048 How to Build Grit as a Creative (When You Want to Quit)

How do you develop "creative grit" and the resilience needed for long-term success in any creative field?

Whether you're a worship leader, entrepreneur, artist, or creative professional feeling stuck, this conversation offers the practical tools and mindset shifts needed to develop lasting creative resilience.

Follow Jordan Marcotte on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jordanamarcotte

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Creative Grit
• 1:51 Service to Others Fuels Creativity
• 4:56 Breaking Through Creative Blocks
• 9:20 Heavy Bat Dreaming and Millimeter Steps
• 21:43 Overcoming Fear and Holy Procrastination
• 27:16 The Value of Time Under Tension

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, welcome back. Excited to have my friend, jordan Marcotte on again with me today, and if you don't know Jordan, you should get to know him. He is a worship leader, musician, business owner, entrepreneur. He's incredible and today I'm excited to talk with him about creative grit and what is needed as a creative to keep going for the long haul. If you heard the previous episode we did with Jordan, he talked a little about his career. He grew up as a black belt in martial arts, won multiple Midwest Awards, nationwide awards for cheerleading martial arts, and then began ministry, was a full-time worship pastor for 15 years. Stepped out of that the last year and a half has started multiple businesses, multiple brands and this thing called creativity, which a lot of creatives and entrepreneurs listen to this podcast. A lot of worship leaders listen to this podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:00

It's one thing to be strong. In your teens, in your 20s, you have all these dreams and desires. Everything is just right there for you, and then, as you continue on this journey, maybe you get married, have some kids, financial demands begin to be higher, maybe there's some desire to quit and kind of just give up. I want to talk about how you don't give up and how you don't quit and how you find that creative grit. So what's the first thing, jordan, that you would say in your career as a creative? That you're continuing to go strong in. This is your full-time gig. You're getting paid as a creative every single day.

Speaker 2: 1:49

What would you say is the number one or two things that have kept you going. When we do, when we try to do things for our own self, for our own ego, even if it's a little bit like oftentimes if that doesn't get satisfied or fulfilled and we're not thinking about being in service to others, then it gets way easier to find disappointment, grow in doubt, grow in discouragement, and my level of optimism has always been insanely high and I have no idea why. Still to this day, I literally have no idea why. I have no idea why still to this day, I just I literally have no idea. So part of it, I think, is just like my gifting, uh, which is why I think I'm a great like encourager. I feel like I'm good at reframing belief, and so it's funny because I feel like in business it's looked at as like a consultant or a strategist, and to me I laugh at that because I'm like, all I think I am good at is being able to like, create and reframe like perspectives and belief, and so for me, I think that I've always been able to attach the effort that I want to put in with someone being better for it on the other side, and so when I think about resilience and building toughness within it.

Speaker 2: 3:08

I think I had to learn how to do that emotionally growing up. I think I had to learn how to do that mentally growing up and I think because of martial arts. Martial arts taught me that if you want to become a black belt, you know, like when you're a white belt, you kind of want to become a black belt, and I had to. I had to learn discipline and resilience, that in order to be able to get to the other side of that. But on the journey to that, the first thing that you learn is how to be in service to others. That's the first thing that you learn, because every white belt wants to be an orange belt, every orange belt wants to be a blue belt, and so you start teaching and digging into serving others almost immediately.

Speaker 2: 3:49

And so for four to five years, as a nine-year-old, as a 10-year-old, as a 15-year-old dude, I was as a, as a 14-year-old, black belt. I was coaching four-year-olds, 14-year-olds and 40-year-olds. You know what I mean? Huh, like for pay, not for pay. Just, it was part. It was just part of the training, you know, because that's just what you did. And so I think what I'm trying to say is that there's always. There's always just been an obsession of being in felt insecure. Whether I was even do, even if there was parts of me that were doing it somewhere in there for my own identity, or for the wrong reasons, or immaturity, you know, there was always this thing that was to make has to overwhelm any kind of insecurity that you feel like you've got to be able to learn how to. The second thing I would say is like I just I don't, I don't believe in, like I don't know, I don't really believe in like writer's block or like creative blocks.

