Trading Secrets - 224. Mimi Bouchard: From a net worth of $8 to becoming a decamillionaire! The secrets to rewiring your subconscious, utilizing Activations, and building your dream life

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

This week, Jason is joined by entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, and through leader in the self-improvement and wellness space, Mimi Bouchard! Mimi is the founder and CEO of the hugely popular Activations app, a groundbreaking luxury motivational audio platform that has revolutionized meditation. Founded just two years ago, the app has quietly garnered tens of thousands of subscribers, generated millions in annual revenue, and changed the way we approach personal growth. Mimi’s success story began with a simple practice—listening to visualization audios—which helped her become everything she had ever dreamed of. In this episode, Mimi dives into the importance of not relying solely on motivation, strategies for overcoming fear, the psychology and science behind the Activations app, and the transformative power of reprogramming your Reticular Activating System (RAS). She also shares how a voice memo to herself sparked the creation of the app, how to step into your future self, and why embracing the “woo-woo” nature of her practice is essential. Additionally, Mimi discusses how ChatGPT can help you visualize your ideal day, the cost of building her app, and her most valuable learning moment as an entrepreneur. She also introduces her new book, Activate Your Future Self: The Secret to Effortlessly Becoming the Happiest, Healthiest, and Wealthiest You. Don’t miss out—visit Activations.com/secrets to claim a two-week free trial and a major discount on yearly subscriptions. Mimi unveils all this and so much more in an episode you can’t afford to miss!                                              Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guest: Mimi Bouchard Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals! GEICO:  Invest in your future by protecting your car, home, pet, RV, and more with GEICO. Get a quote today at https://on.gei.co/41ppSLv Boll & Branch: Build the coziest bed imaginable with Boll & Branch, makers of the iconic bedding that will change the way you relax and sleep. Change the way you sleep with Boll & Branch. Get 15% off, plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at BollAndBranch.com/tradingsecrets  Indeed: When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed's Sponsored Jobs help you stand out and hire fast. There’s no need to wait any longer–speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. To get a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility, head over to Indeed.com/SECRETS Tonal: Tonal is the world's smartest workout that effortlessly fits into the busiest lifestyles. And with the latest iteration - Tonal 2 - you can ensure your workout is more tailored and effective than ever. For $200 off your Tonal purchase, go to tonal.com and use promo code TRADINGSECRETS.

Welcome back to another episode of trading secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tardick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment. We're going to tell you a little bit about what you can expect from today's guest, a quick financial tip and an update from my life. Today's guest is Mimi Bouchard. Now, I don't even really want to give you much of but here's what I'm going to tell you. From $8 to a deca millionaire or deca millionaire, if you need a good laugh in the recap, from $8 to a massive net worth on the theory of visualization, activation, and rewiring your mind. And yes, you're going to hear in this episode, I test a little bit. I'm like, okay, we're not going into woo-woo here. Like, I want technical, I want science. I want quantum physics. Explain to me how,

this works. And let me tell you this, Mimi Bouchard showed up and had the answers. This was an episode. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, where you live. You're going to take away something from this episode that you can instantly implement into your life. And I don't know. I just don't know what is in the water lately with our recaps. I don't know if it's 2025. change. I don't know if David and I are just more connected or more connected with ourselves, but these recaps are absolutely lit. And just honestly, please listen to today's recap. Just like the last three episodes, you've got to listen to these recaps. Also, because I'm curious, like, what do you think of them? Because we're just like pouring our brains

and hearts on the table lately, I feel like. And it feels good, a little scary. You know, I was joking around with David last week. I said something about how I was, I was lonely. And And in the last recap, and it hit a headline. And I'm like, fuck, because I don't, I don't want these things like where I'm, like, talking about my dating life to hit headlines. I just, I'm like, ah, here we go. And he's like, dude, just like embrace your vulnerability. Like, just let you be you, speak you.

And who cares about a headline, whatever, just be you. And I'm like, you know what? Thank you. You're a great friend for letting me be me and encouraging me to continue to be me. Okay, enough of that. But Mimi Bar Shard, you're going to love Mimi. these episodes. It's unbelievable. Quick little tip. Wake up call. Wake up call. As of today, when I'm recording, it's 52 days until tax day, which falls on April 15th, 2025. So one big

tip, make sure you have all your information organized, make sure that you are ready to go and maximize your deductions by contributing to tax advantage accounts like traditional IRAs, 401Ks, health savings accounts. You know, a little tip, what I'd say is go into any AI, chat GPT, and just say list every single tax advantage account I should be considering before tax deadline. You have 52 days. Make sure you are on it. A little update for my life. I talked a little bit about the RV life.

If you paid attention to the recap a few weeks ago, I'm giving a little test, a little baby test here. I am taking an RV with John Gurney. We are going to go from National Tennessee to New York City. I have to be up there for podcasting and to speak at TikTok headquarters. orders. So we're going to try it. We're going to see. We're going to test that a little bit. We have some other things to test out, too. We talk about those in the recap. So more to come. Enough of me. Let's get in it. I'm telling you, Mimi Bouchard, this one is a game changer. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today's episode is presented by Guyco,

but we are joined by entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, and thought leader in the self-improvement and wellness space. Mimi Boucher. Mimi is. is the founder and CEO of the incredibly popular Activations app. Her groundbreaking luxury motivational audio app was founded just two years ago. It is quietly amassed tens of thousands of subscribers and millions in yearly revenue and has changed the way we think about meditation from a net worth of $8 to now a decimillionaire. David, I know if you're listening. You're going to ask me what that means in the recap.

She came from nothing, from lonely to finding her dream partner. Mimi became everything she ever wanted by listening to visualization audios. I also want to let you know you could pre-order Mimi's debut book, Active Your Future Self Today. Mimi, thank you so much for joining us on sharing secrets. Thank you, Jason, for having me. And wow, my PR team really knows that it big me up with that intro, so I really appreciate it. I mean, just so I always love to talk behind the scenes. There's a lot of most of the guests that we have, have PR, and they give us prep.

I will tell you this. Your PR team of any PR team 200 plus episode was the best at prepping us. So you got the PR team. Well, maybe there's so much to talk about. I mean, your story is so cool. You think about like rock bottom to where you are. And I know everyone here listening wants to hear all your tips, all your strategies, the ways they can implement change in life the way you did.

But what we're going to start with? Because this episode is sponsored by GEICO. I have some GEICO theme questions. We're going to do three of them. And they're going to be centered around. Consistency is key. Making big life changes without fear, investing in your future. You ready to rip into this?

