The Eric Metaxas Show - Missy Robertson

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Missy Robertson from the Duck Dynasty clan has an exciting and fun-filled family-friendly series of children's books called "Faithgirlz Princess in Camo" that will keep your children engaged and on the right track on the road of life.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metaxe. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy pm investments.com. That's legacy pm investments.com. The Texas show with your host, Eric Metaxis. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. It's hour two on Thursday on the Eric Metaxe show. You know what that means.

I do. It means ask Metaxus. Ask Metaxus. You ax Metaxus questions and Metaxe. which is, that's me, I try to answer. So the first question that you're going to ask is. This is a good one. Hello from Canada.

It says, I am curious about where and when you and Elbin met. Elbin, where did we meet? I think we met at Redeemer. Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Tim Keller. Well, I don't know. I feel like I met you through our friend Carl Tiedeman when you were working at FX. Well, here's the truth. I heard about you when I was at Redeemer because I was doing children's

And they said, oh, you got to connect with Eric Metaxus. And like, who's that guy? But, yeah, I think it was Carl Teeteman. We actually met. Because this would have been in, like, the mid-90s. And I had written lots and lots of children's books for rabbit ears. But, yeah, I guess the short answer is, Redeemer Presbyterian. Next question.

Okay. I've been seeing your Instagram posts about a new late-night show. Can you say more about that? Well, it's called The Talk Show with Eric Metaxus, and I cannot say more about that. If you want to know more about that, I'm not kidding. You have to go to Ericmataxis.com. Sign up for my newsletter. Only there can I really say what needs to be said.

I'm not kidding. Yeah, go there. I've heard Eric state that he will be buried and not cremated after death. Is this true? Okay. He didn't give a reason, and I'd really like to know his thoughts on the subject. Well, I, there's a lot to be said on this. But let me simply say that I think the biblical way of thinking is, it's incarnational.

The Bible is pro-body. It is not anti-body. That's part of it. I think that there are notes of paganism in cremation. I think the idea of the resurrection of the body is not something. to take lightly. There are many reasons, actually. I obviously haven't thought it through as well as I ought, but it is true that I think cremation

is not the way to go. Okay. Well, hopefully you got still 40 years to really contemplate it. Oh, I got years. I got a lot of years. When will you be on TikTok? Well, there's some people who think I shouldn't be on TikTok. Those people, of course,

are wrong. So I don't know when, but I will be on TikTok. And what can I tell you? Stay tuned. Yeah, okay. You're on a lot of other venues here at this point. What brand are your glasses? Well, let's see. I got them at Costco. So that's Kirkland. Kirkland is

Kirkland. Actually, either that or Oliver Peoples. I always get them confused. See, I'm old-fashioned. I still get them from the kiosk at Kmart. Well, Kirkland, you know, you get them by the bushel.

He got a whole family with eye problems, and you just get a ton of them. Jump into the bullshit. And that's the great thing about Costco. Pick something out. Okay. Who is your hero second, of course, to Jesus? Well, it's always a toss-up between the actor David Niven and the comedian Moms Mabley. So it's hard to say.

Actually, that might be a joke answer. The real answer is, I don't know that I have a single. hero. I think that I have many people in life, to some extent, my dad. I would say some of the people about whom I've written, William Wilberforce, who I wrote about in my book Amazing Grace, is absolutely up there. And of course, Dietrich Bonhofer, about whom I've written. And in my book, Seven Men,

and the sequel, Seven More Men, I wrote, I write about a number of heroes. But, you know, the thing is, I have, there are women who are also heroes to me, some of whom I wrote about in my book seven women. Certainly, Mother Teresa is one of them. She inspired me. When I spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, if you go to my website, Eric Metaxus.com,

to sign up for the newsletter, you'll see the video of me I would not have said what I said at the National Prayer Breakfast, for which I was rather widely praised. I would not have said what I said there if Mother Teresa hadn't said what she said in 1994 when she was the speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast. So there are so many, and so I'll leave it at that. I love how you started off with your dad,

because that's the first person I think of when I think of. My dad? Yeah. Yeah. My dad? Yeah, you said something about your dad. No, you mean you're dead. Yeah, no, my dad. You didn't even know my dad and you mentioned my dad. No, you mentioned your dad, and I thought that's it. I think we have to be clear that people in our lives around us. And this gets to the real teaching point, right? How you behave, what you say, what you don't say, what you do, what you don't do, inevitably affects people around you for good and for ill. And so we ought to be heroic figures in the life. lives of those around us. And then sometimes history throws up heroic figures. But there are people that I have known.

