Joy Is a Choice (And Most People Choose Misery)

You know, once you start something, you never know where it's going to go. And that's our story today. Welcome to the show. Tired of the hype about living the dream? It's time for truth.This is the place for tools, power, and real talk, so you can create the life you dream and deserve your ultimate life. Subscribe, share, create. You have infinite power. Welcome to your ultimate life, Joy. Welcome to the show. You haven't been on for a while.

No, I haven't. Thank you. You know, I'm sort of the. I don't know, I'm just in the background sometimes doing my own thing, which I like to do.

Power behind the throne. So the reason I wanted you on today is this episode's gonna drop on your birthday. How does it feel to have a birthday coming up?

Well, I'm happy because if it. Yeah. What's the alternative? Right. And, you know, usually. So I'm. I'm a Libra.October is my birthday, and oftentimes, like growing up going to school, my birthday would fall on Canadian Thanksgiving. So it was always fun to have a holiday on your birthday. You know, that's kind of, I mean, a statutory holiday where nothing's open.So that is always fun.

So one of the things that I thought of, you know, this, this podcast show is your fault. And so I know. Tell the. Tell the story about how this started. It's been five and a half years. It was like March or April or something like that. Of.

Yeah, it was about April of 2020. Yeah. Right. When the pandemic hit or really pretty much when everything shut down.It was just, you know, but I mean, tragically, though, for a lot of people, I mean, they lost their livelihood. I mean, they. They went.Can you imagine if you're a speaker and you're going doing, you know, filling concert halls or, or auditoriums or whatever, whatever. It's 10 people or a thousand people that suddenly your income just went to zero. That happened to a lot of people. Many people we know in person.Events just stopped. So, of course, everybody rushed to think, okay, what do we do online now?We had already been doing online coaching programs, small group coaching challenges we had been doing already. So this, It's. So this.Not like this was like, really a stretch then to create a podcast because one of your clients, he just reached out to me and said, you know, yeah, I kind of miss these. Some of these live things. And then I just. Just, Kellen, have a podcast. And I thought for a few minutes of that, no, we don't. But I Think we probably.I can. How hard can it be to pull together a podcast? So I said, you know, I'll. Let me get back to you. I'll get, I'll get you a link to our podcast.You know, give me a few days and I'll send you a link. So I did. So I came running downstairs and said, we got a podcast.So I had already had people working for me doing various things, you know, graphics and all, all other kind of stuff and getting URLs together and finding a platform.You know, I, I guess I'm one of those people who also a bit nerdy and geeky when it comes to software and when it comes to different technology things because I like to research and figure out how to make it work or how to get it done. So I researched and interestingly before that. So before the pandemic hit, we were at a conference where at VidSummit, you were the MC of this event.That's Darrell Eve's vid summit with all Mr. Beast and all those guys back in the day.Anyway, one of the, the, the, one of the vendors that was there because every, you know, all these conferences have vendors, like I said before the shutdown. And one of the vendors was about podcasting. I, I don't even remember their name. Anyway, doesn't matter. So I thought, ah, I.In my bag of stuff or my material because I had just gone, you know, just gone a few months earlier. I thought, I know I've got something to do with podcasting here. So I signed up for their service. And you know, it.It's pretty, it's pretty easy to do. What's not easy to do is to get listeners to your podcast because at that time also these podcast people were only audio. You know it.Many of them didn't do audio and video because you would create. They. You're only, you can only upload an audio podcast.So what you would have to do then is to link it and sync it with YouTube to get it onto to the other platforms. So that started, we had episode number one. And now today we're, you know, we're coming on 10, 20, like over a thousand episodes. A thousand episodes.That's a lot of episodes. A lot of people, majority of podcasts don't survive. People are inconsistent. Maybe they don't really know how to do stuff.You know, they, they don't know how to get people to leave reviews or there's all sorts of technical stuff that goes on behind the scenes with a podcast. The biggest, the biggest thing for some people can be to get those reviews. Spotify and Apple. How do you do it? It's.I find it super confusing all the time. So I created my own little cheat sheet for people to pictures. Step by step. I went through it.I thought, okay, step one, you know, you know, so, you know, there's a lot of things that go into creating a podcast. And now we're five and a half years on. We're over a thousand episodes. We upload on. We have new episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays.Your ultimate life about these kinds of stories, you know, human kind of stories of people doing good, adding good to the world, how create. How you can create your own ultimate life because it's very different and personal. And then we've added one on Thursdays.Thursdays only is the coaches edition. So it's only interviewing coaches.It's for coaches, for people who want to be coaches, for people who are already coaches, people who maybe are coaches and are not successful coaches, because a lot are out there. But that's Kellen's thing that, you know, that's. That's a big project that he's working on. And so now we're three days a week.And we, we stayed at the. At the longest time, we were, you know, in the top 5% in the world, and now we're top 3% in the world.You know, so it takes time, dedication, commitment to reach a certain level. And so, you know, going from 0 to 5% was a lot of time, but going from 5% to 3% was a long time. But now going from 3 to 1 is shorter.You know, we have traction, we have momentum, and we have amazing guests. And Kellen is a spectacular host.So, you know, if you guys want to any think you might be a good guest or a good fit, or if you know somebody who is, reach out yourultimate. LifePodcast.com There's a contact button on there. Fill out your information.Let us know if you're interested in being a guest or you could suggest one and we'll get back to you.

