2.25M Q&A - The Manosphere, Mike Israetel & Overcoming Insecurities

We're doing it. Whoo. Okay. All right, all right, all right.

(clears throat)

Three hours sleep, one Starbucks sandwich, let's go. Ah. All right. Come on, Christopher. What's happening, people? Welcome back to the show. It is a 2.25 million subscriber Q&A episode. As you can tell, I am not in my usual recording setup. I'm here in Bozeman, Montana, and I wish that I could tell you that there's a beautiful vista of sheep grazing and- and- and cows chilling out in the mountains, uh, but it's a building site, and there's some mountains in the distance. I've also had to cobble together this by stealing an office chair from the conference room and a table from the breakfast room in The Hilton here in Bozeman, so I'm not gonna be there when this goes live. Say what I want. Anyway, I asked for questions on Instagram and Twitter and YouTube community, and we got tons. Lots of them were very similar. The guys tried to compile them so that they're chunked together, and there are many, so let's get into it. First off, Quincy O- Obeng, "Can you share a time when you realized that worrying less actually led to better results?" Um, I would struggle to think of a time when worrying more led to better results. I understand that we can sometimes have this sort of implicit assumption that our performance is fueled by our worry somehow, that it helps us to pay attention in ways, it, uh, focuses us, focuses our, um, our precision, uh, and ensures that things don't get missed. Uh, but I- I'm really struggling to think of a time when worrying led to better results. Can lead to small increases in performance, but results probably in- include more than just what was the outcome. It's also what was the experience of doing it like, how did I appear? And when you think about what... How does worrying make you feel when it comes to performing or trying to achieve results? You're all uptight. There's a sort of very hard, grippy, sort of tense, uh, sensation mentally, in your body, and I mean, even Excel, professional Excel people, accountants and coders, they will probably not want to grip tightly onto things. They will probably want to try and find flow, I would imagine. So I think finding ease and grace is always going to be better than worrying your way through things. That being said, I'm patient zero for worrying an awful lot, and, uh, one of the first times that I can think that I did it on the show was with Robert Greene. So I massively respect him, and he's this big intellectual powerhouse, and who the fuck am I? Uh, I'm just some ex-club promoter, and it was episode 30, I think. Uh, so super early, and, um, I just overprepared and sort of thought myself into this awful, like, washing machine cyclone of- of overthinking, and, uh, it really wasn't... Uh, it wasn't my best performance, and I was really disappointed 'cause I- I loved Robert, and I want- I wanted to put on a good show for him. And I'm sure if you go back and listen to it, you probably can't even notice, but I know how good I could've been, and, uh, that was exclusively due to worry. I was worried that I wasn't gonna be good enough, and I turned up on the episode and underperformed, and then castigated myself for worrying so much that I'd caused myself to underperform, and this is how, you know, bad spirals of performance, the- the yips or... I don't know what you call it in America. Basically, when someone, uh, a sportsman is having a bad run of form and they can't get themselves out of it, that is this. That is worry begetting more worry, leading to poorer performance. I don't think that worrying helps. And I messed up in front of Robert Greene. Kevin Artois, "My insecurity of being inferior and incompetent is my greatest source of fuel. Is this toxic?" That is a very good question, and I think that it is very powerful at giving you activation energy to get started at doing something, and I think that that should not be overlooked or undervalued. I think that there is great benefit to be had if you are stuck in region beta, some comfortably numb, floating through life existence, and you need a l- matchstick lighting underneath your arsehole so that you actually go out and do something. This fear of being inferior and incompetent, this insecurity that you have, uh, using that as fuel, just use what you have. If you've got resentment and bitterness and shame, use it, because that... It is so hard going from zero to one, so difficult, but once you've started moving, you can use other sources of fuel. It's kind of like when you think about a booster rocket taking off, and they have multiple, uh, ejectable, uh, fuel sources as they go, and they use different fuel sources at different stages as they, uh, go up through the launch sequence. I think it's kind of like that. Um, where it does get toxic is when you use it for a long time, and the reason for that, in my opinion, is that it makes you very easy to manipulate, very predictable, uh, it makes you over, uh, index on the opinions of other people, on the way that your performance w- has shown up in comparison with others as opposed to it being yourself. It's a very externalized, uh, locus of control, seeking a lot of validation, uh, from the world as opposed to from how you've performed yourself. And the reason, it makes you fragile, makes you fragile, and, um, the easy to manipulate and- and, uh, easy to predict thing is just that everybody's always going to know. This isn't to s- you don't need an enemy who's, like, trying to snipe you with your particular weakness for this to be a problem, but...You are always going to encounter the same problems, and they're often going to come from overly relying on the opinions of other people, from trying to compete where you don't necessarily need to, uh, f- from never patting yourself on the back or feeling like you've done a good job, because you've got this insecurity of incompetence, which means you're always looking for the incompetence, not the competence. And I'm saying this as someone who, you know, a big insecurity of being inferior and incompetent, that's- that's played a role in my life. So, um, use it in the beginning, but realize that it is not there to stay. It had a role, the same as the chip on your shoulder from the kids that bullied you in school, or whatever it is. Um, th- it's useful to get you started, but it's- don't keep using it long-term. That would be my advice. Colbythicknessy8828, "Will you do an honorary shoey on stage in Australia for the people?" Look, I am a visitor to your great nation, which we used to own, and I will appropriate your culture as required. Who am I to say no to the Australian people in their favorite pursuit? Uh, for the people that don't know, I'm doing a live show, I'm doing a series of live shows, a live tour, in Australia. You can check out the dates and the shows. I'm going to Brisbane and Melbourne and Sydney. You can get tickets for that at chriswilliamson.live/Australia, and I will do a shoey. I would quite like to do one of Mutonic, because the new America flavors are amazing, but it's gonna be 10:00 PM at night when I finish the show, or 11:00 PM, so maybe not. Dcx1, "Please quickly revisit some techniques for coming out of monk mode. After powerhousing worked for a year, it's time to reintegrate back into society. Any tips?" Great question. So I did a big chunk about monk mode a few Q&As ago, and for the people, for a quick recap, uh, monk mode is a focused period of isolation, introspection, and improvement, often a lot of going to the gym, uh, reading, mindfulness, maybe some therapy. Uh, and it's just you really dialing in just on yourself, without distractions of a social calendar, without having to adhere to, uh, expectations of other people all that much. And one of the problems with monk mode is that it allows people who are a little bit more introverted by nature to feel noble in their isolation. And this can be very tempting, because it has turned what previously you may have seen as something that you were a little bit ashamed of or something