House of Wolves Episode Fifteen - What are you practicing 10,000 times?

You should be a monster, an absolute monster, and then you should learn how to control it. There's an intensity to what we're trying to accomplish, and, um, you know, if you want to be truly great, you've got to bring it every day. Do you enjoy pain? Pain don't hurt. You blitz all night. Standing out is a long-term strategy, takes guts, and produces results. If you care enough about your work to be willing to be criticized for it, then you have done A good day's work. Hey everybody, thanks for joining us again for another episode. Uh, today we're going to be talking about effort, kind of like what it takes in all aspects of life to get the results that you want.

Yeah, I— we recently each read, both read a book called 10x, um, and it really resonated with us. And that was one of the fun things that we do is we like to read fiction and nonfiction, but a lot of nonfiction together or each at a time, and then we can discuss those ideas and share the parts that resonated with us and do this thing that's called narration. So while I might listen to a chapter and then processing it for myself or a session if it's an audiobook, but then the next day we'll talk about it and I'll explain to Jonathan kind of what stood out to me, what the person was saying, and then how I, you know, how that inspired me, and then we can have a discussion about that. And vice versa, he'll do the same. And so narration is one of the tools I use with our daughter in homeschooling as well. Whatever we read, give her the chance to tell back to us in her own words, and then what stood out or what was impressed upon her. So 10x was the one that we just— not just, but recently finished, right, by Grant Cardone. Thank you. Can't remember his name.

He had the 10x rule, which basically means that if you want to get a result, you have to put in 10 times the effort. And that's the 10x rule, right? So if you want to hear back from an actor, you might have to reach out to 10 actors just to get one to respond. And we've done that firsthand.

Yeah, that was one of the things I think all the way back to when you were querying to become published as an author. I think you would send out batches of 10 query letters and wait, and you did 10 batches of 10. So it wasn't as though you would send out one and then wait to hear back if they said yes or no, and then you'd send out another one and wait to hear back if they said yes or no, but rather you just went 10 by 10 by 10 to hear back.

In the early days of Jonathan Yañez, little Jonathan Yañez wanted to be published, and he would send out batches of 20 query letters. Oh, okay. So it's not 20 at a time. And my thought was like, I would just get 200 rejections. And then that probably meant maybe the book wasn't hitting like I thought it would. So then I would write a different book and then query 100. But I didn't have to get to that point. When I sent out the queries, I guess I would be number like 81 to 100. Within that last query batch that I was gonna send out for The Beast Within, there was a yes in there. So I took 99 nos to get that first yes. And then that was, you know, 10 years ago now that we've been publishing and following that path from just trying to get a publisher to now owning our own publishing company and to now selling direct and now to doing film. But it's the same idea, it's the same concept in everything. From you just have to put— you have to be willing to do the things that most people won't do. I don't think most people are willing to take 99 nos to get that one yes.

Why do you think it's the 99 nos? Is it the time? Is it the rejection? Is it the effort?

All the above. Okay, time, effort, and rejection.

Yeah, you have no issue with rejection.

No, and like time too. I was like, time is going to move on anyway regardless. Time's always marching forward into our inevitable demise. Oh gosh. But I might as well be working on something that I'm passionate about and that I love and that I believe in than like playing video games. Like, don't get me wrong, I like video games, but I like to play video games, you know, every once in a while, like at the end of the day once the work is done. Because then I almost feel like, like there's no regret or thinking like, oh, I should really be working. Because, you know, you've already put in a solid 8, 9 hour day.

