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    PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
    Podcast 13 min read

    Stop Waiting for Permission to Succeed w/ Drigo Tasca

    with Drigo Tasca

    Chris Do challenges Drigo Tasca to replace familiar work with sharper positioning and deliberate learning.

    Chris Do

    Chris Do

    Founder, The Futur™ · December 20, 2025

    The familiar work becomes the ceiling

    Ten years of practice can build a career without making its next move any easier. Drigo Tasca, who says he has worked in video for almost a decade and has often been behind the camera with Chris Do, is confronting that distinction. His perspective matters because he is not searching for a first skill; he is trying to understand why an established one has not carried him further.

    Three months after moving to Los Angeles, Tasca sits down with Do to examine the lessons usually exchanged between shoots, trips, and other work. The conversation begins with a broad question about what holds creatives back. Do declines the broad diagnosis and asks for a narrower subject.

    Tasca offers himself.

    That choice changes the stakes. General advice allows everyone to agree that change is necessary without identifying anything that must actually change. A discussion about Tasca's business has to account for his clients, his habits, his language, and the opportunities already within reach.

    Do's assessment is uncomfortable precisely because it does not begin with a lack of talent. He sees gratitude, groundedness, and a willingness to work. He also sees someone whose definition of success has not kept pace with what he could pursue.

    Gratitude can ground ambition without setting its ceiling. Do describes gratitude as an anchor and direction as a compass. The distinction preserves something he values in Tasca while challenging the assumption that appreciating a life means leaving its structure untouched.

    The move from Miami becomes the first piece of evidence. Do recalls encouraging Tasca to relocate years earlier. Tasca had relationships and reasons to stay, but once those circumstances changed, a decision that had seemed difficult became possible.

    Los Angeles is not presented here as a universal prescription. What matters in Tasca's account is the contrast between imagining a different environment and finally experiencing it. The move exposed him to people and possibilities that had previously remained abstract.

    Do remembers a podcast recording in a large hillside home. The exact neighborhood is uncertain, but the detail that matters is clear: Tasca began wondering what would have to change for a home like that to become his own reality, rather than a location someone else had rented.

    The house was a prompt, not a business plan.

    For Do, the significant development was that Tasca had allowed himself to want something larger. That desire did not guarantee an outcome. It created a specific discrepancy between his current trajectory and a future he could now picture.

    The harder discrepancy soon emerges. Tasca has already made a substantial geographical change, yet his professional identity remains attached to familiar work. New surroundings can expand the horizon without changing the decisions that determine whether someone moves toward it.

    The question is no longer whether Tasca is willing to work. It is whether he is willing to stop treating the work he already knows as the full extent of what he can offer. Success has given him a stable identity. That same identity is becoming difficult to revise.

    The camera is not the offer

    When Tasca describes his business, Do hears an occupation where a client should hear a reason to hire him. Video production names the activity. It does not explain what becomes possible because that activity was performed well.

    Do puts the distinction plainly: “Video production is what you do, but it's not what you sell.”

    The proposed change is not cosmetic. Replacing a job title with grander language would leave the underlying business untouched. Do is asking Tasca to accept responsibility for a broader result, then develop the capabilities necessary to deliver it.

    That result includes helping people communicate their ideas, become comfortable on camera, and reach an audience. Production remains necessary, but it becomes one component of a service whose value is easier to understand from the client's perspective.

    The offer should describe the result, not just the activity. This is the positioning problem at the center of Tasca's situation. He already performs demanding work, but the way he names that work directs attention toward its execution rather than its purpose.

    Do identifies several contributions that disappear when the entire service is reduced to production:

    • Helping a client feel comfortable enough to communicate naturally on camera.
    • Identifying the ideas and subjects that deserve the client's attention.
    • Advising on titles and thumbnails, not merely delivering footage.
    • Making the production process less intrusive so the client can focus on the message.

    These are not interchangeable extras. They concern the conditions under which a video becomes useful. A technically competent recording cannot, by itself, resolve an unclear message or a client who never becomes comfortable enough to express it.

    Do argues that production is the hardest and least profitable part of Tasca's particular business. That is his diagnosis of this situation, not a documented rule about every production company. The strategic point is that Tasca is centering the service around the component Do believes offers him the least room to grow.

    The broader distinction between executing work and designing a business also frames The Futur's Moving from Makers to Entrepreneurs. Here, it becomes tangible: the person holding the camera can remain responsible for recording, or begin taking responsibility for the thinking around the recording.

    Tasca does not reject the proposal outright. He points to bandwidth, then acknowledges that he is still accepting other clients. That admission reveals a conflict between the future service he says he wants to build and the existing work that continues to occupy his schedule.

    Do calls it an attachment to routine.

    Familiar assignments offer a known process and an immediate reason to stay busy. A broader service requires learning, experimentation, and uncertainty. The obstacle is not simply the number of available hours. It is what those hours are repeatedly committed to protecting.

    The distinction matters because Tasca is not being advised to abandon video for an unrelated pursuit. He is being asked to extend an existing skill into a more consequential role. The camera stays. The definition of the job changes.

    That is a harder transition than adopting a new description. It requires evidence that the expanded promise can be kept.

    Judgment is practiced before it looks effortless

    Tasca has watched Do arrive at a useful formulation within seconds. During lunch, a conversation about a social post turns into a quick interrogation of its central idea. What is the one thing the post should say, and is that thing specific enough to be worth reading?

    From Tasca's side, the speed looks remarkable. From Do's side, it is the visible result of repeated decisions made over years of directing creative work. He describes reviewing ideas from teams every day, choosing what deserved development, and deciding what needed to be discarded.

    The quick answer has a long preparation.

    Do also describes a deliberate habit of noticing what works. A shoe's geometric details, an event's execution, or a film's choices become material for later judgment. He is not simply registering approval or dislike. He is trying to identify the feature responsible for the effect.

    Clear judgment grows from specific observation. That principle offers Tasca a more useful explanation than innate confidence. If an experienced person can name the difference between two options, the learner needs to study the difference, not merely admire the speed of the verdict.

    Do traces part of that practice to a college course devoted to critiquing current films. He recalls being one of very few designers in a room largely populated by film students. They had terminology, references, and technical knowledge he did not yet possess.

    His initial response was to watch each film twice. The first screening supplied the audience experience. The second allowed him to study and remember enough detail to participate in the discussion.

    That approach cost time and money he did not want to keep spending. He began trying to perform both tasks in one sitting: experience the film and notice the decisions he would later need to discuss.

    A small notepad provided reassurance, even though writing in the dark was difficult. The important pressure came from knowing that someone would expect a substantive account afterward. Passive familiarity would not be enough.

    Do recalls the work becoming more manageable by about the middle of the term. Discussion supplied vocabulary; vocabulary helped him distinguish things he previously could not name. The class made attention necessary, then gave that attention somewhere to go.

    The role of exchange in that process connects naturally with Learning, Collaboration, Critique & Feedback. Do explicitly warns that learning alone has limits when the learner remains confined to terminology already familiar to them.

    For someone outside a classroom, his suggested preparation begins before the screening:

    • Identify the narrative arc, the main character, and the opposing force.
    • Watch how camera movement, sets, and lighting shape the scene.
    • Listen for the emotional effect of sound and music.
    • Look for subtext, foreshadowing, and choices in the opening or closing titles.

    He also recommends listening to knowledgeable film enthusiasts explain their judgments. The objective is not to borrow their preferences. It is to encounter distinctions that sharpen the learner's own ability to see.

    For Tasca, the implication reaches beyond films. Becoming a strategic adviser requires more than having watched successful content. It requires noticing what changed, describing why the change matters, and developing a vocabulary precise enough to make the observation useful to someone else.

    Small victories can protect bad habits

    Competence creates another problem: early results can make a weak method look reliable. Do illustrates that problem through a fishing trip with his son, where the difference between getting a result and understanding a technique became painfully visible.

    They had been catching fish. Do says his son was not following all of his instructions, but the smaller catches allowed the departures to pass without much consequence. The method appeared sufficient because the challenge had not yet demanded more.

    Then a larger fish broke the line.

    Do recalls his son's initial response as blame. He had followed an instruction to keep the rod up, so the lost fish appeared to be the consequence of that advice. Do distinguished the position of the rod from maintaining tension on the line.

    The technical difference mattered. So did the next question. Rather than remain in the argument, his son asked what he needed to do, rehearsed the explanation, and later described the failure to other people as the result of habits he needed to change.

    Do places the turnaround within roughly twenty minutes. The claim is a father's recollection, but the sequence is the substance of the story: disappointment, defensiveness, clarification, practice, and an account that accepts responsibility.

