How a Snowboarding Pro Took Home an Emmy

[0:00]  well let's get into it man let's do it everybody welcome back to a new episode of the heart and hustle podcast I'm really excited about this one because I've got one of my instantaneous friends instantaneous Drew Williams here who is a what so how do I describe you in general oh gosh oh man it depends who you ask um I think from like what I do professionally uh I'm a cinematographer so I'm a DP by trade so director photography so I am in charge of four commercials and music videos and little narrative films and things like that um we I'm in charge of the production I'm in charge of what's going on behind the scenes as the Director is a lot of times in charge of the acting or what's going on in front of the camera yeah so that's kind of in a nutshell yeah and just uh you know Hustler that's why I'm here yeah exactly right the heart and

[0:48]  hustle podcast so one of the things that I think is so cool is kind of like our origin story so I will never forget so the first time that me and you meet we are in Indianapolis Indiana yes right where I was born where you were born which is crazy yeah so we are at vcon for the first time this year is my first time that was your first yeah first time yeah okay great so we're both experiencing V con for the first time day one is kicking off and what happens we're walking to the venue yeah and all of a sudden I see this kid walking down the street with a Vegas Nights hat on all black and got his coffee in hand yeah he just instantaneously kick it off yeah yeah exactly you were at you were at the um the crosswalk and I was walking I just went to Starbucks I was like it's you know I was just wanting to get a drink just like I have right now and I'm walking out I'm you're right I'm in all black which is I I learned pretty quickly that was a bad idea that day

[1:35]  because it did get pretty hot yeah um with the humidity and stuff and just walk in and I see like three dudes that look just like me they're wearing all black and they're wearing like cool shoes and I'm like oh like this these seem like good people and we're all walking to the same thing right so yeah we uh we all kind of met at the crosswalk shook hands you know I got that uh every time I met someone at Beacon McGee from Vegas because of the knights hats but you were from Vegas which was which that was really cool so we had a little bit of a a thing going there but yeah we you and I we hung out in line and we went into field day it was super fun and just getting to know everyone it was a real nice hey you're you're gonna stand here for 45 minutes with these people whether you like it or not yeah and we just happened to be in the right group at the right time I think dude it was just like so cool to just like instantaneously connect with

[2:22]  people yeah you know what I'm saying and like that's how I could tell that we were going to be friends like instantly yeah same headspace yeah yeah so what attracted you to vcon in general because it was so cool to see so many different types of people there we're all in different Industries we're all in different spaces but we all share the same type of like mindset yeah which was really interesting yeah and hustle and just like the drive is high right and if it's not high then we're searching to what can make that drive high right so there were a couple people that I met that were kind of like you know I'm not super stoked on what I'm doing here um but then there were people that I met like very established and crushing it right so had a wide spectrum and I think that was um that was really interesting but to answer your question I think I mean the garyvee is is a motivator right and as someone who's been in freelance for four or five years I mean

[3:09]  I need a boss like right I don't have a boss you don't really have a boss I mean you are your boss so I look up and I'm sure you do too not to speak for you but we look up to people like Gary like yeah I mean he's the he's the guy and he's so honest and real and one of the first things he said that really I thought okay you know what I do understand this guy and he's not blowing smoke up everyone's ass is can I cuss on you oh yeah absolutely okay um is because of how what he how he uses his verbiage I mean he'll say [ __ ] because he's passionate about it and then he'll tell you why because people complain about how he cusses all the time there's even like a clean garyvee YouTube page or something um so he you know he says he speaks from the heart and if he wasn't going to say the [ __ ] word then it's not coming from his heart it's not as genuine yeah that to me I was like that that's that why I

[3:57]  do it that's why I say those words it's like because I sound like you know sometimes the wrong place wrong time but I don't know I think it was his realism I mean I think all of that bubbled up I think it just comes down to how real he is yeah and he's a motivator I mean again we need that 24 7 in our job at least I do right yeah um I need someone to tell me to [ __ ] do it you know and it was cool I think I needed I think it helped a lot too that I was back home in Indiana like I flew out from Salt Lake because that's where I live now and the fact that I was able to go home and I only stayed up there one night downtown and I was I drove back twice yes or I guess once uh to my hometown like like an hour and a half two hours away dude I was driving through cornfields in the morning you talk about the most like humbling like full circle like moment I'm back home I'm trying to get

[4:43]  motivated by garyvee and like very ground level right like waking up in the morning driving the roads you drove to school to go all the way up to Indy just to like get motivated it was very um it was it was an amazing weekend I mean I could talk we could talk the whole time about yeah exactly like I mean just from the people we met and the experience and the motivation and the drive behind it the event was incredible like it was an incredible event um I go back and look at videos all the time and pictures of all this stuff I was literally watching the videos of us going down the slide you know what I mean so everybody who doesn't know but at vcon as they're hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium yeah and dig football stadium to get into the stadium you could of course can go down the stairs but they set up this gigantic slide from one of the sections down onto the field and it was so cool just to like wait in line and

[5:31]  then hop on that little burlap sack and just like ride down onto the field I feel like a kid again I know it was sick and what's funny is like we saw it when we first got there but the line was really long so I think when we first got there we kind of walked around yeah but I I looked at the slide I was like yeah I'll probably hit that maybe once or twice I think we hit it like seven years exactly it's like how'd you get down here like oh I was on the side yeah I was like I think I'm gonna go get some notches just so I can go slide exactly it was cool it was um it was just a good way to you know it was a serious event and a lot of the drive behind it you wanted to take really serious but those little fun elements that they added in there that's that's the that's the vcon way that's the garyvee all through you know he keeps it fun but he keeps it real dude it was like the people that we met there as well like I remember there was one guy who was like a real estate investor or something yeah yeah and first met him and like when we were chopping it up with him he was super

[6:17]  chill and then like we wrote him on the phone and he was like listen if the documents aren't over there then we're gonna be like blah blah and that's Samantha's fault and she needs to do that kind of stuff it was so cool to see The Duality of everybody I'll never forget that because you made a comment on that and I lost it you're right we were all like yeah [ __ ] V con and Uno cards and [ __ ] V friends and cussing he's like yes the Dobson yeah exactly well tell you what it was just like wow we can really uh we're here for a reason we can turn it on and turn it off yeah it was fun um but you're right a lot of different professions but the same same motivation and same drive I think it's cool yeah if you think about that too like that real estate agent I think he started his own firm so again in the same boat as with you with Francis and me with 43 Productions like we're all even though it's they're so different we're all kind of in the same bubble

[7:04]  yeah as far as how we're feeling with our business 100 what drives it yeah so I want to reverse a little bit when you first discovered garyvee were you a fan of him do you know what I'm saying like because the first time very transparently I came across garyvee it was a Tony Robbins and garyvee like podcast interview oh and they were chopping back and forth and Gary kept talking over the top of Tony and I was like who is this [ __ ] guy yeah I mean he keeps talking over to Tony Robbins kind of aggressive kind of aggressive but the more I listen to him he started talking about mindset about happiness about pursuing things other than money sure that's how you're going to be happy yeah and that was just something that really started to make me feel and more connect with him yeah yeah I think yeah um I don't you know I'm trying to think of when I first saw Gary I think I was introduced to Gary through Casey neistat okay

[7:50]  um and all those guys and all those creators from YouTube and I think Gary was on a Casey episode okay um and you know when you when you look or hear about Gary or you see Gary I mean it's just very New Jersey like New York and and that's great like just I'm from Midwest you know I'm like sorry and now I'm from Salt Lake so it's technically the same thing just with mountains um but yeah so I saw him and I was like kind of aggressive but also like real like so I don't I never I don't judge people by like my first impression of them because I've I bet I've given off tonally a terrible first impression before in my life so I would hope that they wouldn't do that about me but no I think I was introduced uh through a good source who I trusted already through Casey um and then I I just started watching him and I was like yeah he's consistent

[8:38]  I think that was the main thing is I don't watch Tony Robbins I don't watch motivational speakers I just don't um but with Gary He's very consistent so people ask him the same [ __ ] question every day and he gives them the same answer and I've heard it now and what that does is when you listen to him enough then he's not changing his ways and he's not he's verbatim like his answer I mean he it's never going to change so if you can listen and you get a handful of episodes in you can really start believing how he believes because he's so consistent right um so I think over time I just developed a stronger trust for him just from his ways of teaching yeah yeah that makes sense so I want to kind of talk about your origin so you know sorry about the setup oh you're working on this whole thing this is great I just wanted to I kind of wanted to kick back a little bit that's

[9:24]  fair yeah so my question for you is we come from the Midwest so I was actually born in Seattle I moved to Michigan in 1997. I was there until 2009 crazy and I totally relate with you when it comes to like driving through the corn field or like going past the dirt roads and stuff like that and like where we live now doesn't so much seem like that do you know what I mean like kind of straight out of the Midwest yeah what what is kind of your origin story about just Film Production and photography and cinematography like what does that look like how did you get that start yeah good question man I this is always a fun one because I I can go back to my grandpa like uh back in the day so when my brother and I were kids we were close in age we were two years apart and my grandfather always had video cameras lying around

[10:11]  um and like good ones like cool ones and I'm like okay so he's like always filming us and we're doing like karate shows and magic shows and just like super 90s it's like the big like a whole camera or is this like the flip open like there was a couple of those like like not like the huge 80s shoulder rigs yeah but like like the you know started the 90s where we started going from like eight millimeter or sorry Super Eight yeah excuse me and then you could do VHS so they would get bigger as the tape got bigger but then they started getting smaller as the tape got smaller so he's had them all to answer your question and uh I found out um as I got older I mean he worked at RCA and I knew that um but he was building those cameras no way so he was actually like and he would do maintenance on them when people would send them in and they were constructing and they were designing these cameras

