Randy Scott Hyde

We tend toward negativity, self pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their

good wolf. Our guest today is Randy Scott Hyde. He's a writer who grew up in a small refinery town in southeast Texas. He got the hell out of there and went on to earn his m f a and Creative writing from Antioch University and a bachelor's of Music from the University of Texas. He's also a professional fundraiser for San Francisco nonprofits. But we first discovered Randy when reading his amazing blog filling My Soul Hole the ongoing

battle to stick it to Depression. We had a great time talking to Randy in spite of the fact that he describes himself as a miserable fuck. Welcome to the show, Randy. We are glad to have you, Thank you glad to be here. So our podcast is based on the old parable where there's a grandfather who's talking to his grandson and he says, in life, there are two wolves who

are constantly at battle inside of us. One is a good wolf and he represents kindness and love and peace, and the other is a bad wolf who represents greed and hate and fear. And the grandson stops and looks at his grandfather and he says, well, which one wins, And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So this podcast is really about how people feed that good wolf

in their life. So I'd like to start off by just asking you what that parable means to you and how it sort of applies to you in your life. And in your writing. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I think before this blog project, had you asked me that question, I'd probably say, um, it means that there's a lot of self entitled people who have too much time on their hands. But after this blog process, I put into that very differently. Um, it's I think it's truly speaking

to that you have a choice, you know. I think you know, I've dealt with depression for a long time, and I always thought, you know, this is just who I am. Sometimes on the son of a bitch, and sometimes that just happens. But through this work, like, I've learned that that's not so. Like you have choice in the matter. So you know, the idea of you know, the one you feed is the one that wins, I

think is pretty spot on. Um. So that's kind of I think that's kind of how I'm moving forward now, is just remembering that in any given situation, like I have a choice in my response, have a choice in how I see the world. Um, And that that wasn't there before. Excellent. And so maybe for our listeners you could describe a little bit about, um, the experiment that you did. Um, you know, maybe a short short description of kind of what it was, and and then we

can sort of jump into some specifics about it. Yeah, you bet. Um. It started, Um my grandmother passed away, UM about a year and a half two years ago, and she raised me and she was really my my only family. UM. So the passing of her hit hit me pretty hard. And I'm someone who already kind of deals with depression, so I'd hit doubly hard. And you know, at the same time, I was developing a drinking problem, having a bottle the two bottles of wine every day

and just getting on a rut. So um, I a friend of mine actually asked me, like, you know, what are you going to do to take care of yourself? And of course that never occurred to me, to take care of myself. UM. So I started thinking about, you know, what's something kind that I could do for my grandmother? And I thought, well, I could take care of myself. So it only kind of supported what her advice was. And then I saw that Ted talk by um Sean Acre and um who really kind of condensed the search

for happiness down and they really kind of a sick tasks. Um. And yeah, I'm someone who needs kind of clear directions like that Uh, you know, I've been going to therapy for a long time and just kind of talking things out. This wasn't really doing it because I didn't feel like I had something solid to kind of really do every day. And so his suggestion really resonated with me. UM. But you know, I know myself pretty well and I'm probably not going to do it every day unless I've got

someone watching me. UM. So I came up with the idea of doing a blog just kind of documenting all five of those tasks every single day, UM and doing it for thirty days and it, uh, you know, I sent it out to just friends and acquaintances and it ended up kind of taking a life of its own, and UM went somewhat viral and uh I was getting probably about five six thousand hits a day kind of towards the end. So it was a big deal and it was really it was a big deal for me, UM.

And it was really helpful, you know, have comments and encouragement from people and knowing that people were waiting to see what I had done that day and if I had done it, and uh, it worked, which was the crazy thing that I didn't quite expect. But UM, it

was great. So you spent thirty days then doing each of these five tasks, um, which later on in one of your you know, in your writings, you started to refer to you know, you weren't going to talk about them as tasks any longer, but as tools, which I thought was sort of an interesting transformation from hey, these are things that I kind of have to do a task too, these are things that that enable me to be to be happy. So did you find it by

doing those things that you were able to increase your happiness? Oh? Absolutely, um enormously. But you know, in very subtle ways. You know, it's not like you just wake up one day laughing. You know, it's it's it's ferent you like, my perspective of the world change, my perspective of my brain change. Um, you just see things differently. So it's not any kind

