Blaze Your Own Trail - Leaving a New Legacy with Erik Allen

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

About Erik: Erik is truly a man of integrity, work ethic and an overcomer. Growing up with a complicated childhood and broken home, to raising himself from the age of 14. Unfortunately finding trouble along the way desperately trying to fill the gaping voids in his life. As a young man Erik found himself empty and tired of settling for less. After the feverish pursuit of the Holy Spirit, Erik decided to surrender and trust the one that would never let him down. Once Erik gave his life to Christ, his life completely turned around. He met a beautiful woman and a new chapter was written. Now, Erik and his wife of nearly 19+ years and their two children live in Northern Idaho and live a humble and blessed life. Together they are breaking the cycles handed down to them of divorce, addictions, depression, abuse, and lies. They are leaving a new legacy for their next generation built on a biblical foundation. Along with being the sole provider for his family, Erik is an entrepreneur and avid personal development fan. With his company Erik Allen Media, he has worked with Grunt Style, Alpha Outpost, Blackout Coffee Co., and many others.  Erik gives back through is podcast, The Erik Allen Show by interviewing 250+ Entrepreneurs, World Changers, and Success Minded People who share their stories, tips, and practical steps to help improve lives. Another one of the ways Erik is able to give back is by sharing his story and encouraging others, no matter what path they are on to find hope and purpose. Erik’s natural approach ability and heart for people make him a great speaker for different events and podcasts. He knows that sometimes having the opportunity to meet someone and hear their story and how they’ve overcome is the courage someone might need to find new strength in their own battle. Erik might have been dealt a rough hand, but with the help of his Heavenly Father and a humble heart, Erik is taking each day as it comes and making it count. Connect with Erik: https://erikallenmedia.com/ Follow Jordan on Instagram for more content: https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza Interested in gaining more visibility for your brand or business? Inquire about our available sponsorship opportunities: Email our [e-mail] We hope you enjoyed the show! Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Eric Allen, and I'm going to have him tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does today. Awesome. Jordan. Thank you so much for having me on your show, man. Truly an honor to be here.

Yeah, I do Eric Allen is my name. I do content creation, voiceover work, podcast videos, or I host to podcast, the Eric Allen show, Top Rate of May Show, and work with brands on company products like, unboxing how to explain her videos and do some fun laser graving on the side, but I just love connecting with people and podcasting is such a passion of mine. And so my big thing is just love to be able to put out information that hopefully makes an impact on folks. I love it. I love it. And that's, I think, what has made us resonate with each other. We both are, you know, our goal is to create a positive impact out in the world. And so I'd love to kind of

learn about, you know, Eric as a kid. And that's, you know, the favorite part of my show is we get a chance to really rewind, you know, and take this journey backwards. So if you can give the audience context, you know, where were you born and raised? And if we can share, you know, adolescent years, elementary middle through high school. And then, you know, what kind of kid were you back then? Were you more into academics? Were you into sports? And, you know, just give us some of the dynamics back then. Yeah, totally. So I grew up in what I thought was a normal household, eastern Washington, a place called Tri-Cities or Kinwick, Washington was part of those Tri-Cities there. And, you know, You know, went to Sunday school, played Little League.

My dad would take my best friend, Dave and I literally throw us in dumpsters behind big stores every Saturday morning and say, go find treasure. Like that was a fun thing for us to go do, you know. And then my parents got divorced when I was 11 years old. I'd never heard anybody say that word before. I didn't know anybody that got divorced. It was like a shocker to my system. My mom ends up getting together with a guy who was very physically abusive almost immediately. And I didn't understand why she stayed with him.

It was strange to me to see that because my dad was definitely not that way. And I remember, you know, moments where I'd be looking. looking out through there, I would be on the outside, looking into their bedroom window and he'd be hitting over the cordless phone, you know, I'd always calling the police. Police would show up. My mom would never press charges or nothing would ever change. Well, then they did the smart thing. They got pregnant. And they decided to move myself, my sister, who's four years younger than me. And then my soon-to-be younger brother, who's about, he was about probably three months of the old, three months old at the time. Move us to Stevensville, Montana, population 1,200.

