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. #89 Invasion of the Therapists, 10 Things to Know Before You Quit Your Job, Life Post-Google, AI & Tyler Perry
On this episode, Chad (as a therapized person) criticizes the involvement of therapists in our personal lives. Then, he recaps the 10 things someone should know before they quit their job and leaning into AI.
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
All right, welcome to nothing my Anarchy. We have a bunch on the docket today, so I'm going to jump right in. This is going to be a relatively high level of difficulty show, because there are some things on the docket today that require some level of precision by me. I can't just spew, so let's see how I do First, before we do any of that. We, morgatron and I, went to Chanel. Wait, am I allowed to talk about this? You told me you don't talk about it.
Speaker 2:No, I said, you can talk about it, okay.
Speaker 1:All right. So me and Morgatron went to Chanel on Thursday. That's why there was no show on Thursday. I was hired to do a book talk and it was kind of a book talk. It was probably like half a book talk. We I had a conversation with the what were they called? The Black Chanel Collective? What are they called?
Speaker 2:They're the Black Employee, the.
Speaker 1:Black Employee Collective at Chanel, basically. So it was maybe half Black folks that worked at Chanel, half people of other demographics that worked at Chanel. The president of Chanel US was there, the COO of Chanel US was there, or Chanel North America was there, and it was. It was interesting because Morgatron was just making fun of me because I had to adjust my bandana before the thing started and then I couldn't get it right and I threw it off and it was like we mid conversation mid conversation.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was like we were doing the show at Chanel, which I think is a much more interesting and engaging way to do. Most of the time it's like I've been on both sides of this right. I used to be in the Black Googler network when I worked at Google and the company hires somebody who they think can come and speak to the Black employees about, like Black stuff. Basically, I don't want to like technical term this to death and it's usually someone that's like. It's usually a speaker who someone who works at the company is a fan of. They may have recommended that person to the rest of the group, got some energy behind it, find a budget for it and pay the person to come and talk. And I've probably done like 20 or so of these talks since my book came out in 2021. But this was if it wasn't the first one. It was the first one at a, at a corporation of this size, where I was actually live and live in color with the people, Like before.
Speaker 1:I've done one of these in Netflix on Zoom. I've done one for Target, I've done one for. I've done a couple for Google, I've done Twitter like, but they were always on Zoom and you just can't like get the same, you just can't make it happen the same way, you can't like feel the room the same way. You can't see if somebody agrees with you, you can't tell who's paying attention, and so what ended up happening was we basically just ended up doing the show at Chanel, which was like I was, there was some engagement with Morgan while I was on stage. There was like there was a lot of humor. I would say there was, it was it was.
Speaker 1:I got an amen out of somebody. Yeah, like I could feel and tell that the people that, like this is the thing, the black folks who work at the company that you're at, I got to actually feel it, but I know it on Zoom, but I got to feel it differently. They want to nod and laugh and be excited, but it takes like 30 minutes for them to thaw from the feeling that their bosses are in the room and it's scary for your bosses to know how much you resent them in real life. Okay, and so I could see that I could feel it. I kept telling them if you guys feel what I'm saying, not at me, like, move your body, it's okay. Like it's, you're supposed to be safe in this room. Now, of course, I know they're not safe in the room because their bosses are there Like, and quite literally, the president of Chanel North America is there. That's not even to speak to, like what that person's point of view is or how they would treat them or whatever. It's just like nobody feels safe with their boss in the room. Nobody feels totally safe at a corporation with their boss in the room. So I thought it. I personally had a lot of fun. I think they had fun. I think it was meaningful to them.
Speaker 1:I hope we get to do more of that stuff. I don't know. That's just recap. That's why we weren't here on Thursday. Here's some stuff on the docket today. Also, tia Mowgli is supposed to be in this room at some point during this show, so when she comes, we will. Well, you probably won't even know that she's here until she can have a microphone, she'll be right back. All right, great Tia's our, our, nothing but anarchy resident DJ. Here are some things that are on the docket today Wee and therapist, specifically quitting Google.
Speaker 1:Okay, I got extremely instant. I'm getting quite. I'm getting very Instagramming. All right, I'm like, I'm in, I'm in there, I'm in Instagram. I feel like I'm like a little Super Mario character swimming around in Instagram, like when you go down the tube on Super Mario and you're like in that little under layer, I'm in there. I'm in there and I'm watching people like Gary Vee, who I've mentioned, like Mark Madsen I think this is the last name the guy who wrote the subtle art of not giving a fuck. I'm watching people who make stuff and who are good at branding themselves and speaking to their audience. I'm watching what they do and I'm trying to adapt what I do to that. So I see that these people I'm trying to like use all the tools in my tool set. Okay, one of the tools I have is I'm I'm good at writing. I'm good at writing in long form. I'm good at writing in short form. So I'm like there's something I want to convey to people right now, which is in a week it will be 10 years to the day that I quit my job at Google, that I left Google to go work at a tech startup.
Speaker 1:That was like a half step toward this. That was like me. That was really me taking the plunge and being like I'm out of here, this is not the life that I want to have. And I was young. I was like, well, I was 25, morgan, and I was like this is not it, this is not the life I want to have, like I'm getting the fuck out of here. The hardest conversations that I had the two were the conversation with my mom, because my mom was very scared. I think my mom is always a little bit scared for me or or of what will become of me, because you know your kids and I think she's known since I was very, very little, that I will run fast towards something that I feel and I just felt like I got to get the fuck out of here. This is not feel right, this is not good. I don't want to over talk, because I've written and talked a lot about this thing and so I quit and I left, and it's been 10 years since then and I have learned a bunch about what it takes to survive and to build a life for yourself that doesn't have a corporate backing behind it, that doesn't have a corporate shell around it, that doesn't have somebody telling you when you can get up and take a piss. And I distilled that information into 10 principles, 10 lessons, 10 things that I have learned, 10 things. I wish honestly like people tried to teach me this stuff.
