#14 Podcaster Danny Miranda on Meditation and Self Optimization
Some things Danny and I talked about in this episode:
- The power of meditation, visualization, self optimization and manifestation
- Finding your way - Just because one path doesn’t work out, doesn’t mean another won’t
- Making friends with others on the same journey as you
- Advice on being a podcaster - cold outreach, and lessons learned
- The value of following your curiosity
Shownotes
Where you can find Danny Miranda:
www.dannymiranda.com
Twitter: @heydannymiranda
Youtube: youtube.com/dannymiranda
Check out his podcast "The Danny Miranda Podcast" on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
References throughout the episode:
Live Hard Program by Andy Frisella
75 Hard by Andy Frisella
Ship 30 for 30
Inward by Young Pueblo
Write of Passage - David Perell
Harry Dry of marketingexamples.com - Danny interviewed him in Episode 31 of "The Danny Miranda Podcast"
Tim Ferriss Approach
Headspace - Meditation App
Vipassana - 10 day meditation retreat
Malcolm Gladwell on interviewing
Transcript
It's a, just a juxtaposition, right? Because you don't want to be so going with the flow that you don't have any structure, but at the same time, you don't want to be so structured that you miss the flow and creativity of life. It just was me following my curiosity. It was just me letting go to the moment.
If I had said, you know, I'm only reaching out to guests at this time or that time I might've missed that opportunity. Which is, um, like you seem to really be, um, intrinsically enjoying doing your podcast. Right. It seems to really speak to your soul, you know, like, and you can really tell that it's like, This word passion is so overused these days, but like, it seems to be like, almost like you're, you know, this Japanese word, achy guy, like your, like your entire reason for, for being seems to like, you know, center around the podcast.
And it's like, you almost leveraging and scaling your I'm going real meta here, but like your love for like people into the podcast, you know? That's 100% accurate and that's how I've approached it. And that's like, the reason why it started the podcast was because I had these phone conversations with people who told me, I love this phone conversation.
And then I said, Oh man, I wish I could give this to other people. And you know, I didn't love people forever. It was only once I started meditating that I really started loving people and loving myself really because loving other people stems from loving yourself first. So. Um, yeah, I just, the love for people stems from me, loving myself and wanting to bring that love that I have for myself to other people as much as I can.
So it's exciting for me to be able to do you hit the nail on the head though? You, you perfectly encapsulated why I do the podcast because I love people because I want people to feel that love in their heart and that I have in my heart, and I want them to feel it as well. And I was trying to do that by writing for a long time, but it wasn't capturing the essence of my voice.
It wasn't capturing the essence of my love. And it turned out that audio or maybe video two is a better medium to express that truth. Oh, for sure. For sure. And, um, it's just like, I'm just looking, you know, like, Prep preparing and preparation for this interview. Obviously I've been going through your stuff and on your website and, you know, like past podcast recordings and.
And I just like, I see so many, um, so many things that, that you, that you're doing or that you've been doing, whether it's like meditating every day. Um, are you, by the way, are you still meditating every day for now? Yes, sir. Yeah, I haven't stopped. It's a, it's a key habit for me. Like, I don't understand how I was going on Twitter before, before starting to meditate.
I don't understand how I was like actually operating. If that makes sense. Like the F I just see things through such a different lens after I meditate in a day versus not. And I like, my mom called it out to me the other day. Like a couple of weeks back, I hadn't meditated. And she was like, you seem like.
You're on edge or something. And I was like, Oh my God, I haven't meditated today. I forgot. So it's like, it really makes a difference for me personally. Maybe not for everyone, but for me, I noticed a difference in how much I'm willing to extend love to someone else in how much I'm, I'm comfortable with myself.
It's just like giving myself that time to, to, to clear through all of that issues in my head. Cause apparently I have a lot.
Uh, you do it first thing in the morning, first thing in the morning, um, 60 minutes, just sit down. Thoughts, let them go through you. You do that long enough. You start to go to a place of nothingness and just feels, it feels like going to the therapist every day. It feels unfair. Like getting a weight off your shoulders, clearing your inbox of what's on your head.
