The Focus Cast
On The Focus Cast, our mission is to help you reduce distractions and increase focus so you can live a life with intention. We are both entrepreneurs and share our habits and tactics to increase focus so we can accomplish our goals.
The Focus Cast
#98 Our Personal Growth & Professional Goals
Join us for an inspiring episode of The Focus Cast as we explore the profound impact of personal growth on our professional achievements. In this engaging discussion, we reflect on our experiences throughout the year 2023, with a special focus on our transition into the Appleverse and our adventures in music production.
00:00 Year-End Recap and Personal Goals|
07:48 Personal Growth and Future Goals
18:39 Personal Growth and Future Goals
29:06 Future Goals and Life Direction
43:03 The Importance of Adventure and Growth
51:43 Recording and Promoting the Focus Cast
🌱 Discover the power of setting realistic goals and simplifying your workflow to thrive professionally. We'll guide you through our journey across the ever-evolving landscape of personal and professional growth.
💪 Uncover the transformative potential of breaking free from established narratives, and how it can enhance your relationships with loved ones. We share our own experiences and delve into the significance of physical activity, acquiring new skills, and the courage to take risks. You won't want to miss our exciting journey into content creation, which has been a remarkable accomplishment. Get a sneak peek into our future plans and learn why starting today is essential.
🚀 As we wrap up this thrilling episode, we emphasize the importance of inner exploration and doing the inner work. We candidly share our experiences in recording and promoting The Focus Cast. This is also our moment to express gratitude to you, our dedicated listeners, for being a part of this journey.
🎯 We cover it all - from striking a balance between work and leisure, maintaining physical health, and investing in yourself. Get ready to embark on a life-transforming adventure filled with small wins, calculated risks, and personal growth that leads to fulfillment.
Don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to stay updated on our future episodes. Your support means the world to us! Join us on this exciting journey of self-improvement, personal growth, and professional success.
#PersonalGrowth #ProfessionalAchievements #TheFocusCast #Appleverse #MusicProduction #SettingGoals #ContentCreation #SelfImprovement #InnerWork #Gratitude #BalancingLife
So we're coming to the end of the year, yep, coming to episode 100. You know what that means, yeah, what that means. A little bit of a recap.
Speaker 2:Oh, recap. Except this time we're not wasted on Moonshine like our last recap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when we rounded out last year around episode 50, we just did some recaps and some some progress episodes, and so we're going to do the same thing. This should be episode 98.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of talk about the podcast experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So this episode we're going to talk about personal and professional goals what we accomplished this year.
Speaker 2:Talking about our podcast experience? Not yet.
Speaker 1:Next episode Got you and we're going to talk about some goals for 2024. And the next episode we'll talk about a little recap on the focus cast some numbers, some metrics, what we've learned, and then episode 100, we will reveal what our next phase strategy is for the focus cast. So this episode may inspire you to go ahead and start some professional goals, review your progress for the year, oh and set some goals for the next phase, whatever that is year, month, quarter, Absolutely Decade. So let's dig in. Let's dig in.
Speaker 2:Because you can't measure. If you don't, what is it Measure?
Speaker 1:what matters.
Speaker 4:I'm.
Speaker 2:Jonathan Noel and I'm Brian Noel. This is the focus cast when we help you remove distractions, increase focus.
Speaker 1:You can live a life with Intentions, intentions. So personal yeah first intentions, oh man, personal and professional goals. So what do you feel like you accomplished this year, jonathan?
Speaker 2:Let's see 2023, at the beginning of the year, let's see, we pretty much just got the space, yep. So I definitely writing all the music was a big growing learning experience for all of our channels. So I've been a musician. We've mentioned this before, but I had not written songs for YouTube channels. That was new. Yeah. So you know that was fun, it was a challenge. You know just hopped in and like, hey, let's just once we want something with the reggae vibe and I'm like, okay, you know, shit like that, or whatever funk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember watching you. So we got for the studio, we got Logic, we got a new Mac we got the full native instruments pack. Yep. Universal audio pack. And I remember watching you when you first started Getting into the Apple universe. The Apple verse yeah first you had to get used to Apple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every 45 seconds. I was about to raise a snap.
Speaker 1:So the question is, now that you know what you know, would you stay Apple or would you stay PC if you had to pick one?
Speaker 2:I like Apple. Yeah, you know, I like saying Apple Pretty much. I like PC for certain things. I mean, like what? Like getting viruses.
Speaker 1:Wow, you sound like every other guy every other Apple fanboy.
Speaker 2:We all don't shoot good viruses every 45 minutes. The shit's expensive. I mean you can build technically a more powerful computer. Yeah, if you build yourself for the money. Yeah. That's not even a question. Yeah. That's a fact. Yeah. So you can have whatever 60 gigs of RAM or whatever 64 and insane processing power for the same money. Yeah so, but Apple, when you have all your stuff and you're creating things, why not? Why not? I think it's great. I like Logic too. Yeah. I've never used.
Speaker 1:What's the other Pro?
