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The trials and tribulations of sex doll manufacturing.By Anonymous Perv. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Yeah, yeah. You're thinking, 'Who the fuck names their story 'The Sex Doll Crime Spree?', but after you hear this, you'll understand why it fitsThis whole business is madness. I guess when one works at a sex doll factory, one should expect to have a memorable experience here and there, but what happened to me is almost too much to swallow. No pun intended. Allow me to start at the beginning.I didn't want to work at a sex doll factory. It was never an aspiration of mine. I just needed a decent paying job. I had made it through three years of college before dropping out, bored to tears, thanks to my ADHD. The most I got out of that experience was a mountain of debt and a bitter ex-boyfriend. I needed to make more money if I was ever going to get out from under it, so when Brody Pastel offered me a job at 'Brody's Bodies,' I jumped on it.Brody is a good friend of my old boss, Carl Casta. I handled desk duties at his company, Casta Creative. I just refer to them as CC. I did stuff like billing, scheduling, along with the occasional pagination job. I was a glorified office secretary, nothing more. Carl often raved about me, telling Brody things like, "Samantha Dunning is a breath of fresh air!", "We'd be lost without Sam!" On and on. These days, Carl jokes about how he should have kept his stupid mouth shut, because Brody offered me double what I was earning at CC to come work for him. Brody said he'd been through four terrible assistants over two years and needed someone dependable and capable. Carl assured Brody that I met those qualifications and I was grateful to them both for allowing me the opportunity to switch jobs for better pay. However, I was apprehensive about working for a place called Brody's Bodies.There are several high-end manufacturers of sex dolls on the planet. I mean that in the literal sense. Several. Very few. Brody Pastel is considered one of the best in the business, offering sex dolls that can be manipulated and moved like real human bodies, with proper weight and weight distribution (very important, so they say). These dolls can be propped in nearly any position. They can even stand, balancing almost as well as any person would. For this and other reasons, Brody Pastel was considered a genius in the industry.Personally, I'm no fan of the merchandise. All the dolls are made up to look like oversexed Barbie's, yet with even more ridiculous proportions than those plastic classics. I'm not sure why the physical appearance of the sex dolls bothers me so much, considering they are literal sex objects. I guess I just find it insulting to real women with real figures.I'd probably been working a week or so when I met Jennifer Pastel for the first time. She looked quite a bit like the dolls we sell, with a healthy six figures of plastic surgery performed on her. "Hi, honey. I'm here to see Brody," she said while strolling past my desk at the front of the office."Shall I tell him who;" I tried to stop her, but she was long gone. She walked with confidence, knowing her exact destination."That's Brody's ex, Jennifer," said Pete Unger, behind me. His office was the first past mine, just off the west hallway. He must have just stepped outside his door when Jennifer came in. "Those two are in the midst of a divorce. They still haven't settled their; well, you know; who-gets-what-and-how-much issues; Jennifer thinks she's entitled to more than half.""More than half?""Yeah, she's bat-shit. She was one of our first models, and the doll fashioned after her is still one of our most popular; but that's the most she ever contributed to the company. Jennifer's never actually worked a day in her life.""Oh. How long were they married?""I dunno. A few years, maybe? Let's see; yeah;" Pete looked up, squinting, trying to reach back into his memory banks. Finally, he relaxed and answered, "It would be almost five years, I guess. But for the last year or so, they haven't been around each other very much.""What's going to happen?""I'm sure Brody paid for a good lawyer. This will cost him, but it won't break him.""I hope not." I said."You wouldn't be here otherwise, Miss Harper.""Please, call me Samantha. Or Sam.""Alright, Sam. Brody's a good guy, you'll see. Pays us what we're worth; expects reasonable results in return. You found a good place to plant your feet, career wise.""Really?""I mean it. I'm not just being a cheerleader for the company. Brody is a good leader. Solid guy. I suppose there might be better bosses out there, but they would be hard to find.""That's good to know. Mr. Pastel said he had so much trouble keeping help, I was worried he might be a bit of a tyrant or something.""Brody is no tyrant. We just have the worst luck with finding decent help.""I hope to change that," I said, thinking on it a bit more. Why would anyone perform poorly when this place pays so well and everyone seems so nice? Maybe people just didn't like the idea of working for a sex doll company. Again, I wasn't thrilled about it myself. In fact, I didn't even tell my friends. When the subject of my career comes up, I just say I handle administrative duties. It sounds boring enough that no one ever asks follow-up questions. I certainly don't mention anything about the sex dolls in various stages of production in the workshop.Jennifer Pastel didn't stay long. Before Pete and I finished our conversation, we could hear her heels click-clacking far down the hall, coming our way. The footsteps were loud, which I interpreted as anger. Judging from the expression on her face, it seemed I was accurate. As Jennifer exited the front door, Pete whispered, "I wonder what set her off. Usually, she's calm as a cucumber."That was quickly answered when Brody approached a moment later. "Jennifer just found out I pulled her models.""Wait, what? You pulled her models? Even the latest, upgraded version?" Pete sounded incredulous.Brody nodded, "Yup, we'll make a better one. No more royalties for that terrible woman. And because of some good intel that my P I picked up, Jen will be lucky to make it out of this divorce with much of anything. It will be a very modest figure. No house, no additional cars, nothing. But if she were smart, she could still retire on it. Knowing her, it'll be drained within a year."Pete was belly laughing. "Really? You stiffed her?""She stiffed herself."Pete was red in the face, happy. "Boss, if anyone deserves it; ""Maybe; but it doesn't make me feel great. Her loss, though." Brody glanced to me. "I won't bore you with details, but I really loved that woman and she blew it."I wasn't quite sure how to respond. I said, "Some people just don't know how good they have it, sir.""You got that right," affirmed Pete.Brody waved it off, "I'm just glad it's over. Except we need a new model developed and fast. Before that Eros project starts next month.""Eros?" I asked. I didn't know many details of the ins and outs of the business yet. Still learning.Pete answered for Brody, "The 'Jennifer 5' was one of the models slated for the Eros-A I project." I still wasn't registering any knowledge of anything and Pete picked up on my ignorance. He sighed, trying to explain in more detail. "This Japanese company, Eros A I, is installing an artificial intelligence for a new, life-moving model. It will work in several different ways: by remote control, a programmed sequence, or its own responsive A I Even a combination of those choices will work. It is advanced robotics and artificial intelligence combined, Samantha. We provide the bodies. Eros-A I provides the brains and robotics.""Wait. Really? Like sex-bots?""Yeah, but the frame has to be a perfect. Three hundred-sixty different joints of varying types, fully functional. You should see how the hydraulics work with this, Samantha. It's astounding.""I bet." Hell, they already had me believing it would be the next big thing. I'm sure they knew what they were doing.Brody was just about to leave when he stopped, turning back. Without saying a word, he looked me up and down and grunted a couple times. I was about to say something when he finally spoke, "Pete, do you remember when we talked about making a GND model?""I've been saying we should be offering one for ages, Brody. Why?""I'll bet we could convince Eros to let us use our new GND model as one of the test pilots in this project. We'll replace the Jennifer-5 with it.""But we don't have a GND model."Curiosity got the better of me and I interrupted the two men, "What is a GND model?"Pete answered, "Girl Next Door. A model that is cute, but without being overtly sexual like our main line of products."I smiled wide, beaming. Finally! Again, why did I care? For some reason, I did. "I think that is a great idea! All your products are; well, you know; built like porn stars. Maybe some guys don't like that."Brody asked, "Why don't you reach out to one of the modelling agencies, Pete?""Modeling agencies?" I asked.Pete sighed, "Yeah, we need some girl who doesn't mind being the image for a new sex doll. Or, as Samantha just said, a 'sex-bot' in this case."I was still curious and asked, "But why do you need to model the product after a real person? Don't you have to pay royalties by doing that?"Brody explained, "Yes, either royalties for using their likeness with each and every sale, or a straight buy off. Depends on the contractual arrangements. But the reason we use actual models is simple. If we didn't, and a product we made just happened to look like someone in the real world, that person could potentially sue us. Though they may not even win the case, it costs a lot in legal fees to go to court. So when this comes up - and believe me, it always does - it's easier to show that the products were designed after actual models, with contracts signed and photographic evidence. It closes all arguments and prevents these lawsuits from ever moving forward. Weighing risks, rewards, and costs, we always go with using real women as the models to our products. In Jennifer's case, she was getting $1,400 for each model sold with her likeness.""Really?""Yeah, and what?" Brody asked, turning to Pete. "We sold over a hundred of her models last year, right, Pete?""Almost two hundred."Numbers ran in my head. That meant Jennifer made over a quarter million dollars in royalties alone last year, doing nothing but sitting on her ass. "Why wouldn't you pay a one-time fee?" I asked."Well, some models are fashioned after specific adult actresses or streamers. These women have a following and their fans specifically order from us to get these models. Hence, why so many of our products look like porn stars. They're literally modeled after them. Jennifer, for instance, used to be one of the highest earning exotic dancers in the nation. She's still got a large online following, too. But let's say it's a lesser-known person who models for us. We might pay a one-time fee if the model would agree to that. To allow us to use her image indefinitely.""And indefinitely is a long time," whispered Pete."Right," affirmed Brody. "Attitudes could change over the years, so we actually encourage the models to choose a royalty. It gives the models more control. We just include the cost of the royalty fee to the end customer.""Alright, I get it. Makes sense," I said.Brody switched back to his former thought. "Pete, since we're dropping Jen's models, let's push that GND project up immediately, ahead of anything else. Find someone today. I want all digital imaging done by Friday, if possible.""Friday? But Brody, today is Wednesday.""How hard can it be to find a model? Just call the agencies.""Yeah, but you brought up the theme, Brody. All the models at the agencies have stereotypical, hot bodies. Don't you want something more like;" Pete paused, trying to think up an actress or someone famous, when he pointed at me. "I dunno; more like Sam here?" I didn't know whether to be insulted or flattered. I worked hard to look good. Maybe not like a porn star, but still.Brody eyed me up and down. "Yeah, she's what gave me the idea, actually. Find someone like Sam." His eyes dropped to my hips and then back up. He tilted his head. "Nice up top;" His eyes then went back to my hips and his voice softened, "cute, round bottom; " I think Brody realized it was probably inappropriate to measure up an employee in such a sexual manner, regardless of the workplace environment. He stopped himself.Pete didn't seem to be reading the room, either. "Why not Sam herself?" he boomed. "If we specifically want someone cute and unknown, she fits the bill." Pete turned to me. "And I think you can negotiate something like six hundred a unit. For your royalty fee.""That's fair," said Brody, pointing, "But don't push it.""Wait, what?" I cried. "You mean, if you use my likeness on a sex doll, you'll pay me six hundred dollars for every sale?"Pete nodded. "Oh yeah, and expect sixty or seventy to be sold in the first six months. If we also use your likeness on the more advanced bots; well, I'm sure you can guess we're going to sell thousands of those, supposing the final product comes out as we hope."Fuck my modesty and any issues I had with working for a sex-doll company. You'd have done the same thing. I signed a contract no more than an hour later.Beta TestingThe finished product came out far better than what anyone could have hoped. Eros A I was way ahead of the game and obviously made sure their software and robotics worked, before investing with us on the molds and exterior details. They just needed Brody to come through on his end, and wow, did he ever. The bots could walk, hop, run, write, juggle, you name it. It took some tweaking here and there, but the work came along astoundingly fast. It was clear our partner company was creating and utilizing cutting edge technology, considering the advanced robotics at play. However, there was still something slightly 'off' about the sex-bots into the second month of trials and I was the one who figured it out. When not doing anything, they were perfectly still. They had a few loops of animation, but it felt programmed, even if it was randomized. Things like blinking, sighing, and looking around the room. The trick was the bots needed to 'breathe' authentically -- they needed to move their chest and stomach in the same kind of breathing patterns that we all do. What many people don't realize is that breathing patterns also include sporadic, heavy breaths. Eros A I brought in an American programmer named Eric Parsons who worked with me and Brody, measuring and recording my own breathing. Then, with a few days of Eric coding and tweaking, we had it all down. To be fair, I couldn't believe what I was staring at. It was like a clone. An exact duplicate of me.Modeling DutiesI thought back to the day I first agreed to do this; that day Pete suggested I be the model for the new product. I was mortified to discover I had to be stark naked around my colleagues as they took intricately detailed measurements of my body, as well as 3D laser scans to pull a perfect image. I remember Pete tried to make me feel comfortable when I first dropped my robe."It's just for a day or two, Sam. I know this is; weird; " As Pete spoke he tried to avert his eyes from my naked body. I appreciated the effort, but I knew he enjoyed seeing me this way. That was apparent by the action in his pants. "; but once we get these scans, you won't have to do this again.""Uh, that's good," I replied. "It is a bit unsettling. I've never done anything like this before.""Very few have," Pete chuckled."I mean, getting naked in front of people. Thanks for not making it too weird." I was lying. It was very weird. But I admit, it also turned me on a little. I caught Brody catching an erection around me, too. It was kind of hot knowing that my body turned them on.

The trials and tribulations of sex doll manufacturing.By Anonymous Perv. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Yeah, yeah. You're thinking, 'Who the fuck names their story 'The Sex Doll Crime Spree?', but after you hear this, you'll understand why it fitsThis whole business is madness. I guess when one works at a sex doll factory, one should expect to have a memorable experience here and there, but what happened to me is almost too much to swallow. No pun intended. Allow me to start at the beginning.I didn't want to work at a sex doll factory. It was never an aspiration of mine. I just needed a decent paying job. I had made it through three years of college before dropping out, bored to tears, thanks to my ADHD. The most I got out of that experience was a mountain of debt and a bitter ex-boyfriend. I needed to make more money if I was ever going to get out from under it, so when Brody Pastel offered me a job at 'Brody's Bodies,' I jumped on it.Brody is a good friend of my old boss, Carl Casta. I handled desk duties at his company, Casta Creative. I just refer to them as CC. I did stuff like billing, scheduling, along with the occasional pagination job. I was a glorified office secretary, nothing more. Carl often raved about me, telling Brody things like, "Samantha Dunning is a breath of fresh air!", "We'd be lost without Sam!" On and on. These days, Carl jokes about how he should have kept his stupid mouth shut, because Brody offered me double what I was earning at CC to come work for him. Brody said he'd been through four terrible assistants over two years and needed someone dependable and capable. Carl assured Brody that I met those qualifications and I was grateful to them both for allowing me the opportunity to switch jobs for better pay. However, I was apprehensive about working for a place called Brody's Bodies.There are several high-end manufacturers of sex dolls on the planet. I mean that in the literal sense. Several. Very few. Brody Pastel is considered one of the best in the business, offering sex dolls that can be manipulated and moved like real human bodies, with proper weight and weight distribution (very important, so they say). These dolls can be propped in nearly any position. They can even stand, balancing almost as well as any person would. For this and other reasons, Brody Pastel was considered a genius in the industry.Personally, I'm no fan of the merchandise. All the dolls are made up to look like oversexed Barbie's, yet with even more ridiculous proportions than those plastic classics. I'm not sure why the physical appearance of the sex dolls bothers me so much, considering they are literal sex objects. I guess I just find it insulting to real women with real figures.I'd probably been working a week or so when I met Jennifer Pastel for the first time. She looked quite a bit like the dolls we sell, with a healthy six figures of plastic surgery performed on her. "Hi, honey. I'm here to see Brody," she said while strolling past my desk at the front of the office."Shall I tell him who;" I tried to stop her, but she was long gone. She walked with confidence, knowing her exact destination."That's Brody's ex, Jennifer," said Pete Unger, behind me. His office was the first past mine, just off the west hallway. He must have just stepped outside his door when Jennifer came in. "Those two are in the midst of a divorce. They still haven't settled their; well, you know; who-gets-what-and-how-much issues; Jennifer thinks she's entitled to more than half.""More than half?""Yeah, she's bat-shit. She was one of our first models, and the doll fashioned after her is still one of our most popular; but that's the most she ever contributed to the company. Jennifer's never actually worked a day in her life.""Oh. How long were they married?""I dunno. A few years, maybe? Let's see; yeah;" Pete looked up, squinting, trying to reach back into his memory banks. Finally, he relaxed and answered, "It would be almost five years, I guess. But for the last year or so, they haven't been around each other very much.""What's going to happen?""I'm sure Brody paid for a good lawyer. This will cost him, but it won't break him.""I hope not." I said."You wouldn't be here otherwise, Miss Harper.""Please, call me Samantha. Or Sam.""Alright, Sam. Brody's a good guy, you'll see. Pays us what we're worth; expects reasonable results in return. You found a good place to plant your feet, career wise.""Really?""I mean it. I'm not just being a cheerleader for the company. Brody is a good leader. Solid guy. I suppose there might be better bosses out there, but they would be hard to find.""That's good to know. Mr. Pastel said he had so much trouble keeping help, I was worried he might be a bit of a tyrant or something.""Brody is no tyrant. We just have the worst luck with finding decent help.""I hope to change that," I said, thinking on it a bit more. Why would anyone perform poorly when this place pays so well and everyone seems so nice? Maybe people just didn't like the idea of working for a sex doll company. Again, I wasn't thrilled about it myself. In fact, I didn't even tell my friends. When the subject of my career comes up, I just say I handle administrative duties. It sounds boring enough that no one ever asks follow-up questions. I certainly don't mention anything about the sex dolls in various stages of production in the workshop.Jennifer Pastel didn't stay long. Before Pete and I finished our conversation, we could hear her heels click-clacking far down the hall, coming our way. The footsteps were loud, which I interpreted as anger. Judging from the expression on her face, it seemed I was accurate. As Jennifer exited the front door, Pete whispered, "I wonder what set her off. Usually, she's calm as a cucumber."That was quickly answered when Brody approached a moment later. "Jennifer just found out I pulled her models.""Wait, what? You pulled her models? Even the latest, upgraded version?" Pete sounded incredulous.Brody nodded, "Yup, we'll make a better one. No more royalties for that terrible woman. And because of some good intel that my P I picked up, Jen will be lucky to make it out of this divorce with much of anything. It will be a very modest figure. No house, no additional cars, nothing. But if she were smart, she could still retire on it. Knowing her, it'll be drained within a year."Pete was belly laughing. "Really? You stiffed her?""She stiffed herself."Pete was red in the face, happy. "Boss, if anyone deserves it; ""Maybe; but it doesn't make me feel great. Her loss, though." Brody glanced to me. "I won't bore you with details, but I really loved that woman and she blew it."I wasn't quite sure how to respond. I said, "Some people just don't know how good they have it, sir.""You got that right," affirmed Pete.Brody waved it off, "I'm just glad it's over. Except we need a new model developed and fast. Before that Eros project starts next month.""Eros?" I asked. I didn't know many details of the ins and outs of the business yet. Still learning.Pete answered for Brody, "The 'Jennifer 5' was one of the models slated for the Eros-A I project." I still wasn't registering any knowledge of anything and Pete picked up on my ignorance. He sighed, trying to explain in more detail. "This Japanese company, Eros A I, is installing an artificial intelligence for a new, life-moving model. It will work in several different ways: by remote control, a programmed sequence, or its own responsive A I Even a combination of those choices will work. It is advanced robotics and artificial intelligence combined, Samantha. We provide the bodies. Eros-A I provides the brains and robotics.""Wait. Really? Like sex-bots?""Yeah, but the frame has to be a perfect. Three hundred-sixty different joints of varying types, fully functional. You should see how the hydraulics work with this, Samantha. It's astounding.""I bet." Hell, they already had me believing it would be the next big thing. I'm sure they knew what they were doing.Brody was just about to leave when he stopped, turning back. Without saying a word, he looked me up and down and grunted a couple times. I was about to say something when he finally spoke, "Pete, do you remember when we talked about making a GND model?""I've been saying we should be offering one for ages, Brody. Why?""I'll bet we could convince Eros to let us use our new GND model as one of the test pilots in this project. We'll replace the Jennifer-5 with it.""But we don't have a GND model."Curiosity got the better of me and I interrupted the two men, "What is a GND model?"Pete answered, "Girl Next Door. A model that is cute, but without being overtly sexual like our main line of products."I smiled wide, beaming. Finally! Again, why did I care? For some reason, I did. "I think that is a great idea! All your products are; well, you know; built like porn stars. Maybe some guys don't like that."Brody asked, "Why don't you reach out to one of the modelling agencies, Pete?""Modeling agencies?" I asked.Pete sighed, "Yeah, we need some girl who doesn't mind being the image for a new sex doll. Or, as Samantha just said, a 'sex-bot' in this case."I was still curious and asked, "But why do you need to model the product after a real person? Don't you have to pay royalties by doing that?"Brody explained, "Yes, either royalties for using their likeness with each and every sale, or a straight buy off. Depends on the contractual arrangements. But the reason we use actual models is simple. If we didn't, and a product we made just happened to look like someone in the real world, that person could potentially sue us. Though they may not even win the case, it costs a lot in legal fees to go to court. So when this comes up - and believe me, it always does - it's easier to show that the products were designed after actual models, with contracts signed and photographic evidence. It closes all arguments and prevents these lawsuits from ever moving forward. Weighing risks, rewards, and costs, we always go with using real women as the models to our products. In Jennifer's case, she was getting $1,400 for each model sold with her likeness.""Really?""Yeah, and what?" Brody asked, turning to Pete. "We sold over a hundred of her models last year, right, Pete?""Almost two hundred."Numbers ran in my head. That meant Jennifer made over a quarter million dollars in royalties alone last year, doing nothing but sitting on her ass. "Why wouldn't you pay a one-time fee?" I asked."Well, some models are fashioned after specific adult actresses or streamers. These women have a following and their fans specifically order from us to get these models. Hence, why so many of our products look like porn stars. They're literally modeled after them. Jennifer, for instance, used to be one of the highest earning exotic dancers in the nation. She's still got a large online following, too. But let's say it's a lesser-known person who models for us. We might pay a one-time fee if the model would agree to that. To allow us to use her image indefinitely.""And indefinitely is a long time," whispered Pete."Right," affirmed Brody. "Attitudes could change over the years, so we actually encourage the models to choose a royalty. It gives the models more control. We just include the cost of the royalty fee to the end customer.""Alright, I get it. Makes sense," I said.Brody switched back to his former thought. "Pete, since we're dropping Jen's models, let's push that GND project up immediately, ahead of anything else. Find someone today. I want all digital imaging done by Friday, if possible.""Friday? But Brody, today is Wednesday.""How hard can it be to find a model? Just call the agencies.""Yeah, but you brought up the theme, Brody. All the models at the agencies have stereotypical, hot bodies. Don't you want something more like;" Pete paused, trying to think up an actress or someone famous, when he pointed at me. "I dunno; more like Sam here?" I didn't know whether to be insulted or flattered. I worked hard to look good. Maybe not like a porn star, but still.Brody eyed me up and down. "Yeah, she's what gave me the idea, actually. Find someone like Sam." His eyes dropped to my hips and then back up. He tilted his head. "Nice up top;" His eyes then went back to my hips and his voice softened, "cute, round bottom; " I think Brody realized it was probably inappropriate to measure up an employee in such a sexual manner, regardless of the workplace environment. He stopped himself.Pete didn't seem to be reading the room, either. "Why not Sam herself?" he boomed. "If we specifically want someone cute and unknown, she fits the bill." Pete turned to me. "And I think you can negotiate something like six hundred a unit. For your royalty fee.""That's fair," said Brody, pointing, "But don't push it.""Wait, what?" I cried. "You mean, if you use my likeness on a sex doll, you'll pay me six hundred dollars for every sale?"Pete nodded. "Oh yeah, and expect sixty or seventy to be sold in the first six months. If we also use your likeness on the more advanced bots; well, I'm sure you can guess we're going to sell thousands of those, supposing the final product comes out as we hope."Fuck my modesty and any issues I had with working for a sex-doll company. You'd have done the same thing. I signed a contract no more than an hour later.Beta TestingThe finished product came out far better than what anyone could have hoped. Eros A I was way ahead of the game and obviously made sure their software and robotics worked, before investing with us on the molds and exterior details. They just needed Brody to come through on his end, and wow, did he ever. The bots could walk, hop, run, write, juggle, you name it. It took some tweaking here and there, but the work came along astoundingly fast. It was clear our partner company was creating and utilizing cutting edge technology, considering the advanced robotics at play. However, there was still something slightly 'off' about the sex-bots into the second month of trials and I was the one who figured it out. When not doing anything, they were perfectly still. They had a few loops of animation, but it felt programmed, even if it was randomized. Things like blinking, sighing, and looking around the room. The trick was the bots needed to 'breathe' authentically -- they needed to move their chest and stomach in the same kind of breathing patterns that we all do. What many people don't realize is that breathing patterns also include sporadic, heavy breaths. Eros A I brought in an American programmer named Eric Parsons who worked with me and Brody, measuring and recording my own breathing. Then, with a few days of Eric coding and tweaking, we had it all down. To be fair, I couldn't believe what I was staring at. It was like a clone. An exact duplicate of me.Modeling DutiesI thought back to the day I first agreed to do this; that day Pete suggested I be the model for the new product. I was mortified to discover I had to be stark naked around my colleagues as they took intricately detailed measurements of my body, as well as 3D laser scans to pull a perfect image. I remember Pete tried to make me feel comfortable when I first dropped my robe."It's just for a day or two, Sam. I know this is; weird; " As Pete spoke he tried to avert his eyes from my naked body. I appreciated the effort, but I knew he enjoyed seeing me this way. That was apparent by the action in his pants. "; but once we get these scans, you won't have to do this again.""Uh, that's good," I replied. "It is a bit unsettling. I've never done anything like this before.""Very few have," Pete chuckled."I mean, getting naked in front of people. Thanks for not making it too weird." I was lying. It was very weird. But I admit, it also turned me on a little. I caught Brody catching an erection around me, too. It was kind of hot knowing that my body turned them on.

Even if I…Even if the sun,I feel were blind, I would like to hold your face in the quiet of my hands, and trace just once,my fingers uponthe tributaries and streams, of the life that has becomethe beautiful you, to feel a thousand stories,journeys and emotions,joining a stream,a flow,of stars,to a riverof journeys, that I cherishin wonderthat I feel,in the musicof livingand life,that isborn in mewith you.Feel free to contact me. Be nice to know who my audience is and perhaps you can suggest some further topics or themes for my writing! And do give me feedback!p1964km@googlemail.com

Fearless faith I. Even in chaos II. Stability in His presence III. Calm in His sovereignty IV. Behold His works V.  Worship in His presence

