yeah. And that one had. I don't have the number in front of me. It was something like 270 listens and stuff. So it's kind of give you an idea about an episode breakdown. So that's the audio. We also put us up on YouTube, you know, and I'm no expert. When I look at the social media landscape and growth, it seems like YouTube is where people are headed. Video is huge. Video search. One thing I didn't share is that our podcast was in the top 10% of all podcasts this year for videos watched. What? Yep. So on Spotify. On Spotify. You know, you can watch the video on Spotify and they do a year end wrap up and I got an email saying your RT. RT Dialogue made the top 10% of all podcasts globally. For people watching the video.

That's crazy.

Yeah. Which tells you something also about. I guess maybe video is not that popular on Spotify. It's popular. There's probably like us and then, you know, the top 1% is probably. They're probably have like 800 million downloads or something like that.

Yeah. I always thought I had a Face made for radio. But I guess. I guess the video is. Okay. Thanks, guys.

So back to YouTube. We posted on YouTube. Our YouTube videos for the podcasts had 1,800 views this year.

Okay.

People spent 375 hours on YouTube watching the RT dialogue.

Okay.

That's a lot. Three hundred and seventy hours. I mean, that's more than I would have thought. There are 51 subscribers on the YouTube channel. Really? Yep. 51 subscribers now. What do you think the top video was on YouTube for the podcast? I.

Okay. Video. I'm gonna. I think it's gonna be one of the tenor episodes because those episodes are really good, but they're really worth watching.

Those were high, as were the Nancy Free Guard group. But no ron deal. Episode seven was the most watched video on YouTube.

He does have a good setup. He has a great.

Our buddy Ron's got a huge following too.

Yeah, Love that guy. He's been a good support for us. Kind of pushing us along, doing how to do better.

Yeah. Thank you, ron. So that's YouTube. We talked about Spotify, Apple. So let's talk about substack. People aren't even like, Rhett. What is substack? Right.

I'm still figuring it out.

Yeah, it's just a platform for writing and video content. It's gained huge popularity in the last couple years. It's a subscription based. People can pay or it's free. Ours is free. So we have 156 subscribers to our substack.

Oh, what?

It's a lot. Yep, 156. So our substack this year had 19,000 visits to it.

What?

Yep.

19,000.

Yeah, 19,000. A lot of that has to do because it was pushed. People subscribe and it goes to their email. But we had 19,000 visits to the substack in 2025. Whoa. Yep.

That's what? 19,000. That's crazy.

Yeah, it's pretty awesome, huh? 22 states are subscribed and four countries. So what do you think the top states are? Subscribe to our substack.

I'm gonna go with either California or Texas because that's where we're from. What do you think?

Yep. Texas is number one. Followed by California, Oklahoma, Georgia, and then Ohio.

Whoa.

Pretty cool. Okay.

Love it. That's great.

Top four countries. What do you think the top four countries are?

Usa. Let's go with. Oh, gosh. I think Australia could make it again, right?

Pretty close.

New Zealand.

US Is number one. Austria is number two. Australia's number three. Mexico's number four.

Ah, muy. Bien. Love it.

Okay. And the stat. That kind of blew my mind. We talked about this a little bit. You know how we push our podcast, Right. It goes to substack, and people, like, check it out that way. Which episode do you think had the most popularity through the substack channel?

Okay. It's got to be an early one. I'm gonna say Michael Cox.

Nope. He was pretty high, though. So be Michael Cox.

He. That guy's great. He's got the look and everything.

Bisola. Bisola. Bisola was our number one. Yeah.

That was a fun episode.

Yeah, I know I'm not pronouncing her name correctly there. Bisola. I think I'm saying it right. We did good on the podcast with her. But then I kind of go a little haywire sometimes saying it correctly. If you're listening, her podcast was opened up by 1,238 different emails. Wow. Yeah. The closest to that was about 340 opened emails. So when we dug into it, I think what happened is her podcast is really popular that people forwarded that substack email to different people or network. And so Bisola wins the award by far. Her episode was opened up in email by 1,238 different people. Wow. Crazy. Yeah. That says something about her. Her network and what she had to say. And she was great.