Speaker 2:Tools, so I could probably get used to that. But yeah. So now I'm in the Logicverse, but that was a huge learning experience. Yeah, I mean, you crush it now, you can crush it Exactly, going from being just like a guitarist, bass player to basically a producer. Yeah. More or less writing a song, start to finish like for specific purposes. Anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, like for 400 Gunner, you know we'll go on an adventure and I'll be like bro, I'm thinking this vibe and you're like cool and you just go make a song and it's dope yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep With everything, yep, trying to write songs that fit the vibes of the whatever we're putting out. Yeah. All the way from ambient backing tracks to random tracks for reviews, just whatever. Yeah, anything and everything.
Speaker 1:I was like bro for our gun and knife cleaning videos. I would like a chill lo-fi where we hit play on the tape recorder. And I even bought an old tape recorder Yep yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Got to set the scene, definitely grew in that way and just being comfortable with content, yeah, straight up. I was never putting myself out there that much kind of person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, your time spent on titles and captions has reduced.
Speaker 2:Yep by about 10%. Well, I'm just saying being on the internet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you had like three posts when you started the year.
Speaker 2:Exactly and it pushed me to. You know it kind of this year demystified making videos. Yeah. Because it seemed before you watch people do anything on. Youtube. You're like, how the fuck do you make this? Yeah, how do you make this. And it just felt difficult. Yeah, but learning Adobe just being more proficient. It's been a huge growth year for this whole digital age.
Speaker 1:What's your Instagram, johnzilla9? Yeah, yeah, those base videos, man, they're sick.
Speaker 2:They're pretty sick.
Speaker 1:Very nasty.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I'll keep them that complicated. I might reduce the camera angles.
Speaker 1:And that word all starts, though.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:It starts complex and then just like all right, what's the minimal.
Speaker 2:That's the big, that's. You know what I realized, like what's the amount we, what's the amount that you can do to where you keep going?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because if you over complicate the system and you stop you know, that's a good principle right there. That's not, then you don't keep going. Yeah, so if you can't reduce complexity enough to where you want to keep doing it, then you probably don't give a fuck about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I like that.
Speaker 2:You know that's fantastic, but that's what I realized with even the focus cast videos too many in. You know, before we were trying to do well, we went from the iPhones. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then we bought the studio gear and it's like too many angles. Yeah, four cameras and I'm sitting there spending time cutting between our faces. You know what's spit there. We had an hour long episode and I'm cutting between. It's been a half day on. Yeah, it's ridiculous. And this is an audio, mostly audio forward format, so why the fuck are we spending so much time so? Anyway, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the lesson there is reduce complexity honestly, yeah, reduce it to the point to where you're fine continuing.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's good Damn.
Speaker 2:Look at that.
Speaker 1:What else, bro, Um 2023. Where's some big milestones for you this year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, overall health, yeah, feeling healthy, that's nice. Yeah. I mean, I'm not bad in the beginning, but, um, I don't know, my body feels better in my thirties than it did in my twenties, so it's reaching those kind of stages.
Speaker 1:What are some of the big highlights? That has led to feeling better.
Speaker 2:Probably mountain biking a shit load. We mount back a lot. You know consistent stretching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, getting tips and tricks from our massage guru, what is the first year in 10 years that you haven't spent Traveling?
Speaker 2:You've spent the most time in your life in a car, true. Actually, I do spend a lot of time in the car, though, driving to the office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's one hour a day, yeah.
Speaker 2:Versus potentially four to six hours a day doing field claims. Yeah yeah, after driving for two days. So more activity, more physical activity. Yeah yeah, just learning too. It's trying to stay nimble.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we rode a lot. Yeah, we rode a lot this summer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did, and we're still riding bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah. After you get your tire After I get a new wheel for my bike.
Speaker 1:You took some risks this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you mean this.
Speaker 1:Kind of detached from.
Speaker 2:You mean this whole thing? Yeah, yeah. So when I was an independent appraiser for like 10 years and then this is the first year, basically I went to one storm, worked for like what three weeks. Yeah. And then the rest. We've been just in the office learning, trying to figure it out. Yeah. So learning shitloads of skills? Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:Writing notes yeah.
Speaker 2:Writing, podcast, video editing. Like I said, demystifying a lot of like the digital stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I mean, I grew up, we grew up with the internet. It was kind of like first starting yeah, so like for me making videos and stuff, I just wasn't into it, yeah, when it was happening. So now I felt like it felt like a lot. Yeah. Until we just started diving in and doing it and now editing the forerunner gunner videos, definitely leveled up Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Not that I'm like some insane you know, editor but Well, your exponential growth curve from last year this year. Last year you didn't edit, yeah, and this year you do a lot of editing.
Speaker 2:So I mean Last year was just like chop the front of it off and the back of the video off and add music.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's like J cuts and adjustment layers and 20 layers coloring music. All adjusted and fades. You know everything like looking at all the details, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. What's the goal next year? What's the big thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah Next year. Hard to say, I think that's awesome. Want to go inward more? Yeah, and find out what makes the most sense. Yeah, you know, like, where does it, where does it all lead? You know what's the big, what's the point of what's the big, what's the fucking point, kind of question. Yeah you know Not that I have to figure it out next year.
Speaker 1:But it's a lesson, some inner Introspective, spiritual, yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's like where do I?