of I don't know, it's it's hard to explain. It's just you know, back to that parable like just knowing that I had a choice and and how I see things, and and could you describe what the five tasks were? I think they're their tasks that that that Sean described pretty specifically. Can you can you just say what those five were that you were doing. Yeah, it's a exercise, three new things every day that you're grateful for, journal about something good that happened that day, meditate, and a

random act of kindness. And they all ended up doing their own specific thing. You know, there were some people who uh kind of joined this this journey part of the way through, and you know, some of them are saying, well, I'm only doing too or you know, this one's too hard, so I'm not going to think about that one too much. But I think all five of them are important. Those

seem to be themes. Those those five things, in one form or the other, seem to be pretty commonplace activities that that you know are are chosen, you know, to to increase happiness. So talk a little bit about um, you know, you you reference sort of throughout your your writing and at the end of different things about how much work it is. Actually think you have a quote at one point where you said, getting happy is a lot of work, which is probably why most people are unhappy.

It's far easier. Can you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, Well, you know, I mean, especially when you're depressed, the depression kind of has its own its own body state to it. You know, it's heavy, it's tired. Uh doesn't want to do things. I don't want to participate, so especially I think if you're coming from that date, you know, this

stuff takes efforts. You know. It was surprising to me that something as simple as seemingly simple I should say is meditation, like just sitting there, ended up being one of the hardest things, especially in the first two weeks. And you know, like the random act of kindness. I think in one blog entry I talked about like how that takes a lot of courage, you know, because you have to interact with people, you know, and as someone who is depressed and introverted, you know, it's really hard

to reach out to people in that way. Um, But the more you do it, it kind of it builds on itself. I think it's easier to do. You get a little more confident in the action. Um, but you miss a day and it's harder the next day, you know. I think it's just like exercising, you know, if you skip a couple of runs around the park, when you come back to it, it's a lot harder. Yeah, we

talked about momentum here. A fair amount which is, you know, really that it is very hard to get started, but once you can get moving with things, um, it becomes it becomes easier. And another phrase we've used a couple of times that that I had heard in the past was that, um, depression hates a moving target, UM, which which sort of is in a line, you know, kind

of with with everything you said. And I think the other thing, you know, in addition to these tasks being sort of perhaps hard in themselves, is simply fit in that that much stuff in. And you talked about, um, that that rigidity could be the the end of you, and that you had to you had to learn to be flexible and creative, and how you got those five things done every day that if you sort of stuck to it has to be this way or that way,

you would never work them in. Um. Can you give a couple of examples of of ways in which you sort of those tasks were done differently throughout the period so people can get some idea of some of the flexibility involved. Yeah. Well, um, you know, when I went in, I thought about all five tasks very separately, um, you know, and in my head, I'm like, I'm taking through these chores I gotta get done every day. Um, but because sometimes you just don't have time to really kind of

consider each one separately. You know, it occurred to me that I could collapse something, you know, like, um, I could do fifteen minutes of yoga, which has a natural lead into meditation. So that was like a twenty minute grouping if I built in five minutes for meditation at the end. Um walking home from work, you know, Um, I have to get home anyway, and sometimes the train takes longer than actually walking it, so I can get

an exercise that way. The random act of kindness. You know, sometimes uh, coworker would have a hard time and I would just do something nice to kind of brighten their day. So not having to really go out and look for it, it's been the energy looking for something specific to do, just kind of staying flexible, let it come to you, you know. And the interesting thing is that it came up all the time. There were always kind of naturally

easy ways to fit them into the day. Some of them are a little harder, like exercise, you know what I mean. If you don't live close enough to walk to works, and that's not an option. But you know, walking around a launch or something like that. So, you know, but I didn't. I didn't go into it that way. You know. I went into it with a very specific schedule awake. You know, I was gonna do yoga thirty minutes a day, four days a week, and that was going to be it. But that's not always possible, and

I think it sets you up for failure. So I think that flexibility compelling is really important. You share. UM, there's a there's there's a lot of really funny and touching moments and and poignant moments in in your in your blog. One that I'd like to spend a minute and talk about is it was during one of your Raindom acts of kindness where you, um, you went to give food to a homeless man, and uh, it sort of went a little bit beyond that. Can you I

think you probably know the one I'm talking about. Can you sort of pick up the story from there? Yeah. Where I work, there's a there's quite of the homes. Population is pretty large outside UM and I've been working here for a while, so I get kind of I think anyone who works in that kind of environment gets really kind of you know, you put the blinders on.

