February 20, 2025 • 73 mins
What happens when an Army Civil Affairs specialist discovers a talent for writing amidst his diverse career journey? Join us for an engaging conversation with Jonathan Davis, whose experiences as a government contractor, English teacher, and author are just the beginning. Jonathan shares his candid insights, filled with humor and authenticity, as we explore how childhood influences and family dynamics helped shape his life choices and motivations. Listen in as we discuss the reality of military life, unexpected career paths, and the raw power of persistence.
Ever found yourself chasing success, only to realize happiness might be closer than you think? Through the compelling parable of the Mexican fisherman, we reflect on the core of contentment versus the endless pursuit of more. Jonathan and I dissect the lessons from this story, questioning the societal norms of success and the importance of embracing the present. We also touch upon the joys of owning a husky and fulfilling childhood dreams as adults, providing a light-hearted look at finding joy in the everyday.
Creativity and goal-setting take center stage as we explore Jonathan's unexpected journey into writing. From sports enthusiast to author, this transformation highlights the importance of being open to new ideas and recognizing strengths. We discuss the challenges of publishing, the thrill of spontaneous travel, and the complexities of strategic life planning. This episode is a testament to the power of perseverance, the pursuit of personal fulfillment, and the art of appreciating life's current blessings. Don’t miss the insights that could just inspire you to find your own path to happiness.
Brice Harney
Life On Record
Miles of Smiles Entertainment
Richmond Punch
TK Hair Salon
Ogden Ventures LLC
CEO of Ogden Ventures LLC
SnappBandZ
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Love & Light - Keep Hope Alive
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to Keep Up Alive podcast.
Today I have Jonathan Davishere with us.
Welcome to Keep Up Alive.
I'm so happy you're herebecause you are super talented,
very smart individual and that'swhat I've learned about you.
He is a former Army CivilAffairs specialist government
(00:25):
contractor.
You were an English teacheralso, but most of all, you're an
author.
So we're going to dive intoyour story in just one minute
because I have an importantquestion to ask you Out of the
past year, how many weddingshave you been to?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I've been to one.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
One.
Okay.
So when you walked into, let'ssay, the ceremony part, maybe to
the right, there was somethingto sign to let the couple know
that you were there at thewedding.
What is that thing you'resigning?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, it was a guest book.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yay, definitely.
Well, one of our biggestsponsors here is Life on Record
and what they do.
Instead of the guest book, theyhave a vintage rotary phone
that they put out there for yourguests to pick up and leave a
message, and also right next toit is a QR code they can scan
with their own mobile device sothey can leave a message before
(01:27):
or even after that event.
Now I always use weddings, butthis can go for birthdays,
reunions, anniversaries, schoolevents, church events.
Whatever it may be left willeither be burnt on a 12-inch
vinyl record or a keepsakespeaker, which is really cool
(01:48):
because you can go back andlisten to all your friends and
family leaving these messages.
Now the plans start at only $99.
You get the phone number, phonenumber.
You got to return the cutephone for one year and then,
other than that, I think this isthe best invention out there.
(02:10):
I love it, and the way they setit up at these events is just
cute.
They have it on a standgreenery and you're picking.
I wish I had the phone herebecause it's very vintage, like
very old school, but I just lovethe fact that it's the gift of
voice.
So definitely go check them outat wwwlifeonrecordcom.
(02:33):
All right, so my first questionfor you is who is Jonathan
Davis?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
If I could comment on your sponsor, that's actually
pretty darn cool.
I got to say I'm impressed.
The level that weddings aregetting to nowadays is pretty
awesome.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, you know I was married oh, I can't believe I'm
admitting this on podcast butthree times, and unfortunately
the last two did not pan out theway I wanted it to.
But that's life and you move on, just like Frank Sinatra says.
That's life.
That's my favorite song.
(03:18):
That's what people say.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, oh, you sing, no Only in the shower or the car
oh, okay, well, I do karaoke.
I love singing and I know oneof the people, yeah, one of the
people that go there.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
He does Frank Sinatra , even though I love Frank, and
I like Michael Bublé, deanMartin, all those, even Hank
Williams, but I just can't singit.
But I think I't sing it.
But I think I can sing it athome alone, which is really
weird.
My dogs know when I would putthe record on and start singing
hey, good looking what you gotcooking.
(03:57):
They would know, it is dinnertime, oh okay, that's the dinner
bell, that's pretty awesomeyeah okay, that's the dinner
bell.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That's pretty awesome ?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, definitely.
I actually have a littlekaraoke machine at my house for
friends to come over.
Now I want to get one of thefirst companies to really get
this out on the market and start.
(04:26):
I know there has been othersthat I've seen, but I always
fall back on Life on Recordbecause it is just very classic
and they know exactly whatthey're doing and it's just a
great company.
So, but definitely so, jonathan, tell us about yourself.
So, but definitely.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So, jonathan, tell us about yourself.
Yeah, that was a great question.
By the way, I'm going to startto steal that question and use
it all the time.
Who is Jonathan?
It kind of reminds me of DrSeuss.
You are you.
You know what I mean.
I'm going to butcher it.
You are you.
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive moreyou-er than you, I think.
(05:06):
But, I loved Dr Seuss when Iwas a kid.
I don't care what people say.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I just had to read the hot and the hot Green Eggs
and Ham.
Yeah, that's a good one, green.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Eggs and Ham Really.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, yes, they did marketing strategies.
What all could we find out?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
of that book for marketing.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So it was interesting .
You know persistence, I'll giveyou that one.
So in the book you know theykept bugging to eat the food but
they would not let it go.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
You have to try green eggs and ham, you know, so they
kept going.
Let it go.
You have to try green eggs andham, you know, so they kept
going after it.
Yeah, yeah, I have the wordrelentless written on my car
because, uh, I, I want toremember that sometimes that's
that's really all that life isis being relentless.
And I know that we talked alittle bit before this and you
said you wanted that chapter two, and the last thing I wrote
interested you, and that's sortof the punchline is be
(06:12):
persistent, because a lot ofpeople sort of talk themselves
out of doing things and theypass the blame on to fate or the
universe or whatever you wantto call it destiny.
But really it's like well,maybe you just needed to try
harder, maybe you just needed totry again.
(06:34):
Try five times, try a hundredtimes, you'll probably get it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Exactly, exactly, and you know I've talked to
somebody else on the show aboutthat exact topic and it actually
helped me.
I made a big decision actuallyyesterday and I'm lifting on it
because life is too short and Iknow the pathway I need to be.
(07:00):
I just hadn't put my footforward until now, but I see all
these positives happening forme now that I've done that and
going into 2025.
So I'm hoping it's a brand newjourney in my life.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So, but definitely with the, I want to go back to
Dr Seuss because you know, withthose subject lines, did that
help you create a path in whatyou do?
It's hard to say, it's hard toreally pinpoint what created the
path.
I've tried to narrow it down,but only recently that I start
thinking about these sorts ofthings.
Um, cause you often hear thatthe way we grew up or our
(07:55):
experience with our parents, uh,shaped us, and that should seem
obvious, I guess, now that Isay it out loud but I never
really put much thought into it.
Certainly everything's shapedme the ups and downs, the trauma
I recently pinpointed.
Not that I have daddy issuesand, just to be clear, I had a
(08:21):
pretty good upbringing.
I had a single parent, mom butprobably the absence of my dad
led to a lot of the decisions Imade and what direction my life
would take, because I didn'tknow much about him.
But somewhere in the back of myhead, the more I reflect, it
(08:44):
seems as though trying toimpress someone I didn't know
very well was the motivation.
Maybe if I just do this, thenI'll be a good son and he'll
want to get to know me, or maybeif I whatever the case may be
and I think he left when I wastoo young to really remember
maybe four or five, and I thinkhe left when I was too young to
(09:04):
really remember maybe four orfive.
But I remember him beingimpressed by something on TV,
some Army Special Forces guys orsomething like that.
It may have been the movie NavySeals, actually with Charlie
Sheen.
It's a really crappy movie andthat just kind of stuck, because
(09:28):
what we idolize really justdepends on where we grew up and
and things of that nature Likeif you, if you grew up in Jersey
probably, um, having a littleMercedes coupe was like the sign
that you had made it in life.
But if you grew up in Alabama,the bigger your truck, the more
successful you were.
So a lot of people grow upthinking like I'm going to get a
(09:50):
truck, I'm going to look likeI've made it in life, and a
Chevy or Ford truck or something.
But my mom never really likedmilitary stuff at all and part
of that is because of, well, herupbringing Her father was, I
think, a drill.
Well, her upbringing her fatherwas, I think, a drill sergeant
(10:13):
in the army and he was abusive.
So that left a bad taste in hermouth.
Plus, she had two boys who wereeligible to enlist when they
turned 18 and she didn't wantanything to happen to them.
So she had raised us with youare never joining the army or
any branch of the military.
It's not for you, it's not for,it's for stupid people, it's for
(10:35):
people that have no directionin life and, um, you know,
whatever she could say to talkus out of it, but which isn't
true.
Some of the smartest people Iever met were in the army.
Some of the dumbest people too.
So, uh, it's just a mixed grouplike you would find anywhere,
but, um, but so I had sort ofput it out of my head for a
(10:57):
while.
And, um, but what's the nextbest thing?
I I thought, well, maybe it'dbe cool if, uh, I'm like an FBI
agent or something like that.
Right, we were talking offcamera about how ego and think
and what people think about us,what we think about ourselves,
(11:19):
really impacts in our lives andhow it affects our opinions and
our career choices, and that waspretty much all of my career
choices were what will soundcool to talk about at cocktail
parties or what would impresspeople.
And, as it turns out, you don'tmake a lot of money in the FBI,
(11:40):
so that wasn't really thegreatest choice, but so I went
to school for Homeland SecurityManagement and, uh and um, I
guess somewhere around the midtwenties my mom and my brother
and my best friend died um, notin the same year but pretty
close succession.
So it really made me stop tothink.
(12:03):
Well, if no one else left toimpress what makes me happy,
what did I really want to do?
So I quickly put together abucket list, and on the bucket
list were things like travel theworld, learn another language,
play a song on the guitar, writea book, join the army, go to
(12:33):
war, and so I checked them alloff the list in record time.
As it turns out, my mom wasactually right the army wasn't
for me, even though I had a goodexperience there.
What people don't talk about isjust how boring it actually is.
It's incredibly boring.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
What makes it boring, though, like I thought you guys
.
You know, if you're not workingis it drills.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And yes, sir, like they show in the movies, it's
pretty you know, the Army isdifferent than other branches in
that we say that it's full ofsmokers and jokers.
It's actually kind of laid back.
It's like somewhere between theMarine Corps and maybe the Air
Force, also known as the ChairForce.
(13:16):
I say that in a positive way.
I mean those guys are prettycool and they're down to earth
in the Air Force.
And they're down to earth inthe Air Force but and Marines
I've been attached to some ofthose units.
They are, they're pretty darnstrict.
And the Army it's like, well,we're soldiers but also smokers
(13:39):
and jokers.
I don't smoke, just to be clear.
But what was your question?
I digress a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, you know, here I'm just listening and going, oh
, but that's cool.
But I mean, we were analyzingdefinitely like the start of
everything for you going intowhere you are today.
So we're just kind of taking alook at your history Now you
know.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I'm a single mom too.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I'm a single mom my son and my daughter, but my
daughter does have her dad.
My son's dad never wanted tomeet him, which makes it very
hard.
So I can understand that.
So I can understand that andyou know, as a mom, we tried to
do our best.
Now, I will admit I never saidanything about the arm, but I
(14:31):
was like you will not ride amotorcycle.
And he's like, yes, I will, butI keep him very active and
around family to stay active andI know there could be one day
that he does look at, I want tomeet him and I'm not going to
(14:54):
ever hold anything back.
I really am not.
This is what I know and this ishow you can follow that trail.
So that's going to be hiscalling in life, if he wants to
do it that way.
But we don't know how thatwould outcome.
But you know it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So but I'm sorry because I know it is hard to go
through that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess Iguess it is Again.
I don't want to.
Yeah, I was very lucky.
I grew up in a first worldcountry and I was never abused
and I mean, my mom was dirt poorbut I managed to scrape
(15:38):
together some, some sense offinancial responsibility and all
that, some sense of financialresponsibility and all that and,
and I guess, by some measures,have my life together.
So I I'm fortunate, but but Ialso wasted a lot of time, you
know, looking back.
I guess everyone does.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, when you look back, that is a reflection of
what we've been through and itbuilds our character to make us
stronger in life and how we moveforward.
So looking backwards, I couldsay you know the things that did
happen, but we're in the nowand we're looking at each day
coming up also to make usprepare, for you know what life
(16:23):
is going to be about.
So you know, for me I'm, forexample, like I know, last year
I wanted to write a book but Inever put it in action and I
said enough is enough.
This was like over two weeksago.
I said I'm going to startwriting my book and that's what
(16:44):
I did.
So I wake up at five in themorning and just start writing
for a good hour.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
You have a time hack or something like.
