The Healthier Home Studio Podcast

The Power of a Great Pitch - with Mark Abrams

• Chris Graham • Season 1 • Episode 10

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today I have a unique episode for you guys. It is a conversation. With my dear friend, mark Abrams. If you've ever consumed content on pure mixed.com. You've probably heard Mark's voice before he is a legend. throughout the entire recording industry. And just genuinely one of the kindest best people I've ever met in my entire life. He, he is just wonderful and I feel very lucky and blessed to have him as a friend. Now, one of the things we're going to talk about in this episode today is the power of a great pitch. If there's anything that I've learned over the past couple years, it's that a great pitch? Changes everything. It opens doors that you can't get into without saying the right words to the right person at the right time. And that means storytelling. And so today our conversation is actually from a couple of weeks ago. This is one of the first conversations I had about this idea to do the healthier home studio podcast. now we do dive a little bit deeper into my own story. And we meander there for a little bit outside of recording studio land, but we do bring it back at the end in a big way. so this episode is going to be a little bit more, um, of a touchy feely. It didn't come out right. this episode is a little bit, more of a feelings episode and a little bit less, business actionables, I'm still kind of figuring out what that balance is that I want to strike with this show. How much of it is. business tactics Versus the soft skills doing the hard work and maximizing your ability to grow by focusing on doing the next scary thing and healing I find myself kind of nervous about sharing this episode with you guys. One of the things that's special about this episode too, is I wanted to invite you guys into my barn, into the new studio that I'm working on in my farm here in Granville, Ohio. And so we recorded this podcast with but we also use to buy neural microphone. Just so you can kind of hear the environment that we are in. I hope you guys enjoy. This episode will sound best and be most realistic. If you listen to it on headphones. And without further ado, here's my conversation with mark Abrams.

Chris_1:

I have been through an amazing saga. I've changed the laws in a couple states It's like a hobby of mine. I took what I learned in the studio

L:

and

Chris_1:

I applied it in the State House,

Mark:

and

Chris_1:

and the stuff that I used to teach on the six Figure M studio was way more effective in the halls of government than it was in a studio. But what I learned in the State House also applies to the studio, and I learned. so fucking much,

Mark:

dude. Yeah.

L:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

So right now, I'll just walk you through the work, that I've been a part of that I've accomplished, so to speak here. I started gonna the State House when I found out that I, had this terrible thing happen to me when I was a kid. I got into EMDR therapy, and it was this whole thing covid hit my ex-wife. That's part of the news too. I'm divorced now, That blindsided me. I was hospitalized. I got into this thing called EMDR therapy. and in EMDR therapy, I remembered this thing with this priest and me running away from him in the church. And then this woman. Rescuing me, so to speak, giving me an opportunity to escape from this guy. And then I made a decision, a couple months later to never think about it ever again. And I never did until I got back into EMDR therapy. And after all this stuff came to light, I went to the police, I filed a police report, and, uh, thought that was it, thought that was done. And as I'm. Doing research and learning about it, I'm also finding out that there's a lot of other kids from my church that were involved in this. And, um. yeah, it was heavy. It was really heavy for me. and so I, I decided I'm gonna come forward. I called the detective and I'm like, Hey man, I'm thinking about coming forward. Is that okay with you? Is that mess anything up? And he was like, Oh, actually, by the way, we found a lady, that you remembered and she, confirmed your story on the police record. And when that happened, I I just crumbled into a ball on the floor. like I almost dropped the phone and.

L:

like

Chris_1:

like I realized in that moment dude, I'm a survivor of this terrible thing. I've worked with Amy Grammy and Tony winners. I made, this ai, I'm part of this viral podcast. I've got a mustache. I have the worst laws in the country in my state I'm gonna change these laws. I just started showing up at the State House and there's a House of Representatives and there's a Senate just like there is in Washington DC and they're voting, and I'm outside waiting, and when they walk out, I'm like, Hey, my name's Chris Gr. I'm a business coach at Brooke with I Grammy and Tony Winters. I came forward as a survivor, of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

Mark:

blah, blah.

