Episode 18 - John Wold

Segment 1: 

In this segment, Cody and Mariah share personal updates, discuss lessons learned from past relationships, and explore the importance of boundaries, respect, and authenticity in relationships and friendships. They also highlight their recent experiences, upcoming birthday plans, and promote positive messages through music and merchandise.

keywords
relationships, boundaries, respect, personal growth, mental health, friendship lessons, life lessons, self-improvement, authenticity, podcast

Segment 2:

In this in-depth segment, John shares his life journey from a small-town upbringing and rebellious youth to exploring consciousness through psychedelics, and his innovative ideas for integrating crypto and business. Discover how his experiences shaped his perspectives on fulfillment, risk-taking, and building meaningful ventures.

keywords
personal development, psychedelics, crypto, entrepreneurship, life lessons, spirituality, innovation, business strategy

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

You are listening to the Liquid Shape Podcast with your host, Cody Perez.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Welcome everyone to a brand new episode of the Liquid Shape Podcast with Cody Perez.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

And Mariah Longfellow.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

And my God, did we ever slack? Like I swear to God, every week we get closer and closer to slacking, but we truly are slacking. We're at the last final hour. We're here at 7.04 PM on Sunday. And the episode, I still have to edit it and upload it so that it can release tonight at midnight.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Nailing it.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

No busy. Yes, always super busy. Um this week was especially busy. How how was your week? Let's let's start with you.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

I mean, our patio is almost done. It was supposed to be done this week, but uh excited for that. It's been a great week, because what did we do yesterday?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

We'll start down the line of the beginning of the week and then we'll get to yesterday because you're you're kind of jumping around there.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

So well, that was a highlight of my week was yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Yeah, yesterday was amazing, but you saved the best for last, right? I would say what else did I have this week? Well, I released how you have more. I released a brand new single. Yes. My endless battle. So anyone out there that hasn't checked out the video or heard the song on all major streaming platforms, American Overdose released My Endless Battle, a song about mental health, awareness, and suicide. It's a very uh personal subject and written straight from the heart, and something that I have struggled with for years. And I I made a big post about it online. Uh but on Wednesday, the 29th, we released the uh single and we released the video and also released a brand new t-shirt that has a positive message that says never give up. And that's a really cool looking shirt.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Go check it out.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Killer shirt. Please go check it out. Go check out the single, check out the video, pick up some merch from us. It really does help us, especially as we're getting ready to hit the road for a couple of shows out towards the Midwest this summer. And merch sales definitely help us. I do want to say this. We tried very, very, very, very, very hard when we were making these shirts to work with a national big suicide awareness hotline and helpline. I hit up four of the biggest ones in the country. Either they didn't get back to me even after I reached out to them multiple times and multiple times and multiple times, or they got back and said, sorry, we're not interested. I was literally offering them all of the money that would that was benefited from this, the profit part of it, to go back to them so they can for their organization, and they declined it. I'm like, why would you do that? Don't you need money? Or I don't know, maybe they don't want to be associated with the heavy metal band or something. I I have no idea. But we did try. So now the money we're just using it to keep American Overdose going because we're doing a positive thing too. We are bringing music to people that they can relate to and connect with and hopefully help heal them and help get them through any craziness that they're going through. And we I believe strongly that we uh promote a very positive message. So yeah, go check out my endless battle by American Overdose on all major streaming platforms. You can check out the video that we did, and Brick did a badass job. You can check out my posts about you know all the people we want to think about that. But that was a major thing that happened. But also, yes, the patio started getting worked on on Tuesday. It was supposed to get started on Monday, but I don't know what happened, so they push it to Tuesday. And they're not done yet, but they're about to be done, hopefully tomorrow, supposedly. We'll see.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

They better be.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

They better be. Uh kind of a little upset with the company. I'm not gonna name their name on here, but communication is not their strongest suit, and you can see that in their Google reviews. And you think that after a lot of people complain about that, that they would want to change it and they'd want to improve, but clearly they haven't, because I've been the one that's having to reach out to them to get clarification on where they're at with it or when they're gonna show up or what what's happening. They don't bother.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

It's just wild to me. I'm like, I I know you kind of like contractors get a bad name and whatnot, but it's like you do shit like this, it's like just communicate. And it's just like little stuff. Like Friday we thought that they were gonna be out here to finish it, and Cody messages the guy like afternoon, you know, like afternoon, like 12 1, like, hey, like uh when are you guys coming? Well, yeah, we don't work on Fridays because we do four times. It's like, well, what the fuck? You said it's only gonna take a couple days and you're still not done. You started and then Tuesday it got pushed back. They didn't get here till like 1 30 on Tuesday. I'm like, I get you guys have the things planned, which is fine, but just communicate that.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Yeah, they I don't like it when people tell me something and they don't deliver. Like, I'm all about you tell me something, I I plan for you to stick to it. Just like as if I tell you something, I'm gonna stick to it no matter what. I'm not gonna let anything, literally anything, get in the way of when I give you a deadline of when I'm gonna start something or finish something. Yeah, I get it done.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

And well, it's like it's like you're pay paying for a service. Wouldn't you want to keep your client who's paying you thousands of dollars?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Like thousands and thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Like it's not like it's just like two hundred bucks, like it's thousands of dollars. Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Yeah, and and I'm just not happy with them. I uh probably won't use them in the future just as a heads up. They're doing a great job.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

They're good. Their workers are awesome.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

But I'm just not happy with the communication and they're overpromising and under delivering. That just doesn't uh that doesn't fly with me, especially when I'm spending, like I said, thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on this project.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

But on the positive side, yesterday On the positive side, yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yesterday we celebrated an early one of the earlier parts of my birthday, because I do celebrate my birthday a couple of times throughout the every year throughout the month. But we'll probably do something on the actual birthday. My actual birthday is May 8th, which is next Saturday.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

And you're gonna be how old?

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Uh 40. I'm hitting 4-0. Finally in my fucking prime, so I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

So it was a blast yesterday having all of our friends and family over.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yes, we had well not all of our friends.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Well, not all of our friends and family, but a good chunk of friends and and some family. But it was just a great day of love.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah. Very thankful for everyone that showed up. Everyone that showed up was very special to me and just very thankful they were here celebrating with me. Um, lots of good food, good laughs, um, surprised by some of the people that showed up, which was happen which made me happy, of course. Um, because I wasn't expecting them, but you know, that's that's that's like I said, I love surprises. You got me a chucky cake. That's right. Pretty badass chucky cake. I grilled a bunch of carnesata, like six pounds of carnesada.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

A bunch of wieners.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

A bunch of wieners, gotta get the wieners for the friends that love the glizsies, because I have a couple friends that love the glizsies. Shout out to them. And chicken legs. We had lots of different salsas and burgers, cupcakes, and cupcakes, cookies, and sodas, NA's, and the people that drink beers, drink beers, of course. Of course, the day that I need to have my damn grills working, the fucking Traeger decides to fucking shit on me.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

It's hot rod went out.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

The hot rod went out on it. I didn't have time to go fix it, so I was like in panic mode. But luckily, shout out to Mariah's dad, Rod. Huge shout out to Dad. Daddy wasn't there, but he was there. He was there. Uh he we had a Green Mountain Traeger, or Green not Traeger, Green Mountain smoker pellet grill that uh he had given to us, a mini one.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Just different.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

And then we had my Weber, so I improvised and just made shit happen to get everything done. It worked out perfectly. And then today I went to um Ace Hardware, so shout out to them for having the hot rod that I need for my trigger. And I fixed the trigger myself. Instead of having to say, fuck this trigger after 12 years or whatever of having it, um, I fixed it and it's dude, it's working better now than ever. You saw that.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Because how hot did it get in like 20 minutes? Like less than 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

It was like 375 degrees. It's uh it's never been that hot. No matter what I turn it to, like it doesn't ever get above like 325. So now that the hot rod's in there, installed, installed, and replaced, um, it's working like a champ.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

So champ, like a like a tap.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Like a tap. Shout out to Ricky.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

Ricky.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Ricky from the trailer park boys would say.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Ricky LaFleur.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

So yeah, uh, great day yesterday. We were up late, um, hanging with friends, just chit-chatting away, and then I had to get up early as fuck today because we had practice, and it was great getting with with the fellas with the American Overdose boys. Uh good laughs today, good practice, rehearsing a new song called Oxygen that we'll start playing here pretty soon, and that'll be the next single um in the next month or two that you guys will all hear. It's a very radio friendly and very catchy song. I love it. Uh, but we're gonna start playing it live. So we've been practicing that like crazy. What else?

SPEAKER_04 8:40

Um Judy King.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yeah, shout out to Judy.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

So good, and then she spent the day with me today, so it was just fun to catch up because we haven't seen each other in a long time. So it was fun just to catch up and just gab and watch TV. And we both have ADHD, so I'm sure the con if to be a fly on the wall, I'm sure was great.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

I'm sure it was. Trying to listen to us clip a conversation. The three of us conversating was fucking crazy because we're all over the board.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

Interrupting each other, different things. Like, oh god.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

We got Taz and Lorenzo here with us uh as always. Uh the boys are here watching us, all excited because they love being part of the podcast. They love the studio. Yes. But yeah, um, it's been a great week. Uh next week at my actual birthday, obviously it's the weekend of Mother's Day, so we didn't want to do this on Mother's Day, the the gat the gathering that we had with friends, because I I'm pretty sure everyone's gonna make plans for being mothers and seeing their mothers and all that kind of stuff. So next week we'll probably me and you will go to the beach or something with the boys and just spend my birthday um as the little mini fam. It's not a beach, a coast. It's 100% a coast. Uh very, very excited for that. And I don't feel 40, but I'm gonna enjoy the last you know, couple of days in my 30s. But I'm closing out a decade. I'm ready to take on a new decade um and the best years of my life yet, because I know that they're gonna be great. I'm gonna make them great, and I'm gonna live great, and it's gonna be great. So with that said, this week's guest is a buddy of mine who regularly comments on the question of the week. So very excited to have my buddy John as the guest. He's got a lot of great information, inspirational information, and just words of wisdom that he shares. So make sure you stick around for segment two with my buddy John. Um, it's a great conversation that we have. I'm pretty sure we'll have to have him on again because usually an hour is not enough time to get everything or whatnot. So, but I always tell my guests we need to start with an hour just because people end up like tuning out and people get attention span problems and what happens.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

I love long past personally.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

I do too. I love them myself. So I listen to podcasts now more than music, I feel like, but it's just I don't know. So we'll start, uh, we'll go move on to the question of the week um here and uh move it forward. So this week's question was what's the biggest lesson a past relationship taught you? It can apply to romantic, friendship, or family relationships. And then some follow-up questions are what actually happened that led you to learn that lesson? Was it something small that built up or one big moment? How did that lesson change the way you see people now? What's a red flag you'd never ignore again because of it? What advice would you give someone going through the same? So uh the first one comes in from Val Ferris, and Val says, Even if you think your best friend doesn't want your man, still keep her at arm's length. Going on eight years now with her playing house with my ex and my firstborn, it's awful. I remember her constantly asking mine and his sex life. Weird shit.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Val, that's hard.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah. Um, as someone that has experienced that myself within relationships and friendships, that sucks. It's uh it's a horrible feeling because you're not only just losing your partner or your person that you're with, but you're losing now a especially a best friend, and that's not easy. And especially someone you're supposed to trust, someone that you're supposed to be able to talk about. I think that's probably why I personally have never gotten close to people again. Uh I mean I get close, but I don't get that close. I don't share my personal intimate moments with people. I don't let them get too close anymore to my people. Like if I'm with someone, you can be friends with them, I don't care. But like to get like to the point like where you're either spending time alone or messaging each other alone or any of that kind of shit. No, I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have that. And in a situation like this, I feel like if a person does this to you, they're not a friend, obviously, and you're just now getting rid of two people that don't deserve your time or energy. So for me, that's the way I kind of looked at it. I was like, all right, well, I got rid of two people that I know I can't trust. So I'm I I I know better now, and at least I don't have those people, you know, because who knows what else they could potentially be doing behind your back if they're doing that. If they're doing something as simple as that, they're gonna be doing a lot of shit. Sorry to had to go through that. That's not uh that's not easy.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

