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Title: How to Make Millions with Vending Machines with Mike Hoffman Summary: In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike Hoffman delve into the world of vending machines as a business opportunity. Mike shares his journey from a Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur in the vending industry, highlighting the evolution of vending technology and the potential for passive income. They discuss the importance of location, understanding demographics, and the scalability of vending routes. Mike emphasizes the need for upfront work and learning before delegating tasks, while also addressing the misconceptions surrounding passive income in the vending business. In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship, particularly in the vending machine business. They explore the importance of capital raising, the journey of self-discovery, influences that shape business decisions, and the definition of success. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of flexibility, discipline, and focus in achieving entrepreneurial goals, while also touching on financial milestones and the attributes that distinguish successful entrepreneurs. Links to Watch and Subscribe:   Bullet Point Highlights: Mike's journey from a classic Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur. The evolution of vending machines from traditional to smart technology. Understanding the importance of location in the vending business. The analogy of baseball levels to describe starting in vending. Scaling up from single A to big leagues in vending routes. The significance of demographics in product selection for vending machines. The potential for passive income with proper systems in place. The need for upfront work before achieving passivity in business. Vending is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it requires dedication. The future opportunities in the vending industry are expanding rapidly. Raising capital can dilute ownership but may be necessary for rapid growth. Self-discovery often leads to unexpected career paths. Influences in business can come from personal experiences rather than just mentors. Success is often defined by the ability to prioritize family and flexibility. Entrepreneurs work harder than in traditional jobs but gain flexibility. Discipline is crucial for saying no to distractions. Successful entrepreneurs often focus on niche markets. High foot traffic locations are ideal for vending machines. AI is transforming business operations and efficiency. Networking and connections can lead to valuable opportunities. Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:04.898) Mike, what's going on buddy? Doing great brother, doing great. How about you?   Mike (00:06.748) Don't worry,   Mike (00:11.664) Good, I'm a little flustered. I usually have my mic set up over here, but I guess we just moved and it's not here today. I guess, yeah, new office and it's been a whole hot mess.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:19.822) New office or what?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:27.862) Nice man, nice. I see you got the whiteboard cranking back there. Love to see that.   Mike (00:33.114) Always. I love your background. That's sweet.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:38.03) Thanks man, yeah, I'm on camera all the time so I like I need to just build this out instead of using like a green screen so Made the investment made it happen   Mike (00:44.86) Totally.   Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:49.442) Have we met in person or not? I don't know if we've met at a Wealth Without Wall Street event or I couldn't tell. Okay. No, I did not go to Nashville last year.   Mike (00:58.478) I don't think so. don't think you're... Were you in Nashville last year?   Mike (01:04.634) No, okay. No, I don't think we've met in person. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:08.256) Okay, all good, man. All good. Well, cool. I'll just go over the format real quick. We'll do kind of a shorter recording. We're do like 30 minutes, something like in that range. And then we'll just kind of like break. And then I'll, want to record a couple of other quick segments where I call it Million Dollar Monday. I'm kind of asking you about how you made your first, last and next million. And then 1 % closer, which would just be kind of what separates you, what makes you the   top 1 % in your particular vertical. So we'll just kind of record those separately. Those will be real short, like five minutes or so.   Mike (01:44.924) Okay, yeah, I'll follow your lead. All good.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:47.15) Cool. Cool. Let's see. I think I already have this auto recording. So we're already recording. So I'll just jump right in.   Mike (01:55.377) Okay.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:57.782) Welcome to Raise the Bar Radio, hosted by yours truly Seth Bradley. We today we've got Mr. Passive, Mike Hoffman. Mike, welcome to the show.   Mike (02:08.189) Thank you for having me fired up to be here.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:10.855) Absolutely man, really happy to have you on. I know it's been a little bit of a trek here to get our schedules lined up, but really stoked to have you on today, man. I see you said you moved into a new office. You've got the whiteboard cranking, so love to see it.   Mike (02:25.372) yeah, whiteboards are the only place I can get my thoughts down.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.399) Yeah, man, it makes a difference when you actually write something rather than type it or even on a mirror board where you're doing it online. just there's something about physically writing something down.   Mike (02:41.328) You know, I'm glad you said that because yesterday I flipped to Seattle for a quick work trip and I didn't have wifi and I literally had three pages of just, I, was so like the clarity of some of these kinds of bigger visions I have now from just being able to write for an hour on a flight was, I was like, man, I gotta do this more often.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:00.363) Yeah, for sure. The key though is once you write it down, it just doesn't go into the trash or into a black hole somewhere where you never see it again. So that's kind of the disadvantage there. If you have it on your computer and you're taking notes or you have it on a mirror board, at least it's there to reference all the time. If you write it down on paper, sometimes, I've got my Raze Masters book right here for notes, but it's like, it might go into the abyss and I'll never look at it again. So you gotta be careful about that.   Mike (03:27.184) Yeah, yeah, I need to check out the Miro boards. I've heard a lot of good things about them.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:31.467) Yeah, yeah. Awesome, Mike. Well, listen, for our audience who doesn't know anything about you, maybe just tell them, you know, tell them a little bit about your background. Tell them about your your main business and we can take it from there.   Mike (03:43.354) Yeah. So I think for those that don't know about me, I'm a classic Midwest farm boy started with a classic, you know, showing cattle at the county fair and all of that and had a lemonade stand growing up. And then my first job was actually at McDonald's, you know, thinking about the whole success of that business model. But when I was coaching and, out of college, I got my first rental and I was like, wow, this is crazy. making money without.   really much time involved. and then with my work in Silicon Valley, know, Seth, was classic Silicon Valley, you know, cutthroat job that, startup life and traveling three weeks out of the month. And I was on, I was in airports all the time. And was like, these vending machines I would run into at airports were just so archaic. And so I went down this path of like unattended retail and kind of the future of, of that. And that's really where I just see a huge opportunity right now.   And so it's kind of what led me into all these different income streams that I'm passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:49.431) That's awesome, man. Well, let's dive into that a little bit deeper. me about these income streams. It centers around vending machines, right? But I'm sure there's a lot more to it. I'm sure there's a lot of different entry points for people. Maybe just kind of give us a general synopsis to start out.   Mike (05:06.78) Yeah, so I think the big thing with, you know, if we're talking vending specifically as an income stream, you know, most people think of vending as the traditional machines where you enter in a code, you put your card on the machine and then a motor spirals down a Snickers bar or a soda and you go into the chute and grab it.   Nowadays, there's these smart machines that literally you just unlock the door, or even if you go into, land in the Vegas airport right at the bottom of the escalator where it says, welcome to Las Vegas, there's a 7-Eleven with gates and AI cameras, and there's no employees in the 7-Eleven. And it just tracks whatever you grab and to exit the gate, you have to pay for it. So like, there's just this huge market now where we just installed it in urgent care.   less than two months ago and we can do over the counter meds in that machine because it doesn't have to fit into a motor. It's just shelf space. You identify with the planogram with the AI cameras like, okay, Dayquil in this slot or Salad in this slot and then whatever they grab, gets charged to the person that pulls it from it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (06:15.469) That's interesting, man. Yeah, I mean, my initial thought too, was just like the traditional old vending machine where you're getting a candy bar or a cola out of there. But yeah, nowadays, now that you mentioned that, you see this more and more every single day where you've got these scanners, you've got kind of self-checkout, that sort of thing. So that's kind of, that expands that world and really opens it up to the future, right? Like it just really, that's what we're trying to get to, or at least we think we wanna get there, where we're kind of removing humans and...   kind of working with technologies and things like that.   Mike (06:49.488) Yeah, and I think, you know, removing the whole human thing. mean, those machines still got to get stocked and you know, there's not robots running around doing that. But I just come back to, I was a Marriott guy when I was on the road all the time and I'd go to these grab and goes at a Marriott and grab a, the end of the night, I'd grab like a little wine or an ice cream sandwich. And I literally had to go wait in line at the check-in desk behind three people checking in just to tell them, Hey, put these on.   room charge and I was like if I had a checkout kiosk in that grab-and-go I could have just removed all the friction for this customer experience.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:27.772) Right, 100%. Yeah, I mean, there's a place and time for it and there's more and more applications for it that just pop up every single day and you can kind of spot that in your life as you're just kind of moving through, whether you're checking into your hotel or whatever you're doing.   Mike (07:41.456) Yeah, yeah. So that's just kind of what excites me today.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:45.973) Yeah, yeah, so when a stranger asks you what you do just in the street, what do you tell them? Because I have a hard time answering that question sometimes too, but I'd love to hear what your answer is.   Mike (07:56.804) Yeah, I would just say it depends on the day. You know, what do you do or what's your, you know, it's like at the golf course when you get paired up with a stranger and they're like, tell me about what you do for your career. And I just say, I'm a classic entrepreneur. And then I'm like, well, what do you do? And it's like, well, tell me about the day. You know, what fire are you putting out? Like today we just got the go ahead for five more urgent cares for our local route. But then, you know, we have a community of operators across the country that we help really build.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:57.933) haha   Ha ha ha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:09.879) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (08:25.616) Vending empires and so we had a group call this morning. So literally, there's a lot of just, you know, it's classic entrepreneurial life. You never know what the day's script is gonna be.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:36.161) Yeah, for sure. And you focus a lot on not only on your own business, but also teaching others, right? Teaching others how to kind of break into this business.   Mike (08:45.402) Yeah, that's my passion, Seth. When I got into my first investment out of college was a $70,000 rental, you know, putting 20 % down or 14K and using an emergency fund. like my background in going to college was as a coach. like I knew I wanted to kind of take that mindset of like coaching people, you know, teach them how to fish. I don't want to catch all the fish myself. It's just not fulfilling that way. So that's really where my passion is.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (09:15.373) Gotcha, gotcha. tell me about like, tell me about step one. I mean, how does somebody break into this business? Obviously your own personal business is probably very advanced. There's probably a lot more sophisticated investing strategies at this point and you've got different layers to it. But somebody just kind of starting out that said, hey, this sounds pretty interesting. This vending machine business sounds like it can be passive. How do you recommend that they get started?   Mike (09:40.57) Yeah, so I'm always, I view like the whole vending scale as similar to Major League Baseball. You got your single A all the way up to the big leagues. And if you're just starting out, I always recommend like find a location where you can put a machine and just learn the process. Like to me, that's single A analogy. you know, that always starts with, people want to jump right to like, well, what type of machines do you recommend?   products, how do you price products? And the first question I'll always ask Seth is, well, what location is this machine going in? And they're like, well, I don't know yet. I was just going to buy one and put it in my garage to start. And it's like, no, you need to have the location first. So understanding that, is it a pet hospital? Is it an apartment? Is it a gym? Where is the foot traffic? And then you can cater to what's the best machine for that type of location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:36.887) Got it, got it. Now is this a kind of a rent, you rent the space to place the machine with that particular business or wherever you're gonna place it or how does that all come together?   Mike (10:47.644) not typically, some people are kind of more advanced, like apartment complexes are used to the revenue share model. So they're going to ask for a piece of the pie for sure, for you to put the machine in their lobby. but like, you know, when we're talking urgent carers or even pet hospitals are viewing it as an amenity. And so we probably have, I don't even know how many machines now 75 now, and we, you know, less than half of those actually,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:50.423) Okay.   Mike (11:15.1) us rent or ask for a revenue share to have them in there. So I never leave lead with that, but we'll do it if we need to get the location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:23.989) Interesting gotcha. So it's really a value add for wherever you're gonna place it and that's how most people or I guess most businesses would look at that and then you're able to capture that that space   Mike (11:27.366) Mm-hmm.   Mike (11:34.236) Yeah, absolutely. So, um, a great case study is we have a 25 employee roughing business here in Oregon. And you might think like, only 25 employees. It's not going to make that much money. Well, we do $1,200 a month. And the cool thing about this, Seth, is the CEO of this roughing company literally did napkin math on how much it costs for his employees to drive to the gas station during their 20 minute break. And then   How much they're paying for an energy drink at the gas station and then how much gas they're using with the roofing like the work trucks to get to and from the gas station So he's like I want to bring a smart machine into our warehouse Set the prices as half off so that four dollar monster only costs his rofers two dollars and then we invoice him the the business owner every month for the other 50 % and so he actually   Calculated as a cost savings not asking for money to rent the space   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:35.597) Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. That makes sense. I love the baseball analogy with the single A, double A, triple A, even into the big leagues here. know, a lot of the folks that listen to this are already kind of, you know, in the big leagues or maybe think about some capital behind them. Like how would they be able to jump right in, maybe skip single or double A or would they, or do you even suggest that? Do you suggest that they start, you know, small just to learn and then maybe invest some more capital into it to expand or can they jump right to the big leagues?   Mike (12:48.891) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mike (13:03.966) I think they can jump right to the big leagues. this is, I'm glad you brought this up because just listening to some of your episodes from the past, there's no doubt that you have people that could buy a route like a off biz buy sell today. And I think this is a prime opportunity. it's very similar to flipping a house. you, you know, there's a route in Chicago, I think it was for $1.1 million, you know, whatever negotiating terms or seller financing or, or what have you, got a lot of, your, your   audience that is experts in that. But the cool thing about these routes is they have the old school machines that have the motors and that are limited to, this type of machine, you can only fit a 12 ounce cannon. Well, guess what? The minute you buy that route, you swap out that machine with one of these micro markets or smart machines. Now you just went from selling a 12 ounce soda for $1.25 to now a 16 ounce monster for $4.50.   Well, you just bought that location based on its current revenue numbers and by swapping out that machine, you're going to two or three acts your revenue just at that location. And so it's truly just like a value play, a value upgrade, like flipping the house of, okay, there's a lot of deals right now of these routes being sold by baby boomers where it's like, they got the old school Pepsi machine. Doesn't have a credit card reader on it. They can't track inventory remotely via their cell phones. So   They're not keeping it stocked. Like all those types of things can really play in your favor as a buyer that just wants to get to the big leagues right away.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:37.651) I love that. When you say buy a route, what are you really buying? Tell me about the contractual agreement behind that. What are you really buying there?   Mike (14:47.184) You're just buying the locations and the equipment associated with it. So like this Chicago route, it's like, we have machines in 75 properties all across the Chicago suburbs. And they could be medical clinics. could be apartments. could be employee break rooms at businesses, but that's when you start diving into those locations. It's like, I have a snack machine and a soda machine here. Well, you swap that out with a micro market that now instead of.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:49.279) Okay. Okay.   Mike (15:13.626) that machine that'll only hold a small bag of Doritos that you charge two bucks, well now you get the movie size theater bags that you can really put in there in a micro market. Like naturally just that valuation of that route based on those 75 machines current revenue, I mean you're gonna be able to two or three X your revenue right by just swapping out those machines.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (15:35.959) Wow, yeah, I love that analogy with real estate, right? It's just like a value add. It's like, how can I bring in more income from what already exists? Well, I need to upgrade or I need to put in some capital improvements, whatever you want to call it. Here's the vending machine upgrades or a different kind of system in there. And you get more income. And obviously that business in itself is going to be worth more in a higher multiple.   Mike (15:58.396) Absolutely. mean, a great example of this is we had a machine in an apartment complex and it was your traditional machine with the motors and you have to enter in the code. Well, we could only put in four 12 ounce drinks and then chips. Well, we swapped that out with a micro market. Well, now that micro market, we literally put in bags of Tide Pods for laundry, like these big bags of Tide Pods. We'll sell those like hotcakes for 15 bucks. And our old machine,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:25.281) Yeah, let's say those aren't cheap.   Mike (16:27.246) Yeah, our old machine Seth, it would take us to get to 15 bucks, we'd have to sell eight Snickers. That's one transaction.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:33.547) Right, right. Yeah, yeah. How do you do an analysis kind of based on like what you think is gonna sell there, right? Like you're replacing, let's say a Dorito machine with Tide Pods, you know? So you have to individually go to each location and figure out what will work, what will sell.   Mike (16:47.738) Yeah.   Mike (16:51.834) It's all about demographic. Absolutely. So, you know, we have, we have, we have a micro market and a manufacturing plant that's, it's a pumpkin farm and there's a ton of Hispanic workers. So we do a lot of like spicy foods, a lot of spicy chips. do, we do a ton of, mean, the sugar or sorry, the glass bottle cokes. They do, they love their pastries.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:53.431) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:06.349) Yeah.   Mike (17:15.868) So we just doubled down on the demographics. So yesterday I was filming at one of our micro markets that's in a gym and they crushed the Fairlife protein shakes, like the more modern protein shakes, but they won't touch muscle milk. So we're literally taking out one row of muscle milk just to add an extra row of Fairlife shakes. So you're constantly just catering to the demographics and what's selling.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:40.632) Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. I mean, this is literally just like real estate, right? Like you go and you find a good market. You're talking about demographics, right? Find the market, see what they want, see how much you can upgrade, how you can upgrade. If it's an apartment, it's a unit. If it's here, it's the product that you're selling and the type of machine, or maybe it's a mini market. A lot of things to kind of tie your understanding to here.   Mike (17:45.926) Yeah.   Mike (18:05.904) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (18:07.615) Yeah, awesome, man. Awesome, Where are you at in your business? Like what, you know, what are the big leagues looking like right now? You know, what are you doing to expand your business, raising the bar in your business?   Mike (18:18.692) Yeah, I'm going after that's a really good question. I'm going after kind of these newer markets and we're kind of past that point of like, okay, let's pilot in this location. For example, that urgent care, we didn't know if it was going to be a good location two months ago when we installed. Well now it's already crushing it. Well, there's six other urgent cares in town and we just got to go ahead on five of those six. So like for me, it's doubling down on our current proof points of where.   okay, we know that manufacturing plant, the pumpkin farm does really well. So let's start getting intros to all their, manufacturers of the products they need to grow pumpkin. know, like we're just doubling down on scaling because now we have the operational blueprint to really just kind of to go after it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:03.917) Gotcha, gotcha. Tell me about how passive this can really be, right? So I used to have, before we switched over to the new brand, Raise the Bar podcast, it was the Passive Income Attorney podcast, right? I was really focused on passive investments, focused on bringing in passive investors into my real estate deals, things like that. And I think that word passive gets thrown around quite a bit, right? And sometimes it's abused because people get into things that are not truly passive.   Mike (19:18.427) Yeah.   Mike (19:28.784) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:33.517) What's your take on that as it relates to the vending business?   Mike (19:38.49) Yeah, so I think as far as with the vending business, there's clearly upfront leg work that needs to be done, whether that's finding locations or any of those things. So I have a route that is here in Oregon, and then we bought a route last year in Illinois and have scaled that route. I spend 30 minutes a week on each route now. that these urgent cares and stuff, like we have an operator that's running the whole route.   Here's the problem, Seth. It's like people are so scared to build systems to ultimately systemize things or they're too cheap to hire help. And I'm the opposite. like, you know, kind of like Dan Martell's buy back your time. Like I have like a leverage calculator and like I constantly think about is this worth my time? Cause as you know, you're busier than me. Like it's so limited.   