The Bossticks - Ben Nemtin On Burnout, Our Passions, What We Regret Most, & How To Stop Feeling Lost
Episode Date: May 29, 2025#848: Join us as we sit down with Ben Nemtin – Motivational Speaker, Author, & Co-Founder of The Buried Life movement. Ben first captured hearts after starring in & executive producing MTV's hit doc...useries The Buried Life, where he & three friends set out to accomplish their list of "100 Things To Do Before You Die." For every goal they checked off, they helped a stranger achieve a dream of their own – sparking a movement around purpose, connection, & possibility. In this episode, Ben shares how he rediscovered his purpose after struggling with societal pressures, what led him to hit the road for a two-week bucket list adventure, & why taking action, even in uncertainty – is the key to momentum. He dives into the power of overcoming fear, the magic of simply asking a stranger, & how anyone can start chasing their dreams today, no matter the circumstance! To Watch the Show click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To connect with Ben Nemtin click HERE To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE Head to our ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of the products mentioned in each episode. Get your burning questions featured on the show! Leave the Him & Her Show a voicemail at +1 (512) 537-7194. This episode is sponsored by The Skinny Confidential Your daily routine done better – with The Skinny Confidential Caffeinated Sunscreen. Subscribe today at shopskinnyconfidential.com and get it delivered right to your door – because great skin doesn't take days off! This episode is sponsored by Nutrafol For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code SKINNYHAIR. This episode is sponsored by Branch Basics You can also use my code SKINNY15 to get 15% off at branchbasics.com/SKINNY15. This episode is sponsored by Purely Elizabeth Visit purelyelizabeth.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off. This episode is sponsored by Naked Wines To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to NakedWines.com/SKINNY and use code SKINNY for both the code AND PASSWORD. This episode is sponsored by Boll & Branch Get 15% off, plus free shipping on your first set of sheets, at BollAndBranch.com/skinny. This episode is sponsored by Nowadays Nowadays is easy to purchase, with direct-to-door delivery. Must be 21 to order at trynowadays.com. Produced by Dear Media
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The following podcast is a dear media production.
She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire.
Fantastic.
And he's a serial entrepreneur.
A very smart cookie.
And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride.
Get ready for some major realness.
Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.
Hello everybody.
Welcome back to the skinny confidential, him and her show.
What if the secret to changing your life isn't about achieving more, but about
daring to dream in the first place.
Today's guest is someone who's not just talking the talk.
He's living the ultimate bucket list life.
From playing basketball with Obama to having beer with Prince Harry,
he's checked off dreams most of us wouldn't even dare to write down.
Ben Nempton is the best-selling author of What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?
And The Bucketless Journal.
This episode with Ben is all about unlocking possibility,
beating burnout, and giving yourself permission to go after the life you actually want.
With that, Ben Nempton, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show.
This is the skinny confidential, him and her.
I think people have it wrong when they're trying to find their purpose.
I think it's about building towards purpose.
So moving towards the things that make you feel more alive
and starting to use that as your compass
and not using your head, follow feelings.
And ultimately that leads you to happiness.
Because the definition of happiness
is the feeling you have when you're moving towards your potential.
So it's not actually about achieving the goal.
it's about your pursuit and moving towards it.
So you're not stagnant and just starting to take small steps of action.
So I've read this and you're the perfect person to ask.
It's like depression is actually when you feel like you're regressing or standing still, right?
Stagnation.
Yeah.
So humans are unhappy when we are stagnant.
So movement makes us feel this sense of fulfillment.
And I actually think, and I've heard this before from certain people,
This is what I've experienced because I experienced depression.
I went through quite a big depression when I was in my first year of university in Canada.
And I felt, and looking back, it's quite clear, like I was not aligned with my authentic self,
and I wasn't moving towards that sort of true version of myself.
I was living the dream, but it wasn't my dream.
And so I was moving towards this dream that I thought I should live,
actually wasn't what I wanted. And I think that that is the thing that can get tricky is that
we sometimes feel like we're living for other people, but we don't know it. And I think that's where
unhappiness can stem from. Who were you living for? I was living for everyone around me. Like,
people told me that I should do really well in school. People told me that I should be a star rugby
player because rugby was the big sport where I grew up. People told me that I had to, you know, be
popular and be like like society had just kind of ingrained these things in me and what I wasn't doing
was I wasn't being creative and I wasn't hanging around with people that really energized me and it's not
until I was intentional about surrounding myself with people that inspired me that I started to learn
about the people that made me feel more alive and then when I made the bucket list the things that
made me feel more alive. So if I look back,
For me, these feelings of depression came from just not moving towards the life that I wanted.
It was moving towards the life that I thought.
It's like a great example, the child that is pressured by the parents to be a doctor or a lawyer,
then they become the doctor a lawyer, and then they hate the profession, they're miserable,
even though on paper everyone's like, hey, you're making a lot of money and you're a doctor and you're a lawyer,
and what's the problem here?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah, you should be happy.
It makes sense.
Like everything adds up.
But why are you not happy?
Why are you unhappy? Or they love to play hockey and then the parents are like,
okay, go, go, go. They're pushed to this highest level. And then the joy comes, falls out of
the actual act of doing it. And then they feel this unhappiness. I find this in real life too,
like even not with just parents, I have like friends that feel like they need to be this business
person or this entrepreneur. That's such like a hot word right now. They feel like they need to be
an entrepreneur, but at their core, they're just, they're not. And they don't want to be doing it,
but they're just doing it because it looks good on Instagram or because it's a talking point
at dinner or whatever it is. And it, what I've realized is like, if you're just doing it because
you think that's like the hot button word and it's, it's cool to post or whatever, that's not
fulfilling either. I feel like it also happens not just from parents.
Absolutely. Yeah. Honestly, this is, I think, the biggest.
challenge we have as human beings because if you look at the biggest regret that people have on their
deathbed, 76% of people on their deathbed, their number one regret is, I wish I would have lived
for me, not the life others won for me or the life that was expected of me. So this is the biggest
problem we are facing as human beings because that's the number one regret we have. So how can
you reverse engineer your life so you don't have that regret? Well, that means first,
stopping to think about and check in and figure out like what do I want. And the problem is like
most people and me included, I have no idea. I didn't know what I wanted. And so what happened was
this list became really a list of experiments that allowed me to try different things and start to
understand what were these things that gave me energy. And then I followed that energy. And that led
me to L.A. from Victoria where we made a TV show that led me to speaking where what I'm
right now, it led me to the book, but all of these things were just following this momentum or this
enthusiasm and this energy. And I think that's where purpose and fulfillment comes to is the pursuit
of that, which always changes, which is why you're always changing your goals. But, you know,
I think sometimes we don't even know that we're living for other people.
Oh. It's like a little. It's very small. It's hard to. You have to leave this in. I don't. I
The pregnant person has sushi rice on the head, which by the way, you're not supposed to eat sushi when you're pregnant, but I have sushi on my head.
It very much distracts me when you creep up like a leper in the corner to each other.
Please refrain from creeping up.
Yeah, it's like if the lepercon came out behind.
I see you standing back there, slowly creeping up.
All I can think about is like, you know, like in Japan, you can like eat sushi off like female naked bodies.
I just think of somebody eating sushi off your forehead.
Taylor doesn't know about that.
He's running to Japan.
He's booking a ticket.
I've seen you speak before many times on Instagram.
And I know that you mentioned it just now.
You wrote, so explain it to the audience.
You wrote a bucket list and then you went down the bucket list and did it?
Yeah.
So this short version of this, and I'll try and keep this short, and you jump in and like,
no, no, don't keep it short.
We're long form.
Go for it.
Okay.
So I'm in university.
I'm putting all this pressure on myself to do well.
I just made the under 19 national rugby team and rugby in the west coast of Canada is like football in the south, like big, big sport.
And we're training for the World Cup.
And at the end of our high school season, I'd missed a game winning kick that we lost the championship.
And so leading up to the World Cup, I was like, shit, like, what if I do that again at the World Cup?
What if I blow this opportunity?
And now you can like imagine like this meant everything to me, this shot that I had to play at the World Cup.