that you needed to work on, your desire to not go out and see people or spend so much time outside of the house with others, uh, into a personal development strategy. And this can create a feedback loop where, after a while, monk mode becomes so addicting it's hard to get out of it. The purpose of monk mode is to do a focused period, isolation, introspection and improvement, so that you then become a functional, more functional, more competent member of society, not so that you just do monk mode to be better at monk mode. And reintegrating is difficult. So tips to reintegrate back in, and this would be the same, I mean, we could have done this after COVID, uh, but I would say, first off, go to places where there are- the purpose of the event or the pursuit has a social dynamic baked into it. So I'm thinking CrossFit class, uh, improv, uh, salsa dancing, pickleball, uh, any group-type activity, ideally co-ed, because you're gonna need to speak to both men and women. And if you do it in a low-stakes environment where you're not asking for their number, th- they just need you to kick the ball in their direction or whatever it is that you're doing, uh, that's good. And I think it- it helps to kind of create a frame and a vessel within which you can do your, "Oh, I am... Hello. Uh, nice to meet you. M- my name is Dcx1. I would like to be friend..." You know, it's- it's just way easier. It's- it's less of a big deal. Uh, second thing, I would, when you start to move into one-on-ones with people, uh, spending time with friends, uh, going out on dates, I would purposefully start with people that make it feel as easy as possible to be yourself around them. I think about reintegrating socially as kind of like having a perfect, um, garden of snow. You know, some snow has fallen overnight and you come out on the morning and there's no track marks in it at all. You almost have a- a very pure, unmolested environment for you to begin your social, uh, your new social habits. So maybe some of the more suboptimal social habits that you had before, you'll have been able to get rid of a little bit and you can kind of start afresh. It's like shaking the Etch A Sketch, because some of the habits have dropped away because you simply haven't been that social. So the problem is if you begin to spend time around people who don't- you don't feel comfortable being yourself around, the issue with that is that those may become your new habits, and I think that habit setting is greatest in the beginning. So I think you want to find time around, who are the people that I want to be like? People that are honest and truthful and comfortable in their own skin, they've got a mission, they know where they're going, they're having fun while they're going there, their thought... Uh, you know, those are the things. Be around the people that you want to be like and that you can be yourself around too, which is a nice balance. And I think that's it. Groups, group activities where socializing is built in, and then when you move on to one-on-ones, be with people where silence and being yourself feels comfortable. I think that'll help. Mjbelang3r, "How would you describe your most challenging chapter? How was it an inflection point for growth?" Oh. Um, so I had one that I sort of often talk about, which was the end of my 20s. I've had tons. I- I'm very, very good at making a big deal out of everything, uh, for myself. Um...The last 18 months has probably been close to it. It's definitely gonna rank in my top three, and that's been because of a lot of increase in attention and opportunity and offers and a change in the way that, you know, uh, the world sees me in some ways, which is so fucking wanky to say. Like, how up here on arse do you need to be to say that? But people treat- seem to treat me a little bit differently than they used to, and that's been, uh, uh, that coupled with a ton of attention and offers, and it's all very flattering and charming and all the rest of it, uh, it's just been, it's been difficult. And that layered on top with the show 10Xing in two years, which is what it did, or is continuing to do (laughs) , uh, has just resulted in an awful lot of, um, work and, uh, operational fuckery. I don't really talk about this all that much because I feel like showing how the sausage gets made is kind of uncool, um, so... But behind the scenes, lots and lots of changes and team growth, and, you know, I moved out to Austin and had a mom and assistant in the UK in Dean, and now there's all of these people and there's Steels and there's Nutonic, there's energy drink and there's als- all this other stuff going on. I'd have to spin these plates, live shows, book deal, partners, big episode, Brett Cooper's coming through, Jordan Peterson will be in town. It's been a lot, uh, and it's been an inflection point for growth because it's really shown me that during the period of time where I've achieved the greatest success that I've ever had, there's been things that I've m- been missing, and it's reminded me, I think it's recentered me on what it is that I want, which is not just success and- and growth at any cost, it's to enjoy the process. And this is why I'm kind of in this, like, super cuck mode, uh, fucking Wilbarian maxing thing, where I'm trying to find a way to transcend and include my desire to do well and also enjoy the process. So that's why I'm talking about that a lot at the moment, because it's sort of personal to me. So yeah, uh, leaving Club Promo, and then, uh, the last 18 months or so of the show. Morray, "Are you gay?" I think that Ben has put these together in a particular order. No I'm not, unless it is for Mike Israetel. He's the only man that I will be gay for. The only Jew I know that has a foreskin. Imagine, he's like a shiny Charizard. He's like the rarest of them all. Divvyboi, "Where do you record- why do you record your podcasts while standing? Don't you get tired in the long ones?" Hmm. Not really. Um, for the people that don't know, all of my virtual studios for probably four years now have been at a standing desk. Uh, I don't feel that much more tired. I actually feel more focused. I'm sat in this seat at the moment, which I've stolen from the conference room down the hall. Uh, I don't like it. I don't like sitting down. I'm always shifting around. I'm bit of a fidgety person when I'm trying to think. I often, like, twirl a pen in my hands. You'll have seen this on the episodes. At pouch six, I'll be twirling a pen between my fingers. Uh, I don't get tired. Um, I think if you have tried to do content creation and struggled because of focus or, uh, just feeling a little bit inside, uh, up- up in your own head, buy a standing desk, pivot to that. Made a massive difference to me, because any of the, um, sort of additional discomfort that I needed to blow off or any of the energy that I needed to get rid of, super easy. When you're standing up, super easy. Luke JN18, "Do you think a buzz cut is a sign of confidence?" Uh, yeah, in some ways. Definitely is on a woman. Um... It's a sign of confidence in your hairline 'cause there's no hiding it. If this sucker's moving back, there's absolutely no hiding it. I'm getting to the age now, 36, where some of my friends are really starting to go thin on top. Not, you know, oh, that's a little bit wispier than it was last year, but real receding thing. Like, that's gonna have to come off within five years or you're gonna look really, really silly. So yeah, I do think it's a sign of confidence. I'm very pro-buzz cut. I went through every hairstyle in history. I had a huge afro, uh, for all my club promoting career and then 24, 25, got rid of it, and had sort of curly hair on top until COVID. Go back, li- look at the first episodes. I've got tons of hair. And very pro-buzz cut. Kevin Dice, "Congratulations." Thank you. "Now that you've become firmly lumped into the manosphere category, are you anticipating a coordinated attack on your show/self by the same mainstream media types who tried to cut down Andrew Huberman?" Yeah, I think it's in the post. It's in the post for everybody. It