Your Transformation Station - 37. My Situation Your Situation Contextual Turn and Still Moving

Episode Date: November 9, 2020

How can you create a transformation in others if there's no transformation in yourself? Greg Favazza, podcast host and creator and cohost Larry Oliver, discuss the five most essential goals you have for your career and life.  PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com⁠⁠ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/apple⁠⁠ Spotify: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/spotify⁠⁠ RSS: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/rss⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/youtube⁠⁠ SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/facebook⁠⁠ - Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/instagram⁠⁠ - TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/tiktok⁠⁠ - Twitter: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/x⁠⁠ - Pinterest: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/pinterest⁠⁠ - Linkedin: ⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/linkedin⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming up on your transformation station, busy is an overused term that means nothing. It's productive we're looking at. Are you being productive? And how do we define that? Are we accomplishing these things that I wrote down as an example? Am I making headway on that list every day? And the answer is no, I haven't been. Welcome to your transformation station.

We're tapping in to surpassing expectations from the most successful people in the modern day and honing in on new foresight, methodologies, and clairvoyance you never knew. This is your transformation station with your host, Greg Favaza. You have to have a definition of success. If I could go back, there's not many things that I would go back for. What do you do when you lose your purpose? It's okay to struggle. It's okay that you're not okay.

I am your host, Greg Favaza. Together, we will go on a journey. This show is all about surpassing our internal dialogue, rediscovering your true identity, honing new foresight. We have a chance to make the world a better place for our children. Start living in the example today and become your future self.

tomorrow. If you can leave our viewers with some good advice to follow, what would you let them know? These things that you're afraid to do? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to your transformation station with your one and only, of course, Greg Favaza. Suppose you're someone aspiring to learn how to connect to the world. How can you create a transformation in others if there's no transformation in yourself? This question is often what I think about. Your Transformation Station focuses on 30-day challenges, three-hour refinement, connecting clarity, the idealic life, interviews, investing your time. This is your transformation on how to decode ourselves through the realization of others, a transformative experience, and establish our own transformation. This episode, we are focusing on the contextual turn, five key points to tying your situation.

together. Now, let's get into this. We're tapping in to surpassing expectations from the most successful people in the modern day and honing in on new foresight, methodologies, and clairvoyance you never knew. This is your transformation station with your host, Greg Favaza. We have like some dancing bubbles behind you. Those are blueberries. Oh, I couldn't. Let me taste one. There you go. Yeah. How does that taste?

Have you been? Pretty good. Pretty good. How about you? Life, you can really kick you in the balls if you don't have that cup on. Tell me about it.

You always should keep your cup on. Sometimes you need a stainless steel one or titanium. Definitely agree. But as so many things, those those times when you're glad you've got your cup on, they two pass. And, you know, as old people say,

they help us build character. And everybody goes through those times. And it's not so much going through the times. It's how you come out on the other side of those things. Because they'll happen throughout life. They don't stop. you know but that makes part that that's that's what makes the journey so challenging and exciting and rewarding and with that i'll get off that so we talked a little bit over tax and five important

things that i want for myself yeah that was something i've written down a long time ago and And I haven't even looked at it. And then when I looked at it, I felt like it wasn't relevant now. Interesting. What type of changes did you see if, in fact, you wrote down a new list of five things? Well, the changes that I saw was originally my first list was purpose, direction, motivation, my vision, and my delivery. and I tailored that to this podcast. Prior to starting it, it was this podcast mixed in and ingrained with my old military philosophy.

With the new list, it's definitely not as militaristic, but now it's purpose, time, health, relationships, and education. I think it's a really good list. What I'd challenge you to consider is now taking that list of those five items and putting some three to five bullet points under each one of those so you can have specificity. Yes. I mean, purpose is great. But so what is your purpose or the purpose of the podcast?

three or five, you know, three to five, maybe two to five, maybe just one. It's a good thing that I did do that because I was anticipating and you asked me to go deeper. There you go. For purpose, where am I trying to get to? What gets me excited? What gets me out of bed every day? What do I want more in my life? What do I want less of in my life?

And then with time, each time I say yes to something, I say, say no to something else. Choosing to be selective and deliberate in what really matters. So if I say yes to too much, I'll begin to lose balance. How do I maintain that balance? How can I become more present in each thing I do? Who are the people that I give my time to? What are my hobbies and passions or creative interests?

What am I grateful for already? accomplishing in my previous time spent. And then with health, what does my workout routine look like now and where do I want to take it? What does my eating habits look like when I'm at my worst self? And what does my eating habits look like when I'm at my best self? What holds me back from caring for my mental health? And how do I make time for those? how do I make time for decompression knowing myself do I treat all my meals in a rainbow color fashion

meaning fruits vegetables and how do I look after myself do I journal at my worst as well as my best so I have a median to know where I should be and then relationships who are the ones ones that are really important to me. Which relationships can I do without? Which relationships I can't live without? And then education. What do I want to learn in the next year? How much more am I willing to go to know myself even deeper?

That's all I got. That's impressive. It's impressive on a whole, a whole, a number of items. I really like the fact that you put some, I mean, some really intense thought in each of those sub-item, some points. And what I really find interesting

is in those priorities of your life, you know, if you go on the internet or, you know, read a lot of people that talk about, you know, living the life to its fullest, people break down life into some three, some five, some six, some seven little sections. And they pretty much match those five items you've chosen. for yourself. You know, health, relationship, education, or, and sometimes they talk about them differently, but they're the same thing.

