1.5M Q&A - Daily Routine, Joe Dispenza & Online Negativity

1. 0:00 – 0:23

   Intro

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      What's happening, people? Welcome back to the show. It is a 1.5 million subscriber Q&A episode. It's been a while since I did one of these. It's been a busy few months, so I apologize for the absence. But we got thousands and thousands of questions. I've tried to compile them. There were a lot that were kind of similar, so I've tried to put a bunch together and I'm gonna get through as many as I can. So let's get into

2. 0:23 – 2:37

   Negativity on the Internet

   1. CWChris Williamson0:23

      it. Beyond-the-Mic, "How do you deal with negativity on the internet?" I... This has been the year that I've tried to rail against cynicism. I just, I hate it. I hate it so much. Reminds me of all of the sort of narrow-minded, very defeatist mentalities that I, I really didn't like. It's all the worst parts of the UK and I don't like it. Uh, I, I deal with it on the internet by following as few people as possible. So on Twitter, I think I follow 100 people. Uh, I don't spend that much time scrolling Instagram, and my YouTube feed is relatively well curated, so I just try not to see it. That being said when it comes to comment sections and stuff, it's difficult. Like, I wrote this thing the other day, which might be, I guess, interesting at least to listen to. Um, "Fame doesn't change you, it just changes everyone around you," is this quote from Lewis Capaldi in a documentary and I reflected on it a lot this year. "Identity lags reality by one to two years. There's a lot of psychological fallout from a rapid change in status." That's from Mark Manson. "It's jarring when everyone else tells you how great you're doing because you don't feel any different, but the world now sees you differently. It's like identity dysmorphia. And because you forget compliments but remember insults, any increase in exposure mostly just feels like an increase in criticism. At no point on the journey to becoming heavily scrutinized does anyone teach you how to deal with scrutiny. There is no training course for fame or criticism. You're just as vulnerable to it as you were when you started, but people presume that you accepted the deal of criticism when you decided to build a platform. You didn't." And that's kind of how I feel at the moment. Criticism's rough and negativity on the internet doesn't feel very good, especially not when it's directed at you. So it is a learning process, I suppose. And that's, like, perfectly true, what I just said there. There's no training course. There's no point between having 150 subscribers and 1.5 million where someone came along and, like, bestowed on me the skills to be able to deal with negative things. You just, like, I don't know, hope for the best along the way. But I appreciate all the people that are positive because you really do help.

3. 2:37 – 3:15

   Chris’s Book

   1. CWChris Williamson2:37

      Stipe.vrd, "Hello, Chris. Congratulations on the 1.5 million. How is your book coming along and when can we expect it?" So there are two books in the works at the moment. One will be something similar to a more bro-y version of 12 Rules for Life, modern wisdom style almanac book. Still thinking about the value set for that, but I'm super excited. Like all of my newsletter stuff just gets me super excited about that. And then The Mating Crisis with David Buss. Between those two, you will have one within the next... It'll be completed within six months and it'll be published within 12. So probably start of '25 there'll be something out.

4. 3:15 – 5:06

   Time Management

   1. CWChris Williamson3:15

      Smlln, Sm- Smlln, "Do you use any time-blocking methods to manage your time?" I know I should. Ali Abdaal keeps telling me that I should. Uh, and I'm about to switch my productivity system from OmniFocus to TickTick. If you listened to the cinema, the Christmas episode that I did with the boys in the living room, you will know why. Oh, by the way, for the people that don't recognize where I am, like what, what's this place that I'm in, this is my bedroom in Newcastle, the house that I've still got in the northeast of England. This is where it all started. Literally sat right here. Different mic, different camera, different desk, different everything. Like, terrible lighting. There was, uh, candle stains on the ceiling, which Douglas Murray famously pointed out and everyone thought it was mold and the entire world was cr- criticizing me about mold. Uh, but yeah, I'm back for Christmas. I'm back in the UK. I'm back in Newcastle. And it feels very strange, um, to be back here. It's, it's really funny for so much to have changed and for you to be in a place that's so familiar and for you to feel quite different in some ways and also still be the same. So yeah, it's, uh, it's wild, but this is where we are. Look, we've even got the same, we've got the same lighting. You can kind of see that's the vertical bookcase. We tried to replicate all of this when I went to Austin. So it may seem like Austin was just something we did out of nowhere. And then the cinema episodes, I tried to match this teal and copper color. We do that on the big episodes. So it's all stemmed from this. This was the genesis right here. I hope you like it. Um, time-blocking methods. Yusuf's gonna teach me how to use TickTick. That should integrate it. I know that I should time block more. I use my calendar quite liberally, uh, but I should time block stuff that doesn't appear on the calendar typically, more like tasks. The answer is no, but I'm guilty and I think that

5. 5:06 – 6:22

   Next Live Shows

   1. CWChris Williamson5:06

      I should. Tom Baynsey, "What's the biggest change for your next live shows?" Brackets, "Thought they were great." Thank you for coming, Tom. Um, biggest change for the next live shows. I'd love to do some more production. It was as raw as it gets. It's me in front of a screen that's got my name on it talking for 90 minutes and then doing a Q&A. So on stage on my own, which if you told me I'd done that a year ago would have terrified me, and still kind of did. Um, but I would like to add a little bit more production in, uh, some A/V stuff. You know, uh, montages, uh, maybe even scenes from the stuff that I'm talking about. You know, if I bring up a quote or I bring up an idea or I bring up something, we could maybe illustrate that behind me or, uh, even, like, cut to the episode and the point in the episode where I learned about it. That could be kind of cool. Love to integrate some music, some, like, touchy-feely ascending-y kind of things. But right now I just want to, like, dial in my ability to feel comfortable on stage, especially to crack jokes and do bits and do comedy is...... a, a whole other ball game. But yeah, that's, I'm just working on the craft for now, I think. Uh, we can add fluff and do all the rest of it when we try and do the, the O2 in London or something big, but for now just dialing the craft.

6. 6:22 – 7:33

   1 Million Subscribers

   1. CWChris Williamson6:22

      SeesawSeesaw, "Why didn't you do anything for one million subscribers?" Fair question there. Uh, yeah, I kind of promised you guys a while ago that we would have this, like, really nice montage put together or that we would do something special. I'm being honest, the last five months, I can't remember when we hit one million subs, maybe five months ago, the last five months have just been unrelenting. Uh, internally, there's a lot of just, not uproar, just, like, work that needs doing. It's all really fun and I love the guys that are working alongside me, but it's just so much, man. Like, I've paid quite a high personal price this year to get the show to where it needs to be, and that's largely been with very limited time off and a lot of travel and not much time to kind of chill and turn my executive function off. Um, so l- largely, it's just because I didn't have time, and that sounds like a bit of a cop out, but we didn't. And (laughs) given that we're now closer, way closer to two million than we are to one million, I will endeavor to do something actually special, uh, for two million subs, I promise. I will try, (laughs) I will try my best. Uh,

7. 7:33 – 8:57

   Party Boy Chris

   1. CWChris Williamson7:33

      FurryPuffSkin6585, "Do you think that you still have some of the party boy character in you?" Yes. Uh, that degenerate lives sort of deep down, and it's very rare that he comes out. I think he came out once last year, maybe once or twice last year? Yeah, twice, twice last year, and no times, I think, this year. Uh, but I've got stag do, bachelor party for the Americans, uh, coming up in Ibiza. Next year, I'll have another trip for George's 30th in Miami or New York. So there's a couple of times where he just, he crests and sort of peeks his head over the surface and comes back down. Uh, but that was a huge part of me, man. Like, that was, you know, for a decade and a half... Professional party boy is not just like a cool way that I put it. Like, I was a full on degenerate f- (laughs) for a good chunk of my 20s and it was very formative, and I think so many guys are. Like, how many guys don't just send it for a good chunk of time? And that was my career. My career was being a party boy. Like, I literally, I ran the events, I was the guy in the front door with the massive afro that everybody knew. So yeah, he's, he's still a part of me, uh, he just is. He's on extended hiatus at the moment, potentially full retirement.

8. 8:57 – 10:33

   Appreciating the Hard Times

   1. CWChris Williamson8:57

      UserTL4OC5DO8L, need a better username. "First of all, congratulations." Thank you. "Massive love for what you're doing. Secondly, if you went back in time, let's say late teens, early 20s, would you be able to appreciate all the struggle and negatives you went through to reach the positives? Or do you believe it is necessary to hate the negatives so that you have a motive to turn it into the positives?" Not entirely sure what that means. Say, "Would you be able to appreciate all the struggle and negatives you went through to reach the positives? If you went back in t-" I don't understand why I'd need to go back in time. Uh, I'll answer it as if I am now. Um, I think that having a chip on your shoulder and trying to prove something to people that doubted you or you don't like or you feel like didn't like you or shunned you or unrequited care or love or whatever it is, I think that is important. And, uh, oh, there it is again. He needs to drink. Those of us that see the solo episodes know that I need to drink. I think that the action threshold that you are required to do, that you need to reach in order to do great things, in order to really do anything that's kind of difficult, you can have the pleasure and the positive drive to go forward and you can have sort of distaste and chips on your shoulder and, uh, hatred, desire to push you from behind, and a blend of the two seems to be best. It's not a fuel that you want to use for too long, but it's very, very effective at getting you off the line, and that's something that I've managed to do and I'm now working on casting off the negatives and kind of that required