Some of them have been deeply flawed, but they have been heroes to me in other ways. I write about some of them in my book, Fish Out of Water. One of them, Carl Tomanio, recently passed away just a few weeks ago, months ago. He's the father of my dear friend, John Tomanio. He was a heroic figure to me in some ways. I loved him dearly. I do remember that part. Yeah, so there are a number of people in my life.

So thanks for that. That's a good question. Moving on, what is your favorite unhealthy snack? This is really unhealthy, and I try never to eat it anymore, but arsenic-coated popcorn balls. You still like those, huh? Man, you eat one and you die, and so it's really, really unhealthy, and I never eat it.

But, yeah, I don't know that I have a favorite unhealthy snack apart from arsenic-coated popcorn balls. Would you ever have your parents, speaking of parents, on your show for an interview? That's interesting. I thought about it many, many times. At this point, probably not. My dad will be 95 in a couple of months, and it's tough for him to get, you know, to travel into New York and stuff. But I have, I did think about it many times because he's got these great stories to tell. So I don't know.

Stay tuned. Yeah, it's funny. David Letterman, of course, had his mother on the show regularly. Yeah. Right. Okay. What was your favorite book in high school? Well, my high school started, Danbury High School, Public High School starts in 10th grade.

So when I think of high school, I forget that in ninth grade, when I was at Broadview, junior high in Danbury, Connecticut, that's also high school, high school. And I remember in ninth grade, I read 1984 by George Orwell. And I remember how it affected me. It really, it's a harrowing read. But, you know, it's George Orwell's, you know, dystopian novel about this future.

And the thing is that it speaks to where we are today really dramatically. George Orwell was brilliant and anti-communist. He was familiar with the horrors of the Soviet Union. And so in some ways, I mean, I don't know if that makes it my favorite book, but it really did affect me. It's like a script for today. But I wasn't really a big reader. You know, I grew up.

You know, my parents are working class European immigrants, so we weren't like gigantic readers or anything like that. But so it's much more recently that I have. See, I think, and a lot of listeners would say, like, they would think you read virul... Yeah. Well, that's why I say that. To let you know, no, I didn't. I watched a lot of Sanford and Son and Three Stooges, you know, like I watched a lot of bad TV.

Okay, last question here. Are you coming to San Diego? Well, should the Lord Terry, I will be in San Diego in just a few weeks. This is another reason why people should go to Eric Metaxus.com, because my schedule is there, and as soon as we confirm, you know, an engagement, there it is. So if you want to know the details of my trip to San Diego, and I will be there, you go to Eric Mataxis.com. So I will be there in a few weeks.

So go to Ericmatakis.com, sign up for the newsletter, and thank you very much. I'll repeat with a reefer on and a Jimmy hauling hogs. We is heading for bear on I-10, about a mile out of shaky town. I says, pig pen, this here's a rubber duck, and now. I'm about to put the hammer down. Because we are little calm. Hey folks, I've got to tell you a secret about relief

factor that the father, son, owners, Pete and Seth Talbot have never made a big deal about, but I think it is a big deal. I really do. They sell the three-week quick start pack for just 1995 to anyone struggling from pain like neck, shoulder, back, hip, or knee pain, 1995, about a dollar a day.

But what they haven't broadcasted much is that every time they sell a three-week quick start, they lose money. In fact, they don't even break even until about four to five months after if you keep ordering it. Friends, that's huge. People don't keep ordering Relief Factor month after month if it doesn't work. So, yes, Pete and Seth are literally on a mission to help as many people as possible deal with their pain. They really do put their money where their mouths are. So if you're in pain from exercise or even just getting older, or to the three-week quick start for 1995.

Let's see if we can get you out of pain too. Go to Relieffactor.com. Relieffactor.com. or call 800, 500, 8384, 800, 500, 8384, Relieffactor.com. I use it. It works. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the Eric Metaxus. I will be playing the role of Eric Metaxus.

