The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes: Short stories about friendship, growth, and social misdemeanors by Andy Dietrich

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes: Short stories about friendship, growth, and social misdemeanors by Andy Dietrich Amazon.com Ever wonder what happens when you crash the wrong wedding or mistake a fraternity rush for a question about your heritage? How about fashioning a fake nightclub stamp empire in Vegas, or trying (and failing) to pull off a flawless heist for a Super Nintendo game? From laugh-out-loud anecdotes to surprisingly heartfelt reflections, this collection explores themes of friendship, growth, and the chaos that comes with simply trying to be human. Tackling everything from awkward cultural misunderstandings to the wild adventures of military life, this book offers readers a candid, hilarious, and sometimes poignant glimpse into a life lived fully—and occasionally just recklessly enough. Some highlights... “Are You Russian?”: The awkward misunderstanding that kicked off a college fraternity adventure. “That One Time I Witnessed a Divorce”: A Chipotle line, a hair tie, and a (potentially) marriage-ending discovery. “When You Mess It Up for Everyone Else”: How one man’s shenanigans changed Vegas club re-entry policies forever. “Honey Bee Did What Honey Bees Do”: The miraculous conception story that starts with a bottle of Patrón. “The Night I Lost My Damn Mind”: An unforgettable encounter with medical-grade THC and pulled-pork sliders. Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes is perfect for fans of David Sedaris, Tucker Max, or anyone who has ever made a questionable decision and lived to laugh about it later. With a mix of humor, heart, and the occasional ridiculous life lesson, this book will leave you smiling, shaking your head, and maybe even feeling a little better about your own misadventures. “If you’re gonna do something stupid, be smart about it.”About the author Andy Dietrich was born at an early age and lived a fairly uneventful life in the Black Forest of Germany. At age 14, he and his mom packed their things and moved to Alaska to experience the true meaning of "holy shit, it's cold!" At 19, while on a sugar high, he enlisted and became one of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. He was released early due to good behavior and moved to Las Vegas where he now spends his time harassing, errr...."welcoming" the tourists and exercising his second-favorite drinking arm. If you come across a wild Andy in his natural habitat, do not feed him attention; he will only come back for more.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Cause you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster

with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, my host is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Ladies and gentlemen, I really think that makes it official. Welcome to the show. As always, the Chris Voss Show. The family that loves you, but doesn't judge you. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, it seems that makes an official welcome to the big show. As always, the Christmas Show, the family that loves you but doesn't judge you.

Not that harshly as the rest of the world because the rest of the world doesn't like you much, but we definitely want to see you grow, change, improve, and become a much better person. Not like me, but like some of the wonderful guests we have on the show that bring in their stories, their cathartic moments, their lessons of life to help make your life better. And I'm just some idiot with the hosts and stupid jokes. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the hosts or the Chris Foss show. Some guests to the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind. He is the author of the newest book that came out May 11th, 2023 for him.

It is called Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes. Wait, wasn't that the original name of the podcast, The Chris Voss Show? Nah, I'm just kidding. Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes, Short Stories About Friendship, Growth, and Social Misdemeanors. Andy Dietrich joins us on the show today. We're going to get an insight into some of the fun title that he has in the book and what the Dietz are from Andy Dietrich joins us on the show today. We're going to get an insight into some of the fun title he has in the book and what the Dietz are from Andy Dietrich. See what I did there? Andy was born early age and lived a fairly uneventful life in the Black Forest of Germany. At age 14, he and his

mom packed their things and moved to Alaska to experience the true meaning of holy shit it's cold. Isn't it cold there in the Black Forest of Germany? I don't know, we'll find out. At 19, he fell on a sugar high, he enlisted and became one of Uncle Sam's misguided children. He was released early due to good behavior and moved to Las Vegas, where he now spends his time harassing or welcoming the tourists. I feel I've lived in Vegas for 20 years. And exercising his second favorite drinking arm.

