Two Standing Ovations and a Silent Room: What Happens When the Promise Meets Your Worst Night

What happens to your brain when you go from back-to-back career highs to the worst crowd of your life?

Jason unpacks the neuroscience of success-failure whiplash, Carol Dweck's growth mindset research, Brené Brown's arena philosophy, the hedonic treadmill, and why the fall from a peak always hurts worse than starting from the bottom. This one is personal.


#TheJasonHewlettShow #TheFullStory #CharacterOverPerformance #GrowthMindset #PerformerLife #Resilience #BreneBrown #CarolDweck #ThePromise #SilentRoom

Transcript

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Last week I gave two keynotes that were historically good for me. And the kind where you walk off thinking, I was born to do this. And then Saturday, different city, 9 p.m. show. Not the 9 a.m. speech, 9 p.m. show, which has been my bread and butter for 25 years. The show has always been better than the keynote. Always. Everyone knows that that's ever seen me. Not this week. Oh my o my how the tables have turned. I drove home asking the question every performer, leader, parent eventually asks, Who am I when the room isn't with me? That's what tonight's about. Welcome to the Jason Hewlett Show. Stress, residence, mental fatigue, emotional drainage. This is the exact moment your family needs you the most. And that's when I started what I call the doorway reset. It's just five seconds. Hands on the door, breathe, let go, choose who walks in. Yes. Welcome to the Jason Hewlett Show, where there's lots of F-words around here. Faith, freedom, family, fatherhood, fitness. I just like talking about it because I know that people are not expecting me to say that. And of course, funny and farce, as well as the fulfillment of your promises. So today we're going to talk about the truth about what happens when you go from the peak to the pit in 36 hours. Yeah. We're going to talk in the freedom of speech about two home runs and a dud. And what happened when the audience decide to exercise their freedom of speech and talk right over me through my entire show. And in the full story, what happened after the show? The apology letters that started pouring in and have actually not stopped. And what that teaches about the promise of the performer and the promise of leadership. And from the news feed, uh, we're going to be talking a little bit about your first quarter. How'd it go? Okay, we're going to find out. Faith and Hope, we're going to talk about the sewer, somebody who's putting good into the world, and where is that landing in your space? And then Father Time, my daughter's home from Sun Valley. She's 20. 20 years old. She's extraordinary. And the story of when I pulled her out of school in fourth grade and what happened next. Then the funny factory. Well, we're not going to go as funny today. Sometimes I choose to be silly and other times to be more serious. We're just going to go into the Rocket Man, Elton John, the promise Bernie Toppin wrote into that song because he was the lyricist. And then finally we'll wrap it up with the fitness minute, where we'll talk about my injured arm, discovering the power of Rosseter, which has been helping me so much, as well as Cardiom Miracle sponsoring the show. Thankful for them and the goodness that this does to my body. I hope you'll check them out because it will help yours too. I guarantee you. And how while I injured my arm, I turned to walking. Fast hard walks, as fast as I possibly could, talking on the phone. New promises. All that right now. Okay, let's talk freedom of speech. Yeah. Two home runs and a dud, my friends. That's what we're calling this one. That week was it was recent, it was a little bit ago. I had two absolute home run speeches. If you're a speaker or performer, you know what this feels like. It is the ultimate high. It was for two incredible organizations. They loved everything I did, said, brought. I customized it. They were like unbelievable what you just did. It was as good as anything I've done for two in a row that I can even recall. I'd say it's my best speeches I've probably ever given. And why? Well, I customize them a lot. And I always try to customize, even though I have a standard speech called The Promise Surprise. The Promise is the normal keynote, but I customized this very much to the I really got a grasp of what they did for work and helped them to understand how they could utilize the promise. And so it was thought out. I mean, I was even impressing myself what I was saying. Standing ovations were strong, long clients were elated. Yeah, I you know, I traveled the country for these opportunities, and I took some lower fees for those speeches that all turned out because the economy is just what it is right now. And I'm glad that I did them, and I received rave reviews from the clients and the audience members. I mean, they they flipped out, they just said it was the best they've ever seen, would have paid triple, which I wish, right? But it was still great. And then 36 hours later, after I had flown across the country again, I flew back and forth across the country multiple times that week. Well, then came the evening show, which has been my bread and butter for 25 years. If you know me, 9 p.m. show versus 9 a.m. keynote. The show has always been better. I mean, everybody knows that. But not this week, not this particular week. In fact, it was the worst audience I can remember. And I'm not gonna share their name and I'm not gonna