I'm his understudy, and I apologize in advance, but I didn't have a lot of time. As my guest, now listen, you know, if you know me, how much I love the Duck Dynasty, folks, the Robertson family. I just love them. I had the privilege of including them on this program many times, but also on my crazy Christmas special a couple of years ago. And my daughter and I got to go down duck hunting with Phil and Uncle Cy. And let me just tell you, I don't care if we didn't kill that many ducks. I had a good time. But there are so many of these wonderful Robertsons that today I get to talk to Missy Robertson, who has a series of children.

books out. Missy, welcome the program. Thank you so much for having me, Eric. Now, I want to be clear, you're married to Jace. Of course, the best-looking one. I need to, and that's not so much. Now, come on, they all got beards. We don't know what any of them really looked like. He would agree with you.

We don't know what any of them look like. But you, but all of you, and I just find this funny because your father-in-law, Phil, you know, he's all about, like, you know, they need to get married young. And you all get married pretty young and have kids young. And so you're telling me that you're now a grandmother, seriously? Yes, she's three months old and she's perfect, yes. Well, congratulations on looking so great as a grandmother.

But I just want to, I want to say that your family does represent family values in the best sense. And I'm glad, having written a lot of children's books myself, that you have written some kids' books. So tell me about them. They are, they're brand new. They're just out like right now. Yeah, so I've written one in a series of children's books for brave books. And the one that I co-authored with them is called Because You're My Family. So I guess that's why they thought of us for this book and me in particular,

because family is very important to us, to the Robertsons. And actually, just to Christians in general, I mean, God is the one who orchestrated the structure of family. And so it is vital to the stability of our relationships and, I mean, all the way to our nation and internationally to the world. It's very, very important the stability of our family. Well, it is interesting. I mean, I don't make the case often. But when you think back, you know, the history of the United States, when we think of Tokvill and conservatives, they always saw that, I guess it was Burke who talked about the little platoons, the family. the church community. Without these things, you cannot have a free, vibrant society. And it's always

interesting to me that Marxists, communists, they're anti-family in one way or the other, because the family, just like the church, is a threat to state power. And so, no matter how you slice it, family is important to God, and then, of course, important to free societies. And we need to kind of make that point. Marriage is important. Raising kids. All these things are bigger than themselves. So I just had to get that out of my system. Well, it goes back to the commitment. I mean, if you, if you can't commit to the ones that are closest to you, how can you commit to anything else in life? Once it gets too hard, the going gets tough, you're going to leave. But the ones around you, if you can commit early on and teach your children how to commit and teach your children how to love unconditionally, that's what

this book is about, then that does require stability. And it takes stability. It takes a lot of, it takes a lot of strength and courage to do that sometimes because our family disappoints us a lot. And we have a large family. We disappoint each other a lot. We have to learn to forgive. And that's where that unconditional love comes in. If you can forgive, show mercy inside of your home, you learn to do that outside of your home. So, you know, we're looking at right now with this war going on across the ocean, it seems like, and it is. It could happen to us at any time. Evil exists and has always exists everywhere. I get asked, what about in today's culture? How is this different? It's the same from the beginning of time since evil has existed.

It just takes on different faces. So the strength comes from right inside your home. I can't take on Putin as a mom, as a grandma, as just a citizen of Louisiana. I can't take him on. But I can start with my family because the children and the grandchildren in my home are going to be at the age and the generation where they're going to one day be running countries and be running states, be in Congress. They're going to be the ones that are going to be making the decisions for everybody else in America and in the world. I want to raise children and grandchildren with unconditional love and mercy and forgiveness for everyone. It really is interesting that the family is the training ground. for those things. If you don't work through the challenges in a family, and every single family

has those challenges, people need to know that. You know, they may look at your family and think, like, oh, you're like the Walton's, everything's perfect, or they may get the insane idea that my marriage and my family doesn't have challenges and stuff. And we need to say, no, no, no. That's the whole point. The best families, the best marriages, their challenges, and that God wants to use those challenges to train you how to deal with challenges, how to forgive. And you really can't live a healthy life unless you learn these things. So now this kid's book that you've written, it's called Because You're My Family. What is the, roughly speaking, what is the plot without giving away, you know, it's not a murder mystery, is it? You're not going to like tell us.

Yeah, it's not a tell. I'll have a tell-all book. But this, actually, I actually, actually because you're my family is kind of the end of a sentence. You know, what, because you're my family? Well, you're going to mess up. That little valor, he messes up, he disobeys. His parents runs away, gets into trouble, but it runs into a scenario where his life needs to be saved. And the whole conversation after his parents rescue him and bring him back into the fold, the conversation that ensues is, why did you save me, dad, when all I've done is pout and disobey. And the father tells him, I don't love you because of what you. You're going to you do or don't you. I love you simply because you're my son. You're my family. That will never

change. There will be consequences for your behavior. You'll have to apologize and go back and rectify the situation. But that is never going to change my love for you. And what an idealistic conversation to have with your children. You know, we think about the word unconditional love. We know as adult what that means, but children don't know what that means. They love takes on many different definitions in the English language. What does unconditional love mean to a child? You have to show that to them. And a lot of times as parents, we make mistakes too.