doesn't matter who you are, whether you're Rogan or Jay Shetty or True Geordie or Andrew Huberman or, you know, Andrew Schulz, like, everybody's got it coming. And the way that I see it more and more now is that mainstream media is struggling for clicks. Independent media is swimming in clicks. One of the ways that mainstream media can claw some of that back is by making their content about our content or about us. So it is a wonderful way for people who are in a dying, boring, lame industry to try and capture some more attention. Uh, so yeah, uh, you know, I'm- I'm not looking forward to it. Uh, I don't have a PR crisis team. If you do PR in crisis and you want to just be my ejector seat button in case I need to call you, then, uh, feel free to reach out. But, uh, it'll happen. It'll happen at some point, and I guess I'll see what I'm made of when it does.And I've got Andrew Huberman's number, so I can just ring him and ask him what he did. Uh, D-E-V-E-N, Deven, "Are you and Mike Israetel related? You all look alike, LMAO." What do you mean, "you all"? Me and Mike, or are you lumping us in with some broader group of people? Uh, we both have foreskins, very ... Which ... So there's one thing that we have in common. Beyond that, I don't think that you could have found two more dissimilar-looking people if you'd tried. Mike has a uniquely shaped head, which I love ... But you need to have a very serious mental health condition to think that we look even remotely similar. Unless this is a y'all white boys all look the same thing, in which case, yeah, we do. AndreaTodd5295, "Question, this is probably a really stupid question. I live in the UK, Manchester, and whenever I come across a Brit who has moved to America, my first thought is how does their wildlife affect your mental state and wellbeing? I would always be paranoid about snakes and spiders or being followed home by an alligator. So my question is, do you ever think about it when you're putting on shoes or walking past a lake?" That is the most charming question that I think I've ever had. That is so lovely. Uh, no (laughs) I haven't thought that. Um, I guess Texas has got some snakes, but, you know, if you're living in a suburban area, you know, what you really should be worried about is if you go to somewhere like, uh, uh, Tennessee, and you're in the Smoky Mountains, and you're in the suburbs, and there's bears. Black bears will come through and stuff. Um, but no, I haven't ... Uh, I'm- I'm blown away by just how, like, charming that- that question was. Uh, no, I haven't. I- I ... Maybe I should. What if I get followed home by an alligator? My God. Uh, but no, I ... That's not something that I've been worried about. Cho- Tonely Lee. To- Tonely Lee, "How long did it take you before you started earning money from your online business?" I guess you mean the podcast, because Newtonic is just a, uh, big laundry machine where money goes in and cans come out, but just more cans come out. No money ever comes out of it. Um, so gonna guess you mean the show. It was year four, the start of year four. Uh, we're going six and a half years, and the first three years, we made no money at all. Um, so, I mean, we- we generated revenue, but it was less than the costs that we had, so we were net negative. Uh, I think typically the way that it seems is that most podcasts around about episode 150, uh, start making money. And you can get through three a week in a year, or you can get through one a week in three years. Uh, but unless you have, you know, an existing big platform or you're super talented in the beginning, which I certainly wasn't, uh, it's gonna take a little while. So yeah, I ... You know, it may look all glamorous, uh, from the outside, but, uh, this was a long slog of absolutely nothing happening for a very long time, especially from a money perspective. ChaChaBoom5, "Have your looks ever gotten in the way of anything you wanted to do in life, or has it all been beneficial? Have you ever used your looks to benefit yourself in a knowingly unscrupulous manner?" Oh. Well, it's a very difficult question to answer, because no one wants to hear a moderately all right looking person talk about the downsides of being moderately all right looking. And also, I've been thinking about this recently, I fill an unbelievably bad niche. I'm nowhere near smart enough to be a smart person's smart person, and I'm not good-looking enough to be a good-looking person's good-looking person. So I'm like the smart person's handsome guy or the good-looking person's smart dude, um, which I think might be the worst position to be in. But there are assumptions and ideas that people have about what you've got to add and your worth and all the rest of it. I would be lying if I said that the way that I look hasn't been, uh, a benefit to me. You know, I can fucking flutter my eyelashes and some server will be fine at giving us a table, or, uh, you know, trying to turn on the charm. Unfortunately, the guy wasn't gay today. Uh, maybe if it was Mike Israetel, it would have been fine. Uh, tried to turn on the charm, but I- I managed to just like sneak this table out. Um ... It gets in the way. It does get in the way sometimes, but the benefits far a- exceed the challenges. And, you know, this is the rich guy talking about how painful it is to manage his money. Uh, I can't really say that. Have I ever used my looks to benefit myself in a knowingly unscrupulous manner? So this is me being in this sort of perfect Goldilocks zone of handsome enough to not get the benefit of being ugly, but nowhere near handsome enough to actually be able to achieve anything like that drastic. I think the most I ever got paid to do modeling was like five, five grand for a shoot, uh, which is piddling numbers compared with most other models. And my average day rate, I think, was about 200 pounds or 250 quid. That five-grand thing was a one-off and it was the only time I ever did it. No, uh, I try and get into the front of queues with things. I, you know, put a little smize on and like this disgusting ... I'd probably feel sick if I saw myself doing this, like trying to get the air hostess to like give me an extra set of biscuits or something like that. Like, you're flirting with someone's grandmother. Grow up. Uh, but it works, and here I am, one Lotus Biscoff better off because of my looks. So that's it.Matt Sadzinski, "How did you know you were providing valuable content to your viewers when starting out?" Because it was valuable to me. And I have always been the target audience for this show. It's never been for anybody else, it's always just been for me. And when I s- start to forget that, or when I do forget that, when I get distracted, when I start to think about what you guys want, I don't know who you are. I've met an increasing number of you at the live shows, and I've heard from tens of thousands of you over email and DM and stuff, but I can only ever do the show for me, and if I find it valuable myself, I can be confident in knowing that there is some good majority of people that will also find it valuable too. So it's just been, if it's valuable to me, it'll probably be valuable to someone else as well. Jacarius 100, "@Ours or casually dressed?" Now this is a good question. I'm a big fan of Funeral for a Friend, uh, they were the f- one of the first bands I ever got to see live. I think they might be from Middlesbrough, which is where I'm from. Uh, Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation, uh, is a phenomenal album, God, 2003? Maybe earlier. Maybe earlier t- maybe two thous- 2003, 2004. Fantastic. That- but OurS is also great. Uh, Dragged Feet, "Loving the new vlogs." Thank you. "What's your plan with those going forward?" Don't have a plan, I'm quite bad at having a plan, um, don't have a plan. Just keep doing them. Uh, I do not feel comfortable doing vlogs, certainly not the face to camera style thing, uh, I'm much more comfortable with a structured conversation about a topic, uh, as opposed to free flowing. And I think a big part of it is fear that I'm not that interesting when I'm not