I'm going to write from thistime to that time and yeah, yeah
.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
So, um, like it's so funny because the way I'm so
sensitive to sound and anything,the dogs can wake me up.
The baby can cry and wake me up, but then I can't get back to
sleep.
So I said you know what,instead of getting so frustrated
with the dogs every morning,I'm just going to wake up and do
(17:17):
this and then I'm going tospend a good hour, hour and a
half, writing the book, but Ialso want to take the courses to
learn all the new AI technology.
So I do that with the otherhalf until I have to take my son
to school, and then the rest ofthe day is working on finding a
new job and my podcast, andthen whatever errands I have
(17:41):
during the day I got to quicklyget done.
But you know, having thatschedule set for me and setting
those goals and looking forwardand trying to have this
wonderful positive vibe that'sgoing to help increase the
direction of where I'm going inlife.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, yeah, positive vibes.
I've got to get better at that,because that's everything.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, the positive vibes I've got to get better at
that, because that's everything.
Oh, it is, it is, and you knowwhat.
You wrote a book too.
So how was that?
How did you know you wanted toget everything in writing?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Tell us about the book and everything Well.
So this comes back to sort of.
Actually, I'm reminded of whowas it, viktor Frankl who said
the only real freedom a man hasis the freedom to choose his
(18:40):
mood, or something like that, inany given circumstance given
circumstance.
Um, well, so anyway, uh, back toyour question.
I, um, I was told that, uh, Iwas good at writing in college.
And that was a surprise to mebecause, um, I thought I was
only good at, like, baseball orskateboarding.
(19:03):
You know, I had no idea.
I never considered ridinganything.
And it goes back to what we weresaying earlier about how our
choices in life, or at least mychoices in life.
I wasn't asking the rightquestions.
One of those questions shouldhave been what am I good at?
(19:25):
What do other people say thatam I good at?
What do other people say thatI'm good at?
We always think that we'rebetter at things than we really
are.
But other people were sayingthat I'm good at writing and I
just thought that I was.
I was told that I was athleticand things like that.
I played baseball and to my mom, my meal ticket was baseball,
like that's how I was going toget into college and that's how
(19:49):
I was going to get college paidfor and things like that, and so
she really leaned into that.
But I actually didn't reallylike baseball much.
I kind of hate sports.
I mean, I like to play them butI'm not into following them at
all.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, I'm not into following them at all.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, and I still run and go to the gym and pick
things up and put them down.
But so in college I had aprofessor say you know, your
papers are the best.
Why are you going to school forHomeland Security Management?
You should be a writer, orsomething like that.
And I was like like shocked, Ihad no idea.
(20:30):
And then, about a year later, Iheard the same thing from
another professor, and so Ithought maybe there's something
to this, and I had alwayswritten things just in my spare
time, just random things.
But, um, then I I got a littlemore coherency in what I was
writing by about that point andum, and sometime after that is
(20:55):
when everything happened and Iwrote down my bucket list, which
was to, uh, to write a book.
And what my professors told meis that no one's going to read
what I write because, uh, themarket is flooded with authors.
But but I just do it.
It's inside of me, I'm justgoing to keep doing it and so,
(21:15):
and so I needed to focus onsomething that was on topic for
a book, not just random things,of course and something that was
really important to me wascritical thinking and keeping an
open mind and opening otherpeople's minds, because it's
(21:36):
really hard to do.
So I sort of chose that and Istarted by writing chapters.
And this is a great way towrite.
It's a great way to write apaper.
So I struggled through school.
I really struggled.
But when the teacher said we'regoing to have a writing
(21:58):
assignment, and this big sighwent over the room and they
would say, oh, don't worry,you've got two months to write
it, I would be like, great, thisis a freebie.
And the next morning I wouldget out my computer and I would
have the whole thing done beforeI finished drinking coffee, and
then I would go on to somethingelse.
And so it was just a piece ofcake for me.
(22:19):
And how I do that is, I wouldget sort of bullet point ideas.
So I would have bullet point,bullet point, bullet point, fill
in the blank.
So I'd start back at thebeginning.
So my bullet points werechapters, yeah, and so I wrote
down 12 bullet points and then Istarted from the beginning and
(22:41):
I started to fill in and I didsub chapters and things like
that.
But then after I I wrote that,I I was like this is really just
a bunch of information and soit's probably not going to be
that interesting to people.
What do I like in books?
Well, I like stories.
So I add stories into it sothat it's it's more digestible
(23:03):
when you're listening to it orreading it.
But then I thought, you know,this still may not resonate with
people.
I need a prerequisite here,because none of this is really
going to mean anything to peopleunless we have some
prerequisites.
So I put an introduction whichis basically 10 ways to listen
(23:24):
effectively.
We have this just to give anexample.
We have this voice in our head.
I call him yeah, but guy.
So yeah, but guy takes thisotherwise good point that you
hear and he will think very hardof a context, a very specific
context, in which this goodpoint doesn't work and, um, the
(23:49):
problem is is that he starts toform this idea while you're
talking, so he never reallylistens to what you're saying.
So, to give an example, itwould be like um well, you know
what goes around comes aroundand that's pretty good, right,
that's relatively true,relatively true.
But you have a guy will say,yeah, but I know a guy in Alaska
with four chickens and he wasalways a jerk and nothing ever
(24:12):
came back to him.
So what you're saying isn'talways true.
Aha, gotcha, but it's like dude, that wasn't the point.
The point was like, generallyspeaking, like if you're a jerk,
people don't want to dobusiness with you, and if you're
a jerk people don't want to dobusiness with you, and if you're
nice, you probably have nicethings happen to you, and so, uh
(24:33):
, so that's that's theintroduction, and um, and
keeping an open mind, as itturns out, is much more
difficult than you might think,because it really has nothing to
(24:54):
do with the mind.
In a basic sense.
What we're talking about here,what we're dealing with as far
as having an open mind, is we'redealing with hormones.
So we identify with our beliefsand we become attached to them,
and usually those beliefs comefrom our group or our tribe, and
(25:21):
the tribe is more or less afamily.
The tribe is more or less afamily, and the family, well,
that's oxytocin, right, so wehave oxytocin coming into our
system when we hear certainthings that we're used to
hearing from our tribe or fromour family, and then when we
(25:43):
hear something that's contraryto it, it's just like whoa,
that's an attack on my familyand I can't have that.
But that's not exactly thethought process that we're
conscious of.
And so what needs to happen inorder to change our minds is
well, we need to change ourhormones, and a lot of times we
(26:05):
need to change our geography,our proximity to ideas.
Right, they get outside of theecho chamber, get outside of the
bubble.
You may need to move to adifferent state, get a different
job, get different friends oreven get away from your own
family.
So it's like now we're talking?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Were we talking before?
You nailed it right on the spotfor me right there.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Now it's like okay, so in other words, it's
basically impossible for somepeople.
Yeah, yes, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yep, it is.
It is, and I noticed that.
You know, here I am at age 47,and I'm just happy that my eyes
are wider open this year andgoing okay.
Well, you know, I took twotrips to the more country part
of Texas and I was like there'ssomething about the country it's
peace, it's calm, it's notliving in the city, I'm less
(27:01):
stressed.
I want this for my life, youknow.
So it comes to a part.
What is it?
You know?
Does the person need to livethe remainder of their life?
What did they want?
You know, after the halfwaypoint and I think that's where
I'm at I don't want to call it amidlife crisis.
(27:23):
Or well then, maybe, yeah, Ipierced my nose, my ear and my
belly button, so maybe it amidlife crisis.
Or, well then, maybe, yeah, Ipierced my nose, my ear and my
belly button, so maybe it ismidlife crisis.
Who knows?
But going through these changes, see, they're different,
they're kind of rewarding and itfeels like the journey will
create this whole new openingand even looking for a new job.
Yeah, I might want to like,dial it back a little bit, what
(27:46):
I used to do in marketing, butjust go enjoy the simple things
in life and kind of live what Idid at age 20 or even 18.
I don't know.
So I'm just kind of keeping anopen mind and it is a mindset
yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
So I agree with you a mindset yeah, so I agree with
you, yeah, yeah you brought up awhole lot of a whole lot of
things just there and uh, yeah,yeah, yeah, I don't know where
to go with that, but yeah, wheredo I start?
So well, tell me more.
(28:25):
Tell me more what this isinteresting, so what?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
you want to interview me now, you can do that.
You can definitely interview me.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What's some of the questions.
Well, I feel like a jerk, Imean.
I mean I realize you'reinterviewing me, but it's like,
uh, I don't, I don't want to.
It makes me feel kind of nasty,like I'm like I'm trying to
promote my book constantly, butyou make me think of Chapter 12,
which is the end, like where dowe go from all this right?
What's the conclusion?
(28:54):
What's the goal?
What are you trying toaccomplish?
And what I've come up with isthat sometimes the goal doesn't
really matter, cause I've made awhole lot of goals and, quite
frankly, by the time you achievea goal, it's already in the
(29:17):
past, and the past has neverbeen enough to make me happy.
So I'm setting myself up forfailure.
This is the hedonic treadmillwhere I'm just constantly
chasing one goal after the nut,after another after another, and
um, and it's led to a lot ofunhappiness, quite frankly.
And um, and so should I changemy goals?
(29:41):
And then the other thing isthat my goals do change, so
achieving them didn't reallymean much.
Like, for example, I didn'tspend much time with my brother,
and there's nothing I wouldn'tgive to have him back to spend
time with him again.
He was a big Eagles fan andevery Sunday he would invite me
(30:05):
to go out and watch the Eaglesgame with him, and or or he
would invite himself over to myhouse.
And I was always working on oneof my stupid goals.
And the thing is I changedmajors three times in school.
So sometimes I was working onsome stupid scheme of mine and
it never really panned outscheme of mine and it never
(30:30):
really panned out.
And so it's like I didn't spendtime with my brother because I
was working on something that Inever really followed through
with, so it was just a waste.
I should have just spent timewith my brother, but even then I
wouldn't have enjoyed my timeand even if I was working on
something.
Yeah well, even if I was workingon something, spending my time
working on something that wasworthwhile, like school, I
(30:50):
changed my major a few timesuntil I landed on Homeland
Security.
So back at the time that mybrother was alive, I was going
to school for nutrition.
So those were all wastedcredits anyway.
So our goals change and I thinkmaybe a better goal for me
would have been to prioritizerelationships and and, of course
(31:12):
, you got to do things that makeyou happy, because that's
downstream effort right, ratherthan just suffering through a
job.
There's a big differencebetween a job and work, in my
view.
Job and work in my view and Imade a little video about that.
It's like most of us have jobs,unfortunately, which is what we
(31:39):
do to pay the bills, likescanning a barcode at a cash
register all day, like that's noone's goal in life, right.
Yeah and um, but work would be,for some people, fishing or
building that like I just builta cabin and no one paid me to do
this.
I just did it because I enjoyedit.
I thought it was fun and thetime flew by I didn't even
(32:04):
realize I was working when I'mwriting.
It's the same way.
I mean eight hours can justdisappear.
Yeah, definitely the bigdifference between a job and
work.
It's more important to to work,but we can't.
We don't all don't have thatluxury.
Sometimes work doesn't pay thebills.
(32:25):
That's the world yeah we live inthat is the world.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, it is, and it's very sad because it's the
crossfire, like podcasts there's.
There's some podcasters that domake the money, but there's
podcasters that don't.
And then we need to have thatfallback job.
And that was the same storywhen I was a professional
photographer.
I always had to have thefallback job to pay the bills.
(32:51):
And then, yes, of course, if Igot hired to do a wedding, it's
the extra income, like, oh, wecan take a trip with this money
or I can pay the bills inadvance and just move forward.
So, always having that it'simportant.
So, but you know, also learningwhat I learned, and I did take a
(33:12):
step back from the direction Iwas going and, to be very honest
with myself, I mean, yeah, Ihad a great job, but at the same
time, I wasn't achieving mycareer path that I needed to be
on, and that was something thatwas playing a huge factor into
my life and I had to reevaluatewhere do I really want to be?
(33:36):
And then, of course, when itcame down to money, I was like,
okay, well, I used to have thisjob doing the same thing, but I
was getting paid a lot more.
So why am I taking the backtrail.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like why am I fallingbackwards and it's not landing
me to the goals that I need toget my own place.
(33:58):
It's putting me in a place ofwhat are you doing and how are
you going to use your timemanagement now to even find
anything better?
Like everything just froze andI locked down and I was like,
okay, we got changes so.
But definitely I totallyunderstand where you're coming
from.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yeah, it's like the.
The only problem with theparable of the Mexican fisherman
is that?
Well, unfortunately, if youdon't pay your property tax, the
government's going to come andtake it.
Are you familiar with theparable of the Mexican fisherman
?
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I have no idea what that is.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
It's my favorite, so I'll try to be as concise as
possible, just going by memory.
Be as concise as possible, justgoing by memory.
Probably nowadays they mightwant to say something other than
Mexican, I don't know, but Ithink it's a positive story, so
I'll just keep it the same.
