The Eric Metaxas Show - Phil Cooke

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

Phil Cooke shares some inspiration from his new book, "Ideas on a Deadline: How to Be Creative When the Clock Is Ticking"; plus another fun edition of Ask Metaxas.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m.investments.com. The Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. You know what time it is, Alvin. You know what time it is? I know.

It's that time of the week. It is. This is segment one of hour two on Thursday, and that can only mean one thing. It means it's time for Ask Metaxus. I admit it I'm Metaxis. There's no way around it. You're the man. I have to say that that's who I am.

And Ask Metaxus means that people, which is to say actual human beings, people who listen to this program, they submit questions. And these people submit questions. We go through the questions. We take what we think are the best ones because we can't answer all of them. And then, Alvin, you using your own. voice. You give voice to the questions that these people have submitted. And I think it's something we do every week. And I think it's something we should start doing right now. Go. Okay, go. This one comes in from Anonymous Schmidt, by the way. Eric, which are the individuals that you wrote biographies about?

Do you aspire to be most like William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhofer, Martin Luther, or Donald the Caveman? I'm a little nonplussed by that question. The question comes in. First, of all, Anonymous Schmidt. I think I know who this guy is, and I don't like him. I've met him. I've gotten to know him, and I don't like him. No, actually, I love this guy. He's very funny. And so the question is, of all the biographies I've written, which subject of the biographies, would I, do I aspire to be like, William Wilberforce, the great, the great Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhofer, Martin Luther, or Donald the Caveman. Now, here's the thing, Anonymous Schmidt. I don't know how to break it to you, okay, but sit down. I hope you're prepared for this. Donald the caveman is a fictional

character. It's based on Donald Trump, who is a real character, but Donald the caveman is a fictional character. So I really can't answer this question. I'm not saying it's stupid. I'm not saying you're stupid, but I might be, but I'm not saying it on the air. All right, look, I've had enough. I'm angry. All right. The answer is, no, he always writes in funny stuff, and this is funny. So Donald the Caveman is the hero of three children's books that I wrote. They're really humor books for adults that look like children's books, and people are giving them to kids. So now we're saying their kids' books. But it's the Donald the Caveman series, and if you want to see them, you have to go to my store.com, and you'll see them there. But Donald the Caveman is a simple caveman who solves problems. He sees problems, and he's too simple to see the complicated reason they can't be solved, and he just solves them.

So it's a little bit like Donald Trump. But Wilberforce Bonhofer and Martin Luther, who are the subjects of my actual biographies, it's impossible to say because they are all genuinely great, great men. And so I will say, I don't know. That was the longest, I don't know, you've ever heard. I'm sorry, here we go. Okay. Number two, if you had to live somewhere besides New York City, where would it be? They're suggesting inside the USA, but maybe it's outside. I don't know. I mean, gosh, I really don't know. I travel a fair amount, so I get to be lots of different places. So I don't have a hankering to be outside of New York the way some people would think.

And plus, I think some people have a, they watch the news or they watch whatever they watch, and they get some view of New York that is dramatically different from what it is actually to live in New York. Like, I think they think that, you know, there's a 50% chance you'll get stabbed on the way to work. And that's preposterous. It's 41 tops. So. And it's usually from work, not to work. Right.

That's right. So there are many places that I love. I think I answered this question last week, didn't I? No, no. There are many places that I love. around the country. And so I don't know that I have an answer for that one. I'm really embarrassed.

That's another one. I don't know. Wow. Any updates on your thoughts regarding Ukraine, Russia? Do you think Putin should be forcibly removed from power? I have no idea what to say about that. The situation there is heartbreaking. But as I've said with John Smirak and others on the program,

it's been like bad United States government policies that have allowed this horror to happen, just like with stuff that's going on in China. It is because we have either projected weakness or kind of a cynical, selfish view, which, you know, people in the Pentagon, foggy bottom, these places, they are not George Washington. They're not Abraham Lincoln. And that's why the biggest update I could give is that we need to throw the buckyton. out and drain the swamp. But I will, I'll leave it at that.

Okay, here's one for you. If you had to have one job that you have never previously had, what would it be? And this person's looking for detective, archaeologist, et cetera. Well, that's what they're looking for. That's what they're looking for. I don't know. I think I would have, if I could have, I would have gone full time into acting and show business. And I blew that opportunity.

