The Bender Continues
Everyday bros talking about how life goes!
The Bender Continues
Ep 53 New Years Recap
In this podcast, we reflect on the lessons learned from 2024, revisiting the aspirations and goals we discussed at the year's start. Our conversation covers personal milestones, accountability for missed targets, and the importance of friendship in navigating challenges while looking ahead to set meaningful intentions for 2025.
• Overview of 2024 aspirations and the reality check on achievements
• Celebration of memorable moments, including camaraderie and mishaps
• Emphasis on personal growth and nurturing relationships
• Exploration of failures in goal-setting and accountability
• Forward-looking discussion on intentions for 2025 and actionable insights
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the roast of TBC. And what we mean by that is, you know, it's New Year's is upon us. We're going to reflect on our 2024. We're going to go back to our New Year's episode, where we talked about all these great things that we had aspirations for, all these things that we were going to accomplish, and we're going to see what we actually did this year. James is going to take us through kind of a recap of what was said on that episode, and then we're going to kind of reflect and, uh, I guess, find some truth on how our 2024 played out. So, james, take it away, brother.
James:All right. So in that that episode we talked about goal setting, teamwork, personal development, celebrating milestones. That was actually a big one for us. Um, we emphasize change, consistency and energy, but holistically it was. It was rooted around professional and personal improvement, right, um, each of us kind of shared some meaningful insights, but uh, who wants to go first? I have a question, just hit me right now.
Ryan:did johnny talk about, you know, did johnny talk about shaving, that beautiful thing in the recap?
James:No, no, it was not mentioned. And he had hair. But wait, here's the thing he had hair, but he still was wearing a hat.
Jonny:Now he's got no hair and he's not wearing a hat. I'm sorry.
Ryan:That hit me right now, as you're talking about it. I'm just staring at Johnny. I'm like, wait a minute, woo, okay.
James:That's good. That's good. That's good. John, you want to go first, then? No, not really after that. You're going first. You're going first, sir, okay, all right. So so I'm only going to hit on a couple of things, some of like key moments from 2023, um, what you said you were going to do. But I'm also going to give you what, how you summarized your 2024 was going to be focused around, and then, at the end of this, we're going to summarize again. It's, it's in three words what 2025 is going to be. Three words, okay. So think about that as we go through this. But, johnny, let's, let's start with you. So, first off, we were trying our hardest to talk about favorite moments, but ryan was having technical difficulties getting kicked out with his laptop.
Ryan:Oh, this was that episode, that was that episode. Oh, okay, yeah.
James:So we actually never truly got to Johnny, but what was shared was actually our trip to Mexico for Austin's bachelor party, sure was, and Ryan forced Johnny to recollect what Ryan's favorite memory and that was you missing your flight due to excessive alcoholism.
Ryan:It was a good time. Okay, Now on a more, one of more.
James:What the hell is the word I'm serious, serious. Gosh, you said you were going to focus on balancing your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical dimensions. Wow, 2024 but prioritizing your mental and, uh, emotional well-being, which is oddly specific to what we're doing now with the passion project.
Jonny:This was before we even really talked about it, I think yeah, so I just, I just, I just didn't you know the mental and all the health pieces would come in December and not, you know, early on in the year of twenty twenty four. I've got no hair left, gained about 20 pounds, so we're just we're chugging along here. What else I got there that I can just keep reflecting?
James:on yeah, so um your three words that you summarize a year was embrace the journey we're bracing the journey right now. I think that's very accurate, I think it was. I think if you were to have like a theme to your year, embrace.
Jonny:The journey was definitely big come with the punches. My three words this year would be better hair product. Goodness gracious, go to Turkey, get those hair plugs, hair plug session. No, I would say Embrace. The Journey was a good one.
Ryan:That's what you said for 20. What 20 was gonna be?
Jonny:yeah, I think 2024 has been a a very, very good year. Okay, it's out of the couple of factors that are just very demonstrative on this podcast, but, um you, had a pretty big 2024 big 2024 lots to be proud of, lots to be happy, lots of great people in it. Why do I gotta start first? Dude, I don't know where I'm going with this.
James:Just talk about how your 2024 went. You guys got a new house.
Jonny:So closed on a new house, put our old house up for rent.
Ryan:Almost had to sell that new house within a week.
Jonny:Almost had to sell that house within a couple of months Because I was going to take a new opportunity for work, for a promotion. Some pretty good opportunities came up in work, gotten a few leadership opportunities, which I'm very thankful and excited for. Child on the way Wife's pregnant.
James:Just slip that one in there.
Jonny:Come on All in a matter of a couple of months. All this happened, Good stuff. It couldn't get much worse from missing a flight in 2023 in Mexico so it could only go up from there, but yeah.
James:Do you want to share maybe one of your favorite moments from 2024?
Jonny:You know us finally getting in person to here, oh goodness.
James:Today, you mean Today. Today is one of your moments.