There is a investment bankervacationing in Mexico sitting on
(35:02):
a beach and he watches a fellowlocal.
This guy bring in a largeyellowfin tuna and he
compliments the local on thequality of his catch and says
you know, you ought to stay outlonger and just catch more fish.
(35:23):
And he says why this is enough.
And so the American says well,let me ask you, what do you like
to do?
And he said well, I enjoysiestas with my wife Maria.
I like to spend time with mykids.
(35:45):
I like to fish.
I like to spend evenings withmy friends.
They come over and we all playthe mariachi.
And so he said well, picturethis, so you catch more fish and
you can sell more fish andeventually you can buy a couple
(36:08):
of boats.
You could buy two or threeboats.
You keep this up and eventuallyyou can buy a fleet of boats.
Then you open up your ownmanufacturing facility where you
start to can these things andship them out.
The Mexican fisherman says okay,then what?
(36:29):
And the American says well,then you open up another office
in New York and you expand evenmore into other territories, and
the fisherman goes okay, thenwhat?
And the American goes oh well,that's the best part.
Then eventually, you launchyour IPO and you sell your
(36:54):
company and you make millions.
The Mexican fisherman goes okay, then what?
And the American said well,then you can go fishing all day
and spend siestas with your wifeMaria, and spend time with your
(37:16):
kids and teach your kids, andyou can, in the evenings, you
can play the mariachi with yourfriends and I see how that
circle of events like you to gethere, you need to do this and
that and that.
So yeah, I see, it's like, um,when, when making goals now,
(37:37):
what I do is I, I try to and I'mno expert at being happy, so
don't take my word for foranything I say about content or
fulfillment but usually what Ido is I say, okay, what's the
goal, and then I say, then what,then what, then what.
And then I ask myself can Ihave that now?
(37:58):
Right, so it's like so I livein a place now in my house that
has three bedrooms and threebathrooms, and, yeah, I probably
have enough money, but I'malways trying to.
I'm like you know what, if Ijust had like twice as much
money, then I wouldn't have toworry about this, that and the
(38:21):
other thing.
And we're always thinking of somany reasons not to be happy now
.
Like, I'll be happy then.
I'll be happy when this, I'llbe happy when I graduate, I'll
be happy when I finish this, uh,next book, I'll be happy when I
whatever, whatever, when I buya new house, um, and, quite
(38:50):
frankly, uh, you know I'm notmarried or anything, but I like
to sit on the couch with my dogsand, um, will that be more
enjoyable when I live in a housewith five bedrooms or 10
bedrooms?
Probably not, probably gonnafeel about the same.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
But having a full house dogs maybe you know a
spouse one day, you know, isthat going to be rewarding.
That can go on your bucket list, you know, definitely For me,
like I have, my dog is actuallyknocking at the door and you
guys cannot hear it because Zoomis great.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But I hear my husky downstairs going I've always
wanted a husky.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
I just don't want to clean up after them.
They're beautiful dogs but theyshed so much.
You don't want a husky, youdon't get one.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
He's my best friend, I mean I love him to.
Yeah, it takes a whole lot ofwork for that guy oh my God,
yeah, yeah.
And they're sled dogs, you know.
So they're athletes.
It's not enough to just walkaround the block with them.
He's got to run 10 miles ormore, and so I get out my
electric skateboard or electricbike and because I run with him
(40:04):
but that's like walking to him,it's a joke, joke.
My idea of exercise is just ajoke to him.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
so I gotta see a video of you doing the electric
skateboard.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
I didn't even know they had electric skateboards,
so yeah, yeah, something I wishthey invented when I was a kid.
But now that I'm 40 I canactually afford some of the uh,
the things that I couldn't whenI was a kid.
But now that I'm 40, I canactually afford some of the
things that I couldn't when Iwas a kid.
So part of me is still trappedin my youth.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, that's a good thing, though that's a really
good thing.
So I do that with karaoke whenI go out.
I got married way too soon andI didn't get to have a teenage
not much of a teenage year andnot much of the 20s.
It was surrounded being married, being the perfect homemaker
(40:54):
you know, cooking, cleaning,taking care of the kiddos but I
never did anything for me andthat was a lesson I had to learn
at age 30.
30.
Yeah, so my 30s were my 20s,twenties, and now I'm in my
forties, I think I'm in mythirties.
So you know, it's just one ofthose things.
It's like trying to relive whatI missed, to see, but you know
(41:18):
yeah.
Yeah, but like when I hear youtalk, you're like I'll be happy
when.
But have you ever tried tochange that mindset?
I'm happy now.
I'm going to set this as mygoal and, of course, I'm going
to be happier when I reach thatgoal.
(41:38):
But you know what?
I'm going to enjoy what I haveright now in front of me,
because I'm blessed to have it.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah, yeah, you, you need to teach me that I do try.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, okay, I charge blah blah, blah an hour.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I have, I'll buy your coaching or the coaching
courses.
That's kind of a tongue twistercoaching course.
But um, I, yeah, I have triedand I do try.
But I'm just stuck in what'scalled the striver's curse,
(42:16):
where I'm just always, alwaystrying, always trying, always
trying, and it's difficult,difficult to be mindful.
The risk of sounding cliche.
So I am working on mindfulnessand being happy now and that
sort of thing.
It's tough.
I haven't mastered it yet.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
I hear you, I really do, and it does take a while,
but you got to want to do it inyour heart and soul and be ready
for that.
So definitely, what's I goingto say?
I totally slipped my brain.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
However.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I'll go back to that because I'm just getting old,
Okay, but you know as far aswhat?
No, no no, I already forgot.
See, that's how my brain worksright now.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, you and me both .
Yeah, I was trying to jog yourmemory and now I've just tripped
you up.
You were going to sell me yourcourse on being happy.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Oh, that was the course you just created for me
that I haven't even worked onyet.
But that's my future.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
So yeah, Give me the freebie now what?
Do you got on?
Speaker 1 (43:43):
So fulfillment, yeah, that would be a 30 minute
conversation and, um, it's azoom call and you know that
would be something I wouldcharge for.
But fulfillment, that'ssomething I want to use the word
strategizing, like, if you knowwhat you want out of life, how
do you fulfill those moments too, to make it equal what you were
(44:03):
looking for?
So it's like having a playbook,being on my someplace football.
So you know you're out there onthe field and you know you're
seeing all the different markersfor how many yards you can run
down and you got to score thattouchdown.
So what can you do with eachrun to fulfill the things that
(44:27):
you want, basically?
So when you sketch that out,maybe it's the career, it's the
financials and getting the billspaid on time, it's the
relationship status.
It's like, hey, I got some pets, I love my pets.
What can I do for them, youknow?
Or taking time out for you for,like a vacation you always
(44:49):
wanted to go and do.
So those are the things Istruggle with and I, you know, I
told my son like I'm not goingto just tell you every year
we're going to go do this and itfalls through.
I'm going to put it in the formof a Christmas gift, and now I
feel a little bit more like thiswill happen.
(45:10):
This is his Christmas gift, youknow.
So this past year it gave himtwo things a trip to Galveston.
We could go to Oklahoma, gocamping, maybe go Arkansas or
Colorado.
We'll just go out there and doit.
Now.
Something I'm going to share isI've always had this philosophy
.
I just want to say 48 hours.
(45:31):
I want no map, I just want todrive and see where I end up and
that's where we're going tostay Right at that 48-hour mark.
That is going to be ourvacation spot and learn about it
and watch it.
It will be in the desert, inthe middle of nowhere and
there's no gas stations and whoknows so.
(45:52):
But you know it's just one ofthose things you got to keep to
make sure that you do accomplishit.
But if you don't accomplish andget that fulfillment, then you
work out the strategy of how canI do this better and move
towards that goal and makemyself accomplish that.
So but I'm going to stoptalking there because but I
(46:17):
could give you a whole courseoutline and we could set goals,
so but you know, it's kind oflike with your book writing.
How long did it take you towrite your book?
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, um, well, I've written three, uh one of them,
this last one, I guess about ayear, a little less than a year
oh, okay, gotcha okay, and thenI didn't realize I had one book
done, but you have two otherbooks yeah, um, they're all
(46:49):
question things, question things, but by jonathan davis.
Question Things by JonathanDavis, and there's a little bit
of a series, but I removed theother two because I just kind of
thought they were stupid.
So there's really only one thatI'm happy with.
That's the most recent one Noware all three on Amazon, or is
(47:17):
it just one on Amazon?
There's just one on Amazon now?
Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Because that's the one I did see and I added it to
our storefront so our listenerscan actually go to
keepupalongpodcastcom, go to thestore and find your book and
purchase it.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
There's also an audio book, but, um, yeah, the amazon
.
I've had trouble with amazonbecause, uh, the thing is is,
yeah, I feel bad referringpeople to amazon there's,
there's one on there that'savailable and it's the good copy
, but there's one on therethat's not it.
(47:54):
I uploaded the wrong manuscriptby mistake and it was basically
my notes and uh, and then Iwent, oh phoo and uh, I tried to
delete it and amazon doesn'tlet you delete books.
It's there forever and um, sothe best thing you can do is
make it unavailable, becausethey're like once we've assigned
(48:18):
a barcode and an ISBN number.
It's there and so I tried andtried and tried with customer
service.
They're like look, we're notremoving the book, can't do it,
so there's one bad copy on there.
Just make sure you get the goodone.
I think it says addition to inthe notes down below or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
But I'll have you take a look and make sure I got
the right one on there andeverything so.
But I mean that is something.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
But all the world is just one.
So it's you can't go wrong withthe all of the one, but that's
fine.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
You're probably going to write more.
You know Probably.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
You got to have that motive.
I keep telling myself I got tostop writing.
I never do so I'm sure there'sgoing to be more.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Good, okay, good, I am so glad to hear that.
But really quick, I'm going tolet our listeners know that we
do have another sponsor.
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(49:26):
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(50:08):
need a gift card there, but I'malways having something done.
But I am a hard stick for bloodwork, so I'm always kind of
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(50:31):
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So check them out, you'll behappy you did All.
Right, let's get back to ourstory here.
So I can see your mind turningright now, so I can tell you
also have.
I feel like I don't know youthat well, but I feel like you
have so much information andyou're very knowledgeable.
(51:38):
I am picking up your creativesoul, and I say that because,
looking at my life, I struggledin school, forced that I had to
make a quick decision after 12thgrade.
What are you going to do?
I was like, well, I guess I'lljust go into hotel, restaurant,
(52:00):
hospitality.
But it wasn't what I wanted todo.
I wanted to be a certifiedwedding planner, and anything
with the bridal industry is whatI wanted to be.
And I remember one day at theapartment a fly got in the house
.
I'm looking around for any kindof paper and I had a green
sheet and I took that, got it onfirst try but it fell out of my
(52:21):
hand and I'm like, and I lookat the bottom and there's this
ad with a big circle around it.
It says full-time bridalconsultant for Macy's Dallas
Galleria.
I was like, okay, I called, Isaid are you guys still hiring
for the position?
Yeah, what experience do youhave?
And I went into detail and theywere like, can you come right
now?
I was like, sure.
(52:41):
So I threw on my work clothes,drove to Dallas, went in, I got
the job right away and I've just, I've been happy.
It allowed me to go back toschool, get my certification at
Weddings, beautiful and you knowthere.
But those little things, youknow, I don't know what I want
to do.
But I do know what I want to do.
(53:02):
But why is, you know, familytelling me to do this A and B,
and you want to be this and that, but that's not what my heart
wanted.
You know, I knew that being aphotographer may not be the best
of professions, but I knew Ican make that money and being
(53:24):
happy, but it was going to bealways a pull.
How many weddings could I getout of a month, you know,
because there's so manydifferent photographers.
So it's just setting thosegoals and everything.
But that's my analysis of youso far.
Am I anywhere right?
Speaker 2 (53:40):
yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, that I think that,
um, perhaps the more creativeyou are, the harder jobs are,
and the more important work is.
So some people would probablyinterpret that as laziness.
Right, like you don't want togo to your job all day, every
(54:01):
day, so you're lazy.
But really it's like thosesorts of people work more than
anyone else.
They just work on somethingelse.
Right, and probably in yourmind, scanning a barcode all day
(54:28):
, every day isn't work.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
You know, it's like if I were to just leave you to
your own devices, you wouldprobably do a whole lot of stuff
.
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely.
So, other than that, now, Iasked you earlier what part of
the state you lived in, and youtold me Delaware, which is great
(54:53):
Texas.
We're very, very bipolar here,so it's like 11 degrees right
now and next week it's 75.
So you never know what you'regoing to get.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Wow, I didn't know that it's the same number of
times all the time.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Do I?
Yeah, I love the heat.
I can't stand the cold, me cold, so I'm sitting here shivering.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
I don't know if it shows up on camera, but I I was
just thinking myself I gottaturn the heat up in here, but
it's cold outside and yeah ohwell, if you need to turn on the
heat, you can, because I candefinitely talk to the listeners
while you do that.