9. 10:33 – 11:24

   Lex Fridman

   1. CWChris Williamson10:33

      to prove myself. Sid00077, "Are you planning on having Lex on your pod? Also, by any chance, since you've had a few comedians, will you have Nick Mullen or Adam Friedman on?" Nick Mullen, I messaged two days ago. Uh, we were DMing back and forth, I think someone on his team was DMing me, don't know whether it was Nick. Um, so yeah, I'd love to get Nick on. I think Nick's fantastic. Uh, Lex, we've been talking back and forth, I messaged him and congratulated him on the Bezos episode, I thought that was really good. If you haven't listened to that, you should go and check out, uh, Jeff Bezos on E- on, uh, Lex's podcast. And, uh, yeah, I mean, Lex is a busy guy, and (laughs) , like, gets... Uh, he's got other things on his mind, like for 18 months he was, like, really personally impacted by Ukraine and that's a bigger priority than me bringing him on. We'll get him eventually. TMCcandles7,

10. 11:24 – 15:15

    Better Titles

    1. CWChris Williamson11:27

       "Chris, firstly, I greatly appreciate your work and the continual improvement in the guests and interviews." Thank you. "Can I make a suggestion? The titles of your podcasts really fail to capture the essence of the interviews, and I have missed many a great discussion. For instance, your Patrick Bet-David interview titled Why Does No One Trust The Media Anymore? did not remotely capture a fantastic discussion. My best, Tim." Tim, that's a fucking awesome way to deliver criticism, uh, very well balanced, and I appreciate you for doing it. Yeah, so look, titling and thumbnailing on YouTube, um, I touch... I might be setting myself up for a problem in future here. I touch every single title and thumbnail that goes out, every single one of them, and I think we have 2,000 videos, two, two and a bit thousand videos on the, on the channel.... all of them, I've touched. The reason for that is that I think it's very important to frame the episodes and the channel is an import- in an important way. Let me give you an example. Russell Brand. Russell Brand's team knows how to limbically hijack whatever's going on, but every single one of those titles make me cringe inside. They're- they're- it's horrible. It's horrible. Like, "They are coming for your kids. What? You don't know what they did?" It's like, oh God, guys, come on. Like, it's- it's the most antagonistic, tribal... It's- it's not good. Uh, I don't want to play that game. There's also different ways that you can do, uh, titling whereby you put- you kind of keyword plug different things. Um, Lex, Lex kind of does this. It's almost like a list. It's a listicle. And we've tried all of the different ones. Ultimately, if you're not happy with the titles that we're giving, stop clicking on them because we split test things on the backend. We split test tons and tons and tons of titles, and we know which ones people click on. Now, obviously, there is a way that all of this could just end up toward, like, the Russell Brand limbic hijack thing, which we don't want to do, so we have it within confines. We have parameters of where we're going to allow the titles and thumbnails to go to, and beyond that, we don't take it there, but ultimately, the titles are the- the titles and thumbnails are the things that people click on because we need to play within the game of the algorithm. You're right. Maybe, uh, "Why does no one trust the media anymore?" doesn't capture a fantastic discussion, but like, what does, that gets people to click? It's very difficult. Like, we tried. It's like, you know, Patrick Bet-David, a conversation on the challenges of modern, like, modern culture and media and whether or not he should run for president. It's like, no one clicks on that. We've tried. So, I would be interested in a solution that helps us to hold on to CTR whilst also, uh, sounding good. But, for a very long time, I fought with titles and thumbs, and improving them made a massive change to the growth of the channel. I don't think that we played a limbic hijack game that much. We very regularly, the boys, the copywriters that work for me, Jody and Chase, um, will come to me with something and I will say, "No, I'm not prepared to cross that particular line," which is totally arbitrary and probably would get us more plays. In fact, it would almost certainly get us more plays. And I come in with my big, like, hammer and whack them down and say, "No, sorry, too much. Can't have that. Too antagonistic, too tribal, too whatever, too accusatory." Like we've done too many titles that seem like that even if they work. So we work really hard to remain, like, as I would say, like, uh, ethical algo hacking. Um, but yeah, we're working hard, I promise. I promise you, trust me, we are working very hard to try and find that balance. Um, and yeah, I guess, just click on everything. Actually, that's a solution. Just click on everything. If you click on everything, then it doesn't matter what the title is, uh, you don't need to miss any of them. Click on them all. Timaxxfitness,

11. 15:15 – 17:14

    Daily Routine

    1. CWChris Williamson15:16

       "What does a full day in the life of..." What- "What look like a full day in the life of Chr- of- uh, Chris? Detail from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. Do you exercise in the morning? Do you practice fasting before or during a podcast? Do you split your work up into blocks couple of times per day? Do you work during weekends?" All right. Try and blast through this quickly. Uh, wake up 7:00 AM, in the gym by 7:40. I'll have had LMNT and, uh, some probiotic-y stuff first thing before I leave. Train, get back, some sort of protein shake or some eggs, then sit down at my desk by 9:00 AM. We'll tend to catch up because the first video will go live at 10:00. So we'll check in on that, make sure that everything in terms of copy, in the Slack channels, are all sorted for that. Episode will go out, I'll be working through admin, having conversations, maybe some calls. About 12:00 midday, I'll stop and then begin, or, like, complete redoing prep for the guest. Then I'll record about 4:00 PM. That'll go until about 6:00 PM. Finish up. During that time, I'll have gone for walks, taken more calls, done more bits and pieces of reading, all the rest of it. And then usually 6:30, go out for dinner with friends, and then get back, and bed by 10:30. That's most days. And then, on a weekend, uh, the- I never record on weekends. We- I try more on a morning. I'll tend to go out, do comedy, live shows, all that sort of stuff. Uh, and that's kind of it. So it's kind of heavily routinized when I'm at home, but way less routinized than it was when I used to live here. Which again, is crazy. S- that couch that I'm pointing at, which you totally can't see and you may never see, probably thousands of hours are spent on that couch. Journaling, meditating, doing breath work, like writing, reading, just thinking about stuff for so long. So, if that sounds, uh, like robotic, whatever I'm doing in Austin, given that that's pretty much every single day, that version of me from a little while ago was way worse.

12. 17:14 – 17:48

    Bring Me The Horizon

    1. CWChris Williamson17:14

       M- mercedesalvarez8379. I'm nailing it with the names today, by the way. "When are you going to have BMTH on the pod?" All right. Bring Me The Horizon, uh, just today, Jordan Fish announced that he's leaving. Uh, Jordan is a good friend, and I hope that the departure was amicable. I don't know anything about it. Um, but I'm a massive fan of the boys and I would love to bring any of them on. Ollie, I've told a number of times that he needs to come on. We just haven't been in the same place, so we'll get him eventually. Logan Mack,

13. 17:48 – 20:26

    Deleting Comments

    1. CWChris Williamson17:48

       "Regarding your policy of deleting or stopping people's comments from being seen, do you reckon this in part stems from being an only child, by way of not having to deal with the constant annoyances of others? Reasons previously given are very valid. Just a thought." All right. So, to recap, uh, season one of why people get banned from the channel. This is my house, take your fucking shoes off. Like, behave in an appropriate way. This doesn't mean that I expect everyone to be a sycophant or even agree with me, but it means that I expect people to-... like, behave in a civil manner. And if I bring some guest on the show and the comments are just filled with unthoughtful, stupid, like name-calling that hasn't got anything to do with the episode, uh, how many times do we go on and look at a two and a half hour, three-hour-long episode, and based on the title and thumbnail, someone has already spewed some half-baked opinion u- using an ad hominem or, like, calling names or bringing up something which is unrelated, and just being a dick? It's like, hey, guess what? This isn't a nice environment for anybody to be in, and that's not the way that I want it to be. Go on someone else's channel. Like, I- I don't mind if you- you only want to contribute to channels where you can brain fart out whatever you want uninterrupted at all times. That's not here. So that's what happened before. Do I think that this is my way of not having to deal with the constant annoyances of others? That's so interesting, and I've never thought of it before, and you actually might be right. I don't deal with frustrations very well, and when I want something to happen, if it's dependent on other people, I do find myself getting quite agitated pretty quickly. So yeah, actually, I think that that might contribute to it a little bit, um, but more so than that, I just want a really positive environment. What was the first question? About negativity on the internet, like I don't want a cynical audience, and there's a button on the back end of YouTube that's called "hide user from channel," I think it's called, and it means that that person can still watch, they can still comment, they can still like, but only they can see their comment and no one else can. And they're just spewing stuff into the ether, and it's one strike and you're done. Like, like, that's been the policy for over a year now, and if you go on and look at episodes, there is still tons and tons of criticism. So it's not like we're getting rid of criticism, we're just getting rid of the people that were spoiling the party for everybody. And like, you know what it's like, you go onto a channel and you look at the top few comments, and if the top few comments are stupid, you're like, oh, this is like a really idiotic audience. I don't want that. Satchidsigni111,

14. 20:26 – 23:09

    Monk Mode

    1. CWChris Williamson20:28

       "We need a video on your monk mode." Was just talking about that. How timely. Um, so I got a bit of stick actually, uh, like three or four months ago, or maybe even it was at the start of the year, and then it got popped back up again by Podcast Cringe a couple of months ago, or a couple of weeks ago. Um, I talked about an old morning routine that I used to do, which was pretty extensive. It was wake up, go for a walk, uh, element in water, come back, sit down, journal, breath work, into meditation, into reading, into food prep, and it would take... During COVID, I, like, spun it up to like nine- oh, and, uh, uh, mobility work as well, so Stu McGill's Big Three for my lower back. During COVID, I'd got that to 90 minutes, maybe more, may- probably 90 minutes or so to get that done, and I don't disagree. All of the people that were saying in the comments when it first came out and then when it popped back up again, uh, like, "This is ridiculous," how, (laughs) like, out of touch, uh, like, "Tell me that you don't have a job," well, f- without telling me that you don't have a job, um, I don't disagree with all of those things. I wasn't suggesting that other people do it or that it was even necessarily optimal. There are probably ways that you can enjoy more of your life and not take up the first two hours of your day doing, like, mad bro self-development stuff. However, I found unbelievable success with doing that, and I think it was maybe a counter to Party Boy Chris that had had his head up his ass for so long that he needed this, like, very intense pharmaceutical-grade dose of introspection and isolation and in- introversion and all of that stuff to drive it home. So for me, consider it a compensatory mechanism, but for, you know, for a long time, dude, I'm looking down there, and I can see the stack of journals that I completed, like 11 six-month journals in a row that I completed daily, morning and evening, and these were big. They were formative parts of, of me, and it was, it's- I- I'm not gonna lie about, like, what I did. What I did during that period was a lot of time on my own, a lot of time without alcohol, a lot of time without partying, 500 days without caffeine, all that stuff, and it worked, and, you know, I- I- I don't disagree. Like, it's ridiculous. It's fucking- (laughs) it's absolutely insane, and almost no one can do it, and- and m- many people might see it as hell, but it was really good for me, and it ended up making me into a better person. So I think fucking hooray for that version of Chris.

