Therapy Sessions 👥 Finding The Lessons In Tragedy And Birth

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

What's up, everybody? You're listening to the Hustle and Float Shark podcast with your boys, Mount Wolf and Joe Fear.

Ready to go, Matt?

Oh, I already hit record.

Oh, ready to go still, Matt. Okay. Okay, cool.

Welcome back to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast.

Welcome. My name is Joe Fear and I'm Matt Wolf. I just felt like the.

And you're listening to Hustle and Flowchart podcast. I think we're both trying to decide whether we're going to add the word podcast at the end.

Is it the full and or the ampersand and.

And, you know, that has actually kind of turned into a problem for our business a little bit. Is that I think we called it Hustle and Flowchart with the ampersand as the. And. And sometimes if you try to type Hustle and Flowchart with the whole word and on some of the podcast players, our show doesn't show up, which is kind of annoying.

I don't know how to fix that.

I don't either, because it's kind of like too ingrained to go and change names now, you know?

Yeah. Maybe there's a way to change the thing in the. From the ampersand to the and maybe. Maybe.

I don't know.

We'll figure something in them distribution platforms in the podcasting space.

Yeah. What I actually used to do is I used to tell people back when I had the authority Insider podcast to just go to matt's podcast.com then there's no. Then there was no question. You go to matt's podcast.com and I think there was like a page that's like, listen on itunes, listen on Spotify, Listen. And they just click on whatever player I want to listen on. But that gave me, like, one place to send every. I think if you go to matt's podcast.com right now, I think it redirects.

To Hustle and Flowchart. Nice. So that accomplishes it.

But we can always do an easy link like that or something, right?

Yeah. There's still that show known show name that we battle with, though. Yeah, it's all good.

That's a problem that we could probably figure out while not recording a podcast.

Exactly. It's probably not the time and place right now.

Well, speaking of this podcast, our guest today is me and Joe. We're gonna have another one of our therapy sessions.

Therapy world famous. We got the sofa out, laid out. We're in therapy zone. Matt looks very weirded out now.

I just look confused because I Was looking for the couch.

Come on, roll with me, imagination.

My couch is in our mind.

The therapy couch. Yes. The notebook is out.

I do have my notebook. I. I am. I am analyzing Joe right now.

Always.

No, but before we get into any sort of meat or. Or content or the topics of the day that we're going to talk about, before we do, I want to tell you we are taking notes on this episode as well, even though we don't have.

A special guest with us today, and this is just Joe and I letting you into our little world.

We're not special.

We're special. And we're taking notes so you can read about our specialness.

Damn right.

Hustleandflowchart.com comp. You can go there, Give us your email address, and we'll email you the notes for this episode. Also, you can text the word computer to 38470. That's C O M P short for companion.

38470, comp. Yeah, text comp to that.

So hustle, flowchart.com comp or 38470, comp.

That was, like, subliminally combined at the same time. Both call to action in different places, so whatever resonates best.

You know what I could do with this audio? We can mess with, like, the thing. So if somebody's listening to it in headphones, like, they hear me on the left channel and you on the right channel. So we should both say, like, the number, like, 38470, comp at the same time. And then when I go and edit it, I'll make you in one ear and me on the other and just mess with people's heads.

Let's do it. All right, let's do it.

So, 12-33-8-470, comp.

That was weird.

So did you like that little weirdness in your ears? Most people probably can't tell because they're listening in their car or something.

They're like, you guys are just weird.

Yeah, we're just. We're just being nerds. But, you know, little fact, little known fact about our podcast, when we do these therapy sessions and we're not interviewing a guest, I do the editing on them.

Yeah, so you can nerd out. So I nerd out on this thing.

That's why when we do therapy sessions, every once in a while, there's like, a little, like, mini clip from, like, the episode that rolls before our intro. And, like, I start to, like, you'll hear little experimental things on the therapy sessions. It's because I get in and I nerd out in the audio editor.

Can't help but not screw around when your hands are in the mix of things. That's the thing.

This is the reason I don't edit most of them.

Exactly. That's why none of us should be editing anything. Because, I mean, I'm like that with graphics and videos and stuff like that, where Matt might. He's like that with the tech and with this.

Yeah, that's why I only edit one episode a month, is I still get to, like, get my fix of, like, editing something, but by the time I'm done editing these episodes, I'm like, I'm good for a month. I don't need to edit anymore.

That's why we have. Yeah, that's why we have a great team to help us out. Because. Yeah, we would never get anything done. Yeah.

Well, so, you know, just a little bit bts. That stands for behind the scenes. A little bit of a bts.

That's good.

With these episodes, we usually record our therapy sessions only, like, a week or two before the day they go live. With most of our episodes, when we're interviewing guests, we're interviewing our guests, like, six to eight weeks before they go live. So the therapy sessions, because our sort of, like, window of recording to the date it goes live, is so much narrower. I don't put that on our editors, although they can do it. They have the capacity, like, we totally could pass them to them and it wouldn't be an issue. I just like to get my fingers on, like, one episode a month.

Get your dirty fingers.

I like to get my dirty fingers on this episode.

Yeah. So we haven't done a therapy session in a while. So this one we talked about, one.

Came out just four weeks ago.

Recording, that is. Yeah, See, it's all funky when we're recording back here. We don't know timing of anything unless you're working out of schedule.

We're in, like, a time distortion field with our podcast. Like, literally, we don't know what episode is coming out. Like. Like, this is coming out on a Tuesday. I have no idea what episode's coming out on Thursday, Matt.

I don't even know what day it is or what time it is. I'm in a time distortion in life right now.

Yeah, well, we don't need to tell people what it is. We'll just leave the mystery open.

I have other distortions happening, though, that are unrelated to podcasting distorting time for me. Yeah, we got some distortion pedals. Those are cool. Those are Cool. No, I'm not on some wicked drugs or anything like.

Whoa.

Is it dark outside? Is it light?

I don't know. Yeah, well, with the time change it has been freaking weird.

That has actually screwed the mind a little bit. No. And this will be part of the episode. But last week had a quite big change in my life.

Oh yeah. We didn't hear about it. What happened?

No, I didn't hear about it. You don't realize my reference to time distortion. Why I'm lack of sleep. Why I'm really tired right now.

Did something weird happen?

Something new baby just came out of nowhere and is now living in our house. Yeah.

Well, from the day that we're recording this. That was one week ago today.

Correcto at 6:07. Yeah. The baby.

So people can do their own math on it, but the baby was born on Halloween.

Yes. Technically, three hours from now will be a week. Yeah. So pretty freaking cool. Yeah. So our first biological baby, McKenna came out at Halloween right at sunset, which is pretty cool. And she's super cool. Wife is super healthy and. And cool as well.

That's good. It's good to hear that she didn't become uncool after the baby.

Yeah, well, I was a little worried there in the moment. I was like, oh, she looks very angry right now. I don't know why. No, I'm just kidding. It was very apparent why. I have mad respect for all women that walk this planet, especially those who have given birth in any format of birthing. Mad respect. You are much stronger than men. So Matt's obviously.

Oh, I'm nodding my head.

I agree. Oh, because I. Sir, I saw you do a little. I was like, oh, Matt's about to get bitch slapped by every woman on this rule.

Women. True. No, I'm just kidding.

I didn't mean slapping. I mean I meant like legit slap Matt the next time you see him. Man or woman?

No, my. My wife has had two kids and she had to get cut open to have them. So I definitely not Good. Agree with you.

Yeah. So that is. That's where my head has been lately in this last week is time distortion is real when I'm up every few hours in the night helping my wife. Or we're. We're all just trying to figure out a rhythm and it's all good. It's getting better day by day.

Yeah. Well, I think this episode is going to be like a legit therapy session in the truest sense of the word because we're going to be talking about sort of Mental shifts and mindset and some, you know, some rough stuff that kind of popped up recently and, you know, and just kind of discuss how we've. How. Well, mostly you. How you've been dealing with it and, you know, I'll share my perspectives on things. But a lot of this is more, you know, basically shit that's happened in your life. Good and bad.

Yeah, both. And everything. Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, I don't really know how to transition into this conversation without it just sounding like a really weird transition. But, you know, October was a pretty gnarly month.

Yeah, let's. Yeah. Like from start to finish. Really. Yeah. So, you know, it all started on October 9th.

All right, so let's.

So that fateful day.

Let's go ahead and get into it.

I guess that's. There's no better way to start.

Yeah.

But, yeah, it was actually October 9th, but it was October 10th when I first realized what was going on. That was when I was awoken by a deputy at my door. My front door. And that deputy was there to tell me that my father just died the night before by way of himself. He killed himself. And definitely did not see that coming at all. And it sucks, obviously, a lot. Especially the fact that I had a baby coming. Yeah, she did come earlier, so she wasn't expected in October, but definitely, you know, within that span of time. And he knew it. And the last time I chatted with him, as he said, you know, give a hug to Heather, my wife, and McKenna, my baby. So that's. Yeah, that's what's kind of crazy. Where. So, yeah, so that was October 9th of 2019 here. And yeah, it's crazy. I mean, I don't know where to start there because there's. Since that period, it's just wild. Like I can, like mentally.

Like business doesn't matter at that point. Obviously it matters, but it's. It does not occupy.

It fell pretty far down the priority.

List, like immediately, without trying. Obviously, like any important thing like that happens in our lives. But it was. It was kind of. I mean, that was one, I guess, thing that I've been reflecting on is like, wow, that just shows like, how important we think or I might think business is to me. And it'd be interesting for you listening to think about if you're always constantly have business on the mind or I'm going to make money or do this launch or do this campaign or. And you can't think about the family or friends or what you're doing in the moment. I would Say check yourself a little bit and maybe just try to dump your brain of business stuff a little bit so you can actually enjoy, like, the people around you and be present, because that's. This was that shift for me.

Yeah. No. I feel like we get so caught up in business is like, this is, you know, the most important thing that we can be focusing on. Right. Like, we've got to. We've got to pay the bills. We've got to do this. We've got this deadline. We've got this phone call that we've got scheduled that, you know, we've got, like, all of this kind of stuff that we feel is really, really important. It's like, you know, the people that are. The people that are in your life right now, you know, they may not be there tomorrow. There's. There's people around you right now that the possibility is they're not there tomorrow. You might not be here tomorrow. Like, you know me on the mic. I may not be around tomorrow. After recording this, you just literally know. Never know what's gonna happen. You never know, like, what the next day brings. And I think having that sort of perspective is. It's really powerful, really important to have that perspective of, like, you know, what am I doing with my day? Because tomorrow's not guaranteed, you know.