She. She. For someone that, like, reached out to us and, like, kind of called us out, I thought I loved her. I thought she was great.

Yeah. She reached out and said, you gotta have my professor.

Yeah.

On the podcast, who taught me rt. Dr. Kassar.

Yeah.

And so we're like, well, if you're. If we're gonna have your professor on, let's have you on, you know? Yeah. She was awesome. So hopefully we'll have her on again, too. Again this next year. So anyways, just kind of breaking it down. If I. I didn't put all the numbers together, but, you know, if I kind of put all the numbers together, you know, with YouTube substack, the audio stream, for example, we had about 26,000 different visits. People listening either through substack, Spotify, Apple, YouTube. So that's pretty awesome. I'm just really happy that people were excited about RT dialogue.

That's great. I mean, it's a worthy topic to talk about. And I guess we are goons enough to do that. You told me that it was going to be that we were doing well, and I was like, man, we got to step our game up right in the text messaging.

Yeah.

I'm like, no, like, no, don't.

We'll. We want to keep it off. We, you know, there's some things we can improve on for sure, but we want to keep it down to earth and authentic and, you know, not. Not try to get too fancy because that's when we would not be consistent. We're just too busy to spend too much time on the podcast during the week. That's the reality.

Totally. And, you know, I think you're right. We have that same mentality. We just do this because fun to hang out with each other and learn more.

This is, this is one of the many things that we've been doing this year in the RT community. But hey, maybe I'll put these numbers together in a little portfolio and send off to Vori, see if they'll sponsor our podcast. Yes.

Hey, Vori, thank you for sponsoring RT dialogue.

Maybe they can take some of that Arch Manning nil money and send it our way that they've been given. You know what I'm saying?

We could be like the dream knit ones, helping people to establish their dreams because we knit everything together so well.

Yeah, I love it. And you know, I'll say this, the one thing I didn't do intentionally this year, I didn't post. I posted a couple of little edits to my social media of the podcast, but I did not create an RT dialogue, Instagram, things like that. And several reasons. One is just don't have the time or bandwidth. Number two, I think what I've really appreciated about the ethos of the RT community and what Sharon and Terry have done is this idea of just going deep and having deep roots. And I think if you're going to, it's. You can listen to a little blurb on a social media and kind of miss the whole context of a conversation, Right?

Yeah.

But a podcast requires you to kind of listen in, as does watching a YouTube video, or actual doing the work of subscribing to the substack and getting that and being a part of the community. And so it was an intentional decision that I thought, you know, our purpose is to go deep, to invite people in the community to be involved. And so for now, at least, let's stay away from just quick sound bites that maybe get people excited about something, but there's really no interest in involvement in the community. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, no, I think, I think that's right. I think it's been. I feel like there probably are a bunch of good ones that we could do on there, but that Requires a lot of work.

Yeah. And it doesn't mean we wouldn't ever. But again, this may be anecdotal, but I've been doing a lot of research and reading and listening to things, and social media has become so glutted, and it's easy to take things out of context and even talking to some authors now where people want a big online presence, but what they're finding is that just because you have a big social media following doesn't mean people are going to buy your book. Right, Right. And we could have a lot of followers maybe in RT dialogue, social media platform. But what I really care about is that people took time out during the week to actually listen to an episode or to watch a video or to subscribe and read through an email, and that's just really paid off. We see a lot of people getting involved in this community, a lot of cool things happening. So, anyways, I just wanted to speak to that, too.

That's great, man. Hey, yeah. And thanks for listening. All you people out there that engage with us. It's certainly humbling for us and we're very thankful that you're enjoying or at least putting up with the work.

Yeah, it's been a fun journey. So all to say is, Lance, Okay. We've spent almost, not quite, but 10 months, 10 and a half months, almost 11 months interviewing people, talking to people. You and I have been Gavin on during the week multiple times a week. What's the biggest thing you've learned this year about doing the podcast about the RT community, About the theory itself, Anything that you've learned that's really stood out?