Speaker 1:When I was in this place, when I was first kind of going out on my own, people tried to let me know what was what, but I couldn't hear it right because I just hadn't had the experience and I didn't. I was, I was disoriented. I was like so much was coming at me fast and also so much was not happening fast that I wanted to happen fast that I just couldn't digest it. But now that it's been 10 years.
Speaker 1:I've had some time to process some of this stuff and I distilled it down into these 10, 10, it's, I guess I would say, of things that matter, things that you're going to want to know when you quit your job. I'm going to get into those two 10 things, but right at this particular second, I'm disoriented because Morgan left the room. Okay, she's back. Hi, tia, all right, so Tia's here. We're now going to welcome Tia, and then I'm going to get back into the thing that I was saying, because I come, because I'm just going to be lost if I try to just plow right through it. So that's hi to you. Are you ready to talk or do you want a?
Speaker 1:second no, I'm good, okay, all right. Tia's here. Tia's our resident nothing but anarchy DJ. I had a personal conflict this morning. I knew that Tia was going to be here, and so I applied to myself extra shea butter, because Tia's skin is always poppin, but Morgan hates for my skin to be shiny on camera.
Speaker 2:Why do you have to apply it to your face?
Speaker 1:Just put it because, because I knew Tia was going to be here and I didn't want to be up staged by Tia's poppin skin and I knew that that was going to happen. It's fine, you made me wipe it off. It's all good. Tia, what's going on? How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 3:I'm feeling good. I'm a little tired but I feel good because I look even out last night.
Speaker 1:But where did you go last night?
Speaker 3:My friend DJ last night at Deluxe Flux for, like this guy's after party, dustin Dustin Conrad, he sings.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm going to start listening to his music this morning, but then I turned it off. Why? I thought it wasn't good, but I just was like I can't hear this right now.
Speaker 1:So you're okay, you aren't feeling it. Well, that matters, because you are. You are a DJ with a high level of musical taste. Um, okay, where was the party?
Speaker 3:Um, it was on 14th Street. It was cute. It was Deluxe Flux. Have you been? They have one in, like I forgot where it bolted. Is it Baltimore? I think in Baltimore, okay, and then they opened one in New York. It's really cool. It's like a neon kind of room, really cute, kind of small, but kind of cute, kind of big Really.
Speaker 1:Oh, that looks pretty. Yeah, it's dope.
Speaker 3:It's a really dope spot Um did you get some good photos. No, I just went there to support her, so I just was chilling, honestly, but no one. Every time I go there, no one ever dances. So it's like it's never like they dance, but it's like never gets super.
Speaker 1:It's never like dancing, dancing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's never gets super turned.
Speaker 1:Is that? Why? Is it like two? Is it like a little posh in there? Is it a little?
Speaker 3:pretentious, I don't know, it's not. Though Every time I go there I never see anyone like I never see it get like like the height of the party or even to a party and it's like super lit Like I never go there and see that.
Speaker 1:Word.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's the DJs or like the crowd, I don't know. It was super cute, it was cute.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't think I told you this, but um, the party that you had that I went to by myself, oh, so I had so much fun.
Speaker 2:It was lit, he talked about it. He was like I had so much fun.
Speaker 1:I did because it was like the kind of like it's hard to find For me. It's hard to find a party like that in New York.
Speaker 1:I feel, like that's more of like a Southern, even like where I'm from in Maryland, like the parties are kind of a little more like that. It was like really, really good music. It was a lot of like trap and dance, trap dance music being played, like people had their hands on the floor, like it was like it was sweaty, like it was Someone told you how to speak, how to devote or exercise to yourself, and and you attended a course of thought.
Speaker 3:There's probably other ways to speak. For you, it's it's called spiritualOWN, really the deeper, spiritualown side of you that threw some love and effort towards ourselves. For me, it was the best experience I've ever had the and, and there's something.
Speaker 1:I'd like to make. Then she had kind of stayed in, pretty consistent with religion as well, the opposite. So then I don't think that I safely watch it. I got to skip the line and stand on the stage and it was really fun, okay, okay, um, all right. Therapy. Yes, we're gonna move quickly, it's fine. Okay, therapy we're not gonna move that quickly, but we only have.
Speaker 1:There are four things that I have to get you to today Therapy, quitting Google, ai, artificial intelligence. And then there's a bonus item here which, for the armchairs in the room, you guys quickly and fervently let me know in my DMs that I had hurt Monica Padman's feelings and so I need to address that. I'm going to address it a bit, but I'm going to address it more in longer form. On the Love Project, on my sub-stack. But here we go. All right, therapy.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing it occurs to me. I talked about this a little bit on direct deposit, but a lot of y'all think direct deposit is a paywall. No matter it's behind a paywall, no matter how many times that I say it's free, nobody's going to understand that because it's on Audible. So it's fine, it's fine. It'll be like my reasonable doubt, one that I'll tell people to go back for it later and you'll understand that it's really good. But it's cool. It was on Audible, so most of y'all think you have to pay for it Therapy. I talked about it on direct deposit, but I need to reiterate right now okay, I am a therapist person. Let me just get that out of the way, because some of you guys are going to be mad and some of you guys are going to accuse me of being a black man about what I'm saying. I am therapist. All right, like it's fine, let it happen. I have to say this it's okay to analyze things that you also participate in that. In fact, you should do that. I think you should do that. Here's my thing. I think this is probably the beginning of it. Morgan, or everybody. These therapists have us in a headlock, they have us by the balls and it's not good.
