SPS 253 The Creative Process, Humor, And Becoming Prolific with Jon Acuff

I'll use humor to exaggerate it , so it's easy to see and it's easy to accept . Oh man , he's right . That's one of the things that I try to do with my books is I'm like okay , how is the audience going to react to this ? How's the corporate audience going to react to this ? How do I have ? I seen a million books about overthinking .

You know , have they had this position ? What's my angle on it ?

This is the second time we've had John on the show and he's published two books since the last time , I think . And when we're talking before this interview , is he working on the next one ? I mean , I think we can't even keep up with episodes . I mean , that episode was probably a year and a half two years ago .

I decided , you know , probably , I don't know five , six years ago I want to be a prolific , profitable writer .

He could release a 10 song album every six months for something like 300 years . So he was , and they said he was too prolific to worry about perfectionism , and that's a dope idea .

So what happens for me is where I get trapped is I talk to dudes , like some of our friends , who aren't writers and they love running businesses Like they're a CEO , they're entrepreneur and they hate writing . And they'll say to me like why do you write so much ? Like and I'm thinking about them Like why do you have 400 employees ?

Like like mustaches and healthcare ? Like that seems really hard . And so I think you always have to take advice from people who love the same things you love , because if you're not careful , you'll take advice from people who hate what you love .

I mean just incredible guy , really funny . I want to start with this . It's funny . You kind of beat me to the punch here because I literally had in my notes question how are you such a prolific ?

Last week I had coffee with Greg Sankey , the SEC commissioner . So the commissioner of SEC for brilliant guy , and he's 12 years ahead of me in life , and so I was there to take a bunch of notes .

But he mentioned in our conversation that his wife challenged him one time and was like why don't you make a list of the executives you want to go learn from and then just approach them and ask if you can come ? And so he started to do that and he's he'll find somebody and go . They're in an industry I'm not in .

They have , they have a knowledge I don't have . And he'll just reach out and connect and go hey , can I fly out to where you are and spend 60 minutes asking you questions ? And he's taken notes like he'll send me things he took from our cough and go hey , here's three things that I took away from that idea .

That's the kind of learner I want to be , so I think a lot of writing is being willing to learn .

I was like , oh , he was really deliberate to use the word commitment , that's fascinating . Or I'll write down like business days is a funny way to say days Like if I was going to write a sentence someday , maybe , maybe a year from now , and I wanted to be like it took me nine days to do that , it would be funnier to go .

It took nine business days to accomplish that . Like that one word makes the idea funnier . And so I'm collecting , collecting , collecting . And then a lot of it is like I write by hand . So I write like long form by hand because I feel it's easier for me to be kind of loose when it's are you talking like pen and paper ?

The words aren't right , the words won't be right for a long time , but if I can capture the idea , then I'm like oh , that's interesting , or I'll go . Nah , I took a long time to get there , why don't I say it a different way ?

And so , yeah , like I write , like today I wrote some for the new book and it was in my journal and I was writing in the journal and I was writing .

And then eventually , at another time , I'll go , I'll take that journal , open it up and type it in , but I'll be translating it into a second draft just from doing that , because for me it's harder for me to have creative freedom in a computer than it is a notebook . I can cross it off , I can , it just feels different .

And it says at the top book , like the word it says at the top is like here's some more and , like you know , like here's some more . So like , yeah , I'm , that's how I'm doing it and I'll go .

Okay , what's the topic I want to talk about , think about , and then , as I put it into the document , it gets better , it gets better , it gets better , but I even liked it . I edit by paper , so when I've got it in there and it's a second or third round , I print it out . I'm marking it up , that's just easier for me . So it's .

I'm pretty old school that way , now that I I mean now that I say it out loud like yeah , that is a feel like like I'm carving things in wood with my process , but I'm I would say , like if somebody said to me but that's so slow , I'd go . I'm sorry , have you written 10 books ? Cause like I don't ?

