Behind The Mike- Playing HYGGE With The Team - The Entrepreneurship Elevated Podcast
9 Mar 2021 · 46 min
In this informal episode of the Entrepreneurship Elevated podcast, host Jeremy and co‑hosts Mike Michalowicz, Kelsey, Amy, and occasional guests engage in a loose, conversational game called “HIGGY.” The dialogue jumps between light‑hearted banter, personal anecdotes, and deeper reflections. Key segments include a debate on whether parents should introduce children to religion, stories about minor crimes and encounters with law enforcement, humorous discussions about cat‑hair crafts and pet ownership, cooking brag‑rights and favorite dishes, a nostalgic recount of a first published‑book phone call, a bat‑related family horror story, and a philosophical chat about the malleability of happiness. Throughout, the participants share personal experiences, opinions, and jokes, creating a snapshot of their personalities, values, and interpersonal dynamics.
Chapters
Listeners, it's Jeremy from the show. If you're listening on the old Entrepreneurship Elevated podcast, please check out our new podcast@www.mmpodcast.me. we listen to your feedback and we're told that some people miss the old banter of the Entrepreneurship Elevated podcast. So we're going to try something different and bring that back today. Please give us a rating@rateourpodcast.com.
If you're the resident of Rome, you're a Roman. It's that simple. Oh, yes, because in New Jersey, you're a New Jerseyan.
Are we New Jerseyan or New Jerseyites?
New Jersey in, I think, New Jerseyans. But you're not a New Yorkian. You're a New Yorker.
That's true.
And you're not a Roman or a Roamer. Well, you're a roamer, but you're a Roman. Is that wild?
Yeah, I'm a real woman.
I'm waiting for the segue somehow into the show.
That's why. Okay. It may never appear, Jeremy. It may never appear.
Well, I want to welcome all of our guests that are listening in. We intend to have some higgy today, and we're going to play a little game at Entrepreneurship. You are listening to Mic up in your podcast. We would like you to subscribe. What? What?
No Mic up in your podcast.
Did I say that?
Yes.
You'Re listening to Mic up in your business podcast, and we invite you to subscribe, rate, and review our show, which I think is going to be a very low rating considering how this has started out.
No, this is phenomenal. This is.
We're. Have some fun. Yes, we're have some fun.
And. And just to explain to the listeners. So we're listening to your feedback, right? And there's people who, who miss the, The. The. The fun kind of banter of Entrepreneurship elevated. So we're doing different segments in order to give you guys that. So you get the long form interview, then you get the behind the mics, then you get the whole team thing. So we're switching it up. And so, yeah, today we're going to play a game called hig Higgins.
Let me ask one more thing. Are those letters. Was it. What are the letters of the. They called German Germanic letters. Is that the word meaning is the Germanic Alphabet or is that like that Y? Actually not a Y. It's a different letter. Do you know?
I. I don't know. I think. I think they're the same. I think it's the same. Yeah, because like Able Skeever's German or Not German. Danish. And that's. I think it might have, like, a umlaut or something on it, but it's not. It's still the letters. Yeah.
Like in Spanish, if it's two Ls together, it's. It's not called two Ls. I think there's a word for. It's considered a standalone letter.
Yeah.
Now it's like a Y. I was.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yama.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, into this. So I have. So basically, it's. It's a. It's a conversation game. So you asked a question, and then it's like a roundtable discussion about that. The first card. I have no idea what it is. So I need you guys to pick. Give me a number.
12.
Well, I know. Sorry.
Between 10.
Between one and three.
This game's already awesome.
I was gonna say two, too.
Two.
Two.
Okay. Oh, there's a good one. There are actually both good ones. Should parents introduce their children to a religion or let them figure it out?
Yeah, you can't stop Kelsey, can you? You know what his intent was?
Well, what does it say?
You said children's.
Did I?
Yeah. You threw a perfect S. Their children.
To a religion or let them figure it out themselves.
That's a good question.
I would say. And I'm not a parent, so that.
You know, Grain of salt.
Yeah, she knows. So she might have had her egg.
Pretty positive at some point.
Yeah.
She's not short.
That's. That's her. That's what her date's gonna do to her. I don't have any kids. He's gonna be like, really?
Oh, yeah, exactly. That's a good comeback, Jeremy.
But I like the idea of introducing them to religions but not forcing them to believe it. So maybe introducing them to a variety of religions so they get exposure and they can feel what kind of resonates for them.
I agree. I was. Christopher and I, we kind of struggled with this too. We started our children attending church, and then my belief system just didn't let me continue with it. But I. I was kind of glad that they had an introduction. As brief as it was, they had an introduction to it because I'm. It's sort of like laying a foundation for looking into future, you know, paths of spirituality or whatever. But the learning process of it, let's say you, Mike.