It's it's really important for me. Yeah. That mental inbox zero. Right? Exactly. That's exactly what it is. Uh, and yeah, I, I get that too. And I've been like, I've been like the one. Annoying guy in your social circle that goes around and tells everyone to meditate. You know that? No. Yeah, yeah. I I'm back and forth on this.
Right. Like I am so in favor of like telling people to meditate, I'm also, so in favor of like, Just letting the actions speak for themselves. And if someone says like, Oh, what's interesting about this guy, why is he kinder? Why is he more empathetic? Why is he full of love? Um, why is he feeling this way and doing these things?
And then they look deeper into it. Then they say, Oh wow, it's cause he's meditating. And if they draw that connection themselves, then that will get them on the path. So sometimes your actions can speak louder than words, but I also am a proponent and tell people to meditate, um, because it really has been the most transformational thing in my life.
How did you start meditating? Um, I started, um, originally like five years ago or maybe six years ago with Headspace. Um, you know, the app. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I did like the entire, um, the entire library, the entire catalog, um, of meditations. Um, wow. There probably took me like, I don't know, two years. I'm sure you felt pretty good after the two years.
Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. And then I, I really wanted more, I really wanted to like up my. It sounds wrong to say up my game cause like it's meditation, right? Yeah. Um, yeah. And then, um, I just started meditating, um, you know, for like, you know, 45 minutes an hour every day, just like without any app or without any, you know, soundtrack, nothing just like total stillness.
And that was like 10 times harder. All of a sudden. Yeah. How was that? What'd you learn from doing the longer sessions? Obviously you learned a bunch, but like, if you could sum it up in one, in one bullet point or two bullet points about were like the top learnings you took from the longer sessions, uh, I would say like how much mental clutter I have going on and how I really do need this one hour, sometimes even two, to be honest, but like, I'm like, I don't want to do two hours, you know, um, to really like get out the.
The bad stuff, you know? Um, which for me is like, you know, I'm like full of like all kinds of like irrational thoughts and, you know, fears and anger. And it's just like, it just all has to come out. Um, and, um, yeah, you're right. If I don't do it, um, it's, it's not great. Like I feel on edge and, um, people start pointing it out to me too.
So, you know, we, we seem to have that in common, you know, as well. Yeah. Hmm. I think that, you know, for anyone who's just starting or 60 minutes or 45 minutes, seems like such a long time. And it's hard to imagine, but you build up to a clip quickly, right? Like you can build up to it from 20 minutes or using the app to then doing it full 45 or 60.
I haven't done two hours. That, that seems intense, but it seems like that's crazy to me after doing it for one hour and hearing people's reactions to it. So, yeah. I'll have to give that a try. Yeah, for sure. And like, I really want to do like a, you know, like the 10 day, like a 10 day retreat, like the Pasana.
Yes, exactly. Yes. Um, but obviously now with COVID and all, um, you know, hopefully next year, um, I'll be able to do it for real. Yeah. Yeah. I've been thinking about doing that as well. And COVID was just like something that, that stopped me. Yeah. Yeah, for sure, man. There's like, I have like this like catalog of questions, but I'm just like, yeah, no, cause I was just gonna, I was just gonna say like, I'm gonna like, uh, cause, cause you literally said on one of your podcasts that, um, you know, like the challenge of like being.
Prepared and having your questions on the one hand, but like really like just going with the flow and, you know, just like feeling out the other person, you know, going where they want to go and having like an actual chat and, um, Yeah, man. So, you know, I wasn't technically planning on talking about meditation, but yeah, here we go.
You know, that's part of the fun. And I was actually watching or going through my notes on Malcolm Gladwell, talking about interviewing and he said, You know, how could you know, what the other person is going to say? That's interesting before you start the conversation you can't. And so that's the benefit of getting lost in the moment.
Obviously you have to prepare as well. Um, because then you can direct it in specific ways to get some insights, but it is such a balance. And it's one I'm constantly trying to figure out as the host and it's changing too, based on the person you speak to, it's not an easy job being in your position. My man, but.
