From Panic Attacks to Prime-Time: Howie Mandel’s Survival Story

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28:46And I started, I had a panic attack and I said, hey, listen, all kidding aside, I'm gonna pass out right now. And I feel like I'm gonna die. And Howard, legitimately, I have something called obsessive compulsive disorder. I've been diagnosed, I'm medicated. And if you don't open the door for me right now, you're gonna have to call 911. And they opened the door for me. And when I walked out in the hallway, I thought I was in a commercial break. I saw that this whole thing had been broadcast nationally. And my, it was probably the darkest, most devastating moment I can remember in my history because I thought, oh my God, I just confessed nationally on radio that I'm a mental health patient.

29:29And number one, my first thought went to my poor kids. Everybody's going to say at school that your dad's a mental case. I've just embarrassed and shamed my entire family. Number two, I'm never gonna work again. Why would anybody handle, why would anybody hire, you know, all these, any job that I have, I don't know if people are aware of, but even in show business, you know, even on AGT, there's an insurance policy on you, you know? There's a, you know, if something should happen, and they usually, when you start a new job, you'll even have a medical checkup, kind of, you know, it's just surfacy.

30:04It's not anything. But if you have a diagnosed mental health disorder, they're probably never going to hire me again. So I'm an embarrassment to my family. I'm unemployable. I don't know what to do. And I wandered out into the street. And right away, somebody came up to me. I couldn't even make eye contact with somebody in this teeming sidewalk of Manhattan within seconds of me coming out the door. And they went, are you Howie Mandel? And I didn't even make eye contact. I looked down and I went, yes. They go, I just heard you on Howard Stern. And I just went, oh, shit, what do I do now? And he said two words, which meant something different then than it means now.

30:42But he just went, me too. And I went, me too? What are you saying? He goes, I have obsessive compulsive. So thank you so much for talking about it. What do you mean? He goes, it was so comforting to hear that, you know, in our own heads, regardless of whatever our mental issues is, we're all alone. We all feel like nobody really, and we don't. nobody really sees things the way you see things. Nobody feels exactly like you feel. Nobody, so it is very lonely. And when you're suffering, you feel very alone because nobody can feel what you feel. So for him to say me too, and that really helped, he had no idea how much he helped me to say, I'm not alone.

31:19What you feel, the thing that I described, you've been diagnosed too, and you're going through this, and you're out here and you're willing to talk about it? I wasn't willing to talk about it. Well, now I have a friend. You just threw me a life preserver. And then I went home and within weeks, this is before the internet, I started getting hundreds and hundreds of letters from people who were saying thank you. And every letter made my life and my mind a little bit lighter, a little bit brighter, a little bit. So I realized for my own sake, you know, I'd like to come off a little more altruistic, but I'm not.

31:53For my own sake, they helped me. and anybody who comes up to me in the street today and says oh yeah thank you for talking about it or i have it too or my kid talks about it or is there anything you could suggest you have no idea how wonderful that's like strangers coming up and hugging i don't want you to hug me but that's a

32:11Dr. Michael Gervais:real verbal mental hug yeah so again thank you because uh you create air cover you've created space it's an accident that you that you stepped into this yeah but the fact that you continued and you owned it and what serendipity is like a thing i don't know how to explain it but for someone to walk up and say that to you it's remarkable i believe in i wouldn't you do i do i would imagine though there's a little bit of a trap and i don't know if you've kind of navigated this trap door or you're still flirting with it which is when somebody says something to you thank you amazing you've helped me so much that that reinforces and gives you the set of validation that you're okay, as opposed to from the inside out, the knowing that I'm at home with myself and I am who I am and I'm working my very best.