Let's go. All right. Consistency is key. Just like how GEICO emphasizes consistency in saving money for its customers, building a strong mindset and daily habits require consistency. How do you help people stay committed to their personal growth journeys, even when motivation fades? I always say you cannot rely on motivation if you want to create your best life,

because it fades so quickly. We've all felt that. So what you really need to do and how I teach people to change their lives is not to rely on motivation. It's actually to create a new self-image that aligns with the version of you that already has everything you want. Because when you change your self-image, you naturally start making different decisions and you're naturally more consistent with the things that you want to achieve in your life. So I would say I help people get to the core of why they want that thing and who they need to become most importantly to create that that life that they desire. And that's all through self-image reprogramming work and simply rewiring your mind to become the new self, your future self. I love it. We're going to get

into the intricacies of all that rewired prep. And I totally agree. I just think about self-image like when my switch is off. Like when my self-image switches off and I'm just like letting loose, I make the worst decisions when it comes to like my eating habits or working out. And when my switches on and I like have this positive image direction and energy. It's all tightened up. So I completely agree with that. Your point about motivation is bang on. And I feel like that's where discipline comes in in a huge way. But let's go to number two, which is making big life changes without fear. Geico simplifies the process of switching insurance, helping customers make confident, stress-free decisions. You have made several bold life pivots. How do you approach major

life and career changes with confidence? And what advice do you have for those of us afraid to take that week. Whenever it comes to fear, I always just ask myself, will you regret this at the end of your life if you don't do it? Because being in tune with our mortality, I think is the most important thing if you're feeling fear because it reminds you that life is so short, you don't have another go at things once it's over. And I know that sounds grim, but it really does remind you of how important it is to live your life fully. And if you feel like an opportunity is there, and that you're feeling so much fear about starting or moving to that place or creating this new career, you need to remember that you likely will regret this at the end of your life if you don't do

it. And that fear of regret is overpowering for me. It helps me overcome any fear of doing the thing in the moment. So that's what I would say is connect with your mortality and remember that life is so freaking short and you just have to be that ultimate version of yourself, your potential You have to at least taste it and experience that life before, you know, you're 80 years old and it's too late. Yeah, it's perfectly said. I mean, I think when like you reverse engineer these things, it makes you, it gives you different perspective and changes those big, those big life decisions that you've got to be made. So I couldn't agree more with you. Let's go to number three, investing in your future.

People often view insurance as an investment in their future security. In the same way, investing in personal development is a long-term game. How do you convince people that prioritizing their mindset and mental well-being is just as essential as financial security? Well, absolutely. It really is. And I love what you said there about that like investor's mentality. That's something that I've actually written about in my book.

I like to have an investor's mentality with everything in my life from finances, obviously, but also with my health and my, you know, personal development and my relationships. If you start to take on this investor's mentality towards every aspect of your life, you're going to reap the benefits of that compound effect that you also, you know, achieve when you are in the market for a long time. So, yeah, it's just understanding that, you know, small, like little habits every day really does add up to something big. And as humans were always, you know, looking to do like this big thing to make a big change. But in reality, you know, as, as annoying as it is to say, like, the small, daily consistent habits are the ones that make the biggest, biggest difference. Okay. Unbelievable.

Well, it's a good transition, right? Because I said in the intro, but you go from $8 of net worth to now a decimillionaire. And this morning, I was on the Activations app. And I was walking around and I was listening to the activation that was geared around the amount of money you want to make in a year. And a lot of the things that you're saying in this activation were about like picturing what that looks like, what the affordability looks like, what the cash flow looks like. What would you do with the money? So peel, you know, the onion back, you know, give us a little look behind the curtain here. How is like the psychology? Like how does that actually work when we're listening to these activations on the app where we'll truly rewire and rain for it to happen? Because I'll even tell you, like I remember five, six years ago, I thought, man. manifesting. And I thought the idea of activating your brain in a certain way to achieve something was just garbage. I'm like, no, you just got to do it. You can't just think it. And then it comes true

like poof. But I've learned in the last five, six years, it is a very, very real thing. But talk to me about like the science behind it. Show us a little behind the current how it works. Yeah, absolutely. So specifically with activations, the new type of audio that I've developed. It is not meditation. It's activation. It's motivational audio that helps you visualize your future. self an everyday moment. So the science behind activations that meditation doesn't necessarily have is that you're listening to these activations in everyday moments while you're cleaning while you're in the shower while you're driving while you're getting ready in the morning while you're walking. And just like how Pavlov's dog theory, we all heard of this theory, you know, Pavlov rings the bell,

the dog salivates, that is classical conditioning. When you are using your brain and you're thinking these new thoughts and you're experiencing a new state of being tied to everyday moments like every morning when you're getting ready or every day when you're walking your dog, you really start to change very, very quickly. And this is one of the most, you know, incredible things about activations is that you can just have it stack it. You can listen to it in everyday moments and it's actually rewiring your brain as your eyes are open as you're experiencing your life as your future self in these everyday moments. So that's one piece of science. Another is that activations help reprogram the RAS in your brain. We all have

a filtration system in our brains called the RAS. It's the reticular activating system. And the reticular activating system acts as essentially a filtration system in our brains. If we didn't have an RAS, we'd literally, our brains would explode with information because there's so much happening around us at all the times. You'd be noticing the air conditioning sound in the background. You'd be noticing the siren, you know, happening over there, the light flippering there, our brings up to be way too much information overload. So the RAS is a good thing. And a great example of what the RAS, when it's triggered is, for example, like if you're thinking of buying a red convertible and you start seeing it everywhere, that's your RAS in action. So when you

reprogram your RAS and you ask it to filter new information, you start to see opportunities that haven't, that you once hadn't seen. And the same thing acts as it. if you have a belief system in your mind that, you know, says, I'm a victim and I can't create success in my life. Your RAS is going to be programmed by that belief and it's going to look for reasons why if you are a victim in your life. So these activations really help you rewire your mind. They embed new belief systems into your brain and it helps reprogram your RAS because your RAS is programmed by your beliefs and your thoughts that you have repeatedly. So when you start really, you know, thinking to yourself with these activations, like I am.

an abundant person, opportunities come to me. You know, I'm a lucky person. Things are happening exactly as they should in my life. You start to actually see and notice reasons all around you why that is the truth. And that's pretty incredible because our brains have that power. And so many of us think that life just happens to us and it is how it is. But the difference between someone who is very successful and creates success for themselves versus someone who is stuck in this cycle of just not doing enough, not creating enough, is, I believe, their subconscious mind because it's what being presented to them, their RAS, is showing them opportunities. Interesting.

It's the science of manifestation, and it's this idea of rewiring, just like the subconscious mind and how to reposition, rethink things. And I think all of us can relate to, even like, rather the most basic theory is, like, you hear about something you never knew before, and all of a sudden you see it every, right? like that's the most basic thing or the red corvette scenarios exactly exactly what we're talking about and this podcast we also talk obviously a lot about money right so it's a business and money podcast talk to me a little bit about your story so how give us the example of how activations allowed you to rewire your subconscious which then led to your financial success of having a net worth

of almost nothing to being a destined millionaire like give us the example that was specific to you Yeah, and it's kind of a crazy story because this shouldn't have happened to me, Jason. Like, I'm a 28-year-old girl. My parents didn't have a lot of money. Like, they're artists. Like, I kind of, I grew up in Toronto, Canada, and then I moved to London when I was 19, and I kind of just tried basically everything to be a successful entrepreneur. But at 28 years old, like this really, the odds were not in my favor being so young, being able to create a, you know, a business like this and to see the success I see today. I truly pinch myself every day. but I am truly a product of the work that I do.