It's, um, it's a exciting, it's an exciting challenge for sure. For sure. For sure. And like, I mean, I started the podcast for entirely selfish reasons. Like, you know, getting to talk to awesome people and like, you know, this is fun. Hell yeah. I did the same exact thing, you know, that's why I started. Yeah. So let's, let's go back to your writing for a second.
Cause you said, um, uh, initially you were starting out writing and, but you felt like you weren't able to really, um, translate your, you know, your love and your, and your, you know, passion, um, through writing. And then you ended up, you know, a channel channeling it, you know, via the podcast. Um, How do you have the self-awareness to realize this?
This is a great question. And it was just a matter of looking at the responses. Of my work, right? So I was doing the work of writing twice a week for weeks on end. And you know, after three months you get a good gauge of like, how's it going? And it's a hundred days. If you've been doing something for a hundred days, you get an idea of like, is this working?
Is this not? And. I just, wasn't getting the response that I expected, the response of people and maybe the writing wasn't that good. Maybe I wasn't doing a good job promoting it. Um, it could have been any number of things, but I knew something had to change. I knew I enjoyed writing tremendously, but is that something that people really enjoyed reading?
I, I was constantly, I'm constantly in this process of, of looking for feedback and it's why when I. When I do my podcast, I tell people like, please get me feedback for the episode and do it at, Hey, Danny Miranda on Twitter, because then I'll be able to understand where I'm going wrong. Um, and so I wasn't getting much of that feedback.
And when you're not getting much feedback, you really have to think, okay, am I doing something wrong? If I continued on this path, is that going to lead to success? And I wasn't saying I was never going to write anymore. You know, it was like, How can I better express my talents? I believe that, you know, I was blessed in some capacity to like use myself as a way to bring out some of these things and I wasn't able to do it through, through the rain.
So maybe I was able to do it through audio. Maybe I was able to do it through video, just a matter of testing and I guess. To answer your question. It's like you have to be willing to fail and fail at, at writing in the sense of like, no, one's reading your stuff. No, one's enjoying it. And I'm being consistent.
So it's not, that's not the issue. Maybe the medium's the issue. Maybe the, the written word is the issue you, you don't know until you try something else. So that's, that's kind of the thought process. And then. Gotcha. Gotcha. And then the followup to that would be like, how many episodes into the podcast do you feel like yes.
You know, this is working, I want to double down on it. Yeah. So for the podcast, I set the goal of a hundred episodes. Like I'm gonna do 100 episodes, like that's it. And I set the same goal basically for, for the writing as well for the blog posts. Um, but I mean, I would say probably after. The, the releasing the first few episodes, I knew that people were really enjoying it and connecting with it in a way that the writing wasn't and I was really enjoying it.
I never done audio of any kind. I never did any video or audio editing or anything like that, but people were messaging me in spades. Like, you know, this is really helpful. Thank you for this. You're doing a great job with that. And I was like, Oh, man, maybe I'm good at this. Like maybe I'm connecting in a way that I wasn't with the writing.
And it was definitely easier for me. Right. Because I started off with, you know, when I launched the podcast, I don't know how many followers I had, but I had some audience on Twitter for feedback. And that's a huge bump to, of like getting feedback if. I'm writing all these articles and I'm not getting feedback from 6,000 people, 7,000 people, then something might go wrong.
Then I might be doing something wrong. If I'm doing the podcast and people are responding to it, that's a, a sign that things are working, that I'm doing the right thing. And so I don't know if that answers your question, but it's, um, it's certainly a benefit and a help to have people who are interacting with your work.
Nonstop and so that you can, you can then pivot if needed or go in a different direction. And, um, to follow up on that, if you're a new trader starting out. And you maybe don't have 6,000 people to give you feedback on your work. Uh, what will you say to that? You know, creator, I would say to that creator, you need to make friends with other people who are similar to you in your journey, so, okay.
What do you enjoy? Let's say it's a podcast. You like podcasting. So then let's say you have under a thousand followers. Okay. You find. Five to 10 other people who also have podcasts that you enjoy that are on that journey together. And you also try to find friends who have. Uh, who have been doing the podcast longer, who have more followers, whatever, but those people are going to be really receptive to you because they're in the same boat as you.
