Latest / Yes And Land / Luca and Seeing Problems Differently | Ryan Boswell on Perspective, Identity & Growth
Transcript
- 0:00At the start of my career, I bounced from an
- 0:02AI startup over to a mechanical engineering firm,
- 0:04building a technology startup over to a nonprofit,
- 0:08building the community of business people and
- 0:10business owners here in Utah. Then I moved to
- 0:12Indiana to run a cold plunge business. From there,
- 0:15stepped into a hedge fund that my partners had
- 0:18started, which I'm now a general partner in.
- 0:20And so all of these things over the last four
- 0:21to five years have just been a result of me trying
- 0:24to get as much experience as possible. Even when
- 0:26things are going wrong, they're going right.
- 0:28All of those things. had to go wrong in order
- 0:31for them to go right in that given moment as
- 0:34i started to listen to this bruno in my head
- 0:36i realized how frequently that i was doing that
- 0:38whenever i was alone in the sauna like i would
- 0:40actually talk back to myself and i'd be like
- 0:42but like i would be sitting in the sauna and
- 0:44i'd hear something i'd be like no that's not
- 0:45the way it is and i think for me the the Bruno
- 0:48Ryan, that happens when I don't take the time
- 0:51to slow down. Yeah. Isn't there a quote in the
- 0:53movie where he says, like, silencio Bruno, silencio
- 0:55Bruno? Yes, yeah. And then big Massimo, who's
- 0:58this huge guy, he's the biggest guy in town,
- 1:00he comes up and he's like, I know who they are.
- 1:02And you're not sure at this point in time, is
- 1:05he gonna be like, yeah, they're monsters, let's
- 1:06kill them, right? Or what is he gonna say? And
- 1:08he says, I know who they are. They're Luca and
- 1:10Alberto. Truly, I think that this is one of the
- 1:13hardest things in life. It is near impossible.
- 1:16unless someone is actually willing to do it and
- 1:18go through the hard stuff to change your frame
- 1:20of someone else but as you start to then take
- 1:22those things that you think about and put them
- 1:24into action that's where you start to take more
- 1:26control over your life and your living life not
- 1:29living life as life is letting you live welcome
- 1:33to yes and land where we say yes to the reality
- 1:36of yesterday and today and we say and to the
- 1:40possibility growth and imagination of tomorrow
- 1:46Welcome to Yes and Land. Super excited today.
- 1:49We've got a great guest. Has a wonderful name.
- 1:52His name's Ryan. Ryan Boswell with us today.
- 1:56Ryan has a number of different business ventures
- 1:59that he's been a part of. He's actually a pretty
- 2:02young guy and yet one of the most connected guys
- 2:05that I know. Runs a business. He's a general
- 2:08partner in a hedge fund. Has a number of different
- 2:11things that he does as well. Super excited to
- 2:13have that conversation today. So welcome to the
- 2:15program, Ryan. Thank you. Thank you. It's good
- 2:16to be here and great name as well. And today,
- 2:20what we're going to be doing is talking a little
- 2:22bit about the way that we see problems or things
- 2:25that come up or situations that we encounter
- 2:28and seeing them in a different way to solve those
- 2:33problems or take advantage of the situations
- 2:37we're presented. And we're going to do that through
- 2:39the lens of a great Pixar, Disney Pixar movie,
- 2:42which is Luca. which i know you like right absolutely
- 2:45uh you've you've watched that with uh with your
- 2:48little one yeah am i getting that right yeah
- 2:49um definitely a fun movie and it'll be a really
- 2:52good opportunity for us to take a look at that
- 2:54through this lens today as well so uh so first
- 2:57off the way we want to start is just you telling
- 2:59a little bit more about um kind of how you got
- 3:02your start and how you got to where you are being
- 3:05CEO of a company and general partner in a hedge
- 3:08fund and the different things you're doing. Yeah,
- 3:09it's a good question. And I'm excited to be here.
- 3:12This conversation is going to be really fun.
- 3:14You know, my story kind of dates back when I
- 3:17was in high school. I started doing social media.
- 3:19That was kind of where I started. That was my
- 3:20generation was like the first generation to get
- 3:22Instagram in high school and figuring out how
- 3:25to like post and have friends and be building
- 3:28content and burner accounts and all of that fun
- 3:30stuff. And that was where my career really began
- 3:33was in posting social media for myself, doing
- 3:36social media for other brands. By the time I
- 3:39was 18, I had like seven or eight different sponsors
- 3:42that sponsored me for content on Instagram and
- 3:45YouTube. I was doing longboarding content, just
- 3:47kind of general lifestyle. I had no idea what
- 3:48I was doing. But that led into me really having
- 3:51a knack for marketing and building businesses.
- 3:54Kind of bounced around in the beginning of my
- 3:56career. I did two years of college before I dropped
- 3:58out of college at Utah. Valley University here
- 4:01in Orem, Utah, and really just tried to figure
- 4:05out what I wanted to do. I have always been big
- 4:09on different perspectives and trying to find
- 4:13different ways to do things. I realized early
- 4:16on that there wasn't just one set way that things
- 4:18could be done or should be done. And so I kind
- 4:21of set this goal and this mindset of when the
- 4:24goal is to experience, everything is a win. So
- 4:26even when things go wrong, even when crap hits
- 4:29the fan, even when you run into problems or you
- 4:31get into arguments, for some reason that's supposed
- 4:33to happen. As long as you're experiencing something
- 4:36and you're not just stuck when you experience,
- 4:38everything is a win. And so for five years at
- 4:42the start of my career, I bounced from an AI
- 4:45startup over to a mechanical engineering firm
- 4:47building a technology startup over to a nonprofit
- 4:50building the community of business people and
- 4:52business owners here in Utah. Then I moved to
- 4:55Indiana. run a cold plunge business. And while
- 4:58I was there, my business partners ended up being,
- 5:00we kind of had a whole portfolio of some startups
- 5:03and businesses that we were building together.
- 5:04And then from there, stepped into a hedge fund
- 5:07that my partners had started, which I'm now a
- 5:09general partner in. And so all of these things
- 5:12over the last four to five years have just been
- 5:14a result of me trying to get as much experience
- 5:16as possible. And so my day -to -day now, tying
- 5:20all of that together, comes down to capital and
- 5:24connections. Primary day -to -day is our hedge
- 5:27fund. We do capital raising. We have an investment
- 5:30strategy, about 1 ,500 investors in that group.
- 5:33That's been growing for about four years now.
- 5:36So that's kind of my day -to -day primary there.
- 5:38But then really my favorite part of what I do
- 5:40is I get to work with a lot of really cool people
- 5:42over here, but I also have all of these businesses
- 5:45and startups and ideas that people are building
- 5:47that are looking for either strategic connections
- 5:50or strategic capital to help them grow. And so
- 5:53when I'm not raising capital or working on our
- 5:55hedge fund, my kind of other focus is brokering
- 6:00connections and finding ways to make special
- 6:02projects happen. So an example, someone could
- 6:05send me a text and be like, hey, we're looking
- 6:06to buy two crumble cookie franchises up in Baltimore.
- 6:09This was a text I got in January. Do you have
- 6:11someone that would be interested in putting up
- 6:12$240 ,000 for a six -month short -term loan with
- 6:15X percent of the amount of interest? And I sent
- 6:18one text over to a person and said, hey, this
- 6:20is another deal that popped up. He's like, yes,
- 6:22I'm in. Send me the details. got them together
- 6:24and within about a week and a half we had the
- 6:26deal funded so I'll take a lot of those projects
- 6:28and find ways to put people together to broker
- 6:30connections to help other people make their ideas
- 6:33happen and all of that just going back to what
- 6:35I said earlier of kind of that perspective when
- 6:37the goal was to experience I didn't know five
- 6:40years ago fast forward to now that this is what
- 6:42I was going to be doing yeah but I knew that
- 6:44when I could just hop in find somewhere to help
- 6:46someone out being able to identify someone's
- 6:49problems, helping them understand, hey, yes,
- 6:51this is a problem, but there's a way that we
- 6:52can get over it and get around it. By the way,
- 6:54most of the time, that's either going to be through
- 6:56something I can do or someone that I know that
- 6:58can help you solve that problem. We take all
- 7:01of that, put that together, and help them take
- 7:02their idea and opportunity to market. I love
- 7:05that. So one thing that I wanted to pull on a
- 7:08little bit more, and this might be because my
- 7:10son's in high school, so of course I'm thinking
- 7:12about, like, what is he going to do after high
- 7:14school and for college? So I heard you say you
- 7:16did two years of college. and then you didn't
- 7:18anymore, okay? So walk me through, or walk people
- 7:21through what your advice would be about somebody
- 7:23who is gonna finish up, maybe wanting to further
- 7:26their education, but they're also maybe have
- 7:28a little bit of that entrepreneurial blood in
- 7:30them, like it sounds like you certainly do. What
- 7:33was that experience like for you, deciding I'm
- 7:36gonna do some college, but then... I'm now moved
- 7:39on, I'm going to do these other things, I have
- 7:41these opportunities to do? Yeah, it's a really
- 7:42good question. My path with college was a little
- 7:45bit different. I actually... There's a few ways
- 7:51that I could kind of go about and explain this,
- 7:53but my path with college was a little bit different.
- 7:55I got into college and realized that what I really
- 7:58wanted to do was business. I was pre -marketing.
- 8:01I took one marketing class in college, and that
- 8:03was the one that inspired me to drop out of college.
- 8:05I had this professor. His name is Ryan Schill,
- 8:07who's a really good friend of mine. It was basically
- 8:12an entrepreneurship class through the lens of
- 8:13marketing, but he was just teaching us about
- 8:15all of the different basics and fundamentals
- 8:17of this concept of what marketing is. was and
- 8:20and i knew that i was really interested in it
- 8:22but i didn't actually know anything about it
- 8:24i didn't know the acronyms i have had no accolades
- 8:26or anything like that but he was telling these
- 8:27stories of how he took taco bell into costa rica
- 8:30and how he had built this online car parts business
- 8:33and how he had all these other businesses that
- 8:35failed and i just realized i was like that's
- 8:36what i want to do but i'm not going to do that
- 8:39sitting here theorizing over how to build a business
- 8:42plan how to do it i realized that what i needed
- 8:45was actual experience from people and so i set
- 8:47out the goal to go learn and connect with people
- 8:50that were actually in the trenches to find opportunities
- 8:52to be able to do that and at the time i was running
- 8:54the social media and the athletics department
- 8:56at uvu i got connected over through a mutual
- 8:58friend whose father -in -law was starting a tech
- 9:00business and he was like hey i need someone to
- 9:03help me with social media and marketing i was
- 9:04like sure let's give it a shot like i had to
- 9:07google what is artificial intelligence my first
- 9:09day on the job. I was starting day one. I think
- 9:11it was June 13th, June 12th. That night, I was
- 9:14Googling, what is AI? I don't know what this
- 9:16is. I was 20 years old. I had no idea what I
- 9:20was doing. But my path for me came about, really,
- 9:24it happened by looking at realizing what I wanted
- 9:28to do or looking at and analyzing what I wanted
- 9:30to do, which was business. And I realized that
- 9:33the only way that I was going to really figure
- 9:34out what I wanted to do was by doing things.
