The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

The Great Debate: Does talent actually matter?

In this backstage episode, we conduct a new experiment by changing up the format of the show. Current events, discussion and debate all become part of the conversation.

The story of a film critic that got vilified
How to deal with your critics when you make art
Learning when to ignore your critics and their feedback
Veronica Mars successful Kickstarter and the web series it's resulted in
Understanding what it takes to bypass the gatekeepers
The role that crowd funding can play in making great art
Why talent actually plays a role in your ability to succeed
Greg's consensus that we are largely born with talent
The ecosystem that is missing for the creative entrepreneur
The advantages that technology startups have over creatives
Why a team and resources make a big difference in your ability to get ahead

People and Resources Mentioned

Veronica Mars Launches Web Series After Successful Kickstarter

The Film Critic that Villified Lone Survivor

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Broadcast on:: 17 Jan 2014
Audio Format:: other

As you probably noticed, this month we're bringing you our "Life of Purpose" series and revisiting some of our most transformative episodes, tune in to explore expert insights and practical strategies on help, performance, and community well-being, all aimed at helping you achieve personal and professional fulfillment. If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll not only get recaps of the key ideas in each interview, but at the end of the series, you'll receive our free "Life of Purpose" ebook. What you have to do is go to unmistakablecreative.com/lifepurpose. Let's talk about something that's not always top of mind, but still really important. Life Insurance. Why? Because it offers financial protection for your loved ones and can help them pay for things like a mortgage, credit card debt, it can even help fund an education. And guess what? Life insurance is probably a lot more affordable than you think. In fact, most people think life insurance is three times more expensive than it is. 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He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man, then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/results to claim your credit, that's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply, LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Forging ahead together drives Colorado's pioneering spirit at Chevron. We donate funding and volunteer thousands of hours in support of the community's WeCall home. We also employ our neighbors to deliver the energy needed as the state's largest oil and natural gas producer. And if you are interested in winning every sports debate you have for the rest of your life, this is the book for you. We take the 100 biggest sports debates and answer them, settle them once and for all. Meanwhile, what's your favorite part of the book? 100 sneaky, heavy trivia questions. All that and a whole lot more. It's called Got Your Answers. It's available anywhere you get your books right now. In spite of all our communication technology, no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice. When we hear the human voice, we instinctively want to listen in the hopes of understanding it, even when the speaker is searching for the right words to say. That's because the human voice resonates differently from everything else in the world. This is the unmistakable creative podcast. Listen in on candid conversations with creative entrepreneurs and insanely interesting people. All right, everybody, this is Srini, the host of the unmistakable creative. I am here with my co-host, Greg Hartle. And today's episode is brought to you by Cells. That's S-E-L-Z.com with Cells. You can add your products and sell from any site within minutes. No programming, no special templates, and none of that nonsense. You can just upload your products for sale, even if you're selling services, you can use them. That's S-E-L-Z.com, and by FreshBooks. With FreshBooks, you can save time and get paid faster. It's the easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. You can easily create invoices online, capture and track expenses on the go, and get real-time business reports with a few simple clicks. You can try it for free at GetFreshBooks.com, and they're even giving away a free birthday cake every day to somebody who signs up from our show for your chance to win. Enter Unmistakable, and how did you hear about us? That's at GetFreshBooks.com. And now, let's start the show. What's going on, Greg? Hey, Stranny, how you doing? Interesting birthday cakes. Yeah. That's two. That's a new one. I've never heard of a tech company giving away birthday cakes. Yeah, that's clever. But all the more reason to try FreshBooks, a very cool product that I don't know about you, but it saved me a ton of time. Yeah, FreshBooks is great. And so it sells, by the way. And we've had nothing but good things with our sponsors. I'm very happy with the sponsors that we've been working with. They've been great to work with, but also listeners have sent us a lot of messages about how they've had nothing but success with them. Yeah, that is actually a really great thing. And as we've said, when you support our sponsors, you support us. It makes a big difference, and it allows us to do a lot of the things that we've been able to do the show. So speaking of which, we're going to try something a little different today. And Sigrad, you want to tell them a little bit about what we're going to play with? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we're trying to figure out what to do with this backstage episode. So first of all, if you have any feedback or suggestions, thoughts, hopes, wishes, fears, dreams, or you just want to share an interesting story, you can always share that stuff with us at unmistakablecreative.com/contact. But we're trying to figure out what to do with the show because I think the show is taking a new direction. We've got a new brand. We're going a new direction overall. And we want to make it less about business tactics, per se, especially in these backstage episodes and more about what's going on in the creative world, what are interesting stories out there, what's going on, and then some just thoughts about creative entrepreneurs from our perspective on the overall ecosystem and community and what to do about it. So we're kind of kind of play with this and see where it goes, I guess. Yeah, so, you know, one of our first stories that we found today, this actually came across my radar because somebody posted it on Facebook. If you guys haven't seen this movie, A Lone Survivor, it's about a guy who I believe is in Afghanistan and he gets ambushed and it's him and maybe like four guys are, you know, a really small amount of Navy SEALs fighting against just this massive, you know, enemy combatant. It's supposed to be really crazy, but a girl wrote a review, a film critic, and Glenn Beck picked it up and he completely obliterated her and it's been really kind of interesting to watch. But I think the point that we want to talk about really is, you know, when you're a creator, you're always going to have critics and, you know, how you handle critics is I think something that we all kind of have to learn how to deal with if we're going to create big work. Yeah, and I think more than anything, well, there's two things here. I think part of it is is the internal game that you go through. I mean, who wants to deal with critics, you know, who wants to put their work out there and have people crap all over it, you know, no one wants that. But the reality is, is that that exists and that'll always be the case. I'm always fascinated and intrigued by YouTube videos that have the, you know, that show how many people dislike the video. I'm always thinking to myself, if you have time to dislike a video, isn't there something better you can do? You know, but anyway, I think that it's that internal aspect of it, but also the external. I mean, I think in some respects, we have a responsibility, even ourselves as critics, that I don't think there's anything wrong with being a critic. I mean, if you test a product, if you, if you read a book, if, or any, and you leave, or if you leave a genuine review and you didn't like it, and that's fine. I think that that's perfectly okay. As long as it's constructive, the whole point of a review is to be constructive for other people who have the opportunity to read that review before they make a purchase. And if that's constructive, it's constructive. But that's very hard to deal with as a creator or as an artist on that end. And then on the other end, as a critic yourself, you know, I feel, anyway, that there's a sense of responsibility there. And I think the internet has just totally destroyed that sense of responsibility in many ways. It, for whatever reason, even, even though we live in an internet world now, where we're not anonymous, most likely, you know, it was really bad when we were anonymous. And now we're not anonymous, but it's still just as bad in terms of people just, you know, saying whatever they want to say just to be hurtful, not necessarily constructive. So I don't know, I think you have a certain sense of response, at least I feel that way. I have a certain sense of responsibility if I leave a review as a critic. And then, you know, I have to accept the fact that that others are going to critique me. Well, you know, and the other thing, I read an author once saying he said, you know, really, one of the things you should think about before you write just awful, like, vilifying things about people or, you know, people who create is that these are people who make their money this way. And, you know, like, when you get a negative review in Amazon, it actually hurts you. Like, it actually financially, the impact, I think, people don't realize, goes a lot further than reading something nasty on the screen. Well, and then, but then you got to wonder if, I mean, at least for me, if I read reviews on something, and I just, and I get the sense that whoever left that review was just being an a-hole, then I ignore the review. And I look at the totality of the reviews as well, you know, if there's one or two people that are acting that way and everyone else loves it, well, I mean, what's the chances that it's going to be bad? And I think that's a part of it as well, where it's most of the people that are that critical are so exaggerated in their criticisms, that with any sense of discernment, it stands out and can be ignored. But it doesn't change the, the feeling that you get as the artist when you read it, that certainly doesn't change at all. No, no, not one bit. And I can tell you from reading, you know, a handful of one-star reviews of my book, I had to stop reading them after a certain point. Yeah, I mean, I cringe when I read other people's, especially if you know them. Yeah, yeah, if I know, I'm like, oh, man, I feel so bad that they have to read that, you know? And then I'm conflict, I'm also conflicted because I don't know, what do you think, what do you think of the idea of whether, and I'd love to