    Small wins can conceal the habits that limit larger ones. In the fishing story, the successful catches were real. They simply did not prove that the technique would hold under greater strain.

    That distinction complicates the usual reading of experience. Tasca's decade in video is not evidence of failure. It is evidence that he can sustain a certain kind of work. Whether the same operating habits can support a broader strategic business remains a different question.

    Do offers another example through an unnamed acquaintance with an ability in SEO and a history of changing professional direction. His criticism is that the person keeps pursuing new interests instead of building around a commercially useful skill.

    Tasca raises a legitimate objection: being good at something does not necessarily mean enjoying it. He also raises burnout. Do responds by emphasizing sacrifice and the possibility of building a business that eventually depends less on its founder's direct execution.

    The exchange should not be mistaken for evidence that exhaustion is merely a failure of commitment. What it establishes is a disagreement over how to interpret discomfort: as a reason to leave the work, or as something to endure while constructing a different relationship to it.

    Do's proposed alternative includes training others, building a team, and moving toward an executive role. He is not only arguing for more repetition of the same task. He is arguing for staying with a capability long enough to build something beyond the founder's labor.

    Tasca rightly notes that his own problem is not serial reinvention. He has stayed in video. Do agrees. The examples share an underlying issue, but not an identical prescription: each person is avoiding a particular change that their next stage requires.

    For one, the avoided decision is commitment. For Tasca, it is expansion of responsibility.

    The lesson is not that every creative needs to persist longer. It is that experience must be examined closely enough to distinguish a useful foundation from a comfortable limit.

    Proximity is not an apprenticeship

    Tasca has unusually direct access to Do. He travels with him, records his work, and sees presentations develop across multiple appearances. Yet Do argues that access alone has not produced the learning it could.

    After a talk, Do asks what Tasca wants to know. The questions he hopes to hear concern specific decisions: a section removed, a response to an unexpected interruption, a moment that worked better than it did before.

    Instead, Tasca sometimes explains that he was occupied with recording and was not paying close attention to those choices. The explanation can be accurate and still reveal a missed opportunity. The assignment directs attention toward capturing the event; the apprenticeship requires examining it.

    This is not a demand to neglect the camera. It exposes a tension in Tasca's position. The work that gives him access can also absorb the attention necessary to benefit from that access.

    The subject is closely related to The Importance Of Mentors, but this conversation adds a particularly demanding condition: the learner must arrive with observations that a mentor can help interpret.

    Do wants questions grounded in something that actually happened:

    • Ask about the decision behind the change. Identify what was removed or revised between two presentations.
    • Ask about the response under pressure. Examine how an unexpected audience contribution affected the delivery.
    • Ask about the thinking between moments. Investigate what the speaker was considering before, during, and after a choice.

    Those questions do not require the learner to already understand the answer. They require enough attention to locate the uncertainty. That makes the mentor's experience available at the point where it can explain something concrete.

    Do's speaking practice supplies ample material. Tasca describes seeing him revise a completed deck late into the night. Do explains that he is trying to improve several dimensions at once: teaching, performance, slide design, tone, and the practical usefulness of the ideas.

    A moving presentation can leave an audience without anything to apply. An informative one can remain emotionally flat. Do wants both engagement and utility, which means a strong performance on one dimension does not end the evaluation.

    He also distinguishes teaching from repeatedly delivering an autobiographical talk. A personal story can be refined, but his identity as an educator pushes him toward developing more material and more ways to make an idea understandable.

    That commitment makes repetition a test rather than a victory lap. Do describes keeping much of a talk intact while changing a smaller portion. The revisions provide something to compare, although the room, audience, and technology also affect the result.

    For an observer, that uncertainty is valuable. It prevents a simplistic conclusion that every improvement or disappointment must come from the changed slides. Learning requires noticing the surrounding conditions as well as the speaker's choices.

    Tasca does not need to imitate every aspect of Do's working life to benefit. He needs to move from watching effort to examining decisions. Admiration recognizes that someone works hard. Apprenticeship asks what the work is changing, how that change is evaluated, and which part can be practiced independently.

    The next business needs evidence

    By the final stretch of the conversation, Tasca's problem has become more concrete. He is not short of encouragement, access, or a suggested direction. What remains unbuilt is the connection between that direction and his daily practice.

    Do proposes that Tasca treat existing client work as a place to investigate content performance. Rather than waiting for a completely new business to appear, he can begin learning the decisions that a broader service would require him to make.

    The shift is from recording content to studying the conditions of its performance. Do names titles, thumbnails, calls to action, and length as variables worth examining. He also asks whether Tasca is reading YouTube reports or studying what other creators are doing.

    Tasca acknowledges that he is not reading the reports.

    That answer matters more than another declaration of ambition. It identifies a gap between the role being considered and the information currently entering the business. A promise to advise on content needs a practice of looking at content evidence.

    The adjacent territory appears in She Cracked the YouTube Code. Here's Everything She Knows. For Tasca, however, the immediate task is narrower than mastering an entire platform. It is becoming a serious student of the work he already has access to.

    Do's proposed areas of investigation remain practical:

    • Study titles and thumbnails as decisions that deserve testing and revision.
    • Examine calls to action within videos rather than treating them as incidental.
    • Compare different video lengths instead of assuming one duration is always preferable.
    • Read platform reports and reverse engineer other creators' content.

    These are avenues for inquiry, not guaranteed formulas. The transcript supplies no universal winning length, thumbnail style, or posting system. Its more defensible claim is that strategic responsibility requires sustained investigation rather than intuition alone.

    Tasca then identifies another hesitation: after working with Do, other social media clients can be difficult. Do's response is to seek clients with comparable commitment to their content. He says people in their circle already demonstrate that seriousness.

    The disagreement exposes another assumption that needs testing. Tasca treats the right clients as scarce enough to discourage the transition. Do treats that belief as one more explanation protecting the current routine. Neither supplies market data, but the conversation makes the untested premise visible.

    A more ambitious offer does not require every existing client to become suitable for it. It requires clarity about the kind of client who will participate in the work. Tasca's experience with an unusually committed collaborator gives him a reference point for that judgment, not proof that no comparable relationship exists.

    The conversation ends without a completed transformation. Tasca has not launched the revised service, demonstrated new results, or resolved every objection. The unresolved quality is useful: recognizing the pattern is not the same as changing the schedule that sustains it.

    His next step is already contained in the work. Read the reports. Examine the choices. Ask a question precise enough to expose a decision. Build evidence for the larger promise before relying on the promise to carry the business.

    The camera can stay. The old definition of the job cannot.