Speaker 1: 4:56

I understand resistance, but that's just, that's a good statement.

Speaker 2: 5:00

Yeah, yeah, I'll talk about it first from the from the perspective of like a songwriter, and again, whatever, all y'all can come at me in the comments or whatever. I remember teaching a class one time and someone was like I feel like I have writer's block. I coached, I coached this person through this moment where I said do you think that you have writer's block or do you think that you're trying to write from a place in a position that you're not at? And they were like. They were like okay, explain, you know. And I said, okay, well, what's, what kind of song are you trying to write right now? And they were like well, I'm trying to write X song, whatever. And I was like why don't you give me like, tell me how you feel right now, like where you actually at? And the issue was that there was pain or areas of their life in that current moment that they did not want to deal with or address. But I said what would happen if you had the courage right now to either forgive, choose to heal and choose to actually embrace the thing that you don't want? This is why this worked for me, even in brand development, right, and story, not just storytelling, but story, your story. When you learn to heal your story, you'll unlock parts of yourself in how you can be in service to others in ways that you would not be able to if you try to just constantly stay inspired or motivated or wanting to just write what you want, or be what you want or whatever. Create just what you want. And again, I understand, like Rick Rubin and other people who are like like that's not what I'm talking about who are like make it for you, make it something that you like and then let other people enjoy it. That's not the conversation I'm wanting to have. I'm wanting to have that conversation where it's like.

Speaker 2: 6:42

I think, as creatives, I genuinely believe that we always have access to be, a being able to like, like. I believe that we always have access to like, like making and building and and creativity. I think that we can always grab it. Sometimes I think it's it's not the work of the creativity that we're struggling with. I think it's the journey or the process or the moment of like, the key that we need to be able to unlock certain parts of that creativity. And so the reason I wanted to make that a distinguisher is because I think that if we just focus so much on well, because if we just attach it to how creative we feel, then we'll base that off of inspiration, and so we'll go try to find I love inspiration, by the way, but we we'll go try to find I love inspiration, by the way, but we'll just go try to exclusively find inspiration instead of doing the work as a creative to access maybe parts of me or things that are that are uncommon to me, or whatever, to be able to like actually extract that and pull it out. And so I'm more con, I'm more uh, I'm more dedicated to.

Speaker 2: 7:44

This is why I like have believed so much in, like innovation and why I press the bound, and why I'm so like, why I have so many ideas or strategy or whatever, is because I want to look around every nook, every cranny, every wall that I've built up in my own life, that I've tried to protect or hide behind, or all of this stuff Like what's the level of creativity, where's the story? All of that kind of stuff I what's the level of creativity, where's the story? All of that kind of stuff I'm obsessed with. And so it's a big statement and I don't want to like be long-winded on it. But yeah, dude, like from the songwriting perspective, like it's cool to watch that happen, because then people go, oh, I just was trying to write from a place that I wasn't at or that I didn't want to go to, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:22

So it's not really writer's block, it's more resistance to you embracing a part of you that you don't want to deal with yet. By the way, that's okay. But don't just blame it on a lack of creativity, because the sky's a little dark today and you didn't wake up next to an ocean and your pen doesn't feel that, whatever. There's again back to the martial arts things. Last thing I'll say brother's discipline to creativity and and you know, like it's not always sexy, it's not always about getting award winning ideas. That's not the point. It's about laying bricks, it's about stretching, it's about working the muscle, and so I think that that's part of the creative process.