15. 23:09 – 24:29

    Hosting People From Other Fields

    1. CWChris Williamson23:09

       Joe Gaffney, "Modern Wisdom primarily focuses on intellectuals as guests. Would you be open to start having people from other fields on, like Fred Again, Theo Von, or are you going to leave that to the kind of DA- DOAC and stick to the intellectual framework?" So I mean, Mark Normand, uh, and Whitney Cummings are probably going to be very flattered by you, uh, calling them intellectuals, but yeah, man, I- I- I love speaking to people from all different strokes, and I don't know, for next year, I'm thinking about a little bit more from the comedy side. I was blown away by Whitney Cummings. Like, look at the comments on that episode. Uh, just outstanding, like, people going, "I can't bel- like, who is this person? I was so impressed by her." Like, she's great. I really, really impressed, uh, r- like, enjoyed that conversation. Yeah, for next year, Fred Again would be great, would absolutely adore to speak to him. Uh, Theo Von is on my hit list, and yeah, I think broadening out the- the fields a little bit more. That being said, obviously, as you go up and up and up through those echelons, even for someone with a one-and-a-half-million YouTube channel, it's still tough. Like, it's still this big, like, networking game, and the timing has to be right and all the rest of it. So no, yeah, uh, we'll be broadening out as we have. I think we've continued to broaden out quite nicely over the last six years, but I won't stop.Mangelos,

16. 24:29 – 26:29

    How Success Impacts Self Worth

    1. CWChris Williamson24:30

       "How does your online success affect your self-image in real life? How do you view yourself today versus Chris from five years ago?" Dude, these questions are so good. Like, the insight that you guys have from watching the show and then being able to work out some hole that's gonna be interesting. Uh, you should be very... Everybody that submitted a question should be very flattered because you- you come up with good questions. (sighs) "How does online success affect your self-image in real life? How do you view yourself today versus Chris from five years ago?" Um, to be honest, man, it's- it's like kind of jarring. It's that little sentence that I said at the top, um, identity lags reality by one to two years. So I'm still just catching up to me moving out to Texas and feeling, oh, like I'm a person who deserves to have an O-1 visa and live in America or whatever. Um, I'm less wracked with self-doubt and uncertainty than I was before. Uh, I view y- I view myself as kind of worthy of my successes, which I don't think I could have said, uh, probably even a year ago. So, that makes me feel good. I like the fact that, like, I'm not just riddled with imposter syndrome and- and- and- and self-doubt. Uh, that's a big difference. A huge difference, actually. Um, but online success is, like it's niche fame. Like at the- at the very, very best, I've got like micro niche fame. And if you put me in the right bro-y sort of gym, like five guys will come up to me on a busy Saturday and say, "Hey man, I love the show." And that's great. Like that's a perfect optimal amount of fame. Uh, the difference from Chris five years ago was, uh, so much. I mean, confidence, uh, self-belief, the feeling that I deserved success, like an endless litany of things. And, uh, it'll be interesting to see where I'm at in a year's time because it feels like there's been quite a big change internally over the last 12 months. Samuelquin2321,

17. 26:29 – 28:02

    Disagreeing With Guests

    1. CWChris Williamson26:30

       "Would you ever consider being more disagreeable with your guests?" Fair question. Um, I find it tough to really lean in to the disagreeability thing, you know, like the Destiny, Douglas Murray style, like Michael Malice, like real finger pushing stuff. Uh, that's not my nature, um, and kind of in the same way as if you saw some guy that used to weigh, you know, 55 kilos and now is deadlifting like 150 pounds, and you'd be like, "Well, 150 pounds isn't that much." Like, yeah, but look at where he started. The time (laughs) - the times that I manage to really push the guests on something with a disagreeable tone takes an awful lot for me to get over, and that's part of my nature, and it's something that I'm aware of, and it's something that I'm working on as well, to stop being such a people pleaser, even on the show. Um, so yes, it's something I'm actively working on, and for next year will be one of the key areas of rhetoric that I think I try and bring into the show more. Uh, that being said, uh, in my experience, if you give people enough rope, they will end up hanging themselves in any case, and being... just sitting back and giving people room to speak often allows them to like diddle their own philosophy, uh, uh, more effectively than you would be able to. But I also don't agree- uh, don't disagree, sorry. I would say, yeah, uh, that's something I'm working on.

18. 28:02 – 30:10

    Drifting to the Political Right

    1. CWChris Williamson28:02

       Chortler, "You appear to have drifted/be drifting toward the right politically with your choice of guests. Is this you aligning with your target audience in an attempt at bringing some sort of balance or something else?" Um, I don't know, I mean, like Scott Galloway, Helen Lewis, David Pakman, Destiny, th- these people I wouldn't have said are from the right. Uh, I would say that I'm definitely more accepted by people who are like from the center and to the right of center, um, but I mean, I've asked- I've been trying to reach out to a ton of people from the left, m- one of which I can say is HasanAbi. Like, I really want to bring him on. I'd love to have a conversation with him. I can't get a response. Here's a good story. So we were about to work with a merch company. We've never done Modern Wisdom merch and I was like, God, six years, 1.5 million subs, pretty cool brand. I think Modern Wisdom's a pretty cool brand. Why don't we make some merch out of it? So we found this company and everything was gonna be great and it was a West Coast merch company, but they distributed internationally, and they had a very female, very Gen Z, very left-leaning design team. They did a kickoff call with them and said, "Really great to say that we brought Chris Williamson on board and we're gonna be doing the merch for Modern Wisdom." And there was a mutiny. And they literally said, "If you make us do this, we're leaving." So, the sensitivity around whatever positioning I'm supposed to have, I mean, like if you think that I'm unspeakable and beyond the pale, you're fucked if you go on the internet. Um, but yeah, that's... It's tough for me to get those people on. That being said, Scott Galloway, one of my favorite people, definitely is like fucking very, very lefty left. Uh, Destiny, the same. Helen Lewis was great. She was the- Helen Lewis was literally the lady from GQ that like held Jordan Peterson's feet to the fire for two and a half hours. So, I try and find balance as best I can. RobertWharton2394,

19. 30:10 – 32:09

    Chris’s New Drink

    1. CWChris Williamson30:10

       "I ask this with no hater vibe, but why d- why did you choose to make an unhealthy energy drink your business venture?" I'd be interested to know what you mean by unhealthy, because it's got zero sugar, it's got natural colorings, it's got natural caffeine, it's got the methylated version of cobalamin, which is one of the B vitamins which is more easily absorbed by our body. It is completely evidenced-backed and I will go toe to toe with anyone in the evidence-based community on the formulation of it. What I presume that you're talking about is the fact that we used Ace K as the sweetener. Now if you look at any... any shelf of drinks. You will see ACE-K and aspartame being used very liberally, including in PRIME, including in tons and tons of drinks that are much more famous than ours. Um, I don't think that it's unhealthy by virtue of the fact that I literally designed it this way. Could we have put... A lot of people have said, "Why couldn't you use stevia?" Have you ever tried to use stevia with a evidence-based formulation like ours? Because each one of the different compounds that we put in has a different bitterness profile. So you've got cognizin, pretty bitter. Rhodiola rosea and Panax ginseng taste fucking awful on their own. L-theanine, it can be kind of gritty. Then you've got the B vitamins that you need to load on top, plus the caffeine that needs to go in. Trying to get that to taste nice, we tried everything. I really wanted to try and make it work with, uh, natural sweeteners, and it didn't. So it's, I mean, been having it just before I started. It's money. This stuff's fucking dynamite and I'm so proud of it. I love the branding. I love the way it looks. I love what it does. Everyone that takes it is super, super impressed. So, uh, if it's not for you, if you are so dialed on your health and fitness regime that the type of sweetener that you have in your productivity drink is something that you have narrowed your health and fitness goals down to, more power to you. But it's not for me. Matas, "Why

20. 32:09 – 33:05

    Party Vaping

    1. CWChris Williamson32:09

       do you party vape?" Um, I feel like you've seen me somewhere. Uh, so yeah, when I'd... Look, we were on tour, and I was in, uh, Toronto or Vancouver. Uh, Vancouver, I think. Uh, when I drink, I've started vaping. Uh, I do it at comedy cl- uh, shows and I do it at, um, when I'm on nights out. But thankfully, I don't go out that much, which means I don't ma- vape that much. I don't know. I'm gonna blame it on Zach. Zach vapes and when he's got one around, I always grab it off him. That being said, I'm thinking about doing, uh, sobriety for all of 2024, which will also fix the vaping problem. But I don't know, largely 'cause it's fun and because whoever it was, degenerate Chris, party, party boy Chris is still in there, uh, somewhere and I've got to get my fix. You know, if I stop doing fat lines and hard drugs, party vaping is like the PG equivalent.