- 9:37And so I know that that's different for different
- 9:40paths, right? Like my wife went medical. She
- 9:42was an x -ray tech and then did echocardiology.
- 9:45She was an echo tech, so she did heart ultrasounds.
- 9:47Like she's very, very smart. She had to stay
- 9:50in school and had to follow her specific program
- 9:52to go through and get those certifications for
- 9:55her to do that. But with business, like I would
- 9:57much rather take someone with experience than
- 9:59certifications. that's been through the trenches
- 10:03and actually understands it and you know for
- 10:05example moving to indiana to take over a struggling
- 10:07business that had three thousand dollars in the
- 10:10bank and we had payroll due on friday and we
- 10:11were a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt
- 10:14and we had we were three months behind on rent
- 10:16had to figure out how do we get to break even
- 10:19keep the store alive save all of those things
- 10:21with a zero dollar marketing spend that's experience
- 10:23that i would not trade anything for in the world
- 10:25and so for me it came as a result of having i
- 10:29in my opinion specifically with with business
- 10:31i'll say this i think college is there to help
- 10:33you figure out and get an idea of what you would
- 10:35like to do sure life is there to help you figure
- 10:37out what want to do and for me I just realized
- 10:41that I needed to go test this theory of I want
- 10:44to go in business I want to go in marketing but
- 10:46I need to test that in a variety of different
- 10:48situations to see if I actually do want to do
- 10:50this because I see it time and time again whenever
- 10:53I'm guest lecturing at universities is a question
- 10:55that's always brought up whenever I'm talking
- 10:56to people that are like established into their
- 10:58career I see it way too often where people are
- 11:00in their dream job in an industry that they hate
- 11:02and they didn't get that experience testing out
- 11:05seeing hey I love doing this but I hate doing
- 11:08it for this specific industry. So I don't know
- 11:10if that helps, but that's kind of how I look
- 11:12at it. I think it's interesting. You know, as
- 11:13I've thought a lot about my experiences, because
- 11:15as an attorney, I had to go to school, right?
- 11:17That was kind of the requirement. But I decided
- 11:19to study business in undergrad because I thought
- 11:22it was interesting. I liked it. So I thought,
- 11:23I'm going to do something that's interesting
- 11:25that I like studying about because I don't want
- 11:27to major in poli sci like everybody else or English,
- 11:30yuck. I didn't like that at all. But through
- 11:33my college experience, one of the things that
- 11:35I've kind of come to a realization of is one
- 11:38of the ways that people can take advantage of
- 11:40a college experience is in connections. And it's
- 11:43a stark contrast for me. Undergrad, I didn't
- 11:45at all. I went to the University of Utah, which
- 11:47is like a classic commuter school. Never lived
- 11:50on campus. I wasn't a part of any organization
- 11:52at all. I just went to classes, mostly worked
- 11:56full time, went at night. So I didn't make a
- 11:58single friend in undergrad, which is crazy because
- 12:00I love people. Whereas in law school, the law
- 12:03school I went to, you have to, you don't have
- 12:06to, but they say you're not supposed to work
- 12:08at all. They make you sign something saying you're
- 12:10not gonna work, because you're gonna dedicate
- 12:11all your time to school. Now I had a few classmates
- 12:13that did, I won't name them. So I was in school
- 12:17all the time, and it was hard, but I built connections
- 12:20with my classmates. And I started to understand
- 12:24and appreciate the value of those connections.
- 12:26And one of the things I was hearing from your
- 12:27story is, build a connection with your professor.
- 12:29And you start getting connected with these other
- 12:31things. I think a lot of people don't understand
- 12:33the value of the connections they can build if
- 12:35they're going to go to school, especially if
- 12:37it's business. Now, it might mean they end up
- 12:38taking a different path after and they don't
- 12:40finish, but there is some value in the connections
- 12:42you can make and creating genuine connections
- 12:45with those people too. Well, and I think it's
- 12:46important to distinguish here. And I talk about
- 12:51this concept of connecting versus networking
- 12:53frequently. Like I have a lot of people that
- 12:55are like, oh, you're so good at networking. I'm
- 12:57like, thank you. I don't like try though. Like
- 12:59at the end of the day, it's just people. And
- 13:01the thing that I realized was that right now
- 13:04at this stage in my career, I'm 27 years old,
- 13:08right? Like I have some good ideas, but I don't
- 13:11have the fuel in the tank nor the experience
- 13:13that I think that I'd necessarily need or the
- 13:16right idea to go build like $100 million company.
- 13:19But I do know that I'm really good and I've gotten
- 13:21really good at diagnosing other people's problems,
- 13:23figuring out what they need and finding ways
- 13:25to help them. And in return, I then find success
- 13:28like that. For me, it's never been about how
- 13:30much money am I going to make up front? What
- 13:33like what am I going to be compensated? What
- 13:35do I get out of this? And that's where I think
- 13:37a lot of people go wrong with networking. Like
- 13:38I'd even in I guess I'll call it undergrad. I've
- 13:41never referred to it as that because I never
- 13:43even got my associate's degree. But like in my
- 13:46undergrad, per se, like I. Saw so many people
- 13:49and we were always getting advice like you need
- 13:52to network with people and you build connections
- 13:53and this and that I'm like but how and then i
- 13:56realized i like looked at what i was doing when
- 13:58i was connecting with people at basketball games
- 14:00or working in the athletics department and i
- 14:02realized that i was just connecting like networking
- 14:04to me is you have something that i want or i
- 14:08have something that you want and so we're going
- 14:09to network together and we're going to build
- 14:10a network of people that can do that connecting
- 14:13is we're going to connect and then when the opportunity
- 14:15presents itself then we have the opportunity
- 14:17to do something together right and i mean that's
- 14:20kind of how we met too we went to a jazz game
- 14:21we were chatting we we connected we found different
- 14:24spots I was like, what are you working on? What
- 14:25do you need help with? Oh, you're building this
- 14:27cool thing. I've got the perfect person that
- 14:29could help you build that with the right budget
- 14:30and save you a lot of money. Let me connect you
- 14:32guys together. That's my day to day now. And
- 14:34it literally is just putting people together
- 14:36and finding out every single day. It's talking
- 14:38to a new person, figuring out what they're working
- 14:40on, what they're excited about, what problems
- 14:42that they're facing, and then having a solution
- 14:44to be able to connect in together and finding
- 14:46ways to solve everyone's problems. And then as
- 14:47a result, the effect, not the cause, is you're
- 14:50very fairly compensated when you do that. Right.
- 14:53And then. My day -to -day now, literally, everything
- 14:55that I do revolves around helping people do what
- 14:58they love to do. So I think that regardless of
- 15:00if you're in your undergrad, if you're in your
- 15:02master's degree, when you were connecting with
- 15:05people in your law program, it was probably a
- 15:08little bit easier because you had common ground.
- 15:10It was easier for you to make connections because
- 15:11you knew, if I invest into this relationship,
- 15:15we have a whole career that we could be friends
- 15:17together. Whereas in undergrad, not that it seems
- 15:19pointless, but it's a little bit harder because
- 15:21I felt the exact same thing. was sitting in that
- 15:23marketing class I was surrounded by students
- 15:26that while it was a general marketing class I
- 15:29was surrounded by students that yes we're going
- 15:30to be in that program for another three years
- 15:33in college but I could tell that most of them
- 15:35didn't really enjoy it they didn't really love
- 15:37it and so I I wasn't incentivized to want to
- 15:40build into that or stick around or stay inside
- 15:42of that program because it wasn't gonna be what
- 15:44I necessarily wanted yes that was a little selfish
- 15:46but I think that if you're gonna be selfish it's
- 15:48gonna be about your career in your life sure
- 15:49but I think that the the most valuable thing
- 15:52that come out of life are when we connect with
- 15:54people on an authentic level and find ways for
- 15:56us to mutually benefit and help each other out.
- 15:58Adam Grant wrote a book, Give and Take. Yeah.
- 16:01And in that, he talks a lot about that idea,
- 16:03right? That you have people who are takers. And
- 16:05those are the traditional, like, that gives me
- 16:07the ick when it comes to networking. Someone
- 16:09who I can clearly tell that, like, they're trying
- 16:11to network with me just because they want something
- 16:13from me. And the question is always, like, what
- 16:15I can do for them. And I don't like that at all.
- 16:18And that's why I always hated networking, to
- 16:20be honest. Like it was something early on in
- 16:22my career that at my last firm, they were very
- 16:25entrepreneurial and they would encourage me to,
- 16:27but I hated because that's the only thing that
- 16:28I knew. Oh, go to these networking groups and
- 16:31you're just looking for somebody that can give
- 16:33you something. And that's why I hated it. And
- 16:35once I started evolving in my career, especially
- 16:37as I opened up my own firm and started realizing
- 16:39like, hey, just creating genuine connections.
- 16:41and seeing what I can do to help somebody else,
- 16:42much like you do, that's brought me way more
- 16:45opportunities, and been much more fulfilling,
- 16:47to be honest. Because then sometimes I just have
- 16:49a genuine connection with somebody, and we don't
- 16:50end up doing anything together, but I learn something
- 16:52from them, right? And I learn something that
- 16:54they've done in their career, or I get connected
- 16:56with somebody else, and it's just a much more,
- 16:58I guess for me, fulfilling and enjoyable way
- 17:01of having connection, as opposed to this like,
- 17:03let's go out and be a taker and network that
- 17:05way. Or even, I mean, just as bad too as people
- 17:08who are just givers and only give but aren't
- 17:11willing to accept something back. Like one of
- 17:13the things you said was that as you've done that,
- 17:15you've also been fairly compensated. And so in
- 17:18this idea of having these connections, you do
- 17:19need to be willing to accept back when those
- 17:22things come, when those opportunities come. Yeah.
