- What's next, Brian? - Continuing to elevate and raise the bar on the product that we deliver to our payroll professionals. Welcome to our podcast, It's About Payroll. We're your host, Brian Escobar, and Walter William Duncan III. Whether you're new to the payroll game or a seasoned veteran, we have something for you. Welcome back, folks. - This is another episode of It's About Payroll, episode 117. I'm so proud of just the consistency the numbers were at, man, it's God, thank God. Today, we are doing a season nine in review, and it's one of the fun ones, but before we get into that, of course, how you doing, sir? - Man, I'm good. Happy Sunday to you. I'm all right. Can't complain. How about you? - The same, man. - The same, I complain, nobody listens though. (laughing) - That's right. - Go ahead and roll this. - Good, man. Oh, man, I read, I posted something earlier that was just like positive, like just, and let me see if I could bring it up real quick, 'cause it was, I reposted it on my, how do you see your own thread on IG? Is that possible? - I don't know. - See your own, see old people. This is a problem with old people. (laughing) This is one of them. Stop using your energy to worry. Use your energy to believe, create, love, grow, glow, manifest, and heal. - Oh, yes, that's nice. - Yeah, so this is a lot I like seeing that. I think we need that, right? We need that constant. There's a zig-ziggler, the writer out there, an author who said motivations are like showers. We need them every day. We need it every day. Yeah, man, cool stuff. Before we get into the season and review, we got pay news. You wanna take us through what you got first? - Yeah, so me, it's funny that, 'cause again, we don't have the ease. - I just realized that. - And then you started off talking about consistency and setting goals and stuff. So I wanted to come from a different angle on this show. And because we're the middle of the year, we have another year going, and sometimes the second half of the year could be the part that we have to really grind and taxes are coming. We've got a prep for the new year, all these different things from a payroll standpoint, a HR standpoint, there's a lot of stuff that are gonna be coming down the pipeline in the latter half of the year here. I wanted to, 'cause I feel like this sometimes in my own life, I wanted to talk about the struggles with being consistent and how to fix those things, right? It's an article written by SpiritualLivingForBusyPeople.com. And it's a lot of data here, so I'm just gonna touch each one like briefly and just tell you the topics of it. So the number one, one, it says a basically common scenario, right? So we have that initial excitement about things. Initial commitment or the initial excitement phase over time, which can lead to inconsistent effort and eventual abandonment. So whether that's at work or personal life, those goals can definitely impact you. Number two, they identified the root of inconsistency. So it's because of our focus. We focus on the process more than the outcome. You know how sometimes you could be working out and you could be consistent for a long time, but you might not be noticing anything when you step on the scale. You might not notice anything when you look in the mirror, but you're focusing on the process more than the outcome. Change your focus. - Okay. - And then the number three says plan for consistency. When you got to set gradual goals, develop great process, identify your big, why am I doing this? You need to understand that, right? And then number four talks about steps for being more consistent. So number one is being more present, anticipate the dip. So that means expect those challenges and just through them, even when they come. And do it anyway. Okay, hey, I'm tired. Do it anyway. This is so frustrating. Okay, I get it. Do it anyway. And it says here also to go back to the basics. Regularly revisit and master your fundamental skills. You know what I'm saying? - Yes, it's okay to adapt and change and stuff like that, but there are set core skills as payroll, fresh those even people that we can go back to and lean on. Okay, hey, let me go back to the basics and understand this. Sometimes it's good to do that. - Yep. - Fine and somebody is gonna hold you accountable and give yourself grace. I know it says forgive here, but I'm changing that to give yourself grace. - I know that as you should. - You know, don't be so harsh on yourself. One of the things I could do is I'm my worst critic. You can go pretty hard on myself when I don't do something that I think I fell that or I didn't do perfectly. So give yourself some grace. Find your joy in the process, right? Focus on being consistent and present. And that's pretty much it. The second things here are the same thing. Set clear, achievable goals, create a routine, minimize distraction, get regular feedback and have that accountability partner and be open to continuous learning and development. And go ahead. - Go ahead. - And then the last one here is focus on your wellbeing and make sure you have that work-life balance. Remember to take a break. It's okay to take a break sometimes and balance those things out and don't overdo yourself because you could find yourself being burnt out. - Yep. - There's a stat here that says 89% of employees that companies that support wellbeing initiatives report higher job