And they're on that same mission. And if you could find people on the same mission as you, you can then get that feedback. Right. And how it starts is being interested in that person's work first, not expecting them, not expecting you to send you a message, send that person a message saying like, Hey. Give me feedback for my podcasts.
No, it's like you reach out to them and say like, I love your podcast because X, Y, and Z. And if there's anything I can do to help in any way, let me know. Um, so. I did this back in 2018 when I was drop shipping and doing e-commerce for the first time, I was just making friends with people who also were on that journey, that similar journey.
And I made friends with people. One step ahead of me. I made friends with as many people as I could, but to think of it like that, like you really want feedback for your work and the best way to do that is to find friends on that same mission. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That makes me think of, uh, what I've been doing, which has shipped 30, man.
I know you're friends with Dicky, so you probably know what I'm talking about. Hell yeah. I also did ship 30 and Dickie is a great friend and yeah, it's a great program for that reason of like connecting people who are also on that mission together. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And if I'm not mistaken, aren't you doing?
Uh, David perils, a Rite of passage at the moment. Yes, I am. I just finished a meeting with it, like a group session with them right before this interview. So yeah, it's gone really well. And, um, I'm excited about it. Yeah. Cause I was going to ask you about your, your experiences with ad, because I'm doing the, the, you know, the, I guess after ship 30, they started this right.
The ship, which is kind of like, I guess you could call it like the light budget version of Rite of passage. I love it. Yeah. So we're kind of like on a similar journey here and I'd just like to, you know, talk about, you know, your learnings and experiences thus far. Yeah. So for Rite of passage, I've really like the, the community aspect of it.
And what, what I really love about what David does and what the program does is like, The breakout rooms are just magical in the sense of you learn about this stuff, and then you speak to someone about it. I've never really had that experience with breakout rooms and doing all this on zoom. I know a lot of people are, but for me, it's the first time doing it.
So I was like, this is awesome. Like, we're just, I'm communicating now and having this conversation with someone I never would have spoken to about things we're both interested in. This is awesome. So yeah, that's, that's a little bit about, um, Rite of passage. How have you found. The, the ship 30 for 30 post-program what would have been some of your learnings?
Yes, uh, it, it literally just started, uh, two, three days ago. So, um, super fresh, super new. So far. What I love about it is like, uh, Nicholas Cole, the, you know, viral, viral writer that, that started this. Exactly. Um, so he does a fantastic job just taking, you know, like hundreds, no, actually thousands of hours of, you know, Uh, learnings of like, you know, condense like his experiences writing and puts them into like those small digestible chunks.
Yeah. When like, like you really aren't like, I'm not paying, you know, necessarily for, you know, the knowledge because knowledge is free. Like, like all this stuff you can look up on the internet. I am paying for, you know, obviously the coaching, the one-on-one and I'm paying for the group, like you said, like we also have the breakout rooms and it's like all together.
Um, but much more importantly, I'm paying for like him convincing the information. And like, you know, yesterday was all about headlines and it was early two hours of like how to write, you know, snappy headlines that, you know, capture attention and, you know, basically his learnings from like, you know, those 10,000, maybe even more hours of like writing, you know, just presenting in like a two hour session.
That's what I'm paying for. It's valuable. That's really valuable. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Um, Let's see, um, Oh, I have a good one. Uh, what would you say is your biggest mistake? Looking back in, you know, your journey as a podcaster, as a podcaster. So past six months, what has been my biggest mistake?
That's a good question. Hmm. I would say my biggest mistake initially was not doing research for the conversations and just thinking that I could be like Joe Rogan and just wing it and just have a conversation. Cause I've had a million conversations before and been like, Oh, I know this person, I know their bio.
I know what they're about. I could just. Talk to them for an hour, but there's a real performance going on with the podcast that you don't realize it's behind the scenes. Like you, as the actor, you, as the person who is guiding the conversation in such a way that's really important. So I totally underestimated that aspect of it.
And once I started taking research really seriously, it was how I was able to separate myself because I was able to go and dive really deep into someone's background to make them surprise that I would even think to ask them that question. And it was like, they were like, what, what is going on? Like, how did you know that?
