Creating successful businesses is a challenge but will it be a fulfilling and rewarding experience? How can you focus on things that matter while being productive, enjoying hobbies, giving back to the community, and having a family all at the same time? Ian shares his lifestyle and business journey and how he can make it all work and reconcile it with all the highs and lows in his life.
Bio:
As the Vintner, Ian Devereux is responsible for everything from vine to bottle at Smith Devereux Napa Valley. He began his career in the wine industry as the Wine Country Director for 7x7 Magazine, where he launched and authored 7x7’s dedicated Wine Country page and developed multi-platform marketing campaigns for over 200 wineries. After traveling the world learning and writing about wine and winemaking, he co-founded Smith Devereux (first vintage 2012). In 2014 Ian accepted his current role as Wine Director for Modern Luxury’s San Francisco Magazine where he works with writers to support wine countries around the globe, sponsors and hosts celebrated events, including the Humanitarian Awards, the Napa Valley Film Festival, and SF Magazine Best of Wine Country. He is active in several local charities, makes philanthropy and giving a part of everything he does, and plays rhythm and lead guitar for High Noon Band.
Time Stamps
0:24 The theme of this podcast
1:10 Sponsor message
1:50 Ian's backstory
3:50 How did you evolve past the "American Dream"?
6:00 The biggest obstacles you faced?
7:40 How did you form meaningful connections during your business career?
9:56 What kept you up in life when you were feeling down?
12:45 If you were to take a troubled friend to a bar, what would you say to them?
14:46 How do you wear so many hats and keep everything balanced in life?
17:20 How did you get into the wine world?
21:05 Why did you get so involved in philanthropy and public mental health?
24:14 The challenges of externalizing something very internal
27:43 How can I give back to the community?
30:17 What is one life-changing experience you've had?
34:03 Who were the key people or things in your life that influenced you much?
37:43 Sponsor message
38:50 Do you have any consistent habits that you'd like to share?
43:23 Were there things in the past you'd like to change?
44:50 What is your final message to the public?
46:11 How can people find you?
Links
Ian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ian_devereux_white/?hl=en
Ian's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iandevereuxwhite
Smith Devereux Winery: https://www.smithdevereux.com
Shop Energy Pods: Energy Pods – KG Food Company
Transcript
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Welcome to the Energize Explorer Enjoy podcast where we bring you inspiring
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conversations about food, fitness and adventure fueled by the power of the energy pods.
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Let's do this!
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Get ready to be inspired Ladies and Gentlemen.
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Our podcast on today's Energize Explorer Enjoy podcast is Ian DeVeroo, Vintner and Wine
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Director for Modern Luxuries San Francisco Magazine.
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From launching and authoring 7X7's dedicated Wine Country page to co-founding Smith
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DeVeroo, NAPA Valley, Ian has had an incredible journey in the wine industry.
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He's traveled the world, learned about wine making and now oversees everything from
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wine to bottle, but it's not just about wine for Ian, he's active in local charities
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and making philanthropy a part of everything he does.
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Join us as we explore Ian's mindset, story and journey to where he is today.
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Hey there listeners, this episode is sponsored by the ever amazing KG Food Companies
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I am someone who went from following what I believe to be kind of the American vision
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of success in terms of money going to college doing all the things that I thought wanted
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it to do to be successful.
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And I am someone who along the way stumbled and fell a whole bunch of times on my way to
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the realization that what others consider success may not be what I consider success.
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So I've had a ton of entrepreneurial adventures.
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I've had many different paths that I've taken mostly to find that what's true and authentic
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to me was inside all the time.
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And so that's where I am now.
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And so I've had a pet toy company.
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I've worked for a publisher, a spiritual publisher.
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I helped rebrand a Bible.
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I worked for a marketing company.
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I owned a marketing company.
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We worked for cheese.
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We worked for everything.
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We can possibly imagine I currently own a winery at Britain for a ton of different magazines.
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I'm currently still the wine director for one of them.
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I've got a wonderful little winery called Spith Everwines where I make philanthropy series
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wines and wines with my brand and wines with the set of the entertainer and famous drummers
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all for mental health.
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I am board of directors for a modern family justice center and a strong believer in the justice
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center model in the growth of that in America.
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Below all of that my true passion is music and songwriting and blessed to be playing ballerarch
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this year and be playing music and recording albums with your other guys who I love his
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brothers and who make music with me.
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And so that is a lot of words but hopefully a short synopsis from my 43 years on this plan.