satisfaction. So that's all I have. - I like it. What I was gonna say is I like that stat. So if I may, I'm just gonna run through the other stats you had here. - 80% of employees who set specific challenging goals perform better than those with easy or no goals. - Wow. - Employees who follow a daily routine are three times more likely to feel productive at work. - Wow. - Reducing distractions can lead to 30% increase in productivity and consistency. I love this. I gotta have more to say too. 68% of employees who receive regular feedback feel more fulfilled and consistent in their roles. - Yes. - And 94% of employees who would stay longer at a company that invest in their learning. - That's a 94%. - That's big, especially for payroll folks, man. I keep telling you this is important. And then you said the other one already, 89% of employees at companies that support wellbeing. That's 90% of employees at company that support wellbeing report higher job satisfaction. - This is really good stuff. And I'm gonna, I'll be honest, as I look through this document. - Time up. - When we prep, what happened, what's up? - The sign. - What about, oh, oh, my sign for this. All right. (laughing) That's all right. That's all right. Y'all see it right. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's all right. - My bad. - Like, oh my God, it's not so good. No, like full transparency, right? You know, coming in and prepping for the show and we go over our docs and all this preparation. And I looked at your headline, I didn't read through it. I was just like, the reasons why you're struggling and be consistent. At first, I was gonna push back and be like, this is for payroll professionals, we need pay news. And I stopped myself and I just had to think through it. And I was like, nah, this is important for all people, period. And then we're talking about it as it relates to work because we're in that halfway mark in the year, because we're like, look, summertime, vacation time is here, all that good stuff. People are at that burnout mark. But not. - Yes. - Right, and this stuff is important, man. And yeah, so I appreciate that you put this here for us and we're talking about it because it was definitely a lot more important than I thought. - No, think about what we started this, right? IAP. - Wow, yep. - 'Cause we came out with it, we had a different name where we came out with and then we ran stuff and then we were like, hey, about people. It's about payroll. So yes, sometimes, yes, this is about, this is a podcast about payroll, absolutely. But we are still people, or payroll people. And so thank you, thank you for seeing that. Thank you, because I think it's real, right? I think it's something that we all do face. We all face stress, anxiety. We all have outside noise outside of the normal work things. We face these different things. So thank you for seeing that. - Yeah, thanks for putting it there. Thanks for being mindful like that, Lynn. Awesome stuff. And my article is basically around the FLSA increase that's happening tomorrow, tomorrow being July 1. But Texas, the state of Texas, blocked their FLSA increase. But here's the clarity. It's only for Texas employees. So it's only for the state of Texas as an employer. So if you work for the state of Texas, it's not for Microsoft that has employees in Texas or rather McDonald's, or you know what I'm saying? It's not for the everyday business or non-Texas business, basically the government of Texas blocked it. For their employees. Why? No, I'm sure in the articles it does. I didn't get that far, but it's just crazy. Texas is nuts, man. I love how states throw their weight around. And it is a big state. And I think, look, I don't know what's gonna develop of that, but just if you work for the state of Texas and it's something to be mindful of. But if you don't, don't get, if you're a payroller, an HR person out there and you see this article, it doesn't mean that your employees in Texas are exempt from this exemption. I mean, it means that unless you work for the state directly, this does not apply to you. And your employees in your locations in Texas are still half a year to the update. Yeah, so very interesting development for it. And I'm not surprised because the FLSA increase usually gets a ton of pushback and sometimes doesn't get passed at all because of the pushback. So I'm very surprised that it's very telling that it is getting pushed through at the federal level. But yeah, pay rollers, be mindful, look it up. If you're in Texas, just make sure you're still in compliance. - That's a great article. - Yeah, thanks. Yeah, totally, yeah, it was interesting. This is just a relevant topic for our pay rollers. And then before we get into our season and review, we have a word from our sponsor. - Time track go. Thank you guys. Summer has arrived and with it, the perfect opportunity to plan your dream vacation. Whether you're envisioning a relaxing beach getaway or an adventure-packed journey, Time Track Go is here to ensure requesting and approving your time off is hassle-free. Time Track Go simplifies vacation planning for employees with this intuitive mobile app. Easily check available vacation time, submit requests and manage everything on the go. For supervisors, approving requests is as easy as a single click upon notification. Dope, everyone deserves a break. And Time Track Go streamlines