But I do think that when I do, like when we did our Christmas special and some of the stuff, I think comedy, that's really my... I see you as the next George Hamilton. That's just me. Right, exactly. What are your thoughts on holidays such as St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, etc.? This is a weird question. It is, yeah. What are my thoughts on holidays? I like them. I don't like them.

I am for them. No, I'm against them. I don't know. It is actually, I'll tell you my thoughts on holidays, and I've wanted to write a book about this. No kidding. We tend on holidays to forget the real reason we're celebrating the holiday. And I think that something has happened to our culture, which I won't go into, but that's like a chapter of a book. But we really, on a holiday, need to do something to genuinely celebrate the reason for the holiday.

rather than say, oh, it's a day off from schools, a day off from work, and to be thoughtful about it. So I say that about every holiday, but particularly kind of, you know, the big ones. Not Valentine's Day. Do I care about Valentine's Day? Not really. St. Patrick's Day, you know, it's like a... Yeah, just don't leave leprechauns out of St. Patrick's Day and we're going to be fine, right? Right, that's right.

Okay, walk me through a typical day of eating for you. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Walk me through a typical day of eating for you. You're like, who do these people think they are? Who wrote this? It's none of your business. It's none of your business, all right? No, it's kind of funny.

I don't know that there is a typical day of eating for me, but I try to eat healthily. I don't eat healthy foods, but the way that I eat is healthy. No, I think that I have found that, like having a hearty breakfast is a big mistake because it'll make me want to go take a nap, because digesting takes up a lot of energy. People don't know this. I mean, a lot of people do know this, but the same thing with lunch,

like if I were to eat a hearty lunch, it's like I'm done. So I really have to eat lightly during the day to keep my slim feminine figure. And so I'm doing a good job with that. I'm not really a big, I mean, if I get one meal, I'm going to go with dinner. If I get one actual meal. But yeah, I try to eat lightly during the day. Okay. Here's a serious one.

finally. How do I figure out whether I found a good church? Oh, here's a litmus test for you. Ask the head pastor if they would invite Eric Metaxus to speak. I mean, that's kind of true because a lot of people are like, oh, I don't know, we just want to preach the gospel and he's going to get political. First of all, if I'm invited to speak at a church where they say to me, please don't be political, I will absolutely not be political. I would not, you know, dishonor the pastor. You know what I'm saying? Because there are people that are, it's a difficult, thing. But it is kind of, I mean, I'm only half joking because we're going through such such tough times now that a lot of pastors are shrinking from speaking truth on the most basic

issues. I mean, your parishioners, your congregation are being persecuted in the world, and you need to give them strength and courage and facts and information to deal with it. And that's part of what it is to speak the good news of Jesus Christ. So whether you found a good church, that's another one that I really, we don't have time to answer, but I will simply say if they're worried about diversity and inclusivity, and if that's their focus, they're missing it, okay? Because a real church is going to be all those things, and it doesn't have to talk about it. If you have to talk about it, it strikes me that your focus is off.

So that's another poor answer to a good question. I can't wait till next week when I get another crack at this. Thank you very much. Tell me, Eric, why is relief factor so successful at lowering or eliminating pain? I'm often asked that question. The owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal. And I agree with them. So the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients,

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and gentlemen, I'm at the NRB. It is in Nashville every year, and it's very distracting because you have amazing guests. I'm going to speak right now to my friend Phil Cook. Yes. But Dennis Prager is about 12 feet away looming over his fans. It's very distracting, but we're just going to block it out. Phil Cook, my friend, welcome. Thank you. This is fun. Listen, you, I don't know where to start with you. First of all, Your name Cook is spelled with an E at the end. Thank you. That's the most important thing. Yes.

People can look you up. Yes. Phil Cook with an E. You have a new book out called Ideas on a Deadline, How to Be Creative, When the Clock is Ticking. So how do you inspire, how do you explain yourself? Because you really are very, no, but I'm saying you're creative. You're a man of faith. And somebody says, what do you do?

How do you describe it? Well, I'm a producer. I'm a producer. We've done everything from Super Bowl commercials to documentaries, to films, to all kind of things. But I also consult with a lot of organizations, the Museum of the Bible, in Washington, D.C. as a client, we've done all the media for the museum over the years. And we just really want to help people get their story out there. And we live in a media-driven culture. And if you don't speak that language, you're not going to get heard.

