Life Doesn’t Knock You Down, It Just Gives You More Material | Steve Gamlin | Business Uncensored

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome to another episode of Business Uncensored. My name is Ryan Shear. The show was formerly Small Business Chronicles, but I like to curse too much, so we changed it up. So I can say, like, dirty words and talk about that we're not supposed to, uh, which is the whole point of this. Business is business. Right. But it's not this plasticky that you see on LinkedIn all the time. It's not whatever it business is.

Speaker B: You.

Speaker A: Uh, I heard a quote the other day is. It's like we're flying. Life balance is kind of a myth because it. If you're in a career that is your life. So how do you balance that in between there and. And. And business Uncensored kind of blurs those lines too. Uh, it's just the way you do business, how you do business, the real side of it. We've had HR horror stories, we've had, uh, different businesses come on here and tell us how it's really like. But in that. If you, if you go back and see my first episode with Rob, he made an introduction because they wrote a book together recently. And, uh, I, I got to talk to Rob now I'm gonna get to talk to the other over here. Other, not mirrored camera, other half over here. Uh, Isaac, my editor, he can take that out or make me look like a dick, either way. Um, but anyway, uh, welcome to the show. Uh, Steve. And. And how do you pronounce your last name? I don't want to screw that up.

Speaker B: Gamblin.

Speaker A: Gamblin. All right, that's not too hard. I could have that up. Okay. Uh, so thank you so much for coming on the show. Uh, one of the things is we have a lot of similarities. We were stand, uh, up comedians. We were speakers. Uh, uh, you've got kind of the author thing over me. Podcaster. You said you've been a guest on 300 episod. So. So other than those accolades, I always start out with the question, why should we trust you? Give us just a little bit of your background to. So. So we know who you are.

Speaker B: Yeah. And I'm not even saying you have to trust me, but here's the story anyway. When I was 11 years old, wanted to be a radio DJ, stand up comedian, author of my own books, and a teacher of people. And over the course of those years, when I was 35, I was, uh, wrapping up 10 years on the radio. I was married. I was doing well from the outside in every area of my life, it seemed. But I was very unhappy, and I crashed and burned Everything walked away from radio, went through a divorce, was tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and had to crawl home busted, and move back in with family. And that was all at age 35. What I've done since then was do a lot of deep diving, put it all back together, and created a life that I love even more. I'm happier. I'm at age 56 now, happiest version of me that's ever been. And like you said, work, life, balance. I see it more as integration of all the different areas of life. And I work in eight different areas. So if a guy who blew it all up, like, uh, Wiley Coyote, do an Acme rocket, roller skate right off a cliff, which literally I did, put it all back together and took a hell of a lot of notes, and now lives, is the happiest version of him that ever lived. If that gets you to trust me, then great. I'd love to work with you. If not, that's okay. You. My industry has a crap reputation as a bunch of scumbags anyway, so if you want to throw me on that pile, go ahead. If you think it's deserved, go ahead. I don't and my clients don't either.

Speaker A: Uh, but I think that's the deal. I think once you design that relationship with that, uh, because in your industries, you're right. I just came out of marketing to do this. And marketing was getting that bad reputation too, right? And just, hey, there's these people. You get bugged with it all day long. You do whatever. I think you have to build that relationship, and people have to find you individually who they work with and, and to do. And, and man, I, I commiserate with you on the. Blowing the light. I did it at 38. Like, we were so, like, like, it's so weird as we talk. Like, yeah, I was going through a divorce. The, uh, everything had come to an end, you know, eight years ago. You know, you're sitting there and you're just at the end of it and you're like, well, what do I want to do? Because none of that worked. Like, like, uh, uh, because I think the downside of that is you're doing everything you think is going to make you happy. And then you get there and it doesn't. And, and, and because you said, here's my four things. I want to be a dj, you, you went after your expectations of happiness, and then you get there and you're like, well, this isn't good. So, so what was it. So what was your motivation in that moment? Because a lot of times in that situation of hey, I'm giving up, I'm moving home, a lot of people give up. They crawl in a bottle, they do even more extreme things, they go work at Waffle House, they whatever that is, but they don't ever rebound from that. What, what was that piece of motivation that made you go, fuck it, I'm going to do this, I'm going to get better and I'm going to go forward again.