You don't really look at them because they're going to ask you for money, it's going to be awkward, someone might hassle you, so you know, you really kind of look straight ahead all the time. But with this random act of kindness, you know, I mean, the most obvious one I could do is just right out. So you know, the homeless population being so large, um, just right at my doorstep. Um. But this was the first time that

I really kind of connected with someone. Before. You know, there had been other other homeless people I had given food too, and it made me a little bolder, Like I started seeing these people as people, not as you know, homeless people that I need to be afraid of. Um, but it really hit home. Um this one time where I had picked up a sandwich where I was getting lunch for this guy that I had seen on my

way there. And as I walked back, he was sitting in his wheelchair and I gave him the sandwich and he started crying, sobbing instantly, and so I touched his arm and I said, what's wrong? Are you okay? And he said, um, he said yeah, I just didn't think anyone saw me today. And even I still get kind of weepy thinking about it. But um, it was it was so profound. Um Like I knew that man in that moment, like I knew him like I knew myself, you know, I struggle with the same thing, like I

want to be seen. Um. And it was just it was so human and it was so I don't know, above the sandwich, Like the sandwich was meaningless at that point. What he needed at that moment was just to feel like he was part of humanity. And I need that every day too. So it was some greater understanding than I think I probably ever had of someone I don't know. Um.

And it still touches me. Yeah. You sort of talk about how there's this reading and talk and sort of this you know, we're all connected or we're all one, but that you actually had an experience of it in that moment. Yeah, and it's you know, I just I still feel like I don't do it justice when I talk about the experience because there there aren't really any words for the profundity of the experience. I mean, it

was it was kind of beyond language. Yeah. I think people describe, you know, for lack of a better word, spiritual experiences that way. That it's very difficult to uh, to talk about and I I'm reminded of I don't remember what I was listening to it where I saw it recently, But a guy decided one day that he was going to go out and live the day, you know, live a day as a homeless person. You know, he was going to put on the clothes, and you know,

his experience was exactly the same. He said that just the overwhelming awfulness of it was that you basically did not exist. You know, nobody saw you, Everybody ignored you, tried to look away. You. Just the complete reduction of of you as a human was was far worse than any of the physical uh sort of being hungry or being cold or any of those things. So I think that's that's a you've kind of touched upon something that does seem to be common for for that that sort

of situation. Yeah, and before that, you know, I just felt a little guilty about giving homeless people food, you know, like it just seems like, you know, I'm the white guy with a good job who's doing something nice for the poor folk, you know, like and it just didn't feel right. But like in that moment, it changed, like you know, I wasn't the white guy with a good job helping the poor folk. Like I was another human

helping another human who needed it. And by that same token, like he was helping me, Like he gave me insight to something that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Yeah, I have it, I don't. We live in Columbus, Ohio, so we don't have quite the same homeless population that you do in San Francisco, and you know, I'm a little bit further out in downtown, but I frequently give money to uh, you know, homeless people. I'm out there and people are always like, you know, that's not doing any good.

And that's and and my point is always it's really you know, send myselfishly it. By giving I sort of remember how fortunate I am. It helps me to recognize in that moment, like I have the capacity to do that, and I'm lucky enough to do that. And and it is sort of that that connection to another person for a minute. Right. One of the things that I think is really interesting about your story is, um, you did

this thirty day. You did this for thirty days. You you wrote, you know, you wrote about it every day. Your life definitely got a lot better. Um, let's talk about what happened after those thirty days, because I think that's equally profound. Yeah, after the thirty days, UM, I like I collapsed internally collapsed. UM. I didn't realize how much I needed that accountability and how much I needed people involved in it with me. UM. And it was hard,

and I floundered for a good days. I mean there was you know, there was a random act of kindness here and there, and sometimes I'd get to the gratitudes, but I didn't do them consistently, for for for every day. UM. And it's so interesting how quickly it can all go away. You know, I noticed in two weeks of not doing them consistently, like I was quickly heading back to old patterns,