hear what the listeners think. So again, go to unmistakablecreative.com/contact, if you have any thoughts on this. But I have mixed feelings about the idea that should you accept criticism of your work and use that as, as an opportunity to create different or better work, or should it be ignored? You know, I mean, and I'm conflicted on that. I mean, the bottom line is, is if I guess if enough people say you saw it, then you need to do something about that, you know? But then again, if it's just one or two people that are just being hurtful, you know, or spiteful or envious, well, then you got to kind of let it roll off your back. So I don't know. I mean, I read different, I've read a lot recently, the thoughts of other creators and artists, comedians, and the general consensus I get from from what I'm reading from others is ignore it. But I don't know. I don't know. What are your thoughts? Well, that's that's always a tricky one, right? Like as somebody who's created something that thousands of people have have been exposed to, it's it's kind of like thinking, okay, there's just not you know, sure odds are that somebody is going to really despise this. It's just it's bad. Like, I mean, you know, so let's look at something ridiculous, like water world, right? Worst movie ever made in the history of movies. I don't think like if you ask me about all the movies I've ever seen every time I think of the worst movie I've ever seen in my life, I always think water world. But there's got to be some weirdo out there who thinks it's a good movie. Like I'm positive. Yeah, of course. It made plenty. It made enough money. I don't know if they lost a hundred million dollars, but people went to see it. So odds are there's at least one total lunatic out there who thinks water world is actually a decent movie. Yeah. So the question becomes, do you do you just acknowledge that that's an outlier and ignore it positive or negative or or does it affect you in some way? You know, I mean, does Kevin Costner stop making movies after water world? That's no, but does he make better ones? Possibly. Not really, but that's a whole other story. I mean, that's the thing. As an artist, you just simply say, I don't give a crap what anyone thinks, because I don't know that you can necessarily do that if you're going to also play the game of capitalism. If you're going to just create art and go, you know, spray paint a building or, you know, draw a picture in your bedroom, well, that's one thing. But if you're trying to make a living off of it, I don't know that you can just simply ignore people. Yeah, maybe not completely ignore them, but I think that, you know, like, it can't be something that's so paralyzing. Look at any great artist, they have some bad work in their background. Like, I mean, look at actors, right? People have been in horrible movies, but the only guy I can think of that's never been in a movie that I absolutely thought was crapless, Tom Hanks. I think he somehow is lucky, but yeah, I don't know. To me, yeah, I think you have some sense of responsibility to listen to people. Like, if hundreds of people tell you you suck, then you've got a problem. But I think that it's one of those things that it's a balancing act, right? You kind of decide what's worth listening to, where might somebody be right? And then you've kind of move on based on that. Yeah, I don't know that that's necessarily all that easy to do, though. I think that level of discernment is very difficult as an artist because you're so attached to your own work. There's an emotional attachment there. And it is difficult to separate out. I tend to do that, but I'm also highly analytical. So I can look at 100 review, I break it down numbers wise, of course, you know, I completely detach all emotion from it because that's what I do. And I look at it numbers wise. Well, okay, so 86% thought it was good that it must be okay. You know, which is seems very unhealthy that I completely detach emotionally, but that's a conversation for another day. Yeah, that's a conversation definitely worth having, emotions and numbers. Yeah. Well, there's one other thing we want to talk about that came across our radar, which, you know, is very relevant to the world of creative. You know, when I look at a platform like Kickstarter, and I realized that even celebrities are using it, we just saw that, you know, Veronica Mars, because of the Kickstarter success, is now going to basically spin off into a web series too. And it's interesting, right, that somebody could just use a platform, somebody who comes from the mainstream media is looking at it and saying, you know, this is a better way to do it. Yeah, well, that's a whole tricky thing as well. And again, that's something you and I have talked about quite a bit lately, where I am conflicted and torn on this idea that the gatekeepers are gone and that anyone can turn something into a big success. And I don't know that that's the case. And without going down that rabbit hole too deep in this conversation, I think it's interesting because the reality is, is if you already have some level of credibility or respect in your industry and or you have already have a certain fan base, it's actually not that difficult for you to just bypass the gatekeepers and go straight to your audience. You know, if you're Louis C.K. and you're the best comedian in the world for you to put out a special on your own website and charge people directly through your website for it and not go through HBO or Ticketmaster or something like that. I mean, that's not that big of a deal, actually. That's that's a pretty obvious move that all that is is that the technology just allows you to do that. But it doesn't take away from the fact that it's one more example for all of us. It's one more example for how if if we have that capability, if we have access to that type of technology, there's no reason we shouldn't try. There's no reason if we have an idea and we need it to be crowdfunded, we should look at these examples, whether they're by famous people or not famous people and use them as examples for us to try. Ryan Reynolds here for Midmobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. 