We want you to to stay warm.
No, no, no, no, I'm fine.
I'm going to put on my hoodie,though, okay.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, definitely do that, but definitely as far as
your goals.
What are your big plans forthis year, going into next?
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Well, I'm trying to have fewer goals.
I really am.
Um, I know that goals areimportant and this is the thing
about, yeah, but guy is like,you know, there are a lot of.
There are a lot of differentpeople in the world, so good
advice, um, well, it doesn'tapply to everyone all the time,
(56:18):
in every part of the world, inevery context.
But, um, good advice for mewould probably be to uh, have
fewer goals, but to someone itmight be the exact opposite.
It might be like you know, whatyou need to do is get off your
butt and get some goals.
But, uh, for me, I'm tryingreally hard to have fewer goals,
believe it or not.
Um, but I am going to take acouple of classes I haven't
(56:42):
decided which ones yet, justthings that that interest me and
, uh, I'm gonna learn to enjoymyself.
I might take a vacation.
I've never really done thatbefore.
I've traveled a lot, but it wasusually always for work where.
I made work out of it, so I'venever really relaxed, I don't
(57:02):
think.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
Oh yeah, I totally get that.
I remember after my daughterwas born.
I remember taking a trip toPennsylvania just to relax and
be with family on my dad's sidethat I haven't seen for so many
years.
But I remember that feeling ofoh, I can breathe, like this
(57:27):
feels so good.
But heading back home, knowingall the responsibilities, I was
like I was ready for it.
But you know, out there inPennsylvania it was an
interesting trip becauseeverybody had a ghost story out
there and I remember the taxiwas taking me back to the
airport and I was like there issomething up with my family,
(57:51):
seeing shadow people and allthis stuff and I was just
laughing and he's like the cabdriver goes oh, that's where
they film signs right there.
I too, see shadow people all thetime and I was like what made
me intrigued?
When I got home I was like whatis a shadow person?
(58:12):
So I started looking into thatand why was there so much
history?
But I think that's where a lotof battles were fought too,
maybe the people who weren'tsupposed to die at that time,
and you know, I don't know.
But anyways, I'm not going togo into a whole scary podcast
here.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
No, let's go.
I just got land about 15minutes maybe west of Gettysburg
in Pennsylvania, and there aretons of stories there in
Gettysburg, as you can imagine.
I just made one on my YouTubechannel called Question Things.
It's pretty simple.
Youtube for question things ispretty simple for youtube for us
(58:57):
question things.
But um, there there are tons ofscary stories.
Um, a lot of them are justghost stories really, um, but
there's a lot of history thereand pennsylvania is pretty cool
all together anyway, I mean, Inever really appreciated it.
Yeah, but the more I explore upthere, there's there are huge
waterfalls in Bushkill Falls,pennsylvania.
(59:18):
There's ski slopes, there's alot of trails at Jim Thorpe,
pennsylvania, and my house isabout four seconds away from a
ski slope you can see it from mybackyard.
But, um, but, yeah, I, I'm, butI'm still, I'm still struggling
(59:40):
to, uh, to not make a goal outof that, that property, cause
I'm, I'm like, uh, I got thisplace in Pennsylvania to.
I had this vision of me kind ofrelaxing on the porch after
it's built and watching my dogsplay, and I'm already starting
(01:00:01):
to think like maybe I can Airbnbit and then maybe I can get
another part of land in someother place and Airbnb that too.
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
And when I got it I actually didn't know it was near
a ski slope, so that's a goodidea and I think you know here
in Texas we're about to getuniversal studio and I think a
lot of people who live out bythat way, where they're going to
(01:00:32):
be building, they're thinkingabout Airbnb and their places
too, because there's going to beso much travel out here.
And I know in Little Elm I havea friend who thought about
doing that for his home becausehe's like going to be 15, 20
minutes from where they'rebuilding.
So it's just, you know, it's sodifferent, things change and
(01:00:55):
everything, but that's a goodsecond source of income.
I would definitely do that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Well, I've been thinking about moving to Texas.
Actually, it seems so.
Everything I hear about it isso rad that I'm like maybe I
should go there.
Plus, I didn't know UniversalStudios was going there.
We got the Tesla Gigafactoryand these tunnels and all these
podcasters are going there.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
So it's like for me, that's the place to be.
That's why I'm trying to getout of Texas right now.
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
What part of Texas is Universal Studios Dallas area?
Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Oh well, we can call it the Dallas area still.
So it's going to be moretowards Frisco and Prosper area,
I believe, is where they'rebuilding it and it's beautiful
out there.
They got PGA out there.
Now the Cowboys built their newtraining camp stuff out there
(01:01:55):
too, so they're building it uplike a city.
But that's the thing with Texasis, you know, this part is very
city fast going.
I mean, it's like another LA,it feels like so, but there's a
lot of opportunity.
So when you know you're lookingat, do you want to be at the
city for the next 20, 30 years,if that's what it is or are you
(01:02:19):
looking for something a littlebit subtle?
For me, I'm looking for moresubtle, like Cheers everybody
knows your name.
It's a good town to live in.
So, yeah, I think what was itthat Netflix series, virgin
River, I think it was called orsomething, but it gave that home
feeling and I was like you knowwhat?
(01:02:41):
For me it's about nature,everything I'm thinking.
You know I may want to just getout to Oklahoma.
I enjoy the weather.
I would love.
I hate to say this, but I'msuch a weather nerd I want to
see a tornado.
Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Me too.
Me too.
I mean maybe that should be mygoal, but because that's
definitely a bucket list item isto see a tornado.
Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
What a tornado.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Yeah, apparently they're hard to see, though
there is this guy I want to sayhe was from Japan who spent
hundreds and hundreds ofthousands of dollars traveling
from Japan to Oklahoma theborder of Oklahoma and Texas
every year during tornado season, right there in Tornado Alley,
to try and see a tornado, and hedidn't see one until well, when
(01:03:32):
I was watching this documentary.
Had never seen one, but sincehe has, he has since I saw that
documentary.
But uh, I mean he spent decadestrying to see one and never did
so, apparently it's harder thanI.
I anticipated, but yeah, I'vegot a tornado.
That's really high on my list.
Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
High on your list?
Well, definitely so.
And just, you know the travelthing.
So, yeah, it sounds like you,you do have goals.
You said no more goals, but youdo have the traveling goal.
You, you know you may want toopen Airbnb, so you are open to
the idea of creating this newpath for you is what I'm sensing
(01:04:17):
.
So that's a great outlook andyou should be very happy about
that outlook.
Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Yeah, yeah, in all honesty, there's no reason why a
person can't have goals and behappy.
In fact, there is a quote fromsomeone I forget who said this
but the root of psychologicalwell-being is accepting life the
way it is, while working tomake it better in the future.
(01:04:46):
So yeah, there's no reason whya person can't have goals and be
present right in in the momentand try and appreciate things.
Um, I just suck at it.
I guess that's what I'm sayingI'm a striver something else.
(01:05:07):
I I mean, I even wrote about itand they say if you want to
master something like, teach it.
And it just hasn't worked forme.
But I often think about likeeven trying to elicit.
Going down the four stepsoutside of my front door to take
out the trash is going to be atask too laborsome for me to
(01:05:29):
manage and I'll have to be someold guy who pays a young
neighborhood kid to do that forme.
Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Or just build a ramp.
Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Yeah, or I could just get one of those scooters, and
which is probably what I'll do.
Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
You don't need a scooter upramp, it's just easier
to walk down.
You know, especially when it'ssnowing and ice, I'm always
scared of the stairs and evenwithout weather, like when I'm
at church and I'm in choir, youknow they have stairs going up
but I don't know why my fear isgoing down.
(01:06:17):
It Like I'm always used to therail.
But you know, I had to learn toaccept recently because I had a
knee surgery, back surgery andeverything.
I have this young girl.
She'll always turn around andgrab my hand to help me down
with the last couple steps andI'm like you know it's a funny
feeling because you're like inyour head, thinking this is not
(01:06:40):
happening.
And then I was just.
I turned it into gratitude andappreciation.
I was like thank you so much,you know, because eventually
we're all going to need thatsomebody to be there and look
out for us too.
So but when you're you'resingle and you don't have that,
your brain starts to think, no,I gotta learn to do this on my
(01:07:01):
own and be by myself.
And then we are stubborn and wejust don't want to accept the
help and that becomes a negativeenergy.
But if you turn it around beinglike you know, you know what
Thanks, this is great, you knowyou're turning that power of
thinking around to you know makethings better so yeah, I like
(01:07:23):
what you said about gratitude.
Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
That's really important to turn as many things
into gratitude as we can,because we have so many reasons
to be grateful.
Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
And.
Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
I spent a year like on a gratitude practice in the
morning and I should really getback to it because it's really,
it really is good, like just theamount of things that you can
enjoy in the day while keepinggratitude in mind.
Like I mean, just think aboutsomeone who had it as good as
(01:07:53):
they could possibly have had itLike I don't know King Louis II
or something I'm just making uprandom names but he didn't have
access to like proper dentalcare, like he probably walked
around with toothaches.
He didn't have air conditioning.
He didn't have washing machines.
(01:08:14):
Have air conditioning?
Um, yeah, it didn't havewashing machines.
I don't know how often theybathed, but it's like you
couldn't just like turn on thefaucet and jump into a hot
shower and the amount ofluxuries I have in my house.
Well, it absolutely crushesanything that a king had some
hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Yeah, I'm literally living better than kings you see
, yeah, and definitely, we'retaught to think the kings had it
all.
It was royalty, right, so youwould think they had it all.
So, um, you know, talking aboutthat, thinking you have it all,
(01:08:52):
I actually stepped into.
Well, I had church choir, likeI was talking about, but it was
a youth ministry and I heard oneof the pastors I've never heard
, you know, teach because he'sonly the, you know, freshman,
senior class one, but he nailedit on the spot and as an adult,
(01:09:13):
being my age, sitting there andgoing.
But you know he was talkingabout the cell phones and
plugging, and when batteries diewe're unconnected and we're
trying to find a charge anywhereright in life.
And then you know, beingconnected and having that faith
also, that's what we need toconnect with also.
(01:09:35):
So not only our, you knowAirPods or cell phones that need
to be charged all the time wegot to charge ourself up and
know that, know, you Know thedirection.
You know be happy, loveyourself, to move forward.
So you know there was manydifferent lessons that I saw
(01:09:57):
that came out of it.
You know I'm not sure how youknow young kids, you know, will
sit there and listen to it, butas an adult.
I was like I went up to him.
I go, I really don't know you.
You know my son, you know,because he goes to Sunday school
, but I go, that was inspiringto hear you talk about that.
You know my son, you know,because he goes to sunday school
, um, but I go, that wasinspiring to hear you talk about
(01:10:17):
that, you know.
And as I was hearing the otherpeople in my choir go, oh yeah,
there's an adult service beforeyou do choir and I was like, oh
okay, but you know what I foundmyself?
I like the kids one so much Iwas like I probably want to go
back to the kids one so much Iwas like I probably want to go
back to the kids one.
Yeah.
(01:10:40):
So just many different goalsand I want to make sure we
covered everything today in thispodcast with you.
How would people find youconnect to your socials and
stuff like that?
Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
We'll never cover anything we can.
I'd be glad to talk again inthe future, by the way, but uh
okay they can find me uhquestion things.
Um, it's all over the place.
It's uh facebook, uh instagram,audible, uh amazon.
I mean it's all over.
Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
And it's everywhere.
And YouTube is where I saw theclips of you doing like question
.
Yeah, yeah, youtube.
Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to select that username
early on, when they startedallowing usernames, so I got the
name.
Question things.
No punctuation underscoreanything, just question things.
Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
That is really good.
It's always good to have itright there when it starts.
And I know, like when I chosemy photography company name, I
lost the domain for a month andI was okay, nobody's gonna take
it because it was a dot com.
Nope, somebody grabbed it rightaway and they wanted like four
(01:12:00):
thousand to get a bit back.
I was like, no, not doing that.
And then I called the providerand they go well, no, it's not
really taken.
We don't know who would haveemailed you and asked for that
much money.
I was like you just never know.
So if you see something, itcould still be false and you
need to follow up you know, withthat provider.
Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Question things.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Question things.
Yep, well, I want to say thankyou for coming on and to our
listeners, I do have the book inthe store.
We'll double check and makesure it's the correct one.
If it's not, I'll get thatcorrected today.
But wherever you guys find yourpodcast, you will be able to
find Keep Hope Alive.
If you would like to be a gueston Keep Hope Alive or even
(01:12:47):
leave us a message, you can goto our website at
wwwkeephopalivepodcastcom.
To the right-hand side there isa leave a message function that
you can tell us.
Hey, I want to hear stories onthis, or I have a question for
Jonathan.
I will get back with Jonathan.
Let him know those questions sowe can get those answered for
(01:13:09):
you.
So please give us a review andtell us what shows you liked on
Keep Hope Alive too.
But once again, jonathan, thankyou so much for coming on to
Keep Hope Alive.