[10:58]  like technically and and then he worked at the facility where they all got put together so so he would get I'm sure discounts on them and that's why they were always around yeah so Flash Forward I mean that's all I knew I I mean I had cameras in my face 24 7 as a kid not like celebrity style but just like being a dork and at theme parks and stuff like that like yeah back to our conversation earlier and um it just always attracted me a lot he passed away in 2000 and uh when I was in like fifth or sixth grade so I got all of his video cameras so I'm just like okay that's great like and I still have him this one actually tattooed on my arm is his first Keystone he filmed my mother's birth with that no way man yeah so I have that camera so that's amazing so that's why there's a big camera on my arm and but I I there's a lot of love behind that one so

[11:46]  um yeah I just felt natural to me and I've always kind of had an artistic background I didn't really play a ton of sports in school I was always on my own I was a snowboarder and you know it's just that typical skater one-offer story and your art turns to your passion and then your passion looks good and you know here I am yeah it's kind of it's it's crazy to it's a it's a very fast forwarded story but there was so much influence that it felt really natural you know what I mean so I never really hesitated yeah yeah I mean and like to talk about the fact that you are an Emmy Award winner you know what I mean like I just want to highlight that for everybody today because Drew is no joke when it comes to production of video that was that was crazy man um so what was that like tell me about that story kind of like yeah what was the project and yeah sure was the process like so it's a it's a regional

[12:34]  Emmy so just uh there's Prime Time Emmys and there's Regional Emmys right and they're the same trophy it's the same Academy I'm a part of that National broadcasters Association like that's it um so with that with that type of thing what happens is is I was working on a television show um on ABC called Taste of Utah it was through a different production company but I was the main DP I was producing it or co-producing it blah blah blah how old do you at this time this was only two years ago okay so I'm 30. well this no yeah I guess it was I was about 30 31 yeah I'm 34 now as of a couple weeks ago yeah congratulations happy birthday thank you feeling it yeah I'm like what happened I was like young 30s were good now I'm like I'm almost 40. oh yeah what is happening so we're rounding up yeah you know Roundup from

[13:21]  uh 34 but no so um yeah we I worked on this television show and you can submit right that's how people and even in prime time that's how they get you submit um and you you were a judge on a panel and you're part of the association and it's just kind of this login process and it's like a back-end thing that you can have you upload your videos in you talk about them and so we submitted a handful uh for season I can't remember I think I want to say like nine or eight or something yeah I worked on that show for like three and a half years I don't work on it anymore but that's the only Emmy that the show has won so we submitted for video and lighting and then editing which editing wouldn't have been under me and then we did some producing so um the other co-producer and I who is actually the director of the show we

[14:08]  could win some together yeah none of that ever happened the only thing that we were able to win from which was I love is I got a lighting Emmy yeah and it's for a specific episode um where we go to this Italian restaurant and we film in these restaurants and we talk to the chef and things like that so it's it's it's you know it's not an original show by any means but it's Utah centered and the locals love it and it plays in Arizona it plays in Nevada I mean you can get it here um but yeah so I want an Emmy for lighting and we went down to Arizona and Scottsdale at um this really beautiful facility and hotel I was on stage and I grabbed it it was just crazy man like I it's it's a weird thing though because it's a it's a nice mile marker yeah for sure but now I hold myself to this

[14:56]  standard and then at the same time like I'm not super proud of the piece that won really like I've I feel like I've shot way cooler stuff than what has won okay and I don't think that's a bad thing and I think that's probably like self-judgment um but I there's things that like I'm like dude you know that's crazy it's crazy and I love it and I'm so proud of it I'm proud of the team and it's well deserved but I'm like it's just a mental thing where I'm like all right now I gotta do you know something else like the next step right so I've held I've set a bar for myself with this but then it's like okay let's see the piece and it's like oh I'm not the most proud of it but right but I still think it's beautiful and it's it you know it won it won out of a handful of people and um that's a little self-judgment and that's something that like I can use you can tell like I can battle with a little bit but you know you set this bar and then you just want to keep going and

[15:43]  going and going trajectory is always this way yeah um and I feel I felt like for a little bit we're just kind of hanging here yeah but then that's a good if you feel that way then it's going to start going this way yeah I actually uh came across an interesting piece of content the other day on social media and it was talking about like it was kind of like in a trading stock market View and it was like today and it was like a downtrend but it's like when you zoom out you can actually see the entire graph and it's like dude this is how your trajectory actually kind of maps out yeah yeah that's a that's a great way to put it yeah maybe I'm just too close looking at it right now right um maybe I need to zoom out and get the big picture and that's and you know that's what happens I think that's what happens I'm sure that's what you've experienced in the past that's just um the times in business and the flow of what is needed in this industry and there's all kinds of factors so yeah but no to answer your question man I I am I

[16:31]  am deep down I'm proud of it and I'm I'm really stoked on it but I I want to make sure that this bar I set now at at the age of 31 32 uh it has to keep going up yeah and I'm still trying to figure out what that is and what that looks like and there's a couple different routes that I'm going to take same industry same thing we're doing yeah but it's just yeah I like to Pivot my thought process when I feel that way and I think that there could be more value in that yeah so let's start let's dive into that thought process a little bit so when you are in the process of producing a piece of film right what is the mindset from your perspective because I know a lot of people out here in the world today are thinking about creating different types of video content right more than ever right more than ever and so how do you kind of work through your creative

[17:19]  process when it comes to executing on a vision and a narrative Arc through telling a story through video smart people yes it takes a team right um what I've learned in the last five or six years is I can't do everything and I don't want to do everything because and it's just you're good at what you're good at that you hire someone else from the team to be good at what they're good at right so you utilize your partners and your colleagues because there are writers nine times out of ten if you're a DP you're not good at writing it's just how it is if you're good at being a DP you probably don't want to edit if you're an editor you probably don't want to be on set it's just how the industry works and you find your Niche yeah so what you do is you find the most talented group of friends and genuinely yeah right you don't just

[18:07]  go after them and pay for them yeah like I at least I don't I like to establish a relationship and create a group and that makes that Synergy better I think I remember I made a comment at vcon when we were at field Diego if you're not working with your friends then what the [ __ ] are you doing dude and that's something that's actually really stuck with me really which is crazy yeah really get continue to do that and ever since I got back from vcon I've been thinking about building out my team more yeah and it's really been bringing the homies in who have those expertise and those skill sets that I don't have because the process of creation is so much more rewarding when you can spend it with people who you like exactly and the product in the end is going to be better because you're getting all these strong suits from all these different corners and your meeting in the middle and it just creates this epic product whatever that is yeah so when you find out what you're good at stick in that

[18:53]  lane and stay in that lane and then let everyone else stay in their lane and then collaboratively I mean dude you can do anything it's crazy so yeah I mean to answer your question I think you just find good smart people in a genuine fashion and then roll with it yeah because I mean like the thing I think about and especially because of this podcast in general you know I like being able to document the mindset of people who are in the process of building yeah because social media does such a good job of showing us the end result but doesn't ever give us the insights of you know what was the mindset like what are the type of decisions who do we surround ourselves with as we're building the process that's everything yeah because you're right you're getting the reward at the end and Visually everyone's seeing the reward they're not seeing the work that was put into it right and that can just be a stress case and if it's stressful then it's not fun then work

[19:41]  always I for me work needs to be fun otherwise I'm going to feel like I'm working yeah I mean don't get me wrong I can get tired pretty easily but you know what I mean that Minds it's all about the mindset it's it's about if you can go to work happy and not feeling like you're going to work then you're going to kick ass your whole life and thrive in that one position the people who bounce everywhere and switch it's that's nothing wrong with that it's just they haven't quite figured out what they want to do and it takes people longer than others it's just and so I consider myself pretty lucky to have fallen into this genre of Art and creativity so naturally yeah from my grandfather it's kind of like literally handed to me right like it's like okay I inherited this now and I didn't feel pressure to do that I [ __ ] wanted to do it yeah so um it's kind of crazy when you when you when you take a couple steps back

[20:28]  because I haven't taken a couple steps back and been asked this stuff I've been so forward driving um on projects and with my baby and just everything you know that you're just always looking forward so it's nice to kind of come back and reflect a little bit yeah and I think it's really important for us to pause every once in a while and look backwards and see all the things that we've accomplished you know I mean like you've accomplished such amazing things in your career but we're talking like career p for so many people who fight for so long and like so early in your career you've been able to kind of just like have these monstrous wins yes yeah and it's cool it's really cool and and I'm so proud of that and like because I kind of felt like when you asked about the Emmy question I kind of like belittled it a little bit but I'm so proud of that it's just what it that his specific instance has done for me is it's set a bar that I'm trying to

[21:15]  figure out how I leap past and that's great like we need that as creators again we don't have bosses so there's no one there to create a point of Gary yeah I agree um I just there's no one to set a bar so we have to set our own bar holy [ __ ] that's a high jump It's a pole vault but you know I ran track back in the day we can do this you know what I mean so like it's just all about mindset and figuring out what the next step is I think so why don't you tell us a little bit about 43 Productions so standing up the team working with your friends you know what an amazing journey to be a part of tell us a little bit about the origin story of that yeah that's it's funny because it was like my first tattoo on my wrist this bloody 43 um like that's running off the ink and and long story short I was on a regional snowboard team where we traveled and

[22:02]  that's how I got to Utah as I was in the snowboard world like heavily yeah um competitively we filmed a movie Parts like we're you know I was riding and then we'd film our homies writing then we'd get them released and you can find them at Suncoast like things like that like really old school like snowboarding that that was really fun that was that was a really good outlet for creativity yeah um and I always filming that stuff again making those videos was two birds one stone doing what I love by myself and controlling all of that and then being able to film with your friends it's sick yeah so we called it uh 43 Industries was I was sponsored by flow and like DC at the time I was like 16 years old and there's I need to I need to break this down a little bit because this is something I did not know about you yeah so I'd ever go into this like yeah no I love this though so snowboarding yeah I