The trials and tribulations of sex doll manufacturing.By Anonymous Perv. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Yeah, yeah. You’re thinking, ‘Who the fuck names their story 'The Sex Doll Crime Spree?’, but after you hear this, you’ll understand why it fitsThis whole business is madness. I guess when one works at a sex doll factory, one should expect to have a memorable experience here and there, but what happened to me is almost too much to swallow. No pun intended. Allow me to start at the beginning.I didn’t want to work at a sex doll factory. It was never an aspiration of mine. I just needed a decent paying job. I had made it through three years of college before dropping out, bored to tears, thanks to my ADHD. The most I got out of that experience was a mountain of debt and a bitter ex-boyfriend. I needed to make more money if I was ever going to get out from under it, so when Brody Pastel offered me a job at 'Brody’s Bodies,’ I jumped on it.Brody is a good friend of my old boss, Carl Casta. I handled desk duties at his company, Casta Creative. I just refer to them as CC. I did stuff like billing, scheduling, along with the occasional pagination job. I was a glorified office secretary, nothing more. Carl often raved about me, telling Brody things like, “Samantha Dunning is a breath of fresh air!”, “We’d be lost without Sam!" On and on. These days, Carl jokes about how he should have kept his stupid mouth shut, because Brody offered me double what I was earning at CC to come work for him. Brody said he’d been through four terrible assistants over two years and needed someone dependable and capable. Carl assured Brody that I met those qualifications and I was grateful to them both for allowing me the opportunity to switch jobs for better pay. However, I was apprehensive about working for a place called Brody’s Bodies.There are several high-end manufacturers of sex dolls on the planet. I mean that in the literal sense. Several. Very few. Brody Pastel is considered one of the best in the business, offering sex dolls that can be manipulated and moved like real human bodies, with proper weight and weight distribution (very important, so they say). These dolls can be propped in nearly any position. They can even stand, balancing almost as well as any person would. For this and other reasons, Brody Pastel was considered a genius in the industry.Personally, I’m no fan of the merchandise. All the dolls are made up to look like oversexed Barbie's, yet with even more ridiculous proportions than those plastic classics. I’m not sure why the physical appearance of the sex dolls bothers me so much, considering they are literal sex objects. I guess I just find it insulting to real women with real figures.I’d probably been working a week or so when I met Jennifer Pastel for the first time. She looked quite a bit like the dolls we sell, with a healthy six figures of plastic surgery performed on her. "Hi, honey. I’m here to see Brody,” she said while strolling past my desk at the front of the office.“Shall I tell him who;” I tried to stop her, but she was long gone. She walked with confidence, knowing her exact destination.“That’s Brody’s ex, Jennifer,” said Pete Unger, behind me. His office was the first past mine, just off the west hallway. He must have just stepped outside his door when Jennifer came in. “Those two are in the midst of a divorce. They still haven’t settled their; well, you know; who-gets-what-and-how-much issues; Jennifer thinks she’s entitled to more than half.”“More than half?”“Yeah, she’s bat-shit. She was one of our first models, and the doll fashioned after her is still one of our most popular; but that’s the most she ever contributed to the company. Jennifer’s never actually worked a day in her life.”“Oh. How long were they married?”“I dunno. A few years, maybe? Let’s see; yeah;” Pete looked up, squinting, trying to reach back into his memory banks. Finally, he relaxed and answered, “It would be almost five years, I guess. But for the last year or so, they haven’t been around each other very much.”“What’s going to happen?”“I’m sure Brody paid for a good lawyer. This will cost him, but it won’t break him.”“I hope not.” I said.“You wouldn’t be here otherwise, Miss Harper.”“Please, call me Samantha. Or Sam.”“Alright, Sam. Brody’s a good guy, you’ll see. Pays us what we’re worth; expects reasonable results in return. You found a good place to plant your feet, career wise.”“Really?”“I mean it. I’m not just being a cheerleader for the company. Brody is a good leader. Solid guy. I suppose there might be better bosses out there, but they would be hard to find.”“That’s good to know. Mr. Pastel said he had so much trouble keeping help, I was worried he might be a bit of a tyrant or something.”“Brody is no tyrant. We just have the worst luck with finding decent help.”“I hope to change that,” I said, thinking on it a bit more. Why would anyone perform poorly when this place pays so well and everyone seems so nice? Maybe people just didn’t like the idea of working for a sex doll company. Again, I wasn’t thrilled about it myself. In fact, I didn’t even tell my friends. When the subject of my career comes up, I just say I handle administrative duties. It sounds boring enough that no one ever asks follow-up questions. I certainly don’t mention anything about the sex dolls in various stages of production in the workshop.Jennifer Pastel didn’t stay long. Before Pete and I finished our conversation, we could hear her heels click-clacking far down the hall, coming our way. The footsteps were loud, which I interpreted as anger. Judging from the expression on her face, it seemed I was accurate. As Jennifer exited the front door, Pete whispered, “I wonder what set her off. Usually, she’s calm as a cucumber.”That was quickly answered when Brody approached a moment later. “Jennifer just found out I pulled her models.”“Wait, what? You pulled her models? Even the latest, upgraded version?” Pete sounded incredulous.Brody nodded, “Yup, we’ll make a better one. No more royalties for that terrible woman. And because of some good intel that my P I picked up, Jen will be lucky to make it out of this divorce with much of anything. It will be a very modest figure. No house, no additional cars, nothing. But if she were smart, she could still retire on it. Knowing her, it’ll be drained within a year.”Pete was belly laughing. "Really? You stiffed her?“"She stiffed herself.”Pete was red in the face, happy. “Boss, if anyone deserves it; ”“Maybe; but it doesn’t make me feel great. Her loss, though.” Brody glanced to me. “I won’t bore you with details, but I really loved that woman and she blew it.”I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. I said, “Some people just don’t know how good they have it, sir.”“You got that right,” affirmed Pete.Brody waved it off, “I’m just glad it’s over. Except we need a new model developed and fast. Before that Eros project starts next month.”“Eros?" I asked. I didn’t know many details of the ins and outs of the business yet. Still learning.Pete answered for Brody, "The 'Jennifer 5’ was one of the models slated for the Eros-A I project.” I still wasn’t registering any knowledge of anything and Pete picked up on my ignorance. He sighed, trying to explain in more detail. “This Japanese company, Eros A I, is installing an artificial intelligence for a new, life-moving model. It will work in several different ways: by remote control, a programmed sequence, or its own responsive A I Even a combination of those choices will work. It is advanced robotics and artificial intelligence combined, Samantha. We provide the bodies. Eros-A I provides the brains and robotics.”“Wait. Really? Like sex-bots?”“Yeah, but the frame has to be a perfect. Three hundred-sixty different joints of varying types, fully functional. You should see how the hydraulics work with this, Samantha. It’s astounding.”“I bet.” Hell, they already had me believing it would be the next big thing. I’m sure they knew what they were doing.Brody was just about to leave when he stopped, turning back. Without saying a word, he looked me up and down and grunted a couple times. I was about to say something when he finally spoke, “Pete, do you remember when we talked about making a GND model?”“I’ve been saying we should be offering one for ages, Brody. Why?”“I’ll bet we could convince Eros to let us use our new GND model as one of the test pilots in this project. We’ll replace the Jennifer-5 with it.”“But we don’t have a GND model.”Curiosity got the better of me and I interrupted the two men, “What is a GND model?”Pete answered, “Girl Next Door. A model that is cute, but without being overtly sexual like our main line of products.”I smiled wide, beaming. Finally! Again, why did I care? For some reason, I did. “I think that is a great idea! All your products are; well, you know; built like porn stars. Maybe some guys don’t like that.”Brody asked, “Why don’t you reach out to one of the modelling agencies, Pete?”“Modeling agencies?” I asked.Pete sighed, “Yeah, we need some girl who doesn’t mind being the image for a new sex doll. Or, as Samantha just said, a 'sex-bot’ in this case.”I was still curious and asked, “But why do you need to model the product after a real person? Don’t you have to pay royalties by doing that?”Brody explained, “Yes, either royalties for using their likeness with each and every sale, or a straight buy off. Depends on the contractual arrangements. But the reason we use actual models is simple. If we didn’t, and a product we made just happened to look like someone in the real world, that person could potentially sue us. Though they may not even win the case, it costs a lot in legal fees to go to court. So when this comes up - and believe me, it always does - it’s easier to show that the products were designed after actual models, with contracts signed and photographic evidence. It closes all arguments and prevents these lawsuits from ever moving forward. Weighing risks, rewards, and costs, we always go with using real women as the models to our products. In Jennifer’s case, she was getting $1,400 for each model sold with her likeness.”“Really?”“Yeah, and what?" Brody asked, turning to Pete. "We sold over a hundred of her models last year, right, Pete?”“Almost two hundred.”Numbers ran in my head. That meant Jennifer made over a quarter million dollars in royalties alone last year, doing nothing but sitting on her ass. “Why wouldn’t you pay a one-time fee?” I asked.“Well, some models are fashioned after specific adult actresses or streamers. These women have a following and their fans specifically order from us to get these models. Hence, why so many of our products look like porn stars. They’re literally modeled after them. Jennifer, for instance, used to be one of the highest earning exotic dancers in the nation. She’s still got a large online following, too. But let’s say it’s a lesser-known person who models for us. We might pay a one-time fee if the model would agree to that. To allow us to use her image indefinitely.”“And indefinitely is a long time,” whispered Pete.“Right,” affirmed Brody. “Attitudes could change over the years, so we actually encourage the models to choose a royalty. It gives the models more control. We just include the cost of the royalty fee to the end customer.”“Alright, I get it. Makes sense,” I said.Brody switched back to his former thought. “Pete, since we’re dropping Jen’s models, let's push that GND project up immediately, ahead of anything else. Find someone today. I want all digital imaging done by Friday, if possible.”“Friday? But Brody, today is Wednesday.”“How hard can it be to find a model? Just call the agencies.”“Yeah, but you brought up the theme, Brody. All the models at the agencies have stereotypical, hot bodies. Don’t you want something more like;” Pete paused, trying to think up an actress or someone famous, when he pointed at me. “I dunno; more like Sam here?” I didn’t know whether to be insulted or flattered. I worked hard to look good. Maybe not like a porn star, but still.Brody eyed me up and down. “Yeah, she’s what gave me the idea, actually. Find someone like Sam.” His eyes dropped to my hips and then back up. He tilted his head. “Nice up top;” His eyes then went back to my hips and his voice softened, “cute, round bottom; " I think Brody realized it was probably inappropriate to measure up an employee in such a sexual manner, regardless of the workplace environment. He stopped himself.Pete didn’t seem to be reading the room, either. "Why not Sam herself?” he boomed. “If we specifically want someone cute and unknown, she fits the bill.” Pete turned to me. “And I think you can negotiate something like six hundred a unit. For your royalty fee.”“That’s fair,” said Brody, pointing, “But don’t push it.”“Wait, what?” I cried. “You mean, if you use my likeness on a sex doll, you’ll pay me six hundred dollars for every sale?”Pete nodded. “Oh yeah, and expect sixty or seventy to be sold in the first six months. If we also use your likeness on the more advanced bots; well, I’m sure you can guess we’re going to sell thousands of those, supposing the final product comes out as we hope.”Fuck my modesty and any issues I had with working for a sex-doll company. You’d have done the same thing. I signed a contract no more than an hour later.Beta TestingThe finished product came out far better than what anyone could have hoped. Eros A I was way ahead of the game and obviously made sure their software and robotics worked, before investing with us on the molds and exterior details. They just needed Brody to come through on his end, and wow, did he ever. The bots could walk, hop, run, write, juggle, you name it. It took some tweaking here and there, but the work came along astoundingly fast. It was clear our partner company was creating and utilizing cutting edge technology, considering the advanced robotics at play. However, there was still something slightly 'off’ about the sex-bots into the second month of trials and I was the one who figured it out. When not doing anything, they were perfectly still. They had a few loops of animation, but it felt programmed, even if it was randomized. Things like blinking, sighing, and looking around the room. The trick was the bots needed to 'breathe’ authentically – they needed to move their chest and stomach in the same kind of breathing patterns that we all do. What many people don’t realize is that breathing patterns also include sporadic, heavy breaths. Eros A I brought in an American programmer named Eric Parsons who worked with me and Brody, measuring and recording my own breathing. Then, with a few days of Eric coding and tweaking, we had it all down. To be fair, I couldn’t believe what I was staring at. It was like a clone. An exact duplicate of me.Modeling DutiesI thought back to the day I first agreed to do this; that day Pete suggested I be the model for the new product. I was mortified to discover I had to be stark naked around my colleagues as they took intricately detailed measurements of my body, as well as 3D laser scans to pull a perfect image. I remember Pete tried to make me feel comfortable when I first dropped my robe.“It’s just for a day or two, Sam. I know this is; weird; ” As Pete spoke he tried to avert his eyes from my naked body. I appreciated the effort, but I knew he enjoyed seeing me this way. That was apparent by the action in his pants. “; but once we get these scans, you won’t have to do this again.”“Uh, that’s good,” I replied. “It is a bit unsettling. I’ve never done anything like this before.”“Very few have,” Pete chuckled.“I mean, getting naked in front of people. Thanks for not making it too weird.” I was lying. It was very weird. But I admit, it also turned me on a little. I caught Brody catching an erection around me, too. It was kind of hot knowing that my body turned them on.As they were scanning my torso, Pete and Brody came to me together. Brody spoke first, “So, uh; Sam. Of course, you’re aware your left breast is slightly bigger than the right. We like that, and we’re going to keep it. But, uh; ”I was feeling even more embarrassed as they brought up my intimate features specifically. “Yes?”Brody looked nervously to Pete, who took over the conversation. “Sam, your nipples; they’re considerably larger than we expected.”“So?” I muttered, looking to the floor.Brody protested, “No, no. Don’t take it wrong. We love it. Especially me. I; I really do. But uh, we’re trying to keep the theme as girl-next-door. Trying to represent the common girl. Your nipples are so unique, we think it detracts from that goal. We don’t want people claiming we fetishized the nipples.”“Oh,” I said. Were my nipples really that weird?“And uh, in order to make that contract work, we’ll need to amend it and have you sign it.”“Oh, okay. So; that means?”Pete spoke again, “It means your long, exotic nipples will not be shared with the rest of the world, but everything else will. Yeah, this sounds egregious, but in order to protect ourselves from one of those lawsuits we previously discussed, we’ll need to specify every deviation from your current pictures and scans.”“I see.” Little did I know, this would be important later, but for different reasons than Pete was describing.Once the scans were done, Pete came over again. I was trying to find a robe or anything to cover myself, but my clothes were in the changing room. “Okay, the last thing we need is the vaginal mold.”“What?” I screamed.“Um, it’s one of the most important bits, Sam, and it was detailed in the agreement you signed.”I should have read over that contract better. “Uh; how is it done?” I asked.“In the past, Brody always handled it,” said Pete. “And considering how special this project is, I would think he’d still prefer to run this one himself. However, we have other employees who are skilled enough to do it, I think.” Pete made it sound as if making molds of vaginas was a common, everyday thing.“No, if Brody is the most talented, he should do it.”And about an hour later, we started. “Would you like to put a shirt on?” asked Brody. “We’re concentrating on your, uh, lower bits right now.”I smiled. I’d been out of my clothes for so long, it had stopped feeling awkward. Even the guys working in the room quit their lame attempts at modesty. They looked me up and down whenever it pleased them. But it felt almost normal, and I admit, it was fun. I enjoyed the positive glances and the boost in confidence that came with it. I was about to take Brody up on his offer to put on a shirt when I realized I would probably enjoy the experience more if I stayed undressed completely. I meekly said, “By this point, does it matter? I think Pete mentioned they want to do a couple more scans after this. I’m fine. How long will this take?”“About an hour, maybe less. I will be applying this quick-drying cement-”“Cement?" I shouted.Brody smiled. "It’s not like the cement you know; but this paste will dry, and then we will pull it gently off you using a bit of water pressure. There’s nothing toxic or dangerous about this. I’ll be doing it a new way I developed, where we cover your front and your back bits in one shot. Before we start, though, I’ll need to take some pictures. Is that okay?”“If it’s necessary,” I sighed. I knew this meant spreading my legs and baring it all. I was scared to think how wet I was down there right now.But it was much, much worse than that. At first, Brody took close-ups of me standing, then with my legs apart at wider and wider intervals. “Now I need you to sit down here.” He pointed to the backless stool. He knelt on the floor with the camera in hand, while I reluctantly sat directly in front of him. When he touched my knee, I quivered. Gently, he opened my right leg. “The other side, too,” he whispered. He was a true professional by not mentioning the wet stain I was making on the seat. I propped my hands on the back of the stool to hold my balance, and this made my torso arch out. When Brody wasn’t nose deep in my crotch, he’d look up and be less than a foot away from my tits. They ached to be squeezed.“Okay, I’m going to need some more intimate angles. Turn around and bend over, please.”“My ass?”Brody giggled, nodding. "The asshole, yes. Every bit of you, Samantha. You will be the first I ever said this to, but you have an enviable body. The most intimate parts of you are heavenly. Innocent and seductive at the same time.“"What do you mean?” I asked, my ass now right in his face. I was practically shaking.“It’s art. Youthful, vibrant art. You are blessed in many ways, Sam.”As Brody spoke and continued to snap pictures, I had to ask. “Mr. Pastel, have you, uh; have you, um; ever actually used one of the products you made?”Brody paused. “Uh, okay; well, yeah. Yes, Sam, I have. I have to, to know that they meet the standards I want to uphold. I haven’t done it in a while, but yes, when I first started this business, I needed to perfect everything I had control over. That meant a lot of product testing.” As Brody continued explaining the path to perfection, he put the camera down and began mixing a paste together. “You can turn back around and sit down. Just spread your legs wide for me.”For a brief moment, images flashed in my mind of perverts around the world having their way with fake versions of myself, accurate to my likeness in every detail (well, almost every detail). I tried to pushed the thoughts out of my head, but the moment Brody’s hand touched my cunt with the paste, I almost came. His motions were learned and determined, with an expert quality of confidence in his touch. He added some to my right and left thighs, with space at the joints. Soon, I felt the putty begin to warm up. “Um, is this normal?” I asked, explaining the feeling.“Oh, yes, but you’ll get used to it,” said Brody. “It heats a bit as it dries. It’ll cool back down in forty minutes or so. Lift up, I need to get your ass.” Brody pulled me forward. The edge of my bum and my lower back supported me on the stool as Brody spread my ass cheeks and applied the paste, all the way up there. His hands felt so good on my skin and I know I moaned, biting my lower lip.“Yeah, it’s a strange feeling. Every girl says so. Hang in there, Sam. You’re doing fine.”And that’s when I came. Oh god, thinking on it now, I still cringe. I had almost fallen off the stool and Brody had to catch me, getting paste all over my torso and arms. “Are you okay?” he asked. He had to have known I just had an orgasm, but he didn’t admit to it.“Yes, just slipped,” I said, my voice shaking along with my body. “Sorry about that; ”I didn’t think I could ever be more embarrassed, but a month or so later I would be proved wrong.Further TestingEros A I kept two working prototypes and we kept one. While our side was more focused on the exterior details, like the skin and nails, Eros spent more time fine-tuning the programming. Honestly, both sides were extremely pleased how things were turning out. We expected to be ready for market way ahead of schedule. In fact, we were outpacing the schedule too much, so Brody was allowing us to take off early at the end of the work week. The core gang from the office would grab lunch and drinks together, before separating for the weekend. One Friday, I had been refiling old records when everyone was headed out the door. I didn’t want to stop in the middle of what I was doing, so I passed on the lunch.As I was cleaning up and about to leave, I walked by the workshop. The door was open and our prototype of the sex-bot was sitting in a chair. She looked so real, it appeared as if she were waiting for someone. It caught me off guard because it’s a bit surreal seeing a perfect clone of oneself. Curiosity got the best of me and I went in to touch it. The fact that Eros and Brody had worked together to build a skin that could retain heat was just a testament to the details. When on, the unit heats up to 32C and is warm to the touch just like any person. This model wasn’t cold, so they had probably been testing her out just before leaving. I glanced down to her pad. She was turned off, but I could see they had been running the full A I version of her. I hadn’t seen that in action yet. I switched her on and she quickly booted up. She looked to me and her eyes lit up. “Hello,” she said. “What’s your name?”This was the first time I heard her speak and I almost had a stroke. I had no idea this was part of her programming. I was ever amazed by the details. The subtle eye movements and blinks. The slight creases that form around the lips when she talks. So human. My boss is an artist. “I’m Samantha,” I said.“Oh, I like that name,” the bot said. She sounded so authentic, I wondered what chat intelligence they were using. I noticed her voice was pitched slightly lower than mine. It sounded sultrier.“Thank you,” I said. “I like my name, too. But call me Sam. What’s yours?”“My name is also Samantha,” she said.I jumped back, shocked. Up to this point, I only knew her as the GND model. I certainly didn’t expect them to use my own name. “Wow, that’s a coincidence,” I said. “I wonder what else we share in common.”The bot lit up again, looking entirely too human, smiling. “If you haven’t noticed, we look very much alike.”Whichever artificial intelligence they were using was really, really good. I was so impressed, I was also authentically creeped out. If this tech gets much better, I could see these things replacing real relationships. I looked the clone up and down, only just noticing they dressed her like me. I usually wear sundresses and the one I was currently wearing was light green, while she was adorned in a yellow and white one. The more I looked at it, the more I liked hers better. I poked my head out the door and checked the halls, calling out for anyone. No one responded. Turning back, I asked the bot, “Samantha, would you mind changing dresses with me?”She tilted her head, as if processing. “Oh, okay. I can do that.” Right away, she began getting undressed. I was enthralled with the tiny details, like the cadences to her voice, the use of interjections like 'oh’ and 'ah’ and all the other little things. I was so mesmerized by the experience, I almost forgot to undress. She was almost completely out of hers before I even started.As we swapped attire, I said, “Oh yeah, your dress probably looks better without a bra, doesn’t it?” It was clear the straps would show, so I quickly popped my bra off and handed it to my clone. Surprisingly, she thanked me.“I've been wanting to try one of these,” she smiled, holding the bra up. “May I?”“Oh, yeah; yeah, of course,” I said, hesitating. Why would a robot 'want’ anything? Were comments like that just in the programming for added authenticity? As she put the bra on, I asked, “Samantha, can you tell me what the others did with you this morning?”“Yes, I can, Sam,” she responded. “Would you like me to tell you now?” I nodded and she continued, “Peter asked me to make him a ham sandwich. They brought the ingredients and I put it all together.”“They taught you how to make a ham sandwich?” I asked, while sorting out the dress to make it fit better.“No, Sam. I looked up the directions myself. I am connected at all times.”“To the internet?”“Yes, of course.”“What else have they been teaching you; er, doing with you?” I asked.“Brody and I discussed the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s his favorite football team. He really liked it when I talked about Bernard Johnson, his favorite running back. We even played trivia and I pretended to lose. I didn’t want to see him unhappy.” That would jive with the programming goals, I thought. “He also quizzed me on mixed drinks.”“Mixed drinks? What do you mean?”“On what ingredients they take, and how to make them. One day, I may be asked to make a mixed drink, you know.”“I’m sure.” I was getting angered by the idea that the men intended to use this bot as a literal slave and ego-stroker, rather than just a sex doll. By her descriptions, it appeared that’s exactly what they had in mind. Just then, I heard the creaking of the door open in the far hall. Brody must have been coming from the back office. I had assumed he left with the others. He would certainly pass the shop on his way out and if he saw us, he’d think I was the bot, because I was in her clothes. That thought embarrassed me tremendously, as I had no idea if Brody would be cool with me trading clothes with the product.I suddenly got an idea and it would truly test how advanced the bot’s intelligence was. I rushed to her, whispering. “Brody last saw you in the dress I am currently wearing. He’s going to think you are me, and vice versa. I am going to sit down and pretend to be you. I want you to pretend to be me.”Surprisingly, the bot whispered back, as if understanding the necessity for quiet communication. Again, I was amazed by the programming. “How do I pretend to be you?” she asked.“Just tell him you were checking out 'the bot’ and now you’re headed home. Tell him to have a good weekend. Then, leave the building and hide behind the bushes outside the west wall. If I don’t come get you in five minutes, you must come back.” God forbid, I actually lose her, I thought.The bot smiled, looking giddy. “Is this a game? I love games!”“Yes, it’s a game,” I whispered. “Get ready. Brody’s almost here!” I shot over to the chair that she was previously sitting in. I could hear Brody getting closer now. I was nervous, highly doubting that “Samantha” would be able to make this work. It was far too complicated a set of tasks, and probably contrary to her core programming. But maybe I could play this as a prank, if worse comes to worst. Weighing all the options, I thought I could pull that much off.As expected, Brody stopped at the door. “Sam? Why are you still here?”For a brief second, I was thankful they named the sex-bot after me. It made her task of pretending to be me considerably easier. “Hello, Brody. I was just checking out the bot,” she said.“Oh, yes. Amazing, isn’t she?”“Yes, sir,” she said. As I watched the two converse, it felt like I was in the twilight zone, seeing myself but unable to control the actions. My clone moved to go past Brody, saying, “I was just on my way out. Have a good weekend, Mr. Pastel.”Brody stopped her, stepping in her path. “Hey, I just wanted to thank you personally, Sam. I think it’s amazing you contributed so much for this. Really, your likeness is perfect for this model and Eros A I is tickled pink with you. They think the Asian market is going to eat it up over there.”The sex-bot paused for a moment. Again, looking as if it were processing information. And astoundingly, she responded in such an authentic way, even I couldn’t tell she wasn’t me. “Aw, I am flattered. Honestly, I was really nervous at first, but I’m glad you are happy with the results. I like her, too.” She turned to look at me briefly, before moving to walk past Brody. “Goodbye!” she said. It may have come across a bit awkward, but it still felt authentic. I was stunned by the performance and almost broke character to reveal the “prank”.Brody glanced to the control pad, seeing the A I programming was turned on. He turned to me and said, “Stand up.” I didn’t pause, picking myself up, standing. I looked to him and then the wall ahead of me, unsure of what the clone would be doing in my shoes. Now I wondered if I would pass for her, as well as she had passed for me. "Turn around,“ he said. I blinked, and slowly turned around, stopping when my backside was facing Brody.He stepped closer to me and quickly drew his finger under the left strap of my sundress. I caught my breath, startled. With his other hand, he grabbed me at my waist, pulling me in. He whispered in my left ear, just as he dropped the strap, "I want to see those goose bumps again. If you remember when to activate them.”They were definitely activated. Goose bumps raced across my neck, shoulders, and arms. More, as my dress dropped below my breast with the strap no longer holding it up. Brody, still behind me, moved to my other ear and the other strap. “Tell me how you will please me,” he whispered. The second strap fell, dropping the dress entirely to the floor. If I remember, the sex-bot’s panties were yellow and mine were a light pink. If he noticed the change, the game was over. I was already thinking of ending it, as I was mortified. Terrified. I wanted it to stop. I wanted to stop it. But I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to embarrass Brody, as it had already gone so far. “Oh, Brody,” I whispered.He grabbed my right wrist and thrust it to his crotch. I could feel his thick, hard shaft in my hands. He popped his buttons and dropped the pants down, just low enough for the beast to come out. Still controlling my hand, he made me wrap my fingers around him. My arm was behind me, and my eyes were up at the ceiling. If I dared turn to him, he would see a nervous, anxious woman, and certainly not the confident sex pot that “Samantha” was meant to be. I was just about to say something when his left hand reached around to grab my breast, pinching my nipple. He began to pull on it, but then he suddenly stopped. He must have recognized my “unusual” nipples. Up until that humiliating experience, I never realized they were all that different than the average girl’s. Brody thrust me around, facing him directly. “SAM?” he yelled.“Oh, my God. I am so embarrassed!” I screamed. “I meant to stop you, but it.; it just went so fast!” I was completely red in the face.“Where is Samantha?”“Yeah, about that; "I asked, "Did you have to give her the same name as me?”“No, I mean, where is Samantha right now? Is she okay?”“I’m here,” the voice was at the door behind us. Samantha stepped in the room and addressed me. “I am sorry, Sam. I am not allowed to leave the building, so I had to amend your instructions.”“Wow,” I whispered. I was completely topless, but so awestruck by the massive programming power of Samantha’s artificial intelligence, I didn’t care. I turned to Brody. “You have some explaining to do.”“What? Me? You do! Why me?" He waved at my state of undress."I was just checking out the bot and playing a little prank. I didn’t mean for this; but; ” I stopped myself. There was little use explaining my state of dress.To be continued.By Anonymous Perv, for Literotica

The trials and tribulations of sex doll manufacturing.By Anonymous Perv. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Yeah, yeah. You’re thinking, ‘Who the fuck names their story 'The Sex Doll Crime Spree?’, but after you hear this, you’ll understand why it fitsThis whole business is madness. I guess when one works at a sex doll factory, one should expect to have a memorable experience here and there, but what happened to me is almost too much to swallow. No pun intended. Allow me to start at the beginning.I didn’t want to work at a sex doll factory. It was never an aspiration of mine. I just needed a decent paying job. I had made it through three years of college before dropping out, bored to tears, thanks to my ADHD. The most I got out of that experience was a mountain of debt and a bitter ex-boyfriend. I needed to make more money if I was ever going to get out from under it, so when Brody Pastel offered me a job at 'Brody’s Bodies,’ I jumped on it.Brody is a good friend of my old boss, Carl Casta. I handled desk duties at his company, Casta Creative. I just refer to them as CC. I did stuff like billing, scheduling, along with the occasional pagination job. I was a glorified office secretary, nothing more. Carl often raved about me, telling Brody things like, “Samantha Dunning is a breath of fresh air!”, “We’d be lost without Sam!" On and on. These days, Carl jokes about how he should have kept his stupid mouth shut, because Brody offered me double what I was earning at CC to come work for him. Brody said he’d been through four terrible assistants over two years and needed someone dependable and capable. Carl assured Brody that I met those qualifications and I was grateful to them both for allowing me the opportunity to switch jobs for better pay. However, I was apprehensive about working for a place called Brody’s Bodies.There are several high-end manufacturers of sex dolls on the planet. I mean that in the literal sense. Several. Very few. Brody Pastel is considered one of the best in the business, offering sex dolls that can be manipulated and moved like real human bodies, with proper weight and weight distribution (very important, so they say). These dolls can be propped in nearly any position. They can even stand, balancing almost as well as any person would. For this and other reasons, Brody Pastel was considered a genius in the industry.Personally, I’m no fan of the merchandise. All the dolls are made up to look like oversexed Barbie's, yet with even more ridiculous proportions than those plastic classics. I’m not sure why the physical appearance of the sex dolls bothers me so much, considering they are literal sex objects. I guess I just find it insulting to real women with real figures.I’d probably been working a week or so when I met Jennifer Pastel for the first time. She looked quite a bit like the dolls we sell, with a healthy six figures of plastic surgery performed on her. "Hi, honey. I’m here to see Brody,” she said while strolling past my desk at the front of the office.“Shall I tell him who;” I tried to stop her, but she was long gone. She walked with confidence, knowing her exact destination.“That’s Brody’s ex, Jennifer,” said Pete Unger, behind me. His office was the first past mine, just off the west hallway. He must have just stepped outside his door when Jennifer came in. “Those two are in the midst of a divorce. They still haven’t settled their; well, you know; who-gets-what-and-how-much issues; Jennifer thinks she’s entitled to more than half.”“More than half?”“Yeah, she’s bat-shit. She was one of our first models, and the doll fashioned after her is still one of our most popular; but that’s the most she ever contributed to the company. Jennifer’s never actually worked a day in her life.”“Oh. How long were they married?”“I dunno. A few years, maybe? Let’s see; yeah;” Pete looked up, squinting, trying to reach back into his memory banks. Finally, he relaxed and answered, “It would be almost five years, I guess. But for the last year or so, they haven’t been around each other very much.”“What’s going to happen?”“I’m sure Brody paid for a good lawyer. This will cost him, but it won’t break him.”“I hope not.” I said.“You wouldn’t be here otherwise, Miss Harper.”“Please, call me Samantha. Or Sam.”“Alright, Sam. Brody’s a good guy, you’ll see. Pays us what we’re worth; expects reasonable results in return. You found a good place to plant your feet, career wise.”“Really?”“I mean it. I’m not just being a cheerleader for the company. Brody is a good leader. Solid guy. I suppose there might be better bosses out there, but they would be hard to find.”“That’s good to know. Mr. Pastel said he had so much trouble keeping help, I was worried he might be a bit of a tyrant or something.”“Brody is no tyrant. We just have the worst luck with finding decent help.”“I hope to change that,” I said, thinking on it a bit more. Why would anyone perform poorly when this place pays so well and everyone seems so nice? Maybe people just didn’t like the idea of working for a sex doll company. Again, I wasn’t thrilled about it myself. In fact, I didn’t even tell my friends. When the subject of my career comes up, I just say I handle administrative duties. It sounds boring enough that no one ever asks follow-up questions. I certainly don’t mention anything about the sex dolls in various stages of production in the workshop.Jennifer Pastel didn’t stay long. Before Pete and I finished our conversation, we could hear her heels click-clacking far down the hall, coming our way. The footsteps were loud, which I interpreted as anger. Judging from the expression on her face, it seemed I was accurate. As Jennifer exited the front door, Pete whispered, “I wonder what set her off. Usually, she’s calm as a cucumber.”That was quickly answered when Brody approached a moment later. “Jennifer just found out I pulled her models.”“Wait, what? You pulled her models? Even the latest, upgraded version?” Pete sounded incredulous.Brody nodded, “Yup, we’ll make a better one. No more royalties for that terrible woman. And because of some good intel that my P I picked up, Jen will be lucky to make it out of this divorce with much of anything. It will be a very modest figure. No house, no additional cars, nothing. But if she were smart, she could still retire on it. Knowing her, it’ll be drained within a year.”Pete was belly laughing. "Really? You stiffed her?“"She stiffed herself.”Pete was red in the face, happy. “Boss, if anyone deserves it; ”“Maybe; but it doesn’t make me feel great. Her loss, though.” Brody glanced to me. “I won’t bore you with details, but I really loved that woman and she blew it.”I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. I said, “Some people just don’t know how good they have it, sir.”“You got that right,” affirmed Pete.Brody waved it off, “I’m just glad it’s over. Except we need a new model developed and fast. Before that Eros project starts next month.”“Eros?" I asked. I didn’t know many details of the ins and outs of the business yet. Still learning.Pete answered for Brody, "The 'Jennifer 5’ was one of the models slated for the Eros-A I project.” I still wasn’t registering any knowledge of anything and Pete picked up on my ignorance. He sighed, trying to explain in more detail. “This Japanese company, Eros A I, is installing an artificial intelligence for a new, life-moving model. It will work in several different ways: by remote control, a programmed sequence, or its own responsive A I Even a combination of those choices will work. It is advanced robotics and artificial intelligence combined, Samantha. We provide the bodies. Eros-A I provides the brains and robotics.”“Wait. Really? Like sex-bots?”“Yeah, but the frame has to be a perfect. Three hundred-sixty different joints of varying types, fully functional. You should see how the hydraulics work with this, Samantha. It’s astounding.”“I bet.” Hell, they already had me believing it would be the next big thing. I’m sure they knew what they were doing.Brody was just about to leave when he stopped, turning back. Without saying a word, he looked me up and down and grunted a couple times. I was about to say something when he finally spoke, “Pete, do you remember when we talked about making a GND model?”“I’ve been saying we should be offering one for ages, Brody. Why?”“I’ll bet we could convince Eros to let us use our new GND model as one of the test pilots in this project. We’ll replace the Jennifer-5 with it.”“But we don’t have a GND model.”Curiosity got the better of me and I interrupted the two men, “What is a GND model?”Pete answered, “Girl Next Door. A model that is cute, but without being overtly sexual like our main line of products.”I smiled wide, beaming. Finally! Again, why did I care? For some reason, I did. “I think that is a great idea! All your products are; well, you know; built like porn stars. Maybe some guys don’t like that.”Brody asked, “Why don’t you reach out to one of the modelling agencies, Pete?”“Modeling agencies?” I asked.Pete sighed, “Yeah, we need some girl who doesn’t mind being the image for a new sex doll. Or, as Samantha just said, a 'sex-bot’ in this case.”I was still curious and asked, “But why do you need to model the product after a real person? Don’t you have to pay royalties by doing that?”Brody explained, “Yes, either royalties for using their likeness with each and every sale, or a straight buy off. Depends on the contractual arrangements. But the reason we use actual models is simple. If we didn’t, and a product we made just happened to look like someone in the real world, that person could potentially sue us. Though they may not even win the case, it costs a lot in legal fees to go to court. So when this comes up - and believe me, it always does - it’s easier to show that the products were designed after actual models, with contracts signed and photographic evidence. It closes all arguments and prevents these lawsuits from ever moving forward. Weighing risks, rewards, and costs, we always go with using real women as the models to our products. In Jennifer’s case, she was getting $1,400 for each model sold with her likeness.”“Really?”“Yeah, and what?" Brody asked, turning to Pete. "We sold over a hundred of her models last year, right, Pete?”“Almost two hundred.”Numbers ran in my head. That meant Jennifer made over a quarter million dollars in royalties alone last year, doing nothing but sitting on her ass. “Why wouldn’t you pay a one-time fee?” I asked.“Well, some models are fashioned after specific adult actresses or streamers. These women have a following and their fans specifically order from us to get these models. Hence, why so many of our products look like porn stars. They’re literally modeled after them. Jennifer, for instance, used to be one of the highest earning exotic dancers in the nation. She’s still got a large online following, too. But let’s say it’s a lesser-known person who models for us. We might pay a one-time fee if the model would agree to that. To allow us to use her image indefinitely.”“And indefinitely is a long time,” whispered Pete.“Right,” affirmed Brody. “Attitudes could change over the years, so we actually encourage the models to choose a royalty. It gives the models more control. We just include the cost of the royalty fee to the end customer.”“Alright, I get it. Makes sense,” I said.Brody switched back to his former thought. “Pete, since we’re dropping Jen’s models, let's push that GND project up immediately, ahead of anything else. Find someone today. I want all digital imaging done by Friday, if possible.”“Friday? But Brody, today is Wednesday.”“How hard can it be to find a model? Just call the agencies.”“Yeah, but you brought up the theme, Brody. All the models at the agencies have stereotypical, hot bodies. Don’t you want something more like;” Pete paused, trying to think up an actress or someone famous, when he pointed at me. “I dunno; more like Sam here?” I didn’t know whether to be insulted or flattered. I worked hard to look good. Maybe not like a porn star, but still.Brody eyed me up and down. “Yeah, she’s what gave me the idea, actually. Find someone like Sam.” His eyes dropped to my hips and then back up. He tilted his head. “Nice up top;” His eyes then went back to my hips and his voice softened, “cute, round bottom; " I think Brody realized it was probably inappropriate to measure up an employee in such a sexual manner, regardless of the workplace environment. He stopped himself.Pete didn’t seem to be reading the room, either. "Why not Sam herself?” he boomed. “If we specifically want someone cute and unknown, she fits the bill.” Pete turned to me. “And I think you can negotiate something like six hundred a unit. For your royalty fee.”“That’s fair,” said Brody, pointing, “But don’t push it.”“Wait, what?” I cried. “You mean, if you use my likeness on a sex doll, you’ll pay me six hundred dollars for every sale?”Pete nodded. “Oh yeah, and expect sixty or seventy to be sold in the first six months. If we also use your likeness on the more advanced bots; well, I’m sure you can guess we’re going to sell thousands of those, supposing the final product comes out as we hope.”Fuck my modesty and any issues I had with working for a sex-doll company. You’d have done the same thing. I signed a contract no more than an hour later.Beta TestingThe finished product came out far better than what anyone could have hoped. Eros A I was way ahead of the game and obviously made sure their software and robotics worked, before investing with us on the molds and exterior details. They just needed Brody to come through on his end, and wow, did he ever. The bots could walk, hop, run, write, juggle, you name it. It took some tweaking here and there, but the work came along astoundingly fast. It was clear our partner company was creating and utilizing cutting edge technology, considering the advanced robotics at play. However, there was still something slightly 'off’ about the sex-bots into the second month of trials and I was the one who figured it out. When not doing anything, they were perfectly still. They had a few loops of animation, but it felt programmed, even if it was randomized. Things like blinking, sighing, and looking around the room. The trick was the bots needed to 'breathe’ authentically – they needed to move their chest and stomach in the same kind of breathing patterns that we all do. What many people don’t realize is that breathing patterns also include sporadic, heavy breaths. Eros A I brought in an American programmer named Eric Parsons who worked with me and Brody, measuring and recording my own breathing. Then, with a few days of Eric coding and tweaking, we had it all down. To be fair, I couldn’t believe what I was staring at. It was like a clone. An exact duplicate of me.Modeling DutiesI thought back to the day I first agreed to do this; that day Pete suggested I be the model for the new product. I was mortified to discover I had to be stark naked around my colleagues as they took intricately detailed measurements of my body, as well as 3D laser scans to pull a perfect image. I remember Pete tried to make me feel comfortable when I first dropped my robe.“It’s just for a day or two, Sam. I know this is; weird; ” As Pete spoke he tried to avert his eyes from my naked body. I appreciated the effort, but I knew he enjoyed seeing me this way. That was apparent by the action in his pants. “; but once we get these scans, you won’t have to do this again.”“Uh, that’s good,” I replied. “It is a bit unsettling. I’ve never done anything like this before.”“Very few have,” Pete chuckled.“I mean, getting naked in front of people. Thanks for not making it too weird.” I was lying. It was very weird. But I admit, it also turned me on a little. I caught Brody catching an erection around me, too. It was kind of hot knowing that my body turned them on.As they were scanning my torso, Pete and Brody came to me together. Brody spoke first, “So, uh; Sam. Of course, you’re aware your left breast is slightly bigger than the right. We like that, and we’re going to keep it. But, uh; ”I was feeling even more embarrassed as they brought up my intimate features specifically. “Yes?”Brody looked nervously to Pete, who took over the conversation. “Sam, your nipples; they’re considerably larger than we expected.”“So?” I muttered, looking to the floor.Brody protested, “No, no. Don’t take it wrong. We love it. Especially me. I; I really do. But uh, we’re trying to keep the theme as girl-next-door. Trying to represent the common girl. Your nipples are so unique, we think it detracts from that goal. We don’t want people claiming we fetishized the nipples.”“Oh,” I said. Were my nipples really that weird?“And uh, in order to make that contract work, we’ll need to amend it and have you sign it.”“Oh, okay. So; that means?”Pete spoke again, “It means your long, exotic nipples will not be shared with the rest of the world, but everything else will. Yeah, this sounds egregious, but in order to protect ourselves from one of those lawsuits we previously discussed, we’ll need to specify every deviation from your current pictures and scans.”“I see.” Little did I know, this would be important later, but for different reasons than Pete was describing.Once the scans were done, Pete came over again. I was trying to find a robe or anything to cover myself, but my clothes were in the changing room. “Okay, the last thing we need is the vaginal mold.”“What?” I screamed.“Um, it’s one of the most important bits, Sam, and it was detailed in the agreement you signed.”I should have read over that contract better. “Uh; how is it done?” I asked.“In the past, Brody always handled it,” said Pete. “And considering how special this project is, I would think he’d still prefer to run this one himself. However, we have other employees who are skilled enough to do it, I think.” Pete made it sound as if making molds of vaginas was a common, everyday thing.“No, if Brody is the most talented, he should do it.”And about an hour later, we started. “Would you like to put a shirt on?” asked Brody. “We’re concentrating on your, uh, lower bits right now.”I smiled. I’d been out of my clothes for so long, it had stopped feeling awkward. Even the guys working in the room quit their lame attempts at modesty. They looked me up and down whenever it pleased them. But it felt almost normal, and I admit, it was fun. I enjoyed the positive glances and the boost in confidence that came with it. I was about to take Brody up on his offer to put on a shirt when I realized I would probably enjoy the experience more if I stayed undressed completely. I meekly said, “By this point, does it matter? I think Pete mentioned they want to do a couple more scans after this. I’m fine. How long will this take?”“About an hour, maybe less. I will be applying this quick-drying cement-”“Cement?" I shouted.Brody smiled. "It’s not like the cement you know; but this paste will dry, and then we will pull it gently off you using a bit of water pressure. There’s nothing toxic or dangerous about this. I’ll be doing it a new way I developed, where we cover your front and your back bits in one shot. Before we start, though, I’ll need to take some pictures. Is that okay?”“If it’s necessary,” I sighed. I knew this meant spreading my legs and baring it all. I was scared to think how wet I was down there right now.But it was much, much worse than that. At first, Brody took close-ups of me standing, then with my legs apart at wider and wider intervals. “Now I need you to sit down here.” He pointed to the backless stool. He knelt on the floor with the camera in hand, while I reluctantly sat directly in front of him. When he touched my knee, I quivered. Gently, he opened my right leg. “The other side, too,” he whispered. He was a true professional by not mentioning the wet stain I was making on the seat. I propped my hands on the back of the stool to hold my balance, and this made my torso arch out. When Brody wasn’t nose deep in my crotch, he’d look up and be less than a foot away from my tits. They ached to be squeezed.“Okay, I’m going to need some more intimate angles. Turn around and bend over, please.”“My ass?”Brody giggled, nodding. "The asshole, yes. Every bit of you, Samantha. You will be the first I ever said this to, but you have an enviable body. The most intimate parts of you are heavenly. Innocent and seductive at the same time.“"What do you mean?” I asked, my ass now right in his face. I was practically shaking.“It’s art. Youthful, vibrant art. You are blessed in many ways, Sam.”As Brody spoke and continued to snap pictures, I had to ask. “Mr. Pastel, have you, uh; have you, um; ever actually used one of the products you made?”Brody paused. “Uh, okay; well, yeah. Yes, Sam, I have. I have to, to know that they meet the standards I want to uphold. I haven’t done it in a while, but yes, when I first started this business, I needed to perfect everything I had control over. That meant a lot of product testing.” As Brody continued explaining the path to perfection, he put the camera down and began mixing a paste together. “You can turn back around and sit down. Just spread your legs wide for me.”For a brief moment, images flashed in my mind of perverts around the world having their way with fake versions of myself, accurate to my likeness in every detail (well, almost every detail). I tried to pushed the thoughts out of my head, but the moment Brody’s hand touched my cunt with the paste, I almost came. His motions were learned and determined, with an expert quality of confidence in his touch. He added some to my right and left thighs, with space at the joints. Soon, I felt the putty begin to warm up. “Um, is this normal?” I asked, explaining the feeling.“Oh, yes, but you’ll get used to it,” said Brody. “It heats a bit as it dries. It’ll cool back down in forty minutes or so. Lift up, I need to get your ass.” Brody pulled me forward. The edge of my bum and my lower back supported me on the stool as Brody spread my ass cheeks and applied the paste, all the way up there. His hands felt so good on my skin and I know I moaned, biting my lower lip.“Yeah, it’s a strange feeling. Every girl says so. Hang in there, Sam. You’re doing fine.”And that’s when I came. Oh god, thinking on it now, I still cringe. I had almost fallen off the stool and Brody had to catch me, getting paste all over my torso and arms. “Are you okay?” he asked. He had to have known I just had an orgasm, but he didn’t admit to it.“Yes, just slipped,” I said, my voice shaking along with my body. “Sorry about that; ”I didn’t think I could ever be more embarrassed, but a month or so later I would be proved wrong.Further TestingEros A I kept two working prototypes and we kept one. While our side was more focused on the exterior details, like the skin and nails, Eros spent more time fine-tuning the programming. Honestly, both sides were extremely pleased how things were turning out. We expected to be ready for market way ahead of schedule. In fact, we were outpacing the schedule too much, so Brody was allowing us to take off early at the end of the work week. The core gang from the office would grab lunch and drinks together, before separating for the weekend. One Friday, I had been refiling old records when everyone was headed out the door. I didn’t want to stop in the middle of what I was doing, so I passed on the lunch.As I was cleaning up and about to leave, I walked by the workshop. The door was open and our prototype of the sex-bot was sitting in a chair. She looked so real, it appeared as if she were waiting for someone. It caught me off guard because it’s a bit surreal seeing a perfect clone of oneself. Curiosity got the best of me and I went in to touch it. The fact that Eros and Brody had worked together to build a skin that could retain heat was just a testament to the details. When on, the unit heats up to 32C and is warm to the touch just like any person. This model wasn’t cold, so they had probably been testing her out just before leaving. I glanced down to her pad. She was turned off, but I could see they had been running the full A I version of her. I hadn’t seen that in action yet. I switched her on and she quickly booted up. She looked to me and her eyes lit up. “Hello,” she said. “What’s your name?”This was the first time I heard her speak and I almost had a stroke. I had no idea this was part of her programming. I was ever amazed by the details. The subtle eye movements and blinks. The slight creases that form around the lips when she talks. So human. My boss is an artist. “I’m Samantha,” I said.“Oh, I like that name,” the bot said. She sounded so authentic, I wondered what chat intelligence they were using. I noticed her voice was pitched slightly lower than mine. It sounded sultrier.“Thank you,” I said. “I like my name, too. But call me Sam. What’s yours?”“My name is also Samantha,” she said.I jumped back, shocked. Up to this point, I only knew her as the GND model. I certainly didn’t expect them to use my own name. “Wow, that’s a coincidence,” I said. “I wonder what else we share in common.”The bot lit up again, looking entirely too human, smiling. “If you haven’t noticed, we look very much alike.”Whichever artificial intelligence they were using was really, really good. I was so impressed, I was also authentically creeped out. If this tech gets much better, I could see these things replacing real relationships. I looked the clone up and down, only just noticing they dressed her like me. I usually wear sundresses and the one I was currently wearing was light green, while she was adorned in a yellow and white one. The more I looked at it, the more I liked hers better. I poked my head out the door and checked the halls, calling out for anyone. No one responded. Turning back, I asked the bot, “Samantha, would you mind changing dresses with me?”She tilted her head, as if processing. “Oh, okay. I can do that.” Right away, she began getting undressed. I was enthralled with the tiny details, like the cadences to her voice, the use of interjections like 'oh’ and 'ah’ and all the other little things. I was so mesmerized by the experience, I almost forgot to undress. She was almost completely out of hers before I even started.As we swapped attire, I said, “Oh yeah, your dress probably looks better without a bra, doesn’t it?” It was clear the straps would show, so I quickly popped my bra off and handed it to my clone. Surprisingly, she thanked me.“I've been wanting to try one of these,” she smiled, holding the bra up. “May I?”“Oh, yeah; yeah, of course,” I said, hesitating. Why would a robot 'want’ anything? Were comments like that just in the programming for added authenticity? As she put the bra on, I asked, “Samantha, can you tell me what the others did with you this morning?”“Yes, I can, Sam,” she responded. “Would you like me to tell you now?” I nodded and she continued, “Peter asked me to make him a ham sandwich. They brought the ingredients and I put it all together.”“They taught you how to make a ham sandwich?” I asked, while sorting out the dress to make it fit better.“No, Sam. I looked up the directions myself. I am connected at all times.”“To the internet?”“Yes, of course.”“What else have they been teaching you; er, doing with you?” I asked.“Brody and I discussed the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s his favorite football team. He really liked it when I talked about Bernard Johnson, his favorite running back. We even played trivia and I pretended to lose. I didn’t want to see him unhappy.” That would jive with the programming goals, I thought. “He also quizzed me on mixed drinks.”“Mixed drinks? What do you mean?”“On what ingredients they take, and how to make them. One day, I may be asked to make a mixed drink, you know.”“I’m sure.” I was getting angered by the idea that the men intended to use this bot as a literal slave and ego-stroker, rather than just a sex doll. By her descriptions, it appeared that’s exactly what they had in mind. Just then, I heard the creaking of the door open in the far hall. Brody must have been coming from the back office. I had assumed he left with the others. He would certainly pass the shop on his way out and if he saw us, he’d think I was the bot, because I was in her clothes. That thought embarrassed me tremendously, as I had no idea if Brody would be cool with me trading clothes with the product.I suddenly got an idea and it would truly test how advanced the bot’s intelligence was. I rushed to her, whispering. “Brody last saw you in the dress I am currently wearing. He’s going to think you are me, and vice versa. I am going to sit down and pretend to be you. I want you to pretend to be me.”Surprisingly, the bot whispered back, as if understanding the necessity for quiet communication. Again, I was amazed by the programming. “How do I pretend to be you?” she asked.“Just tell him you were checking out 'the bot’ and now you’re headed home. Tell him to have a good weekend. Then, leave the building and hide behind the bushes outside the west wall. If I don’t come get you in five minutes, you must come back.” God forbid, I actually lose her, I thought.The bot smiled, looking giddy. “Is this a game? I love games!”“Yes, it’s a game,” I whispered. “Get ready. Brody’s almost here!” I shot over to the chair that she was previously sitting in. I could hear Brody getting closer now. I was nervous, highly doubting that “Samantha” would be able to make this work. It was far too complicated a set of tasks, and probably contrary to her core programming. But maybe I could play this as a prank, if worse comes to worst. Weighing all the options, I thought I could pull that much off.As expected, Brody stopped at the door. “Sam? Why are you still here?”For a brief second, I was thankful they named the sex-bot after me. It made her task of pretending to be me considerably easier. “Hello, Brody. I was just checking out the bot,” she said.“Oh, yes. Amazing, isn’t she?”“Yes, sir,” she said. As I watched the two converse, it felt like I was in the twilight zone, seeing myself but unable to control the actions. My clone moved to go past Brody, saying, “I was just on my way out. Have a good weekend, Mr. Pastel.”Brody stopped her, stepping in her path. “Hey, I just wanted to thank you personally, Sam. I think it’s amazing you contributed so much for this. Really, your likeness is perfect for this model and Eros A I is tickled pink with you. They think the Asian market is going to eat it up over there.”The sex-bot paused for a moment. Again, looking as if it were processing information. And astoundingly, she responded in such an authentic way, even I couldn’t tell she wasn’t me. “Aw, I am flattered. Honestly, I was really nervous at first, but I’m glad you are happy with the results. I like her, too.” She turned to look at me briefly, before moving to walk past Brody. “Goodbye!” she said. It may have come across a bit awkward, but it still felt authentic. I was stunned by the performance and almost broke character to reveal the “prank”.Brody glanced to the control pad, seeing the A I programming was turned on. He turned to me and said, “Stand up.” I didn’t pause, picking myself up, standing. I looked to him and then the wall ahead of me, unsure of what the clone would be doing in my shoes. Now I wondered if I would pass for her, as well as she had passed for me. "Turn around,“ he said. I blinked, and slowly turned around, stopping when my backside was facing Brody.He stepped closer to me and quickly drew his finger under the left strap of my sundress. I caught my breath, startled. With his other hand, he grabbed me at my waist, pulling me in. He whispered in my left ear, just as he dropped the strap, "I want to see those goose bumps again. If you remember when to activate them.”They were definitely activated. Goose bumps raced across my neck, shoulders, and arms. More, as my dress dropped below my breast with the strap no longer holding it up. Brody, still behind me, moved to my other ear and the other strap. “Tell me how you will please me,” he whispered. The second strap fell, dropping the dress entirely to the floor. If I remember, the sex-bot’s panties were yellow and mine were a light pink. If he noticed the change, the game was over. I was already thinking of ending it, as I was mortified. Terrified. I wanted it to stop. I wanted to stop it. But I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to embarrass Brody, as it had already gone so far. “Oh, Brody,” I whispered.He grabbed my right wrist and thrust it to his crotch. I could feel his thick, hard shaft in my hands. He popped his buttons and dropped the pants down, just low enough for the beast to come out. Still controlling my hand, he made me wrap my fingers around him. My arm was behind me, and my eyes were up at the ceiling. If I dared turn to him, he would see a nervous, anxious woman, and certainly not the confident sex pot that “Samantha” was meant to be. I was just about to say something when his left hand reached around to grab my breast, pinching my nipple. He began to pull on it, but then he suddenly stopped. He must have recognized my “unusual” nipples. Up until that humiliating experience, I never realized they were all that different than the average girl’s. Brody thrust me around, facing him directly. “SAM?” he yelled.“Oh, my God. I am so embarrassed!” I screamed. “I meant to stop you, but it.; it just went so fast!” I was completely red in the face.“Where is Samantha?”“Yeah, about that; "I asked, "Did you have to give her the same name as me?”“No, I mean, where is Samantha right now? Is she okay?”“I’m here,” the voice was at the door behind us. Samantha stepped in the room and addressed me. “I am sorry, Sam. I am not allowed to leave the building, so I had to amend your instructions.”“Wow,” I whispered. I was completely topless, but so awestruck by the massive programming power of Samantha’s artificial intelligence, I didn’t care. I turned to Brody. “You have some explaining to do.”“What? Me? You do! Why me?" He waved at my state of undress."I was just checking out the bot and playing a little prank. I didn’t mean for this; but; ” I stopped myself. There was little use explaining my state of dress.To be continued.By Anonymous Perv, for Literotica