the process for all. Start your stress-free vacation planning today with the free trial at timetrackgo.com. Once again, that's a free 14-day trial at timetrackgo.com and that's www-t-i-m-e-t-r-a-k-go.com. Or you can call them at 888-321-9922. Once again, that's 888-321-9922. Happy vacationing and let's go. Let's go. All right, I always love these 'cause it's a little informal and we get to look back at the season and just really, what stood out? What were the highlights, things like that? You wanna go first? - Yes, the first question we have here is what stood out to us about season nine? For me, I always, and this might be played out, but I always say that it's the people, it's the guests that we had on. I really, one of the episodes that I really loved was the episode with The Guys From Pay Active, Aaron Martin and Christopher Vero. When they talked about that earned wage access and the strides that they're making, not only them, but the industry around our wage access and how it's benefiting employees, 'cause again, it's about people and we're trying to help employees and help employers help those people out. And so that was big, but then also a part of that conversation was that there's still a long way to go because people in positions of power or leadership that just don't quite understand the need for earned wage access and they have a misconception of it still and think that it's not important. So that was one of the many things that stood out to me. Amy Travis, I loved the conversation with her and how she was focused on empathy and payroll. That's all of my feels and stuff like that. But that was big for me, right? Because she spoke to that about us having empathy for each other and for the employee and understanding that it's people centric, right? I really loved that. Shout out to Amy and everyone at the Georgia chapter here. Shout out to everybody there. So yeah, those are some of the things that stood out to me. What about you? So again, yeah, we always have great guests. I think it's on purpose. We pride ourselves on the guests that we have. We curate, we vet them, we make sure that they're gonna bring something of value to pay rollers and payroll professionals. Extend that like one time I had a conversation or like a back and forthwood company. And I was like, hey, we're gonna dig into how this is a payroll solution, blah, blah, blah. And they were like, oh, we're not gonna get that deep in this part of that part. And I'm like, then you're not gonna be on the show. You know what I'm saying? Because if you're, look, this is not, although I'm all about brand awareness and advertising and campaigning clearly, right? We have a sponsor, shout out the time track, go. But even that, we've vetted that product before they became our sponsor, right? We used it in a mock scenario before we, and we were like, yeah, this is a really, this is a good product. Oh, this is all, and then they became, and I wouldn't have done it any other way. And that's gonna be the same for any product that any of our sponsors, we need to vet that product. So I think that it goes without saying that we have amazing guests and just to give folks a background on how we do it. Again, we make sure that our guests are gonna add value for payroll professionals, period. We have Bart Van de Storm this season where Bart released his book. And again, like I say it all the time, they're only two, now two different authors, both from the Netherlands, Bart reminded me that wrote a payroll book that is not a textbook. - Yes, bro. - And we need more, I hope to be one of those authors one day that contributes to that pool, or every guest, I urge all the guests to do it. It's just crazy. - Before you continue, because I like the fact that you could you've been consistently saying that, right? Now, consistently for these past few seasons. And I think that Bart also said, he said, because somebody, you might be able to connect with someone in a way that I can't, Ryan. Somebody could identify with the way that you're speaking and it could be like, it could be life changing for them. It could cause them to think in a different way. Just because of how you articulate it in the pages of your book, your audio book, whatever type of book you do, right? - Whatever it is, yep. - Like that is the importance of it right there. - Yup. - Sometimes I think people don't do it because, oh, nobody wants to hear me. Nobody wants to, nobody's gonna identify. Like, it's not true. - It's not true, yep. - Yeah, it's not true. If somebody's interested, like for me, if I get interested in a subject, then I wanna know everything about me and wifey. We will watch a show, right? We start obsessing about the actors, the backstories of the actual characters in the show. This is the, we just wanna be fully immersed. And I take that approach with everything is, hey, if I'm studying payroll, if I'm researching payroll, I wanna read all the books on payroll, or hear all the podcasts on payroll, you know what I mean? And I think, like Bart says, it's, you're gonna, everybody is gonna bring payroll to the table from a different perspective. And we wanna read that, right? We wanna understand how Bart's claimed to fame and Anita Latain claimed to fame and her spin on things. And now she's on her second book, actually. And those different things, man. We had Anthony on there as a crossover episode where