adding- purposefully trying to add value through coming up with ideas or, or making dick jokes or something. So, but you guys seem to love it, uh, which is really lovely actually, and the comments on the vlogs are very, very, um, heartfelt, and I- I like it. So just keep doing them. Max, the dude that we've got that is, uh, doing the filmmaking for it, is just so great. I've wanted to work with him from before the time that I moved to Austin, I feel so grateful that I managed to get the guy that I wanted. I love his shooting style, it's so simple and stripped back, but it's still beautiful. Uh, so just keep doing it, keep doing the same, definitely more training series, uh, we'll be doing something with CBUM, we'll be doing something with George Heaton, uh, we'll be doing something with Hormozi, we'll be doing maybe something with Huberman. Uh, kinda tempted to just do them all in the gym, 'cause that makes it easier, but then that's also not that varied. So I'm open to ideas. You got ideas, let me know what you wanna see. 56 TTT, hm, uh, "You said you're creating a product with Mike Israetel, can you tell us any more? Love the episodes you do together." Thank you. Oh, I wanna tell you so bad, but no, I'm- I- you'll- it'll be done before the end of the year, and I was excited for Nutonic, but this is so good. It's beyond world changing what we're trying to do, and it may fall flat on its face and it may be a colossal waste of time and money and effort, but it's a big swing for the fences and it's just gonna be so cool. So I can't wait, I cannot wait to release this. Mike, how can I say this without fucking giving away what it is? Mike rang me after the weekend where he had, um, used the thing that we are developing and could not shut up talking about how amazing it is. And he is not an easy man to impress, ask his wife. Mama777, "Sometimes your titles verge on being more clickbait-y than I'd like. I know there's way worse culprits than you, but I hope you consider rectifying this as the show grows more." I appreciate the input, uh, it's something that we work hard on all the time to find this balance, um, I agree, I think that there are way, way worse culprits, you know, there are many, many, many circles of hell of- of clickbait that you can go through, um, but when the rest of the market moves in that direction, it is very hard to fight for clicks and eyeballs if you remain more stand-offish. But one of the things (clears throat) , and the strategists, the guys Chase and Luke and Jodie, the guys that do strategy and copywriting for me, they- if I let them loose and said, "Oh, you've got free rein, you can do whatever you want," everything would look so much different, and often they have to sacrifice performance because I'm saying, "Sorry, I- I- I don't feel happy with that wording, it feels too, uh, outrageous and- and- and clickbait-y." So yeah, we're just- I am making a purposeful effort to be more positive in the titles, uh, you know, a lot of the conversations are easy to frame as, "The problem with modern feminism. Why does no one trust the media anymore?" You know, but they're just so negative, and, uh, even if they describe (laughs) the episode correctly, uh, the episode often has a positive skew on it, so we're really working hard to try and come up with a way to drive clicks, uh, be positive, and also sort of maintain that level of, uh, intellectual respect, I think, for you guys. Um, my point being, if you just fucking clicked on the videos more, I wouldn't need to do anything fancy with the thumbnails or the titles. So really your fault.Uh, but I appreciate the question and, uh, I think that you are right, and it is also something that we are working on. Andrea Mew, "When you put your shoes and socks on, do you put both socks on first, followed by both shoes? Or do you put one sock on, then one shoe, then the next sock, and then the next shoe?" I don't know anybody that does the second thing, and I'm pretty sure that's like an early signing of having a stroke, or being a war criminal or something, if you do that other one. It's got to be who the fuck puts one sock on, and then one shoe, and then the next sock? So you've got one shoe and sock on with a bare foot on the other side? No thank you, moving on. Tim D Simons, "Hi Chris. You've spoken recently about going through a tough time. How are you doing?" Thank you. Uh, yes, I've been, I haven't spoken about this yet. We'll release a vlog actually, maybe an accompanying podcast about it, some health bits that I've been grappling with. I was a hot mess, like a real hot mess at the start of this year, and I'll explain more when I do that bit properly. But I'm getting better, which is nice, and, uh, it's wild to f- have capacity taken away from you, uh, through, you know, no choice of your own. It's very, very brutal. Uh, and if you're someone that relies a lot on your mind to get you out of difficult situations, and then the very thing you have, your mental capacity, is one of the things that kind of gets hit, it's just ruthless. It feels so unfair, and so vicious. Um, but I'm all right, I'm good. Uh, this traveling around has just been so great. I've been with George now for, you know, basically two months. He was in Austin for a month, and we've been traveling around for what will become a month, uh, at the end of next week. And we went to Lake Norman, drove through Gatlinburg, and then did the 4th of July in Nashville, then we flew to New Orleans, and now we're in Bozeman, and we're seeing Ludicrous at the County Fair (laughs) . Fucking Luda. Uh, we're seeing him at the County Fair. So it's, this has just been exactly what I needed. So I'm glad that I'm able to step in and adjust, uh, life, like this, and I'm very fortunate to be able to do this. So yeah, getting there, I'll be good. End of this year I'll be good. Valon K, "Where is that shoulder bag from that you wear in the recent vlog?" Uh, that would be, uh, it's over there. Uh, it's an Onnit bag, I think. It's a Onnit, um, bum bag, like you call it fanny pack in America. Uh, and Sky, my ads guy, gave it to me. They don't make them anymore, I'm sorry. But Nomatic make a travel sling which is really awesome, it's in black, green and blue. I've got it in all three colors. That's great. Uh, it doesn't fit an everyday carry in though. But that fits a handgun in, Nomadics I don't think does, but it will fit a Kindle Oasis in just, so it's a good replacement. Become Your Own Best Friend, "How do you keep track of all the quotes you share? You're eable, you're able to access them easily." It is all Apple Notes. Me and George and Yousef and a bunch of other friends searched and searched for years trying to work out what is the solution. Is it Evernote, is it Notion, is it Ulysses? Is it, we, trying to find the holy grail of note taking apps, and it was staring us in the face the whole time. I'm looking now, I've got 3,103 notes that I've accumulated all in here. And the reason I'm able to access them easily is just because of global search. So they're not particularly well, uh, chunked into folders, um, they're not that well formatted, but I can usually pick one word that I need out of a quote, or out of a note, or out of an episode, set of notes that I've done previously or whatever it is, uh, and that one word will usually just bring it up. Uh, they need a slightly more powerful global search now, especially when you're getting into the 3,000s, uh, for notes, but that's it. Chris Carmen5, "What t-shirts do you wear? They look crisp, clean and simple. Thanks in advance." Thank you for the compliment on my t-shirt. So this is I think what you're gonna be talking about, and this is a Zara, fuck, I'll just load it up, give me a second. Zara men's basic, basic t-shirt. Fucking true classics, trying to ping Zara by jumping on... Okay, so it's not the boxy fit t-shirt. Basic slim fit t-shirt. Zara, make sure, yeah, Zara basic slim fit t-shirt, and I wear an XL. Fuck, I think I wear an XL. Uh, and it comes in a ton of colors, it's great, I, it's what I've worn for a very long time. Highly, highly recommended. I