[22:51]  mean like you discover the passion in Ohio Indiana Indiana so there's yeah and close if there's not much difference as far as land landscape goes they're the same um there's if you got into Southern Indiana you'll start getting Rolling Hills um if you get into Northern Indiana about or you hit Indy and go up north like which is where you were flat right everything was very flat but Rolling Hills kind of start doing down towards Kentucky there's two little ski resorts in Indiana one's called Perfect North one's called Paley Peaks and I just happened to grow up in Paley and Paley Peaks my mom worked there when she was younger my uncle ran the snow operations I I love that your tattoos also are a story of your life everything's a story I can tell you Mason Rose Williams my

[23:40]  daughter Roxy a dog who passed away I love you my wife and I have these Dave Matthews Band because I'm a free gear my grandpa and my grandmother's signature that's the guy who had the camera the actual signature and that's the signatures they used to sign the lease for the home that I was raised in wow and my mom was raised in so yeah every little tattoo uh Side Story there but they all have a little bit of meaning um I got lost I lost my train of thought no so we were talking about you growing up yep exactly so you're growing up there your parents work there as well so it's like a family story as well kind of like yeah like not yeah like by no means did we own it in fact the resort now is owned by like Vale Resorts which is crazy it got bought within the last five years but um had a lot I mean I ran the terrain park there like I would design and we would build the jumps and then we'd hold

[24:28]  competitions and my friend who was an artist we make the posters for them and very small operation that we we had it going we were only 16 17 years old right so I got these sponsors there were some kids from Ohio kids from Michigan so we there was just a couple of like I was the only kid from my Resort like that got on this team and then so he'd get like this van and it was like like flow DC and everything was paid for and we got all free boards and outerwear and whatever the hell you wanted like it was a kid's dream like it was awesome and would go around to these rail jams that were not even in the winter time they were in October and they would get these ice shavings from uh ice rinks and then they would set up these rails on the grass and we would just spin onto them and there was just this little white ribbon of death yeah like a little snow like ribbon you know and you think about it now and you're

[25:14]  like oh my hand my my poor body um but you you learn from those things and and you grow and then that's I mean honestly that's how you start developing um friendships and then how you see how people are not how you see value in people but um you you start learning at an early age like if you get with the right people then you can create something really big and that's the same philosophy I used for for 43 so long story short we grew up and we've gotten old and I got in a really bad snow rain accident when I was like 27 hit a tree like lacerated my spleen puncture my lung broke all these ribs in the hospital for like two or three days it was really bad uh I was like supposed to be in a wedding or supposed to go to a wedding and uh the Dominican Republic and like I couldn't fly so I couldn't go it was just terrible so I I had chilled

[26:03]  out from that and and now I use those resources and contacts in the snowboard industry to like film their commercials and like we did the new Gore-Tex Oakley or excuse me O'Neill ad like two years ago for winter line so utilizing those contacts and those resources not going as hard physically yeah on myself but enjoying and taking my wife out and my kid out that's what snowboarding is now so 43 Industries evolved from 43 Industries into 43 Productions and I figured I had such I learned so much from this when I was younger in the snowboard World um the name is tattooed on me let's do 43 Productions yeah and it's the number of the Angel the guardian angel and it's [ __ ] everywhere like I'm not kidding there's probably a 4-3 in here somewhere like looking at us it's it's wild yeah it's everywhere and you'll notice it now and you'll just it's just interesting so kind of has always stuck with me so when

[26:53]  you I love to kind of dive into just like the super professional production so you're talking about doing commercials with O'Neill right great yeah how do you guys land some of these customers because I know when it comes to you know being proud of what we do and being an entrepreneur in general right we always shoot for those big types of customers and how are you guys kind of getting into that space to be able to land some of those big deals like falling short you know shooting high and falling short always um and this doesn't always happen but really like I was saying was with O'Neill it was from the contacts from snowboarding so yeah hey team manager oh I know the team manager still like you know people in the snowboard industry flip like every two years like there's always something new going on it's a really um it's really fast industry technology wise and just work wise so um you just kind of keep those contacts

[27:41]  and then you know I was at Sia which is a big snowboard convention with flow and I just I went up to O'Neill with because there was some reps that I knew and we hadn't been hanging out in there and I said oh you guys need a new team ad because of the score text line yeah use pitch it yeah yeah and then seb's like and then you know when you're there and seb's like yeah that's cool like I think we could really do that like that's fine and you never know and then yeah I got a call from that specific job like literally two weeks later and then what was cool though is I have resources at Powder Mountain which is where we filmed this because I do all the media at hudder Mountain so what I did was I offered the O'Neill team a home a cabin okay for two nights or three nights for like discounted or free I can't remember I think it was free yeah I think Powder Mountain just gave it to him and then I got them all cat passes for three days all private

[28:28]  everything and just from my contacts like I didn't pay for anything obviously but just my contacts and and being on that media team you know we can set those things up and I mean they're gonna jump all over that they're going to have their flu everyone in from Canada and they flew people in from um gosh where was that one guy from I can't remember I mean they were from all over they were so they they literally flew everyone into Utah for that shoot and we made it happen it was wow so you're really that connector piece right that made sometimes happen sometimes trust me there's people that I want to work with that I can't work with that other people have connections with too so if I'm not the connector piece there then enough for another job I'm hoping that I can you know create some sort of relationship with someone to become that connection yeah um that's kind of how I've always looked

[29:14]  at it I mean there's two things that I want to kind of dive a little bit deeper into there so the first is when you produce quality product if it's in the tech space where I'm in the mental health space if it's in the video production if it's in any space when you do a really good job it's interesting to see how other people spread word of mouth about your quality of product and that kind of brings you other jobs yeah has that been part of your guys's kind of like acquisition strategy sure yeah word of mouth is always good you have to remember too like artists objective so so just because we think something looks amazing doesn't necessarily mean that it's not or sorry just because we think something looks amazing doesn't mean that it is right um I think I I think about like a Kickstarter video for an example we've done a handful of those our Kickstarter

[30:02]  videos are the most beautiful polished looking Kickstarter video ever but there is a strategy and a way to do a Kickstarter video specifically and that is getting the person to pull their wallet out within the first five seconds yes our first six campaigns for Kickstarter we didn't know that so we needed to work with a Kickstarter or a launch specialist and that's like what like we are doing the same format of video we do for a commercial trust me we got it okay well it's not checking on their page it's not going for Indiegogo Kickstarter it's lacking yeah cut that intro off that 20 minute or 20 second intro and then feed it in there so it's there's such strategy and there's such different ways to do certain jobs just because we think visually like I'm always good at being

[30:50]  like lighting is perfect visually this is absolutely exactly what you [ __ ] want but if you don't say anything and sell the product or whatever say it's an interview or if it's a good interview then it's unusable so there's so many different levels of what is good and what's not and it just really depends on what you're making yeah you know it depends on what the outcome is um and you know pretty quickly if you're getting it or you're not yeah and this is really close to my heart right now because we've been working with um some different people here in Vegas about how to create more engaging stories sure because one of the biggest things that I don't think a lot of people recognize is there is a I'll go back to this phrase again a narrative Arc and how we're trying to tell a story to be able to grab people's attention and be able to take force them to take a certain action yeah so let's talk about that original experience of you guys creating these Kickstarter videos you guys saying in a

[31:39]  subjective fashion this is great this looks amazing but what is some of that early feedback and like it's just not hitting to get the objective that we're looking for well and I think you'll find that what I have found is say the client being the person who owns the product the first thing they're going to do is say why aren't we getting our money yes you know what I mean like you'll just see right there once it started three days in that you're not nothing is yeah green bar is not filling up as fast as it should be right you still got what 28 days but you're you're not gonna make it yeah because normally nine times out of ten a Kickstarter if it's good or gets launched it gets backed within the first 24 hours like normally nine times out of ten um depending on the goal yeah um so that's really the main thing is just seeing that so again from our eyes it's like again we did our job it's pretty it's beautiful the story arc is

[32:27]  there but there's it's a different and every it's constantly changing especially with social media too everything is so much shorter our attention spans are just like this big now yeah um I went and saw uh Oppenheimer Oppenheimer the other night and uh I've seen Avatar and I've seen Spider-Man they're all three hour movies yeah um and you start getting a little Restless after after an hour and a half or two you know and you have to go the bathroom in the middle of it they should put an intermission in those movies um but it has to do with strategy it has to do with the formula that's what I'm saying talking about the length um you don't know until maybe it's a little too late um how you backtrack from a situation specifically like Kickstarter would be to reassess after a day or two if it's not checking making sure all those key points are hit and if they are hit you did your job but let's just speed it up

[33:15]  a little bit I think it comes down to a tension spam get the glitz and Glam out of the video and then just have someone like you directly talking to camera and what you're doing what your goal is even do like a follow-up video like Hey we're here we're five days in blah blah blah like so I'll start pedaling and maybe thinking of backup strategies and then always putting those claws in your contracts yeah because you know you always say here's it's going to be x amount of dollars right um great and that's all you want to hear you don't ever want someone to come back you with more money yeah well you just make sure you say hey if for some reason something's not checking it's probably going to be plus yes and that'll be for the benefit of you yeah and then that's kind of area to even present that because then you're right you're basically saying that this might not work right you know and you don't want to even put that in the client's headspace yeah so there's a fine line

[34:01]  there sometimes it's too late to find to find out another example of that would be making a short film our short film jump seat which we've beaten to the ground at this point because we're working on a feature and that was our last thing we've done story great cinematography amazing it should have been a feature it was too hard to it's it's too it was 22 minutes and that's not a short a shorts like 11 to 16 minutes can be I mean that's how it needs to feel 20 to 25 minutes you're pushing almost a narrative at that point like a full narrative right so then you get developed into you start like investing into these characters and you start like really understanding them and then it's and then it's done right so we've learned from that but it was