Speaker 2:where do I see myself like later? Mm-hmm you know it's not editing. I'm glad I have the skill yeah you know, but it's like eventually you and I are gonna step out of all of the, the mundane stuff. Yeah, completely yeah so it's what is the bigger, the bigger sphere. Yeah and then you know I Like helping people incorporating some of that kind of stuff. It will be nice to start making more money.
Speaker 2:Yeah so I could do more shit like that, maybe not full on humanitarian, fly around the world stuff, but I'll meet somewhere in the middle. Yeah you know some volunteering type things, yeah. So I'm gonna incorporate some of that kind of shit and then, yeah, I don't know If you could volunteer somewhere.
Speaker 1:Where would you volunteer?
Speaker 2:It's a good question.
Speaker 1:How do you want to help people?
Speaker 2:That's what I'm trying to go in word and figure out, like what is, what are my skills lead to the most impact? Yeah, you know, make the most sense. That makes sense. Like I'm not gonna, probably I'm not gonna try and start. I Don't think. Maybe never say never, right. But being like a acupuncturist where they study for 25 years of, like, the meridians and the, everything you have to do through the chi flow and you know the traditional Chinese medicine, it feels a little late to start you know I'm saying yeah, so it's finding what makes the most sense, yeah, yeah, but yeah, and started some martial arts this year, nice.
Speaker 2:This is also part of that kind of more of that Rigidity like building that, that Sturdiness mentally mm-hmm. So I had nothing shakes you off. Yeah, realizing Basically you can do, you can accomplish a shitload. Our biggest enemy is ourselves. We get in our own ways that kind of thing. So yeah, discipline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our perceived biggest enemy is this is pretty timely, but terrorist attacks Shark attacks definitely inemic attacks a lot of people worried about shark attacks, especially in Kansas. But the real enemy is ourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean the fear. We're going on a whole thing now, the fear instilled by these events and the government and the media. Yeah. Give them the power to control you, but if everyone let it all go, they wouldn't have any power. Yeah it's just that simple. It's really not that complicated. Yeah, and you know it's that. The process is not necessarily complicated, but putting it into action is different, because people have programs and, yeah, deprogramming isn't easy.
Speaker 1:Deprogramming is not easy, but the reality of the need to deprogram is pretty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once you see it's simple and Concept, yeah, difficult in action, yeah, deep.
Speaker 1:so continue deprogramming.
Speaker 2:I want to deprogram myself. Yeah basically, as far as I can, yeah, to where you reach that higher level where you realize anything's possible for yourself. Yeah, so Nice, without question. But also knowing what it is you want to create, understanding they, not creating what society tells you to, the yachts and the mansions and all that dumb shit. Yeah, what do you actually want to create on the deepest level for yourself?
Speaker 1:Yeah not Just like I want to be rich and I want, you know, I want a bunch of bitches, that kind of thing yeah, it's interesting, though, even though it's a little bit of a tangent, but it's like what if the existence is not finding the one thing? No, no, yeah, just being just existing, just Just Accepting whatever you have today and can give today is enough.
Speaker 2:But also at the same time. No, you're absolutely right. Yeah, doing what we can today, but also Working, doing the inner work. Yeah, I Think it's like. It's like doing it doesn't have to be one thing. I'm not saying. There's only one thing in life that will make me happy. Yeah, not like that. But yeah, working hard, living in the today but, also thinking about when do?
Speaker 4:I want to go right whatever, I don't know yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sure like that.
Speaker 2:I dig it, man, but no, you're right, it's not one thing. You know we don't have one thing. We have, we have it's. You can do basically whatever you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of options, fortunately. Fortunately, yeah, we live in a Currently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's some things make position where some things make less sense Than others, like I don't want to work on Wall Street in New York City personally.
Speaker 1:I know, that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some people may want that and that's fine, whatever. Yeah so anyway. So it's funny, I'm not. I don't have big like Like professional goals really. Yeah, it's just kind of Keep growing, keep learning, and then it'll kind of sort itself out. Yeah as it's happening, yeah, day to day.
Speaker 1:D program. D program re reprogram.
Speaker 2:D program and then take on a different program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, D program. The exterior influence negative influences. Yeah to make space for Existing new creation present. Yeah, and then giving the best you can with what you have in the present moment, exactly accepting where that takes you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see, there we go, summed up quite nicely, damn. I wish I could do that.
Speaker 1:I Could say it no, it's similar. It's similar. It's similar to where this year has been for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you've had a lot of growing, you've got some actual professional goals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny and that's kind of the biggest struggle, but we'll lead up to that, right? Yeah, so now we're shifting. Yeah, so big thing for me this year was 2023 started therapy, totally moved past 30 years of disassociation. Yeah, 100% healed that. So you've had a transformative year, like an Absolute, insane transformative year.
Speaker 2:Yeah we're yeah, sorry yeah.
Speaker 1:So big things accomplished this year. Number one creating the environment that I am. Probably it's probably been professionally, even though I haven't made a ton of money this year I'm living off the money I made last year in the exit but as far as my contribution and Create an environment, doing what I love, like, there's probably only a couple of projects that I worked on this year that were mildly Monday or annoying, yeah, but everything I've done this year has been like what I want to do, yeah, which is, you know that's a gift and I definitely received that as a gift. But yeah, the biggest milestone obviously is just breaking through 40 years of like building calluses around trauma and breaking that shit up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I mean through specifically on the therapy train. Like I thought God left me to Satan subconsciously. I thought I was cursed subconsciously.
