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Brad and Tyler discuss the latest from pro wrestling and pop culture in this jam-packed episode. First, they share who won the WrestleMania contract signing between CM Punk, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. The guys also trade takeaways from recent storyline developments involving Iyo Sky, Jey Uso, and John Cena. Later, they recap one of their favorite AEW Collision episodes of the year before previewing this weekend's AEW Dynasty pay-per-view. Swerve Strickland can become a two-time champ, FTR may turn on Cope, and it could be Megan Bayne's time to run the women's division. Tune in and hear who the guys predict will win.Other topics include:Steph Watch: A History-Making NXT Performance'The Bachelor' Finale: Litia, Promises, and What's NextTrap Tales: The Basketball FightFollow the show and our sponsors!Social: @gipod19 Web: gimmickinfringementpod.com, 19mediagroup.comGoods: https://19-media-group.myspreadshop.comPrizePicks: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS0:00 Intro14:43 WWE — Main Event Worthiness and Contract Signing Winners35:27 A Rose from Tyler — You're the One, But it's Over42:53 AEW — Rated FTR's Future and Ladies of Collison1:02:15 Trap Tales — Malice at the Glendale Palace1:17:07 What We Missed1:20:35 Closing

Tyler and I spoke about view quakes from fiction, Proust, Bleak House, the uses of fiction for economists, the problems with historical fiction, about about drama in interviews, which classics are less read, why Jane Austen is so interesting today, Patrick Collison, Lord of the Rings… but mostly we talked about Shakespeare. We talked about Shakespeare as a thinker, how Romeo doesn't love Juliet, Girard, the development of individualism, the importance and interest of the seventeenth century, Trump and Shakespeare's fools, why Julius Cesar is over rated, the most under rated Shakespeare play, prejudice in The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare as an economic thinker. We covered a lot of ground and it was interesting for me throughout. Here are some excerpts. Full transcript below.Henry Some of the people around Trump now, they're trying to do DOGE and deregulation and other things. Are there Shakespearean lessons that they should be bearing in mind? Should we send them to see the Henriad before they get started?Tyler Send them to read the Henriad before they get started. The complicated nature of power: that the king never has the power that he needs to claim he does is quite significant. The ways in which power cannot be delegated, Shakespeare is extremely wise on. And yes, the DOGE people absolutely need to learn those lessons.Henry The other thing I'd take from the Henriad is time moves way quicker than anyone thinks it does. Even the people who are trying to move quite quickly in the play, they get taken over very rapidly by just changing-Tyler Yes. Once things start, it's like, oh my goodness, they just keep on running and no one's really in control. And that's a Shakespearean point as well.And.Henry Let's say we read Shakespeare in a modern English version, how much are we getting?Tyler It'll be terrible. It'll be a negative. It will poison your brain. So this, to me, will be highly unfortunate. Better to learn German and read the Schlegel than to read someone turning Shakespeare into current English. The only people who could do it maybe would be like the Trinidadians, who still have a marvelous English, and it would be a completely different work. But at least it might be something you could be proud of.Transcript (prepared by AI)Henry Today, I am talking to Tyler Cowen, the economist, blogger, columnist, and author. Tyler works at George Mason University. He writes Marginal Revolution. He is a columnist at Bloomberg, and he has written books like In Praise of Commercial Culture and The Age of the Infovore. We are going to talk about literature and Shakespeare. Tyler, welcome.Tyler Good to chat with you, Henry.Henry So have you ever had a view quake from reading fiction?Tyler Reading fiction has an impact on you that accumulates over time. It's not the same as reading economics or philosophy, where there's a single, discrete idea that changes how you view the world. So I think reading the great classics in its entirety has been a view quake for me. But it's not that you wake up one morning and say, oh, I turned to page 74 in Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, and now I realize that, dot, dot, dot. That's a yes and a no for an answer.Henry So you've never read Bleak House and thought, actually, I do see things slightly differently about Victorian London or the history of the –?Tyler Well, that's not a view quake. Certainly, that happens all the time, right? Slightly differently how you see Victorian London. But your overall vision of the world, maybe fiction is one of the three or four most important inputs. And again, I think it's more about the entirety of it and the diversity of perspectives. I think reading Proust maybe had the single biggest impact on me of any single work of fiction if I had to select one. And then when I was younger, science fiction had a quite significant impact on me. But I don't think it was the fictional side of science fiction that mattered, if that makes sense to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the models embodied in the stories, like, oh, the three laws of robotics. Well, I thought, well, what should those laws be like? I thought about that a good deal. So that would be another part of the qualified answer.Henry And what was it with Proust? The idea that people only care about what other people think or sexuality or consciousness?Tyler The richness of the internal life, the importance of both expectation and memory, the evanescence of actual events, a sense of humor.Henry It showed you just how significant these things are.Tyler And how deeply they can be felt and expressed. That's right. And there were specific pages early on in Swan's Way where it just hit me. So that's what I would say. Bleak House, I don't think, changed my views at all. It's one of my three or four favorite novels. I think it's one of the great, great, greats, as you have written yourself. But the notion that, well, the law is highly complex and reality is murky and there are all these deep mysteries, that all felt very familiar to me. And I had already read some number of newer sort of pseudo-Victorian novels that maybe do those themes in a more superficial way, but they introduce those themes to you. So you read Bleak House and you just say, well, I've imbibed this already, but here's the much better version of it.Henry One of the things I got from Bleak House, which it took me a couple of reads to get to, was how comfortable Dickens was with being quite a rational critic of the legal system and quite a credulous believer in spontaneous combustion and other things.Tyler Did Dickens actually believe in spontaneous combustion or is that a plot device? Like Gene Roddenberry doesn't actually believe in the transporter or didn't, as far as weHenry know. No, I think he believed. Yeah. Yeah. He defends it in the preface. Yeah.Tyler So it's not so confusing that there's not going to be a single behavioral model that captures deviations from rationality. So you end up thinking you ought to travel more, you ought to take in a lot of diverse different sources about our human beings behave, including from sociology, from anthropology. That makes it harder to be an economist, I would say it scatters your attention. You probably end up with a richer understanding of reality, but I'm not sure it's good for your research. It's probably bad for it.Henry It's not a good career move.Tyler It's not good for focus, but focus maybe can be a bit overrated.Henry Why are you more interested in fiction than other sort of people of a broadly rational disposition?Tyler Well, I might challenge the view that I'm of a broadly rational disposition. It's possible that all humans are roughly equally irrational, madmen aside, but if you mean the rationality community as one finds it in San Francisco, I think they're very mono in their approach to reasoning and that tends to limit the interests of many of them, not all, in fiction and travel. People are regional thinkers and in that region, San Francisco, there is incredible talent. It's maybe the most talented place in the world, but there's not the same kind of diversity of talents that you would find in London or New York and that somehow spreads to the broader ethos and it doesn't get people interested in fiction or for that matter, the visual arts very much.Henry But even in London, if I meet someone who's an economist or has an economics degree or whatever, the odds that they've read Bleak House or something are just so small.Tyler Bleak House is not that well read anymore, but I think an economist in London is likely to be much more well read than an economist in the Bay Area. That would be my prediction. You would know better than I would.Henry How important has imaginative literature been to you relative to other significant writers like philosophers or theoretical economists or something?Tyler Well, I'm not sure what you mean by imaginative literature. I think when I was 17, I read Olaf Stapleton, a great British author and Hegelian philosopher, and he was the first and first man and star maker, and that had a significant impact on me. Just how many visions you could put into a single book and have at least most of them cohere and make sense and inspire. That's one of the most imaginative works I've ever read, but people mean different things by that term.Henry How objectively can we talk about art?Tyler I think that becomes a discussion about words rather than about art. I would say I believe in the objective when it comes to aesthetics, but simply because we have no real choice not to. People actually, to some extent, trust their aesthetic judgments, so why not admit that you do and then fight about them? Trying to interject some form of extreme relativism, I think it's just playing a game. It's not really useful. Now, is art truly objective in the final metaphysical sense, in the final theory of the universe? I'm not sure that question has an answer or is even well-formulated, but I would just say let's just be objectivists when it comes to art. Why not?Henry What is wrong with historical fiction?Tyler Most of it bores me. For instance, I don't love Hilary Mantel and many very intelligent people think it's wonderful. I would just rather read the history. It feels like an in-between thing to me. It's not quite history. It's not quite fiction. I don't like biopics either when I go to the cinema. Yeah, I think you can build your own combination of extremes from history and fiction and get something better.Henry You don't have any historical fiction that you like, Penelope Fitzgerald, Tolstoy?Tyler Any is a strong word. I don't consider Tolstoy historical fiction. There's a historical element in it, as there is with say Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate or actually Dickens for that matter, but it's not driven by the history. I think it's driven by the characters and the story. Grossman comes somewhat closer to being historical fiction, but even there, I wouldn't say that it is.Henry It was written so close to the events though, right?Tyler Sure. It's about how people deal with things and what humanity means in extreme circumstances and the situations. I mean, while they're more than just a trapping, I never feel one is plodding through what happened in the Battle of Stalingrad when I read Grossman, say.Henry Yeah. Are there diminishing returns to reading fiction or what are the diminishing returns?Tyler It depends what you're doing in life. There's diminishing returns to most things in the sense that what you imbibe from your teen years through, say, your 30s will have a bigger impact on you than most of what you do later. I think that's very, very hard to avoid, unless you're an extreme late bloomer, to borrow a concept from you. As you get older, rereading gets better, I would say much better. You learn there are more things you want to read and you fill in the nooks and crannies of your understanding. That's highly rewarding in a way where what you read when you were 23 could not have been. I'm okay with that bargain. I wouldn't say it's diminishing returns. I would say it's altering returns. I think also when you're in very strange historical periods, reading fiction is more valuable. During the Obama years, it felt to me that reading fiction was somewhat less interesting. During what you might call the Trump years, and many other strange things are going on with AI, people trying to strive for immortality, reading fiction is much more valuable because it's more limited what nonfiction can tell you or teach you. I think right now we're in a time where the returns to reading more fiction are rapidly rising in a good way. I'm not saying it's good for the world, but it's good for reading fiction.Henry Do you cluster read your fiction?Tyler Sometimes, but not in general. If I'm cluster reading my fiction, it might be because I'm cluster reading my nonfiction and the fiction is an accompaniment to that. Say, Soviet Russia, I did some reading when I was prepping for Stephen Kotkin and for Russ Roberts and Vasili Grossman, but I don't, when it comes to fiction per se, cluster read it. No, I don't think you need to.Henry You're not going to do like, I'm reading Bleak House, so I'll do three other 1852 novels or three other Dickens novels or something like that.Tyler I don't do it, but I suspect it's counterproductive. The other Dickens novels will bore you more and they'll seem worse, is my intuition. I think the question is how you sequence works of very, very high quality. Say you just finished Bleak House, what do you pick up next? It should be a work of nonfiction, but I think you've got to wait a while or maybe something quite different, sort of in a way not different, like a detective story or something that won't challenge what has been cemented into your mind from Bleak House.Henry Has there been a decline of reading the classics?Tyler What I observe is a big superstar effect. I think a few authors, such as Jane Austen and Shakespeare, are more popular. I'm not completely sure they're more read, but they're more focal and more vivid. There are more adaptations of them. Maybe people ask GPT about them more. Really quite a few other works are much less read than would have been the case, say as recently as the 1970s or 1980s. My guess is, on the whole, the great works of fiction are much less read, but a few of them achieve this oversized reputation.Henry Why do you think that is?Tyler Attention is more scarce, perhaps, and social clustering effects are stronger through the internet. That would just be a guess.Henry It's not that we're all much more Jane Austen than we used to be?Tyler No, if anything, the contrary. Maybe because we're less Jane Austen, it's more interesting, because in, say, a Jane Austen novel, there will be sources of romantic tension not available to us through contemporary TV shows. The question, why don't they just sleep together, well, there's a potential answer in a Jane Austen story. In the Israeli TV show, Srugim, which is about modern Orthodox Jews, there's also an answer, but in most Hollywood TV, there's no answer. They're just going to sleep together, and it can become very boring quite rapidly.Henry Here's a reader question. Why is the market for classics so good, but nobody reads them? I think what they're saying is a lot of people aren't actually reading Shakespeare, but they still agree he's the best, so how can that be?Tyler A lot of that is just social conformity bias, but I see more and more people, and I mean intellectuals here, challenging the quality of Shakespeare. On the internet, every possible opinion will be expressed, is one way to put it. I think the market for classics is highly efficient in the following sense, that if you asked, say, GPT or Claude, which are the most important classics to read, that literally everything listed would be a great book. You could have it select 500 works, and every one of them would really be very good and interesting. If you look at Harold Bloom's list at the back of the Western canon, I think really just about every one of those is quite worthwhile, and that we got to that point is, to me, one of the great achievements of the contemporary world, and it's somewhat under-praised, because you go back in earlier points of time, and I think it's much less efficient, the market for criticism, if you would call it that.Henry Someone was WhatsAppping me the other day that GPT's list of 50 best English poets was just awful, and I said, well, you're using GPT4, o1 gives you the right list.Tyler Yeah, and o1 Pro may give you a slightly better list yet, or maybe the prompt has to be better, but it's interesting to me how many people, they love to attack literary criticism as the greatest of all villains, oh, they're all frustrated writers, they're all post-modernists, they're all extreme left-wingers. All those things might even be true to some extent, but the system as a whole, I would say completely has delivered, and especially people on the political and intellectual right, they often don't realize that. Just any work you want to read, if you put in a wee bit of time and go to a shelf of a good academic library, you can read fantastic criticism of it that will make your understanding of the work much better.Henry I used to believe, when I was young, I did sort of believe that the whole thing, oh, the Western canon's dying and everyone's given up on it, and I'm just so amazed now that the opposite has happened. It's very, very strong.Tyler I'm not sure how strong it is. I agree its force in discourse is strong, so something like, well, how often is it mentioned in my group chats? That's strongly rising, and that delights me, but that's a little different from it being strong, and I'm not sure how strong it is.Henry In an interview about your book Talent, you said this, “just get people talking about drama. I feel you learn a lot. It's not something they can prepare for. They can't really fake it. If they don't understand the topic, you can just switch to something else.”Tyler Yeah, that's great advice. You see how they think about how people relate to each other. It doesn't have to be fiction. I ask people a lot about Star Wars, Star Trek, whatever it is they might know that I have some familiarity with. Who makes the best decisions in Star Wars? Who gives the best advice? Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke, Darth Vader, the Emperor?Henry It's a tough question.Tyler Yeah, yeah.Henry I don't know Star Wars, so I couldn't even answer that.Tyler You understand that you can't fake it. You can't prepare for it. It does show how the person thinks about advice and also drama.Henry Right. Now, you're a Shakespeare fan.Tyler Well, fan is maybe an understatement. He's better. He deserves better than fans.Henry How much of time, how much of your life have you spent reading and watching this work?Tyler I would say most of the plays from, say, like 1598 or 99 and after, I've read four to five times on average, some a bit more, some like maybe only three times. There's quite a few I've only read once and didn't like. Those typically are the earlier ones. When it comes to watching Shakespeare, I have to confess, I don't and can't understand it, so I'm really not able to watch it either on the stage or in a movie and profit from it. I think I partially have an auditory processing disorder that if I hear Shakespeare, you know, say at Folger in DC, I just literally cannot understand the words. It's like listening to Estonian, so I've gone some number of times. I cannot enjoy what you would call classic Shakespeare movies like Kenneth Branagh, Henry V, which gets great reviews, intelligent people love it. It doesn't click for me at all. I can't understand what's going on. The amount of time I've put into listening to it, watching it is very low and it will stay low. The only Shakespeare movies I like are the weird ones like Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight or Baz Luhrmann's Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I think they're fantastic, but they're not obsessed with reciting the text.Henry So, you're reading with notes and you're piecing it together as you go.Tyler I feel the versions in my head are better than anything I see on the screen also, so that's another reason. I just think they're to be read. I fully understand that's not how Shakespeare seemed to view them, but that's a way in which we readers, in a funny way, can improve on Shakespeare's time.Henry No, I agree with you. The thing I get the most pushback about with Shakespeare is when I say that he was a great thinker.Tyler He's maybe the best thinker.Henry Right. But tell us what you mean by that.Tyler I don't feel I can articulate it. It's a bit like when o3 Pro gives you an answer so good you don't quite appreciate it yourself. Shakespeare is like o7 Pro or something. But the best of the plays seem to communicate the entirety of human existence in a way that I feel I can barely comprehend and I find in very, very little else. Even looking at other very great works such as Bleak House, I don't find it. Not all of the plays. There's very, very good plays that don't do that. Just say Macbeth and Othello. I don't feel do that at all. Not a complaint, but something like Hamlet or King Lear or Tempest or some of the comedies. It's just somehow all laid out there and all inside it at the same time. I don't know any other way of putting it.Henry A lot of people think that Shakespeare is overrated. We only read him because it's a status game. We've internalized these snobbish values. We see this stated a lot. What's your response to these people?Tyler Well, I feel sorry for them. But look, there's plenty of things I can't understand. I just told you if I go to see the plays, I'm completely lost. I know the fault is mine, so to speak. I don't blame Shakespeare or the production, at least not necessarily. Those are people who are in a similar position, but somehow don't have enough metarationality to realize the fault is on them. I think that's sad. But there's other great stuff they can do and probably they're doing it. That's fine.Henry Should everyone read Shakespeare at school?Tyler If you say everyone, I resist. But it certainly should be in the curriculum. But the real question is who can teach it? But yeah, it's better than not doing it. When I was in high school, we did Taming of the Shrew, which I actually don't like very much, and it put me off a bit. We did Macbeth, which is a much better play. But in a way, it's easy to teach. Macbeth, to me, is like a perfect two-minute punk rock song. It does something. It delivers. But it's not the Shakespeare that puts everything on the table, and the plot is easy to follow. You can imagine even a mediocre teacher leading students through it. It's to me still a little underwhelming if that's what we teach them. Then finally, my last year, we did Hamlet, and I'm like, whoa, okay, now I get it. Probably we do it wrong in a lot of cases, would be my guess. What's wrong with the Taming of the Shrew? It's a lot of yelling and screaming and ordinary. To me, it's not that witty. There's different views, like is it offensive to women, offensive to men? That's not my main worry. But those questions, I feel, also don't help the play, and I just don't think Shakespeare was fully mature when he wrote it. What was the year on that? Do you know offhand?Henry It's very early.Tyler It's very early. Very early, yeah. So if you look at the other plays that surround it, they're also not as top works. So why should we expect that one to be?Henry What can arts funding learn from the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres?Tyler Current arts funding? I don't think that much. I think the situation right now is so different, and what we should do so depends on the country, the state, the province, the region. Elizabethan times do show that market support at art can be truly wonderful. We have plenty of that today. But if you're just, say, appointed to be chair of the NEA and you've got to make decisions, I'm not sure how knowing about Elizabethan theatre would help you in any direct way.Henry What do you think of the idea that the long history of arts funding is a move away from a small group, an individual patronage where taste was very important, towards a kind of institutional patronage, which became much more bureaucratic? And so one reason why we keep arguing about arts funding now is that a lot of it exhibits bad taste because the committee has to sort of agree on various things. And if we could reallocate somewhat towards individual patronage, we'd do better.Tyler I would agree with the latter two-thirds of that. How you describe earlier arts funding I think is more complicated than what you said. A lot of it is just people doing things voluntarily at zero pecuniary cost, like singing songs, songs around the campfire, or hymns in church, rather than it being part of a patronage model. But I think it's way overly bureaucratized. The early National Endowment for the Arts in the 1960s just let smart people make decisions with a minimum of fuss. And of course we should go back to that. Of course we won't. We send half the money to the state's arts agencies, which can be mediocre or just interested in economic development and a new arts center, as opposed to actually stimulating creativity per se. More over time is spent on staff. There are all these pressures from Congress, things you can't fund. It's just become far less effective, even though it spends somewhat more money. So that's a problem in many, many countries.Henry What Shakespeare critics do you like reading?Tyler For all his flaws, I still think Harold Bloom is worthwhile. I know he's gotten worse and worse as a critic and as a Shakespeare critic. Especially if you're younger, you need to put aside the Harold Bloom you might think you know and just go to some earlier Bloom. Those short little books he edited, where for a given Shakespeare play he'll collect maybe a dozen essays and write eight or ten pages at the front, those are wonderful. But Bradley, William Hazlitt, the two Goddard volumes, older works, I think are excellent. But again, if you just go, if you can, to a university library, go to the part on the shelf where there's criticism on a particular play and just pull down five to ten titles and don't even select for them and just bring those home. I think you'll learn a lot.Henry So you don't like The Invention of the Human by Bloom?Tyler Its peaks are very good, but there's a lot in it that's embarrassing. I definitely recommend it, but you need to recommend it with the caveat that a lot of it is over the top or bad. It doesn't bother me. But if someone professional or academic tells me they're totally put off by the book, I don't try to talk them out of that impression. I just figure they're a bit hopelessly stuck on judging works by their worst qualities.Henry In 2018, you wrote this, “Shakespeare, by the way, is Girard's most important precursor. Also throw in the New Testament, Hobbes, Tocqueville, and maybe Montaigne.” Tell us what you mean by that.Tyler That was pretty good for me to have written that. Well, in Shakespeare, you have rivalrous behavior. You have mimetic desire. You have the importance of twinning. There's ritual sacrifice in so many of the plays, including the political ones. Girard's title, Violence and the Sacred, also comes from Shakespeare. As you well know, the best Gerard book, Theater of Envy, is fully about Shakespeare. All of Girard is drenched with Shakespeare.Henry I actually only find Girard persuasive on Shakespeare. The further I get away from that, the more I'm like, this is super overstated. I just don't think this is how humans ... I think this is too mono-explanation of humans. When I read the Shakespeare book, I think, wow, I never understood Midsummer Night's Dream until I read Girard.Tyler I think it's a bit like Harold Bloom. There's plenty in Girard you can point to as over the top. I think also for understanding Christianity, he has something quite unique and special and mostly correct. Then on other topics, it's anthropologically very questionable, but still quite stimulating. I would defend it on that basis, as I would Harold Girard.Henry No, I like Gerard, but I feel like the Shakespeare book gets less attention than the others.Tyler That's right. It's the best one and it's also the soundest one. It's the truly essential one.Henry How important was Shakespeare in the development of individualism?Tyler Probably not at all, is my sense. Others know more about the history than I do, but if I think of 17th century England, where some strands of individualist thought come from, well, part of it is coming from the French Huguenots and not from Shakespeare. A lot of it is coming from the Bible and not from Shakespeare. The levelers, John Locke, some of that is coming from English common law and not from Shakespeare. Then there's the ancient world. I don't quite see a strong connection to Shakespeare, but I'd love it if you could talk me into one.Henry My feeling is that the 1570s are the time when diaries begin to become personal records rather than professional records. What you get is a kind of Puritan self-examination. They'll write down, I said this, I did this, and then in the margin they'll put, come back and look at this and make sure you don't do this again. This new process of overhearing yourself is a central part of what Shakespeare's doing in his drawing. I think this is the thing that Bloom gets right, is that as you go through the plays in order, you see the very strong development of the idea that a stock character or someone who's drawing on a tradition of stock characters will suddenly say, oh, I just heard myself say that I'm a villain. Am I a villain? I'm sort of a villain. Maybe I'm not a villain. He develops this great art of self-referential self-development. I think that's one of the reasons why Shakespeare became so important to being a well-educated English person, is that you couldn't really get that in imaginative literature.Tyler I agree with all that, but I'm not sure the 17th century would have been all that different without Shakespeare, in literary terms, yes, but it seemed to me the currents of individualism were well underway. Other forces sweeping down from Europe, from the further north, competition across nations requiring individualism as a way of getting more wealth, the beginnings of economic thought which became individualistic and gave people a different kind of individualistic way of viewing the world. It seems so over-determined. Causally, I wouldn't ascribe much of a role to Shakespeare, but I agree with every sentence you said and what you said.Henry Sure, but you don't think the role of imaginative literature is somehow a fundamental transmission mechanism for all of this?Tyler Well, the Bible, I think, was quite fundamental as literature, not just as theology. So I would claim that, but keep in mind the publication and folio history of Shakespeare, which you probably know better than I do, it's not always well-known at every point in time by everyone.Henry I think it's always well-known by the English.Tyler I don't know, but I don't think it's dominant in the way that, say, Pilgrim's Progress was dominant for a long time.Henry Sure, sure, sure. And you wouldn't then, what would you say about later on, that modern European liberalism is basically the culture of novel reading and that we live in a society that's shaped by that? Do you have the same thing, like it's not causal?Tyler I don't know. That's a tricky question. The true 19th century novel I think of as somewhat historicist, often nationalist, slightly collectivist, certainly not Marxist, but in some ways illiberal. And so many of the truly great novel writers were not so liberal. And the real liberal novels, like Mancini's The Betrothed, which I quite enjoy, but it's somewhat of a slight work, right? And it might be a slight work because it is happy and liberal and open-minded. There's something about the greatest of creators, they tend to be pessimistic or a bit nasty or there's some John Lennon in them, there's Jonathan Swift, Swift, it's complicated. In some ways he's illiberal, but he's considered a Tory and in many ways he's quite an extreme reactionary. And the great age of the novel I don't think of is so closely tied to liberalism.Henry One of the arguments that gets made is like, you only end up with modern European liberalism through a culture where people are just spending a lot of time reading novels and imagining what it is like to be someone else, seeing from multiple different perspectives. And therefore it's less about what is the quote unquote message of the story and more about the habitual practice of thinking pluralistically.Tyler I think I would be much more inclined to ascribe that to reading newspapers and pamphlets than novels. I think of novels as modestly reactionary in their net impact, at least in the 19th century. I think another case in point, not just Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, one of the great novelists, had bad politics, right, was through Germany in the first world war. So if you look at the very greatest novels, there's something a bit problematic about many of their creators. They're not Nazis, they're not Stalinists, but they're not where I'm at either.Henry Now in 2017, a lot of people were complaining about Donald Trump as Julius Caesar and there was some farce about a production, I think it was put on in New York or DC maybe. And you said, no, no, no, he's not Caesar. He's more like a Shakespearean fool because he's the truth teller. What do you think of that view now?Tyler That was a Bloomberg column I wrote, I think in 2017. And I think that's held up quite well. So there's many criticisms of Trump that he's some kind of fascist. I don't think those have held up very well. He is a remarkable orator, coiner of phrase, coiner of insults, teller of truths, combined with a lot of nonsense and just nonsense talk, like the Covfefe tweet or whatever it was. And there's something tragic