| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome everybody to Monday mornings with max and Mike Today we're gonna talk about borrowed dreams what you should do about it or what you what you could do about it. We don't want to should all over you. So Mike. Thanks for joining me everyone thanks for tuning in borrowed dreams. What do we do. |
| 00:23.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ah well max and I were talking talking about a story before the show that is way too common. It's very very common and I've experienced it myself as well which is ah, an example someone walks into the the gym. And they want to be able to complete a certain feat and then you come to find I know I've come to find out a lot of people go oh I want to squat £500 or I want to like I want to be able to snatch and clean and jerk this much weight or I want to be able to this many pull ups. And ah early in my career I said cool. Let's do it and then as I got older I witnessed myself and a lot of other people achieve the goal and still not be happy afterwards or sacrifice all sorts of stuff that we actually valued pretty highly. Go after this goal just to find out that the achievement of the goal created 0 satisfaction and I used to I used to be in this frame of mind that it was a human flaw that was something that we could overcome that this whole idea that. I always have to achieve more and I I actually think this idea that every time I reach a goal I immediately set another goal and I don't really get you know? Maybe there's 30 seconds of satisfaction or a day at the most talk to my friend a j roberts about setting the world record for the squat and he worked at this for years and then he hits it and then he celebrates for one day and the next day he wakes up depressed and then sets another another goal and I used to think yeah. |
| 02:08.72 | Max Shank | Was one of my favorite stories. He told that he told that story at some mastermind event I was at about having nosebleeds walking up the stairs and destroying all his relationships basically and. |
| 02:23.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 02:27.15 | Max Shank | You know ruining his body and his relationships and then going like oh wow that was not that cool at all. Actually I think that's probably the perfect example because somewhere he got this idea that that would make him enough or great superior. In some way and you know since you and I have so much experience with fitness. It's natural to examine why people have certain fitness goals and it's usually because someone else told them it was a good idea explicitly or. They just got rewarded with positive feedback on the way there. Oh you squatted a hundred. We. Love you. Oh you squatted 200. We love you twice as much just imagine if you could squat 300 just how much we would love you It's like ah. |
| 03:20.95 | mikebledsoe | Ah, what. |
| 03:23.97 | Max Shank | Ah, love is proportional to the pounds you can lift. |
| 03:26.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and and it's ah and I used to believe it was just ah this I used to think it was like a personality flaw or something like that. Where of this person is just so achievement oriented that they can't even enjoy the the reaching of their goals. And after further analysis and of course the analysis. Ah analysis. That's meaningful always starts with ourselves. It was the analysis analysis of my own life in experiencing these things and reaching goals or failing to reach goals and and then still being able able to achieve happiness even without having. Achieved it and being okay with it and so I started looking at why instead of thinking about ah am I just setting goals all the time I realized that the goals there were certain goals that I did begin to hit as I got older that. Actually created an enormous amount of satisfaction for long periods of time and the ones those goals that I hit that created a really long lasting satisfaction were they were my goals and all the goals that I had set before you know I mean if we. |
| 04:27.14 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 04:42.45 | mikebledsoe | Work our way back. My goal was to be at nationals and and weightlifting it was strong man competitions. It was squat a certain amount of weight compete at Crossfit a certain way become a navy seal like ah, whatever it was like ah graduate top my class. All these different things. None of those things whether I experienced success or not were not very satisfying in In fact, I didn't enjoy the journey of it at all or very little and then when I when I let go of that I went through a lot of growth. And I started achieving my own goals I go oh this isn't a personality flaw or a flaw amongst people who are very achievement based this is just simply a you are. It's it's an insecurity issue. It's a way of like what you were saying. Which is how do I experience. Love how am I accepted by others and the the thing that really stands out for me is my how I behaved in the world changed dramatically when my father died. |
| 05:53.24 | Max Shank | And. |
| 05:55.27 | mikebledsoe | And I realized that a lot of the decisions. It took me a few years to after that and I watched my my behavior change in a really interesting way I it was like I took a hard left turn after he passed and as I look back on it I go oh. All my goals up that point was to impress my dad like if I thought my dad was gonna be impressed by it I would fucking. Do it whether he said so explicitly or not it was It's always our own interpretation of what is gonna get us love and acceptance. So once I realize. |
| 06:20.77 | Max Shank | And. |
| 06:33.74 | mikebledsoe | I did that with my dad and then years later learning that how we you know our dad being our first love outside of ourselves because we we view our mother as ourselves when we're first born and so this father figure really dictates how you view the world and how you. Earn love from the world and so if you grew up in a situation where you were constantly setting goals to impress your dad. You're probably gonna be prone to for the rest of your life is a set achievement goals based on what you think other people want you to do and then just be miserable. |
| 07:10.64 | Max Shank | Totally totally I think ah of kids as like an ego surrogate Most of the time It's like a little surrogate ego for the parents and the ah like ah. |
| 07:10.65 | mikebledsoe | Whether you get it or not. |
| 07:23.86 | mikebledsoe | I Love it. |
| 07:28.48 | Max Shank | It's so easy to see I used to referee kids soccer games I used to also play soccer myself and you should see these parents fucking screaming these kids are 7 years old |
| 07:36.90 | mikebledsoe | Oh wow. |
| 07:42.64 | Max Shank | There are like 3 of them who are good at soccer and the rest of them are running around and like they'll kick the ball if it happens to come near them and as a referee of these little kids I'm like getting yelled at for like ruining the game sometimes if I if I do something a little wrong. |
| 07:48.60 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 07:55.28 | mikebledsoe | Oh my. My my dad. My dad definitely came after some umpires and some referees like my dad was the guy in in the backtop yelling at ah at the ummp at baseball games. |
| 08:01.99 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, so so so there's no ah I I didn't want any of my parents to come to any of my events of any kind I wanted to go there and just do it on my own and you know. But here's the thing ah that attitude makes it so clear implicitly and kind of explicitly what the mission is you know you are in that family unit. You're looking to get love. You're looking to do good instead of do bad and if winning. Is the most important thing then playing is not the most important thing and I think it's backwards because if you are doing something that brings you intrinsic enjoyment. It is sustainable. In fact, you will you will. You'll spend the whole day doing it. You'll forget to eat. You'll forget to do other stuff. You'll just be in the zone of this thing that you're doing and you can win you know and and win is such a nebulous term you can have success and. Serve and connect with people by doing what you are the best at and if you really love doing it. It will be easy for you to gain tremendous skill at it I always start with that question actually. With people when it comes to business coaching. Let's say and I'm like what would you do? if you could earn no money and no credit from doing it like what would you? What would you give? what would you do and when you take the. Ego out of it then you get into the real meat and potatoes of what brings you intrinsic joy and Joseph Campbell so calls it a follow your bliss and I think that's generally a good idea. But if you do things just for the reason. |
| 10:09.80 | mikebledsoe | By the way following your Bliss doesn't mean you're experienced bliss the whole time I want to make that clear for some people. |
| 10:17.40 | Max Shank | Right? right? right? I mean if you have good drugs. You can come pretty close but no, no joking joking. Don't do drugs kids just do the drugs that Uncle Sam says you should do ah but what I'm saying is if you take. |
| 10:24.96 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 10:36.47 | Max Shank | The idea of getting credit or the potential reward monetarily you will hone in on what you really would like to do and what you would really like to share. Ah, it's such a corny phrase but it's true. The gift is in the giving. And it required me having a pretty high degree of success myself before I got that like it's it's kind of funny how that works because for me, everything was about the result everything was about winning and. I Just thought you should tough it out for the result like it doesn't matter who cares if you're enjoying what you're doing you just do what needs to be done to get the desired result and look that can work. But if you do something that you would do anyway and then. Learn the fundamentals of monetizing that Action. You will happily do it every day and you can do it for a lifetime rather than for a shorter amount of time burn yourself out and then feel lost because you chase this goal that has its origins. Completely outside of your sense of self. |
| 11:54.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that makes me think about people people hear this conversation like follow your bliss and and you know do what you love and enjoy the journey and they go look. That's really sounds cute but that's not how the world works I was. I was coaching a friend recently a buddy from you know I've known for 20 years and you know I don't talk to him very often. But I was talking to Him. He goes well,, that's just not how the world works I go for you that because you believe the the Opposite. You're making that true and you're going to collect a lot of evidence to support that so I have been collecting evidence on the other side Now here's the thing. Yeah, you get to choose which evidence you're collecting so choose wisely and So. All throughout human history.. There's been a lot of have to I have to do this to survive and eat and the the more the more primitive culture is the less choice. There really is and what you get to do there's there's you know you gotta go hunt and get your food. You gotta you gotta do some stuff. |
| 12:54.81 | Max Shank | I Should do this now. |
| 13:10.27 | mikebledsoe | And through the advancement and evolution of culture. What we we came up with this idea of capitalism which has allowed people to become specialists. You know having that currency allows someone to become a specialist and not have to do all these have to things they just have to be really good. 1 thing and then other people reward them from that and we experience trade and so it's when I look at our generation. What I see is ah the highest level of get to and when I have kids one day. They're gonna have an even higher level of get to than I did and this level of get to is just so much more pronounced and shorter periods of time from generation to generation I think that's a lot of what we looked at the boomers talking to the. The gen xes and the millennials and saying you know you gotta like work hard. You gotta grind you gotta you gotta do all this you gotta do stuff that you don't like and that's actually not that true because we live in a world of. Incredible amount of connection somebody somewhere values your passion and you being able to perform that a really high level somewhere. There was a woman There's a woman in New York that fucking makes half million dollars a year I think I told you about this before selling pictures of dicks. That are dressed up in different outfits so actual dicks. So these guys volunteer shell put little address on it or she'll put like a little tuxedo on the dick take it picture? Yeah but this is. |
| 14:44.76 | Max Shank | That's funny like actual dicks. Wow I would love to know I'd love to know that customer avatar like who are the people buying these things. |
| 15:01.30 | mikebledsoe | I Love that story because it's a demonstration of how niche and ridiculous something can be but she is the best dick pick Taker on the planet. She's the the Dick Master huh. |
| 15:12.60 | Max Shank | How many have you purchased how many have you purchased personally. |
| 15:19.56 | mikebledsoe | I've got 4 in my collection. Nft's though but ah when here's here's the other thing I mean that's what I was joking I said nft but ah, we are seeing artists being rewarded people of normally associated being an artist with being. |
| 15:24.43 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 15:38.54 | mikebledsoe | Um, ah a starving artist. You know it's the common cliche you're a starving artist and there's a lot of reasons why artists are starving but ah in in the new world that we're living in. You can draw some shit up and sells an have m might take off and just because you associate it with that. So. There's there's much more sophisticated ways of funding artists now when people trade the art so say ah and this is a very the layers of tokenomics. Get very deep and very complicated and it's very hard to keep up with just just putting that out there because um, my girlfriend is deep in the comic book world with Nfts right now. So she owns a bunch she owns like this I think I might be she might. Think she owns like the seventeenth most expensive comic on the planet type of thing right now. So yeah, and so ah. |
| 16:39.28 | Max Shank | That's exciting. |
| 16:44.90 | Max Shank | It's always like you know you know people ah have all these comments about the the top 1% and there's a funny quote which is like there's always going to be a top 1% in fact it will always be 1% |
| 16:58.88 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 17:00.93 | Max Shank | And no matter what it is that you're doing whether you're an artist or a coach or an author or something like that like there's always going to be a top 1% but it kind of comes down to the comparison syndrome right. |
| 17:15.32 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 17:18.17 | Max Shank | So if you are measuring your success based on something like that like once again, if I compare myself to the rock I'm a fat poor slob but but it. |
| 17:29.56 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 17:35.33 | Max Shank | Outside of that comparison like I feel pretty good about myself like I might go jump in the pool later and I'm in good enough shape to play tennis and you know it just depends on what you compare to so this idea that you will be happier getting richer or stronger doing something. You don't. Really want to do versus making a little bit less money or being a little bit less strong but doing something that you ah are really excited about every day I think that's a major fallacy and you you're just comparing to what. You see on television what you see around you what you see on social media. This idea that you must have Xy and z to be considered successful. Once again is totally arbitrary. You know you come in and you're like hey I want to I want to lose. Ah. £5 I don't want to be one hundred and sixteen pounds I want to be 111 and I'm like why? Well just 111 sounds better. They're like why don't you just measure yourself in Kilos the number will be smaller like what what are you talking about? It's ridiculous if you want to feel really strong just measure the weight you can lift in Grams. I lifted ten Thousand grams today I feel so strong. Ah, it's total nonsense when you think about ah the intrinsic things like what do you actually like to do because most of it's. |
| 18:48.61 | mikebledsoe | I'm so yoed. |
| 19:01.92 | Max Shank | Once again, all these cliches sounds so corny but most of the best things in life are free but there is a fundamental necessity to feel safe to feel um to be fed and things like that. But it comes back to what we've talked about a lot which is value value like. |
| 19:14.19 | mikebledsoe | We know the the cocoa. Yeah. |
| 19:21.30 | Max Shank | Value is totally um, dependent on the situation right? So bottled water at Coachella very valuable bottled water ah by a fresh river coming out of a glacier people aren't that really interested so just because. Someone says what you have isn't valuable doesn't mean someone else won't think it's very valuable so it's ah it's very arbitrary. Go on. |
| 19:43.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well this the the conversation about the rock is really interesting because people go Yeah, the rock. The rock is more successful than max in a lot of areas but I'm just say I'm saying someone from the outside may say that. |
| 19:59.23 | Max Shank | Whoa who's saying that I I know I just said it to. |
| 20:03.66 | mikebledsoe | But just go with me just go with me and and um, but here's the thing is we you have no idea what the rock's life is like he's taking pictures on Instagram the dude is in pain all the time that. He is knee hurts like I've I've I've been able to glimpse enough to realize that he's in a lot of pain. He may be in less now but he's had to endure a lot of pain to get to where he's at probably you know he may have. Periods of time where he didn't sleep. Well there's periods of time he he was a pro wrestler at 1 point those guys are living a crazy lifestyle. Yeah, and it's just one of those things where it's like oh this guy gets put on this pedestal and then people start comparing themselves to him and I'm like man i. |
| 20:40.61 | Max Shank | You never know outside looking in, you never know. |
| 20:55.44 | mikebledsoe | I Don't want any like I would love to have the bank account and that's probably it I mean I don't know about the physique because you just started looking at the amount of sacrifice that was made that he sacrificed a lot of things that you and I value too much to sacrifice and. |
| 21:11.95 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 21:14.90 | mikebledsoe | Who knows if maybe he did follow his heart and this is the the I bet he did in a lot of ways and this is the result of that and he we just value different things. So like that's his degree of success and this is what success looks like for us. So. Like to point that out in that we we definitely don't know the full story of what's going on for that other person's life and to and and when we when we start comparing we lose sight of our own Genius and our own self-expression and. |
| 21:41.86 | Max Shank | That. |
| 21:53.28 | mikebledsoe | And I think it happens when we start categorizing ourselves like if I were just to say I'm a podcaster or I'm a coach or I'm a this I start comparing myself to Joe Rogan as a podcaster or I might start comparing myself to Paul check as a coach or something like that and I gotta I got to back it up and even say. |
| 22:01.60 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 22:12.82 | mikebledsoe | I don't I don't want to really look at those guys as mentors I like to pay attention to what they're doing because they're smart and they're They're the best at what they do but at the same time I'm doing something That's really neither one of those I'm not it. It would be unfair to me to be unfair to the world. |
| 22:15.64 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 22:24.81 | Max Shank | Ah, right. |
| 22:30.18 | mikebledsoe | To carry a comparison between these people and try to be Joe Rogan and Paul check at the same time I'd be insane but people try to do it all the time. |
| 22:34.68 | Max Shank | That would be I'd be very powerful I think you found my new goal actually I want to be Joe check or Paul Rogan yeah Paul Rogan |
| 22:42.40 | mikebledsoe | Um I like the Paul Rogan Paul wrote yeah you go? Yeah, that's what we should have called this show and ah man we fucked up be fucked up. |
| 22:52.25 | Max Shank | Ah I Love I Love what you said because also that's where envy comes from right and people become envious but they don't envy the whole thing they cherry pick they're like oh I'm envious of the rocks. |
| 23:06.35 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 23:10.36 | Max Shank | Bank account or his eyebrow thing that he does or whatever but you don't know the full story of what's going on and envy really is the worst of all the 7 deadly sins because it's the only one you can't have any fun at so you don't want to be you don't want to be envious. |
| 23:26.76 | mikebledsoe | Um, a. |
| 23:28.48 | Max Shank | It's very silly Plus why be jealous of someone when you don't know what's going on behind the scenes you you don't know the full story like ah it Maybe it's like really not worth it. Maybe they are just remorseful all the time. Ah so so you don't want that and then. |
| 23:43.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 23:47.91 | Max Shank | The other thing that you said that was awesome was you know if you compare yourself to those guys then you are like spoiling your song or your vibration. It's like you know the rolling stones or a great rock band. But not everybody likes the rolling stones it just so happens that they'll play for massive crowds and that most people really do like them but some people prefer like ah I don't know the ramons or sublime or something like that I don't know. And I don't really know enough band names but you get my point is like just because one band is really really popular like a rogan or a Paul check doesn't mean that you can't offer something in a uniquely different way that will resonate with a slightly different audience. It's not honestly, it's not even about what's. Absolutely better because how could you measure that and I and I get into that um line of thinking quite a lot Actually myself is just as much a reminder to me as it is to anyone listening it may feel. Like someone else is better qualified to do what you would like to do but you'll do it differently enough that it might resonate with someone Better. So Even if in your mind It's like oh well,, they're just better at it. You know, just do your best. And put your um self into it and that's going to resonate better with some group of people than that other person that you might be comparing to so comparison Envy not good at all. |
| 25:35.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well and I'm somebody who has a I have a lot of interests lot of different interests and there are definitely some areas like I trained I trained one of my buddies ah on Saturday. Ah. |
| 25:37.32 | Max Shank | Not that healthy for you. |
| 25:53.39 | mikebledsoe | I trained him physically in my gym and you know we were He's a new friend. He he looks fit and but he's got a lot of back pain and he he says he's like. Like oh what do you do for training. He goes well tomorrow I was like you want to work out tomorrow. He goes well tomorrow's my buys and tries and I was like you know what? how about this and he was I was like tell me about your back I'm like how about this I bet I can make your back feel better while during your workout. You're gonna feel better. And afterwards you're gonna feel better and why don't you just stop by tomorrow four o'clock will smoke a little weed and then we'll we'll work out. He goes all right that sounds like a good time I blew his fucking mind for the guy who does buys and tries and ah. And and his his full time gig is crypto trader so he yeah he get an idea of who he might be right? I'm not gonna blast his name or anything like that. But he um I get him in the gym. He doesn't he's never studied fitness I mean he looks good like he he does know what he's doing. |
| 26:53.44 | Max Shank | Okay. |
| 27:08.49 | Max Shank | Higher. |
| 27:09.69 | mikebledsoe | If he were to go to Lifetime Fitness I Imagine he's and his posture looks pretty good. So it's not like he's not a mess or anything but I took him through some you know integrative functional movement and his he just mind exploded the whole time and so when I am exposed. |
| 27:13.15 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 27:28.50 | mikebledsoe | But if I were to be with train with you max I don't feel like I know much right? We're just kind of like learning I'm learning a lot from you. You might be picking up some stuff from me, but it's it's kind of like little things here and there and then I really realized what an expert I am in the field of fitness cause I've been doing it for like 20 years 25 years and sometimes it's good to expose yourself to somebody who has no very limited exposure to the topic to really see how much you know about it I walked away from that session and I've got I've got pages of if I introduce someone new to training. These are the principles because I started I spent 10 minutes talking to him before we moved so that he understood why we were doing what we were doing and so I come out with all these notes where I'm like oh I should I could put together some type of fitness program I've avoided that because I meet so many I've met so many people who are so fucking good at it. So like oh. |
| 28:11.55 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, totally. |
| 28:23.60 | Max Shank | Right? what. |
| 28:26.33 | mikebledsoe | Why would I put it together a fitness program. They could always just go to max or they could go to Paul check or they could go to you know John Wolfe and it's like and then I go oh my friend. He didn't go to any of those guys he ended up in my garage. So. |
| 28:30.88 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 28:37.81 | Max Shank | He went to you right. |
| 28:43.59 | mikebledsoe | Ah, because none of those guys really appealed to crypto traders but I like to trade crypto. So now I appeal to those people too and crypto Trader trainer. So I Um, the other thing I started this conversation or this this rant with. |
| 28:50.60 | Max Shank | You're the crypto Trader trainer. |
| 29:03.17 | mikebledsoe | Ah I view myself as someone who's got ah a broad knowledge base but not a lot of depth in 1 thing but then I realized when I was training him. Oh I do have a lot of depth in this area compared to compared to that guy. That's all it needed. |
| 29:09.14 | Max Shank | Um, compared to what that's the key compared to what and and really when you're talking about sharing something valuable or delivering value which is really what this whole. Trade-based economy is based on is do you have some value that you can deliver you want to pace the person that is reading your message the person that is seeing your message the person that is listening to your pitch of some kind. Because basically you're selling him on the idea of training in a different way First and foremost whether you're doing that in-person via video via text you are selling them on this new idea so you have to meet them where they're at so the way that you would coach someone. |
| 29:48.53 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 30:05.16 | Max Shank | Who's been a trainer for 10 years and they're looking to you know gain their you know level 5 neurophysiological functional integration pathways is going to be very is doesn't that sound nice. Ah I I created it right now. |
| 30:16.40 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah I do you have that certification yet. You have that certification. Oh oh, you should ah print it out and put it on the wall 10 k for two days with Max Shank Dot Com go right now. |
| 30:25.30 | Max Shank | Only only ten k for two days ah that's it. Yeah, ah you know so that's that's a very different clientele like you know and I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on courses over the years ah in person. Online. Whatever the whole the whole gamut and as you get more toward the end user. It gets simpler and simpler and simpler and it's like Titanic triceps and super shoulders and as you get more toward the trainer side of things. It just gets more and more fancy. You know they're like fancycier names and like we're gonna hack your nerve and look starting with the nervous system is the right idea but sometimes you just have to laugh at some of the crazy names that are being thrown around there so you have this. |
| 31:03.52 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 31:21.76 | Max Shank | Like especially cause I got so much into physical therapy which is a broad term. It's like a contest to see who can get the fastest results. So It's like you just need a more fancy secret and it's like a. An escalation of who has like the fanciest secret for how to erase someone's pain and get them moving functionally again which also is good from a practical standpoint because most people um you know exercise is not that hard like go for a walk. Carry some weights around move some weights. It's all good like you don't need to do anything dance around a little bit play a sport.. It's not not that hard. But if someone is hurting then having a methodical way to get them back to. A safe place where they can move without fear and without pain. That's really what requires the most effort and that's why I went that way myself with all of the programs I've created and all of the courses that I've taught it's much more difficult. |
| 32:15.00 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 32:31.44 | Max Shank | To get someone feeling safe and strong again and pain free than it is to be like oh you want bigger legs. Well um, you know deadlift reverse lunge and sprint up a hill and you'll be fine like you don't need to do too much more than that like it could get fancier and fancier. But. |
| 32:49.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, one of the things that came to mind as you were talking is the ah the more knowledge we obtain the longer we're in a segment of the population. So you'll see this. You're have been to an nsea conference National sport and conditioning association. Okay. |
| 32:49.49 | Max Shank | You get the idea. |
| 33:05.64 | Max Shank | Now now. |
| 33:08.96 | mikebledsoe | Ah, been to a couple and I went when I was in college because it was the thing to do and we go and I mean you had to pay attention to a lot of these talks because these academics are talking to their peers. They're talking to other academics. Now were there? Yeah, the well that's the thing is. |
| 33:28.72 | Max Shank | Don't you mean they're showing they're showing off. Let's be let's be real here I've talked at conferences they're showing off That's all look how smart I am I'm gonna give you an offer at the end that you you can buy my product and I'm gonna show everyone how smart I am and why you should listen to me. |
| 33:42.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so the problem is in Academia they're not selling. They're not selling anything for money. They're just selling their ideas but they they fuck up because they are not talking to their audience. They're talking to their peers and so. |
| 33:45.93 | Max Shank | Most of the time most of the time. |
| 34:02.90 | mikebledsoe | They are ah so they end up using these words that are really loaded and if you're not in the field. You will not know what they're talking about and the whole point of the nsea like their their mission statement. It basically says that we want to bridge the gap Between. Science and practical application for strength coaches and then you go to the conference where the academics like if you don't if if you're the average strength Coach. You have no fucking idea what this academic is talking about because they're talking about mtor receptors and and these really deep bio energetic. Terms that no one knows what they mean unless you're one of these 20 people and so one of the things I recognize and this happens in the classroom and in academic environments too is the instructors are speaking to impress their peers instead of appealing to their audience. |
| 34:52.50 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 34:56.73 | mikebledsoe | And the same thing happens when we we'll use fitness as an example, but this happens in every industry is when you become very advanced at what you do when you've been steeped in the information as long as max and I have been then you you you do ah get attracted to the fancier stuff because. At times because there might be a little bit of nugget and knowledge in there. But the yeah I need a harder drug but the chasing the the knowledge the Knowledge Dragon. So The the the trap is for. |
| 35:19.89 | Max Shank | It's like a harder drug. |
| 35:26.85 | Max Shank | Chasing the knowledge dragon. |
| 35:35.97 | mikebledsoe | Max and I would be if we started talking to our peers. There's a part of me that used to when I was making posts talking a podcast putting things on social media writing emails I wanted to make sure that if my friends my peers my colleagues. Read this. They'd be impressed and I that meant I was gonna get crickets from the people that needed to hear it the most and so. |