Speaker 1:And here's why I was talking to a friend over the weekend, not going to say who, but he was telling me he and his partner are having some problems. They're having a little rough patch right now. I know about rough patches in relationships. I was there to listen for many hours. One of the things that came up and it was a small, it was just a throw in, it was just for a second, it wasn't like you know, it wasn't the long and short of the entire conversation, but he said he said her therapist thinks I'm dot, dot, dot and that was a red flag for me. It was a small fragment of an entire conversation that was extremely meaningful to me.
Speaker 1:Because of this, I think therapy is best utilized as a conversation with a as subjective I'm sorry as objective, as objective a third party there can be to bounce perspective and to better understand yourself. And like any perspective, I think it is meant like the opinion, the point of view, the process of the therapist, like all of it is meant to be digested through your own personal process. But it is not gospel, it is not ugh, take that out but it is not. Like it's not parables, like it's not I don't even know what's the word for like the highest order of something that you have to take and that you have to take with you and move on right. Said differently, our therapist should not be telling us how to live our lives.
Speaker 1:I think it's inappropriate for someone's therapist, I'm sorry. I think it's inappropriate for someone to share with their partner what their therapist thinks about them. A partnership is between two people. A therapist lives outside of that just like everybody else does friends, family, strangers, pseudo friends, colleagues therapist goes in that bracket. Like the therapist is no more sacred than to me, the therapist's point of view is no more sacred than your friends, your moms, your teachers, your colleagues, your coworker, your boss, like it is a perspective. Now, the thing that makes it valuable those are all valuable perspectives, but the thing that makes the therapist's perspective valuable, in my opinion one is that this is supposed to be a trained professional who has an understanding of human psychology. Right, so they should be coming with some level of scientific understanding of human behavior and how the brain works and how the person works in relationship to the brain. Also, what I think is valuable is that when you spend time with a therapist, that time is supposed to be undivided attention spent working on you.
Speaker 1:It is like and this is where, as I have conversations with people about therapy and I learned what other people's therapy experiences look like this is where I see that therapists are taking advantage of that relationship. I know several people who have complained to me recently that they spend almost just as much time talking about their therapist's life in therapy as they spend talking about their own life. I know many people who complain, and I know I work in Hollywood. I know a lot of fucking therapist people.
Speaker 1:I know some people who complain that their therapist does not show up and is not present for their therapy. Like they're there, they're in the seat but, as so many therapists have, they have moved therapy into a completely online virtual relationship and so that person is able to sit there and zone out and do other stuff, sometimes while they're supposed to be helping someone who is in their most vulnerable state with whatever it is that they're going through. That's problematic, but what I think is most problematic here is the money in the therapy industry. I brought data with me so I'm not just like a howling fucking dog up here. Why are you laughing, morgan?
Speaker 2:Because you just referenced yourself being not a howling fucking dog. I'm not okay.
Speaker 1:In 2019, the US mental health market spending reached $225 billion. Y'all, that was five years ago. The US mental health market spending reached $225 billion. That was before COVID. Okay, that was before everybody got isolated and depressed and sad. According to Forbes, there are now seven mental health unicorns. A mental health unicorn means a company. That I think it means a company that's worth a billion dollars. That means there are seven mental oh. That means there are seven mental health companies worth over a billion dollars in the US alone. That's up from just two two why my voice cracked. That's up from just two a year ago. A quick Google search of the seven mental health billion dollar companies tells me that all seven have white CEOs or presidents at the top.
Speaker 1:That's my own little special one that I wanted to know about. Here's the point of that. Let me just make it super plain. I am aware, while being therapized, that, much like a consultant of any kind, a part of the interaction, a part of the transaction, is that the custodian, the service person, the therapist, the person in front of me, they want me to keep coming back, like that's a part of the experience I am paying this person. This is a business transaction, as much as I want, as much as I want, and as much as you guys yell and howl at me that this is some sort of like sort of sacred and special and unique relationship between two people. And boy, are you guys gonna jump in here and defend your own therapist in a second, when this is on the internet. But it's a business relationship and that person wants you to keep coming back. You are paying that person's bills, you're sending that person to college.
Speaker 1:Most of the people who sit atop this giant economic structure that's been built on the therapy industry all this fucking I've done ads for better help All of that most of those people are white people. Most of the people all the way at the top, like I just said, these seven unicorn companies are white dudes sitting atop an industry that is servicing the pain, servicing the trauma of all of us people down here. And they got us by the balls. They got us to the point where someone has to know not just what their partner thinks about them, but what their partner's fucking therapist thinks about them. That feels like that just is. That's crowding me, guys. I don't like that. That's too. That's an invasion. I don't feel good about that. Especially don't feel good about that, knowing the money churn that's happening on top of it, I don't like that. Okay, morgan, put this next to this on the docket, so I'm just gonna go here next, but I think it's fine Because sometimes you text me things with no context.
Speaker 1:I know, I know.
Speaker 2:And so I try to piece it together in my head. You do?
Speaker 1:You do a great job.
Speaker 2:This time it was wrong.