shame them here, but I do need to talk about it because it was a really uh jarring experience. So, so what happened? Um, freedom of speech is essential to all of us. I believe that. And I speak on stage and say some things and I make some things funny and I sing some songs, and the audience in this case decided to exercise their free speech, and they talked during my entire show. Now, this never happens to me. Like, to the extent that I was not sure what to do. I mean, not even the worst ill-mannered drunk humans that I've ever done this for on stages in 25 years across the country and the world, I've never had this happen. I've had moments where there were some people chatting in the back, and it was like, okay, they're they're fine, and then they would leave. These people just got louder and louder having their conversation. A room of almost 500 people, that's a lot of talking. So, how did I handle it? What did I do while I'm up there dancing and singing and they're just like rah-rah rah. Like the louder I sang, the louder they spoke. It was almost like we were in a battle to see who had win the room, and I was losing. So, how did I handle it? I mean, what would you do? Because 30 minutes in, and I still had an hour to do, we're talking 9 to 10 p.m. You know, and this is on the back side of dinner at six, awards ceremony where all their peers stood up and clapped. They've been sitting in this room for three hours by the time I start. Plus, they've been at this conference for almost a week, put all their business stuff on the side and on hold so they could learn. They were a great organization. I mean, they're a great group of people, and I really like them. And yet, what was what did I do? I at 30 minutes I finally stopped and I was like, Hey, uh, is anyone listening? Like, is anyone enjoying this or should I stop? Like, that's what I said. I I hope the client will send me the video because it's going to be comedy for me for the rest of my life. I was like, you know, I've had bad audiences, but this is ticking me off. Like, what's happening? Is anyone with me? And I got a smattering of claps, like, hey, keep going. I go, should I keep going or should I just stop? Like, I'm not sure what to do. I've never had this happen. And I said, if if you're enjoying this, let me hear you applaud so I know how many are with me. And I heard enough clapping that I was like, oh, so there's pockets of people trying to watch while hordes of people are trying to talk over each other. Okay. So the lie of the highlight reel is this two standing ovations, and you start believing you've figured it all out. Then one silent room or one extremely loud room of people not listening strips it all away. And you realize your identity was built on applause, not character. And so the promise isn't always I will win all the time. The promise is I will show up with everything I have. And when the room doesn't give it back, I will not quit. It's character over performance. And that's what I said. I just said, hey guys, for those that are watching, thank you for being with me. Thank you for not being discourteous and rude. I don't know what's going on out there, but as long as you're here, I'm not going to punish you for what's going on over there. And I said, you know what's interesting is like when I did my speech yesterday across the country at 9 a.m., they were really with me. They loved it. Now I'm doing a show that I've been doing for 25 years, and you're not with me. So maybe I should just do my speech. So I started into I said, you know what? What I talked about yesterday, and I went into my speech. I said, I'm I talk about leadership, I talk about uh performance and I talk about promises. And I went into my Mrs. Hall story, which everybody knows about her singing in the hall. Now, I sort of started to get him back a little bit. Um, it was pretty brutal. And I'll tell you a little bit more about it, but the the point is this the promise to myself is that one bad room doesn't rewrite 25 years. Character is what you are in the silent room or the room where everybody is talking over you. So the question as I wrap this up, because I'm gonna tell you what happened in just a moment, but when was the last dud you had at work, at home, or in a relationship? I mean, how do you how do you respond? And if you're putting it in the chat for me, I would love for you to tell me. And I apologize for there, I can't always see every single thing that everybody's commenting. So thank you for being with me and thank you for watching the broadcast. Thank you for listening after if this is the podcast you're listening to. But are you building your identity on the standing ovations or on the character underneath them? And have you ever had someone exercise their free speech in a way that stepped on yours all over you? What did you do? Oh man, they're stepping all over me. That's what it felt like. Who are you when nobody claps? What would it look like to bring the same energy to the silent room or the talking room that you bring to the standing ovation room? Character is revealed in the silent room, in the disruptive room, in the chaos. But want to know what happened after the show? The apology letters started coming, and they haven't stopped. The full story right after this. Okay, so let me tell you the full story and how this all wrapped up. I uh actually started bringing people to stage because I didn't know what else to do. They didn't seem to like the show and the performing and the singing. So