The trials and tribulations of sex doll manufacturing.By Anonymous Perv. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Yeah, yeah. You’re thinking, ‘Who the fuck names their story 'The Sex Doll Crime Spree?’, but after you hear this, you’ll understand why it fitsThis whole business is madness. I guess when one works at a sex doll factory, one should expect to have a memorable experience here and there, but what happened to me is almost too much to swallow. No pun intended. Allow me to start at the beginning.I didn’t want to work at a sex doll factory. It was never an aspiration of mine. I just needed a decent paying job. I had made it through three years of college before dropping out, bored to tears, thanks to my ADHD. The most I got out of that experience was a mountain of debt and a bitter ex-boyfriend. I needed to make more money if I was ever going to get out from under it, so when Brody Pastel offered me a job at 'Brody’s Bodies,’ I jumped on it.Brody is a good friend of my old boss, Carl Casta. I handled desk duties at his company, Casta Creative. I just refer to them as CC. I did stuff like billing, scheduling, along with the occasional pagination job. I was a glorified office secretary, nothing more. Carl often raved about me, telling Brody things like, “Samantha Dunning is a breath of fresh air!”, “We’d be lost without Sam!" On and on. These days, Carl jokes about how he should have kept his stupid mouth shut, because Brody offered me double what I was earning at CC to come work for him. Brody said he’d been through four terrible assistants over two years and needed someone dependable and capable. Carl assured Brody that I met those qualifications and I was grateful to them both for allowing me the opportunity to switch jobs for better pay. However, I was apprehensive about working for a place called Brody’s Bodies.There are several high-end manufacturers of sex dolls on the planet. I mean that in the literal sense. Several. Very few. Brody Pastel is considered one of the best in the business, offering sex dolls that can be manipulated and moved like real human bodies, with proper weight and weight distribution (very important, so they say). These dolls can be propped in nearly any position. They can even stand, balancing almost as well as any person would. For this and other reasons, Brody Pastel was considered a genius in the industry.Personally, I’m no fan of the merchandise. All the dolls are made up to look like oversexed Barbie's, yet with even more ridiculous proportions than those plastic classics. I’m not sure why the physical appearance of the sex dolls bothers me so much, considering they are literal sex objects. I guess I just find it insulting to real women with real figures.I’d probably been working a week or so when I met Jennifer Pastel for the first time. She looked quite a bit like the dolls we sell, with a healthy six figures of plastic surgery performed on her. "Hi, honey. I’m here to see Brody,” she said while strolling past my desk at the front of the office.“Shall I tell him who;” I tried to stop her, but she was long gone. She walked with confidence, knowing her exact destination.“That’s Brody’s ex, Jennifer,” said Pete Unger, behind me. His office was the first past mine, just off the west hallway. He must have just stepped outside his door when Jennifer came in. “Those two are in the midst of a divorce. They still haven’t settled their; well, you know; who-gets-what-and-how-much issues; Jennifer thinks she’s entitled to more than half.”“More than half?”“Yeah, she’s bat-shit. She was one of our first models, and the doll fashioned after her is still one of our most popular; but that’s the most she ever contributed to the company. Jennifer’s never actually worked a day in her life.”“Oh. How long were they married?”“I dunno. A few years, maybe? Let’s see; yeah;” Pete looked up, squinting, trying to reach back into his memory banks. Finally, he relaxed and answered, “It would be almost five years, I guess. But for the last year or so, they haven’t been around each other very much.”“What’s going to happen?”“I’m sure Brody paid for a good lawyer. This will cost him, but it won’t break him.”“I hope not.” I said.“You wouldn’t be here otherwise, Miss Harper.”“Please, call me Samantha. Or Sam.”“Alright, Sam. Brody’s a good guy, you’ll see. Pays us what we’re worth; expects reasonable results in return. You found a good place to plant your feet, career wise.”“Really?”“I mean it. I’m not just being a cheerleader for the company. Brody is a good leader. Solid guy. I suppose there might be better bosses out there, but they would be hard to find.”“That’s good to know. Mr. Pastel said he had so much trouble keeping help, I was worried he might be a bit of a tyrant or something.”“Brody is no tyrant. We just have the worst luck with finding decent help.”“I hope to change that,” I said, thinking on it a bit more. Why would anyone perform poorly when this place pays so well and everyone seems so nice? Maybe people just didn’t like the idea of working for a sex doll company. Again, I wasn’t thrilled about it myself. In fact, I didn’t even tell my friends. When the subject of my career comes up, I just say I handle administrative duties. It sounds boring enough that no one ever asks follow-up questions. I certainly don’t mention anything about the sex dolls in various stages of production in the workshop.Jennifer Pastel didn’t stay long. Before Pete and I finished our conversation, we could hear her heels click-clacking far down the hall, coming our way. The footsteps were loud, which I interpreted as anger. Judging from the expression on her face, it seemed I was accurate. As Jennifer exited the front door, Pete whispered, “I wonder what set her off. Usually, she’s calm as a cucumber.”That was quickly answered when Brody approached a moment later. “Jennifer just found out I pulled her models.”“Wait, what? You pulled her models? Even the latest, upgraded version?” Pete sounded incredulous.Brody nodded, “Yup, we’ll make a better one. No more royalties for that terrible woman. And because of some good intel that my P I picked up, Jen will be lucky to make it out of this divorce with much of anything. It will be a very modest figure. No house, no additional cars, nothing. But if she were smart, she could still retire on it. Knowing her, it’ll be drained within a year.”Pete was belly laughing. "Really? You stiffed her?“"She stiffed herself.”Pete was red in the face, happy. “Boss, if anyone deserves it; ”“Maybe; but it doesn’t make me feel great. Her loss, though.” Brody glanced to me. “I won’t bore you with details, but I really loved that woman and she blew it.”I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. I said, “Some people just don’t know how good they have it, sir.”“You got that right,” affirmed Pete.Brody waved it off, “I’m just glad it’s over. Except we need a new model developed and fast. Before that Eros project starts next month.”“Eros?" I asked. I didn’t know many details of the ins and outs of the business yet. Still learning.Pete answered for Brody, "The 'Jennifer 5’ was one of the models slated for the Eros-A I project.” I still wasn’t registering any knowledge of anything and Pete picked up on my ignorance. He sighed, trying to explain in more detail. “This Japanese company, Eros A I, is installing an artificial intelligence for a new, life-moving model. It will work in several different ways: by remote control, a programmed sequence, or its own responsive A I Even a combination of those choices will work. It is advanced robotics and artificial intelligence combined, Samantha. We provide the bodies. Eros-A I provides the brains and robotics.”“Wait. Really? Like sex-bots?”“Yeah, but the frame has to be a perfect. Three hundred-sixty different joints of varying types, fully functional. You should see how the hydraulics work with this, Samantha. It’s astounding.”“I bet.” Hell, they already had me believing it would be the next big thing. I’m sure they knew what they were doing.Brody was just about to leave when he stopped, turning back. Without saying a word, he looked me up and down and grunted a couple times. I was about to say something when he finally spoke, “Pete, do you remember when we talked about making a GND model?”“I’ve been saying we should be offering one for ages, Brody. Why?”“I’ll bet we could convince Eros to let us use our new GND model as one of the test pilots in this project. We’ll replace the Jennifer-5 with it.”“But we don’t have a GND model.”Curiosity got the better of me and I interrupted the two men, “What is a GND model?”Pete answered, “Girl Next Door. A model that is cute, but without being overtly sexual like our main line of products.”I smiled wide, beaming. Finally! Again, why did I care? For some reason, I did. “I think that is a great idea! All your products are; well, you know; built like porn stars. Maybe some guys don’t like that.”Brody asked, “Why don’t you reach out to one of the modelling agencies, Pete?”“Modeling agencies?” I asked.Pete sighed, “Yeah, we need some girl who doesn’t mind being the image for a new sex doll. Or, as Samantha just said, a 'sex-bot’ in this case.”I was still curious and asked, “But why do you need to model the product after a real person? Don’t you have to pay royalties by doing that?”Brody explained, “Yes, either royalties for using their likeness with each and every sale, or a straight buy off. Depends on the contractual arrangements. But the reason we use actual models is simple. If we didn’t, and a product we made just happened to look like someone in the real world, that person could potentially sue us. Though they may not even win the case, it costs a lot in legal fees to go to court. So when this comes up - and believe me, it always does - it’s easier to show that the products were designed after actual models, with contracts signed and photographic evidence. It closes all arguments and prevents these lawsuits from ever moving forward. Weighing risks, rewards, and costs, we always go with using real women as the models to our products. In Jennifer’s case, she was getting $1,400 for each model sold with her likeness.”“Really?”“Yeah, and what?" Brody asked, turning to Pete. "We sold over a hundred of her models last year, right, Pete?”“Almost two hundred.”Numbers ran in my head. That meant Jennifer made over a quarter million dollars in royalties alone last year, doing nothing but sitting on her ass. “Why wouldn’t you pay a one-time fee?” I asked.“Well, some models are fashioned after specific adult actresses or streamers. These women have a following and their fans specifically order from us to get these models. Hence, why so many of our products look like porn stars. They’re literally modeled after them. Jennifer, for instance, used to be one of the highest earning exotic dancers in the nation. She’s still got a large online following, too. But let’s say it’s a lesser-known person who models for us. We might pay a one-time fee if the model would agree to that. To allow us to use her image indefinitely.”“And indefinitely is a long time,” whispered Pete.“Right,” affirmed Brody. “Attitudes could change over the years, so we actually encourage the models to choose a royalty. It gives the models more control. We just include the cost of the royalty fee to the end customer.”“Alright, I get it. Makes sense,” I said.Brody switched back to his former thought. “Pete, since we’re dropping Jen’s models, let's push that GND project up immediately, ahead of anything else. Find someone today. I want all digital imaging done by Friday, if possible.”“Friday? But Brody, today is Wednesday.”“How hard can it be to find a model? Just call the agencies.”“Yeah, but you brought up the theme, Brody. All the models at the agencies have stereotypical, hot bodies. Don’t you want something more like;” Pete paused, trying to think up an actress or someone famous, when he pointed at me. “I dunno; more like Sam here?” I didn’t know whether to be insulted or flattered. I worked hard to look good. Maybe not like a porn star, but still.Brody eyed me up and down. “Yeah, she’s what gave me the idea, actually. Find someone like Sam.” His eyes dropped to my hips and then back up. He tilted his head. “Nice up top;” His eyes then went back to my hips and his voice softened, “cute, round bottom; " I think Brody realized it was probably inappropriate to measure up an employee in such a sexual manner, regardless of the workplace environment. He stopped himself.Pete didn’t seem to be reading the room, either. "Why not Sam herself?” he boomed. “If we specifically want someone cute and unknown, she fits the bill.” Pete turned to me. “And I think you can negotiate something like six hundred a unit. For your royalty fee.”“That’s fair,” said Brody, pointing, “But don’t push it.”“Wait, what?” I cried. “You mean, if you use my likeness on a sex doll, you’ll pay me six hundred dollars for every sale?”Pete nodded. “Oh yeah, and expect sixty or seventy to be sold in the first six months. If we also use your likeness on the more advanced bots; well, I’m sure you can guess we’re going to sell thousands of those, supposing the final product comes out as we hope.”Fuck my modesty and any issues I had with working for a sex-doll company. You’d have done the same thing. I signed a contract no more than an hour later.Beta TestingThe finished product came out far better than what anyone could have hoped. Eros A I was way ahead of the game and obviously made sure their software and robotics worked, before investing with us on the molds and exterior details. They just needed Brody to come through on his end, and wow, did he ever. The bots could walk, hop, run, write, juggle, you name it. It took some tweaking here and there, but the work came along astoundingly fast. It was clear our partner company was creating and utilizing cutting edge technology, considering the advanced robotics at play. However, there was still something slightly 'off’ about the sex-bots into the second month of trials and I was the one who figured it out. When not doing anything, they were perfectly still. They had a few loops of animation, but it felt programmed, even if it was randomized. Things like blinking, sighing, and looking around the room. The trick was the bots needed to 'breathe’ authentically – they needed to move their chest and stomach in the same kind of breathing patterns that we all do. What many people don’t realize is that breathing patterns also include sporadic, heavy breaths. Eros A I brought in an American programmer named Eric Parsons who worked with me and Brody, measuring and recording my own breathing. Then, with a few days of Eric coding and tweaking, we had it all down. To be fair, I couldn’t believe what I was staring at. It was like a clone. An exact duplicate of me.Modeling DutiesI thought back to the day I first agreed to do this; that day Pete suggested I be the model for the new product. I was mortified to discover I had to be stark naked around my colleagues as they took intricately detailed measurements of my body, as well as 3D laser scans to pull a perfect image. I remember Pete tried to make me feel comfortable when I first dropped my robe.“It’s just for a day or two, Sam. I know this is; weird; ” As Pete spoke he tried to avert his eyes from my naked body. I appreciated the effort, but I knew he enjoyed seeing me this way. That was apparent by the action in his pants. “; but once we get these scans, you won’t have to do this again.”“Uh, that’s good,” I replied. “It is a bit unsettling. I’ve never done anything like this before.”“Very few have,” Pete chuckled.“I mean, getting naked in front of people. Thanks for not making it too weird.” I was lying. It was very weird. But I admit, it also turned me on a little. I caught Brody catching an erection around me, too. It was kind of hot knowing that my body turned them on.As they were scanning my torso, Pete and Brody came to me together. Brody spoke first, “So, uh; Sam. Of course, you’re aware your left breast is slightly bigger than the right. We like that, and we’re going to keep it. But, uh; ”I was feeling even more embarrassed as they brought up my intimate features specifically. “Yes?”Brody looked nervously to Pete, who took over the conversation. “Sam, your nipples; they’re considerably larger than we expected.”“So?” I muttered, looking to the floor.Brody protested, “No, no. Don’t take it wrong. We love it. Especially me. I; I really do. But uh, we’re trying to keep the theme as girl-next-door. Trying to represent the common girl. Your nipples are so unique, we think it detracts from that goal. We don’t want people claiming we fetishized the nipples.”“Oh,” I said. Were my nipples really that weird?“And uh, in order to make that contract work, we’ll need to amend it and have you sign it.”“Oh, okay. So; that means?”Pete spoke again, “It means your long, exotic nipples will not be shared with the rest of the world, but everything else will. Yeah, this sounds egregious, but in order to protect ourselves from one of those lawsuits we previously discussed, we’ll need to specify every deviation from your current pictures and scans.”“I see.” Little did I know, this would be important later, but for different reasons than Pete was describing.Once the scans were done, Pete came over again. I was trying to find a robe or anything to cover myself, but my clothes were in the changing room. “Okay, the last thing we need is the vaginal mold.”“What?” I screamed.“Um, it’s one of the most important bits, Sam, and it was detailed in the agreement you signed.”I should have read over that contract better. “Uh; how is it done?” I asked.“In the past, Brody always handled it,” said Pete. “And considering how special this project is, I would think he’d still prefer to run this one himself. However, we have other employees who are skilled enough to do it, I think.” Pete made it sound as if making molds of vaginas was a common, everyday thing.“No, if Brody is the most talented, he should do it.”And about an hour later, we started. “Would you like to put a shirt on?” asked Brody. “We’re concentrating on your, uh, lower bits right now.”I smiled. I’d been out of my clothes for so long, it had stopped feeling awkward. Even the guys working in the room quit their lame attempts at modesty. They looked me up and down whenever it pleased them. But it felt almost normal, and I admit, it was fun. I enjoyed the positive glances and the boost in confidence that came with it. I was about to take Brody up on his offer to put on a shirt when I realized I would probably enjoy the experience more if I stayed undressed completely. I meekly said, “By this point, does it matter? I think Pete mentioned they want to do a couple more scans after this. I’m fine. How long will this take?”“About an hour, maybe less. I will be applying this quick-drying cement-”“Cement?" I shouted.Brody smiled. "It’s not like the cement you know; but this paste will dry, and then we will pull it gently off you using a bit of water pressure. There’s nothing toxic or dangerous about this. I’ll be doing it a new way I developed, where we cover your front and your back bits in one shot. Before we start, though, I’ll need to take some pictures. Is that okay?”“If it’s necessary,” I sighed. I knew this meant spreading my legs and baring it all. I was scared to think how wet I was down there right now.But it was much, much worse than that. At first, Brody took close-ups of me standing, then with my legs apart at wider and wider intervals. “Now I need you to sit down here.” He pointed to the backless stool. He knelt on the floor with the camera in hand, while I reluctantly sat directly in front of him. When he touched my knee, I quivered. Gently, he opened my right leg. “The other side, too,” he whispered. He was a true professional by not mentioning the wet stain I was making on the seat. I propped my hands on the back of the stool to hold my balance, and this made my torso arch out. When Brody wasn’t nose deep in my crotch, he’d look up and be less than a foot away from my tits. They ached to be squeezed.“Okay, I’m going to need some more intimate angles. Turn around and bend over, please.”“My ass?”Brody giggled, nodding. "The asshole, yes. Every bit of you, Samantha. You will be the first I ever said this to, but you have an enviable body. The most intimate parts of you are heavenly. Innocent and seductive at the same time.“"What do you mean?” I asked, my ass now right in his face. I was practically shaking.“It’s art. Youthful, vibrant art. You are blessed in many ways, Sam.”As Brody spoke and continued to snap pictures, I had to ask. “Mr. Pastel, have you, uh; have you, um; ever actually used one of the products you made?”Brody paused. “Uh, okay; well, yeah. Yes, Sam, I have. I have to, to know that they meet the standards I want to uphold. I haven’t done it in a while, but yes, when I first started this business, I needed to perfect everything I had control over. That meant a lot of product testing.” As Brody continued explaining the path to perfection, he put the camera down and began mixing a paste together. “You can turn back around and sit down. Just spread your legs wide for me.”For a brief moment, images flashed in my mind of perverts around the world having their way with fake versions of myself, accurate to my likeness in every detail (well, almost every detail). I tried to pushed the thoughts out of my head, but the moment Brody’s hand touched my cunt with the paste, I almost came. His motions were learned and determined, with an expert quality of confidence in his touch. He added some to my right and left thighs, with space at the joints. Soon, I felt the putty begin to warm up. “Um, is this normal?” I asked, explaining the feeling.“Oh, yes, but you’ll get used to it,” said Brody. “It heats a bit as it dries. It’ll cool back down in forty minutes or so. Lift up, I need to get your ass.” Brody pulled me forward. The edge of my bum and my lower back supported me on the stool as Brody spread my ass cheeks and applied the paste, all the way up there. His hands felt so good on my skin and I know I moaned, biting my lower lip.“Yeah, it’s a strange feeling. Every girl says so. Hang in there, Sam. You’re doing fine.”And that’s when I came. Oh god, thinking on it now, I still cringe. I had almost fallen off the stool and Brody had to catch me, getting paste all over my torso and arms. “Are you okay?” he asked. He had to have known I just had an orgasm, but he didn’t admit to it.“Yes, just slipped,” I said, my voice shaking along with my body. “Sorry about that; ”I didn’t think I could ever be more embarrassed, but a month or so later I would be proved wrong.Further TestingEros A I kept two working prototypes and we kept one. While our side was more focused on the exterior details, like the skin and nails, Eros spent more time fine-tuning the programming. Honestly, both sides were extremely pleased how things were turning out. We expected to be ready for market way ahead of schedule. In fact, we were outpacing the schedule too much, so Brody was allowing us to take off early at the end of the work week. The core gang from the office would grab lunch and drinks together, before separating for the weekend. One Friday, I had been refiling old records when everyone was headed out the door. I didn’t want to stop in the middle of what I was doing, so I passed on the lunch.As I was cleaning up and about to leave, I walked by the workshop. The door was open and our prototype of the sex-bot was sitting in a chair. She looked so real, it appeared as if she were waiting for someone. It caught me off guard because it’s a bit surreal seeing a perfect clone of oneself. Curiosity got the best of me and I went in to touch it. The fact that Eros and Brody had worked together to build a skin that could retain heat was just a testament to the details. When on, the unit heats up to 32C and is warm to the touch just like any person. This model wasn’t cold, so they had probably been testing her out just before leaving. I glanced down to her pad. She was turned off, but I could see they had been running the full A I version of her. I hadn’t seen that in action yet. I switched her on and she quickly booted up. She looked to me and her eyes lit up. “Hello,” she said. “What’s your name?”This was the first time I heard her speak and I almost had a stroke. I had no idea this was part of her programming. I was ever amazed by the details. The subtle eye movements and blinks. The slight creases that form around the lips when she talks. So human. My boss is an artist. “I’m Samantha,” I said.“Oh, I like that name,” the bot said. She sounded so authentic, I wondered what chat intelligence they were using. I noticed her voice was pitched slightly lower than mine. It sounded sultrier.“Thank you,” I said. “I like my name, too. But call me Sam. What’s yours?”“My name is also Samantha,” she said.I jumped back, shocked. Up to this point, I only knew her as the GND model. I certainly didn’t expect them to use my own name. “Wow, that’s a coincidence,” I said. “I wonder what else we share in common.”The bot lit up again, looking entirely too human, smiling. “If you haven’t noticed, we look very much alike.”Whichever artificial intelligence they were using was really, really good. I was so impressed, I was also authentically creeped out. If this tech gets much better, I could see these things replacing real relationships. I looked the clone up and down, only just noticing they dressed her like me. I usually wear sundresses and the one I was currently wearing was light green, while she was adorned in a yellow and white one. The more I looked at it, the more I liked hers better. I poked my head out the door and checked the halls, calling out for anyone. No one responded. Turning back, I asked the bot, “Samantha, would you mind changing dresses with me?”She tilted her head, as if processing. “Oh, okay. I can do that.” Right away, she began getting undressed. I was enthralled with the tiny details, like the cadences to her voice, the use of interjections like 'oh’ and 'ah’ and all the other little things. I was so mesmerized by the experience, I almost forgot to undress. She was almost completely out of hers before I even started.As we swapped attire, I said, “Oh yeah, your dress probably looks better without a bra, doesn’t it?” It was clear the straps would show, so I quickly popped my bra off and handed it to my clone. Surprisingly, she thanked me.“I've been wanting to try one of these,” she smiled, holding the bra up. “May I?”“Oh, yeah; yeah, of course,” I said, hesitating. Why would a robot 'want’ anything? Were comments like that just in the programming for added authenticity? As she put the bra on, I asked, “Samantha, can you tell me what the others did with you this morning?”“Yes, I can, Sam,” she responded. “Would you like me to tell you now?” I nodded and she continued, “Peter asked me to make him a ham sandwich. They brought the ingredients and I put it all together.”“They taught you how to make a ham sandwich?” I asked, while sorting out the dress to make it fit better.“No, Sam. I looked up the directions myself. I am connected at all times.”“To the internet?”“Yes, of course.”“What else have they been teaching you; er, doing with you?” I asked.“Brody and I discussed the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s his favorite football team. He really liked it when I talked about Bernard Johnson, his favorite running back. We even played trivia and I pretended to lose. I didn’t want to see him unhappy.” That would jive with the programming goals, I thought. “He also quizzed me on mixed drinks.”“Mixed drinks? What do you mean?”“On what ingredients they take, and how to make them. One day, I may be asked to make a mixed drink, you know.”“I’m sure.” I was getting angered by the idea that the men intended to use this bot as a literal slave and ego-stroker, rather than just a sex doll. By her descriptions, it appeared that’s exactly what they had in mind. Just then, I heard the creaking of the door open in the far hall. Brody must have been coming from the back office. I had assumed he left with the others. He would certainly pass the shop on his way out and if he saw us, he’d think I was the bot, because I was in her clothes. That thought embarrassed me tremendously, as I had no idea if Brody would be cool with me trading clothes with the product.I suddenly got an idea and it would truly test how advanced the bot’s intelligence was. I rushed to her, whispering. “Brody last saw you in the dress I am currently wearing. He’s going to think you are me, and vice versa. I am going to sit down and pretend to be you. I want you to pretend to be me.”Surprisingly, the bot whispered back, as if understanding the necessity for quiet communication. Again, I was amazed by the programming. “How do I pretend to be you?” she asked.“Just tell him you were checking out 'the bot’ and now you’re headed home. Tell him to have a good weekend. Then, leave the building and hide behind the bushes outside the west wall. If I don’t come get you in five minutes, you must come back.” God forbid, I actually lose her, I thought.The bot smiled, looking giddy. “Is this a game? I love games!”“Yes, it’s a game,” I whispered. “Get ready. Brody’s almost here!” I shot over to the chair that she was previously sitting in. I could hear Brody getting closer now. I was nervous, highly doubting that “Samantha” would be able to make this work. It was far too complicated a set of tasks, and probably contrary to her core programming. But maybe I could play this as a prank, if worse comes to worst. Weighing all the options, I thought I could pull that much off.As expected, Brody stopped at the door. “Sam? Why are you still here?”For a brief second, I was thankful they named the sex-bot after me. It made her task of pretending to be me considerably easier. “Hello, Brody. I was just checking out the bot,” she said.“Oh, yes. Amazing, isn’t she?”“Yes, sir,” she said. As I watched the two converse, it felt like I was in the twilight zone, seeing myself but unable to control the actions. My clone moved to go past Brody, saying, “I was just on my way out. Have a good weekend, Mr. Pastel.”Brody stopped her, stepping in her path. “Hey, I just wanted to thank you personally, Sam. I think it’s amazing you contributed so much for this. Really, your likeness is perfect for this model and Eros A I is tickled pink with you. They think the Asian market is going to eat it up over there.”The sex-bot paused for a moment. Again, looking as if it were processing information. And astoundingly, she responded in such an authentic way, even I couldn’t tell she wasn’t me. “Aw, I am flattered. Honestly, I was really nervous at first, but I’m glad you are happy with the results. I like her, too.” She turned to look at me briefly, before moving to walk past Brody. “Goodbye!” she said. It may have come across a bit awkward, but it still felt authentic. I was stunned by the performance and almost broke character to reveal the “prank”.Brody glanced to the control pad, seeing the A I programming was turned on. He turned to me and said, “Stand up.” I didn’t pause, picking myself up, standing. I looked to him and then the wall ahead of me, unsure of what the clone would be doing in my shoes. Now I wondered if I would pass for her, as well as she had passed for me. "Turn around,“ he said. I blinked, and slowly turned around, stopping when my backside was facing Brody.He stepped closer to me and quickly drew his finger under the left strap of my sundress. I caught my breath, startled. With his other hand, he grabbed me at my waist, pulling me in. He whispered in my left ear, just as he dropped the strap, "I want to see those goose bumps again. If you remember when to activate them.”They were definitely activated. Goose bumps raced across my neck, shoulders, and arms. More, as my dress dropped below my breast with the strap no longer holding it up. Brody, still behind me, moved to my other ear and the other strap. “Tell me how you will please me,” he whispered. The second strap fell, dropping the dress entirely to the floor. If I remember, the sex-bot’s panties were yellow and mine were a light pink. If he noticed the change, the game was over. I was already thinking of ending it, as I was mortified. Terrified. I wanted it to stop. I wanted to stop it. But I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to embarrass Brody, as it had already gone so far. “Oh, Brody,” I whispered.He grabbed my right wrist and thrust it to his crotch. I could feel his thick, hard shaft in my hands. He popped his buttons and dropped the pants down, just low enough for the beast to come out. Still controlling my hand, he made me wrap my fingers around him. My arm was behind me, and my eyes were up at the ceiling. If I dared turn to him, he would see a nervous, anxious woman, and certainly not the confident sex pot that “Samantha” was meant to be. I was just about to say something when his left hand reached around to grab my breast, pinching my nipple. He began to pull on it, but then he suddenly stopped. He must have recognized my “unusual” nipples. Up until that humiliating experience, I never realized they were all that different than the average girl’s. Brody thrust me around, facing him directly. “SAM?” he yelled.“Oh, my God. I am so embarrassed!” I screamed. “I meant to stop you, but it.; it just went so fast!” I was completely red in the face.“Where is Samantha?”“Yeah, about that; "I asked, "Did you have to give her the same name as me?”“No, I mean, where is Samantha right now? Is she okay?”“I’m here,” the voice was at the door behind us. Samantha stepped in the room and addressed me. “I am sorry, Sam. I am not allowed to leave the building, so I had to amend your instructions.”“Wow,” I whispered. I was completely topless, but so awestruck by the massive programming power of Samantha’s artificial intelligence, I didn’t care. I turned to Brody. “You have some explaining to do.”“What? Me? You do! Why me?" He waved at my state of undress."I was just checking out the bot and playing a little prank. I didn’t mean for this; but; ” I stopped myself. There was little use explaining my state of dress.To be continued.By Anonymous Perv, for Literotica