Jonny:Wow, I would say personally, um you know, finding out that I'm gonna be a father like that was.
James:I could not agree more, that's probably icing on the cake.
Jonny:Um, I'll save the more bigger story, but obviously, kenny, welcoming a little one in the world, that was really exciting. Yeah, um, definitely, obviously, you two Neanderthals like just living the life. You get a new house.
James:Yeah.
Jonny:You welcoming a puppy into the world.
James:Um, you guys, did you have get Phoebe in 2024,?
Jonny:2023?. That was 2023. Yeah.
James:Um, okay, so you stole all in 2024? That was 2023. Yeah, he stole all of our moments. So that's great, we've got nothing to share. We can go into a little bit more.
Jonny:You just had to throw it off, you just had to really start off with the ball.
Kenny:I'm sorry to hit you Fantastic.
James:Alright well, since you're ready to move on.
Jonny:I'm going to move on to someone else.
James:Should we go J to J or should we go to R and K? Just?
Kenny:go this way. All right, we'll go right, we'll go right All right.
James:So, other than the fact that I took the first note to struggle with major laptop issues, your comment was that you were going to get a new laptop into the new year Sure didn't. Sure, didn't, sure didn't Still have laptop issues. All right, we'll go favorite moments first for you, so you actually talked a lot about a lot of different ones. Your first one, though, was Coco Bongo experience in Mexico.
Ryan:Right the night before Johnny's flight. Yes, Technically the same morning as Johnny's flight at one point.
Jonny:yeah, okay, this is the roast morning as johnny's flight at one point.
James:yeah, um, okay, this is the rose of jonathan not the rose uh the next one, which was pretty cool, was milestone reaching 30th birthday celebrations with all your friends yeah, for sure um new decade.
Jonny:Yeah, your birthday yep last 2023, yeah not mor Morgan's 30th.
James:We had celebrated them for that.
Ryan:It actually sparked a discussion About what you were going to do In the next decade Didn't make dinner, Morgan's. That's why I can't put it on there as a memory.
Jonny:Wasn't there. I didn't make something either. I missed dinner you missed flights.
James:You know what we messed up with. Why are we sitting like this.
Ryan:I don't make something either.
James:I missed the flight, I missed dinner, you missed flight. You know what we messed up with. Why are we sitting like that? I don't know. We're all I don't know, because you guys are having your banter Now. It's across the table, that is true. Sorry, you guys sat down first, you're right. I sat down in my seat, so maybe Kenny screwed this up. Let's get back to the seriousness of the rose.
Ryan:All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right.
James:You also mentioned you're right.
Ryan:Yep, yeah, we've got more now from this. We sure do got a few more.
James:Um, then you also, at the time when we were recording it, you were, um, thinking about the future and of that year and we were going to be going to austin and heather's new year's wedding yep, that was the other thing that you talked about. He said it was different. For us, new year's is usually at my house.
Jonny:That is true. They do a good ryan there all right.
James:So your actual self-improvement goal, though you wanted to focus on reading how many books have we read this? Year, um, and you, you, at the time, you share that you started reading. You have to be believed to be heard, did?
Ryan:you finish the book? Surely did not finish that book, nor any other book in 2024 how many pages did you get through on that?
Kenny:I think I got what's funny?
Ryan:because james is like no so I embarked on that journey.
James:Hey, this is my roast james, like ryan.
Ryan:You know you're really inspirational guy. You know I really look up to you. You really motivated me. I'm gonna read with you. Dude or orders. The book finishes the book. Kudos to you, you really motivated me. I'm going to read with you dude Orders.
James:The book Finishes the book Kudos to you. Checked in with him constantly throughout the process.
Ryan:I think, I finished about four chapters. I remember we're headed to Tim Meyer's bachelor party. I'm reading the book on the flight. I'm so productive. Look at me, I'm going to go be a degenerate, but before let me get my reading in. I think that was the last time I picked up a book. That was January. So we failed on reading. Yes, a hundred percent.
James:Um, but you also talked about the emphasis and importance of positivity and bringing the energy that you control um, what you bring to the table, having positive outlook. One insight in particular that you shared was marriage isn't 50-50, but 100-100.
Ryan:Okay I can say I did probably well on that. On the marriage side of things Still married, still married, not divorced On the TB side Got your ring on.
Jonny:Yeah, tbc side of things, I might have been the most negative of the four. I think I failed that one too.
James:Which is a good transition to your three words.
Ryan:The Bender continues it sure was not a good reflection of 2024. As you've seen, we've been sporadic with our postings and, yeah yeah, a lot of work to be done in 25. Unreal yeah.
James:All right, do you want to reflect on any 2024 memories? Do you want to save that for the next topic of when we transition out of?
Ryan:this. Yeah, if we're going to come back to it, sure All right, we'll come back to it.