Yeah, I mean, I think one thing I'm learning is just the beauty of our community. I think I. I tend to look up a lot and not. Not around. And I think one of the things that this has really allowed us to do, like, you know, because I'm like, always think about Terry. What would Terry say? What would Terry or Sharon like think about how they've poured into us so much. But the RT dialogue has really given us an opportunity to look around us talking with people. And I think I just love there's our common language, but then our different expression of the common language. So that's been really fun for me as like in doing this podcast specifically. Yeah. Yeah. How about you, man? What. What have you learned?

Yeah, I think I've just learned how vibrant the RT community is and how many people out there love this model.

Yeah.

And how much more expansive and broad. It's not the right word. How much more expansive it's being used across the country and practices across the globe just to kind of get people actually on the podcast. People sending emails from different, different places. You know, I had a sense. We kind of know that there's a lot of people practicing RT and that Terry and Sharon have hands on, trained. A lot of people mentioned a lot of people. Yeah. But I think I've even, like, through this year been like, wow, this community is way bigger than I already imagined and people are very passionate about it.

Yeah, yeah, that, that's been very clear. Yeah, I, Yeah, it's just, it's really fun. It's. It's really expanding. I think it has that staying power of a, of a therapy model that, you know, since it's so grounded and, you know, good, like good science and good theology, I think it has, it has that really good staying power.

Yeah. And you say that because there's a lot of models who've disappeared over the years.

Oh, totally. Or models that are fads. It's like, it's really fun to do this. But then.

Yeah. And popular models that we won't name on the podcast, but popular models that are dying out as we speak and losing momentum pretty fast. So. Yeah, it has a real deep grassroots effort to it.

Yeah.

What. Maybe the different question is, any big surprises doing the podcast this year in the RT community that just like, whoa, I didn't expect that.

I mean, let's see here. I'm trying to think. I, I mean, my surprise is whenever I hear people that are listening to it, like, that's like, that's always the big surprise for me. Like, oh, that's great. You like this. Okay, cool.

Yeah, you've. You and I have been on the receiving end of some text messages from people who are like, hey, I was in a training and people were talking about the RT dialogue.

Yeah. Like, oh, that's probably been. I mean, that's like a personal surprise.

Yeah.

I don't, I think I'm surprised to see, like, just this whole. I don't, I don't know. I feel like, like the big surprise to me is like, it feels like we're in a big shift right now for restoration therapy.

That's.

I, I was not expecting that. So as we dialogue with everybody, as we connect with everybody, it feels like RT is like, on, like, we've. We've dug down really good roots and it feels like we're ready to expand a lot more. So to, to me, that's really, like, very surprising to see that happen. And to be like, Feels like we're like right on the cusp of it.

Yeah. It's interesting.

What surprised you? Oh, good.

Yeah, I, I, I think like the biggest surprise for me. And I don't know if this is, I don't know if it totally surprises. I, I'll. Let me say what it is. How many people are alone and lonely as therapists.

Yeah.

And had no place to connect. You know, therapy by nature can be a pretty not. And everyone's in a group practice like the one that you have a lot of like therapists on their own. And so as we got into conversations with people or I had emails of people during the year talking who reached out about things, they heard something. I was surprised in many ways how many of us are doing therapy kind of alone and in and didn't have a place or a tool or a model where they can refine their craft. And so there's, and myself included, I have my own private practice. And part of the reason I wanted to start the dialogue and get more involved in the community is like, I hate the feeling of being alone as a therapist. And so it just made me think. There are lots of people around the world who do therapy sitting in office, who maybe never ever train again, ever. Like, they may get some CEUs online and go to something, but they don't train. And so I think what I'm surprised by is how many people were really eager this year to get involved in the RT community who haven't been for a while. And that can be through listening to the podcast or showing up at trainings, coming to the summit, coming to some other events. And that's what I, it was a surprise. And I think also something that's not totally crazy to expect that people are dying to find, find a community. Right. And I think RT offers this place where there's a desire to grow as a therapist. And that's promoted at the top by Terry and Sharon.

Absolutely.

And I just was like, wow, people are dying to get connected and to keep learning and growing as a therapist. And that's a cool, that's a cool finding for me.

Yeah, I think, I think it's a really good insight as far as the loneliness of everything. And then because I feel like as a therapist, you can get away with really shoddy work.

Yeah.

