What's up, dude? Hey, dude. Hey. How you doing? I'm doing good. Dude, I'm doing really good. Really busy day today. Launch, though, I think you might have saw. Good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, uh, you sent me a message.
Um- I did. Yeah... launched, like, the Pivotal demo. Great. Great job. Tell me about the Pivotal demo. Give me, like, a 60-second spiel about what happened today on October 15th with demo. Yeah, 60 se- 60-second spiel.
We, we kind of pivoted away from, like, this YouTube marketplace.
The marketplace is still there to evaluate software, and now essentially I just walk into companies and I'm like, "Hey, tell me your, your priorities, your initiatives from, like, the CEO level, board level, et cetera.
Walk me through your tech stack.
Walk me through your challenges," and now I'll just let a company know, like, these are the six areas that are literally sucking you dry from any sort of pipeline, you know, generation, acceleration, et cetera. Hmm.
And that's it. Yeah. That's what we do. And then if to generate revenue, we have a lot of partnerships, a lot of referral partnerships, things like that. Couple of technologies we help with implementation.
There's an implementation cost.
I know we talked about this four or five episodes ago, full services biz, doubled down on it, had 20 conversations in the last, I don't know, three weeks or so, and I've noticed every company is like- Hmm...
"Dude, I'm not happy with my tech stack." So we're gonna go all in on this. Let's simplify your tech stack, and if you're in B2B- That's great, man... you know, it's a, it's a total pain. But yeah, dude- Congratulations.
Yeah, thanks. And I wanted to ask you, I was on a... Every Wednesday I have a call where it's just founders, it's a handful of founders.
We just chat about what's going on, and there's a common theme right now where it is a grind to get- Yeah... new business when you don't have a butt load of marketing spend.
It is an absolute grind, and a lot of people- Interesting. Interesting... make it seem like it's not.
Like, you'll see companies on LinkedIn, and we've talked about this a lot, but, "I just hit 800,000 million in ARR in two days," like, that kind of stuff. But what are you-- What's working for you right now?
I know you're at a company that does have marketing spend and has a pretty good brand name, but, like, generating new business- Yep... and getting people to wanna talk to you, what's working for you? Yeah.
We in the last, in the last three months, but really in the last 12 months, have leaned really heavy into outbound in the sales team. So I'm in the enterprise sales team, and there's,
I don't know, four or five AEs, and there's four or five solutions engineers who are pre/post-sales, so it's a, you know, a melting pot, our solutions team.
Um, then VP of sales, and then we have, like, uh, rev ops and some stuff. We are measured, performance is measured, targets are measured, everything's measured on creating net new business opportunities. Now,
we generate new business from marketing qualified leads, but we are brainwashed right now in a, in a way that I appreciate to not rely or wait or pray for MQLs. And so and some of the reason is these
true large enterprise opportunities that are in my own purview and in a lot of the team's purview, they're not gonna find themselves on a landing page and, "Oh, I, I should buy Beehive."
I mean, we're talking seven-figure opportunities, you know, like household names that everyone listening would know. They... That's not how they purchase. That's not how anyone that size purchases products. And so we--
What works, I mean, my LinkedIn persona works really well. It's funny, I am currently talking to a number of large enterprise deals who regularly react to my dumb LinkedIn posts. Dude.
The ones that- They've been so dumb lately, too. [laughs] No, so idiotic. So idiotic. There are two large enterprise. Then so...
And I, I mean, guys, like, I posted the other day, I said, "Hot take, it is unhealthy to stop breathing oxygen. Most will disagree with this." Like, that is the level of idiotic. So two- Ugh...
large enterprise opportunities, you would u- you would know both of their names if I said them- Yeah. Yeah, yeah... have reacted and mentioned that persona in real life.
Three, another $35 billion company meets with me cold outbound from LinkedIn. One of the first things they say on the call is, "I've been following you for years, and that's why I know about Beehive."
I'm telling you, people give me such a bad rep. "You're... There's no way you're dumb." I, I literally have the receipts to prove that my viral moron of a persona on LinkedIn is literal cash. Yeah. Yeah.
It is why I am a successful tech sales seller. Yeah. So what's working for me? I mean, just being online chaotically and forever online. I think that works for tech sales, but there's a lot more to it, but I would...
that's where I would start. Yeah. Yeah, and that's a good segue. There's a post that you actually made two days ago, and I've got the, the hook right here. I've got the whole post.
But, "In the last three years, I've gotten about 100 million impressions on LinkedIn and X for posts I've written about Beehive." Yeah. So quick, let's, let's back up real quick. I gave the 60-second pitch on, on Demo.
Give me the 60-second pitch on Beehive for anyone listening, and then I have a question about that. Yeah, I mean, 60-second pitch on Beehive. Uh, email has changed. Email is an archaic technology.
It started in the '80s, uh, early '90s, and what email used to be was a broadcast to click back to a website. That is not what effective email systems look like anymore.