Chris_1:

I'm here to try to change these laws. I did that over and over and over again, I had been told over and over and over again by legislators, go home

L:

You're

Mark:

never

Chris_1:

gonna do this. It's impossible. I'm sorry about what happened to you, but there's a guy here who made the laws who will never, ever change them, who wait until he retires and whatever you do, don't go talk to him. So I did

Mark:

does do?

Chris_1:

I talked to him, I introduced myself and we had been going at it in the media. It was like TV and radio and newspaper. And it's like me versus him on this issue of Hey, we should change all our statute limitation laws. We should change our damage cap. how much a jury is allowed to give to somebody. we've got this one law called the spousal exemption here in Ohio, which specifically says that rape is illegal unless the dude is married to her. and I'm finding out about all these laws and going to the State House and. Having all these lucid dreams, which we'll get more into this in the future. because part of the side effect of EMDR can be very vivid dreams. And for me, that just really popped off. and

Mark:

told me you learned how to make it happen.

Chris_1:

Yeah, so there's that too. So we'll talk about this more, but there's this thing called yoga nidra. It's performance enhancing meditation. If you're really good at it, you fall asleep and have a lucid dream. at least that's what it feels like. And you're seeing stuff and it's very visual and I. As I was, trying to learn how to do this to deal with my PTSD symptoms, all of a sudden I'm like learning how to do this on command, and I'm getting in there and I'm like writing songs and I'm, I'm processing trauma and one day I'm in there. I'm having a dream and Jesus is in the dream and I'm processing my baggage with that. And all of a sudden this state rep, his name's Rep Bill Sights, he just literally lands in front of me and he's holding this book, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson on the six Figure on Studio. We did an episode about this book, about pivoting Hey, I've been doing this one thing, but now I'm going in a different direction. And man,

Mark:

I'm in

Chris_1:

the dream. Rep sites shows up holding this book.

Mark:

And

Chris_1:

remember the episode that, that Brian and I did, and I realized that episode is How you change the laws in Ohio.

Mark:

Wow. So

Chris_1:

I've never experienced anything like this, but in the dream I was 100% sure that this plan would work in real life. woke myself up and then I checked the plan as an awake person and was like. oh

Mark:

oh my God.

Chris_1:

That's a good ass pitch. Like, This is a hundred percent gonna work. and the thing that had been really challenging at this point in my life was that when I went public about what had happened to me when I was a kid, every inbox I had blew up. And it was just, Hey, this me too. me too. And then sometimes I'd get these emails from people where I'd, or they'd be like, can you help me? And they would tell me a story 10 times worse than mine.

L:

And

Chris_1:

Mark, that shit was hard. And so I stopped answering email. I stopped shaking dms. but then every once in a while, like one of these, one of these folks would get through to me and there were these two guys, boy Scout survivors who kept reaching out and they're like, yeah, we heard you gonna the State House. We've been reading about you. Can you help us? here's the problem. Because our childhood abuse happened in Ohio, Ohio's statute of limitation, which is one of the lowest in the country, kicked

Mark:

in.

Chris_1:

And as a result of that, we're only gonna get 30 to 45% of the bankruptcy settlement we would've gotten if we had gotten sexually abused in a different state. Right. And we only have. 365 days to change this law according to the bankruptcy settlement. So we have this window of opportunity where if your state changes these laws, then you can get your full bankruptcy settlement full justice. from the wrong side of a statute of limitation. And so I heard about that and was like, Uh, holy crap. Um,

Mark:

this is.

Chris_1:

This is the way, if I can get this law through, I'm gonna get all the other ones eventually too. And, let's Buster in the background sneezing, for those of you who can hear him, Buster's my half chihuahua, half Corgi mix, and he's, he's amazing.