21. 33:05 – 33:33

    Tim Dillon

    1. CWChris Williamson33:05

       Isaac Mijangos, "When is Tim Dillon getting on the show?" Dude, I'd love to bring him on. I love that guy. He's in and out of Austin. That guy has been in Austin when I've not been there for the last three times. It's almost as if someone knows, someone in Tim Dillon's team knows when I'm leaving and then purposefully places him in the city at that time. But yeah, I, I'm a huge fan of his podcast and I would love to bring him on, and hopefully we can make it happen next year. Ali,

22. 33:33 – 33:43

    OnlyFans

    1. CWChris Williamson33:33

       "Is there any amount of money which will make you consider making an OnlyFans account?" Everyone's got a price. OH Ambitious One, "Do you still get

23. 33:43 – 34:48

    Depression

    1. CWChris Williamson33:43

       depressed?" That's an interesting question. Um, I did for a lot of my 20s. I can't remember the last time that I was. Um, there's little waves of that, those thought patterns do sometimes burst above the surface a little bit. But it's been a long time. Like proper, proper depression for me is laid in bed, can't leave, make excuses, stop doing things, order shit food, don't open the curtains, stay on phone all day or watch screens, nap at least twice, three times, don't leave, go to bed that night, run it back the next day. Um, I actually think in, in retrospect that it was, like, acute burnout rather than depression was what was happening to me. But, uh, largely, no. And I think that good health and fitness regime, better climate, more friends, and a better sleep and wake pattern, um, has made probably s- ni- 70% to 90% of the difference.

24. 34:48 – 37:58

    What’s Next?

    1. CWChris Williamson34:48

       D1andOnly, "What next?" Um, good question, I guess, going into 2024. So book is gonna be a priority for the first six months of next year. Um, I really need to just get my head down and get that written, because once it's done, then I can, you know, get back into other things. Don't let the show drop. Don't take my eye off the ball. There's so many different things that, you know, opportunities and, "Why don't you do this?" And, "We could get you as an advisor and here's an investment and here's a company that we could start new." "Why don't you do a course on that?" And, "Maybe we could do this thing with you, some partnership with this company." All of those things are exciting, but they're not the main thing. And you know, if you've downloaded my reading list, you'll see that one of the top five books is Essentialism by Greg McKeown. And being an essentialist, i.e. focusing on the vital few, not the trivial many, doing less but better, is easy when you have fewer things available for you to do than time to do them in. Because you can say yes to everything and still feel like you've got spare time. Now, the bar stool has been flipped upside down and there are more things that I could do with my time than time that I have to do them in. And each potential thing for me to do is like the best thing that I've been offered ever over and over and over again.

    2. NANarrator36:05

       (laughs)

    3. CWChris Williamson36:05

       Uh, so it's hard and, uh, a skill set that... Saying no to things is a skill set that I'm still having to develop. So what next is book for the first half of next year. Uh, keep doing the show, continue to bring on interesting guests, continue to shoot in a beautiful manner. Uh, the cinema stuff, I adore. I think we've really captured, uh, a part of the market and, and, like, a part of the internet from, that kind of didn't exist. Like, no one was shooting things in super high quality like us. So I'm gonna continue to spin that up. Um, and that's kind of it. Like, if I get to the end of next year having written a book and just not stopped my caliber for the show, that'll be great. From the outside, that doesn't look like much. But from the inside, that's still an absolute shit ton of work. And then actually.I would like to do, to start releasing a bunch, like a suite of different courses. So we've been talking about monk mode, and like me sitting on this couch and stuff. There was a very particular sequence of things that I went through and a very particular way that I did it. I searched for a long time to find the best in the world for breath work, the best in the world for meditation, the best in the world for journaling, the best in the world for reading practices and mobility practices, and spinal rehab and training, and all that stuff. And if there'd been a one-stop shop for me to find that in, it would have made my life a lot easier. And they say that you should make products for the person that you were a few years ago, and that would have been great for me. So maybe I'll start to do something, but I don't know. Like, even the, like the idea of doing courses and things kind of gives me a bit of a- an ick. But then I also think that's just because of the way that other people talk about it online, rather than the actual value, uh, offering that it brings. So, I'll get over that. Maybe that.

25. 37:58 – 38:14

    New Year’s Resolutions

    1. CWChris Williamson37:58

       Uh, interesting things you should know about. What are your New Year's resolutions? I haven't done them yet. This is December 22nd and I haven't done them. So I will sit down next week and do my annual review, which you can get at chriswillx.com/review for free.

26. 38:14 – 38:41

    Is Chris a CIA Plant?

    1. CWChris Williamson38:14

       Peter Wall, "How long have you been a CIA plant?" I think I've upgraded. Oh, no. CIA plant is, like, way high. I'm- I'm probably controlled opposition. Michael Malice has this hierarchy of the different ways that, uh, the different ways that glowing experts ascend or something, and it's like, I- I'm pretty sure I'm controlled opposition. Or maybe I'm not. I'm probably not interesting enough or important enough to be controlled opposition yet.

27. 38:41 – 41:33

    Running Nightclubs as an Only Child

    1. CWChris Williamson38:41

       Artur Gaudelzki, "You always talk about your single child past, social anxiety, being bullied. How have you transitioned from that to running nightclubs? That always bugged me as weirdly unlikely." Uh, first off, always talk about that, interestingly, I didn't talk about that before David Goggins episode. That was the first time that I really opened up about being bullied and I think, and that kind of real social anxiety stuff that I had in the past. So it's interesting that that seems, at least to you, like it's been a, it's like a mainstay of who I am, because to me, it still feels like a very recent, uh, revelation that I've decided to kind of open up about myself. Uh, transitioning from that to running nightclubs. Yeah, um, there's a few people that have like, "Oh, this guy was obviously popular in school because of either the way he, that he looks or the job that he pis- like pivoted into." Um, I don't know, like, skepticism around my origin story, uh, maybe I should take it as a compliment that, uh, I- I seem so well-balanced now that there's no way that I could have been, like, a total, like, neurodivergent degenerate autist in- in school. But I promise you, and if you ask any of the people that I went to school with, they would, they would back me up. Um, how did I transition from that into running nightclubs? I guess I saw the opportunity to be someone that people needed, and if people need you, it's kind of the same as them wanting you. And even if people didn't want me but needed me to get a VIP band, that manifested as me being accepted by the world and being, uh, being given validation and being given a, like a- a place of belonging in some way. Uh, so that pivot... And also don't forget, for almost all of my childhood years, I was on the outside of social networks looking in. So I was observing and working out how different things moved and why people did things the way they did and how they moved between different... That's what a club promoter does. A club promoter looks at social networks and works out how to manipulate them so that you can get people to go to a different event. Who's the key tastemaker within that? The only difference between being popular and unpopular with that is can you get in- Can you, like, play the social game, the social dynamics game of actually being able to communicate? And as soon as you've got that down, you've got this massively increased level of attention and precision, uh, and focus that you have on why people are the way they are, which I think is still largely why my obsession with human nature on the podcast, evolutionary psychology, all of that stuff is still here.

28. 41:33 – 43:01

    Fame Because of Chris’s Jawline

    1. CWChris Williamson41:33

       Connor, "How many of your subscribers are because of your jawline?" Yeah, this has become a bit of a meme online. Someone, a bunch of people have had pops at me on Twitter about this. It's very interesting. It's a very interesting criticism given that the show is bigger on Spotify than it is on YouTube, and you can't see me on there. Uh, I mean, look, I've chosen to do a thing which is the least flash, least showy. Like I'm doing it with a top on. Uh, I'm cropping this above the arms. Like when people meet me in real life, they're like, "Wow, dude, like you're, like less of a skinny bitch than I thought. Like you're a bit more jacked than I thought you were." Um, I think it is cope to say that the reason that this podcast is successful is because of my jawline, the same way as it's cope to say that it's successful because of, uh, Love Island. I came off Love Island with an additional 3,000 followers in 2015, '16, whenever I did it. Uh, it was tiny and it did nothing and actually put me back. We've lost contracts with partners and airlines because the person that was the key tastemaker found out that I was on Love Island. So if you think that going on Love Island helps... And then the jawline thing, I don't know. If you think that Jordan Peterson gets seduced by me doing a, like...... model face at him. Uh, you might be, unfortunately, surprised.

29. 43:01 – 43:27

    Putting Nikes in the Washing Machine

    1. CWChris Williamson43:01

       Jean-Luc Picard, "Is it okay to put Nikes in the washing machine? Thanks." Sure. Let's say yes. I've managed to thread the needle of never doing my own washing, pretty much. I can do it, but I choose not to. Uh, and I'm 35, so my advice is, work out a way where you don't need to do your own washing. Jason Stone, "Didn't you only

30. 43:27 – 43:40

    1 Million to 1.5 Million

    1. CWChris Williamson43:27

       have one million about three weeks ago?" I think it was about four months ago, but yeah, it's been- the last few months have just been crazy, which is also beautiful but disquieting, and, uh, I'm holding on for dear life.

31. 43:40 – 45:33

    Dating Advice

    1. CWChris Williamson43:40

       A.L, "The dating advice from gurus online seems to boil down to 'Just be successful, bro.' Given that women rate 80% of men as physically unattractive and 50% of men are below average intelligence, what's the advice for those 40% of men?" That's interesting. The bar is set unbelievably low. Like, the average American man is obese, divorced, and with less than 1K in the bank. That is a very, very low bar. Uh, I think that the internet overindexes on objective metrics of success and doesn't account for what happens in person. You will see regularly people and guys that are charismatic, funny, sexy in person batting way outside of their league if you were to just look at them from an online perspective. Basically, I would say don't overthink what the internet says because the reality of dating for almost everybody, if you talk to people that aren't terminally online and ask them about their dating experiences and then talk to the people who are terminally online, these two don't spend all that much time getting close. That being said, it is- th- the- there are some genetic, uh, like, truths, uh, that are rough to get around. But again, dude, if you go to the gym three times a week for a year, you're probably in the top percentile of all fitness people on the planet. If you spend 300 bucks on a relatively okay wardrobe with some blacks, some whites, some navys, and some grays, you're probably better dressed than most of the guys that you're going to walk past. Like, the bar is so fucking low. So, the dating advice from gurus online boils down to, "Just be successful, bro." It's like, just try a bit and you will already be probably a six or seven out of 10. Sabin

32. 45:33 – 46:05

    Who Has the Most Insane Work Ethic?