We really enjoyed talking toyou, getting to know you and
learning about the book processand everything like that and
your future goals and, yes, I'mgoing to follow up with you
(01:13:33):
right away.
Probably, yeah, within 26, thenext year.
Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
All right, well, you're the best, thank you.
Thank you all so much.
Thanks everybody for listening.
Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
All right.
Well, you guys, until our nextshow.
Love and light.
Bye-bye, Bye-bye.
Hello and welcome to Keep Up Alive podcast.
Today I have Jonathan Davishere with us.
Welcome to Keep Up Alive.
I'm so happy you're herebecause you are super talented,
very smart individual and that'swhat I've learned about you.
He is a former Army CivilAffairs specialist government
(00:25):
contractor.
You were an English teacheralso, but most of all, you're an
author.
So we're going to dive intoyour story in just one minute
because I have an importantquestion to ask you Out of the
past year, how many weddingshave you been to?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I've been to one.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
One.
Okay.
So when you walked into, let'ssay, the ceremony part, maybe to
the right, there was somethingto sign to let the couple know
that you were there at thewedding.
What is that thing you'resigning?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, it was a guest book.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yay, definitely.
Well, one of our biggestsponsors here is Life on Record
and what they do.
Instead of the guest book, theyhave a vintage rotary phone
that they put out there for yourguests to pick up and leave a
message, and also right next toit is a QR code they can scan
with their own mobile device sothey can leave a message before
(01:27):
or even after that event.
Now I always use weddings, butthis can go for birthdays,
reunions, anniversaries, schoolevents, church events.
Whatever it may be left willeither be burnt on a 12-inch
vinyl record or a keepsakespeaker, which is really cool
(01:48):
because you can go back andlisten to all your friends and
family leaving these messages.
Now the plans start at only $99.
You get the phone number, phonenumber.
You got to return the cutephone for one year and then,
other than that, I think this isthe best invention out there.
(02:10):
I love it, and the way they setit up at these events is just
cute.
They have it on a standgreenery and you're picking.
I wish I had the phone herebecause it's very vintage, like
very old school, but I just lovethe fact that it's the gift of
voice.
So definitely go check them outat wwwlifeonrecordcom.
(02:33):
All right, so my first questionfor you is who is Jonathan
Davis?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
If I could comment on your sponsor, that's actually
pretty darn cool.
I got to say I'm impressed.
The level that weddings aregetting to nowadays is pretty
awesome.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, you know I was married oh, I can't believe I'm
admitting this on podcast butthree times, and unfortunately
the last two did not pan out theway I wanted it to.
But that's life and you move on, just like Frank Sinatra says.
That's life.
That's my favorite song.
(03:18):
That's what people say.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, oh, you sing, no Only in the shower or the car
oh, okay, well, I do karaoke.
I love singing and I know oneof the people, yeah, one of the
people that go there.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
He does Frank Sinatra , even though I love Frank, and
I like Michael Bublé, deanMartin, all those, even Hank
Williams, but I just can't singit.
But I think I't sing it.
But I think I can sing it athome alone, which is really
weird.
My dogs know when I would putthe record on and start singing
hey, good looking what you gotcooking.
(03:57):
They would know, it is dinnertime, oh okay, that's the dinner
bell, that's pretty awesomeyeah okay, that's the dinner
bell.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That's pretty awesome ?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, definitely.
I actually have a littlekaraoke machine at my house for
friends to come over.
Now I want to get one of thefirst companies to really get
this out on the market and start.
(04:26):
I know there has been othersthat I've seen, but I always
fall back on Life on Recordbecause it is just very classic
and they know exactly whatthey're doing and it's just a
great company.
So, but definitely so, jonathan, tell us about yourself.
So, but definitely.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So, jonathan, tell us about yourself.
Yeah, that was a great question.
By the way, I'm going to startto steal that question and use
it all the time.
Who is Jonathan?
It kind of reminds me of DrSeuss.
You are you.
You know what I mean.
I'm going to butcher it.
You are you.
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive moreyou-er than you, I think.
(05:06):
But, I loved Dr Seuss when Iwas a kid.
I don't care what people say.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I just had to read the hot and the hot Green Eggs
and Ham.
Yeah, that's a good one, green.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Eggs and Ham Really.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, yes, they did marketing strategies.
What all could we find out?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
of that book for marketing.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So it was interesting .
You know persistence, I'll giveyou that one.
So in the book you know theykept bugging to eat the food but
they would not let it go.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
You have to try green eggs and ham, you know, so they
kept going.
Let it go.
You have to try green eggs andham, you know, so they kept
going after it.
Yeah, yeah, I have the wordrelentless written on my car
because, uh, I, I want toremember that sometimes that's
that's really all that life isis being relentless.
And I know that we talked alittle bit before this and you
said you wanted that chapter two, and the last thing I wrote
interested you, and that's sortof the punchline is be
(06:12):
persistent, because a lot ofpeople sort of talk themselves
out of doing things and theypass the blame on to fate or the
universe or whatever you wantto call it destiny.
But really it's like well,maybe you just needed to try
harder, maybe you just needed totry again.
(06:34):
Try five times, try a hundredtimes, you'll probably get it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Exactly, exactly, and you know I've talked to
somebody else on the show aboutthat exact topic and it actually
helped me.
I made a big decision actuallyyesterday and I'm lifting on it
because life is too short and Iknow the pathway I need to be.
(07:00):
I just hadn't put my footforward until now, but I see all
these positives happening forme now that I've done that and
going into 2025.
So I'm hoping it's a brand newjourney in my life.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So, but definitely with the, I want to go back to
Dr Seuss because you know, withthose subject lines, did that
help you create a path in whatyou do?
It's hard to say, it's hard toreally pinpoint what created the
path.
I've tried to narrow it down,but only recently that I start
thinking about these sorts ofthings.
Um, cause you often hear thatthe way we grew up or our
(07:55):
experience with our parents, uh,shaped us, and that should seem
obvious, I guess, now that Isay it out loud but I never
really put much thought into it.
Certainly everything's shapedme the ups and downs, the trauma
I recently pinpointed.
Not that I have daddy issuesand, just to be clear, I had a
(08:21):
pretty good upbringing.
I had a single parent, mom butprobably the absence of my dad
led to a lot of the decisions Imade and what direction my life
would take, because I didn'tknow much about him.
But somewhere in the back of myhead, the more I reflect, it
(08:44):
seems as though trying toimpress someone I didn't know
very well was the motivation.
Maybe if I just do this, thenI'll be a good son and he'll
want to get to know me, or maybeif I whatever the case may be
and I think he left when I wastoo young to really remember
maybe four or five, and I thinkhe left when I was too young to
(09:04):
really remember maybe four orfive.
But I remember him beingimpressed by something on TV,
some Army Special Forces guys orsomething like that.
It may have been the movie NavySeals, actually with Charlie
Sheen.
It's a really crappy movie andthat just kind of stuck, because
(09:28):
what we idolize really justdepends on where we grew up and
and things of that nature Likeif you, if you grew up in Jersey
probably, um, having a littleMercedes coupe was like the sign
that you had made it in life.
But if you grew up in Alabama,the bigger your truck, the more
successful you were.
So a lot of people grow upthinking like I'm going to get a
(09:50):
truck, I'm going to look likeI've made it in life, and a
Chevy or Ford truck or something.
But my mom never really likedmilitary stuff at all and part
of that is because of, well, herupbringing Her father was, I
think, a drill.
Well, her upbringing her fatherwas, I think, a drill sergeant
(10:13):
in the army and he was abusive.
So that left a bad taste in hermouth.
Plus, she had two boys who wereeligible to enlist when they
turned 18 and she didn't wantanything to happen to them.
So she had raised us with youare never joining the army or
any branch of the military.
It's not for you, it's not for,it's for stupid people, it's for
(10:35):
people that have no directionin life and, um, you know,
whatever she could say to talkus out of it, but which isn't
true.
Some of the smartest people Iever met were in the army.
Some of the dumbest people too.
So, uh, it's just a mixed grouplike you would find anywhere,
but, um, but so I had sort ofput it out of my head for a
(10:57):
while.
And, um, but what's the nextbest thing?
I I thought, well, maybe it'dbe cool if, uh, I'm like an FBI
agent or something like that.
Right, we were talking offcamera about how ego and think
and what people think about us,what we think about ourselves,
(11:19):
really impacts in our lives andhow it affects our opinions and
our career choices, and that waspretty much all of my career
choices were what will soundcool to talk about at cocktail
parties or what would impresspeople.
And, as it turns out, you don'tmake a lot of money in the FBI,
(11:40):
so that wasn't really thegreatest choice, but so I went
to school for Homeland SecurityManagement and, uh and um, I
guess somewhere around the midtwenties my mom and my brother
and my best friend died um, notin the same year but pretty
close succession.
So it really made me stop tothink.
(12:03):
Well, if no one else left toimpress what makes me happy,
what did I really want to do?
So I quickly put together abucket list, and on the bucket
list were things like travel theworld, learn another language,
play a song on the guitar, writea book, join the army, go to
(12:33):
war, and so I checked them alloff the list in record time.
As it turns out, my mom wasactually right the army wasn't
for me, even though I had a goodexperience there.
What people don't talk about isjust how boring it actually is.
It's incredibly boring.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
What makes it boring, though, like I thought you guys
.
You know, if you're not workingis it drills.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And yes, sir, like they show in the movies, it's
pretty you know, the Army isdifferent than other branches in
that we say that it's full ofsmokers and jokers.
It's actually kind of laid back.
It's like somewhere between theMarine Corps and maybe the Air
Force, also known as the ChairForce.
(13:16):
I say that in a positive way.
I mean those guys are prettycool and they're down to earth
in the Air Force.
And they're down to earth inthe Air Force but and Marines
I've been attached to some ofthose units.
They are, they're pretty darnstrict.
And the Army it's like, well,we're soldiers but also smokers
(13:39):
and jokers.
I don't smoke, just to be clear.
But what was your question?
I digress a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, you know, here I'm just listening and going, oh
, but that's cool.
But I mean, we were analyzingdefinitely like the start of
everything for you going intowhere you are today.
So we're just kind of taking alook at your history Now you
know.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I'm a single mom too.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I'm a single mom my son and my daughter, but my
daughter does have her dad.
My son's dad never wanted tomeet him, which makes it very
hard.
So I can understand that.
So I can understand that andyou know, as a mom, we tried to
do our best.
Now, I will admit I never saidanything about the arm, but I
(14:31):
was like you will not ride amotorcycle.
And he's like, yes, I will, butI keep him very active and
around family to stay active andI know there could be one day
that he does look at, I want tomeet him and I'm not going to
(14:54):
ever hold anything back.
I really am not.
This is what I know and this ishow you can follow that trail.
So that's going to be hiscalling in life, if he wants to
do it that way.
But we don't know how thatwould outcome.
But you know it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So but I'm sorry because I know it is hard to go
through that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess Iguess it is Again.
I don't want to.
Yeah, I was very lucky.
I grew up in a first worldcountry and I was never abused
and I mean, my mom was dirt poorbut I managed to scrape
(15:38):
together some, some sense offinancial responsibility and all
that, some sense of financialresponsibility and all that and,
and I guess, by some measures,have my life together.
So I I'm fortunate, but but Ialso wasted a lot of time, you
know, looking back.
I guess everyone does.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, when you look back, that is a reflection of
what we've been through and itbuilds our character to make us
stronger in life and how we moveforward.
So looking backwards, I couldsay you know the things that did
happen, but we're in the nowand we're looking at each day
coming up also to make usprepare, for you know what life
(16:23):
is going to be about.
So you know, for me I'm, forexample, like I know, last year
I wanted to write a book but Inever put it in action and I
said enough is enough.
This was like over two weeksago.
I said I'm going to startwriting my book and that's what
(16:44):
I did.
So I wake up at five in themorning and just start writing
for a good hour.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
You have a time hack or something like.
I'm going to write from thistime to that time and yeah, yeah
.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
So, um, like it's so funny because the way I'm so
sensitive to sound and anything,the dogs can wake me up.
The baby can cry and wake me up, but then I can't get back to
sleep.
So I said you know what,instead of getting so frustrated
with the dogs every morning,I'm just going to wake up and do
(17:17):
this and then I'm going tospend a good hour, hour and a
half, writing the book, but Ialso want to take the courses to
learn all the new AI technology.
So I do that with the otherhalf until I have to take my son
to school, and then the rest ofthe day is working on finding a
new job and my podcast, andthen whatever errands I have
(17:41):
during the day I got to quicklyget done.
But you know, having thatschedule set for me and setting
those goals and looking forwardand trying to have this
wonderful positive vibe that'sgoing to help increase the
direction of where I'm going inlife.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, yeah, positive vibes.
I've got to get better at that,because that's everything.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, the positive vibes I've got to get better at
that, because that's everything.
Oh, it is, it is, and you knowwhat.
You wrote a book too.
So how was that?
How did you know you wanted toget everything in writing?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Tell us about the book and everything Well.
So this comes back to sort of.
