Remarkable People Behind the Podcast: How to Have Fun (again!)

Foreign. Hello, good morning and merry Christmas. Meleka liki maka, as we say in Japanese. So I'm Guy Kawasaki. I am in Watsonville, California, coming to you live with my friends Peg Fitzpatrick and Jeff C. And the three of us are the Remarkable People. Senior management, I guess.

Hey, we gotta. We got a promotion too.

That's right.

And we dropped a new episode of Remarkable People a few hours ago. It is Katherine Price and it is about the power of fun. You can believe that.

Perfect for the holidays.

Yes, that's right. So it was really good. And if you haven't listened to it yet, make sure that you guys go to remarkablepeople.com and go ahead and subscribe while you're there. And we made it super easy for you. You can actually go right here to this QR code and just click on it and you can go right there, hold up your phone to this and it'll take you over there. And if you leave us a rating review, it's awesome. It helps out the podcast and this is a great one, like Peg was saying for the holidays because once again, one of my favorites because it was just fascinating. I like this topic. It was really great.

Jeff has 52 favorites.

I know, it's every, every time I get a new one. So I think a lot of people feel the same way. But our first question was, when was the last time you really laughed? As you can tell, we laugh on this show mostly. Right. But when was the last time you really, really laughed?

I make myself laugh out loud.

Yeah. So I'm, I'm thinking of like, like it almost hurt. Like I. So I think it was, I went to. It was a Kevin James or a Jim Gaffigan, like, comedy show back when we could do live events. And I remember going out of there because my, my face hurt because I was laughing so hard. I mean, those are the kind of things I think we're talking about.

Yes. Little kids make you laugh like that all the time because they're hysterical. So I have recently laughed very hard because I have a little two year old person and she's hysterical. She's not only is she funny, like, she's not even. She's two and a half. She's. She's almost two and a half. She actually makes jokes and she makes a lot of faces. So she's like. She makes sarcastic faces and she's too. So she can talk already. Oh my God, she's spot. She speaks in little sentences. She's so good. But, but her pronunciation on everything isn't 100 perfect, because she's only two and a half. But then that's also so cute because she, you know, she tries to say all the names of all the different dinosaurs and it comes out like, whatever. And what was the one she was saying? Oh, my God. She was saying, I can't even remember what it was. There was a dinosaur that named that I couldn't say. So I just made up extra stuff because you know how dinosaur names are just like, blah, blah. So I said diplocaka. And she goes like she felt that name even though I just made it up. She was like into it. So little people, oh my God, there's. They're the best. So during the holidays, I hope everybody gets a chance. Who knows though, this year might be not. But little people are sure funny.

We should have her on the podcast maybe.

Yeah, that's right. So what about you guys?

She's at the pre stage where she's starting to do tantrums, but she's so freaking cute funny. And she stops her feet and she goes, no. And then I start laughing because honestly, it's funny. And she's like, no, no, not funny. And I'm like, She listens to the podcast because your mom listens.

So yeah, Catherine and I had a laughed out loud moment in this podcast. So one place in her book, she talks about the value of improv comedy and just to be able to do that kind of stuff on the fly. And it's always, you know, the scenario is kind of a. And. But so somebody says something and. And then you have to complete the thought or, you know, add to it.

And then.

Yeah, and so, yeah, so. And I've encountered this as an author myself. So as an author, you've written the book maybe two years ago, but someone just read it yesterday. So someone references something in the book and you're sitting there, what the hell is he talking about? What the hell is she talking about? I don't remember even writing that. So this moment happened with Catherine and I, when I said so in the book, she says a very good example is you start off with a sentence like, I'm so hot in here. And then you're supposed to. The person is supposed to go and respond to that, right? And she uses that as an example. So I open up the interview, I said, katherine, I am so hot in here. And she goes, well, I don't know, guy. I mean, I'm cold. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. I'm like, oh, my God. Katherine.

That's a classic theater thing, too. When you're in theater, you do a lot of those kind of games because sometimes you get stuck on stage and the people that you're with forget their lines and you have to carry the show. I don't know if that ever happened to you, Jeff, but it happened to me before, and then the person I was seen with left, so I was on stage by myself, and I made up an entire monologue.