Yeah, and that could be a lot to process, but I think that there is a lot to be considered as far as rewards go. One of the stories that came to mind from Grant Cardone's book is when he was talking about two salespeople fighting over the same client and like one getting mad at the other saying, you took my client, this is my one client, like how dare you. Whereas if you have a third party who's doing 10x, they have 10 clients, that one client isn't going to matter as much because there are 9 others. So in terms of their investment in competition over the one versus their investment of constantly consistently doing 10 times the effort to build up 10 times the clientele for themselves, that it's easier to let go of the one, they can replace it with 10 more and kind of continue to build from there. And so operating at that level in time adds a lot more buffer. And it also comes to mind something that we both do was, you know, exercising and lifting weights in particular. You can lift a 2-pound weight if that's all you could do. Lift a 2-pound weight. If you want to lift the 5-pound weight, keep moving up. You're doing 10 times the effort each time you progress. It's like compounding. And I think a lot of people think, oh, you're lifting weights. I don't know if this is still an old way of thinking or if it's so prevalent, but like, oh, you're going to get bulky and gross, or you're going to have all these muscles. Like, it takes a lot of effort to actually build muscle in one's body.

Yeah, it's like one of my favorite, uh, things. And people are like, well, I don't want to get too bulky. And I'm Looking at them, I'm like, bro, you're like years and years away from having that issue where you might maybe one day perhaps be too bulky. Because I think a lot of people use that as an excuse, right? Because they're not in great health. These people are saying this, they're not in good health, they're not in great health. They need to work on their body. They know they need to be working out, but they're looking for excuses like, oh, I don't want to get too big. And again, just like, look at them like that. That's a very long road, my friend. Maybe in a few years of working out, then we can think about that?

Well, I, I, it comes from— I say ignorance, and I don't mean that in a way of putting anyone down, just not knowing, right? You don't know what you don't know. And for years and years, like, there's been information fed, so there's been preconceived notions of what that means. And so the idea was you lift weights to get big, but didn't understand you lift weights just to build a simple layer of exoskeleton, like muscle mass, right? Just your basic holding your body together for its function. And then if you want to get towards the bulky zone, you do have to do 10 times, 10 times the effort because it's not only— it's lifting heavier and heavier and eating a lot. It's really structuring your whole diet. Like, that's why they have— what did we see? We went to go see Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, and we were looking, we're like, now, now we actually stay and read the credits, not just waiting for the cutscenes. But we're reading the credits to see, you know, like the amount of people and what kinds of roles and everybody, all the filmmakers. And so we saw assistant to Mr. Pratt. He had 4 or 5 specific assistants for the duration of the production, and at least 2 or 3 of them were specific to training and working out and eating. And so you, you know what he's eating and managing all of that. So you have to think like there's chances that some of one of us randomly like, oh, I accidentally got too big and I don't fit into my t-shirts anymore. Like that's not gonna happen, but it goes back to the effort that it takes to get there.

Yeah. I've been thinking a lot about the 10 times rule and just being consistent too. Like if you consistently show up and other people that you're pitching to, right, they might not be as consistent as you are. So, you know, they have good days and bad days. They're out of the office, they're in the office. So where their availability might look like a heartbeat, like up and down, like being available, they're working on a project, so they're busy. So that's the down part. The up part is maybe they just finished something, so they're able to sit down, look at all their emails and stuff like that. But if you are inconsistent, then the odds that you're gonna be able to hit them at a point where they're available is going to be minimal, right? 'Cause you're not consistent either. You're like that heartbeat going up and you have a bad day, you don't feel like working, and then you're like, oh, this is amazing. I, you know, wrote 10,000 words today. And then you're down for a week. So the odds of success are minimal at that point, as opposed to you being kind of like a consistent line and where that heartbeat might be opportunity. So that opportunity is going to beep off and on, but if you're consistent, you're going to hit it. You're going to hit it sooner or later.

That's interesting. Is that a big driver for you and why you show up every day the same, nearly the same way for your writing, for your readers, for networking for those phone calls, for that email that comes across, hey, are you available for a call or whatnot, right?

I feel like consistency, like I'm always working on something 6 days a week. And Jen and I were just talking about this before the podcast, like, okay, I'm going to be finishing my latest book, Galactic Guardian 6, and next week, and then after that, kind of like, what do we shift to? Because I need something to work on, like, what am I going to shift my focus to? So yeah, I think always being Busy, always working towards a goal is important. And then, you know, it might be just writing now, or if you're at a stage where you don't have to release, um, all the time, maybe you have intervals in between when you're writing and editing and then when it's time to go out and make connections and network.

