Starting Over at 50: Why AI Feels Like Y2K All Over Again

Bucci: Just sit in the little corner, right? Because otherwise you get my whole room. ⁓ so my whole office, right? My office should be like it's actually a master bedroom that we just don't use.

So I just use it as the office. So anyway, it's it's the same room, different, different view. Corey: Hey guys, just wanted to hop on here really quick. ⁓ I didn't really intend for this video to be ⁓ or I this discussion to become a podcast.

I wasn't gonna publish it. ⁓ but after we're done, you know what? I think there's some pretty valuable stuff on here, some stuff that I think that can really help you out. And so I figured I would I would publish it.

So I just wanted to give it a proper intro so you didn't just start out in the middle of a a discussion and ⁓ just wing it. ⁓ it's a That's right. Yep. And that's a good setup that you're looking out over a lake.

I mean, that's what you want, right? I mean that's Bucci: Yes. Except for in times like this where like normally on Zoom I have to blur my background and the and the blur background isn't even great because there's so much depth. You know, like the the blur works better or if you're gonna have like a virtual background, it needs like something to put it up against, but it has all this depth, like the camera can see, like it's so so anyway, it's not great for this, but ⁓ we're we're making do.

Corey: So, just to give you a heads up here, what we're gonna be talking about in here, just a few of the things. ⁓ first, we're gonna talk about why I'm going to change the way I talk about AI. I know it's kind of becoming like a yawner, it's kind of getting, you know, everybody's taught about AI and it's like blah, blah, blah. So we're gonna talk about that whole thing.

⁓ we're gonna talk about managing financial anxiety in entrepreneurship. ⁓ ⁓ Yeah, no worries. I I just remember my wife used to have like this thing. It looked like a there were like these foldable things she ordered off Amazon and it kind of folded out and then you could set stuff on it.

It was like a like a false wall. Kind of I don't it was like I don't know, she she still has it around here somewhere. She doesn't use it anymore, but she did when she first started ⁓ working at home. So anyway, ⁓ off topic.

But yeah, so like you said, ⁓ we were talking about That's a big one with me. I'm constantly ⁓ fighting this. So I'm gonna open up a bane for y'all here to listen to ⁓ some of the struggles I've had over the last, you know, couple months. But really, you know, it's just kind of an ongoing thing, but you'll hear more about that.

And then another one that I think is gonna be fun for you to listen to is ⁓ we kind of talked about how we misinterpret influencers, kind of like David Goggins and ⁓ Tim Ferris is an example I use. He ⁓ so Bucci: Yeah, right. Yeah. Corey: your situation with ⁓ your YouTube channel, like you just got busy or what?

I mean, I'm just curious how that's working for ya. Bucci: So it was this ⁓ yeah, combination of things, but I ⁓ I did not realize how I mean complex is the wrong word, but steps, how many steps there were gonna be, right? And then I was like, ⁓ man, like you did ⁓ tremendous work, but then I was like, Holy hell, every time I upload a video, I gotta like tag and title it and all this stuff, and then I was just like, Corey: Hey guys, just wanted to jump on you really quick. ⁓ when Mike and I put this discussion together, we really didn't plan on it being a podcast.

⁓ but we've learned in the past that we should just always hit record because you never know, something is worth saving all the time. And this is one of those discussions that I think there's a lot of stuff in here that I think that a lot of you can ⁓ kind of get some value from. So I'm gonna post it. And I didn't want to just have you start in the middle of the conversation.

So I just wanted to drop in here and let you know ⁓ that this is what I'm doing. Also, I just wanted to give you a couple of things that we're going talk about so I can ⁓ like wet your appetite a little bit. So, so first of all, one of the big things I'm gonna talk about here is why I am changing the way I talk about AI. I find myself, you know, rolling my eyes all the time, every time the subject comes up about AI.

Bucci: is like I had a I was needed to watch your video a couple of times just to get the pattern down and then yeah I got distracted with all the things that felt more important and I just never picked it back up. I need to because I have all these videos and I and I was paying a guy to help me create them and edit them and stuff, right? And so like it's just money sitting on the table. ⁓ plus, you know, I paid you to help me like figure it out.

So I'm like, I gotta I gotta get that going. But ⁓ Corey: ⁓ not that I don't like it or I'm not using it, but you know, it's just getting overblown a little bit. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about ⁓ managing financial anxiety and entrepreneurship.

This is something that I've constantly been struggling with, like, you know, ever since I've been an entrepreneur, to be honest with you. ⁓ but you know, it's just something to talk about, especially ⁓ it's gonna be about the last, I don't know, four or five months of what I've been working on. So it'll be kind of through that lens and another probably. Bucci: I ha I had ⁓ some good work stuff come up and then I had some tough life stuff come up and then so it's just like between the two, I just it fell down the priority chain, but I'm I gotta pick it back up.

Corey: Yeah, no, that's cool. That's cool. I tr and that's kind of like similar to the kind of stuff I've got going on. And that's and that's the thing that bogged me down ⁓ when I was producing these the podcasts.

It's like it takes a lot of time to to s you know, split this out, edit that, upload it, and then you go grab all the stuff. And it's like so that's kind of some of the stuff I've been thinking about over the last couple of months. really valuable discussion that we're gonna have that I think that you guys will like is ⁓ how we misinterpret influencers like ⁓ Mike brings up David Goggins for instance and then I'm gonna talk about Tim Ferris. I mean we both had some misinterpretations that we see a lot of people make with influers like that.

And I influencers having a hard time talking here. So anyway, ⁓ check it out. There's a lot more. ⁓ I couldn't give Bucci: Mm-hmm.

Corey: On the side, as I kind of took a hiatus from the redefining retirement and all that, was just thinking through that stuff. And I feel like I've come I've found some ways to possibly mitigate some of that stuff. But, you know, it's still a work in progress. I mean, you've just some of the stuff I've learned with like clawed code and like playing with like some of that, you know, really geeky AI stuff.

You know, like you can start to do some of that on autopilot. I'm still kind of everything to you. So you're gonna have to listen to everything ⁓ to kind of hear what we talked about. But anyway, that's why I'm popping on here.

Just wanted to give you a heads up here before we started it. And once I get done talking here, you're gonna go right into ⁓ Mike and I are talking about where he is with his YouTube channel. He wanted to start a YouTube channel. I kind of helped him with that a couple months ago and we're just kind of talking it there.

So that's where I'm gonna drop you in. Otherwise, thanks for ⁓ thanks for watching. playing with that, but ⁓ there's there's hope potentially out there. So but yeah no matter but no matter what you do, it always ends up being a situation where ⁓ you have to get your hands dirty in a way, right?

Like anytime you're doing this kind of stuff, ⁓ and that's with anything, ⁓ it's that, you know, when you start producing content, you have to, it's like you just have to do it. And then you're gonna get better at it or you're gonna figure out a way to Make sure to subscribe and like and all that fun stuff. And ⁓ well, we'll see you in the podcast. Talk to you.

⁓ make it happen or just find like the minimum viable whatever that you can do. And ⁓ yeah. I do have this recording by the way. Just in case.

I mean I don't know like I don't know what I'm gonna do with it or how I'm gonna do it do it, but but yeah that's kind of what I I'm thinking about this same stuff. Bucci: Yeah, good. Yeah. Cool.

Well yeah, no, but that you're you're bringing up an interesting topic, so This AI stuff is really cool, right? But but the question is, like, where do you like how do you know where to dive in deep, like you're saying? Like, like I just think it's like even more critical to have your real priorities straight because I know I found like I get tinkering with something and it's like building something, even if it's in the background, but I'm like, ⁓ man, I just spent two hours kind of prompting and tweaking and and stuff like, and I got this cool output.

But like, is that the thing that's really like I should have been spending that two hours on because just because it could create something cool, was that like the direction I need to head? Was it supportive to my other projects? Was I like in alignment with you know what I want to be building and doing? So I it can be just a Another massive, massive distraction if you're not ⁓ you know, aware of what you're building and what you're putting your attention on.