    TRANSCRIPT

    So today we have a special episode that I've been wanting to record with Chris for a long time now. I've always been behind the camera with you. I don't think we've gotten a lot of chances that I'm actually just sitting down without you just yelling at me about like a whiteboard thing. I can change that for this one. Maybe. You helped me a lot in the past three months of me moving to LA and me had a huge impact on my life in the past three or four years as well. And there's been a lot of little micro lessons within that that I've got to experience with you one -on -one that I want to be able to share with the audience because I think would benefit them. So I guess to just jump right into it. You work and help a lot of different entrepreneurs, a lot of friends in our group. And I think there's been a constant thing that we always talk about. What do you think is holding most creatives right now from getting to where they want to be in life? That's a big question. I don't want you want to do the fluff first? How far in? No, no. Meaning it's to the containers to wide open because you're talking about most entrepreneurs, some early on, some mid -stage, some late in life. Their answer is going to be very different. Why don't you box it in a little bit? I'm not trying to approach it that way. How about the people that you see in a day -to -day life or even me? What was the big thing that you think was holding me back? Okay. I can answer that question really easily. What is holding you back? Like what's the thing that you see all the time that's holding me back? With you. Okay. It starts with you being an immigrant to this country and having fairly low definitions of what success looks like. Also probably not being around the kinds of people you need to be around. So you are doing better than most of your friends. You are probably challenging them. You're pushing them. So you're at the tip of the spear and that's always a sign that you're in the wrong circles of people. And I think that's one of those things. So I've talked to you about this many times before. I think you're very good about being grateful for the things you have. It's one of the, your best traits to me, just gratitude and being very grounded. And I think that's what makes you charming and interesting. Also, I'm sure Jesse really appreciates you for the same things. And I never want you to lose that part, but that is like an anchor and we need a compass and the anchor keeps us grounded, but it doesn't allow us to find direction because we're usually content and happy with where we're at. And I think you are still stuck on old models and paradigms of how to make money. Oftentimes you will talk to people. I am in video production. I keep encouraging you not to describe yourself as the things you do, but the outcomes that you achieve for people. That small shift will drastically change how you talk to yourself, but more importantly, the frame in which people look at you. So what I do is I help thought leaders build content. I have thought leaders achieve a certain reach or impact or to fulfill their life's work through video. All of a sudden the conversation is very different. Video production is what you do, but it's not what you sell. And we've gone through this many times. As soon as you start to figure that part out and realize the least profitable and the hardest part of your business is video production. It's all the other stuff, the intangibles. Like I want to make sure you feel comfortable on camera. I want to make sure you are in your zone genius by highlighting things that you want to do in your life. And I try to make the rest of it transparent or invisible to you. So you don't have to feel any of that stuff. I think that's the thing that you can bring to the table. I help you have a broader reach or something like that. And to look at the content you're making and strategically advise you on what I think you need to do, not just from the content perspective, but how you title and how you do the thumbnails. That's what people really care about. But it's all the other stuff, the intangibles, like I want to make sure you feel comfortable on camera. I want to make sure you are in your zone of genius by highlighting things that you want to do in your life. And I try to make the rest of it transparent or invisible to you so you don't have to feel any of that stuff. I think that's the thing that you can bring to the table. I help you have a broader reach or something like that and to look at the content you're making and strategically advise you on what I think you need to do, not just from the content perspective, but how you title and how you do the thumbnails. That's what people really care about. It's the result. And then the how to becomes less important and the what becomes insignificant at that point. So why are we doing this? Ultimately, the results we want to achieve, but the how and the what I'm going to do is not so important. So now you're in L .A. You've been here for three months and you're seeing a whole different world. And this is now pointing to our next problem, which is you're fairly slow to adapt to things you cannot see. The whole point of the word vision is to see what no one can see. That requires faith. It requires imagination. And I've noticed patterns within you that until you're there and seeing it and seeing someone doing it, then you, for whatever reason, can't see and you hold yourself back. I'm not sure when we first had this conversation, but I would say it's at least three years ago when we're talking. I say to you, you probably should move to L .A. Now, there are reasons why you couldn't, real reasons, but maybe they're not as real as you think there's relationships and things you had to deal with. But funny thing is when your relationship disappeared, all of a sudden that door open and you walk through it and you're telling me today, it feels like I'm living a dream. I'm the main character or a side character in a movie. What is going on? I told you and you defended it. I'm like, Miami weather sucks, man. It's always hot. It's always humid. You're always sweating in a state of greasiness and you can only wear tropical clothes because it doesn't make any sense. You're like, no, I love it. And then you're in L .A. for like a couple of days and you're like, wait a minute, there's different, there's better. And there's a reason why California and more specifically Southern California is such a magnet for people from all over the world of all different kinds of means to be here because 350 or 60 days out of the year, it's amazing here. There are going to be a couple of days where it's really hot. Other than that, it's pretty awesome. And with that comes opportunity to be outside, to do things. And there's a whole ecosystem of people who can do, who want to do, who think of themselves as world breakers and as doers and makers. And so when you're in that ecosystem, they don't care about money. They care about their dream. So you want to help them achieve their dream. We were on a pod. Somebody rented a beautiful home. I don't know where it is. Burbank -ish area. In the hills somewhere. Maybe East Hollywood. And it was a fantastic house. You walk up there like, dang, somebody was balling here. The ceilings were 25 feet high, gorgeous views, well -appointed, real finishes. Like, this is an expensive home. And something you said to me, which was a sign of positive change for you, was, what do I need to do? Who do I need to come so that this is my reality? Not just to rent this house, but to own this house. And that was the first spark that I've seen in you where you allow yourself, give yourself permission to dream so big. I can help you build that dream. I can help you achieve that dream. It's not as hard as you think. But the first part is the want and the clarity of the vision of the future. So when it comes to moving to LA, what took you so long? You're here now. When it comes to fashion, that's the easiest one for me to point to. I've mentioned it many times in different pods. Where I'm like, buy this back. Wear those pants. You're like, no, no. And I think I can relate and empathize with you. I think part of it is the immigrant mindset, which is like, that's just too much money. I don't need that. That's all hype. I'll find a cheaper alternative. But it's not the same. It doesn't have the same story. It doesn't have the same design. But it's more important. The story you tell yourself is, I can't afford this. And then I've seen you flip on that front too. The gap in which I suggest you do something, it's closing to the point in which now you're doing things that you're totally uncomfortable with. You might not even have the vision, but you have the guts to say, I'm going to trust this person. I'm just going to do it. And if there's ever a... I think I can relate and empathize with you. I think part of it is the immigrant mindset, which is like, that's just too much money. I don't need that. That's all hype. I'll find a cheaper alternative, but it's not the same. It doesn't have the same story. It doesn't have the same design. But it's more important. The story you tell yourself is, I can't afford this. And then I've seen you flip on that front too. The gap in which I suggest you do something, it's closing to the point in which now you're doing things that you're totally uncomfortable with. You might not even have the vision, but you have the guts to say, I'm going to trust this person. I'm just going to do it. And if there's ever a secret I try and tell people is, find a couple of people, not a lot. When I say a couple, I mean two or less, one. And just do whatever they tell you to do. If they are where you want to be, if they have that clarity, that insight, the business acumen or the style or taste that you want, just do it. Just follow it. Don't even trust yourself because you're saying quite loudly, I don't know what I'm doing, but when I'm in the presence of someone who does know what they're doing, I'm not going to listen to them because I trust myself more, makes no freaking sense whatsoever. But that's what people do. That's the action they take. Other than that, probably challenge you a little bit about how you learn, how you process, how you are able to articulate what it is that you learn to internalize this up. We're still working on that. Something I've always admired, and it's just like little micro moments we have, is like, how have you been able to see certain visions and certain things so clear? Because even earlier today, we're sitting down having lunch, and I'm like, hey, I'm trying to work on this post. And I'm like, oh, no, wait, this is not the message. And you're like, what is it that you're trying to get? And then like, in literally five seconds, like you drop some gold bars. And I was like, dude, like, how is it that you're able to like, see that so clear? Like, you've been able to make moves so clear within life. Like, what is it? Like, how are you able to do this? There's two questions there. It seemed like one, but let's take them one part at a time. In relation to the question of, I need to make my monthly posts. I'm stuck. I don't feel like it should be like this. It should be like that. And then I asked you, what's the one thing you want to say? And you would say something. I said, it's too generic. It's too abstract. I don't get that. And say it again. And then for me, it's quite easy because if you work on stories and you're used to art directing and creative directing people, which is what I did in my former life, quite literally, there's a team of six, seven people showing me their ideas all the time, every single day. And I have to tell them, that's the winner. That's not. Here's what we need to do. Let's cut our losses. Let's refocus on this and let's make that even bigger and better. So that's the practice. There's just repetition. So for your thing, I'm like, what is it I'm going to get excited about to read, to learn? What is your perspective? How have you grown? What have you changed? So the question I ask for you is, instead of focusing on some kind of giant struggle or something like that, I just ask you, what's the one thing you've learned? And you would