Speaker 1:You do a good job. No, it's okay, you do a great job. I don't have a good segue from that thing, but that's. There's a real in there about my, my fear and discomfort with how we're being invaded by the therapy industry and I'm therapist Like, let me just make sure I get the right trappings around this, morgan, what are we gonna be missing later that we need to make sure I have I put here so that it's we can sequence this later.
Speaker 2:Well is the point? The point is the is that you think the the relationship is between two people and that a therapist coming in on that is an invasion.
Speaker 1:The point is that I think we are getting too. I think like we went from being too resistant huh Like wrapped up in therapy. Yes, I think I think we're getting. I think we started off as like and I don't mean like totally society, I mean kind of particularly black people. I think that we started off quite resistant to this idea of therapy. I think that those of us who want to consider ourselves uh progressive and helping ourselves are now participating. We think we think that that is a good way to invest money in ourselves and in our happiness and in our families.
Speaker 1:And I'm worried that we're doing it without scrutinizing the process. Like I'm worried that we're doing it without being uh analytical enough about what, what all that means. Like it's bringing someone else's it. Like it's bringing something. Like this guy has never even met that therapist. Like that person doesn't even that therapist's point of view on him is likely just a reflection back of his partner's point of view. But it feels like a cop out to say like well, my therapist thinks this about you. Like what do you think about me? That's that's kind of the point here. It feels this feels like an invasion, like it just it feels I just feel it. I just know it's not. I just this is not good. Um, this is not good, yes, I think.
Speaker 2:Oh wait, sorry, I have one thing too.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's like, if it makes sense, but I hate when I'm I'm noticing like when I'm having conversations with someone like our friend that's going to therapy, they'll start using and I go to therapy, but like, they'll start using like, like, instead of becoming a friend, like I'll be having a conversation, they'll start becoming like my therapist and using like therapy terms and like, in a sense of I don't even know how to like explain it when it doesn't feel like I'm talking to my friend. I feel like okay, like, am I talking to your therapist or am I talking to you?
Speaker 1:Yes, that makes sense. Yeah, we're like people are trying to adopt this clinical lexicon and vibe in conversation that where they're not trained, they're just like taking something that someone else, over a zoom screen, said to them and bringing it, bringing it into your friendship, like bringing it to brunch. That is a terrible hang, that's no fun.
Speaker 2:On another level, though, yes, I go to therapy. I've always wanted to go to therapy. I tried it once and I just like I didn't, my therapist and I had to part ways, but I've, like it's something that I do want to do, but as someone who, like, doesn't have the health insurance and like whatever, I appreciate sometimes when I get like the oh, like.
Speaker 1:I'm getting like a free therapy session.
Speaker 2:Okay, wait, tell me more about like what your therapist would say. But that's what it's like solicited Like, not like if it's just like a random conversation.
Speaker 1:So it's like anything else, like I get it. We're learning. We're kind of all learning together. We're sharing. We're sharing what we learn in those rooms with each other. We're trying our best, like I'm not, I'm not.
Speaker 1:This is not to persecute the person going and trying to do something that will help their life. I, but I cannot, I can't unsee the money and who is like holding the controls up there and who it is so expensive to have this. Many better help ads across, spread across every fucking podcast on earth. Like also, I mean, it's not just better help, what's another one? I don't want to just poke at better help, yeah, whatever. I heard one this morning on Balmany Jones show. It's like this is being distributed to us. I think there is some good that will come with it, and I also think it is going to drain our finances in a way that, like we're already poor, like we're already broke, like now we're going to give all our money to therapists.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's go to it. Oh wait, all right, I'm going to do Morgan's docket item. I think it's in there. I think it's in there. I'm going to go to Morgan's docket item real quick. I'm also just going to say one more time so you can start. I burp in here a lot. I'm sorry, tia.
Speaker 2:Any sniffles.
Speaker 1:And I sniffle. I don't know what it is. It's like it's liquids I'm consuming while I'm up here. Whatever I want to put a fine like ending on that thing, which is I am one of you. I am also therapist. Do not start calling Don't. I can see the ways you guys like to dismiss opinions that come from people that look a certain way. I see it and I'm getting around it. You can't accuse me of being like one of these niggas with dreads who thinks therapy is dumb. I go to therapy like so don't try it, don't even fucking try it. All right, I'm going to hit this really quick. And then we got to move on because we got two more big docket items to get to in 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:I watched the Shannon Sharp interview with Johnny Menzel. Shannon Sharp is on an absolute roll. He's so good at this. His show is also like I was having a conversation with a friend. He was asking is Shannon Sharp paying for these guests and my? Just from seeing the industry move, my best deduction is that people are now probably offering Shannon money to get on his platform and I would guess that his team is mostly at this point turning money down from people who want to come on the platform because it has such a large digital imprint, has such a large cultural reach. Now Shannon Sharp did something cool. I'm watching him move with his show. He's only had two white guests on the show.
Speaker 1:The show part of what I was watching, the Tyler Perry documentary real last night and which is mostly an infomercial for Tyler Perry. But I saw something that was poignant was said, which is one of his producers or studio managers or whatever was saying he used to take his mom to Broadway shows and his mom one day said like I like when you take me to these expensive Broadway shows, but I really love going to the Tyler Perry shows because the Tyler, when I'm at the Tyler Perry shows, I feel safe. I feel safe. I'm with my people. We laugh at the same jokes. We say hmm, at the same moments. I don't feel judged. I don't feel like somebody's gonna I'm paraphrasing she didn't say all this, but like. Or I'm extrapolating, but like. I don't feel like somebody's going to step on my feet and not say excuse me. My boy sent me a funny tweet that said white people will crawl between your legs before they say excuse me. Like. That shit doesn't happen at a Tyler Perry show. It's all. It's us in the room and we treat each other like people Good, bad and otherwise.
