Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. Carlos Gil, voice from the past. Welcome to the show, brother.

Sebastian Rusk

Thank you so much, my friend, for having me on. It's been a long time coming.

Carlos Gil

Way long time, man. So good to be back connected with you, man. And it's just crazy how life's twists and turns happen. And, you know, gosh, it's been I want to say it's a good 13 or 14 years since we first met because it was my early days of social buzz and the bow tie. And I think it was social fresh. I mean, I can't even remember where we originally met because you weren't in Miami. You were a South Florida guy, but you'd always been in Jacksonville. So but anyway, man, it's good to see you again and good to good to get reconnected here. And of course, great to have you on the show, man.

Sebastian Rusk

It's a pleasure, brother. I've always admired your energy. I've admired your ability to drop real talk. Someone behind the scenes have been critical of my, I don't want to say my work, but more so my persona at one point in my career when I was much younger. And, uh, you know, in retrospect, man, I really appreciate that. You know, when I got started in this game of social media marketing, I was 25 years old, it was 2008. So to give you some perspective, We're in 2024 right now, and I'm 40, about to be 41, and I have a lot more grays in my beard than I did early on. And when I got started in this industry, man, I immediately gravitated to Gary V. I think a lot of us that have gone on to build successful businesses and personal brands in this industry, we've always looked up to Gary, right? He's an OG. if you will, in this space. And what I really admired about Gary back then and still do is His ability to connect with an audience naturally, it's not necessarily a corporate persona, not necessarily the most polished of speakers, but he's real. And when I was 25 and I got started in social media marketing, you mentioned I'm from South Florida, which I am, I've lived most of my adult life in Jacksonville. And I started an online job board and that was my early days of tapping into social, using social media to pitch to media and produce events. And slowly I started developing a persona. And just so you know, I'm a big pro wrestling fan, like die hard since I was five years old, would watch WWE or back then known as WWF. And I always kind of fell in love with the gimmicks. So Shawn Michaels was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up as a kid. And he had this cocky heel persona, but the fans loved him. And when I got started in this industry, I started thinking, well, everyone that I'm seeing that's famous on the internet has a personality. and it's a larger-than-life personality. And today we call them influencers. But back then, the early days, they weren't really called influencers. They were just personalities, right? And Gary Vee was one of those. And as time went on, I started realizing, like, if I wanna stand out, I need to develop my own voice, my own tone, my own persona. And Snapchat came to the mix. And when I look back at my Snapchat content circa 2013 and 14, It was cringy as hell. And individuals like you, they, and I want to speak for you, but I would assume looked at me as this like arrogant, cocky a-hole. Right. And in one hand, it was opening up doors for me from a business standpoint. I was getting on stages. I was teaching about Snapchat. But on the other hand, I was alienating a lot of colleagues in the industry such as yourself. And where I'm going with this is that I look back over my journey that spans 15 years, being on the older side now, And I look back and think, you know what, Sebastian wasn't really a bad guy. Uh, he was someone that was just looking out and we, you know, we, we need those kicks in the ass. You know, we need those reality checks because as I tell my son that just just graduated high school a couple of days ago, he was now 18. Congrats. And he's grown up seeing his dad as a business thought leader and business guru using social media to build a brand. As I've told him most recently, not everyone in life is going to like you or accept you. So yeah, ever. And it's okay for people not to like you. But what I want to build on that, because I think kind of where we're at at this stage of our lives and journeys is just because someone doesn't buy into you or like you today doesn't mean that they're ever going to like you. Right. Over time, we evolve and we change as people. And I think we're all living proof of that as we get older and we're able to reflect and look back and say, you know what, dude, I've known you 13, 14 years. Yeah, you might not have been the nicest of people to me, but you meant well. And I appreciate that. And thank you.