Yeah. And it's. Yeah. And it's one that we all have to, I think, approach eventually in some form, Matt. And, you know, if you don't, then I'll get into this and some of my realizations of thinking about my dad and the qualities that I've instilled from him and the ones that I don't want to instill from him, like, there's obviously a balance. We all have our ups and downs in our personalities.

Yeah.

And. Yeah. So whatever that is for you listening, if there's an imbalance, I guess that's the thing. And yeah, Matt and I have done a lot of different meditation type things, experiences and whatnot where there's no perfect balance. But the goal is to always try to get to balance. And it's going to be a wavering thing from unbalanced to balanced. It's just like. Of being on a skateboard or whatever. Like, all you're doing is just sticking balance, dealing with what's coming your way, a crack in the fricking sidewalk or a rock or whatever, you know, a hill. Like, just try to stay balanced. And that's pretty much how I'm taking this is I realized and I wasn't like, all business, all Day, every day, but 100%. I knew that going to bed. And, yeah, obviously I didn't have a kid in the house either, so it was a little different scenario. So things have changed a lot really fast. But business was on the mind a lot, and not just for me, but my wife as well. And, you know, finances and business and growth and partnerships and models and whatever, you know, it's like. And it's great, but at the same time, it didn't really allow myself to slow down and, like, get a little bit more introspective about, like, what am I actually doing with the business or with my time in general.

Yeah, I think. I think at the end of the day, when it comes to business specifically, if, you know, if you don't have that sort of bigger, why, then everything else at some point may feel a little more meaningless.

Right.

I think one of the things I know I struggle with personally is, you know, every day, getting up, doing the work, going through my routine, you know, pushing forward in the business to try to bring more money in, but then wondering, okay, well, you know, what do I need the more money for? What? What's the bigger purpose that I'm, like, trying to shoot for with the money that I'm trying to bring in? And when that sort of vision gets fuzzy, that's when, at least me personally, I start to question why I'm doing all this shit.

So exactly what you just said right there, and I know you have it written down in front of you, are why I came up with these, like, four realizations. Because of that. Because of exactly that, actually. Because, like, right now, we're getting coached. We always have a mentor, and we're being coached to essentially break through our mental barriers of income of what our business can make and what we're capable of and how we spend our time and all that. And it goes exactly what you're saying. And it's a struggle because for us, just in full transparency, I feel like we have hit a blockage because of a mental thing in our business, and we've been very successful, obviously. Ups and downs. We all have those in business. It's not perfect at all. But, like. Like we've said before on this podcast, like, we have two homes that we own in San Diego. That's, like, one of the most expensive places in the world, in the country especially. It's beautiful here, and we're surrounded by family. You have. We both have kids now, and, like, we have all. Like, I have more than I think my family ever had. Not ever. Had, but had for a long time when I was growing up, 100%. And we're in, like, a much nicer situation, I would say, with a lot more upside potential as well. And. Yeah, without, like. So my realizations were, like, before getting into them, because I was struggling with that, actually. I was like, wait, hold on. I'm setting this new monthly income goal for myself. But, like, why? Okay, yeah, I'm gonna pay for some stuff that I want, pay down some debts and all that stuff. But it's like. But that's not, like, super driving me. What is it? You know, that's like, the bigger thing that's driving me.

Yeah, yeah.

So I get what you're saying, and that's why I actually went through this exercise, so. Because now I am pumped up.

Yeah. I mean, later on in this episode, you know, I think we can kind of talk. So we're working with a guy named Michael Kim who's sort of coaching us right now on some mindset and some funnel stuff, kind of a blend. And we'll get into that later in the episode and kind of talk about some of the, you know, some of the ways I've, you know, we've changed our routines, our morning routine, some of the ways we've.

You know, some new perspective shifts and things like that. But before we, like, get into that, I am curious to hear. So you. The four perspective shifts that you had that are, like, specific to your dad. You were telling me before we started recording that you saw, you know, you obviously saw, like, a lot of, like, amazing traits in your dad, and you loved your dad, and there was a lot that about him that you really liked, but there was a handful of traits that you're like, I see these in him, but I also see them in me. So I need to reverse this cycle now. Right. I need to. I need. There's. There's a pattern that's emerged, and the pattern fucking stops with me.

Right.

And that's what you were telling me. So let's get into that real quick and talk about the, you know, the handful of things that you said. Okay.

This.

These are the areas. I'm going to reverse this pattern.

Yeah. Yeah, that was. And this is a pretty good, fast realization I guess I had after his passing. Maybe like a week after. I don't know, a handful of days after. And it's crazy. Yeah. Going through things like the processing of just how ups and downs and all that stuff, like, new glimmers of things come up. But.

Yeah. With the looming baby coming at the time I knew. Yeah, the buck stops here. I gotta break the cycle of certain things, things that I don't like.

In just my family in general. I want to say just my dad, but even just in my own personality, which I know a lot of that is fostered from our parents. It's just how we all are.

So I realized there's four things in full honesty. The fourth one, I'm like, I kind of forget a little bit, so it might actually pop up a little bit because I think the one I gave you is not actually accurate.

I know that you remember three of them, and I actually have notes on the three that, you know, let's go.

With the three for sure, because I think they're very important. The fourth, I think I can kind of. It'll. It'll bubble up. So, yeah, in thinking of this. So with a baby coming, that is where my. Or she's here now, but that is where my bigger purpose, you know, for, like, making more money. Streamlining the business lifestyle. Because, like, that can only go so far. That was like, my drivers. It's like, oh, I'll be at home with the family and not have to go to a place at any specific time unless I choose to or whatever, you know, like, have this lifestyle that we currently live and extend that. But I'm like. But that's not, like, really pumping me up. And I think you share the same thing because it's like, we kind of got that.

Yeah.

And so then when I was looking at my dad, I'm like, okay, so what are these things that.

I mean, we'll never know what drove him to do what he did, but I can at least see how he. Some factors that might have led him to that point and things that I think I just thought of the fourth one, it's stuck in my head now.

Okay, good.

I knew it would. Cause I. Yeah. Head clears when I just talk. And so basically I realized, like, there's like four things that I feel like he maybe passed to me, but at least I'm aware of that. I just. I want to make sure that I'm not going to do or. And this, in my perspective, changes. I've constantly told myself, flip the coin, flip the coin. And now so more a little less, because I feel like I'm in a much better head space. But like, when we met with our buddy Steve Ulscher, which was like a week after my dad's passing, or maybe, I don't know, a handful of days or something, you know, Steve's a Super cool dude. He's been on this podcast, and he's very supportive. He's a smart guy, and he's been through some depressive stages and stuff. He has his own framework around it.

And his wife also runs a mortuary, so.

That's right.

Death is actually a part of their pretty consistent life.

Yeah. And it's just. It's wild because. Yeah. When. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Because just this. Yeah. Losing my dad or losing my parents, it was like my biggest fear. One of them. So, yeah, these perspective changes, basically, I realized, and Steve was like, it would be really cool if you identified what are these things that maybe have led him to his decision and how and share those like in here, like I'm doing now, and help others potentially. And, you know, entrepreneurs. Yes. But, like, anyone, like, suicide rates are up. It sucks. Yeah.

I mean, we've talked about it on multiple episodes about depression and, you know, what entrepreneurs go through. Obviously, your dad wasn't an entrepreneur himself, but the things that lead to depression are fairly universal, I believe.

Yeah. And they are. I think. So. We just have different pressures as an entrepreneur, so. Yeah. So basically, this is a long story short to say that these are the perspectives. I'm like, okay, I know there's great qualities I have from my dad, and there's also qualities that are not so good for me from my dad that he's passed on nothing. Like he chose to pass him on just being a sponge and being a kid. So one of them is debt. He died with debt.

And I'm not gonna say that was a trigger for him to do what he did, but at the same time, it definitely was not helping.

Yeah. It was at least a piece of it.

It was definitely a piece of it. And he always had, like, it's. I mean, debt has, like, been in our family and, you know, and, like, when growing up and stuff like that. And that extends onto us as well in certain aspects. Like, there's, like, there's business debt. There's personal debt in certain regards, too. It's like. It's just. But, like, I don't know. Prior to this point, I was like, that's not cool, though. Like, I didn't really have the big motivation to be like, that needs to go away, you know, like. But now I'm like, no, that's screwed up. Because that's actually a really. Like, it's a mental baggage. It's a weight. It's not a wealth. So basically, I'm going back to this flip the coin thing. Every one of These perspectives. So like the whole debt thing, I'm like, okay, well I don't want to pass that down to my kid. I don't want to just live it myself. So how do we flip the coin? Oh, that's. Well, to instill. Instill wealth building traits and practices into my personality in my day to day lives and then into my kids lives. So things like what we're working on with Mike Kim is better money habits, the mindset around money, setting bigger goals, but also financial things. Like he uses the FIRE movement from Dave Ramsey I believe is who made it.

No, Dave Ramsey I think talks about it.

Talks about it.

Maybe he made, I don't know. But fire, it's an acronym.

Freedom no financial crap.

So RE stands for Retire early.

Yeah, I know that's. You can look it up if I'm talking. It doesn't really matter. Really.

Yeah, yeah.

The whole point is like it's essentially saving money consistently cutting your expenses where you really like don't really want them anyway or shouldn't.

Maybe it's financial independence, retire early or something like that.

Something like that. Yeah. But that's the long story short is just have these really good financial skills where like we don't have to worry about debt and we can get what we want, but also have this like mental baggage of not having enough or having this debt on you.

It's just not a good mental space to be in.

Yeah, yeah, it's financial independence. Retire early.

Nice. Yeah. Fire movement F I R E. The.

Thing about debt too specifically is debt is like you dig a hole, you get yourself down in that hole and then when you try to dig out of that hole, there's like a foot kicking you and keeping you down in that hole because. So it's probably not the best analogy. But like when you think of debt, like let's say you want to invest money and you want to invest it in something that gets a 10% annual return. Well, if you have $50,000 in debt, that is, you know, accruing interest at a rate of 15% a month, everything you're putting in the investments is being offset by even more with your debt. So you're actually never actually climbing out of it with any investments. So I know at one point Mark Cuban said he had, I don't remember the quote or anything, it might have even been in his book, but he said that the absolute number one investment that you can make if you have debt is pay that debt off. Because now you're instantly getting moving forward. You're Actually making progress, moving forward on any future investments.