33:03Dr. Michael Gervais:There's a stability to the inside out approach and there's a fragility requiring the outside in approach. And if you could just open up the aperture there a little bit about how delicate it is for you or how sturdy you feel. Well, I'm not sturdy. I've used this term. I said, I've become very comfortable with discomfort. discomfort is the major unlock this is a major unlock for for people to understand i do want to stay here stand-up comedy has been is my comfort zone because it's really uncomfortable and my analogy is this that's okay sorry i'm interrupting i've been told not to interrupt go ahead i've been scarred by my people a little bit which but right here this is the thing this is the through line between mastery of craft and mastery of self your commitment to be uncomfortable on both sides so i do want to understand that as well so there's three things i want to understand so will you remember you promise you remember where you were yeah okay keep going this is awesome so i've become comfortable with discomfort and if i had to use analogies if you find a passion in something you're excited about and that should just be for most people what we should try to find is life.

34:18That should be what you're passionate about. And life is ebbs and flows and it's hard. But if you wanted to put it in a much more visual tone, if you just love boxing, you want to be a boxer. Boxer is your life. You love the sport. You love the physicality. You love the challenge. You love the competition. It's your life. And that's what you want to do. That's a choice you made, then I will tell you in order to box, there's going to be moments when you can't even catch your breath. There's going to be moments when you're going to be punched in the face so goddamn hard that your lights are knocked out, you know, and you're just going to be lying there and they're going to be counting.

35:03You can't let the count out. You got to get up. You got to get up. If this is what you want to do, and the analogy is a boxer, life is a fight. And if you want to fight, it's going to hurt sometimes. It's going to be so joyful when you connect and you win and you knock your opponent out or you go up and you get the belt or if you hit the weight, like whatever you need to do to succeed, if that's a word that, you know, succeed is such an open framed word, but that's what life is. And life is a constant fight and a constant kicking. Life is like a river and you're flowing. You're never in the same place.

35:47I'm not in the same place as I tell you this story and I articulate whatever it is that I'm trying to articulate as I was when I sat down and you said, hello. You know, I'm in a different place right now and everything is different and everything around me is different. Nobody's in the same place. You've moved on in whatever the interesting question is. The listener is not in the same place. So I got to constantly navigate. We all are. And tread life. And that's how you go. And if you stop treading, and it's easy to stop treading, and we all stop treading in different ways, you drown. And you want to keep your head above the water in life and in relationships, you know, whether it's in marriage, whether it's in your business, whether it's just in your survival, whether it's just in your contentment.

36:34if you can be content and I'll tell you I found stand-up comedy I was miserable most of the time and I went to a comedy club in April 19th 1977 I went to a comedy club in Canada Toronto yuck yucks because somebody said let's go I was with one or two people and I watched stand-up I had never seen live stand-up before live I'd seen you know Carlin and Dangerfield and all these people on but I never aspired to do that. I mean, it doesn't even seem like something that this middle-class kid from Toronto, I have nobody in show business. It doesn't seem like something that you even think about. And the host, Mark Breslin said, if there's anybody that thinks they can do this, we'll service an amateur hour.

37:22I think it was at midnight. I can't remember what it was. Does anybody want to do it? And somebody at the table went, you should go up. And I went, okay, like I always do. Like I said, okay to this. I say okay to everything. for fear of missing out, which is also a problem and a gift, you know, because I - Because you say yes. But for fear of missing out, I get very little sleep because I'm on the internet all day long because I don't want to miss anything. I feel like the world's going much faster than I am, and it is, and it's scary, and I'm constantly treading. But I said, okay, did not really prepare, thought it might be funny because somebody dared me to get up on stage, that somebody was going to go, ladies and gentlemen, Howie Mandel.

38:04And then I'd show up and that would be funny. And that'd be the joke. And that would be the story. I did. I showed up and they went, ladies and gentlemen, Howie Mandel. And if you look at old tapes of what I used to do, I didn't have any preparation. The audience applauded. I'd never been on a stage before. I'm looking at the microphone and I look out and there's spotlights in my eyes and it's blinding, but I can see the audience applause dies down. I can see the people in the front and now they're just staring. I have all these strangers just looking at me expecting me to deliver something and I had nothing and my whole being was surging with terror and embarrassment and just this nervous pulsing of like I'm not delivering it's like that nightmare when you show up at a party in your underpants you know people talk about all these scary things you know I show up at a party and I was the only one I was naked at the party and you know that's what you feel like and the nerves took over and I started without without even thinking and no plan, I started going, okay, okay, okay, okay.