we share, it was a cybersecurity expert who shared, we posted this episode both on our, it's about your paycheck platform and about your, it's about payroll because what we realized is some subjects cross over, right? - Yes. - 'Cause we're very intentional about, it's about payroll being just about pay roller, pay, and I don't know if folks like me saying that, pay rollers, but payroll professionals. And we obsess about that, that's why this show is what it is because it's only delivered to payroll professionals. Anybody that touches the payroll process, right? You know, actually, you could actually wear a different hat, but processed payroll as well as part of your job. So you're still a payroll professional, even though your title might be something else. But again, we find these crossover opportunities 'cause we're like, wait, our payroll pros need to understand this too. So, and employees, right? 'Cause on it's about your paycheck, we're just talking to everybody that is an employee contractor in the US, is very specific to the US, particularly now. Maybe at some point we'll have a global perspective and we invite that, right? But so that's one of the things I liked about this season. Yeah, I'm looking at the list of those roster of all the episodes and the guests, and I'm like-- - Britney fur? - Britney fur was amazing. - What? - Yes, she is too-- - What a bright light. - Yes. - A creativity of ambition, of drive that Britney fur has. And she's right, she just came out of nowhere. 'Cause I was like, who is this? But that's how LinkedIn is. We don't see everybody on, that's how social media is. We can't see everybody 'cause the algorithm controls with blah, blah, blah. But she admitted, not admitted, but she's, no, I was in the background for a while until one of her mentors told her, hey, you need to get on LinkedIn and you need to be present, you need to be out there. And thankfully she did 'cause what a breath of fresh air to payroll she is, right? And that episode was, can payroll people be creative? And I think we all are, we just don't share it because we talk on payroll, right? And so that's, yeah, she was amazing. Christine Stobe just ended the season with us. You'll see that episode today, actually that post today on June 30th. And gosh, who else? Melissa V, we had on-- - Yeah, V-Series time. - Gerard, of course, I think was in here somewhere and we're collaboring with Gerard Hall on his FPC course. And we haven't gotten more into it, but it's about payroll. We'll be sponsoring, we'll be gifting an education grant to one lucky person for Gerard Hall's FPC test-taking course, okay? More to come, if you're interested, you hear this, reach out to us. We haven't put anything formally out there yet, but we're doing the planning still, right? If you feel that you are eligible or deserving of this or if someone, reach out to us, inbox us on LinkedIn, and say, hey, I have a person, or I would love to take this test. I can't afford the course for it. And 'cause it is a big investment. And because we talk so much about investing, we are gonna stand behind our word and stand on that business and actually sponsor somebody through this education piece. And that'll hopefully be a continued effort for us to always host to sponsor someone in their education efforts in payroll. Man, excited. - Look at you, Brian. Look at Brian's standing on business with the update. - Standing on business. - I love that term. - I love that term. - Hey, let me ask you that. We kind of spoke on it a little bit, but what would you like to revisit? Like, I think it would be kind of cheap to say, but I want to do everything. I want to talk again with the guys about Aaron and Chris about earn wage access. I want to talk to Amy again about empathy and like empathy and payroll. Like, I want to talk to Bart and see what's changed. What's new? What about you? - Yeah, definitely want to, yeah. You're right. What would we revisit is a good... We've been saying this a lot lately, how like we thought we were gonna run out of content to talk about. - Yeah, yes. - And then we realized this is an endless stream of information. And what's another piece of that is that we can continue to talk about these same subjects in more length. Again, it updates, it's evergreen. Not only are those episodes, will they be valid for years to come? But the topics are still valid. The topics are still evolving. The topics we can kind of come back to and still talk about again. So yeah, you're right. It's everything. But what sticks out for me? What sticks out for me? Being a payroll author, sticks out for me, for myself, for you even. 