Speaker 1: 9:01

I think creativity is always excessive, always accessible, dude 100 and I agree, like if, if people have followed my show for a while, you know they, they um, remember the, the movies that we did these past four years to four years now, but we did three films in three years, and I was just telling someone this recently. You know, without a vision, people perish, right, and so I think in every area of your life, whether it's your health or your family, or your business, or your ministry, whatever it is, you know you want to have a vision there, right, yes, and and I believe in having, you know, massive, massive, um ideas that this I heard this this recently uh called heavy bat dreaming. And we're not talking about the animal, we're talking about baseball bats. So Heavy Bat Dreaming, if you don't know what that is, you know, in baseball, when you're warming up to go be the next hitter, you put weights on your bat and you swing with your bat weighing more than it actually does, right? So then when you take the weights off and you go to the batter's box, you just feel like a million bucks. The bat so light, cause there's no more weights on it, you can just crush that baseball out of the park, you know. So it's called heavy bat dreaming and so the the the point of that is dream with weights on meaning, crazy, obnoxious dreams like basically impossible dreams, like what? What you say should make me laugh right, like, um, that I share this. I was at a youth camp recently, a worship camp, and I shared this and you know I had them on the edge of their seat and then I said the final phrase and they all, they all laughed.

Speaker 1: 10:38

But you know, like, for our house, for example, you know, our, our dream house is, you know, a couple thousand square feet on a couple acres. Example, you know, our, our dream house is, you know, a couple thousand square feet on a couple acres. Front porch, you know, back porch, um, you know, and my wife, she's always, she's always wanted a porch and um, so we say, you know the back porch, um, have a couple of chairs on it. That is overlooking a beautiful, beautiful lake on the planet Mars and it's like what? Like? And just just for clarity, I want nothing to do with Mars, I'm never going to go there. I'm never getting a spaceship, ever. I don't care how much Elon does, I'm not getting in a spaceship.

Speaker 1: 11:15

But what if you shoot for the stars in that kind of house, you'll end up somewhere, you know, in between. But if you just shoot for, like man, I'd love to have like a, a, a riding mower or you know whatever. It's like you know, okay, a millimeter dream, well, you're going to end up somewhere between. It's going to be very, very little, right? So heavy bat dreaming is like you're shooting for the stars, right, and so so I love this idea of, like you know, without a vision, people perish, and so in your creativity though, it can sometimes box you in and I coach a lot of worship leaders, I coach a lot of creatives. We have this creative conference we host every single year, and people have these amazing, amazing dreams and again, I'm all about those dreams, like the house on Mars, whatever, right, I get it.

Speaker 1: 12:00

But if you set that as the only standard by which you will deem you've been successful is if you do that big thing, it can be very, very frustrating and, and that can be very, very challenging as a creative. So I was telling someone the other day, with these three movies in three years that we did, you know, I had like massive dreams of how I wanted to shoot them, of who I wanted to cast, cast, what a-list actor I could have used. But if I only held on to that belief until I have this a-list actor, until I have, you know, 50 million to make this movie, I'm not going to shoot it. Well, I can, I can tell you. I won't get into all the names, but the amount of people whose attention we have caught these last five, four or five years of doing these films are like huge people in multiple different industries. We never would have caught their attention. I would still be like, trying to raise $50 million, it would probably never get the 50 million Cause I have no proof of concept of my like wait. They're like wait. You're a songwriter, worship leader guy. Why are you doing films? No, I'm not going to give you $50 million, but because we did these, these cheaper films, you know, 65,170 to 50. And we've now caught the attention of these different people being like I see what you're doing there, like wow, and no one ever said the quality is not good, but I know what the quality could be.

Speaker 1: 13:24

So the point is, as a creative, if you only have, you know, 10 degrees up is the only thing you'll accept For your record. It has to be at this studio, with this producer you want to co-write with this person. I'm never settling for anything less. And you're not willing to settle for it. Well, let's just go like one degree up. Let's start there, faithfully, steward that. Do it the best that you can. Don't accept it to be trash. Do it the best you can, and then don't wait five years before you go a next degree up, just like, keep going. You know, without a vision, people perish, and so I think what I was creatives is you have to have the heavy battering. You want to shoot for the stars. And a side note put that junk on paper. Don't just have it up in your, you know, in between your ears. Put it on paper, yes, have that. But then today, what are you doing? What's the one millimeter step you're taking today? At the same time, yeah, yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Yeah, the reason I.

