Latest / Curiously Guided Podcast / Ep.57 | Detaching Your Identity & Self-Worth From Your Business, with Blogger & Head of Content, Ryan Robinson

Transcript

Ep.57 | Detaching Your Identity & Self-Worth From Your Business, with Blogger & Head of Content, Ryan Robinson · Curiously Guided Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to the Curiously Guided Podcast, the place for intuitive business owners and curious minds.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: We're your hosts, Shay and Mariah.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: And today we're talking with a new but good friend of the podcast, Ryan Robinson.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: As you guys will hear when we jump in, I've been kind of fangirling about Ryan for many years.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: He is an incredible figure in the blogging space and in the online entrepreneur space.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: I know that he supported so many people.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: But this episode, we kind of took a hard right and we grilled him about, you know, we went into it thinking we were going to talk all about blogging and content creation.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: And we actually spent most of the time talking about how to really nourish yourself as an entrepreneur, as a person in the online space.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: How do you take care of yourself?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: How do you fill your cup?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: What are the practices that allow you to show up as your highest and best when you are doing your work, whatever that may look like, um, over many seasons?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I just really enjoyed um kind of getting to see a little bit more about Ryan's behind the scenes and the practices that he uses to support himself.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: I found it really, really inspiring.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: I took a lot away from the episode just in terms of like how I want to start showing up for myself.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Ryan shares an epic meditation recommendation on uh Spotify that we are really excited about.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: And just his whole perspective and attitude about things just felt so uplifting and light and encouraging.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I left this episode just like on one.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like it was just like a whole, a whole different energy.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: So really excited to share this one with you guys.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when I had to listen back to the episode to take show notes, I was like, this is everything that I needed to hear.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, just in as things are happening right now, I just got back from a vacation visiting family in Buffalo, New York.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: And like when I get back, me and Shay were talking about it before of just like when you get back from vacation, your brains are kind of still on the wall, and you're just like, who the fuck am I?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: What am I focusing on?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: What am I doing?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Who am I supporting?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: And you kind of just need to like get it back together.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I had to listen back to Ryan's episode, I'm like, holy shit, this is literally the exact medicine that I needed to hear.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: And my favorite part of this conversation was all of us just getting really fucking honest about how hard it is to detach ourselves and our identities from our business.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Because all three of us in this conversation, me, Shay, and Ryan, we just like we love what we do and like growing our business and just like how we're here to serve the world is very connected to our business, therefore, very connected to our identities.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And shit can get really fucking sticky.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: There can be blurred lines all the time.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think just us sharing and just being really transparent about just like how fucking hard it is to be a human that is like trying to grow a business that like does good in the world and like helps people.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think that listening to this, like when as I was listening back, I would just felt so much more inspired to be like, yeah, like it's not about the expectation.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about the end goal.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about like where we're going.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's about enjoying the journey of how we're getting there and how we feel about ourselves.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: And like Shay said, like how we're nourishing ourselves on the journey.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: And there is like a lot of fucking wisdom drops, a lot of really good, quotable nuggets in here that it's like, oh shit, that's like that medicine hits deep.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm very excited to share this episode with you guys.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let me just read Ryan's bio real quick.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: So Ryan Robinson is a blogger, podcaster, head of content, and recovering side project addict that teaches 500,000 monthly readers how to start a blog and grow a profitable side business at ryrob.com.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So with that, let's just get into the episode.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, what's up?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're so excited to have you on the podcast.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny because when I asked Shay if it was cool to pitch you to come on the podcast, she was like, Oh yeah, he's like the OG blogger.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: And she said that she's been on your email list for years.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: So we're super excited to have you.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Curiously Guided.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm humbled.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: That means a lot.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I I have a difficult time accepting that status of OG blogger too.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I I I feel it come with love.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll I'll take that.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, start us kind of back from the beginning.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how did that all start?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you run a super successful blog, you get 500,000 readers a month helping them begin a blog, turn it into a side business.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: But like, what got you into blogging?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because in order to teach people how to blog, it's like you have to know how to blog.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, how did you even get into this world?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I honestly have to give credit back to my one of my college professors.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: So this is gonna date me a little bit, but going back to like 2010, I had an online marketing class, which was a hilarious name now in in retrospect.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: But um, one of the first things we did first day of that class was okay, everyone sit down, open your laptop, we're gonna register a domain name.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's how we're gonna start this whole thing.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so he encouraged us all essentially as just kind of a class project like treat this as an experiment.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Start a blog, just start writing about whatever you feel interested in.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like such a beautiful way for it to begin to me, for me, because it it wasn't about like making money, it wasn't about like building an online business.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all these things came much later for me.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it it started with like purity, which is fucking amazing.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm really grateful for that.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was a happy accident.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: So what what happened next?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: What were you talking about in the beginning?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: And like how did it pivot and grow?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: It started as being like just sort of like interest in like social media.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is like, you know, Twitter was still pretty new-ish, and like all these platforms were relatively new.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, we one of our class projects was being paired with a company and helping that company grow their business, grow their online presence.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so we did some like website stuff, some social media stuff, um, things to like help them generate leads for their business, essentially.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it was such a boring uh company.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: It was like some manufactured good, and I was like, what the fuck is this thing?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Something for like aerospace, um, which I had no personal interest in, but I was like, okay, it is a fun, fun challenge.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, like three other kids and me, like were 20 years old, and we're trying to tell these 60-year-old dude white dudes with like white hair about social media for their business.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was just really funny.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of sparked this thing of like, all right, I'm at the beginning of something, and there's a lot of people who know nothing about this.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna just start sharing like random shit that I'm learning, stuff that we're trying, things that don't work.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that was really, I'd say that was the seed of what my blog would become is just sharing things I would learn, good, bad, everything in between from my journey.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, my personal journey went through like being a freelance content marketer and uh a writer, and so there was a period of time where everything in my blog was about building a freelance business, and you know, here's my contract template I use, and here's how to like pitch a SaaS business, and so it's really like it's tracked my own personal journey over the years, and then it there was a tipping point right in like 2017 or 18, where more and more people were just asking me about how do you build an audience online, and so it it became leaning into those questions from people, and by then I was doing this in different day jobs too, and as a freelancer, like touching multiple web properties where I was like able to help grow an audience.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it all like it all happened organically, which is beautiful.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm really grateful for that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: How cool that like your blog is like a living, breathing document of all of the little pockets that like you were interested in and just like all of this, all of these pockets of just like your progression and like what you were helping people with.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because I feel like when a lot of people, regardless if they're starting a business or starting a blog, it's like we usually go in like within a bubble, within a container of like, I am the Instagram marketing specialist, I am the SEO person.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And it like really confines you because it's like, well, if we're gonna do content marketing or we're gonna create content for a blog, we sometimes see it through the perspective of marketing instead of like a creative pursuit or like a way to help people.