what's going on everybody welcome back to the hardworking happy hour I'm Sean
and I'm Catherine and as always we'll breaking down all things trades entrepreneurship and turning your creativity into a passion
career hey Sean hi Catherine how are you I am so good how are you I'm doing
excellent happy Friday oh happy Friday we're actually doing it on Friday yeah it is cuz we don't procrastinate anymore
yeah how was your week of eating frogs oh you know what I'm starting to enjoy them love the taste tastes a lot like
chicken that's what I've heard I have heard that actual frogs Yeah people say that about everything like a it tastes
like chicken it's like uh no it went really well I felt uh less overwhelmed even though a lot of
stuff is going on but uh kept in the habit of just writing down my top prior
priorities for the next day and one week went pretty well went
really well uh I feel like we got a lot accomplished and I felt a lot less anxious about it yeah which is good yeah
I agree it was a very clear-headed uh we had a couple spirals this week which we'll which we'll get into later but um
oh yeah oh you know what I almost forgot about them but yeah we are going to talk about those because uh Hey wouldn't be a
you know wouldn't be a Premier week without a couple little you know death spirals right so uh but yeah I would say
overall definitely an efficient way of uh time management so yeah did you do
you feel like you uh you ate some frogs I did yeah definitely did what were your biggest things were you also like my
biggest thing was plan out the night plan out the day the night before what was yours uh mine was block scheduling
but flexible block scheduling okay and I feel like I did that this week for most of the days today was a little bit
thrown for a loop because I had to do the filming today which I don't normally do so that kind of threw me for a loop but good thing you have the flexible
block flexible block scheduling it still kind of worked out so so yeah I would say I forgot that that was your thing
but now that you mention it I do remember you saying throughout the week uh that's I have that in my next block I
just kind of ignored you I was like what is she talking about who cares just kidding but uh yeah so it went went well
you feel like that was an effective strategy for you yeah overall beautiful love that I would recommend I'm one week
in so I'm basically an expert on this how many how many stars are we gonna give it um out of how many five yeah oh
that's we should do that for the the book club we read it at end okay oh okay
I like that yeah yeah we'll definitely add that um out of 10 out of 10 10 Stars 10 Stars give my block scheduling I'll
give it yeah I guess an eight or are we doing the book did you say a eight oh
I'll give it an a out of 10 I will give it an a out of 10 something's not working if that's what
you said uh an eight an eight I give it an eight it's a high bar it's a high bar
I feel like it's an efficient way if you can manage it it's an efficient way I'm going to give my uh planning the next
day out the night before ah there's still I feel like there's still so much improvement I
could do on like really creating habit around it and like you know how I you know prioritize things so I'm going to
give it a 56 oh okay okay okay so you know work to
be done there okay definitely work to be done I mean I don't want to say like oh you know it's I'm at a nine already
you're already at an eight though yeah anyway okay um well anyway so this
episode we are going to get into this week we uh had a little bit of a spiral
because we we are constantly analyzing what we do and trying to make things better um
and that goes for how we do things in the business but also in our content and that kind of stuff so we had this moment
where we're it was Sean me and Steve in the van and we're all talking about all these different ideas and all these different things and Sean was like we
got to get a calendar and put everything down and and it was a bit of a spiral and and a it was an overwhelm spiral
yeah and then I was like take it back take it back everything's fine yeah and we kind of laid out all these things
that we were talking about and it was kind of like a nice little refresh and it made me think of
like oh we should talk about this because this happens often where we're like we kind of get this feeling of overwhelm and like how how and when we
should overhaul things and should we do all of these things at once um so yeah
so that's what we're going to talk about today like kind of the cyclical nature of feeling this like overhaul bug and
getting too comfortable and then feeling you have to overhaul everything yeah yeah I we definitely did do that this
week and it was unrelated to cuz now it sounds like I lied about being less
stressed out because of the the scheduling the night before this was unrelated to that this was like a brainstorming thing this was like
totally unrelated I did not lie about that
topic it depends what your definition of topic is you know buil something
thing no never mind you don't get the reference uh go ahead go to detail go into detail
he said something like it depends what your definition of the is or something
it was like I don't know ridic whatever anyway we're in this brainstorming session about uh this
particular thing was about you know some of our video stuff and how we plan it and just like getting in that moment
with all the stuff that we have going on I was feeling overwhelmed by like just creating like a little bit more of like
I felt like there needed to be a system in place um so it was kind of like a
Outburst of really like was kind of like a therap therapy session cuz you guys
just kind of let me talk let me spew it all out and then you were kind of like okay well um this thing you're
describing like that's my job I do that I'm not over one with the way we do it and like it's fine and Steve was just
like I mean he's always it's like uh yeah whatever yeah that's cool um so I
think it is a worthwhile topic to talk about like how do you evaluate whether
things need a big overhaul or stay stay the course or um you know just when to
push when to kind of keep going on the same route yeah it's it's tough it is
it's a roller coaster of emotions it is and I feel like we find ourselves and I I don't know maybe it's
just a byproduct of how much we analyze everything that we do constantly because we have all these analytics at our
fingertips yeah so I don't know if it's a byproduct of that or whatever but there are it feels like it's a cyclical
thing where like we get very comfortable in what we we've been doing and then it's like okay now it's time to freak out about it and something needs to
change we need to get better things aren't happening fast enough or you know whatever the general freak out is and