can't give you a... Basic slim fit t-shirt, and it's $19 and they last forever, so go and get 1,000. And Zara, sponsor me. Uh, Elise Jin, Ji, Jineice, "Are you going to do butt stuff on Thursday with me?" This is one of the girls from Barry's Bootcamp in Austin. Uh, that message has come from Instagram so if you wanna go and check out what she looks like, gentlemen, do your worst. Uh, I do ass and abs on a Thursday.... uh, consistently. And that's why "Are you going to do butt stuff on Thursday with me?" was a question. I do hope that you know what you've just done to your Instagram, though. The fact that you asked that question and put your handle out there. So, godspeed, m'lady. Chris LePoidevin. "Hi, Chris. Do you get a sense of pride when an interviewee says, 'That's a great question' or 'I hadn't thought about it in that way before'? I think part of the reason your podcast has seen so much growth is your ability to communicate so well. Awesome work doing the thing." Thank you. Uh, yeah, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a big flood of dopamine when someone that you respect compliments you on the thing that you do. You know, I'm- I made a career out of being the most stupid person in the room of every conversation. They are an expert, and I am an avatar for a curious person. So if I come up with something which is genuinely novel or interesting to them, that's cool. Um, one way that that can be a little bit more dangerous is that you can actually start chasing that, and you can just... As opposed to being nice and succinct, you can always try and wow the guest with some cool story or whatever. And a lot of the time, that gets in the way. Like, they're the talent. I'm not the talent for most of the episodes. Today, I'm the talent, fuck yeah, Chris Williamson Show. But most of the time, I'm not the talent, they are. Right? And my goal has always been find a person that I think has something interesting to say and get the best insights out of them by creating this environment, this Petri dish, that they can live in, which is easy and comfortable and safe and- and flowing and enjoyable and all of the things that you need to just set them up. So, uh, but yeah, I- I- I like it. It's- it's nice. Ignacio Guerino. Absolutely fumbling the bag on names today. Congrats. "How does the medium alter the conversation you would otherwise have with the guest without the mics or camera on? Do you always feel present in the conversation, or does it sometimes become a struggle? Do you ever crave raw conversation with the guest without the mics?" Awesome insight. Yes, correct. Um, unfortunately, the really, really big episodes that we did, especially the video wall stuff, uh, that helped, because... Or fortunately, that helped, because it was immersive. And as we moved from conversation to conversation, you actually felt like you'd changed. Some of the big shoots that I do, uh, can feel daunting and take me out of the moment a little bit. Um, you know, I'm looking here, I'm always on the left, so I can always see panning out to my right, just, you know, like (laughs) fucking 20 people. I don't know what- what any of them do, except for my guys. Uh, and they're noting things down or changing cards or checking on lighting levels and stuff. And it is a bit... You know, it's not the most intimate. But, uh, first off, I've been getting better at that. Secondly, um, when framed correctly, that can make it feel like more of an occasion. So you're like, "Oh, I gotta get my game face on. Stop messing about. This is... I- I really need to lock in," which is good. And yeah, I- I'm fortunate enough to be able to, uh, message most of the guys if I need to have a- a raw conversation without the mics on. And I think the goal is to get the conversation in front of the mic to the level of ease that it would be without. And continuing to chase that is a... And almost limiting the amount of conversations that you have outside of that. For instance, uh, I think Huband's gonna come back on within the next month or so. I don't want to have a conversation with him for that long before we get started, because sometimes you sort of blow your load on interesting shit that you've both seen. Uh, I know that the My First Million pod, uh, Sean and Sam, their producer doesn't let them speak when they get on the call. So he's in control of muting the mics, and he mutes both of their mics so that they can't do exactly that and front run any of the things that they want to talk about. So, uh, yeah, sometimes it feels a little bit, um... How would you say? It... You know that you're having a conversation, uh, that's being recorded. Uh, that being said, I have enough conversations over dinner to last me a lifetime about interesting stuff that's raw, uh, and would totally get everybody canceled, so hooray. Quincy Obeng. "How do you distinguish between necessary and unnecessary worries in your daily life?" Kind of going back to the first question here that I don't know... Necessary worries. I think it's just because of where I'm at at the moment, I just... Uh, I really don't like the idea... I'm gonna give myself a little bit more light. I really don't like the idea of necessary worries. I don't know what that means. What would a necessary worry be? It's an interesting question. Um, maybe it's because, as a perennial worrying necessity-er, I crave to be able to relinquish that. And for me, any opportunity to dial that back sounds very attractive. Um, I- I would say if you are the sort of person that asks that question, "How do you distinguish between necessary and unnecessary worries in your daily life?" Treating... Even if this isn't true factually, it's true functionally. Treating all of your worries as unnecessary is probably a good place to start, and then just try and let go of as much as you can from there.Col Cambro, "What are you regularly saying no to that lets you say yes to the most important things?" Well, this is kind of the toughest period th- thing, and also the lady in the red dress idea that Hormozi's got, that basically as you become more successful, um, the things that you need to say no to are things that 18 months ago you would have begged to have had the opportunity to say yes to, uh, which is hard, especially if you're a people pleaser, especially if you've got a bit of imposter syndrome. Um, so I'm regularly saying no to calls that don't have a defined outcome in them, exploratory stuff in the beginning, partnerships with people who I can't see how this is going to work in the immediate term within the next six months. Also, not doing any guesting. Haven't done... Am I right in saying the only show I've done this year is Rogan's? And I think I maybe did five the year before. So I'm- I'm saying no to a lot of that because there is just so much on my plate, it's disgusting, and, uh, woe is me, busy, fucking busy guy. But, uh, this is what awaits you if you want to achieve any amount of micro niche influence of fame. What awaits you is a fuck ton of emails and Slack messages, so get ready for that. I need some more water, wait there. We're back in the room. Luke T Betts, "When are we sniffing vapes next?" Fantastic. Luke is my tour manager, also my book agent, also in on Nutonic and The Thing with Mike. Uh, whenever you want, mate. Probably after the final show in Australia, we can go and sniff vapes. LexiJo09, "From what you know/hear, do men want to be approached by women at the gym?" Lexi, let me try and explain a man's psychology to you for a moment. Let me mansplain a man's psychology. Yes, always, without question, by any woman with a pulse, permanently. Yes. All- Uh, yes. Every man wants to be approached by a woman at the gym. Guys that are in relationships, guys that have got gluten intolerance, guys that can't bench properly, all of them would love a little bit of female attention in the gym. HeidiHasSurrendered, "What degree did you do at university?" I did two degrees. I did a master's in international marketing and a bachelor's in business management, and I can't remember either of them. And I was always reticent