I think that's probably where I'm going to ask you to shift next because I have some thoughts, some plots, and maybe some schemes for the release of the other book from that other audio company.

Oh yes, so what Jen's talking about, there's a partner that we've been working on for almost— it'll be the project with them is going to come out in October, so it's almost a year since we've been working on this deal. And, uh, yeah, it should be exciting. It's kind of like a surprise for everybody because I don't think we've talked about it up until this point.

I think that's another good example too. Let me see. I think a lot, uh, of, um consistency. You didn't give up. There was a pulse there. They were showing some interest. But if you hadn't been consistent on your follow-up or 10x the follow-up, how can I help? What are you looking for? Giving that effort more than they reciprocated. I don't think this would have gone through.

Oh yeah. I think a lot of times I just get opportunities because they're tired of hearing from me.

You're like that.

So they're like, okay.

In the Bible, who kept going to the governor and petitioning petitioning and petitioning. So finally he was like, oh, fine, what do you want?

Or Shawshank Redemption when he's writing letters to get his library. It was like 2 years or 4 years.

Andy Dufresne.

They're like, here, please stop sending us letters. Here's some money and here's some books for your library. We consider this matter closed.

Yeah, that's just—

he would stop because he would send a letter every day.

Yeah, every day, every week.

But I figure, like, time is going to pass anyway. I might as well work. So it doesn't seem daunting to me that something would take 2 years or 4 years. Like, that time is going to pass anyway. I might as well pass working and getting to the goal that I want than giving up and being regretful 2 or 4 years later because I didn't put any work in.

I like how one of the analogies that you gave me was like, succeeding is a matter of time and effort. There's that. There's also like, luck is— my dad always says preparation meets opportunity. But the visual you gave was everybody holding on at the edge of a cliff or like on a limb or something, and everybody's just holding on. As long as they can. And you're like, do whatever it takes, be prepared, do the work so that way you can hold on longest.

Yeah, we've seen it. Like, just being in the publishing game for 11 years now, we've seen so many authors come and go. And like, uh, I even see it now. Like, you know, an author will have something hit and they get like an inkling of success, and then they're just like riding that thing. Like, oh, they're the expert at this thing now, and they're just like, you know, always posting stuff like that. I'm like, calm down, calm down. I'm happy for you. I'm happy that you reached your level of success. But reaching the top isn't the hardest part. The hardest part is staying at the top. So we'll see. I always give them the benefit of the doubt. Like, hey, first of all, good for this person. They've been working hard. They hit a certain level of success. Now time will tell, right? Let's see if they can continue day in and day out, year in, year out to show up. Because I think that's the part that gets a lot of people. Like, I've never met him, but we have friends who are friends with George R. R. Martin, and he seems like a wonderful guy, like a great guy. Does he? To me, that's— oh, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know if you're being sarcastic.

No, no, no, I don't want to like go out and be like, oh, he's a friend. Like, I don't— I— so just for the record state, I don't personally know him. I can't call up George like, hey George, let's go out and grab some Chick-fil-A. But, uh, we have people who know him, they have good things to say about him.

Oh good.

But he might be an example of kind of like, you know, hitting the top and then you know, not, not being able to continue to release a book like he was before, for whatever. And maybe he doesn't want to. Maybe he's happy just with what he's already done and he's good, you know, closing the book, closing the chapter in his life. So who knows?

Like, for me though, that's some recent releases.

Oh, I was talking about Game of Thrones.

Oh, specifically that series? Yeah, about everything else.

Okay. So yeah, so, and then for me, I'm just kind of like, I'm always going to be working.

So what are you the expert at?

Not giving up.

Okay.