If you come across the wild Andy in his natural habitat, do not feed him attention. He'll only come back for more. Welcome to the show, Andy. How are you? Thank you, Chris. I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me. I am good. I like your title of your book. I'm surprised someone doesn't beat you to it. It's a great title. I did a little bit of research on Amazon and other places and the only thing I could find was some random Yahoo had that title or that tagline as like a bumper sticker. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to use that because I like it.

I like it. Life. It's pretty much explains life in general, I think for everybody. So give us your.coms actually first. Where do people find you on the interwebs? Sure. So you can go directly to andysbook.com, andysbook.com. There's a link to the Amazon page right there.

There are also some social media links. And if you really want to get in contact, there's a little contact me button there as well. I do read all the incoming messages. If you want to stop or stop by, drop a line, say hi. Tell me how much you loved it, how much you hated it. I read it all, so don't be shy. Read it all. Check it out and all that good stuff. So, give us the 30,000 over you. What's

inside the new book? J.S. Bollinger Sure. So, it's broken into two pieces. The first half is what I call silly stories. We can get into some of the actual stories here in a bit. Life experiences, life lessons, like I said, silly stories that I've experienced a more lighthearted theme. There are some serious moments in it, I do some rather unsavory things, right, maybe not quite illegal, but definitely pushing the bounds of what could what could be considered legal. And then the second half is a lot more introspective, right, I go

off on a couple of rants, I have some unpopular opinions that I share with the reader, some realizations, some, some other more serious topics, right? Not to say that the first half isn't serious, but the second half definitely has a little bit more, like I said, introspective themes to it. So would you say it's kind of a memoir and a collection of great stories from your life? Yeah, it's autobiographical, autobiographical for sure. And then, and then I just share my, my other thoughts in the second half of it. Please stupid games, win stupid prizes. What made you choose that title? It's a fun title.

I think, I think the, the title really kind of symbolizes the, the entire theme of the book, right? Don't take life too seriously. You're not going to get out of it alive. Anyway, take, take it with a, with a, with a light hearted approach and, and make some, you know, make to get out of it alive anyway. Take it with a lighthearted approach and make some bad decisions. I think if you live in a bubble where everything is perfect, you're going to miss out on all the life, what life has to offer. Pete Make some bad decisions, people. Of course, some of you are better at it than others. I've seen some of those people. They're on the internet. They're on the internet. I'd be mindful of those things on the internet.

So tell us about your journey through life. How were you raised? What were some of your influences, etc., etc.? Sure. I was raised to a very loving mother. My parents got divorced when I was too young to remember. My mom pretty much raised me my entire life and she's taught me all the values that a good mother would teach. A son then turned into a young man and then a teenager, right, or rather in the other order, teenager than a young man. And she gave me all the tools that I needed to succeed. And then I went off on my own at 19, to your point earlier when you read the bio. I joined up and listed in the

US military. Then I just started my life and ended up in Las Vegas and I've gotten my fair share of experiences, made some friends, made some enemies along the way. Did heartbreak, got my heart broken, right? So the usual human experience, I would say. That's typical Las Vegas, I think. Boy, if you're going to experience life, Vegas is the place to do it. It's got a lot to offer, for better or for worse.

I always tell people, if you're addicted to, if you have an addicted personality, do not move to Vegas. That is the place you want to be. My mother even confided in me some time after I moved here. She goes, she was a little worried about me getting sucked up into the dark underbelly of what Vegas is, right? Because to your point, absolutely. If you have a, if you have a tendency to get hooked on things in the most negative of ways, Vegas definitely can play into those vices and you have to be mindful to dabble but never to stay in those kinds of mindsets. Pete Slauson Oh, yeah. Vegas is everything that anyone can want. They don't call it Sin City for nothing.

Jarek Lydwik And these beautiful buildings are not built on winners, right? So, don't come to Vegas thinking you're going to make a ton of money. You will not. Let me tell you, okay? Yeah. I've spent a lot of time around people that are like, ah, Chris, I got a system. Right. Right.