Speaker 2:It's funny he's saying it out loud, huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought I was, I thought we were general, I thought I was generationally cursed. I really couldn't see past a foot in front of me because of the fog and the cloud that I lived in every day and all that's gone. Now there's a lot of new things to learn. Yeah, because I've I was actually talking about that in the therapy session this morning that I had. But, like these strings that were attached to these, these whatever events that, these narratives that I established from the age of three, now that I'm detached from those, I'm like floating. So now it's like, now let's figure out where to reattach, right. It's like, once you de-program where, what's next? You know, I, the desire for my, let's see, the big phrase was my existence is independent from my father's desire for me to exist. So, like the clean break, as my father is his own being and I am my own being that happened this year.
Speaker 1:It's fucking wild. Then yeah, physically, I mean, we did 28 miles on the bike and I didn't want to die.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually enjoyed it. Yeah, you got to just enjoy a nice ride, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, like I think, from a physical standpoint, with this constant endurance and that kind of stuff, I feel pretty good. My sleep has for years was really really bad and it comes and goes, but this year I've probably slept better over the course of a year. I still have my you know a couple of times where I don't sleep well, but this year I've probably slept better than I have in decades. I've been more present, with my family Coming out of the fog. My presence with my wife and my family has probably been stronger than ever. When I'm with my kids and with my wife, I'm with my kids and I'm with my wife.
Speaker 2:Right, You're not stuck in a future unknown. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. And that was the biggest break of disassociation was just low level anxiety, constantly fear, and I wasn't doing enough today to prepare for the future and just kind of realizing the future doesn't exist and that comes back every once in a while, but it's not the norm now. Yes, it's the exception. Yeah, it's the exception, a bad exception.
Speaker 1:But it is one of those, yeah, so that's been absolutely fucking phenomenal. It's amazing this podcast dropping an episode every week yeah, going on two years now In my life. I've started and stopped a lot of things just because my brain constantly thinks, oh, this would be cool, what if we tried this? This is a cool idea. That stuff never stops. I don't really want it to stop. I like that about myself, but for me personally, getting into the 40s is like well, if there's more things I haven't done, then it becomes a burden Because like, oh, there's a cool idea I'll never do so. This year has been really just executing a lot of the things that I've wanted to do for a long time. I've got a YouTube series that I started. I even still have the videos like 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And so consistently producing content and some of it was great and some of it was good and some of it was we're just kind of being lazy, but consistently producing a piece of content every single week for two years is something I've never done before Same and it feels really fucking good.
Speaker 2:Obviously, yeah, I've never done that yeah.
Speaker 1:Big accomplishment. Yeah, there's some financial goals obviously coming out of the exit last year that we hit. Having the goal before the exit was a year's worth of savings, so fortunately we're past that. But starting to build up the kids, we got the kids wills and trust and we've got all the stuff completely figured out and legitimized, legalized and all that shit for our death plan. Yeah, so we're prepared to die Great, which is great. So got all that done. Yeah, so that's a recap.
Speaker 2:Damn bro. Yeah, we were working on ourselves this year too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, big time. Both of us in our own way, I would say, for goals for next year. It's funny because now I'm in this place of. I've always been a planner, always, excuse me, I've always had a detailed plan and I don't know if that was good.
Speaker 2:I mean, how many of those are you doing now?
Speaker 1:Well, it's like I have plans and I'm actively pursuing them, yeah, but at the same time, it's like I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest lesson from this year is do what you can with what you have today. And this, for me, I'll say obnoxious, but because, again, my brain is a planning brain and I can go down to every single detail of a plan that's two or three years from now, but it's like I have plans for next year. I have things that I want to accomplish, but a lot of it is like why next year?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like we're working on the shoe company. Well, we're working on it, so we're waiting for the fact, we're waiting on a couple of milestone moments and then we're going to launch the shoe brand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, why is there have to be a date where launch is no matter what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like when we're ready to launch, then we'll decide the best next time to launch Is it? The shoes will be ready Right now? We've got Christmas. It's a little bit of a like you don't want to launch, you got to be careful around launching something new around holidays. You got to be strategic. Of course, we don't want to sell shoes before Christmas and then deliver after Christmas, so that may cause us to not drop this year. If we can't do it in time, we may drop first of next year. But it's like for me it's like I've got.
Speaker 1:There was a time period when we were planning on dropping and then we're going back and forth with a factor we're making a premium shoe, so there's a lot of things included in this, and then a couple of weeks went by. A couple of weeks went by and it's like, ok, cool. And then there was a moment where I got really frustrated. But then I'm like, emotionally and mentally, I have to remind myself that all I can do is what I can control. And then, when the shoes are ready to launch, when we have a finished sample, then we can be like OK, cool.
Speaker 2:Now what's our?
Speaker 1:launch plan yeah, and until we have that.
Speaker 2:Can't have expectations on a date.
Speaker 1:I don't want to. Yeah, it's like constantly changing the date versus just being like fuck it, Like when the shoes are ready to launch, we'll set the date. Yeah, you know, boom, it is what it is. And for me it's like asking myself regardless of what happens in life, are you going to launch this footwear company? And I feel like, the answer is yes.