    1. CWChris Williamson45:33

       Dahal, "Who is the man with the most insane work ethic that you have known?" Hormozi, obvious answer. But that guy's ability to go and go and go and not stop is fucking ungodly. And it's- it's impressive. It's very, um, it's admirable to see, uh, and also, uh, largely unrealistic for most people to achieve. Uh, Ham Cheese Lettuce

33. 46:05 – 46:39

    Neutonic

    1. CWChris Williamson46:05

       Mayo Sandwich (laughs) , uh, question. "Why the F did you start selling a snake oil tonic drink?" It's not a tonic. It's called Nootonic. Um, I would be interested to know what the snake oil thing part of that is, given that it is completely evidence-based and the main movers from a nootropics perspective are probably the most researched and well-backed that there are. Uh, but the reason I started selling it is because I wanted it and it didn't exist, so I made it, and I figured if I'd made it for myself, I might as well give it to other people too.

34. 46:39 – 47:45

    Interviewing a Spirituality Expert

    1. CWChris Williamson46:39

       Fran Coperez167, "Why haven't you brought in an expert in metaphysics or spirituality like Doctor Doe Dispenza or someone like that? Or you just don't believe in these things? Please, it's an honest question. Greetings from Venezuela." Greetings to you too, Franco Perez. Uh, I love how- I don't know whether it's Google Translate or just kind of a- an unnecessarily formal way, um, of- of putting stuff across, but I love how- like, "Please, it's an honest question." It's, like, so, like, unnecessarily, uh, nice in the way that it's done, just in case he'd, like, offended me. Uh, and meanwhile, there's like armies and armies of people on, uh, hide user from channel just like spewing bullshit. Um, I am a massive fan of Doctor Doe- uh, Dr. Joe Dispenza and, uh, I am trying quite hard to bring him on the show. So, if your metaphysics and spirituality is aligned appropriately, if our astral realms have worked in sync with the retrograde of Venus, you may get him sooner than you think.

35. 47:45 – 48:52

    More African-Americans on Modern Wisdom

    1. CWChris Williamson47:45

       JayRhodog1, "More African-Americans on the show, please." Sure, suggest some. I would love to bring some African-Americans on. Speaking of that, not sure if you saw, um, people kicked off about Spotify's, uh, top 10 shows, uh, not being sufficiently ethnically diverse, and there was a bunch of people putting ninja emojis. Uh, ninja, I think, is referring to how many African-Americans there were, or people of African descent, we can put in a politically correct way. Uh, "Where are all of my ninjas at?" was a question that was asked. Super top comment. Loads and loads and loads of people. And it's like, if you actually look at it, Steven is, like, I think Ghanaian mother or something like that. Jay Shetty isn't white. Uh, the chick that does the TED thing is pre- I'm pretty sure she's Asian. So, all of the people that were like, "This isn't sufficiently representative. Like, it's full of white people." I wonder how Steven and Jay and the TED lady feel about being like, "Aah, there's white people." Funny. Peraltesmi-

36. 48:52 – 49:14

    Naming a Son

    1. CWChris Williamson48:54

       Simma, "If you had a son, what would you name him?"I like Red Rising, and the lead protagonist in that is called Darrow. I think Darrow's a fucking dope name for a kid. You're not having a loser if your son is called Darrow. Like it's impossible to grow up and be called Darrow and not be an absolute stud. So, Darrow.

37. 49:14 – 50:28

    Different Channel for Clips

    1. CWChris Williamson49:14

       R Piththibala, "No question, just a suggestion, make a different channel for clips, it gets messy. I've seen many creators making different clips channels and chips channels getting more views than the main one, clips channels getting more views than the main one." Um, you have, but that is survivorship bias, and if you look at all of the other clips channels that are part of other, like, moderately successful podcasts, you will see that they get dogshit plays. My philosophy from the very beginning was when people bifurcate their channels off and have one main podcast feed and one clips feed, you get a underperforming main podcast channel and a total dogshit performing chips, clips channel. Look, I'm fucking doing it now, chips channel. Um, you do that, and that wasn't something that I thought structurally made that much sense. If you're a fledgling podcaster, I would advise not doing it. I would put everything that you have into one channel. It makes it way easier to do scheduling. It makes it way easier for accounting. It makes it way easier operationally, and it's worked for us. Maybe I could have had a 1.1 million sub main channel and a 500K clips channel, but, like, what the fuck am I doing with the clips channel? Right, I'm just all, all for one. Nate 6795,

38. 50:28 – 51:18

    Is Chris the Onnit Guy?

    1. CWChris Williamson50:28

       "Are you The Onnit Guy? I swear I recognize you from an ad from them with Rogan." That's Aubrey Marcus. That's someone... Does he look like me? I don't think he does. I mean, we both live in Austin. We've both got short hair sometimes. He's covered in tattoos. He's three inches taller than me and, uh. Uh, anyway, maybe I'm wrong. Either way... (laughs) "Love your podcasts. I would love to see more content creators like streamers, gamers, and also comedians are always great to watch. Bill Burr." We'd love to get Bill Bu- Bill Burr on. Trying to get HasanAbi on. Uh, I don't know who else from streamers. Like Charlie would be great, Ludwig would be great. Um, I don't think I watch many of the streamers. And then all of the chick streamers are getting themselves in bother at the moment, so steer clear.

39. 51:18 – 52:30

    What Chris Has Changed His Mind About

    1. CWChris Williamson51:18

       George Mack, "What have you changed your mind about most in the last 12 to 24 months?" Ooh. Um, hormonal birth control was a huge one last year. That was a really big one. Uh, I, you know, coming from a, a nightlife background, you just presume that, like, lot of people having casual sex, it's probably pretty good to ensure that we don't have accidental pregnancies, and then (clears throat) I just learned about the impact that this stuff has on women's mental health, on their bodies. It can lock in a type of protein folding, uh, during formative years of brain development in the brain that causes women to be more predisposed to anxiety and all sorts of stuff. So, skepticism around hormonal birth control was a big one last year. This year has probably been epigenetics. Uh, just, I thought that epigenetics was, like, the quantum healing of the, of the genetic, behavioral genetics world, or just the straight-up genetics world. Um, I thought it was bullshit, and I was wrong. So, uh, epigenetics this year and hormonal birth control last year.

40. 52:30 – 53:11

    Leaving the UK

    1. CWChris Williamson52:30

       Simon Evans, "Could you have achieved the success without leaving the UK?" No. No. I, I have often thought this. Did I need to make the move to Austin in order to be able to do the things, and could I have repurposed it, or whatever, whatever, but it's, like, a million tiny changes in exposure and who you're hanging around with and the conversations you have and the people that you run into. And then the change in my work rate and inspiration and enthusiasm because I'm around a different type of culture, and then the change in weather and the ch- all of that stuff. Uh, so largely, no. The Crypto Journo,

41. 53:11 – 54:23

    Building an Audience Without Fame

    1. CWChris Williamson53:11

       "How would you recommend a podcast or a content creator builds their audience without going on Love Island or a similar godforsaken reality TV show?" Again, I would go as far as to say that Love Island was a net negative for my podcasting journey. It gave me nothing. I started this podcast with nothing. There were days in March or April after we'd launched, and we were one episode per week deep, there were days where we did zero total plays across audio and YouTube. Zero, none, no plays, right. So it wasn't like we had some huge launch and it gave us a catapult. Uh, so I would recommend that you do it the same way that I did. I think the way that I did it is the most reliable way to do it, which is don't stop. If you don't stop, you will eventually get good, presuming that you have the raw materials to be good at it. Uh, building an audience is tough, but consistency is the rarest thing in all of content creation because everybody wants an audience now, and it's hard to get an audience now. But it's actually pretty easy to get an audience in six years' time. Charles, "Do you

42. 54:23 – 55:48

    Most Re-Read Books

    1. CWChris Williamson54:23

       have a book or books you've read more than three times, more... read more, three or more times in the past decade? If yes..." This is the fucking thing. If, if someone puts a typo in their question, it makes me sound like an idiot when I try, like, "Who's this cretin that can't read the questions?" It's like, no, no, that's how the question was written. "Do you have a book or books you've read more three or more times in the past decade?" Nailed it. "If yes, uh, what keeps you bring, what keeps bringing you back to that book? If no, is there one you think fits the criteria for you?" I'm also, I'm also jetlagged, okay? I'm jetlagged. I didn't sleep on the plane over, so (clears throat) forgive me if the precision is a little bit off.Essentialism by Greg McKeown, I must have read at least twice or three times. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, I must have read at least two or three times. Red Rising, my favorite fiction book, I must have read at least three times. Those are probably them. Uh, if you ask what keeps me, uh, bringing me back to that book, uh, there are lessons in Essentialism and The Almanack of Naval Ravikant that I haven't yet learned or implemented, so I need to be reminded of it. And Red Rising is just fucking awesome. Ben, "Which episode