They pull out of their pocket their loser receipts for gambling that they use for taxes every year and they got a wad like this fucking thick. And you're like, I don't think you understand that as winning and losing works, eh, you got to win more than you lose. Like they always tell you when they win. Right. And if you see the, the someone taking a picture of their, I don't know, whatever $2,000 blackjack, we need to ask them, how much money have you lost

leading up to that? Cause they'll never tell you that. They never count that. They always come in and they're like, I just made four grand at the bar and sitting on the bar table there and four grand. And you're just like, yeah, but didn't you lose 20 over the last month? We don't talk about that. I don't need your negativity right now. Come on, get out of here. And you owe me a grand. I always had the guys who they had a different day for everyone they borrowed money from. And that would there Thursday and they always they always borrow money on Thursday you knew

they were gonna call after a while and just like they're just like dude can I just get some money to and you're like dude you're killing me man. You tell them dude it's Wednesday your day early call me tomorrow. Yeah yeah yeah and then they would always pay you back like on Wednesday the next week or Tuesday because they're like hey I remember I always pay you back like on Wednesday the next week Tuesday It's like hey, I remember I always pay you back But then you Thursday two days later guess what the money that he gets from you is to pay back the guy from the day Before right it's all they do is a shuffled around Mm-hmm, but I have a system Chris. You don't know I'm sure you do

They all do look if you really had a system you wouldn't tell anybody would keep your mouth shut and start waiting, right? Yeah, can you tease out some of the lessons wouldn't tell anybody. You would keep your mouth shut and start winning, right? Pete Slauson Exactly. Yeah. Can you tease out some of the lessons or maybe some of the stories in the book we can, there's a couple that you cite. Are you Russian? That one time I witnessed a divorce when you messed it up for everyone. Honeybee did what honeybees do.

The night I lost my damn mind. I'll just cue you with some of that and let you know. Peter Pichetto That's a fun one too. Let me start with the first one. Are you Russian? I think that one sets the tone of the book nicely. So some years ago, I went to a university here, local in Las Vegas, UNLV, aptly named. And I decided to join a fraternity. Why? Because Hollywood promised me a good college life. And so I decided at 25 years old, that 25 year old

freshmen to join a fraternity. There was an event happening with the fraternity brothers, and then the potential new fraternity members to all get together and do, you know, like a many to many interview, right, just to see what the guys are about goes both ways, right, you interview them, they interview you, right, interviews are strong term, you just kind of talk to them and figure out if they're a good group of guys that you want to hang out with. So I sat down, you know, shirt and tie looking snazzy. And then this, this brother of this fraternity said sits down next to me and he goes, Hey, you know, did the initial, what's your name? Where

you from? Yada, yada. Then he goes, Are you Russian? And I thought the question was really odd one because why would you ask that anybody right? And I said, No, actually, I'm, I'm German. And then he starts laughing as starts laughing his ass off. He pokes his buddy goes, Hey, actually, I'm, I'm German. And then he starts laughing as starts laughing his ass off. He pokes his buddy goes, Hey, man, this guy's got jokes. Ask me if he was Russian. He said he was German. And he starts laughing too. And I did not get the joke whatsoever. So the guy comes back and goes, No, no, no, seriously, man. Are you are you are you Russian? And I go, No, seriously, I'm German. I don't know why you keep asking me that. And he starts

laughing again, saying that no, he got he said the punchline again right and I go look I and I he finally realized he looked at me with that look of okay he finally realized that I had no idea why that was funny and he pulls me close he goes oh no no no I was asking you if you're rushing I go I don't know what that means he goes oh rushing is the process by which you join or try to join a fraternity. You're rushing a fraternity. Like, oh, I didn't know that. Yes, okay, yes, I am rushing. I'm rushing the fraternity. And then afterwards he says, what did you think? I asked you if you're Russian. I go, I don't know. It made no sense to me either. Pete Yeah. I had a guy do that to me. I was interviewing for a job and I made it past the