Uh the next one is from my best friend in Colorado, Amanda. She says, Don't allow work drama to become your drama. Do the job, do it well. Go home. You aren't there to make friends. Working in a woman-dominated industry, there is toxic people and toxic energy everywhere. Stay out of it. I've worked for companies where leadership has gotten away with murder, but as you know, workplaces don't protect employees, they protect the company. I've been involved in trying to save an employee who has been harassed. At the end of the day, I tried to stand up for her and report to HR. Looking back, I don't regret helping, but after that job, I told myself I wouldn't get involved in workplace drama or make too many friends because at the end of the day, I'm there to make money. I've met my best friend and very close friends through work. I'm grateful for those people, but you learn how to protect your energy and space and who to trust. And then she says, Kiss kiss, shout out to my bestie Mariah, best work wife and besties for life. I love you, Amanda. Yeah, her and I we met if you hear but like listen to past podcasts. Uh her and I met. We worked together for a hospice company back in Denver. And it was like friendship love at first sight. I was like the front desk person at the time, and um, she was a CNA at the time, and she just walked in the front door, and it was just like love at first sight, friendship. I was like, that's my bitch. And so inseparable since, and it's been like 10, 11 years.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

I love that. I mean, here's the honest to God truth is she's right, like not everyone's your friend there. And I had to learn that the whole the la very hard way because I'm one of those people that I could be I used to be very trusting, and I was like, Oh, I want to be friends with everybody, and then you try to take on everybody. That doesn't work like that. There's some people that just need to keep at arm's length and they're work people, and you can be friends with them at work, but getting outside or letting them know too much of your personal stuff is not never it's never a good idea. Um, and I I've got some friends still from my jobs that I've become close with, and there's no regrets there whatsoever. But I think too many times people get so involved in their work friends that they let them that's like all they hang out with, and that's all all they're around, and that that in itself I think causes problems. And then all you talk about is work, and it's like, dude, you're not on work time. Why the hell are you talking about work? Like it's it's not good.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

Well, and then too, I mean, just from like the HR side and like investigations and whatnot, like I think I mentioned on like the last podcast or before, it's like if you're involved in like a clicky office and you do something to betray that click or whatever, they turn on you and they'll go right to HR and say, You did this, you did that. And someone else proof.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

And then someone all yeah, someone always will like rat on others to save themselves, and then there's always some sort of group chat or some pictures or something that happened that can get you in trouble, you know? Like and oh yeah. I'd rather I'd rather hang out with my friends that are outside of work or that I know are not involved in my job. So that way, if something happens, they can't just be like, well, I work there too, and then this happened, and then things are like it's just not worth it. It's it's it's dumb. It's really stupid to get involved.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

And to piggyback off what Amanda said too, I mean, that's what's hard with healthcare is that it is a female, a highly female dominated industry, and it's I mean, I'm not saying men are perfect, but whoa, women are women are just they can be men can be toxic, but women can be very toxic in like the mean girl caddy bullshit, and then people think, Oh, I'm being bullied. I'm like, well, if you've ever Googled the true definition of being bullied, you're not, but there's a mean girl situation, which also isn't okay, but it's not necessarily harassment or bullying or a hostile work environment. But that also needs to be addressed too. So it's it gets sticky.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

At the end of the day, you're there to work, you're paid to do your fucking job. Just shut up and do your job, like and just shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Get the fuck out then if you're miserable. Yeah, people don't ruin everybody else's life because you're a cunt.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah. Yeah. People unfortunately, like I we've I've talked about this on past podcasts where they let their job consume them and that's who their identity is. Like I you what one thing I don't understand is people that put their job in their profiles, like on Facebook and shit like that. Like, you want people to know where you work? That's pretty stupid, especially since there's a lot of people that could easily find you, and then like if they want to cause problems for you at work, they can easily do that. If they don't like something that you posted, or if you like something, God forbid you like something, a post or something that maybe they don't agree with, they'll turn you in. They'll call HR and they'll be like, hey, this person represents this, and they're a part of your company. They have it on their profile that they work for your company. Is that what you guys share? Like, are those your thoughts? Like, there is caddy ass fucking people that will do that kind of shit all the time.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

And and or if you call out and you're friends with people in your office and you're posting pictures and stuff, they'll write that out too. Snap screenshot it and they send it to HR. Tell I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

People are stupid though. They don't pay attention to that. They they they forget that once you post it online, it's on there forever.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

I would hope that by now in school they're teaching kids about like things like common common sense, like to be safe online and to not be posting things that you might regret later and that kind of shit. But I I doubt that they do anything like that.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

It's a school system. They don't give a shit. They want you dumb.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Next one is coming in from Ben Gifford, and he says, My past relationships slash friendships have taught me to not go out of your way for others not willing to reciprocate. You can only give so much of yourself before your cup is empty and you have nothing to refill it with. I've gone out of my way for several people I cared about, even went so far as to be dad for someone else's kids all while she was sleeping with other people during her shopping trips that would take four plus hours to do. Jesus, yeah, fuck that, dude. Sorry, Ben. Nope. That's some yeah, that's some bullshit, dude. Like that's that's not cool. And when that happens, it's like, okay, what you gotta think. This a person like this is probably using a lot of people to see what they can get out of them. They're sucking their energy out and money and whatever else. That's that's scandalous shit right there. Fuck that. Like and and unfortunately, uh there's people out there that look for people like like this that do nice things and just are trying to be do a do a good deed or you're caring about you, and they don't care about anyone. Right. They're just looking at what they can get out of you, and they will get everything they can up until you cut them off or whatever. Then they'll try to switch it around and say that you're the problem or that it's you or it's all in your head or some shit like that. And that's what pisses me off. But definitely uh agree with this. I I would agree with uh not going out of your way to be there for people that will not do the same for you. I've learned that a lot over the last couple of years, especially. Um, and I've kind of cut people off a lot. I've cut off a lot of people where before it was like they're a best friend, or yeah, they're this, but you realize like, hey, guess what? I'm the one putting in the effort. I'm the one that's doing going above and beyond for to be a good friend. And you don't you don't do the least bit of like just kind of showing up for me. So fuck you. I ain't doing that no more. And I don't do that no more. I've I've learned to not not be like that. Now I'm I'm selfish. I'm selfish, I'm about what I want, what I need, what I what what's good for us, like our family, our immediate family here. I don't worry about what people think of me or being the most popular or any of that kind of shit. I could care less. But uh the friendships that I value and I treasure are the ones that I I pay attention to little things. If I show up for something for you, I expect you to show up for me when I have something like that. And if you don't, like like they say, silence sometimes says more than words or anything else. If you don't show up for me, I that's like all right, I know I'm done showing up for you. Don't ask me. Don't ask me to show up for you because I won't. And if you do, guess what? I'm just not gonna show up.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

Yep, absolutely. The next one is from Brandon Sills. The biggest thing I learned was from my ex-best friend. At one point in her life, she shut everything and everyone out that jeopardized her zen and refused to grant audience to anyone who had a known history of doing as such. Then there was the calmer years and kind gestures and everything else that flourished despite also having that crazy humor. Evolution was the process. However, like I had mentioned a couple of times with you before, she had her downfall and is facing at least four years or more in jail or prison for her recent actions, culminating from leaving here and almost sticking the landing completely where she is now. Her bad actions taught me that even the best people in your life can sink low enough to damn near take you with them without you realizing how bad it really is. It reinforced the good I borrowed from her since the mid-2010s and softened the blow of disappointment when I discovered, well, probably on substances she viewed me as less than. I don't know if it opened a third eye or red flags or not, but I now can choose to deal with l with less bullshit from people. And if you got someone hitting a rock bott bottom bad and you are oblivious to how bad it really is, be empathetic to their suffering, but be extremely reserved in helping any past uh helping being an ear. They need hard lessons to establish their rock bottom and find their way back, which is not your responsibility. True. If they aren't saying I have a problem, eventually they will say you are the problem or more or less. Perhaps that's informative as I can be with it, as it's still an ongoing thing. I'm studying and squeezing more lessons out of the dying lemon to be metaphoric about it. Oh, that's that's hard. I mean it.'Cause like it goes both ways. Relationships, friendships, just relationships, and especially if someone's fucking spiraling. I mean it's it's a h it's hard to watch and it's hard to be a part of because if you're not careful, they can take you kind of down there with them.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

They will. People like that will be with them. Depending on use you and it is, but I mean, you you hear about it all the time where someone was just because you were associated with someone, or maybe you're the same car as someone when they're getting busted for doing something they shouldn't be doing, and just because you were there, now either A, you have to be a witness, or B, you're guilty by association, you're getting charged with something less than maybe. And I'm just thinking, like, I'm just thinking extremes here. But I'm I'm also thinking about someone that, you know, if you're let's say that someone has we're just gonna say a drug habit. If they have a drug habit and you're constantly they're hitting you up for money and you're giving them 20 bucks here, 20 bucks there, 50 bucks there, whatever, to try to help them because they're making you feel sorry for them. You're not helping them really. What you're doing is you're feeding their drug habits because they're using one way or another, they're using that money for drugs. If you know they're on that path, even if they go buy food with that, they're whatever's whoever else is giving them money or however else they're getting money, they're getting money somehow to get their drugs to get their fix. And you're not helping. Like he said right now, you need to let them hit a rock bottom. You can be an ear for them, but you you kind of just need to let them figure it out and they need to admit that they have a problem. I've said this many times. It's like you cannot force someone to change or take accountability, any of that kind of stuff, until they're willing themselves to say, hey, I do have a problem. They may say they have a problem, but what are you doing about it? If if you just say I have a problem or you don't acknowledge you have a problem and there's nothing, you can't ever expect things to change until maybe they do hit a rock bottom and then maybe they they will acknowledge it themselves. But at the end of the day, it it comes down to that person that's going through this shit needs to hold themselves accountable and be like, I'm tired of this. I don't want to deal with this anymore. I don't want to be this way, I want to fix this. And then they need to take action. They need to acknowledge it first, and then they need to take action. If you don't take action, nothing's gonna change. Tomorrow is too late, and you can't change the past. What you can do is change now and you can move forward and you can you can start doing even little, even little changes at a time will add up. And before you know it, you're gonna look back and be like, wow, that was a month ago that I was there, and look where I'm at now. Wow, a year ago, and now I'm here. Like it it starts with you taking accountability and you acknowledging the fact that there's a problem and then coming up with a plan of how you're gonna fix that and how you're gonna uh move forward. And being an ear for someone is one thing, it's another thing if you start taking on their problems and how they're affecting your life and how you're living and all that. And that's nobody's as grown-ass adults, you you can't get let yourself sink into other people's shit. Period.