'Cause I keep telling you, you got this... The wall is that grace. Give yourself grace, right? I feel like you can talk a whole show book series on that. So I encourage wall to kind of keep building on that brand, keep building on education piece, right? Teaching, we started teaching in the past six months, which is awesome, right? Teaching, just the education, I think, is a revisit. Yes. The authoring, the spreading the word is a revisit. I definitely like pay active episode and it was an eye-opener when they told us that a lot of their friction and their challenge is getting past the CFO or the CEO. Understanding that this product is useful for their employees. I thought it was a no-brainer. I was like, why? What do you mean? They were telling me stuff and I was like, but it's free in that. And in some respects, it's free to the employer. Why would anybody not sign? And they're like, oh, they just don't think it's useful for the employees or they think that the employees should manage their money better. They are trying to manage it better. That's why they need the product. So there's more, there's so much more there to keep talking about as far as awareness because these tools enable payroll professionals to really deliver a higher level product. And that's what it's about. What product are we delivering to our customers, meaning other employees? Yeah, we could also collab on a book. Exact course we can, right? That just makes sense because we collab on a weekly basis. What else? So education, the authoring of things, those little, again, that for that earn wage access, it does stick out as a kind of, we need to keep building awareness for that. We need to build awareness for the salary guys. That tool, it elevates the payroll function and it elevates the product that we deliver. We need this across the board. Yeah, shout out to Yuval and Helle. Yup, at celery.com, like celery like the vegetable. Yes, I want to revisit Christine Stolpe created. Yes. At wage creek, right? You know what I'm saying? It's at wagesqueak.com. Yeah, wagesqueak.com, you know what I'm saying? So I want to revisit all these things because I want to see what has changed, what is happening, how they're adapting and stuff like that and everything. So that kind of leads us into the next question here. What's next, Ryan? Continuing to elevate and raise the bar on the product that we deliver to our payroll professionals. Yes. That's it, that's what it is for me. That's what is really focusing in on that for our payroll professionals. I want this to be an all inclusive platform that folks can go to and feel safe and feel, and know I'm getting good payroll information from these guys because we do our research and because we're also practitioners, we're not just pontificating. We're not just out here talking to talk, we're rhetoric and a lot like we're not politicians, right? We are practitioners, we're teachers and we learn, right? So it's that ecosystem and that combination of things that keep us at the top of this game. And again, I just promise to keep delivering at a high level, we try to have fun as much as we can, but a lot of this stuff is serious, man. It's like, oh, you really got to be intentional about doing a good job and that's what this is for. That's it for folks who want to do a better job, who want to be better at payroll, want to know more, you can come here and listen and learn and-- Absolutely, bro, that's it. You articulated that so good because, yeah, we're going to continue to do what we've been doing and that's exploring, that's discovering because this has been, it's not just about providing information for others. We're learning that along the way as we do it. Oh, yeah. We're just hooking up all this information, we're learning from these different interactions and these different connections that we're making in the payroll industry and it's so refreshing and it's so uplifting. Again, going back to what I said multiple times during this episode, the people are amazing. We live in a world that is chaotic, crazy, and everything like that, but there's still some good people out there. And there's a lot of good people in payroll. Oh, gosh, I haven't met any bad people in payroll, I don't think they last, I don't think you could stay. No, I'm serious, think about it because if you're, they become on our true payroll kind of folks, if you're bad at payroll, you're going to end up on the true payroll crime side because I say it all the time, HR and payroll folks need to be beyond reproach and that pours over into your normal life. That mostly means that you're probably a really decent person, human. What I do see though is we're, a lot of us are introverts. Yes. Right. Yes, a lot. Because payroll like Christine, like Christine Stope said, we don't all have to be forward facing, customer facing. Yes, you do. And you can easily get comfortable in that. And there's some days that I need that, that I need to just not be customer facing just to get work done, right? Because we get so used to it. We get so used to doing our work in a silo, like on our own. And we get, and that's comfort. So I have seen that. Yo, shout out to Pete and Julie at HR and payroll 2.0. Look out for the next season. There we did a swap cast with them, meaning we both, we've recorded together in one show, but we're going to record, we're going to post it on both platforms. Yes. They're going to post it on their HR and payroll 2.0 show. We're going to post it here. It's about payroll. It, we had so much fun with it. And guess what? It was their first video recorded. So we're part of their first video posting on HR and payroll 2.0. So I love it, man. Like just building those connections there, going to pay con, even though it was not like as a show, but we, and I still have some content I need to share. I interviewed two folks there and I need to post it on LinkedIn or something just to get it out. And going to pay con was an amazing experience. And we did that inside this season, meeting Nick Day. Our heroes, man, like Jodi Parsons and Sarah Chastney and Laurel, meeting Laurel, you can reconnecting with Laurel and meeting all the