Living Life on Your Terms with Eric Thomas

0:28So, hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive. $10 ,000 worth of courses that are in there that come with the app. Also, some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content in there on a regular basis, like having the Avengers of personal development and business in one app. And I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do. So go over there and get signed up. You're going to get a free tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well, so you get a free event out of it also.

0:53So go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed.

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2:18This is The Ed Myred Show. welcome back to the show everybody well i wish this was in person but it'll still be fire today i'm with uh there is no better motivational speaker of all time that's what you all know him for but i got to know him a little better and i'm gonna tell you one thing about him i don't know a better man i wish i was around him more so i could tell you more stories but i will tell you this when my book came out very few people stepped forward said hey brother how can i help you. And this man stepped forward in a way like nobody else did and helped me in ways that I will never forget till the day I die.

2:57His support for me and my family. And as great of a communicator as he is, I admire him. I look up to him as a husband, as a father, as a friend, and as an entrepreneur as well. But particularly as a man of faith and as a husband and a father, I know no better man than him. And I could give somebody no bigger compliment man to man than I'm giving him right now so et eric thomas welcome back to the show i love you and it's great to have you here what's up fam man i love you as well and um yeah you know it's a lot of entrepreneurs a lot of people in the business world you know but when you run across a couple people man who share the same you know values that you share you know trying to leave their mark on the world you know and so yeah likewise man just coming to the house the first time i remember my wife still talks about it uh in laguna laguna beach he's like hey before we die you need to give me a house a beachfront house like okay i'll try you know but uh you could do it you know just the way your family was man and thank you love and support it's just been uh rich and there are opportunities i've had and business things that i've done you know because of this relationship man and i'm uh i'm grateful for you know what i love the most it's while it's public you know it's private you know it's not one of those things where you have to walk around and be like boom boom boom you know so i'm just grateful for you man publicly and you know privately bro thank you brother likewise and i don't know why i'm getting emotional to start for some reason i remember standing in my driveway having that conversation when we first met long time ago you changed people's lives and um i'm so grateful that we're going to talk about something that et has out right now in a few minutes that will change your life literally 365 days a year but before we do that i want to ask you there's so much in the world today you know there's all this strife and elections and all this stuff and you and I are definitely not going there but one thing I don't like when I'm watching either party is sort of it's their fault it's their fault no it's their fault no it's their fault and I just feel like that's a dangerous way to live your life even when it's true so like you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth obviously there's things that are harder in your life about the way you grew up color of your skin background whatever it might be i grew up with a drug addict and an alcoholic in my house those are legitimate things that don't put us on second base to start out in our lives yet i don't know that it serves us to feel that way so talk about not being a victim or the the negatives of perceiving that you're a victim starting out in life day to day you know i'm gonna be honest man i have been blessed to live both uh realities you know i'm saying because sometimes you know people speak on things and they speak passionately about stuff they've never experienced you know i've been blessed to have once been a victim like i lived that my daddy wasn't in my life my mom got pregnant you know at 17 and i didn't get this and i didn't get that i have literally had a chance to see my life and the outcomes of my life having that philosophy like living in that mindset i know exactly what it feels like and i'm talking about homeless you know and again you know i just want people to understand when i talk about homelessness i'm really talking about um you know instability you know the the not feeling safe because you're either sleeping outside or sleeping in an abandoned building i'm talking about the strained relationship with my mom not talking to my mom not hugging my mom not loving on my mom and not realizing, yo, that all of that has nothing to do with how you were born, that all of that has everything to do with your mindset.

6:37And because you see everybody as the reason why you're not where you're supposed to be, they have the power. And they don't even want the power. But that whole victim. And man, I promise you, the day I gave my life to Christ and I started really like understanding ownership, like, E, this on you. like you only homeless because that's the choice you made nobody really kick you out you just didn't want to follow the rules nobody kick you out of school you just weren't doing what you were supposed to do when you want to do it and i tell everybody who's a victim and who doesn't like it man wait till you become a victor and i'm not bump money the ownership and the freedom you know i'm saying like you can live life on your terms like i'm i'm doing a podcast podcast That's what Ed might let.

