This episode is for anyone feeling hopeless, aimless, and discouraged. Sometimes a simple pep talk from your friends and some practical steps can be all it takes to get yourself out of a funk.
Instead of feeling sorry for yourself and giving into the victim mentality, it’s time to step up and take charge of your life… despite the crazy shit going on in the world.
In this episode you’ll discover:
- Why audio engineers and other skilled solopreneurs have a leg up over the masses when the economy tanks
- Why we no longer have a choice – we need to earn a living from our skills
- How to avoid victim mentality by surrounding yourself with the right friends
- Why listening to or watching the news is toxic
- What you can do to prioritize your to-do list in a more effective manner
- A simple thing you can to increase your energy and get out of this funk
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Quotes
“Am I gonna curl up like a possum and play dead, and whine, and be a victim? Or am I gonna kick its ass?” – Chris Graham
“Anything that’s important enough will find its way to you.” – Brian Hood
Episode Links
Websites
Filepass – https://filepass.com
456 Recordings – www.456recordings.com
Chris Graham – www.chrisgrahammastering.com
Bounce Butler – http://bouncebutler.com
Courses
The Profitable Producer Course – theprofitableproducer.com
The Home Studio Startup Course – www.thesixfigurehomestudio.com/10k
Facebook Community
6FHS Facebook Community – http://thesixfigurehomestudio.com/community
@chris_graham – https://www.instagram.com/chris_graham/
@brianh00d – https://www.instagram.com/brianh00d/
YouTube Channels
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Related Podcast Episodes
#96: How You’re Sabotaging Your Business With These 5 Toxic Mindsets – https://www.thesixfigurehomestudio.com/how-youre-sabotaging-your-business-with-these-5-toxic-mindsets/
Products
Pitbull Silver Skull Shaver – https://skullshaver.com/products/pitbull-silver-pro-head-and-face-shaver
People and Podcasts
Graham Cochrane – https://www.grahamcochrane.com/
Smart Passive Income – https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/
Richard Branson – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson
Animals
Honey badger – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_badger
Opossum – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum
Entertainment
Smallville – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallville
Star Wars Rebels – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Rebels
Tools
Facetime – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceTime
Zoom – http://zoom.us/
Marco Polo – https://www.marcopolo.me/
Brian: This is the six figure home studio podcast, episode 145.
[00:00:19] Welcome back to another episode of the six figure home studio podcast. I am your host Brian Hood, and I'm here with my bald beautiful purple shirted cohost Christopher J. Graham. It feels like the world's back where it needs to be. Now that I finally got that. Whole intro out. You're here with your purple shirt, your big bald.
[00:00:36] Beautiful. You got your four eyeglasses on
[00:00:38] Chris: We're getting there.
[00:00:39] Brian: high demand.
[00:00:40] Chris: I am doing really good. I have been working out like crazy.
[00:00:45] Brian: You look great. I mean, people can't see on the podcast, but like how many pounds have you lost since let's just say my bachelor party. The last time I saw you with Noah was actually named the last time I saw you
[00:00:54] Chris: Let me zoom it even farther back since we started recording this podcast.
[00:00:59] Brian: November, 2017.
[00:01:00] Chris: Big of September, actually.
[00:01:02] Brian: Oh, that's right. We launched the episodes in November. Anyways. Continue on.
[00:01:05] Chris: Yeah. I'm down 40 pounds. Yeah. I was two 15 and now I'm one 75.
[00:01:11] Brian: Get it girl.
[00:01:13] Chris: I'm feeling good. I'm feeling real good. How are you, Brian?
[00:01:15] Brian: I've put on my COVID 15 that they, that people talk about, you know,
[00:01:19] Chris: I thought it was 19.
[00:01:20] Brian: I got COVID-19. For people that don't follow this podcast. I literally got COVID-19 a couple about a month and a half ago, actually. And then I also put on my COVID 15, so that's also been fun. So I'm looking at the opposite of you. I'm looking Haggard.
[00:01:33] Cause I haven't had a haircut. I'm looking Peggy. Cause I put on my COVID 15 after getting COVID-19 and uh, other than that I'm feeling great though. Life is okay. So life is good. I have nothing to complain about. I'm just sick of being stuck at home.
[00:01:45] Chris: I feel, yeah, I just got a haircut on the drive to the studio today.
[00:01:50] Brian: I know you're like extra shiny ball today.
[00:01:52] Chris: Well, my assistant, Kyle told me about this thing. What does this even call the, I was going to give a product recommendation. I can't remember. It's called it's a do Hickey. You used to shave your head anyways?
[00:02:01] Brian: A razor.
[00:02:02] Chris: No, it's like a buzzer, like a five electric razor thing and I cut my hair on the drive.
[00:02:07] It like sucks up all the hair itself too. We'll link in the description. I don't remember what it's called, but it's
[00:02:12] Brian: Yeah, good luck, James. Finding that one,
[00:02:16] Chris: Pit bull.
[00:02:17] Brian: our editor will go through and like anything we mentioned, he'll go look up, but I don't think he gave him enough to look anything up there. Chris.
[00:02:22] Chris: Yeah. If you want to be sexy and bald like me, you should get a dedicated head shaver thing. Whose name? I can't remember. It's amazing. I love it.
[00:02:30] Brian: Good job, dude. You could even be a proper gear slot today and recommend a specific piece of gear.