- 17:24And I think there's a difference between receiving
- 17:27and taking. right like yes i'm i'm not one i'm
- 17:31not one to call in favors very frequently like
- 17:33i could but i'm not the type of person that likes
- 17:36to do that like i in in my opinion my entire
- 17:39business model is is set up in the way primarily
- 17:42just on performance fees so like i'd i noticed
- 17:46that a lot of people whether that's in my industry
- 17:48doing business development or sales or brokering
- 17:51things like some people will charge like an upfront
- 17:53retainer and then they'll take a performance
- 17:55fee i like to just take the performance fee because
- 17:57in my opinion this really only works and and
- 18:01this is really only a win -win anytime i'm heading
- 18:03into a project or a deal like it it's really
- 18:06only a win -win if I win when you win rather
- 18:10than me charging you up front. And then you have
- 18:12to make and recoup those costs when we both win.
- 18:14And then you end up making less because you had
- 18:16to pay me up front. But then I'm also going to
- 18:17take a performance fee on top. Like I want to
- 18:20be just as incentivized and work on deals or
- 18:23projects or with people so that the only time
- 18:25that I win is if we all win together. And that's
- 18:28proven. I mean, that alone has helped me build
- 18:31some incredible relationships with people because
- 18:33it allows I'm always. You probably feel the same.
- 18:37When you first get to know someone, I'm always
- 18:39trying to sniff out, what does this person want
- 18:41from me? Is there something that they're trying
- 18:43to get? Are they angling for something? When
- 18:46I started adopting that method of, hey, I'm going
- 18:49to help you, and if you win, then I win as well.
- 18:52I'll just take a 20 % performance fee. When people
- 18:55realized that I wasn't trying to sell them anything,
- 18:58I was just like, let's just figure out what we
- 18:59want to do, how we want to do it, make it a win.
- 19:01it disarms people in a way where they're like,
- 19:03okay, I can let my guard down a little bit because
- 19:05I'm not trying to be sold. And I think that's
- 19:08actually one of the things that I noticed. I've
- 19:09got a project that I'm working on, on a contract
- 19:13on a business project, and I talked to you right
- 19:14before this interview. I looked at the stickers
- 19:18on your office when I walked in, and it says
- 19:20business law, estate, divorce attorney, family
- 19:24law, and then at the bottom it says business
- 19:27law. And I know that you guys are experts when
- 19:30it comes to... family estate divorce right i
- 19:33didn't i actually was wondering and and when
- 19:36i walked in today it confirmed i was like i wonder
- 19:37if he does anything with business because i need
- 19:39to ask him a question on a contract that i'm
- 19:40working on and from there we'd already built
- 19:43the connection and then when the opportunity
- 19:44popped up i knew who the person was that i needed
- 19:46to go to and that's just been the the model that
- 19:48i've tried to build for all my relationships
- 19:50because when someone feels like they're constantly
- 19:52being sold when someone feels like you're only
- 19:54connecting with them because they need something
- 19:58I was guest lecturing at a university a couple
- 20:00months ago and a student came up to me and said,
- 20:02hey, I'm looking for a job. Can I send you my
- 20:04resume and will you send me any jobs that you
- 20:06see open? I'm like, who are you? What's your
- 20:08background? What do you do? What's your last
- 20:09name? What's your first name? What do you want
- 20:12to do? What career have you done? What study?
- 20:14Like, what are you interested in doing? I didn't
- 20:15know any of that information, but it was just
- 20:17like, hey, you're connected. Looks like you do
- 20:18really cool things. Here's my resume. Can you
- 20:20get me a job? I'm like, I got to get to know
- 20:22you first. I can't make a suggestion or a recommendation
- 20:24if I don't know you first. that whole thing goes
- 20:27for everything in life you have to build the
- 20:29relationship first to be able to have that perspective
- 20:31and opportunity to then open it up to the rest
- 20:33of the things that need to happen yeah for sure
- 20:36one of the things we were talking about too with
- 20:37what you're kind of doing with these connections
- 20:40that you have and what people are coming to you
- 20:42for is problem solving And that kind of takes
- 20:46us to what our topic is today, which is how do
- 20:49we see the problems that we're facing? How do
- 20:52we look at those in a different way? And one
- 20:55of the things that I wanted to have you share
- 20:57about was your Porsche story that we talked about
- 21:01before of what happened one time when you were
- 21:04dealing with, I think it was the sale or purchase
- 21:06of a Porsche. And how you had to look at that
- 21:10differently. So if you wouldn't mind sharing
- 21:12that story and we can kind of talk about the
- 21:14lessons you learned from it. Yeah. Well, I think
- 21:17I'll start with I'm really big on perspectives,
- 21:19right? Like I tried to learn very early on. And
- 21:24not ever take the victim mentality, right? Because
- 21:26I realized that another kind of lesson and theme
- 21:29that I learned early on, even when things are
- 21:32going wrong, they're going right. So back in
- 21:34October, this is kind of a funny story. I actually
- 21:37had this other car that I was looking at buying.
- 21:39I would qualify myself as like a retro car collector
- 21:44now. It's not anything crazy, but they're cool
- 21:46cars and I like them. So I had this car out in
- 21:49the Midwest that I was looking at buying. I found
- 21:50it on Facebook. I booked a flight. I let the
- 21:53guy know. that i was coming out to check it out
- 21:54make sure that everything was good and then i
- 21:56was gonna buy it i was gonna trailer it back
- 21:58to chicago uh and then uh and then i was gonna
- 22:01have a friend ship it back for me um and so i
- 22:04booked the flight and i let the guy know that
- 22:06i booked it and three hours later he sends me
- 22:08a message he's like hey uh i just sold the car
- 22:10i'm like I just booked the flight. Like I'm coming
- 22:14out in two weeks. So I ended up going out because
- 22:16I'd booked a non -refundable ticket, mistake
- 22:19number one. But then I had also texted my high
- 22:22school. I was like, hey, I'm coming back into
- 22:24town. We kind of have this thing where I'll come
- 22:27back and speak if I'm in town and speak to a
- 22:29couple of their business classes. So I'd already
- 22:31confirmed for three straight days of me speaking
- 22:34at my high school too. So I did periods one through
- 22:36eight day one, one through eight day two, and
- 22:38then one through five day three. I'd already
- 22:39confirmed for all of these around this trip.
- 22:41So, trip gets canceled, and I'm just like, my
- 22:44goodness. Well, the purchase of the car gets
- 22:48canceled, but the trip is still going on. So,
- 22:50I'm looking at my phone, and I'm like, all right,
- 22:52let's just, I don't know, my go -to and default
- 22:55when I'm bored is I get on Facebook Marketplace.
- 22:57And so, I pull up Facebook Marketplace, and I'm
- 22:58looking at my phone, and this. really cool vintage
- 23:01Porsche pops up. And I'm like, oh, that looks
- 23:03really cool. I've always wanted one of those.
- 23:05It was about the same price as the car that I
- 23:06was looking at in the Midwest. And so I sent
- 23:09a message to the person. It looked like a really
- 23:11good deal. I sent a message to them. I was like,
- 23:13hey, I'd really love to come take a look at this.
- 23:15Would that be all right? And they're like, yeah,
- 23:17we have a couple other people that are interested.
- 23:20I was like, I can come look at it. I can come
- 23:22look at it this afternoon. They're like, okay.
- 23:24So I drive over. I go over like two hours later.
- 23:27I go look at it. It's a 1983 Porsche 944 five
- 23:31-speed manual. They're the original family owners.
- 23:35Her dad was the one that took delivery of it
- 23:37on July 1st, 1983. Garage kept, original everything.
- 23:42Like it was in beautiful condition. 47 ,000 miles.
- 23:44Like it just, it was a true, just like perfect
- 23:48find. And so I look at it. I asked her husband.
- 23:53to take me for a drive because i couldn't remember
- 23:55how to drive stick shifts because it's been so
- 23:56long so he takes me around the block i'm like
- 23:58yeah this thing's sick i'll take it uh i'm like
- 24:01how many other people do you have coming to look
- 24:02at he's like ah we have like six people coming
- 24:04to look at it on saturday this is a thursday
- 24:06i'm like i'll take it So I'm like, I'll send
- 24:08you 500 bucks on Venmo right now. Let me come
- 24:10back tomorrow and we'll complete everything.
- 24:11So I go back the next day and I had scheduled
- 24:16the wire and the payment to go through at 12
- 24:18o 'clock. And we were going to meet up at their
- 24:21house at one o 'clock and we were going to go
- 24:23and do all the paperwork. So I get there at one
- 24:25o 'clock. My wire still hasn't been sent. I call
- 24:27up my bank. I'm like, hey, I'm trying to get
- 24:29this wire to go through for this purchase. And
- 24:31they're like, OK, you're in the queue, but we.
- 24:35yeah, you're, you're in the queue, but I will
- 24:38just get to you when we get to you. And so I
- 24:40tell that to the, to the owner of the car and
- 24:42he's, they invite me in and they're like, you
- 24:45can just hang out. And why don't we just hang
- 24:46out until the wire goes through? It should be,
- 24:48it should be, you know, a short amount of time.
- 24:50Next thing I know, I've been in there like in
- 24:52his den and study and kind of living room area
- 24:55for like two and a half hours. So it's like three
- 24:5730 at this point, it's Halloween. My wife is
- 25:00like, Hey, we need to get back. We're going trick
- 25:01or treating. We need to meet at my dad's. We've
- 25:02got a two -year -old. It's her first like conscious
- 25:05Halloween where we're actually going to remember
- 25:06what she's doing. Um, and so I'm sitting in the
- 25:09living room and we ended up just having this
- 25:11phenomenal conversation, um, talking about, uh,
- 25:14life and career. And we get into it for a little
- 25:17bit and, and the dad goes, Hey, I, you know,
- 25:19I actually have a son that just got back from
- 25:20his mission. He's kind of looking for some, uh,
- 25:22for some career ideas and things that he wants
- 25:24to do. Um, would you be okay if he came and sat
- 25:27in with us? I was like, yeah, absolutely. So
- 25:28son comes in and then daughter comes in at one
- 25:31point, mom, we got the whole family here. There's
- 25:33like a party in there. or waiting for the wire
- 25:36to go through. And I'm looking at my phone every
- 25:38like 10 minutes because I'm just totally inconveniencing
- 25:40these people. But we're sitting there and we're
- 25:43talking and we kind of get into talking about
- 25:45my career a little bit, how I dropped out a year
- 25:47before I got my associate's degree. I didn't
- 25:49really know what I wanted to do, but I knew that
- 25:50I wanted to do something in business. And we
- 25:53go through this whole conversation and then we
- 25:55get into mental health. And mental health's a
- 25:57really big part of my story. A couple years ago,
- 25:59I got diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, depression,
- 26:02and OCD. That is what led me to doing ice baths.