Morning Brew is a great case study and anecdote for what email as a product can do. They grew to four million subscribers, and they sold for $75 million.
We are nowAt Beehiiv, morning brew in a box or media company in a box.
We're an entire email first newsletter system or ecosystem where you can create a sustainable newsletter strategy, you can grow your audience, you can create new generated revenue from that audience, and then you can build your website, you can plug into all the different revenue tools that we have.
It's really a one-stop shop to building your monetizable online business, um, in one place. So that's what Beehiiv is. Um, so you think of the media companies of the world, it's great for them.
So there's two things I think about. One is the amount of money it costs to generate 100 million impressions if marketing were to go spend ad money to go generate 100 million impressions.
You've generated it probably just through organic posts, viral posts, stupid posts, what Daniel loves to do. Yeah.
But also a lot of your posts are very informative and educational about what Beehiiv actually does and what you can accomplish with it. Do you think-- We live in, like, such a, a bubble, uh, the SAS bubble.
Do you think that building an audience or a name is just as important to industries that aren't super familiar with LinkedIn?
Like, let's say maybe they're on Reddit or even Quora or things like that, you think it's just as important? Or do you think it's like, "Eh, you might be wasting your time there." No, yeah.
There's an entire go-to-market strategy for Reddit, Quora, I mean, the, you know, Medium. Like, there's like, there's like really tried and true strategies. Now, I'm personally not the expert there.
I dabble in Reddit, and I'm, I'm actually-- I'm, I'm a pretty core user of Reddit, so, like, if I'm researching, like, I, I'm really into running, um, right now more than ever, and I'm like, "I need a running pack."
I'm doing like a twelve to fifteen mile run this Friday, and I wanted to buy a, uh, a hydration pack. It-- Literally, I was scrolling for like four hours one night, like, sweating over making the right decision.
Reddit's what I trust the most with that. I'm like, Reddit's gonna give me the most accurate consumer feedback on the internet. So anyways, uh, I digress. I think Reddit's got a great strategy.
When I said a hundred million, transparently, I didn't do any real math. I did some very quick back of napkin math, but that's three years. Honestly, four. I've been working at Beehiiv for three.
I've been generating impressions for Beehiiv for four. Yeah. I did it for a whole year before I worked there- Yeah... which is one of the reasons I got a job. Wild.
It's Twitter, it's LinkedIn, it's TikTok, it's Instagram, it's Reddit. We have a very thriving Reddit community. It's our Slack community of ten thousand people that I started. It's Telegram, it's communities on X.
Newsletter Growth has four thousand people. That's my community I started. It's the B next to my name on both LinkedIn and X. Uh-huh. Also, the B next to every single person's name on LinkedIn.
Whose idea was the B on LinkedIn? That was mine. I have the receipt for it. So that entire social selling strategy of co-branding employee advocacy with Beehiiv,
that's because I said, "You all need to put a B next to your name," when we were ten people, and I was the only one that had it on LinkedIn.
It had already started on Twitter, but, "Oh, yeah, we should do that on LinkedIn." So a hundred million is, like, pretty, pretty fair and accurate number, but I can't even remember what your question was.
It was essentially- I think more people need to do this, though. Yeah. Essentially, is it worth building an audience if you're not in, like, this bubble of, of SAS? Um, and I think- Yes...
at the end of the day, you know, they're saying that we were in it and we're getting out of it, the attention economy. I keep reading that we're leaving the attention economy now, but I don't think that's 100% true.
I mean, maybe we will be with Sora and things like that, but- No, I don't think... I don't think at all. I, I see- I think the attention economy- Yeah, I saw a post the other day that was like, "We're now exiting the..."
And maybe it's just someone that's selling something that's, like, anti-a-attention. Who knows? But at the end of the day- Mm-hmm...
eyeballs is revenue, and I think that you do such an incredible job at generating revenue or let's just say generating eyeballs through LinkedIn and Twitter. Thanks.
And even, like, I think you kind of post on Threads and stuff like that too. But, um, so what you said- Yeah, Threads. I forgot about that one...
everything I search now on Google or I use Arc as a browser, but everything that I search now is, I'll s- Like, for example, last weekend, I was like, "Date nights for the weekdays Reddit," and in Madison Reddit.
I always add Reddit at the end because it is- Yep... like you said, I think it's the best place to actually get, like, consumer feedback that you'll get, like, TikTok style comments- Yeah...
on there like, "You, you F-ing idiot, who would eat at that place? That place is horrible." Yeah. But then it's like, all right, like I'll, I'll let that weigh in a little bit.
If you find-- No, if you find the right subreddits, the, the mods are so good that the community is, is actually, like, relatable and very humane. Yeah.
There's definitely the ones you're talking about, like everywhere- Absolutely... on the internet, but especially on Reddit. Yeah. And it gets dark.
But, like, I joined an espresso subreddit when I got this new espresso machine a few, like, I guess a month ago now, and, like, again, spent a month researching every single different variation and option between, you know, manually pulling a shot versus high-end one-click espresso machines, which is just like it's called a super automatic.