And in some ways you can almost know the person better than themselves because they've evolved past that version of themselves that you're bringing up. From five years ago or 10 years ago. And you just uncovered it yesterday. So you were thinking about it before that person was, and it blows people's minds.
Usually when I bring up something from someone's distant past. Yeah. Like, yeah. And it takes, it takes obviously skilled to do that and, and work. Um, which brings me to my next point, which is like how you prep for your podcast because. Uh, I think you're doing three or even four recordings a week, these days.
So that is a lot of recordings and you know, a lot of preps. So how do you do it all? A lot of the people I invite on I've been fans of and been following for a long time. So I'm aware of their background. I'm aware of the nuances of the things they say. But for someone who I'm coming in completely cold with it, it happens a few times.
I'm really going deep on the fourth or fifth or 10th page of Google. I'm going into the Twitter advanced search tool and figuring out what are their most popular tweets from five years ago. I am something that I'm, I'm starting to doing that. I'm going to ask more. In the future. I haven't done this yet, but ask someone close to that person, if they have any stories or anything that that person doesn't get asked often is like an interesting one.
I'm thinking about someone pass that along to me. Um, and then just. Really trying to put myself in their shoes, thinking about how do they see the world and what would I, how would I see the world if I was this person? And so that involves going through podcasts with that person. What are the things that they normally speak about?
What are the things that are often on their mind? What is the lens they see the world. If I can figure out all those things, then I can better ask them questions and better ask, you know, put myself in their shoes and it will lead to a better podcast. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, to, to, to dig in a bit more into your process, um, do you, um, cause I know you're really into, you know, self optimization and um, you know, optimizing performance, self-improvement that whole, that whole thing.
Um, do you have a set schedule as far as like, this is when I do my cold outreach, this is when I do my research. This is when I batch recordings. How do you go about it? Yeah. So I have one rule mainly, and that is I don't cord podcasts before noon or 1:00 PM normally, because I just, and I'm in the Eastern time zone.
So that's beneficial for me because you know, Pacific time is, is behind me and Europe is ahead. So it's like, it's the perfect middle ground. Um, but so I have that rule of like 12:00 PM and onward and. I don't really have any other rules for recording and researching and, and, um, And reaching out to guests because I just do it when it, it feels natural.
Like I'll be, I'll be going through someone's Twitter and then I'll be like, Oh wow. That person would be so interesting. I'd love to talk to that person. Or I'd start reading a book. It'd be like, wow, I'd love to talk to the author about this. So it's just a constant following. My curiosity is, um, how I, I approach reaching out to guests and doing all that.
And like one story that I'll share with you is. You know, I tweeted about, you know, Something about going inward. Right? And, and that day I looked up the word inward and I was like, what does this mean? And the first thing that pops up is this book by this guy named young Pueblo. And, you know, I just looked at the book and said, Oh, this looks cool because the book is called inward.
And so it was the first Google search result. And then the same day, my friend Ryan on Twitter. Starts talking about inward by young play blow and how he loves this book. And because of that, I then reached out to the author after reading the book and it was like, wow, I really love this book. And it just was me following my curiosity.
It was just me. Letting go to the moment. If I had said, you know, I'm only reaching out to guests at this time or that time, I might've missed that opportunity because I was what might not have been following my curiosity. So I like to follow my curiosity whenever possible. It's how the podcast started was me just following my curiosity and yeah, that's um, that's a little bit about my process.
Yeah. Yeah. So, um, seems like. You were able to strike a balance between going with the flow, but also, you know, having those, you know, whatever three, four recordings every week. Yeah. That's absolutely right. It's just, it's, uh, just a juxtaposition, right? Because you don't want to be so going with the flow that you don't have any structure, but at the same time, you don't want to be so structured that you miss the flow and creativity of life.
Like everything. Unlike the interview itself, it's such a balance. Hi. Yeah. Hi. Yeah. Is like, uh, maybe one question because even I get asked this and, uh, you know, I'm just starting out at a PA as a podcaster, uh, which is cold email, right. Hmm. Um, so people are asking me like, yeah, how you go about cold emailing people.