- 26:05I then started posting my ice baths on TikTok,
- 26:08which led me to becoming CEO of an ice bath business
- 26:10in Indiana. There's a whole lot more that we
- 26:12can unpack there on episode two. But we get into
- 26:15all of this stuff and just how mental health
- 26:16has played a pivotal role for me in needing to
- 26:19be able to understand, one, connecting with myself,
- 26:22giving myself a little bit of grace, but also
- 26:24sometimes having to relinquish stuff to God and
- 26:27understanding that things are out of my hands
- 26:29at some points. And we connect with... I feel
- 26:33like I'm connecting really well with their son.
- 26:35And he looks at me and he goes, last night I
- 26:38was actually praying that I would find some direction
- 26:41of what I wanted to do in life. I've been having
- 26:44a really hard time with it. My friends are all
- 26:45going to college. I feel like I'm kind of stuck
- 26:47and I don't know what to do. And I sat down and
- 26:51I said a prayer last night. And I didn't expect
- 26:54for that prayer to be answered within 12 hours.
- 26:56And I looked at that and... I started shedding
- 27:00tears. I was just like, can you imagine if that
- 27:03car sale in the Midwest had gone through? If
- 27:06everything had gone right, if I hadn't happened
- 27:10to open my phone at the exact right time, I'm
- 27:13not saying that the thing that went right here
- 27:14was that I got a really cool car, but yes, that's
- 27:16a great thing that I got out there. I'm excited.
- 27:18For me, I had to take a step back and just realize
- 27:22that I was exactly where I needed to be. And
- 27:25if everything had gone how I wanted it to, if
- 27:27I'd gotten the car, if I'd gone out to Chicago,
- 27:29none of these other things would have happened.
- 27:31If the wire hadn't gone through and we would
- 27:34have only been there for 10 minutes, we would
- 27:35miss out on this whole conversation. And so we
- 27:37go through that and he says that and we share
- 27:39a quick hug, embrace for a second. And as soon
- 27:42as he says that, my phone dings and the wire
- 27:44goes through. And so I'm just sitting there.
- 27:46I'm like, OK, this is exactly what was supposed
- 27:48to happen. And it goes back to that perspective
- 27:50that I shared of even when things are going wrong,
- 27:53they're going right. All of those things had
- 27:54to go wrong in order for them to go right in
- 27:58that given moment. And so now, every single time
- 28:01I get in that 1983 Porsche 944, that's what I
- 28:04think of when I sit down in the driver's seat.
- 28:07I mean, how could you not? Right. And it was
- 28:09a really it was a very humbling experience for
- 28:12me. Like, I just felt like I was there and part
- 28:14of it. Not that I like played a massive role,
- 28:16but I had to be there. And it's something that
- 28:19I will remember forever. It's a story that I'll
- 28:21pass on to my kids. But I'm just so grateful
- 28:23for stuff like that. It all comes down to perspective,
- 28:25though, and being willing to look at things.
- 28:27Like I said, it would be very easy to look at
- 28:29the victim mentality and get mad at the guy that
- 28:31sold the car and, you know, this and that and
- 28:34just missing the opportunity. and not being willing
- 28:37to like move forward after one little setback
- 28:39I would have missed out on everything else that
- 28:41was supposed to happen even though it technically
- 28:43was going wrong right for sure we end and so
- 28:48what where does that come from where instead
- 28:50of just being mad the guy who sold the car ready
- 28:52or instead of the wires delayed and just getting
- 28:56in your car and just you know playing on your
- 28:58phone or going somewhere else But instead of
- 29:01being frustrated or mad at that, where does that
- 29:03come from for you where you made that decision
- 29:05to not let that stand in your way and still look
- 29:08for the next thing, still look for the positive
- 29:12in the situation, still look for the lessons
- 29:13there or being open to what's there? I think
- 29:16part of it comes from... I mean, a lot of it
- 29:19is mindset. A lot of it is mentality. One of
- 29:22the things that really helped me with that, I
- 29:24started listening to the Daily Stoic in like
- 29:262021 from Ryan Holiday, which is a daily podcast
- 29:30on stoicism, different principle or tenant. And
- 29:33when I started listening to that, I felt like
- 29:35it really aligned with my beliefs and helped
- 29:36me instill some really positive mindsets. But
- 29:39I think that most of it honestly comes down to
- 29:41there's a really good book called Extreme Ownership.
- 29:44And there's one phrase that kind of I think is
- 29:47kind of. like the tie between stoicism and this
- 29:49book and it's if not me then who if not now then
- 29:52when like if if not me then who's going to do
- 29:55it if i don't do it now then when is it ever
- 29:57going to get done and so i've just kind of adopted
- 30:00this mindset of like if something's going wrong
- 30:04it's probably my responsibility to fix it and
- 30:07i'm going to be the one to give and give and
- 30:09give and give and give and try to do it and i
- 30:11know that people are going to take and take and
- 30:13take and take maybe occasionally i'll take something
- 30:15in return but that that's just kind of been the
- 30:16mindset that i've adopted and things have worked
- 30:18out pretty good for me and so when i've seen
- 30:20the theme i've seen it proven and i see that
- 30:23it pays off in the long run my mentality is just
- 30:25if if something goes wrong there's a reason that
- 30:28it's supposed to and i need to do something about
- 30:31it and if something needs to get done or a problem
- 30:34pops up then it's my responsibility to fix that
- 30:37or do it and i'd say that works nine times out
- 30:39of ten there's sometimes where i like run into
- 30:41a wall and there's nothing that i can do some
- 30:43things are just out of your control but for the
- 30:45most part adopting that mindset has helped me
- 30:47take a lot more I'd say a lot more ownership
- 30:50and having higher agency with what I end up doing
- 30:53in life. Yeah, for sure. Before we jump back
- 30:56in, can I ask you a quick favor? If you're enjoying
- 30:59the journey so far, will you like rate and subscribe
- 31:03to our show? It helps us reach more people like
- 31:06you. We can design and create and build the most
- 31:09wonderful place in the world, but it takes people
- 31:12to make the dream a reality. Well, let's kind
- 31:17of take a look then at how we see kind of this
- 31:20general topic when it comes to this movie, Luca.
- 31:23Okay. So set the stage, if you will, in case
- 31:26somebody hasn't seen Luca, what that overarching
- 31:28story is of Luca. So Luca, I would say the distinction
- 31:33is we've got a civilization of people, sea monsters
- 31:36that live below the water. My daughter loves
- 31:38Luca. This is one of our favorites. But we have
- 31:42the civilization of people that live below the
- 31:43water, the sea monsters. And then you have the
- 31:45people that live on land. I believe it takes
- 31:47place in Italy. It does. Okay, so it takes place
- 31:49in Italy. And then you've got the people that
- 31:52hate the sea monsters. This would be like if
- 31:53crocodiles could speak and they were coming up
- 31:55and standing on two legs. And we're like, no,
- 31:57we hate crocodiles. They should not be riding
- 31:59our bicycles. But we've got two primary characters,
- 32:02Luca and remind me the other. Alberto. Alberto.
- 32:07They become friends. They start to realize that
- 32:10they can break the surface of the water and actually
- 32:13go up to live with the land people, right? The
- 32:15land monsters is probably how they think of it.
- 32:17And they, I don't remember exactly how we get
- 32:20to it, but they really want a Vespa. They want
- 32:22like this little scooter. And they're having
- 32:24to do these things to like camouflage themselves
- 32:26anytime it rains or anytime. they get wet it
- 32:29like turns their skin back into looking like
- 32:32a sea monster and they have to stay hidden and
- 32:35covered uh from all the people so they don't
- 32:37get discovered that they're sea monsters um and
- 32:40they go through this whole movie basically learning
- 32:41and trying to find ways for them to blend in
- 32:43in this area in civilization where where they
- 32:45grew up they're not allowed to be there these
- 32:47are the bad people but they find out that these
- 32:49people like really aren't that bad uh but they
- 32:52just have this preconceived notion that sea monsters
- 32:55are really bad and so it's this whole story of
- 32:57friendship becoming friends with people from
- 33:00other areas finding ways to find those common
- 33:02interests and and blend to with the overarching
- 33:05goal of getting a Vespa while there's a lot more
- 33:07and a lot more things that happen inside of there.
- 33:10But that's kind of the theme is like having a
- 33:12different perspective of these people that traditionally
- 33:14haven't really liked each other, but finding
- 33:16common ground for them to become friends and
- 33:18realizing that they're not that different. Yeah,
- 33:19I think that's perfect. And so what I want to
- 33:21do is there's a couple of lines that I really
- 33:23like in here. And there's some other quotes too
- 33:24that I want to ask you about and get your perspective
- 33:25on. So at the very beginning, when Luca is under
- 33:31the water, and he's kind of shepherding these
- 33:34fish, much like a shepherd on the land would.
- 33:36And he's experiencing different things, and he's
- 33:38finding some things from the humans that float
- 33:40down. And his mom does not like this at all.
- 33:44And his mom says to him, the curious fish gets
- 33:47caught. And so what kind of limiting belief do
- 33:51you think that is? I mean, the mom didn't have
- 33:53bad intentions at all, right? It's not like his
- 33:55mom's trying to be mean to him. But in what way
- 33:58was that a limiting thing for Luca to hear? Well,
- 34:02I think it, I mean... curious fish gets caught
- 34:04this kind of now reminds me of like finding nemo
- 34:06right like you get curious you start to look
- 34:08for other things not maybe not necessarily in
- 34:11a bad way but like being willing to discover
- 34:14new things is going to open you up to a new world
- 34:16but when we grow up inside of this box and we
- 34:19know that this is our section of the ocean and
- 34:23we do not leave this fence everything outside
- 34:26of it is bad everything that is different is
- 34:28bad it restricts us to thinking that we can only
- 34:31play within this sandbox but how i actually like
- 34:34to think of those things is it's more of like
- 34:36a gate it's like a fence this is a barrier of
- 34:39safety but the gate can open and we can go out
- 34:41and we can branch out and go to other areas while
- 34:43knowing that we have the safety of our own home
- 34:45to come back to but i think that that is just
- 34:47a pure limiting belief of thinking that you know
- 34:51Everything else that is different from what we
- 34:53have right now, we're good. We should be comfortable.
- 34:55We have everything that we need. We don't need
- 34:58other people's things or ideas or perspectives
- 35:00or anything that they have is going to be different.