SPEAKER_04 24:42

Uh and then the next one is from our friend Kira Simberborn. They say, My past relationships taught me that you can learn from every person on the planet, especially what not to do. Humans are not toys. That is absolutely true, especially the not or what not to do.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

I mean, relationships teach you there's there's yeah, uh there's uh there's always something to be learned, and that's why I think I've said this many times in in past podcasts, is that I don't have any regrets for any of my past relationships, no matter how bad or toxic or how ugly things got. There was a reason for those people to be in my life, for those those women to be in my life that were in my life. And I learned a lot from them. And I never uh, no matter how bad it was, I never uh I never didn't take anything from it where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna fix this, I'm gonna change this, I'm not gonna accept someone that's like this in my life. I'm not gonna put up with this. I know I can't be compatible with someone that's this way. I I take something from it and I always I I make sure that I leave a winner. I it's not a loss, it's a lesson. So that L is a lesson. It's not the only time it's a loss is if you don't learn from it, you keep making the same mistake over and over. It's it's a it's a that's a loss.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

So that's an L. Because you can lose everything, everything. And multiple times. I've seen it.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

And and I don't live with regrets either. And that's why I always say, like, I I with these lessons, um, you know, they're they're experience. And then my hope is that I can share them with other people, with friends, family, social media posts, music, these podcasts, these conversations that we have, then maybe someone else can learn from it, or maybe someone else can take some advice from it and apply it to their life in one shape or way, form, or another. And and then at that point, it's like I'm passing the torch on to somebody, and it's it's not just sitting, you know, in dead space. Absolutely. Uh, the next one is from John Gilman, and John says that no matter how you may feel, you can't control how others feel. Focus on you, God, what's important in life and what's meant for you. We'll never miss you. Took the person I thought I would spend my life with, breaking me to a point I didn't know I could be broke, but I came out from it with a greater understanding of myself, and it brought me to God after 20 plus years of being a devout, devout Satanist. The breakup totally changed my life for the best version of me yet. I love that, John. That is awesome, John.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

God is always the way.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

And I always encourage people that I don't preach any type of specific religion on anybody, but find what works for you that brings positivity to you in your life and brings you peace, and that's all that matters. And and building a relationship with uh a higher being is a personal thing. So I always tell people, I'm like, what what's what's yours? I have no business telling you you're right or wrong or arguing with you or telling you that that's a stupid thing to believe. If it works for you, it doesn't affect anybody else, that you're hurting anybody else or whatever, that is great. And it's uh, you know, a relationship with your higher being, I feel, um, is personal. And no one else needs to you don't need an answer to anybody else for it. And I'm glad to see that uh that you've taken on something from this and and been able to turn it around and and bring positivity.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Absolutely. Um the next one is from Steph K08. Uh they say, never give too much of yourself too soon. Always listen to your gut and what your body is saying. I've learned most of the time your nervous system knows before you do, and I always say if someone wanted to, they would, and if they don't know what that what they want, they don't want you. That's absolutely it. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Doesn't get more straightforward than that. I hate when anyone says that they don't have time or that they whatever. Like when people have excuses, I lose all respect. Just get straight to the point, dude. If you are not able to do something, if you can't commit to someone or commit to a job or whatever it is, a task, relationship, whatever, just be blunt. Don't make excuses. You don't need to. That let that person move on, figure it out on their own, get the job done themselves, or move on to another person if it's a relationship type of thing. If someone loves you and truly loves you and truly cares about you or truly wants to be with you, they're going to do, they're not going to make excuses. They're going to be, oh, my past this and my past. No. They wouldn't even be talking to you on that level or be intimate with you or dating or any of that kind of shit. It's just a way that people choose, I think, to get what they want out of you and then not have to commit or move forward. And so, yeah, it's I I 100% agree here with Steph K. The next one is from another step, Stephanie Bessett. I've learned that it's okay to walk away from someone, even a relative, if they refuse to respect your boundaries. It took a long time for me to understand that and to stand up for myself.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Good for you, Stephanie. Yes, I say this all the time. I mean, you can break up with people, even your family. Just because you're relative doesn't mean that you have to be close to them. If they're toxic and bringing you down and, you know, don't respect the boundaries that you set, it's okay to just it's done. Why just because your blood or whatever, you're gonna let them just ruin you and your mindset, your mental health? No. They're the ones if they if they can't see that and they don't get help to help their issues and what they have going on to deal with and to be nicer, then let them go.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Cut them off and then and then if they come to you and they want to fix things, make things right, you go, you can you can hear them out or you can say, No, I don't want to deal with you anymore. You're you burnt your lost bridge with me.

SPEAKER_04 29:55

We all have free will.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

Always remember that.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

But I I love that uh Stephanie here looks like uh has stood up for herself and that and set boundaries and all that, and that's that's I think that's very important. It's key for for your mental health and for your well-being. Absolutely. I'll let you go first since I went first last week on this. So for the questions of the week. Your answers.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

I want to say what's the lesson a past relationship taught you? What's the biggest lesson a past relationship taught you? Well, I mean, my marriage. I learned that you don't just and granted this does work out for some people. Unfortunately it did not me, which thankfully, because then I wouldn't be with Perez now. But we got married really fast. We got married after a month. Um, and I only saw him on the weekends during that month. So it's like I didn't really know who I was marrying. So I think it's just a you know, marriage is a big deal. And I think it's just one of those things where it's like I didn't pay attention to like how real it is or respect how real it is, and just jumped into something and unfortunately it turned into garbage. But the bright side, it helped mold me to who I am today. I've learned a lot about myself. I learned that I'm strong, that to have confidence in myself and that I can do anything and I can be the only person that I need if needed. And it it also just helps you recognize like abusive patterns. Like I can see it now, I can just spot it like with people, whether it's just like how they are at work or just people passing by and how they're interacting with one another. I can say, like, oh, she's probably abusive, or he's abusive, or you know, you you can just see the narcissist I know you hate this, but the narcissistic traits.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Actions, man, is actions, actions don't lie.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

And this like the way they talk, like how people will talk to each other, and or especially couples and whatnot. And I don't know. It just it's like a it just stands out and that's a huge red flag. What is something small that built up or one big moment? I mean, abuse, but that was unfortunate, physical abuse. Uh a lot of mental, financial, but there was physical too, unfortunately. But how did that lesson change the way you see people now? Um, I don't think it changed the way I see people. I think it's just how I see myself and to, you know, not be so I was I mean, granted, I was in my late twenties, but just to not be so naive and just I always want to expect the best out of people, but at this age, it's like and going through that, I've learned that sure, you can always expect that, but no, that's not necessarily gonna happen. So protect yourself. Don't just let yourself be super vulnerable. What? To get hurt.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Because you okay, so I don't think I've ever asked you this, but when you were when you got first got married, you said you only saw him on the weekends. Uh when you when was it when you first started noticing when you actually acknowledged that there was something going wrong there? Was it like a month in after marriage? Was it a year later, two years? Like when when was it and what was it that made you all of a sudden be like, okay, there's a problem here? Because I know sometimes us as human beings, we were like they were maybe just having a bad day and you you write it off. But then when it actually hits you, like, holy shit, okay, I this is not good. This is probably not good.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

That's a great question. I mean, we we uh ended up moving to Colorado, so I knew nobody, so he got me away from So we got married in August, and by March we had moved to Denver Denver. So fairly fast. I mean a few months, whatever. I mean, there was obviously signs and stuff, but for me, the the what stood out that I was like, shit, is like our second anniversary when he needed me in the face. So that was like that just like as dumb as that sounds, yes, there was red flags on b uh issues on both sides. We were heavy drinkers, so that never helps, right? We had many fights. There's been fight nights where I like threw beer bottles at him, like empty ones and stuff, and like would wake up to like a mess or whatever. So obviously that should have been a sign, but it wasn't until that actual physical like harmful thing happened I was like, what the fuck? It was like my realization, like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Like it like almost snapped you into like reality.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

Like into reality, and I'm like, oh fuck.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

How how long into the marriage the the bottles throwing and the yelling and the more aggressive that you kind of ignored that?

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Honestly, it happened not long after we got married. Because like how quickly? Like I'm just curious. But it wasn't all the time, it was just like it'd be like or which is still enough, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because him and I would just overdo it and then get blacked out drunk and get mad over something little. Usually it was him getting mad and then like being like blah blah blah, and then me being like, fuck you, I'm an independent woman. So obviously there was shit there. I'm not perfect either. Another reason I don't like to drink a lot, because nothing ever good comes from being drunk, right? No. Um, so yeah, but the actual physicalness was like the snap of like and like you know how you see in movies where it's like something happens and then all of a sudden they just have this like flashback of like the last however long of like oh shit, this was a bad thing, and then they come back into that moment. That was pretty much that.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Were you done at that point? Like, were you already checked out and trying to figure out like all right, I need to get out of this at some point?

SPEAKER_04 34:42

Yes, and no. So I mean, yes, but also I was like, I don't know, like I guess maybe like the cliche thing of maybe I can change him. And so then I was like, maybe mainly I was like, this is when I need to like figure my way out. But also life and that wasn't everyday stuff. And abuse is wild. It's easy to just get sucked back into it, the like manipulation, like all that stuff, and you just get kind of stuck in it and they they just get you in a weird headspace. It's I don't know how to explain it, but it sucks. But eventually just got out. It all aligned. What's a red flag you'll you'd never ignore again because of it? Obviously, like not getting married after a month. Drinking patterns, I mean, just everything, just not being naive. You think it came hazards over here snoring? It just came with a young age and just I don't know. Not I don't know, just acting too impulsively. What advice would you give someone going through the same? I mean, if you are in an abusive situation like that, I mean you again, I've said it a million times, but you can get out, you know, go find all your resources. A lot of times states have resources or sh women's shelters, or I mean, whatever you gotta do, a friend, a relative, whomever you can get to get out, because it really is. You need to be away from them away from that individual for a long period of time so you can have that snap out of reality, to be away from for a few days, to have some clarity and really see like, oh shit, this is awful. But because it's easy to be in your mind and think, like, oh, this is just every day, oh, it's not that bad. You can come up with all the excuses. Oh, it was just a bad day. Oh, he has a lot on his mind, there's a lot of pressure at work, or yada yada yada. But once you're away from it and can talk to like outsiders or just even sit with yourself, you can see like, no, this is not good.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

This is a fucking problem. And this isn't good for my health or my life.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

And you don't know where you're gonna end up. That's kind of scary. Like, I think that especially might get to the next extreme, which you know, then then it gets more physical, and maybe there's knives or guns or whatever involved in it, and that's not good.