Speaker 1:What's the connection? What the fuck was I talking about? Johnny Manziel? So Shannon Sharp has done a good job of cultivating a safe environment for his guest and for us as the viewers I have talked about before.
Speaker 1:When you have somebody on your show, you're bringing them to somebody's life. You cannot, just because you think somebody is going to be spicy or is going to, you know, create a moment with you. You can't just like bring assholes into people's lives all the time. I don't believe in that. That's simple. Shannon Sharp has done a good job of building the guest list with this show because he has had a bunch of black guests.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, johnny Manziel. And Johnny Manziel is, I think, and I am very, very, very, very, very, very, very I have a very high bar for who I would apply this to I think Johnny Manziel is welcome at the cookout, because and I didn't put these pieces together when the first time around on the Johnny Manziel story but I've realized now that Johnny Manziel's family had this kid who they knew to be an extremely valuable prize jewel of the family, who had the prospects of being like a hundred million dollar quarterback one day. They knew that because they were already trying to drain money from Texas A&M while he was there, because they knew how valuable their kid was, as they should. And on Johnny Manziel's matriculation, during his matriculation, they entrusted their family's prize jewel with two black men. Two black people. What's the stuff saying that? So much Two black people Kevin Sumlin, the coach at the time at Texas A&M, and George Whitfield, who at the time was the biggest black quarterback trainer in the world. We know that today the biggest quarterback trainer in the world is the friend of the show, quincy Avery, but that is rare. Everybody around football will tell you. When these, especially when these white quarterbacks are coming up through the pipeline, it is so unusual for their families to trust anybody black as a coach around their kid. That's why and that is one of a hundred reasons why the black coaching pipeline is the way that it is right now is because white parents will not hand their kid over to someone that doesn't look like them.
Speaker 1:And the Manziel's did that, and I noticed with Johnny sitting with Shannon Sharp. This person seems comfortable and like he has been around black folks before, including black people in a place of authority where they are residing over him, like where they have, where they're the boss and he is the pupil, and he seemed comfortable in that setting and he didn't. I didn't find him to be condescending to Shannon, I didn't find him to do any of that weirdo shit, like he just sat there and did the interview and he's an extremely good storyteller. He has so much to say. He's very independent and he is very pro NCAA independence. He is for the players getting what they deserve from the NCAA and that's all shit that I appreciate.
Speaker 1:So let's get an interview. Yesterday I called it's so funny. Like I feel like remember when you were like you thought we should do a live show but you waited a long time to tell me cause you were like, as soon as I tell him this, he's going to be so thirsty. Yes, I feel like the opposite side of that coin was yesterday where I was like, oh man, I got to tell Morgan I want to try this thing. I've been sitting on this for a while.
Speaker 2:I've been wanting to tell you but and he goes, okay, so here it is, and he like explained his new thought for what we should do with the show. But yeah, no, that's funny.
Speaker 1:I just, yeah, I feel actually, let me speak to that for a second and then we'll get into this. I promise I got to handle on the time I got it. Well, I just did it. There's okay. There is, I think, for creative people and just like for anybody who is trying new stuff all the time.
Speaker 1:There's this balance where, okay, you get so excited about an idea, you sit with it. I'll say, speak for myself. I usually like try to sit with it for a second until I know I feel so inspired by it that if I share it with someone and they think it's dumb, I won't care. If I share it with someone and they can kill my joy for it, that means I didn't really love it, it wasn't really real. Then, once I get to that point and I'm like, okay, this is now something I want to do, I do realize that, especially with someone like you, it can sound exciting, but I also know it sounds like work, and so I'm like and then there's other friends where I know, oh my God, these are the worst.
Speaker 1:I have other friends who are like just so frankly, like just so cynical about how they see life that it's hard for them to even understand the excitement of a new idea, because they're looking for the way that everything will not work all the time. They're looking for the thing that's gonna, that's going to tank it. They're looking for the reason why. Oh, like, one reason why I'm not telling anybody the title for my book until it's on a cover is because I don't want to hear the sound in someone else's voice. That's like oh, I guess that's okay.
Speaker 1:Or like you know, what I mean, or like because they won't say the words but you can hear it in their voice. And I'm just like at this point, I'm just like. I just know sometimes something is a good idea. Sometimes I have bad ideas too, like sometimes I do, but like you gotta like shoot your shot Anyway. So, morgan, I appreciate you because you manage the feeling well, you manage it well.
Speaker 2:You're like, yeah, Well, yeah, the other thing was like he tells me and I'm like okay, and he goes. I can hear him like holding his breath. I'm like sorry, like you've had months or however long, to marinate on this, you're just now telling me, like I'm just, I'm thinking about it. He's like okay, okay, and then, because you're a writer, storyteller, he paint, we keep talking. And then he actually like painted a picture and I'm like, oh, like that would be dope. And he's like, okay, you see it. I was like, yeah, you should have started there.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm gonna. That was good, that was like a good, that was a good response for me to remember that start with like the big, pretty version of it and then we can walk back into the details of it. And so basically, what it is is we're going to start doing the show. We're gonna try, we're gonna experiment with doing the show outside, sometimes, like maybe as an example this I'll take the feedback from Morgan I want to evoke the imagery of like the old school storyteller who's like standing on top of something and just like speaking about the world and the universe and life, and which is basically what the show is at this point. But I want to do it where the backdrop of like as an extinct about it, like this, literally, maybe I'm standing on an actual soap box, maybe we go to soap box, stick it in the middle of the field in Prospect Park, in the big part of the you know, with all the grass and whatever. Get a good mic that I can use that will pick up my voice and cancel out the you know background and shoot an episode of the show like standing in the middle of Prospect Park. If a few people come and listen, that's great. If they don't, then like it's just gonna look beautiful when we make a reel out of it, you know.