for me, my routes, I would consider them passive, like one hour a week is, is nothing in my mind. But as far as like, you know, I'm, I'm also a passive investor on, we're building a, an oil loop station in Florida and I sent my money a year ago to, to my, active investor and I haven't talked to him since. Like that's actually truly probably passive now, you know, I'm not doing anything, but there's, there's different levels to that. And I'm a huge believer like.   don't delegate something until you know what you're delegating. So people that want to start with the vending routes, sure, if you want to buy a route that already has an operator, that's one thing. but these, if you're starting a vending route for your kid or for your stay at home wife or whatever, as a side hustle, like get in the weeds and install that first machine. So when you hire help to take over the route, you know what you're delegating.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:09.773) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:27.021) Yeah, that's key. That's key. And you you described just like any other business, right? I think that's kind of where people get themselves into trouble. That sometimes they get sold the dream that is truly passive. And eventually it can be. I mean, you're talking about an hour a week. To me, that's pretty damn passive, right? But you know, upfront, you you've got to learn the business. You've got to know what you're getting yourself into. Like you said, you've got to learn before you delegate so that you know what you're delegating.   There is going to be some upfront work and then as you're able to kind of delegate and learn Then you can make it more and more passive as you go   Mike (22:00.88) Yeah, I mean, it's no different than what's the same when people tell you that they're busy. I mean, you're just not a priority. Like that's a fact. you're not. People say it's the same thing when people come to me and they're like, I'm so busy. It's like, okay, well let me, let me see your schedule. Where are you spending your time? You know, it's like when people are like, I can't lose weight. Okay, well let me see your food log. What did you eat yesterday? Did you have ice cream? Like this is like the same kind of thing. That's where passive I think has been really abused.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:16.097) Yeah. Yep.   Mike (22:29.638) To me, the bigger issue is like, vending is not get rich quick. And so like, if you're expecting to leave your nine to five tomorrow and vending is going to make up for that in one day, like that's not going to   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:41.089) Right, Makes sense. Speaking of passive, do you raise capital or do you have any kind of a fund or have you put together a fund for something like this?   Mike (22:51.48) We haven't put together a fun, we're definitely buying routes is definitely becoming more and more intriguing. And I know there's some PE players starting to get into the vending game, but it's something we've been definitely considering and on our radar of do we want to.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:58.541) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:10.231) Gotcha. Cool. I mean, you brought in money partners for some of those routes yet, or is that still something you're exploring too?   Mike (23:18.168) No, I think it's just something we're thinking about. mean, what do you recommend?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:21.089) Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd recommend I mean, it depends, right? Like I'm I'm scared to turn you by trade, but I don't like to say you should always raise capital no matter what. Right. Like you've been able to scale your business as you have and grown it to where it is without bringing outside capital. It sounds which is great because you own 100 percent or with whatever business partners you might have. You know, when you start raising capital, you're giving a large chunk of that piece away, not necessarily your whole company. But if you're buying   you know, a set of routes or that sort of thing. You you're gonna give a big piece away to those past investors if you're starting a fund or even if it's up. Even a single asset syndication here for one of these, you know, these routes, you could put it together that way. You know, it's just something to consider. But a lot of times when people are looking to scale fast, right, if they wanna grow exponentially, you've gotta use other people's money to get there or hit the lottery.   Mike (24:08.294) Mm.   Mike (24:15.856) Absolutely, no, agree. That's spot-on and I actually before you know the Silicon Valley company That I was part of we had a we went through probably series a B C D C ground   Let's just say we weren't very fiscally responsible. So I come from the, you know, it's like the ex-girlfriend example. I don't want to just start taking everyone's money.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:42.413) Yeah, yeah, that tends to happen with some startups, right? Like before you get funding, you're super frugal because it's your money and every single dollar counts. And you're like, I don't want to pay, you if it's software, you don't want to pay the software engineers. I'm going to out, you know, put it, you know, hire Indian engineers, that sort of thing. And then once you get a few million bucks that you raised in that seed round, then it just goes and you're like, whoa, wait a minute, let's hire 20 people. You know, it's you got to be careful about that.   Mike (25:05.606) Yeah   Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great take on it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:11.245) Yeah, it's, yeah. It's a question I love to ask and I think it's about time for that. So, in a parallel universe, tell me about a different version of you. So a different but likely version, right? Like, for example, for me, I went to med school for a year and a half and then I dropped out and I ended up becoming an attorney. So that was like a big turning point, right? So I could have easily at some point just said screw it and became a doctor and that would have been a totally different route than I'm going down right now.   What's an example of something like that for you?   Mike (25:42.524) Wait, are you being serious about that? I took the MCAT too. I got into med school and then I, yeah, I was pretty mad in school. And then the more I learned about exercise science, I was like, organic chemistry is not fun.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:44.321) Yeah, totally.   yeah? There you go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:57.39) It is not fun. I did not love that. I majored in exercise physiology and then I ended up switching to biology because it was just a little bit of an easier route to get my degree and go into med school and I went for a year and a half and then I dropped out because I absolutely hated it. I knew I didn't want to do it. I was just more attracted to business and that sort of thing.   Mike (26:16.346) Yeah, that's crazy. That's awesome. parallel universe. I, that's a really good question. I don't know. I, kinda, I have two kids under three and the other side of me wishes I would have traveled more.   you know, I mean, we'll get there hopefully when they get out of high school and someday. But right now I just think there's so many different cultural things and ways to skin the cat. And it's just fascinating to learn some of those things.   Mike (26:55.352) yourself in those cultures.   go to different cultures and really like understand how they did things for a time, a period of time to really just learn their thinking.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:07.777) Yeah, I love that man. I had a similar experience of what you're describing. I didn't travel abroad really other than like, you know, Canada and Mexico until I studied abroad in Barcelona during law school and I got to stay there for a couple of months. So you actually had some time. It wasn't like you're just visiting for a week or a weekend or anything like that. You got to kind of live there right for a couple of months and it just totally changed my, you know, my outlook on life and just the way that you see things like I feel like we're in the US and we just think   Mike (27:19.627) Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:37.76) US is number one and there's only one way to do things the way that we do things that kind of attitude. And then when you go to Western Europe and you see that culture and you drive or get on a train, it's like an hour away and you're in a totally different culture and they're doing it a certain way as well and it's working. You just see that other people are doing things differently and still being successful at it, still having a thriving culture and it's just awesome to see.   Mike (28:03.312) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (28:06.251) Yeah. Tell me about some major influences in your life. What turned you or got you into that, the vending business? It's not one of those typical things. mean, I know you're in the education business, so you're kind of really spreading the word about this type of business. But I would say when you started, there might not have been a mastermind or educational courses around this. mean, how did you kind of get drawn into that? Were there any particular people or influences that brought you in?   Mike (28:29.308) you   Mike (28:36.188) Yeah. So the, biggest influence for me to get into vending, uh, wasn't actually a person. It was actually, was, um, I had landed, I was coming back from the Pentagon from a trip back to the Bay for the startup we were talking about. And I was in the Denver airport and 11 PM, you know, our flight was delayed. And then they're like, Hey, you have to stay in the airport tonight. The pilot went over their hours for the day, blah, blah, blah. So I went to a vending machine and I remember buying a bottle of water.   I think it costs like at the time three bucks or something. I knew that bottle of water cost 20 cents at Costco. And I was like, there is someone that's at home with their kids right now making money off me and they're not even at this mission. Like the machine is doing the work. So I had like an aha moment of like, what are my true priorities in life? And like, why am I chasing this cutthroat startup from.   Palo Alto and trying to make it when reality was my priorities are freedom to spend more time with my family. So that's really kind of what led me into this path of starting a vending machine side hustle to keep our lifestyle as we had kids. We wanted to have a nanny and we wanted to be able to still go on dates and things like that as a couple with my wife. So that's really kind of my family and just like...   having the freedom to do things. Like that's what I'm really passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (29:59.084) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, building on that, and you may have already answered that, but what does success look like for you?   Mike (30:01.766) next   Mike (30:06.268) an empty calendar.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:08.621) Good luck with that. Good luck with that.   Mike (30:11.516) Oh man, I was gonna say, how do we crack that code? No, yeah. No, but I think success to me is doing things like picking up my daughter at three and even being able to say no to the things that aren't gonna get you to where you need, like the discipline piece of this too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:15.708) man.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:33.995) Yeah, yeah, mean, you know, for me, it's kind of similar, right? It's not going to be able to empty that calendar. Not yet, at least maybe here in the future. But for now, it's pretty filled. But it is it's flexible, right? Like us as entrepreneurs, you know, we probably work more than we ever worked when we were in our W-2s. But at the same time, it's you know, we're working in our own business for ourselves, for our families. And we have the   Flexibility, a lot of people will say the freedom, right? But we have the flexibility to move things around. And if you want to pick your kids up at school at three, or you do want to take a weekend off, or something comes up in your schedule, you have the flexibility to do that. Whereas if you're kind of slaving away at the nine to five, you can't really do it.   Mike (31:04.486) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (31:20.198) Yeah, that's spot on. mean, I just wrote that down, but flexibility is, cause you're right. When you started becoming an entrepreneur, this is what I tell people all the time when they want to get a venting around is like running your own business. You are going to work harder than you do for your boss currently at your W-2. Like you have to do payroll. You have to do, like you gotta like make sure there's money to actually do pay, you know, like all those things that you just don't even think about when you have a W-2. It's like, today's   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:39.543) Yeah   Mike (31:48.89) You know, this Friday I get paid. Well, when you run a business, mean, that money's got to come from somewhere.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:51.905) Yeah   Right, yeah, 100%, man, 100%. All right, Mike, we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Tell the listeners where they can find out more about you.   Mike (32:05.286) Yeah, so thanks for having me. This has been great. I have free content all over the place. can find me on the classic Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, but I also have vendingpreneurs.com is where we help people that are more interested in actually the vending stuff. But I've been really trying to double down on YouTube lately because there's just a lot of content and you can't get it off a one minute reel.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:32.417) Love it, man. All right, Mike, appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the show.   Mike (32:35.91) Thanks for having me.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:37.227) Hi brother. Alright man, got a couple more questions for you. We do like a quick, kind of do the full podcast episode and then I'll just do kind of a quick episode that'll follow up on a Monday and then another one on a Friday. Cool.   Mike (32:55.814) See you.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:59.693) We out here.   Welcome to Million Dollar Mondays, how to make, keep, and scale a million dollars. Mike is a super successful entrepreneur in the vending machine business and beyond. Tell us, how did you make your first million dollars?   Mike (33:20.922) Yeah, Seth. It was probably actually through real estate and just getting a little bit kind of lucky with timing with COVID and short-term rentals and some of that. But yeah, that's probably how I got the first million.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:25.229) Mm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:37.079) Gotcha, cool. Yeah, real estate usually plays a role in the everybody's strategy down the line, whether they're in that primary business or not, whether they start out there or they end up there, real estate usually plays a part. How'd you make your last million?   Mike (33:53.956) Yeah, that's a good question because it's completely different than real estate, but it's actually been vending machines. So that's been kind of fun. just, you you talk about product market fit whenever you're an entrepreneur with a business. And that was just kind of the perfect storm right now of traditional vending really kind of being outdated. And we found a product market fit with it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:57.57) Right. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:16.215) Gotcha. Cool. that was from, was this maybe mostly attributed to kind of buying those routes, those larger routes?   Mike (34:23.32) Exactly. Yeah. Buying old school routes and really kind of flipping them like a house with modern micro markets charging, with different products and what would fit in a vending machine, like more of the unorthodox, you know, toilet paper and tide pods and things that wouldn't fit in a traditional vending machine. I mean, we'll sell $35 bottles of shampoo in these micro markets. So just kind of, go and add it in a different way.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:49.857) Yeah, and then with the aging population, there's gotta be more and more of these things popping up. So there should be more opportunity for people to get involved or for people like yourself to just snag everything, right?   Mike (35:01.102) Yeah, I think there's no chance I could snag everything, not even just in this town alone that I'm currently in. I mean, machines are getting cheaper, the technology is getting way better with AI. And nowadays, it's not what fits in a vending machine motor. It's okay, what's shelf space? if it's a bottle of shampoo or a glass Coke, it doesn't matter because it's not just getting thrown down the chute of a traditional machine.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:05.387) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:27.521) Makes sense, makes sense. Last, how are you planning on making your next million dollars?   Mike (35:34.3) I think probably with AI, we're doing a lot of interesting stuff with helping people scale their, their vending routes. that is applicable to any, small business. And so I'm really intrigued. Just every time I go down a rabbit hole with some new AI tool, I feel like there's another better one that just came right behind it. So I just think it's kind of that time where you can really get ahead by just learning.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:06.209) Yeah, totally makes sense. mean people that are not paying attention to AI whether it's simply using chat GPT instead of Google search are getting left behind quickly because it's just advancing so fast. I can't even imagine what this world's gonna look like five years from now the way that things are moving.   Mike (36:23.132) It's crazy. Three years ago when I was working for a tech company selling software into the government, I would have to work with three secretaries to schedule a meeting with the general to sell their software. Now my EA is literally an AI bot and everyone that's scheduling time on my calendar, they don't even know they're talking to a non-human, which is pretty   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:43.479) Yeah, 100%. We're gonna, I predicted within five years, everybody's gonna have a humanoid robot in their home with AI instilled and they're gonna be doing physical things for us at our homes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. 100%. Awesome, All right, moving on to the next one.   Mike (36:50.181) Yeah!   Mike (36:57.917) I hope so. I hope they can go to Costco get all our groceries do our do our laundry The dishes   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:11.501) You're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do, Mike. What is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Mike (37:19.056) Ooh, that's a good question, Seth. I think it's just discipline, know, discipline and focus. One of the hardest things is being able to say no with the things that don't align. And when I was growing up, I had a quote that has really stuck with me. That's like, it's better to be respected than liked. And I think that really resonates. Like naturally as a human, you want to be liked and help people, but the 1 % are really good at saying no.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:47.649) Yeah, I love that man. That's a great answer. Kind of building on that, what do you think the number one attribute is that makes a successful entrepreneur?   Mike (37:57.468) probably focus. Yeah. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:59.212) Yeah, focus. Yep. The one thing, right? The one thing.   Mike (38:04.186) Yep. That's why you come back to like the most successful entrepreneurs. They always niche down and they niche down because they just, got hyper-focused. Like this is kind of why for me, you know, I started this passive Mr. Passive on social media before I even got into Vendi. Well, now everyone's like, well, how passive is Vendi? And well, it's like, what's really interesting is I was posting all these different, what I thought passive income streams in the time, but everyone, 95 % of the questions I got about   Airbnbs are all my different investments was about bending. So I just niche down on, on bending and I just looked back on that and I was like, it really forced me to focus.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:43.263) Awesome, awesome. What's one thing someone could do today to get 1 % closer to success in the vending machine business if they are really interested in learning more?   Mike (38:53.892) tap into your connections and find a location that has high foot traffic, whether that's a friend that works at an urgent care, a sister that lives at an apartment. You know, you take your kid to that gymnastics studio that has a ton of foot traffic between 4 PM and 8 PM. Like all those locations are prime locations to put one of these modern smart machines in. so, tapping into your connections, well, you know,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:24.567) Love that man. Awesome. All right, Mike, I appreciate it, brother. We'll to meet in person sometime,   Mike (39:30.574) I would love to. Where are you based, Seth?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:31.789) I'm in San Diego, where you at?   Mike (39:34.78) I am in Eugene. Yeah, Oregon. I'll come down your way though.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:37.39) Cool We're planning on doing yeah, we're planning on doing so me and my wife we have a Sprinter van and Last May we did we did going back to the flexibility piece, right? We did 32 days in the van up through Wyoming Montana and then into like Into Canada and they're like Banff and Jasper and all the way up to Jasper and then we circled back on the west coast Through Vancouver and then down back to San Diego Yeah   Mike (40:05.52) What?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:06.829) Pretty wild, pretty awesome. And the reason I brought that up is this year we're gonna do shorter trip. We're probably gonna do two, maybe three weeks at the most, but we're gonna do kind of the Pacific Northwest. So Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver and all those parks and stuff up there.   Mike (40:17.254) Yeah.   Mike (40:21.744) Yeah, you definitely have a, have you been to Bend before? Bend is like my, that whole area, Central Oregon is, and even Idaho, like all those kind of, yeah. That's awesome. Please let me know when you're up this way. I mean, I'll come meet you wherever. That'd be amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:24.641) Yeah, yeah I have.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:38.861) Sure man grab a coffee or beer. I appreciate it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah all right brother great to meet you and I will send the information on when this is gonna get released and give you you materials and all that stuff so we can collaborate on social media   Mike (40:51.964) Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is a lot of your audience, like passive investors?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:58.593) So most of that, so now I'm rebranding. I rebranded because I'm gonna be speaking more towards like active entrepreneurs, Active entrepreneurs, people raising capital, that sort of thing. Whereas before it was based on passive investors and people really focused on attorneys. So I'm an attorney and I was raising capital from attorneys for my real estate deals. Now I'm really more into selling shovels. I'm scaling my law firm. I'm chief legal officer for Tribest, which is, we've got a fund to fund.   Mike (41:20.262) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:28.085) legal product there as well. So we're really trying to bring in active, active entrepreneurs and people raising capital.   Mike (41:29.777) Yeah.   Mike (41:36.572) Okay, because I got that, I was just thinking through when we talking about that oil development project, that could be a good, the guy that runs that fund could be a good interview for you. Just thinking through your audience, because he's always looking for investors into his fund and like these oil lubs are just crushing it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:49.901) Cool. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:58.464) Yeah, cool. Who is it? Just, I don't know if I know him or not.   Mike (42:02.183) Um, Robert Durkey, he's out of Florida. has, his problem is he's sitting on a gold mine that has no, like he's old school, doesn't know social media, any of that. So that's why I think he'd be perfect for you. Cause I think you could help him and he could definitely help you with some kickback. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we meet soon. Okay. See you Seth. Bye.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:05.645) I don't think I know. I don't think I know.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:13.889) Yeah. Gotcha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:20.705) Cool, okay, sounds good man. Yeah, I appreciate the introduction.   Yeah, all right brother. Talk soon. See ya. Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en Mike Hoffman's Links: https://www.instagram.com/mikehoffmannofficial/ https://x.com/mrpassive_?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedhoffmann/ https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.passive