I say so. I believe in God. I don't believe in some of the religious parameters put around it. So I was raised Methodist. My parents were Methodist, and. But I also see it as. It's Parables, stories. I don't necessarily see it as fact, but I understand some people perceive that way. Here's what I do like what I did like about. We went to church regularly. Then there was a. Actually a conflict at our church. A moral situation where there was a person who had committed a crime, a legit crime documented and was due to the nature of this crime. Actually theoretically we're putting church members at risk by their presence. And yet the church leadership said, but it has to be an accepted member. And so there was conflict over that. And that was a decision. We didn't actively continue to go to this church. This church. Here's what I liked about church was that it was tradition. So there. There's the holidays and so forth, but there was a tradition like, oh, Sunday morning we go and then there's the coffee hour. And so I liked my children being indoctrinated in a form of tradition. Yeah, I don't think has to revolve around religion. It could be every Thursday night you're. You're hanging out friends and doing higgy. Like I just like the fact that there it was routinized.
Yeah.
So I miss that. But the same thing I don't think. I think we're all allowed and should believe what we believe. So one of my children children is very atheist. I almost say. And others are agnostic. And yet I believe in certain parameters of how God's defined. But don't feel that religion in how it's commonly defined as a factual representation of what happened is appropriate.
You said that so much better than what I was saying. And that's really what I was thinking. Yes. I also loved for. Because I grew up in church too. Mom was in the choir and dad was the voice of the Christmas production every year, the narrator for it. And I loved my family having this other sense of community. And as a kid I appreciated having other kids who didn't necessarily go to my school being another subset of friends. There were benefits to having these other communities and tradition. To this day, the. The midnight Christmas service make me cry. It's just so beautiful. And I sometimes am saddened by the fact that my beliefs don't always align with the church in a way that I feel like it can be really immersive in the whole experience of it. But. And in that regard, I really kind of am sad that I did not continue my children in church. But at the same time, I think I did an okay job of educating them on multiple religions and kind of piquing their interests about different schools of thought and beliefs so that they could pursue more. But I think if you don't do that at all, it's very easy to miss an opportunity to have your kids experience that at all. I'll say my younger one who didn't get as much church experience seems less in tune than the older one to any religion than the older one who's more aware of religions in the world kind of a thing.
Yeah. Conversations I've had with folks who weren't raised with their religion, I think it can be a little bit alienating, at least in the US and I think confusing because you don't have that sort of understanding for how the bigger picture might work. And to your point before, you have a lot of friends who are associated with the religion and you don't have that and you don't, you can't understand what that feels like or looks like. So I do think that it can be hard for those kids.
Yeah.
And when I get emails from some folks from the US based, so it's mostly Christianity based folks, some people will say, you know, God bless you or God is great or something like that. And my response is, is the same. And you know, God is great. And when, when some people, most people don't say anything, I don't say anything. I don't think is in my place to insert my perception or impress my perception of what God is or isn't upon anyone else. I do think it is my responsibility to acknowledge that we all have our own beliefs and it's not about who's right or wrong here. It's about acknowledging that to myself my belief is correct and to someone else their beliefs correct and to acknowledge that. So yeah, it is a shame it's such a touchy subject. It's a shame that it has to be a right or wrong. Not that has to that some people instigate it's right or wrong. It's very much like politics. Right. They say when you're at dinner, don't talk religion or politics.
Yeah. Polarization. Yeah.
Yeah.
Jared, what's your feelings?
Well, when I taught my cats about religion.
It'S a hard discussion, right?
Yeah. A lot of meowing really understand what they were.
He says, I am your God.
No, I mean I, I think so. Like, like kind of like along the lines what Mike was saying. So if somebody sends him an email and says God is great, I, I think you can respond and say God is great even if you don't believe in God because God means something different to everybody. It's based off of the information that you've perceived that you've ingested. And I think a lot of times people make the assumption that we're all given the same information, but we're not. It's like with politics, like, we're all given completely different information. And so that's why we have our specific set of beliefs.
So.
So maybe like, a Gadsden flag, to me means something totally different to somebody else, you know? So I think it's wrong to. To kind of put your perceptions on what you perceive on to somebody else, because maybe they. It's. It's totally different for them. I think that my opinion, the best course of action for kids is to expose them to as many religions as possible and kind of give like, a general overview and explain, you know, here. Here's this religion. Here's this religion, and then just kind of let them run with it and. And, you know, they'll figure it out on their own. Because throughout life, you change so much. Your beliefs change and. And your experiences will kind of mold you into. Into where you're going with that, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
For real.
Cool.
I think wear the hat regularly that you've got this hat.