Totally. Yeah. It's the whole analogy of one step forward, two step back. Exactly. That's pretty much debt in a nutshell. So I saw that in my dad. I've seen that in my mom and just growing up. And it's very apparent. I mean, me being next of kin. This is what also is part of this. It's like, oh, cool. And luckily my wife's helping out tremendously on this. But it's like all of his stuff and all of these things are now dumped on us to figure out all the accounts. And so we're seeing everything. And I'm just like, fuck.

So what? I mean, this is just more of my own curiosity. Question. But what happens with all of his debt? Does somebody else have to take it on or is it forgiven after death?

I mean, I don't know how that works. Credit cards. Yeah. Are just. They're basically cleared, but we have to still address all of them. He had no assets.

Yeah.

Which is part of the whole wealth thing as well. So have assets and investments and insurance and things. A will. Like, these are all things that he did not have.

Yeah.

And. And this is nothing like just to say this here. And there might be people that know me or knew my dad listening. Like, obviously, this is nothing to disparage anything against him.

Yeah. No, these are just. You're just kind of talking facts.

I'm just talking facts. And the things that I'm seeing that most probably no one is seeing from him. And. And these are takeaways where I for sure am going to learn from. And still better. But yeah, like. So. Yes. Like those credit card debts and all this stuff. Basically, his car is the only thing that was worth any money and it wasn't worth much. So that will be sold to essentially, like those. All the funds. Anything that comes from that will just go to credit cards. But other than that, we just tell him he's dead, you're not getting the money. That's it. Like, it doesn't pass on, luckily.

Yeah. Okay.

So, yeah, so that's. That's a big thing, is the whole wealth thing. So flipping the coin. So no debt. Wealth.

Yeah.

That's what I want to instill. Another one is addiction. So he loved his beer. This is not what drove him to anything, I don't think. But he was actually. He actually was sober for a year prior to this.

But addiction to anything, really, like an addictive personality, we all have it in something. And there's obviously good addictions and bad Addictions, like there's even breathing is an addiction like you and I were talking about. And I feel like in me flipping the coin, this whole addiction thing. Cause I noticed my dad really loved beer for a long time, and that's why I got turned on to IPAs and so many good beer. He loved all the craft brewing, the overtime event we did he never got to go to, but he fucking loved the fact that we brew in San Diego with some of the biggest brewers in the brewing community. And he's just like, what? He always wanted to actually work with us or for us if we owned a brewery one day. Oh, yeah. And I'm like, do you got a job? But. So. But he, you know, got a little. Little. Loving the beer a little bit too much. But. But that got me thinking. Like, you know what? There's addictions that we all have and something, and it might be something that we're just not super proud of or something. It could even just be, like, waking up late all the time. But we're like, man, I really want to wake up early. It's like, okay, well, let's figure out a plan to get around to that. So my kind of flip the coin thing there was being more controlled with my actions. Intentional is another one, I think you said. So, like, we can be intentional with our breathing, like we were talking about, because you're like, okay, so how do you control that? Like an addiction? I'm like, well, actually, this is what I've been using to get through this is like box breathing or Wim Hof breathing. Because that's completely deliberate, and that's controlling something that we kind of just take for granted. Yeah.

No, I think when it comes to, you know, addictions or habits or, you know, however you want to, you know, talk about that kind of thing.

Really, I think it all comes down to that. The idea of. Know why you're doing it, you know? Like, I think it's real easy for people to sort of fall into a routine of like, I come home from work, I, you know, I crack a beer, and then like, three hours later, I'm six or seven beers in. And that's just kind of like my daily routine. Right? Like, I. I've. I've. I've had points in my life where I've had that sort of thing with THC and weed. Right? Is like, I, like. It became kind of part of my routine where at the end of the day, after I was done working, I would go and smoke something and check out and relax, and it Got very, very, very habitual to the point where, like in the evenings I was doing my work during the day, looking forward to being done with work so I can go smoke. It kind of got to that point where it was starting to become the thing that I looked forward to. Now I still use thc, but I have very specific reasons for using it. If I'm starting to feel a lot of anxiety creep in, I might indulge a little. If I feel like, oh, I might have a hard time sleeping or, you know, my wheels are spinning too much, I know I want to fall asleep, I might use that as a tool to help me fall asleep. But it's all, it's. It's more about. This is my escape that I'm looking forward or less about. This is the escape that I'm looking forward to and more now about like, I'm using this as a tool to make my life better.

Yeah, that's great. I think it's perfect because there's things like Netflix or YouTube. Think about the account. I mean, the fact that you hear people say, like, oh, I'm going to go Netflix, binge or whatever, it's like, yeah, it's because it's a freaking addiction. And social media. I mean, these things are built to get you addicted, as is soda and sugar and, and smoking cigarettes and weed even.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I agree that things like binge watching things on Netflix can be addicted.

Can be, yes.

But I also, I also believe that it is okay to have an escape that you enjoy from time to time, as long as it doesn't become a problem for you or other people in your life. I, you know, like, I binge watch shit on Netflix from time to time, but I go, I go multiple nights per week where we don't even turn on the TV all week. You know, like, so just being intentional, being intentional and, and having the awareness, the self awareness to realize when it is actually starting to shift into something that could be problematic.

Yeah, yeah. So I think that's. I know that's something. I think just being very deliberate and intentional with any kind of recurring thing is probably going to help us more than anything. Because it's those consistent things that's the thing. Even in our business, the most consistent things we do, I. E. Record these podcasts, it's probably the most consistent thing out of everything.

Has opened up so much good in our lives and business. So it's like, just think about any consistent thing you're doing. There is an effect that's happening on Your lives for good or bad or neutral.

So you're saying you're addicted to podcasting, but you're happy about it?

Yeah, of course. And yeah, because it's. It is. I mean, we love it, you know. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of people will if they try podcasting or if they have one that's listening and it's a good addiction or it can be as long as you have a good model and a reason why you're doing it, which we do. But yeah.

Good addictions are cool, but again, intentional, because we know any consistent thing is going to bring in effects somewhere. Any consistent thing. So it's like, let's just make sure that consistent thing is bringing good or something more valuable to you. So I think it was kind of a realization in the moment, actually. Anything consistent is really so damn powerful if you apply it to it could.

Be very powerful in a positive or negative direction, basically.

Yeah.

So, all right, so we've got your ending the cycle of debt, not necessarily ending the cycle of addiction, but being very, very aware of these things that could potentially turn into addictions and just being very conscious of it and intentional in my. Intentional and deliberate with it. All right, so what was your third realization?

So the third realization which I think is in front of you. I'm blanking on not being so busy all the time. That's it. Okay, so this wasn't like totally from my dad, because I wouldn't say he was very busy at all. He was actually self retired, I guess you wanna say. But I mean, so the realization more here was to not be so detached was to not feel like I'm constantly going from one thing to another without paying attention to the people that are around me or things I'm actually doing.

And you know, in my dad's scenario, he lived in South Carolina. He was on the east coast, which is where his family was from. There's a whole story that we don't need to get into now. But basically he moved back there 15 years ago or something like that. And.

It really detached him from us, like this side of the family. And he knew it, but at the same time had his own things. And that's fine, you know, it is what it is. But I saw that as like, okay, well, there's definitely things that could have been done differently and because of that got him into a scenario where he felt actually like he was really detached from people around him and people that actually did love him, friends and family. But it kind of pushed him away a bit because he didn't totally see how people actually loved him. And these are, in saying all this, these are kind of indicators as well for depression and stuff like that. So 100%, like having a group around you and not feeling, like, busy or you're just like, so locking everybody else out. So this one is being more deliberate about, or what's the word? Maybe it was deliberate that I wrote down controlled. Oh, wait, no, that's addiction.

No, you said deliberate.

Deliberate. Okay. So, yeah, the flipping the coin thing here is like. Okay, so any action I'm doing in my day or even just planning on my schedule, this goes back to Dave Asprey about what's the most valuable thing? Well, it's not time, it's energy. So it's the energy we're putting into people things, our projects, our family, like, all that. And I realized that I was dispersing my energy all over the place, willy nilly, scheduling calls or even podcast interviews and loading up my schedule. And, you know, like, after my dad died, I just fucking canceled almost everything for, like, the foreseeable future. Yeah, obviously, the things that were absolutely important, like Matt and I chatted, our team chatted and all that stuff, but, like a call that didn't really have an intention behind it. Why? Yeah, like, it's great to touch base, but why?

Yeah, I mean, we. To be honest, we actually started doing that a little bit when you knew the baby was coming too. I think we pretty much wiped the entire month of November clean and said we're not talking to anybody. And now, you know, now that baby's here, we're starting to put things back on the calendar slowly.

Yeah, still not in the headspace. I'm still like.

I mean, we're not loading up our days or anything, but especially not you. I'm. I'm taking on a few more calls and things like that than I normally would, but, you know, for the most part, we're keeping November pretty easy going for us.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, that's. It's a. A good realization. I think, me personally, I have that realization, like, off and on, you know, Like, I'll have it like, every, like, two weeks. I'd be like, man, I've just been. I've just had my head buried. I don't know what's going on around me. I've, like, I've been working on this project for the last two weeks and I don't know what's going on, you know, and then, you know, I'll sort of snap out of it. And then go too far in the opposite direction and not get a whole bunch of stuff done. And then I'll be like, you haven't accomplished a lot in the last couple weeks. And then so I kind of. Me personally, just speaking for myself, I kind of go in these, These cycles of like, hardcore, get a bunch of shit done, take my foot off the gas for a couple weeks. Hardcore, get a bunch of shit done, take my foot off the gas for a couple weeks.

It's true. Yeah. And I do the same thing and have done that. And that's where it's like, we'll have a glimmer of motivation or we'll have a brainstorming session, you and I, and then we'll walk away all pumped. But then we'll go hard on something for a week or a couple days, launch that thing. But then it's almost like we move on to the next thing sometimes. Obviously it's not with everything, but this is kind of like the start, stop, start, stop that. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs do. So I feel like I'm speaking for a lot of people here. It's true, but in this realization. So it sounds surface level, I guess, maybe, but I've thought about all of these even deeper is the whole busy thing and the energy thing, like what Dave Asprey said, energy is that commodity that's like, you gotta protect that thing.