then we feel like we have to to do something and then we realize oh well no like like in this particular case it was
like a scheduling thing and you were like we got to write down everything that we're doing and I was like well all these things are already scheduled we're
already good we have the system in place I'm the one that's doing it and I'm not overwhelmed so it's all we're all good
there it's all Gucci baby yeah so so it's kind of like a you know
Outburst to freak out and then and then and pull back yeah does that make sense
uh yeah cuz I was the one that did yeah yeah um I think it's a worthwhile
exercise to just like you know like explore that as kind of like a
brainstorm like what if we did just like turn this portion of the business on its head and do things completely different
like you know have that like emotional like Outburst of what if we are doing
everything wrong let's evaluate like what if we did it like this I think that that's like kind of a a healthy thing to
do from time to time because most of the time a lot of the ideas are just like okay well that was silly that was just
like me feeling like a little bit stressed out or overwhelmed and like we do have a pretty good handle on this MH
maybe there's a couple takeaways like hey maybe we maybe we could tighten up this this portion of it but um a lot of
times it's like you kind of feel this like unease and overwhelm and that's how I was feeling in that moment with like
just what posts we had scheduled what videos going to come out and like just scheduling like the van stuff um amongst
all the other stuff that's running around my head and it's like I'm trying to like hold on too tight and it's like
I don't need to have like the best like Ironclad grasp
on that portion you know it's like you guys are handling that it's fine you
guys are using whatever system works for you and I just need to like let go of control a little bit but having that
Outburst was kind of just like you know it's kind of like almost therapeutic
yeah and I think what it leads to like what the lesson I kind of pull from that
is is you have to have like a a team around you that's going
to be collaborative to an extent but also push back where needed um because
imagine if I was just there by myself doing that I might just start changing up everything who knows you know yeah
when you don't have like a sounding board I think that can that's when it gets like a little bit it gets a little
dicey yeah you know so let me ask you this yes please this situation yes you
had your your freak out you were overwhelmed you had your freak out I and we decided what I'm starting to want to
push back a little bit that was was it really just a me was it it was just a me freakout I
thought it was kind of a group thing but now it's like okay all right all right we were all like immediately once you
said it we were all like we're we're fine everything's fine why are you okay but anyway um okay okay so yeah
whatever it was a group freak out for this example let's I was just the leader of it yeah somebody has to be like the
conductor of the freakout right I was doing that okay let's say in this particular freak out we all were
freaking out I guess and then we all talked to each other off the ledge and we were fine um but on the other side of
that let's say we all freaked out and we changed everything and everything we turned everything on its head head yeah
would that resolve your anxiety or would that just be compounding possibly
temporarily maybe you'd feel like you were doing something immediately but then in the long run you would just feel
like wow I've created a whole lot of chaos for myself right yeah of course of
course um I I also want to I feel like I should throw out there
like when when we're saying freak out I mean we're not talking about me throwing things and like there's no violence
hitting people no violence it's more of just like a the van no I did not that's
a lie it's more of a uh you know uh like the ramblings of a
mad man a little bit it is an emphatic speech that's what it is it's not it's like a it's just a mental you're working
through things in your head when you're doing this and then it's just also coming out of your mouth yeah to us it it is like a
brainstorm it's a brainstorm and it's it's it's all good natured it's not like
it is you I'm sure in this moment you were feeling overwhelmed because you do personally and professionally have a lot going on thank you for acknowleding as
we were very busy businessman as we were talking about all these things we were talking about a lot of different things
that kind of touch a lot of different things which then touching any smaller
okay okay our smaller parts of a bigger goal so it did feel like a very big thing that we were kind of working on
and working towards and through so just I'm sure it just felt like a lot of loose ends cuz that's what that's what
it essentially was yeah but then we came to the conclusion that everything's fine we have everything is fine and
we everything's going to be fine because we have already worked through all of these things yes always always room for
improvement of course but and brainstorming session is absolutely necessary yeah for sure and crucial to
our um wellbeing yeah yeah you know now that that really was just like a
brainstorming session it was a freakout that led to a brainstorming session and
I think that's obviously uh you know a healthy way to go
about any kind of like creative or business Endeavors you got to you know kind of hash out just throw everything
out there and and see what sticks um I think it's a good thing to
implement from time to time and you'll kind of come to two conclusions like the
one that we came to was like okay reel it back in everything's okay maybe yeah maybe we'll you know
tweak a couple things or you know for the most part it was kind of just like okay that's done let's move on with
business as usual got that out of your system go ahead but the other thing that
it could lead you to is okay yeah these are really good ideas like that does make more sense than what
we're doing right now and it's really hard to make that work
if you're doing that in a vacuum if you're doing it by yourself right so we were doing it it it was you know kind of
van stuff it was van work kind of stuff in this specific brainstorm so it worked
having the three of us there to kind of like hash it out and decide is this good is this bad do we need to make big
changes should we switch up our strategy but if you're by yourself it can be
really difficult so I think what you can do is find another business owner that's
either you know at the same stage as you or has been through things like this and
just you know be a sounding board for each other to be like able to check you and you know and half the time it's like