James:Sweet, so we'll just keep going with the roast portion. Kenny, all right, a lot of your reflection was on planning, emphasize goal setting for both monthly and quarterly, for both monthly and quarterly. This was more just sharing on, like how you actually take on the new year, like this is your perspective, which I'm assuming is probably still true. You still plan for the next quarter monthly and then obviously adapt as you go.
James:Correct Yep you yeah, wanted to specifically focus, though, on interpersonal relationships within your team, and then you had plans in 2024 to expand also your personal and professional connections.
Kenny:Yeah, I would say we do that. Still, I'm not the which I think I've highlighted in the past. I'm not the most like HR driven person, so I'm not the one that's like specifically planning events and things like that. My wife is actually in the business and her presence has been a little bit less this year because we had a baby, so she's been home with the baby a lot more and whatnot. So I would say things have shifted, but I would still say that the relationships from within the office are stronger.
Kenny:I feel like the people that are in the office are more tightened in now than probably ever before and I do feel that, yeah, we're really rocking and rolling, we've got a really strong structure and everybody's really comfortable. We had a great Christmas party the other night, which was awesome. Really enjoyed being with everybody and, yeah, it's like a family. So, yeah, continuing to expand, so expanding but also getting close with one another, and I think it's and I brought this up the other night being comfortable with the people that you go into office with and whatnot. Being, you know, happy with the people that you're around is really important because you spend a lot of time in office.
James:So, you know, creating a strong setting is important you um, you also highlighted, as a part of your growth, um and planning initiatives, to use a daily planner and you you emphasize that you try to go digital but you went back to like a written regular daily planner. You are you still using that today?
Kenny:yeah, I am so have, even in 2024, I bounced around a little bit to try to find better solutions. I'm always going back and forth between like can I keep it digital? Do I need a written form? I feel like digital is better because I can put it on a tablet or a laptop, on a phone, and I've used a handful of different outlets to do that. But every single time it brings me back down to a planner.
Kenny:So this year, going into quarter four, what I started to do was say, like, okay, this is definitely going to be the planner that I'm using Now. Does it help my team become more efficient and effective? So I gave it to a couple of people in office and then I think, going into 2025, everyone's going to get one, because I really do think that it's really important to just jot down your day and have proper planning. But if you can do it company-wide, I mean that could be really powerful.
Kenny:There's a lot of planners out there. I've tried I can't even tell you how many from influencers and people that are big in the market with different businesses and different things like that, and then also making my own. I have a few of my own that I've made more digitally and not digitally driven, but I would say that the one that I have stuck with the longest that have that I've found to be the most productive with segmenting your day, your week, your month and your quarter the book only lasts one quarter is the iFocus planner. It's like an. It's called iFocus, it's a business planner. It's like blue I don't know they might have different colors and stuff, but that planner specifically, has been really solid, honestly, and I think you should give it a look if it's something that you do that you use a planner. It's not expensive $25, $30.
James:I don't know. The whole planner is for one quarter or are you saying it's segmented by quarter, it's segmented.
Kenny:It's a whole year Into three. No, it's not a whole year, it's only one quarter. It's about this thick, it's only about one quarter.
James:So you have to buy four a year. Then Correct Wow.
Kenny:Yeah. I focus Interesting. I like the letter. I focus.
James:Um, and then your three words to summarize. This year was invest in yourself. You stress the value of constant effort, uh, personal development, and then noting that self-improvement enhances contributions to others. You quoted you cannot give what you do not have.
Kenny:Yeah, I would say that that's probably um on trend. I think it's a little harder when you have a baby. Uh, I think everything's not about yourself. You have a baby, uh, I think everything is not about yourself. So I think that that was. That's probably a little bit harder, so, but still, I mean yourself, you were, your atmosphere, your team, things like that. I think it's it's expanded outside of just me, but I think, yeah, investing on those around me was, is a common theme and continues to be a common theme.
James:On the more fun side of things. Your favorite moment actually kickstarted all of these comments was bachelor parties with friends and just getting around with the guys, but especially with Mexico. You just had a blast with Mexico. So Mexico was a pretty big theme for us. It was also fresh.
Jonny:It was like the most recent thing we did.
James:I think we just had it right before we filmed that episode. So on the high yeah.
Jonny:All right. Well, I guess I'll go over to me. I'm going to read yours this will be fun. All right.
James:I'm in the hot seat.
Jonny:So you reflected on the year by recalling key moments rather than detailed goal setting. James, I'm always coming with different ways to approach things. I love that Focus on what you could have done differently and then adjusted your planning to align with Q1. End of year reporting.
James:Yeah, so the reason why, when I'm kind of getting up to New Year's, I made that comment of reflecting is because my year isn't technically like up yet. I still have to do my year in reporting for the next quarter, so I just kind of operate a little bit differently. So I do most of my reflection and planning in March, but I do reflect on the year during, like December, getting ready for January, but I'm more in a preparation mode right now.
Jonny:So love that To your point. Just keep it going on the mexico theme tequila cuda was the nickname in mexico which is tracked.