Yeah. I appreciate you too, man. And I'm glad that, you know, here we are full circle. I've had that, you know, I'll never forget. Speaking of Gary, I had a gig with him. And when my first book came out in 2013 in Philly for, um, EO nerve and entrepreneurs organization in Philadelphia. And I went right after Gary, which is a terrible speaking spot to have. And, um, especially being wet behind the ears and green unbeknownst to me, I thought I had it all figured out, but, um, that evening and entrepreneur organization is, is I don't know if you're familiar with them or not, but it's, you gotta be doing a million bucks a year, a couple million bucks a year. There's a bunch of, it's a, it's a business fraternity essentially, and just an incredible organization to be part of. And I had the privilege of speaking there because the guy that I published my book with was a member. So that's kind of how I got in. So this was all sight unseen for me outside of knowing Gary and that night, Um, there was a party up in the suite of the hotel, the Lowe's hotel in, uh, in downtown Philadelphia. And, um, I went up there and what's about 1230 and there had been a dinner and all kinds of other stuff that went on that evening and, you know, typical event stuff up in the suite that night. And there was a bunch of people up there and one guy walks up and he's one of the speakers. He's an older guy. And he said, uh, so you're the guy that, that, They gave a talk on social media today. I said, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, one of them, Gary pretty much covered everything that I wanted to talk about anyway. He goes, you know, I got to tell you, that was the worst fucking talk I've ever heard in my entire life. And I'm like, what in the world? He's like, yeah, it was fucking terrible. the worst. And I'm like, so, so, so what do you mean? He goes, don't worry about what I mean. I go, why don't you, can you explain yourself? He goes, listen, it's 1230 at night. I'm a little drunk and I don't feel like fucking explaining myself. Okay. And I'm like, and I said, uh, well, I'm not one to really back down and give up. I really would like to know where your opinion was formed based on where it was at. He goes, I tell you what, My talk's tomorrow morning, nine o'clock. You be there. After my talk, you and I'll have a conversation and I'll give you some feedback. So I went back to my room and you talk about tail between your legs. Boy, this guy rattled my cage like you would not believe. And I literally am checking flights and I'm like, I got to save face and just get the fuck out of here. And I'm literally checking flights. And I sat at the edge of the bed I had a conversation with myself that next morning. And I said, we've got a couple of choices here. We can put our tail between our legs and we can go home. We can put that bow tie on and we can go downstairs like a man and sit in the front row of this guy's talk and get the feedback that you so eagerly want. So that's exactly what I did. Guy's name's Jack Daly, guy's a fucking legend. Anyway, so I go down, guy just murders his talk, does a breakout session. Guy's just a, he's a sales business, just legend. And I learned a lot. And we get done with his talk and he says, a bunch of people lined up to talk to him, get his book. Come to find out, we published our book with the same publisher. So it was only that common, it was like common ground already. So he gets someone to talk. He's like, Hey man, I don't have time to talk to you. Cause man, I got to run too many people got what's called. He goes, but are you going to be in the suite at the Phillies game? And I said, I'm broke, broke. I'm like, I came in, I can barely pay attention. Right. Tickets are like 250 bucks. And I said, well, I was kidding. He goes, you need to be in that fucking suite. You and I'll sit down, we'll have a beer, have a conversation then. And, uh, I ended up finding a credit card in my wallet that had 260 bucks on it, bought the ticket to the suite, went to the Phillies game, and sat down with him. And I said, and I'm all anxious to get all the feedback from him and everything. And he's like, you have something that I don't have and that most people don't have. And I'm like, what's that, Jack? And he said, stage presence. You just got it, kid. You just got it. And not everybody has it. Some people work for it. Some people just have talent, whatever, and you got it. But you got to bring it down somehow to a level that's comprehensible for people. Because the combination of your natural gift and you being able to get that all dialed in, you'll be unstoppable. That's all the advice I got from you. Thanks for coming to the suite. And that was it. Guy became an absolute incredible mentor in my life, called me six months later, asked me to be a guest speaker at his workshop in Fort Lauderdale. Um, and, um, yeah, so the, the point of sharing that is that. There's certain times in our life where we get our cage rattled, and we don't understand why. And it's unclear to us, and it feels like an attack, right? But until we go through what we need to go through, it doesn't ever make sense. So yeah, I was quickly reminded of good old Jack Daly and that conversation in the suite in Philadelphia that I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever forget. You know what I mean?

