A Perfect Life Podcast with Dean Jackson and Richard Rossi - Bonus Episode - I Love Marketing With Joe Polish And Dean Jackson

Everybody, it's Dean Jackson, and I would like to welcome you to the very first episode of a brand new podcast. I've got with me a very good friend of mine named Richard Rossi. Hello, Richard.

Dean, how are you today?

I am good. Now, let me just kind of set the stage here for what we're doing, because I had this idea a little while ago of doing a podcast about lifestyle design, and as I was thinking about my, you know, all the people that I could do podcast about lifestyle design with, Richard Rossi's name popped right up to the top. As someone who. How long have we known each other now? I think it's probably at least 10 years.

At least 10 years.

And from, you know, as long as I've known you, one of the things that has attracted me to you is our shared love for all things lifestyle design.

No question about that.

And a lot of the conversations that we have, a lot of the time that we spend is spent in sharing, you know, ideas and sharing strategies and things that we've done in the constant pursuit of what I lovingly call a perfect life.

Absolutely.

And, yeah. And so when I asked Richard if he would like to join me in doing this podcast, he didn't even have. Didn't hesitate for a second. It was immediate. He said, of course I would. He would love to do that. So I'm just so happy that we're. That we're going to be doing this together. Richard and I can't wait to, you know, get together every week and create, you know, an environment that kind of moves us forward even.

Well, me too. And I'll tell you, this is a kind of a very rarefied world. There aren't a lot of people that do what we do. And. And frankly, it never occurred to me to share this. I've never done any of these things for other people. I've done them for myself and for my family and for my life. But when you suggested that we have some conversations about seemed like a natural thing to do, I'm not sure how it's going to go, but I'll tell you what I'm excited to find out.

Well, everything starts with a first step. And the danger is you and I have been talking about all the things we could talk about. There's just so much, so many things that we want to share, and I want to make sure that we kind of set the stage properly and really kind of. I've been thinking a lot about the genesis of my love for lifestyle design and for this pursuit, and I'd love To hear your, you know, when you first sort of had that awakening, if we want to call it that, about that you really could kind of design a perfect life.

Well, I think a lot of it's just my own background. I mean, I come from a European background. My dad was Italian. And when I was a little boy, I was over there all the time. And I just realized, you know, these folks are living a much more balanced life than we are. They're living much more what they call joy de vivre, joy of life. And that kind of sunk in. But when you're small or a teenager in your early 20s, it doesn't really mean that much to you. But as time went on and in kind of imperceptible ways, it just slowly began to get integrated into my life. That I may not be able to control my life, but I can influence my life a great deal and that I should. Because to my knowledge, we just go around once, and I just felt like.

To our best of our knowledge. That's right.

But I just felt like I should be happy. And, you know, I've talked about this. I have two kids, and they're both teenagers. And one of my main lessons to them is that the purpose of life, in my view, is to be happy.

I love that because that really, when it comes right down to it, is the. That what a great pursuit, you know, and what a great measuring stick, you know, Are you happy? That's kind of the great barometer of it, isn't it?

It is. And, Dean, this is not a philosophy that's shared by everyone. I remember years ago, reading a biography of Richard Nixon, and Richard Nixon's mother brought him up with the following philosophy, Sacrifice in this life, happiness in the next. And I remember looking at that, and I was horrified. And I thought, you know, that's not my philosophy at all. My philosophy is happiness and fulfillment and serenity in this life. So I don't mean to offend anyone in our audience that disagrees with our philosophy, but if you are that person, now would probably be a good time to push the off button.

And. Well, it is funny, though, because there are probably people who. That doesn't ring true for that it's not that the purpose of life is not to be happy, that there's some sort of. That maybe that doesn't sound like a noble enough purpose.

Correct. And I think that you can have a noble purpose and be happy.

I think so, too.

And interestingly, if you look back at history, it's only in the last. I don't know, pick a number. 50 years, 30 years that self actualization in the middle class has been possible. Before that, it was really a life of survival, day to day survival, going out and getting food and clothing and shelter, really at the bottom of Maslow's pyramid of needs. But the idea of being able to self actualize just as a common citizen and to try and be happy, that is a rather rare, that's a fairly recent occurrence, don't you think?