Yeah. Somebody said something to me about it the other day.
It's empowering.
It was. I was. I said wawa. And I was coming out, and. And I'm walking by, and the guy goes, you've got what? You're like this.
Say to that Covid. I've got the COVID You should be.
Like, you got this.
Yeah, you should have done that. I got this, baby. Hey, Jay Bone. It's been so long. So I got you this about three months ago, waiting for you to come up. So I'm going to reveal. Just because you haven't. You haven't been here in a while. So this is a gift that's waiting for you.
Oh, man.
And I'm just doing. Because the. The theme.
Nervous for you.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Everybody tastes better with cat hair in it. Because you were. You mentioned on one of our calls, you're like, there's freaking cat hair everywhere. I got a Roomba.
Yeah. I had to get a Roomba just to keep the cat hair down. That's hilarious.
Yeah. So this awaits you if you ever get your ass up here.
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I'll definitely. I. I was talking to somebody the other day about my cat, and I was saying how sad I'm gonna be because he's getting older, and I know he's only got Like, a year, a couple years left, and I'm like, man, when he goes, I'm probably gonna get a dog or something. But yeah, it was just. That's funny, though.
That's hilarious.
Soda.
Way too.
Have you made any projects with the cat hair?
No.
There has been no felting. No. No. Little, like, hello, decorations made of the little puffs.
Little bunnies, though, is so after Kelsey bought. So just for the listeners, Kelsey bought me this book for Christmas, and it was how to make projects with cat hair, which is really disturbing. Like the cat lady. Catman lady at this point. And I researched it, and what's even more disturbing is people do the same thing, but with dogs. I can understand with cats because cat hair is kind of clean. It doesn't smell. But dogs. Dogs stink all the time.
That is a cat lady comment.
Like, for real, though, I didn't.
Cat lady.
Next question.
I can understand. I can understand cats, but dogs? No way.
Cats are brilliant. They clean themselves all the time.
Oh, Jeremy, there's no getting out of this. There's no winning this.
Let's go to the next question.
Have you ever committed or come close to committing a crime?
Yes.
Yes. Yeah. Yes, for me.
And I guess you have too. A lot of people don't even have.
I mean, there's lots of, like, traffic stuff. I feel like I do all the time. We should talk about Jeremy parked on the wrong side of the road.
It didn't think there was an issue with it at all. Like. Like, why am I getting a ticket for parking the opposite way of the road?
I'm gonna get fired up about this. You're parked on the street. It doesn't matter what way you're facing.
Yes, it does. Oh, yeah.
The car fits in the spot.
But, Jeremy, I think it has to do with the way you cross traffic to get out of that.
Exactly. You don't think it could be problematic?
Yeah, but isn't that the same? Wouldn't that be the equivalent? Because, so, like, when you're. When you're backing into parallel parking, right. It's kind of like you kind of got to do same thing. You got to look behind you. You got to make sure nobody's coming. If you pull out into traffic, if you're facing the wrong way, you're just a bad driver.
It's not the same. Because if you're parked across the street and you. When you look behind you, you probably use your side view mirror. In a parallel parking situation, you can't use a side view because it's now across Another lane, it may be in a blind spot.
You can use your passenger rear view. Side view.
No, but I'm saying that. Well, it depends how you position your side view, but it may not cover both lanes. I don't know. Anyway, listen, so here's something interesting. I was at an event with entrepreneurs and a. It wasn't a warden, but someone who worked in the jail system was there for extreme crime, like you know, violent crime and stuff. And there's a woman, she goes to the group, she goes, who here has committed a crime? And like no hands go up. And she goes, whoever has ever been in a fight, half the hands go up. Who here has ever taken like any form of drugs, Marijuana, you know, hands go up, she goes, you're all criminals. The only difference between you and those people are they got caught. And it was, it was really an eye opener. If you, you know, pun. If you're in a high school and you punch someone or they punch, you know, you get in a fight, that's assault. You know, if you've taken drugs or, or have given someone drugs or that's a crime. So the fascinating thing is a lot of people don't get caught and it is a white privilege. She, she did another example. She showed a video which maybe you've seen of people lined up based upon skin color, from the fairest whitest to the darkest dark and everyone in between. And she, in the video they say basically take two steps forward if you know, you grew up with no parents or something and then you start seeing this. And by the end of this, the darker skinned people are so much further forward. And yet some of the things are exact parallels when it came to these criminal activities. It was fascinating and sad, but fascinating.
Well, not to get into like the, the race side of it.
I brought us in very quickly.
Thank you.
Let's talk like degrees though, right? So like misdemeanor. Has anyone ever been arrested?
No.
Misdemeanor.
Did you just do the cross?
Yeah.