Speaker B: You know, the funny part was it was a very well timed cosmic accident. Um, really just broke and broken in so many ways. Had no idea what I wanted to do. Had a couple of ideas. I was going to start my own little advertising agency because I built a recording studio. And all this went into that was a big part of the debt, was building studio. And on a hot August day in 2003, I was driving past this mini golf place that had a driving range and I had three bucks in my pocket and I got a bucket of golf balls just. And I'm a horrible golfer, but I just wanted to whack the crap out of something and just get out my frustration. So I went to the farthest tee box on the property, which is up against the big nylon plastic fence so you wouldn't damage any trucks at the business store. And it was right underneath these big steel power lines, which was really fun to hit them because they made a hell of a racket when you did. And it was a hot, humid day and a thunderstorm came ripping through and everybody but me ran from the storm. And I just sat there just swinging away, just said, screw it, my life sucks, I don't care. I actually held the club up, looked up and just kind of like Lieutenant Dane and Forrest Gump in the hurricane, up in the crow's nest of the boat, I just looked up and said, go ahead, I dare you. And I was not mad at God, because some people say you shouldn't be mad at God or challenge God. I go, wasn't challenging God, I was challenging the storm.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: And so I hit my bucket in the buckets of two guys who ran away from the storm and never came back. And at the end of an hour, I couldn't even lift my arms. And I got back to my car and as soon as I opened the car door, the rain stopped and the sun came out and just started laughing and shaking my head. Uh, that's funny as hell. Well played. And the next day I was talking to a brand new life coach on the phone that I just started Working with. And he said, all right, I got the notepad and your folder out. How was your week? And I said, well, put down your pen and check this out. And I told him the story of that hour. I made it as funny as I could make it super self deprecating because my, my self talk sucked at the time. I was so.

Speaker A: Oh yeah, that's always bad. Yeah.

Speaker B: And when he finally stopped laughing, which is something if you're a coach you shouldn't do when you're your client's life suck. When he stopped laughing, he goes, you ever thought of being a motivational speaker or a stand up comedian? I think you'd be really good at both. He didn't know what I wanted to be at 11 years old. Yeah, those were the only two left out of the four because I was just writing my first book at the time. I hadn't even given consideration to either one because I told him, I said, look, I've wanted to do both since I was a kid, but I have no idea how to pursue them. Get this. On his desk in the junk mail pile, there's a brochure for a local community college. They had a comedy class that started two weeks later. He said, I can't believe I didn't throw this out yet, but will you go? I said, hell yeah. And then he asked, you ever heard of Toastmasters? I said, kind of. They teach you how to be a speaker or something. He says, yeah. He goes, man, you got it. Just go sharpen your tools. In a week. After the first comedy classes, in my first Toastmasters meeting did stand up for seven years, Toastmasters for eight, been speaking for almost 20. So literally, a three dollar bucket of golf balls in a thunderstorm is what changed my life forever.

Speaker A: Isn't it weird how that works? Like, like going back like you were just fed up, you needed to release, you needed to do something. And then things happened after that. Uh, and to do that in and to get into comedy. I always made the joke when I got into comedy, people's like, hey, why'd you do that? I'm like, it's cheaper than therapy. That's like really it. Because I can get on stage. And it's kind of like I was always one of those friends that always cracked people up, was a smart ass. But everything I then I'd say something, be like, oh, that's dark. Uh, you know, that's, that, that's whatever. So when I got on stage, it worked out. And I could say that stuff, right? I can say that stuff I could do that stuff. I could, I could be that guy and it would, that was my outlet, that was my release of, um, of um. I was never that scheduled comedian that knew what I was going to say when I walked on stage. Like, I kind of had a framework and that comedy became an outlet for me to get up there and rant and rave and, and lose your shit. Just like, you're just like your, your coach laughed at you. You know, the whole audience would laugh at me and I would like, all right, no, that's out of my system, onto the next up thing in my brain, you know, and, and, and, and that's kind of the way I did it. So, so that was amazing that he offered that to you, because I just kind of found that on my own. But, but yeah, it was definitely like therapy up on that stage. Yeah.