And my energy, I want to make sure that it's being spent in the right places. Where you and I, like, that's why we have this beautiful flowchart now of our entire business.

I want us to hammer that fucking flowchart and not deviate much at all. Because I'm realizing we've deviated a lot. And I've deviated a lot. I know with my. Basically, I've realized that I can be a lot more accountable to myself to execute deliberately. But on this plan that we set out for ourselves, that has a well thought out vision and a plan, and it's like, trust the plan, trust that, be consistent and work that motherfucker, because good stuff will happen. And I think.

I definitely jump around from certain thing to certain things. Like, I'll call da, da, da. We'll watch YouTube videos, you and I will chat for hours on end about brainstorming something. And then, let's be honest, most of the time, nothing ever happens. And that fucking kills me because that's so much wasted energy right there if we don't act upon it.

Obviously, amazing things come from those conversations and from us tinkering around. So that's never gonna stop. But I feel like the deliberate actions, like, for me.

Being super deliberate with. I'm looking at Matt's checklist on omnifocus right now, his to do list. That's something that I've actually gotten better at doing because I haven't been as like.

Here'S my hit list, but not like, here's my 20 hit list for the day. It's like, here are the three, four rocks. And being very deliberate to work the plan that we're working towards.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, part of. We don't have to get into this right now, but, you know, part of the whole checklist thing that I do is I actually have a whole bunch of like. What do you call them? Like, sort of softball tasks. Right.

I do the same thing. Like, I'm not pointing out the fact that you have more than like three things on.

Yeah, I think I've got like. I don't know, I typically have like maybe 10 things day that I'm trying to work through. But like, two of them, three of them are like softball tasks from like, this will take me three minutes. I get to check it off. And when I check it off, that starts to build sort of mental momentum for the day. That's part of the whole game plan there. But I do think that's.

Some good insights. I think when you start to have these. When you start to have these realizations of what is really important in life, it is important to generate an income for yourself. But it's also, you know, it's also important to make sure that you're balancing it with, you know, family and friends and relationships and all this other stuff that's going on around you. You know, if you're. If you have a specific faith, you know, balancing all of that kind of stuff is important as well. And I think as we get deeper and deeper into this business, you know, we're freaking 12 years into this shit now. You think we'd have our shit figured out, which, you know, that's a whole different story for a different day.

But, you know, we have enough figured out to. To look like we do.

Yeah, that's true. As you get deeper and deeper and deeper into this, what you start to realize is a lot of the shit that I'm doing on a day to day basis, if I didn't do it, would that really be that harmful to the business?

That's what I'm talking about. That. Right.

And so we start to find things that we can shave off or we can find other things that team members are perfectly capable of doing, but we've just held onto ourselves and things like that. And I think over the last 12 years, that's what we've slowly gotten better and better and better at. The thing that we haven't totally gotten better at is when we give up things, when we find something that we're like, we really don't need to be doing this. We haven't been good at not replacing it with something else.

That's true. Yeah, it's like there's like an empty bottle, let's say, or a full bottle, and it's like, pour out some. So there's like three quarters now. And we're like, hey, we have room to breathe. There's oxygen now. But then we're like, ah, let's put some more water in there.

Well, even going back to like, the debt example, right? Like what a lot of people do, and this is a big problem that get people in more and more trouble, is you've got these, like, debt consolidation loans that you can get, right? So let's say I owe $50,000 in credit card debt across, like six credit cards. I can go get one loan for $50,000, pay off all these credit cards with it, and now I have one loan. Well, you know what most people do? They go, I have five free credit cards now. I want to go to Best Buy and get that fucking Mavic Pro that I've been wanting. I'm going to go get that MacBook Pro. Because my credit card's empty now, right? And in the beginning it feels fairly harmless. Like, hey, it's only 500 bucks. I'll pay that off next month. No big deal. The next thing you know, you've got this debt consolidation loan where you owe $48,000 on it still. And your old credit cards, you now owe 20 grand on them, and now you're at 70 grand in debt when you thought this debt consolidation. You know, this is a long analogy for me saying that's what people tend to do with their time as well.

No, you're right. And it's. Yeah, it's like, what's your relationship with money? But also like, what's your relationship with time or energy, however you want to put it. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, you're right.

But I think that's, that's the thing that we haven't been the best at over 12 years. But I think in the last several months, with the stuff that's been happening and the new things like we'll get into this in a couple minutes. And the new things that have been added onto our plate and things like that, we kind of have no choice, right?

And I like that we're kind of.

Forced into this place where we're like, we gotta get rid of shit because we don't have enough hours in the day to take on all the shit that we're talking about doing.

You know what I like about this whole thing, and this really happened actually, after my dad. And thinking of this specifically is.

I know I have the capacity to do much better than I'm currently doing, 100 fucking percent. And I think we all do, actually. I know we all do. And I haven't. And I know these blind spots in me, and I know a lot of these things, but I know I also haven't take action to change those things. And this actually is a challenge. And I promised my dad, obviously, after he left, but his spirit, that I would do this. And the fourth one too, of these things, but it's like I'm going to do right by him and for my family and me that. That I will change these things. And I know I have a bigger game to play. And I love the fact that we're working with some of the biggest people in our fricking industry. So accountability just shot up through the roof. We have our own team, Shannon on our team, and other people that rely on us. That's accountability. You is accountability. Are accountability to me.

Family, my kid, now my wife. Like, I'm like, okay, I gotta. I want to step up. It's not that I got to. I want to.

Yeah.

And that. And I love the challenge of this big scary shit, because I'm like, you know what? I know I'm capable. I know we're both capable. We're all capable. If it's in our laps, like right here in front of us, you're capable. You just got to figure out how to actually do it. And it's probably letting go of some things that you're, like, holding on too tight.

For sure. Yeah.

Yeah. So.

So, so what. What was that fourth lesson? The one that we actually don't have notes on because you couldn't remember before we hit record?

Pretty sure I figured it out. I know either way, I know this is a big thing, is guilt is holding on to guilt.

So that's guilt about anything. And I'm not going to get into my dad's stuff, but let's just say there's a lot of guilt there. I mean, one of them Being that he wasn't around his kids and he.

He felt a lot of guilt, is what you're saying.

Yeah. Okay. And. And, like, obviously, him not having money and all that stuff, he felt partially that he wasn't gonna be able to come out here to see his granddaughter, my girl. And that's just extra guilt. And, you know, some of this, obviously, I'm kind of assuming, but a lot of the stuff I do know as well from his past.

But that obviously, all of this I brought internally. Like. Okay. So I could see he was struggling with guilt, and guilt is not good. I know some of the training Mike Kim has been doing with us is like, training us to get out of this guilt. Like, holding any guilt about anything. Because guilt doesn't serve you. It doesn't serve anybody. It's all just dwelling on the past and something that we can't change. The only thing we can do is act on something that's going to improve ourselves or the thing, learn from that thing. But it doesn't have to be guilt, because that's the shit that spirals us into bad places.

Yeah. I think if you do feel guilty about things, you should be asking yourself, like, I think you need to be having, like, an internal dialogue. Why do I feel guilty about this? Because I feel like, like the op. The other side of guilt is there's typically a resolution. If you. If you feel guilty about something, maybe all it takes is a phone call and an apology and the guilt is gone.

Right.

So there's. I feel like there's always a flip side to guilt. And if. If you're not. If you feel guilty all the time for things, but you're not looking for the solution to the guilt, that's the real problem.

It is. You know, and it's sticking in the guilt. Like, I know for my dad, there was enough stuff that it seems like it just compounded, you know, on his life and being in a place that he felt alone, you know, I'm assuming a little bit here because obviously we'll know the full answers. But the fact that you pushed a lot of people away, that's huge. But there's guilt associated to that, and there's reasons why he did that. Not being around.

Me or my sister, family over here. I'm sure there was guilt there. Not having the money to go see all these layers of things, and this is just him, but there's layers of things that I could save for myself as well. And the key is to just not stay in that guilt, because guilt doesn't serve. So flipping that to be more of like, okay, kind of like I was saying, use that as a lesson and figure out how do we move past that. Like, that's just a little like an indicator on our dashboard if we're driving our car. Like, oh, you got freaking a leaky tire. Your psis are going down. Well, it's like, okay, well, I'm not gonna feel guilty because I didn't patch that up, like, yesterday or pump it up before I got in the car. Like, fuck, I didn't know. But, like, it's an indication. It's like, oh, I should probably take care of that, stop at the gas station and get a new tire. Yeah, like, that's about it. And, like, that's how we should just look at things in life.

Yeah. It's your check engine light pretty much.

Yeah.

No, I love that. So, you know, the month of October was obviously a roller coaster of a month. So not only did your dad pass, but you also had a new baby come into your life. So I actually kind of want to sort of flip the exact same stuff we've been talking about, but kind of look at it from the opposite direction now that you have. Not that you haven't had kids in the past, you've obviously fostered and you know what it's like to, you know, to raise children. But with this stuff happening with your dad and with you having your baby in the same month, what are some of the traits from your dad that you're like, this is what I fucking loved about him. And I want to make sure I perpetuate these things in my family.

That's good. I like this. Okay, so the first one is just being a people person, like, having this sense of humor and having a very, like, I 100% get hit. And my mom is very personable as well, but this is definitely my dad. Like, reading all the comments from when I posted something on Facebook about him passing and some of the lessons already I was posting on there, I saw all these stories from his friends and people I just don't even know that said, like, oh, my God, your dad was like, the nicest person I've ever met. He always gave me a hug when I got to work. He always, like, he's one I genuinely love as, like, a family my own. Like, he treated me as such as family, not just like some people person. And like, people are like, yeah, he was there to help me move when, like, absolutely no one else was there to help. And I had no clue, like, how I was Going to do this. Like, there's just stories and stories and stories. After, I was like, holy crap. Like, there is a lot. Like, I didn't know a lot of these. He didn't tell me these. But I 100% know and believe them because I saw them when I was a kid. Like, all of my friends in elementary school loved him. And like, kids don't normally love parents, at least, like, not in, like, the rebel stages and all that, but like, in middle school. And, like, they fucking flocked to my dad because he was always around. He was showed up for them, he was involved. But he also was very. Maybe this was actually my fourth one, but I think it is, actually. But having fun, like, always just having fun. And.