you just get all this stuff out and then you're like okay I feel better already I
was just a little overwhelmed got to just work through this it's fine but uh it's it's
uh something think about something think about yep
so what would you say is your threshold for like
overhauling God it's so low God it is so low it's almost
non-existent um ah it's I think one of the things
that's so hard for me to be like kind of a in a leadership role to like delegate
things as previously like when I was doing everything myself you know I was just
like kind of following my intuition and just like I instead of just like you know spewing all this stuff out I would
like you know kind of dabble in things and just like kind of like me under my way and it you know was just kind of
like a you know like a intuitive kind of way of going about it now it's like I
can't really do that anymore and that probably wasn't necessarily the most efficient way it's really like you know
just I think it has to come down to that collaboration like the threshold is kind
of do we all think this is a good idea ultimately I could just say I don't
care what you guys think we're doing this usually I don't and there's very few things that I'm like no I don't care
that you don't agree we're doing this there are a couple things cuz you know I'm the boss but uh for the most part
it's collaborative and I I think that's that is the threshold it's like kind of what what the response is yeah okay why
is it almost always negative why is it it's always like no that's a bad idea I
can't think of any recent time that we've had a brainstorming session that it's like yeah let's Implement those
things Sean I might just be a crazy person I don't know anymore no no no I
think that I mean let's say there were a couple things in this but like let's give a specific example like we were
yeah we were set like scheduling things on a calendar for to post on social
media yeah and what you wanted to do you were like freaking out we need to get a
calendar in here and write everything down and I'm like well why I have it on it's literally in a calendar on the computer why would I need to then write
it on a whiteboard we can see it you're like yeah cuz you want you're like well everyone needs to see it I'm like well
why why does everybody need to see it why does everyone need to know what clip I'm posting each day and uh then you're
were like okay well it's true yeah now you say it that way that makes sense yeah so yeah it's just
it's just a little little bit of freak out cuz it feels you know sometimes
maybe the oxygen level drops in the van or something like there's too many of us in there I don't know it could be uh I
think it just feels like there there's a lot of things that we do that are like little things that then lead to the Big
Goal which I guess that's for everybody yeah but all these little things feel like they mean so much and they matter
so much and we need to be like micromanaging each tiny little thing when in reality we don't because one
person can handle that thing and in this case that person is me and I already handled it so yeah I know it's totally
fine I know it's I think just difficult to
like cuz all the little things do mean a lot and the little things do lead to
like like we've already accomplished a lot we've we've achieved a lot of the goals that we've kind of set um but
we're nowhere near like our ultimate goals of where we want to go and it is like it is those like incremental 1%
things that you keep doing that lead to the growth and you know that's that's like what you
just need to like reevaluate like are we doing all those little things like Have We Become complacent cuz it is about the
little details like we can't just like oh you know whatever like we just build
decks and everyone still thinks it's cool right like just throw up whatever it's like we got to like continually
evolve in our designs and what we build and on like how we capture it and share it it's you know I just think we always
need to like kind of have those moments so we know are we doing all of those little
things that lead to the big result like that compound over time are those things getting taken care of are we putting
enough effort into it and uh this time I think yeah we were but
and yeah and also I think there's also an element of like when the when the systems that we put in place previously
are working as they should it feels boring because there's no yeah chaos when things are working smoothly it
feels boring and boring feels bad we always feel like things shouldn't feel boring yeah but it should be like H
you're like oh my God there's so much to do we have to do everything right now so like when you create a system that like
you know when you schedule posts in advance I feel like when you schedule posts in advance those post don't even count anymore like we do another post
like it just doesn't feel like I don't know that's probably just
like a byproduct of this Millennial hustle culture or whatever side hustle
type of situation anyway we came to the conclusion this time everything's pretty good and uh everything's fine continue
on not imploding not him in fact not imploding so that's great love that uh
you anything else on that um no I think that um especially in this business once
I realized that these these situations were cyclical it made me make more sense of them because before when we would
have these free casts I'm like oh my God everything is wrong we need I was
starting to you were rubbing off on me well I mean do I always initiate these no sometimes you do I think that you I
would say that you're more a little bit more prone to it than me but I do I do have my freakouts where like I feel like
something is not you know organized in a way that I wanted to be organized or whatever so I do I obviously everyone
has a little freak out so everyone of course it's normal but uh yeah so I used to feel
like oh my God we need to fix everything but now that I've noticed that it is cyclical and it's usually when things
are just kind of coasting and feeling smooth that these freakouts come about it has helped me realize you know yeah
Wrangle them in is it really a freak out let's talk it through let's keep brainstorming why are we freaking out
yeah I think that is the Crux of it right there and
uh you know what I think it's there's a parallel I'm seeing I see a therapist
talk to a therapist and I think uh should just come out and say that in the open here everyone should thank you so
much it's a brave beautiful yeah it's a brave move um but it's it like I'm
seeing that parallel cuz a lot of times it's just like when you you're talking to somebody like a therapist where it's
just like you just say whatever and like you know that like they're not going to judge you or anything as soon as you like get it out like then you're able to