Speaker B: And, and I didn't have the confidence or even the knowledge of how to pursue it. And just that, I mean, if it wasn't for that $3 bucket of golf balls. And the only reason he was my coach was I had a recording studio and I knew his wife from networking, um, circles, and she knew I had a studio and she goes, hey, my husband has a band and they like to record. Oh, he just, just, literally just became a certified coach. Maybe he'll coach you for exchange of studio time. And that's how that happened.

Speaker A: So, so how did it evolve from there? Because you said you started your first book, you started doing the comedy and you get in that. What was the next evolution step of, of, of.

Speaker B: It was doing a lot of speaking for free at, um, you know, like chamber events and um, you know, some of those Friday morning meetings when you get cold scrambled eggs and they just need somebody to go blah, blah, blah for 15 minutes. And I just started doing those, started doing the whole breakfast circuit for free for about a year. And one person one day said, hey, Steve, do you speak at companies? I said, of course. Well, we need a speaker for this and this and you know, we'll give you 150 bucks in dinner. And I just said, okay. And it just started from there and it became word of mouth. I've never even really over marketed my stuff. It just became word of mouth. And it grew from there. And then when I started my podcast, and then when my personal development books started to come out, you know, those got me a little notoriety as well. And then when we got video and YouTube, uh, and then social media, and now I get people following me all around the world because I'm Just a full on extension of who I am. And I've never tried any slick marketing or anything like that. It's just what you see is what you get, if you dig it. Great, I'll talk with you and see if we're a good fit.

Speaker A: What, what is something that you were wrong about? Like, like you start this journey with the three golf balls. Here is 20 years later. What is something that you, in that 20 years you've been wrong about that? You, you and you're like, oh, you know, and you have that realization of, oh no, I fucked that up.

Speaker B: I was wrong.

Speaker A: What, what is one of those things?

Speaker B: Uh, Big One nearly ended my speaking career very early on. And that was the arrogance of thinking I could speak to any audience. Oh yeah, I got, you know, as much of a stretch as it may seem like I am not the perfect speaker for a small room full of aeronautical engineers in the defense industry.

Speaker A: Uh, right, I get. Right. Isn't that the worst?

Speaker B: I got brought in to speak for 48 project managers who are like international and, and I sucked back then. I, I literally was still getting my stories down and, and it was bad PowerPoint and all that stuff, but they liked me. And while I was setting up for that one, somebody said, oh, Steve, this group needs a speaker for the end of the day. You'd be the closing speaker. Can you speak to them? I said, I can speak to anybody. Guess what? I was wrong. Engineer, think like disc. These are, you know, CP is a very data driven people.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: You don't get in their space. You don't get too high or too low with them and you make sure that they've got some stuff that they can take some data, take some notes, analyze some things before they formulate an opinion. Did I have a handout? Nope. Did I get, you know, did I respect their space? Oh, hell no. I ran around and did a high five in the U shaped tables.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Right from the moment that I got introduced. Which didn't even happen because the person in charge had my introduction and he looked at it and he crumbled it and threw it over his shoulder. He goes, well, I googled this guy. He seems decent enough. Hey Steve, come on in. Oh, shit in the hallway. Crap in my pants. Because the final line of the intro led to my opening.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: And I came in and I just did a runaround of high fiving everybody, no handouts or anything. And you know, I talk about it like it's an old World War II movie because now in the war movies you push button, the other guy explodes.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: In World War II, you know, you take a bunch of bullets to the fuselage and they've hit a fuel line or an oil line. You drain a little, little smoke, little fire, and you trail smoke till you crashed. I got shot five minutes into a 75 minute presentation and trailed smoke the rest of the way. The HR manager was furious with me. Justifiably. She actually made me give back some of the money. And she says, if you ever put us down as a reference or a testimonial, she goes, I'll tell them the truth about you. Like, okay. I mean, I was crushed. I crawled to my recording studio, canceled everything I was doing for about two, three weeks, and I just went silent. It was.