- 35:02Why can't we just be happy and comfortable with
- 35:04what we have now? But that's very limited because
- 35:06there's so much more that's out there. There's
- 35:08so much that we're missing out on if we restrict
- 35:11ourselves to just staying within the box. For
- 35:13sure. One of the things that I thought really
- 35:17ties into this is something that Stephen Covey
- 35:20said that you're probably familiar with as well.
- 35:23He said the way we see the problem is the problem.
- 35:27And so in what way is that kind of the case,
- 35:30both in the story of Luca, but also in problems
- 35:33that people would face in their businesses or
- 35:35in their lives? I think a lot of it comes down
- 35:38to learning to remove yourself from the situation.
- 35:43Like if it wasn't you, it's really easy for us
- 35:46to look at things and put a lot more emotion
- 35:48and weight to them and think that it's the end
- 35:50of the world when a decision is being made for
- 35:52us. But it's really easy for us to like look
- 35:55at other people's situations, be like, oh, all
- 35:56you need to do is this like that. Why don't you
- 35:59just do this one thing? That's the only thing
- 36:00that you need to do. So I think one, we need
- 36:03to take ourselves a little less serious because
- 36:05at the end of the day, like worst case scenario
- 36:07really isn't that bad. Like, oh, bummer, like
- 36:10you made a mistake at work. Now you know not
- 36:12to make that mistake anymore. But, oh, if you
- 36:15spend your whole life trying to focus on not
- 36:17making mistakes, you're going to miss out on
- 36:20all the things that you could have learned if
- 36:21you were just willing to make one or two mistakes.
- 36:24And so, you know, I think that looking at, I
- 36:29think so many people get focused on the problem
- 36:32and looking at the problem and talking about
- 36:34the problem rather than. theorizing on and identifying
- 36:38solutions to what that problem could be so that
- 36:41that thing doesn't need to be a problem anymore
- 36:43like i don't i i look at problems as open loops
- 36:45and when i have like an open loop that hasn't
- 36:47been closed then it's just like piling up for
- 36:50me of all of these things that i know that i
- 36:52need to close the loop on and solve the problem
- 36:54for and so my mind is much more ocd and that
- 36:57like i need to close all of those loops and solve
- 36:59all of those problems but i think that the the
- 37:01more willing we are how we look at the problem
- 37:03is the problem we need to take a step back and
- 37:06realize that it's just a problem yes it's my
- 37:08problem but for now it's just a problem remove
- 37:11myself from the situation if i were going to
- 37:13make the suggestion to a friend what would i
- 37:16tell them to do if it weren't me in this scenario
- 37:18because you look at the word the long enough
- 37:20and it starts to not look like a word anymore
- 37:22i feel like the same thing happens when we're
- 37:24looking at our problems or issues or relationships
- 37:26or things that we're looking at and in reality
- 37:27we just need to take a step back not take ourselves
- 37:29so serious and be like if this were my best friend
- 37:32in this situation what would i tell them to do
- 37:34to solve this problem Yeah, and I wish I knew
- 37:37the research on this specifically, but it's research
- 37:39that I've heard both Brene Brown and Adam Grant
- 37:41talking about where when you're able to remove
- 37:43yourself from it and see it from that perspective
- 37:45outside, it helps you to overcome that problem
- 37:48because it's not you. the issue isn't you it's
- 37:52just something you were facing and the ability
- 37:54to take that perspective away from it allows
- 37:57you to then move past it because it is just a
- 38:00problem that you can then solve and move fast
- 38:02as opposed to i am the problem i am the thing
- 38:06that's gone wrong yeah and and i there's a really
- 38:09good book i'll reference ryan holiday again he's
- 38:11got a really good book called the obstacle is
- 38:12the way like i fell in love with when i when
- 38:16i started doing a deep dive into like mental
- 38:18health and understanding myself rather than looking
- 38:21at things as problems like oh why do i do this
- 38:24like why this is such a problem for me i just
- 38:26started realizing like oh this is this is a behavior
- 38:28that i do this is something that i do what can
- 38:30i do to change that oh, when I go into social
- 38:33situations and I say something stupid, I don't
- 38:35actually have to go home and overanalyze for
- 38:38three hours and toss and turn in bed wondering
- 38:40why I said that. Like, oh, wow, I just saved
- 38:42myself three hours every single time I go out
- 38:44in a social situation, all this stress and weight.
- 38:46And I realized, you know what, I'm going to say
- 38:48some stupid things. But if you don't say some
- 38:50stupid things, you don't say some funny things,
- 38:51right? And so I just realized that I had to loosen
- 38:53up a little bit for myself and not take myself
- 38:56so seriously in those situations. But when I
- 38:59stopped looking at things as like, these are
- 39:01like my problems this is a character flaw and
- 39:03just realized these are things that i can tackle
- 39:06and i will be better as a result of fixing them
- 39:10or solving them i started becoming obsessed with
- 39:13problem solving because we're not taught to i
- 39:16don't feel like we do a good job of teaching
- 39:18how to approach conflict Like we would rather
- 39:20avoid conflict and avoid a hard conversation
- 39:22rather than address it and love and bask in the
- 39:26glory of what's on the other side of just addressing
- 39:28a problem with someone, right? Addressing contention
- 39:31or something that we're running into. And so
- 39:32as soon as I started to realize that, and when
- 39:34I read that book, The Obstacle is the Way, I
- 39:37started to just fall in love with the idea of
- 39:39when I have obstacles, this is the way that I'm
- 39:42supposed to be going. like you're going to run
- 39:43into things and the more the more tolerance that
- 39:46you build up to be able to have hard conversations
- 39:48to be able to diagnose really tough problems
- 39:51to figure out solutions to those problems and
- 39:53this could go business or relationships right
- 39:56any of those things right there when those obstacles
- 39:59start to be overcome you become a lot better
- 40:03at overcoming obstacles and everything becomes
- 40:05less stressful the problems that I was solving
- 40:07five years ago in my career were like the smallest
- 40:09little tiny things in the world compared to what
- 40:11I'm doing now but I couldn't have had the confidence
- 40:14to do what I do now if I didn't just start solving
- 40:16and overcoming obstacles where I started at.
- 40:19Yeah, that was what you needed so that you can
- 40:20overcome greater obstacles. Correct, yeah. Another
- 40:23quote from the movie. I want to get your take
- 40:24on. This is a classic one. This is one of the
- 40:27most famous ones from the movie. It's where Alberto
- 40:30and Luca are talking, and Luca's afraid to go
- 40:33down this little hill on their homemade Vespa
- 40:37that keeps falling apart. And Alberto says to
- 40:41him, I know your problem. You've got a Bruno
- 40:43in your head. Luca, it's simple. Don't listen
- 40:45to stupid Bruno. And I think it's that sometimes
- 40:49people do let that Bruno in their head really
- 40:51hold them back. Yeah. I think that when you start
- 40:56to identify that voice, you realize how frequently
- 40:59that voice is there. Yeah. Right? Like when you
- 41:02hear that. uh, negative self -talk, you realize
- 41:06how frequently you're actually doing it. And,
- 41:09well, uh, this was probably three or four years
- 41:12ago. Um, one of the spots where I really, I was
- 41:15at a spot in life. I used to spend a ton of time
- 41:17in the sauna. I still do, but I would spend like
- 41:20a big sauna guy. I would spend like 20 to 30
- 41:22minutes a day in the sauna. And that's where
- 41:24I would, that's where I learned how to think.
- 41:26no one no one had ever taught me how to think
- 41:28and so i i started realizing i was just like
- 41:30i would just run through like my day to start
- 41:32and i'd look at all of these things and then
- 41:34i'd like listen to how my brain would react and
- 41:36respond to things that had happened through the
- 41:38day and then i would start making note of like
- 41:40why am i being so hard on myself for this thing
- 41:43like I did 10 reps instead of 12 at the gym.
- 41:47Like, why am I telling myself that, oh, you're
- 41:49weak. You didn't go as hard as you could have.
- 41:51You know, you didn't do this to completion. I'm
- 41:54like, I did the very best that I could. Like,
- 41:55I'm happy with that. Yes, I understand like challenging
- 41:57yourself sometimes and not skating by. But like,
- 42:00as I started to listen to this Bruno in my head,
- 42:03I realized how frequently that I was doing that.
- 42:06And then I actually, some may call it like heebie
- 42:08-jeebie, right? But like, whenever I was alone
- 42:11in the sauna, like I would actually talk back
- 42:12to myself. And I was sitting there. I'm sure
- 42:15there were people that walked up, opened the
- 42:16door, heard me talking. They're like, yeah, I'm
- 42:18not going in there. That guy's creepy. But I
- 42:20would be sitting in the sauna and I'd hear something.
- 42:21I'd be like, no, that's not the way it is. And
- 42:24I started doing this positive reinforcement to
- 42:26myself. And that was where I felt like I really
- 42:28started taking this connection of like. Ryan
- 42:30who's in my heart and Bruno Ryan who's in my
- 42:33head and starting to get him out of my head a
- 42:35little bit more and get my heart to pop up here
- 42:37a little bit more. I felt like I built this in
- 42:39tune relationship with myself that wasn't there
- 42:41because I was letting Bruno Ryan talk so much
- 42:45more than Ryan Ryan. And I think for me, the
- 42:47Bruno Ryan, because I guess that's for me as
- 42:49well, right? Yeah, there you go. That happens
- 42:51when I don't take the time to slow down. And
- 42:55then it's just like I'm in the heat of it and
- 42:58I'm negative self -talk and doing that. For me,
- 43:01what I found where I get that opportunity to
- 43:03almost have this meditative status actually in
- 43:05running, which I used to hate. I just hated it.
- 43:09and i have one of my best friends who just loves
- 43:11running and kept encouraging me to do it and
- 43:14i finally started doing it it took me a long
- 43:15time to get there to that point but once i did
- 43:18now when i run i get to that state where i can
- 43:21think through my day. I can think through the
- 43:24things that are holding me back. I can think
- 43:26through problems in a way that I just can't at
- 43:29any other time of day because it's so busy. When
- 43:30I look at my day and my schedule, it's like almost
- 43:33every minute of every day is just scheduled out.
- 43:35And taking that time though, first thing, I'm
- 43:38a morning person. Taking that time first thing,
- 43:40getting out running when no one else is awake.