43. 55:48 – 57:38

    Most Uncomfortable Episodes to Release

    1. CWChris Williamson55:48

       did you feel the most uncomfortable about releasing to the world?" Wow, that's a good question. That's the first time I've ever been asked that. Which question, which episode? It's hard, it's real hard when people ask about, you know, which episode across the entire library, 'cause it's 700 and... What is it? 720 or something now? Like, such a huge number, and I can... Like, a lot of them I've forgotten. Um, but recently, I can give you one recently, the Patrick Bet-David episode, I actually, I really wasn't happy with my performance on it, um, I wasn't happy with the way it flowed, I didn't think like I per- I didn't feel like I performed particularly well, I was imprecise with my speech, I hadn't pushed more where I'd wanted to, I hadn't opened up the way that I'd wanted to, it was just messy. There's some days, like you just, you, some days you just don't hit it right, uh, when you go out onto the field of play and, you know, everything just feels a little bit off. It's like getting the yips, I suppose, as a- a sportsman. And uh, I just didn't feel good, and I remember we finished the episode and we'd done this, like, crazy period of, we were over in LA, we'd done all of the episodes in LA, and then we flew over to- to, uh, Florida, and then we recorded with Patrick, and we'd had all of this travel and we'd nailed it and everything had gone great, and I was- I was like in a bit of a slump. I was driving home, or I was i- in the Uber on the way to the airport, and I was just feeling a bit disgruntled with myself, and I had to take myself to one side and have a little word, and I texted Dean and told him, and he was like, "Dude, like I don't know what's up. I don- don't know what you mean. Like, everything seemed to go great as far as I could see." And I was like, "Yeah, I know, but it- it's not my best and it could have been better" and all the rest of it. So not for any particular reason other than I wasn't happy with my performance on the episode, that PBD one, um, still, you know, I'm sure it listened great, but if you go back and listen to it, see if you can pick up on me shitting the bed a ton of times cognitively.

44. 57:38 – 59:52

    Passion Vs Emotional Pain

    1. CWChris Williamson57:38

       The Zen Master, "My feeling of pure passion and my feeling of pure emotional pain seem to be indistinguishable. This started after I really leveled up in my efforts. I can't tell if I should lean into it or be cautious with it. Do you know what this is?" My feeling of pure passion and my feeling of pure emotional pain seem to be indistinguishable. Wow, that's very interesting. Uh, (laughs) I am hesitant about giving... This sounds like it could be the beginning of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or something (laughs) , so I'm like hesitant about giving, uh, bestowing any bro science to someone that might need a more educated eye. My sense is always to try and investigate without leaning into it a little bit more, before you lean into it too much, because if you lean into it too much, there is no undoing that. So maybe do, I would focus on some journaling, and I would ask yourself questions about, like, what is it that's causing the emotional pain? What is it that's causing the passion? Where does the passion come from? How can I bifurcate these two out? And just ask yourself some questions. Sit with a bit of silence and see what comes up. Uh, hopefully what you should be able to do is use that passion to... If- if pain and passion feel the same way, you basically don't have pain anymore. If you can just alchemize any time that the pain arises, that's just passion. It's like the, um, it's Whitney Cummings thing, she says... Uh, no, sorry, uh, fucking (sighs) goddammit, who does Dumpster Fire? Who does Dumpster Fire the podcast? Fucking... who is it? (sighs) Fuck... This, see, this is jet lag. This is jet lag for you. Anyway, "I'm not nervous, I'm excited" is the tagline that, uh... That name's just not gonna come to me. Uh, I'm gonna bail out. Uh, "I'm not nervous, I'm excited" is the same as, "I'm not in pain, this is just passion," and you should be able to repurpose it. God, see? That's- that's another one, just not enough sleep, shit the bed. Steve Kardas-

45. 59:52 – 1:00:30

    Most Repeated Mantras

    1. CWChris Williamson59:52

       Cardoso, "What are some mantras you regularly return to?" Um, "This is what hard feels like" from Alex is fucking brilliant. Like, "Did you expect that the thing that you're trying to do, this great achievement that you wanted to do that you were going to be proud of, did you expect it to not be hard? No? All right. This is what hard feels like." And it just repurposes any time that you encounter challenge or difficulty from this is a bug to this is a feature. It's the entry price I decided to pay when I wanted to go and do this thing. So that's probably been one of my most common this year.

46. 1:00:30 – 1:01:40

    The Road to 3 Million

    1. CWChris Williamson1:00:30

       Simon Doothwaite, "What gets you to 3 million?" Honestly bro, like, if I don't put my foot in my mouth, which again, like, I did this last year. I said, uh, maybe the exact same episode or something similar, a question about like, "What's your plan for 2023?" And I said, "I want to fist fuck the internet." I wouldn't bet against me. Um, really it's all mine to lose at the moment, I think. Like, everything that we touch seems to go relatively well, and I can, I have the team. We need to develop the team a little bit more, I need a chief of staff and, like, some other things so that I don't need to be involved day-to-day quite so much.... but we have the team in terms of raw materials, we have the platform, we have the brand equity, I have the skill set to just grow this thing essentially infinitely, I think. Uh, and the only thing really that can take it down is me. So if I'm looking back on this in a couple of years' time and thinking, "You idiot, why did you do X, Y, or Z that caused you to be totally canceled?" And stop, then so be it. But, uh, what gets me to 3 million is just me continuing to do the thing that I've always done, and that's

47. 1:01:40 – 1:02:25

    Neutonic in Sweden?

    1. CWChris Williamson1:01:40

       what I intend to do. Marcus Philipson, "Will Nootronic ever be available in Sweden?" Dude, we are trying to roll this thing out globally as much as we can. We're out of stock again. Like, this- I had to get... This is a good story. I had to get George to bring this puppy. He bought 10 cases. That's a good friend. Buy 10 cases of you- your buddy's, uh, new drink. He brought two up yesterday. So I got my friend to buy my product off his own back separately, then bring it to me, then leave it at my house so I could drink it. That's, like, the best, like, uh, arbitrage opportunity ever. Uh, but yeah, we're gonna try and get it everywhere. Being able to create sufficient product is proving really hard because the demand is super high, but it'll be there soon. Light brew truck.

48. 1:02:25 – 1:02:53

    Is the English Accent Fake?

    1. CWChris Williamson1:02:25

       Light, light blue truck. "Do the English accent when alone or is it just a bit?" (laughs) could you imagine if I got off this and just cracked out, like, some deep South accent? Uh, no, unfortunately or fortunately, I'm cursed with this all the time. Gaurav,

49. 1:02:53 – 1:04:05

    What is it All For?

    1. CWChris Williamson1:02:53

       "What is it all for?" That's open to interpretation, uh, from a question perspective, and very existential. But increasingly I think that it is all for fun. Like, if you're not having fun doing the things that you're doing, like, what- what's the fucking point? Honestly. Like, especially, you know, I'm speaking as someone who's managed to achieve way more success than he ever thought he was going to, and it's, like, still going. I'm still in the throes of it, right? So I don't know where it's going to come into land, if at all, or crash land perhaps as well. But you can, you can sacrifice so much en route to achieving anything that you want to that you look back and you go, "What was the, what was the fucking point?" Like, there's honestly so much satisfaction in the fun of getting to wherever it is, and almost none of it in the achievement of whatever it is. So right now, what is it all for? It's for, at the moment for me, setting up a life in which I can have more fun. That is one of my mantras for 2024. Jim Knight,

50. 1:04:05 – 1:05:55

    Importance of Cinema Episodes

    1. CWChris Williamson1:04:05

       "How much have the cinema episodes played a part in securing the high profile guests you've had in the past few months? I know several probably came through the Gymshark connection, but did the appeal of a ridiculously beautiful recording help with getting Jocko and Goggins, et cetera?" So with Goggins, I know that it definitely did. Um, Jocko, I don't think so. I think the channel is kind of able to run under its own momentum now, uh, although Jocko was, wow, would it have been 400K? Something like that, so significantly smaller, and much less impressive of a roster. So yeah, maybe, maybe it has contributed a good bit. Um, I think it's cool. Like, if- if I go to someone, you know, that's a highly sought after guest, like Dr. Joe Dispenza or Kyle from the NELK Boys or someone, and I say, "Hey, I wanna do something with you that you typically wouldn't do. I need four hours of your time, but I'm gonna drop 30 grand and make the most beautiful podcast that you've ever been a part of, like, better than you can make yourself, because I have the team and we have the skill set to be able to bring this together, and you don't even need to leave your city," it's hard to say no to. And, um, like, that- that strategy makes me feel satisfied. I think the guests genuinely love it. I think they feel proud of what they're a part of, and it's cool, and it's genuinely novel. Like, I don't- I don't think anyone's doing it the way that we're doing it on YouTube at the moment, and I enjoy it, and it's gonna get better this year. It's gonna get spun up even harder. So hopefully you will see even more crazy... Like, go back and watch the Chris Bumstead episode. We made some errors on that from a production perspective, but largely it looks like a scene out of Cyberpunk 2077. It's so cool. Uh, what have we here?

