Nothing But Anarchy
"Nothing But Anarchy" hosted by Chad Sanders explores and subverts sports, media, Hollywood, and culture. Chad's vulnerable and raw commentary creates a fresh podcast experience you don't want to miss. Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET on Youtube Live.
Subscribe to the "Nothing But Anarchy" Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Game analysis, social commentary, and music.
Instagram: @chadsand
Executive Producer: Chad Sanders
Producer: Morgan Williams
Music: Marcus Williams
Nothing But Anarchy
Eps. #44 Who’s Got the Juice? Bryce James' Transfer, Power Dynamics in Podcasting and Jerry Jones Calling the Shots
We're talking about the notion of 'juice', the subtle and not-so-subtle ways famous families use their influence to benefit themselves and their friends. From LeBron James' son Bryce's decision to change schools, bringing along his friends to create a comfort zone, to the tendency of celebrities to surround themselves with 'dead weight' companions when launching their own podcasts, we're pulling back the veil on these influential dynamics.
0:08 LeBron James' Son Transferring Schools
5:16 Comfort Zone and Friends Importance
10:11 Support and Image in Hollywood
17:20 The Limitations of Helping Others
20:57 Supporting NBA Player Podcasts With Fashion
26:59 Fame, Relationships, Podcasting With Athletes
41:06 Jerry Jones' Trade for Trey Lance
54:42 Security Cameras and Content Creation Thoughts
1:01:57 The Impact of Competition on Creativity
1:09:23 Navigating Opportunities and Avoiding Traps
1:18:57 NFL Opinions and Personal Update
1:27:44 Exploring Feelings and Seeking Feedback
Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET to watch the show live on Youtube. Follow @chadsand on Instagram and subscribe to the Nothing But Anarchy Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Executive Produced by: Chad Sanders
Produced by: Morgan Williams
This is Nothing but Anarchy. This is the show that explores chaos around the world, around culture, around sports, around media and some other stuff. I think that'll do just nicely for an intro. Hello, okay, nothing but Anarchy starts in now. So that was hit me. Baby, oh no, it's just called Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. That song came out I was in the sixth grade and no, I was in the fifth grade and it was played at a talent show and Emily Smith if you ever hear this, emily Smith did a dance to it and this was my first time ever feeling feelings about a girl was listening to that song and watching Emily Smith do her little dance in the talent show. Okay, shout out to Emily Smith, she's an executive now in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1:It was a bunch of shit to talk about today. It's just so interesting now because there was a time where I would do this show and, primarily, I would be taking stock of the people who are here on AMP while listening to the show, because that was most of the audience at that point in time. Now, more people listen to the show in its podcast form than on AMP, which is cool. I don't care, I mean, I love that people listen to the show live. I also love that people listen to the show when it's convenient for them, but in any case, we are establishing some norms of how the show happens, like how we sequence the show, what we want to get to the full range of sort of. We do want to touch on sports and in fact we must contractually. We also want to touch on pop culture. We also want to touch on sort of my, the inner workings of my creative life and my, my entertainment life, my industry life, because that seems to be something of interest to people, and all of this is informed by the ways that y'all give us feedback. So please continue to do so.
Speaker 1:All right, at the top of my docket today, I do have to say, and I'm excited to say and to remind you, our live show is September 28th at Pony Boy. Pony Boy in Greenpoint. It's going to be a barrel of monkeys. It's going to be us and some of the people who listen to the show, just some of my friends, some of Morgan's friends. There's a DJ named Tia. It's Tia Mowbly who is going to be DJing, who I saw at an event a few months ago, who was fantastic. She plays a great combination of I would like hip hop, dance music, modern just like I don't know funk, indie, all that kind of stuff. So come through and hang out with us If you want to RSVP to show up to that thing, which I would encourage you to do. If you're coming, go to my Instagram and at Chad Sand, you'll find a link in the bio, or you can email nothing but anarchy13 at gmailcom to get an invite.
Speaker 1:All right, so here comes the show. For the first time I don't know if it's the first time ever, but for one of the first times on this show, I have what I believe to be like an inside scoop on something sports related. I, as you all know, I have friends who live in Los Angeles. Some of them have how do I say this? Some of them are well connected to the sort of circles that athletes are in and some of them have relationships with those athletes and their families. And my scoop is regarding and I don't this is not like a, it's not like a dirty scoop in any way. So I don't think that the James family would be in any way offended by what I'm about to say, but I do think it's interesting because I think it. It regards LeBron and how he has lived his life and how he's conducted his business, and I think it regards the nature of celebrity, celebrity families, athlete families, athletes and how they conduct business with their friends. So I'm just going to get right to it. This is the scoop. It is reported like. This is not. This part's not a scoop. Bryce James LeBron's middle child, lebron and Savannah James's middle child, their their second son, the youngest son between Bryce and Brony, who many people believe to be the better prospect, better pro prospect, between Bryce and Brony. Bryce many people know everybody knows that follows this sort of thing that Bryce he's leaving Sierra Canyon and transferring to Notre Dame. Bryce James is leaving Sierra Canyon, which is where his brother went, and going to Notre Dame.
Speaker 1:So there's all these fancy high schools. There's this like unit of fancy high schools. They're also like I think they have also have K through 12 programs in Los Angeles. I'm looking around at the people in this amp chat right now. I am certain that Morgan and her mom are familiar with them. I bet Morgan probably went to one of these schools or something adjacent to them. Melissa is definitely familiar with these schools. She's from Los Angeles. These are the.
Speaker 1:If you're from where I'm from, it's kind of like the WCAC or even probably a little more prestigious than that, something closer to like St Albans NCS, those like really fancy private schools where the only black kids at the school are athletes, which actually I don't think is the case at Sierra Canyon. But you guys know the kind of schools I'm talking about, right, they're really expensive, they're really fancy. You have to apply to get in. There's a whole lot of chickenery and politicking and, you know, vouching and all this other shit to get in there. And my friends in Los Angeles who are celebrities, their kids go to these schools and the James's go to these schools, and none of that stuff about the schools is that important, except for this, which is that Bryce was going to go to Campbell Hall. Here's my scoop Campbell Hall is one of these other schools and he wanted to bring along with him four of his friends to play on the basketball team, his four friends that he wanted to come and be on the team with him. He wanted them to be given the same sort of a liaising through the admissions program. He wanted to make sure that they were given sort of the red carpet treatment brought into these schools. And this was interesting to me because Campbell Hall said no, no, we're not going to give the red carpet treatment to you and your four friends, only to you. And so Bryce James decided instead he was going to go to Notre Dame. That's where he's going, and his four friends have come along with him. That's interesting because that is exactly how his dad has conducted business in the NBA, which is to say, at every turn, as soon as he had the ability to do so.
Speaker 1:When I come, my friends come. When I come to CAA, rich Paul comes to CAA. When I come to start this business, maverick Carter comes to start the business with me. When I come to the Cleveland Cavaliers, or when I come to the Miami Heat, I bring along the guys that I like to play with, the guys that I know how to play with. I bring along Tristan Thompson, I bring along Mike Miller. I bring along Richard Jefferson. I bring along it looks like he's been trying to bring along Kyrie Irving to Los Angeles and I think it's dope. Okay, I think that if you have the wherewithal, the leverage, the intelligence, the strategic ability to get your friends in where you want to go so that you bring you along your comfort zone. You know what I mean. Aaron Rodgers came to the Jets and he brought along with him Randall, cobb and Lazard. I always forget Lazard's first name, maybe it's Aaron, I can't remember but he brought along guys that he likes to play with. It's Alan, alan, Alan, lazard. He brought along guys he likes to play with you. Bring your comfort zone with you. This is it's different, but it's just go with me on the analogy.
Speaker 1:Someone a friend of mine, a producer who I work with, named Amanda, booked Josh for a studio session with us two years ago or something like that, for another show I did three shows ago and I said I feel pretty comfortable in there, like let's do that again. So every time I get a chance to do a show, I try to do it in here. Amanda also introduced me to Morgan. Morgan came to my house and dog sat penny and she was really fun and she was really smart and she was really. She had great follow through. She had great follow up. But, most importantly, I feel like we got each other. We understood each other. We have a shorthand, we know how to talk to each other, we know how to. We know how to joke with each other and I'm like, okay, I feel comfortable working with Morgan.
Speaker 1:So, as I've watched it, as I've watched, like Issa Ray, as I've watched Kenya Barris, kenya Barris has this guy. You guys will never know his name in a million years and in fact I have forgotten his name Armenian guy. He's his boy from way back and maybe his name is how can't remember. You can Google it though. You can find this guy. It starts with an HA. I want to say this guy writes on everything with Kenya Barris. If a Kenya Barris script lands on your desk, it's likely to have this dude's name in the byline next to Kenya's, because he feels comfortable with him.
Speaker 1:You, you find your people that you feel comfortable with and you move around with them. That's your unit. I remember somebody gave me the advice years ago that you don't need everybody in Hollywood to believe in you. You need a small group of people who have some access to believe in you. To really believe in you, you need to be their bet, basically. And so Bryce has decided these four friends are his bet. He's willing to leave this other school to go. He's willing to not go to Campbell Hall and instead go to Notre Dame because he wants to have these guys with him.
Speaker 1:I'm getting to a point though I'm not there yet but that is a behavior I am certain he has learned from his dad and from, also, he's an LA kid. He lives in Hollywood. He doesn't live in Hollywood, but he lives near Hollywood. He understands. This is what celebrity is. You get a rider, you get to come in. If you're Kanye, you get a Hennessy slushy machine and your friends come and your girlfriends come and your manager comes and the guy who you like doing the lighting not for the show, but the guy who you like doing the lighting in your dressing room comes. Your weed roller comes, your, if you want, a family member, they come. Some kids are trying to sign. They get in for free, like when you have the juice. You get to bring people and they get to experience the juice with you.