- 43:42I run at 4 .30 in the morning. No one else is
- 43:44out there. It's still dark. The whole world is
- 43:47my oyster. And I can just think through those
- 43:50things. And then that Bruno in my head gets a
- 43:54lot quieter and then I'm able to process through
- 43:57like who I am and what I want to accomplish and
- 43:59putting things into perspective a lot better
- 44:01when I'm able to do that. Yeah. Well now, as
- 44:04you're saying that, isn't there a quote in the
- 44:06movie where he says like silencio Bruno, silencio
- 44:09Bruno? Yes. Yes. Um, so yeah. And, and I think
- 44:12there's, there's one thing in there that you
- 44:13said that I want to highlight. You default to
- 44:16that talk when you're busy. Because that's our
- 44:20natural reaction. When things are going wrong,
- 44:23just when life is happening, our default reaction
- 44:26is to respond in a way that puts us on guard
- 44:30and covers and is like a protective state. And
- 44:33it's like justifying other people's actions or
- 44:35the things that they did or the errors that they
- 44:37made, justifying the things that I did as a survival
- 44:40mechanism. But in reality, when we're doing that,
- 44:43that is just pure reactionary. And out of fear.
- 44:45Yeah, it's out of fear. Reacting out of fear.
- 44:48Whereas when you take the time to actually stop
- 44:49and think and be like, OK, they said this. Did
- 44:52they mean this or did they mean this? Because
- 44:53they have these five other things that's going
- 44:55on in life. And all of those things are causing
- 44:58all this pain and hardship. And that is what's
- 45:00manifesting through what they said to me. That
- 45:02allows you to be. it's not a word, but I'll say
- 45:04instead of being reactionary, proactionary, and
- 45:07you can actually look and bifurcate and separate
- 45:09out these scenarios and situations where people
- 45:12are responding negatively, but you're not reacting
- 45:14to that. You're taking that, you're internalizing
- 45:16it, running it through your filter and being
- 45:18proactive in how you respond to that. And sometimes
- 45:20just in doing that, that's where I've had some
- 45:23of the best conversations is when I see that,
- 45:25I hear that, I listen to that. And then I'm able
- 45:28to say, hey, I take a day or I take two days.
- 45:30I'm like, hey. I know that you said this. I know
- 45:32that you have a lot going on. is there any chance
- 45:35i i know that there's probably something that
- 45:37i could do a little bit better here but with
- 45:39kind of how you approached me and what you said
- 45:41i did notice that i'm not trying to find like
- 45:43another spot or trying to place blame somewhere
- 45:44else i know that you have a lot going on in any
- 45:46of in these other areas like is there stuff that
- 45:49we could do to help solve this so that we can
- 45:51not have this issue again in the future and is
- 45:53there stuff that i can do to help you with that
- 45:55so that we can get more to the root of the problem
- 45:57rather than just the zit and how it's manifesting
- 46:00right like there's more under the surface there
- 46:01that needs to pop for sure so and And to me,
- 46:04that's rooted in empathy. Because when you're
- 46:09looking at that with that person, you've got
- 46:11to care about that person to have that conversation.
- 46:13Because then you're caring about what else is
- 46:16going on in their life. And to me, it's the idea
- 46:20of kindness. Kindness is rooted in empathy. And
- 46:22you can't have that kindness and assume positive
- 46:24intent if you're not willing to try to empathize
- 46:27and understand what's really going on for them.
- 46:29You can't because you ignore those things. You
- 46:31ignore they have other things going on in their
- 46:32life. You just assume it's the worst. So they
- 46:34must mean the worst thing to you, to everybody
- 46:36else. They must be a bad person. But if we can
- 46:39flip that, empathize, find the kindness in the
- 46:42situation, we can really get to the root of the
- 46:44problem a lot easier. Yep, spot on. Yeah. So
- 46:46one more quote that I want to talk about where
- 46:49it kind of wraps up the movie. This is kind of
- 46:51where it reaches kind of the climax, right? So
- 46:53Luca and Alberto do this triathlon. And the triathlon
- 46:58is not a traditional one. It's swimming, a bicycle
- 47:01ride, and also eating pasta because, of course,
- 47:04it's Italy. So it has to be eating pasta, right?
- 47:06They get to the end of this race, and it starts
- 47:08to rain. And so then Luca and Alberto are both
- 47:11revealed to be these sea monsters. During the
- 47:14show, they've built this relationship with Julia,
- 47:16a young lady there who also has this nemesis
- 47:20kid in town who always wins and always beats
- 47:23her down. They build a relationship with her
- 47:25dad, Massimo, who's a fisherman with one arm,
- 47:28who's just this great but very stoic guy. He's
- 47:32this quiet guy. He doesn't say a lot. So they
- 47:35reach the end. They reveal the BBC monsters,
- 47:37and the villain of the show is calling them out.
- 47:40He's like, you guys are just monsters. You're
- 47:42just monsters. And Julius says like, no, they're
- 47:45not monsters. So he says, well, they're not monsters.
- 47:47Who are they? And then big Massimo, who's this
- 47:51huge guy, it's the biggest guy in town. He comes
- 47:53up and he's like, I know who they are. And you're
- 47:55not sure at this point in time, it's gonna be
- 47:57like, yeah, they're monsters. Let's kill them,
- 47:59right? Or what is he gonna say? And he says,
- 48:01I know who they are. They're Luca and Alberto.
- 48:04And to me, it was, it's just such a nice. i don't
- 48:08know it's just really emblematic of what we're
- 48:09talking about here seeing seeing it differently
- 48:12changing perspective let me get your take on
- 48:14that well number one i think that that that could
- 48:17have been like a a teeter that was definitely
- 48:19a teetering point like which way does mossimo
- 48:21lean here if i remember correctly and i could
- 48:23be wrong i'm pretty sure mossimo actually lost
- 48:25his arm to a sea monster I don't remember. I
- 48:28don't remember. I feel like there was some fishing
- 48:30incident or something where he lost his arm.
- 48:32But he definitely did not like sea monsters.
- 48:34Yeah, he didn't like sea monsters. Very antagonistic
- 48:35towards them. You know, looking at it from his
- 48:36perspective, right? Like these are these two
- 48:39kids that this whole time they've been living
- 48:41underneath my nose and they've been visiting
- 48:43and they built a friendship with my daughter
- 48:45and they turn out to be someone completely different
- 48:47from who I thought they were. In fact, they're
- 48:49the epitome of the thing that I hate, right?
- 48:52and to go in that moment and one having the frame
- 48:55of who he is stepping into that moment the whole
- 48:58town is going to listen to whatever he says yes
- 48:59but i think that the most important thing is
- 49:01that he and this truly i think that this is one
- 49:04of the hardest things in life it is near impossible
- 49:07Unless someone is actually willing to do it and
- 49:09go through the hard stuff to change your frame
- 49:11of someone else. Like, my perspective is I don't
- 49:14need someone to show me twice why I can't trust
- 49:16them. But, you know, I'm trusting until someone
- 49:19gives me a reason not to. And it's really hard
- 49:21for people to change a frame, especially for...
- 49:24I don't know how many centuries or layers of
- 49:29the family tree, generations, there we go, that's
- 49:32what I was looking for, how many generations
- 49:33the hate for sea monsters went back. But him
- 49:36saying that was the turning point that now changed
- 49:38the relationship of now being able to, I'll say,
- 49:41cross the border to go out of the water back
- 49:43up into town and having this bilateral relationship
- 49:46to go back and forth. And all of that came from
- 49:48being willing to... loosen your own heart up
- 49:51to see someone for who they actually are and
- 49:54who they've become and all of that trust was
- 49:57built over time if that was just you know they
- 49:59met and then that happened you know the next
- 50:02day there's no way that masmo would have stood
- 50:04up for them no chance but by building that relationship
- 50:05by being there by not networking and connecting
- 50:09right like they built that relationship over
- 50:10time they sat down for dinner together they built
- 50:13the friendship they they slept at the house right
- 50:15like all of those things led into him seeing
- 50:18them through a different light and he's like
- 50:19oh these people are actually just regular people
- 50:22right even though we may think and we've thought
- 50:24for years that they're different and that they're
- 50:27monsters and they're this and that all it took
- 50:29was that one friendship to be kindled and sparked
- 50:31to realize that we're really not that different.
- 50:34Why are we separating ourselves? And I think
- 50:36that resetting the frame is one of the best ways
- 50:39for us to build that deeper relationship with
- 50:41people. So it is so hard to do. especially when
- 50:45it comes from something that might be a deeply
- 50:47held belief or a long time or just assumptions
- 50:49that you've had for a long time. It's hard to
- 50:51break those down, but the willingness to do so
- 50:53and then to lead others in doing it is really
- 50:56something. And that's really what Moss is about.
- 50:57And I think it's important to clarify, like,
- 50:59if you have problems with someone or if someone
- 51:01betrays your trust, you don't need to rework
- 51:04to create the new frame of, like, them in a perfect
- 51:08light. Like, they've already recreated the frame.
- 51:10You trusted them, and now you don't. But I think
- 51:12that there is a lot of value and there's a lot
- 51:15of insight in being willing to be graceful and
- 51:19forgiving someone so that you don't have to carry
- 51:22the weight and the emotion of what they've done
- 51:23to you. I think that that's important to clarify.
- 51:26But I think that it's also good in scenarios
- 51:27where it may be. hey for the longest time a business
- 51:31relationship for example for the longest time
- 51:33we thought that we were competitors but now we
- 51:35realize that we're actually very synonymous and
- 51:37we've got overlap of our customer bases and there's
- 51:40opportunities for us to create a partnership
- 51:42together and this industry and this industry
- 51:44like we very frequently we thought that we hated
- 51:47each other but in reality there's a lot in common
- 51:49here why don't we work together um so i think
- 51:51it's important to clarify there that like if
- 51:53someone burns you or does something bad you don't
- 51:55it's not on you to recreate the frame after they've
- 51:59done that to put them back in the light of being
- 52:00a good person sure but i think it's important
- 52:02to still forgive them allow yourself to move
- 52:04on find closure even if you haven't gotten closure
- 52:08from that person, so that you don't have to carry
- 52:10that weight of the negative frame that they've
- 52:12put on you, and you can just carry with you who
- 52:15you are, understanding, I got the experience
- 52:18and I know what to look for now. But then on
- 52:20the relationship side, being able to reset that
- 52:22frame is very, very important because it opens
- 52:24up a whole other set of opportunities that was
- 52:27just on the other side of this obstacle right
- 52:28here. And that's what we see there, right? That
- 52:31even though Luke and Virgil had lied about who
- 52:33they were, um it was built based off of fear
- 52:37but they also did a lot to help build that relationship
- 52:39with both massimo and julia so that when that
- 52:42time came and they were sorrowful for what they
- 52:44did he was able to embrace that back in and see
- 52:46them in a different light yep um okay so when
- 52:50you when you think about kind of this approach
- 52:53that you've had what's what's kind of the what's
- 52:56kind of the takeaway that somebody could have,
- 52:58general advice, we'll get into our three actual
- 53:00takeaways here in a minute, but what's kind of
- 53:01the general advice that you would give to somebody
- 53:03when they're thinking about this topic in both
- 53:06their business relationships professionally,
- 53:07but also in their personal life? I think the
- 53:10most important thing is figure out who you are
- 53:12and what you stand for, right? Read through the
- 53:16books. I see some books on your shelf that I've
- 53:18read and gone through in here. Read through the
- 53:21books and research information online and study
- 53:26philosophers and different religions and scriptures
- 53:29and figure out what is the philosophy of Ryan.