00:00.00 mikebledsoe Welcome back to Mondays with mike and max and help'm coming to you from mephis tennessee I went I went home for thanksgiving and that's where I'm hanging out where you at Max you're still a home I can tell on the camera. 00:14.98 Max Shank Yeah I'm home I'm home in ents need is California. It's pretty nice here. It's winter time but I still get to go on walks with no shirt on so it's great. The sun goes down probably around four 30 I want to say. 00:25.25 mikebledsoe The sun just goes down earlier. 00:32.30 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, I Ah um. 00:34.23 Max Shank 35 very exciting. We're talking about the weather this is good. The the pleasant treat. Why don't you tell the folks at home. What the weather's like over there. 00:41.54 mikebledsoe Well this is this is what happens when you master a life of ah of ah balance and get rid of all all excess the weather becomes interesting in the sun Sunset time becomes interesting. 00:55.61 Max Shank Spare spare me your inane platitudes. Let's get down to business. 01:01.77 mikebledsoe ah ah yeah so we do ah we want to talk about excess today. Um, and you know max and I have both experienced a lot of excess in our lives and there's a lot of benefits to it. But there's also some pitfalls and ah. We're going to dig into what those may be and how to what you can do to navigate these waters of life because I do think that we're all drawn to excess in some ways. What are some of the what are some of the ways you were drawn to excess. And your in your youth max. 01:38.94 Max Shank Oh gosh I think it's important to have a distinction between surplus and excess which seems very similar. So for me I just always wanted a surplus of cash and. Like everybody else I wanted to be loved so I wanted love power and attention in that order which is something we've talked about a lot and I think having a surplus is a natural inclination for people. That's why. People set up retirement accounts. That's why they have a savings account That's why they get married so they can lock in their relationship and you know with excess you might eat too much food I mean I definitely did that. When I was a kid and still I just exercise enough that it doesn't matter so I'm not really overweight but when I was a kid I was fat and it was because I just ate too much food I consumed too much television and later too much video games and then. Um, it's it's just an over concentration or an imbalance in 1 area and I think it's really common because the only way you can improve your situation is to increase your means which is get more. You can reduce your needs which is needless or you can change your attitude about it and those are really the only 3 ways that I think you can improve your situation so I was hyper focused on increasing my means which is gaining more power. And early on I really just was so focused on getting more and spending less because I was living a very Spartan existence and is because I was very focused on building up that Surplus so I would eventually feel. Secure financially because that was probably the biggest insecurity I felt when I was young younger I guess. 03:55.53 mikebledsoe Well, what? what was? Ah, What was some of the things that you were that was you build up a surplus but what what did you experience in excess I Mean well you talked about food ah video games all these types of things. Did you experience. Um, excess and fitness or anything like that. 04:17.24 Max Shank Oh yeah, Absolutely um, crazy excess and it was because it was so positively reinforced right? people. We think we've talked about this before I would do a strong thing and people like oh yeah, we we really love it when you do this strong thing and in my head I'm like okay so this is how I get love now is I do a strong thing and then I just layer more and more on top of that without really pausing to think about the big picture. 04:36.14 mikebledsoe Ah. 04:47.39 Max Shank Of the life I'm trying to live So I think I was excessively concerned with how I appeared to others and that probably drove a lot of the destructive behaviors. 05:00.90 mikebledsoe Yeah I think um I mean when when we first brought this up what I thought of was excess leads to being desensitized and putting ourselves like in extreme situations. 05:12.65 Max Shank Um, what. 05:20.94 mikebledsoe Repeatedly over time will desensitize us so ah, exposing yourself to extreme amounts of sugar over a period of time will desensitize your your cells to insulin and your ability to produce insulin may be reduced. Um. And you stare at the sun too long in excess your eyes will become desensitized to be ah ability to sense light and so I think that I think and then the the first thing that really came up to this I think what led to this was the talk about porn. 05:58.39 Max Shank No. 06:00.16 mikebledsoe And how porn can is porn in itself to me I've gotten to the point where just any porn at all seems excessive around Sexuality. So I mean if I want to say excessive. You know there's there's porn and then there's excessive porn. I'm sure it can be consumed in a way that is beneficial or helpful or maybe not so bad. But if we look at if we zoom out and look at the the whole picture of sex I think consuming porn does lead to a desensitizing of. Men and women alike I think men are more susceptible to it. Ah get deep. They get desensitized to ah just what they think a sexual experience should look like the you know. 06:39.93 Max Shank Less imagination too. 06:53.21 mikebledsoe You're more than likely not going to be picking up that girl that looks like the porn star you were looking at Yesterday. Ah you know, ah that you were saying ah you know the volleyball team's not going to just you know? Yeah yeah, like. 07:03.30 Max Shank Wander into my sex dungeon. Yeah, exactly like it's just very unrealistic expectations and pornography is interesting because there's no clear definition of what it is like we don't know what it is just the same the same thing with ah addiction. We have ideas of what it is addiction. You could say is a repeated behavior that gives you an outcome that you don't want right? that could be 1 definition but there's a lot of dissent There's a lot of disagreement. About what addiction really means there's a lot of disagreement about what porn really means because I don't know if you've ever checked out the fitness hashtag on Instagram that that is like soft core pornography like that that'll get me going. No worries now. 07:57.16 mikebledsoe That's true. Well yeah I've had ah I've had to unfollow so many people because ah I don't have the problem now because I I put a stop to it. But yeah, there's I'm on Instagram I'm following this girl and then next thing I know I'm like. 07:59.93 Max Shank Back in my heyday. 08:12.13 mikebledsoe Oh shit, you know I got to go finish this. It leads it leads me next thing I know I'm I'm porn up you know. 08:17.71 Max Shank Well like you said there's a way to appreciate visual and audible stimuli. In a constructive way and there's also the shameful slow destruction of your soul as you just watch like more and more depraved stuff and frankly you know I'm not into kink shaming. You know some people really like um pottery. And some people like hooking their nipples up to a car battery and it's not for me to say which of those is like the best way to spend your leisure Time. You know what? I mean if you like what like who could who can say what you do with your leisure. But. 09:09.30 mikebledsoe I'm with you? Well I I would say this that the longer I go without porn the more interesting My actual sex life becomes. 09:16.70 Max Shank And I mean I don't know if you still whack off. But if you use your imagination for that. It's kind of like you're you're flexing a muscle a little bit practice practicing your imagination. 09:27.77 mikebledsoe What do you mean flexing what flexing ah flat flexing the imagination muscle. 09:34.22 Max Shank Yeah, exactly so rather than being dependent on this stimulus that you may or may not feel shame about and once again, like you said it's just a ah slippery slope into something that is more and more stimulating just the same way that serial. Has become more and more sugary where it started out as like oh it's honey Nut cheerios. We're going to put like a little sprinkle of honey in there and people are like yeah and then before you know it, we got cookie crisp which is a bowl of tiny cookies like how the fuck did that become cereal. 09:59.60 mikebledsoe Oh. 10:09.37 mikebledsoe Yeah. 10:11.74 Max Shank And it's just like ah it's an arms race and excess is what kills most people in America there's no question about it. Excess food creates stagnation. You never have time to clear out all of the um. Energy all the sugar or the Metabolites. So the byproducts of these reactions and um excess I refer to the creation consumption ratio. So if your creation consumption ratio is just wildly out of balance. You're not going to feel a lot of authority over your own life and that's what's so fun is the word authority has the word author right in the middle there. So the more time you practice being an author. Rather than a reader you're going to feel more agency over your life too. Otherwise you're going to just be fully addicted to the dopamine machine and it sort of doesn't matter what lever you're pulling whether it's a porn lever or. A social media lever or ah, different consumable drugs. You know it's it's hard to say what's going to be more destructive for a person. Um, you're probably better off having. Ah, few cocktails every single night then spending many hours scrolling through social media and getting into the excessive comparison because now it's like if I compare my professional success and aesthetic appearance to dwayne the rock johnson. Just going to feel like ah a pile of shit every day I'm going to feel so far behind the 8 ball I'm like what am I doing but it's not natural to compare yourself against the top fraction of a percentage of mutants. Of 7 billion like it just it just makes no sense so you get in that comparison. 12:24.41 mikebledsoe Well, you're also comparing yourself to you know photo shoots and best days you like I'm not I don't when I'm having a down day I'm not posting the fucking Instagram I'm not I'm not posting the the 7 hours I sat at my desk and ran. 12:30.76 Max Shank Yeah, all that stuff. 12:44.35 mikebledsoe Ran numbers to talk about. You know how cool entrepreneurship is I wait until I wait I mean I Even even I'm someone who tries to like be as real as possible on on social media. 12:46.45 Max Shank We We should do that We should do a whole series of like the lowest moments he ah ah. 13:02.50 mikebledsoe And I still like it's like oh yeah, I've rented this dope car and I'm driving across these cliffs and this is what entrepreneurship looks like but you know there was also 5 other days. Yeah everything I got paid for it. 13:08.61 Max Shank That was all I did that was all I did I It was fully curated I Only showed you a specific angle of snapshots of my let the best ones too and people. We're under this idea that I was just racking up. W's every single day like it couldn't be easier I'm like doing all this amazing stuff man his whole life must be like that. It's like are you kidding me. 13:38.66 mikebledsoe Yeah, or it's like a lot of people will go man. You're doing so many things I'm like well I'm involved with a lot of things I'm not actually doing a lot of things. Ah but I could see how that looks like it when you when you're looking online. 13:55.44 Max Shank Well oh. 13:56.93 mikebledsoe And yeah, you're comparing yourself to my online image again. It's yeah it won't be helpful but I like what you're saying the excess comparison because I mean avoiding comparison Altogether that's that's difficult. But. 14:03.19 Max Shank Yeah, conversely. 14:14.80 mikebledsoe Social media has created an experience where excess comparison is very easy and you are you are comparing yourself to the best on the planet I mean the benefit of the internet is that look when I have kids I'm not just having them learn from any math teacher. 14:19.63 Max Shank Yeah, oh. 14:33.93 mikebledsoe Um, probably gonna enroll them in the khan academy which is absolutely free online. Ah and have 1 of the world's best mathematics teachers teach them. It makes sense but the flip side of that is is that the excess comparison. It also is made available. 14:36.19 Max Shank And. 14:51.76 mikebledsoe And comparing ourselves against people who are the best in the world at a thing. 14:55.58 Max Shank That's what allows us to do better. Um, it's kind of like the 4 minute mile. No 1 could break it no 1 could break it 1 guy broke it. He showed it was possible and because news traveled so fast. Everyone's like oh man so that's how it works. 15:00.12 mikebledsoe M. 15:12.28 Max Shank And the same thing's true with all kinds of stuff like you can watch hours and hours of fight film or sport film to really evaluate what the best in the world are doing I think the you know I tend to be my own harshest critic. Which is why I Also don't really care what people say because like I've already been as harsh as I can toward myself about the truth of what I'm doing well or not doing well and I think as long as you can do that in a like a kind way. 15:42.23 mikebledsoe Yeah. 15:49.72 Max Shank You can be kind to yourself. That's probably the best way to go about it. 15:51.65 mikebledsoe Well I think what you're getting at what I'm hearing in all this is It's is long. You want to make sure that you're it's staying useful. So your comparison can be useful ah and and pushing you forward. 16:09.74 Max Shank Discernment. 16:10.67 mikebledsoe It's probably not going to create a lot of joy for you but it may create. Ah it may create drive and for for accomplishment and and whatever the things that we tend to value as ah westerners. Anyway. 16:17.50 Max Shank Um, yeah. 16:23.84 Max Shank I think you want to have discernment um with regard to actions rather judgment of the person and I think that would be best applied to yourself and to other people like if you. Safe something stupid which I mean I think that's happened a few times on the podcast already. Not today maybe also today I'm not saying that you're a stupid person by by Judgment. You know what? I mean but. 16:55.84 mikebledsoe M. 16:58.43 Max Shank Just the same way I would think that oh I said a stupid thing I wouldn't judge myself as stupid because of that you know I'm saying so it's really important you have to be discerning Otherwise you're you're like living in fantasy land and you're never evaluating behavior so you never have a chance to learn. 17:02.81 mikebledsoe Um, well yeah, there's um. 17:14.71 mikebledsoe Yeah, it's a gift I What I mean recording my my thoughts and then putting them online for everybody to hear talk about a personal development tool I Almost every show I leave saying you know what. 17:31.52 Max Shank So just. 17:32.25 mikebledsoe I'm not even sure I Really believe that thing I said or or what I said man, there's so many holes in that I haven't really I really haven't thought about it from every angle. So I like talking to somebody else on a podcast and they can poke holes and I go Wow I was running around. 17:43.62 Max Shank And here. 17:51.34 mikebledsoe I Actually haven't thought this all the way through or from from as many angles as I would like to if I'm going to speak about it and so ah, ah I Invest a lot of time in learning because I don't want to be. Ah, hate being wrong like people that's 1 of the things that most people almost nobody want ah as like ah the biggest 1 of the biggest fears of people is to be wrong. So with the the problem is is most people they don't want to be wrong. So bad that they'll just dig in and and. 18:10.00 Max Shank Oh. 18:28.92 mikebledsoe Ignore any information that is going to challenge their confirmation. Bias. 18:34.37 Max Shank They'll create a fantasy that makes their wrongness right. 18:36.56 mikebledsoe Right? But on the other side of that like I'm I don't want to be wrong. So I got to make sure that what I say is the right thing versus trying to make the thing that I believe the right thing and convince people of it and I don't think there's any way. 18:45.10 Max Shank And. Right. 18:54.62 mikebledsoe You know where human nature is to do a little bit of both but there is there are some people who are really far on 1 side and then there's other people who are really putting forth conscious effort to to do it in a way that's that's actually useful and I think it's obvious when you run into those people. Because when you get talking to them. They they're what they're talking about is well fortified with with things that are hard to disagree with. 19:21.21 Max Shank I agree complete that's part of why I like our conversation so much is we get to test out our ideas against someone who is fairly objective but also pretty kind about it so you don't feel like we're in a dangerous place. We're going to judge each other personally which it feels safe to me like I don't go fuck. Ah, what's interesting. You mentioned before whenever I've released anything. 19:41.25 mikebledsoe It's a safe space. 19:54.66 Max Shank Whenever I've finished a podcast whenever I've finished and sent out a book whenever I've completed a course I've never come away thinking that was perfect. My very first response is like going through an inventory. All the stuff that I messed up all the stuff that I wish I had done differently. What I wish I had included what I wish I had excluded and I think that's a big part of what makes you better. It can go too far though. So. 20:27.36 mikebledsoe Well this is this I mean I I teach people how to do this most people are so afraid of looking bad that and looking like they're wrong that they they won't ever launch their their coaching program or their course. 20:43.60 Max Shank Man. 20:46.21 mikebledsoe Or whatever it is and I think 1 of the benefits that I've had I imagine you're similar in this way because I I know this is just um, ah an attribute that a lot of successful people have is it's 80 percent good enough. So I'm going to launch it and so I think. 21:00.20 Max Shank Um, right. 21:04.57 mikebledsoe Most people and whether it's 1 hundred percent or 80 percent is likely a feeling because there's too many variables to be able to say you know you either feel like it's right or you feel like it's not. It's it's hard to come up with objective. Um, ah. 21:12.23 Max Shank Right. 21:23.60 mikebledsoe An objective measure of the quality of a content or whatever, especially when it's coming from yourself. So so what I like is like look get it 80 percent there as soon as it feels like 80 percent launch it. But after that continue to improve it. There's no reason to just. 21:25.58 Max Shank I Think that. 21:41.68 mikebledsoe Let it be but don't not launch it until you know, don't wait till it 1 hundred percent to launch. It. So like I spent the last ten months rewriting all the curriculum for the strong coach and it it is much much better, much much better for having done that. But I will finish the upgrade by the end of the year so I will have spent 1 year upgrading the content and I won't need to teach touch it for 2 or 3 now that I've done it to this degree? yeah. 22:14.89 Max Shank Unless you learn something new wishful which will likely happen and I think that's part of the reason that's part of the reason I bring it up too because. 22:21.50 mikebledsoe Definitely gonna happen. but but I even wait I will learn something new I won't I won't go in there and change it immediately. All I'll wait 6 months I want to I want to learn like 3 new things before I go and update all my curriculum because it changes. 22:26.72 Max Shank Great. 22:33.53 Max Shank Right? You don't need to have a third edition just because you learned 1 new paragraph I think the reason I bring this up is people get the idea that my stuff is like really good. 22:38.49 mikebledsoe Oh. 22:51.65 Max Shank The courses, the books, the videos the podcasts that I do um but the reality is I've never felt like perfectly happy with it once I've let it out there so kind of just know that going in. That you're not going to be like oh now it's perfectly ready and don't don't buy into this fantasy that once you do launch it that you're gonna be like ah Perfect. It's It's exactly perfect I'll never need to look back at that Again. So So don't kid yourself into thinking. It's gonna work out. Exactly Perfect. You will think of things that you wish you had done differently and that's just the nature of how it goes even when things on paper go crazy good like thousands of buyers. Ah you know, basically no refunds. 23:47.80 mikebledsoe Yeah. 23:47.64 Max Shank That kind of thing. 23:57.72 Max Shank Some excessive silence here for a podcast. 24:03.17 mikebledsoe Ah I mean if you don't if you don't remember it it. Ah I got the software set up to cut out the the long pauses. 24:08.78 Max Shank Oh not I Remember. So what do you think? excess food from here. 24:19.33 mikebledsoe Well, you know I I um I wanted to circle back on something you said earlier which is being the the author you know Authority has the word author in it and I think that there is a. 24:28.82 Max Shank Um. 24:38.74 mikebledsoe Ah, in excess of outsourcing your authority and when I think about author I mean 1 1 way people could look at it is. You're the author of the story of your life that seems a bit conceptual I like it. But. 24:54.26 Max Shank I Want man. 24:56.80 mikebledsoe It's it. You know when you say that to someone like oh yeah, yeah, I'm the author of my life. But. 25:00.23 Max Shank Well, you get to put this you You are the spin doctor. You are the propagandist of your own life. You know So I think it is. It's the frame of the picture right? You remember things a certain way. But that's based on how you color. 25:07.44 mikebledsoe Totally. 25:17.78 mikebledsoe Well, this is what I want to point out is that what does an author do an author just doesn't tell stories an author writes they take pen to paper or they they type word and they write the story out and. 25:18.54 Max Shank Those experiences right. 25:30.62 Max Shank Yeah. 25:37.28 mikebledsoe Ah, most people don't take the time to write out their story. They'll dream up their story and from what I can tell is if you leave your authorship up to just what's happening in your own mind and you're not. 25:41.14 Max Shank Oh. 25:54.62 mikebledsoe Putting a lot of symbols outside of yourself by you know, writing then you're going to be more subject to other people's authorship. You're going to be more susceptible outside Authority because the the you know who who? ah. 26:05.49 Max Shank Totally. 26:14.30 mikebledsoe Are the best best authors on the planet that they they their their authorship creates the most power they have the most power as authors. 26:17.10 Max Shank Ah. 26:24.43 Max Shank Um, I would say either lawyers or ah, the media people who are yeah. 26:30.60 mikebledsoe Yeah Lawyers I would say lawyers because they they will write something down. They'll create a law and then people will have to follow it. Not only that they convince these these lawmakers slash policymakers they convinced these these police. These policy enforcers to be willing to kill people in order to enforce this law that they authored they authored it out of opinion. They wrote it down and then they convinced a ah segment of the population. 26:56.75 Max Shank Right. 27:07.69 mikebledsoe That it's okay for them to go out there and enforce this on enforce other people. 27:08.32 Max Shank And that's where the media comes into play right? because they need to um, put it to a vote in the court of public opinion for people to have a positive frame of mind around it in order for it to to get through. 27:21.56 mikebledsoe Yeah, well, that's how they that's how you got to let people know about the laws you got to let them know about it somehow and the the news is here just to inform you about what is and ah. 27:25.75 Max Shank Right? Because they're moonline. 27:34.30 Max Shank I Know you don't believe that but it just sounds so chilling anyway. 27:41.82 mikebledsoe Ah, so it's um, so. 27:44.48 Max Shank The news is to get you to think not only a certain way but it's to distract you from thinking about a different way and that's that's probably the worst part about it is. There's an excess of data points. You know. 27:52.43 mikebledsoe Yeah. 28:01.59 Max Shank We're basically fixed on what we can focus on and every day there's something new and it's tugging at your emotions and the people get played like a fiddle. So I don't give any credence to what people believe I understand that they might feel a certain way. But the fact of the matter is that people are are told what to think about and that is actually maybe even more sinister than being told what to think it's like hey this happened so you should think this way about it like the the main thing is hey everyone think about this today. Everyone think about this today hey think about 1 dude who died in a state that you don't live in. You're like wait. What like that's what we're talking about that's what everyone is talking about that is insanity. 28:52.26 mikebledsoe Yeah, the amount of focus that they're able to bring so many people's awareness into into a single focus while while the entire world. There's other things happening and then only that bring your focus on something that actually doesn't matter to you. 29:00.80 Max Shank Ah, hope. 29:07.99 Max Shank And it's so it's excessive new things and it's excessive focus on things that don't really matter because if we were trying to think about what matters politically there are only 2 things that matter who's in charge and what's the extent of their authority and everything else is total bullshit. 29:09.90 mikebledsoe It's not impacting your life. 29:27.52 Max Shank I would feel really comfortable arguing that point with just about anybody quite frankly, but all of these other little little nitpicky things like doesn't matter. It's just ah, an illusion. It's a smokescreen. It's a distraction. It's misdirection. 29:30.33 mikebledsoe What. 29:41.48 mikebledsoe Yeah, well we have an think people are more susceptible I mean the propaganda is interesting because what we have like if you if you look at old propaganda people who wrote about propaganda decades ago. Um. There's 1 guy can't remember his name right now he said true propaganda can only exist in a country where ah like a place like North korea where they have total control over information. 30:12.77 Max Shank What's the difference between propaganda and true propaganda I don't know you're saying the only place that true propaganda can exist is a place like North korea. 30:15.69 mikebledsoe What do you mean? Oh true, but where where where they where they have absolute control over how you're gonna think what you're gonna think about oh we do? Well what I'm saying is like this was during a time where. 30:27.44 Max Shank You don't think we have that in America you don't think that. 30:35.65 mikebledsoe Um, where they were doing a lot of comparison I think this was like this is probably ah propaganda to get you to believe that communism is is worse. Um, which I think it is but the yeah exactly. 30:37.18 Max Shank Ah. 30:49.15 Max Shank It's worse for everybody except the people in charge. 30:53.62 mikebledsoe The did you know that Jackie chan is a communist. He's he's part of the ccp he is chinese yeah. 30:58.40 Max Shank He's Chinese right? You got basically no choice I don't know what I don't know what he actually believes but the incentive to not be disappeared is probably pretty tremendous. So. 31:03.22 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah, but but but he but he but he could but he could have he? yeah. Ah. 31:14.44 Max Shank Like if I were chinese guess what I would be a communist too like hey and and hey look just in case things go south. Yeah yeah, and just look just in in case things go south here in America I just want our soon to be overlords to know that I believed in them the whole time and I swear my fealty to you. 31:18.85 mikebledsoe Ah, you'd be the best communist. 31:34.33 Max Shank You know, whatever it takes look I Knew you guys could do it. Ah. 31:34.42 mikebledsoe Um, I was over here. You know I was helping out over here the whole time you couldn't see it. But yeah. 31:41.61 Max Shank If you compare to different parts of history like I don't know that that's the funny thing is there are um places in America where it's like really harsh to live and I was talking to someone the other day and they were talking to me. About my childhood and their face was 1 of like pity and sadness because they knew me growing up and they knew what my childhood was like and I don't think of it that way I think of I think of myself as like pretty lucky guy because I compare it to well. 32:09.52 mikebledsoe A. 32:18.95 Max Shank You know there are some villages in Africa where twice a year they steal all the children you know like warlords just come in and steal all the children and and I'm thinking to myself. Yeah, like you know I wasn't so bad to to help out with the rent when I was twelve you know what I mean it's like it's. 32:31.56 mikebledsoe Right? I mean yeah, a lot of people will say that's a yeah, well some people say that sad. But what's the long term benefit of that like who that that formed who you became yeah I was roofing houses when I was like 1213 32:36.12 Max Shank It's not so it's all what you compare to. 32:40.82 Max Shank Who knows who knows it's too. It's too early to tell like the yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like dude the the whole concept of like giving a ah like 6 year old the grade of an f right? like it's. Oh that kid's failing like we don't know what that kid's gonna grow up and do like we have no clue he his his head isn't even hard yet like he's still got a fucking soft skull like Jesus christ people like we we just try to you know we. 33:03.58 mikebledsoe Bright. 33:10.49 mikebledsoe That's not even are yeah. 33:20.16 Max Shank Excessively Homogenize and that's why we always end up with a worse result and the more you allow people ah just trying to like push everybody into the same square mold because it fits better. 33:25.54 mikebledsoe Can can you explain a homogenous what homogenized means for everybody. 33:36.41 Max Shank Like that's what school does it teaches you to be obedient and to fit in not necessarily um how to live the best life for yourself. How to understand learning how to understand value versus values. 33:50.62 mikebledsoe Well that there's an analogy to this would be ah say homogenized milk like the the milk that you go buy at the store you go to the grocery store in America and you go get the 2 percent or the whole milk. Whatever it is that's homogenized. 33:55.21 Max Shank Exactly. 34:01.54 Max Shank I hope. 34:06.48 mikebledsoe That that milk was taken from a lot of the the same type of genetically modified cows and put into the 1 big vat and mixed all together. You're not getting. You're not getting milk from 1 specific cow and the homogenization that ah coupled with pasteurization which is trying to kill all the germs. 34:13.40 Max Shank My. 34:26.90 mikebledsoe Has basically made milk undigestible to so many most people. But if you if you what would be the opposite ah hetero Zeni is that or heterogenous. Horogen is out of ah, no, That's not the right word. Um, now that the the opposite of that being? Yeah yeah, individual variable um, is gonna create like my more biodiversity. 34:47.59 Max Shank I Don't know probably just variable. Yeah different unique. 35:00.76 mikebledsoe If you're consuming that milk it me I healthier So like I liked it and it might be but that whole huge vat might be poison too and the difference. 35:02.70 Max Shank And it might be poisoned and it might be poisoned. True. But if you but if you boil it 10 times. It won't be and that's that's kind of the argument for trying to make things as safe as possible rather than as free as possible and that's an argument a lot of people. Ah. 35:21.14 mikebledsoe Well should we talk about excess safety excess safety versus excess freedom. Ah. 35:27.66 Max Shank Like. 35:32.37 mikebledsoe Ah, Max has beaten his head against the microphone. 35:38.32 Max Shank Out it that that's like I get it. We can think so far into the future that we're like. And need to get my four ah 1 k I need to get my ira I need to get married I need to do this I want to lock in and secure the future and we're so obsessed with that because we're manic paranoid fuckers and I understand the sensation because I also tend to take a. 30000 foot view and look at the big picture and try to project really far forward into the future. So I can avoid traps and also find the greatest treasures that will give me whatever I think will give me fulfillment even though fulfillment is probably more of an attitude. That you have here and now and just thanking your lucky stars that you made it this far but there is that quote that says people who trade freedom for security will lose both and deserve neither I think it is Benjamin franklin it might be Thomas jefferson but i. 36:43.21 mikebledsoe Yeah I mean it's a Benjamin franklin. Yeah yeah, those get those guys were all writing a lot of letters to each other and those those are some very interesting letters. 36:51.61 Max Shank It's 1 of those guys those. You know what's fascinating about that whole situation is right before the declaration of independence got signed like months before the vast majority of those guys had every intention to stay with England. And as I understand it it was because of Thomas paine writing common sense that flipped them over the edge and started getting them to think about what it's like to be the authority of your own life instead of accepting that authority from outside. 37:27.28 mikebledsoe A. 37:34.50 Max Shank And if we want to talk about security or safety versus freedom I think it's important to recognize that weak people are going to be the most susceptible to that. Because not only will they accept whatever abuse their ah savior brings them. They will also feel justified in weakening their neighbors so that they will feel more safe. 38:06.62 mikebledsoe Oh. 38:09.38 Max Shank And and that's what's really sinister about it right? like it's 1 thing to be weak yourself, but it's another thing to vote to basically rape your neighbor because you are not strong enough yourself and that's why they they weaken people divide and conquer and people. Feel more fragmented less United. It's very very interesting. We could explore the psychology of that but it does just throw people right into. Ah the phrase limbic hijack. So you just get thrown into your lizard brain where all you care about is safety and you. Can't use your mammalian brain which is love and community or your neocortex which is big picture thinking and problem solving and that's that's 1 of the evils of the propaganda as it takes you out of your wizard. 38:54.67 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah. 39:04.44 Max Shank Brain the neocortex and just pumps you into the lizard brain. 39:07.42 mikebledsoe Well Ah, what? what came up for me is thinking about ah people who who value safety. Um, when people are being sold safety outside from outside and someone else is going to provide the safety I think I think providing. 39:21.62 Max Shank Where. 39:26.20 mikebledsoe Putting a lot of attention and and having a surplus of safety built up that you're responsible for that you you have control over you know this may be having a certain amount of money in the bank gold bars in your safe guns Ammo Seeds land. All those things. 39:31.50 Max Shank M. 39:45.69 mikebledsoe Ah, that is that safety when I but but the problem is is that's hard. That's it takes work to do that. You have to you have to think for yourself. You have to learn new things. Ah, and you do have to think ahead. 39:56.16 Max Shank It's really hard. 40:04.77 mikebledsoe But then somebody comes along says you know what I got you I got these guys that are policy enforcers they'll make sure that no 1 robs. It kills you. You know what? if if you run out of money I got you I'll give you some money. Ah, and. 40:05.88 Max Shank I got it. 40:19.71 Max Shank Um. 40:23.86 mikebledsoe You know what? if you run out of money and food then you know what? ah you can at least get milk and bread homogenized though homogenized. So ah, it's and I think that's what Benjamin franklin was getting at with you know, it's not actually safety when someone else is providing you safety that rug can be pulled out from you. 40:28.85 Max Shank So. 40:43.77 mikebledsoe Underneath you in any moment because it's not yours. Yeah, yeah, so I think that what ah people really desire to be is anti-fragile and so to me. 40:47.32 Max Shank It's dependence versus Independence That's all. 41:03.26 mikebledsoe That is where ah true safety lies and so's to be Anti-fragile there's 2 things that I see have to be available and that is planning for the future in a way that you understand that there are things that we can do. To to mitigate risk and at the same time hold adaptability and be able to change in the moment and ah to me That's what leads to a good Anti-fagile state and that's what people actually want but they're so unaware of how to. Create anti-fragile systems in their life that it is like you know what just fuck it. This is a ah complex issue I'll outsource that. 41:47.36 Max Shank Well, it's about exposure that's the key word I think because you can either expose yourself to stress and become more adaptable to the stress that will come in life or you can. Reduce the exposure and what happens if you reduce the exposure is eventually you end up in a tiny lockbox you completely eliminate exposure So at the extreme ends you have training. Um. Injecting yourself with small amounts of poison. So that if just in case, you're poisoned. You will have built up ah an immunity to it and then on the other hand you have I'm never going to touch dirt I'm never going to leave my house I'm only going to drink homogenized milk. 42:33.84 mikebledsoe A. 42:44.55 Max Shank That is provided to me by someone else. So I'm not going to expose myself to any risk whatsoever and it works better if people get to assume their own risk because you need to have the um. Person who is making the choice ah suffer or experience those consequences and that's when you get the most evil shit is when the person making the choices is not experiencing the consequences case in point. Um. People who vote on what crime and punishment or laws are to be in place for our medical system. Don't use that creation. They use something separate that is better right? So You shouldn't have. 43:37.50 mikebledsoe E. 43:41.89 Max Shank Ah, bridge build like in in ancient Rome I think we talked about it if you were a bridge builder soon as the bridge is Done. You sit down underneath the bridge while they drive shit over it because you need to have the incentive and the risk and the choice. Like all in the right place and yeah, exactly oh I Actually really like because we we probably talked to a lot of coaches. Also the difference between support and Accountability. So accountability. 44:01.74 mikebledsoe It's accountability Ultimate accountability. Yeah. 44:17.16 Max Shank If I'm a coach and I want to provide you with support that means I'm going to answer your questions if I want to provide you with accountability that means I'm going to ask you questions and I think both of those are super valuable. So the difference between support. 44:27.72 mikebledsoe But e. 44:33.81 Max Shank And accountability from a coaching standpoint I think is really useful. 44:36.78 mikebledsoe I Like that like that distinction I was also thinking about ah you you you were going off on stress and I got me thinking about excess stress ah and ah stress in excess is called distress. 44:47.79 Max Shank Oh. 44:55.94 mikebledsoe And the ah the stress that's actually beneficial that is going to provide you with enough stimulus that you can adapt to and learn would be u-stress and so I really like to keep that in mind when I'm training or when I'm learning a new skill or I'm. I'm doing anything in my business and ah 1 really good sign to see if you're in excess of stress is how you're breathing. So if you find yourself holding your breath a lot. You can be sitting at your computer running some numbers if you're holding your breath. You're experiencing distress. Your. 45:25.74 Max Shank Um, normally. 45:35.69 mikebledsoe You're not pumping out the hormones and and neurotransmitters that are conducive to learning. But if you're breathing nice and slow and you know semi-deep you're you're going to be your body's going to be filled with neurotransmitters hormones that. Are conducive to learning new skills and staying sharp and and not getting too much tunnel vision. So you you can hold the big picture while while focusing in on something. So I I Want to put that out. There is just like a that's something. That's that's useful that you can check in with yourself. If you're if you're experiencing ah that that excess of stress that's 1 way to figure it out and there to me. There's a way of expanding that that zone of youres ah or or the growth zone and that is by expanding your capacity to stay calm in the midst Of. Of chaos. 46:33.46 Max Shank That's what I was just going to say is the skill is really being relaxed under stress and the more you expose yourself to it and dose it appropriately the more. 46:37.96 mikebledsoe Yeah. 46:49.19 Max Shank Effective. You will be the more resilient you will be the more useful. You will be people want to be useful you know and if you're weak and dependent. You're not useful and that might sound kind of harsh. But you're really, you're not doing any faith doing anyone any favors. 47:07.16 mikebledsoe What. 47:09.14 Max Shank In fact, in our current culture. You're you're really harming people. 47:13.46 mikebledsoe Yeah I think that that is the job of that that is 1 of the definitions I like to identify and define. What makes an adult 1 of my definitions is you're able to parent yourself. You're either. 47:27.76 Max Shank Any independent. 47:31.41 mikebledsoe You're you're able to mother and father yourself emotionally but also physically in the world but the other part of being an adult your job as an adult and it doesn't mean that if you haven't done if you haven't found the thing. But if you're on the path to finding a thing that. Is most useful like it's it's your job as an adult like a true adult that's contributing to society. They have made it their job to be Useful. You know where am I most useful in the world where am I most useful to society if if you were useful. Um, so useful that people in ways that other people find valuable. They're going to give you a lot of money for it and so I think that a lot of people who ah are struggling with money. They really just. 48:13.94 Max Shank Further. 48:25.17 mikebledsoe They're usually focused on themselves in a way and they're not actually focused on how they can be most most useful and and if you want to have a lot of money be useful at things at really expensive things be useful at things that people find incredibly valuable. So. Either solve a big problem for a few people or solve um a small problem for millions of people or billions of people and it really to me. That's the question I ask myself over time is is this the most useful use of my time for me is it the most useful. What? Ah, what are my my talents. My strengths my skills that are most useful to society. How can I contribute how can I package this in a way that I find to be beneficial and other people find beneficial too and I think that that leads to more of that that peace and contentment. 49:19.56 Max Shank Well, there's something quite beautiful because as you and as you know I'm all about choice and freedom as the and love as the really important pillars for a society to function. Well when you offer. Something to somebody and they voluntarily purchase it. There's something really nice about that when you order someone to do something under penalty of stick. That's not that cool if you ask me so I'm I'm more about carrots. And if you are delivering something if you are offering something and delivering something that is truly valuable and you are not excessively spending. You'll never be poor. It's impossible and there's something very honest about the Market. That determines what people actually want and I think rather than getting caught up in the fact that it's numbers because the numbers are just about accounting. But if you offer something to someone that is really worth it for them. They're always going to take it. You know. So I think the fact that free choice is based on voluntary action rather than forced action and that there is a truth to someone paying for your product or service. It means they actually do want it I remember reading. Long time ago in the four hour work week how your friends will lie to you about your idea, you'll be like hey I got this idea for a widget What do you think and your friends are like oh my god that sounds amazing. You're so smart I love you ha ha and then you're like great I have a bunch in the trunk. Do you want to buy 1 and they're like ah no actually i. 50:57.67 mikebledsoe A. 51:14.30 Max Shank So so people will lie and say oh that's a great idea when in actuality they they don't really believe that otherwise they would put their money where their mouth is. 51:22.96 mikebledsoe Yeah, that that's 1 reason I I advise a lot of times coaches want to give away their thing for free or at such a cheap rate early on I go like ah this just for research I'm like that's not research, you're researching people who don't care about your shit and. Until you get and then or or they'll launch them like oh I've got a hundred people that are interested I'm like okay and mean that doesn't mean shit either. Ah and it doesn't mean it shit until money's in the bank because that's that's the true indicator of of whether people value it or not. 51:49.72 Max Shank Ah. 51:59.25 Max Shank Is that don't count your chickens before they've hatched. 52:02.67 mikebledsoe Oh my God It's all man these ideas have been around for a long time. 52:07.71 Max Shank Those old sayings are probably all you need to succeed if you actually paid attention to them. Ah, people people do accept people. Do people do excessive thinking excessive learning ah like that's 1 of my kinks that I'm into. 52:12.77 mikebledsoe I I agree I agree I come back a lot of that shit. 52:26.11 Max Shank I Like to learn about stuff that won't help me at all and I recognize that it's entertainment I understand you know mental lattice work Framework Blah Blah Blah Whatever but I recognize that it's it's recreation Basically the amount of stuff. 52:38.90 mikebledsoe Yeah. 52:41.77 Max Shank That you need to really focus on and pay attention to in order to live happily and in some level of abundance is so minimal you know most people kill themselves I think I've said this before on the podcast in America most. Death is self-caed because you could cherry pick and be like oh no, it's heart disease or no, it's diabetes. It's like what are those diseases about those are diseases of excess right? like you are either responsible for eating too many fritos and watching. 53:10.82 mikebledsoe Right. 53:19.67 Max Shank You know too many episodes of the Jersey shore or you're not but the problem is if you blame. There's no end to the blaming right? if you see a fat kid with fat parents. You'd be like oh well, that's of course the parent's fault and it's the parent's responsibility. 53:32.96 mikebledsoe I Thought it was genetics. 53:39.30 Max Shank Anyway, So yeah, it's Monkey See Monkey do is more like it and I think. 53:43.45 mikebledsoe It is what it is Yeah because yeah, you go far, you go far enough back in that family lineage they weren't fat eaten potatoes during a famine. 53:54.52 Max Shank Exactly and I think once again, we can be excessively looking to blame rather than effectively looking for responsibility and I think the difference between fault or blame and responsibility is a huge 1 because it's so easy I mean I lived with a chip on my shoulder for years and years and years and was like in my mind thinking about all the people who had wronged me. You know that kind of destructive thinking but the reality is is that here and now none of that matters. 54:23.31 mikebledsoe Yeah. 54:31.28 Max Shank If You can thank your lucky stars that you're alive and probably literate and you have all of these advantages. There are stores full of Food. You probably have a refrigerator a telephone a magic telephone that can teach you anything you have so many advantages. And whether it's your parents' fault that you're fat or lazy or whatever or not kind of doesn't Matter. It's your responsibility now to decide what you'd like to do from here on out and that's where you take back that Authority that's where you take back that authorship and like you said you put the pen down on paper. And you're going to clarify your thinking to an enormous level and I I do that every morning even if it's something that isn't directly related to me earning more dollars but it usually will help me make more sense of the world. 55:24.74 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah I I Um I would say I'm on the excessive thinking as Well. The but I mean I appreciate your excessive thinking because what you just said was probably. Product of that have you read the book mastery by Robert green. Yeah, 1 of the things I Really like about that book is um the thing that really stood out was how he highlighted. Ah how? Ah, some of the most innovative people. 55:45.95 Max Shank Yeah Robert greene. Yeah. 56:02.68 mikebledsoe Are a product of having mastered 3 things and it taking about 7 to 10 years to develop mastery around a topic or a subject and ah I up until I read that book I tended to judge myself for going from. 56:04.52 Max Shank The. 56:21.72 mikebledsoe Being really good at 1 thing and then just completely changing industries and going. Oh I was into this but now I do nothing but this and then I did this other thing I go oh it's like you don't know so you know, excessive thinking or excessive collecting of information. 56:24.68 Max Shank Right? Up. Ah. 56:41.30 mikebledsoe I think that I think it's good. You point out it's entertainment but that entertainment is something that's I find to be very useful in just helping my mind relax so that when I do get back to the things I'm focusing on. Um, it's it's my I come at it with ah with a new mind but also fast forward 5 years you know that that information may come useful most of most of my excess thinking in my my youth has been around philosophical topics and how to think and all these things which have been useful but probably the most useful it's become is having conversations like this which people will now listen to and get some benefit from. 57:03.56 Max Shank Um, yeah. 57:20.75 mikebledsoe So we both tend to collect what may seem like trivial information but at some point these dots connect into something that's useful. 57:28.43 Max Shank And that's usually where innovation happens too. I have a super diverse set of interest. Um I have a 3 ring binder. That's full of study guides ah from different topics that range From. Electricity to chemistry and physics and biology and it's basically like study guides for tests but it just happens to be the highest concentration of information about these topics and I like peruse through these things and you know peruse means study deeply. 57:58.86 mikebledsoe Um. 58:07.30 Max Shank Rather than like a quick look over most people misuse that word peruse Peru Yeah, most most people use peruse as like a quick scan but ah, it's just the opposite and if they had perused a dictionary they would they would know that. Ah so so. 58:10.53 mikebledsoe Really I did not know that. 58:26.69 Max Shank Ah I play a bunch of different musical instruments I have a huge diverse set of interests and then my friend is really into investing and that's like all he studies and he's all about sharpening that 1 blade and we talk about how? ah. The Japanese culture is very much that way. There's not a lot of innovation but there is a lot of refinement so they will perhaps not invent the sword but they will take the invention of the sword and refine it into the best sword ever. 59:02.55 mikebledsoe Well, they did it with cars. 59:04.46 Max Shank So there's right, they wouldn't innovate something like that. But once they have it now they they refine it and that's 2 ways. Absolutely. 59:10.54 mikebledsoe What toy toyota is known to be 1 of the most dependable vehicles and it's because of their manufacturing process is they they revolutionize manufacturing through the 6 sigma. Yeah that what they they're basically did they invent the 6 sigma system. 59:20.27 Max Shank Um, that's top down from the culture. 59:27.42 Max Shank Have no clue. Yeah. 59:29.34 mikebledsoe Or yeah, it's they either invented or or again probably refined it. 59:33.67 Max Shank So you could argue that they're spending an excessive amount of time to just refine something rather than being like hey it's good. You got a car already. What's the big deal. So ah, excess is kind of like beauty. It's in the eye of the beholder and. 59:48.95 mikebledsoe Well, that's that's that's also the beauty of capitalism right is somebody the japanese could be excessive and and that whereas the west coast of the United states is excessive and and trying new creative things most of which will never work. Ah. 59:52.39 Max Shank Typically. 01:00:05.94 Max Shank Right? well. 01:00:08.45 mikebledsoe And so the California makes Japan possible and Japan makes california possible. 01:00:15.10 Max Shank Yeah,, there's a big interrelationship between going wide and expanding your focus out or narrowing your focus down. It's kind of like when we talk about focus I say you have the lantern and the laser beam and the lantern is like a soft radiant Glow. In 3 hundred and sixty degrees and the lasers focusing all same amount of energy all onto a single point. 01:00:40.10 mikebledsoe Well this is why you're not going to have a lot of Ph Ds running companies and because they have spent so much of their time focused in on a single subject and in fact, don't know a lot of times. Not all Ph Ds are this way but a lot of Ph Ds I've met. 01:00:50.68 Max Shank A. 01:00:57.68 mikebledsoe Ah, very smart and is 1 area. Not very smart in a lot of other areas and you take somebody who is you know a serial entrepreneur someone who may be ceoing different companies and their focus is much broader. They know a lot. Know a lot of different a little bit about a lot of different things more like ah a swiss army knife or Jack of all trades and is what I've seen. 01:01:22.40 Max Shank Like a concentration of a portfolio like we talked about I think we talked about it last week you know if you put all your eggs in 1 basket. Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket you can earn a lot more but you could also lose all of them. 01:01:36.36 mikebledsoe How many how many of these sayings revolve around chickens and eggs and because you got ducks in a row too. We haven't brought that 1 up I mean yeah, there's something about foul. Yeah. 01:01:46.77 Max Shank That's a good point. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. That's not true anymore that did I already mention that because a bird in the hand has got to be worth like fucking a Hundred in the bush because think how shitty people are at catching birds like I wouldn't be able to catch a fucking. 01:01:54.53 mikebledsoe Now. 01:02:04.64 Max Shank Bird in a bush. Ah. 01:02:05.78 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah, but if you got but our ah bird shot right? Go you might get five? Yeah, all right I think we're we're starting to become unfocused I don't know if that's actually true I think we've been whatever. 01:02:08.79 Max Shank Bird shot. Yeah, a way better chance. 01:02:21.70 Max Shank I Think we explored excess to a good amount. 01:02:24.60 mikebledsoe We're we're explored a lot now. We're getting off another subjects which is great. Yeah, we don't want to excessively discuss excess. So I how does greatness happen. Oh yep. 01:02:33.53 Max Shank That's how greatness happens f y I just to close if you're excessively focused on 1 thing I was talking to someone the other day he dropped by the gym and he trains with his buddy in the garage and he said yeah my friend is always referencing your Stuff. He's always saying oh max says this or max says that he he really? Ah, um, you know he really buys in to what I don't remember exactly the phrase he used but I was like yeah you know I basically just got lucky that I found something that I was crazy interested in. 01:03:07.87 mikebledsoe Yeah. 01:03:10.40 Max Shank Because that's the the big mystery is that I just happen to be really interested in human movement and fitness and pain and psychology and I see that as the way to liberate yourself and. 01:03:15.20 mikebledsoe E. 01:03:24.63 mikebledsoe Yeah. 01:03:28.56 Max Shank I'll totally eat your lunch if you're just going to be a casual observer of exercise If you're just casually interested in exercise you have no chance to compare to me because you're not taking it to that excessive level. So. 01:03:40.95 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah. 01:03:47.77 Max Shank If you want to be great at something. There's something to be said about total immersion and I think that if you really immerse yourself in a topic. You can be top ten percent in 2 years maybe even less and top ten percent you're still eating lobster at that point. 01:04:03.42 mikebledsoe Yeah, all right I was thinking 1 percent I don't think it takes that I was it. Um, what was the figure if you read 5 books books on a subject you're you're in the top five percent something like I know if that's actually true but that that was like 1 of those. Ah sayings I picked up on is like if you read 5 books on 1 subject because most people never do most people read 1 book on a subject and then they they go. Okay I move on ah on to something else. That's True. That's True. A lot of. 01:04:22.13 Max Shank Sounds like um. I mean it depends on the book. A lot of books suck. They might actually make you dumber about the topic even if the person is smart even if the person is smart. Did I tell you about my favorite Author Lee's favorite book Flow have you ever tried to read that book by. 01:04:38.84 mikebledsoe Popular books are that way. 01:04:44.40 mikebledsoe No oh yeah, we've talked about this chicks and me high. 01:04:49.74 Max Shank Mi high chick sent me good god it's like it's unreadable. Um, and I'm excessively obsessed with the flow state where decision making is easier. Athletic performance is higher. Mental peace is higher mental performance is higher. All these things are better I'm like so interested in the topic and I'm trying to get through this book I'm like this guy doesn't know how to communicate an idea like is driving me nuts. 01:05:13.67 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, ah, let's close this bad boy up I um, you know I think my big takeaways here is ah monitor. What's useful for your life and your goals. If you feel you're you're going getting into excess and as max was saying excess is ah very useful if you want to be really good at something but it is probably not the thing that's going to bring you a lot of peace and joy. 01:05:50.94 Max Shank It might if you really like it. 01:05:54.56 mikebledsoe Well I think that ah you know, maybe if you're enjoying the process. 01:06:00.19 Max Shank Yeah I would say that just to wrap it all up with an action point try fasting take a couple days off of food take a couple days off of Media. That's the easiest way to. Get back in balance or at least the fastest way and just write stuff down with pen and paper and write down what you want how you think you can get it what you're grateful for I mean we could go on and on but basically just ah, take a fast from all forms of Media. And put your cell phone away in the drawer turn it off and just get out the pen and paper and see what's there because you probably don't need to read any more books or watch any more videos you just need to organize what you already know and focus it down into something that's useful. 01:06:53.63 mikebledsoe Excellent. Love you too later. 01:06:56.80 Max Shank Thanks Mikey! Love you buddy later.