say something, I'm like, that's not sharp enough. I happen to try to be very intentional and practice at articulating things as clearly as possible. So that would be answer number two. Okay? So for you, I can hear it's super easy. It's like, that's not interesting. That's interesting. And when we watch movies or if we watch anything, a concert, or we go to an event and we look at stuff, you're going to see my brain work in hyperdrive, right? I'm like, that's not good. That's good. These are things. And you might not even pick up on these things, but what I'm doing is I'm recording in very high fidelity what is and isn't working so I can make a catalog of it in my mind so I can access it later. So most of us go through life and we sleepwalk through life. We're not paying attention to anything. We're not looking at the geometric shapes in the front of your shoe and the faceted edge that is a nice contrast, a linear, arc linear versus a curved linear thing that's happening with the shoe. Contrast is quite nice. And that's why that shoe's working. You know, some hard geometric shape. Somebody just cut them off and sit there. That's what it should be. It shouldn't follow the curve of the foot. That's cool. So when it comes to how am I able to see things? It's because I strive very much to silence all the little naysaying voices in my head and find my one true voice. front of your shoe and the faceted edge that is a nice contrast, a linear arc linear versus a curve linear thing that's happening with the shoe. Contrast is quite nice. And that's why that shoe's working, you know, some hard geometric shape. Somebody just cut them off and sit there. That's what it should be. It shouldn't follow the curve of the foot. That's cool. So when it comes to how am I able to see things, it's because I strive very much to silence all the little naysaying voices in my head and find one true voice and let that person or that voice do most of the talking. You have conflicting voices. Most people do. What will people think? Is this cool? What do I really think? And will people judge me for that? And what's going to be popular this month? So those are all the voices in competition. And so it would be hard for you to have clarity. And so you're listening to all the voices while not listening to any of them. And it comes out really mushy. That's what we're trying to avoid. So how were you able to tap into your voice? Like you went through, I guess, a period in your life when you're going to school and I know you had some people that impacted you to become who you are. But at one point, I know that you're an immigrant and you came here and you struggled through things. You've shared stories of like similarities of us growing up. So like, what was it for you that helped you find your voice that you were like, hey, I know this is right. I'll tell you the first part of it, which I can recall, which is much younger than you would think, probably in grade school somewhere, being an introvert, being quite isolated and feeling very much apart. The only person I could talk to is myself. And so I developed pretty high level of self -awareness and inner dialogue. That's quite clear. I'm having a lot of inner dialogue, thinking things and thinking, why do I think that? Then asking myself, is that a helpful thought to have? Is this going to build me up or is it going to tear me down? I don't have an identity yet, but I have that inner dialogue and it's pretty strong. So I'm kind of aware of what's going on. So if I act really weird, I know it's because I'm coming from a negative emotion state, emotive state. Like I'm jealous. I'm feeling abandoned. I'm feeling unsure of myself right now. I'm feeling really insecure. And so I'm going to say and do weird things because, and I'm aware of it. I'm very conscious that I'm doing this and I've chosen to do it or I allow myself to do it, even though I know it's not a good thing. Or sometimes when your ego gets in the way, you want to say something, but you don't because you're like, that'd be a chump thing to say. And over time I start to learn, I'm just going to have to say it. That does take a long time to get there, but it's not until I find myself in a skill in terms of graphic design that I start to build an identity coupled with a self -awareness. So many people don't have the self -awareness by whatever reason, because they don't like to think about what they think about. And then some other people don't have a skill. They just really don't have a skill. They've, they've faked it through life. They go through the motions. They're in middle management or they're just, they fool a lot of people, but they're not really fooling themselves. So I don't really have a strong core. And I think it's very important for everyone to have a strong core. So your strong core just came from your abilities of being a really good graphic designer. My core comes from seeking out design as a profession, throwing 1000 % of myself into it, soaking up information like a sponge and being very disciplined by applying exactly what my teachers tell me to do. It's a theme. So all these dense people, they never listen. I don't know why they just don't listen. I'll give you an example. I'm out there fishing with my son this past two weeks and we're out in the Canadian wilderness for four days and I'm telling him how to fish. He just doesn't want to listen. And my boy is very good at following instructions. But for some reason he's decided he's going to go rogue and do his own thing. I think this is a sign of developing your own personality and you're stepping into manhood. So I respect that. You can just do that. I talked to him. He doesn't listen and we're catching fish until we catch a really big fish. And then the line breaks and his heart's broken because I know he wants to bring in that fish so much so that if there's a big fish, he's like, dad, you take it. I'm like, no, son, this is for you. You have to learn these things in your life. And he goes, so what do I need to do? So he went. and want to listen. And my boy is very good at following instructions. But for some reason, he's decided he's going to go rogue and do his own thing. I think this is a sign of developing your own personality and you're stepping into manhood. So I respect that. You can just do that. I talk to him. He doesn't listen. And we're catching fish until we catch a really big fish. And then the line breaks and his heart's broken because I know he wants to bring in that fish. So much so that if there's a big fish, he's like, dad, you take it. I'm like, no, son, this is for you. You have to learn these things in your life. And he goes, so what do I need to do? So he went through a really fast learning curve because I said when the line broke and it's just disappointment, I'm okay with it. I want him to catch the fish. Had we caught it, we would come back to the lodge, father, son, catch two of the biggest fish. It would have been momentous for us. And I wanted it for him, but I needed him to catch it. And his first thing was, dad, you told me to keep the line up. That's why it broke. So he blamed me. So the blaming part, right? I said, there's a difference between keeping your rod up and keeping tension on the line. And I've told you some things you don't listen. So that's okay. Not blaming you. He goes, okay, what do I need to do? And I told him, so he, in the brief moment of anger and blaming, cause it can't be his fault. He accepted almost right away. And I said, okay, here, let's go through it. Let's rehearse. We talk about it. He goes, oh, that's why I said, so the problem has been, we've caught two small fish. So you can be sloppy in your technique. It's created bad habits. He accepted it. We motor in, we're having dinner and people ask him how things go. He says, yeah, I got a big one. And you know what? I've had bad habits and dad set me straight. So I knew then he internalized it. And we're talking about a 20 minute span between the lesson learned and him now saying to people, bad habits have been formed. I need to break them. I'm going to work on it. And that's pretty remarkable. So for some people it would take two, three years for him, 20 minutes. And I mean, he's what, 20? 21. 21. Like I did not have the level of self -awareness maybe to like five or six years ago. That's fine. We're all on a different timeline. Yeah. I didn't raise you as a kid. I know. Briefly, we talked about how you were able to like pay attention. Like you, they call you the Charming Razorblade. Charming Razorblade. So like the way that you're describing the edges of my shoes, like you're so good with your words and precision. And there's a story that you shared with me previously about when you were in school and you had to go to, you had to do an assignment that you had to go watch a movie. Yeah. And that's how you really picked up one of these skills. Cause like, I've seen a movie with you and then you're like, Hey, did you notice how this thing happened? I'm like, I'm like, dude, that's like a whole different level. And I'm like, how did you develop this? And it's so good because like, this is why I think you're such a great storyteller, but can you share the story? Yeah. During one of my academic terms between studio terms, I took an academic term so that I can get my requirements out of the way. So I can graduate with my degree. I took a class, which I thought was going to be really fun. It's called critiquing current movies. It was taught by Jay Chapman and he's a film nut and it was mostly with film students in there. And I was probably one of two designers in that room. And the way it would work is one week we get to pick a film and then another week he picks a film. So the class picks the popcorn movies, the blockbusters. And there's some, he would, he might veto cause he's like, that's a terrible, let's not go see that. And it was one of those things. So the idea was you're going to have to go watch the movie. It's a discussion based class. No essays, nothing to write. So you have to be really good. And I'm surrounded by film majors who understand lensing, directors and genres and all these things, the film theory, film history. And I don't know any of this stuff. So you can imagine it's pretty intimidating to be in a room full of film buffs while talking about films. At this point in my life, I'm pretty straight lace. I go watch the movie and then I leave the theater. I buy another ticket. I go back in. So the first time I watched the movie is just to watch it as an audience member would. The second time was to watch it so I can remember and dissect the film. I did this a couple of times, not many times. And I realized it's not a good use of my money, which I didn't have a lot of. Really not a good use of my money. theory, film history. And I don't know any of that stuff. So you can imagine it's pretty intimidating to be in a room full of film buffs while talking about films. At this point in my life, I'm pretty straight lace. I go watch the movie and then I leave the theater. I buy another ticket. I go back in. So the first time I watched a movie is just to watch it as an audience member would. The second time was to watch it so I can remember and dissect the film. I did this a couple of times. Not many times. And I realized it's not a good use of my money, which I didn't have a lot of. Really not a good use of my time. And so I'm going to have to force myself to watch twice in one sitting. Watch as the participant and watch as the person's going to have to talk about this film. So I would bring in a little notepad in the darkness and just keep it next to me. That was more like a safety blank because it's almost impossible to write in the dark like that. You have to wait for the light. But if there was anything, I would note it down. So what I wanted to do was the first time I was like, my mind was just jello at that point because it's using all of my brain to remember what's happening in an hour and a half film. The kinds of things we would talk about is narrative arc, character development. We would talk about lighting, art direction, hammer movement. There's nothing that was off limits. So you kind of have to remember it all. And I remember the first