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like, especially in the business world, it's like content marketing for business.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's essentially content marketing so that you can get clients for it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like you kind of went into it the opposite.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: You were like, I don't even know what clients are right now.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't need clients.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm just I'm just looking to like create like share information and share what I'm learning.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like that really probably impacted your writing style that evolved and things like that of just coming from a place of service.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that's the content that does the best, anyways.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's like we're willing when we're willing to be of service to the people that are going to find this, that's when everything builds momentum.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's also it's brought complexity with it too, in that as I go on kind of a deeper journey of self-discovery in recent years, I've had to very consciously decouple my personal identity with my blog.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like I had this huge moment come to me during, we're just gonna go here, we're going all the way in right now.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I had this moment come to me in a psychedelic uh session that I was, therapy session that I was doing, where this message just arrived and it was, I am not my blog.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it hit me like a ton of bricks because I had been so personally invested in, you know, this month is up with traffic, revenue, subscribers, whatever.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel good about myself.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, three months later, if it's a down period, I'd feel bad about myself.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like my own self-worth was like so intertwined with the success of this like fucking imaginary thing.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that I just like had this moment of realization where I was like, all right, this is a beautiful thing I've created, and I want to continue nurturing it, but it's also not me.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm like limitless.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm not just this this little thing on a web page.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, I'm so happy you went there.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: The idea of worth and worth being tied to my career and business is also something I'm wrestling with right now.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we all do, right?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a very normal thing.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I love that word you use, decouple.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's really powerful.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: So tell me a little bit.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is like for my own personal curiosity, what has that looked like for you?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: How do you actually separate?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: I certainly find myself like, if I'm killing it, I feel great.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_03: If I'm not killing it, I'm in the downward spiral.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: And it's I'm even like a little bit farther than that where I can kind of like separate from that and notice it now, but it's hard to really rewrite those grooves in your brain, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, what does that look like for you?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's daily.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's daily.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not perfect at it.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's I don't think perfection, the pursuit of perfection, is even what it's about.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for me, it's it's more it's a little more along the lines of like the path is the purpose for me, that the fact that I'm even aware of, oh yes, I'm not that thing.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: I am infinite love.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I can come back to that home with a little bit shorter of a gap now between like spiraling out of control in the world of thought and fear, and you know, like, oh shit's going down this quarter.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I now have like a detachment from it to where I have so much trust in myself that I I will be able to figure out whatever the hell comes next to me, even if everything explodes.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think that that's kind of that's the magic right there.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's when you know that like personally you've grown internally, physically, mentally, spiritually, you've evolved when you're able to notice that the awareness comes quicker, where it's not you're not looped up in this story and like looping and looping with these thoughts, and you're able to catch it before it gets too deep into a rabbit hole of thoughts.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: I I remember like a couple of years ago, it's like that exact thing would happen.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I think that this is very normal, especially when we run our own businesses, and all of us like our domain names have our names in them, like they are they are very close to like our identity.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's tough because it's not like my business is called, I don't know, like water bottles or something like that, where it's like I'm I'm very obviously not a water bottle, but it's like my business is Mariah Magazine, and like I pride myself on bringing my personality and being transparent and bringing who I am as a person into this business that it can get wrapped up quickly.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like that's a good point.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's never going to be completely separate.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: It can't, it won't.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, I think for a lot of us, it's not meant to.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we're meant to really deeply give a fuck about this business or about like who we're serving and how we're serving them.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: So to be completely detached, I just don't think that that's part of the path.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I like what you said, like the path is the purpose.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something that actually really helps me detach when I kind of get stuck in the spiral of just like, I'm here to enjoy the journey.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, how can I bring the magic back to the journey and release this grasp, this white knuckling that I have on the expectation?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's irrelevant, truly, because we don't even know if we're gonna hit that.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: But we assume that we will because our ego mind wants like this perfect projection of exactly how everything's going to happen because that helps us feel safe.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, how do we keep our ego safe?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's no like slaying the fucking ego, like Shay says all the time.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there is no slaying of it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's there, it's like a healthy part of us, it's just part of being human.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: But how can we take its hand and invite it to walk on this path with us?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like that's just it's so important to be able to realize that the detachment isn't ever going to be like a concrete black and white thing.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you two, but I am so good at taking like a different measure of perfection and using it as a stick to beat myself.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: So this is like particularly relevant to me.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm constantly thinking about like okay, Ryan, we know we want to do this thing, we want to achieve this thing.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I have goals, things I want to accomplish, right?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I can also take a step back and detach from the expectation of it needing to happen the exact way that I want it to happen.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And like I've been doing a lot more uh inner work lately on my purpose and aligning my my life, my work, how I spend my time with what my real purpose is.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like uh the more that I tap into my heart and listen there instead of ahead, I'm able to feel my future pulling me towards it in this like really beautiful way.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: So there's I have way less worry about like what's my business gonna be in a year, or like how am I gonna get to XYZ goal?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like the when and the how like doesn't fucking matter so much.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And when I take a step back, I can feel that I'm already doing the things that are leading me towards purpose-aligned work.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's like showing up on things like this, like talking about stuff from the heart with people who also feel similar things.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this is the best.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is like as good as life gets.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um I just want more of it.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm doing the things, I'm here.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is perfect.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, one thing we talk about a lot on the podcast is like your business does not have to be the vehicle that you use to achieve wealth and spiritual growth and relationships.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like a lot of us try to use our business to like achieve all of these goals in life.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then the problem is we forget about personal relationships, you know, and and the value of pursuing spiritual growth on its own, you know, and and nourishing yourself in other ways so your cup can overflow.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I love this.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'm curious, you know, what do you do in terms of like daily practices to kind of connect to that more heart-centered place and get out of that maybe uh a more logical brain place?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Such a good question, and thank you for asking.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think the the spiritual practice is something that's like so beautiful and it's personal to everyone.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had to like try on a bunch of different things to see what fits for me.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: But today, what it is, you know, ask me next year, it may be different.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: But today it's I spend an hour every morning to start my day before I like do anything else.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not perfect at this.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'll look at my phone first, but my intention is to do this before I even look at my phone.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I take an hour to do um a guided we'll call it yoga, but it's not yoga in the sense of perfect form or sweating.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's more like Hatha yoga, it's very slow, it's designed around holding poses for a long time, and it's all about connection to breath.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's weaved in with meditation, and so I start this day with like connecting to my energy body and nourishing myself in that way so that I don't need to enter, you know, the drama of the world and the workplace seeking feeling good from other things in my environment because I've already started my day by nourishing myself.