And so I started getting anxiety and I started losing sleep.
And all of a sudden, I couldn't go to school.
And I was stuck in my car.
I couldn't go to class.
I drove home.
I dropped out.
I couldn't go to rugby practice.
Like I was just, I'd never experienced these feelings before and they just started to spiral and spiral.
And this anxiety was just crippling and I wasn't able to do anything.
And so I dropped out of school.
I got dropped from the national rugby team.
And someone who had been A-type, lots of friends.
friends, really social, all of a sudden I couldn't leave my house. So I would just go, and my parents
would push me out the door to do a 15-minute walk. And so these feelings lasted for a few months.
And ultimately, there were many things that contributed to me coming out of these feelings, right?
One was I finally talked with a therapist and I started to understand what was going on. But one of
the big things that happened was I realized that some of my friends energized me and some,
took energy from me and I thought well by necessity I need to be around people that
inspire me to get me out of this slump and there was one kid that was inspiring and he
was a filmmaker that lived around the corner and I thought man I secretly I wanted to
make a movie and I'd never talked about it and so I called this kid up out of the
blue and we gathered two other friends and we started talking about making this film
we had no idea what was going to be about but we thought let's just make a
documentary this summer about something and he
Johnny had been assigned a poem in English class called The Buried Life.
And it was an old 150-year-old poem.
And it talked about how the day-to-day buries what we really want to do.
And we have these moments when we're inspired to go after those things.
But life gets in the way.
So we push them.
And we just never do these things.
So our dreams kind of get buried.
And that's how we felt.
And so we thought, well, let's make a list of all of our buried dreams that we've never tried to go after.
And let's just go on a road trip for two weeks.
And let's go after these dreams.
And let's help other people achieve their dreams.
because like we're not going to accomplish any of these things on our own.
We're going to need the help of other people.
So we'll just go in a two-week road trip to tackle our bucket list and help other people.
This is back in 2006.
So it was like before social media, we're like beg borrowing and stealing to get this thing off the ground.
We make a website.
We borrow an old RV.
We buy a camera on eBay.
We're fundraising in our hometown to save money so we can pay for gas.
And we hit the road for this two-week road trip.
And as soon as we started to travel,
it started gets in the local news and people start hearing about it and then emails start to come in
through our website and they're like, I saw your list. I can help you do that. You want to get up on a
hot air balloon? My friend can help you out. You want to ride a bull? My uncle owns a bull ranch.
And then people started sending us their dreams asking for our help. And so we did not expect this
response. And so we thought, well, I guess we should keep doing this. We were having a lot of fun.
And pause for a second. Were those real dreams you had and like what else was on that list?
Yeah, I mean, it was, when we wrote the list, there was two rules. You had to pretend you had $100 million in your bank.
And you had to pretend you could do anything. So it was everything from grow a mustache, plant a tree, to make a TV show, go to space, play basketball with Obama. Well, this is before Obama. So that wasn't on the list yet, but that was one of them. You know, like pay off our parents' mortgage to sit with Oprah, write in New York Times bestseller. Just the craziest, wildest dreams we could ever think of. We wrote them down. And we thought, we're going to go out and we're going to try and do.
as many as we can in two weeks. So what happened? So it hit this chord. People really resonated with
this idea. And we noticed people started to go after their dreams because we were going after ours.
And they were offering us help. And so we thought, well, let's just keep doing this. And so we went
back to school. We fundraised throughout the school year. We saved up money. We got sponsors on board.
We bought an old transit bus, though that the next summer we could go for
a longer tour. And so this two-week road trip lasts like 10 years. We just keep doing it in the
summers. And ultimately, one of the dreams was to make a TV show. And so we took the footage we've
been filming for the documentary. We edited a pilot. We drove down to LA and we ended up selling it to MTV
three years later. And that's what's brought us down to LA. And we did a show with the same idea of
doing something on our list and helping someone else do something on theirs. And so it's a
sort of taken us on this this this wild adventure but along the way what i you know in reflection as i
look back what it really was was it was when i wrote my list it was the first time that i had
declared or identified what i truly wanted i just hadn't done that yet in my life and and and it
started this process of kind of living intentionally because we started to go after these things that we
had written down
and then we started to talk about it
and then people started to help us
and that led us down this path
of sort of living
a life that was a little more
authentic and like
yeah it started out as just kind of a laugh
but it actually
led into sort of really like
this journey of self-discovery.
First of all you have to tell us
if you did the World Cup.
No, I never played in the World Cup.
You never did it.
No, but you know what's interesting?
What I realized?
is that I didn't really love rugby that much.
I was doing it because it was the cool thing to do.
What a great thing to realize, though,
and to be able to, maybe the anxiety was coming all from that.
I have heard, though, rugby players have great asses.
Yeah, they do.
I can't show it because I'm sitting on it,
but I don't have one anymore because I don't play anymore.
Okay.
That's what our trainer was pulling up men's males rugby asses to show me.
She said, Michael, I need you to get to this.
And I was just sitting there looking at a lot of male
asses. I was like, well...
Michael, you have a great rugby. I don't know how we got here, but I was just...
That's right I was.
What are things that you have personally checked off your own list based upon this whole concept?
Some things that the audience would be interested in hearing.
Everything from...
We survived on a deserted island without any training of survival skills.
We just kind of got pushed off of a boat to swim to an island and had to fend...
for ourselves. For how long?
It was about...
Because you said like an hour, I'm like, all right.
No, it was like three, four days.
That's a long time.
Yeah, it was a...
Three four days is good. I wouldn't have survived.
We lived off coconuts. You could actually live off coconuts for a long time.
Yeah.
That's not surprising.
Can you imagine the complaints for me?
We had to...
So, okay, we could...
We said you could bring one thing, but it can't be fire or food.
Okay.
So I brought a headlamp.
So you could see at night.
Johnny brought a pot so that we could boil and distill water.
but we had to make fire.
Okay.
Dave brought a mask and snorkel because he thought he was going to spearfish fish, but he didn't.
That was an image that he had in his head from like Little Mermaid.
Exactly.
And then Duncan brought a machete, which was key to open the coconuts.
Ah, the machetes, the smart one, huh?
Very smart, yeah, because that's what we lived off.
How about a rifle?
You can't bring a rifle?
Why not?
You can shoot the coconuts over.
Because that's a fire arm.
I'm not worried about seeing the dive blast away.
No, that's so extreme.
You can't bring a fire.
You can't bring the fire.
You know we did though?
Because it kind of got Lord of the Flies because we started to get a little squirrely after
the third day and we were just eating coconuts and we needed something and we couldn't start
fire with a stick but what we realized is the top of the pot was glass and we could use it
as a magnifying glass and we propped it up on sticks and it the husks of the coconut were
really flammable.
So we started a fire that way and then one of the guys, Duncan,
He went and killed a seabird and we ate it after we roasted on the fire.
It was like the most primal thing I've ever done.
How did you know to get picked up?
Like we're starving.
It's an hour.
Kill the bird.
Yeah.
So this we did with when we did the MTV show.
Okay.
So we had a rule with production where they would come in the morning.
They'd film.
Okay.
And then they'd leave.
We had walkies if there was an emergency during the night.
And we filmed the rest via flip camp.
And so you lasted three to four days.
Yeah.
And what are other things that you?
you did that were on this list?
I tried to, one of the
list items was to
ask out the girl your dreams.
So I tried to, this is keep in mind
this is back in the Transformers
days when Megan Fox was like the it girl.
So I was like, okay, I'm going to ask out
Megan Fox. So it was
the second
Transformers movie
and it was the premiere. And so we knew she was
going to be there. So we snuck
onto the red carpet. And
so what I've learned is like if you want to
sneak in anywhere. One, if you wear all black with a walkie-talkie and a clipboard, you can walk in the
back of any venue. Good tip. And also, if there's a press, if it's a premiere or something,
you know, if you're sneaky and you have a camera and a microphone, you can kind of get in a couple
different places. And so I was able to get into the red carpet and there's all these slots on the
red carpet for the different outlets, like Access Hollywood, right, inside. And so we stepped into
this slot and luckily they didn't show up. So I was just waiting as Megan Fox was coming down
the red carpet and she got in front of me and I started talking with her. And I didn't ask her out
and she got pulled off by her publicist before I could ask her out. So I failed at that. But the next
the next time that my friend Duncan did it, he was like, okay, I'm going to ask out Taylor Swift.
and we're like, okay, how are we going to ask her to say, well, we know she's going to be at the CMT Awards.