[34:49]  too late but we also played at Holly shorts at the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in February yeah so there's good and there's it's never perfect right and again it's subjective so you submit all of these to these film festivals and then you have someone else telling you what's wrong with your film or if it's good and there's never a solid concrete answer because it is so subjective so from a client's headspace like back to the kickstarter question you there's there's tactical ways to figure that out but when you're putting a short out like that it's kind of just like all right here we go yeah it's just like when movies come to theater and they bomb yeah they're in theater for three weeks they used to stay for up to six months because they [ __ ] bomb and they're not making any money so how do you keep your mindset solid when it is in such a subjective space because yeah when I

[35:39]  think about you know the idea of we think that this production is super solid and it's going to kill it sure but then when you are in a space of creating products for other people it's very interesting to kind of have that negative feedback and like how do you continue to fortify your mindset to be like okay it's time to reshoot and how do you keep everybody together sure that mindset as well yeah um I feel like I feel like when the like production is happening we're I'm like always so happy to just be doing something and like nine times out of ten I'm in a really solid ass mood my wife always tells me I'm best when I'm working yeah and I'm like that's that's sweet yeah thank you I appreciate it yeah it's like give me more work um no I uh but she's she's she was right about that and that's something I've I've realized about myself the last couple years is I am I am happiest when I'm working so for me that's fairly easy

[36:26]  when I'm working it's the after part words before part my anxiety kicks in dude like I'll just start I'll vomit like no [ __ ] like all this I had to shoot before what was it we were shooting with Jackie Chan wow which is the sorry for the name drop but no I love that that's it I'm dropping the [ __ ] out of that because trust me I worked with some cool people but like that is legendary um like I have like my Jackie my chan group Pat media pass and stuff still like it was so cool it was for Sundance like four or five years ago it was an incredible incredible experience and I knew I was gonna do it and I'm like I'm not I'm not like I'm gonna go up and talk to Jackie Chan like it's there's a language barrier there's everything that he's heavily guarded there was a rule that

[37:15]  um no one could have a single shot of Jackie Chan there were three it was a three camera setup besides me yeah so everyone has to have a two shot or a three shot and I'm the only one that can have a single shot and it's like a law with him and a chance because they can sell them yeah people will sell a photo of Jackie Chan sitting on a bench and it's worth X you know it's just it's Paparazzi style stuff so this was a planned event we were he was talking about his Art Exhibit that was in the art space in Utah uh based on recycled goods and it was really cool and and I had no idea that there was a side of that to Jackie which is really cool um and if you if you have his book or if you can pick up his book I highly recommend it which book is that it's a biography an autobiography he did it's I think it's just called I think it's just self-titled it's just Chan or Jackie Chan and it's really really really good

[38:04]  um highly recommend you learn a lot about him there's also a video that went viral recently with him and his granddaughter and they're watching old videos of him and he's like crying crying yeah did you see that yeah so that's the pressure like just put that into that mindset um of yeah you're gonna go film Jackie chin in the next two days and you are the only single shot yeah so I have like and it's not a hard thing he's setting down it's not that's the problem is it's not that big of a deal but my headspace just you know Amplified this thing times a hundred I was puking it was bad I was like I just get so nervous my anxiety kicks in sometimes before I shoot dude totally understand to where I'm just like sweating I was nervous before vikon right because I went up there by myself yeah and it doesn't like come off that

[38:52]  way but I don't know man the last like four to five years my anxiety has gotten so bad with with shoots and before work and things like that and then I'll have weeks where I don't feel it at all it's great so it just kind of comes in Ebbs and flows um so headspace is always really important like I'm always trying to stay focused and I've I've noticed as I get a little older especially like lack of sleep with the kid and stuff like my focus can can be very like diluted it makes sometimes difference makes a huge difference sleep is super important and I'm realizing that so I've been working on myself to just try to calm down that anxiety and and do that before shoots in the last like a year it's been really good yeah can I can't say like it's gotten so much better and and just that self-care is so important because if you

[39:40]  are gonna stay in that headspace you're not you're just gonna keep digging yourself down into it and you're just gonna get deeper and deeper so I think what this really comes down to is that sense of self-awareness and what I want to use this opportunity is to cut to your question with garyvee when you ask him can is it possible to have too much self-awareness certain things you don't like about yourself that's judgment that's not self-awareness so has there ever been a time in your life where you have felt like you had too much self-awareness there's no such thing as too much self-awareness there's such a thing as too much judgment on oneself too much self-awareness doesn't have any negative impact if you know more about yourself that's wonderful and everyone here needs to judge themselves just a little less and a little bit of fear may be mixed in there too of course fear is in there and everyone's got fear that's okay it's about giving yourself some Grace it's about taking a deep breath

[40:28]  and understanding we all are going to go through trials and tribulations good and bad don't beat yourself up love yourself yes now something that I love is that you took the opportunity to ask this question and when he answered the question what did he tell you he well he gave me an answer he goes his hands his answer was uh for the first question was is uh there's there's no such thing as too much self-awareness but there is such thing as too much self-judgment and I was like [ __ ] it's like you know I knew he's I know he's right yeah I I know he's right it's just and I kind of knew that you know but and that was I mean I've been trying to do that question I've had that question in my mind for him for six months you know I was like practicing it to you uh in the merch line before I my time was to meet him which I just thought was super nice of you to do but um yeah it was uh it was a really cool answer and what really

[41:18]  struck me was he goes who's gonna like what are you he's like what are you pressured into doing I was like well I'm trying to open up a studio I'm and we are we are opening up a studio in Salt Lake um it's not finalized by any means right now but but we are looking at some spaces and it's gonna be sick and that was the motivation I needed that weekend to do it and he goes what what do you you know what are you slacking on I said well I'm trying to open a studio space and he goes so what like and I go I was what if I run out of money you know and he goes because who cares if you run out of money and I go my daughter and he goes do you know how many [ __ ] kids parents are billionaires and they hate them yeah and I was just like dude I'm overthinking it I'm self-judging like I'm so in my own head about this it's so much lighter from an outsider's perspective and I've put in so much weight on it on the inside of my head it was such a relief dude it was such a cool and and when I walked away he goes

[42:06]  that was two bangers in one I know yeah exactly and the coolest thing was is that your story has been seen like see it's been presented to millions of people yeah and just like you started talking about when you first sat down it's like we hear Gary say the same thing over consistency right over again but sometimes we need to hear it in a little bit of a different fashion for it to hit home for sure and that's why I feel like happened with you yeah yeah absolutely I also am kind of always the person that like like in college and even in high school I didn't care in high school but in college like I'd have to hear it once or I'd have to hear it like twice or someone would have to like show me or act it out I'm always like a visual person or like I'm a very metaphorical like everything always is an example of in my own way you know what I mean um so yeah to hear him kind of say that and break that down I was just like yeah that's that's good and and

[42:56]  I didn't feel as it made me like I got the question answered but I didn't feel as much pressure once it was answered I felt so much pressure just asking the question and that again is his answer it's I'm judging myself yeah so it's just this full circle of of things you learn and and just the fact that I had you know three to four minutes with him was incredible it's all I wanted the whole weekend was all I wanted and I it's like the first thing I did so I was just chilling the whole week I know dude I was like relaxed it was great and that was just uh such a cool experience to kind of see you go through that process because you know I think one of the things that so many people fall victim to today is thinking that we have a completely different perspective than other people right sure so when I put pressure on myself I deal with the exact same stuff it's like I am my own worst

[43:45]  critic and I feel like I'm so much harder on myself oh yeah than I should be and sometimes that refreshing perspective is something that we need to kind of like lift that weight yeah it also gives us like that feeling of shaking off that weight that we're carrying with us yeah it's very those are normal feelings they're not that big of a deal that's a relief right we're our biggest fan we're also our biggest enemy yeah so if you're your biggest fan and you believe in yourself so much then who else is there's no one again we don't have a boss we don't have a boss telling us how [ __ ] shitty we are yeah that's us telling us how shitty we are right and that's the stuff that has to change that's the stuff that like I've been working on for the last year or two and it's a headspace is all it is it's just a mindset and a headspace it's that's what it comes down to so if you can stay working and stay busy that's my most

[44:34]  happiest so I like to stay busy yeah because you're fully present in it correct and I'm not thinking about other things my anxiety is not drifting off somewhere right or in in the creative process there's a natural anxiety and anxiety sounds like a big bad word but you know there's a there's reasons that you get butterflies that are good feelings yeah that's anxiety but it's you know so we don't want to when I say that word I don't want to be negative the whole time right because I can I've had really good anxiety before and it's like blossomed into something incredible yeah um I had a friend tell me one time that was something that was super powerful and it it's perfect for this scenario yeah she told me that anxiety and excited are the same feelings in our body but it's the story that we tell ourselves that makes the biggest difference wow and so when I think about you kind of wow good putting

[45:22]  that pressure on yourself right about having that single shot of Jackie were you anxious in that moment or were you just kind of excited there's so much stuff that you've told yourself about yeah and he's been idolized your entirety that's it dude you know what I mean yeah that's it and I was just so excited but it was in a new scenario it was a new situation it was in a bigger situation and then probably than what I was used to at the time is like 2017 so this was like big you know it's big it was a big deal now but you create that oops you create that in your head to where you get to a point where you say yeah I'm I'm just excited yeah like this it's all I'm just stoked to be here you know what I mean I was a little nervous driving here even um I was like I get to see my boy Keenan like yeah like I'm like I'm going to his house like this is sick you know so it's those are those are natural excited feelings that

[46:09]  um I think it's really important as I get older to make sure that I know the difference between um good anxiety and bad dude but [ __ ] that work is so tough though because I still have that sense of like self-awareness and we keep going back to that word but like the ability to audit those thoughts sure is so tough I led I read a book a couple years ago it's called the untethered soul and an analogy that's made in that book is it talks about that internal voice that we hear as being something that is not ourselves and what that means is if you can hear something you're obviously observing it from a different place sure but often that internal voice has been with us for years 32 34 years now and we often think that it's ourselves and an analogy that he used was let's reframe that internal voice as a roommate and imagine that that roommate was sitting