So and to build on that, I love that. Well, I love that story where I just want to build on that, especially because we're in these times now coming out of a pandemic where there's so many virtual conferences and people now are used to doing what we're doing, chatting over Zoom. But you cannot disregard. And again, I hate to sound like the old guy in the room here, but I'm telling this to my son now who's entering the real world. You can't disregard the power and the value of connecting with people in person. You can't disregard going to conferences in person. There's so many conference is happening in big cities. Even if you don't live in a big city, try to look at who, what's the nearest big city to where you live and whatever business conference is happening, find your way to get there. You can volunteer and you'll be there for free. Like the growth that I've, I've shared with so many people over the years is if you want to get access to high level speakers, volunteer at a conference, volunteer at the conference, possibly the green room or however you're able to finagle your way in, you'll get access to the speakers that way. And by networking, by soaking up their knowledge, man, look, feedback is a gift, right? That changed the trajectory of your career, I'm sure. I have also very similar stories to where people said things to me that I didn't want to hear at that point in time. I thought I was better than what I really was. And the reality is that it's the bad feedback or what we perceive to be bad feedback that ends up being the best feedback and completely changes not just our careers, but our lives.

And I think that the core to all of that, the key to unlocking all of that is to unfuck yourself and to heal yourself and to do the internal work on yourself that you know you need to do that we all avoid far too often. And that's the problem with the world, is that we go through it, we're living in a world where I'll sell you my bullshit, you sell me yours and we'll call it a deal. And I just, I think that life is far too precious and far too short to just be just kind of skimming along on the surface on here. I think that everyone has an opportunity to heal their past, present, and future, to be able to step into a completely different version of themselves. And that allow, I mean, I'm grateful that I was introduced with the opportunity to do this back in 2016. because I did that. And during that time, it was still a time of not understanding, you know, what the fuck is actually going on. It was a perpetual, you know, life, life is a perpetual flow of what the fuck moments. But this, this was specifically, and people kept saying, you know, Sebastian, When you, when you finally step into your power, it's all going to change. When you fight, when you start believing it, everyone else is going to start believing it. And I was like, I believe in it. And, but until I actually did it and did the healing and the core of it all was self-love. I thought I hated everything I was doing. I hated myself. So when I learned how to love myself, I learned how to step into a completely different version of myself. And now I very rarely even plan for a talk because I believe that God gives me every word that I need and he puts it on my heart and whatever needs to be shared from that moment. Once I hit the stage and I'm, you know, I, there, there's very few moments I'm at a loss for words. I mean, I'm a guy that talks for a living, so it's kind of rare here, but I think people miss that point a lot. And there's a big conversation around mental health. these days, especially after the pandemic, but especially in entrepreneurship, because it's a lonely man's game, like lonely, you know.

Trust me, I got my war stories, man, and my battle scars.

Yeah. My daughter's a psychology major and she's and she's getting her master's in mental health counseling. And I thought, you know, there's never going to be a shortage of work for you. So recently started a new gig at GetResponse as their global brand ambassador, which pretty much means you getting out there and representing the brand and doing stuff just like this to kind of tell the story. How did all that come together?