James:For the rest of the year I've only drank tequila. I don't drink any. Anything else. Beer is done water, drink water. It's with tequila we actually uh came up with a term for it at Tanner's wedding. It's called dirty waters.
Ryan:It's just tequila and water. Okay.
James:Yeah, and this is also pretty accurate to how that other episode went. I would share something, and you guys really didn't care for it.
Jonny:This one's got me dying. I didn't forget about this. It actually came up on my photos the other day. James' 30th birthday running into a wall. He did.
James:Are you sure you can read the rest of that he did? How's the scar healing? I actually saw the video and I still had the scar and then I completely forgot to go.
Kenny:Look in the mirror, if I still have it. So I have no idea.
James:Ty, do you have a zoom in feature here? Adult laser tag. I don't think I have the scar. It was on this side over here somewhere.
Ryan:But anyways, dr Dre did a good job.
James:Yeah, that was funny. Laser tag went right into the wall thinking I was Rambo Sure isn't Rambo.
Jonny:She's out here hustling 7 year old kids doing somersaults is that part of your guys' Christmas team building activity.
James:Adult laser tag laser tag make sure you get the waiver sign and bring a first aid kit, because whatever they have on hand isn't good they treated you like friggin a God.
Jonny:once that happened, Except for the medical piece.
James:Look they tried to give me something as like oh we're sorry that you did this first off because it was on me. They gave me like a go play like during the week. I'm like I'm not going on a Thursday, so I think, I gave it to a family with that has. I think I gave it to the marshes or something I can't remember. But and kids, to the kids, right yeah, um weddings, um tyler, myself, austin yep, we had those three weddings um for 2024.
Jonny:One of your, your biggest um opportunities that you wanted to focus on was just increasing your income network targeting from a budget standpoint and then real estate investment.
James:Okay. So that one it kind of worked out, but not the way I planned. So I was originally thinking about renting my house out, but I realized the equity that I had in the home and what our next home was going to be. It was better for us to take that money and put it into the new house rather than trying to build a rental portfolio. So we didn't do that. Got our new house. That happened in June. Love the new house, it's great. Got our new house. That happened in june. Love the new house, it's great. Um then, from the financial side of increasing, uh, income and that kind of stuff, since we didn't do the rental side of it, um, I decided to get in lasik done. So there goes all my money.
Kenny:Yep, yep, um I also got invisalign the same fucking week.
James:Yep, so the money side of it not so good. However, in a roundabout way did get a promotion at work and so, yes, I am making a little bit more money because of that.
Kenny:But ultimately not what I was thinking when I said that I think you saw mine invest into yourself.
James:I know.
Kenny:Invisalign Houzz, you really invested true I guess.
Jonny:So true, I guess so um, you also had, you had some setbacks obviously 2023 expenses because of the roof leak or the house leak. Yeah, um which?
James:feels like yesterday. I can't even believe that was a whole year ago.
Ryan:We had just selling. Yeah, the polybutylene, yeah, we got the whole house repip believe that was a whole year ago.
James:We had just Selling, yeah, the polybutylene. We got the whole house re-piped. That was literally during this time last year that we were wrapping that up Insane.
Jonny:Well, I think you lived very well Through summarizing what you wanted to Live the year through, which was overcoming Challenging obstacles. I agree there was a lot of challenging obstacles.
James:I agree, it was good. There was a lot of challenging obstacles.
Jonny:You also said you wanted to emphasize the importance of reflecting and celebrating achievements from your friends and family.
James:Chad GBT might have copied Ryan's. That sounds like more Ryan, right, yeah, it's all about the people.
Jonny:Sounds like more Ryan, right. Yeah, it's all about the people.
James:Oh, that's funny, All right, so how did I do? Do you think we did?
Ryan:We did okay, I shocked. I openly admit that. Say that it's okay.
Jonny:Positivity, positivity.
Kenny:That's negative.
Jonny:How many books are you going? To read next year, maybe one, let's get one under the belt. You guys want to start a book club where we read a book a month and then we recap it on a podcast.
Kenny:No. Absolutely not, didn't you guys? Try to do that we tried to do poker nights.
James:That didn't work out either no we wanted to do a book every two months and then we would alternate who picked the next book. So I already had the next book picked out and I sent it to him.
Jonny:Mind you who picked the next book so I was.
James:I already had the next book picked out and I sent it to him. Mind you, mind you, I did not finish that book. It's still in my backpack. How many books did you read last year? I only read the one, because, because then the, the move and all that stuff got too, busy not podcasting to read.
James:To be fair, it was an interesting exercise to have a recording of yourself talking about what your goals were going to be for that year and everything, and then sitting a year later watching yourself say these things, knowing what happened in that year, yikes. And then like, well, okay, I kind of did this, I kind of didn't do that, but this all happened. Yeah, and the biggest thing that I realized again as a part of the reflection piece holy, holy crap, did that move? Take everything out of my ear. I mean I feel like I exhausted all of my extra spare time on this house, dude, it's a moving is a huge thing, so it makes sense well, yes, but this guy did a lot more than just moved to.