Well, people can find you at philcook.com, cook with an e at the end.com. Thank you. But the reason originally I wanted to talk to you is because, you sent me an email, again we're friends, you said that Instagram was shadow banning you. So define that. What is shadow banning? Well, it's when they either restrict the number of people that can see your posts or they warn people. I mean, when people want to follow me, if they sign up to follow me, they get a warning from Instagram.

Why? Do you really want to follow Phil Cook? Why? Because they say I post misinformation. But I don't think they understand satire, which is what you live by. I don't, for instance, remember the movie Die Hard back in the 80s? So I, on Christmas Eve this year, I did a post with, remember, he was in the building with a terrorist and he had a cop on the ground helping coordinate. I posted a picture of the cop from the movie, and I said on this day in 1988, this cop helped thwart a terrorist attack at Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Please give him a shout out. Well, they blocked it, and they sent me to Snopes.com where there's an entire page saying a terrorist attack never happened at Nakatomi Plaza. in Los Angeles, and they started accusing me of proliferating misinformation. Okay, you know what the technical term is for people like that? I think it's idiots. I would go with that. But I don't know what the translation, the English translation, but I know that the word is idiots. No, but it's kind of funny.

We're living in a new era where the dumbest things have kind of floated to the top. I mean, the idea that you post a joke and that some jughead, feels that it's his or her job to warn the world about your joke. Yes. And we also live in an age where everybody's offended by something. Everybody's offended. I'm almost convinced there's somebody in Instagram because it's going on for months and months. Normally they put you on like a 45-day trial, but it's gone on for months and months.

So either somebody keeps reporting me or somebody inside Instagram just doesn't like me. So, yeah, it's a weird time we live in. I mean, I'm not big time like you are, but I've got 12.5. thousand people on Instagram that follow me. And yet somebody at Instagram has decided they're following Phil, but they don't have the right to hear what he has to say. So they block it. Okay, first of all, I want to say to my audience, if you're on Instagram, please follow my friend

Phil Cook. That's the first thing. It's at Phil Cook. With an E. Cook with an E at the end. But I'm serious, okay, because we have to fight this. This is upsetting. But shadow banning, what is shadow banning?

And I want to talk about that. But explain that to people. Well, censoring would be when they completely block you. They take you off. They de-platform you. You've heard that term. Shadow banning is when they just restrict the number of people that can see your posts. So they can throttle that back.

They're the tech company. They know how to do that. And so I have, like I said, about 12,500 people follow me at this point. But only 20 or 30 people get to see what I post at any given time. Okay. Now, why would they do that? In other words, that's very, very dark. Well, we've seen it with conservatives.

We've seen it with people that a number of Christians are experiencing that. I think it's, there's a, you know, they have what they call community standards, and somehow I'm violating their community standards. Now, I don't understand how that works. They never really talk, they never publish what those community standards actually are, so there's no way to know if you're actually violating them. So it's very frustrating. It's just nuts.

Well, look, it happened to us. It happened to us. We were, this program, the Eric McIntaxia show, was completely wiped off of YouTube. And I thought to myself, you know that the people who did this are evil because there is nothing that I'm doing on my program that would warrant wiping out the show.

You just know that these are dark actors, they are bad people, and that they don't like you, and they have the power to wipe you out, and they're simply using the power. But they have no standards, they don't care. And I think it's just important for us to talk about that. to say that this is real.

And I think until it happens to you, you can turn a blind eye to it. But when it happened to me, I thought, wow, I know I'm not out there 24-7 beating some political drum or whatever. I'm just, I talk about everything. I talk, you know, it's like, you know, you can compare me to Howard Stern, right? I'm all over the place. I crash jokes. I get serious. I say controversial things.

But, you know, how weird that there are people that have been given this power. in the social media world, and they can do this kind of stuff. And so I want people to understand who are listening, who kind of think we don't live in that world. We do live in that world. You need to know that a lot of what you're seeing. I believe when you sent that message to me

that you were being shadow banned on Instagram, I know that I have to be shadow banned on Twitter. It's so obvious because I put something out, and I can just tell it's just weird that... Suddenly people aren't responding. like they normally did. That it's not, right. And I think to myself, I don't know exactly what we do about this, but the first thing we do is we talk about it.

Yeah. And we let people understand this kind of stuff is happening. And one of the things I always say, Phil, is like, I just want people to know, hey, we need your help. I don't know what you can do to help me or to help Phil Cook or to help the others that are being effectively persecuted for thinking thoughts that somebody deems controversial. But help us out however you can. follow us, tell your friends to follow us. And by the way, Putin is still on Twitter. He's not being shadow bad. He's not being censored.