Actually, I'm reminded of whowas it, viktor Frankl who said
the only real freedom a man hasis the freedom to choose his
(18:40):
mood, or something like that, inany given circumstance given
circumstance.
Um, well, so anyway, uh, back toyour question.
I, um, I was told that, uh, Iwas good at writing in college.
And that was a surprise to mebecause, um, I thought I was
only good at, like, baseball orskateboarding.
(19:03):
You know, I had no idea.
I never considered ridinganything.
And it goes back to what we weresaying earlier about how our
choices in life, or at least mychoices in life.
I wasn't asking the rightquestions.
One of those questions shouldhave been what am I good at?
(19:25):
What do other people say thatam I good at?
What do other people say thatI'm good at?
We always think that we'rebetter at things than we really
are.
But other people were sayingthat I'm good at writing and I
just thought that I was.
I was told that I was athleticand things like that.
I played baseball and to my mom, my meal ticket was baseball,
like that's how I was going toget into college and that's how
(19:49):
I was going to get college paidfor and things like that, and so
she really leaned into that.
But I actually didn't reallylike baseball much.
I kind of hate sports.
I mean, I like to play them butI'm not into following them at
all.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, I'm not into following them at all.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, and I still run and go to the gym and pick
things up and put them down.
But so in college I had aprofessor say you know, your
papers are the best.
Why are you going to school forHomeland Security Management?
You should be a writer, orsomething like that.
And I was like like shocked, Ihad no idea.
(20:30):
And then, about a year later, Iheard the same thing from
another professor, and so Ithought maybe there's something
to this, and I had alwayswritten things just in my spare
time, just random things.
But, um, then I I got a littlemore coherency in what I was
writing by about that point andum, and sometime after that is
(20:55):
when everything happened and Iwrote down my bucket list, which
was to, uh, to write a book.
And what my professors told meis that no one's going to read
what I write because, uh, themarket is flooded with authors.
But but I just do it.
It's inside of me, I'm justgoing to keep doing it and so,
(21:15):
and so I needed to focus onsomething that was on topic for
a book, not just random things,of course and something that was
really important to me wascritical thinking and keeping an
open mind and opening otherpeople's minds, because it's
(21:36):
really hard to do.
So I sort of chose that and Istarted by writing chapters.
And this is a great way towrite.
It's a great way to write apaper.
So I struggled through school.
I really struggled.
But when the teacher said we'regoing to have a writing
(21:58):
assignment, and this big sighwent over the room and they
would say, oh, don't worry,you've got two months to write
it, I would be like, great, thisis a freebie.
And the next morning I wouldget out my computer and I would
have the whole thing done beforeI finished drinking coffee, and
then I would go on to somethingelse.
And so it was just a piece ofcake for me.
(22:19):
And how I do that is, I wouldget sort of bullet point ideas.
So I would have bullet point,bullet point, bullet point, fill
in the blank.
So I'd start back at thebeginning.
So my bullet points werechapters, yeah, and so I wrote
down 12 bullet points and then Istarted from the beginning and
(22:41):
I started to fill in and I didsub chapters and things like
that.
But then after I I wrote that,I I was like this is really just
a bunch of information and soit's probably not going to be
that interesting to people.
What do I like in books?
Well, I like stories.
So I add stories into it sothat it's it's more digestible
(23:03):
when you're listening to it orreading it.
But then I thought, you know,this still may not resonate with
people.
I need a prerequisite here,because none of this is really
going to mean anything to peopleunless we have some
prerequisites.
So I put an introduction whichis basically 10 ways to listen
(23:24):
effectively.
We have this just to give anexample.
We have this voice in our head.
I call him yeah, but guy.
So yeah, but guy takes thisotherwise good point that you
hear and he will think very hardof a context, a very specific
context, in which this goodpoint doesn't work and, um, the
(23:49):
problem is is that he starts toform this idea while you're
talking, so he never reallylistens to what you're saying.
So, to give an example, itwould be like um well, you know
what goes around comes aroundand that's pretty good, right,
that's relatively true,relatively true.
But you have a guy will say,yeah, but I know a guy in Alaska
with four chickens and he wasalways a jerk and nothing ever
(24:12):
came back to him.
So what you're saying isn'talways true.
Aha, gotcha, but it's like dude, that wasn't the point.
The point was like, generallyspeaking, like if you're a jerk,
people don't want to dobusiness with you, and if you're
a jerk people don't want to dobusiness with you, and if you're
nice, you probably have nicethings happen to you, and so, uh
(24:33):
, so that's that's theintroduction, and um, and
keeping an open mind, as itturns out, is much more
difficult than you might think,because it really has nothing to
(24:54):
do with the mind.
In a basic sense.
What we're talking about here,what we're dealing with as far
as having an open mind, is we'redealing with hormones.
So we identify with our beliefsand we become attached to them,
and usually those beliefs comefrom our group or our tribe, and
(25:21):
the tribe is more or less afamily.
The tribe is more or less afamily, and the family, well,
that's oxytocin, right, so wehave oxytocin coming into our
system when we hear certainthings that we're used to
hearing from our tribe or fromour family, and then when we
(25:43):
hear something that's contraryto it, it's just like whoa,
that's an attack on my familyand I can't have that.
But that's not exactly thethought process that we're
conscious of.
And so what needs to happen inorder to change our minds is
well, we need to change ourhormones, and a lot of times we
(26:05):
need to change our geography,our proximity to ideas.
Right, they get outside of theecho chamber, get outside of the
bubble.
You may need to move to adifferent state, get a different
job, get different friends oreven get away from your own
family.
So it's like now we're talking?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Were we talking before?
You nailed it right on the spotfor me right there.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Now it's like okay, so in other words, it's
basically impossible for somepeople.
Yeah, yes, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yep, it is.
It is, and I noticed that.
You know, here I am at age 47,and I'm just happy that my eyes
are wider open this year andgoing okay.
Well, you know, I took twotrips to the more country part
of Texas and I was like there'ssomething about the country it's
peace, it's calm, it's notliving in the city, I'm less
(27:01):
stressed.
I want this for my life, youknow.
So it comes to a part.
What is it?
You know?
Does the person need to livethe remainder of their life?
What did they want?
You know, after the halfwaypoint and I think that's where
I'm at I don't want to call it amidlife crisis.
(27:23):
Or well then, maybe, yeah, Ipierced my nose, my ear and my
belly button, so maybe it amidlife crisis.
Or, well then, maybe, yeah, Ipierced my nose, my ear and my
belly button, so maybe it ismidlife crisis.
Who knows?
But going through these changes, see, they're different,
they're kind of rewarding and itfeels like the journey will
create this whole new openingand even looking for a new job.
Yeah, I might want to like,dial it back a little bit, what
(27:46):
I used to do in marketing, butjust go enjoy the simple things
in life and kind of live what Idid at age 20 or even 18.
I don't know.
So I'm just kind of keeping anopen mind and it is a mindset
yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
So I agree with you a mindset yeah, so I agree with
you, yeah, yeah you brought up awhole lot of a whole lot of
things just there and uh, yeah,yeah, yeah, I don't know where
to go with that, but yeah, wheredo I start?
So well, tell me more.
(28:25):
Tell me more what this isinteresting, so what?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
you want to interview me now, you can do that.
You can definitely interview me.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What's some of the questions.
Well, I feel like a jerk, Imean.
I mean I realize you'reinterviewing me, but it's like,
uh, I don't, I don't want to.
It makes me feel kind of nasty,like I'm like I'm trying to
promote my book constantly, butyou make me think of Chapter 12,
which is the end, like where dowe go from all this right?
What's the conclusion?
(28:54):
What's the goal?
What are you trying toaccomplish?
And what I've come up with isthat sometimes the goal doesn't
really matter, cause I've made awhole lot of goals and, quite
frankly, by the time you achievea goal, it's already in the
(29:17):
past, and the past has neverbeen enough to make me happy.
So I'm setting myself up forfailure.
This is the hedonic treadmillwhere I'm just constantly
chasing one goal after the nut,after another after another, and
um, and it's led to a lot ofunhappiness, quite frankly.
And um, and so should I changemy goals?
(29:41):
And then the other thing isthat my goals do change, so
achieving them didn't reallymean much.
Like, for example, I didn'tspend much time with my brother,
and there's nothing I wouldn'tgive to have him back to spend
time with him again.
He was a big Eagles fan andevery Sunday he would invite me
(30:05):
to go out and watch the Eaglesgame with him, and or or he
would invite himself over to myhouse.
And I was always working on oneof my stupid goals.
And the thing is I changedmajors three times in school.
So sometimes I was working onsome stupid scheme of mine and
it never really panned outscheme of mine and it never
(30:30):
really panned out.
And so it's like I didn't spendtime with my brother because I
was working on something that Inever really followed through
with, so it was just a waste.
I should have just spent timewith my brother, but even then I
wouldn't have enjoyed my timeand even if I was working on
something.
Yeah well, even if I was workingon something, spending my time
working on something that wasworthwhile, like school, I
(30:50):
changed my major a few timesuntil I landed on Homeland
Security.
So back at the time that mybrother was alive, I was going
to school for nutrition.
So those were all wastedcredits anyway.
So our goals change and I thinkmaybe a better goal for me
would have been to prioritizerelationships and and, of course
(31:12):
, you got to do things that makeyou happy, because that's
downstream effort right, ratherthan just suffering through a
job.
There's a big differencebetween a job and work, in my
view.
Job and work in my view and Imade a little video about that.
It's like most of us have jobs,unfortunately, which is what we
(31:39):
do to pay the bills, likescanning a barcode at a cash
register all day, like that's noone's goal in life, right.
Yeah and um, but work would be,for some people, fishing or
building that like I just builta cabin and no one paid me to do
this.
I just did it because I enjoyedit.
I thought it was fun and thetime flew by I didn't even
(32:04):
realize I was working when I'mwriting.
It's the same way.
I mean eight hours can justdisappear.
Yeah, definitely the bigdifference between a job and
work.
It's more important to to work,but we can't.
We don't all don't have thatluxury.
Sometimes work doesn't pay thebills.
(32:25):
That's the world yeah we live inthat is the world.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, it is, and it's very sad because it's the
crossfire, like podcasts there's.
There's some podcasters that domake the money, but there's
podcasters that don't.
And then we need to have thatfallback job.
And that was the same storywhen I was a professional
photographer.
I always had to have thefallback job to pay the bills.
(32:51):
And then, yes, of course, if Igot hired to do a wedding, it's
the extra income, like, oh, wecan take a trip with this money
or I can pay the bills inadvance and just move forward.
So, always having that it'simportant.
So, but you know, also learningwhat I learned, and I did take a
(33:12):
step back from the direction Iwas going and, to be very honest
with myself, I mean, yeah, Ihad a great job, but at the same
time, I wasn't achieving mycareer path that I needed to be
on, and that was something thatwas playing a huge factor into
my life and I had to reevaluatewhere do I really want to be?
(33:36):
And then, of course, when itcame down to money, I was like,
okay, well, I used to have thisjob doing the same thing, but I
was getting paid a lot more.
So why am I taking the backtrail.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like why am I fallingbackwards and it's not landing
me to the goals that I need toget my own place.
(33:58):
It's putting me in a place ofwhat are you doing and how are
you going to use your timemanagement now to even find
anything better?
Like everything just froze andI locked down and I was like,
okay, we got changes so.
But definitely I totallyunderstand where you're coming
from.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yeah, it's like the.
The only problem with theparable of the Mexican fisherman
is that?
Well, unfortunately, if youdon't pay your property tax, the
government's going to come andtake it.
Are you familiar with theparable of the Mexican fisherman
?
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I have no idea what that is.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
It's my favorite, so I'll try to be as concise as
possible, just going by memory.
Be as concise as possible, justgoing by memory.
Probably nowadays they mightwant to say something other than
Mexican, I don't know, but Ithink it's a positive story, so
I'll just keep it the same.
There is a investment bankervacationing in Mexico sitting on
(35:02):
a beach and he watches a fellowlocal.
This guy bring in a largeyellowfin tuna and he
compliments the local on thequality of his catch and says
you know, you ought to stay outlonger and just catch more fish.
(35:23):
And he says why this is enough.
And so the American says well,let me ask you, what do you like
to do?
And he said well, I enjoysiestas with my wife Maria.
I like to spend time with mykids.
(35:45):
I like to fish.
I like to spend evenings withmy friends.
They come over and we all playthe mariachi.
And so he said well, picturethis, so you catch more fish and
you can sell more fish andeventually you can buy a couple
(36:08):
of boats.
You could buy two or threeboats.
You keep this up and eventuallyyou can buy a fleet of boats.
Then you open up your ownmanufacturing facility where you
start to can these things andship them out.
The Mexican fisherman says okay,then what?
(36:29):
And the American says well,then you open up another office
in New York and you expand evenmore into other territories, and
the fisherman goes okay, thenwhat?
And the American goes oh well,that's the best part.
Then eventually, you launchyour IPO and you sell your
(36:54):
company and you make millions.