James:He's gonna have a kid. His wife was pregnant during the process. I mean, I don't know. I just felt like it was a little too much and my life has gotten out of whack and I feel like it's not in my hands right now. So that's a little bit into where I'm headed with what I want to do for 2025. Moving takes a lot out. It was from June till still now Still working on that house.
Jonny:It's a lot. I was moving with a little one, that's right, I would say it was.
Kenny:So he's real little when we moved. He's only a couple months old. We moved his room first, basically, and set his room up and stuff, because that was like a little bit unique, because he was going through a lot of transitions too which is like bedside bassinet. So bedside, the bedside bassinet was like where he was staying for, you know, the first couple of months. And then when we moved, we also transitioned him to his own room at the same time because we just thought it was a good transition, like to do all that at once. It's going to be a new setting regardless. It's making a new setting and put him in his room. So it was. I would say it was probably as good as it would have been if we transitioned him into his own room anyway, because there's definitely, um, like trials and tribulations that you have to go through with doing that. It's not like you just put them in the room and they're like good to go. It's like a whole process.
Kenny:And we're still going through that process, approaching six months old now, but I think that, yeah, we did as much as we could to get it done quickly, which is the good thing. We unboxed really quickly and stuff, so now it's just about creating new spaces and stuff in the house, which is what anybody does once they get in, and whatnot, renovate and different things like that. So, yeah, but I don't think it was more difficult than it would have been without him.
Kenny:Obviously he's not helping. He's five months old. He's not picking shit up. It wasn't that difficult.
Jonny:DIY or pay the guy.
Kenny:We had movers too for some stuff, which was very beneficial I did pods instead of moving.
Ryan:That's a step in the right direction for you.
Kenny:Lydia and I did everything.
James:We didn't hire a single person to do anything in our house didn't you text us about helping you?
Jonny:we forgot completely or something. I don't think we showed up. No, I don't, I just, I just remember you texting or saying something.
James:I didn't think Lydia and I were going to be able to manage putting stuff into a pod. And so I was like I might need your help. That's what it was.
James:We ended up selling our couch, which was the real piece that I was worried about, and then we managed to get it in the truck so she was able to do it with me. So it's an awkward shape and the doors, that was more so what I was worried about. Are we able to actually maneuver it out? Yeah, we got it done. Yeah, no one helped. Then we painted the entire fucking inside of the house. That's crazy. That took us five weeks. We got. We got lucky with the painting thing. Yeah, we got super lucky.
Jonny:Appreciate you, mr Barrett Kernan. Thank you for your support. Thanks for helping us out. Shout out to Ten Point Services, great general contracting company.
Ryan:Painted our whole house as a gift.
Jonny:Thank you Appreciate you, brother-in-law. Wedding gift or just a gift yeah just, you know, wedding house gifts, you know didn't really know what was going on. Bray wouldn't tell me really. And then, wow, the inside's painted. Oh, and then the outside's painted. Okay, we'll take it Very nice.
Kenny:You got the baby's room all set up now.
Jonny:Working through it. So we've got a pretty big we. We got all the family coming for Christmas. You're hosting oh boy, we got 20 plus people.
Ryan:Have you seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?
Jonny:It's going to be a good time, so a lot of them are staying for a couple of days, so we're going to wait for one of the rooms to turn in, because we got all the guest bedrooms.
Kenny:They'll be taken during Christmas If it helps you only use the room slightly at first yeah. The baby's not sleeping in there alone at first. Yeah right, so it's like Ask Ryan, he knows. No, I'm just kidding, we're just. Yeah, yeah, Like at first you're just more, I like from our experience getting familiar with the space and stuff yeah, Rocker and things like that. So you like hang out in that space a lot, but it doesn't sleep in there.
Jonny:So Sleeps in the bedroom right With you guys.
Kenny:Bedside yeah, Best in that for the most part for the first three months maybe give or take.
Kenny:Learn that one of the books bray and I are reading, yeah, books out, but uh, shit pops up. So it's like, well, yeah, I mean, I read, yes, that's definitely something. Well, one thing that I watched which was pretty good, um, which we might be able to get into this later, different thing, but I think it was like the best baby on the block or something like that. It's like an older movie, dude, if you know how to swaddle like wrap a burrito.
Kenny:The first like James, you and I would be so good at this Wrapping burritos. Just think of like a tole burrito Wrap the baby in a swaddle. If you were good at that, boom, you're good for 45 days. Okay, not even kidding. Start practicing you should swaddle a baby. Really good, and they can go from crying to perfect like that.
Jonny:Okay, you have to check that out.
James:I have no idea.
Kenny:I don't know the science behind it. They want to be like they're in the womb, basically, and whatnot? Swaddle. If you can get a good swaddle on, it'll save your life. Swaddle your ass off. Swaddle, phoebe. I don't know.