7:26That's what I chose to do. And I'm hurt that I couldn't be there in person. Why? I just was blessed with so many gigs. And I'm in Chicago. My mom, Ed, is speaking with me. I got my mom on stage. My mom's talking about being a teenage mom, growing up in Chicago, you know, growing up on deep south Chicago, Glenwood in 43rd, and how she had to get herself. Grandma wanted her own welfare. And she was like, nope, I'd rather be homeless. I'd rather start from the bottom and put my son in a better situation to be third generation, you know, welfare. And so I'm like, man, I would have been a victor a long time ago had I known.

8:06Now, I'm not going to lie to y 'all. It is the most challenging thing to do to take responsibility for everything that's going on in your life. It's tough, especially going. I'm not going to blame him or him or her and they do have something to do with it right but i'm freeing them up completely i'm freeing them up completely why because when i take ownership i take the power back to live like i want to live to have what i want to have to do what i want to do so i'm not gonna lie ahead and say i've always been this new understand ownership who understands responsibility but i'm so grateful for the men in my life, the women in my life who steered me in that direction and warned me to get from that other one where I wasn't eating, you know, where I was in an abandoned building alone, where I wasn't progressing.

8:58There was no growth. You know, I was bitter. I was angry. I was resentful. I didn't have a spirit of forgiveness. And then once I became an owner of my own life and I became an asset and not a liability everything changed so give me the responsibility but give me the check on the other side that goes with it as well you ever you ever listen to somebody everyone and the vibration in their voice just moves you that's et once he gets going you're like we we haven't even talked for like seven minutes and i would literally i'm relatively sure be able to knock this wall down right now and run through it and it's just because of the man that he is i want you picture this for a minute though imagine this you do grow up your dad's not in your life it's obviously not like the pedigree that you would think everything's going to be easy he ends up homeless literally ate out of the trash took him a long time finally gets educated goes to college took him a long time to complete that and now you can't go anywhere on this planet where somebody of influence doesn't seem to quote this man or hasn't been influenced by him it's not just the normal places et i wanted to just tell you this now on the show recording it obviously if i go anywhere in the sports world or the motivational space they know you they quote you but I have to tell you I was I won't say who but I was with I'll be I was with someone who used to run our country used to run our country and they were talking about all the books they read and I'll tell you off camera who it was but and um I asked them you know do you ever listen anything to get you going and guess who they brought up you they knew that I knew you and brought you up you think about that the leader of the free world is quoting you.

10:39Tell Jimmy Carter I said hello. I know he just made it to 100 years old. Maybe it's because of you. No, but I want to ask you something that made me emotional reading. So most people know the story if they don't, but E.T. was homeless and ended up going to school for a long time, finally got his degree, one of the most educated people we've ever had on the show. But is this true? I'm just picturing this. I pictured this just last night knowing we were going to meet and do this. did you tell them how long it took you to graduate from when you started when you finished and is it true that you would go to graduations every year of other men and watch them graduate as you weren't for like over a decade is that true over a decade tell us about that it's it's so true so yes it took me 12 years to get a four-year degree right but one of the beautiful things about oakwood you know is that it is a small college you know and it's it's family like you know their brothers younger brothers coming cousins coming their moms dads have gone there their grandparents you know so graduation was um you know a part of the culture it's like for people going to homecoming it's like you know we like we go to graduation and i'll be honest ed you know as a freshman going to graduation that's cool you know a sophomore that's cool you know by your fifth year you still there it starts to not be okay by the seventh year it stings oh my god one of the things ed i did was i kept going because i knew it was supposed to be me and one of the things and guys this is where i talk about being a victim so when you're a victim you try your hardest to withdraw from responsibility anything that looks anything like responsibility you know you try to remove yourself why because you don't want the accountability like you you don't want anybody to say anything to you you you don't want to be corrected you know you don't you know and so I found myself you know by year eight sting nine sting but it was like E you gotta stay here why because every year I would go naturally people weren't trying to you know belittle me or harm me you know verbally they just would ask hey E did you graduate yet you know like I graduated four years ago I see you at the graduation did i miss your graduation and it was like no i didn't graduate yep and no i don't see myself graduating in the next one but i would keep going and keep going and keep going and more importantly by the time i had taken responsibility academically and was like yep i'm gonna finally finish and i did phenomenal maybe the ninth year eighth or ninth year but because i messed up so bad when I finally got someone at the university to show love, Dr.