So we dress up Duncan like a fake country music star named Boone McCaw, all in white, and we get this white horse and chariot.
And we tell our followers to meet us at the corner of where the CMT entrance was, and we gave them like shirts that say, I heart Boone, fake covers of country music magazine with his
face on it. And we say, when you see the white horse coming down, go nuts. And I'm walking, of course,
with my black and the walkie-talkie and the clipboard. I'm like his manager. And we also had like
fake, like wigs and everything so no one could notice us. And we roll up to the front of the CMTs and the
police open the barricade because they're like this crowd's going nuts and there's this horse and
chariot. Like clearly this is somebody. We go all the way up to the red carpet. Great security.
Yeah. And they stop us at the red carpet because they recognize.
one of us. And so then we dress up Duncan and all in black with the clipboard. We're able to go up to
the desk at the CMTs or like the backstage area and sort of pretend that we were on Kid Rock's
production crew. We get a pass and he goes in and he walks right up to Taylor Swift who's sitting in
the front road during a TV break, passes her a note and says, hey, it took me a while to get here.
I just wanted to give you this. And then the note was sort of an explanation of how he had
gotten in and asking her out for a date. And she texted back and they went on two dates.
No way. Yeah. So it actually won't 50% success rate for that list item. So she liked him
kind of two dates. Yeah, two dates. Not bad. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have given a guy another
date if I didn't like him. You're right. There you go. Yeah. So that's sort of a success.
And then we would do these like so we would help other people with their dreams and those became
kind of like the most meaningful part of this like whole journey because we started to realize that
like when you help someone do something that means so much them you you immediately connect with them
well it's what Oprah did exactly Oprah helped dr. Phil she helped uh Dr. Oz she helped a lot of people
come up with her and that's a different feeling I think that's a different it's almost a different
added layer of purpose I yeah I think it resonates in a different way and you start to feel
I mean, talk about fulfillment, you start to just, there's like a different vibration when you do that.
What's the common thing that you see on people's bucket list because you've seen so many people's inner dreams?
What's the thing that you see standing out the most?
If you really, like, boil it down.
Like a lot of times it's sort of surface level things and achievements,
but when you start to really get into deeper conversations with people and you start to look at,
it's consistent with the five regrets of the dying, basically.
So the top five regrets of the dying are,
I wish I would have stayed in contact with friends.
I wish I would have let myself be happy.
I wish I would have worked less.
I wish I would have lived for me.
There's one other one, but I can't remember.
So a lot of times the goals are like about telling people how they really feel.
They're about relationships, spending more time with the people that really mean, like, that are really important to them.
And so that is what I think ultimately your list comes down to are those things that you end up not keeping top of mind.
So you sort of push them, but you don't realize that actually that's going to be the thing you're going to regret at the end of your life.
And so I think it's the smaller sort of goals that end up being the most meaningful when it comes to relationships and those types of things.
What are the people who are checking major accomplishments and moments off their list doing differently than people that aren't?
What people have wrong is that they're waiting to feel ready.
Right. It's a forever student.
And you're going to be waiting your whole life.
Right.
So you want to take action in the face of not being ready in the face of fear.
because at the very least you're going to grow.
So this fear that we have, there's two fears that stop us.
The fear of what other people think are the fear of failure.
And so if you really break down those two fears, the fear of what other people think,
I mean, these are common fears.
I actually look at these as taxes that you have to pay to achieve anything that means
something to you.
And these fears are actually good.
These are markers that this thing you're about to do is meaningful.
Because you're going to have to put yourself on the line.
You're going to have to be vulnerable.
that's where that fear stems from. So this fear of what other people think, it's actually,
what it really is is you pretending that people are thinking about you when they're probably not.
Like most people are not thinking about you as much as you think they are. They're busy worried
about what other people are thinking about them. So usually this fear of what other people think is
slightly made up. And the fear of failure, we all have this fear, but this fear,
If you think about it this way, like if I'm afraid to go after my goal or I'm waiting for the perfect time,
unfortunately I failed because I did not achieve my goal.
So at least when I try and I fail, what I learned from that outweighs any potential hit to my reputation.
And so I think people that achieve big goals, they move in the face of that fear because they know that doesn't go away.
And they know that it's just part and parcel with doing the thing.
And they become comfortable with being uncomfortable, right?
Like if you think about your growth, right, there are these steps that you're you.
you took where you actually probably didn't even know how you're going to do it, but you were just like,
we're just going to, we're going to do this. It's still like 75% of the time. Exactly. I'm not kidding.
Exactly. And that's such an important piece for people to know because they look up to you and they're like,
oh, well, they figured it out. But if you think about like when you went from like blog to podcast or for
everything that you're building, you still have to continue to take those leaps and you have no idea.
But people see you and they're like, no, they're better than me. They're smarter than me. They know how to
do this. If you follow that thread, to be honest, and I've said this so many times on the show,
we were never qualified from our credentialed or learning standpoint to talk on a mic. I was never
qualified to do anything in media. I didn't study it ever. Didn't read any books on it,
didn't do anything on it. We were never qualified to build product business. Lauren and I both
didn't study anything to do with that. But the common denominator is we started doing the things.
you start doing the things you have to figure out. And listen, you have to read and you have to learn.
And also the second part of that is both of us, fortunately, were never worried about the criticism or what people
thought about it. My base, like my perspective on anything is first, nobody's thinking about me.
And second, when they do start thinking about me, they're going to start thinking bad things about me.
And that doesn't bother me. Meaning like, they're not mean about it, but they're just going to be like,
why is he doing that? Or how does that make sense? Or that was a mess? Like, most people do that until you get to the end of
something and it proves out anyway, but during the process, any process driven part, you're always
going to have the naysayers. You really don't get any credit until the thing's done. It's funny when you
say that we're not qualified because I'm so delusional that I tricked myself that I am qualified.
When you say that, I, that's the other part of it. You almost have to be delusional to and have
that bravado and confidence in yourself because no one's going to do it for you and you can,
you really have to do it for yourself. Yeah, it's both. In fact, you can, you can, it can be either or.
you can either not give a fuck and just do it and not care about what other people think,
or you can have the self-belief that you know you're going to do it,
so you're going to prove everyone that this is, you know, this is going to work.
Either way, you just have to do it and learn as you go.
I mean, I care very much what people think, while at the same time I also know I can do
nothing to change the way they think during that product.
Like, they're going, like, if some, if you,
go and you launch
any kind of endeavor, no matter
what you're going to get some critics and some
nays here, some people that say you're crazy.
And I know personally, I can't change that thought
process. So it's a matter of just becoming
peaceful and okay with the fact that you're going to
have those people regardless. Does that make sense?
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's like a quiet
confidence in yourself and what you're doing
and not worrying
about what other people think at the end of the day
because it's inevitable
that people are going to
look like sometimes when it's just easier and it makes us feel a little bit better if we see someone
doing something and we make up a story about why you know we're not doing that right and so
I think at the end of the day it's it's best to just act and learn along the way and that's how
you ultimately build that confidence is because like the reason why you can continue to make
these leaps is because you've proved to yourself that you've done it in the past in a different way,
but you, you know, you've taken these jumps. So you know that, okay, I know it's not going to be easy.
Like, I know it's going to take a lot of work. But if I put in the work, I know that I can get there.
Everyone I know uses Nutraful. I cannot tell you how many people have said that it really
helps with hair thinning, shedding, and hair issues. I know so many celebrity hairstylists who have
talked about it. I've had friends, influencers, celebrities all say they love Nutraful because it really
has a proactive approach and targets the root causes. I've seen that my hair shedding issues have
essentially gone away. So what I noticed is postpartum with my first baby is I would notice
hair shedding on like the shower or my silk pillowcase. And now I don't get that at all. And I think
I've just really strengthened my hair. And a big part of that is supplementation.
