It’s OK to Not Know (Yet) | Justin Farren

Episode 2: It’s Ok to Not Know (Yet), with Justin Farren

SHOW NOTES:

“I felt like I was out of control and I didn’t want anybody else to think I was out of control. So that was just young Justin not being comfortable with: 'I don’t know.' Just being comfortable with, 'this dog sometimes does stupid stuff and it’s not my fault, it’s something we should be working through together.'" -Justin Farren

Join us for the second episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with Justin Farren, a singer-songwriter, husband, father and dog lover based in Sacramento, California. In this episode we explore the parallels in nurturing dogs and children, the insatiable nature of money as a reinforcer and ways to help his dog Clara become more comfortable with people. As always, we also talk about dogs. Topics in this episode range from leaning in to saying, “I don’t know,” to making space for ourselves (and our children) to imagine new realities. Justin also plays one of my favorite songs of his, Two Wheel Drive and Japanese. I hope this conversation resonates and gives you practical ways to live into your best case scenario. 

 

About the Host, Grisha Stewart, MA, CPDT-KA, KPACTP: 

Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. She's invented the Leash Belay, a way to walk dogs with rock climbing techniques. Grisha presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. In 2023, she released Intro to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject and the upcoming 3.0 book will just add to it). There are over 100 different courses in her innovative, collaborative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. 

In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is a musician, meditator, budding artist, and an avid conversationalist. She delights in exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.  

About the Guest, Justin Farren: 

Justin Farren was born and raised in Sacramento, where he lives in a house built with his own two hands - or as he likes to refer to it, "a living museum of my own mistakes". Justin's twin brother is yellow truck named Yellow. In the last few years he's won a bevy of awards including the Kerrville New Folk Competition, Songwriter Serenade, and Wildflower. He's shared the stage with David Wilcox, Anna Tivel, Sam Baker, Matt Costa, Pierce Pettis, and many other outstanding performers. He is way more likely to toilet paper a house now than he ever was as a kid.

Justin's fourth Full Length album, Pretty Free, was released on October 23rd, 2020. It's a homespun masterpiece featuring 11 original songs crafted and recorded in a shed in Justin's own backyard. The majority of the songs on the record have won awards In various songwriting competitions around the country, and the album features some of the finest musicians on the planet, Including Brian Chris Rogers, Anna Tivel and Andre Fylling among others. He plays a cheap guitar, but everyone always asks him about his tone and how to get it. They don't know that the sound they're hearing is in his fingers. It's in his playing - a combination of unboxed fluidity, unbridled