I was like, okay, maybe I'll bring them up and I'll have them dance with me. So I do this thing where I bring people on stage and I say, okay, follow my lead. And about 10 people came up, even the guy brought his baby, which was fun. And so I'm having them dance, and I said, Okay, now it's your turn to show your signature move. And they they did their thing, and the crowd kind of was like, Oh, our friends are on stage. So I think that helped. And then after that, I was like, I'm trying some comedy. So I did some father time material, being a daddy raptor, and all that stuff. And then I was like, okay, they don't like that either. Well, okay, let's go into my faces. So I did the faces and I did a thing, and then uh they gave me a standing ovation. Yeah, after the worst crowd I can remember having in decades, perhaps standing ovation. All right, whatever. I was like, You're too late, it's too late. I said, Okay, nobody knows why I got a standing ovation. I don't even know why, even though I'm used to them, to be candid. I get them pretty much every show and speech. This time it made no sense. I was like, why are they standing? But the full story is that now I have now received every day since that event, that is a true statement. Every day since that event, I have received an apology letter from random strangers on email, DMs, and texts. From on Facebook, on Instagram, LinkedIn, I'm getting messages from all these attendees. Random strangers who were mortified their peers acted like that. I mean, I don't know if you want to hear them, but they're pretty good. I think you should just this is really comical. This was actually that night when I went back to my room. This came in within 30 minutes of me wrapping up because I was now laying in my bed, sucking my thumb, crying. No, I was I was weeping silently in a in a different state and in the in an empty hotel room. What I was doing was laying there watching March Madness because I was so frustrated. And so I got this email from this guy. This is the first one that came in. It his he titled it fan mail, I guess. He said, Hey Jason, I just walked out of my first conference with our group. I'm not gonna say their name, and you were the quote unquote entertainment. I believe you were done. I believe we, he says, we were done a disservice. And so as I'm reading this, I'm like, oh man, he is going to he's gonna tell me how bad I am. Then he says, We were lied to. Were you entertaining? Absolutely. I laughed so hard I cried. You are so quite more than just quote unquote entertainment. And so he goes on to say that some of my colleagues in the room are being a bit over chatty. You politely brought them all back to attention while performing, and it was quite impressive. Um, in fact, I went to a concert recently where some of the folks were talking very loudly while the opening band was playing, the band I was excited to see, and my wife was not happy with how I asked them to quiet down. I'll try your approach next time. And so I find this interesting that this guy's watching me, knowing he probably shouldn't tell his peers to shut up because his wife got mad at him the last time he tried. And so he just sat and watched, right? And he says, I did not realize I would need to take so many notes at the award dinner entertainment. But I very much enjoyed identify, clarify, magnify all my points of speaking. Story about Mrs. Hall. I have one as well. And I and I also can tell you the open bar was good to me. So he was possibly a little bit tipsy, like most of the room, perhaps. And he just said, I just want to really thank you for being with us this evening. You are top-tier information and entertainment. I hope that the chatty folks did not ruin your overall experience with their lack of attention. Oh, they did. I'm excited to see you wrote a book. I'll be adding your book to my reading list. I'm so thankful the owners brought me with me, uh brought me along this year. You honestly were the highlight of the week. Truly incredible. Okay. Whoa. That was interesting to get. That was the first one. Here came another one. Jason, we were in attendance at your entertainment Saturday night. We wanted you to know you're amazing. We do not understand why the leadership did not get up and tell those being rude to leave. We actually got up and moved closer to the stage so we could hear better. We're so sorry for those rude people. It was not a reflection on you. You're super talented. It's a reflection on their complete lack of manners and character. Thanks for doing a great show. Okay. Oh my gosh. There's another one. Jason, I hope you're able to get home without any travel issues. This was the actual, you know, event planning and client person that brought me in. I want to personally apologize for the experience you had Saturday evening. The level of side conversations in the room was absolutely not what we expect from our attendees. Please know what happened. It was in no way a reflection of you or your talent. I had every confidence in bringing you in. You certainly delivered what I knew you would, exactly what I knew you would. A funny, engaging, meaningful performance. You did us a tremendous favor by stepping in in short notice for the other act that was supposed to be there. And you also added being our exceptional MC. That did not go unnoticed, and we're incredibly grateful. Um I share your disappointment. I'm embarrassed by the behavior of the room. It does not reflect who we are, it's not something we've experienced