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been like that's been completely life-changing to me.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I I used to try meditation as like an intellectual exercise, and I I never realized until much more recently, oh yeah, this this comes from the heart.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's when it really hits differently.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think I've never heard anybody explain it like that of just like starting off your day, like getting the good.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't, I, I don't did you use the word good?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what you said?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: I don't remember.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Getting like the good from yourself, yeah, versus like getting into work and then trying to like siphon the good out of like everything else, like the emails, the social media.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's like get the dopamine hit from your damn self before you go out trying to look for the dopamine hits through other things.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's really important.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, the mornings that I wake up and for some reason I go into the kitchen and like the first thing I want to do is like clean the kitchen.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm still like waking up and I'm like wiping down the counters, and it's just like that's kind of my way of like connecting with my body and just like slowly waking up and I'll empty the dishwasher because I'm still a little hazy.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I've tried like journaling in the morning, but I'm just like, I don't even want to fucking pick up a pen and like look at a piece of paper.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just like, what's something else?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then once that it's like, you know, have some coffee, and then even just like sitting with yourself for five minutes before you jump into work can truly make a big difference because it's like the mindset that you're starting your day with, like you bring that into your business.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like if I wake up and it's like I'm scrolling Instagram and I'm seeing that like or YouTube comments, because I have a YouTube channel and like Like I see some shitty comment from somebody.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's like, and then I'm gonna slide into my inbox and somebody's gonna be asking me a question about a product that they bought.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be like fucking stupid, fucking, fucking blah blah blah, just like angry, you know what I mean, or just like resentful or frustrated or whatever.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: When really it was like, I could have handled that or saw it from a different perspective completely if I would have given myself time to connect with myself before jumping into work.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's like it doesn't have to be super long, it can literally be five minutes.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's the thing is like, can we create this baby habit that only takes five minutes?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think that there's like some real juice in there.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I would not recommend starting with going like zero to hero, like doing an hour every fucking morning.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a super unrealistic expectation.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll I'll add that.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And there is also no such thing as a perfect meditation.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like I take the judgment out of it.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, don't use meditation as another stick to beat yourself with.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I do so many different kinds of meditation based on the mood that I'm in.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's guided, sometimes it's unguided, um, sometimes it's centered around love, sometimes it's centered around strength.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's there's an element of like flexibility and self-love that I think when you bring to your spiritual practice, if you want to call it that, um, that will just so naturally like trickle beauty and love out into your environments that you find yourself in throughout the day.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And do I still find myself getting pissed or sad or like thrown off by a comment someone says?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm human along with everyone here.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but to me, it's it's uh having this daily practice is something that reinforces that shorter feedback loop of like I can always get back home.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's taking me less time, and that's nice.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: That is so beautiful.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like we have so many little quotable moments from this episode, and we're like really taken aback.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: But one quote in particular that has really stuck with me, it actually came from your college professor in 2010.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: But I think it's kind of like the summary, how cool it was that you got this advice at such a young age.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: But treat this as an experiment.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: And what I'm hearing from you is throughout your whole journey, it sounds like you've treated this as an experiment.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: And can you kind of take us through like how that mindset kind of serves you and how it helps you make decisions?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is an experiment for me.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I it's easy to see this when when I look back through my history, especially with work.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like what I'm doing today is different than what I was doing a year ago, and a year before that was different too.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's as you build up more experience, you can often see like that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's the case with virtually everyone I know, especially people who are doing the online business stuff, and like it's always changing.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: And like one really interesting example of that that I've shared with Mariah already is AI's exploding right now, right?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been so interested in like how this can help me personally with like all these different plates I have spinning with my blog.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And like my friend Andy, who's a developer, was like, why don't we build some AI tools and see like if this shit's useful for you?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have this tool write blogger now that's like so organically just an experiment.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like I sent out a couple of emails, and like we've had a couple hundred people sign up to try it.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: And from these beautiful people, we get so many ideas, so many like feature suggestions, tool suggestions, and like it's just an ongoing experiment, like it'll never be a locked-in thing, and I think that's so representative of like my experience just personally, too, is that whenever things get to feel like too repetitive, routine, habit, too stale, like I'm doing the same things every day.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Whether I like consciously embrace that I'm having some friction around that or not, changes come in.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I would way rather be consciously guiding myself through what some of those changes could be by just connecting inside and and following like what a purpose-aligned path towards work is, versus like you know, subconsciously being super frustrated about something with my work life and then like not seeing it, not confronting it head on with love, and then all of a sudden I'm doing stuff that's self-sabotaging my business.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been through that plenty of times, but I think there's something new that's been happening in in the last couple of years where I feel like I have much more purpose that's driving my work and also like an ease with yeah, things will be different a year from now, and that can be cool too.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't really matter how, and we'll just see how it unfolds.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: I love all of that, and it brings me to a question.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: How do we walk the line of, and I'm not looking for like an absolute answer where you like fucking stick your pitchfork in the hill, but it's like, how do we walk the line of having business goals and being able to experiment?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because I find myself, I've definitely gotten better with it, but I feel like sometimes I will get into, I call it the sauce, like you're you're just fucking stuck in the sauce.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I'll get stuck in the sauce because I'm holding on to this business goal, because we've been programmed to think that it's like in order to have a successful business, in order to see growth in this business, you have to have these goals, these goals, keep your actions aligned, and like it puts one foot in front of the other.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And like, yes, there is absolutely truth to that.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: But like, how do we also integrate that with the fact that like this is all an experiment?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: But if we get too, if we get too much in the sauce of the experiment, then we can find ourselves with shiny object syndrome.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe it's this, maybe it's that, maybe, maybe I'm being called over here.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And what about this?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then we end up getting fucking nothing done.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, how do we walk this line of kind, kind of being able to bridge both, just from your perspective?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna drop a new term for you.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had a feelization about this, because it came from the came from the heart, not the brain, um very recently, because this is super present in my life, both with my blog and at close, where like close is more serious, right?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's 75 people, it's a real, real, real business.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so growth targets, metrics, you know, tracking sheets, like that's all much more serious there than it is with my personal stuff.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and what I think you just described, Mariah, is literally the human experience.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: There is no such thing as a perfect balance.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it's always, always, always trying to come back to my heart and course correct in the direction that feels like it needs more of my attention in the moment.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: And like I've we've been going through the exercise at close of setting like quarterly growth targets for what we want our traffic to be over the next couple of years.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And my this was driven not by me, this was driven by senior leadership.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: And left to my own devices, I would probably have never even done this exercise of having actual growth targets, but it was such a like helpful thought exercise and planning mechanism for me that I realized like, yeah, this is really useful to have a direction you know you want to go.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, goals, I think, like no goal, no model for reaching your goal is ever gonna be perfect.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's always gonna be wrong.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, starting with that baseline of assumption of like, I'm gonna do this work to set goals that feel realistic, and I know they're gonna be wrong.