you know, got off work, picked up a bottle of wine. Um, and it just you know, I mean, your your demons hold fast for a long time, and anything in an opportunity to get back in, they'll take it. UM. So I had I had to get back on the blog. I mean, the writing itself, I think was the thing that was the most exhausting. Doing it every day. You know, it takes about an hour and a half to two hours out of every day to put those together. Um, So I didn't realize like how much that was adding

to the work. So, you know, having an excuse to not do that particular one, I think and correctly gave me the excuse not to do any of them. Um. But you know, I think it just kind of further shows how well that stuff works and how much they are tools. You know. Um, I've been back on it for probably about a week and a half now, and it's the difference is instantaneous. Yeah, It's always amazing to me. How you know, we all know on some level that doing things like that right or some some measure of

those things makes us feel better. But yet how astonishingly hard it remains to do those things and how and it just it it baffles me. Um, And I think it is just it's it's this idea I think we have. I've been really thinking a lot about the idea of comfort versus happiness, and that comfort seems to be the default. Like I just I kind of be comfortable. I want to be comfortable and as long as we really, at least for me, as long as I remain in that

comfortable place. And I'm not pushing beyond that, I am not happy. I am I become listless, and it is pushing beyond that, you know, doing the things that you're talking about. You know, exercising every day is not comfortable, meditation is decidedly not comfortable. And you know, at least for me, in a variety of different ways. And uh so, I but I always am amazed by how hard that stuff is when even you know, with as much experience as I have, knowing that those things are are positive.

And I think it's interesting that you sort of hit on for you, you you know, two sort of things. One is like a defined plan or a goal, and be is that sort of external accountability. And and I think I think I'm similar. You know, we've me and some friends have done this thing where we have sort of like an exercise competition, you know, at the beginning of the new year, and it's like sort of a you know,

who can lose the most percent of body fat. But it's remarkable how well everybody does during that stretch because there's a clear goal, there's a clear focus. You know, we can taunt each other and you know, I mean there's a there's a focus in an account an accountability to it as my my my co host here shows me his rapidly expanding midsection, UM to reiterate how much

better it is when we're actually on that plane. But I'm just astounded by how those two things, an actual plan and um, accountability for you know, at least for some of us who struggle with that stuff is so important. Yeah, it's remarkable, And you know, I'm not sure where it

comes from. You know, I don't know if it's some kind of you know, focus that you learn early on in childhood where you know, retirement and not working or something like that, you know, not having to have a job as the goal and um, but it's it's just

it doesn't work. I think work is the key. I agree, I have more And I was just I was just writing something to somebody recently talking about that, Like, I don't know where I got the idea that what I want, you know, that the best thing is to have nothing to do and to just be able to do whatever I want, Because that is decidedly not the best thing

for me. God, it's the enemy. Yeah, there's a line that you that you start off very early on, and I think it speaks a little bit to this sort of having a plan and accountability and a personality type. And I'd like to read it because I just enjoy it and I think it's good. You say, Moderation and I have never really been close. He knocks on the door a lot, but I'm typically too buried under access to answer, which usually means any new thing I take on,

I take on hard and then burn out. Today I invited moderation in for morning coffee and we had a nice chat. So can you talk about the role of moderation in in your in happiness for you? Yeah, you know, I I went into this, UM, knowing that I have that and my personality. UM. And you know many times in the past I've decided, you know, I'm going to go on a juice clan for twenty days and have nothing but juice. And you know, by day one, dinner time, I'm having a pizza. So it never it never works.

Pizza is kind of a juice in some as you run the pizza through your juicer. That's a great idea. And next time I'm going to try that. UM. So you know, I didn't want to fail at this because I knew how much I needed it. UM. Sorry, isn't going to do it that way. Um. And you know, back to the rigidity thing too. You know, I'd make a plan and if that plan doesn't work, then it's an utter failure and I drop it. So my two

roles going in where be flexible and be moderate. So you know, instead of going out trying to run two miles my first day of the you know, the exercise work, um, instead I started slowly, UM the meditation. You know, normally it would have gone in trying for an hour, but I went with ten minutes, worked my way up to fifteen. Um. I don't think I would have been successful had I not made sure that moderation was part of that. Yeah,