| 36:01.80 | Max Shank | How perfect is that story. You're going to literally shoot yourself in the foot to turn off your customers to impress your peers and colleagues that's hilarious. That's hilarious. |
| 36:11.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I see this happen coaches are doing this all the time they're so worried. |
| 36:18.44 | Max Shank | I Hear the ten dollars words I tune out I tune out so quick when I see people with the $10 words. It's like I know a few fancy words. Okay I like to work my flactoids from time to time but dude as soon as you start with the fancy talk it. It tunes me out because I I can hear when there's. No need for it whatsoever and just on the certification standpoint you know I have people who work for me at the gym I don't require any certification whatsoever I'm like you should get Insurance. Don't don't waste. They're like what certification should I get I was like done none of Them. Don't waste your time. |
| 36:57.00 | mikebledsoe | You probably learned some shit wrong by doing that cert. |
| 36:57.10 | Max Shank | Learn how to communicate with people learn the basics well yet plus the last thing I want is someone to come in there with their own idea of how things should be done like I want collaboration and a meritocracy of ideas because I'm not always right I Love ah. |
| 37:07.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 37:16.50 | Max Shank | You know, challenging the coaches with new ideas. Um, and it's fantastic. But I definitely wouldn't waste, especially if you're just trying to like coach people in exercise. There are a lot of fundamental truths that require no certification Whatsoever. To carry out I mean we could do a whole separate thing on how to be a personal trainer. Maybe we should do that next week. How to be a good. Ah how to be a good fitness coach. But yeah, don't waste your time with the like academia stuff. That's that's like so that's so worthless for the end User. It's just. |
| 37:40.54 | mikebledsoe | I like that I like that. |
| 37:55.28 | Max Shank | Like the only thing you can do. It's like academia itself. It's like what do you do after you take all these classes. Well then you can become a teacher and teach all these classes. It's like a fucking ponzi scheme. |
| 38:04.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, ah that that that makes me think about imposster syndrome people they get out there and they feel like they have imposter syndrome I think one of the reasons they experience that is and I bring this up because. This is a common question that gets asked or we're we're talking with a coach who wants to build their coaching business. They're like I'm experiencing imposter syndrome. Okay, yeah, and an imposter syndrome I Ah believe that a lot of that comes from. |
| 38:27.97 | Max Shank | Um, it's like toxic comparison right. |
| 38:40.84 | mikebledsoe | You know, wanting to impress their peers. It's It's never about I don't feel like I'm good enough to help people because when you get talking to them. They're like why is anyone listening to me but then they're afraid to post because they're afraid of with their parents or their family or friends or people that they were in class with. Are gonna think about what they posted and so it's It's such a. It's It's not it. Yeah, it's not imposter. Syndrome. That's made up. It's you don't feel like an imposter. You're just afraid that you're not gonna look smart in front of your friends and when you you're for. |
| 38:59.29 | Max Shank | Fear judgment. Yeah. |
| 39:17.65 | mikebledsoe | Every time that you hold back and don't share because of that there are people that could have been helped by you that are not and it also impedes your unique genius from shining through which is exactly what we're getting at in this entire show. We talked about borrowed dreams in the beginning and how we live. |
| 39:23.15 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 39:37.27 | mikebledsoe | Out the lives that other people that we imagine that other people want us to live instead of living out our own dreams and that includes speaking our own message in a way that's unique and can land for the audience. |
| 39:49.38 | Max Shank | Yeah, and you should as a professional, always try to communicate in a way that will resonate with your audience the best you know if you was talking to this lady on the phone. She's really cool. Ah. I like to make ah sexist jokes to my female friends like it. It makes me laugh a lot and so I was saying you know it's like ah it's like building a motor you know I was talking about how you build like ah an online business and a funnel and there's like a flow of Gasoll. There's fuel and you got to put all the parts together. Was like oh actually you know you're a lady so it's like a recipe and there's a sequence that everything has to be put together and and I just like making jokes like that. But it's true that it is exactly like a recipe It's not going to resonate with everybody. You shouldn't compare your. |
| 40:31.12 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 40:45.54 | Max Shank | Ah, recipe for chili compared to someone else's but you should communicate things in a way that will resonate with that audience and if I'm smart and I'm targeting ladies I'm going to use a how to make a pie rather than how to build a motor. And I'm not saying that there aren't tons of ladies who know way more about motors than I do. But if I'm going to try to resonate with the most ladies possible and have a specific person that I'm speaking to why it's so important to clearly know the audience you're talking to. You should always talk to them. In a way that will make it the easiest for them to understand which means you will also make it the easiest to catalyze the desired action that you want them to take the last thing you want to do is complicate the message like you were saying before. |
| 41:36.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and this also makes me think about this just leads naturally into the conversation of self-expression and this desire for authenticity. You know the the online media has been I think it's showing. |
| 41:43.19 | Max Shank | E. |
| 41:56.10 | mikebledsoe | How inauthentic things are and 1 of the one of the pieces of one of the statements that I receive a lot online and in person is people appreciate how authentic I am and they talk about how rare that is in today's world which is true. A lot of inauthenticity now a lot of people in their attempt to be authentic and self-expressed fail to meet their audience where their audience is at and so I see I see this a lot, especially it seems to be more prevalent amongst women than men. Um, and that they want to express them and probably because they've there's been a suppression of self-expression amongst women at a higher rate than of men so women really want to be able to express themselves in the way they want to express themselves which is great but with the expectation that they're gonna be. They're gonna ah be rewarded for that unbridled self-expression because yeah, because what's happening is I'm gonna express myself the way I want to because I never had before and now I'm really stepping into my power and I really want to do this and then while then turning off a bunch of people or. |
| 42:57.79 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, it won't resonate as well. |
| 43:12.90 | mikebledsoe | People are like I don't know what they're talking about I'm confused which which can be good. |
| 43:12.50 | Max Shank | Which can be good which can be good to turn off a lot of people your vibe attracts your tribe. So if you do have that like insane personality type of so I mean we're all kind of insane. Um, you know you'll you'll garner. Less resonance broadly but that might be okay, but you just have to manage your expectations If you're going to be like ah you know it just it just depends on the person. You know if you have an extreme personality. You might get people who like you a lot more but less of them. |
| 43:36.20 | mikebledsoe | Right? right. |
| 43:46.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and the other thing I I like to warn about here is a lot of people they get into this self-expression and authentic self-expression conversation and what they end up expressing is their their emotional wounds and I. |
| 43:59.40 | Max Shank | Their wounds. |
| 44:06.10 | mikebledsoe | The way I look at is like you could either express from a place of love or you can be expressing your wounds and if you express your wounds. You have the opportunity to create more wounding or to create ah an effect that is undesired and then and you can tell if it's a wound or if it's. |
| 44:14.60 | Max Shank | A. |
| 44:25.40 | mikebledsoe | Coming from love because a wound behaves like a child. You know it. It throws things Temper tantrums Exactly it's most adults have not developed. Emotionally they got stunted in their youth and that's why you have people doing what they do I mean we see in politics. It's just. |
| 44:31.14 | Max Shank | How most adults behave. |
| 44:44.96 | mikebledsoe | Bunch of fucking children running around up there. So ah. |
| 44:47.32 | Max Shank | You would never see a discussion like that within a company that was Successful. It's absolutely Insane. The the shouting messages and the at the shouting and the ad hom and him attacks and the appeals to I mean it's. So full of logical fallacies and ranting and raving that it just makes no Sense. You'd have to be kind of stunted to believe that that is useful in some way you know, no no sane person wants to go to war and yet we let these sociopaths go to war all the time. It's. |
| 45:15.59 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 45:25.40 | mikebledsoe | Um, and then pay them to do it. Not not only that you pay you are funding this behavior and the world is broken. Yeah yeah. |
| 45:25.77 | Max Shank | It's outrageous, um and then. |
| 45:32.85 | Max Shank | Totally I yeah in a lot of ways it is but you got to just focus on ah delivering what is important to you and I think you know the word authenticity ah is another one of those. Things that feels like borrowed dreams like my my authentic self now feels totally different than it did ten years ago and when I think about being authentic, really I I just mean like being truthful because I don't have to say something. |
| 45:50.89 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 46:03.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 46:08.96 | Max Shank | A certain way like that doesn't necessarily make me more authentic like sometimes I curse and I go oh man did I really have to there and I'm like yeah I fucking did because I was emotional and there was like a reason for it. And I don't care if I turn off a few people but I can also understand someone being a little bit smarter and just never doing that to broaden their audience. So As long as you're telling the truth as you believe it to be I think that is what authenticity is I don't think it necessarily means. Ah you know. Having a weird attitude I think it's having a clear mission that you care about and being truthful I think that's really that's really what authenticity means more than like you know, exposing your wounds. |
| 46:57.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I and back on the self-expression piece I think that ah some people Also they they they haven't felt like they've expressed themselves in so long and then they get the courage to do so and then they start just. Expressing themselves over everybody and what I've found is it's very useful to have a place to really just let it fucking fly. Let it fly and that's not for the general public to be around. |
| 47:31.71 | Max Shank | Dancing. |
| 47:37.95 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 47:39.52 | mikebledsoe | Create a safe space. Maybe you have a therapist or you're going through a coaching program where there's a container that's really tight. There's there are rules. There are things that create safety because if you can experience really deep. Let it fly self-expression and a container of safety you can move all the way through it. |
| 47:49.67 | Max Shank | The. |
| 47:59.49 | mikebledsoe | Heal wherever that's coming from and then then become an adult in that area of your life if you if if you're out of control in some area of your life. It's because you have yet to heal that wound that was established in your childhood and be able to move on and now behave like an adult in that area of your life. And so I'm I'm a big fan of getting a container where you can just let it go but you cannot ah, it's a really bad idea to take that type of let it go behavior into the general public because it's not a safe space for you for 1 and for 2. |
| 48:23.86 | Max Shank | It. |
| 48:38.35 | mikebledsoe | Those people aren't trained to handle your shit. They don't know how to hold that kind of space. There's just you're gonna create a lot of bad juju out in the world. So that's my ¢2 worth on self-expression and I bring it up just because it's it's been a big topic and the. |
| 48:46.83 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 48:57.61 | mikebledsoe | What I witness is being talked about online and um I just witness a lot of coaches who value self-expression so high when they're actually just shitting on people instead of helping them. |
| 49:08.78 | Max Shank | Totally and the same thing. It's kind of like complaining like complaining is an authentic behavior because you are feeling a thing and you are letting it out and I've only had it happen a few times at the gym where someone who worked for me started complaining to 1 of their clients. |
| 49:16.15 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 49:28.60 | Max Shank | And I was like hey what are you doing there like we don't do that. This person is paying you. You do not complain in here you check whatever it is you have going on outside at the door when you bring a person in here I don't I don't care. What your views are um, on certain topics I care that you are making this person uncomfortable and complaining all over them and ruining their day. You're trying to you're trying to be a psychological energy vampire by complaining to someone. Who is the last person in the World. You should be doing this too and this cannot be tolerated. Yeah, complaining is like the most selfish Act. So I think that is very you just change what barbers no shit. |
| 50:08.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, is Selfish. I Just changed barbers because of this I barbers The yeah the my barber was my barber was is so good at cutting hair. But I I got Covid So I went a little bit longer without getting my hair cut and I noticed that. |
| 50:24.90 | Max Shank | Amazing. |
| 50:33.72 | mikebledsoe | For about three weeks post covid I was at I was easy to agitate and so the what what happened was is I so I started everything that agitated me in my life went on loudspeaker and I go oh. |
| 50:46.80 | Max Shank | O. |
| 50:49.88 | mikebledsoe | There was a gift in in this because I got to change some things that were bothering me at a low level but not hard enough to change but still taking away my energy right? And so I go you know what changing that and then I didn't my hair is kind of shaggy right now probably can't tell cause a headset. But. |
| 50:54.13 | Max Shank | You're more sensitive. |
| 50:58.38 | Max Shank | Ah, then. |
| 51:09.48 | mikebledsoe | Um, I'm a little bit shaggy because I decided I was like you know I'm just gonna let my hair grow out and I wasn't thinking about not enjoying my barber but then it hit me I go you know I want to get my hair cut and I went to schedule it and I recognized I was like I don't want to go to that Barber. So I I booked ah something at a different place I can't go to the same place cause he's gonna see me there and but he's a he's a chronic complainer and it's and I took it on as a challenge I was like I was like maybe I can help this guy out a little bit. You know how how good can I be like I've got a force field. My force field is um. |
| 51:30.20 | Max Shank | Of course. Ah. |
| 51:44.23 | Max Shank | Mike Mike Mike the fixer at work during his haircut appointment. |
| 51:46.95 | mikebledsoe | Penetrable. And ah well I was just thinking about like how Jesus can I be right now you know like yeah, so I so anyways like I what one the day I went to book my appointment I go. |
| 51:57.96 | Max Shank | Well, you need longer hair for that So that works. |
| 52:08.91 | mikebledsoe | I'm going somewhere else I hate being complained at all day. So anyways, just own that in their real life example of what max is talking about. |
| 52:15.73 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's ah it it might feel authentic and it and it might be coming straight out of your gut but it's not a good idea So that's a good example of like toxic authenticity. But it's not even really authentic. That's just like wounded ah wounded child. |
| 52:33.89 | mikebledsoe | It's inauthentic when it's coming from a wound. It's inauthentic but people confuse doing whatever the fuck they feel like in the moment to with being authentic. These are different. |
| 52:35.42 | Max Shank | Yeah, right. |
| 52:46.64 | Max Shank | It's it's about like ah you don't want to give a damn about too many things you want to selectively care about certain things. More than others and and you have to like you have to put yourself First. Ah and I don't know anyone who doesn't put their family before some stranger and it's good to you know? Love this whole world. And all the living creatures in it I mean I still eat a lot of the living creatures in it and they're delicious. But I don't value the life of a cow that I'm going to eat the same as I value my own life and you can't so you can't um thrive while putting yourself last. So. It's not to care about nothing. It's not to like give no fucks. Ah, it's really about being selective with what you do give your attention and energy into and anytime that you're giving to something that isn't a net positive for both parties. That's a huge. Ah, cost that you're making because there is always an opportunity for an engagement or a transaction or a connection where it's mutually beneficial and that's why profit is so fantastic. You know profit gets such a a bad rap because some people go about it in a destructive way. But there's nothing better than a voluntary transaction where both people are happier afterward and the same thing is true energetically conversationally monetarily whatever. |
| 54:28.44 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful, Well said so going back to borrowed dreams I think we've covered. |
| 54:33.90 | Max Shank | Just give up your dreams right now just give up your dreams no dreams, no dreams. |
| 54:39.77 | mikebledsoe | But it's a good thing. Well I think where we got if I you know begin to summarize this is we talk about start the conversation with people including ourselves set a lot of dreams and goals that really aren't our dreams in the first place and we ended on. Authenticity and wounding and and that's really what it takes to be able to set your own dreams and have your own goals is you really have to go and and look at where you're still a child where your ah. Being inauthentic where you have wounding that's expressing itself itself instead of yourself as love and if you can look at that and you're setting goals not out of insecurity but out of ah out of true desire and. And for me I can feel it in my chest I feel more open I feel expanded when it's something that I truly desire that it's gonna be fulfilling for me and it it I definitely I feel very much in my head when I'm setting goals to end up being for other people. So yeah i. |
| 55:47.74 | Max Shank | The. |
| 55:51.70 | mikebledsoe | Hope this is helpful. Those conversations help people move to a place where they're living their life in better alignment final thoughts for you that I was about to call you Zach I don't even know what Zach. Yeah. |
| 56:00.93 | Max Shank | Ah, lessac I'll get I'll be ah, Zach Morris from saved by the bell now. Ah, here's what I would say first focus on being turn off everything close your eyes. Sit quietly lay down quietly doesn't matter and just get comfortable with that and if you can't be happy and enjoy doing nothing I promise you you're not going to find some achievement that provides a more lasting joy and flow than that. So start with being then look at what you enjoy doing what you enjoy doing so much that it puts you directly into a flow state what you enjoy doing so much that you don't look at the clock you forget to eat think about what activity what? verb. Makes you really come alive. Ideally, you want to find where that intersects with something that people find valuable. So it's being doing and then giving and if you can. Take a little time in each of those stages. It'll be really obvious what type of dream or vision. You can come to and it doesn't suit you to compare too much to what other people are doing because. Really it just matters if you can deliver value to anybody and kind of rethink you know ask why apply the 5 y's to what that goal is after you decide what feels good to just being get comfortable with being. Not just get comfortable but enjoy just being with no distractions find what you enjoy doing and then think about what you would really like to give and on that last point if you're not sure just help out your former self. If. You're not sure who you want to help or how you want to help them just think back to a year ago two years ago five years ago ten years ago to someone just like you who's not quite as far along the path and I think that will at least lead you to something that is um. Comfortable Congruent. It'll be easy to communicate with that person because they are former you and yeah, that's that's how I would like to sum up my thoughts on that. |
| 58:42.80 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful I think any especially the coaches out there listening to this that there's That's the best advice I've heard on how to set your goals. So thanks for sharing that wisdom max. Let's wrap this up where are they gonna find you. |
| 58:55.84 | Max Shank | Oh I am impossible to find ah you can find me at http://maxshank.com or at ma shank where can they find you. |
| 59:08.91 | mikebledsoe | I'm just gonna I'm just gonna post your your home address at some point and then ah. |
| 59:12.17 | Max Shank | You don't know where I live. |
| 59:16.72 | mikebledsoe | Um, ah you can find me on Instagram at Mike Underscore Bloodso and you can check out the http://bloodsohow.com for some other shows I've been working on and http://thesstrongcoach.com for the coaches out there that want to go go be better coaches I don't know what the fuck you know he people should just go check it out. I enjoyed it later. |
| 59:43.76 | Max Shank | Sweet. Yeah, awesome dude. Well everybody follow your dreams make sure they're yours see you next time. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome back everybody to Monday mornings with max and Mike it is our 6 month anniversary this is our twenty sixth episode I'm frankly impressed that we have been so consistent because both Mike and myself. Really like our freedom and so this consistent appointment that we have on Mondays has been kind of an anchor for both of our thinking and we've shared a lot of interesting ideas gotten a lot of good feedback and we're gonna. Use this episode to talk about what's going on with us. What's going on with the world and what you should do about it. So Mike thanks for joining me once again, excited as always. |
| 00:52.99 | mikebledsoe | Ah I'm excited about today because we're gonna talk about current events and we don't do that normally up to this point we've been really good at keeping it a non noncurrent event not talking about what's happening in the world because. Ah, it can be ah, a sketchy thing to talk about that's not we don't want to avoid it because it's sketchy if you've been listening to show so far. We definitely cover some stuff that might be controversial for a lot of people. But when you get into? Yeah yeah, but. |
| 01:24.95 | Max Shank | It's clear which side our bread is buttered on. Let's just say that. |
| 01:29.56 | mikebledsoe | When you get into current events. It's um, it's easy to step in it. You know, but we're gonna We're gonna give it a shot anyway and that the things that are going on in the world right now that um, um. |
| 01:39.43 | Max Shank | Way way way wait wait before we go before we get into that. Let me just say the healthiest thing you can do is focus on how you can embody the values you believe in and deliver value. And pretty much ignore what's happening on a macro scale for the most part that is the healthiest thing you can do caveat over. Yeah I mean you shouldn't It's ah it's interesting because if you are. |
| 02:05.79 | mikebledsoe | Well now I feel like we shouldn't do the show. Ah. |
| 02:16.84 | Max Shank | Investing you want to try to ignore the news as much as possible if you are a professional you want to try to ignore the news as much as possible but there are certain realities that you have to be aware of like let me ask you a question if you lived in Canada would you have. Moved out of Canada I probably would have maybe not I don't know. |
| 02:38.61 | mikebledsoe | I have I have several friends that left I have a few more trying to figure out how to get out I mean it's um I'm listening to ah Ray Dalio's new book right now the changing world order and ah, it's. |
| 02:52.85 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 02:58.59 | mikebledsoe | Really what I really like about books like that um is they he he takes like a 2000 year view same thing with the sovereign individual. It's really good to look at super macro over time cycles and things like that because. It definitely makes what's happening right? now seem not such a big deal like it's it's like okay this is this is really It feels very important because it's happening right now but in the grand scheme of things. It's not important Ray Dalio is somebody who's made a lot of money built a lot of wealth over. |
| 03:22.44 | Max Shank | The. |
| 03:37.90 | mikebledsoe | Over his lifetime and the the guys that do that tend to be pretty apolitical I find they they don't really take a side they because they're so zoomed out they can basically they're not getting caught up in all of the the bullshit and so he. He really he's looking at the chinese since the six hundreds he's looking at ah you know the the the dutch the british and the american currencies because they were the dutch had the first reserve currency. The British Pound was the second the american dollar was a third and when you start looking at ah at things from that that more macro perspective and realizing that that as a society we will tend to the pendulum swings from a much more. Leftist political view to a right political view and the pendulum swings pretty hard and every time the pendulum swings there is there are winners and there are losers and it's yeah. |
| 04:48.94 | Max Shank | It's like we're fish tailing out of control back and forth overcorrection Overcorrection overcorrection. |
| 04:54.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and there's winners and losers along the way. But if you can see the big cycles and not be so emotionally charged by it and get caught up in it which I've watched a lot of my friends I've actually been surprised by a lot of my friends who get in the last couple years when. Super left or they went super right? and I'm just like I'm like Wow I Really thought that you had a ah larger perspective on what's going on. So um, yeah I'm glad we're We're talking about this first because I do encourage everybody. |
| 05:13.99 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 05:31.30 | mikebledsoe | That book by Ray Dahlia is really good. The sovereign individual is really good. The fourth turning that book talks about 100 year cycles and there's 4 generations in every hundred year cycle and what's typical and and that one's specific to America. What's typical um, is like when you read that and you look at what's happening right? now you go oh you can pretty much predict. What's going to happen next and some of these books have done this really well books that were written twenty years ago like the sovereign individual pretty much predicted everything that was going to happen in between two thousand and Twenty Twenty five |
| 06:08.74 | Max Shank | Five hundred year delta is another interesting one I don't know if you've read that one. It's ah it's even older and you read it now and you're just like whoa like they were they they knew exactly what was in the pipeline and the reason. |
| 06:09.35 | mikebledsoe | And this. I Haven't read that one. |
| 06:20.65 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 06:28.65 | Max Shank | Um, you can't just perfectly predict the future because you would just you know invest in the company that's going to win ah some of those things are unknowable like the general trend is maybe knowable but you can't pick the timing or the specifics. That's what otherwise they would all be. |
| 06:43.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I heard a good quote. |
| 06:48.32 | Max Shank | You know multi- multibillionaire trillionaires. |
| 06:50.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I'm ah I'm in this access I'm in this crypto trading group and ah, you know when the market when when bitcoin and a lot of other cryptos took a noseive the last couple months you know a lot of people were freaking out and. Someone came in and said remember time in beats timing time in the market beats timing the market every time and that's another reason it's good to take a macro view because if you look at economics at ah at a. |
| 07:13.85 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 07:26.63 | mikebledsoe | You know and hundred year cycles and things like that then you may not be able to pick the specific company. That's gonna win but you can kind of see you can kind of predict about what's gonna happen with the currency and and this and that and so I'm a big believer in. Ah. You know and and reading Warren Buffett and things like that these guys are it's not about picking that one company. Yeah you diversify and you you may catch a really good one or or several good ones. But you know, just just be investing in the things that are working right now is a good idea. |
| 08:00.39 | Max Shank | And before you do any of that you focus on investing in yourself like just to kind of bring us back to the practical like what do you do about it. First thing you should do is completely ignore the news. Or ah like passive investing until you have built value yourself that you can deliver on a consistent basis because there's nowhere that you can get a better return than building skills including the skill of delivering those skills. At a profit you shouldn't even mess around with trying to stay up with current events or politics and rhetoric or trading currencies until you have built that value building skill. |
| 08:50.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I really like that and it makes me think about you know hunt was a maybe one hundred hundred and fifty years ago the the people that the only people that had a vote at 1 point in America was people who own land and so ah. |
| 09:04.61 | Max Shank | Landowners. Which kind of makes sense. |
| 09:09.54 | mikebledsoe | They they were established they had they actually had skin in the game they they were like like likely value producing people in society and so if you think about who's gonna make the best decisions. It's probably gonna be them. Now the argument against that is they're gonna make decisions that are are best for their own good and and you know these other people aren't being represented and and what um the difference in that situation versus what we have now is right Now. It's one of those arguments of everyone needs to be represented and. |
| 09:29.83 | Max Shank | Wasn't that. |
| 09:46.64 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 09:49.11 | mikebledsoe | And that's more important than making good decisions and and and I get you know if we if if it was always the landowners that got to make the decisions then you know the the possibility of people feeling like they have a voice. |
| 09:51.31 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 10:07.76 | mikebledsoe | And being able to gain land might be difficult but it also might really encourage people to buy land which would overall be a good thing because that increases personal responsibility and all sorts of things. |
| 10:17.99 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean look how parenting works my house my rules but I think in a company. It's the same thing my company my rules the the difference with voting and why democracy is like mob. Democracy is basically just mob rule and I think it's crazy that we have a popularity contest to see which sociopath gets to wield a gargantuan stick ah like it. It makes no sense if you can convince like 51% of the voters. |