about Trump that he may well fail even by his own standards. He has a phenomenal sense of humor. I think people have realized that more and more. The fact that his popularity has persisted has forced a lot of people to reexamine just Trump as an individual and to see what a truly unique talent he is, whether you like him as your president or not. And that, I think, is all Shakespearean.Henry Some of the people around Trump now, they're trying to do DOGE and deregulation and other things. Are there Shakespearean lessons that they should be bearing in mind? Should we send them to see the Henriad before they get started?Tyler Send them to read the Henriad before they get started. The complicated nature of power: that the king never has the power that he needs to claim he does is quite significant. The ways in which power cannot be delegated, Shakespeare is extremely wise on. And yes, the DOGE people absolutely need to learn those lessons.Henry The other thing I'd take from the Henriad is time moves way quicker than anyone thinks it does. Even the people who are trying to move quite quickly in the play, they get taken over very rapidly by just changing-Tyler Yes. Once things start, it's like, oh my goodness, they just keep on running and no one's really in control. And that's a Shakespearean point as well.Henry Yeah. Here's another quote from the Bloomberg column, “given Shakespeare's brilliance in dramatizing the irrational, one of my biggest fears is that Shakespeare is indeed still a thinker for our times.” Has that come more true in recent years?Tyler I think more true. So from my point of view, the world is getting weirder in some very good ways and in some very bad ways. The arbitrary exercise of power has become more thinkable. You see this from Putin. We may see it from China. In the Middle East, it's happened as well. So the notion also that rulers can be their own worst enemies or human beings can be their own worst enemies. I think we see more when the world is volatile than when the world is stable, almost definitionally.Henry You once said Julius Caesar was an overrated play. Tell us why.Tyler You know, I read it again after I wrote that and it went up in my eyes. But I suppose I still think it's a bit overrated by people who love it. It's one of these mono plays like Macbeth or Othello. It does one thing very, very well. I think the mystical elements in it I had underappreciated on earlier readings and the complexity of the characters I had underappreciated. So I feel I was a little harsh on it. But I just wouldn't put it in the underrated category. Julius Caesar is such a well-known historical figure. It's so easy for that play to become focal. And Brutus and, you know, the stabbing, the betrayal, it's a little too easy for it to become famous. And I guess that's why I think within the world of Shakespeare fans, it still might be a little overrated.Henry It's written at a similar time to Hamlet and Twelfth Night, and I think it gets caught up in the idea that this was a great pivotal moment for Shakespeare. But actually I agree, over the years I've come to think it's really just not the equal of the other plays it's surrounded by.Tyler Yeah, that's still my view. Absolutely. Not the equal of those two, certainly.Henry What is the most underrated play?Tyler I'm not sure how they're all rated. So I used to think Winter's Tale, clearly. But I've heard so many people say it's the most underrated, including you, I think. I don't know if I can believe that anymore. So I think I have to go with The Henriad, because to me that's the greatest thing Shakespeare ever did. And I don't think it's commonly recognized as such. I mean, Hamlet or King Lear would typically be nominated. And those are top, top, top, top. But I'll still go with The Henriad.Henry You are saying Henriad above Hamlet, above Lear, above Twelfth Night.Tyler Maybe it's not fair because you have multiple plays, right? What if, you know, there were three Hamlets? Maybe that would be better. But still, if I have to pick, no one of The Henriad comes close to Hamlet. But if you can consider it as a whole in the evolution of the story, for me it's a clear winner. And it's what I've learned the most from. And a problem with Hamlet, not Shakespeare's fault, but Hamlet became so popular you hear lesser versions of themes and ideas from Hamlet your whole life. It's a bit like seeing Mondrian on the shopping bag. That does not happen, really, with The Henriad. So that has hurt Hamlet, but without meaning it's, you know, a lesser play. King Lear, you have less of that. It's so bleak and tragic. It's harder to put on the shopping bag, so to speak. In that sense, King Lear has held up a bit better than Hamlet has.Henry Why do you admire The Winter's Tale so much? What do you like about it?Tyler There's some mysterious sense of beauty in it that even in other Shakespearean plays I don't feel. And a sense of miracle and wonder, also betrayal and how that is mixed in with the miracle and wonder. Somehow he makes it work. It's quite an unlikely play. And the jealousy and the charge of infidelity I take much more seriously than other readers of the play do. I don't think you can say there's a Straussian reading where she clearly fooled around on the king. But he's not just crazy, either. And there are plenty of hints that something might have happened. It's still probably better to infer it didn't happen. But it's a more ambiguous play than it is typically read as.Henry Yes, someone said to me, ask if he thinks Hermione has an affair. And you're saying maybe.Tyler Again, in a prediction market, I'll bet no, but we're supposed to wonder. We're not supposed to just think the king is crazy.Henry I know you don't like to see it, but my view is that because we believe in this sudden jealousy theory, it's often not staged very well. And that's one reason why it's less popular than it ought to be.Tyler I've only seen it once. I suspect that was true. I saw it, in fact, last year. And the second half of the play was just awful. The first half, you could question. But it was a painful experience. It was just offensively stupid. One of the great regrets of my life is I did not drive up to New York City to see Bergman present his version of Winter's Tale in Swedish. And I'm quite sure that would have been magnificent and that he would have understood it very deeply and very well. That was just stupid of me. This was, I think, in the early 90s. I forget exactly when.Henry I think that's right. And there's a theater library where if you want to go and sit in the archive, you can see it.Tyler I will do that at some point. Part of my worry is I don't believe their promise. I know you can read that promise on the internet, but when you actually try to find the person who can track it down for you and give you access, I have my doubts. If I knew I could do it, I would have done it by now.Henry I'll give you the email because I think I actually found that person. Does Romeo actually love Juliet?Tyler Of course not. It's a play about perversion and obsession and family obligation and rebellion. And there's no love between the two at all. And if you read it with that in mind, once you see that, you can't unsee it. So that's an underrated play. People think, oh, star-crossed teen romance, tragic ending, boo-hoo. That's a terrible reading. It's just a superficial work of art if that's what you think it is.Henry I agree with you, but there are eminent Shakespeare professors who take that opinion.Tyler Well maybe we're smarter than they are. Maybe we know more about other things. You shouldn't let yourself be intimidated by critics. They're highly useful. We shouldn't trash them. We shouldn't think they're all crummy left-wing post-modernists. But at the end of the day, I don't think you should defer to them that much either.Henry Sure. So you're saying Juliet doesn't love Romeo?Tyler Neither loves the other.Henry Okay. Because my reading is that Romeo has a very strong death drive or dark side or whatever.Tyler That's the strong motive in the play is the death drive, yeah.Henry And what that means is that it's not his tragedy, it's her tragedy. She actually is an innocent young girl. Okay, maybe she doesn't love him, it's a crush or it's whatever, but she actually is swept up in the idea of this handsome stranger. She can get out of her family. She's super rebellious. There's that wonderful scene where she plays all sweetness and light to her nurse and then she says, I'm just lying to you all and I'm going to get out of here. Whereas he actually is, he doesn't have any romantic feeling for her. He's really quite a sinister guy.Tyler Those are good points. I fully agree. I still would interpret that as she not loving him, but I think those are all good insights.Henry You've never seen it staged in this way? You've never seen any one?Tyler The best staging is that Baz Luhrmann movie I mentioned, which has an intense set of references to Haitian voodoo in Romeo and Juliet when you watch the movie. The death drive is quite clear. That's the best staging I know of, but I've never seen it on the stage ever. I've seen the Zeffirelli movie, I think another film instance of it, but no, it's the Haitian voodoo version that I like.Henry He makes it seem like they love each other, right?Tyler In a teenage way. I don't feel that he gets it right, but I feel he creates a convincing universe through which the play usefully can be viewed.Henry The Mercutio death, I think, is never going to be better than in that film. What do you like about Antonin Cleopatra?Tyler It's been a long time since I've read that. What a strong character she is. The sway people can exercise over each other. The lines are very good. It's not a top Shakespeare favorite of mine, but again, if anyone else had done it, you would just say this is one of the greatest plays ever, and it is.Henry I think it's going to be much more of a play for our times because many people in the Trump administration are going to have that. They're torn between Rome and Egypt, as it were, and the personal conflicts are going to start getting serious for them, if you like.Tyler There's no better writer or thinker on personal conflict than Shakespeare, right?Henry Yes. Now, you do like Measure for Measure, but you're less keen on All's Well That Ends Well. Is that right?Tyler I love Measure for Measure. To me, it's still somewhat underrated. I think it's risen in status. All's Well That Ends Well, I suspect you need to be good at listening to Shakespeare, which as I've already said, I'm not. It's probably much better than I realize it is for that reason. I'm not sure on the printed page it works all that well.Henry Yeah. That's right. I think it's one of the most important plays. Why? Because I think there are two or three basic factors about Shakespeare's drama, which is like the story could often branch off in different directions. You often get the sense that he could swerve into a different genre. The point Samuel Johnson made about whenever someone's running off to the tavern, someone else is being buried, right? And a lot of the time he comes again and again to the same types of situations, the same types of characters, the same types of family set up. And he ends the plays in different ways and he makes it fall out differently. And I think Helena is very representative of a lot of these facets. Everyone thinks she's dead, but she's not dead. Sometimes it looks like it's going badly for her when actually it's going well. No one in the play ever really has an honest insight into her motives. And there comes a point, I think, when just the overall message of Shakespeare's work collectively is things go very wrong very quickly. And if you can get to some sort of happy ending, you should take it. You should be pragmatic and say, OK, this isn't the perfect marriage. This isn't the perfect king. But you know what? We could be in a civil war. Everyone could be dead. All's well that ends well. That's good advice. Let's take it.Tyler I should reread it. Number one in my reread pile right now is Richard II, which I haven't read in a long time. And there's a new biography out about Richard II. And I'm going to read the play and the biography more or less in conjunction. And there's a filming of Richard II that I probably won't enjoy, but I'll try. And I'm just going to do that all together, probably sometime over this break. But I'll have all's well that ends well is next on my reread list. You should always have a Shakespeare to reread list, right?Henry Always. Oh, of course. Is Shakespeare a good economic thinker?Tyler Well, he's a great thinker. I would say he's better than a good economic thinker. He understands the motive of money, but it's never just the motive of money. And Shakespeare lowers the status of economic thinking, I would say, overall, in a good way. He's better than us.Henry What are your thoughts on The Merchant of Venice?Tyler Quite underrated. People have trouble with it because it is very plausibly anti-Semitic. And everyone has to preface any praise they give it with some kind of disavowal or whatever. The way I read the play, which could be wrong, but it's actually more anti-anti-Semitic than it is anti-Semitic. So the real cruel mean people are those who torment the Jew. I'm not saying Shakespeare was not in some ways prejudiced against Jews and maybe other groups, but actually reading it properly should make people more tolerant, not because they're reacting against Shakespeare's anti-Semitism, but because the proper message of the play understood at a deeper level is toleration.Henry You teach a law and literature class, I think.Tyler Well, I did for 20 years, but I don't anymore.Henry Did you teach Merchant of Venice?Tyler I taught it two or three times, yes.Henry How did your students react to it?Tyler Whenever I taught them Shakespeare, which was actually not that much, they always liked it, but they didn't love it. And there's some version of Shakespeare you see on the screen when it's a decent but not great filmed adaptation where there's the mechanics of the plot and you're held in suspense and then there's an ending. And I found many of them read Shakespeare in those terms and they quite enjoyed it, but somehow they didn't get it. And I think that was true for Merchant of Venice as well. I didn't feel people got hung up on the anti-Semitism point. They could put that aside and just treat it as a play, but still I didn't feel that people got it.Henry Should we read Shakespeare in translation?Tyler Well, many people have to. I've read some of the Schlegel translations. I think they're amazing. My wife, Natasha, who grew up in the Soviet Union, tells me there are very good Russian language translations, which I certainly believe her. The Schlegels are different works. They're more German romantic, as you might expect, but that's fine, especially if you know the original. My guess is there are some other very good translations. So in that qualified way, the translations, a few of them can be quite valuable. I worry that at some point we'll all need to read it in some sort of translation, as Chaucer is mostly already true for Chaucer. You probably don't have to read Chaucer in translation, but I do.Henry I feel like I shouldn't read it in translation, I think.Tyler But you do, right? Or you don't?Henry No, I read the original. I make myself do the original.Tyler I just can't understand the original well enough.Henry But I put the time in when I was young, and I think you retain a sense of it. Do you think, though, if we read, let's say we read Shakespeare in a modern English version, how much are we getting?Tyler It'll be terrible. It'll be a negative. It will poison your brain. So this, to me, will be highly unfortunate. Better to learn German and read the Schlegel than to read someone turning Shakespeare into current English. The only people who could do it maybe would be like the Trinidadians, who still have a marvelous English, and it would be a completely different work. But at least it might be something you could be proud of.Henry I'd like to read some of that. That would be quite an exciting project.Tyler Maybe it's been done. I don't know. But just an Americanized Hollywood version, like, no, that's just a negative. It's destructive.Henry Now, you're very interested in the 17th century, which I think is when we first get steady economic growth, East India Company, England is settling in America.Tyler Political parties. Some notion of the rule of law. A certain theory of property rights. Very explicit individualism. Social contract theories. You get Hobbes, Isaac Newton, calculus. We could go on. Some people would say, well, Westphalia, you get the modern nation state. That to me is a vaguer date to pin that on. But again, it's a claim you can make of a phenomenal century. People aren't that interested in it anymore, I think.Henry How does Shakespeare fit into this picture?Tyler Well, if you think of the years, if you think of the best ones, they start, like what, 1598, 1599. And then by 1600, they're almost all just wonderful. He's a herald. I don't think he's that causal. But he's a sign, the first totally clear sign that all the pieces have fallen into place. And we know the 17th century gave us our greatest thinker. And in terms of birth, not composition, it gave us our greatest composer, Bach.Henry So we can't have Shakespeare without all of this economic and philosophic and political activity. He's sort of, those things are necessary conditions for what he's doing.Tyler He needed the 16th century, and there's some very good recent books on how important the 16th century was for the 17th century. So I think more and more, as I read more, I'll come to see the roots of the 17th and the 16th century. And Shakespeare is reflecting that by bridging the two.Henry What are the recent books that you recommend about the 16th century?Tyler Oh, I forget the title, but there's this book about Elizabethan England, came out maybe three or four years ago, written by a woman. And it just talks about markets and commerce and creativity, surging during that time. In a way, obvious points, but she put them together better than anyone else had. And there's this other new German book about the 16th century. It's in my best of the year list that I put up on Marginal Revolution, and I forget the exact title, but I've been reading that slowly. And that's very good. So I expect to make further intellectual moves in that direction.Henry Was Shakespeare anti-woke?Tyler I don't know what that means in his context. He certainly understands the real truths are deeper, but to pin the word anti on him is to make him smaller. And like Harold Bloom, I will refuse to do that.Henry You don't see some sense in which ... A lot of people have compared wokeness to the Reformation, right? I mean, it's a kind of weak comparison.Tyler Yes, but only some strands of it. You wouldn't say Luther was woke, right?Henry But you don't see some way in which Shakespeare is, not in an anti way, in a complicated way, but like a reaction against some of these forces in the way that Swift would be a reaction against certain forces in his time.Tyler Well I'm not even sure what Shakespeare's religion was. Some people claim he was Catholic. To me that's plausible, but I don't know of any clear evidence. He does not strike me as very religious. He might be a lapsed Catholic if I had to say. I think he simply was always concerned with trying to view and present things in a deeper manner and there were so many forces he could have been reacting against with that one. I don't know exactly what it was in the England of his time that specifically he was reacting against. If someone says, oh, it was the strand of Protestant thought, I would say fine, it might have been that. A la Peter Thiel, couldn't you say it's over determined and name 47 other different things as well?Henry Now, if you were talking to rationalists, effective altruists, people from Silicon Valley, all these kinds of groups, would you say to them, you should read Shakespeare, you should read fiction, or would you just say, you're doing great, don't worry that you're missing out on this?Tyler Well, I'm a little reluctant to just tell people you should do X. I think what I've tried to do is to be an example of doing X and hope that example is somewhat contagious. Other people are contagious on me, as for instance, you have been. That's what I like to do. Now, it's a question, if someone needs a particular contagion, does that mean it's high marginal value or does it mean, in some sense, they're immue from the bug and you can't actually get them interested? It can go either way. Am I glad that Peter Singer has specialized in being Peter Singer, even though I disagree with much of it? I would say yes. Peter had his own homecoming. As far as I know, it was not Shakespearean, but when he wrote that book about the history of Vienna and his own family background, that was in a sense Peter doing his version of turning Shakespearean. It was a good book and it deepened his thought, but at the end of the day, I also see he's still Peter Singer, so I don't know. I think the Shakespearean perspective itself militates a bit against telling people they should read Shakespeare.Henry Sure. Patrick Collison today has tweeted about, I think, 10 of the great novels that he read this year. It's a big, long tweet with all of his novels.Tyler Yeah, it's wonderful.Henry Yeah, it's great. At the end, he basically says the reason to read them is just that they're great. Appreciation of excellence is a good thing for its own sake. You're not going to wrench a utilitarian benefit out of this stuff. Is that basically your view?Tyler I fully agree with that, but he might slightly be underrating the utilitarian benefits. If you read a particular thing, whatever it is, it's a good way of matching with other people who will deepen you. If it's Shakespeare, or if it's science fiction, or if it's economics, I think there's this big practical benefit from the better matching. I think, actually, Patrick himself, over time in his life, he will have a different set of friends, somewhat, because he wrote that post, and that will be good.Henry There's a utilitarian benefit that we both love Bleak House, therefore we can talk about it. This just opens up a lot of conversation and things for us that we wouldn't otherwise get.Tyler We're better friends, and we're more inclined to chat with each other, do this podcast, because we share that. That's clearly true in our case. I could name hundreds of similar cases, myself, people I know. That's important. So much of life is a matching problem, which includes matching to books, but also, most importantly, matching to people.Henry You're what? You're going to get better matching with better books, because Bleak House is such a great book. You're going to get better opportunities for matching.Tyler Of course, you'll understand other books better. There's something circular in that. I get it. A lot of value is circular, and the circle is how you cash in, not leaving the circle, so that's fine.Henry You don't think there's a ... I mean, some of the utilitarian benefits that are claimed like it gives you empathy, it improves your EQ or whatever, I think this is all complete rubbish.Tyler I'd love to see the RCTs, but in the prediction markets, I'll bet no. But again, I have an open mind. If someone had evidence, they could sway me, but I doubt it. I don't see it.Henry But I do think literature is underrated as a way of thinking.Tyler Yes, absolutely, especially by people we are likely to know.Henry Right. And that is quite a utilitarian benefit, right? If you can get yourself into that mindset, that is directly useful.Tyler I agree. The kind of career I've had, which is too complicated to describe for those of you who don't know it, but I feel I could not have had it without having read a lot of fiction.Henry Right. And I think that would be true for a lot of people, even if they don't recognize it directly in their own lives, right?Tyler Yes. In Silicon Valley, you see this huge influence of Lord of the Rings. Yes. And that's real, I think. It's not feigned, and that's also a great book.Henry One of the best of the 20th century, no doubt.Tyler Absolutely. And the impact it has had on people still has. It's an example of some classics get extremely elevated, like Shakespeare, Austen, and also Tolkien. It's one of them that just keeps on rising.Henry Ayn Rand is quite influential.Tyler Increasingly so. And that has held up better than I ever would have thought. Depends on the book. It's complicated, but yes, you have to say, held up better than one ever would have thought.Henry Are you going to go and do a reread?Tyler I don't think I can. I feel the newspaper is my reread of Atlas Shrugged, that suffices.Henry Is GPT good at Shakespeare, or LLMs generally?Tyler They're very useful for fiction, I've found. It was fantastic for reading Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate. I have never used them for Shakespeare, not once. That's an interesting challenge, because it's an earlier English. There's a depth in Shakespeare that might exceed current models. I'd love to see a project at some point in time to train AI for Shakespeare the way some people are doing it for Math Olympiads. But finding the human graders would be tough, though not impossible. You should be one of them. I would love that. I hope some philanthropist makes that happen.Henry Agreed. We're here, and we're ready.Tyler Yes, very ready.Henry What do you think about Shakespeare's women?Tyler The best women in all of fiction. They're marvelous, and they're attractive, and they're petulant, and they're romantic, and they're difficult, and they're stubborn, or whatever you want, it's in there. Just phenomenal. It's a way in which Shakespeare, again, I don't want to say anti-woke, but he just gives you a much deeper, better vision than the wokes would give you. Each one is such a distinctive voice. Yeah, fantastic. In a funny way, he embodies a lot of woke insights. The ways in which gender becomes malleable in different parts of stories is very advanced for his time.Henry It's believable also. The thing that puzzles me, so believable. What puzzles me is he's so polyphonic, and he represents that way of thinking so well, but I get the sense that John Stuart Mill, who wrote the Bentham essay and everything, just wasn't that interested in Shakespeare relative to the other things he was reading.Tyler He did write a little bit on Shakespeare, didn't he? But not much. But it wasn't wonderful. It was fine, but not like the Bentham Coleridge.Henry I think I've seen it in letters where he's like, oh, Shakespeare, pretty good. This, to me, is a really weird gap in the history of literature.Tyler But this does get to my point, where I don't think Shakespeare was that important for liberalism or individualism. The people who were obsessed with Shakespeare, as you know, were the German romantics, with variants, but were mostly illiberal or non-liberal. That also, to me, makes sense.Henry That's a good point. That's a good challenge. My last question is, you do a lot of talent spotting and talent assessing. How do you think about Shakespeare's career?Tyler I feel he is someone I would not have spotted very well. I feel bad about that. We don't know that much about him. As you well know, people still question if Shakespeare was Shakespeare. That's not my view. I'm pretty orthodox on the matter. But what the signs would have been in those early plays that he would have, say, by so far have exceeded Marlowe or even equaled Marlowe, I definitely feel I would have had a Zoom call with him and said, well, send me a draft, and read the early work, and concluded he would be like second-tier Marlowe, and maybe given him a grant for networking reasons, totally missed the boat. That's how I assess, how I would have assessed Shakespeare at the time, and that's humbling.Henry Would you have been good at assessing other writers of any period? Do you think there are other times when you would have?Tyler If I had met young Thomas Mann, I think there's a much greater chance I would have been thrilled. If I had met young Johann Sebastian Bach, I think there's a strong chance I would have been thrilled. Now, music is different. It's like chess. You can excel at quite a young age. But there's something about the development of Shakespeare where I think it is hard to see where it's headed early on. And it's the other question, how would I have perceived Shakespeare's work ethic? There's different ways you could interpret the biography here. But the biography of Bach, or like McCartney, clearly just obsessed with work ethic. You could not have missed it if you met young Bach, I strongly suspect. But Shakespeare, it's not clear to me you would see the work ethic early on or even later on.Henry No, no. I agree with that, actually.Tyler Same with Goethe. If I met early Goethe, my guess is I would have felt, well, here's the next Klopstock, which is fine, worthy of a grand. But Goethe was far more than that. And he always had these unfinished works. And you would, oh, come on, you're going to finish this one. Like you'd see Werther. OK, you made a big splash. But is your second novel just going to bomb? I think those would have been my hesitations. But I definitely would have funded Goethe as the next Klopstock, but been totally wrong and off base.Henry Right. And I think the thing I took away from the A.N. Wilson biography, which you also enjoyed recently, was I was amazed just how much time Goethe didn't spend working. Like I knew he wasn't always working, but there was so much wasted time in his life.Tyler Yes, but I do wonder with that or any biography, and I don't mean this as a criticism of Wilson, I think we know much less than we think we do about earlier times in general. So he could have been doing things that don't turn up in any paperwork. Sure, sure, sure. So I'm not sure how lazy he was, but I would just say, unlike Bach or say Paul McCartney, it's not evident that he was the world's hardest worker.Henry And Mozart, would you have? How do you feel about Mozart's early career?Tyler Well, Mozart is so exceptional, so young, it's just very easy to spot. I don't I don't even think there's a puzzle there unless you're blind. Now, I don't love Mozart before, I don't know, like the K-330s maybe, but still as a player, even just as a lower quality composer, I think you would bet the house on Mozart at any age where you could have met him and talked to him.Henry So you think K-100s, you can see the beginnings of the great symphonies, the great concertos?Tyler Well, I would just apply the Cowen test at how young in age was this person trying at all? And that would just dominate and I wouldn't worry too much about how good it was. And if I heard Piano Concerto No. 9, which is before K-330, I'm pretty sure that's phenomenal. But even if I hadn't heard that, it's like this guy's trying. He's going to be on this amazing curve. Bet the house on Mozart. It's a no-brainer. If you don't do that, you just shouldn't be doing talent at all. He's an easy case. He's one of the easiest cases you can think of.Henry Tyler Cowen, this was great. Thank you very much.Tyler Thank you very much, Henry. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

www.atravelpath.com   00:00 Introduction 03:30 How to you Balance Teaching with Travel? 04:30 What Sort of Commitments Outside of School do You Have with Teaching? 06:00 What Has Been the Longest Trip You Have Taken While Teaching? 07:00 Where Are You Staying When You Travel? 08:30 What Have Been Your Biggest Struggles to Get on the Road? 10:00 What Are Your Biggest Frustrations While You Travel? 14:00 What do You Love Most About Your Travel Lifestyle? 16:00 What Tips Have You Found Help 9-5ers Travel More? 18:15 Why do You Think People Are So Reluctant to Plan? 21:30 What Are Itinerary Creation Guides? 25:15 Are There Other Careers Where People Have a Long Gap From Work? 26:45 How Can People Save or Make Money for Travel? 29:45 What Has Been Your Coolest Travel Experience? 31:15 What Is One Thing You Can't Live Without While Traveling? 34:00 What Have You Learned You Don't Need While Traveling? 36:00 How Do I Start Planning my Trip? 37:30 How Would Someone Transition to a Career in Teaching? 40:00 Where There Any Influencers that Inspired You to Travel?   Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains   We had the pleasure of hosting Kati on our show who provided some valuable insight on how to balance a busy teaching and coaching career with travel. In this episode you'll learn all about: ✅A few simple steps to get you started planning your next trip

"Perverts? On MY Christian Toei Server?"This week on Destructo Discourse: Origins, we cover episodes 91-93 of the original hit anime, Dragon Ball. It's the Tenkaichi, baby! And the Crane School is in full swing on their path towards domination. Join us this week as we learn Buster Keaton Kung-fu, have a Hereditary meltdown moment over some rice, and fire Chekov's Toy Pop-gun directly at Jackie Chun's head.Your hosts this week are:Jayson, Matt, Tyler You can also check out Tyler's other podcasts,What The FolklorePiece Meal

Upcoming Event!How Can Mindfulness Help You Reach Financial Independence?Do you want to reduce money anxiety, but don't know who to trust?Would you like to learn how to set up and manage your own retirement plan?Do you want to know how we create a passive income stream you can't outlive?If yes, join us and learn how to answer the 4 critical financial independence questions:Am I on track for financial independence?What do I need to do to get on track?How do I design a mindful investing portfolio?How do I manage that portfolio and my income over time through changing markets?Learn more: https://courses.mindful.money/financial-independence-bootcampTyler Nicholls is an entrepreneur who is passionate about helping others at scale. He taught seventh grade Math with Teach for America before getting his Masters from Boston University. Tyler is the creator of Kudosy, a digital rewards system that helps solve the problem of financial literacy in the U.S. while strengthening families. Today, Tyler joins the show to share his thoughts on having an abundance mindset, why it's critical to develop sound financial habits early, and his passion for giving back to others.