second interview. I was meeting with the regional manager, division manager or something for region. And so it was go time. It was like on or off. If you don't pass this interview, but if you do, you get the job. And he said, they wanted me to work from home. And so they're like, do you have a disc? And I was like, do I have a disc? And Compact Disc had just come out. And so I

immediately went to just compact disc land. This was a long time ago, clearly. And so I was like, a disc? Like a computer disc? And he goes, no, a disc. And I go, I started getting frustrated. And thank God the gal who was going to hire me and interview me, she after about three times of him getting interview me, she, after about three times of him getting really frustrated, she goes, he means a desk, Chris, it's his accent, a desk, you have a home desk for your office. Do you have a desk? Okay.

But he was, I mean, dude, he was saying disc and I was just perplexed and I was lost in translation. The same energy as when you have an Australian say the word deck, right? There's something that gets lost in translation there. Yeah, yeah. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. There's the Russian story. What about this?

This sounds like a fun story. I don't know if you can give us a teaser on it. The night I lost my damn mind, the unforgettable encounter of medical grade THC and pulled pork sliders. I have to hear at least a little bit of this. Sure. So a coworker friend of mine, I was at this time, let's back up a couple of decades, I was very, very naive, very green, didn't know a lot about extracurricular activities, right?

The only advice that I had was drinking at the time. So my coworker friend somehow somehow somewhere got a hold of these medical grade THC pills. He said he got him from some sort of medical something, something I didn't bother asking questions. But he asked if I wanted some. Me being naive and dumb, I said, Sure, whether or not not knowing anything. I mean, looking back, I'm like, I should never trusted a weird coworker friend to get some random pills, right? But hey, I was young, dumb, and it sounded like a good time.

Right. I took one once with the assumption that I didn't and I never smoked weed up to that point. And I thought, cool, I'm going to go and hang out with a friend of mine. We're going to go to a bar. We're going to have some to eat. If I take one of these now, I want to get the munchies by the time I get there. There's going to be food there. And we're going to time this all perfectly.

So I'm just going to eat and eat and eat and have a good time with my friend. Okay, that was at least the thought. So like I said, take this pill. Now these THC pills take a while to get to kick in just like just edibles, right? It's not just a half an hour thing. It could be like an hour, hour and a half until you start feeling it. So my buddy and I go to go to a local bar here. And on the drive, as I'm driving, it's this thing is kicking in and I'm like, Whoa, this is I'm freaking first I'm freaking the hell out because I'm going in my mind 100 miles an hour, even though the speedometer says 35, right. But that's beside the point. We finally make it after what seems to be two hours in my head, we finally make it to this bar, we sit down. And I'm like, I am hungry.

So we said the bar, the bartender comes over and he goes, you're in luck, because we have these delicious pulled pork sliders that I'm more than happy to to to sell to you. Perfect. Give me a whole stack of them. So he brings them over and I just start inhaling these pulled pork sliders. Okay, my buddy is next to me playing at the video poker game, right? Just he's having a good time and you know, we're just we're just having a night out Right as about right as I'm about to eat the last pulled pork slider I'm ready to put in my mouth the bartender comes around the corner. He goes, how is everything? Okay. Now I need to how am I gonna explain this in my mind? Keep in mind one about to tell you just happened only in my head and nowhere else. In my mind, I was on the impression

that he told me that these pulled pork sliders was the only food that he would have left to for him to eat that was going to be his dinner, but he's going to share them with me and whatever I don't eat, he would eat at the end of a shift. Okay, somehow somewhere that thought intruded into my little brain. And when the dude came over and he asked how everything was I froze and I felt so bad that I was about to eat in my mind the last pulled pork slider that was gonna be the last Of his dinner and I stopped like mid-bite and I put this I put the slider down. I started