Speaker 1:However, this is a misunderstood principle. This is a misunderstood phenomenon, in my opinion, both by the person who's trying to exercise their juice and by the friends around that person. In many cases, bryce understands what his juice is. The same person who told me that the reason why those kids are going into Notre Dame is because Campbell Hall wouldn't let them do their thing there. That same person also told me that Bryce and Brony both individually have their own managers.
Speaker 1:Lebron does not manage their business. I mean, this shouldn't come as a huge surprise to any of us. Their business is too important for it to be managed by their dad. He's not a professional, so they have their own managers. They have their own business managers, each their own individual. Two different managers who manage their businesses. Their businesses are their image and likenesses. They're names, images and likenesses. That's NIL. Those guys have that kind of juice. Let me tell you who does not have that kind of juice. Most people, most people. I'll speak personally right when I was first starting to get some.
Speaker 1:The thing that's a little bit fucked up about the entertainment industry is it looks like you have power before you have any power. It looks like you have the juice before you have any juice. That is to say, the press clippings come out, the announcements come out about your project just to make it literal months before you ever get a check. But beyond that, you start to. Yes, I have Spike Lee's number in my phone. This is me talking eight years ago. I can go play basketball with Kanye. I can go to the Beyonce and Jay Z show and go to the after party where Beyonce and JR and Khaled and it's dinner at Dumbbell House they have it closed off and it's Zoe Kravitz and it's I don't know Questlove. I can go to that but I can barely get in. I'm somebody else's plus one, but what it looks like to others who either are hearing me talk about this or seeing a picture of me or somebody like me or whatever. The question that often follows I'm gonna say specifically among black men but I bet this is so in all communities is put me on, let me get, can I come through, let me like what's good. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I remember because I had several friends, close friends, who we were all at the same time trying to get into Hollywood as writers and we were trying to do it in different ways. One of them I just worked with, which was my ex from high school who I've talked about before I was going to college, who I wrote with on the rap shit writers room. She went, she took one path. She went to USC film school. She like climbed through the traditional ladder into Hollywood. I had another friend, my boy Leon, who he left JP Morgan when we were both here working in New York. I was at Google, he was at JP Morgan. He was like he was the first guy I learned how to raise screenplay with. He was like you know what man? Fuck this. This life is miserable to me. I'm leaving to go chase my dream. He moved out to Hollywood. He did it the other way. He did it the cold turkey way. You know. You all know the story, the Sonserah story. Just like I'm fucking, I'm just going to pick up my shit, move out to Hollywood with my girlfriend and I'm going to figure out how to make it work. And it's worked. He's. He's a working Hollywood writer.
Speaker 1:My thing was a third path from theirs. There are many paths. My thing was a third version. I wasn't ready to make that kind of a leap, not out of college, the way that Nina did it. Not out of I wasn't ready to quit my job and jump in cold turkey, the way that Leon did it early on in his career at a financial institution. I was like straddling, I was more and I had. I could name you. You know, I could name eight to 10 other friends who took different paths, and some of them I'm using Nina and Leon because I can't it worked out for them. So it's okay for me to name drop them because they're you know, they're, they're established and stable and they have they have careers. But like, I'm not going to name the five other people who tried to do it a different way, or even those same ways, and it didn't pan out. And now they're trying to pivot. Maybe I'm a manager, maybe I'm, you know, maybe I'll be a writer's assistant at 35. Good luck, like.
Speaker 1:But what I'm saying is we all had to walk through a door by ourselves and I think my thing was the one that started to look like I had it first because I sort of I was intentional. I wanted, you know, when, I, when, I, when, when Spike picked up my project, I was like I want press clippings. I took that and I went to a PR agent and I said I don't have any money to pay you as a PR agent, but I have Spike Lee attached to this project. That's got to be worth a Hollywood reporter feature, right. And she got it done for free because I just wanted the heat, I just wanted the steam, I just wanted it to look like I was getting on, but I didn't realize what was going to come with that was the stress and the pressure to my relationships of looking like the first person in our circle who was quote unquote, like in, who had gotten in.
Speaker 1:Because what follows from that is can you slice me, dog? Can you put, can you introduce me to so-and-so, can you slip this project to so-and-so? Do you think so-and-so would like this thing? And and I'll tell you, and now this is a human part which is like the weirdness of that moment is that, while at the same time judge me for this, but I bet y'all, some of y'all, can relate at the same time as I know I don't have that kind of juice to do what it is that they're asking to put them on. I don't have Bryce James juice. I can't say take me and my four friends. I can only say please, pretty please, take me. But at the same time, as I know that to be so, I like that other people think I have that juice, right, I want, right. I want them to think that I have that, even though I can't do shit with it, even though it makes me look like a bad friend because I can't put them on. Even if I tried, I would only end up spoiling my own situation and then neither of us would have anything going on. But that's the book, that's the precarity if that's a word, or the precariousness, maybe that's the word of being in the circumstance where you're trying to pull off the LeBron Bryce move and put your friends on, but you really just, you really just can't do it Like you.
Speaker 1:I remember talking to a dude who was a manager, a friend of mine, who I went to college with, who we everybody I just named also knows this guy. He was managing this young, up and coming white boy, like 19 year old singer, songwriter, producer out in Hollywood and this dude had some real steam. I think he got either nominated for or won a Grammy. He was making about $2 million a year, like he was. He was doing well and it was early in his career and my guy had kind of like helped him get to that point, to that sizzle. And my guy was laying low on the internet in our social circles. He's from the same, he's from DC, I'm from Maryland. He was laying low because he didn't want that spotlight of wow, you got this guy going, put me on Because he I mean because he knew and I guess he saw it with more maturity than I did.
Speaker 1:Like he knew you can't.
Speaker 1:You really can't put on anybody who doesn't have their own, like you can't. You can't make someone talented Like you can't make someone work hard. I've tried to have, I've tried to find and work with other versions quote, unquote, other versions of Morgan in different capacities, and you can't. It's not like that. If somebody's not hungry on their own, if they don't want it, if they're not a problem solver, if they're not creative, that's for this field. Like it doesn't matter, I can't do anything. I can't help. Like I cannot fucking help Bryce James if his four friends can't hoop and they start getting their ass bus in that very competitive conference, some of those kids are gonna lose scholarships. Doesn't matter that he's Bryce James, there's nothing that he can do about it. He can't help. So I move, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:When I come back, I'm gonna actually move on to two other stories that are regarding this same phenomenon, which is the idea of people thinking that you can get them in a door when you can't, or the idea of the concept of people getting other people indoors and that being a tanking phenomenon on what it is that they have going. When I come back, we're gonna talk about that a little bit. I just need to sip my water because because, all right, brb, okay, okay, okay, okay. Yes, I played Vogue. I'm gonna play the rest of it later. That's for because it's fashion. Is it fashion week? Fashion week is so confusing, I feel like it's always fashion.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say fashion week is a month and it's like it feels like it's a month every three months. Yeah, but that's fine. Fashion week that is that is. You all know what fashion week is. That's where you don't go to hang out if you are short, all right. So let's talk about, let's talk a little bit more about this thing, about this phenomenon, because I there's somewhere prickly that I want to get to with it and I haven't really gotten all the way into it, so I'm just gonna do that.
Speaker 1:There's two other things that are related here, by the way, we have more like this is gonna be a slightly sporty show, because the NFL came back today. It comes back today, comes back tonight, and I just want, like, I want to make sure people who come here for sports get their fill, and I also just I fucking love sports. So we're gonna talk about sports, but before we get that, we're just gonna talk about this squishy relationship thing, because we talked about Devonte Pack and Jamarran and we talked about like, look man, we do this thing. I'm gonna say black folks, but we all do it. We do this thing where we anxiously attach to each other, we hold on to each other, we support each other, and then often, not always one person gets an opportunity and everybody thinks that's their opportunity, the first one, and it's like in many cases it's not until the fourth, fifth, sixth opportunity that somebody gets that they actually start to amass some real leverage and power because they have already executed several times to get where they're going. But in other cases, what I see I'm just gonna I'll give you a specific example it's a little bit different, because these are not necessarily like opportunities. Nobody has given these people this but like this is what this is. This is indicative of the role.
Speaker 1:So, as I have talked about before, I am supportive of NBA players starting their own podcasts. I think it's awesome. I think, like I like seeing guys dabble with their own businesses, with media, getting their voices out, controlling their narratives and, with that said, most of them suck. However, I think a reason why most of them suck is this I don't think it's because these guys are bad at talking. I don't think it's because these guys are not interesting. I don't think it's because they're a bad hang. I don't think it's because they have poor energy on the mic, because I don't think any of those things are true. Often, I think it's because of dead weight on the set, and here's how that. Here's what that looks like to me.
Speaker 1:Go Google your favorite basketball podcast, or just go Google like NBA player podcast. Right, with Dramond as a notable and wise exception, I think, to this rule. I'm not even sure because I don't listen to this show, but you will generally speak, you will see your favorite player, or whatever this player is Gilbert Arenas, paul George, kevin Durant and then beside them are one or two knuckleheads who you do not recognize from the NBA and they're holding an iPad or they're holding a phone or a notepad or something, and they're always, for whatever reason, this is their co-host. This is the person who they have, quote unquote, brought along to sort of keep the show moving, ask certain questions, hold on to like the list of things that need to happen during the show. This is their security blanket. This is their safety net. This is the person sitting beside them because they're not. They don't do this. Like they don't. They don't know if they're good enough to do this. And, like spoiler alert, I think that they are. If they just knew that they were good enough to do the job without the security blanket.