51. 1:05:55 – 1:07:18

    Importance of Appearing on Rogan

    1. CWChris Williamson1:05:56

       Osama bin Ballen. Oh my fucking god. That is the... (laughs) "Osama bin Ballen, was your appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast a pivotal moment for your own brand, and how does this experience relate to building friendships in situations where you might not be the most knowledgeable?" Um, yeah, it was... It's like a seal of approval, right? You get stamped from the king or whatever. You are bestowed... He sort of taps the sword on either shoulder and says, like, "This is one of the people that you should look out for, presuming that you don't shit the bed on the episode." I think I managed to avoid doing that. Um, it was, it was a- an important moment, and I think that it- it- it genuinely kind of does open doors, but not in the immediate, like, you just get this ton of influx of things, just that people see you in a different way and you become part of a relatively exclusive club. I mean, I don't know, Joe's done like 2,000 episodes, but including all of the repeat guests and stuff, I reckon he's only had maybe 1,200 people on the show. So it is quite a small group, and that was useful. "How does this experience relate to building friendships in situations where you might not be the most knowledgeable?" Are you saying that I'm not the most knowledgeable? In... Uh, I'm not sure... I don't- I'm not quite sure what that means. Uh-I don't know what that means. I'm gonna have to bail out. "James, do you ever

52. 1:07:18 – 1:09:12

    Imposter Syndrome

    1. CWChris Williamson1:07:18

       resonate inwardly with a feeling like imposter syndrome, that although having a platform known for applicable knowledge and wisdom, that somehow it's present in your guests, but that you're still on a journey to attain wisdom yourself?" So this gap, for sure, between the people that I speak to and their level of competence, and insight, uh, and me, is something that I am fully aware of, like, on a daily basis. Uh, I have made a career out of being the most stupid person in the room permanently, and I'm... Every single time that I sit down, I'm reminded of that fact. And yeah, I... Interestingly, that's never actually given me imposter syndrome. Like, oh, these people are whatever than me, more rich or famous or, or successful or erudite or, like, knowledgeable or whatever than me. Um, and I also think that it's not my job. I've never once, ever, ever posited myself as having it all sorted out, or even having it slightly sorted out. Having a part of any part of it sorted out, ever. Um, I think that one of the reasons that, hopefully, this resonates with you guys, is that I am on a journey, and I'm, like, leaving the breadcrumbs behind, including the ones that are like crap. Where I go, "I, I tried to do this thing and I failed," or, "This was a strategy that I attempted and it didn't work," or whatever. Like, all of those things, all of those failures and all of those insights are only able to be borne out largely because of how difficult I find things, and how, like, useless I've been. So, um, no, I, I actually think it's been pretty reassuring. Uh, but I can see how, if I posited myself as some sort of guru or some, you know, like great insight around anything that you're supposed to do beyond simply this is my experience, this is what I've learned works and doesn't work (clears throat) for me, and maybe you should try it, uh, it would be

53. 1:09:12 – 1:11:35

    Will Chris Make More Products?

    1. CWChris Williamson1:09:12

       very different. Andrew Waterhouse: "Besides the drink and tour, are there other products you'd like to sell in future? Like JP does his books, courses, SB has a book, TV shows, et cetera." Um, (clears throat) I am done with TV. What's the... Knock on wood. Famous last words. Uh, but I'm done with TV. Uh, it's so unenjoyable. It is fucking awful to watch this slow, clunky behemoth of a huge fucking production chunder along and then say, "Right, guys, we're gonna go for take one, and can we go back? And we're gonna have to run that again, and bla..." Dude, it sucks. Then you look at YouTube, and it's so fast-paced and agile, and no time... It's lean. There's no time wasted. So TV can get fucked. Um, Jordan, books, courses. So book, yep. Like I say, by the start of '25, you will have something that I'm very proud of and I'm really excited about. Uh, courses, I mentioned earlier on, there is a bit of like ick and, you know, the distaste that people had when I decided to release a drink that I wanted and I needed, and then said, "Hey, I've spent 12 months developing this." There's a lot of criticism, although it's been a lot more, uh, hollow because of how legit the product is. And maybe that's the lesson, that my disquiet around the potential of releasing a course is because the world of courses has been heavily consumed and filled by people who release courses that aren't really that worthwhile. And if I was to do it, if I do it the same way that we did Newtonic, which is like the best in class, absolute best in class, at a price point that's, that's fair and all the rest of it, then what is there to be ashamed of? So yeah. I, I would love to do some courses and, you know, there is... Like in order for us to continue to make this thing move, I need to sit down in the seat and that means that I never get a break from sitting down in the seat, and I love sitting down in the seat. But there may come a time where I just wanna take like a two-week break and keep things ticking over. So like what does that mean? I don't know. We'll, we'll wait and see, but courses, courses and books would be great on the, on the horizon.

54. 1:11:35 – 1:12:49

    Modern Wisdom Starter Pack

    1. CWChris Williamson1:11:35

       Uh, Campbell: "What would an elite five-episode starter pack of Modern Wisdom look like for a new listener?" Ooh, that's cool. All right. So we need (clears throat) something motivational, we need something epic, we need something underground that no one knows about. Probably needs a story from left field. So I would say it would be a disservice to not put Goggins in. So I think Goggins is the first one. I think any Gwindogobos episode as the second for human nature insight. I think maybe Hormozi 2, uh, from just like a straight-up, uh, motivational human nature standpoint. Uh, Rory Sutherland 2, the one that I recorded when I was in Dubai is just outstanding, and one of the funniest episodes I've ever done. And I want like a story-based one. I did an episode with the guy that The Mauritanian was written about, um, and it's basically just a 90-minute monologue of him explaining his situation. So that's your five-episode starter pack th- that... It's kind of difficult to work out.

55. 1:12:49 – 1:13:47

    Becoming More Curious

    1. CWChris Williamson1:12:49

       Beau Sanderson: "How do you find that you are able to be more curious specifically on a topic that you want to learn about, but isn't particularly as exciting for you as another topic?" How do you find that you are able to be more curious? I'm not entirely sure what that means, but for me it's just internal. Like I, I can't stop myself. I want to find out everything. I want to find out why the sky is that color and why the bird moves in that way, and why that person uses their left hand, not their right hand to eat cake, and all of the things. I want to know them all.... and it's a blessing and a curse. Um, eh, when it comes to trying to make yourself more curious to learn a topic which is less exciting than another one, my advice, unless it's for a degree or a course that you kind of don't get to choose, is bin off the other topic which isn't as exciting and just focus on all the exciting ones. That's the simplest solution. (beep) "Boy wonder, do you work

56. 1:13:47 – 1:14:36

    Does Chris Use a Jaw Toner?

    1. CWChris Williamson1:13:47

       out your jaw muscles with one of them chewy things to look like that?" Uh, no, and I'm pretty fat at the moment. Like, I'm one of, uh, I mean, th- the fattest, slowest, smallest that I've been in, uh, probably ever, like since I was maybe 24 or 25. So, uh, again, I, I don't know. Maybe if the, the internet's correct, uh, if all that you need to do to build a podcast is just use one of them chewy things to work your jaw muscles. Uh, but no. Um, that being said, jaw, I think it's JAWS's size. I'm pretty sure that they kind of illegally used, uh, video of Andrew Huberman talking about either them or an analogous product and then, uh, eh, maybe they had to do a cease and desist. I feel like Huberman and them got in, got in bother for some reason. Or Andrew sued them or some shit. I don't know. "What..."

57. 1:14:36 – 1:16:44

    False Beliefs of Productivity Gurus

    1. CWChris Williamson1:14:36

       Sven, "What is something that everybody in the productivity, in the productivity/business believes will get them success but is completely wrong?" Hmm. So I think that there's an overreliance on leverage, and I've seen this in the content creator world, and it's something that I'm also, uh, as the revenue from the show allows me to finally not need to just do everything myself, it's something that I'm very cognizant of myself too. (smacks lips) When everyone read The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, they believed that leverage was just the most important thing, that you can force multiply your inputs to outputs through code, media, labor, capital, whatever the other one is. But what it caused lots of people to do is take their eye off the ball and take their eye off the main thing, which is the most important thing to them. So they started to outsource and try and get leverage on the main thing that they do. For instance, there are, like, three things that I need to get right. I need to choose the right guests, so I can't outsource the guest booking, uh, uh, process, or at least the guest selection process, I suppose. I need to have a great conversation, so I can't outsource the research process. And it needs to be framed right to get people to click on it on the internet. So I try to touch, as I said earlier on, I touch all of the titles and thumbnails that go out, least almost all of them. So those are areas in which leverage is really hard for me to apply. But they're also the most time-consuming, right? If I get someone else to do all my guest booking, or someone else to do all my research, or someone else to do all the titles and thumbs, I'd free up, like, 20 hours a week, 30 hours a week, probably. So, I understand why people are tempted to do that. But it's also the exact wrong place to do it. So, leverage used in the wrong way to get people to extract themselves from the most important thing that their business does. That's what it is. Francisco

58. 1:16:44 – 1:19:05

    How Growth Impacts Personality

    1. CWChris Williamson1:16:44

       Eramuspe, "How has the growth of your social media influence changes in your personality or thought processes?" That's an interesting question. So I guess, you know, depending on where you came in from, uh, there's, uh, questions from Twitter here, from YouTube, from Instagram. Um, depending on where you came in from, you have a different view of, like, me or what I do. Uh, there's some people, I found this out the other day, there's tons of people that subscribe to my newsletter that don't even know I did a podcast. Literally don't know I did a podcast. They just like the writing or hated the writing and just liked it. Hate, read it. I don't know. Uh... So, it's, it's nice. It's very flattering for people to come up and say nice things. Um, it's made me a little bit more skeptical in a way that I wish I could stop about whether new people have my best interests at heart. Um, and again, it's that thing from the very top where it's like, no one teaches you about how to deal with scrutiny or fame or criticism or, or attention or any of that stuff. People just are more interested in you, and you don't know how to deal with it, and you become skeptical of whether or not they have w- w- like, why? And you think back to a previous version of you, and what you think is, "Well, this person wouldn't have been interested in the previous version of me, so the only reason they're interested in me now is because they want something, and maybe if they want something, that means that they d- they don't have my best interests at heart, and that means I should be skeptical of them." (inhales) And that is kind of a dangerous mindset to get in, I think, because (pauses) you want to assume the best from people, especially if they're being nice to you. So, I understand why there's songs talking about no new friends, especially for people who are obviously, like, infinitely more famous than I am, (sighs) because it gets around this problem. If you don't have any, any new friends, you don't ever have to question whether or not new people have your best interests at heart. Now, it also means that you maybe don't question whether or not the old people have your best interests at heart. But that's one thing I wanna stop. Like, I don't wanna be skeptical of people just because they're being nice to me and because I imagine this version of the past life where they wouldn't have been nice to another version of me that wasn't, that didn't have a, a big following or, or whatever. (inhales) Uh, so that's one of them, I guess.