Yeah, it counts, whatever, we'll just throw it on the list. But basically, he always had a very fun demeanor, Very playful, played music, like a lot of these very kid like features. I would say he always had that and it resonated with everyone. Not only kids, but having that playful nature, not taking shit so seriously. He was amazing at that. And that I know for a long time I did not have in my life. And I was taking things too literally, too seriously. Oh, there's a deadline or worrying about something that is completely out of my control. It's like, kids aren't out there. Like, your kid right now, you know, Core's out there, like, playing with Legos.

Yeah.

Fucking awesome. My dad loved playing Legos with me.

Yeah.

Like, I want to go play Legos with her.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, I swear to God, like, I'd rather do that. Right. No, I don't actually love chatting about this, but it's stuff like that. Like, I want to be there and be like that for McKenna, my daughter and her friends and my family and all that. That's a huge personality trait.

I could. I could definitely attest to all that about your dad. I mean, I've. I spent time with him, you know, four or five times. I don't remember how many times, but.

Yeah, I've had the opportunity a lot. When you were. Yeah, yeah.

Whenever he was in San Diego, I usually saw him at least once while he was in town. And that the best way I could describe him was that he always just seemed so jolly. Like, I can't think of a better descriptor. Like, he was just always happy, always seemed like he loved everyone. Everybody that was around him always just wanted to have fun. He just always seemed like he was just looking for fun. And he was a barbecue guru. I remember he came over to Our.

He's a chef in general.

I remember, like, he came over to our house when we lived up in Murrieta one of the times when he was visiting, and he came over because we're gonna barbecue at my house. And I really should have just handed him the tongs and said, hey, you'd be in control of the barbecue.

You would have loved that, too, you know?

Cause I was. I think I was cooking steak or chicken or something. I don't remember when I was cooking, but I remember he kept on coming over and looked over my shoulder and being like, you got it in about 30 seconds. You got to flip that, right? And then. And I'd go grab some tongs. He's like, oh, no, not those tongs. Go grab those tongs over there. Those tongs are going to work better. And he was like. He was sort of, like, educating me. And, like, most of what I know about barbecuing now, I learned from your dad because, like, he was, like, over my shoulder, like, telling me how to cook the meat, and I didn't know what I was doing. I was just like, I think I throw it on here for long enough, it'll cook all the way through. Right.

I'm pretty sure I remember this exact day because you said. I know you've said it in the past. I don't know if it was here, but, like, cooking chicken freaks you out and, like, brings you anxiety or whatever, and. But, like, I learned how to cook chicken from him.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it's fucking easy. But at the same time, I could see that, and I think that he might have been kind of coaching you a little bit on that specifically, too. Yep. Yeah. Because I definitely have fond memories of him grilling since the day I can remember, and, yeah, that's 100%. Yeah. He was a great chef.

Yeah.

Great cook.

So are there any other, like, personality traits that you saw in him that you see in yourself that you want to make sure keep getting passed down?

I mean, there's. I mean, there's so many. Like, that one is, like, the biggest one, because I feel like that spills over into so many different things. Like, I can go to town all day long about exactly what he, like, being the. He was very engaged with people, like, in the moment, showed love. Like, okay, so the amount of love that he gave to people is, like, humongous. Massive. And he meant it. It wasn't just, like, surface level stuff, but actually, like, really caring about people and being very tapped in and empathetic.

And obviously, he had his own selfish type stuff as well, which we all should have. But the love he showed people in person, when things weren't cloudy in his head, when he was his true character, his fricking. The love that he gave everyone was outstanding. So that is amazing because people feel that and people remember that forever.

Yeah. And I think one of the sort of biggest lessons that could come out of this and the exercise that you went through and.

For listeners and for myself and obviously for you, is that I think a lot of these traits that we look at and that we see in other people, we completely take for granted until those people aren't around anymore. Right.

A lot of these things, were they things that you noticed? I mean, I'm sure you noticed how happy and jolly he was. But a lot of the negative stuff, you know, it was probably amplified by, you know, what happened. You might have kind of had, like, little inklings that, you know, things were rough, like in the financial area or, you know, he was upset that he wasn't able to get over to San Diego more, that kind of thing. But, you know, I think when tragedy strikes you, all of that stuff was, like, amplified. You're like, oh, shit. Like, I saw all these things as, like, you know, little shit that he had to deal with, and that kind of sucked. But now realizing, man, that was obviously not that little of shit to him.

That's right. Yeah.

And I think a lot of people just kind of take that stuff for granted. And the people around them, like, you know, the. Your. Your parents, your. Your wives, your kids, your friends that you don't talk to as often. You don't know the struggle that they're going through. You don't really know the magnitude of what they're going through. You know, they may tell you, yeah, you know, my. I'm in debt and it's hard to pay the bills right now or something. And you go, oh, man, that sucks. Or, you know, maybe I can lend you some money or something, or you don't really think too much about it because you're just. We live in this sort of culture of just like, everybody seems unhappy, so this is kind of the way it is. And then when something like this happens, you're like, oh, shit, there's. You know, I really should be paying closer attention to what's going on around me and the other people in my life that maybe I'm not paying as much attention to around me all the time.

Yeah, yeah. And giving them credit for the good that they're bringing. Because you're right. It's. And yeah, there's a lot of that, because I know 100% that was the case with my dad, too, is bringing up some of these more negative things rather than appreciating him and thanking him. And that's, to be very honest, this is where I thought of these things because I was in my processing. And this is probably just part of the phases. The whole stages of grief thing. But I literally visualized in the state. I hope this doesn't sound bad, but I was visualizing speaking in front of everyone and saying, he was a good man. But at the first point when I was thinking about this, I was like, but how was he a good man? I literally struggled because I think naturally, at least I do, maybe all of us, that we think of more of the criticism in people and some of the more negative things were like, but why didn't he do this?

Rather than, oh, no, shit. There's a lot of good that I just kind of was taking for granted. I wasn't telling him or appreciating that person. It could be anyone. And that's where I did start seeing that. Oh, wait, there's a massive. All these. Loads of great things about him. And then I was like, wait, that means that there are a lot of. Or these certain negative traits. Quotes. Negative. Because they're not all negative, but that I can flip and turn for the better. But he is a. Was a great man through and through, because he gave me all of this stuff to assess. And he. Yeah, like, that's. That allowed my brain to kind of shift into thinking, what is the really good of this situation and of him in general, and be like, holy crap. Like, there's a lot of good I can bring from him in that situation. And everything instilled in me.

Yeah. I mean, I really. I really think the lesson there is just, like, the people around you, you should really be thinking about the things that you're grateful for about those people or the positive personality traits in those people that are around you at any given time and let them fucking know, you know?

I think that's something. Somebody made a comment on Facebook recently because, you know, Andy Jenkins passed away and Sean Stevenson. Yeah.

Same day my dad. It was one of the two. Yeah. Yeah.

And so there was a handful of people that kind of passed away over the last few months. And, you know, when these people passed and, you know, Dan Kennedy died and then came back to life, and I think he's good now. I don't know what's going on with Dan.

I Don't know where he stands. I hope he's well.

Yeah, I hope so, too. But no, I think he's actually recovering as. But you know, when. When all of these things happen, people are going to social media, talking about how great these people were and how much they changed their life and how impactful this person was on the. Their trajectory in life and all this sort of thing, and somebody else post on Facebook, like, this is love. This is great. I love seeing all these messages. But why does it take death to share these things with these people? Like, why aren't we sharing them with them when they have the opportunity to see them while they're living?

Yeah.

You know, it's so true.

It's so true. Because that can literally change the trajectory of someone's life, too. And. Yeah. So, yeah, we should all. If you're listening and go, just think of one person. Just thank them for something awesome that they've showed you or given to you in some way. Yeah, yeah. Like, just give them that appreciation. Like, give a call, text, whatever.

Make it a habit. Make it a daily thing.

That'd be. Yeah, it's like super grateful gratefulness. Like, gratitude practice right there. And that's an easy one.

Yeah.

Like, guarantee you're getting influenced every single day by someone, even if it's a freaking celebrity. It's like, whatever.

Tweet them or, you know, even just start with the people around you. Start with your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, your neighbors, your roommate, whatever. Like, whoever's around you, your business partner, Joe. You've. You've got a nice shirt on. Wow.

That's it. That's it.

That's what I got for you right now.

That's fine. I'll take it. I'll take it. Yeah. It's only because it says Hustle and Flowchart on it. You fucking selfish. I'm just kidding. No, it's.

That was obviously me joking.

No, in full seriousness, like, in partially, like, Mike Kim, part of every single day has us doing these morning gratitudes. Like, thinking of five things, and you come up in that almost daily in that. And as do Mike, finally. And all good. Yeah. And because that's. Yeah. Having these.

Just thoughts, like holding that in our brains. I know this has helped me so much, like, with the breathing, gratefulness, talking this stuff out. There's so many tools I've been using this last month in October, that gratitude has helped me so much to get my mind straight and be like, okay, this is my next step. Or this is like, holy crap. I'm surrounded by so many amazing support people around me that everything works out for the best reason possible. There's a balance to everything. So I've been telling myself, like, this whole month and beyond. It's like, there's a. You can always flip the coin. Always doesn't matter. And I'm freaking flipping it. My dad committing suicide, like, immediately I was flipping the coin, or at least trying to. Obviously, it's hard. It's really hard at first, but we could do that. Everyone can.

Yeah.

But gratefulness goes a long way, too. So there's a lot of other good traits as well. I don't want to say, like, he was a great musician, cook. Like, those are things that I legitimately want to instill in myself more and. And pass down my kids. And there's a lot of other cool stuff, too. Just. Just having fun, I think, is huge.

Yeah. Yeah. So I want to. I want to shift into a little bit more. I know we're kind of. This might be a little bit longer than normal episode, but I want to. I want to shift a little bit into, you know, now that McKenna, your daughter, is here, has that. I mean, the answer may be no, because I know you've fostered kids and have had this sort of family dynamic in the past. Has there been any new perspective shifts as a direct result since she's born? Like, have you seen some new changes in you or new ways of thinking that weren't there before she came into the world?

Yeah, yeah, totally. So, yeah, just. So if you haven't heard before, I have fostered other kids, one being four days old, that we picked up at the NICU at the hospital and had her for 15 months. And still to this day, we're in contact with her. And she calls us Dada Mama and all that. And she actually calls McKenna her little sister. Johnny, you even knew about.