Speaker 1:But Kevin Durant's guy right? This guy lives in New York City, but I'm gonna say what I gotta say. He next to him is, generally speaking, I don't know what is the guy's name, I have no idea. It's oftentimes also I'm just gonna throw this out there because this is true it's usually a white person or a very, very light-skinned Latin person. I don't know exactly why I haven't done the research, but it always is that right. It's always like some super light-skinned nigga or a white person sitting next to the basketball player. I think they think optically it looks better, or I think they think that that makes them look more marketable, or maybe they just think that person's smarter because of slavish it. I don't know. But what I want to say is that person is oftentimes they are low energy. They are not that interesting to look at. They do not bring anything in the way of a unique perspective to the show. They are doing a like an Ernie Johnson imitation. But Ernie Johnson is in the 99.999 percentile of people who do like the sort of anchoring studio host job, like they can't do that thing, and I think how they get there is this. And I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be super real with y'all. Use my own example, okay, I met Julie Bowen because I wrote a book. Julie Bowen had an enormous platform. She continues to. We got to know each other because she has a production company that was looking for writers to bring into her. Like, she optioned a screenplay that I wrote.
Speaker 1:In the formation of that relationship, at some point I realized, okay, I have this podcast concept I wanna get off called Quitters. I think I could be pretty good at this thing, this podcasting thing. I have a deal with a studio which is Audible where they're giving me a lot of money to produce a podcast but I get no back end, I get no metrics, I don't even know how many people listen to my shit. I wanna do this diff. I want something where I have more ownership. I want something where I have more, where I'm gonna know what the ones and zeros are, where I'm gonna know how much money I should be making from this thing, where I feel a little closer to the audience. It was like a half step between that Audible shit I was doing and this right.
Speaker 1:And now I have a super famous friend who I believe I have intellectual chemistry with, who I believe that obviously is a phenomenal performer, or I should say, taste aside, like whether you like her as an actor, I think she's pretty funny like a marketable performer. I'm like I need to make good on. My mom said this to me years ago when I was working with Spike. She was like enjoy every second that you're working with him, because these relationships come and go. And I was like in my head I was like Mom, what are you doing? You're the fuck. You worked at Verizon. You don't know anything about Hollywood. But like she was right, like people come and go in your life. They come and go in your network. They come and go literally like the closest people to you come and go in your life. So she was right.
Speaker 1:So I thought to myself we have this movie, that Julie has option now, but I think there's more we can do here. I want more exposure to Julie's audience. I want more creative. I want more of a creative connection to Julie. I want my face next to Julie's. I wanna be on video with Julie. I want, like I wanna get the full Julie Bowen experience as much as she is interested and excited to do that right. So I pitched the podcast to her. She's into it. Her producer, rachel's into it, who actually is the person that put us together. Shout out to Rachel, shout out to Julie. We put the whole thing together. We bang out probably 30 episodes of the show to this point, et cetera, et cetera. The point being I non-famous person, person who wanted a shot, pitched that to her. She gets excited about it. We make the thing.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably what is happening with these athletes, which is to say someone in their life and now I'm just, I'm gonna be real, I'm not trying to be an asshole, I'm just gonna be real. Someone with less going on and much less talented than me is friends with an athlete and says hey, man, our group chat conversations are so funny, dog, like you're so smart, like yo, niggas need to know that you're this perceptive. Niggas need to know you're so creative. Like niggas need to know you're so curious, you're so good at talking. Dog, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:And like, quite literally, these niggas are looking up at their tall basketball friends, who are richer than them and cooler than them, have all this shit going on, and their friends are looking back down at them and thinking man, this niggas been right next to me my whole life. This guy can barely pay his child support. I'm a multimillionaire. I don't feel right just cutting him a check. So, like, let me take the ego shower he's giving me and let me say you know what Robbo you are. You are, we are smart as shit dog. Like we should have a show.
Speaker 1:And then they go put some knucklehead shit together and that dude sits next to the athlete and they make. I'm gonna tell you guys what they make, cause I know how much podcasts make. Let's say, they get 300,000 clicks an episode. That means that by the end of the year they will probably be splitting something like after they have paid their production fees. Like very, very, very, very low six figures between them. You know what low six figures means to Kevin Durant? Like I'm sitting on a couch right now. Josh, have you ever lost some change in this couch?
Speaker 2:Oh 100%.
Speaker 1:Do you go digging and looking?
Speaker 2:forward every time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not, hell, no, absolutely not. That's what low six figures is to Kevin Durant. This is like. This is charity money. This is Gil Arena sitting next to the dude on his set Gil's Arena. I can tell you everybody else's name on that set. I can tell you Kenyan Martin, brandon Jennings, rashad McCants. I know they're bona fides. I know who they are as basketball players.
Speaker 1:Pat Beverly comes in the dude sitting right next to Gil who I know is taking a cut on the money they make on that show. I have no idea what his name is and he brings nothing to the show. And that's the version of put me on. That I see happening in this particular industry and, to be honest, it costs Gil Arena. It costs him nothing Like. It costs Kevin Durant nothing Like.
Speaker 1:Sure, you're my boy. You've been with me through. You know you have paid some weirdo tax to stay the closest friend to me throughout the last 20 years or whatever Like. That tax can often look like not telling the truth when you hurt my feelings, but swallowing it. The fact that I ended up stealing that girlfriend you had back in the day, pretending that I'm funnier than I am, pretending that I'm smarter than I am, pretending I'm your favorite player.
Speaker 1:They do this weirdo thing those co-hosts, a lot of times where they're like they gas up how good they're. Like Paul George's co-host will be like yeah, p, like you would have strapped him, blah, blah, blah. I don't like niggas saying you're not good at blah, blah, blah. It's the weirdest fucking thing in the world. But I'm saying it because that's an example of so Bryce James' version of getting his friends in the door. That's my favorite version because I don't think that like I bet his friends can hoop, like he can't get them on the team at Notre Dame if they can't hoop. This is like my middle version of the thing.
Speaker 1:Like Kevin Durant having that relationship with that guy anybody know his name, you know his name, nobody knows his name. That guy sitting next to him on the Kevin Durant podcast like that's in the middle, that one makes me queasy because, like those co-hosts are always talentless and I know how they got in that seat was that they gassed up there? That guy has everything to gain. Kevin Durant has so precious. I know you all might watch these podcasts and think, wow, a million people watched an episode of Kevin Durant's podcast. Like that's really cool, that's good for his brand. That's money in his pocket. It is less money than you think it is. It is way less meaningful to his brand than you probably think it is. It is literally just a fun pet project for him to do with his boy For his boy. That's his goddamn salary. That is everything to his boy. I don't know why that makes me mad. Ha ha ha.
Speaker 2:Eddie Gonzalez.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, we can cut that out. I don't want his name in here Because for what? Like, anyway, that's my middle version of me being, like I think that this is sort of weird. I think that this is objectionable. I think that this is lazy, like I think that the players themselves could do just as good, if not a better, job. Wow, I have a lot of buttons open Without the co-host guy there, but I was just like, went to scratch my chest and I was like, oh my God, my whole fucking chest, I thought you were just giving us the show.
Speaker 2:I didn't mean to.
Speaker 1:I mean, I didn't mean to be, but it's really hot outside. I'm sweating on the way here. Now here's another version of this thing and this one is perhaps the most complicated. I don't know how to evaluate it. I do know how to evaluate those useless super light skinned white co-host. They're useless. Get them out of here. I'm so tired of seeing these things. Get them. They are not entertaining. Get them out of here. They are. I hate it. Get rid of them.
Speaker 1:But here's another version of this thing, the thing which is like the athlete has the asset and the people around them leveraging the asset to have what they want and the asset being leveraged to have what they want. So Caleb Williams, father Carl Williams. Caleb Williams is from DC or Maryland, one of the two. He went to Gonzaga. Caleb Williams, father Carl Williams said in a GQ interview regarding the NFL draft if there's not a good situation, the truth is he, he being Caleb Williams, he can come back to school, which is Carl Williams.
Speaker 1:For anybody who isn't following college football closely, which I can understand, because college football kind of sucks that is Carl Williams saying his son, who is the number one prospect in the country, who is very likely to go number one overall in the draft if he enters the draft. Who plays for USC? Who is a huge star, who makes millions of dollars in NIL deals? Who every time I watch college football well, I mean every time. I just watch last weekend, but every other commercial is Caleb Williams commercial, like he's got, he's got Heismann House commercials, he's got Doritos commercials, he's got Soda commercials. This dude is raking in money hand over fist in NIL deals and, god bless, cause, like as he should be. And additionally he should be being paid by USC. But let's put that aside for a second. His dad is sort of playing the role of agent here and saying, because he can't have an agent yet, because that's the rules, those NCAA rules no agents till you graduate or till you leave college, till you enter the draft. His dad is saying if there's not a situation good enough for my son as the first pick, then he's not going to the NFL, we'll keep him in college for another year. He can keep making money in NIL deals. And, by the way, I just want to say like that is what scares both the NFL and NCAA about these kids making money. Money gives you options. Money gives you leverage. It lets you choose. What do I fucking want? Ew, I'm spitting. It's like money allows you to be like do I want Peter Luger today or do I want Shake Shack? But you get to choose. So if Caleb Williams doesn't want to go play for the Cardinals when they have the worst record in the NFL next year, he can wait a year and then he can go play for I don't know who's going to suck next year, maybe the Rams. Wouldn't that be crazy. Then he could just stay in LA and continue to be a huge star, even though LA fans, you don't deserve that. But the point is this it's that, all those things aside, I love that for Caleb Williams, I love that he has that optionality, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Here's where I felt weird.
Speaker 1:I felt weird because Carl Williams, caleb Williams' daddy, is doing a GQ interview.
Speaker 1:Why, why, like?
Speaker 1:I'm still evaluating you all. I'm still figuring out what. As much as I want to just be all in and just support the black father with the talented black son, the Lanzo, the Lavar ball, the fucking, the Deon Sanders, the Carl Williams, why does something still feel greasy about it? This is a real question. I'm looking inward and I'm asking why does it still feel gross to me. Why does it feel nasty that Carl Williams is doing a GQ interview to me?