Speaker 2:Like it doesn't have to be on Q4. You know, October 24. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So it's like and I feel like that attitude is a better attitude approach, especially as an entrepreneur. It's like I will launch a footwear brand.
Speaker 2:It's happening, no matter what.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we will turn that footwear brand into a lifestyle brand. Yeah, that will happen and I'll be glad to work on that, no matter how much energy it takes or how hard it is. Till I die, period, there you go, so it does nothing else matters.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All I can do is knowing that truth. All I can do is what I can do. What can I do today?
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 2:Is there any?
Speaker 1:task that's outstanding that I need to get done today.
Speaker 2:Right, you can't make a flooded factory replace their equipment faster.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Unless you have special powers I don't know about.
Speaker 1:And I don't, I do not so you know I can't rub a genie genie in a bottle. Come, come, come again. That's all I can think about anyway. No, I don't have that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, there's exogenous factors. Yeah. And if everyone has expectations on a certain date for their launches and shit you can use it as kind of a reference to get things done, but not as a if this doesn't happen, I'm a worthless piece of shit and this is all failing. Yeah, and I'm quitting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like I haven't had a day where there was so many things I had to accomplish across a different business that I'm a part of to where I couldn't get it all done in a day at least what I could contribute.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like, until that happens, it's a different problem. It's like, okay, well, if I work on this, I'm not gonna work on that, so which one should I work on? Yeah, but right now it's like that's not an issue, that's what's nice to have in team members.
Speaker 2:I know that are really awesome. So back to goals for next year.
Speaker 1:The shoe company has Like I want to lose about 20 pounds and the reason for me it's 20 pounds because I know it's like it's more about how you feel than it is weight, but I know how I feel when I'm about 15 or 20 pounds. Well, actually that goal for me is unique because I've lost some weight this year. I've leaned up a little bit this year, just with all the riding and things that we're doing and just not like eating an entire bag of chips every night before I go to bed, like I did like pretty much every night of my life pre eight months ago, and then just being around you. I eat healthier and I eat better because you're very conscious of what you put in your body. So that's just a natural proximity thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's like, why would that be a goal for next year? It's like when I'm ready to fast for seven days and pick up a exercise routine, you can do that tomorrow. I can do that tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, it's like, yeah, the whole year thing or whatever. I guess they're symbolic. Yeah. Whatever, maybe it makes more sense to fast in winter because it's kind of more chill and days are shorter. Maybe you're not working as hard. Yeah, not sweating as much. But since we live in America, where everyone works all year anyway and we're always in warm climates.
Speaker 1:We don't really experience winter like people did a hundred years ago, exactly so. So the only time we experienced winter is when we run to the car and turn on our heated seats.
Speaker 2:I mean, I used to have an off season. Yeah. And yeah, I would chill in winter.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so you'd probably, you'd probably gain 10, 20 pounds in the winter and then lose it in the summer every year. Of course I don't know traveling. It's hard to maintain some that shouldn't be traveling.
Speaker 1:But yeah so, anyway, it's like for me. It's like, you know, looking at next year, and anytime I start thinking about next year's goals, that negative anxiety kind of comes up and it's like, okay, well, I want to accomplish this. Well, why do I want to accomplish that? What's the meaning behind that? What does that do for me? You know, financial goals, physical goals, all that kind of stuff. It's like sure, I would like to have a million dollars each for my kids, in their trust, to have some type of managed lifestyle if I died or if I became unable to work. Well, I can't. I mean, I can go play the lottery, but the only thing I can really do towards that goal is what I'm doing now which is working on launching businesses.
Speaker 1:Yep, I've invested in certain things at the right time, so it's just like those things may grow. Yeah, I mean, I can spend less money today.
Speaker 2:True, we did get a what a $7 thing of soup we did, so you spent $7 on lunch. Yeah, well, you bought me lunch, so you spent $18 on lunch. Yeah, for two people. Yeah. Dang bro. But again like like, yeah, you could spend less money, but you don't even spend that much money. Let's be real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I've.
Speaker 2:I've. In the scheme of like a lot of people. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I got. I was very fortunate to get a windfall last year and we're still in our 1200 square foot home that looks like 1975.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we're okay with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a cool house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a nice house. I like your house Like it's just, it's great.
Speaker 2:It is what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it feels homey and I wanted to redo the detached garage so we'd have a place. But we have a place now, you know, and this place, the studio that we're in right now is we're around a bunch of cool people.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like I don't really need that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, it's funny. It's like thinking about next year's goals and it's just like, well, what's, what's the goal for today? I know where I'm going. Yeah, you know I'm going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're going.
Speaker 1:I love to work. Yeah, you're going to be fine, I'm going to continue to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you like working. Yeah, you will not have to worry about money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean a year where I technically could have taken the year off and not worked at all and then just got another job next year. And now you're laying down the foundation and I've been working all year. Yeah, because I mean work's fun, honestly, and even when I had jobs, I, if I wasn't around people I didn't like or I didn't like the job, I would just quit. Yeah, you know, I've been fortunate, like the last five years I spent at Rip. It like it was fun. I mean, it was hard times, of course, and there's always frustrations, but labor isn't it's not called labor because it's like, you know, vacation. But but I love the people and I love the work. And this year I love the people and I love the work. So, yeah, even around annoying people, then it's just a challenge. Every day is a challenge to make them laugh.
