House of Wolves Episode One - Introduction

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, uh, 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. Hello friends, thanks for joining us at the first ever House of Wolves podcast, episode 1. I am Jonathan Yáñez and I'm here with Jennifer Yáñez.

Hello.

Hello Jennifer, how are you?

I'm happy to finally be here because it's only taken us 5 tries to get to this point to record episode 1.

It's been more than 5, I think.

I trying to be kind to us.

At what point there was like 2 microphones, 2 computers, a bunch of different things we're trying to Google and figure it out.

Maybe a microphone may or may not have been plugged in.

Yeah, this is— it's plugged in now. I double checked it right now. Okay, make sure it's plugged in.

So thanks for joining us here today.

Yeah, thanks for coming. Uh, we thought maybe with episode 1, we won't always do this, but at least for the first one, maybe introduce ourselves so you can kind of figure out like, ah, should I be listening to these people? Like should I give them any credibility? Like, why do I care what they're talking about? So we kind of figure we would give you a little bit of our background and who we are. So going forward with more episodes, you'll get a better idea of, oh yeah, maybe they do know what they're talking about. I feel like we've only— we only know what we're talking about because we failed so many times and learned so many times. So it's not like, you know, we're geniuses, although that would be nice.

No, I don't.

To be a genius at something and not have to fail?

No, uh, failing part of the journey. That's what makes it interesting and fun. There's no one way up the mountain. Often there's no one path, so it's figuring out where your foothold fits best, where your grip is most comfortable. Um, you know, you try and try again, and then you succeed, and then you keep trying and you keep failing. You learn, and then you succeed. I think that's a much more interesting journey.

Don't get me wrong, that's been the story of my life. I'm just saying it'd be nice to like have one thing that you didn't have to fail so much at, that you were just like, oh, I'm good at this, and I don't have to try for years and years and years to not fall on my face over and over again. So I do that all the time.

Oh yeah, but there's some things— you're doing well at boxing, and I would say you've been at that a little over a year. I'm not going out and getting any concussions. Um, it's just like part of the journey, I think. Just the way we teach our kids and the way we, um, have created our lives. And I think that's just the way we were designed. I do not want the super easy path. And sometimes you fail once or twice and you learn, and then sometimes apparently you have to fail for years to get something.

I'll take one super easy path. Sure, like, it'd be nice if the path kind of like, oh, like, here's an obstacle, but here's a way around it. I would just take that.

No, the obstacle is the way.

So anywho, uh, I think we touched a little bit on boxing, but I feel like we're digressing on talking about who we are. So we've been married for 11 years. 11 years. That was a test. Good job. Been married for 11 years. We have two children, a little girl who's 6 and a little boy who's 2. We both work from home now, but it didn't always start like that. So at the beginning of our journey in this fairy tale, graduated with an English degree, wasn't sure what I wanted to do. 5 years later in sales and management, I'm like, hey, definitely don't want to do sales and management for the rest of my life. Not that there's anything wrong with people who like to do sales and management. I say more power to you. You do you. Just for me, it wasn't where I saw myself. I always wanted to— I always loved reading, and I, um, wanted to write books. So I started writing about 10 years ago in 2010. 2011, maybe. Sure. 2011, I started writing. Uh, quit my job without telling Jen. That wasn't the best move, but, uh, speaking of failing, yeah, I feel like at any time where we've risked greatly, we've come out on top. We talk about the TV show later on in another episode, or maybe this episode, uh, with the TV show. Again, that was like a huge risk that's paid off.

Show recap. Thanks for joining us. We struggled to get this going. We're happy to get it going. Jonathan didn't want to be in sales and marketing after he studied English. He didn't want to be an English teacher analyzing literature, so started writing. Love stories, loves writing, loves his two kids, apparently loves me. 11 years. What else?

Um, and yeah, so we started writing. I started going down the traditional publishing path, and I landed a small publishing house. Everything was great, but I just thought to myself, like, hey, I think we can kind of take the bull by the horns and we can do this ourselves and form our own publishing company. So we started doing that, and then maybe 5 years down that road, Jen was able to quit her job and come work for our company. And was that 2019?