| 10:45.25 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 10:55.16 | Max Shank | To say that you're the best you suddenly have this crazy power and that's when you get imbalanced transactions like these companies would not be able to do outlander stuff without the help of lobbying so without the help of the stick. You know, enforcing things with a monopoly of violence. That's why every time you are a participant in a profitable transaction. You are actually creating wealth for both sides and that's why I come back to this idea of the pie makers and the pie slicers and the pie slicers just want to. They think it's a 0 sum game where there's one pie and if they get sharper and sharper knives they can slice it into tinier and tinier pieces. But they've never actually created any value in your life which is why I have like total disdain for politicians because it's like dude, why don't you lend a hand instead of carving up. And creating this victim mentality. It's ridiculous so making yeah right I mean making sense of things I think is valuable um, trying to make sense of what's going on but don't think for a second. |
| 11:55.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but that works that works in the popularity contest. |
| 12:11.17 | Max Shank | Um, that the way our society is structured from a political standpoint or a policing standpoint makes any sense at all like don't expect it to be reasonable because it's not reasonable and there are literally hundreds of examples. The the law is too complex for any 1 person to understand the tax code is too complex for any 1 person to understand they have mountains of paper and bills and laws going through the hands of these politicians who are crooks. And they don't even read the fucking things and you have people in jail for smoking grass and you and I are paying to like house that drug user for no reason at all um public school same thing I mean we could go on and on and on but the first but the first thing you have to do is stop. Vexing it to be rational or reasonable because it's not and that's how you can avoid getting caught up in the tribalism because you'll be like you guys are stupid like the only thing that actually makes sense is to. Wipe your own ass and then help out somebody else and the only way you can do that is by having a set of values and creating and delivering value. Everything else is like pretty much mental masturbation unless you actually do want to become one of those people who. Speaks out to try to like move political action. Um, and you know there's a lot of cost to doing something like that. |
| 13:54.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 14:00.28 | mikebledsoe | Um, the good I You know when when I start talking to people about politics or what's going on in the world right now. Um. |
| 14:00.69 | Max Shank | Got me all riled up actually I don't need any help getting riled up to I. |
| 14:16.49 | mikebledsoe | I find that I hold ah a fairly unique perspective because I tend I try not to look at what should happen and what should not happen I look at what is happening and I think a lot of times people get a little mixed up and like they. They go oh wow, it sounds like you're an anarchist and and I go well it could sound like that because that's what we live in. We're not that's it's just what is it's not ah and it's and it's becoming more anarchist over time. And what I mean by that is when I think about the word anarchy it just means without a ruler. It doesn't mean without rules and so an anarchist is somebody who takes a hundred percent personal responsibility and is is ready to. Create their own rules for their life and live by their own standards and the the way I see things going is everything's decentralizing so I remember ah had a friend make a post while back where it was like you know, maybe censorship is good. Maybe we shouldn't. You know it's probably a good thing that people aren't telling you how to build a nuclear bomb on Youtube you know that gap ban you know that kind of shit censored so like where do we draw the line and I go I posted and didn't get a response like I got a response the first time and then we start going back and forth and then just stop is. Ah, go. It's not about what should be done or what should be censored. The truth is in the future. Nothing will be censored. So what we got to do is we got to figure out how that works how do we make the world work in a place in a time and place. When due to blockchain technology. All information is actually accessible to everybody all the time. How do you manage that? That's a different thing and so ah because once something. So. Some of this blockchain technology if someone wanted to create a Youtube that worked off a blockchain they could set it up to where it could never be taken down. You'd have to shut down the entire internet over in the entire world to take that shit down and that's where we're going and so I look at that and I go the our job. Is to teach personal responsibility teach people. How to do that because the the people that don't take personal responsibility and they're waiting for someone to rescue them and who are dependent on others they're gonna be the ones left out in the cold first they're gonna get hit the hardest the people who. |
| 16:59.18 | mikebledsoe | Already take personal responsibility want to create value in the world. They're gonna be fine. So for me, it's not about oh everything should be more libertarian more every this and that it's like no, it's just where it's going and if you want to try to argue against that. It's gonna suck for you because you're spending your time trying to. Manipulate things you're trying to manipulate this entire like billions of people all coming together and and it's a it's a fucking tidal wave that you're not going to just be able to push against and stop might as well just learn how to ride that thing. |
| 17:33.81 | Max Shank | Yeah I think there's so much wisdom in seeing the world for how it is instead of how you want it to be I think that when it comes to political action or or even like. |
| 17:42.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 17:52.86 | Max Shank | You know, convincing scientists. It might have been buckminster. It's like you don't you don't fight um, against something you obsolete it meaning you make a technology that's better so like fighting against something you're just going to create. |
| 18:00.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 18:09.33 | Max Shank | Ah there's going to be an equal and opposite force. So the more you fight the more they fight you back the more you fight the more they fight you back and that's how we have this like huge chasm in the middle because people are seeing a different Tv show basically and I think that's one of the reasons that people are so divided is. Back in the day there was propaganda. There's propaganda today there was propaganda since the dawn of time like all talking is some sort of propaganda. Basically it's just some of it is ah pretty benevolent but back in the day sound like an old guy back in the day we would. Ah. We would at least watch the same propaganda like we'd sit around the Tv and um, watch the same thing now people are choosing their own echo chamber and not only that they're having an algorithm choose their own echo chamber by. |
| 18:48.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 19:06.20 | Max Shank | Not what they will like the best but what will get them to ah what will be the most provocative to them what will get them to engage and fear is more ah urgent than Love. Sadly speaking I mean it makes sense from a survival standpoint. It's ah you know safety is the main thing. So yeah, yeah, you're you're done. |
| 19:29.18 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if you don't have that you can't do other shit if you feel like that's about to be taken away. You've got to take action right now. It's an emergency. |
| 19:38.96 | Max Shank | Right? It's an emergency Well emergency Powers is how we got into this whole mess. Um, you know there's still. There's still no way to know if doing nothing would have been better than doing something and that's. |
| 19:46.40 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 19:58.16 | Max Shank | That's like almost always the case for like political action. Something needs to be done. It's the same as the fucking busybodies in the h o as right some ladies like oh you got ah your hedges are three centimeters too tall and I'm gonna report you to the it's like fuck you. Like don't you have a life so to me, it's the difference between a villain and and and a hero because a hero will be like I have set you free and the villain will be like. I have freed you by offering this new life where you do what the fuck I say and that's the core difference is confidence. This is what is best for me arrogance I know what's best for you and possibly everybody else and that's where it gets very very dark because. Heroes and villains alike believe that they are heroes The only difference is the villain feels justified in coercion which is forcing people into a certain situation. That's the only difference and if you can focus on that it'll be clear the path forward. But um, you know Thanos is probably 1 of the best villains because he was very indiscriminate. You know a lot of villains. They single out a certain population. He's like no no, no just half of you. |
| 21:26.21 | mikebledsoe | Ah, tell me me more about Thanos I don't know what you're talking about who's Thanos. |
| 21:31.25 | Max Shank | His way of saving the universe and restoring balance to the universe. He's like some fucking Marvel character I'm not a huge comic book nerd. But he's an avengers. He's the like. Oh definitely I don't know. Ah I'm sure. |
| 21:36.71 | mikebledsoe | Ah, okay I was like I was like is there some some like Greek god I don't know about I know some of those Marvel characters are based off of you know Nordic gods and almost hit. |
| 21:50.77 | Max Shank | Oh well, you know of course all the news stories are perfectly unique and there was never anything related to you know, Gilgamesh and heroes he his his solution was to just go everywhere and kill half the people which was like very. |
| 21:55.85 | mikebledsoe | I I tell us about Anos. |
| 22:07.34 | Max Shank | Ah, objective he wasn't playing Favorites. He was just saying too many mouths not enough to go around whatever he was. He was like a hedge trimmer for the ah universal population and it's it's villainous because he's appointed himself the decider. For everyone else, but it was very um, impersonal to just choose half the people. Um, so as that relates to what's going on right now is there are a lot of people who think they know best for everyone else and. In order to stay Objective. You have to be able to argue both of the extremes and you have to have some compassion for people who think the opposite of you and the only way to do that is try to argue for. Their story and it's all it's all rhetoric like everything is kind of paradoxical. You know the more you dig down into rhetoric more more you realize like it's either forced or it's not forced and that's kind of that's the line enforced by the stick. |
| 23:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's a the the technique of a steel man argument is that you build the other side up before you present your side is if you can make them feel heard and understood. They can listen to you so people tend to. |
| 23:20.72 | Max Shank | Not enforced by the stick. |
| 23:26.60 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 23:34.70 | mikebledsoe | They don't feel like they've been heard and understood then they just keep usually just keep talking. But if you can make them feel heard understood then they'll listen and so there's I mean that's so true in marketing and sales right? that's. |
| 23:43.31 | Max Shank | Oh. I wasn't even talking about how to have a conversation with them I was just talking about how to have like um you know mental peace for yourself and and not and not assume the people who believe differently than you are evil which I I have definitely been. In that situation before I'm like how can these people justify coercing other people. They must be like maniacs and the truth is like you have to be able to understand it from both sides like the whole like abortion seems crazy to me Like. Think as long as the baby is inside the woman's vagina she should be able to kill it if she wants to um, but I understand exactly why someone would believe the exact opposite of that you know what I mean I Totally understand why. |
| 24:36.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 24:42.76 | Max Shank | If someone is in an echo Chamber where they're getting mainlined fear that they would think forcing people to get an injection is the only way that we can all be safe I can totally understand why someone would believe that but when rhetoric is driving policy. Um, man. That's a problem. There should be some absolute truisms about coercion and non-coercion and and that's why I think the whole thing is such a crocoette basically because all of the language that we use to guide the jurisdiction and the authority of the stickholder. Is too complicated to understand it needs to be much more simple, much more clear and you're you're not going to solve it by by fighting against it directly until there's ah, a literal you know revolution of some kind where you just you know wield that power of no. To draw your boundaries and the same thing's true with any relationship you know, drawing boundaries versus being open are two critical skills and if you lack one you're going To. You're going to have a bad Time. Basically. |
| 25:55.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I find when I get in conversations with people that if if they hold this one view then um, I'm not going to really like like we have to talk about this 1 thing because everything. Everything seems a stem off of this 1 thing when it comes to politics and that is there's 2 there's 2 types of people in the world. You have 1 type of person who believes that people the general public people in general are too stupid to make their own decisions and they have to be taken care of. |
| 26:31.69 | Max Shank | Yep. |
| 26:33.86 | mikebledsoe | They need to be parented there. They're too stupid to to take care of themselves and they might hurt other people because they're too stupid and so that's that's a large part. That's most people that's anyone who's trying to write and this exactly. |
| 26:40.79 | Max Shank | Because no one thinks they're the stupid one. It's always for those other stupid people. |
| 26:52.62 | mikebledsoe | And this happens on the left and the right on the left people are too stupid to you know you know they're they're completely unsafe and you know the example of like are too stupid so they need to be told to wear masks outside even though we all know that's dumb as shit. But basically I had somebody on the left that was. |
| 27:08.36 | Max Shank | How dare you. |
| 27:12.11 | mikebledsoe | Had someone on the left I was talking to and they were and you know she's a doctor she goes will you know that we we have to tell them to wear it outside so they'll wear it inside too and because if they think they can if if we start changing up when they can take it where and not wear. It. They just might not wear it and I'm going. Oh you're one of the people who believe that people are too stupid um to to you can't give them complicated. You know, complex directions like where it inside but not outside and so and and the thing is is I couldn't talk to her about anything else. Until she could see that there's a possibility that people actually can learn. They can obtain wisdom and so but I would say I find myself on a side that that people are very capable of taking care of themselves except. And the reason that there's a lot of evidence to the contrary is because people have been robbed of wisdom for so long that we do have a bunch of stupid people and because they haven't been allowed to make any mistakes we've we've nerfed the world we've made the world so safe people actually I watch people cross the street in downtown Austin with their phone in their face because they just of course someone's gonna stop I'm in the crosswalk I'm like you have this is you have ah you're you're being a fool and. The problem is is that people have been made to feel so safe and they haven't been allowed to make mistakes they've been allowed to make mistakes but they they don't have to pay for them and so ah, I'm on the side of everybody hat is capable and and definitely people are different different intellectual levels. No doubt about it. Some people are. Born smarter than other people. Some people are built stronger than other people. So that's just how it is but generally speaking everybody has the opportunity to obtain wisdom and the only way you can obtain wisdom is through experience and making mistakes and. Feeling the pain of those mistakes and so I I sit on the side of the world would be a lot better place if we just let people get hurt if we just and and it and it could and if we were to transition from this everything has to be super safe to this. It might be a little harsh in the beginning I totally get that and making a fast switch might be really difficult but I do think that we do tend to swing between these 2 extremes one is people are too stupid to decide for themselves and on the other side is is radical, um, ah, personal responsibility. |
| 30:05.82 | mikebledsoe | And so those who have learned radical personal responsibility tend to be very wise and make good decisions. But I think that the people who have done that for for whatever reason have have put themselves out there and put themselves have have felt the pain of making mistakes. Ah, a really good example of this is drug use in San Francisco they they give you a safe place to shoot up your heroin or whatever it is that you want to do and it and it's like okay that's a very compassionate thing to do like okay, we're gonna give them. Safe needles and and yada yadda yadda. But then you have just an entire population of people shooting up on the street and are are you you may be saving that person's life. But how many more people are you just gonna be junkies for the rest of their life. You know. The the repercussions are they gonna come quickly or are they gonna be drawn out over a long period of time and the longer it takes for you to feel the pain of your mistake the less likely you are to to obtain the wisdom for it if I make a mistake and then five years later feel the pain of that mistake. I am way less likely to link the 2 and gain that wisdom. But if I can feel that pain of my mistake immediately say I get on the street. No one gives no one's giving me any money I'm out there painhandling I'm shooting up I'm having a hard time finding needles like think I'm gonna hit rock bottom a lot faster. |
| 31:35.13 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 31:40.13 | mikebledsoe | And one of the things I like to share with people as I coach them is don't don't the the thing that can harm people the most is trying to save them from their apocalypse and because people do need to hit a rock bottom and people's rock. Bottoms are different. |
| 31:42.27 | Max Shank | You were a heroin addict I knew it. |
| 31:58.17 | Max Shank | But that's what politicians do That's how they that's how they keep you sucking on their teat is they let they keep you bouncing right? at the bottom so that you always need them. No, it's true I mean you create ah an imbalanced relationship where there's. |
| 31:59.73 | mikebledsoe | My rock bottom. |
| 32:08.88 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 32:16.50 | Max Shank | You who are the one who has and they who are the one who needs right? and just like you I think if you are free to reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. The result is always going to be better for everybody because then you will incentivize. Pie Makers essentially and you know getting back to one of my core values. It's incentives people respond to Incentives. You know if you if you make ah you know ah a free heroin house I don't know exactly how it's Working. You're going to attract. |
| 32:38.77 | mikebledsoe | We're here. |
| 32:54.82 | mikebledsoe | Um, well they have to have reb Rehab Centers some are dirty and some are clean. |
| 32:55.65 | Max Shank | Anyone anyone who wants to do heroin from all the areas and look frankly frankly I don't I think we should make heroin Legal I mean people are addicted to opiates hardcore. But that's okay so we really cherry pick. What the like bad things are and what the good things are alcohol cigarettes Fine Psilocybin Illegal Marijuana illegal like whoa whoa Whoa Huh and like I can I can become like ah I can I can eat fritos until I'm £400. |
| 33:25.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 33:33.83 | Max Shank | Ah, but and that's okay like I mean it's just we we cherry pick. Yeah I mean look ah isn't that a good way to stay. Ah, healthier is to do drugs instead of overeat I would agree I think you're way better off being like a thin guy. |
| 33:33.90 | mikebledsoe | But I can't smoke opium come on. |
| 33:43.50 | mikebledsoe | I Think so I I'll blame. Ah. |
| 33:52.65 | Max Shank | Doing Ah I mean it depends on the drug like I don't think ah I mean I don't think I'm not saying like a crack whore will live longer than an obese guy but it's possible though. Yeah, the drug episode really covers all that. |
| 33:54.79 | mikebledsoe | It does depend on the drug I. Go back and listen to our its drugs app our drugs Za go listen to our drugs episode that that that's all get. |
| 34:12.80 | Max Shank | Um, but yeah, it's just ah, the arrogance to think that you know best for everybody else and that whole idea of mob rule like majority rules and you know is it is it really a good idea to let 51% of the population rape the other 49 Just because they voted that they should be able to I mean it's just absurd. That's why it's so important to like create the life you want within the framework and create the incentives and consequences that you want like you know do a little jaywalking just look around if anyone's gonna see you and give you a ticket like. |
| 34:32.88 | mikebledsoe | Well, it's funny because the. |
| 34:49.15 | Max Shank | You know there's just the fundamental realities. But but don't buy in to the idea that it's good. |
| 34:55.34 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well the the United States was set up to be a republic not a democracy and it's a really interesting like to avoid to the mob rule. It was totally set up to avoid mob rule and because the founding fathers. They. |
| 35:01.17 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 35:13.55 | mikebledsoe | Knew that that was a bad idea. They saw how that that was not going to work and the greeks were the first ones to put a Republic in place and that worked until it didn't but the the I What what I find interesting is looking at current events is when people go. Ah, Democracy isn't working. You know it's broken and these politicians say it I'm like no man. Well a it's not a democracy.. It's a Republic and and they're upset because say one side won the majority of an election in the last cycle. And then they're complaining that they don't get to have their way the whole time and it's like yeah, the whole system was set up that you can't just do whatever the fuck you want the 40 the 51 can't abuse the 49 although that does Happen. It's just slower. It's you don't it actually helps to minimize the political swings. Although with technology right now I think that's that's some of the way things are set up right now or not working so well because due to tech information is flowing so fast there there're they's probably yeah. |
| 36:17.73 | Max Shank | When there are gatekeepers to that information. Also now they have built this I think those are the 2 things that we're basically circling around today is who's controlling the flow of information and who's controlling the flow of. The use of force and maybe also as a third who's controlling the money but that's kind of ah they go hand in hand you know the the the government. What's that oh yeah, yeah, sometimes it gets a much better result. |
| 36:43.80 | mikebledsoe | Well do you do you use Google do do you use Google I every chart sometimes I I use I use all of them and I find. |
| 36:55.59 | Max Shank | Then like duck duck go and brave. Different result. |
| 37:02.17 | mikebledsoe | The top 10 top ten twenty results on Google is so homogenous. It's is and I have a hard time finding good information. It's very watered down. It's very dumb down. It's not. It's hard to find a good essay through a Google search. It's. |
| 37:18.15 | Max Shank | Well searching is a skill that you develop you learn like what Keywords to use You don't just search for the main idea you search for some sub ideas so you can find it. |
| 37:28.80 | mikebledsoe | Well last night I was last night I was doing a lot of searching through Google and having a very hard time getting depth around a certain topic I had to go to a different search engine and and so I'm just talking about the the control of information whether it's good or bad. Everyone. |
| 37:34.29 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 37:44.83 | Max Shank | That part doesn't matter. It's like who will well who will watch the watchers I think is 1984 and now we're in 2022 and it's who will fact, check the fact checkers and it's. |
| 37:48.17 | mikebledsoe | 99% of the people are using Google and they're deciding what you get to think about. |
| 38:03.49 | Max Shank | It's so funny How the rhetoric just goes back and forth back and forth is like well it's private company. Ah free speech this free speech that and you know the the nuance of what's the difference between a platform and a publisher and you know free speech.. There's a reason that it's the first. The amendments you can say what you want you can meet up how you want ah and the second one is firearms and basically it's not Firearms. Specifically, it's just they have you have the right to be able to defend yourself with deadly force regardless of what the implement is like you can you know. |
| 38:37.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 38:42.42 | Max Shank | Should be able to own a fucking Rocket Launcher. You know the reality is everybody has a car and they don't drive through crowds all the time. In fact, it's pretty rare. So I think those are the key points is. Back to our you can go visit our censorship episode to see what we really think about that because ah, you're not going to see people who are pro censorship on the good on the right side of History. It's just not going to happen. |
| 39:02.62 | mikebledsoe | Um, well, what do you think. Now. Yeah, that's a common meme going around right now like yeah I don't remember the last time there was a pro censorship movement that ended. Well yeah, what do you think about Youtube I mean Youtube is a. |
| 39:15.10 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean it's always for your own good. It's always for your own good. Yeah. |
| 39:24.46 | mikebledsoe | Youtube is its own company Instagram Facebook these that they're I mean they're publicly held companies but they are. You know we go back to say like natural law then in my in my opinion they should be able to do whatever they want. And it it gets a little sketchy because are they classified and when when you get into the like legal legal you know, ah outside of natural law There's an argument that they're a utility company at this point and once they're utility. They're a public utility company. Now there now they fall under things like the first amendment and it's and that's the argument for it and you know there's there's other plot I'm a um, a so what do you think about that I'm just curious. |
| 40:21.80 | Max Shank | I'm certain that the the guys with the big stick Cia Fbi whatever are in close contact with those gatekeepers because Twitter is a gate Youtube's a gate Instagram Facebook is a gate. Um, when you control the flow of information like that I don't think um I don't think it's originating only within that company. Um, when I when I have watched when I have watched what's going on with. Ah. |
| 40:50.87 | mikebledsoe | That's true. |
| 40:57.28 | Max Shank | Like they do the the little dog and pony show with the the Ceo of the ah the ceos of these companies with the most retarded congressman they can find and senators who don't understand computers trying to get like a sound bite and rake them over the coals. How dare you. |
| 41:16.19 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 41:16.53 | Max Shank | So And so customer information our privacy and I'm look I don't know anything I'm dumb too. But the people that they send out to like slap these guys on the wrist is the most ridiculous dog and pony show with the most uninformed ignorant politicians. You can even imagine like if you were one of those ceos you would just have to be laughing to yourself like are you kidding me, it looks. It's It's ridiculous. It has dude that is not what's happening that is not their communication that is a show so they can get a soundb bite and be like. |
| 41:38.25 | mikebledsoe | Um, well sometimes sometimes I wonder if if. |
| 41:55.19 | Max Shank | Oh so and so senator slams Zuckerberg in a fucking congressional http://smackdownwwewwe and it's like that's not what's going on. That's they they did this dog and pony show so they could have these sound bites to show you. But like you don't think that they're being hardcore flexed on by you know, ah the government the stickholders to like do what they say like I would be shocked if that was really how the information was going. |
| 42:25.80 | mikebledsoe | Well I I also think that you know I look at say Zuckerberg going in front of congress. Whatever I i. I don't believe either way but I definitely play around with different scenarios in which case he's actually in charge of the whole show and he needs to it's a Pr move for for this to happen so people will still like like got oh we need. Facebook wants the censor so they need the government to come in and make them look like they've been fucking up their ability to censor and it's hurting the american public and so to me I go I look at that and I go maybe maybe yeah, it's a check like. |
| 43:12.77 | Max Shank | It's like a chess game. You think they're they're going back and forth. |
| 43:16.73 | mikebledsoe | The entire public's getting riled up and then Zuckerberg goes home and he goes like oh those's a bunch of idiots they fell for the whole thing and now we really get to do what we want to do so yeah, even better engagement I got a lot of free Pr you know? Yeah yeah, and so it's ah. |
| 43:20.30 | Max Shank | Yeah, right, even better engagement more more advertising. Yeah, exactly. |
| 43:35.70 | mikebledsoe | I really I've moved to the opinion that that big tech is the 1 wagging the dog these days and so it's. |
| 43:43.40 | Max Shank | Interesting. But you don't think that like they could just totally blow up their whole operation and you know say hey you are a monopoly we need to split you up or we're going to nationalize it. |
| 43:56.74 | mikebledsoe | I I think these guys have too much money we have too much money. Bezos thing about Bezos this dude is destroying a bridge to have his yacht delivered. They're gonna destroy a bridge deliver his yacht and then rebuild it. Ah if Bezos decided he's got some. |
| 43:58.55 | Max Shank | I Mean you would you would imagine like there's so much power there Huh maybe? yeah du. I mean I'm pretty sure like all of these people we're talking about could have someone murdered and not be found out like that. No what like. |
| 44:16.47 | mikebledsoe | Let it go swing. Pretty sure they probably have like I'd be I'd be so right? I'd be surprised I'd be surprised if it wasn't the case. But um. |
| 44:30.40 | Max Shank | The whole. That's why the word conspiracy like irks me so much because it just means people meeting in secret that happens all the time people are always meeting in secret to try to better their situation. Um, you know Jfk M L K if you have a 3 letter. |
| 44:36.52 | mikebledsoe | All the time. Yeah. |
| 44:49.54 | Max Shank | Ah, initials with a K at the end you're you're probably going to be murdered, especially especially if you if you are saying we should ah just all love each other and get along they fucking hate that that's like the worst thing. |
| 44:52.74 | mikebledsoe | Yeah RFK now |
| 45:05.36 | Max Shank | Like the worst thing you can say is like hey guys can't we all just get along and you know not bomb each other and crucified that guy literally. |
| 45:07.90 | mikebledsoe | Pretty sure that's what ah what? Jesus did and they they ah murdered him. Yeah, yeah, okay I want to I want to cover I want to rewind a little bit and go back to what is happening and ah. I get a little giddy at times because I think for those of us who are you know have the ability to be self-sustaining and are are really into personal responsibility when ah when you look at what's going on. It's it's a bit of a meltdown. And so a really good example of this is the truckers up in Canada these these truckers up in Canada there's just ah, an example of the way things are going no matter what you think should be happening or should not be happening. |
| 45:49.11 | Max Shank | We'll just print more money. It'll be fine. |
| 46:02.37 | mikebledsoe | And these truckers in Canada are out there protesting you know the mandates and all this the way the media is presenting. It is very different than. |
| 46:10.52 | Max Shank | I heard it was I heard it was just a couple of guys who are racists I heard it was just a couple of racists and I'm pretty sure a few of them fuck kids that's isn't that isn't that the story. All my all. |