Speaker 1:I think part of it is that I know the pressure, the onslaught of judgment and emotional abuse and withholding love unless there are results that an athlete can go through with his father can. I don't know, carl Williams, I don't know if that's what happened, but I know how hard life can be for up and coming athletes. Now I'm not saying by even by my own experience. I mean by like the dudes who I knew, who were way better than me, who were like pro prospects and D1 prospects, like I saw how the older men in their lives treated them like pit bulls that were being trained for dog fighting. Do you all object to that as a point of view? Do you guys think? Do you have you all seen something like that? Have you all seen the way that talented young athletes are treated like they're being trained for fucking dog fighting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, and it's disgusting to me and it is disgusting.
Speaker 1:And then, on the other end of that, after this person has been shaped and refined to a pointed and sharp object that can just pierce through sports all the way to the millions that they want on the other end of it, on the other side of that, the dad who oftentimes is the most objectionable offender in the exploitation of their own son, does a victory lap by doing press, by building their own brand, by sitting courtside and making a show of themselves, by wanting themselves like, by being a celebrity, by trying to live through their sons. I don't like that shit. I don't wanna fucking see Carl Williams in GQ. Wow, I'm spicy today. Like I don't. Like I don't want to see talented people being covered, period. Like that's where I sit with it. If you are not someone that is great at something, stay out of GQ. Okay. If you are not like I wanna see Caleb Williams talk about his upcoming status as a prospect. You know what I mean. I don't wanna hear from his daddy. I just I don't care. His daddy probably tried to play football and he wasn't good enough. All right, that's spicy.
Speaker 1:So here's my thesis on all of these things. It is this, all the pressure that we already know spectacular athletes are under to perform. It is, and not just athletes, entertainers, public figures in general, and rich people, like people who have not just rich, not people who are just born into wealth, but people who have beaten circumstance to become wealthy or notable or to have access or whatever. On top of the pressure that they felt themselves to get to that point, that they feel to stay at that point because they need the resources, there's this additional thing which is get me, put me on, help me, help me. And my resentment of that is two-fold. One is that I have felt, in my own, smaller version, that same pain like that same thing of people being like dog you're in, like get me, get me, get me, get me. And the other thing that I would add to it is I haven't, like I haven't. I want my friends to get me a look, and I feel like my friends haven't been getting me a look in a long time. Like I want to be, like get me, get me, get me to somebody who's my homie and it's bothering me that, like, where did that go? That's really spicy, okay, so I'm gonna play some music and then I'm gonna come back and then we're gonna talk about Football, because football starts tonight. Spicy Got really spicy in here today. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, football, football, football.
Speaker 1:It's football time, so football is here and I've realized that there's a mole listening right now, so I have to be careful what I say here. My friend Tim, me and Tim are going to do a head-to-head teams draft. We're going to each draft teams for the season and then whichever team, whichever collection of teams, wins the most games gets a prize. I don't know, we don't know what the prize is going to be yet, or something, but so Tim is getting a cheat sheet here and that's fine. Even with the cheat sheet, he still can't beat me. So here's what I'm going to do A couple things we're going to talk about some just like two stories that are going on or that have gone on in the last few days in the NFL, and then I am going to, in two sentences, tell you how each team in the NFL season is about to play out.
Speaker 1:Here's the first one Jerry Jones. Always good for a headline, mr Jerry Jones. You know, jerry Jones is the type of old, rich white guy who I feel like is definitely a bad person. However, he just seems like a really good hang and I just sometimes a Southern accent just goes a really long fucking way Like it just did something about it, where it's just like I know you do not care about my rights or my humanity as a person, jerry Jones, but I will drink Johnny Walker blue with you and listen to you tell me stories about the NFL and how you made your money and oil and Texas and all this other shit, because he just seems like he knows what to say. He seems like he would know what shit not to say to make me hate him and I'm amazed by people like this guy. But anyway, that's what Jerry Jones said. It's not even about Jerry Jones, really, but here's what he said.
Speaker 1:Jerry Jones said Jerry Jones traded for Trey Lance recently. Trey Lance being the he was, at this point I want to say, the third or fourth string quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. A couple years ago the San Francisco 49ers traded a boatload of shit to get Trey Lance to move up to draft him number three overall in the draft and he has. Trey Lance is one of my friend, quincy, who's been a guest on this show. He's one of Quincy's most noteworthy clients. So I'm rooting. I'm always rooting for Trey Lance. I always root for everybody that Quincy works with as a quarterback trainer.
Speaker 1:But it didn't work out. And it didn't work out in San Francisco and the Cowboys traded for him and it kind of came out of nowhere, like people. People were talking about Trey Lance being traded for you know, weeks, months, almost over a year in some ways. And then Jerry Jones just pops up and he's like I'll take him and he trades for him. And someone, some reporter, asked Jerry Jones like did you, you know, did you confer with your I'm paraphrasing did you confer with your round table of advisors and GMs and all this other I mean he's the GM and all this other shit before you traded for Trey Lance? And it's funny because most NFL owners you don't see or hear from them. You can't. You can't, if I told you guys, visualize all the NFL owners that you can think of in your head. At most I bet you all have the same two that I have Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft. Do you have another one?
Speaker 2:I have another one, who's?
Speaker 1:that.
Speaker 2:I don't know his name, but because, only because they won recently the Chiefs, I know what his.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't know what he looks like.
Speaker 2:And the Eagles and Dan Snyder.
Speaker 1:But Dan Snyder's out.
Speaker 1:I mean, and I guess, Magic Johnson, if you want to include him as a very small, fractional owner of the commanders. But here's the point the owners stay up in the box until somebody wins the Super Bowl. Then they come down and they're the first people that they hand the trophy to, which I hate and is ridiculous. But Jerry Jones is the opposite. Jerry Jones, he behaves like Vince McMahon. He's out in front, he's like this is my team, I make the decisions here. Y'all are going to hear from me. I'm going to talk into these microphones. I'm going to drink my Johnny Walker blue. You go Google Jerry Jones in a bathroom with woman. You'll find a. You'll find an image that I think gives you a point of view on what his social life is like. It's not pornographic in any way, it's just a woman like I mean, it's weird Like he's like in a bath. You know this image you know this image working.
Speaker 1:He's in a bathroom. There's a woman fully clothed but like on her knees in the bathroom and they're like taking a selfie in the mirror. I don't understand it. Regardless. This is where I'm going.
Speaker 1:I think, because I have this exhibitionist, you know, performance gene thing, that if I were an NFL owner and ordering for sports team, I'd like to think I would do it a little bit more. Like Jerry, I'm not saying the photo in the bathroom, but I mean, this is sports, this is supposed to be fun. Like why can't I, just why is it so serious that I can't go do a press conference and talk my shit? And so what he said when he was asked like did you confer with your team about Tray Lance? Was I didn't have to send it around, I can make that trade in five minutes. He's the president of the team, he owns the team. He does it like. I don't need to hear what these shmucks on my payroll think about this trade. This is my team. This is like this is I built this. This is that. This is Jerry Jonesville. Okay, this is like this is my little Sim City. I don't need anybody to tell me whether I can press a button and put a house here and put a Tray Lance over here Like this is my shit. Why would I like it?
Speaker 1:It was a question that reminded me of the large, expansive distance between how an owner of a business thinks and I bet this scales all the way down to the fucking owner of a Popeyes and how someone like this journalist, who doesn't have a concept for autonomy Thanks, even in their writing. A journalist can't even like that dude, can't even go write a story and ship that story that night Like it has to go through a lawyer and an editor and probably an editor above that person before it shows up. You know at you know Cowboys blogcom in Dallas or whatever you know. And it was interesting to me because it reminds me of something that I'm also playing with in my head, which is I'm making about me. So I have gone out of my way at large, at large and every day growing costs. I have gone out of my way at increasing cost to me every single day and year to maintain some level of like, freedom and autonomy in the shit that I do. And yet still, because I spent so long and I don't just mean like as an adult working in corporations, I mean like as a human in the United States.
Speaker 1:I spent so long having to like squeeze what I want through this kaleidoscope turning prism of what is actually allowed and available and what I'm, what I'm allowed to say, what I'm allowed to want, what I'm allowed to do. I have to, you know, run every decision I make through like all these different advisors. First it's my parents, then it's my teachers and my parents, then it's my coach and my teammates, then it's my school and my fraternity and, you know, my girlfriend, and then it's like my boss and you know my boss is boss and my boss and boss and boss and boss and boss and all the company principles and all this other shit. Like from a baby, where you just do whatever the fuck you want all the time until somebody scoops you up and moves you somewhere else to becoming Jerry Jones or the owner of some shit. I feel like most people lose their sensibility to just be like you know what I feel inspired to do this. I did it Like I want to try Lance on the cowboys, like I got trade Lance now and I guess all three of the people in this room can probably relate to this as business owners, like there's something very special about being able to just say I want to do three shows a week now.
Speaker 1:Or you know what I don't like having born as guests on this show. We're not doing no more guests until somebody is willing to come in here and be real. Or Josh, you've been like we're off on Thursday, walter. Like that kind of you know what I mean. Like I think there's something special about that and I also think, even when having that autonomy, those things still interfere. The idea of rules still interferes here. I still think to myself when we go to cut a reel, like, but like, how's this person going to respond to this? Like, oh, this one person out of the 2000 or 20,000 people who are going to see this reel, what is this one person who I don't even talk to in my life anymore, gonna say what are they going to have to say about this shit? How are they going to clown me? Like, how are they going to say that this is on artistic or uninspired or whatever? So in most cases it's probably fuck, jerry Jones. But in this case I want to say thank you, jerry Jones, for reminding me that when you own something, you can do whatever the hell you want. You can tank it, you can destroy it if you want to, like. That's the other cool thing about ownership is, like you can kill it whenever you want.