Do you, you know, do you like, you know, hand craft this, you know, immaculate, you know, perfect like cold email or do you just like bang them out? Just like a, you know, like a, like a sales person. Um, and, um, maybe tell us a bit about your cold email process. Yeah. So my cold email and I'll, I'll also group in DMS and messages.
Yeah. Is, is the, like this w whenever possible, I like to make it as personal as possible. So, I mean, I always make it as personal as possible, but some of the things that I do is like the first sentence of the cold email is. About how that person has impacted or affected my life. And if I can show an example even better.
So if I'm reaching out to Gary Vaynerchuk, be like, Hey Gary, you I've been following you since 2009. And that time that you said, this led me to do that. And thank you for that. So that's the first aspect of it. The second aspect of it is like, Show your credibility or your background. Why should they care about your podcast?
Specifically? For me, I'm able to say, you know, The Danny Miranda podcast is a top 1.5% podcasts in the world. And these people have been on. So it's a way of telling them like, look, there's some credibility behind me. It's not just any podcasts. This is a specific thing. Um, and then the third thing I say is like, no worries.
If you can't come on, I don't take it personally. And just keep it short, keep it sweet. And another thing that I like to do is sometimes send, uh, a video message that lets the person know it's really personal. Like no one else could possibly be getting this. I talk about them in the video, talk to them directly and that gives them a feeling for my energy and who I am.
So yeah, those are some tips about cold outreach. Nice. Nice. Thank you for that for sure. Um, So I saw you just crossed the 50,000 downloads. Mark. Congrats. Thank you. Very, very Epic. And I also saw, and I'm going to like really on that, a little that you'd said to like, not make money with that podcast in the foreseeable future and to like, kind of like the whole Tim approach, right?
Like grow it, frog, growed bake first. And now you went one 80 on that I saw. You know, when really smart people say things to you, it's sticks. And Harry dry is one of those really smart people. Harry dries of marketing, examples.com. Um, I believe that's the domain. I should probably check that out if he's my first sponsor.
But anyway, Harry dry is a legend. He's a brilliant dude. I'm on record saying that he will be a billionaire someday. That's my prediction for Harry dry. And he, I interviewed, I interviewed him in episode 30, one of my podcasts, and he was really getting on me about making some money off the podcast because he really thinks there's a lot of value there.
And. I said to him like, look, this is the approach. And I'm following the Tim Ferriss approach, you know, build it up big and then try to monetize later. And he's like, well, you could look at it like that. Or you could look at it like, this is something that could help you make a full-time living. I said, okay, Harry, like, if that was the case, I would aim to make two or $3,000 from the podcast.
There's um, I would say. 12 episodes a month. So if there's 12 episodes a month and I'm making 2,500 from the podcast, that is $200 an episode roughly. And he was like, okay, I'll pay it $200 for one episode. And so he sponsored one episode of the podcast and I was like, okay, Harry Fairplay, if you really believe in me enough to pay $200 for one episode of the podcast, God bless you.
Thank you. I appreciate you. You put your money where your mouth is and. Yeah. That's how it came to be. I mean, Harry dries really smart. Tim Ferris is really smart. It's like, they're, they're both probably right in different ways in different situations. And because I trust Harry, I mean, I'm going with, with his gut on it and his intuition.
Yeah. I mean, that sounds totally fair. And I'm also good on you for not being, um, Like stuck in this one, you know, belief because you know, like life is dynamic, you know, and, and also obviously like, you know, you're no Tim Ferriss yet. So, you know, he also, you know, he also had the unfair advantage of like starting with like 2 million, you know, unique visitors a month.
Yeah. Hmm. Definitely. Yeah, it's just a constant process of, of testing your assumptions and learning from people smarter than you like Harry DRI certainly smarter than me and just think about why does he believe this? Why is he, he suggested me to do that. And so, yeah, that's, uh, that's how the, the sponsorship came to be.
That's how I went and reversed my thinking on that, uh, that topic. You feel like? Yeah. Uh, again, it makes total sense. Do you feel like with your podcasts, that you're starting to, um, have different interests or maybe find a bit of a niche for yourself? Or do you feel like you're just as all over the place as you were in the beginning?