59. 1:19:05 – 1:21:37

    Adapting Interviewing Style

    1. CWChris Williamson1:19:05

       (pop) Metahelix, "How do you intuitively adapt your interviewing style and/or questions on the fly based on your guests' responses? You're very well-researched, prepared, and methodical," thank you, "but sometimes achieving the optimal conversation flow is challenging, like Peterson." Yes, Jordan is, uh, like boxing at southpaw a little bit. Although in the last one he was very disciplined. The second episode I did with him, he was, it was way more southpaw-y, and we were talking over each other, and it was messy, and I didn't, I wasn't as happy. But most recent one flowed pretty much perfectly. Like...... if you're ever having a conversation, and you can see this when you're really, really attuned with someone, the, the quantum healing people would say that, like, you're vibrating at the same level or whatever. Um, it's if you're having a conversation and you're able to get single words into their sentence that were the word or an analogous word to the one that they were about to use, and then they continue the sentence, awesome. Like, me and Johnny from Propane have this quite a lot. He's one of the most, even though we're quite different people, he's one of the most attuned in terms of cadence that me and h- th- o- of anybody that I speak to. And a lot of the time, we'll be talking back and forth, and he'll be about to say something, and I'll dip in with the word or whatever it is, uh, and it works brilliantly. Um, that being said, adapting the interviewing style or whatever is just not having too much of a preconceived idea about where it's gonna go. It's like, I'm sitting down with this person today. I have a game plan of where I think would be interesting to take it, based on my research of what they do and the intersection of what they do and what I'm interested in, and we'll see if that Venn diagram goes. And if within the first five minutes, like in a sports game, if that just gets thrown out of the window, it's like, "Well, guess what? Like, we're not talking about the thing that I thought we were talking about today." That's why you do research. You do research not so you have a list of questions, but so you know the person's body of work. And after a while, to be honest as well, like, 700 episodes deep, I've done so many, like, literally thousands of hours of, of this now, I've always got a story from someone from the past or some idea or insight or study or whatever that I've already learned that I can use. So if someone wants to go down one rabbit hole, it's been a very long time since someone's given me an entirely new, like, completely new, "fucking hell, this is total fresh snow." It's been a long time since, uh, that's happened. So I think it's a combination of preparation, not being too, like, contrived or, or, or, uh, pre-planning with the process, and then just going where it goes. Uh,

60. 1:21:37 – 1:23:24

    Pre-Show Rituals

    1. CWChris Williamson1:21:37

       Moor Dib, "What is a question you regret not asking a guest?" Uh, and number two, "What is your pre-show ritual?" Pre-show ritual is pretty simple, um, when I get to do it. It's a five-minute vocal warmup that Miles, my speech coach, got me to do, which still to this day is great at just getting my tongue moving and making sure that I'm nice and precise with my speech and getting my, uh, my mind moving. Um, usually don't eat for about two hours before, if I can, 'cause it makes me a bit more sluggish, another one of the reasons that I'm not doing too well today. I'm, like, looking through the cupboards in my kitchen (laughs) in Newcastle for something that isn't my housemate's that he needs or massively out of date, and it's like Weetabix. So I'm, like, fueled by poor sleep, Muetonic, and Weetabix today. Don't know whether you have Weetabix in America. Anyway, it's a pretty elite cereal, but probably not great if that's all you've had. Uh, "What is a question that you not, that you regret not asking a guest?" Uh, certainly one that comes to mind from recently was Peterson. Um, he did something which is technically referred to as Jesus smuggling on our episode, um, and he has this idea of, like, uh, if you believe that one thing can be more good than another thing, then you believe that God exists, because God is the most good thing that can exist. And I didn't understand at the time, and what I wanted to say was, "Mate, I might be being stupid here, but that just, that just sounds like a value hierarchy rather than God." Uh, and I didn't, because I didn't want to sound stupid. And then I spoke to Alex O'Connor, who's, like, the most knowledgeable person on this kind of conversation that I know of, and he just said, "That's exactly the question that you should have asked." So I regret not asking that, because I didn't want to seem foolish. Uh, Chris Le

61. 1:23:24 – 1:24:19

    Friend Conversion Rate

    1. CWChris Williamson1:23:24

       Poidevin, "Hi, Chris. How rewarding does it feel, given the problem you've described before about your friend conversion rate, that a lot of people you interview have become good friends, interviewed, uh, illustrated well in your recent conversation with Rob Henderson?" So yeah, I met a million people across my nightlife career, and I had a handful of friends here in Newcastle, which means that my friendship exposure to conversion ratio wasn't exactly fantastic. And, uh, it's unbelievably rewarding, man. Like, it's... The opportunity to turn your idols into rivals and then rivals into friends is awesome, and then sometimes you don't need to go to the rivals bit first, you can just go straight to the friends bit. But look, I, it feels great. Um, you basically get to create your own social network. You're like, "Who do I wanna be friends with? Well, that's a person that I respect, and that's a person that's interesting. So I'll just try and invite them on my podcast, and maybe they'll become friends with me." So yeah, it's, it's awesome.

62. 1:24:19 – 1:24:34

    Layers of Paint

    1. CWChris Williamson1:24:19

       "Hi, Chris. Which Joe Rogan episode features the layers of paint quote that you frequently refer to?" I think it was mine. I think it was the episode that he did with me, although I may be wrong, or I may have just made it up. Chris Miracle, very, very

63. 1:24:34 – 1:25:43

    Most Wanted Guest

    1. CWChris Williamson1:24:34

       clever, uh, "My question is, which guest would you love to have on Modern Wisdom, most love to have on Modern Wisdom and why?" Uh, Naval is still top of the list, man. That guy, elusive, elusive, elusive Naval. Um, he's still on sabbatical post-Rogan, but, uh, yeah. I, uh, I would love to speak to him. I think that it's the greatest podcast episode that's ever been made, his episode on Rogan, and I would love to run that back, go all out, full cinema setup for him, so we'll wait and see. Uh, Captain Reese, "You talk about people growing themselves from $1 to 100K has a set of skills..." Ha, it is? Has a set of ski- I've been fucking diddled by a bad question again and again, but yeah, "than going to 10 million type frame. What skill sets do you think you will have to learn to adopt to get to, to be, to get to..." I'm gonna have to bail out of it, I mean, that's, to get to one million s- we're already at one million subs. We're, I'm moving down, I'm moving down.Sean Spooner, "Mark Manson says that identity lags reality by one

64. 1:25:43 – 1:27:08

    Dealing With Fast-Paced Growth

    1. CWChris Williamson1:25:43

       to two years. So in some ways, you're the Chris with 247,000 subscribers who hasn't yet interviewed Jordan Peterson or Jocko Willink or David Goggins. You haven't done a sold-out tour or launched Nutonic or been on Rogan. With that said, how are you finding the blistering pace of change in your life right now? Does this new reality feel like reality yet?" That's a great question. Um, it feels kind of like it. It is pretty disquieting. It's like, you know when you get to the top of a roller coaster and you sort of, everything gets weightless and you do this? It feels a little bit like that. Um, but I'm getting used to it. Uh, and the sk- thankfully I've got people around me that kind of keep my feet on the ground. And also, it's so much easier to be like this type of like niche internet fame because you don't see it in person. And I can also see, having done the live shows, how as a rock star, you become completely detached. Or maybe a comedian, you become completely detached from the world because, all right, well, all of these people just adoring, thousands and thousands of people. Whereas, you know, what's 3,000 comments on a YouTube video? Like, it's a lot of comments, but it doesn't hit you in the same way that 3,000 people turning up in a theater and talking to you does. So, yeah, um, reality is unreal in many ways. But I'm getting used to it. Ben,

65. 1:27:08 – 1:27:33

    Rogan Part 2?

    1. CWChris Williamson1:27:08

       "Rogan part two happening next week." Uh, it wasn't, um, but I'd love to go back on. Um, I'm very, very hesitant about suggesting to Joe that I come back on. That is like a thing that people do, "Hey man, like, I'm back in town and why don't we, like, get an episode recorded?" That makes me feel quite nervous to do that. But yeah, I, uh, I think hopefully next year, that would make me very happy. Dez,

66. 1:27:33 – 1:28:11

    Nerves Before a Podcast

    1. CWChris Williamson1:27:33

       "Do you get nervous before recording a podcast?" Um, it's very rare now. Last time was probably Sam Harris, um, and that was a little bit, and it rose and then it went away. And that was mostly because he was late, um, I think. He was like 15 minutes late, and in the 15 minutes I was waiting, it, like, started to spin up a little bit. Uh, but yes, I've managed to largely get rid of that, of that nervousness beforehand, which is just, you know, the undeniable stack of proof that you are who you say you are, and it worked well. Uh, Matt Oldfield,

67. 1:28:11 – 1:29:02

    Tipping in the U.S

    1. CWChris Williamson1:28:11

       "Tipping in the US. I'm actually in Bahamas, but I understand same protocol. You have tax and 15% service added to printed bill, and then below you were offered to leave extra gratuity service, which you write in there with the pen that they leave. Is it customary to leave an extra tip?" Unfortunately, Matt, yes, it is, and it is... Any less than 15% is usually seen as a bit of a snub. Uh, 10% is basically like a, you've called one out in the middle of the restaurant. Uh, and I typically try and go for between, like around about 20% seems pretty, pretty, pretty right. All right, I'm gonna round it out there. Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate you. Thank you, um, for all of the subs and all of the support. This is the end of 2023, and it's been the craziest year, and I have no idea where we're going to be in 12 months time, but I know that I'm still gonna be doing this. So thank you very much for tuning in. Peace.

Episode duration: 1:29:02