No, I didn't.

She literally calls her now, and I'm like, this is the coolest thing in the world. And, yeah. So now technically, I like to say I have two daughters. They technically do. And. Yeah. So. But yeah, with McKenna specifically.

Like, I was an emotional wreck right when she got pulled out, I was just like, whoa. That was like. I just, like, was like, waterwork started. And here's the thing with me, I am, like, I'm very open, but I think I've gotten a lot more open lately, honestly. I think it's a lot of, like, the psychedelic work and, you know, therapy type sessions like this, and, you know, just having good people to Talk to.

But, like, I. I don't cry often, but dear God, I've been like, waterworks, like, just. Because I'll get these, like, glimmers of, like, aha moments with her. And so, yeah, right when she was born, I was just. Because I've been thinking a lot about my dad, of course. So I'd say, like, the biggest thing is because now she is biologically my kid. Like, she's not gonna go back to anybody.

Is like, she's me. And now I'm seeing me in, like, child form partially. It's crazy, because she looks a lot like me when I was a baby.

The beard is uncanny.

Yeah, it's perfect. Came in strong. So, like, that was the biggie. But also the fact that, like, she was born in the same place my sister was born, not in the same room. But I remember me being there with my dad and my dad doing very similar things that I did in that same. Let's just call it the same room. But it literally looks the same as it did when my sister was born. I was there. I was like, five or six or five and a half. And, you know, so cutting the cord, all of this stuff. I was just, like, fucking. Like, this is. This is like a blast to the past in a way. And then when I got home, you know, like, you know, you do a whole, like, skin on skin time and all that stuff. So I remember I was laying on this on my sofa with my shirt off and hers off, and she was just laying on top of me. And I remember I have a picture of my dad somewhere doing the same exact thing with me. And then me feeling like. And that just like, opened everything up, because then I started seeing, like, how I fit into this line of, like, this lineage. And I'm seeing now how everything is just like a pattern. Everything is cyclical. I could see, you know, like, how alike I am to my dad. And that's where a lot of these negative traits that I'm flipping that I'm sure he tried his best to flip as well, are more important than ever to flip. And I was seeing myself as, like, wait, she relies on me. Like, I am the one that is feeding. Like, she's the sponge to me and my wife and everyone else. But more than ever, more so than, you know, our foster baby. Like, I'm just like, holy crap. Like, don't fuck this up, Joe. Like, responsibility galore is on my chest literally right now.

Yeah. I mean, just wait until they start getting into the ages where they're, like, talking and walking. And then you start hearing them using like. Like language patterns that you use and your sense of humor coming out. I mean, you know, my two kids, right. Like, Hollis tends to be a little more serious all the time, but then Korra, she's a freaking smart ass like me. She just like, goose off and makes jokes and, like, is sarcastic and, you know, so, like, seeing sort of personality traits shift into your kids as they get older is just like, even. Even crazier to see.

Yeah, no, it is. And this is just a. It's just the beginning of the aha. But yeah, I would say the biggest one that really got me was seeing myself in line. Like, I'm just seeing like a visual of just like, like this big family line.

Yeah.

Even though I don't know my family way back on my dad's side, like, it was just an interesting. Like, there really isn't. Isn't a lot of history, but either way, I can at least see where I fit in. Right. And that's where. That's where I was like, whoa. And.

Through all this, it's like crazy. I don't know if it's like, helping me process better or if it's slower or if it's worse, but I don't think it. I don't know.

I don't think it's necessarily necessary to really, like, analyze how, you know, how it's impacting you. I think the lessons that you're pulling out of it are, you know, are really, really powerful. You know, trying to analyze whether the lessons and things are good or bad is, you know, just.

Is.

It just is what it is.

Ye.

You know, noticing this stuff, I think is really important and really powerful. I think. I think the. The more you.

The.

The more self realizing you are about your family history, the. The more you realize, like, the. The traits that they held, the tendencies they had, even, you know, things like health issues that may have popped up. The more you could understand about the people that came before you.

Yeah.

You know, the. The more you can try to prevent the negatives in your life and perpetuate the positives in your life.

Yes, you're 100% right. I'm not laughing.

You obviously just had an aha moment about something I just said, because you just like, snapped and pointed.

It's actually the fourth thing. And I know for sure this is actually it. It's like the sixth thing, but I swear they're all important. But my original fourth item on that pillar was actually brain health.

Okay.

Yeah. Because I think I told you this because Alzheimer's and dementia runs in my family. Like, I've had my 23andMe checked and it's in my blood, it's in my DNA. And like, there's no doubt about it that I have the markers at least for it doesn't mean it's obviously guaranteed, but it's a higher likelihood for sure. Yeah. So.

I'm not going to speculate if my dad maybe had some onset stuff there, but he was in the. He was in the age range and he definitely was showing a lot of characteristics. I'll just say that. Yeah. So saying that this actually 100%, this is the actual thing I had written down on my notes at home is Alzheimer or dementia. Basically, good habits. My flip to that is have good habits. And what I mean by that is obviously you can't totally prevent. At least we don't know yet how to prevent that. But there are a crap ton of good habits that I can do and with more wealth and with deliberateness and all this sleep and not being busy, you know, being like, not all anxious and all over the place, but actually like resting, getting the right nutrients, having the right routines. Mushrooms, Mushrooms legitimately are like one of the best things.

I know it sounds like I'm joking, but I mean, seriously.

Yeah. Like, Dr. Rhonda Patrick, I've been following her like crazy, more so now than ever. And like, you know, she's big on brain health and she goes deep on, you know, dementia and things like that. So, like, sleep's huge, but also there's so many supplements and daily habits that I could be doing, we all could be doing. I mean, we're all gonna be faced with some kind of dementia. Our brains break down, obviously, but some are just a lot more onset than others. And I know that's in my blood and it scares the shit out of me. I remember like clicking the button on 23andMe because you have to, like, if you want to see these kind of things. I'm like, are you sure?

And then you press the button and then it's like, are you really sure you want to know?

Yeah. Yeah. It asks you twice, like, which is. I'm happy they do, but yeah, like, it's in there for me. And I remember telling you, I'm like, holy shit. Like, I got to do something about this. But, like, now more than ever, like, yeah, that again, just prefacing. I don't know, but never know. But maybe that was kind of creeping in there with my dad a little bit. Yeah. And dude, I want to do anything in my power to make sure my brain health is on point every single day. So flipping that coin from like dementia or the possibility of that to like have good habits, just daily good habits and treat my body right.

Yeah. It's a good thing you didn't play football in school.

Yeah, no kidding. Huh.

Because a lot of people are starting to regret that decision too. But that's a different topic for a different day. That's very true. No, just sort of giving a little more context to the mushroom comment. There's. There's a great episode of the Joe Rogan podcast where he interviews a guy named Paul Stamets. We could probably link that up in the show notes, but basically Paul has studied, like mushrooms, both psychedelic and non psychedelic mushrooms, and actually found this specific stack of mushrooms. It's like lion's mane and some sort of type of psilocybin mushroom and niacin. Right. Like that combination of things has so far been shown really promising signs to sort of not only prevent Alzheimer's and dementia, but actually to sort of reverse some of the markers. And like, people have actually, like, there's markers have happened that show that they're on track to be getting Alzheimer's and markers, like actually started going away kind of thing. I don't know all the science behind it, so I don't know what I'm talking about. Paul Stamets talks about this mushroom stack that helps prevent it. So if it's something you're curious about diving deeper in, go check out that episode.

It's a good one. That makes me want to go buy that stack now.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, wait, that's one.

One third of the stack is still not legal in the United States. What are you talking about? I never.

We have no idea where to buy that kind of stuff at all.

Yeah. Brain health. But the Paul Stamets episode with Joe Rogan is really, really good.

Yeah.

Real quick, last sort of thing I wanted to touch on. I know we're running a little long on this episode, but we have been working with Michael Kim. He's sort of helped us a lot with mindset stuff we'll probably get into in a future episode. What he's helped us with from a funnel conversion standpoint, but just staying in the vein of mindset.

What are.

Some of the exercises that he's worked through with you? They obviously worked through with me, but I'm kind of asking you so we can keep the conversation going in a natural way. But what are some of the exercises he's had you work through, and what are some of the habits that you've changed as a result? And this will be like a dialogue, because obviously I'm doing the same stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, he came in at a good time, I would say, so. It was like, right after my dad passed.

I had the call with him. On the day that your dad did pass.

That's right.

Because we were supposed to have a podcast recording that day, and we canceled all of our recordings, but I still jumped on a call with Michael anyway, and that's what led us down this path.

That's a very good point. So I'll just say, like, absolutely everything. And I think my awareness has heightened this month. Absolutely everything happens for a reason and at the perfect freaking time. And I have a list of examples I can go through, but I won't even do that right now. But just, like, being aware, I'm now, like, hyper aware. And he is one of those things. The fact that he gave us this opportunity, literally the day my dad passed, or really the day I found out. Yeah. And then. Yeah. So Mike has been working with us on the mindset stuff.

Really what I wanted to talk about was. I want to talk about, like, really quickly, sort of briefly, some of the exercises that we're working through, and then also some of the routines that we've changed just so listeners, you know, they can go and test some of this stuff in their own lives and have some sort of actionable exercises that they can take away from this episode.

Hopefully, Mike's cool with that. I think so. It's bettering everyone and getting his word out there, too. So. Yeah, so he's doing a lot. And like I said, he came in at the right time because it feels like therapy a little bit, and I've told him that. So I would say that's a big piece. Is just talking stuff out.

Yeah.

And having a voice that, you know, has seen a lot of stuff. He's, you know, I think he's been a relationship coach. He's been a financial coach, and, like, all these different things. Conversion optimization, like you said.

Yeah. No, he's got a great perspective on everything. Internet marketing, mindset stuff, relationship advice and financial advice. He's literally operated in all of those spaces. So he brings this unique perspective, and this is why we ended up hiring him to consult with us. He brings this unique perspective of he has operated in all these places, and so he sort of can tie things together that we're not normally seeing. He's got puzzle pieces that are Missing from the box that we can. That he's finally helping us find again.

That's what it feels like. So off the bat, we had some calls, but really it was changing our relationship or our thought pattern with our money goals. So raising our money goals and what we chose to do is pretty much 3x our monthly goal.