payroll or folks and just amazing. Like we met all the powerhouses and payroll, man. It's amazing for us and to be recognized by them and was also a great feeling. And again, they just, they love what we're doing for the payroll. And it's like getting those thumbs up from people that you would have been, that we've been admiring from far through LinkedIn. We can see, oh, wow, look at these payroll powerhouses. And another thing is that they're so approachable. So they're so willing to extend hope and help and improve you. And because I think everybody in payroll to your point wants to see, for the most part, wants to see everybody else grow and succeed at whatever ventures they're doing, right? That's for me, stands out, you know what I'm saying? This has been an amazing time, Brian. We're looking forward to more. And I'm excited. I'm excited for what's to come, man. So let's go to our game here. - Oh, I saw that. - We haven't done this for you and I. - No, not at all. - We did it with Chris and Aaron. And there's, they say you were them or whatever. So we're doing that for us. - Yeah. - Let's see. Those are six questions. And we're going to say either you, me or neither of us, right? - Okay, yeah. - All right. Number one, I'll do the first three. And you do the last three, I guess. Which of us is more likely to win a spelling bee? - I think you. - Yeah, I think so. (all laugh) - No doubt. - Who is more likely to order a meal? - What does that mean though, order a meal? - To order out, to eat. Who's more likely to order out? - I think that's both. - Yeah, I'm like, I know you want to say me, but your ass order out just as much. - No, I was thinking both too. But actually, I was leaning towards more so myself. 'Cause I feel like you're always cooking more. - Thanks. - Yeah. - Yeah, but that's a struggle. Like when we talk about saving money, that's a struggle, man. - It's so convenient, bro, especially at the long days. - Yes, yup. And if you forget to take stuff out, you got to take meat out, folks, right, bro? You got to take something out, you got to pre-prep unless you do meal prep and you have your, even that, anywho, next one. (all laugh) - All right, my last one. Who is more likely to enjoy a book? - Me. - That's you. - Yes. - I'll do a book, but I'm more on the creative side. - Yeah, you know, whatever. So definitely, yeah, you might have ADD over it. (all laugh) - I just might. - Yeah. Who is more likely to recite biggie lyrics? - That's you. I don't know. - Really? - I just, I don't know. - I just know the mainstream popular songs. I don't know any of his other records and stuff. Like you may know some of his albums, another some listen to so much, and you know the worst, so I'm thinking you. - Yeah, but I got a funny story around this. - Yeah, yeah. - Me and wifey went to a karaoke bar before we moved out of New York, and it was with her nursing school crew. And I'm like, oh, this is fun. People were up ripping it. There's a whole, by the way, there's like a whole underground karaoke movement. Like, I don't know if it's still, like I would imagine it's always this way. Like where if you go to karaoke, there are regulars that go, that could really sing. You know, it could really perform. Like, and they use this, I don't know as a way to, I don't know, whatever. But they were like real legit performers when we went. I was like, yo, this is crazy. So any who, me and wifey, we did it, we were gonna do a one together, we went up to do it together, and we picked a biggie song, and I'm like, I got this, right? Nope, it's different, 'cause we didn't hear, I wasn't, we couldn't hear the lyrics. Singing along to the song is very different than hearing the music and having to clean the words. - Oh, yeah, just. - Oh, wifey killed it, kill, she was carrying the song. And I'm like, yeah. - It was all the dream. - It was all like, I'm just saying. - Oh, yo, we got done, and she's, what happened to you? I was like, yo, I don't know, I've never did this before. I thought I had it, I was like overly confident. - Oh my God, oh my goodness. - This is a good story, man. - At least we're sharing that. - Yes, who is more likely to accept a speaking engagement? I would say me, yeah, I love talking. I love teaching though, not just talking. I like to share helpful information with this, yes, yes. If it's not helpful, I'm not gonna just talk to talk. Some people like hearing themselves talk, right? Some people like talking. Last one, or is it the last one? - Yeah. - Yeah. Who is more likely to do something spontaneous? I will tell you. - I think so, I think so, I think. I don't know if it's necessarily taking risk, but-- - Good to see you. - Does it have to be though? - Yeah, spontaneous, yes. I think right now, because I don't have kids, I don't have anybody to, that's why I think there's more leeway for me to do that, but I think it would be different if I was in a different situation. - Okay, yeah, that was dope. - Yeah, man. - Then you know what I wanna do next time, maybe we'll do it only on the season in reviews? - Yeah. - I wanna, us to create this or that's for the other one. - Oh, I can do that too, man, that'd be cool. - Right? Let's do that on the next season in review, season 10's review. - Okay, gotcha. - That'll be dope. Yeah, that'll be dope. So, all right, we got a safe talk question. What was the hardest thing or biggest hurdle in