couple of times we would critique the movies. The film students would just talk about things. I'm like, what? How did you get that? What are you watching? This is fascinating to me. And of course, they have language to use that I was unfamiliar with. So vocabulary that they all knew and shared that I didn't. But you're a student, so you'll learn. And so I got to a point probably halfway through the semester where I could watch the film, be relatively relaxed and be able to have a really good, robust discussion, debate with people in my class. And so I credit that class and the structure of the class for helping me to train my eye for understanding films. Because like you, like I said, you watch movies and I'm always just blown away by that. But do you feel like now that you watch movies, does that just take away from you just to be able to like just chill? Or do you ever just chill? I do just chill. I don't find it fatiguing at all. I find it stimulating. I think when I chill too much, I fall asleep. When I'm driving, I'm pretty chill. And it's hard for me to stay awake. If we're not having good conversation, I'm pretty chill and I'm going to nod off. So I think I rest hard, meaning when I go to sleep, I don't sleep. When I play games, I play games. And when I'm in active learning mode, I'm as active as possible. And it does require some effort from you. But to all the people who think, man, I don't want to do that, that's fine. You do you. But I'll tell you something that's like a muscle. And I want my brain muscle to be strong. I want the ability to recall things. So I don't know if Alzheimer's or dementia is in my future. It can be. I'm going to give myself the best shot moving forward by engaging as much of my brain as possible, all the different lobes and hemispheres I want to use. Because if you don't use it, I think you lose it. And why wouldn't we want to use it? Plus, it comes in really handy because when you're out and about in the real world, you don't want to talk about work all the time. But it's pretty cool to pull like a cool film card on people like, oh, that was related to this film. And did you know the history behind this? And that was their third film. And here's what they had to do. And here's somebody who knows a lot about something is usually pretty fun to talk to, especially we can all have jumping in point in movies and pop culture pop because it's short for popular, popular culture by nature, by definition is already part of the conversation. So what would you say someone like they're not going to school, they don't have to go to like a film class like that? What's one exercise that they can start doing to be able to better at recording like these moments and things like that in their lives? It'd be difficult because part of the learning process is discussion and dialogue and learning terminology you're not familiar with. So if you're stuck with your own terminology, pretty hard. But there's two things you can do as relates to your question. Number one is to ask yourself, like, what are eight or nine questions I need to be able to answer about this film before I go? What would you say someone, like they're not going to school, they don't have to go to like a film class like that. What's one exercise that they can start doing to be able to better at recording like these moments and things like that in their lives? It'd be difficult because part of the learning process is discussion and dialogue and learning terminology you're not familiar with. So if you're stuck with your own terminology, pretty hard. But there's two things you can do as it relates to your question. Number one is to ask yourself, like, what are eight or nine questions I need to be able to answer about this film before I go watch it? What is the narrative arc? What are the three acts? Who's the main character and who's the antagonist? And what is the lesson that you both need to learn? Then you can get into more technical stuff. Art direction, which is the set design. Camera direction, which is how it's lens and how it moves and why they do certain things to tell you the audience something. You can watch it for sound design and how sound and music affects your mood, how it can play to or against the scene, how you're being manipulated emotionally and why it works or why it doesn't work. You can get color grading. What was the color palette? What was the primary story? What is the subtext? And what are the secondary tertiary characters? Those are some things you can ask yourself and then you can watch and then you can understand. And is there a bigger metaphor for all of this? What were the main titles like or the end credits? What was it telling you? Was there any foreshadowing done? So those are your questions. Then you go in and you watch. You probably have to do like the way I did. Watch the first time just to process and the second time to be able to answer the questions. And then the second thing you can do is you can probably watch film geeks talk about films. These are people like Quentin Tarantino talking about films and why they love the scene or who their favorite director is and why they think this is in their top 10 list, best movies ever made. You probably learn a lot from them. What's your favorite thing to watch right now? There's a couple of shows I really like. I like Foundation very much. Great. It's a good one. And the Foundation, for the people who don't know, because I will sell it to you right now, it's a concept conceived by Isaac Asimov, who is a Russian -American Jew who is a physicist and he is the father of science fiction. So he is the godfather. He wrote the three laws of robotics. A robot cannot do harm to a human. A robot cannot allow harm to come to a human by inaction. And a robot cannot harm itself as long as it bays the first two rules. And this is the foundation for almost all synthetic humanoid forms. And you can see this in a lot of different movies. Like iRobot, you can see this probably also in Star Trek, the prime director. You know, there's all kinds of like little rules that they write into. And that's from Isaac Asimov. He created a series of stories called the Foundation Trilogy. So it's Foundation, Foundation, Empire, and Fall of Foundation or something like that. It was said that it was not something you can turn into a film unfilmable. And somehow Apple Plus did it. They're doing it. I think it's, is it David Goyer? It's the executive producer, showrunner. It's David something. I forget his last name. So they were able to build on concepts, combine characters, and explain it in a way that doesn't rely on too much inner dialogue exposition. And I think it's beautiful. It explores some big concepts about what does it mean to be a person? Because in it, there is cloning technology. So there's an exact replication of somebody. So if we have a soul, does the soul get cloned from person to person? How could that be? And from early on, I remember reading this, and my memory could be fuzzy on it, but Isaac Asimov is a super logical, scientific kind of person. And he wants to explain the world and understand why we believe in God and those kinds of things. And in his psychohistory, he explains how, from a certain vantage point, human behavior can be predicted. It requires a couple of things. It requires at least three generations in terms of timeline. So your grandfather, your father, and your son. So it has to be that long. And it has to have a population of at least a billion people in order for it to work, or 10 billion. It's a big number. So it's a science applied to human dynamics. Isaac Asimov is a super logical, scientific kind of person, and he wants to explain the world and understand why we believe in God and those kinds of things. And in his psychohistory, he explains how, from a certain vantage point, human behavior can be predicted. It requires a couple of things. It requires at least three generations in terms of a timeline. So your grandfather, your father, and your son. So it has to be that long. And it has to have a population of at least a billion people in order for it to work, or 10 billion. It's a big number. So it's a science applied to human dynamics. So his theory is we can predict society in a general, but not individual action. So if you were to kick me right now, arbitrarily, he could not predict that because that's a singular action. But over time, a big enough data point, he could say, this country is going to go to war with that country. I guess the math says it must. Got deep over there, guys. Great show. I definitely recommend you watch it. To book in a conversation, and we might go a little bit deeper on this. You talked about when we're in the hills, that it'd be easy for you to help me kind of put together my dream life for like how to go through the next step. What are the things that I'm not doing right now that I'll need to do to develop that dream life? If you'd have to be a different person, that's the problem. I can explain this a little bit easier when we talk about someone else, then you'll agree with me. But the fact that they are who they are says they can't do it. That's the problem. If I were them, I'd do it. So oftentimes when I meet somebody, they have a gift and they're doing everything in their life to sabotage their gift. So we have a friend, we'll name this person's name, but let's just say they're really good at SEO. And SEO is a skill that's required that can make a lot of money. Maybe it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but this person won't do that because they're like, I don't want to do that. So then they want to do life coaching and so that they're going to pursue that. But that's a really crowded space with a lot of competition, not a lot of ways to differentiate yourself. Whereas SEO is objective and you can scale, you can build teams around it, you can teach a process, it goes beyond you. But this person won't do that because they're interested in chasing lots of different things. So this person's curse is that they're smart and they can learn lots of things. That's the strength. Their weakness is they're smart and they can do lots of different things. So they won't pick one thing. And so this person has had a history of changing their focus over time. Started pursuing law and then worked in tech and then switched over to doing photography, event photography, wedding photography, then switched again into SEO and just keep switching. Now I think I've revealed who that person is, but whatevs. We love you. We're not saying anything who it is. So you can see that, right? So ask yourself, I could design the life for this person. You probably could design the life for this person. Why this person doesn't do that? What's your explanation for that? Why don't they do what needs to be done so they can be successful? I don't know. I think it could be an idea that we tell ourselves that we really need to be happy about what is it they're doing or if it's not challenging to us that we should try to pursue something else. That's a strange thought. The world rewards you for being good at something. Right. But you can be good at something and not enjoy doing it. Like you can get burnout from doing something. Burnout? No, we call that sacrifice. You sacrifice something, some momentary joy for a bigger joy, which is freedom. And if you were to become the world's best known SEO person or even the country's best known SEO person, you'd be invited to speak on stages. You'd probably author books that are bestselling. You'd probably have a roster of clients and friends in your network that were the envy of everyone because everyone needs this. And you could go to sleep at night knowing that the things that you did would transform people's lives into businesses and impact thousands and tens of thousands of people's lives. That's what you get for doing that. Then you would be basically, my favorite expression, sleeping very comfortably on a mattress. person, or even the country's best known SEO person, you'd be invited to speak on stages. You'd probably author books that are bestselling. You'd probably have a roster of clients and friends in your network that were the envy of everyone because everyone needs this. And you could