Beautiful property, man. Five acres, ponds, trees. I mean, up in the mountains, beautiful. really far away from police stations. So we get up there and they rent this house. It's got three bedrooms. It's got one for them, one for my little brother, who's again, just a few months old, and then one for my sister who's four years younger than me. And they're like, hey, dude, you get to live in the garage.

So I literally had this, like, bed on one half of the garage. And I had a plastic tarp at the end of my bed that separated the truck that pulled in. And so I had a fireplace in my half of the garage. So it would keep me semi-worm during those winters of negative degree weather in Montana, so it's kind of crazy. not warm there. Right, true. Yeah. So, you know, negative degrees up there a lot of times. And but the abuse continued, you know, so I'm up there. I'm brushed my teeth one night.

They came home arguing wasn't anything different than any other night. But as I was brushing my teeth, I felt in my heart that it was God saying, dude, you got to turn around. This is getting really bad. And so as I turned around, the house, the way that was set up was behind me, was the kitchen to the pantry, to the garage where I stayed. And in that pantry spot, my mom's boyfriend is on top of her, one after the other, just boom, boom, boom. I'm like, dude, I'm like, dude, I. I got to get this guy out. So I walked up and I grabbed a cast iron pan and I swung as far as I could and I split the back of his head open. And he turned around and he said, what then is he said that?

I took him going to swing and split his forehead open. And he was bleeding really good down his face and it still didn't knock him out. I had fallen over the second time I threw that pan. And he was yelling and my mom jumps up, lands like six punches in a row, blood spots on the wall. Cops show up, taking a jail for the night. My mom doesn't press charges. And I actually got kicked out of the house. I had three months left to my freshman near high school.

Man. So I ended up staying on my buddy forest, man, hardwood floors, slept on those hardwood floors for the last three months of my freshman year and then moved back to live with my dad in Washington for my sophomore through senior year. But that incident set me on a path of destruction for the next 10 years of my life. Basically no accountability once I moved in with my dad, did a lot of drugs. 18 years old, they got arrested for having a bong. And then I was kicked out of my house two weeks after graduated. And then from there, between ages of 18 and 21, I moved 21 times living on floors here, two weeks there, three. days there, lit off of credit cards and then moved to Seattle. By the time, 21, I was $28,000 in debt and filed bankruptcy. And that's kind of what led me down to the path that I was on now, man. Yeah, man. What I appreciate you sharing that context. And there's definitely a lot to unpackage, you know, and I can relate, you know, to your story. I, you know, grew up with my mom and my stepdad and my stepdad was, you know, severe alcoholic, especially in the early 80s, early 90s and would get hammered and would get in arguments and I remember him one time throwing a

beer can across the room and it hit my mom and like you know split her head open and and you know I remember having a very pivotal moment you know I didn't take a pan or anything like that I didn't there was no violence but I remember you know he was we were in the parking lot of a grocery store and he had like reached she had oxygen because she only had one lung and so he actually reached the oxygen thing was going like he was going to choke her or do something like that and I was in the back seat I was probably nine years old and I grabbed him by

the neck and just kind of had him in this lock his head this headlock and I was like if you ever lay her hands on my mom again I will I will kill you I mean I was very serious and sure you know probably 80 70 pounds of nothing but he could probably hear it

in my voice and I can't remember a time when he laid a hand on her again he definitely didn't threaten me and so I think it was one of those, you know, intuition moments like you had where it was like, you know, I've got to do something at this point. And, you know, it's tough when you're a kid, you know, and you've got to make these big boy decisions, you know, these tough, tough choices. And, you know, kudos to you for stepping up in that situation. And thank goodness that you're still here because it could have went a million other ways, you know. Totally.

But I think that, you know, you did the right thing, protecting and looking out for your mom's best interest, you know. So kudos to you for that. And dealing with divorce, you know, can't be an easy thing, you know. And so, you know, you move back with your dad and start getting into riffraff. And that sounds like it sets you on a darker path that I would want to start hearing context on how you climbed out, man. Like, you know, because I'm sure there was a pivotal moment. So I'd love for you to share, you know, what were you sitting at 21 years old, $28,000 in debt. Yeah.