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's the starting point for me now that it's more of a feeling that I'm okay with.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it is still really, really good and healthy to have a general direction you want to go in.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: But coming back to something I keep saying lately, don't use it as a stick to beat yourself.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because then you get into that guilt shame spiral where you're like, oh, I'm a piece of shit because I missed this target, and thus maybe I completely stop my business altogether.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that's or like I know nothing.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: You're missing I know nothing.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know anything.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: I know nothing.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: How do people pay me for this?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: People come to my website for what?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Why do they even want to hire me?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like that's typically the stick that um puts pressure on my head of just like I don't know enough to help people.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: But it's interesting because now I'm getting a lot better and just like strengthening the muscle of like when that thought comes up, depending on the day and depending on where I am in my cycle, I might go down the rabbit hole for like a couple hours.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's only a couple of minutes until I'm like, whoa, okay, this means that I am in my head too much.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: How do I allow myself to get back into my body or at least disconnect from this thought and just shift the energy?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: Even if it's going for a walk, even if it's like making Andrew tell me a joke or like tell me a story or something of just like, how do I get out of my head?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: But like, who, baby?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Especially when your identity is so close to your business, it's it's tough because we're the ones running our business.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: And like all of our ideas and our planning, like they're all in our heads.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: And we're just like, whoa.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we spend so much time strategizing because we're fucking good at it.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's like, okay, but now we have to like consciously stop strategizing because I can strategize until the fucking cows come home.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: I could strategize anything.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like the best fucking strategizer.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like if we allow ourselves to stay in our head, it will eat us from the inside out.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: I listened to such a good meditation yesterday, and the biggest takeaway was your problems are not your problems, they're your mind's problems.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Our minds are so fucking good at making problems of everything.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if we can just have that awareness, I think that's just another tool in the toolbox of shortening that feedback loop back home to yourself.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: And like, as you were just saying, Mariah, like you don't need to hear from me, but you are worthy of people coming to you and paying you for your advice.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone listening to this is because you have your own unique collection of life experiences and skills you've built.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: And when you are constantly looking upwards to people who've done this for 10 or 20 years longer than you, sure, you might pale in comparison to the amount of experience that someone else has.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean you are worthless.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like you have so much value to give to someone else who's starting the journey back where you started a few years ago.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I hate when I see people discount themselves like so much just because they're not as experienced as XYZ person they they follow on Twitter.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because we all have so much unique value to give that we all deserve to be able to charge people for helping them in ways that are meaningful to their business.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's just like such a huge point of self-love and self-acceptance that you can work on acknowledging for yourself.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone, me too.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking myself, by the way, with everything I say here.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, us too.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's why we made the podcast.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: I like you've talked, you've talked a lot about acknowledging, and I really I actually like having it like starred and arrowed in my notes.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: Acknowledging your frustrations with love.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that is like such a powerful concept to just acknowledge, first of all, feelizations.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: You got to get that trademark.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's incredible.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like acknowledge about how you're actually feeling about things, but do it from a place of love.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: I find myself, I'll have I'm irritated about things, but I'm just like, don't I like push away, I avoid it, I pretend like it's not there.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, we actually had a past guest talk about those things that you avoid turn into like a tornado that's like following you that gets bigger and bigger.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I really like that metaphor, but I there then it's like acknowledging it, but then you added with love, which I think is so powerful because the problem is when you avoid stuff, that's what leads to like a really dark place, right?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: But if I can be truthful about what is here right now, and just with no attachment to outcome, but just acknowledging it with love, that's like it.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's like the secret sauce to everything.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's difficult to do.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I think it's really powerful.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, one thing I've noticed about online business owners is like we all are like I love what you're saying about like beating yourself with your own stick.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking about how often we do that and in how many ways, because we're trying to wear all of these hats.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I think a lot of us like we grew up in school learning that like, okay, there's a right answer for things.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so a lot of people enter the online business world and they're like searching for the right answer.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what's the perfect way to run a blog?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_03: And what's the best practice for this?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: But the thing about the online world is it is truly an experiment.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_03: And if you can flip into like trying to find the perfect formula, into how can I embrace the present moment?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what resources do I have right now?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_03: What problem could I solve right now?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: What makes me feel like spiritually full right now?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that's a really cool fold to add into that.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_03: But I've always loved the metric when it comes to goals of like, for me, it's like, how do I wake up feeling?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_03: I have like a desired feeling.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_03: I want to wake up feeling a certain way.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: And like every day, am I wake up feeling like that or not?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then, like, what adjustments?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: Where can I be honest about my frustrations and what adjustments can I make with love?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like that just like ties so many uh things together for me.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's so beautiful.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you for sharing all that.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for just sharing that.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think like a how am I feeling metric is not not to go too analytical here, but I think that's something that I'm gonna incorporate into my life.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's been such a felt thing, but I do like the idea of that being like a more thoughtful checkpoint in my days.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're right.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: And like people that work for themselves, I think we have the opportunity after a certain point in growing your business to really affect change on that, like massively and quickly.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like if something's not working, fuck that client.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, I'm done.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need you, motherfucker, because I am gonna go get this other sick ass client who feels good to work with.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: Just wanted to slide in here mid-episode and fill you in on some cool things quick.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we are in our third season of Curiously Guided, and there's nothing that fires us up more than making this podcast and hearing all the positive impacts it's having on our listeners.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Up until this point, this has been a pure passion project.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: But we've got bills and expenses for this podcast, y'all.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you have the means and would love to support us in creating new episodes, feel free to head over to curiouslyguided.com slash support to buy us a coffee.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: And if you want even a deeper dive, we're excited to offer.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna now um start doing some strategy sessions where you get both Mariah and I's brains on your business.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: And um there's nowhere else in the world where you can we Mariah and I both don't work with people in such micro ways.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: So this is kind of a cool thing to get both of us looking at your business in kind of like a one-off strategy session.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: Just imagine us two and you together diving deeper on your business, marketing sales, and everything in between, um, all while filtering it through the lens of strategy energetics and energetics, which you know is our style.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_03: So if you want to learn more about what working with Mariah and I could look like, head on over to our website, curiously guided.com slash session, to get the details.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you guys so much for hanging out with us.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_03: We appreciate you so, so much.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: Now let's get back into the episode.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I like selfishly, right?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: I want to know like what's your favorite meditation resource?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, where are you getting these meditations you heard yesterday?