Speaker A: That's hard to recover from the embarrassment, the show, the HR getting on you. It's just it. Yeah, it. And that's like, like you look at those people that are resilient. The one thing I would say that people that go through just like you. Right. If somebody was ever there then, then however long it took you to recoup and you're like, oh, that guy didn't give a. You do. It's not that when you're a public speaker, you put yourself out there or uh, you're on a stage when you bomb or some happens. It's not that you just dust it off and go to the next one. You contemplate your entire life till the next one, and you just hope the next one isn't as shitty as that one was.

Speaker B: Yep. And the saving grace of it all was about three weeks later, somebody reached out to me just randomly. Hey, Steve, I saw that message you shared, you know, the other day on social media, man. How did the hell did you know I needed to hear that that day? Hey, man, I just, um. I'm sorry it took me so long, but I just wanted to let you know that it really made a difference for me.

Speaker A: Yeah, I. This is in no way I wanna, I have to share my worst experience because I'm, I'm. I'm kind of in that phase of doing the chamber stuff right now. And uh, as I come back to pot, because I left, I was behind the scenes for years. Now I'm like back to being forefront. So I got a call and says, hey, we have a VO Tech marketing class. Will you come please speak to the students about marketing. And I went, yes, I would love to. Just like you. I like teaching. I like processing information. If anybody ever asks you to go talk to 10th, 11th and 12th graders about marketing. Don't, just don't, don't, don't do it. Um, I mean I had a pretty good, like I, I, I'm bombing the whole time. None of my jokes are landing, none of my whatever. It's the same. I've given a handful because you get comfortable with it. Right. And it's a pretty dialed in presentation by this point, uh, about half the class was asleep by the end. The other then half of the what was left wasn't engaged. And as I'm leaving the classroom she goes, hey, you did better than the last guy. And that was the only thing that made me like not totally like go stand in traffic over that is because it's still a thing. And especially older now. Maybe you can resonate with when you were younger, before your crash. Like when I was a stand up comedian when I, I didn't care, I could go out on stage, bomb. This audience wasn't great, that audience was great. You had that and you didn't care as much. But for some reason after you bomb, you reinvent, you come out and you have a purpose behind what you're doing, whether it be motivational speaking, that marketing, you care way more than you ever did before.