Notes for this podcast: CULTURAL PROBLEMS(according to Tyler) You have until the age of about 20 to figure out what you should do with the rest of your life-elaborate Solution- Take time to set up a payment to yourself that allows you the freedom to find what you love later in life. Thanksgiving a Christmas are focus time for family and travel and living in the moment. Most of year is focused on work and making money. Solution- Make quarterly goals to travel and see that people that mean the most to you. Religion- Everywhere is so caught up in the belief system that is pertinent to where they are from. Religion should be taught in our school systems, and children should be able to cultivate their own beliefs. Solution- Don't be scared to study things outside of what you are told is truth. Truth exists in every religion. Attach yourself to things that promote peace and bring you a peaceful feeling, and that are focused on making people better people. Diet- Most of America eats so unhealthy, and the ads we see sell so much horrible food and beverage, that we are set up to get sick. Solution- Learn self control. Your tongue is the problem. A moment of taste, is not worst the damage to the rest of your body. Eat for how you feel, not for how things taste. Modern medicine- Most countries do not allow advertisement of medicines, but our society profits so much from pharmaceuticals, that we get promoted un healthy diet to make us sick, to get us better with drugs. The root of the problem is hardly ever address, and we are giving band aid drugs in order to numb temporary discomforts. Solution- Work with someone in the holistic world. I have worked with Upstream functional medicine in the past. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tyler-griffith5/message

Tyler joins us again this week for an LFG bonus episode discussing the Jurassic World Trilogy! Questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at GalaxyOfFilm@gmail.com You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok @GalaxyOfFilm and subscribe to our YouTube channel, Galaxy Of Film Productions! Danilo's short film 08.05.18. - https://youtu.be/XL4olt7nX6A SWCA final Vlog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCkEQJ_b3wM&feature=youtu.be Follow our guest star! Tyler - You can find his work with Galaxy Of Film through our socials! Music made by Dakari Holder. Graphic design by Mason Conrad. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/galaxyoffilm/support

Tyler Cohen Wood is the CEO of myConnectedHealth and a 20-year veteran of the cyber security industry, a well-known international cybersecurity influencer, successful keynote speaker, and 3-time published author. She worked for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense, as well as many other 3-lettered government agencies and the White House. Contact Tyler: Web:https://myconnectedhealth.net Twitter: @TylerCohenWood LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercohen78/ Contact Avrohom: Web: https://asktheceo.biz Facebook: AvrohomGottheil Twitter: @avrohomg Instagram: @avrohomg INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS: [00:48] Tell me about your background, your journey from working at the DIA to become CEO of a health tech company? [01:58] So, what gave you the idea for myConnectedHealth? I mean, that’s so radically different from security? [02:04] 1 in 13 Americans suffer from a rare or diagnosed condition. [02:04] Tyler shares the story of her personal journey of seeking a diagnosis for a rare, debilitating condition. She talks about the frustration of endless doctor visits, going from one specialist to another, to another, only to be told at the end not to even bother looking for a diagnosis, and just to learn to live with it. Tyler took charge of her situation and developed a chart that helped her discover a deficiency in a certain mineral in her body. [11:49] There is no disease that does not have a cure. We just may not know what the cure is yet. And it’s through collaboration that we find the cures. [12:40] “1 out of 13 people” means that you either have an undiagnosed illness, or you know someone that does. [13:28] Our daily headlines are dominated by Covid-19; however, as you know, there is much more to health care than COVID. There are millions of people around the world that suffer from undiagnosed ailments on a daily basis, with no treatments in sight. What are the challenges health care providers face when it comes to diagnosing and treating people’s ailments? [13:30] A big challenge healthcare providers have in diagnosing complex illnesses is that they operate in specialty silos. One specialist might not know the extent a certain illness and/or treatment affects another part of the body. [15:14] There is a lot of bias in health care, especially against women, with whom many practitioners tend to be more dismissive. [17:00] There is specialty siloing with insurance codes, as well. [17: 37] We are so fortunate to be living in a day and age where we are blessed with the latest cutting-edge technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning. I know many healthcare leaders and innovators are leveraging these technologies to develop solutions that will drastically improve people’s lives, and I also know that your company, myConnectedHealth, is working on a first of its kind solution that leverages these technologies to completely revolutionize healthcare for people around the world. Can you share with us some detail about what your company is working on? [18:05] myConnectedHealth is a global health care platform that uses data obtained from the patient crowd, all over the world. [22:12] This is really exciting and sounds like it will completely change the world as we know it! What will it take to get this solution out to the masses? [25:00] Our mission is to provide health care access to people who didn’t have it before. [25:40] If you have a phone, you have health care. [25:58] How do people connect with you? Tyler: You can connect with me via my website https://myconnectedhealth.net. I’m also very active on Twitter at @TylerCohenWood, and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercohen78/. [26:35] Do you have any parting words of wisdom that you’d like to share with the audience? Watch this episode on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/x7T9MW80YO0

In this episode, Emil and Michael chat with Tyler Jahnke about how he persevered through a nightmare of a first deal to being a part of 100s of unit of real estate.   --- Transcript   Emil: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Remote Real Estate Investor. My name is Emil Shour, and today I'm joined by my cohost,   Michael: Michael Albaum.   Emil: And we are interviewing Tyler Jahnke. Tyler has become a good friend of ours and is also one of the writers on the Roofstock blog. So you may be familiar with him on some of the content he's written there. And this was a really fun episode. We got to talk to Tyler about the story of his first rental property. He lives up in the Bay area and he talks about investing in the Midwest and some of the painful lessons he learned along the way of buying that first property and how he's grown to be a partner and owner of over a hundred units through syndication deals. All right, without further ado, let's hop into this episode.   Theme Song   Emil: Tyler. Welcome to the show, man. We're excited to have you.   Tyler: Thanks very much. I appreciate you reaching out and getting my attention and allowing me to hop on today and talk with you and Michael.   Michael: This is going to very much feel like every day on Twitter when we're always chatting about real estate investing stuff. Anyway, it's just on an audio format.   Tyler: A quick little plug for Twitter there, I guess, right? Like most of us I think, met on Twitter and that's been a great platform for both of us or all of us and engaging in and connecting with people so happy. We met there and happy to talk real estate as much as we want.   Emil: Yeah, it's funny. I've been on Twitter for years and I never realized there was this real estate investing and money, Twitter corner of Twitter. Like I always just used it for marketing and other stuff. And I was so stoked when I found this little community that's super engaged and loves talking and sharing best practices. So it's been fun, man.   Michael: It's funny. This is my first live Twitter interaction coming off Twitter. And I'm so glad to see Tyler and I were chatting before we started recording it. And his personality on Twitter matches his personality in real life, which is always great because sometimes you meet folks. It's like, wow, you're really well written. And I can't stand you as a person, not the case at all here, which is always nice.   Tyler: I'll be honest. I was a little worried thinking it just through like seeing you in person, it's like, how is he going to think I come across in reality versus someone who's behind a keyboard or a, you know, a mobile device typing 280 characters. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that are completely different. And I was like, hopefully I come across similar, online as I do in person.   Michael: I think by the same thing, I don't want to catfish anybody.   Tyler: Yeah. Now I will mention the first thing I noticed about you and Michael was the longer hair. I'll say that.   Michael: For anyone who hasn't seen, the reason they have leveled, they let myself go with the head hair and facial hair department. I'm going out the quarantine cut on, call it.   Emil: Cool. So Tyler, before we hop into the good stuff what's going on in your world, what's new.   Tyler: Oh, that's I mean, that's a big question. So first things first I work full time still. I am not a full time real estate investor. That's something that I think some people maybe assume that I am. So I do work full time in a sales and business role out here in the Bay area, born and raised in Berkeley, California. My office is in as in San Francisco, clearly we're all working from home right now, but so, you know, a lot of my day is still consumed by that full time job. But my nights weekends are still very much real estate or whether that's analyzing deals, talking to partners, talking to investors and networking, engaging, and then doing a lot of content build out on my platform and then just, you know, talking real estate as much as I can on my nights and weekends. So that's kind of what my day looks like right now. It's, it's becoming somewhat repetitive, but I have enjoyed it. And I do try and get out on weekends and hike and see the outdoors a little bit.   Emil: Now that you've mentioned that you live in the Bay, my follow up question is how did you get into real estate investing? And why did you choose remote real estate investing? I think part of the, you answered with you live in the Bay area, but give us the back story.   Tyler: Yeah, I guess I'll tackle the question of how I got in first and then we'll go to why out of state. But so I started investing in 2016, so about three and a half years ago now I was working a good job that I enjoyed in an industry that I also enjoy and still enjoy. But I did see myself, you know, kind of the future Tyler down the line, probably having to work another 40 years and reaching that age of 65 and then maybe retiring. So I think in my late twenties, a little bit of self reflection and trying to figure out what I wanted to accomplish in life. And a lot of that had to do with time freedom, which I think a number of your listeners are probably also conscious of right now, if they're thinking about real estate. And so I had to try and figure out ways to bring an income outside of my W2 job and just try and accelerate my growth on the financial side.   So through business podcasts, through investing podcasts came along this topic and strategy of real estate, which is abundant and everywhere, but no one really thinks about it. I mean, when I say no one, the majority may not really think of it as an investing opportunity. And so, you know, I saw it as somewhat of a logical step and I guess, strategy just by the fact that you could bring in monthly recurring income through tenants, paying off your mortgage and insurance and taxes, and maybe even letting you cashflow a little bit. And then to answer your question on why out of state for me at the time, it was pretty obvious. I couldn't afford anything in the Bay area. And I also wanted that cashflow and it's very hard to cashflow property in Oakland when you're going to pay $750,000 for it. It's quite impossible. Now I'm not saying it's impossible, but there's definitely challenges there.   So, you know, jumping into, out of state investing made sense for me, it was definitely a little scary because you emotionally get attached to these investments. I think as a newbie and you're like, I want to see it in person. I want to touch the front door, but at the end of the day, it's not necessary. If you have the right team on the ground to help you out and really guide you along the way. And so long story short, why out of state, it was affordability and the cashflow potential.   Michael: So I want to know Tyler, how did you make that leap? Really, a lot of people call it a leap of faith jumping into this out-of-state market. Having never been there, maybe having never met your team on the ground, walk us through the mindset and the decision making that you went through to end up where you did.   Tyler: That's the important part is to make the actual leap. And I think I will admit early on, I was rather naive and I didn't have everything buttoned up from an education standpoint. I didn't really know how to properly run the numbers that actually worked for me. I'm not saying, you know, leap in uneducated. I think again, that helped me initially because I was naive in the challenges and maybe dangers of investing at a state. But now thinking back, you know, over the years, my advice to others that are in a position of, okay, I want to do this, but how do I take the next step? I think it can actually be seen as a quite simple process. If you are educated in a market that you want to invest in, if you know how to analyze property, and if you have, you know, the longterm vision of what real estate can do for you, I think that's enough confidence to make the next step.   If you know the market you want to invest in, you know how to analyze property, you have the vision, like it's just going to be a mental at that point. So I don't have the exact advice for people on how to make the next step, because it's completely mental. Once you get those three things down, a market analysis and a vision, once you have that, it's all mental. So it's just going to come down to the individual and some people do it. Some people don't and that's fine. It's just mindset and personality.   Michael: How did you find your first market? What did that look like?   Tyler: My very first property that I bought in closed in December of 2016, I went the turnkey route and I felt that the fact that I had a full time job and working 40 plus hours a week, I felt that the turnkey route would be the best option for me to at least dip my toe into real estate. I will say the turnkey route is not always the best method. If you don't understand the partners on the ground properly, like I found out later. So I went to Turkey about found the market in the Indianapolis area. So the Midwest, which had high cashflow potential good acquisition to price ratio and had some of the metrics of a cashflow market, like population growth, job growth with higher wages, diverse economy. This could be a whole separate topic. So I apologize if I'm jumping too far ahead on what to look for in a market.   Michael: This is great.   Tyler: But I'll say that I hooked up with a drinky company out in the Midwest thought I vetted them properly, picked up a property for $37,000 cash back in the day, which is like the cost of a somewhat nice car. But it actually, instead of depreciated quickly, it's actually an asset that would produce income. So yeah, first property turnkey out in Indianapolis.   Emil: I read your blog a bunch and I know you've talked about the experience of this first property and it's such a good one. And I'd love for you to share the story of, okay, you bought this property 37 [inaudible] on paper. It looks like it's going to cashflow nicely. I'll let you take the floor. Tell us about the story.   Tyler: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is the best and worst investment of my life. So best in a sense that it got me in the game, right? I'll keep preaching this, like getting the game, getting the game, getting the game, whether that's a good or bad investment on paper, it's kind of a start that snowball. So yeah, $37,000 cash worked with a turnkey company that I barely vetted. I hopped on the phone a couple of times they started sending me leads via email routinely.   Michael: Did you chat with any other turnkey companies or this was the one?   Tyler: You know, me, you know, I didn't talk to anyone else. So it was all, I put all my eggs in one basket and that's kind of also my personality too. I'm pretty quick to trust and that's a double edged sword, as we all know, I'm usually pretty optimistic and very trusting. So that's good and bad, good and bad. So anyways, I talked to this company, you know, I started getting leads. I started evaluating the properties and my simplistic formula of figuring out how to actually calculate cash flow back in the day. I remember, you know, the estimated rents at seven 50 a month for a property that costs $37,000 napkin math on that was basically okay. Let's give the property manager 10% and let's account for property taxes and insurance. But you know, in my eyes, seven 50 a month, taking away all those expenses, I could probably cash flow 300, three 25 a month. We'll call it, which I wouldn't even touch anyways. My plan wasn't to actually spend that cashflow. So I was like, okay, if I could get a few of these properties in the next five years, you know, now we're talking substantial numbers on the cashflow side.   So I acquired this property and then that's when I decided to fly out. So after I actually close on this property in December of 2016, I decided to fly out to Indianapolis in March of 17. I initially wasn't even going to do that, but my parents were like, Tyler, I think you might want to like meet the people you're working with and just see if that property exists. I was actually kind of reluctant, but now I kind of make it a routine to check on my markets annually. We'll call it pre COVID. So we closed on that property. It takes about two or three months to actually renovate. And it wasn't really a big rehab job. They refinished like the hardwood floors. They replaced a window. They did a little bit of painting.   Emil: The turn-key company is doing that for you?   Tyler: Correct, yes. So the turnkey company, I guess the term turn-key by definition means it should be easy. There are some good Turkey companies out there and there's bad ones. My advice is just to vet them properly, if you go that route. So it took a few months to really quote unquote renovate it. And there were some red flags that popped up initially. And those were some things that I've, you know, looking back I've learned from if red flags are popping up, that you're not happy with in terms of maybe lack of communication or miss deadlines and timelines, I kind of became ignorant or I guess I ignored them because I really wanted to just close on this property and become a real estate investor. And so I think emotion took over and in some points where I was like, you know, realistically, I should have questioned these red flags up front, but I didn't. Cause I was like, real estate is a thing I'm going to acquire 10 properties and become financially free.   So I was too focused on that end goal. Finally got that thing rented. We did have a tenant in there for about 11 months. They paid on time every month, seven 50 a month. I took out, you know, 10% for property management. I made sure I had some reserves for property taxes, insurance. And then I just kind of pocketed that cashflow fast forward to the, you know, as I mentioned that cashflow for 11 months, we'll fast forward to that 12th month. My buddy who's actually in the real estate space as well in the Indianapolis market. He randomly drove by my property just to check up on it. And it was like Tyler, there's a lockbox on the front door. And I'm like, what do you mean? There's a lock box in the front door? Like what, first of all, I was shocked and I trusted him, but I didn't know what that actually meant.   So that caused some alarms in my brain, I guess you could say. It was like at that moment I was like, is this real estate thing gonna actually work? Because that was my first real, real big hurdle. And I guess I had to think through from a business standpoint, what would the next step be? So I didn't mention anything to my turnkey provider. I actually kept that quiet to start with. I wanted to get some verification from others. So I then began the process of actually building another team on the ground out there, aside from the turnkey company I worked with. And that was kind of again, why I go back to like this being my best and worst investment. It forced me to overcome these challenges and build a new team on the ground.   Michael: So Tyler was this turnkey provider also managing the property for you?   Tyler: Yep. They did everything. They sourced the deal. They walked me through the closing process, set me up with insurance and insurance agent. They renovated it. They managed it from a property management standpoint.   Michael: One stop shop.   Tyler: A one stop shop, everything you could have in one box there. Okay. So anyways, I called a couple of property management companies had them drive out there, pay them a little bit money to help me out and just verify that it was in fact clearly that the lock box on the front door meant it was vacant. I don't know the whole story. Apparently the tenant had left without telling anyone and the property was vacant and I was never notified. And that was the last straw. So I fired the turnkey company, had another property manager, take it over. I know this story is kind of going on, on and on and on.   Michael: This is all great stuff.   Tyler: We're getting towards the end of that first property. So after having a new company take over management, after vetting a number of them, I really had to make sure that this next hire of a property management company would be right. So I was on the phone, every lunch at work and at night, just talking to people to try and figure out who the best property managers in Indianapolis were finally selected someone. They went out there, cleaned it up, took over management and they crafted a scope of work on what would be needed to get this thing rent ready. Cause my thought was okay, small little blip in the radar. Let's just get this thing cleaned up, get this thing rented again, get it back on the market and get a tenant in there and then start cash flowing again. And then I'll live my happy life. So they go in there, they craft the scope of work. First of all, I'll say the scope of work was probably a little more than I needed, but it was still a bill for $16,000. And I'm like, uh, wait, what? So, uh, so the property cost 37,000 up front. I need to put another 16 K into this thing to get this thing a rent ready. And I was like, there's no way I'm going to do that. Now along those, you know, the first 12 months of me owning that property too, I think I became a little bit more savvy. I actually, I learned a lot more after I had closed on real estate than I had. And so that's when I started really focusing more on the impact of location and obviously like the partners you work with. So my strategy in owning that first property had actually changed within those 12 months.   And I decided that buying in better neighborhoods with a little bit less risk and a different tenant profile would be the strategy I wanted to take. So ultimately I ended up selling that property. I did not put the 16 K into it. I did not think that that property would have a good longterm outlook. And I started buying in better neighborhoods. So long story short bought the property for 37,000, sold it for 41 a year later, took a year of cashflow minus closing expenses or closing costs. I probably netted, I think it was like 2% in a year. So I honestly call that a really big win on my part. I was like, if I could just break even on that first property, I think there's just so much knowledge and education and experience you get from that first property.   Emil: So why did you decide to keep going? This is, I feel like I've heard so many stories where people, something like this happens and they give up and they're like, ah, this real estate investing thing isn't for me or someone who's new has zero properties is hearing this and is like, I don't ever want to deal with this. Yeah. Why did you keep going?   Tyler: I'll give you a couple answers. Some you may want to hear some of you may not. The first answer you may not want to hear is I already had a second property under contract. So by default I had to keep going.   Michael: That's great.   Tyler: But so I was actually really confident after that first property, given all those circumstances and those challenges, I was like, I know what I did wrong. Like I bought in a bad neighborhood. I hired the wrong people. I just followed, you know, my napkin math. And I touched on this earlier. Like I became better at analyzing properties. So the deals would be better. And then again, like just buying in a better neighborhood with a different tenant class profile, that to me was important. I wanted someone who could afford rent and not be challenged by if their car broke down, that they have to decide between the car repair or rent.   I wanted, I guess, a little bit more security. So that's why I started buying in better neighborhoods. But I felt like, you know, after that first property round to the second property, I had learned so much in that first one, I could do it better and I could just get better every time. And so that was, it actually built confidence. And so, yeah, I went through some short term struggles and I think a lot of people will go through that short term struggle period. But if you really think that real estate is something that's going to be part of your life for 40 years, and it's a longterm strategy that one year of education and challenges will just amplify our growth, you know, as you move forward,   Emil: I love that.   Michael: Such a good story Tyler. I've got a couple of questions for you. And then 11 month period, when you were collecting rent and cashflow, did you think that you were a fricking genius that you had just got a dialed?   Tyler: Yeah.   Michael: Me too.   Tyler: Oh, I was smiling. Every check that came in, the first check that came in, I was traveling with my buddies in Vietnam and I remember waking up one morning and I'm on vacation. Right. I'm on vacation Vietnam. And I got a paycheck. I got a check that came in at like one in the morning and I was like, this is unbelievable. I need to keep buying these as soon as just rapidly. And so, yeah. And it's funny because I started off my journey in the content space by just posting on bigger pockets and I kind of posted my life experience and I love going back online and be like, Hey guys, just want to give you an update. I got my payment, my check came in and I'm good. So yeah, it was definitely all smiles for a solid 11 months until, you know.   Michael: Until it wasn't until it wasn't.   Tyler: And so that's what got me back to reality.   Michael: The learning process that you're talking about and the education process that you're talking about, it seems like that'll happen in month 12. Like that was a massive ramp up for you because for 11 months things were good. So you thought you had done everything right?   Tyler: My education prior to closing was not the greatest, but I really started ramping up the education process after I started closing. So that was, I got addicted to podcasts. I got addicted to bigger pockets. I got addicted to just consuming, consuming, consuming content in the real estate space. And that's why I had my second property already under contract. By the time, you know, all these challenges popped up. So I guess I would say I really started continuing that education process, you know, after I closed and I still do today, even though, you know, I've kind of grown in, in the investing space, but it's podcasts, it's books, it's websites, and it's talking to people like you guys.   Michael: I think that's such a big takeaway for everybody listening is, Hey, after you've accomplished the goal of purchasing that property, whether it's your first fifth, 10th, or whatever, don't stop being educated. Don't stop getting educated because I think too many folks sit on their laurels and think, well, great. I did it. I know how to do it now. Yeah. Well you did that deal. Maybe the next one's going to be slightly different. And so there are things you can learn in the interim that are gonna help make that next subsequent deal even better for you. So I love that.   Emil: I feel dumber now than when I first started. When I first started six months in same thing, I'm laughing, I'm getting checks. I'll just do this 10 times and I'm going to be rolling in dough. And then like reality hits and you learn more and then you're like, wow, I know nothing. The more you learn…   Michael: I think it's because we all started so similarly right? Buy one single family house, your purview is no one can see my hands, but they're very narrow right there. It's a very small scope. And then as we grow and expand and learn and educate ourselves, we realize there's this entire investing world out there that is comprised of so many different things. And we know so little about it. So I think that's a great point. And the old that just further goes to illustrate don't stop getting educated. Can't stop. Won't stop. Right.   Emil: Rockefeller records.   Michael: That's right. That's right. So I'm curious now, Tyler, you, you did that deal a couple of years ago, you know, what are you doing today? Where did you go from there?   Tyler: Yeah. So it's been a journey and I don't want to come across as any type of expert. I'll say that, you know, looking back at my timeline, I've been investing for three and a half years now. So started in my late twenties now in my early thirties, I think there's still a long, long, long ways to go. But I will say within that timeline of three and a half years, my strategies have definitely changed. And so, you know, after that first I learned about, you know, the importance of location and really building that team on the ground. So I bought a second property and other single family house I'm in a better neighborhood with a better team.   I then kind of tiptoed into we'll call it the journey of scaling, scaling up. And so I bought a duplex that was like huge for me. So I went from like a couple single families to a duplex that was me scaling up. I think from my standpoint, my strategy now has changed because like you mentioned earlier, Michael, the education process, there's some things I do now in the real estate space that I was not even aware of, you know, a few years ago. And so I tiptoed around and investing passively in larger multifamily complexes. That's how I started off in the multifamily space was literally, you know, I come in as almost like a silent partner, we'll call it limited partner, they'd say invest in my cash in these larger deals for some equity. And then through that process, learn more about the larger multifamily value of ad space.   And that's where I am now focusing on the value add, but multifamily space, the GP role in these larger apartment complexes. But my portfolio is kind of two prominent we'll call it. We had the cash flowing properties in the Midwest and then the work that my partners and I do in Phoenix on the value of ad side. And like I said, in three and a half years, I've learned so much. And like you said, a meal too, like it's such a massive world out there in real estate. There's so many different techniques and strategies that you can go down into some rabbit holes, but yeah, it's a combination of cash line properties and Midwest plus some value add deals with partners in the, in the, in the Southwest region.   Michael: For those of our listeners who don't know what is that LP GP thing called and what are those roles?   Tyler: The term is syndication, which has good and bad, I think connotations or I guess definitions, but it's really just, it's a partnership between two groups. The general partnership group is generally a group of individuals that are tasked with acquisition of a property lending up financing, building out the business plan, building up the strategy, managing the actual renovation and reposition, and then really making all the decisions on whether to refinance or exit or whatnot. The LP limited partner side is a bunch of investors that come into these deals with some capital and with the intention of really not being involved in the day to day, it's a passive investment. It's like any business that needs, that requires funding and you have the team that's managing everything and then the, like I keep saying this, the silent partners that come in with capital to help fund the project, that's the basic structure of what a syndication is, but it's almost like any type of startup even, or any type of business that needs capital to close. And then you execute a business plan and hopefully pay off, you know, yourself as well as your investors primarily   Emil: I know you're a part of a couple of different indications, your general partner in some where you're more active and your limited partner in some others. Right?   Tyler: Correct.   Emil: How did you decide to get into that? And which one did you start out with? I'm curious.   Tyler: I started out on the LP side after I bought my first two houses and then the duplex, I wanted to experience life, not as a landlord to put it bluntly. There's always going to be some stresses as being a landlord. You know, you're going to have the email from your property manager saying a pipe has burst and we need some money or there's a hole in the roof and we need some money. That's just part of being a landlord. And so I was like, well, you know, at that point in my life too, I was really trying to value my time to one of the biggest things I try and follow right now is kind of, there's a quote out there that says, like start with the end in mind. And I envisioned my life, you know, 40 years down the line where I am selfishly bringing in income without really much active work.   That's kind of what my ideal life looks like right now from a freedom standpoint. And so I was like, let's just try out what this passive investing really is. And I know passive is always going to be a loose term, but I felt that if I could hop into a deal passively and try and learn the business plan and a strategy of what value add is, and then tap into the power of multifamily, which is extremely powerful. We're pretty much doing what people call. Like, I call it the big BRRRR. We're finding a undervalued property, repositioning it through innovation and then bumping rents up that leads to additional cashflow plus increasing the value of the property. So I liked that strategy. So I wanted to kind of hop in there, learn from those people passively and then eventually get into those deals more on the active side events.   Michael: So in syndications, I've only done them locally, kind of with friends and family, never on a big scale, but when you were an LP on your first deal, and you mentioned several times that you learned from the GPS, were they happy to answer your questions as an LP? I mean, how did you go about learning this business as a quote unquote silent partner.   Tyler: It's not like a relationship where you automatically become, you know, the mentee and they take you under your wing. Really what I was just trying to figure out was to slowly get into the game. And that was to begin to just review what a, an offering memorandum looks like, what do these business strategies look like? What do the cost of renovation look like? What are the loan terms like? That was the very first step for me. And as an LP, you get to do that because you're reviewing all of the terms and strategies.   So that was a very, very, very first step of me in education. Now, to your point, Michael, there's no way that these GPS are like, yeah, I'll take, I mean, maybe there's some out there, but I wasn't gonna email them and call in and be like, Hey, can you just tell me exactly what to do and how to do it? They're not going to say yes to that. They have much more important things to do. So really it was just being exposed to the industry and the business plans. That was the very first step. Luckily, you know, after that, the second deal. So the first deal I did was in Louisville as an LP, second deal was in Phoenix, which is now with partners that I work with. So through networking, through connections, through some mutual friends, I was able to kind of position myself in a way where yes, I was an LP, but the GPs actually knew who I was.   And so that led to further opportunity down the line. I'm really just through connection and through building relationships. But yeah. So I think to answer your question, Michael, how do you learn as an LP? There's some you can pick up just by being exposed to the industry, but again, you're not going to have someone take you under your wing most likely   Michael: And hold your hand and say, this is..   Tyler: Exactly.   Michael: Okay. Yeah. Cool. Man, So, you know, I am also a multifamily value add guy. I've always done things on my own for the most part. What is it that you look for in these undervalued deals that are right for syndication? If you had to pick two or three things that like, yep, this is going to make a screaming deal. What are they?   Tyler: The first thing I will say is I am no master of acquisition. That's not my role, but luckily I have partners on the ground that are, you know, educated and know the market much better than I do. But really what you're looking for is, as you mentioned, is undervalued property. And that in the multifamily space can be something that maybe it's mismanaged. Maybe they have a lack of capital to make any renovations. So, you know, the properties that we're acquiring generally are occupied pretty well in our market, which is Phoenix, but they're outdated. And because of that, rents are lower than what they could command. So that's one area where value add is really, you can take advantage of is just an old dilapidated property that maybe mismanaged, maybe you're not even collecting rent properly. There's just so many different areas in where you can find that value add. So to answer your question, I mean, what we're looking for is a specific type of asset that is in need of a cash infusion because the amenities are not the greatest and can definitely attract a better tenant with a higher rent.   Now we're also kind of in areas and neighborhoods where there's actually a lot of class A stuff going up. And so we're, we're buying things that we think we can reposition to be just under class A, to kind of create a little bit of a subclass. So similar amenities, you know, the grant granite countertops, the under Mount sinks, new cabinets, washer, dryer in unit, the dog park, that, all that stuff, right. So we're building a property that's right under class a but more affordable. So we're kind of creating that subclass and that's, I think another way that we're protecting ourselves and being able to draw in that tenant and be able to bring in that rent that we've backed. So yeah. Undervalued property and then creating that subclass is what we do.   Michael: Love it. I do the exact same thing, just on a much smaller scale. That's great.   Tyler: Yeah.   Emil: So you've been on both sides, you acquire properties yourself, you've been part of syndications. Do you have a preference of which one you like, or do you kind of mix and match in both in you kind of see that happening in the future?   Tyler: Yeah. I see myself mixing and matching. Like I mentioned, I have kind of two prong attack of the cashflow, the immediate cashflow in the Midwest right now. And that portfolio is small and I still have some time to keep building that thing up. I, you know, I still am attracted to the immediate cash flow of those properties in the Midwest because the bigger deals are great, but they're a little bit more of a longterm play for me. If anyone is familiar with how this structure works, you know, you, as an LP, you get paid out quarterly as a GP. You know, the big pallet kind of comes at the end when you exit. So that side of my portfolio is more of a longterm play. And when I say longterm, we're talking five to seven years, which really isn't super long term. But I think having a combination of both is really a nice way to diversify having that cashflow from the Midwest or wherever your market is in individual properties that I own personally mixed with the passive income on a syndication and then a big pile. Hopefully once those properties are sold and you exit. So I think ideally I continue to keep attacking those two prongs, keep building those portfolios side-by-side and parallel.   Michael: So Tyler, something we talk a lot about in the restock Academy is about risk adjusted returns and that, you know, in the more risky areas we should anticipate and expect and really demand a higher return and the less risky areas say for investment, we could expect a lower return where you willing to give up a little on the cashflow or on the return side of things, making that transition over to a better neighborhood or a more expensive neighborhood.   Tyler: A hundred percent. Yeah. I don't think I had the specific data on what that would actually look like.   Michael: Sure.   Tyler: But to me, even just from an emotional standpoint, I was like, I'd rather have an investment in a neighborhood with better schools, less crime, you know, community amenities, a grocery store. Like I felt that I was a hundred percent willing to take less cash flow for a better neighborhood, but also on the flip side, generally in a better neighborhood, you might have better appreciation as well.  So it's almost like right to me. Yes. I wanted to get out of that CD class neighborhood, get into that B class, we'll call it on my personal portfolio. I'm already seeing a much better appreciation numbers on that side of things. And it just, there's a lot more comfort in, in, in knowing that you have a property in a, that's not in a war zone, it's not crime ridden. You know, it, it's a good suburban neighborhood with consistent cashflow and, and most importantly, a tenant that's going to pay on time. That to me was a lot more important than the amazing numbers on paper in that war zone. That would cause me more headaches.   Michael: Yeah. You bring up such a great point that, you know, on paper and mathematically and physically, sometimes those properties in the war zone pencil out really well and might even perform really well. But there's the mental health side of this business too. And, and I think that's so important so often gets overlooked of, yeah, I can make a killing over here, but I'm gonna make myself crazy and not sleep at night. And so we often say that there shouldn't be emotion when it comes to investing, but there is sometimes is. And that, you know, based on how it makes us how the investment makes us feel from an owner and operational standpoint, I think does need to get factored into the calculation   Tyler: A hundred percent. Yeah. I'm all on board with buying, you know, it's not the A-class stuff that, not the D class stuff somewhere in that middle, you know, BC area. That to me is the most safe investment, at least in my opinion.   Emil: Right. You see a lot of people, you know, they'll, they'll flash the similar situation, right. 35, 40 K home it's renting for basically the 2% rule. Right. So it will be running for seven to 800 and it's just like, it looks so good on paper, but there's all these other risk factors that you have to adjust for. And you have to have the appetite for like, dealing with messes more often than something in a better class neighborhood. So always important to consider that   Tyler: Nice little segue to there on like just evaluating cap rates too. Like people will flash, Oh, I got, I got a 12 cap, right? It's like that's numbers. But like, if you look at it from a perspective of risk versus reward, that's probably going to be a more risky investment than a six or seven cap, you know? So it's been interesting to kind of learn that through the years to that high return on paper, doesn't always mean a high return in real life.   Michael: Well, and also what's your time worth. If you've got to go spend 20 hours a week dealing with a 12 cap property, or you can spend two hours a month dealing with a six or seven cat property, you have the opportunity now to go buy more, you know, go buy two or three of those six caps and make us the same or even better returns. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's such a valid point.   Emil: So we've been ending a lot of these episodes. We used to quick fire questions. We've been transitioning into…   Tyler: Slow fire?   Emil: Think about this for five minutes before you answer. No, it was just a random question that we just kind of riff on.   Tyler: I'm all about that, man.   Emil: I know you travel a bunch. Where's the first place you're going to travel to once all the restrictions are done and like, we can start moving around again.   Tyler: I actually had a flight booked to Paris that I got super cheap and my buddy and I were going to go out there and explore the Dolomites in Northern Italy that is still in the back of our heads. And if, and when travel restrictions kind of open up, I think that's where we might go as the Dolomites in Northern Italy.   Michael: I was just there in January Tyler. And it's unbelievable.   Tyler: Yeah.   Michael: Unbelievable. You can go in the winter. I don't know if you're planning on going in winter or summer, but the ski, like the snow sports, they're the snowboarding skiing, snowshoeing is unbelievable.   Tyler: The plan was to go this summer actually, but just seeing photos of it is like, we were inspired to just find a way to get there. So that would be the first destination.   Emil: I'm looking at pictures now. Cause I had never even heard of it. And it is…   Tyler: I hadn't heard of it till recently as well, but yeah, the Dolomites.   Michael: They get, I think the most sun out of anywhere in Europe, in winter, they have the most like sunny Bluebird days and yeah, just don't have enough good things to say about it. Emil, where are you going to go?   Emil: Well, now that I have a kid makes traveling, you have to think a little bit more. You're like, Hmm, where can we go? That's kid friendly and things like that. Probably a surf trip. I'm thinking Costa Rica, Costa Rica is like one of the more family friendly areas that has really good surf. That's not too far from Southern California. So probably Costa Rica, friends. And I have been talking about doing a trip down there for a while.   Michael: Right on.   Pierre: Michael can we get your synopsis of Costa Rica since you live there as well too?   Tyler: We now have a travel podcast guys!   Emil: Hey this is The Remote Real Estate Investor.   Michael: Bait and switch everybody. Yeah that Costa Rica is awesome, man. It's a super, like you said, I know it's a super easy, but you've been there before, right?   Emil: Yeah, I went there like seven years ago with a buddy. Yeah. Different type of trip.   Michael: The surf is so killer. Yeah. You were also Nicaragua. We talked about that to you, right?   Emil: Yup. Nicaragua's surf is amazing.   Tyler: You've also mentioned Bali to me, Emil as well.   Emil: I sound really cool right now. Cause have you guys been there. I've been there, but yeah, Bali, I need to go back to Bali. It is like surf paradise and there's so many good waves and I will probably watch a video on YouTube three times a week of incredible waves there. And I'm just like drooling. But anyway…   Michael: Drooling at waves.   Emil: That's right. That's right. What about you, Michael? Where are you headed?   Michael: I think I have to go back to Portugal. I'm purchasing some investment property out there and sort of do some paperwork type stuff we need to get back out there.   Emil: No big deal. Just buying a property in another country.   Tyler: Are you going the Airbnb route on that.   Michael: Yeah. So it's the Airbnb it's like professionally managed, but actually we're applying for what's called the golden visa so we can get our permanent residency status and ultimately citizenship out there as well to be able to live and work and travel in the EU without needing…   Tyler: Awesome stuff.   Michael: Yeah. So we're pretty pumped on that.   Tyler: My buddies living in Portugal right now and he's just been working abroad for the last year. He did, he actually did Costa Rica for a while and then just flew to Portugal. And he's, he's actually writing a book right now about working from, uh, working abroad.   Michael: That's awesome.   Tyler: I'll connect you guys with him.   Michael: That would be great. That's something that I did last year too, is a lot of fun. I've actually been to Costa Rica, Latin American then all over Europe. Portugal also has amazing surf, has amazing, awesome waves. Pierre, where are you headed, man?   Pierre: I was thinking to go to Mexico, but I'm out of maple syrup. So I might have to go up to Canada.   Michael: Get up to Canada.   Pierre: Yeah.   Emil: Can't live without that maple syrup.   Pierre: No man.   Michael: It's a lifeblood.   Pierre: It really is.   Tyler: I mean, you even have a piece of bark on your wall back there, it's like yeah.   Emil: It's probably a good spot for us to end this one. Tell her before we let you go. Where is a good place that people can get in touch with you? Maybe ask you some questions.   Tyler: My website is jump in real estate.com. You can find my contact info. They're always happy to hop on a phone call or even just exchange emails with anyone really, really enjoy chatting with people like yourselves. And I'm sure your listeners as well. So I just love talking to real estate.   Michael: Awesome. And Tyler if someone wanted to be an LP and one of your syndications is your website the best place for them to get in touch with you regarding that type of stuff as well?   Tyler: Yeah, I would say that's probably the main route I'd want people to kind of route to me is the website. So jumpinrealestate.com. There's an ask Tyler tab. You can just find my contact info there and, or follow me on Twitter at jumpinRE very active on that, which I talked to Emil and Michael pretty much daily on.   Emil: Yes, follow Tyler on Twitter. Very good follow. Awesome man. Thanks again so much. Really appreciate you coming on.   Tyler: Thanks.   Michael: This was so awesome.   Tyler: Definitely. Thank you both.   Emil: All right, so that's our episode. Thanks again, everyone for tuning in. Before you go and make sure you subscribe to the podcast, you get an update every time we release a new episode and let us know what you think of the show. We're always looking for feedback, leave us a review. Let us know you think what you want to see more of maybe what you want to see less of and we'll catch you in next week's episode. Happy investing!  