Education could be growing, personal growth, professional growth. You know, health, when, for example, where I see so much thought in each one of your points, health is a great example. So many people think, well, health is my exercise in fitness routine. and totally ignore part of, a really major part of one's health, and that's nutrition, diet, you know, what we fuel our bodies and brains with. And you spend, I think, two, if I remember correctly, two or three of your subpoints talking exactly about diet, and I got a really, for nutrition, I got a kick out of the fact that, you know,

what is your nutrition look like when you're at your best and what does it look like when it's at your worst and I can relate to that because when I'm not feeling good about myself or whatever I may not be feeling good about. You can look at what's in my pantry and you know how I'm feeling because you'll see bags of potato chips and a whole bunch of cookies and stuff like that. So it's really interesting that you catch yourself, you know, when you're at your best, eating your best in those times when you're not necessarily at your best, kind of filling up on all that stuff that Americans love to fill up with. Oh, yes. That's why we're the most obese continent in the globe. Yeah. In time, I think, you know, you really, you've got it.

You really have a handle on the fact that time, like everything in life, is a tradeoff. Because if you spend time doing A, at that time, you can't be spending time on B. Because as much as we believe we're really great at multitasking, whether we're old, younger, in between, really, we're not as good as multitasking as robots and machines are. We can do it. But really, because we only have 24 hours a day, when you spend an hour doing A, you can't be doing B in that hour. Yes. And it's important to note that a really, I think, great skill to develop early in life is the skill and the talent to say no.

No, I can't do that. I'm too busy. or no, that doesn't fit with what I need to get taken care of. Too many times we want to do so much. We want to help all of our friends and business associates, so on and so forth. But if we do, then we don't get a chance to scratch off things from our to-do list if we're helping somebody else scratch off their to-do list, stuff on their to-do list. And I'm not saying we shouldn't help other people, but that balance that you talked about is so important in everything, but especially when it comes to time because we just are very limited in how much time we have to spend.

If I had to put a key word to all this to help me remember these five things, I would say it would be called connecting clarity. connecting clarity into my life. When I have clarity and I know what I'm going after and what I'm doing, I just feel like everything starts to fall into place. It like keeps me in line where I'm trying to go. So where, what causes, what do you think causes the inability to have that clarity? Whether it's internal or external. debris, stress, obstacles.

Have you found, or I guess I should say, what have you found to be the best blocker of debris and distractions and things that keep us from having the clarity that we need? The best blocker. I would say it's tailoring to what you were saying earlier as far as saying no, but also not allowing the opportunity of having to face that yes or no question as far as if I'm doing my work

don't have your phone on fucking ring right in front of you right why don't you just leave it in the other room or have it turned off yeah because I feel like you're waiting for an opportunity to come up because some people generate off hecticness I don't know that's a word or busy busy is an overused term that means nothing it's productive we're looking at. Right. Are you being productive? And how do we define that?

Yeah. Are we accomplishing these things that I wrote down as an example? Am I making headway on that list every day? And the answer is no, I haven't been. Well, the two, if you haven't been, haven't, is in the past hence. It's gone. Yes. You're not going to be able to do anything about those hours that you weren't productive,

that you didn't do what you really intended to do. And again, that's a terrible waste of our time and our mental resources to spend on what took place in the past. It didn't help us get to where we want to be. And that's that overused term about being present in the moment. Yeah. You know, and a dog is just a perfect example of how to be present. You know, especially if you look at dogs in the wild, for lack of a better word, in their pack. And they do something they shouldn't do.

Maybe they grab a chunk of meat before the alpha of the pack. And that alpha of the pack, man, that alpha will turn around and grab that dog right by the neck, not piercing its skin, but it'll grab hold and said, You know, I get first dibs. You wait till I'm done. You know, or whatever the situation is. And in a second. I think that's lions.

Yeah, the lions. I think it applies to all types of animals with four legs. Yeah. Even with two, because we're animals, aren't we? Yes, that is a fact. Pack animals. And it's true. You know, we just have to.

I guess maybe it gets back too to prioritizing. And, but point being, being in that present moment, the dog, the wolf, the lion, they just forget it. You know, it's done. I know. I stepped out of line. You got me back in line. I'm cool. We're buddies.

You're my alpha. I'm a PAC member. Everything's great. We as people, though, we tend to, we can't compartmentalize as easy as some of these. other animals. I was adjusting the camera, like just a hair and the fucker just falls. Yeah. Like, no, what the hell? I just actually speaking of those technical terms, I, uh, when I originally built my studio, uh, I, I had just always thought from the beginning, you know, I was going to just put some basic carpeting down for the floor. Uh, and, you know, I realized over the

the last three years that I hate the carpeting one, I hate the way it looks, I hate the way it feels. And, you know, this is a very limited space. It's, it's a, you know, a one person sound isolation boost. So the internal dimensions with all my acoustic treatment are six by four feet, okay? And, you know, I've got a table here that holds some of my gear and stuff with a little shelf or two underneath at a rack, et cetera. So it's really hard to vacuum the carpet. You're going to wonder how is this tied to your camera. Oh, I bet we can find out.