You know, what was it? Where was the breakthrough? Yeah, the breakthrough for me. was really, I ended up landing this job with Universal Records, which was a dream job of mine. I don't know how to play anything, but I ended up getting on with Universal Records as their mailroom guy and just showed up every day for six months. They just finally after this going, like, dude, we'll just start paying you. So I was tracking sales and stuff like that.

So the problem was, I had a year at Universal. And a year before that, my buddy was a manager at a venue. So I had two years span where I probably went to 175 concerts and open tab at every single one. So I was living the Rockstar lifestyle without being that rock star. My one-year anniversary at Universal, my boss calls me into his office and lays me off along with half the office. This is during the Napster days. And Napster just killed the music industry.

So I sink more into this depression. I'm drinking myself to sleep every night. Working at Starbucks. I get off work, I'll get my six pack of beer. Go to Hollywood video and those around. You know, grab my, you know, six pack and drink myself to sleep.

And one night, this girl walked in the Starbucks and said, hey, we've got this cool college age event down to our church. Would you be interesting going? And I didn't have any friends. I was depressed. I was alone. I was like, yeah, what time did I need to be there? So I get down there.

And I end up knowing all these guys. from like five, six years prior. I'm like, dude, I haven't seen in five, six years. What are you doing? And I think in that moment, God was planting a seed because about a month later is Easter, 2004, managed in a band. We went out and played a concert night before Easter. And I woke up Easter morning in my buddy's basement surrounded by probably 15 guys and about 5 o'clock in the morning. And I woke up and I felt God, go, dude, you're going down this path. It's going to end your life real quick, man, if you don't start making some changes. And so in that moment, I gave my life to Christ. I quit cold turkey, drugs, drinking cigarettes, everything in that moment.

And I called that girl up and I said, hey, thanks for inviting that church. event. I got her voicemail. Maybe I'll see at the store sometime. And a month later, we're dating and now we've been married for almost 17 years. Wow, that's awesome, man. That's a big shift, right? You know, you're used to living a certain way. You know, you're used to being, having a certain mindset, you know, and to go all in and do it, cold turkey and stop everything. You know, that couldn't have been easy, you know, but it sounds like you had a clear message and you were, taking action on that, you know, and responding to that. So you meet your, your girlfriend who's now, now you're married. So, you know, what was that relationship like in the beginning? It sounds like

she's had a very positive influence on your life. Yeah, for sure, man. And, you know, I think to quit cold turkey, it definitely wasn't easy. I had to get myself uncomfortable. So I had to go put myself in situations where I would get to know guys that were living in the life that I wanted to live. So once I stopped drinking, made that decision. I found guys that were going to church that had great marriages, great businesses. They were great entrepreneurs. They were great with their money. And I started taking out the coffee and almost interviewing them, but asking their story.

Like, how did you get to this? How did you do that? Right. And that helped me kind of get those drugs and cigarettes and alcohol off my mind because I was hanging around guys that weren't doing that. And so that was the big thing. I had to do that shift. I had to pivot away from all of that. And my wife, huge influence.

But she came from broken home too. So when we first married, it was like, we know exactly what we don't want in marriage, but we also brought some junk it. You know, I came in being kind of defensive and, you know, I was always blamed for stuff. So I kind of went through that stage. And I had to go through counseling to kind of figure out like, why the heck am I angry, you know, like all this stuff. And we took the first five years just to be us, man.

We traveled. We went down to Mexico twice to build homes for people. You know, we just did a lot of like volunteer work and we just got to know each other, man. And then when we had kids and that's, that's, you know, my kids are 11 and 8 now. So, but it was, it was just cool, man, just the first five years, just us. And we had to work through some junk, like I said. But we said, I do. And we meant it. And so our kids know that we'll never get a divorce. They see us argue. They see us disagree on things. But they see us make up, man. They see us slow dance in the kitchen. They see us kissing in the kitchen. And they're like, ooh, gross. But, you know, my wife and I said I do, we mean it. We're not, we're breaking those chains of abuse, addiction and rejection and divorce that have come for many family tree out, you know, family lines down. Yeah, man, that's powerful. And I love that of what you said, you know, you wanted to, you know, learn about each other, get to know each other.