So. So speaking of improv. Speaking of improv, Guy, have you ever gone to and done your. One of your speeches and, like, your slides didn't work or something and you had to carry it the entire time?

I'm flawless.

Okay.

Guy actually does the kind of presentations 90% of the time. Where is there a guideline that he's never showing you? Step by step. So step by step. Except for maybe some of the artist social presentations, but for the most part, they're stories. So make up a new one every time.

I did see Peg do that one time, so.

At social media Marketing World or something. Right? Yeah.

It just didn't work and she had to go.

When you're a speaker, though, the thing that you learn is that the audience doesn't know what you were going to say. So as long as you say something that's on topic and really great, they're just like, that was amazing. And as soon as you learn that as a speaker, it really helps you get off of that. Oh, no, I forgot to mention, blah, blah, blah. Well, they don't know that.

Yeah. Alan says improv is great for customer service. That. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of. I have some friends who are improv comedians, and they actually are employed a lot of times by, you know, companies to come in and teach their sales team and their customer service team how to use these tips, like Catherine mentioned in this podcast, to continue the conversation and use those. Because you never know what's gonna happen in customer service. I've seen some of those things coming through. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Can I tell you a customer service or. This is freaking amazing. Just pisses me off to no end. So maybe. Maybe it is a Verizon employee listening out there. So I have a Verizon business account, and it has about seven lines because there's, you know, six of us, and then there's an iPad and then there's a Internet access points. I have seven or eight lines, right. So every once in while I go and I check at my Verizon, my seven or eight lines, I want to Customize, you know, I want to check on. Can I turn this phone in? Whatever. So a few weeks ago, I go in, and it literally shows me one phone, my phone, nothing else. You cannot get to anything else. So three days of calling, and then, you know, Verizon, God forbid they're not open on Saturdays and Sundays, because nobody uses their phones on Saturdays and Sundays, so why should they be open? I mean, that makes perfect sense. So. So you gotta wait till Monday, and then you're put on this perpetual hold due to holiday traffic and unforeseen circumstances. The wait time is now 67 minutes. Would you like to hold or would you like to click on this text to be instantly connected with our digital assistant? I was like, okay, try that. Digital assistant. I'm thinking digital assistant is somebody who's a human in the Philippines or someplace, or India, and we're gonna, you know, do this chat. But no, it's a freaking AI system. So what's your problem? Account management. Oh, to get account management, you click here, like, okay. Anyway, so the bottom line is I finally get this human, maybe the only human working at Verizon, and he says, oh, yeah, you know, this happened to somebody else last week, too, where he can't see all his accounts. And I never encountered it before and took about five days to figure it out. And, you know, the. The. The way you can fix it immediately is for each of your eight accounts, open up a separate account. And I'm like, having this freaking out of body experience. Huh?

Yeah, that's a perfect solution. You fix it yourself by opening multiple accounts.

So you want to check on multiple accounts, you sign in eight times with eight different paths. I mean, it was. I said, surely you're jesting. So, you know, well, what happens if I'm a corporate accountant? I have 500 phones in my corporation. I got 500 accounts.

And.

And so he said, yeah, you know, here's the. Here's the order number, here's the job order number, blah, blah, blah. And it might take five or six days for us to get back to you. So I don't, you know, not happy.

With everybody's line working or.

No, yeah, everything is working. I mean, I don't know what the billing is like, because what do I do? Sign in eight times and add up the monthly fee. I don't even. And then I literally. I told the guy, listen, if you're telling me I have to create eight accounts for these eight lines, I'm just going to go to AT&T. And, yeah, he did Even bat an eyelash. I don't think he really cares. So I don't know.

So on that show.

Wait, I'm not finished. Not finished on my diatribe. I know, I know the topic of this podcast is having fun, and this is not having fun. But, um, yeah, you know, push comes to shove. There was a woman who was on the podcast about six months ago who's on the board of directors of Verizon. So push comes to shove, I'm going to reach out to her. She gave me a VIP number. But now when you call that VIP number, you're in Verizon fios land. So I'm like, explaining this whole thing to this person on the VIP line. And at the end she goes, oh, I'm in Verizon Files. You really need to talk to someone in Verizon Wireless. Oh, my God, I just want to kill myself.