I'm a parent of four adult children now and now a grandbaby. I've had to go back, Jason and I both and say, sorry about certain things. My bad. We should have changed a few things. We made some mistakes. Will you forgive us? And those are not easy conversations to have.

as an adult to your adult children, but they're necessary. And that shows that we're all flawed. We don't expect perfection because we want to be forgiven as well. So unconditional love is really, it's a deep conversation, but it's very simply explained and done in this children's book. And the title of the book is, because you're my family. Now, the idea of unconditional love or the agape love in the New Testament, it really is, we have to be clear, it's a fundamental.

mentally biblical idea. Because if you don't have that kind of love, because the word love is such, it's such a sloppy bad word. I mean, the English language, as great as it is, can be pretty bad, because we use a word love that in the New Testament, there are four Greek words for love, and each one is different. And so when you think about if you really like somebody and they're doing something you like, and you say, oh, I love them, that's not unconditional love. That's based on their performance, on how good they look, on how much money they have, whatever it is, completely different. Biblical love, which is what you're talking about in this book, it's really radical, actually. And a lot of cultures in the world don't have it, right?

To say that I love you because I love you. I love you because you're my son, because you're my daughter, because you're my father, because you're my mother. It really is a radical idea. And I can see how people wouldn't understand it. In other words, because they would see that I will control you by withholding my love. And that's, I understand what they're thinking, but in the end it doesn't work. It's a learned behavior. It's a decision that you have to make because people will disappoint you.

And love, like you said, it takes on many different forms in connotation. So I like to use Ms. Kay's, her cooking as an example. I love her cooking. My favorite is her chicken and dumplings, her homemade chocolate pie. but she's at the stage now where she will leave an ingredient out on accident. Well, I don't really love it as much as I did before, you know. So I'm not going to eat it if something's missing. But that's completely different than my love for my child.

If they mess up, that's not going to change my love for them. I may be disappointed. We might have to rectify that situation, but that love is never going to change. But I think the problem that we've had in the past is we haven't really been able to express what that means to our children when they mess up. It's discipline or it's yelling and screaming or punishment and then send them to their room and we forget to actually go back and say, okay, I know what you did was wrong. Do you know what you did was wrong? Let's talk through it now. Above all else, don't forget, I love you. Sometimes we get our busy

lives, we don't, we forget to, we fail to communicate that with now. We are going to continue this conversation with Missy Robertson. The book is because you're my family. Don't go away. I rehearse those words just late last night. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed. And when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes leading the prices of goods to rise. And when we're already seeing record inflation, that's the last thing we need. Our economy is in trouble. and you need to take steps to protect yourself.

If all your money is tied up in stocks, bonds, and traditional markets, you are vulnerable. Gold is one of the best ways to protect your retirement. No matter what happens, you own your gold. It is real, it is physical, it's always been valuable since the dawn of time. Legacy precious metals is the company I trust for investing in gold. They can help you roll your retirement account into a gold-backed IRA where you still own the physical gold. They can also ship gold and precious metal safely and securely to your house. Call Legacy at 866 5281903 or visit them online at LegacyPMinvestments.com.

Folks, welcome back to The Ericman Taxes Show. Guess what? I'm talking to Missy Robertson. One of the, there are thousands of Robertsons out there. And even in Monroe, Louisiana, there's just like dozens of them. But Missy is the pretty grandmother. Actually, there are several pretty grandmothers. It's very confusing.

You are, you're married to Jace, and you have a children's book out, a new one, which is called Because You're My Family. And you were just talking about at the heart of it is this idea of unconditional love. And so I have tasted your mother-in-law's cooking, and I love it, but it's not unconditional love. It's based on the quality of the taste of the cooking. You're talking about something very different, which is, it's a hard balance for parents. Let's be honest. It's a hard balance because I think, you know, Bonhofer talks about cheap grace. There's cheap love. You see people that's like love, love, love, but they're not doing the tough love sometimes with their kids.