before, which caught me off guard as well. Our audience should have given you the same level of respect and attention that you have earned over the decades of performing at your highest level. Despite the challenges, the professionalism you showed and acknowledging the situation with honesty, giving the honest uh audience an opportunity to reset, and still committing to give your all spoke volumes. And so, uh the point is, I said to the audience that was watching, I said, I'm not gonna punish you for watching. I'm not gonna be mad about them because I'm going to enjoy that you're enjoying this. I'm gonna give you my all whether you like it or not. That's my promise. And that's what I speak on. Give your all even if nobody's watching, if everybody hates you, if it's not going well. They got all kinds of great feedback on me as well. This person forwarded along. One of the best entertainers we've ever had. He was awesome. He was very good. He handled himself with tremendous dignity and respect. I love how he talked about bringing 100%, no matter how many people are watching. Another said, I was so embarrassed by everyone talking so loudly. He's an amazing performer. Those who want to talk should have excused themselves. So they ended with, Thank you for showing up the way you did. You're a class act. I truly hope the opportunity worked together under much better circumstances. Trust me, I will not be returning to that client, even though I think they're great as people. As a group, tough crowd. So you can imagine how this makes me feel. After such a monster massive public failure in that room, uh, it's almost better than just succeeding to now have all of this apology coming. And I mean, imagine if I just did the show, everything went normal, and no one sends me a message except for in a once a blue moon, I do get a message that it was great. That's an outlier. And this one was an outlier as well because it was an outlier event for me and for them and for everyone. It stunned, jolted, and jarred me. And I'm not gonna tell you the client's name, of course, because I admire this company, but and I've worked for them for over a decade, but this was just a wild experience. So, what is the promise of the performer when the audience talks right over the show? You keep going, you bring everything you have, you don't punish the 30% who are with you because the 70% won't shut up or have checked out. You finish the set, you honor the craft, you drive home knowing you held the line. What was the worst part is I had to walk back through the crowd to get to my hotel room. I mean, it was like tail between my legs. I don't have that feeling much as a performer. So this is weird. What's the promise of leadership of a company in an event, even when their audience and members are out of hand or disrespectful and get away with it? I mean, someone had to own the room, and the if the performer can't, because they're mid-show, then leadership ought to. The event planner, the CEO, someone in the organization. There's a covenant between the company that books you and the audience they assemble. When that covenant breaks, everyone feels it. And so I have a feeling that event's gonna change in the future. So as I wrap this up, to say that these apology letters uh they continue to come in. I think they will continue as well, which is crazy. And people will never forget watching me try to handle an audience that was unruly. It was just it was crazy. So, Michael Jordan, he says, you know, he missed way more shots than he made. I mean, there's all kinds of reasons why failing frequently equals success. But after your last failure, did you go a fixed mindset or growth mindset? And how long did it take to shift? I have to shake this off as fast as possible because I have another event tomorrow, right? I can't just sit here and wallow in my pity and read all these apologies and say, Oh, I'm so glad they think I'm great. It's over. I can share it now as an experience and say, Yeah, that was terrible. And what did I learn? I learned a lot. I learned that you just keep showing up even when the audience is terrible. The audience and the or the apology letters keep coming. The silent room wasn't the verdict, the letters are so as we wrap up this segment and jump into the news feed, we're gonna talk about April Fool's and what that means for the next bit of your life. Here we go. So from the newsfeed, yeah, happy April 2nd. Here we are. Yesterday was April Fool's Day. Hopefully, somebody played a big prank on you. My wife is so funny, she always does pranks like that. I don't know where that comes from, but she's hilarious and awesome. And so today is the day we stopped kidding ourselves. We just wrapped 91 days of the Year, my friend. In the corporate world, they call this the Q1 close, quarter one. Managers are looking at spreadsheets, hitting refresh on dashboards and measuring performance. But let's be honest, performative success is easy. It really is. You can hit a sales quota and still be failing at home. Uh, you can win employee of the month and still be breaking the most important promises you made to yourself on January 1st. Have you noticed? I mean, I know I have. I can feel the weight that I have added on because I'm like, oh man, I didn't keep every promise. But the prom power of the promise isn't about your 401k or your deadlift PR. It's about the silent contracts you signed with your soul when the clock struck midnight in January. Did you show up for your spouse the way you promised? Did