[46:56]  across the table from you and they were vocally saying everything that that internal voice says so let's imagine that we're going to and we're sitting down for Oppenheimer yeah and that voice is like did I check the laundry did I lock the garage before I left the house yeah and it'll be like dude shut up like we're trying to do what we're doing calm down yeah exactly and just be quiet yeah and like that was a really big reframe for me kind of like repositioning that internal voice but it takes so much work to be able to kind of like sure put the spotlight on that voice every once in a while because that thing often misleads us and tells us information that is so not true that's so true it's like you can't really trust that roommate that's such a such an interesting way to look at it I think that's a lot of times where like your therapist will tell you to like put your hand over your heart or on yourself like when you're telling yourself to like stop thinking that because it's like it's not you you're here you're grounded deep breaths like this is you that is someone else right

[47:45]  yeah I'd kick that roommate out that's all I'm saying yeah yeah yeah not gonna work man well I'm so glad to hear that you know people who are the highest of achievers like yourself who have been and won accolades that other people literally will sacrifice anything for have these common struggles dude that people go through and even like you saying that like that like I get like you know it makes me like it doesn't make me uncomfortable by any means but it just it makes me anxious and again that could just be excitement like you know and it's god dude and that's the that's the funny part is like on Instagram like I have a very like beautiful page but I don't ever talk about like that type of anxiety or depression or anything on that so I was actually really stoked when you asked me to come on here yeah I'm like dude I can

[48:32]  go if you want to go like we've I've been working hard the last four years on that [ __ ] you know so it's it's just crazy like as you get older you start to realize that there are so many other elements in the world that and that make up things whether it's a human or whether it's a place uh it's like a noun a person place or thing like those those actual things can really determine and track your life I guess let me reframe here all of those Outsiders uh all of those outside perspectives the nouns the person places things those are the things that kind of shape us and then everything inside of us is how we internalize it and so if we're not firing you know V8 in here like in clean V8 and fresh oil synthetic like Soldier

[49:20]  was a metaphorical guy yeah exactly like uh if we're not firing on all the Pistons dude we're not it's just it reflects in the art like and it can be in good or bad but you you will notice like if it's a bad time then it's probably going to be a bad product do you know what I mean and just going through that the last four years you have to really like be real with yourself and that's why I appreciated um when you told me what you did like at Francis and I was getting those texts for a while and those were so fun like super cool and like actually really helpful yeah um I even got like excited the second day I got one because it's like what's your favorite thing you know and like it's just it's just cool that um there are tools and resources out there now for something that felt so big and such a burden um because I think what I'm trying to say is you don't realize it's happening when it's

[50:08]  happening and then it could be too late so it's just really important to listen to yourself listen and be in the right headspace and create the right headspace and then if you do need help then just talk about it because honestly the one of the best things I have found is if I'm in a weird situation with anxiety or depression is just literally talking to someone yeah I could literally talk to you about it and you're like cool dude that was me like last week and it's like oh God okay I know it's not just me that's great you know and it's like and it's not um you know I think social media today and we're we're a lot more aware of of those types of things um but it's also a very real thing so being aware of it and having it or or can be two separate things as well but they can feel like the same so just if you feel that way or there's any sort of

[50:57]  anxiousness just know that like it sounds so cliche because I feel like everyone's been saying it but this is the first time I've ever said it um like you should just get help yeah yeah like for real like because I go to a therapist it's it's the best thing in the world yeah hands down and I'm really proud of you for I don't even want to say the word like admitting that you know what I mean because I feel like that's been the narrative in society for so yeah like talk yeah and the thing that I recognize especially when you know you have opportunities to connect with people that you have a similar mindset you have a shared Human Experience correct and this has been my biggest thing about developing Francis in general is like you know I recognize that often we feel like we are alone in these scenarios and unless we can have practical tools that help us kind of tap into that Continuum of improvement sure we're never going to be able to get the long-standing sustainable like positive

[51:46]  impact that we're looking for yeah there's no outcome if there's no income yeah or you know what I mean 100 like there's no there's no way to uh analyze the good if you're only looking at the bad and vice versa right yeah um yeah you're so right and I and I just think it's time like I've been on podcasts before but they're they're talking about lenses and stuff like that you know and I just that's why I like I'll go silent on Instagram like I haven't posted since the garyvee thing I just don't care like right now and I'm it's not that I'm not let me reframe it's not that I don't care I do care I don't want people to see that but that's not that's not the real value like for my business right now like I'm not getting jobs from Instagram yeah I'm making contacts and making meeting people and getting help and doing all that through Instagram which is

[52:33]  incredible but I just I just go through time times where I'm like you know what if I don't feel like doing that then I'm not going to do it and I used to force myself to do things that I didn't want to do and that I also think has helped me a lot um I have a YouTube channel but I'm a cinematographer so I don't like to consider myself a YouTuber yeah but I do these product reviews like for companies because I like to use their products and they pay me to do them right so it's really hard for me sometimes to like bump up in front of a camera and like you know I'll do my script I'll have a teleprompter and everything like I dial it in it's most as good as I can just because I just get I don't know I just like as soon as I get in front of it like it feels this doesn't feel weird but like it just it's a I realize sometimes when I'm in front of the camera why I hide behind it yeah if that

[53:20]  makes sense and to be honest with you I think humans have a natural ability to be able to pick up on that sense of like natural intuition yeah do you know what I mean when things don't feel authentic you can instantaneously pick up on it well especially in today's world because everything feels very authentic or very unauthentic right um an ad on your Instagram can come off very naturally or it can come off really terribly think of the 90s with product placement and sitcoms think of the Pepsi can when the label was perfectly turned yeah to and on friends or something yeah like you're like wow good job Pepsi yeah you did it you know now it's that's our level of competence like from back then like now it's like yeah this doesn't feel natural like that's that's a product placement that's you know that was always the fun thing you could pick out or continuity or something like that but yeah that's it's a whole it's a

[54:08]  whole different thing now yeah I want to re revert back to the garyvee comment of talking about your daughter do you know what I mean so that really resonated with me because when I think about what my responsibility is as a male in the heart lineage is to now start unlocking the mindset barriers that my previous generations have not been able to do my great-grandfather was a sharecropper in Arkansas wow my grandfather was born in 1930 a black man and had to navigate a discriminatory United States my father was the first person who had the opportunity to become an entrepreneur and make a lifestyle for himself right now I have benefited from all of those shoulders that I can stand on but now I feel like I have a

[54:55]  responsibility to continue to run that baton forward to be able to unlock the mindset challenges that really kind of stop us from being our best self and so when I hear Gary talk about you know your daughter is going to be so proud of you for going after it but also the subconscious indicators of the mindset that it takes to like pursue your dreams is so powerful man you know what I mean it's like that simple reframe from my perspective as your friend is just like so powerful and I don't know how you put enough weight on that subconscious example that you're setting for her I probably don't but it's it's a subconscious example so I don't realize it right so it's it's dude I do everything for my daughter and my wife straight up like I'll get emotional talking about it dude like

[55:41]  they're everything yeah they really are like and it makes me it makes it just like I I feel emotional when you say that as well because like once we start Crossing into a threshold of like it's not all about us no this is what it's about yeah and that's like you put so much I'm like getting all teared up now you're fine um you put so much pressure on yourself man and it's it's all because I wanted this and I started this whole thing and but that's the reason like yeah you don't have money that you can't pay for diapers that's what I always say when Mason's crying and I'm trying to like do something I'm like honey I have to make this because you need diapers and food and you don't understand and that's so hard to understand you know but you're right man like I get emotional because that's they're it yeah they're it I mean [ __ ] who cares the nimi it's a trophy

[56:29]  it's all my fireplace yeah exactly look at her she's great you know what I mean those are the type of accomplishments that I feel like are so much more fulfilling and so when we hear the conversations about social media and you see everybody with the lambo and all this other kind of stuff we instantaneously like our lizard brain puts value on those things yes but when you hear the people who are most successful one of the famous things that Gary always talks about is like I would rather be crying in a Ferrari than in a Toyota Prius and it's like if you're saying that you have no [ __ ] idea what the end goal is really about you know what I mean and like that simple reframe is something that's another great analogy is like all the people who are at the top say money doesn't buy happiness but everybody beneath them is like I hear what you're saying but I'm gonna figure it out for myself sure you know what I mean and like that dichotomy

[57:15]  is so interesting to me it's so interesting and then you also have to realize what people think of think of happiness is and how they were born right you just told me like you said you had pressure carrying the Baton forward from all of your like Grandpa and and your father the fact that you had shoulders to stand on [ __ ] dude it's amazing man like that's huge right and and they were put in a different scenario where they had to really battle their way and they've really stood tall in their situation much different than like my grandparents obviously but the point is is you have those shoulders to stand on right and so you have to set those examples I'm going to take it back to Mason my daughter just because I didn't have I don't like I don't consider myself having like a good father example um or a good father's

[58:03]  role my stepfather is amazing right but that Dad that should have been there wasn't so I know exactly what not to do yeah so I'm gonna try everything in my power to make sure that I don't let Mason hang like I got hung and that comes in emotion anxiety depression that comes with the art that I'm doing that that literally everything I'm trying to do in my career and and one like put it all in one bag it's just to hand it to those to my wife and Mason like Yeah and I don't whatever that looks like the creativity the money like whatever I just I want to everyone to be happy in the family I wish health and happiness for my family and I have to start by being a provider and I have to whether I you know if if for some reason something happened and I just I I