I also like to do scalp massage. I am huge on microthneedling for the scalp. I use a great
hair oil and I don't wash my hair a lot. And I went Burnett. So the combination has just been
great. You may have heard of Nutriful's hair growth supplements and wondered, do they actually
work? And obviously that's a fair question. Many hair supplements over promise and underdeliver.
But Nutriful is different. As the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand,
It's trusted by over 1.5 million people, and it's clinically tested to deliver real results in just three to six months.
This summer, stop worrying about your hair and start making memories.
For a limited time, Nutraful is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutraful.com and inner promo code skinny hair.
Find out why Nutriful is the best-selling hair growth supplement brand at Nutraful.com.
Spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L-L-com promo code skinny hair.
That's Nutraful.com promo code skinny hair.
All right, everybody, listen up.
Big News. Branch Basics, one of our all-time favorite cleaning brands is now available at over 600 Target stores nationwide and on Target.com.
That's right.
You can now pick them up during your regular Target run.
Lauren and I have been huge fans of Branch Basics.
We've had the founder of Branch Basics on this podcast twice.
We've been longtime partners.
And that is because it makes all the sense in the world to clean your house with better for you cleaning supplies.
you no longer need to use 80 different products with all these harmful chemicals, hormone disruptors, fragrances.
They're not necessary. They don't do the job better. And they wreak havoc on our systems, our loved one systems, our pet systems, all of us.
This is why Lauren and I could not be bigger fans of Branch Basics. From countertops to bathrooms, even tough stains,
Branch Basics, all-purpose cleaner from bathroom cleaner and their new Stain River tackle it all.
Plus, their gentle, unsensitive skin, and safe for babies and pets. This all started when their founders realized how much better they felt when they removed
toxic products from their homes. We can attest to this as well. Ever since we made the switch to
branch basics, we have not looked back. And to me, it just makes complete sense. Why would you
use chemical cleaning supplies when you can use branch basics that does the same thing? Cleans
just as effectively, but without any harmful chemicals, hormone disruptors, or artificial
fragrances. So if you're tired of toxic chemicals lingering in your home, it's time to make the switch.
You can grab Branch Basics products now at Target, find their concentrate, all-purpose cleaner,
bathroom cleaner and stain remover right on the shelves.
Trust me, your home and your health will thank you.
So shop Branch Basics and 600 plus Target stores nationwide or Target.com.
You can also use our code Skinny15 to get 15% off at branchbasics.com slash skinny 15.
Again, Skinny 15 for 15% off at Branchbasics.com slash Skinny 15.
You know what I love for kids?
I love to rebrand things.
So I have candy water, which is mango aminos.
I have cookie water, which is coconut electrolytes.
And I have cookies for breakfast, which is purely Elizabeth granolas.
If you have not tried their delicious granola with crunchy clusters, ancient grains and superfoods, you are missing out.
First of all, you cannot sleep on their cookie granola.
It is so good.
My kids literally think they're eating like the biggest treat in the world.
It's certified USDA organic, gluten-free, vegan, nom GMO project verified.
it just tastes like you're eating a chocolate chip cookie.
They also have other flavors, of course, like chocolate sea salt, blueberry hemp,
vanilla almond butter, and of course their original ancient green granola, which I like to add
raw honey to.
My kids go crazy for this, and I love it as a snack too.
I keep it in the office.
It's absolutely delicious.
So if you're looking for a little rebrand for your kids and you want to give them something
sweet that they'll think is a total treat, you have to.
have to try purely Elizabeth.
Visit purelyelizabeth.com and use code skinny at checkout.
You get 20% off.
Purely Elizabeth, taste the obsession.
We have a friend, shout out to Sean Adler.
We have a friend that went to high school with us.
I think he was working in banking,
and he came up with this idea called Nana Hats.
And essentially what it is is banana hats for bananas.
Because if you don't have a banana hat,
It's called a nana hat.
On top of your banana, it goes brown quicker.
And when he brought up the idea, I'm sure.
I'm just going to speak on his behalf.
People like,
they were like little like faces that you put on the top of his banana.
People were like,
I don't know if that's going to work, whatever,
but he ended up on Shark Tank.
And they invested in him.
And they invested in them.
And by the way, those nana hats.
Look, LT's mom had them.
It's a great stocking stuff for everyone should buy it.
You could use it on the tip of your penis.
Hello, Sean.
Taylor does.
But imagine.
Taylor uses the Santa Hout one.
But imagine the pitches and the conversations and the side eye rolls and the confusion when he was out there doing this.
But it's actually a great idea.
It preserves your bananas.
Yeah.
He doesn't want to preserve the bananas.
But you just, I think the important piece of this is that, like, you have to know that, that no and failure is not part of the journey.
It is the journey.
It absolutely is the process, is getting.
through those. And, you know, what, what we've learned is, is that you can get one no, two
nose, five nose, a hundred nose, because sometimes you're actually just looking for one yes.
Right. And so you're not done until you get your yes. So the nose, you're just getting
closer to the yes. The more nose you get. If you're getting too many yeses, too, that's not,
to me, it's not innovative enough. Like, I like the nose. I get off on the nose. I expect the
nose. Sometimes it's a compass to tell you that you're on to something that maybe people aren't
seeing. So Ben, when people come to you and they're asking you how they can get started,
when we've kind of shared something, but like, what do you tell the majority of people that come
to say, hey, I'm stuck, I can't get started? So if they have no idea what they want to do.
Or even if they have the idea and they just aren't doing it. Yeah. So let's just start from not having
the idea because some people don't have the idea and then we can move from there. So the first thing
is the reason why I like writing your goals down, writing your goals down, writing your
list is because it first and foremost forces you to slow down to think about what is important to you.
And you're doing it by yourself. So you're really reflecting on what are these things that I truly want.
Now, when I've done this with people, like I just did the list writing workshop yesterday in Nashville,
and a question was like, what if I can't even think about one? Like sometimes you can't think about
anything that you want to do. And also, that's totally normal. So my advice,
for if you feel totally stuck with even beginning is try not to think but like listen to your
body or think about or follow feeling so so what are you curious about right or what excites you
when you think about it so if you think about like a trip that maybe you plan and it's in like
three months and just the thought of that trip you just get excited thinking about it like we
actually get more value more happiness out of looking forward to a trip than we do a trip
because we get that feeling of excitement and then the trip sometimes doesn't like hit
expectations but that's the the excitement you're looking for when you're thinking about these things
and also take the pressure off this thing that you want to do being your full purpose or solving you know
this big problem for yourself think about your list as a list of experiments that you're just going
to try to see if they bring you that sense of fulfillment or or give you energy again following
feelings make you feel more alive make you feel more like yourself so the
The mindset when you go into starting to think about writing your goals is, okay, first,
don't listen to your head as much, follow feelings, imagine you have all the money in the world.
If you could do anything, what would you do?
And that's a good place to start.
So then you write your goals down.
And what I would suggest is that, you know, I like a process when I'm doing things.
So when I made the Buccalist Journal, it was how can you reflect your holistic self when you're writing your list?
so you don't miss these things that you might regret at the end of your life.
And so that is looking at the 10 life categories.
And the 10 life categories are travel and adventure.
You've got your relationship goals, professional goals.
You've got financial goals, material goals, creative, mental health, physical health.
And so the reason why I have these 10 categories or I like to think about them is it's kind of nice to sort of spark some ideas.
of what these things might be.
Like, if you think about relationships, you're like, okay, what are the relationships that are
important to me that I want to invest in?
Let's write those down.
And so what you're doing is you're sort of creating a map of like your whole, your true self
through the list.
So let me ask you, Michael and Taylor this.
What is one thing that's really important to you right now on your bucket list and you go
first?
Mine is make a movie.
Make a movie.
Yeah.
Like finish the documentary that we started.
20 years ago.
You'll check that.
What's yours?
Taylor, you've got to think of yours, too.