Like literally people pay the exact same no matter what. And you know, they'll self select. But if you do, if you do good rt, then you're actually working yourself out of the job because people get better quicker. So yeah. So it's, like, easy to get away with not doing good work.

I think there's an expectation, if you're a part of this community in any form and you're showing up at things or events, is that there's an expectation that you're going to be challenged in a positive way and you're going to be asked to grow as a therapist. And I think that's unique to this model. I just think it is. I've been around a lot of models. I think that's unique and it's cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Terry always. I consulted with Terry for years. I'd say, like, probably, like about a little around over a decade, for sure. And he would close out every time with. With me. I'm sure he's done it for all you that. That listen in where he says, go and be the best therapist in the world. And, like, I really take that to heart of, like, we are given gifts that come into our office every single day, and we get to care for them. So that's the reality.

Yeah. Here's another surprise that I had. How many people listening to the podcast were put in their pain because they listened to all these other therapists and crazy interventions and things, and they felt inadequate as a therapist. Oh. Or they felt like, because I'm on this podcast, I'm doing all these things correctly and. Right. And I. I think it was cool to have conversations with these people and myself included to say, hey, we're all, like, learning this. We're all learning this together.

Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. Yeah. And, you know, I would also add if there's probably other people that are in their pain because they word asked to be on. We're asking everybody to be on. So if you ever listen to this podcast and like, we want. This is your. This is your invitation. We love any RT person and we. And you're probably sitting there thinking, like, oh, not me, not me. No, you. We're talking to you. So we'd love to have you join us. Um, if you're listening.

If you're listening or know somebody who should be on or you've already been on. Want to come on again? Yeah.

Yeah.

Email Rhett Smith.com Lance Allah gmail.com or Restoration Therapy Dialogue. Gmail.com hit us up and we will have you on.

Game on.

All right. And I mean that in a positive way, by the way. It is. I think as therapists, we all feel inadequate sometimes as therapists, when we watch somebody in the room work or do beautiful work. You know, and so that's. That's not a bad thing. I think it challenges us to continue to grow.

Totally. I would agree with that.

Okay, Lance, talk to me.

Goose.

Looking ahead, season two. What are we excited about?

Okay, I am excited because there's been this project I've been wanting to do with the podcast that kind of came up in my heart a few months ago. So I am excited to do a series called RT Sessions. And I want to break down first session, working through the pain cycle, kind of questions I ask. I have a little cheat sheet I use, and I want to hear how you do things. Talking through interventions, using the interventions, just kind of getting the whole flow of therapy because I think it would be really useful for people when they're getting, you know, getting into the therapy. I know we have a lot of new people that listen to us that are newer therapists, so I'm really excited to do that series with you.

Yeah. And even someone like me who. Who's been around the model for 15 years, like, there's a lot of things I need to read, I need to relearn and do better and that I kind of forget about or things that we've developed in the model that are different than maybe when I first learned, you know, and it's easy to get kind of lazy in the chair and get out of sync with some things. So I'm excited to watch you do that. That's really co. Yeah. Having some sessions, some episodes where we take people through the process of doing RT therapy. Essentially, yes.

What are you excited about, Rhett?

We're gonna. We're gonna branch out outside of the RT community, too, and bring people in who aren't therapists in the community. Some have been exposed to RT and are practicing it in some different ways. Like we have a professor coming on who uses it as a model and in her communications classes at a university. There's some names you and I want to bring in who are pastors or theologians who I think we can talk about the RT model with them, and we can. We can in the process, just kind of integrate the work that they're doing with the model. So just having people come in from the outside who we can grow and learn from, I think will be really helpful.

Do you think we could get that big pastor from Bel Air Presbyterian Church to come on?

Drew Sams? Drew, we'll have you on at some point.

Please, Drew, join us.

Drew's my brother in law, also a close friend of Lance, who has been exposed to RT at length and stuff. So kind of getting a pastoral perspective on it. I also am excited just to meet more people in the RT community. Like we said, we want to meet you or have you back on because we want to continue to grow in our connections with people in the RT community. The other piece we'll do differently, I think we're going to lean into just doing more practical interventions so it won't be just, hey, get to know this person. It's more like, let's talk more about the work you're doing and how that work shows up so that people listening can learn more about what it means to be an RT therapist. So I'm excited about that.