So I think as well, like, there's going to be opportunities or times where you're going to feel like giving up. It's going to seem like all the doors shut. And give you an example of that. So when we were first getting into the film game, even before Infinity System was a thought, we were trying to figure out like a way in, look, helping, like maybe getting that successful IP and working or attaching ourselves and helping that work. And then So things were kind of starting to move. There were like a few conversations and then boom, pandemia hit and everything was shut down, right? Like the world went crazy. People are hoarding toilet paper. People are bathing themselves in Purell, putting on not one but 5 masks on their face before they go out. It was like crazy. So that's it.

Eating all the bread. There's no flour and stuff on any shelf. Meat is missing.

So that's to say, like all the momentum that we had, for the film product just died, done, right? So then after the pandemic is starting to subside, then it's like time to go ahead and start this machine rolling all over again. And I think Jen feels the same way. Actually, I don't know.

I'll ask you.

I don't know.

Don't speak for my feelings.

Can you feel momentum?

Oh.

On a project? Hmm. I can feel it. Like when something's happening and things are moving and doors are opening, I feel that momentum and I try to keep that momentum going with the project.

Okay.

As opposed to when I feel like a project has died Not that it couldn't be risen from the dead like a phoenix. You can, but the momentum is gone. There's like nothing happening with this project anymore. It's almost feel it takes like 10 times the effort to get the momentum going, where if you already have momentum, it's easier to keep the momentum going.

Got it. Yeah, I could say I feel an energy about something, an excitement. And that's a tricky space too, because while you do while we do want to go with our gut instincts and those feelings, that energy that comes around a project or a person we're looking to partner up with, um, a lot of what we do discipline-wise has absolutely nothing to do with feelings. Because if we only showed up to work on the days we felt like it, not much would get done. Now I know you wake up, you weirdo, insane, one-of-a-kind monster that you are, you wake up about every morning, 5 AM, excited and motivated, and you cannot wait to work 95% of the time, right? I take a little more time to get going, and I have so many different things that are, um, milling about in my mind that I would love to spend time on. But, um, but it's less about what I feel and as opposed to the discipline of the structure of what we need, what we've committed to, what we must follow up on, and what has to get done.

Yeah, I feel— I've told Jen this before, like, I feel very little has to do with how I feel when it comes to work. Like, uh, I don't feel like working out, or if I don't feel like writing, like, that doesn't matter. Like, feelings have nothing to do with what needs to be done. It's like, this is your job, do your job.

Is that the resistance, that feeling of not being inspired to do that or being inspired to do something else?

I think it's kind of like, you know, that it's going to be hard, that sitting down and writing 4,000 words a day is hard work. You're always happy when it's done and you feel fulfilled, but you know, just sitting down and getting into it, the act of sitting down is the hardest part. Even writing, it's funny because I feel like even writing when you're in the middle of it isn't as hard as getting motivated to sit down and start.

Well, that's why people say for their gym to develop that habit where you no longer have to think about, am I going to the gym or am I going to work out? Don't even think about that. Just step right into it. Have your stuff already out. And that once you get to the gym or once you get into where you're going to exercise, the body and the mind just kind of take over and do what they want to do. That is doing the work. But it's that sort of transition phase from inertia, right? Things in motion are going to stay in motion and things at rest are going to stay at rest. So when we're transitioning from one thing to the other, that's the hardest. Reminded me something you said too, when we go on hikes with our group and Josephine on Friday. Friday's hike was pretty— it was beautiful. It was top of the world in Laguna Beach. We could see because it had rained a bit that morning and the night before. So this sky was so clear we could see from Laguna Beach all the way down the coastline to San Juan Capistrano. It was just gorgeous. When we were up there, she was saying, "I can see the world from here. I can see Grammy's house," which, you know, is like 300 miles away. But, you know, so there was a lot of uphill steep climbing, down, you know, 3 to the ground, trying to keep our balance from not sliding around. And afterwards I asked her, you know, "How was the hike? How did you enjoy it? You know what, tell me about it." And she said it was really hard. But it was really fun. And in the morning she said, I don't— she didn't want to go. I don't want to go on a hike. I don't want to get ready. I told her, we're committed. We're going to see this through. We don't have to go all the way. Let's just make the effort and you will feel so happy to see all your friends. She was off. She was off. I don't want to say like I didn't see her because she was always within eyesight, but she was up ahead with her, her friends and some of the other parents. So, um, I think that was just a nice another reminder of you may not want to go, but you're committed. So the discipline to follow through, and then it's going to be hard, but is it going to be fun? And it will have been worth it. And will you see sights and experience things that you wouldn't have otherwise?