[00:02:34] Chris: I don't get a gear side alert for that though. Right? Cause I couldn't remember the name.
[00:02:37] Brian: I don't know if James will fit it in somewhere, but maybe you'll get a gear slot alert just out of old time sake. Let's move into the topic today, Chris.
[00:02:43] Chris: Skull shaver, the pit bull silver. There it is. I found it on Amazon.
[00:02:47] Brian: There's the gear sled alert the pit bull silver.
[00:02:50] Chris: It's called a skull shaver and it's like a five blade do Hickey. And you just sorta like, go me, me, me, me, me, me all over your head. We're talking a lot about buzzing heads lately. It's awesome. You just do it like every other day and my head stays nice and shiny.
[00:03:03] Brian: You just do it and then it's done.
[00:03:04] Chris: Yeah.
[00:03:05] Brian: Is that their tagline? Well, there's your gear slide recommendation from Chris Graham? I don't think you've ever gotten an episode without a gear slide alert.
[00:03:11] Chris: It's true. I'm going to go for one gear, settler alert, alert per episode from here on out.
[00:03:18] Brian: Yeah. So at least you can cut your hair in quarantine. Like I haven't been to the barber since I was due to get a haircut the week I got COVID and that was like mid June an hour into like mid August. And I still haven't got a haircut. So.
[00:03:31] Chris: That's amazing. Alexa, what's 38 minus 1938 months. I haven't been at the barber in 19 years. Funny story.
[00:03:40] Brian: I love that you had to, we're a hundred percent going to keep that in mind to ask Alexa.
[00:03:47] Chris: So senior year high school, I was like, my mom used to cut my hair and I was like, Hey mom, I need a haircut. And she was like, I'm not going to cut your hair until you clean your room. And I was like, Oh yeah. And a buzz, my head right in front of her with our buzzers. And I've never gone back.
[00:04:00] It was one of the best decisions I've ever made in the heat of anger.
[00:04:02] Brian: Literally you have been bald since then, just out of spite.
[00:04:06] Chris: Just out of spite, take that mom.
[00:04:10] Brian: Yeah. So there's that man. So staying on kind of topic today's episode, we're going to kind of talk about the situation we're all in right now. Time to get a little dark.
[00:04:18] Chris: For the point of encouraging you and pathing you up and making you feel not crappy about your situation.
[00:04:24] Brian: Yep. So let's actually zoom out a little bit. Let's look at the situation we're all in right now. COVID I think everyone had their own shit moment sometime in mid to late March. Some people were as early as April and that Oh, shit moment was when COVID really hit in the U S and started spreading rapidly.
[00:04:39] News coverage picked it up dramatically. And there was like a week where everyone was just like, Oh shit, I've got to find toilet paper. I've got to go get groceries. Yeah. I was actually in South Carolina for a wedding, the weekend kind of hetero shit moments. So as soon as we got back home, we went to the grocery store and stocked up on stuff.
[00:04:57] So anyways, that's where everyone was in March. So as of the time we record this episode, it's August 6th, 2020. So March, April, may, June, July, August. So it's been five months of quarantine, which honest to God. I don't know what your crest feels like five years. You told me like covert hit five years ago.
[00:05:12] I'd be like, yeah, that's about right. That's about accurate. I'm sure a lot of people have had shit that is assisting to just keep piling up on top of the fact that we're all stuck at home. It's just piling up and piling up and piling up. So we're hopefully going to have some, not only encouragement, but some practical steps for some of the people that are listening today.
[00:05:27] But just one thing to note is back in March, it was like we're going to quarantine for a couple of weeks and then we'll be back to normal. And then it was like, they push it back and it's like, by may, we'll be back to normal. And I remember like seeing estimates that like, Hey, we won't be back until June or July.
[00:05:41] Some people said as late as August, here we are in August at or above around 5 million cases, just in the U S I think an insane amount has happened since then. And we still have no end in sight. I don't watch enough news to really be the go to source for here, but I've heard things like tours that are not being rescheduled till 2022, meaning.
[00:06:03] The rest of this year, you can just assume we're going to be stuck inside that COVID is going to go nowhere. But North.
[00:06:08] Chris: Well, actually, it's been dipping the past couple of days, at least in United States. It's gone down.
[00:06:12] Brian: You're talking about daily new cases, but still look at it like this, Chris, like there are fires burning in States and then the dry powder dries up. There's still plenty of fodder and shit for it to burn in other States. So like, I can see second, third, fourth waves coming. Who knows. I'm not an expert here.
[00:06:29] I'm not gonna pretend I am. I've just heard multiple reliable sources. Say the earliest we're going to get a vaccine is going to be early 20, 21.
[00:06:35] Chris: Let's get to the part where we encourage them and stuff.
[00:06:38] Brian: Here's the thing, Chris, if you are thinking, things are going to get back to normal in the next couple of months, you're lying to yourself. And the reason I'm trying to get this point across is because you have to take steps to prepare for what we're at right now. If you think your day job that you just got let go of, or that you're furloughed on.
[00:06:55] That relies on the touring industry or some sort of industry that's really struggling right now, the restaurant industry, it may be awhile before that job comes back. If you're not already in this position, you could be in this position. And this is a lot of negative stuff that I'm saying right now. Some people realize this, some people don't realize this stuff.