I mean , if you've written a hundred , I'll hear that feedback , but if you haven't written at least 10 , it's not slow . It's actually turns out to be really fast for the way I write .

Like so , like with soundtracks , I'm like , ok , well , how to like when people have thoughts , how should they process them ? What does that look ? And if I can sketch it out , it's usually a strong . And if I like , if I can't do a simple sketch , it's too complicated and it's going to be complicated for the reader .

So then when I like , what I'll do is I'll give myself assignments . So I'll say , today I'm going to write about the poor story and see where that goes . Like I'm going to see where that goes because I think somewhere interesting and I know the key things I want to cover .

I want to cover this portion I saw , or this conversation I had , or whatever it is . So I have some of the highlights that I'm gonna write about in my note and then I'll write it , write it , write it , but it'll always go better places than I could have planned , because that's what writing does is new ideas show up in the moment .

So like this one says add to the essay about that . You wrote that you should feel overwhelmed . So I'm writing a book about anxiety right now and one of my concepts is , yeah , we should feel anxious . We as a culture have decided I never wanna feel sad or anxious or anything . In the second I do , something must be wrong and I have to fix it immediately .

And like no , that's one of the human emotions . Like you should be okay to have that one , to expect that one . So like , that note will help me . And I said like , okay , remember the conversation you had with Chip about this , you know ? Or like what are you ? This one just says book , what are you willing to put up with ?

Because I think it's a really interesting idea . Everybody always goes like find your passion , find your passion . But I think the reverse is interesting too . Where , what will you be willing to do Like what amount of suck will you be willing to do , cause that often points to what you love .

So like as I walk through an airport and it's a delayed flight and I had to spend the night in Milwaukee and I don't have clean clothes and like whatever it is , I'm still like this is amazing , because I got to speak for 45 minutes at an event . So there's other things like when I'm doing digital marketing the slightest inconvenience , I'm like I hate it .

This is so dumb , I don't wanna do this . Other people have the reverse . They're like I love trying to figure out the algorithm that's there . That's something they care about . So I wrote down that idea , cause it's like I don't know the idea yet , it's not formed , but I have this sneaking suspicion there's this kind of counterintuitive way

to figure out what you love , based on how much , how much difficult things or annoying things you do in order to do that Like that's a really interesting way to show somebody their passion that I haven't heard somebody talk about , like I haven't seen a lot of books go , you know , figure out what suck you put up with , and then you'll know , like , so that's

so . That's what I'm taking notes on is little thing , but it could be a word choice , like business days .

Then it sounds like maybe from there writing it out analog style , and then , okay , that's fleshing out the content of the book . And then you said , as you enter it into the word doc , then that's all right , that's almost like your first edit , where you're making it better .

And then , once you've got the book in the actual doc , printing it out so that you've you can mark it up , kind of like high school English paper style .

But now , like I can recognize , ooh , I'm making a lot of typos . I just took a lazy shortcut . Oh , like it's my body going hey , we're tired , like we've written enough today or we need a break and a reset . And so sometimes in the handwritten version I'll go oh , I must have been tired . I took a real like .

I ended it in a cheesy way because I couldn't figure out the real ending and I was like and then read the next paragraph , I'm like that's good , like no , that's a shortcut , that's not good . And so a lot happens in that edit and then I'll send chunks of the book Once I've .

Right now , as we talk , I know in a couple of weeks I'm going to send 10 to 15,000 words to my editor and the key there is I had a call with first . So I came up with a list of things I wanted to talk about . Here's where I'm going , here's where I'm doing it . So then I pitched them . Hey , just so you know , this is where I'm headed .

This is why I'm excited . These are the steps , these are the . This is like it's got . You know , I'm deliberate about it , I'm working through it , and so I'm pitching him on the idea before he gets to 10 to 15 . So that when he gets it , he goes oh yeah , this is what . This is the thing he said he was going to do and he did it .

He figured it out . Or the key one of the smartest things I've ever accidentally done is add a letter to chunks of copy I send , and I really didn't come up with it . When I say accidentally , I just saw somebody do it , I have this editor , brian , and he would send me a letter explaining what he's sending , and it would be like five points .