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: This was a huge bomb someone dropped on me.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: So prepare yourselves.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: This is gonna be amazing if you if you give these a try.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's called a Spotify account, and it's called Wisdom of the Masters.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll read the once in his description because it's incredible.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: These podcasts are designed to provide listeners with teachings from great spiritual masters to create a meditative mood so that you can find meaning to go deep into your heart.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's this is crazy.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's this um I don't know what the exact proper word for it is, but it's like uh an ermitage, like it's it's where nuns live.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's in India.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's this non-profit, and these women who record these audios, like they do this for free, and it's so beautiful.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's like spiritually pure like backtrack music to it, and like the readings from you know, different like mystics over the years, Buddhist teachers, enlightened people.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's honestly pretty, I was gonna say mind-blowing, but it's pretty heart blowing.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're gonna have to we're gonna put the link to that in the show notes, uh, for sure.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds that sounds really cool.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, wow, we're talking about honestly, not what I thought that we would be talking about at all.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: I got questions about fucking content marketing.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm just like, we're into a very deep conversation about detaching self-worth from your business and stuff like that.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I think that it's a cool path.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm glad that the conversation went here.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: And what I did want to bring up, uh, just because it's just another data point.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up getting a gene keys reading by this girl that I found on Instagram, Maria Henning.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: She's like a fucking gene keys genius.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: And she, so one of the gene key sequences sequences is the Pearl sequence.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so this kind of connects different things in your chart, which is essentially just like, if I'm not mistaken, career and like how you're meant to make money, right?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: So there's like this placement that'll tell you whatever.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: Anyways, there is a gene key and it's called like the gate of doubt.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is, I mean, I only know about this like in depth because it's part of like what I'm here to do and what I'm here to kind of like work and manipulate and play with.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: But what I found interesting is that the shadow of this, because we all have this gate, or we all get a taste of this gate, regardless if it's in your fucking sequence or not.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that this is pretty interesting.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it's gate 63 and it's the gate of doubt.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: And basically the shadow aspect is being a victim of doubts.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so the repressive energy is self-doubt, like turning it inwards and doubting ourselves.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then the reactive energy is suspicion.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: So like doubting other people, but the gift frequency of doubt is inquiry.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that that was super powerful because I wouldn't have been able to put language to that.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: But like, that's essentially this podcast.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that's essentially like what we've been saying this entire conversation of like, if you have doubt, if you have self doubt, it's like, okay, how can we?
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's gonna sound a little meta, but like, how do we shine the light on how we're currently shining the light on ourselves?
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Just like inner like inquiry about like, why do I feel self doubt?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because this gate, this energy is meant for us.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: To doubt the things in our reality so that we can evolve and change.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I just thought that that was like fucking fascinating and mind-blowing of just like how many of us, especially business owners, are sitting here in this like shadow frequency of self-doubt.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: But like it's not the doubt is bad.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's just that we're pointing it in a direction that isn't helpful for our evolution.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like just learning the difference of that.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like now I'm like walking around and I'm just like, when I have these questions of just like, oh fuck, I'm not good enough.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know enough.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: I don't whatever.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, huh, shadow frequency of doubt.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: How can I be more inquisitive about something?
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: And like that's why I think this podcast hits so deep because it's literally being curiously guided.
• 44:46
  unknown: Yeah.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what everything you just described too allows you to be really discerning in your life as well, which is like that's a fucking superpower right there.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: So these things, like turning them loose in the right directions that support yourself, that's huge.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's huge.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just I think that there is like so much power, especially when it comes to like, you know, because we've been talking about like just detaching our self-worth and like our identities from our business and being able to just kind of walk, not a forever balance, but like a swinging balancing act of like what that is.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: And the only way to do that is to be inquisitive, is to go ahead and like to question either the way that we're doing things or whatever.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I also think that it's cool because all of us here and our listeners have fucking genius ideas.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like we do.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody that is even like remotely entrepreneurial has genius ideas.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_02: And like, where do these ideas come from?
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: It comes from us questioning what's already happening.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, Ryan, your AI tool, which I've had the pleasure of testing out, and like we're gonna leave a link to that in the show notes below, guys.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's so fucking cool.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: If chat GBT, like if you are getting annoyed or frustrated or like can't figure out like what prompts to put in this thing, just use right blogger because right blogger is like drop downs and like questions of like, hey, what's your topic?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: What's your target keyword?
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then it will go ahead, like put in the like the question for you.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's really smart when it comes to.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: I actually just used it for creating a YouTube video description and I had it generate something, and then I just ended up changing like two words, and I was like, fucking genius.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: Also, like for Instagram captions, really, really helpful for rewriting things.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I was giving a presentation the other day to some bloggers, and I was just like, like, how many times can we rewrite the same fucking post conclusion?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, thanks for coming to my blog.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: And if you have any questions, blah, blah, blah.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, you can use AI and write blogger to be able to just rewrite these conclusions to the blog post.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: But, anyways, that little tangent, we'll put the link to that in the show notes.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: But you wouldn't have figured that out or like even considered that if you weren't just looking around, like trying to be curious about the world around you.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like that is literally my lived experience with Chad GPT.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Was like, all right, I landed here and I have this blank screen in front of me.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what do I type here to get this to give me something usable that I really, really like can just take, copy, paste, and then like work within my own process.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that was exactly it for me, too.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: Of like, this is too ambiguous, too amorphous.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do I put some real guardrails on this?