13:25Frazier, and pay for me to go to school. Well, he ended up leaving and going to get his PhD. So of course, when he left, there was a new king that knew not Joseph. You know what I'm saying? There was a new director. He didn't know ET. So he didn't let me in. So it took three years for me to get the money to be able to come back and watch this. Here's the cool thing. I got to a point where that same graduation ceremony, I started doing it in my house. So whenever I would feel down and out, and I wanted to quit and I would give up, I literally would pretend I had a cap and gown on. I saw myself with the academic regalia and they would play the, I would play the song and I would just walk through my house and with a degree in business from hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Eric Thomas and I would just play it and play it and play it and lo and behold crazy speak you know they say uh uh uh you know don't speak what you see speak what you seek right until you see what you say and I just kept saying I'm a graduate I'm a graduate and then one day I was literally in the line and my mom was there and my grandma was there and my wife was there my son and my daughter was there and although it hurt i think it hurts more when you remove yourself from responsibility when you remove yourself from people who are doing great things when you remove yourself from an atmosphere that pushes you and pulls you because it makes you like again you don't have to deal with the accountability but you also don't get the privilege of finally getting the reward and man when i got that degree you could when they said my name i fell on the ground I praise God you weren't supposed to do that but I fell and kissed the ground and just told God thank you so yes it's true I did it and I did it as a means to push myself guys that's one of the best all-time stories 12 years going to graduation purposely to make sure he kind of felt the pain of being there and also keep the vision think about that for a second 12 years that's easy when you hear a story it's like one thing but that's every single year et did you graduate yet E.T., did you graduate yet?

15:30And a lot of you that are entrepreneurs out there, hey, you make your first million yet? Hey, you make your first million yet? I had this uncle, you make your first million yet? I remember that every holiday, just to beat me up in front of the family. And finally, one Thanksgiving, I won't say his name. I was waiting. Finally, it's one Thanksgiving. I knew he asked me every year. And he goes, did you make your first million yet? I go, well, I'm glad you asked. Because matter of fact, I did. And you know what? I've always wanted to ask you, have you made your first million yet? Of course, he hadn't after all these years.

16:02Yeah, yeah, he couldn't say anything. Yeah, but sometimes that struggle, I don't know, makes it sweeter somehow, makes it sweeter. So, hey, guys, I want to jump in here for a second and talk about change and growth. And, you know, by the way, it's no secret how people get ahead in life or how they grow. And also taking a look at the future. If you want to change your future, you've got to change the things you're doing. If you continue to do the same things, you're probably going to produce the same results. But if you get into a new environment where you're learning new things and you're around other people that are growth oriented, you're much more likely to do that yourself.

16:32And that's why I love Growth Day. Write this down for a second. GrowthDay.com forward slash ed. My friend Brendan Brouchard has created the most incredible personal development and business app that I've ever seen in my life. Everything from goal setting software to personal accountability, journaling, courses, thousands of dollars worth of courses in there as well. I create content in there on Mondays where I contribute, as do a whole bunch of other influencers, like the Avengers of influencers and business minds in there. It's the Netflix for high achievers or people that want to be high achievers.

17:01So go check it out. My friend Brennan's made it very affordable, very easy to get involved. Go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes, and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit Progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save.

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17:46When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. one of the things that you've done though that i think it's funny because you're the hip-hop preacher but i don't think most people i think if i say your name to most people they're like intense motivator lights me up i don't know that the average person who knows you knows how deeply your faith educates your life and affects it i do but i don't think most people do and and eric has something out et has something out now called uou 365 devotional hold it up for the youtubers tell us what this is and because this is a daily thing changing your life is daily it's not like one podcast and then also just how much your faith has informed and affected your life overall you know man and people ask me all the time like e you know why don't you talk more about you know it's like talking about my love life with my wife it's just so intimate bros like it's not that i'm trying to hide nothing but my life with i've been with dd since i was 16 years old it's just some details i'm just you know i'm saying it's like you wouldn't understand if i told you anyway like you just wouldn't understand what she means to me like you wouldn't get it right and so my relationship with god man is so intimate it's so personal and you talked about it earlier I don't know why this is the truth, especially in America, but it's like sometimes religion, you know, spirituality, whatever you want to call it, a relationship with God, it causes so much division, you know, and because my faith is so personal and God has done so much for me, it's like, bro, I'm not trying to, I'm not, I'm not a salesman.