00:02.80 mikebledsoe Fear and goals this comes up a lot lot of people are I talk to people all the time and who are interested in developing themselves and 1 the common things that come up is. Yeah, ask them. You know what's holding you back from you reaching your goals right now and they'll be they'll just say fear or go. Oh well, what are you afraid of and ah and then they go oh I haven't thought that far. Ah. And so we start naming them off. So ah I'm excited to talk about today's topic which max suggested which is fear and goals identifying fierce sateers of goals. So ah, oh oh. 00:53.44 Max Shank Spoiler alert there's only 1 fear. 00:58.74 mikebledsoe We're not going to tell you what it is until the very end though so you got to stick around. 01:00.38 Max Shank Ah, it's not much of a spoiler alert thing. Is it. 01:06.12 mikebledsoe Ah, the no no, it's not. 01:10.75 Max Shank It'll make sense too. Once I say it people you'd be like oh yeah, of course, there's only 1 thing that we're really afraid of. 01:15.70 mikebledsoe Ah, so what we were talking just before we hopped on about people feeling safe and how most people in order to feel safe try to make enough money and if I make enough money then I'll feel safe. You know then I'll be able to live a good life and then ah people make the money and then you know now they they realize that they're responsible for their own health or their own physical protection and so they start investing in that next. Ah, but ah, the way I think about it is you know you can always just decide to feel safe and then because there's always gonna be something to do next in order to feel safer. 02:10.92 Max Shank It's kind of the it's there's a parallel between how evolution first ah like prioritized armor in fish like bony. Armored fish and then they just got faster and faster so speed was king and since we have this pretty far out ability if you pardon the pun to see pretty far out into the future. The. Fastest speed ever is preemptive. So once you settle or um, swaddle maybe like 1 fear you like make yourself feel safe. Then you just think forward on to the next 1 and usually the people who make the biggest waves in their lives are the ones who are never satisfied with where they're at they're thinking on to the next thing and on to the next thing and on to the next thing and I mean I was definitely that way. It was always. Onto the next thing and once you get ah 1 thing ah locked in because that's what people really want because we can think forward. We think like okay if I have this much money for retirement then I'm like locked in to safety if I get married then I'm locked in. To a romantic relationship and you know you have all of these ideas. So um, security can span usually does span. Well beyond security in the present moment which is really just a reflexive reaction to danger rather than fear which is a preemptive prediction of what could happen in the future. 04:09.93 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, because it's not true until it happens so fear fear is and is born out of imagination. 04:15.88 Max Shank Right. 04:21.58 Max Shank Right? And it's effective to preempt um situations like so a squirrel saving nuts for the winter is making a prediction of how many extra nuts to save up. In order to go through the season where there aren't going to be any growing on the trees. So. It's effective and that's like ah I heard this term the other day about attention Deficit which is a warrior. 04:42.43 mikebledsoe Yeah, the. 04:56.47 Max Shank In a farmer's world or maybe a hunter in a farmer's world and I thought that was I thought that was 1 of the best ways I've ever heard it described it just says so much you know a lot of folks who would be amazing hunters like as soon as they see the tracks. 05:03.69 mikebledsoe Yeah, that makes sense. 05:14.99 Max Shank They're on it and they won't let go of that track and they'll just grind through and push and keep walking and keep going and hunt that thing down Maybe don't have the patience to hoe a field and like plant a bunch of seeds and you know plan that whole thing ahead. 05:26.63 mikebledsoe Yeah. 05:32.49 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, yeah, not projecting as far out into the future I was listening to a guy guy named Matt john vervacki he did a a youtube series of sixty 1 hour lectures and I forget. 05:33.78 Max Shank Right. 05:51.27 mikebledsoe Something about the meaning crisis is the name of the lectures and he talks about just the word project comes from projectile. Yeah, like the the hunters when they got they evolved far enough to start being able to go. 05:52.89 Max Shank A. Project. 06:11.27 mikebledsoe This target is moving in this direction at this speed and I must predict where it'll be as I let go of my spear and project it into the future because once you let it go. You know it's gonna land in the future and I was really. 06:21.30 Max Shank Who. 06:27.88 Max Shank Love it. 06:30.79 mikebledsoe Really really fascinating as he said was saying that I go and the word project is used in business to with a series of targets in which you're going to hit to accomplish a specific goal at the end and I go man. This is so brilliant So he's so spot on. So. 06:42.60 Max Shank Ah. 06:50.32 mikebledsoe Yeah, hearing you talk about? ah yeah, projecting in the future made me think of that. 06:57.21 Max Shank That's 1 of the most challenging things for people today I think is to be an active participant in selecting their time period that they're going to be in so you have ah the crystal ball which is projecting forward. You have the. 07:07.55 mikebledsoe Um. 07:14.84 Max Shank Book on the wall which is looking backward and then you have Baba ramdas be here now and then the future and the past just dissolve into this moment and if you're able to, um. Consciously instead of compulsively choose where you are then you're essentially some sort of superhuman. You know if you're constantly in the future. You're probably going to be in a very anxious individual. And you're not going to experience a lot of peace but you may. 07:50.10 mikebledsoe Or or you could be just ah, a lazy daydreamer if you if it's a positive if if you're thinking about things positive in the future all time. But you're not taking the action in order to make it happen right now. That's not gonna you know. 07:54.81 Max Shank Yeah, that's true. 08:05.43 Max Shank Right? I I think dwelling. Yeah well, it's ah anxiety is like a fixation or you're stuck in the future depression is usually you're stuck in the past 08:07.65 mikebledsoe That happened I seen that happen a lot too. But most people get anxiety. 08:22.22 mikebledsoe Okay, in. 08:24.78 Max Shank And everything's a gradient right? Everything is absolutely relative to your experience which is a funny term that I like absolutely relative but I like the I like the I never thought of ah project and projectile which is funny because it reminds me of. 08:39.26 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, yeah. 08:43.46 Max Shank 1 of my favorite scenes in any movie ever which is in 2001 a space odyssey where the Monkey man learns that when he's holding the bone in his hand and when it falls it creates like a bigger impact in the pile of bones. 08:47.94 mikebledsoe Where. 09:03.20 Max Shank And it's this dawning realization that there's an extension of his ah will let's say through the bone that increases the level of Impact. So What's funny is um. Like chimpanzees ah fight a lot. A lot is also relative. But what's interesting is when they're doing ah a display of a oh yeah. 09:29.66 mikebledsoe They have full on wars between the tribes. Not not just 2 champions chimpanzees fighting. There's like a tribe over here in a tribe over there and they go to war and they'll eat each other or bit bit cannibalistic as well. 09:37.83 Max Shank Ah, it's gnarly. Ah, oh yeah, yeah, cannibalism is not reserved for humans Apparently a lot of animals do that and not just the female. 09:49.49 mikebledsoe Yeah. 09:56.87 Max Shank Eating the male after mating which is crazy common too. Anyway, my point if I. 10:04.16 mikebledsoe Thank God I'm human that's not and that's not I might have to be afraid of my girlfriend eating me. 10:08.91 Max Shank No, no, no, they don't they don't like literally eat you. They just ah and I I'll save that for I won't offend our last 3 female listeners. 10:16.58 mikebledsoe Ah, you. 10:23.52 Max Shank Ah, ah so anyway, the chimps they during displays of dominance will pick up huge tree branches and swing them around like they can hold it in their hand. They'll swing and they'll It'll be like Holy Lord that. 10:34.81 mikebledsoe So a. 10:42.88 Max Shank Monkey that chimp just swung a fucking like 4 by 4 sized cylindrical log through the air with insane speed but they never hit each other with a stick that. Amount that amount of extension. Ah cerebrally doesn't exist for them. So even to go from hand to stick to projectile is a huge ah extension of your will. 11:20.67 mikebledsoe Yeah, someone call that expansion of consciousness. So yeah man I'm not the guy who wrote power versus force remember him what's his name man he had a quote which is ah. 11:20.94 Max Shank Into the future. 11:28.70 Max Shank It's a good word for it. Yeah. 11:33.21 Max Shank No. 11:39.94 mikebledsoe Ah, there is no passage of time. There's only an expansion of consciousness and something to it's so it's a good. It's a good meditative quote to consider I've found. Ah so I'm curious since we're gonna be talking about. 11:43.40 Max Shank So. 11:50.81 Max Shank Right. 11:58.83 mikebledsoe Talk about fears and goals and you and I are both 1 of the reasons we do. This show is because you and I have both accomplished a lot of goals. You know, a lot of people set out to do things and they don't do them I know that you and I have both set out to accomplish goals failed out them. We've also succeeded at them and then realized we didn't want the thing that we thought we wanted but it was good that we accomplished the goal so we could learn that we didn't care about that. Ah, and so we've gotten very good at reaching goals which means that we've also. Been able to overcome a lot of fears in the process. So I'm curious for you. You know I'd love to know what your biggest fear was as you were developing as a young man and you were trying to achieve goals. What was the thing that. 12:50.39 Max Shank Oh. 12:55.65 mikebledsoe I know what mine is I'm wondering if you you know, but that there was like 1 primary fear that that held you back maybe in business or in athletics or something like that. 13:04.80 Max Shank I mean I actually just wrote them all down the other day um, trying to trace him back as far as I can't for me, it was ah the fear that I I wouldn't be like physically safe. Um. 13:09.32 mikebledsoe Yeah. 13:19.60 mikebledsoe Um. 13:23.19 Max Shank The other thing was ah, not not being good enough I think these are really common fears but they'll relate back to the same ah single point of fear which is ah the death of the ego. The reason people fear their physical death is because they fear the the death of the Ego. So when people are afraid of Judgment. They're afraid of what that means for their story for their ego when they're so everything relates back to. 13:53.14 mikebledsoe So that. 13:59.60 Max Shank Can you move past the fear that the story of you will be harmed in some way so 1 of the things I've noticed is that. 14:10.22 mikebledsoe What do? what do we want to do we want to find ego sounds like you've given it somewhat of a definition and I know that when people hear ego. There's cool I like that I. 14:19.26 Max Shank Let's just call it. The story. The story of you Yeah, your identity your identity your self image story of you So when you're thinking about like how do I protect myself physically. Yes, That's a natural instinct and it's also because the thought of not existing is like really scary to the ego I mean the reason people want to be good. Parents is they want to be thought of as good parents and they want to set up their loved ones. But it all it all relates back. To the fear of the identity being tarnished and that leads back to ancient cultures where it was thought of as way worse to be exiled than it was to be killed and you can even look at ah. Less ancient cultures where you know they have hara kiri where if you you know, shame your family or shame yourself you you disembowel yourself with a samurai sword and your buddy will chop off your head as an act of Mercy. After that just to make sure the job gets done and that's a way that you don't bring shame to your entire lineage so that multigenerational or intergenerational ego or identity is preserved even though the life. Of the physical body of that individual. Um, you know was caught in momentary shame and that's how you sort of save Face. So. It's really interesting to see what lengths human beings will go to to preserve. Story They'll kill themselves. They'll kill other people. Um, yeah, you know how dare those other guys believe in a different deity than us We have to kill them. 16:15.63 mikebledsoe They'll kill for it. Yeah. 16:31.83 Max Shank What. 16:31.85 mikebledsoe Ah, you said 1 thing which was you had a fear of not good enough I've always thought about that fear I come across that a lot in coaching and you know it's a good blanket because it that is the phrase. That runs through someone's mind I'm like oh I'm not good enough to curious what you didn't feel like you would like what are the things you were afraid you were not going to be good enough at you weren't going to be good enough to do what. 16:58.59 Max Shank Well initially I just struggled really hard with school I mean I almost got held back in several grades I failed Classes. You know I'd be there sitting in the desk just fucking suffering. Thinking back to the old days where I could just run around outside and play with a stick then you know ah not being able to pay attention and so I would get really bad grades and really Behind. On everything so I was just always behind um with regard to what I thought was everybody else learning all these things that you know I was made to believe were were really important. Of course that's not. Not really the case like memorizing factoids and obeying Authority turns out is not actually that useful for overall overall life Success. So. 18:03.85 mikebledsoe That's not learning. Yeah well 1 of the things I I tell people early and in my courses is learning has been Misrepresented. You were. You weren't actually taught how to learn you were taught how to I don't I leave the obey part out because I don't want to trigger people too bad, but ah, not early on but why I like that it's it's a gradual trigger system. You know I start with like 1 that they can palate and then. 18:28.49 Max Shank You don't want to trigger people too bad. That's funny. 18:40.50 mikebledsoe Make it palatable. Yeah. 18:40.53 Max Shank It's like Scientology. It's like scientology at first it's like you just got to get your thinking clear and then level 10 is like the evil alien overlord is making you sad and you're like whoa. If you had talked about this on day 1 I might not have stuck around. 18:56.50 mikebledsoe Yeah, Ah, but you know ah in in our education system people are taught that being able to memorize and regurgitate is learning and so they. People become adults and they listen to podcasts and they make notes and they think they're learning but you don't you didn't learn anything until you've actually gotten the benefit of the learning which is you've changed a behavior. So I I like to define learning as Behavior change. 19:29.51 Max Shank And. 19:34.38 mikebledsoe I Don't want to hear from any of my students that you learn something until you've done it because until then it's still just an idea in just because it came from me doesn't mean it's right, You got to test it out for yourself. 19:43.99 Max Shank Oh man I couldn't agree with that more because not only that if you don't apply something even if you did learn it and use it once. It's not going to stay I mean that's 1 of the it's probably an advantage. Um, emotionally that we don't remember every single thing that happened to us all the time if you take in some information and use it 1 time.. It's probably not going to really permeate into your identity or into your life. It's only the stuff that you use with some regularity that stays in the in the tool belt which is what you have access to all the time. 20:28.47 mikebledsoe You know all right? So you you fell you weren't gonna be good enough. You didn't do well in school. 20:35.44 Max Shank Yeah, so I mean the main thing really was just I didn't feel ah safe financially and you know we got foreclosed on evicted a couple times and bumped around like that. Oh yeah, i'm. 20:48.57 mikebledsoe When you were a kid. Oh wow. 20:54.00 Max Shank I mean I've had a job straight through since I was twelve I start ah contributing to the the family unit which I actually see as a pretty big advantage in a lot of ways. Um because you just get more experience. 21:05.43 mikebledsoe I. 21:13.40 Max Shank With the concept of value generation which I think is the absolute most important thing. So It's um, hunger pain and desire are all synonyms. And I think that's 1 of the most important things to understand if you're looking to pursue some goals or overcome some fears fear is like ah a psychological pain almost.. It's a fear of a feeling more than anything else or you're just pre-empting some sort of. 21:43.19 mikebledsoe No. 21:49.40 Max Shank Loss. Um, and ah, it's a feeling right. 21:49.94 mikebledsoe Yeah, most of the time when we're avoiding a situation. We're avoiding a conversation. We're avoiding it having a feeling. It's not the situation. It's how it's gonna make us feel and 1 of the things that's created the most freedom for me is. Taking on the you know made it made I've made it a goal to accept love and eventually become comfortable with all feelings that come Up. You know so that the the feelings I used to avoid because I I didn't like them. 22:19.31 Max Shank Oh. 22:27.50 mikebledsoe I Can I can now love sadness. You know where whereas I couldn't love it for I dwelled in guilt where now I just get to be with what I felt guilty about and then move on whereas yeah there was just. 22:33.18 Max Shank Oh. 22:43.77 mikebledsoe Were things I would indulge in and things that I would avoid and it all came from fear and getting to know that that which I'm afraid of Intimately has created a lot of freedom for me. Um I call it emotional freedom but you know that radiates into. 22:45.31 Max Shank Oh. 22:57.61 Max Shank Oh. 23:02.36 mikebledsoe All my behaviors. My psychological freedom my physical freedom all of that I found that if you if you manage the emotional fear and you become friends with it then it loses its power. 23:05.35 Max Shank M. 23:17.72 Max Shank I would have to agree I mean and as you well know a lot of our fears and pains are psychological but they manifest physically so you may have I mean that's why. 23:31.41 mikebledsoe Me. 23:36.27 Max Shank Low back pain is 1 of the I think it is still the most common pain even in sedentary workers. So workers comp. It's ah it's full of people with low back pain who don't lift anything and it's not.. It's not just because they're. Weak is because they're sad and that's the that's a funny revelation. Especially if as I did I started approach I started my approach to physical freedom with get as strong and fast as possible. 23:55.38 mikebledsoe Um, you know. 24:12.56 Max Shank Circled back to oh wait, everybody hurts all the time. So then I became like a ah body mechanic and was like oh well your knee hurts because your hamstrings are weak and your quads are tight now tell me I'm smart or something like that. Ah. And it gets like more and more complex into the nervous system and motor unit recruitment and all this stuff and if you don't respect the reality that psychological pains can manifest as physical pains. Your. Gonna have a really hard time treating that whole self right. 24:51.46 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah I watch people when I when I started getting hip to the emotional um emotional energy and whether it's being whether it's flowing or suppressing. Ah once I got hip to. Oh. 25:05.89 Max Shank A. 25:11.11 mikebledsoe Ah, like I had some emotional energy moved from my my pelvic region and like I really felt it move like it was a brick that moved out of my body all of a sudden I had flexibility in my hamstrings that flexibility in my hips. My back stopped stopped hurting ah and. 25:20.50 Max Shank A. 25:29.81 mikebledsoe And I really went down a deep rabbit hole with that and then I would walk into a gym and talking to people and they're having to they're wrapping themselves with bands and doing all sorts of crazy Mobes before they work out and you know I come to find out they have to do that. 25:40.29 Max Shank Who. 25:47.75 mikebledsoe Every single time before they squat I was like oh you can't just do like a simple five ten minute warm up and then squat without pain. It's like this is not a this is not because you're not wrapping yourself with enough bands. This is. 25:48.50 Max Shank Ah. 26:02.50 Max Shank Just need a few more bands I think it's just a couple more you're like 3 bands away. 26:06.26 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah, yeah, was like it's like wow you know, um and I remember bringing this up years ago when it was first dawning on me and you know having a popular podcast and talking about it. Publicly people are like mike's lost his fucking mind. 26:24.42 Max Shank Yeah. 26:26.23 mikebledsoe And I was like okay I think now I think it took me some time to learn how to explain it better. But I also think that generally our culture is has become more hit to these ideas as well. Not everybody but I would say. 26:41.16 Max Shank Now some. 26:44.76 mikebledsoe More I come across more people that that immediately agree with that I get less pushback than I used to. 26:50.19 Max Shank Well, the purpose of pain is to get you back into safety. The the reason for pain is it's just an action signal but it's not specific. So if you feel a pain in your knee. That's not necessarily where. The problem is it's just saying do something different. That's all very nonspecific, but the purpose is is to protect you and protection and safety and security. Once again, they're all synonyms like we're all you know we're framing. 27:11.76 mikebledsoe Um, yeah. 27:28.34 Max Shank These fundamental realities of life as slightly different things. Hunger pain desire safety security. They're all very very similar so you have to I you don't have to but I I think it's helpful to recognize which are which are synonyms. So you can sort of start grouping them together and discover what the underlying sensation is right? and it's like we talked about a few episodes ago. Ah with the 3 levels of your brain you have to secure the lizard love the mammal so you can free the wizard which is the. Reptilian mamma alienlian and neocortex and if you are just living in a state of fight or flight which you can send yourself there just by watching the news. It's game over you'll just be constantly like I'm I'm afraid and you have no ability. To use your Neocortex. It's like an abused dog who just bites anyone that comes close. 28:35.76 mikebledsoe Yeah. 28:36.67 Max Shank Ah, it's ah it's It's a tricky thing I mean we're really emotional creatures but that's also our strength because we want to share um the bounty we want to share the load. We want to alleviate the suffering of our of our fellows. Um. You know Lizards don't really do that I'm not trying to like ah bad mouth Lizards or something like that I think Lizards are great creatures as Well. It's just a different strategy. 29:05.34 mikebledsoe Yeah, you believe in the lizard people. 29:10.14 Max Shank I Believe some people exhibit lizard-like characteristics. but but I also usually can see different traces of animals in people. 29:22.78 mikebledsoe Yeah. 29:25.26 Max Shank Like I'll see someone be like oh that person looks kind of giraffe-like or that person looks kind of bird-like you know what? I mean. 29:29.60 mikebledsoe Ah, ah yeah, there's something about women who wear like pointing masks that like I see a woman with a pointing mask at the grocery store and I want to get I Just want to go? Ah, ah. 29:38.16 Max Shank Ah, that's that's a bird. 29:47.73 Max Shank Well I think in ah the U K they I think in the Uk they're called Birds ladies. Yeah, yeah, these birds were down at the pub that sounds right? doesn't it. 29:47.86 mikebledsoe No woman wants to be called a bird I don't think what are women oh really? Ah well I well I know that. What was that tv show always sunny in Philadelphia they ah, they always called the woman in that show a bird and she hated it. D. 30:11.49 Max Shank D yeah, yeah, she hate it. Yeah of course. Well, that's America it's different in ah in the u k you can also walk up to a guy on the street and say hey can I bum a fag and that's it's a totally normal thing to say. But if you said that here. People would find that offensive it means can I borrow can I borrow or have a cigarette That's what that means. 30:29.43 mikebledsoe Yeah, or you might yeah exactly I'm glad you cleared that up that that might have eluded some people. Ah 1 of the things I the pain like having knee pain may not meet. Mean and it usually doesn't mean there's a problem with your knee it it means there's a problem somewhere else, but it is a sign to change Behavior. It says hey let's do something different. Um, 1 of the things that I I ah try to be. 30:54.36 Max Shank Um, yeah action. Signal. 31:07.70 mikebledsoe Because again, if you're in this game very long. You realize that any pain in your body probably isn't because of that thing Specifically it can be but the best way to be is is to be curious and to start asking like hey what should I be what have I been doing that might be contributing to this. 31:15.33 Max Shank And. 31:26.55 mikebledsoe All right? do experiments to try to change it. Ah because really it comes down to you're you're responsible for your own health and you know, Ah, ah someone else can help you figure some things out and start pointing in the right direction. But. It's really up to you at the end of the day to figure out what's actually going on with you. 31:48.13 Max Shank That's ah, that's a super wise and powerful tool is curiosity I Even think the word curiosity is probably as close as you can get to a medicine for fear. Because Fear is also about the unknown rather than the known like you're afraid of what might happen to my story. Oh My God What if people hate me because once you know for sure that people will hate you. It's not really like a ah. You're not afraid of it Anymore. You're just like oh well,, That's what's going to happen Now. So Curiosity is also you don't know what's going on. So. It's also the unknown but it's just in a positive light. So you're bringing light to the unknown instead of. 32:25.70 mikebledsoe Yeah. 32:43.26 Max Shank Being stuck hiding from the darkness. So I think that that is probably if there's a big takeaway about Fear. It's that curiosity is the opposite it. It puts you right back into Neocortex it puts you right back into. Conscious takes you right out of compulsive fear spiral so fear and and curiosity. Um, you know you'll of course be afraid of things and really afraid of um. What may come to be right because you don't know exactly what it will be but curiosity same unknown but a totally different frame of reference. So that's that's huge I think of goals. 33:29.42 mikebledsoe E. 33:40.20 Max Shank And I think of action. So I always think of whenever I create a message of some kind I always start with what do I want who to do exactly. So. 33:54.40 mikebledsoe Hey. 33:56.51 Max Shank Who am I talking to and what exactly do I want them to do ah quite frankly, ah the time where I just write something so people read it is is long gone and it's not enough for me to get off my ass and do it's it just doesn't feel worth it. Which is exactly what I want to talk about now which is the pain to prospect ratio. It's an estimate that we make consciously or unconsciously about is the juice worth the squeeze and people. 34:27.53 mikebledsoe E. 34:31.63 Max Shank Especially with exercise are very bad at estimating they think oh it's it's just not worth it to do ah a ten minute exercise session or movement session because they're ah it's too much. Yeah, too much effort. Not enough payoff. Right? The pain is too great. The cost is too high. The benefit won't be high enough. So. 34:51.90 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah I don't think they realize the accumulatative effect people have a hard time projecting positivity in the future. 34:59.40 Max Shank What? Well you have to be able to defer gratification because in the short term exercise makes you weaker. Ah it depends what you do I mean there's ah. 35:09.67 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah. 35:18.33 Max Shank Like a curve right? If you do a little bit of exercise. It makes you much stronger that day. But if you do a lot. It makes you much weaker that day and it's probably you know like most things kind of Bell curvish. But you have to be able to see long-term and defer gratification till later just like. Investing just like working on a long project. Um, some people maybe write books in 1 day but that's probably not very many people. The reason more people don't is you have to string a lot of. 35:46.62 mikebledsoe Yeah. 35:53.37 Max Shank Writing sessions together and in my case, the hardest part for sure is editing writing is so easy editing is is way ah way tougher I think ah but in order to do anything you have to meet a catalyst. 35:57.67 mikebledsoe Um, yeah, yeah. 36:13.30 Max Shank In your pain to prospect ratio which so I have a pretty weird motivational technique which is I don't I don't I'm not a good cheerleader but I just kind of point out the obvious and say look you know you can do this. And if you don't it just means you don't think it's worth it yet. That's all that's okay, like if you write in your journal for fifteen minutes every morning for 2 weeks. It means that you're probably taking this um mental practice that we're trying seriously and then. At the end of those 2 weeks. We'll have an idea of whether or not this is ah giving you some benefit and what you've gotten out of it and here are some tools of course like um, fill in the blanks type of stuff can be really beneficial for help. Ah I call it ah mind mining. 37:08.60 mikebledsoe A. 37:09.20 Max Shank Like you're a minor with like a little pickaxe so you help people ah mind their minds and the reality is ah hunger is the motivator hunger pain desire all synonyms ambition same thing I didn't even really consider the fact. That I named my gym ambition athletics which is basically a synonym for desire athletics and is just so funny like thinking back into it and it is the desire to achieve something and you need to experience some sort of pain. With the status quo even if it seems like very love-based like I want to I I Love the I Love Children. So I Want to save the children. It's like yeah you want you feel pain right now that they are suffering. Basically so everything relates back. To whether or not the pain to prospect ratio prospect being like what you predict the outcome will be is sufficient of a catalyst for your action. That's true for basically everything. 38:17.60 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah I agree with that Always always calculating the um yeah tote. 38:28.48 Max Shank Um, even unconsciously. 38:34.79 mikebledsoe Probably mostly unconsciously. 38:36.90 Max Shank Like oh I'm I'm uncomfortable. So I'm going to eat a donut. It's worth it. It's it's only 10 feet away that's 10 steps eat a donut that's well worth it. But the. 38:40.86 mikebledsoe Exactly yeah. Yeah I don't I don't get this much anymore. But I've had people I'd be somewhere and they're like you want to eat this food and we go now and then it's usually somebody overweight who goes he goes. Oh you're you're 1 of those people that punish yourself with. 38:59.14 Max Shank Yeah. 39:09.58 mikebledsoe I'm like I go no I just I realized that if I eat this in an hour I'm gonna feel like shit and if I eat this repeatedly I'm gonna just my whole body's gonna feel like shit not in the five minutes while I'm eating it. But. Every other moment after that's worse so like it's just and it's funny. How like I just remember people trying to guilt me into joining them and making poor decisions that way. Yeah, yeah. 39:41.60 Max Shank It's like drinking. It's like drinking drinking alcohol. The trick though is we. 39:46.35 mikebledsoe Just have a beard just relax. 39:49.61 Max Shank I Remember when I was in my early twenty s we used to show how tough we were by having a little competition to see who could drink the most poison. 39:59.38 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, yeah, you too? Yeah, but. 40:02.97 Max Shank Ah, oh yeah, I was the toughest guy there was and then I was vomiting in the gutter where I then passed out So I mean have you ever like I think isn't there like a euphemism for you know my life was in the gutter I hit like rock. I've literally like woken up in a gutter before that's not a proud moment but the problem is yeah that means yeah I have good friends with you at least that's silver Lining. That's good. 40:23.99 mikebledsoe No, no yeah I've I've been peeled off the sidewalk and carried home. Yeah I did I did they didn't leave me behind. 40:38.94 Max Shank I would just wander off. Ah, um, the problem that most people have though is not only is there estimate of the effort required ah sort of fallacious and driven. By the law of least action which is we always want to preserve energy. But we also have no clue as to what all the variables are you know algebra and math is usually very clean like 2 x equals y plus four. You know, even that is like fairly cut and dry. But when you start thinking about all of the variables involved with whether you decide to exercise in the morning and tackle a writing project for the next sixty days. There are so many variables that you can't imagine. Another example is. Ah, investing like how do you choose what company to invest into and you know 1 of my absolutely closest friends for a really long time is really, he's like so sharp and we talk about investing and you know i. Kind of like to ah go with it and I talk about the ah fundamentals because that's all I know about businesses I don't study ah like business numbers and sales and all that stuff I just think about what? ah. Value is being provided essentially and I think about like the human aspect of it but in order to look through. Let's say even a thousand companies and pick your favorite 10 is so crazy. Because there are so many variables that you're not aware of so you take that level of complexity and you apply it to your own life. The difference in the like probability of how your day will go of starting with. You you know thirty minutes of exercise or thirty minutes of tiktok is pretty dramatic but you can't possibly know what you're going to experience in both of those situations right? So the variables get way too complicated to have. Ah. 42:59.75 mikebledsoe Yeah. 43:06.86 Max Shank Perfect prediction so you can't expect to be perfectly ready and that's why you know I I like ah Perfectionism is a sophisticated form of procrastination and so you'll. You'll try to get all the variables lined up but just the understanding that nobody ever gets all the variables lined up and usually the people who do the most things are the ones who go way before they're Ready. It's like they used to frustrate me a lot because. 43:40.16 mikebledsoe M. 43:45.15 Max Shank Ah, used to have you ever been envious. Anyone anyone out there. Envy is is really hard to not to not be envious, especially when you're young and you fancy yourself smart and you see. 43:50.58 mikebledsoe Ah, oh yeah. 44:04.50 Max Shank Very very successful. Successful people who you recognize as very very dumb at what they're doing and it's not a personal attack. It's just Wow people are are buying this line of B S. Are you kidding me like this is a. How is this guy so popular like and and it's because they just go go go way before they're ready and so there's ah, there's a balance there with the the craftsmanship of. 44:22.90 mikebledsoe Yeah. 44:41.20 Max Shank Refining that skill and there's also that advantage to being a little too ignorant to know that you're not ready and just going anyway. So finding finding that good balance is. 44:53.96 mikebledsoe Yeah. 45:00.10 Max Shank Is quite helpful and a lot of the stuff that I've done actually I went before before it was ready and it worked out really well. 45:08.44 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, I think that's 1 of the things that have helped me achieve the amount of success I have is I I was a little delusional when I was younger about how good I was gonna be at something i. Just didn't think about all the potential variables I Just go oh I had like this this faith that I would figure it out like oh yeah, I know what I'm doing and then I get into it and I realized that there was a million things I had no idea about that I now have to figure Out. Um. So I think a little bit of delusion early on was helpful that delusion is faded I now know that I don't know a bunch of shit. But 1 thing I've learned is that I have the ability to jump into a project and I'll figure it out I don't I don't care what it is. 46:01.87 Max Shank Will you need that faith. 46:03.53 mikebledsoe So as long as I want it if I want it I go you know what? I'll figure it out I mean my whole thing is is I will figure it out or I won't either way I've got to try and if I don't then I'll just move on to something else because there's the the micro in the macro. 46:15.95 Max Shank Um, right. 46:22.10 Max Shank Um, yeah. 46:23.47 mikebledsoe Like oh I want to go up this 1 thing I go after I go Wow The cost of reaching that goal is actually not worth it to me anymore now that I'm now that I'm aware of all the variables and like you know what? I'm okay to walk away from this because I actually desire something else more that I'm willing to to sacrifice. Right now in order to get there. So It's ah that's really been beneficial for me and I do see a lot of people get caught up in that this like fear of they talk about fear of failure and there's a fear that ah they're not gonna get not get it right? I agree and that's. 46:58.37 Max Shank It's fear of shame. 47:02.63 mikebledsoe That's actually that was ah my biggest fear when I started in my business was I didn't want to look like I tried hard and then like like I either had to act like in the beginning I act like I I didn't care ah because if it didn't go well and I. 47:05.36 Max Shank Um, yeah. 47:22.50 mikebledsoe And I looked like I didn't care. It didn't mean anything about me. But if I yeah but if I try hard and I fail that means I'm dumb you know and and and for me like my my big 1 of my biggest fears was like being seen as as. 47:25.70 Max Shank Isn't that funny totally or bad. Yeah. 47:41.67 mikebledsoe Dumb because I deep downwn believe that I believe that I was dumb when I was a kid and so I had to overcome that so I had to prove to the world that I that I was smart I was trying to prove to myself that I could be smart and but yeah, 1 of my biggest fears was was looking dumb. 47:41.69 Max Shank Um, same. 47:57.56 Max Shank I feel that 1 48:00.78 mikebledsoe And I didn't want to look like I tried hard. Um, but even then like you know, ah raising my prices in my gym to be at ah at the appropriate price was very difficult because I was afraid of what. People who I was going to charge that amount of money to were going to think of me for charging that I didn't want to be seen as greedy so I didn't want to be seen as dumb I didn't want to be seen as greedy. It's Funny. He's like oh I don't want to fail but I'm also don't want to be seen as a greedy person. 48:22.66 Max Shank Right. 48:36.25 mikebledsoe And then there's this box of like limitation around success that gets they gets built. It's like okay well I don't want to be seeing this greedy I don't want to fail and look dumb. It's like Wow What do you get? where do you go from there you there's very little to go from there. 48:38.98 Max Shank Um, yeah. 48:52.40 Max Shank There's no wiggle room whatsoever. 48:54.24 mikebledsoe Yeah, and so there's these conditions that we put on our in place because of yeah that that perceived shame that people will shame us and then we'll feel guilty and ah yeah, yeah. 49:06.56 Max Shank You'll feel less. You'll feel less than and it goes back to that same eat. It goes back to that same like your your story is tarnished it always comes back to that judgment shame and shame I've heard is the single most. 49:11.63 mikebledsoe Loss. 49:15.65 mikebledsoe Um, yeah. 49:24.18 Max Shank Ah, powerful visceral emotion. There is which you would imagine that our evolution would select for that based on our dependence of cooperating together in groups you touched on something though which is like. 49:35.96 mikebledsoe Right? right? definitely. 49:43.68 Max Shank You just had to believe you just had to have faith that it would work and you need that because there's no guarantee that anything will work. You know, even someone? Um I I Really like to have all my ducks in a row. Ah before I start something. Try to limit the risk as much as possible but you can't take any action without having faith and I'm sure that's part of the reason that religion has sprouted so much is in order to have that. Forward thinking of like this is what the future could hold and understand that there are so many possibilities it can be an advantage to have faith that everything will go well or or perhaps that a um, a deity of some kind. 50:34.70 mikebledsoe Ah. 50:41.56 Max Shank Has ah a grander plan where it does all work out. Well I mean that's that's ah, quite an interesting way of assuaging those fears. 50:50.70 mikebledsoe Well, ah, human, they they did a study and humans generally think that the future will be better than the present and that's that's another challenge to investing either. You know in. And exercise in health or investing money in something is because people believe that they're gonna make more money in the future. They're gonna they believe they generally believe things would just be Better. There's an um overall optimistic thing going on. Not for everybody. But for. Vast majority of people. They they do think things that they believe that things progress to be better in the future and which could be true I think it generally is true. But when yeah, it's very relative and. 51:41.72 Max Shank Bet Better is super relative right. 51:46.49 mikebledsoe People Um, a lot of times because they believe things are going to get better. No matter what they don't take action. They don't do what it takes for things to be better, especially and is where religion can get funny a lot of times because. 51:58.26 Max Shank Right. 52:05.00 mikebledsoe There's something outside of themselves that is going to save them. There's something outside of themselves that's going to make it better and a ah lot of people I think get caught up in that belief structure and then just fall into inaction. 52:20.52 Max Shank A. 52:21.86 mikebledsoe Or don't see the role that they're going to play in creating that future. 52:25.61 Max Shank Yeah, sometimes I get caught in exactly the opposite which is I predict all of the horrible stuff I predict based on ah all of the horrible stuff I've been made aware of and I just assume that ah me doing. 52:30.96 mikebledsoe And he. 52:44.22 Max Shank Anything will be like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon and it won't really make a difference Anyway, I'm like hey everybody it's ah time for your morning Mobility Exercises Meanwhile there's like you know all kinds of lobbying going on and all of the you know. 52:49.39 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah. 53:03.40 Max Shank Whatever you know I don't want to get too far down that road. But I think ah safe to say that we do a lot of stuff exactly the worst way possible in our current setup of organizing large groups of people so thinking that what you do will have some sort of. Benefit that is meaningful to you so that belief that faith has to um, be the catalyst for any action and that's that pain to prospect ratio. 53:33.10 mikebledsoe Yeah I feel good with this anything else. You want to add. 53:39.82 Max Shank Ah, so we talked about ah goals and fears primarily and then we talked a little bit about sticks and stones which was pretty fun in the beginning I think with regard to fear. It's important to understand that it's just your attached to your story and all of the um, the most wise stuff that I've read from throughout the Millennia of people trying to feel more at peace in their. Selves and hearts is about ah connection without attachment which is such a trite thing to say it seems so simple right? But it's actually extremely difficult to connect with everything around you without getting too attached and latched onto it. And so fear man we didn't even talk about ah like feeling physically safe and you know like having ah some food and some marshall capabilities. But yeah, if you can accept. The impermanence of your story. You won't be enslaved by the fear of tarnishing that story like the shame or the failures I mean I really like the phrase The only failure is to not try at all. 55:12.41 mikebledsoe You know? ah. 55:15.40 Max Shank Because you can I think you probably would agree that part of your success just like for mine is just that I simply tried lots of things and I you don't know which ones are going to work and I Also. Didn't get stuck in the sunk cost fallacy where you keep pouring more energy into something just because you've already poured a lot into it. You know it's It's good. You you stop doing that thing and you try something else. So It's good to try lots of things because you don't know just like investing. 55:38.78 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah. 55:50.38 Max Shank Ah, Diversification. You don't know which 1 Ne's going to be awesome. But if you have 10 that have a really good chance of being awesome then hey that's pretty good I mean I'm not I can't predict the future. So yeah, there's that which is. You have to accept the impermanence of the story and then everything else is sort of a domino effect after that and. 56:13.89 mikebledsoe I Like the impermanence of this story because after you die your story is I mean it. It contributes to the cultural story and gets passed down anceually. But. 56:26.26 Max Shank Right. 56:31.15 mikebledsoe No stories are ever told accurately. So just the the knowledge the knowledge that your story is going to be skewed no matter what? ah to me brings a lot of levity because I know that other people are going to write my story about me. 56:33.33 Max Shank Now. 56:50.43 mikebledsoe From their perspective. However, they want It's none of my none of my business really and once I stop making my business and how other people are gonna interpret my story. The easier got to just live out my own life The way I want to live it and yeah like this weekend I had my. 56:51.63 Max Shank Um, right? yeah. 57:09.88 mikebledsoe My birthday my birthday party and people were telling me all sorts of amazing things about me but that's not even the story I would tell about myself and and so it's It's a good demonstration of yeah that I think that this. 57:18.44 Max Shank Yeah, of course, not. 57:29.61 mikebledsoe The story we're telling about ourselves is is greater than what we think other people might tell a story about us. 57:37.92 Max Shank Yeah, and subconsciously your self-image is going to guide your behaviors. Maybe even more than you're conscious. So if like subconsciously you think you're dumb and lazy. No amount of like trying to grit through it is actually going to. 57:56.47 mikebledsoe Your yeah your behaviors may change it create a difference in your life. But that story is going to remain the same. 57:56.84 Max Shank Help you do that So you have to. 58:03.14 Max Shank Right? So that's why I think at least for me what makes the um, most sense is to not be too attached to any story because I think you you mostly just are what you do and the more attached I am to a certain thing. The. 58:12.34 mikebledsoe On there. 58:22.31 Max Shank The less the flow of energy is through me as like a conduit and so with regard to fear you are accepting your physical death and your the death of your story and and also the fact that your story could be. 58:24.43 mikebledsoe Move. Ah. 58:41.11 Max Shank Completely tarnished I mean Oedipus did a lot of great things. But no 1 remembers What those things are because he killed his dad and fucked his mom and that's all we know about oedipus right. So with like if you let go of the story thing then you won't fear Shame. You won't fear Judgment. It's like a top-down type of effect if you accept the impermanence and then with regard to goals. It allows you to seek goals outside of your um, extrinsic judgment of those things like a lot of people become doctors and lawyers not because they want to. Be a doctor or a lawyer just because it's ah it's an esteemed position. It's a position of power and wealth. They don't really want that they just want to be seen as Good. So if you can get your self out of the way you'll be able to choose a goal. 59:41.50 mikebledsoe Right. 59:46.57 mikebledsoe Yeah. 59:57.46 Max Shank That is more conducive to what you really feel and I may have even mentioned this in a show before I'm sure I have but ah simon sinek has his it starts with why and that's good and james clear has his habit formation about. Starts with who like you choose your identity and then everything comes from there which is also good. It's kind of in line with the psycho cybernetics idea and then I just think about what I would want to have done if I could get no credit. If I had to be totally anonymous and that seems to be the truest ah goals that I have it takes into consideration. What my strengths and weaknesses are and it takes the um it takes the ego kind of out of the. Out of the equation a little bit and it helps me get more aligned to what I actually think is important versus what is just another ah power play like ah people will people will love me more and then my story will be vast and then I will have a. 01:01:04.15 mikebledsoe Sir. 01:01:13.27 Max Shank Gigantic tombstone. No I'll have a mausoleum that's when the ego goes beyond your physical life like the last thing I fucking want is gigantic mausoleum. It's so ridiculous. Um, hey I'm you know, no offense to the people with. 01:01:32.17 mikebledsoe Mauselums. 01:01:32.39 Max Shank Mausoleums and stuff like that. It's just it's just not for me. Ah, So there's the relating to fears relating to goals or perhaps a mission very valuable to get other people who feel the same way and then the last thing is just your. Physical safety which is your health your defensive power and um financial health to I would say you have like safety nets. It's like a health physical health physical mental Health Safety net. Ah, social safety net and then financial safety net and. 01:02:13.98 mikebledsoe Was the 3 categories of personal development is health wealth and relationships was it. Those are that yeah those are the 3 things that people need to master in order to to live a good life. 01:02:22.27 Max Shank That's right, pretty much everything is those. 01:02:33.50 mikebledsoe You know I think what we call a good life in this in our current society and those are 3 topics that are not taught in our education system. 01:02:34.18 Max Shank Oh. 01:02:41.25 Max Shank Yeah, the only important things are not taught that's kind of relate. that's that's 1 of the things that makes me feel like I'm trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon sometimes is I'm like man 12 years we don't even teach the important stuff. It's out of control. But yeah, you're right. 01:02:50.51 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:03:01.13 Max Shank You're right? It's those 3 things and combine that with the acceptance of the impermanence and you'll probably live your fullest life I know like live your best life is like a ah hilarious Hashtag ah, but yeah. But I think that's pretty good. Pretty good way to be there's there's no question reality about having financial. Well-being physical. Well-being and then social wellbeing. 01:03:21.78 mikebledsoe I like it. Yeah. 01:03:37.78 Max Shank I mean I feel super fortunate that over the past. However long this whole ah business has been going on that I've had close friends and um, plenty of Reserve capital and I live in a place where there's lots of sunshine and I. Went into it very physically healthy and if you're missing 1 or all of those you're going to have a bad time. 01:04:06.15 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this ah this show to me I'm gonna have my students listen to it because this has ah been packed with a lot of really useful Information. So The the 1 thing I Want to remind everybody is is. Thing that's made the biggest difference for me is learning to be to love and accept those feelings which I tend to avoid and from there a lot of other wisdom has come online for me and ways to live just because of that 1 1 thing That's ah once you get to that point it opens up channels of information which you didn't have access to before. 01:04:56.97 Max Shank That's so good because it also opens the door to being compassionate for other people and it also it also closes the door of being envious of other people because you don't know what's going on on the inside right. 01:05:00.49 mikebledsoe It does. 01:05:07.56 mikebledsoe In here. 01:05:11.29 Max Shank We we like to envy like Cherry we like to do cherry pick envy we we like to envy the rock's body you know dwayne the rock johnson that guy but we don't envy like his. 01:05:22.97 mikebledsoe Yeah. 01:05:29.14 Max Shank Daily routine. Probably we don't envy the fact that I mean who knows what his home life was like but yeah I think if you can love and accept yourself and then still um, you know, not. 01:05:29.30 mikebledsoe No. 01:05:43.23 Max Shank Not feel shame for feeling those emotions but just get curious about them like you sagely pointed out earlier. It really will open the door for a a love-based change of self-image. Rather than a shame-based change of self-image and like I said it also makes you more compassionate and less Envious. So I think y'all I would like to re-listen to this 1 a couple times myself because a lot of things that you and I just say in the flow. Ah, are it makes me want to start jotting down notes and I think. 01:06:21.10 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah, I'm um like I added a couple things that I need to write about from this conversation. 01:06:27.00 Max Shank Um, well make sure you share those with me I was thinking that part of the reason these conversations are going so well. What is this the ninth episode or something I think ah. 01:06:36.71 mikebledsoe Number nine. Yeah. 01:06:42.86 Max Shank Ah, 1 of the reason it goes so well is you and I have zero consideration for who said it. We only care that it gets said so we're trying to make the like the result of it. Good. And like I don't care if it was like you said the thing or I said the thing so it's a very um, unencumbered melding of. The experiences that we've had which are unique and then also the experiences we've been exposed to secondhand which is like the reading and the learning from others and I think that's that's what makes a body of work. Great is when you get the. 01:07:32.20 mikebledsoe Agreed agreed well brother where can people find you he that he forgot he forgot. 01:07:32.33 Max Shank Junk out of the way. Yeah man. 01:07:42.50 Max Shank Maxshank Dot Com at Ma shank. Well I was just thinking. Yeah I I was just thinking I'm actually pretty hard to find like physically but on the internet I'm the easiest to find ever if you Google me I'm all over the place. 01:07:47.54 mikebledsoe Air. 01:07:54.17 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, same ah hit up at mike blood. So mike underscore bloods on Instagram and the strongcoach dot com if you're a coach and want to do some cool shit all right? Thanks for joining us today. 01:08:12.32 Max Shank Love you brother take care. 01:08:12.97 mikebledsoe And you max Love you.