Pretty good track right now.
Taylor's is a gang bang.
I think of...
No, it's not.
Write a movie.
That is so fucking fake.
Or maybe it's a porno,
because it's a movie about a double-blown job.
That's the fakes thing I've ever heard.
Faker.
Write a movie.
I'm actually curious
to know what's on your bucket list.
I think I'm going to go for four kids.
I think I'm going to go for the fourth.
As you're pregnant.
Oh my God.
I feel like that's rejection onto me.
What about the, is that after the two dogs?
No, the dogs aren't coming.
The dogs are coming.
Are you kidding?
I'm using that as a negotiation.
You know what, though?
I was thinking about...
His bucket list is for me to have another kid while I'm crowning.
Unfair.
I know the sound...
That should be like against the rules.
Because that's something I have to do to fulfill his bucket list.
This is fucked up.
He wants me to do something for him to check off his bucket list.
Well, maybe that means you're his accountability buddy in this.
I'm going to call it more than an accountability partner.
I mean, here's like as I've listened to you talk and as I've thought about this more and more recently, like, and as we've had different conversations this week, like, I realized about myself a long time ago.
I'm a very goal-oriented person, but the difficulty with me is that I will keep pushing the goal.
goal post forward and that was a problem in my life for a long time. But now I just realized
that's always going to happen and I really actually just enjoy that process of going through
that goal that. Does that make sense? Yeah. So that's super important because remember I said the
definition of happiness is the feeling you have when you are moving toward your potential,
but I didn't say the definition of happiness is a feeling you have when you reach your potential.
Yeah. Because you don't reach your potential. Yes. So like how many time? Exactly. It keeps moving.
And if you think, like, reaching your goals does not make you happy.
Yeah, I mean, so to take it further, and I was thinking about what's my bucket list?
I've done.
It's going to turn into a counseling session.
I've done a lot of things that I would say were on the bucket list.
And as I thought, as I get older in life, I'm like, I've done, like, there's not, like, the thrills and all the things.
I've done the hot air balloon.
I've jumped out of a plane.
I've been on great trips.
He's been with a 10 out of 10.
The girl of his dreams, he asked me out.
I said yes after 10 years.
But what I realize is like I just, I like the feeling of moving.
Like there's, okay, so what I would say is I've experienced success in my life, material, financially, relationship wise.
And I've always been disappointed with the end.
And not that I'm not excited that I get to the end, but I've always looking back, it's the process.
Like you don't get to the end and like, ah, I made it and I'm done and I feel great now.
As a matter of fact, a lot of time you get to the end and the exact opposite happens.
It's like getting to the moon as an astronaut.
that's exactly what Ben's saying.
You know what example is the Olympics?
Yes.
And you think about that post-Olympic depression,
you spend four years leading up to this moment.
And even when you win it,
there's a crash afterwards
because you don't have that purpose anymore.
And it's that purpose of moving toward that moment
that gives you that fulfillment.
If you say, I want to make a million dollars,
you make it to a million dollars,
guess what?
You want to make two million, right?
We need to be a,
in action. We are not happy as human beings being stagnant. So as long as we are moving towards
that potential. And that's why, as you said, as you get older, it changes. And by the way,
like me 10 years ago, I wanted the big accomplishments. And I'm happy that I went. And I,
and I did that. But it, but the reason why you want to continue this practice is because
you're changing. Therefore, your list, your goals, your, your, your dreams will also change. And
It's like now, you know, five kids. No, four kids. No, two dogs.
But I'm not a lot. There's that famous. And I'm sure you've seen this. There's like that Reddit thread. And I'm going to butcher. But I think of you Google like Reddit, like Reddit, sold company depressed. Like I'm just giving the promise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's this founder. And I can't remember off the top of my head who it was.
It's Serena. It's Serena. It's husband, isn't it? The founder of Reddit. Anyways, keep going. But he sold a company, made a shitload of money, had all the big achievements that everybody glamorizes and glorifies on paper.
And at the end of it, he's like, I'm depressed and I'm not happy.
And I don't know why.
I've done all the things.
I made all the money.
And I'm not happy.
It's a great example.
Okay.
Someone, they build a company, they sell it, and then they buy it back because they want to keep going.
People retire.
They can't, they don't have a sense of purpose.
People, we put so much of our identity into our work.
We reach the end.
We drop off a cliff.
We haven't spent any time focusing on purpose outside of work.
And all of a sudden, we fall off a cliff.
If we don't have that purpose, what do you do?
Come out of retirement, you start working again.
So, you know, this is, this I feel like is this nugget that we forget about, which is, you know, the constant pursuit of moving towards our authentic self is really what it is.
Like who, and this is the buried life.
This is the same thing the fucking poem was talking about 175 years ago, which was not our, our, our, our, our,
our true buried life, right?
We were overwhelmed by the day to day
and we weren't living in that true original course,
which is a line from the poem,
tracking our true original course.
So our job as human beings
is to track our true original course, right?
And whatever we can do to make that happen,
whatever we can do to stay on course
and not listen to other people, right,
and not do what we think we should do,
but actually stay tapped into
who we are and what will make us happy.
Because honestly, if we do what we love, what makes us most alive, then we unlock the gifts
that only we have.
And then we unlock our greatest impact.
If you guys wouldn't have listened to that, you wouldn't be having the impact.
You'd be an executive at some company, right?
You might have started some company or worked somewhere else, but the reason you are making
your impact is because you listen to that voice.
And most people don't.
It's funny because if I were to like leave my kids with a line of advice,
you just articulated it really well.
I would tell them and I wrote this down to track your original course.
It's so important.
Why are so many successful people so unhappy?
And this is likely one of the core reasons why, right?
It's like you're just on this hamster wheel of achievement without any kind of fulfillment
whatsoever.
And you're doing it for reasons that aren't even necessarily always for you.
You have worked with elite athletes and Fortune 500 leaders.
What did they all have in common when it comes to burnout?
I mean, they're all pretty much burnt out.
I mean, it's like it's like you said, Michael, like we're on this hamster wheel
and we get caught up in this grind that is more, more, more, more, more.
It doesn't matter what we achieved last year.
We need to do better this year.
And so we forget about, and we overindex on that,
and we forget about these other aspects of our life,
which ultimately enable, like, which bring this fulfillment, right?
So it's a trap.
And like, I get caught up in it all the time, all the time.
It's so, because we get validation for being successful, right?
We get validation for the hard work that we put in.
And it's not until our older years,
like if we talk up to all these folks that are in their last leg of their life or on their
deathbed, one of the top five regrets of the dying is I wish I would have stayed in contact
with friends. Like, how messed up is that? That, like, that is, that is such an easy problem
to solve. That's a phone call. That's setting a trip. That's, that is a top five regret.
So telling people how we really feel, right? That's just having the.
courage to express what we want, like how we feel to people. All those are pretty heartbreaking
feelings, but nothing is as heartbreaking as laying on your deathbed and feeling this regret
of like, oh, damn, I didn't live for me. I lived my entire life because I thought this was what
I was supposed to do, but it was it was not my life I was supposed to live. How was playing ball with
Obama.
That was a highlight.
That was a highlight.
Was it cool?
Did you beat him?
Well, so...
Are you allowed to beat him?
You can't really beat him.
Why?
I would beat him.
Well,
there's secret service there
and they're sort of intimidating.
But what, here's...
What?
Okay, so actually what we did was
we actually didn't...
It's a kind of a lot...
So, the context is
the goal is to play basketball with Obama.
Okay.
We don't know anybody in Washington.
We drive our purple
bus. We had this purple bus to Washington started asking people on the street if they had any
connections to any politicians that could help us. We got nowhere. We emailed politicians, said,
we're in D.C., we're trying to play basketball with the president. We get a few lower level
officials to meet with us. We find that in those meetings, we can convince them to convince their
boss to meet with us. So we meet with their boss. So we get all the way up, we're kind of lobbying in D.C.
to try and play basketball. We get a meeting with the Secretary of Transportation of the United States.
okay and he calls the White House while we're in the room and he's like hey I want you to know like
I'm meeting with the buried life gentleman not sure they got in my office but I assure you they will
cause no embarrassment to the president oh and so we're like oh my god we're in we get an email from
the White House less than an hour later and it says thank you for your inquiry we have reviewed
your request and unfortunately we cannot arrange a basketball game with the president so we're like
okay well we've got our official no but we weren't
weren't ready to give up because we still knew these secret basketball games happened in Washington
with Obama and like different politicians.