39:04And I was giggling and terrified. And I think the audience related, without being able to articulate this, the audience related to my terror and discomfort. And I was going, okay, okay, okay. And they started giggling, maybe because they were uncomfortable. And then when they started giggling, I started going, what, what, what? And that kind of became my catchphrase. And then I put my hands in my pocket and I didn't have anything to do. And I carry latex gloves with me, did at the time, because if I was out in public and I had to go to a public restroom, I didn't want to touch anything because I had OCD.

39:34I didn't know I had OCD. I just wanted to remain clean. And when I pulled my hands out, the glove came out of my pocket. So I didn't know what to do. I was terrified. And I pulled the glove over my head, past my nose, and I started breathing. And the fingers were going up and down and up and down. And people started laughing. And then I blew it off my head and the audience roared and I went, good night. And I walked off stage and Mark saw me in the hall. he goes, you got to come back and do it tomorrow. And I go, do what? And he said, do what you did. And I went, okay. And then I started showing up there every night.

40:06It was the first time a large group of strangers, we were for whatever reason on the same wavelength, laughter releases an endorphin. Everybody in the room, nobody knew me, but everybody liked me. We were all having fun. I was terrified. it was like being on a roller coaster i love roller coaster i love thrill rides because that adrenaline the scarier it is the higher it is the closer to death the faster it is the more exciting you go i want to ride that again and ever since that moment i've only tried to recreate april 19 1977 again that's why i go on stage that's why i do what i do it's never that exciting anymore but But I would go, like, I'm on tour all the time.

40:55And people always say, how are you? I used to love when you did stand-up comedy. You know, I never stopped.

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43:21Dr. Michael Gervais:That's Lisa, L-E-E-S-A dot com. Promo code mastery for the 25 % off select mattresses plus the extra$50 off when you use the code mastery. But during the 80s and 90s, I did like 10 HBO specials and all these cable specials. I have no desire now to do a Netflix special or any of these things that my fellow comedians do. i love three four times a week and i do it dropping in at the comedy store at the laugh factory at the ice house at the improv and just doing a set for p i just i love stand-up comedy i still do it are you scripted or unscripted because this is pretty much on you know listen i love coming up with a routine that works i love that art of coming up of being a wordsmith and and writing something that if I repeat it, it'll definitely trigger strangers to respond to me.

44:19I love the idea, that's a craft. I love the idea of being taken off the script and being scary, like going, not knowing where they took me. Power goes out in a room, that's great. Somebody shows up, somebody makes a noise, somebody throws up, the mic goes up. I love that. That's so exciting. And people go, you should do a special. And I go, well, why? Why? I don't need to be more famous. I don't need to be on TV. I just want to do this. I'm really comfortable with just showing up somewhere. And if I had to be a server someplace in a restaurant to pay my rent, but once, twice a week, I could show up in a little club and do that.

45:02that is such a happy place. You have no idea. And I'm aware of, I don't have that need. And I don't have the need. I'm lucky to do it for, I still do it for big money, but I don't have the need to do it for the money or for the notoriety. I just like doing it.

45:19Dr. Michael Gervais:I get how that squares with ADHD, the spontaneity, that whole mix is probably well suited for the way that you're able to network thoughts. How does that work with OCD? OCD, I've had to, you know, and continue to have to cope with. You know, I'm a dichotomy, you know, as somebody who doesn't want to be touched, doesn't want to touch, doesn't want to be in public. It's hard for me. What are you craving? Deepest down in your heart, what are the things that you're craving? Contentment, just to be, be okay just to feel okay to not have fear fear is a driving force and what is it that you're afraid of something bad happening to a loved one is that why you work to control so much i don't know you tell me i don't i don't know either i just feel like as much as you think you have control this is so much this being existence is so much bigger than us you try to control you know it's scary i have three children and three grandchildren and there that's the those are the most important things in my life the dichotomy is a really good word for you because you've got this spontaneity thrill kind of thing that you experience and then ocd is really in this anxiety meets control bit but then you were talking philosophically about like look life is a river we are different from the moment we said hello so intellectually you're spot on with the unfolding nature of life and then there's another part of you intellectually or maybe mechanically in your brain it's like no but don't touch me don't be close don't do this don't sneeze and because you become uncomfortable with it but that is a natural unfolding thing that can also fit into your philosophy right except that the thrill and putting myself in uncomfortable positions and just being on that is a panacea for keeping me in the moment i'm not focused if i don't like quiet and if i'm in the quiet then i'm worried and i'm scared and the fears that we all think about what's going to happen next because something's going to happen next and when that pops up when you are on that drop on a on a roller coaster when you're coming down to the consuming that's i'm not yeah that's right and that's what stage does for me that's exactly right you know so i I spent a good part of 10 to 15 years working with some of the most extraordinary risk takers on the planet.