And so anyway, I came to the realization. I don't want carpet anymore on the floor. And then I had to decide, what do you want? Well, I was thinking about, you know, just, you know, laminated or wood, like hardwood, like, floor. would be great. But that's really, even in a small space, it's hard to put down. And then I'd need a little area rug just to stand on when I'm standing.

So you wouldn't hear my foot move around or me tapping my foot like I'm doing right now. Or your weight shifting back and forth. Yeah. So what I ended up with is, you know, the flooring material at the gym. Yeah. Yeah. Rubber, tough rubber man. Yeah.

That's what I got. I got it in a royal blue because, as you can see, I mean, I'm pretty much dark, dark gray in here. And I didn't want black on the floor because then I would feel like I'm in a black hole. Just not speeding through space. But that could be a good feeling, maybe. Well, that is. I take care of that in other ways. But, so, yeah, last night I had ordered this flooring.

know, two weeks ago, it's been sitting by my outside door of the studio for about a week or 10 days, how long I had it. And finally, last night, I did it. It was a hassle because I had to take everything that sits on the floor, including all my cabling. Oh, yeah. So I did label all my cables, you know, the front, both ends of them. So I knew, okay, that one plugs into this mind. that one plugs in the nap mic, that one plugs into these monitors. Does that mean you have ADD, Larry? At least, ADD and OCD and ADHD. Because I can prove it to you that I have ADD by me interrupting you during this conversation.

Exactly. So I got it all done and I really like it. I like and I think it's just slightly improved the sound. but that's the same kind of concept you know when you get your the oil changing in your car you feel it drives better oh yeah

or when you wash your car it just seems to drive better is that the placebo effect we're looking at I think it is the placebo effect anyway so I'm really excited I just if you saw me in overexitement mode that's why

so did you actually rip up the carpet? Yeah I ripped up the carpet I first back teamed it really well after I had it out so there wouldn't be a bunch of dust going up this big Hoover that I had called the nose. And then I took the carpet up. I also had a little padding under it, took that up, threw that out into the trance. And then started the laborious task of putting these, these are, they were tiles, if you will, with a little interlocking mechanism.

like that. 24 inches by 24 inches. So I had to figure where I wanted the trim lines, you know, which I decided on the back and obviously on the sides, not in the front. And it turned out really pretty good.

I don't, I can't, without really getting somebody seasick, take a webcam off where it is and show you, but I'll send you a snapshot of it here. No, I definitely. Have you ever talked to any contemporaries to talk about snapshots? They probably talk about,

I'll send you a picture or an image or a JPEG. Nobody calls them snapshots like old people. Yes, I think when we, I refer to snapshot, I'm referring to like, oh, like something about my fucking resume. Like, here's a quick summary, a snapshot of my life. And I was thinking about Snapchat or some sort of app. Oh, oh, Snapchat.

chat. I just hit me. I need to get out and socialize a little bit more. I think it would be nice. You know, everybody does because we're social animals. But, you know, I'll tell you, especially today with regardless of where you're at on it, but with COVID, it makes it really hard to get out and socialize because some places you just, you can't socialize like we used to. You know, you got to have a mask.

Well, no, you can't sit next to people at the bar. No, you can't do that. But hold on. So this is what's weird to me about that. I have two things I need to say. First off, the carpeting. I'm looking at you and how old you are. I'm assuming your carpet was like some shag rug that was from like the 70s.

I don't know if you can correct me on that. And then two, with the mask requirements, why are gas stations out where I'm at, at least? It's not in St. Louis County, but outside of St. Louis County. You don't need a mask, but within the county, you do. It's really not the county. It's the city of St. Louis. In the city of Kansas City, their mayors have brains in their head and follow the science. The existing governor of the state of Missouri is an imbecile, quite honestly, doesn't believe in science.

So he's never mandated masks. The city of St. Louis, the mayor has. the city of Kansas City, the mayor has. Everywhere else is, it just depends on the township, if you will. Local places may have particular local ordinances, but the state has no ordinance. The state has no mandate one way or the other. The president's chief of staff does, and when they think it's right to wear masks they do, And of course, he just found out he was infected with COVID.

So Mark Meadows now has COVID, the closest advisor to the president. And everybody who's had contact with him now is potentially exposed. But fortunately, there's only about, what, 95 days left until inauguration in Trump's be packing up right now. You know. How do you feel about that? About him packing up. Yeah. I think somebody, they need security people to make sure he's not stealing shit since he doesn't have much of his own stuff.

You know, and take his fucking portrait down. God. You know, or splash it with flesh colored. Get that orange off of him. No, seriously, that's really cruel in the moment of his loss. Yeah, I think it's, you know, he certainly has accomplished a lot four years. in all honesty and sincerity. Yes.

You know, he's going to have major impact on the world and certainly the United States politics until he leaves this world. You know, good for him. I mean, just once again, you know, anybody in America can do anything they really set their heart and minds to. And I mean that sincerely.

You know, whether you're a buffoon, failed business person, an ex-talk show, you know, or reality show host, or the oldest man to ever be elected by an extremely young electorate with a black female as your running mate. You know, whatever the mind conceives, we can achieve. So, you know, good for Trump in his years.