Ooh. That's what I ended up getting. I'm like, I- Okay, hold on. I actually, I would like to learn how to do an espresso shot. Like, I don't know, that's-- I'm very into coffee. I've never learned the art of espresso.
Yeah, same. But I sat down, and I was real with myself. I'm like, "Look, I have a three and a half and a one and a half year old, and I work in tech at a startup, very fast-paced." Mm-hmm.
Like, this is not the time of my life to want a coffee five seconds before a meeting starts and go pull a freaking shot from the espresso machine. You know what I'm saying? So- Yeah. Yeah, yeah...
like I literally click a button, and I get like twelve different types of, you know, coffees coming out of this thing. It's, it's super cool. But- Yeah.
I, I've- A subreddit, like the, the espresso Reddit helped me decide what to do. I mean, they're just super active and super helpful. It is. It is.
I think it's definitely the most helpful consumer community on the internet. It's so helpful, so helpful. I actually just recently increased my, my caffeine intake to about another cup or two, and I don't know.
I think I- Yeah... I've been texting him like, "Dude, I'm drowning right now. I'm so busy." And it's been this kind of pivot- Yeah, dude. I am worried, man...
like setting up for the launch, having all these conversations, stuff like that. Yeah.I am like three extra cups, one to three extra cups of coffee a day now, and I feel phenomenal. I feel great. Yeah.
I'm like [laughs] Wired. Yeah. Don't... Yeah. Yeah. Usually at like... I also switched something. This is, uh... And anybody- What is that?...
out there that can help an ADHD person like myself when my brain's all over the place, help me out about how you manage specific like time increments of your day. But something that I did, I have an hour, 12:00 to 1:00.
I eat lunch. I take the doggies on a walk. But what was happening is I'd get home, and I think I m- maybe I talked about this on an episode, I have no idea, but I get home from my walk and I'm crashed. Like, I am tired.
Coffee won't even pick me up. So now what I started to do was I just let my dogs... I do a short walk and then let the dogs run around in the backyard for a little bit so I don't have to go on a long walk.
And then at the end of my day, call it 4:00 PM, I'll take my dogs on a walk. And that's h- that's actually helped me not have that crash at 2:00 PM that I keep getting, 'cause that's always been 2:00 PM- Yeah... I crash.
I'm just sit there like, oh, click around LinkedIn. I'll go stalk Daniel Burke's stupid posts today and then I'll, I'll get back to [laughs] to my day, and it was about three hours of, of just not fruitful work.
Ever since- Yeah... I switched that, where I switched my walk, and, uh, maybe this is advice to anybody that crashes after lunch.
Ever since I switched my walk to the end of my workday so I can get everything done before then, it's, it's been great. But I've been busy. Crazy. I... Yeah, I did a long run.
Long runs for me are like anything over five miles. Some... I, I follow these elite runners and they're like, "I did a medium long run, it was like 24 miles." I was like, "You, you gotta stop." Yeah, yeah.
That's probably... You're not allowed to do that. Yeah. So anyways, that's why I preface. Long run is... It, it was six, six and a quarter mile. That's impressive.
After work the other day, and a couple things that I noticed, I almost always do my runs early in the morning, but we're in, uh, we're with my in-laws right now, and so I have extra help with the kids, so a little bit more flexibility after work to like do some stuff that is because they have plenty of help with the kids.
So I went for a run for like an hour and 15 minutes right before dinner. And I realized that, one, I had way more energy during that run. Hm. Interesting.
And my, my very limited understanding of why that is is because I ate two and a half meals that day. Hm. Yeah, could be. I had breakfast and lunch and, you know, snacks throughout the day.
Whereas when I wake up fasted, you know, I'm running with maybe a banana. Like I have nothing. I have nothing in my system. So I had the carbs from that day. I had the coffee from that day.
I had who knows how many cups of coffee that day, so more energy starting. But then I realized second is that when I slept, like when I went to bed that night, I was out. Like just done. Yeah.
I was so tired, hit the pillow, and I was dead for seven hours or so. Yeah. Wow. Um, so I don't know. I think there's a... There's something to it, switching around your routine a little bit just to see what works.
I think what, what people assume works because it's what they've always done isn't always actually the best. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's... I can't run in the afternoons. I try and I try and I try. Really? Yeah.
It's... I don't know what it is. I, I, I feel like when I'm active, the morning... I'm a morning guy. When I wake up, I'm ready to go. I'm wired. It's like- You are... give me three minutes and I'm good. And so- Yeah...
I love running in the morning. I don't know if you saw Strava. I've been running the last few days, mainly because I skipped- I was gonna mention that. Yeah. I saw a couple 5Ks in there. Good for you. Yeah, I did a 5K.
Getting ready for that half. Uh, it was a eight-minute pace, dude, like 8:20. Like that's pretty... I was- I know. I was zooming. I know. That's fast. For me, that's fast. That's fast. Which- No, that is fast.