Speaker B: Oh yeah, big time. Um, you know, some people say so you know, Steve, how do you insulate yourself? You just stare like over their heads at the back wall. I said no, I go, I look right in people's eyeballs constantly.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And I move from one to the other. And what most audiences don't realize is when you look at them and you say something with purpose and you plant yourself and you say something impactful and you gestured, you look right at them, they subconsciously nod their head yes. They can't help it, they're doing it. That if, if more people realize that is such a huge, that's such a gift to give to a speaker to return their connection. And I go from one to the other to the other to the other to the other. And I aim for the shadows. I don't just stare at the people in the front, I aim for the shadows. The people who came in late, who won't engage, might not even take a note, sure as hell won't raise their hands or say anything and might not even make eye contact. And people ask me, Steve, why do you care so much about them? I said, because that used to be me.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: That's where I used to sit. I had such horrible self worth, low self esteem and zero confidence for I won't even say years. It was decades in my life, and somebody recently blew me off for a zoom call. You know, they got on my calendar and didn't show up. And I reached out to her the next day, and I said, is everything okay? Because I don't blast people. I always ask, is everything okay? Because I don't want to be that douche.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yelling at them, and you find out their, you know, their dog died yesterday. And she said, it's really kind of silly. And I said, well, let's get on a call now. And I sent her the link. And she goes, it's embarrassing. But I. I didn't show up the call because I'm intimidated by you. I said, I'm about as threatening as a salad. What part of me intimidates you? She goes, you're so confident. I started laughing, and I said, I'm not laughing because you're wrong. I said, but let me tell you this. Um, my confidence can barely drive a car, and it sure as hell can't buy a beer yet. She said, what do you mean? I said, my confidence is about 18 years old. I'm 56. That means up until about the age of 38 or so, I was fumbling and stumbling my way through this, just pinballing off of things. I said, so this is all new, and I can help you to get there just based on what I've been able to do in my life, which is my whole platform. People get all snotty. What qualifies you to do this? You're certified life coach? Nope. Certified nlp? Nope. You're a therapist. Nope. What qualifies you to do this? So one day I wrote down a little chalkboard on the barn board wall over there in the background, and I took a piece of chalk, and I wrote, this guy lived it. And I drew an arrow, put my, uh, face in front of the arrow, took a selfie, and said, there you go. Hashtag, up yours. There's my certification.

Speaker A: Yes. And I think that's such a big deal, because even as we transfer into, like, as we talk, to be comedians, to speakers, to authors, to whatever. Uh, I remember when I was 19, was the first time I ever tried to do comedy. And what the do I have to talk about at 19? Uh, like. Like serious. Like. Like, I don't. But I. I tried. I'm giving myself credit for trying, But I failed out of it within a year. Didn't like it because. Because nobody found me funny. You know, there was a difference in that. But then when I come back to it, I'm doing it this time. When I come back to comedy 10 years later and, and, and doing all this other stuff, you know, there we go there. Now I have some shit to talk about. And I think speakers resonate 100% on stage when they're talking from experience. When they're not talking from a book, they're not talking from a. Whatever. They're talking from experience. Uh, you lived it, you went through it. You had the crash. You did coming up. You had the bad story. And those are the things that we need to communicate to people and, and, and how we lived it and how we got through it. Because there's so many people that give up halfway through and they don't. They just need to hear that there's people that lived it and got through it and, and, and that, that, that's where authors and speakers, I think that's where they really shine.

Speaker B: Yeah. And that's why I love it when, you know, I'll tell the first story and somebody be like, oh, Steve, you're like the phoenix rising from the ashes. This is great. I'm like, oh, hang on.

Speaker A: I phoenix so many damn times.

Speaker B: Oh, I got a whole called. Some days your phoenix rides a pogo stick. And, uh, you know, you go back in the fire, you squirt your tail feathers off. But here's the, here's the great thing about it. See, some people just stay in the fire. You mentioned earlier, Some people just crack, burn, and they just stay there because they don't think they're worthy. I said, look, every time you fall into the fire, you burn your tail feathers right off. You get a bare bottom, but you're roasting marshmallows on your butt cheeks. You can stay there, which is unpleasant, or you can fly back up. But here's the most beautiful thing about it. Every time you fly back up out of that fire, your tail feathers grow back. Your colors are more bright and vivid, and they're also stronger. Your feathers are stronger because you've experienced some stuff, you've gone through some stuff, you got some scars and you appreciate more and you make more effort every single time. So don't ever be embarrassed by falling into the fire and burning off your tail feathers. Be embarrassed if you stay there. Don't have the guts to fly back out and believe in yourself just one more time. So I. I've crashed and burned so many times, but I fly higher and bounce higher every single time. And that which doesn't kill me gives me a hell of a story to share on stage. The Funniest thing is when a newer speaker is like, you know, Steve, how do you make up the stories you tell on stage? And I tilt my head like a puppy.

Speaker A: I go, really recounting them. Yeah.