47:44Dr. Michael Gervais:Felix Baumgartner, who was Red Bull Stratos, who jumped from the edge of space at 128 ,000 feet and the brightest minds in aerospace were not sure when he passed through the sonic experience if his head and torso would do Mach 1, speed of sound, if his arms and his legs would have a drag on them, if they'd stay intact or not. And we just lost him. He just passed away. He was his dear friend. and he showed us how to live to our edges. And that's why in the same spirit, you're living to your edges. Try. And yeah, you are. So how do you organize your inner life to get up for the edge? It's an adrenaline.

48:20You know, it's, I'll give you an example, just based on my business. I told you how I got into the business, but then it became very corporate. You know, I worked for a lot of corporations and I felt like very tied. This is how you do it. and then it can become very repetitive. About 20 years ago, I called my son over the summer holidays and he was 16, 17 years old. And I've always taught my kids, just don't be idle. Just like be productive. And I don't mean make a lot of money. I mean, just do something productive. So I called him at three o 'clock in the afternoon one day, a weekday, and I woke him up.

49:00And I said, Alex, this is my son's name. I wouldn't use a different name because then he would be confused. But I said, Alex, you got to get a job. I can't be waking you up at three o 'clock in the afternoon. It's not healthy. It's not healthy. And he goes, I was working all night. I said, how do you work all night? And I don't even know that you have a job. What were you doing? And he says to me, this is 20 years ago. He says to me, YouTube. And I said, YouTube, YouTube, you can scroll through on your phone. what do you mean you're doing YouTube? He goes, no, I was doing YouTube. I go, what are you doing?

49:36What'd you do last night? And he goes, we were downtown throwing water balloons off the building. And I said, this does not seem like a job. This does not seem productive. And he goes, oh yeah, come over. And I went over to where he was and he showed me a check for$20 ,000 for that week. And I went, what the hell is this? What are you doing? Are you doing porn? I had no idea what what he was doing. And he said, I'll show you. And I hadn't really looked. And he showed me, for the life of me, I can't remember specifically what it was, but I know he showed me a YouTube video that had a hundred million clicks.

50:09First of all, I've never seen the number, you know, as successful as I've been, I've never seen anything get a hundred million viewers or whatever. And I started reading comments and they went, this is the funniest thing. This is, you're brilliant. This is the most I've ever laughed. And it was a comedy video. and I didn't recognize it as comedy. I didn't, I don't even understand why this is funny. Like I come from a place where when we started the comedy story, I understand the difference between Carrot Top and Dennis Miller, you know? And even if you don't like me or John Oliver because we're very different people, I understand why, you know, it's different tastes, like country music versus rock and roll or whatever you like.

50:51I didn't even recognize this as comedy. And that was the scariest moment of my life. that was an awakening because I said, wait a minute, a hundred million people are engaging in this as comedy. And they think it's funny. Like I don't even understand why it's funny, let alone whether I can make a comment, I don't like it, or that's not funny, or that's not funny to me. It's objective.