[58:51]  went blind you know I think about that all the times like my eyes are the biggest asset everyone's eyes are their biggest asset sometimes because I'm a visual Creator I need my eyes right yeah I need my hands so it's like what happens if you know I don't know I lost my arms or my eyesight or something so I would still try to provide a hundred percent and just be in a different way you know so I guess like it's it comes down to that mindset of the self-awareness comes from trying to be a perfectionist yeah but the fact that we know we are providing you're carrying the Baton forward I'm doing whatever in my power I can to make my family feel healthy and proud and happy what else is there to do in life dude dude I mean like not a lot you know isn't that what it's all about didn't we go there to better ourselves 100 we went

[59:38]  there to better ourselves by ourselves my wife wanted to go so bad I felt so bad because she wanted to go too but then I'm like let me figure this out let me better let me let me work on me you know and it was a really powerful weekend I mean you can always relate back to that weekend because that was the real reason we were there we're there to get motivated we're there to get charged up we're there to push forward you were there to carry the Baton for it so it's just it's um it's crazy when you step back and like break it down like that because you get so caught up in the process that it doesn't feel the value doesn't feel like what we just talked about yeah but in realistically in a full bubble it really is yeah 100 you know one of the things that I think about going to that weekend was it was very scary for me it was like I consider myself very confident right in the things that I have to do I show

[1:00:25]  up every single day for other people yeah you're like a gym rat too like you go to the gym you like work out with Shaq and like yeah you saw that yeah yeah it was wild seeing him there he was the coolest dude but like talking about the weekend was yeah I had to put myself in a scary situation to go show up by myself right to something that I had never gone to before sure and like there were so many moments of me like thinking about going and being like dude should I like bring people with me and then I had that same moment of like I need to just go figure this out for myself same yeah and figure out what happens after that what cool [ __ ] thing that we're able to do a lot of people can't do that man like there's yeah again it's I went back home I flew in by myself I left my kid and my wife in Salt Lake and I went up and we just did that and we knew we were gonna meet people and we met a lot of

[1:01:13]  people that week but you and I and Phil hung out like every day he was sick we were on the same like uh the conversations same panels like there was a very much like a good energy there right but how great is it that you can take a step back and analyze that yeah like because I told you too like I had anxiety [ __ ] dude like walking up I was walking around like uh the White River for an hour before I had saw you and I'm like should I leave oh wow yeah I mean just I don't know why I thought that that's just me in my head I probably wasn't going to yeah like should I just bail yeah like it always that always happens to me I just bail I get chills because I had some of those same experiences that first night we showed up like I didn't know what was gonna go down and I was like I think anyone did no and I was like dude like what do I do so I went and ate food by myself I met a

[1:02:00]  couple people at the bar had some conversations they were also going to vcon and it was very cool to like connect on that yeah but I had some of those same type of thoughts of like am I here or should I just like eliminate my exposure to meeting these new people because it's scary correct but it's like I continue to find as I get older and it's like a continuous lesson that when I put myself in those scary scenarios I grow so much more you know what I mean it was scary to get into they're multipliers they're not dividers they're multipliers dude like straight up you multiplied by eight that weekend right I mean just not I'm not saying you made eight friends but like you literally your power and everything for everyone that you met you got you gained all of their knowledge you got to meet cool people you got motivated by other people the panels were insane dude John Taffer's panel was so good I know but like so like give people uh an

[1:02:48]  understanding of what his panel was about oh John Taffer God what was a reaction create what was it I wrote it down um reaction create see it this is good yeah you remember a lot from Beacon yeah exactly um let me see here I had so many notes um he said something specifically I don't want to mess it up uh okay yeah money is time so they're talking about specifically and it was very relatable because they filmed Bar Rescue and I was on that television show where we filmed in restaurants and it was like a fast-paced show yeah it taught me that you know perfect is better than Perfection or sorry done is better than perfect um so reaction management we create reactions making food for the result everything we do must create reactions so that was kind of what I was saying so everything that drives the story forward

[1:03:36]  this needs to create a reaction like yeah what I mean like something has to happen besides me taking a drink there needs to be a story evolver from whatever just happened yeah it's just like dialogue in a film if something is said that is out of context then you're like what the [ __ ] was that for everything that is said in a movie is a story driver right it drives the story forward never goes back um so that was cool uh the people who create the best reactions win so that was obviously his very uh he was very gung-ho about creating the reaction um Disney is the masters of connectivity and experience and reaction work on it not in it yeah that was pretty cool he said that was his last kind of thing was work on it not in it yeah um I mean has that been something for you as like you're standing up a studio production team stuff like that like often we find ourselves so deep in the

[1:04:23]  process that we are working in our business rather than working on it same thing yeah I think I just think I just said like five minutes ago was like we don't realize when we're working like and all of that happening what we're doing in that process but when you take a step out it's the same thing I are I I have to argue with that comment a little bit because I love my job so much that I have a hard time because my Stu my current studio is is at my home it's out right out like the person yeah it's nice yeah um it's basically uh it's detached from our home it's like 350 square feet and it was a wood shop that the previous owner had built yeah and it's perfect for a studio it's got plenty of power so it's it's really nice um so it's hard for me to turn it off sometimes because when I put my daughter down and I'm not packing to leave or we're not doing something for a local

[1:05:11]  shoot I'm in the studio either setting up something for the next day or just turning something down from that day before you know so yes there's a lot of times where I'm in it and not on it and I think that's something easy for John to say right now yeah because he's established I think it's easy for a lot of people to say um I don't feel like I'm at the point where I can't just be on it yeah I need to be in it so I do argue with that a little bit and I think it's just a time thing I think once I get to a point here in the next maybe four or five years I think then I can be working on it separate but for now I unfortunately I need to invest 100 10 of my time in it yeah and I feel like that's just the season that we're in sure you know what I mean like everybody needs to go through that Rocky cut scene yeah like

[1:05:57]  but it keeps me happy too it does so so why wouldn't I not stay in it for a while yeah you know what I mean absolutely so it's it's um but I still I do I think for someone like John yeah work on and on it get out of your truck or your trailer have your makeup on do your thing yeah do what you need to do boss do it do it good because you're a pro yeah and then get back in there and turn it off the biggest thing that I took away from that panel was the points that you just mentioned but I loved how he talked about the sense of accountability yes of getting the work done done and looking in the mirror and kind of being like am I doing the best job I should be doing because odds are you're being a lazy ass you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing and that's one of the reasons where people play that victim role of not saying like this is all on me and I find an extreme sense of accountability and Power in

[1:06:45]  that resiliency of recognizing that like I am the guy who needs to push this forward sure do you ever feel like that way too yeah and then I also like sometimes when I do that it's almost too late like someone has done something that I think is great or cool or beautiful or successful or whatever that might be yeah then I'm like I need to have been the one to do why didn't I think of that yeah a little jealousy you know what I mean I think that's super normal as humans yeah we just talk about how after John Taffer or one of those panels I stood up and almost passed out in your arms yeah exactly do you remember that I do I do yawned when I stood up and I swear to God I blacked out yeah I like got real woozy I thought you're gonna have to catch me anyways that just came to my head it's like dude what the heck just so excited for Becon that I was just

[1:07:31]  fainting left and right yeah all the celebs so much impact righted me down yeah I thought about that the other day I was like dude that was a weird feeling I was like yeah better better drink some water yeah so I want to switch gears a little bit because something that you mentioned a little bit earlier was technology but you also talked about writers so one thing I know that's happening in the film space in general right now is there's a writer strike going on oh man and an actor strike and an actor strike so what is the temperament of your space right now and how are you guys kind of being impacted by some of the stuff that's happening you know I I can't speak for what's happening in California because it's at the most extreme and I do support everyone striking um you need to get paid yep um execs need to pay their people just how it is luckily I'm in a position to where I don't work with like massive execs on

[1:08:20]  a regular basis like I'm not I'm not driving to Warner Brothers or Paramount every day right in in Burbank or or Hollywood area so um those people are greatly impacted they're you're going to see a hold on uh movies being made in the next four to five months there are shows that I should be filming right now that it literally aren't filming so you're going to be missing your season three of CSI Vegas when it comes out um great show by the way yeah and uh six show um unfortunately it's not a delay so everything's going to be delayed for Real uh even here in Vegas now with what we're doing you know a music video that's not going to delay anything because artist music or you know artists are still making music um commercial work companies still need that stuff they are you know we used um we use actors and really talented people in the Utah area that are with

[1:09:07]  um agencies and nine times out of ten those people aren't striking basically because they're not sag actors right so they're not a part of the Union yeah um so there's just a little there's dynamics that play into that so to answer your question uh probably in Salt Lake not going to impact us a lot it might be harder to shoot the upcoming feature that we're about to start in September yeah um we're trying to figure that out right now um but a lot of difference in the California area and the major areas of New York and the union workers and rightly so yeah I hope that they get it all figured out yeah yeah it's really sad it was just interesting to me because when that all happened um I have my cousin's boyfriend is an actor okay right and he just moved out to the Atlanta area yeah that's hot right now Atlanta is booming same same

[1:09:54]  thing gonna be impacted there too yeah and so he was like dude it's just like there's no jobs going on right now do you know what I mean and I was like man I wonder how Drew is being affected by this process I think you know if you're an actor you're a writer that's obviously that's what's on strike that is the most affected um I think it's at the level of what you're at I am not at the level of working on Hollywood films I'm that's my goal and that's again that's that trajectory that we talked about the start and that's what's at the top of the mountain for me because that's what I want to do I want to I want to get a prime time in me or I want to get an I don't really even really care about the physical thing I just want to work on something that people love um I unfortunately I can't say something with my jobs like I'm I'm gonna make a big difference in the world um I don't you do that like with Francis right I I I find ways to do that through create it creatively through work so if

[1:10:43]  someone can watch a movie and enjoy it and it takes their mind off of something their mental health and they can just absorb that and they really enjoy it and love it then that's my contribution I feel like even in hearing you say that you know that is a little bit dismissive you know what I mean like earlier when you were talking about the Emmy you're like oh maybe I kind of just like rushed over that but the fact that you are creating art that people consume to feel like them most selves is that's so powerful that's value yeah so that's where the value comes in with art right it's just it's no different than a painter painting something and it's finally in that museum he wanted it and there's three people say on the bench with their hands on their knees and they were looking at it for 30 minutes just doing this it's like that's what they want you know what I mean they they're those people who are doing that are super impacted they they're seeing things that most people don't see