So that's fun because the way I tell that story is funny. I say, you know, the beginning of the pandemic lockdown was just being talked about. And somebody reached out. And I always say joy.But he reached out, said to Joy, yeah, do we just Kellen have a podcast? And I don't know all those details. And so I say they were looking for something inspirational or whatever. I don't know. And we didn't have one.And Joyce said yes, and then she came downstairs and said, we have a podcast. And so I tell the story a lot shorter, but it's funny because that's pretty much what happened.

That's pretty much what. And in a few days, boom, we had a podcast. You know, you got to pick a name and you got it, you know, and, you know, so that. But you got to be quick.You know, it's speed to market that counts these days. There's so much going on and you're competing with these people who do, you know, eat.I don't know what, what is the equivalent of the new thing instead of eating Tide Pods.So you're, you're competing with that type of nonsense on Tik Tok and viral videos of people doing stupid that you think, okay, you know, you don't want to go that way, but, but you have to be competitive and you, you have to, you know, you have to distinguish yourself from other stupid stuff but yet still be relevant. So, you know, it, it's challenging and dedication. It didn't.Gary Vee didn't get to be where Gary Vee was by sitting on the sofa watching, you know, Young and the Restless, eating bon bons all day. No, that didn't happen.

You know. Yeah, no, you one, two things.

Hustler.

He is a hustler. And so are you. And so one of the things that I, you say, geekies.You have done so much, not only research, but participated in different people's, you know, podcast growth programs.And quite frankly, my experience as the host and looking at you as my marketing agency, you, you by yourself have done better than any of these programs you've joined. Like, you've joined different programs and all of their stuff. And it's like, yeah, I can do better than that. And you do, and you have.And so I have to acknowledge that in our, in our growth and it's been a lot of fun. There's been some times.

Yeah, go ahead. Oh, you go ahead.

I was just going to say there's been times when I'm thinking, oh, you know, we got to 50, we got to 100, we got to 200. I'm thinking, oh, man.And at first we were doing short shows, 15, 16 minutes a day, sort of in the pandemic, time is helping people, you know, stay motivated and be happy and stuff. And then we realized after a couple years we had 600 shows and we decided we had too many episodes and we wanted them longer.So then we split it and have gone to 40, 45 minute episodes twice a week. And now we've added that third one and I'm going to talk a little bit about why that third one.And it's partly also with your thought, because the AI revolution has changed so much stuff. And you use it a lot. I use it a lot.

Every day I use it, but, but for other stuff too. Like people use it.Yeah, I use it for business, but it's like, no, I use it to, you know, give me directions to somewhere or, you know, we just got back from the United Kingdom. Okay, what, what is a cool restaurant near this tube station? Like you, you just, I mean, you'd say it's taking over your life. I guess.I guess it kind of is. And, and I wonder, does it, does something like Google itself become irrelevant now?

