E71: Be Inspired By Many, But Influenced By Few (Monthly Reflection)

May 2026 Monthly Recap Themes:

Why today's work culture ignores humanity and how to fix it

How vampires reveal the power of family

Doing the work to find the ones that saved you (literally)

How to embrace authenticity and happiness

The attitude of never giving up

The hidden cost of living in the wrong identity 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Be inspired by many, but influenced by few. So this is the May 2026 monthly reflection. And we'll start off with Vanessa Junce. Yeah, I actually met her at Pod Fest, not Pod Match, like I said in the episode. So that was my blunder there. And she was really awesome. It was late at night, you know, when we met at Pod Fest, it was a long day, and we were just kind of everyone was sitting outside of like this lecture hall, or not lecture hall, but you know, one of the hotel meeting rooms. And a group of us were just kind of talking. And, you know, she brought up her show, Humanity 2.0. And I loved the concept because it implied that it's like, wait a minute, where are we at with our current version? And so I got a chance to be on her show, which was a true honor to kind of share my work and ask about, she asked me about what, you know, it took to kind of level up humanity from my perspective. And really what I shared in that episode was about appreciating, you know, what you have. And I know you listeners have heard me say it before, but something that I really value in my day is texting three things to my family now. We've included my dad and his wife, um, along with my brother in this group, text of three things that we're just proud of, or three great things that happened to us. And to me, that's starting to build the language around, again, just being appreciative of what you already have. Today, this culture is all about what do I don't have, right? You need another car, you need another fancy widget for your whatever house and another stupid Bluetooth connection device that you need, you know, to make your phone run better or whatever. It's just ridiculous, all the crap that we need today. And I'm not saying that I don't like this crap, right? I'm not saying let's go live in the woods and, you know, be something like that. But there has to be, you know, a line that we need to start drawing for people when when is enough enough, right? And so when Vanessa, you know, came on the show, she reminded me when she was talking through our our conversation that really what we have to practice is being with other people. And I think like, and I say that because we hide behind our shit, we hide behind our crap that we buy. And, you know, look at people in public, they're on their phones. Like nobody knows how to be with other people today. You want to talk about humanity 2.0 and the work that sucks to get there, it's get off your phone and go talk to a person. Like say hi to your neighbor, right? I was outside the other day, and you know, the neighbors will like, if they see a person coming, they walk inside. We're like afraid to say hello. It's insane to me. And yet, people will go on their phones and look for little likes and notifications from other people, and you just have this opportunity to say hello to a person walking down the street. So just practice being with other people. And then this brings us to Richard Spiegel. And, you know, at first when the this agent, you know, reached out to me and messaged, I was like, Oh, I've got an author, he writes fiction and it's all about vampires. And I'm thinking, oh man, is this really a good fit for the show? And I said to myself, you know what? I'm an author. I know the work that sucks, right? To go into writing books. And, you know, books have helped transform the work that I do. I said, why not? Right. To me, writing is still work, you know. And so when he came on, I actually really enjoyed this conversation. And what I loved about it was, you know, other than the fact that he hates literally everything about, you know, how vampires are written today. Um, because I brought up the whole movie of Nesferatu, and I actually, I thought I liked it, but he didn't like it, and that's okay. But anyways, when he was talking about his vampires, he reminded, you know, me and hopefully you listeners that when he was depicting these characters in his stories, the vampires put family first, right? Before anything else they did. And it just goes back to what Vanessa was talking about, right? Just like, you know, we live in sort of uh this like fiction sort of reality today of our online presence and AI and just all these like ChatGBT and just all these weird, I don't know what to make of the world, right? But when Richard came on and said, like, you know, vampires value family first, it's like, well, wait a minute, why can't people value family first, right? You don't have to be a vampire. You can just value your family first. And that was something that, you know, I really liked and just it, I don't know, just resonated with me. So then we had Ed McCarthy, and Ed was really awesome too. We had we've been having some great conversations back and forth and emails. He wants to start his own podcast um with his, you know, colleague Ken. And, you know, what is his story was amazing in the sense that, you know, yes, he survived, you know, uh, thank the maker that he did. Was that he never learned the identity of the people that saved him. And so now his work is all about trying to share his message to the point where it can reach the people that literally saved his life. And I