go to sleep at night knowing that the things that you did would transform people's lives into businesses and impact thousands if not tens of thousands of people's lives. That's what you get for doing that. Then you would be basically, my favorite expression, sleeping very comfortably on a mattress of cash. And you could sit there and dream about what kind of life you want to have. And the part of this is no one's saying you have to do it yourself. for a little bit, and then you can train people to do it for you. And then you could be the executive that you're supposed to be, which is to run the business, to have the vision. And you could probably develop software and AI tools to do all that stuff for you at some point. Well, that all sounds great, but I want to focus on me because I want to take advantage of this. Well, think about that. What do they need to do and why aren't they doing it? So then what do you need to do and why aren't you doing it? It's always hard when it's back on you. Isn't it? You can see it as clear as night and day. Every single person that's one of our mutual friends group, I can say they need to be do this. Yep. Why don't they do that? I've been doing video for almost 10 years now. And I haven't been hopping from thing to thing. No, that's not your thing. That's not my thing. I mean, that's not your problem. It's not literally the same problem. Everybody needs to do something in their life that they're not doing, but they won't do. What is it you need to do? And then we'll figure out why you're not doing it. And then we'll figure it out because you can't get where I want you to go if you're the same person. But I don't know where you want me to go. So it's hard for me to say like, what is it? Well, pick something that I told you to do and you haven't done it and we can talk about it. Well, one thing you said to me to change my services to like we talked about that earlier, to social media content, to helping people get their message out there. Yeah. Why am I doing it? I think bandwidth, but I'm also accepting other clients. You're addicted to the routine. What's easy? Everybody's. So people don't do what they're supposed to do because of fear of change or because they don't think it's fun or it just sounds like a lot of work. So it's one of those things. So you're addicted to routine. This sounds like a lot of work and there's some fear about the unknown. There's no assurances it's going to work. And it seems like you have to learn a lot of new skills. You can't make 10 times more money being the same person. You have to be 10 times the person you are today to make 10 times as much money. That's why in the game of self -development is so important. That's the game I'm in. What do you think are the things that most people lack in self -development when it comes to doing like the 10x thing? I just said it. A, they don't have the desire to do it. Once they figure it out, they talk themselves out of it. They'd rather take an easier path. It's hard to do things you've never done. It's hard to do things that you don't enjoy for a really long period of time. But I think everything worth having is not going to be easy. It's going to be hard. Because if it weren't hard, everyone would do it and it wouldn't be valuable. Difficult things create scarcity. Scarce things are valuable. So, for example, why aren't you doing the public speaking that I'm doing? In fact, why aren't a lot of the other people who are booked to speak on stages who may or may not get paid, why aren't they better than they are? You know the answer to this. Why is that? I mean, they don't put in the hours that you do. Yeah. Keep talking. Be abstract as you want. What are the general things they're not doing? General things, working on their presentation, delivery, their decks, refining things. You are constantly pushing that limit. Even when you're like, okay, my deck's done. Then you're up to four o 'clock in the morning. I just had to redo it. You're constantly trying to improve it. I always tell people, how's it working with Chris? I'm like, he is 50 something years old and he will outwork me. But I always tell people like, but you're also a person that you're so aligned with who you are and what you're supposed to be doing. I don't think I've and delivery their decks refining things you are constantly pushing that limit even when you're like hey my deck's done then you're up to four o 'clock in the morning like i just had to redo it like you're constantly trying to improve it i always tell people like how's it working with chris i'm like he is 50 something years old and he will outwork me but i always tell people like but you're also a person that you're so aligned with who you are and what you're supposed to be doing i don't think i've met a lot of people that i don't think they're the same level as you are for the amount of like the dedication that you put into everything that you do okay so now explain more specifically what i think i'm doing that other people aren't doing okay number one a lot of speakers only have one topic they talk about and they only have one way of delivering it many of what they talk about is autobiographical so here's what i've done here's my life in history there's not too many ways you can tell that story and that's the easiest thing to do and you've seen me sometimes do this and i have a way of doing it i'd like it to be better but once i refine it there's really no other way for me to tell that story but what i try to do is to teach people so my identity is an educator their identity might not be so they they don't want to do that work they want to have one hit song and just make the best hit song and they can as long as they continue to perform in different stages they're going to be good very few people have multiple hit songs the beatles the rolling stones elton john they can do this and that's why they're so rare arguably coldplay can do this the weekend 21 pilots but outside of that you're like well you had one or two good songs and that's kind of it because i'm dedicated to the craft of self -development of teaching so i'm a constant learner constant improver and i want to be able to do that so it comes from our desire and our intention i think they're happy just to do it one time and they're good with that not realizing that people can't really book you for the same thing multiple times to the same audience because they're like it was a good song but i want to hear the song forever and unlike music public talks or public speaking doesn't move your soul that way because you and i can't listen to the same song a thousand times maybe not in a row but we can listen to it a lot so there's that and then there's a dedication to the craft of how are your slides if you're gonna have slides make them good so unless they're designers or they want to invest in that your slides usually are terrible some of them have no personality they're very even tone or monotone and they come on stage and they do the thing so they can be very academic they can deliver the message but there's no movement you're not moving me then there are very moving speakers the people who will get you to cry to laugh to sing with them and then you walk away thinking what did i learn what can i apply is this theoretical or is this real so it's this combination of charisma personality tone performance design intentionality self -improvement that i strive to work on at all times it's not that i think my last talk was not good but i reflect on it and say what could better what can i get rid of and what can i try that's a new thing so it could be 80 what i've already done and 20 something new because at some point there's nothing left for me to change then i know that's one hit song i'm good with that so i've been doing the same talk now for a couple of spots each time making a tweak i think you've been there for every one of those and you can see every tweak i'm making i'm sure so sometimes it works better sometimes it doesn't and that's a lot of variables how it was set up who's in the room the physical environment itself like is it conducive for me having a more intimate conversation is all the tech working the way it's supposed to those are the things that are always variables in that equation so speaking of variables they're always working i'm gonna go back to myself again because i want to make this a selfish podcast sure i want to take advantage of it other than me shifting my business and going into the social media aspect of things what are things that you like to see me work on and develop within the next like six months of being here with you in la do you think it would help me the room the physical environment itself like is it conducive for me having a more intimate conversation is all the tech working the way it's supposed to those are the things that are always variables in that equation so speaking of variables they're always working i'm gonna go back to myself again because i want to make this a selfish podcast sure i want to take advantage of it other than me shifting my business and going into the social media aspect of things what are things that you like to see me work on and develop within the next like six months of being here with you in la do you think it would help me like succeed i don't think you're taking full advantage of the opportunity access that you have right now i've never traveled with my mentor i've never gotten access from a mentor the way that you do i see my former coach and mentor an hour an hour and a half each week and that's exposure so that level of access that you have the constant prover learner person would be sitting here thinking about very specific questions to ask like every time i get off stage i ask you what is it that you want to know or i'll ask my other protege uma what is it you want to know and nobody's asking me real questions so i'm okay i'm good i'm not gonna force it on you i have other things to do but if you have the wherewithal and the observation to say you know last time you did this you remove that you change this i like this better why is that working better did you feel that or when this person asked you this thing and messed you up how did you come back with this because i want to know why or how those are the important questions to ask or what are you thinking about in between the beats before during and after these things why do you do x versus z those are very important things to know and you can shortcut your whole process but to date these are not questions you're asking and every time i ask you you have a question for me your answer is like i was too busy recording i wasn't paying attention so that could very well be the case but then you're really missing on the opportunity so there's that number two is to say like you know what if i could design my life over again and not be attached to anything it's the attachment to the old self that creates resistance to you becoming the person that you should become and so if you can just divorce yourself from the old self like those old relationships in miami the familiarity of miami then you would have been here much faster so it's this attachment i have the same problem i have attachment to things to ideas and i've learned in my life some things i can stay attached to that won't harm me and some things will totally ruin me so i need to be able to move on and you can see i move pretty quickly relative to other people and i just need people to keep pace with me because my team needs to move it that's that's what's important to me so if you say okay chris if you say everybody wants help with their social content then you can say okay i've committed myself to that now i'm going to study that and i'm going to use you and one of my other clients as a lab for me to test ideas like if we change the thumbnail 300 times or we run an ad campaign for thumbnails beforehand what is that worth learning and eventually you do it intuitively same thing with titles and same things with ctas in the video is it 12 minutes that works the best or is it six minutes that works best to be a student of the game i'm pretty sure you're not reading the reports from youtube i'm not i'm sure you're not like on youtube con like learning