I wonder if that's like what everybody tries to do in discovering the job that they love, like finding something that's really hard but fun, as opposed to finding a job that's just hard and not fun, or maybe the job that's easy and not fun. I feel like that's where like the value lies, doing something that's really hard but fun. Kind of like making Infinity System. Like we're on set, like there's so much to juggle and so much to do, and it wasn't easy but it was fun.

It was fun. I don't know if it was easy. That kind of stuff comes naturally to my brain through years of experience.

Well, that's why we're up into Annie now, not trying to do another pilot episode, trying to do a full-length movie.

Yeah, we'll see about how I feel about that. I would still call it fun and easy.

3 times what we just did with, uh, Infinity System. Not just double, we want to triple time, the film time for a movie.

Yeah, I think, um, I think it'll still be fun and easy.

Yeah, I don't think it'll be easy. I think it'll be fun and hard. Okay. It's like writing a book. Like, writing a book all the time is fun for me, like hanging out with the characters and discovering what's going to happen and seeing surprises and stuff like that. Uh, what I do, one thing Jack Kerouac taught me, is to tell myself that it's easy even though it may not be easy. But like Muhammad Ali said, you know, you gotta When he would say, I am the greatest, he would tell himself that he is something, whether he believed it really or not. If you repeat it enough, it's almost like you brainwash yourself that it is easy. Jack Kerouac would say the same thing, like writing's easy, you can do it. Remember, remember that quote where he said, he keeps saying, kid, you can do it, kid, never give up, kid.

Yeah.

So in my mind, I know the truth. Yeah. In my mind, I know the truth. Writing is not easy, but I tell myself all the time. This is easy. Writing is breathing. Like, writing is easy. This is easy. Even though the back of my mind, I'm just brainwashing myself.

It's not brainwashing. It's like, physiologically, there are neuropathways in your mind, in our brains, right? And so think about, about these like roads out in the wild, these paths. And the one that is more used you know, has more of a clearing to get through. And so that is going to be the easiest way to go, as opposed to the one that's not used as often. There's more brush in the way, it's not very smooth, probably riddled with ticks, you know, and you have to force yourself to go through it. So that negative thinking, just like Ford said, whether you think you can or you can't, either way you're right. And so by having— that's why they say with practicing gratitude or focusing on the positive. It's not negating reality, being pragmatic, I believe you shared before, but it's just reinforcing in that positive talk to yourself, encouraging affirmations so that your brain's default path that it takes isn't the negative, harder, or negative that brings you down. It's the more positive that's encouraging, gives you all of those reaffirming endorphins. It also goes down the path of visualization, right? All the great athletes, performers, and whatnot, as much as they are practicing physically, they are visualizing that success. They're visualizing the play. They're visualizing themselves winning. And they see that over and over, that championship, that win, so that once it's go time, their bodies and everything around them falls back into that same rhythm. So Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest, like, self-affirming individuals.

I forget what weightlifters did this to, but there's a bodybuilder who would always say lightweight to himself when he was working out, even though obviously it was not like—

was that that janitor guy?

No, no, no, somebody else would say lightweight and just telling themselves again, telling themselves that it was lightweight, that they could do this, even though obviously it was not.

I should have done that yesterday when I was working out because it was— I was feeling it, feeling it hard.

Yeah, I think a lot of people too, uh, when it comes to projects they take on or just the amount of projects they take on, like, I know people ask us all the time, like, how do you do it all? Like, with the podcast and the publishing company and now making film and homeschooling. And I mean, yeah, we're always in motion, but I feel like, you know, we don't tell ourselves like, oh man, this is a lot. Every once in a while I do. Every once in a while I'll think— every once in a while I'll pause for a second, be like, wow, there's a lot going on. But then I stopped thinking about that and I just concentrate on the next thing.