So now back having fun? Yes, on the podcast. It's a great way to have fun. And there. It's a really. It's a funny show, actually. So not only did they have fun, it was very funny. Not like the Verizon story, but. But there was a lot of talk about phones. And I know guy wants to take a digital detox from maybe Verizon, but when was the last time you had a digital detox? I mean, I think a lot of people are going to start doing them at the beginning of the year. You know, let's talk about that. What does that mean? And how long? And have you guys ever done one?

I can tell you with great pride. Go ahead, Faith.

No, you go ahead.

Well, I can tell you with great pride. I interviewed Catherine about, I don't know, 10 days ago. And ever since I interviewed her and we talked about digital detox and phones, I have made a new habit. And I do not sleep with the phone in the same room anymore. And I've done that for about 10 days straight, which is a new record. I have put it in another room so that it's too much trouble to just roll over and, you know, check Google News in the middle of the night. Because I used to do that every night. So now I don't do that. So that's one thing I learned from Katherine Price.

But are you sleeping better now too, because of that?

And I still wake up at 4:30 or 4:00'. Clock. I just think as you get old, you just don't sleep as long. Although I do go to bed at 9.

You're also surfing all day, so it's not like you're not doing nothing.

So what about you? How about you?

I have my phone in my room charging, so I actually need to start doing this again too, because I have been so bad. I'm like, waiting for a specific email the guy knows about. And it's like I'm obsessed with it in my sleep. I'm mostly fine during the day, and at night I just am like, did it come in the middle of the night? And do I have it? But I don't.

And once you get that email, you're going to sleep very well for a long time.

Right now, it keeps. I'm fine during the day, and then at night I wake up and I'm like, is it there? So anyway, I do need to do the same thing. Because it does, as we learned a long, long time ago from Arianna Huffington, the queen of sleep and thriving people off of yeah, thrive. How to thrive. It really does. If it's there. If your phone is near you, you will pick it up. And I think younger generations sleep with them under their pillows and they're texting all night. I can't even imagine being a teenager now. If it was me and I was teen, I would be obsessed. I would be on. I would be doing makeup all day, doing Instagram. I mean, I would be. I know I would. I know I would be like, dming. Not only I would be in so much trouble with so many people, it would just be too much communication and I would be all over it. I. I was rocking the landline. You know, my. And I were like the queens of the phone back in the day.

So you know what else? So from. I've been on this detox path right now with Catherine and then Dan Pink was interviewed and then BJ Cobb. I mean, these are interviews that are coming up. So now I have a whole new practice too, which is after 5pm I schedule 5pm Pacific. Any email that I send out is scheduled to go out the following morning at 9:00am so nobody gets email from me after 5:00pm Pacific. And on the weekends, nobody Starting at Fridays on 5p at 5pm no one gets an email from me until Monday at 9am so that's my new commitment.

After all these years of working in social media, it's so hard to like, backtrack and be like, okay, I need to be mentally healthier. And that's what I started doing earlier in the year, is not doing email on the weekend because of that. Because part of working at home, like, you get obsessed with your email, and I hate it. I Hate being obsessed with email. So that's one of the things that I like about SaneBox. It's the only thing that I found where you can set your weekend reminders and you don't have to go in all the time like it's a vacation or a special holiday. It's just Saturday and Sunday, which come every week. So insane box, you can set it and then it does the do not disturb every weekend for you.

Not insane box in sane box. Because you said insane box.

I have, I have, I have Madison box. And the way Madison box works is that my commonly known email address is Guy kawasakimail. So I have authorized her into that account and then she looks at those emails and figures out what she can handle, what can be ignored, what spam and what I have to handle. But now I told her don't send me any email after 5 for me to handle. So she's on my schedule. So she doesn't send me stuff at night or on the weekends too. Which means that, you know, I mean I like have double coverage here. It's like I have my vaccine one, vaccine two, and I'm boosted already from email. So that's the Madison box.

Kathy, I think that ultimately that's going to be good. I think ultimately, you know, everybody on our team doing the same thing will help all of us have be better Monday, Friday.

But you know, here's the problem with speaking of teams. So we communicate a lot by text and sometimes I get Inspired at after 5pm and I want to text the two of you and I never know. I know you, you are in one, Jeff's in 7pm and Pegs in 8pm when I'm at 5pm so do you guys. Can I send it at any time of day and know that it's not going to disturb you because you have configured your phones not to disturb you during disturbing hours.