I find that very, you invade a country. That's not a problem. But if you're the slightest bit controversial in other ways, I guess you don't get on. Well, no, it is bizarre. And I think that, again, people need to understand this is real. And it has affected my platforms dramatically. I mean, to have this show, the Eric McHaths show, wiped off of of YouTube.

That's huge. YouTube is effectively a monopoly. That's kind of the problem, right? Yeah. So it's not like you're wiped off of NBC and you go to ABC. You're wiped off a TV. Yeah. And people say, well, if you come down in my basement, we're putting on a show,

most people don't come down to your basement. They just turn on the TV or they turn on YouTube. That's it. Yep. Well, right now, that is where we are. Yes, it is. And also, I mean, Dennis Prager, look at Prager, you. They're in a lawsuit over these kind of things.

being pulled from YouTube. And people use the argument, well, it's a private company. The tech company's a, you know, it's not a public thing. It's not the government. We have the right to censor what we want to censor. But they're throwing it out there for the general public to use and learn from. And I just think that's really wrong. Well, again, I think Romans 828, which has become my favorite scripture recently,

I think these horrible things work together for good for those that love the Lord and appalled according to his purpose. That there are people that are ways. up because of the madness, that they've been sleeping and that they're slowly waking up because they're thinking, wow, I thought everything was fine. I thought the people of Instagram and Twitter were basically okay, maybe they disagreed a little bit. But you realize, no, they're behaving in a way that is undeniably nasty. They're behaving in a way that's undeniably un-American.

It's wrong. We don't do that in America. We're not supposed to do that. And I want people to know that if you're not helping somehow, you become part of the problem. you're just drifting along. Well, you've done episodes on cancel culture, and I think this is the next step in cancel culture. It's not that we want to debate ideas.

We don't want to have the free exchange of ideas anymore. We just want to, I don't want to allow you to even talk. Right. Well, again, this is, if you really have to drill down, there is a biblical worldview. Yep. That has been, I would say, the American system, it comes out of a biblical worldview.

and many Christians through the centuries have not had a biblical worldview, okay? Luther, who leads us to religious liberty, was not himself in favor of religious liberty. So a lot of people through the centuries who didn't get this. Yes. But I know that opposition to racism, opposition to censorship, opposition to all these things I know comes out of a biblical world view. Absolutely. But what we're seeing right now is that many of us took this biblical worldview for granted. We took American values for granted.

Now we're seeing them recede, and we're seeing that, oh, when people no longer believe in this or in the idea of objective truth or that lying is wrong, suddenly they feel the freedom to cancel, to shut you up, to say, I don't care if you have anything valid to say or not. I'm just going to crush you because I have the power. That's kind of where we are. When we come back, folks, I'm talking to Phil Cook. Please follow Phil on Instagram. You can follow me on Instagram too, but follow Phil because I have to say, whenever anybody is being harmed in this way, we need to rally round and help them. We'll be right back talking to Phil Cook. 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.

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Folks, it's here from that show. I'm at NRB, which is to say, I'm in Nashville in a vast terrarium built for humans called the Gaylord Opryland Resort Hotel. It's intentionally confusing and discombobulating, and I don't like it. But you know what? I get to talk to a lot of friends here, which makes up for that other part. And you, Phil Cook, are one of those friends. Philcook.com is your website.

You run something called the Inspire Collective. What is that? No, the Inspire Collective is a group that helped publish my new book, ideas on a deadline. So they're kind of a publishing entity. They're a leadership, kind of a group that helps leaders. And they came to me and wanted to publish my new book. And so I said, let's give it a shot.

And you've produced media programming in nearly 70 countries. That is staggering. Well, I've been shot out a few times. I've been caught in a couple military coups. I fell out of a helicopter in Jamaica. Stop it. Yeah. No kidding.

No kidding. I bribed my way out of a couple countries. What do you mean you fell out of a helicopter? Well, this was back in the days before drones, and you had to have a helicopter if you wanted an aerial shot, and we were shooting a giant event in Kingston Stadium, and I realized this would look amazing from the air, but back in those days, there was no helicopters in Jamaica equipped for filming. So I ran, I zoomed across the island and made a deal with the Red Stripe Beer Company.