Title: How to Make Millions with Vending Machines with Mike Hoffman Summary: In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike Hoffman delve into the world of vending machines as a business opportunity. Mike shares his journey from a Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur in the vending industry, highlighting the evolution of vending technology and the potential for passive income. They discuss the importance of location, understanding demographics, and the scalability of vending routes. Mike emphasizes the need for upfront work and learning before delegating tasks, while also addressing the misconceptions surrounding passive income in the vending business. In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship, particularly in the vending machine business. They explore the importance of capital raising, the journey of self-discovery, influences that shape business decisions, and the definition of success. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of flexibility, discipline, and focus in achieving entrepreneurial goals, while also touching on financial milestones and the attributes that distinguish successful entrepreneurs. Links to Watch and Subscribe:   Bullet Point Highlights: Mike's journey from a classic Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur. The evolution of vending machines from traditional to smart technology. Understanding the importance of location in the vending business. The analogy of baseball levels to describe starting in vending. Scaling up from single A to big leagues in vending routes. The significance of demographics in product selection for vending machines. The potential for passive income with proper systems in place. The need for upfront work before achieving passivity in business. Vending is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it requires dedication. The future opportunities in the vending industry are expanding rapidly. Raising capital can dilute ownership but may be necessary for rapid growth. Self-discovery often leads to unexpected career paths. Influences in business can come from personal experiences rather than just mentors. Success is often defined by the ability to prioritize family and flexibility. Entrepreneurs work harder than in traditional jobs but gain flexibility. Discipline is crucial for saying no to distractions. Successful entrepreneurs often focus on niche markets. High foot traffic locations are ideal for vending machines. AI is transforming business operations and efficiency. Networking and connections can lead to valuable opportunities. Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:04.898) Mike, what's going on buddy? Doing great brother, doing great. How about you?   Mike (00:06.748) Don't worry,   Mike (00:11.664) Good, I'm a little flustered. I usually have my mic set up over here, but I guess we just moved and it's not here today. I guess, yeah, new office and it's been a whole hot mess.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:19.822) New office or what?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:27.862) Nice man, nice. I see you got the whiteboard cranking back there. Love to see that.   Mike (00:33.114) Always. I love your background. That's sweet.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:38.03) Thanks man, yeah, I'm on camera all the time so I like I need to just build this out instead of using like a green screen so Made the investment made it happen   Mike (00:44.86) Totally.   Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:49.442) Have we met in person or not? I don't know if we've met at a Wealth Without Wall Street event or I couldn't tell. Okay. No, I did not go to Nashville last year.   Mike (00:58.478) I don't think so. don't think you're... Were you in Nashville last year?   Mike (01:04.634) No, okay. No, I don't think we've met in person. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:08.256) Okay, all good, man. All good. Well, cool. I'll just go over the format real quick. We'll do kind of a shorter recording. We're do like 30 minutes, something like in that range. And then we'll just kind of like break. And then I'll, want to record a couple of other quick segments where I call it Million Dollar Monday. I'm kind of asking you about how you made your first, last and next million. And then 1 % closer, which would just be kind of what separates you, what makes you the   top 1 % in your particular vertical. So we'll just kind of record those separately. Those will be real short, like five minutes or so.   Mike (01:44.924) Okay, yeah, I'll follow your lead. All good.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:47.15) Cool. Cool. Let's see. I think I already have this auto recording. So we're already recording. So I'll just jump right in.   Mike (01:55.377) Okay.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:57.782) Welcome to Raise the Bar Radio, hosted by yours truly Seth Bradley. We today we've got Mr. Passive, Mike Hoffman. Mike, welcome to the show.   Mike (02:08.189) Thank you for having me fired up to be here.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:10.855) Absolutely man, really happy to have you on. I know it's been a little bit of a trek here to get our schedules lined up, but really stoked to have you on today, man. I see you said you moved into a new office. You've got the whiteboard cranking, so love to see it.   Mike (02:25.372) yeah, whiteboards are the only place I can get my thoughts down.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.399) Yeah, man, it makes a difference when you actually write something rather than type it or even on a mirror board where you're doing it online. just there's something about physically writing something down.   Mike (02:41.328) You know, I'm glad you said that because yesterday I flipped to Seattle for a quick work trip and I didn't have wifi and I literally had three pages of just, I, was so like the clarity of some of these kinds of bigger visions I have now from just being able to write for an hour on a flight was, I was like, man, I gotta do this more often.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:00.363) Yeah, for sure. The key though is once you write it down, it just doesn't go into the trash or into a black hole somewhere where you never see it again. So that's kind of the disadvantage there. If you have it on your computer and you're taking notes or you have it on a mirror board, at least it's there to reference all the time. If you write it down on paper, sometimes, I've got my Raze Masters book right here for notes, but it's like, it might go into the abyss and I'll never look at it again. So you gotta be careful about that.   Mike (03:27.184) Yeah, yeah, I need to check out the Miro boards. I've heard a lot of good things about them.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:31.467) Yeah, yeah. Awesome, Mike. Well, listen, for our audience who doesn't know anything about you, maybe just tell them, you know, tell them a little bit about your background. Tell them about your your main business and we can take it from there.   Mike (03:43.354) Yeah. So I think for those that don't know about me, I'm a classic Midwest farm boy started with a classic, you know, showing cattle at the county fair and all of that and had a lemonade stand growing up. And then my first job was actually at McDonald's, you know, thinking about the whole success of that business model. But when I was coaching and, out of college, I got my first rental and I was like, wow, this is crazy. making money without.   really much time involved. and then with my work in Silicon Valley, know, Seth, was classic Silicon Valley, you know, cutthroat job that, startup life and traveling three weeks out of the month. And I was on, I was in airports all the time. And was like, these vending machines I would run into at airports were just so archaic. And so I went down this path of like unattended retail and kind of the future of, of that. And that's really where I just see a huge opportunity right now.   And so it's kind of what led me into all these different income streams that I'm passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:49.431) That's awesome, man. Well, let's dive into that a little bit deeper. me about these income streams. It centers around vending machines, right? But I'm sure there's a lot more to it. I'm sure there's a lot of different entry points for people. Maybe just kind of give us a general synopsis to start out.   Mike (05:06.78) Yeah, so I think the big thing with, you know, if we're talking vending specifically as an income stream, you know, most people think of vending as the traditional machines where you enter in a code, you put your card on the machine and then a motor spirals down a Snickers bar or a soda and you go into the chute and grab it.   Nowadays, there's these smart machines that literally you just unlock the door, or even if you go into, land in the Vegas airport right at the bottom of the escalator where it says, welcome to Las Vegas, there's a 7-Eleven with gates and AI cameras, and there's no employees in the 7-Eleven. And it just tracks whatever you grab and to exit the gate, you have to pay for it. So like, there's just this huge market now where we just installed it in urgent care.   less than two months ago and we can do over the counter meds in that machine because it doesn't have to fit into a motor. It's just shelf space. You identify with the planogram with the AI cameras like, okay, Dayquil in this slot or Salad in this slot and then whatever they grab, gets charged to the person that pulls it from it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (06:15.469) That's interesting, man. Yeah, I mean, my initial thought too, was just like the traditional old vending machine where you're getting a candy bar or a cola out of there. But yeah, nowadays, now that you mentioned that, you see this more and more every single day where you've got these scanners, you've got kind of self-checkout, that sort of thing. So that's kind of, that expands that world and really opens it up to the future, right? Like it just really, that's what we're trying to get to, or at least we think we wanna get there, where we're kind of removing humans and...   kind of working with technologies and things like that.   Mike (06:49.488) Yeah, and I think, you know, removing the whole human thing. mean, those machines still got to get stocked and you know, there's not robots running around doing that. But I just come back to, I was a Marriott guy when I was on the road all the time and I'd go to these grab and goes at a Marriott and grab a, the end of the night, I'd grab like a little wine or an ice cream sandwich. And I literally had to go wait in line at the check-in desk behind three people checking in just to tell them, Hey, put these on.   room charge and I was like if I had a checkout kiosk in that grab-and-go I could have just removed all the friction for this customer experience.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:27.772) Right, 100%. Yeah, I mean, there's a place and time for it and there's more and more applications for it that just pop up every single day and you can kind of spot that in your life as you're just kind of moving through, whether you're checking into your hotel or whatever you're doing.   Mike (07:41.456) Yeah, yeah. So that's just kind of what excites me today.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:45.973) Yeah, yeah, so when a stranger asks you what you do just in the street, what do you tell them? Because I have a hard time answering that question sometimes too, but I'd love to hear what your answer is.   Mike (07:56.804) Yeah, I would just say it depends on the day. You know, what do you do or what's your, you know, it's like at the golf course when you get paired up with a stranger and they're like, tell me about what you do for your career. And I just say, I'm a classic entrepreneur. And then I'm like, well, what do you do? And it's like, well, tell me about the day. You know, what fire are you putting out? Like today we just got the go ahead for five more urgent cares for our local route. But then, you know, we have a community of operators across the country that we help really build.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:57.933) haha   Ha ha ha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:09.879) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (08:25.616) Vending empires and so we had a group call this morning. So literally, there's a lot of just, you know, it's classic entrepreneurial life. You never know what the day's script is gonna be.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:36.161) Yeah, for sure. And you focus a lot on not only on your own business, but also teaching others, right? Teaching others how to kind of break into this business.   Mike (08:45.402) Yeah, that's my passion, Seth. When I got into my first investment out of college was a $70,000 rental, you know, putting 20 % down or 14K and using an emergency fund. like my background in going to college was as a coach. like I knew I wanted to kind of take that mindset of like coaching people, you know, teach them how to fish. I don't want to catch all the fish myself. It's just not fulfilling that way. So that's really where my passion is.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (09:15.373) Gotcha, gotcha. tell me about like, tell me about step one. I mean, how does somebody break into this business? Obviously your own personal business is probably very advanced. There's probably a lot more sophisticated investing strategies at this point and you've got different layers to it. But somebody just kind of starting out that said, hey, this sounds pretty interesting. This vending machine business sounds like it can be passive. How do you recommend that they get started?   Mike (09:40.57) Yeah, so I'm always, I view like the whole vending scale as similar to Major League Baseball. You got your single A all the way up to the big leagues. And if you're just starting out, I always recommend like find a location where you can put a machine and just learn the process. Like to me, that's single A analogy. you know, that always starts with, people want to jump right to like, well, what type of machines do you recommend?   products, how do you price products? And the first question I'll always ask Seth is, well, what location is this machine going in? And they're like, well, I don't know yet. I was just going to buy one and put it in my garage to start. And it's like, no, you need to have the location first. So understanding that, is it a pet hospital? Is it an apartment? Is it a gym? Where is the foot traffic? And then you can cater to what's the best machine for that type of location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:36.887) Got it, got it. Now is this a kind of a rent, you rent the space to place the machine with that particular business or wherever you're gonna place it or how does that all come together?   Mike (10:47.644) not typically, some people are kind of more advanced, like apartment complexes are used to the revenue share model. So they're going to ask for a piece of the pie for sure, for you to put the machine in their lobby. but like, you know, when we're talking urgent carers or even pet hospitals are viewing it as an amenity. And so we probably have, I don't even know how many machines now 75 now, and we, you know, less than half of those actually,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:50.423) Okay.   Mike (11:15.1) us rent or ask for a revenue share to have them in there. So I never leave lead with that, but we'll do it if we need to get the location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:23.989) Interesting gotcha. So it's really a value add for wherever you're gonna place it and that's how most people or I guess most businesses would look at that and then you're able to capture that that space   Mike (11:27.366) Mm-hmm.   Mike (11:34.236) Yeah, absolutely. So, um, a great case study is we have a 25 employee roughing business here in Oregon. And you might think like, only 25 employees. It's not going to make that much money. Well, we do $1,200 a month. And the cool thing about this, Seth, is the CEO of this roughing company literally did napkin math on how much it costs for his employees to drive to the gas station during their 20 minute break. And then   How much they're paying for an energy drink at the gas station and then how much gas they're using with the roofing like the work trucks to get to and from the gas station So he's like I want to bring a smart machine into our warehouse Set the prices as half off so that four dollar monster only costs his rofers two dollars and then we invoice him the the business owner every month for the other 50 % and so he actually   Calculated as a cost savings not asking for money to rent the space   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:35.597) Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. That makes sense. I love the baseball analogy with the single A, double A, triple A, even into the big leagues here. know, a lot of the folks that listen to this are already kind of, you know, in the big leagues or maybe think about some capital behind them. Like how would they be able to jump right in, maybe skip single or double A or would they, or do you even suggest that? Do you suggest that they start, you know, small just to learn and then maybe invest some more capital into it to expand or can they jump right to the big leagues?   Mike (12:48.891) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mike (13:03.966) I think they can jump right to the big leagues. this is, I'm glad you brought this up because just listening to some of your episodes from the past, there's no doubt that you have people that could buy a route like a off biz buy sell today. And I think this is a prime opportunity. it's very similar to flipping a house. you, you know, there's a route in Chicago, I think it was for $1.1 million, you know, whatever negotiating terms or seller financing or, or what have you, got a lot of, your, your   audience that is experts in that. But the cool thing about these routes is they have the old school machines that have the motors and that are limited to, this type of machine, you can only fit a 12 ounce cannon. Well, guess what? The minute you buy that route, you swap out that machine with one of these micro markets or smart machines. Now you just went from selling a 12 ounce soda for $1.25 to now a 16 ounce monster for $4.50.   Well, you just bought that location based on its current revenue numbers and by swapping out that machine, you're going to two or three acts your revenue just at that location. And so it's truly just like a value play, a value upgrade, like flipping the house of, okay, there's a lot of deals right now of these routes being sold by baby boomers where it's like, they got the old school Pepsi machine. Doesn't have a credit card reader on it. They can't track inventory remotely via their cell phones. So   They're not keeping it stocked. Like all those types of things can really play in your favor as a buyer that just wants to get to the big leagues right away.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:37.651) I love that. When you say buy a route, what are you really buying? Tell me about the contractual agreement behind that. What are you really buying there?   Mike (14:47.184) You're just buying the locations and the equipment associated with it. So like this Chicago route, it's like, we have machines in 75 properties all across the Chicago suburbs. And they could be medical clinics. could be apartments. could be employee break rooms at businesses, but that's when you start diving into those locations. It's like, I have a snack machine and a soda machine here. Well, you swap that out with a micro market that now instead of.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:49.279) Okay. Okay.   Mike (15:13.626) that machine that'll only hold a small bag of Doritos that you charge two bucks, well now you get the movie size theater bags that you can really put in there in a micro market. Like naturally just that valuation of that route based on those 75 machines current revenue, I mean you're gonna be able to two or three X your revenue right by just swapping out those machines.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (15:35.959) Wow, yeah, I love that analogy with real estate, right? It's just like a value add. It's like, how can I bring in more income from what already exists? Well, I need to upgrade or I need to put in some capital improvements, whatever you want to call it. Here's the vending machine upgrades or a different kind of system in there. And you get more income. And obviously that business in itself is going to be worth more in a higher multiple.   Mike (15:58.396) Absolutely. mean, a great example of this is we had a machine in an apartment complex and it was your traditional machine with the motors and you have to enter in the code. Well, we could only put in four 12 ounce drinks and then chips. Well, we swapped that out with a micro market. Well, now that micro market, we literally put in bags of Tide Pods for laundry, like these big bags of Tide Pods. We'll sell those like hotcakes for 15 bucks. And our old machine,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:25.281) Yeah, let's say those aren't cheap.   Mike (16:27.246) Yeah, our old machine Seth, it would take us to get to 15 bucks, we'd have to sell eight Snickers. That's one transaction.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:33.547) Right, right. Yeah, yeah. How do you do an analysis kind of based on like what you think is gonna sell there, right? Like you're replacing, let's say a Dorito machine with Tide Pods, you know? So you have to individually go to each location and figure out what will work, what will sell.   Mike (16:47.738) Yeah.   Mike (16:51.834) It's all about demographic. Absolutely. So, you know, we have, we have, we have a micro market and a manufacturing plant that's, it's a pumpkin farm and there's a ton of Hispanic workers. So we do a lot of like spicy foods, a lot of spicy chips. do, we do a ton of, mean, the sugar or sorry, the glass bottle cokes. They do, they love their pastries.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:53.431) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:06.349) Yeah.   Mike (17:15.868) So we just doubled down on the demographics. So yesterday I was filming at one of our micro markets that's in a gym and they crushed the Fairlife protein shakes, like the more modern protein shakes, but they won't touch muscle milk. So we're literally taking out one row of muscle milk just to add an extra row of Fairlife shakes. So you're constantly just catering to the demographics and what's selling.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:40.632) Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. I mean, this is literally just like real estate, right? Like you go and you find a good market. You're talking about demographics, right? Find the market, see what they want, see how much you can upgrade, how you can upgrade. If it's an apartment, it's a unit. If it's here, it's the product that you're selling and the type of machine, or maybe it's a mini market. A lot of things to kind of tie your understanding to here.   Mike (17:45.926) Yeah.   Mike (18:05.904) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (18:07.615) Yeah, awesome, man. Awesome, Where are you at in your business? Like what, you know, what are the big leagues looking like right now? You know, what are you doing to expand your business, raising the bar in your business?   Mike (18:18.692) Yeah, I'm going after that's a really good question. I'm going after kind of these newer markets and we're kind of past that point of like, okay, let's pilot in this location. For example, that urgent care, we didn't know if it was going to be a good location two months ago when we installed. Well now it's already crushing it. Well, there's six other urgent cares in town and we just got to go ahead on five of those six. So like for me, it's doubling down on our current proof points of where.   okay, we know that manufacturing plant, the pumpkin farm does really well. So let's start getting intros to all their, manufacturers of the products they need to grow pumpkin. know, like we're just doubling down on scaling because now we have the operational blueprint to really just kind of to go after it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:03.917) Gotcha, gotcha. Tell me about how passive this can really be, right? So I used to have, before we switched over to the new brand, Raise the Bar podcast, it was the Passive Income Attorney podcast, right? I was really focused on passive investments, focused on bringing in passive investors into my real estate deals, things like that. And I think that word passive gets thrown around quite a bit, right? And sometimes it's abused because people get into things that are not truly passive.   Mike (19:18.427) Yeah.   Mike (19:28.784) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:33.517) What's your take on that as it relates to the vending business?   Mike (19:38.49) Yeah, so I think as far as with the vending business, there's clearly upfront leg work that needs to be done, whether that's finding locations or any of those things. So I have a route that is here in Oregon, and then we bought a route last year in Illinois and have scaled that route. I spend 30 minutes a week on each route now. that these urgent cares and stuff, like we have an operator that's running the whole route.   Here's the problem, Seth. It's like people are so scared to build systems to ultimately systemize things or they're too cheap to hire help. And I'm the opposite. like, you know, kind of like Dan Martell's buy back your time. Like I have like a leverage calculator and like I constantly think about is this worth my time? Cause as you know, you're busier than me. Like it's so limited.   for me, my routes, I would consider them passive, like one hour a week is, is nothing in my mind. But as far as like, you know, I'm, I'm also a passive investor on, we're building a, an oil loop station in Florida and I sent my money a year ago to, to my, active investor and I haven't talked to him since. Like that's actually truly probably passive now, you know, I'm not doing anything, but there's, there's different levels to that. And I'm a huge believer like.   don't delegate something until you know what you're delegating. So people that want to start with the vending routes, sure, if you want to buy a route that already has an operator, that's one thing. but these, if you're starting a vending route for your kid or for your stay at home wife or whatever, as a side hustle, like get in the weeds and install that first machine. So when you hire help to take over the route, you know what you're delegating.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:09.773) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:27.021) Yeah, that's key. That's key. And you you described just like any other business, right? I think that's kind of where people get themselves into trouble. That sometimes they get sold the dream that is truly passive. And eventually it can be. I mean, you're talking about an hour a week. To me, that's pretty damn passive, right? But you know, upfront, you you've got to learn the business. You've got to know what you're getting yourself into. Like you said, you've got to learn before you delegate so that you know what you're delegating.   There is going to be some upfront work and then as you're able to kind of delegate and learn Then you can make it more and more passive as you go   Mike (22:00.88) Yeah, I mean, it's no different than what's the same when people tell you that they're busy. I mean, you're just not a priority. Like that's a fact. you're not. People say it's the same thing when people come to me and they're like, I'm so busy. It's like, okay, well let me, let me see your schedule. Where are you spending your time? You know, it's like when people are like, I can't lose weight. Okay, well let me see your food log. What did you eat yesterday? Did you have ice cream? Like this is like the same kind of thing. That's where passive I think has been really abused.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:16.097) Yeah. Yep.   Mike (22:29.638) To me, the bigger issue is like, vending is not get rich quick. And so like, if you're expecting to leave your nine to five tomorrow and vending is going to make up for that in one day, like that's not going to   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:41.089) Right, Makes sense. Speaking of passive, do you raise capital or do you have any kind of a fund or have you put together a fund for something like this?   Mike (22:51.48) We haven't put together a fun, we're definitely buying routes is definitely becoming more and more intriguing. And I know there's some PE players starting to get into the vending game, but it's something we've been definitely considering and on our radar of do we want to.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:58.541) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:10.231) Gotcha. Cool. I mean, you brought in money partners for some of those routes yet, or is that still something you're exploring too?   Mike (23:18.168) No, I think it's just something we're thinking about. mean, what do you recommend?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:21.089) Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd recommend I mean, it depends, right? Like I'm I'm scared to turn you by trade, but I don't like to say you should always raise capital no matter what. Right. Like you've been able to scale your business as you have and grown it to where it is without bringing outside capital. It sounds which is great because you own 100 percent or with whatever business partners you might have. You know, when you start raising capital, you're giving a large chunk of that piece away, not necessarily your whole company. But if you're buying   you know, a set of routes or that sort of thing. You you're gonna give a big piece away to those past investors if you're starting a fund or even if it's up. Even a single asset syndication here for one of these, you know, these routes, you could put it together that way. You know, it's just something to consider. But a lot of times when people are looking to scale fast, right, if they wanna grow exponentially, you've gotta use other people's money to get there or hit the lottery.   Mike (24:08.294) Mm.   Mike (24:15.856) Absolutely, no, agree. That's spot-on and I actually before you know the Silicon Valley company That I was part of we had a we went through probably series a B C D C ground   Let's just say we weren't very fiscally responsible. So I come from the, you know, it's like the ex-girlfriend example. I don't want to just start taking everyone's money.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:42.413) Yeah, yeah, that tends to happen with some startups, right? Like before you get funding, you're super frugal because it's your money and every single dollar counts. And you're like, I don't want to pay, you if it's software, you don't want to pay the software engineers. I'm going to out, you know, put it, you know, hire Indian engineers, that sort of thing. And then once you get a few million bucks that you raised in that seed round, then it just goes and you're like, whoa, wait a minute, let's hire 20 people. You know, it's you got to be careful about that.   Mike (25:05.606) Yeah   Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great take on it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:11.245) Yeah, it's, yeah. It's a question I love to ask and I think it's about time for that. So, in a parallel universe, tell me about a different version of you. So a different but likely version, right? Like, for example, for me, I went to med school for a year and a half and then I dropped out and I ended up becoming an attorney. So that was like a big turning point, right? So I could have easily at some point just said screw it and became a doctor and that would have been a totally different route than I'm going down right now.   What's an example of something like that for you?   Mike (25:42.524) Wait, are you being serious about that? I took the MCAT too. I got into med school and then I, yeah, I was pretty mad in school. And then the more I learned about exercise science, I was like, organic chemistry is not fun.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:44.321) Yeah, totally.   yeah? There you go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:57.39) It is not fun. I did not love that. I majored in exercise physiology and then I ended up switching to biology because it was just a little bit of an easier route to get my degree and go into med school and I went for a year and a half and then I dropped out because I absolutely hated it. I knew I didn't want to do it. I was just more attracted to business and that sort of thing.   Mike (26:16.346) Yeah, that's crazy. That's awesome. parallel universe. I, that's a really good question. I don't know. I, kinda, I have two kids under three and the other side of me wishes I would have traveled more.   you know, I mean, we'll get there hopefully when they get out of high school and someday. But right now I just think there's so many different cultural things and ways to skin the cat. And it's just fascinating to learn some of those things.   Mike (26:55.352) yourself in those cultures.   go to different cultures and really like understand how they did things for a time, a period of time to really just learn their thinking.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:07.777) Yeah, I love that man. I had a similar experience of what you're describing. I didn't travel abroad really other than like, you know, Canada and Mexico until I studied abroad in Barcelona during law school and I got to stay there for a couple of months. So you actually had some time. It wasn't like you're just visiting for a week or a weekend or anything like that. You got to kind of live there right for a couple of months and it just totally changed my, you know, my outlook on life and just the way that you see things like I feel like we're in the US and we just think   Mike (27:19.627) Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:37.76) US is number one and there's only one way to do things the way that we do things that kind of attitude. And then when you go to Western Europe and you see that culture and you drive or get on a train, it's like an hour away and you're in a totally different culture and they're doing it a certain way as well and it's working. You just see that other people are doing things differently and still being successful at it, still having a thriving culture and it's just awesome to see.   Mike (28:03.312) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (28:06.251) Yeah. Tell me about some major influences in your life. What turned you or got you into that, the vending business? It's not one of those typical things. mean, I know you're in the education business, so you're kind of really spreading the word about this type of business. But I would say when you started, there might not have been a mastermind or educational courses around this. mean, how did you kind of get drawn into that? Were there any particular people or influences that brought you in?   Mike (28:29.308) you   Mike (28:36.188) Yeah. So the, biggest influence for me to get into vending, uh, wasn't actually a person. It was actually, was, um, I had landed, I was coming back from the Pentagon from a trip back to the Bay for the startup we were talking about. And I was in the Denver airport and 11 PM, you know, our flight was delayed. And then they're like, Hey, you have to stay in the airport tonight. The pilot went over their hours for the day, blah, blah, blah. So I went to a vending machine and I remember buying a bottle of water.   I think it costs like at the time three bucks or something. I knew that bottle of water cost 20 cents at Costco. And I was like, there is someone that's at home with their kids right now making money off me and they're not even at this mission. Like the machine is doing the work. So I had like an aha moment of like, what are my true priorities in life? And like, why am I chasing this cutthroat startup from.   Palo Alto and trying to make it when reality was my priorities are freedom to spend more time with my family. So that's really kind of what led me into this path of starting a vending machine side hustle to keep our lifestyle as we had kids. We wanted to have a nanny and we wanted to be able to still go on dates and things like that as a couple with my wife. So that's really kind of my family and just like...   having the freedom to do things. Like that's what I'm really passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (29:59.084) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, building on that, and you may have already answered that, but what does success look like for you?   Mike (30:01.766) next   Mike (30:06.268) an empty calendar.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:08.621) Good luck with that. Good luck with that.   Mike (30:11.516) Oh man, I was gonna say, how do we crack that code? No, yeah. No, but I think success to me is doing things like picking up my daughter at three and even being able to say no to the things that aren't gonna get you to where you need, like the discipline piece of this too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:15.708) man.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:33.995) Yeah, yeah, mean, you know, for me, it's kind of similar, right? It's not going to be able to empty that calendar. Not yet, at least maybe here in the future. But for now, it's pretty filled. But it is it's flexible, right? Like us as entrepreneurs, you know, we probably work more than we ever worked when we were in our W-2s. But at the same time, it's you know, we're working in our own business for ourselves, for our families. And we have the   Flexibility, a lot of people will say the freedom, right? But we have the flexibility to move things around. And if you want to pick your kids up at school at three, or you do want to take a weekend off, or something comes up in your schedule, you have the flexibility to do that. Whereas if you're kind of slaving away at the nine to five, you can't really do it.   Mike (31:04.486) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (31:20.198) Yeah, that's spot on. mean, I just wrote that down, but flexibility is, cause you're right. When you started becoming an entrepreneur, this is what I tell people all the time when they want to get a venting around is like running your own business. You are going to work harder than you do for your boss currently at your W-2. Like you have to do payroll. You have to do, like you gotta like make sure there's money to actually do pay, you know, like all those things that you just don't even think about when you have a W-2. It's like, today's   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:39.543) Yeah   Mike (31:48.89) You know, this Friday I get paid. Well, when you run a business, mean, that money's got to come from somewhere.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:51.905) Yeah   Right, yeah, 100%, man, 100%. All right, Mike, we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Tell the listeners where they can find out more about you.   Mike (32:05.286) Yeah, so thanks for having me. This has been great. I have free content all over the place. can find me on the classic Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, but I also have vendingpreneurs.com is where we help people that are more interested in actually the vending stuff. But I've been really trying to double down on YouTube lately because there's just a lot of content and you can't get it off a one minute reel.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:32.417) Love it, man. All right, Mike, appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the show.   Mike (32:35.91) Thanks for having me.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:37.227) Hi brother. Alright man, got a couple more questions for you. We do like a quick, kind of do the full podcast episode and then I'll just do kind of a quick episode that'll follow up on a Monday and then another one on a Friday. Cool.   Mike (32:55.814) See you.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:59.693) We out here.   Welcome to Million Dollar Mondays, how to make, keep, and scale a million dollars. Mike is a super successful entrepreneur in the vending machine business and beyond. Tell us, how did you make your first million dollars?   Mike (33:20.922) Yeah, Seth. It was probably actually through real estate and just getting a little bit kind of lucky with timing with COVID and short-term rentals and some of that. But yeah, that's probably how I got the first million.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:25.229) Mm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:37.079) Gotcha, cool. Yeah, real estate usually plays a role in the everybody's strategy down the line, whether they're in that primary business or not, whether they start out there or they end up there, real estate usually plays a part. How'd you make your last million?   Mike (33:53.956) Yeah, that's a good question because it's completely different than real estate, but it's actually been vending machines. So that's been kind of fun. just, you you talk about product market fit whenever you're an entrepreneur with a business. And that was just kind of the perfect storm right now of traditional vending really kind of being outdated. And we found a product market fit with it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:57.57) Right. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:16.215) Gotcha. Cool. that was from, was this maybe mostly attributed to kind of buying those routes, those larger routes?   Mike (34:23.32) Exactly. Yeah. Buying old school routes and really kind of flipping them like a house with modern micro markets charging, with different products and what would fit in a vending machine, like more of the unorthodox, you know, toilet paper and tide pods and things that wouldn't fit in a traditional vending machine. I mean, we'll sell $35 bottles of shampoo in these micro markets. So just kind of, go and add it in a different way.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:49.857) Yeah, and then with the aging population, there's gotta be more and more of these things popping up. So there should be more opportunity for people to get involved or for people like yourself to just snag everything, right?   Mike (35:01.102) Yeah, I think there's no chance I could snag everything, not even just in this town alone that I'm currently in. I mean, machines are getting cheaper, the technology is getting way better with AI. And nowadays, it's not what fits in a vending machine motor. It's okay, what's shelf space? if it's a bottle of shampoo or a glass Coke, it doesn't matter because it's not just getting thrown down the chute of a traditional machine.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:05.387) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:27.521) Makes sense, makes sense. Last, how are you planning on making your next million dollars?   Mike (35:34.3) I think probably with AI, we're doing a lot of interesting stuff with helping people scale their, their vending routes. that is applicable to any, small business. And so I'm really intrigued. Just every time I go down a rabbit hole with some new AI tool, I feel like there's another better one that just came right behind it. So I just think it's kind of that time where you can really get ahead by just learning.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:06.209) Yeah, totally makes sense. mean people that are not paying attention to AI whether it's simply using chat GPT instead of Google search are getting left behind quickly because it's just advancing so fast. I can't even imagine what this world's gonna look like five years from now the way that things are moving.   Mike (36:23.132) It's crazy. Three years ago when I was working for a tech company selling software into the government, I would have to work with three secretaries to schedule a meeting with the general to sell their software. Now my EA is literally an AI bot and everyone that's scheduling time on my calendar, they don't even know they're talking to a non-human, which is pretty   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:43.479) Yeah, 100%. We're gonna, I predicted within five years, everybody's gonna have a humanoid robot in their home with AI instilled and they're gonna be doing physical things for us at our homes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. 100%. Awesome, All right, moving on to the next one.   Mike (36:50.181) Yeah!   Mike (36:57.917) I hope so. I hope they can go to Costco get all our groceries do our do our laundry The dishes   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:11.501) You're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do, Mike. What is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Mike (37:19.056) Ooh, that's a good question, Seth. I think it's just discipline, know, discipline and focus. One of the hardest things is being able to say no with the things that don't align. And when I was growing up, I had a quote that has really stuck with me. That's like, it's better to be respected than liked. And I think that really resonates. Like naturally as a human, you want to be liked and help people, but the 1 % are really good at saying no.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:47.649) Yeah, I love that man. That's a great answer. Kind of building on that, what do you think the number one attribute is that makes a successful entrepreneur?   Mike (37:57.468) probably focus. Yeah. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:59.212) Yeah, focus. Yep. The one thing, right? The one thing.   Mike (38:04.186) Yep. That's why you come back to like the most successful entrepreneurs. They always niche down and they niche down because they just, got hyper-focused. Like this is kind of why for me, you know, I started this passive Mr. Passive on social media before I even got into Vendi. Well, now everyone's like, well, how passive is Vendi? And well, it's like, what's really interesting is I was posting all these different, what I thought passive income streams in the time, but everyone, 95 % of the questions I got about   Airbnbs are all my different investments was about bending. So I just niche down on, on bending and I just looked back on that and I was like, it really forced me to focus.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:43.263) Awesome, awesome. What's one thing someone could do today to get 1 % closer to success in the vending machine business if they are really interested in learning more?   Mike (38:53.892) tap into your connections and find a location that has high foot traffic, whether that's a friend that works at an urgent care, a sister that lives at an apartment. You know, you take your kid to that gymnastics studio that has a ton of foot traffic between 4 PM and 8 PM. Like all those locations are prime locations to put one of these modern smart machines in. so, tapping into your connections, well, you know,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:24.567) Love that man. Awesome. All right, Mike, I appreciate it, brother. We'll to meet in person sometime,   Mike (39:30.574) I would love to. Where are you based, Seth?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:31.789) I'm in San Diego, where you at?   Mike (39:34.78) I am in Eugene. Yeah, Oregon. I'll come down your way though.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:37.39) Cool We're planning on doing yeah, we're planning on doing so me and my wife we have a Sprinter van and Last May we did we did going back to the flexibility piece, right? We did 32 days in the van up through Wyoming Montana and then into like Into Canada and they're like Banff and Jasper and all the way up to Jasper and then we circled back on the west coast Through Vancouver and then down back to San Diego Yeah   Mike (40:05.52) What?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:06.829) Pretty wild, pretty awesome. And the reason I brought that up is this year we're gonna do shorter trip. We're probably gonna do two, maybe three weeks at the most, but we're gonna do kind of the Pacific Northwest. So Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver and all those parks and stuff up there.   Mike (40:17.254) Yeah.   Mike (40:21.744) Yeah, you definitely have a, have you been to Bend before? Bend is like my, that whole area, Central Oregon is, and even Idaho, like all those kind of, yeah. That's awesome. Please let me know when you're up this way. I mean, I'll come meet you wherever. That'd be amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:24.641) Yeah, yeah I have.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:38.861) Sure man grab a coffee or beer. I appreciate it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah all right brother great to meet you and I will send the information on when this is gonna get released and give you you materials and all that stuff so we can collaborate on social media   Mike (40:51.964) Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is a lot of your audience, like passive investors?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:58.593) So most of that, so now I'm rebranding. I rebranded because I'm gonna be speaking more towards like active entrepreneurs, Active entrepreneurs, people raising capital, that sort of thing. Whereas before it was based on passive investors and people really focused on attorneys. So I'm an attorney and I was raising capital from attorneys for my real estate deals. Now I'm really more into selling shovels. I'm scaling my law firm. I'm chief legal officer for Tribest, which is, we've got a fund to fund.   Mike (41:20.262) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:28.085) legal product there as well. So we're really trying to bring in active, active entrepreneurs and people raising capital.   Mike (41:29.777) Yeah.   Mike (41:36.572) Okay, because I got that, I was just thinking through when we talking about that oil development project, that could be a good, the guy that runs that fund could be a good interview for you. Just thinking through your audience, because he's always looking for investors into his fund and like these oil lubs are just crushing it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:49.901) Cool. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:58.464) Yeah, cool. Who is it? Just, I don't know if I know him or not.   Mike (42:02.183) Um, Robert Durkey, he's out of Florida. has, his problem is he's sitting on a gold mine that has no, like he's old school, doesn't know social media, any of that. So that's why I think he'd be perfect for you. Cause I think you could help him and he could definitely help you with some kickback. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we meet soon. Okay. See you Seth. Bye.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:05.645) I don't think I know. I don't think I know.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:13.889) Yeah. Gotcha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:20.705) Cool, okay, sounds good man. Yeah, I appreciate the introduction.   Yeah, all right brother. Talk soon. See ya. Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en Mike Hoffman's Links: https://www.instagram.com/mikehoffmannofficial/ https://x.com/mrpassive_?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedhoffmann/ https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.passive