And so we found a man that set up the games for Obama.
It was his personal aid.
A gentleman named Reggie Love.
Yeah.
He played basketball at Duke.
So he was always on the court when Obama was playing.
And we started sending him emails, challenging him and the president to a basketball game.
So we're like, you and the president versus us tonight, 730 at the YMCA, be there.
And then we'd show up with the YMCA and D.C.
No president.
We do it again.
Dear Mr. Love, sorry that we missed yesterday.
Same time tonight, be there.
Fail, Saturday, failed.
One week straight, we tried this until finally, like,
we've even stood outside the White House holding signs,
we've done everything we think of.
And finally, I get a blocked call,
and it's the personally of the president calling me.
And he's like, what's this I hear about you wanting to play basketball
against the president and I?
And I was like, pull it together.
And he's like, told him why we were doing it.
doing this and why it was important.
He said, I like this.
I really like this.
I think I can make this happen.
I just need to call the press team.
They sign off on this.
We can do this.
I'm just waiting for the block call to come in.
Finally, block call comes in.
I say, hello?
He says, talk with the press team.
It's not going to happen.
And so now we're just like gutted.
And he felt bad.
He said, listen, how about this?
If you have time tomorrow, swing by the White House.
I'll give you a tour.
So first of all, like, if we have time.
Yes, we have time.
So we go to the White House.
We rented suits from a high school prom rental store because we didn't know what to wear.
And the person lady of the president walks us around the West Wing.
He shows us the Oval Office, shows us the back.
There's a basketball court in the backyard.
So perfect court, presidential seal on each hoop.
And we're shooting around.
And then all we hear is, hey guys, heard you in town,
thought the least I could do is shoot a basket with you.
And Obama surprises us on the court.
So that's how it happened.
And pretty cool.
Right away, we forgot.
Like, he's such a cool guy that you immediately forget he's the president.
And we're shooting around with him.
We're trying to hit shots.
He's not hitting.
Trash talking.
So we didn't play an actual game, but we shot around with him for about 15 minutes.
I feel like you could check that off the list for sure.
I think so, yeah.
That's a check.
It was a check.
How was the beer with Prince Harry?
That was a good one, too.
That was actually very easy.
Some of these things you just ask and they say yes.
So how did you ask Prince Harry himself?
He's like, man, I'm stressed.
A lot going on in the press.
I could use a beer right now.
We found the contact to his press office.
We wrote a letter.
We said we're going to be in London.
At that point we'd crossed off maybe like 80 or so of the 100.
We said this is one of them.
Is there any way that Prince Harry would help us cross it off and have a beer with us?
And they said yes.
And they arranged a private, like down.
There's a bar.
like a basement. It was like a downstairs area that we met him and we hung out and had a beer and we ended up having dinner with him.
Is he cool? Very cool. I've heard that about him. Very chill. Very nice. Both those guys are, I would say, top shelf, gentlemen.
And what did you learn from the Big O when the Big O interviewed you?
You're going to Obama, the Big O?
Oprah. Oh, Michael, keep up.
Oh, well, Christ. I mean, he's the Big O too. The Big O can be able to.
lot of things.
They're both pretty big O's.
There's a lot of big O's.
Yeah.
Maybe one day somebody
referred to me as the Big B.
The Big B.
The Big B
was banana hat.
Big Bina hat.
The big O
was,
she was,
I mean,
great.
I mean,
it was like a,
it was so surreal
that we were having an interview,
we were being interviewed by,
by Oprah,
considering where this whole thing
began,
which was like this rickety old RV
taking,
us around the interior of British Columbia and Canada and to be sitting there sharing the the
journey was like just completely surreal. Was she an incredible interviewer and everything that you
wanted? Yeah. Yeah, she was she was a very good interviewer. She was very good, yeah. Okay. Big O.
I mean, she's the Big O or he's the Big O or Michael's the Big B. Yeah, yeah. I would rather be referred to as
You will refer to me as the big B from now on and nothing else.
Okay, whatever you want.
Whatever I got.
Who am I?
Am I?
Yeah.
Well, no, you're the big N.
Because it's big, the last name's the N, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you're the big B, I guess, as well.
I don't want to be the big B right now, Michael.
Thank you.
Because you called Obol.
I don't want to be the big anything.
Oh, but then Oprah's the big O.
So she'd be the big W.
Michael was told to compliment my alpha yesterday.
I think we're on to something guys.
It was silver and he said, oh, Lauren, like, he was supposed to give me a compliment.
And he said, oh, Lauren looks like a big, sparkly disco ball.
No, I didn't say ball.
I said disco because she was wearing a flashy thing.
Play back the tape.
I did not say ball.
You said ball.
You said ball.
I did not say ball. I swear to God, play back the tape.
I said disco sparkle.
It seems like you're outvoted on this one.
I'm going to take the big owls on this one.
Have you ever headed to a dinner party or a party in general?
Or maybe you're looking for a housewarming gift.
So you start walking up and down the aisles of the wine aisle.
And you have no idea what you're supposed to get.
This is why I've stopped wasting time at the grocery store staring at a giant wall of wine and not knowing what to pick.
That's why I love our next partner, Naked Wines.
Naked Wines is a service that directly connects you to the world's finest independent winemakers so you can get award-winning wine delivered straight to your door.
I am all about efficiency, time-saving, and better education when it comes to products I'm buying.
So how do they do it?
Naked Wines connects winemakers and wine drinkers directly allowing for vineyard to door.
And here's the best part.
at up to 60% off what you would pay in store.
By cutting out the traditional retail middleman costs and markups,
winemakers can pass those savings onto you
while also providing you direct-to-door access.
The company's been around for over 15 years
and funds over 90 independent winemakers around the world
with no commitments or membership fees.
You can enjoy naked wines hassle-free.
I love this product. I love this service.
It has quickly become the go-to place when we're looking for wine.
So outside of saving up to 60% and getting the wine straight to your door,
you can also pause or cancel at any time.
So just because you've got a trip coming up doesn't mean you can't enjoy naked wines before or after that much needed vacation.
Now is the time to join naked wines community.
Head to nakedwines.com slash skinny and click enter voucher and put in our code skinny for both the code and password for six bottles for six bottles of wine for $39.99.
With shipping including, that's $100 off your first six bottles at nakedwines.com slash skinny and use the code and password skinny for six bottles of wine for $39.99.
I personally spend nine hours in my bed. I love getting into bed with my Kindle, with my red light, and relaxing. And that's why I take my sheets very, very serious. Like I don't mess around. Bull and Branch sent me their sheets and that quiets all the noise. Basically, it wraps you in softness that's so extraordinary your body and mind effortlessly drift to sleep. So they have these signature sheets. They are made with the finest 100% organic.
cotton, which I love organic cotton because you're breathing it in all night. They're buttery, they're
breathable, and they're softer with every wash. They even have a 30-night guarantee, which is wild.
That's how much they believe in their sheets. If you're looking for quality and you also just want to
upgrade the way you sleep, I'm telling you, get some red light, get a chimes machine, and get some
bowl and branch sheets. There's a waffle blanket that I actually like built upon with my guest room.
so I did the whole bed up and then I put their waffle blanket on top and it adds a lot of texture.
You can go on and check out all their different blankets, duvets, quills, everything made with airy
and breathable designs is available to you.
Feel the difference in extraordinary nights sleep can make with Bullen Branch.
Get 15% off plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at BullenBranch.com slash skinny.
That's Bull and Branch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D, branch.com slash skinny.
and you save 15%.
Exclusions apply.
See site for details.
If you're someone looking to enjoy a night out
or maybe go to that day party and you're looking for an alternative other than alcohol,
I would love to share with you more about nowadays.