Corey: That is you know, over the last couple months, I'm I'm gonna be saying that a lot because we haven't talked for the last couple months, you know. But ⁓ I've been thinking a l about a lot of that stuff. So like ⁓ a couple months ago, right around somewhere in February, I reconnected with like an old mentor of mine. He was like a Google ads ⁓ guru out there.

Mike Rhodes's name is if you're if anybody cares and they're watching this, but ⁓ But he's like, ⁓ man, you should, you really should jump into this cloud code. You know, this is awesome. Like, you can just do so much with it. And ⁓ and he was he was right because once you get into it, it's just a grind trying to figure it out.

And there is like a learning curve to it, you know, because it's very technical. ⁓ but It's interesting because it starts to learn about you and it starts to really get to understand you even more so than like the other LLMs do, right? And it's more of a central location for everything. And I was just so excited when it first started.

I'm like, ⁓ my God, this is awesome. I'm gonna I'm gonna be able to run my entire life with this thing, you know, like whatever. You know, like you get all excited. And it was like, but like as you started doing stuff with it.

Bucci: Nope. Nope. Corey: It's like, I'm like, wait a second, you know, it you know, you're down a rabbit hole here, you're down a rabbit hole there. And you can this this happens also just with your general everyday $20 subscription to Claude or J Chat GPT or whatever.

But it was it was happening on a kind of a somewhat larger scale when you're doing it when you're really into it, like I was, you know, because there's just so many connections and ⁓ but But after a while, it's like, and I was getting excited. I'm like, ⁓ there's some business opportunities here. And ⁓ my God, you know, all this stuff. But I I found myself not trusting it after a while.

Right. I'm like, all right, you know, they're they're like really like blowing this way out of proportion. ⁓ you know, like all the promises they made. And and it was fine.

There'd be days where it's like, ⁓ my God, this is incredible. This is working great. You know, I tell it to do stuff and ⁓ I I completely rebuilt. I migrated my work my website off of WordPress and I moved it into clawed code, deployed it through something called ⁓ versile or whatever, right?

Awesome to be able to handle your website from like a prompt box. I'm telling you right now, it's awesome. But ⁓ my God, did it like the complexity and it's like a it's like a little kid. Like, no, don't do that.

Stop doing that. I told you not to do that. You know, and it's just like. Bucci: Uh-huh.

Corey: So so then I started going down this road, you know, I started kind of getting bummed out because I'm like, I'm like, how am I gonna sell this to people? Like how am I I can't I don't really trust this enough to do this for a client or you know what I mean? And then they're changing stuff. And then if you follow all the drama with the Claude code and and all the different well, just Claude in general, anthropic.

But it's like they're things are changing, they're banning stuff. It's just like in And and inconsistent and then it got super expensive and then it wasn't expensive. And it's just like, ⁓ my God, you know, like it was just it was playing whack-a-mole. So yeah, I became a little more disillusioned.

It's I'm not gonna like walk away because I still use it every day. And I feel like no matter what, I always tell myself it's it's just gonna get better. And no matter what, as long as I'm working in this thing, it's just gonna get more and more context and it's gonna get better at me. You know, like knowing what I do in my businesses.

So so I trudge through it. I just think, ⁓ and this is a little bit of a segue into like kind of what I've been thinking about, like as far as this ⁓ redefining retirement stuff goes, and some of the stuff that we talk about in other areas. But it's like I just I want to put less emphasis on AI as a as like a talking point. ⁓ not not because Not because it's not valuable, because it's absolutely valuable and it's essential.

And I believe all that. I just feel like it's getting to the point now where people their eyes are starting to roll back in their head and they're starting to like, ⁓ you eye rolls, like, ⁓ my God, here we got AI. And then you've got all the stuff with the data centers, like everybody's like, ⁓ freaking out from that. And ⁓ and I do see there's some YouTubers out there and just some other ⁓ other I don't know, experts or whatever.

That are like really pushing back on the AI narrative, you know, like they're just they're almost like they're calling them out more often. Like for the last couple of years, it was like a honeymoon phase where everybody's just like, ⁓ my God, you know, yeah, it's it's unbelievable, you know. But now we're in this point where it's just like everybody's like, nah, you know, kind of the way I have been over the last couple of months, like, nah, I don't think so. You know, like this isn't perfect, right?

It started reminding me a little bit of Y2K in a way, like like going way back there. Because it's like, ⁓ all this stuff's gonna happen and this and that, but it that just kinda never does. Or it doesn't work the way they say I do. And then you're starting to think, like, okay, am I being gaslit?

Are we just preparing everybody for an IPO? So we blow up our whatever. Or do we wanna make it look more dangerous? Or do we wanna make it look smarter?

You know, it's like so there's all these competing things. So I'm constantly watching these people clash. So ⁓ so yeah, as a side note. Bucci: That that's kind of an interesting topic.

W what I see you pointing at there is a little bit less AI and more about media lens, right? So AI exists, it does some stuff, it's overhyped in some areas, it's underutilized in other areas. That's that's kind of the facts, if you will. The sensational headlines on both sides, meaning it's Corey: Yeah.

Bucci: Doomsday, it's horrific, it's the worst thing ever invented, it's gonna rot our brains and take over our, you know, lives and the economy or what have you. or this is gonna make everyone millionaires and it will figure everything else in life out and it's gonna make everything amazing, right? Like those are the things that grab our attention because our mind just looks for those things. So, but it's Distorting the the more nuanced area of where things are and what people are experiencing with it, right?

And so that can be true of any topic, right? It's the same in just politics. So that that I think is there's two things happening. AI is definitely disruptive, definitely prolific.

but exactly where it's gonna net out and all these massive predictions are just becoming a bunch of noise and it's just the question is like how much do you want to pay attention to versus like how am I applying it in my daily life. And to your point about people being sick of it, it's gonna get to the point where it would be weird right now, Corey, if we were like if I was like, hey man, you know what I've been using lately? Electricity. Like I I've been plugging stuff in and ⁓ and I I've been turning stuff on as like getting electrified and you know like it's got power running through it or or you know what I've been doing, man?

I've been getting on the internet. Corey: Yep. Exactly. Yeah.

Nope. Ex exactly what I was thinking. Yeah, the internet. Ooh.

Bucci: Internet's got you know, like it's like, okay, yeah, we we get it. This thing is a tool out there. It's it's pretty, you know, like I said, prolific now. It's pretty widespread, it's pretty well adopted.

Every not everyone, but like a lot of people using it. ⁓ there's still a lot to learn. It is definitely new, so it gets exciting when people come up with new use cases or applications or whatever. That that's why it's staying so relevant.

But yeah, at some point it's gonna be like, Yeah, whatever, you're using a tool. I get it. You're you're you're using your computer, right? Great.

Good for you. You're using your phone and your camera. Cool, man. Like, like there's only so much you can talk about that.

The question I think for you and I, like we've always been trying to talk about is what does it mean for our life? What are we doing with our lives? What where is this helping us create a life and an income and a support system to make our lives more meaningful, easier, you know. Corey: Yeah.

Bucci: well rounded, supported, that kind of thing. Like that's always gonna be question, right? Corey: Yeah, in in in that's ⁓ and on that point, it's like there are scenarios where like you were, you know, how we just started this tangent about, you know, am I wasting my time going down the wrong rabbit hole or whatever with AI? I mean, that is a big deal.

Like I I think in some ways it certainly helped in a lot of ways, but it's certainly overcomplicated things in some other places, right? Like I always think about it, ⁓ and I've talked about with this a lot of with a lot of people, just you know, friends and people outside the AI world or just outside the internet anyway, anywhere. And it's to the point now where there's so much that you can do with it, and there's stuff that is possible that wasn't in the past that like now, instead of having like, you know, I wouldn't even have taken on like two or three projects.

Two years ago or three years ago because it just wouldn't have been possible. Right. Now it's kind of now it's possible. So now it's like, now I'm like running three things at a time.

Like I'm on, I'm in cloud code and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna update the website, I'm gonna work on this client thing, and then I'm gonna do this. Right. So now I've now my brain's working in like three separate areas and it's pushing, you know. So I'm I'm also learning how to manage this from like a a cognitive load perspective, you know.