Anytime you do that, I'm like, no, no, you get out of here with that line of thought. That's not welcome here.

Yeah, like, we could do that. We, uh, like, all the time in our heads, probably like, yeah, we could do this, we could do this. Yes, we could do this. Instead of like pausing and looking back like, oh my goodness, there's so much happening. And just keep on going.

And for being grateful, like stopping to congratulate or celebrate or being grateful for what we've done. Yeah, because I think that is also encouraging to go forward is like, you've got everything that's already happened and transpired and worked out, and so let's use that as momentum, like you were saying.

Yeah, like some people could think right now since there's the WGA writer's strike that, oh no, this is gonna hamper or hinder any projects that we're working on, whether for like television or movies, and it might But like, we can't stop. Maybe, right? Yeah, maybe neutral thinking. Maybe it could, maybe it won't, but we're not going to stop working and doing our best to move these projects forward, and we'll see what happens.

Yeah, but I think you brought up another good point. People say, how do you do it all? And we don't. We don't do it all every day, right?

Like the podcast, we just have our podcast come out once a month. With publishing books, we're just doing a book every 3 months now. With television and film. We'll work on the projects. I would like to get to the point where we could do 2 film projects a year. We'll see when that can transpire. So we did Infinity System last year. This year we might be able to get one in before the end of the year. We'll see how things end up. But eventually, I have faith. I have faith that eventually we'll get there. Just like publishing, just like with the publishing road over the last 11 years. I used to have to write a book a month. To help build the platform and get things rolling. And now we're doing 4 books a year, so it'll be the same one.

Yeah. And it's also taking out those things from our life that doesn't contribute to the lifestyle that we want to have. And one of the big things that you did lately was you stopped— you reduced your social media engagement or whatever.

Oh, yeah. So I stopped doom scrolling. So now when I get on social media, social media for me basically just means Facebook and Instagram. So I'm getting on Facebook and Instagram now. It's only for a purpose. I'm only going to get on because these people have commented and I want to respond to them, or it's time to put up a post and that's it. So before I would get on to do that, but then I would start scrolling, looking at like slap fighting. There's, you know, there's like a whole tournament in the world around people slapping each other. I feel like there's different tournaments too. So like it's exactly what you think it is. It's exactly what you think it is. Like these guys have like mouth guards and they're putting chalk on their hands and all that kind of stuff and they take turns slapping each other. I don't know what it is, but every time I come across that, I just want to see who gets knocked out.

People get knocked out from this?

Yes. And they have like people behind them like ready to catch them that way they don't like hit their heads on the ground. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's not just even one tournament. Like there's multiple, you know, like there's like the UFC and then there's ONE Championship and there's all these different industries, organizations. There's all that kind of stuff for slap fighting too. International arm wrestling too. I get the same arm wrestling. They like scroll down like, well, looking at the arm wrestling, who's gonna win? I don't know. So I stopped doing that.

Okay, well, I'm really happy for you to have stopped watching that. I didn't know, didn't want to judge, but, um, I was highly concerned.

Yeah, so I lit some sage and cleansed my body and decided not to watch slap fighting anymore. Not that there's anything wrong with it, just like I could, uh, how have you seen that it's impacted that downtime?

Those transitions or downtime now that you're not doing that?

I'm just being more intentional. I can be more intentional with time with the family or even time with work where I know that I'm going to get on social media to post and to respond to comments. So intentional doing that and then getting off right away.

That's nice. The kids have been gone for the last couple of days and we were talking about our plans of what to do next and John was like, oh, maybe we could watch a show or something. I was like, I don't want to watch a bunch of TV. And he's like, We watched half of one movie that we started a few days ago, and that was it. And then we went to go see a movie the next day, and I was like, oh, I thought we— in my mind, I felt that like, oh, we've been just sitting watching.