And back in 2017, I was getting really into personal development. I was broke. Like I literally had $8 in my bank account. And I was partying a lot. Like I felt like absolute shit. And I was doing a lot of drugs and just like I was just lost and broke and unhappy. And like my body didn't feel good. I had never been in a relationship before.

I was just numbing a lot. And then I started getting into self-help and personal development. And this was before it was cool. By the way, this was almost a decade ago. This was, you know, when all personal development books just had like an old white guy on the cover with their thumbs up. And it was like lame to read. But I got really into it for some reason. And I started doing what all these books were telling me to do, what all the Tony Robin seminars on YouTube were telling me to do. And the one thing I couldn't get into was meditation. And I really tried because I was learning about all. you know, the reasons why visualization helps you so much achieve this life. And I was really trying to do the thing, but I just couldn't stick to it. I couldn't stick to meditation. I felt like my mind worked so quickly. And I felt like I just didn't want to sit and think about nothing. It didn't make sense to me as to how that would help me reach my goals of being, you know, wealthy and happy and, you know, in a beautiful relationship. Like, I didn't understand how that had the effect. And of course, meditation's amazing if you want to calm your nervous system and de-stress. But I just, I didn't

want something, you know, to help me do that. I wanted something to invigorate me. I wanted something to help me just excel and I wanted it to launch me into this new self image. So really out of nowhere, one random day in 2017, I decided to take out my phone to open up the voice memo app on my phone. And I kind of just recorded a visualization to myself. This was a description of my future life. And I explained in depth how it felt to be abundant, how it felt to have millions in the bank, how it felt to be able to retire my parents, how it felt to have whatever I wanted and have an amazing relationship with a man who's just incredible. And I'd only dealt with Buck boys up to that point. So it was definitely a big visualization for me. You know, just I described

it. And that I would listen to this audio every day while doing the dishes, while going on, you know, the bus to work while just doing everyday activities. And then I got bored of it after a few days, so I recorded another one. And then I wanted to add inspiring music behind it to really, like, you know, enhance the effect. So I did that on garage band. And then I just started creating this full collection of the original activations for myself without even realizing that I would be sharing the world years later. And then fast forward, years and years past, I had tried many different businesses. And then one day I decided to share some of these activations with my audience because you know why not and they blew up when i tell you jason that overnight i had like

thousands of people subscribing to this random you know platform the original activations platform to use these activations it was pretty insane like the word of mouth growth was out of control so the business mind in me was thinking okay well great product market fit what can i do i'm going to create an app i'm going to trademark activations create a whole brand around it i'm going to start creating loads of these now there's over 700 activations on the app and we work with like the world's top composers for some of the best movies and we it's really this whole thing now and yeah I launched the brand three and a half years ago and it's like it's insane we had our first million dollar month last month and we haven't raised any money I food strapped it myself I have a very small team like I ended up like moving to

the Bahamas and it's just been like a pretty incredible experience so I am a product of what I preach And this work has just radically changed my life. I'm also just very good at manifesting at this point. I feel like, you know, I remember the months that I knew I was going to hit my first six figure month. And I was doing all the things. And I was really stepping into this new self image. I had to get so familiar with the feeling of being comfortable making that amount of money. And I remember my, you know, I knew which months these certain financial milestones would happen just because I'm so familiar. tuned in. And now it's actually beyond my own story, pretty crazy to see our users stories. Like, we have tens and tens of thousands paying users and they literally change their lives.

And we get messages. We have a whole Slack channel internally called customer love. And we just share, like our customer support team shares like dozens of these incredible stories every day. And it's just pretty incredible to see that not only did it change my life because obviously I created the business and

there's a bit of a tie there. But seeing other people that are just normal people, you know, like randomly start a business that kicks off or finds the love of their life or, you know, finally just feels good in their body for the first time because they've achieved the self-image of someone who has a certain, you know, look and, you know, just every single goal that you have can be related down to this self-image reprogramming work that, you know, activations helps you achieve. So all in all, it's been a pretty wild experience. It is surreal. I still feel like now it just has made me believe in the work so much more because it just shouldn't have happened. Like it shouldn't have happened like this.

Yeah. Think about how interesting that is that activations of the idea of visualization is what you were doing to put yourself in a better position. And weirdly enough, it was just sharing visualizations that you were doing that turned you into where you are today. The question I have for all my analytical and literal listeners out there, the idea of I'm going to predict what I make six figures in a month or I'm going to predict when I do this. It sounds like a little woo-woo. Like I'm for my literal people. So talk to me about this for my analytical minds like me, how long do I have to be doing visualizations to really start to see the rewiring happen, to start saying in my head like, okay, it's going to be October this year that I make this

much. Like, talk to me about that. Yeah. And I will have, preface this was saying that, you know, I don't say that you can get things in a certain amount of time to the public. Like, I'm just, maybe it's coincidence when it's happened to me, but the, I guess, principles and manifestation is that you can't decide on when. You can just decide on what you want. I know deep down that if I have a goal, I can't achieve it, but the timing is not always up to me. But going back to your question, it's less out how long you need to visualize for. It's more how quickly can you be your future self now. So if some random person off the side of the street is just really good at

acting as if and embodying this new self energy, they could become that version of them right now. And then, you know, it's just a matter of time for that to manifest into reality, the things that that future self version of them has and the life they get to experience. But it's really just about being that version of you in this moment. That's what all this work comes down to. You know, you, the listeners listening right now, you don't even need to use activations to do this. It's just a tool I've created to make it easy. You can do this yourself right now, like, whatever you're doing, you can just step into that future self-feeling. And when I say energy, I don't want that to come across to woo-woo, even though, you know, it is a little woo-woo. It is because energy is something you can't physically see. But it exists. And scientists have measured biofields around human bodies.

I write about this in my book. Like, there is a lot of science to prove a lot of the, research that we've been sharing. But I will say there is also a lot that's not fully proved yet. You know, I have one foot into the science world, but I also have one foot into more of the woo-woo world and where I'm looking at quantum physics theories that state, you know, that energy attracts like energy or, you know, you can always step into a new reality. There is, you know, this quantum physicist that I like to study, his name is Bedeem Zeeland. He wrote Reality Transurfing, this book that was translated from Russian. It's this human book about his theories on quantum physics and what he believes is reality. And what he states

to be true is that there are at any given moment unlimited lifelines slash parallel realities at any given moment. And he states that if you align yourself with a certain lifeline energetically, you can just immediately step into that. You can like lead into that new lifeline. So I know this sounds very woo-woo, but I kind of have started to realize that that's what I've experienced in my life, I feel like when I change my baseline of energy, how I'm, and when I say baseline of energy, I mean, how I'm feeling, how I'm feeling about myself, my personality, how I feel like I'm coming across, how, you know, my, just the energetic field around my body, it feels specific. And when I am in the state of, you know, just pure abundance and unlimitedness

and love and opportunity, good things will happen to me. And that's not to say that bad things never will happen to me, but it means that my response to it will end up making it a positive situation. There's something that I read once that really stuck with me. It was about five years ago. I read this in a book and it's the event plus your response equals your outcome. Not the event equals the outcome. It's the event plus your response. You're 50% of the outcome. So yes, bad things can happen to you when you're in this magnetic state, but your response is 50% of the outcome. So just remember that. And I have no idea. I forget what the question was, Jason. I hope I answered it. I just went on a full tangent. Oh, no, you answered it and tenfold. I was just

over here listening. I forgot I had to interview you. But no, I think that's really cool. That's interesting because like with why I go to therapy, we talk a lot about reaction versus response. And so it's fascinating to take, you know, therapy work and tie it into the idea that an event plus your response will actually equal your outcome. You did not say event plus reaction equals outcome. So I find that interesting. And it's just like there's there's so much here because is a little, like, you know, where the questions stem from, right? It's like, how long do you have to do this? And, like, what would expect?