Speaker 2: 14:21

Oh, go ahead. No, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, I just was going to say, like, the reason, the reason I love that is, I think that you can have audacious dreams and massive dreams and like, have a vision and shoot for that without growing in discouragement or disappointment, because some people are afraid to let themselves go there. And so that's where I think, even with creativity, that we feel like what you were saying. We can often feel like then, if anything came under that, then we're settling for less failure and and that's not like, that's not the right, that's not the right mindset that we should have around it. And I think having those millimeter dreams and doing those things, that's what builds that resilience, that's what builds that toughness. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 15:09

I think if there's one thing I could talk about I don't even know if I'm invited back to Legacy, but that would be the thing that I'd probably talk about is creative resilience. That I'd probably talk about is like creative resilience, because I think that, like creatives have a artists and creatives, I think like they get the, they get this like bad rap of like just being flighty and wishy-washy and only contributing when it feels right, versus being able to. And again. That's why I think people feel like they hit blocks, you know, but they don't know how to press. They don't know what it means to actually have not everyone. They often don't know what it means to just like endure that, because it's so we're so used to creating just from feeling or from you know, just an idea feels good, and I believe that there are some people who are just starters and finishers. I'm a starter, I'm a starter, you know.

Speaker 2: 16:02

That was one thing that Russell Brunson was talking about one time. I was like one of the greatest things that ever happened to my business is hiring finishers, you know, and and so we're creative. We're really good at grabbing and pulling and moving and building and shaping and ideating, and you know, like creative strategy and and all of that stuff, I just think, like resilience is is a beautiful like you can. You can put in words like discipline and all of that kind of stuff, but we have to be able to move beyond motivation and inspiration in order to continue to build towards something that's audacious without growing weary in the process, and it is a hundred percent doable. So yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:39

So the three things that you mentioned, what you just mentioned of, um, cause, what, what has kept you going as a creative, right? You was like, don't wait for inspiration, what I heard you just say, yeah, you push past past insecurity by getting up off the couch and doing stuff that you feel insecure about and just just doing it, doing it, uh. Then you also mentioned giving out. That was I thought that was a phenomenal point um, and dude, what a, what a like a gift that karate was your. You had part of your training was to turn around and give out what you're being taught from your family, right, so that's, and that's an amazing thing that keeps you from being, like you know, self-centered and it's like I'm going to give away this amazing technique, you know, my coach just taught me. So those are three powerful realities to give out overcome insecurity by doing the things you're insecure about and don't wait for inspiration, inspiration, uh. And then I mentioned one you know you have to have the millimeter dream, along with the dream and one of the things that I'll mention that if someone was to ask me, you know, hey, like you've been a full-time creator for 22 years, what has kept you going? Um, you know, having that creative grit, if you will, and and I think much like the insecurity piece and is the fear piece, and I think much like the insecurity piece and is the fear piece is being okay. I was, I was speaking with someone. Uh, the other day, one of my clients, you know, has never recorded something like the thought of like putting something on Spotify, itunes, you know, apple music, whatever is just like terrifying to them and and I was just kind of, you know, telling them, hey, once you get that first win and you hear your voice on that app that you're, you're fanning over all those other people who are incredible on that app. Once you hear your voice on there and you get into a studio with a professional person, like your confidence is going to go like way through the roof.

Speaker 1: 18:37

So call that insecurity, call that fear, but I know for me, with with the music stuff, with, um, the, the movies, you know it'd be so easy again and we've talked about this in a recent episode It'd be so easy to be like I'm still praying about it. I know and I say this all the time when I'm in fundraising meetings or I'm preaching or teaching on this If I had waited until I had $65,000, the cost of our first movie in the bank before I pressed go. Four years ago, I believe I'd still be raising $65,000. But instead of sitting and waiting and praying and hyper-spiritualizing this idea, the Lord spoke three films in three years. Is that contrary to scripture? No, that's. That's not contrary to scripture.