Yeah, I have, I have mindset that way deserves that.

Yeah. After like seven for me, I can.

Send it anytime for you too.

Yeah.

Okay. I, I wish that your phone would let you schedule texts though. Wouldn't it be great? Yeah, you could just.

Yeah.

If you could. Why isn't that. Hello, Apple? Can someone make an app. App developers that does that where you. Because I've. I looked for that too. Just like digital, you know when you're trying to be more healthy and more conscious of your team, Especially when you're in different time zones. Like I would sometimes the same. Like I try to just wait until later because I don't want to send at Five in the morning when it's eight o' clock my time. You know, I'm starting to work out things. I don't want to text you, but now I know your phone's not even there, so I don't have to feel bad.

Right. So, I mean, how hard could it be to make messages work where you could schedule the outgoing message? Right?

I mean, I think it'd be easy, right?

Yeah. But I, you know, I think that Tim Cook and Phil Schiller have personal assistants who have personal assistants, so they're never affected by this.

But their goal on all phones and all the social media is to keep us on the device. They want us. They don't want us to have a digital detox. They want us to want our phone all the time.

So we're all unhappy.

Well, it's getting that way. So Kathy says this over on LinkedIn, she goes, it's way easier to select a single app to detox from one at a time. Slicing detox into small, manageable pieces makes it easier. And I totally agree. Like, after I heard this podcast, which I was saying, he's putting his phone in another room. So I have my. Like, I have white noise that I sleep to. And so I have to have my phone in there. I need to get a white noise machine, but I have turned off noise like Donald Trump peaches, kind of that. That I've been robbed.

I've been robbed. This is fraud.

No, that would not put me to sleep. The. So I have that going. But I also, what I've done is I've turned my alarms off of my phone because I used to have my alarm on my phone. I just moved it to my watch. And that's helped because, like, Guy, I like to. I like to read news. And so I would, you know, wake up and the first thing I would do is read the news, which is not a great way to start the day.

So it's the worst way. It's better than it was. But now with, I mean, Covid is, you know, we're 100. So the news just keeps going.

So why do you think it.

Wait, let me. A good digital detox. If you guys need a break, there's a White House special and you can get a tour of all the White House decorations with the first lady. And it's really nice. That is like a nice holiday. Yeah.

Not the red trees. You mean the. This year's.

The. This year, yes. Dr. Biden slash first lady. It's beautiful because I don't want to.

See bloody Christmas trees.

No, it's classic. It's so beautiful.

So why do you think it is so hard to take a break from screens? We'd love the audience to know why. Why is it? Why do we struggle with this so much? One, we know it's the algorithm that they have built to do this to us, but why is even email having.

Digital jobs makes you tied to email and text messages. So it's very hard to take a break when before you would just go home from work and work would be gone. You know, like, you go. You go home and you're like, okay. And you have like 12 hours where your mind can, like, have downtime. It could maybe problem solve some things that you were working on at work. But, like, with no break from it, it doesn't give your brain a break from it.

You can watch Yellowstone.

I haven't watched it.

I started watching it. It's beautiful.

Yellowstone is great. Yellowstone is great. I talked to someone in Montana yesterday. I said, so is that how it really is goes? Yep, that's how it is. There's some strong people here in Montana. Oh, my God.

So one of the things and I think this ties back into the podcast and what guy does is like we tease him all the time. He's surfing all day, he surfs a lot. But that's something away from screens. And I think that you and Kathryn talked about this, you know. Right. But he's tracking his stuff.

There have been times my wife has called me when I'm in the water and my watch rings.

Well, that's. But you're not consuming content on the surfboard. You know what I mean? You're not watching like Netflix or something. So I think. And she talked about a lot in the podcast that she gets. And we're going to get into this about flow and how fun and flow work together, but how she uses music and she's going back and learning the guitar. You're going. You went back at a relatively, you know, you didn't. You haven't been a surfer all your life. Is something new that you've done. I was. You can say it. No, I didn't say that. But it's something. But it's something that's away from screens. It's an activity that's away from screen. Peg likes to cook and. And she does all these, you know, crafty stuff. And I do wood carving and I start doing, you know, all that stuff. I think we have to make ourselves go away from screens. And there's a lot of that inside of this podcast that they talk about.