season nine? Ooh, that's a good one. It was the hardest thing in a biggest hurdle in season nine. I think for me, it was staying consistent. - Bro, I think-- - Yes, yes. - Because, right, for me, it was just like life pushed in, and I was just like, oh my God, and I'm still struggling through it, but I see the light at the, I think I'm at the tail end. I see the light, I'm almost out of it type of thing. I see hope, I feel hope, I feel better, but yeah, that's been tough. What about you? I'm the same, but how? - It's the same, right, so I'm gonna be vulnerable here. I've, Brian and I used to work at the same place, and then Brian transitioned to a different thing, and so that opened up for opportunities and learning opportunities for us, and then things about things I didn't know, things I haven't experienced and stuff. I had little, dip my toe in before, but never deep dive stuff, and it exposed some areas of opportunity for me that I need to grow in. And so, when those things happened, I was just like, man, like, I started going into that imposter syndrome, and this and that, and going in there, and then like, struggling through those things, and that, and when I get that, I can start to go inward and internalize things, and kind of shut down a little bit. - Sabotage, self-sabotage. - And then, like I said earlier, I'm my own worst critic, and I was like, okay man, are you good at your job, and then start questioning myself, and then wanted to be better, and absolutely, absolutely. I wouldn't be in this position if I wasn't good at my job or I'm good at payroll, but I still had to realize, hey, I can grow, and take those things as challenges, not instead of hindrances. A chest something, a hindrance can stop you from progressing. A challenge is something that you can work through, in my opinion, right? So, like, I had to take those and reframe, and take those things as challenges, instead of hindrances that wouldn't prevent me from going on, because me, I shut down. I shut down, and I just get stuck, especially when I'm my head. So, that kind of happened during season nine, in my own way, 'cause you and I have had those talks, just being vulnerable here and personal here. We won't want to detail us up, but you and I have had those talks, Brian, like during season nine, where we're like, man, I'm going through this, I'm facing this, and we've had to encourage each other to shop the iron, shop for the iron, and encourage each other to push each other through. So, what's happening? It wasn't really season nine in itself, it was like those outside. - Oh, it just happened during season nine, yeah. And it has impact, yeah, it wasn't anything directly with this. What I found, though, was doing the show, after the show, it released my endorphins, and I felt like this is fun for you, you know what I mean? And I always, every Sunday, after a record, I'm recharged, you know what I mean? I come away at home. Man, I feel great, you know what I mean? So, that's been part of it. So, it's been our saving grace, really. - It's been an outlet for us, man. - But there's some days that I didn't want to do it. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? And shoot, this is actually the season that we took the most breaks in. - Yes. - Luckily for lost tapes, because we didn't drop lost tapes in this season, I don't know if you guys noticed, but we took because of this. So, it's a really interesting conversation because when me and Walt realized that we had these lost tapes that we could post as content, as shows, they were shows that you guys never heard before, or saw before, because they were part of our website at one point, and then we didn't do that on the website, and we were like, oh, wait a minute, we got content just sitting here. So, we started, and I think we have a few more, I don't know if we got to do an inventory, but we released a lot of them during this season. - Yeah. - Don't worry, are you gonna, okay. And we're gonna eat breakfast. But that gave us the break that we needed, because we were struggling this season. We were struggling. Struggling like, all good things. - Life was life. - Life was life in us, right? Like, yeah, it's all tough things, but like I had to say during the season, nobody died. So it was like, it's not death, although there has been death in friends and family, but that kind of always had that's life. But yeah, I mean, we took the most breaks and days not recording on Sundays, and that actually hurt, because we didn't get that release, we didn't get the outlet on those days. - Yeah, a really good conversation, man, for sure. - And it's a lot of it. - It tied into everything, the tied into the thing about consistency and look, we're human too, right? - Yeah. - So if you're listening to this and you're struggling, talk to someone, find somebody that you can talk to connect with, have those outlets, you know, find something that you can enjoy and find that work, work, life balance, find some way to improve your wellbeing. There are people out there who will have your back, who will support you. The payroll community is a great community. There are great people you can connect with, Laurel, Sarah at Payorg, but it's a great, she's all about people and wellbeing. There are great people in great positions. Reach out to everybody. - Yeah, one of the things that resonates this season, this is not this