SPEAKER_04 36:39

Your turn, Purdez.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

All right. So for me, I I would say um the biggest lesson a past relationship has taught me, and it's more than just uh one type of relationship. I think it's or more than just a romantic relationship or a friendship or family relationships. I would say what what the biggest lesson is for me for all of those things is um to maintain and keep respect within the relationship and boundaries. And what I mean by that is that I match the energy that the person's given me. For example, um, like we were talking about earlier, if if someone uh does for me, I'll do for them. If they don't for me, I'm not gonna do for you. And when it gets to a point where it feels like it's a competition, um, it's time to get out. It's time to get the hell away. When if it feels like I'm doing more and I'm giving you a lot more than what you're giving me, why do why do I need to be in a relationship with you? Why do I need to have a relationship with you, whether that be a friendship or a romantic relationship or uh it could be a family member or a friend, whatever. If if I'm always giving, giving, giving and there's nothing there, you're just taking, taking, taking. I don't need to have people like that in my life. I'm better off alone. I'm better off with my close friends that appreciate me and like me for who I am and what I do and um you know, accept me for who I am, I should say. So I think flags that I've ignored from that is just like you can tell when someone disrespects you. If they're constantly insulting you, looking down on you, questioning you, judging you, you know, you invite them to something and then they don't show up, but they invite you to things and you always show up. Like that right there, I feel like there's a lack of respect there. And I get it, life happens, so you can't always show up for people on their things. But like um, I I just feel that there's a lack of when you can see the signs of a lack of respect for someone. And it's important for you to set up boundaries and say, all right, that person clearly doesn't respect my time or who I am or who I how I am as a person or whatnot. I don't need to have them in my life. What benefit did they bring? And then you can drop uh uh, you know, pros and cons of being friends with this person, and I guarantee you you're probably gonna have a lot more cons. Same with relationships. If you know that you're always fighting and that this person, it feels like you're always constantly making all the effort to make the relationship last, why are you in that relationship? You don't need to have that. Let them go be with somebody else or make somebody else's life miserable. There's there's no point in holding on to something that's it's only gonna get worse with time. And no one likes it when someone is constantly begging at them or asking them to change or asking them to do this or do that. Like, no, no one wants no one wants to deal with that. So if you find yourself doing that, it's time to cut it off and say, all right, this relationship is not for me. Again, whether that's a friendship, romantic relationship, or a family member. Once, once you want, I think once really uh respect, the respect is gone, there's nothing that can save that. You can you can try to hold on to it for as long as you want, but once the respect is gone, it's it's only going to be downhill from there. And so I think respect and boundaries are a huge thing for me now that I've learned from relationships. And I try to keep that with anything now, with friendships, work relationships, with our relationship here, uh, with family, and and holding people accountable for those type of things. It's like, you know, you can make all the excuses in the world for why you did certain things or why you didn't do certain things. But at the end of the day, I don't care what those excuses are. I'm sorry it sounds cold and heartless, but I don't care about your excuses. I want actions. Show me by your actions, not by your words, because I don't care about your words. Your words mean nothing to me. Period. I'm a man of action and taking action right away and fixing it. I'm not about someday I'm gonna change or oh, one day I'll get to it. No, we're gonna get to it now or it's done. It's simple as that. I just I don't, I don't like, I don't put up with shit anymore, especially now that I'm getting older. I don't have time for friendships like that, relationships like that, family members like that. I don't have time for that. Life's too short. How did this lesson change the way you see people now? Well, I watch people like a motherfucker. So I think we talked about this before. If I have friends that I'm around and all of a sudden they're talking shit about somebody else, and then all of a sudden they're hanging out with them a week later. I'm like, what the f like you were just talking shit about that person. I've literally now lost all respect for you as a person. You're shit talking this person last week, talking them down, tearing them apart, and then you're over there hugging them and you're besties with them and you're you're all over each other and this and that. Like, what in the fuck?

SPEAKER_04 40:49

I've seen it too. Like post too. Or they'll post picture and be like, my best friend, it's like no, that's that's some bullshit, man.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

I cannot stand fake ass fucking people like that. It's like if you don't like someone, I get it. Stick to it, be true to it. But if you talk all this mad shit about someone and then you're like best friends with them next week, like you're a fake motherfucker. Like, and what are you saying about me now? Because I guarantee you that someone like that, when you're not around, is running their fucking mouths about you. So I watch people's actions constantly and I see how they are. I I will watch them if every time someone leaves or is not around, they're talking shit. I'm constantly like, oh they're one of those people. They love to shit talk, and they want to see if you're gonna say anything or if you'll jump in and shit talk too, and then they'll go try to twist things around or make themselves look like a good guy and you're the bad guy. It's just dramatic things like that that I don't put up with and I don't like to be around anymore. I don't like the fakeness. There's a lot of fake motherfuckers out there, so much fakeness. And I don't know who you're putting a front on for because most of the time most people don't care and they see right through. A lot of people see right through that kind of shit. They know people talk, people always fucking talk. So if you're that person that's always got drama in your life or always talking shit about people, everyone talks about it and they know and they know exactly how you are and they see the fakeness. So don't like that shit. Um, and I I'm always on the lookout for that. I'm on the lookout for people that are just just fake as fuck. Put up with it. Um, what's a red flag you'd never ignore again because of it? Just I mean, I feel like once a person's done you wrong once, you can talk it out and maybe it gets fixed. But if they go back and do it again, at that point you need to cut it off. You need to end it. At that point, it's just now they're taking advantage of a situation. So it's it's time to move on and cut ties and let them go do that shit to somebody else that's gonna put up with it.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Set them free.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

Set them free. Set them free. What advice would you give to someone, give someone going through the same? I would just say demand respect, demand uh uh uh accountability and set boundaries and hold them to it. And if they don't, cut them off. And then they know why. You can explain to them if they care to hear, they'll listen. If not, then whatever. Let them go, let them go do that to somebody else and see who puts up with it. See how many meet see how many of the mothers are gonna put up with someone mistreating them. So I would say that's for it for me. That is the end of segment number one, but stick around for segment two with my great conversation that I had with my buddy John, which is up next. Welcome everyone to segment two of the Liquid Shape Podcast. Today's guest, I have someone I actually went to school with and grew up with by the name of John. John, welcome to the podcast. Good to be here. John actually uh submits a lot of uh information to the question of the week. So I always look forward to see what he has to say because he's always got a lot of good uh feedback and information. So I'm excited to have an episode here now where we get to discuss and talk about you, John. So go ahead and uh tell the listeners about you and and who you are and your little your journey.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

Sure, absolutely. Yeah, so my name's John. Uh last name's Wold. I always spelled out W O L D because uh everybody gets it wrong. Uh met Cody back in high school. We didn't really we didn't really hang out in high school, though. Like I knew who you were, you're you're kind of little click of. People, but uh I was kind of a floater. I originally grew up in a town called Colton, which is a really small town out by Malala. My parents divorced when I was twelve. I moved to Scotts Mills, um, went to eighth grade in Scotts Mills, and then went to Silverton. Uh and that's where uh I ran into Cody. And I don't know if you really remember me much back then. I remember you because uh, you know, we're kind of into the same music and you guys were the you guys were the cool metal heads.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

I was like, I remember you from the spike you hear. I I would say that I actually would I hung out kind of with everybody and I had my moments like where I would hang out with like X amount of people here and then like something would happen and then I'd end up shifting to another group of people and then I'd something would happen there, and then like I just feel like my whole when I think of high school, I always think of I was a I was a party animal for sure. Yeah, but I also went through like phases of hanging out with certain people and then like for whatever reason I would shift to another group of people and then something would happen, I'd shift, and so like I kind of went all around the basically around the around the block, but I'd always come back to people again that I was previously friends with. It was like cycles, so but I do remember you. I remember you had uh you had the cool fucking Liberty spikes and shit.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Yeah, yeah. Uh I don't I don't even know how that even transpired, the the Liberty Spike thing, but uh I was pretty well known for the hair for sure.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Yeah, I think we had actually we might have had um a couple classes together is how I I remember you.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Uh maybe. I know I saw you in passing a few times. I think we may have had a few conversations. I probably talked to to Pudgy the most out of out of your leg of people, and um even that wasn't very much. I went to school for uh a little bit. Um I got expelled from Silverton. I don't know if you remember that.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

I don't. What happened? Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

Yeah, do you remember the car fire?

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Uh vaguely, yes. Uh the for the homecoming?

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Yeah, uh yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Yep. I vaguely remember.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Tell us about it.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

So uh I'm not much of a dance guy. I I uh despise dancing, but I like the dress-up part, right? But for whatever reason, it's probably a self-esteem issue going back from me being being picked on and uh not not necessarily beaten up or anything, but uh my confidence was beaten out of me pretty young, just being picked on, being the outcast as a kid. I never really got any confidence until I moved because all of a sudden I was the new guy, right? I wasn't the weirdo that sat and drew dragons and medieval shit and whatever. That was kind of me before uh being in that area. Anyway, long story short, um I was hanging out with my friend Corey, and we were we went to the dance. I don't remember if I had a date or not, I assume I did. But after the dance, we were headed to the McDonald's by Silverton High School, and you walk through the uh through the track. There's a part of the fence you can walk through, you walk down the train tracks, and then you get to the McDonald's, and that's where my dad was gonna pick us up. And so we're walking out and we walk past the car. And so, for those that don't know, uh they had this car bash thing, so they would get a car donated from uh a junkyard, and uh the high schoolers would pay a couple bucks to hit it with a sludge hammer or a baseball bat or something like that. So it's just it's just there to raise money for the homecoming deal. Uh anyway, some people ended up flipping it over a couple times, and some people slash the tires or something. And so anyway, it's just this beat-up car on the track, and we're walking through, and my buddy Corey's he picks up a piece of cardboard he saw on the ground, and I had a lighter and we just lit it, we tossed it in the trunk thinking, like, this thing's gutted, there's nothing in there, right? No big deal. And then we walk past somebody, which I later found out was Tor, I think it was his name. I don't know if you remember who that guy was.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

I do, yep. He hung out with some of the guys that I was a friend with.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Yeah, so anyway, we just kind of lit it, tossed it, tossed it in the open trunk as we walked by, and then went through the gate, went down the the tracks over to the McDonald's, and we're waiting for my dad to show up. And we look behind us, and there's this 25-foot fireball coming out of this car because apparently there was still the trunk, the trunk liner was in there, and it caught the trunk liner on fire.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

And again, we had no intention of causing any. We're not troublemakers. We weren't trying to do anything. We just thought it was funny. Like, it was a little tiny piece of cardboard, just lit it, tossed it, didn't think of anything of it. So we look out there, we see this huge flame coming from the s from the track. Officer McGee comes running out there, and we're like, oh no. And anyway, long story short, it was uh Tor that we walked by and and he turned us in and got a reward.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

So Oh shit. Damn, you got ratted out by Tor. I didn't know he he would do something like that.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Well you were you gonna were you planning on telling anybody that it was you, or were you just gonna kind of deny or like I mean by Monday they pulled us in the office.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

So it was a bit there there was no getting around it.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

Plus, I'm sure they had security cameras and the other stuff, but I I I love how you see the car that's all bashed and you're like, fuck this, I'm gonna want one up it. And you light it on fire.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

No, no, no intention of lighting it on fire. We just thought it was a funny thing as we walked by, right? It wasn't even really a thought. It was a quick little impulsive thing that uh that got us both expelled. Damn. So anyway, um let's see, after that, I think I came back for a little bit after that year, and then I moved to Gladstone. And then my dad went through my dad, after the divorce, my dad went through a big depression. So, like the whole time I was in Scotts Mills, my dad was in a pretty bad depression from the divorce, and he was drinking and gambling. And it was literally like my dad would go to the bar after work. And and this is again in the late 90s, early 2000s, my dad was making like almost$40 an hour.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

That's pretty damn good money, especially back then.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

It was really good money for back then, and he would just go literally just sit and drink and feed fifty dollar bills into the machines.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

Fuck.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

And and then he'd come home drunk eventually. And he was never abusive or anything like that. He is just that's that's what he ended up doing. And anyway, we went moved to Scotts or uh to Gladstone after that. So he was closer to work. He worked in Milwaukee, and Scotts Mills is a pretty long drive, like for us a little over an hour or something. Uh Gladstone was closer for him, but it was also closer to the bars. And uh anyway, we were there for a bit, and then he decided he wanted to move out of state and try and escape everything. And my brother went with them. I moved back home with my mom for a little bit with her new husband who hated me, but he hated everybody. Any male figure in my mom's life, didn't matter what the relationship was, her brother, her dad. Oh, yeah, yeah. He was super jealous.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

And uh anyway, so I was there for a little bit and I finally dropped out. I knew I wasn't gonna graduate anyway. Because uh I started working when I was 10. Uh, do you remember uh me bringing the reptiles to the school?

SPEAKER_02 50:17

I do, yep.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Yep. So uh I used to work for the Oregon Reptile Man. Uh started working for him when I was 10 years old.

SPEAKER_02 50:23

And uh I learned Where was that based out of that that reptile thing?

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Uh he's he is is originally from Colton as well.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Okay. Did they happen to have alligators at one point or something?