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One question I have here is that you mentioned that you had that sort of initial American
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dream sort of drive and then you suddenly moved into like all this philanthropy.
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Did you have like a ha moment or how did this transformation this entrepreneurial transformation
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happened?
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What happened for me ultimately the first thing was when I started the pet toy company.
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I did that because there was an opportunity to make money.
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I saw that the I mean the pet sales channel was just exploding people were starting to spend so
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much money on pets and so I saw an opportunity and involved them.
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So I made 20 inch puppets designed for interactive play and training with dogs.
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Got them to the SPCA starting to do all these different things and magazines my whole life
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was pets and pet toys and I realized that while I love pets and I love people I do not love
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people who love pets more than people.
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And so I was chasing my tail I was at events where I didn't belong and people asked me
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what noise my dog made and I made like a hominist.
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Nothing I wanted to talk about less and so that was the first time I realized well I followed
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the money instead of my passion and this is led me to a place of unhappiness but it didn't
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didn't sink in.
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It took me quite a few more ventures before I realized that following the money wasn't going
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to work for me and when I had a lot of money and when I was seeing success in the dollars
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the things that I really love the things that mattered most to you music and family and human
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interactions and deep authentic connections.
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I didn't realize at that time in my life that that's what was important.
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I did realize how deeply unhappy I was and ultimately it took a not an egg I guess it was an
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aha moment but it was really more of a crashing burn moment.
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I had too much to drink and I got my car and started driving and I got pulled over and given
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the DUI and best day of my life man.
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It brought me to this realization in so many ways that my path had gone to skew and that I was
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really lost and so much of that came from this drive towards a vision of success that was not my
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own. I had grown very far from my own true north.
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What was one really sort of big obstacle in this journey like a hurdle that really troubled you
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for a while and you had to work really hard to get over and how did you come over?
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Social. I thought that in order to be happy I had really really social.
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I thought that in order to be successful I had to be really social. I thought that the number of people
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I knew and the number of people who liked or loved or regarded me in positive ways from business
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to whatever that may be. I thought that that was what would help me be successful and I also learned
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in that process that it was what I was filling myself up with. I was externalizing all of these things.
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All of my potential joy and potential success were all based on other people.
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The biggest hurdle for me was letting go of all of that and trying to find success.
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My depth of success and happiness within. The transition from being social at all the time
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being the life of the party and being the center of the party and running around and defining myself based on
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relationships to cutting those ties where necessary or reducing those relationships and looking inward.
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It was the biggest hurdle probably in my life. It's been most of my life defining myself based on
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how others felt about me and defining success in that same way and so it was overcoming
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that deep inner need to be loved and the idea that it was being loved and all of those social relationships
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that would be to success. Was authenticity something very hard to find in business?
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How would you go about it? How would you form meaningful connections during this entire period of time?
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Well during that time for me meaningful connections were who is that party you know?
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And I'm not by party and I don't mean getting craziness. I mean as who was I out? Who was I shaking hands?
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Who's eyes lit up when I walked into a room? Who gave me hugs? Who called me brother? All these other things?
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When I was out moving and shaking all of those things like that was that was that was that
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I mean it was a fire was hot everywhere I went. I think we're driving people like
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"Fing out your guitar" that's rocker roll what he and do my phones blown up. I'm more
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commememines than I knew what to do that was rocker roll man things were moving fast and so it was
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really interesting transition away from that rock and roll status to a slower, more authentic or
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genuine sense of doing business so rather than how many people love my brand how many places carry
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my brand how many states are my brand and how many distributors are carrying my product to
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how well do I know the human beings that are carrying my product how well do I know their customers
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how well do I know the stories of the people who are opening these balls of why and how when I walk away
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from this how many of these people can I call you know friends for how many of these people can I say
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that I know even just at a surface level and really know me even if it is surface level how many people
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have been completely honest with how many people have been by myself with and how many of them have I
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just projected a self that I want others to see and so you know that that was that was an awesome transition
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for me internally to take us back and start focusing on authentic genuine relationships that were
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qualifiable instead of quantifiable. During this entire journey I'll give an example
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when I started business for me working out at the gym lifting some iron, that brought me salvation
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it was like a recuperation thing it was an anchor in life so throughout your journey what were some of the
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big anchors that kept you up when you were feeling down and why were they so effective?