He, you know, accomplished a lot. He did. Not as much as he thinks he did. He did accomplish something. We'll return America in the world to a country that cares about character, that cares about integrity, that cares about kindness, that cares about truth. Yes. Although these next two months are going to be ugly and hard for both factors, factions in this. I can definitely see a good takeaway from this.

as far as him being elected is what not to do, how the system shouldn't end up being the way it is now. I think we have a baseline on rock bottom pretty much and going back up. Yeah, absolutely. That's so well put. The really sad thing, and I hope I'm so long. but the really strong supporters of 45 will continue their path of hate and divisiveness. You know, Fox three days ago, at the highest level of Fox News, a memo came down to everybody that's on air, that if in fact Biden becomes president-elect, we will not call him president-elect.

So last night, as I was watching Fox, and I'm not a Fox fan, but I've told you before, I like so many people, unlike so many people, I watch all the channels so I can see the bullshit each of the channels is fed by their pundits. There's as much bullshit that takes place at CNN as there is at Fox, although I truly believe CNN faces stuff and actually talks fact much of the time versus what happens on Fox. But anyway, it's amazing that they would take that attitude and propel and continue to try to grow this decisiveness and this hatred. instead of talking about President Trump's, yes, I call them President Trump because he's not going to have president very long, his accomplishments. Talk about the way he led the Republican Party.

This was a great election for the Republicans. They picked up seats in the House. They perhaps, perhaps, it's not over for a while because there's a couple runoffs, but perhaps have maintained their control of the Senate. They've got a lot to be proud of. You know, Trump got 70 million votes. 70 million people wanted Trump, unless we believe Trump and realize that the election was full of fraud. I mean, unless he's trying to make us believe it's only fraudulent if you didn't vote for him.

If it's full of fraud, believe me, based on his character, most of it would be on his side. And I don't believe there was any widespread. fraud. There wasn't. I guarantee it. Hadn't happened in 244 years. If you watched any of the cams, the cameras that were in each polling spot, you could watch it 24-7. You could watch them do the process. You know, anyway, that's what the Republicans, that's what the losers, as Trump would call the losing side. That's what the losers should do is look at the accomplishments that took place under Trump's leadership. And they should feel proud.

And, you know, and it's next case. This is what America's all about. The voters, the public, the people, we the people have spoken and said, get the fuck out of our house, please. We're ready for something different. Will Biden be the answer? I don't know.

But I can guarantee you that truth and science, compassion, kindness, character will matter. And what you'll see, even in a divided legislative, executive, judicial branch scenario, that Biden and his team know how to work across the aisle. I mean, he's done it for 47 years effectively. And we'll see that change for sure. Anyway, enough of that. It's definitely interesting to get your take on all this information you shared with us. To me, I'm still learning this. It's going to be a long, long process for me to understand this whole political system.

Yes, I've taken government in college. I've studied it, researched it. However, I never just put myself in the mix of it all because I chose to do other things that I thought that mattered. But this is something that really matters because this is what affects our future. Yeah, and not only our future, term, our, but the world future. We're the most powerful, richest nation on the earth. And the entire world looks to us. And I will tell you, in celebrating all of Trump's accomplishments, it's also important

to realize that these next four years for Biden and his administration, one of their, they're going to be spending a lot of time mending. The shit, the international shit that Trump in his administration have torn down, hurt our allies, hurt the United States of America standing in the world. One of my voiceover coaches is a Canadian. He was born and raised in Canada for five years. He lived in New York City and Manhattan. And he moved back to Toronto a few years ago. I had a coaching session. two days ago. And, you know, he was asking what's going on here, you know, as far as how we're all taking, you know, the indecisive, not the indecisive, but not knowing, you know, who's the president-elect. And we were talking, and here's a guy that is international.

Here's a guy that doesn't live in our country. And just talking about how in these last four years, America. is not to be trusted and that everybody laughs at Trump. You know, I mean, when Trump goes into the international stages and lies, and lies about shit that everybody can immediately see is a lie, and he's a world leader? How do other world leaders respond to when he does or says something or threatens to do something, you know?

That's where truthfulness and character come in. That's, you know, how. So if I were to ask you, what does America's face look like right now based off his four years in the noble office? What does our face look like or space? What do you think others perceive America right now based off his actions? One, not to be trusted, that we're a country without compassion, that, that, were a very divisive country, that were a country of isolation. I mean, his international politics, he called it America First.

If you historically Google, what does America first mean? Historically, that means that you follow a path of isolation. You keep us separate from everybody else. We don't need anybody. And really, from what we can grow and manufacture here in our country, we could be self-sufficient. But then there's that older thought that no man is an island, no country is an island. It's a pack. We're social animals. Yes, we need everybody. And if nothing else, we need everybody to fight our bad opponents. You know, if America and NATO is not protecting

Europe against the advances of Russia, Russia would control Europe. So there's a lot of opinion in mixed with some fact right there. But again, you know, everybody's got an opinion. It's like a body part, you know. What's interesting is the fact that you gave that description about not to be trusted. Everybody's divisive. I feel like that's everybody in society, almost in a way, based off what's being portrayed on the media, what's being overly played and what's being underly played.