But, you know, we're getting to the point where we can combine a whole bunch of our shows together to make this, like, ultimate how to Digital Detox and how to be more creative. Because Julia Cameron, if taking two different podcasts, and one actually is BJ Fogg that's coming up, so that'll be a future one. But his is also how to build good habits, tiny habits, which is why I recommended the book, because it goes so well with other things. But starting with.

You'll be real happy with that one.

Yeah. With Morning Pages by Julia Cameron. Amazing way to start the day. Every day, you know, you just write things that you're grateful for or just three pages of stuff. And then BJ Fogg, one of the tips that I picked up from him is the first, which I thought you were going to say guy was your thing was when you wake up first thing in the morning, when you put your feet down, you say, this is.

Gonna be a great day.

I'm already really positive, but I still do, and I think it does.

You listen. You listen to BJ Fogg already?

No, I had the book before I recommended him.

Okay, okay, okay. I was gonna say.

I recommended BJ Fogg and Maxine before you read them. Yeah, those were people that I.

So speaking of detox, okay, I have to take my son to get his booster right now, so you guys can continue. But okay, it's. It's not a fun thing, but it's a great thing. Everybody please get vaccinated and boosted, okay? Because, you know, maybe you won't get a severe case of COVID but you could get infected and then pass it on to somebody who gets a severe case. So for the. For the benefit of society and your.

Flu shot, we're all boosted in facts here.

And then if you. If you have to sleep with your iPhone, listen to our podcast in the.

Middle of the night and leave a rating review. That would be great.

All right, I gotta take off. All right, bye.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. That's right. Merry Christmas.

So, Peg, while we're talking about this stuff, so I want to say there's this little hack that I've done. I'm using technology to help me escape technology. And this is something that I've done to remind myself that I need to stay away from screens and be present. I actually, on my iPhone, my iWatch, I changed the. When I'm on weekends, when I shut down everything and I'm supposed to be focused, not reading email is I change the watch Face to the Mickey Mouse face. So every time I look at that, I remind myself, don't, you know, don't check the email. Don't, you know, be present with your family. That kind of stuff. So that's nice little hack there too.

That's a good hack. It's like a mental. You're getting past the serotonin boost from past Disney visits. You're like, remember when I went to Disney, right?

And to relax and not because a lot of times I check my watch because I'm like, okay, this conversation is going long or whatever. And I'm like, oh, be present. So that's what I use for that.

So anyway, it is hard. And then there's the iPhone effect. If somebody else looks at their phone, then everybody looks at their phone. I think during the holidays. Back to what our. I think it was Kathy that said about going app by app deleting the app is a great way to just digital detox. You can delete Instagram off your phone for the weekend. It doesn't delete your Instagram account. It just takes the app off your phone so you're not checking it. You could take your email off your phone.

I know a lot of people have.

Done that on the weekend.

And I've turned off all. Noted those little red notification things. I turned off all notifications because I hate seeing those. Like, you have to get back to those. It gives you that little bit of anxiety. So I turned off all the notifications.

So, yeah, it's really smart. There's no reason, unless you have somebody in your family with health emergencies, you really don't need notifications on for stuff. It just, it does cause anxiety. They're built to make us feel that.

Oh, no.

And when it's related to work, it just makes it so much more stressful. So I'm glad as a team, we're like all on the same page for like, no nights and weekends now and trying to be really extra aware of, like, contacting other people. It's good.

And you can set things so like in do not Disturb that, like my kids stuff will go through. Like, they even know, like, when I have it on do not disturb, like right now, during the show, if they call and hang up and call again, it automatically goes and it'll break through my do not disturb. So if there's an emergency, I can get to it. So they all know that. So there's tools that you just have to dig a little bit to, you know, to help manage that better. So I think that's really cool.