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Well a lot of them were effective I was down a lot of the time I've spent a life of big highs and really
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high highs and really low lows at the least until probably the last few years but like you going to
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the gym fitness and health have always been an anchor for me you know going to the gym what that does
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to my mind what it does to my body what it does to me for the moment and for the future and that's
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one of the things I love about fitness and health is it feels good now it produces good results now and you're
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actually building towards the future so many choices we make are only good right now and could lead to bad
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or vice versa and so that has really helped me down is kept me going is kept me in the moment and it's
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allowed me to peer at the future but that's trying to live in the future my feeling and understanding
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is to live in the past is depression to live in the future things I hate but this is one of the
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places where you can work towards the future and be healthy right now and I love that about it that's been an
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anchor for me and for those exact reasons for music because whether I'm happy or I'm sad sitting now with
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my guitar with seven plants it's that's 14 years old and writing a song is such a beautiful way to
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let feelings now and to put feelings into words and oftentimes to understand feelings in a different
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way I would sit down to write a song about experience and then to writing a completely different song
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and it would be really interesting to look at where why did that come out why is it that my brain is so
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focused on one thing but my spirit or my soul is somewhere else and it was really cool to notice the
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disconnect between this machine I call a brain that's designed and running a super old program just to
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keep me alive versus what was actually coming through my fingers and through my voice as I was playing music
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some music has tied me down and helped me find truth even when my brain was justified or doing
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something and running you know you call them monkey mime I'm just going crazy so music fitness the love of my
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family now my children I got five year old in the year old boy they hold me down and ultimately the
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deep, deep feeling inside that I did have a true north that there was there was a spirit inside of me
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that's been there all along that I was going to be able to find it again you know I knew somewhere
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and somehow and so those things I think fitness music spirituality family okay let's run through a really
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interesting scenario let's say you have a really close friend and they're feeling bad about their
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day they're not could be either a business person or they could have a really excruciating or really
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tedious job so they're overall having a bad day so they're like dude Ian I want to hang out with
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the and you guys go out and have a drink or get some food like what would the conversation be like for
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yeah what would you say to them well I mean ultimately I would try to listen and I would try to as best
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that I could help them find a perspective that might not be the one that they have someone
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far-wise as then I want said to me the difference between having an hell is merely a pair of sunglasses
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you choose to wear and so if somebody was having a bad day I would try to in a different way than I do
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to my kids help them see it from a different perspective help share my experiences as relevant
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or irrelevant as they may be so that they might see that they're not alone um I don't pretend to have
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answers for anybody but I do have a lot of experience and my hope is that in sharing that experience
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to the experience of others they might feel less alone and they might be able to learn something from them
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but the one thing that I was lean on and tell my kids is the good things the wonderful things
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the sweet things the successes and I being success by the definition you choose as success those are
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worth a wink in the tip of the cat but it's the things that hurt it's the sad things it's the hard things
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the things they not to win out of a sad not to stand those are the things that really deserve our gratitude
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those are our opportunities to grow and to change and to embed ourselves and find our true
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north so in all of the pain or suffering that they have help them find if they you know help them
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understand my experience see if that's helpful help them potentially ship perspective if they're available
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to it and if I can remind them that it's the tough times that are the most meaningful and then they
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get to opportunities man speaking of friends and family here's the big elephant in the room as well
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how do you even manage all of this man it's like a band an amazing wine that you're creating all
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of this stuff how does this man do it how do you do it in it's it's interesting I think that on the
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outside people seem like I have this crazy busy life and and I do I've got a really full life I'm coaching
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my kids baseball team but I sleep seven hours and you know I have spare time and you know part of it
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I really think is making a choice not to be chasing things all of the time there's a saying
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religious or not let's define God for this perspective for this purpose as the great outdoors or just
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whatever it is but the saying goes let go and let God and what I believe that to mean for me is
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letting go of the chase you I'm not suggesting that anyone should be complacent or lazy or that
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anything will come to you if you stay in bed but doing more doesn't mean you're going to have more
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and having more doesn't mean that you're going to be more fulfilled so the way that I believe that I'm
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able to do as much as I do is by remaining calm by binding peace and by accepting that I can only be
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my best self in any given day and in any given situation so rather than keeping a checklist I refuse to
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have a checklist my belief is that the things that need to be done will be done the things that I naturally