And your answer was exactly what I would expect. It's not literal. It's not analytical. It's not a perfect blueprint. It's interesting because people like me, and there's definitely people that would listen to the show that are very analytical and literal want that subscription to the answer. It's going to take 10 days.

It's going to take 10 hours. And what's interesting for any of my analytical people out there, my literal people out there is someone who has, like, been battling with this to overcome it and start to step in. to things like visualization, manifestation, activation, I will tell you it's the very thing that makes us literal, which puts the ceiling on our expectations, and actually is decreasing the likelihood of the success

that we always want to live because we think that percentages are always going to be the outcome of what should occur. Like how many people out there see something big, oh, that couldn't happen to me, or, oh, no, they just got lucky, or that's not my world, or, oh, the chances of that are zero. Well, when you're saying that, you're now exactly doing what everything Mimi's talking about in the opposite direction. You're rewiring your brain to say it's not achievable, to say it can't happen, to say the likelihood is too small. And so as an analytical person and a literal person, I could tell you, battling and like, and taking that for like the good and making sure I'm using it in a productive way, but not a negative way is something I've been working on for years now.

And you know what? the other just quickly on that thought jason like the other thing to keep in mind when you have those analytical more maybe pessimistic thoughts come in it's like which belief will serve me more like would you rather be right or happy and i really do believe in the placebo effect that if you believe something you know you're more it's more likely to happen and that's another i guess you know piece of proof to all of this work it's like maybe manifestation is completely fake but the placebo effect is completely real. Like you have no idea. There is obviously a lot of proof to share, you know, the neuroscience like I was sharing earlier, the RAS and Pavlov's dog theory, but it's like which

belief is going to serve you more? You know, is it going to serve you more if you believe that you stepping into this new identity and this new self-image is going to help you because you're already going to be happier, even waiting for the thing to happen because you're in this new future self-image energy. You're already feeling happier. You're already feeling more abundant. you're already feeling more magnetic and it's actually fun to be in the process of it it's not like oh i'd like to do 10 of these activations and i'll finally you know get to this goal it's like this is a way of life if you want to just enjoy your life more and start living as your future self right now like being that person right now that's the trick to it all because then you start responding like that

person you're in a room full of people and you start exuding that energy of that person people will come up to you, you know, like, they'll respond to you differently. And that's really the trick of it all. It's just to be that person now. It's so simple, this work. It's, it's being them in this moment. And it is, I'll tell you, it is very fun. Because as I was walking around today on the Activations app and I was listening to it, I started to like tell myself what I was hearing. And I remember when I was walking today, I was like kind of looking up. And I was like, wait, what would it be like if I made a million dollars a month? I'm like, wow. And, and, Everyone that's hearing this right now, you're probably thinking a million dollars a month shot up, like, right?

Like, that's what I'm thinking. But then you, like, just for a second, like, close your eyes and you think about, like, okay, if you made a million this month, just let's picture it. Like, what would you spend it up? And as I'm walking, I'm actually seeing votes and stuff, man, I get a badass vote or something like that. And it's fun. It is fun. You're right.

So it's not like it's like you're going to the gym, grinding your ass off, just sweating. And like, it's actually like a fun exercise. So I believe in that. And then the other thing, too, maybe is I saw that you were referenced in this. article, and they interviewed you, and it was about this idea that people are now using chat GPT to help them achieve their dream life. And in this article, I was just like reading and I'm like, no way that some of the kids these days, or Gen Z's, or people that are really leveraging AI are like typing in the life that they want. And then chat, GPT is actually

helping them with the visualization. Tell me a little bit more about this. Oh, yeah, I don't even, was this like a Cosmo article. I think I was like randomly emailed. Yeah, I actually, news me. It was, I knew. Oh, okay. I think, yeah, I don't even remember, to be honest, which are. But yes, like, there's this trend right now. I think on TikTok happening and it's like asking chat GPT to like help me visualize my ideal day when I've achieved all of my goals. And that is so Gen Z. You're right. Like, I think, I don't even know. I think I'm a millennial. I'm like on the cusp. I'm 96. So I don't really identify as Gen C. I don't really know what they're up to. But I know that they're cool kids are on chat GPT. Well, I use it too. But I have a. actually done this particular exercise, but yes, it is very interesting people leveraging AI for it. I think that like just thinking into the future and it's going to be really cool when VR is more of a thing, you could like put on your headset and really visualize your future life and like be on stage in front of, you know, 100,000 people or like receive a Grammy or, you know, have these big incredible life experiences happen to you like in VR. I thought about that before

how cool it will be when technology is there. Like I just think, taking advantage of technology to, you know, create this amazing life. It's a no brainer. Why not? Anything that makes it more real. Well, I already talked about stats in literal and analytical, and I have some stats for everyone out there. Ninety-one percent of users feel shift after trying activation for the first time I felt I was one of that 91 percent today. I've never done it before. 74 percent of users experience a life-altering transformation in just 90 days. But I want to get some stats from you. So for anybody that's interested in even building an app or want to know more about your app.

You know, you said you self-funded it, bootstrap. So what did it cost to build the app? And then talk to us just a little bit about some of the numbers behind the business, revenue users, stuff like that. Yeah. So actually, when I first launched, this is a reason why I, how I was able to bootstrap it. Because obviously before then, it's not like I came from loads of money and had family invest in it.

Like, it was, this is fully how I created this business from the ground up without having any money really at the beginning. So like I mentioned, when I first had the idea to start sharing activations, I had like a website. It's called U-Sscreen. It's a really good like starter subscription website where I basically just paid a couple hundred dollars a month and had a subscription platform that people, like the whole tech was behind this like third party, like a U-screen. And so I released all the activations on there just to get that product market fit. And it really was a low cost. And I was creating all the activations myself. I would like pick the music myself,

being garage band myself, like editing it together. It was. budget. And then people started really, you know, catching on. And within, I think, the first four months, I had reached, I think, like a 30K MRR monthly recurring revenue. And that was genuinely from just word of mouth. Like, I don't have, you know, millions of followers. I have, you know, like, under 200K. Like, it's not like it's, like it's, it's not like it's, it's this crazy big audience that was going to make me a millionaire immediately. But people started listening and they started telling their friends about it. And just this, like, social proof was a really big part of our business growth and a lot of businesses that you see that are even pre-revenue

that are just looking to raise money through VCs. Like they don't even, the biggest thing that they're looking for is product market fit. They have the concept, but they don't even know if they have product market fit. And me, in my entrepreneurial, you know, experience has always thought more logically, like, that's like the most important thing. I would never invest in a company that doesn't have product market fit. It's like the number one thing. You could theorize all you want, but the biggest most important thing in any business is to test it. And we do so much user testing in my business. So I were very obsessed with just getting that data. So I decided once we hit 30K MRR, then now it was time to invest in an actual app that we could really, you know, personalize more.