about doing a set of degrees that I didn't think really, uh, fulfilled me all that much. I wasn't... I- I fell out of love with academia within six months of being at university. I was totally disenchanted with it, but just knew that I was good at handing things in just about on time with a passable... I could play the game of academia. Uh, I knew what the mark- the markers, what they're fucking called, assessors, teachers, lecturers, tutors, uh, what they wanted, and I was able to submit things that got me, uh, good grades, but I didn't learn anything, and I always regretted the fact that I didn't do psychology or philosophy or something that I would have loved more. And then I started the podcast, and now there's 800 and whatever modules of some of the best lecturers on the planet, so I didn't need to. L- Llyric Everly, Lyrice Verly, "Present status of your aspiring trophy husband goals?" Uh, uh, aspiring, I guess, uh, husband in... Trophy husband in training, I sup- or whatever. I'm not even in training. I'm in Bozeman. In Bo- Present statuses in Bozeman. N- Nick Lashoy, "When did it occur to you that you were good at asking questions?" Uh, I don't know, actually. I guess probably year three of doing the show. I was often told as a kid that I was kind of gobby, loudmouth. The teacher could always pick out my voice from the fucking back of the room. It annoyed me so much. These, like, really naughty kids, like actually naughty kids, but their voice didn't carry as far as mine, and mi- (laughs) mine did. So I would always be the one that got shouted at, which was really irritating to me. Uh, and I think I internalized the lesson about being... Talking too much and, uh, and not being sufficiently thoughtful in conversation, maybe because of that. Uh, so getting to start to do the show and focusing on questions, really, really focusing on questions, was just such a great training ground for me, and it was a really big confidence builder that picked up rapidly, super rapidly. So I'm, um, I'm very glad for it. Uh, but it took a while. I- I didn't step into this... I thought I was terrible at asking questions. I knew I was curious, but I didn't think conversationally that I was good at doing it. Madhu Mohan Reddy, "How to get a well-defined and chiseled face? What's your routine?" I don't know what a face routine would look like when it comes to the defined and chiseled thing. My skin routine is essentially nonexistent, and my face routine is actually nonexistent. So I think it's just genetics and body fat.And I think if you want a more chiseled face, lose body fat. And if you get down to single digits and you still don't have a chiseled face, blame your parents. MHm5cv, "Potential partner, question mark. What's the holdup?" Uh, gimme a break, mate (laughs) . I just got out of a relationship. Um, well, I mean, the holdup is that- the- the- the breakup is the holdup, or the breakup was the holdup. I- I don't know how to answer that (laughs) . Fuck, I should just be immediately finding chicks everywhere on the market. Uh, maybe I'll find one in Bozeman. Maybe there's a lovely farm girl waiting for me here in Bozeman. Andrew Birrached9555, "Hey, Chris. Congrats." Thank you. "Here's my question. I personally feel I am unable to celebrate my wins in life. As soon as I accomplish a goal after toiling on it for a while, my brain automatically jumps to the next problem to solve or the next goal. I know the key to all this is to reward myself in some shape or form, yet I cannot find anything that feels like a good enough recompense. Anything I gift myself for my hard work seems minuscule and extremely short lived when compared to the effort I put in to achieve victory, so much so that the positive feelings I get out of it are almost negligible, and I might as well have not rewarded myself at all. Is there an antidote to that? How do you reward yourself for the accomplishments in a way that recharges you for the next tasks ahead?" First off, I need to compliment you on that question, because that is a phenomenal question, and I think it sees the challenge that many people who demand a lot of themselves. Sorry, I've been on a flight all day, so (clears throat) if you're an hour in and thinking, "Why does Chris sound like he's been deep throating a guy with glass for a dick?" Uh, gay, again, it was Mike Israetel, had a foreskin. Um, it's because I've been on a flight all day, and I had five hours sleep. Um, so here we are. And I had a Starbucks egg sausage bap thing and one lotus Biscoff, where I flooded my eyelashes at the hostess. (inhales) So, very good question. How do you reward yourself for your accomplishments in a way that recharges you for the next tasks ahead? How do you not look over the shoulder of the present moment to forget the thing that you've just achieved, despite the fact that what you were working toward was the achievement for a very long time, and continue to sort of demand so much of yourself that you don't ever actually get to enjoy the accomplishments? This is a big problem for m- many high performers, most. I don't know many people who, uh, perform well in life that don't have this challenge. I can give you all of the pithy, "Hard things are hard, that's why they're hard," Alex Hormozi quotes, or shit that I've come up with. But trying to get a bit more tactical, because I think that would be more useful. Celebrating wins with other people seems to break this pattern quite well. So, one of the things that we're trying to do with the show as we hit different milestones, one million, two million, et cetera, is to go on little trips, to have a call with Dean, to, you know, do something that instantiates the occasion, and I think doing it with other people. Also telling other people as well, telling the people around you in your life, "Um, this is something I want to work on. I want to be more grateful and, uh, sink into my victories as much as I can. Will you help me?" I mean, what a great gift to give your friends to say, "I'll- I'll, like, m- give you the money, or I'll come up with the thing. Like, just tag along, tag along and tell me, 'Well done.'" I think that it- it sounds contrived. It sounds like, "Oh, but you've planned it, and, you know, you're telling your friends to come along, and, uh, you know, do they really want to be there as you congratulate yourself?" Yeah, they do. Your friends do want to be there at each different one of your wins in life. And if they don't, they're not your friends, and they can go fuck themselves. Good friends will always be there to say, "Dude, so fucking happy for you with that job raise, that career change, that new house, that whatever it is that you're doing, body fat percentage you've got to..." Uh, they'll be there. So, using experiences and celebrating wins, especially with other people, seems to go very well. Um, rewarding yourself in a way that recharges you for the tasks ahead, uh, is a little bit more difficult, because you're going to have built up this habit over time, this sort of fervent energy that you have used to get yourself to the stage where you've actually accomplished things. And then you need to somehow say, "You know that thing that you were just doing obsessively? Turn that off, because now it's, uh, like, pat yourself on the back time." That's not the way it works, at least not in my experience. Um, what I've done myself, this is part of what I'm doing. We just had this crazy tear on the show. We did one cinema episode every single Monday for seven and a half months, and we were supposed to do... we were intending on doing six a year. And we did, like, 28 (laughs) in seven months. So, I mean, or even- even more. We did- we did two a week during Christmas, I think, for a couple of weeks. So, this, for me, is very much what you're talking about. So, uh, I got a friend who loves to celebrate things, George, and we decided to put a trip together, and I'm still-... working and doing stuff, but I'm going to go back. I already am feeling recharged. So, doing it in little ways, with other people, not on your own, experiences rather than