Yeah, like, nailing down, like, hey, I have a personality. I have a borderline personality disorder. Come in the room. What am I supposed to do if I have adhd? What does RT look like with that? So I'm excited for those. That'll be great.

Yeah. And if people listening have any things that they want us to cover, you know, feel free to send us an email, reach out, whatever, and we'd be more than happy. We, you know, consider this a privilege to be able to do this stuff. And one of the things, too, you know, if you have things that are on the calendar for 20, 26, things that you're putting on, events that you're excited about. I've created a link at the top of the substack for upcoming events, but we want to each episode, hey, talk about what's going on the RT community this week or this month. So if you got stuff you want us to advertise that you're doing, let us know. We'd love to share that. There's tons of things happening and we're not a. We're only aware of a small part of it.

Yes, we are excited. Anything rt. If you're presenting somewhere, tell us about it. If you're learning something new about how it fits or if an article comes out, let us know.

Yeah, other than that, if you're listening, if you haven't subscribed to Substack, go over and subscribe to our substack. It's just RT dialogue. Just. Just Google Substack RT dialogue. It's that stuff is always in our show notes as well. Subscribe on Spotify and Apple. Subscribe to the YouTube. Why is that important? It actually helps people find the podcast when people subscribe to it. And so it's helpful for us and people can leave comments there. So please do that. If you've enjoyed the podcast this year, if you want to leave a review? I think that's super helpful too, for us. Anything else, Lance, as we close this year out that you want to say or just share about the podcast or about rt?

I'm curious, Rhett, if you were to write a review on the RT dialogue, what would your review be?

Oh, man.

I don't.

You know, it's a tough because since we were doing it, but I, I don't do, I don't know, like it if I'm writing from my perspective. I. We. We accomplished more than I thought we would like. We set out, we met a lot of people, we engaged in a lot of different topics. I think there are things we could have done better from a simple sound and video perspective, and I think that's why Ro recognized that. That's why Ron sent us a couple of emails to kind of help encourage us in some areas. So I think there's some things we can do better from just making it cleaner from a production standpoint. Um, but I'm happy with the overall feel of it. If I had more time in my schedule, I would do a lot more research, I think, for each guest and for each topic. I just, I don't. With the, The. The therapy schedule I have and the coaching schedule and writing and speaking, just stuff like you. Um, but I kind of like fl. I like to know enough, but to fly blind a little bit because I want things to not be too rehearsed. I want things to feel natural. I want them to feel authentic. I don't want this to feel like. Not that it ever would, but there are some podcasts out there that are so polished and editing and stuff. For me, it lacks a human touch. And the ones I've enjoyed the most are people who hop on the mic pretty just straight on and have good conversations with people. So I give us a good review, but I want to improve in some listening sound, audio innovations. What about you?

What would my review be? Yeah, my review would say we need to hear more about Rhett. We don't need to hear much about him.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't. I think I. I think our goal was to be authentic and real to, to share ourselves, to engage with. With. With the population of RT therapists. I think I loved having a niche audience that, that we have. Like, so to me, I think having that, you know, our niche audience is people who are connected and love RT therapy. So to me, that's felt so nice to be able to have that same flow and. Yeah, yeah, so that would be my review. Would Be like, yeah, they had a goal and. And they went for it. Um, and I think we did okay.

Yeah. If there's one area I think that we could do better, of course, is. But this was hard to do. I think we reached out to me because we could, you know, But I want to have a bigger diversity of voices from not only like an. An ethnic background, maybe people from some even different faith who are practicing RT to making sure. Which I think we did a good job. Was having a pretty good mix of both male and female on the podcast, you know.

Oh, absolutely.

But just during here, during different voices from different backgrounds, different countries, different upbringings, experiences like that, I think is important to engage. Wow, there's my dog barking.

Speaking of engaging.

Yeah. I think it's Christmas, you know, there's probably a package at the door of glass door and he gets pretty excited.

What's your dog name?

Okay, Riggins. If any of you ever watch Friday Night Lights, the TV show, Riggins was the running back in the TV show, and we love that character. So Riggins, or Rigs for short, it's Australian Shepherd. So.