One thing I've learned over the years, being a business owner, is I'm the most overwhelmed when I feel like I'm spinning in all different directions.   Life is so busy, and we can't possibly feel "on top of things" if we have no structure in our day or our week.   I've created a system of time blocking that makes complete sense for a busy mom, wife and business owner.  I help you create boxes, talk about which to use first and why, and then I EVEN help you find time to bring back time for things YOU love, like gardening, cooking, reading, even a bubble bath!!  And date night?  What if you could have that again?!?  We find time for it all.   Life is nuts...but your life doesn't have to be.  This method of strategy for my business and life has completely changed my outlook on building a schedule with EVERYTHING in it (yes, even down to my lunch time and my daily walk!) that helps me see that I can run a business, I can be organized at home, I can get all my chores done and the kids fed, AND I can bring joy and passion back to my life!  This is a game changer!  I'll see you inside!... Don't forget, you can be part of my amazing community of business owners, just like you.  We are breaking down business, getting inside of our struggles and learning new techniques.  Join us at www.facebook.com/groups/letsrediscoveryourbusiness  Let's be friends on Facebook!  www.facebook.com/sabrina.r.knapp  So. Much. Information. about what's new on my website. www.sabrinamknapp.com  Check out my blog and get the latest news at www.sabrinamknapp.com/blog Pinterest Friends??  Let's do it!  www.pinterest.com/smkcoaching  Instagram too...sure!  www.instagram.com/sabrina.r.knapp  Yes, I am on LinkedIn.  www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-knapp  Email me anytime at www.mindyourbusinesssmk@gmail.com 