Apologizing profusely. I told him I'm so sorry. I didn't know I forgot. What are you gonna eat? apologizing profusely. I told him I'm so sorry. I didn't know I forgot. What are you going to eat? And the guy looks at me with his look of like disgust and confusion goes What are you talking about? My buddy was even saying Eddie. What are you talking about? I go don't you understand it was the food that he was gonna eat and I'm eating the last one and he won't My buddy looks at me goes Andy. None of that happened buddy looks at me goes, Andy, none of that happened. So it was an embarrassing moment. But the lesson learned is never again, these THC pills and never again. Never again. Yeah. The first time I took an edible, I was visiting a friend and he'd been smoking pot for years, but I could never get smoking pot would never work for me. I have

a really high tolerance for everything. Okay. Even vodka, drugs, and it's kind of helped me because it's kept me out of trouble. But you know, it's kept me in vodka. But even then, you know, I'd have a bottle of vodka to just get lit up like most. But once you are at that point, I've met people like you before, but once you're at that point, once you're in the non sober state, you're in it for a while. Is that with you as well? Pete Slauson Yeah, yeah. I mean, not too long. It depends

on what I'm taking. Like with booze, yeah, I mean, you're as long as the ride lasts. But I've got to drink a lot of vodka to get really fucking brain dead where you're like, eh, it feels odd. Jared Larsen This sounds like a good idea. Pete Slauson Yeah. So, I'd never taken edibles before. I tried smoking. My friends had tried every which way to get me high, smoking just would not work. And a lot of stuff doesn't work on me either. The cocaine just gives me like a bad post nasal drip and it feels like I have a cold and it's like a coffee. It is a complete waste. Like it's just, I used to tell my friends

a pot, I'm like, just smoke your pot. I'm going to sit on my vodka and I'll have a good time. And he gave me, he, he, he gets in the car. We're going to go eat over at the, what's the place in California, the farmer's market. And we're, we're driving over there and he goes, he goes, Hey, I got you a cookie. I think this can get you high. And he'd been frustrated because one time I broke up with a girlfriend and I was losing my business part at the same time and struggling in business.

And he tried to get me high and he spent, I don't know, a whole freaking ounce or 50, 60 bucks trying to get me high. And he's, we'd always been frustrated, can never get me high. And his tolerance is probably pretty high because he smokes it morning, day and night. And so he gives me this a hundred milligram cookie and he goes, he, I go, I go, how much this do I take? And I don't know anything about, you know, you know, getting high. Oh no. Okay. And he goes, he goes, Hey, you could probably just take half of that.

He goes, but you know, I don't know, you're a big guy. You're like 300 pounds and it's always so hard to get you high. You can probably just eat a whole cookie. So a guy who's never taken an edible in his life takes a hundred milligram. That sounds like a lot. It is a lot. Let's put it this way, it takes about 30

to knock me out right now. Put me to sleep for the night. Like if I'm not feeling like shit and I take 30 milligrams, it'll knock me out and I'll sleep like a baby all night long. So here I am taking a hundred on my first run and yeah, I got, I got fucked up at the Grove, at the Grove, the world started spinning in the middle of the grove. It's not a good feeling.

No, it's, it's the worst. Yeah. And we're in a wine shop when it comes in and there's wine just everywhere. That's expensive. Just sitting on, you know, boxes that you can knock over. And I'm suddenly, I'm like, I got to get the fuck out of this wine shop. Cause I'm about to fall the fuck over and it's going to cost a fortune. And so I like somehow find my way out and it's just a nightmare.

I ended up throwing up like, I think everything I eaten for two. And after after that we didn't eat, we didn't take edibles for a while, but we finally got back to them. That sounds like there, there's a Reddit post from many years ago and the guy posted whether it was fake or not. He says, I just took God knows how many, you know, milligrams of edibles and I can't make it stop. And what do I do? And the, the, the top reply was all you can do is go outside, lay down and hold on to your life and let this be a lesson. Okay.

Yeah. Let this be a lesson. You're not going to die. I mean, I don't think anyone's ever died of a pot overdose. I don't think so. You're going to feel really bad and puke a lot, but let's see. What are some other things that maybe we can tease out there in the book? Sure.