So you invested that time. I think that's super important to be able to, for one, recognize that that's what you wanted to do, but then go and do it. So what would you say, was there kind of a roadmap after that time elaps? Was there something that you guys did? you're like relationship wise you know you've you definitely it sounds like got to know each other a lot better got to experience life got to travel and then and then you start having your kids so when when they came around what was that shift like you know for the for the family you know

because as a father of five i know that adding one right especially your first there's a lot of a lot of unknowns man there's no freaking there's no manuals out there's there's nothing you know yeah so what was that like being new parents you know and And tell the audience a little bit about your, their two, 11 and 8-year-olds. Oh, man, it was scary, dude. Like, like I said, there's no instructional book on how to be a dad or any of that stuff, man. And the first drive home from the hospital was the scariest with my daughter. I literally almost got in two accidents on the way home and I lived three miles from the hospital.

It was like the most intense drive ever. I was like 10 and two the whole time, you know. But yeah, dude, I mean, just being a dad is so awesome. And my kids, you know, they're great. Like, we've taught them to kind of live life. without technology. So it's not like they're not allowed to have iPads. They don't have technology in front of them.

We watch movies on the weekends. But more than anything, we just have to love people where they're at, man. Like love on people, find that kid in school that's sitting by himself and go love on them. Like if we see someone in uniform, military, EMT, police,

like they see us. We actually go up and say, man, thank you for your service. Thank you for what you do. And so our kids, they just love to give back. They have this heart of just to serve people.

You know, my daughter wants to be a worship singer when she's older. And my son, he plays baseball and sports and they both do jiu jitzu man and they just love life man and and they're just I love their heart towards people they're not materialistic they they don't you know try to get stuff done or try to do the new trendy thing they're just all about heart man and so I love to see them grow in that area and they both gave their life to christ when they're four years old and I get that's young for some people but like they just love the Lord man and they love to worship and they love to go to church

and connect with other kids of the church man that's awesome you know and a great positive environment for them to be in. Yeah. You know, and our kids are involved in youth and, you know, go to the camps and are serving and things like that. And there's nothing more impactful that you can do is to do something for somebody else, you know, and to, you know, bring positivity to somebody, especially, you know, like there's tons of negative stuff out there, man, like you can turn on the news or, you know,

look on Twitter, look anywhere. and if you want to find something bad, you can find it. And so the more people that we can have out there, spreading a positive message and looking to actually help people, you know, the better, you know, because we're definitely at a deficit. Yeah, for sure, man. And I think, like I said, our kids, they're great.

They see me wake up at 4 a.m. six days a week. And they think my full-time job is top rate of May and Eric Allen show, which is funny. But, you know, they just, and they knew that they know that I do, perfection now, but it's just funny that they just thought that what I do when I get up, because they see me on a daily routine, they see my routines that every single day. They're like, hey, dad's getting up before him. You know, don't go to the office because he's on calls or doing podcasts and stuff like that.

So, you know, they try to example those morning routines with me and my wife, you know, like, hey, when I get up, I know I need to do some homework. I need to do this. And so it's fun to see him grow in that area, man. That's awesome. So one thing that you said earlier that caught my eye is you've been remote since 2015. Yeah. There's a lot of people still navigating this thing.

Like they don't know how to be remote. You know, they are, you know, fumbling around. So what's some advice you would give to somebody that maybe their company just initiated that, hey, everyone's remote now? Or maybe they have kind of a flex schedule where they've got to go in, you know, two days and the rest of their remote. You know, what's some advice or tips that maybe helped you on the journey? You've been doing it now for six years, which almost seven years now, which is, which is awesome. awesome. But for these people that are maybe having a tough time dealing with this change, what kind of advice would you give them? I think it's blocking out distractions, right? So,

you know, for me, I start working around eight. But, you know, if you can turn off Facebook and social media and all that stuff and just focus on work, but also take breaks, man, don't sit there and go four hours straight through because your brain's going to get fried. You know, being at home, you're not around talking to people. Now, I do a lot of Zoom meetings, so I'm on constantly on calls with coworkers, probably two, three calls a day with my co-worker. So I at least have that little bit of interaction. But if you're just getting to work remote, it can get lonely.