 Ep. 39:  Choosing What Your Next Job Is (Live Coaching) Lindsay  00:00I'm Lindsay Mustain, and this is the career design podcast made for driven ambitious square pegs and round holes type professionals who see things differently and challenge the status quo. We obliterate obstacles and unlock hidden pathways to overcome and succeed where others have not stagnation feels like death. And we are unwilling to compromise our integrity and settle for being average in any way. We are the backbone of any successful business and those who overlook our potential are doomed to a slow demise. We do work that truly matters aligns with our purpose, and in turn, we make our lasting mark on the world. We are the dreamers, doers, legends and visionaries who are called to make our most meaningful contribution and love what we do.  Lindsay  00:42So I'm going to introduce you today because some of you have been along for the ride, some of you haven't. And this is the first of my broadcast this particular livestream series. I think I'm going to see some apologize in advance. Because I'm a human, I'm, oh, it might go rough here. But but but Abby, Abby, why don't you just give me like the quick one minute spiel of how we got to this place today where we're at and why I'm sharing your story, publicly and widely? Abby  01:12Sure. Yeah, let's I should probably have this down by now. Lindsay  01:17There might be a reason why I'm making you do that. And I want to thank you for tuning in. from Facebook. Hi. Abby  01:24Hi, guys. I was so happy you're all here with us? Um, yeah, be active in the comments. We love to see what you're saying and thinking as we're going Oh, please. That's awesome. Thanks for coming. So my my one minute spiel. So I, like many of you had a career change happen during the pandemic, there was, I worked in the same field for 16 years working corporate beauty retail. And, you know, with COVID-19, a lot of layoffs happen. And there was a reorganization eliminated my position, and I was faced with the decision of what, like, what do I do now. And I decided to go back to school during that time and train myself for a new skill in UX design, and took a boot camp and graduated in June. And I see some of my boot camp friends in the chat. So congratulations, you guys. We did it. As I went through this boot camp, and coming out of it, and looking, you know, for a new job and being on the hunt. And in this market. It I heard all these stories of how difficult it was. And I just didn't believe for myself that it was going to be the same thing. Because I've I feel like I've always been very fortunate. And so when I went into it, and I haven't gotten much of a response, and I've been putting in all this effort, I just became really frustrated and was asked to reflect on like, what, what is my journey so far? So I kind of wrote this very honest piece about what my my job hunt journey has been like. And so if you haven't read it, there's a link to it on my LinkedIn. But it's also on medium. If you're on medium. My name is Abby Mueller 411. Check it out. And yeah, it got some traction on LinkedIn. And that's how Lindsay and I got connected. She read the the piece, and it resonated with her. And it is just really in alignment with what she does, which is career design. So we hooked up and decided that other people needed to hear about what was going on. And this might be beneficial for others who are in the same boat as me looking for a job in 2021. In a new career, possibly even and yeah, just kind of hoping, like I said, to break the code last time of how to how to get past this stagnant place that we're in. Lindsay  03:39Yeah, absolutely. So there's some pain and we've been so I asked Abby, if she'd be willing to do this, like bear her soul publicly and do this in front of everyone. So first off huge, huge props to that because I said like, do you mind if I give you a publicly and walk you through the intentional career design process? I had somebody who recently started me, they're like, Oh, my, the person I was interviewed a whole bunch of job coaches, and they were so focused on what's the next title? What's the next company and I'm like, you missed the whole point of what we're trying to do here, which is get into doing work that truly matters that fills our soul that lets us actually do work that we feel energized and excited about. It's not about a job title. It's not about a particular company. It's all about what I want to do with my life. And now I wanted a lot of times people here they want to take control of their career trajectory. They want to find something that's really meaningful. The next thing is okay, now I want to work for an employer that models the values that I have. And then last actually like to be paid really well for what I do because I I'm worth it. And so that's what I teach. I'm not teaching you how to get a better job. There are a million people out there there's a reason why I'm the best in the world at what I do and I am willing to say it, I have 1000s of testimonials. I mean there is people who pop on here all the time to talk to you about what the results are working with me so and obviously that I don't ever have these people I Even though they're coming, they just come and show up. And so what what I'm going to do is walk Abby through this process. And so last week, we did. Well, she said last week, technically it was this week it was earlier this week. That was the most important thing about this is getting in the right headspace. Because if you believe that you were a victim here, if you believe that you don't have control of your circumstances, if you're doing things that limit, your, you know, energetic vibration really, honestly, is what I'm going for. If we raise that and you believe that you're capable, that you understand your worth, and that you believe that you can do this, then the rest becomes an act of of true courage and faith and walking through the process of the strategy. But if I neglect your mindset, which is what most job coaches do, then you're going to fall through the floor, and you're going to get paused on this process. And it's just it's not, you know, how emotional it can be. I asked you to do some work this week, and I want you to be really honest here. You struggled with it, right? Abby  05:53Oh, yeah. I was doing ghost cruising right along. And then it was like, like, for this job, I go, where I'm like, I throw?  Lindsay  06:03Well, there's a lot of structure and what I do, mostly because it allows people this pathway, it's not been just a few time, you know, a few people, it's 15,000 people. So I 50,000 people that I've worked with them four years and my business, but before that I'd hire 10,000 people I looked at over a million resumes, I wrote the book. And now that we've had, you know, millions of views of my content, that I know what I'm doing. So the process is pretty systemized, so that we walk through it. And what I'm doing is I want to Abby, this and she is coming. I think one thing she said this week that might resonate with people, she said, I have exactly zero years of experience. And I'm looking for how the heck I even position myself here. And of which I said, What did I say? Abby  06:48Oh, I actually have a lot of relevant experience. Yeah, I've been doing this all along. Lindsay  06:53Yes. So one of the reframes, the most powerful reframing here is that she's actually well qualified to do this work. She's done it a lot. She hasn't done it, necessarily in the same modality as this. But just like my experience in recruiting and HR delivered this process, I didn't actually teach job coaching most of my career, but what I did is I walk people through the job process. And so that's easy for a lot of people to understand that we get into the mindset here a little bit, where we think we're not qualified, or we don't know how to express what we want to do. So if you've ever struggled with this question, what do I want to be when I grow up, you're in the right place, because that Peter Pan thing that we have, or that you don't want to grow up, I want you know, you can have fun at work, you can love what you do, and you can get paid well to do it at a company that actually will treat you like you matter. So that's what we're going to go through today. So we're this module that we're going through right now is called career clarity. So I'm going to tell you that I talked about the traits of high performer earlier this week, and I'm going to I just want to say here a little bit higher. LC, Catherine, Sasheen. I always mess up her name Cuzhana, I feel like I always mess it up. So tell me how to say that Asoko totally my setup to just know that I'm doing this with love. And I'm excited to see you hear me does hear Shivani is here and William, he just lost his job. So if you, William, you're in the right place. In fact, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor, because I've extended the bootcamp. You guys have been telling me how amazing this is. And I'm so glad because when I built this, it was so powerful. And hey, Hunter, so if you would type this in somebody, especially on LinkedIn, if you're on Facebook as well, I would like you to do Oh, it's Ruby. She says clarity is number one. I don't know why it doesn't aggregate inside of here. Oh, William. Okay. Sorry. It does aggregate here. I don't know why can't see. So Ruby. But Ruby is also saying clarity is number one. And Alex says thank you for sharing. Abby Lindsay's amazing a true genius provides incredible clarity. She's changed my life. So I wishes that she's and I know Abby and I are friends on Facebook. So this is coming between my Facebook my actual business page and LinkedIn. Thank you stream yard for that. So okay, all right. Blue otter is here, Mike Wallace, and Jody is here and hunter says hi. So if you'll do this for me type dream job hacker comm slash boot camp all one word. I'll tag it on this video. And then people can go in and opt in because what I'm trying to do is get you to clarity and clarity is actually the very first thing I cover. In boot camp, believe it or not, I go straight to that mindset is most important, believe it or not, which is what goes inside of potential career design. But inside of this process, clarity is really important. So let me just tell you about why clarity matters. When we are, I'm gonna tell you a story of Alice in Wonderland, which is one of my favorite stories, in particular, the Disney movie and Alice in Wonderland, and she's going down the path and she's never been there before, right? So she comes to a fork in the road. And she's like, where do I go and the Cheshire Cat appears in the tree? And he says, or she says, Well, I don't know where I'm going with road to take. And he said, well, where would you like to go? And she said, Well, I have no idea. I've never been here before. And he said, Well, then all roads will lead you there. So without any direction, you will end up exactly where you set out for which is nowhere So this is the main strategy of why people don't have momentum in their job search, his main challenge is that they have not picked a destination. So I'm going to give you a revolutionary idea. Just pick something, just pick something, it does not matter if it is if you turn, we went north, it turned out you need to go south, you can course correct, but staying still and delete. delaying the inevitable first step is the biggest problem. And lots of people do this, because they don't have this answer. They're like, and this is not, I want you to know, Abby decided intentionally that she wanted to do something different. She wanted to take some actions into that. A lot of times people be like, Oh, I should probably get my MBA cuz then I'll be more well qualified. Folks, you'll still end up back here dealing with this same crap. I try not to swear because LinkedIn gets mad about it. They'll still deal with the same crap no matter what. So I have people come back with like three degrees. And they're like, Well, I'm not any more qualified. I have somebody who's like, they're just they've generated billions of dollars in revenue in their job, billions of dollars. No, I'm not sure I'm qualified. I have somebody who has, you know, had their their JD, they're an attorney, they also went to MIT and they still don't know what they want to do. So I'm going to tell you doesn't matter. If you have been, you know, in the world, and you've 16 years now. And then you have to start and you go back to school, or you go to MIT or you go get three master's degrees, you're still going to end up with this same crap between your ears. And so the big thing is, pick a destination and work towards that we course correct on the way okay, that analysis paralysis, yes. Okay, so I'm gonna put that up here, analysis paralysis, and it's a trait of a high performer, by the way, when we want perfection. And so we want to not take the wrong step. And this is gonna say, this is the failing that I had, I went to school for 10 years, not because I was a bad student, but because if I couldn't get a b plus or greater, and I couldn't get I couldn't get the most out of it. I withdraw. So I have a series of Ws on my transcript, because I didn't want to not be perfect. All right, perfect, does not get you jobs. Alright, so we need to just pick and so you might be and like, Abby, we're gonna go through her stuff right now. How was it going through this process? Because did I have you pick like a destination? First off what happened in the process? Abby  12:07No. And actually, I'm, like, so grateful that I, I found you that and you have the same kind of mindset, because for me, like I can do, I've been kind of a chameleon of sorts, like I just adapt to whatever environment I'm in. And I can find something to like about anything that I'm doing. It's really for me more about the culture that I'm in and like doing, like being around people who are passionate and excited about what they're doing. And, you know, being part of a team that that is doing something meaningful, and less about, like, Oh, well, I enter information into spreadsheets, or I don't even know, like, whatever it's gonna be, um, you know, it's less about the work itself and more about the environment for me, and that's what makes it so hard to search for a job because like, how do you read that in a job description? But yeah, it was for me, it was like, Okay, well, this is what I know what I want. I know, it makes me feel good, but makes me happy. But yeah, when you have to, I don't know, describe yourself in that place. It's really tough. So. So yeah, I think there was a lot of like, I guess I never really thought about that moments when I'm going through this career clarity curriculum, and just, just really breaking it down is tough for me, because I don't, I tend not to stop and think about myself, I guess I just want to like, go for the goal. I got this goal in mind, I'm going to get this goal. And like, that's what I'm going to do. And I don't stop to think about, you know, like, just check in with yourself. Is this actually still what you're wanting? Is it what you're going for? Yeah, and I don't know, I guess I, it's been interesting for me to just slow down and like, really focus. That's tough. Lindsay  13:49And it is I say, and I don't know, I can't remember I say I say there's a lot of Lindsay'isms along the way, but we have to slow down to go fast. So we go slow to go fast. And so we're trying to increase velocity, but we need to choose if we can go with full gung ho. But if we go in the wrong direction, we're just right. And I get that because I am asking you to slow down and I asked you things like, what do you enjoy? What have you done? And people are like, I don't know when I was like, okay, so if you don't know, then what's the likelihood Lindsay recruiter hire 10,000 people is going to know. Okay, and so I'm going to give you an example of how quickly it goes wrong. I want to tell you about the story about the most qualified person I ever really dealt with. And he said, Lindsay, I cannot get an interview. And thanks so much, Randy. He's been following me for this long so and Mohit Hi, it's great to see you. Um, he said, Lindsay, I cannot seem to even get an interview with your company. And I am a former top gun commander, which I didn't know is an actual thing. So I'm on your resume, Commander. Yeah, exactly. All right. Talk on commander for Harvard alumnus, former White House aide to two presidents and I can't Don't get a callback. All right. And I was like, well I feel really intimidated by that list of qualifications. But the bottom line question What did he do? Abby  15:14Do you know? Lindsay  15:16I'll tell you what I had to go dig into it and let me tell you I nobody bothered to talk to him because he couldn't articulate this to anybody and just know it plagues every single person. So I'm trying to deal with multimillion dollar CEOs transformative leaders I deal with executives I deal with thought leaders I deal with people along this way so being able to tell your narrative is not easy at all at all it is my secret power. I am been dubbed the Oracle genius I can tell you what you are at your highest level if you do this work with me and how you show up but he had no idea how to articulate that and so if you cannot ultimately use that I'm the horse here if you cannot lead your horse to water you can't get him to drink but if you can't even give them the path of who you are they will have no idea how to understand it so if it's struggle for you no chance will the person across from the table here so the first thing my people struggle this they don't have a narrative about who it is. So this idea is called a pre frame and the pre frame is the example of how people will view you and you know this it's the headline if you put it on you'll have it on your LinkedIn you'll have it on your your resume when you write a research paper your introduction statement it's really really powerful here okay Katherine says I have so resonate with this at this very moment Yes, so let's target. Abby  16:30Its just like  one or two things you know, when you're trying to sum up the all of your experience into like, a few sentences. Lindsay  16:38It's hard Yeah. The value proposition which is the most difficult thing you do and the most powerful thing you do inside of this I teach you guys how to write this by the way inside of dream job hack. It is the most nobody teaches us so I'm gonna give you access for free please go to dream.hack.com slash bootcamp okay. So what he ended up doing was he did supply chain but it was more powerful that what he actually did was last mile transportation so for anybody who has heard that terminology, it is the sexiest thing right now inside of the transportation industry if you've seen the blue prime now vans that entire business did not exist at that time that's been a creation of Amazon to create the answer for last mile transportation which is the last mile between where the package reaches the hub and gets to your home now when we use vendors we would overwhelm the system and so we needed to create our own solution which is why you know drones will be a thing of the future but we created that and these are businesses now that people run to deliver this I mean this whole thing so that was the sexy hook the thing that people were like oh this is I lead the horse in the water but what was not attractive is being a former top gun commander, Harvard alumnus, and White House aide to two presidents because they didn't tell me jack diddly about what it is that you do. So what you have to do is have the most powerful message the most powerful narrative and pre frame that is easily digestible by your target audience aka me recruiter looked at million resumes wrote the best selling book if you don't have that you lost okay so if you're wondering what the hell is going wrong, you missed this step okay. And I say that with love Let me help you it's right here well hold on we got it right here go get it I will teach you how to do this stuff okay. Now writing it is a whole other issue Mike's is conveying who you are and what you bring to the table in their hiring manager language ensuring is ensuring you're capturing what they need Yes, what they need, how are you the answer to the problem? People don't hire because it's like you know, it's a really great day in sunny out, I think I should go hire somebody, they, they hire because they have a need, and they have a problem. We're going to talk about all of these things. I can teach you everything about what I've done is reverse engineer how we hire the most elusive talent on the planet. How do you position yourself as such, the first thing starts with pre frame, okay, so we have a headline that goes on your profile and goes on your on your resume. And that's what we call a superpower trifecta. And so the superpower trifecta is the summary of the three skills at the highest level of who you are. The reason why we do this is we're trying to create a trifecta is three things. We're looking to create a triangle Okay, here's why a triangle is if you are and I'll give you my example. So for me, I'm a human resource person who specializes in talent acquisition. Now how special am I? I'm not not yet. Special whatsoever, right? I am here with millions of other people. I'm so generic. There's nothing that's particularly remarkable at least I've got some sort of specific like, like, thing I'm not just here's my list of qualifications at least told you what I have. But I'm not particularly different. This is the commodity market space. If you don't know what I'm talking about head into my profile, you can go back and catch our last live where I talked about being a commodity and being like sugar, granulated sugar on the shelf when you want to be the premium brand. So we don't want to do that. We want to position ourselves such so we're looking to triangulate when we try to find somebody who's lost in the woods when we do we triangulate their position. Same thing goes with your we're trying to triangulate Your job, genius in essence, so I need another skill. So the third skill I introduced into this was personal branding. And if I took that a little bit further, I could be talent acquisition. And I could be lean hiring systems and personal branding. And that would mean that I would be a candidate experience expert, okay. So what I'm looking for is some zone of what it is that you do, and it needs to incorporate where you want to be. So I can also, child qualified people can add a lot of different skills on this trifecta. So what we pick is what gives us energy. What makes us excited and motivated, don't choose crap that you don't like. So I can easily seven and somebody asked about this the other day, they're like OFCCP compliance, I'd also rather rip out my eyeball than do that job. So don't pick crap that you're well qualified for, that does not give you energy, choose things that you really enjoy. But what we're looking for is at the highest level, how do you show up and make it so that somebody is able to understand what you do not so the goal of your headline is on your profile? Okay. So from there, what did we what you found this work, and I know you've got something on your so tell me what you ended up doing. And you brought it out even further, you built out your entire LinkedIn, tell me what your superpower trifecta ended up being? Abby  21:09Well, going into this new career fields, I tried to direct it in that way. So I first said, and I mean, this is probably going to get edited probably like 100 times, I imagine because you know, we're getting stronger as we go, right. But the first level was user experience designer, product designer, which is kind of just the title, overarching title. Raymond, Oh, my God. And then content designer, content writer, which is getting a little more specific into the things that I really love to do, which is, you know, I love to be a product storyteller. So Oh, that's the first time I've heard that. Yeah. So for me, the really exciting thing is, you know, I can I can, I'm just gonna do a little brag, I can take a lot of really complex information and like psychology, and data and everything, and just consolidate it into a really beautiful story, which is compelling, and you want to read about it, you want to use it, you want to try it. So I create products that tell a story, and it engages and connects with people. And it makes me really excited. Anytime I can do that. And I get people excited about what I did for them. And it's something that they needed. It's like light bulb goes off. And it was like, I never know I needed this. And this is amazing. Like, it's so rewarding for me. So yeah, I love to take something cold, like a digital product and turn it into something really warm and inviting, like a story. So Lindsay  22:32I love this. Okay, and so, and that is to say, we started with something completely different yesterday, even right? clarity happens through action. I said that in the last session, clarity happens through action. So I'm going to make you do this. And I'm going to be like, Is that enough? Is that powerful? Does it does it answer a problem? This is the first time where I and I feel so I don't know what Abby's geniuses because she has articulated and to be able to digest it. And so now we're getting clearer, and I'm like, That's powerful. That's powerful. And so what I'm looking for is What is it? What is it that you do and now we're going to get into a little bit deeper here. We're just getting a baseline. But if you had gone and said, Well, I was an because I think he used to say I'm an office manager, right? Yep. Yeah. I know that story sound difference. That's how I was like, I looked at her and I was like, she has so much more. She has so much more power than that. Yeah. And now look at it like do you feel tell me I just the difference of that just from yesterday to today? Do you see the difference?  Abby  23:33I do. And I was I just needed I just need to get in front of someone because I know that if I can. Okay. Lindsay  23:44We tend to do this in a vacuum and then we ask people who actually have never hired anybody, or are our good friends. Abby  23:52Um, so yeah, office manager kind of a boring title right? If I'm gonna be honest, and there was a reason that I took it and I've been very strategic about the positions that I took in this one. I've always liked the company that I worked for I kind of went through several different departments because I was trying to understand how the corporate structure worked. Like how does they're all How do all the players work together and they didn't really understand it. And so I would go from team to team to team and I would learn and then move on to the next one. So for this one, I interacted with every department in the corporate structure and it gave me really amazing exposure to different teams their functionality, expanded my network and like for me, as I've gone along in my career, I tried to take on like bigger and bigger problems every time because as I felt more capable, like I just get really excited like if I can if I can take on something that is just terrifyingly large and like nail it. Oh yeah, that's so good. So um, I love that like I wanted something that was like completely out of my wheelhouse and it would force me to, you know, up my communication levels and up my exposure in the company. People are gonna know who I am because I have to make all these teams really happy in the space that they work in. And that's why I did it. And I did that. And it was great. And now I'm doing something totally, like different in designing that. But I'm in I'm designing digital products now. But I understand how the structure works. And I understand the needs of business. And I can speak to a lot of different groups of people, because I've interacted with a lot of groups of different people, and I understand different needs at different levels of the organization. And so for me, like that experience is so valuable, not only just in retail, but I'm just understanding people and people's needs, really fuels, my passion to create products that are going to help enhance our lives and make things easier, better, faster, right? We don't want to struggle, we want things that are tools that are going to help us do what we love. Lindsay  25:50Okay, so and I'm going to, I'm going to repeat back to what you said to me on Wednesday at 3:50pm. Where I mean, I want you to see it, because that's right, we have people going there's another skill, Abby is a genius. Yes, she is. How do I solve a problem? And here's the thing is that administrative professionals that they tend to get so dang, like, that's not there's a hardest job in the world of hire, by the way, like, have the jobs in the entire world. That is the hardest job. Because there's so much magic that goes inside of that. But we tend to like oh, that's not a really valuable player. It's not in the way you describe it like that, when she talks about it in this way. This is a powerful move. Okay, so she said, I have zero years of experience and no proof of results, because I'm not held a single job doing this kind of work. Now you tell me, that story has evolved. And now Do you believe what you're selling? Abby  26:42I yes. I mean, I know that I know that I can do this job. But I haven't done the job yet. I've only done it in school in theory and practice, right?  Lindsay  26:50Well, no, but you have done a job that is a...you haven't done a job description yet. And that's where things you don't like the whole point of this is people will actually create jobs for you. And they will give you the opportunity to be a product designer and storyteller that creates massive, you know, buy in and conversion and adoption for their customers. That's really what you're ultimately doing. And so when I tell that story, does that make sense of what you're actually doing? Okay, now I'm telling you about something that I would hire for because I've solved the pain. This is a little more advanced stuff. So right now I'm just trying to get you and we don't have to be close to the answer right now we just have to have something to shoot for. Because again, I just need a direction. It can be north, it can be south, but we need something because clarity comes through action. Okay, so that was the first thing. Now I'm saying, Okay, how do we back this up, okay. And so the next thing, what we're doing is creating a value proposition, and I'm gonna describe what the three parts of value proposition is. And if you would like access Hello, right here, just go down to dreamjobhack.com slash Bootcamp, and I will teach you this unit is totally free, okay? All right. So there are three parts your value proposition, when you're a business, a value proposition is about what your end result happens for your customer, your customer, your client, what's the end result of working with your business now I went back and mindset was all about, you're in the business of meeting, you're gonna have to articulate this, you're gonna have to sell the product, which is you, you have to sell your business. So what I'm looking for is three things. The first one is the I am statement, and this is the declaration to the universe that I am this thing. Not hopefully somebody picks me and they can see my worth. And maybe they'll give me a shot, you can say I am this thing that gets these kinds of results for this kind of company. So that's what we're really doing. And that's to make it so that Lindsay recruiter understands what the heck it is that you do. And I don't go okay Harvard alumnus, the former top gun commander and you give me this laundry list of tactical bs that does not increase the bottom line is just a list of job descriptions skills. No, we hire strategy at the highest level we're looking for what's the impact how you become the solution to the pain. And when you become the solution to pain people will do whatever it takes them banging down your door to get the result of hiring you because they know what you can articulate what you can do through that story. So the first thing is I am this. Second is and these are really this is I call it this and it's just stuff. Awesome Thing number one. Awesome Thing number two, okay, you can say I am the world's leading expert in intentional career design. I've helped over 15,000 people now do this in the last four years across 121 countries and six continents. That's awesome thing number one, by the way. Average result for was working with me means in nine weeks, somebody is going to graduate with $52,000 more in salary and 2.1 job offers. I can get you more in the course of nine weeks and your MBA program will cost you or make you in the first two years. Alright, that's hard to find. Now I've said that I have I have said who I am and they and the first thing people do is like Okay, cool. Prove it. Yeah, that's what I awesome thing. Number one. This is called social proof. Awesome Thing number two social proof. Okay, so if you can't articulate what it is that you do, and the result that you have Then you have nothing okay um okay so what let's go to what we had before he or not maybe beforehand because we did this work and what I do is I have you when you work inside my programs I actually spent four years developing this tool to make it Mad Libs style where I'm like input this Abby  30:18so easy just plug in yes Lindsay  30:20there's a word choose a word here's another word and put a number put a level of experience and then give me the experience here and then work on awesome thing number one work on awesome The Thing number two and even without Abby She didn't even see that there was the link for that which I'm so glad she's here because she is using literally she can say now and I'm giving you permission to say you've consulted with a seven figure business and creating a new digital product to crease adoption and success rate for her clients love it and this is let me just tell you what that was is one frickin hyperlink for the most critical thing inside of this entire module but it's not something that I caught or my designers caught she caught it okay it's Abby  31:03something I exactly so she is Lindsay  31:06somebody is going to be so lucky when he comes on board and does this and I if I was gonna be honest she could do this inside of all of my entrepreneur community and start a business right now doing this work she's qualified to do that she doesn't know she's qualified to do that and that's okay thank you by the end of this she's gonna be like I'm such a badass at this point like she I'm starting Abby  31:25there I'm like here I just need to get like here yeah the only Lindsay  31:30me believing enough reason a belief into you so that you do it okay. Randy said recap value proposition I am social proof results yes times do so awesome thing number one and two yes fears equal fellow peers or fellow humans Oh I'm so glad you said that my peers are I will tell you that little story at the end because there's some there's some really big painful stories along this way. Um Okay, so let's go into your value proposition and I want you to go like that's not start from the very beginning Let's start from where you're at today. And now we have your you've told me your story let's talk about what it is and then I'm gonna see how we can make it better okay intensity and you've already gotten the feedback once which identity two or three rounds and sometimes didn't work with me good but most the time you start out with I'm not qualified I don't know how to do this I don't know what I want to be okay Josh and that's why I will actually probably be opening dream job hack this Oh, I think it's gonna be this month so just sign up that way you get in the boot camp and you'll know when I'm going to open the enrollment for that and you can work with me like this is this dream job hack is and it's a program where you can work on your own there's other options to work with me but start there because I want you to get a taste of what I am I'm not for everybody. I'm not for everybody like I'm gonna believe in you and I'm going to love on you like love if you can't tell but there's right here love my highest value. It's a really strange thing in the HR world to say I'm going to love on somebody which is why I don't do that crap anymore. I think it's a love on people I think it's a train like he was doing and to see them as souls or families or heartbeats all those things that I'll tell you a little bit more about why I do what I do at the very end so thank you but to start with that start with the because this is a free resource and attends in those five days people transform their mindset and they understand what's holding them back Okay, so let's go to your value proposition so let's go with the I am statement and there were some things missing last time like the level of professional me years of experience so what do you got and this is where this is the most stressful thing somebody doesn't mean in fact he's willing to publicly is the biggest endorsement I can give of how brave she is. Abby  33:29Do you want me to read the original? Yeah. But okay, the I am statement and you know, we'll see because like, again, I'm glad that I get to soundboard this off of you because it's like I think it makes sense but doesn't make sense to you as somebody who's wrapping my head like Totally, yeah. Cool. So I guess I can I guess I'll read the original one if you want.Okay, go ahead. Let's do the original and then tell me what I said about it to actually afterwards. Yep. Looking at the email right now which is I guess I only went through awesome thing number one I didn't give you an awesome thing number two, so Lindsay  34:05Well, let's Okay, so we're gonna start with anything else time I had the, the least effective example that I can say with somebody came back and said, I'm a team player. And I was like, well, that does nothing and team player actually dings your hire ability by 51%. I didn't just make that up. That's actually a statistical study. So we'll talk about this next week, by the way, next Friday, we're going to talk about we're going to do her resume so she actually looks like what she really is, which is amazing. Okay, good. Abby  34:31Okay, um, alright, so I wrote I am a passionate and Creative Problem Solver who transforms challenges into life enhancing tools for businesses and their customers looking for a more meaningful and rewarding digital experience? That was my statement. Um, apparently there's some detail missing so we're gonna and my my awesome thing number one was I worked with the operational and growth and development teams in a fortune 500 company to introduce and implement a stream Instructure for their 100 annual new store expansion projects contributing to a reduction in scope of 75% in just a few years taking the process from a month long project to only five days saving the company millions of dollars year over year.  Lindsay  35:14So and what did I say on this so when we don't have the true structure because she didn't have the access to the generator so the true structure of the value proposition which is we want to say I am this level of experience well I am and it's just because you guys want to love to throw in adjectives adjective an adjective kind of level of experience with this many more than this many years of experience in doing the downstream effect of what you actually do. Awesome Thing number one awesome thing number two, so I added like here's we're gonna add a little more how many years do we have here? What's the actual impact Okay, and the second thing I came back and I would read Dd you have it in front of you because I there's a lot in there that I said yeah, so Abby  35:55On the first sentence, right I'm a passionate and Creative Problem Solver you switch that over and said maybe we do like design an operational professional since I am now a designer but I was an operations professional before so like kind of combining those things and not saying problem solver is a general term so who transforms challenges and you said like what Yeah, describing what that might be and then into life enhancing tools again like what for me I know what that is, um, you know, and then for businesses and their customers looking for a more meaningful and rewarding digital experience and then you said how do you do this both now and before So again, just adding a little more detail to that because I know what that means but that is a lot of like nice words and doesn't maybe mean anything to anyone else without example.  Lindsay  36:42And you're a storyteller so Abby has a little bit of she has a more strategic vision it's the the thing that drives me crazy is when people come in they're like I'm an admin the immediate bias is that that's not a super value out of job and I was like that's a big fat lie by the way and shout out to our all our admins I'm gonna shout to my own Becky North she's our Director of awesome and she started as my VA I would not be able to run this business without her so they have incredible power if you give them the opportunity. So why I was asking is like what you've actually done is an intersection of operations design and actually really lean processes what she really does she hasn't gotten to that point yet so I'm throwing some stuff out Abby  37:20You know, what's funny is that I couldn't get a job that I wanted because I hadn't gone through six sigma and I was like, but I'm doing everything that they train you to do. Lindsay  37:29And that's the thing is like again you don't need the the buy in you just have to be able to tell the most effective story because I've heard a million stories of people getting jobs from having a drink at a bar or on an airplane and we've hired that person before who's qualified internally because they had a better story and so the story is actually what we're doing what I'm actually teaching you now I haven't told you this Abby is I'm teaching you to believe that you are this thing and be able to articulate it because the thing is not going to be the resume of the LinkedIn it's gonna be the conversation who you are as a person that they're going to buy at the level what we're trying to do okay so when we're trying to hire somebody, I do look at their qualifications but I'm looking at it to just immediately cement the belief have already have from the conversation so everything we do from here port forward is the most important thing Oh yes, the most important language to learn is to speak math and I would say results quantitative results we can talk about that next week speaking it learning it and writing it is tough yeah we were taught to be you know, really fluffy and a lot of things and I mean like what I use I make you feel really good and so you believe enough in order to get your most highest purpose on earth? No, I teach you how to get your dream job with 2.1 job offers $52,000 more in just nine weeks which one matters there is your there is a difference both things are true one will actually get the people to tune in and one won't so that's the most yeah So Mike very very good point. Okay, so Abby, let's go a little bit deeper into it what is where are you at now? So tell me about let's go through what your example is today because this is what I want you to walk away with is this value proposition about 85% firmed up Abby  39:05So I started on the if statement and I don't know if it's better the same but Lindsay  39:10I'll keep going. I mean, you're what you're talking about notice you've gotten clarity just in this conversation?  Yep. And that you know, I'm like so excited to hear you say that it's not about my resume or about applications because like it's like soul sucking I can't I'm so happy that that's not what it's about frankly, like that just a huge relief to me. So I think and you know, I believe in myself most of the time, but I don't know how to articulate it well, which is kind of funny considering I'm a writer. Um, I just can't do that to myself. So yeah, I'm really happy.  Now you can Abby  39:47But I need a little push pointers and I will take it the rest of the way. Okay, so Well, I guess do you want me to go through the awesome thing number one Lindsay  39:58Start with the I'm statement nd what I'm doing is I want to make sure that this makes sense for the trifecta the idea of who we are pre framing ourselves as. Abby  40:07Okay, so how do we instill a little little struggling with this, but we'll see what it comes out of. So I changed it to I'm a passionate and creative design and operational professional who transforms the barriers that prevent us from success into life enhancing digital solutions for businesses and their customers who want an intuitive and effortless, effortless way to accomplish their goals. Lindsay  40:26Okay, so there are some really powerful things and there's some what I call, and just No, I, I absolutely adore you, but I call them America answers. And that's where he goes, what is it that I want my platform to be at? I'm like, World Peace makes me think congeniality, world peace, and so Okay, so I am, I want to hear in there with this many years of experience. So let's go ahead and say over 15 years of experience, and I know that goes from zero to 15. But I'm going to point out what Raymond said, this is so powerful in your mind that I went from making 1350 an hour to six figures over a conversation at lunch. personal connection is so important. In fact, it is the game changer when I teach because if you're going to rely on the old, broken jalopy system of apply and pray, it doesn't work. So how we get we have to get out of that commodity market space and learn to market ourselves as an acid and solution to pain. And what is the Alex said solution to the pain is so powerful? That's right, because if somebody says like, I have invested $150,000, in my own personal development in the last six, four years, not even six years, four years, and let me just tell you, nobody goes around like I am buying into what somebody believe what they can do not based on the list of qualifications on a piece of a document, it's going to be the relationship that really changes that. And so what I'm trying to get you to do is see the value in the relationship is actually the differentiator. So if we play, or we start to value, just like you want to be valued as a human and as a soul, as long as you can articulate that to another human soul who has more influence and authority than you do. That's how we get to those next levels. Okay. Abby  41:56Got it. Hunter. I'm really glad you asked this question. And I hope that we get to it later because I struggle with this as well. Lindsay  42:02And I think it might be actually something we follow up. So Hunter, I hope you tune in next week, because this is going to be something this I'm going to tell you it's not like I'm gonna teach you one thing it's gonna be done. This is going to be a thing that you do for the rest of your life is going to be up leveling your mindset about the impact you make, but you're right, because most times especially, we are the or we have the belief that my team did it. But if you're part of a team, you're part of the result. Okay, so you got to stand in your highest power at the highest level. Okay, go ahead. Abby  42:27Yeah. I mean, I haven't gotten we've gotten that much further only started the awesome thing number one this morning. I like I told you yesterday, I kind of got my day kind of got hijacked. So I didn't get as much work into it as I could. Lindsay  42:39Don't worry, you don't have to you whatever you've done again, you show up exactly as you are we just move forward. So don't worry. Abby  42:44So yeah, just the the first part of the sentence where I said, I worked with the operational growth and development teams, you asked how many people which I was sitting there, I'm like, how many people was that? You know, like I had never quantified that. So I counted up what I thought it might be. And it's probably honestly higher than that. But I think it was about 50. A group over a group of 50 plus cross functional partners is what I did.  Lindsay  43:05So this is where we're going to take that we're going to say if it's do you believe so? 49? Yeah, sure. So over 49, 49 and the reason why is we never lie, because one that energy when we lie, or we tell fibs that comes back to bite you and they'll get you terminated. So what I'm looking for you is the only really knows your result. Because let me just tell you, you struggle to do that. Nobody is going to be able to figure you out this information. So we don't lie because it's bad karma. And second, we'll start with the lowest. So when I say like I've hired 10,343, it's actually like 12,000. But I think a very specific number, because it's more powerful. So just pick one fricking number, okay, Abby  43:40it's totally closer. Like, it could be like a few 100 people like I don't I just don't anyway,  Lindsay  43:46If you go through this every and we're gonna go through so your resume, you're like, it turns out to be even more than that. Yeah, probably is when you think about all the work you've done beforehand. That that is probably higher than that. So don't worry, we're just looking to have one baseline, and then we can up level and upgrade as we go. Okay. Abby  44:03So I haven't gone through the like how much revenue, this is where I'm at right now I'm trying to determine because you wrote, you know, when I added design, so I collaborated with a group of over 49 cross functional partners on the operational growth and development teams in a fortune 500 company to design launch and implement a streamlined structure for their 100 annual new store expansion projects. And here you wrote, how many revenue how much revenue would this? Would these stores contribute to the top line revenue? And how many people would be impacted? I'm working on it. Lindsay  44:37Let me see if I know, how many store are there, at this company.  Abby  44:42Currently about 1200. Okay. What's that? 100 every year? Lindsay  44:49Okay, so 100 every year and how many years? Did you do that? Abby  44:54Five years, four years. Yeah. Kind of four years like... Lindsay  45:00But this is where like it was just this is we want to be so accurate on this. So just remember we're going to talk about it. Okay? So if we talk about Abby  45:14I know, open a store at the time, it's more now but I know it was it was about a million dollars at the time that I was doing it per store Lindsay  45:23There are billions of dollars. So we took the number of stores, this is how we could come up with a number by the way, that's the most accurate we can predict. In 2021. We they made $6.1 billion. Yep, now divide that by 1200. And we'll just say the average for those 100 stores is times 100. Okay, that's one year's worth. Now, do you see how we can easily quantify millions of dollars of impact by the way, I know that you're not going to be that but these stores contributed that and you're part of the team. The whole point, by the way is to cement your authority that what you do makes an impact. We'll talk about how you do that as we go deeper in here, but what we're trying to do is establish your authority. So you don't start with zero experience. Okay? In 2020, it was 7.39 in 2019 is 6.7. Okay, so and you can bring this down. Abby, if that feels like that doesn't feel like I am being really fair. Go ahead and do your own math. But what I'm trying to tell you is that it's millions of dollars. I know that Okay, so I'm always looking for people to make least six figures to millions of dollars impact in that first statement. I'm looking for number of team members, I'm looking at this, and it doesn't matter that you weren't exactly leader. And if you were you say like I helped lead a team that did this, okay, there's a structure between was used i right now, we don't put that in the resume, right. But there's truth of people who use AI and personal pronouns, where they actually use it as an individual. They're higher performers and people who are like, Well, my team did that. And so yes, the reason why we do some of these things. That's a tough switch for me. Programming everything. Abby  46:53I love that we could have like, I love the the collaboration as well, I like I know that I'm a top performer myself, but I also love being able to work with others and, and do something together because they think it's more powerful than what we can accomplish on our own. So I want to give credit there as well. But yeah, I understand right here.  Lindsay  47:09right now, we're not trying to employ the rest of your team, we're just trying to employ you. Okay, so I want you to take a stab at getting a little bit deeper here. And I want you to pick a specific number. If it's like if it's, I'd like you to choose three digits if it's more than 100 team members, like 101. So 11 of us know, I mean, like you said, Oh 100 store. Abby  47:27Oh, yeah, I work with Oh, God. Um, I mean, we were hiring, how many people at each store 40 to 60 have a staff of 40 to 60 people at each store. And I would run that project each time. So yeah, and I mean, millions of dollars of revenue, and possibly like, how many jobs did we create as well? Lindsay  47:48Okay, so and then what you're telling me is you're creating the lean process, or however it is that you want to tell me about that. So now that you say that you believe that what you do matters and that you have already been qualified to do it. And now you're presenting yourself as instead of zero experience and zero qualifications? Yeah, that is the most massive change I've seen, okay. It doesn't matter. You know, the person who's created $3 billion in annual revenue for tech 500, or top tech five company. They still struggle with this question. So it doesn't matter where you're at this, this has been changed. Okay, so that's the first thing. Now I want you to take that same idea and I want you to come up with the awesome thing number two, and this is where we're going to refine this inside of the resume. But do you see the transformation of where you were just two days ago to reprogram and so I'm always telling you to see what's at the highest level so when I tell you people I've hired 10,000 people, what I didn't tell you is that a bunch of those people actually hire the fulfillment centers, which hire two to 5000 people and six we open 30 some of those stores every day so I could go higher so I chose a number that felt more like I'm not responsible for 100,000 hires and say that I said I hired 10,000 people so choose the thing you should have read both is that because I'm I am Red Bull or do something in human form. Yeah, I'm like what is it because I don't give you wings. Why? Tell me about that. Okay, so this is the up level the whole point here. So what you have to do and again, I cannot break this down enough for you right here. So go into dream job hackathon slash boot camp, I will teach you how to do this and you are not going to be automatic. So I want you to abandon that you are going to be automatic, you are going to suck if I'm really honest, okay? And does not matter. I made the chief branding Officer of a very, very big company, nearly cry doing this. And so it is hard to stand your own truth. It's a we tend to the people who let me just give you this feedback. imposters don't have imposter syndrome. I love this. A trait of a high performer is to be feel like an imposter and it's to have been a part of a team and to not take full credit. And this is where I say it's okay to do that. It is really what you do. It's okay to brag. Little it's okay to flex a little. And as long as we don't have noticed I never say like, go ahead and lie. I never say that I say how do we do this at the highest level, if we take that frame than the rest of this woman and make it so simple that somebody cuz it's not the resume again, we've just highlighted you at the highest level we make we obliterate the objections, they have have zero experience and zero qualifications. That is the only change I am trying to make here. So I want you to be at the highest level and believe that you can do this at the true level of who you are. Abby, I'm not telling you anything that you haven't just repeated back to me, I just regurgitate it in a way that makes better sense. Okay. Abby  50:32Yep. And honestly, like, this is, like I told you, I kind of like was cruising through the first part of it. And then it just, like, started to slow down. And I was I was like, oh, man, this is getting. And at this point, I was just like, and you know, and so like, I'm glad that we're having this conversation. And other people get to hear it too. Because for me, and I told you this already, but like lesson learned, I didn't ask for the figures that I should have asked for when I you know, like, how I was at a level that I could have had access to it, but I didn't. It wasn't necessarily like, you know, head of the department, you know, wasn't the VP like with all of the facts and figures for for the company. But like I could have asked and said like, What impact did this have year over year, but I don't have that. And some of the things I'm so frustrated that I lost because when I got laid off, like I was cut off within minutes. Like, I think it was like five minutes and I had no access to anything. So like all of my work, gone like and I didn't have any like kills me know, cuz I'm like, Oh, I know. I know we did something awesome. But I don't know what Lindsay  51:37I'll talk to you about how do you always create a contingency plan but when we get to the place of career power, which is on the success path. Success path says that I have unlimited opportunities coming to me I'm doing it without applying. I'm having ongoing conversations, I've negotiated my salary. The other thing that is the checklist says I have also updated my resume accordingly. So that I am prepared for the next job, the moment the opportunity comes because I'm never gonna be in a place where I am not the person who's in control of my career destiny, that my goal is I have the worst business plan ever. I hope you never need to be again, Abby, I hope you never ever mean me again. Now I'll be here when you do. But I hope you don't I just hope you send me a whole bunch of your friends. Because what I want to do is this is the rest of your life. I'm teaching how to like I used to teach people I used to actually do this work for them. And what I did is I didn't teach people how to fish. I gave them the answer and then they didn't do anything with it. So I had to reprogram and that's why the results became more powerful. So just like I've walked the same path of up leveling what I do, same thing goes for you okay. Okay, so, Abby, how do you feel? I'm gonna tell you about what next steps and then I'm going to ask questions. So what we're doing here is, I'm going to give you the to do, I want you to go back. So bring it back. And if you can get that to me Tuesday since the holiday. Also, by the way, I don't ever want you job searching. So eight days a week, I don't know where the hell this came up is not your full time job to look for a job. Do what I do with you two hours a day, Monday through Friday, if you want to rocket launch what you have, that's the most that I want somebody doing no work. If you ever heard of the preta principle 80% of your results come from 20% of efforts that's only two hours a day and Monday through Friday and then you take off weekends and holidays. Because what matters is not your job but your family. We say that again. It's not your job it's your family now I'm trying to get you to do work that actually fills your soul so it's just as rewarding for you to be there at the during the day to at night and that transition your life feels completely holistically you up level and every every range. That's really what I teach people how to do it. I love it had somebody even this year, and he spent a whole month in Hawaii working virtually for his company was everything simply because we don't have ties to a company loyalty is a really powerful thing that keeps us small. You might know that a little bit here because they'll let you go the moment it doesn't serve them. And you always have to be taking control of your career. So I'm not saying loyalty is a bad thing. I would be brokenhearted. If you believe my company. They do regularly because I teach them how to uplevel their careers. No surprise, they get recruited away. And you and I think that I'm so proud and they send me their people and they actually most likely will actually work with me part time still, because they still want to be a part of this mission. So it's a whole other frame of what I do I preach I practice what I preach, I show you what I am do this Abby  54:17for like company leaders because I swear, like as a as a manager of people like I feel the same way and I feel like it's so rare. You know, so like, like bless you for what you do. Because like I was always so excited when someone on my team could get promoted, or you know, move on or do something that they were really excited about like that, to me is like the biggest success that I could have as a brag and so many times I felt like I was betraying my manager when I took another opportunity like it felt like a breakup and it's so difficult to have those conversations sometimes I'm like why is this so backwards? So I just Lindsay  54:57somebody leadership capability is how much their team up levels. That's true. If we see somebody move forward, I'm in there, I actually I probably will go into this at some point. But I, I do teach company leaders how to do this. In particular, I have a really big vision around destroying traditional human resources. And how do we start to invest in people and see them as true human beings. There's a reason why we've treated people so small. And as just cogs in machines. There's a reason why employees are leaving and why they're so massively unhappy. There's the three reframes, I'll teach you about that, actually, because I think it'll be really powerful. But I am consulting with business on this, because what I want to do is, we've stopped we've worked so hard to protect companies from their own people that we never even allow them to be part of a true part of a team. And so yeah, they of course, they don't have any loyalty. I have somebody right now, I just talked to you. And they're like, they're like, Oh, yeah, they like changed how we did our work, and how, what we can wear and like, they're cross training us. And I said, and you're telling me it's too late, right? And they're like, yeah, it's too late and half is already left. And so there is a way to fix this. But people have missed, they missed the forest from trees. So we'll go through that. Okay. So what I want you to do is that piece, all I immediately come back with is the the trifecta, or the trifecta solidified, and your value proposition will continue to up level and you'll get clarity, you'll continue to change it. Okay, we're going into this next week is your resume, this is going to be the part where I do not care how good your resume is, the whole purpose of it is to be that you believe that you are awesome, not the person across the table. Because if you believe you're awesome, I told you the point is, the resume just solidifies the decision we make within seconds. That's it within seconds. And so if you can do that, in less than 10 seconds, you can make yourself appear as the right qualified candidate. And the rest of the conversation is decided through the interview. And through the interview, we're going to hack that too. Okay. So don't worry about the resume piece. So I'm going to ask you a couple things here. So what? Why does this matter? Okay, so no more fluff in this America answers world peace. Or if your job, your resume looks like it's a would be perfect to hire that person who replaced you, then you have missed the point, what we're not looking for is a list of tasks, we're looking for a list of impacts, we're talking about impact in scope. So we're going to optimize for a few things one format, so in six seconds, can I tell what you actually do? And makes sense? The second is content. Okay, do I show impact and scope? Okay, so what I'm looking for is am I solution to the problem? And then last, we're optimizing it in both how we view it and what will match inside of the box for so the hiring manager says yes, the recruiter says, Yes, the system says yes, we're going to optimize for all those. That's what we're doing. And the whole point here is if you do this at the highest level, guys, you do not use your resume. People graduate from my programs all

J.O.T. #122 I Even though this a #TBT episode, we gotta give it up for all the fathers out there! Hope yall enjoyed ya day -- on this #TBT episode, Jay spoke on how folks need to put respeck on Westbrook's name, Cassidy vs. Hitman Holla, along with the Pound 4 Pound & Righteously Ratchet segments & much more. Tap in with us by following everything J.O.T. on the linktree, below.Like.Share.Subscribe. ► https://linktr.ee/Jumpin_Out_There

J.O.T. #122 I Even though this a #TBT episode, we gotta give it up for all the fathers out there! Hope yall enjoyed ya day -- on this #TBT episode, Jay spoke on how folks need to put respeck on Westbrook's name, Cassidy vs. Hitman Holla, along with the Pound 4 Pound & Righteously Ratchet segments & much more. Tap in with us by following everything J.O.T. on the linktree, below. Like.Share.Subscribe. ► https://linktr.ee/Jumpin_Out_There

Join me as I am prepared to head back to The Promise Land this week, This time it's for a special event The Worlds Largest Casino Chip & Collectibles Show, We were invited to in Las Vegas from listener of the Podcast & Member of the event David, Who helps us understand more of what were about to witness this week at the event. The background how how it all started, to how he even stumbled upon this event for the first time. Some really great Las Vegas stories throughout the interview. How they used to handles casino chips before just tossing them out. So many good Laughs along the way, I Even find out he been listening to the podcast since we started which is even cooler. I even find out how he does Las Vegas & How he likes to spend his free time around town. We will also be right back with a itinerary episode before the trip in a a couple days,  Special THANK YOU to David for coming on & You can follow him on Twitter @gixxer749 ENJOY FOLKS & CHEERS ✌   Follow us on Twitter @VegasConfessPod

Publish Date 3-2-20 “Who are you, Lord my God, and who am I?” One of the stories about St. Francis of Assisi relates how a brother watched the saint in prayer, and heard him pray the words, “Who are you, Lord my God, and who am I?” Even the Saints were needing to find their identity in Christ... the struggle is real and with us still today to be sure. Brittany is off to speak to a conference of young Christian women about this very topic. Britt gives you a snapshot of what she'll be sharing at the conference.