Founded in 2003,
Nowadays was created to put a new spin on drinking.
The brand was born from the desire to change the future of how we consume beverages,
offering an easy entry point to cannabis that can be enjoyed just like alcohol.
And like I said, nowadays is a cannabis-infused beverage brand designed to deliver
a light, buzzy experience without the hangover.
Nobody needs another hangover.
So what is nowadays?
Nowadays, cannabis-infused spirits are the perfect base for your favorite cocktails
and come in bottles in three variants.
Microdose, which is two milligrams, low dose, which is five milligrams,
and high dose, which is 10 milligrams,
all with a crisp, light citrus flavor.
Additionally, they recently launched their canned cocktails.
Their 12-ounce can is 5 milligrams of THC,
and their 16-ounce can is 10 milligrams of THC.
They're ready to drink beverages, and they come in four refreshing flavors.
tropical, spicy lime, citrus, and berry, and each can contains only four grams of sugar.
What's great about this is you can expect a gentle lift within the first 10 to 20 minutes,
followed by a social buzz in 20 to 40 minutes,
and a smooth transition or subtle decline to your butts in 45 to 60 minutes.
This is nice because you can time it, and like I said,
you can just go for that quick dinner party or that quick cocktail party
and enjoy an alcohol alternative.
Of course, nowadays ensures a consistent onset and offset time with rigorously tested quality
the THC is responsibly sourced, and every product is probably made.
made in the USA for controllable and enjoyable experience.
So for good nights and even better mornings, nowadays is easy to purchase but direct to door delivery.
You must be 21 to order at try nowadays.com.
And of course, we have an offer.
Visit try nowadays.com and use code skinny at checkout for 20% off your first purchase.
That's try nowadays.com and use code skinny for 20% off your first order.
How is my skin?
You know what?
This sunscreen, it's caffeinated, it's mineral, and it does.
not pile under makeup. I applied it today with a damp beauty blender before I got my glam done,
and it lays so nicely under like a foundation or a concealer. But here's the thing that I like the
most about it. So when I'm off work and when I don't have to do podcasts or Instagrams or content,
or I just can just be comfortable, I can wear this caffeinated sunscreen and I still get a really
nice tint and a protection and it looks like my skin is all one even tone, which is nice,
without all the makeup. It's not like a foundation. It's like the caffeine tightens your skin. It gives
you a nice even tone and it just gives you a little bit of color. So what I like about this
sunscreen is the versatility. So you can wear it when you're off and you're running around and
you're running errands and wear it with nothing over it. Or you can wear it like I'm wearing today right now
with foundation and concealer over it. So it works both ways. I will wear this when I'm going to the gym in the
morning and just wear it throughout the day with nothing else, or I will wear it with a full look.
I created the sunscreen because I couldn't find a mineral-based sunscreen with caffeine in it.
Caffeine tightens the skin, it shrinks the pores, and I just like how it lays on the skin.
And I mixed it with a mineral sunscreen, and then we made it SPF-40. So it's a real treat. I think,
that you guys will absolutely love it. It just comes out in a pump, fits in your handbag,
and it can go through the airport. You can shop this at shopskinnyconfidential.com, and it's the
caffeinated SPF. Also, if you're like me and you go through sunscreen quickly, you can subscribe.
And the sunscreen will get delivered straight to your door, so you don't have to worry about it.
That's shopskinnyconfidential.com.
You mentioned a list writing workshop. And you also mentioned,
off air of giving our audience something tangible that they could apply from this episode.
Can you give us some tips on how to do a list writing workshop at home?
Yes, okay. So let's do some steps, quick steps. Okay, first, grab a piece of paper. No, don't grab a piece of paper, grab a notebook.
Because this is something you want to keep for a while. So that's why the bucket list journal is a journal. Grab a notebook and start a fresh page.
and just write down stream of consciousness, you know, picture yourself in five years. No, sorry,
picture yourself on your deathbed. Okay. Looking back and just ask your future self,
what will I be proud of like in the next three to five years? What will my future self be proud of me
doing in the next three to five years? Okay. And then just think about stuff that you want to do for fun.
And, you know, you can look at the 10 categories of life if you need prompts. They
about relationship goals, physical health goals, but just write down all the things that you might regret
not doing if you don't do these things. But do it by yourself and do this in a quiet space.
So now you've written your list. Now choose something that you want to pursue. One thing.
If you have trouble deciding what that is, imagine that you have a magic lamp and a genie pops out
and genie's like, hey, I'm going to help you do something on your list. But there's a catch.
by helping you achieve this goal, you can't do anything else you wrote down.
So there's your most important list item if you want to go after that one.
You choose one thing.
Next, right?
Three things you can do in the next 48 hours,
three 48 hour action items,
the simplest things,
the easiest things that you can do
because what we are trying to do is we're trying to create inspiration through action.
So action compounds like interest,
just like small deposits into a compounding interest account over time it grows.
small actions over time, you see the results. So the easiest, smallest things. And sometimes we get stuck,
we think like, oh, I got to make this huge leap towards this thing. No, when you go to the gym,
you don't come out and you're not bigger. In fact, you feel worse because you're sore. But many times
you go to the gym, you start to get stronger. So just three, 48 hour action items, that's your first step.
And commit to those things. Next thing, share this dream. Share it with people.
that you believe will support you. Okay. So share it with friends, share it with family, ask for help.
And what's this going to do is it's going to solve this issue that we have with our dreams,
is that with dreams there's no deadlines. That's why we don't do them. So we need to create
accountability. Writing your list creates accountability because you take a dream that doesn't exist,
you make it real. Sharing your list creates accountability because then you feel accountable to the
people you share with. So the more you share, the more accountability you feel, the more likely
you are to move forward. The next thing you do after you share, you choose one person and you ask them
if they can be your accountability buddy, right? Just like you're his accountability buddy for the fourth child.
And then, okay, so what's an accountability buddy? I've shared the dream with everyone that is.
So the accountability buddy is someone that either checks in on you or you send regular updates to,
okay because you're 77% more likely to achieve your goal if you have someone checking in with you down
the line or you send regular updates to that person that's when you train with someone for a marathon
you're more likely to go through with it because they're knocking at your door saying let's go train
you're doing it because you feel accountable okay so you've written your list you've chosen the
you've chosen the goal you've written your three 48-hour action items you've shared that goal
with people in your community that support you you've asked for help you ask for advice
and then you've chosen one person to be your accountability buddy.
And the accountability person or your accountability buddy is going to be that person
that you're sending updates.
Right?
So let's just say this dream is to write a book.
They're like, okay, write a book.
Where do I start?
I have no idea.
Okay, first thing I'm going to do in the next 48 hours.
I'm going to ask friends if they know an author to see if I can maybe get an introduction.
I'm going to research what a book proposal looks like.
I'm going to write the first page.
right you can do that in the next two days right and then you're going to start sharing this with people
Lauren I'm my my dreams we write a book you've written a book anything you can do to help me
you know my dream is and so you start sharing it and people will step up to help you and then
I'm like okay Michael I need to be I need we I would love you to be my accountability buddy on this
I am going to send you one chapter a month would you be okay if I did that and would you would you be
okay in reading that chapter and letting me know your thoughts. I think it's a big ask, but that's what I'm
going to ask. And so you start to, or maybe you have a writing partner that you say, Michael, I know
you're writing a book. I want to write a book. Once a week on Sunday afternoon, let's get together. Let's
just spend dedicated time just to writing that book. That's what we're going to do. Okay. So you start to
write it down, you start to share it and you start to build that accountability. And you take those easy
steps of action and the more you you do it the more momentum and inspiration you feel.
So this is why these steps are important.
I'm going to talk about the three barriers that stop us from achieving our goals.
Number one, there's no deadlines for dreams.
So we've got to create accountability.
Number two, we're waiting to feel ready or we're waiting to feel inspired.
We're never ready.
The inspiration doesn't hit.
So we create our own inspiration through small steps of action.
And three, fear.
Fear stops us that we talked about.
So we have to then move through that fear and identify if this is a fear or if it's a risk.