You know, so before I get into how it came together, you know, you just mentioned entrepreneurship, running your own business, the mental health challenges that comes along with it. And, you know, look, I've worked for corporations on and off for the last, Gosh, at this point, almost 15 years. And although I've worked as an employee for different companies like LinkedIn and Winn-Dixie and others, I've also been highly entrepreneurial as well, right? It's in my DNA. My parents are serial entrepreneurs. I grew up in a household where my parents always owned businesses, and I was just taught how to get shit done. which is a very valuable skill set that they're not necessarily teaching in the walls of, you know, a college campus or, you know, a high school for that fact in the matter. So, yeah, I've always thought of myself as being entrepreneurial, being able to get things done, being scrappy. And over the last seven years, I have been a full-time entrepreneur. And a lot of people see the highlights on social media. They see, you know, the speaking engagements. I've launched two books. I opened up a sneaker store in the last couple of years. Before that, I opened up a very successful e-commerce business selling face masks during the pandemic. Go figure. Everyone sees the highlights. Rarely do we ever see the lowlights. Like, I could literally give you five things that have gone very well in my business over the last few years. I could give you probably closer to a hundred things that haven't gone well. Yeah. But you're never going to see a piece of content. Right. Like, you know, someone steals from your sports card shop and you have to fire them. But at the same time, while you're firing him, you have to find ways to get those cards back because they don't belong to you. They belong to someone that entrusted you to get the cards sold for him. Right. Like those are just the stories that I just said this to Sebastian before we came on the air here. Right. Like we need to have more real talk conversations about real shit that happens in life. versus the success stories. Because the success stories, there's so many of them out there, you would think that every single podcast guest is like the most successful person in the world. And the reality is like success is a byproduct of many, many learning lessons. Like success is not a byproduct of I woke up one morning and I just pressed a couple of buttons and money poured in. No, it's a byproduct of to your point, ate shit and things went wrong and they went south and you kind of somehow figured things out and you hung around long enough to be successful. So in the last couple of years, I opened up a store with my brother-in-law and business partner called The Hype Section. It's a sneaker resale store and a sports car shop. Before I kind of get into how he started the store, you had mentioned Gary V. We were talking about sports cards before getting on air here. Yeah. So in 2020, before the pandemic happened, before the world completely changed, I was invited to do a keynote for Upper Deck's annual dealer conference, Upper Deck Trading Cards, right? Iconic brand. Michael Jordan, Ken Griffey, Wayne Gretzky, those have always been the iconic figures in the upper deck family of athletes. I go do this conference and up until this point, 2019 ish, Gary B's talking about trading cards exclusively on his social media. It's just trading cards, collect this player, that player. So in a way, Gary B became the catalyst for the rebirth of sports card collecting amongst older millennials and Gen Xers, right? He really became the catalyst to make us start thinking about trading cards as alternative assets. So I go speak at this conference and normally I fly into a conference I'm paid to do my speaking gig. I fly in. I'm there overnight. I fly out. I'm on to the next. Right. This is the first time I can honestly say that I was so impressed from hearing the other speakers at the conference where I decided to just hang out for the entire conference. And what really caught my attention was the money that was being made in the sports card industry from what's called live breaks, live breaks. is to kind of sum it up in layman's terms, people buy into a slot, into a box. You've got hobby boxes. Let's say you have 32 NFL teams. You pay to have a random slot. You might be assigned the Miami Dolphins. And all of the players from that box that are opened up in packs you're going to get all the Miami Dolphins players. So at this point in history, Zion Williamson was a rookie and hadn't played a single game yet. So all of his rookie cards are white hot. And I sat next to a guy at a dinner at this upper deck conference and he's breaking down to me like the millions of dollars that his store's making a month. off of this concept of online breaks. So that put the bug in my ear of, OK, there's a lot of money in sports cards. Gary Vee, which is someone I've grown up learning from, admiring, he's talking about this like this isn't a fluke. COVID happens. The world gets shut down, cards take off because now what are people doing, right? They're indoors. They're looking at these live breaks on YouTube. There's no, there's no sports live that are happening. So the only kind of real connection to sports is trading cards. In that process, the card company, I'm wearing their hoodie right now, Cards and Coffee founded by Dan Fleischman. They start up to capitalize on the booming sports card industry and they start off of as just an online breaking company. So that's happening simultaneously. My brother-in-law and I, we start this company called Outlaw Masks, selling fashionable face masks. The business takes off like a rocket. We use just TikTok to create videos of us giving masks to frontline workers. And those videos started getting hundreds of thousands and millions of views, which then resulted in a lot of sales for our new business that was spending zero money in marketing, but we were just creating these feel good videos. Well, the mask business shot up like a rocket and came down like really fast. It was like a good six to nine months of like, we're booming, baby. We're making all this money. We're hearing these cha-chings on our phones. We're really excited. And then vaccines come out. There's no more mask mandates in cities across America and there's no more outlaw masks. So again, man, just keeping it 100, we saw success, but then that success died down. So My partner and I, we had to have a come to Jesus meeting and think through like, well, what do we do next? Right? Like he comes from the car business. He's an ex-professional athlete. He's assessing what his next steps are. I'm assessing, you know, maybe I get a job in marketing at a company. The reality is this is 2021. No one's really hiring. So we decide to take a trip to Atlanta. for NBA All-Star Weekend for no other reason than my son, who at the time is a freshman in high school, was into trading cards and he wanted to go to Atlanta for his birthday for NBA All-Star Weekend. So in going to Atlanta, we stumble upon a sneaker store that has a card shop within it. And as soon as we saw a sneaker store that had a card shop, we said to ourselves, all right, this is business gold right here because you're merging two cultures within the collectible subculture under one roof. Now, to give you context, We live in St. John's County, Florida, which is outside of Jacksonville and St. Augustine. So we're like a hybrid kind of small little city that's sandwiched between St. Augustine and Jacksonville. To give you some context, St. John's County is the most affluent county in the whole state of Florida, the best public schools in the whole state of Florida, right? So we're here in this county where there's a lot of development, new construction, people are moving in from all over the country. There's a lot of money, just to throw it out there, a lot of money in St. John's County. So our whole drive back from Atlanta was how do we replicate what these guys in Atlanta are doing in our backyard? At that point, that's where the light bulb went off of Let's do a sneaker and sports card shop. Let's combine both of these subcultures of the collectible community. Let's do a store that caters to an affluent, younger audience in a family-oriented county, which is St. John's. So we signed a lease, and then we're off to the races to build this business. And where I'm going with this is when you start up a business, having strategic partners is key. Whether you want to call them investors, partners, having partners is key. And we went to a conference called The National in Chicago. And that's where we linked up with Dan Fleischman that at this point went from being just an online-based business with cards and coffee to now having multiple brick and mortar stores We let Dan know, Hey, we're opening up the store outside of Jacksonville. Do you want to partner? And we came together and we opened up a co-branded hype section, cards and coffee store. We're about two years in to the business. Things have gone predominantly well, but you know, for anyone that's ever ran a brick and mortar business before, there's a lot of money that comes in and there's a lot of money that goes out. There's a lot of overhead expenses that had to be covered. So, you know, again, kind of going back to the real talk of running a business and the highs and lows of it. it. When you are in business for yourself, you're the last person to get paid. Yeah. If you have a bad month, then you have a bad month. You still got to pay your rent. You got to pay your employees. You got to keep the lights on. You got to pay your suppliers. So right around, I'd say the midway point of last year, I started thinking, you know what? Maybe it's time for me to go back into corporate, and I take on a job that is going to provide me more stability and security than just running my sneaker store. The sneaker store can't afford me, and I'm not able to take from the sneaker store to pay myself what I'm worth. Sneaker store can run itself without me in it every single day. And I started applying for jobs. I was very transparent about my job search. But what I discovered very early on is that when you've been in the game of personal brand content creating, you're this world-renowned speaker and author. you kind of box yourself in in terms of the type of opportunities that you're going to receive at a corporate level. Like a lot of corporations, they want people to work in marketing. They're going to press buttons and take orders, and they're not going to be out on the road speaking at conferences, doing podcasts like we're doing here. That's just a reality. So as soon as I started putting applications in and started getting called by different recruiters, I realized early, I'm like, shit, maybe I've kind of outworked myself of a job. And earlier this year, on LinkedIn, the role that I ended up getting hired for with GetResponse, which is a 25-year-old email marketing service provider, They posted that they were looking for a US-based brand evangelist role, which essentially is, it's a brand ambassador. You're on podcasts, you're on the stage, you're representing the brand, you're a marketing thought leader, but all representing the brand. So a LinkedIn connection tagged me in a post. He knew I was looking for work. Ironically, this LinkedIn connection worked for a company that I met social media marketing world like seven years ago. So again, the power of going to conferences, the networking and meeting people. And he introduced me to this company. I know nothing about the company. I've never worked remote for a company. It's based in Europe, their headquartered in Portland. And this is January this year. We're now sitting in almost June. And I just started in this position within the last couple of months where I'm their U.S. brand evangelist. responsible for strategic partnerships that includes partnerships with creators and influencers and business thought leaders like yourself, Sebastian. And what I will say, man, is that had I not invested the last 15 years of my life to being a personal brand and marketing thought leader, I would not be sitting in the seat that I'm in right now today. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it just goes to show that You know, there's a fine line between being smart and just full-blown, you know, stupidity knowing that, yeah, I am an entrepreneur at heart. And yes, I am a business owner, but I also know my worth. And I also know what's possible with what the eggs that are in my basket right now. And also not too proud. I mean, I'm unemployable. Like it is impossible to get me to go get a job. I will not last. It's just, I'm not good at it. I haven't had a job in 22 years. some people are good at being an entrepreneur and having a job too. So, you know, congrats to you for being able to balance those two. Cause I sure as hell can't do it, you know, but you can tell that you found a role that works for you to home-based, uh, requires your existing expertise and the stuff you've already been doing on there. So I love that, man. I love that. So, so the card business is still rocking and rolling. I mean, I, well, Rocking? Yes. Rolling? Yes.