Part of the problem is the media itself. because the media has lost the ability to report fact. The journalists, the news shows are no longer journalistic news shows. There are talk shows about current events, and everybody's opinion and agenda are advanced by the way they spin the shit, if you will. That's why last night I was wondering, I say to myself, as I was just tiring off CNN's, news breaking, you know, breaking news after the next break,

we'll have an update on the vote count. Well, it's the fucking same until they come out with a new buck. But so I wonder, because it was evident to everyone, even all the news media, they just, nobody wanted to make a mistake in projection. They wanted to make statistically, they wanted to make sure statistically they were, correct when they made a projection. So how in the world is Fox and the other right-winged media

spinning that the president lost? Because they knew it. I mean, CNN and the left wing isn't smarter than the people at Fox or OAN or any of the crazy supporters of that administration. There's no hope mathematically, two of the states, there was absolutely no statistical way that the president could come ahead. So how are they spinning this? You know what they were doing? They're just propagating all this voter fraud and just bullshit stuff. You know, they won't let us in to see what's going on in the polling places, really?

Because anybody that has an internet connection can actually go into any one of the polling places and watch them tabulate each vote. You know, I mean, they're just perpetuating lies. I mean, do they think that if they perpetuate enough lies that people won't believe that Joe Biden is now the president-elect? Do they believe that the highest levels of military won't actually go into the White House and escort the people that are in the White House out at the day before the inauguration?

No. I mean, what they're really doing is they're generating press, whether it's honest, good, or bad. In fact, they just want people to tune into this shit. But if we were to look at each individual station and who runs it, could we come to a conclusion that there is one individual at the top that's kind of delegating task, if we will call it that, for each station to say, are you talk about this? You talk about that. It's an interesting point. Certainly, I believe that each media outlet has bias. Each one of us has bias. However, there was a time well before your time here in this part of the universe.

Oh, yes. Where news was news. The anchor, the news anchor people reported news. They didn't put spin. They didn't. have pundits offering their opinion. They simply reported the facts. President Kennedy was shot at 1-10 this afternoon in Dallas.

Now, Walter Concrete started crying. I mean, it would be hard not to. But he didn't say, that's great for us Republican. He didn't give you any indication as to what his feeling was. even if he shed a tear on national television, which was unspeakable for a journalist back then. But you still didn't know if, I mean, the whole world cried when JFK was assassinated. Whether you're a Republican or not, you weren't doing Tibery shuffles when the leader of any country, a Democratic country is assassinated. something's terribly wrong when that happens.

Yes. And two, what's the country going to be like under LBJ? You know, I mean, there's, but point being, they reported fact. It was, you know, Dragnet style, just the facts, ma'am. You put your own spin on it because we're smart enough to put our own spin on it. And we all have our own bias that we're going to take that fact and spin it to fit our system, our beliefs. We don't need somebody else putting that spin on it. And when they do, here's the harm that happens,

is if you have one major news outlet putting a spin, which is based on lies and deceit, its followers that don't watch the other stations, believe it. There's people that believe this shit. Eric Trump perpetuates this shit. I watched them last week, this past week, go on there and talk about, we found a bag of 30,000 votes that they were trying to throw into trash. Complete utter nonsense.

Ingram, Laura Ingraham, the Fox News talk show host, was rolling her eyes while he was saying this shit. Like, oh my God, but there's people to believe it. And that's what's frightening. Those are the people that are the extremists on both sides. both left and right as these extremists that right now are planning on how they're handling what's taking place. I have an idea. If we can't stop this bullshit from happening on TV, what I feel like could really help is almost like placing a warning label prior to the news starting. That's what social media has been doing, placing warnings.

And when necessary, when it's an absolute false lie, they pull it off. And people are offended by that. People are offended by the fact that, well, there is free speech. There is free speech. But you know what? Like if you're in a theater, in the old days pre-COVID when you can go into a movie theater and watch a movie, if you go in there, the movie's half over and you yell fire and everybody runs out and there's no fire. No, that's a crime.

Yes. Okay. It's not, you don't have free speech. You can't go out and say and do anything you want. You can within the limits of the law. And I think it's blasphemous that a major news agency states and perpetuates what they know are lies. But again, in America, we have to air on the side of. freedom of speech, if you will, because otherwise it turns into a state news agency,

kind of what Fox and OAN are right now. They were Trump's news agency, you know. But I think you're right. If people would just do some with the internet, you can do your own research. It can validate or invalidate almost anything. You know, as long as you you've got an internet connection. And again, 45, over the last four years, has done an excellent job of trying to ruin the reputation of the New York Times, of the Washington Post, of the Associated Press. These, of the House of Representatives, of the judicial system, unless he appointed the judge in that particular district, everybody else is corrupt.

He's he has done that. He has ordered the Fox news agencies to perpetuate these falsehoods, and they buy into it for whatever reasons there are. You know, we know that Trump's deceitful. It's a fact. Because here's how I can tell you it's a fact. If he wasn't deceitful and if he had half a brain that he claims to have the smartest brain, if he had half of that, he would have shown his taxes years ago. Because if what he says is true, why would you not show your taxes? Every other fucking president in the history, I mean, going back, I don't know, Abraham Lincoln,

something like any contemporary is shown his taxes. And if you're as successful as you say you are, you ought to be proud, especially the egomaniac that he is. He should be proud to show, here, I made all this money. Oh, I didn't pay any taxes because that's smart. That's working the system. Would you have respected him a lot more if he came up front and just said that? Absolutely. I couldn't then say that he's absolutely full of shit all the time. No, because he is. Every time, 25,000 tracts lies in four years.