And I've been getting a lot of TikToks of the Moab 240, so congrats to Killian Court. I don't know if you saw that. Just like- Insane. Yep... 24 miles or something ahead of the second place person. Like absurd. Insane.
Insane. Who can run 240 miles? That's nuts. That's nuts. Dude, when I think about the marathon winners, like Chicago Marathon was a couple- Oh, yeah... days ago. Yep. And the winner got 2:02 and some change. Yep.
Like do the math. What do you... Like what do you do- That's- [laughs] Yeah. You're doing, you're doing someone's like 400 sprint- Yeah... for 26 miles- Absurd... without stopping. Absurd.
It doesn't even make sense to me. Like I literally cannot sprint with every ounce of my being that fast for any amount of time. Yeah. And they do it for 26 miles. Yeah. Makes no sense to me. Makes no sense. At all.
But anyways. I, I had a friend do the Moab 240 and he finished last night. It's crazy.
And the video that he sent to us in our group chat was him like hugging his wife and kissing her and like whatever, and then she like tries to like grab his hand and like pull him. He's like, "I literally can't walk.
I'm hurt right now." And so... 'Cause he, he's walking. He's not running past the finish line. He is like in severe pain. Yeah. Just wanting to finish. What does it take him? Like 48, 50 something hours?
Like I don't know. No. 75? More than that because I think it took Killian Court like 56 hours or something. 47 something. Okay, yeah, so like 70s, 80s maybe.
Must have taken him like 70 or 80 hours, but 240 miles on your feet with like a little bit of rest here and there is just absurd. Yeah, those ultras, man. Those ultras are crazy. There's those backyard ultras.
Have you ever seen those where, uh- Hm... you just run till you... till the last man's standing? Like you, you're just like- That's crazy... there's Zach Pograb. He's the, he's the founder of ShareAura, which is sick.
If you're not on ShareAura right now, you gotta find ShareAura.
You can look up ShareAura is the app name on X, and you can download it, and it just lets you share your runs, your workouts, your cycling, a lot of stuff with very creative backgrounds and stats. Oh.
And it's like what Strava and Runna like kinda do with their sharing stats, but it's on steroids. It's 100 times better. Wow. Interesting. Go check out ShareAura.
Anyways, Zach Pograb, if I'm saying his last name correctly, he is the founder of ShareAura, and he's just a nut.
Like so locked in, chaotically determined to take over the world with his app, but he did a backyard ultra, and I'm blanking on how many miles he went.
I think it was 150 miles or something before he stopped running, and the winners were at like 240 miles, and you have to run, I believe it's a lap. I'm, I'm blanking. Anyways, y- you run. It's just- You just run...
last man standing. Yeah, yeah. And you just go for like days, and you get maybe...
You have to run a certain distance in an hour.And if you can finish that distance before the hour's up, you get the remaining hour to rest. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. Wow.
Every hour, I think you have to run four miles. I think that's what it is. Yeah. So after, you know, 25 hours, you're like, "Dude, this is getting hard," and you start, like, you know- Yep... moseying by.
But they actually canceled the race, there were two people left, because there was, like, torrential thunderstorm downpour. Mm. And so they just tied. The two winners tied. Wow. That is- Uh, but it's crazy. It's crazy.
I, uh, ultramarathons, I'm like, that's, that's a different breed, man. Yeah. My, uh, my brother-in-law ran one ultra every month last year, and then- Whoa. Yeah. Dude, he's- One every month? One every month.
I would just go- Like 50Ks or like what, w- what? So, you know- They're all, they're all different?... an ultra, what I've learned, is anything above a marathon. So it could be 30, it could be- Right. I know...
so there were some that were 30, and then there were some that were 50. He just did a 100-miler. Took him like 28 hours. He's did 100-miler- Crazy... and then I was there at the end, and yeah, he couldn't walk.
For like two days, he was just sitting there with his feet and ice. I mean, it just does a- Doesn't-... a whole number on your body... doesn't look fun. It doesn't seem fun, and it's nothing I would ever do.
I'd probably cap it at a marathon. Um, but maybe an Ironman if I can get somewhat mobile and silly. Yeah. But not for me. You have to categorize, this is a, from a comment on LinkedIn this week.
Someone said, s- I can't even remember what the post was, but it was a comment on one of my posts, and they said, "You got that right, Daniel.
You gotta prioritize self, wife, kids, family," or something, everything else. And it was interesting, because the first thing you said was self. And I was like, huh. I almost replied, I was like, huh, elaborate.
So I want you to prioritize, and we're just gonna pick three things, because there's too many. Self, wife, kids, in order of priority. Yeah. How do you prioritize those things in order of most to least important- Yeah...
and why? Hm. This is a great question. If anybody has ever talked to me and had, like, a deep conversation with me, just about, like, how life's going and stuff like that... Can you hear that, by the way? Yes. Yeah.