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prioritize will be achieved and anything that I forget or don't do either wasn't meant to be done
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or if I do make a mistake and I make plenty that I will have the relationships and the peace of my
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dual college eyes for those mistakes avoid making them again but ultimately the way that I do as many
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things as I do as I remove clutter I remove guilt anything that I say my brain tells me I should do
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I don't that's one thing that helps a lot my brain says you should I refuse to do that thing not
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necessarily later but I won't do it in a moment if my brain says you should work out I say thank you
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brain you're trying to protect me and it's not a bad idea to work out but not right now I'm not going to
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work out because I should I'm going to work out because I desire I will because I want because I feel right
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now is that time so I will not should all over myself I think that helps out too I've had your wine
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it's awesome how did you get introduced into the wine world here in the valley Napa Valley
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originally through my maw really she used to bring me up here to pick up her wine clubs and I bring
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my skateboard and I used to think so I was born and raised in the Bay Area I actually born in LA but raised in the
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Bay Area and she bring up here I'm up here like dude this is not what people do okay this is so
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boring we should tear all of these vines out and raise horses or cars or do something cool what a waste
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of space and what are we doing around here sit around drinking wine for and did and then I'm going to
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bartender down in Canobarra and as a bartender down in Canobarra you kind of have two paths you can
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take one of them is the path of man it's a dark path where you go out and all the events where the
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liquor companies take you out on boats and out on parties and all these crazy wild things I mean
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their lines around the corner to use the bathroom and nobody's going to the bathroom and everybody
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comes out looking like they just fake you take you know like wow okay this is dangerous man so that's
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one path the other path is to go to winers and so some of my friends from musicians and that
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plays music with them and I started to get them a wine scene and I found a place where there was certainly
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danger lurking but where people were imbibing they were experiencing alcohol and life and music in a
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place and it wasn't just about getting trashed and getting naked but rather just getting together and
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having fun and so that was my first really experience with one then the true impetus for me to get into
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the industry I had been I finished the job working for lonely clan of travel guides and I was given the
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opportunity to write about wine because I had been traveling up to date this girl in Napaballi and my friend
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who ran this magazine knew about that and he said okay we need somebody to write about wine and
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know you don't want to work for lonely clan of travel guides anymore because you don't want to be on the
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road all the time you want to build in one place well what about writing about wine while you're up there
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and I was like yeah I'll do it man I don't know much about wine you said you don't need to I want
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to write about the experience I want you to do this like you did it lonely clan right about
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experiences so people can better understand where to go and what to do and that was at the time where SEO
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was just becoming a thing and they invested this magazine seven by seven invested heavily so my first
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article I got like 300,000 reads wow right and so I was invited all over the world to write about wine
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experiences and I did that for 10 years and during that time I fell in love with married and had my first
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child with the woman who I met your family that and the wine industry up here since 1983 and we're still
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many happily married and all that is stuff is going on and so I was interviewed somebody 10 years into
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writing and he asked me how long I've been writing and I answered about 10 years and he says to me wow
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that is a long time to just be telling other people stories and I was like you did but um yeah
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but he he was barking I actually left that meeting that interview went back to my office that I
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shared with the friend of mine whose family was farming in Apabilis in the 60s said dude I want to buy
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some grapes and make a wine I'm ready to do this myself and he said I have a better idea I'm farming like
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50 venues we can get contracts on those grapes I know you've friends with winearies we can do everything
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from buying a bottle right now if you want to start a wine company with me and that's like wow let's
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do this and that was now 11 vintage years ago and that is when Smith ever over again man I love your stuff
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holy moly so you've delve into philanthropy as well so let's talk a little bit about that like what are
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some of the touching experiences you had and why you decided to take a more active role in that
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was it a way to sort of escape away from something or just an outlet you know I've always been
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driven into help others I think as I'm naturally a people pleaser and I think that early on that became a
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detriment I think that I became a people pleaser because I was so insecure and so I did that to
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fill myself up and to feel good about myself but when I was able to fill myself up with internal things
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instead of externalizing my joy I realized that I still had a great desire to do those things it
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wasn't just about myself it wasn't you know the paradox about tourism it really was that I got great joy
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out of it and then having children and putting them into this world with their mass shootings and all these
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other things going on I can't help but think I've got to be try to be a part of that solution I want to
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try to be part of that solution and so first I did it at a community level I was the board of directors
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of the library foundation I helped people raise money for different things I've given my time to