Cash-flow forecasting can be the key to running, building, and eventually selling your e-commerce business. Today's guest is an accountant and successful business builder who helps owners run their businesses with successful financial results. Aside from traditional accounting, his firm offers fractional CFO services to his clients. As we have said many times here on the podcast, bookkeeping is not something business owners should do without an expert. Today we are talking to accounting expert Tyler Jeffcoat. Tyler built and sold a  healthcare company and has experienced the acquisition process firsthand. In building his current business, Seller Accountant, he made sure that his focus was razor sharp on what he could offer to clients in order to deliver top results. Episode Highlights: How Tyler's fractional services work for the clients. How his service cost is offset by the value why it's less expensive than inhouse. Cash-flow forecasting and how it helps owners with profitability Ways operation data plays into the full forecast. The impact of not forecasting. Refinancing and SBA lending as an option in a moment of need. The importance of SKU grading to keep on top of product performance. The difference between cash and accrual accounting Tools that can help the layman forecast on his own. Why you need to track your numbers on an inventory value. The benefit of outsourcing while focusing on core expertise. Transcription: Mark: So Joe I'm normally not a big advocate of business but I'm becoming more and more of one and in the entrepreneurial community people always ask what book are you reading now and I'm usually thinking well it was actually on World War II or some other kind of obscure topic. Because when I'm off of work I like to be off of work. But this past year I picked up a few different business books based on some recommendations. And one that I read that I would recommend to anybody is Shoe Dog by Phil Knight; the founder of Nike. And I don't want to give away a lot of secrets with this book because honestly, it's a great read; it reads more of like just a novel or story of how he started Nike but one of the things that really resonated with me specifically because we deal with so many people that have Amazon businesses was how long Nike had problems with cash flow and how long that they were living on the float. And they were living on a very large float where they were writing checks that weren't in the bank account yet and they were counting on that money being in there. It's the nature of any growing business especially a physical product business is that the cash flow comes in, you reinvest in the product, you keep growing at a rapid rate. It can be really hard to manage that cash flow. And I know that we talked to Scott Dietz a few weeks ago on forecasting but forecasting doesn't really matter if you don't have any cash in the bank and you're closing the loop on this or kind of continuing this conversation today with Tyler Jefcoat about cash flow forecasting. Joe: Yeah Tyler and I have been working together off and on with a variety of different clients. Tyler owns Seller Accountant and he's just a smart guy. He's built his own company, sold it, and then started any commerce bookkeeping company specifically focused for the most part on his own businesses. Mark: Is that a phone I hear in the background? Joe: No, that was not a phone at all. No. Mark: I figured that you're so busy people are calling you all the time. Joe: No, that's my wife actually. Sorry folks. Sorry. Tyler, yes but the really cool thing about what Tyler does is cash flow forecasting, right? So he does fractional CFO services on top of is bookkeeping services and only for his own clients. And he does in the different levels. He does monthly reviews with some, quarterly reviews of some, and then gets into deeper reviews with others. But the cash flow forecasting model that he went over and shared with me I saw it on another video in a webinar that he did and then I had him show it to me and then he's sharing it in the show notes of this podcast. It's a cash flow model along with the video that talks about it and I know going back to my e-commerce days before I sold I did that; I did the float just like Phil Knight, a little smaller level of course. Mark: But just like Phil Knight. Joe: Just like Phil Knight, but it was the same thing. You are paying for that inventory with a credit card or you're just playing the flow and it's ridiculous. Fortunately for me, I didn't have a big staff but those that are growing beyond that solopreneur aspect and they have to worry about payroll and things of that nature I think it's really, really important to focus on cash flow. So Tyler goes over that quite a bit here and the links in the show notes will help anybody that's having issues in that area. Mark: These are fantastic tools to put in our war chest of things that we can use as business owners to be able to plan the growth of our businesses. So forecasting is something I've been skeptical in the past. Again the conversation with Scott Dietz and my experience with forecasting through his company has really turned me around to this and now I'm super excited to see this because again cash flow forecasting might be one of the most important things in a business as it's growing. Joe: It's important but what else is important? I've got to call my wife back so let's go to the podcast. Joe: Hey folks Joe Valley here from Quiet Light Brokerage and today well I ranted in the intro with Mark about bookkeeping. I've talked to at least 5,000 entrepreneurs over the last seven years and the vast majority of those when it comes to bookkeeping they say I got this and the reality is they don't. So we've got an expert on the podcast here, Tyler Jefcoat from the Seller Accountant. Tyler, welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. Tyler: Thanks, Joe. Thanks for having me. Joe: I could rant and rave for hours on time about this because it's the number one reason people don't sell their businesses or sell them for a heck of a lot less. Somebody said to me the other day Tyler that when they think about their P&Ls they bleed from their eyeballs and I think that sums it up for how a lot of people feel. Alright so as you know on this podcast we don't do fancy intros, we want to hear from you so tell us about yourself and your business. Tyler: Yeah, well thanks again for having me. My company is Seller Accountant. I'm coming at this as a guy who sold a health care company about two years ago. We had a good run; zero to a hundred employees in about four years and I was a minority guy and I went through the M&A process and it was interesting. So as we built this accounting firm; I'm an accountant, we really built it around two ideas, Joe. One was we wanted to have a very vertical focus so we only do e-commerce and the second thing is that we want to focus on not just the price of admission of just having clean books but having the ability to use data to drive profitability. So I think that's why you and I have resonated with each other so well was I want to partner with brokers that really have the best interest of clients at heart and your clients all have the same issues which is we got to have investor great books so we can go to market and so yeah man it's great to be here. Joe: Cool. Everybody that's listening knows how I do feel about the books but I want to go beyond what you do at Seller Accountant. You manage people's books, you do an incredible job with that, do you streamline it? It's not expensive. It's much better for their bottom line than if they had an in-house bookkeeper. There's no question that that math works but let's talk about some of the additional services you do. I saw a video where you talked about your fractional CFO services, where you talked about cash flow analysis, Cost of Goods Sold analysis and some of those things. What are the top two or three things that you focus on with clients on I guess is your fractional CFO services that you do that for? Tyler: It is and is still part of Seller Accountant but in addition to just doing the bookkeeping each month for a bunch of Amazon and other e-commerce sellers we provide a fractional CFO service. And so I think what makes it powerful Joe is that we're just crazy focused; again we're crazy focused, my eyes don't blink when I look at a P&L for e-commerce but I do it all day long. And so our ability to step into somebody's business and see things differently because we look at it kind of like you do Joe honestly; you're looking at P&Ls constantly also but then focus on kind of the big things on a macro level. How does a seller really understand how their sales channels are performing over time? So that kind of goes back to the visibility of the book but it's more important than that, it's understanding okay, is Amazon the right channel for me to focus on versus Shopify? That's kind of one of the big discussions. And then we tend to the other kind of macro discussion as you allude to is around cash flow. This is a cash hungry business that we run; this e-commerce retail and a lot of the sellers tend to be undercapitalized meaning they're not coming to the table with 2 million dollars in free cash to just dump in inventory. And so our ability to understand not just what we think our sales are going to be next year but what we think our actual cost are going to be related to inventory when we're going to have to spend that money, that's critical. And so that's a discussion we have with our clients and then honestly just understand the profitability of our different product lines and SKUs. Those are areas where we can really help our clients not just know what the bottom line is for a given month but help them get the data they need to make better decisions as a CEO. Joe: And you do this as part of the fractional CFO services. You meet with these clients once a month after you review their P&Ls and you do a deeper dive. Are there other different levels of fractional CFO services where you're spending more time with some than others; how does it work? Tyler: Yeah there are and at this point, most of our CFO clients are bookkeeping clients that have chosen to layer on the CFO service. The reason for that is it is very challenging for me to add a lot of value efficiently for you if I don't understand your books and you just have a really nice way of doing the books. So yes they can choose to have quarterly calls. We have some that will meet even less frequently but it's basically normally quarterly or monthly. And we have some things in the pipeline that may allow us to just generate some value and it'd be a little bit less can you get on Tyler's calendar because I think that can be something that can be prohibitive. But at this point, we've got a great monthly service, a great quarterly service, and I think maybe it'll be somewhere around the neighborhood of 70 million dollars in e-commerce sales that I'm responsible for; me and my team for just the CFO side of it this year. And so it gives us an update that we can speak intelligently about what's happening in the business. Joe: You must be very expensive then, yes? Tyler: Oh man we're so expensive, yeah. No, you know what I mean. I would say we provide extreme value to our clients. And I would just say this we're not cheap; I don't want to be cheap, you want the provider that you can partner with us providing superior value. But I will say this we are way less expensive than actually trying to hire somebody. And if we can generate the kind of value that makes your business grow or allows you to get maybe a better multiple when you go to market in a year I don't think we're charging nearly enough for that to be honest with you and I love it, man. This is the fun part of the business; it's really understanding how to help business owners make money. How do we actually turn this pile of work into a profitable business? And so for me, this is kind of what gets me out of bed. So it's really I'm an accountant, of course, it's about money; we want to make a living but this is a part of the business I'm passionate about. Joe: Well let's talk about some of those individual things you do as the fractional CFO provider. I saw a cash flow forecasting video that you did. This is an enormous problem for e-commerce business owners and a lot of will just go the way of an Amazon loan at 14, 15%. I guess it's lower when you do the math. But talk to us about the cash flow forecasting that you do for these clients and how that helps them in terms of profitability. Tyler: Yeah. So when it comes to cash flow forecasting I think where most entrepreneurs stop is they take the time to open a spreadsheet and say what do I think my sales are going to be in the next six months? By the way, I would caution you there, if you ever run a forecast in the future of your business and every month in the future is way more profitable than your last six months of them, there's a good chance that you are kind of suffering from optimism that happens. All of us entrepreneurs we love running our businesses and we're like just tomorrow we're going to make money, now next month that's going to be wildly profitable. Joe: You're delusional. We know that after doing this for so long that there is great years and bad years. Tyler: You may run into a P&L and somebody hasn't made money in a year and they're like but guess what Joe tomorrow we're going to make money. And so my encouragement is to go ahead and be honest with yourself about how your business is performing and take a minute to say okay based on our seasonality, based on the products we're going to launch; as the actual owner of these e-commerce businesses you guys are in the best position to guess what your sales are going to be next year and put them in a spreadsheet Expected Sales, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And then if you look at your historical data you can say okay our cost of goods sold, our margins have tended to be at a certain level. And so most entrepreneurs are pretty good at building a forecast around what their operation is going to generate. We kind of know what our overhead is. We kind of know what our advertising budget is going to be. We know if our rent's going to go up next year. And so you got to do that work but a lot of entrepreneurs stop there and you can't stop there. Because of the impact of debt and the impact of inventory and the impact frankly of taxes you need to take that operational data and then work it into a full cash flow forecast for maybe the next year or the next six months. And so the way we do it is we take that baseline info that I just mentioned; how much profit are you expecting your operation to generate each month over the next six months or a year. Okay, great, now tell us what your loan payments are going to be, what's the cash coming out of your business for; for that Amazon loan or for your SBA loan or for your line of credit. Okay great, let's take that into account each month and then inventory forecasting can be kind of tricky. The more I thought about this I think it just needs to be simple. You have an average amount of days that it takes you to; you're going to issue a PO and you're going to get your container sent from China or wherever you're getting your goods. And so if I have forecasted that in April I'm going to have $30,000 in cost of goods sold then I'm going to have to pay for that $30,000 in inventory probably about 90 days before that. And so if you know what the waiting times are in your inventory you can use your forecast that you just did for your quote-unquote P&L; your profit and loss to basically guess okay I'm going to need to have that 30 grand in the bank in January so that it's ready to sell in April. And I mean they're going to have to fund that inventory purchase with some kind of great terms with the supplier or I'm going to have to have a loan, I'm going to have cash in the bank. And so what I advise the clients to do is to kind of what are my inventory purchases going to be? This is not a surprise. It's going to take a few months to fulfill it. Let's get that on this cash flow picture and then the other thing that you might consider is if there's going to be any owner distributions including your CPA may have you take a tax distribution once a quarter to keep Uncle Sam happy. And so this all goes together; your operations, your financing activities, your inventory, and then lastly the investing kind of from your owners and it's going to give you; it's not uncommon to have a picture where you expected to make money in the month of January, on paper you have profit but because of your debt payments or because of your purchases of future inventory your cash flow is actually negative for that same month. And so we just blew a spreadsheet; in fact, I'm glad to share it with you. I just have it in a Google Sheet here where we try to understand the impact of all of those factors on cash flow. So if there's going to be a negative on the sheet I knew it now instead of it being an emergency. Joe: We'll link that up so people can use it and try it themselves and then reach out to you for help if they need it. But what's the impact? You talked about good money at good rates versus bad money at bad rates. So what's the negative impact if they didn't do the forecasts and they come up against the month of January and they need to get a loan somewhere; what do you see people do and what's the drawback of having little to no notice of it? Tyler: Yeah. So there's two major impacts. One is if I know that I'm going to run out of cash in six months I can make two important adjustments that I don't have the luxury of making if I'm right on top of that shortfall. So if I've got six months I can cut expenses. If I need to actually lower some overhead if I need to renegotiate my rent if I need to do anything if I need to slow down if I need to go to my suppliers and renegotiate those payment terms. I've got some internal leverage. In other words, I know how important it is to me because I know I'm out of money say in April if I don't figure this out now. The second thing is if I know I'm going to run out of cash in four to six months I've bought myself a bunch of time to go find the right kind of loan if I have to pick up some debt on the balance sheet. And just as you alluded to I've got six months and have a pretty good business I might be able to get through SBA underwriting, I might be able to get all sorts of favorable lending options but if I wake up and realize oh crud tomorrow I'm out of money I don't have a lot of options. I'm going to take whatever money is going to fund me in the next week. And I would say that's where a lot of sellers get in trouble. They haven't forecasted effectively and so now they're out of money. They've got to fulfill that PO tomorrow and so now they're in a bind where how are they going to get stuff on the shelves to be able to sell it. And so yeah that's what I would say to that. Joe: So on the SBA underwriting, if somebody owns an e-commerce business and they've got good financials, they've owned it for a while and they use services like yours you're seeing them able to go out and get SBA financing to help with cash flow of their current business. Tyler: Yeah I think there's; I don't know that I've seen; I've seen more SBA lending when the deals come together for an actual exit but I will say this if you have a couple of years of good financials and you're carrying some debt I've definitely seen some of our clients refinance other lines of credit using SBA lending once they have a couple of years of good financial history. Joe: That makes sense. Tyler: You can go through the underwriting and what ends up happening is the bank has a much lower risk profile because the SBA; the government is going to back a certain percentage of that loan. And so it's always going to be your best terms, your best interest rate; the underwriting is a bit of a pain but again if you have six months you can get through that process and explore that as an option instead of having to take whatever emergency lending process. Joe: Yeah for those that don't understand the terms on the SBA lending it's generally 10 years and the interest rate is somewhere between 5 ½ to 8 ½%. Compare that to an Amazon loan where the term is somewhere between 14 and 15%; I'm sorry the interest rate and the term is generally 12 months. They take it out of your account as they make deposits. Tyler: And I've seen Amazon be as high as 19, 20 percent and they will underwrite it down to 11 but it never gets anywhere close to touching the SBA. Joe: Yeah, it's incredibly convenient. There's no question about it but there's a pretty steep cost that comes along with it. Tyler: The only one that steeper is when you have to get more of what's called like a payday funding option maybe like a Payability; nothing wrong. It's a good service in the right context but those cost capital numbers end up getting up in the 25, 30% range if you're not careful and that can really crush your business. Joe: Okay, cash flow taking, money off the table, these things are what keep entrepreneurs up at night so I love the fact that you help them with that and we'll share that in the show notes. Let's jump on to something that I think is incredibly important when we talk to people about selling their business. Well ultimately we're going to help them when they're ready but we'd prefer to talk to them 12 to 18 months in advance so that they're working with someone like you in order to prepare the best exit possible. And we often talk to them about renegotiating their cost of goods sold, focusing in on those inventories that are hero SKUs and those that are just okay. We always say you can break even doing nothing so why bother but often when it looks like they're breaking even they lose money. You help them focus in through your fractional CFO services on hero SKUs, cost of goods sold, things of that nature; yes? Tyler: Yeah I think something that's really important whether you have a fractional CFO or you do it yourself, it's extremely important to do a SKU grading. So I don't even care if you have a thousand skews you have to have some kind of a system for understanding which product lines are successful and which ones are losers. Which ones are the heroes like you said Joe, which ones are duds? And I have been shocked; I've been continually shocked as we do these analyses for clients to see that a guy's favorite SKU is taking them like an 80% advertising budget to move the SKU. Joe: That doesn't sound profitable. Yeah. Tyler: No, that's bad. Yeah. And just in case you're wondering, an 80% advertising budget is terrible. But they didn't know that because it's buried in this entire pile of SKUs and so it's extremely important to understand at least occasionally how each of your products is performing so that you can support the good ones, renegotiate the bad ones, or kill them. Joe: Yeah. So revenue insanity profit; no revenue is vanity, profit is sanity. So it gets down to understanding your profit and loss statements, digging into revenue by SKU, profit by SKU. I get most people don't get this. A lot of people that I work with that come across like I did early on I tell people openly I fell asleep in accounting class in college. I've since had to adapt and learn and now I understand it very, very well. But most people don't understand the simple difference between cash and accrual accounting and that when you're selling a business the books need to be presented on an accrual basis. Can you describe the difference between the two in layman's terms? That's the challenge; layman's terms. Tyler: Sure. So simply put if you have cash going out of your business, say you're buying inventory to actually stroke the check and you have a deposit coming into your business say the deposit from Amazon and you book that sale when the cash hits your account and you book that expense when you pay the money that's called cash basis accounting. And from a compliance tax standpoint, for most small businesses that is acceptable. But here's the problem and you got anyone who's looked at their P&L and saw a negative gross profit for a month. When you look at there and say why did I sell $100,00 this month but all of a sudden had $200,000 of inventory expenses? That doesn't make any rational sense. The reason is that you book the entire inventory the day you stroke the check instead of having the inventory asset and expensing it slowly as you sell the goods. And so in an accrual accounting method, you are on a quest to attach the sales dollar to the expenses that are associated with that dollar. So if I sold; let's just use that same number, if I sold $100,000 on Amazon in November I want to know how much it actually cost me; what the actual inventory expense for those units were that I sold in that month. And so you can kind of tell me and hear me say it's a little more difficult. Getting good accrual books takes a little bit more work. You have to deal with receivables. You've got to book things a little bit more sophisticatedly but it's the only way to be able to answer the question Joe did I make money last month? Because if you're doing it on a cash basis you really have no idea. You know when you've made your investments but you don't actually know whether your business is profitable unless you have an accrual system. Joe: And is that something that; I know it's hard to set up in Quick Books online but what do people have to have? Their landed cost of goods sold or their cost of goods sold the freight might be separate in your P&Ls; is it something that a layman could set up and figure out and flip to or does it really take a tremendous amount of experience like you have? Tyler: Well it could. I mean I don't want to; let me just say it's worth the effort. I will say this for everyone who's listening to this to this podcast if you haven't explored a tool called A2A accounting; literally the letter A, the number 2, the letter A. So A2A Accounting, I think it's A2Aaccounting.com that is a tool that lets you kind of pre map Amazon journal entries and it makes doing the accruals a lot easier. Well, what makes e-commerce so challenging is that Amazon pays us every 14 days normally and some of those sales might have happened in one month but I'm getting the entire paycheck from Amazon in the next month. And so I would say Joe yes normally having somebody that really understands e-commerce accounting is very helpful but for smaller sellers or sellers who don't have the budget to hire a team like mine it's worth learning how to do it and it's worth trying to understand; you mentioned the term landed cost of goods sold if I spend $100,000 on inventory, I've stroke the check, I've sent the wire, I have that inventory now, it's really important that I try to understand what that fully landed value is per unit. So let's say I bought a thousand of a particular SKU I can't just say I spent $100,000 divided by 1,000 so I've got basically was that a dollar SKU, right? It doesn't work that way. Joe: Because you pay the extra 10 cents to ship each individual unit; yeah. Tyler: Yeah you got shipping, tariffs, duties, everything else you need to just do the math. Make sure you have a spreadsheet; call it kind of a Master SKU Spreadsheet and understand what it really costs you per unit to get your product to the customer. And that's probably one of the biggest keys to understand. Joe: And let me just put some reality to this in terms of the why. Look anybody out there listening is like why the hell do I need to do that? The reason is because eventually, you're going to sell your business. You're going to get bought out. You're going to sell it to a partner. You and your partner are going to get in a fight and you're going to want to move in different directions. Or you own it with your wife or husband and you're going to get a divorce or at least half of you are. Or you're going to die. It's all going to happen eventually so you need to have your numbers on an accrual basis because when you sell your physical products e-commerce business you're going to get paid a multiple of your seller's discretionary earnings plus the landed cost of good sellable inventory on hand at the time of closing. Landed. If you're not tracking that landed figure and you're paying an extra 50 cents per unit you could be losing tens of thousands of dollars in inventory value at the sale. The other thing in terms of cash versus accrual and doing it yourself versus hiring somebody like Tyler is that if you're off by a couple of percentage points; let's just say that you're spending a million dollars a year in revenue. It's not a small business, it's a sizable one. And I've talked to these people that do this and have in-house bookkeepers and I'll give you some math on why you shouldn't admit it but if you're off by 2% on a million bucks that's $2,000 right? That's not right; that's $20,000 that you're off by. Your business is probably sizable selling it 4, 4 ½ times that would mean that your numbers; your profit, your discretionary earnings are off by $20,000. The value of your business is $80,000 off if you're a four-time multiple. So you're either overpricing the business by 80,000 because you overestimated or underestimated your cost of goods sold or worse yet you're undervaluing your business because you're off by 2% and your business is worth $80,000 more than you've got it listed for. These things matter. You worked so damn hard on driving more revenue and looking at your bottom line. But if you don't get the details right like this you're just wasting a whole bunch of money. Okay, that's my momentary rant now I'm going to go into another one. The services that you provide Tyler and there are others out there like you that's just like there's other brokers out there besides Quiet Light; it is what it is but I talked to somebody last week, they spent $24,000 a year on an in-house bookkeeper just out of college that does everything the CPA tells her to do. The numbers are all wrong. They're recording deposits; it was on a cash basis, it was completely and utterly incorrect. And this person thought they were doing something like 1.2 million in discretionary earnings, it really was about 800,000. If they fired the bookkeeper; we'll do the quick math for everybody, fire your bookkeeper is my message, $24,000 a year, hire somebody that does the e-commerce bookkeeping like Tyler and Seller Accountant, even if it's let's call it 600 bucks a month and you're doing an all-encompassing service it's only $7,200 a year, right? So 24,000 minus the 7,200, it's $16,800 in annual savings to the bottom line numbers of your business. If your business is worth four times that adds $67,000 to the list price of your business when you eventually sell it. It's simple and logical math and you don't have an HR problem anymore; you don't have that bookkeeper in-house, you've got somebody like Tyler helping you who's a Bulldogs fan by the way. For those watching the video, stand up just a little bit; what's that logo on your shirt say? Tyler: Man I'm a University of Georgia guy. I'm across the street from the campus here in Athens and Double Dog. I have my MBA and accounting degree here. Joe,  I will say this it really is it's not even so much what you could pay per hour because, to be honest with you the client that's doing a million in discretionary earnings is unlikely to be 600 bucks a month for any service even me if we're getting it done right. But the reality is that if you're paying someone your full-time salary; I know this when I had a company with 100 employees. We always had somebody sitting around. If you're going to carry someone you're always having to get them at a rate where you can't use their full capacity or frankly if you're using your full capacity you got to hire somebody else. And so it's inefficient because; and there are some businesses that need to have a full-time controller. I think if you're doing 15 million a year in revenue you probably need to have a high-end controller on your staff. At that point, that's a six-figure job you're looking to hire for. I think the issue that the seller may be that you're describing would come across is not only are they spending the 24,000; even if they paid me the same amount to do it it's actually going to be done correct and when I go to market those books are going to be stated in accrual basis and they're going to have everything the way they want it. And we can scale with them without them having to hire an entire new employee. So I think that really is a big benefit unless you are; this is what I've learned in general. And this is every business I've worked in or own, I want to make sure that I inhouse my core competency; whatever my competitive advantage is I'm going to make sure that I have teammates that allow me to perpetuate that competitive advantage. Anything that isn't my strength I want to find someone that that is their strength; someone that can do it more efficiently and can do it better than I can. I'm not a broker if I need a broker I want to go to someone like Joe that gets the broker business and can do it more efficiently I'm going to pay Joe but I'm going to make a lot of mistakes and lose a lot more money if I try to do it myself. It's really the same with accounting or PPC or anything else. I'm a big believer. That's what my dad always told me. It's just spend your time where you're making your money. I want to get so focused that I can be the best in the world at something and then I want to outsource as much as I can so that I can be better at my core rather than trying to fix my errors all the time and fix my screw-ups and that kind of thing. Joe: I think that's incredibly well said. I don't have a whole lot to add to that. I think it's just brilliant. I think it's a great business methodology and mindset and it's what everybody should be adopting. Tyler, how do the audience members learn more about your services? Tyler: Yeah so thanks again for having me, Joe. So SellerAccountant.com is our website. You can learn more about our services there. Feel free to reach out to us. We'd love to have a discussion with you. And yes it's been a pleasure to being on the show. Joe: And you're going to share that cash flow forecasting spreadsheet. We'll put that in the show notes so everybody can do their own numbers and if it's confusing reach out to Tyler he'd be there to help you. Thanks for the honor man, I appreciate it. Tyler: You got it. Links and Resources: Tyler's Wedsite A2X Accounting Cash flow forecasting spreadsheet