That was the end of 2018.

And very end of 2018, Jen was able to quit her job and come work for our company. So now we do everything from writing books and publishing to getting into film with our TV show to now podcasting, apparently. And I feel like maybe you should catch everybody up kind of like on your background.

Um, sure. I always wanted to go into advertising and marketing, knew that since I was in high school, so I followed the trajectory to get me there. And was at a wonderful agency, um, worked in advertising in Newport Beach, and for about 12 years at that last agency. So had about 15 years advertising, marketing, and events experience. Um, and then for a season I was moonlighting, um, doing advertising, marketing, and business stuff for the publishing company. Um, so then at that time we had a 2-year-old and things were continuing to go well with the publishing company. So, you know, there's only so many hours in a day and so much space in one's mind and hours of sleep needed. So I made the transition from being an advertising executive to running the company and supporting Jonathan's creative endeavors. And then it also afforded me just an immense opportunity to spend more time with our daughter and eventually have our son. And now um, in the mornings I homeschool, in the afternoons I've been publishing and production, film production, and, um, now we're in podcast production too. So, uh, Jonathan, why does anyone care about any of this? What are we doing here?

We are introducing ourselves so people understand kind of the path that we've walked. So also anybody who is interested in writing a novel or publishing a novel, again, we've been doing it for 10 years. Uh, I write mostly science fiction and fantasy Although I've done like a little bit of thriller, I would say, as well, but mostly science fiction, fantasy. So anybody who's looking to, um, publish their own book, or maybe to like, how do you start a career as an author? How do you— I know a lot of people want to quit their daytime jobs so they could write novels. Like, how did that work? What did that look like for you? And again, that for me, that was a super, um, interesting time in my life. Because I straight up quit my job. I just came to like a breaking point where they say like it's time to burn your boats, like there's no going back. So I was just like so fed up and dissatisfied with my job that I realized like, hey, if I don't make some drastic changes now, nothing's ever going to change. So one day I just up and quit, uh, cashed in my 401k so I'd have some money in the meantime while I started writing. And then Jen was always super supportive, at least to my face. The way you're looking at me now, I'm not so sure. What was it like for you? We can dive into that. I might regret this later, but at least— no, no, it's fine.

There was, um, I do not like risk. I'm risk averse. Um, so I think this podcast could be for anyone who just wants to think outside the box. Anyone who wants to pursue their own path, not our path, your own path. And I'm hoping that maybe using our story and our experience and the people that we've encountered and sharing that knowledge with anyone who dared listen to this to inspire and maybe collaborate or just create our own circle of people who are, who want to forge their own path. And then the way you did, right, with abandon, just burn your boats and move on of whatever it is. Because oftentimes if people want to make a change in their lives and they still have one foot in the old path, it's hard for them to look forward and move on in the new trajectory. So that being said, when Jonathan was ready to make the transition, we didn't have children. We hadn't yet bought a home. We didn't have a whole lot of concrete fiscal responsibilities. So we had only been married a year. Jonathan pulled the wool over my head. I thought I was marrying this like up-and-coming sales and manager guy, and he turned out he's a creative. So there's that. Traded in clean cut and suits every day for this. Did you see before you? Full beard, t-shirt, wolves, drinking horn. But yeah, I'm good with it. I knew who he was at his core, and that wasn't going to change. And it didn't matter if, you know, he was spending his days training employees and managing inventory, or if he was going to be, you know, sitting at a computer writing about the A-Team in space. So it didn't change who he was, and we were still just building out our life together. So we said, you know, that's it, I'm all in, we'll figure it out, make our plan. I still had a full-time excellent job and benefits, so we were, we were good. We just decided to live life a little differently than it originally looked when we first said our I dos.

Yeah, I can think back and look at our past and realize we've risked a lot. A lot of times it wasn't just like once or twice, but every time we risked We've always come out the other side stronger, I think. From me quitting my job to you quitting your job to, uh, investing in the— getting into our film, uh, endeavor. And now what comes next? Excuse me, I had to sneeze. Yeah, I was trying to fight it. No, I was trying to fight it. I was trying to fight it, but it was coming. I didn't want to sneeze on our first episode.