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very specific people who have been struggling even strangers who it's been suggested that my experiences many
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of them dark and troubled and painful along the way might help if I were willing to share them and because
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I am willing to share honestly we're good in the band if there are such things the rather just experiences
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as they as they are I've had the opportunity to help a lot of people and through that I was given the
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opportunity to throw some events including a benefit we crane and where we raised over a hundred thousand dollars
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less than a day but it took two weeks of planning that concert and it was amazing to be a part of
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a moving organization that's doing something right now for something that was going on right now and I was
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approached after that about joining the monarch justice center board I'm approached often maybe
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it often but it's not uncommon for me to be approached to join boards where I am a new cog in the same
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wheel where I'm just the new person replacing someone is done for three years and it's just going to be
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calling a list and asking for money and adding new people to that list or throwing the 30th annual event
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really just not not creative and while I support this event some I understand that they're you know
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beautiful and raise money it didn't excite me but a monarch justice center I've become one of the founding
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board members which means we get to create a justice center and a justice center in my mind is the
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best answer to solving many of the mental health problems out there and stopping the cycle of violence
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that's leading to mass shootings leading to the misuse of firearms and and I think to the
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externalization of internal grief are grief and are pain within that seems to be being exposed
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at so many levels and then taking out on innocence around us so you mentioned something about
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externalization of something that's happening internally is there any other standing point here
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that really shines out that people need to be aware of or be mindful of when it comes to mental health
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I think absolutely I think most of us think that that what we're going through is on the inside and
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people are amazing at hiding things it's true we all have our demons but the reality is that those
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demons are festering that those demons are grown that those demons are going to ultimately in almost
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every case and almost every case expose themselves and how they're going to do that is often and sadly
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by attacking those that we love and attacking those who are closest to us and we are going to be
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angry with them and we're going to be hateful and we're going to be resentful and we're going to be jealous
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and the reality is that person isn't even in the room we're simply projecting our inner pain and our inner
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insecurities onto another person and so I believe that mental health begins with an understanding that these things
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are inside of us and it's not anybody else who's job out there to fix you or to change or to treat
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you differently or to choose an identity or label but rather for us to look within and say this hurts
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I acknowledge this hurts and in many cases I acknowledge that I don't know how to fix this myself
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but unless we realize an advance that we're going to hurt others because we're allowing that hurt to live
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within us then we don't have that reason to solve it we think that we can do it ourselves we think we can
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do it alone time is showing evidence of showing mass shootings are showing that it's simply not true
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and we see physical doctors every time we stub our toe and yet there's a stigma about seeing a brain doctor
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that says is there something that I can solve this myself it's like it's just for me it's almost untanied
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that if we have a pain if our brain tells us we have a pain like a hurt finger or anything
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we go to the doctor most of us do we do that but when we're sad or when we're hurt or wherever else that is
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we think no I'm not going to go to the doctor I got this I can think through it I can use this old machine in my head
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to make this okay and so what I would say to anybody who's hurting who is sad who thinks that no one knows
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who thinks they're alone you're not alone everyone at some level knows and sooner or later you're
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going to hurt the people you love so go see a person who is trained to help you with your brain just like
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you would see somebody who's trained to help you with your body don't go to the gym and start throwing up
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thousand pounds just because you can talk to somebody about building to the place where you can lift the way you
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want to or look the way you want to or feel the way you want to don't make guesses and don't go on
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YouTube and listen to some teenager telling you what they do talk to somebody talk to somebody you know
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is talk to somebody with experience don't read about the real and don't just assume that because you live on
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this planet you know it's best for it or for any of the people including yourself on here
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wow man that's that's powerful that's whatever you said it just resonates so well with what's happening
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in our world at this point especially with the rise of the social media stuff and just a lot of
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stuff going on here if I were in a position or I just moved to a new city for example or I wanted to
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take a more active role in sort of following your lead like if I want to be like you in certain ways
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where I want to give back to the world what are some things I can do you know the first thing to do is really
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identify what you're passionate about you know but I think that step one is to look inward I think that's
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often true no matter what in situation isn't if you look inward and find something that excites you
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something that you love even in a adjacency you know it doesn't have to be like wow I love children
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therefore I'm going to go help out with children or I'm involved in our community I'm going to go