My, my Roomba's self-cleaning. Sorry if anybody can hear that. Um, so [laughs] so, um, if you've had any sort of deep conversation with me, I tell everybody I talk to that you need to be selfish.
And I think a lot of people, I think most people are selfish, and I think that... And, and some in the wrong way, some in the right way.
And then, and in my mind, it's like, if you are not mentally available or mentally healthy yourself, it's hard to carry a healthy marriage, it's hard to be a healthy parent.
So I always tell people, always, I, right now, I, I consult for this company on, on cold calling, and I tell all the BDRs, I'm like, "Prioritize yourself." Like, your mental health is huge.
You're gonna get beat up all day, all day long. If you're not gonna do your best if you're not mentally there. So I tell everybody, like, be selfish, take care of yourself before you take care of others.
'Cause if you let yourself down, you're gonna let every other relationship you have down. So I like prioritizing yourself, but not in a way where it's like, I'm only doing this because it's good for me.
It's not g- Like, you need to have also some sort of, some sort of thought process behind. Like, you can't just do everything for yourself. Like, you gotta do things for others as well. Yep.
So it's funny that you ask this, because I feel like I have a, maybe it's an, an unpopular opinion, but I do feel like it's self when it comes to mental health. And then I would say wife, and then I would say kids. Yeah.
That's how I would put it now. But like, I'm not gonna go out and be like, "Hey, I'm gonna go splurge on myself and not even think about my kids or wife."
Like, if I'm getting something, my kids gonna get something, my, my wife's gonna get something too. Like- Yeah... that kind of thing. Yeah. So yeah, that's how I think about it. Is that, let's, let's unpack that.
What are, what are your thoughts? Yeah. It, it's hard. I mean, you even conditioned, like, with mental health, self, et cetera, et cetera.
I think there are so many conditions where it's like, if we're talking about physical, like, state of being, I would die for my wife and kids right now, no questions asked.
Someone comes with a gun to shoot us all- Yeah... I would jump in front of the gun every single time, and until I'm dead. [laughs] Like, that's, no question. It wouldn't even, wouldn't be like, "Oh, should I do this?
That means I die." No, I would just do it. It's just a decision I've already made. So, like, physically, I'm last on the list. Yeah. Physically being literally my physical self. Yeah, your physical self. Yep. Yep.
I think the ideal, uh, God is a part of this too for me, and I understand it doesn't have to be for everyone, but God is a part of this for me. I view all this through a lens of God is first.
So I'm getting that out of the way for anyone listening. I prioritize it as wife, kids, self in an ideal state, and here's what I mean by that.
I am innately selfish and look out for myself, and am constantly battling the urge to do what's best for me, even if it's not in my wife's best interest or in the best interest of others.
That's something I'm aware of in myself, and it's something that I want to change to be a more selfless- Yeah... um, you know, virtuous person. I think, I think the reason, this is g- this is getting darker.
I think the reason the divorce rate is so high among people who get married, just in general, if you look at everyone who's ever married. Actually, let's keep this to Western Hemisphere.
Arranged marriages, divorce rate's much lower. Let's not talk about that right now, but that is a true fact, I believe. Check me on it. [laughs] But they're- Yeah. No, no, no, no. But anyways- I would, I would agree.
I would agree, but I also think there's- I think-... more repercussions than... I think people- Yeah...
I think people take that self and what's best for self and what's best for my mental health and what's best for me so far- Too far... that they're unwilling to compromise. Yep. And that,
I think that's when it becomes a problem. And to your point, if my mental health is so bad
because I've prioritized all these things, wife and family and work and blah blah blah blah blah blah, my mental health is just in shambles, then actually I am doing a disservice to my wife, to my kids, to my jobBecause I haven't focused on myself first in that circumstance.
So I think there's, there's this constant balancing act, and it's hard. It, it literally, I'm imagining a... Are those called seesaws? Yeah. A literal, like- Balance beam... balancing act. Yeah, yeah. It is hard.
Where, like, the moment you get that ideal state of mental health, and if you're watching or if you're listening to this, what I'm, I'm showing kind of this, this balancing act in, with my hands.
You outweigh everything else. And then it's like, okay, mental health is solved right now. Let me run over here because my wife and my kids and my l- they need me. Mm-hmm.
And then, and then it starts to go like this, and it's like, uh-oh, mental health, mental health, and you run over this way. Yeah. It is constant. It's... And, and constant, not like, yeah, every month I gotta focus it.
No, it's like several times a day, actually- Yeah... I think is how constantly evolving this is. No. So- I like that, I like that whole concept... you know, plainly put, I think it's wife, kids, me. Yeah.
I think I want it to be wife, kids, me, with God as the umbrella, but I think in reality, it's me, me, me, and that's, that's the problem. I think that's the, the innately selfish person I am.
Everything is viewed through the lens of what Daniel thinks is best for Daniel, and so I'm constantly battling myself- Yeah... for what I know conceptually should not be the case. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
No, I agree, and I think I do that same thing. There's like, I, I mean, like you said, you, you have to compromise. And like, one of the compromises for me is, like, the whole wake up.