Because that's happening, that's happening too. And then and then you're also, there's a lot of decision making that's happening. There's all these little cues because the one thing, depending on what AI you're working with, a lot of times it's agreeing with you all the time, right? So you're in a constant, ⁓ what's the word I'm looking for?

Like this constant mode of like trying to decipher, like, okay, is this real or is like, should I trust this or should I not trust it? And you know, and then if it goes off the rails and it's a whole other thing. So in a lot of ways. It can make life more difficult.

It gives you more plates to spin, right? Like I was only spinning three plates, you know, five years ago. Now I might spin like five or six, right? So now I've got all this stuff going on in my head.

So that's also a factor on all that as well. Bucci: Well well let's let's also so let's talk about this. So we're both solopreneurs, right? Like we have to do everything.

We're the only people in our company, in our business. Your business might be slightly different, but I know from my business, ⁓ you know, I do executive coaching, so I'm working with executive business owners, et cetera, right? Like I don't need to reach hundreds and thousands of people. And my website in particular doesn't need to be this robust SEO engine type of thing.

But I couldn't help myself but tinker with my website. Because I could and because it's cool and it's fun and it's nice to work on your branding or your marketing or just see your site represented differently. But I caught myself when you said like I was never bothering with that because I'm hosted on Webflow. I find that application confusing.

Some people absolutely love it. For me, it's a bit confusing and I'm just like I can't be bothered. It's too complicated. But now Claude has a connector, so I can just tell it what to do and it does all the tech stuff behind the map.

So I started tinkering with my website. That is not my highest leverage area. Corey: Yep. Bucci: Be working, but I could.

So I did. That doesn't mean I should, right? This is the game. Corey: Yeah, and you know, it's it's interesting is is as much as we're as this is kind of taking us down these rabbit holes and it's ⁓ causing us to do more other things.

I think it's also part of just the learning curve of AI in general. You know, you know, dealing with it like as a human being and a business owner and whatever else you are. And it kind of jives with other things like you had mentioned the internet and electricity and all this stuff, right? Like we're I don't know if we're still early adopters in this at this point, but you know, we kind of are, you know, playing with this stuff.

And it's it's kind of like it's good that we're doing it no matter what, because you know, in in one example I can think about is like when during during COVID, when everybody all of a sudden realized they had to be online to do work, right? And and they're like, ⁓ my, this is great. Now I can stay home or or now I gotta do this. And it was so crazy watching this because I had been ⁓ you know, self-employed, sitting my basement, you know, doing whatever, working remote since like 2013, right?

I had about seven years deep into this whole area. And it was so crazy watching everybody react and disgust and like, ⁓ my God, I can't believe this that I can do this. And then there's other people complaining about stuff like like, ⁓ this Zoom sucks. I'm like, dude, you should have been doing like WebEx, like in 2013, trying to communicate on that thing was like a behemoth, you know, or like Skype or whatever.

So it's like. You know, you had to go through the pain of being remote, right? Like in and it's kind of like we're this is another phase of that. We're going through the pain of understanding how to work with AI, how to kind of give yourself some guardrails.

Not perfect at all right now. I am not. However, you know, as I work with it, I'm getting more ⁓ deliberate, you know, and I still go off on it on a tangent. I I kind of do sometimes.

Usually it's with ideation stuff. Like, right? I'm like, should I call my thing this or should I call it that? And then I've got an experts panel and I'm like, you know, what does Rory Sutherland think about this approach?

You know, and then and then there's like an hour and a half, right? Like that I just spent trying to figure something out, like, ⁓ should I say this or should I say that? So you just have to kind of grind through it and just kind of and figure it out. And God, it's just like anything else.

You know, it's just like personal development in a way, right? Like you, you just have to. You're not gonna be perfect. It's like your diet, you know?

It's like, you know, some days I'm gonna frickin' eat like four thousand calories because I went off the rails. You know, and and it looked damn good and it was Christmas, you know, so or whatever. But you just gotta bring yourself back, you know, and it's kind of the it feel that's it's kind of the same cycle, I guess you could call it, ⁓ as any any other thing. So so yeah, I'll still be talking about it, but ⁓ Bucci: Yeah.

Corey: But yeah, that's just one thing that I was kind of gonna bring up with you today too, was just the direction of like how I'm thinking about my business and how I'm thinking about this particular channel. Bucci: Well yeah, tell me. T I'm I'm curious of like it it well, so yeah, give me the update. 'Cause at one point it felt like you had a few different directions and it then it sounded like you you got somewhat locked in on the direction and then what's transpired over the few months?

Did you double down? Did you see things differently? What what's been going on? Corey: So one of the things that just kind of happened is like ⁓ when I when I just had to shut her down, it was like right after New Year, after the new year after one of our podcasts.

It was just like, all right, I'm trying to publish a blog post every week. I'm trying to edit these videos. And I started to get a lot of requests to be on this podcast, which was like, I wasn't expecting that, you know. And I'm like, I'm like, ⁓ I gotta, I gotta, you know.

And ⁓ by the way, I've got like this whole other business thing that I gotta work on. And I've known for a while that I needed to fine-tune that. I needed to spend some time in that business, you know, like my Google Ads business. I needed to, my website needed some updating.

⁓ I needed to really evaluate like who I was serving, and I needed to, you know, I needed to kind of ground myself back in in that world. So that's when I just had to stop and go, all right, enough. We I'm just gonna have to cut it off. I hate doing that, you know, because I was in a groove.

I mean, I had this streak on on Beehive, like posting, you know, for like, I don't know, it was almost a a little almost a year and a half of straight every Sunday blog post. And it drove me nuts that I had to break that. But I'm just I just had to do it. So over the last couple of months, that's what I did.

I I just got back, I grounded my my main business. And I'm like, okay, I've got that on, you know, I Bucci: Yeah. Corey: I rebuilt my website. I didn't plan on doing that when I first started, but then once I was presented with ⁓ what I was talking about earlier about ⁓ migrating my website and doing the cloud code stuff, I'm like, all right, screw it.

This is a good opportunity to do that, it'll help me and I'll learn other stuff and figure other stuff out. So that's what I did. ⁓ and I would say that I'm I'm kind of more grounded in that area. I started going down more of a I I just really these days I feel like you need to be out there and you need to be putting yourself out there.

⁓ because like a lot of the old fishing holes, as far as like my other business goes, ⁓ with Google Ads, a lot of my old fishing holes kind of are either dried up or the bait's not working, or or the other thing is is like there's like a I go to my fishing hole and hey, there's like a thousand other boats there, like sitting there with lines in the water. Right. So it's like, so it's kind of like I had to really like. Bucci: Yeah, yeah.

Corey: Okay, what am I gonna do? So I started just poking around with different things to try to figure out like what do I wanna do? And a lot of it came back to like with my other business, just just to keep it separate from the redefining retirement stuff. But ⁓ a lot of I I just keep coming back to like I need to be producing content, I need to be on video.

And I need to be people need to hear me. I need to interact with people, et cetera, et cetera. That's how I, that's how I have to work that business now, as opposed to just being able to go on upwork and apply for something or or just throwing up a landing page and put it in front of somebody and they're gonna sign up. Right.

I mean, it's like I'm sure there's people out there that are still doing that. They still got that figured out. I just feel like that's getting harder and harder to do, especially in there. You know, it was 13 years ago, there wasn't that many people doing Google Ads.

Now, now Everybody's doing Google Ads. Not only that, everybody thinks they can do Google Ads because they're they're on ⁓ the you know, cause they just fire up whatever name your LLM and they're like, ⁓ well, I'll just do Google ads myself, which is not smart, by the way, if you're out there and you're doing that. ⁓ don't totally do that. But but anyway, I I got more on that, but it looks like you wanna mention.

Bucci: Okay. So Yeah, no, because y I think you're you're hitting three massively key points here, Corey. One, what you said about this phase of just AI and technology and tools is it's you're in the pain phase. Like, are you willing to get into the pain of like messing around, being distracted, getting pulled down rabbit holes, figuring out like part of the pain is learning it, part of the pain is like, ⁓ my God, I just spent four hours on something that really wasn't that beneficial or I didn't get the output or didn't have the impact that I wanted it to or would have if I spent that four hours elsewhere.