possessions, positive reinforcement and celebration. Those are the things. They're the things that have worked for me. And dude, I feel you. I think many people in the audience really, really get to the challenge that you're facing. But the- to get pithy for a second, a tiny bit of a mindset shift might be a smart idea too. Why are you doing all of these things and accomplishing anything if it isn't for you to be able to enjoy them? I mean, the gold standard is for you to enjoy the process and the accomplishment, but if you kill yourself during the process and the accomplishment is so short-lived that you're already onto the process of the next thing immediately, you will reach a point where you ask yourself, "What am I doing here?" And trying to front run that as much as possible. You are here to enjoy the things that you do, especially if you're achieving things. It sounds like you're absolutely crushing it in whatever it is that you do. God, fuck, you have to give yourself some credit. You have to be able to find a way to enjoy this. Uh, so asking yourself a question, "What would this be like if it was more enjoyable?" Just, "What would-" Just ask yourself that question and see what comes up. What would the pursuit and the accomplishment be like if it was a little bit more enjoyable? Because for me, I would be traveling around America with a friend. I would be giving myself a little bit of a break on a morning and having time that's just for me, that's not for answering emails or dealing with Slack, or- or- or prepping for a guest, or doing whatever. It would be for me. That would be enjoyable. Uh, so that's a good cue, and I appreciate the question. Awesome. Thomas Willians, Willians4085, "What clipper length is your hairdo?" So this is a, uh, two, two and a half. So two on the sides and two and a half on the top. Actually, going down to a one and a half and a two now, because I can't be arsed going into the barbers every three weeks. But I think that, if you've got the hair to pull it off, two/two and a half looks great, but it will grow out, especially if your hair grows quickly. Within three weeks, it'll be too long. So one and a half/two or two/two and a half is the way to go. HarryC8433, "I feel way too passive after getting rid of a large chunk of my ego. How can I build it back a bit? Feel like it took away my confidence. Love the pod." Dude. What an awesome insight. That is fantastic, and I might write about that in a newsletter, shamelessly repurpose it into a newsletter. I think that's so good. I absolutely felt, and probably still have felt, a lot of this over the last six years. Many people may say that I'm full of ego, and the internet may be right, but holy shit, if you'd seen me in my 20s, uh, a lot of the mindfulness and gratitude that I did, um, really... And- and, um, learning to be more s- learning to kind of embody my, uh, sensitivity a little bit more really made a massive difference to the ego that I had before. And it did take a huge chunk out of my confidence, which I'm still building back. So I feel you on this one. Uh, the things that I've done to do this is to realize that confidence built around ego isn't true confidence. You didn't necessarily have... You had blind confidence previously, and I think that it may take longer for you to build this back, but when you have it, it will be from a place of genuine, rock-solid foundation. It will be built on you knowing who you are and having justification in your confidence, as opposed to you being a young dude that's young, dumb, full of fucking testosterone and made of rubber and magic, bouncing through life with kind of an assumptive confidence. Um, also, maybe the price that you need to pay to get rid of some of your ego, to have more equanimity, to be more mindful, to be a better friend, to be more sensitive, maybe the price that you needed to pay for that was to lose some confidence. And an interesting question to ask yourself would be, is that a price that you would have paid? If you could've gone- if you a- answer it and say, "If I could go back, I wouldn't have done that," you need to really, really work hard to build it back up. If the answer is that you're glad that it happened, okay, let's start from a place of positivity. You're happy that this happened. That's something that was good. I think that that's probably something that was good for you to do. Um, building up confidence, James' book, How to Be Confident, is actually really, really good. Alex's insight about you don't become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are, is also good. And remembering as well that if losing your ego killed your confidence, I don't think what you had was confidence. It was something else. And you are now starting from baseline.So, which is such a wonderful ... That's such a great insight. I'm gonna copy it over into my, uh, newsletter notes now, actually. That's such a great question. So this is one thing that I love. I fucking love this, doing- doing the Q and As. And I know that I move through the- the questions very quickly, but selfishly, it's 'cause I want to see as many of them as I can, and get the opportunity to answer them while I speak. So that's how I think best. The questions that you guys come up with are the things that I struggle with, and seeing questions that I've journaled about previously or ones that I've felt... Like, this is one that I've felt but never actually verbalized. It's so ... It's just so great. It's so great to feel like other people see you, and I think that that's what hopefully this show is to you guys, me trying to learn to open up and be less of a performative autist around, "This is how I feel. This is my history. This is sort of what I'm dealing with," and asking some expert about, "Why is this this way?" Uh, but it's just r- seeing questions that see my condition and probably a lot of your guys' conditions too, I think is just fucking great. So bravo, Harry. Uh, bit by bit, continue to do things that are undeniable stacks of proof, and realize that what you had before wasn't- wasn't confidence, I don't think. Isaac Mijangos, "When are you going to get Philosopher Tim Dillon on your podcast? Been here since 97K." Wow. Well, thank you for being here for so long. I am going to LA in a couple of weeks, and Tim is in LA, and if our schedules align, very well may be on the show. Juan Granados, "What are you wildly insecure about, even if it's not true?" Fucking good question. Well, the problem with wild insecurities is that your ability to assess their veracity is usually terrible. Um, most of the things that you're wildly insecure about, you have no idea if it's false. Um, for me, still lots around wanting to be respected and liked and a fear of being left out of things, and this sort of permanent sense of being on the outside and observing what's going on, not in it. I'm- I'm an observer. I'm an orbiter. I'm an out- outside participant in many things, and I think this is a big carryover from when I was a kid, and that certainly was my experience in school, uh, and even in sport, you know, even in the sports that, uh, my chosen sport, which was cricket, which I was very, very good at. Uh, even that, I didn't feel like anybody had my back. I wasn't part of a group or a tribe. Um, I didn't have a squad of- of friends. Uh, an only child thing obviously doesn't help, because I guess you kind of, if you've got brothers and sisters, I don't know how that works, um, but if you've got brothers and sisters, I suppose you kind of have to have their back, at least for a while, until you're old enough to be able to say, "I'm done with you. You're a dick." So a lot of it comes up around that, uh, still worthiness and sort of being good enough. You know, I've this- I've had this strange ambient sense for maybe the last year that someone's mad at me, and I don't know why, and I don't know who, and I don't know what about. But just, you know- you know what I mean, that you've done something wrong and that someone's mad at you. So that's been there. And then patting myself on the back about things that I've