I feel like I'm just as all over the place as I was in the beginning. Um, You know, I, I like having so many different people on and I'm very content to let somebody box me into a niche in five years or three years after I've put out all this content, they'll be like, Oh yeah, he's the ex guy after I've.
After I've done and put out all these episodes because I could easily say like, listen, I am the meditating guy, or I am this guy. And only I'm the writing guy. And only talk to writers and only talk to meditators and only talk to whatever. But instead I'm going all over the place, letting my interests guide me, letting my curiosity guide me and, you know, let someone else come in and say, Oh, he's that guy, for example, I mean, I'm kind of following the Joe Rogan model in that aspect where it's like, you know, Joe Rogan could have just interviewed comedians or he could have just interviewed jujitsu people or he could have interviewed just MMA people.
Like there's so many different facets to Joe Rogan and we know him as Joe Rogan, but you know, he could have taken the Avenue of like faster growth and just the tact. Uh, comedians or mushrooms or whatever, like DMT. So I like to take that approach and I'm no Joe Rogan, but Joe Rogan was no, Joe Rogan 10 years ago, you know, he was just, uh, a comedian, um, a comic.
So yeah, it's, it's a long-term approach. It's a long-term model and let somebody else come in and say, you're that guy after I've put in the work for X amount of years and figure it out. Yeah. Yeah, dude, cheers to that. Um, I was just wondering, cause that would have been so dope for you also. Um, would you have done in person interviews if we didn't have COVID 100%, I want to do in-person interviews.
I want to have my own studio where I can bring people in and talk to them face to face. It's a different energy. Um, and, uh, probably be a different skill that I slightly have to learn in a new way, because there's some, you know, small differences, but. You know, I think it's so exciting. The thought of me having my own studio in five years in 10 years, if I could just stick with it and build the podcast up, I don't know if that will happen, but it's aspiration for sure.
Yeah, for sure. And like, man, like you're really big on the, um, on the visualization, on the, you know, manifesting stuff and, um, I know like, You're about this in like a very, no bullshit, you know, actual like doing shit kind of way, because you're also doing 75 hearts. So I know you're legit. Um, like you've actually done the entire program.
I saw, um, the live hard program. Yes, exactly. Um, so. Since I'm still in, in phase one. And, uh, you know, for people that don't know about this, it's kind of like a mental toughness challenge where, you know, mostly you do very hard physical exercise over like an extended period of time and there's certain rules to it.
Um, and then if you want to Google it, it's all over the internet. Um, so, but like talk to me about visualization because I feel like this is so misunderstood and I personally do it too. Let's let's, let's hear it. I have this folder, right. That talks about the person. I want to be the values. I want to have the, the types of things that I want to experience the character traits, the people I want to emulate.
I have this folder, right? So I created this folder in 2019, September, 2019. I started to read it every day and I called the folder Danny 2.0. And by March of 2020, my parents started calling me Danny 2.0 because I had changed so much without any knowledge of the folder. So I was reading and visualizing this document every day.
It's probably 10 pages. And my parents calling me something else, the same name of the folder. Cause I changed so much. It was mind blowing to me and made me think and realize like, wow, visualization really does work. Um, I changed so much and I changed to a person that I wanted to be in, was proud of. So that was pretty much the.
The okay. This works. Let's, let's just do it. Let's surrender to the process and, and just get to it because I still do the processes day of like reading the folder three times a day. My goals have changed since September of 2009. And what I am visualizing is different, but the process is the same. How do you do visualization?
Um, I do like at the end of my meditation, I think of. I actually changed this up recently because I used to do like longer term goals. Like, you know, like I'll have, you know, like an eight figure net worth within 10 years, stuff like that. Um, which like I will have, but it's kind of like, what about right now though?
You know, and I've broken it down. Like I can really do, um, you know, two months, four months, six months, those sort of increments I can do really well because it's like, You know, like we've been in lockdown for six months, like six months ago, shops were open. Now they're closed. They're probably gonna open up next month again.
Right. So it's like, it's like, I know six months, it's kind of like, it is a lot longer than just like a couple of weeks, but it's, I can grasp it, you know, I can fathom it like in my mind. Um, so I like to do those six months goals and also three months. And. It's very like with, um, it's the whole, like keeping the promises you've made to yourself.