Let me ask you this. Is this your first book? Yeah. So this was definitely like a side project, like a work of love, right? Kind of the idea was that I think everyone has in their mind, the one thing they want to do. Usually it's a creative thing, right? If they want to write a manuscript or paint a painting or, you know, whatever it is, right? Write a book. I know a lot of people talk about it, you know, quite a bit, but I didn't want to be that guy who always talked

about his big project, you know, once every couple of weeks and then nothing ever came of it. We all have that friend, right? Who always talks about, he's not working on that project still, when are we gonna see it? We're still working on it, okay. Hope that dopamine drip of people nodding their heads

is good enough to keep it going, right? Because unless we see the results, it's just vaporware, right? So I kept this more or less hidden from almost everyone until it was pretty much done. Just again, I just want to show that, hey, it's done. I'm not talking about it. It's actually done. So I don't believe there'll be a part two. Now I say that now, now for publishing, if a publisher were to say, look, here's a $50,000 advance for you to write part two, I think I can make that work. But I poured a lot, maybe not everything, but I poured a lot into this, right?

Like I said, personal stories, some reflections. So I don't know, this was kind of like the culmination of all those side stories and experiences and mini adventures. Pete You're not done having adventures, so there might be another book in 10, 20 years from now. J.C. That's very true. You never know. That's the great thing about life. Once you get that first one done, that really is the hardest thing to overcome and they kind of become a little bit easier after that. Like your first million, they say, right? Once you get your first million, the second one is

easier, right? You have to get the first one though. If you can survive editing on your first book, you're good. I'm still ready to choke editing, the editing department on my first book, but I good. I'm still ready to choke editing, the editing department on my first book, but I'm scarred. So, Grammarly, Grammarly helped me a lot, right? So, if you go through it and you read some of the stories, you'll see that there is an author's note and some of the footnotes. So, a little fun fact, it's all me. There was no, I'm sorry, I said author's note, I meant editor's note. There was no editor, right? So, all the editor's notes are just

me having a conversation with myself. One thing I will say, however, grammarly, running the entire thing through grammarly has helped a lot. Having friends and family proofread it afterwards has helped a lot. And there were actually some spelling mistakes and some typos that friends caught after the fact so you have to go back into the manuscript and update it and have Amazon reprinted and everything. So it wasn't perfect the first time around, but right now I think it's at a good place.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good idea because having someone else edit it is a real fun experience. And they usually, you hand them 50,000 words and they hand you back 10 words. And then we threw all that shit out now. It's interesting. I gave it to my mom to read. She's one of the first people to actually have read it before it was published. And she said in the most loving and constructive way, she said, you write the way you talk, which is very much like an English as a second language speaker, right? As a native German born person that has learned English out of a book and then you know, through through conversation. And she goes, it may be who view to have,

you know, an editor who knows, who may have a master's in English to go through it and then fix or she didn't say the word fix, but to then work on sentence structure, right and stuff like that. And I thought about it for for a good minute because it was good, honest feedback. But I thought, no, if, if me and you kind of hear my voice and you know the way that I talk, I want to keep that. I want to still have that somehow on paper. I don't want to separate the writing from my voice to that degree. You know, I kept the grammar and the sentence structure in the way that I saw fit.

And looking back, I read it again, I go, yeah, maybe I could reword that, but no, it makes sense the way that I wrote the first time. Sure. Yeah. I mean, it's the level of readers, readers, educational quality is just getting worse. I mean, I was talking to a couple of years ago to somebody who wrote business books and they go,

yeah, it used to be, we had to put up like a hundred thousand plus words for a business book and now it's just 50 because no one wants to read the book. Tension span. Sure. Tension span and, and yeah, it's hard to find an editor that can write in your voice. And you've got to have that voice preserved. And I, I thought that was bullshit until I was having a book edited by someone who knew