I think it's it's critical. We had a guest on recently, Dan Dan Millman, who's an author of a couple of things. But he talks about, you know, just start really small

with something. I mean he he almost he's exaggerates, like just do one jumping jack a day for thirty days and then you'll have an exercise routine and you know you double it by doing too, which is obviously taking it a little bit extreme, but it's the idea of start really small and then connect the dots and there's that that theme seems to come up an awful lot in things, which is, you know, a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing, um, which

is and it build over time. You know you're you're able to do more, you want to do more, um. But if you start too big, you want to do less, and then it's not at all. Yep. And one of the things that you know, I think is, you know, is you know, as we talk about sort of feeding the good wolf, is sort of how to sort of stay consistent with doing that. And I'd like to read another thing that you wrote that I thought was really interesting and sort of ties a lot of what we've

been talking about together here. And you were sitting down with a friend and you were saying, Hey, a lot of people, you know, as I started to do this, I got I heard from a lot of other people who said, hey, I'm going to do the same thing. And over time it seemed like a lot of those oaks sort of dropped off, and you kept going and and so I'm gonna I'm gonna pick up from there. It says, I don't know why they dropped off. For all I know they haven't, but I know why I'm

still going. I know why I'm still at this almost two weeks later, despite all the time it takes, despite the frustrations, and especially despite all my failed attempts to help myself in the past. It's because finally wanting something different is now stronger than my fear of the work it takes to get it. Said another way, my focus has changed from daily irritations and hardships to the desire

for something better. In the long run, hope has the upper hand and this struggle for Randy's soul, and it's riding the train of tenacity and community to get me there, which I think is a very eloquently written sort of way of summarizing a lot of what we just talked about. Um, yeah, man, I'm good. You you you are going, You're You're it's it's it's true. It's very for you know, all our

listeners will have links on the page. It is. It is a tremendously entertaining and enjoyable read as well as you know, at least for me and I think a lot of people. That's why you've got so many people reading it and responding, because it does it's very it's you know, we all wrestle with this stuff. We all wrestle with how do we make better choices in life?

How do we do the things that we know, uh, you know are good for us versus you know, making a ton of choices that feel good right this second, but but don't service in the long run. Yeah. It's it's hard work, you know. And it's it's interesting too that the writing component, um, I think for me became kind of a sixth task spending time on the thing that I love to do. And it's interesting that I had spent so much time before working on fiction. Um.

And then my fiction writing was always a struggle. It was always hard to get to the page. I couldn't find readers for it. I can getting can publish. Um. But somehow, like through this project, have learned that personal narrative writing is much easier for me. So that's more comfortable. Um. And that was another thing that this project led me to that I wouldn't have known before. UM. So I would you know, I think i'd say my conclusion that I would have a six past all of that, and

it's do the thing you'll have every day. Yeah that I noticed that when you said that in our you know, the very first interview he did for the podcast, we we brought a guy on he's a musician and an author, and we said, what what does feeding the good Wolf mean to you? And his answer for it was feeding the good wolf for him was making the time to do his art. You know, it was that was that was how he fed, you know, that was how he

fed his good wolf. And we talked about the challenges of um, of carving out time to do that because it is usually one of the first things to go in the busy schedule in a crowded life. Yeah, right, absolutely, in addition to a good right or you are a tremendous artist. The these stick figures, all right, it might be I think what they are they are, um, well they you know, if art is the you know, conveying

of emotion, I think they do fairly well. But to call them, to call you a tremendous artist, you right, might be a stretch. But the stick figures definitely add to the to the experience. And hopefully as you do your weekly updates, um, you'll you'll keep at them. So tell us a little bit about what things look like for the blog and for you moving forward. I know, you've got some plans for some upcoming events. Um. You

know the bike ride. Let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah, well, you know, I was looking for a new a new goal that had a specific deadline to it. And UM, I work for the h Foundation and it's it's kind of assumed that you help out on this ride UM in some way. So I could either choose to be a writer or a roadie who does all the logistics. And you know, it cheers everybody on UM. And it's a pretty significant bike race. Um. It's miles from San Francisco to l A and you're riding probably about a

hundred miles a day. You know. The hard part for me is just making sure that I'm not solely focused on the exercise portion of of these five tools, but really doing them all. UM. So whereas I'm the goal is focused on on exercise specifically, UM, it's really just kind of another I don't know, gold date for me to do all of these every day again. UM. And my my hope is that this it becomes less like

work and more like habit um. And and that's and the hardest part for me, you know, the thirty days, it it did get easier after day, but it was still an effort um. And I think, you know, that's kind of what I got focused on after the thirty days, is doing this effort again all the time um and starting back up on it again. It's still an effort mode um and probably will be for for some time. But fingers crossed that seven months will finally get this

under my Yeah. I think, you know, maybe you know, maybe to some degree, I think though, that we have this idea that you know, at some point these things will become habit and once it's habit there there won't be effort, and I just don't, I don't, I don't. I I sort of have started to kind of give up on that idea that it will ever be totally easy.