Like, I wake up at 4:00 because- Yeah... my wife won't have to deal with the kids alone, and I'll be able to go get a workout in, which then balances my mental health, but then I'm tired, dude. I'm exhausted.
I don't wanna... Like, it's not fun to wake up at 4:00, right? But it's just something I have to do to... I don't wanna go afterward. I don't know, man. You're pretty consistent.
I'm starting to think you, you think it's pretty fun. No. Dude, I actually had slept through my alarm today. It goes off at 4:15 now. Till what? 5:00? 4:40, and I have to leave at 5:00 for my new class thingy.
And so anyways- This guy... whatever. So all that to say is last night, I'm not a crier, okay?
Like, that is something actually that, I wouldn't say it bothers my wife, but she always asks, like, "Do you have any sad emotions?" And, 'cause I- Sure... I'm usually pretty guarded when it comes to, like, sad emotions.
Interesting. I'll just bottle it up and wait. And so- Interesting... not, not a healthy thing to do, by the way, if you're listening. So, um, talk to somebody if you're sad. So
I watched this TikTok, and it's a, a woman who's reading a story. Man, I started tearing up hard. The woman who's reading a story, she's 80 years old, and then she said, "Today..." I need to send it to you.
I wanna know if you tear up. It starts with like, "Today I woke up as my 32-year-old self." And then she goes through- Oh, that's rich... this entire... Have you seen it? Well, I've seen these- Something like it...
types of videos. Yeah, so- I don't know if it's the same one. Yeah, so I need to... It was so well said. It went along the lines of like,
the kids are screaming, they're making a mess at, you know, at the breakfast table, and they spilled their milk. Yeah. And I'm gonna let that happen. I'm gonna embrace the chaos, and yada, yada. Talks about- Yeah.
I, I'm gonna tear up just talking about it. Does that, and then it's like, "And then I go and hug my husband, but I don't let go. Like, oh, this, oh, this.
Oh, I call my mom, and I don't, I don't let the conversation end. I just tell her everything I wanna tell her.
Then, you know, at bedtime I, I'm the one that picks up another book, not my kid asking to, for me to read another book." And I was like, damn. Like, I, like, my wife and I, like, we were literally just tearing up.
Like, oh my gosh, that's so sad to think about. Yeah. And so I feel like in the last two to three weeks, I tell my wife this almost jokingly but not jokingly, that I like... I'm having like this weird
midlife kinda crisis thing. Quarter-life crisis, midlife, whatever. And it, and it's- Yeah... I think this podcast has a lot to do with it as well, but, like, TikTok is feeding me that kinda stuff.
They're also feeding me- Yep... families out in, like, Switzerland and just taking these beautiful trips. Yeah. And I'm, I, I, like, I've been beating myself up lately. Like, damn, I think I'm- Yep... living life wrong.
Like, I, and we talk about this- Yep... a lot on the pod, but I really am, like, starting to... And my wife texts me like, "Can we go to Florida? Can we just book a trip to Florida?"
Because we don't, we aren't promised tomorrow, right? Like, I think that's something everyone- Yep... needs to have in their brain is you're not promised tomorrow. And so I don't know. Yeah.
I've been having a really weird, really, really weird, like, time with myself of I don't think I'm doing life the right way right now. And I'm not happy with- Hm...
just sitting behind a screen and, like, being okay with it. I'm starting to not be okay with it, and I'm trying to figure out, like, what actions I can take. Anyways, just getting that out in the open, by the way.
Everyone knows now. It's like, I don't know, weird, weird spot right now. I'm like, dude, this isn't right. This is not right. [laughs] Like... Yeah. This isn't right.
Anyways, we talk about it lots, but- Let it, let it ruminate. Let it ruminate. It's crazy. I think I had a midlife crisis. Uh, first of all, someone,
you know, conveniently reminded me on Twitter the other day that 39 years old is technically midlife. Yeah. And that- 36 for some men, yeah... messed me up, uh, based on just average lifespan. Hoo. So I'm 32.
I said, yeah, I had a midlife crisis. It was two years ago. I had an actual midlife crisis, 100%. That's why, it's why I started running. It's why I lost 50 pounds. It's why I stopped drinking.
It's literally everything changed in my entire life. From that month-ish forward, everything changed. I, when I, I remember telling people, not like everyone, um, you know, I had close confidants.
Oh, I had, having a midlife crisis right now is, is... Oh, you know, it's not a midlife crisis. I was like, well, Joker, I'm 30, and I'm not gonna live to 120. So what fraction would you like me to use?
Like- [laughs] Yeah, yeah... a third life crisis? That's pretty old, too. So it's like midlife is like the, I think- 30 to 40, dude... people in their 30s have... That's what I'm saying. People have midlife crisises.