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clean up a park they can be whatever it is I love music and if you love music and you love children
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well benefit concert I would be really interested in to look up I now live in Napervali I'm going to go
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on my computer I'm going to look up benefit concert Napervali see if there has been one and then find
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out how to through who's through it was it quantists is there an organization that threw that and then
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reach out and say I'm new here and I'm interested in helping and right off the bat you're going to
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find like minded individuals you're going to find people who are supporting the community or at least
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share passions with you I think that you know really looking inward first is the most important thing
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and then taking that and very simply reaching out to others that are on that path you know it's
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what's amazing is you never know where you're going to make friends you never know what is going to find you and
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there's a song that I wrote recently that one of the lyrics is when a song finds you it's not so much
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about listening for a song or listening to lyrics or trying to apply lyrics or any of those things it's
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really in my mind music finds us we hear it and it just finds us but it doesn't happen if you don't
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turn on the radio it doesn't happen if you don't open up your heart in your mind you're
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song it certainly doesn't happen if you're not in the moment paying attention so being in the moment looking
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inward and letting that song find you that doesn't mean sitting around doing nothing you must be active
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but that's what I would do that would be very proactive looking words and find out what's going on in
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your community with those key words and reach out to people I want to help I want to do this to
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kitchen thing I want to help out at a justice center I want to go for a cleanup whatever it is
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start that in the realm of either fitness or music is there a certain thing that happened that you
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really enjoyed or had fun or it was like a memorable moment that's really just like wow I can't
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stop thinking about it from time to time well I'm also a boxing coach and when I first started boxing
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the very first time I ever got in a ring with someone you know it was it was it was it was a very successful
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outing followed by many unsuccessful outings depending again how you define success and I'm actually
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glad that I spoke that way because in that moment I define success by winning and losing whereas I
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actually learned nothing when I won and everything when I lost so again back to perspective but you know
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and that's the beauty of awareness is like yeah that's funny that I said that but I think ultimately it was
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that moment in the ring where I was just so in it and then for days after it replaying in my head
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going to gone well would have gone differently you know or could have gone differently excuse me and
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it was it was just so thrilling that is my that is my exercise moment and it's led me to be a boxing
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coach to help others to look at the beauty of understanding how to fight so that you don't have to
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find an inner peace and security with yourself because you are trained to protect yourself or protect
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those that you love it necessary there are so few people know how to fight that actually do why because
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you don't have that need to prove yourself anymore I'd so much rather not hurt my hands and not go to jail
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or not hurt another human being now that I know how to it's like I don't want I would never
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would but before I did I was like dude I wonder if I could beat him up I wonder if I could you know and
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there's like oh dude no I'm probably jumping to the knee and he's don't know right and so that was it
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for me with fitness and then all into the music one as well and I started playing music with a friend
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of mine we started playing in the camp out and it was really cool and fun sort of a lot of drinking
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but then we started playing every day he was going through a really tough time and it's like I'm
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started out every day but at least twice a week I knew it at his place we both worked in downtown
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Napa and we started writing songs trying to help him battle through these things were going on in life
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what I didn't realize is that I was also battling through incredibly intense issues they were just
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not that involved up to the surface yet and we ended up with the opportunity to play a gig
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and a sandwich shop a grilled cheese shop called melted in the back and it was kind of the silly thing
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we had to come over to the band name and we had no desire to come up the hand or really do
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any of that we just love playing music I had been in a band for a number of years although I've been in many
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my life it hadn't it wasn't something that was going on actively and we played this gig and I got off that
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stage and I just like it was almost going to require someone to hold me down to keep you from going back on
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like I was like I want to keep playing music I want to be up there I want to see people dancing
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I want people see people singing you know and it's interesting is that was one of the things that yet again
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we really was about extra-alizing joy I wasn't enjoying playing music at that time I was enjoying people
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loving E playing music and that has shifted dramatically now I just love being on stage and playing
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but without that little opportunity to play at that grilled cheese shop I don't know that I would be in the band
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that I mean now so those two moments and there were many more in my younger music career you know I played at the
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Cockrope of I played it's really cool that used and it was some really wonderful people and but it was that moment that
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launched me in my current space so speaking of memorable moments and people around us
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one of the questions I have right now is were there any inspirational figures or people around in your life
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that really helped you move forward in life or influenced you in a certain way.