We finally made it to the Atlas! Look out white maps, here we come!Join the party! Check out our website for more episodes and be sure to follow us on Twitter.www.foreverexiled.comTwitter @ForeverExiled82Path of Exile WebsiteWrecker of Days Builds ListFull Transcript of Episode:Justin: Hey there. Welcome to Episode five of Forever Exile. The Path of Exile Podcast. I am one of your host, Justin A K Tags.Tyler: And I'm Tyler Wrecker of Days. Well, we made it Number five. Yeah. Good. Good. We're doing the best of episodes, Ari.Justin: Yeah, where we're at, like, take 41. RoughlyTyler: way. Our we've been We've been giggling trying to start this podcast for, like, the last hour.Justin: You know, actually, you saying that makes me want to just quickly jumped the gun a little bit because I noticed, if you're one of your notes was just how incredible your giggle is.Tyler: So I obviously listen to the podcast. Once you've finished editing them, Justin does everything. By the way, I just sit here and giggle and make fun of him. But after he's edited and what we get to listen to it, I like to listen to it to see what it, of course, sounds, likes weak and make it better make the next episode better and better and constructive criticism I have noticed now that I really ate my giggle. I sound so lame. Gable. It sounds totally fine in my head. I feel like a manly man when I giggle in my head. But my goodness, when I giggle when I hear from the outside, it's brutal.Justin: So that just shows how impressive it is that for four episodes I've been editing your giggle just to increase the highs. I'm just kidding. I should think this is going to be, like, really high.Tyler: No, this episode I'm gonna Ha, ha.Justin: That is hilarious. Yes, I am. Anyway, that made me think of it. You said giggle. It's your fault. Uh, all right, So tell me anyway, tell me about your build. You've been doing it. I mean, do refresher on your building where you're at right now. Let's let's hear it.Tyler: All right. Um, I finally had some time to gets maps, which was nice. I finished last few acts quite quickly. I like those last acts because there's very few side quest you need to do for extra passive points and finally got endgame. Tried to do it with my leveling gear, which wasn't special. It's not leveling gears, just whatever dropped. So I was pretty bad on resist. Tried to do. I know 5 to 10 maps with it, and, uh, just before the podcast started. I finally capped my resists, but damage is good and survivability would be good. I'm really liking it. I don't know what people are complaining about a lot of fun. Single target damage isn't great, but the game's a lot harder to so anyway,Justin: where you build when you say people complaining, Are you referring to just in general or specifically to your build?Tyler: Sorry specifically for that guide? I'm referring to the which building I do, and I'm doing my sion build. It's Ah, deadeye and inquisitor. It's elemental hit with attached to What's it called? It's still the list of support the ballistic totem support, Lester told him, Supports really weak. You basically need four totems, even though it only gives you three. You have to go find 1/4 told him just to make it worthwhile. But I'm quite liking it. And because you're constantly moving and laying the totems with elemental hit and with crit and with all the extra ailments that air happening freezing and shocking, it's I I really like it so far. I mean, I have a four, a blue four link, and, uh, I've been fine, so I'm excited to get a a nice five link.Justin: Your survivability, though, seems to be at least reasonable. So far, you're reallyTyler: very easy. It was really easy while levelling, of course, ramps up a bit once you get into the atlas. But, um, I had 19% fire resist, and I think 55 or 60 Ah, lightning resist. And there's a lot more chaos damage and oh, my goodness. I redid the graveyard. I did the new graveyard boss fight, and that's cool. I don't know if that was in our notes somewhere, so I don't want to jump ahead.Justin: I don't think I've actually done graveyard yet.Tyler: Oh, the chaos. I just love how viable chaos is. I feel like it's syndicate, but without needing the crazy nurse that syndicate needed for a month straight, it's There's so much more chaos, damage, um, the new I don't really want to spoil it, but for the podcast tried Well, for you, the graveyard boss battle that used to just be you'd go into that crypt, right? And then to be that I mean, it's changed a couple of times now. I think it's a change it again and Now it's kind of like an open crypt area where you fight one of the skeleton bosses that existed in campaign. But then, once you beat that one whole wave of enemies come. And then a second skeleton boss comes because I think you can do that. Different ones, Yes, and I love it. There's shocking to let crazy. They're throwing chaos, damage at you from from range. I really liked it and especially because it's what. But it dropped for me. I think it was my fifth map. I don't know if it's Tier 12 or three. I forget, but it was when you're not really set with your resists. That's a punishing boss battle, and I really liked it. But back to the build, I just finished capping my resists and survivability was pretty easy before, so it's gonna be a lot better now.Justin: Nice and damage with elemental hit and ballisticTyler: clearing is no problem. Single target damage requires some patients, Um, but not only for the impatient, I guess you could say, um, I don't find that for me. I'm used to a slower paced game, and I don't find it tedious by any means. umJustin: Well, you actually, because under a single target apartment, do you think you'll do anything to change single target? Like, do you have any plans for?Tyler: Yeah, right now I'm using a blue Oh, right. Four link. Yeah. I'm using a blue for link right now. So it all it does, it's giving me 7 18% attack speed and 24% elemental damage. So I knew the second I even even if I had a white five link or a nice yellow four link, I don't think it would be a problem at all.Justin: Nice. Yes. So, me, I am doing spectral throw, still sticking with it, and, uh, I'm into maps. I've gotten past all of the, you know, the levelling, all that good stuff. Ah, it's been decent. It's solar cell. Found for me is a whole new breed of playing this game. I'm just so used to, ah, hit endgame by some of the gear that I want to at least make the maps a little easier to clear. Make sure I've got ah, you know, the right resists. But the build that I'm just playing around with is working. Fine. Now that I've got my gem slots set up. I'm still also only running off of a four link chest, so that'll make a big difference once I can do that. And I'm swapping GMP for ah, slower projectile still, which I probably I probably will do through the whole thing anyway. So it's it's been not bad. It's a little a little slow, uh, had huge hiccups as I was leveling and I'm realizing I think I made that. We made the comment that we were chatting that weapons hold. My gosh, Did they ever make such a big difference? Like,Tyler: Oh, and I love it. I love it.Justin: Yeah, it's It's nice. It's just it's I feel different. It's weird that that's different. I mean, you've always needed to upgrade weapons, obviously toe to scale your damage, but I don't know if it's just spectral throw. I don't know if it's if there was a specific change that's made that different, but I have found that without that, that constant upgrade to weapons which, by the way, upgrading Klaus Sucks is brutal. To find Klaus that have reasonable roles, especially cousin went straight physical, it's really hard to find replacement clause Once I've got something that's rolled plus physical and plus percentage physical, I can't It's really, really hard to find something that will improve that.Tyler: Catch him Well, I mean, I know your pain. I'm still using my blue four links. So, um, but it's I just love. I think it has everything to do with just the changes that they made to defense in the how bosses they're scale. All the extra armor and chaos and elemental resists. And for everyone, I just I just love that update where they made them harder to kill, but they don't hit harder. I mean, some of the boss mechanics had changed dramatically, which makes them a lot harder to, But it just makes weapons that much more important. And I love it because for melee, they're much more dependent on weapons than any other type of, um, build. I would say, like if you're doing spells, you can get away with not needing a fantastic wander staff, right? Or don't whatever also you're using. But when you're doing spells, you don't need something epic. It's just great to have opinions. You don't need anything, but of course, it's just mid. Maxine if you want to get a convicting one with sweet rolls Malays desperate for a good melee weapon. And I love that right after they have a melee league, they come out, they buff stuff to make melee weapons Much more important, I think it's really cool. I love how they did it.Justin: It is, Yeah, I think if I had maybe thought a little differently into ah, maybe it may be a different skill, or I don't know if I could have incorporated different types of weapons, but I just I feel like for a solo cell found I made it harder than I needed to because I've just I've struggled to roll clause that are good to use,Tyler: are you? Claw OnlyJustin: while I'm spect into a lot of the claw nodes just for the the engine for the crit. ButTyler: that's that's one of those things than that, I guess you kind of cornered yourself into then.Justin: Yeah, so we'll see. I mean, I'm now, uh, into maps. I've gotten it. Did the atlas. I mean, maze will just jump a little bit too. That is kind of cool. I've again, I'm not super far into it of ah, unlocked out Zana. So she's back. I've had these weird encounters with the the new the new bosses, like have just spawned And I can remember the name of the one that I've seen, but he kind of just spawned in, yelled at me and then took off and it just got the notification to keep following him. And I'mTyler: like, Yeah, I had that and I couldn't see what was happening. The map was still busy and I heard some dialogue. I didn't really know what it was, and yeah, that's to read it at the same time.Justin: So I'm I've noticed that as I've done more maps in that quadrant, um, he's popped up a few times. I haven't gotten much further into how that whole system works, but what I will say is, on top of the hole, okay? Trying to figure out weapons as I'm going along it further to what you were talking about with your build. My God resists so resist to me has always they've always been king. You get to endgame, you get resists. You just have to. I have never felt Maur than this league like yes, you Absolutely have to capture resists. It is especially getting into these these new bosses. Yeah, I don't know if he just happens to be lightning based or why everything is lightning. But after he popped up the bosses, or just like random rare Tze and just mobs would all of a sudden spawned with additional lightning damage, they would put these things on the ground. They were shooting. It was killing me so quickly and I think was in 40 48% or so, which normally obviously that's not great. But normally in a tear to map, I wouldn't be Oh, you know, I really need to be in 75. I just be working to get gear. And as I captured that cap it, I had no choice but to actually start adjusting my gear and what it made a huge difference, which I'm not had a lead like that before. And I started thinking because the first it pissed me off first thing I was like Oh my God, so tired of dying. And then, as I started to, you know, just the gear and especially with SSF, it makes it a little bit harder. But the the ability to now have to actually plan around capping my resists walk, maintaining life and damage. It's actually made it kind of fun. Yeah, it really has.Tyler: Yeah, I'm really a one thing. I totally agree with you. I completely agree with you. And one thing that I think I already mentioned it. But just in case I didn't turn now, only thought it. It used to be that you could just ignore chaos. Resist for so many of your bills until syndicate came along, you could ignore your your chaos resistant. You could just do your three elements. Now I feel with all the different roles they've done, they've added a lot of chaos, damage to some big, big boss battles and a lot of the metamorphose stuff. Specifically, it's almost like you can't get away. You It's always gonna have some sort of chaos. A we it's really made it so that you need all four. Captain. Oh, I used to just do the three. I'm sure many died. Many did. But I'm really finding the value and crafting some of those chaos rules just to at least get to the baseline of 0%. I think I saw this in a lot of chaos. Damage?Justin: Yeah, I have to. I don't know if I found it as, um it's definitely beneficial. I'm not at minus 60. I think I'm at 35 or something. So it's not. It's not zero, but it's definitely better than nothing but it to me. He was not as bad as the I don't know Lightning. I couldn't believe the difference from 48 to 75 obviously that's always gonna be a huge difference. It's just never been a huge difference. A tear to Oh, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I've always felt like Okay, I'm getting into, like, six. You're seven. You know, it's time to actually start really paying attention to everything. Yeah, this is like it's cool. It's really cool, because that one of the complaints I've had in the past is just end Game now had become stale, so I think it's aTyler: sexy independence all the way through. Maybe we won't think that in the fifth league of this end game, butJustin: yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know enough about how the endgame all works yet, so it's kind of hard to say, but I am enjoying The metamorphose stuff is sometimes enjoyable. I've started to get some of the boss ones the ones that you actually collect. I haven't Not enough to actually do much with them. Ah, some of them have been reasonable. But even still, some of them are very, very difficult, Which is good. I don't mind. I don't mind not being able to kill a boss like a meta morph boss. Yet if I made it too strong and I'm like, Oh, God, this I just can't do it. Yeah, it sucks for me. I gotta learn to the next one.Tyler: I've heard a lot of people. Well, whether it's within my guides air on Reddit complained that it's too difficult And then there's some people of the mentality that a lake just turn. Just turn the difficulty down like you're not forced to do the hardest one. And if your build can't do it, don't do it on. And then there's other people that think. I've heard the complaints that they should be able to do the hardest ones, and I don't like that I like the you know, it should be terrifying to do the hardest. Have you got all the body parts in the map? It should be terrifying. You should expect it to be a long time or you should I don't know. You know what I mean? Totally beat Easy for you shouldn't expect to do it with mediocre everything.Justin: Yeah, I totally agree to me. It goes back to bay two days and like the early release days where there were some builds just could not do it, you just couldn't. And it wasn't It wasn't something broken in the game. It was something you did just didn't work. And you either adjusted or I mean, then it was start over. But yeah, yeah, I don't know. I've been I've been relatively pleased so far. I mean, I'm pretty early into the tears of the palace, but I found the difficulty to be decent. Uh, I mean, for me, for path of Exile, it's rewarding enough. Antemortem is adding the ability to get a lot of cool stuff that you couldn't get in other ways before you had to do specific league things to do it. So that's kind of fun.Tyler: Yeah, it is. It's It's really cool. I think they've done a very good job. I know that there's glitches for people that are a lot farther into endgame. Unlike us, we're still in our white maps. But, um, I think in terms of stability, this was really, really good. I just, um I forget where this isn't a list. So cut me off. If I'm too far ahead of myself. I just really wish that what they did was introduce this next league. But I love the new endgame, and I'm really excited about it. But to introduce a brand new endgame and then go on a skeleton crew for Christmas, it doesn't make sense to me.Justin: Yeah, but I think that's also for you. Somewhat related to other things. Not just specifically the league. The big leaguesTyler: challenges, but they're they're running into they. Some of the stuff that I'm watching this one is a little bit farther down, but the guy that I watch relax r o l a X on mixer. His issues are very different than mine. I'm waiting for cause I play standard. I'm waiting for the map tab to get fixed, but that's not gonna happen till after Christmas, because they have one person that works on the map tapping there on vacation. So but roll axes. His issue is he's getting to engage with every single character that he makes. He's already on. His fourth character is crushing Endgame, and his issue is that there's a glitch with Final Boss. And I've seen lots of stuff in the patch notes about the final Boss is and how they're glitches and they're not dropping this or they're not. You know, this, that another thing and he can'tJustin: What's the alternative? I mean, you're suggesting that they push of a game changing league to a ah, further release so that they don't have it come over Christmas,Tyler: right? I don't think any time you're gonna have a skeleton crew for two weeks, even if it's just one week, I really especially because it's going to be what, a three week point of the league right? Like this came out December 9. I think it was to have Christmas two and 1/2 3 weeks later, after you've completely revamped the entire endgame, I don't know.Justin: Yeah, I don't know what to me. It's hard, though, because if they come up with a league that barely has any changes just because they're gonna have a skeleton crew. That league ends up being garbage. It's people. People may not play it. I mean, the thing is, if they go, if they go skeleton crew, Firth, whatever it is, 2 to 3. I don't even think it's three weeks, two weeks, three weeks. Someone like that. Two weeks to, um, that's better to me than three months of, Ah garbage league.Tyler: Well, but imagine Metamor for the old Atlas. To me,Justin: that's fantastic. Yeah, I don't know. I don't knowTyler: how everything Woods with how it all works, right, Like, it's been a long time since I've worked in the video game industry, and when I did, I wasn't at the top of the food chain making the decisions with all the decisions that the higher ups need to make. But it's just for me. It's every Christmas. I really don't get to play until the new year, when the league comes out and then it's gonna be the Christmas League, as I call it as a standard player. I don't get to play until January, so it kind of sucks. ButJustin: I don't see the alternative to that, though, and I think that I mean, I I can see where you're talking about in the fact that it's ah ah, huge game changing league and it comes out right before they. I don't know how often else in the year they even have skeleton crews. I imagine it's not very often, but ah, I would rather I would rather it affect the I mean, people may really, really be angry about the fact that I say it or that they may disagree with me in some sense. But it's affecting the people who have a lot of time and have power rushed to end game, which is awesome, like That's cool that they have done it. But I imagine that that portion of the player base is small compared to the players who are still working their way up through be Atlas and you're never going to make it perfect. Old big release almost ever has been Yeah, so there's going to be something that goes wrong to me. At least there's nothing game breaking and even the ones I've read night for league players and but I don't care about standard, but I mean, even on center,Tyler: You're in the minority there.Justin: No, I'm definitely. I definitely know for sure. Not on that. Most of them. I might be in the minority that when I'm definitely not. But even your issue, it's still very specific, too. A mechanic not working. Not all mechanics not working now. Granted, it's a pretty I read that they, like, literally turned it off, right, Like they just turned off the convert button. I thought I heard. Yeah, yeah,Tyler: yeah, they did. It turned off, and it's true. I could play it. I could spend 15 bucks and get a new map stash tab.Justin: No, I don't think you should. And I agree, like frustration that comes from that. But I don't think you'll ever have a league release that's going to be perfect off the bat, even 2 to 3 weeks, and hopefully it's as close as possible. But I read the complaints. I've read the comments that they've made. They're not. It works. There's just some stuff. That's your rape. It's kind of frustrating for such is, but it's not broken. I would rather like I said, I would rather have maybe 2 to 3 weeks of Okay, this is stupid. I'm frustrated. I'm annoyed, and then they're coming back, and they're gonna fix it. Uh, and they still have staff working. It's not like a game. Breaking bugs is just going to go on because they want to enjoy Christmas. God forbid. But yet, uh, if if that means that, okay, I gotta wait 2 to 3 weeks for them to fix something that is really just irritating me versus having to deal with three months of a league that I found boring because they wanted to make sure not to get people upset. I feel like that's maybe worse. Yeah, I don't know, but I mean, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't mind it, but I'm not there, so it's not affecting me.Tyler: Yeah, way need to. I need to be more familiar with the endgame bugs that are happening to. But you've almost converted me almost. You may have let them have Christmas tie. Just let them have Christmas am. I am. But have Christmas with the old atlas, all right? Just bored again. So remember last episode we're talking about holy and showing up. I was all mystified. I thought it was fantastic that when you click on a crafting recipe, yeah, she just appears Yes, you know, she'd smoke bombs like a ninja turtle on, comes in and says her little piece and then goes away. I thought that was a really cool little thing. Um, so I hear you've been a little disappointed with the frequency of it. Now,Justin: is it just our last time that we talked about with that when this you first brought this up? Yeah, I think it was just last episode. Yes, So it was. It must have been, cause that's when I finally got some free time to play and every freaking recipe I would zoom in my damn camera, click it. And there were times I think I was even streaming at one point so you could watch, and I clicked it, and I I message you and said you're you're freaking liar. She didn't jump up and you said, Oh, it's because you were standing right in front of it. I was like, Oh, okay, maybe it wasTyler: always your fault.Justin: Now I will just say I was about to go into it. I was in a trial when I got that one. So I went to the next one and it actually kind of irritated me a little bit because the next one I found was within just the regular story of the game. So I moved off to the side, clicked it, and sure enough, she popped up. I was like, God damn it, Tyler was right. Yeah, And she did, like, smokes in. And she says, Ah, I think she said the same line every time. Something about this is very interesting. And then she smoke clouds out. But it's only the more I did it, the more I was watching it. She she doesn't so nothing related to a lab. Nothing related to trials will ever show up. Nothing related to delve will ever show up. And once you beat the game, that's it. She's done. She doesn't show up in maps. WhyTyler: do itjust campaign? I was really surprised. That's dumb. Yeah, whyJustin: I don't understand is that there's no Maybe somebody knows some weirdo lower to the game that somehow stopped actin that she couldn't help you with the recipesTyler: anymore. Well, maybe maybe they'll add it more if it's a new thing that we just have If it's new right and we didn't miss it before, maybe it's just they're adding it in and then they'll be able to add it to more. As, uh, maybe you just would have added, you know, to my previous complaint about having a new atlas. Maybe it just would've added more possible glitches when they were going on. No, no. HowJustin: hard could it have been? Toe added toe labs to delve, too. Maps everywhere.Tyler: Every little thing you add. Construe something elseJustin: does nothing. She's she literally does. She is. She's not even an actual like thing that interferes with you. You can walk right through her. She does nothing. It's like she's not there. It's dumb. Just put it into all of them. I irritated me more so than anything that you told me about it, because I remember it took me. It took me so much longer to get through some of the acts because I would run into them and be like, Okay, maybe, Maybe if I stand a little bit over here. No. Yeah. She doesn't show up in those places through.Tyler: Well, I hate you more than you hate me for Helena, Because you're playing solo Cell found this time for the first time in forever. And you couldn't give me the ridiculous Val City way point.Justin: You know it was you this times you I found it almost right away.Tyler: Oh, I don't even want to hear your solo. No. Found luck with a locked. Why did he lock? Hold your hand and show, YouJustin: know, but But something pointed the way I could tell. I could sense it. It was those fireflies they were leading.Tyler: Yeah, fireflies that don't stack in your inventory. Um,Justin: crabby old man. Yeah, I found I found that when I found thanks for not beingTyler: able to give you $2 city waypoint. I appreciate it.Justin: You have to work for things. That's how you enjoy the gameTyler: Can. The Bell City is really enjoyable.Justin: It's annoying because it not only is it probably one of the most frustrating spots to find it for, but then also, the next level that you load into is the freaking longest set of map or area. I think in the whole game that hope Rose is to get down to the spider. Oh, my God, It's exhausting. it's worse than Vow. Pyramid Way Worse, I don't know why. Maybe it's God's going down instead of up.Tyler: Well, it's twice as long. Yeah, well, Pyramid, I think it's three levels and then you're actually at the top. Whereas when you're going down to the spider, it's three levels and then you're just another second section, and then it's another three levels. If I'm correct, it's I don't mind that part, though. That one's relatively easy to navigate. And there's not a lot of wrong turns, not a fan. I don't mind the maps that get me, Um, but that's just because of my concussion. Symptoms and stuff are the maps with trees and the trees that go in front of the screen. Um, what would be one deal? I don't know howJustin: Jungle is brutal. I actually noticed that just today I was thinking to myself, Okay, we're talking about that whole technology of the stuff is cutting. You go through jungle. The trees do not fade it all, they say, right up in your face through the hole. I was like, Why would they not have these ones fade out? I don't know if it's just because it's older, and maybe it's more difficult for them to do that. But it is really weird to me that jungle, the jungle map Jungle Valley. The maps do not fade or sorry, the trees don't fade. Yeah, it's kind of weird.Tyler: Yeah. And you, old atlas. I would never, ever shaped the ones that had those tall trees that will go in front of the camera. It was just too too nauseated for me.Justin: Would it change it if if it had that effect, where they they weren't really? I mean, that kind of see through,Tyler: um Well, there's that. What was it? Is it Lava lake map that had, um I don't know if they're the same. A CZ they used to be. But the lab a lake when they had caught Eva was a tear 14 or 15 last week. That had some trees. Cem, Cem. Nice apple trees. ErJustin: over there. Just little ones rightTyler: there. Well, they were. They were big, They didn't go all the way up across the screen, and it would have that technology where it would fade so you could see yourself on the other side. That still gets me a little bit, but it's nowhere near as bad as something that's crossing my eyes really fast. Like car driving through and, you know, shaded woods Interest. Bang, bang, bang. Just shade hitting. You left, right and center.Justin: Yeah, it's funny. I just I literally just today was doing Jungle Valley and thought of that. Come on. And then I did. I think it was right after we finished Episode four. Maybe that next day I finally got to play, and I'm I'm running through an area goingTyler: the hell areJustin: these things popping up? My screen is unlike running through killing stuff. And yeah, that's the monster parts picking up. Yeah. Is that I'm sure people listening to it Or like what a whiny baby like it's alreadyTyler: faced. I'm sorry. Fix happen hour later, but what do you think of it?Justin: Uh, I I do like it. Obviously, I actually this is just me being a turd. I'm not a big fan of the way it shows up, because it and maybe we'll just take a bit of getting used to playing more to get used to it. But it throws me off for some reason, a little bit And maybe it's just cause I'm not playing a very fast build. I'm not moving super quickly through the map or through the zone. There's something about the way it pops up that just throws me off from looking at what the drops are to the interest at part going up. But I I love it. I absolutely love the fact that I don't care what it does. I don't care what flash my whole screen. The fact that it I don't have to be. Oh, I don't have to go and pick them all up is so much better. Yeah. You like it?Tyler: I like the animation. Yeah, I like it. I don't get distracted with it. I don't get it mixed up with other possible drops. I really like it. And the thing that I I don't know if this was how it used to be, because you and I have progressed slowly, but whether it was added new or not, I love that when you're about to go through a portal or a door. Um, what's his name shows up.Justin: Oh, yeah, kind of warns you.Tyler: Yeah, but I like that, you know, because I'm going to go through and I'm gonna clear the map. How I normally cleared I don't go out of my way for any lead content if it's going to be, You know, if if there's two monsters left and I'm missing one body part, I'm not going for it. So it's nice when I'm vote to go into this or I'm gonna portal. Oh, that he shows up. He's like a Okay, let's use up your pieces. Yeah, I like it. I think it was a very it was a gamer's choice, You know what I mean? Whoever came up with that idea, it was it was the gamer in them that came up with that. That was really convenient.Justin: Yeah, I think it is. Good, cause I would probably forget Maur often than not if if he didn't do that, and I'd probably load the next map and be like, damn it, I forgot to use up those parts. So that's at least good. Now, did you Did you get Ah, Did you get your Christmas gift from G, which I feel like you should take away from you? I feel like people who are complaining about them going to skeleton staff don't deserveTyler: a gift. I don't maybe. Oh, everything. Oh, they deserve a wicked Christmas. Well, old Atlas.Justin: So what you're saying, though, is the people that stay working what I'm saying? That'sTyler: qu'est er of words. No. Um, no, no, no, no. Not at all. Not at all.Justin: Did you get you get from them there? It was one of the boxes. Right.Tyler: Okay, well, you got I do not. What? But it was white.Justin: So I on on that same topic, because I I did get, um, a gift. I got the white, uh, missed, I think for the for your base, The white It's like, OK, but I also I decided I was going to do the grand sanctum pack because I really like the wings. And I like the outfit. That was the thing is the $60 pack. I'm still I'm still boycotting. Currently, there their core packs. I just Maybe I might really I might buy this the snake one just because it's, you know, it's it is a little bit unique, but I just can't I I was like, Well, I don't see myself going this time for there's no shirt. So why spend 240 bucks? But ah, it So I bought the couple of the boxes. I have 55 versions of God. What is it? The blink. Ah, it's one of the skills that they went there. No, no, no, it's Ah, it's not whirling blades. It's something Blade. What is it called, anyway? It's I have five of them. I hate that. That's the one thing that drives me crazy. You know, all I want is a damn portal. I think I've opened maybe 20 boxes, so not like a ton, but 25% of them have been the same thing killing me, G.Tyler: But I got to say, normally I'm I'm portals, is what it kind of revolves around for me. You know, you need to have a nice portal that matches the set. And because it's so much bigger and brighter, that color stands out to the others that you can get away with footprints that don't aren't the exact shade of white or green that you're looking for to match your set. You know what I mean? Because it's much farther away and it phase and it's busy, but portal portals really stand out there there the whole time. You stand next time for a while. The grand sanctum support pack is so nice that I'm gonna get it, even though I don't like at a normal that could match it.Justin: Well, give me a portal that you have because there's portals that mattersTyler: and that really, I don't think so. Well, sometimes it's also it's not just the color. It's also the action that the portal does, or the colors and how it goes. You know what I mean? AndJustin: wings air really cool with it, though.Tyler: I love it. I love it. I'm, uh I'll be getting it as soon as we're done.Justin: I'm actually using some of the white armor that I got from the boxes with the grand sanctum, but, uh, yeah, I I don't remember. I do have two of the white floaty mists. Uh, you can put in your base. I also I don't think you've seen it yet, but I have I did get that new base, butTyler: so did you.Justin: Yeah, the completely I did it mostly because I knew it would drive Ethan crazy. And so I loaded it up. I put it in there with absolutely nothing. And I just spaced the characters out, and I When he walked by my office, I was like, Look, check out how awesome this is. And he was upset right away. And I told him it's going to stay like that All league. I'm not gonna put anything down. If anything, I might put like a fire pit for some random reason. Like one fire pit.Tyler: Well, it's cold in the stars. Yep. It's gonna look awesome. So you can sit cross leggedJustin: and put all of my petsTyler: so they can float around. And don't forget you're missed.Justin: Oh, yeah. I should put down that white mist. I'm gonna put it in a corner just so that when people visit, I'd be like, Hey, did you see there's twoTyler: also you. I'll even give you a discount. But you've got to go in the mist.Justin: There's two of them up there, but I love that they give those little boxes. I think it's fun.Tyler: Yeah, they're very generous company. And every time I realized that we've complained about something in the game that I don't like or you don't like, I feel really bad. I don'tJustin: feel bad, and I think it's good. It's I don't think we're being fixed. It's no, I get it. ITyler: get. It's constructive. But I still when I really when I remember that it's free and everything's free. I feel like a prick.Justin: Well, I mean, you're a prick, but it doesn't mean that they're doingTyler: anything wrong. I'm not the one that went solo. Cell found. You're a prick.Justin: Yeah, but you also said that they don't deserve a merry Christmas.Tyler: No, I said enjoy your merry Christmas with the old Atlas.Justin: I think I think it isTyler: you not being able to give me the Val City waypoint is way worse than anything anyone else has ever done toJustin: me. I think that merry Christmas box makes up for the bugs. So two people complaining about the bugs. At least you got a box,Tyler: right? And he didn't play peewee a Christmas. You're not a real fan. Anyway. It's true, right, Britta?Justin: At least to log in. Get your freaking box.Tyler: You did have to be in game to get it. Well, you couldn't click on it on the website.Justin: Yeah, but you didn't have to be on that day.Tyler: I remember.Justin: I got mine today, I think because I didn't go on you saidTyler: you were on yesterday. Yeah. Yesterday I was able to finish my just for the box. No, no, I was able to finish an actor to yesterday. I think it was yesterday that I got two maps. Who? I think the boxes logging in until January 6.Justin: Oh, yes. I didn't think it was just the single day that that would be a jerk. Move. Geez, like,Tyler: Well, we're a little Bell City. Wait points a jerk. MoveJustin: How? We're at home enjoying our Christmas. If you don't log into the video game on that day, you don't get it. Uh,Tyler: enjoy your family, Bond.Justin: Yeah, I don't think anything we've said is mean spirited. And yeah, I think we're fair. We're now We're nice people in general, right?Tyler: Well, one of us, one of me. That's true. Yeah.Justin: So that's why did I look through the post that they made because they had put up a post about like, uh, some of the known issues that they were going to deal with, But I didTyler: nothing in there really,Justin: like, stood out to me like Oh my gosh, I can't play this. I will be honest. There is one that says the convert maps button in the map stash tab has been temporarily disabled as there were problems converting to the new layout. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I laughed so hard when I read that. Why fly? What? You've just popped into my head instantly. I don't know why you just made me laugh. I was like, Oh, but they're listening. Listen,Tyler: every time the game updates whether waiting for you and I hate how long steam takes to frickin update a 30 makeup date. But anyway, when I'm I mean, it gives me 10 hours. Thank you, Steam for being able to check the patch notes every time I'm just control f that I see my console game updating him like, Oh, well, maybe because they group their patches together for Consul cause they don't promote us frequently. I don't know how it works in the console back end, but that's really do. And so then I'm like, Oh, sweet, Maybe maybe a new one came out for PC today, and then I control control F on the patch notes for Xbox. You mad? I'm excited. It'll happenJustin: yet to me. When I read through this stuff there was, I think only one that maybe kind of popped out to me is like, Okay, this is actually something they need to work on. And it was releasing legion generals during legion encounters can cause a client crash. I think something that can actually crashed the game, that that's a bit of a problem. And that mostly just cause we both dealt with leagues where I mean you, especially where that was an issue. So I can I can, you know, I can see that a little bit. But when I look at their posts that they put out and this is days before Christmas, I think this one popped up. I don't rember who posted it. Uh, it still impresses me like they're legitimately looking into stuff. They know stuff there, and they're gonna fix it. And the stuff that I was reading was not game breaking. Besides, the fact that the client could crash that that to me is a bit of a big deal. I had an issue with one of the valves side areas. Who cares? It was not a big deal. It took into when I when I exited, it didn't bring me back. So where I had entered into the map, I actually thought it was cool. Yeah, I don't know. The rest of the stuff wasTyler: even something like Metamor. Fosse's not being able to be frozen were used to Boss is not be able to be frozen. It was just chill, right, Right. So I, you know, even with something that was frozen dependent, you're getting a very good chill on them, especially because it was buff. So that's not even a big problem either.Justin: Nothing stood out to me where on and again, that could have been because there have been stuff fixed that were more game breaking that I just never encounter because I hadn't gotten up there. But I didn't really stand out to Mia's thes terrible things.Tyler: Yeah, I can see the There's a There's an issue where the awakened cast on Krit um, is creating cooled elms where when there shouldn't be any, I could see that being a big issue for builds. But at the same time, you don't need the awakened jewel to have a successful build. SoJustin: you're already having a problem with an awakened version of a skill? Boo hoo. I don't feel bad for you. Even a tiny bit. A tiny bit. Put the cast on. CreatedTyler: for not to drop.Justin: Sure, I'm thrilled. If it didn't work on the lake first week of a league lunch, I wouldn't be like you wreckedTyler: my bill. No, you haven't. Go put the normalJustin: one in the one you used all the way up until you found that one. Yeah. Yeah, I saw. I don'tTyler: know if anybody's actually complaining about it, but we did see it on the bug report,Justin: right? I imagine it's probably because somebody complained about it. Ah, but yeah, I just It made me laugh. Yeah, there were. There were some really fun, uh, things that I saw in in red It actually in the last couple of days that made me laugh or not laugh with smile there. Only because I get so jealous I still haven't seen exults this league. Nothing cool has dropped yet besides garbage unique ce which is still fine. But the critic I that posted he did ah ah Contains a valuable gym. He got to You got enlightened and empower both level force. They dropped as a light on level four. Empower little for. And there was other stuff too, but oh, my gosh. I was like, What? The hacky. There was a screenshot of it, and I'm thinking in solar cell found I would leave in a heartbeat. I like buying stuff through a felon. I'm getting stuff, but it was crazy. And then, uh Okay, So there. Did you see? I don't know how often you check credit, but there was a helmet that somebody posted that was crafted. This was It was it was with that the ah, the awaken, her orb. So where you combined the two things? Now I feel like this is a lot because this helmet just Oh, man. Perfect. It's a meat. Well, yeah, it used to be. I mean, it sucks now because zombies are terrible, but Okay, I'm just gonna read through it.Tyler: I don't think they're terrible, ByJustin: the way, we're talking about a bone helmet. Yeah, Minion steal. 20%. Increased is the, uh,Tyler: got Ah. So a max. ImplicitJustin: max. Implicit of minions deal. 20% crease damage plus three toe level of soccer Did Minion Gems socket of gems. Air supported by level 18 million. Life soccer. The gems air supported by level, 18 million damage. Now, if it stopped here, you've already done really, really well. Like, really, really? Well, like last season. Last league. Oh, my God. You could have bought 20 years. It everybody wanted every freaking minion thing. Now, yeah, we're gonna continue on. Minions have 19% increase Max life minions deal 20%. Increased damage, 5% reduced manner. Reserved glow. And he had the intent on it for flesh offering. Granting an additional 21% increase. Attack speed for flesh. And then he had craft. That was insane. Lightning resist.Tyler: But nuts it is. Of course, it's incubating something just to make it even more exciting.Justin: I it just seemed fake when I read it. Yeah, I was like, Oh, my God. I would like last league. I would have liked just two of those options to force their six good things on there.Tyler: I can't tell you how much currency I've spent on console trying to get a plus three to the level of socket 1,000,000 Jim's. I still don't have it. I am trying everything. The craft. I'm going crazy. I make I I can't do it. I can't do it. And then here's this year's this.Justin: Yeah, it's just I don't know what he was crafting. Four. I did Rhea little bit about the threat, and the guy who actually crafted it kind of came on. It was like, I don't know what to do with this, which made me laugh because I would be the same way. I would have been really upset that I didn't have it last league because, I mean, it's awaken. Or that's new, though, isn't it? I mean, you couldn't have really done it, but still,Tyler: no, but it doesn't have to. I mean, I know you're against how zombies were were cut down a bit, this league, but that's not so. I'll be specific by any means. No, I know. But so respect all Dominion buffs from last later still applicable. That thing's crazy but still insane. It's still absurd. That's something like, even if you had a mirror, you would just put that somehow on display just so that you could look at it sometimes,Justin: yeah, It's crazy. I couldn't believe it when I was reading through it. So cool. Yeah, I wanted to just give a quick show boat. We've gotten some pretty cool feedback from people that have been listening and people that have given us some advice and some constructive criticism. You know, the lovely kind, But I want to just give a shout out to all those people and, ah, we don't have a list of everyone, but we're going to start making a list because it's it's a really big deal to us. It really helps us figure out what we should do better for the next ones. And let us know that people enjoy the time that we share together, you know?Tyler: Yeah. No, it's It's been really cool. It's been a lot of fun. We're only five episodes in, but every episode has been listened to more than the previous one, and it's ah, it's exciting to see how it goes, but it's ah oh, we just want to say a big thank you to people that do find this enjoyable, and we definitely would value your feedback for sure. So I know we said at the end of every episode. But just to emphasize, if you tweet us at forever exiled 82. Just positive feedback, negative feedback. Whatever it is, we do want to make this a really good podcast for you and something that lots of path of exile players would really enjoy it here. So let us know what you think. We thank you very much for listening to all the episodes that you already have.Justin: If it's mean we'll start a Twitter war straight up. That's right. Fight to the death of Twitter. All right, cool. Well, listen, Thanks for everybody listening. This, uh, this has been a lot of fun. This was Episode five of Forever Exile. The Path of Exile Podcast. I am one of your host tags, A k a JustinTyler: A key. I'm Tyler, also known as Wrecker of Days......ThanksJustin:  Check out the show Notes below. To find more information on today's episode, you can find us online at www dot forever exiled dot com as well as on Twitter at forever exiled 82