According to the Associated Press, which, of course, he says they just lie. You have to be able to believe something. Somebody's telling the truth. And when you get four major news agencies, Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, I don't care if Jeff Bezos runs and owns the Washington Post. He doesn't go tell the reporters what to report. Jeff Bezos is trying to figure out, you know, how we're going to take the world over with, you know, their Amazon Web Services. Yes.

And give a shit about what's reported in the Washington Post. He bought it because it's a good investment, you know. He doesn't need the Washington Post to spread bullshit. He has Amazon. Stop him from doing something. He and Bill Gates get together. Stop him. That was then.

This is now. We've got a bright future. Trump has a bright future. His cronies have a bright future. Well, he's probably going to have some criminal charges to deal with after he's out of office. But, I mean, he actually, He looked good in a orange jumpsuit. It matches his face and hair.

I felt like you were sitting on that one for a while. Hey, Larry, let me ask you this. Now that we have a bright future, I wanted to have a theme question that we could ask ourselves. And I think it's really important that I bring this up because it is in the show description is how can we create a transformation? in others if there's no transformation in yourself. And that's something I often think about. And suppose if you're someone that's wanting to connect to the world. I don't believe there's any other way to bring about transformation externally

until first we've transformed ourselves into what we would like to see the world be. Well, we'd like to see our neighbor be, for lack of a better word, that transformation begins with us. And that journey in transforming ourselves will naturally almost like osmosis begin to transform other people because they'll recognize, you know, you're different. There's something different. What is it? Well, sometimes it's just attitude, faith, hope, positivity, optimism, kindness, compassion,

all those Boy Scout, you know, things. that are in the oath. You know, or the Christian Judeo, love thy neighbor, help thy neighbor, those things that are so basic, we have gotten away from as a world. But in order for us to expect that, we first have to exude it, if you will. And it's pretty easy. Those things, it's not tough to be kind, you know, it's not tough to be truthful. truthful. My grandfather, in fact, said that as long as you're truthful, you don't have to have a good memory, which conversely says, and you can tell from Trump is a good example, that somebody mutually that we know, there's a people we mutually don't know that I could give you examples, but it wouldn't make sense. But the point is, if you lie all the time, you got to remember all the lies to keep all the shit straight. But if you tell the truth, you're going to say the same thing every day. It doesn't matter if somebody else. ask you that question three years from now, if you were truthful about it, you can answer it the

same way, unless shit has changed. I mean, but the truth, the basis of the answer, can't change. Two plus two is four, regardless of whether you add them or multiplying or subtract four from eight, you know, you're going to get to four. So transformation begins here, but you've got to want to transform. You need to desire. You've got to have that burning in your belly to be transformative. Transform within yourself first. Larry, what's a weird story that you, something that you experienced in your life? Give us something that you never share with anybody because you feel like it would be almost insane that somebody could relate to you.

Do you have a story like that? I probably have several stories like that, some of which I'm not prepared to share. I will share one that I think it's on topic. I think it's an answer to the question he just posed, something that would maybe surprise you, something that people that know me, a lot of people that know me. see a lot of this side of me. I mean, I'm pretty amiable. I'm pretty laid back.

I'm passionate. I'm passionate. And when I'm passionate about something, you know, I can harp on it, as you well know. Yes. But, you know, like I said,

I, you know, I don't like confrontation. I like, you know, things easygoing. So with that in mind, in the corporate world, I was an executive officer of a publicly traded company. And the major, it's a long story, what took place. But at the end of the day, we had to wind down the business. And while I was responsible for all the sales and marketing of the company,

I wasn't responsible for the operational unit of the company. There was 250 employees that were operational kind of people. people. And they needed to be let go over a period of time. And it was really the responsibility of the C.O. That was his bailiwick and all the people under him, the managers under him, is where all those 200. So over theirs, but he came to me. The CEO came to me and said, you know, Larry, I don't want to lay these people off. We've got to lay him off. You know, so would you do it? And I said, well, I mean, I know. I mean, they're not really my people. And he said, well, yeah, but I'm not asking you to do it. I'm telling you to do it. You know, a lot of leaders rather than tell you to do something, they ask you.

It's that old question. What's the difference between a request and a directive when it comes from your boss? And the answer is nothing. It's the way they, you know, would you get me a copy? Yeah. Go get me a copy. You know, it's nicer. Like, that's my style.

I would say, would you mind get me a cup of, coffee where a lot of people would say, go give me a cup of coffee, would you, Betty? On Fridays, I would come in, and if you got the memo, because this is pre-email days, you would get a paper memo about a lot of stuff in the business world back then. If you got a memo to meet in the conference room Friday at 9 a.m., after the first group did that, that first week, you knew you were getting laid off. And, you know, I was called Axe Oliver. Here comes Axe Man Oliver.

Yeah, I would walk through the office and, you know, people would, you know, fuck you, fuck you, you know. Of course, because I, over a period of six months, I'm going to fire everybody. You're like the Grin Reaper, ready to take people's souls. Yeah, exactly. And even with my sales and marketing staff, when I had to fire somebody because of performance, I never liked it. I, you know, there's no joy. I never received any joy, even when I hated the people. It's their livelihood, a part of their livelihood.