Mark:

he's absolutely, you're gonna hear him walking on the floor in here too. Chris, he'll tell you all about the setup at some point, but It's gonna be amazing. It's amazing. That was Buster

Chris_1:

Busters Buster Sneezing. and there's chickens in the background if you can hear them. Those two we're in the barn and there's chickens behind the barn back to these boy scouts. they're like, Hey, can you help us? And so I tell one of them, his name is David. He's one of my best friends now. I I'm like, Hey, you want to come with me to the State House tomorrow? They've got a session, house of Representatives will be there. I'll give you a tour. I'll introduce you to some representatives and you can just, tell them your story, which is kinda what I do. It's kinda like a gorilla. Show up, loiter. I'm being bold, but I'm also being very friendly. I'm not mean at the State House unless it's like a lobbyist that tried to kill one of my survivor bills, and then I'll take

Mark:

head. Then you'll be a little mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris_1:

But, David's like, yeah, yeah, sure. I'll be there. I need to go tell my wife. That this thing happened to me when I was a kid. She doesn't know about it.

Mark:

it.

Chris_1:

She's completely unaware of the trauma this guy has been through. And so I'm thinking through my mind of what's gonna happen when he tells her, in my experience, this is a hard truth, but you never really know how someone's gonna respond to that. You might bond with them on a super deep level, or they might cut you outta their life completely. This boy scout, I tell'em like, you need to slow down. You're moving too fast. And he just wouldn't take no for an answer. So he shows up. I introduce him to like five legislators. He tells his story. Like a champ. and I'm thinking, okay, I think he's ready. Let's go to the final boss.

Mark:

Yeah,

Chris_1:

Let's, go talk to this guy. Rep sites. And I'm waiting outside of the House of representatives with him. I've got the book, Steve Jobs at Walter Isaacson. I'm remembering this episode that Brian and I did about pivoting

Mark:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

and rep sites walks out and I said to David, If I take off running, just follow me. But like I'm gonna make a beeline for him.'cause if there's an opportunity to get a word in with him, I, you take it. So I run up to rep sites and I say rep sites. Hey, I've got a friend here, his name's David. He has a really unique problem. I also bought you a present and I reach in my bag, awesome leather bag that I've got and I, that I found in the trash 15 years ago. And I hand'em the book and I say, David's problem is that he's gonna lose up to 70% of his bankruptcy settlement and this is an unintended consequence of these laws that you wrote back in 2005. But I got you this book because there's a story in here that I think applies to this situation. You see, Steve Jobs started Apple. out of his parents'.

Mark:

Out of his parents' garage. Yeah.

Chris_1:

Steve Jobs started Apple out of his parents' garage, grows it into this amazing company, unbelievable amounts of chutzpah. and he recruits a world class. CEO steals'em from Pepsi. The CEO comes in. the CEO fires Steve

Mark:

Jobs, right?

Chris_1:

Steve gets kicked out. Steve goes, he starts, companies, becomes an investor in this, upstart, company that's had dreams of making the first feature film using only computers. they're on the verge of bankruptcy. Steve comes in and saves them, coaches them through releasing their first movie Toy Story. it's Pixar. So Steve, he has this glow up, right? His comeback story is even better. Then the story about his fall from Grace, which was one of the most epic business fails ever, right? And so eventually Apple brings Steve back and rep sites is in the background, nodding

Mark:

I know Steve Jobs.

Chris_1:

Steve Jobs and so Steve comes back to the company and he says, guys, we've got 77 products or whatever it was. They're all crap. Our stock is in the gutter. We're gonna kill all of our products. We're only gonna focus on four things on a professional desktop, a consumer desktop, professional laptop, consumer laptop. And they come out with the iMac, People go nuts. Steve is on cloud nine. It's the greatest comeback story of all time. And at the peak of sales, they come out with a new product. the iPod. And for those of you as old as me and Mark here, you remember iPod Mania, everybody for Christmas that year was trying to talk to their parents into buying them a$400. Oh yeah. MP three player. Yeah. Steve Jobs is on the cover of Time Magazine. It's nuts. It's pandemonium. And then one day Steve walks into his board and he says to the people that are in charge of Apple. Guys, we got a huge problem. We're selling iPods like crazy. our stock price is going through the roof. I've frankly done a fantastic job, but somebody somewhere, somehow, someday is gonna put an iPod in a cell phone, and when they do, they're gonna eat our lunch. And so we have got to eat our own lunch. We've gotta come out with the iPhone. So Steve gets kicked out of his own company, ultimate comeback with the iMac, ultimate double comeback with the iPod, and then he kills the goose that lays the golden egg. does the hard thing, and comes out with the iPhone. And rep sites is just like Enwrapped, like he gets where I'm going with this, and I turn to him and I say. Rep sites, we've got 365 days to change this law. If We don't, these guys are gonna lose 70% of their bankruptcy settlements. They're not gonna get full justice, and we need you to be the Steve Jobs of survivors. And on the spot, he says, I suppose we could change the statute of limitation in regards to bankruptcy. that do it. And I'm like, yeah,

Mark:

Yes, it would do it. Yes it would.

Chris_1:

Unbelievable moment. David shares a story with rep sites. we go out to lunch afterwards. It's this unbelievable experience and we get it, voted on a committee. We get it voted on the house, it passes, we're in the Senate, and we find out at the last minute in lame duck session, it's like the last minute of a two year cycle that they have at the State House. And then all the bills die, and you start again from scratch. Scouts Honor dies in the Senate. So then I find out. that it's dead. As I'm sitting in the Senate and as, the bishop of Columbus is, doing the opening prayer, which as a pre survivor, let me tell you, not so

L:

fun, right? Yeah.

Mark:

Not

Chris_1:

Yeah, not a great moment. Skip that. Skip that part of my

Mark:

my life.

Chris_1:

So I'm

Mark:

furious,

Chris_1:

so angry and I find the lobbyist that killed it and I just let him know I'm coming. For you. And I get on the radio, it was an NPR piece and they're all like, how did it die? How on earth did this legislation not pass? And I'm like, it was these particular lobbyists, at the last minute killed it. And one of the things that was surprising was that the Chamber of Commerce had actually. Not been a fan of the bill too, and they had gotten involved. Chamber of Commerce for those that don't know is the organization. That's the interface between businesses and the government. And there's a chamber of Commerce in most towns and most states And so I find out the Chamber of Commerce participated in killing this bill too. And I'm like, dude, I'm a business coach. Like I, this is, these are my people. Yeah. And how on earth could this be bad for business? There's a guy, his name's Steve Stivers and he was a congressman in dc, came back CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and I find his cell phone, uh, number online and I call him up and he answers amazing.

Mark:

amazing.

Chris_1:

And I'm like, Hey Steve. My name's Chris Graham. I'm a business coach at Brooke with Emmy Grammy and Tony winners and I specialize in Pivots And I just was on NPR and they mentioned that you refused to comment about the Chamber's involvement in killing my bill Scouts honor. I think we can find common ground here. So we meet on January 6th, the anniversary of the insurrection, and we have this unbelievable meeting. And I won't bore you with the details, but Steve promises his support he has a couple requests, a couple amendments to the bill. We add those into the bill. We rero the bill.

L:

It

Chris_1:

through the House of Representatives. It flies through the Senate and when the Senate goes to vote on

L:

it,

Chris_1:

I take my two oldest kids, my two oldest sons outta school that day, and we go down and we sit in the Senate

Mark:

and

Chris_1:

these three different senators get up and they're like, you know,

Mark:

I

L:

just wanna

Chris_1:

recognize Chris Graham for all his hard work on this, this bill wouldn't exist. the Senate would've never voted on this if it wasn't for him. And I'm looking at my boys on my left and right and it is just this holy

Mark:

shit.

Chris_1:

This is so cool. that Quite what an honor. But more importantly, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, my boys know what happened to me.

Mark:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

and for them to see me go from having seizures, barely able to move, in the hospital not doing well. To

L:

to

Chris_1:

fucking send in it at this

Mark:

Absolutely Gretchen. And

Chris_1:

they're just like taking it all in. And it changed my relationship with them. Yeah. and it was amazing.'cause as a father, I got to show them this is what it looks like to go full blast on your healing.