Tyler Harris has sold over 8,000 life insurance policies face-to-face in about three and a half years. He runs two agencies, over 140 agents, he runs two podcasts, and he says he's just an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things. Tyler Harris   Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. This is show where we interview people who have achieved mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who has achieved mastery and examine what it took to get there. Stefan: Today on the show, we have a superstar, Tyler Harris. He's sold over 8,000 life insurance policies face-to-face in about three and a half years. He runs two agencies, over 140 agents, he runs two podcasts, and he says he's just an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things. Tyler, welcome to the show, Respect The Grind. Tyler: Thanks for having me, Stefan. It's a pleasure to be here. Stefan: Yeah, man. It's really great to connect with someone like yourself. You know, we got a lot of real estate people on the show, I'm an investor myself, so I've got into house flipping, and that's been my thing. But super cool to have a life insurance person on the show. Stefan: Now people who are out there wanting to make money, one of the biggest things I find with my audience is a lot of people want to make 100 grand, they want to get into sales, they want to hustle, they want to grind. They're younger, they don't know what to do. Why did you choose to get in the insurance space of all things? Tyler: That's what I love about the whole story, and it's what I preach about when you have the average person that says, "Well I don't really do something that interesting. Why should I put myself out there on social media." I'm like, "Aye, I sell life insurance. There's nothing interesting about that whatsoever." Tyler: But man, mine was purely out of circumstance. Some mentors came into my life when I was at a really bad place. I was broke, I was in debt, depressed, had gone through a business failure, a marriage failure. These mentors came into my life and really breathed life back into me. I joke around today and say that if they were selling rubber bands at the time, that I'd be sitting here with you guys as the greatest rubber band salesman of all time. Stefan: One gong right out of the gate for comedy, man. Good for you. Tyler: They happen to be in the insurance business, and gave me an opportunity. Quite frankly, it was exactly what I needed because it was transactional, fast-paced, and it gave me the ability to build my confidence back very quickly. I put in effort, I got a reward, I put in effort, got a reward. That became an addicting process to see how much reward I could get out by the effort put in, and it just so happened that insurance was the product that we were selling. Stefan: Eight thousand life insurance policies. That's a big number, man. How many people do you have to meet with a day to make that kind of sale? Tyler: It's an insane amount. We have developed a very, very narrow niche and built a system around going all in on that niche. That's the biggest thing that I preach to people, is developing a system around working with the people that you want to work with, but developing a system in a way to where every word that comes out of your mouth, it's like if you're speaking to someone that speaks Spanish but you're speaking German, it's gonna be difficult to sell that person. But if you speak Spanish to them, then they're gonna be able to make a buying decision a whole lot quicker. Tyler: We know exactly what to say, how to say it, what to wear, what to have in our hands, the motions that we go through, the certain clothes that we use to be able to extremely efficiently sell and do a whole lot of volume. That's been the precursor to that volume. But at the end of the day, a system is all good and well, but it's the hard work that goes into that system. We've had plenty of people that have come in, and we've given them the magical system, and they've done nothing with it. The rest is left up to the individual, and the amount of hard work that they're willing to put into it. Stefan: You know, I love what you said there. There's two things I love. You say, "Rich in the niche, rich in the niche," we're Canadian, so we like to throw some French in there, rich in the niche, rich in the niche. Stefan: I got a question for you, Tyler. I've been training people for six years. I'm a real estate investor, I was buying, fixing, selling houses. I came from the private equity world. I was good at raising money, eye for design. I'd flip up to 30 houses a year, and people would see that and they'd go, "Man, I want to flip houses like Stefan," so I start coaching people. Stefan: Now I learned a dark thing when I started training and coaching people, and the dark truth that I discovered, maybe you can confirm or deny this dark truth, is that 50% of the people just do nothing. You sign up 10 guys, and half of them just literally do nothing. They buy the cake mix, but they never make the cake. They buy the IKEA furniture, they never build the bed, or whatever. Do you find that number to be ... Is it 50%, no matter what they just don't do anything? Tyler: I think it depends on what your process is. With our recruiting process, yeah, 100% in the beginning we found that. We have gotten laser focused and have gotten our recruiting process down to a science to where we know when we bring someone on, that they've got a 90 plus percent probability of succeeding, and it's through about eight different layers of a recruiting process to weed out those people. But that's only being done through trial and error of the beginning of running through a million of those 50%-ers. Stefan: Right, right, right. Yes. Tell me about the recruiting process. Eight layers of weeding out the guys. Let's hear about that. This sounds like you're joining the Navy Seals when you're joining Tyler Harris for insurance. Let's hear it. Tyler: It's almost that tough. But number one, all of our recruiting efforts, it's all done through Facebook. That's the only place we recruit from. When they come in, they got to submit an application, and then they've got to upload their resume. They've got to answer a bunch of essay questions. Then they go to their first interview, which is face-to-face with our head recruiter here in house. Tyler: From there, they're given a script that they have to go memorize in 24 hours, and then they have to come back 24 hours later and interview via Zoom, and perform that script. That script is similar to one of our sales processes. They've got to be able to perform that, then from that we give them some feedback that our head recruiter gives them some feed back on what they could have done better, and then they have to go perform that script again the next day on video to see if they can actually follow some instruction and follow some feedback. Tyler: From there, we go through and in-depth personality profile assessment. It's the one that we found that works by far the best. It takes all of them and throws them together, and puts them on steroids. Stefan: Which one's that? Tyler: It's through TTI, through a group called The Rainmaker Group, and it's incredible. It's the only one that actually has a patent tying the results to actual brain research. Myers-Briggs can't say that, strength finders can't say that, none of the other DISC can even say that. Tyler: But this one is pretty remarkable, and we have created basically a money ball style system of grading the recruits, and knowing what the probability is of them being able to succeed. They're gonna do that. They also have to do a two-minute phone call pitch on why they're the best fit, and we make them at the end do a video pitch as to why they are the best fit for that particular territory. We take all of that, we bring it to our meeting that we do, just got out of it on Friday mornings. There's six of us that watch the video of the person, hear all the information, hear that money ball grading score, and we make a decision. From there, they go to one last interview with our Director of Training, and from there we make a final decision on somebody. Stefan: Wow. I'm gonna give that a gong. That is probably the best recruiting process I ever heard. I got a very tough one myself. We make people do four book reports. They have to read all of the books, so I guess it's five books. I've written five books. They got to read five books and do book reports, and they got to pretty much be ready on day one to come in and sell. But yours is damn good, man. Stefan: Now let me ask you this, Tyler. What's the failure rate if 100 guys sign up for your recruiting process, how many make it to the end? Like two? Tyler: Maybe three, but it's low. It's two or three, and we like it that way. It's much more cost effective that way 'cause we invest heavily. The insurance industry, it's notorious for just churn and burn, bring a bunch of people on, see if they can stick for a few months and then invest in them when [inaudible 00:07:53] bring them onboard, our training and onboarding process is intensive, and it's expensive on our side. We want to make sure that the people that we bring on and we invest heavily in have the greatest possibility of giving us a return on that investment. Stefan: That's awesome. I love it. It's almost the opposite of what you'd see in the industry. I've been running a sales team now, so we do high-ticket coaching and consulting in the real estate space. I've gone through, I've collapsed five phone teams, I've failed five times. The sixth time I got a good team. Stefan: What's the key to running a good sales team? Is it having a great manager? Is it great training? Is it great recruiting? Is it all of the above? What do you think is the linchpin there to make it work? Tyler: It's certainly all of the above, but I think the most important is having the leadership, having them lead by example, and having them have been in the field. The CEO, myself, and my other two partners, there's four partners in this business, we all have been in the field, and we all excelled at an insanely high level. We know what it's like. We're not afraid to go out today and go sell with the agents. Tyler: To me, there's a big issue in the sales industry as a whole, and its current credibility versus past credibility. The way I like to talk about it in sports terms is you've got a guy that makes it into the NBA. He plays for X number of years, he's a all-star, a couple championships, retires, makes it to the Hall of Fame, then becomes a coach. He's able to coach that team because he has these insane accolades to be able to use past credibility. Tyler: What the reality is, in most organizations, they haven't been around long enough to have that level of past credibility, so it has to all be about what are you're doing right now, versus what have you done. I just want to be the hardest worker in the room at all times so that the people that I'm telling to do something, I can never tell them to do something that I am not doing myself or haven't done. Stefan: I'm gonna give you a gong for that. It's all about the integrity, man. You wouldn't ask someone to do something you haven't done yourself. Stefan: Now let me ask you this, Tyler, how important ... It sounds like you guys [inaudible 00:10:06] some technology in your training and technology in your recruiting. How important is technology to what you're doing right now? Tyler: Technology is huge. It gives us the ability to onboard our agents all over the country at one time. We use a bunch of different ... We're huge with role play. Role play, role play, role play, role play. It's the biggest asset as far as training sales people, and we have some software that we use for that. We're constantly having people certify or re-certify using that role play software. Tyler: But even down to the agents that are in the field writing the policies. Everything's done through e-app now. They're able to right at that application, have that thing submitted and have a commission check in their bank account 48 hours later. Whereas that process used to take a lot longer when you have paper applications having to be sent through the mail, and processed, and all that. It makes everything a lot more efficient. Tyler: To me, the biggest thing, especially when a salesperson is first coming onboard, you got to get a check in that person's hand as quickly, as humanly possible. Technology enables us, from a training perspective, to get them completely certified and ready to sell faster, but also that e-application process gets those commission checks into their bank faster, which builds that belief, and that's when they'll really go all in. Stefan: I love the word you use there is belief. I find that the biggest thing with no matter what you're training on is we train people to flip houses, and a lot of them have the dream of flipping a house, a lot of them watch the videos with flipping the house, they read the book about flipping a house, they come to the seminar. But until they go into the field with their coach, and see it, and touch it, and taste it, and smell it, and feel it, then they believe in Disneyland. Do you find that's the same thing with training insurance guys or sales guys, is that they got to watch someone do it so they believe it and they see it? Tyler: Yeah. I agree. They've got to watch someone do it, but they've also got to go out and do it themselves before they get to certain aspects of the training as well. Tyler: We have a boot camp training that we bring them into our home office, and it's like drinking from a fire hose for two and a half days. But we strategically put that in the process once they have been out in the field, and they've had a few weeks of success and failure. We want someone that's gotten their teeth knocked in a couple of times, a bloody nose here and there, so that now when we bring them back to training, and we can really refine those skills, now they're being able to learn things based on experience, "Oh yeah, when I was in that situation, when I did get that objection, that's how I should have handled that." Tyler: In the past, we were doing all of this training upfront, then sending them out. But some of the training you have to be in that environment first to really understand the importance as you're going through that part of the training to understand that, "Hey. Man, I've experience this a couple of times. Now I know how to handle it. When I experience this again I've got it." Stefan: Yeah, I love that. It's all about building up that bank of stories, and the stories make the beliefs, and the beliefs make the reality. I think that's really powerful. Stefan: Now Tyler, let me ask you this. Sounds like you're in almost a blue ocean strategy. You're doing something that I've never even seen or heard of anybody doing what you're doing, which is super cool. Do you think that for mastery, let's just say you're a master right now, do you think it's more important to be a master right now on the creative side or the discipline side? 'Cause I think the creativity and discipline blended creates mastery, but what do you think is more important? The creativity or the discipline? Tyler: It's a great question. I think at the end of the day discipline is what takes you there. People ask me all the time, they're like, "Man, how do you stay so motivated? You always seem so motivated." With the amount of content that we put out, I understand that could come across that way, but I always answer them, I'm like, "I'm not all that motivated. There's plenty of days where I wake up and I don't feel motivated. But it's the discipline, it's doing the stuff that you know you're supposed to do even when you don't feel like it." Tyler: To me, you can build a team that can provide the creativity that you need, you can build an environment that can provide aspects of creativity for you, but discipline is something that you've either got it or you don't. To me, I would take a person with discipline over creativity any day. Stefan: Yeah, the creativity is the starving artist. If you're delivering the daily bread, as you say, that's one of your podcasts, The Daily Bread, you got to go out there and do those daily bread actions. Stefan: One thing that I notice when I'm training people all the time, Tyler, is that I got a bunch of sales agents right now, and I'm training real estate investors. I notice that everybody has a fear of the phone. The key to success, I believe, if you're in sales, is making X number of phone calls a day, whether that's 50 or 100, or whatever that number is for that industry. Why are people afraid of the phone? Why are they afraid of picking it up, and making offers and proposals? Tyler: We see it all the time. I think it's because people don't understand the numbers in the beginning. If you haven't had the longevity of a few years of running those numbers, and knowing that, "Hey, I just know if I make this many calls, I'm gonna set this many appointments, which is gonna lead to this many sales. It doesn't matter if the last three were no, I know that if I make X number of more calls, then there will be this many yeses. It just always turns out that way." But when you don't have that, that experience on the backend, and when you're first getting started, then it just seems like this monumental task to go do, and that phone freaking weighs a million pounds. Tyler: To me, I think you have to build some level of competition. They got to be driven by something other than just self-driven. They got to be driven by, "Hey, what's this guy doing, and how am I gonna make more calls than him or her so that I can win this daily competition, weekly competition, monthly competition?" Organization is always fostering healthy competition where I love every person on our team, but I want to destroy them on a daily basis. That's how all of our agents feel. Stefan: Yeah. That's really important. We expanded our team. We went from three agents to six agents. We got a small little sales team here. It was interesting 'cause we put them in two different rooms, and as soon as we split the rooms for whatever reason, people stopped working. Then we crammed them all back into one room, and a room that's made for four guys, put six guys in a room for four, and suddenly the pressure ... I don't know what it is. They got a feel of the sweat, they got to hear the bell ringing, they got to feel it, they got to see it. I don't know what it is with people. Stefan: I'm a self-motivated person myself, so I go and I work. I'd say maybe there's one other guy in company, the manager, he's a self-motivated guy. But everybody else for whatever reason needs constant whipping. Why is that? Tyler: I think it's human nature. A lot of that ... Stefan: Gong for human nature. Tyler: A lot of that has to go back to the recruiting process, making sure that you got the right person. You're not gonna get the wrong person to do the right thing. It's just not gonna happen. I think a lot of that is based on these personality profile assessments that we do, and figuring out what their motivators are. If they're not money motivated, then what is their motivation? Tyler: We've learned so much through this process of really understanding our agents, and what their behaviors, their motivators, to understand how to get them to do the things that they maybe don't feel like doing, but we know that are gonna lead them towards success. We know that, "Hey, what's that extra 10 grand this month? What are you gonna do with that money?" Then we get them to start visualizing these things. I'm gonna give to this organization, I'm gonna be able to buy this, I'm gonna be able to go on this trip. Tyler: As we're going into 2019, an extra 50 grand, an extra 100 grand, what does that look like? What are you gonna do with that money? Let's go ahead and plan that trip, let's go ahead and plan out, let's go look at some properties 'cause you said you want to do some real estate investing this year, let's go look at a few properties, let's get some pictures of those properties. You make it a much more real than just, "Hey, Johnny. Pick up the phone because you've got to meet your quota." Stefan: I love that, the visual indicators so that they can see it, and they can believe it, and they can tell themself a story about how they're gonna have it. I think that's super powerful. Stefan: Now, what are some of those personality indicators? Tyler, you mentioned that money motivated is one. If you're gonna be in sales, you better be money motivated 'cause otherwise you're just gonna do human nature, and stay at home and do nothing. I've got a theory actually that the natural state of humanity is poverty. You can't really fix poverty 'cause it's natural, it naturally occurs in nature, and unnatural forces like training, and pain, and all other things drive people to succeed. What do you think of that theory? Tyler: I've never heard that before. That's interesting. I think the majority of behaviors are gonna be learned behaviors, but there are things that are just born in somebody that you're not gonna be able to change. A lot of that is resiliency. That's a huge one that we look for, is this person gonna get knocked down and be able to get back up? Tyler: Mojo loss is a big one with resiliency. When someone lose .... Stefan: What's mojo loss? What does that mean? Tyler: When someone gets a few nos and they get their dick in the dirt, they just can't overcome it, they can't pick up that phone again, or they can't go on that sales call the next day, and it takes massive coaching. Quite frankly, it's not cost efficient to deal with an agent that has the propensity for a lack of resiliency or for that mojo loss. Tyler: To us, it's so important. When we start to even sense that someone's losing their mojo, when they're starting down that downward spiral, we do, it's like all hands on deck to make sure that we can do everything that we possibly can on the front-end to make sure that they get right back in the game, because if they start down that process, they're gone. It's just the beginning of the end. Stefan: That's interesting. You know what, I heard a really scientific term there, dick in the dirt. I've never head that one before. When the guy gets his dick in the dirt, he's got a dirty dick. Tyler: That's it. Stefan: It's almost like it sounds like you're having an intervention with the guy when he gets into the downward spiral, into the pit of despair. What are some of the things you do to pull him out? 'Cause I think this is one of the biggest things, man. I think that what you're talking about right now is why people fail. I always ask on the show, why do people fail? It seems to me like there's an isolation, there's a pain, they get into pain, then they start numbing the pain. Stefan: I had one guy who was a hardcore drug addict. I don't know what he was. It was gambling, prostitution, or something. He was wasting all his money. [inaudible 00:20:24] gave him 10 grand. The next day he needed a $100,000 advance, always. The guy had some sort of addiction. It seems that when people get pain and they're isolated, that's when this downward spiral really happens. How do you keep them from being isolated. Tell me some of these intervention techniques that you're using to get these people back on the bus. Tyler: Isolation is the beginning of the end. When communication starts to go away, then we just know that person's on their way out. There's a couple of things that we do. Tyler: One thing that I personally do with our agents is I do coaching with them. We call it LIFE goals. LIFE stands for L is love, which is relationships; I is influence, which is the mind; F is finance, which is the business; E is energy, which is the body. We've constantly got three goals in each of those four areas for every 90 days. I take them through this process where I hold them accountable. Every 30 days, we're on a Zoom call, and I'm just literally going through each goal, and I'm saying, "Hey, Stefan. It says here we're gonna do date nights every Saturday night with your wife. How was your date nigh Saturday?" Tyler: Well, we couldn't do it this Saturday. Well, okay, what happened? Because this says mandatory date night every Saturday, so what happened? Well, we couldn't get a baby sitter last minute, yada, yada, yada. Okay. Stefan: I hate the babysitter, I hate the babysitter objections. Dude, it's 50 bucks or 30 bucks. Come on, man. Tyler: Yeah, and we take it a step further and we'll say, "Okay, great. Let's get on care.com," or whatever website, "and let's find you a second or third babysitter than you can have in your arsenal so that doesn't happen again. Hey, while we're here, let's go ahead and plan out your date for this coming Saturday?" We got on here that you're not doing carbs and sugar. How's that been going for you? Well, you know, it's Christmas season. They had this party the other night. Stefan: Dang. Tyler: I just hold them accountable to teach these areas. Tyler: It's funny, the business portion of that conversation is the least. But what we know is that a byproduct of winning in the other three areas is always gonna be an increase in production. Stefan: You know what, I feel like I'm meeting my brother here from another mother. I mean, I'm up here in Winnipeg, you're down in South Carolina. I've got my team on a thing called the High Performance Journal. It's three goals, 90 days. It's a 90-day journal, daily, weekly monthly. I said, "Look, here's the deal. You got your health goal, you got your wealth goal, you've got your relationships/happiness goal." I used to be like, "Oh, do whatever you want for your three goals, like two money, or one health." I was like, "No, man. The holistic thing, it's health, it's wealth, it's relationships." Stefan: Now influence. You said love, influence, finance, and energy. What was influence again? Tyler: That's the mind. We got a lot of people that for the very first time in their entire lives, they're meditating, they're reading books, they're listening to the podcast, they're doing all these things to feed their mind. Stefan: Yeah. I love that, man. I just got into mediation two weeks ago. I'm 32, I feel like it's too late, but it's never too late. I use this headband. I put the headband on, it measures my brain. You ever tried that? Tyler: I have. I have, yeah. It's awesome. I use Headspace. It's worked pretty well for me. I think I've logged in 4,000+ minutes this year on that thing. I just got started this year. This year is the first time I had ever meditated. I made fun of it for the longest time. I'm like, "There's no way I'm gonna sit. I've got ADD." I'm just thinking, "Sitting down for 10 minutes sounds like a nightmare," but it's been life changing for me. I absolutely love it. Tyler: When you're doing the first thing in the morning, if you can start your day on your terms ... Stefan: Oh. Bro, [crosstalk 00:24:01] I'm getting shivers over here, man. Tyler: Start ... Stefan: Stop seducing me, man. I'm getting shivers. Tyler: Well I mean, for so long I just literally from the second that I opened my eyes, it was chaos. It was self-induced chaos. It was I felt rushed, late, behind. I started thinking about it, I'm like, "Late for what? Rush to what? I control my schedule. Why do I feel like it's instant chaos 'cause I'm reaching for my phone, and I'm looking at notifications, and I'm responding to text messages and emails." Taking that first 10 minutes of the day, on purpose, with a purpose, for me, it changes everything. It changes the outlook of the entire day, and honestly, it's been life changing. Stefan: Something I made my team do with the journals, I said, "Look team, so everybody's on a journal, everybody, even including the secretary, bookkeeper, everybody's on the journal." Then I said, "Okay, team," this is what I said last week. I said, "I want you to book your sleep in your calendar. Minium six hours, just book it in your calendar, so 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., or whatever. Just book that in. Sleeps on there." Stefan: Then I said, "We're gonna have three hours booked as your core 10 items." There's 10 I wanted them to do every day. I said, "Book three hours before you come to work, that's your time." You've got your six hours of sleep, you've got your three hours for your core 10 items, and I prescribe them 10 items which include a lot of these, love, influence, finance, energy, they got to discover something, they got to declare it, they got to meditate, they got to revelate, they got to fitness and fuel their body. I even got down to sex and [inaudible 00:25:30], manager your sex energy 'cause you start wasting that, you're gonna be totally messed at some point. Stefan: I said, "Look, you got your sleep, you got your core 10, then you got eight hours of work, you got then, and then you got another five to seven hours for you." I said, "I don't care what you do with the day, but you got your core 10, you hit your core, hit your sleep, everything else is just out there." Stefan: Now what's some of the things ... Let me ask you this, Tyler, since I'm a new student of meditation, I think it's gonna be a life thing for me. I actually am going to the jungle here for 40 days. I'm gonna meditate like crazy, I'm gonna grow a beard like you bro, I see you on camera. It's a great beard. What are some of the epiphany, or some of the divine wisdom you've got from the source from meditating? 'Cause to me, it's been huge. What are some of your biggest things you've found? Tyler: Gratitude. Stefan: Bro, you're just hitting gongs everywhere, man. Gratitude, tell me about it. Tyler: That's it. Yeah, as a part of the meditation, I do a gratitude journal afterwards. I just jot down three, four, five things. I try to make them different things every day that I'm grateful for, and spending that time just by myself, and just gratitude. Completely grateful for all the opportunities, all the things that I have. Some day I'm writing down, "I'm glad that I woke up in a warm house with a roof over my head and food in my stomach," some of the basic necessities. Then some days I'll take it, what I look at as level 2.0, and I'll be grateful for the things that I don't have yet, as though I already have them. That visualization has been huge for me. Tyler: But it's gratitude, man. Every single person that is listening or watching this has so much to be grateful for. There's someone else on the other side of the planet that's praying for the things that we complain about every single day. It just drives me crazy. We have so blessed, but it's all about perspective. I think that meditation gives me that 10 minutes of perspective to just focus on what's really important, focus on what I already have, and focus on where I'm headed. That's really it, man. Tyler: There's a lot of power just in that process of doing something that I said I was gonna do, first thing, and starting my day that way, that anything that actually comes from the meditation is just icing on the cake. Stefan: Wow. Wow. Now when you're meditating, Tyler, are you a mantra guy or do you just focus on your breath? What's something that you do? Tyler: I've tried a bunch of different things. Again, I'm ADD. For me to sit in silence is a little difficult. I like a lot of the guided stuff. I do use Headspace just because again, competition-wise, I love being able to show people how many streaks, how many days in a row I've done it, how many minutes, like keeping track of that kind of stuff. But I like the guided stuff because I'm certainly no expert in meditation. If you can tell me how to breath, tell me what to think about, tell me how to sit, I'd do a lot better with that than just sitting in silence and staring at the wall. Tyler: But I feel like that'll progress over time. I've tried some of ... I did a podcast with David Meltzer, who's just freaking incredible. He talks a lot about the particular meditations that he's doing, and there's a bunch of different things that I want to get into in 2019, but for me it's just starting the day intentionally. Stefan: Yeah, man. It's huge. You either come at the day with your agenda, or the day comes at you with its agenda. One of the two is gonna take over. Stefan: One thing that's been new to me that has been a revelation in the last two weeks for me is do versus be. We're here on the Respect The Grind show, and you've got hustler in the background, or hustle or something, and I think we live in a world where it's do, do, do, do, do. Respect the grind is do, do, do. Hustle is do, do, do, do, do. We're masculine so we want to do, do, do things, and what are you doing, and how can I do that? Stefan: I think the other opposite side of that is the feminine, which is be. Who do you have to be? That's more about essence rather than doing. How important is it to have that essence and the being to go with the doing? Tyler: Do a lot of that with the visualization. I just have a deep understanding that the person that's gonna accomplish the goals that I have for 2019 is a different person than the person that's talking to you right now. Stefan: Gonging that up. Tyler: In order for me to do those things, I'm gonna have to be someone else. Then it's just a journey in becoming that person. I know the person that I have to be to accomplish those things, and that person's gonna have to level up, that person's gonna have to go through some challenges, that person's gonna have to expand in a number of different ways, but I am constantly chasing after that next version of myself. Tyler: I think that's a big encouragement for those that are going through tough times, is that when you're in the middle of a struggle, if you can understand that there's purpose in this, like I'm going through this for a reason, and there is a blessing on the other side of it, but until I become the person that can receive that blessing, it's not gonna happen. I actually have to change who I am in order to get out of this, and step out of this obstacle, step out of this pain, step out of this struggle, and step into the blessing that's on the other side. Tyler: It's easy to say in hindsight when you've been through it a number of times. You know when you tell somebody that and they're in the middle of it, they're like, "Screw you. That doesn't take the gun out of my mouth. You don't understand what I'm going through." I would just tell that person, "Yes I do." It's always the same. It's always the same no matter how hard, no matter how difficult, there's always a blessing on the other side of it, and I am of the mind that the harder it is, the bigger that blessing is. Stefan: Man, you just dropped a lot of wisdom there. I love what you said, the harder it is, the bigger the blessing. I noticed on the show from interviewing so many successful people the lower the low, the higher the high. Tyler: Absolutely. Stefan: You know the lady who was living in her car, or the guy who's totally, totally bankrupt, or whatever is usually where that guy rebounds equally high. I think that's from Think and Grow Rich. Inside of every failure is the seed of a greater success. It's interesting. Stefan: There's a lot of people out there that don't really want to fail, they don't want to try, they don't want to see how dark the darkness is, they just want the light. What do you think of that attitude? Tyler: I take it to a weird place where I'm almost envious of other peoples' low, low, low, lows. When I hear somebody's story now, like the other day, I had lunch with a guy. We sat down, and we didn't know each other, we had connected through Instagram. We sat down for lunch, and he just unloaded just what was going on in his life lately. It was heavy. He's going through some stuff. At the end of just unloading this information, he says, "So what do you think about that?" My response was, "Dude, I'm so freaking excited." He's like, "Okay." Completely caught him off guard. I was like, "Man, I can tell by your tone that you've made that switch." Tyler: That's the big, it's the if you've made that switch. But no matter how low, the lower it gets the better. If you can make that switch it's directly proportionate to how high you can fly. To me, it's so exciting to watch that in someone. Someone that has right when you know they've made that transition, and they're starting that upward trajectory, they're almost on the other side of it, those are the best stories. Those are the stories that we pay to watch, and that's what life's about, is overcoming obstacles. Everybody loves an underdog story. Man, I get envious sometimes. I'm like, "Man, I wish my lows were that low. I wish I had that story." Tyler: I wish there was some college course or some mastery program we could create where we just absolutely destroy your life at a young age, like at 20 to 25, just destroy every aspect of your life, and then help you rebuild it so that you can go on. I'd much rather experience it at 25 than 55, and go on and live a great life. Stefan: Wow. You know what, dude we're getting deep. We're getting deep now, man. Talking about it, it reminds me of the movie Fight Club. You ever seen Fight Club? Tyler: Oh yeah. Stefan: Yeah, so that one part in the movie, and actually I wrote a book called Hard Times Create Strong Men, it just came out. The last of it, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times. It's the cycle of history. Stefan: That one part in Fight Club, where Tyler Durden goes to the convenient store, and he pulls that little Asian guy out from the desk, and he throws him in the back alley, and he points a gun at him, and he says, "What do you want to be in your life? What do you want to do?" The guy's like, "I want to be a vet. I want to be a vet." He says, "All right Raymond K. Hessle," and he pulls out his wallet, and he takes his ID. He like, "I got your ID, and tomorrow if you're not on your way to becoming a vet, I'm gonna show up at your house and I'm gonna kill you." Stefan: The narrator is like, "Oh my God, what are you doing? You're ruining this guys life." He's like, "No, tomorrow Raymond's breakfast is gonna taste better than ever, and the colors will be brighter, and the birds will be singing because he's gonna be on the exact path of what he wants to do with his life, and he can say goodbye to this job at 7/11," or whatever. What do you think of that story? Tyler: Dude, it's incredible. I could not agree more. People don't need more information, they don't need more motivation, they don't need more inspiration, they need clarity. They need clarity in what they really want, like what they actually want. I love taking people through that process. You say like, "Hey man, what's your goal? What do you want?" I want to be financially free. What in the world does that mean? Stefan: Yeah, what the fuck? Tyler: They're like, "Well, you know." I'm like, "So tell me, what does that look like when you're financially free?" Well it's when I'm no longer a slave to debt. Okay, that's still ambiguous. We're getting closer. What does that look like when you're no longer a slave to debt? Stefan: Yeah, what does it mean? Tyler: We take through this process, where you just keep asking why, and what does that look like, but why? But really, but why do you want that? But why, why, why? When you dig down deep, all of a sudden you realize that the person really just wants to ride horses again because they had a horse when they were ... Stefan: Multi gong for that. Tyler: They had a horse when they were growing up, and they found so much joy riding freaking horses, and now they're in this corporate environment, and they're killing themselves with work every day, and their relationships are terrible, and they really just have no outlet to find peace again. It's like, "Oh, got it. Because you said you wanted to be financially free, but now we know, you just want to buy a freaking horse. Let's figure out how much does a horse cost, and where are you gonna keep it?" Stefan: Three thousand bucks. Tyler: Yeah. Let's do that. Tyler: Or you find out that it's, I want to be able to pick my kids up from school, and I want to be able to take this many weeks of vacation, and I want to live in this house. But until you get clear with what you actually want, it's a absolute joke to try to put together a plan to get somewhere, you don't know where you're going. Stefan: Dude, we're hitting bed rock here. We're getting so deep, we're hitting the bottom. I think what you're saying is so relevant. I can tell you Tyler, you're the real deal, man. I got to praise you, I got to appreciate you, I love having guys like you on the show. Sometimes you get a dud, you're a stud, man. Sometimes you get duds, but no, this is stud day today. Stefan: One thing that I think is super crazy, I'm really going through a lot of changes right now myself. I notice that our reality goes through the lens of our beliefs. Then our beliefs are controlled by our stories. There's a lens, on a lens, on a lens. You got reality, which is this is a cup. I got a cup here sitting on my table. That's reality. But then there's a belief about that, that comes from a story, and then inside the story when you're stuck, there's a lie. To fix somebody or make them move forward, or make them unstuck, or make them do whatever they got to do, you got to find that story, change the story, which changes the belief, which changes the reality, and edit out that lie. What do you think of that piece of wisdom that I've downloaded in the last two weeks. Tyler: It's extremely deep, but it's extremely important. Something that I'm certainly no expert on, but it's something that I'm extremely interested in, and it's given me a lot of compassion learning, is this whole law of first truths. The reason I say it gives me compassion because let's just take an extreme example. Tyler: Let's say you've got a guy that's racist. He's racist. Okay. The whole world would just say, "That guy is racist, and let's get in an argument." Okay, great. But why is that guy racist? Well it probably goes back to a moment when that guys was four years old, riding down the road in a car with his dad, and his dad looked over and saw someone on the side of the road and said, "That person," whatever that person was, color, ethnicity, "we hate those people." Stefan: Right. It was like Lion King, everything the light touches is our kingdom. He goes, "That's the dark space. We don't go there." Tyler: Exactly. In that moment, that four year old learned that we hate those people, not why, but just that we hate those people. Stefan: That's the story. Tyler: It's been developed over time, and through their culture, and that's the way they are. Tyler: It's given me a lot of compassion. That's an easy example to use. It's given me a lot of compassion for that person that normally society would say, "Well I hate that person, 'cause that person thinks this way." No, I don't hate that person. I hate that that person went through that situation to bring them up in a way that would make them think that, but until you take that person all the way back, like you said, until you unfold that story and figure out where the lie was, which in that moment, that was the lie in that person's story, is when that was told to them, and they just believed it because it was their dad and that's just what they said. They understood it and they believed it, and it became true. Figuring out where that lie is in their story and being able to rebuild from there. Tyler: But until you go all the way back, you're never gonna solve the root problem. That's probably one of the biggest problems we have in society today, is you got a lot of people that have never gone through that process, and they just think that the louder they yell, the somehow more truer the words become, which is absurd. Stefan: Yeah, we got a world now where everybody's got their own media channel, right? You hear the people who scream the loudest. Stefan: I remember Howard Stern was saying that in the old days, Howard is one of the biggest radio people in the world. He used to be offensive in the '90s. Nowadays he said he's tame 'cause everybody's got their own channel, and he just blends in now, which is crazy. Stefan: Now I was out with a girl last week, and it was a really interesting conversation, 'cause we talked about the stories and lies, I said, "You know, you're a beautiful girl. Why don't you marry? Why don't you have a relationship." She goes, "Oh, I don't want to be my parents." I go, "Okay, so what about that? Why?" We go deeper, "Oh, I don't think my dad should have had kids." I go, "Okay, so you shouldn't have been born. Okay. I get that. Your dad shouldn't have had kids." Stefan: I say, "Okay, why?" She said, "Well he didn't know how to raise us, and he was a dad, and didn't do all this stuff." I said, "Well, from your dad's perspective, do you think that he loves you but doesn't know how to love, and everything he does, ever day is his best choice?" Everything he does, even the dumb stuff, he thinks that's the best thing at the time. He's running around on this earth doing what he thinks is best, even though he's totally messing it up. Maybe he's got an 80% or 90% mess up rate, but he still loves you." Stefan: It was interesting 'cause that whole perspective flipped in that second. When you think of it from the other person's perspective, my own parents, they love me, they love each other, they couldn't figure it out. There's things they didn't know how to do, there's things that they still don't know how to do, they're just people, they aren't perfect. What do you think of that technique of looking at the story from the other person's perspective in some of your traumas to maybe reverse that or change the story? Tyler: It's huge man. It's empathy. It's being able to hold space for someone and be able to not judge, and not necessarily even try to fix. I think there's a huge problem now, especially with men. There's a problem where men don't have these conversations, men don't have real conversations. They walk around and, how are you? Great. Hey what's up man, how are you? Awesome. Hey man, how are you? Can't complain. Tyler: Meanwhile, they hate their wife, their kids despise them, their business is barely staying afloat. They're on thin ice in all areas, but they keep this alpha male, keep charging like I'm good. Everything's good. Everything's good. The reality is they need those vulnerable conversations with people that they could trust, that don't judge, that will just listen. It's an epidemic with men. Tyler: It's one thing that I'm super passionate about is creating environments for those conversations to occur because I think it's so important. We can't do life alone. I think so many of us are trying to, especially men. It just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. I think it's an extremely important thing that you just said. You've got to have other eyes on your situation because there's things that other people will see that you don't. Tyler: But that being said, there's something that I learned from a guy, he has this thing called The Art of Conversation that he discusses. He travels all over and speaks. He gave me this line to use in situations when I'm talking to people. It's been pretty transformational in the conversations that I've had. Tyler: When someone's explaining to you something they're going through, a struggle a problem, when they're done speaking, just to be able to ask them one question. It is, "Hey, do you mind if I give you some feedback on that?" That one question just opens everything up, because quite frankly, they may not want your feedback, they might want you to try to fix it, they're just trying to vent, and they just need to get this off their chest, and they're just trying to work through it themselves. That's fine. Tyler: But if they say, "Yeah. I'd love to hear your feedback," then they're giving you permission to try to give your viewpoint on what they're going through. That's been a really valuable lesson that I've learned in conversation lately. Stefan: Dude, this is a deep show. I really got to give you some props, Tyler. This is a great conversation, man. I wish we were going for two hours today, but we both got actual businesses to do. We can't just play around on the podcast. Stefan: I got a couple questions I ask everybody on the show. Tyler: Sure. Stefan: One of them is, if you can go back to the beginning, let's say 15 year old Tyler, what's a piece of advice you would give yourself? Tyler: Be patient. Stefan: Oh man, I'm giving that a gong. That's gong Friday here. Tell me more about being patient, 'cause I think that's a lost art form in today's world. Tyler: As I alluded to in the beginning of the show, it was just four and a half years ago I found myself in a really, really bad place. I was completely broke, had a bunch of debt, I had been through a failed marriage, a wife that had had an affair. I was led through about a year of just turmoil to me landing in divorce, business failure. I was just in a bad place, all around. I was out of shape, I was depressed. At that time, I was 28, 29 years old. Tyler: You had these pictures in your head of what you're gonna look like when you're 30. What's life gonna be like at 30? I see so many people. Whether it's 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, what's life gonna look like then? When you do that to yourself, you start feeling like you're behind, you start feeling like you need to play catch up, you start feeling like the odds are stacked against you, and it creates bad decisions, it creates riskier decisions than you should, and it just can really, really take someone into a bad place. Tyler: But what I would tell people is to be patient. It doesn't matter if you're 20, 30, 40, 50, 60. If you're still breathing, you've got time. There's so much more time than people realize. I'm 33, and I feel like I'm 23. I know people that are 43 that feel like they're 23, 53 they feel like they're 23. You've got so much freaking time. Tyler: The last part I'll say to that is, everything can change so quickly if you're just patient. It's almost like the more patient you are, the fast it comes, which really doesn't make any sense. But I've just found it to be true in my own life. The times where I felt the most patience, things progressed quicker. The times where I felt rushed, things took longer. If you can just believe that, if you can just hear my voice and just say, "Okay, I'm just gonna believe that, because this guy says it's true, he's experienced it," if you could just believe it, then just try it. Get yourself ... Tyler: Unfortunately it's one of those things where if you pray for patience, God doesn't give you patience, he gives you the opportunity to be patient. That could be frustrating at times. But it's in those opportunities to become patient that you really prove yourself, that you really are able to develop, like we were talking about in the beginning, the disciplines that will ultimately carry you toward your success. Tyler: Patience is huge because when you're in that feeling of being behind, or feeling like you've got so much to do to catch up, man, that's a hopeless feeling. I've been there. Man, I'd hate for somebody to feel like that when they don't have to. You don't have to feel that way because you have plenty of time. There's plenty of reasons and things that are gonna happen to make you feel pain. That's not one of them. Yeah, it's just patience. To say patience is virtue is obviously cliché, but man, this is so freaking true. Stefan: I think it's a book, The Richest Man in Babylon, where Arkad is teaching he's the richest man in Babylon. He's teaching these kids about money and he said, "One of the ways to lose your money is to expect too high of a return from it." That's the same thing. If you're expecting too high of a return, you're rushing, as you're saying, rushing through life, you're gonna lose your life. I think that it's so interesting. Time, money, all that stuff is the same, and be patient. I can hear the meditation coming out your voice, man. Live in the moment. Stefan: Tyler, top three books that changed your life, man. What are they? Tyler: Top three books. I love The Four Agreements. I love ... Stefan: Bro, I've got to stop you. You're the third person in the last 24 hours that has said that book. Tyler: Oh, really? Stefan: Yeah. I don't what, is the universe is bringing that book into my world? I just [inaudible 00:48:59] last night, so you're the third person, 24 hours that said The Four Agreements, The Four Agreements. My secretary last night at midnight was saying Four Agreements. I was like, "Oh man. I got to get the book, dude." Tell me about it. Tyler: It's meant to be. Qbq! Qbq! is a big one for me, the Question Behind the Question. I truly believe that your life, the success of your life will be determined by the level and value of questions that you ask yourself and others. That's a freaking incredible book. Tyler: I'm reading one right now though that I'm getting obsessed with, which Atomic Habits by James Clear. I am really enjoying that one, so that ones gonna be a big one for me for next year. Stefan: What's an atomic habit? Is that microing down your habits, or what? Tyler: It really is. It tells a story about a guy that lost 100 pounds, and the first six weeks, all he did was get ready to go to the gym, go to the gym, and then five minutes later go home. We're like, "Well how in the world did he lose all this weight?" Well you can't develop a habit that doesn't exist. You can't increase or enhance a habit that doesn't exist. For six weeks, he developed a habit of going to the gym. Stefan: Just going. Tyler: Then he built upon that habit, and now he's lost 100 pounds, and he'll keep it off because now that habit is ingrained in him. Tyler: So many of us, especially as we head into this new year, so many of us, we get these new goals, and let's just use the exam of working out. You haven't worked out in a year, but January 1, I'm gonna go workout for two hours, and then January 2, I'm gonna go workout for two hours. I'm gonna be so sour on January 3 and 4 that I don't go back for three months. It's just always what happens. Tyler: There's a system that he details out about these habits, and about different hacks really, like combining habits with things that you're already doing, which is very interesting. Making habits enjoyable, and just all these different aspects of habits, but what has been a little bit of theme in this show is it's those habits that create the disciplines. It goes hands in hand. Stefan: You know what, you're coming back to patience. It's coming back to patience, it's coming back to those small wins compound. You know what's something I've always said to people who are training is, "We can multiply you, we can't add." Whatever you're doing, we can multiply by two or three or four, but if you're a zero, you multiply zero by two, it's still zero. Right? Tyler: Yup. Absolutely. Stefan: Last question today for the people at home, Tyler. What is the one thing that young people need to succeed these days? Tyler: What is the one thing people need to succeed these days? Stefan: Yeah, we're talking 18 year olds, 19 year olds. People who are just coming into the game now, and maybe they're obsessed with Instagram, or maybe they're obsessed with Facebook. They're young kids, they got all sorts of ideas. What's the one thing you'd say to those young kids starting out? Tyler: Man, they just got to be willing to do the work. You got to be willing to do the work. The idea that you're somehow gonna stumble into success is a joke. If you have the audacity to want to live an extraordinary life, or have extraordinary things, have extraordinary success, then it's gonna take an extraordinary amount of work. That's the only way you get there. One of my favorite sayings of all time is that, "If you seek discomfort, the world will deliver you pleasure. If you seek comfort, the world will deliver you pain." Stefan: Wow. That's deep. Tyler: I've gotten to a place in my life where I'm just constantly searching for ways to make myself uncomfortable, and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, if that's possible. But putting the work in when you don't feel like it, when it doesn't make sense, all those things, they're uncomfortable. But that's what ultimately will get you to whatever success is to that person. Get clear on that, and then just be willing to absolutely put the amount of effort in that's required. Stefan: Wow. Tyler, you know it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you, man. You are a evolved spirit. I really appreciate this. Stefan: How could people get in touch with Tyler if they want to know more? Tyler: Yeah, so Instagram, Facebook are the main spots. It's @tylerharrispage. You can go to tylerharrispage.com. It's got all my links there. Would love to connect with everybody, I respond to every single message that I get. I would love to talk to people. Stefan: Tremendous. Tyler, thanks so much for being on the show. Respect the grind, brother. Tyler: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.  

Tyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He is the author of books like The Great Stagnation, Average is Over, The Complacent Class, and more. He occupies the Holbert L. Harris Chair of economics, as a professor at George Mason University, and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. Cowen and Tabarrok have also ventured into online education by starting Marginal Revolution University. He currently writes a regular column for Bloomberg View. He also has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time, Wired, Newsweek, and the Wilson Quarterly. Cowen also serves as faculty director of George Mason's Mercatus Center, a university research center that focuses on the market economy. In February 2011, Cowen received a nomination as one of the most influential economists in the last decade in a survey by The Economist. He was ranked #72 among the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" in 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine "for finding markets in everything." His newest book (subject of conversation today) is Stubborn Attachments. It took him almost 20 years to write it. A few practical tips by Tyler: You should re-read the best books; you should have hobbies that make you think more, and you should argue for what you think is correct, but also understand it’s likely that you’re wrong. Then we talk about big picture things, like: What is Tyler’s view of economic growth and how it happens? ­Have we seen the majority of economic growth from the Internet, or is most of it yet to come? What are the 2 things we—as a society—should prioritize above all else. And also: When should we prioritize economic growth over the redistribution of wealth by government? What are the 3 things scarce in today’s economy? How will future cities look different in 20-30 years from now? And, will the future economy reward generalists or specialists? Learn more about Tyler: On Twitter Marginal Revolution (economic website) Conversations with Tyler (podcast) Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide Amazon Page ============= If you enjoyed this discussion: *Subscribe to Future Skills on: iTunes | Android | Stitcher | Spotify *Join our newsletter for weekly summaries of the episodes.  *Apply for the Future Skills Program Email us at admin@futureskillspodcast.com