I I agree that's just kind of the process. It's like you gotta get into it. You don't know what the output is and you're like, ⁓ my God, you come out of it and you're like, that really wasn't all that useful, but I learned, right? As part of the the pain of it.

So I think leaning into that pain is gonna distinguish, you know, what happens next, right? The people that are avoiding that pain and just avoiding that process are are going to be more challenged than the people that are just getting into the pain sooner, right? Because it's it's probably coming one way or the other. Then your ability to see what's going on, like it's easy to try to hold on to what was working and not recognize that whether it's more boats in the ocean or less fish in the hole or whatever your metaphor is.

Corey: Yep. Bucci: If you're unwilling to see that and you're like, I don't care, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing because it's familiar and comfortable. Again, that's a that's a type of pain avoidance. So that those two are linked in my mind.

But you were willing to see, hey, the way I was operating 13 years ago just isn't it. Both the way I'm doing it and and the environment in which I'm doing it both have shifted. So that means I have to shift, which is another type of pain. Like, man, I gotta change, I gotta learn something new, I gotta change something, I gotta go figure out what's working, what's not.

And the third thing you said, and you said when you were saying it, it's really hard, is you stopped doing some stuff, even some stuff you liked doing, some stuff you maybe wanted to be doing, or like you even said with your beehive, you just had a streak going, you don't want to break these streaks. But your willingness to go, like, I gotta stop something to start something else, that's hard. That's another type of pain. Right.

But again, you were just willing to lead in these pains. So I think there's lessons in that combination of those three things: like, hey, stop, take a look around. Am I doing stuff that's no longer effective? I gotta stop.

Why? Why am I doing that? I gotta stop. I'm I'm not probably doing it because it's familiar and comfortable and easy.

And I don't want the pain of starting something new and difficult and cumbersome. Right. So, but what do you want to be comfortable and or you want results? Right.

So I think that's. Corey: Yeah. Bucci: lesson, right? And then that willingness to put things on pause for a minute, recenter yourself, reground, take stock of yourself and what's going on, and then create a new path forward.

That whatever that was for you, two, three months, whatever amount of time, that's invaluable to then create the catapult or the leverage from that point going forward versus like trying to muddle through, just trying to make the same old stuff work when everything around you has changed. So I think there's just just what you said there. Really important takeaways. Corey: Okay, well that's cool.

And I'm glad, you know, I I don't feel like I'm to the catapult quite yet. You know, like I I keep I keep feeling like I was telling my wife a couple of month a couple of weeks ago or a month ago or whatever it was, and I was just like, you know, I feel like I'm really close to something here, like like this next wave, right? You know, and I felt it before when my business took off and you know, whatever, what whatever it was, late 2010s or whatever. Bucci: Sure.

Yeah. Corey: And I'm like, I feel like I'm there, but it's just like, you know, it's just, it's like something it just hasn't like catalyzed yet, you know, like it's just like it's just sitting there. And so so to continue with where I was, like, okay, so I'm at this point now where I'm like, I need to be out in front of people. I need to be doing video.

I need to be, ⁓ and I guess pee a of people will call like maybe founder led marketing would be a word to use ⁓ in this scenario. ⁓ I just know I need to be out there in in front of people. Well, then that brought me to this other realization, right? Like I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm like brainstorming, like, ⁓ if I go and I teach this Google ads stuff or the niche that I was gonna maybe that I'm focusing more on with my Google Ads businesses, like manufacturers and ⁓ this, this type of these types of businesses, because those are my good clients, right?

I like working with them. ⁓ I used to be in manufacturing, all this kind of stuff. But like as I was thinking about creating content and the ki type of content I need to create, I'm just like, I'm like, ⁓ man, like, do I wanna, you know, if I'm gonna make videos and stuff like that, do I really wanna like, you know, sit on there and talk about those type of topics? Right.

And it's like there's so much content out there about Google Ads. There's so much content and ⁓ you know, aimed at these people already, which which is fine. It's like, do I wanna, do I wanna go do that? Is that gonna be fun?

Is it gonna just feel like I'm just dragging things down, or is there a different way? Like if I'm gonna create content, I might as well create content that I like to create, right? ⁓ now is it gonna take me away from you know my core audience? I I think it might, but I I just feel like I'm gonna be disingenuous if I'm gonna sit there and try to make content like and try to get all excited about like You know, some of the topics that I need to cover.

It's great. I can work with you one-on-one with your business and manufacturing, and we can come up with a great Google Ads plan and all that other stuff. And I love, I love sitting there and doing that. But do I want to sit there and talk to nobody about it ⁓ until I got somebody to talk to about?

Or I'm like, I don't that doesn't excite me at all. ⁓ so I'm I got this balance. Do I like, do I just grind through it and figure out how to do it or do I just like is there another way I can pull back and try to make it happen? So so anyway, I was I'm kind of still hooked Bucci: No, no, I again again, Corey, I think you're pointing out ⁓ a attention for not attention, tension, you know, for anyone that is in their business for more than just maximizing revenue and profit.

Like y you you are combining your life, your passion and your work, right? And I think that's what we Corey: Yep. Bucci: When you started redefining retirement, that was kind of probably the underlying premise, right? Was like redefining retirement meant stop doing stuff you hate for this like time period of which you can just stop doing stuff you hate.

It's just like start bringing stuff you enjoy into your life more and more. So you don't have to ever technically retire. You're just you're you're carrying that forward, you're evolving, you're changing just as you've described, you know, tinkering. but that tension you're describing is like, you know, we probably have to do some boring stuff for our business that that doesn't isn't the most exciting.

But we don't want to only be doing that just for the sake of building the business. Like you like the stuff that excites you, the conversations you want to be having, it's like, well, how do we fold that in, even if it might not have an absolute direct link directly to building the business? It's not your core audience or what have you. I personally, my personal take is this.

Passion is like an energy source. You just want to invite it into your life in whatever form, because it will carry over and spill over to being an energy to do some of the boring stuff. But if you're only doing the boring stuff and you never have the type of conversations that really like spark your interest and create passion and enthusiasm, then everything, then ever it's gonna it's gonna seep the other way and everything's gonna feel like a grind. Whereas if you take the time to go like, hey, this, okay.

I maybe don't want to make all my videos about manufacturing ads, all right, or ads for manufacturing businesses. I want to talk about life in general and how I weave, you know, that part of my life and business into other aspects. And that gives me a joy and a passion and an excitement. And then that spills over into the more boring kind of aspects we have to do.

Like that's my philosophy is like that's how they're linked. That's how that translates into not only business results, but just a life you you enjoy. Like that's That's what we're aiming at, right? Corey: Yeah, it's ⁓ I I definitely ⁓ and again I wanna be clear as I I I got this thing in the back of my head that's like, you know, don't don't scare away somebody that might be a manufacturer watching this watching this because because hey, I s I definitely like to work on those types of projects.

I absolutely do. ⁓ so so here Bucci: No, all I heard is you don't want to spend all your time making videos about how ads are, you know, beneficial for manufacturing company. I and I think, Corey, this is just my life philosophy. I think someone watching this video and saw that.

If they were a manufacturer and thinking about hiring you, they'd be like, That's great. He's honest, real person. I want to work with an honest real person. That that's how I see that.

Not like I don't think they would watch that and go, ⁓ he doesn't s eat, sleep and dream about making ads for my business, I don't want to hire ⁓ I I don't I don't think that's how it would be. You know what I mean? Corey: I I'd gladly sit down and and talk. And that goes for anything that I'm working on.

You know, it's like if I if you're gonna be working with me or I'm gonna be helping you with something, I'm all in, you know, like and it it's like if I put it out there that I'm gonna help you with it, absolutely count on that I'm gonna help you with it. ⁓ so another thing, yep. Bucci: Well let me do can I say one other thing there, Corey? Just to maybe put you at ease and and for whatever sharing, you can clip this as a testimonial.