every little new thing that's happening or reverse engineering other people's content so what happens is we're showing up to do a good job but we're not showing up excellent that's the difference i think where i'm so hesitant about going down social media looking for clients is i have worked with other clients that want to do social media and it's hard to go work with other clients after working with you it's not a problem then you just find clients like me that's hard chris it's not as hard as you think really i know so who else you know is dedicated to a game like you are there's plenty in our circle i don't want to name their names on camera but i will the people have 100 gone all in on their content we've met some of them basically you look at every move in shaker who is as serious as i am and some of them are really fun fun good nature team and beings but i believe that's the story you're telling yourself and it's hard to go work with other clients after working with you. It's not a problem. Then you just find clients like me. That's hard, Chris. It's not as hard as you think. Really? I know so. Who else, you know, is dedicated to a game like you are? There's plenty in our circle. I don't want to name their names on camera, but I will. The people have 100 % gone all in on their content. We've met some of them. Basically, you look at every move in Shaker who is as serious as I am. And some of them are really fun. You find good -natured human beings. But I believe that's the story you're telling yourself because this is the work you don't want to do. I really think that. Because it's, once again, I'm like, buy this shirt. Wear this bag. You're like, no. You'll tell yourself a thousand reasons. And then three years later, like, I should have done it. I'm like, yeah, sure. But to each their own timeline, you don't have to move as fast as me. I don't have to live with your life. You get to live with your life. And when you're less able -bodied and you're a little bit grayer and a little heavier, you ask yourself, why didn't I listen sooner? And we've been down this road many times. So you think once burned, twice shy, like you would figure it out. But people are stuck to their own habits for the same reason why some of our friends never change. And you and I can sit back. I'm like, why doesn't this person start this kind of business? Why does that person focus on that and get rid of the other stuff? It's attachment. It's the fear of the unknown. I think for some of us, it's just so hard to let go, especially for creatives when we build something and we put so much of ourselves into it to then say like, hey, I'm going to do something else. I definitely say what I do is a very big piece of my own personality and who I am and who I've developed to be over the past couple of years. I think to try to change that, I guess I have to be able to detach from the old version of myself. Yeah, but think about what's already happened in some of the clothes that you're uncomfortable wear. The response that you're getting on all levels, the consideration of how people look at you is completely different. And it's more aligned with how you want to be perceived. It's not like amassing you to cross -dress or something. You want to be a person of note, somebody noteworthy. And then you have to do things that people pay attention. To be remarkable is to have people remark about you. And if you're unremarkable, well, everybody's ignoring you. You're a cellophane. Well, I think it's easier for me now that I'm in LA, one, because of you, two, because of my sister. I think if I was trying to do this in Florida within my old circle, I don't think I'd be able to get that kind of same level of support. I think like moving in, I tell people this, if you've spoken to me in the past couple weeks, like my life has been a dream. But like being around the right people, like, and just you being able to open up my mind and perspective to different things, I don't think people don't have that. And so it's hard for you to like, let go. Like, you know, I guess it took me two years to get to LA. At least. maybe three. Yeah. But now that I'm here, like even when I put on, like I was going out there the other day and I put on like, this shit's boring. I'm like, what am I wearing? Just like, but I was able to expand my mindset by being around the same people. So being around the right people. And I don't think sometimes maybe our friends are stuck because they're not around the right circles all the time. That's one explanation. I'll give you a different explanation. It's not as kind. Tell me that one. The explanation is this. You don't need to be around anybody. You don't need to be around any environment. This is how your parents get you out from Brazil. Imagine if they're like, well, we need to see 10 friends that are leaving Brazil. They're like, you know what? It's not safe for leaving because the alternative is much worse. So when you live in the gray, this is why I don't like grays, is everything's fine. Everything's bad. Everything's good. Everything is everything. And there's no point to move. But if you start to polarize yourself and say, this is not good. This is suboptimal. I want to be optimal. I'm going to just pick that path. So I'll give myself as an example and then I'll break it down for you and your world, okay? Why? I just disagree with this. I go to ArtCenter. I don't know anything about ArtCenter except for it's the best school. Do you think that's interesting people? Did you think that's interesting? Imagine if they're like, well, we need to see 10 friends that are leaving Brazil. They're like, you know what? It's not safe for leaving because the alternative is much worse. So when you live in the gray, this is why I don't like grays, is everything's fine. Everything's bad. Everything's good. Everything is everything. And there's no point to move. But if you start to polarize yourself and say, this is not good. This is suboptimal. I want to be optimal. I'm going to just pick that path. So I'll give myself an example and then I'll break it down for you and your world. Okay. Why? I just disagree with this. I go to ArtCenter. I don't know anything about ArtCenter except for it's the best school. That's all I know. I don't need to check references. I've never seen a campus. I've taken zero tours. I just tell people, we'll go to ArtCenter. And just by their reaction alone, I know it's a good school. Like, oh, oh, oh, you're going to go there, huh? And I wrote in my book. I've never even seen it. Just wrote in my book. I'm going to be at ArtCenter. And when my teacher reads it, she's like, wow, I want to help you get there. And I wind up becoming her first student to go to ArtCenter. Faster than anybody else in her group has ever done. I did it two semesters. I got there. with a scholarship. I'm determined. Then I get to ArtCenter. I'm like, I'm going to be the best student at the best school that I can get into. And I just put my mind towards that. And I have to give up stuff for sure. I have to give up stuff. And I have setbacks. And I know I'm not as advanced culturally, visually, as some of the Europeans and some of the Asians that are there. I'm like, I'm starting way behind. They're on second base. I'm just stepping up to the mound. But you know what? I'm super determined. I'm going to do this thing. And then I get a job. I quit that job. Oh, here's a crazy idea. Let me start my own business without any. So I'm just constantly doing the things that scare me, that are difficult. And no one's sitting around there telling me this is what I should be doing. So I moved to LA and decided this is where I'm going to be. I'm going to stay here. And constantly putting myself in that place. So when you say it's really hard, it's because you've told yourself a story that's really hard. If you told yourself it's not hard, it's not easy. It's just a thing. Now, here's something I do know about you. So if you say it's hard, then it'll be really hard. If you say it's really easy, it'll be easy. But to me, it's neither of those two things. It's just something to do as a road towards getting what you want or becoming who you're supposed to become. Once you make that determination that I am exactly where I am, that I'm supposed to be, then you have to ask yourself this question, do I want to be here? And then the minute you decide it's not hard or easy, it just is, and it's inevitable. It's not improbable. It's inevitable. So when you say like, oh, I'll wear this shirt. The minute you made your mind up, because I didn't twist your arm. I tried to before. I'm like, you must get this. And you're like, no, it's not right for me. I'm like, dude, it's dope. You don't listen to me. And as soon as I buy it, I see you sneaking back to the store and then you're going to buy it. Because A, you don't trust me. You don't trust yourself. until you can see emphatically it's true. So you live in this space where unless it's physical, real, and tangible, you don't have a vision for the future. That's the problem. So how does one envision a future for themselves when it's impossible to see yourself in the future? That's the problem. Therefore, tell yourself it's really difficult. It's just so hard. And it's hard for people. Well, if you look at my own life, I don't have the things that you said you must have. And I did it. And all the things I did, I just woke up one day and said, I'm going to do that. And I just started doing it. The reason why I have so much confidence in what I do is because I think, how could I fail? To date, everything I choose to do works out. Maybe not in that timeline, but it always works out. So you might have a different story. Your story is like, it never works out. And so therefore you won't do anything. And then guess what? It never works out. But if you believe that it will always work out, there's a high probability it will work out. That's all I'm telling you. And you can see the pattern happen over and over again. The fact that you can see the pattern, recognize the pattern, and still say I'm stuck, that boggles my mind. That's the thing that everybody's stuck with. Despite overwhelming evidence and patterns happening over and over again, they still tell themselves the same story. I cannot undo that in your mind. I mean, I think the mindset of like, you cannot fail, I think that's. And then guess what? It never works out. But if you believe that it will always work out, there's a high probability it will work out. That's all I'm telling you. And you can see the pattern happen over and over again. The fact that you can see the pattern, recognize the pattern, and still say I'm stuck, that boggles my mind. That's the thing that everybody's stuck with. Despite overwhelming evidence and patterns happening over and over again, they still tell themselves the same story. I cannot undo that in your mind. I mean, I think the mindset of like, you cannot fail. I think that's... Do you believe that when I say that? I believe it for you. That's what I mean. Yeah. And I believe it for you. Like, it's really hard for you to do stuff. Yeah. See? You manifest that. I manifest it. You know, when we talk about this, I think I've always struggled with the envisioning of my future. Because you know what happened with me in Brazil? So it's always so hard for me to think about like, what would my life be like in two or three years? But then I guess it goes to what you said about like, this is a story I'm telling myself. Yeah. So you know what I'm saying is never bet against me. And what you're saying is never bet on me. It's a big difference. Don't bet against me because you'll lose. And I've told you many times, I don't play to play. I play to win. And losing is not part of the dialogue. There is no loss. As long as I play. Maybe not as on the timeline. You know, every person that we say we're going to pass on YouTube, we have except for one. And it's because this one's a little bit trickier because this person is also very good. And we have to be extra, extra good for us to catch up and then surpass this person. Then we'll move on to the next person. And that's just how it works. So in my mind, we haven't lost. We just haven't given ourselves enough