Speaker 1:If I had to do, I worked on a project very recently that almost like really took a lot out of me. It was very emotionally taxing, made me very, like, unhappy for months. And if somebody because I don't own that thing someone could call me and say you have to do another year of this, they could do it right now. They could call me and be like yo, you got to do another year of this thing that you hated. And if I had to do that shit again like I would, I don't know what I would do. I would probably just forfeit the money. I would probably just say, like you know what, take the money. I can't do any more of this, cannot work with these people. And Jerry Jones never has to do that. So you know, I guess, shout out to Jerry Jones, but also not, definitely not Okay music. And then we're going to come back and I'm going to tell you what's going to happen for every single NFL team in one sentence, and then we're going to do a little bit of the responding to questions from the internet, and then we're going to take calls and then we're out of here, all right, because it's almost the weekend, okay, you don't know how.
Speaker 1:When a big celebrity like a in my case, because I'm a straight guy like when a celebrity woman who I find to be very appealing finds partnership, and often I'm like, damn like this guy. But then I feel the opposite about that with offset, do you guys understand this phenomenon? When it's like, oh, I really understand how she chose this person, do you? You might not feel that way about offset, the way that I do, but I'm like, oh, this thing is super cool, good looking guy, he can rap, he can dance, his chains look great. Anyway, nobody's feeling me, that's fine, okay. So I'm just saying I get it, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1:Cardi Um Morgan told me to skip all this stuff. The one thing I do want to point out is there's something on this docket that says Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner divorce. The only thing here noteworthy is that I had to ask Morgan this morning who is Sophie Turner and she gave me some context. Joe Jonas also. If you had asked me to name the first names of the Jonas brothers, I would not have been able to give you Joe as one of them. There are three of them Correct and the other two for action the fourth brother is not famous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's not famous. He's like he probably has like five million followers.
Speaker 2:Not a hundred million, okay.
Speaker 1:So what are the three main Jonas's names?
Speaker 2:Nick, Joe and, um wow, the other one, the one that everyone always forget.
Speaker 1:Okay, nick, joe and wow Jonas. And Joe Jonas was married to Sophie Turner, who, I am told, was the tall red head, as Morgan put it, kevin Jonas, kevin Jonas, okay, as Morgan put it, the ice queen on Game of Thrones, and then revealed that she had never seen Game of Thrones. So I'm glad this is on our docket, because between the two of us we can barely talk about it. Um, but sources say Joe saw something unforgivable on the ring camera. So that was the only important part to me was that something around their divorce has to do with Joe seeing something unforgivable on the ring camera.
Speaker 1:And I will say, as I, as my imagination explored, there are a lot of things that you could see that are unforgivable on the ring camera, like infidelity aside, um, let's say, as an example, that she took a poop in the yard, like that would be unforgivable, like that might be a cause for a conversation that leads to divorce. She might have seen him like destroying some of his shit that he really cared about. That's probably not unforgivable. Maybe she was, you know, maybe she squashed a bug and he really cares about, like animal rights or something like that. I don't know.
Speaker 2:But the direct thing was he saw it and knew the marriage was over. From a source what?
Speaker 1:was it? Did she kiss somebody back there? Did she like get nasty back there? And I think about this because I have a security camera and I never look on the footage because it's like if I missed it and it's not affecting me. I don't want to. I don't want to know. Like one time I saw, one time I saw my neighbor like go in my backyard without asking permission and I just but then I didn't say anything, I just put a lock on it because I'm just like, I was like that's weird, but I don't want to bring it up, like don't do that. But you do know I have a 90 pound German shepherd, right. Like I'm just like, do you want to just walk in the backyard when there's a big ass dog back there? All the time I get like, even though fucking skunks in the squirrels don't go in the backyard when they think Penny is around. So why would a person anyway never watch your security camera or else you'll get divorced. So let's go to Aschad. We're going to do Aschad segment. Then we're going to get out of here.
Speaker 1:More people are listening to the podcast. I feel like the rate of downloads it's not like it's like tripled, but I do feel like it has increased. So I say that because we have been bringing the conversation that happens here over to my Instagram and back and over and back, and so I'm going to answer a few of the questions that that I have been getting on Instagram here, and also you can add questions here if you want to, as we continue. And remember to follow me at Chad Sand on Instagram, at Chad Sand, remember to RSVP for our live show on September 28th at the bio I mean at the link in my bio and here we go Ask Chad. We need a much better name for this segment. I also wonder sometimes when other podcast hosts do their little like ask them they're so and so, like ask Ryan Rassillo, mailbag type of thing, like I love it when I used to love it when Bill Simmons did it. But sometimes I wonder like is this lazy content and or is this just like navel gazing content? Is it just like you just want to get your takes off, but like the whole thing, is you getting your takes off? So anyway, we're going to do it. If you guys like it, tell us. If you know matter of fact, if you hate it, tell us, otherwise we'll just keep doing it. So question number one this came from Instagram Do you ever worry about looking quote, unquote, looking like someone else with your product or position?
Speaker 1:By the way, in receiving these questions on Instagram, I have learned I oftentimes underestimate the value of strong written communication, because I can do it, and I have learned that sometimes I have to do a lot of deciphering of what exactly am I being asked here. This one says do you ever worry about quote, unquote, looking like someone else work with your product or position? I think what they're saying is like do you ever worry that your thing is like somebody else's thing? Okay, I'm going to be honest with you all Today. That almost never crosses my mind. I don't think there's somebody else out there whose voice is that similar to mine. And that's not to say like cause we're going to get to some questions about competition and best versus whatever and all that. It's not to say my voice is like quote, unquote, the best. It's just to say like my. I think my point of view and my nature in how I express like through all mediums is pretty singular, and I think there's a few reasons for that One.
Speaker 1:I don't consume a lot of mainstream content We've made a joke of it, but like I really don't be knowing what's going on out there. I really don't know. Like I'm doing this y'all, like I'm when I'm at home, if it's not sports and if it's not hip hop podcasts and if it's not some woo woo like podcast about you know, getting in touch with your feelings or something, or Brené Brown or some shit like that, I will not know it. I don't watch the shows. I watched the best shows, in my opinion, like I watched them over. I was watching Game of Thrones last night and a shield was like nigga, you have watched Game of Thrones like nine times. I was like, yeah, I got to see what they're trying to tell me. Like that's what I feel when I watch the Sopranos over and over. But like I don't be knowing. Tim will show me a meme, he will show me some conversation on Twitter and I have not heard of it. My sister will ask me. My sister told me about the brick lady the other day and she was like, are you going to talk about the brick lady? And I was like I had no idea what that even meant, like I couldn't even decipher what she was trying to say.
Speaker 1:The point is the point being and this is one where I don't know whether this is something that I should give as advice or if this is just the nature of myself which is like. I think there's value in having a little bit of distance from culture. I think there's value in having a little bit of distance from like the zeitgeist, because, for to me, that means that what I come like, I want, what I come with creatively, to be a little bit foreign, to be a little bit alien, to be like a little bit missing the edges of the conversation, so that it almost feels like it's in a different language, like my language. So I don't really worry that much about looking like other people. However, when I started, when I was first writing my first screenplay, I was told I needed to have comparison points that would help point people to what my stuff is like. So I always used to try to like use, you know, atlanta as a reference. I used to try to use the show Billions, which I never even watched because I was writing a show about like a black tech genius. Basically, I used to try to use references to point to what my stuff is like. But no, it's not something I worry about that much, man, I feel like if your thing feels to you like somebody else's thing, then that's a problem, because it means it's not really coming from like your gut and soul and spirit in a way that I think is important. All right, that was long.
Speaker 1:Next one what's helped you work through identity deaths to get to new levels? As a creator, hillary, who is a frequent listener of this show, asked that question Identity deaths that was a term I had not before heard, but I think, given the context, I understand it. I think the question is like how do you deal with, how do you deal with, like shedding certain titles and labels as you move forward in this journey, so that you're not sort of held back and indebted to old versions of yourself? That's how I read it, and I'll say where I'm at now and then I'll say again, like where I was, where I'm at now, I, for about two years, have not known exactly how to label myself and what I do I know writer is like I'm stealing this from Drake, because Drake always says like, at the end of the day, like I can write, and that's really important. And Spike Lee also told me like if you can write, you have a lot of leverage in the rest of this shit, like if you can write. That is the foundational layer of like all this other stuff. So I do probably still like hold close to the title of writer.
Speaker 1:And if anybody, when I meet people in the street or somewhere I don't know, like when I meet people outside and they're like, oh, what do you do? I'm like I'm a writer. That's what I say. Now, the complication with telling people you're a writer is it can go a couple. It can go a few different ways. One, they can be a little condescending, like oh, that's cute. Like you're probably, you know you probably are broke, you probably are struggling, you know you might have you know.
Speaker 1:The next question, naturally, is like oh, like anything I've ever heard of? Or like have you had anything published? And they almost like change their voice like an asshole. And that leaves me to make a decision, because I can either like do a windmill on their head or I can like continue to be like humble and like whatever, which is the option I usually choose because I'm not trying to be confrontational. Another thing that sometimes happens is people get really excited and they're like whoa, like what have you written? Like what you know, anything it's a different version of anything I've heard of, and then that conversation can be a nice one.
Speaker 1:The danger always I shouldn't say the danger, because sometimes I like it, but something that is always there, looming in these conversations with me is for somebody to say let's exchange Instagrams, because once that happens, a dynamic enters that I have no control over. Which is they. Someone will then realize like oh, you are an actual writer with actual stuff going on. And I think if it's bifurcated, some people can become almost like overly deferential, like overly like a pausing in some ways, and other people become like the worst versions of assholes in themselves where they have to like, they now have to like diminish you a little bit. Or like show how unimpressed, show how unimpressed. Oh, like. Oh, you know I'm not phase. I hang around big stars all day. Do you know that reference?