I agree it's certainly easier at some points in others, but but I think, you know, a life worth living is is kind of always going to take some degree of of effort, and I think I agree with that, and I am totally open to the possibility that it

never becomes habit um. But you know, seven months over one month, I've got to hope that least getting down some you know, somehow exactly exactly, and it's um, you know my challenges and I and I try, you know, I've been trying to do some variation of of these sort of things for for a long time, and uh is is simply you know, it's it's a consistency and it's just a time. It just find myself. Exercises the one for me that is becomes the biggest challenge. You know.

The other ones I can kind of fit in, but exercise always seems to be the one that that I wrestle with. Um and I think, you know you're you did you know, I think one of the things you did in years which was really good and I should probably just adopt. Although I don't live close enough to walk to work, which is like, but just go outside, just out and go thirty minutes, you know. Actually Chris

as that a lot. He tends to just put on his headphones and and head out for an hour of walking, which is which is definitely falls into the exercise category. Yeah that for some reason, the meditation one is the hardest for me. And I'm not someone I would describe as, you know, someone who's scared to be alone with themselves, but I don't know for some reason now and just

always constumps me. I've always struggled with meditation a lot until well, and you know, there's no declaring victory as as early, you know, but I seem to have found a little bit more of a routine and found it to be a little bit easier as soon as I But I think mine was really about adjusting my expectation, which was that there is no writer, you know, there is no right or wrong to it. It can be my mind can be extremely busy, I can be half asleep.

I can't. It just doesn't matter. It's the fact that I sat there and did it that that matters. And I stopped sort of looking for in experience. I kept thinking that I should be having some experience, and I sort of reframed that somebody I heard, you know, was talking about meditation sort of is like mental hygiene. It's like brushing your teeth. You know, you're not really thinking about how well you brushed your teeth. You're just you're brushing your teeth. And once I sort of let go

of all that, it's been a little bit easier. But I agree with you, traditionally that has been the hardest, you know, a very difficult thing to stick with and I don't. I'm not really sure why, you know, I don't. I don't know either. I think part of it for me is that I never know what's going to happen. Like I have no idea what state I'm going to be in when I do it. You know, sometimes I said and all the things that come up, or angry,

but I didn't feel angry going into it. Or you know, sometimes for some reason I can't star thinking about sex, like where did that come from? Um? So I never know what it's going to be. Yep, Yeah, it definitely has Uh, it can go a lot of different ways, and I think that's uh, you know, and you you talk about it a little bit sort of You talked about how meditation became easier for you when you just sort of stopped fighting it to some degree, you know,

and just you accept it. I'm going to be here for fifteen minutes, um, you know, or I'm going to be here for twenty minutes. Well, I think we've covered most of the questions that I wanted to ask Christie. Anything you want to cover, you know, I don't think I do. You guys covered a lot. Randy, is there anything you feel like you wanna we wanna kind of wrap up with or anything you want to sort of sort of leave us with to put on a spot.

That was why I wasn't prepared for. Uh No, you know, I think I think the only thing I'd say is this stuff works and if you haven't done it, get on it. Excellent And I am thrilled that you are back on at least weekly. I've been wondering, you know, you and I connected sort of right around you know, you had just finished a couple of days days before, and we scheduled this interview, and then you kind of, you know, we're kind of radio silence for a while

on the blog. So I'm I'm happy, too happy to see you back and look forward to sort of catching up with it. Uh every week. We'll definitely put UM will definitely put a link to the to the blog in our show notes and um, thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it. Yeah you too, Eric, thank you, and thanks for all the encouragement. Take care, you know.

Before I get into the final voiceover thing that I always do, I just want to say that if you thought that interview was as awesome as I did, you really should go out to the iTunes store and give us a five star review at the one you Feed because we would love you for that, and then here you go. You can find out more about Randy Scott Hyde and this podcast in our show notes at one you Feed dot net slash Randy