SPEAKER_00 50:34

I mean, he so he does he does a mobile uh educational program thing. So it's not a place that you would go. He at one point in time had a a uh a reptile museum, like a little exhibit you can go through go to out by out by Sandy, but that would only lasted like two years. Then um and he was losing money the whole time, and he finally got to the point where he was starting to break even, and then the owner of that property doubled the rent. And he just he just he just couldn't afford to keep it afloat anymore. But that was his attempt at having a location. Okay. Um, but he he does like schools, scout groups, libraries, they parties, he does uh you know, mobile shows. So he brings a bunch of animals, does a show. Um anyway, I think I started collecting exotics at around a 12. And then uh by the time I did that show at school, which I I don't know, what was I, 15, 16? I at that point already had rattlesnakes, alligators, cobras, um anacondas.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Dude, alligators are my favorite. Honestly, that's one of my favorite like animals, period. Yeah, I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

Man, I I feel like I I gotta experience a lot of stuff that that most people will never have access to. Exotic reptiles was a lot of fun for me. Uh growing up, I also had pet raccoons, and basically our neighbor was clearing a brush pile, and uh there was a raccoon nest in the pile, and the mom ran away, abandoned three babies. One of them died that night because it got crushed while he was trying to move the pile, and my neighbor didn't know what to do with them, and the mom abandoned him, so my mom took him in and nursed him up, and we probably had him for about three and a half years. We'd take him camping with us and everything.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

Wow. Yeah, they were they were a blast. That's awesome. So you were you're already hustling from a young age. You were you were working and kind of I mean business.

SPEAKER_00 52:07

It instilled work ethic in me, and it also is uh part of what helped me pull me out of my shell. Like I said, uh being the outcast, being picked on a lot, I didn't have a lot of confidence. And so as I'm helping my buddy do his educational shows, I'm having to stand in front of 10, 15, 20, 30 people, and for larger groups, hundreds of people, and assist him, and there's been a few times where I actually had to take over the show because he wasn't feeling very good or or whatever. And that helped a lot. Like again, being forced to talk up in front of a bunch of people helped a lot. And then uh I did the same thing at the uh at the school for biology class. Uh so that was pretty fun. I just gotta stand there and show my collection off for the entire day.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

Oh yeah, that's well, I mean, that's a great way to build your you know, communication skills and you know, like you said, you're built it built you to to be a worker, a hard worker, and and uh get you out of your shell.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Yeah, well, and what's crazy about that is uh that actually almost ended up being a problem. I never really shared it with anybody, but I almost got bit by a baby monocle cobra during one of those. It was really, really close. And uh I played it off pretty smooth, but um that that could have been uh that could have been an emergency room visit real quick.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

I don't do snakes, dude. I'm fucking terrified of them. Like even a gardener snake, I am terrified of snakes. I cannot go near them. If I see one, I'm running like a little girl.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

Yeah. Yeah, so like I said, the uh writing with Rich, that's his name, Rich the Reptile Guy, that's kind of where I got my work ethic and and and again started building confidence in myself and learning how to speak in front of people, and and I've been able to use that in a lot of other areas of my life that are un-reptile related.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

It's badass. I I love that. And you so you you mentioned in high school you got expelled and all that. You weren't, from what I've remembered, you never were a party guy. You didn't drink, you didn't do drugs or anything like that, really. What would you say that it was um a lot of like what what because when you're a teenager, that's kind of a lot of most people they go to that like to experiment, to socialize, to get out of their shell. At least that was for me, anyways, and a lot of people always around. What would you say that drove you away from not the that curiosity or from not doing that?

SPEAKER_00 54:11

I just no excuse me, I've had a cough for like a week and a half now. I mean my brother are total opposites in that regard. So like I never really had that much of an interest in in a lot of that stuff. And then my little brother, uh, whose name is Jake, he started stealing my dad's cigarettes when he was like six or seven. Damn. And I forget when he started smoking weed, he probably stole weed from my mom. And then I think he tried meth for the first time when he was 13. Oh my god. How the hell did he get a hold of that? I don't know. This is a good question.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

That's a crazy age to be getting a hold of drugs.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

Yeah, uh, so so we led very different lives, right? Like, so I started working really young. I was always pretty honest, I was never a thief, was never interested in drugs, never interested in alcohol, and a big reason why the alcohol thing is I watched a lot of my friends in high school, especially the kids out in Scotts Mills that are going up in the hills and getting fucked up.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

I'd go up there and fuck and party with him too.

SPEAKER_00 55:03

Yeah, yeah. Like yeah, like uh Dave Smith. Did you hang out with him? Little Dave?

SPEAKER_02 55:08

Name sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

Yeah. Um he is yeah, big redneck up there. His dad's name was Dave too. It's kind of funny. Anyway, um, yeah, so he he went down that path and uh he he was stealing a lot, and um my brother ended up uh addicted to meth and heroin at the same time, and he was breaking into people's houses, stealing people's mail, living in his truck. Like he he went down a pretty hard road. He ended up going to prison for four and a half years.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

Over it. And uh he's been out ever since. He's actually working for me now. I I gave him a lot of time when he got out to see what is he gonna do with himself, because with what I do now, I just I couldn't trust him in my customers' homes.

SPEAKER_03 55:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

But yeah, the the interest level was just never really there for me. That being said, I was always interested in mushrooms.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

But like the hallucinogen, the hallucinogen mushrooms, just to clarify okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:55

Yep. And uh part of that is I think that that some of those things, uh, when used correctly, um, are spiritual tools. And I've always been interested in spirituality, and I and I've always seen that as a potential spiritual tool. Uh that being said, uh, I tried weed one time when I was 16 with my my best friend, his name is James, and he'd be bit in, he'd been bugging me for years and years to smoke weed with them. I tried it one time with them, uh, I think we were 16, and then I never tried weed again until I was in my 30s.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

Kind of reminds me of uh the movie Friday where uh Chris Tucker's trying to convince Ice Cube to smoke weed and he finally gives in.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

Oh yeah. I don't know if I've seen that one.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

What was that? Uh you've never seen Friday?

unknown 56:38

What?

SPEAKER_00 56:38

The movie Friday with Ice Cube? If it yeah, if I did, I wasn't paying attention to it. I'm not I don't I don't watch a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

Okay. Classic, classic movie, you have to watch it. It's fucking that's where the whole uh expression by Felicia came from. Like it's from that movie. There's just a lot of great lines, but yeah, go ahead, keep keep going. What what so I guess what when you did smoke, what did it do to you? Like what how did you feel, or did it not affect you because sometimes people don't get high the first time or oh no, I definitely did.

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Uh it was pretty funny. So again, like I I I I don't smoke, I've never I've never smoked a cigarette, but I I guess I kind of wanted to make an impression on James when I tried it. And it was one of those things where I was finally ready to give it a try. And so I was like, hey, I'm gonna do it today. And he's just like, no fucking way. Are you really okay? I'm gonna clean this I'm gonna clean this pipe up. It's gonna be nice and fresh. I'm gonna give you a fresh bowl, and you get the first hit. And I was like, okay. And so uh so I I like was consciously like, okay, I'm gonna take the biggest hit possible. And so I and so I just kept going. It was a long deep inhale, just kept going, kept going, kept going. And he's like, Holy fucking shit. And then that made me cough it up, right? So maybe started laughing. But and then yeah, we just we just it was only the one, the one big hit, but then we just laughed a whole bunch the rest of the night and I ended up falling asleep. So it wasn't a bad experience, but I I just I don't like the I don't like the idea of smoking things, right?

SPEAKER_03 58:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

Um, and then once I got into my 30s, I was finally ready to to try the psychedelic rod. Again, I've always been interested in the spiritual side of things, and also as a kid, I know that, you know, we're not developed. I don't really want to make it worse. I already did enough damage by not eating healthy food and drinking a shitload of Mountain Dew and a lot of fast food and stuff like that that affected my development. I didn't want to make it worse with drugs.

SPEAKER_03 58:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

And so I think I was 33 when I finally decided I was gonna try something, and I reached out to James to see if he could get me some, because he he had connections for everything. And then I was watching a Joe Rogan podcast, and he was talking about DMT and what DMT does. So my first real experience, minus the one hit of weed I took when I was 16, was DMT.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

That one scares me. That one that one scares me when I've heard about it, like when I was experimenting, just because the just people say that it's an ego killer and it's like an out-of-body experience.

SPEAKER_00 59:00

So I haven't I haven't hit the ego thing. I've I've tried it a few times. I would say it's very interesting and it is the most alien thing you can possibly imagine. So when I did it, again, I was looking, I so the reason why I decided to try these things is I want to dive deeper into myself. I want to learn more about me, and I think these are tools that can help with that when they're used correctly and they're not abused. And so I got enough for two trips, and a trip is roughly 50 milligrams. Um, and but I was given the wrong instructions. I had the wrong tools to do it, right? So I was told to sprinkle it on top of weed, which I don't smoke, and you're supposed to smoke that, which is a bad idea because it doesn't work, it just ruins the stuff and it tastes terrible. And so I took the second amount and I poured it in the bottom of this thick weed pipe that I bought specifically for this experience. You're if you're gonna do it with a pipe, it's supposed to be one of those really thin glass ones. And so I heated it up and I maybe got like 10% of what was in there. And what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to take three hits and hold them, and and so I did that. And like I said, I maybe got 10, 10, 15% of what was in there because the glass was I was using the wrong tools. But what I can tell you is I did this on a camping trip. I waited six days into this camping trip so that way I could forget my life, I could forget my schedule, I could forget work. I could just be in my favorite place with my girlfriend at the time, my wife now, we've been together almost 20 years, and I could just be in the moment in my favorite place when having this, so I don't have any other distractions or thoughts, right? What is this gonna show me if I don't have these other things happening? And my experience with it was as I was taking these hits, I was sitting there and I'm sitting next to the fire, and our camp is next to a creek. So I'm sitting here holding the final one, and I had this thought of, oh, that's right. I remember this. I remember sitting here, and I remember Steph being over there, and I remember the creek. Wow, I can't believe I forgot about this. Like I'm remembering what I'm doing right now as if it was a distant memory.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

Shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

That I forgot about that I'm reliving.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:00

So it's almost like if you were watching like yourself or watching a movie of yourself or a TV show of yourself, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

And it was a moment in the movie that that was memorable, but you forgot about it because it's been so long. So that's what that was like for me. And and I closed my eyes. And a lot like when you watch, you know, Joe and some of the guys on YouTube that talk about this stuff, they talk about the the compounding refractal visuals and all the colors and all that kind of stuff. I've done this a few times, and the first time, the one I'm talking about, is the only time I ever got to that place, is what I'll refer to it as a place. And it is the most beautiful thing you'll ever see. The colors are so exaggerated that there's no way to replicate them here in this world. And there was, uh, for lack of a better term, an entity there that I could not see, but I could feel. It was a female entity. And again, if you look at trip reports and stuff about this, a lot of people talk about this female entity. And all communication is done through feeling. And so and keep in mind that this trip was two minutes. Start to finish, two minutes. Two minutes and an entire, like that's the entirety of the high. Uh well, this will this will again, I didn't take very much. A regular one should be between five and ten minutes. And if you get beyond ten minutes, that's referred to as a breakthrough trip, and that's where like the ego death and all that kind of stuff supposedly happens. I've never gotten that far. The longest I've had is five minutes. And even that's tough to do. But with this, like I said, the female entity was there, and it was a feeling of it was almost like a feeling of going home, right? Like going back to where you're from. And there's just this intense feeling of familiarity and love and welcomingness. And the feeling from her was it's been a long time, it's good to see you. Welcome back.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:39