I think you're absolutely right. But I think that you know, when you're talking about your observations as a child and growing up, that you had that awareness that in other areas people are, they seem to have different priorities, seem to have a different perspective, and they seem to be happier. That was probably a good observation that you had. And it's interesting that, you know, I had kind of had that same observation growing up, just realizing that I've always been one who has enjoyed finding shortcuts and finding systems and things that, that make things easier, you know, and that's always been kind of a, a joy of mine and what. But as I grew into an adult, you realized that that kind of attitude, I think steers most of the people that I know that are really into lifestyle design and self actualization, steers them into an entrepreneurial path simply because of the control that you have over your life or the surroundings of your life, or the amount of money that you make or the work that you do, or your schedule. All of those things are certainly elevated elements of designing your life.

Well, it certainly does help to be an entrepreneur because it does give you that control. Of course, both you and I are entrepreneurs and you're happily child free and I have two kids. One of the things we can discuss in a future episode is your decision and my decision because I've been, I think I have a reputation of being a really great parent. So when people get married, they ask me for advice. And one of the pieces of advice I give, and it's very much related to the purpose of our podcast, is do not have children without really, really thinking it through. The default condition should not be I'll have kids unless there's a reason not to. It should be exactly the opposite.

Right. And which was actually my thought, that was exactly right. And because I, I, deep down I always knew that, that, that it seems the default is exactly the right word. The path of least resistance is to get married, have kids, because that's what everybody does. But it doesn't, I didn't want to go down that path without consciously really understanding the ramifications of that, what that means, that's a completely vector changing decision because the trajectory of your life, the focus of your life completely changes with that decision.

Oh, it is, it's life altering permanently. Your life is never the same again. Now what I tell people is when you win the lottery, your life is never the same again. So that's not necessarily a bad thing. It shouldn't be a scary thing to anyone listening. But this is a decision that needs to be made with real thought. And for many people, not having kids is by far the best decision. But hey, as I said, we can get into that sometime. It'd be fascinating to hear what our listeners feel on that as well.

You know, the real conscious thing that I remember about being really attracted to taking a real proactive approach to designing life and lifestyle was I was really fortunate to meet and become very good friends with a man named Thomas Leonard, who has passed. He died in 2002. And he and I shared this love for lifestyle design. Just having this whole approach to using your life as a, as a playground, as an experiment, as, you know, a project. And he was one of the founders of the life coaching industry. He started a, an organization called Coach University and sold that, and then started another community called Coachville, which is still up and run by a great guy named Dave Buck. And so Thomas and I had a lot of these great discussions about life and about your approach to lifestyle. And we, one of the first things that we actually collaborated on was a program called A Perfect Life. And it was really an exploration, just a series of questions and worksheets and things that really had you kind of examine all the elements of your life, starting with something similar to what you said that the purpose of is to be happy. And you know, a lot of times people take that word, take the word successful, you know, and so one of the first things that we talked about was defining what success means. And so we worked on creating a list of ways to know that you're being successful. And it was interesting. So we created this whole list of I know I'm being successful when. And there's. I'm a big believer and I know you are in the, in the precision of words. And you know, there's saying, looking at things where there's a very personalized approach to, to looking at this. So it's. I know that I'm being successful when. And there's, you know, it's like, I know it. I've got my internal frame of reference. I'm not judging or comparing my success to anybody el else's standards of success. I'm choosing what success means for me and I'll know that I'm being successful. Being, being the present tense word of it, not aspirational, not where it's like I know I will be successful when it's, I know I'm being successful. And even though you're saying it, you're writing those things even as a.

In.

The beginning, an aspiration, it's almost like pushing the accelerator pedal and going up to where you, you know, where you ultimately want to be kind of thing and start living into that so that you can be that in the present. And so that was a really, that was a really profound exercise for me. And I've shared, I've talked a lot about that, but I'll talk about some of them because I think it's instructive. You know, I think there's, and, and for people to even just think that thought of defining success or defining happiness, because you could easily say that same. You could easily replace the word successful with happy and say I know I'm being happy when. And that may even be a.

A.

More fitting exercise for an overall lifestyle.

I think it's the word. The word is happiness and success. If you said to me, how will you know when you're being successful? My answer would be, well, when I feel truly happy. You and I both know extremely, extraordinarily wealthy individuals who are absolutely miserable.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

They're filled with anxiety, they're filled with a sense of that they have achieved nothing. They self loathing. And it's because you're right and by.

All outward appearances, anybody's standard that you would deem them successful and they have.