Speaker B: I said, I don't have to make up stories. I said, look, I've. I've been journaling for over 30 years, 35 years. I don't have to make up stories. I documented everything. I. I forgotten more than I've written down.

Speaker A: I should probably journal more. But, you know, it. It's. It. It. Yeah. That's the thing about life experience. That, ah, uh, a thousand percent is you. You got to live through it. You've got to do it. And I want to back up a little bit. I want to talk about the confidence level. Everybody in my life always told me, you're arrogant or you're cocky or this, you're that. Because that was my stage Persona. But that was more at that stage in my life. That was a more of just how I powered through. Right. It's like bending plastic. You got to bend it farther one way to get it there. So this arrogance or this confidence that everybody's seen, it didn't exist. It was. It was some weird armor that I had to strap on to get through stuff. And you're right. My. My. My confidence now is. Is old, is not as old as I am. My emotional intelligence, my emotional quotient. Because it wasn't until I was in my mid-30s that I even started working on it, that I even started. And. And how that ties in is one of the biggest emotional telence things is it took me until my mid-30s to start learning from my dumb mistakes. I don't know how many times I made the same mistake repeatedly. And, And. But all of a sudden, it's. It's. All of a sudden you're like, I just learned something. I've done this seven times now, but for some reason, on the eighth time, I learned it. And, and as you figure out, and as you start learning and growing about what to look for and how to learn, that that pogo stick gets a higher bounce every time. Or. Or, uh, you know, and you're like, okay. And then I don't know, because this leads into my next question now that you kind of bounce out of the fire, right? And. And I look back and I'm like, I. I think I'm done blowing my life up. Like, I'm. I'm with. With. With a minor amount of confidence. I. I think I've done totally decimating my life. Now, uh, does it make you more scared about failing or are you feeling more confident? Because I feel on this weird hill that I'm, I'm relatively confident. But now blowing my life up scares the out of me like it never has before.

Speaker B: Yeah, I, I actually get more confident because I figure at least if something happens, I mean, guys, look at the pandemic with M2 event based businesses. And at the same time, in a five year period, I had what I referred to as three deaths in a pandemic. I mean, I hit both businesses, vaporized, my dad died, one of my mentors died, and our little dog, who I'd pimped out for 11 years because he was adorable, he died too. Everything fell apart. But I still had that confidence and I still knew that I would come out of it on the other side and be okay. So I didn't spiral down. I actually stopped drinking during the pandemic because it was a very lazy nightly habit that was numbing me and put on like, because I wasn't going anywhere. So knowing that times were tougher than they'd been in years and I was depressed, I had brain fog. What I didn't know is I had two years of exposure to black mold in the attic right above the vent in my office, and at, uh, a five hour energy drink daily habit that was 16 years old. And everything should not have been working as well. It was even being held together. So I started making all these healthy choices. And all of a sudden, even before the business came back, I was in a better place. I was more resilient, I was more clear headed. I was more confident again. And more stories, more strength, more evidence that I would come out the other side and M be okay presented itself. And as it did, I got less scared. There were still a couple of things that scared the crap out of me. Like, what am I going to do for money now that both businesses are in the toilet for seven months because all the gigs were gone? But I got more resilient. I learned how to zoom. I learned how to get on more podcasts, I learned how to do all these other things. I've created some more digital programs that don't require me to get on a plane. So I've taken what I could do and expanded it outward. Instead of just chasing that one mode of operation like I used to do, it's like, okay, go get on a stage somewhere. Can't do that anymore. Do something different now. I love doing all the other stuff now. It's pain in the ass to go to the airport and get on a plane to fly somewhere to speak for an hour and a half, right when

Speaker A: you're like, I just did this in my living room in boxer shorts yesterday. Now I got to get on a plane and go do this somewhere else. Live it.