you stay present when your kids needed you? Or are you just efficiently ignoring them? Today, April 2nd, it's it's it today isn't about a reset, it's about a recalibration. If Q1 was a performance, let's make Q2 an active character. And so when it comes to your performance, what what would your kids say if your family had to give you a performance review? If your oh my phone just rang. That was funny. If your family had to give you a performance review, would you be getting a bonus or a PIP performance improvement plan? Uh, what is the promise you made that in January that you felt most guilty about breaking? Let's let's drag it into the light. And why do we find it easier to keep a promise to a boss than a promise to our own physical or mental health? Then back to March, can you name three moments where you were 100% present without a device in your hand? When you think about all these different things and all the different micro promises we can make starting now that you know you won't break until say April 30th, what can be done in order to make that work for you in your life? And so the the really the reason that I like to talk about this is that I like to look at where my current success is, where my current performance is, and where the performance is going. And so, no, this was no April Fool's Foolery. The quarter is over. Did you fulfill that promise? Let's go to Faith that I'll see we're talking right now for faith and hope. I am in the Holy Bible, we're in the New Testament. I spoke last week about Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. Today we're going to talk about the parable of the sower. And uh, some seeds fall on rocky ground. You don't control the soil, you control the sowing. And how does this relate to what we just talked about in terms of your performance, the last quarter, or even what I just experienced with this terrible event? Saturday night was rocky ground for me, but the apology letters are the good soil bearing fruit. So here's what it says. Uh Jesus spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. This is Matthew 13, verse 3. Behold, a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth, and when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away, and some fell among thorns, and thorns sprung up and choked them. I know how that feels. But others fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. With ears to hear, let him hear. If it's falling upon the rocks, that's okay. That's gonna happen. Uh we sow lots of seeds that may not spring any fruit. And equally we have opportunities every single day to do all we can to cultivate the garden within which we stand. And so when it comes to the parable of the sower, which I hope that you'll consider how you can live it, as great as possible, which means spread joy, share your light, multiply your talents. Whether the crowd's watching or not, whether you're throwing your seeds down onto a pile of rocks, there will be good soil that will manifest something great from the work that you've done because you keep the promise every day of your life. And so, as you think about that, even among the bad, there's going to be great. And even when we have a couple fails, we have a few misses here and there, even if quarter one was really bad, hey, quarter two might be your time. Have faith, have hope, have the positive mindset, pray a little bit harder. Ask your God to give you the strength to be that person that can keep a promise, who can stand strong in front of an audience that doesn't like you, that you continue to give your best and give your all. And at the end of the day, all you can say is, I did my best, that was all I could do. I gave you all that I have, and there's nothing more I could have done. And the performance will be rewarded when our intention is based in character, in the promise. And if you add God into that, you'll never fail. I'm excited to talk about God as my father because He is your father. He's all of our father. We are all one big family across the world. And as I transition into Father Time, I'm excited to tell you about my little girl who's finally coming home. Well, my fa uh my my family is going through some serious stuff. My my son is on a mission in Argentina. My other son is going on a mission soon as well. They're gone for two years each. It's gonna be three years without them. My daughter, she's the oldest, and she returns from Sun Valley, Idaho, where she's been working for six months. I mean, we have missed her immensely. She'll soon be on her way to the next adventure, June, Alaska. Yeah, she secured a job out of 5,000 applicants, and they only took 20 people. I mean, she's truly one of a kind. And and I'm not just saying that because she's my daughter, everybody tells me that as well. And so it's wonderful. It's it's gonna be wonderful to have my daughter back home. I uh we can't wait. She is now 20 years old. It's it's even weird for me to hear myself say that because I remember when she was little. In fourth grade, she was struggling, and I pulled her out of school and began homeschooling her myself. Let me find a photo of that day. And I remember the day because it was well, it was February 29th. I figured let's do this on February 29th because you only get one of those every four years. But this was many years ago. Uh, 20 gosh, that was probably 2016 there, if I remember right. Amazing. And so, hey, we're getting lots of phone calls around here today, anyway. My beautiful daughter, I pulled her out of