51:15Dr. Michael Gervais:But they're tuned to something. And that was a rude awakening. He's very successful now. This studio we're in, he built, he has a network of a million podcasts that people listen to and watch he ended up going behind the scenes and realizing that all these influencers needed content he creates white label content and shares in the ad revenue he does fine the point is but he taught me so i said wow i don't even speak the language anymore and what i realized we all do we all do curiosity runs through everybody's veins. And going full circle to the beginning of this conversation, when we're young, I'm going to talk about my generation, we all listen to the radio to find out what's the hottest music.

52:00What should we be buying? What should we be listening to? We look at magazines and they still do this online. What should I be wearing? What is the style? What is the fashion? What is that? At a certain point, probably around your mid forties, people get tired of looking and seeing what's new. They have their music. They like that music spoke to them at the time where they're burgeoning and they're talking like they talk. And then life just continues. That river continues to flow. The language becomes different. The way we consume becomes different. The way we do business becomes different. You know, people can stay in their bed in their underpants now and become a billionaire and never leave that bed.

52:42And they can do that on a laptop. You could never have done that. Everything changes. and we sit around and your kid will play you a song and you'll go that's not music you want to hear music i'll play you my music and that doesn't hit them it doesn't hit them you realize the language has changed it's like going if you wanted to go now and go live in italy for a year you don't speak the language your lifestyle is different you learn that so i took it upon myself and it kind of hit a switch that is very unhealthy and healthy where my curiosity i have fomo as Oprah coined the phrase, but fear of missing out.

53:16And I sit online all night and all day and just try to say, I wanna speak the language. I wanna be able to engage. I wanna be able to entertain somebody now. And that's what I do. And if you walk around, we're in my facility right now, I have a gaming team, I'm fascinated by it. I have a gaming team on Twitch that's playing live gaming. That's a great income stream. I have a very different -

53:42Dr. Michael Gervais:for you or for them? Both. Mm-hmm. Did most of the people you met here, I have technology here that the hologram technology is because I got tired of doing Zoom calls and doing things like this on Zoom. And I found ProtoHologram, I found them on Instagram. I DM David, I went over to think, this is how I'm gonna be myself so I can get places without going any place. And I ended up seeing it, that's the low hanging fruit. There's so many, it employs, it's a software company that employs AI. I ended up moving them into my building. That's the head office. I invested. I sit on the board. I found a live band in the gaming team on Twitch.

54:15You know, I just have to be aware of how the world, I, for my own personal, it doesn't make me better. It doesn't make me more successful. I just need for comfort to know that I understand the language of our community, of our world now, you know?

54:32Dr. Michael Gervais:Let's start, let's kind of wind it back to one thought which is your definition of success is contentment okay so i'm chasing contentment but this these don't sound like contentment activities these sound like i don't have to make they sound like what like you're actually chasing stimulation being switched on so being switched on and being aware and being able to speak the language and understand makes me content that's the piece i just have to understand it's like if i moved you to italy right now you would try really to learn the language because what are you chasing? Are you gonna be more success?

55:08Are you gonna make more money? You might make more money if you speak the language and you might, and those are afterthoughts, but I wanna speak the language of the world. I wanna understand what -

55:17Dr. Michael Gervais:You are a learner. You're - Curiosity. I think curiosity doesn't kill a cat. Curiosity makes cats thrive. And I'm one cat that wants to thrive because that is every day I figure there's gotta be, like, what are they doing now? You know? And I'm so curious and I don't bemoan anybody of my age who is not curious. I wish, I wish that I could have that comfort where, you know, I could sit at home, I could retire and I could be content. Some of them say they're content. I think a lot of people who retire die. I think if you are not stimulated mentally, you will screw up physically. What do you think curiosity rests on?

56:04Dr. Michael Gervais:So curiosity is a mindset. It's like in a way that you approach something. For you, what does it rest on underneath? It's a difficult question. Another way I can ask it is where does it come from? Meaning if I don't know, I feel scared. Or when I do know, I'm looking for the aha moment. Like I can't wait to get to the ahas. It tickles me. And that's probably not a great. The aha moment tickles you or the process of like going towards. My wife gets mad at me all the time because it's not just about business or social media or whatever. I have always, like, even as a kid, just stared at people. I love to watch people.