Crises? Um- Crises, yeah. Don't, don't try to speed past it. Like- Yeah... mine was, you know, May, June, July of 2024. So like, you know, 16, 18 months ago. Really started like January, February of that year.
But it was really like push came to shove like May of, uh, 2024. And, you know, I'm still feeling stuff. Like, it, it's still like a- Yeah... you know, I, I'm just changed from that. So- Yeah... I saw a TikTok once.
I've seen a lot of TikToks that have made me cry. I am a crierThis one jacked me up, uh, and it still does. I might cry right now even talking about it. Send it to me. Send it to me if you can pull...
I know, I saw it tearing up- I gotta go find it... so I, I redirected my call, though. [laughs] I might cry right now telling you about it, but it's this TikTok, and anyone...
I am so grateful that my wife and I have not experienced a miscarriage. I am aware of how many people have.
My wife and I have so many friends who personally have, even some who have lost their baby at delivery, at full term. I mean, just worst case scenario stuff. Mm-hmm.
There's this TikTok of this guy, and you don't, you don't know what's happening. He wakes up,
and he's walking in a forest, and it's kinda like really bright, and like almost like otherworldly, and he's walking around, and someone comes up to him and he's like, "Hey, welcome." And he's like, "Where am I?"
And he's like, "Would you like to see him?" And it's, it's like Jesus, and him is referring to the baby that he lost wh- at birth. Um, I can't even- Mm... I can't even talk about it- I know, dude...
'cause I was- Dude, I could tell. I could hear it, yep. Taking a breath. That is so- I think-... sad. I'm just so grateful for my family. When I watch videos like that... Yeah. People are hurt. People are hurting.
And, and videos like that remind me, don't, don't assume you know what people are going through. Because the number of people who are hurt, that's one example.
Hurt from loss of a child, loss of a parent, loss of anything. They're just walking around. Like, they have to put these masks on like they're doing fine, but you don't know. Like, you don't know.
And I watch videos like that, and I'm just like, it just reminds me, like, God, the world is complicated. Yeah. And people are in it. People are in it. And it makes me want to be selfless. Yeah.
It makes me wanna stop thinking about myself so much. It makes me wanna go out and figure out, what can I do to be helpful? Like, what, where can I go to find needs and meet them? Yeah.
You know, we have in, in South Carolina, we have these things called blessing boxes. I think they're probably everywhere, but that's what we call them in South Carolina.
They're just like little, like, boxes where you can put canned food and, and- Mm. Yeah... goods that, you know, people who are homeless can go and get food. And they're everywhere.
I mean, like, all over the place, and you basically just go find one and put m- uh, we're, like, teaching our kids to, "Hey, we're gonna go put this food in the blessing box," and they're like all excited. But I'm like,
that's, like, not enough. I feel like that's good. You should do that. If you're not doing that already, people, you should do that. Like, give food to the homeless.
You know, buy extra at the grocery store, see if anyone's in front. You know, offer them a sandwich, stuff like that. But people are emotionally in need. Yeah.
And they need friends, and they need people to listen, and they need people to cry with them. Yeah. And that, that type of TikTok d- dog, I'm like, I'll, I send...
Sometimes that's one example of probably five TikToks that I've legit wept at. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I send it to Courtney, and I'm just like, "I just wept watching this. Don't watch it if you don't wanna weep."
And that's it. I'm like, face is wet. I'm like, I'm so grateful for my, for my life. And I have not been without struggle, but I'm so far without specifically that, I'm just grateful.
But I'm aware so many people have dealt with that, and I'm, you know, I just feel for them. I, I really do. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's something that I thought about today.
We were texting about [laughs] that we joke, like, should we just end the podcast at episode 52 or whatever.
And I was like just randomly thinking, like, what's a cool, like, podcast idea and, and similar to like what you were saying, I was like, I should just go walk down to downtown Madison, set up two little portable chairs, and just ask people about their life.
Like, "What are you going through right now?" And just like, 'cause I bet you 100% of people you sit down will have a load of information, and sad stuff, and chaotic stuff, and messy stuff in their life- Yeah...
that they're dealing with right now that they don't talk about out loud. And I was like, that would be- Yeah... a really interesting idea 'cause, I mean, I feel like m- I feel like maybe males do it more, I'm not sure.
But I, I feel like just out of all my friends, males don't really open up too much, at least a- as far as I know. Um, they kinda like- Yeah. No, you're right... we're men, we gotta keep it bottled up.
But there's that, and then I saw another TikTok that was like, it was about a kid that, like, I think he's like 16, but he committed suicide.
And the mom posted this TikTok, and the TikTok said something along the lines of like, "You should, you should pay attention to the signs."
And the, the whole point of the TikTok was it said, like that was the first part, and then it flipped over to the signs, and it was like nine months ago, dude's extremely happy. Eight months ago, dude's extremely happy.
Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Then all the way down to two weeks ago.
Every video of this kid, every picture that they posted at those month marks, he is like so cheerful, so happy, so just joyous to be around, always laughing with his friends, family, et cetera.