19:50I'm not trying to get you to believe what I believe, bro. It's like, I was homeless. He was there for me. Like I felt angels in my presence. Like there were people who would try to bust in the house and rob me or shoot and kill me. And I saw God protect me. I saw a guy pull a gun out on me from across the street and shoot it. And it missed me. I ran home and they didn't catch me. So I already know who God is. And so I don't want to get in these debates about God, these debates about religion. But I know God is my anchor with my own mother. And bless her heart. If I'm not trying to act like she didn't have reason for being mad at me, she did.

20:28Right. But when my own mother was like, yo, I'm done, I'm through with you. God was just getting started with me. Y 'all got to understand something. When you look at who I am today, there was a pastor who saw this version of me, bless his soul, rest his soul. He probably died about three, four years ago, Pastor Willis. He saw this version of me before I saw it. So what does that mean? Like God invested in me broke. He invested in me when I was a high school dropout. He invested in me when I was homeless. Like even before I knew who he was, he gave me this voice and his energy and his passion.

21:02I was doing this when I was a teenager. I just wasn't doing it for the right reason, you know? And so my relationship with God is so intimate. And what I realized is even when I used to speak, I was a better speaker when I mentioned God. I'm just saying, you know what I'm saying? I was just a better speaker. You know what I'm saying? People used to say all the time, like, E, I love your motivation, bro. But whoa, when you start talking about God, like you go to a different place. And I was like, oh, what does that mean? They was like, yo, I can't explain it. I'm the listener. But I'm telling you, when you mention God and your relationship with God.

21:36So I wrote the 365-day devotional because I realized that when Eric Thomas was not this version of himself all year. Okay, we don't even got time for that. But it might have been like six months. He was this dude another six months. He was the other dude. I realized, okay, here's what's going wrong. When you're at your best, there are certain biblical habits that you are embracing and it's causing you to act a certain way, talk a certain way, attract certain people. Look, bro, I'm just being real. I'm blessed, bro. Check how many podcasts I do a year. I just don't do it. I know. I don't do it, y 'all.

22:19But there are certain people every year or every other year when it's like, man, I'm feeling like connecting. We do podcast. I probably do five podcasts a year. If it's 10, I doubt it very seriously. It's probably five. Why? Because I'm so blessed that I just get to work with and attract. That's the one thing when I was with Warren Buffett that he said that blew my mind. of all the things he said when they asked him hey being a billionaire what are the things that you get to do that no most people don't get to do he was like oh i get to y 'all not gonna believe this but i get to work with the people that i want to work with i don't have to work with people i don't want to work with i was like oh we think how many people going to work every day and you can't stand the people at your job and they literally irk you get on your last nerve like they make the they It ain't the experience of your job.

23:11And so for me, man, when I speak, and then when I do, I bring God in it. So I was like, E, you got to share with them that when you really got on, things start clicking for you. You was more the man that God wanted you to be than you weren't. And that was read my Bible every day, praying every day. And I don't know religious stuff. I was just like, man, I got to meet the man that gave me these gifts. I got to meet the man that when nobody else didn't want me, he's still pouring into me. Like, I got to meet the guy that stopped me from getting shot and killed. I got to meet the guy that got me off the streets of Detroit, sent me to church, introduced me to Didi at the church.

23:50We've been married over 34 years now. Like, yo, I got to get to know this guy because if he's doing all this for me and we don't even really have no relationship, man, what's going to happen when we have a relationship? So for me, it's not just the habits that, you know, Ed talk about, you know, in the power, you know, of one more. And that's why I went to go do it, because I know Ed's story and I know I just knew when his book comes out, one more day, bro. What? What? Like one more forgiveness, one more try, one more rep. I was like, oh, no, no, no. And if you can do that one more and you can do that 365 days, it's like, bro, that mindset is going to.