think that's really amazing. Um, talk about like motivation and you know, that sort of intrinsic desire to wake up every morning and just kind of do that work. But I really want to recap uh for this episode today was the perspective on money. And it's something that, you know, I've kind of been, I want to say asking more, but definitely thinking of ways to introduce it into interviews that I've been having of late. Because let's face it, I mean, money is part of our work, right? We we, you know, go to work, if you will, that's what we've been trained uh growing up, to make a paycheck, right? To then afford the life that we want to live, whatever that may look like. And one of the things that, you know, Ken, I mean, Ken, excuse me, geez, Ed McCarthy and I were talking about on that episode was that, you know, we he kept saying all these like different terms. And I'm like, man, I want to ask it, I'm gonna ask it. And if it didn't come out, you know, I was gonna say, all right, maybe I edit it out. I want to like, I try to say face, right? Because sometimes I don't want to ask questions and put the guests on the spot, right? And, you know, when I said, Have you read Robert Kiyosaki? I mean, his face just like lit up. It was like he knew he was like kind of just setting himself up so that I could ask him. And he gave us like a nice little recap of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And I just want to kind of take, you know, you through that again because I think it's important when you think about money and you know the work that you do. And so Robert Kiyosaki has this quadrant, uh, four squares, if you will, that he you can draw on a piece of paper if you like. And on the left side, he says, this is what you do to trade time for money. And you have, you know, the person who literally works for someone trading time for money, the you know, employee. And then you have the small business owner, right? Maybe the friend, you know, like my brother, actually, you know, who owns his own business. He's got two employees, right? And, you know, himself and one that's, I think they call them uh tender, is when you, you know, move the stones, help out with that kind of work. And then, you know, the office assistant doing all the, you know, the payroll and the taxes and all that crap that my brother doesn't like to do, right? He wants to be in the field doing the actual that kind of work. And so that's the left side of the cash flow quadrant that Robert Kiyosaki, you know, talks about in his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, where you know, you trade time for money, meaning that if you go to sleep at night, you're not going to make any money. You have to get up and do that thing again. You have to move the rocks, you have to send the emails, you have to, whatever it is, you know, that kind of work is. And then he says, okay, well, there's another way to make money as well. And that's to be on the right side of the cash flow quadrant where, you know, you have big business where the where you're the employer, and then you have, you know, investments. And, you know, let's face it, uh, not everyone's going to be a CEO one day, but the idea of investing, right? And I this isn't a podcast to go into finances, and we're not going to get technical here, but I just want to throw that out there as a resource for you listeners to, you know, look at that book and, you know, read it. There's actually stuff on YouTube that you can find as well. You know, people do a great job at summarizing that work and thinking about money differently. But that's the point of it, right? I think that's really what I just want to say that Ed just reminded me of is that, you know, when it we're talking about work, there's a lack of education people have with money today. And, you know, again, this is in the podcast on finances and money. But just know that there's plenty of resources out there. And if you're looking for something, you know, just you can send me, you know, a message and I'd be happy to point you in a direction where things I've learned, right? And I'm still learning how to, you know, make money work for me, if you will. And then we had Chip. And I love Chip's simple philosophy in life, in that there's the lathe, and then he's got a pocket knife and a bunch of stories, right? And I love the fact that, you know, these objects stand for something in his life, right? The lathe is this word, is this woodworking tool, but it symbolizes this idea of creation, where he can take, you know, a piece of wood and create something really cool, you know, like a plate or whatever else he makes. And then you have the pocket knife, which is a symbol for readiness. You know, picture like again, the Swiss Army knife, you know, with all the little scissors and the little tweezers. I remember those. He could used to take out the little plastic tweezers in my pocket knife growing up. And, you know, I love these sort of symbols, right? And he didn't say phone, right? He said, you know, a lathe and a pocket knife. And I just, I guess thinking about my sort of, you know, symbols, I would say that it's more of like my tattoos, you know. And so I have, you know, a bunch of tattoos at this point, right? My left arm is almost a full sleeve, and I've lost track of how many times I've been to, you know, to get a tattoo. But anyways, years ago in college, you know, when I was trying to find, you know, sort of the call it symbols that I wanted to help guide my life, I remember thinking back to high school, and I love this Latin teacher, Roger Brunell. And he was