Right. So, and with every day I get more, um, like belief in myself and self-confidence because I'm doing hard shit. And, and it's the whole, like, Bitch is midnight. I still haven't hit my goals, so I don't get to go to sleep, you know, just, yes. And that really fucks with you, especially when you see your, you know, your ordering a score, um, in the morning, uh, uh, and then, and then you start to rationalize.
No, but if I get more sleep, then like, you know, the podcast recording will be better. So actually I goal I should go back to bed and, but then, you know, that little bitch voice, you just have to, you know, slap it. Um, So long story short. So about visualization. I said, um, sort of like, uh, like a worst case, a realistic case and a best case outcome, which is like, for instance, with a podcast it's like, like yourself, I committed to doing a hundred episodes, no matter what, um, worst case outcome is like, I'll be a better interviewer at, you know, like whatever, like six months from now, or whenever I'll be done with a hundred recordings.
Cause even on that, I'm flexible right now. I'm doing a one a week, but I might do two a week. I might do, you know, depends on other things. I'm totally flex on that, but I will have to do a hundred episodes. Like I'm doing a hundred episodes. Like that's a, non-negotiable so worst case, I'll be a better interview, right?
Realistic case. I'll be a better interviewer. And, uh, I'll be, you know, building my brand online and it'll be great, you know, marketing for, you know, Gabriel Horvat, um, best case all of the above. Plus I'm making money from it too. So this is kinda like how I see it. So either way it's a win. And it's like this whole systems over goals.
Um, the Dilbert creator talks about this a lot. I've forgotten his name. Um, yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Where it's like, like, no matter, no matter the outcome it's a win. And so I visualize this and I visualize actually the process of me, you know, writing those cold emails, you know, getting whatever, like I'm kind of like visualizing the worst case scenario, the most funny enough where it's like, You know, my cold email response rate is actually really high, surprisingly, but like I'm visualizing a much lower response rate because I'm like, I'm okay with one in a hundred, you know, I'm okay with one in a hundred, like it's not one in a hundred, but I'm okay with that.
And. Cause, cause again, like recently it's been like one in four or something like crazy high. And that kind of almost fucks with me because I'm like, I don't want it to be that high because then it's like, Oh, I only have to write, you know, five emails all week. And I'm good. Cause I have so many yeah.
Schedule, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. I hope that answers your question. Yeah, it's just about committing to the process, right? And the reason why it might fuck with you is because, you know, you are, you want the process to be what the process is, but the process is sometimes better than you expect it to be.
And you know, you have winning is sometimes more difficult than losing in the sense of when you're winning, when everyone's wants to talk to you. You know, you, you then say like, Oh, I'm winning I'm I'm on top of the world. I got this cold email outreach down. I'm I'm the best. I'm amazing. And then you're like, Oh wait, I stopped sending cold emails because I just thought I had done and I could figure it out.
So I think that's why the process is so important of like, okay, I'm going to send a hundred emails or, Oh, I'm going to do a hundred episodes, whatever it is for you, however you do it. And then just like, Keeping an eye on the results, but not finishing your process until you finish the process. I think that's so important.
And, um, it's cool that you are crushing it with the cold emails, man. Keep it up. Thank you, man. Thank you so much. And um, you know, I want to be cognizant of your time. Um, do you have any sort of final thoughts? No, man, this has been a lot of fun. I really appreciate you taking the time. I really appreciate the conversation.
It's very free flowing. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't a like an interview. I felt more like a conversation, which is cool. And I liked, I liked that and yeah, man, thank you for, for doing what you do. I appreciate it. Thank you, man. Thank you so much. And uh, you know, we'll link a bunch a of your stuff, you know, we'll link to it all below in the show notes.
Of course. And, um, yeah. Thank you so much for coming on Danny Miranda. Oh yeah. Thank you. My man, it's been a lot of fun. Cheers. Cheers. Thanks so much for listening. If you liked the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or Spotify and share the episode with someone. You know, it really helped me out a ton new podcasts coming out every Monday.
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