It's worth finding them. That's why SaneBox, not insane, but S A N E has been a great tool. I know you use it too for email because it does. It saves your email. It puts them in the do not disturb. If you want to, you could check those, but you. They just move them back into your inbox when your time that you've suggested is up. So start like as a goal. If you guys are watching this, listen to the podcast and then for 2022, make some better choices for yourself. For email and notifications. You don't have to have them popping up. If it's during work, obviously that's different. Then you need to be present. If you'd like to keep your job, stay present during work hours. Make sure that you're. Yeah, I just thought I'd throw that in there.

Well, this insane box, by the way, a little sneak peek. That sane box. You know, I, I told you about Michael Hyatt, who is actually going to be one of our guests coming up this year. He's the one where I learned it from. So. Yeah. So if you haven't checked out that, make sure you do that. That's gonna be some fun one coming up.

So many good shows on specific topics. If you want to be a writer, if you want to like. But these are just like, this isn't for any specific industry or any. This is just like any human with a smartphone, which is everybody. Because back to the main topic, which Catherine did, right? She's written multiple books, but this one is the how to have more fun. But her last one was how to break up with your smartphone and that was like tied in to the podcast as well. But having fun and just really like laughing. Like if you're feeling stressed, look for a comedy. Like we all have our favorite, like even just holiday movies or just favorite like movies that you know are going to make you laugh. Like what, Jeff, what are like your top two movies? If you want to just.

I love, I love. I still. Every time with the Griswolds, the Christmas vacation when he's up and that's that really, you know, sad moment where he's looking at the home movies and then his wife pulls the thing and he falls out of the attic. Every time it busts me up.

Just.

And then, you know, there's, I mean, there's all sorts of movies that I watch with our family. I mean I still. Because I had such good memories of like, even the stop motion animation with like Rudolph. You know, I love when I Was able to introduce that to my kids. And, you know, I know you're doing that with your granddaughter and, you know, Christmas songs, all that stuff. So.

Yeah, it's good. Did you watch Klaus? If you watch the animated special Klaus. Oh, my God. Did you watch it?

Okay, I'll do that.

It was. Was nominated for an Academy Award. I don't know if it won, but it should have.

Yeah, I'll check it out. Because I love animation. So. So let's go back. I know, I know. Yes. There's a really cool Instagram guy who I watch you actually animates his wood carving. He makes these little mini figures that he just.

Could one person be.

Oh, I know. It's just amazing that he does that. So, anyway, back to. So the next question. Because this goes back to it and this, you know, having more fun, but I thought it was really cool. And I hadn't seen somebody tie this in together like Catherine did on the podcast, talking about fun and flow and how those two things work together. And one of the things, you know, it's like, how do you guys get into flow to flow mode? Like, what. What gets you into the flow of, like, creativity? You know, I know for me, it's music. I have a creativity playlist that I actually have on Spotify that I've actually shared out before. But, yeah, I got all this. Yeah. Because it's. It's so. It's a lot of instrumental music because I like.

Yeah, that's my creative. It has to be. No lyrics.

And it's a lot of. It's a lot of movie stuff. It's a lot of movie soundtracks. It's a lot of that, you know, music. Not even musicals, because musicals, I start singing and I get distracted. But, yeah, I have that. And then I also use an app that I. That Eric Fisher told me about from his beyond the To Do List Podcast is Brain fm. And it's supposed to have these scientific things that sends these brainwaves. And so when I do my prayer meditation in the morning, I use that. And then when I need to really focus, like on writing, I'll use that sometimes. And I found it really, really helpful.

So, yeah, I have. I have playlists on Spotify, too, that are. No lyric, no. No words, just background music. It really does help. And I like to do my morning pages because that does help me clear my mind. Sometimes I have to switch tasks. If you get, like. If you're doing something too long and you just kind of get out of the flow and you feel like it's you're not doing your best work. Sometimes it's good to just switch to do something else for a little bit and then go back in. Like maybe go look for some inspiration. But just be careful you don't go to TikTok and be there for two hours.

So that's. That's awesome. Yeah, it's the pomodoro technique, I think it is. And I actually have this and I do this when I'm editing guys podcast. So it has a timer for 30 minutes and I something about the physical buttons and when that's up, you have five minutes that you go over and you take a break and so you can get up and walk around. I wish this would have it so you could change the times. But it's, it's preset to 30 minutes and, and you know, five minutes stuff. But I find that really helpful because I will. I need to get up and move. You know, that's my thing is like I got. Don't sit too much. So but that you're right that getting up and changing where you're looking or you're sitting or doing something different really does make a difference.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

And drinking a lot of water, which sounds stupid because you have to pee a lot of water. Well, it does make you get up. But also making sure that you're hydrated helps you focus better.