Speaker 1: 19:24

So what do we do? We put a down payment on a soundstage. We hired people who we don't have to pay until most of them. You don't have to pay until you wrap shootings. You don't even need that half down. You just sign the contract to hire their services with zero money and you know we're sitting on set having 60,000 raised and someone texts me and says hey, you know, I feel like I'm supposed to give you $5,000 to your nonprofit production company. I need a tax break.

Speaker 1: 19:52

You know, overcome fear, overcome insecurity by doing Don't try and pray your fear away and then, once the fear is gone, you begin walking. So, as a creative, maybe you're an entrepreneur listening to this. You're not a musician or singer or worship leader or whatever. But if you're a worship leader listening to this again, I'm not talking about like shooting for the stars and going into debt and running up a credit card to go to Nashville and do this amazing record like a millimeter, one millimeter, like. What can you do today? That's awkward. It's going to push your fear buttons, but you're going to push through we just have to.

Speaker 2: 20:27

Yeah, that's so good, bro, because we, we, just we have to be, we have to be careful not to turn waiting on God or praying into some like holy procrastination, like where it just turns into just like delay, love that Delay, you know, like when I think about you because obviously the last, the last couple of years, man, like we've, we've, we've, we've journeyed, I mean, honestly, I look at like you've been along the way from before the, the, the burnout. You watched me wrestle through all of this and I've watched you wrestle through so many things, man, and through tears and all the stuff. And as you were talking just now, I mean I know it's a scripture that like we all know, and it's like, obviously, the faith scripture. But like when, I think about what you just said.

Speaker 2: 21:12

Literally, bro, it is like it is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen. And so what does that mean about faith? Because sometimes we do this thing where again the waiting on God feels so good to say to other people Right, you know, I'm just waiting on the Lord. But then we end up like we end up manipulating that and using that as a way for us to be able to just delay, feel better about why we're not taking action, because if we're just waiting on what we could see, just like you said, 65, whatever thousand dollars, like you said, you'd still be trying to raise that stuff, you know. But you locked into substance of things hoped for and evidence of things 65K evidence of 65, 65 K evidence of three films in three years not yet seen. Yeah, yeah, come on, bro, like we got it, we got to tap into that. And that's the difference too.

Speaker 2: 22:08

You know, I was explaining this to someone the other day and hopefully this doesn't sound um, hopefully this doesn't sound rude or whatever, but um, I was, I was, I was having a conversation and I don't remember what the full context was, but I said, you know, sometimes I think, people who are not believers. I think they just have an easier way, like easier time sometimes, just like taking massive risk. Because, again, I'm not talking about obedience, I'm not talking about higher authority, I'm not talking about all that, it's just they just go. I'm just going to take risk. Why can't we, as children of God, just take risk? How do we even learn, justin? How does my four-year-old bro know how to? I want her to take massive risk. I want her to fail. Dude, it's going to be the best gift and best lesson that they could ever have. I love all the opportunities. Dude, I'm the dude that. It's like you know. It's like ask, seek, knock, listen.

Speaker 2: 23:08

I learned how to pick locks at 13 years old. So, like I'm the dude that if I feel like the Lord locks the door, the door isn't open, I'm like, nah, this is is a challenge. You want me to see if there's a hidden key, if there's a hidden way, if you want me to pick this, I'm like, I'm gonna make sure, and that's just my personality, that's just part of my personality. I do. It's a very funny story, but, yes, I do know how to pick locks.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Yeah, wow, I wanted to be like a private investigator when I was a kid or something, and so I learned this technique with a nail file, like a thin nail file and a safety pin, yeah, and so I made my grandpa go to Home Depot or wherever Lowe's back in the day I was 13 and I said I want you to lock me out of my room. I printed out this thing to teach me how to do this scrubbing method, and I said I want you to hold the key with you, so it wasn't locking me in my room. I was like I want you to lock me out, and so I did it.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Yeah, 15 minutes or so, that's good to know after all these years of friendship.