Speaker 1:Do you know that reference Hell. No, that's from the Marshall Mathers EP. That's okay, morgan, do you mind that we always make fun of how young you are?
Speaker 3:No, it's fine.
Speaker 1:Do you tell the truth. If you hate it, then we'll stop.
Speaker 2:We're used to it. Who's we? We as the ninth generation, oh my.
Speaker 1:God. All right now, you just earned an additional 10 years of this. Okay, so I got away from the point, hillary. The point is this to me, which is I am trying to accept that, like I only have really one identity, which is myself, and I am capable of this sounds so woo-woo, but I really mean it. I'm capable of lots of different things, like I can, but I think the way to like announce your identity to people is with product. I think like the way to the way.
Speaker 1:Like to me, you're an author once you have written a book and published it. You're a screenwriter once you have written a pilot or a screenplay. You are a writer when you are in the practice of writing and anything like anything outside of that your podcast, or once you are publishing your podcast. Like once you're recording and editing and publishing your podcast. Like that's to me. It's like what you do defines in many ways what you are to someone. But I try to get away from the idea of like, unless someone just has to bucket me for some reason, I try to shed the idea that I have to like assign one specific, singular label to who it is that I am. In the past, that was very difficult for me, especially when I was trying to get some steam. I really wanted people to accept me as a writer and not think of me as like I don't even know what, just like as nothing. Honestly, how do you talk about your project when you're in a competitive environment? Risky value Okay, I got a few questions about competition.
Speaker 1:I think I mean I think this goes without saying, but I'll just say it which is I believe we are an overly competitive society. I think competition, we use competition, we use a bunch of shit for this purpose. But, like, competition is something that people cling to as a means for trying to find a way to love themselves, as a means for trying to think that they, if I can be better than someone else, then maybe I will be good enough, if I am better than my friends, then maybe that means I'm good. And as someone who struggled with hyper competitiveness for a long time, as someone who has tried to point out in friendships where I think me and some of my friends have been too competitive, and who has lost friends for pointing that out, I just think competition is poison as far as art and creativity are concerned, like if the goal is to make something that's singular and that's meaningful. I don't know why it has to. I don't know why it has to or should be compared to anything else or anybody else. I think competition is like it's like glass. It's like shattered glass in the system of your creative process.
Speaker 1:Every second that I spend if I'm writing my book right now, I'm hopefully finishing it God damn, can I be done? I'm. Every second that I spend that is outside of the flow state of being all the way in the world of what I'm trying to say in that book. Any second that is spent thinking about any other motherfuckers, like book sales or size of platform or anything else while I'm in this process, is useless. It's not even just useless, it's harmful. Like the reader will feel it where you're oh, the author's eyes glazed over. This thing is not as specific and meaningful as the last thing I just read. So now my eyes glaze over and now that person is lost and now the whole point of this thing, which is for me to connect to them, is gone.
Speaker 1:So I think I got several questions about competition in this and it's like I competition. It is something that fuels, I think, people who are all the way, like in some instances, like the most giant and egotistical and the smallest, like in the same way, you know, it's like competition is something that I think people feel when they are not exactly sure who they are or what they do. And again, like I'm not above it, I feel it happens to me too, you know, but I felt it a lot more when I wasn't sure if I had anything going on. I felt it a lot more when, also, it's just a purpose, you know, like the lady in Requiem for a Dream, the old lady who's like eating diet pills every day to get high, and she's just like this just gives me something to live for every day, like this feeling is just something to do every day. I think that's the purpose competition serves for. A lot of people is like just gives them up, it gives them something to cling to, it gives them a meaning. It's like a religion, it's like ah, like, if I can just be one little bit better than the next person, I really I have a.
Speaker 1:I have a, you know, told you all in my book. I'm on it Like I'm at Jack and Jill where I went to college, like I did so much good protecting of all these establishments in my first book, like I did so much good black person shit in my first book, and this time I'm like I told white people how they made me hurt and how they made me mad. Now I'm like gonna tell you niggas how y'all make me hurt and how y'all make me mad. And the way is with competition, which is so fucking small and should be beneath us. Okay, oh, I really didn't answer the question. How do you talk about your project when you're a competitive environment and risk devaluing it? So what's a competitive environment Like? What's a competitive environment y'all? Where would I be talking about my project in a competitive environment?
Speaker 2:I know that's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm like I don't see any of any environment as competitive that you would be pitching your project to. I mean, maybe other people would I mean. I mean, if you're looking at other projects, I mean I guess technically they're the competition. But I have the similar mindset as you in terms of, like, I don't view anything creative really as competition, so it's hard for me to answer that question I would say a Los Angeles mixer.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God Is an extremely competitive like what are you doing? Environment. Morgan, under what circumstances do you think I would attend a Los?
Speaker 3:Angeles competition.
Speaker 2:I know, you know.
Speaker 1:Like what do you? Think it would take for someone to get me to go such a place Like a lot of money.
Speaker 1:Like a lot of money Like a lot of money, like a lot. Morgan said a Los Angeles mixer, okay, okay, all right, let me not be above any of this shit. So I'll give an example. A Los Angeles mixer that sounds like a very specific circle of hell, but I, as an example, we did a screening of the episode of Grown-ish that I co-wrote years ago at the CAA office and in that room were probably 40, 35 to 40 working and or aspiring actors writer, producers, directors, managers, agents between the ages of 25 and 35, particularly treacherous age range as it regards competition and I was like, luckily, I was sort of like I got to be like one of the sort of presenters of the moment because I was, I had written the episode that was going up, but I was very much at the beginning of a climb and I could feel an energy in that room of sizing up.
Speaker 1:You know that thing where people are like kind of. They like kind of make eye contact you with. They're really looking over your shoulder to see if there's somebody better to talk to or if they can get to that other person who they met. The whole reason why they came here was they could talk to that other person. It was like one of those rooms and that's a terrible room to. I enjoyed the experience because it was like a big day for me, but that's a terrible room to like share your art with. It's a terrible like you don't want to be. I'll say it like this in the proactive when I wrote my first screenplay, archer the one that Spike picked up I put a friend of mine helped me put together a table, read at his house, he cooked and it was probably like eight of us, eight people who I knew well, close friends, and I'll be honest, like yeah, that's so fucking crazy In that room of eight people I don't even talk to four of those niggas today, but like at the time we were all kind of like it might have only been six people, but like we were all kind of trying to like get our footing in creative industries. One of us was well ahead of the rest of us, but like it felt like a safe room. It felt like a room where people were going to show up, do their best, support their friend, be honest, give real feedback, Like to me, the only place where you should be sharing your project. Well, okay, let me not lie At the beginning of the process while you are still making your project, I would suggest only sharing it with people who can help.
Speaker 1:People who can help with resources, people who can help with energy. People who can help with feedback that you trust. People who can help with expertise. Maybe somebody knows how to put a border around your ship. Maybe somebody knows a better grade, camera grade that, or lens grade that you should be using. Somebody knows, like, the English language better than you who can help you with the writing, whatever it is like. Only share it with people who can actually help you and who feel incentivized to do so.
Speaker 1:On the back end, once your shit is built and you, if you think it's fire like I, have no problem pointing somebody to direct deposit. Anybody in the world if they want to know what I can do, I'll be like you know, go listen to this show. Go listen to this show on Audible. There's no paywall. It's like if you want to just listen for 10 minutes to like how I can write, how I can talk, how I tell a story, some crazy shit that's happened in my life, how I think about things like, go look at that If they come back to me and they say that was boring or that was ass. That tells me everything I need to know about their taste level. So once your thing is done and you feel good about it, share it with anybody who cares, competitive or not, like that. That's my point of view on that.
Speaker 1:Have you ever turned down a job because of your morals or values, even when you didn't have something else lined up? Morgan asked this question. I think the answer okay, actually because of my morals or values. That's a good question. Have I turned down? I don't think I don't think because of my morals or values? I mean I mean I value like um taste artistry, like I value think like yes. The answer is yes. I turned down things all the time because I think that they will not have legs.
Speaker 1:I think that the team around them, um, let's say as example, I was, I was um, I was committed to help someone very famous write a children's book and I could tell soon into the process that the team around the team that they had built around me as the creative in this process, was not highly invested in the, in the project Um, did not have a high taste level, did not understand the publishing industry and after a few repetitions of trying at the thing. Now this is, this was I guess this is a shame on me Like I just stopped working on it because I could, just I could just feel like this isn't, this is going to be a waste of time, like this is not going anywhere. Um, they probably thought, cause they were famous, that we could just walk it in and it would get bought, and like publishing doesn't work like that, like it doesn't matter, like you still got to have something to say. And a few months later, um, my agent got a letter from this person and their team that, like I had been terminated and I guess I like, kind of quiet, quit that project as an example.
Speaker 1:Now there's been other shit where I still haven't gotten great at the just like, no, like I'm not, no, no, thank you, like, no, thank you. Um, I haven't gotten great at that. I either, like just keep kicking the can, like, oh, I'm so busy right now. Can we, you know, talk about this in a month, or I? Another one that I need to get better at is like the redirection, like, um, oh, man, this would be great for so and so, like I got a friend who's such a great writer and blah, blah, blah, like you should really talk to them about that, cause I don't really know shit about this world or whatever, but I I turn down things all the time, either because the people involved I cannot stomach or the project itself I cannot stomach, and both of those, to me, are a great reason to not work on some shit To me. Um, but morals, no, never, never, never.