like better evaluate like right sometimes like you just like keep things in and like with business like you have
these ideas and you're like is this a good idea is this a bad idea am I doing the right thing am I going to fail you
keep those like things in and they just like that adds more fuel to it they take on like a life of their own and then
they like become overwhelming if you can just have this open discourse of hey
let's evaluate these things that we have in place like is this the right strategy we've been doing it for a while is there
more that we could do is there things that we could change I think that is
where you like take the power back for yourself yeah you know if you just stuff it down and you're like let's just keep
going it can kind of like take on a life of its own definitely yeah like a therapist or in this case a cooworker
kind of they don't tell you what to think but kind of gently lead you yeah onto thinking about something
differently that's interesting h a calendar for everything interesting like the one I
have on my computer I think that's a fine idea Sean I do I that's a fine idea I would say I Le
like my gentle prodding is probably a lot less gentle than a therapist but probably yeah um get to the same place
eventually yeah I think so so anyway
um I guess that can now be the conclusion on that segment what just the whole you know
just what we just said I feel like that wrapped it up nicely yeah now it doesn't feel wrapped up as nicely cuz you're like what and then I'm like the thing I
thought you say something mean like how I how I gently prod in like a non nice way I thought that that's what you were
saying but I get it you wrapped it up nicely yeah okay on to the next part of
the show uh um what do we got well I have
this episode broken up into different uh categories oh and the next one says weekly update it's cold it's
cold it is getting uh oh wow I didn't know it was like planned out like that like we got different segments that's
great wow is this something that did this did this come from the freakout a
little bit a little bit Yeah okay great that that was a different portion of the freak out but yeah oh there were so many
different facets to it but uh yeah weekly update it is getting cold
yeah uh very cold and it's like we're just entering the beginning of winter yeah anybody that works outside can
relate to that it's like you know things are slowing down a little bit like
person like Mor like our bodies cuz our to live because we freezing yeah it's
it's uh it gets tough to work through the winter but I would say the biggest
thing I I felt really good so far because I've dressed correctly yeah I've dressed
prepared you know you get the right stuff and you're kind of fine on that front I I agree with you like 95% except
the past two days have been so windy it's really hard to combat wind and then your hands get so cold I cannot hands
are tough everything is fine except for like my fingertips and that makes it very very difficult yeah hands are tough
but yeah it's like it's just it makes things a little bit more annoying when you have to like blowtorch pavers like
we had to the other day um right right so I feel like it like and I I feel like
we've all been working very hard and and those little annoyances kind of compound on each other like in this case we were
trying to do joint sand and we had to blowtorch pavers because they were all wet and we couldn't do it until they
were dry um so that was just kind of like a a thorn in your side and then for the past few days it has been just like
howling windy for some reason and so cold so then today I was like you know what I'm going to buy the guys coffee
and donuts because this week has been a little rough and I think that that's just something to keep in mind when it
gets this cold because I feel like it's not only you're dealing with the cold but you're dealing with like the minor
inconveniences that then compound to being like oh oh my God can it just be the weekend you know yeah like it's cold
being cold sucks and then because it's cold it makes certain things slower so it's like not only does
it suck that it's cold but it's also making things harder to do yes yeah I get what you're saying there yeah um I
guess that's kind of it for our weekly update it's cold it's cold it is cold it's cold and it shall continue to be cold for at least a while for a little
while yeah so anyway um yep uh okay so
the next segment is our new book club yeah so we implemented this this
also came from the brainstorming thing well I guess it was compounding we talked about it maybe a little bit kind
hinted yeah so we're going to start a book club where each week we read a book and we hope you guys will read along
with us or you can just listen to our like little review at yeah every week um
so this week we chose the creative act by Rick Rubin yes and is it the creative
act or a creative act the creative act the creative act the creative act um so if you don't know who Rick
Ruben or do you have anything more to say about the book club in general I get I think uh like most things that are the
hardworking happy hour this is really just like a vessel for us like we feel
like we need to read more books so we're more interesting when we read books
we're more interesting and we learn more and it's just like you know it's good for all facets of Our Lives I think yeah
if we read books so if we do a weekly book club it kind of forces us to make
time for books yes so that's why we're doing it and we think it could be really cool to kind of have like you know a
little bit of uh you know kind of like a sympatico kind of thing with our
audience of all reading the same book so we're going to let you know should we let people know right now what the next one is um or at the end we can say it
now we can yeah we can okay go ahead I forget what is it you like picked it out
all right pick it out okay hang God oh I can't check my phone cuz we're recording on my phone okay oh dang it we'll check
later um it'll come to me yeah U all right well anyway we'll we'll say that at the end of the episode um but the
books as we've talked about in the past like we've kind of done versions of this before we always do like self-help books
or business books or something that we feel is going to bring value we're not going to just do like uh not like a
Harry Potter yes Harry Potter have you ever read Harry Potter
uh I read like the first two I think no first three and then like I got halfway
through the fourth and I was like nah that's stupid yeah um but my seventh
grade teacher Miss Voit she was like so anti- Harry Potter cuz was like
Witchcraft and bad okay and but she did have a poster of a little tiny
bear I forget if it was like a cartoon bear or like an actual bear like sitting next to like a potted plant and it said