And , dude , that is magic , because what happens is you go . Hey , editor , I want you to pay special attention to this . I really tried to balance the examples I was using . I felt like it was getting too many men and not enough female , or whatever . Or I want you to pay attention to this story . Or , hey , I sent you a seven point list .

Two of them aren't strong . I can't figure out which are the two . So would you please , in this list that I've written about in chapter four , take out your two weakest . Let me know what you think of your two weakest , and so I'm explaining it , and it goes so much smoother versus just hey , here , here's a chunk . You figure this out . That doesn't help .

I constantly look at this as sales . You're constantly selling the idea and you want the editor to have the easiest job possible . Where they go oh , I can see exactly where they're going Like , oh yeah , that makes sense . And you also want them to know you worked hard . That's the thing . So much of life . If I spend 30 minutes on it .

And it's kind of like the little things you start to notice with successful people , like what they do , like when you go to a meeting with them . They have a page of notes already . They've already had some thoughts they've been thinking about . They don't show up and try to wing it because they're charismatic .

When I sit down with somebody and they go , hey , I was really looking forward to this . I've already written down five questions I want to ask you . Here's the questions . That's a different experience than if somebody just shows up and wings it . So I'm always trying to go , I'm not going to wing this thing that's precious , which is writing a book .

So I can write a dope five point letter about it and go , hey , here's where , like here's why I did it , this is where . And it tells them it's another one of those signs .

It's kind of like that old story of like Van Halen and the Green M&M's they only did that so that they knew you took their contract seriously and read the whole thing , and it's another one of those signs of like okay , and it's my job . I like that . I want to be a professional writer and that's what a professional does .

Like a professional doesn't send a bunch of loose copy and go you figure out a thing .

I can't wait to hear , like , why do we have movie trailers ? You could go , you don't just see the whole movie . Like no , like the movie trailer . I always tell authors you have two audiences the publisher and the person who buys the book .

You're selling to both people and so , like when I it's like when something good happens related to the book , I email the publisher because they didn't see it and they don't and they're not supposed to . It's my job , so if something if I go sign . Like Monday I signed 365 copies of soundtracks .

I posted that on social media as a thank you , like so fun that the client did this . But I'll be sorry , buddy . And then I emailed team and said hey , just wanted you to know I'm in Miami . It's early in the morning . Whatever , I'm out here signing books . The book's doing great Like people are loving it . Thank you for creating an amazing product with me .

I really appreciate it . That book came out three years ago . Those are those little things that like when people go , I want to do what you do . I'm like , by all means , I think it's the best job in the world . There's a lot of stuff , dude . There's a lot of stuff , yeah , and like , and again .

It's another way for me to have gratitude for the to say like man , look how this cover is popping . Like you guys killed the cover and it's three years later and like it's another way for me to have gratitude to the publisher .

He reached out to you . Did you reach out to him ? Was this what you were saying ? He read one of my books .

He carries a card in his pocket with his four favorite books on it and then there's a fifth one with a blank line and one of his four and he gives it to players . So like you play for Florida , you play for , like Florida , you play for Georgia , and he , he mentors you a little bit .

You go , you got to read these books and he has a card and one of the books on the card is do over by John A Kov . So he really enjoyed do over and so that's how we connected and he was like man and then a cool moment , that was just straight up . God , it had nothing to do with me .

I , he wrote me a handwritten thank you note for being on my podcast and it was . He sent it . The week Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC kind of a big week in the SEC and he , that was him and I was . I told my wife I was like can you imagine a dude at his level still since thank you notes ? And she goes oh you got backwards .

He's at that level because he sends thank you notes . And I was like , oh and so I told that story at Global Leadership Summit . And then I get off stage and go you know , greg , thank you is for Rose . And he's sitting right there here that story .