school. Guess what? Lots of people were not happy about this. They were upset that I pulled my daughter out of school, and they felt it would be, you know, a bad idea because, hey, who's her teacher? Me. But I felt it'd be a great way to bond. And it had been my dream to homeschool my children. I had watched families that had done this, especially Jason and Kim Kotecki, some of my heroes. They created Escape Adulthood, they homeschool their children, their children are incredible. Uh, I just wanted to do that. Uh, so Ella traveled with me. She interacted with adults, she sold my materials, she went on hikes with me, we read books together, we drove to see amazing sites and things. Pretty soon, after all this great adventure, I realized I am not cut out for homeschool parent-driven education because even though I can make education fun in everyday life, doing it full-time was not possible to also run my business and travel the world and do it all both. And and I'll never forget how disappointed I was. We both were when I came to the realization you have to go back to school. And so she returned back to school in the fall. And it we only had a few months of homeschool, and we we had the best time. It's a great experience, a great memory. Uh, but when she went back to school, she became everyone's best friend, everyone's advocate. She was a lover of writing, of reading, hiking, exploring. She's the adventure seeker like her mother. Her mom's the ultimate explorer and adventurer. And it's it's not because we did homeschool that she turned out, it was a blip on the radar of her amazing life. Let me show you a picture of us at the uh up in Sun Valley. That's a picture of us in Sun Valley, my beautiful wife Tammy, and my beautiful daughter Ella. It's been cool to even interact with the people she works with because they're like, where did this girl come from? How is she so amazing? And it's just like, well, she's got a great mom, you know, and she's uh an adventure seeker. Here she and I are skiing at Sun Valley, Idaho, a beautiful resort owned by the holding family of friends of ours. This is uh one of the great experiences of my life seeing my daughter in her element with this as the memory, you know, as a little kid that we homeschooled together. Now, here we are. This is a picture taken at my brother's wedding a few months ago. She and I just have such a fun time together. We're such best buddies, but I can't believe she's 20. It it did, you know, when when I homeschooled her, it forced her to interact in awkward situations with other kids that she didn't know, adults, going to conventions and events, and she's gone on to become the most outgoing, cheerleading, lovely human you can fathom. I mean, she shines like unlike anyone I've ever been around, and I'm so grateful to have her back. She's truly daddy's girl. I I think about, you know, what's a parenting decision you made that everyone else questioned? How did it turn out? Uh have you ever started something with your child that you realized you couldn't sustain? Um, how did you handle the disappointment? Because it was a promise to me to do this, and and it started working, and then it started to slowly fail. But then, just like the sower throwing the seeds at the rocks that aren't sticking, then there's the soil that we don't realize there's something beautiful growing. And even amidst the failure of trying to homeschool, um, my beautiful daughter has turned into the most amazing human. It's just such a wonderful thing, despite my lack of being good at what I thought I would be good at. So, what's the blip on the radar in your family story that ended up shaping your kids and who they became? Because when your kids leave home, even temporarily, what does the silence teach you? It's taught me quite a bit, and it's helped me to reset some of my values, some of the things that I do every day, because now the kids and the craziness is starting to leave, and uh we miss them. And yet, when they come home for a minute before they go fly off to the next adventure, she's headed out to Alaska soon. Wow. How do you let go of the version of your child you remember and embrace the adult they've become? Daddy's girl. She's home from Sun Valley, my LRA. So grateful that she's back. And equally, five thousand applicants headed to Alaska, 20 accepted. She shines. You know, we've been heavy today with some of this talk, and so let's go into an entertaining piece with the funny factor next. You know what? What's funny about today's episode is that I just had a technical challenge that happened. Uh somehow someone broke through the barrier of do not disturb, phone is off, everything's shut down, and they broke through, and it reset one of my cameras. So I'm truly hopeful that this will work. I believe it should. And uh yeah, we'll see how it goes. I I want to take you into the funny factory. And in the funny factory, that doesn't just mean that we're gonna be funny every time, it means that I'm gonna do something entertaining and interesting that's different than other people that you would be watching in this case. And today we're gonna talk about the promise Bernie Toppin wrote into his song. Now, if you don't remember Bernie Toppin's name, well, he's the one that wrote all the lyrics that Elton John sings of his greatest hits from the 70s and 80s. And so we're going to talk about and play Rocket Man by Elton John. So let me just give you the backstory on this song. Bernie Toppin wrote this song thinking about a future where