me really well and could preserve my voice. And a friend of mine approached me and she goes, you know, I had a books too, if you know, oh, I can help out. And I'm like, you know, I don't like to waste my friend's times. Pete Yeah. Pete And if I'm not going to pay you, then, you know, I'm not going to pay you. But I go, I tell you what, here's a page and why don't you show me, you know, how great you are and maybe you're better than my editor. I don't know. I guess we'll see. And she was a female and my editor was female too, but she knew how to write my voice because she knew her. And so I gave this other female, a friend of mine, and she brought it back and

son of a bitch, she had feminized my whole structure of everything. Pete Slauson Interesting. Pete Slauson And it was more about emotions and it didn't sound like me at all. It sounded like a woman wrote it. Interesting. Yeah. It was really, I'm like, wow, okay, now I see the power of preserving your voice in editing. You know what you're talking about. Because if someone else writes it, you know, they can put it, it goes to their voice sometimes.

Through their filter, sure. Yeah. And even though my editor was a woman, she knew me. So she was like, I'm reading my voice. And so when the words came back edited, I was like, that still sounds like me. It was really interesting, the experience. That's wow. That's crazy. I never thought about that.

I thought it was kind of BS because I hear this a lot from authors. They had to go through editing and you got to preserve that voice. And it's just amazing the different in style and syntax that, you know, other people use it don't have your voice. Interesting. Okay. Kind of akin to that, I was asked if I was going to do an audiobook and that may come in the future. And then the kind of as I mulled this over in my head, I thought, would I want somebody else to read it for me like a professional audiobook reader? And then I thought, no, I would like to have it in my voice.

Again, the benefit of people that know me, that know how I talk and how I sound. I think that the most genuine connection is made when the actual author reads his own work and the listener can connect with that. People love the book. I'm reading some of the reviews. They love it. This is the funniest, most relatable book I've ever read. Laugh, cry, and maybe cringe a little. A fun read, such an enjoyable, funny, and dare say, thought-provoking book. There's young lady Kelly Hoover who writes, I gotta be honest here,

and she's got a funny thing that she does of disclosures. We worked together and he did not pay me to write this. So- I did not. I will say though, however, the other day last week or so I got my first hater hater rating. So if you look on there, there is there is a I'm official once you get your first hater, right? So it's a single two star review with no comment. So that to me sounds like it is scrunchled X because that kind of that kind of pettiness is that sounds like a girl thing to do.

A guy would generally not ever do that kind of pettiness, that sounds like a girl thing to do. A guy would generally not ever do that kind of a petty move. Pete Slauson I didn't know you could just do stars. I thought you always had to do a review like you had to say. Jaren Yeah, I thought so too. Yeah, you can just go click and that's it. Pete Slauson I'm looking at it, yeah. I mean, at least Jaren No comment. Pete Slauson Two. Maybe yours always give me one. Jaren I think, okay, so I think the extra pettiness, the extra salt in the wound is the two star,

because one star is like, all right, yours being disgruntled, but the two star is like saying, I'll give you credit for writing if I still hate it. You wrote a book, fuck you. That's right. A little slap, right? Maybe it's a little jealousy maybe there. I don't know. Maybe.

Yeah. In fact, I had one guy who was so angry with me over a completely, I have a dating group that I run on Facebook and he was behaving poorly, so we kicked him out of that. He went and wrote three, I guess he has group that I run on Facebook and he was behaving poorly, so we kicked him out of that. He went and wrote three, I guess he has three different Amazon accounts or something, but he wrote three one-star reviews shitting on my book.

The amount of work that it takes for you to get out of your way to do that, be like, really, that's the time that you want to spend in your life is to be that petty? All right, fine, go ahead. Waste your time, be my guest. Yeah. They'll do that on the podcast reviews too. They'll go on the podcast review and go, this is a shit podcast. Jarek Just crap on it because they can't be like, everyone is mighty brave beyond a keyboard, you know?