I'm sorry, we'll have to edit it out because you look your bowl on camera.

Allergies. Don't worry, everybody, I'm not sick. This is just pretty normal for me. It's normal.

We're gonna edit that out.

We should just keep it.

I do not think we should.

No, we should keep it because it's like real. Like, I think most people— some people would go through different stuff like this too. Why not? It's who we are. I have allergies. It's who I am.

Okay, so, um, it's fact. Yes.

Risk.

No, I think you're right. It's— but for me, it's calculated risk. Not like blindly going in. It is a calculated risk. We didn't just like, well, things seem to be going good for this one month in book sales, so why don't we go ahead and just leave a career built up for 12 years with abandon? It was like with a mortgage and two children or a daughter, and we were hoping at that time for a second child. So I think it was very calculated. We had a plan, we had backup, we had an emergency fund, we had a timeline. And I always knew that there would be other opportunities if for whatever reason things didn't work out. And I feel like that was a secure plan B, not like— but I was all in. So yeah, you leaving your job, it was like, great, we don't have as many responsibilities. This would be a very low-risk time to make a drastic transition.

I think we're very opposite when it comes to that because you're very, uh, risk adverse. Yeah, I'm trying to risk as much as possible all the time. Like, not my kids, I'm not going to risk their safety or anything like that.

What do you think?

All the time, but most of the time I'm trying to risk.

Are you trying to risk or are you looking at what you're to gain and the chances of making that opportunity happen?

Like I'm at a poker table and the chips are my life and I'm saying I'm all in.

Yeah, but you have a good hand.

Maybe I'm just bluffing. Maybe it's not as good as you would think it is.

Well, you know, it has a decent hand. Like, the odds are slightly in your favor and the return will be a huge yield.

But like the TV show, did you think with the TV show the odds are slightly in our favor? I do not. I don't think it was against us either, but I don't think we had any, like, hand up. Like, it was our very first time. Should we talk a little bit about that?

No, uh, no, please.

We'll do another episode talking about the TV show.

Well, I mean, I think it's a part of a bigger conversation dialogue. Yeah. No, I would say that even with the film, I knew you were a proven storyteller. I knew that I would be able to produce the heck out of that thing. I had seen—

Watch your language.

Our cinematographer—

Family-friendly show.

I don't know about that.

Can't say heck.

Cinematographer was excellent. The talent, I knew each step of the way that who we were investing in and bringing into the team was key. So the, the risk of the quality of the film, I never doubted in terms of what it would become. We already had like a multi-pronged, um, plan to getting it out there, to monetizing it, um, to getting it picked up. So, you know, but it was a long-term plan, so I still feel like we're in the midst of it. And so far things are going well, but I wouldn't say that it was high risk for the amount for what we invested?

Well, I always think of— forget who said it, or maybe nobody said it, maybe it was just a meme.

Uh, so you can't tell the difference between great quotes and memes anymore.

I always think of that great meme with the little bird on a tree branch, and it says that the bird doesn't have faith that the branch will hold him up, right? The bird has faith that if anything were to happen to the branch he can fly. So I feel like that's— that's what I feel like. I feel like, uh, whatever happens, whether it's podcasting— that I feel like we're really knocking out of the park right now, by the way— not all that podcasting. I was writing novels and publishing. Whether it's producing scripts and producing TV shows, hopefully movies soon. I feel like I would bet on us. We're like that little bird. So even if whatever we land on crumbles and falls, we know we could fly.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying is I— if we had never done anything before and you're like, hey, I'm going to take a third of our life savings or of our emergency fund and dump it into this project and I'm going to figure it all out along the way by myself with a bunch of people who have zero experience, zero track record of success, then yeah, I'd be much more concerned. But we went off of the skill set and experience that we have to pursue this endeavor. So it was, you know, it wasn't on nothing and willy-nilly. It was, I feel like, on more established terms.

Well, let's just agree to disagree.

I think we're just calling it something different. I think it's the same thing. So how did that relate to other people?

Um, encouraging them that there's great things on the other side of fear when you risk In Jen's case, calculated risks. In my case, more just blind risk.