It does.

Older I get, the more I realize the key to life is drinking a lot of water.

So by the way, what we would love for you guys to do. Oh, go ahead.

I've said it like it makes your skin better, your everything better. It's weird, but drinking a lot of water is good.

So Jonathan Perez is here again. He shows up every week. Thanks, Jonathan. Over on LinkedIn, he goes, Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell makes for a great Santa these days. Very true. There's a great podcast I'm listening to. It's called the Christmas Movie wars and it's about how Hallmark and Lifetime and then Netflix came along and they're all this competition they had. It's fascinating. And he also says he uses a 30 minute hourglass to do the same thing. That's a great. Yes, a great point here. Yeah. So one of the things we would love for you guys to do is let us know your hacks and techniques for getting away for the phone, for getting into flow. And you can guys can go sign up to the Remarkable People community and we pop in there and you guys can ask questions, you can tell us your tips. You can actually suggest guests that you think we should have on the podcast, just go to Bit Ly remarkablepeoplecircle. That's Bit Ly remarkablepeoplecircle to find out and join in. It's totally free. It's a lot of fun. So you guys need to join in there and check it out. And this is a great. For our final question, Peg, is how can we be more present during the holidays? Not get more presents, but be more present during the holiday? So what's your. What's your. Because you have. I mean, you got grandkids running around, you got your kids there. I mean, you've got a house full of people, you're cooking, you're doing all this stuff. How are you present during this time?

I think one of. One of the things that I try to think about is like, you want to take a lot of pictures and then you have your phone in your hand. So it's like, tricky. So maybe using a camera, an actual camera instead of your smartphone, because then you won't have your phone in your hand because everybody that you want to see will be there right then. So just not having your phone in your hand for stuff I think is really important. We like to put music on all over. We have like the Sono speakers. So we like. It's. We're Streaming Christmas music 247 here pretty much. We listen to every Christmas song that exists this holiday season. But it's actually nice because it really does get you into. Into the mood. So just having like having like holiday sounds. I also like candles. We have artificial trees because two people in our family are allergic. So we have pine scented candles, like Yankee candles that are like Christmas tree scents. So it really brings in like all the senses. Unless there's some cookies baking, which is entirely possible. So just like making sure that you're. And then also not even thinking about the presents, but just enjoying the time with your family. Not the. Go back to the Charlie Brown, you know, it's not the things that you buy from a store kind of deal. And just enjoying all the parts of it that are just not even just the people parts, enjoying those things.

Like when you sit down for your Christmas dinner, make sure you put your phone somewhere else. Make a basket where everyone can put their phones and they can be present. I think for me, it's always being present during the meal because you can talk, you can laugh, you can share stories. That's really cool. You talked about senses. And one of the things I've been doing for the last five years, and this sounds really silly But I get from the people who do. Professional Santas who are professional Santas, they have a website and stuff. I get Beard bomb that smells like either candy canes or I have, like, right now, it's like a Christmas pie that I. And I wear it every from. I use it. I do it after Thanksgiving, right before Thanksgiving, all the way after Christmas. But it reminds me and reminds. Everybody gets in the car and goes, oh, you smell so good. And it's just because you can remember when you were like your kids. I mean, when you were a kid, like, what grandma's house smelled like, what. You know, that kind of stuff. I remember my dad's Old Spice stuff that he used to slap on, you know, and those are. Scents are important parts.

Help you get into the flow better. Because peppermint is a scent that is supposed to help your brain focus.

Yeah. Maybe that's why.

Notice that it helps you focus.