Their game face on. You're not going to know it if you just meet them. But the fact is that as you and I have talked about in the past, life does not happen out there. Life happens 100% between your ears. It happens in your head. And as a result, this process that you just talked about, this process of examination and conscious thought and taking some deliberate action to create that lifestyle that to you is as close to perfect as possible is what makes all the difference. And I really believe that most people, and by most, I mean over 95%, are pretty much sleepwalking through life. Life is what happens on tv. They're just trying to get through the day. They feel that life happens to them. And there are folks that clearly are in a terrible, terrible state. But the vast majority of Sleepwalkers are doing that perhaps because no one ever showed them another way or because I don't even know why. But to me, the ultimate sin is to go through life without the type of conscious thought and the kind of examination that you just described in. I know I'm successful, I know I'm happy. When there's an old saying that life is God's gift to you and what you do with it is your gift to God.

Oh, that's great.

And I believe with all my heart that God put us on this earth to be happy and that if we simply don't do our part, that it is a bad thing. It is a bad thing. And I've told this to my children. It's a funny story actually, because they were both like 10, 12 years old and one night they were sleeping in bunk beds. They didn't have their own rooms yet. And I said, kids, I just want to have five minutes. And it's a funny thing, Dean, but when it's time to go to sleep, you can have the kids attention for as long as you want.

That's what.

Because they'll do anything to avoid actually having goes on.

How old were they?

They were, I want to say, 9 and 11.

Okay, great.

And so they're like, oh, yes, dad, yes dad, what would you like to tell us? We're all ears. And I said, I just wanted. I just want to tell you something. You're going to go through life and you're going to try and figure out what is the purpose of life. It's a big activity for many people, but I'm going to make it really easy for you. I'm just going to tell you. And that way you don't even have to bother trying to figure it out. And the answer is that the purpose of life is to be happy. And then the next question, of course, would be, well, how do I do that? And I'm even going to make it easier for you. I'm just going to tell you how to be happy. And the answer to that is that you figure out what it is you love to do and what it is you really are good at. And more and more you devote your life to just that thing, those small number of activities that define what you really enjoy doing and what you're really good at. That's number one. And then number two, you design your life and you do it through a conscious process. And this doesn't happen overnight. It's not something that you can just say, okay, I'm going to spend the Next two weeks and it'll be done. No, I mean, I think you and I are kind of at the outer limits of this adventure. That we really are kind of in all undue modesty, we've come very, very far. But it's incremental. It's a thing that you go through every day for a long, long period of time, perhaps forever, as you're constantly improving and refining and adding things and deleting things. And that's what I told the kids. I mean, it's those two elements. It's doing the thing you love to do and it's designing your life. And the other thing I said to them is, look, you're on a journey here. You don't have to understand or have the answer to this today or in five years, or in 10 years, or even in 15 years. But what you have to do is you have to be in the adventure of this journey trying to figure it out. And I think I'm on the adventure of the journey. I think you're on the adventure of the journey. And I hope the people who are listening where this rings a bell and they say, oh, you know, I'd like to achieve that as well. I'd like to be happy. I'd like to truly design my life, that they will go on that journey with us.

That's interesting. I mean that. And that's great. I mean, your kids, I love your kids. They're just so confident and genuinely happy. I mean, they seem, every time I'm around them, they seem very happy. That's kind of a you, I think, as a parent, now that I hear you, having described that to them as life's express purpose, that you seem to have created a great environment for them to pursue that.

Yeah, I think I'll plead guilty to that. We've worked, my wife and I have worked really hard on that. And I think, in fact I was walking, my son is up on the third floor, we're down on the second floor, he has his room on the third floor. And I was walking by a couple of nights ago and he was laughing. I guess he was watching a YouTube video or something, but he was laughing and then he was whistling and singing to himself. And I remember turning to my wife and said, well, I guess that's our version of the dour 16 year old. I mean, here's a kid who, instead of being some kids can get really, really kind of self absorbed and negative and depressed as they're going into their teen years. And our kids have always been just happy so knock on wood, I hope that continues. But getting back to what you were talking about, having a perfect life by design can be achieved. And it is something that both of us have devoted ourselves to. And I think each of us pursue every day and are on the outlook every day or the lookout every day for ways to make those just more and more incremental improvements. And I don't know about you, but it just tickles me pink when I figure out just one little thing that I can add to. And this is your word, and it's my favorite word, and it's one we're going to use all the time, is frictionless to make my life more and more frictionless.