The Mexican fisherman goes okay, then what?
And the American said well,then you can go fishing all day
and spend siestas with your wifeMaria, and spend time with your
(37:16):
kids and teach your kids, andyou can, in the evenings, you
can play the mariachi with yourfriends and I see how that
circle of events like you to gethere, you need to do this and
that and that.
So yeah, I see, it's like, um,when, when making goals now,
(37:37):
what I do is I, I try to and I'mno expert at being happy, so
don't take my word for foranything I say about content or
fulfillment but usually what Ido is I say, okay, what's the
goal, and then I say, then what,then what, then what.
And then I ask myself can Ihave that now?
(37:58):
Right, so it's like so I livein a place now in my house that
has three bedrooms and threebathrooms, and, yeah, I probably
have enough money, but I'malways trying to.
I'm like you know what, if Ijust had like twice as much
money, then I wouldn't have toworry about this, that and the
(38:21):
other thing.
And we're always thinking of somany reasons not to be happy now
.
Like, I'll be happy then.
I'll be happy when this, I'llbe happy when I graduate, I'll
be happy when I finish this, uh,next book, I'll be happy when I
whatever, whatever, when I buya new house, um, and, quite
(38:50):
frankly, uh, you know I'm notmarried or anything, but I like
to sit on the couch with my dogsand, um, will that be more
enjoyable when I live in a housewith five bedrooms or 10
bedrooms?
Probably not, probably gonnafeel about the same.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
But having a full house dogs maybe you know a
spouse one day, you know, isthat going to be rewarding.
That can go on your bucket list, you know, definitely For me,
like I have, my dog is actuallyknocking at the door and you
guys cannot hear it because Zoomis great.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But I hear my husky downstairs going I've always
wanted a husky.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
I just don't want to clean up after them.
They're beautiful dogs but theyshed so much.
You don't want a husky, youdon't get one.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
He's my best friend, I mean I love him to.
Yeah, it takes a whole lot ofwork for that guy oh my God,
yeah, yeah.
And they're sled dogs, you know.
So they're athletes.
It's not enough to just walkaround the block with them.
He's got to run 10 miles ormore, and so I get out my
electric skateboard or electricbike and because I run with him
(40:04):
but that's like walking to him,it's a joke, joke.
My idea of exercise is just ajoke to him.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
so I gotta see a video of you doing the electric
skateboard.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
I didn't even know they had electric skateboards,
so yeah, yeah, something I wishthey invented when I was a kid.
But now that I'm 40 I canactually afford some of the uh,
the things that I couldn't whenI was a kid.
But now that I'm 40, I canactually afford some of the
things that I couldn't when Iwas a kid.
So part of me is still trappedin my youth.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, that's a good thing, though that's a really
good thing.
So I do that with karaoke whenI go out.
I got married way too soon andI didn't get to have a teenage
not much of a teenage year andnot much of the 20s.
It was surrounded being married, being the perfect homemaker
(40:54):
you know, cooking, cleaning,taking care of the kiddos but I
never did anything for me andthat was a lesson I had to learn
at age 30.
30.
Yeah, so my 30s were my 20s,twenties, and now I'm in my
forties, I think I'm in mythirties.
So you know, it's just one ofthose things.
It's like trying to relive whatI missed, to see, but you know
(41:18):
yeah.
Yeah, but like when I hear youtalk, you're like I'll be happy
when.
But have you ever tried tochange that mindset?
I'm happy now.
I'm going to set this as mygoal and, of course, I'm going
to be happier when I reach thatgoal.
(41:38):
But you know what?
I'm going to enjoy what I haveright now in front of me,
because I'm blessed to have it.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah, yeah, you, you need to teach me that I do try.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, okay, I charge blah blah, blah an hour.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I have, I'll buy your coaching or the coaching
courses.
That's kind of a tongue twistercoaching course.
But um, I, yeah, I have triedand I do try.
But I'm just stuck in what'scalled the striver's curse,
(42:16):
where I'm just always, alwaystrying, always trying, always
trying, and it's difficult,difficult to be mindful.
The risk of sounding cliche.
So I am working on mindfulnessand being happy now and that
sort of thing.
It's tough.
I haven't mastered it yet.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
I hear you, I really do, and it does take a while,
but you got to want to do it inyour heart and soul and be ready
for that.
So definitely, what's I goingto say?
I totally slipped my brain.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
However.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I'll go back to that because I'm just getting old,
Okay, but you know as far aswhat?
No, no no, I already forgot.
See, that's how my brain worksright now.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, you and me both .
Yeah, I was trying to jog yourmemory and now I've just tripped
you up.
You were going to sell me yourcourse on being happy.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Oh, that was the course you just created for me
that I haven't even worked onyet.
But that's my future.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
So yeah, Give me the freebie now what?
Do you got on?
Speaker 1 (43:43):
So fulfillment, yeah, that would be a 30 minute
conversation and, um, it's azoom call and you know that
would be something I wouldcharge for.
But fulfillment, that'ssomething I want to use the word
strategizing, like, if you knowwhat you want out of life, how
do you fulfill those moments too, to make it equal what you were
(44:03):
looking for?
So it's like having a playbook,being on my someplace football.
So you know you're out there onthe field and you know you're
seeing all the different markersfor how many yards you can run
down and you got to score thattouchdown.
So what can you do with eachrun to fulfill the things that
(44:27):
you want, basically?
So when you sketch that out,maybe it's the career, it's the
financials and getting the billspaid on time, it's the
relationship status.
It's like, hey, I got some pets, I love my pets.
What can I do for them, youknow?
Or taking time out for you for,like a vacation you always
(44:49):
wanted to go and do.
So those are the things Istruggle with and I, you know, I
told my son like I'm not goingto just tell you every year
we're going to go do this and itfalls through.
I'm going to put it in the formof a Christmas gift, and now I
feel a little bit more like thiswill happen.
(45:10):
This is his Christmas gift, youknow.
So this past year it gave himtwo things a trip to Galveston.
We could go to Oklahoma, gocamping, maybe go Arkansas or
Colorado.
We'll just go out there and doit.
Now.
Something I'm going to share isI've always had this philosophy
.
I just want to say 48 hours.
(45:31):
I want no map, I just want todrive and see where I end up and
that's where we're going tostay Right at that 48-hour mark.
That is going to be ourvacation spot and learn about it
and watch it.
It will be in the desert, inthe middle of nowhere and
there's no gas stations and whoknows so.
(45:52):
But you know it's just one ofthose things you got to keep to
make sure that you do accomplishit.
But if you don't accomplish andget that fulfillment, then you
work out the strategy of how canI do this better and move
towards that goal and makemyself accomplish that.
So but I'm going to stoptalking there because but I
(46:17):
could give you a whole courseoutline and we could set goals,
so but you know, it's kind oflike with your book writing.
How long did it take you towrite your book?
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, um, well, I've written three, uh one of them,
this last one, I guess about ayear, a little less than a year
oh, okay, gotcha okay, and thenI didn't realize I had one book
done, but you have two otherbooks yeah, um, they're all
(46:49):
question things, question things, but by jonathan davis.
Question Things by JonathanDavis, and there's a little bit
of a series, but I removed theother two because I just kind of
thought they were stupid.
So there's really only one thatI'm happy with.
That's the most recent one Noware all three on Amazon, or is
(47:17):
it just one on Amazon?
There's just one on Amazon now?
Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Because that's the one I did see and I added it to
our storefront so our listenerscan actually go to
keepupalongpodcastcom, go to thestore and find your book and
purchase it.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
There's also an audio book, but, um, yeah, the amazon
.
I've had trouble with amazonbecause, uh, the thing is is,
yeah, I feel bad referringpeople to amazon there's,
there's one on there that'savailable and it's the good copy
, but there's one on therethat's not it.
(47:54):
I uploaded the wrong manuscriptby mistake and it was basically
my notes and uh, and then Iwent, oh phoo and uh, I tried to
delete it and amazon doesn'tlet you delete books.
It's there forever and um, sothe best thing you can do is
make it unavailable, becausethey're like once we've assigned
(48:18):
a barcode and an ISBN number.
It's there and so I tried andtried and tried with customer
service.
They're like look, we're notremoving the book, can't do it,
so there's one bad copy on there.
Just make sure you get the goodone.
I think it says addition to inthe notes down below or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
But I'll have you take a look and make sure I got
the right one on there andeverything so.
But I mean that is something.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
But all the world is just one.
So it's you can't go wrong withthe all of the one, but that's
fine.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
You're probably going to write more.
You know Probably.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
You got to have that motive.
I keep telling myself I got tostop writing.
I never do so I'm sure there'sgoing to be more.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Good, okay, good, I am so glad to hear that.
But really quick, I'm going tolet our listeners know that we
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(49:26):
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Now, on the back of these ithas an elastic band and what you
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(49:47):
stress, depression, anxiety,ptsd.
So it's like more of acognitive thinking of what we do
.
And using the mantra word asyou're snapping does help Now
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I use it for when I'm in thehospital because I feel like I
(50:08):
need a gift card there, but I'malways having something done.
But I am a hard stick for bloodwork, so I'm always kind of
like I hope and pray that theycan find a vein.
In the first time I get a laughat it.
It's not working, but it doeshelp me, you know, redirect that
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Now I've had mine on for a year.
(50:31):
I have tried it.
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eyes, and that has actuallyhelped too.
So to visit them, go towwwsnapfanscom.
It's spelledS-N-A-P-P-B-A-N-D-Zcom.
(50:53):
All proceeds do go to charitiesand organizations that help
with the different depressionsand anxieties.
Now I mentioned the word faith.
You can only get the braceletto say faith if you enter the
code K-H-A.
Keep hope alive.
(51:14):
So check them out, you'll behappy you did All.
Right, let's get back to ourstory here.
So I can see your mind turningright now, so I can tell you
also have.
I feel like I don't know youthat well, but I feel like you
have so much information andyou're very knowledgeable.
(51:38):
I am picking up your creativesoul, and I say that because,
looking at my life, I struggledin school, forced that I had to
make a quick decision after 12thgrade.
What are you going to do?
I was like, well, I guess I'lljust go into hotel, restaurant,
(52:00):
hospitality.
But it wasn't what I wanted todo.
I wanted to be a certifiedwedding planner, and anything
with the bridal industry is whatI wanted to be.
And I remember one day at theapartment a fly got in the house
.
I'm looking around for any kindof paper and I had a green
sheet and I took that, got it onfirst try but it fell out of my
(52:21):
hand and I'm like, and I lookat the bottom and there's this
ad with a big circle around it.
It says full-time bridalconsultant for Macy's Dallas
Galleria.
I was like, okay, I called, Isaid are you guys still hiring
for the position?
Yeah, what experience do youhave?
And I went into detail and theywere like, can you come right
now?
I was like, sure.
(52:41):
So I threw on my work clothes,drove to Dallas, went in, I got
the job right away and I've just, I've been happy.
It allowed me to go back toschool, get my certification at
Weddings, beautiful and you knowthere.
But those little things, youknow, I don't know what I want
to do.
But I do know what I want to do.
(53:02):
But why is, you know, familytelling me to do this A and B,
and you want to be this and that, but that's not what my heart
wanted.
You know, I knew that being aphotographer may not be the best
of professions, but I knew Ican make that money and being
(53:24):
happy, but it was going to bealways a pull.
How many weddings could I getout of a month, you know,
because there's so manydifferent photographers.
So it's just setting thosegoals and everything.
But that's my analysis of youso far.
Am I anywhere right?
Speaker 2 (53:40):
yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, that I think that,
um, perhaps the more creativeyou are, the harder jobs are,
and the more important work is.
So some people would probablyinterpret that as laziness.
Right, like you don't want togo to your job all day, every
(54:01):
day, so you're lazy.
But really it's like thosesorts of people work more than
anyone else.
They just work on somethingelse.
Right, and probably in yourmind, scanning a barcode all day
(54:28):
, every day isn't work.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
You know, it's like if I were to just leave you to
your own devices, you wouldprobably do a whole lot of stuff
.
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely.
So, other than that, now, Iasked you earlier what part of
the state you lived in, and youtold me Delaware, which is great
(54:53):
Texas.
We're very, very bipolar here,so it's like 11 degrees right
now and next week it's 75.
So you never know what you'regoing to get.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Wow, I didn't know that it's the same number of
times all the time.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Do I?
Yeah, I love the heat.
I can't stand the cold, me cold, so I'm sitting here shivering.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
I don't know if it shows up on camera, but I I was
just thinking myself I gottaturn the heat up in here, but
it's cold outside and yeah ohwell, if you need to turn on the
heat, you can, because I candefinitely talk to the listeners
while you do that.
We want you to to stay warm.
No, no, no, no, I'm fine.
I'm going to put on my hoodie,though, okay.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, definitely do that, but definitely as far as
your goals.
What are your big plans forthis year, going into next?
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Well, I'm trying to have fewer goals.
I really am.
Um, I know that goals areimportant and this is the thing
about, yeah, but guy is like,you know, there are a lot of.