56:42I love, I love it. You don't have to know me. I like to watch you operate and see how things are done. and then I can't tell you how many times my wife, I just prefaced this by saying she gets mad at me, where I'll engage a stranger in a conversation and I start asking too many questions and they end up in tears and I will walk away and my wife will go, well, you had to ask, you know, like, are you married? And my husband just died. Why did you ask? Why do you ask? Why do you care? I go, I don't know, but I'm really interested. I see something. I wanna look at it. I wanna not touch it, but I'm using that as an analogy.

57:19I want to see something. I want to touch it. I want to know about it. I want to, I just want to. I just, I don't know. I can't just, it feels wrong for me personally to just let, I'm not trying to fill a void. Maybe I am, as I say it out loud, but I just want to, you know, if I hear a noise in another room, I want to walk in and see what that noise is. A lot of people are okay with hearing a noise in another room and going, oh, there's a noise and continuing on. I don't know why. You tell me, why do I need to know what that was? Why do I need to know about somebody that I've never seen before?

57:53I'm never going to see again. Why? Why do I need to stare? Why do I?

57:57Dr. Michael Gervais:I don't know. Well, I will tell you, this is really cool that you brought this up because I was going to ask when we had a moment, like, what are you doing when you're listening? Because you listen in a very particular way. It's the eye contact. It's the way that I feel when you're listening. there's an intensity about you and there's a round there's a contour to it so the contour is like you're not burrowed in like what is he gonna say next like this doesn't make sense hurry up kid that type of thing it's like oh wait i wonder where he's gonna go so there is a curiosity that sits right underneath do people say that to you about the way that you listen no they say i don't listen they say i like i add because i like you yeah i interrupt yeah but i interrupt, I interrupt because I am, see, this is, maybe I'm wrong, but I can't be wrong about, I could be wrong about myself.

58:49You know, I do a podcast and they say, you know, we want to hear them, not you. But when you start saying something that I'm really interested in, I'm like a five-year-old kid who goes, you go, well, I, you know, I grew up in Germany. Germany, you grew up in Germany. What was that? Like, let you finish the sentence. But I'm so excited. I'm really enthralled with with what you're saying or really interested in what you're saying, so interested, the term interruption is not what I'm doing. The term is I'm engaging. That's my engagement. My engagement just happens to be seen by everybody else as an interruption.

59:24Dr. Michael Gervais:What's happening for you right now as you're speaking, because there's a different neurochemistry in the way that you were just speaking about the way that you engage with other people. Do you know what that feels like inside of you? No. You don't articulate that well. not myself everybody else would notice it when you switch on everybody was like oh they probably say something like oh how he's on it or whatever they might say but that when you get excited i think other people are demonstrably influenced by it you know i pitch things i'm always selling and i'm always i like that i like that and i i'm on social media i'm on every platform i like that And I say to people, the key, and I'm not using my own terminology for success, but if you want to buy this show, if you want to do this business, if you want to go viral, if you want to have a good, I said that the one word that social media brought is engagement.

1:00:19engagement is my whole essence and it's not to have a viral moment it's just that i have a tendency to just maybe because i feel so alone and every i just want to i want to i want to be part of whatever it is you're part of i just want to engage i just want to engage and so much of what people talk about and so much of what they put on our media is just so passive it's just noise. There's so much noise. And if you could find a moment, an idea, something that engages, there's something. And that's what in that moment of my fear, without any aspirations of being a comedian, being successful, being famous, being anything, I engaged a room of strangers.

1:01:06And I'm chasing that. That's all I chase is engagement. And if you look at all the biggest, whatever you want to call economic successes in people's lives, the Microsofts, the Steve Jobs. They were these outliers that were so focused on doing a specific thing that ultimately engaged this huge mass. All of a sudden, everybody was interested in how it's done this way. They engaged in that tool that these people created. They were so engaged and they hit a seed of what engages all of us. And they brought that together. And I think what I chase is engagement. That's all I chase.