time. Chris, I think that's it for this episode. Is it? Do you have clarity on what you need to do? I don't feel like you do. I don't have clarity on what I need to do. But I think I know where the target's at now. And now I can start looking at it. But I think for me to sit here and say I have clarity on this, I think I need to start to rewrite some of the stories I tell myself about why is it that I'm going to do the things that I'm not doing already. I need to really get past that. Well, I'll tell you something. I'm not saying what happened to you is not real. It's real. But at this point, it's just a story. It's a memory. All we have is right now. So the decisions you make today will govern the future you have tomorrow. So if you're driven and motivated by what's happened in the past, which is no longer here, it just lives in your mind, you'll be on this path for the foreseeable future. I'm telling you, from everything, like I said, don't eat that. You eat it. I'm like, okay. I said, lift that heavy thing. You're like, it's too heavy. I'm like, I'm half your size. I can do it. You're like, it's just too heavy. I'm like, okay, then it is too heavy. That's too hard. I can't commit to that. So it's a constant same wave of rejecting the person you can become. And so I'm going to hypothesize something about why sometimes people are attracted to me. Because I see a very self -determined person who can do things and is very certain in the way that I say things and the way I do things. And it's mirrored in me, right? So imagine if I didn't take good care of myself. If I looked 75 instead of 53. Imagine if I was a slob, dirty clothes, and just didn't take care of myself. And then people are like, why am I listening to you? yourself can't do things. Why am I listening to you? So I don't think it's a coincidence that really high -performing folks in all facets of life tend to mirror that in their own presence. Not always, clearly. There's some sloppy people out there that aren't doing really well, but a lot of people on a much broader scale. So there's the anomalies. We throw out the edge cases and we look at the people that are really high -performing. They have such discipline. And they treat their mind like the temple that it is. And they put respect on it so that they're going to fill it with positive, empowering thoughts as opposed to critical voices that tear them down. It's not helpful. I see that. So the minute you wake up and you're like, you know, moving. Always, clearly. There's some sloppy people out there that aren't doing really well, but a lot of people on a much broader scale. So there's the anomalies. We throw out the edge cases and we look at the people that are really high performing. They have such discipline and they treat their mind like the temple that it is. And they put respect on it so that they're going to fill it with positive, empowering thoughts as opposed to critical voices that tear them down. It's not helpful. I see that. So the minute that you wake up, I'm like, you know, moving forward, I'll just do everything that needs to be done. I'll dedicate myself to certain things and then it'll get done. Okay. Until then, you keep grinding away at it. Living my dream. So before we wrap up this episode, what else do you have going on this year? What are you excited about? a lot of different things. I'm starting a new coaching community called Content Lab. I think there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there who have woken up, who've said to themselves, thought leadership is the only game I need to be playing right now. Building my personal brand is going to be a force multiplier in all my efforts. It's going to create more opportunities. It's going to be easier, remove a lot of the friction. I think I have a program that's going to work really well for them. It's going to mirror a lot of things I've ever done in the past, but be hyper -focused on content and thought leadership development. So lots of writing, a lot of feedback, and some exercises to help people figure out who they're supposed to be in this life and how they communicate that to other people. Clearly, something that's different is we're now in studio in a pretty cool space, have a lot more live events. We have future festas coming up. We will be doing more live training events. Yasmin Alec is going to be here and we're going to do a pod with him with a live audience. I think this is going to be really fun. So we've got to organize 20 -ish people to be here. I think that's going to be great. That's just a little drop of things to come. We're going to go to Japan, do experience traveling. And I talked to Blair Enns yesterday and he talked about this thing called a walk shop. We've heard a workshop. A walk shop is going on eight, nine mile hikes a day and having lodging, taking care of you from point to point and just walking through the wilderness. I'm looking forward to doing something like that because I can see us doing something like that in Patagonia. is on the bucket list. That's a beautiful place. I could see it doing Costa Rica. And so we have end to end points. So if that excites you, it's going to cost money. And the problem is money is usually a barrier for lots of people because they don't got their business in order. So I'm going to say right now, get your physical health in order, get your relationships in order and get your business in order so that you can do things like this because the few people who have gone on these adventures with me, I got to say, I hope I'm not speaking for them and being self -aggrandizing here, but I think their lives have changed. There's an expression, the mind once expanded does not return to its original shape. I'm in the mind expansion business is what I want to do for people beyond, let's look at a piece of paper and talk to each other, but to do something. And the final message, because you weren't there, Josh had said, what is the theme of this trip? The theme for last trip was surrender. And he said the theme of this trip was something else. I said, well, actually the real theme of this trip is to realize you are capable more. You are capable of more than what you thought. Stop living with limitations. Live, live fully because if you're not busy living, you're busy dying. So people tell themselves stories about what they can and can't do and taking them out in the wilderness, doing things. Like for example, one gentleman said, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish this trip, which was to drive the boat, to gut the fish and to do it with my bare hands. And they did that to break the gill with their bare hands. It's kind of like a little rite of passage we do on the water. So some people avoid that. They do it different ways or they ask other people to do it for them. And then he said, next time I'm going out to the halibut grounds where it's really choppy and he's afraid of that. So I said, you could have done that on the first day on the first trip. But we'll do it in measure. Like, for example, one gentleman said, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish this trip, which was to drive the boat, to gut the fish, and to do it with my bare hands. And they did that, to break the gill with their bare hands. It's kind of like a little rite of passage we do on the water. So some people avoid that. They do it different ways, or they ask other people to do it for them. And then he said, next time, I'm going out to the halibut grounds where it's really choppy, and he's afraid of that. So I said, you could have done that on the first day on the first trip, but we'll do it in measure steps so that you can achieve it whenever you want. So he said to me at the end of the trip, I'm committed to doing this trip every single year of my life. But it took a friend to push him to go on the first trip. You see what I'm saying? It's like people are so slow to do what they know they need to do, and they need so much pushing. And another person said, I interviewed other people who went, asked them lots of questions. And my God, this is not a meeting with the IRS. This is not a grand jury hearing. This is just an adventure. says, take caution, you throw it into the wind. You leap before you look. We don't need to make sure there's water. That's the whole point of adventure. And for all of you who are playing at Toussaint, I'm telling you right now, when you're ready to die, your core memories will be built around high emotional moments. And they're almost always around the misadventures, the time things could have gotten, could have gone really wrong, but went right. And those are things we remember. I think that goes into something that I've seen a lot with us within travels is like so many people need a permission slip. They need a sign off. You need that friend to be able to push you sometimes because sometimes you might just don't like you don't think you could do it. And I know it's a story that we're telling ourselves, but like not everyone's wired the same way that you're wired. No, thank God, I have a lot of competition and they wouldn't need me. But you say some of us need a friend, so you'll need that friend. I don't want to have to need anything. I just need the commitment for myself. And once I commit it, I'm good. Otherwise, we're waiting for people. All our lives are just waiting for people. Mom, I needed you to prove this career. I wanted to have dad. I wanted you to say it was okay to do this. And mom, I wanted you to say I'm worthy of being loved and of giving love and accepting and receiving love. And my God, why would you do that to yourself? I'm going to say it right now. And I know it's not going to be fun for me to say I have great disdain for people who need things from other people. Get yourself together. You can do this. Why are you waiting for that permission? By the way, I'm making permissions. I'll hand them out. But I'm just saying you don't need it. Why? I wish every person who's going to see this or listen to this right now, go tonight, look yourself in the mirror and say, why do I want to wait for permission from someone else? If I need permission, I'd give myself permission. Sometimes circumstances create the opportunity for that. But you don't want someone like, you need to do this. You got to go for it. Because no one has got their stuff together so much that they can just focus on you. And if they do, eventually they resent you for it. Because what happened to me and my needs and my wants? Who's looking after me? Now you're off and you're doing big and amazing things and you forgot about them. So I don't think we need anything. Stop telling yourself you need something. You don't need more money. You don't need the waters to be calmer. You don't need full instructions. You don't need permission. You don't need money. You don't need time. You make time. You make money. You give yourself permission and you can do it. Is there something that you've been wanting to do that you have not went out to do it yet? No, I'd be doing it. You win the Porsche? I don't want it that much. When I want it, it'll be done. It's as simple as that. It's not a function of means. It's a function of priorities. Okay. Yeah. You're good at that. Yeah. Well, Chris, I think that's going to be it. A quick shout out to the 1 ,200 members we have in YouTube right now, supporting the channel from the premiere to Patreon members. We appreciate you guys. money you don't need time you make time you make money you give yourself permission and you can do it is there something that you've been wanting to do that you have not went out to do it yet no i'd be doing it you in the porsche i don't want it that much when i want it it'll be done as simple as that it's not a function of means it's a function of priorities okay yeah you're good at that yeah well chris i think that's gonna be a quick shout out to the 1200 members we have in youtube right now supporting the channel from the premiere to patreon members we appreciate you guys you're helping us be able to produce more content like this more regularly so thank you if you want to find out how you can help links are below i'll see you guys in the next episode
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