Pretty much.And so one of the, one of the areas that AI is really impacting, like I want you to think back to the 80s when VCRs first came into business, VHS and Betamax. And there were the VCR wars. And maybe you're not old enough to remember that, you listeners, I don't know.But I remember at work, I would go to work and there was engineers there and they would engage in endless arguments about whether Betamax was better and it had slightly better quality and VH this and that. And they were bragging about which machine they had and how many hundred dollars they spent on their vcr.And then the mom and pop thing showed up and then Blockbuster and this whole industry around the technology, which was the gear, the, you know, the big bulky VCR players and then the place to get those tapes all showed up and remember things like be kind rewind they got on you if you didn't rewind the tape and all that stuff. And then a few years went by and that entire industry, the entire industry has evaporated because first DVD came, then Blu Ray and now streaming.And so here we are. Within my lifetime, my adult lifetime, an industry was born, it grew, it made zillions of dollars, and it disappeared.Coaching is now facing that kind of existential crisis. And the reason is because coaching is about words. And words are where these AI models excel.Like Google showed up and democratized the Internet showed up and Google and democratized information. Everything everywhere in the universe is available.And AI has now shown up and has democratized expertise, the collation and powerful presentation of information. And that is putting coaching at risk.And so the reason We've added this third episode, starting 25th September, was our first one, is because we're talking about what the rise of AI is doing. And I've just finished a book that Joy will be publishing here in a couple weeks, and by the time you see this, her birthday, it'll already be out.Coaching and the rise of AI and so the Thursday episodes are going to be me interviewing two coaches on each episode. So there'll be three of us talking about this gigantic. It's not even an interesting change. It is a total disruption of the industry.So that's going to be our Thursday episodes. And one of the things I love about this is when Joy and I first started talking about this, this is a tribute to her nerdness.I thought about starting a new podcast and she's like, I don't think we want to do that. And she used guess what, AI and just had a conversation with it and it suggested, no, you know, keep the momentum of your thousand episodes.And so we are. And we've added a Thursday episode that's specifically for coaches.

Yeah.

So one more time, you know, you have come to. To give us cool stuff that's going to help us help coaches reach more people and bring the conversation to a good place.

I think with what you're doing with the coaching and the rise of AI, though, is really. I. You know, you're. You're pissing people off who are coaches. I mean, in a massive, big way, you're getting hate mail of. But I.But that's also good, too, because if it stimulates a conversation of getting people to just step back for a second and think, you know, when you think of AI. So I. I was one of the trips we were.Because we've been to the UK twice now this year, just in the past few months, and there was something on one of the UK television programs, news programs, about what's. What's happening with the healthcare industry in Japan with respect to AI that they have.They're training robots to work with babies and the elderly, to, you know, give them massage, to give them, you know, move them around. So move them from the bed to the chair, because a lot of people themselves can't lift that. I certainly couldn't.We have, you know, my mom, who lives with us, she's 94, and I mean, if she falls, I fall. Like I'm of no help to her. We'll both get hurt. And so using AI and creating robots, this isn't just science fiction anymore.This isn't, you know, Battlestar Galactica, where they had those, you know, when the first series, they looked like, you know, they were cyborgs.I think they were called they were silver and they looked machine like, like in Terminator when you took off all the layers and then they start to look like humans.But what they're doing in Japan is they're creating like fuzzy, fluffy, friendly characters, like really, you know, animated characters that are robots because they feel that patients or babies or whoever would respond better to a big cuddly bear. I don't know, it sounds, kind of sounds a little on the creepish side, but I suppose. Right. And, and so, you know, this is already happening.It's already happening in the medical, medical industry. It's, this isn't fantasy anymore. They're testing it and you know, what's that company? Who's Elon Musk? What's that? What's his.

He's got SpaceX and he's got a robot.

25,000Us dollars. You can buy one of a robot like a, looks like a, a person and they'll, you know, do your house cleaning or. I don't know what else they'll do.I mean they just sent, you know, 20 years ago or 40 years ago.That just seems so, you know, it really was science fiction and then today to be able to realize that and experience it, no matter the age, I mean young people are finding this, they're just going to grow up with, this is going to be normal until the, until they take over the world. Right. And start getting rid of the humans. But that, that's not for me. I won't be around that. So.

But anyway, so in coaching, this is, yeah, in coaching it's completely displacing what coaches have done.And my prediction in this book that I'm writing is that 95% of coaches by Christmas of 26 or 14 months will not be able to make a living unless they make some radical changes in how they're doing it. And that claim is what's irritating some people.But I got lots of data to back it all up, including how much money coaches make now and what methodologies they use and all that sort of stuff. So.