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No my dad and my family and I definitely had friends who have helped out
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musically books have definitely been a huge part of that anywhere from you know kind of
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self-helpy spiritual books like untethered soul if you haven't read untethered soul read it right away
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if you haven't read a new earth by actor tall with that right away I would recommend
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books like the fountain head that give you a look at the way that success is structured and how different people find success
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you know and so I read you know about like eat a different religions understanding religion
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it's so important because more land is owned by religions more people have died more
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lives have been told more justification for horrific actions have been committed
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not in you know not not because of religion by any means but in the name of religion corruption of this
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beautiful idea of faith getting to know the different faiths and understanding what's truly
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the core of the beauty and the history for me so people like Gandhi both in his incredibly
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flawed life but also of the beauty that he gave people like the Buddha Siddhartha who I mean
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completely abandoned entire family sweet dude leader kids and white can go find it
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not like that but at the same time also an incredible leader so not ever looking for you know perfection
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or necessarily even answers in these things but rather growth and so there have certainly been
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human beings my dad who died when I was young the way that he lived my mom my stepdad
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you know my brother the their band has gotten him Jason in my life when I was struggling with alcohol
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he was my sponsor but also my friend and he helped me get through that he's been a major influence in my
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life my struggles were substance abuse which I'm really happy to say at the moment or not a problem
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having that required some time Jason knows a big part of that a lot of other nameless
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faithsless human beings probably say it faces but you know anybody but that who along the way have
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taken the time to be kind to me without any expectation of return and that is the biggest one of the
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biggest gets I've ever received is to do things simply because you feel they are right not because
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they will lead to an outcome to be completely non manipulative I decided that for myself success
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is a series of things and nothing to do with money I consider us a day successful if I was honest kind
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loving generous grateful and humble if I was those six things then in a day then I am that day
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more like the human being that I hoped to become as I aged I was taught those six things
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not because I am them I embody them or I read them in a book but rather because I was shown them
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by different human beings in my life that they for me in moments actions or words embodied those things
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and so it's sort of those nameless human beings that have shown me those kindness that have been
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a true inspiration also a gentleman named John Wyman who I believe is one of the most incredible
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human beings when it comes to helping others with their mental problems he's run hospitals he's done
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a ton of other things but he's got an incredibly unique way of just listening and of letting you
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opening the path for you to help yourself hey listeners before we jump back into our fascinating
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conversation let's take a moment to appreciate the delicious goodness of pagey food companies
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the go these energy pods even come with a built-in spoon for your convenience so go ahead and treat
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yourself to these mouth watering ponds make your taste buds dance visit kgfoodco.com kgfodo.com
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to grab your favorite flavors and now let's get back to our inspiring guest do you have any
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daily habits by any chance or do you always prefer to stay in flux and follow intuition often
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or something that you sort of a have to do or want to do or has been beneficial you know I have
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habits and I have patterns I don't I don't I'm not a big fan of the word habit I like the word desire
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and I like to believe that I'm making active choices as much as I possibly can but I have the habit of
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waking up early I have a habit of going to bed early I have a habit of drinking a lot of water and eating
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as many vegetables as I possibly can I have the habit of making sure to be grateful for the challenges
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in my life and for for giving myself that's the biggest one for me that I have to keep in raining is to
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treat myself like I would love to want to be a best friend instead of an enemy I think also often
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especially in my past and I would be surprised to learn that others don't do this as well we don't
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treat ourselves like someone we love we look at other people and we have compassion and kindness
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and then we look inward and what the fuck is wrong with you bro fix it what is wrong with you how could you
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do that and then from milling it this on and on and on we beat ourselves up I like somebody
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wants to be like I feel like I'm carrying a backpack of the bad shit I've done in my life with me
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and then every now then I just like to unzip it and beat the shit on myself with it I'm like yes
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really too like why I'm ready to take the backpack and say I forgive you for all the bad days believe
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that there's bad of course for all the things you've done that have hurt others for all the things
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that you've done to hurt yourself I forgive you for your mistakes and to your brain that's constantly
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driving you crazy with all again this old programming like to the voice that's in my head you know that
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that's a really old program and it's really nothing to do with me thanking it for when it tells me I'm afraid
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thanking it for when it tells him to be angry thanking it for all of the things that I don't want to be
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because it's trying to protect me but then you know being mindful someone recently told me what's
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it's asking what's the difference between being aware and being mindful and I like kind of the same thing
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I said no no they are actually sequential being aware means actually being in a peaceful state
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where you can be cognizant where you can engage your cortex the thinking part of your brain and be aware of what's
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actually occurring for what's actually occurring that is not plastering it or pasting it with all of your past
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experiences and all of your preconceived notions and then judging it based on that lens being aware
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is being peaceful enough to look at a situation for that situation as best one can be mindful
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is what happens after that you become aware of the situation being mindful is choosing how you're going to
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handle that for example someone can say something really mean to you and you can then say to them