I know that to be true for a fact because I hired you to help me set up my YouTube channel. Now, don't go look at my YouTube channel. That is not a reflection of Corey, that a reflection of my my my ⁓ procrastination and ⁓ unwillingness to but you absolutely like the the Corey: Yeah. Bucci: product you gave me, the instruction you gave me, the videos you left me with, the setup you did on my channel, the AI tools you created for me to use and make it easier for me, I did not expect that.

Like you literally genuinely went so far beyond my expectations and created so much value for me. So that is like you're not just saying that I have lived what you're saying. Like when I asked you to do this project for me, you took it on, you went, Wholeheartedly. Now I didn't I I probably didn't take it as seriously as you did, quite frankly, and and and run with it.

And I and I still will, but you left me in a really good place, a lot of tools, a lot of information. ⁓ I need to still kind of digest, consume, and apply it. But I will just for the record say that is absolutely true. That you definitely go all in and and want the best product and experience for the people you're working with.

A hundred percent. Corey: Okay, well, thank you for that. That's a surprise out of the conversation. So thank you.

So so yeah, so I guess another thing that I was as I was leading along this path, like, ⁓ okay, I don't do I want to be creating content for this ⁓ for my main business, you know, is that what I is that how I want to approach this? And it surfaced another common thing that happened to me in the past, but also. with redefining retirement. So there's there's this other there's this other underlying thing that's kind of ⁓ lurking around in the darkness of my soul.

No, it's probably really way over dramatic, but but but it's like I I just can't be I can't be a guru. And what I mean by that is like I just I I hate making claims And again, I I and I think there's a certain way to do it, right? Like, I I don't want to be tech bro guy. I don't think I'm a hermosy type character.

You know what I'm saying? Like these, I'm just not, I I just don't want to be that. It's more like, hey, I've done this. So that's another thing that I've been kind of ⁓ thinking about.

And this goes all the way back to like, I don't know if I ever mentioned this in the past, but I used to do MLMs like. You know, for a brief period of time in my my very early entrepreneurial days when you don't know what the hell's going on, and you're like, yeah, I'll sign up and if you sign up a million friends, you know, you're good. And it's like, I want to be a helper and I want to show people stuff, but it's like I don't want to put out the guru vibes like I have all the answers, right?

Like I don't want to do that. And that's one thing. Like, so that happened with my Google ad stuff. But then also as I started like re-looking at ⁓ the redefining retirement with the podcast, with the with the blog.

And it's just like I just I read my own stuff and it just felt cringy. You know, like it's like I don't wanna be that guy. I'm not that kind of guy. And I feel like a lot of the audience that I'm working with, they want to work with like real people.

Like I don't wanna, I don't want them to think that I'm like this guy that has all the answers because I absolutely do not. ⁓ I think I have some ideas about where those answers lie. And they there's ideas for how they might work for me, maybe how they might work for you, but I don't necessarily have, I can't guarantee result. Like if you sign up today, you're gonna get a million followers, and you know what I mean?

It's like, it's like that's the kind of stuff that I'm really trying to walk back if possible. And so I've been thinking a lot about that. And one of the things I was looking at. Bucci: So where does that leave you, Corey?

Like it if you're if you're not sharing with confidence the things that you so sure, you don't have it all figured out and there are no guarantees in life, but you tinker, you experiment, you go in, like you just said, you go deep on these things and you have absolutely learned things other people have yet to learn. So what's the problem with sharing that with the confidence of like, As you just said, I know this has worked for me. This is the struggle. This is where I overcame it.

And offer that. Corey: you know, there's I think there's a nuance to it. You know, like there's like there's one headline, I made forty thousand dollars in one week, you know, like this and that, right? So there's that.

Or there's like, hey, I tried this thing and this is how it went. You know what I mean? Like, and this is, you know, ⁓ another thing, and I've been thinking about this a lot the last week for sure, but another I'm trying to figure out how to rephrase a lot of the stuff that I do. Like in the past, and I I wish I had some examples in front of me, but ⁓ but I don't want people to claim, like, hey, I'm gonna help you, you know, the for instance, okay, the Gen Exit playbook.

Let's take this. So I've got this lead magnet that I've had for a couple of years, you know, the Gen Exit playbook. It just talks about like what I did to get out of ⁓ you know, to get out of my job and how I've like did stuff. And it's like And it's fine, but it gives off guru vibes.

Whereas opposed to now, I'm kind of like starting to think about ⁓ a different type of lead magnets where it's like, ⁓ hey, this, these are the income sources. This is how I've been able to find ⁓ you know, I this is how I've been able to get paid on my own terms over the last 10 years, right? Do you see the subtle difference there? Like one has a feel to it, like.

⁓ my god, here we go. He's gonna tell me about he's gonna, you know, tell me about how much money he's making and how I'm gonna my life's gonna be, you know, you know what I mean? Like, as opposed to this other one. It's just like one, I'm just sharing my journey.

The other one's more of like it's a prescription. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, and I feel like I would I'm more comfortable when I'm like riding beside you in the car. You know, I might be driving and you're hanging out, but I'm pointing stuff out along the way, as opposed to saying, like Bucci: Mm-hmm.

Corey: Here's the keys and you're just gonna I I don't know how to explain it. More I want I wanna be more of a a Sherpa than I wanna be like Bucci: Well what I'm hearing is you're feeling like you're not at the f you're not at the finish line, so you don't wanna Corey: I don't wanna make yeah, I don't wanna make claims because it's always ch you know, it's it's always changing, right? Like and I look at some of my content, I'm like talking like, ⁓ this is how it was when I went to a hundred and you know, X amount hundred K a month or a year or whatever it was when I when I really when my business was rocking and it's like It's not necessarily staying there.

It's it's constantly evolving. You know, we've we've talked about this already. And it's like, so for me to come out and start saying, like, ⁓ I can do this and I can help you do that. It's like, I don't really know for sure that I can do that because everything's changing so fast with AI and in just in just everything in general is changing fast.

Like I said earlier, like my my watering hole is dry. So I'm going out there and teaching you ⁓ how to fish in the watering hole that like. doesn't exist anymore. You know what I mean?

It's like I don't want to be making those claims, but I just want to get across the fact that ⁓ you know, I'm out there doing stuff. I'm trying stuff. Here's what worked, here's what didn't, here's what used to work, here's what doesn't anymore. ⁓ I can certainly help you on this thing or that thing, but I don't want to guarantee that this is going to happen or that's going to happen.

You know what I'm saying? Like I it's just a slight, it's a very subtle difference in Bucci: Yeah. Yeah, you're pointing out less, you're pointing out Corey: And that subtle difference is enough to give myself pause because it's just one of my things. Like I just, I have this deep, what is it looking for?

Like, I just do not want to be a hypocrite. You know, like I don't want to be, I don't want to be misleading people. I don't want to be doing that. So, so I'm always I'm trying to balance that out.

And that, and that is working in both projects. It's working on my ⁓ Google Ads business, and it's also working with redefining retirement. I feel like I've got a way forward a little bit on the on the redefining retirement. And ⁓ yeah.

And and just as a side note, one other thing, like when I started looking at like redefining retirement again, I was looking back at our past videos and some of our podcasts, and I noticed there was one in particular that, like, no matter what, like I haven't really posted anything new at all for months. But there's one video that just keeps on churning views and it keeps on churning subscribers to the channel. And it's one that we did together. And my my thumbnail was too old for this shit.

Do remember that? Do you remember that one? And the the where is it? It's ⁓ career change at 50, what they don't tell you about reinvention, right?

That's and that thing just keeps on chugging along. So it's like, okay, well, there's another indicator of like. Bucci: Okay. Corey: I still would like to help with that type of content and put that out there.

But at the same time, I don't want to make any claims, right? Like I I want, I wanna I wanna keep that vibe, that too old for this shit vibe that we're gonna have to change, we're gonna have to do stuff. But at the same time, I don't want you to come to me thinking that like I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna give you like a point by point ⁓ you know, roadmap to get to that point, right? I mean.

I could point you in the direction, but I don't necessarily I can't it makes me nervous to claim people that, like, hey, you're gonna be able to quit your job tomorrow or you're gonna be able to whatever. You know what I'm saying? So anyway, I'm rambling. Bucci: I do.