It's just all I love you, but they're not understanding that, you know, love, that it's more complicated than just I love you. So you're not really talking about kind of sloppy love. You're talking about unconditional love, which is. is, well, again, it's God's idea of love. That's right. I mean, it's the chase you down in the middle of a rainstorm and save your life before you fall into the river, even though you just disobeyed me kind of love, which is what happens in the book. And, you know, you think about the parable of the 100 sheet. Jesus left the 99, the shepherd leaves the 99, to go and chase after that one. That's the unconditional love. That one did not follow the rules. He got away somehow because he wasn't following the rules.

So, you know, if he would have stayed within the boundaries of what was expected of him, he would not have had to been rescued. And that tells a lot about us. We mess up every day. We sin every day. But Jesus' unconditional love flows down over and over and over all over us. And I was just reading this morning about that in 1st John 3, if you'll allow me to read this, because I think it's very relevant in what's going on even with Putin, where he says,

1 John 3 in verse 10, this is how we know who the children of God and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother. And then over in verse 16, he says, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.

And so when I think about those words and what John was talking about, it's not just about blood family. It's about the family of God. And so we can say, I love you brother and sister, I love you sinner, but then when their needs arise, how do we show them?

Do we tell them again? We love you and we hope the best for you. Do we really show them with our actions? I have to tell you, Misty, my wife and I were just reading 1 John chapter 3 a couple of days ago. And I thought this is one of the most amazing chapters in the scripture. Because it is really, by some standards, by the sloppy standards of our day, it is harsh. It says, if you do not do these things, you do not love God. So it's one thing to give lip service to God.

Obviously in the epistle of James, he says, faith without works is. is dead. And you have a lot of people talking faith, faith, faith, but you need to live it out self-sacrificially. And if you don't, it proves you actually have no faith. You can talk about it, but you have to live it out. But first, John, in that chapter, I just thought it really lays it out. It kind of like stops you. It makes you realize, wow, God is being real with me. It's fundamentally comforting, but it's also startling. in a way because we kind of don't talk like that in our modern culture, right? We're all about acceptance and we forget that it kind of cuts both ways. So it's, I recommend that chapter,

First John, chapter three and in there. So have you written other books before? I can never remember. Your family seems to write more books than I read. Yes, yes. I've written some children's books and also some biographies, autobiography. So, but this one, was brave books reached out to me because of the series that they have done regarding Freedom Island, which, so my book is the ninth book in a series. So when you get to my book, you've already kind of figured out a little bit of the characters in this saga and the series. And Little Ballard, just to mention he's a tiger and his parents are lions. So there's an adoption story that prefaces mine in one of the books that all of these are awesome Christian value-centered

books. You don't have to worry about any kind of offbeat doctrine, any kind of something, anything you want that you don't want your children to have to think about in their brain that is different from what the Bible teaches. You also, the illustrations in this book, every time I talk about this book, I think every time somebody says, what about the illustrations? Those are gorgeous. And I can't take credit for any of that, of course. But if there's anything that can help us get our children away from the screens away from the iPads and all of the stuff that's going on there, then this is one way to do it because it's really beautifully illustrated and done. And the back of the book has tons of activities where you don't just read the words, but you

can actually put this story into action with your children and with your family. And before we go, I want to be clear. So they're talking animals, okay? And folks, that's biblical. Balam's ass talked. Do you understand? Now, if you're reading a book and is talking vegetables, not. Not biblical. Make a note of it. Not biblical. Beware. We're out of time. Missy, Robertson. We love you and we love your family. God bless. Congratulations on the book because you're my family. Thank you so much.

Thank you. and my friend Mike Lindell. Well, Mike has just announced that you will receive one of his books, and the book is next level insane. It is called What Are the Odds from Crack Addict to CEO? It's his story. You will receive it absolutely free with any purchase using the promo code Eric. Did you hear that? It would be a great time, by the way, to buy his warm and wonderful my slippers. for a limited time. He's offering 50% off my slippers. We all wear them in my extended family, my slippers, check it out. 50% off. Go to mypillar.com. Click on the radio listeners square and use promo code Eric. You'll also get deep discounts on all my pillow products, including some overstock

products, such as individual towels, blankets, comforters, and much more. Or call 800, 978. 3057. That's 800, 978-3057. To use the promo code, Eric. Hey, folks, if you know my friends Pete and Seth Talbot, you know what I'm up against. Bottom line is, when we started out this relationship, I just didn't like them that much. But why are we here? Why did we agree to do this? Because you've grown on me. Somehow, the more we talk, the more I realize, you really do know what you're talking about.