she wrote on it Harry Potter precious but seems like she's really uh
kind of a psychopath yeah exactly bit was that also the teacher that the skin
of a reason stuffed with a lie yeah okay she really had an impact on your life oh she
was she did not like me at all anyway anyway what going do uh so this week we
read read the creative act by Rick ruin if you don't know who Rick Rubin is he is an American record executive and
record producer he co-founded Death Jam American records and he was the president of Columbia
Records he I thought you're going to say the president of the United States I was like I don't remember that where was that he might have been maybe one day he
I'd vote for him maybe yeah he really was instrumental in hip-hop becoming
popular and he worked with people like the be boys Ghetto Boys Run DMC Public
Enemy LL Cool J but not just hip-hop he like did a little bit of everything he went into heavy metal working with
Danzig Metallica Slayer uh alternative rock like the Red Hot Chili Peppers Rage Against the
Machine Strokes Weezer audiio slave Aerosmith and then he went to new metal
LinkedIn LinkedIn LinkedIn Lincoln Park system of down and he even worked in
country which I did not know this but he worked with Johnny Cash and uh the Dixie Chicks what which they're just the
chicks they're just the chicks sorry I I even wrote that down muscle my I know um but anyway so he's a really
cool guy who he's like super interesting and he worked with I don't know
something in his brain just makes music and he is so impressive with the things that he has so creative too like not
just like an impre like I don't even know if he is like really a musician but he's like a song maker and but like
there's something about he did yeah over over the course of his life yeah any something about
like the way that he can like take something and create something new and different and unique and um it's I mean
I've like always known a little bit about him and um it's just super interesting I know that like he lives in
Hawaii right um like basically maybe that's like where his studio is it's
like very just and he's very philosophical and like into like meditation and all
kinds of stuff like that so when I saw the book I was super super psyched about it yeah when I when I was reading his
like bio and everything it said that he's been meditating since he was 14 wow which is impressive imagine all
14-year-old boy wanting to meditate I feel like that's that's very impressive yeah I'm impressed
14-year-old boys are very into other things at that
time we won't get into that um so yeah
okay and then this is the this is a summary of the book legendary music producer Rick Rubin the creative act is
a a way of being is a mind-bending series of meditations on what it means
to be an artist and a Creator through 78 philosoph philosophical musings Reuben
shares the wisdom that we are all artists offering helpful mental frames for creating and moving through
roadblocks and helps you develop an understanding of what it means to operate as an artist in the
world which this book is awesome because and I also feel like the people who need
to read this are probably the people who don't view themselves as artists yeah who probably would never pick up this book so if you're like this sounds
boring and philosophical you probably need to read this book because yeah it
really he kind of like tells people how to how to be more of an artist and also
like how to find it within you because it's it's within everybody no it's not yes it is no it's what the whole book's
about no it's not it's in the universe it's just flows through you correct all
right it doesn't come from you it comes through you yes you but you have to open your open up your receptors to receive
it right you're just not open enough if you're not an artist you're just not open enough yet you're not open enough yeah yet um no it was a super cool book
and I I found like parallels to like All Phases of Life throughout it like it's
about creating art but you can like kind of pick your own kind of metaphors
within it and how it translat reles to different areas of your life and one of the first things that I really loved
about it and we just talked about this last week with the last book that we read was like how you just kind of take
from it what you want and that was like in the introduction was this book is
meant to be read some things will uh resonate with you some won't take what
you need and leave the rest and I just thought like after just like saying that about the last book that we read and
like how we like take things in general it just felt like for that to be the
intro was like he must listen to the podcast what I was thinking I bet he
does so uh I'm just noticing something realizing
something yes what I took notes on my phone my my phone's recording me did you
do the same uh I have other notes to look at on my computer but I did take notes on my phone which is recording me
okay I think I remember everything so uh let's talk about some of the impactful thing so it's it's a very like loose
format book it takes you through like all different kinds of topics and kind of like ruminates on them and it's just
a a very interesting read not like uh not like a a story arc or anything
it's just kind of like separate chapters and and kind of like ruminations on those topics yes so one of the things
that uh I took out of it was this notion of collecting seeds Okay do you remember
remember that part yeah so it's like when you go to create
something and and I was kind of looking at it through trying to be a designer uhuh you know um and trying to be better
and trying to like find inspiration and like it's hard to say where do the ideas come from like they're kind of like a
culmination of like everything you've seen and things that you like subconsciously so one of his big things
like being an artist and I think being a designer is like a little bit of being an artist um collecting seeds so like
taking inspiration consciously wherever you are and like really making a mental note of it or an
actual note of it and like kind of having this database whether it's mental
or physical database of things that kind of inspire you you know and you kind of
like take all those ideas and all those seeds kind of come together and they grow into something that's different
from each one of those things but it's kind of a culmination of it you get what I'm saying yeah definitely definitely
okay because you're kind of looking at me like what are you talking about dude no I was I was thinking as you were talking oh okay cuz what I was going to
say was like a similar point to that so now you have to think of a new point you were like no I'm still going to say what
I was going to say but I was going to try to work into it like a segue right like one of those things that you ride