season, whatever, just in the last, while we were doing nine, is like the idea of who you spend your time around, right? And if you spend your time with negative people that just don't have the hope and ambition and just the positive thoughts, that's gonna affect you, that's gonna impact you and how you operate. So if you don't wanna be that, unfortunately, you have to change the people you're around, right? And that idea exists a lot in self-help, as you read, if a self-help reader or listener or content absorb, consumer of self-help, you will see that, like the people you are around. And I remember my oldest brother used to tell me all the time when I was a teenager, he showed me who you walk with and I'll tell you who you are, yep. And I would be like, man, crazy. I ain't-- - I know who I am. - Yeah, I know who I am, you know, no shit, you know what I mean? But he was absolutely right, absolutely right. I'm old, and I'm like, oh shit, and I'm telling this stuff to my children, you know what I mean? - Older, older, older. - Older, yeah, I know. So yeah, just be careful what you consume. There was a word back in church, when I used to go to church a lot, the word always, even though I didn't, I don't agree with all the things that Organized Religion does, but I tried to take away 'cause at the end of the day, that if it's good folks up there, they're trying to give you a good word, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's applicable. - Yes. - Beyond the Bible, they're trying to give you something, tools to take into the world. And one of those folks was talking about the content that we consume, you know what I mean? And he liked it to, like your blood, right? If you put bad stuff, a bad chemical in your blood, you're gonna get sick. - Yep. - You know what I mean? If we ingest poisonous stuff, we're gonna get sick and our body's gonna reject it, right? Just think about that. If we're consuming this bad stuff all the time-- - All the time, yep. - We're getting our brain sick. - What is that? That's another saying, you are what you eat? - Oh yeah. - You are what you consume. That's another way to kind of think about it, right? - That's another way to think about it, that's exactly right. Yeah, that's a great analogy too, 'cause if we eat bad foods all the time, you're gonna be an unhealthy person. - Boom. - Period, period, right? So these are the ways to kind of, when it takes time, it's taking me a lifetime to get to this point. And I still struggle with positivity and negativity. I'm still overly sensitive for things and like that. It's right, it's a struggle, man, it's a struggle. I love it, I love it, man, it's so hopefully, we love you folks, you know, hopefully, took some nuggets from today's show. And again, I always love the season and reviews. Again, it's like, I think it's a cheat code for listeners, because if you haven't heard the show, listen to all the season and reviews, and we'll talk about what had happened. You could be like, oh, wait, who was on it? Oh man, it's like a little, it's like a, yeah, it's a table of content in review, really. 'Cause we don't know the whole season ahead of time. We don't know what we're gonna do all the time, what guests will come up and things like that. When I just told Walt that I do wanna build a roadmap for the next 12 months and have some ideas already plotted out, but even that, things change. Hey, I'm gonna do it and then they don't do the show. We gotta stay very flexible and dynamic in that manner. But one of the things we do know is that swap cast is gonna happen 'cause we already recorded it. So look out for that on payroll and HR 2.0 podcast and on it's about payroll with Pete and Julie Fernandez. Julie was just awesome, man, I loved you. - Yeah, that was awesome. - She's so cool, Han Luke. And I didn't know Pete was such a rebel, right? He's a rebel, holy cow. Yeah, check it. He's like the, yo, fearless leader, man, I love it. He did an amazing thing for that real quick. I'm sorry, the confidence survey that he did for payroll, folks that me and Walt were a part of. He got a lot of us together, asked us questions and we just went through survey and he built this data deck on the state of payroll, really. So please go check that out and what are you gonna say, Walt? - No, you're right. One thing that kind of resonated with me from Pete during the swap cast was his passion for payroll, his passion for the people in payroll and for making sure that payroll is heard. - Tilly-acos. - Tilly-acos, yeah. Yeah, Mo, I didn't realize that 'cause again, I've heard of his episodes as I pay attention to all of the payroll podcast, but I shoot. We got into it. He was getting a lot, he was getting worked up. - Yeah. - You guys shoot me and I'm dumb, yeah. - No doubt. Hopefully there's more to come there. We wanna do some panels and really again, continue to deliver an amazing product for our payroll professionals. And we ended on that note and have a great day, y'all. We love y'all until the next time. - Are you just happy? Before we sign off, here are a couple quick things. Don't forget to follow. It's about payroll on LinkedIn and it's about your paycheck on Facebook and TikTok. - Thank you for being part of our payroll community and thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Until the next time, keep learning, keep growing and most importantly, keep going. [MUSIC PLAYING]