- 53:33What do I believe? What do I stand for? What
- 53:35do I not put up with? Who am I willing to surround
- 53:38myself? Who am I not willing to surround myself?
- 53:41And then from there, I think that allows you
- 53:43to have your perspective, which is uniquely you.
- 53:46And then I think from there, the most valuable
- 53:48thing that you could then go do is help other
- 53:50people figure that out, whether that is they
- 53:53have a business that they're building and they
- 53:54have this idea and they want to do it and they
- 53:56want to do it this way. But they're missing this
- 53:57one thing that from your perspective, you're
- 53:59able to share a piece of insight that's super
- 54:01valuable or they need help with this other person
- 54:04over here. And, you know, I'm talking about what
- 54:05I do now. Right. But like you're able to connect
- 54:07this other person that has a different perspective
- 54:09or a different insight to do things a different
- 54:11way. You have to figure out who you are first
- 54:14before you can help anyone else. Figure out who
- 54:16they are, do what they want to do. connect with
- 54:19other people. And I think the same thing goes
- 54:21for relationships. My wife, Taylor, is super,
- 54:25super strong in knowing who she is as an individual,
- 54:29who she is as a mom, who she is as a wife, who
- 54:31she is as a dog mom. She has the things that
- 54:34she knows that she has to do to feel comfortable
- 54:37with who she is. And I have the things that I
- 54:39know that I have to do. And we feed off of those
- 54:41and build a, it's not a 50 -50 relationship.
- 54:45We try to treat it as a 100 -100 relationship.
- 54:48We're always giving our all at all points in
- 54:51time. And there are some where I'm doing 75 and
- 54:54she's doing 125. And there's some where I'm doing
- 54:56100 and she's doing 150, right? Like she does
- 54:59a phenomenal job with that. But I think that
- 55:01it's really important to have a clarification
- 55:03of who you are, what you stand for, what you
- 55:05do, so that you can be there as a support and
- 55:06a balance. So that if you come in contact with
- 55:08someone that doesn't know who they are, who they
- 55:10are, what they do, what they stand for, that
- 55:12doesn't throw you off your game. You've got your
- 55:14foundation that you're rooted in, but you're
- 55:16also willing to open up and see things in a different
- 55:19perspective or in a different light by not just
- 55:20saying, oh, I've always my least favorite people
- 55:23in the world. We've always done it this way.
- 55:25This is how it's always been done. This is how
- 55:26I do it. And I'm like. okay, but if we did it
- 55:29this way, it actually would probably be a little
- 55:31bit better. And prove me wrong. Like if it doesn't
- 55:33work, we can go back to doing it your way. But
- 55:34I don't like the people that are just so hardheaded
- 55:37and stuck in their ways that we can't see past
- 55:39or can't see another opportunity because it's
- 55:41an ego stroke or it's a power play. Like we have
- 55:45to be willing to accept us for who we are, accept
- 55:47others for who they are, and find the common
- 55:49ground to build those opportunities. And I think
- 55:52that's the key to successful relationships in
- 55:54life is being able to meet people where they're
- 55:55at too. Yeah, I think that's right. Okay, let's
- 55:58take two quick segments here. Okay. Have some
- 56:00fun. So we're going to first hit a this or that.
- 56:03All right. So you just got to say which one you
- 56:04think. It might be a controversial opinion. You'll
- 56:07have to defend it if it is. Here we go. And we'll
- 56:09see how it goes. First one, Vespa or bicycle?
- 56:13Vespa. Okay. More entertaining, more fun than
- 56:17a bicycle. 100%. You can feel more wind on your
- 56:19face, too. Yeah, there you go. I like that. Number
- 56:21two, gelato or fresh pasta? Gelato. You big gelato
- 56:27guy. Big gelato guy. And gelato over ice cream.
- 56:30This is going to be controversial. Yes. I think
- 56:34all pasta tastes the same. Interesting. Someone
- 56:39can change my mind and take me to a... Nice restaurant,
- 56:43and prove me wrong, but I think that most, like
- 56:46my default, no joke, I was in Arizona last week,
- 56:48I got spaghetti and meatballs. I think that,
- 56:51I am lactose intolerant, so that probably plays
- 56:52a factor here. Sure, sure. So yes, gelato over
- 56:55ice cream, because there's no dairy in most gelatos.
- 56:58But yeah, I think most pasta tastes the same.
- 57:01Interesting. So. Yeah, I. I've never heard that
- 57:04perspective before. I don't know if I agree or
- 57:07disagree. I'm going to have to process through
- 57:08that. Have you been to Italy? Because I haven't.
- 57:11No, I haven't either. So I probably need to go
- 57:12there and experience Pasadena. If you're Italian,
- 57:14please do not listen to this. Because I'm sure
- 57:16that that would be different if I went over there.
- 57:18Oh, my goodness. And like I said, I'm more than
- 57:19willing to have my perspective changed and opened.
- 57:22It sounds like we need to have a Ryan and Ryan
- 57:24trip to Italy. There we go. That's what it sounds
- 57:26like. And then we will find out. R -R -I -I.
- 57:29Ryan, Ryan in Italy. Yeah, I love it. I love
- 57:32it. Okay. Massimo or Alberto? Massimo. Yeah,
- 57:41I like Massimo. He is a bit of a stoic. Yeah.
- 57:44Vintage car or brand new car? I think this is
- 57:49a good timing for this question. It's apples
- 57:51to oranges, in my opinion, because I have both.
- 57:53But I think that you appreciate them for different
- 57:55things. Because I've got a 1979 C3 Corvette,
- 57:59and then I have a 2026 C8 Corvette, and I love
- 58:02them for different reasons. I like it. Road trip
- 58:05or travel outside the country in a plane? Outside
- 58:09the country in a plane. Okay. What's your favorite
- 58:11place? Favorite place that I've been to recently
- 58:14would probably be the Philippines. Philippines.
- 58:16Yeah. All right. Went to the Philippines last
- 58:18February. I was speaking at a company on site
- 58:21for a company called KJ to all of their Asia
- 58:24Pacific employees. And that was a perspective
- 58:28changer. Like a lot of things that were just
- 58:30different, how they do things, how they approach.
- 58:33Karaoke was amazing. Everything just seemed a
- 58:37lot more happy and light over there. I like it.
- 58:40Okay. Here's a rapid fire. Okay. So just the
- 58:42first thing that comes to your mind, favorite
- 58:44Disney movie. Toy Story. Does that count? That's
- 58:49Pixar. Totally. Okay, Toy Story. Anything Pixar
- 58:50will count. In fact, we'd even give you all of
- 58:53Disney brands for any of these questions. Cool.
- 58:56Toy Story. Okay, Toy Story. It's great, by the
- 58:58way. Favorite Disney song? Probably the theme
- 59:06song from Up. Oh, it's so good. It really is
- 59:10like... I can't help but think of my wife when
- 59:13I hear it. That is exactly. It makes me like,
- 59:15I just see the two characters in that movie,
- 59:18and it's just like this lovely, oh, that's a
- 59:21great choice. I love that song. Theme song from
- 59:23Up, because every time you hear it, you can visualize
- 59:24the entire story of their life together from
- 59:27start to finish throughout the song. Yeah, they
- 59:29did a really nice job on that movie. I'm doing
- 59:31a poor job of rapid fire, sorry. No, this is
- 59:33great, this is great. Favorite Disney princess?
- 59:36Jasmine. Okay, favorite Disney hero or heroine?
- 59:42Probably The Beast. Okay. There you go. That's
- 59:46a good one, too. Favorite Disney villain? Captain
- 59:49Hook. Captain Hook's good. He's good. Favorite
- 59:53Disney sidekick? LeFou. No, I lied. Sorry. The
- 59:57Genie. I played them in my 7th and 8th grade
- 1:00:00plays, but definitely got to be Genie. Both of
- 1:00:02them are great. Both of them are great. The Genie's
- 1:00:03amazing. Absolutely wonderful. I mean, Robin
- 1:00:05Williams in Aladdin was phenomenal. I mean, just...
- 1:00:08out of this world okay these ones are gonna be
- 1:00:10tough but i i want you to come up with an answer
- 1:00:12okay all right you're gonna hedge i know you
- 1:00:13are okay hit me best car brand corvette okay
- 1:00:20chevrolet corvette okay there you go favorite
- 1:00:23city mccall idaho Whoa! Okay, we're going to
- 1:00:32have to not rapid -fire this one. I've got to
- 1:00:33have an explanation. Well, I guess I wouldn't
- 1:00:36really qualify it as a city. It's more of like
- 1:00:38a town. Chicago, big city. McCall, favorite place
- 1:00:42on Earth. It's a small little water skiing town.
- 1:00:45My family's been going there for 70 years, I
- 1:00:47think, is what we're at. Might be a little bit
- 1:00:49more than that. But we go up there. We get a
- 1:00:53house on the lake and go water ski for a couple
- 1:00:56days. It's like my favorite place to retreat
- 1:00:58to. You get the anticipation leading up to the
- 1:01:00trip. You know that it's always going to be fun.
- 1:01:02You know what to expect. But it's out in nature.
- 1:01:04Your best Wi -Fi speed there is going to be like
- 1:01:0640 megabytes per second. You're maybe getting
- 1:01:09a few emails out, and that's it. Which is good.
- 1:01:12Connected, which is good. It's my favorite place
- 1:01:13on Earth, McCall, Idaho. I love that. But if
- 1:01:15you're listening to this, don't go there because
- 1:01:16it's really small. So I want to keep it small.
- 1:01:18So pretend like we didn't say that. Totally fair.
- 1:01:21Pretend like it's not on the top 10 most hidden
- 1:01:24cities or hidden gems on National Geographic.
- 1:01:26Yeah, there you go. Best business book? Who Not
- 1:01:30How by Dan Sullivan. Very good. And last one
- 1:01:34here. Best piece of advice you've ever received?
- 1:01:38Hmm. Best piece of advice that I've ever received.
- 1:01:47Is this just like life advice or like business
- 1:01:53specific advice? Whichever you like. All right.