There are a lot of differentpeople in the world, so good
advice, um, well, it doesn'tapply to everyone all the time,
(56:18):
in every part of the world, inevery context.
But, um, good advice for mewould probably be to uh, have
fewer goals, but to someone itmight be the exact opposite.
It might be like you know, whatyou need to do is get off your
butt and get some goals.
But, uh, for me, I'm tryingreally hard to have fewer goals,
believe it or not.
Um, but I am going to take acouple of classes I haven't
(56:42):
decided which ones yet, justthings that that interest me and
, uh, I'm gonna learn to enjoymyself.
I might take a vacation.
I've never really done thatbefore.
I've traveled a lot, but it wasusually always for work where.
I made work out of it, so I'venever really relaxed, I don't
(57:02):
think.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
Oh yeah, I totally get that.
I remember after my daughterwas born.
I remember taking a trip toPennsylvania just to relax and
be with family on my dad's sidethat I haven't seen for so many
years.
But I remember that feeling ofoh, I can breathe, like this
(57:27):
feels so good.
But heading back home, knowingall the responsibilities, I was
like I was ready for it.
But you know, out there inPennsylvania it was an
interesting trip becauseeverybody had a ghost story out
there and I remember the taxiwas taking me back to the
airport and I was like there issomething up with my family,
(57:51):
seeing shadow people and allthis stuff and I was just
laughing and he's like the cabdriver goes oh, that's where
they film signs right there.
I too, see shadow people all thetime and I was like what made
me intrigued?
When I got home I was like whatis a shadow person?
(58:12):
So I started looking into thatand why was there so much
history?
But I think that's where a lotof battles were fought too,
maybe the people who weren'tsupposed to die at that time,
and you know, I don't know.
But anyways, I'm not going togo into a whole scary podcast
here.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
No, let's go.
I just got land about 15minutes maybe west of Gettysburg
in Pennsylvania, and there aretons of stories there in
Gettysburg, as you can imagine.
I just made one on my YouTubechannel called Question Things.
It's pretty simple.
Youtube for question things ispretty simple for youtube for us
(58:57):
question things.
But um, there there are tons ofscary stories.
Um, a lot of them are justghost stories really, um, but
there's a lot of history thereand pennsylvania is pretty cool
all together anyway, I mean, Inever really appreciated it.
Yeah, but the more I explore upthere, there's there are huge
waterfalls in Bushkill Falls,pennsylvania.
(59:18):
There's ski slopes, there's alot of trails at Jim Thorpe,
pennsylvania, and my house isabout four seconds away from a
ski slope you can see it from mybackyard.
But, um, but, yeah, I, I'm, butI'm still, I'm still struggling
(59:40):
to, uh, to not make a goal outof that, that property, cause
I'm, I'm like, uh, I got thisplace in Pennsylvania to.
I had this vision of me kind ofrelaxing on the porch after
it's built and watching my dogsplay, and I'm already starting
(01:00:01):
to think like maybe I can Airbnbit and then maybe I can get
another part of land in someother place and Airbnb that too.
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
And when I got it I actually didn't know it was near
a ski slope, so that's a goodidea and I think you know here
in Texas we're about to getuniversal studio and I think a
lot of people who live out bythat way, where they're going to
(01:00:32):
be building, they're thinkingabout Airbnb and their places
too, because there's going to beso much travel out here.
And I know in Little Elm I havea friend who thought about
doing that for his home becausehe's like going to be 15, 20
minutes from where they'rebuilding.
So it's just, you know, it's sodifferent, things change and
(01:00:55):
everything, but that's a goodsecond source of income.
I would definitely do that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Well, I've been thinking about moving to Texas.
Actually, it seems so.
Everything I hear about it isso rad that I'm like maybe I
should go there.
Plus, I didn't know UniversalStudios was going there.
We got the Tesla Gigafactoryand these tunnels and all these
podcasters are going there.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
So it's like for me, that's the place to be.
That's why I'm trying to getout of Texas right now.
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
What part of Texas is Universal Studios Dallas area?
Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Oh well, we can call it the Dallas area still.
So it's going to be moretowards Frisco and Prosper area,
I believe, is where they'rebuilding it and it's beautiful
out there.
They got PGA out there.
Now the Cowboys built their newtraining camp stuff out there
(01:01:55):
too, so they're building it uplike a city.
But that's the thing with Texasis, you know, this part is very
city fast going.
I mean, it's like another LA,it feels like so, but there's a
lot of opportunity.
So when you know you're lookingat, do you want to be at the
city for the next 20, 30 years,if that's what it is or are you
(01:02:19):
looking for something a littlebit subtle?
For me, I'm looking for moresubtle, like Cheers everybody
knows your name.
It's a good town to live in.
So, yeah, I think what was itthat Netflix series, virgin
River, I think it was called orsomething, but it gave that home
feeling and I was like you knowwhat?
(01:02:41):
For me it's about nature,everything I'm thinking.
You know I may want to just getout to Oklahoma.
I enjoy the weather.
I would love.
I hate to say this, but I'msuch a weather nerd I want to
see a tornado.
Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Me too.
Me too.
I mean maybe that should be mygoal, but because that's
definitely a bucket list item isto see a tornado.
Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
What a tornado.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Yeah, apparently they're hard to see, though
there is this guy I want to sayhe was from Japan who spent
hundreds and hundreds ofthousands of dollars traveling
from Japan to Oklahoma theborder of Oklahoma and Texas
every year during tornado season, right there in Tornado Alley,
to try and see a tornado, and hedidn't see one until well, when
(01:03:32):
I was watching this documentary.
Had never seen one, but sincehe has, he has since I saw that
documentary.
But uh, I mean he spent decadestrying to see one and never did
so, apparently it's harder thanI.
I anticipated, but yeah, I'vegot a tornado.
That's really high on my list.
Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
High on your list?
Well, definitely so.
And just, you know the travelthing.
So, yeah, it sounds like you,you do have goals.
You said no more goals, but youdo have the traveling goal.
You, you know you may want toopen Airbnb, so you are open to
the idea of creating this newpath for you is what I'm sensing
(01:04:17):
.
So that's a great outlook andyou should be very happy about
that outlook.
Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Yeah, yeah, in all honesty, there's no reason why a
person can't have goals and behappy.
In fact, there is a quote fromsomeone I forget who said this
but the root of psychologicalwell-being is accepting life the
way it is, while working tomake it better in the future.
(01:04:46):
So yeah, there's no reason whya person can't have goals and be
present right in in the momentand try and appreciate things.
Um, I just suck at it.
I guess that's what I'm sayingI'm a striver something else.
(01:05:07):
I I mean, I even wrote about itand they say if you want to
master something like, teach it.
And it just hasn't worked forme.
But I often think about likeeven trying to elicit.
Going down the four stepsoutside of my front door to take
out the trash is going to be atask too laborsome for me to
(01:05:29):
manage and I'll have to be someold guy who pays a young
neighborhood kid to do that forme.
Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Or just build a ramp.
Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Yeah, or I could just get one of those scooters, and
which is probably what I'll do.
Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
You don't need a scooter upramp, it's just easier
to walk down.
You know, especially when it'ssnowing and ice, I'm always
scared of the stairs and evenwithout weather, like when I'm
at church and I'm in choir, youknow they have stairs going up
but I don't know why my fear isgoing down.
(01:06:17):
It Like I'm always used to therail.
But you know, I had to learn toaccept recently because I had a
knee surgery, back surgery andeverything.
I have this young girl.
She'll always turn around andgrab my hand to help me down
with the last couple steps andI'm like you know it's a funny
feeling because you're like inyour head, thinking this is not
(01:06:40):
happening.
And then I was just.
I turned it into gratitude andappreciation.
I was like thank you so much,you know, because eventually
we're all going to need thatsomebody to be there and look
out for us too.
So but when you're you'resingle and you don't have that,
your brain starts to think, no,I gotta learn to do this on my
(01:07:01):
own and be by myself.
And then we are stubborn and wejust don't want to accept the
help and that becomes a negativeenergy.
But if you turn it around beinglike you know, you know what
Thanks, this is great, you knowyou're turning that power of
thinking around to you know makethings better so yeah, I like
(01:07:23):
what you said about gratitude.
Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
That's really important to turn as many things
into gratitude as we can,because we have so many reasons
to be grateful.
Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
And.
Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
I spent a year like on a gratitude practice in the
morning and I should really getback to it because it's really,
it really is good, like just theamount of things that you can
enjoy in the day while keepinggratitude in mind.
Like I mean, just think aboutsomeone who had it as good as
(01:07:53):
they could possibly have had itLike I don't know King Louis II
or something I'm just making uprandom names but he didn't have
access to like proper dentalcare, like he probably walked
around with toothaches.
He didn't have air conditioning.
He didn't have washing machines.
(01:08:14):
Have air conditioning?
Um, yeah, it didn't havewashing machines.
I don't know how often theybathed, but it's like you
couldn't just like turn on thefaucet and jump into a hot
shower and the amount ofluxuries I have in my house.
Well, it absolutely crushesanything that a king had some
hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Yeah, I'm literally living better than kings you see
, yeah, and definitely, we'retaught to think the kings had it
all.
It was royalty, right, so youwould think they had it all.
So, um, you know, talking aboutthat, thinking you have it all,
(01:08:52):
I actually stepped into.
Well, I had church choir, likeI was talking about, but it was
a youth ministry and I heard oneof the pastors I've never heard
, you know, teach because he'sonly the, you know, freshman,
senior class one, but he nailedit on the spot and as an adult,
(01:09:13):
being my age, sitting there andgoing.
But you know he was talkingabout the cell phones and
plugging, and when batteries diewe're unconnected and we're
trying to find a charge anywhereright in life.
And then you know, beingconnected and having that faith
also, that's what we need toconnect with also.
(01:09:35):
So not only our, you knowAirPods or cell phones that need
to be charged all the time wegot to charge ourself up and
know that, know, you Know thedirection.
You know be happy, loveyourself, to move forward.
So you know there was manydifferent lessons that I saw
(01:09:57):
that came out of it.
You know I'm not sure how youknow young kids, you know, will
sit there and listen to it, butas an adult.
I was like I went up to him.
I go, I really don't know you.
You know my son, you know,because he goes to Sunday school
, but I go, that was inspiringto hear you talk about that.
You know my son, you know,because he goes to sunday school
, um, but I go, that wasinspiring to hear you talk about
(01:10:17):
that, you know.
And as I was hearing the otherpeople in my choir go, oh yeah,
there's an adult service beforeyou do choir and I was like, oh
okay, but you know what I foundmyself?
I like the kids one so much Iwas like I probably want to go
back to the kids one so much Iwas like I probably want to go
back to the kids one.
Yeah.
(01:10:40):
So just many different goalsand I want to make sure we
covered everything today in thispodcast with you.
How would people find youconnect to your socials and
stuff like that?
Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
We'll never cover anything we can.
I'd be glad to talk again inthe future, by the way, but uh
okay they can find me uhquestion things.
Um, it's all over the place.
It's uh facebook, uh instagram,audible, uh amazon.
I mean it's all over.
Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
And it's everywhere.
And YouTube is where I saw theclips of you doing like question
.
Yeah, yeah, youtube.
Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to select that username
early on, when they startedallowing usernames, so I got the
name.
Question things.
No punctuation underscoreanything, just question things.
Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
That is really good.
It's always good to have itright there when it starts.
And I know, like when I chosemy photography company name, I
lost the domain for a month andI was okay, nobody's gonna take
it because it was a dot com.
Nope, somebody grabbed it rightaway and they wanted like four
(01:12:00):
thousand to get a bit back.
I was like, no, not doing that.
And then I called the providerand they go well, no, it's not
really taken.
We don't know who would haveemailed you and asked for that
much money.
I was like you just never know.
So if you see something, itcould still be false and you
need to follow up you know, withthat provider.
Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Question things.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Question things.
Yep, well, I want to say thankyou for coming on and to our
listeners, I do have the book inthe store.
We'll double check and makesure it's the correct one.
If it's not, I'll get thatcorrected today.
But wherever you guys find yourpodcast, you will be able to
find Keep Hope Alive.
If you would like to be a gueston Keep Hope Alive or even
(01:12:47):
leave us a message, you can goto our website at
wwwkeephopalivepodcastcom.
To the right-hand side there isa leave a message function that
you can tell us.
Hey, I want to hear stories onthis, or I have a question for
Jonathan.
I will get back with Jonathan.
Let him know those questions sowe can get those answered for
(01:13:09):
you.
So please give us a review andtell us what shows you liked on
Keep Hope Alive too.
But once again, jonathan, thankyou so much for coming on to
Keep Hope Alive.
We really enjoyed talking toyou, getting to know you and
learning about the book processand everything like that and
your future goals and, yes, I'mgoing to follow up with you
(01:13:33):
right away.
Probably, yeah, within 26, thenext year.
Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
All right, well, you're the best, thank you.
Thank you all so much.
Thanks everybody for listening.
Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
All right.
Well, you guys, until our nextshow.
Love and light.
Bye-bye, Bye-bye.
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