[00:07:10] We have to address the elephant in the room before we can actually talk about the encouraging parts. Cause Chris, I don't know about you, but I can encourage you all day long, but if I'm just blowing smoke up your ass. With things you want to hear, it's not really helpful for anyone. Sometimes you have to have some tough love, and this is the tough part of the love we're going to hopefully have on this episode.
[00:07:27] So a lot of our listeners are already out of a job. I don't know what the unemployment rates are right now in America, but they're super high in some countries they're higher than others. Some countries have gotten completely back to normal, like New Zealand. If you're a New Zealand, this episode is not for you, but in the U S and other hard hit countries, this episode is for you.
[00:07:43] Let's bring this back to a point here. People are realizing how vulnerable they are when they rely on a single income, a single day job, your employer is your single source of income. They mistake that consistency in their income that they've gotten from their paychecks month to month. They mistake that with stability.
[00:08:00] Chris: Yeah. What you're saying here is they're mistaking past consistency with stability and you're right. Like that's one of the most common misconceptions. Business and employment in our country, in the world, is it, Oh, a job is safer. A job is more secure. And we see every once in a while, 2008, all us, you know, millennials are like, it doesn't seem stable.
[00:08:19] And again, here with COVID, people are learning that one source of income is not good from a business standpoint, you're undiversified, that's an unstable position. Whereas having lots of customers, lots of individuals paying you better.
[00:08:33] Brian: Yep. And that is the general business of an audio professional, generally speaking. And there are some exceptions. And I talked about these like recording studios who relied on physical recordings, people coming into the studio. That's a hard hit business right now. So in that case, you may have lost all of your clients in one fell swoop.
[00:08:50] That sucks. But in other cases, mastering engineers, Chris Graham here mixing engineers, myself, a lot of our community doing mixing and mastering or doing some sort of remote type of work. These people, they may have felt it in their income, but they did not lose even in a time like this. They did not lose all of their clients at one time.
[00:09:07] So there is an added stability to having lots and lots of little clients bringing in little bits of money versus that one day job that was. The one source of income for your entire family, that's a dangerous place to be. And I feel like a lot of our listeners have learned that this year as they've been furloughed or laid off.
[00:09:23] So let's talk about what's encouraging about this. Cause nothing, nothing I've said so far has been remotely encouraging, like.
[00:09:32] Chris: Yeah, it's been pretty. I hope you edit some of that. That was a lot.
[00:09:36] Brian: I might go back and cut some of the darker parts out. But the reality is like, you can't sugarcoat this, like, this is how many times have you heard the word unprecedented this year? So
[00:09:44] Chris: It's been an unprecedented amount of use of the word unprecedented.
[00:09:48] Brian: Yeah, exactly. Like that's, that's a great way of saying it. There's no way to sugarcoat this stuff. You have to say how it is. And that's how I prefer. I like to know what I'm up against. So that I'm making the correct decisions in what I do day to day. If you think that things are going to go away in the next two to three months, you're delusional.
[00:10:03] Chris: Let me say one thing and I'm going to get ever so slightly political, but not in any one direction. One of my friends, the other day said I'm real liberal, but one of my really right wing friends said the other day, I'll use a voice. Don't you just not be surprised if COVID-19 virus just up and disappears after the election.
[00:10:20] And I was like, Oh crap. No, I would not be surprised at all. I don't think it will. But anyways,
[00:10:27] Brian: I've heard too many conspiracy theories. Like here's the thing. Like you can believe what you want. I choose not to believe any conspiracy theories. I am preparing my life and my business as if through 2021. I'm stuck in this, and this is my reality. If I'm incorrect, that's still fine. If I start buying into conspiracy theories, that all things are fine right now, and it's going to be like, I'm not gonna get into this.
[00:10:49] Cause again, I don't want to jump into the political side of things cause I'd want to keep this podcast as agenda free as possible and stay within politics. That's my angle for this. So I'm going to try to stay away from it. I just I'm preparing for the worst. So that worst case I'm in the best position I can be in.
[00:11:04] So that's where I want our listeners to be as well. So let's talk about this. The opportunity that this brings up right now, we are now in a position where we don't have a choice, but to make this business work, if our and audio, we have the skills and audio, we no longer have voice. We have essentially, what's known as burned our ships.
[00:11:23] Our ships have been burned for us actually. And this kind of goes back to a story. I'm going to butcher this, actually. Chris, you wanna tell the burn ship story we've talked about in the podcast? Yeah, you're a better storyteller.
[00:11:32] Chris: Yes, I do. I love telling stories. So I'm going to botch some of the details, but the spirit of it or men at the same, there was a conquistador. He takes a bunch of ships and he says, Hey, we're going to, I think it's the Aztecs. And he says, Hey, we're going to fight the Aztecs. They get there from Spain or wherever.
[00:11:45] And everyone's like, ah, I don't know. I mean, we've got iron armor and Spears and stuff, but there's like thousands and thousands of them. And I forget what the leader's name, but he basically was like, okay, cool, burns the ships, lights them on fire in the water. So what happens is all these soldiers understand, like your option is lose and die or win, and then build ships and go home to see your families.
[00:12:10] They won a lot.
[00:12:11] Brian: Let's bring this back to how this relates to our listeners right now. If you had a day job, you had that. Income coming every month. That was the ship. You could always go back to, to escape. When things got hard in the studio world, when you try to build your career, it got a little awkward because you had to sell your service.