I don't believe in religion, but I'll leverage. Oh yeah, she's one catholic.
So I have a funny story. I was almost arrested. So when I was in college there was a bar right next to the college and it was on purpose. This was a complete money grab for the township. There was always place was like the only major bar. It was completely packed all the time and there would be lines to the men's bathroom and the women's bathroom before closing or out the door. Right. And so what happened was people would go across the street and There was porta potties, and they would use the porta Potties, but then for guys, there wasn't even porta potties available. So they would just go into a hidden area where there was bushes and trees and just go. And I couldn't wait. I could not wait. I had to go. And so I'm standing behind this bush, and I'm going. And my buddy's like, yo, the cops are coming. And I was like, oh, good one.
Yeah.
And then. And then the cops like, excuse me, sir. And I turned around, and I was like, oh. He's like, you want to finish up there? And I was like, I'm done. And. And they. They didn't really arrest. They could have, but basically it was a public urination ticket, and I had to go to court and pay the fine and everything. It was just. Oh, yeah. Embarrassing more than anything.
Yeah.
I remember this was back in high school. Amy, I don't remember if you were there, because everyone was so wasted, but there was a guy, he lived in Boot and renewed high school. Todd. Todd Turner. As I say his last name, I don't want to turn his last name. There was this huge party with illicit. Actually, everything's illegal at that point. And Jack Gribben, one of our classmates, is always. He goes outside, and there is cop lights flashing. And the reason was they weren't next to the house. They were three blocks down. One person was riding their bike from this party ironically, and fell down. The cops pulled over to help this person, but Jack sees the cop lights, he turns around, he goes to the party and yells, raid.
It's a raid.
Right? He ever lost their mind. I never saw so many people running. People are doing the craziest stuff. And the police never came to the house. It was hysterical.
That is hysterical. And like Jack. Jack very much like Jack.
Raid.
It's a raid. And he really thought it was a raid.
I love it.
All right, what about. Oh, what would you like to be able to experience again? For the first time? I saw Kelsey's face. I know where she's going with this.
What. What's that?
No, I'm gonna say food. Okay.
What food, though?
Ice cream.
So if you had to experience anything for the first time again, it would be eating ice cream.
I don't remember my first time, but.
I know I love it now, and she'd appreciate it.
You probably want to. You probably want to experience your hundredth time, the time you realized it or whatever time that was.
I don't remember a time when I didn't love it.
Oh, that's true. Okay, so maybe this is the first time.
Yeah. I wish that I was more cognizant for it.
Yeah.
Because I feel like it's kind of a cool, like, sensory experience. It's cold. It's smooth, flavorful, creamy.
Jeremy, what's the question? One more time. Something you'd like to experience again for the first time?
Yeah. For me, it was. I'm thinking business, but it was when I got my first published book. Like, when I got the contract, actually. The phone call from Penguin, they're like, we'd like to publish your book. I'm like, I was in the middle of New York City, walking somewhere. I started screaming. I was like, yes. Isn't it funny? Because now it's like, we gotta publish deals. Like, okay, we got a deal. We gotta do the next one. I gotta bring back that excitement because it really is an honor.
Yeah.
To. To be able to do that with them.
Good answer.
Good answer.
Make sure they listen in. By the way, for our next advanced.
Task, I think I would like to hear Christopher's marriage proposal again. I missed it the first time.
What?
He. I heard it, but I thought it. We had been doing this thing, like, you know how. Like, maybe you guys did, too. And you're like. You start talking about marriage like you're kind of on the same path. You kind of know that you two are probably going to get married. You're kind of feeling like, yep, this is the one. And, you know, he started saying things like, well, when we get a house, we should do this, or, when we do this, we should do that. So when he proposed, I was so shocked because I thought he was just saying it like, we're gonna get married. Right. And I. He said something to. That's like. That was. The proposal was something like, you're gonna marry me, right? And I was like, you know I will. And then the ring went on my finger. Yeah.
It was like, you're gonna marry me, right?
No, it wasn't that, but it was like. It was. Just said. It was like, will you. We're gonna. Can. Like, can we spend our lives together? Something like that. And then the ring was on my finger, and I was just like, wait, what? That was. Oh, my God. I missed it. Like, I just feel like I missed my. I missed my own.
You missed your own proposal?
I missed my own proposal.
He put a ring on it. Put a ring on it.
How about you, Jer G?
This is a tough one. You know, I was probably. And there's so Many things. The first. The first time I rode a motorcycle on the road, it was probably one of the most exhilarating, free, like, almost feel like a bird kind of, you know? And it's like sensory overload because it's like temperature changes and smells and things that you don't experience in a car. And that's one of my favorite things about it is, especially in the summertime, if you're going through, like, a beach town or something. So you get the smell of the ocean, and then you pass a pizza shop, and you get the smell of pizza, and then you pass a burger shop, you can smell the fries, and it's like, oh, man.