Genesis 18:1-15

In this lively and eclectic conversation, Opie and Ron the Waiter dive into a whirlwind of conspiracy theories, pop culture references, and speculative ideas about human history and extraterrestrial life. They discuss controversial topics like P Diddy parties, the Epstein list, and Lee Harvey Oswald's CIA connections, blending skepticism with humor. The conversation takes a cosmic turn as they explore theories about ancient civilizations, the true nature of Devil's Tower as a petrified tree stump, and the possibility of advanced beings living among us. From aliens traveling via vibrational frequencies to the pyramids as energy sources, challenging conventional history and ponder humanity's place in the universe. Sprinkled with playful banter, personal anecdotes about ticks and Coney Island, and a nod to upcoming UFO revelations in 2027, this episode is a wild ride through the strange and uncharted. Catch the hosts' comedic chemistry and bold ideas, culminating in a plug for Ron Berman's stand-up comedy show.

SPONSOR! Kimchi One from Brightcore Use code: VIVA for 25% off your order at https://mybrightcore.com/viva Or call (888) 501-2209 for up to 50% OFF your order and Free Shipping!

In episode #82 Mike York sits down to talk about his parts from Yeah Right, Mouse, Chocolate Tour & Paco. We also review "Fire In Da Sky" An Emerica film by Matt King, Fernando Yuppie Curva de Hill part, Atlantic Drift Episode 17 in Kazakhstan and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iran says they'll chill... as long as Israel does too. Well that's cute. Like trusting a crocodile to go vegan.

Iran says they'll chill... as long as Israel does too. Well that's cute. Like trusting a crocodile to go vegan.

Yeah right.