Speaker B: I was. You know, it's funny, my. My first live event back. Oh, uh, God. A little over. Well, a year and a half ago, I guess, was the first live event back. And I said, as soon as I get up there, I'm going to get up there with big, big eyes, stare at the back wall and say, hey, look, I've been virtual for two years. Please, I don't even dare look down. Tell me I'm wearing pants, and I've worn pants the whole time. That was the greatest opening line reception I think I've ever gotten in almost 20 years. Those people just lost their minds laughing. And it made me feel so good because we were all connected. And that's my toughest part of every time speaking is the first 90 seconds, if I can get them to laugh. And I got them, man, we're off to the races. They are my people right there.

Speaker A: Do you. When. When you speak? Because I'm just going to assume we. We've all had kind of the same experiences. You have this crazy good crowd, you have a dead crowd, and then you have a mediocre crowd, right? Which. Which one bothers you more, the bad crowd or the mediocre crowd?

Speaker B: Sometimes the mediocre crowd does because you're trying to. As your mouth is delivering, your brain is going with that little reverb voice, like the heavenly choir going, is this working? Is this mic on at least if it's a dead crowd? I mean, I've got my. My fallbacks. You know, if something completely tanks, I just look at the remote and go, oh, my God, I muted. You hang on. And I just wildly, you know, like I'm clicking a remote to, uh, in. In the laugh a little. I go, okay, good, we're back.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then at least I got that. And a lot of times people warm up to that and go, dude, that was so funny when you did that. I actually got more engaged with you. I'll take that. Because you're just being human. We both know that there are speakers up there who've been saying the same rote memorization crap for 20 years, who put no heart and soul into anything, who don't even care if the audience is good or not. I've got.

Speaker A: They get their paycheck, they walk out yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: I've got to leave them with value and if it's tanking, I need to work harder. And it's, it's not so much a flop sweat panic, it's just, all right, how can I deliver this next story, this next lesson, this next thing and try to get some reaction without trying to say, okay, raise your hands if because they haven't raised their hands yet or mhm, shout out a question if when they haven't spoken a word. It's I need to get better and be more connected. Relax.

Speaker A: Yeah. Don't, don't get in your head. Yeah.

Speaker B: Don't just blast through 75 minutes of material in 38 and a half. Because, you know, I said that once early in my stand up comedy. I was in a five minute comedy competition and every comedian get five minutes and somebody goes, well, how did it go? I said, well, I got through five minutes of material in three and a half because I didn't have to stop for all that pesky laughter and applause that usually get in the way. It was, it was a tough crowd and I was, I was early, I was new and I was not that good.

Speaker A: That uh, my toughest crowd, the, the one that stands out in my mind that I'll probably think about on my deathbed is that uh, you know, I'm from the Ozarks, very Midwestern, very hard working, came from factory. You know, you get paid, you do a job. So I was on a tour, it's just a small tour through the Midwest or whatever and we got booked and I think it was a Vermont, I don't remember some, some mid hotel, mid to lower level hotel and it had a bar in there. So we even pulled up, there was no signage, no anything. We're checking addresses. Well, the address is right. It was three of us or whatever. We went in there and there was four people in the bar. Four people in the entire bar. Um, one of them was too drunk to know anybody was talking. The other two was talking to each other and just mad that, that we were talking over them and there was anything going on and the other one was the bartender and, and like, like between the three of us, we did like an hour and a half to two hours between the three of us. So literally we're, we're doing the best we can and, and we're just trying. And that's the one that sticks out in my mind that that's the one that, that really. Because I've bombed. I mean everybody's, everybody's not done Great. And done whatever. But that one's the one that still haunts me to this day. And I don't know why. I don't know why that particular one haunts me, but it does.