with the yes I never read one of those anyway um yeah so I just thought that
that was really cool and that's something I've done like a good bit of um from time to time like if I'm
traveling and I see something like at like a hotel or like you know you just
like go different places and like you see something cool you'll take a picture of it and just be like that's really cool um there's been stuff like that and
it it doesn't have to be something that you like literally look back on and like okay this was an idea I want to
implement it can be but I think it's more of like you collect these ideas
subconsciously and you turn them into your next creation like they all play a
little bit of a part but it's more like you just being aware of the cool things that are around you like all the time
yeah you know mhm I think we're not really aware of a lot of cool stuff that you'll see just everywhere if you kind
of like pay attention to it yeah right yeah definitely I think that that's uh
cool like you're constantly getting inspiration from everything in your life and I think that that's why people are
like especially in like building Industries or like creative ways to do things it's like
yeah that person copy my idea or whatever but it's you're really just collecting inspiration from everything that you see subconsciously and you
you're constantly bombarded with information now yeah anyway with like the internet and everything so you're just collecting little seeds and you're
putting in your brain and then you're you are doing your version of that thing what she talks about in the book is like
even if you tried to replicate something you're still going to do it in your way so it's something different so there's
not um like it's almost it's good not that you want to plagiarize or like steal somebody's idea but like you're
still going to do things in your way so it's still kind of like a version of creativity because no matter what you're
still collecting the these little seeds and making it your own absolutely you're
compiling all your little your little musings in your brain and making it something new yeah yeah absolutely um
I think that the way that you just put that it also like I don't know it makes
me think like especially when I first started doing 3D renderings like I would talk to
other people and they'd be like I never post any of my renderings cuz like I'm scared that like other builders will
like see it like copy my style or a client is going like you know somebody's
going to try to build it and I'm just I always I never really like understood that well I understood it but I never
believed in that because it was kind of like I'm going to put this out there first of all it's going to be good marketing for me whether I sell this
rendering or not and like get this job other people will see it and be like wo that's a cool design I can do like I'd
love to hire this person but it also like it never mattered to me
because it's like I want to put all this stuff out there because if somebody wants to like try to copy what we're
doing like first of all great that's awesome I would love to see
that's like a huge compliment and second of all like I don't want to be doing the same thing a year from now so like if
next year you're doing what we did this year like again that's awesome and
hopefully we're not going to be doing the same thing anyway like we're going to be progressing yeah you know and it reminded me of that quote I said earlier
this week remember I just remembered it what winners focus on winning losers
focus on winners oh yeah so like not that it's like a win or lose thing but but I'm focused on like where we're
going to go next not who's behind us trying to like take our ideas like I
don't care you know yeah they're not my ideas they're the universes as Rick would
say yeah I kind of I kind of liked his his idea with like how creativity flows
through you it's not necessarily your idea it's like from the universe just flowing through you as a you're just the conduit it
um and then he said like if you if you have this idea and you don't bring it to fruition it's going to like go to
somebody else like the idea has to come out like the yeah the idea has to come out it's
it's that idea's time to come out cuz I feel like that comes up a lot where people are like with like building or
different like everyone's inventing all these little different tools or whatever and people are like oh my God I thought of that three years ago and now this
person's making it I feel like that comes up a lot I'm like oh that isn't that's true it definitely is true um so
I thought that that was really cool collecting seeds and I want to try to be more conscious of just like being
inspired by different things like you can go anywhere like you go to a a a mall or like a a commercial building or
a anything like there's cool things everywhere that you could be like wow that's a cool architectural detail I'm
just going to you know mentally take note of that you know just being more aware of the cool stuff that's
everywhere around you yeah that's that's something I'm going to take away and take with me yeah
hopefully love that love that another thing that uh I got did you have one
that you wanted to jump into uh yeah okay yeah go well did you are you well continuing with thought or you want me
to I was going to jump into something new but I brought up the last one and then you were like I was going to say
something so I don't want to steal your next one um okay so go ahead what I liked was
when he was talking about how like creativity isn't rare it's just a muscle that needs to be like worked yeah like
we all have this so when we picked this book and saw you know it's Rick Ruben he's like very philosophical about
creativity I was thinking okay I personally paint I make I well sometimes
very rarely but I paint you can paint I can paint occasionally when I do it I've
seen your painting it's very nice thank you very nice paintings we'll pop one on the screen right here if you're watching
this on YouTube um so and and you do the designs but we still have like a very
design-minded workspace so in my mind I was like oh that's where I'll find inspiration from
this book it's like art physical art but then in this book he talks a lot about how creativity is not just like physical
art it's so many things it's just like it can be problem solving it's just really all-encompassing and it's how you
choose to like Focus your attention on it and he gives a bunch of different
like exercises and examples of how to like create or like flex your creativity and make sure that it's like a mindful
practice that you do but when I thought about that I was like it
is really it does come down to even just problem solving like whether you look at
a problem with eyes that are like well this is the end of my day I guess I