24:33allow you to see a version of yourself that you would never see so that's what it's about i don't need you to do it in january i don't need you to do it in february i need you to do it january february march april may and if you can read this book every day and see these habits and start practicing them man i guarantee i do have to say this to it i gotta give dennis kimbrough his credit so he wrote a devotional um daily motivation for african-american success what he did that i thought was genius um and i think we've probably all you know read you know the book um but he wrote a book um man it's it's i can't believe i can't remember the book right now but it was a spinoff right of um um man what's the book i'll think about it later okay it'll hit me and so then what he did was from that book he wrote this devotion right okay and so i remember like wow i'm I'm really messed up.

25:26I love this book, but I can't get past January. Every year I get it, it'd be January, then February. It probably took me about six years before I read every single day. And I realized something about who I was as a man and who I was as a person that I wasn't consistent, right? That I didn't follow through, right? That's what that book did for me. And so I was like, you know what? One of these days, you're going to have to write a 365 devotional so that people can read it every day and learn about themselves. How dedicated can I be to this small 10, 15 minutes a day? Like how dedicated can I be to this practice?

26:04How often can I do this? Not make an excuse. Even if I don't feel good, can I still wake up and dedicate this five or 10? And so for me, it's can you do it for 365 days? And when you can finally get to that point, man, it's just a total different experience. How do they get it, ET? you 2025.com there it is you 2025.com and why you because we just believe you owe you that's it you owe you and so when people ask me about the politics i said let me tell you very closely i just left for school in chicago i'm telling y 'all when bush was in office he didn't come to my school okay he had a lot going on right when obama was president uh when trump was president whoever becomes trump by president not listen to me very closely they're not coming to my neighborhood they they're not taking care of dd they're not going to take care of jalen and jada they're they're politicians they're going to do their work from the white house you owe you right No party owes you.

27:08You owe you. And so you 2025. Why? Because when you read this book, we want you to discover you. You to figure out who you are. You to see your greatness. You to see you're an asset. You to unleash the greatness in you. And so you 2025.com. I love it. By the way, everybody, ET does more work in schools than any successful entrepreneur or speaker that's probably ever lived. and I always tell y 'all you're most qualified in life to help those that you used to be yeah and I got to tell you something isn't it ironic that he comes back to the same neighborhoods but also that his struggle wasn't school that one of the things E.T.

27:48struggled with was school yet he spends time helping children that are in school over and over again one of the things with my faith I'll meet you in the middle on that just as I've gotten older it's like there's just been plenty of times in my life where I was inadequate on my own. And I learned it ends with me. It has to be, it's got to begin somewhere other than me. And I've always had God in my life that's been there for me. I literally have these pictures of people have asked me when you've become successful, how did it happen? I can give you a step this one, two, three, four. But then I can also tell you that there's been so many times in my life, I don't even know what happened.

28:21I just woke up and God had picked me up and carried me for a while. And I can only conclude that that's what happened because I don't know how it happened otherwise. And if you don't mind talking about it, you've kind of experienced some of that in life. I think a lot of people think, well, once I'm successful, all the trials and tribulations in my life will end. And they don't. And different ones present themselves. And in your life with Didi, who's been with you basically most of your life, and you know that I relate to that in my marriage as well, you guys have been kind of under attack a little bit with a real difficulty in your family.

28:53So talk a little bit about what's taken place there, if you don't mind with Didi and then how it's affected you and how you've handled it and maybe God's role in that. I was just saying to my church the other day, I never really, I didn't think about this. And you know, man, reading the Bible, you can read the same chapter or story and God's going to keep showing you stuff that you never like. It's like, where was that at the last time? The last 20 times I read that, where was that? And so of course, you know, most of you know, Didi was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and here, here, here's the part that's dope about that that oftentimes when you look at something like that like you go man he had a video you know the guru story over a hundred million hits you know and this celebrity made one like it and this celebrity posted it and this thing blew up and he became but do you know with the same energy you say that is the same energy you need to say indeed he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis because oftentimes what you would consider to be a curse is God's way of elevating you and taking you to another level.