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: And like what we got really good at is writing super specific prompts that are like SEO friendly, and they'll help you to go from like typing in a keyword phrase to generating a 2000-word article.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and none of this stuff is perfect.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I would never take something copy-paste and hit publish.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think I think, especially as AI evolves, that the superpower of humans is our emotional intelligence.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_01: How do you inject your humanity into these content processes?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: That yes, you can still publish faster, you can publish more as a result of these tools.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you keep them human?
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's gonna become like that's the real thing.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: In a world where AI will soon be, you know, touching everything, the the emerging superpowers are emotional intelligence to connect with other people.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be really interesting to see where it goes.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like going back to our conversation about experimentation and like not having attachment to what the future holds, like one year from now.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: Can you even imagine how nuts this AI stuff's gonna be?
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be crazy.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I feel like you can imagine better than me.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: You tell me, like, what do you see on the horizon?
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: I want to know all about like your perspective on AI and like where things are heading.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of things will change about like how online businesses are run, but I also don't think any of it is cause for like pants on fire, burn your business to the ground, alarm bells.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I swear, SEO is dead like once a year, every year for the last 15 years.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um is always dead, but it's never dead.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the zombie that rises from the dead, like every time you say it's dead.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: It just represents, like, I think such a limited way, like a narrow way of looking at what it is.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: And what it is, SEO or just blogging, you know, online business in general, what that is needs to be flexible to you in order to adapt and grow and change and learn as all these things continue to trickle into the world because it's not gonna stop, it's gonna happen faster.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like this stuff is accelerating.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the the only way you continue to adapt is you learn the tools that are coming out, you learn how to work with them, and some of this shit won't be for you at all.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it, maybe you're like, oh, this is really cool.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go deeper on this thing, and then all of a sudden, you have a new superpower.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that having that experimentation mindset and just like detaching from what things need to be like a year from now is like just so healthy, so supportive of yourself and having a business a year from now.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, like if you're rigidly attached to having your business look and feel the same and operate the same every day for like the entire future that you're working, you're gonna be really disappointed, like really disillusioned.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it would help a lot to just free yourself from like the the chains of needing your business to be as it is today, because it's gonna change, whether you want to or not.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you might as well try some stuff and see where you can drive it.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I think that that's why a lot of us get into business, truly.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and I mean, I I can't speak for everybody, but that was the biggest driving factor for me.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I was working for other people and like I could see better ways to solve problems and ways that the business could evolve.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like they didn't want to hear what the fuck I had to say.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: I was just some person that was answering phone calls.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like they didn't that Mariah's 20.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: Who is Mariah?
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like in terms of this business.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I just like the fact it's truly like my my favorite part of entrepreneurship is that like we get to let our businesses evolve.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that that's also a piece that also freaks a lot of people out, is because our business is meant to evolve as we are evolving.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it makes it like we end up getting very frustrated with our business when like we've evolved past it, and then we're not willing to see that we have evolved past like the three-year version of what we've created.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I think full circle coming back around, I think that's because our business is so tied to a lot of our identities that it's like, oh, I am the SEO person.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, if tomorrow I wasn't, and tomorrow I'm an intuitive business coach, it's like that would end up creating a huge, like just disharmony inside of me because my ego wants to keep connecting to this big identity that I've created.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that it's just it's obviously nothing that we're ever gonna get perfect because we are humans, but even just knowing that like it's okay for your business to evolve.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay if like you started a membership two years ago, six months ago, and now you're like, this shit is just not jiving anymore.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just not, it's not doing it.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like we have to give ourselves permission to be able to experiment with our systems and our processes too.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like, how many times in the online business world it's like, get your systems right, and you never have to think about it again.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then AI comes in and it's like, let's fuck up your systems.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like we just we have to be willing to get curious and to truly like allow ourselves and our business to evolve.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's a huge mindset shift.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: And like I will be the first to tell you I am not like perfect at this whatsoever.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I am there's always a lag effect for me, at least historically.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think for the first time, I'm actually driving very like conscious specific change that I want in my business.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: But like, there's always historically been a lag for me of like, oh, this is how my business was.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I just got used to this.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: This feels so good.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: I finally figured this out.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting clients right and left.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is my thing.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like boom, the universe is like, uh, surprise, shit's changing.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: Glad you got comfortable for 0.2 seconds.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, good luck in this next round.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, there's cycles to this stuff too.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: You don't always have to be riding a high.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a really important one for me is that I chase the highs of like success or excitement, feeling good.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Shay, as you were saying earlier, like your business can't do everything for you.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_01: Your business isn't going to always check all these boxes of I feel great, I'm financially thriving, I'm doing all these other things as a result of my business.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: You have to like very consciously not place tons of expectations on your business.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: And my personal journey, it's just connected to like self-worth.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think it's different for everyone.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, okay, I want to hear more about like write blogger then and like how this is all like coming to fruition in real time.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what are the changes that you want to see?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's so good.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we get so like literally daily, we get feature ideas, we get, and this is part of the beautiful thing about building something in the middle of a revolution right now.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: So there are so many fucking AI copywriting and AI fill-in-the-blank tools coming out for people who do stuff online, and everyone has their niche.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: I am so happy that we chose to service a niche of people that I really understand, bloggers.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like this tool is not for enterprise sales teams who want to bang out, you know, copywriting emails.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not for like B2B SaaS companies, it's like really specifically for bloggers.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we have kept that as this like really clear mission, and we're getting so many good people.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we just rebuilt the article writer tool because we had so many good suggestions and ideas from people about ways that they think it should function.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: And when we built the V1 of these, I think there's like 38 tools now.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we launched with like 25, and we just keep adding more each week.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the first version of all these tools was like the Ryan version, is what I've always wanted in a tool like this.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_01: And as we get more feedback, I'm like, oh fuck, I never thought of that.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's way better than the way I was doing this.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's do that.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really organically growing.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's cool to also see like people signing up for it uh just organically because I like mentioned it on my blog, or like now, like a few other sites who like write about AI tools have mentioned it and covered it.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I haven't done anything to like force this into the world like on anyone.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's like so organically happening, and maybe there will be a day in the future where like it feels right to to go out and like sell this thing really hard to people, but it's all just happening so organically right now that I like I just don't want to take it off that track.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's too good.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when you were telling me about it, that's I was like, yo, this sounds it just it's a really great option for the DIY people, like you said, like the bloggers and stuff like that, even the solopreneurs.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, y'all, if you if it's just you or like you and your VA, like you could fucking take advantage of this.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: When I logged in, I was like, what a cool tool for me to be able to recommend to my clients that are like, I don't know how to write a meta description.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, cool, put it into fucking write blogger.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's just like use this tool to be able to do it, or like here, use this to be able to do the video description.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's very, very helpful for like generating ideas and like you said, kind of pulling something out of nothing.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like you just put in kind of like what your perspective is and like allow it to take it and run with it type thing.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: But okay, so this kind of leads me to the next question of like, how do you have boundaries in terms of like creating a product that you give a fuck about and not allowing a your expectations to get too quick of like, oh fuck, everybody wants me to change this, this, and this.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that sounds really cool.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: We have to do it by tomorrow.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like, as business owners, I mean, maybe this is just something I do, but I'm like, oh, you need that done?