Speaker 1:Another example could be there's, like I take Penny to this giant it's not actually grass, it's like some kind of turf, but it's huge. It's like this big ass, think of like the size of like two or three football fields. It's walking distance from my house in Queens. The train goes by next to it, but not that frequently and it just looks like. It looks like an oasis in the middle of like a very industrial part of New York City and the sky will sometimes look very beautiful with the backdrops and stuff. Like we could do an episode there. If you've seen the photos that we did when we did like Alicia Day at my old high school on the high school football field, like I'm trying to like get that in here. I'm trying to like make the show look bigger, basically.
Speaker 2:So the only thing I vetoed was he was like I think we could do it in the subway and I was like nope.
Speaker 1:Yes, she shut it down so fast. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:All right, moving on.
Speaker 1:Okay, 10 things I learned since I quit my job at.
Speaker 1:Google. All right, now the exercise of making these 10 things. This is what I called it 10 things to know before you quit your job. So I did all this work. You guys are gonna be like it took that much work to make this. Yes, it did. I spent several days thinking this through. I went to brunch with myself and journaled these out in long form. I wrote them out in like 30 to 50 word sentences and then I distilled them all down to five to 10, 20 words because they have to fit on one slide each. But I'm trying to be.
Speaker 1:I've been listening to I forgot his name Michael Pollan. No, the other guy, adam, something or other, one of these old white guys talking about, like, generosity to your audience. Even if you think something is obvious to you, someone else doesn't know it and they need to know it. And this is kind of one of those things. And sitting with these things, sitting with these principles, things that I wished I had known when I quit my job, it helped crystallize stuff that I need to remember, even like right now today. All right, I quit my job at Google 10 years ago to the day because I was never going to have my dream at Google. I was never. There was no path for me from where I sat as a human resources associate to where I am right this second and where I think I'll be 10 years from now. There was no path from that thing to this thing besides jumping ship and like making that path. And here are 10 things I wish I had known before I jumped ship. These are 10 things to know before you quit your job. One, a very important one. It can feel like you are about to walk into the abyss by yourself. You are not alone. There are over 80 million freelancers in the United States and that number grows by 2 million each year. Two, very important. I was thinking about this one a lot recently Learn how to sell right now. If you can't sell, you will not survive out here. 90% of my job is sales. My conversation with Morgan yesterday about that idea that's a sales conversation. I have to get Morgan excited about moving on something. I throw a lot of ideas at Morgan and only the ones where I can really sell it are the ones where that actually happened, you know but it's not just that. Like Morgan, in the last two weeks we've probably had six different conversations about sales. Like Chanel is a sales conversation. We got a message last night from the AI guy that I have to get to. That's a sales conversation. Selling tickets for live shows, selling tickets for workshop, selling sponsorships I'm right now cold outreaching sponsors every single day, dozens to find some money for my socials and for this show. Like this shit is all sales. Selling a TV series, sales a movie script, sales a book to a publisher, sales Like it's cute to think about this whole thing as like creative fulfillment and art and yada, yada.
Speaker 1:It's like why am I yelling? Cause I really feel this. If you guys want it to be cute, fucking write in your. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but if you want it to be cute, go fucking write in your journal and share it with a friend. If you want to do it for a living, you have to sell Like that's what's going on, all right, your friends will gossip and judge you. This is number three. Your friends will gossip and judge you. It'll hurt your feelings, but they're projecting deep down. They admire your bravery. This one's spicy, morgan. You didn't tell me to cancel this one. You told me to cross off the other one. You liked this one.
Speaker 2:No, you asked me which one I liked the least, and the other one was just. These were all fairly inspiring, and then the other one was just more factual.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, this one is true. Man, your friends will gossip and judge you. I had some friends that were really mean to me. My friends were like, when I quit my job and probably even for those first five years of this whole process, being like I don't ever want to think that I was dusty, but like being a little less moisturized, like just being like a little. Just like not being able to afford to go to stuff and like not, you know, like I couldn't do the sexy vacations and like all you fucking Martha's Vineers, head ass niggas, like I couldn't go to that. You know, I went one summer and I slept on the couch and like, and some of it I might have projected onto my friends, but like I can feel pretty good, like I can feel pretty well.
Speaker 1:I felt judgment and bullying and people trying to leverage the moment where I was needy and not having and trying to undermine my confidence in that moment. And that's what I mean. I'm not making it up. This is what happens when you leave safety and people notice you do not feel safe. There are some people who are going to rush to make you feel safe and better and let you know that they have your back and there are a few people who are gonna rush to be just that close to where you stand to make you think that's what they're there for. But what they're really there for is to get an up close and personal look at just how vulnerable you are so they can see what they can take. That was good. Put that in the real, please Put that in the real.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm sorry I didn't mean to do the point finger. And deep down, they admire your bravery. I think that goes without saying. I think that's obvious. I bet your friends I'm pointing, but it's a different point I bet your friends I have both of y'all friends really admire how you guys are moving right now, like how you know what I'm saying. Can you feel that from your friends? Yeah, yeah, I bet they do. I do too. I admire that about y'all. All right Four. Your family will worry, but they don't have to live in your life when your plan works. They'll say they always believed in you. That's just true. Like I mean, my mom is gonna be worried. My mom continues to be worried about me to this moment, but she didn't seem that worried at the live show which was very nice.