Oh, yeah. I'm focused all the time. No, I'm focused on eating all the Christmas cookies is what I'm really. Yeah. The other thing, if you want. If. If your kids. And we do this, you know, because kids have that draw to phones. One of the things we have started doing is we play jackbox games. I don't know if you know about those, but they're really funny. They're like board games on steroids there. But they. It shows up on the tv, and then you enter your answers. Everybody has their smartphone and they enter, and it is hilarious. There's ones where you can draw. It's like, win, lose, or draw almost. And it shows up on the screen. It is so much fun to play. Yes. Yeah, that's a lot of fun to do. It's kind of like that, but it's only on the big screen. And it's a way to get everybody involved on playing a game, and you don't have to worry about crowding around like a. Like a little table game or something. But it's a lot of fun. And even the grumpy adults go, oh, this is stupid. They'll end up playing it and having a blast. So we do that.

Our family is a little competitive with games, so sometimes we avoid them, especially if it's a new game. If it's a new game where we have to learn the rules and read it, everybody is like, stop talking. Where to read the rules.

You would like this one because it's. Because it's simple enough. And there's also. It's. So sometimes luck has something to do with it. Like, they'll Spin the wheel and like, you'll be winning, and then all of a sudden you'll go to be losing that make and other people. It's just fun. It's a lot of fun.

You know what we haven't done in a while is cards. Card games are so fun and just like a great family activity. And I have this one game that I got a long time ago, and we still have it. It's called lcr. It's a dice game. Left, center, and right. And you have dice and you roll them. Everybody puts a dollar in. Or you don't do it for money, but it's just like. Even if. Even if any age can play it because you don't have to. Like, there's no strategy or there's luck involved. And it's like you just have to pass it. And then one person ends up with a whole pot with. And you do car. It's a really.

No wonder people are competitive at your house because you have money involved.

Right. I grew up like that tradition from my dad's side of the family, they played for money. And when I was little, we would go for New Year's Eve to my. My dad's aunt's house and my granddad's house and like, all his cousins, they had huge family. My dad's mom had like 11 people in her family, and her dad and his dad had like 12 people. So you could imagine how many aunts and uncles and cousins that is. It's a boatload of people. And I just remember, like, all the men would be up literally all night playing cards, and we would just be. Anyway, cars are in the Kyle side of the family. Like a must. Yeah. So we haven't met in a while. But competitive. Yikes.

Yeah.

But fun.

But. Yeah. So I think being. I mean, I think also this. With the last couple years, we've seen the importance of family. And I think it's easier now to be present with each other because we know it's a gift. We know that getting together because some people can't get together because of what's going on. But I think we're more thankful and realize that this is, you know, temporary. It's not going to last forever. And somebody told me once, like, when they said, like, when people are like, oh, I gotta spend Christmas with my parents. If you sit there and you figure, okay, how many Christmases will I have left with my parents? When you put that number to it, you're like, okay, that makes a big difference.

How many Christmas do you have in Your whole life with your parents. I mean, there is a finite number to all of those things. With your kids and your. It seems like an endless lifetime. A lifetime is a long time, hopefully. But when you look at it, it's like if you're only gonna do something, say 60 times or like whatever, like it's not that many. And.

No, it's not.

And I think that making choices, just coming up with a couple choices for everybody, like what you're going to do with your phones, planning some activities that are so in case there, you know, if you're. Everybody's just done chatting. We're making a Christmas Eve. We're making a punch this year. So I'm assuming that that'll make everybody extra merry.

I bet. Yeah. Going rich. It probably will. So a couple questions, a couple comments from the audience, and Jonathan goes. You could gamble with pretzel sticks and M&M's. We used to do that. We used to. We used to do. We play. It was like Tripoli. It was like all these different card games and you. Instead of chips, we'd have M and Ms. And that was a lot of fun. So that's great suggestion, Jonathan. And then somebody. I'm not sure because it didn't come across. But for being present, I take more time to listen to my friends and my family members stories during the dinner and take time to laugh with them. Being involved helped me. Being more present, that is great. Listening to stories and then asking questions is a. It forces you to listen deeper. So those are great, great points. So, Peg, this has been fun. Make sure you guys go to this because it is all about fun. @remarkablepeople.com this episode, it was really, really good. I loved how she connect, flow with creativity and gave some really great tips. And there's even some fun stuff at the end that you make sure you listen to all the way through. With that, do you have any final things other than Merry Christmas to everybody?

Nope, just Merry Christmas. Thanks for listening to the podcast all year and to coming to our live show every week. We appreciate you guys.

Yes. Merry Christmas, everybody. We'll see you guys next week. Bye, everybody.