| 46:15.54 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah, well yeah, that's how it goes Well it. |
| 46:27.43 | Max Shank | All my opponents are racist pedophiles I Just want to put that on record anyone who opposes me. |
| 46:29.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I just I wanna I wanna point this out is is it's the way it's being covered like I know people that are up there and you know what's being reported like boots on the ground versus what's being reported on the news. Very very different I think that. I think the same thing was happening with black lives matter. You know there there was there was what was presented and what was not presented I went to Oakland I went downtown Oakland three days after they were burning cars in the middle of the street. Ah because I had I just want I was in the area and I wanted to see it. My girlfriend thought I was crazy. |
| 47:06.46 | Max Shank | I get it. |
| 47:07.46 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but I I want I was curious man and so um I went up there and actually did an interview with a friend who lives in the building where the outside was just fucking completely boarded up and and had been spray painted and um. You know the way that that was presented versus the way that my friend who lived in the middle of the whole thing talked about it was different and then we look at what's happening up in Canada and ah, what's it called. They're called a something provocateurs it and I just want to bring this. |
| 47:31.29 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 47:43.11 | mikebledsoe | As a possibility to people so they don't get too caught up in the bullshit is the majority of people in a protest are probably peaceful. They're generally whatever, pretty peaceful and then you yeah, a lot of dead people and then. |
| 47:54.91 | Max Shank | Um, if they weren't You'd have a lot of dead people a lot of destroyed property. |
| 48:02.64 | mikebledsoe | And then what you have is you have a few people out there doing crazy shit are they are they on on their own a court are they are they cia are they are they going in there. There's evidence of like the Fbi having somebody encouraging poor behavior. Because now it gives the government an excuse to to lock down more on on this situation I don't know about Yeah yeah, false flag? Yeah well what What's interesting is. |
| 48:25.60 | Max Shank | It's like a gulf of tonkin kind of thing the false flag I think it's false flag for Vietnam like just not real basically and I always thought about that too like if you are a blue t-shirt guy. The best thing you can do. Is put on a red t-shirt and act like an asshole and vice versa like it's that's what's more effective than that. |
| 48:43.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, well a lot of times people people don't want to believe that's what's happening right now even though it's been happening all throughout history the ah like American media will talk about. Oh. |
| 48:54.34 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 48:59.85 | mikebledsoe | Like they're talking about it happening with Russia and the Ukraine right now they're like oh Russia is pulling a false flag so they can do whatever I'm like but that's not gonna happen in America that's not gonna happen in Canada you're saying that's not possible here but you're pointing out that the russians are bad because they're doing it over there and are they doing it over there who the fuck knows and then. So you have this whole thing up in Canada which is interesting because you know it does look like somebody put up a ah a nazi flag or whatever and maybe there was a racist trucker who's a nazi and want to do that. Maybe it was somebody from the canadian government that went up there and did that so they could. You know because the the canadian government looks really bad right now. really really bad um canadians are like the nicest people on the whole fucking planet and ah to think that there's there's hundreds of thousands of nazis up in Canada that just all of a sudden sprung up. He's like. |
| 49:51.25 | Max Shank | Everybody's got a limit. Yeah, totally. |
| 49:58.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah, it's anyone who's thinking clearly is going to see that That's probably not true, but. |
| 50:03.59 | Max Shank | But you're not going to be thinking clearly if you are just getting triggered into lizard mode right? So as soon as soon as you even see a swastika. You're not going to be like oh yeah I remember when that was a Tibetan symbol of peace. You're gonna be like those are. |
| 50:08.27 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely. |
| 50:19.98 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 50:21.77 | Max Shank | So though it's an ad hominem attack where you will justify anything. You're like oh we should kill all of these people. It's like no, we should laugh at them for having such outdated ideas but you shouldn't be able to kill anybody. That's why I think. |
| 50:34.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 50:40.19 | Max Shank | Ah, the definition of terrorist and hate crime are 2 of the most sinister definitions in our modern times because there should just be crime. It's a crime or it's not a crime the the hatefulness of it should not be taken into consideration and the word terrorist. |
| 50:53.67 | mikebledsoe | Agreed I agreed well here. |
| 50:58.14 | Max Shank | Is basically carte blanche to be like oh yeah, he's ah he's a terrorist which means um, all the rules are suspended. We can just fuck you up for no reason for no reason like the whole due process is evaporated with 1 word terrorist the whole due process is evaporated with 1 word. |
| 51:05.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 51:17.64 | Max Shank | Emergency the whole idea of crime and punishment is now skewed on its fucking head for 1 term hate crime. It's like dude this is insane. |
| 51:25.42 | mikebledsoe | Well the hate crime thing is very interesting to me because it assumes somebody else's intention. You are you are saying that you actually know you. It shouldn't matter. But the thing is is it's impossible for someone to know what's. |
| 51:34.64 | Max Shank | But that shouldn't even matter. |
| 51:44.54 | mikebledsoe | Someone else's internal experience is people you're saying oh is I hate crimes like ah so I it's the same thing as calling someone else racist now if someone says you know I am racist I'm like okay I'll believe you if you if you claim being racist I like buck it I'll believe you. But for someone else to point at somebody else and be like you're racist or that was a hate crime I'm like do you know?? what's in my heart is that is that even possible and so and you're right? and and this is why these things should be judged on the behavior alone is it a crime. Yes or no, okay, well. |
| 52:09.20 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's insane. Insane. |
| 52:24.25 | mikebledsoe | There's a penalty for that. So I'm in complete agreement. Yeah ever hear that. |
| 52:25.26 | Max Shank | The content of your character. Not the color of your skin Martin Luther King again I mean look I didn't know the guy personally he seemed pretty cool but if he like beat up a white fella I wouldn't be like oh that's a hate crime I'd be like wow he must have been really upset at that guy like it. |
| 52:40.88 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably not about race. It's probably about something else. Um, well well going back to the truckers and and what is happening is I got a little chuckle out of this is. |
| 52:44.60 | Max Shank | Doesn't. Yeah, it's Ridiculous. It's absurd. |
| 53:00.57 | mikebledsoe | Go fund me. There's a go fund me operating to support these truckers. It was up to $10000000 what does gofundme. Do they steal it. They steal the money and ah at first some people thought they basically shut it down people thought oh they're just gonna refund everybody their money. No, they redistribute it to other organizations that they wanted to send the money to so so you have you have theft. Yeah, it's it's stealing. They just stole a bunch of people's money they stole the trucker's money they stole money from the people who don't I don't. |
| 53:24.36 | Max Shank | Heavy That's stealing That's stealing. |
| 53:38.99 | mikebledsoe | Like I didn't donate money but like if I were to donate that money and then they were to send it to some organization that I didn't intend for it to go to I'd be fucking furious, but here's the thing is it is theft and you know what the government may not do anything about it and you know and and. |
| 53:44.59 | Max Shank | Ah I bet. |
| 53:52.89 | Max Shank | Why would they they might have been the ones behind it. It's okay. |
| 53:58.48 | mikebledsoe | That's okay because you know what's happening now people are donating in bitcoin and they'll probably get even more and there's a really good example of the pendulum swinging or what you were saying earlier is when you when you try to push and attack something you're gonna get. |
| 54:09.82 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 54:16.80 | Max Shank | Equal and opposite force. Yeah, it's like like it's like a it's like a 2 sided trampoline where it actually amplifies back even more. |
| 54:17.73 | mikebledsoe | Ah, greater force. Yeah I mean things be equal. It's gonna be fusly because there's a motion behind it. Yeah, so ah, go fund me really just fuck themselves and. I get a little giddy about this because whenever a company does something like that where they steal and I and I don't give a fuck if the government comes down on um because it won't matter. They just fuck themselves because everyone just realized that that things like gofund me and Patreon and these organizations. |
| 54:50.80 | Max Shank | The. |
| 54:53.80 | mikebledsoe | Take a bunch of money for not doing a lot of shit and so yeah, well the the reason they work well is because they've branded themselves in a way that makes it easy for people who are afraid to ask for money. It's like it. It's like an okay way to ask for money. But. |
| 54:57.35 | Max Shank | It's a smart business. But when you talk about like stealing. That's not cool. |
| 55:12.63 | mikebledsoe | Like if I wanted to have a Patreon type thing going on I wouldn't go do patron where they're gonna take 10 twenty thirty percent of the money coming in I just like a pay bal me. Yeah, just send me the money. Yep so they do that now. Yeah, if you're well. |
| 55:17.77 | Max Shank | You do paypal you do recur. Yeah, you do recurring thing? Yeah, but it's cooler to have a Patreon it is. There's network effect there for sure. |
| 55:31.97 | mikebledsoe | And here's the thing is now everyone's donating bitcoin. So and and well there was ah the alternative to go fund me was this Christian Ministry organization So that some people they started funneling money through this this like. |
| 55:41.51 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 55:46.64 | mikebledsoe | Version of go fund me. That's not nearly as popular but probably just made a shitload of money from processing all those payments but and then you got people that are now donating a bitcoin and the not only did Gofundme fuck themselves but they just sped up a process that was already happening which is decentralization of the currency. |
| 55:48.42 | Max Shank | Um, ah yeah. |
| 56:04.84 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 56:06.59 | mikebledsoe | And people now go oh. It's not safe. It's not safe to send money through an organization like go fund me what is safe. Oh the blockchain got it. There. There are things about it that are riskier and there's other. But if you want to send somebody some money. There's no intermediary that can take that money There's not a third party that has a political opinion or an opinion about you or who you're sending it to that can stand in your way. It's it's an amplification of true capitalism where there is I can send somebody something and nobody. It's all voluntary and nobody can get in the way of it. Yeah. |
| 56:46.81 | Max Shank | That's the key word. The key word is voluntary I mean I'm a pretty strong guy I could and I'm pretty clever sometimes I could probably like I could probably I could probably like force people to do what I want Um, but that's pretty shitty thing to do I think it's not that fun. |
| 56:52.65 | mikebledsoe | Um, what do you?? What do you? bench? me? Yeah yeah. Yeah, so so. I. |
| 57:04.54 | Max Shank | Not that cool. Um voluntary is the key word voluntary. That's like maybe the most important word for everything we're talking about is it voluntary is it forced and I think if you don't take personal responsibility. You are more likely. To want to force others to not be in that position of personal responsibility either. You're going to want to put that idea upon others, it's like projecting outward. Um, one 1 question because you're right the whole idea of the decentralized. |
| 57:28.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 57:42.10 | Max Shank | Trading stores of value through like a bitcoin that at least now it gets to them directly and the only way is like maybe a government seizure I think that's happened a few times before. |
| 57:52.84 | mikebledsoe | They they would they they can't just go to a bank. It's not that simple there there have been so for. For instance, the guy that got arrested by silk road guy. He got arrested and they were able to seize some of his bitcoin but only a fraction. |
| 57:58.69 | Max Shank | Yeah I don't know I've just heard that it's been done in the past. |
| 58:12.51 | mikebledsoe | Because he locked the rest up in a place like only he knows the codes. You know that? Yeah, so. |
| 58:16.32 | Max Shank | I Think it's crazy that guy got arrested I Read the story about that. That's horrible. Um, it's It's another one of those things where ah you know you just realize like how careful we all need to be with. The jurisdiction of the stickholder. |
| 58:33.93 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, ah so a lot of that bitcoin. The government was not able to get to so back to the personal responsibility piece is with cryptocurrencies. As they exist right? Now you're largely responsible for the safety and security of those if you're using a bank. You know you got the fdi see. It's federally insured if someone were to somehow steal that money added the bank then the government would insure that up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars there's things like that exist when you're using us dollars and bank accounts when you're using crypto if you're really good at securing your own shit and you understand the technology government's not gonna be able to get it. Ah, but if you're you know using just a ah general digital wallet and you know like. Like coinbase or or something like that then if they want to take it. They can go to those companies because there's ah, there's ah, a saying ah ah, not your keys. Not your crypto. So if you're not holding your actual keys. You don't actually have your crypto so some of these digital wallets. You don't actually have the keys. |
| 59:43.59 | Max Shank | Yeah, this is outside my knowledge base but that sounds very similar to a saying I heard which is um if you don't own your customer. |
| 59:45.32 | mikebledsoe | You have access to the keys you have access. |
| 01:00:02.58 | Max Shank | Information You don't have any customers. |
| 01:00:03.45 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, similar thing like building email lists. Um. |
| 01:00:08.63 | Max Shank | Or or phone numbers or addresses I mean there are a lot of ways to keep in touch with people but you know, especially as we've seen like you know I don't I don't speak out about any of this stuff really publicly because ah. Anyone can benefit from simple shoulder solution. 5 minute flow elasticity any of my excellent products and I just don't ah like I don't see the benefit like I don't think there's enough of a benefit to spouting off about that in that forum. But you and I have seen people where. |
| 01:00:38.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:00:46.64 | Max Shank | They may have had a big following on one of these platforms and then it went immediately to 0 it evaporated and they had not built up a customer list of their own that they owned and unless you have that you don't have customers. You just have. |
| 01:00:53.72 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 01:01:06.10 | Max Shank | Ah, platform that you are essentially renting for free that can be taken any time and so it's a good reason to build a more personal connection with those customers outside of that platform just like what you're talking about with crypto versus traditional banking. |
| 01:01:10.18 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:01:20.99 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so somebody who's done so somebody who's done that really well is Jp sears. Um, he's he's definitely more yeah he's pivoted he's become yeah and he's he's become much more controversial which he does risk. |
| 01:01:24.59 | Max Shank | And I think. Yeah, he's pivoted I he he pivoted He's way more. |
| 01:01:39.72 | mikebledsoe | He's had Youtube videos taken down. He's had Facebook but they haven't taken down his accounts completely and I think part of it is is he's comedy when you're listed as a comedian you get away with things. So. |
| 01:01:42.87 | Max Shank | It shows the power of Humor. It shows the power of humor yet. It's a comedy. Kind of I mean is is it kind of comedy though I mean he's clearly got an agenda for all everything he's saying. That's what makes him such a good like artist with that. That's the big change I Saw that's the big change I saw. |
| 01:01:55.67 | mikebledsoe | Oh a hundred percent but he's also building his email list if you if you watch his videos. Yeah, he he was like of follow me on you know I have you know subscribed to my email list this and that because what. |
| 01:02:11.91 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:02:15.23 | mikebledsoe | What we'll probably see is there will be a platform that comes up. It'll probably be blockchain-based video platform that comes up and you know it's It's interesting because what's happening right now is you have these alternative platforms for video streaming like rumble and things like that and it's kind of like a joke. Like I was like oh all the crazy people are over on that platform and and there are a lot of crazy people on that platform I'm not going to disagree with that. But I think that they're at some point there's gonna emerge a platform thats blockchain base where where video goes up. It's not going down and no one can can fuck with it. |
| 01:02:36.54 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 01:02:53.39 | mikebledsoe | And the people who are being the censored the most are going to be drawn to those alternative platforms first but it is it is exciting that those things are probably going to happen. There's there's a group here in Austin Texas or putting together a social media an alternative social media platform. A lot of them have popped up. We'll see which ones stick but the the ones that I'm seeing that are um, I'm excited by are blockchain based and aren't owned by anybody. It's it's one of those things where you actually own your own shit out there in the and the metaverse here or you call it not not got. Decentral land and all the shit. But um. |
| 01:03:30.73 | Max Shank | I gotta say I'm a fan of the Canadian trucker thing going on. Um, you know I believe it is the largest trucker convoy in the history of the world even though even even though according to the major news sources. It's just a few racists. |
| 01:03:35.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:03:40.88 | mikebledsoe | By like 10 x. |
| 01:03:50.32 | mikebledsoe | A few violent racist. There's not very many of them. But the ones that are there. They're blowing shit up. |
| 01:03:50.48 | Max Shank | Ah, but what's interest a few violent racists they they're the worst it it comes back to those 2 ad hominem attack appeal to authority devil god it's this is a tale as old as time literally? Um, but. Canada is not the only place that things like that are happening France ah Hungary italy there have been a lot of places that and but but you don't hear anything about that and I think a United Kingdom just |
| 01:04:17.95 | mikebledsoe | Dude, it's gotten crazy. It's gotten crazy over in Europe. Yeah. |
| 01:04:27.75 | Max Shank | Immediately like lifted all restrictions at this at the snap of a finger. |
| 01:04:27.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, was funny as the prime minister comes out and he he announces it like he's like I'm gonna like he he did it like he's making a proclamation. No more masks I'm like you're the you switched fucking masks that was crazy. It was crazy and people were like. |
| 01:04:41.24 | Max Shank | Yeah, oh people have very bad memory. |
| 01:04:47.29 | mikebledsoe | And then people are like yes we're winning this I'm like are are you witnessing what just happened this dude just fucking turned on a dime on opinion like and then he's he's proclaiming it and like trying to have the win is like oh I'm gonna fucking punish you and I'm gonna lock you inside your house and then I'm gonna let you go two years later and then you're gonna thank me for it like what the fuck man what is happening. |
| 01:05:10.84 | Max Shank | It and if you're not more broadly aware. You're going to eat it up 1 crumb at a time you know I I think the people have been played like a fiddle most people. Ah if you if you've learned to ah hate your neighbor for living the way they want to. |
| 01:05:18.21 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:05:30.40 | Max Shank | You have failed the test. Ah. |
| 01:05:30.64 | mikebledsoe | Um, agreed ah, last last thing I want to talk about is just the whole Joe Rogan ah thing that's been going on and it's interesting because ah. |
| 01:05:41.42 | Max Shank | You mean the final frontier of free speech our our champion. The stoner comedian Ufc testosterone ball who didn't want that who didn't want this role who he didn't want this. But. |
| 01:05:46.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:05:53.64 | mikebledsoe | Don't don't forget, don't forget fear factor. Don't forget fear factor. Ah. |
| 01:05:59.29 | Max Shank | It's so fantastic. We have this champion who likes to get stoned and be really curious curious and ask lots of questions I mean thousands of episodes and then you know the character assassination attempt is so blatant. So flagrant so disgusting and it's like look I have said a lot of horrible things before like if you went back 10 years into my past like I say horrible things because they're funny and if someone laughs then I will go even further and I'm not even a comedian. So this whole idea that someone should be like you know oh he must be like held accountable for his work. It's like it's so pathetic. It's so obvious and all it proves is that he is this powerhouse source of. |
| 01:06:38.10 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 01:06:56.10 | Max Shank | Freedom of Speech and freedom of information and you know it goes back to the parent child thing. You are free to make your own choices based on the information or you are not free to make your own choices based on the information and if someone says like hey you should ah you know drink borax. |
| 01:07:08.13 | mikebledsoe | Well this is. |
| 01:07:15.93 | Max Shank | And paint thinner because it'll help you lose weight like you should be able to have a video that says that like I don't know like you can't police everything. Um. |
| 01:07:25.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, well the that the borax thing is actually pretty controversial because ah and you know what maybe I shouldn't say anything about that. But I do know people have you ever taken a Borax bath. |
| 01:07:39.25 | Max Shank | No, but I know that the devil is in the dosage and part of the reason we use it to kill ants is because it won't kill other things like us. |
| 01:07:43.35 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, you ah yeah, Boron is something that that is not very prominent in our soil anymore and so taking small amounts some I'm not a proponent of this I have tried it but ah. |
| 01:07:59.71 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:08:03.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there there have been some people that have suggested taking small amounts. We were pretty smart people and I go online and search about it and I can't find much good about it cause everyone's so it's a because the devil isn't the dosage there. You can you can od on that pretty quick. Um, but at the same time you you need it at the same time. |
| 01:08:17.21 | Max Shank | With everything we don't have a problem though. |
| 01:08:23.17 | mikebledsoe | Um, anyways, ah so yeah, the Joe Rogan thing is actually very It's very much like the go fund me situation in that people are you know Neil Young came out and a bunch of other artists are saying you know take my shit off a Spotify unless you take Rogen off. First off Spotify is making way more money because Rogan's on their platform than any of those artists so from a financial perspective. It's not a smart move for them. The other thing is is like I mean and if they do kick Rogan off myself and a lot of other people are gonna just delete their Spotify accounts like. But that fourteen bucks a month or whatever the fuck I'm paying that that's going away. It's really the only reason I have that I have other music platforms that I think is even better. so so there's |
| 01:09:11.60 | Max Shank | Well do you think it's about those individual artists though like I I was reading that oh I think it's more. It's a it's a rhetorical thing. No, it's ah it's a rhetoric thing you know Neil Young is like a. |
| 01:09:18.31 | mikebledsoe | I'm just talking about from a financial perspective but that you also have the why you have the you have the white house giving pressure too many means to. |
| 01:09:30.14 | Max Shank | A known rock Star name I Think the fact that he has a song called keep on rocking in the free world is like the most ironic shit like you you have to laugh. It's like so Gosh dar't ironic. Um, but he recently just had half of his catalog. |
| 01:09:38.52 | mikebledsoe | It's crazy. But yeah. |
| 01:09:48.58 | Max Shank | Purchased out by you know this company within a company that has been known to do these character assassination. Hip jobs like the 1 happening to rogen right now. So it's a very yeah, it's a very coordinated assault on his character and look. |
| 01:09:57.31 | mikebledsoe | He's my blackrock. |
| 01:10:07.35 | Max Shank | Why would you do that unless there was a perceived problem by someone who has that kind of power to do that. You know nobody cared and now suddenly up he's he's shaken. He's shaking a few branches. |
| 01:10:14.35 | mikebledsoe | Not not. |
| 01:10:23.60 | Max Shank | And some of the fruit's falling off like you got to do something you got to take care of it right. |
| 01:10:25.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, or yeah, well and the thing that's similar to the gofund situation is let's just say that they get their way and they kick Joe Rogan off of Spotify. He's got like a hundred million plus dollar deal with Spotify. There's. If they cut him I'm pretty sure they're still gonna have to pay him that money like they're not gonna just there's a penalty right? and and and if there was no penalty I I imagine it would be he may already have already been kicked off. Um, but there's a penalty so that's 1 thing. |
| 01:10:48.00 | Max Shank | Yeah, no doubt. |
| 01:11:03.38 | mikebledsoe | So Rogan's getting paid no matter what secondarily if he leaves the platform his listenership will probably increase instead of decrease so it he would. It would so easily move with him because. |
| 01:11:12.60 | Max Shank | It would move. They would move with him I'm impressed how many people moved from Youtube I didn't think I would like he used to just post on Youtube to Spotify and ah. |
| 01:11:22.60 | mikebledsoe | What do you mean move from Youtube oh oh move from Youtube to so Spotify. Yeah dude, he's he's so yeah, he's so powerful that that. |
| 01:11:32.35 | Max Shank | I Think he's got more listeners now than he did then. |
| 01:11:39.58 | mikebledsoe | If he leaves Spotify. Not only will it harm Spotify but it will he I imagine he would go to a ah because podcasting is decentralized by nature because they were using Rss feeds that there is no central command. That there used to be like a central command because Apple owned the list that basically the library of all the things. But then the guy who invented podcasting Adam Curry he was like he he was saying he he saw what was happening goes. You know I'm gonna create my own now. Everything runs through his shit. |
| 01:12:02.10 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:12:07.71 | Max Shank | So I was just thinking of. |
| 01:12:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Which is a decentralize on so many different servers around the world. You podcasting is truly decentralized trying to shut down a podcast that's not exclusive to us to 1 vendor. 1 platform is not going to work and so ah. I I hate I didn't like the Joe Rogan went on Spotify because I don't like listening to podcast there I like listening on podcasting 2.0 apps I use podverse and it's ah it's way superior to Apple to Spotify all these really popular platforms suck compared to some of these these lesser known. |
| 01:12:35.77 | Max Shank | It's like that saying. |
| 01:12:50.38 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:12:54.71 | mikebledsoe | So I I would I personally would love to see that happen and and for some reasons in that I would love to see him go on a more decentralized network I'd like to see you know ah a lot of these people just have to eat their shit because all these people are. |
| 01:13:11.69 | Max Shank | We'll see what happens when the contract is up to right? It kind of makes me think of that quote too like it's all it's only like 3 years it's like 3 to 5 is 3 to 5 Um, it makes me think of that. |
| 01:13:14.26 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I don't know I don't know how long the contracts for this is maybe like a 5 year contract res. Okay dude give you a hundred million dollars in 5 years holy shit for for doing a podcast. Wow. |
| 01:13:28.49 | Max Shank | I mean people get paid a hundred million a year to play their favorite ball ball game sometime. So I mean it's not surprising. It reminds me of that quote though, ah read read the books they want to ban like. |
| 01:13:32.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, no. |
| 01:13:42.42 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 01:13:45.74 | Max Shank | Things don't get censored for your own benefit fuckers like come on I can't even read it I can't even read it. The the guy is so bad that it's so scary bet I'm not even allowed like if it was really so bad. They would want you to read it. |
| 01:13:49.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, I'm not even allowed that I'm not allowed to hear what this person has to say strange. Well they they? um. |
| 01:14:04.97 | Max Shank | And be like this is what you want to? avoid? don't do this. This is like like mine kaf everybody should be able to read that I haven't read it have you read it I have no idea what's in there My my struggle. |
| 01:14:12.10 | mikebledsoe | Now Now I've read some books I've I've read some books that are you? You really can't find them online you you have to go deep I got some pdfs of some books. Yeah, yeah, you have to go dig around. |
| 01:14:23.52 | Max Shank | Like tor or something dark web. |
| 01:14:29.45 | mikebledsoe | I Found there's this one book. Yeah I found this one book I got a pdf of it that um ah, ah well you can get a hard copy. There's there's only a thousand ever printed. So. |
| 01:14:34.13 | Max Shank | Listen up Cia this is a confession of Mike Bloodso to illegal books. |
| 01:14:46.69 | mikebledsoe | There was a thousand of these printed and then never printed again. So it's it was the name of the book. You know what? Um just I'll figure out the name of the book and then dm me people and ah yeah, just shoot me a Dm and on Instagram. |
| 01:14:48.78 | Max Shank | Um, what is it. |
| 01:15:01.45 | Max Shank | Teaser. |
| 01:15:04.75 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but I read the book and I was like oh I could definitely see Hawaii somebody who wants to hold authority would not want people to read this book because when you read the book. It kind of unwinds. It kind of shows you where you've been wrong in your thinking about authority even the people who are like. Super rebellious. Would probably you because the thing is by the end of the book. You realize there's no such thing. There's it's there's no such thing as another human being having authority over somebody else. Ah and unless unless you're granting it to them and which is the only way for that to happen and you can take that. Power weight anytime you want and so the book pretty much. Yeah, the the book pretty much outlines a plan on how americans would take their power back um in a way that would disable the government and so it's a. |
| 01:15:44.57 | Max Shank | You might be killed for it. But. |
| 01:15:58.97 | Max Shank | Was this pamphlet called common sense by any chance by Thomas Paine |