Maybe it's intuitive. Maybe you just like feel it in your plums, in my jellies, in your jellies, in your, in your gut of like, you know, it's like instinct when to roll the dice.

Yeah, just maybe it's possible.

I think that could be it.

I feel like that happens to a lot of people. Maybe they're unsure and maybe there's some fear in there, what could happen. But I remember I was listening to, uh, Michael Jordan talking.

No, was it Michael Jordan or was it a meme?

It's probably a meme of Michael Jordan. And he was being interviewed and somebody asked him like a scenario where the game's on the line, there's seconds left, who gets that last shot? And Michael Jordan said, I get that last shot. Winners always want the ball. So I feel like the more— Jocko talks about this too— the more responsibility that you can put on your shoulders to come through at the 11th hour, you should. You know what you're capable of. And I feel like you're probably capable of more than you think you are. I feel like I should say, like, you definitely are capable of more than you think you are. So when that fear comes and starts kicking in, realize that you are capable of accomplishing whatever you want to do. It's just that fear that's standing in the way. And that kind of goes back to, uh, Jocko with Extreme Ownership, his book. Yeah, where he talks about taking responsibility for as much as possible. So even in our business, when something goes wrong that could look like it's one of our employees' faults or somebody else's fault that we're working with, we've always think, and I always think, well, how can I take responsibility for that? So if it's something that doesn't come in on time, and even though somebody else is supposed to execute on it, we talk to them and I always say like, hey, I feel responsible for this too, first and foremost. Like, I could have followed up with you. I should have made sure this was out on time. And then that person never feels like I'm blaming them because we're a team together, right? And it makes us both work harder and check every box, you know, a second or third time.

Yeah, I think that it really changes the dynamic and perspective in running any initiative— the project, a birthday party, a community event, something, you know, is Being okay with failing. Back to the beginning of the conversation, being okay with failing and knowing that failure is inevitable. Um, unless you get that magical unicorn—

I'm still looking for it. Just like something— it'd be nice if like something I could do, I'm like, oh, I'm just naturally gifted at this, I don't have to fail it.

I think you're naturally gifted at podcasting.

Oh, we'll see, we'll see.

Um, but I think it goes back to you, failure is inevitable.

Right?

And when you are in a leadership position, you didn't get there on your first day. You got there after a tenure. And in that tenure, you've had much experience. You know more of the watchouts. So, you know, that's why people in these executive positions often are paid so much. It's not for the work they do. It's for the risk they mitigate. And then they are prepared to accept the repercussions of that risk. And it teaches people around you to not be afraid to fail, to spread their wings, to take that leap, to go for that extra. Because just like you're saying, there's greatness on the other side of fear. And if the greatest fear is failure, then people could really push boundaries or expected or their own self-imposed boundaries in what they're able to accomplish.

I think fear is a really good indicator of what you should be doing. Like, things that are difficult and fear are kind of like what I use as guides on my path now. They're like, uh, like, uh, we're all three little hobbits together traveling down the path. One's name is fear, one's name is hardship, and then there's me. And when I'm thinking about like, oh, should I go down this path? If fear and hardship say like, oh yeah, you should go down that path, then I listen to my little hobbit friends and we go have second breakfast together down that path. Because I don't want to do easy things anymore. Uh, I don't find value, as much value, in doing easy things over and over again. I find the value in doing the hard things. And if I'm a little bit scared or unsure of it, there's opportunity there for me to grow. So, uh, doing a podcast is not one of the first things that I would wake up in the morning and be like, oh, I really want to get on and do a podcast. But it's something that I'm not sure about. I'm— it's not tested. So I thought if I'm going to expand and grow, we should try new things and do those kind of things. So I guess left to my own devices, I would just be sitting down writing novels and writing scripts and telling stories. But outside of that comfort zone is going to like film festivals and going to conferences and speaking events and book signings and podcasts. And there's great opportunities there. We've seen great opportunities from different events that we've gone to. And none of that would have happened if I was just staying in my own little comfortable bubble, just staying at home and writing these crazy stories about hunters, you know, tracking down werewolves and vampires, or, uh, people in space going and getting decapitated, or whatever.