And they don't make a lot of. The average coach does not make a lot of money.And, and I think that's a bit of a misnomer we calling them coaches because most of these people are not coaches. They're consultants. They may be advisors, but they're not a coach.And I think the, the, the biggest, maybe the best definition would, would be to liken it like a life coach, a business coach to a sports coach. Coach. The sports coach doesn't do the task you know, you, you, I mean, I used to coach skating, so I would coach my kids to do a certain thing.Did I have to do it? I, I don't, you know, it, it's situational. It depends. So, you know, and, and with, with business coaches, with life coaches.Yeah, they're in a lot of trouble, you know, and, and they're not, they're not coaches, in my opinion.

So let's. Anyway, that's the book that's coming out or will be out by the time you see this beautiful episode.I want to get back to Joy's birthday for a minute. So this drops on her birthday and we haven't yet decided what we're going to do, but it will be decided, obviously, by the time you see this.So, Joy, if you think about birthdays and another trip around the planet and you look back at this last year that you've had with, as you know, we've had our Ukrainian family here, which is going to end pretty quick.And by the time, again, you see this, they'll be moved out and taking care of your mother and the launching of so many different things that we've done. When you think back about this year, what's. What stands out for you besides two trips to London?

Well, it, you know, when you put your mind to something and when you do set reasonable goals, you achieve what you set out that you want to do. You know, if I, I wanted to go to a publishers conference in London, so I made that happen.It was sold out, but I knew the guy, the organizer, so I, I, I manifested something and I made that happen. Do I sometimes think I have too many things on my plate? Absolutely, I do.So, you know, I'm in a position to be able to hire a few more people to get that type of help, especially in publishing, you know, it's, it's not a solitary experience. So I find that we've done a lot, we're continuing to, to do a lot, but I also want to do a lot, but in less time.So that means either scaling back or hiring more people. I've chosen to hire more, more people to help me with the certain tasks that I want to do.You know, I love to travel, so I, I always find opportunities and maybe there's speaking gigs for Kellen and such to do. Before the pandemic hit, I was going to go to a conference in Portugal. I, we haven't been to Portugal.Been all over, around in Europe, but not Portugal. And then the pandemic hit, so that one got shut down and I just, you know, there was. Hasn't been another one there that would be good to go to.So I was a little bummed about that. But, you know, otherwise, just looking for opportunities to do good and to, you know, help and serve other people. So, you know, and just not be.I think part of the thing that I like is not just to be so stuck or set in my ways that I miss opportunities. Because sometimes when you're too focused on one thing and you have your head down, you don't see the beauty around you.And some people, well, I'm too busy or I'm too this or I'm too that. But, you know, like you say, I mean, this is a trip around, you know, 365 days. So what do you want to. What do you have to show for it?What do you have that you're proud of? That you'd say, yeah, I'd do that again. That's. I don't want to do over. I. I'll do more of that.But each experience, whether it's happy, positive, negative, bad, sad, it shapes us and. And it moves us forward.

So one of the things that has struck me is your growth and the expansion of your publishing. Not just your publishing business, which is.Okay, a business where you do stuff for people and you charge them XYZ and you make some money as a business. But what has struck me is you call yourself a little bit of a nerd, your nerdiness, but your growth in skills in the publishing industry.Talk a little bit about what's changing and that inquisitiveness that you have to find out stuff.Because when we were in London last, you told me, and I wasn't part of the conversation, but you had a convo with another guy that's the CEO of a publishing company, and you were blown away by what they didn't know. And to you it's like, how do you not know that? And to me, I laugh because it's like, there's my. My. My CEO of publishing company who is.Knows so many things. Talk a little bit about that inquisitiveness and how that serves you and what you find out.