The car business, aka the hype section. Yeah, it's still thriving, man. We're actually in discussions with a couple of strategic partners about expanding the business into some new markets. So I don't want to reveal too much yet, but more to come. But what I've realized in this last, in this last just couple of years, man, is that for a business to work, you don't necessarily need to be in the business every day to still work on the business. right? Um, you get to a point where operationally you create all the piping, you do the marketing, you do the PR, you get things rolling and then you move on to the next. Right. And that doesn't, that doesn't diminish your expertise or credibility as an entrepreneur, but it's working smarter, not harder, man. Again, you know, when you're used to making a certain amount of income and your business is going to depend on that income going towards covering other expenses, well, then you got to make a hard decision, right? And to your point, I thought the same thing that I was unemployable. And when I was going through this interview process with GetResponse, I let them know, oh look, in order for this relationship to really work, the key here is autonomy. I need to be able to have the autonomy to still be Carlos Gil. And if anything, I'm Carlos Gil representing GetResponse and there is a merger of brands, but I'm still me. Whereas other companies that I was interviewing for, like your traditional head of social media role. So your point, they want me to relocate. Well, at this point, I'm not going to relocate my family across the country or outside of where we live. Right. Stability is something that has become very important for my family. uh, the actual autonomy of the role, right? I'm still an author and speaker and marketing thought leader. So I can't do the things that I love within the confines of your organization, then I'm not going to be able to be successful for your organization. So for anyone out there that's kind of been out of the game, look, this is the first job that I take in seven years. and you're never too old to be unhirable. I'm sure right now, Sebastian, there's a company that would bring you on board because you know a lot more than the average marketer that's getting paid a salary just to click a couple of buttons. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, it's again, I got, I never, I I'm always open, but again, I just haven't, you know, thank, thank God. the business has continued to grow in the world of podcasting. It's not slowing down at least to my, you know, predictions at the moment on here. So I kind of found my, so it started with social media and then I got you like you, I was like, man, there's gotta be more here. And you know, somebody called me in 2016 when I kind of went through my whole, you know, unfucking phase and said, can you help me start a podcast? And I was like, actually, I can. Like, how do you figure out how to leave an industry but still stay in it? Like, what an oxymoron. But the world of podcasting showed up. And oddly enough, I grew up in a radio station. Who would have thought I would have ended up being a podcaster, you know? Eye casting is the new radio. Yeah, it sure is, man. I say that all the time. Sure is. Well, dude, I got to get up and get up north a little bit and check out your store. I see you posting pics from it as well, too, and I happen to be good to catch up with you, too. We're right up, right up 95, just a few hours there. I was up there in August for a retreat in a similar area right where you were talking about in between about an hour from Jacksonville, north of St. Augustine, close to the beach. It was a beach town. Forget what the name of it is. It's hard to pronounce. Hadidra. There it is. There it is. Yeah. Beautiful.