And it looks more like an audio app. And then when I did that, I still didn't have like a quarter of a million dollars that it would cost to create an app from scratch. So what I did is I just spent so many hours Googling top app development agencies. And I found one that had claimed to have worked with Headspace when they first started out. And I met with the founder. And I basically pitched him for him to create a whole wing in his company that licenses apps. So he had like a pre-built model that would that would have been a good plug and play for an audio app. And I essentially just like, I convinced him to license the app to us for like 10K a month instead of me paying two, three, four hundred K for a fresh app. So really just like thinking

outside the box here because I really wanted a custom app that was better than what I had previously, but I also didn't have enough to make a fully custom app and to obviously hire full in-house team of engineers. That's like completely, it's like a hundred K a month investment minimum. So and we still don't even have that. So we outsource to a lot of agencies and contractors. We do things quite differently. Because I live in the Bahamas, the company is based here. Like, we legally don't pay tax. And we've had to think about things really differently because it's not like we write things off. You know, if I lived in L.A. or New York, I'd have this big fancy office that I'd just write off. I don't have that because everything we spend here just comes out of profit. So we think about things.

So there's no, and this is totally detory. I'm just curious. There's no tax in the Bahamas? No, I'm a Canadian, so I don't pay federal tax. So I literally don't pay tax. We've heard some crazy trading secrets today. That might be the wildest one. So because Because you're Canadian, you live in the Bahamas, you have no tax. No. Well, I pay like VAT and like, groceries here are expensive, but like I don't pay any income tax. No. And the craziest thing, Jason.

So remember when I told you that I just launched like the version one of the app with like the U-screen like third party platform? I had done that literally right when I moved to Bahamas because I had such a feeling I knew this was going to kick off. Like I didn't even, I started the business here basically. So I didn't even need to like I've never made real money. in a living in a tax jurisdiction. I've only, I moved to the Bahamas.

I was like, now I'm going to start making real money and then it just happened. Oh, but is this part of your visualization? You're like, I'm just going to make millions and then I have to pay tax. I'm like, and now visualization, I would never think of living in the Bahamas. And you tell me there's no state income tax, no federal tax. Now I'm like, sure I live in the Bahamas. And that's how things happen in life. But you, you live, you have a U.S. passport, don't you?

Yeah. So I'd have to pay federal. Yeah. But, yeah, you know, and maybe someone listening will benefit them. It's annoying. Yeah, the U.S. federal tax thing. But, you know, there are pros and cons. At the end of the day, like, my whole team's remote. Like, I would have loved to have an office and in-house team and, you know, everyone in person. But we don't have that. We do things very differently. It's essentially, you know, the gist of it. But yeah, so I started licensing the app and found a way to negotiate. I've always been very good at negotiating and thinking outside the box. And I think that's in one of my strong suits as an entrepreneur. So, yeah, I incentivize this company to create like a whole licensing wing. in their agency and license it from them. And oh my gosh.

And then a few years ago when we started making good money and we were able to like, you know, investing, creating an app from scratch, we started working with this team based in L.A. with all these, you know, California-based developers. We thought they were the best of the best. So top rated on all the, you know, app development agency, you know, rating websites.

And they, we basically worked with them for a year and a half, building a new app. And we sent an incredible, amount of money with them. And then they delivered us a faulty product. I think this was in the middle of COVID. And my theory, we're now in a lawsuit with them. But my theory is that they just like were understaffed and just stopped putting enough money towards our project. And maybe, you know, they just thought that we would be okay with it because we're a small company and that, you know, la-di-da, we'd just like migrate tens of thousands of users to this new app and

deal with it. But unfortunately, they didn't realize, I guess, that, you know, we're, a serious company and this we weren't able to migrate tens of thousands of people to this new app that they had delivered us that had so much technical debt that we were advised from so many different people like don't even make the move so we are still dealing with that that was one of the biggest hits that you know at the end of the day it's fine and like I've I've learned a lot of lessons from it and we are going to try to get all of our money back and all of our damages back because of the amount of, you know, like they put us through. But, God, that was one of my biggest learning moments as an entrepreneur.

There was nothing more that we could have done, but I've wasted so much money, an entire year and a half of mine and my entire team's time in such an early stage in the business. That was another big business lesson I learned. It's like, don't think something that isn't broken. The licensed app, like, wasn't broken and everyone loves the app. We never got any feedback that they wanted a new fancy app. And I just, because we were making all this money, I was like, okay, product, product, product.

I've always been so product obsessed. And I was like, let's just invest, you know, so much money into a new app. And then we, it just didn't work with this company and they scammed us. How much money did they scam me for? Well, the app was like 200 something K and then not even including that. Their team stopped like project managing it. So it was basically me and my head of growth, like talking to their, you know, developer, like directly. and, you know, project managing the whole thing,

QAing the entire thing. It was like all of it. It was so much. It wasn't just the money I paid them. It was the amount of time myself and my whole team sent for a year and a half doing the work they should have been doing. It was just crazy. But I'm just curious though.

Like in those situations, like when you said you're going to go to court, like what is usually the outcome? Is it like a settlement or they claim bankruptcy or they pay? Like, what's the typical? I don't even, I know how much I'm supposed to be saying, actually. I feel like I'm like, wait, we haven't even gone to court yet. I don't know how much it should be sharing, but we have a very good case. Like, it's all in our favor.

We've tried to mediate and then they like don't, you know, answer and they're just very sketchy people. So, you know, we're trying our best to do this in the most appropriate way because it's also a huge strain on the business, legal costs. But you also need to protect, you know, what you've been, what you've built. And yeah, I think, you know, Jason, it's funny being like a young woman I've never thought, like honestly, I've never. subscribed to like me being a woman affecting me in a negative way in business like I just it's not myself image I don't subscribe to it but I will say there are certain things that I'm like these people just like you know some people really think that you know they they just they think this is like a little cute business and they don't realize that like we're going to come after them like I think

a lot of people just you know they underestimate me and yeah I have to be in my masculine energy with stuff like this, which I hate. The power of me, me, Bouchard, it goes deep, it goes deep. Maybe I got a question about this. We've talked business, we've talked numbers, we've talked visualization, and we've talked all about the app. One thing we haven't talked so much about, but I mentioned in your intro was how you went from, you know, being lonely by yourself to finding the dream partner.