Yeah. Hey, by the way, I. I meant to mention this. Like, one of the things I was thinking about with finishing the episodes was you had challenged us to watch Severance, and Jennifer and I finally finished Severance this last week. So talk about, you know, working through. We. We made it all the way through, and I can see why. I can see. I get it. I get it.

Yeah. For people listening, there is a few of us on a text thread, I think, and a couple of us loved Severance. I can say that Megan Eakin and I love Severance. A few other people were like, Tanner texted me after the first episode was like, what? And I know Megan has even incorporated. Integrated into her own therapy work, you know, about the Innies and the Audis and all that stuff. So it's good stuff.

Yeah, I can see, like, it brings up all the philosophical thoughts and, you know, with my Any and my Audi, how different would they be? Would my Any be better than my Audi? What have you? So, yeah, I have a lot of.

Hallways in my office that lead out to the. The exit. And I had one client walking all these hallways, and they got to the door and they're like, well, I guess I'm exiting my. And he's leaving and going out to be my Audi. And they. They brought up on their own. I was like, wow, okay. So. Okay, actually one last question, and then we'll. We'll let people head on their holidays.

Yeah.

And this is a question I want everyone thinking about for themselves as they're listening.

Okay.

What is the biggest area of growth for you as it relates to RT in 2026?

Yeah, everybody should think about that. Are we answering that question too?

Yes, I want you to answer it. Like, when you think about rt, and I'm thinking you as a practicing therapist. Right. Not the community, but what is the biggest area of growth for you as an RT therapist?

Yeah, I mean, I think for me, the. The big thing of growth for me is I. I'm really working on this performer part of myself. What I just had my birth, my birthday recently. And one of the feedback. We do this, like, because we're a therapist and we have to get together and talk about our feelings. One of my therapists that. That works for me talked about. She said, you are so joyfully you. And like, you're like, you are definitely Lance. Like, when we interact, like, there is. There's a Lance dynamic. It was such a sweet compliment to receive from someone. But I also do think sometimes some parts of me have performer in it, and I think that performer where I feel responsible of saving people. And I work really hard in the job. Sometimes over the top, I turn into motivational speaker with too many of my clients. Um, so I. I think I want to start to slow down a little bit more when I get into that, like, motivational speaker person and really lean in and say, okay, what's actually gonna be really helpful for my client today for the long term? Yeah. How would you answer that question?

Oh, I mean, that's. That's so foreign. I know nothing about performing. What are you talking about? I think I want to work on. Really the biggest growth for me, I think, is showing up authentically myself in the room in 2026 and not live in this fear of, like, I'm inadequate as an RT therapist. Like, sometimes I get in my head about this is what it means to be an RT therapist in terms of. And I do think it's important. Like, I want to be better at organizing and sequencing things, which is why I'm excited about your sessions stuff. But sometimes I can get in my head and think, am I doing this right? Am I doing this right? Am I doing this right? And then I find this anxiety in the room of not just being authentically ret. And I think I don't. And my sense is the clients don't feel that, I think. But it's a duel in my own head, which can make therapy not always fun because I'm like battling myself in the room.

Yeah.

Does that make sense, dude?

Absolutely. Makes perfect sense. Yeah. It's. It's a journey, bro. It's a journey.

Okay, I lied. One more. One more big question.

Okay.

What's your biggest Hope for the RT community in 2026? What would you like to see? What's your biggest hope?

Okay. For our community, I am excited. Like, one of the big things I really hope for us this next year as RT community is that we get more of our community writing and contributing to other networks. For instance, like, Michael's written an awesome book. We're trying to find a publisher for him. You've written a great book. Nicole's got a book coming out. I'm excited to see all of you, all these other people that are contributing to the good work of restoration therapy. I feel like that if we could get some more stuff flowing in that realm, it would be amazing. So that, that would be my big hope for everybody in the community is to see. Which would be. How awesome would it be, Rhett, if, like next year we have 52 substack post of people writing about restoration therapy and how they used it at their practice? Yeah, that'd be amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of. Hopefully there's the books you mentioned, a lot of them are. Have been written or kind of written and waiting probably for acquisition, publishing stuff. So there's a lot of good stuff in the works. I like that. And just a side note too, you don't have to write a book to be involved in the community. We need everybody using their gifts in some way, whether it's helping out for an event, like volunteering for the RT summit to help it, to writing an article on substack, to wanting to organize some networking in your region, you know, anything. We just want people involved so that. I like that, Lance. That's good. So kind of seeing other people's voices and gifts being used in the community in 2026 is what you're excited about? Yeah.