That's where all the conferences are. Next time you're here, you got to hit me up, man. I totally will.

I got a car. I got a buddy. Bourbon. Yeah. Let's definitely do that. I got. Um, I got a buddy from high school that's lived there forever and a day and another buddy of mine, uh, that lives in the area too. So yeah, um, that will definitely be intentional on, on making that happen, but dude, man, it's so great to see you again. And I appreciate you coming on the show. It's been so good to, uh, to reconnect over. This is why I do what I do. You get the opportunity to reconnect with new and old faces, um, you know, through the power of podcasting on here. Any final thoughts for our listeners?

You know what, for anyone listening to this right now, first of all, if you're ever in Jacksonville, Florida or nearby, make sure that you hit me up. Let's connect on LinkedIn. Follow me on Instagram and on all the socials. You can find me at CarlosGil83. You know, look, it's a full circle moment to come on this podcast with you, Sebastian. We've talked a little bit about the journey, getting some, you know, fresh advice. I just want to go back to what I said before. Whenever you receive feedback, think of feedback as a gift, whether it's good feedback, whether it's bad feedback. Feedback is feedback. The only way that we get better over time is by listening to what people have to say and by taking that not necessarily to heart, but taking as constructive feedback. I'm someone that has been wildly successful throughout the years in his career as a speaker and marketer. But at the same time, there's also individuals that naturally I have alienated throughout the years as well, or not kept in touch with or better in touch. So when I sit back and do a reflection of my own journey, I think how many more opportunities could I have unlocked? How many doors were closed on me that I didn't even know because I didn't take people's feedback into account. So if there's anything I have to say to just wrap a bow on, it's just feedback is a gift. good, bad, or indifferent, take it, use it, and keep moving forward.

Amazing final thoughts. Love you, brother. Great to see you again. I appreciate your time. Thank you, bro. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. It's a way to get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.