Speaker 2:So it was like a family traditions yeah.
Speaker 1:Actually, we had a blast at family traditions.
Speaker 2:I bet.
Speaker 1:We fucking. I bet A bunch of teenagers working at a family restaurant.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, imagine when I worked in Atlanta Bread Company with all of my friends, and one of our friends was the manager, natalie. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:We used to get high, yeah, and make a steak, mashed potatoes and gravy and cheese sandwich on Texas toast.
Speaker 2:That's the most Southern stoner shit I've ever heard.
Speaker 1:That shit was gnarly bro, but anyway.
Speaker 2:I watched the guy make when I worked at Zaxby's. I was 16 years old. I watched the guy roll a chicken tender and a piece of bread with a piece of cheese in it, dipped it in batter and fried the whole thing Deep fried bread with chicken in the middle. And I mean, you know, as a 16 year old who's hungry, working on his shift, that was probably pretty dynamite.
Speaker 1:It was pretty good, but that is like disgusting.
Speaker 2:Let's be real Also. Just drink the fat.
Speaker 1:Drink the fuck, drink fryer oil, yeah, so anyway, I mean, if I'm being honest, some goals are really. It's just launching these content ideas.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know. I mean there's goals for clubhouse, but again we're kind of in a steady groove. We know what we want to accomplish. We are going to demystify the music industry. Big goal, big vision. We're going to build the creator middle class. We're going to redistribute wealth from the you know 1% of musicians back to the middle class musicians. We're going to do that. And so now and we know to the best of our knowledge, how we're going to approach doing that so now it's just executing yeah.
Speaker 1:What's the net? You know what can we work on. Today Got a meeting at four o'clock about it. So it's like, it's like for me, once the vision is set and it has purpose and meaning, and then it's just the steady, and then you can just take all the pressure off. You know, gotta have this by this time. This has that. But obviously we gotta feed our families, we gotta pay the bills based on our current, you know, cultural norms and economy and how things work. So obviously there's that pressure associated with revenue generation versus just, you know, purely doing one passionate regardless of revenue. But but I mean, what's? What's the famous producer who worked with with the crazy hair?
Speaker 2:Mike Rubin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just saw a clip the other day and he's just like as a musician. If you deeply love what you produce and you feel it's good, that high vibration and energy that you project when you're delivering, that art is what people enjoy, versus worrying about what people like and then forcing yourself into that yeah, cause that's low vibration.
Speaker 2:I just make it. Make what you want yeah, and make it for you, yeah. Make it for you, Not for them. And if it brings you cause, if it's if you make it for other people. Where's the fulfillment in that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and there's a lot of, if you're making art for other people.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess I don't fucking know. I'd always thought I just figured you, just make it for yourself. Yeah. Yeah, because if you worry about how other people want it to be, then how do you ever finish? You could spend 10 years on one song. Yeah. Like. Well, what if they don't like this? Chorus, yeah what about this piano part.
Speaker 1:And it's like, even with a focus cast with Forerunner Gunner, like sure there's, like you know, we're 100 episodes in and next episode we're going to break down our numbers and how many followers we have and growth and all that kind of stuff. But like even that, it's like sure there's the pressure of, you know, more following because then you can monetize and then you can generate revenue and then that just funds you keep doing it. But some of the some of the stuff that for me personally, a lot of the pressure, is like this piece of art. I see where it could be better. So I want it to be better, I want to be more satisfied with the product. You know, forerunner Gunner, I go back and watch our adventure videos for fun. I go back and listen to our episodes ourselves and I'm like, oh fuck, I forgot we even talked about that and I relearn it for fun and it brings me joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know and so, like you know, obviously, if you and I both, for some reason, end up getting full time jobs and our W twos and we're not doing this every day we're still going to go on adventures.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We got the shit to record it. Yeah, we'll still record it. It'll just be edited in night Just edit it Exactly Instead of editing during the day Exactly.
Speaker 2:Like we did the focus cast last year? Yeah, I was editing. Was it when I had like Sundays off or after work? Yeah. I was cutting down social clubs. You know.
Speaker 1:So it's like if it doesn't bring us joy anymore, stop doing it.
Speaker 2:But I liked, when you said like the consistency, to like doing something. A hundred episodes. Yeah. Even if nothing happens, I have no attachments. Yeah. It's the fact that we did a hundred episodes and one every week and stuck with it. If you can do that and like, yeah, with the following that we have, which is not nothing, but it's not amazing. You know, that's just saying that's almost like a straight up willpower grit kind of thing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because like a job is like, you have to get a job to make money to pay the bills. But we, for a hundred episodes, didn't have to do this.
Speaker 2:We chose to do it and we stuck with it one episode every week for two years Without attachments to how much it grew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honestly, we did this with very little positive reinforcement from anyone outside you and me. We've got a few super fans.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But like it's not, like we're getting emails like oh man, you guys are great, thank you for doing this Like that shit doesn't. It doesn't happen yet.