Dude, that that just gave me chills. You describing that. I was waiting for you to see if you were gonna say that because I've been watching a lot of videos about people that have had near-death experiences or that have technically died and what they felt and what they saw on the other side, and then they they came back to life. But what you just said right now is exactly what all of those videos these people are saying that they experienced. Yeah, where they they feel love. Like it's love that you can't describe on here on earth, but you feel it and you just know it, and there's there is an entity out there that uh that is like surrounding you.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Yeah, it was it it was quite incredible. Um, and that being said, I've tried it a few other times. The stuff I got later was from different batches from different sources, and I've had different experiences, but none of them have been that place. And I say that place because of the way the visuals were. So the compounding fractal, whatever the way people describe it, basically imagine like the kaleidoscope thing, but it is everything you can see forever, and it is these beautiful, colorful shapes that are morphing and transitioning into even more every time they change and morph, they become more beautiful, more colorful, more more vibrant, and it is so beautiful that it made me cry. That's how pretty it was. That's the best way I can describe it. Every other trip I've had has just been weird. Like uh there was one time I did it with another friend who wanted to try it, and I closed my eyes and I saw this like kind of swirling like these swirling visuals with my eyes closed, and and closed closed eye visuals and open eye visuals are are different. But with this particular one, everything was like various colors of blood orange. And I had the thought of that's weird. Why is everything orange? And then again, with my eyes closed, a little window opened up to another world where everything was really bright and colorful. So it was like just a little bubble of a window for like a second, it was like bloop, bloop, and it closed again, right? It was almost like, well, you didn't take enough, so you didn't get to here, so you're stuck in this place. And it it to me, it felt like it felt like it was fucking with me.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:45

And it made and it just made me start laughing, right? Because I was because like one thing that people talk about who are who do these things is don't expect anything because it's gonna show you what it's gonna show you. And that's almost what it felt like is like, yeah, we're just fucking with you right now. So it just it just made me start cracking up laughing because of that. I don't remember what the rest of the trip was because it was like three minutes or four minutes, but I don't remember the rest of it. I just remember that particular part. Or there was another place that I've been to twice that the best way I could describe it is almost like I I want to say clown world, but almost like carnival-y, like the way the aesthetics are. It's very strange. And it was exactly the same for the first two minutes, like the way uh basically I would say I woke up on a table. When I close my eyes, I woke up on a table, for lack of a better term. There's three entities there that I cannot see, but I can feel, and they're like, hey, look, it's you. Look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this. And then like you're into another room, is the way I would put it. And uh and everything is very straight line, it's very colorful, but it's very straight line, but there's no crazy like compounding fractal structures or anything. Everything's very uh like modern architecture, but in that place. Right? Like, you know, modern architecture, everything's smooth surfaces, straight lines, like. Like modern houses. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

So you're you're so you're saying it's two minutes, three minutes, whatever, but yeah, does it feel like it's longer than that that you're in this in this world? No, it isn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:11

No, but because again, I don't think I've gone uh deep enough to get what's referred to as a breakthrough, which is when you get between five and ten minutes. Supposedly those are the ones that feel like you can live an entire lifetime in the span of ten minutes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:23

Are you sitting down the whole time that you're on this this high? Okay, this two minutes, three minutes.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:28

100%, yeah. And again, it's been a few years since I've done this, but when I do, there's prep work that goes into it, right? I want to give myself time, I want a day afterwards to reflect. Um, I don't want to be at home where I have to go to work in a day or two. Again, I like doing this where I'm able to leave the the regular world behind and be in a good place for a couple days so I'm not thinking about my schedule and stuff like that before starting this journey. Like I said, these have all been interesting. The first one is the only one that I would say was really impactful. The rest of them were just very strange. And then after that, I decided to try mushrooms. And mushrooms, I would say, have been one of the best things I've done for myself as an adult.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

And what were those were those very like extremely different from the the uh DMT, would you say?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:13

Like like, oh yeah, oh yeah, for sure. Well, A it lasts it lasts longer, for one. Right. So you're talking four or five, maybe six hours, depending on set, setting, dose, all that kind of stuff. But for me, they were the most uh the most impactful, especially emotionally. That first experience on DMT was very intense for as short as it was because of what I experienced, whereas mushrooms get really deep into the emotions, and as a man, we tend to bury the shit out of those.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

Yeah, yeah. And from just like with I so the the the time that I've done mushrooms, I didn't get anything out of it. But I I I was already drunk, I was already high on coke, high on weed.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:55

And had been smoking a lot. So like and that makes sense. Just so they gave me a caps, I believe caps and some uh some stems. Yeah. And I didn't feel shit, so I was like, this is stupid. But everyone else that took them was like laughing on the ground and all this shit. So I'm like, well, I'm never doing this again.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:11

Yeah, yeah. The first time I tried, I took too little of an amount. The most I've done is two and a half grams. That was several years ago. Um, I'd like to do five grams one of these days. I'm a little intimidated by it because two and a half is pretty intense. But for me, again, it allows me to open up emotionally. So, like, even with my relationship with my wife now, because it allows me to br to drop the guard, it allowed us to open up more on an emotional level than ever before. Because, like I said, we we as men tend to hide our feelings and our thoughts, right? We're supposed to be men and and we bottle that shit up for because that's what society says we do, right? I've gotten worse with age.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

I don't know about you, but I've gotten worse with age where I don't bottle it up, and I'm just kind of like, you know what? Fuck it. I because before, like at least for me, I was always more like, nope, I'm gonna hold this in. Oh, I can I I'm gonna suck it up, I'm gonna suck it up. But now it's like, no, I'm done sucking it up, I'm done fucking But now I'm just like letting it out. If I'm upset about something, I'm gonna let you know, I'm gonna let my friends know, I'm gonna let whoever know, even at work. Like I've gotten I and I don't know if it's maybe coming with age and just get tired of doing that. Would you say that that's happened to me?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:11

And maybe, maybe that's a part of what's going on here too. But for sure, these these at least allow me to to dive deep into those emotions and experience them and also let the guard down and let them out, right? Like I I can talk more freely when I talk to my wife and and a lot of my friends now because like what are they gonna say if I say something weird? Like, I don't really care. It doesn't matter. Whereas like a lot of times we're afraid of like, oh, well, what will this person say if I say this and they don't like what I say, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

This this gets rid of so much of that, which is which is Would you say that it makes sense of like some of the qu some of the feelings or things that you think about that you don't know exactly what they mean or how they feel or how to explain them? Do you feel like maybe that helps explain them so that you understand them, like what those feelings are that are questionable or that you're unaware of or unsure of?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:58

Are you referring to by taking these?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:00

Yeah, by taking them, correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

Not not really, but it allows me to explore them more, right? And so like, no, I've always been on kind of an unusual spiritual path compared to most people, because most people typically fall into one religion or another. For the for me, again, it's allowed me to to let some of the the walls down, right, to open up more, not only with myself, but with those that are around me. And it's and it's also presented questions to me too that I never would have really asked myself. So, like, as an example, one of the ones that I think about regularly is I I took it was about a gram or gram and a half, and I was again, we were camping. I was on a hike during the camp, and part way through the camp, the question it asked me was, or I I say it asked me, the question that popped up, I feel like it came from this experience, was how important is what you do? And so uh for those that are listening, I own an appliance installation business. So I've I've had a lot of different jobs over the years. I've done construction, demolition, sales, machine operation. I did high-end audio video for a while, which I really enjoy. And a big reason why is I enjoy giving people experiences and the audio experience for those that like music, that like movies, it's a pretty emotional experience, and I love taking that and taking it to as far as the situation allows for, whether it's their budget or their equipment or whatever. Um, I'm really good at maximizing that. So I enjoy the experience.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:17

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

And and now I own an appliance installation business. So I install dishwashers and microwaves and built-in refrigerators, and I may not enjoy it because I'm not giving people the experience as much, but I make a lot more money.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:28

W when did you start this?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:30

When did you start uh 2018 is when I started. Um the audio video thing, uh, I started in 2010 or so, give or take. And it just got slower and slower and slower, and it fluctuates a lot with the seasons and what's going on with the economy, and there's dead seasons and busy seasons. With appliance install, it is just busy all year. And because I'm a specialist and I actually give a shit about what I do, my reputation is I'm the if if you're gonna do a high-end kitchen package, I'm the guy. Because I'm done. When I'm done, it's gonna be done. And almost everybody in the industry, when they run into an obstacle, like if a cabinet's not the right size or uh a countertop needs to be cut or something like that, they immediately like, oh, yep, that's somebody else's problem. Call me when that's done. And I'm really good of like, okay, I taught myself how to cut granite. I taught myself how to modify cabinets, how to cut a shelf out and drop it two inches if I need to to fit a bigger oven. I'm really good at doing all that type of stuff. And so back to back to this experience, how important is what I do? And in the grand scheme of all the things that are happening in the world, how important is my little appliance install business? And the answer is it's not. It's not that important. It depends on the problem. I feel like I offer a good service, but in the uh to circle back to that, in the grand scheme of what am I capable of?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:43

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:44

How important is what I do? And the answer is also it's not that important. I make really, really good money doing what I do. But do I consider what I do fulfilling? And the answer is no. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:54

And then I was gonna say that the the the person that you're doing it for, it could be like for them, it's like, oh my god, thank God I I have this person that was able to make this happen, or this. It's it's a perspective thing, I would say, because For sure. But if you're not feeling fulfilled, like there's still more room than that, yeah, for sure, that's a reason to push for more.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:13

Yeah, so so yes, I I do provide a really good service and I make my customers really happy, especially compared to what is industry state, like what do other guys in the industry do? I do a much better job than the vast majority of them, which is why I'm sought after as much as I am. But in the grand scheme of what am I capable of and what do I want to produce? So like I know your question of the week this week is uh what do you want to be remembered for?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:38

I don't want to be remembered as a guy who puts in dishwashers because it's not that important. Anyway, I think it's deeper than that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:42

I think it's deeper than that because you're telling me right now that you're the you care about quality, you care about like so it's uh if you look at what your what really defines you is the qualities that make that business so great is your characteristics, the fact that you care about the quality that you're willing to learn. So it comes down to perspective, I think. Yeah, for sure. Because if you were to ask me about John, I'd say, well, John cares about quality, he wants to make his customers happy. If he doesn't know it, he's gonna find out how to make it happen and how to do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:10

So that I mean, I think that and all and all those things are true, but is that fulfilling to me? And the answer is no, not really. Like I'm glad I can do what I do, and I'm glad I make my customers happy, and I'm glad it pays really well, and that's what keeps me around. But is this what I want to do for the next 10 years? And the answer is no, I don't want to do this. There's a lot of other things I want to do. And so then the next question it it asked me or that was presented during that particular experience was why the fuck are you still doing it? And the answer is money. I do it because of money, because it helps feed my family and provide a house, a home and this sort of stuff. So, but I think about that every day, every single day. I think about that one particular experience and how important is what I'm doing and why do I still do it? How important is what I'm doing and why do I still do it? And so at this point, my focus is like, okay, I've earned I I earn good money. I'm not worried about money. Now, how do I get to something that's more fulfilling? And so that is what I'm focused on now is uh starting a couple businesses that I enjoy more that can eventually replace and ultimately ideally outpace the income I'm making now, but are more fulfilling for me. So that's what I'm that's what I'm working on now.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:16

Oh yeah. That's awesome. Is that is those things that you can talk about right now, or is that something that you're just you're you're working on the back ends that you just kind of are keeping to yourself and working towards to eventually share?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:25

Yeah, I yeah, I got no secrets. Uh so as we just talked about. Yeah, so uh there's a few things that I've done. So I have I designed my own cryptocurrency a few years back, and the idea behind it it was to take crypto and make it applicable to the average person. And what I eventually turned it into was a rewards point system. For those that don't know, when you shop at most retailers and you put in your phone number to get your rewards points, what you're doing is you are attaching that purchase to a phone number and an email and a name, and then they track what did you buy, how much money did you spend, what car did you use, how often do you do this? And then it creates a profile around you, and then they sell that information. And as a thank you for all your personal information that you just voluntarily gave up, voluntarily gave us with this purchase in your phone number, here's 10 cents off on gas or whatever the carrot is to get you in on their rewards program.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:15