Jonny:Swaddle your ass off. It's four words Okay, damn, yeah, hopefully all my burrito-wrapping skills will survive.
Kenny:Swaddle my ass there you go Swaddle my ass, that's basically what the baby says but, yeah that was like one big. Thing.
James:Well, we could probably all reflect on the fact that the period of babies being born, moving, happening, might have dipped in our output for our podcast. Excuse me, we're still trying to rebound off that.
Ryan:We were building the studio. We're not leaving. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jonny:We're building the studio for sure.
Ryan:We Right Mass, we Rebound hey, kenny, we had nothing to do with it, tie I mean between tie, and I mean really tie. It's awesome, dude. This setup is pretty. It's pretty sweet.
James:So, yeah, we're happy to be back yeah, this time we get to show a little bit of leg yeah, we got a hole in the sock. But ultimately our outlook is to try to get the production back on track.
Ryan:Yeah.
James:Passion project, passion project going, so we're in the studio trying to knock out a couple of episodes.
Ryan:So this is probably a good one for us to reflect on Kickstart 2025. Yeah, exactly, Exactly For three. Kickstart 2025.
Jonny:Yeah exactly, Exactly For three words 2025. What are you guys thinking? Outside of the Bender continues.
Ryan:I will not use that this year.
Kenny:To be continued.
James:Actually, I have my three words. I gave this thought yesterday Because of my recent role change, as well as just what I'm going through in my personal life. I feel like my execution has been off, and I reflected on the fact that it's because I'm uncomfortable or I don't know what I want to do or how to do it or whatever. Clarity on point B, but I'm at point A. So my three words, which I feel like is a mantra for anyone it's useful, but it's growth through discomfort. So I know that I'm discomfort, uncomfortable right now I guess that's a better way to phrase it New role, new responsibilities, new house, things that I'm going to do, that I'm not good at or know what to do, et cetera, and I got to find that way. And by being uncomfortable I feel like you grow the most, and so I'm trying to embrace that now, especially after reflecting on it, and so I'm heading into 2025 with that mindset.
Ryan:I love that.
Jonny:That's a good one. I would say operate with clarity. I think operate with clarity. What I mean by that is just driving forward with a plan of action. Now, whether or not that plan of action gets derailed for whatever reason, that's okay. But the operation piece, that's just being a husband, being a friend, being a son and being a co-worker, a peer, a colleague, whatever you want to call it. Father, what's that being a father?
Jonny:Being a father, yeah, and I think that's where being maniacal around, just trusting the process and what's going to happen and being okay with hey, as long as I've got some clarity and there's something end at mind. If it doesn't necessarily go that way, that's okay, because I think it's very easy as we go and life throws you a curve ball, you kind of go through the motions, kind of want to get out of that going through the motions piece. That's okay, cause I think it's very easy as we go and life throws you a curve ball. You know you kind of go through the motions, kind of want to get out of that going through the motions piece. Um, so yeah, just being extremely maniacal around clarity and everything that I do.
Ryan:Nice man.
Jonny:Nice dude.
Ryan:Uh, I'm going to go with time to evolve for me, so just want to make some changes and try to follow through on them. Got some different perspectives this year, caring for something other than myself. It's not a child, but it is a thing a puppy, a dog. He's in the other room right now and, yeah, just going to have some things I want to work on, so I'm going to evolve.
Kenny:Love it. Big step forward for Ryan. No one used the word grow.
Ryan:Didn't want to use it, so evolve.
James:No one, no one has grown or has such a life changing growth path than Ryan. Over the years, from beanie to now, completely different person. He didn't like it, but it's cool to watch. I enjoy it, as your friend to, to see you kind of evolve. So I'm I'm happy for this next evolution. What are you on? Like pokemon level, like four?
Ryan:now or something like what for digimon, but yeah, digimon.
Jonny:Wow, that's good for that is a hot topic that's in the depths. Oh, is it Digi? Okay, digimon. What about Yu-Gi-Oh? Wait, is Digimon a? Oh, you mean just hot? No, just you know, I thought they were in the news or something. No, no, I don't think it was still around.
Ryan:Yu-Gi-Oh, you created an app, yeah.
Kenny:Pokemon Go dude, not my app Lion on the go, instead of Pokemon Go Kenny. For me I would say it's more putting things together. So my three words would be compound your skills. I think in my 20s I concentrated a lot on acquiring new knowledge, acquiring skills, learning, um, definitely executing, but kind of finding out more of what business entails and where to go and how to deliver and all those things.
Kenny:Now it's like we put it together and we we scale the the shit out of everything we do not only in business, but like compounding your skills and being able to understand what happens when you have a baby, compounding my skills and understanding how to run a family and a business at the same time, and multiple businesses at that.