[1:11:31]  um it's the same concept it's like you wanna you really want to deliver that story but you you want to make people feel good I mean I think that's what all of this is about in the end is being happy and wishing happy and and not to cut myself off there but Brook said something interesting yesterday my wife she said you know for our family I don't wish happiness I go we can find our own happiness but we I wish Health good health on all of us and I go I said I have to argue with you because I wish both because health and happiness go hand in hand so I think that's what we're trying to do here and I think that's the end goal like I want to make good art that makes people happy you want to make people happy and we want to make sure that everyone knows that we're normal people and we experience all that trial and tribulation through everything as well

[1:12:18]  yeah if you can't be open and honest about it then what the hell are we doing here yeah and I think that's just like such a core value of mine right is the older I get the more I recognize I feel true alignment with myself and I am open and honest sure you know what I mean I spent so much time curating this mask of who I think other people should want to be like and yada yada and it's just like a cyclical cycle that just like drives my mindset down you know what I mean it's like when you're in true alignment with yourself and you're happy and you're doing the things that you want you feel so much lighter yeah and you feel just like so much more in tune and tapped in you know 100 very yeah in tune is a good way to put it you're very like focused it helps with that I think a lot for me specifically and I think that um I do I think it comes down to mindset

[1:13:04]  the whole time I think it's it's all about how you look at things and then that working on yourself that you were just talking about that's not overnight unfortunately so when you're working on yourself you might even feel yourself get down more because you're you know you're putting up your energy into fixing what could be you feel like a problem in your head right or so there's just so many different ways to cope with it and I also think that I think creating that um that headspace and a place to talk about it out loud like this is it's the most helpful thing like I really like there's never been I've never been on a podcast where I can just open up like that you know and hopefully after people listen to this they might understand a little bit more and the thing is is they will yeah you know that's one of the reasons why I created this podcast was to give people an example of these types of conversations because we always tell ourselves this

[1:13:52]  narrative about everybody else is fine and I'm the only one who's going through and we've referenced that a couple times on the podcast today but you know when we can create a space where other people can feel safe and they can connect with our shared experience like we never know how multiplicative that's going to be in somebody's life like we could give the confidence some there could be a filmmaker out there today who's going through these tough times and they hear your story sure and they're like oh my God I'm not the only person who's going through it you know what it means like you're leading by example you're passing that baton forward yes yeah and that's all that's all you want to do like you know and it's like things get intimidating and social media makes people look bigger than they are and people get intimidating it's like dude we're all just trying to make cool it like it's pretty innocent over here you know what I mean like um you know it's like we're a helping hand is is much closer than a [ __ ] slap

[1:14:41]  to the face yeah oh I like that you know what I mean yeah like at least from if you're extending your arm to me for sure yeah I'll just punch you yes um so we talk about social media a little bit and you know one of the things that is really buzzing today is the topic of AI yeah so how is AI impacting your world are there tools are there elements of AI that are being integrated into your workflow how is that kind of space being impacted it's crazy man um first off I'm a huge proponent of AI because I'm not going to be one to sit here and say no it's scary because it's happening either way yeah so I'm gonna go ahead and adapt so um I suggest others doing the same um and it's going to move slower like it moved really fast I feel like the last eight months it was like here's AI yeah do it and then everyone's like all right

[1:15:29]  let's back up a little bit so you know it's what is AI versus what are plugins versus for my programs you know like what is why are we calling this artificial intelligence versus what we might have called it two years ago might have been a Dodger or something like something a different name right so uh yes to answer your question there are a lot of tools that we're using now in Photoshop and Lightroom specifically for photos um I did I did a magazine shoot uh hiking shoot like two weeks ago um shout out to my wife for modeling in that she did awesome we were on a shoot for visit Salt Lake City we were doing some hiking and I got the photos back in uh you know I shot probably 500 photos in two and a half hours and they needed 25. so I go in and I pick the best ones that's a manual process and that's something I want to do to make sure Eyes

[1:16:15]  Are Open there's three people walking you gotta make sure everyone's in sync block so you go in and you you pick your 60 right and then they can pick from 60 and then they'll pick the 25. and um something I applied to every single photo was a noise reduction which automatically gets rid of grain and they call that now an AI noise reduction it's called enhanced noise reduction and it does a really really good job used to when you pull noise it would kind of dissolve your image a little bit yeah what is noise so people who don't know oh sure yeah so noise is like grain um you know in film back in the day everything was really grainy and there's a look for that like it looks great it's why Polaroids look the way they do and excuse me um yeah that's why Polaroids look the way they do XYZ so uh we wanted a real clean look right for these photos are gonna be in a magazine print potentially a billboard so uh cleaned up the noise and

[1:17:02]  that's just from a high ISO and it was sunrise and we had some shade and that was a camera setting so that's cool great then I applied uh a glamor portrait so that automatically now and you'll notice this on your iPhone it'll do it it'll automatically pull the subject off of the background right so if you hold your finger down into portrait mode you'll like pull the sticker yeah so it cuts you it used to be a process to highlight and mask someone you know that used to take time and now it'll identify your three subjects walking and you can slide it you can pop them and then they'll get brighter so if they're in shade then they're only getting brighter and I don't have to draw a mask around them so that's that's saving me time so uh there's that they smooth out skin you can do stuff with hair you can instantly whiten teeth this is all within the latest update of Lightroom yeah now

[1:17:50]  you've seen on Photoshop 2 where if you take a photo and you have this much but you want to create a background that goes this far and expand the photo you can do that you can do adaptive sun sky blue I mean there's just everything so we're calling that AI now so what AI is doing to answer your question is it's speeding up our workflow yeah um how that will Implement into video I'm sure the same way you'll be able to in multi-frames take the subject do those same type of things we're going to need a mad computer to be able to do that and run it for a future you know like yeah you know because with technology comes more you know yes computer processors are getting faster but you're you have to make them faster to keep up right yeah it's not like we're just making them faster for no reason it's because nothing can handle it yeah

[1:18:38]  um so workflow speed yes so I'm I'm super stoked on that I do not know what it's going to do to me like this yeah um that kind of is scary for me and that was where I wanted to take this is like what is the perception of threat of these things sure and I you know you I don't want to look at it as a threat um because I don't I don't want to be I want to be optimistic about it yeah um that's some that's a word that I've tried to be this whole year is optimistic and I felt like I've done a nice job so I'm going to take it with a grain of salt but what I think it is going to do is say with the studio like I am going to have a white psych background right you can pull a car into it it'll be seamless whatever you want to do say I shoot I film you do an interview just like I'm looking at in front of you you're on white um what that will probably allow us to do is without like chromachine or lumikin which is like green screen work

[1:19:24]  I'll be able to you know automatically change the background behind you no problem like you can do that on Zoom right yeah but this is this is just stuff like you could you should be able to do really fast now with like bigger equipment sometimes like people think bigger bigger cameras and things they have that type of Technology no your phone's a little bit smarter but it just can't film the way that a manual camera films right and I because I create all those settings um so you're going to see more of like phone adaptation I think not like you're going to be calling people from a camera but you're going to be being able to pull those things off of the backgrounds obsolete the subjects and and pull things and make them obsolete right um so I think that's going to speed up again our workflow I think you're going to need the right tools and the right knowledge to be able to adapt and use those things so I don't look at it as a thread I just say what do I know now

[1:20:11]  with my education what can I adapt towards that without running away the other way and being scared how can I sell it yes because that's because I'm about to open a studio and when I'm not using the studio others will be renting it I'm going to provide a facility for photographers and cinematographers to shoot their projects because I don't I don't shoot every day so when I'm not shooting let's let other people around the community use the studio and rinse it out and then there's income there and then how can I push that and upsell the AI so I do I think there's tremendous value in it I mean I've been using chat gbt to draft like quick emails yeah I'll I'll do like a it's a very generic and then I'll go in and modify it and personalize it and I have templates now that I've made so I have like a whole thing of follow-up templates introduction templates that I can just boom boom boom and change the x's in for

[1:20:58]  names yeah sorry I didn't mean to say it out loud if you're my client but that's just but that's an efficiency that's not like uh so again I think it comes down to efficiency I think it's going to speed up our workflow with AI we're going to be we're gonna have more time to do other things and and whether that's in a creative space or just whatever you want to do you know um letting it Implement and do its own thing and it's smart I mean it's working so no I'm not scared I'm optimistic and I and I wanna I wanna I want to Branch off on on it you know I want to be able to adapt and I want to be able to implement and then sell I don't know what that looks like though yeah no still very early I totally understand it like even from my entrepreneurial perspective of just like workflow and efficiency so when we would shoot this multi-camera sure podcast right what I used to have to do was send this out to my editor sure who would

[1:21:44]  turn it around in six days you go into like Fiverr or someone yeah we uh we hire some offshore so we outsourced and dedicated editor for us who will turn everything around but in this last week I downloaded Premiere Pro yeah and welcome actually ended up buying a plug-in right which was um what's it called it's called autopod okay so awesome so it cuts to the person talking dude it is so efficient it turned a six day turn down or turn around into like 19 minutes and you did it and I did it yeah do you know what I mean so I was thinking like how does this impact my entire workflow process but also my ability to put out more content so it saves you money because you don't have to pay homie you the amount of time you spent automatically cutting is the amount of time you would have spent sending the files or more Yep so at that point you've not lost any time you actually gained time and you've gained a product