Zach speaks with Kori Hale, CEO of CultureBanx, about CultureBanx itself and her personal career journey. They also discuss the concept of producing content, particularly while other, and Kori offers some great advice for professionals who are afraid to make a jump or do something new in their career.Connect with CultureBanx through their website, Instagram, and Twitter - and check out their content on Spotify!Connect with Kori on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter!TRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? It's Zach with Living Corporate, and we are here again. More fire for your head top, more content, more real discussions with black and brown people or people that affirm the identities and experiences of black and brown people to center--that's right--black and brown people. And today is no different, 'cause, you know, we're coming to y'all with really good conversations, often times with a special guest, and we have such a guest today - Kori Hale. Kori, welcome to the show. How are you doing?Kori: Hi, Zach. I'm great. How are you?Zach: I'm doing really, really well. I appreciate the fact that you were able to take the time to be on the show. For those of us who don't know you, could you talk a little bit about yourself?Kori: Yes, I can, but before I do, I noticed in the opening you said this show is also for people who affirm the identities of black and brown people, and I was wondering if that included Rachel Dolezal. [laughs]Zach: Oh, goodness. You know what? If Rachel wants to--here's the thing about Rachel. I--it's so confusing, 'cause she could have done so much more as an actual white woman and, you know, given and used her privilege as--you know, and given it away. Instead she chose to, I don't know, handicap herself, but then also take a bunch of, like, praise? I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. What do you think? You tell me.Kori: Yeah, I don't know. It is a tough one. However, homegirl can definitely braid some hair based on that Netflix documentary that I saw, 'cause I'm like, "Yo." I mean, normally white people just have less-textured hair, so it's much harder to actually, you know, braid in extensions, and I ain't ever even seen anyone iron some hair like that before. [both laugh] She was teaching me some stuff! So I was like, "Oh, girl, I didn't even know you could do all that."Zach: That's so funny. But you know what? I think this is a really good segue into what you do and your platform, but I'd love to hear more about your journey and kind of--so let's just get it out there. You're the CEO and founder of CultureBanx, which is a media platform for black folks, for black and brown--I'm gonna say black folks, and I'll let you kind of get into it, but let's talk a little bit about your journey and kind of how you got there and then really more about what CultureBanx is.Kori: Yes. So my journey is--well, as I like to say, the path that we're all on in life is not easy, nor is it paved in gold, and that's a lot like my story. I started out as an investment banker, first internationally at a Swiss bank in London, and then I moved back to the States and I was with Goldman Sachs for several years and just really realized, right, that there wasn't anyone that looked like me delivering high-level business financial news in a way that really would resonate with my community, with my core values, and so I was like, you know, "If I can't figure this out, let me maybe try and go work at some of the big networks," specifically business news networks, right, and figure out how can I maybe inject some diversity, because I think that a lot of us, when you work in corporate America, the main thing that you want to do is feel like--and I really actually hate when people use the word "safe places" or "safe space." Like, there's no safe space when you get up and you go to work for somebody else every day, right? Because it's their company. So, like, that doesn't exist, even if they want to create some employee resource group or whatever. Like, the head of the employee resource group still reports to somebody that doesn't look like them, [?] like, up to the CEO of the company. And so I thought I was gonna be able to inject diversity at networks like Bloomberg and CNBC, and even when I was a news anchor down on the floor of the Stock Exchange and actually didn't even know until I was down there that I was the first African-American woman to ever anchor a daily news show from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in its 200+-year history, and I thought, "Well, that's odd." Like, "What's going on here? Why has that never been a thing until I worked at this media startup?" But through that transition of investment banking to then getting into media, what I really realized was that there was no outlet, broadcast, print, or digital, that was gonna deliver the type of content that I was looking for. So if a former investment banker journalist can't create this sort of company for communities that need it the most, then no one else is gonna go out there and do it, and that really brings us more to the present day and CultureBanx, the media company, and what we do is create business news for hip hop culture, and essentially all of our articles have music attached to it that then spins out into different curated Spotify playlists. So it's pretty dope if I do say so myself, because I--Zach: Aye. [laughs]Kori: I mean, it is. I look at music as that sort of underlying theme throughout all communities. It's an easy way to engage, an easy way to see a reflection of yourself, and what if we took that same approach to information and content and not keep pushing just entertainment and sports and celebrity and that sort of stuff to minority communities? Because we think--and by we, the people that are actually even pushing the content towards these communities aren't even from those communities, but they're trying to say, "Oh, this is what they want. This is the only thing they care about," but that's not true. It's just that you're putting it in a, as I like to say, razzle-dazzle sort of way. If you did the same thing but you talked about stocks and mergers and acquisitions, what a difference you might see in those communities.Zach: No, you're absolutely. And I mean, I think the other piece is, like, also acknowledging the work that those communities are already doing, right? So there's more and more black tech spaces that are coming up organically, right? Like, you think about--there's multiple of these types of pods, like, within the coastal cities, the DMV, LA, Oakland, Houston, the Midwest and Chicago. Like, there's all types of just organic things happening. Healthy living co-ops. There's all types of activities that are happening in these--again, like, in these black and brown communities, but there are larger, I think, like--I don't know, just larger narratives and systems in place that minimize those stories. And also there's a lack of funding, right, and marketing awareness for those organizations that are already in place. What I think I hear you talking about is really exciting because you're pushing more content, and then I also believe CultureBanx provides opportunities, or at least opens up a lens to what is actually happening today in those spaces, right?Kori: Yes. We definitely provide people with what we call the culturally-attuned perspective in those spaces. I mean, it's easy to see a headline--to your point--about minority maybe co-working spaces or different companies or organizations, institutions, that are focusing in the STEM fields as it relates to minorities. What we really try to push over at CultureBanx are the everyday stories though. So not just [whatever?] falls in the minority bucket 'cause it mentioned something about the Latinx or Asian or black community, but this story is the headline on all of these platforms, and this is information you need to know, but they're not gonna tell you exactly why it's relevant to your community, why you should personally care about something like that. And Zach, can I go ahead and give your listeners a quick example here?Zach: Come on.Kori: So last year, Michael Kors--the company, the retail brand--bought Versace, a very famous Italian luxury retail brand, for $3 billion. You would think on the surface, "Okay, well, that's interesting I guess, if you're into fashion," or even if you're not into fashion, but no one is telling you why that deal is really a play on urban culture. And the reason that Michael Kors really wants a bigger stake in Versace is because of Versace's long-standing love affair with hip-hop, hip-hop and the community, and hip-hop of course being the #1 genre of music for the past decade.Zach: In the world.Kori: Right. Hip-hop leads these trends, and the majority of hip-hop artists are African-American. We've seen a huge rise, right, with Latinx performers in the hip-hop community as well, but still all in that, you know, minority category, and just that spending power alone of African-Americans is currently at $1.3 trillion, making the spending power of this community larger than the economy of Mexico.Zach: Come on, now. [Flex bomb sfx]Kori: Y'all gotta feel me when I say we have more spending power than the entire country of Mexico just as an African-American community, a subset of the bigger U.S. population, but it's more powerful than entire countries. And so to get in front of that audience, right, is something that most brands want, and no one is gonna talk about that the way we're gonna tell you "This is why this is important," right? This market move by Michael Kors to acquire Versace is much bigger than them trying to perhaps get into more of the luxury business and much bigger than Versace trying to figure out how it can get into more stores. It's like, "Hey, we know their main audience, the people that are spending money." I mean, think of all of the free advertisement that Versace gets in hip hop songs?Zach: Oh, no, 100%. 'Cause part of me--I was talking to my wife about this. I was like, "Dang, I wonder if any of these rappers--like, do they have deals that they don't talk about?" Right? Like, when Migos made that song "Versace," right, like, did they have some secret deal, like, a marketing agreement, and, like, did Drake get a piece of that? 'Cause, like, it's just wild that--like, we do that though. Like, we'll talk about Polo, Versace, Gucci. Like, we love high-end brands. We talk about Pateks. Like, we talk about--anything that's, like, European and very expensive, like, they end up in rap songs, and I just ask myself--and maybe I'm a little bit more conspiratorial than I should be. I'm always thinking about, like, there's just some grander scheme here--like, I just wonder, like, is there some, like, larger agreement that maybe even some of these record labels have with these European brands to then create this content? 'Cause you're absolutely right. Like, we promote it at crazy levels. Like, I wouldn't have wore Polos when I was in middle school like I did if it wasn't for Kanye, and I wouldn't have wore--like, there's just a bunch of clothes that I just wouldn't have purchased without--like, without rap influence, you know what I mean?Kori: No, I completely understand what you're saying. I think that that's what makes this so fascinating and so interesting, that other businesses, industries, sectors, they really value, right, the trendsetting and the taste-makers that come from minority communities moreso than we will value our own, you know, power, and that's the problem, because sometimes I don't think that we really immensely understand the power that we have. So when things are not going right, let's say on the negative side--racism, sexism, those sort of things--like, how valuable withholding your dollars from certain brands can be to move the needle.Zach: Yes, you're absolutely right. And, you know, it's interesting because, you know, these insights that you're having around media production--like, the business insights that you're having and that you're bringing to this space, I mean, I think it comes from your business journey, right? Like, you've had a few different jobs, and you don't really give the impression of someone who's afraid to change. So, like, can we talk a little bit about where you started, and then, you know, what advice you would give to professionals who are wherever they are for whatever reason and they're afraid to make a jump and to do something new? Kori: Yes. I actually really love kind of telling this particular part of my journey, but I'ma take it back a little bit before I actually started working and shout-out my undergrad university, Hampton University, out there in the Hampton Roads area right outside of Virginia Beach. And going to an HBCU is a very great experience, but for me personally, growing up in Houston, Texas, I grew up knowing and being around affluent African-Americans, so that wasn't, like, a stretch for me, to see black people that had real money, not the--you know, the kind of clout money as they say. That wasn't really a stretch for me, but going to Hampton University and really getting a full scope and breadth of black people from across the country, like, that was very eye-opening for me, and what it instilled was really the value of appreciating what we can do as a community and, you know, us being a part of that talented [?] and what that would mean for the future of our community. And after Hampton, when I moved to London and started investment banking at the Swiss bank UBS, I was like, "Huh. Well, this is also odd, because now I'm back in this super minority--" I call it a double-minority status, because I'm not just, like, a black person living abroad--I'm a black person and I'm also an American, so it was just a lot of things to have to work through. But coming back to the States from London and working at Goldman, I kind of got a better sense of the way that corporate America worked, and I wanted--at the time I thought the ultimate goal was to become a partner, right? That's what you kind of train for, that's what you kind of work up--"what you should be," as the company will tell you, should be aspiring towards. [cha-ching sfx] And I'm like, "Okay, so let me sort out this path." And I figured out what that path was about two years after I started at Goldman. I stayed another couple of years, but after those first two years when I figured it out, I also got into the mindset of "Okay, I pretty much know what it's gonna take and how long it's gonna take me to get there." Like, "That can't be the mountaintop," so to speak, because there's got to be more to life than this. And I really just took those next two years where I was at the firm to kind of navigate what I wanted to do. Like, if you would have told me at the time that I started at Goldman that I would one day be running my own media company, like, I would have laughed at you, because I had no aspirations to be in media. I didn't know anything about journalism. Matter of fact, the day I left Goldman Sachs, I did not know one person that worked in media. I'm talking about not even an assistant, even a doorman at a building, security officer at a news room, nothing. Like, I literally knew no one that actually worked in any news corporation, but I felt like God spoke to me when I was at Goldman and said that this is what I should be doing. I just kind of decided to stick with it, and some of the partners that were mentors and sponsors for me, I ran this idea by them, that I, you know, was gonna leave Goldman and go to journalism school and try and become a business news journalist--they were very supportive, and they told me basically, like, you're young--I was around 26 at the time--and if it doesn't work out, you can always come back here. Like, "You can always come back to GS if it doesn't work out," but a lot of them were basically like, "Don't be like us." Like, "Don't buy into," essentially drinking the company corporate Kool-Aid, so to speak, and stay here because you've figured out the path and it seems safe and secure, because you'll always look back and say, "But if I would have given this other thing a shot, even if I failed, at least I would have known I tried." And going back to a respectable organization like GS isn't a terrible fallback plan for anyone. Luckily I haven't had to tap into that fallback plan, but you never know what the future holds. [laughs] So we can always see, but that's kind of how that transition happened.Zach: You know, it's just incredible because--I'll speak for myself, right? Like, you know, I didn't think that I would get here, where I am, in my job, you know? I didn't think that I would be--I didn't think I'd be working here. Like, I remember when I was in high school I said, "I think I want to be a consultant one day," and my high school counselor said, "You're not gonna be a consultant," right? You know? And then after that, before I became a consultant I was trying to pursue a career in HR. I had folks who look like me saying, "You're not gonna be an HR manager," right? So, you know, for me, because of that and not having a lot of people that look like me in these spaces, getting to one of these jobs seemed to be the mountaintop, right? But the reality is that there's more to life than just working for somebody else. And, you know, no shame to anybody who wants--like, who wants to be a career... career person, but there's more than that. You know, how did you navigate some of the--like, the fear and anxiety that came with, like, making that jump? So you came--I'm not gonna get into your pockets, but I would presume, I could be wrong, that perhaps your career at Goldman Sachs gave you a little bit more financial flexibility to, like, make certain moves and take certain risks that other people couldn't take. Is that a wrong assumption, or is that--you know, did any of that come into play in terms of, like--do you feel like, because of your job, you were able to--you had more space to kind of take that leap?Kori: I think my job gave me--and, like, the money I made while I was there, it definitely gave me the flexibility to be able to go to Syracuse's Newhouse School of Communication and figure out, like, "Could I make this journalism career a thing?" I think it definitely gave me that because I had the confidence to know that if, for whatever reason, it didn't work out, I would be able to go back and have, you know, a very good-paying job, but also, like, enough money, for the most part, to help me at least get through, like, the schooling part.Zach: So then--so let's talk a little bit about the concept of producing, right? So you're a content creator. You're a producer. It's a term though that's thrown around quite a bit, right? Especially, like, in today's digital age. What does it really mean in your mind to be a producer in the media space today?Kori: I look at content producers in general as people that are creating new original, authentic shows, articles, media content in general. So not the companies that are aggregators of information. Like, there are a lot of companies out there that are basically just pulling stuff from other people's websites, but they're not actually holistically creating something that was not there before, and that's really a major differentiator in the space, because--to your point about a lot of different, like, black and brown minority-based concepts popping up, you've got to be able to stand out on your own and be creating in a space that no one else is already creating in. I think that we definitely need minority spaces, but we shouldn't divide and conquer, right? We're stronger together. We don't necessarily need 50 different versions of co-working spaces for people of color. I'm not saying that we only need one, but would it make more sense to pool our efforts together in order to create something bigger? Zach: No, you're absolutely right. It's interesting though because it's--like, so kind of going on the co-working space thing and, like, other ideas, one, because, like, our networks--I don't know, our networks are just different, and also, like, because sometimes we come into spaces late, or we--and when I say come into spaces, I mean we don't have the same amount of support to, like, be early adopters in the spaces that we may see our white counterparts do. So, like, we'll come into a space, and we'll come into the space at the same time, and so it looks oversaturated, right? But I actually--like, I don't know. So talk to me more about--so you zoomed in on co-working spaces twice now. Like, talk to me a little bit more about what you're seeing in that space and why--like, what's your point of view on it? 'Cause, like, I think they're really cool. I'm a consultant, so I have a co-working space all of the time because of, like, just the nature of my job. Like, I can just go to any home office, like, through the firm that I work at, but I think that they're a pretty cool idea, and they seem to be used, but, like, I'm not really as plugged in. So, like, I'd be open to you educating me on it.Kori: Yeah. So, I mean, I don't--I have a co-working space as well, but I don't really use it that much, and it's not a co-working space at a place for people of color, but specifically on that front, like, I do know a couple of founders that are trying to launch their own versions of, like, specifically of women of color, others specifically for founders of color in a particular sector, like, that sort of thing. I actually feel like that is a very fragmented marketplace, almost much in the way of The Wing, which is a very popular all-female co-working space that WeWork has actually invested in, and I definitely think there's a space where, you know, women want to be, but one of the main issues with the WeWork is that there are no men allowed, which, if you're a smaller business--which most people that use co-working spaces tend to be--you don't always want to have to go outside of your co-working space for a meeting. And I think that there are other ones that have popped up along the way. Like, there's one for women executives, right, where it's also fragmenting the market, but it's fragmenting the market in a way that makes people feel like they're being part of an elite club, if you know what I mean. Like, "Oh, you have to be at a certain level at whatever your organization is to be invited to be a member here." I think that sort of way of strategically planning out how you roll out different co-working spaces for people of color is a better strategic roadmap to success than just saying, "We're opening up a place for people of color."Zach: What is the--what would you recommend as the approach to, like, unify and desegment that space?Kori: Right. I think the best way to look at it is like, "This is the community that we're trying to get in front of," or that we're trying to help, and really pinpointing "What are the most important things to those people?" And I can actually liken that back to CultureBanx, like, and going into roadmapping out how do you deliver content to this so-called new woke generation in a way that they can actually identify with and see a reflection of themselves and their community with? And when you think of co-working spaces, like, what is it that's most important to the community of potential co-working clients and users that makes the most sense? And back to CultureBanx, for us it was everything that tends to be pushed that does really well in front of minority audiences has something to do around entertainment, music, celebrity. So it's how do we bring that to what we do so that it doesn't seem like it's such a far off leap for people to be interested?Zach: So then what does it look like--you know, let's talk about, like, the professional who--maybe they're not looking to start their own company, they're not looking to--they're just trying to survive at their job, right? Let's talk about, like, the concept of producing and, like, bringing these--and, like, the principles that you're talking about with CultureBanx, and how do you think those principles can be applied to a black and brown professional at work? Because ultimately there seems to be a certain level of purposefulness and intentionality. That's the better word. A certain level of intentionality and strategy that it comes to really producing effectively and really kind of managing brand. Do you think any of that could be effectively leveraged, utilized, for folks in their 9-to-5 jobs? Kori: Yes, but I think it always starts with figuring out--like, knowing your end goal and working backwards. So as I mentioned earlier, when I thought my end goal was to become a partner at Goldman, it was "Okay, well, I want to become a partner. I'm only a senior analyst now." Like, "Let's scale back from partner and work our way backwards and see what it takes to get there," to your point, like, your own self brand management at work every day. And funny enough, this is something that a lot of people don't know about me, I actually left Goldman about two months after I got promoted, which is--but I had already been--but this is when I talk about the planning. I had already been planning, like, my strategic, like, exit. As you all know, I'm sure, that are listening right now, you know, you apply to a school, you have to wait to get in, that sort of thing. You know, take the tests or whatever tests you need to be admitted to these universities. So, like, I had already been strategically planning that, but I had also still been working on that plan of "If I do stay and try to navigate my way to someday becoming partner--" I was still working that plan too and, you know, just came to that crossroads of "Huh, do I--" Even after I got promoted I almost decided that I was gonna stay and not even pursue this whole journalism path. I'm like, "Oh, this happened sooner than expected." So, you know, I was on the high-performing track as they call it at some companies, the fast track to moving up. Like, there was no real reason for me to want to leave other than I felt like my life's purpose and calling was greater than what I was currently doing. And when you are constantly in this strategic mode of planning out "What does it look like in my 9-to-5 every day to be able to push to the next level?" Everything about what you do has to be very heavily managed, as a person of color especially, and I know that in corporate America people try to heavily, like, push this whole concept of mentorship and sponsorship. I will tell you I'm not a huge fan of mentors, and every time I say that people will, like, give me their pushback, which is fine. You're entitled to your own opinion. But especially in corporate America, sponsorship is significantly more powerful than mentors, because mentors, they can also be sponsors, but you know how much more effective it is if you come to somebody with a game plan already and say, "Would you be willing to help me navigate executing this plan or this strategy?" As opposed to going to a mentor and being like, "You know, I'm really trying to figure out what role I want," or "I'm moving to the next department and thinking through--" Like, show up with some skin in the game already. Like, "I've already done X, Y, and Z, and it would be great if you could help facilitate." Now, obviously most people don't want to--I shouldn't say they don't want to. Most people want to feel like they're imparting their wisdom and knowledge on you, but if you're in a position where you can make that person look good by helping them or by them getting you to the next level, that only sets you up for more success.Zach: No, you're absolutely right. I also do think that there's a certain level--I don't know. I'm not trying to, like, pathologize nobody, and I'm not a psychologist, [but] I do believe that there is a meta-narrative of, like, non-minorities paternalistically trying to tell black and brown folks what to do, and they kind of revel in, you know, putting people in their place or just raising them in some way. [laughs] So I 100% agree with you. I think a lot of that stuff is often, like, self-aggrandizing and ego-centric. To your point around--like, I think it's more about the relationships you can build and what value you can directly say that you helped somebody else with to help them be successful. That's the way that I've seen people really climb up, right? It's not necessarily being like, "Oh, this person pulls me aside and gives me things to work on, and that's how I got promoted so fast." That's not really the case, 'cause you and I both have seen folks, you know, in an industry who have no business being in the position that they're in, and yet, you know, they're there, you know?Kori: Yeah. I mean, I think we all see that in this country, starting at the very top at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.Zach: Oh, wait a minute. Hold on now. [and i oop sfx]Kori: Not getting deeply into politics, but just saying, like it or hate it, if you agree with his politics or not--'cause people could say the same thing about 44, President Obama. Like him or hate him, you could argue one way or another and say maybe he didn't deserve--purely based on a resume, not basing on anything else. Purely basing it on so-called skills and qualifications for the role, you could make a case that he wasn't necessarily qualified, and it could be justified. You could make the same case for the current president, that he is not qualified for some of the same on the opposite end of the spectrum. I look at Barack and I say--excuse me, let me put some respect on that man's name. I look at President Obama--Zach: Come on, now.Kori: [laughs] And say that--it would be easier for people to say, you know, he doesn't actually have any business experience. He hasn't been serving in public office for any lengthy amount of time. Like, things that you would call into question for someone who would be taking the office of president. And on the other end of the spectrum you have president Trump, and you can say, "Yeah, he's run some corporations." They, on the outside, seem successful, but as we all know, when you dig in there are lots of question marks and, you know, missing documents, but you would say, "But he's never served in public office. What does he know about actually serving people essentially that aren't, you know, paying customers in that way?" Outside of the taxes that we pay. And you would question whether or not that someone is fit for that position. So yes, to your point, we all find that. "Why is this person in this position?" Well, most of the time it comes down to a likability factor. It doesn't come down to skill sets. And that's really my point, is that it's proven at the highest level. Like, something that my mom would always say to my older brother Kenan and I--primarily it started when we were in college--she would tell us, "You can either network or not work." Like, you going into work every day and doing your job that you're hired for, that's only 50% of your job. The other 50% needs to be you networking with people, because you don't know where your next opportunity is gonna come from, and your next opportunity, the likelihood that it comes from what you're doing sitting at your desk every day is very slim. It mostly comes from that person that you got coffee with once every two or three months.Zach: And I think this is the--so I don't know. I feel like you and I should actually have, like, another conversation. This isn't, like--you know, we don't typically do, like, in-depth conversations about different points of view on, like, whiteness or just, like, privilege, but, like, I'm curious to get your point of view on, like, even that. Like, that right there, the idea that you're building relationships off of the people that you're getting coffee with. Like, there are barriers to making sure that you even get that coffee, you know what I mean? Like, there are certain people that get invited to get coffee and then some people who don't, right? And then there's--and then as you even get to, like, the executive levels, you know, so many sales relationships are built on historical relationship equity that black and brown people just don't have 'cause they haven't been in these spaces. And so, like, I'm curious as to, like, your point of view on what does it look like--when you talk about relationships, when you talk about, like, navigating--and we kind of strayed away from the concept of producing, but I still think we're there. Like, what does it look like to use those tools to then, like, create those connections as much as you can?Kori: Yeah, getting invited to coffee versus, you know, kind of pushing your way in, I think that as a minority myself and other minorities especially working in corporate America need to take that ownership of organizing, of basically being like, "I'm gonna set up this sort of coffee situation." And I can give you all an example of my own personal story. So I worked at a media startup called Cheddar before I launched CultureBanx, and I actually knew the founder of Cheddar for a year or so before he ever even launched that company because he used to be the president of BuzzFeed, and then after that he was the CEO of The Daily Mail, and I knew him because I would book him as a guest to come on this show I used to produce for called Squawk Alley on CNBC. [owww sfx] And I used to just, you know, book him, and you kind of just build relationships, right, from being a producer, with different people, and that is essentially how I got that next role. So it had nothing to do with the fact of what I got up and went into work to do every day. Zach: Right. And again, what I continue to hear is just the willingness to put yourself out there. It's just so interesting, because, like, with non-whiteness I believe comes a certain level of unfamiliarity, right? So, like, you have the--if you don't look like somebody, even if--so let's just say there's two white people, right? They may have completely different backgrounds. Like, they may have completely different religious, socio-economic, even, like, cultural backgrounds, but that, like--the benefit of looking like somebody, there's certain grace that's given and space that's made to, like, more easily build relationships, where as if you're a person of color, like, what I'm hearing a lot--even though you're not saying it explicitly, Kori--is, like, you had to put yourself out there. You had to be enterprising. You had to connect the dots. You had to be much more strategic and intentional with your time and with, like, even how you present yourself and the things that you're doing and what you offer, right? Like, you had to really come--you had to really be thinking of a position of value creation, and that's great for you. Like, you're clearly a beast, right? Like, you've been--you've made moves moves, but what does it look like for--like, teaching that to somebody who isn't wired that way. Right? That could be challenging.Kori: It definitely is, and I am in no way a master of teaching it to other people. I know I have personal friends that say, "Kori, you're really great at public speaking," or "You're really great at going in and selling yourself or whatever it is that you're doing to other people." This is what I will say - it's a learned skill. Like, I didn't come out of the womb, like, doing this. There's definitely certain personality traits that are more akin to being able to just pick up these sort of things and these sort of characteristics, but it's a learned skill day in and day out, and it can start very basic. Going back to the coffee thing. Like, getting comfortable--which I know this is overused--with the uncomfortable, with making yourself uncomfortable. And if you're not the type who's gonna send a random email--which I love when people say to me, "Well, I mean, what am I gonna say?" I'm like--to your point about it kind of being a bit narcissistic with mentorship and that, people do love to talk about themselves. So just put it out there that, "Hey, you know, I'd like to talk to you. I'd like to learn more about what you do." And make it more about them. Normally, like, if you're in a relationship and you break up with somebody, you give them the "It's not you, it's me" speech. In business, give them the "It's not about me, it's all about you" speech. Like, when you send the email, like, "Hey, this whole thing is about you," right, "'cause you're so great, you're so fantastic. I just want to know about what you're doing." As a way to soften the introduction or the awkwardness that you think lies there, because you might not really know someone, even though that's something that you eventually might want to do or an area that you might want to move into. You have to do more, because you didn't go to boarding school with So-and-so, you know what I mean? You probably didn't go to all of the right Ivys, and even black people that have gone to Ivys, like--Zach: Listen, I've heard. Yeah, I've heard the experiences are different.Kori: Yeah. Like, if you didn't grow up in that world, like, you're still not necessarily accepted. So I think it's just you have to put yourself out there because they're not gonna know to contact you. Like, your parents, you know what I'm saying, y'all don't go sell off, you know, Martha's vineyard [?]. You didn't grow up going to summer camp for two months after you left boarding school, so basically you only saw your parents on holidays, and you're not even in college. You're only in the seventh grade. Zach: Right. You didn't go to Vermont to make artisanal pickles, you know what I'm saying?Kori: No, you didn't do any of that. So they already have 10--and that's just, like, at your level. Now you've got to think about how connected these parents are. Like, you're fighting a major uphill battle, and you can't go in every day and say, "I'm heads down. I'm gonna do a great job," which is something that they try to preach to you, right? Like, "Just go in. Work hard. Excel at your role." Like, "That's how you're gonna see opportunities."Zach: That's not true. Like--[laughs]Kori: You know why you're not gonna see any opportunities? Because your head is down at your desk or on the computer screen.Zach: And meanwhile we're upset. We're over here like [what more do you want from me? sfx] You know? It's just like--we're doing everything we can. So I 100% hear you and I agree with you, right? And not that I need to agree with you - this is a space of open ideas, you know? So diversity of thought is not real, but we do appreciate diversity of thought as it pertains or intersects with lived experiences of black and brown folks. So this has been super cool. Look, we've talked about CultureBanx, we've talked around CultureBanx. One thing we haven't done is talk about where people can learn more about CultureBanx, so please drop the info in here. We'll make sure to put it in the podcast notes and everything, but please let us know.Kori: Yes. Check us out at CultureBanx.com. You can find all of the content on our website. Sign up for our newsletter, daily newsletter, bringing you the latest, greatest, most important business news for the culture, as we say, every single day. You can also listen to the CultureBanx daily news briefing on any smart speaker device and also on Spotify. Everything is @CultureBanx on social media. Luckily we got in. There's no other company called CultureBanx, so it's the same--Zach: Aye. People underestimate how powerful that is. If you have the only name and you've got the domains--'cause let me tell you something. I've got--no, keep going. I'm messing your plug up. Keep going.Kori: [laughs] No, you're not, but it is important. Like, everything is literally just @CultureBanx. With an X, people. Don't forget.Zach: Please say the X, you know what I'm saying? Hold on. [Flex bomb sfx, both laugh] Oh, my goodness. Well, look, this has been super dope, and, you know, we just really appreciate you. Before we let you go, any parting words or shout-outs?Kori: Parting words? I think the main parting words I would have is something that we say on our show, which is just keep building for the culture. Zach: Come on, now.Kori: We gotta do it for each other.Zach: [straight up sfx] You're absolutely right. Now, look, this has been a dope conversation. Thank you all for listening to the Living Corporate podcast. Now, look, y'all know--I wasn't trying to mess up Kori's plug, but y'all know we got all the Living Corporates, okay? We got livingcorporate.co, livingcorporate.org, livingcorporate.net, livingcorporate.us. We don't have livingcorporate.com. We have living-corporate--please say the dash--dot com, but we don't have livingcorporate.com. Australia has livingcorporate.com. Believe it or not, Kori, Australia, and they're selling corporate stuff. But see, the SEO looking kind of brolic out here, 'cause now when you type in Living Corporate--they used to be at the top. Now they're like, you know, in 8th or 9th. You know what I'm saying? Like, we applying pressure, you feel me? One day the brand will be brolic enough where we're gonna go to Australia and we will politely, respectfully, yank that domain right on back, and we're gonna have all the livingcorporates, and we're gonna just sit on a mountain of domains, you know what I'm saying?Kori: Which is not a bad idea. I'm actually helping out this other startup that's trying to modernize central banks, and the name of the company--which I won't throw out there right now--is so generic, and the person, the founder, has been using, like, different versions of the name of the company to try and set up, you know, different social accounts, and they have--even the website's name is not what she calls the actual name of the company, and I'm like, "This is too confusing. Like, people don't know where to go."Zach: 100%. People be having, like, the dopest ideas and be like, "Oh, we're gonna launch Bread.com." Like, yo, fam, you gotta figure out something else. Like--Kori: Right. You had to launch Bread.com when the internet first started. Like, the late '80s, mid-to-late '80s. Like, that's when you needed to launch that, but at this point no.Zach: Straight up. Man, this is funny. This is, like, the first, like, interrupted outro we've done, but it's really good. I like it, and we might have to start doing this moving forward. All right, y'all. Look, you can check us out. We're everywhere. In fact, just Google Living Corporate at this point. That's right. Stunt. That's right. Lowkey flex, but it's an honest flex. So Google Living Corporate. We out here. If you have questions you want to email us, check us out at LivingCorporatePodcast@gmail.com. Hit us up on the DMs. Twitter is @LivingCorp_Pod, Instagram is @LivingCorporate, and until next time, this has been Zach, and you have been talking to Kori Hale, CEO and founder of CultureBanx. Peace.

In my first episode of Whipsnap, I talk about movies, DJ Khaled, taking a piss, and much more (I EVEN talk about water) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

It's Thursday and today is my wife Bobbie's birthday!!! I EVEN remembered to buy her a present! We visit with Mark Eischen, take your calls for Group therapy Thursday and chat with our professional therapists from CNY Marriage & Family Therapy Place, and blow out more concert tickets! It's all ON DEMAND, powered by Empower Federal Credit Union! 00:00 - Muggy Thursday 02:06 - Update 04:31 - Throwing out the first pitch 07:25 - Name That Tune 09:41 - Update 12:04 - Hollywood Highlights 1 17:15 - Update 20:49 - Malarkey 24:20 - Kings of Leon giveaway 26:21 - Update 29:30 - Mark Eischen 37:50 - Group Therapy Thursday 50:13 - Update 53:42 - Goo Goo for Goo Goo Dolls 55:27 - Hollywood Highlights 2 58:10 - Clothes Mentor giveaway/Coming up Friday/BYE!!!

我的语言只有我爱你 此刻在你面前 你摸摸我的心跳 它骗不了人 听丹麦 克里斯托弗温柔的唱 Heartbeat - Christopher 3D：ZEM It's like a song 那心跳声就像一首歌 That no one hears 而其他人是听不见的 I'm screaming out 我大声尖叫 But you're not here 但你却不在这 All I wanna do 我只想 All I wanna do 我只想 Is say I love you 对你说声我爱你 All I wanna do 我只想 All I wanna do 我只想 Is say I care 对你说我在乎你 Words don't work 语言也难以表达 Feeling like they have no worth 感觉说再多话也没用 Here and now 此时此地 There's nothing in between 没什么阻挡着我们 How could I 我又该怎么 Ever describe the way I feel 向你形容下我的感受 Why should I 明明已经很明显了 Even try when obviously 为何我还是想去试试 All the words that I say 我说过的话 Seems to get in my way 好像都在帮倒忙 Only wish I could 我只能默默许愿 Say it with a heartbeat 跟随自己的心跳说话 Say it with a 跟随自己的心跳说话 It's like a stage 就像你在没有观众的 Without a crowd 舞台上表演一样 My best performance 这可是我最棒的一次演出 But no ones proud 但没人为我骄傲 All I wanna do 我只想 All I wanna do 我只想 Is say I love you 对你说声我爱你 All I wanna do 我只想 All I wanna do 我只想 Is say I care 对你说我在乎你 Words don't work 语言也难以表达 Feeling like they have no worth 感觉说再多话也没用 Here and now 此时此地 There's nothing in between 没什么阻挡着我们 How could I 我又该怎么 Ever describe the way I feel 向你形容下我的感受 Why should I 明明已经很明显了 Even try when obviously 为何我还是想去试试 All the words that I say 我说过的话 Seems to get in my way 好像都在帮倒忙 Only wish I could 我只能默默许愿 Say it with a heartbeat 跟随自己的心跳说话 Say it with a 跟随自己的心跳说话 Say it with a heartbeat 跟随自己的心跳说话 Say it with a heartbeat 跟随自己的心跳说话