Nate Sherwood discusses the pressure flip, hitting his head into the wall in p.e. class & was in a coma for 3 weeks, getting on Capitol Skateboards, when pressure flips went out of style, Airspeed shoes, his cameo in Girl Skateboards video "Yeah Right", getting hip surgery, running his Eduskate Skateshop, people buying boards online then coming into his shop to put it together, nate's skate language and much more! Timestamps 00:00:00 Nate Sherwood 00:03:16 The Pressure flip 00:14:34 Got his head smashed into the wall in P.E. Class & was in a coma 00:21:55 When Pressure flips went out of style & getting on Capitol Skateboards 00:30:27 His cameo in Girl Skateboards video "Yeah Right" 00:44:09 His Big Brother cover 00:48:15 What his Favorite pressure flip is & hip surgery 00:54:18 Beating PJ Ladd in a game of skate 01:08:39 Eduskate Skateshop 01:11:07 Airspeed shoes 01:17:28 Doesn't carry Nike, Adidas or VF Corp in his shop 01:27:29 The Andy Anderson die hard fans that come to his shop 01:31:59 Two break-ins 01:37:32 Is he turning a profit from owning a skateshop 01:48:25 People buying boards online then coming in the shop to put it together 02:14:16 Getting advise from Jaime Thomas about opening his shop 02:22:30 Nate's skate language Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Full episode now available on our Patreon. Gino Iannucci is a legendary skateboarder from Long Island, New York. First gaining recognition in the mid-'90s, particularly through his parts in videos from 101 Skateboards. His video parts in Chocolate's “The Chocolate Tour” and Girl's “Yeah Right!” are considered all time classics. As one of the original riders for Nike SB, he helped redefine the brand's place in skateboarding. He has worked alongside Adidas putting out shoes like the Samba ADV, and now rides for ASICS skateboarding. In recent years, Gino has focused on Poets, his personal skate brand rooted in his East Coast roots in Long Island, New York. http://patreon.com/livingproofnewyorkhttp://livingproofnewyork.com

Join T, Fortenberry, Gary, and Marty Mar the Bourbon Nerd as they discuss the headlines of the day!!Are we living out a 90's Movie! Where's Bruce Willis when you need him! DOGE keeps DOGING The Psycho Side to TikTokBuy some Merch:https://lifefromthepatio.com/merchfollow us on TikTok:https://tiktok.com/@lifefromthepatio2 #bourbon #whiskey #fye #comedy #podcast #funnyvideo #buffalotrace #distillery#buffalo #LFTP#oldforester #jimbeam #heavenhill #Bluenote#Shortbarrel#rye #ark #arknights #arkansas#nba #nfl #razorbacks#newyears#resolutions#LFTPFred Minnick top 25

Discover the art of developing self-awareness and confronting the illusions we create both personally and professionally. Join Anne and Lau as they tackle the challenge of overcoming self-doubt, emphasizing resilience over inherent talent. By embracing our realities and addressing the falsehoods we tell ourselves, you'll learn how profound self-awareness can shape our lives. The BOSSES discuss how trusted companions and self-reflection can shine a light on our paths, leading to greater authenticity and success. Explore practical techniques to turn setbacks into opportunities for growth. We discuss the delicate balance between trusting external advice and listening to personal intuition. 00:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You know your voice has the power to move, to persuade, to inspire. Imagine taking that power to its fullest potential. With guidance and expert production, I can help elevate your voice to new heights, making every voice script resonate with your audience. Let's empower your voice together, one session at a time. Find out more at anneganguzza.com.  00:26 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, anganguza. A VO Boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm here with my amazing, wonderful friend and co-host, ms Lau Lapides.  00:59 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Thank, you so much, I'm already getting verklempt. Incredible to be here, as always, love it Law.  01:06 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I love chatting with you and I have a very interesting topic, I think, today.  01:12 Because, I love me some Peloton.  01:14 So when I'm not Pilate-ing, I am Peloton-ing, or I am pre-coring, but I'm Peloton-ing a lot and I have a favorite instructor. I have a couple of favorite instructors, but one of them for those Peloton people who know, cody I love Cody. I was spinning away and Cody said you know, my therapist asked me how do you know when you're lying to yourself, or do you know that you're lying to yourself? And I thought, wow, what a great question. First of all because it really makes you kind of stop in your tracks and think Honestly, laura, throughout my life there are many times that you kind of know, right, you kind of know when you're lying to yourself. Maybe you're in some form of denial, but you're lying to yourself. And I think that we need to delve deep into this Lau today and ask our bosses do you know when you're lying to yourself and what are the stakes in that and how can you get past that? Because I think that to be productive and to really be successful in this business, you need to stop lying to yourself.  02:20 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Yeah, and I think that there has to be at least a brief bullet hit list of how do you deal with that, Like, how do you even know? How do you start to know what are some of the dead giveaways that you may be lying to yourself? The first one that comes to my mind is do you have or are you aware of? I think you have it, but are you aware of your inner voice? Are you aware of it, do you?  02:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) hear it? Oh, I hear mine all the time. That's a very interesting question, because I actually thought everybody hears their inner voice.  02:51 - Intro (Announcement) No.  02:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) But I actually have read that scientific studies say that not everybody has an inner voice. My inner voice talks to me all the time. Oh my gosh, all the time. What about?  02:59 - Lau Lapides (Guest) you. Yeah, mine is very strong and very loud and I already know all the justifications and lies I tell myself when I hear the voice in order to do something. And that's the next question I have is once you spot that inner voice, what are the common hyperbolic statements or lies, or fibs? That you're coming up with that. Feel really good to you to say in order to void out that voice.  03:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, first of all, what if you're someone who doesn't have an inner voice? Is that something that you can assess? Can you make an inner voice come out? Maybe people don't define it as an inner voice. Maybe they define it as a belief system, right? Maybe?  03:40 - Lau Lapides (Guest) they hide it, Maybe they bury it, Maybe they've been shamed to listen to it. There's a lot of reasons why I think people don't discover or find their inner voice. I think one of the things that I've always done I always chalked it up to just being a creative ensemble type of person but I think it is helpful in a sounding board of understanding what is the objective truth for you and your circumstance if you can't discover it on your own through your inner voice.  04:08 One of the things that I find helpful is surrounding yourself with really incredible people, brilliant people that you know and trust and feel good about sharing certain things with that you can soundboard with and see is it matching what you may be saying internally or not? Because there is a community truth about how people see you, hear you and, especially if they know you, they know your thought process right so they can sort of catch you when you're going off track.  04:37 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, yeah, it depends on life situations, right, I'm going to say the first inner voice is the truth, right? The inner voice, really, I think, is your truth, and do you listen to your inner voice, meaning, do you know when you're lying, do you know when you're lying to yourself, that kind of thing? So I think that's when you're denying that inner voice from having any say in kind of the truth, or you're in a denial of the truth, or you're in a denial of acknowledging that the truth is going. We're getting really deep here, but you're acknowledging.  05:08 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Go right there, I'm right with you.  05:10 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You're acknowledging that you're not ready for the truth right now. Right, you're not ready for it, because to get through that truth or to listen to that truth may require an effort that is like gargantuan and superhuman to get beyond that truth. And this could be anything. It could be personal, professional. I mean, of course, personal affects professional. But I'm going to kind of focus on the professional, having had an inner voice that I denied through personal issues because I wasn't ready to face them. And so for me it's kind of like you get really good at telling yourself lies, you get really good at justifying why you're not listening to that inner voice. Yes, because it keeps you safe. Right, it keeps you safe in a lot of ways, or it keeps you from I don't know why. Is it that you don't want to look or do the work that's required to get through the truth and to align with the truth?  06:03 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Well, there could be I mean for psychological reasons, lots of reasons, but I think one deeply psychological common reason that I see in a lot of actors, artists, voiceovers and women is the sabotaging effect of arguing with yourself that you cannot be good enough.  06:22 It's not possible for you to get this successfully done because of X, y, z, you're not worthy, right, you're not worthy. So therein lies your inner voice. But is the inner voice being honest and truthful, or is the inner voice a sabotage voice? Yeah, yeah, absolutely that. You've created as like an alter ego to help you disqualify, get out of situations you know, qualify things and get you off the hook. I think artists do that. An awful lot is to say all the reasons why they cannot do something versus why they can do something, and after a while of telling yourself those lies, you actually believe them.  07:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah yeah, I'm not getting work because, right yeah, talk professionally, right Okay, I'm not'm not getting work because, right, you'll talk professionally, right Okay.  07:05 I'm not a successful voice actor because right, no one's going to hire me because, right, I'm not talented enough, my voice is not good enough, I don't have the right equipment, right, and so therefore, does that allow you to? I've spent all this money and I've gotten nowhere, right? So are you going to quit? Because you're listening right to those lies that you're telling yourself, or the inner voices, your inner self is you right? So we're talking to ourselves. So inner self is you, and inner self could be telling lies that you fabricated.  07:40 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Or it's the voices that have been with you over your lifetime that are the cacophony of voices that are not accurate or true. Yeah, that you've believed. You've gone down that road and sort of believed that that's who.  07:53 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That's the role that you are. They've turned into your inner voice, right.  07:59 - Lau Lapides (Guest) And they've turned into your inner voice, where you pick up the things that you believe that people think or feel about you maybe from your home life or your friendship life or whatever that aren't necessarily an objective truth in the larger world, in the larger context of things, and that, I think, is very, very common Also, especially with women. I think just wanting to please, just being a pleaser, is a big driving force in not listening to your inner voice.  08:27 Yeah, You're saying, oh I'll just, yeah, they want me to do it this way, I'll just do it this way. Or they're asking me for this, I'll just give it to them and putting your common sense, putting that to the side for the higher purpose of pleasing, yeah, absolutely.  08:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I mean, that is so, so tough, and I'll tell you what, and I'm not getting into a political discussion, but I will say that external factors also play a part in that inner voice, right.  08:56 I feel like the nation is tired. Female right and we've had discussions on being a female in this industry or being a female in male-dominated industries. I'm tired. I've been fighting for a long time. I've been fighting for a long time and the inner voice wants to say, right, I fight because I believe certain things to be true and that is my truth. Right, but then the other people feeding into the inner voice you're not good enough or you know what? We're never going to make a difference. Now do I feel like? Am I going back to step zero? And what is it that I need to resolve internally, with my internal voice? That's going to help me to deal right with the external factors that are flying at me in every second of the day, and that's important.  09:45 - Lau Lapides (Guest) That's an important factor. It is every second of the day and that's important. That's an important factor because when you think about either your parents or whoever raised you when you were young, you're like a little recorder. You're like a sponge. You're picking up language and sound and cadence and everything. You're picking that up from the people around you and that's implanted in you. It's very hard to get that out and stop thinking that and doing that. So it's really again compartmentalizing. Okay, what my lived and learned experience was and still is good, bad and ugly, which everyone experiences. And then where am I as a professional in what I'm choosing to experience and who I'm creating?  10:24 Someone was telling an anecdote about this and I thought it was brilliant and he said I get annoyed. He's like in his 40s. He's a professional, whatever it was, like a psychiatrist or something. He said I go home and my parents treat me exactly like I'm 12 again, they talk to me as if I'm 12. Mine do Right and you got to love that right. But it annoys him to death because he says I have a family, I have children, I have a successful career. It's like they haven't graduated to that level. But that's where I'm saying you have to compartmentalize all these players in your life that speak to you in a certain way, sure, that code that linguistically code shift right, that say it's okay, they knew me at different times in my life good times, bad times, young, older. Now I have to amalgamate. What does that all mean in my voice? In my voice as to who I am and what I want to be? That's hard. That's the next step. Yeah, that's the next step.  11:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I mean it's interesting because, as we are talking about the inner voice, is the inner voice really what you think or is it what others think, right? Or is it a combination of both of them? And also, is your inner voice something that you're doing to escape responsibility or escape owning up to a fact that maybe you haven't done everything you can to be successful in voice acting? And then, if that's the case, right, you have to try to ask yourself why, right, why am I afraid of success? And that's a big thing, I mean, look, you can be just as afraid of success, if not more, as a failure, right? Are you afraid to fail? Are you afraid of success? And I'll tell you what. Are you afraid of hard work? Yeah, and once you're there, whatever you've deemed to be your success, right. What's stopping you from growing more than that? Or are you complacent?  12:09 For me, my personality is I cannot be stagnant. I cannot. I need to continue to grow my business. I need to continually evolve. If I don't, I feel like I'm failing, and for me, that's the motivation I need to push myself. Now, am I afraid of hard work? Me, no, I am not.  12:25 But some people might be, some people might think, well, I just want, I just I'm tired, I've got a lot of other things happening and voice acting should not have been this hard for me, right In the beginning. I'm the first person to admit voice acting was hard for me, and it was one of those things where I said to myself God, like, maybe I shouldn't be doing it. If it's this hard, right, shouldn't it just come naturally? Shouldn't I just have a God-given talent? Shouldn't this just flow for me? And over years of continually saying, well, I'm not used to failing For me myself. My personality is like to just keep going until I don't fail, figuring out as I go, I ultimately decided, yeah, damn it, it's hard, voice acting is hard. I think it's very rare that you have anybody that has just an innate talent for reading words off a page and making them like sound amazing.  13:09 - Lau Lapides (Guest) I got to be honest. I don't think anyone in any of our entertainment profession has it easy.  13:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I don't. I don't either. I really don't. Just because you and I have been in the industry for many, many, many years right and we've been deemed successful, doesn't mean that we feel successful all the time right, doesn't mean that we feel successful all the time right or that we consider ourselves successful at any given moment.  13:29 - Lau Lapides (Guest) No, that's like an illusion that people want to think is a truism, is a truth. When it's not a human truth, it's not a human thing. Maybe it's a robot thing, but it's not a human thing Because we're always going through situations in our life that we're reacting to, as well as human beings in the world that we're reacting to as well as human beings in the world that we're reacting to as well.  13:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And things change.  13:51 - Lau Lapides (Guest) And things change. But I always say, like, what's the difference? What's the main difference between someone who's young and amateur early stage and someone who is a vetted professional? What's the main difference? And it's not talent, it's the fact that we all get down. We all fall down. We all's not talent, it's the fact that we all get down, we all fall down, we all get in trouble, but we're able to get up, brush ourself off and move on.  14:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Get back on the horse and make use of that.  14:13 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Yeah, really make use of that, whereas many are not able to do that. It's holding them down, it's holding them back. There's that stone right on top of them that they're not able to move. So that voice is like as heavy as any equipment that could be out there. It's heavier. It can be either a burden or it can be enlightenment.  14:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) It's up to you. I love what you're saying about the failure Again, like if you failed and you've allowed that inner voice to say I am a failure, right, without taking benefit from the fail, I'd say get back up on the horse, turn the fail around and spin that into positive things. What positive things can you take from that right?  14:53 So, if there is the dialogue happening where I'm not good enough right, I failed, I didn't get that gig right, I was not chosen right, they didn't pick my voice, I didn't nail the audition. Take that failure and I need you to reframe it right and restructure it so that it becomes a learning moment that can be turned into success. I mean, I think that's really like how do you know when you're lying to yourself? Acknowledge it first. I think that's first and foremost.  15:19 Once you acknowledge it right. You then have the power to take that truth and take that knowledge and reframe it, and then reframe it to successful.  15:30 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Reframe it and how do you use, how do you utilize that reframing to be helpful in your life and in others' lives? So it becomes wisdom. It doesn't just sit in a place where it's a bad experience or it's an experience that was a great experience. It becomes a nugget of wisdom for you.  15:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That becomes your proverb of how you live your life and how you utilize that in your life and we're speaking, so I think, so ethereal, and I want to kind of bring this down to like okay, I might have a student who's come to me and said well, I spent thousands and thousands of dollars on this demo and now everybody tells me it's a piece of garbage and I guess I just didn't know or I failed or that's it, that's why I'm not successful. So I always try to tell people look, life is a learning journey, right, and what sort of energy is positive or helpful? If you're going to sit there and berate yourself for getting a demo that maybe some people don't like, right, or that you don't like or doesn't serve you, that energy is wasted on yourself, like nobody else really cares. To, be quite honest, right, turn that, reframe it around, say I've made an investment, I have now learned and know that maybe I wasn't ready to make that demo.  16:38 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Maybe it's learning money for you. Maybe you had to learn that Exactly that's your investment money for your business.  16:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Absolutely. So you turn that around and you learn, right, you go get yourself a different coach. You learn until you feel because I believe, right, I believe we all know and then say, well, I trusted my coach. Well, I think there's also that inner voice, right, that says I may be not ready, but I'm going to put my trust in my coach and I get it. Guys, I get it. But also I think there's an inner voice in you that says maybe I wasn't ready for that right, but my coach says I am. And so you didn't listen to that voice? Right, you don't know that you're lying to yourself, right, when you're saying something doesn't feel, right, I don't feel ready.  17:17 - Lau Lapides (Guest) That's the lie comes in, that's the pleasing, because you want to please your coach, you want to please your whoever, and say are you happy with me, are you proud of me? Did I do what you wanted me to do? Yeah, right. And that's where you have to start saying okay, they're my trusted advisor. I pay them for that, absolutely. But I can't put them all in one basket?  17:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yes, exactly, instead of being completely angry and saying it's all their fault, right, In reality. Right, you need to listen to that voice that, hopefully, I mean maybe you did completely put all your trust in them, but then again, now that you've learned right, now that you've learned from it, now you know, maybe I won't put all my trust in my coaches and I will take that little voice in my head that said maybe you're not ready. Right, they said I was, but I don't feel ready and I didn't tell them about it so that they could reason with me and say no, really you are, or maybe you're not right. That's just the demo readiness. Right, like, what about the audition? What about the person that auditioned and didn't get the gig?  18:21 - Lau Lapides (Guest) There's so many lies that we can tell ourselves about this right. Oh, we somehow always believe that voice.  18:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) We always listen to that voice and believe that voice, Right? Oh well, all right.  18:31 - Intro (Announcement) I voice. We always listen to that voice and believe that voice, right?  18:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh well, all right, I did the audition and I must have sucked, right, I sucked, so I didn't get the job. There's the lie. There's the lie that you tell yourself Now. You don't know, right, you don't know that you sucked.  18:34 I mean, maybe you do, maybe internally, you kind of know, oh, I haven't really coached a lot, maybe I should get somebody else's opinion to see, because I haven't developed an ear yet. So maybe it's something that somebody else can help me with. Maybe I don't suck, maybe I just need somebody else to give me some tips, or I need some additional coaching, right, or I nailed it, and then I heard the commercial and God, I can't believe they got hired Right. So there's the lie. How did they get hired? You know what I mean, and so how are you resolving that?  19:06 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Right, Right, I think the discipline to say, okay, I want to always pay attention to the inner voice inside. But a very famous neurosurgeon said this and I thought it was so brilliant I believe it was David Amen, he's like on the speaking circuit as a neurosurgeon. He said believe it or not, you don't have to believe everything you think. And I was like whoa, astonishing, Because we somehow think if we think it then it must be true. Yeah, agreed, but we're forgetting all the immense biases, experiences, sort of mental slurs that we go through in our life that help formulate those thoughts. So that's not to say that you don't understand an inner truth or have an inner voice that can't lead you in the right direction. It's just to say you don't have to believe everything you're thinking.  19:57 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, you can manifest. I'm a big believer in manif. Yeah, you can manifest. I'm a big believer in manifesting. You can create. You can create with your thoughts. You can re-envision, you can reinvent, you can redirect. I absolutely believe that, with your thoughts Right, like they are so, so powerful, and of course, that audition that you didn't get right, and then you're like, oh, I must be no good, don't believe that. Right, you're telling yourself aloud and think here are all the possibilities that Ann and Lau have said a hundred times in an audition demolition. There's many, many reasons why people get the job or don't get the job right, and not all of them are directly under your control. I mean absolutely. So maybe you didn't suck, you are good and that's okay, and it's okay that you didn't get the job right. So you audition, you forget it, right, and ultimately you don't believe the lie, that you're telling yourself that you're not good enough for it and whatever you do, you must discipline yourself to not shed and forecast everything you're thinking.  20:55 - Lau Lapides (Guest) They call it oversharing, but it really is forecasting what exactly is in your mind and you're doing that to purge yourself of guilt. Oh yeah, oh, let's collect 500 for this hour. I'm telling you, this is like good stuff. Don't purge on other people. Don't go through that catharsis. That's a private journey for you, Because guess what the casting director or the business person in front of you is thinking why did you just say that? I don't see that at all. What's happening? Are you okay? Like literally they're thinking, are you okay? Because you're forecasting something onto me that I don't even know what you're talking about Right Now? You and I are coaches. We catch that stuff and we try to remedy that. But you do it on the wrong people. You can never go back and make that impression again on them because they'll always. I remember Barbara Corcoran. I look up to her a lot as a mentor in business and she's a more mature woman.  21:51 on Shark Tank if you ever watch Shark Tank, yeah absolutely she says I always Rolodex in my mind, whether you agree with this or not. I just thought it was very interesting the way she put this. Whenever someone, especially a woman, breaks down crying in front of me when they're pitching their product, I always kind of roll a dex that in my mind that that's not someone I can work with. Now, that's not to say that you can't cry. It's not to say you can't feel emotion. You should feel real emotion and not hide that. However, when you forecast and overshare those emotions with people you don't have relationships with yet, they Rolodex you, they compartmentalize you in a place where they say I don't know what they're telling themselves.  22:30 I don't know what they're thinking and feeling, but it's not my experience of them, so from a business standpoint it can be very harmful.  22:37 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, that translates right into social media Just saying right your responses, right Whether people respond like share or not, right your response. Is somebody's going to Rolodex that response in their brain and say I don't think I can work with that person based upon what they just said. Happens every day, every moment of the day.  22:58 - Intro (Announcement) Yeah, all the time, all the time.  22:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And so understand that as well. Right, and so if you are oversharing, right Again, in a professional setting, especially, like you said, I think the key is with people that you do not have relationships with yet, right, People that do not know do not know your perspective where that's coming from, right. And even if they do know where that's coming from, where that's coming from right, and even if they do know where that's coming from, they may Rolodex it and say I don't think I can work with that person. Right, and I get that, and we get that too as coaches oh yeah, oh, I can't work with that person.  23:28 - Lau Lapides (Guest) No, I can't work with that. And that's like you trying to find the jury. That's the jury, that's the audience, that's the of people that will agree with you on what you're saying. That's not the place to do it Right, and it's not even an objective truth in any way. It's just a whole bunch of people who may be agreeing with you on whatever you're saying. So you have to be careful. You have to like be careful in who you trust with your inner voice and with your inner self.  23:56 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So I'm going to make this educated guess that when I ask the question, how do you know when you're lying to yourself? Right, I think you have to start with. How do you know when you're lying to yourself, when something is not necessarily going the way that you want it to right? I think that's one telltale way to start really looking inward and asking okay, so why are things not happening? Why am I not getting the gig? Why am I not getting the gig? Why am I not getting any business? Why am I not successful? Or why do I feel like I'm not successful? Asking yourself those questions and just sitting quiet in the moment and really thinking about what are the steps to achieve success? Why are you not getting that gig?  24:33 Well, to get the gig, certain factors have to take place. You have to have talent right, but not always right. You have to have talent right, but not always right. You have to have talent, you have to be in the right demographic, you have to be in the head of the casting director, which none of us are. So there's certain factors that are beyond our control. And when that happens, we have to also put in our head that there are certain factors beyond our control. So maybe we didn't get the gig because we have no control.  24:55 The daughter of a close friend. They gave the job to her, versus they changed directions and went with a male instead of female, or whatever. It is right. Understand that there are things beyond your control and that's okay, rather than I am not good enough, right, right, and taking things. Why am I not getting more work, right? Why am I not getting more work?  25:14 Well, sit down and take a look at. How much coaching have you had, right? How much training have you had? Are you as skilled as you can be? Are you marketing yourself as much as you can be? Why, if not, are you not marketing yourself, right? Well, you don't have the know-how, you don't have the money to invest in a marketer. You don't have the money, right. Why are these things happening? And really sit down and just I would say, write it down. Right, write it down. What are the things that you're not achieving, that you want to achieve, and what are the steps that you need to get there, or what are the conditions in which, when they're met, you will have success in that or not success? And then really sit down and ask yourself to be truthful right. How much of this is under your control? How much of this is other people saying this is the way it is and influencing your inner voice, or how much of it is your own self-sabotage?  26:04 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Yeah, and what you're really talking about here, which is, I think, the nugget here. The bottom line takeaway is hold yourself accountable to finding your voice, listening to it and understanding it right. So, for instance, if there's danger for you, if there's an instinctive acknowledgement that you're making, don't just ignore it and do it anyway. Don't just ignore it and overlook it anyway. You oftentimes will go wrong when you do that right, or when someone gives you feedback and you have to actively listen and absorb that feedback, and they say 5, 6, 10, 15 times. I don't know why you just said that. To me. It's not true or accurate. You should stop doing that. Stop doing it Like you've got to stop the behaviors.  26:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yes, now you go to external sources. Right, when you've listened to your inner voice and your inner voice is not helpful, right, that's when you turn to your accountability buddies, your trusted colleagues.  27:01 - Intro (Announcement) Or sabotaging.  27:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) yes, Right, your trusted colleagues, and you bounce that off of them, and then that is what's going to help, hopefully, reframe right. You're lying to yourself, right, and your inner voice that can be lying to you or sabotaging you, whatever that is, wow. That was deep. By the way, vaughn and I are not we are not in the business of mental health, however. This is just based on our own experiences, so, please, take what we say with a grain of salt.  27:28 We're sharing our experiences to hopefully help you with yours, because we are not therapists, so please keep that in mind, and we're just here to share.  27:39 - Lau Lapides (Guest) It's very true. And I have to say, if you're in business and studying this kind of work over years and years and years, you'll find that the more quality the script, the more quality the copy, the more they have something in common with great writers, great thinkers, great philosophers, great psychologists right? So we don't need to be like a clinical psychologist to understand the analysis of a line from Shakespeare. Like we can figure that out at a certain point and say how does that connect to my life, my lived experience, how does that connect to me uniquely as a person? Is that part of my voice and I mean my inner voice and my mechanical voice as well? Yeah Right, and that's what we call finding our voice. Voice and my mechanical voice as well? Yeah Right, and that's what we call finding our voice. Like finding your authentic voice means like doing that work, doing that homework.  28:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Good stuff. Oh my gosh, Woo Woo. I'm tired now. My inner voice needs a break. We need a latte after that, or something I know. All right. Well, before my latte, I'm going to give a great big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom Lau. I love you. It's been amazing.  28:46 - Lau Lapides (Guest) I love you.  28:47 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And my inner voice says I love Lau, I love Annie and I love Lau and I love myself and I love my inner voice, even when it misbehaves.  28:56 - Lau Lapides (Guest) And we love all of you listening, and that's why we share these inner thoughts.  28:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yes, Thank you guys. You have an amazing week and we will see you next week. Bye.  29:06 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