Kenny:Now you know there's there's a lot of different things that I think you do in your 20s to spend time learning. If you do it the way I did, you know there's a lot of things you give up to not be able to kind of take part in extracurricular activities Because you're kind of trying to invest a lot into the business or the things you're doing or you know all the time for it. But now it's about like putting it together, not not saying that you don't need to continue to learn I think you always need to continue to learn, continue to read, continue to evolve but just really leaning into the things that you invested in yourself into over the last decade now, like leaning into that and compounding that and and I think you'll see it grow faster it's, like you know, investing in large sums. So putting it all together.
James:Love it. Yeah, any ideas on how you guys are actually going to attack these outlooks on 2025, your goals and stuff? I have some, but I'm going to put it to the floor first. Keep it going, baby.
Jonny:You want me to go, I want to johnny go first.
James:Again he gets flustered thank you um you don't have to. I apparently got called out, so no, if you wanted to climb, I mean I can go, but you can go sure let me know if you want me to go.
Jonny:I mean mine's, mine's pretty.
James:How about? How about changing yours to be more decisive? I can, can go, you can go. I'm just kidding, I'm fucking with you. He's down for whatever folks.
Jonny:He can go Again. Crush of TBC. This is the crush of John. It's okay, it's fine.
James:Go ahead, james, and the lack of execution. I've been realizing I take on way too much and I try to do too much at one time. So multitasking which I'm getting to the point where multitasking is a fallacy there's no such thing as multitasking. Maybe there is, like I can move my arm and talk right, that's multitasking. But I'm talking about physically doing a fucking task, like you can't do multiple tasks at once because your brain has to be focused in on that thing and then get it done. So what I'm trying to implement with my team now, as well as as my life, is, when I'm going to set out my day, this is what I'm going to do. The planner um, I have to attack each one before I get to the next, and so there has to be a sequence. So I'm going to institute sequence. I can't jump, so once I catch myself jumping, then reel it in. So that's going to be one thing I'm going to try for myself. But on top of that, I'm trying to develop a system where workflow is determined based off of metrics.
James:So, there's a couple of different priority metrics out there. You can go based off of importance and urgency. You can go based off of what was the other ones I'm drawing a blank right now, what was the other ones? I'm drawing a blank right now. But essentially you put a category, you put a scale towards something and that helps drive whether or not something needs to be delegated, whether or not something is a quick win, whether or not something is going to be scoped out into a full project. And then once we compile all that data and we understand the team's bandwidth as far as volume management, so pipeline management and your daily responsibilities, tasks, projects and influx, because we're kind of cyclical on a monthly basis closing loans, so you kind of have a down period in the beginning of the month and the month gets a little hectic.
James:So we're trying to figure out a way to institute a project management system under the agile structure where there's timestamps based off of what period of time we are in the month, what assigning tasks and then actually executing, because too much shit comes in at once. We're jumping all over the place. We're on too many calls. Restricting meetings is another thing that I think I need to do, or being more efficient with meetings, is actually the better way to probably put it. So we're trying to recalibrate the team. That's a big thing that I'm trying to do, and then see how that blends with personal life as well. Long-winded, a lot of buzzwords. You're a typical James Agama answer. Yeah, it's good, but anyways, that's, that's my plan, so we'll see how well I can execute on that.
Jonny:But so I said, operating with clarity.
Jonny:I think it starts with being clear and concise in everything that you do, whether it be communicating or leaning on others, whether that be in the workforce or in your real life, personally, professionally. So, starting there, I use the word maniacal. I think having those individuals in my circle, my network, whether they be family, friends or colleagues, that I can rely on and hold me, and almost be those individuals that know my goals and my aspirations and what I'm trying to do when I talk about the word clarity, that's a huge opportunity for me and just what I've learned, I think, overall in my leadership journey and then also my personal journey. Um, I think there's a lot of great areas of opportunity, but it all, like, starts with the word clarity. Um, and I've learned that over this year, and that's something I'm proud of but, um, being clear and concise and being very detail oriented in whatever it is at the end of the tunnel. So, hey, my goal is to do this, okay, well, how is your goal going to be this? What are you going to do to get there? Okay, what are you doing to get there? What are the steps that actually take place or what's going to have to happen in order to make that actually be efficient or successful? And writing it out.
Jonny:I know you guys have all heard my whole power five and big CTA guy call to action, which I think is great. But it's like sometimes you got to get very, very specific and then what I found is just in in life, I think on both sides personal, professional, professional it's easy to say something, it's easy to articulate something, but does the other side understand what that actual message is, because everyone has kind of a different thought process. Do you confirm what that end, goal or result is with that individual, because they may think it's something else? Is there a clear, defined line, timeline etc. Um, so those are kind of my areas of opportunities or goals and what I'm looking to do be very maniacal that's almost your word maniacal.
Ryan:It's almost, it's involved in everything you're saying.
Jonny:So use the word maniacal. Those are my three words.
James:I want to look at the definition of that.
Jonny:Go ahead.
James:Ryan.