Oh my gosh, okay, that turned— that took a turn.

Or whatever might happen.

Yeah, no, I, I agree. I agree that there— if we're like, oh, doesn't fear keep you safe? Fear keeps you comfortable. I think there's a difference, you know, in this 21st century to, to say, yeah, fear keeps you comfortable. That's what its initial self-preservation mode was, because if you were uncomfortable, then you could be in danger, you can get hurt. But now being comfortable is very different. You know, I'm more comfortable on my couch than I'm doing a Bulgarian split squat in the garage in our gym. I'm more comfortable just talking to my same friends that I know and who know me than I am welcoming a stranger and trying to strike up that conversation. I'm more comfortable doing the same thing that I did year after year than learning new things and having to traverse changing markets. Obviously, the past few years have been a very dynamic market for many, many industries. But then, you know, we decided to stick it through with continue to do that with the publishing and then say, hey, let's add a new market to what we're doing. And, you know, yeah, I would much be reading an interesting, easy-to-follow mystery novel than movie money and essentially a textbook written by CPAs for contracts. But, um, but I think, like you said, like, get uncomfortable in a good and healthy way. Those good stresses make us healthier, and they add a richness to life.

And every time that we've been rolling the dice, I can't think of— I'm sure it's happened, maybe you can think of something where we rolled the dice and it did not turn out well. Like, I think usually when we're risking, we're putting ourselves in positions to succeed. Oh, actually, I can think of one.

What's that?

So I was writing science fiction for a long time, and then I moved to writing urban fantasy. So like the hunters, the vampires, the werewolves.. And the series with the hunters for hire was well received, like great reviews, everybody loved it. But the fan base that I had, the readers that I have, we call them our pack, wasn't as keen to pick up an urban fantasy novel as they were for sci-fi. So when we rolled the dice and I did that series, it wasn't received overall, people weren't interested as much as they would have been a science fiction series. So that was kind of like a gamble that didn't like end in utter failure, but it didn't, it didn't, it also didn't, um, pick up the same way that a sci-fi series did, right? Yeah.

And you were so much immersed in that community and had built up a readership based on a certain genre, and then it changed. And, um, you know, for those that decided to take that risk and read it, I think they were pleasantly surprise, or they just— and they had a good read with an amazing cast of characters there. But, uh, once you came out with your latest sci-fi series that we for some reason sat on for 2 and a half years, um, I think, yeah, they just are just enjoying the heck out of it.

Yeah, I don't think we should say that word anymore. Okay, maybe we'll come up with some different— if you have a suggestion on what she can say instead of heck, how about you go ahead and bananas out of it, something like that. Enjoy the stuffing. Maybe somebody, somebody who'll leave a comment will start using those words. But I was thinking before we end, we should also talk about why it's named— why this podcast is named House of Wolves, right? So our pack, uh, we call it our pack. This is our logo, it's the wolf. And the reason, one of the reasons that we chose wolves is because they exist in a pack. And our pack now is not just, you know, family and friends but it's readers from around the world. Yeah. In our Facebook group, we have a Google Map where everybody drops a pin of like where they are, as close as they want to be. It doesn't have to be like on, you know, their house, on their street. It could just be like— no, just their town, city. Yeah, it's just their town, the city, or the state, or wherever they feel comfortable with. And our pack now just spans the globe. We're on all 7 continents. I looked that up to make sure. Okay, that's pretty cool.

The penguins all—

Antarctica.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I don't think anybody actively lives in Antarctica now from our pack. Okay, but we have at least 2 people who have visited. Okay. And I was like, that's close enough. Okay, so, uh, our pack or our community spans the globe. Spans the globe. So House of Wolves, it's our house, it's your house too. You're part of this as well, whether you're listening, whether you want to be part of it or not. If you're listening this far into the first podcast, God bless you, you're part— you're part of the pack as well. So House of Wolves And then also the 3 things that we've kind of built our business on are hope, adventure, and family. Those are like our keywords. So like hope, when you read one of our books or when you watch one of our films, you're never going to be left feeling bad about your life at the end. Like, trust me, I've read those books and I've seen those movies and TV shows, and I don't like ending a TV show without any hope. So you're always going to have a hope. You're going to be taking on an adventure, so you're going to be able to escape whatever might be going on in your life, whatever struggles or worries you might have. We're going to get you out of that so you can escape. And then the last thing was family, and that kind of goes back to the pack. We're all a family, we're all in this together. I think one of my favorite sayings is blood makes you related, but loyalty makes you family, much like Fast and Furious.