Speaker 2:No, she was having the time of her life, yeah she was all about it so.
Speaker 1:But your family is gonna be worried and like the thing about it is, if you're taking a risk, if you're betting on yourself, there's some reason to worry, but you're gonna manage it. Like you're gonna make good decisions as they come at you. If you have to go back and grab onto some safety and go get a job or whatever, like you'll figure it out. Your family's gonna be worried, because that's what families do. They're also going to be so proud of you when you pull off your thing that was so earnest and I mean it. Five. Oh, my God, we're running out of time. Fear and urgency will become regular feelings. They'll help you learn to manage your time and trust your gut. Those are instincts. So I'm gonna say, five out of seven days of the week I wake up with. It's less right now, in this moment, but I'm gonna give you all what it was like for 2019. Like no, let's say 2017 to 2021.
Speaker 1:I wake up with just like this feeling of scarcity, fear, urgency. If I don't do this, this, this and this, I'm not gonna be able to pay my bills. If I don't do this, this, this and this, my career's gonna stagnate. I'm not gonna get another opportunity. I'm not gonna get in front of the person that I need to sign off on this thing. Where is this contract? Where is the money that I'm owed for this thing? I would just I wake up. I mean, it's not that I'm so different today, like I send a lot of texts to Morgan that are like, hey, where's our money? But these feelings, the fear you will feel like you are already vulnerable at your company. Your company can wave a swift axe and get you up out of there and you're gonna be right out here in this space that we're talking about, unwillingly. If you step into this space willingly, you will feel those feelings of fear and urgency quite frequently, to the point that they will just sort of become a natural part of your flow. And when you feel like your back is up against the wall, like your mind makes quick, creative decisions, like you can figure things out fast and you can prioritize and you can stop dealing with stuff that doesn't even matter, and in fact, all those little feelings, things about like oh, my friends are being mean to me, like when the urgency was at its highest, I didn't have time for any of that shit and it was nice to like release that stuff when the fear was at its peak. Six. You're just you now. That's plenty. Nobody cares where you used to work. Stop bringing up your old job at parties.
Speaker 1:I think that one is pretty self-explanatory. I just know I was the guy who was for at least two or three years. I mean I'm doing it right now, but for at least two or three years I just continued to tell people that I used to work at Google because I thought that was such a feather in my cap. It probably it didn't dawn on me until I, like had other things that I was proud of about myself that I had spent such a long time trying to leverage a brand Google. That didn't mean anything in Hollywood, like that didn't mean anything in entertainment. I was just, I was clinging to an identity because I wasn't ready to just be like just Chad, but that's the person, whoever's actually in there, void of your company's brand or whatever circle you hang out with or whoever you used to work for or whatever production you used to work on, like man Dude, like I mean here's an easy exercise for it Like I'm always deleting stuff off my Instagram bio when I realize nobody cares.
Speaker 1:Nobody cares that I wrote for rap shit. Nobody cares. Like delete. Okay enough, I'm not gonna be spicy, but that's it. Stop bringing it up.
Speaker 1:Six, seven, seven Things will get quiet. That's when you'll hear your inner voice. That voice will tell you where to go. It was striking to me when I left my job no more company email, no more like text circles with the colleagues, no more like let's meet up in the cafeteria. Like it was shocking to me how quiet the world is during workday hours. Like it was shocking to me to go from the contrast of this constant buzz of noise, of emails. You gotta read company all hands off sites, coworkers, birthdays, let's go have pizza in the conference room, like all that shit. All of a sudden it's quiet and all I could hear was my own voice. Like all I could hear was my own thoughts. Every day, every moment, all I could hear was go sit your ass in that coffee shop and finish that TV pilot so you can figure out what happens next. And I'm used to that quiet now. Like that quiet is really important to me now. Like I need time to hear my own voice and corporate environments rob us of that on purpose. Oh, my God, I messed up the count. I'm just gonna do one. I'm just gonna say numbers. Oh no, I didn't. No, I didn't. I got it right. Eight, let yourself have fun. You're choosing this path to enjoy your life. Don't punish yourself for that decision.
Speaker 1:I have spent too much time over the last 10 years thinking about the urgency I feel, the things I have to sacrifice, the times when I feel afraid, like nothing's happening, nothing's moving. Where am I going? I have spent way too much time dwelling on those feelings instead of letting the feelings of freedom, joy, I get to choose what I wanna do next. I get to talk to who I want to in my day. I get to pick projects Like. I have spent way more time dwelling than just like bathing in those feelings of excitement, joy, curiosity, the exhilaration of all of this. Like, this is a roller coaster. It's fun. You're allowed to feel fun. Like. You're allowed to like, if you're gonna do this and if you're gonna, if you're gonna bet on yourself, you're gonna take a risk. If you're gonna try this thing outside of the corporate world. Like, let it be an adventure. Like, let it in. It's cool, it's not. You know what I mean. It's not, it's not here to hurt you. It's fun.
Speaker 1:I punished myself. I shouldn't have done that. There's a waste. This is just a picture of my badge. This is my badge. You've seen it. I got two more almost done. Boom boom, all right, boom, boom, okay.