You're pointing out if people ever say, I feel stuck or or I'm stuck, you are you are pointing out what that is. It's when you have this goal or intention for one thing, but this other point is like an anchor. Like the I don't want to be a hypocrite is an anchor to where you want to go with your content or your business, and they're pulling at odds. And so you kind of stay here versus like.

move along because yes, it is true. People gravitate to certainty. They want to feel like there is an outcome that they can get. And any person with any amount of conscientious humility is probably going to feel that tension because you're practical and pragmatic enough to know like whatever solution you come up with is not going to work for everyone.

⁓ and may even stop working for you, which which I'm sure many people are experiencing in life and business right now. Like, man, that was working for three years and now it's not. Maybe it was working for one year and now it's not. And so that tension is gonna be there for more and more people, I think.

but what I would say for you, Corey, is like I don't see you as offering some like finality. Like this is it, just lock it in. This is the one true way. Like that doesn't exist.

What you're more promoting is a process, right? Like business and life are a process. And it's like, hey, what are the processes that are helping me move forward and work with setbacks or when things aren't working to adapt and change? And that is something that a lot of people can adopt.

Again, it's it's not going to be for everyone in itself. But that tension of like, if I can only speak confidently when I have the full picture and the absolute answer, well, then you're never gonna do it because that doesn't exist. But I also am understanding there are people out there that will absolutely Hermosy is a great example. Speak with absolute certainty.

This is a fact, this is just how it works. What worked for me is definitely gonna work for you. Just apply my system and you can't fail. Total garbage, right?

Like and it and then you have all these proof points and testimonials because it works for a lot of people. But to say it works for everyone is just a farce. But he I don't know him, so I shouldn't speak for him. But like I'm just guessing he's not in the same level of conscience, just like, you know, and and and yes, he made his millions in his name when content creation and other things he was doing, he was at the forefront.

Corey: You know, I'm like I'm like Bucci: And it's now 10 years later, and he's just do here's my playbook. And it's like, well, that playbook doesn't meet me where I'm at with the skills I have, with the confidence I have, or whatever's going on for my mindset. And it doesn't match the environment I'm playing in, but you're still selling it to me as the guaranteed thing. So I get the resistance to that.

But at the same time, we have to just be at least confident in what we've learned and applied. And you do you do that. frequently. And so that's the tension that needs to be addressed or resolved because otherwise we'll just stay in this safe little middle ground where we never say anything with like real certainty or confidence.

And then we never reach the people that are looking for, I just needed the process. And I just needed to hear the stumbling blocks you went through so I can recognize that's a normal part of the process or I can avoid them. But this is the the challenge, right? Corey: Yep.

No, that's good. And the other thing that kind of happens too, and it's like there's a lot of stuff I tried. Like I've I've made a lot of different offers out there, like, hey, I will do this for that. You know, like I'll help you with this.

And it's like, ⁓ I don't know if I had the right audience, or maybe my message wasn't correct, you know, getting to the right people, or maybe it wasn't positioned in the right way. So there were a lot of things that led up to the redefining retirement break as well. I mean, these are They're all components to it. It wasn't just one thing.

⁓ so yeah, I had to try a lot of things to try to engineer, and I can't help that engineering part because that's what I was for many years. Also a draftsman. ⁓ but it's like I was throwing stuff out there. I'm like, man, they're just not biting it.

They're not, they're not like buying what I'm selling, right? So I had to kind of reevaluate that. And so I've kind of come to this conclusion for like. Let's just say the next chapter of redefining retirement.

Right. So I've I've tried to massage my message just a little bit more. Like I I'm dumping the AI. Like I'm not not that it's not because it's not like relevant.

It's just I'm taking that as a focus, right? I don't want to be the AI guy necessarily. Yes, I'm using it every day. Yes, I will probably talk about it and put it in my content because it might have been a path to like my my My main rallying cry now is to, you know, get paid f you know, for I better read it 'cause I don't wanna butcher it 'cause it's so new.

Bucci: editor, Corey, yeah. Corey: Yeah. So so so the direction I'm trying to take this in that it just starts to feel a little more right for me is getting paid on our own terms. Like, you know what I mean?

Like it's not necessarily like get out there and make a million dollars or whatever. It's like not even necessarily find a job. It's just like, you know, get paid on your own terms. ⁓ so so I've kind of this is my working stuff right now, right?

Too too young to retire, too old to take orders. Yeah, you know, like me too. And it's like, so I'm gonna say, like, ⁓ you know, sign up for my email mixtape of cool gen X shit. Like, I'm still working on that one.

But then also follow along as I look for ways to get paid on my own terms. And again, I'm not I'm not promising them that like they're gonna, you know, become a millionaire tomorrow. I'm just telling them, like, hey, I'm I'm looking for ways to get paid on my own terms. If you wanna do that too, then Come along with me.

You know, like I'm positioning that way rather than something else. And in the the whole part about ⁓ you know, the the cool Gen X shit, another thing that I kind of been observing from like other creators, and also it kind of starts to feel a little more natural and fun to me. Is I feel like I need to be less serious if possible when I don't have to be. Bucci: Well okay.

Corey: I feel like ⁓ you know, the old when you were a little kid, did your mom used to like cause medicine all tasted bad back then. I think it tastes better now for everybody, but like, you know, your mom would crush it up, throw it in soup, or like who knows, put it in, put it into something, right? And and it's like you got your medicine, but you didn't necessarily know it. And I feel like I need to do more of that.

And I think that it will be fun to do more of that, right? Like, I'll talk about whatever nostalgia from Bucci: Yeah. I love it, man. Corey: From a Gen X perspective, right?

Like, you know, maybe I'll talk about some old bands or some concerts I went to, or I don't know. Observations I've had about like pop culture and kind of throw a lot more of that stuff out there to try to kind of blend these two things together rather than just being this straight ahead guru guy. It's like because that's all part of this lifestyle thing too, right? It's not about like being a hundred thousand times percent you know, a hundred percent serious all the time.

We need to have fun. Bucci: So Corey, let let me can I point something out here? Corey: Yes. Bucci: You just said the magic word.

What you're offering people is tools and process and approaches for a lifestyle. And that I believe, Corey, there are more and more people opting out of the corporate grind or the hermosy hustle for every last damn dollar so I can maximize every dollar. Like what you're offering people is an off-ramp to just a nice quality of life where you have some fun, you have some enjoyment, you're building a business, you're working on things that are meaningful. And yes, it's hard.

And yes, you have to face pain and yes you have to adapt and yes you have to be resilient. All those things are factors of it. But you can make it fun, enjoyable, and you can treat it like an experiment and and and play around with it and and have a quality of life that's, you know, fuller or richer or however you would define that, right? Redefining is the whole point.

So if you're looking at, ⁓ man, I don't want to be this guru like Or Mosey thing, it's it's not that. It's more like I'm just offering something different to a different audience of people who want to opt out of that stuff but don't know how. And so there's a lot of value in that. I I was talking to a client of mine just yesterday.

He's reading a book by David Goggins, right? You know this guy, like Navy SEAL, like ⁓ Corey: Hmm. Yep. No, I read his I read his book, You Can't Hurt Me.

Is that ⁓ Yep, I read it. Great book. Bucci: Okay. Yes.

So he's reading this book, but but then he's saying to me, like, man, I should just be working harder. I gotta work hard all the time. And he's like, but then it's taken from my family and stuff. And I'm like, look, you gotta realize what that kind of content that you're soaking in.

You're you're reading a book from an extreme, extreme outlier, right? And that's his thing. Like he is just the hard work guy. He's not giving you an education.

Corey: Yep. Bucci: Or inspiration for how to be a good family man. He's like, just how do you attack every goal with hard work? That's his thing.

So we gotta be aware of all this influencer guru, pure certainty, this method always works, type of thing. Are they living the life I want to live? Are they the type of person I wanna be? Yeah, their methods might be cool to apply.