Speaker 4:No but.
Speaker 1:But we stuck with it and you're right, that's kind of that like that willpower, and it's kind of like it's like the cold showers, in my opinion. This podcast is like the cold showers.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you can force your body to shock itself for three to five minutes every time you take a shower, then you can really do anything.
Speaker 2:That's what I went to remember that episode. I was like, if you can take a cold shower, you can handle divorce, even though I've never been in one.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But the cold that's yeah if you do something difficult. That's why. I like starting the day with a cold shower because it's difficult. It makes all the other shit easier. Yeah, you got three minutes, three minutes.
Speaker 1:It's the rest of your day easier. Sometimes those three minutes has a long ass. Three minutes.
Speaker 2:The first 30 seconds is always shocking but I tell you what it brings you back into that present moment. You're not thinking about future past, you're not thinking about any other shit. Think about, I think, what is wrong with you. That is the moment. Yeah, I think about how fucking twisted you are. No, that's the beautiful thing about it you can't be anxious or depressed or think about the future or the past when you're in a cold shower. You are only thinking about the cold shower.
Speaker 1:And that's the same thing for me for mountain biking. That's why, mountain biking, when we just got back from cold water, which is a mountain in Alabama and it was, I think we did like 22, 24 miles that day and there was a climb that was, like you know, a good 800 feet, 900 feet, yeah, straight up basically.
Speaker 1:And it was just and it was pretty long. I mean it was a good mile, half mile or mile and a half, whatever felt long, but like you just keep going, you just keep going and your body is just like like two years ago. That would have wrecked us. Oh yeah, I would have hopped off the bike, I would have sat.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But now you just go, you just go and you keep going.
Speaker 2:You just pedal and even if you go into granny gear and go slow, but you just don't stop.
Speaker 1:You're not stopping and it's like fighting past that willpower, or the willpower to fight past the body, just like what in the absolute hell are you doing?
Speaker 2:It's good. That's. That's another reason I started martial arts. Take it to the next level, yeah, like that, that, um, what's the fucking word? I'm talking, I'm thinking of.
Speaker 1:Great willpower. Yeah, it's like unbreakable. You've never done 40 pushups in a row and you're on like 48 and you're like shaking and instructors like keep going.
Speaker 2:Basically.
Speaker 1:And you keep going and you keep going.
Speaker 2:You go until your muscles can't do it, yeah, and then you keep going, so um yeah, I think those us incorporating more of those things is making just getting through.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean it's 2023, october. Um, you know, it looks like we're staring down a world war. You know, there's floods, there's earthquakes, there's wars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all fear.
Speaker 1:but there's all kinds of stuff going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know we're at $33 trillion in debt.
Speaker 2:Fear. Yeah, that's all. Fear, state shit and it's like but but.
Speaker 1:Among all of that, how are we going to stay focused? And and if the world's here tomorrow?
Speaker 2:you have to work on yourself keep going. Yeah, work hard on whatever you're doing and still go inward. Do the do the inner work as well. Yeah, that's a piece. Yeah, you know I'm going to lean a little more on it. That you know I plan on leaning more into it. Yeah. That, yeah, that's a piece that everyone should be. Yeah. I mean and I'm not trying to rip on the people who's still like let's go out to the bars and let's do all this shit, and they're like 40s and 50s. You've seen them. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But does that shit not get boring After a while? Going to the bar after work every day you're fucking 55 years old Talking about nothing, talking about how much your job sucks yeah.
Speaker 4:You're not going to do anything about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't be that. Yeah, I absolutely refuse to be stuck. Yeah, like that I it's just not an option. Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, doing that well, it's like part, part of the life bitching, bitching bitching about it and not doing anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what I say it's people go to work and bitch about their home and go home and bitch about their work yeah. I'm just like just fucking kill yourself. Don't kill yourself, go help.
Speaker 4:But I'm just saying, like, what's the point of?
Speaker 1:living. Yeah, if you're not gonna do anything about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't talk about it. Yeah, that's what it is. If I have something that I'm like I I've there's been things where I'm like man, I just don't talk about it, even though, like I'm, I'm not doing it I'm. If I'm not doing anything about it, I'm not gonna complain about it yeah, so it makes sense. Yes, yes, because it's just whatever yeah going inward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think these, the the forerunner gunner trips too, is like I think part of. I can't speak for women and I really can't speak for men, I can speak for myself, but I assume, based on what I know to be true, about men, adventure and success, like and I'm not talking like our, our society's view of success. I'm just talking about like the small wins. Right, because I was listening to this podcast about testosterone and how when we fix something, our testosterone actually goes up. Yeah, when we accomplish something We've never done, our testosterone goes up and part of our chemical makeup is maintaining a high level of testosterone. So it's just built in our systems and mechanics and chemistry to seek out opportunities to maintain a level of testosterone.