| 01:16:05.85 | mikebledsoe | Um, true people people should go watch common sense. |
| 01:16:11.50 | Max Shank | That's ah, that's that that moved that moved this whole nation I mean are you kidding me like okay so common sense with um Milton Friedman is a great ah video series that's free on Youtube. But common sense by Thomas Payne was the document that was the most wide. Oh. That's right that you're your 100% right is free to choose. Thank you I got that totally wrong. Ah, kind of means the same thing similar ideas at least but that pamphlet common sense. |
| 01:16:28.25 | mikebledsoe | In it free to choose was Milton Friedman |
| 01:16:38.55 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:16:46.20 | Max Shank | Changed the direction of this whole country because most of the signers of the declaration of Independence were on board with just like yeah we'll we'll ah we'll pay. Ah you know the British thugs a little bit more money but let's let's stay british. |
| 01:17:03.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:17:04.93 | Max Shank | And then that was like 1 it was I think the most widely circulated publication of all time at that time it was just like boom like almost everybody had one crazy how just an idea can change the course of history and that's and that's why i. |
| 01:17:15.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:17:24.56 | Max Shank | Think that writing and sending messages is incredibly powerful. You know you can change even if you just change like 1 person's life. It can be huge, but if you have a really good idea and that's of course why they want to silence Joe Rogan because he's not. |
| 01:17:32.73 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely. |
| 01:17:42.29 | Max Shank | Afraid to say whatever so far. |
| 01:17:42.60 | mikebledsoe | Well, the other thing is is I think I think the reason he carries so much respect from so many people is because he will come out and just admit when he's wrong like and he'll correct. He'll correct the record he'll admit when he's wrong, he will apologize. |
| 01:17:56.46 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 01:18:01.20 | mikebledsoe | And he'll he'll give a real apology like he he gave a real apology this last week on Instagram he's been. He's been making more like monologue posts to to share what's going on and he he gave a real apology and then. |
| 01:18:09.64 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 01:18:19.22 | mikebledsoe | And shared how he could specifically improve ah his character and ah, you never hear that from politicians they're like politicians will apologize for you feeling a certain way like oh I'm sorry you felt that way if you ever listen to like Gavin Newsom give an apology. |
| 01:18:23.37 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 01:18:31.26 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:18:39.30 | mikebledsoe | It's like it's like a backhanded fucking like you like like I think you just insulted like it and people are going. Oh he apologized I'm like he just fucking insulted you. It's not a real apology. He's apologizing for you feeling a certain way or for you thinking a certain way. He's not apologizing for his behavior. And so whether people catch on in these things overtly or not when you watch Joe Rogan give an apology you go he is apologizing for something he did specifically and that type of apology lands with people and that earns people's respect and so I think that he is unstoppable because he's got. 3 hour interviews where real conversations are happening and they yeah has someone like Sanjay Gupta comes on who's never had a talk longer than 30 seconds on Cnn and he fucking was freaking out halfway through the show and asking how how long have we been talking because he's never had to share his own thoughts before. |
| 01:19:21.93 | Max Shank | That's the key I think. |
| 01:19:33.82 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:19:38.26 | mikebledsoe | He's only had talking points and he ran out of talking points. He started looking foolish and he also is not used to. You can't you can't fake it now some people can but way less. |
| 01:19:38.87 | Max Shank | Right? Well, you can't fake it for three plus hours really although I did watch ah Lex Friedman interview the Ceo Pfizer and it just looked really like. That that guy maneuvered him around ah but but but and and look ah full full props to Lex Friedman I think he does a ah good job. He's like the the monotonin. |
| 01:19:59.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's there's some pros. There's some pros out there. Some people can do 3 hours but if you've been trained for 30 second segments. |
| 01:20:16.90 | Max Shank | Nerd version of Joe Rogan which is fantastic. Ah I don't know if he's a robot that has learned to love or a human that is becoming a robot over time. Ah, but I yeah but I think you hit on something huge um. |
| 01:20:16.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:20:26.80 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well, he's rushing. So I think it's part of it. |
| 01:20:35.90 | Max Shank | It's the long format like you can you can look back through hours and hours and hours of sincere conversations. Jokes Yes, sincere questions. Yes, mistakes yes like he has built up that credibility because he's showing you. Behind the curtain whereas these legacy media sources they are you know Puppet mastering of manufactured thirty second clip to make you feel a specific way and the more communication The more discussion we have. The better. It's going to be.. You're not going to solve a relationship issue because that's what we have right now we have division. It's a relationship issue how we relate to each other. You're not going to solve a relationship issue ah by not talking about something just letting something fester. |
| 01:21:26.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:21:30.43 | Max Shank | So more discussion more honest discussion. Um, more compassion for people who think differently than you ah that that's ah, that's the key. |
| 01:21:43.25 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely let's wrap it up max final thoughts final thoughts. |
| 01:21:48.75 | Max Shank | That's a wrap final final thought it's been a fun six months ah I've gotten pretty fired up several times. It should be ah, there should be no confusion about what I think of things at this point of. Pretty much laid it all out there and said some horrible things that I I do not apologize for and if you don't like it I'm I'm not sorry you feel that way. |
| 01:22:17.98 | mikebledsoe | Ah, brilliant. Brilliant. Ah yeah I encourage people you know it it take take a more macro view and looking at cycles over time and and and understand what's what. When you're being manipulated or the way that pictures are being taken and put side by side and really keep in mind that how easy it is to manipulate information or to hide information or to present only the information you want. And be aware of that and that every one of these news organizations and social media platforms. All of them have an agenda and that agenda is not your best interest so you really, it's good to learn how. Ah, media works. It's good to learn how marketing works Propaganda Pr all these things if you know how these things work and you look at what's going on in the world. You have the opportunity to chuckle at it and and better to prepare and take advantage of whatever situations coming instead of getting. Caught up in the emotional storm and fight that happens I see all the time on on the internet. So. That's that's my ¢2 here at the end where. |
| 01:23:40.64 | Max Shank | That was brilliantly said that was just great I Totally agree with that and I would just reiterate what I said earlier which is get clear on what your values are and deliver Value. So that you can earn a profit and be part of a voluntary exchange that is mutually profitable and not one that's based on coercion. |
| 01:24:07.49 | mikebledsoe | That's how we reach utopia folks max enjoyed enjoyed you today. This is fun and then ah Instagram Mike Underscore Bloodso and I've got the strongcoach summit coming up if you just go over to http://thisstrongcoach.com |
| 01:24:10.73 | Max Shank | That's it inside out freedom. This was a lot of fun. Thanks Mike where can they find you. |
| 01:24:24.44 | mikebledsoe | You can come hang out with me in Austin we're gonna do a bunch of really cool shit if you have any questions about that again just hit me up on Instagram and we can chat about it where can they find you max I mean you already promoted your your simple shoulder solution twice. |
| 01:24:37.10 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's because both red t-shirts and blue t-shirts have shoulders. Ah, you can find me at maxank. No underscore because I have a ah real handle and then you can also find me at http://mashank.com |
| 01:24:41.46 | mikebledsoe | Um, yes. |
| 01:24:56.77 | Max Shank | Thank you guys for listening. Love you buddy. |
| 01:24:57.26 | mikebledsoe | Love you. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome to Monday morning with Mike and max and today we're gonna be talking about high leverage habits and addictive actions and one of the things that inspired this conversation is I got to work with a friend over the weekend to help improve his mental and physical health and I realized. Man lifestyle is really the problem here and we had to do the work to figure out what was gonna be the most high leverage habits that he could instill that was gonna move the needle and that's how I like to work with all of my clients. That's how I like to look at my own life. So I'm excited that that. Talk about this with max because um, he you're also somebody who you've done a good job of instilling habits over time and and I find that we just lifestyle is not something that you just do all at once. It's. You implement 1 thing one month in the next month maybe you add a little something else change something here and there and you've done a really good job of stacking your habits in a really positive way. |
| 01:07.16 | Max Shank | Well thank you for that I I really appreciate that I think one of the smartest things I ever did was actually 1 of the easiest projects I've ever done which was 5 minute flow and really what it did is it gave people permission to. Start with less and when you start with something smaller. It feels a lot more manageable and getting people out of the idea that you have to do an hour workout for it to count is really big just the same way that lao -tzu says the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step ah same kind of thing. However I I would as a counterpoint say that one of the most interesting things about human beings is that we can radically change our lives when we adopt. |
| 01:49.91 | mikebledsoe | O. |
| 02:02.20 | Max Shank | A new self-image or if we adopt a new mission or a new role and just to introduce the key point which is motivation and a lot of synonyms for motivation are hunger and pain. So There's a fire that is fueling that behavior change and if you don't want to Change. You can't Change. You know they talk about that in like those interventions like you have to be ready to change like you have to want to change yourself. So I think that? um yes, tiny. Tiny tiny bets are much more manageable generally speaking. But when you have a really clear mission or purpose or Motivation Hunger pain. Whatever you're capable of radical transformations. Especially as it relates to. Transformation of your self-image and your selfimage is going to guide your subconscious action because it's really hard to be acutely conscious all the time and I think you know it is sort of like. |
| 03:14.94 | mikebledsoe | In. |
| 03:19.71 | Max Shank | Want to say in Buddhism or maybe hinduism I can't remember it's 1 of the isms. Maybe it's in b here now Ram Das talks about like it's like a fish jumping out of the water and that's your moment of consciousness and then you go back into the. The see of the unconscious so selfimage if you change your selfimage your role your mission. You can have a radical change across the board. Otherwise it is way more manageable to have. Ah. Little changes and everything you do is basically a bet that it will be better than doing nothing. |
| 04:00.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I like that I like that frame I I like to tell people that I they asked me what I believe and I like to try on beliefs oh I believe if I do this then my life will improve in this way. So I try it out. Check in a couple weeks later and if it's true then I go oh okay I'll keep this belief until you know something better comes along what I you know just have touch on a few points that came up that I want to that you you were making is just the idea being. Focused on the process versus the result and I think for when I look at my history and I look at the times in which I actually made slower progress was when I was not present with the process I didn't actually. I I wanted the results really bad but I was unwilling to be with what it was going to take to get there and so I just did a bunch of stuff that I didn't slow down I only did the stuff that was on the surface to try to get there and you know in athletics it results in injury. Um. And business it. It may result in being able to make a bunch of money but then don't know how to keep it going. Um there's there's all these all these things that I've learned that becoming more present with the process really is a practice and being. And practicing being with the process so spending 5 % of my time on the vision of what I want to be different in the future and 95% of my attention going into into just the execution of the thing and learning to enjoy the process of doing it because. This is where the a lot of people get stuck is they have conditional happiness they say I won't I can't be happy until I achieve this result and so what they do is they basically punish themselves until the result they want is true and that doesn't help you achieve. |
| 05:58.63 | Max Shank | A. |
| 06:14.36 | mikebledsoe | Result at all. In fact, that it probably diminishes your ability to get there and so one of the things I've really been working towards is practicing being in the process and and one of the things that has really been highlighted as I've taken on that practice is that. So much of the process when I'm doing I'm doing you know the same things I've been doing for 20 years which is taking care of my health building my business that these are not being in a relationship with a woman. These are all things that I have been continually striving to improve. And the more that I've gotten involved in the process of how I'm actually gonna move towards this this result that is really a moving target at times is to to when I'm more present with the process I actually understand what it takes to get there and I think. That most people and for myself I really didn't want to hear what it was going to take to get there and I think sometimes if we knew everything it was going to take to get the result we want. We wouldn't do it but we like I hear from entrepreneurs all the time you know if I knew what it was going to take to be successful. Um, would have never started. But once you get into it. You can't stop. It. So really as I've gotten older getting really ah present to what actually has to happen and being okay when something new pops Up. It's like okay. |
| 07:32.67 | Max Shank | Third. |
| 07:49.92 | mikebledsoe | I think I think I know what steps 1 through 10 are but after I complete step 2 I realized that there's 5 steps between 2 and 3 oh this is going to take longer than I thought and if you're if you're present with the process you look at that when that appears you go? Oh okay. |
| 07:58.54 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 08:07.85 | mikebledsoe | And I think just knowing that that's going to happen. Always. It's always going to Happen. You never know what the step is what the next step is going to be until you take the next step and then the next step reveals reveals itself now if it's something you have a lot of practice with things become more predictable. But when you don't know much about what it is that you're doing then it's not predictable and and so it's ah it's actually been really enjoyable to step into something and go Oh I think I know what I need to do here and it actually works and I go oh that was predictable I. Actually know what I'm doing in regard to this thing right now. But I'm also open at any moment for something new to pop up to say oh this is the next obvious Step. You should be taking don't don't do this yet. Do this. |
| 08:53.93 | Max Shank | Um, yo I agree with some of what you said a great majority of it in fact and I have some comments ah number one. So it's gonna be. |
| 09:07.20 | mikebledsoe | Perfect. |
| 09:13.18 | Max Shank | Ah, greed craftsmanship discount tire and entrepreneurial tenure and I'm going to explain how those all go together. So the first one is greed you want the result but you're not willing to pay the price and that's what hurts you athletically. That's what hurts you entrepreneurially and I think that a lot of a lot of problems people cause for themselves stem from greed and it's usually based on comparison with someone else. So then you end up doing things. You don't really love the process of doing. Just to get this result that won't ultimately satisfy you anyway. So we have greed the second one is craftsmanship so craftsmanship is what where greatness really comes from. You certainly need a desire you need like a. A role where you're like okay my my role is I make clay pots for example and you just focus everything you can do into making the best clay pot there is or like Jiro dreams of sushi. You just focus on making the best sushi boom suddenly you're like the only. You know 5 diamond or whatever the heck rated sushi restaurant on the planet and the the idea of retiring is painful to him. He's like why would I retire this is this is my identity. This is my role. This is my self image. This is just what I do. He's not doing it to try to get somewhere else. He's like I do this. You have grade you have craftsmanship you have discount tire and the reason I say discount tire is as I understand it, you cannot jump into the company like leapfrog your way into a high standing position. You have to work your way up from the bottom. So you have to understand the process from the very bottom all the way up. So everybody they promote has been on the floor they they may have you know changed a few tires. They may have made a few sales. They understand the process of how everything works. And I think the intimate knowledge of the process really makes it a lot better and then the last one is ah entrepreneurial tenure and and tenure is like the worst idea ever because it's just another example of how desperate we are to secure the future. And I understand the desire we do it with relationships like we get married so we can securitize our relationship in the future. We have social security so we can securitize the future. We even call stocks securities because we're trying to secure our wealth for the future. |
| 11:55.30 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 12:03.60 | Max Shank | And the same thing is true for the entrepreneurs you're trying to quickly get some sort of security like I got to make 5000000 I got to make ten million I got to get whatever and then I'll be happy like you are saying. It's very conditional when I achieve this when I achieve this result. Then I will be happy and it's like dude the people who do stuff like that they will come up with a new target. Maybe before they even hit the first one like it's not going to be a lasting like ah I am now swimming in an ocean of nirvana. |
| 12:34.47 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 12:42.91 | Max Shank | Now that I have made $5000000 yes, no, you're going to look at bigger houses and bigger boats and you're going to have different goals and it's it's hardly going to be a pit stop on the road trip of your entrepreneurial life. So we're trying to like lock in. That success but like you said it takes us away from the process. So I think those are definitely things that you want to consider and it does relate back to the identity. You know James clear. That's his like main angle with habits my main takeaway. Ah, from his work is that it ends psycho cybernetics same thing. It's all about your identity and self-image and what role you are actively choosing like I am this therefore I do this and once you get clear on that everything is. Pretty much derivative of that it doesn't become about greed for a specific result. It doesn't become about like securing securing the future in some way and I think that's a really good way of looking at it so you need the desire but also the. The desire to embody the identity or the character. |
| 13:59.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and and you've got to know who that character is I mean when we think about identity. There's you know there's there's archetypes you could if you're an entrepreneur you could say have the identity of a Ceo and what that. |
| 14:16.32 | Max Shank | I'm the fool. |
| 14:19.28 | mikebledsoe | What that what? that means what that means to you is maybe different than what it means to somebody else and so if you're going to take on the identity of something which I've done before but didn't actually know what it meant and then you get around people who were performing so you want to be a Ceo you want to get around other ceos. Performing at the level that you want to perform and that's how you understand oh this is how this type of if I'm embodying this archetype if I'm embodying this identity. This is how these people think this is how they behave these are these are the things they do. And these are the things they don't do so I'm in agreement like that that identity is likely the quickest way to be able to create new habits because it's such a core piece of it's it's who we are and so if. I am running my company and I go you know what? I'm ah I a hundred million dollar company Ceo and someone comes to me with a problem or somebody's slacking at work. Well what does a hundred million dollar Ceo do well he probably fires that person and then brings in somebody else who's who can do it or whatever it is. But. A lot of people they they're not holding that identity they may they may shrink in that that situation and and then may go you know maybe I don't want to have that identity. It. It requires ah myself to do things that I don't like or it's not me and. And that's the absolute truth if you're trying to take on an identity and you go I'm not like that. It's like that's why you're not that person you have to be like that person. So I I think identity spot on. That's that's the quickest way to to creating a lifestyle life. That's good. And then or that you want if it's good. You could take on thedent identity of a criminal but then there's purpose. You know you're that's right, you got the why you know it's it's the reminder There's there's so many hard days for me. There's. |
| 16:15.27 | Max Shank | Got to hang out with a bunch of evil people. |
| 16:28.98 | mikebledsoe | There's days where I don't feel like you know, taking care of my health or days that I I may not want to work when when my people need me to do it. But I have deep? Yeah, ah. |
| 16:39.40 | Max Shank | Um, what fraud he's a fraud you're not on all the time fraud I'm calling it. Ah. |
| 16:46.76 | mikebledsoe | Ah, and and yeah, yeah, sorry sorry to break the rain on your parade there max? Yeah, and I think the the. |
| 16:49.87 | Max Shank | But I thought you had to be on all the time to be successful was I wrong about that first. My bubble. Ah. |
| 17:05.73 | mikebledsoe | The deeper Why the purpose is the thing that that does get you through those moments of doubt you know I had doubt over the weekend I had ah there's a mixture of things that all happened at the same time and and I'm like why am I doubting myself and then I realize oh well I had these 3 different events. Each one of them by themselves probably wouldn't bother me that much but because there's a combination of these things happening at the same time you know I I have ah a day where you know, kind of freak out man and then wake up the next morning then laugh at myself for being so ridiculous. But. What helped me keep it together is knowing my why you know it's it. It. It helped it helped me through that hard time doesn't mean I was performing at my best in that moment. But I definitely I was able to to stand help myself in that way. |
| 18:00.92 | Max Shank | I can't remember who said it but it was a man with a strong enough. Why can bear almost anyhow was that vi frankl or yeah I I feel like someone else said it like young or something too might have been like Carl young. |
| 18:08.51 | mikebledsoe | Um, think that was victor frankel. Yeah yeah. |
| 18:18.29 | mikebledsoe | He might have gotten it from him who knows. |
| 18:20.14 | Max Shank | But um, yeah, maybe but it's like you have the why and you have the who so that's that's like my little joke Simon Sene has it starts with why and James clear is like it starts with who and so you said it rightly so you got to be so. |
| 18:27.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 18:39.73 | Max Shank | Selective with who you associate with because it's the 5 monkey rule you become most like the 5 people that you spend most time with and there's ah you know concentrations to it if you spend like 99% of your time with 1 person you're going to. |
| 18:40.86 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 18:58.20 | Max Shank | Have a lot of feedback and become most like that person so you have to be very selective in who your friends are and who you choose as a mentor also and a person doesn't even have to necessarily mentor you um, personally. It's just if you are trying to mimic them in some way. So if they are the role model man you got to be so careful and you have to know like what it's actually like for them and if it really matches your personality type if that's what you really want like I think a lot of us Chase. Ah. You know, false ideas of better because that's the only reason we do anything is we think it'll be better if we do it than if we do nothing but I think a lot of people get caught. Um I think it's called worshiping false idols right. |
| 19:50.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I Um, you know there's been people who I have become enamored with that. They're older and I go oh I want to be more like that person and then I get to know them better I get close to them and I realize that oh they. Really healthy. But holy shit. They're poor as fuck like they totally terrible with money and business and and all this and then I meet someone who's really good at business I'm like okay and then I realize that you know they spend all their time in analysis in front of their computer and I go Well I don't want that either. |
| 20:16.65 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 20:29.50 | Max Shank | Ah, they're on their fifth. The ex-wife or something like that. It's. |
| 20:29.89 | mikebledsoe | So You know there's ah yeah, that too. Yeah and so I go you know you got to be careful about who you choose to to emulate and I. You know sometimes I hang out with someone who's really wealthy and you know I just pick some stuff up and for me, it's I don't think there's ever been one person I'm like I I want to take on the identity ah similar identity to that person. It's more of. You know I'm gonna take this piece from this guy and this piece from this other guy and this piece from this other guy and and I'm gonna do my best to be me while while leveraging you know what I can learn from those people. But yeah I mean if you if you really hung out with a wealthy person. |
| 21:03.91 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 21:17.66 | mikebledsoe | Someone who's great at relationships and someone else who's really healthy and maybe you you split it up in a thirds. You'd probably figure out how to do all of those better than the average person which I think is what most people were going for So I want to move into I want to move into. |
| 21:22.50 | Max Shank | So. |
| 21:32.00 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 21:36.40 | mikebledsoe | What do you think I have my idea I'm curious what you think is the highest leverage part of your life to improve first. So what I'd like to do is for us to move through a list max and I going to and discuss what. Habits or what what part of our lifestyles. Ah we should maximize first before moving on to the next one because we really want to get to a place where we're maximizing every aspect of our life. |
| 22:07.44 | Max Shank | For me, it would have to be preparing for our podcast topics instead of being ambushed by you with this list that we're gonna make up right now. |
| 22:16.15 | mikebledsoe | Um, pretty sure I told you right before we hit record he doesn't remember folks. He's got poor memory I'll send you some new troics That's not true. |
| 22:23.90 | Max Shank | Ah don't say that that's not true. It's like a steel trap. Ah so check it out every every type of self-help which is a. Ah, pretty big category of books is based on the same thing its personal responsibility. It doesn't matter if it's ekhart tolly or David Goggins and what's fascinating to me is those guys. Both have a lot of fans. Who are saying like yeah eckhart, you're the man. My man you help me out and other people are like dude David Goggins gave me gave put a little fight in me and I'm just laughing to myself because of how monumentally different the advice is. |
| 23:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 23:19.16 | Max Shank | You know the difference between ah there there are no problems. There are only situations and I let them pass through me and you got to conquer your inner Butch bitch and run like ah ten miles a day or whatever. Um. And I know there's more to both of them than that I'm super generalizing but the fact is they both are dependent on personal responsibility and the worst thing you can do is. Assume the identity of a victim of circumstance versus an author or an authoritarian of your own life and take personal responsibility for the good and the bad and everything in between I mean ah if you don't. Take personal responsibility if you don't put yourself into the role of like the creator of your life. Um, basically you're screwed. So I think that's the number one most important thing and that's a psychological foundation that basically every. |
| 24:25.89 | mikebledsoe | Come. |
| 24:31.21 | Max Shank | Ah self-help has in common from the tollies to the goggins and the Jockcos It's all taking responsibility for your own life. |
| 24:38.13 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I agree that from a psychological perspective. That's the number 1 thing. Um, you know there's personal responsibility and then I think after that comes self-esteem and self-esteem. House people then create boundaries for themselves and other people. But yeah I think it does all start with personal responsibility and and getting out of that that victim identity. So we have spot on I this is what I love about Ah. Maybe not prepping so much for this because I was thinking more about habits and I love that you said that but I was thinking about all right? So we got personal responsibility on the list and I'm also thinking about daily habits the the most critical thing that I've recognized is. Are you getting good rest are you getting good sleep and to me I think that you know we we put the psychological side apart and we go to lifestyle habits that getting enough sleep is. |
| 25:40.40 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 25:54.90 | mikebledsoe | If you're if you're not getting that. There's really not much else. You can do like you could do so many other things right? But if you're not getting good sleep. It's just not going to matter. |
| 26:07.16 | Max Shank | I Would agree with that I would also say that it's interesting both personally and anecdotally that if you have more drive toward a specific goal if you're more enthusiastic. If you're more expressive and less depressed people need a little bit less sleep and they do sleep a little bit less but getting inadequate sleep. Whatever that number is for an extended period of time. Ah I mean you're like killing your brain essentially and that's what's going to. Be responsible for a lot of that higher order thinking. So I would agree hydration sleep nutrition Those are those are kind of foundational physiological things that um, they they deserve to be right in there right? After. Ah, personal responsibility and self-image or self-esteem because those are very similar. |
| 27:06.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the ah the deerration of sleep and the quality of sleep being different. You know I think it's widely known between six and a half and 8 hours of sleep is about the the right target and everybody's different by the way. Um, but I think. I know for myself when I'm in a high high motivation state which means that I'm waking up at the same time you know ready to go I'm doing my morning routine which involves exercise and because I'm on purpose I end up expending way more energy that day than somebody who's not. |
| 27:42.61 | Max Shank | The. |
| 27:43.39 | mikebledsoe | Somebody is spending their day distracting themselves on Instagram or watching Tv or or whatever it is that person's going to end their day with. |