Ryan:Um, so I think the three areas that are going to help me, uh, to evolve, I think the first one is simple. It's from Andy Elliott it's just do what you say. You know I'm a big talker a lot of times, and sometimes, especially TBC, maybe I don't follow through. So just in general work, personal, if I say I'm going to do something, follow through, actually do it or, you know, vocalize that it can't be done. I think the other one is work on noticing my triggers. I'm a person that can go hot and cold really quick. So noticing, you know what leads to that and maybe managing that a little bit better, figuring out how to. And I think, the last one, to be able to evolve and some of you have done this, we've talked about it, I think, in one session or another, but you got to take some time yourself. And Johnny said at the beginning you know, man of the people, you know I might need some some me time. Right, go into a dark hole, go into a cave and come out a different person.
Ryan:So, and to Kenny's point, you cannot give what you do not have. I got to work on myself and get some things right there and then I'll be able to maybe to come back, so yeah, I think we brought this up one time it was like monk mode, yeah, monk mode, yeah for sure. Yeah, not an aaron rogers cave people, just just a regular monk you're just gonna watch football anyways yeah, not in a man cave, but yeah, right, yeah, like monk mood that can do something like.
Kenny:And you just do that for 30 days, like just you know, don't, don't go crazy, like don't go out and like just say no to like public you know, yeah, it's hard to do.
Kenny:You know in many settings and then you know with a large group like us, I don't think we had much help you know I'm a little, it's a little bit easier for me to say no to you guys because I gotta drive four hours, three hours, to see you guys. So it's like, dude, I don't want to drive six hours, and you know it's a little harder to do with a five month old. So it's not that it's easier to say no, it's just like not realistic in most cases, right like, uh, you know, six hour outing, I'm like guys, it's just maybe not just time.
James:But yeah, I think, because you're so close, that's it's hard, but it's that's where it starts, I think so well, I think it's a good year for you to even go on this journey, because at least we don't have as many um weddings and bachelor parties and all these other like events.
Ryan:I'm tired of weddings.
James:I'm tired of traveling yeah, yeah yeah, those are like hard events, not to say no to right, it's like yeah, yeah you don't want to miss some big event for someone and then you kind of look at, well, it's sporadic between, like, uh, you know, four, five, six a year, and granted, it's still a lot, but they're at least spaced out in some cases, or they're not but it adds up.
Ryan:It adds up time wise, adds up bills, wise. Like you guys talk about houses like more, and I have a lot of stuff to do just on the house, like the front of my house still has white paint on it.
Jonny:The rest of the house is a different color I got to get that done, like that's got to get done.
Ryan:So shit like that yeah.
Kenny:That's cool For us. I mean, you know, compounding and putting things together I think just goes to being organized with knowing what you can do and what you were. Uh, you know what you're good at and where you can expand and scale. So it's like these are the things that I know. I think you can reverse engineer this, to say the least. I think you can say like this is what's worked really well and this is the result of, like we've had this success, whether it's like a you, like a job or whatnot, or a sale or anything like that, this is what leads to X. Well, what was different about that? How can we do it 10 times? I can do it 100 times.
Kenny:In compounding all of those things, we've been doing that in the business a lot compound the acts of a variety of different services, from strategy to website development and infrastructure, creative production and media buying, and you can put all of that together and you can outsource that to an agency that knows how to do it, has been there and has done it, is doing it and is doing it at large scale. Or you can spend $500,000, $600,000 on overhead and hope that you are hiring the right people and driving them to the correct direction with clarity and understanding, and it's going to take you time and money and space to get things done. But compounding on those things that we're really good at allows us to do it even better, with more synergy, and double down on doing it over and over and over and over again, which is ultimately going to get us better at doing what we already do good. So we're just going to continue to grow our skills in what we do really good. Yeah, and that's really the goal.
Kenny:And then bringing that back down to you know, like my family life as well, compounding on what I know I can do. And to you know, like my family life as well, compounding on what I know I can do and where I know I can spend my time to provide for my family. And, uh, and being open to where, like, hey, I might not be the best at this, let me maybe hire someone where maybe my wife is better at it than I am, so she takes on that role. But I think being fair with saying like this is what I'm good at, let's lean into it. This is what I'm not good at, let's not lean into it. We're just completely disregarded and not do it at all. So it is going back to what Ryan said saying no to things and just placing a large emphasis on what I do and what I do good.
James:Nice.
James:I think we've got our work cut out for us, gentlemen, I think we've got our work cut out for us, gentlemen, and hopefully in a year we'll be able to look back at this and be a little bit better off than the roast of DBC, but I think we can all achieve it. We've done so much over just a short amount of time, even before this podcast and during the podcast timelines, so I'm excited to see where we go. Love it Awesome. Well, you know, we have a little bit of a different ending, so I'm excited to see where we go.
Kenny:Love it awesome well, you know we have a little bit of a different ending still and I'm going to ride with that, but we'll hopefully provide more content in 2025. Come back strong. Maybe two different studios, maybe I'll change it up here and there, but the common theme that we continue to go with is and together, the Bender continues.