I get that. That. My favorite part of Key West, I was telling Kelsey, my favorite part is Chris and I get a Vespa, and we just. We don't use a car the entire time we're there. We just shoot Vespa.
You get one Vespa, we get one Vespa.
I sit behind Chris on a Vespa.
Oh, I wish. I wish your burly husband was behind you, holding on tight.
That would be a great.
That would be so awesome.
We can make that happen. We can make that happen. But I totally get that, Jeremy, because it is like sensory heaven. It's like the images, the light coming through the palm trees as you're driving down the road. You go into the shady spots that the trees create, and then you bank.
A turn, feel the temperature change and.
Feel the temperature change and feel the sand on the road under the tire as it twists and turns and. And there's so much sensory going on. It's. It's delicious. I love it.
He has a motorcycle, right?
He did it got. It got totaled this past.
Was he on it?
No, he wasn't. Somebody drove their car through a garage that it was parked inside of, Right?
I remember you saying that.
Yeah.
Like, rolled back down the hill or something.
Yeah, exactly. Totaled his motorcycle and our neighbor's motorcycle, which was also garaged there, so.
You ever heard that song Downtown by Macklemore?
Yes.
Every time you get in your Vespa, you should be cranking that because it's a song about a moped. It's a song about a moped. Basically, the story. What?
I don't think I knew that.
You gotta listen to it. So in the beginning, he's like. He's got some money in his pocket. He wants to buy a cool vehicle, but all he has, like, 800 bucks. So he goes into a moped store, and the owner, the store guy's Like, I got a moped for you. He's like, oh, this just got real. And. And then there's like the backup vocals. Is this woman singing? Like, there's nothing like sitting on a seat trying to keep balance with your arms around someone else. So funny. Downtown.
That might be my theme song.
Yeah.
Oh, okay, next question. Here's. Here's a good one. This is. This is fun. What's the most impressive thing that you know how to cook?
Impressive.
So this question. For me, this question's tough because I think there's a couple ways to look at it. Impressive technically.
Yeah.
Right. Impressive visually.
Oh.
So. So either. Either or.
I don't know that I cook anything that's impressive. I think like I make katefleglace, which is like a German potato dumpling and a sour brought in dinner that my family like. It's just comfort food for us. It's like the ultimate comfort dish. So it's impressive in that it takes a lot of time. The pot roast marinades for like four days and you're spending it every couple of hours in the brine in the fridge. So it's impressive. And I guess the, the what it entails, but it's. It's not, it's not like an impressive dish. Like, like, like your butternut squash soup, Jeremy, with the drizzle. What was the drizzle over the top of the butternut squash soup? That was just.
That was just. I think we use maple syrup.
Maple syrup and then like toasted pepitas up. Oh, God. That was just.
Yeah.
His temporal was insane.
That was the. What?
Yes, I called you just recently by the. My guy's dreaming of your temple.
Yes. Oh, that was.
Well, dude, you cook.
You cook all the time on the train. What? That's not what.
That's not cooking. That's.
What is it?
It's smoking. Which basically you throw meat on there and you come back every few hours and I burn my hand once a time.
This is what we do.
Yeah. But I'll tell you, I think what's most impressive is when my kids or my wife are like, you got to make something. Like it's not. So my chili. It's chili. And it's the easiest thing to make you can do in like 20.
I ate every day on our retreat. I made sure I had chili.
I also really like the noodles like that.
Yeah.
I've never, I've never had. I can honestly say in my life, I've never seen or had that ever was so good.
Over noodle.
Yeah.
With the noodles when football season kicks off, no one in my family likes football. It's like, it's. No one is interested. But they all come up to watch it because I. Can you make chili? So they're excited for the season because I start making chili. Then. Can you make the chili? So I get. I get them for a good 30, 40 minutes. Like I said. What. You know, together. Because that's a way. It's a win. It's a. It's. For me. That's.
Yeah, you do. Hey, you make a smoked apple pie.
Yeah.
Honest. I would screw that up. I would not.
No, not really. I don't think so. But I actually. I do want to do. I have a pining to do rhubarb pie.
My mother does a strawberry rhubarb pie. Killer. Yes. And I have not learned to do it. I don't even know how recipe.
Actually.
I won't mind. And she harvests her own rhubarb to do it. I don't even know how to harvest the rhubarb. I don't know where you cut that plant. I don't know how you.
I would just take it for celery.
I cut more, too. And I think there's a part that's poisonous. Like, I don't think you're supposed to go too low, or else you can get very sick from some part of the rhubarb. Jerry, if you know anything about this.