D&P Highlight: 50 greatest shows of all time? Yeah, right. full 749 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 19:56:00 +0000 myLUJXmpc9A5pkK1Nou18NWlE3X6qXVN news The Dana & Parks Podcast news D&P Highlight: 50 greatest shows of all time? Yeah, right. You wanted it... Now here it is! Listen to each hour of the Dana & Parks Show whenever and wherever you want! 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News False https://player.amperwavepodcasting

Newsflash: Tui 'Yeah Right' billboard accused of being bad taste. Whoa, for a moment there I thought I'd been transported back to 2006. Is it in good taste? No. Of Course not. It's a billboard for a beer company, for goodness' sake. Of course it's in bad taste. I don't think anyone has ever accused Tui of good taste. Given the extent to which the sensational details in the Polkinghorne case have scandalised the nation, it's hardly a surprise to see the billboards pop up. I'll be honest with you: It doesn't upset me. But if I were Pauline Hanna's family I might, quite reasonably, feel a bit miffed at a company trying to cash in on something related to my death. And here's the thing: Even if it did upset me, sometimes the most effective strategy to oppose something is to contain your outrage. I actually feel the same way about aspects of the Treaty Principles Bill. I wonder if the most extreme opposition to ACT's proposal might not ultimately help ACT's cause. And perhaps a more considered opposition might be calmer, quieter, and ultimately starve the issue from the attention upon which it'll thrive. Tui is banking on controversy. It has literally set up a feedback line so people can voice their outrage. But if you really have a problem with their billboards... Don't give them the attention. And don't buy Tui. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textEdward and Gooble react to Reddit r/AITA (Am I the Asshole) stories and give their very important opinions on other people's lives.In this episode, Edward and Gooble discuss a clueless female friend, an insecure ex boyfriend, a bad namer/storyteller, and a lying girlfriend. Enjoy! Support the showTree of Links: https://linktr.ee/amicancelledyet

Where are all the smokers these days? DOGE - making promises. We are all turkeys - just gullible for every comment and promise. PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter DONATIONS ? OHHH - the new shirt design is coming along... Twitter - How you like the AI generated cover art? (May need to come to DHUnplugged to see all) Warm-Up - Where are all the smokers these days? - DOGE - making promises - High level indictment - We are all turkeys - just gullible for every comment and promise Markets -#endthefed making the rounds - Treasury Secretary? - Target earnings surprise - Black Friday - will that boost retail? - New Phrase - Mullet Market Thanksgiving - What is going to be on the Dvorak table? ANNOUNCING the CTP Winner for Carvana Mullet Market - No, the fish... - Steady benchmarks in the front, crypto party in the back Netflix Again - Netflix notches 70 million monthly active users on ad-supported plan - 250 million subs and 70 million on ad plan - Didn't we used to call this TV? Made a full circle except that ad-based also has a monthly fee - Over 50% of the new sign ups are ads based plans Smokers - Retail cigarette sales in China have been growing for the past 4 years, reaching 2.44 trillion sticks in 2023, data from Euromonitor showed. The research group forecasts that sales will continue to increase annually, hitting 2.48 trillion by 2028. - Euromonitor added that growth has coincided with the increasing popularity of "slim" cigarettes, often advertised as "low-tar," and various types of flavored cigarettes. - Between 2019 and 2023, annual worldwide sales of cigarette sticks fell by about 2.7% to 5.18 trillion, according to Euromonitor data. At more than 300 million, China has the most cigarette smokers in the world, making up nearly a third of the world's total smokers, according to the World Health Organization. Topic of Discussion - #endthefed - Do you think that Musk and Trump and the new gang will try to end the Fed? - Elon endorsed the idea of the President being able to intervene on monetary policy. - Seems like that will undermine the independence and then the confidence in the Fed -- Going to be some fireworks with Powell saying he will not resign and cannot be fired DOGE - Dept of Government Efficiency - Still a hardy har name - like saying Penis when in 3rd grade - Incoming Department of Government Efficiency wants to create new mobile application for Americans to file taxes for free with IRS, according to Washington Post (Intuit and HR Block down on this...) - Explain how a government agency that does not exist is making these kinds of statements. --- Thought: Make these statements and either buy or short stocks? (Again we are all turkeys - hopefully not going to be led to slaughter) Higher rates - Rates are running higher after the election - actually up to the election ran up from 3.6% to 4.6% and nor in the range - DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said Thursday interest rates could shoot higher as the Republicans ended up controlling the House, securing a governing trifecta that gives President-elect Donald Trump free rein to spend as he pleases. - Pre-election: "If the House goes to Republicans, there's going to be a lot of debt, there's going to be higher interest rates at the long end, and it'll be interesting to see how the Fed reacts to that," Gundlach said - If the Trump administration extends the 2017 tax cuts or introduces new reductions, it could add significant amount to the nation's debt in the next few years, worsening the already troublesome fiscal picture. Yeah Right.... - Vocal critic of Putin, Vladimir Shklyarov, 39,

With very little objection, the most difficult verse in the entire Bible is our focus in this sermon.  Do not worry.  How in the world can one accomplish that?  And better yet, why would a loving Father expect such an impossible task from His children?  All of us have reasons to experience ripples of anxiety over various challenges we face in this life.  Those will never go away!  But wouldn't it be welcome news to know how to face them without the nagging and negative pressure?  Jesus said we should figure this out, and we can! Follow us for more weekly messages from Eastside pastors!