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: I can do it in 0.3 seconds.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let me breathe and it'll be done.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, so how are you balancing this like need to create something cool and experimenting with also not holding too tight onto expectations of when it's done or how it looks, or even if you can get it done?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not perfect at this.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_01: I still find myself like that feeling just bubbling up inside me of like, this idea is great, this is amazing, let's do this right now, Andy.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I have to like rein it in first.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I'll give you something tactical here.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I use like Notion with Andy, and we use it essentially as like our prioritization cue.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it's our to-do list of features, changes, like new things to add to the product.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what we do is we just have this ranked list, and we've agreed there's no fucking with this list unless something amazing comes along that we both agree is worthy of like shuffling up to the top or the middle.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think like having a mutual agreement.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: So for me personally, having another person that I'm working on with this is huge to help me stay accountable.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_01: It helps me like it helps me do everything better, I would say.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like being a solo business owner, like I'll I'll very quickly drift off into the land of like, you know, not challenging myself, not growing, not trying new things as much as when I have someone else who's also an idea generator and a doer.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we found something that worked really well for us, just like prioritization cue, and we have agreements around like what that means, and only reshuffle if there's like something mind-blowing that shows up, basically.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that helps him also stay focused because he's he's the one, and he builds virtually everything.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just kind of fuck with making things look pretty occasionally and the copy on the home page and simple stuff like that.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's a team effort.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's what makes this podcast so fun for me and Shay to do is that like it's a team effort.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that I've learned that through our kind of partnership through different things, is we're kind of the same way.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_02: And like, what a beautiful example that like collaboration can help so much if you find the right person.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because y'all, I have collaborated with some people in the past, and they were not a great fit for me, and it ended up stressing me out.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: But when you actually find somebody that like jives with you, you guys have a similar vision.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that honestly, I think that that might be the toughest part because like both of you are evolving, and then your idea is also evolving.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: How do we keep this evolution of the idea?
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like for me and Shay, for example, how do we keep this podcast going on a path that both of us are still excited about and is still aligned with our evolution?
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: I would say there are so many pros to collaborations.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: That is one of the only cons that it like it takes conscious conversation and ego checking.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_02: I have a million ideas for this fucking podcast.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: I swear to God, a million.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: And if I I know because I've done it, if I blow Shay up too much, he's literally just like, I'm not answering you, I gotta go.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I have to be aware and kind of like keep my ego in check of like, this isn't just my brain child, like somebody else is here, and it's also her brain child.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like collaborations, it's such a wonderful container for inner growth and just like truly being able to communicate with people.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's just there's so many cool things about collaborations.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I like hearing your example of like you guys use Notion.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of people use Notion.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: I've never logged into Notion, but some people love it.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_03: Notion is like my savior.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: I've been calling it my second brain lately.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: I love it so much.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, Mariah, you know what I agree, Ryan.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm more on your side.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_03: I will just kind of like go slow.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_03: Not I'm saying you do this, but if it's me on my own, I'm kind of like, oh, that can wait, that can wait, and I'll let things slide.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas Mariah is much more like, I've got a million ideas and we need to run.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's nice to find a partner that kind of is not your exact same skill set and doesn't operate exactly the same as you do because her and I really balance each other out.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's some things I'm not great with details, as I mentioned about Notion, but Mariah's awesome.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_03: So she handles all of the detail stuff that I would just like let fall through the cracks.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it's weird, like the way we came together, it just felt like natural.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like she's like, I'll take these things and I'll I'll take I do more of like the creative stuff and editing.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and you do, I mean, we just it all came together really naturally, and that had never happened for me before with a partnership.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I have really appreciated like the differences, and I agree with you, Mariah.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's like a mirror that you hold up for me of just like helping me grow and like learning how to work with another person.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_03: But actually, I think your question is really interesting of like for us, how we make sure that the vision is staying the same is you and I check in a lot and we're always thinking about like what why is the podcast here?
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what problem are we solving with the podcast and for who?
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a conversation we have every season, even multiple times in the season.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that's kind of helped us.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_03: And there's certainly times where you and I don't agree about things, but if we have that like one mission agreed upon, it feels like that can keep us moving forward.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_03: So tell us a little bit, Ryan.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how do y'all navigate that of like growing in the same direction?
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_01: You always gotta ask why.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's so fucking important.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if I can put an exclamation point on that, like challenging yourselves to be honest and asking why often is huge.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_01: It will keep you on track for what your heart's purpose is.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, what you were just describing, Andy is Andy's the guy that I will text an idea to and I shit you not.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: Three minutes later, he'll send me a screenshot and say live, like in the tool on the blog, done.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: And like he blows my mind with how insanely like productive per minute this person is.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_01: I've never met someone like that.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he's also an unbelievably talented photographer, he has a huge like Instagram following.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_01: He has like one of the best people at producing and like doing YouTube videos that I've ever met.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's so multi-talented, it's fucking nuts.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_01: And like the way that we like mesh together is like I will be able to do maybe more of the like kind of flowy creative kinds of things, and he can just execute like immediately.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, he still has like amazing creative powers too, but like that's a really good way that we fit together, and it's always just been like Like so natural, so organic.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_01: And like we we started working together like 10 years ago.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_01: I had this really, really dumb product that I made in college called the i stash.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it was an iPhone look-alike stash device.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that you could take, let's say, cigarette-shaped items into concerts, music festivals, maybe Advil-shaped items, if that's your thing, too.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and this product was was like my college thing, like, you know, 21-year-old, how cool is this?