And a lot of what you talk about inactivations, too, is the visualization of your inner circle, whether it's intimate inner circle or friendships or network. So talk to me just a little bit about what advice you have. for us on the personal side, if it is that we're looking to find our dream partner, we are looking to find a better network or we're trying to sharpen our inner circle to make sure we're being the best version of ourselves. Yeah. So something that I've learned is just from personal experience, honestly, is that, you know, you have to really be able to love yourself before being able to love

someone else as fully as you can. And I know that sounds like a motivational quote or something that is honestly true. Like I have been with my. fiance, Ben, now for seven and a half years. Like, he was literally, he's my first boyfriend. Wow. I actually recorded an activation, like, on October 12th, 2017, describing him, and I met him on October 13th, 2017. So the day before, which I'm telling you, like, weird timing things happened to me. But anyway, I, and, but when I first met him, I wasn't my best self. So I don't want to lie and tell the audience, oh, yeah, you could be your best self. and then you'll find him.

It's like, I met my person when I was like at my worst, honestly. And we've really had to grow together. And both of us individually, like we've grown in the same direction, which is why we're still here today and we're getting married this summer. And what I'll say, though, is that over that seven and a half year relationship, like, what I've learned about love is that the more that I can love myself and really just appreciate, you know, being alive in life, the more you appreciate and love the people around you. So it really starts with you. You're not

capable, I don't believe, of loving someone else fully until you love yourself fully. So when it comes to creating, you know, beautiful relationship, I would say that you just, you need to put yourself out there. Like so many of my friends are single and in their early 30s or, you know, late 20s and they want to find their person. But they're not doing anything. They're sitting at home and they're not like going out and meeting people. So that's like the biggest. thing I would say is just go out, meet people and just, you know, put yourself out there. My strategy with business is also it was with relationships. It's just like, try everything, bro spaghetti at the wall, see what stick. I love it. Well, let's wrap with this. I love the title

of your new book. My grandfather would always do the family toast, which was with hell, well, happiness, and all the time in the world to enjoy it. Your book, activate your future self, the secret to effortlessly becoming the happiest, healthiest, and wealthiest you. We have a lot of authors come on the show, some that are pitching their book. And I always give them the platform. I'm like, there's a lot of books out there. It's the toughest business out there. Talk to me. Someone's listening right now. Why should they pre-order it? What is special about your book? Yeah. Well, I've read a lot of personal development books. I've read hundreds in my life. And they always feel very complicated. So when I wrote this book, I wanted to make it very, very simple and

clear. And I didn't want people to finish reading the book and feel confused still. I wanted to give very tangible, you know, things that they could start doing immediately. So this book is truly my life's work. And it makes transformation effortless, which I know sounds crazy, but it's true. Once you achieve the self image of your future self, transformation does become effortless because you're already that person. You're already doing those things. So the challenge is becoming that new self. It's creating and defining and embodying that new self-image. And that's what the book helps you do because I want it to be effortless for people. And from personal experience, I've been through a whole, you know, insane journey of personal development. And I know what works

and doesn't work because from the first three to four years of my journey, like it was very, very slow growth. And then when I started applying these rules and principles and practices into my life, the second half of this decade-long journey, it was like this insane trajectory. It was like, you know, a bell curve on a graph. Like the amount of growth I experienced in such a short amount of time was pretty spectacular. So now I'm trying to, you know, help the world and share those exact things I did to just grow really fast. And I'm very, I'm an impatient person. So I like quick change. I like very, very tangible, measurable results in a short amount of time. And if you're looking to transform any area of your life, activate your future self is definitely

how to get there. It also teaches you how to create your own activations. It also tells you more about the science behind why this works and also goes into more of the, you know, more woo-woo side of things. It's really rooted in the middle. A lot of authors are either very woo-woo or like very pragmatic and scientific. I feel like I just believe in a little bit of both, basically. So I kind stand in the middle and I give proof essentially with every single belief system as to why this work works. And, you know, I like to say an atheist will call it the placebo effect. The spiritualist will call it the law of attraction. A scientist will call it quantum physics. Someone religious might call it God or prayer. It kind of is all the same thing in different languages.

So at the end of the day, whatever you believe, and even if you're very open to what you believe in, this book really does kind of apply to you because it just shows that this is the truth no matter what you call it. Yeah. It's like the common denominator of all those things. The one common denominator is just believing, right? Whatever if placebo to God, right? It's just the idea of believing in something more that can lead to that. So that is beautiful. Well, maybe it has been such a pleasure having you on. We have to wrap with your trading secrets. So what is one trading secret you can leave us with? Simplifying transformation. There's two steps. transformation. The first step is clarity. You must get crystal clear on your future self. You

must get so clear on how it feels to be your future self. Step two is becoming. You must be that version of you in everyday moments. That is it. If you want to transform any area of your life, if you want to make more money, you know, find the person of your dreams, change your body, your health, whatever it is, just change your life in general. If you follow those two steps, you will get there. Clarity and becoming. Clarity and becoming. I don't know. Clarity and becoming. I will pay attention. I'm going to start implementing this stuff. I already started my activations on the app today. Mimi, where can everyone find everything you have going on? The app, the book, all things you. Amazing. Thank you, Jason. Well, you guys can pre-order my book. By the time

this episode is out, it's probably already released. It's on Amazon or any other big book retailer that you can find. Just search, activate your future self by me, Mimi Bouchard, and you'll find it there. And you can also find me on Instagram at Mimi Bouchard. I don't post that often. I'm like half the time off Instagram, but when I post, I post. And I actually have a podcast called Activate as well. So the Activate Podcast, activate your future self-book. And then, oh, yeah, if you want to try Activations for two weeks completely free, we're actually, we did a big discount for your listeners, Jason, so they can just go to activations.com slash secrets. And they can take advantage of a two-week free trial and like a massive discount on the yearly subscriptions.

I love it. Well, thank you so much for giving our listeners that opportunity. Again, guys, I'll tell you, I did it today. It feels good. I like it. I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to subscribe to the visualization. And maybe Mimi, we're going to check back in a year to see what's going on with my life. There's certain areas of life.

Things are thriving. There's certain areas we need improvement. So we'll see. I'm on board with it. And Mimi Bouchard all the way from the Bahamas. Thank you so much for being on this episode of Shrek Secrets. Thanks, Jason. Ding, ding, ding.

We are closing in the bell to the Mimi Bouchard episode sponsored by my guy co i got the one the only david arduin with me here to break down what he thought david i've actually since the the day that i did this interview i was like i can't wait to see what david thinks because i can't tell if you're going to like hate it or you're going to love it i just don't know all right so you want to reveal you you told me that too and so typically i was going to go into it with an attitude and not like it and i did i went in an attitude where i'm like all right i'm just going to get through this i'm going to make my now it's going to do the recap and get out of here.

I mean, to say I was hooked, she hooked me early. And you hooked me early, too, with your intro. But I was hooked. I really was. I was really fascinated. I knew nothing about her, which is, I think, the best part. I do have some business questions to get to. But overall, like, I was hooked.