Pete Yeah. And I'm used to YouTube. We've been on YouTube for 18 years. The podcast been around for 16. We're used to getting shit slinged at us. But yeah, it's funny. It's funny when people from some other business aspect of mine that they hate me for, they come over here and they're like, they shit on my other stuff. But you know, whatever, man. Yeah. I thought about- Can make them all happy.

I thought about sharing the love, but hey, the more reviews, the better. Good better. What is the old saying? Bad PR, good PR, it's all good PR. Yeah. I tell people all the time, right, when you get done reading it, I would appreciate a genuine, and I really truly mean genuine, I would like a genuine review on Amazon.

I tell people, if you liked it, say that. If you didn't like it, say that too. I have thick skin, I can take it. If you absolutely hated it, you can tell me that. One star hated it. That's fine too. Just tell me, be honest about it. Now, since on the front, you're an immigrant you from canada germany germany

I thought I was picking up some canada and I get that sometimes right? Are you canadian? No germany germany the black forest remember? That's right in your bio the black forest So you you grew up around bmw's all your life. I grew around a lot of trees chocolate And very small town living. It was good. We were kids. We just had a good time. We rode our bikes into the forest trails.

We would, you know, I don't know, we're just kids, just kids in nature and it was a good time. My family came from Germany in the 1800s. We came before the troubles. We didn't make the troubles. Before the incidents. Before the incidents. We don't talk about the incidents.

We don't talk about the 1930s. Anyway, yeah, we left in the 1800s and came over here and probably a good thing we did because I don't know where we'd be if we'd stayed. But yeah, America. America. You should, funny you should mention when you, that you moved and you missed a lot of the nonsense over there. So I was told by my mom that when the Berlin Wall was being built way, way back in the day, that my grandfather, he was, he knew people, he was within, I can't remember, like the train railroad industry. And he had connections to some, to some people that knew things that were happening.

And I guess he was told one night, Hey, you need to move because they're living on the East side of Berlin and there were some rumblings and some rumors, you know, they were floating around and he was told by a reliable source, hey, you need to move your family, pack all your stuff tonight and go westbound by at least kilometers, right? But go westbound at least, you know, some distance because things are about to change. And he did. And from the story I was told literally the next day, they started putting up roadblocks. So had that not happened, I probably would have been born and

raised on the East block of Germany. Hmm. The, yeah, it's that would have been, we both probably wouldn't have been back there. Yeah. We've been listening to different, different, different approach to life. I probably wouldn't be here. Not in a negative, like I wouldn't, I wouldn't be. And then it's a different, different, different approach to life. I probably wouldn't be here. Not in a negative, like I wouldn't, I wouldn't be alive, but had I not been born on the West side, we would never probably would have moved to the black forest.

Never would have migrated to, to the, to the States where a lot of things would have changed. Definitely. Yeah. And we survived. As we go out, give people a final pitch out on the book to pick it up where they can order it in any.com so they can get to know you better. Absolutely. If you go, like I said earlier, andy'sbook.com, all my links are on there. If you would absolutely like a signed copy, if you go to andysbook.com slash gift, I still have a few left.

I'm more than happy if you trust me with your address and I promise I will not do anything nefarious with your information. If you trust me with your address, I'm more than happy to send you a signed copy. So again, andy'sbook.com slash gift. And I like to think that the subtitle, short stories about friendship, growth, and social misdemeanors really kind of sums it up. And I think there's a little bit about there's a little bit of everything, sorry, there's a little bit for everyone in this book, right? Whether you like silly stories or some more serious reflections, right? There's a little bit for everyone in this book, right? Whether you like silly stories or some more serious reflections, right? There's a little bit for everyone in there. Pete Slauson It's been wonderful to have you on. Fun and great stories. People are

loving it. I love the title. Thanks, Andy. Order this book wherever fine books are sold, folks. Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes. Short stories about friendship, growth and social misdemeanors out May 11th, 2023. Thanks for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortesys, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortesys, Chris Foss, Chris Foss wanted to tick tock and all those crazy places in it. Be good to each other, stay safe.

We'll see you next time. And that should...