In reality, we watched one movie.

Yeah, one and a half movies. That's it. I was like, oh, okay. So I think that's another one is not—

that's a good point. So, like, in 2 days, we watched one and a half movies, and then Jen was like, oh, it feels like a lot of TV.

Let's have no TV time tonight. He's like, uh, what?

Usually our days are no TV, or when the kids go to bed, if there's like a show that we really wanted to check out or watch, have like an hour at night and that's it.

And then being scrutinous about that too.

Yeah, like there's so much content to watch now with all the streaming platforms that I feel like we have to be intentional about what we watch, right? Because there's so much out there. So unless we really, really want to do it— what do you say?

It's like, um, heck yes or heck no, right?

It's like, if you're just like, uh, maybe I want to watch this, or maybe I kind of like that, then we don't watch it because our time is too valuable. Like, we have to really like a show to be able to sit down and watch it because there's too much other stuff to be done.

Well, and just the mind space. I would rather have intentional or like masterly inactivity of sitting down quiet, no TV on, just like sitting with our own thoughts, commenting on something here or there to each other like weirdos in the dimly lit living room space after the kids are in bed, than watching a show that we don't really like or not fully engaged in that we're tempted then to scroll or I don't know, I feel like we just have to master that. And that masterly inactivity allows us to have more ideas and brain space and ideating on how to 10x the things that we're doing.

And there are shows that we like, so I don't want people to think like, oh, they just don't watch any TV. No, for sure. Like, we watch— they're snobs. Remember when Bumper and Berlin came out? Yeah. No, we are not. Yeah, yeah, we watched all that. Or Ghosts.

Yeah, Ghosts.

Watch every episode of Ghosts that's out. So stuff like that.

Like, thank you, my dad, for introducing us to that.

Yeah, shout out to Ephraim. So we definitely enjoy watching shows, but like Jen was saying, it's like, if you're not like passionate about it, like, uh, do it with passion or not at all. Same thing. You have to really like enjoy what we're doing, watching, or like why we're watching, just like to waste time or fill time.

And then it helps with our brains, um, because we do want to do 10x when we do something, right? If you're going all the way to the wall, balls to the wall every time— that is a pilot term, Johnson.

I don't think so.

It is, yes. So I would just like to go tangential here and, uh, what are all the homeschooling moms going to think about you and hear that? What has to do with the pilots? Ball of the— I don't know what it's called, but the stick in the plane and they push that all the way down. Anyway, I know that also from my dad. So, um, when it comes to like idioms and colloquialisms of that sort, we cannot be more opposite. Jonathan's giggling like a little homeschool boy right now because he doesn't— he's familiar with some of the terms, but he purposefully, I believe, uses them incorrectly, kind of like Ron Burgundy in like, yeah. So anyway, You can't—

we can't—

we cannot operate at that level all the time in all the things. It's just too much. It's too taxing. And so where we can streamline, and I think that's one of the reasons that having— we say no, we're not putting our kids in like a bunch of activities where we are gone every single day. We have at least 1 to 2 full days at home, like just within our space. You can go outside and play and climb and do all that, garden, but we're not out running errands or taking the kids, like we're just decompress processing day, and then having our space neat and orderly, which right now it's not, but having it order— like when we have piles of laundry and dishes, sinks full of dishes, and there's just scattered stuff everywhere, you know, mail that needs to be sorted through and all of that, it— those piles create anxiety in the brain, and that anxiety prevents that clear thinking that we need to be strategic or to, you know, think through or be intentional. It's distracting. And so my dad would always say, like, have your space squared away, 4x4, 5x5, like, get it— I mean, organized. So, and you're good about cleaning up space into neater missing piles.

Yeah, like, I can let things go to a certain extent, but after a while I was like, man, something needs to be done with, like, you know, this room or something like that.