So the exercise on this one was to essentially go, okay, how much money do you want to make per month? Where is all that money going to go? And then you and I both took the time to. I think I did on a spreadsheet. I think you did on a pen and paper. But we took the time to map out, like, okay, I want this amount per month so that I can have this. I want this amount per month so I can have this. I want this amount per month so I can, you know, pay down debt at this rate. I want this amount per month so I can put this amount towards investments every month and this towards my ira. And so we just got really, really granular of like, here's how much money I want per month, but not only here's how much I want it just because I want it. But. But here's what that money is gonna flow to. Because the struggle that a lot of people have is I wanna make more money. I wanna make 20 grand a month. Well, why do you wanna make 20 grand a month? I don't know. It sounds like a good amount of money. It's a lot of money. Well, if you don't have the reason behind the goal, you're not gonna make it to the fricking goal.

Well, and yeah, this goes back to what we said at the front of the episode is exactly this. And this is where I got went on my realization path. Of the four kind of pillars, now they're six.

Is.

This because I was good on the money goal? I figured all these things out, and it's actually really tough to put down what the things I want in addition to what I already have.

I know it was really a tough exercise.

And see, that proved to me I'm like, holy crap. I pretty much have everything I need. Actually do have everything I need. And I don't want anything. I mean, that's not true. I know there's a lot I do want, but at the same time, it wasn't apparent. And without those things, like the pillars that. But now that I have those, I have a bigger drive to be like, oh, okay, now I can really, like, believe this money goal.

Yeah. Well, so for me, when it came to the whole thing Is I had this tendency to go, okay, I want to be drawing from our business, $30,000 a month each or whatever, right. And then I would start breaking it down, and then I would look at the number of my breakdown and go, that's a lot. I really don't need that much. I could get by on 15 grand a month. If I'm just drawing 15 grand a month from the business that's, you know, that pays my bills and I have a little extra spending money, like, I'm good on that 15 grand a month. And then I would go back and I'd alter my numbers and like, basically figure it so that I only needed less from the business. And sort of the lesson there for me was, like, my relationship with money has always been a relationship of, like, I'm going to just, you know, figure out what the bare minimum I can live off of is, and, you know, that's good enough for me. So his big lesson for me is, like, obviously, think bigger and stop. You know, stop thinking in this. I don't know the right wording, but stop thinking from this perspective of, you know, I don't need it, so it's not worth me making enough money to have it. Right.

Yeah, I got you. Yeah. Because that's. Yeah, you're right. And I think having a bigger vision, at least for me, like, this has really fired me up because there's this, like, in thinking of what am I gonna do with this money, but also, like, what are these bigger life goals with a kid? And even if you don't have a kid, you don't need a kid to have this. But, like, I really want to do a bigger thing in the foster space as well. Like, I want to create a. And I'll just say it, like, super briefly here, but basically like a big sister, little sister kind of thing for foster kids aging out of high school that want to do something in the entrepreneurial space, because those kids are the ones that literally continue the cycle and typically get back. Their kids will go into foster care, and then everything just keeps. It's just not good. So I want to do that one day, and that's probably going to take some money and focus and time and resources and all that stuff. Connections and people, like, maybe some people listening here. If you want. If you're interested, reach out. Because it's true. Because that's what hinge on. But all of that, that drives me more than just, oh, what do I want to make to pay the bills and just make sure we're all fed because that's so, like, for me, at least, that doesn't light me up at all. I need to have these bigger, bigger plays.

That almost seem a little scary. Yeah.

I think the other thing that I got from Michael, that. And to be honest, to this day, I don't know if he prefers to be called Mike or Michael. So I just call him Michael because that's what his emails say.

I'll balance out and say Mike 50. 50.

There you go. So, you know, the other big thing from Michael for me was my morning routine. And like, these. The morning, like, sort of visualizations.

Yeah.

So if you get off to a really, really fantastic morning, it tends to go like that for the rest of the day. Right. At least from my experience, the last couple weeks, I've just. I've woke up, I think of the things I'm grateful for. I do a little bit of meditation. I sort of visualize what I want my life to look like, what I want my house to look like, what I want my yard to look like, what I want my body to look like, how I want to feel like. I go through this visualization exercise every morning, and by the time I leave my room and I've kind of gone through my routine, I'm just feeling like, like, fuck it, let's get after this day. I'm ready, I'm pumped, I'm excited. I'm happy about this day. And it's all because of the morning routine, just starting things off right. And I've had morning routines in the past. They weren't very specific. They were kind of more of the addictions, the habits that I just fell into. Like, this is just what I do every day. I don't know, just my routine. Right. But now I'm very, very deliberate from the moment I wake up. Literally, I wake up to alarm now on purpose. And my alarm actually has a very positive message that I read first thing in the morning. So the very first thing that goes through my brain in the morning is, is, you know, be, be grateful. And today's gonna be an amazing day.

Right.

So, like, that's the very first thing that I wake up to. That is the message that shows up on my alarm when I wake up. So that starts off my day, and then I start visualizing, like, what is my ideal life look like? And then I do this, like, this meditation routine where I just kind of silence my brain for a little bit. And then by the time I walk out of my room, I'm, like, hitting the ground running, and I'm Also getting a much earlier start. Like I probably accomplish more by 10am than most people do in an 8 hour day, but a lot of it comes from the stuff we've worked with Michael on and just kind of getting that foundation off to the right start first thing in the morning.

Yeah, that's good. And that's where I will be honest, I have fallen out of that a little bit.

Yeah. Well, your routine, you know, because there's a baby in the midst of your sort of schedule is a little different than mine.

It shifted fast. Yeah, but before that. Exactly what you just said. But yeah, the biggest thing I would say for me is, well, all that stuff you said is exactly right. So that's me too, the whole grateful thing.

And this might be a little woo woo for some, but Esther Hicks is someone who I've been, I was introduced to a long time ago via YouTube videos. But there are some meditations that I know you and I are listening to at night. And again, I've fallen a little bit out of that. But at night, basically programming our brains right before we go to sleep. And there's some money programming type. I mean there's a lot of stuff on YouTube and in apps like Shoot Insight Timer is the one I was thinking of. But headspace is good for meditation. I'm thinking more of like subconscious or like things you can fall asleep to with good things. Like because you're subconscious, like your frontal cortex, prefrontal cortex is kind of shutting down at that phase where you're not going to be like, oh well, I can't make that kind of money or like I'm not that great and powerful or whatever, whatever these empowering things can say. So I've been listening to a lot of those and I mentioned Esther Hicks. There's actually some really cool animated videos that I am like obsessed with right now, at least just to think about or listen to. But I love them because a lot of that stuff is exactly what has been helping me to get past my dad's stuff. But it's also with the business stuff and keeping me. It's very weird. I haven't felt anxious in probably over a month or two. Even with my dad. Before it was very attached to things like money, business and things like that out of my control mainly. And really since going through this process and even a little prior to, because I was already working on myself, I haven't been anxious at all. Even in some really scary, crazy times. Even with our business right now doing some crazy transformations too in big partnerships. I'M not anxious.

Yeah.

I'm just like, yeah, it's fine. Everything's going to be fine. Like, don't resist shit. Like, if it's here, it's fine. And that's been a big realization for me going through this entire process.

And, I mean, there's nitty gritty stuff. I guess with working with Mike, I don't need to say it all. There's a lot. But tracking our time, we're doing that as best as we can, and we're basically going to figure out the stuff that doesn't serve us and our bigger purpose. Thinking, like, 80, 20, and the fact that we don't have to do everything, figure out what is the 20% that's going to bring the 80% of results and more.

And then obviously this translates not only into our lives, but in our business, and it should pan out very well. I think it's actually working really well already, and it's only been five weeks or so.

Yeah. I mean, just for me, just like the sort of morning routine, just like the steps that I go through first thing in the morning have literally changed the game for me.

Yeah. So we didn't even get into some of the.

New stuff that we're. That are. That's happening with the biz. I think you were kind of.

Well, we have. We actually have another therapy session coming out on New Year's Day.

Cool. So we'll. We'll save that for that and that and that one.

We're gonna. It's gonna be me, you, and our operations manager, Shannon, all kind of talking about the new stuff we're working on and our plans for 2020. So that episode actually drops New Year's Day. That'll be our next therapy session.

Cool. So let's save that stuff till then. Yeah.

Plus, there's sort of. With. With a lot of the new business model, we've got like the. The map, the flowchart. Like, we kind of have the vision of what we're going to do, but there are slight nuances that kind of keep on tweaking day by day as we're trying to dial this thing in. So I really think by the time that episode comes out, we're gonna. We're gonna feel pretty freaking dialed in on this new system, for sure. But very, very exciting stuff. Stuff that's going to benefit you as the listener, you know, more. More offerings, more availability, more speaking, more presentations from us, more free podcast, more free stuff from us. Just a lot of cool shit that we're really excited to Give you.

Yeah. And we're definitely. We're partnering with some really interesting folks that will. That will put us in places, in new places that you'll see us in. Further, we won't tell any details quite yet.

Yeah.

But it's getting exciting. And all of this comes back to, like, sticking in here. I'll end on this point, actually, because I think this is very relevant and it's relevant to what we've been talking about with Mike Kim. I mentioned this Astra Hicks thing and these principles. My dad is. I think now, this whole year from where you and I met, we have attracted a lot of crazy opportunities. Crazy, I mean, amazing. From massive people, massive brands.

And it's literally shit that four years ago you and I would be sitting around and this would not even be on our radar. Like, we would be sitting there thinking like, these guys will never know who we are.

Yeah. It's the fact, even getting someone on our podcast like these folks we've had on, in retrospect, that's mind blowing and still is. It's funny because, like, it's not like we're numb to it now, but, like, I think we're just very comfortable with it.

Yeah.

And I wouldn't say even expecting it, but I would say that we just know we're in the right place and it's being. It's coming to us because we set ourselves up in the right way. But the thing I think that has become more clear lately. It's become more clear is that we have honed in what we truly want as a business and as our lifestyle and within what Matt was saying with listing out the things that we. That we're going to spend money on or, you know, invest in and all that without having that kind of true north, more or less. Like we were attracting everything.

Yeah.

And it wasn't just, like, really our big thing. So if you're just in case you're wondering if you want to send some stuff away or if you want to talk, it's podcast, it's marketing in the podcast, it's monetizing podcasts. And mainly that.