And I'll be the first to admit it. I see that. Actually, all of your ideas make sense. But the last one, what did you want to talk about today? one actually kind of got me, the title, the title. Well, basically, how great ideas can sometimes be terrible businesses. I think most people listening to this program, like everybody has had great ideas that they think, I know, I know I have, they'd say, that'd be a great idea for a business. You're saying, uh, maybe not. Yeah, I think, you know, when you look at what goes

into making a good business, it starts with, it has to be a great idea. But the truth is, is that we've had more failure than success by far. And that I think probably about seven, eight years ago, I realized that one of the secrets that I would say leads to success, eventual success, is repetition testing of ideas that don't necessarily bet the farm. So non-fatal testing.

And it's a repetition. It's a numbers game. To me, if you've got good strategy and you learn with your mistakes, and you have enough time to experiment, and it's repetition, repetition, repetition, you can find some just good ideas and turn them into great businesses, but usually it's a lot of great ideas.

I've had some ideas when I'm like, this is it, this is it, and it just goes absolutely nowhere. And a lot of business owners structured the business and structure their business plan and wager it all. It is, like putting it all on black and hitting the roulette wheel. And what we became really passionate about in our businesses internally was starting to figure out, okay, you've got an idea.

And I remember having this conversation in a conference from a couple years ago where an idea was proposed. And it was a pretty good idea. But it had some negative baggage with it, I would call collateral damage potential with it. So it had some real good upside and some downside. And so what most entrepreneurs or small business owners don't know how to do is to to distill an idea down and deconstruct it, to figure out how to test that good idea while mitigating and lowering the downside. But again, these were things that I started learning. And again, we talked about this last week about how one of the major drivers for me was,

I don't want people to go through what I went through. And once I started realizing it was a volume game of testing ideas, I realized, okay, well, how do we test without risking everything? This is so classic Talbot and true confessions. I'm sort of throw it all on black or throw it all on red. Are you trying to tell me you have a gambling problem? Well, is that what this is about? Metaphorically. That's for another show.

That's for another show, quite literally. But my point is my natural state as a risk taker and as an entrepreneur was if, If I had a good idea, I would, if I had a hundred grand, I'd throw 100 grand at it. Right. Or sometimes a lot more. I'm actually writing a book. I've just started a book called How to Fail Successfully. See, now what my son has done, we've been working together now for about 18 years.

Too long. Wow. Too long. And what's happened is, get me, get me out. We have failed. We have failed like in the last 18 years, even with our most successful companies, which we've recently sold.

But we failed more than me. We failed a hundred times. But thanks to him, we weren't putting a million bucks out of whack. We'd sometimes take $5,000. Test this word. Test this phrase. This is big for you, guys, as I'm picking it up over the weeks, the testing, like limited testing.

Test to just repeat. Just to just repeat. Yeah, I would say you want the boldness to go heavy, but it needs to be strategic. Yes. And I think the trick is, is ideally you find a partner, really, where you don't have the timidity and the hesitation and indecisiveness. I'm super decisive, but I moved away from being knee-jerk reactive to things a while ago because I found that a lot of times I didn't have enough information that my... knee jerk turned into an embarrassment thing later, but I also found that, okay, let's be

strategic, but bet big. We actually were talking about some of the bigger bets that we've been making our last years over dinner. And so you want to find that right dynamic where when you find something, go hard on it. But do it strategically. And most people that lean towards betting hard don't do it strategically because they're not wired in a way to deconstruct it, to figure out how do we go precise. So where our combination really played well is that when I when I have an idea and I've kind of researched it, I don't have a timid business partner that's like, oh, well, oh, what do we do about this? He's ready to roll. And then he's amazing at the creative and the execution of this idea so that we can go and attack it. But most business owners

don't really know that. So they're wired in a way where you've got people that're super cautious. and so then they don't know how to bet and pursue something and to take the appropriate amount of risk. And one thing you learned in marketing is if you don't put enough dollars into a specific marketing attempt and hold it there, you don't actually get a valid test. So the people that are really, really timid that are wired in a way of like test, test, test, test, will put their toe out, they don't get results, and then they pull it back. Or you get the super knee jerk that's going to bet it all on black and hit the spin, and they're going to ride that ship all the way down to the bottom of the ocean,

regardless of the results. Right. So it's a matter of finding their right combination. What we love to do is to work with business owners or leaders, CEOs, sales managers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To walk through that process, we talked about it before. The first step to solving the problem is defining the problem. We're very, forgive me for saying this so boldly.