Perfect.
I don't. I don't think that. I don't think it's poisonous.
Okay. I think something that's not good about rhubarb.
Better parts of rhubarb.
Maybe that's it. But I'm going to learn, damn it. I'm going to learn. Mike, I'm going to give you the.
Recipe writing right now. Is rhubarb poisonous?
Is there a.
Solic acid which is toxic to humans, but the acidity is generally not found in the stocks? So you have with the leaves.
That's the. I guess that's the problem.
So. Yeah. I love your mom's rhubarb recipe. I'm. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.
Awesome. Awesome.
But I don't want a rhubarb because she may actually give me the leaves.
Because she's like, I don't eat the.
Leaves and I'll kill everybody.
My mother's very kind. She would never kill you.
Your mother's very kind, but I don't want her rhubarb.
Okay. I might force rhubarb up on you. I don't know. Maybe I'll push it on Krista.
Overload me the rhubarb.
And some strawberries too. Damn it. 2.
I love when you. Yeah, Amy has a little bit of that. New Jersey.
It's my mother's. My mother. Father are Hudson County. Night. They Hudson county. So, you know, like Jersey City, Union City, right across the Hudson from New York City. And that comes out of me every so often. And I don't. I don't know.
When you said potato, you like that? That. That notch, like. Yeah, a little potato.
Potato.
Yeah, yeah, that's how you set it there, you know?
Well, God, Kelsey, I don't feel like.
I make anything particularly impressive. I like to make appetizers a lot. I feel like I make like a mozzarella and garlic wonton that everybody loves. Make a lot.
We haven't had that. Can we have that, please?
Yeah, actually, it's a good excuse to make it because I really love it.
Oh, I would love that. Jeremy.
Yeah, Jeremy.
Technically, probably a souffle.
So scary. Just the word souffle makes my knees buckle a little bit.
Like, it's really not that hard. It's just a matter of why does.
Everybody say it so hard then? And why. Why are all the cookbooks talking about how hard a souffle is? They're temperamental, aren't they? Temperamental.
They're temperamental to the fact that you have to make sure it's kind of like the sum of the parts have to all be perfect before you can put it together and have it become a whole thing. So. So that's why it's technical. But you also have to have the temperature correct, because if the temperature is wrong, then it's not going to puff.
I'm out already.
Yeah. And what about cheesecake? Like a proper cheesecake? Isn't a proper cheesecake like a big hairy deal? Married to you used cake?
You want hair always?
Yeah, it's always. It's a very furry deal.
Everything.
What was that drizzle? It was cat hair.
Cat hair? It's a crunch weave together.
It was either maple syrup or cat hair.
Oh, my God. No cheesecake. You. You don't want any brown. You want it to cook without any brown. Some people, though, now they're purposely doing it and calling it brown on cheesecake. But yeah, so, yeah, so technically, I would say probably a souffle, visually, like a. A standing rib roast looks awesome. It looks cool. And it's really. That's not that difficult either. That's pretty Pretty easy, too.
Is rib roast and prime rib the same?
No. So rib. I'm talking about like a rib roast. Like a. Like, lamb rack.
Like the crab roast?
Yeah.
Like. Or like a pork roast. So prime rib is ribeye.
Ribeye. Okay.
The whole primal of ribeye.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah.
I think we need Jeremy to cook forever. Cook forever for us. Exactly. Everything. Your words for everything is his whole repertoire. I think we need to taste his entire repertoire.
I know. I know. Of six months.
Yes. Just six months of eight years.
I remember that TV show Breaking Bad. Did any of you see that?
Yeah.
Very end. It started to almost jump the shark by the very end. Jesse, the. One of the characters in there, they haven't chained up. He's. He's cooking up the meth, but they haven't chained. Do you remember that? The very end of the series.
Yeah. He's chained and he's like. He. He's basically a prisoner.
He's basically a prisoner. He's forced to cook meth. That's how kind of. I think it's. Even the last episode. That's how it ends. That's what you should do to Jeremy. I'm thinking put him on a running chain so he can move around, but he can't escape. He's our prisoner. Give me the R roast. Give me the goddamn rib roast.
What you say?
I feel like you owe us noki. Remember when Saul and who else is making the noki.
But I think it was Liz and Paul together were on the. No.
Yeah. We lost power. That was horrible.
Yeah. Oh, that sucks. We'll have to do that again so that way they can react.
Yeah.
Yeah. We got to recruit Paul back for that. Absolutely.