29:58You know, let me explain what I mean by that. I recently read in the book, I think it's the book of Samuel, right? And it was talking about David. I never noticed this before, but David started his ministry off with Jonathan. Well, first he started, of course, in the palace, but he had Jonathan this dude loved him with the love David said that this relationship was so tough he said that he loved you know uh and I don't know how it's possible but he said he loved Jonathan you know more than that of a woman they were their platonic relationship they were the bond was so strong but then he had Saul who created his guts and tried to kill him in the same house And so what we have to understand is there is this unique balance between sabotage and support that makes us who we are.

30:53And let me tell you something. When Didi got MS, I ain't never prayed to God like that in my life, not even for myself. I prayed for Didi in a way in our union in a way that I had never even prayed when I was homeless. diddy's ms drew me closer to god and god was able to show up and show me a part of him that i had never seen before he was like you think i did something in school you think i helped you academically you think i learned to help you to speak watch what i do in your relationship and i'm telling y 'all if y 'all see diddy now you would not even know diddy has ms i'm telling you i promise you you wouldn't know and so what that situation did was it draw it drew me and diddy closer it made my kids who didn't even realize they were entitled it made them see how blessed they were to have a mother who was healthy and diagnosed it made us hug her harder it made us not take her for granted all those years she ran the house and took care of everything it was like whoa they shifted mom needs us man it changed everything and more importantly did he left her job which she never wanted to leave didi would probably be retiring either last year or this year and that was over 10 years ago and didi and i have done ministry together we built a church together we're together pretty much every day you know doing ministry together and so if didi hadn't gotten ms none of this would be what it is right now she would have kept her job she's a nurse she went to school to be a nurse she loves doing it she was like i never wanted to work with you You know what I'm saying?

32:29I never wanted to work with you. I never wanted to be with you every day. But God took what the enemy meant for bad, and he turned it for good. So, Ed, that situation taught me that you can't bake a cake. You can't bake a cake. Even your favorite cake. You can't bake a cake with just sugar. Like, you can't bake a cake with just sugar, y 'all. As much as you like to believe that's what a cake is made of, it's not made of just sugar. and it has some salt in it and it has some other ingredients eggs that are not sweet but in order to get sweet you gotta you gotta god's gotta mix it up and so db getting ms was a part of the mixture that made our life as rich as our lives are now oh my gosh that's just unreal i'm so glad that she's doing well brother yeah you know there's this balance when you start talking about faith then there's the crowd that goes i'm just giving it all to the lord and as if there's no seeds they have to plant for there to be a harvest, right?

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34:30So one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the parable of the sower. One of the reasons I love that parable is that it does talk about you actually planting seeds for God to provide a harvest. The birds are going to get some, the weather's going to get some, etc. And I think you've been around lots of highly successful people, and you are one. and one of the things that I think most people don't know is the level of work required of effort meaning like I don't know I I think if someone spent the last five years with me in business and they I'm not trying to brag but like if they thought they worked hard there's levels to this game or like in the speaking game you and I talked when the the stuff hit the last couple years there's just levels to the work ethic and the grind the things you got to do you look at a Steph Curry in basketball.

35:18Oh, he's such a gifted shooter. Actually, he's not. Actually, it's the grind. Actually, Tiger and Jack Nicklaus, the amount of golf balls they hit. Actually, Judge and Otani in baseball. You have no idea the amount of work. And even in coaching, you and I have been around all these great college football coaches, which I think is one of the hardest jobs in the world. There's a level to where Saban played at. Dabo Sweeney, who I know you've been with. I think most people are like it about, and you talk about this a lot, Maybe they have 50%, 60 % of their capacity or effort. And that is not going to get it done.

35:51No matter how much you sit around and do other things that serve you, there's a level to this thing, and you've been close to it, and you are at it. Talk about that for a minute. Look, I want to say this to everybody that's listening. Here's what I think would be the easier thing to do. Just lower your expectations. I'm just being real. Like, you know, when I was with Ed and he was doing the book launch, I'm just being real. I did a book launch. It would probably 70 % on that level in terms of I wasn't just in the rub. Don't get it twisted. I'm not a good guy. Okay. God makes me a better man. I was in the room learning.