So I got to honor him about that in front of thousands of people , so that was just so we've become friends over the years , just like with text . He's he lives in Birmingham , I'm in Nashville , so if one of us goes through the city , he's just one of those guys . Again , I'm constantly thinking about what are people who have sustained long term success do ?

Because like I'm no longer interested in the , the man or woman who has like a YouTube channel that blows up for a year or like somebody has one hot book and then you never hear from again . I'm really fascinated by people that are on a 20 or 30 year run . That's the hardest thing . Like I look at a guy like Craig Groschelle and I'm like that .

He's still doing the thing at a high level or Greg , thank you , you're still doing the thing at the high level . What are they consistently doing ? And it seems like one of the things is they they learn from other people . And my wife challenged me on that last night .

She was like you know , you're 12 years younger than Greg name the people 12 years younger than you that you're learning from and I was like , oh , like I .

boom , boom .

So that's what's fun to me about this job is you do get to meet people like and ask them questions .

They can kick you off the land anytime they want and you exist only for the king's pleasure the algorithm . So you are a peasant , like it's fun to think . You , I'm building my YouTube empire they can breathe , and you're gone . I'm building my Instagram empire they can breathe and you're gone . You own nothing . You are a social media surf .

And I was like I've never thought about it that way . You're going to like slide that into a book somewhere . And if I put my wife said every time a story I was sharing with something she came up with , it would be a thousand times . So , yeah , I , I give her as much credit as I can . She's brilliant and hilarious .

All right , let's implement what you're learning in this episode and let's see how we can help with your book . Go to selfpublishingcom . Forward slash schedule . What the fifth slot on the card is that for a current book .

Ok , this is a current book that I'm reading that I wanted to . You know that I'm interested in . So yeah , he's , and yeah , he's just doing a million things like that . I saw him at the SEC basketball tournament . I went and I mentioned thank you notes and he had a stack of them in his pocket .

So during timeouts he's over there on the sideline right in thank you notes and I'm like this guy is doing it , dude , he's doing the kidding .

I mean he's like what do you laugh at ? I'm like , oh , this Johnny Cup thing , Like it's so funny . Like what is there any like ? What is your process for coming up with quippy , funny things like that ?

And then like , then I'll write it out and then I'll go how can this funny ? How could this be enjoyable ? How could ? What's a funny story about this ? Like dude , I put a story in the new book . So we did a teen version of All it Takes Is a Goal . So after Soundtracks came out , a bunch of parents were like , do you have a teen version of Soundtracks ?

We didn't . My two daughters helped me write one , so we're doing another teen version of my books All it Takes Is a Goal . I put a story in there that I'd never put into a book about .

When I was a ninth grader my biology teacher said if we found a road , killed animal and got bugs to eat all the whatever flesh off and then rebuilt the skeleton , he would give us bonus point . And I was failing biology and I was like that sounds easier than studying . I should fry . So dude .

For like a month , every time I was driving I didn't have a license . I'd tell my parents pull over . I think there's a dead animal . I finally found one . I couldn't tell what it was because it's so smushed , and then I put it in a tupperware in my backyard , forgot about it . It rained it like .

Eventually was just this like disgusting stew and the absurdity of me thinking probably rebuild the skeleton of an animal . I could probably do that pretty . How hard can that be ? Like it was .

It was insane that I even entertain that for a second , nevermind looked for dead animals for a month and so like that's a story that I know in a book will be really funny .

It'll serve the illustration I'm trying to make and so like that's the kind of thing I'm doing , or I try to like part of my humor is like I'm trying to guess what people are thinking so I can make a joke of it . And so like I'm going , OK , they're going to be thinking this and I want , I want to be in on the conversation too .

So if I say this , they'll be , they'll be surprised . And then , like dude , some of it is I use the humor to say things that would be hard to hear otherwise . So , like , I'll give you an example of that , of how I do that style People .

I'm a very negative person by nature but I practice positive and sometimes people are surprised by that and I tell them about all the things I do to be positive , because it's the ROI on positivity is better than the ROI on negativity . And then I'll go and I'll meet and I'll say I meet people .