I've kind of lost touch with Paul. I'm. I touched base with him maybe once every three months and just, you know, insulting messages back and forth, but not enough connection. No. But, you know, his. His wife, now Vonna, is one of the leading authorities in bat. I don't know what the word is. Bat care, but there's this mold going around that's infecting bats. They get this. It's called white nose or something. It's a mold, and it's killing bats at a ridiculous rate, which it screws with the entire ecosystem. But my daughter Adela has been in touch with Vonna because that's a field she's interested in serving, and she's been. Vaughn has been extraordinary in giving ideas and direction.
Wasn't Tyler counting bats at one point?
Tyler was. Yeah. Our whole family is very bad.
Yeah. It's ever made you guys vampires.
Have I told. I have a bat story I may have told you before, so I won't believe it.
I don't think so.
Your bat dad, Mike.
Yeah. Well, I got attacked, but I didn't tell you about the bat attack.
No.
All right. So real quick because I can't leave this cliffhanger. So Chris. So I, I early on this is like 20 years ago, we're married, our kids are young. Maybe 18 years ago, we go to Maine. I don't really look at the, the place we're going. I could afford it or we could afford it. And so it was a Cabins and stuff and they serve meals. Ends up as a hunting. Hunting facility. So we go as a family. None of us are hunters, but it ends up being one of our most favorite memorable trips ever. Was just Maine is gorgeous, right? And this was the mountains region of Maine. Well, the first night we go in there and we're sleeping in this little cabin and we hear this like scratching like a mouse in the wall. We're like, oh gosh. And all of a sudden. So there was a hole above us where they had installed a electric panel and there was like a gap there. And all of a sudden you hear the scratching in closer to it and like what is that? And then here. And I'm like, oh. And I go like this and I feel something slap my face.
Crystal, that's scary.
Wild scream. Women scream WOMAN scream Ever heard like this shrill?
Are you sure it wasn't yours? It was, it was mine.
It was. I shrilled. I'm like. It was so high pitched. Kristen, what the hell? So she jumps up, opens the door and there's a bat in the house. As manly as I am, I run and I leave the children. I run for the space where the bat can't go. And so Krista, the man of the house is now left to deal with the three children for an hour. He can't find it. And okay, Krista's like, I'm going to stay out in the living room to protect the children. So she's goes in there, but she's afraid of the bat too. She wraps herself in a blanket like it's a cocoon. And she's sitting on this lazy boy. And I'm up with the children out in the. There's a loft looking down. And all of a sudden I hear Krista. This is like an hour later, lights are off. Now we're like, we can't find a thing. You hear her go, oh, flip on the Lights. The bat is climbing at the back of her chair, and she's rocking, and she's. She's stuck. She flips it over. She lands on her back. The bat nowhere to be found. And that. That was our evening.
Oh, my God.
We never found this bat.
That would traumatize me. I don't know. There's something about bats that traumatized me a little bit. We had.
When you see a picture of them.
Yeah, I like them.
We had one, apparently. I don't know how this happened. I think he came down through a chimney, and he was in the bathtub, and my father threw a towel over him and brought him outside, and he wasn't moving anymore. So I believe my father thought he was dead and he put him in the trash can. I thought he had. He thought he was gone. And the next day, it was my job to take the garbage out, and I lifted the lid, and the thing was, like, right in my face as I lifted the lid to the garbage can. Totally traumatized. Totally traumatized.
Oh, that's funny.
They scare me. I love them. And yet they. They make me.
Yeah, I love them over there.
Yeah, I love them over there. I love them in the caves and under the bridges in Austin where they're, you know, famously known to be. But I don't want them right in my face. And, you know, they. They fly low in the summer nights around our deck. Do they fly low by you guys, too? And I, you know, they're snagging the bugs out of the air, but sometimes they're a little too close. I'm like, oh, okay, time to go in. They're getting real low. Gotta go.
Bats are cool. They're. They. They're so fascinating when you, like, research the way that they operate in the echolocation and everything, it's like, so.
Oh, yeah. And I love when you're scooping down and catching mosquitoes around our house then. They're amazing.
They're great for. For the. For bugs. I mean, amazing. Like, yeah, it's the same with, like. It's like, the equivalent to, like, spiders.
I've seen some that actually have faces that look like sweet little teddy bears. Like, some of the faces look really adorable. Some not so much. But some look like little teddy bears. I don't ever see those little teddy bear ones around me, though.
All right, so we got time for. For one more. Researchers say that it is impossible to change your level of happiness. Even if you won the lottery, you would soon be back to the same level as before. Do you believe that is true.
Well, it's impossible to change.
Yeah. So, like, let's say you're at, like, a level eight of happiness, right?
Yeah.
So, like, they're saying if you won the lottery, maybe you'll go up to a level 12, but it's almost like homeostasis, like, eventually back down and you're gonna maintain that same level.
Interesting.
That is true. Or do you not?