Well, you know, sometimes too much information or too much, you know, too many rabbit hill. Not rabbit hills, rabbit holes to go down and you can get lost and not come back up for a while. So that's also not great. But it is what it is.But I think in terms of going to some of these other conferences and hanging out with other, you know, small publishers, indie publishers, authors in Particular because authors have a great interest in having their work put out. So they do a very good job of researching what things work for them in order to get eyes on their book and sales in their accounts. Some of the.So at this conference I was at in June, it was mostly authors, a lot of fiction authors. But their drive to explore and to search out different tools, different software, different groups to enhance their product is really interesting.So we had an entire session one day on Tick Tock and what it takes to, to get your book in front of a lot of authors and re other readers. On Tick Tock they refer to it as book talk.And so there are some very specific things that you have to do in order to keep in that book talk genre on, on Tick Tock. So who would have known that? I mean, that's something that, you know, only authors or, or people in that particular genre would have figured out.So one of the big keys to, to being successful on, let's say, Tik Tok, if you're an author, excuse me, is to ensure that the only thing you're looking at on your TikTok account is stuff related to books publishing, other authors only. So no cats on roller skate videos, no funny dog videos, no stupid human tricks, none of that stuff. Now you have to have more than one TikTok account.So you can have a personal account that's for all that fun stuff. Great, do it. But for if you're an author or a publisher, you only look at stuff like that. So you resist the urge to swipe.If something comes up, don't touch it because what happens is the algorithm thinks book, book, book, cat, squirrel, oh, she wants to see more cats or squirrels. And then it takes you out of that. So then it takes you a couple of weeks of, you know, going on a TikTok diet.Yeah, detoxing your account, detoxing your account, it really is a detox.So you know, so the one advice that I would give to authors is or, or you know, if you're promoting a book, if you're creating, promoting a product, have two accounts, one personal, that you can do whatever you want with. And the other one, it's still a personal account, but it's specifically for that product or that service. That's very, that is actually crucial.If you don't do that, it's not going to work for you on TikTok. Now I found that out at that conference. That's just not in the mainstream out there.When people talk about marketing, social media marketing, nobody talks about that. That's very specific. And that is because the two authors who were delivering this session found that out themselves. They thought, hey, what?So a lot of times. So people who were attracted to this conference, it's the largest one in Europe. Um, it was in the uk Okay, I got it.But it's, it's the largest authors conference in Europe. And it, it came about because two guys figured, hm, how can we do this better? And that was. The majority of the speakers were like that.So they looked for opportunities. They were open to opportunities. And guess what? Opportunities came their way. I'm going to talk about just one more person now.This lady, she's from London. She's in the romance field, which is extremely big field on, in books right now.She's a fiction writer and her, she has success in the uk, but where she really had success, like number one, is in Italy. She's never been to Italy. Her books aren't in Italian. She wasn't targeting or ads or doing anything to do with Italy at all. No, no, no, no, no.But somehow somebody through their search in English on Amazon saw her book and thought, huh, interesting, because her genre wasn't that popular in Italian in Italy. But so what? Now she, so now because of this, it's. She. This is like, huh, that's unusual. I don't. What, why is that happening?So now she's going to have her book translated. Her book, books translated into Italian. Not German, not Spanish, not French, Italian. Because that's where her largest market is.And so now she's taking advantage of that by full. She doesn't speak Italian, you know, she's as British as they come. You know, English. That's it.So she took advantage of that opportunity and thought, okay, I can capitalize on that. So she's going to do all of her marketing to what? The Italian market.And you know, if, if you're so focused on one thing, you're not going to see those opportunities. And so I'm a publisher, so I help my clients with that kind of stuff. I'm. I'm inquisitive.So I want to know, okay, aside from Amazon, what else is out there? And, and I guess the other big one too. I'm not picking on them, but I'll just say them is Ingram Spark. They're also sort of the second best known.So people always ask me, oh, you're going to do it on Ingram Spark too?There's, there's actually a platform that in my opinion is better than ingramspark because they focus mostly on Print books, you gotta, you know, upload your book to their platform, get a print, that kind of stuff. But there's one called. It's the letter D, numeral 2D D, 2D draft to digital. They focus on ebooks. Their distribution is like wide.You want to get your books in libraries you've ever been to Overdrive. That's the, the driver library system. I'm in overdrive. I always look for a new book.And sometimes when you're in overdrive and you're searching for a book, you're like, ah, it's not available because the publisher of that book didn't upload it to Overdrive. Maybe they didn't know. I know that some of the people. This particular publisher that I was speaking to is a US based publisher. Never heard of it.

Well, that's some of the benefits that your, your, your authors get. So happy birthday, by the way, since today is your birthday.