I might need to take that hard work and apply it into my, you know. workout or or some element of my business, but that's not how I want to live my whole entire life. Right. And so this is where the nuance is and that's where it's challenging to live and communicate and create content.

That's what you're trying to do. But we gravitate to these extremes, right? And then that's where it's hard for people like you and I who are a little bit more pragmatic and and not saying that it's all figured out and there's this one way to live. It's just saying like, hey, here are the tools, practices, And approaches that have worked for me design my life.

Take what you will to design your life. Like, what does redefining retirement mean to you? What does ⁓ you know a a life well lived or a quality life mean to you? And if it is grind and hustle and maximize dollars, great, go on the Hermosy train.

Go check that guy out, right? Like if you want to have the perfect body and like run marathons and lift heavy weights, get on the the Goggins train. That's great. Right.

But if you're looking for a balanced alternative, here are some of the things to help you get off the the corporate treadmill, things to look out for, things to apply, experiments to try, and that's it. Right? Like it doesn't have to be more complicated. Corey: That's like such a good example.

And it's making me think of other ⁓ like authors and ⁓ in the vein of David Goggins and like you said, Hermosy. The thing I did read David Goggins and I've watched a ton of his content myself. And yes, I realize, or Gary V's another guy like him too, right? Like you could just go down the frickin' work your fingers to the bone or whatever, hustle, hustle, hustle.

So The the interesting thing about it though is like being able to differentiate between the pieces of those stories that you should take with you and the other ones that you should leave behind. I really like the I I like the way you separated those. For me, Goggins, I think the biggest takeaway wasn't like that I should go out there and kill myself to whatever. I think the biggest takeaway for me with him was just you can do way more than you think you can.

You know, like and and it's like that to me, like he I forgot what it was. He had some percentage. He's like, I have only if you're only doing this, you're only doing like 20%. And it's like, no way, you know, like you know, so I think that is a great valuable lesson, but I I like the way that you separated that out.

It's the same thing with like a Gary Vee, for instance. He's the same way, right? Like it's like the hustle. You can again, you could do more than you think you can.

And if you want to do this, this is how you do it. Bucci: Sure. Yeah. Corey: And it's like, that's great.

You want to hustle, you want to find something and just crush it. But you know, is crushing it an hour a day or like 24 hours a day? I don't know. It just depends how you do it.

Another one that comes to mind is ⁓ Tim Ferris. Are you familiar with Tim Ferris? Okay. I'd I always assume everybody is, but then I get in these conversations and they're like, who?

It's like, all right, you know. So the four-hour work week to me, at first it was about the four-hour work week. Like, ⁓ it'd be so great to only work four hours work week. But I think the message that got buried in there and that I learned many years after reading this book was more of like, okay, what am I doing when I'm not working?

If if I have to do four hours of work, well, what am I doing all this other time? Right. And it's just like, well, why am I not focusing on this other time? You know, if I can s condense all this other stuff and put that over here, great.

Now what? You know, and I think that to me was the bigger question in that book. That Everybody kind of looks over looks, right? They're all just looking for the four-hour work week.

They're not looking for the the rest of the hours, you know. So I I like the way that you said that with goggins because it kind of ties into those other examples as well. very interesting. That's a good perspective.

I'll be pondering that one day even more. So so yeah, man. That's ⁓ Bucci: Okay. Corey: You stumped me a little bit here.

I don't know I don't know what to say now. But ⁓ but yeah, that's that Bucci: There's nothing more to say, man. Maybe that's a wrap. Corey: Maybe it is.

That's ⁓ it's cool though. It's like ⁓ something to think about. So that's that's what I'm trying to do. I I just I wanna get into a I wanna find a groove with all this stuff.

That's what I'm kinda looking for, right? Like that I can just rinse and repeat, get stuff out there, start conversations and talking with people. But at the same time, not kill myself, right? And not like spend every second of every day producing content and everything else.

So like that's what I'm looking for. ⁓ and I probably over plan. In fact, no, I do over plan this stuff like way too much in the beginning. But I think that I think it's born out of the fact that in the early days I didn't overplan.

And then I got like, you know. A year down the road, I'm like, ⁓ shit, I missed a whole bunch of stuff, or I didn't do this, or I didn't do that, or I wish I'd have done that. Like, you know, a lot of the bigger mistakes I made was because I didn't think through it enough sometimes. And I'm a draftsman, right?

So like that's when you when you're an engineer minded person, that's how you think, right? You have to try to eliminate as many mistakes before you pull the trigger. You know, so again, that's there's ⁓ There's there's the just ship it and then there's the well, you should think about a little bit, don't you think? You know, so Bucci: I mean that's that's just a pretty one two man.

I mean, especially on if you're on a new venture. I mean, you've you've been at this game for a while. By game I mean like working for yourself, you know, adapting your business, making new offers, things like that. But man, if you're trying to get into this game of working for yourself and you're new to it and you think you can engineer or plan your way out of mistakes, good luck.

You're gonna be planning for a while. Corey: Y Yeah. Yeah. Bucci: Like you gotta just get into it, man.

And and and that's what I've always loved about your content, your style, your willingness to experiment. To me, that is that is what you're offering people, is like create offers, you know, test things, learn from them, adapt. But man, if you're just in planning mode, you're not living, you're not building a business. You're just planning.

Very different things. Corey: Yep. No, that's that's true. And I and and I just have to get to those points where I can do that.

And it it's funny because I basically gave you this advice earlier in the call. And here I am now, now I'm going to back I'm going back against my own advice for myself. The cobblers kids have no shoes, right? I'm like, I just broke that.

I just proved that right here. Because I told you earlier, like with the YouTube channel, like, that's one of them things, man. You just gotta get out there and you gotta grind it out. You gotta put it out, you know, and eventually it'll get easier.

You know, or or you'll figure out a way to address it, you know. That that is a a moment when you just have to like grind it and just you gotta push through it, you know. Bucci: True. Yes.

You got to know when to apply those different lessons or or tactics, whatever you want to call them. Like absolutely. The question is, do we want it to be our whole life? Do we just want to be in that mode continually versus knowing like this is a grind phase?

I gotta like really apply this. I gotta spend extra time. I'm learning, I'm trying stuff. That's just gonna take more energy and more of my time.

And I and if I'm not willing to give that, then I'm not gonna make as much progress. So you just gotta know what you're trading off. But I'm I'm yeah, I'm a big fan of like just knowing what phase you're in and being intentional about it. Like I'm gonna grind, figure it out.

This is pain, this is churn, this is like feels like I'm wasting time, but I know I'm learning and I know I just gotta put an immense amount of attention and effort into learning this thing, trying this thing, whatever. Then the the thing is always, but then can I move back into the mode I more want to be in regularly? Like that's and and you did that, like again, stopping. All right, that I was in that phase, I learned from it.

Corey: Yeah. Bucci: Now what am I gonna apply in a way that's like supporting my lifestyle and my goals? Corey: Yep. And and this is we're not we don't we're not gonna talk about this, but I'm just gonna throw it out there.

This could be a future episode, maybe. But there's the whole time that all this is going on, the last couple of months I just described to you, and I'm sure it's happened with millions of other people too, you still have to wonder, like, ⁓ my god, where's the money gonna come from in the future? Right. Like, cause sometimes you just feel like you're on borrowed time.

Even though I've had a certain income coming in for a long time, it You know, you start to feel like a frog in boiling water after a while, right? So there's always that weighing on you. And again, I don't we don't have to go into all that right now, but it's definitely could be a topic for the future, right? Like, because that is what's happening.

So it gives you like this anxiety that kind of like is hovering around, like, ⁓ I'm gonna try this and I'm gonna work on this and I'm gonna do this. But you have to un you have to understand how to kind of keep that at bay as much as possible because otherwise it starts to influence your. ⁓ decision making, which is not good. ⁓ most of the times it's not good.

I mean, it it can be helpful in some instances, but usually it's not. you know, so there's that too. But that again, that's a whole other hour. So Bucci: It is an an and a worthwhile one.