I— yeah. Yeah, so that's a house. You're welcome into our home. This is a home of, of wolves. Um, and yeah, you're always— everyone's welcome. You're always welcome. And, um, we run as a pack together, encouraging each other and supporting one another.

So I think this podcast, uh, not only can be about life in general, or just about publishing, or just about, uh, script writing, or TV shows, or producing, or anything like that. I think it kind of be, uh, encompass all of that and more as we talk about our lives in general. Like, we haven't got into Jen taking karate and me taking boxing. We haven't got into homeschooling. We haven't got into any of those topics yet. So as we— the episodes continue to come, you'll get to hear more and more about kind of like what we do. And hopefully, I think ultimately we'd like this podcast to provide that adventure, hope, and family to other people. Know that you're not alone give you some hope and some words of encouragement. I read a statistic the other day that said 1 out of every 3 people doesn't have somebody to talk to, like just to somebody to listen or some, you know, encouragement in their life. And I think that's super sad. So I want you to know, like, if you can't think right off the top of your head of somebody who you have in your immediate circle, somebody to listen to or somebody to provide hope, well, you've got us now, so you can count. You yourself as part of our pack. And hopefully this podcast will go out to reach people who want to learn, who want to maybe expand, who needs a little bit of encouragement. Because I think naturally we're positive people. So hopefully that will come through in whatever subject we're talking about, whether next time we talk about fitness or routine is a good one too.

Well, I think it's like, uh, to perform, to, to do our daily lives what we do, right? Between homeschooling, writing, working out, producing movies, having a family of intentional family time in the just busier lifestyle that is Southern California, we have to have some very key things in place, whether that's mindsets, that is routine, habits, relationships, community, how we're always looking to adjust and improve our space and the people around us, like not improve people, but like when they encounter us, make it an improved encounter by 1%, increasing 1% at least each time. You know, we've had to be very intentional about that. And so with some sacrifices and some things being added, so often we get asked in other podcasts where we've been guests, How do you do that? Where did you learn that? Tell me more about that. So that's kind of what has been the impetus for creating this podcast. It's not that we think we're amazing, it's that we have had an amazing opportunity in the life that we've had so far and wanted to share that with other people and bring people into the fold of our community and welcome them to our pack.

I think the goal for House of Wolves is that mostly it will be Jen and I talking episode in, episode out, but we might have guests on if maybe one of us can't make it or there's something going on with the family or something like that. So I think most of the goal is that Jen and I will be here doing the podcast, and then if we're not, we'll make sure that, uh, we have a guest filling in.

Yeah, lots of interesting topics and content, and I mean, I think it's interesting, fascinating and interesting, not just slice of life stuff.

Yeah, so I mean, did you have anything else for our first episode to kick it off?

No, maybe someone could, um, leave a comment if they want, let us know what they thought or where they're from. And, uh, if they wanted to get more in touch with us and our pack, where could they do that?

Yeah, definitely, if you can subscribe and follow to support us. And then we can leave links, but the best places to get involved are website at jonathan-yanas.com Or if you're on social media, on Facebook, you can look up Jonathan Yáñez's Reading Wolves, and that's our group on Facebook. You could find us there. And also, when Jen was saying, you know, leave a comment of like where you are, also leave a comment on what words she can use instead of heck because we can't have that type of language on our show going forward. We just won't stand for it. We want to make sure that we're family friendly, that you can listen to this in the car with the kiddos or at home. So we'll work on that. By we, I mean Jen.

Jen will work on that. See, still, still trying to work on things. I failed, guys. I did it, I failed.

But we'll do better. So thanks everybody for listening to our first episode. Uh, our goal is to get these episodes out one a week, so you'll be hearing from us soon. Thank you everybody. Have a great day.