Speaker 1:How do you suggest those in the beginning of their careers navigate opportunities? Do you suggest that they just take every opportunity that comes their way? Um, I strongly suggest that they evaluate what is an opportunity and what is a trap. Um, opportunities, I think should be, should be made good on traps, and time sucks and energy sucks I think should be avoided at all costs. Uh, morgan, for you, you're like you have you have like 99 percentile energy level of anybody that I have ever worked with, where, when it comes to just like it just feels like you have bright, clean energy every single day. I mean, I'm sure you don't feel that way every single day, but like that's what comes off of you and that is more valuable than a good idea, a track record, a budget Like that's like the, that's like among the most valuable things that someone can have in any creative industry is that. And I feel like the only thing that can rob you of that right now is trying to pour that type of energy into stuff you don't care about. You don't like people, you don't like um, dead ends Like that's that's how. Like that's how people lose that, that's how people, that's how that energy gets. Just like that's how that industry, that's how that energy gets contaminated, that's how that industry, that energy, gets lost.
Speaker 1:I, my point of view is like avoid anything that doesn't feel like. Some things probably are scary because they're big opportunities and you believe in them and you're worried about you and you feel like an imposter and I don't know if I can do this and like blah, blah, blah. Those are not things to avoid, but the things to avoid are the ones where you can feel it Like you, if you're being honest with yourself, like I can feel this person as a schmuck. I can feel this project is not cool. You know what I mean. I can like, I can just feel it Like. I think those have to be avoided. Like the plague, I would not take every opportunity.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to play music for one minute and then I'm going to run through every single NFL team and give you one sense on their season and then, um, we're going to get out of here. So give me a second, give me a second, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, we're going to go through every single NFL team and tell you what's going to happen in their season. Here we go, all right. So, in alphabetical order the Arizona Cardinals are going to suck. They're trying to get the first pick in the draft. They are going to probably win two or three games. Kyler Murray they're starting quarterback. We'll probably only play I'm going to say he's going to play nine games total and they're going to get the number one pick. They're trying to tank for Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1:The Atlanta Falcons the only thing you need to know about them is, beyond Robinson, their star, running back where they just drafted. He's going to be electric and otherwise they're going to suck. They're going to win seven games. The Baltimore Ravens Lamar Jackson is back. He got his money. They have a great. They have a great coach. They have a strong defense. They have some. They have speed at every position on offense. I think they are going to win 11 games.
Speaker 1:The Buffalo Bills are starting to fall apart this year. Josh Allen I know someone from Buffalo. I have a new friend from Buffalo and she tells me that Josh Allen is everywhere. He's on every wall, he's on every cereal box. The scoop is that he got a bartender pregnant. I'm not reporting that, that's just the word.
Speaker 1:Carolina Panthers oh, the Buffalo Bills are going to win eight games. Carolina Panthers are going to be better than people think. They have Bryce Young as their rookie starting quarterback. People think he's too small because he's like 5'10", 190 pounds or something like that. I don't think it matters. The quarterbacks are so protecting the NFL today. I think he's going to be fine. I think Carolina Panthers are going to win nine games. That's going to be a good season for them. The Chicago Bears Justin Fields is going to be a top five MVP candidate. Justin Fields, I think, will finish fifth or better in MVP voting this year. I think they're going to win 10 games.
Speaker 1:Cincinnati Bengals oh, I got to speed up. Cincinnati Bengals are going to be great, as always. Joe Burrow is amazing. So is Jamar Chase 12 wins for them. Cleveland Browns I don't know how to talk about the Cleveland Browns, but I think they're going to win 10 games. Dallas Cowboys second best defense in the league, probably the scariest defensive player in the league in Michael Parsons, and offense that I think will hum, as it often does when Dak is healthy. I think the Cowboys are probably going to win 10 games.
Speaker 1:Denver Broncos seven wins. Russell Wilson as much as I want him to succeed under Sean Payton, I think the Denver fans are going to turn on him. Detroit Lions are getting lucky that they are playing the Underman Chiefs tonight. Detroit Lions are going to win nine games. They're going to just miss their over under, which is nine and a half. Green Bay Packers Jordan Love is going to be. I think Jordan Love is going to be really good. I think he's going to have a season not quite as good as who's the Seahawks quarterback? No, geno Smith, geno Smith. Not quite as good as Geno last year, but I think he's going to. I think he's going to play really well.
Speaker 1:I think that this is going to again. The Packers, I think, have a franchise quarterback under center who sat for the first couple of years of his career. I think the Packers are going to win nine games. Houston Texans are going to be really bad CJ Stroud I just want to quince his clients. So I hope that he's good, but I think the Houston Texans are going to suck. They're going to win five games.
Speaker 1:Indianapolis Colts Um. Anthony Richardson, um culture going to win six games. They're going to be really bad, but I think he's going to be like uh, something unbelievable as far as an athlete. As a quarterback. I think he's going to be like Josh Allen on steroids Hopefully not real steroids, though Um, where are we at Jacksonville Jaguars? Same exact season as last year creep into the playoffs, win a playoff game and then Peter out again. So they're going to win 10 games. Kansas city chiefs are always amazing. They're the warriors of the NFL. I think once they have Travis Kelsey and Chris Jones back, you know, available and healthy, I think they will hum along as they always do.
Speaker 1:13 wins Las Vegas Raiders are terrible. They should not be an NFL team in Las Vegas. They're going to keep losing guys to um atrocities. So they're going to win like six games. Los Angeles Chargers I think this is Justin Herbert's year to really look like an MVP candidate. I think they're going to win like 12 games. Los Angeles Rams are going to suck. Six wins. Miami Dolphins Um Tua is going to play like 10 games, but he's going to get concussed again and he's going to miss most of the season. Um, tyree Hill is going to be as electric as ever, no matter who's back in the backfield. But the Miami Dolphins are going to win like eight games. Minnesota Vikings that's my team. Uh, shout out to Joe Flores, the, the defensive coordinator, who should be a head coach right now, but he got screwed. Um, justin Jefferson, jordan Addison we are going to win 11 games.
Speaker 1:New England Patriots, I think, are going to be better than people expect. I think this is going to be. I think the Tom Brady hangover ends this year. I think the Patriots are going to win nine games. I think that the Patriots okay, I'm saying it, the Patriots are going to surprise everybody by beating the Philadelphia Eagles in week one. New Orleans Saints uh, derek Carr, we're just never going to believe in you, bro. Eight wins.
Speaker 1:New York giants 10 wins. Second Barkley, new York jets I'm a believer. Sauce Garner, garrett Wilson, two of my favorite five young players in the NFL right now. Probably between the two of them, aaron Rogers will be serviceable. He's a good quarterback when he's good. Uh, 10 wins for them.
Speaker 1:Philadelphia Eagles are going to be dominant, as usual. I think they're going to lose in the Super Bowl again. That's where I put them. Um, I'll say 12 wins for the Eagles. I hope some. Well, these will always be on this episode so we can come back and look at them.
Speaker 1:Steelers, steelers, mike Tomlin 10 wins, I have nothing else to say. San Francisco 49ers uh, they're going to take a step back. 10 wins for them and Brock Party is going to be exposed. Seattle Seahawks Gino, uh, nine wins. I think they're going to be like the very most average team in the NFL. 10 to eight bucks You're going to suck. Baker Mayfield is going to be out of the league soon. Six wins Tennessee Titans Boring. I got nothing interesting to say about the Tennessee Titans. Seven wins, no. Eight wins. Washington commanders, as usual, will underperform. The Washington football team Always lets its its fans down. The Washington commanders are going to win six games, that's it. Those are my professional NFL picks. Um, we're going to play some music and then we're going to get out of here. Actually, we're going to take a call. Let's see if somebody wants to call in. Maybe Brian will call and he can tell us about what he did yesterday. Call in line is open Brian. How you doing, sir, I know Okay.
Speaker 1:You started your. You launched your self made dad series yesterday. Can you give us a fear update, given where you were at on Tuesday?
Speaker 3:So Tuesday, the voices in my head were telling me hey man, you're about to be exposed, it's time to fucking panic. Woke up on Wednesday not feeling any of that shit, partially because I was a it was my birthday so I woke up feeling juice, feeling energy. I felt like I had the vitality of a 25 year old man, boosted by the fact that when I went out in a bout in the world, somebody asked me like oh, how old are you now? And I was like oh, I turned 40. And they were like you're how old now? I was like 40. And they're like I need to get Joe genetics. Um, so my ego was feeling very big and that was good.
Speaker 3:In addition to that, leading into the show, I decided to Deal with my anxiety by listening to what I have come to accept are some of the best rappers of this generation, all women, all women. Uh, lotto and like in Coy Leray, just like other core, have changed my life in terms of what I expected out of rap rappers. Anyway, that's not the point. Point is I got myself hype before the show did. The show did the thing and I felt I felt I'll come back to how I felt but I felt okay, uh, but the fear is gone, in that I got the thing done. I did the thing, mostly got positive feedback. Nobody decided they were breaking up with me as a friend, um, and so it was. It was productive and and and. So just to circle back to the how I felt after the show and reinforce a point that you made earlier, um, I had a few people who were like turned in or like you know. They were like, oh man, this is. I didn't realize this is what you're doing now. This is really good. I've had more than one person just like react that way where, like the title hits them in the heart strings, they get it, they feel it, they are self my dad I've had people watch him be like damn, like, seeing you open up has helped me open up. They've even sent me videos of them opening up where they were like I'm going to talk about my dad. Here's a video of me talking about my dad, um, and so that's been reinforcing.
Speaker 3:I feel specifically about the show. I will like finish the show. And then I thought to myself how do I feel about that show? I re listened to it and I still am not sure how I feel about it, and I think that currently what I've recognized is I have still have a shield up from connecting with how I feel about the thing I just did, because I feel like I'm like scared of the flaws of the show, like scared of the flaws of the thing and like seeing, like really anchoring to that, like to be specific, it's like sometimes, you know, like I go back and watch like old footage of myself doing stuff.