Speaker 2: 24:06

It goes to show you a lot about my personality, I think Because right when I did, it. I was like, hey, lock it, do it again. I was like I just got to know if I can do it again. Wow, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Do you ever you want to confess anything right now, in the public air of this episode, of any door you've ever unlocked of a business or a car of someone else?

Speaker 2: 24:24

I wish the only funny story that I have was our garage got locked one day and I tried to go out. And I tried to go out and do my technique on it and it didn't work, and so they hired a locksmith to come in. The locksmith had his fancy tools and tried to do it. He couldn't do it and so they had to drill it out, and so that made me feel really good about myself.

Speaker 2: 24:47

That even a locksmith couldn't do it. So that's just what I'm saying, man. It's like when we press, I just think that we have to have courage. And again, bro, that's the stuff where we have to go and we have to like, we have to have those conversations because it's on a soul level hey, what's motivating you right now, like, are you actually cause? That's the issue, bro.

Speaker 2: 25:07

We say I'm waiting on God, but, bro, we're really motivated by what you said earlier fear. We're motivated by fear, and so that's why, for whatever it's worth, I don't take that stuff as face value anymore with some of my dearest friends. I'm just waiting on God. I'm like, tell me what that means right now and where are you actually at? Because I want to actually serve you. If me and you are chopping it up and having coffee, I want you to hold me accountable to that, because you, you know where I'm headed and I want you to be able to ask me the deep questions and the hard, challenging questions. Jordan, are you procrastinating or are you actually in a in a season or a moment of actual preparedness? Do you feel insecure? Right, I always tell you that stuff. I'm like, bro, I feel today, I feel imposter syndrome. I hate that. I feel that, but there's been a lot of inaction because I feel like I lack clarity. Okay, well, let's talk about that. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Speaker 1: 25:59

Let's talk about that?

Speaker 2: 25:59

Is God saying something? No, but what I'm feeling is a sense of go, but I feel resistance from me, from fear. Yeah, then we can actually have a beautiful, clear relationship with God and be able to experience him on the other side of substance hope evidence not yet seen.

Speaker 1: 26:18

Yeah, so I got to say about that. I love that. I was having a conversation with an older gentleman the other day, very, very inspiring. He said I was sharing what some things with my production company that we're dreaming about, we're pursuing, and he we're pursuing, and he said to me he said I believe that the more illogical your dream or desire might seem, the more illogical it is. It's probably more of a guarantee that it's actually the lord, because you would in and of yourself, you know, maybe you have some dreams or whatever, but like God's probably in that dream because it's so wild, yeah, and again, the way that you accomplish that is millimeter by millimeter, stepping forward.

Speaker 1: 27:04

Now there will come a time, like when you sign on that actor, when you sign the dotted line for a building, when you buy a business, when you do whatever it is, when it's like, okay, my millimeter is about to turn into I'm jumping off of a cliff that I can't come back from, right. But I think so many times the Lord, you know, gives you the millimeter steps, even if you're not aware of it. You can look back in different seasons and say, oh, actually this, this and this was the Lord preparing me to sign this contract to jump off the cliff Right, and so I'm beginning to see patterns now, and so, as we're pursuing, you know what we feel is next for this, for our production company. The excitement is growing, the nervousness is growing, the anticipation is growing, the fear I'm having to squash it down and just say no, like a logical is is is where my God lives in terms of the earthly logic of like you shouldn't be doing this, you should not be doing this, right, and I want to have you back again and we'll.