Speaker 1:And when we do the forerunner gunner trips, the reason I love Our format so much is because every time we do a trip, we go somewhere We've never been before. We ride a trail We've never ridden before, you know. We stay at a campsite We've never been before. Yeah, we drive on overlanding trails We've never been on before, yeah, and so it's like there's the adventure aspect and so for me, as a 41 year old, I Feel like, because I've always said I'm a nomad by spirit, but I've lived in the same house in the same county.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm you know, but we adopted kids. Yeah, you've got a family. Those kids have special needs. Well, I'm just saying like, even though I stay in the same place, I live a pretty adventurous life. Yeah, I'm an entrepreneur. Kids with special needs, adopted kids, change career paths completely. Yeah, taking risks, quit jobs, started jobs, you know, invested in things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you could have just stayed home the whole time and had the same job. Yeah yeah, and you could, and if anyone tried to get you out of the house you'd be like I don't know, I can't do it. Yeah, I'm too busy too busy.
Speaker 1:So I think setting up these or or setting up a life in which we constantly have adventure yeah, you know, eventually we're gonna hit every park in the southeast and then we'll have to start driving more.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I hit driving.
Speaker 1:But it is what it is, yeah, but anyway, I think that's really helped to from the psyche standpoint.
Speaker 2:Well, and look at Chad. Yeah we were on this last trip and Chad, one of the guys we ride with, he's like what do you say?
Speaker 1:This is the best weekend I've had in a decade. Boom, that's fucking.
Speaker 2:In almost cried when I heard that and for those listening, this was not an expensive weekend. It's a fucking thirty dollar campsite for two nights. Yeah, split between four people, it's food and some food and some snacks for when you're mountain biking. That's it. That's it in gas. Yeah, maybe a hundred bucks each this isn't flying the fucking now you know yeah. Maui, yeah, and staying in a resort for $1,200 a day yeah, this is a trip grand total between all of us that probably only cost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was an hour and a half drive, our nap drive. There's only an hour and a half drive and about a hundred bucks each, and we had, to Chad's quote, one of the best weekends in a decade. That's a man.
Speaker 2:That's the the kind of the mantra for runner gunner is to make people want to go on an adventure. Yeah. That's the mission statement for me. I think you too, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we went overlanding and he took his two-wheel-drive Highlander. Yeah he didn't have a new forerunner like us, he took that bitch out and we took it as we pushed it as far as we could.
Speaker 2:That's right and it was awesome. Yeah, so you know it's easy to get stuck. Yeah, in the minutia.
Speaker 1:I don't have an $8,000 mountain bike. I don't either. I wrote on a trail that probably could have used one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, my bike was a couple grand like Four years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I got it on sale and we don't have this souped up, everything on our forerunners. No, we have what we have we don't have an RV for a camp. You know we got some tents and honestly we have more shit than most people. I know we got a ball mass but still like we don't have a lot of stuff. But we still went out and had an absolute epic adventure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was. It's having people to go with because Chad would Chad's not gonna do it by himself. Yeah, he's not gonna be the same experience. He's not gonna plan cold water by himself. Yeah. So sometimes you need a catalyst.
Speaker 1:Well, there's um that reminds me that quote that I love in into the wild, where he experienced something great. And he looked around no one's around, and he said joy is experienced when joy is shared. Mmm, yeah, so having a good squad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think humans are meant to be alone either. No, that's a whole nother topic of division and lone wolf narrative.
Speaker 1:Well, it goes back to why 2023 was so great for me working with you. Yeah like we work well together. Yeah like we brainstorm all together. Yeah, like you know, you challenge me, I challenge you.
Speaker 2:Yeah like yeah, we challenge you cuz we have. We just are different. Yeah and lately as far as approaches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I like to press in music. You like happy music?
Speaker 2:Yeah, obviously similar similar beliefs and foundations you know, yeah, as far as how I feel about government and Life in general, and positive positivity, yeah, obviously Foundational. A lot in common but at the same time, a lot enough is different to learn from each other. Yeah, yeah, brian likes depressing ass music. I don't.
Speaker 1:So if you hear any song with minors, it's usually me inspired. If you're song with seven sin yeah diminished. It's Jonathan's Diminished nines. What's?
Speaker 2:that. What's your favorite chord? Oh, it's a minor. It's minor seven at nine. Yeah, it's so fucking good.
Speaker 1:I'm just the yeah, I love.
Speaker 2:I love major sevens, minor sevens, minor seven at nine is.
Speaker 1:Mine is minor seven minor, minor at sad minor, add extra minor extra side of minor. Yeah, so anyway, but yeah, I mean. So, yeah, I mean next year. It's like it's there's a piece of me that has anxiety Around, but then there's a piece of me that's just like it's the.
Speaker 2:You know, the inflation sucks. Let's be real. Yeah it eats into your nest egg. Yeah, but plations a killer. You know it is what it is. Yeah you know, we have things we can fall back on if we have to, which is great.
Speaker 1:Yeah so and honestly it's like next year is next year. I sure is next year like Right now we get to have a bowl of soup on a nice chill day outside in the Sun. Yeah, and come back and record a couple episodes.
Speaker 2:Fuck yeah yeah, sweet. So go buy our patented? I'm just kidding. Yeah, we don't have any of that. I.
Speaker 1:Goal script. Yeah, all right. Well, that was 52 minutes. We should stop talking and we're out. Thank you for listening to the focus cast, go to youtubecom, slash the focus, cast and slap.
Speaker 4:That's a button head to the focus cast.
Speaker 2:Stop, and I'm sure you want to hear next go forth and be focused as boy.