just, he made, you know, class fun. He made learning fun. He was sort of a goofball, you know. I remember he wrote in my yearbook, you know, to a hole in one, you know, meaning I used to play, you know, competitive golf on the varsity team in high school. And he wrote, you know, because he had no idea about golf, right? He'd he had definitely no clue what golf was. And he just wrote that and it just, I don't know, it just stuck with me. But when I was doing a lot of like reading in philosophy, and I came across, you know, this concept of eudaimonia. And, you know, I think it was Aristotle. You guys can correct me. Um, double check that there, that citation. But in essence, you know, it's about a good life, and I really love that. So I end up getting these tattoos in memory of you know Roger Burnell. The the ones are in Latin, forte soli superstiti sunt, it's on my left arm, and then porendomonitis, another, you know, saying in in Latin here, um, is seek and you'll discover, and then this concept of eudaimonia, which is a good life. And I love these symbols because one, I say them after every time I practice yoga, just a reminder for me to, you know, that, and when I say strong, it's not like this, you know, Darwin's thing of like survival of the fittest, right? There's an element of that from like, I guess, a physical standpoint, you know, but really strength is also mentally, strength is also the emotional, you know, I guess call it resilience that we have in the face of danger, you know, just being able to find this sort of inner strength to get through times that suck, right? And that's really what, you know, Forte Soli Superstiti Sunt, you know, really reminds me of. And then we've got, you know, quarrendo and vanitis. And again, Latin's a dead language, so I'm not sure if I'm even saying these things right. But, anyways, um, and it was funny because one time the tattoo on my my right arm, quarrendo and vanitis, someone said, is that avocado? Because I wrote it in in, you know, um uh cursive. So no, it's not avocado. Uh, but basically it means to seek and discover. And I just if it's a reminder to be curious, right? To not be so structured. And I say this, right? And you guys are probably thinking, oh, well, you're an engineer, you love structure, right? You work in the aerospace and automotive industry. And yes, I love structure, but I love the idea of just continually like having this freedom, this sense of play, right, in the world, that it doesn't have to be that serious all the time. And then those two sayings leading up to, you know, the word eupnemonia, which is a good life. And that's, you know, really, I think what we're all working towards. And so one of the things that Chip also kind of talked about in his episode was this concept of mindfulness. And I really loved the skill of, I think I assigned that to y'all for a skill in a homework assignment, if you will, was to take a photo, as he suggested, and to write three things down that you see. And then with that same photo, write three more things down and write three more things down. And that's such a great exercise, you know, in the sense of like you're starting to look at the same thing a little differently, right? There's that whole idea of seek and discover, right? You're trying to just be open to the fact that there might be something else still there, right? That there's still, you know, you don't have all the answers, you know. Maybe you get a little creative, you know, and think about, you know, if you're looking looking at a photo, like where was that person? Maybe it's a painting, maybe it is a photo. Did the person take that photo? Where were they standing? How were they standing? What was the camera they were using? And so the idea is that is to get more detailed in how you look at life. And I really like that sort of reminder that very practical exercise for mindfulness. And then we had Jay Setchell, who literally had like over 70 surgeries. That guy was the man, and it was a Marine Corps, and he just he never gives up. And I think the thing that I liked a lot, and I edited out of the episode, was that, you know, he was in his, you know, um wheelchair and was doing a great job with the, you know, the interview. And his wife was like, you know, come in, he'd like, okay, it's okay, like take the dog out or something. And he'd be like, okay, okay, what were we talking about? I just love the fluidity of his conversation. You can just tell that he just lives his life just sort of epically, right? He's not, he's I just I just loved it. And one thing he called it, you know, I think the like microwave society. And people think people want things quicker than ever, right? You put something in a microwave, you get your meal done in one, two minutes. Probably most of it is probably shit, you know, that you're reading for the most part. And, you know, but Shea reminds us that it's just being, it's this idea of slow and steady, right? That's really going to win the race, right? We go back to Aesop's fable of, you know, the tortoise and the hare. And, you know, the tortoise is slow and steady, right? And the hare's jumping ahead and getting probably with a phone and running off the trail and taking a nap and whatever. And the tortoise crosses the finish line, you know, before the hare does, even though everybody's placing the bets on the hare for winning. And, you know, look at Jay. 73 surgeries, right? And he's still slow and steady, doing awesome work, talking about little business ventures that he's still doing. He basically, you know, is very constrained to a wheelchair. I