So yeah, let's revisit it. Corey: So yeah, so I guess we'll just stop there. And like I said, I just thinking out loud here as far as ⁓ I'll probably I probably should just publish this. And we didn't do it as like an official podcast, but I feel like maybe if I just do like a little intro in the beginning and just say, hey, this is, you know, I got together with Mike and we're just catching up on what's going on.

Here's the couple topics we talked about. It if you want to watch it, great. If not, great. Bucci: Thanks.

Corey: You know, and we'll see what happens because 'cause that's that's kind of how that one podcast that keeps going. Yeah, yeah. Well, I maybe that's the right intro, though, right? It's like, hey, I don't care.

You don't have to watch us if you don't want, but here's what we're gonna talk about, you know, and it's like and and I was thinking about that video too. It's like I've had all these I've I've interviewed these great people that I've had on the podcast, and it's like they have great advice. And it's really interesting to me that of all those podcasts, the one that gets Bucci: I don't know if I would do that exact intro, Corey, but Corey: The traffic is that one, you know, too old for this shit.

So I'm just like, I don't know why the other ones weren't getting I I don't know if I didn't have the right keywords on there or Bucci: Well, it's a great hook. It's ⁓ it's a it's a catchy thing, it's it's relevant, it's what people are thinking and feeling. ⁓ I mean, I'm sure that's why, right? Corey: Yeah.

So so maybe Bucci: It's simple, it's relatable. It's like, yeah, that's how I'm feeling too old for this shit. What's that about? You know?

Corey: So here we are again. This is like is a career change too old for this shit too. The the you know like nine months later, is he still too old for this shit? So so so no, that's cool.

Yeah, and you know, and now that I have this too, I think I'm gonna be able to tag you on this. So like I don't know if you know, if if there's if that's a potential fire for you to just Bucci: Okay. Yeah. I love it.

I love it. Yeah. It is. Thank you.

Corey: post a couple of videos up just to throw ⁓ up there and ⁓ I've Bucci: Yep. Get some get some motion going. Yeah. Corey: I just want to get in the habit of like I wanted to go post every day just to get into a habit and under to really kind of learn faster.

But then I started reading like I always do. Like I started planning like, well, you know, Google doesn't like it when you're posting every you know, YouTube doesn't like posting every single day, long form videos because you burn out your audience and they don't like that. And I'm like, shit, now what? So but I but maybe that's good for you, right?

Like I just go post like three videos right away and then and then do like one a week or something, just drip it out there. Bucci: Well, I mean, to be honest with you, man, I just wanna I wanna have the experiment. I wanna like learn. So you've helped me on the learning side.

I need to now learn from the doing side. and then I just wanna have another like I made all these videos. I just I I wanna have ⁓ out there like, you know, if someone randomly clicks one sometime six months from now, at least it's there. If it's not there, then that's no chance of that, right?

Corey: Yeah. And the same thing, like even with my stuff that I haven't touched for months, and I still like we the video we're talking about, it's just still churning away, bringing subscribers, and they're getting clicks, they're coming over to the website, you know. Like, so you just never know. And just for a light at the end of the tunnel, kind of a situation, this some of the stuff I'm doing with clawed code, you can connect YouTube.

And you probably already know this already. You can connect YouTube through the back of Claude Code. So a lot of this stuff you might not even have to do. Bucci: ⁓ yeah.

Corey: In ⁓ after a while. Because and that's the kind of stuff that I'm like digging into in the background, and I'm like, I don't want to talk about it out loud to people because it's like again, I don't trust I don't trust the AI. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'll if I go tell everybody about it and then it's broken and it's like, what are you doing, man?

You're telling, you know, but I'm already connected to the the YouTube API, and you can literally have it watching stats. Bucci: Now we're talking, buddy. Corey: And keeping an eye on stuff and it can like it can update stuff ⁓ you know, based on well, you can you can post and and again, this is me. I'm I'm I'm I know this is happening because I've seen enough YouTubers talking about it and I've already kind of s built out a plan to to to build this out.

But Bucci: What do you mean by update stuff? Like Corey: You can have like, okay, you take all your videos, you dump them into a folder, and then you can have it post the videos to YouTube and have all your data all ready to rock and it'll just bulk upload them and do that kind of stuff. Cause I already had a and and I haven't done this myself. This is just a plan, but it is definitely possible.

And it's also a way that I'm going to try to create like this some sort of a content machine where like I'll do a video, I'll put all the The shorts and all this stuff, like maybe in a on a Google Drive or somewhere on my computer. And then the code claude code automation, like a bot will just go in there, grab it, and it'll go, okay, you go to TikTok, you go to Facebook, you go to YouTube. You know what I mean? And then also it's got like the the metrics and the results kind of tied in there too.

So at some point it can start reading, like, ⁓ we're not getting this many views on this, but like, hey, go go look at I'm doing this with Google ads right now. Bucci: Got it. Got it. Corey: To honest, I don't push anything to that, but I just I have it all connected.

So all my clients are on there. I'll just all I do is I ask it a question like, hey, what's everything looking like last week? You know, and it'll be like, ⁓ well, this and that. And it looks like this one particular headline isn't really doing very good.

So, you know, maybe we should adjust that and like, you know, whatever. It just can see everything. And then I can make so it's it's possible. It's just baby steps, right?

I like yeah, there's only so many hours in the day, but. Bucci: ⁓ Yeah, exactly. Corey: There's a light at the end of the tunnel, right? You know, there's there's a light out there that maybe some day Bucci: Is there just a real quick tip for me if you have it, is there any way to any tool that does thumbnails like real quick and easy?

Because that was one of the things I was like, God, I don't want to have to go create a thumbnail for these videos. And like I could just obviously upload them as they are, but I figure if I'm gonna do that, I might as well Corey: There are some tools. I I'll have to think about it because I know that I know that there's Bucci: I do have to think about it. I just if there was some if there was one off the top of your head that you know you use and like and works but if not, no worries.

Don't worry about it. Corey: Well well, I'll tell I'll tell you how I do it. I think it could be better than how I do it, but I just made a template in Canva that looks the same every time. All I do is I change the title.

I swap in your picture with the person other person's picture. I mean, that's all I that's all I did right now. Like I know there's better ways to do it than that, but I think just as a just to get started, I don't know what you use for graphic design, but you can do it that way. Bucci: Okay.

Corey: I know that a lot of people are using ⁓ nano banana, like Google's nano banana to do it. You know, like you can I've generated stuff to just tell it exactly what you want. I'm creating a thumbnail for my video about this, you know, give me some ideas for whatever. Here's my face.

You know, like I don't know. You know, here's my colors, here's my face. That would be one way to do it. I know there's tools out there that do that stuff for you too, but that would might that's the fastest way to do it.

And if you have a template. Bucci: Mm-hmm. Corey: Just rinse and repeat for every video. Bucci: Right.

Good stuff, man. I'm glad you're back. I there's a fire in your belly. You're you're you're ⁓ you're on to something.

Whatever you've been feeling about this catapult ready to go, I feel it too, man. I think you're ⁓ about to unleash. Corey: All right, I I hope you're right 'cause I feel my nerves get frayed after a while and you don't you know, if nothing's happening, you know, it starts to eat at ya. But no Bucci: Yeah, I mean, I I always like this metaphor of ⁓ planting a seed 'cause that's that's often what we're doing.

We're planting seeds, we're we're trying things out. And a and a seed always grows roots first, right? It goes down, it's in the dark, it's like feeling its way around and then just taking hold and then it comes up and sprouts and makes fruit, right? So it's like that period is unsettling for sure.

But that's what you're doing, you know. Corey: That's that's a great metaphor. I like that a lot too. That's good.

So but yeah, I really appreciate you jumping on with me too. And I'm like, yeah, it's always fun talking with you about this stuff all the time. So all right, man. Well, let me know if you need anything for your YouTube or other questions and I'll Bucci: It's always fun, man.

I love it. Like Yeah. Yeah. I may have some questions for you but I will keep them to a minimum 'cause you provided me so much.

But I I might have a few little things, but ⁓ I'll keep it keep it low and light. Corey: All right, man. All right. Well, have a good rest of the day.

See ya. Bucci: Thanks, brother. Take it easy, Corey. Been fun hanging with you, man.