| 27:48.93 | Max Shank | I. |
| 27:57.17 | mikebledsoe | Without having expended all their their energy and then they're gonna want to you know continue watching Tv and continue being distracted and that person's just not gonna get high quality sleep so they may need to make it up in quantity and of course when you wake up and you don't feel good about what you want to do. There's nothing getting you out of bed because bed is fucking comfortable I like laying around on bed on some days. So um, yeah, it it all does work together because if we're looking at sleep. We go well, you know if you're eating poorly that's going to disrupt your sleep if. You're not exercising that's going to disrupt your sleep. Um, and I think that sleep is you know if you're getting six and a half to seven and a half hours of sleep and you wake up fired up and ready to go and you're tired tired and satisfied at the end of the day with with your work then you're gonna the sleep is indicative of. That you have other habits in order. So there's a few things that are going to impact the sleep which is temperature of the room is it dark did you stop looking at screens for 2 to 3 hours before you attempted to go to sleep. These are all. Unquote sleep hygiene or or making sure you have enough magnesium in in your diet if. You don't have it have magnesium. It's hard to down regulategulate. So these are all things that are directly related to sleep. But again you know if you're not exercising and you're not eating well, that's also going to impact it so I like it as. |
| 29:25.59 | Max Shank | Most of that stuff's a feedback loop right. |
| 29:28.87 | mikebledsoe | As a marker. Yeah, it's all feedback loop all of it. But um I think I think quality of sleep is a really good. You can check in with that and if something's off then then there then you can start looking at other places. |
| 29:31.52 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 29:45.77 | mikebledsoe | There was a Chinese medicine. Do I used to see in in snitas and he would ask me. You know?? Ah basically are you dreaming? Do you wake up with boners and what's your shit like and those are like the 3 things and I go. Ah yeah, you know what. As a man as you know women don't have boners. Ah,, there's ah as a lady bones. Yeah, as ah as a man if one of those things are off if you're not having dreams. You're not remembering your dreams. It probably means that your sleep architecture is messed up in some Way. Um. |
| 30:09.28 | Max Shank | They have lady boners. |
| 30:24.51 | mikebledsoe | Which is fucking up your hormones which isn't going to allow you to wake up with boners and and and then obviously how you're shitting is is how you're primarily. Well let's say it makes up of how you're eating and what kind of stress you're enduring because if you emotional stress being held in the gut will fuck up your digestion. Even if you eat really? Well So Ah these things all again, a lot of that will manifest in basically sheep you look at your sleep and your defecation habit. |
| 30:55.33 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's kind of like we have neurological housekeeping which is identity self-image personal responsibility and then we have physiological housekeeping which is promoting good sleep. Maybe you have an alarm. In the evenings that reminds you to turn the screens off. Maybe you take a magnesium supplement I mean really even if your routine is total bullshit. It might be better to have one because you're intellectually and psychologically putting energy into the quality of your sleep. You're like okay I have this routine where i. You know I'd swish coconut oil in my mouth and um, you know do eye exercises and massage my hands and feet and do a little stretch like even if it's not a very good routine just having that um psychological investment into it. Can be beneficial and that's like the ah the whole idea is that physiological housekeeping like are you getting enough water are you getting enough nutrients from your food. Are you getting enough exercise and it doesn't have to be any fancy exercise. And then what you said are you know, sort of the markers for how that's going. Ah check the poo. Do you have a boner every morning and are you dreaming and that's really interesting so we have the psychological housekeeping we have physiological housekeeping and then I think from there I would start looking at actual skills I don't know if that makes sense for you. But if we're trying to go for high leverage then really the 2 skills are. Language and movement and language is no question the most high leverage skill There is um I mean mathematics is a language in and of itself sales. And marketing are certainly language-based ah flirting wooing ah dating. That's mostly language-based There's a little bit of physical-based stuff too. So then you know you have language on the one side you have physical skills on the other side which would be like fighting. Ah, moving around with ease I think it's smart to get good at giving massages personally I think that's a really high leverage skill like if you can do ah a 5 minute shoulder foot rub and do it really? well. |
| 33:41.50 | Max Shank | My god like whatever partner you have is going to feel so loved and so lucky and you know there are love languages and shit like that. But man if you have word skills and physical skills. Ah, that's super high leverage and and really those are the skills. Worth cultivating so from a language standpoint I would say ah probably sales and storytelling is the highest 1 and then also planning and delegating right after that as far as like the high leverage. Language skills are concerned. |
| 34:17.48 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's um, there's a book called um, your like the last safe investment and the idea is the the safest investment you can make is in yourself and that. The premise in the book is that you want to make yourself as valuable to other people as much as possible in order to enhance your ability to make money because that's the people who make the most money have figured out how to position themselves in a very high value position. So the way. That they break it down is the low value skills. There's 4 different quadrants 4 different pillars or 4 different categories of skill one being physical labor number 2 being technical labor 3 creative labor 4 interpersonal labor. So. Each one is more valuable generally speaking than the other so physical labor is you know, gardening building houses plumbing electrical. Ah this is but it's also professional athletes. So the 1% of physical labor talent plays basketball. But you know that's as a very rare ah physical labor. Yeah, you get? we get. That's an interesting take on that because yeah, the artists are really left out of this whole thing. Ah if you think it sports performance. |
| 35:37.36 | Max Shank | I Think that's a I think that's a performer. |
| 35:49.70 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 35:53.59 | mikebledsoe | Art performance. Ah all right? but outside of that and then you have technical labor these are accountants people who are you know, just man I don't even know what else fits in that category. But there's a lot of technical labor out there that is. Mostly these days being outsourced to India by the way because they're so technically oriented and then. |
| 36:18.67 | Max Shank | It's basically any labor where someone else tells you what to do, but you don't have to sweat very much. |
| 36:21.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and you just have to you have to like you're probably working on a computer and it's not creative work. It's I'm moving things from over here to over here bookkeeping accounting. You're just following the rules. Not really thinking too much. |
| 36:34.29 | Max Shank | Maybe even in a factory in like a factory if you're not really like digging ditches but you're moving machinery around and you're manning the loom or something like that. That's a little more technical than digging a ditch. But yeah I follow. |
| 36:39.60 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 36:46.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and then creative labor that may be copywriting that would be ah writing a book writing music. Whatever it is and then the level above that is interpersonal. That's leadership sales. That's things. |
| 36:53.10 | Max Shank | Writing a book creating a video series. |
| 37:05.85 | mikebledsoe | Involve relationships. That's the highest value skills to acquire and so um, it is the hardest skill because it's ah if you think about it. Ah these skills the skills that are most focused on in school. |
| 37:12.90 | Max Shank | It seems like the hardest skill to me too. |
| 37:25.61 | mikebledsoe | People are developing is really technical ability and so it's really, you're really being trained to be a worker. Not really someone who's gonna be creative. It's so funny when I hear people you know, be concerned about Homeschool kids not getting the right level of socialization but I look at. |
| 37:27.30 | Max Shank | Um, if. |
| 37:45.48 | mikebledsoe | The level relating skills that people have going to public schools fucking shit and it's like I'm like what what do you mean? their social skills. They can't lead. They don't know how to you know they don't know how to date. |
| 37:59.31 | Max Shank | They can't manage their own emotions. How are they gonna have a chance of managing somebody else's it's absurd. Don't get me started on the school thing. We'll ruin the whole podcast the worst twelve year investment you can make oh god. |
| 38:03.31 | mikebledsoe | Can't manage their own. Ah. Ah. |
| 38:13.11 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah so ah, coming from 1 guy who who went to school another guy who didn't but um, we both agree. Ah yeah, so so I think you know with what you were saying you know there's there's skills. Was it you said Ah, it was movement skills and and verbal. Yeah, so if you look at the interpersonal if you look at the interpersonal which is the highest value you have to communicate. Well it comes down to communication whether you're doing sales or you're in a leadership position. It has to do with. |
| 38:34.71 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's verbal and physical. Basically yeah. |
| 38:52.10 | mikebledsoe | Are you able to tell people and have a conversation a you got to be a good listener and then B can you can you? then? what your your output side of the communication is that landing in a way that that is that matches your intention. Because what I find is most people they talk and then the other person completely interprets it in a way that was unintended and neither party knows what to do about it that usually is what results in most conflict. |
| 39:21.49 | Max Shank | Ah, well I call it a catalytic communication did what you did your communication yield The result that you wanted was it a catalyst for the result that you were after and if you have that it's Amazing. I mean look the average person talks like they're just practicing talking. They don't know like why they're saying what they're saying they like heard something and they're like oh it's my turn to talk for a while now and like I heard about this and like but like catalytic communication like does it yield. |
| 39:42.63 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah I think. |
| 39:58.11 | Max Shank | Result that you had intended that is super high skill and high leverage and if we think about the word leverage we have to be clear about what we mean by that. Do we mean the highest ah result or the highest benefit per unit of time. Do we mean the highest. Ah. Benefit per per per calories because that's another way way we could measure it. That's why language is so crazy because we're all just saving tons of calories. That's why we can like sleep in a big comfy bed instead of hunting will de beastenship and then you also have ah leverage for. |
| 40:31.40 | mikebledsoe | Fucking Well at least. |
| 40:37.11 | Max Shank | Money So you have leverage for time leverage for money and leverage for calories and ah language is all of those.. That's why that's what drove the dot Com bubble. That's what has driven um these different softwares because software is language and it is. A series of conditional phrases. Let's call I'm like about to leave my circle of competence here basically but basically um, intellectual leverage is when less explains more or when less can do more. |
| 40:59.49 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 41:16.54 | Max Shank | And if you have a really slick piece of software you can perform the work. You can save the calories of you know millions of people having to do the job instead and now it's replaced with a computer program which is just ah rules. Ah, using language that's incredible. |
| 41:37.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and that's such a good example of how that's being utilized the there's a guy named John Vervaki I think ah, it's it's Dr. John Vervakki's ah he's like a philosopher. Ah, doctor of philosopher philosophy from up in Canada I forget which school he's got a 30 hour series on on Youtube called awakening from the meaning crisis and what's so cool about that series is he is. He walks you through the evolution of consciousness through history and so there's this handoff between basically where the hebrews and the ah like the hebrews and transfers into the greeks and say why like. Up and to that point hebrew culture was at the pinnacle of of ah of consciousness and then the greeks came along and then made a lot of improvements upon it and part of it was was that fluency increased so the style of the language actually became. Easier to understand to the average person and so there's a lot of research that that shows that if you can increase fluency you increase believability and so 1 example of this is if. If you're reading something the fluency of what's written on the page is gonna impact the believability of it so did a study of people that were reading something that was black on white and then they were reading like orange on white and they're reading. So they were tested afterwards because if there's not as much contrast on visually it decreases the fluency. It slows them down all this stuff and the believability of the statements was even when they were not true at all were rated much higher. |
| 43:38.66 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 43:48.93 | mikebledsoe | When there was more contrast and so the and so they've they've done a lot of studies where they're measuring the fluency the ability to Comprehend. What's being said and the faster you can comprehend it the more believable. It is so increasing is just an argument For. Or a suggestion towards increasing your fluency your ability to communicate in a way that others can receive it easily is going to make a huge difference. |
| 44:16.49 | Max Shank | Man and that speaks volumes to the whole idea of catalytic communication where the goal is to get the other the person on the other end of that communication to take a specific action. So if I'm talking to you I'm doing it for you I'm gonna try to gear it. As much as possible so that you can understand it as well as possible as clearly as possible and that's where stuff like eye relief comes in. You know if you have just this gigantic intimidating block of text. Ah, that's going to reduce the fluence here. That's going to reduce the understandability. Of it if you use a bunch of ah you know, fancy $10 words that's going to be a limiting factor for the other person's ability to understand so it's a big difference between writing for yourself and writing for your audience so they can take a specific action. |
| 45:11.15 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think this is a great place to talk about the people who want more authenticity like I want ah authentic Expression. You know I want to be able to go On. You know I talk to coaches. I Want to be able go on social media and speak my truth and then that's what should bring me my clients. That's what this and that and and I watch it this. This is really big amongst I'd say more often women are are wanting this more than the guys is there's this.. There's this belief that. Authentic expression means saying whatever the whatever you want. However, you want and expecting to get a result from other people and as if that's the best way to communicate and ah and I always challenge people hey authentic. |
| 45:53.10 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 46:04.46 | mikebledsoe | Expression or being sincere or genuine doesn't mean that you say whatever you is come to your mind in it in in a way that you want to be heard and understood Now you're you're speaking So the air the person can receive it so be Authentic. Don't lie be authentic, but keep it inside of the scope of how the person's going to receive that information. That's the best way to be authentic because if they can't receive it then they're not actually experiencing your authenticity. They're just experiencing confusion. And so I think that these are 2 things that need to be helped speak your truth and while also considering and taking the responsibility for how other people are going to receive it because the people who don't do that are really confused about why they may. Be isolated or they feel alone even though they're expressing themselves. |
| 47:01.16 | Max Shank | Well plus I mean should we really be so attached to this idea of authenticity I mean the older I get I swear every year I just look back and go God I was such a fool like I was an idiot I didn't know anything and. So the audacity of thinking Well I should just be able to talk. However I want to talk and like you said, expect that to convert whether it's like sales or believers or whatever let the authenticity come from your core belief. |
| 47:29.73 | mikebledsoe | Ah, no. |
| 47:36.83 | Max Shank | The authenticity is the core belief that hey you should do 5 minutes of exercise every morning boom that's my core belief but then from there don't just talk the way you would at a bar with a bunch of like old sailors or something like if you're. Clear on who your audience is communicate it in a way that will give them the best possible chance of taking the action. The authenticity is in your mission not in your like learned turn of phrase I mean most people learn how to communicate so badly. Like I said they're just waiting for their turn to talk. They just want to make noise and have people listen to it. So ah sometimes it works though sometimes ah people find it really funny or endearing or like oh yeah, that guy you know says the f- word a lot and ah. It's it's funny in a way you know sometimes that happens but man the best leverage communication is when you really understand your audience and you communicate directly to them and the better you understand the avatar of your audience and the more you speak directly to them. |
| 48:41.86 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 48:53.50 | Max Shank | The more leverage your communication is going to have. |
| 48:54.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and I also want to point out that a lot of self-expression that I witness when people are are I'm expressing myself is usually a wound that is expressing itself. Yeah, it's not. It's not them. It's like yeah if it was you that was expressing yourself. |
| 49:06.81 | Max Shank | It's pain body. Yeah, totally. |
| 49:14.47 | mikebledsoe | We'd You'd be coming it sound a lot more like Love. We'd be experiencing love when you spoke but ah it and and it it could be something. But if you're speaking like absolute truth a lot of people aren't ready to hear that type of thing. But. Most people who are that I hear that are really are valuing self-expression of a high degree. Usually yeah, it's their pain Body. It's a wound.. It's an emotional wound from their childhood that that's wanting to speak up and you can spot it because they actually act like a child. |
| 49:33.35 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah. |
| 49:49.95 | mikebledsoe | You know they they might stomp around they hoff and puff they may throw something. Ah you know they they they're acting like things aren't Fair. You know all you know kids do behave differently but you can now that people hear this. When you watch people interact and they get emotional just watch how childlike their behavior becomes and that's how you can spot if it's a wound or if they're coming from Love and these are you know a wound is just going to fracture love and it's and it's going to be make it unrecognizable. Um. So you know on um, on one side you have the crowd that's got self-expression as a high value on the other side and when we we cycle between the two as we develop the other one is self-sacrificed. |
| 50:33.64 | Max Shank | How about value as a high value how about values and value. You know that's what we talked about this in the school episode. You know what you want to teach someone is values and what you want to teach them how to create is value. |
| 50:48.59 | mikebledsoe | Right? um. |
| 50:50.44 | Max Shank | And if you're focused on delivering value then the last thing you're going to do is bring your own emotional garbage and baggage into it that you've accumulated over the years I mean look most adults are still children. They're old and they don't move as quick. But they they don't act any different than a child What they know a few more words. Ah and their their lives are like a little worse I mean I I get it like I I totally understand. But if you are focused on like crying out for attention rather than delivering value. |
| 51:09.37 | mikebledsoe | I I agree. |
| 51:28.45 | Max Shank | The person on the other end of that communication. Don't be surprised that you don't get as good a result as the person who is trying to be a catalyst for that audience. It's like ah yeah, don't be surprised. |
| 51:44.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's ah one of my mentors I was ah ah went to one of his ah weekend workshop with him about six months ago and he said on a post it on his on his monitor. The question is what is value. And he said meditate on that and always keep that in mind it's ah it's very deep and what is value changes over time and or changes depending on situationally you know what's what's value bull. What is value. |
| 52:21.52 | Max Shank | It's bottled water at the north pole or bottled water at Coachella on the third day I mean that's that's how you figure out what value is. |
| 52:29.85 | mikebledsoe | True that I think I spent about fifty bucks one day on water at Coachella it was that yeah those mushrooms those mushrooms made me thirsty man who. |
| 52:35.93 | Max Shank | Um, and it was worth every penny wasn't it because you're still here and alive. |
| 52:45.15 | Max Shank | So I think that's a ah good question to meditate on is like what value are you delivering and if you're not delivering value in some way because look exposing like real truth that may be uncomfortable is. |
| 53:03.89 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 53:04.18 | Max Shank | Valuable but to the right audience and what's valuable to 1 audience might be worthless or actually destructive to another audience and understanding that value like you said changes based on the situation and based on the individual. |
| 53:18.64 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and a lot of things that you may value. No one else values and I see a lot of people out there that are upset that no one values The same thing they value and and can't understand why they're not making money and you. It's usually the starving artist and so you you really really need to think about what's the how do other people perceive value and then not only that I know a lot this. This is so true in the coaching industry I know a lot of coaches that possess. |
| 53:38.36 | Max Shank | Ah, the. |
| 53:56.67 | mikebledsoe | And incredible amount of value that never gets exposed to the right people and or to the to enough people and the reason is because they don't know how to communicate their value and they don't know how to connect the value that they can create to the pain and suffering. The people who need it most and there's it's really sad to watch somebody refuse to communicate appropriately and I was coaching a woman yesterday through ah we were going through a 10 year vision exercise and. She's so good at what she does and she goes but I hate sales I go how selfish of you the look on her face the look on her face was like what the fuck did you just say to me and I go wow you you just told me that. |
| 54:40.79 | Max Shank | Ha ha. |
| 54:52.52 | mikebledsoe | So many people would benefit from where and you're not willing to meet them where they're at people who need coaching people who need someone to help them out. They are so they have been sitting with this pain. They've been trying to solve this problem for so long. They can't find the solution. They've tried a hundred different things. And you're refusing to come tell them about it and and show them how it could benefit their very specific situation and so we got to turn that one around and ah yeah I hope that anyone hearing this that that strikes a chord for those who need to hear it. |
| 55:26.73 | Max Shank | I Think that's probably because I've heard that example, a lot the selfishness of not selling your solution and the hilarious part is that you are actually selling her on liking selling. So you are communicating to her in a way that will actually resonate and because usually the people who shy away from selling they they don't want to be greedy right? That's like the last thing they want they they they want to is. |
| 55:58.53 | mikebledsoe | Well, they don't want to be perceived as greedy. That's different. |
| 56:05.80 | Max Shank | Exactly right? That's a very good point. Ah, and maybe they're also afraid of being rejected but when you change that frame psychologically I mean look imagine if she puts out twice as many offers from that you know 10 minute conversation whatever it is. Think of the leverage of that 10 minutes because now she's at least doubled and is probably going to have an exponential increase rather than a linear one. So. That's that's what we're talking about is the power of leveraging language so practicing language. That's a ah, high leverage habit I don't think there is a higher one actually you know and do it low tech because we didn't even get into all the stuff that stops you from doing these good things I mean there are a million traps. There are like cute cats and tits on the screen any time that you want them. So it's hard to say no to those that there's alcohol you can get alcohol delivered to the House. You can get drug like different drugs delivered to you. Um, it's insane. Ah. |
| 57:13.33 | mikebledsoe | Um, anything is possible folks. |
| 57:17.51 | Max Shank | So I think at least for me. Yeah, if I'm hungry I Just slide my finger across my magic telephone and food arrives Can you imagine describing that to your great-grandparents eating dinner by candlelight. |
| 57:33.50 | mikebledsoe | My guys. |
| 57:36.75 | Max Shank | And then me and then me also saying how unfair life is. |
| 57:40.36 | mikebledsoe | Um I can't believe that you gave me this this place this this world we live in the baby boomers fucked us up. It's like right got pretty fucking good. |
| 57:50.21 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah, you forgot my extra ranch you son of a bitch. So Anyway, there are a lot of traps and that's why I think with. Language if you can use a pen and paper to contain your ideas in ah like a one- pageish format where you have a big idea you have some arguments of why you have. An explanation of what will happen if you take this good action because we could do a whole episode on how to craft an offer but all communication is basically that so I would go low tech high effect. Avoid the distractions get out the Notebook and a pen. Get clear on who you're sending the message to what the ideas expand on the idea have a specific call to action at the end and practice organizing your ideas that way because that's going to allow you to think better. Most communication is an argument and it's too bad. |
| 58:48.67 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 59:06.29 | Max Shank | Arguments are seen in such a negative light because arguments are actually quite fun. You have a claim and then you have some supporting evidence or supporting ideas and yeah, hopefully or. |
| 59:19.10 | mikebledsoe | Hopefully. |
| 59:22.66 | Max Shank | Or here's a big trap that I think I've talked about a million times. The only like 99% of the arguments that you see people make are logical fallacies that only attack or prop up the arguer. And they have nothing to do with the argument. Basically you have appeal to authority which is trust god completely don't even question his argument and then you have ad hom in him attack which is this guy is the Devil. Don't even listen to his argument. And if you look at the things that people argue about that's what it's usually about we trust this guy completely or we hate this guy so much. We're not even going to listen to what this fucker says. So if you can avoid those 2 logical fallacies. No the whole thing like everything everything I mean. |
| 01:00:07.69 | mikebledsoe | The entire Covid debate. |
| 01:00:16.85 | Max Shank | If I ever run for office just rest assured that my opponent is a racist pedophile and that will be the only thing I run the whole time. It will just be character assassinational because that's the world that we're living in people are living in their limbic system. They're just like. Ah I hate you? Ah I love you save me and so it it makes arguments not that fun. Ah whereas a good argument with acclaim and supporting points and a back and forth of. Ah, evaluating the ideas. That's why a cooperative argument or discussion is so exciting because instead of 2 people who are just trying to prove themselves right? I don't give a fuck if I'm right I care if we are ultimately right like if you have a great idea. I want to know that your idea is better and profit from that and that's like the the cooperative discussion conversation argument and that's where the real gold is if you get stuck with like I'm just trying to express myself yourself probably sucks I mean mine does most of the time. So. It's better to focus on what is like ultimately the most valuable rather than like just try to support what you already believe. |
| 01:01:38.68 | mikebledsoe | Love it. Feels like a good ending anything else. You want to add before we roll. |
| 01:01:46.24 | Max Shank | I Don't know I was I was enjoying yelling there maybe um. |
| 01:01:48.20 | mikebledsoe | You you're all red you were on the rip. You know what? I'll do my closing dots I'll let you do yours? You know this show is really just an excuse for max and I to get our rants out. To save our our romantic partners from as much pain and suffering as possible. Ah, you know we we walked into this conversation looking at high leverage habits and addictive actions. I only think we got no addictive actions much but high leverage habits for sure and you know the the number 1 thing. |
| 01:02:07.41 | Max Shank | I. |
| 01:02:24.72 | mikebledsoe | That ah max and I agreed on which it needs to be done first that is take personal responsibility in anything in which you don't you're not experiencing freedom or power in your life is due to a lack of of taking responsibility for that. So if there's something that's not going the way you like it. Go look at where you can take personal responsibility and from there you can you know work on you know self-esteem and creating boundaries and all that stuff and then on the ah so we kind of. We we did split it up. Max Max did a great job of this is saying there's like psychological and physiological housekeeping so that would be on the psychological side on the physiological we got into you know, sleep being one of the biggest indicators. The quality of the sleep. You're getting what you're how you're waking up. Um. And all that and then oh yeah, the last thing to mention on ah that I want to throw in there to remind everybody that I want that I got out of this conversation is ah when forming new habits really looking at the the who and the why the identity and the purpose those are the things they're gonna. Are high leverage things to ah to use when you're starting new habits. |
| 01:03:42.80 | Max Shank | Yeah that's great I think of those as the first dominoes like everything else kind of falls into place when you have your mission and identity lined up. Um I don't think I have too much to add. Actually I think you put it together very nicely. The reality is most people will not take the action and that's okay, like you you don't want to think of it as an all or nothing kind of thing if you get 10 % of the people who hear your message to take a better action toward their. |
| 01:04:13.20 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 01:04:21.69 | Max Shank | Psychological physiological housekeeping and start practicing those high-leverage skills and those are mostly language and then also ah physical like body language and athleticism and things like that. So if anyone tells you it's complicated. Definitely not. Humans are complex creatures but they are ah very tightly organized sometimes their thoughts are a little bit muddled and that makes it very difficult for people. There are unlimited distractions and drugs available to you some of them come through ah a screen full Of. Red Green and blue tiny lights that can show you all kinds of weird stuff. Some people use ah food and different drugs to desensitize ah and as far as that goes. There's ah, there's a quote I heard ah in nor Mcdonald's book. He goes I was at the psychologist psychiatrist and she said that I use gambling to avoid the realities of life and he goes. That's why everyone does everything. |