[00:12:27] It says, and you don't know, you don't know if you like mixing creativity in business, it just feels icky. And so you go back to your day job because that's a stable income. You don't have to stretch yourself. You just show up, you collect your paycheck. That was your ship. It's gone. It's been burned. It is not coming back anytime soon, most likely.
[00:12:44] And so now you're in this position where you have to make this work. You make this work or you don't eat, you make this work or you don't have any income.
[00:12:52] Chris: Which sounds crazy, but in there lies the soup. Hour of humans, certain humans throughout history, most of them, you back them into a corner and they turn into honey badgers. They figure it out, honey badgers, if you don't know what a Honeybadger is, it's essentially like a Wolverine, like a Badger that's in Africa, small little crazy animal, but even the lions won't mess with this guy.
[00:13:16] They're impossible to kill impossible to trap, impossible to contain because they are fiery as hell.
[00:13:23] Brian: Have you seen the video where they have to get bit by the most venomous steak?
[00:13:26] Chris: Yeah. They're like attack like a Cobra, fall asleep, wake up and eat them.
[00:13:30] Brian: They kill it before he passes out and then he, they kill the snake and then they pass out, do the poison from that snake, wake up however long later, and then just eat the snake that just poisoned them. That's Honeybadger.
[00:13:40] Chris: We get to give a Honeybadger salute to a good friend of the podcast. Graham Cochrane, who started his business during the 2008 recession. And Brian and I both started our businesses during the recession as well, 2008.
[00:13:52] Brian: I started mine in 2009, actually. So it was like everyone had had their own shit moments. And now we're trying to rebuild based on whatever they had left. It was a dark time for a lot of people.
[00:14:01] Chris: But it's an interesting thing. When, when something like this happens, it helps you figure out who you are. Are you going to lay down like a possum and play dead, or are you going to be like a Honeybadger and bite that line's freaking face off?
[00:14:13] Brian: Yup. And that's why you saw so many businesses that are successful today. That started in 2008, 2009, 2010, because they didn't have the cushy day job to fall back on and talk about it all the time. But one of the podcasts that I listened to a lot, not right now, but in the past with smart, passive income by Pat Flynn.
[00:14:29] He graduated college with an architecture degree in like 2008, there was no one hiring an architecture in 2008. So who was forced to start his little side hustle in 2008, which grew into smart, passive income, where he makes seven figures plus per year, probably eight figures a year now. And that opportunity would never have come.
[00:14:47] Had he graduated high school and there would have been jobs waiting for him in the architecture world. He'd be making 70, $80,000 a year. Maybe if that, I don't know what architecture is, make Christie, you know, I don't actually, I don't know,
[00:14:57] Chris: Conductors make architects.
[00:15:00] Brian: Yeah. That's what I meant. Yeah. What do architects make?
[00:15:03] Chris: I don't even know. I'm sure it's like any other career. You have to build it from the ground up.
[00:15:07] Brian: That was really good. That was really
[00:15:09] Chris: I'd do what I can. I architected that joke for you. Anyways, let me back up and talk about something totally unrelated. One of my favorite shows growing up with Smallville, it's about Superman growing up and there's this episode again?
[00:15:22] I'm going to botch it. Sorry, Smallville fans, but Superman is like 13 and he's on a bus. And then the bus, for some reason, falls off of a bridge into the water. And Clark Kent, AK Superman doesn't realize it, but he has incredible superpowers, Barry deep within him. And he saves the entire bus full of kids.
[00:15:41] And it was in that crisis where he had to dig deep and figure out what the hell he was made of. And it turned out pretty good stuff. That's I think one of the beautiful things, and that's what I'm learning too right now with my PTSD diagnosis, it has been really rough figuring this stuff out and learning more about it and learning that a lot of my PTSD stuff is repressed memories.
[00:16:01] It's not pleasant, but it's challenging me to dig deep and figure out who am I and how am I going to respond? Am I going to curl up like a possum? And play dead and whine and be a victim, or am I going to kick its ass? And I think there's an amazing opportunity for all of us here in a time of crisis to look this in the eye and decide, am I going to sound sexist, but I'm gonna use the phrase man up, or am I gonna, Oh, my dreams are dead.
[00:16:27] Like get up and fix it, figure it out because what we have going for us in our industry, that most people don't. It's we're creative. What makes humans amazing is our creativity. So this is an opportunity and it's going to reveal things in people that we didn't know were in them. In some cases, it's going to reveal it.
[00:16:46] Eight had a lot of work to do that happened to me. I didn't realize I had PTSD until covert hit. I didn't get diagnosed. Like there was absolutely. I had no clue. That was intense, but for other people, it's in these moments of crisis, they turn out that there was a hero within, and I hope for me that that's what's happening right now.
[00:17:06] I think it is, but this is an opportunity for all of us to learn more about who we are and what we're made of. Do we get blown over at a gust of wind or do we dig deep and put down roots and do the work.
[00:17:17] Brian: Well, well said my friend. So let's move this into just some practical steps. Let's just say those people that are. Aimless right now. They're not sure what to do next. They're in a tough position. They lost their day jobs that are furloughed with no end in sight where they're going to come back. There's a dozen different positions that someone could be in right now.
[00:17:32] So let's just pretend that we're talking to some people like that. Some of our friends, some of our listeners, some of our pals who are in those positions, what are some practical steps? This first point here, Chris goes back to an earlier episode. So we had, this is kind of right when it hit probably a couple of months, one or two months after that, you said something that I think is really relevant now, and that is.