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just yell back at them pick something out about them that you think can be hurt for you punch them
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all of those things or you can stop for a second and think why did that human being just say that to me
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you might realize that you had actually instigated you might realize that this is a person who's so deeply
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damaged and abused that they're just lashing out with their own internal demon someone who does
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who really well they had said something mean so many who's deserving of your love and compassion this is
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something gondy talk this is not somebody who's attacking you this is somebody who's feels
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although they're in corner they're trying to fight for their lives do you want to make that
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person worse and curse them off the cliff or do you want to find compassion awareness is being
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aware in that moment what's really happening mindfulness is then how you handle that that person who's yelling
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at you in this case where you're going to stop and say I'm sorry that I heard you what I'm sorry for
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whatever I did and try and become a part of the solution awareness and mindfulness so I try very much
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to be in the habit of stopping long enough to become aware and trying my best and often fail and tall so be mindful
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I'm going to start doing that starting today just saying just be more aware like it like when somebody
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lashes out it's easy to sort of cave into negativity but I think it takes a lot of courage a lot of awareness
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a lot of mindfulness to just step back and realize that hey there's some inner workings that are going
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on with that person and maybe they just need an all of branch or some help which brings me to really
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a very interesting question if you were to retake this entire journey is there something that you would
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like to change or do you think that it is what it is and except where you are and just think of it as part of
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the journey. I don't as I said a little bit earlier looking back at the past for me I think there is
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often there are just wonderful memories of getting wrong but looking back at it in that way I think
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of you like I think that way lies sort of some depressing thoughts because you can't really change things
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but if I were able to change things perhaps it's better said if there was something that I was able
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to be tell myself I would earlier in my life had stopped and looking the mirror and said I love you
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and that I think would have been different I think that if I had found a way to love myself
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earlier I think that a lot of the hurt that I brought to others might not have happened
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whether that's good or bad I don't know and where I would be right now had I done that I do not know
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am I would I change anything no but knowing what I know now I've been nice to look in the mirror
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and say I love you and find a way to mean it. Damn me and you're like one of the coolest
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genuine nicest people I've come across in my life I can I totally more like you're awesome man
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so let's start sort of wrapping things up a little bit and is there something
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I mean we've given a lot of gems to people but is there something that you think your listeners can benefit
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from or like a final message of some sorts? I mean it's hard after all the things you talk about.
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I love this podcast and I love the way that you've asked these questions and that you've allowed me to
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to speak so much and on so many topics that are so important to me and I'm really grateful for that
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but if there's one thing that I would say to others that perhaps we haven't said much about it's gratitude
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living a life of gratitude for the things that you perceive to be good or bad
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grateful for the things that hurt grateful for the things that are sweet but finding a way to be
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grateful for everything because you probably have 30,000 days on this planet. How many of those days
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do you want to spend angry? How many of those days do you want to spend angry with others or yourself?
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How many of those days do you want to spend wishing for other things,
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recording things, anxiously awaiting things? My hope for you is that you spend those days enjoying
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and gratitude and that starts with making a choice because everything, everything in life is a choice.
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Wow, wise words, man, wise words, gratitude, gratitude, mindfulness awareness. I'm going to keep that in my mind right now.
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So how can people find you? You can find me on Instagram and Facebook and now TikTok.
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I really want to enjoy that as well. I need to do it by team finding it. Ian Devere White.
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That's Ian Underscore Devere White. If you look up Ian Devere, you can find it. It's called Devereau.de
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REX. You can reach me at Ian@smithdevereau.com
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and you can also find me through Smithdevereau.com. The Devereau is spelled with the next.
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The DEV REX is a set of moments. Those are the best ways to find me.
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But I should be relatively easily found. I think he can probably find me through a link in this podcast.
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00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:57,120
I will use that as an opportunity to say thank you again for this podcast for your choice to help people be healthy,
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for creating companies that help people be healthy, for opening up a forum for people like me to share our experiences
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and the hopes that in some shape or form they'll help others. Thank you for having me on here today.
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00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:15,520
I'm grateful for you, man. Thank you so much Ian. And yes, we will include all these links in the
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description so that people can find you and they can benefit. Wow, I, you blew my mind, man. Really.
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Thank you so much Ian. I, thanks for having out thanks for thanks for being on the show.
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Thanks for having me, my friend. Have a wonderful weekend.
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Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce that starting soon will be taking in listener questions for our podcast.
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If you have any burning questions regarding food, nutrition or the food industry or
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pretending to our guests, be sure to send them our way. Next week's guest is chef Aaron, who is an
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engineer, turned hospitality professional. He's also trying to start his own business, creating and
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delivering high quality meals in Napa, California. One of the world's top food and wine hubs.
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You won't want to miss out this insightful conversation with a passionate and innovative chef.
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Thank you for listening to our podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode,
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please rate, review and subscribe to our energized, explore, enjoy, podcast on your favorite
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00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:36,320
podcasting platform. See you next week.
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