Speaker B: Yeah. I've got one that very easily could have haunted me. And it was. This is. Oh, gosh. It was near the end of my standup comedy, so it was probably around 2010. I was hired to DJ an event for dancing and BDMC, but also to do 5 or 10 minutes of standup. And when I got there, it was basically, it was a transgender conference. It was three days of people who were either trans, uh, transgender, lgbtq, uh, in transition, going to transition, whatever it was. And they had this long peninsula of a stage because they had done like a Runway model show throughout. And so there's tables and chairs all around. And I did not realize that I was the only comedian. I thought I was an opening act, which is basically all I did back then. Maybe a middle now and then, but so I got there and a dear friend of mine, uh, Amy T, comedian from Boston, showed up and she goes, hey, Steve, I just wanted to come support you. I said, why? I said, I'm just the opener. She goes, no, you're it. And they had done comedy the night before with three headline quality comedians from Boston. I said, how'd you guys do last night? She goes, oh, we bombed. And I start sweating. And I'm like, um, well, I said, amy, you know my material. I said, what do you think's gonna work for these people? She goes, hell, I don't know. I thought my material. Word. She goes, and I'm a lesbian. And she goes, and they didn't even like my stuff. So I go out there and I mean, this is like a 50 foot peninsula stage. So I grab the mic and I walk all the way to the end looking at this side, look out the front and walk back, looking at the other side. And just turned around and shook my head. I said, Man, ABC's Got It all wrong. Working on houses. This is an extreme makeover project. They gut busted laughing so much. And they were wonderful. I mean, they were so. Just incredible. It didn't matter if I'd done the other nine minutes of comedy. Yeah, right there. I fell in love with them, they fell in love with me. They were cool. We were cool with each other for the rest of the night. And I. I didn't have that flop sweat panic. What in. One of the, uh, organizers came over and she was about 6 foot 8, just statuesque. And just stacked. And she said, honey, come here. She goes, I know this isn't your crowd, and there's a big old elephant in the room. She goes, you know what, though? This is a room full of love. Uh, we only get to be together three days a year when we don't feel the world is judging us. So she goes, honey, just relax. That was the time right then we had just an incredible night together. And at first, though, I thought that was going to go down as the night that, on my deathbed, I'd be still sweating over, and it turned m into one of my greatest memories.

Speaker A: That's amazing. So. So what's next? What. What's next for Steve? Uh, uh, what's coming up? How do we find you? Uh, uh, so. So I. I never know how to end a show, but we're at time. So, uh, you know, tell us what's next and tell us where to find you if we want to learn more.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, the best place to find me is right at my website, which is Steve Job Gamlin g l I n.com getting back out there for live events is a big thing. Working, uh, on some new books and projects. As you mentioned, the book with Rob Onsbach, uh, all about the Unguru book is what everybody's calling it. My vision Board Mastery program is very heavy on taking people through the entire process of how visualization actually works. And I'm relaunching very soon a group coaching program, uh, based on that. Everything went away with the pandemic, uh, including losing my mentor who had built all of the background systems. And we've, uh, we've slowly put all the people and all the pieces back together again. Humpty, um, Dumpty is ready to rock. And we're, uh, just moving forward.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Thank you so much for coming by. Now I got to make you set through my shitty spiel. Hey, everybody. If you want a podcast, podcast, like this one. Professionally produced, professional quality. But you don't have the time because it takes a lot of time. You know, it's all the podcast, the editing, the ums, is the getting, the sound, all the that comes with the podcast. But you want a podcast and don't want all that. That's my company. That's Titan Media Works. Uh, we do everything from top to bottom to. From production to helping you find guests to coaching. Uh, uh, you. You get. You get a podcast coach to help you get to where you need to be. You know, here's my thing. If your podcast looks like a zoom meeting. Stop, stop. Okay? Because we've all been traumatized by zoom and. And teams meetings, and you may. You may have great content, but everybody just sees that and, like, nah, it's zoom meeting. I'm done. So if you want really good YouTube video, quality content, recurring content, shorts, all of that stuff, Isaac, throw it up on screen. Titan Media works with an X. Titan mediaworks.com or Ryan Titan Media works. Either way, uh, just book a meeting, and we'll get you on the road to having your own successful podcast. Thank you once again, Steve, so much for stopping by.

Speaker B: My pleasure.