And who do they sell it to? Do you know who they sell? Like, is it to other companies that are similar to them or companies that are advertisers uh uh Chinese companies buy it up? Hmm. And I wonder what they do with that, because when you think about it, it's like why would you like so if I go get gas at like Chevron and I can't get a few years ago?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:31

How many times do you go on Facebook and you see an advertisement for something that you looked at or talked about?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:38

All the time. All the time. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:40

Right. And so so as they as they buy these data packets, and and rewards is only one avenue that they get this information, but as they buy up these data packets, they search for other data packets that have similar information, right? So, like let's say they got your your information from a local grocery store, but then they buy another data packet and they happen to have your phone number or your email attached to uh Amazon purchases or your Facebook. And they're like, okay, well, these two are the same person, and so they like to shop here, but they also are here, and these are the things they look at on Facebook. What else has w either this name or this email or this phone number or something attached to it else out there? And they may get another data packet later and like, ah, okay, so these three people are the same people, and these are their shopping habits, and here's what they like, here's what they like to look at. So anyway, that being said, uh, the way mine works is uh my rewards points are cryptocurrency. Basically, the retailer, which I'm gonna end up being the retailer for this, which is one of the things that's coming up, would give up a small portion, like 1% of the purchase, in order to buy this particular cryptocurrency off the market that goes into a rewards account for you and starts to generate compound interest. And because they're cryptocurrency and they're tied to the crypto market, the points never expire. Which is another thing that most rewards points reward systems do is they they want to keep you coming back. Because if you don't and you don't and you don't use your points, you're gonna lose them, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:00

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:01

So mine, they never expire, they're tied to the crypto market, and because every single purchase um with this particular retailer, in this case, it is gonna end up being me, every time you shop there, uh or anybody else shops there, a portion of that uh purchase is gonna be used to buy more crypto off the market, which helps drive up the price of that crypto. So it's constantly helping drive it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:24

So if it never expires, what what is going to encourage the consumer to come back and want to use those in a timely manner versus just stocking them and then let's say they die, then what happens to that currency or that that interests.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:39

Then it stays locked up forever and it can never be sold, but it helps lock the price in at a higher price point. So for those that know crypto, like you hear about burn wallets. So the idea behind that is those to those tokens or that coin is bought off the market and it's put into a wallet so it can never be sold. Right. So that locks the price in there, it now can't go below that point because that is now taken off the market. So they would effectively act as miniature burn wallets at that point, is kind of how that would work. But you know, because cryptocurrency can be divided by 0.000000001 or whatever. Like if you lose a few of them over the course of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 years, it doesn't really matter. It's still divisible by so many so many other decimal points, but it helps lock it in at a slightly higher point because now that account can never be sold. So, anyway, that's kind of the idea behind that. There's also a compounding mechanism and a bunch of other stuff built into it as well. Um so what I did now is I then took that and I attached it to warranty accounts, extended warranty coverage. So, and I've talked to a few retailers, a lot of them find this interesting, but because it's so different, nobody wants to go first. So, so long story short, my next move that I'm doing, and I have a bunch of other things that I've done in the meantime, but my next move that I'm focused on now is the place that I currently contract with to install kitchen appliances for. When they sell appliances, like let's say they sell you a washer and dryer set, but you have a washer and dryer set at your house that you want hauled away, they'll haul it away for free, but they don't want it. They don't sell used appliances. So there's another guy that has a contract there where he buys those from the store and then he either resells them or he scraps them. And I think at this point, all he does is scrap everything. Right. So that's where he makes his money is on scrap. And I would say 60% of the laundry sets that go back to that store work just fine. But it's like a situation where, hey, you know, you just moved into a new house, but the previous owner left their laundry set, and it's maybe three or four years old, but you kind of want a new set because you want to start fresh in your new house. So I'm gonna buy a new set and I'd like you to haul these away for me, please. And then those are gonna get destroyed even if they work just fine. And that's how almost everybody does it. So I'm actually working on getting that contract right now. Owner of this store is pretty motivated to do something different because he's not really happy with his current relationship with the guy that scraps everything, uh, because he doesn't he doesn't keep up his end of the bargain very well. And I'm gonna open up a used appliance store. And so I'll be able to resell these things, you know, refurbish them, resell them. So perfectly good appliances aren't ending up in a landfill. And other examples of like why I think this is so wasteful too is like, you know, there's a lot of builders in this area. I'm in Salem, Oregon. Uh, a lot of builders build spec houses, right? So they'll build an entire neighborhood and they just put a cheap Whirlpool or GE appliance package in each of these homes. And then let's say you buy the house and you're like, I kind of want something a little nicer than that. I'd like to upgrade from Whirlpool to KitchenAid or GE profile or GE Cafe, which is usually what people upgrade to, or Bosch. And I'd like you to have these hauled away because I don't want to deal with them. I don't want to deal with people on marketplace. So these are brand new appliances in these houses that were just built, being hauled away, and the current guy scraps all that.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:31

That's wild when they can just like fix like a piece of it or something on it or adjust it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:35

They don't need they don't need anything fixed. They are brand new, they have never been used. But the person that moved into the house doesn't want a cheap appliance package, they want something a little nicer, they want a quieter dishwasher and they want a five-burner range instead of a four-burner range, and they want a microwave that can air fry instead of just being a microwave. Oh. Right? So, so this is really, really, really common. So I'm opening up my own used appliance store. I'm in the process of doing all this right now. And so with that, I'm going to have my rewards program and I'm going to be able to offer extended warranty coverage, which is going to use my own warranty plan that uses my cryptocurrency. And so what's kind of cool about it is if somebody buys a warranty from me on, let's say, a three-year-old dryer, and what's going to happen is the money from the warranty sale is going to get used to buy my own cryptocurrency. It's going to get locked into an account for whatever the duration of the warranty is, three years, five years, whatever that looks like. And in the meantime, it's going to generate compound interest because of how my particular token works. It it compounds. And because every warranty sale is going to be used to buy more of my own token off the market, I'm also driving the price of my token up at the same time. So if I ever have to exercise that warranty, it's in an account that's been growing for a year or two or three or whatever the duration is.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:46

Kind of like insurance, basically, like uh like insurance companies do.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:49

Yeah, and and ultimately it's it's gonna be in a uh it's gonna be in a uh a warranty pool. So like for the month of uh April 2026, all warranty sales are gonna be used to buy tokens that go in that one and in that particular account, and that's gonna be be good for three years or five years, whatever the warranty period is. And so that account cannot be touched. So they're effectively locked up in that account, cannot be bought, cannot be sold until the warranty expires, or I need to exercise the warranty. And for me, because I'm buying used appliances at a pretty massive discount, as you can imagine, because these are hallway appliances. If I have to replace somebody's dryer, my cost is really low to replace that dryer. It's not like I'm having to a brand new eight or nine hundred dollar dryer and eat the difference in that warranty. It's it's much lower. So I can fulfill that. In some cases, I can replace it with an even nicer one than they bought the first time. And it doesn't really matter to me what it is necessarily, as long as it's within a certain certain price category.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:47

Because I can still fulfill that warranty and take care of that customer, even if it's a used appliance. And nobody offers used appliance. Like there's very few people that sell used appliances. It's usually scratch and dent, which is new appliances that were damaged during shipping. And those are pretty heavily discounted, and they still have a manufacturer warranty, but there's not a whole lot of people that sell used or refurbished. And if they do, nobody offers extended warranty coverage. And I can with this, and now my cryptocurrency has real world application, whereas most cryptocurrency doesn't. It's all speculative.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:18

Yeah, I was gonna say I can't think of a company that does that. So that's that's pretty genius on your part. I'm excited, uh, I'm excited for you for that. That that's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:26

I mean, this is several years in the in the making, right? So I came up with the idea. I went ahead and spent the money to create it and fund it and all this kind of stuff, and and then just kind of sat and I talked to a few retailers, and they find it interesting, it's a cool idea, and there's nobody else doing it, but everybody's too chicken to go first, right? They want to see this proven before they risk it. And unless you have a billion dollars backing whatever your product is when it comes to any kind of warranty or insurance, nobody will touch it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:51

Have you talked to any um of the other like aside from talking to like maybe people that are with these homes and whatnot that are getting rid of these appliances, have you talked to any businesses that, you know, maybe get the returns that they don't want to have to deal with it themselves, like uh LG or any of those companies where you would purchase it from them or take it from them and then have it at your store?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:13

Yeah, that that might be a future a future step. Right now I'm gonna focus on on used because the profit margin's really high because of what because my cost to access these is super low. And and I'm still able to sell at half of retail, uh, which is still a good deal for the people that that can't afford or don't want to afford uh you know paying full retail for stuff. Specifically, one of my main targets for this business is actually going to be people that own rental properties. Because if you own a bunch of rental houses or a bunch of apartments or something like that, your tenants don't give a shit about anything in your home.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:46

No, they they destroy it, they run through it.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:49

They destroy it, right? So why spend uh three thousand dollars on a new brand new Whirlpool or GE kitchen package when you can get it for half of that off of Marketplace?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:01

With the warranty.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:02

Well, ne well now they could get it from me at similar to Facebook Marketplace Pricing, but now I offer delivery, installation, hallway, and warranty.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:11

Warranty, yeah. I was gonna say that's a that's a pretty good deal.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:14

And then another thing I'm also doing, this new store that I'm gonna open is going to give me a platform for is appliance leasing for rental properties. And I'm pretty excited about this one. This one's gonna cost me a bit more, but if you're gonna build a new set of apartments or fourplexes or whatever, a big part of that bill is the appliance package, right? Especially for apartment complexes. Some of these apartment complexes that I do down here in Salem, the appliance package is three-quarters of a million dollars. And when there's a problem, let's say, for example, uh your dishwasher stops draining as a tenant and you get a hold of the property manager or the property owner and say, hey, my dishwasher's not draining, how fast can they solve that problem for you? And the answer is it takes weeks in a lot of cases, right? Because they got to call, they're gonna call their maintenance guy or a handyman, and he may be there in a day or two or three. And if they can't fix it, then they got to call a repair place, and they may also be there in a day or two or three or five, and that's gonna be 150 bucks for them to come look at it. And then they're gonna say it's gonna be$350 to fix this, but we got to order parts. And so, okay, let's do that because it's gonna be$700 to buy a new one and have it installed. Okay, so we're gonna order parts now. That's gonna be another week. And then they're not gonna schedule to come back to you to the house until they get the parts in hand, and that might be another day or two or three or five. And hopefully that solves and hopefully that solves the problem. And in a lot of cases it doesn't, right? So they're stretching this out for weeks, which ultimately pisses off the tenant because they're trying to save a couple hundred bucks. And so the way my program works is if you're leasing the package from me and there's a problem, let's say the dishwasher stops draining or the the fridge dies in the middle of the night, I'm just gonna replace it within two days with another one. And if it takes me three weeks to order parts and fix it, that's my problem. But your tenant's up and running right now, and because I'm using the same appliance package for all my leasing, I can use them on another property once they're done.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:53

Yeah, everyone and and everyone nowadays they expect now. So you have that. I was just gonna say if you have that on hand, they're gonna be Like, all right, well, I I can rely on John's company to to handle that for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:04

Yeah, yeah. It's the whole purpose is to streamline that process and keep the tenant satisfied because the tenant ultimately, which you know, unfortunately, a lot of landlords and property managers don't really take into account because they're all money-making machines, but the tenant's the one who pays for everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:17

If you don't have a happy tenant and they decide they don't want to pay or they want discounts because you took three weeks to fix their whatever, like that's now more money out of your pocket because you're trying to save a couple hundred bucks here. It may end up costing them more because they're dragging this whole this whole thing out. So this is designed to streamline the process, keep the tenants happy, generate cash flow for me, and then I can solve the problem within a couple days to keep the tenants happy. And uh anyway, so that's that's another thing I'm focused on. And by having this store, because I've also been talking to a couple retailers about giving this as an option, right? Like, you know, you can finance your appliances, you can buy new ones. They they have a lot of different offerings, but nobody offers leasing. And so this will give me a platform to just do it myself. Since again, it it's hard to get people's attention when you're trying to do something that's new and different in the industry.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:02