[00:17:51] Be willing to try something new and. This is where it's relevant. Most people don't try something new or try something hard or try something scary because they're afraid of that fear of failure. This is like the number one reason. People never succeed. It's something that they're passionate about.
[00:18:07] Something they really want. They don't succeed because they don't put forth the effort at all because they're afraid of failing. And if they don't ever try, they don't ever have to stare failure in the face. And realize that they may not have what it takes and they may not be willing to do what it takes.
[00:18:19] So be willing to try. And here's the thing. This is, this is what goes back to the episode that you talked about this, and I love this so much. This is the best season for staring failure in the face. Because if you fail, you can blame it on COVID. And if you succeed, you get what you want, you get what you've always wanted and you've successfully beaten failure.
[00:18:37] You've triumphed. But I think that's the big thing is just. Being willing to try now because you have a scapegoat when, and if we ever really had this big of a scapegoat that we can mentally offload the failure on to something else.
[00:18:48] Chris: Yeah, well, I'm going to be a complete nerd here. I love there's a star Wars animated series called rebels. That's just absolutely fabulous. And I don't want to give anything away for those of you that don't watch it. If you've got kids, it's just fact. That's wonderful. I think it's on Disney plus right now.
[00:19:04] And it's from a few years ago, but there's a scene where one of the main characters this Jedi has is working through a lot of fear issues and something really bad happens to someone that he loves and he's facing this other foe. And, uh, he says to the foe, he says that was a huge mistake because the bad guy just killed one of the good guys. And then he goes on, say, because now I have nothing left to lose. And it's in that moment that this Jedi discovers his true self and whoops, the bad guy, he digs deep and it's in that moment of, well, I'm going to give it my all, I don't have to hold back. There's nothing to gain from holding back. And that's when you find your true potential.
[00:19:44] And I, man, that is so interesting. It's fascinating that when we are up against it, But that's where we figured out what we're really made of. That's where we become our truest selves. When Brian and I were talking about this earlier, we were talking about, you know, something we have to mention on this particular episode, and that's a victim mentality and I'm doing my best to focus less on the podcast and in general, but Brian, you're not.
[00:20:07] So you can say the B word for us. Why don't you don't be a, this is weird. You sucker, you, you Vich.
[00:20:21] Brian: Why can't you just say it? Kristala you've said, you've said way worse on this podcast before.
[00:20:25] Chris: I'm tired of cussing.
[00:20:27] Brian: Oh my God. Grow down.
[00:20:29] Chris: I'm having a spiritual awakening. Okay. Anyways, uh, but this idea of combining the B word with the victim word, the V word, don't be a bitch. Vich is this idea of, Oh man, it's all, uh, it's really hard for me right now.
[00:20:44] Brian: We have a full episode about this, the toxic mindsets that will poison your business episode 96, how you're sabotaging your business with these five toxic mindsets. One of those is the victim mentality. And I can't think of a time in history where there are more people wallowing in self pity and in victims right now, because I can't think of a time in my lifetime where there are so many true victims right now, people that made no wrong decisions, they didn't do it anything wrong with their jobs or anything wrong with their business.
[00:21:12] Think of all the restaurants right now that are sputtering and dying. Some of my favorite restaurants in Nashville, closing down. For nothing, they did wrong. The businesses they made were fundamentally sound. They may not have taken on debt that they shouldn't have. The only thing that happened was something out of their control happened.
[00:21:30] And now they are truly a victim. And that is a lot of our listeners right now. And so the hardest time not to have the victim mindset is when you are truly a victim. And Chris typoed here, he's typed victim in there and he accidentally put vetch. And then I thought like, don't be a bitch. Don't be a bitch.
[00:21:47] And it just kind of was funny. And now we have a word we made up for this podcast, but don't be a bitch. Like that's a victim mentality person. Who's just walling in their own self pity. And Chris, we can edit this part out if you don't want to talk about this. But like, there was a moment this year where that was, you.
[00:22:02] Chris: It was absolutely man. You know, when, I mean, I've mentioned before in the podcast and I'll be transparent here. I started having panic attacks, a lot of them and they. Were intense. And I had no idea why my reaction to circumstance was so intense. And as I went on that journey eventually went to the hospital, got diagnosed with complex PTSD and started to understand, Oh, there's a lot more going on underneath the surface.
[00:22:28] Brian: Well, here's the thing is we don't necessarily need all the details. We actually, there's a pretty good breakdown where you talk through a lot of this stuff. The point here is you are truly a victim in this situation. And that is the time where people can follow the victim and touted people who are usually not the type of person to fall into the victim mentality.
[00:22:44] It still happened to you and you were truly a victim.
[00:22:46] Chris: Embarrassingly, I FaceTimed you in my bathrobe.
[00:22:50] Brian: This actually goes well into the next point here, which is. Have some damn good friends in your life right now, who are those people who you need to be around more? And so in this moment for Chris, it was me in this moment because you need someone who can knock you out of it. Let me talk about this moment.
[00:23:05] Chris FaceTime me at like afternoon. So it might've been like 1:00 PM, one 30. You were slumped in a chair, in a bathrobe unshaven for like days, which usually you're pretty like close to clean shaven.
[00:23:17] Chris: Covered in baby oil. I'm just kidding. There was no baby oil.