Mark:

Yeah. Also, man, as a father, what better lesson about dealing with the things that come up in their lives than rising up on top? Yeah. Just completely crushing, everything that stood in the face of you and pushed you down. You know, I,

Chris_1:

I can't tell you how fulfilling It felt it was unbelievable. I didn't, I don't have a word for the feelings I have about this, but

L:

but

Chris_1:

it gets better. Yeah. It gets a

Mark:

A lot better.

Chris_1:

after a bill. is approved by the House and the Senate. It goes to the governor's office, just like the president, and he signs the bill.

Mark:

Yeah. And

Chris_1:

gives pins they use to sign the bill to the people who helped create the law. And so I go to this ceremony, with the representatives, that worked on this bill, I haven't talked about her yet, but she'll be on the show for sure, probably several times. Her name's Jessica Miranda. At the time, she was a state rep. She was the whip. So one of the most powerful women in Ohio She's there with me. she fought for this like hell. And we're all there in the room and the governor hands me a pen And I'm looking at this pen and I'm like, oh my God, I turned my child to trauma into a governor's pen.

Mark:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

Yeah. I've got this tiny item and as this was going on, other laws start percolating up and I mentioned before here in Ohio it's legal for a husband to rape his wife.

Mark:

Right.

Chris_1:

August 15th.'cause we changed that shit

Mark:

Woo. That's amazing.

Chris_1:

That Bill is done and it's passed the house in the Senate and I was with the governor and I got another governor's pen just I think it was two weeks

Mark:

ago.

Chris_1:

And it gets better.

L:

better.

Chris_1:

Indiana and Alabama saw what we did, their legislature saw what we did with Scouts Honor, and they fucking copied those

Mark:

bills.

Chris_1:

And it is the law in Indiana. and it is the law in Alabama. And guys, I took the shit that I was teaching on the six figure home studio and I applied it at the State House and it worked. Yeah. Oh my God. Did it work? Hundreds of millions of dollars in justice

Mark:

For these

Chris_1:

folks. And so I'm on the other side of it. because here's the

Mark:

weird piece.

Chris_1:

For those of you that listen to the six Figure Home Studio and the six figure creative, that like my baby was, it's called Bounce Butler. It's an AI studio assistant, it, and for audio engineers, at the end of the day, you got a bunch of stems or a bunch of bounces, whatever. You don't wanna sit there and manually do these one at a time. Bounce Butler does it for you, takes over your computer as if he's like a ghost does it for you. And then he texts you when he is done. And people all over the world use him every day. I guarantee you he's running in, in someone's studio right now and it's a subscription. And the money that people paid on their monthly subscription, is the only way I was able to do

Mark:

this. Yeah, that's awesome.

Chris_1:

between coaching people and Bounce Butler, I funded my ability to go to the State House about one afternoon a week. Yeah, sometimes it was more than that. Sometimes it was a lot more than that. But generally speaking about a, about an afternoon

Mark:

a week. Yeah.

Chris_1:

And I'm seeing this bigger picture now. And we taught on the six figure studio about how to make six figures providing this service to people. And one of the things that I learned at the State House and through watching Bounce Butler. Help me not go bankrupt, through a divorce and through, you know, trying to change these laws. there were moments when I would be at the State House and would go to leave the parking garage and my credit card was maxed

L:

out. Yeah.