At first it's like, yes, right, but there's so much stuff that you can easily get distracted with when you're home. I go downstairs and get snack way too many times, right? Like I had to train myself to not go down and eat whenever I was hungry because I started to see that weight, actually weighed up a little bit working home because it's just accessible, right? So I think if you're new to work remote, set those time blocks, man. Like, hey, work for two hours, take a 15-minute break, get up, walk away from your desk, go out for a walk, you know, stuff like that. That'll help you get back and be more productive with your work from home job.

I love it, man. I love it. And I think that's a really great advice for everybody. Make sure you jot those down, especially if your company just switch. I know there's a lot of people out there whose companies just switched to full time or maybe they have, you know, joined the great resignation and they decide to leave and do their own things. thing and now you're at home well guess what you don't have the co-workers to talk to right you don't have all the normal things that you were used to so i think those tips are super helpful eric so i'll love to talk about your two shows i know you've got um you know the eric allen show and then

you've got uh top ranked mama is it top rank mama is that the second one top rated mhmap top rated m m m m ms so top rated m msrick allen show you've got two shows collectively you know north of almost 350 i think you said combined episode. So what would you say? I would love for you to answer this question. When you look back to episode one and you look at the last episode that you just did, three biggest differences. Man, I think confidence, the more that you do it, you know, very much like in sales, right? The more that you do it, the more comfortable you're going to get talking and speaking. And so I say like the big difference for me is I'm more confident on camera. Also, my first 100 episodes

that I did, I was in a walk-in closet with bad. lighting, bad camera, bad microphone, didn't even know what I was doing. And so now I actually have lighting. I have an office. I have cameras and stuff like that. So, you know, I love that side of it. But I also think that my criteria, or not criteria, but just that the level of knowledge from the guests that I pull into my shows now is 10 times different. And not that I had bad guests before, I just changed it up a little bit because I wanted to bring more knowledge. I wanted to bring a bigger impact to the listeners of my show. I had no idea what Apple podcast was. until after I had already released 100 episodes.

I was literally just recording on video and uploading to YouTube and uploading to Facebook. And then someone's like, how can I listen to your show on Apple? I was like, what the heck is that? Right. So then I was like, oh my gosh, I knew nothing when it came to podcasting.

And so now what I've been able to do is just like go through. And now I'm set up on all those things, but it's taken me four years. And I'm still learning and still growing. We just hit 10,000 downloads in June of this year, which was a great accomplishment. And I've been ranked on the Apple podcast in the U.S. in the UK a couple of times with my shows.

And so it's been fun, man. That's awesome, man. Yeah, and it's great to kind of look back and think about the closet days, right? And, you know, the equipment that you don't have, you know, I remember recording on like a headset and looking behind me, I had like six tiles behind me. You know, like, so it's fun to kind of see how you've, you know, evolved and elevated. So when you think about both shows, and I know they're both, you know, different topics, ones, you know, related more about growth and entrepreneurship and that, that style of interview

and the other ones around mixed martial arts. So if you could, if you could pick maybe favorite interview from each of your shows and, and why, whether it was the guest or whether it was just the content or a moment, you know, would you be able to share that with us? Totally. Ken Shamrock, by far, a best interview I've had on Top Arena, May. I've spoke to him twice. The guy is just like his heart for people is awesome, but I also love his business side. I mean, he's super smart when it comes to business. He's been the USC. He's done the wrestling thing. You know, and now he's got, he's a boss man of, you know, bare knuckle fighting. And that guy's story is unbelievable. So by far, Ken Shamrock, one of my favorite interviews for sure from

the top radio may show and, you know, blessed to have him on twice. I think my favorite interview from the Eric Allen show is Ed Milette. And Ed Milet blew my socks off, man. And it wasn't even like I reached out him to set up that interview. I actually won Ed Milet's Max Out Challenge in 2019 that he issued on Instagram. So he said, hey, submit a one-minute story via stories on Instagram. Like, why do you do what you do? Why do you pass about? So I submitted a story in about a month later, him or myself in a place called Camp Agape out of California. We were the two winners. So we both got phone calls with Ed my let. And I was able to record that and release that as episode 12 of the Eric Allen show. It actually, because of Ed, the Eric Allen show started. I came across that in 2018. I was like,