Yeah. And everyone, like you said, they're they want to see someone else do it first, and then what they'll do is they they'll see that if it works, and they're like, all right, well, what how can we do this to compete and take it up another level? And and you know, it's it's one of those. It's like that for anything, I I I would say. One thing I love about you, John, is that you are definitely a thinker and you are a go-getter. And I feel like a lot of people, they want to start their own businesses, they want to go chase for their dreams, they want to do things that um they don't necessarily have the knowledge for or the confidence to go for. Where would you say that uh you got that from? And where would you say like how would you recommend it to someone that maybe is wanting to start their own business or just afraid to push the button to move forward with something like what what would you say to those people that may need some like that extra just push to go for going after something that they really want, but they just kind of are held back by people in their lives that tell them, No, I can't do it, or you can't do that, or you need to focus on this or or what have you.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:01

Well, first of all, uh don't listen to everybody around you. For one my circle is really small, and and even as I I have ideas that pop in my heads, I try and share with some of my friends, and a lot of them think that they're over the top and they're ridiculous and whatever. Um, like the crypto thing, right? Like I got very little support from my from a lot of my friends on it because they just don't get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:18

I was gonna say it probably went a little bit over my head, even like just listening to it because I don't know too much about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:24

So it goes over most people's heads, and really the inspiration for that particular project was another one I invested in that unfortunately the there was three owners, one of them was dipping into the liquidity pool, which is where all the money that gives it value is held. Um, and they were building mansions with it and they got shut down. Um, but I like the structure of how it worked, but it was kind of a weird project. But it was a for me, I looked at it as like, okay, if I if I become a fairly large stakeholder in this particular project because of the compounding aspect of it, and this ends up taking off, the amount of money I would make in in compound interest could replace my income within a few years, right? So I could keep my initial amount in there and just sell off the gains and have that be my new income. So that was like so. I liked the structure and I was like, well, how do I take that and how do I apply it? So uh back to your question about what can I say to people? I mean, the first thing is you gotta find what um what are you passionate about, right? Which I don't I don't think most people really explore too much. You know, most people are stuck in in the world of survive, you know, uh survive, right? I I gotta go to work, I only make this much per hour, and I can only barely afford my rent. If you own if you have a mortgage and they can barely afford the mortgage, and if you got kids, you gotta keep, you know, keep food on the table and insurance and all the bills and all this kind of stuff. So they're so stuck in in keeping that alive that most people never allow themselves to ask, what could I do that's more? Or what do I actually want? And so I guess that'd be the first thing is ask yourself, what do you really want? Or like the question of the week for you, what do you want to be remembered for? Right? Do you want to be remembered as the person that worked long days and that's it? Yeah. And and then once you kind of sit in that, and and it may take a long time, it took me a long time to discover what I what I was actually passionate about, which is ultimately giving people experiences, which that's a future thing, but I g I need I need a stair-step way to get to where I really want to go, and what I just share with you is part of my stair-step process to get there. But when you find something that you love or you're passionate about, um, you know, and you share it with your friends, if you have people that that don't support it, that's okay. But learn from like why do they not support you? Like, what is it about like what you're saying that they don't like? And is does it have anything to do with you, or is that all them projecting onto you?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:35

Or don't worry about or don't worry about it. Or don't worry about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:39

Yeah. But in my case, like a lot of the lack of support was was projection, right? Because they were unhappy with what they're doing, and that's a wild idea, and they could see like this is what that could lead to, but then they look back at their life and they're like, Well, that's unreasonable. So, like, for example, one of my friends from Gladstone High School, um, uh, we were talking about the potential of like kids, right? And this was a long time ago. I didn't have kids until I was in my 30s as well. One of my things that I've always told everybody is I don't want to have kids until I'm earning six figures by myself. So, not combined income by myself. I want to earn six figures because I don't want to be in a position where I'm just earning enough money to survive, and now I have a kid, and now I can't even afford that. And I either need to move in with a family member or get on government assistance or any of that. So that's always something that was a goal of mine. If I'm gonna have kids, I have to make enough money that I can still afford to do things I want to do and raise a family and not only be stuck in survival forever, or less than that, and not be able to provide the proper education for my kids, proper food for my kids, a proper home for my kids. And one of my friends from high school, uh when I told him, I was like, I'm not gonna have kids until I make six figures. And he's like, Well, that's unreasonable. That's unrealistic.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:53

And that, like you said, projection.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:54

It's yeah, projection, right? Because he never could him, six figures was so far outside of his reach or what he believed was in his reach that that was an unreasonable expectation. Well, long story short, I hit that.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:06

Hell yeah. Fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:08

And then some. And then at that point, it was like, now that I'm earning this much money, I need to start thinking about adult stuff like life insurance. And if I'm gonna get life insurance, my girlfriend as a beneficiary doesn't look good on paper. And we've been together at that point for 13 years. And if we potentially have a kid in the future, the dad as a boyfriend doesn't offer me any legal protection. So that was actually my push to get married. It was had nothing to do with like why most people do, which is usually a religious thing. To me, it's a piece of paper. I I I don't I don't hold any value in that at all, other than the legal side of it. Because it helps with tax status and all that kind of stuff. We got married and it was kind of funny. So I I made the decision, I proposed to her. We got married within a month, and we weren't trying for kids, but that was the first time we weren't not trying. And literally five days before the wedding, we found out she was pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:01

Shit, nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:02

So that was so so that was pretty cool. And yeah, we just wanted to do the courthouse. Again, neither of us necessarily believe in it in the religious aspect of what marriage is. It's a legal document. We love each other regardless of what the state says.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:13

And that's what matters. It's all that matters.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:15

And so we were just gonna do the courthouse thing, and both of our families were like, no, there's no way you can do that. We have to be involved and whatever. So we're like, okay, we'll get a venue. And she found a really cool place. I rented my tux for like 120 bucks because I'm never gonna wear it again. And she was gonna get a cheap dress. She ended up spending like 1,500 on the dress. And I was like, if you're getting the dress, I'm getting a cool car. And she's like, okay. So I rented a Ferrari for our wedding. Oh yeah. Which I don't know anybody else has rented a Ferrari for their wedding.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:39

Not fucking badass, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:41

It was cheaper than the dress.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:42

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:43

And I gotta have it for three days. And what was also cool about that is there's a because I have a pretty good standing here in the Salem area, I know a lot of builders and a lot of their families. Uh, one of the builder's sons owns a restaurant in Salem. And we uh we used to eat there pretty regularly. We don't so much anymore, but we still talk to him. And I was telling him, like, hey, I'm gonna be renting a Ferrari. I didn't tell my family or anything, but I told him, I was like, Yeah, I'm running a Ferrari for the uh for the wedding, and this is kind of what we're doing. We kind of want to have the wedding, the reception here, right? Uh so I'd like you to cater for the wedding, and I'll pay for it. I'll pay for all of it. And he's like, I'll do I'll do you even better. So you're renting a Ferrari, right? And I was like, Yeah. He's like, if you let me borrow the Ferrari for one hour so I can shoot a commercial for my restaurant, I will give you my cost on the entire meal.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:30

Damn, that's a good deal.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:32

Yeah, for uh I think it was thirty, thirty-seven people. Um, that meal cost me four hundred and eighty-six dollars. Damn, that's pretty badass, dude. And and that was and that was appetizers, drinks, uh full course meal. They had a bunch of experimental appetizers they don't normally have uh available, and desserts. So it was all of that for uh under$500. And he gotta have his commercial and I gotta enjoy a ferrari for the weekend. It was great.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:56

It's fucking awesome. All right, man. Well, we are hitting over an hour now. So is there anything else you'd like to share? I'm pretty sure I'll have to have you back on the podcast again because uh like I we the time went by really quick.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:08

It it did, and uh yeah, I'd I'd love I'd love to be on again. Uh love shooting the shit with you. It's been a while since I've uh well, I guess it has been long, I say the King show. Well, you and you played uh with King. But yeah, I don't I don't have a whole lot. I kind of shared kind of what I'm doing right now, and um none of that is officially a thing yet, but it will be probably by the time uh I come on again if you have me on again.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:28

Fuck yeah, I love that. Well, thanks for being on here, man. Thanks for being an awesome friend and sharing your experiences and your your guidance to the listeners and again thank you for you're one of the contributors to the podcast. So mad respect and thank you for uh the support. And everyone, uh I will link I will have links to John, what John puts in the description to get in contact with him if you need work done and you want to hit him up and and follow him on the socials.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:55

So everyone's and and and as far as supporting you, man, uh you know I have a I have some friends that uh talk a lot about doing stuff. Uh you're one of the few people I know that actually does stuff. Oh yeah, thank you. And and and you stick with it, and that is why I want to support you so much. That's why I I you know am a paid subscriber and I also donate to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:13

I appreciate that, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:14

I I I I I want to see you be successful uh more so than you have been.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:18

I I really appreciate that. I'm one of those guys that like there there's days that I wake up and I'm just like, fuck, do I have to do this? Do I want to really do this? Like with the band or with the podcast or both and whatnot. But at the end of the day, it's like, yes, I do. There's days that you're not always gonna be like 100% sure that you want to do it, but you just have to push through those days. Just like with working out or eating clean or anything that you do, um, it's one of those things that it just it requires you to push through those days, and then those days when you're feeling good and you're all amped about it, you're like, Yeah, a couple days ago when I wasn't really feeling it, I'm glad I pushed through it because look at me, I'm I'm here and I it would suck if I would have given up or if I would have just thrown in the towel on that. And at the end of the day, like I like the question of the week, I don't want to I want to be remembered as someone that follows through with things, that holds himself accountable, that pushes through the the tough times, and it's it's those it's the journey really that I love personally when I'm going through shit is the journey to get there, not necessarily the destination always, that that gives me fulfillment and makes me happy. So thanks for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:20

Yeah. Uh I I guess as a final thing, since it just came to me, the the question on what would I say to people you become the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. You want to surround yourself with people that are winners, right? If you surround yourself with people that are constantly down on themselves or down on people around them, they will keep you down. You want to surround yourself with people that are doing stuff. You're a good example of that. You're actually doing things. By extension, people that are close to you are going to be elevated by you.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:46

I love that. Yeah, the the energy that you keep around you is what uh will surround you, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:50

So for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:51

So thanks a lot, John. Everyone have a great rest of your evening or day, week. Keep kicking ass. And uh thank you, John.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:59

Absolutely. Have a good one. I'll catch you later.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:00

And that is the end of segment number two with my guest John Wool. Thank thank you so much, John, for being on the podcast. Thank you so much for being a monetary contributor to our podcast as well, along with our friend Eric Sheets. Both of them contribute uh financially to the podcast. It does cost money to get this thing, uh, keep this game, keep this thing moving forward with editing software and uploading and all that fun stuff. So if you are able to contribute, please, any amount is helpful and no amount is too small. So you can find out more about that in our links to our Buzz Sprout. Uh, there's a link to be a contributor. If not, we just appreciate you guys that take the time to listen to this podcast every week. I am very thankful. And all of you that are yeah, respond exactly. Like the people that respond to these questions of the week. I love these conversations. They help us, they help us talk things out and reflect and hopefully help some people out there as well when they might read of a situation that maybe they're relating to on that. And with that said, that is the end of our podcast this week. So make sure you tune in for next week's podcast and spread the word about us. Again, please go check out American Overdoses, My Endless Battle song and video. Um, I love you guys all. We love you guys all. Have a great rest of your week.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:15

Love you bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:16

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