Thank you. Happy birthday, Oasis. Hat because I so happy that the band Oasis is, well, Liam and Noel, right, the two brothers are back together.They just did a tour in the summer which was really exciting for them. So completely sold out.I desperately wanted to go to one of their concerts, but between the travel that I was doing, I could have went to the one on September 7th in Los Angeles, but I would have had to have gone by myself and then immediately the next day fly and get ready to go to the uk. But that would have been a drag, but it was on the table for a very short period of time anyway.So hopefully maybe by next birthday I'll have been able to see them.

Well, that's what I was just going to ask you. So you know, today's your birthday and happy birthday again, by the way.And I want you to think now, going for the next birthday, if you just had a blue sky thing, not just for your publishing company, but for your life or for your goals that you want to hit or things that you want to have happen. I know you like to travel and we spent a month in Australia a couple of times, but that's been a few years, so. And that was pre Pandemic.

Yeah, we've been to a lot of.

Countries, so if you look out what's, what's, what's coming up for Joy between this birthday and next birthday. And before you answer that, I'm going to tell everybody a secret about your birthday.Joy's birthday is New Year's for me, so I count every October 14th as the new year. So today is the start of my new year and the next episode after this one, I talk about what my goals are for the next year.So I'm not going to say anything about that because that'll be in the next episode that comes out. But it is my new year for some very personal and special reasons.So what are you thinking about you want to have happen in your next trip around the sun?

I think one of the biggest things is I want to be a lot more, I guess in some respects, hands off a face things. So, you know, working 20 hours a week and not having to be the go to for every little thing that comes up.You know, I was a project manager in the energy industry and I was the go to person for every little thing that came up. But that was my job. But now, you know, when you're in a role of a CEO or a senior management position in a company, you don't do that kind of stuff.You have people to do those sort of things for you. So my goal for the time next year is to be hands off of most of the projects but yet do the role that a senior person is expected to do.That's decision making, that's the strategic stuff. That's not getting in the nuts and bolts.However, because I'm a nerd techie nerd, I like to get into the details of some things mostly for myself but also for clients that I have too.I think that's win win because I don't think you can have a person who's also met, you know, it's a bit of a dynamic that might be unusual but a lot of people I know who are run multi million dollar companies, they're geeks themselves.You know, they are trying to find different ways to cool new things to help themselves or help their clients that sometimes if you hire people to do that, they don't think of that. And that's part of you know, strategic thinking as well.

It is.And it's part of you that one of the things I just desperately love about you, I mean Joy and I've been now married for 18 years and she's an integral part of obviously my life and business and I can't even imagine anything without her. So throw that little personal plug in there.So are there any places you want to specifically travel that we haven't done for a while that's up for, up for grabs this coming year?

Oh, I don't know.You know, I, I always like to combine, you know, some pleasure trip, part touristy things in the beginning or the end of a trip surrounded by Whether either you're at a conference or I'm at a conference or you're speaking or I'm speaking, I like to, you know, not. I. I guess I do like to, you know, combine things. But yeah, it's nice to be able to just go and sit on a beach.I mean, I. I love the, you know, Pacific Northwest, especially Vancouver Island. It's just one of those magic. It's a rainforest, so it's one of those magical areas on the planet.And places like Victoria or Tofino, Nanaimo, you know, just sitting outside on a deck watching just the water, the stillness, you know, watching maybe a loon come down on the water or, you know, whales, whatever it is, that, to me is ideal. I don't necessarily have to travel far and wide. For me, just going to the ocean like that is just. That's magic.

So I have another question for you. You. You are very successful. You had success all your life. You've learned to do many things.You've had many different kinds of careers, and somebody might look at you and, and wish they had your situation or your skills or your abilities or whatever it is. And, and, you know, this program, this podcast, is your ultimate life.It's about how to create a life that you love, that you enjoy doing what you enjoy doing, and creating prosperity, purpose. Prosperity and joy is the phrase we always use.So if someone looks at the world right now and there's the opportunities that there are and AI coming up, and just all the things that there are, and they look at you and say you're successful, but I could never do that. What would you say to someone right now by way of information or encouragement or anything with regard to what's available to them? Really?Not hype, but what's really available to a person right now who's looking at this and says, wow, I wish I could fill in the blank.