who the heck is this guy? And so then I started the Eric Allen show and I had Sean Whalen on before him. And then it was Ed and then it just opened up the doors to Brad Lee and Beddus Coolean and, you know, Jim the Rookie Morris and, you know, Tim Story, Eric Legrant and Dan Caldwell from Tapout. And, you know, we're going to continue to put on amazing guests. But yeah, I think those are the two. Ironically enough on the same day that I talked to Ken Shamrock two hours later, I talked to Ed Milette on the exact same day. My head, my brain was like, holy crap. This is like the craziest day ever, you know. very cool very cool and so when you think about your your show what what were your initial goals like what why did you launch each one um you know some people i i asked this question to and it's

because they wanted to learn you know they wanted to learn information or stories the other ones it's because they they eventually wanted to turn it into a business or monetize it so what was your initial thought process and strategies and then if you can share has any of that changed now that you're 300 plus episodes in. Yeah, for sure. I mean, well, Top Pretty May actually started as an apparel company in 2012. And then in 2015, I got bored with it. And I literally put it at an ad in Craigslist and said, he wants to buy this company. And one guy called me up and said, hey, I'll offer you a few grand. And it was in that call that I decided that I wasn't ready to quit. So I pivoted my mindset and started doing the

podcast thing. And my initial goal was to ask fighters, why do you want to get in a cage? You get punched in the face. That was the only question that I really had when it going into interviews with that. And then it was just kind of free-following. But, you know, and that's what it's evolved to and humbly were considered the number one MMA podcast out here in the Northwest. I've done, you know, interviews with folks all over the world, both male and female fighters. And the Eric Allen show, you know, the initial goal for that was sort of the same thing. I want to talk with entrepreneurs, world changers and success minded people. And I want to ask them, why do you want to get punched in the face? Hopefully not physically, but virtually as

entrepreneurs and world changers, we go through failure. We go through bankrupt. We fail. We lose money. we take risk and we get beat up. Why do we keep going? So that was my initial thought. Like on the Eric Gallant show, I want to know why do we keep going as entrepreneurs? Why do you keep fighting through that? And so those,

and it's still the same sort of question when I bring guests on the Eric Allen show is like, hey, I want to understand this. I want to understand your story. What things did you go through? Hopefully through the guests that are on my show, I can make an impact. And, you know, as I first started the Eric Allen show,

I was talking with people and I was like, like, holy crap, mind blown. Like, this is so much good stuff. Selflessly, I want to, to like hold that in. I'm like, oh, no, man, I got to share this out with the world. And so that's why I started doing both of those shows. And I think it's changed a little bit in regards to this, how I do my shows, a little bit more professional, a little bit more better questions. And, you know, I'm nailed down to the process of editing and everything myself. And so that's, that's probably what

has changed. But, you know, the goal is the same. I just want to make an impact of all shows. Love it. Love it. That's definitely a great mission to have is to, you know, make a positive impact and let people learn through other people's experiences, you know. Yeah. We get the lessons without all the physical lessons or the dirt or the mud or the fire that, you know, that person had to go through, you know. Yeah. As long as we take that information, folks, and we actually go out and apply it, you know, and try to become a practitioner of that, you know, and I think that's one of the most important things you can do in business. Before you ever tell someone how to do something, you've got to definitely do it yourself and, you know, become that.