Yeah. And a little touch of. We help people with traffic stuff, too.

Yes. Yeah, there's some traffic, but it's all, like, wrapped up within there. But that's like the ball of stuff. It's affiliate marketing is great, but we're not like. That's not like the key thing. We're not out there teaching and speaking on stages purely on that we have, obviously. But, like, now we're basically honing in this thing a little tighter, not super tight. And we're realizing literally since we've done this in the last month, we're getting now flooded with very specific things by equally or even larger folks in companies.

No, it's true. Yeah. There was a time where literally we'd get somebody coming to us saying, hey, can you build my funnel for me? Hey, can you drive traffic for me? Hey, do you guys do copywriting? People saw us as such generalists that they just brought everything to us and went, hey, can you run my company for us? Right. We actually had somebody come to us and say, hey, we've got an E. Comm business and we need somebody to help us run it. And they approached us as the potential people to run it for them. And all of these opportunities flowed to us, but there was no sort of like.

Like thread that sort of made them all make sense. Where when we decided, you know what, let's be the podcasting guys. Let's teach people our unique methods around podcasting that nobody else is talking about, nobody else is teaching. And really honed in on that. Now pretty much every opportunity that comes to our email is like, hey, we've got this opportunity for you. It involves podcasting. Hey, we've got this new opportunity for you. It involves you guys teaching podcasting. And like all the stuff that's flowing our way is sort of.

It. It makes a lot more sense now. Everything feels very much more cohesive.

Yeah. And it just, I feel like for. For us, it's been. It's almost like a calming thing because it allows us to really leverage what we're really good at. And this all sounds so. Probably so obvious, but it's crazy. Like things are happening. Like it's to a point where you have enough of attention. People that want to support you, people that want to work together, and people listening to you. Like us now it's putting it out there and everyone has the opportunity to put out there the thing that they really want or they feel like they're best at. And like, put that on YouTube, put that on Instagram as you, like your. Your frickin signature thing, you know, like update all that stuff so it doesn't look like you're doing something that's from like five years ago, which, yeah, I.

Reminder I have to do some of that shit on some.

You really should. Because I actually did do this on mine because I was like, this doesn't make sense. This is a disconnect from me.

Yeah, it's those social media platforms that you Kind of forget from time to time. And LinkedIn is becoming a bigger and bigger part of what we do lately. But for a long time I just ignored LinkedIn and now it's because it's becoming a bigger factor. I need to go update that shit.

Yeah. And literally just consistency throughout everything publicly, but also internally and consistently. And it's like, you don't even need to be like changing. You don't need to be any louder, say more, do more ads or do more podcasts. Just the fact that we're now confident, it's like, no, this is what we're doing and being very chill about it. It's like, no, this is it. No, that thing's cool. I'm not gonna probably do that though. I'll talk with you and help you out, but I'll probably just send you to someone else to help you. Maybe it's a broker thing or maybe it's just like, cool, just go walk with them.

Well, we, it's crazy. In the, just in the last few months, we've been approached by not one, but two companies that are billion dollar companies that want to talk to us about podcasting stuff. And we won't talk about who those companies are yet.

A lot of this is still kind of hush hush. One of the deals isn't even like really that set in stone yet. But we're in talks with them. But two companies that are in the billions of dollars in sales have approached us because they like what we're doing in the podcasting space. If that doesn't fucking say something, I don't know what does.

Exactly. So that's. I wanted to end on that point because I feel like that's a good. It's a good little cherry on top of this entire conversation.

Yeah, this conversation was kind of like the month of October. A little bit of a roller coaster.

Yeah, I would say so. It started off not that great, but you know, at the same time, flip that coin. It's great. It's all good.

It's all good.

Life goes on. There's a balance to everything.

Yeah.

Swear to God, I believe it through and through. Now you can always flip that coin. And there's a lot of lessons. So hopefully there's some good notes on this one too. Even though it was kind of long and all over the place.

The yin and yang of life.

It's true, man.

For every action, there's an equal and.

Opposite reaction, said Matt Wolf. I mean, that was probably someone else.

No, that was some sort of physicist, I'm sure.

Perfect. Sounds scientific.

He's probably like Einstein or something, but I don't know my famous physicists very well.

Cool. Well, thank you for sticking with us for so long. Those of you listening still. Yeah. Those of you that have made it.

An hour and a half in, we thank you. That means you love us as much as we love you.

Yeah, it's true. So I'm going to go now because my brain does feel fried and maybe go home and take a nap.

Okay, sounds good.

Sounds good then. It's getting dark really early now, so it's screwing with my head too. Like we were saying earlier, this time.

Change has been bizarre. We just seem to like.

All right, so get the notes if you want. That would be great. You'll love them.

Hustleandflowchart.com comp 38470 text the word comp.

Thank you so much. And reach out if we can help you with anything. Will respond. Goodbye.

Hey, thanks for listening to that episode. Hopefully you enjoyed it.

You dang right you did.

Of course you enjoyed it. What's not to enjoy?

You weren't gonna publish it unless you were gonna enjoy this.

If we don't enjoy it, we don't publish it. Therefore, we only publish the stuff we know you're gonna enjoy.

We listen and read the notes as well. So.

Very, very true. Well, you know what I want to do? I want to actually start reading some reviews of some of the people that listen to our podcast because we're getting some really cool reviews. And also I want to kind of incentivize people to leave more reviews because then we're going to read them for you.

Hey, man. This is our shout out section. Yeah, that's kind of what this is going to become for the outro shout out section. So, yeah, let's do some reviews and prior to that, let's talk about some.

Of the guys that have supported us.

Yeah, and there's a couple shout outs from our friends and some other folks that reached out to us. These two actually are our friends. They're pretty close friends of ours and. And they support our show. So if you want to get more of an exclusive shout out, reach out to us. We have a couple spots available occasionally, so it depends. But first, our buddy of ours, actually, Steve Olsher, he's one of our masterminds. He runs a podcast called beyond eight Figures. And they're chatting with just amazing entrepreneurs who do have either exited or they currently run a business that is above 10 million and they basically grill. So they have three hosts over there at Steeple, Mary Goulet and Richie Otey, they're all buddies of ours as well, all in San Diego. And they basically grill them until they figure out their methodologies, the tactics and action steps that actually got them to accomplish that, which are what few companies ever would ever get to that point for sure.

It's a great podcast. They cover a lot of ground. And the whole thing is trying to uncover what goes into creating an eight figure business so that other businesses could reverse engineer the success. So, amazing podcast. That's Steve Olsher's beyond eight Figures podcast. Definitely. Go check it out on Apple Podcasts and everywhere where you listen to your favorite shows.

You gonna like it. It's very similar to this one with different approaches. So I think if you're a fan of this, you're gonna love his show beyond eight Figures.

And then our other supporter for this episode is our good buddy Casey Zieman's Easy Webinar.

Bam. And both these guys have actually been on our show too, Steve and Casey. So if you like them, you can even check out episode too.

Yeah. So check out EasyWebinar.com hustle because Casey put together a 20% off deal for listeners of Hustle and Flowchart. So EasyWebinar.com hustleen now, Easy Webinar is kind of a webinar tool, but it has live webinars. It's got automated webinars. It's got kind of hybrid webinars. It's got all sorts of social media functionality. It's got. It's pretty much like the only webinar platform you would ever need. It's got everything all in a single platform. A lot of the other platforms you gotta buy one product to go live and one product to go automated. And one product if you want to hire. And this one is just, you know, you get Easy Webinar, you're covered. You got it all. So if you want Easy Webinar, get it for 20% off. Go to easywebinar.com hustle and again, I just want to thank our partners and our supporters on this show, Casey and Steve, we love you guys. Okay, I'm gonna read a review now.

Oh, okay, Matt, go for it.

All right, so this review is titled Love the Dynamic, and it's five stars. And it comes from Phoebe Marochek.

Hey, Phoebe. She's a good buddy of ours.

We hung out with her at New.

Media Summit and we've hung out with.

Her at Was it Podcast movement.

We've stayed in contact. I talked to her last week, actually, she sent me good vibes with personal stuff happening. So she's a good human, that Phoebe. And she also has her own podcast, which I think she just actually changed the name of. So just check out Phoebe and you'll find her podcast. It's really good.

So I'm going to go ahead and read Phoebe's review. She says, love this show because it's real and actionable. Also, got to meet Matt and Joe in real life just a few weeks after discovering their show. And they are great guys. A must listen for entrepreneurs looking to grow their business.

That's true.

So, look, she talks truth. She proved it. See, everybody thought we were lying about actually meeting her. And then I read the review, and she mentioned in the review that she met us, and now everybody believes us. See?

Yes.

Yeah.

So there.

Take that. You.

Yeah, you.

Yeah. And we were gonna try to read this one in Spanish just to change it up, and we plugged it into Google and sounded like total dip cheese.

Some of the words I didn't actually know how to say. So I figured, you know what? Instead of butchering a language that I don't know that well, let's just, you know, let's just read the review.

It's like one of those things. I thought we were actually be better because we used to know Spanish better. We just haven't used it in a while. Usually reading Spanish is not that difficult, but now it's very difficult. Phoebe, you're amazing. We love the dynamic of us as well. And also your podcast is amazing. And you're just a good human, so appreciate you too.

And for all of you listening, keep them reviews coming and we'll keep them reviews reading.

Sure.

Was that grammar? Was that grammar good?

The grammar was very good.

Okay, good. I do good grammar sometime.

It's funner when you do bad grammar.

Yeah. There's a whole Adam ruins everything about how, like, words that we say aren't words and grammar Nazis get upset about actually end up becoming words and, like, how the English language is fluid. So grammar Nazis, like, really have no. Okay, anyway, 100.

It's all made up. Everything's made up, people.

All right, thanks, Phoebe. Thank you. Everybody listening. Keep them reviews coming. We love you.

See you.

Thanks, everybody, for listening to this episode of the Hustle and Flowchart podcast, for taking the time to listen. We want to give you something a little bit special. Every single episode that we do, we actually have somebody on our team take notes. We basically have a Cliffs Notes version of every episode where you can go and find all of the tips and tactics that they laid out, all of the resources that they laid out, all the good stuff from this episode. We actually have a nice simple notes version that you can find on our website. So go to evergreenprofits.com find this episode that you just listened to and give us your email address and we'll send you the notes.

Thanks for listening.

Go get it.