We could take their door off their helicopter. I could borrow it for an hour, and so they tied me in with a rope. Wait a minute, wait, this is a commitment. This is the way, yeah. To art. I mean, seriously, the idea that you said, we got to get this shot. Yeah. So you're telling me that you make a deal with the Red Stripe Beats, a Jamaican beer company,

to use their helicopter. Yeah. And you went up. It wasn't rigged for photography, so they had to tie me in with a rope. But we didn't notice there was an extra couple loops in the rope. So when we took off, we went out over the Bay of Kingston, turn real sharp, and I slid right out of the helicopter, camera and all. And I was dangling by the rope.

And let me tell you, you get your spiritual life. straightened out in those kind of moments. How far from the actual helicopter were you, like you were basically, you could almost touch it, but? Oh, yeah, six feet probably. See, that's just unpleasant right there. But the helicopter pilot jerked it back and literally almost threw me back in. I got back in, tied up the rope, and we went and got the shot.

And so that's what you have to do. And after that, you got the shot? Yeah, we got to get the shot. Come on. That's why I'm there. Wow. So, yeah, that's part. And we do a lot of documentary films, and we work with a lot of nonprofit organizations who are doing amazing work all over the world.

So we've been in some really interesting situations. Love it. That's amazing. So you've written so many books. The new one is called Ideas on a Deadline, How to Be Creative, When the Clock is ticking. You've done a lot of work around this idea of creativity. Well, you know what? There's a lot of creative books out there, creativity books out there.

But most people think to be creative, you have to sit on the back porch until the creative muse hits or the firefly. falls from heaven. But the truth is, you and I have lived our career in broadcasting. They're not going to delay your radio show because you don't have a good idea for the segment. Well, look, it's the same with writing. Like you have a deadline. People say, like, you know, as you got to this pine cabin by a lake, and I think, what are you talking about? It's like, it's work. It's like moving bricks. It's hard work, and you do the work. But it's not, I think people have some crazy ideas about creativity. One of my favorite quotes is artist Chuck Close, who said,

inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. That's the way it is. It's a great quote. I love that. Yeah. And so I wrote the book to really help people talk about ideas that I've used in my career and that other people have used and the research out there about how to really kickstart ideas

when you're up against the deadline and you're coming up with nothing. And you have to learn to do it. And there's some really interesting ways. So I find it fascinating. So the book will be out in May and I'm really excited about it. Well, that's cool. And what is Kathy up to? Kathy's doing great.

We've launched a nonprofit called the Influence Lab, and she's got a group of women in Hollywood that she brings together on a quarterly basis, who are producers and writers and directors, Influencelab.com. You can find out about it, where they just kind of inspire each other and try to connect and grow, and she's doing, she's really, really busy. Well, I love it. The two of you are a wonderful example of a couple who are, devoted in terms of faith and devoted in terms of creativity and other things.

It's one of the reasons I've liked you all these years. I keep bumping into you not just the things like at NRB, but everywhere. Do you remember when we bumped into each other when I was in, I still can't believe this. This is like a dream. I was in, well, I was in Wittenberg after my Luther book had come out. My book, I'm Martin Luther. And I'm in Wittenberg because Matt, Crouch wanted to do a TBN special on Luther. And I thought, what a crazy idea to fly, you know,

across the ocean to do this thing with everything. And I was, we were taking a break. We're just sitting there to get a cup of coffee to rest for a second. And you walked, and I thought, wait a minute. Like, I'm on the other side of the world. I'm just absolutely. We were filming a project for the Museum of the Bible. Yes. And my wife said, you know what? I'm worn out. Let me go get a cup of coffee. She goes to get a cup of coffee. She goes back and said, you're not going to believe who's in the coffee shop. So we walked in. It was great. What are the odds? It's incredible. Well, Vittenberg is one of those places where I guess, you know, you may bump into fellow Christian believers, of course, because it's a, but it was still so, it was absolutely bizarre. So I bumped into you in at least two continents,

on at least. Well, that's usually the only time we ever meet is on another continent. So that works out for me. Right? Yeah. But right now we're on. the continent of the Gaylord. It is a continent. It's this a Disneyland for country music fans, I guess, right? You think so? Maybe. That's really depressing.

Albin has given me the high sign. I think we're out of time. Okay, folks, you have an assignment. If you're on Instagram, follow Phil Cook and appreciate the fact that some of us get banned, get shadow banned, get canceled. This is real, and I think we need to talk about it. my friend Phil Cook, God bless you. Thanks for what you're doing. Thanks for speaking up for the truth. Ladies and gentlemen, again, his website is Phil Cook. That's Cook with an E. Philcook.com.