that practitioner. So I would love to find out from you. What's the favorite book that you have or one that you'd recommend out to the audience, whether you know, you've read it recently or it's just one that you keep in your rotation? There's two books. One, and I don't want to push religion on anybody, but I think the Bible is so smart when it comes to just life in general, whether you believe or not, but it talks about money and so much stuff to help you get structured with money. One, that's my favorite book. Number two, I love Edmy Let's Max Out book. It's 95 pages. I've read it several times. And that book made such an impact on my life into my daily routines and how I look at life and how I break down, you know, my daily habits. Definitely, Edmai Let's Max Out book is for sure

number two book for me, man. Awesome, awesome. And, you know, one thing that you share with me off air is that for your podcast, you give everybody a gift. And I would love to just, you know, give you a moment because I know this is something that, you know, you have passion for. This is another stream of income for you and your family. So I want to kind of give you some air time. If you have a sample, you'd hold it up. I'd love to see what this looks like. And then, you know, tell everyone kind of the story behind that. Like, was this a goal that you were like, you know what? I want to do something special for every guest or did it come after the show started. I'd really love to get some context. Yeah. I mean, I'm always interested in side hustles, right? And how I can make things better and

walk away from my full time job. And laser engraving for me came like, I was like, I saw something online. I was like, man, that's pretty cool. I want to do that. And so it took me about a year, just kind of looking stuff over. And I ended up with this small machine. It's called a laser pecker, which is a hilarious name. But it actually works really good. And it probably does five or six inch circles or I can do, you know, squares or whatever

logo I want. But it'll engrave on just about anything except for metal. So I can do wood, leather, all that fun stuff, cork board. And about 50 or 60 shows into the Eric Allen show, that's when I got this machine. I was like, man, wouldn't it be cool if I could send a long, like kind of coaster piece with the show guest name and the episode number and the date and all that and send that to them as a thank you. And so that's what I've been doing, man. And I get a lot of good feedback from it. About probably six months ago, I started doing home decor. So like,

you know, funny quotes for this holiday season, things like that. And then I do like ornaments and stuff like that. So people are sending me their logo and say, hey, can you put this on an ornament size? It's like, you know, by three inches and I send it to them. And yeah, man. So it helps me to be able to do that. And so I love sending those guests out gifts, but then it's fun to just cool to see all the cool logos that people send to me that they want engraved on this piece of wood. That's awesome. Yeah. And you know, you get that creative juices out, right? You know, be creative.

But, you know, I mean, I think that's, that is a problem a lot of people have is a lot of people like want stuff, but they also want it to be personalized. So, you know, you're kind of bringing the digital world to in personalization and meshing them together, which is pretty cool. Yeah. It's fun, man. I love doing it. Awesome, awesome. Well, I definitely want to be able to share with the audience all the ways that they can reach out to you. So if you have a one-stop shop link for the audience, feel free to share that now. And of course, when the episode drops, we're going to get everything down in the show notes as well.

Yeah, just Eric Allen Media. It's E-R-I-K, A-L-L-E-N. EricallonMedia.com is the website. And then on Instagram is just Eric G. G. Allen. Again, that's with a K. That's where my link is. I have a link tree on there so you can access all my, you know, social channels.

But the website really will get you directed to my podcast to, you know, speaking opportunities or, you know, if you're interested in hire me for unboxing videos or how to videos, explainer videos, you can see on my work on there as well. And then YouTube, man, you know, I love being able to connect with people. I respond to every comment on my YouTube videos too. So, you know, that YouTube is just Eric Allen Media. And so, yeah, man, love, love connected with new people. Awesome, awesome.

I know that everyone that either listens or watches this is going to get a ton of value out of your story. You know, it's a story of overcoming, right? You know, everybody in life is going to deal with adversity. We don't know when it's going to happen. Some of it could be when you're younger. There's plenty of people that are, you know, 40 that haven't even faced it yet that might face it in the next decade or so of their life. But it's not, you know, what happens to you, but it's how you overcome it. You are someone that is setting a great example for your family and your kids and showing them that, you know, hey, listen, you know, I reacted one way to this. It didn't work out, right? Now I'm going the other way and I'm seeing the positivity and it sounds like it's added tremendous value to your life. So kudos to you, man, for taking action, you know, because whenever we take action, it's going to create momentum. That's going to turn into consistency and form those habits. And eventually we'll get to result.

It doesn't happen overnight, folks, but, you know, kudos to you for putting in the work. Thank you so much, man. Truly an honor to be here, man. Really appreciate you have me on. And, you mean, I love your show, man. People need to listen to this show for sure. I appreciate it, bro. He keeps blazing your own trail, my friend.