Well, and thank you for that. And I think that's important for them to fill in the blank.You know, everybody has different skills and everybody has different talents and likes and dislikes. So part of the key is, you know, finding out, what do you like? Because what I like is going to be very different.So looking at me and saying, oh, I wish I could be like, yeah, maybe in some things. But, you know, it's not all the. It's it's just like with. With very successful, like recording artists like Taylor Swift or something.She didn't just start off being, you know, selling out stadiums. She was slogging as a very young girl, like a Girl, you know, doing shows and doing things and writing songs and all that.So while you look at a person who's successful now and you say, oh, I wish you got to look behind the scenes and see all the blood, the sweat, the tears, the. All the, the frustrations, the. How many times a person wanted to quit. So it's.It's not just in a vacuum, but, you know, one has to figure out, what do. What do you like to do? And often it's not what their job is. And it can be scary to quit your job without having a backup.And many people don't like to do that for obvious reasons because they don't want to be on the street or something.But I think there comes a time when you have to have a certain level of confidence in your abilities to be able to just say, okay, I'm going to go for it. Having said that, don't quit your job.I mean, okay, so you're at a job, you hate it, you want to quit, you think, okay, I'm gonna open, do my own thing. I'm gonna set up stuff at craft sales or something like that.I mean, I love a good craft sale as much as anybody, but you also have to be realistic, you know, like those, I don't know, those crocheted tissue box covers. Like, are you gonna quit your job to really do that? Like, is that really, you know, so you have to put some thought into it, too.You have to go and see what's out in the marketplace. You have to see, is there a market for that now you can go on Etsy and take a look, but Etsy's hard. You know, ebay's hard.I've been on eBay for 20 years or almost, and I used to do it full time, and I was very successful, but I did it full time. I created my own system. I called it the 10 by 10 system. To get up, you know, 10 items, take 10 pictures, you know, do it sort of a bulk thing.I created a system where I could get lots of items up in one day and do it consistently day after day after day after day. Because if you don't have items up on ebay or, or your Etsy store, you're obviously not going to sell any. And you can't have stale items.So it takes work. So whatever that is that you want to do, do some research and, you know, would you like to do that full time?Would you like to do that for four, six, eight hours a day? Because I can tell you, even though people said, oh, Doing ebay all day. How much fun?It wasn't always fun, you know, you know, I'd get angry, you know, buyers with pitchforks, you know, calling me stupid and blind and worse, right? For. For whatever reason, they got a bug up their butt and, and just nasty comments. So I'm thinking. So that was not fun.And I thought this stupidy, bad, you know, so there's. It's not all roses and whatever. At every step of the way.No matter where you are in an organization, whether it's your own or somebody else's, there's always going to be stuff. But, you know, I think you have a lot more freedom when you create your own business and you become an employer instead of an employee.You have, you do have more freedom, but you also have more responsibility. So, fine, you can look at me, but figure out also what you like to do.

So we're coming to the close of this, this time, this episode here. Do you have any advice, any fun things? I know we just got a brand new little kitty cat, but do you have any other final comments?Is she hanging around there somewhere?

No, she left the room because she. She's just as little, literally this little ball of fur. She's like 10 probably. Well, this week, I guess is 11 weeks old.She's just the tiniest little thing and she's very inquisitive. I feel like getting another one because then they would keep each other company. But, you know, we'll see.

I noticed last night, so for the first time I. I woke up and I felt this tiny little. I couldn't even say for sure it was on my foot. Then I realized that we named her Apostrophe.So Apostrophe was walking on my legs and she was so light, I barely felt it. Anyway, so thank you for being on the show with us today and sharing some fun stuff, sharing your birthday for a few minutes with us.Appreciate you being here.

Well, I hope by next birthday that I'll have gone to see you. I hope, I hope they're coming again in 2026, wherever they are. Anyway, that is one of the things that I'd like to do by next birthday.

Cool. So today's episode was just fun.It was about celebrating a birthday and also mixed in about serving your passion, about choosing to do things that you like to do. Because here's what I know. After doing this with Joy for many years now, anything you want to create is possible. You have to decide what it is.You have to go after it, and you have to stay in the game. But if you want to do that and you choose to do it, yes, you can have your dream and you can move ahead and create your ultimate life.Never hold back and you'll never ask why. Open your heart.

And this time around, right here, right.

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