Yeah, and the kids help, and I think they feel good about it too because, you know, it's all of our space. Y'all, we are here like nearly 24/7 together, the 4 of us, eating in this house, working in this house, pets in this house, homeschooling in this house, crafts, all kinds of things. You know, you have 4 different parties with multiple different interests. So, I mean, now we're doing direct sales And that's been a newer adventure that has taken 100 times the effort, but, uh, not 10, but every day it's, you know, like every time we go in to make adjustments 10 times. And so now we have all of that inventory we're holding, so that required additional organization.

Just like I didn't give up with this new opportunity that's coming in October, the same thing with direct sales with you, because I would say we didn't see, uh, success for a good maybe like 6 months.

No, no, I would say like 3.

Profitability in 6 months?

In 3.

In 3 months? Yeah, I find that hard to believe.

Well, I started in December.

Sound like a lawyer.

Your faith. December, January, February were setup months. Towards the end of March— by the end of March we had profitability. April kicked some bum and we're doing great already.

4 months?

3.

Well, good job. I'm trying to give you a compliment. I'm trying to say that you didn't give up either. I know you're done showing up and didn't give up.

Sure did.

Even when things month after month in the first few months seemed difficult.

I know, but looking back, 3 months was nothing. If we can take this and continue to expand there in like what feel or seem like endless possibilities since you have such a wide backlist.

That's why film doesn't seem like that hard to me because we've done it so many times before. It's like, oh, you're gonna climb this mountain, but we've climbed a few mountains in our day.

I'm still sore from climbing Friday's Mountain carrying Jackson.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite lines to use in the book. When they're like, the storm's coming, and the hero says, I've weathered a few storms before.

Nice, that's nice. But you live in California, how do you know there are storms?

Well, we flew into, uh, Tampa where there was a hurricane.

That was interesting.

Tornado warning, lightning striking outside of the plane windows, people doing the sign of the cross, playing, praying to the Virgin Mary, whatever they were praying to. Yeah, who knows who they are?

That's their business. That's their business.

Yeah.

And I look over because for the entire trip we did not sit next to each other, and I look back and over at Jonathan and he's sitting in his seat laughing like a maniac.

Yeah, I was watching that. You know those long flights, they give you free access to free movies or TV, so same thing. Probably like 99% of the stuff I'm not interested in watching, but I like to laugh. So, uh, I don't know if you've ever seen Central Intelligence with The Rock and Kevin Hart. That movie is so funny. So there's like the plane shaking and rocking side to side and there are people like panicking and murmuring and I'm just like cracking up so hard with like Kevin Hart doing a backflip and falling on his face.

Oh, poor Kevin Hart.

It was in the movie.

I know.

And the Rocky wearing his like super skin tight unicorn shirt. I was like, oh yeah, I love corns, man. Yeah.

Awesome.

Okay, so I think we should probably sign off now. So parting thoughts, Jennifer?

Parting thoughts. Is know that if anything is worth doing, not only is it worth doing well, it's worth doing like 10 times the effort because that's what it's going to take to get it done and to master it.

Yeah, it's possible. Like, hard, it will be hard, but hard is not impossible. Just keep on taking those shots, right? So you might not be able to get it on the first shot, but if you take 10 shots, then slowly the odds start swinging in your favor that one's going to go in..

But you also get better at it if you hit 10, right? With that practice. So it's not only the odds, but it's also your— our own ability. If I only practice my reverse sidekicks or even my sidekicks when I'm at the dojo and not at home or do the work around it, it's not going to be as technically sound or as strong. So being able to aim well and have a worthwhile impact.

Remember what Bruce Lee said? He said he doesn't fear the person who's thrown 1,000 punches. He fears the person who's thrown the same punch 1,000 times, right? Just that practice and getting those reps in.

All right, so what would be the question for our folks? What are they going to practice their 1,000 punches on?

Yeah, so kind of like, uh, in your life, whatever it may be, whether it's exercise or work, where— what's important to you, and where are you going to put 10 times the effort in to get the results that you want? Awesome.

You guys have fun doing the hard work, and we look forward to reading and hearing about and celebrating what you're practicing.

We'll see you on the other side. It's also from the Central Intelligence movie.