I think, you know, I think we'll talk about a little bit about this in the recap, but a little bit of where I am at in my life, this episode meant more than it did three months ago, six months ago to me. So I was definitely hooked into that. And I hope our listeners were too. I really did. So now, before we get into the weeds a bit here, I'm going to start where you started in the recap

where you said her net worth with $8 and then she became a decim millionaire. And you said, David, if you're listening to this, I know you're going to ask this in the recap. And here we are asking in the recap. So I'm going to start where you started in the intro, in the intro of the recap. What the hell? I've never even heard that term in my life.

Yeah, well, a D-E-C-A, that is from the Greek terminology, which means 10. So a D-A-Millionaire is someone who's worth more than $10 million. Now, the only thing I'll say is, like, I'll be honest with you, you know me. My biggest issue is pronunciation. I don't know if it's DECA or DESA, but I thought it was Dessa. I spelled it D-E-C-I in my notes, and I'm thinking decimals. And I'm like, is she not a millionaire then? Is she decimal millionaire?

Is that like a 0.8 millionaire? So Deca would make more sense. Decade, Deca, why are we just calling Deca, is that, I'm 38 years old, the first time I've ever heard Deca Millionaire. Is that a new thing? Are we bringing that back? Is that like a TikTok thing? Or is that always been a thing?

I'll be honest with you. I don't hear it often. I've seen like YouTube videos where it's like, you know, over the last few years, I think you've seen, like, be a decadillionaire. I think it might be Deca, actually. Has to be Deca. Deca. Deca.

We're just a little word game. Yeah. Did I pronounce it wrong with the entire episode? Probably. And then she's staring at there. I also have on my notes when she started at the very start of the, when you ask her question, she started about how the activations activate as RAS. And then she went on a massive tangent.

And let me tell you, this girl can talk. talk. She knows what she's talking about. But she started talking about RAS and I kind of checked out for a little bit and then I checked in and she was still talking about it and the conversation was so far over my head and all I have in my thing is this girl's smart as fuck. So kind of like

she was captivating in that sense and yeah, if she is smart talking about RAS and being in a deck of millionaire and you start the podcast talking about DESA millionaire, she's probably like this guy. This guy doesn't even know how to pronounce it. That doesn't even know how to pronounce it. it. You know what? Let's look this up. Once and for all, let's look it up.

All right, David, we got the answer. I knew the definition. Didn't know how I pronounce it. Standard Jason Tardick. It's Deca Millionaire. So it is not Deca Millionaire. It's Deca Millionaire, but it is the value net worth of over 10 million bucks. So there's your answer. For me and for you. Has it feels now you know how I feel. I know. I know. I feel I'm enlightened. I learned something. I also feel a little stupid that the whole episode, I'm like, A billionaire. Let's ask David. For everyone that doesn't know, I think you guys do know by now. I'm terrible with names.

It's one of my biggest flaws in pronunciation of names. Like, it's bad. It's something I'm really, really trying to work on. So got this one wrong. All right. Well, I'm going to take a little wordplay there that you said enlightened a little bit. And I was pretty enlightened by Mimi's answered in the Geico Rapid Fire segment. All right?

She basically said three statements that stuck out. I'm going to take one statement from each question. You're going to tell me what hit you the hardest. One, you talked about people's goals and helping motivation. She says you can't rely on motivation. And I thought that was kind of powerful, not being able to rely on motivation. Two, you asked several bold life pippets, how do you approach major life decisions with confidence? She said, connect with your morality, which I thought was really, really interesting.

And then three, obviously investing in your future, she thought that investing in her mentality in health and relationships and personal deference reaps the benefits of compound effect, just like you wouldn't finance, which of three of those hits you the hardest? I think the idea of being, like just being the ideal version of yourself, right? And understanding yourself and like what, you know,

all of us have behaviors every day, right? Like, for example, you're on this journey of like, you're losing away, you're giving up drinking, you're on this reboot journey. We're all in these different journeys. And there's reasons that we're doing what we're doing today and how we're doing it. And like dissecting that to connect with ourselves

and our morality and our character and all of that is like the epitome of what's necessary to survive in happiness today in a place where I think it's so easy to disconnect with morality because the speed at which things operate. The speed at which things operate and I love what she said, will I regret this at the end of my life? And sometimes we think decisions are so big in the moment. How can I do this? When you look at the morality, connecting with the morality and looking at the span of the end of your life is giving up drinking for me? Are I going to regret that? Am I going to regret that? in my life. Am I going to regret prioritizing myself? And then she talked about habit stacking

is something that I'm doing right now and you've probably done in your life. Just some powerful takeaways there. And her story overall pretty powerful. I loved how raw and vulnerable she was about where she was at in her life in 2017. I mean, her story's incredible. The fact that she was saying she was really low and her self-esteem. She was partying. She's doing drugs. She was feeling awful all the time. She had $8 in her bank account. What does she do? She gets her voice note out on her phone and says a message. And she goes, you know what, I'm just going to play this and play this and play this. And obviously it blows up as big as it is today to be a deca millionaire. What part of her, you work with entrepreneurs all the time. You are an entrepreneur

yourself. What part of her journey from $8 to now do you think stood up the most? Like, that was really impressive. That was really rare. That was really lucky, kind of in her journey to success. Or that was the smartest thing that I've ever heard anyone do. I was, I mean, I was blown away at the way the app came to fruition. And I think just the idea, you know, she talked about like her tenacity. Like you're not going to, you're not going to mess with her. She doesn't care. Like, there's just no backing down. I thought her strategy with the app and like leasing it to make sure that she could get the app out the way she wanted in the best form. That was smart. And I like the idea of like the things that you're doing and relying on to be the best version

of yourself could be the very thing that makes you a decommillioner, right? like it's that to me was really interesting i was also a little fascinated on the personal side i expected you know i talked in my last uh recap a little bit about loneliness right and i've been like studying a little bit more of loneliness in the last like week and there's a lot out there a lot of like psychologists that talk about how like loneliness is the price is a quote out there the loneliness is the price you pay when you want to start to like really deeply improve yourself and actually loneliness is part of the journey of improving yourself to get back to exactly where you want to be. And so I was interested that she met her life partner when she was

at her worst place in life. To me, I didn't expect that from her story. So that one kind of threw me, but just the whole thing. I mean, it's really interesting how this is, I'm, you heard me, David, I'm analytical, on logic. But it's that very analytical logic mindset that will put you in the position of believing that the things can't happen because the likelihood of those things happening aren't, aren't in your favor. And the worst thing you could do is actually, use that approach. It's asked backwards what I was doing. It is. And like you said, the fact that she recorded on October 12, what she wanted and asking for a future husband met him on the 13th. Met him when she wasn't in a great place, but obviously is where she is now. I loved

what you're talking about about not being able to, you know, being lonely and that's like the bottom of the arc before you really start, you know, finding who you want to be with and not just who you want to be with, but who you want to be when you're with that person. She always said, can't love someone until you love yourself fully want to find she has all her friends that are single in the 30s want to find someone uh but you're sitting at the coach at home on the coach doing nothing like really powerful like really like when you're sitting there you're like fuck me like god she's the whole time the whole time i've had like i've had these internal conversations with myself for three months and like she's taking it to me like god damn it's a