Yes. And that was, That's a word that, that I got in those, in those conversations with Thomas. That was. The thing is looking all these things, if happy is a, you know, the absence of friction, it's. Friction is all of those things that are in the way. And it was. I really start. I'm a journaler and I was looking back through my journals and I have. I started journaling in earnest in April of 1996. And I have in my office here at my home, bookshelves full of journals that go back all that way, every sequential, every. I've just like a chain journaler. You know, I probably go through five or six journals a year, like high volume journaling. And because it's just the way that I process things, I write things and I think things that way. And I always make time to do that as part of my daily thing. And going back through those, I use my journal to ask questions, you know, and one of the things, the earliest questions that I would ask myself is what would make my life better? And that's kind of, that was an interesting thing. That's kind of before I started thinking, you know, about this concept of perfect. And, you know, just that would be the thing is what would make my life better. And you know, initially when you first start doing this, you could probably have a pretty long list of things and friction is. You could describe all the things. That would be the corollary to what would make your life better is the absence of some of these things. You know, that would be the friction in your life because often the thing that would make it better would be removing something or fixing something. And that idea of, you know, friction free is looking at identifying and removing all of those things. And when you first start, there's a lot of them that you've been tolerating. And that was a word that Thomas used to describe things that, you know are there, but you don't really do anything about them. And it could be things, little things like when, you know, like if you've got a, a loose door handle or you've got a leaky faucet, or you've got, you know, something in your car needs to be fixed or a light bulb is out, there's all of these things are tolerations. You know, you're, they're not enough that you would take action on them individually, but when you kind of make the list and set aside some time to eliminate some of those or to improve those, it's kind of an exciting day, you know, and there's so many. Every time these thoughts keep coming to me, Richard, as we talk, it's like they're so intertwined because I know that in both of our lives, Dan Sullivan has been a tremendous influence. And for just listening, Dan Sullivan is the founder of Strategic Coach. And Richard and I are both longtime members of the Strategic Coach program. And, you know, Dan is a fellow, you know, lifestyle enthusiast, let's say, and has really, you know, embraced that in his own life. And we're definitely going to have Dan Sullivan visit us here on the, on the podcast. But when I first started in strategic coach in 1997, the, one of the concepts, the first concepts that we learned was Dan's concept of the entrepreneurial time system. Dividing your days into free days, where you're completely free of work, focus days, where you are focused on your money making activities, and buffer days, which are used for preparation for both better, more productive focus days and more enjoyable, rejuvenating free days. But this concept of the buffer day was I would have themes for my buffer day. You know, I would have a day that I would dedicate to and call Make My Life Better day. And I would constantly observe and look for things that were tolerations. And on Monday was the day that I had set aside then as Make My Life Better Day. And I would have this list and I would go to work making my life better. And it was such a joyful thing. I mean, you wake up, you get excited about waking up because you've got this long list of all these things that would make your life better and you just wake up and get going. And at the end of the day, you've eliminated friction, you've got something that potentially has a system that's in place to make sure that that doesn't happen again. And you feel just joyful, giddy at the end of the Day.

Absolutely. And let's bookmark that word tolerations, because I think as we really share our belief system in these podcasts, the idea of eliminating tolerations, of not tolerating tolerations, and you don't know how good it feels to eliminate a toleration until you eliminate it. Because as you said, they're all small in many cases, and you tend to ignore them or your mind has gotten used to them, and then all of a sudden it goes away and you have this sense of additional space, happiness. And as you add more and more things onto that list of what you've created and eliminated, you wake up one day and go, wow, this is pretty cool. I really am seeing tremendous improvements in my life and my goal of getting closer and closer to a perfect life. And again, it's really important for everyone to realize that is listening, that this is a journey. And if you implement the ideas that we are going to be talking about, and you're not going to implement them, all of them, the way that Dean and I describe them, you're going to do it in your own version. Some of them require financial resources. You may have those resources and do it just the way we did it. You may have far more resources and do it in even a better way. But even if you don't, there are ways to implement it. Most of these things for little or no money at all.

So it's within your. Yeah, within your means. That is interesting, because I'm dying to share a couple of examples of this because what I want to kind of, as I was thinking about it, the idea is if you, if you think about your life as the forest with, you know, the collective of all of the elements that make up your life, and the trees as the individual elements, the, the, you know, I often think of them in terms of vignettes, like little, you know, little things where you encounter something that, that are, you know, repetitive things in your life, that they're. The pursuit of making those perfect. And I'll share this definition because you and I, when we were talking and I was sharing this idea of the concept of a perfect life and the precision of those words, a perfect life, meaning that there are an infinite number of perfect versions of a life. It's a perfect life, and everybody has their own version of that. But when I looked up the definition of perfect, there was one that was really. That jumped out at me. The second definition was excellent or complete, beyond practical or theoretical improvement. And I look at that as all of these vignettes, like when I. I'll share one of the most recent things.