Speaker 3:I'm just like, oh my God, I can only see the negative stuff. And then I feel like everybody can only see the negative stuff and I project out this like big impact of like the negative stuff when in reality it's probably fine. So like I'm trying to tighten up the emotional connection cycle between I did a thing, I can look at a thing and connect with how I actually feel about it and what actually happened, as opposed to what I'm projecting. I feel about it and I think that that is thematically the point you were getting at last, whatever last show in like projecting the thing, projecting what's happening makes it bigger and more scary than the actual thing that's happening and like I feel like that's kind of like a microcosm what's happening with my recap for myself of the show yesterday. So that's the update. I will take questions.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, the thing that's sitting right there is like is there a way that you can see around? Whatever's blocking you, your ability to see how you feel about it?
Speaker 3:You know, I thought about that a little bit more and so I caught up with a buddy of mine yesterday who watched the show and he was like man, you know, it was really good. And I was like, oh, really, you think so. And he's like, yeah, man, like I just I feel it, I relate to it. You know, I'm thinking about getting older myself and I, and like throughout our conversation over dinner topics about like how he had been a self made dad, came up and like how it presented his relationship and how it presented in his own like internal narrative and his like parenting. And it wasn't like I was forcing it, he was just like, yeah, man, and like I just realized now that you phrase it as self made dad, I can see, oh, like I had to teach myself this thing, maybe that I need to look at it and like which is kind of what I'm doing right, like that's the purpose of this is like I'm looking at how I constructed my own identity with this dadhood, manhood thing and asking myself, like do I keep this shit? So I bring that up to say that I have found that getting input from people I trust emotionally more so than like who have done the thing, but like who I know will deliver, like I trust will say the thing and they mean it and they're not going to like blow smoke up my ass and if there's some criticism, they'll deliver it in a way that is safe, so I can hear it. Because I need to work up to like my confidence level and like engaging with like like criticism for myself, like I can't do it myself, I need to react from someone else doing it Like that is help, like that helps shorten the cycle. So I think, in the near term, like I think I'm just going to construct myself a little like pot of people and be like hey, man, like what do you think? And they may say you know, good, you dipped an energy in the middle there. But like the words will help me connect with what I'm feeling inside and give me the language for it so I can recognize that feeling like oh yeah, I think out, my gut was telling me that same thing, but I couldn't articulate it. But that's not a like go wide group right, it's like a hey, I have like two or three people that I feel like I trust and whose judgment I respect and is usually aligned with mine, and I'm going to bounce how I'm feeling off of their words to find recognition in the feeling or in like the intuition that I'm developing around evaluating my own work.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, man, I think it's been a, it's been interesting and like I'm saying this, I feel like I'm saying this more clearly today and this is a perfect example of like I kind of just needed some iterations at it because, like last show, I was trying to say something similar but it wasn't coming out clearly because I didn't have the words for the experience yet to be able to say hey, this is like what's going on with me and so, like I need this to solve that problem and I'll get better at it over time. But like in conclusion, that's like where I was, like that's what I think I need right now. It's like a little bit of a trellis as I grow to be able to like reach high. As you know, the plant of this thing grows. That metaphor got off the rails there, but you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I think so. This is a question, I guess, separate from like how did you? How do you feel about the outcome? The question is do you feel like what happened was what you envisioned, like? Do you feel like what came out was what you meant to come out?
Speaker 3:I'd say, hmm, I'm going to deconstruct this, I'd deconstruct that into my plan versus was it me? And I feel like it was me. I don't feel like I held back and maybe like pulled a little bit of a punch. I was making at one point because I was making this point during the show about how, like aging as a man, like it kind of gets easier and I recognize that in all facets like you have a little bit of money, you have self confidence, you're like stronger in a lot of cases physically and like if you're somewhat stable, then like the world, some bullet women are like, oh you, you, I want you. You seem like the thing. So you know, it just feels like it gets easier. But my wife joined right when I was making that point as I pulled that punch a little bit. But, point being that I feel like generally I felt like I was being me and I feel like that translated Did it follow the plan? Yes and no. I feel like you know, okay, first number one everyone has a plan until I get punched in the face. So I started the thing and I think where I got punched in the face was I looked up and I was like, oh man, I'm like barely through my first segment and I'm like halfway through the time that I had intended this to take this like whole show, to take Like I wanted it to be 30-minute show, 15 minutes in. I look up and like, oh shit, I'm still on topic one of three. I should probably speed this up, and so I had to adjust on the fly, which I'm generally pretty good at. But I feel like that experience taught me that there's a little bit more refinement in getting to what I really want to talk about. So I have less things to hit on and things I can just go deeper on, and so, yeah, so I feel like I accomplished a thing.
Speaker 3:I got an episode out. I talked honestly about how I'm feeling about turning 40. I felt like it was my voice for the most part and you know, I didn't like I don't think it sucked. I feel like I can tell when it sucks. It didn't suck. I'm not sure if I felt like it was like A plus, it might be like B plus, but I feel like all the other boxes are checked and yeah, I don't know, man, like kind of just observing how you run your show. I feel like you kind of have like a run of notes but then not a lot of detail, like I'm going to do this and this and this and this and this, not like a lot of steps, and I'm trying to get to that. But having this like headline and then simple, as simple, as simple as like, just reminds me what I actually wanted to say, and I need to give myself some space to freestyle. Is that how you kind of like, set yourself up with your, your run of show?
Speaker 1:Um, so we have a. We have a list of shit that I'm supposed to get to or can get to if I choose it. There are there's like one or two sub bullets that say, like the most important quote, or like I don't know, like the number. If there's a number I need to remember, like some some cyber metric there, like some. If there's a really important detail that I need to have for it, it'll be there.
Speaker 1:But I mean honestly, like, the reason why I don't do it with a ton of notes is because it just can be clunky, clunky trying to. It just gets clunky trying to stick to the script, like. It gets clunky trying to like make sure I hit this thing and that thing. And I also think that the audience can hear when I'm being present versus when I'm trying to like stick to you know, whatever, whatever's the. You can hear the difference between when I feel conviction and I'm just like and it's in me, versus, um, I'm trying to be a reporter and like tell you exactly what's going on with the thing. So kind of similar, kind of sort of similar. Um, what else do you want to talk about, brian? I think, um, I think I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I think what I'm hearing you say is, like you, you are learning how to know what you feel about what you've done. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think like and this is this is something that, um, as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate I have to work on is I may have like a feeling or an intuition in my body, but I don't have the language to articulate it, but I can feel it and so I may act on it. Right, I may act on it sooner than I have words for it which, to like frankly, like my wife or like people close to me, they're like what can you do when you're moving really fast? Right, but over time, and like I've, I've recognized that that cycle happens. So I've I've made an intentional effort to try to have like a couple of people around that I can bounce things off of and start to safely develop the words for it, so that when I'm faced with a thing, I can be like this is why I'm doing it. Some of that's like internal introspection and it's not something I'm like great at.
Speaker 3:I think I mentioned that last show, but you know, I think like, as an example, you making that point about the script point, like I'm like there were parts of the show that I did yesterday. I felt that way. I was like man, I feel like I'm really sticking to the script too hard and like I could feel it in my tone. But like I didn't really come to that and like, until you just said that, but it was like a feeling I was having and I even like scratched out like the segments for the next show, I was like I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this part, I'm not doing this part. It just fell too forced, fuck it. But like I couldn't really articulate that. That was what was I was feeling. I just knew it didn't work, like so. So I think they're like kind of tightening that cycle up is key.
Speaker 3:But yeah, man, I got to jump in a couple of minutes, so I didn't really have a lot to talk about, except for the fact that I wanted to say that you got to keep doing what you're doing here, man, in addition to you just exploring deep topics and modeling a level of internal introspection and vulnerability that helps create like a space for real conversation, which I think is really important. You know, like I'll say as a, as a person of one obviously learned a ton just by watching you do the thing, and I know we align on the value of owning your own shit and like my vision has increased in the ability to own my own shit, specifically in a space that all of the internet, including an article I sent you yesterday, will tell you that people don't make fucking money at like podcasting and shows and shit. But I think that you know, if this is, if you really take it as a view of building a community and building a like you know, to a certain extent, a movement like, I think that you can make a sustainable living doing a thing that you want, engaging in the way that you want with people that, like, are thinking about things you care about. So I'm excited about that and that is a direct like.
Speaker 3:I have been surfing the wake of you doing it, so I just wanted to say thanks and I keep fucking doing it. Everybody needs to leave a like on this fucking show nothing but anarchy and go review it in Spotify or whatever the hell else you need people to review it in, because this is the vow like. This is the pay it forward that it looks like Chad did the thing. Now I'm doing a thing I expect y'all to go do the things. I appreciate that. That's what I got.
Speaker 1:No, I really appreciate that. I and someone said it in the chat sound. I like said in the chat, but I should also just say it out loud. Like you know, the qualitative judgments of how something comes out are obviously important, but like just doing it, like getting getting out the door and then getting back up to bat again when it's time to do it again, like that that's the real shit, because everything can improve, everything always improves, like if you're being honest with yourself and if you're being diligent at it, but like just getting out the door with it is the feat. So congrats, man, I'm happy for you. Y'all can find him at Brian Lee Shields on Instagram Sorry, at Brian Lee Shields on Instagram, and I appreciate you saying that, brian.
Speaker 1:I am starting to notice like a core of people coalescing who are trying to, you know, who are trying to get their own, grow their own like platforms, build their own communities, get their own voice out there. And I think podcasting is like the music industry, like there's a bazillion people making music and, you know, a small fraction of those people will be able to make some money off of it and a much smaller fraction will be able to make a fortune off of it, and I think if we're consistent and if we just keep doing our thing like every time, that's supposed to come will come, and it's already starting to. So I really appreciate the words of encouragement. So, all right, that's it. For nothing but anarchy. I'm going to go and I appreciate y'all being here. Bye, bye.
Speaker 2:Bye.