Speaker 1:Nine reduce costs. Keeping a low overhead freeze you up to invest time and money in your dream. Your friends may go on fancy vacations and it's gonna suck to miss out, but your time is your own now. That's better than vacation. And 10, 10's very important. 10 is very important.
Speaker 1:I did this to myself. You don't have to do this. I told myself a story that this path has to be lonely. That's not true. I told myself a story that independence means being alone. That's not true. Number 10 is ask for help. I told you all. There's 80 million people out here freelancing. There are people like me who want to help you do this thing. The more of us that are out here. It's almost like a damn union, like we have each other. We can talk, we can share secrets. I can tell you how much. I just told somebody yesterday how much I charge for a TV pilot. I can tell you how much do I charge for a corporate speaking gig. How do I invoice? How do I get insurance, all that stuff? Ask for help. I will help you. Hit me, dm me, email, morganatarcherchatcom. That's the real. Okay, the real is done. How do I end?
Speaker 2:it. You want to end it.
Speaker 1:No, I want to end it by saying these are 10 things you will want to know before you quit your job. If you need help, hit me up, nice, all right. In 30 seconds I'm going to say what happened with AI.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:All right, I accept that AI is happening, whether I like it or not. I myself am not big enough or meaningful enough artistically to be the thing that pushes back a giant wave. Nobody can do that. It's happening. I made a video did you see my video of the dreadlocks man? It was so weird, it was really weird.
Speaker 1:I put into an AI video generator because I'm like, I got to mess with this. I got to know what's going on. If Tyler Perry is going to cancel his studio build to be an AI, to like, use AI for his productions, I need to know what's going on. So I've been messing with the tools. I made a 90 second AI video generated thing, which is a video I just put into the prompter of black man transform. A black man with dreadlocks transforms into a jellyfish. That's what I put and it spit back at me. This weirdo thing. It's kind of pretty but it's also kind of dystopian and it has weird cutaways. It has a weird cutaway to like a toy car. I don't even understand what's going on there. Then the guy turns into a white guy and he's like underneath a jellyfish. It's like an umbrella for him. It's weird. I don't know, but there's something there and I did this.
Speaker 1:I wrote this long ass post talking about my feelings about AI and why I need to, why I got to get my hands in it, cause I got to. I'm not going to just be a dinosaur, like I'm not just going extinct because AI is here and then I posted it. I spent like 45 minutes on this man. These captions take time. This is writing. All this shit is writing unless you use AI for it. But I posted it. I've been spending.
Speaker 1:I've been sending out like dozens of sponsor outreach and starting to get responses. Most of the responses are like email this thing, send this thing to this thing, blah, blah, blah. Like they none of them make it easy, of course, but as soon as I press send, as soon as I press send, I go to my texts. Morgan has texted me three minutes prior and the text says and I'm not going to say exactly what it says, but it basically says it's an AI company that is reaching out to talk about doing a sponsor collaboration with me, basically, and that I'll come back to this to start next episode.
Speaker 1:Maybe, probably not, but that could be looked at as serendipity. That could also be looked at as damn. The robots are really listening hard to what's going on with us. Like the robots might have known that from me literally just making the caption in my phone, and it's going to get harder and harder for us to tell the difference between those two things Serendipity or the algorithm making something look like a coincidence, and that's probably why people are scared of AI. Okay, last thing, we're out of here. All my stories some of y'all know you guys have asked me 100 million times if me and Monica have a thing. Monica Padman from the Armchair Expert podcast.
Speaker 2:First off, I just want to make sure you slow down when you're in the frame. Okay, I'm going to slow down.
Speaker 1:Morgan has slowed me down. Morgan has slowed me down. I mostly have ignored you all's questions about that out of respect for Monica. I responded to one of those questions because they come quite frequently and I said in so many words Monica's dope, monica's super smart, monica's an amazing professional, like Monica is a boss, monica's Monica, monica. I said many nice things about Monica, complimenting her as a professional, because I have a professional relationship with her and I know that this.
Speaker 1:I know all this shit can be a little, it can look fuzzier or stickier than it is sometimes because it's like I don't know even what to call it. It's like show business adjacent, it's like digital show business, but we have a professional relationship and I wanted to get that across and in doing so I meant to be clear that, like me and Monica don't have like a thing going on or anything like that and I because I thought it was again, I thought it was respectful and worthwhile to make that clear. And now I realize, because Monica mentioned it on Armchair Expert on their Friday episode, she mentioned at the end in the recap that that hurt her feelings and I feel bad for that, like I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Well, that's not true. I don't want to hurt her feelings. And I also realized that like I could have avoided that by just like ignoring those questions altogether, and I was trying to be communicative to the audience, honest and respect her professional space all at once, and I guess I'll have to think about how I might do that differently next time. So, yeah, I've reached out to Monica. I'll probably, I probably am gonna examine a bit more, just like this, all the dynamics at play here.
Speaker 1:Man, when you're like in front of a camera, in front of a microphone, this is a business, but it's also. I can't act like this isn't fucking playtime, like it's all those things at once. You know it's I'm doing a love project and so I mean like now I am gonna do the thing which is like if you want my full thoughts and point of view on this, you will go to my love project on Substack and that's where you will find them. But yeah, I don't know that's what happened, and sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong. But I feel I felt my first feeling when I heard it was aw man, like literally, and I don't feel this feeling that often. I was just like I felt bad. I felt like I owed somebody an apology. Remember when I apologized to you? Yes, yeah, okay, this has been nothing but an interview. Yeah, this is another way. Anarchy, goodbye, thank you. Love project on my Substack Top link in my bio. If you want my full thoughts, go back.