sign yeah you get any of those oh i got a ton of those i got an absolute ton of those you know it's interesting this whole the whole like dating thing like hearing her perspective of it even like the couch comment it's it is work dude the date like the actual dating game is like a it feels like a full time job you know what i mean so you really it's very easy to just be like okay i'm not gonna you know who i don't know do i want to go on a wednesday night no i sure don't but do i want to but maybe what you want to do is just get off your couch more and meet people naturally i don't know if that's a lost art these days and i'm out of the game but the traditional side maybe i mean i i don't ever sit on my couch you know what i mean so

that's not my issue my issue is i got to start putting time into the things that like are for me and not for other things like work and things like that yeah i got to put a PSA out there for myself too we there's an episode way back when i talked about how i don't like reading books because i don't like someone telling me how i should think or what i should do i would rather experience things on my own and learn my own lessons because that's what's applicable to me. I actually got a lot of hate in the reviews on that. It was kind of shocking, but I mean, I, wait a second, I agree with, you hate me. I agree with the hate. You deserve that hate. These are, why? Because they're, dude, this is like the evolution of life, like the reason that we live longer, the reason that we're

here today, the reason like everything is because we've learned from what's happened from the best smartest people in the world. Like, there are things you do. Is it fair? Is it, is it, is it, is it, is it fair to say, it's not that I don't agree with the books. Is it fair to say that all the things the books are telling me I want to realize on my own? Is it fair to just have a different way of approaching it? It's just, I think it's like asinine. Okay, it's like, okay, I want to learn it on my own or I could have a doctor come in who studies this for 20 years. Tell me maybe what's best or I don't want to become a dentist. I'm going to have the dentist figure out my, like, my specific. But I think a fear of mine in that is reading something that I've never thought about

and then it being told to me and now I'm thinking about something that really it's doesn't, it's not relative to me. It's not relevant in my life. It's something now I'm off my track thinking about something, trying to change something, doing something. That's good though. Isn't that though? Like isn't it good to be? Depends. Maybe I'm just more like organic in like how I want to be responsible for my life. yeah but don't isn't part of being responsible for your life like learning and and in gaining knowledge from like greater humanity do you think it do you think it's that's a good point is is off of humanity but i think i'm learning and gaining knowledge because i'm being present and reflective on my own experience and the experience of others around me you know me i'm always asking questions i'm always looking for perspective i'm always trying to you know give advice and gain advice i'm always trying to apply i'm And then when I get in low places, I like to look myself in the mirror, as we've talked about on here, a little bit more, too.

But, yeah, interesting. I think it's a synergy of everything, though. I think it's like, okay, for example, like with Carter, right? Like, you might go read books from some of the best parent guidelines in America. You might go read books from some of the parent guidelines in France, right? That's a whole style of parenting. And then you get to see what all these, like, experts who have taken their entire life's work to pursue this tell you.

and then based on your experience, make it your own. Do what's happy. It's fair. So I think it's like a mix of all things. How did we get off on this tangent again? Well, I was going to say because I have in my notes that she got out of her broke $8, parting lot, felt like shit, was doing drugs, numbing stage because she said I was, I got into professional and self-development, quote unquote, before it was cool.

And she did it by reading books. And so I said, my theory for her, she has proven me wrong. and look at where it's got her. I deck a millionaire. So, but the conversation we just had, that's what I hope our listeners are able to take away from this episode and take with their best friend and take with their spouse and take with their coworker

and take elements of this and be like, have you ever thought about this? Yeah. I love that. I love that. There's so many of them. Because, well, if you think about it, you decided to come on this podcast

and express a certain way, that you felt about something and you obviously felt somewhat vulnerable about when you even said it originally and then your vulnerability gets demolished by people in the comments and now you're like well I don't want to have open conversations in which I'm willing to learn from others because I'm afraid of getting demolished by people based on vocalizing my vulnerability and exactly what you're saying like I think that's part of this episode that we just listened to that's part of life that's part of everything. And the biggest worry in this world, the biggest harm is to not have those conversations is to bury those thoughts, right? And not to be in a place where

someone can hear you. Because if they can't hear you, then how can you be able to vocalize your feelings to try and grow and learn, right? I would love to start a podcast with you that we do and it releases at like 9 p.m. every night. Okay. And it's called It's called safe space. Safe space. Okay. And people just give us a topic. And they're like, just give us your thoughts.

This is a safe space. Safe space. Let me talk about how I have a, how, my experience. And let me talk about your experiences. Let me, let's bring someone on. Let's hear why. Someone send a topic in, and why don't you send us why that's your topic? Let's discuss our points of view on it.

And let's just have a safe space. And let's all grow and be better and talk. And that would be awesome. the weeds safe space well david you know we do come up with concepts on this recap and we're not the best at following up with no and i really like safe space and i want to give everybody just a little touch a taste at home okay we talked about the rv life right yes got a lot of dms about it uh we're following up i'm supposed to go to new york on next week i'm speaking at ticot with a couple companies and instead of driving, I'm sorry, instead of flying,

I'm going to rent an RV. John and I are going to rent that RV go up for a week. Is it a trial run? It's a trial run. Okay. So stay tuned on my Instagram. Wow. Check it out.

That's a trial run. And you know what? Safe space. Maybe we do one week. Just try it. You know, another thing I talked about with my followers is people know a lot know a lot more about side hustles. So I had all these people write in their side hustles.

And I think that's what we're going to try to do that too. Changing it up a little bit. Obviously, we have pop culture meets money here. But I think, especially with the Points Guy episode, in this episode, I'm feeling better about this show when we're having people on in which we have, like, deeper conversations than how much did you get paid on this episode? Yeah. It's the, and it's okay to admit that and talk about that.

And we're, what, four years in, almost five, four years into the pod and we're still thinking about that. That's healthy of us. Yeah, because you could have these deep conversations. and still touch all this money stuff. We heard about how much it cost or what it's worth. We now know what a deck of a millionaire is and how to pronounce it.

What if we rebranded the recap and called it safe space. With David Ardoin and Jason Tardy. And now the recap is morphed to just saying regurgitating numbers from it. It's like we take an element that we want to talk about from the guest or from our lives and we talk about in a safe space.

Guys, give us five stars of the recap. Let us know if you like safe space in the meet. At the meantime, I'm going to go get an RV and drive up to New York City for five days. And I'm going to go make a ground chicken pizza. A lot of action. We said 2035 is going to be a twister year. And I think so far we are right. Change is good.

Change is different. We are living in change. And Mimi Bouchard is teaching us how to bring change and do our lives. I thought it was a cool episode. Try you out your activation. today. We'll give it a go, David. And, yeah, anything before you wrap? Have a conversation with a friend, a family member, or do something different.

Expand the mind. Let's go. Expand the mind. Let's go. Find your safe space. Thank you for tuning into another episode of Trig's One You Couldn't Afford to Miss. Living and dream