Yeah, let's tell some stories.

Yeah, let's tell some stories. So one of the most recent things is that I like, I take melatonin at night to sleep, and I. Helps me have a great sleep. And there have been a few occasions where I've been tired. And you, you get in bed and you're under the covers, and then I reach over to take my melatonin and realized that I didn't have any water right there. And, you know, now I'm in the covers, but you got to get up and get, you know, go out to the kitchen and get some water and take the melatonin and go to bed. And, you know, after the third or so time that that had happened, because I'm now I'm constantly observing for vignettes, for friction, for things that are tolerations. And I sort of observed the situation and I look and said, well, what would be great, what would be perfect is if I dedicated this bottom drawer of my bedside table to these little water bottles, you know, like the little small bottled waters that you get at hotels or whatever, and had a bottomless supply of them so that it was always. There was always water there. And so, you know, I implemented that and now have a bottomless supply of those little water bottles and will never run into the problem of having the melatonin there and not having any water. So that little vignette, that one little element, you know, one little cell of the collective of my life, that one situation right now is excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement.

I can't.

There's no better way for me to address that particular vignette. And it's a repetitive thing because I do that every day.

I love that story. And a lot of folks listening may say, oh, the poor baby has to get out of bed, get some water, or how self indulgent. Or you gotta be kidding me. You know, but they're missing the point. The point is this is one tiny piece of a very big puzzle. And certainly that one thing is not going to make you happy. But when you add that to the other hundred things, it makes you a little happier and a little happier and a little happier. And then you reach this tipping point where all of a sudden you say, oh, my gosh, you know, I get it now. Wow, now it's really noticeable to me these tolerations have been eliminated, or I've implemented these little strategies. And, you know, Dean, you and I have talked about my philosophy that in a Lot of ways, life is just all tricks and tips and techniques. And if you know them, they are these crazy shortcuts. One of the things that I love is the definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. And you aren't going to get a different result. If you want to improve, you have got to break your habit. You've got to do something different and you've got to be, if you will, intolerant. And your spouse or your kids or your friends may go, give me a break. But don't think of it as just that one thing. Think of it as a small piece of a really important big puzzle. I'll give you an example. And this is not something I eliminated. This is something I added. I live in Washington D.C. and back in the day I used to do what's known as advance work at the White House. And Vance people are volunteers who go out ahead of the President and set stuff up. They set up locations, sound, lighting. They work with the Secret Service, with the White House Communication Agency. They handle transportation issues. It's actually just a mind bogglingly cool thing to do. It's definitely a young man's job because you basically don't sleep when you're out doing this stuff. And it's extremely stressful. But what I love is watching the Secret Service because they do what we're talking about every single day. What they are looking for is constant, never ending, incremental improvement to make the safety of their principles greater and greater and greater. And they are, every day they're self analyzing, how can we take this action, that action, and make it just the tiniest bit better so that we are doing our job just a tiny bit better. So here's one that they implemented several years ago that I then implemented in my own life. And it's called the 15 second pause. I don't know what they call it, but it's what I call it. And if you ever see raw footage of the arrival of the President at any location, here's what happens. The motorcade pulls up and everything. The motorcade stops. All the agents get out of their various vehicles, they take position, the lead agent comes around to the door where the President is, and then everyone stops. And they just stop for 10 or 15 seconds, which in a situation like this is a long time. And what they do is they just think, they look around and they say, is something out of place? Have we forgotten something? Is there something here that doesn't seem right? And after about 15 seconds, if no one has radioed anything in. The lead agent opens the door and the President gets out. And what they've learned is if you just take a short pause when you get into position for action and review and ask yourself, is everything right here? Is there a way I can do this better? Am I missing something? That's really the big question. Am I missing something? That the outcome is infinitely better. So now, what you'll see in many situations as I'm going through my day is I just stop. I just stop before an action, and I just spend five or ten seconds just thinking, am I missing something? Here is what I'm about to do, the right thing to do. 75% of the time I say all is well and I move forward. But 25% of the time I say, no, something is wrong or something can be improved, or this isn't an action I should be taking. But by actually taking that short pause, I have really made a great improvement in the. In the quality of my life. So there is just one example of something that I've done in a very meticulous, if you will, or thoughtful manner to help me live a more perfect life.