Speaker 1: 28:00

We'll talk about some of the things that even illogical in Jordan's life that we've you. You know I've watched you walk these last year and a half with your businesses different things like that but but just just a word of encouragement as we wrap this episode today Um, if you're a creative out there, an entrepreneur, worship leader, whatever it is, take millimeter steps. Don't give in to insecurity, don't give in to fear. Overcome those two things by walking forward, forward motion. Have your prayer time, declare scriptures that's great too, but walk forward. While you're doing that, um, be giving out, looking behind you, to someone younger than you or, you know, not as far on the journey as you, and give out and and have those big dreams and the millimeter dreams that you're walking into, and just just pursue what, what the Lord is putting your heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:53

Yeah, so I want to. I want to say exactly what you just said from the viewpoint of martial arts, like one thing, one thing that the Lord has been showing me this year has been like in my style, you have seven colored belts and then you get your black belt Right, and so every white belt wants to be a black belt. That's like the big dream. That's what we would say. Is this audacious like thing I'm going to conquer all, I'm going to learn all this stuff, whatever? The beauty about this is that it all is systematically laid out right. So there's nothing you can do to speed it up, but there's everything you can do to slow it down, to create delay in it, you know, by losing commitment, by lacking discipline, by quitting, by whatever right. But if you stay according, if you stay the course, then you'll get there right on time. But the wild thing is that once you become a black belt in my style, once you become a black belt, it's hilarious because then it just becomes a new beginning all over again. And then you realize, in order to get your 10th degree black belt, you realize that this is no longer about see, before it was about tests, like singular tests, and then in material and you know, learning all the things, when you become a black belt, you want to test for your second degree. Right, I wanted to test for my second degree black belt. I learned all the material to test practically in like three months. But then, once you become a black belt, it's not, it's no longer about requirements as much as it is about time under tension. And so I, you, have to wait two years, no matter what, to test for your second degree, then for your third degree. You know, it was like you wait four years, four years like no matter. Then they, they created a value system and flipped it on its head where it's like, okay, you learn the requirements now in three months, but you're going to wait two years and you're just going to stay diligent and show up and you're going to. You know what I mean. And so it's like I think, even with creativity, all this stuff, that I've learned everything that you just said.

Speaker 2: 30:51

It's so good to have that audacious goal, because here's the wild thing is that there's going to come a day, if you keep doing those millimeter things, those millimeter dreams, those millimeter steps, those millimeter goals, you're going to hit the big dream and realize that this is now the new floor. Like, I know that that's dorky, but it's like when I became a black belt dude. Like that was the dream that I had since eight years old. And when I became a black belt dude, like that was the dream that I had since eight years old. And then I realized this is just a new floor. I did it, and then you wake up the next day and you're like this, I have a lifetime if I want to continue going.

Speaker 2: 31:28

And so that's why it's like, bro, like every dream you have, watching all the things you're plugging for. It's like at some point, bro, your millimeter, like it, catches up. You know, like I've ran two marathons, like I knew what it was like to take one step after another and 26.2 miles comes at some point, you know. And then you watch these people who do 26 miles and they go run 50, and 50 becomes their new floor. Now they're going for a hundred.

Speaker 2: 31:47

Bro, watching a hundred mile race was the craziest thing I've ever witnessed in my life, but it's from people who, like, used to want to run half marathons and now they're running ultra 100s. So, come on, man, like that really is the perspective. It's just if we take months because of discouragement, all this stuff to back off of what you're teaching, which is the millimeter steps, then, like, if we just show up every day and practice that creative grit and resilience, bro, come on man, like we will get there and then we'll crack up because we'll be like this is what I dreamed about, but now I'm realizing it's like the new floor. So now you know so. Anyways, I digress. I know that was redundant. I just more more fire on that, on, you know, more fuel on the fire of just like guys, keep going, man, and just find those daily rhythms and stay after it. Love the line.

Speaker 1: 32:36

Love it so good bro. Thanks so much for being here. Man Really appreciate it Absolutely. Thanks for having me you.