1:01:53Dr. Michael Gervais:I feel it when you're engaged. This is part of your signature way of going through life. But don't you feel that in everybody? It's not me. When somebody is disengaged or when something is just noise. Yeah, if I pick up my phone and I'm doing da-da-da. Right, 100%. I think engagement is the seed of life. I think that is the seed of success is the seed of contentment, whether you're engaged with a life partner, with your child, with whatever you're doing, with a hobby, that is the value. And when you engage, when you can hook on and hold on to something that makes you content, that makes you happy, we think that we're going to be engaged if we can grab money, if we can grab notoriety.

1:02:39What you find is those are empty engagements that are, they fade. You know, it doesn't matter how much money you have when you die, you're going to be in the same place. It doesn't matter how many people know you, eventually nobody's going to know you. You know, as somebody who has gone through, you know, I blew up on HBO in 1981. The next day I was able to play, you know, two shows a night at 10 ,000 seats. In 2005, I couldn't sell 75 tickets at a comedy club. So I know the difference of how I'm engaging an audience, how much of that audience is engaged. And then deal or no deal blew up. And then I was off of deal or no deal.

1:03:20They did 500. And then, so I've seen those ebbs and flows, which are really not that show business, but show business is a really good emblem for life. You know, there are times in your life where you're so engaged, where your relationships are really engaged. You know, I've been married for 46 years. you know it's hot and heavy at the beginning there's times where there's strife in life and finance and whatever that's going on in other people's lives where you're not as engaged and you strive to become more engaged engagement is life engagement is success engagement is the fuel

1:03:56Dr. Michael Gervais:that we all seek howie more so than the words you've chose it's how you've chosen them and the way that you've embodied the words that you're choosing what a gift i mean i am a gift yeah yeah i am a gift i feel like you're wrapping me up right now you are aren't you i love what you just did that i took the gift and the wrapping and then we're closing the show and and we're giving it to uh is that your camera is that your close-up right there yeah yeah and we're and he's giving this gift to you oh god all right look i do want to ask you like one or two word questions here as response one or two word responses the responses are one or two yes right okay it all comes down to yes if you could name a boat what would the name of the boat be not titanic mastery is are you baiting me You baited me perfectly.

1:04:53We're going to end with that. Howie, thank you, brother, so much. This was awesome. Thank you.

1:04:58Dr. Michael Gervais:Next time on Finding Mastery, we recorded live at the California Surf Club in Redondo Beach with NHL Hall of Famer and LA Kings president, Luke Robitaille. From being a ninth round draft pick almost overlooked by the league to becoming one of hockey's all-time greats, Luke shares how hope, grit, and a relentless commitment to getting a little better every day shaped both his career on the ice and his leadership off of it. Join us on Wednesday, October 8th at 9am Pacific only on Finding Mastery. All right. Thank you so much for diving into another episode of Finding Mastery with us. Our team loves creating this podcast and sharing these conversations with you.

1:05:39Dr. Michael Gervais:We really appreciate you being part of this community. And if you're enjoying the show, the easiest no-cost way to support is to hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you're listening. Also, if you haven't already, please consider dropping us a review on Apple or Spotify. We are incredibly grateful for the support and feedback. If you're looking for even more insights, we have a newsletter we send out every Wednesday. Punch over to findingmastery.com slash newsletter to sign up. The show wouldn't be possible without our sponsors and we take our recommendations seriously. And the team is very thoughtful about making sure we love and endorse every product you hear on the show.

1:06:17Dr. Michael Gervais:If you want to check out any of our sponsor offers you heard about in this episode, you can find those deals at findingmastery.com slash sponsors. And remember, no one does it alone. The door here at Finding Mastery is always open to those looking to explore the edges and the reaches of their potential so that they can help others do the same. So join our community, share your favorite episode with a friend, and let us know how we can continue to show up for you. Lastly, as a quick reminder, information in this podcast and from any material on the Finding Mastery website and social channels is for information purposes only.

1:06:53If you're looking for meaningful support, which we all need, one of the best things

1:06:59Dr. Michael Gervais:you can do is to talk to a licensed professional. So seek assistance from your healthcare providers. Again, a sincere thank you for listening. Until next episode, be well, think well, keep exploring.