forget what hand he could pretty much move. We were like, you know, I we did a little salute at the end, you know, honoring his, you know, service. And that's kind of how he, you know, greets and you know, leaves people as well. And he just he said, All I can really do is move this like one hand. And that's crazy, right? We think that we have limitations in our life. And some of the episodes some of the guests, you know, on the show that have had these sort of really life-changing experiences. Yeah, I can only imagine, right? First, like, oh, this really sucks. How can I do anything? But then they find a groove, then they just find this purpose and like imagine, you know, yourself as a listener. Like, yes, you might think you have a limitation, but I encourage you, be inspired by someone like Jay Setchel and just say, wow, okay, like I have this limitation. It sucks. It's not ideal, but it doesn't mean it can stop me from what I'm doing. And then talk about our last guest, right? And Bobby Barrington, you know, being in the wrong body, you know, for 59 years, you know, was identifying as a man, but really believed, you know, she was a woman. And I just think of like, you know, first off, the amount of courage, right? And the amount of confidence it took to really come out and say that, right? And especially in a in a society today that's very like, we're pretty harsh, right? And I guess going back to Vanessa's thing, like humanity kind of sucks. Like, we kind of shit on people because we think that they're like inferior or whatever, and we you know have all these stereotypes and labels. And it's really kind of sad because people are just trying to figure out their life. Like this, it's hard. Like, this shit is hard living on this rock in space, like trying to figure out why our body temperature is happy at 98.7 degrees Fahrenheit, you know, on this perfectly, you know, you know, made climate for us on Earth, right? We can't live on Mars, we can't live on Pluto. And so my point is like, you know, life sucks. It can be hard. And Bobby just really showed to me of or just reminded me the importance of like being true to who you are. And you can see like what it did. Again, I don't think if she was looking back and be like, okay, I had kids, I was married. Yes, they weren't the ideal things that she wanted, right? I don't think she totally regrets those things. But imagine, I can only think, you know, imagine for her, if she was herself, if you will, throughout those all those experiences, right? What life would have looked differently, different for her? And I guess the point, the takeaway for you is what are you holding back, right? What are you afraid to express to show, you know, in the world that people might be like, oh, well, why are you dressing that way? Why are you acting that way? Why are you saying things like that? You know, and again, I just look at those things from other people as just projections of, I'm gonna say their own insecurities, right? And I think it's, you know, the work of going inward is very hard, right? No one can sit still today. And if there's one thing that I've learned being a yoga teacher, is that you give people three, four minutes of shivasana, half the class is fidgeting. You know, no one can sit with themselves. There's so many thoughts going on in people's minds today that I just we're not practicing the internal chatter, right? We're letting these voices in our head, you know, get the best of us sometimes. And we don't do the work of practicing this internal dialogue to be able to navigate when we come across people like Bobby who are also trying to figure out life, right? She wasn't sure of who she was for the longest time. And I could just feel the energy, you know, in our episode of like she was very certain of who she was. Now imagine you as a listener being that certain about who you are in life. Think of the things that you can do. Think of the things that, well, just that, just the think of the things that you can do, being certain of who you really are and living up to those principles. And so I just want to say once again, you know, it's really cool. I think of getting up to 70 something episodes at this point on the show. And I just want to say thank you, you know, for you listening, for your support, your reviews, your feedback to me. It's all very helpful. You know, talk about trying to express myself, right? Trying to figure out what work means to me and in other people. And I just want to thank you, you know, once again for listening. And if you want to be on the show and talk about work, even if you think that you don't have something to say, believe me, you do. And next month, you're gonna hear it from you know, a few people that one of my best friends, Matt, is gonna be on the show. He was very hesitant to be on there because he's like, you know, I'm not a CEO. He's just, you know, he just says, I'm a buyer out of college. I'm like, yeah, well, that's amazing. So you need to be on the show. So, anyways, thanks for listening. This is the work sucks, but I like it podcast. Remember, be inspired by many, but influenced by few. That means the skill is to pick out the people that really motivate you, influence you, and be critical, right? Be hard. Harsh in your selection. Don't be a jerk and say you didn't make the cut, right? I'm not saying that. Don't say that to people. But just take pride in who you let into your life because they shape who you are. And I'm truly, you know, grateful for you letting me into your life by listening to the show. Thank you, and we'll catch you next time.