going up to outer space was just a day job. Like you would go up, do your thing, stay up there for a minute, and come back. You wake up, kiss your wife, drive to the launch pad, and go to work in space. That's what they thought in the 70s was possible pretty soon. I mean, we're not there yet, here now, 50 years later, but what's cool about this song is that a dad still comes home. And it says, uh, but I think it's going to be a long, long time. You know these lyrics. I miss the earth so much, I miss my wife, it's lonely on space, you know, Mars ain't a kind of place to raise your kid. Uh, so there's all kinds of interesting words about that. So think about it. The promise of the rocket man is to come back, the promise of the dad is to go out and and hunt and gather and bring back. And even even to the farthest place imaginable, I'll come back to you, is what the father says. And so while we just did father time about my daughter Ella, we're also talking father time in terms of how are you a dad that's coming back and bringing something of yourself even better that's home. And and you know, when a dad comes home, I mean, the there's a loneliness of the job, the distance, the isolation. He says, I'm not the men they think I am at home. Every performer knows that line. Every parent who travels for work knows it. The version of you the audience sees, not the version that walks through the front door at midnight. So Bernie Toppin wrote the ultimate father who travels song, disguised as a space anthem. And the Rocket Man isn't an astronaut, he's every dad who promised to come home and isn't sure he's the same person when he does. I've played this song so many times it hits different depending on where you are in your life. So today, with my daughter coming home, you know, with the dud show still fresh and hoping that the connection still works on the camera, it hits like a freight train. Let's try it out. I sure hope it works. Here we go. This is the Rocket Man. Yeah, that's it. She packed my bags last night. Touch the breeze. I think it's gonna be a little longer. I think it's gonna be a long time. I think it's gonna be a long time. Elton John, yeah. Walking back on my chair. I hope that worked. What a great song. One of the greatest songs ever written. Elton John has utilized that song in essentially every show he's done ever since he wrote it because it's so popular and beloved. But as I think about that song, what songs hit you different depending on where you are in life? For me, that hits different because I'm thinking about being a dad that travels, who kind of does something that feels like an astronaut in some ways, and then coming back home, how important that is, how wonderful it is. Are you the same person on stage or at the work as you are when you walk through the front door? What's the long, long time in your life, the distance between who you are out there and who you are at home? It's not to say I'm always like silly and performing at home, because then that would be incongruent and bizarre. And yet I want to give my family the best of me. I don't want to give the best of me to the audience and have nothing left for the family. That's not to say you hold back on the audience, you give your all. But then can you give your all to your family as well? That's the question. When you come home from a tough stretch, do your kids get the real you or the leftover worn-out version? What promises does uh your work make to your family? And you know, for me, uh I'm trying to keep the promise to the people I work with, to the opportunities I have, and most importantly to the family. So just like the Rocket Man, thank you to Bernie Toppin for those great lyrics. Thank you to Elton John for leaving Reginald Dwight behind and becoming the Elton John that we all know and love. That was his old name, his original name, Reginald Dwight. And the Rocket Man, the promise to come home, the distance between who you are on stage and who you are at the door. You know what? The body keeps score. And as we wrap up this episode, we're gonna close with the fitness minute, but the injury, the adjustment, the new promise. I'm gonna tell you about my arm in just a second in the fitness minute right after this. Okay, you ready? I injured my arm working out. And in and instead of uh pushing through like an idiot and still doing the workout, I stopped. And actually, this has affected me a bit because I've now put on some weight because my body is used to moving so much and lifting a lot of weight. I mean, I have some pretty serious guns here. This is the gun show, just kidding. But you know what I'm saying. Like I figured out different ways to get myself through this, though. I don't know if you've heard about Rosseter, but Rosseter is where uh somebody will manipulate the pain that you have. Let's say my arm hurts in my my elbow and my my bicep, my forearms. Okay, so it hurts here. Well, Rosseter, they might work on your shoulder, or they might work on your hip for your arm. It's bizarre. Or they might work on your wrist for your elbow. It's a fascinating thing. You need to check out Rosseter if you haven't heard of it. I've been going to somebody named Bethany Ruff, who is an a genius at Rosseter, and it is such a unique way of helping you through an injury and through the discomfort that our body gets. But it's really just it's almost like they have to get in there and move the fascia around in order to get everything to recover quicker. So I'm thankful for Bethany and for