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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? You guys, why does 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? Because this 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 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 realize that one of the secrets that I would say leads to success, eventual success, is that I think, 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,

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 at 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 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 the throw it all on black or

throw it all on red. It would be very easy for me. You have a gambling problem? Well, that is that what this is about. Metaphorically. That's for another show. Okay. That's for another show, quite literally. But my point is my natural state as a risk taker and as an entrepreneur was 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 the 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 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 would sometimes take $5,000. Test this. Test this word. Right. 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 have an idea and I've kind of researched it, I don't have a timid business partner that's like, oh, well, 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 are 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, test, we'll 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.

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 for my audience, I know that you care about this. This is not about, hey, we've got a business. No, 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. We'd love to talk with them. We've got a two-minute video on there that they will really. really enjoy. At talbot group.com. Yes. Hey, folks.

Uh-oh, we got a lot of announcements. It's the end of the week, Albin. I want to get this all in. Get it all in. Number one, nutrometics.com. This is the week that they said 25% off if you use the code Eric. So if you're interested, actually, you should go there just to see what they offer, because I'll bet you that you're already taking all this stuff that you should be taking every single day.

vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc. These are the kinds of things that, you know, you're probably getting them to CVS or someplace where the quality is not that good. Let me be honest, folks. Quality is not going to be that good. Neutrametics is known for having super high quality. This is a, you know, I said there's a doctor here in New York that I visited. Yeah. And he goes, oh, Neutrametics, right?

I mean, they are known in that world, super high quality. But, but they give 25, sorry, they give 50. They give 50% of their profits. So they've given away millions of dollars to third world missions. So think about this. When you're buying vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, reservatrol, quercetin, blah, blah, blah, blah. But some people, you know, they have something that helps you sleep a little bit. They have, they have all kinds of stuff.

We don't have time to go into it, but I want to say that all that stuff, you are helping fund third world missions. The head of the company, Tim Eaton, I've spent time with him. He's the real deal. We've had him on this show. So they're dedicated to giving away many, many millions of dollars to missions, and they're doing it with the profits from this extraordinary company, nutrometics.com. Neutrametics.com. Use the code Eric, and this week only 25% off. So got to say that, okay?

Number one. Number two, this weekend I'm going to be in, let's see, I'm going to be in Chad's Ford, Pennsylvania, Glenn Mills, Pennsylvania. If you want to know where I'm going to be, all you have to do is go to Ericmetaxis.com, and every time I'm booked to speak some place or to preach some place or to do a Socrates in the city. A bell rings. A little bell rings, yeah. And you go to Ericmetaxis.com where it says speaking or whatever. my schedule is there. So if you want to stalk me, and let me say this also, many people haven't signed up for the newsletter.

Or, you know, you know our friend Oz Guinness? Oh, yeah. Okay, Oz Guinness is going to be on the show to talk about his new book, right? A couple weeks. So I emailed him, and he said to me, I've fallen off your newsletter list. I get this all the time. But imagine Oz Guinness, the great Oz Guinness, is like, you know, he's thinking that I kind of, I kicked him to the curb. and I was like, Oz, this is the problem with the, I don't know how this happens, but people say,

I just stopped getting your updates. Folks, we know big tech is evil, evil, I tell you. So please go to Eric Mataxis.com and sign up for the newsletter. And even if you're already signed up, put in another email or put in, because this is just what I have to deal with on a daily basis. I don't want to get into it. All right. I also want to remind you our sponsors, mystore.com, my pillow. dot com, use the code Eric, and you get huge discounts. But most important, this is the last day.

Today is the last day to give to food for the poor. We've had a very hard time this month. Everybody's distracted. I'm asking you, folks, if you care about the poor in places like Central America, if you care about what's going on in the Ukraine, I want to ask you to give whatever you can to food for the poor. They are an extraordinary organization. I'll give you the phone number, but you can also go to the website, metaxistalkis talk.com, not Ericmetaxis.com, that's my website. Metaxistalkis talk.com. You'll see it. Help Ukraine. They need our help. If you haven't participated, this is the last chance. I'm asking you, please do that. And if you can call the number, here it is. 844-863. Hope. 844-863. Hope. Let me spell it because you're going to do it.

now please 844-863 hope