00:01 - Tolu Kolade (Ad) Hi Anne, my name is Tolu Kolade. I am a Nigerian and I love your podcast. I listen every week and I discovered it last year and I must say it has been an incredible eye-opener for me, helping guess what. You inspired me to also create my own podcast, which is also based on voiceovers. So I love what you do and keep doing what you do, thank you.  00:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey bosses, are you struggling with that ever elusive, real, conversational, authentic, like you're talking to your best friend, Reed Book? Coaching with me and I'll help you take your voice over to a real and believable place. Find out more at anneganguzacom.  00:54 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  01:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey everyone, Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Boss Superpower Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I am here with the lovely Lau Lapids. Hey, Annie. Always happy to be back in the sack Lau. You are so lovely. You know what this week I've been thinking there are so many of my students and I'm quite sure that this happens to you frequently, being an agent and being a coach is that people are always trying to put on these particular voices right, that they feel like should be the voiceover voice right, and I know we've done episodes on this and we sound like maybe a broken record or maybe bosses out there.  01:54 You've heard this before. We really love your original voices. I think there's so many people that get into voiceover because they feel like they've got these great voices in their head, they can do great imitations and then when they get behind a mic, they perform and in reality, what most people want, I think, and what I demand from my students is give me your voice, because that pretty voice just is super boring. What are your?  02:21 - Lau Lapides (Guest) thoughts on that Lau. Yeah, we were just talking about this just a moment ago that casting directors and agents are really, really now looking for the real voice, the real sound, and we've been doing some animation in-house workshops and talking to animation casting directors who are saying 80% of the talent that they are hiring now for big feature film and TV series are their voices. It's their voices, real voices, their real voices. It reminds me of when we saw the earlier animations of like the 90s and the 2000s, when we saw the Ice Age and all of that. We'd see the A-list actor personalities Queen Latifah and Ray Romano and all of that, and they were them and they of that and they were them and they were recognizable and they were them and you thought, wow, why aren't they putting on a character? They're actors, they can put on a character. Well, why would they? They have a huge following. We want to hear their voice.  03:17 We want to know who they are. So I think some of those trends started with some of the A-listers, the Tom Hanks that came in and really provided their everyday sound for these heightened, larger-than-life characters in commercial as well.  03:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You know, I always wonder, like, what is it about voiceover, when I get my students in?  03:39 - Intro (Announcement) What is it?  03:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) about when people first start, when they think that we don't want to hear their voice. They're always like and now I'm going to read a medical narration and I'm like no, like, no, I don't want to hear it like that. I want to hear your voice telling me or educating me about it in a confident way, but I don't want to hear this hi, this kind of air that they have and that they put on their voice. And I think a lot of times people like listen to what they hear out there. There's a lot of that out there and that's kind of unfortunate because that gives people preconceived notions of what is the right way to sound. There is no right way to sound. I think there's really just your way and your genuine way to sound, and that's what we find so intriguing, it's true.  04:25 - Lau Lapides (Guest) And many of us too, at least in our generation. We grew up on Disney and we grew up on programming where we did hear those sounds. That was in our heads. As little kids. We were imprinted with those sounds and we had the bedtime story when we heard Snow White and Cinderella. And when we grew up with the fairy tales, the folklore, we heard those exaggerated character and sometimes even caricature sounds in our cartoons as well. Many of our cartoons as well were over the top, larger than life, over the top unrecognizable to who that person was. So there was a style of those times that doesn't translate quite as well to these times. These times are much more real, authentic, down to earth, relatable. All the things that you see in the specs of your breakdown, of your auditions for like a commercial, you're also going to see the heightened characters as well. So be prepared for that Like. Start to be at home with what your authentic sound is.  05:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And then I'm going to add on top of that right, be comfortable with your voice, embrace your voice, and embrace your voice in all levels of emotion and point of view, because that's where I think a lot of times people will think but I sound so flat and I sound so boring and I'm like but you're not when you talk to me right in this session that we're having right here. When you talk to me, you're not boring, you're not flat at all. There's a dynamic to your voice, there's emotion, there's point of view, and I think that's the real key right there is bring you with that point of view and that emotion that really brings the story to life.  06:04 I talk to my students all the time and I say we all, we tell stories all the time and when we do that, we have evolving points of view that happen throughout the story, right From maybe the beginning of your sentence starts in one point of view and then it ends up in another because, oh my God, you're not going to believe what I did last night and let me tell you.  06:25 And so, in reality, like you can be excited, you're not going to believe what I did last night and let me tell you. And so, in reality, like you can be excited, you can be exaggerated and then mysterious, and then like, well, first of all, this unfortunate thing happened, but then, oh my gosh, right. And so your emotion is evolving as you tell the story and I feel like that can be in your voice, and it allows your voice to have many different textures and many different sounds that are very much authentic and not character-y, that's right and the truth is is like when we're in a conversation, whatever that conversation is, it would be the last thing that comes to our mind Oftentimes what we sound like or what we look like Because we're thinking of other things.  07:02 - Lau Lapides (Guest) We're connecting to the person. We're thinking of where we're going. Next we're talking of other things. We're connecting to the person. We're thinking of where we're going. Next, we're talking about our cat. We're doing whatever we're doing, but we stop the action, we stop the authentic doing. When we go into process and start looking at critiquing, criticizing, ripping apart whatever action verbs you want to use, when we look at ourselves and listen to ourselves, that's when we break the chain of the actual connection. So if a casting director says to you after an audition disconnected, you aren't connected that means you were in your head, you were thinking about lines, copy, or what you sound like or the mechanics right, like you're not at that last final destination yet You're not with me, yet You're not in the room with me, you're inside of yourself, and so that, to me, is a quick indication.  07:51 If you're saying what did that sound like? Did I sound real? I already know you didn't sound real. You didn't sound real because we wouldn't be thinking about sounding real. We would be thinking about persuading that person to get the prescription medication that they really need so that they don't die. Right, we're not thinking about did I sound authentic?  08:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) talking to them about the medication.  08:13 And I think a lot of it is. When we get those words in front of us. That's what throws everybody off right, because all our lives we've been trained to read out loud, right, to read out loud. I say that three times again read out loud, which is nothing like acting, right, reading out loud is nothing like acting. And so I have so many people are like but I don't understand, like, how do I connect to it? I would never say that.  08:35 And again, that is our job is to make those words sound believable and create the scenes in which those words would come out of our mouths in a believable and authentic way. And so you have to stop looking at the words as if they are words. There has to be so much more beyond those words on the page Right, and I think a lot of times I emphasize what's almost more important is it's easy to figure out who you are if you're just you, right, you're you. You're representing a company, you're trying to convince somebody that this is a great product or whatever it is you're trying to do, but really thinking about the person you're talking to. Like, have empathy. I say this so many times is that empathy is like number one rule, I think, for being really engaging and understanding who it is that you're talking and being able to connect with them, because having empathy and understanding what are their pain points, how is it that your product is going to help them? Is going to really, I think, help you to tell that story or be more authentic sounding.  09:32 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Yes, no question about it, and you and I have that sensitivity about the word read. Read is kind of like it's not in our realm to read. We don't read for a living. We read scripts. We have to read scripts. Not in our realm to read, we don't read for a living. We read scripts. We have to read scripts.  09:46 Yes, the brain process is the reading of it, first for comprehension's sake, yes, and then, once you're comprehending what is being done, you're processing it. You don't want to go into auditions and you don't want to go into recording sessions. Processing it, that's before. And then, as you process it, you get to your interpretation. Then now we're talking, now we're talking, then you want your interpretation to start, come out into your delivery. So, allowing that time, allowing the brainpower to happen, allowing that, to say my reading is at the beginning of the process. It is not when I'm auditioning or when I'm working on a gig. I'm not reading. In fact, I should even know the copy is the truth. Really, great actors who are doing voiceover copy half of them are not even reading it. They're just already interpreting it and memorizing it because they're actors for on camera, so they're taught to memorize.  10:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, and memorization is helpful if you've got a short script. However, a lot of the genres that I deal with it's not a short script and it's not practical necessarily to memorize. However, I will say that you're doing something similar. Not necessarily you're not memorizing, but you're reading far enough ahead, right, so that you understand where did the story go. Right, Because you got to know where the story ends up, so that you can like formulate how it begins. It's like you can't tell a good story unless you know that story, and so you can't evolve a point of view unless you know, like, where you're going with it. Really, you can discover it along the way if you have really well-written script. Really you can discover it along the way if you have really well-written script, right, or if you have easy-to-understand script.  11:20 And I'll tell you a lot of times, in commercial copy or corporate narration copy or e-learning copy, it's not the easiest script. A lot of times it's not a dialogue between two people, which I think is the easiest to understand. Right, and to be the most comfortable with sounding like you're talking to someone is if you're actually reading copy that's written that people are talking to someone. When you have copy that's written in any other kind of format like second or third person, then it becomes a whole different story. How are you making that sound like you're actually talking to someone? Because it's not written in a dialogue format. And so that's where I think the disconnect comes for a lot of people, when they don't know where they are in the scene and they don't know who they're really talking to. They haven't thought about it or researched it or analyzed it. They then just read the words and then it becomes very neutral.  12:08 - Lau Lapides (Guest) It becomes neutralized, and that's fascinating. In your daily conversations too, I think you'll notice that people stop speaking when they're processing information, and a lot of times I'll have people. My husband says this to me all the time. He said stop bulleting thoughts at me, I'm still processing what you said earlier. I can't. I can't interpret what you're doing right now. It's too fast for me, so would you say stop bullying.  12:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Did he say stop bullying?  12:31 - Lau Lapides (Guest) your points at me no bulleting, bulleting, Like shooting it at me, like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, that kind of thing. But in the daily conversation of many people you're actually not processing quite as fast, especially new information or technical information.  12:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And so it would be unfair.  12:49 - Lau Lapides (Guest) It would be unfair to say, well, give me emotion about it, give me a feeling about it, which I do to him all the time. Tell me how you feel. He said I don't know how I feel, I'm still processing it. So that's the lesson of the day. Is like. That makes sense. If you're not emoting authentic feeling, it's because you're still processing it and you've got to do that first. You've got to get through that first. That is not the end, though.  13:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That's not the outcome. The top layer is your emotion, is your point of view. That is what brings your unique perspective and your unique read and what casting directors are looking for, usually all of the time right, they're looking for that All of the time.  13:25 Bring you to the copy. What does that really mean? Well, that means bring a point of view to that copy, and bring a point of view that makes sense. I mean, obviously, if you're championing a product, you want to make sure you're championing a product and you're not like angry or miserable about it unless the dialogue calls for it. So you need to get to that last layer, which is that evolving point of view, which makes the connection and really allows people to also comprehend what you're saying easier.  13:53 Because if you're neutral, if your point of view is just like hi, I'm going to read the words really nicely and very consistently and I'm not really going to put any sort of emotion on it, and I'm going to do this for the next two minutes, right, and I sound like a voiceover artist, right, but in reality you haven't told the story, you haven't allowed anyone to hear that and then process it. You haven't helped them in their comprehension, typically like as you and I are talking today. Right, I'm like well, I don't go. Well, we've got this right, I don't go well, we've got this Annie that sounds excellent to me.  14:31 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Yes, yes, it does.  14:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And it helps really people to hear and comprehend and understand what you're saying so much better than a simple like run-of-the-mill, medium, neutral kind of a read which most people seem to do on long-format narration copy. They tend to think it's like a documentary, but in reality, the focus of you, if you're actually doing a documentary and I always tell people like what's the difference, it's written like a documentary. Why should I not sound like a documentary? Well, typically with a documentary and those of you that love documentaries, such as myself, you're watching a video which completes a story. For you, there's a visual right and there's also music maybe, which also helps in the story right.  15:10 Your voice is simply supporting the documentary. So you need to just be able to tell the story, no matter what the media is underneath you, and the best kind of story to tell is one that's real and authentic. And that's why I think so many casting directors and correct me if you think I'm wrong, but I think so many people ask for that real read, because you can put any kind of music under a real read. You can put any kind of video under a real read and it will work. You can put any kind of video under a real read and it will work. You put something really dramatic and if somebody's like hey, this is the story and I'm going to tell it to you, like it really is Right, you can put dramatic music behind that, you could put dramatic visuals and it works. And you can also put something that's very soft and not dramatic and that storyline still works.  15:50 But if you're dramatic and you're fighting with other dramatic elements of a production that doesn't always work.  15:56 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Nope, doesn't always work. Doesn't always work. That's a good little formula to think about. And then I want to take a couple steps back and say, okay, here we go to the tough stuff. And that is before you even do anything meaning reading, prospect, audition or copy how do you feel about yourself? How do you feel? Ooh, we're getting deep. How?  16:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) do you feel about yourself?  16:16 - Lau Lapides (Guest) How do you feel we're getting deep? How do you feel about what you have to say, how you say it, how you feel about it, how you feel in your life, because that is also going to be transmitted as well through all of this. You lack confidence, you lack self-esteem, you lack your know-how about who you are as a person. The more you're going to be freaking out about the work that you're doing, you're just always going to feel like you're never bringing it. You're never bringing it to the table and you're going to start to become super biased and super, super, highly critical about yourself, where you can no longer trust your self-direction.  16:54 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, yeah, I hear that a lot from some students that come into the industry and they try to sound a particular way, right, and they think do I have what it takes? I get that question probably on a daily basis, right, do I have what it takes? Well, do you have what it takes to be brave enough to bring you yourself to the party?  17:11 - Intro (Announcement) right.  17:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And if you do, if you have the courage to do that right. There's a lot of people that don't have the courage and they hide behind that voice, they hide behind that persona. That is hi, I'm the voiceover voice and that is almost like a. It's almost like a false confidence, right?  17:26 lau or it's like oh, it's a mask I'm sounding it's a mask, it's a mask which is how interesting I always say a lot of character actors are very confident, right, and it's always really like when we listen to character acting, it's easy to become more emotional, right, because we are a character, it's a dialogue and we can formulate those emotions. They're kind of written into the copy for us. But when we're talking about some other type of copy, which may not be obvious, right, may not be, you know, a commercial, oh, I don't want to sound too selly, right, that's what I know about being selly, right, be a real person, don't sound announcer-y. Well then, that's my emotional like. I guess starting point, right, but in reality you've got to do more work to figure out that story, to figure out where your emotion lies. If all you know is that you can't be announcer-y and you can't sell and you need to sound, you're talking to your best friend. You need more work than that. You need to do more work than that to tell the story, right, lau.  18:23 - Lau Lapides (Guest) No doubt about it. Okay, so that's the honesty that you need, and sometimes you don't possess it. So that's where we always say circle yourself with great people to help you figure out what your most authentic you. And delivery is and connection is, because sometimes we don't see it, we don't know what it is, we don't know how to reach it We've never heard it and it takes years sometimes to get to, and that's OK.  18:48 Have patience, but you really do, as you said, have to have the courage, the bravery, to say I need to feel something about this, I need to care about something, I need to connect with who I'm talking to, because I was just working with a client yesterday, coaching, and they were literally what was it about? Oh, it was an adult acne product. It was like an infomercial type thing and this talent is so talented, it's like so gifted, so wonderful, was not connecting in any way. And I turned that into her sister having adult acne and, surely enough, the onion peeled. And then all of a sudden it came to her after almost an hour. She said I think I'm just going to talk to her because she really does have this problem actually and it really does bother her.  19:32 And I'm like you have to think about what's at stake for the people or person that you're talking or discussing with. Anytime you're going to sit down and have coffee or go to your diner and have breakfast. You're going to talk about a lot of stuff with your people and there's always something at stake. What's at stake? Are you talking?  19:50 - Intro (Announcement) about politics?  19:51 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Are you talking about religion? Are you talking about sexuality? Are you talking about finances? High stakes on all of those. High stakes on all of those. Your kids going to school high stakes on all of those. So why would we not think about that and connect with all the scripts that become in front of us Because there's stakes to those scripts, right, Absolutely.  20:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I love the way that you phrase that that there's stakes to that. There is. There's a reason why the words are there in front of you and you have to discover there is. There's a reason why the words are there in front of you and you have to discover really what those stakes are Like. Why, why are you talking? Purpose is so important, really. I mean, purpose is so important. If you don't understand the purpose of why you're saying something, it's kind of like, well, let me just gloss over the words, then it drives us, it's our lives.  20:35 - Lau Lapides (Guest) It's like that's why so many actors will say who are career actors? They'll say what else would you have liked to do? They say I don't know. I do what I have to do, I do what I love to do and I do what I need to do. So there is the authenticity. It's not I'm doing this because I want to sound a certain way.  20:53 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I'm doing this because I want to look a certain way Right.  20:58 - Lau Lapides (Guest) We don't want a doctor that looks good and sounds good, we want a doctor that can help us with our health.  21:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, you know, I like that analogy because we don't want a doctor to look or sound good Like. When I go to a doctor and I connect with a doctor, I want him to help me, I need him to cure me, right, and that is the underlying reason as to why I'm listening to him in the first place, right, and if he's not addressing my needs, if he is all concerned about how he looks and or how he sounds when he's telling me about it, I'm not going back to that doctor. And so guess what? That's why we need that in advertising. We need you to be able to connect with that potential client when you're talking about that product, because there is, there are high stakes I love how you put that. There are stakes and what are they and understand your purpose for telling somebody about this product or talking about this product, or communicating with someone and empathizing, right, empathizing yes, I know that you're upset that you have. You know what I mean. Adulterated acne is not fun. I had it.  21:54 It was just like shouldn't I have been over this by now? You know, I mean it is just a thing.  21:59 - Lau Lapides (Guest) It's devastating actually, and acne of all ages is devastating to the people who are experiencing it. It's stigmatizing, it's all of those things. So it's like when you think for a moment of what that's like to go through, that will help you connect in a really personalized way. I think personalization is a part of it too. Personalization is a part of it too. So even if it's a business read of some kind or maybe it's a how-to, like how do I organize my closet, there's a personalization about that, like how do I go through the process, how do I feel about it, what does it do for me? And it's a truly deeply psychological process. We see that in all the shows, from hoarders to organizing to everything.  22:38 We have a lot of emotion, a lot of memories, a lot of psychology in our closet as an example, right. So there is almost nothing that I can think of that doesn't have high stakes to it for someone who is involved with it. It may not for me, but it will for someone else.  22:56 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And I want to reiterate that that applies across the board, really for any script. It applies for medical narration, it applies for corporate narration. Again, people have such misguided thoughts about what is corporate narration or what is medical narration. Well, I'm just going to deliver the information articulately and clearly and teach somebody. In reality. No, there are stakes. Companies have products to help people to solve a problem and you've got to understand what that is.  23:23 Medical narration is all about either education or you're selling to solve a problem, that somebody needs to come to the hospital because you have the latest technology to help with their recent cancer diagnosis. You know that's high stakes. You're educating young doctors about the process of electrocardiograms because you may save a life right. There's high stakes to all of that and in getting to understand the purpose and what those stakes are is going to be what helps you connect and what helps you be the better reader, even if you've never heard it that way before. You're not coming to myself or Lau to be coached to give a pretty read. You can do that all on your own and, as a matter of fact, I don't want you if that's. All you want to do is a pretty read.  24:07 - Lau Lapides (Guest) No, I don't want it either. It's not authentic?  24:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) No, it's not authentic and that's not what I can help you with the most, because you don't need me. I'm not going to have you give. Give me your money for that. Give me your money if you want to really sound connected and really understand how to evaluate your scripts and analyze your scripts and understand those stakes and then bring that script meaningfully to your audience Right and, if a talent says well, I don't know much about this industry or I don't know if I feel anything about it.  24:35 - Lau Lapides (Guest) I'd say two things to that. I'd say three things to that. Number one you can train with us and become an actor, and an actor should be able to connect to every world in the world. And number two if you don't think you can connect, go to a big building downtown in the area you live in and just walk in the lobby. Don't look scary or creepy, just walk in the lobby and just like, have a cup of coffee in your hand and sit in the lobby and watch the people, listen to them. How do they feel?  25:13 How do they dress? Are they moving fast? Are they on their cell phones? Are things busy for them? Are they moving and shaking? Try to capture that as you're looking at your script, because that's the organization, that's the industry, that's the thing you're talking about and the people you're connecting either to or you are posing as right. Do that little bit of work. I know Johnny Depp did that for years and years as an actor.  25:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) He would physically like go live in the culture and you couldn't talk to him for like a month until he figured it out right and, in addition to that, go ahead and research the product, Research the company, Sign up for their mailing list. You're going to find out a lot. Go to their YouTube channel or just talk to someone.  25:56 - Lau Lapides (Guest) How about talk to someone. Annie, just talk to someone and say hey, I'm not a solicitor and I don't want to freak you out. Can I talk to you for five minutes? Because I'm an actor actually and I might be hired by this organization and I kind of just want to hear what your life is like when you work in the office in the day.  26:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) How do you feel about this company? How do you feel about?  26:12 - Lau Lapides (Guest) the product that you offer. That's going the extra mile. Why not?  26:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I guarantee you you might have somebody who would actually enjoy talking about it.  26:20 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Oh my God, They'd be excited. They'd say how do I know you?  26:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) But yeah, especially if you say look, I'm not here to freak you out, I just I'm an actor and I might be hired. So I just I'm curious to get your opinion. What is life like at this company? Are you stressed? I mean, do you love the product?  26:43 - Lau Lapides (Guest) Do product. What can you share with me? That's a good idea. I like that. Isn't that a great idea? By the way, annie, we just did one on podcasts, and when you're talking about self-promotion, you're talking about self-producing, you're talking about becoming a business Like why not be the guy or gal on the street that does a one-minute interview with someone who's on the street coming out from the building, right? Some of our biggest podcasts and some of our biggest programs were built out of kids that said hey, I want to talk to entrepreneurs, let's go around and let's just drive around, let's just talk to them and put the best ones on.  27:09 Oh, we love that stuff, we love that stuff, right?  27:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yep, in business, people love to talk about them. They do, they do. For the most part, they love to talk about themselves, right, especially if you make them feel important and guess what? Guess what our entire job is as voice actors, right.  27:23 - Lau Lapides (Guest) They love it.  27:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) To make our potential clients or whoever it is we're talking to right about that product, to make them feel important. It's all about them. It's not about us or how pretty we sound when we talk about it. It's about them and how we're going to help them be better, look better, make more money, do all the things and make them the richest, most popular adults. I mean honestly, if you think about it, it's all about them. That's why we listen.  27:44 When we put our attention towards anything, it's kind of egocentrical. It's like what do I need? What am I going to get out of this? Am I going to learn something? Is this going to give me a sale on a product that I've been looking to buy, or is it going to give me information about the product that I've been meaning to find out what's in it for me? Yeah Right, what's in it for me? And so you need to, as the voice actor representing you need to tell them, like, here's what's in it for you. I'm here to help. I'm here to deliver this information to help you. I'm not here to sound good, necessarily Well, maybe I will sound great while I do it, but I'm more sincere about wanting to help you.  28:16 - Lau Lapides (Guest) So we just gave like a ton of tips about how you can actually sound authentic, and that is to live the authentic. And I like to say too go to lunch, go to dinner, go to coffee, go to tea. It's not about spending money, it's about going to places where you can sit with people and really talk to them. Talk with them and to them and about them, with them and to them and about them. And that's how you learn. How to talk authentically is to really be in conversation with people that you're fascinated by, you're interested in, or you want to help, or you want them to help you right.  28:50 We're not just the end-all, be-all helpers. We get a lot of help from them as well, so we get a lot of information from them that is very usable for us.  28:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I love how this conversation went. I mean, it's just really brought up some really great new ideas for you know, you guys, and how you can really continue to develop as an actor and continue developing your authenticity and making those words really come alive.  29:14 - Lau Lapides (Guest) It's a conversation about conversation.  29:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) There you go, all right. Well, I'm going to have a conversation about my sponsor, ipdtl. You, too, can connect and communicate like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week, lau. Thank you so much, and we'll see you guys next week. Bye, see you next week.  29:36 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

With the lads away to Helsinki, this week's show was meant to be something of an express pod. However, you know Kieran & Gaz by now, they can't stop talking when it comes to LOI so tune in to hear all their latest thoughts, rants and predictions about this wonderful league of ours.  Sponsored by QuinnAv.ie

Newsflash: Tui 'Yeah Right' billboard accused of being bad taste. Whoa, for a moment there I thought I'd been transported back to 2006. Is it in good taste? No. Of Course not. It's a billboard for a beer company, for goodness' sake. Of course it's in bad taste. I don't think anyone has ever accused Tui of good taste. Given the extent to which the sensational details in the Polkinghorne case have scandalised the nation, it's hardly a surprise to see the billboards pop up. I'll be honest with you: It doesn't upset me. But if I were Pauline Hanna's family I might, quite reasonably, feel a bit miffed at a company trying to cash in on something related to my death. And here's the thing: Even if it did upset me, sometimes the most effective strategy to oppose something is to contain your outrage. I actually feel the same way about aspects of the Treaty Principles Bill. I wonder if the most extreme opposition to ACT's proposal might not ultimately help ACT's cause. And perhaps a more considered opposition might be calmer, quieter, and ultimately starve the issue from the attention upon which it'll thrive. Tui is banking on controversy. It has literally set up a feedback line so people can voice their outrage. But if you really have a problem with their billboards... Don't give them the attention. And don't buy Tui. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tui Beer are under fire after referencing Philip Polkinghorne in their latest 'Yeah right' campaign. The new billboard reads: "Back to being a respectable meth smoking, sex worker loving doctor then. Yeah right." Polkinghorne was acquitted last month of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna, after an eight week long trial in the High Court at Auckland. Marketing expert Mike Hutcheson joins Jack Tame to discuss whether this was a bad move. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you ever feel like you're at the end of your rope, and you never feel truly rested? Join Jenn as she discusses how to take a step back and look at what type of rest your body needs in order to recharge. In this episode, Jenn is sharing the 7 different types of rest. She walks us through each type and shares the different ways that you can implement that type of rest into your day or busy routine. From mental rest to spiritual rest, your brain and body require some time to relax and just be. The tips you'll hear in this episode will help you determine which type of rest you need and how to approach getting it in a way that doesn't feel like another overwhelming task! Tune in to determine how you'll spend time in your “nothing box”.The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let's dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. IN THIS EPISODE: [5:29] Jenn shares the 7 types of rest. [7:08] What are the benefits of sleep and what types of sleep are there? [8:43] How can you prioritize mental rest? [14:14] What is social rest and what are some examples?  [17:08] Why is spiritual rest so important?[23:09] What is sensory rest and how does our everyday life impact our senses?[29:25] How can you fit more emotional rest into your life?[33:19] What are options for creative rest?[36:15] How do you determine which type of rest you need most?  KEY TAKEAWAYS: The first step of determining what type of rest you need is to ask your body what needs to be restored. Are you experiencing decision fatigue? Or do you need a walk outside to disconnect?Take a week and try each of the rest options and see what works best for you and see how you feel after each different type of rest. Honoring your need to rest allows you to show up better in all other areas of your life. If you are a parent, modeling this for your children will help them learn to prioritize their rest and wellbeing as well! QUOTES: [14:20] “Everyday social interactions for introverts, socializing can be very exhausting and draining, but even for people who wouldn't identify as introverts, social rest can be really valuable. This gives us a chance to recharge and a big piece of this is actually maintaining our boundaries.” - Jenn Trepeck [24:35] “Frankly we just live in a world of overstimulation and that over stimulation creates a lot of the exhaustion and our brain is always going because there is constant input.” - Jenn Trepeck [31:40] “Where do you feel like you're not even feeling things? Like things can be crazy around you and you're sort of like blinders on, focused, moving forward. That's a great indication that we could use a little emotional rest.” - Jenn TrepeckRESOURCES:There's not Enough Time in the Day EpisodeMeditation for Stress EpisodeSlow Down...Yeah Right? EpisodeBeyond Caffeine: Natural Ways to Improve Energy Levels EpisodePerception vs Reality EpisodeBecome A Member of Salad with a Side of FriesJenn's Free Menu PlanA Salad With a Side of FriesA Salad With A Side Of Fries MerchA Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

As humans and effective teachers, we will always regret things - certain choices we made, how we taught a lesson, how we reacted to a student, etc.  Not only is that natural, it makes us better educators and people.  Learning from mistakes is at the center of any authentic learning.  To the narcissistic few that say they have "zero regrets," I'll remind them that no one is perfect.  As we learn from the past, it's also important we don't live in the past - or in our regrets.  That's a recipe for unhappiness and ineffectiveness in the education profession AND life.  Let it go.  You deserve it and so do the kids you serve.