can't I can't figure this out or if you're like no nothing is nothing is too hard to figure out like there's a cre
there's a solution to everything like that in itself is creative so it really is something that
that that works its way into a lot of different things and I feel like that when people talk to us at these trade shows or whatever they're like I'm a
great Builder but I'm just not creative yeah I feel like those are the people that could really benefit from a book
like this where it's like everyone is creative you just aren't you're discounting your own abilities in this
space just because I don't know you're not confident in yourself you don't which there's a lot of stuff about that
too like confidence in yourself yeah with creativity but um but that's what my mind went to when I was like we go to
these trade shows and so many people are like I I I can build anything I know I'm confident in my building skills I can I
can create anything in you know my field I I'm confident in that but I just can't
design it I don't know I don't know how to make things look good I always have to hire out for a designer like
yeah but it's just like a it's just a muscle you have to work anybody can do
it you know yeah and like some people will say like just if they're not prone
to like drawing or painting or you know doing designs or whatever they'll be
like I'm not a creative person but like um the person I think of is like ant so
Aunt would probably be like no I'm not like a creative person I don't know if you would say that but like he's not like a painter or like whatever but
like you give him like nails and screws and stuff and he'll come up with like 10
creative ways to like solve a problem that like you know oh like well what if
we just make this jig to do this like that's Super Creative so I don't want to say that a wouldn't call himself
creative maybe he does he does calligraphy he does do calligraphy apparently I've never seen it but um but
there's a lot of people like that especially in the trades that are like if you look at just like really look at
like every day there's probably things you do all day long that are like just little hacks that you've had to be
creative about to implement to make your day easier your job better or whatever it is that's creativity so um I think
this is this is a worthwhile read for anybody even if you don't consider yourself creative in the classical sense
of the word right yeah something think about all right so my next thing that I
really liked from it was tying your shoes tying your shoes tying your shoes
uh and I've heard this story before but I thought it was really cool it's um I forget what basketball coach it was but
it's um like a very famous college basketball Co coach and like the first
thing that he teaches the students is how to properly tie your shoes yeah I remember this um from the book or from
before the book no from the book okay um which is like for me it reminded me of
like all of the the things that we were just talking about like the Small Things those really Minor Details are we doing
those right and that's like if you're playing basketball one of the simplest things is like like how you tie your
shoes so he like literally teaches his students that like pull the socks all
the way up make sure there's no wrinkles that it's totally smooth work it up from like the the toes to the heel up the up
the ankle and then tie your shoes and don't just like untie the top like you
know loosen the whole thing and tie it up cinch it one row at a time and then double knot it so that you know there's
not that you know off chance that it comes untied during a game and messes
something up and it's that point of it's such a little tiny thing but all great
things are just a collection of really tiny things and developing the habits to like make those incremental changes to
make that big thing happen and playing basketball like one of the first
Elemental incremental things that you can do is tie your shoes right mhm prevent blisters prevent you know um a
twisted ankle from the shoe being too loose like it seems so so Elementary
that it's like really you're going to tell me how to time my shoes but these are things that are in like all of our
lives and our work that that get overlooked like that like that could be
done a little bit better and that's what drives you to like that that that big
accomplishment later is doing all those little things in the right way and you know just having kind of a
system for it like having a way to do things yeah I don't know I liked it I
like that story and even in in the story he was like imagine being one of those basketball players and your first day you're all cited first day your coaches
like you're one of the top recruits in the whole country your coach is trying to teach you how to tie your shoes yeah
You' be like really come on
anyway yeah okay um well I feel like we could talk about this for a very long
time this book has I think it's like 78 chapters or something I think so they're all very short it's very short like
little why are we running out of time on it all right well I want I want to I want to tell one more okay I'll make
this one quick but I really liked this one was my favorite point in the whole book okay and it reminded me of the industry a lot and it was on um Brian
Williams I think that's Brian Wilson Brian Wilson Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys listen to The Beatles album I think
it's called rubber sold and thought it was like the best thing he had ever heard like it was
the greatest piece of music he had ever heard and that led him to like
immediately start writing God Only Knows pet the album Pet Sounds but the song
specifically God Only Knows is that's what he wrote right away and
that led to him creating Pet Sounds and then Paul McCartney said that he heard
Pet Sounds and said that God Only Knows was like the most beautiful song ever
created and when they were writing Sergeant peppers they listened to Pet
Sounds non-stop on repeat and it's like that's such a cool thing where one thing
like it's not competitive it's collaborative like yes your thing inspired me so much that it pushed me to
create the best thing that I've ever done and I feel like in industry that happens all the time it's one of the
best things about social media is seeing you put an idea out there like an inlay
or uh you know just some some really cool thing that you can create somebody
else will look at that and say you know what I'm going to one up you or I'm going to put my spin on that and then it
just goes back and forth and before you know it like everyone involved has gotten so much better yeah so I love
that something I've always loved about the industry and to hear something about like the Beatles And The Beach Boys