Hello Beautiful! Today's show is brought to you by my darling dog Tyler and beautiful horse Samba. Join us as we share Universal insights that empower you to pursue your dreams!  Today's Golden Quotes: Just because it hasn't happened, doesn't mean it can't. You are here to experience what is yet to be expressed. - Tyler You are the source of your resources. - Samba You are here to experience new realms of existence. - Samba The Universe conspires to serve your desires, as you are the Universe in creation.  SHARE THE LOVE AND SUBSCRIBE for DAILY SHOWS!  Everyday I share Universal principles that empower you to create your dream life as love! Thank you for joining me today :)  *  Be Your Brilliance * Book Your Complimentary 15 Call for Private Coaching: https://www.isabellaallard.com/work-with-us/ Join our FREE Facebook Group: Awaken to Brilliance Sign Up for my daily newsletter and receive the shows straight to your inbox: https://www.isabellaallard.com/landing-page Follow me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isabella_allard/ I would to hear from you! For questions, comments, special requests and to book interviews contact me at: awakentobrilliance@gmail.com.  Love, Isabella

TODAY'S LESSON【公众号】铁蛋英语  【微博】铁蛋儿Tyler"You owe me one.": Saying that someone needs to do you a favor or help you in the future. They are indebted to you. No worries. But you owe me one! Thanks for coming with me tonight. I really owe you one.HOMEWORK  Make a sentence using "You owe me one." and leave me a comment below. 

May 6, 2017【公众号】铁蛋英语 【微博】铁蛋儿Tyler“You are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker.”― Tim Ferriss有道的翻译：http://fanyi.youdao.com/“你是五人交往最平均的，所以不要低估你的悲观、不思进取的影响，或者杂乱无章的朋友。如果有人不让你变得更强大，他们使你弱。重点词汇释义associate with与…交往， 联系; 交接; 蹑足其间; 轧underestimate低估; 看轻; 对…估计不足; 把…的价值估计过低; 轻视; 估计不足; 过低评价，过低估价effects 效果;动产，财物，家财;结果( effect的名词复数 );感受;个人财产pessimistic悲观主义的; 悲观的，厌世的unambitious无奢望的disorganized组织混乱的，杂乱无章的; 混乱的，没有条理的stronger更强壮的; 强的( strong的比较级 ); 坚强的; 强烈的; 强壮的weaker弱的( weak的比较级 ); 微弱的; 无说服力的; 淡的Be sure to read it out loud after I do. Try to mimic my pronunciation. This will help your spoken English! Even if you don't understand it all.~Ty

No.35“你开始让我觉得有点反感了。” – 邀你说英语经典台词【句子】Tyler: You know you&`&re starting to get on my nerves. 【Vampire Diary】S1E1【发音】[ju:] [nəʊ] [jɔ:(r)] [&`&stɑ:(r)tɪŋ] [tʊ] [get]] [ɒn] [maɪ] [nɜ:(r)vz]【翻译】你开始让我觉得有点反感了。【适用场合】Jeremy 英雄救美，带来了Tyler很大的不满。如果生活中谁让你很不爽的话也可以用这样的表达。get on one&`&s nerves 就是刺激某人的神经，让某人很不开心。欢迎加瑶瑶老师微信：teacheryaoyao 邀请你进入全英文口语交流群不定期开展【英语发音+新概念】培训