[00:23:20] Brian: No, you weren't covering the baby oil and like, I've never seen you in such a low point. And I literally, like, I put my headphones on and I went on a walk and I just kind of laid into you a little bit. I gave you some really tough love to get you out of this. Like, Whoa is me victim mentality situation.
[00:23:37] And it was like, I would say for you, you've said that that was kind of like a turnaround point for you. And so that goes really well into this point of having good friends in your life, because I've had those moments in my life where I've been down and someone had a come to Jesus moment with me, a real true friend.
[00:23:52] Who's willing to say shit that other people may not be willing to say the friend who's willing to put the relationship on the line because they don't want to see you make a major mistake or whatever.
[00:24:01] Chris: Let me hop in here. So I think that there's two pieces of this. If all you do is smack your friends that are being bitches across the face. That sucks. And I definitely come from more of a history of that. I was like a pole vault coach. In college and I respond well to being smacked across the face, but one of the things I learned through this, and I think you did a great job on this as well too, is you empathized with me first.
[00:24:26] You sympathized with me and then you Vich smacked me.
[00:24:30] Brian: They call it the shit sandwich. It's where you say something really good. And then you get to the real talk and then you wrap it up with something good. Again, it's the shit sandwich. Yeah.
[00:24:39] Chris: Yeah, it was great. And I think in our industry, we tend to like just the middle of the sandwich.
[00:24:43] Brian: It's like you just eat the icing of the oil and you throw away the two outsides.
[00:24:47] Chris: Exactly in our industry. We tend to not be great at that. And I really appreciated you as a man to call me out on that. And it really was at this turning point of me being like you're right. I do need to take ownership here. And at this point I need to begin focusing on healing rather than to deeply processing what the hell is going on in my own life.
[00:25:07] Brian: Just bringing this back to the audience. A lot of us, you have this person in your mind right now, they may have fallen out of touch with you, or maybe this is the, maybe you have a great relationship with this person, the good friend, the one that you want to surround yourself with more, but make more intentional time.
[00:25:22] An effort to surround herself with these people more now, maybe not in person right now because of the rampant COVID running around the U S right now, maybe texting, maybe social media, maybe FaceTime, maybe zoom, maybe phone calls. Or Marco polo. So just be intentional about staying connected with those people.
[00:25:39] And I asked this to my wife the other day. I was just like, who are some people in your life that you want to spend more time with or want to surround yourself with more? I think that's a good question for anyone to ask us, which is just, who do we want to and need to be surrounded by more sometimes there's, aren't the same people.
[00:25:51] Sometimes the people who give us real talk, we don't want to be around because we don't want to hear that real talk. So sometimes it's asking the question, who do we need to be around right now?
[00:25:59] Chris: Yeah, that's a good point. There's two types of bad groups of friends. I think in this category, one is an echo chamber where you say I'm sad and they all say, Oh yeah, everything's sad. And then the opposite side is I'm sad. And then everyone smacks you simultaneously. Probably not great. You want somewhere in between.
[00:26:17] And I think, I don't know food for thought there.
[00:26:20] Brian: You need the friend, who's going to give you the shed sandwiches, arm. Sad. And they're going to say, Oh, I'm so sorry, buddy. Stop being a bitch. I love you. That's the shit sandwich.
[00:26:29] Chris: Yeah, exactly. Get up, get up. So yeah, I mean, this is like every movie he wrote ever, you know, is they get up to do the captain America.
[00:26:38] Brian: So let's move on next on our list of practical steps. And this is one that I've been preaching for a year, and I've been practicing this for years, but that is just stay away from the news,
[00:26:48] Chris: It's terrible.
[00:26:49] Brian: especially in election year. Oh my God. Especially in an election year.
[00:26:53] Chris: Let me dish about the news. So I went to college.
[00:26:56] Brian: Good for you. You freaking know it all. I barely graduated high school.
[00:27:00] Chris: Yeah. There was one class that was useful. And it was a media studies class. That's not true. There was more than one class. There was at least three, it was a media studies class. And we had this amazing lady that was teaching and we watched like a music video and the music video had like specific brands of clothing and specific brands of pop and specific artists.
[00:27:23] And then she broke it down and was like all of these products, all of the music. Is all owned by companies who are subsidiaries of other companies who are subsidiaries of this one big company. The whole thing was a commercial. And then she broke it down and said, back in the 1970s, all the media companies on earth, all the big TV companies, NBC, CBS, ABC, et cetera, they all said.
[00:27:46] We're going to tell the news because it is the responsibility of a network and we're going to lose money on the news. And then in the 1970s, giant corporations came around and they bought up all the media companies and they looked at their books and said, no, you will not be losing money on the news anymore.
[00:28:04] And we need to find ways to make money on the news. And at that point, our country went through an enormous shift where news, the point of news is not that you are informed. The point of news is that you see ads and to get you to see ads, they have to keep you engaged and to keep you engaged, they have to keep you angry or afraid or fill in the blank.
[00:28:25] Brian: Or confused and you need the answers.
[00:28:27] Chris: Exactly. So the news is not out there to be your friend. The news is out there to make money because every time you see an ad, they get paid. So what they're doing right now is they're telling all the scariest stories they possibly can to get you addicted to it. The point of any media corporation, other than ours, cause Richard to podcast is to get you to watch it.
[00:28:48] 24 hours a day. Facebook's goal is for you to be on Facebook 24 hours a day. Instagram's goal. Well, it's owned by Facebook. So you do the math CNNs goal, MSNBC. All their entire goal is how do we get people to stay glued to the television so that we can show them ads for Gillette shaving cream.