[1:22:32]  um so times that by how many podcasts you do a week okay like that's efficiency bro like that's so that's the optimism that I'm talking about like that's that's the good thing everyone's afraid it's gonna take our jobs and we're gonna be ran by robots no let's all calm down the idea has to be sparked from a human yes okay so AI can take it over and AI can Implement how it wants it to but the idea the creativity Sparks from the brain it's actually from garyvee I know he said I was gonna say the exact same thing but like the one thing that I would love to get your perspective on as a Creator is because things like AI have become so prominent do you feel like they are just raising the bar of mediocrity and now everybody's starting to put out the same type of stuff like Alex hermosi if you haven't heard of him before you introduced me to him yeah so

[1:23:19]  Alex or Mosey he has a Content format and style that blew up over the last couple years and now it seems like everybody is doing those things because AI enables us to do that stuff and so I worry about that creative direction is something that we're losing and everybody's starting to optimize towards this speed and efficiency but but when you turn around everybody looks the exact same and it's like that creativeness is almost being lost because everybody thinks that this is the advantage becoming more Universal right and just becoming more similar the problem is is you are multiplying how much I've used that a lot in this podcast like everything's a multiplier but you are you're you're making times 10 the content and it's under the same maybe AI or format then it's going to look similar yeah right so that's like when I said I'd use chat gbt but I have to go in and modify everything yeah

[1:24:07]  because it uses words that I would not dare use not not because I can't say them but because that's just not true you know what I mean and so you have to personalize it and yeah I think I think you're gonna see a uniform case in some instances and there's people that don't like I we see things so much differently um visually like I I see things when I'm watching movies like I see this far out of I see this far out of the screen you know what I mean like I you get this and I see where the lights are coming from and I can tell you what the kit I can probably tell you what lens they're using and just movies around but like it's the same thing you're looking at it from a different dynamic because you understand AI right someone who doesn't have a lot of experience today and who knows we all might have experience in AI everyone from the guy sleeping on the Strip he might know just as much as we

[1:24:54]  do because it's going to be so Universal and easy to use right so we don't know what that looks like but it's about how much you know about it and how at this point you are you're figuring out the differences between what that could be and the similarities and there's people out there that are slower at adapting to that and so they're not seeing that yeah so that's something you kind of have to think about too in your own question is like you and I are like and probably people watching are like a little bit ahead and they've been messing with it yeah 100 and so they are seeing how it's being implemented and kind of the similarities of the functionality and the tools so then I think as time goes on those tools are going to change yeah it's just all about how you implement them yeah I feel like we're in a very unique space being in our early 30s we came from a place where there was no technology right yeah I mean we remember

[1:25:41]  the snake Nokia like that was the big you were I was like seven and I was like what is this right there's a game on a phone and the phone is not have a coily cord yeah exactly now like look at us we've got it's just nuts it's nuts because I feel like you know and I heard my buddy gave me an analogy of this he was like when people have a conversation about AI there's always going to be a moral panic but it often comes from the people who are like 35 37 almost into their 40s because they came from a place where this wasn't real yes but we have a generation of creators who are coming behind us who have been enabled with these tools who are now going to be like this is how it's always been so I'm interested see how we kind of get pressed from the back because oh we're getting pushed we're getting poked at because if we don't Implement then we're going to be outdated then and then

[1:26:28]  they're going to take over yep which is fine like that's just the nature of that's how it works so you have to find again the studio spit you have to find ways that are bigger than the little product being put out with the help of AI or not you know what I mean so you're setting yourself apart and being different but you're right we are we're getting we're getting a lighter under our ass and then unfortunately you can't talk to anyone older than us that would maybe invest in AI not everyone excuse me like garyvee um is really good at talking about that and talking about AI he understands it and he understands where it's going anyone else that age right now does not you talk to uh I had a I had a meeting with close family members um like two or three months ago and they were talking about like investing in

[1:27:15]  like doing something in like a group as like a family and I'm like Ai and you know like robots no like just very different approach like not even a thought um yeah so I I do feel that I feel pressure from behind and then I feel like we're the middlemen that um we're gonna be the last ones to take it over and we're the ones learning it and then they're just it's adapt they're adapting to it yeah you know so it's interesting to if you break it down but again I don't think it's scary I think it's a tool I think it's no different than a new camera that comes there's you know 100 new cameras that come out a year and they can do new things so you know maybe there's a camera that comes out in five years that has some sort of AI technology in it yeah so question for you is when you were early in your career and you were I'm gonna say

[1:28:02]  betting the house on video how does it feel to recognize that the world has kind of come to you does that make sense in that question yeah yeah I mean I don't feel like I don't feel like the world's coming to me I will say that okay um but what I do feel is I'm I'm proud of of my work yeah um you know this is a different type of conversation with like the Emmy right where I'm putting it on a pedestal but you know I am I am proud of the some of the stuff we've made I'm proud of the contacts that I've made yeah um I'm yeah so it's I never would have I mean I have no regrets that's one thing um but where where my trouble comes in is I'm being impatient and that's why I look at your

[1:28:51]  shirt a lot and that's why I'm such a believer about patient panda is because and Gary will tell you too like I should have you know in my head I should have had that studio space at 29 yeah like I should have and I'm 34 now so it's all right what am I doing I start so I start thinking that way and it's like dude you've been [ __ ] working like you've been doing things like what did you do in the last four years well you got the the the golden trophy so like those types of things that I need to make sure that I'm being patient and all these things are coming in the right time because if they came too early then I would probably they would have probably dissolved yeah um or I wouldn't be able to found a way to sustain them um to the level that I could now yeah so everything does happen in Good Times so um I think about that question like sometimes like do you have regrets or like kind of kind of reframed your question but no I think that I think

[1:29:41]  everything is in good time I just got to make sure I'm remembering to be patient yeah um because that's a huge part of my entrepreneurial career as well so when I first got into business it was 2014 I started a Telehealth company okay and so from 2014 until 20 doctors yes yeah and for years I was going into hospitals and talking to these highly qualified phds and these doctors and MDS and talking about hey this is going to be the future sure and I was met with 99.6 of rejection people are like this is not true like there's no way nobody's going to want to kind of connect with their doctor on video it takes away from the entire experience and then the pandemic occurs yeah sure and it's like I've always had kind of a natural sense to look around corners I love that but a huge part of that mindset has been like you have to at some point in time plant your flag in the ground and then wait

[1:30:28]  for everybody to come to you if you're truly confident and so that's why I asked that question because you've been on this journey for so long and especially in the world of Entrepreneurship and business videos becoming such a huge element of all that for sure and now people are playing catch-up but you've been in this space and you're just like one of the OG's who's like okay welcome everybody I told you this was going to happen it's a weird space to be in and it's not like you can't call everything you know and I think we have a really good at like back to the AI conversation I think you and I have a really good understanding of what that's probably going to be yeah and I do have a feeling like what we just talked about that's probably gonna happen so we are probably both peeking around the same corner there but yeah I yeah you're right you have to be patient you got to wait for people to come to you and and trust me there's people that I want to come to me that don't and there's clients that other competitors have that I want and I won't get them

[1:31:16]  and so there's always that there's always that other side but there's so much more good than bad and there's so much there's so much learning experience within all of this yeah um that I do think that I am in fact on time and I do think that this year the end of this year or the start of next year is going to be huge and I will say that you guys have not seen a [ __ ] thing because yeah wait until you see this feature coming out it's it's going to be good yeah so I'm that's the type of motivation and that's the spirit that I need to keep going um whether that comes off like arrogant or not it's more just excitement yeah excitement and I feel like that sense of like honest confidence is something that more people need do you know what I mean because well trust me this is this is rare yeah like it's so rare like honest confidence it's something that's been been being worked on like again just

[1:32:04]  back to the same conversation from earlier yeah it's a it's there are days where I will never say that or thought I would say that you know there are days that I can say it you know it's cool well part of what I'm really excited about is today we are filming this yes we're giving nuggets towards the future but I'm excited to be able to bring you back next year or whenever that happens and be able to kind of talk about this experience and kind of putting those flags in the ground of being able to establish like you said it yeah and look what happened yeah like mile markers right yeah how about this how about we reconnect within the next year once the studio is built you come to Salt Lake I'd love that and we'll have a podcast Corner yeah because I used to be on a puck like we used to host a podcast yeah and we're gonna bring it back once the studio gets established how about you come over and then we'll do the heart and hustle from Salt Lake I would love that man and we'll we'll do the studio we'll do it all right we'll get you

[1:32:51]  we'll get you dialed in for whatever you need for that for Francis and I think that would be sick yeah brother yeah well I just want to say you know we're coming up on the hour and a half mark now it has been an absolute pleasure thank you so much for not only being my friend but being willing to kind of be honest and vulnerable into this conversation yeah sorry for the tears I just like if I talk about apologize dude I'm just like all right that's it for me like that's like that's where my heart is you know yeah you know it's like just do what it just comes down to like I'm I'm very lucky like I get to do what I love but it's also been like a work in progress ever since I started and there are days where nothing feels perfect or nothing's right and then there's days where it's just all smooth sailings and today is one of those days and I'm so glad that we were able to connect just like this I was so excited when you asked me to be on the story and origin

[1:33:40]  story of how we met is so unique and and cool and um it just shows that everyone that was in that area that weekend all had the same mindset and goals and ideas and the fact that you and I can sit here in Las Vegas across the country from where we met um is there's something special about that and I can't wait to build on that well it's a true blessing man and I just can't thank you enough seriously yeah thanks for having me on absolutely all right I uh I'm gonna go back to my hotel and uh try not to melt yeah exactly bro it is 100 117 degrees here yeah welcome to Vegas and um you know what I got my new my new Stanley Cup champs hat for the nights I'm a big nights fan so I'll be back in a month to see you the hopefully it's a

[1:34:26]  little cooler we'll do it man sounds like a plan I appreciate you guys thanks once again for tuning in once again let's give a lot of credit and thanks to Drew for hopping on today thanks guys being somebody who just completely demonstrates heart and hustle for us thanks man 43productions.com we'll see you soon all right cool thanks Keenan thanks bro