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Andy was somewhat it's very early, early, early 20s.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just like 21.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to the bars, I'm getting fucked up before I'm going to a concert.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how do I bring the stash in?
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_01: Andy bought one and he like made a YouTube review of it.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_01: And this YouTube video got like 10,000 views, and like he helped me sell a bunch of these products.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, I I connected with him and just like said thanks.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: And like, we we've just found ways to organically do more and more and more together over time.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's been so natural.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm really grateful to have never had to like search for a partner in this kind of stuff, and like it's just unfolded in such a cool, beautiful way.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we have like he's a blogger too, like, he's been blogging for over 10 years.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, the amount of shit this guy does is unbelievable.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and like he knows bloggers just as well as I do and and in different ways, and so like we bring such cool complementary uh skills to the table and life experiences too.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think to really answer your question though, like asking yourself the why is so important.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why are we doing this?
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we doing this AI tool?
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's been super fun.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're both learning a ton.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if we also build a business out of it that we benefit from both using the tool ourselves and other people using the tool and benefit from it, like can life get any better than that?
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_01: Can business get any better?
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just sitting here because I can't fucking help myself.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just sitting here in my head, just thinking, like, how cool that you're known as like Ryan Robinson, like the OG blogger and Ryan Robinson, the fucking OG stash man.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm just over here, like laughing in my head of just like the universe, you know, may or may not have our best interest in mind.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just funny to think about that.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um the first and only iStash uh iPhone lookalike, hide your anything device.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was the tagline.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's so good.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, you know, this is a perfect way to transition into our last question.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm assuming you were following your curiosity when you came up with the iStash.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us about right now what is sparking your curiosity in business life or personal life.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_01: Damn.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_02: Give us both answers.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what's interesting, as I do a lot more kind of inner work and go further down the spiritual path, is that I realize my heart is what I want to guide me, and I will selectively employ this great brain I have too.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_01: So when things generatively come from my heart, that's when I'm setting myself up for being happy and finding joy in it for a longer period of time.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_01: And will it change?
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, it'll keep changing.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_01: But these days, like I've been really tuning into my purpose, and my my purpose is that people love themselves.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the best way to affect that in the world is to just be a living example of it myself and share myself with other people.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm following what that is like really naturally unfolding as.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been having conversations like this.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a blossoming of dozens of friendships that I've had in recent months where we're exchanging voice notes all day, every day, just talking about the meaning of life and spirituality and purpose and connection.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I see that future like kind of drawing me in of working with people on inner work.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what form that will take or what that means for all the other things in my multidimensional life, but I know that I'll be creating more room for working with people around the topic of love.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for sharing that.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's just another really great example of just like we are multidimensional.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like all of us here, very strategic.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like Ryan with his content, me with SEO, Shay with sales.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, like, we're also really good at like a lot of other shit.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like we have this like uh this brain that dives really deep into strategy, and we also have this deep desire to keep having transparent, vulnerable conversations, whether spirituality gets brought in, whether it's somebody else's zone of genius, like whatever that is, because I think that the society that we live in, we are truly craving and deeply thirsty for these conversations, not only as like somebody to be having them, but also like somebody to listen to us.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, can can somebody just hold space for me to like I tell Shay, like verbalize to rationalize.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like this week I feel like my purpose is this, and next week I'll feel like my purpose is that.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_02: And like, can I just have a constant person that can hold space?
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like, usually when we're trying to find our zone of genius or like our our soul's calling, or just like whatever we we want to say, I find that it's usually strung through every other idea that we've had.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think it's nice having people to kind of hold space for us and to reflect that back of like, oh, I see that that makes sense because that connects that connects that.
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that it's just it's fun to share examples of like we can be killer ass bloggers, business owners, salespeople, strategists, and we can be like deeply feeling, deeply intuitive, and deeply spiritual.
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And like it's not one or the other that we've seen showcased in society.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, Ryan, I just sincerely want to thank you for coming on the podcast, for being so open, for making us laugh.
• 1:13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think that this conversation was just so fun.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_02: And me and Shay always said, like, we just like getting real deep real fucking quick.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like as soon as we started recording, Brian's like, this is deeply my purpose.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_02: And we're like, we're going here.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_02: And like, I had questions about content marketing, but like I'm glad that I didn't really ask them.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have to do a part two because I do like your strategic brain on some of that.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that it would be very helpful.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_02: We did get some pockets of that in here, but I think that this is just going to be the beginning of a conversation with the three of us.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much for coming on.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Can you just tell our listeners where they can find and connect with you?
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_01: I will take you up on the offer to talk a more tactical thing too, because it all matters.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're all matters in it.
• 1:13:56
  SPEAKER_01: It all matters.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_01: The love stuff's good, but there's room for everything.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, my uh my blog is just ryrob.com.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and my offer to anyone listening who feels called is that if you want to reach out and talk about this stuff, I'm here.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in listening, I'm interested in talking.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's not something that comes with needing to pay me.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is like such beautiful work for me.
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if you like this conversation and want to have more of it, feel free to reach out if it calls you.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Where can people reach out?
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you?
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, um, I'm not doing too much of the socials these days, um, cleansing, um, but email's a great way.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just Ryan at ryromb.com.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_02: So we will link the links to all of that stuff, including Ryan's genius fucking AI tool uh that he created with Andy.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_02: So write blogger.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_02: That link will be in the show notes as well.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I think we're gonna close this episode down.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_02: If you guys enjoyed this episode, feel free to share it with somebody that you think would love it.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Screenshot it, uh, share it on social media, tag us, DM us, email us, whatever.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like we just we truly love connecting with you guys.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_03: And as always, thank you so much for listening and for your support.
• 1:15:17
  SPEAKER_03: If you haven't yet, subscribe to the podcast and leave us some reviews so we can all continue to grow together.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_03: And until next time, remember that you have the power to create whatever the fuck you want.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_03: Follow the nudge, ask questions, and let curiosity guide the way.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you in the next episode.