And her whole point was like, there were no signs. I didn't know that my son was going through something. And so I'm like, dang, like, people don't talk enough, man. People don't talk enough, and maybe it's on us.
No, they don't. Maybe we don't probe enough. Maybe as parents you have to probe even more and more and more. I don't know.
Like, we're getting into a world where mental health is, we talk about this a lot, but mental health is very prominent, and it's very infectious and quiet, to be honest. So I don't know.
I, I was- What if Two Dads in Tech is the platform for it? Like, we, we've talked about having guests. This is not planned, for those listening. I mean, I literally... This is just not scripted right now. But
I think there's an opportunity to bring people on who are, for all intents and purposes, nobodies. Like, no platform, no one knows who they are, but they're willing to share vulnerably about what they're going through,
and we just listen and probe. Hm. I think that could be-A life-changing podcast for millions of people I think it could too... including us. And I- Just listen. Yeah. We could call it Just Listen.
It could be Two Dads and Tech Just Listen. I don't know. Or you just get rid of- I'm just thinking out loud right now... Two Dads and Tech 'cause I- we've- we've talked about it a lot.
Like, we're bucketing ourselves in this, this TDIT thing. Um We could call it Just Listen. I mean, there's a lot we could do. Ooh, I love that idea, and I feel like... Love Two Dads and Tech.
I feel like I would be do-- I feel like I'd be doing better for the world if I did do something like that. I feel like I would help- That's what I'm saying... more people. I feel like I would make a bigger difference.
I love that idea. I, I love it. It could- Well, let's chew on it... we could make a- Because so do I.
Let's chew on it and- I think that's, like, that, that, that, that helps me to align what I think Two Dads and Tech is doing well for us and what I think you and I could do well for the world.
Like, are we changing people's lives? I mean, honestly, some of the conversations we've had are pretty thought-provoking, and I think people chew on them, and people go back and talk to their friends.
And, like, the story I've told many times, like, I have a new close friend of mine and my wife, and their kids and our kids are all great friends because of this podcast. Crazy.
Because I, I talked about just go ask someone to hang out and be friends, and then this person did on LinkedIn, and we hung out, and now we're friends. Like, we're...
I drove him to the hospital the other day 'cause his wife was going [laughs] or his wife, his pregnant wife is- Mm... with their sick kid. I drove him to the hospital. Like, we're friends. Like- Yeah, that's crazy...
we're friends. It's not just, like, random internet friends now. We're, like, actually friends. I was like, "That happened because of a Two Dads and Tech episode." So I don't want to discount.
Like, we have, we have done things that have caused a difference, but let's keep chewing on that 'cause that- that- that's, like, a, that's, like, a...
That's a ma- maybe, like, life-changing type of thing that we can do. Like, I don't know that I would say Two Dads and Tech is life-changing for anyone. I think it's a cool podcast. Correct me if I'm wrong.
If you listen to this and this is life-changing, please let us know. Like, that actually would legitimately help me to hear, but I, I suspect it's not. I suspect it's just a really good podcast that people like. Yeah.
That's what I'm thinking as well. But, like, the, the other idea. That- I, I love the- There's something there. There is. I love the idea of Just Listen. That is... Yeah, let's, let's chat about it after this.
And this, yeah, for anyone listening, is completely unscripted. We, we don't know what we're gonna talk about most of the time in these podcasts. Um- Yeah... but yeah. I don't know. I feel like there's a bigger purpose.
Like, we have such a- an audience. You've generated millions of impressions. I just looked at my 90-day stats, and it's, like, five-point-something million. I feel like- Yeah... what am I really doing, you know?
Like [scoffs] what, what is that really- If-... accomplishing? Okay. I don't know. Let's stop here.
If you're listening to this, if you're not on YouTube, go over to YouTube, drop a comment on the video with your thoughts on Two Dads and Tech brand, on the concept of Just Listen as a, as a podcast idea.
We're not rebranding right now. Like, we're, you know, these are just ideas, but, like, we wanna hear. And something we don't do enough is get feedback. We ask for feedback, for what it's worth.
We ask for feedback all the time. You don't give us feedback, so please do. Like, this is the, this is the time. Yeah. Right now. We need your feedback, and, you know,
I think the world could be a better place with, with that type of space to have those types of conversations. I think so, too. I think so, too. And it, and it might be worth,
because we don't get a ton of feedback from the actual shows, which we have a lot of... We'll have a lot of, like, weekly listeners that are the same listeners. We do. Um- We do... I look at it every week.
But we could also make a, a post that will obviously shine a little bit more light on the thought there, but I don't know, man. Let's start with, uh- Let's stop it there... start with the comments.
I want people to comment. Yep. But, uh- Yep... yeah, this is good stuff. Yeah. Appreciate you, Troy. Everyone go, uh, go talk on YouTube. Get up, get up in the comments. We'll respond.
We're actually reading those comments. We are. And we'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. Bye, guys.