Yeah. What would you say, like, what's your big hope for the RT community or challenge?

My biggest hope is, and what I'm excited about is I want to see people in more face to face events.

Yeah.

Kicking off, we. We hope to have a Texas event here in April with people. And then, you know, we have the summit in California in 2027 and calendars. March, early March, like the first week of March. I believe we'll give more details, but I. I just think in this environment, in this world, people are dying to connect Face to face. And I would like to see at least a couple of times a year that people are connecting, either at big events or small events in their community. And you don't have to be to everyone. But if I heard, oh, wow, There were like 50 different events around the country, people gathering over, like a group of few over coffee or a big event. And I got to like a couple of them myself. Like, I think. I think that would be really beautiful. So just more face to face connections.

Yeah, that'd be so great. But yeah, March 5th and the 6th of 2027. It's gonna come so quick, guys. That's the.

Can we say where it's at?

Yeah, I think we can. I mean, I think I'm gonna say it. I'm gonna say it. If I get in trouble, I will take the rap. And I'm sorry, guys, mark your calendars. It's coming March 5th through the 6th, just down the street from us. Well, a little bit further down the street at Pepperdine University, we will be having the RT Summit name to be figured out. But, man, it's going to be good. March 5th through the 6th, 2027. It's going to be amazing. DeeDee Myers organizing it. If you want to help out, please reach out to us. We'll get you guys connected. But we are very excited for 2027 coming big time Summit.

Yeah. I mean, who doesn't want to go to Malibu? Yeah.

Yeah, I think. Yeah. And we're banning. There's no fires allowed, no diseases allowed, nothing. It's gonna be. It's gonna be great.

So, yeah, if you're there locally in the LA area, we'll need boots on the ground help, like throughout the year and next year and a half. And also if you're coming out to help and if you're not there locally, we can use help. There's gonna be things online that we're gonna need help with organizing and planning. So.

Yeah, I mean, the best thing you can do is. Good.

Now, how many people did we have at the one in Amarillo?

130.

Okay. 130.

Yeah.

So. Which was awesome. I mean, Tanner and Jet pulling what an amazing event off up in Amarillo. I personally like Amarillo, but, you know, it's not the destination. It's not Malibu.

Right.

Especially in February, which it was in. Which can be like, icy and cold. Good weather. So if we had 130at, like the first kind of big summit again after a break because of just natural disasters and stuff.

Yeah.

March of 2027, how many people are we gonna.

I say we sell out.

Yeah, that.

I mean, whatever it is like that we meet capacity of what is given to us.

My hope is that we are well north of 300 people at least.

So that'd be great. I. I think that's very realistic too.

Totally realistic. Yeah, I'm excited about that.

If we do a rt, paddle out and surf Malibu together, that would be amazing.

Hey, organize it. Yeah.

Hey, last time I surf Malibu, I surfed with. Or not last time. A few times back, I surfed Malibu with your brother in law.

Oh, did you?

Yeah. And I forgot my surfboard leash. And he looks at me, he goes, lance, you can surf without a leash. You're a great surfer. And I like to say that Drew unleashed me.

There's a good metaphor there for therapy.

It was, it was. It was a game changer with my mentality.

Yeah, that's. That's really interesting.

Yeah.

All right. We better shut up and let people exit the year here. So, Lance, it's been fun recording all these episodes with you and I'm looking forward to season two.

Yeah, season one's in the books.

We did it season one.

Dude, you're the best.

Thanks, man. It's good been. It's good getting to know you better this last year, so.

Absolutely.

All right, thanks everyone, everyone for tuning in. Subscribe at all of our channels, check out the show notes and we will see you next year.

Peace.

Peace. Later.