that's like literally kind of the same thing super cool I think yeah I also
wrote down that point cuz I did love that story because it's such a healthy version of like competition like it's
it's like the only version that's it's the only healthy version of competition because you're still only competing
against yourself you want to create the best thing that you can create while like holding yourself to someone else's
standard but it's not like they were like I want to beat the Beach Boys I want to take them down they were like
inspired by the beauty that they created and wanted to create something it like challenged them to challenge their self
which I thought was very like a very a tribute to them it's like your thing
inspired me so much that I'm going to go and now I can create this because of what you created and it's like it's
built upon it's they've all kind of built upon each other and like they wouldn't have been a able to create that
without all the things before them that have built up to that point so Beatles Inspire Beach Boys Beach Boys Inspire
Beatles balls and Beatles Court uh forever I guess I don't think
that they're as far as I know they're not making any new music so I don't know
anyway uh yeah so so what would you give the book um let's rate the book out of
10 so hm I feel like I would I I wish that I had read this
book like in a physical book so I could have ruminated on each point more I feel like with an Audi book uh he kind of
goes through these chapters really fast I think he actually calls the meditations each chapter is like a meditation um so I do wish that I had
read it on paper I feel like I would have gotten more out of it uh but that's not the fault of the
book so I can't fault them for that yeah so I'll give I'll give them
I'll give the book a 7 two
okay what would you give uh I'm I'm I'm with you there I do think it it's more
it would be a better it's not like a book that you want to just like plow
through and like get done it's something that you really want to like you know maybe read a chapter every day and just like really think about that for the day
every morning or something I think that would be a better way to consume it um um some of it felt like a little bit too
much like woo woo like kind of out there like stuff for me personally uh but there was a lot that
did resonate with me but we still we're going to have a lot of books to review so I don't want to set it too high I'm
going to say got to really temper it 6.9 okay all right Fair yeah
Fair still some room to to to go up there but uh yeah yeah I thought overall
it was good definitely would recommend and um easy read easy listen so check it out
the creative act by Rick rubben by Rick Ruben okay so for our next book I just
looked it up it is read people like a book by Patrick
King and if you want we're not only going to read books we're going to we're going to learn how to read people read
people oh God so this will be you know I haven't read yet so I can't speak Aon it
but you know we thought it might be good for like sales and that kind of stuff perfectly right in our wheelhouse so
read people like a book Patrick King if you want to read along with us yes please do um okay so now we are at our
bad sales story of the week portion bad sales story of the week and I'm going to
take this one and this one is from our good friend Ren at downar Stone Ren does
our countertop so if you've seen any of our recent videos with the countertop that's right yeah so okay he goes gets
call I guess goes to a uh estimate goes to an estimate mm
shows up yep what does he find there police
activity oh Lord there's been a murder someone was a
murdered at this potential job oh my gosh and
um I think that's kind of it that's kind of where it ended I think the police kind of like
maybe fill him in let him in they did not no it's like no I need to measure
this counter top uh so yeah um that was pretty open and shut case
went to the estimate murder so do a video walk through uh with
and keep yourself safe because what if what if he was there what if he showed up oh God yeah when the murder was
happening or whatever I don't know sheesh so all right don't worry about
that do a video walk through don't worry about murders uh and if you want to use
our code it is Happy hardworking happy hour 50 for 50% off of your first two
months for grar software yeah and I mean
like worry about murder if there's something you can do about it you said get the sofware and don't worry about murder still worry about it like no
don't worry about it like don't worry about it like on your appointments but in general for like the world if there's
something you day to stop a murder stop it well how far are you going to go you
going to put yourself in In Harm's Way I don't know I don't know but don't just get this software and completely absolve
yourself of of about what it means to be a human and we're in this
together but um but you'll be safer because you won't be going onto those murderous estimates so anyway uh closing
thoughts yes do you have any closing thoughts ah um I feel like this is
really your wheelhouse this creative wo woo uh book and uh when we were talking
about it you were like I midweek I was like I'm not sure if vibing with this book you were like well no offense but
it's meant for more like creative people so that was just a joke I'll let you take it for me that was just kind of
like ribbing I know I'm kidding uh so but go ahead I feel like you have something to say uh not really I
think man we really did cross some chasms this week you know we went from a
total mental freak out to you know reading this philosophical book about
how to be creative and It All Leads back
to that Elemental question of are we doing the right thing are we doing the
thing that we were meant to do oh are we doing the things right now they're going
to take us to the places we want to go I think that is part of our deep human
nature to be worried that we're not going to end up where we want to go and
that the decisions we make right now aren't going to lead us to the right place later so you have to be creative
think creatively break everything down really get to the core of what you're
doing why you're doing it where it's going to take you and how it's going to feel when you finally get
there that's beautiful just kind of was that one of those moments where you black out and
totally yeah you could tell you could tell but I think it it oh my God that
was the universe I was just being a conduit for the universe right there that was beautiful wow way to
really wrap it up nicely that was perfect Sean great yeah thank you thank you so much uh so yep make sure you uh
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okay see you next week no that's my part oh until next time it's been the
hardworking happy hour see you next week