Sometimes I'll say I'm negative and I'll say , well , tell me about your day and they'll be like , well , I drove home from work and on the drive home I listened to a podcast called Brutal Unsolved Crimes in the city you live in . And then I fell asleep that night to a documentary called People who Look Like you Getting Murdered .

It's a new special on Netflix . It's weird that I feel negative . I'm like it's not . It's not weird , it's not weird at all . Like you fed yourself , like you watch the Jeffrey Dahmer documentary about somebody who ate humans . Like don't then go . I had the weirdest dreams last night , I don't know what . What could it be Like ?

Of course you're practicing negativity . Like you're like you're guzzling negativity , and so that might be hard to hear unless I exaggerate it with humor .

Like clearly there's no podcast called Brutal Unsolved Crimes in your city , but we all know where it like I'm making fun of kind of a meme of like on today's podcast episode we found somebody who got their throat , you know , and and the cops did nothing . Listen to this podcast , you're like it's pretty negative .

Like so at the end of the story , the throat cutters just out there cutting through . Like that sounds bad , so I'll use humor to exaggerate it so it's easy to see and it's easy to accept . Oh man , he's right . Like I would right , I wouldn't do that . Like why do I do that ? Like , why am I OK with that ? Like OK , that's you know .

Or like I have this line in one of my speeches that says you're the most persuasive person you've ever met . And that's a good line because it's counterintuitive , like the idea of you're meeting you , but you are the most persuasive person you've ever met . Because every bad decision you've ever done . First you talked yourself into it .

First you were like we should do that , that's going to work out , that'll be great . And so I joke about that . And then I say , like have you ever eaten a whole snacks bag of something and then realized at the end of it that it said share size on it on the outside ? I shared that with me . Or like party size , party of one .

You're like , and everybody's . That's a human experience that I'm joking about . Or then I'll go . Have you ever stayed up later than you wanted to Because you told yourself I'll watch one Instagram video , one YouTube video , and everybody's done that . And I'll go and then I'll tell a true story myself .

I'll say a couple of weeks ago I stayed up to 1 am watching videos about Singapore's number one stingray breeder . And I'll go I'm not even in the market for a manta ray , and that's a funny statement . Like I'm not in the market for a manta ray . No one's ever seen those words together in the same sentence .

And they go and like that's a funny and so like that . But again , I'm exaggerating the point of like we talked ourselves into staying up to 1 am . If I say it that way , like that's clinical , it's boring . But if I say like I'm not even in the market for a manta ray , like that , like people are like , yeah , like why did you watch that ?

Why are you like I gotta figure out this guy's doing with these stingrays . How is he breeding them so successfully ? It's got to be a difficult process , you know . Like whatever , like they can start laughing along with me . That's how I use humor .

In comedy it's mostly highs . So , like in a speech , I'm like we're ramping up . It's a funny joke . Here's a story about something that's kind of ramping up . There's a funny comedy .

And it kind of waves in some of the humor stuff , but it seems like that book's done really well . You you said before the interview like hey , I feel like I was a little too just clinical and maybe that's not the word that you use , but just like Well , some books , some

books .

Your voice is very slippery , like because you'll get feedback , and then you'd be like , well , I guess I could like , or hey , people really like this , and then I could , and then like it's hard to keep it . So for me , that's always the tension is like , how do I keep it ? How do I not write ?

How do I not write Gary Vee's next , Because I read Gary Vee's book and he's really bombastic . And how do I not like you're constantly trying to not put on somebody else's voice . That's the challenge for me as a writer , and so I think the reasons , part of the reason Soundtracks was the timing . The timing was accidental . I can't take any credit of that .

It came out . It wasn't easy to tour on it , obviously , because it was the pandemic , but it came out at a time where everybody was overthinking . 2020 is catnip for overthinking , so if you weren't before . The other thing that worked for Soundtracks is that it hit .