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He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be to be. Hey there, it's Greenee and Humbo and we are back and better than ever. Got your answers is for sale. And if you are interested in winning every sports debate you have for the rest of your life, this is the book for you. We take the 100 biggest sports debates and answer them, settle them once and for all. Meanwhile, Humbo, what's your favorite part of the book? 100 sneaky Humbo trivia questions. All that and a whole lot more. It's called Got Your Answers. It's available anywhere you get your books right now. Forging ahead together drives Colorado's pioneering spirit. At Chevron, we donate funding and volunteer thousands of hours in support of the communities we call home. We also employ our neighbors to deliver the energy needed as the state's largest oil and natural gas producer. All to help improve lives in our shared backyard. That's energy and progress. Visit Colorado dot chefron.com. Yeah, there's plenty of non-famous people. In fact, there's probably way more non-famous people who have done stuff like that for what I'm sure. But I think, you know, you made a good point about this idea of, you know, will everybody succeed? And it's funny because I was having this conversation with one of our listeners, Tara Swiger, on the beach the other day. And, you know, when I said it, I don't know. Like, maybe it's not entirely true. And, you know, it's funny because there's an interview you guys will hear coming up. But this is a woman who's been a successful writer for 20 years. And she said, you can't overlook the fact that talent actually matters. Yeah. And I've really struggled with this because I've always believed that anyone could do anything. And I think I'm wrong. I come to the conclusion that I'm wrong about that. And it's very depressing for me to come to that conclusion. But I've, as I've studied it, and I've really looked closely and I've examined my own project $10 in the laptop, you know, starting with a $10 bill and what I was able to do there and the people that I met. And I've just seen too many examples where I'm not so sure that that's actually true. I believe that talent matters and it matters a lot. And I believe that intelligence matters and it matters a lot. And I believe that both of those things you're largely born with. And now don't get me wrong. I don't think that's enough for you to be successful. And I think there's plenty of people that can be outliers and prove that wrong or inaccurate. I'm just looking at the overall, the overall consensus in my mind is that talent and intelligence matters a lot. And but I've seen plenty of people that are intelligent or talented that get wrecked by the system or get wrecked by conditioning or circumstances that that shatter their their internal fortitude to make it to make it and be successful. So you know, I've definitely seen that. But yeah, I mean, talent matters in my mind. All right. Well, yeah, you know, you guys heard Greg say this is actually something I want to hear your feedback on. Yeah, as Greg said, unmistakablecreative.com/contact. I think you might have opened up a can of worms, my friend. Well, I'm actually, that's a can of worms that I want to open. So do I, sold on that I'm trying to figure it out myself. I mean, I've spent the better part of the last decade helping people that I didn't think are particularly all that talented per say, but really felt like they cared enough to get somewhere. And so it's not as if I'm sitting here on a high horse saying, Hey, I'm talented and only talented people matter. I'm saying, I used to believe that I was a very average person. Up until recently, I've always considered myself an average dude. And what's happening is is people are saying to me, that's not true. And I'm starting to see where that might not be true. And in working one on one with over 500 individuals and then working in groups with thousands of people, I'm starting to recognize just how important talent and intelligence is to people success. And I'm conflicted about it. I don't know. I don't know what the right answer. I mean, I haven't obviously done studies on it. So I don't know. But I'm very curious to hear what the listeners have to say about it. Yeah, me too. Maybe we'll title the episode, How Much Does Your Actual Talent Matter? Yeah. Well, there's, you know, speaking of which, one of the things that we've been talking about this a lot, this is another, you know, sort of hot button. The Greg and I have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks dissecting this. You know, we talked about talent. When we talked about resources, you know, we said we've had a team around us to make so much happen. And I can tell you, you know, having been, you know, able to work with you so closely and people like Mars and people like Sarah, I'm realizing, wow, it's amazing how much faster things can get done and how much more you can do with resources, which takes us into, you know, this next segment, which, you know, the idea of the tech versus the creative and who's, You know, the tech startup versus the creative entrepreneur and, you know, the fact that the tech startup has a significant edge. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. No. No. Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited to premium wireless for $15.00. And what power there's still people paying two or three times that much. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/switch, whatever you're ready. $45.00 up from payment equivalent to $15.00 per month, new customers on first three month plan only, taxes and fees extra, speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of CDtales. When it comes to weight loss, no two people are the same. That's why Noom builds personalized plans based on your unique psychology and biology. Take Brittany. After years of unsustainable diets, Noom helped her lose 20 pounds and keep it off. I was definitely in a yo-yo cycle for years of just losing weight, gaining weight, and it was exhausting. And Stephanie, she's a former D1 athlete who knew she couldn't out train her diet and she lost 38 pounds. My relationship to food before Noom was never consistent. And Evan, he can't stand salads, but he still lost 50 pounds with Noom. I never really was a salad guy. That's just not who I am. Even through the pickiness, Noom taught me that building better habits builds a healthier lifestyle. I'm not doing this to get to a number. I'm doing this to feel better. Get your personalized plan today at Noom.com. Real Noom users compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, a typical Noom user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. Discover Hydro, the best kept secret in fitness. Hydro is the state-of-the-art at-home rower that engages 86% of your muscles, delivering the ultimate full-body workout in just 20 minutes. From advanced to beginner, Hydro has over 500 classes shot worldwide and taught by Olympians and world-class athletes. For a 30-day risk-free trial, go to hydro.com and use code ROW450 to save $450 on a Hydro Pro Rower. That's H-Y-D-R-O-W.com code ROW450. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big ROW as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Hey there, it's Greenie and Hemo, and we are back and better than ever. Got your answers is for sale. And if you are interested in winning every sports debate you have for the rest of your life, this is the book for you. We take the 100 biggest sports debates and answer them, settle them once and for all. Meanwhile, Hemo, what's your favorite part of the book? 100 sneaky Hemo trivia question. All that and a whole lot more. It's called Got Your Answers. It's available anywhere you get your books right now. Since 2013, Bombus has donated over 100 million socks, underwear and t-shirts to those facing homelessness. If we counted those on air, this ad would last over 1,157 days. But if we counted the time it takes to make a donation possible, it would take just a few clicks. Because every time you make a purchase, Bombus donates an item to someone who needs it. Go to bombus.com/acast and use code ACAST for 20% off your first purchase. That's bombus.com/acast, code ACAST. Yeah, that's the other thing that I've been studying quite a bit of in recent years. You know, I've launched many businesses, I think somewhere in the range. I've built, bought, sold, started, been a part of, I think, probably around 18 years. Probably around 18 businesses or so. And in that process, I mean, the very first company I started was a telecommunications company. So I have it, and it was hardware. So I have that tech background. You know, I own site builder.io, I own new methods, I own academy on the go. Those are all software companies. So I have that side, that tech background. And then I have other assets and other businesses that are highly creative, like lookless media and I'm a SQL creative, you know, et cetera. So I've seen both sides and I've worked with a lot of people on both sides. And what I'm recognizing is that the reason that tech companies are successful the way they are and not even successful, the reason they can start so fast and get so far ahead, they might not even be successful in the end, but they can start fast and get ahead is because of the ecosystem. That's undeniable. The idea that if you just plant yourself in Silicon Valley, you will get further ahead. Period. Just be there. Just be, walk the streets and you'll get further ahead. And, and creatives don't really have that, that edge. They don't have an ecosystem that helps them get ahead. What they have are individual consultants, individual business people that can give them advice. They may even have shows like this, that they listen to for advice and examples, but they don't have an ecosystem. And, and really there's very few places that even tech has good ecosystems. And we've had a guest on Brad Feld, who is specifically designing tech ecosystems to create more Silicon valleys around the country, including in Boulder, et cetera. I'm fascinated and curious by the idea of how do we do that for creatives? Yeah. How do we get beyond individual advice? How do we get beyond consulting and, and books and podcasts even? And how do we get to an ecosystem in which more creatives can be more successful? Yeah. I mean, more media, more films, more cool things that come out. Like, I, that's, you're right, it doesn't exist. It's interesting. I mean, we've talked about this because we've gotten to this point where we're all sitting in our homes or coffee shops or whatever. I mean, I had a friend who joined a co-working space