- 1:01:56Well, the one that's coming to mind for me because
- 1:01:57it's 10 a .m. now and we're starting the workday.
- 1:02:01Business takes on a whole new meaning or relationships
- 1:02:03take on a whole new meaning when you do business
- 1:02:05with people. And that was a piece of advice that
- 1:02:07one of my mentors, Sean Holiday, gave me. i had
- 1:02:11a lot of relationships and i held a lot of value
- 1:02:13in my network and uh and he kind of told me straight
- 1:02:18up he's like those those relationships are really
- 1:02:20nice but like you haven't really done anything
- 1:02:23with them so go do stuff everyone's scared of
- 1:02:26like a business deal going south or something
- 1:02:29going wrong but no one ever talks about how much
- 1:02:32could go right and all the opportunity that sits
- 1:02:34on the other side of that and mutual success.
- 1:02:36And so when I took that piece of advice from
- 1:02:38him, I started falling in love with the idea
- 1:02:41of doing business with people because that's
- 1:02:43how fast forwarding now three years, that's how
- 1:02:46everything fun, exciting, successful in my life
- 1:02:49has happened has been by doing it with other
- 1:02:51people. It's great. It's wonderful. I love it.
- 1:02:54Okay, so to kind of wrap into kind of our closing
- 1:02:57reflections. So, you know, I thought today I
- 1:03:00really appreciate your perspective on how taking
- 1:03:04a look at these problems and seeing it from a
- 1:03:08different perspective, how we can look at this,
- 1:03:11you know, situations like a delayed wire or a
- 1:03:15deal that fell through and yet find the good
- 1:03:19in that situation, find how we can still make
- 1:03:21that into a positive thing. I appreciate your
- 1:03:25story, your willingness to share your experiences
- 1:03:28on how you've been successful and how we can
- 1:03:30kind of see Luca through this same lens of looking
- 1:03:33at things differently, looking at problems differently,
- 1:03:36seeing people for maybe who they truly are as
- 1:03:37opposed to what's on the outside. So what are
- 1:03:40three actionable takeaways that somebody could,
- 1:03:43who's listening to this, could say, I'm going
- 1:03:45to put this into action today or this week that
- 1:03:50can help them in the very things that we've been
- 1:03:52talking about? well i think the first specifically
- 1:03:54i'll say life career if you have an idea of what
- 1:03:58you want to do or you're doing something right
- 1:04:00now pause and take 15 to 20 minutes and ask yourself
- 1:04:05and look at like am i doing what i really feel
- 1:04:07drawn towards I talk about the concept of push
- 1:04:11versus pull. Am I pushing myself into something
- 1:04:13or am I letting myself be pulled towards something,
- 1:04:15that gravitational pull? And so analyzing and
- 1:04:18looking at whether you're early on in your career,
- 1:04:21do you feel like you're headed down the trajectory
- 1:04:22of what you want to do? If not, what do you want
- 1:04:25to do and how can you get there? Do you know
- 1:04:28someone, you know, you're in business, but you
- 1:04:30decide, hey, I do want to go be a cardiologist.
- 1:04:32Do you have any relationships or friends or family
- 1:04:34friends or connections or cousins or friends
- 1:04:36of cousins that are inside of that industry that
- 1:04:38you could send a text to your friend or your
- 1:04:41connection and say, hey, I'm really looking to
- 1:04:42talk to this person. Would you be willing to
- 1:04:44introduce us? I just have a couple of quick questions
- 1:04:46that I want to ask them. I'm trying to figure
- 1:04:47out if this is something I'm interested in doing.
- 1:04:49Being willing to just take that step in action
- 1:04:51towards, one, think about something that you
- 1:04:53want to do and then figure out. Step two, what
- 1:04:56could you do to put that into action? If that's
- 1:04:59building a relationship, if that's creating an
- 1:05:01internship or a job opportunity, if that is being
- 1:05:05a better person at home and identifying, hey,
- 1:05:06instead of letting the dishes pile up, I'm just
- 1:05:09going to do them right after dinner and I'm going
- 1:05:10to load the dishwasher so that my wife doesn't
- 1:05:12get upset with me. I need to be home for dinner
- 1:05:14more times throughout the week. Those are a couple
- 1:05:16of things that I've thought of recently. So take
- 1:05:18a little bit of time to think about what are
- 1:05:20some things that I want to do in life. Am I getting
- 1:05:22the most out of it? Am I feeling pulled towards
- 1:05:24what I'm doing? I think the second thing there
- 1:05:26would be anytime something happens in a relationship,
- 1:05:29when something happens to you, pause and take
- 1:05:32a second and ask yourself, why is this happening
- 1:05:34for me? Not to me, but for me. Taking that perspective
- 1:05:38allows you to take a step back, draw back and
- 1:05:40analyze and look at like, I know that they did
- 1:05:42this or I know that this happened, but why was
- 1:05:45this supposed to happen? What did they say that
- 1:05:47I could draw something out of there that could
- 1:05:49open up some insight for me to be able to turn
- 1:05:51or reframe this in a way that helps both of us
- 1:05:54get out of this sticky situation? So taking some
- 1:05:57time to pause and think about what you want to
- 1:06:00do, what you want out of life. And then the same
- 1:06:01thing on if something happens, stop and pause.
- 1:06:03Why is this happening for me? And taking the,
- 1:06:07I don't know what the opposite of victim mentality
- 1:06:10would be, but I'd say champion mentality, right?
- 1:06:13What can I do? What do I need to do to make this
- 1:06:16situation better? Or how do I put that into action?
- 1:06:19And then I think the third thing would be just
- 1:06:23growing. I touched on this a little bit earlier.
- 1:06:26No one ever teaches us how to think. We're taught
- 1:06:29how to do stuff and how to research stuff. We're
- 1:06:32never taught how to think about stuff. And I
- 1:06:34think that that's a... We have like the scientific
- 1:06:37method and the Socratic method. And I have like
- 1:06:40my Ryan method. I guess you can copy that because
- 1:06:42you're Ryan too. But I think that the third thing
- 1:06:44would just be building the muscle of starting
- 1:06:46to look at things differently. And, you know,
- 1:06:49I think we did a good job of unpacking the movie
- 1:06:51Luca. There's a lot of things that I think, you
- 1:06:53know, if people didn't pause and think about
- 1:06:55it, they would probably miss some of those things.
- 1:06:57If you're driving down the street and you see
- 1:06:59a billboard or you see a company that has a logo
- 1:07:02on the side of their building, like why do they
- 1:07:04have that logo? Can I tell what they do based
- 1:07:07on how they describe it or what they show in
- 1:07:09the visual depiction there? When I see something
- 1:07:11online, you know, is there a reason that they're
- 1:07:14doing that? Are they doing that to show off?
- 1:07:16Are they doing that to, you know, prove something
- 1:07:19to the younger version of themselves that, you
- 1:07:21know, they've achieved what their childhood dream?
- 1:07:24Like just starting to pause and look at the things
- 1:07:26that are around you and just trying to see things
- 1:07:28from a different perspective. I think that muscle
- 1:07:31then helps number one and number two. So a lot
- 1:07:34of that. I mean, all three of those revolve around
- 1:07:37pausing and stopping to think. And so I think
- 1:07:40that's kind of like the overarching theme. The
- 1:07:42only way that you're going to get new perspectives
- 1:07:44is if you're willing to stop, pause, and think.
- 1:07:48And then not just stopping there, but you actually
- 1:07:50then have to put things into action. You have
- 1:07:52to overcome the obstacles that we talked about.
- 1:07:54Maybe it's through it. Maybe it's over it. Maybe
- 1:07:56it's around it. Maybe it's under it, right? But
- 1:07:58as you start to then take those things that you
- 1:08:00think about and put them into action, that's
- 1:08:03where you start to take more control over your
- 1:08:05life and your living life, not living life as
- 1:08:07life is letting you live. And I think that's
- 1:08:10exactly why looking at why is this happening
- 1:08:12for me is a helpful reframe. Because if I know
- 1:08:15this, if I can say this is why this is happening
- 1:08:17for me, then it helps me to come up with better
- 1:08:19action items to... to approach that situation
- 1:08:22to take it as an opportunity as opposed to the
- 1:08:25victim mentality right it's a growth mentality
- 1:08:27versus a victim mentality so i love that those
- 1:08:29are great and i think it's accepting especially
- 1:08:31in like bad circumstances just to kind of close
- 1:08:33out on this right like i'll say bad where i thought
- 1:08:36i was buying this car and then it fell through
- 1:08:37and then i found myself and i was sitting in
- 1:08:39a on a friday afternoon three and a half hours
- 1:08:41in someone's living room right like looking at
- 1:08:44that if i had if i had focused so much so that
- 1:08:48and all the things I needed I could have gone
- 1:08:50back out and sat in my car and just sat on my
- 1:08:52phone I could have gone and run errands right
- 1:08:53but like there's a certain point in life where
- 1:08:55you you humble yourself to the circumstances
- 1:08:58of what is around you to just be able to sit
- 1:09:01and look around and see like okay yes this is
- 1:09:04happening for a very specific reason there's
- 1:09:06probably a reason that I'm supposed to be here
- 1:09:08let me look around and just like see and you
- 1:09:11almost like You almost just relinquish and cave
- 1:09:14and give in to the circumstances. And I remember
- 1:09:17being there when that experience happened. And
- 1:09:19I was sitting there and I was like, oh, there's
- 1:09:20probably a couple things I could do. And then
- 1:09:22I kind of just paused and I was just like, I'm
- 1:09:24just going to be here. There's a reason I'm supposed
- 1:09:27to be here. I don't know what it is. I've got
- 1:09:29this, I think it's a stoic philosophy of be where
- 1:09:32your feet are. And so I knew that there was nothing
- 1:09:34more important than what I was doing right there
- 1:09:36in that moment. And I think by being able to
- 1:09:38do that. to accept the circumstances that life
- 1:09:41has given you, but being willing to pause, think,
- 1:09:44look, identify a problem, identify a solution,
- 1:09:48a different perspective, and then put that into
- 1:09:50action. That's when we really start to live our
- 1:09:52lives. Yeah, fantastic. It's been so great having
- 1:09:55you here today. Thank you for your vulnerability,
- 1:09:57for your willingness to share with our audience
- 1:10:00some of the lessons that you've taken from your
- 1:10:03experiences, from your career, from your life.
- 1:10:05Appreciate you. Thank you. As you leave this
- 1:10:08conversation, remember that yes, the past can
- 1:10:11hurt and you can either run from it or you can
- 1:10:14learn from it. So here's to learning and finding
- 1:10:17joy in the journey. See you real soon.