| 01:05:36.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, that sounds about right I Where can people find you? What do you want to tell people you're up to right now because you're always up to something. |
| 01:05:37.19 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:05:45.77 | Max Shank | Um, sometimes I'm up to nothing which is actually a big lesson for this podcast. It's okay to do nothing I feel like that's actually a high level skill now is if you can just sit quietly for 10 minutes how far we've come. |
| 01:05:50.33 | mikebledsoe | Ah, that's true. |
| 01:05:57.60 | mikebledsoe | Oh that's and that's ah I think you're right about that that is a high lever skill. |
| 01:06:05.91 | Max Shank | I'm releasing a new I'm releasing a new e course called how to sit still for 10 minutes. |
| 01:06:11.71 | mikebledsoe | I'm gonna I'm gonna do a I'm gonna hold a retreat. It's a meditation fasting retreat. We're gonna do and say nothing. Yeah, no, no, it's $10000 well but we we'll do yeah lower lowerhead for me. Ah. |
| 01:06:19.57 | Max Shank | It's a very low overhead. Oh for you. |
| 01:06:28.63 | mikebledsoe | We will. We will be in a mansion and we won't enjoy any of it because our eyes will be closed and we'll be just sitting there doing nothing. Yeah. |
| 01:06:34.60 | Max Shank | I like it. Yeah I got ah I got a few projects I'm working On. Um, if you want something habit related check out Primal Athleticism on my website. It's basically the ultimate in physical housekeeping from an exercise standpoint to. Modular daily practice. It's awesome. Um I got a few secret projects I'm working on so http://macshank.com at Mashank Thanks for listening guys. |
| 01:07:00.47 | mikebledsoe | Who mystery ah go check out http://thestrongcoach.com/summit I am holding a summit here in Austin Texas March third through seventh and I rented out a summer camp. It's gonna be part burning man part. Summer Adult Summer camp part fitness seminar part business conference I think there's another part in there I'm forgetting about but we're gonna have a really good time and I'm a big fan of creating experiences that are both educational and fun because as if you don't know already. That if you mix play into your education. You can learn up to 20 times faster that came from a peer reviewed research study so you know don't f with me. Love y'all. |
| 01:07:48.87 | Max Shank | F that peer review f that peer review. Study play is the original form of education later bro. Love you. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome going to Monday morning with Mike and max Today we're gonna be talking about money. We. We're big fans of it I imagine you're a big fan of it too and sometimes you probably get really mad at it or maybe mad at yourself about it and ah, it's a very. Very touchy subject for a lot of people and if you can master money then your life is going to get a lot easier because money solves a lot of problems. Not all of them but a lot of them. So. 1 thing I really want to discuss by the end of this show that I want people to get a handle on is a a definition that I received from one of my teachers. She defines financial freedom as having enough passive income to handle all of your living expenses and that that passive income means. Maybe you have real estate that's income producing. That's that's rental properties that money is coming in and it's profit getting dividends from your stocks or and there's ways to do this with crypto as well where you can you can pull off profits so having. I'm sure we can talk about some other asset classes that are income producing. But I personally have many friends who have already accomplished this and and I am on my way to doing the same thing for myself. So max. You're what's ah, what do you What's your relationship to money like these days. |
| 01:39.42 | Max Shank | First off am am I getting paid for this. |
| 01:44.80 | mikebledsoe | I'm sure you'll get paid at some point down the road. Yeah yeah. |
| 01:46.74 | Max Shank | Seems like a bad business decision for me to just give it away for free like this. Ah I think that money is energy and it makes trading easier and all of the emotional. |
| 01:51.21 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 02:06.42 | Max Shank | Baggage We attach to it is something that needs to be worked through that the real key is to understand that it makes trading easier you know and to focus on delivering value because we can talk about. |
| 02:17.84 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 02:25.47 | Max Shank | Ah, money on a micro and a macro and it's best to focus on micro first which is like yourself essentially and there are only 2 ways to improve your financial situation and that's to increase your income and reduce your spending. And in order to do that. You have to be very honest about what the difference is between a luxury and a necessity and I think it's wise to really focus on delivering value on being able to scale. The value that you deliver and also being comfortable with less. You know live a very spartan lifestyle as long as you can because um, it's really not fair. Once you get ahead of the game in in money. It's like once you have a million dollars saved up you can invest it at a you can invest it slowly and 5% is still going to give you 50 grand a year and that's more than enough to live well on you can eat well, you can never have to worry about a roof over your head. You're never going to um, have to drain that nest egg and it's going to provide for you just by having it there. So I yeah very safe. Potentially. |
| 03:49.63 | mikebledsoe | And that 5%'s a very safe investment that's that's a very low aggressive. Not lowress. It's ah, whatever the safe? Yeah, not aggressive safe. Yeah. |
| 04:02.47 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, um, and you know we can talk about specific stocks that have different dividends like usually a Verizon or something will have a higher dividend which is what they pay out and you can reinvest the dividends or you can take it out as cash. But anyway. |
| 04:08.36 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 04:20.61 | Max Shank | The the key point is realizing that money is energy getting rid of the emotional baggage focus on delivering value and scaling that value you deliver living a Spartan lifestyle and accumulating a fat chunk so that you can. Invest into securities or real estate or reinvest into your own business as well because that is that is the best investment is being confident that you can always make more. |
| 04:48.95 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think I want to hit on a point you were making and and you know living a spartan lifestyle and and only living with the necessities. It's it's a really big challenge for a lot of people and I just went through a financial course this past year and one of the things that. Was noticed because everyone in the the course together are are all entrepreneurs and when we did a survey of the room of how many the entrepreneurs that were there to learn grew up with no money or with very little money. It was almost all of us. It was was we were the majority and the teacher she one of the things that she noted was that a lot of times what happens when we grow up poor and then we make money is we buy ourselves all the things that we. |
| 05:28.45 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 05:46.95 | mikebledsoe | Couldn't have when we were a kid or when we were younger and so there a lot of people end up adopting this attitude of you know I'll just get it and I need to treat myself or whatever to make up for you know what I didn't have and and another pitfall is amongst people who. |
| 05:58.94 | Max Shank | And. |
| 06:06.70 | mikebledsoe | And this was me for a while is I'm so good at making money like so confident that I could just go make more money that the the feeling the necessity to save and invest wisely just didn't seem that important. Whereas you've got a lot of people who are making 50 to $100000 a year on a fixed salary and they're trying to max out their ira but to an entrepreneur who can make a hundred grand in a month if they really fucking put the screws to it that ah. That seems kind of ridiculous like why would I scrounge and take that money and invest it in something that's going to earn such a slow rate of return when I could just go make it real quick and so ah, for for there. There's pit for. |
| 06:43.79 | Max Shank | The. |
| 06:59.89 | mikebledsoe | And that's not the majority of the people that were my class by the way I was I was one of the few people that were like oh yeah, if I want more money I just go make it and yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, definitely. Ah. |
| 07:01.97 | Max Shank | Yeah what's like the Richard Branson style it's good to understand the different personality types because what you say. Is like the opposite of my approach. |
| 07:18.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, this is a good conversation for max and I to have because we are very different in in how we've approached money in the past I bet we were probably closer to each other at this point but we'll see that but the thing I want to touch on that I learned in the class. Um, is the you don't have to be Spartan You don't have to only go to the necessities but you need you need to be real ah with your numbers and looking at and being present with the amount of money you're spending on this and that and then actually making the choice. So. |
| 07:51.60 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 07:56.30 | mikebledsoe | I Wouldn't say that I live an extremely Spartan lifestyle but I do a lot more saving these days in in intelligent investing and I like to split my purchases up into first before I just going what do I need and what do I You know? what's an option is I go What's meaningful. |
| 08:14.30 | Max Shank | The. |
| 08:15.59 | mikebledsoe | What is a meaningful purchase does this? Yeah I don't need it but does it really bring enough meaning to my life because I'm not going to wait until I'm retired to have all the stuff that you know to enjoy my money I'm going to enjoy my money along the way. So one of the things I Really ah appreciated about her course was. |
| 08:28.69 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 08:35.46 | mikebledsoe | It wasn't this like Dave Ramsey approach where where it's kind of like you know, super hard rules and like if you know you gotta do it like this or it won't work. It's more like you know here's some things that you can apply in your life and you can live life now but just realize that every. Every dollar that you spend now takes away from your future financial freedom and and and if I go is this worth my future financial freedom then? yes I'll purchase it hey if I go is this worth my future financial freedom because every time I spend. Now is money I don't get to invest in crypto stocks real estate. These are every every penny is something I can't invest in the future that that'll give me a future return so holding that frame has been a game changer for me for somebody who. Who tends to be ah you know, ah very risk tolerant and aggressive that is extremely helpful. |
| 09:43.13 | Max Shank | Well and that's the personality type I'm talking about too oftentimes like the Richard Branson type there's a survivorship bias because there's a lot of people who try his same strategy of. You know triple mortgaging his house so he can buy an aircraft engine. Ah and it goes horribly wrong and you don't hear about that guy. You only hear about the winners and you know when you're talking about saving now. You know you're listing things that have the potential to. |
| 10:06.84 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 10:17.69 | Max Shank | Lot of things that have the potential to have compound returns and that is something that is really difficult for people to understand in their mind because when you spend a dollar on something now that's not that's not going to be a dollar. In 20 years if you're willing to be patient because the compound effect is really hard to understand in the present moment what it could potentially be 20 years from now and that's why um you know you gotta find something that suits your personality type and. What you're saying sounds like you are more. You're not spartan but you're more conscious and aware of the spending and more conscious and aware of the income. So. It's an appropriate energy balance. Rather than just this like freewheeling reckless abandon like I'll just make more I'll just make more I'll just bla but da da da da da and you know I I see that from my perspective which is like you know the further ahead you can get quicker the more. That what you put away will compound and especially when you're young I assume like most of the people listening to this are going to be somewhere around like 30 year old fellas maybe 20 to 40 right? something like that. Um you know, live as simply as possible when you can because. |
| 11:44.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 11:53.33 | Max Shank | Part of the the keeping up with the joneses thing is such a killer on so many levels. It's this extra ego baggage that doesn't serve you and you don't see the balance sheet of those people who are trying to get into those comparison Competitions. You know why? Why are we. Trying to keep up with the joneses. The joneses are Broke. You know you want to be like ah you want to be a secret millionaire as quick as possible and have the ability to move and act and create from a place of. Safety and abundance and when you have that when you have that separate investment that Accrues income and has a compound return I mean frankly, it feels like cheating you know you you get yourself. Ah, property like a home and you invest the rest into your own business into securities and I mean if you want to do something else. There are all kinds of other options. But it's basically it's not fair like money is ah about as fair. |
| 13:07.20 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 13:11.56 | Max Shank | As nature itself. It's not fair I mean we could get into like fractional reserve banking and stuff later and go like whoa what the hell is that. But um, it's not It's not fair that a lion can tear a Gazelle to Shreds and it's not fair that if you have. 5 or $ 10000000 as long as you're not a complete fool. You'll never have to worry about money again even a million and so getting ahead as quick as possible living as spartan as possible to begin with is really good advice being able to defer that gratification for later. Same thing with creating a business for yourself. You know most of the big income I've had is through exponentially scalable things like online courses and videos and books that I've written and if you can build something one time. It may take you six months or a year in some cases sometimes 2 years projects I've been working on but I can build it once and then sell it 10000 times. Most people just aren't willing to do that and it's it's hard to it's hard to see into the future. Ah. |
| 14:20.31 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 14:27.82 | mikebledsoe | Well, you're an early adopter of the digital information product and so it's you know this is definitely when those things were being early to the game. It's easier to have a big payout your marketing didn't have to be as. |
| 14:27.88 | Max Shank | For most people that way. |
| 14:45.10 | mikebledsoe | As good as it does Now there's a lot more. It's a lot more competition in the online marketplace and a lot more noise whether it be direct competition or just like I said that and that noise that's out there. Um, yeah, and. |
| 14:56.57 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 15:01.30 | mikebledsoe | 1 of the things that you mentioned you you threw outt the number of a million dollars will give you this much. Ah income. You know say at 5% a million dollars that give you $50000 a year of income and so I I think. |
| 15:08.21 | Max Shank | At 5% yeah |
| 15:20.77 | mikebledsoe | That was one of the things that I didn't sit down early enough in my life and just realize that that's all I need is like oh if I want to have by the way. Ah, ah, most people need to make more money than they need to make and what I mean by that is due to the debt that they're holding. They actually have to make a lot more money in order to pay all all that interest and all that that past purchasing and so for the average person a hundred hundred and fifty thousand dollars is is if your debt free is a lot of money. You know my number is. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars I want to I'm a little bit I'm a little bougie at times so I look at that. Yeah I have to have you know 5% you know $5000000 and in income producing assets. That's that's just knowing that number. Just knowing that that exists and I have a frame on that and like I can. That's my target my motivation after having that realization to make money went way up and before it was again. It was about how much do I need to make it through the next month or 2 or the next year but when I started thinking more long term it became a lot easier to do that and having an actual number that was not arbitrary because one of the one of the things that I one of the mistakes that I made early on in my entrepreneurial career is that. I had bought into this like ah it's like a silicon valley thing I bought into this like okay you build this business and one day you can sell it and and like I put all my eggs in that basket and I never. I only paid myself what I needed to pay myself and I kept kept all my money in the business and then one day the business has a hard year and which means that I personally have a hard year and I didn't have anything saved up. So. My ability to make decisions in the business were was hindered because I was personally in ah in a poor position and so that happened me 1 time and I said never again. Um, and then it it um the the same teacher I learned from recently. She pointed out that the that so many entrepreneurs try to build wealth in their business. She said stop thinking about your business as a wealth creating tool. It's an income producing tool. Your business is about creating as much. |
| 18:09.35 | mikebledsoe | Profitable income is possible so that you can then go invest it in things that are asset producing ah or sorry ah income producing assets that are outside of your business and having a true having a true diversification. Yeah, and so like a lot of times. |
| 18:20.62 | Max Shank | Well, it's diversification basically is what she's saying. Yeah. |
| 18:28.63 | mikebledsoe | The argument in entrepreneurial community A lot of times is ah you know oh I'm gonna invest my money in something. What's the thing I trust the most oh my own product. The thing that I get to control and so that's that's how I used to think that's how I watch other people think. |
| 18:41.68 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 18:47.58 | mikebledsoe | And that that's a that's a high high risk game that you're gonna have you're gonna hit a pitfall at some point it's not. It's not an if it's a win. |
| 18:57.25 | Max Shank | Well I think it's important to understand that concentration versus diversification. So concentration can give you the absolute highest return but you have to guess right. |
| 19:14.77 | mikebledsoe | Ah, oh. |
| 19:15.80 | Max Shank | And if you guess wrong then it is catastrophically bad diversification. You will not make the most plain and simple the the more you diversify the more stable it is the less chance you're going to have to outperform the market. Because otherwise you should just buy the whole market and like what 4% every year or something like that depending on which timeline so it's very understandable that the people who make the most are the ones who just constantly reinvest into 1 thing. |
| 19:52.10 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 19:53.53 | Max Shank | You know they they pick the right 1 whether they operate it themselves or not Elon Musk is a good example. boom reinvest everything into his own companies and then there are some companies out there where you know they they bet big on alibaba let's say. And that becomes a hundred times bigger than the rest of their portfolio. I mean there's a company that invested in alibaba maybe like 5 % of their portfolio or something and then twenty years later alibaba was like 95% of their portfolio because it grew so much more. |
| 20:28.33 | mikebledsoe | Who. |
| 20:32.80 | Max Shank | And everything else and that was just one that was just one bet so thinking of life as a series of bets basically and you can put all your money on double zero on the roulette wheel and you will make the most. |
| 20:33.78 | mikebledsoe | Well, that. |
| 20:49.19 | Max Shank | But you also can lose absolutely everything So it's important to understand what the point of diversification versus concentration is. |
| 20:58.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's um, there's ah, there's a really cool concept by the guy who wrote anti-fragile and black swan his name's Nasimm. He's ah a turkish fellow that lives in New York really great economist and. Ah, really successful investor and he has this method which is the barbell method. So which is you know invest a large portion of your money into stuff that is extremely safe. You know, gold you know? ah. Just stuff. That's that's incredibly stable. It's not going anywhere and then on the other side go into startups go into the startup world. Go go buy those shitcoins. Whatever it is that you think might hit because the truth is with a startup. |
| 21:48.80 | Max Shank | Ah, so. |
| 21:56.69 | mikebledsoe | Or with some of these cryptocurrencies. You could see a hundred X Return This is this is a possibility This is a real possibility and so um and and he says you know just spread it out that way but he's. |
| 22:09.73 | Max Shank | Yeah, there are all kinds of ways to get that. |
| 22:15.35 | mikebledsoe | He start you know state he says he he likes to stay out of the middle because that's where the that's where the majority is the majority is in the middle and the majority I mean if we if you want to get like mainstream results do that. But it's as. |
| 22:18.18 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 22:29.76 | Max Shank | Threat. |
| 22:33.67 | mikebledsoe | Who wants mainstream results mainstream is fat sick almost dead and and broke. You know it's like why would you like it's it's the it's the last place I want to be and so I really like his approach to that because it does. Scratch the safety itch and it also may if if you're like myself it scratches that you know let's throw some dice down here and see if we can make a million dollars |
| 23:02.15 | Max Shank | You know that's ah, a good strategy and you also have to know yourself and know what's going to allow you to sleep at night and focus on what you're best at too like if you want to be. |
| 23:15.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:19.39 | Max Shank | Actively investing your own portfolio and researching companies great if you want to focus on what you're best at and just create more income from your books or videos or courses or you know wood pellets or whatever you're. |
| 23:33.40 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 23:38.28 | Max Shank | Your business is ah you can also just buy the SAndPFive hundred and then there's no, there's like no management fee. Basically so you minimize, um your spend you also do minimize your returns but you also minimize your risk and. |
| 23:42.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:57.46 | Max Shank | It's a lot easier to sleep at night doing that than you know researching startups and things like that just to give like the other side of that coin because I think the strategy you outlined has a lot of merit to it. But I think knowing your personality type. |
| 24:03.15 | mikebledsoe | Right? well. |
| 24:15.88 | Max Shank | And recognizing how much you want your involvement to be how active into those investments you want to be same as if you want to buy real estate. Do you want to hire a property manager and eat up most of your return or do you want to manage it yourself I mean these are things that. You got to consider from your personality and Lifestyle standpoint. |
| 24:35.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, nasim talks about that in his book is basically that investors. Yeah, if they stayed within their logic would majority of time make a lot of money but people are so emotional. You know they can't sleep at night they can't they go to bed that night worrying about their money and if you're having that experience and investing if you're investing and you're worried about it and you can't sleep and it's the you know last thing you think about when you go to sleep and the first thing you think about when you wake up, you're in over your head and you're. You're likely going to just make poor decisions and so ah, which actually brings me to one of my rules which is I only invest in the things that I understand there's so many especially and with cryptocurrency right now. I invest in crypto I actually just sold off 90% of my my ah portfolio for crypto the other day and um and and it's because for good and I'm watching the market continue to go down right now. |
| 25:44.33 | Max Shank | For good reason right. |
| 25:50.95 | mikebledsoe | Because what I'm doing is I'm I'm just going to hold cash by the way in the voyager app by the way if anyone wants access to be able to ah look at Voyager just hit me up I've got good connections there but in in the Voyager app. If I store my us dollars as Usdc which is a which is a token tethered to the us dollar I get a 9% api on that annual. So it's ah you can't get 9 % guaranteed anywhere but you can there so there are. |
| 26:23.69 | Max Shank | Weird. |
| 26:26.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there, there's I won't I don't quite understand entirely how they're able to do that. Ah, but I I do have a feeling there's aspects of it that that I that I do get but I like to invest in things that I understand like I understand bitcoin at its. At its base I understand ethereum I understand ummatic I understand these some of these currencies I understand their purpose I I get what's going on I've I've been tracking them and then there's other ones that people like like shib came out and everyone's like you got to get shit I'm like why. Or doge coin you got to get doge oh because Elon Musk I'm like whoa whoa whoa I don't understand this I'm not going to touch it and of course these things skyrocket and then they plummet and you know some people make a bunch of money. Yeah, and it's like and. |
| 27:14.72 | Max Shank | The foma will get you. |
| 27:21.55 | mikebledsoe | And I've learned to be completely. Okay with it whereas I have some friends who you know they're trying to make that dollar right now they're deep in the Nfts they're trading fucking dragons and and you know magic bears and dragonflies I don't fucking know what these people are are I get. |
| 27:37.40 | Max Shank | Third. |
| 27:40.15 | mikebledsoe | I Get what's happening I mean look the wealthy have been storing their the wealthy have been storing their money as art for a long time as a tax haven I get it and it's a very intelligent move and I do think that a lot of things that only the wealthy have done the rest of us get to take advantage of and. |
| 27:50.45 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 28:00.13 | mikebledsoe | And this decentralized blockchain world. But most of you have no idea what the fuck you're doing and so even if even when I do understand the fundamentals of something if I see too many new people flooding into it I get out and I stay out until I let the dust settle. Could I potentially miss out on making a shitload of money. Absolutely I could get in there but you know what? and this is the point you were getting at too which is I would rather spend my time producing value in the world that makes the most sense to me I know how to teach coaches how to build a coaching doesn't. So I know how to help coaches be better coaches and that's the that is the value I bring to the world that people are going to exchange with me for money. No matter if the dollar goes away if we moved totally to cryptocurrencies if we end up on the yen. Whatever the fuck it is it doesn't matter what the currency is. I'm gonna be fine because I can always create value in which people are gonna then whatever it is. We're trading at the time they're gonna give it to me and so I think I want to say first off your best investment is in yourself so invest in traits in yourself that allow you to make the most money sales being the. The most valuable skill on the planet. So if you can learn how to sell if you know how to market you know how to sell it doesn't matter what the market does. You're going to be fine and so in so a. Invest in yourself be invest in things that you understand or another way of putting. Ah, another example of this um was learning from this guy. He primarily makes money trading stocks and he was talking to a bunch of us entrepreneurs who you know I'm not. Um, not really that much of a stock guy but ah 1 of the things he said that just made a lot of sense. Super simple concept is if you use the service own the company if you do you use Amazon go buy some Amazon stock. do you watch you know do you have a Netflix subscription. Buy some Netflix like you stop using it because you don't like it. Maybe you should sell your stock like you don't have to study the market so deeply and try to run crunched numbers and sounds like look if you like like if everyone who bought an Apple Computer invested and Apple stock when they bought their Apple computer because they love it so much. There'd be a lot more wealthy people out there right now. Ah so that was a because that that's a form of understanding if you if you like a product use a product you understand enough about that company. |
| 30:48.82 | mikebledsoe | Doesn't mean that it's a surefire way and it's a completely safe thing. But I think it's a great way to if if someone's like I don't know what to invest and I don't know how to get started I don't know what do you buy. |
| 31:02.47 | Max Shank | Oh I mean I really I really like what you said before which is invest in yourself and invest in things that you understand I think um, buying a stock just because you use. The product is too small of a sample size. I think it can be a good starting point though. Like oh like I use that because I think the word price is really important to explore like how do we get at the price like there is a time where you could have owned Coca-cola for 5 20 years actually and had a zero percent return so there you can have a great company at a horrible price and you can also have a horrible company at a great price and actually either of those would probably be a mistake. Um. |
| 31:42.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 32:00.36 | Max Shank | And investing is very paradoxical because you're trying to balance risk and reward and whenever there is more risk There is typically more reward but the price of something is just what people are willing to pay. Um. |
| 32:13.74 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 32:20.19 | Max Shank | And that is determined by how valuable it is to a person and you know a lot of the a lot of the cryptocurrencies are Tulip Mania all over again for sure I won't say that about all of them. But if and like an Nft just because someone. Values a digital magic dragon at a thousand dollars today doesn't mean anyone will ever pay a dollar for it later in the future and so I think it's a good starting point to say what do I use but it. Doesn't necessarily make it a good investment. In fact, um, you know a good product can be ah, a bad investment from a stock standpoint and that's I mean that's why markets are that's why markets are not ah rational. That's why markets are irrational. |
| 33:08.72 | mikebledsoe | It can be. |
| 33:17.56 | Max Shank | Because people are irrational and and if you go to college. They'll tell you that markets are are rational markets are like in balance Basically but that's how could that be the case if it's people who buy the stuff. We're not rational. |
| 33:32.45 | mikebledsoe | Well in Academia we got to make sure we can measure everything there's ah, there's a there's a really good book by the way I agree the just because you use the product doesn't mean it's a good investment but it's a good place to start looking now. |
| 33:35.60 | Max Shank | At all. |
| 33:47.81 | Max Shank | Absolutely good place to start looking. |