because she said that she couldn't hack, she couldn't handle sitting, you know, by herself anymore. I think that we've lost this sort of deep human need to socialize has been gone. Like we actually need human contact. Well, and, and for a lot of creative entrepreneurs, it's, you, you've been forced on both hands because you've been thrown into a workforce that doesn't allow you to be creative and doesn't allow you to use your gifts. So that's miserable and, and you want to bail on that. So you bail on that and you're all by yourself at home, you know, or at the coffee shop trying to make it. And there's no in between. There's no environment or community that truly is an ecosystem. And I'm not talking about online training programs or consultants who offer retreats or things like that. I'm talking about an ecosystem. If you go to Silicon Valley, if you go to San Francisco, if you go to New York, if you go to LA, when you go to those places as a tech entrepreneur, you're not taking courses. You're not enrolled in online courses. You're not working with consultants. In fact, they keep you as far away from consultants as possible. What you're doing is you're surrounding yourself with mentors, with people who have been there and done that with, with others who are doing it. So when you have business challenges, it's very easy to get the support you need. It's very easy to say, something just sued me. What do I do? Oh, this is who you talk to. Or I need to hire an employee. What do I do? Oh, this is how you go about doing that. And creatives have to pay for all of that. And they have to pay for it one-on-one. And they have to dig to find somebody to help them with each of those aspects. Tech people don't. And there's a big component to that, of course, which is the raising of capital. The reason tech companies get access to all of that is because someone's willing to give them access to all of that because of some future upside that's possible if they succeed greatly. And in the creative entrepreneur, solo entrepreneur world, that doesn't exist. We're not creating an environment where somebody benefits based on your massive upside. We create these one-off environments where consultants, booksellers, authors, whatever event producers, and this includes us. We benefit whether that individual succeeds greatly or not because the exchange of cash and service already happened. And in tech, it's very different. And I'm very curious and fascinated with that ecosystem and how to build it for creatives. Yeah. I mean, it's something we've been talking about endlessly since, well, you know, I mean, let's just say that this is a big topic of discussion for Greg and I. We've spent a lot of time giving this thought and we feel that, I mean, to me, it's a solution to a lot of problems. Yeah. And it's a big solution in a big way that could really be groundbreaking, I think. Yeah, and so if you guys have any ideas or thoughts or suggestions or whatever, we won't hear from you. Yeah. Unmusablecreative.com/contact. But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I've given you all the statistics. You know how I am. I'm always looking at the numbers. And I'm looking at the numbers and I'm thinking 22 million solopreneurs in the United States of America, less than 7% make over 100 grand a year. Are you kidding me? And in the average, the average revenue for a solopreneur is $46,000 a year. The average salary in America is $45,000 a year. So here you are working, you know, 80 hours a week every day, busting your ass and you're barely making what the average salary is making in the corporate world. So, I mean, why do all that? Why, you know, of course, it's better than working in the cubicle, but you're not getting where you need to go. And so many are struggling. I mean, 7% are you kidding me? Like, we got to fix that. I mean, we're talking about 22 million Americans. And that's just America. I mean, think about, you know, globally, what that number is. It's probably even lower. Yeah, definitely. Well, I don't know what else to add to that other than we definitely want to hear from you. I mean, this is something that is very important to both of us. It's been on our minds and we're, you know, we're really looking at how do you fix it? How do you make people more successful, you know, with real tangible results, unmistakablecreative.com/contact. Greg, you want to do our iTunes review shoutouts now? Yeah, absolutely. Let's hear what people have to say. Talk about critiques and critics and that's reviews. Fortunately, we've got some awesome supporters. You know, like, we just have an amazing group of people. So, Stephen 88 says you'll be a better person because of this podcast. Thought-provoking. I love that. Another one says, I'm addicted. This is an awesome way to spend your time driving, running, walking, et cetera. Sreeny asks great focus questions that you don't hear in other interviews. Well, thank you for that. Really means a lot. Sreeny Rao is an awesome interview. He pulls out from his guest nuggets of information that help people realize their creativity and decipher that voice that pushes entrepreneurs. I highly recommend this podcast. Get listening. And then another dude named McLovin says, I'm liking the changes. McLovin, nice. I love that. Anybody who's a Judd Apatow fan we like? Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Yeah, that's good. So, nobody's saying, I hope you're a better surfer than a podcaster. Somebody said that about my books, but that's why I'm on the air, not, you know, behind the pages as often. Exactly. 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