I don't think so, because I think I have, in the course of my life, brought myself up to a much higher level of happiness and stayed at a higher level of happiness. I'd say I went from a four in my life, a persistent four. I think I was a kind of a pessimistic person, and that colored things a certain way. And I think now closer to a 7 or an 8 for the most part. And I think I've stayed there. So I think. And I don't see myself going back down. This is a sustained period of time now, I think, at this higher level. So I think. I think I've been able to change my.
Yeah.
My ability to be happy.
She's an eight, I'm an eight.
Yeah. I want to say I don't think it's true. I think to some degree it might be true in my life. Like, I don't think that I've. I've definitely had lows, and I've sort of come back up and I've had highs, and I've come back down a little bit. But I think for the most part, I, you know, have this relatively high happiness. But I do think that you can change. I think if your mindset changes over time as you get older and you have a shifting perspective, I really do think that it can change.
I think that's the key to have a shifting perspective. Something that completely changes how you see things.
I think it's like the source of information drives that. So if you turn on the news and watch it. I used to watch it constantly, like, many, many years back. I'm like, oh, throw on the news and just watch it. I noticed over time I became more and more negative. So Maybe it's about 15 years ago I stopped watching the news. And then about 10 years ago, I went totally cold. And I saw. I feel my happiness level raised. So I think it's that daily. That drip. You know, it's funny, we were watching Saturday Night Live, Chris and I. Not at Saturday night, because that's too late on Sunday morning, for real.
So.
And they had, like, a hysterical skit about watching murder movies and Murder flicks. And so is these women where they're significant others heading out. And the significant other says, what are you gonna do tonight? And she's like, murder. And they watch this drip of murder. And Chris is like, that is so true. She's like, when you're not around, I love to watch all the murder shows, but it brings about. There's this fear. She's like, we need more security of our house. We need, you know, all this stuff that is clearly a symptom of watching, to me, of watching those shows, that there's a sense of lack of security. So I think there's a direct correlation.
Yeah. It really does skew your perception because it feels more prevalent than it really is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What do you think, Chair?
I disagree because I think that. So they've done a lot of studies on happiness and. And fulfillment, and they put a lot of weight on actual physical. What's the word I'm looking for? Kelsey, usually.
Yeah, yeah, right. She finishes the sentence. It's pretty amazing.
Physical.
The word I'm thinking was girth. Is that the word you're looking for? That's what I thought he was going for.
No, no, just like every day, you know, doing. Doing physical things.
Like activity.
Yeah. Like chopping wood, maintaining a garden and things like that. And. And people don't ever really think about those things as to happiness? Well, yeah, not that. Maybe not for you, but just do. In doing those activities, there's a sense of fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment that comes with that. So I think that if I were to win the lottery, I wouldn't necessarily be happier because I would spend it on lavish items that I wouldn't want in the first place, but I would be able to cur. A situation where I would maybe be able to create, like, a small estate that was like a. A sustainable estate where I would be able to have my garden and. And. Yeah. And do that. Those kinds of things. And that would. That would make me happy doing those things. Not. So it's not necessarily like a consumeristic type of.
You can't buy your happiness, but it could facilitate a happier life to it.
Yeah. So, yeah.
So you can. So can you can change your happiness level then?
I think. I think. Yeah.
He's disagreeing with the statement.
Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.
Yeah. I think it depends on, you know, what. How. How honest you are with yourself, on what will actually make you happy versus what you think will make you happy and then, you know, going in that direction. But there's a lot of noise in the background. What is that? Do you guys hear that?
Kelsey's oh, no, Kelsey's Muted yeah, yeah, it's Kelsey's. Her office doesn't have a door and it actually doesn't even have a whole wall. Like, only there's a gap from it to the ceiling, which just I think it was like two or three days ago. And I just occasionally I'll grab like some paper or something. I'll throw it over the the wall and you'll hear a scream when I place it properly because it hits her unexpectedly.
Let's just hope you don't throw the paper into the open candle burning on her desk.
Oh, that's right. Could you imagine? I started think about that.
Yeah. So you shouldn't do that anymore. It's not safe. Mike.
Yum it.
We got. We got to wrap up.
It's.
We're. We're at the top.
I'll take us out. Hey, our listener friend. Thanks for checking this out. What you think, like, this is the first time we've just kind of around like this to have fun? We hope you had fun too, but tell us so go to RateOurPodcast.com that's actually our domain, and give us your feedback on the show. We'd also be honored if you subscribe. And also email me ask mike mikemcalowitz.com with any business questions you have. Any questions, make sure that we bring it up in future episodes. Jay Bone. We get it all there.
We got it. All right, good. We're out of here.
Wishing you good times, people.
Wishing you good, Sam.