It's funny because there's people that I know that want to execute on things so bad and they don't.
And they hit one of your points where they just stop.
Like the fear stops them or they're waiting for inspiration and that stops them.
So it's interesting to hear those three steps.
And I can literally put in buckets where like you can see where people are letting.
the certain steps stop them, which is interesting. And I think it's important when you're listening
to this to be self-aware of which step stops you the most. You know what I mean? Like, which step for me,
if you list all those to me, sometimes I try to wait to get inspired and I just need to do it
because you're never going to be inspired 24-7. We all know that. But you can kind of identify
which one stops you. Yeah. And so you think about waiting to feel inspired, you know,
so I think you're the architect of your own inspiration. Right.
through action. And this is what I mean about following your energy, right, is you're taking action
to see if this thing you're doing energizes you. And so like think about something that you've
started where you're like, oh, I don't feel like doing it. And you just start. And then all of a sudden,
you're like, oh, yeah, this is like working. Or I'm getting excited about this. Or, you know, I'm starting to
feel something. And that's a marker for you to keep doing. Pour gas on that flame. Keep going. Even if you
don't know where it's going, it's leading you somewhere that will be ultimately kind of like
moving you forward towards your true self. And so the science of energy driven living is really
interesting. Like, you know, you are seven times more likely to overcome a challenge if you come
back to why am I doing this instead of how. So if you're rooted in your why, you're seven times
more likely to overcome a challenge. You're two times more likely to live longer if you are,
can if you have a sense of purpose.
Those are the sense of purpose.
Bounce back from illness quicker.
Those are the sense of purpose.
They stick around in a job two to three times more, right?
You're 125% more productive when you're connected to purpose.
There was that weird study that came out that showed women that have children older
in life tend to outlive other women.
And I imagine it's because of the purpose of having a child and wanting to make sure
that that child is okay for a long period of time.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, totally.
So I actually talked to the researcher,
and he's out of the University of Washington.
He found that he studied women with a sense of purpose,
and these were in senior living communities,
women with a sense of purpose live past 85, four times more
than those without a sense of purpose, right?
And so now this kind of comes full circle back to living with this intention
of moving towards the thing that bring you a sense of purpose,
i.e. moving towards your potential or that sense of happiness that we talked about.
And you're like, okay, wait a sec. This is like a big deal.
This isn't just about me achieving my goals.
This is about happiness. This is about longevity.
This is about being resilient. This is about mental health.
Those are the sense of purpose. They experience less depression.
You overcome stress.
You're more able to overcome stress with a sense of purpose.
And so, and then we're like, okay, well, how do I find purpose?
You don't find purpose.
You, you, you build it through following your energy.
Before you go, you have to tell us about your relationship because you are engaged, correct?
To V's Honey, Vanessa, who has been on the show before.
And with all that you've seen, and I know she has her own situation, like she's so,
dynamic and amazing. How do you guys think you attracted each other?
That's a great question. Yeah, I know that there's got to be like for you guys. I know both of
you have your own thing going on, your entrepreneurs, but there was something that obviously
drew you together. What did that look like? Yeah. Well, I feel like you had a bucket list for
Vanessa is what I'm saying. Yeah, Vise Honey was on my list. No, yeah, I feel like you wrote out a bucket
list of what you wanted in a woman. I did. Did you know that? I don't, I, okay, so yes. I'm a
Or you read my Instagram.
No, I didn't, I didn't post that.
That's why I was joking.
The Big Al.
They'd call you the Big Al for a reason.
Can we not refer to me as big anything right now?
Not a Big Al, not a Big A, not a Big A, not a disco.
Take it easy, Big Al.
That's so big.
Yeah.
So you're right.
Okay, so I went, I was in a long-term relationship seven years.
If I look back in my life, I've one been through a few.
I would call them major lows.
I would call them depressions.
The first one I told you about was my, in university, that was the biggest.
That was like the darkest and hardest.
But I learned from that.
And then now I see the signs coming earlier.
And I'm the type of person that's predisposed to these types of feelings.
So I know myself better by going through these struggles to manage them.
But I've been through a few.
And I realize when I go through these types of downs, a big area in my life is not aligned with myself.
So one, I was building a production company with three guys that I started the buried life
with and I just, I didn't like the work that I was doing and I started to feel that
feelings of depression.
So I changed and I started speaking and then I got lit up in that.
And I realized at one point that the relationship was not aligned with what I wanted.
And so out of that relationship, I was like, okay, what do I want?
And that's when I started to think about like the things that I wanted in a partner.
And one was like I wanted, first of foremost, like everyone says this, but this is what I wanted,
like a best friend that I just had a lot of fun with.
We both loved the same things and I wanted someone on the spiritual path and I wanted
someone that had a lot of the same values.
And so I listed out these things and I used that as a filter when I started to date.
And if people didn't sort of hit what I was looking for, in the past I would kind of,
do it for fun and continue the relationship, maybe to have a good time for a bit.
I was very clear.
I was like, no, this is like, I'm not looking for this.
And, you know, and I was very transparent with what I was looking for.
And anyways, cut to, I met Vanessa.
And I was like, wow, this is like, I think there's something really here.
And we went on three dates and they were great.
And then it didn't work out.
And she got a boyfriend.
And I was like, wait, what?
I thought this was like going someplace.
And it didn't feel 100% on, but I knew there was something there.
And I was really curious, like, what was it?
It was 80% there.
And I always wanted to talk with her and figure out what that last piece was.
Anyways, I move on.
A year and a half later, I'm still kind of thinking about her and I'm asking her friends when I see there.
Like, hey, what's going on with the message?
She's with this other guy.
And I end up getting a message from her on Instagram about checking in and seeing if I wanted to catch up.
And it turns out she's not in relationship and we can reconnect and something's different.
And here's what happened.
in that year and a half, this is literally at the same point.
Unbeknownst to one another, we both decided that we were, we needed to do personal work
to become the people we wanted to be, to be with the ultimate partner that we wanted to be
with. So we both realized that there was real work that we needed to do. So I did Hoffman
process, which is an incredible, like, week-long personal development. I worked with, like,
I went like all in. I had an energy healer that I never,
even thought I would work with. I found a new therapist and I really like focused on and she did
the same thing. She did ayahuasca. She worked with multitude of different healers and therapists and she
started to so when we came back together we're both kind of different people or we were just like
we were a couple like layers deeper and that's when we actually connected. It was an interesting journey
that a lot of us are about timing but a lot of us about being intentional and doing the work and
becoming the people that we knew we needed to be before we came together.
And now you have a baby on the way.
Now we got a baby on the way.
It's a pretty cool story.
It sounds like you've checked a lot of your bucket list off.
You guys go check out the bucket list journal, I'm assuming, on Amazon.
Yep, Bucklist Journal's on Amazon.
And then also, if you don't know V's Honey, you got to go check her out.
I love her Instagram.
She has a lot of great holistic tips.
And she has a brand called Supi's that you gave me these little, they're like little green holders for your supplements.
It's genius for when you travel.
They're so cute.
I'm going to use them in my cosmetic bag and in my purse.
Takeyersuppies.com.
This is so cute.
Ben, where can everyone say hi to you, follow you,
pimp yourself out?
I love posting the most on Instagram,
so that's the best place.
And, of course, my only fans page is pretty hot.
Your only fan's page.
That's on my bucket list.
Do a pregnancy only fan.
Maybe that's my bucket list.
No one asks me what's on my bucket list.
I'm going to do a pregnancy only fans.
I'm going to call it the Big L.
There we go.
Now you're on to something.
Yeah, I know.
Who knows?
You never know with me.
Watch, in a few years you're going to come back and say this was your idea.
Of course, Taylor has some weird, creepy name.
Ben, thank you so much for coming on the show.
And maybe if anyone heard, they can help Taylor with his lifelong goal of getting that double blow job.
Yeah.
Show there'll be a line out the door.
Well, you said you got to help others achieve their bucket list.
There you go.
Yeah, put it in the comments.
I'm putting it out there.
You got to put it out there.
Thank you so much for coming on the show, Ben.
Thank you.