And that's interesting. That has sort of become an unconscious thing that you do now in all situations. You probably had to really consciously think about it at first.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And you'll find that many of the things we talk about are of that nature. You have to turn them into habits, because in the beginning, they are not habits. And as a friend of mine said, these are the kind of things that are very easy to do, and they're very easy not to do. So you've got to make that conscious decision. I'm going to tell one more story which is at the other end of the spectrum, and I'd love to hear another story from you. And this is for folks who live in the Northeast and like to take the train. I often take the train from Washington to New York and from New York to Washington. And the lines, especially in New York, are terrible. They don't announce the gate that the train is leaving from until the last minute. And there's this. And then everyone rushes at the same time. I'm talking hundred people rushing at the same time to try and get down this little elevator. And it's all very. How should you put it? It's not. There's no elegance to it at all. And what I had discovered was, both in D.C. and in New York, that if you go to the Red Cap and you say, I'd like some help with my luggage. Now, you may just have a little bag from McDonald's in your hand, but you hand it to him and you say, here's my luggage. I'd like help, please. He just looks at you and says, oh, sure. And he takes you in ahead of everybody and you pick whatever seat you want on that train and you give them four or five dollars as a tip. And you have just taken the friction out of that experience. You've taken it out completely. But you got to know the trick and the other thing and you know the other place you can do that. If you're flying to Las Vegas, especially during a convention getting attack, the taxi lines are literally an hour long, an hour long. But if you go find a red cap and you say, would you help me with my luggage, please? They take you to the front of the line and you get into the next taxi. So I would say that is $5 well spent. But you got to know the trick. And that's one of the things I hope we do on this podcast is share dozens and dozens and dozens of tricks and tips and techniques with the listeners that they can begin implementing in their own lives where appropriate.

I love that. I love that. Now travel. I used to travel a lot more than I do now. When we were doing seminars, we used to do big real estate seminars for 14 years that did that every single month at least. And the travel experience is really one that can. It just wants to breed friction. You know, there's a lot of variables, just like you were saying, the security lines and parking and all of that stuff. And so I sat down one day and really kind of tried to design what would be the friction free travel mode. And so I discovered there was a, there was a company that would ship your luggage. That was one thing. And I'd since discovered that really all they were doing was passing it on to FedEx anyway. So just sort of bypassed the middleman of that and in the end started just using FedEx but would pack the bag, FedEx would come and pick up my bag right there at my house and deliver it to the hotel where we were going to be doing the event. So there's right there, no carry on bag, no checking your bag, none of that. Because if you're not checking a bag, that eliminates one potential element of friction. And if you're not checking a bag, that means that you can bypass the check in counter and print your ticket. You can print your boarding pass yourself. And in Orlando and in many airports now, there are trusted traveler programs. The program In Orlando is called the Clear Pass, where you can go and, you know, do some background screening and get your fingerprints and retinal scan and all that stuff to get a little card that allows you to bypass the security line and go right to a special line where you, they take your card, you put your thumbprint, they take you right to the front of the security screening where you take your bags through the, take your laptop or whatever through the, through the X ray machine and you're right into, right in, onto the gates. And in Orlando, especially as a tourist thing in season, the line sometimes for security can be like the line for Space Mountain at Disney World at the peak, you know, it could be so unpredictable, a wild card, it could take you an hour to get through that security line. And coupled that with valet parking my car at the Hyatt Hotel, which is attached to the airport. So the program would become the day before the trip, the FedEx would come to pick up the bags. I would, you know, print off my ticket, get in the car, drive to the Hyatt Hotel, valet park my car, go up two levels to the gates, 16 paces to the clear line and into the gate. And eliminated that whole, you know, friction and unpredictability from the check in process. Now, on the other side of that getting, when you arrive, you've now bypassed the whole waiting for your bags. You've eliminated any potential of a lost, you know, missed connection for your bag. You're not waiting in line for, you know, for your bags to come out. Go straight to the taxi or the limo and straight to the hotel. And when you check in, there's a note that says, you know, welcome, Mr. Jackson. Oh, you have a package here. Would you like us to bring that up to your room? Well, yes, of course I'd like you to bring that up to my room. And you go up to your room and in come your bags and there you go. And you've had this completely friction free travel experience. And that was just a joy. It made traveling so much easier, you know, because any of the frustration that comes in traveling is, is the unpredictability of it, you know, or the potential for things to go wrong. And by eliminating a lot of those, it made it so much more joyful, you know.

Bravo, Dean. That is.