It's a job. It's self-esteem. It's all kinds of things. And I will tell you, it was the hardest thing I've ever done. And after about four weeks of this, I got pretty good at it. You know, it was just the facts. And after four weeks of it, everybody knew that everybody was going to get fired over a period of six months. and the most senior in tenure people and the best performing people were the last group to be fired.

Making the assumption that you might have been the last. Well, yeah, other than the five remaining officers, we were the, you know, last in the building, you know, yeah, the last man, men standing. And there was one woman there at that time. that was an officer, but it was tough. I had to be tough. You know, after these Friday meetings, people would come into my office and cry and cuss at me and, you know, probably want to kill me and shit. But that was part of my, what I signed up for when, you know, I went to work for these people is, you know, like many of Trump's people, you got to carry out the orders. Now, I could have said, no, I'm not going to do it and quit.

Well, I mean, the people are still going to get laid off. The company's still winding down, you know. So I'm going to help my leaders do what needs to be done. It kind of like court order type stuff anyway. I mean, ultimately the court would send a trustee in to do it. So, you know, I'm better than a court trustee because you probably aren't going to cussing. you know, throw shit at a court trustee, you know, without, you know, ugly consequences. And I just learned how to dodge stuff across my desk, you know, when people wanted to throw

the telephone at me. And back then they were heavy. You know, they were big, bulky things were poor. You know, they weren't like this. Anyway, to just wind this up. So that was something that really, it took a lot of balls. It took a lot of acting for me to walk in the room. And I, and you know, I like to be liked. Some people don't care one way or the other. I mean, if I had the choice, I would like people to like me. I've grown up, so I don't really care. Agreed. People like me or not. But in that situation, I knew that people didn't like me. And I was not comfortable with it. I was not comfortable being looked at as the grim reaper. But it was my job.

But, you know, that was my job. The very last group I let go, you know, in that sixth month, two of close business associates, we had done a lot socially. I knew their spouses and their kids. They came into my office and they're crying and yelling at me and like, you know, how could you do that? And, you know, I looked at them and I, it was easy for me to say six months down the road. I said, you know, for six months, you know, for six months, you've known.

this was going to take place. And in two, Greg, we provided a third party, you know, a group that we paid to come in and work with these 250 people in writing their resume, polishing their resume, how to search for jobs, where do you, how do you do in an interview, they would do fake, you know, role play interviews. We had, I forget what they called it, but these groups specialize in how to, you know, retrain somebody to go get a new job that's had a long-time job. It's not like we just, you know, pushed them out and they all got severance packages,

right? You know, as well as we could do. And again, we were restricted by court, too, to two assets that were available. Anyway, you know, I was sitting here, you know, and my choice was to say, yeah, you know, I'm pretty despicable for having to do that. But, you know, I did. I stood up to him. I said, look, for six months, you've known it. We've given you a resume. We gave you training on how to deal with interview questions, you know, how to find a job.

And you've sat at your desk every day being paid for eight hours a day and you haven't done anything. There was no work to do. We couldn't be doing business. We had no money to go out and get new business. you know and generally we let everybody go home after about three or four hours we physically were using these people to help us you know get shit out of the file cabinets and put into boxes and get ready for moving out of three floors in an office building anyway is that a normal thing for companies to do that for their employees me being in the military i don't know the standard in a commercial organization no i mean you know If the company, for whatever reasons, they're reorganizing or liquidating or going out of business or being acquired by another company, and if there are going to be massive layoffs, a lot of companies, you know, they just send out a note before they lay people off.

You know, over the next four weeks, we'll be laying off 25% of everybody. Those have been here longest will be the last group to go. So we're going to give you a severance package in two weeks. And again, if they provide any kind of retraining, whatever you call it, I can't think there's a word for helping people do their resume and then roll clear and interviews, all that. Anyway, you know, a lot of companies don't. They just do it.

And our CEO and COO valued what I call the human capital. the people. They didn't have the balls to walk in and say, you're fired. You know, I was the orange baby, right, walking in. You're fired. But, and again, it was a layoff because their positions were eliminated because the business is going to be eliminated here. The enterprise is going to be eliminated here.

So I think knows the short answer. A lot of businesses don't do that. They just, you know, you get the pink slip, if you will. Or you wait till you read about what's going on with the company, if it's a big company in the Wall Street Journal or in the... By you looking back on this now, from what I see from it, is it was something that that CEO had to face.

It was an obstacle for his growth, and I felt like he gave that to you, is an opportunity to climb over this hump of firing. 250 plus people to do that. It's an excellent point. Retrospectively, I've really never thought about it like that. Retrospectively, it was a big growth point for me by being given that responsibility and choosing to accept it and executing it as successful as one could execute it.

Because again, you know, I at heart I'm empathetic, but again, I think it's like a social worker or a doctor that faces, you know, he can't save every patient. And not that they become callous, but they have to become used to the fact that some of my patients are going to die. The social worker, you know, has to become accustomed to seeing these children that are mistreated. I'm not ever saying that that's correct, but they do that. They and the homicide detectives see just atrocious, heinous crimes committed every day. And they have to, when I say get used to it, I don't think we as people ever get used to any of that stuff. But it's part of your job.