done well, also insecure about was that g- how good was that? Was that good enough? It was- was it the best that I could do? What does the best look like? And this is one of the dualities of having high standards, I suppose, that you basically can never meet them. Uh, so many things, I guess, and a combination of opening up emotional work with therapy and maybe not being in the most robust place in terms of health and sleep over the last six months has been a really ruthless cocktail. I may look back on this in six months' time and go, "Pfft, gay." Or I might realize that this was a- a justified insight. Uh, but many things, many things, and that doesn't necessarily get any easier as more people watch the show, as there's, you know, half a billion people a year scrutinizing what you do, your wild insecurities seem to be amplified, uh, not diminished. I think that's gonna change. Bon, "Hey, Chris, do you like that you have a 54-year-old granny who listens to your podcast and loves it?" Bon, I couldn't be happier that you're a 54-year-old granny that listens to this podcast and loves it. Uh, not necessarily the immediate target market, but we're an equal opportunities wisdom dispenser here. So thank you very much for being here. Jasper Hamill, "Do you ever find all that positivity and wellness stuff a bit depressing and you yearn for a nice reassuring bit of self-destruction?" Fucking brilliant, so-The positivity bit, uh, less so, uh, but the wellness stuff, absolutely. What you do have to remember is that I'm like... Who's the guy that shot Osama bin Laden? Rob O'Neil. I'm like the Rob O'Neil of self-destruction and partying. I know that the internet didn't get to see me, basically, until I was 30, but my God, I served my time in the trenches from 18 to 30 years old. Just endless amounts of parties, in different countries, at different times, in different cities, with different drugs, in different venues, different music policies. Every type of party, I'd done. And, uh, I still feel like I'm on self-destruction sabbatical from that. You know, kind of like, uh, some dude that trained for the Olympics. You know, he was a child prodigy in the fencing or the rowing or something, and he did it and retired at 22, at the ripe young age of 22. That's me with partying. Uh, that being said, yes, the over-optimization, up its own arse, positivity, wellness thing, the, like, absolute protocol maxing side of stuff, just is becoming more and more lame. I think people are so switched off by lots of that now. And, uh, I did six months sober at the start of this year. Uh, broke that in Nashville, uh, a couple of weeks ago or... Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. (inhales) Uh, so I'll be having a, a few beers, sniffing vapes maybe with Luke at the end of this year. Um, I, I have an interesting relationship with partying, I suppose, because I just did it so much, served my time in the trenches, the vanguard. Uh, but there is a place for that self-destructive behavior, and I think the, the people who are unable to, uh, ever let go of that are in a particular type of fragility too. So, who knows? Maybe this is the, uh... Wrestle Tales. Why do you look the same for, like, two fucking years now? Do people age that much in two years typically? I have the most basic bitch skincare routine in history, which is wash your face and then put moisturizer on after the shower. I would be worried if I did change in the space of two... I suppose you must change at some point, right? There must be some two-year periods in which you really do change. Anyway, uh, I... I don't know. All the baby blood that I'm drinking from Mike Israetel's cellar. Jack Kunak. What do you think of circumcision? I knew it! Coming back around. Should it be done to infants? Is it barbaric? Jack Kunak. Uh, I mean, look, I see no fucking justification for circumcision. Any guy that says... This includes Mike, actually. Mike wishes he was circumcised. Any guy who says that circumcision is a, a benefit, that it's somehow benefiting them, unless there's some weird fucking medical abnormality down there that you ni- (laughs) need to chop a bit off the top, uh, I promise you it's not. The... And I know this from Yousef, who has a very detailed map of all of the different types of foreskin that can happen, and he once lectured me about this over dinner, so I know. Uh, it reduces sensitivity in the penis. It... I, I know so many guys that are circumcised that basically struggle, uh, to come during sex, and basically can't from oral. I just think, God, what a brilliant thing it would be if it was just five seconds like the rest of us. No. Uh, I, I do think it's fucking barbaric. It seems pointless. It's like some nonzero number of babies die per year from this, and it's not even people that are Jewish. Uh, look, who am I to step in and try and tell some religion to do or not do something? But culture, culture... Sorry, American men, why? What's going on? I don't understand. Maybe... Someone needs to teach me why it is that most Americans... We were in a, a sauna, the cold plunge place a year and a half ago for a friend's stag do, and there was a... Through the back of the gents changing rooms, this huge plunge thing, warm plunge, cold plunge, sauna over the far side, but the whole thing was nude. Like guys only. Fucking dudes. Uh, you'll notice that all of the guys getting out of the hot bath, uh, didn't mind, but all of the guys getting out of the cold bath had their hands over their junk. Um, I think I was the only guy in there with a foreskin. Fucking wild in this country. Defund circumcision, that's what I say. El Houchin. Is having a small penis (laughs) a skill issue? Uh, Ben definitely put these together in order. Um, is having a small penis a skill issue? Yes. Everything's a skill issue. Circumcision is also a skill issue. Not having a foreskin is a s- is a skill issue. There is no question today that I couldn't have just answered with skill issue, skill issue, over and over again. Khosrow. Why should I care about your subscriber numbers? You don't need to. Uh... You don't need to, at all. Uh, I don't think that I really should care about my subscriber numbers, but as you just learned, Khosrow, we need to celebrate our small wins. It is the way that we are going to keep ourselves motivated and rejuvenate ourselves, ready for the next thrust. (inhales) Juan Granados, "When- what are you looking forward to in your Australia trip, and how can we make the trip more enjoyable for you?" What a lovely question. What would I like? I would love, um, I would love to have some good Aussie food. I would really love to experience that cool pool where the sea comes up onto it. And I would just like you guys to bring the curiosity and the energy and the inquisitiveness that I get the sense that you all have. Uh, the, uh, by GDP or whatever it is, um, Modern Wisdom is bigger in Australia than any other country. So I'm kind of low key thinking that this Oz tour is going to be the craziest one of them all, just because, first off, Australians don't exactly have a reputation for being chill people, and secondly, it's, uh, in terms of density, the highest place on the planet that supports this show (laughs) , which is wild. I don't know what that says about me, uh, but I appreciate you all. Oh, that's it. I made it five hours sleep, one Starbucks bap, breakfast bap, and a little bit of water, and no caffeine. I haven't had caffeine for a while because I've been on the road and I haven't been able to get Nutonic. Look, I appreciate all of you. Um, I know that I keep on doing these Q&As really quickly because the show keeps growing, uh, but I like it. I like checking in with you guys, seeing how you're getting on. What else is happening? Nutonic restock is now available, nutonic.com/modernwisdom. That's available next day delivery UK and US. Huge August coming up. Absolute monster August with a ton of big guests coming up, and then Oz tour November, and then this Israetel thing will happen before November as well. I am gonna have some food and go to sleep. Appreciate you. Bye.