Chris_1:

And I, they would come out, the booth attendant would be like, oh, it's you again. You can go, we know, can keep up with the good work bud. um. it, financially. it was rough. To balance these two things, what I learned was that the six figure studio, we got something really important, really wrong. The general idea, in a business podcast, is that I. There are non-profits and for-profits. And in a for-profit organization, profit comes first, and in a non-profit organization, profit does not come first. Mission comes first, But there's this thing in the middle called a mission driven business. A mission-driven, driven business uses profit to perpetuate a mission. It is fundamentally entirely different than a conventional business because you have to figure out how to balance your priorities much differently in a mission-driven business. And here's the

Mark:

catch,

Chris_1:

just about a hundred percent of recording studios and everyone that ever listened to the six figure home studio. Was actually running a missional business. There was something more important to them than money. And it was art. Yeah. It was these magical moments of connection that when you make dope shit and it connects people together, it's awesome. It's amazing. And that's the mission, right? And it's oh, I could go get a corporate gig and make a bunch of money, or I could try to find a way to, work in my basement with my guitars and my speakers and my

Mark:

microphones.

L:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

Only a mission driven person is gonna opt for the home studio. I still get people that reach out to me all the time that are like, Hey, you changed my life. but like I, I get these stories all the time, still to this day, and it has me thinking and it has me processing a lot

Mark:

of

Chris_1:

man. I took what I learned in the studio, I applied it in the State House and it worked. I wanna take what I learned in the State House. And bring it back to the

Mark:

studio. Amazing.

Chris_1:

I feel compelled to teach this. a couple pieces, that are important to cover. first of all

Mark:

all right, the t.

Chris_1:

I used to be on a podcast with my best Bud six Figure M studio, We heard from a lot of people whose lives were changed by learning basic business skills. In the recording studio industry, but it didn't end super well. We broke up and we don't talk anymore. It is really important to me that I not throw Brian under the bus on this show, but that I appropriately acknowledge like the story.

Mark:

and

Chris_1:

I O'Brien a lot. I learned so much from him. I learned so much about business, about podcasting, about how to communicate. And frankly, I told you this on our walk just a minute ago. The state rep, who I convinced joint sponsor scout's, honor, everyone told me, don't go talk to that guy.

Mark:

Yeah. That guy was

Chris_1:

like Brian's grandpa. Yeah, they could be related. They're so similar in, mine, like a steel trap, I love that about rep sites. he's one of my favorite people on earth. I absolutely adore the guy. I'm trying to convince him to be part of a documentary that I'm working on right now about the State House and, a bunch of freed slaves. We'll talk about that in the future. it's pretty

Mark:

I haven't heard that

Chris_1:

a cool project. but anyways, this, podcast, I'm not gonna throw Brian under the rug. but I do gotta acknowledge, that

Mark:

or the bus. You said The rug. Under the rug. We'd be sweeping him under the

Chris_1:

Sweeping him under the rug. A mixed metaphor, my specialty.

L:

pick up.

Chris_1:

so I had to leave and I made a post on our Facebook group, and I like, it was, I regret that. I wish I hadn't done that. I think there would've been better, more constructive ways to deal with that. But I also am really glad I left that

Mark:

show. Yeah.

Chris_1:

the time.

Mark:

Also, by the way, you're human, just in case you didn't realize, everything that you've done is very superhero, like Clark Kent, you're from Krypton, but you are actually human, so it's okay to make a bad post once in a

Chris_1:

while. So yeah, like I regret that. and. As I'm processing all of this stuff and realizing, I learned an awful lot of things that would help so many people, I'm, I miss podcasting. Yeah. I miss, having an idea, a thought, a new way to look at something and recording an episode with a friend and putting it out and then getting feedback from people about it. the plan,

Mark:

is

Chris_1:

I am going to make episodes with

Mark:

friends.

Chris_1:

And we're gonna talk about some of these things I learned at the State House that apply in the studio. I'm gonna do my best to not cry that often. but, one of the weird things is I thought getting healthy meant that I wouldn't cry anymore. No,

Mark:

No, that's the opposite.

Chris_1:

the opposite. It was quite the opposite of that. I burst into tears randomly all of the time, but in a constructive, Positive, healthy, transparent way. Some of the energy that keeps our industry, moving is that when really fucked up shit happens to you. there isn't the language to explain

Mark:

it,

L:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

but a guitar helps. Drums

Mark:

help, right?