[00:29:05] Brian: And with that being said, that should tell you enough to know that the news is not have your best interest at heart. That's the number one thing I hear whenever I tell people, I try my damnedest not to consume the news, the closest I get to news our podcast about. Finances and investing. So I'll hear news bits related to those, those things.
[00:29:24] When people hear that, they say, well, how do you find it out about things that are important, big world events, things that you need to know. And I tell people the same thing. I'll tell our listeners right now, who are asking this question, anything that's important enough will find its way to you. And if it doesn't find its way to you, it's not important.
[00:29:40] Period. I've never in my life since stopping, watching the news and consuming news, never my life has something happened that truly impacted my life that I did not know about. It always will find its way back to me. A friend will tell me, family will tell me it will come up in discussions with friends and groups of people.
[00:29:56] The good news is I am not bombarded with CNN, constantly. Negative news. I am not the person who is constantly getting deflated because everything sucks. There's murders everywhere. There are serial killers everywhere. There are people out there ripping everyone off the world is full of scam artists. The world is full of unethical people.
[00:30:16] The world is full of violence and hatred and terrorists and whatever the news, the news will tell you anything. If it gets you watching the news. And so for that, I don't consume it. Is there anything to add to that, Chris? I mean, it's pretty straight forward.
[00:30:27] Chris: It's pretty straight forward. I would add one more, little juicy nugget to this. Just we talk sometimes on this show about split testing, split testing is the idea. If you're like, Hmm, should I have the button at the bottom of my quote form? Say, submit. Or should I have it say, request a quote or schedule a call, or you can run, you can take both of these forms.
[00:30:49] There's plenty of tools out there on the end online to do it. Google makes one, I use thrive a lot for this, so you can run two things at the same time and split your traffic.
[00:30:58] Brian: I'm like 90% sure. Our audience knows what a split test is. What is your point here?
[00:31:02] Chris: Right? My point is that news organizations split tests, their headlines.
[00:31:07] Brian: Yeah, of course they do.
[00:31:08] Chris: Not based on, does this help more people be better informed, but does this get more clicks? I E does this get more ads on eyeballs? I E does this get us more money?
[00:31:18] Brian: I'll give you an example of that. I came across a clip. I'm not going to say who it's from. Everyone could probably guess it was Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, fist bumping. And the news headline said terrorist fist, jab question, Mark. It was a major news network. That was the headline on a fist bump.
[00:31:38] Just to give you some examples here. So split test successful there.
[00:31:41] Chris: There's a lot of creepy, sneaky ways where the news does this. And I'm just trying to convince you guys just chill in the news. It doesn't matter. It's not going to help your life.
[00:31:48] Brian: We don't need to know about the terrorist fist jab.
[00:31:50] Chris: We don't. New sucks and news is using science to make you more angry so that you'll click their links. They're fighting you with science.
[00:31:59] Brian: They're using a lot of psychological principles to keep you hooked. Just like social media is just like paid advertising is so like, are they any less ethical than some of those areas? Maybe. I just choose not to be involved with it. So let's move on here. This is one of our last practical tips here for people who are in a tough position due to COVID right now, who are looking for encouragement and some practical steps.
[00:32:21] This is yours, Chris. So I'll let you handle it, but prioritize your to do list based on stress. What does that mean, Chris?
[00:32:29] Chris: Totally. So there's a couple of different ways that you could look at your list of things that you need to do. You could say I want to generate momentum. So I'm going to pick the easy things I'm going to go to work today, and I'm going to pick a bunch of really easy, quick wins and that'll generate momentum.
[00:32:44] It'll help me get more done. That's a great strategy. Sometimes the other way, the most logical at face value is to pick the most high impact thing and to do that first and then the second most high impact thing and do that second and so on and so forth. That's really, really, really hard to do. You have to ignore emotional connection to any one of these things in times like these when you're overwhelmed.
[00:33:05] And this is something that I, you know, I learned when I was in the heat of PTSD. Was figuring out that if I prioritized the things that stressed me out, the most that them being undone was taking up the most of my mental capacity. If I did those first, I had better mental health, which allowed me to make better decisions about the next things I needed to do.
[00:33:25] So if there's certain things that you've been putting off. Just because you don't want to do it. It's not fun, but it has an enormous emotional toll because you haven't done it yet. Like applying for a PPP loan from the U S government. If you're in the United States, something like that, do that, get it out of the way so that you can free up CPU space.
[00:33:44] You could look at that as for us audio nerds. It's like having all these muted tracks with autotune on them. It's yeah. Using up your CPU, it's using up your Ram. It's making your computer run funky, turn them off and then continue doing your work. Everything will run better.
[00:34:01] Brian: And now my brain is spinning. Just thinking about a few things in my life that I've just been putting off because I think about them and my brain goes dead. And I'm just like, I don't want to deal with this right now. And those are the things I should be tackling first.
[00:34:13] Chris: I've seen you do that. I remember when we were at Yosemite, I brought, I don't remember what it was, but I brought something up and it was a high stress environment. We were trying to get back to the airport and it was just like a boom, boom, boom, boom.
[00:34:25] Brian: now. That's what I'll say.
[00:34:27] Chris: Right. Well, but you didn't even say you just froze. You just stared at me.
[00:34:31] And I was like, Oh, okay. All right. I will go somewhere else.