The title worked really , really well , Because if I had named it voices , no dude would buy it . If I named it inner voices , no dude would pick that book up . Like there's no way . Like people go man , what Soundtracks is very Everybody can go . Oh yeah , I do have a soundtrack . Oh yeah , it makes sense . Like it's a really approachable word .

So I think that's one of the things that I try to do with my books is I'm like OK , how is the audience going to react to this ? How's a corporate audience going to react to this ? How do I have ? I've seen a million books about overthinking or have they had this position ? What's my angle on it ?

Like the book I'm writing right now about anxiety , my angle is going to be like it's great , Like you can do great things with it , because most books are like you can end it , the right four steps , you can end it . I'm like no , you can't . Like you can't stop it and why ? Like it's allowed me ?

All I've done is figured out how to channel my anxiety into creativity , and now I have 10 books and more because I'm a very anxious person , and that'll be a really interesting hook , I hope , because I think sometimes , when you've written a couple of books , people think you've got it all together , and so I think when I go like I do not , here's an anxious

situation . I think people will get a kick out of that and will see themselves and will are willing . I try to write books . People can't say no . So if I say to you , if I say to people I wrote a book called Finish it's about perfectionism , Like , is it ever hard for you to finish the things you start , who says no to that ? Nobody goes .

No , actually , I'm 100% for it . I've never started a hobby and stopped it . I've never . No , what are you talking about ? If I say I wrote a book about overthinking you ever overthink Nobody goes . Really I don't . I use exactly the right amount of thoughts . I , you know , and my spouse does too .

No , instead they go , oh , I need that book , or my husband needs that book , my wife needs that book . So that's when I know I've got a good topic and I think anxiety is going to . Anxiety and bravery are going to be an interesting , because I think the world's only getting more anxious .

So I don't know when people ever not need you know like I think that's going to same with overthinking . I think they'll continue to need it .

I'm going to go lighting around with a few questions , john , before you wrap up , I guess . First off , why are you still traditionally publishing ? Are you just getting fat advances and just like big book deals , or what's the why behind that ?

Here's the thing . I've been burned a couple of times publishing whatever . I can't say that I've got great teams that are quick , that challenge me , that make me better and are fast . Like an example that would be . So Soundtracks comes out . We have all these parents go hey , do you have a team version ?

And Baker reacts we get a new product out pretty quickly , like they weren't . Like , hey , yeah , in four years they're like no , let's capture this momentum , let's do it . Here's what we can do . So it's funny . I almost feel bad when I talk to other authors because I'll go , man , my publisher's the worst . They're .

So I go oh man , that sounds terrible and I'm like man . But also I'm maintaining that relationship too , like I'm not there to be served . That's one of the lessons I mean . I keep learning lessons about ego in my own life and one of the things is like if I don't show up as the talent but I show up to serve , it's a lot better relationship .

Same with like public speaking change for me when I went from being a performer into somebody serving , like I'm serving the audience , like I'm there one hour . The event planner is there , is there all year . I want her to look like a rock star . I tell them before I speak my three goals . One your phone blows up during the talk .

I want you getting text messages from your boss that says hey , sheila , this is way to put on this event . This keynote is exactly what we need it . Number two I want the audience to go . He understands me at taking the time . Audiences can tell when a speaker shows up with one speech and gives it , whether you're a mom , blogger or plumber .

And then three , the one that I really like is I want the sound team to be engaged , because if I can make the jaded dude who runs the board at the JW Marriott , who's heard every speech and seen every PowerPoint , if I can make that guy laugh and lean in , the rest of the audience is dying . So I know like .

I stepped off the stage at an event the other day and the sound guy was like I bought your book while you're talking , man , I can't wait to read it . That then I know like okay if the guy who's working the event goes . I got to figure out these soundtracks . I got some of those Like then .

I know the rest of the audience who's an attendee is having a super fun time and I've served them .

And so for me the two work really well together and I feel really fortunate that I , like I genuinely I meet some other authors that understandably , like I don't want to be on stage , it doesn't make me comfortable , and I like I love it , it's so fun to me . So , yeah , I , but I usually do one to two keynotes per book .