We are very good at that. We are very good at the science. It has to be the first step. and we love walking through this process with business owners. We just love it. It's what we live for. You have a track record. I mean,

it's why we're talking about this, that you have been tremendously successful, and it wasn't luck. You've been very self-critical. And I also know, and I want to say this from my audience, I know that you care about this. This is not about, hey, we've got a business.

It's our passion. You actually care about helping people do good things better. So anyway, I should direct people to the website. Talbotgroup.com. Talbot group.com and you can call them at 866 Talbot, T-A-L-B-O-T-T-T. We'd love to talk with them. We've got a two-minute video on there that they will really enjoy. At talbot group.com.

Right. Right. I want to tell you everything Sit around and wonder what tomorrow You're Hey folks A happy St. Patrick's Day to you again Albin

I want to share some stuff About St. Patrick's Day Actually you have some things to share About St. Patrick's Day Every time we celebrate St. Patrick's Day Now of course I'm in New York So they have the St. Patrick's Day parade

And a lot of people Are under the impression that St. Patrick's Day is the day that we celebrate becoming inebriated and drinking green beer. And I want to say really, no, St. Patrick was a holy man of God. Today, he would be described as a white evangelical. Tell us about St. Patrick. Well, you know, it's funny when he was like 16, he was taken as a slave from England to

Ireland by Irish pirates, okay? And then he spent three years as a shepherd boy. And, you know, he became, that's where he got closer to the Lord, just like he was David as a shepherd. I think it was more years than that. Was it only three years? But the point is that these were brutal pagan. Oh, sorry, six years. Yeah, brutal pagan tribes. They kidnapped him. He really, really suffered. And I was saying to you earlier, I wrote a children's book about this. It hasn't been published yet. But I did the research. And when you understand who this man was, he was one. He was one. He was one. He was one. He was one. He was. of the most holy men of God, a profound, profound man of Christian faith. And so it always bothers me when we kind of back like, ah, top of the morning to you, let's get drunk. And you think, no, that's not what it means to be Irish. And that's not what it means to honor St. Patrick. He really was amazing. Tell us about the shamrock. Yeah, the shamrock, because that's associated with St. Patrick.

And you think, oh, it looks like a lucky charm. It's not. He used the shamrock, which had three leaves. on it to talk about the trip unto this very day unto this day he still has three leaves yep he used it to talk about the trinity see how he worked that in father son and holy spirit there you go he very clever of you oh you got an irish brogue but it is it is it is really interesting that that his um he was just a tremendous man of faith and and i will someday get this children's book published it's kind of wild people say eric you know the you know how do i get a book published. I haven't had a number of my own books published. Well, you've got to make a name for yourself first, Terry. Right. That's that's right. And then you got to speak of the National Prayer Breakfast,

have New York Times bestsellers and stuff like it. And then maybe somebody will publish it, but probably not. Okay. Ready? Yes. Ready? We have to talk, we have to ask our audience now in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, have you given to food for the poor? Folks, we want 100% participation. In fact, we're demanding it. Legally, we demand that if you listen to this program, you go to metaxis talk.com and give whatever you like to food for the poor. It's an organization that feeds the hungry. I want to say I have something I'm going to read here.

This is so many of us are praying for the Ukraine, what we can do in the Ukraine. But I want to say that right now, the folks in places like Guatemala are suffering. they're starving. Food for the poor is the only way these kids can get fed. Think about this. And so they need our help. MetaxusTalk.com. I'll give you the phone number in a moment. But I want to play in one small, particularly impoverished

village in Guatemala. Let's play this clip. Two-year-old Yasmin Anayle Perez died this week. She was battling illnesses linked to malnutrition. Her belly swollen due to water retention. Perez is the third child. of the mountain village in eastern Guatemala to have died within weeks.

This story is the spitting image of the deep economic crisis that the village of La Pamela is enduring. Okay, folks, celebrate this holy man of God, St. Patrick, by doing something good for those going through this hell right now in our own hemisphere. Please dial 844-863 hope. That's 844-863 hope or go to metaxis talk.com. give anything you like you can give monthly maybe that's better we really need your help 844 8663 hope 844 8663 hope god bless you as you give 844 8663 hope