Chris_1:

Um, piano

Mark:

helps

Chris_1:

and you can start to say things. that are beyond what you can say with words. And so for me, I did that a lot as a kid. I played hours and hours and hours of guitar and piano

Mark:

and

L:

you know,

Chris_1:

recording and mixing and all this stuff. But I was really just medicating. Yeah.

L:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

And I medicated a lot'cause I was very unwell and because I medicated a lot, I got pretty damn good at it. Yeah. And because he got pretty damn good at it. I decided to try to make a living in the music

Mark:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

and I think that an awful lot of us are in that same boat that we were medicating, with music. And we got really good at it and we figured, Hey, if I can get people to pay me to do this, I'll be able to medicate all day long. Which isn't how it turns out to be right for 99.999% of us Right? But man, I've got so much to share. how do you grow personally, creatively, and Help your business to grow? I've got all these ideas that I wanna share about, the business of running a recording studio that.

Mark:

That,

Chris_1:

that frankly fly in the face of a lot of the stuff we used to teach and how it applies to everyone that used to listen to this old podcast. Yeah. And so I have an idea of what I want to call this podcast that I don't think I've

L:

told

Mark:

you. Haven't told me. Okay.

L:

Okay. Yeah. So

Chris_1:

it, it feels a little diggy, which is why I'm nervous about calling it this. but I think I wanna call this the Healthier home studio and we'll edit it out if you think that's a terrible idea.

Mark:

no, I think it's, I think it's great because, I know that you're gonna touch on a lot of the old topics that you did with six figure, and go into your, your normal business coaching self and also adjust the, all the topics that you just spoken of. mental health and dealing with all of the pressures and all of that stuff being in one thing. I think it actually sums it all up.

Chris_1:

It's a holistic version of the six figure home studio. Yeah. If you will. Mark. Thank you for hanging out, today and having this conversation with me,

Mark:

but.

Chris_1:

we have a podcast too that we haven't recorded anything for in a long time called Mix and Master Faster. I don't even know if it's still up, frankly,

Mark:

Good question.

Chris_1:

I'll double check, but mix and master faster. When we were recording that back at my old apartment, man, like you were one of the few people that really knew what was going on and, was so wildly valuable to me to be like, let's talk about some tricks to make some master faster and then unload. I'm gonna trauma dump on you,

L:

man.

Mark:

No, No, It wasn't trauma dumping at all. That was, I mean, that was absolutely, this whole thing has been an amazing ride. I met you.

L:

If

Mark:

can pontificate for

L:

a second. Yeah. No,

Mark:

but yeah, I mean, I, I met you. Oh gosh. I had. I don't know how far you were in the six figure home studio, but you hit me at the perfect time. My son was just being born and I had to figure out how to do things, better, faster, whatever.

Chris_1:

think we met before you listened to the

L:

show.

Mark:

Yeah, we did. Yeah.

Chris_1:

we did. Yeah. I didn't,

Mark:

I hadn't heard the show yet, but I liked you so much when we had lunch that I was like, I gotta go listen to his podcast. I like, wanted to hang out with that guy longer. That was awesome. And then I binged that whole thing and just fell in love with it. But, that whole, getting to know you as a friend and then I was talking about doing a podcast together and everything that was. All a lot of fun, but everything that was happening behind the scenes with you was absolutely like just completely awe inspiring. In the beginning it was being worried for you as a friend, but also seeing all of the strength that I knew that you were gonna be fine.

Chris_1:

I was coming forward

Mark:

Yeah. At that time. Yeah. Yeah. there was a lot for you to process and that was, it was a tremendous amount of pressure. There was so much stuff going on with that. And you handle it like a champ. It was amazing.

Chris_1:

Thanks, man.

Mark:

Well, I,

Chris_1:

it was hard, and The benefit of that is it was so damn hard that everything else in my life is easy

Mark:

right,

Chris_1:

everything that I do, even like I get the flu or something like that and I'm sick as a dog, I'm like, me. That's not that

Mark:

bad. It'll be Fine.