Somebody will see me at a different event and then but like the one I did this , one of the ones I did this week they said oh , we saw you at this other event two years ago and so sometimes it's it's compounding that way , like the more you're out there , the more you're out there .

is it mostly corporate ?

I'm going to like , at that event followed Wycliffe Jean . So like you can't . Like if you were , like I want to be a speaker , I'm just going to call up Ranger over and be like , hey , like that relationship was the byproduct 10 years of doing the stuff .

Doing the stuff Like and so I'm aware that , in the same way that I use humor because I think a lot of people don't , and so like I know I'll never out research Jim Collins , he's amazing at that but like there's a lot of people that I can be , really that I can be really funny .

And then same with speaking Speaking at this point because I've been doing it so long . There's definitely a ton of people that do it , don't get me wrong , but there's . It's a harder road , it's a steeper climb . If you were like , well , I want to do exactly that , like amen , go for it .

Where , like some of the online stuff I do , it's so anyone can sell anything . Even like you know , like you can be writing a parenting book and you have a toddler and you're like , you've done so far as protect . Like when you have a two year old , you haven't even parented yet you've protected .

And like now that I've got an 18 year old and a 20 year old , I might feel kind of comfortable writing a parenting book , because I'm like , oh man , like we're not perfect . I'm not an expert by any means , but , man , I got two decades to talk about what we did deliberately , what things work , what things didn't .

Maybe I'll write that but the challenge with like online stuff is , like anybody , can you know , pop up and be like I'm an expert in this . And then , like I had a professor tell me it was so fascinating the way he said it and I wrote it down to my idea notes . He said there's a lot of people who feel imposter syndrome and that's because they should .

He said they are . He said because they are imposter . So and that opened me up to oh , he's right , he's right . Some people should feel that that's appropriate . You're selling something you're not qualified to sell or do . That's like that's actually your heart , that's not imposter syndrome that's your heart going .

hey , I don't know if we should take that money from that box and we don't know what we're doing . Like I don't like what do we ? And you'll see people sell that . They'll go just look up what's trending , create a product and like you're not an expert at that , and even if you can't sell it , it's gonna be quick . It's not a .

So sometimes it's again like my . I like to grow my brand over time , like where there's a lot of things I have to say no to because I'm like it's outside of what I do . I wouldn't feel good about that , it's not what I like to talk about . Just because I could make a little money off it .

I think it would dent the brand more than it would help the brand . So I think that's part of why I love public speaking is that I've spent a long time doing it and I wanted even longer . The crazy thing is people tell me they'll be like man , you gotta get off the road . Like it's hype this is the phrase people tell me all the time .

They're like it's high paid manual labor . Like you gotta get off the road . Which is like if I said to your brother man , you gotta stop playing live concerts , you gotta stop going to Red Rocks .

Man , if you could just stay home and never like obviously the road is challenging in its own way , but the whole point of a musician learning the guitar was to play in front of people . That was the joy . So , like I don't wanna get off the stage , I like yeah , like nobody's . Like , oh , man , I can't wait to go through the Baltimore airport or whatever .

Man , I love doing it . Like that's not . I don't like the idea of like oh , you should get off the road . Like no , I'm having a blast , dude , I wanna do it like with the right clients . I don't do a hundred events a year . I know my limits and I'm pretty serious about like that's too many gigs so it's not for me .

I always think about that , but that's why I love speaking . There's so many reasons that I think it's a really fun business model .

There's a free add bonus stories to your audiobook if you get the chord one , because a lot of times people buy both versions and that's a really fun way to super surf so I wrote 10 separate stories that are only in the audiobook Podcasts . All it Takes the Goal and websites johnnacuffcom and I'm Johnnacuff on Twitter and Instagram and all the stuff .

Yeah , yeah , yeah , I'll see you in my neighborhood If you wanna see a very normal suburban neighborhood and a sweaty man yelling at a camera .

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