[00:34:34] Brian: So Chris, you have one more on this list that you throw in last second. So go ahead and talk about this practical step that everyone already knows they should do. They're either doing it already or they're not doing it all and nothing you say will change this. So change their minds. Go.
[00:34:49] Chris: If one person starts doing this, then this podcast was a success. When I started kind of getting. On the upswing with PTSD. One of the most important things that I was reading about was exercise. And I started doing yoga like crazy. I did it three times, times a day. At one point after you called me out in my bathrobe. It started to create momentum. In my mind, I started to have more energy and an exercise is a funny thing because initially exercise does the opposite of what it eventually does. It makes you more tired. It makes you more miserable, but the longterm impact is you start to get more energy. Your brain starts to work better and you start to get better.
[00:35:28] Self-esteem because you start to look hot when you look in the mirror, which has been fun. And let's cut that out. That was so weird. Oh, no, that was weird. But, you know, I've heard this for years. Exercise is so important. And I remember I saw an interview with Richard Branson and they asked him, you know, what's the most important thing you can do to up your productivity. And he said, exercise. And I was like, what? You're a billionaire or what are you talking about?
[00:35:56] Exercise? Your brain is a passenger in a human body. And it's all connected. I had no idea how unbelievably connected the mind and body was until I went on. This, started doing this PTSD journey and I have a personal trainer. Now I go to yoga classes all the time. I'm running, not as much as I should, but I'm running all the time.
[00:36:16] I'm working out every day and that has been a godsend. It has completely changed my life to finally consistently exercise. It's a mindset changer and it's one of the best things you can possibly do. So my advice to you, easiest thing to do is to start running, but do it in a way that's fun. If you're going to do yoga, don't just pick any yoga class.
[00:36:37] Do start with like a Hatha class or a restorative class. Don't just show up at a Vinyasa class that will kill you, but start with an easier yoga class. If you're going to go work out. I really think an investment in a personal trainer is worth it.
[00:36:49] Brian: It's probably one of the few ways you can work out. Cause most gyms around me at least are closed.
[00:36:54] Chris: Right, right. Yeah. So when I go to work out, there's only a couple of people in the gym, but the huge gym, and there's only a couple of people there and we stagger and work with this trainer Judd. He's the freaking man Judd's been so helpful because he's been able to gauge, okay, Chris can take more. Chris can take less.
[00:37:11] Chris needs encouragement. Or Chris needs a glass of water and he's helping me figure out that rhythm and I'm seeing way faster improvement and it's a lot easier to stay motivated when Judd's texting me is like, Hey, we working out today. I don't want to let Judd down. So get a personal trainer or do something.
[00:37:28] Brian: I don't like the jet asks, I think judge to say, Hey, we're working out today. Where are you at?
[00:37:32] Chris: This is true. I'll tell him that.
[00:37:34] Brian: Don't give you the option, Chris.
[00:37:36] Chris: I can't see enough about in a time like this, the real issue when we're prioritizing physical health, when we're trying to stay healthy, physically the cost of that. Shout out to Kyle Whitaker for telling me this the other day, the cost of that is mental health. We're prioritizing physical health over mental health, but I think that we can prioritize our physical health by exercising.
[00:37:57] And that helps with the mental health component. I think the most important time to be working out since I've been alive is right now.
[00:38:04] Brian: I tend to agree, like I've always had a consistent workout schedule, go to wake up early five, five 30, go to the gym. And that has not happened since our Oh shit week. So. I need to find a way to continue consistent workouts other than just podcast walks so that I can stay. I mean, it's definitely impacted my mentally.
[00:38:20] I just don't. I don't know. You probably noticed on this gas, my energy levels fallen since covert hit.
[00:38:27] Chris: Maybe we'll do a, a six figure home studio, yoga class hosted on the Facebook group. That would be so weird. I hope this was encouraging. I hope that you get off the couch, that you start being a bitch that you are trying new things, not being a bitch. Being friends with people who will encourage and call you out.
[00:38:44] Now watching the news, who's prioritizing based on stress and that you're exercising.
[00:38:54] Brian: So that is it for this episode of the six figure home studio podcast. I don't know about you, but I feel, I feel encouraged right now. We recorded this as of the time that I finalized this a couple of weeks ago. And it was just nice to listen back through this. I know there was some real talk in the beginning, maybe some negative stuff that was.
[00:39:09] Potentially disheartening for people, but I still try, I believe that if you were going to succeed in life and business and anything that you're trying to accomplish, you have to know what your true the up against. So as your friend, it is our duty to paint the realistic picture of what's going on right now.
[00:39:22] Next week, the next episode we interview a friend of ours. A fellow six figure home studio owner who is crushing it despite COVID right now, he is actually doing in person sessions, following state guidelines and having a record year in his business. And we spend like an hour just digging into his business, learning what separates him from all of the people that are struggling right now.
[00:39:43] And it is an awesome, awesome conversation. I think it will be not only encouraging for people, but enlightening on how you can have a successful studio, whether it's mixing or in person or any, any sort of audio business or freelance business in general. This is for you. This will be extremely relevant for the times.
[00:39:58] And. Even if COVID has passed this episode is still relevant because the things he did before covert hit is what has helped set him up for success after COVID. And I cannot wait for you to hear that. So that is next week, bright and early Tuesday morning, 6:00 AM as always until next time. Thank you so much for listening and happy hustling.