You like that?

I love that. It's a great, great story. And what makes it great is, number one, the things you did. Number two, and equally, if not more important is that you took the time to wake up, make a list of all the tolerations as you went through the process and then systematically eliminate each one. Wow, what a concept, right?

That little. That and that vignette, you know, that is another tree in the forest of life. You know that the travel experience, that's something that was repetitive and that I do. And when I thought about this, you know, excellent or complete, beyond practical or theoretical improvement. Now theoretically that could be improved if I had a jet and could just be chauffeur driven to my private jet and fly to the next destination. But that's not practical at my level of means. But flying business class and valet parking and shipping my bags, that's a practical thing for me. And that may not be for everybody. But at some level there is the friction that you can remove. And that's where you're really thinking through what's the best thing that I can do with my available resources.

Well, it's a critical point and there are going to be folks that are out there listening right now who are extremely wealthy and I've got advice for them. But. And for those that are more limited means, just the average folks, there are still plenty of things you can do to eliminate these tolerations and to decrease the friction in the travel experience. Now I think both Dean and I would say that if you have the means to fly private, for the love of God, fly private. It is by a factor of 10, if not 100, the most friction free way to travel. Not to mention the fact that you've opened yourself up to literally thousands of more airports than exist in the regular commercial system. So if you have the means and you're wondering, gee, should I really do this? The answer is yes, you should absolutely do this. You deserve it. Go out there right now and contact one of the jet rental places, leasing companies and say, sign me up. But if you have some means, but like to Dean and I cannot go the way of private travel, then the kind of things that you described, certainly getting on the trusted traveler program is.

An absolute $79 a year for that. The very first time that I used that pass, it paid for itself because I walked through there and I actually got a smile because I saw that that line was literally going to be an hour if I had to get to the back of the line and was able to, you know, walk right up to the clear pass line and straight through security. And just the delight that that brought me, I mean, the first time that, the first time I had the fully implemented friction free travel experience was just, it was a joy. I couldn't stop smiling, you know, and that really brings it back that it really is about. About happy. Friction free is happier than friction full.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, things that cause friction, think about it for a minute. They drag you down. Maybe it's just a tiny bit, but throughout the course of the day, you're getting dragged down more and more and more. And when it's friction free, it doesn't happen. And all of a sudden you go, wow, I'm feeling good. Let's go have a cocktail, or let's go out and have a good time. Or I'm just feeling really happy right now. And it's eliminating that friction. So certainly the trusted traveler program, and I think when you said, I got into that line, I think that's probably in quotes because usually there is no line in that. You have the hour line and then you have the. There is no line line.

Right. And then you have the. Right this way.

Right this way, Mr. Jackson line. The other thing, if you have financial means, getting an American Express black card, which requires you to have quite a high level of monthly spending, with that comes platinum super level in many airlines and admission to all of the various airline clubs. And I don't have a black card, but the folks who have tell me that it is absolutely fantastic. Do you have a black card?

I don't. I have a platinum card. And I was just revisiting the. The idea of the black card. We do spend enough money on that, but when we had set up the. Our American Express account, my wife had set up the account, and the. I was the secondary card on this. So the black card, the fee, it's $2,500 a year for the black card, and additional cards are $1,500. So I was the one doing all of the traveling. So it would have been, you know, $4000 to have the, the second card on the, on the program. Yeah, I'm actually going to revisit that now because that.

Yeah, it's a lot of dough.

Our friend Joe. Our friend Joe Polish has one.

Yes. And it is a lot of dough. But the folks that I know that actually run the numbers say that it's a great.

Yeah. If you use the. If you use the. If you use. Especially the travel things.

Yeah. And I've been told also that the concierge aspect of this is just really top notch. Speaking of which, we ought to have our. Our guest from Bluefish. Right.

Yeah. I was just gonna say is that there's so many things, but our friend Steve Sims, who has the Bluefish, who I've been using now for all my travel and access. And that. That's a whole nother. That's a whole nother episode. The things that he's able to. To do. You're absolutely right. He was on the list of, of guests to, to invite here.

Oh, yeah, boy.