Rosseter. And and it's a it's a miracle, really. And I mean it's structural integration, deep tissue realignment. So if you haven't tried it, you need to check it out. But the other thing that I have made sure to do is what I talk about at every show, at every speech, and on this show. So if you've heard of Rosseter, awesome. But if you haven't heard of Cardio Miracle, you need to check out Cardiomerical. Now, Cardiomerical is it it actually sends into your body, it helps send a signal once you drink this. It's just a simple drink you mix in your water. When you drink this, it sends a signal of nitric oxide is ignited in your body. Nitric oxide is the third most important gaseous molecule in our bodies that we can have. There's oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide. You might think nitrous oxide, like and the dentist's like, no, that's that's nitrous oxide. This is nitric oxide, and it's a gas molecule. Once it hits in your bloodstream, now it's delivered by things like L arginine, L-citrulline, and other great ingredients. Once it hits your bloodstream, dilates your blood vessels, allows for greater blood flow. And so if you're injured, having nitric oxide in your system, and we have it naturally in our bodies until we're about 40, and then it starts to really dissipate. Once you're in your 60s, it's almost gone. So you do have to supplement with it. You can eat like a bushel full of leafy greens if you want, but you cannot get enough to sustain nitric oxide throughout your system like you can with cardiomerical. And so when it comes to lifting, um injuries, hurting your voice, traveling, jet lag, cognitive uh, you know, need for your brain, right? There's microcapillaries that are actually flooded by the blood flow assistance of cardiomerical that reach into your brain and help you think clearer, more positive. When we feel better, we're healthy, we're happy. And so I stopped lifting weights for a week. Yeah, that was weird. I mean, it helped a ton to not do it. And what's nice is while I'm drinking as much cardiomiracle as I can in order to therapeutically help my body to recover quicker. Did you know that the longer this lasts in your body, the better it is for you in the sense that it also, once it's been there for about 12 hours, this lasts for 24 to 36. Once it's there for over 12 hours, it actually has a scientific other miracle that happens outside of just relaxing the blood vessels and making everything flow smoother. Well, once 12 hours has happened, guess what? Vitamin D3 is released from your fat cells into your system. So essentially, you're getting nitric oxide and vitamin D3, which are among the most important things you can do for yourself. So instead of working out and lifting weights, instead, I went for hard, fast walks. And I was talking on the phone, huffing and puffing. It was a wonderful shift. I've enjoyed it, I have put on some pounds, and so I'm working on losing that for the next quarter. I'm excited to do that. But here's the lesson: the promise to your body isn't I will never get hurt. The promise is I will adjust. Injury doesn't mean quit, it means pivot. Stop the thing that's breaking you, start the thing that helps to heal your body. So hard, fast walks for me, phone calls, fresh air, still sweating, still keeping the promise. Just a different version of it. Something every day. Adjusted, promise kept. If you want to try Cardio Miracle, go to Cardio Miracle.com. You can scan that code, and that code will take you right there as well. You know, I appreciate you taking the time to be here with me. Injured arm, Rosseter Miracle, hard fast walks instead of weights, promise adjustments, doesn't break. Let's bring it all home with this right now, my friends. Um, we started out with a confession today. Two standing ovations, worst crowd I can remember, same week, different results. Then the apology letters started coming every day, and strangers, mortified moves, still thinking about it. Yeah, almost better than just succeeding in its own way. Um, I of course Q1 has happened. How are you looking forward to Q2? April Fools is over, now it's time to get to business. My daughter's home from Sun Valley, she's 20, she's headed to Alaska soon. You know, the story of pulling her out of school in fourth grade, failing at homeschool myself, and having her go back and watch her become the most extraordinary human I've I've really ever been around. That's a special thing. And today I played Rocket Man. Hopefully you heard it. Hopefully it sounded okay. The promise to come home, the distance between who you are out there and who you are at the door. You know, I injured my arm, stopped lifting, did hard fast walks instead, roster. We talked about we talked about the sower in the Bible. The sower is going to throw the seeds into some rocks, and yet there will be growth from all of it. So within your failure, there will be success. I like to say that failing frequently equals success. And when we have faith that it's going to get better, it will. Just keep the promise every single day. One bad room doesn't end the career, one bad night doesn't end your marriage. The promise is what you do after the scoreboard says zero or you lost. And equally, you have somehow also won just by being in the game. Get in the arena, be that person. I'm Jason Hewlett. This has been the Jason Hewlett Show. I'll see you next Thursday. We come to you every Thursday at 3 p.m. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time. Keep the promise.