Chris_1:

There's nowhere near as bad as that seizure. I had that one time when, that, remember that one thing? Oh God. Yeah.

L:

Yeah.

Chris_1:

But, so, so, but yeah, that's the vibe of the show is it's gonna be lighthearted, it's celebratory. Yeah. it's not, this is not gonna be a downer. and we'll have an end time. Yeah. Hey, look at that. We're out of

Mark:

A healthy end

Chris_1:

A healthy end time. It's my favorite ringer

Mark:

It's. de

L:

I love it.

Mark:

it doesn't stress me out like mine. That's true. Which is just,

L:

well, mark,

Chris_1:

I appreciate you, man, and It doesn't make sense that somebody of your stature, lives down the road

L:

the road

Mark:

from me.

Chris_1:

it's That's, that. That was such a strange part about like when we became friends, it was like, oh, I've got this audio podcast and it's blowing up and I'm way too excited about that. And this other guy, mark, who's like also an influencer in this space, he's huge. And he lives in Columbus, Ohio too. Why are we hear

Mark:

Yeah. So anyways,

Chris_1:

you're the easiest guy to be around. You're the easiest guy to talk to. like you, you don't make me anxious.

Mark:

Cool. So score one,

Chris_1:

month?

L:

Yes. I

Mark:

wanna say one more thing before we get outta here. And, it's just, it's in reference to, some things you said about you're gonna be saying some things that are opposite of what you did on Six Figure Home Studio and everything. this all goes back to your story with Bill Sykes and showing him the Steve Jobs book and the importance of Pivot. I think that. anything that you learn, really, I guess you could apply this anywhere, but whether it's like an audio trick or it's a business trick, these things are all fluid and they transition, they change, people change, transfer.

Chris_1:

they're transferable. nail on the head It's not just how valuable your skills are today with the work you're doing. your

Mark:

skills,

Chris_1:

Are so much more valuable than you realize

Mark:

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris_1:

And it is when they are applied, how they are applied, where they are applied, what sort of alchemy you use to mix them with other things. I am really excited about this idea of transferable

Mark:

skills.

Chris_1:

when the Six Figure Studio podcast was popping off. I was getting free audio gear in

Mark:

the mail. Yeah. all the

Chris_1:

time. We're using a considerable amount of it right now, to record this

Mark:

podcast. Best, Mike Stan ever.

Chris_1:

yeah. the al shout out to the OC White Company. Unbelievable. They're the best. It's the Joe Rogan podcast stand. These are the first ones. These are like the

Mark:

prototypes.

Chris_1:

That's amazing. Yeah. Unbelievable. the microphone you're using, shout out to electro voice. There. they sent us that. But anyways,

Mark:

here's the point.

Chris_1:

When the six figure home studio was popping off, I was getting free audio gear and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world, and I thought I was hot shit. I thought it was so cool. And being a podcast bro was my

Mark:

favorite thing. Yeah.

L:

But I didn't

Chris_1:

realize how transferable the skills that I

Mark:

had were. Yeah.

Chris_1:

I didn't realize that my limitations were far over the

Mark:

horizon.

Chris_1:

Yeah, and I got my

Mark:

identity

Chris_1:

from being a great audio engineer and then being a good business guy, and then being this podcaster,

Mark:

and

Chris_1:

I'm really excited to talk about how unbelievably transferable the skills that you get in a studio are because guys, the studio is a crucible. It is a place where metal is melted and then formed into new things, and you will become a

Mark:

badass

Chris_1:

if you work in a studio long enough. it's a

Mark:

pressure cooker,

Chris_1:

And if you can succeed in the studio. I think you can succeed anywhere, including the

Mark:

Ohio State House.

L:

Amazing. I

Mark:

got one more thing to say. Do it. We're doing episode one from his barn, which he is gonna be doing substantial work on. this is a message for future Chris. Chris, look around. Look at what you built. See you next time,

Chris_1:

This new studio is gonna be awesome. I love it, mark. Thank

L:

you brother.

Mark:

Thank you. It's fun to be here. Yeah.