| 33:52.19 | mikebledsoe | There's ah, there's a book that talks about tulip mania amongst many other things the the money the the history of our our current monetary system. 1 is you know the the. You alluded to it a little bit earlier fractional reserve banking that basically the modern way of banking or the modern um version of money has described really well in the book. Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. So. I think it was in this book I could be wrong because I don't think you were recalling it quite the same way I was and we both read the book but ah from what I from what I gather it the current monetary system is about three hundred and fifty years old and. Came out of Europe which is basically banknotes people coming up with banknotes and coming with bills. You know, getting away from coinage where there's an actual silver or a gold coin getting away from the coinage and getting into the bank bank notes that represent a certain amount of gold held by the bank. And so instead of having to lug around all this gold now I could just have this banknote and this banknote is certified by this bank and we can trust them yada yada yada and so ah, the it started off as a very trustworthy system I think it was France who did this first. Which was the king goes to one of the banks and says I'll make you the only bank that can issue notes in all of the kingdom of France and and I forget what the deal was and of course a banker. Who is in the business of increasing wealth. They they hear this and go oh I'm about to get an immediate monopoly fuck it. Let's go and ah in the book it it outlines the ah the progression over time. The king putting pressure I think maybe the king died and then his son came up or something like that but pressure was applied to the bankers to basically print off some banknotes that aren't backed by gold you know, basically fake money and. So they started diluting the money supply and the banker in in the book basically says hey that's a bad idea like talks about how the banker tried to resist it because he's like you know that. |
| 36:32.97 | mikebledsoe | I see what you want I see why you think it's a good idea, but this is why it's a bad idea. It's only gonna lead to a collapse and sure and and the thing is is. It's kind of it's kind of like one of those things that once it gets out. You know, opening up a can of worms you can't get them back in so the or what. There's a better analogy for that I forget what Pandora's box and basically the moment you get off of a representation. Ah an actual representation of value then it get you get into like really dangerous waters and getting back to that is going to be impossible with that banknote. |
| 36:53.79 | Max Shank | Pandora's box |
| 37:11.37 | mikebledsoe | So it's kind of like people think if they can get the Us dollar to be ah, go back to the Gold Standard Yeah, never gonna fucking happen. It just be how you just have to create a whole new currency. So. |
| 37:15.53 | Max Shank | Back to buy gold again. Yeah good luck impossible. Well I mean maybe if the price of gold went up by like a hundred fold or something like that I don't I don't know exactly what the numbers are I mean if. |
| 37:28.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah I don't know what it is either. |
| 37:33.96 | Max Shank | I Think for the average person this like banking and macro stuff. You should just avoid it until you're rich already like just from ah a functional standpoint like don't don't concern yourself ah with the economics of. |
| 37:41.96 | mikebledsoe | We mean avoid it. |
| 37:53.85 | Max Shank | Banking and fractional reserve and fiat currencies and things like that just if you don't have a lot of dough right now just focus all your attention on increasing your income and amassing some wealth first because you can go down this rabbit hole where you will become. Um. And I think rightfully so like paranoid about the ah fragility of our our financial interactions our socioeconomic situation here like ah getting off the gold Standard Huge mistake. |
| 38:17.32 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 38:31.38 | Max Shank | Um, I Understand why you would want to be able to print unlimited dollars. Nobody really understands what the cost and benefit of doing this will be and I think if you're just trying to deliver value and create wealth for yourself. Um, it's best to just accept these macro truths and not invest too much of your precious and limited attention into them because you're you're not going to be Happy. You're you're going to have a bunker full of gold and only properties and you're gonna be like ah. |
| 39:01.30 | mikebledsoe | Well yeah, have you. |
| 39:08.26 | Max Shank | You won't use Banks you'll just stuff cash under the mattress. Ah. |
| 39:10.44 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well well you know I don't know if that's necessarily completely true like if you have no money saved and you haven't invested anything I agree but for for somebody who's is like okay I have a little extra money I want to invest it in something this Ah this is my argument for crypto and and. |
| 39:18.17 | Max Shank | The. |
| 39:29.76 | mikebledsoe | Say Bitcoin is because Bitcoin is ah is is powered by electricity and it has an actual cost which means it has an actual value and it and it can fluctuate depending on the.. How much energy costs and how much how many transactions are happening and and all that which makes it a little more fluid than say gold. But ah, way easier to trade. |
| 39:56.34 | Max Shank | Way easier to trade than gold I mean trading gold like if you think about trading gold like it's really hard like first off like if you want to buy gold like I don't have a fucking gold tester in my pocket like if someone sells me gold. I'm going to have a hard time knowing if there's lead in there or not and vice versa and vice versa. You know so um, bitcoin is certainly easier to trade. It's just hard to figure out what the price should be because you can't know if something's a good investment or not. |
| 40:18.10 | mikebledsoe | Well, even if we well but that does happen. Yeah. |
| 40:35.87 | Max Shank | Ah, without understanding the price and a potential future price. |
| 40:36.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the problem the problem with a lot of the crypto conversation right now is that it's all based on the Us dollar so at the Us dollar like if you log into any trading platform. It's how many bitcoins is worth how many dollars you know? and. |
| 40:53.92 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 40:56.50 | mikebledsoe | It's ah instead of it just being its own thing. But I I think that they're I think in the next five or ten years in the next I guaranteed I'll put money on it 10 years ah I don't that's a terrible thing to say not guaranteed. |
| 41:01.86 | Max Shank | How could it be its own thing. |
| 41:12.75 | Max Shank | I Think ah I think I might have a bet on my hands here. |
| 41:14.21 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but out prediction. Oh we should you want how big a bet you want to make right? We'll see I'll tell you what it is and then we'll go 10 years ah well if I'm wrong, you might be right? and. |
| 41:22.96 | Max Shank | Too big for you to cover it. What. Um, yeah I. |
| 41:31.86 | mikebledsoe | So in 10 years ah I think that that that problem is solved so 10 years the the how does how do we value it. There will be there will be some |
| 41:45.65 | Max Shank | Is it going to be a flat chart that says 1 bitcoin equals 1 bitcoin. |
| 41:49.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I mean what's it for the dollar now right? So the it I mean it's the dollar is fairly arbitrary and the pricing and all that. But I think with. |
| 41:57.17 | Max Shank | Yes. |
| 42:03.60 | Max Shank | Well, the dollar the dollar is backed up by a really big stick a a huge stick wielded by Uncle Sam and it's ah and it's attached to oil which currently makes the world go around. |
| 42:07.41 | mikebledsoe | But right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's always yeah to energy itself. Yeah, so um, but I think that I think that I think that being able to say this currently is worth this much. |
| 42:22.79 | Max Shank | Yeah anyway I. |
| 42:32.87 | mikebledsoe | Compared to this currency I think that's gonna be figured out I don't I have no fucking idea how to get figured out I I imagine it's gonna require some a lot of computing power but at the same time. Um, living in Austin Texas is is pretty great if you're in the crypto. Currency conversation because so much of tech is moved here so much of crypto entrepreneurs are here and so and I know so I know some of these people they're fucking smart they're they're they're blowing me away I just. |
| 43:03.78 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 43:08.71 | mikebledsoe | Um, just like yeah um, I'm doing the best I can to keep up and I'm gonna you know make some trades based on what I'm hearing but sorry for that I don't fucking know and I mentioned that because I just see people ah coming up with some really amazing solutions that that. There's all these problems that crop up when there's a lot of transactions happening and then someone creates a new ah coin a new currency that that solves that specific Problem. It's moving in incredibly fast breakneck Speeds I can't keep up and I'm somebody who. Really loves keeping up with these types of things. It's it's It's very interesting to me and so I think I think a lot of that will be solved all right I Think let's let's get out of this out of this crypto we gotta get out. |
| 43:54.42 | Max Shank | We got to get out of the macro stuff. This is what I was saying is like it's It's not practical. |
| 44:00.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, we gotta get out of it. So um, let's move into this is what I get for So I get for bringing up the the modern day money I So you say you say that you see money as. Energy. Can you say more. |
| 44:18.37 | Max Shank | Yes, it's a representation of energy. It's kind of like a claim check on other people's time. Um, you know some people say ah money is the root of all Evil I completely disagree I think greed is a source of some. |
| 44:23.86 | mikebledsoe | Okay. |
| 44:37.89 | Max Shank | Unsavory behavior but money is not inherently good or evil Um, it's a claim check on other people's time and it's stored up energy The fact that you can use money to bring real physical objects into your. Life is incredible. The fact that you can trade money for food is incredible. The fact that you can trade money for a house is unbelievably cool and if it weren't for a currency like that it would make trade so difficult so it makes. Trading so easy. Otherwise you have you know if you're a baker and you want a cow you have to hope that the farmer wants some bread and a lot of it. |
| 45:24.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I Really like the exchange for time conversation. That's and so I was hearing that recently from somebody else they they go. You know it's just an it's you're gonna buy your time Back. You're just gonna buy back. Ah, by buying food at the grocery Store. You didn't have to go grow that food. You didn't have. There's so much time was was purchased and so yeah, forget who I was here Ac is just a storage of time and the more you have the more time you have like oh it's very very interesting. |
| 45:58.44 | Max Shank | Yeah, well, what's interesting is you can trade your time for money you can trade money for other people's time which can save you time but you can never get time back. |
| 46:01.50 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 46:13.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 46:16.37 | Max Shank | Time time is your most precious resource by far and unless you learn how to leverage your time. Ah, you're you're gonna be stuck trading hours for dollars pretty much and that's what I mean when I say you want to find a way to scale your effort. |
| 46:34.59 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 46:35.50 | Max Shank | Basically so leverage your effort into something that is scalable exponential. |
| 46:40.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, this makes me think about the predictable stages of entrepreneurship that I've witnessed which is which is people get to people want to get to the point where they they have all this accrued money and and able to to. |
| 46:45.66 | Max Shank | The. |
| 46:59.44 | mikebledsoe | People say buy their time back. You don't get a bat but like you're able to purchase like you can spend your time the way you want to the more money you have and the predictable stages of entrepreneurship. The first stage being I hate my corporate gig I'll do my own thing and so many people. When they start doing their own thing and they're making enough money to get by. They feel like and I hear a lot of people say this is that's financial freedom but it only lasts for so long because. They're so excited about not doing this corporate gig in which they had built up their mind as something that they hate that they overlook the the burnout you know I think there's some type of saying that says you know as an entrepreneur you know you quit your 40 hour work week that you hate so you can take on it. 80 hour work week that you love or something like that. You know it's like it's really really ridiculous and I've watched a lot of people go into business for themselves who end up wanting to go back because I go wow I just get because I know so many people that they have their corporate gig. At five o'clock when they knock off and go home. Do you know how much they think about work. They don't they go to the gym. They go to the bar. They don't think about that shit at all as an entrepreneur after five o'clock maybe still, you're working even if you're not working. You're thinking about work. You're always problem solving this shit. Shit is real. So um, it people will over. They're so excited and I see that excitement can last about 9 to 18 months of excitement when somebody has given themselves a job. You know they have a. Self-employed. They wake up one day and they realize oh man I just gave myself a job. This is actually not any different. It's more responsibility same thing that I was doing before um and and they can either go back to their job or they can become an owner and I bring this up. Based off what you're saying is because when you turn into an owner. That's when you start actually leveraging your your time your attention money. That's when you it's when you start when you zoom out of the business. You're able to work on it. You're no longer working in it and you're you're hiring delegating systemizing. This is all the things. These are the things and the responsibilities that have to be taken on in order to have that lifestyle that people dream of when they go I want to be my own boss I want to be an entrepreneur I want to I want to run my own business I don't want to have a boss it really requires. |
| 49:45.58 | mikebledsoe | Becoming an owner and I know there's not many people I've Met. Um I'm trying to recall one now and I can't bring one to mind of someone who went straight from I Hate my corporateri gig to I'm an owner I think the only people that really do that may have been working in financial services and then. They they moved over into investing right away. But if you become a business owner then the level up from that is investor where you are at at each level you are looking at this thing from ah a higher landscape and. Are doing less of the work and more of the directing of where that energy goes if we think about money as energy I'm going to direct the energy to go this way. It needs to go that way instead of it being something that I'm I'm having to crank in order to generate. |
| 50:40.21 | Max Shank | It's like you have investing in ditch digging on opposite ends of the spectrum investing you potentially don't have to make very many choices at all I mean it's the easiest work there is and as long as you ah bet correctly. |
| 50:43.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 50:57.71 | Max Shank | You know you can have like ah basically no no work hours. You just have to make good choices once you become an investor and so it's like I really relate to it's funny. You said 9 to eighteen months it sounds kind of like the 2 year itch |
| 51:04.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 51:16.13 | Max Shank | For excitement and relationships too ah is kind of similar right? So you have this fantasy idea of what it will be like to be a business owner. Yeah, right? yeah. |
| 51:16.30 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 51:24.17 | mikebledsoe | You're on drugs you're on drugs you got 9 to 18 months to be to be in this drug and do state. You know we talked about drugs last week. So you you get what I'm saying. |
| 51:34.43 | Max Shank | Love and other drugs. Ah, and you know people don't consider what will intrinsically make them feel fulfilled right? figuring out what they want to give rather than just what they want to get and if you can figure out what you. Most want to give to people and then optimize that that's probably the best way to go to go about it because I see it as like ah maybe 2 opposite ends of the spectrum on the 1 hand you're like okay well um, I'll be a banker. Because banking has the biggest potential for me to get very rich and I don't necessarily love banking but I want to be rich so I'll be a banker and then on the other end of the spectrum you think about um who you would really like to serve like what would make you feel alive and just be intrinsically enjoyable. You pick your role you think about oh man I really like um massage or I like painting flowers or whatever and then you find a way to scale that passion. See what I'm saying so you can either start with a passion and then figure out a way to scale it or you can just pick something that is the fastest method for getting wealthy because I think a lot of people who want to own their own business. They really just. |
| 52:54.34 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 53:05.12 | Max Shank | Ah, want to be rich and not be told what to do. |
| 53:09.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, the you know as I've gotten older I'm like man maybe I should have done a little more work that I was less passionate about that get me ah more bucks in the pocket but you know that was never my style. Um well I want to talk about. |
| 53:12.43 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 53:28.66 | mikebledsoe | The reasons why people won't reach third fighttro goals and in fact to same this is the reason why half the stuff that max and I said on on this show up to this point, you never even heard it like you didn't hear it today. You went right through your head and you weren't able to grasp it and that is due to. Not because of an intelligence not an intelligence issue. It's ah it's a relationship to money issue and so how people relate to money and how they relate to wealth forms their beliefs and the beliefs become constraints on. Their ability to to do something in that realm. So if you have beliefs about money. Those beliefs are actually ah, they're serving as a constraint in some way now this constraint at some point likely served you but it's not going to make you wealthy. And this is why most people are not wealthy because the information to become wealthy to be an investor all these things widely available. You can go on Youtube and get a lot of really great advice. It's out there. You can get some poor advice too. But you spend enough time you get to sift through it and figure it out now. People's relationship to money is poor because usually we just get it from our parents we but we get these these beliefs from our parents who pass them down to us whether they did it intentionally or not. It could have been a phrase that they said it could have been how they behaved around money. You know I've I've worked with clients where you know their mom had to hide their spending from their dad and you know as a child they mate they now they have this belief that formed and and now that's impacting your life now at at a subconscious level. Which actually makes it hard for them to even hear certain advice because it flies in the face of some belief that they had built up for decades and now because it's when when you're operating from belief then ah, you're automatically filtering out some information and. |
| 55:22.25 | Max Shank | Can. |
| 55:34.90 | mikebledsoe | And accepting other information. |
| 55:36.55 | Max Shank | Man is so on point I mean I think that's the the only barrier to becoming wealthy is belief and whether or not you believe that you are not deserving of money or whether you believe. Ah. All rich people are evil which is something a lot of people believe that money is a 0 sum game and in order for 1 person to get wealthy. Someone else has to be basically stolen from or victimized and it comes back to that drama triangle right? You got the villain victim and the hero. |
| 56:08.83 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Man The politicians love to make it look like the wealthier gonna are there to fleece you like it's their fault while you're poor. |
| 56:14.20 | Max Shank | And ah you want to hang around. |
| 56:23.93 | Max Shank | Dude no charity has done more for poor people than Walmart by by any stretch. Um and boy talk about an unpopular topic at dinner parties I'm like the worst and best dinner party guest of all time. Because I have I'm a little ass burgery and I also read a lot so it's just very It's just very fun like so yeah, it's money is not a 0 sum game. |
| 56:44.12 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that is why I s smokerk weed before I grow out in social environments that way I just keep my mouth shut. |
| 56:57.12 | Max Shank | Ah, but the the beliefs that become constraints is is so huge like whatever you believe about money is true for you and when you take away the goodness and the evilness of it and just treat it like energy. You can let it flow. You can let it stagnate. You can let it hold power over you? Um, but it really comes down to what you believe about it and. It can be tricky to get out of but it's all the more reason to be selective who you associate with because if you hang around with people who say rich people are evil and they themselves are poor. Most likely you're going to adapt. To that group so it can be very tricky to pull yourself into a better friend group and I think I even mentioned it last week you know if you hang around with people who don't think 10 grand is a lot you start to believe 10 grand is not a lot and you're. |
| 57:48.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um. |
| 58:03.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 58:06.93 | Max Shank | You're like oh I got to step up my game and of course it just goes on and on and on too but seeing it not as ah, a means to an end or seeing it not as an end in and of itself like keeping up with the joneses. But as a means for capturing back some of your time. And using energy to promote the ideas that you really care about like a mission or a meaning or something like that. That's that's powerful I mean the fact that you can get your time back is incredible like you never have to go shopping again. If you're willing to pay like an extra little delivery fee. Someone else can go get your grocery someone else can go pick up your dry I don't have anything that requires dry cleaning. But if you had dry cleaning like ah Mitch Hedberg has it. |
| 58:50.59 | mikebledsoe | I got like 1 thing I wear every three years. Yeah I'm with you. |
| 58:59.68 | Max Shank | Mitch Hedberg has a great joke about that he goes this shirt is dry clean only which means it's dirty. |
| 59:04.20 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, brilliant. Ah yeah, you said something. It's not a 0 sum game and an analogy I like to you cause some people that's ah that's a belief that is they don't think the belief they don't think the words. 0 sum game but the belief that because somebody's wealthy means that somebody else has to be poor or it's the poor or the reason that there's somebody who's wealthy I mean we could also you know because being poor and wealthy is really just a comparison for 1 so. There's always going to be poor and there's always go be wealthy. Like the poor in the United States have flat-screen Tv's air conditioning and ah are and have an excess of caloric intake. So these people are by world standards. So if we compare them in the United States they make. Say $30000 a year. They're fucking poor right? from re exactly. |
| 01:00:02.59 | Max Shank | The comparison has divorced people from reality if the people who are called poor are dying from overeating that's divorced from reality like we're out of our fucking minds. |
| 01:00:15.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and but if you look at the the world population and income if you make $30000 you are in the 1% you are in the 1% of income earners in the world if you make more than $30000 a year. |
| 01:00:33.16 | Max Shank | And if I compare myself to the rock I'm a fat brokeke loser I should just go fucking kill myself. It's It's all what you compared to. But there are some realities like what you said about financial freedom before if you don't have to trade your time for food and shelter anymore. Basically. |
| 01:00:34.74 | mikebledsoe | And so. |
| 01:00:39.80 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 01:00:53.00 | Max Shank | For your expenses that that's super worthwhile. |
| 01:00:54.55 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but the the 0 sum game there. There's an analogy here which is and I think people will grasp this which is people don't have to be unhealthy for you to be healthy right. I look I look at health and wealth the same way I can if everybody were healthy. We'd all be healthier for every unhealthy person walking around the planet they're dragging us down right? And so the if we. |
| 01:01:19.10 | Max Shank | True kill the fatties I'm just kidding I'm just kidding. |
| 01:01:29.50 | mikebledsoe | No, they just can't do it to themselves but the ah by the way, not a judgment. But if you're fat. You're you're dying faster than us. But that the the more people the more people who are healthy. Yeah. |
| 01:01:41.59 | Max Shank | How dare you sounds I don't know if that's racist or sexist I know it's wrong though. |
| 01:01:50.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah, probably both. Ah, it's not a 0 sum game. So everybody has the chance to be healthy and in fact, the more people who are healthy the easier it is to be healthy the same thing with being wealthy. Everyone has the opportunity to be wealthy are. |
| 01:01:51.85 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:02:08.34 | mikebledsoe | Now compared to each other maybe not but we all have the chance to have a really solid roof over our head be able to travel the way we want to travel all these things and the more people who are able to accomplish having these things the it drives the price down of certain things it it creates more peace around the world. It's gonna be a lot less conflict. There's all these things but there are some people who do play the 0 sum game. They they believe it and they say I've got to make other people lose so I'm not saying that that does not exist in the world. There are people out there that they're called thieves that they have to actually take from somebody else to have for themselves. And so ah, the people who are operating out of a zerosum game are usually immoral in their practice. So if you hear somebody talking about it being a 0 ero-sum game and they're rich. They're probably immoral. In some way and the way they're getting rich is they're ripping some people off, but there's a lot of people who I'd say the majority of the people who are wealthy have created more value for others and have gotten a fair exchange in return. |
| 01:03:16.74 | Max Shank | Let me add a little bit on that because I agree and I think it's even more potent than that because I'm sure our listeners have realized by now that you and I are in favor of a little thing called freedom and when there is. |
| 01:03:21.84 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 01:03:34.85 | Max Shank | Profit and a voluntary exchange that is always a net positive that that's like if if it's really a voluntary exchange where there's Profit. You're always creating a surplus of value if I sell you a sweatshirt for $20 And you buy it for $20 The only way that happens is if it's worth it for you to buy it and worth it for me to sell it so it has to do with something called Win-win Theory which is very Self-explanatory. So Even if you don't buy into the other stuff. Realize that when you are creating a profit you are in an energetic surplus and you are promoting voluntary action I mean look at the things that work the worst it's when people are stolen from and there's no Incentive. You know there's an incentive. For a company if there's no ah, political or policing interference to create a product that people value at a price that is affordable. You know and so you are. As a company. You are essentially a slave to the customer rather than um, under taxation where you are a slave to ah basically ah, a guy with a huge stick that will punish you if you don't pay up so that's why you get a better result when there's voluntary action. So huh. 0 sum game whenever there's a profitable exchange that's Voluntary. You are actually creating wealth on both sides you are creating value on both sides of that transaction. That's huge. |
| 01:05:24.81 | mikebledsoe | Beautifully said beautifully said. Um we don't want to go from here I think we I think we should um there was. |
| 01:05:31.27 | Max Shank | We could call it there that would be my final thought anyway because I think it ah clearly I have one more at least if you focus on that. |
| 01:05:40.45 | mikebledsoe | It sounds like your final thought. Ah. |
| 01:05:51.23 | Max Shank | Like you will feel intrinsically good because it sounds corny but it really does feel the best to give if you find yourself if you start out very broke and then you become rich. Um, you do go through a phase where you buy yourself all the toys. Ah. Went through it myself I bought like every toy I ever wanted and then I realized that the thing that felt the best was like taking my friends out for lunch or getting stuff for them or bringing them on experiences like buying stuff is very hollow. But when you are. In a emotional and energetic balance. It's ah it's a profitable exchange like you are offering up so that people truly value and appreciate enough to put their money where their mouth is. You know and you also are filtering out the people who aren't actually that interested like I could give my programs away for free and people would be less likely to do them. But if I work really hard on something and I believe in it and I charge money for it and someone believes in it enough to pay for it. That is what feels good is those mutually beneficial exchanges where both people are investing ah their energy which can be in the form of time or Money. So I Think that's what actually feels the best is to give. |
| 01:07:07.26 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 01:07:24.83 | Max Shank | And if you are doing it at a profit then you are in a mutual energetic Surplus that's based on voluntary action and dude. What's better than that. That's how you promote this this freedom and love so there you go. |
| 01:07:37.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so what I want to leave with is it comes down if you want to be wealthy. It comes down to mindset and skill you need both of these to be present and so the mindset my favorite way to look at that is to look at your beliefs. And the first thing you can do to look at that is sit down and write down about what your mother or what you learned from your mother about money and wealth and wealthy people and what you learned from your father. Ah these are 2 different. Journal entries these what you learn from your mother is gonna be different than what you learned from your father and it's not important what they wanted to teach you or what they try to teach you. It's about what you learned. That's the important thing to remember here. So if you want it. Any any type of money mindset training that you're wanting to do needs to start there if you're starting somewhere else. You're you're not going far enough back I mean if you want to go further back which I've actually done is I I start looking at my dad's childhood. So like how you know what was that like. And how did that form. Ah, the the lessons that got passed down to me so mindset and skill and the other part is the skill and that is simply the the people have tend to have negative emotions associated with money. They don't check their bank account. They don't budget. They don't do certain things consistently because they don't like how it makes them feel and so they just avoid doing it all together. So that's a mindset deal. But once you get past that and you're actually able to be present with your cash flow. Then the skill of managing that cash flow comes in that is setting aside up money for taxes setting aside enough money for investing for a rainy day and then and then allocating how much of that money. Are you going to set aside for meaningful expenses and and and necessities and things like that. So. Having the mindset having this skill they need to both be online and most people can't even look at the skill part until they've handled the mindset. So go do those journal entries about your parents and that's all I got for yall today you good max. |
| 01:10:00.64 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah, you're like a financial freud. Ah. |
| 01:10:05.68 | mikebledsoe | Ah, we should name the show that one all right brother. Love you see all next week |
| 01:10:09.72 | Max Shank | Ah, love you. Thank you guys see ya. |