You know, there's so, you know, we've almost been talking for an hour now, and it's just like there's so many things that we could, we could talk to. But let's kind of. Let's kind of review, set the stage for what we've. What we've talked about here. And maybe I think it would be a good idea if we really made this something where we have some active participation that things people can actually do to join us in this pursuit of their own perfect life. And I loved your idea of the purpose of life is to be happy. And I think that that is a relative thing. I think everybody's version of what, what happy means is different. And, you know, I was mentioned, I was looking through my journals and I would make lists of. One of the questions I would ask is what brings me joy? That was a word that I used. And just making this list, like I was looking through the thing and I was, you know, what brings me joy, I was looking back and reflect, almost like doing a positive focus, like our friend Dan Sullivan talks about, is looking back and seeing the things where I have been joyful. And so I would make those lists. And it's very interesting to think about how to get more of those things into your life, you know?

Yeah. And again, if there are folks listening who don't think that the purpose of life is to be happy, this is not the podcast for you. This is the podcast for people that even if you aren't very happy, you still believe that that's the purpose of life. Because if you do, we're going to help you get there. And again, it's not a matter of your financial means. There are ways to do this on the cheap, and there's also plenty of ways to spend the big bucks. And we'll try and shape our ideas to meet all types of budgets. But you got to be willing to be a part of the process, to wake up, to truly be cognizant, aware every day and be willing to implement the changes and the habits to create that perfect life. If you're not willing to think this thing through. And I know that a lot of folks that are out there listening, they are crazy busy and they're just trying to get through the day they really are. And sometimes it's tough. But I think Dean and my message to you guys is just little bite sized pieces. Don't try and boil the ocean. Don't try and do it all at once. Just write down these ideas as you hear them. And I'm sure we'll also post them as we get more sophisticated here and we'll come back to the real key concepts over and over again and just, you know, just do one. Just do one. And then when you have the energy, do one more. And just watch what happens over time. As I like to say, hey, what's the worst that can happen? Nothing bad is going to happen here. The only thing that can happen.

Oh, that's so good. And a lot of things that make you happy are free. Yeah.

There's no question. And a lot of them is not doing the right thing. It's avoiding doing the wrong thing. You know, I'd love to do, by the way, is I'd love to do. Do you watch Downton Abbey?

I don't.

Okay, well, it's a great PBS show. I know many of our listeners do. But it's a story about the upper class in the turn of the century and the life they lived. And it'd be great to do a Downton Abbey episode because these folks talk about a friction free life. Holy mackerel.

Oh, they do.

Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, the upper class had full staffs and there's a lot of things.

Well, wait till we get into that.

Yes, yes.

Wait till we start talking about Easy buttons.

Yeah, the easy buttons is really, really great. So your idea also, Dean, of having all of you participate in this is great because I know there's an awful lot of folks listening that are going, oh, I got one, I got one. I got a story, I got a trick, I got a technique. So we're going to create a mechanism where you can contribute those, where the best can be shared by Dean and me on the air. And perhaps if there's someone that's really, really seems to be a ninja out there, we can even have them on, huh?

Yeah, that would be fantastic. Yeah, I, I think it's because you know so many things you, you especially with the, the tricks and the tips and the insider stuff that, you know, some people are going to be able to share. I'm really looking forward to it. And that's something that I, I think I mentioned to you that one of the things that Thomas talked about is creating an environment and letting it pull you forward. And you know, when you were saying, what's the worst that could happen? And you and I actually had that conversation of, let's do this. And the worst thing that could happen is you and I get together every week for an hour and talk about how we are making our lives better, how we're pursuing a perfect life, and we're going to improve each other's lives over the course of doing all these episodes. Even if that's the worst possible thing that could happen.

I think the worst thing that can happen is we get so many ideas from our listeners and we go, damn it, why didn't we do this sooner? You know?

Right. Exactly. That's funny.

Well, this has been a real joy.

It really has been. It's made me happy. I'm happy. I've had a great hour talking about one of my favorite things ever to talk about with one of my favorite people to talk about.

Thank you.

So let's continue. Let's talk some more. Let's do it again.

Absolutely. This is really a. I think not only I'm doing it on a selfish level, because I'm getting more and more ideas of how to even further pursue that goal. And also, even though it never occurred to me before you and I talked, it feels good to be sharing these things with others because we've learned them sometimes through the school of hard knocks, other times just tripped over ideas. But I think that we can create some real value for.

I do, too. I absolutely do. And I think that's the thing. And people. I want people to understand that that's the spirit of why we're doing this. To enthusiastically share something that has made a big difference in our lives. And, you know, I don't want it to come across as just, you know, two guys sharing their indulgences and eccentricities, you know?

Oh, no, it's not that at all. It's not that at all. Well, let's do it again next week.

Absolutely. Thanks, Richard. Have a great day.

Okay. Thank you, Dean.