And you develop, you know, the coroner corners, the county medical examiner, when he comes up on a decaying body that's seven days old, he doesn't throw up when he smells it. I mean, most of us would. He might actually find it quite refreshing. We had that same mentality during my active duty times as far as conducting a mission. They would apply everything, all this stress, different scenarios. And we are knowing we aren't going to fulfill this mission, but we still continuously push ourselves 100% like we know we are going to fulfill it. that's so cool and so important in life.

And take that a step further, although you can't compare anything to that kind of mission, to making the ultimate sacrifice, which could be your own life, or your buddy's life that you're supposed to have his back, and you do have his back, but both of you lose your back, if you will. But compare that to, and I often,

when I'm watching a sports game, especially a football game, because so much can happen in a basketball game. But the football game, the scores 470, there's 33 seconds left to play. And the team that's losing by 47 points, they're still fighting like, oh, my God, let's call a timeout because we can do this and that. But there's no way you can win,

but they got to get out on the field and pretend like they're going to win. in this next play. And I think we all, you know, we see it with the current president. I mean, he's not going quietly. I'm going to fight every way I know how to not lose, regardless of the fact that he's lost. That's human nature, I think. When my mother died, I remember my sister.

and I were right there with her. She was 92, 94 years old. But it was her time. I mean, physically and mentally everything and we're right by her side. And she's just struggling to take that extra breath. And we're telling no, you know,

it's okay, let go. But life, nature, it's programmed in us that we struggle for life. Every plant, every living organism just struggle. struggles to stay alive, you know. And it's true in life when you compare it to whether it's business, whether it's the military, whether it's politics.

I mean, we all struggle for our survival in many different ways, not just life. And I think it's how you struggle to determines the character of a person. And that's why the military, I've not been in the military, but those people that I've known, including you, what you get from the military, people that haven't been in the military, never have that. And it's a quality, it's a character, that you have to have been there to develop because it's what the military develops in the soldiers, if you will, in the fighters. And retrospectively, you know, I feel like I cheated myself that I didn't have that part of my life. I didn't have that part of education. It's part of the education, learning, growing, and have to make up for it in different ways. And, you know, it's something that, like I said, I mean, it builds character.

I think if you randomly gathered together 10 people, five of which served in the military, and five that didn't in no uniforms, I can't talk to the people, well, I got to be able to ask them a couple general questions like, what's your name and when were you born and what's your favorite color? Sure. I think I could pick out with maybe 80% accuracy, those that served in the military, just by asking. those three questions, seeing them physically how they carry themselves. Yes. Because there's there's something that you get from the military that no, you can't get anywhere else. And it's a very positive thing.

It's strength, it's character. It's um. Accountability. Accountability. Absolutely accountability. That example, what you just said is a really good example. And if I were to use that example, for my example, I could get 100% accuracy on those that were in and maybe even distinguish one of those individuals that was a civilian and see if they were an actual police officer. You can tell the difference by their hair cut. Are they shaved?

How are they staring at you? How is their body posture? Are their shoes tied? Is there stains on their clothes? all these little tiny hints if you will give away the type of individual you're talking to no question about it and one of the things were excuse me all blessed with i believe at least what some of the readings that i've done over a lifetime uh is you know when you first meet somebody at the very first time our mind and

And I think it's does 10, 10 or 13 judgments of that person within the first seven seconds of you meeting that person. And most of those 13 things, the person would never had to open their mouth and say anything. Yes. Okay. Just through nonverbal communication, the way they stand, they walk, they carry themselves. they're dressed, are they neat? Just all these things that our mind, it's really almost animalistic that we judge.

And almost before we hear that person speak, we've reached these judgments as to whether that's a person we're interested in hanging with, even just for a few minutes to meet them and talk about the weather and move on. versus you've probably met those kinds of people. You shake their hand and then you immediately want to go wash your hand. Not because of COVID, because this is all pre-COVID,

but because they are really creepy. There's something about that person they don't like. That guy didn't wash his hands out of the bathroom. You get that feeling right off the bat. It's a pretty cool world we live in, regardless of all those things we'd like to change. Larry, I got nothing at this point. And I was going to say I got it. Actually, I'm two minutes past due.

But I got to scoot on to another meeting. But as always, I enjoyed visiting with you. And I am excited about your five. I'm going to call them big to-dos. Yes. Priorities. And however I can help you reach any of those, I'm always around to help.

Not that I can, but I can listen. Larry, I do look up to you as a mentor. You're someone who has a lot of experience and someone that I view and respect as a mentor. So I would love to try to stay consistent with you, just to keep you aware of what's happening, but also to include you on the future of everything that's being conducted. Pull a step back and focus on me for one. Hey, do. And to whatever degree I can help and be a part of, I'm delighted to do so.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it, young man. Fuck, yes. I like that idea. All right. Eat more blueberries. Yes. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Subscribe if you have not already done so. But leave us a review.

Let us know how we can continue to improve your transfer. Station. I appreciate every one of you for tuning in and I look forward to the next episode on your transformation station. You've been listening to Your Transformation Station. Rediscovering your true identity and purpose on this planet. We hope you enjoyed the show and we hope you've gotten some useful and practical information. Join us weekly on Monday for the YTS Challenge. and bi-weekly on Wednesday for the exclusive interviews at 8 p.m. Central Time. In the meantime, connect with us on Facebook and Instagram at YTS, the podcast. We'll be back soon.

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