Get ready Squee Fans, we’ve got a lot of happy ground to cover! Heather and Stacy get into Bridgerton (sex and costumes!), queer women’s voices, like Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan, and then bring it all together for our favorite episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor thus far…ROGUE! In fact, we’ve got a wee timey-wimey adventure of our own right in the episode. There is so much squee, we recommend listening alllll the way to the end of the episode. ;) Stacy Watnick and Heather Berberet.

Get ready Squee Fans, we’ve got a lot of happy ground to cover! Heather and Stacy get into Bridgerton (sex and costumes!), queer women’s voices, like Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan, and then bring it all together for our favorite episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor thus far…ROGUE! In fact, we’ve got a wee timey-wimey adventure of our own right in the episode. There is so much squee, we recommend listening alllll the way to the end of the episode. ;) Stacy Watnick and Heather Berberet.

Jesse Kelly. The Left's New Military, Prosecuting Politicians for Covid, Mass Deportations? Yeah, Right! Woke Commie Tractor Supply. Seeing the military as a tool to destroy the country. Are lock down politicians trying to cover their butts for what they did? The good of the public health. The new surgeon general's warning. What happened to Tractor Supply? Trump wants to deport a bunch of illegals but will the Norm let him when he's hit with all the system propaganda? You shouldn't make peace with demons that are out to destroy you. A religion of destruction and domination.   The Jesse Kelly Show A New Military  Jun 25 2024   Other Episodes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Jesse Kelly has written a new book, “The Anti-Communist Manifesto”. He discusses the daily assault Americans are facing on our freedoms from the insidious communist movement in this country. From weaponizing race, sex, and gender to hijacking our schools, communism threatens to destroy our cherished American way of life. Newt's guest is Jesse Kelly. He is a U.S. Marine veteran, a former Congressional candidate, and hosts Premiere Network's The Jesse Kelly Show and First TV's I'm Right with Jesse Kelly. Visit Jesse Kelly website at https://www.jessekellyshow.com/ Jesse Kelly is highly recommended by ACU. Subscribe for free. Check out our ACU Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/ACUPodcast   --------------------------------------------------------------------    HELP ACU SPREAD THE WORD!  Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks. Also Rate us on any platform you follow us on. It helps a lot. Forward this show to friends. Ways to subscribe to the American Conservative University Podcast Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FM Player Podcast Addict Tune-in Podcasts Pandora Look us up on Amazon Prime …And Many Other Podcast Aggregators and sites ACU on Twitter- https://twitter.com/AmerConU . Warning- Explicit and Violent video content.   Please help ACU by submitting your Show ideas. Email us at americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com   Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For the Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless.   Report on Food For the Poor by Charity Navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/592174510   -------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer from ACU. We try to bring to our students and alumni the World's best Conservative thinkers. All views expressed belong solely to the author and not necessarily to ACU. In all issues and relations, we hope to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ. While striving to expose, warn and contend with evil, we extend the love of God to all of his children. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Mike Ferguson in the Morning 06-18-24 Do you find yourself avoiding the news? Uninformed people, unite! Story here: https://business.yougov.com/content/49776-3-key-findings-about-news-consumption-from-the-digital-news-report-2024 MORNING NEWS DUMP: Illinois is issuing "new and improved" driver's licenses for illegal aliens as of July 1. Gov. Pritzker says the updated system will decrease "stigma" and creates a more "equitable system." The new version will say "Federal limits apply" at the top. In other words, it's the Democrat method of paving the way for illegal aliens to eventually be able to vote, which is exactly what they want with their open border policy. US Surgeon General wants warning labels on social media platforms. St. Louis City Hall wants partners to help deal with the homelessness problem and oversee a jobs program that hires homeless people to do things like pick up the trash, cut the grass, and clean up the streets. They say they'll use the $450K of Covid-era funds to pay for the program. KJP insists that the videos of Biden freezing up are right-wing propaganda. Cardinals beat the Marlins in Miami 7-6. Game 2 of the 3-game series is tonight at 5:40pm.Redbirds are now in 2nd place, one game over .500. More moments of Biden freezing up. KJP says it's FAKE NEWS! No, it's real. Story here: https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2024/06/18/kjp-is-living-1984-in-2024-biden-administrations-orwellian-reality-control-n2175626 Meanwhile, Democrats always convey confession through projection. They claim Trump had to be helped off-stage at an event. Then video emerged that proved them wrong...again. Story here: https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/06/18/left-wingers-claim-trump-had-to-be-guided-off-stage-then-the-video-emerged-n2175632 NewsTalkSTL website: https://newstalkstl.com/ Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsTalkSTL Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewstalkSTL Livestream 24/7: http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstreamSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You'd think we're all shameless - us sharing our dirty details in the bedroom for the world to hear - but shame is a reality for everyone. It could be insecurities about your body, religious trauma, or even guilt about using toys in the bedroom. The truth is that we all carry some level of shame and if we let it, that shame can prevent us from ever being truly satisfied with who we are. Join us this week for a candid discussion about self-image, shame and all the things that hold us back  from being happy. We also discuss how our views have changed as we have gotten older.  We get real about our insecurities and the steps we have taken to let go of a few of them.  Give it to us on the Gram: @talksuburbantome  Get more at TalkSuburbanToMe.com

Chris and Rob argue with Producer Rob G over whether or not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander deserves to win the NBA MVP award and tell us why the retirement of New York Yankees broadcaster John Sterling is more impactful than you think. Plus, NBA champion and FOX Sports Radio NBA analyst Antonio Daniels swings by to discuss the MVP race, the upcoming 7/8 play-in game showdown between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Lakers and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Today on Valentine in the Morning: You share what you pretended to be into to so you could be cool, and we hash out what hobbies you can't stand a partner to have._Listen live every weekday from 5-10am pacific: https://www.iheart.com/live/1043-myfm-173/ Website: 1043myfm.com/valentine Instagram: @ValentineInTheMorningFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/valentineinthemorning TikTok: @ValentineInTheMorning

Arts On Prescription: What if your doctor prescribed an arts-based treatment for what ails you and your health insurance paid for it. YEAH RIGHT! Actually, Yeah, right, and REALLY! In this episode we learn all about it in Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for U. S. CommunitiesBIO'sDr. Tasha Golden directs research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a national leader in arts + public health, Dr. Golden studies the impacts of arts & culture, music, aesthetics, and social norms on well-being, health research, and professional practice. She has authored many publications related to arts and health, served as an advisor on several national health initiatives, and is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida's Center for Arts in Medicine.In addition to her research, Golden is a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the U.S. and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is also a published poet and has taught university courses in public health as well as in writing, rhetoric, and literature. Holding a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences, Dr. Golden draws on her diverse background to develop innovative, interdisciplinary presentations and partnerships that advance health, health equity, creativity, and well-being.Dr. Golden is also the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community and policy discourses. These young folx are among her greatest teachers.Jill Sonke, PhD, is director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal. She served in the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS. With 28 years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Jill is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. Notable MentionsNotable MentionsArts On Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities.: A roadmap for communities to develop programs that integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems. prescription

Our Christmas Photos in the Holidays Story Highlights on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17983196135380302/Join our Facebook Community Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/677407940871421/https://www.instagram.com/feetofclay.cultsistershttps://feetofclayconfessionsofthecultsisters.buzzsprout.comWe love acronyms -- and we aren't afraid to use them! Here are some common ones that we might forget to explain:LDM - Last Days Ministries (organization) ICT - Intensive Christian Training School (at LDM)YWAM - Youth With A Mission (organization) CCM - Contemporary Christian Music

December 20, 2023 Zech. 9:1-8; Ps. 145:1-7; Prov. 30:15-16; Rev. 17:1-8

On this episode of Drink Til We're Married Podcast, HeyCutie sits down with Darryl Gaines, the author of the “House Always Wins.” Marriage continues to be the focus of the episodes and this is the first time we are hearing a man's point of view in this series. Tune in to hear a man's perspective … Continue reading "DTWM 147: Til Death Do Us Part… Yeah Right"

Disney CEO Bob Iger says with Star Wars, Marvel and all movies/projects/shows on Disney Plus, he's done pushing agendas and messages that don't belong, but rather to go back to focusing on the stories. LOL ok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BIG LIE: Trump Can't EAT?!?!The Tony Michaels PodcastTrump's waistline contradicts reports he stopped eating after Kangaroo Coup failure. In Liz Cheney's new book she claims Kevin McCarthy went to Mar-a-ago after Jan 6 because Donald Trump was depressed and not eating. YEAH RIGHT! Trump hungry? When are the lies gonna end?Buy Tony a Shothttps://linktr.ee/thetonymichaelsSupport Tony on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/thetonymichaelsTony Michaels is known as "The Rush Limbaugh of the Left"Venmo Chat Me NOW!https://account.venmo.com/u/thetonymichaelsJoin my Discord server now!https://discord.gg/5HyRwtwyZMThe Library of Democracyhttps://www.youtube.com/@LibraryofDemocracySupport Gabe on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/iamgabesanchezFollow Texas Paulhttps://realtexaspaul.com/Link Your Amazon & Twitch Accountshttps://scribehow.com/shared/How_to_Connect_and_Subscribe_to_Twitch_with_Amazon_Prime__djkNTNdLSm6Sktblpz-43QThe Tony Michaels Podcast FULL EPISODESSubscribe to The Tony Michaels PodcastBroadcast live on TwitchApple PodcastsSpotifyOfficial Merch:store.thetonymichaels.comFUCK'EM Hatshats.thetonymichaels.comSupport the show

BIG LIE: Trump Can't EAT?!?!The Tony Michaels PodcastTrump's waistline contradicts reports he stopped eating after Kangaroo Coup failure. In Liz Cheney's new book she claims Kevin McCarthy went to Mar-a-ago after Jan 6 because Donald Trump was depressed and not eating. YEAH RIGHT! Trump hungry? When are the lies gonna end?Buy Tony a Shothttps://linktr.ee/thetonymichaelsSupport Tony on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/thetonymichaelsTony Michaels is known as "The Rush Limbaugh of the Left"Venmo Chat Me NOW!https://account.venmo.com/u/thetonymichaelsJoin my Discord server now!https://discord.gg/5HyRwtwyZMThe Library of Democracyhttps://www.youtube.com/@LibraryofDemocracySupport Gabe on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/iamgabesanchezFollow Texas Paulhttps://realtexaspaul.com/Link Your Amazon & Twitch Accountshttps://scribehow.com/shared/How_to_Connect_and_Subscribe_to_Twitch_with_Amazon_Prime__djkNTNdLSm6Sktblpz-43QThe Tony Michaels Podcast FULL EPISODESSubscribe to The Tony Michaels PodcastBroadcast live on TwitchApple PodcastsSpotifyOfficial Merch:store.thetonymichaels.comFUCK'EM Hatshats.thetonymichaels.comSupport the show

Paul Rodriguez & Spanish Mike discuss the banter between them, Paul's Life reset series, Spanish manifesting his dreams, what visiting the Nike Campus is really like, Handling big sponsor deals, 20 years of Yeah Right, Spanish Mike pep talks, Paul leaving girl for Plan B, skating to Guy Mariano's Video Day's song in the City Stars video, Spanish Mike soakin' up game, Paul wanting to ride for Zero after City Stars and much more! Timestamps 00:00:00 Paul Rodriguez & Spanish Mike 00:00:22 Spanish's real name 00:03:28 Best friend banter 00:08:17 Life reset series 00:19:44 Spanish manifesting his dreams 00:22:07 The Spanish Mike pep talks 00;23;28 Our Sponsor: AG1 (Athletic Greens) 00:25:03 Handling deals as a player in "the game" 00:38:49 Being ok with taking the big deals 00:46:00 Spanish Mike soakin' up game 00:51:07 What's the difference between YouTube and instagram 00:53:55 Paul's sponsor's reactions to his YouTube channel 01:00:10 Spanish Mike's first time at the Nike campus 01:05:12 The many iterations of Spanish Mike 01:10:08 Spanish Mike's relationship to Lil Wayne 01:23:39 20 years of Yeah Right 01:30:11 Paul leaving girl for Plan B 01:39:32 Prod making big money 01:44:50 Any physical altercations between P-Rod and Spanish? 01:45:35 Spanish Mike's catch phrases 01:54:32 Spanish Mike's favorite era of P-Rod 01:55:36 Paul wanting to ride for Zero after City Stars 01:56:31 Paul skating to Guy Mariano's Video Day's song in the City Stars video Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And wait a second. Whatever happened to "Pay your fair share?" Howie talks the Hunter Biden indictment this hour. He believes they could have charged the president's son with jaywalking or fishing violations and it'd have the same weight.

Adrian Del Campo for Rave Skateboards, BATB 13 Levi Löffelberger vs John Chyk & Louie Lopez vs Cody Cepeda, Dumb Data Impossible, Hermann Stene's Lille Rotta' part from Free Skate Mag, Leo Baker New Nike SB Shoe, Budget or Buttery, 20 years of yeah right, I'm Glad I'm not me, Huf Forever Full length Video and much more! Timestamps 00:00:00 Start 00:02:30 Topic Rundown 00:04:08 Show Intro 00:09:00 Adrian Del Campo for Rave Skateboards 00:19:00 TJ hooked Chris up with Underwear 00:22:40 BATB 13 Bracket trouble, Levi Löffelberger vs John Chyk 00:32:00 BATB 13 Louie Lopez vs Cody Cepeda 00:41:00 Should BATB matchups be structured or randomized? 00:45:00 Dumb Data Impossible  00:58:00 Climbing up Buildings 01:04:00 Hermann Stene's Lille Rotta' part from Free Skate Mag 01:13:00 Leo Baker New Nike SB Shoe 01:22:00 Will there ever be another Janoski shoe? 01:26:00 Budget or Buttery 01:44:00 20 years of yeah right ABD 01:54:30 I'm Glad I'm not me with Chris Roberts, Woodward East w/Maurio McCoy 02:06:00 Huf Forever Full length Video 2:29:00 Goodybye Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of The World's Greatest Action Sports Podcast, Chris and Todd talk about the Rip Curl WSL Finals, broken backs, Burning Man blowout, judging criteria leaked, Slater weighs in, Caity Simmers video rips, surfing snakes, McMorris comeback is on, Ethan Ewing is back (mind the pun), Solento Surf Festival is coming, Jimmy Buffet R.I.P., ABD Collectables drops Yeah Right cards, REAL Skateboards does it again with the radness, “pro” models featuring the REAL team's favorite pros, surf/skate/snow industry update, Deer Valley stays anti-snowboard, surf betting, all your questions answered, and so much more.    Presented By:   1620 Workwear @1620usa Oleu @oleu_originals Mint Tours @minttours Machu Picchu Energy @machupicchu.energy Hansen Surfboards @hansensurfboards BN3TH @BN3THApparel Bubs Naturals @bubsnaturals  Bachan's Japanese BBQ Sauce @trybachans Pannikin Coffee And Tea @pannikincoffeeandtea  New Greens @newgreens Die Cut Stickers @diecutstickersdotcom

What is your responsibility when it comes to your emotional state? Can others control how you feel? Do they have that power? We're told that we can choose our emotional state, but I just don't think it's that easy when we're dealing with people that know exactly how we operate. 

Paul Rodriguez sits in with us to discuss his tactics of falling, P-Rod at C.A.S.L. contest at Skatelab in 2000, Chris at Woodward Mano A Mano 2023 Backyard Mini Ramp jam, Ryan Thompson's "Texas Three Step" parts, Jacuzzi Skateboards adding new riders, P-rod's McRib post for $$$$$, Geoff Rowley's "FREE DOME TO SKATE" Video Part, 20 years of Yeah Right, What video had the best intro of all time, Budget Or Buttery, Jante 536 video, What's more important.. instagram or video parts, Primitive re-releasing P-Rods gold foil boards, Nine Club celebrates 7 years, What trick P-Rod battled for 6 weeks straight, Detroit Tigers pitcher Micheal Lorenzen wears Vans with cleats, What makes a skateboarder a skateboarder, Antwuan Dixon possibly skating in Street League, Instagram clips from Brian Peacock, Dashawn Jordan & Mark Suciu and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to Brooke Gladstone, host of “On The Media,” a lot of journalists think their job is to report “...fairly, accurately, and with principle.” But she also says that might be where we get in trouble. She and Kai and try to make sense of this mess the media feels today.   Tell us what you think. Instagram and Twitter: @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel.

“We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct," he says. He'll have no crime in his city, he says. Howie's got quite the list of crimes to counteract that boast! Tune in for Howie's commentary on the unprecedented, infuriating, abysmal charges against the former president.

Primitive's TESTING 5 video, Axel and Lizzie's "Till Death Do Us" Part, WKND skateboards "Alan Gelfand High" video & WKND Skateboards x Them "Skateboarding X Rollerblading" video, DC Shoes “Push your own story | Brooklinn Khoury”, Eldy's Pick Of The Week, "4 LOVE" video By Kevin Perez, Keenan Milton's part from Yeah Right, Primo Desiderio freestyle entertainer at Sea World in the 80's, X Games freestyle BMX, Budget Or Buttery, Elijah Akerley's "Cross the Breeze" Black Label part, Stuff We Found On The Internet and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices