P.S:
This transcript was auto-generated.

SPEAKERS
Michelle Tremblay, Amr The Internet Guy

Amr The Internet Guy 00:17
Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 17 of online. Today we’re all about wellbeing and success. My guest today is a powerful speaker, a great motivator, and the real sensei. She has 18 years of experience in motivational speaking, training, coaching, and teaching. She’s focused on the well-being of kids and young girls, helping them not only feel better and more confident but more importantly, do better in life. We discuss her journey and the challenges she faced in order to switch to teaching martial arts online. I don’t know how he can do that, but she did it. We also discussed how martial arts sets you up for success in life. She works with kids most of the time, but she also has special programs for adults. These programs are designed to reduce stress, eradicate bullying, and achieve better engagement and creativity at the workplace. So without further ado, let’s meet Michelle Tremblay. Hey, Michelle, how are you?

Michelle Tremblay 01:17
Great to see you. Thank you for having me on your podcast.

Amr The Internet Guy 01:20
Thank you for being here. So the first thing is I realized you’re wearing something that has a specific name, and it’s for a specific purpose. Can you tell us what it is? And where you are,

01:33
um, it is a karate gi and the kids actually say it looks like my pajamas like I’ve just got out of bed. So it’s so comfortable. And it’s part of my martial arts training. karate is what I do. And I’ll stand up for you because I think a little look at this if you can see.

01:54
I’ve got my belt.

01:57
So I’ve been training in martial arts for about 18 years. And it’s been quite a journey of life and learning and a lot of blood sweat and tears changed how I do my business. How I you know, how do my personal life relationships, it’s just been so positive.

Amr The Internet Guy 02:19
Nice. So I can see behind you. Okay, the logo is not showing anymore, but it’s okay. Let’s not change the camera. Yeah, it’s empower lives. Yes. That’s the name of your company. Yeah. I, for people who don’t know how we know each other, like we’ve met through the Chamber of Commerce, in the tri cities here in British Columbia. And I noticed that you had a lot of stuff. It’s not just about martial arts, is it? Like there was so much going on, especially with helping kids and you were doing after school programs. And so let’s just tell people like a little bit of a, you know, give them an idea of what you do in general, which is, I’m sure it’s not just martial arts.

03:01
No. So my company offers key solutions to help shift the bullying culture, and to help with mental health and wellness, especially more prevalent right now. And what I started off with was my martial arts passion, but it expanded into working with a lot of different holistic avenues to really help the mind body spirit connection. And that’s yoga Qi Gong, acting, singing, dancing, and I don’t just do these programs, like you said, I have a lot of things I do. And I love to help people. And so empowering people is really important. And doing that in a way in the schools, in the workplace, and also different kinds of corporate events. So I’m pretty much all over to also speak to as well, which absolutely love. And the biggest rewards out of doing this kind of work is to see people make changes that are so positive for their lives for them to have their own breakthroughs for their kids to understand their anger, where it’s coming from, to be able to really help people move forward, and to be able to create the life that they want to create for themselves.

Amr The Internet Guy 04:16
Nice because like, I haven’t seen anyone getting into this from the angle of martial arts. And I know that, like I didn’t do martial arts myself. But when I was younger, I had friends who did karate or Taekwondo. And sometimes they were given books to read. And I’m thinking like, that’s a sport. Why do they have books? And then I realized because you have to condition your mind. It’s not it’s not just in the muscle, it’s in your head.

04:44
Yes. And it is and it’s about really one of the the creed that we say in martial arts is the ultimate name of karate is not lies not a victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its parts. appearance. So it’s about the development of who you are as a person, it’s never about fighting.

05:08
Go, boy,

05:10
I’m gonna teach you how to protect yourself. But this is not a place for you to fight, it’s and it really, truly builds confidence helps with self esteem, it helps you with relationships, it helps you become a great leader within yourself. And when you can get kids started a very young age, they will go through those teenage years and times that are really, you know, important parts in their lives with that kind of leadership and direction, coming from an outside role model, not just from the parent, because that can be really challenging,

Amr The Internet Guy 05:48
yeah, have that when we want to push them to do something they don’t want to do. The problem is sometimes kids, they don’t have the motivation to try something new. Like, there’s something that they would actually like, but they have to give themselves a chance to get to learn something new.

06:07
And it’s all about how it makes them feel. Once they feel good, and it’s fun. And there’s an opportunity for them to see a bit of progression with themselves and be around some friends that they can make, then they’re going to get hooked into it. And what I’ve done is been able to get into the schools and give the kids a taste of what my training is. So they just get a little bit of an experience. And then if they do want to go on to a martial arts club, then they can do that. But my work has been really relevant to helping them work with social emotional intelligence, helping them to build their resiliency, and being able to really just deal with some of the things that they struggle with, especially with the kids.

Amr The Internet Guy 06:52
Yeah, I think when when we first met you had the anti bullying program going on in the district and the school district here. Yes. And it was quite busy. Like I remember, you didn’t have time to breathe.

07:06
Yes. And I was I tell you, before the pandemic, I had all these speaking opportunities and places where I was able to really expand myself, it’s changed now. But it’s still a part of being able to move forward with a new way of of teaching. And the opportunities started just coming with my other instructors too, because they also have a flavor. And I can only be in five schools five days a week. So to duplicate myself was to think okay, well, how can I get more opportunities and build my business?

Amr The Internet Guy 07:45
So this is this is a good segue because, you know, scaling is something that many business owners struggle with. And the number one, the chief reason that we all struggle is that you can’t duplicate yourself. And sometimes it’s not as easy to find someone who’s passionate about the same things as you are. So yeah, how, like, what happened? How did you go about finding other Michels? Well, I don’t want to call them Michels. But like someone who’s as passionate, because I’m sure they all have their own flavor and way of doing stuff.

08:20
Yes, I have a great mentor. I think it’s all always in business, you need to have mentors to help you with your business. And he was the person that said to me, You can’t be doing this on the level where you need to, you need to step it up. And I have thought about how to bring a team on but I don’t want to just off for my own style, because not every kid is going to connect to martial arts. Some kids want to learn how to dance, some kids want to do yoga, some kids want to learn how to act. And that was a great idea that had come from this person, I thought, well, I’m gonna just, I’m thinking of someone right now. And I just approached them. They were going through a transition and they thought, hey, great, they were actually going through a self employment program. And they were interested, they thought, hey, I’d love to try this out. And it just started to morph into its own thing. But other people started to hear about my company and said, Hey, I’m looking for other opportunities. And so contract work came through, there are other ideas and, and different kinds of places that we could do this. And they started to teach in all the different schools too, as well. So it was just, it was amazing. And I believe, too, that you’re going to attract the right people, to your organization. You have to really be conscious and aware of what your values are, what your mission is, what you believe in and obviously see how people work with you and work works, what doesn’t work. I’m so proud of my team. They’re amazing. And they are there. They’re consistently moving with me, as I’ve gone through this pandemic, I haven’t lost, you know any of them. So it’s pretty exciting. And they’re doing other things to help with where they’re at to, but they know that I’ve been driving the ship, and they want it that way. They want someone to leave.

Amr The Internet Guy 10:26
So what happens, like, you know, when you’re working at schools, and you have your location, and you’ve got kids every day, then you’re asked to close because of the pandemic. What really happened back there in 2020?

10:43
Well, I think for any one of us, it was a big shock to our, our world in our personal life of how we were going to just even, you know, interact and stay positive, moving forward with so much uncertainty, I was very, you know, really disappointed and frustrated and felt like I was losing everything I had built up into that point. And there was no way in going back or making it any different. So I had to, like, a lot of us have pivot, and our organization that we belong to called do what you love, which is the platform I use, he had a meeting right away and said, Listen, I can offer you guys an opportunity to teach online. And what do you think, and I jumped at it, even though I had no clue on how I was gonna do this. I’m someone that loves a challenge. And I thought, well, why not? A few others weren’t too interested in stepping forward that way, it’s pretty can be pretty scary. If you’re not gonna have a camera.

Amr The Internet Guy 11:57
So I remember we were discussing, should we use zoom or Google meeting? Or like, what kind of like over live streaming software would work? And I think you you were asking about microphones and things like that. So what did you do? Well, I

12:15
ended up using a different location, because right now I’m in my spare a different space. But I needed to find a bigger space. So of course, got on Facebook and said, Hey, does anybody have a space? And who’s going to have a space and COVID that they’re going to give me? Yeah, but I have an amazing group of people in my community of business owners, and they just one person. Incredible just said, Hey, come and use our space downstairs. And I just set stuff up. And I started to practice my sessions online with my team to give me feedback. And I thought, Well, what do you think and, and we were playing around with different things and thought, Well, how am I going to do this? Like, it was so obscure, and I wanted it to be not boring. I wanted it to be teachable and entertaining. Yeah, engaging, and all those things that could still come through a camera. And so what I found out is that it was connecting people. And that’s really what they want. It was they wanted me and I was still have people through the pandemic, where I had these contracts in person said, well, could you do this online? I said, Oh, my gosh, I’m going to be teaching martial arts online.

Amr The Internet Guy 13:33
That’s the question that jumps into mind. Yeah. How do you teach martial arts? I mean, okay. Singing acting. Yeah. Martial Arts online. So tell us a little bit more about that. Because some things like, okay, you can watch some, I don’t know, yoga videos, for example, on YouTube. And you can work with the trainers that you’re watching and do the same moves. But martial arts usually in my head, you need two people at least. And there’s a little like, I don’t know, it’s kind of a, I don’t want to call it a contact sport. I’m a bit ignorant, but like, how do you do martial arts on high,

14:12
you get very creative. So what happened is, you can do a lot of the fitness warm ups, push ups, sit ups, things like that. And what I had to do was think of a way for them to do like a wrist release, someone grabbing you, and create a way where they could just kind of do the move and show the move. But what ended up happening organically was the parents were off to the side watching. And of course,

14:48
you ended up having a bigger audience. Yes, exactly.

14:51
And they were they were all intrigued about what was happening happening. So I thought, well, why not? And they did. They they stepped in I said, Hey, why don’t you just grab, you know, your son’s wrist, and I’m going to show you how to do it, I couldn’t show it on anybody. Because I can’t, I could not touch anybody either with COVID. So I would use like a pool noodle, like this,

15:13
yeah,

15:14
to like, pretend it was my arm and use it for blocking and things like that. But the parents were the ones that really engaged. And what we found out is that there was this bonding experience that was happening between the parents and the kids. And they were just doing it too, because they thought, Hey, I’m gonna get a workout as well, why not? And some of the parents were gradual entry learners. So some of their kids were not able to be in schools. And we were able to meet the needs of some of those kids that that was happening. So I watched, you know, a lot of different kinds of a lot of different people that are researched online to see what they were doing. Even if they were doing it in person, I thought, well, I can kind of duplicate this. And it just you take risks and teaching? Yeah. Is this going to work? Is it going to fail, and you will laugh about it. And I can tell you, there’s a lot of forgiving parents out there when they, you know, you’re trying to do something, you’re like, oh, that didn’t quite work. But what you realize is that it’s your energy. And it’s also your ability to make it simple. And articulate it and have the parents give you a feedback while you’re doing it, too. That just just became its own experience that I never thought. I never thought because people said to me, Well, I don’t you know, I don’t know if it’s gonna work. Are you sure? And I didn’t doubt that it wouldn’t. I just had to find a way.

Amr The Internet Guy 16:51
So for every participant, you ended up having maybe one or two extra? Yes.

16:57
And the feedback I got from the parents was like, well, this is awesome for them to do it with theirs. So I would say, okay, we’re gonna punch through paper today, and your parents going to hold the paper, and I would show them, or we’re going to use chairs, or we’re going to use a garbage bag for something we’re going to do, or we’re going to use a pillow instead of

Amr The Internet Guy 17:19
this. So we have to be very creative, since they can’t come in person. Yeah. And then I think the best part of this is that they found a partner to practice with, at home. Yes, like when they thought they’re gonna be doing it alone. And then suddenly dad wants to join in? Or do

17:38
you know, all kids want to have their parents engage with them in some way to spend time with Yeah. And it became an opportunity for a great experience between they could talk about it afterwards, practice the move,

Amr The Internet Guy 17:51
I think kids can hit the parents. That’s good. Like, they don’t have another chance at doing Oh, no, no, no, sorry. I’m practicing.

18:00
Yeah, but I’m sorry. But you know, punch me in the nose. It didn’t mean to, here’s a few things. But when we start our martial arts classes, and always, it’s always about safety, and it’s always about being able to know that, as we talked about, at the beginning, it’s always the last resort, but it’s a good thing to have. And parents love that they love the kitten to know their kids was gonna walk home from school one day, and if something happened, you wouldn’t know what to do.

Amr The Internet Guy 18:28
And it’s, I think it’s confidence, like no one is going out looking for someone to fight or, you know, hoping that something bad happens so that I can use my skills. No, but it gives me the added confidence that, you know, we’re we’re lucky because we live in a safe neighborhood, and we actually live in a safe country. But you never know, you may find a situation where you need some skills. So

18:56
I’ve had different experiences. I would never thought things like that would have happened to me either. Yeah. And I’m glad I knew what I knew. And you know, just even walking from the pool where I live and hearing someone making, you know, crazy noises and sounds and I’m like, this guy is really not all there. Yeah, being him. And just knowing the first thing that I want to do is get as far as what away as I can. And make sure that I’m protecting myself by walking a little bit faster, maybe even running in those little things like we just don’t you just don’t know. But you always want to be aware of what’s going on around you and listen, not have your headphones in.

Amr The Internet Guy 19:45
I was just gonna say that. Yeah,

19:48
because you’re walking across the street, something can happen. You’re not listening, and it’s great if you’re going for I go for a run or I workout at the stadium and I have my headphones in When I running, but there’s people all around that stadium, like it’s a congregation

Amr The Internet Guy 20:04
inside the stadium, you’re fine. But like I see kids, for example, skateboarding with their wireless earbuds. And you can’t even hear if a car is coming behind you. And oh, you know, you speak with them. And they say, Oh, we don’t know, we don’t do it on the road, we’re on the pavement or whatever. But you still need to figure out your surrounding, like what’s happening. It’s not just if something is happening to you. It’s also something is happening in general, like, maybe you’re the one who can help somebody else you like, you have to hear what’s going on.

20:39
Exactly. And we always need to be aware, and that’s probably the biggest thing is awareness. We’re so tuned out with anything else if we’re not paying attention. Martial Arts teaches you that focus, control the body, we meditate, just right at the beginning and the end. And that’s to control ourselves in that state. You’re standing in your power, but you have an awareness by hearing listening your body, it’s powerful to have that ability to just recognize that, as you said, somebody else could have a situation where you see something, and I never want to put myself in danger. I’m never gonna go over there. If people are fighting and say, Hey,

Amr The Internet Guy 21:27
Alright, boys.

21:31
I, people ask me that all the time. And I’m, I’m like, No, you know, I will use my training if I have to with someone physically crosses my boundary. But I will not go in a crowd. And this happened a couple years ago, I was filming something. And there was a crowd of teenage kids that decided that they wanted to do something had no clue what was going on, in a baseball diamond. And within about five minutes, two boys took their shirts off and they started fighting. Wow. And I was standing there my karate gi. And I thought, Oh, my gosh, what am I gonna do? Because I felt as a bystandard. Yeah,

Amr The Internet Guy 22:11
this took them off. Yeah.

22:14
It’s obviously gonna go run in there and say, Okay, I’m gonna clean everybody’s clock in here, you know? Yeah, that’s not gonna solve anything. So what I said, I said, Hey, you need to stop. And they just kind of looked at me with that look like who are you, lady? I was this. And the next thing I thought of was, Hey, I’m going to call the police. And that’s what happened. They just took off. And it was like, Wow, it was amazing. And that’s the power that we have to be aware and to help without, like I said, I’m not going to put myself at risk.

Amr The Internet Guy 22:50
Of course, yeah. I mean, people think oh, martial artists are going to jump into any fight they see.

22:57
No, you can sense and you know, things as you do more training, you start to understand and feel and know. And you listen to your intuition. I tell kids about their gut feeling. Listen to that, what’s going on inside you. And school can be it can be challenging for kids to deal with all sorts of personalities. But the younger that we get children with this information, and teach them how to feel good about themselves stand up for themselves, set boundaries, all these skills that they need to have, they’re going to be prepared as they get older, for things that are always going to come at us that we need to work on.

Amr The Internet Guy 23:39
So my next question was going to be about adults, because we’ve talked about kids most of the time. And I feel we also need some of this.

23:49
Yes.

23:52
Yes, I was able to take what I was doing in the schools, and I knew that adults needed this because when I started to do research, this was three years ago. Actually, four years ago, I was told that w CV or WorkSafe bc they get about 30 to 40 phone calls today on bullying

Amr The Internet Guy 24:21
in the workplace.

24:23
Yeah, every day. Wow. And that numbers probably even skyrocketed.

Amr The Internet Guy 24:27
Oh, so you can report workplace bullying to WorkSafe bc? I didn’t know that.

24:33
Yes, yes. And they will actually do an investigation. So you need to get all your paperwork together. A lot of people don’t know those things, as you said, but I wanted to get some part of hard facts about this. And what bullying is and what there’s all types and different scenarios, lots of power struggles with staff and someone in charge. leadership and all different dynamics. And I didn’t really want to come in, because it’s a hard thing to come in just when there may be a bullying situation going on. So my approach was to come in with health and wellness, mental health and wellness, because mental health is affected by bullying. Yeah. And I was able to, I have a great bank that I deal with van city, shout out to those guys. And they said, Hey, why don’t you come in and do some stuff with our staff. And so I started to do some sessions with them. And it was physical, because it’s important to be able to physically move the body. So some of it was having them, like hit the focus pad and grab each other and like a wrist release, or do some breathing exercises, I taught yoga, I did a little bit of chew gum, which is like Tai Chi. And I incorporate some of the life skills pieces in it. How do you deal with your anger? How do you deal with your emotion? How do you what do you do when you’re struggling with conflict? How do you communicate? A lot of that is about regulating yourself. And to be able to understand when you’re pushing yourself too hard, all different things that are in that funnel of how we function and how we’re not functioning well. And what can we can do. And the feedback was just amazing. I just loved it, it was great to go into a setting like that. And what I saw was another opportunity that kept expanding. And people loved it because it was different. I was doing something that was a hook with a bit of the martial arts that show up like this. And they thought, oh my god, what are we going to be doing today? Breaking boards or Katyal to my boss, like, I don’t know, if that’s gonna go over very well. What happened was, it became a, it’s just magical in ways where it was people talking to people and saying, you need to have this person come in and talk about mental health, you need this person to come in and talk about this to our leadership team. I did an amazing session each session down in Vancouver at the hotel Vancouver. And it was with about 40, financial advisors, managers, and we talked about accountability and leadership. And they love the flavor up because it was something different than I’ve got them up and moving. So when you’re working with people, you have to find a way to connect, but the brain needs to move. You need to shift, it’s hard to sit for an hour listen to someone without in 10 minutes to get up and move unless we’re maybe engaged completely in what’s going on. But most people need to just do a little bit of shift in that. And so also we’re working with their brain to be able to make these connections. And then through the body it was allowing them to to say gosh, I actually feel good. When i or i I breathe. I didn’t realize how stressed out I was. And simple tools like that can change how we function in a day. And we all want to feel better,

Amr The Internet Guy 28:33
of course. And I This brings me to the question of, you know, if somebody wants to teach online, because we’ve discussed this during one of our calls before, the difference between something that is pre recorded, that you can consume on your own, and having a live session, be it a one to one or a group. And I’d love to hear your view on this because I know that not everything can be pre recorded.

29:09
I personally am someone who’s very hands on. For me to give you the best quality of what I want to do is to be able to see you to correct you to give you positive feedback to engage you to make the connection. And that’s the biggest aspect of why pre recorded stuff. We see it on YouTube. We may not be doing it correctly, we can hurt ourselves and put ourselves out for a couple of weeks with an injury.

Amr The Internet Guy 29:44
Dr. Google, yeah, great.

29:47
The biggest part of what I found with what I was doing was the connection. And because we’re in a pandemic and we can’t sometimes even have the people We’ve had in our lives, people were looking for a way to connect and realizing that, oh, gosh, I’m also getting a workout too. And this was awesome. They didn’t even expect it. Yeah. And they wanted to engage more in it, because it was fulfilling a need inside of them. And that is an important part of our mental health. We need to be connected to others, we also need to be on our own and doing our own thing. But what I found is that the ability to even ask a parent, how are you doing? I had them email afterwards and said, I couldn’t believe you asked me how I was doing. I almost wanted to cry.

30:47
Nobody has ever asked.

30:48
And I was like, wow, isn’t it the simplest things for us that are so important, and we’re realizing these things. And it was through a lens like this? Yeah. So we can still feel each other when we’re not even in a room. But when we’re on camera, and I was able to make that a part of my workshops moving forward. And it was always the last part of it, it was like, it was always great for me to have you as my instructor to engage with you. For you to know me, for you to find out what I’m struggling with for you to give me the positive encouragement that I need right now. And to also like, you know, kick their butt in a way where they need to get

31:36
some tough love.

31:37
We all need to be doing physical activity. Get out and walk, get out and do something and to have a person that can be your coach. It’s powerful. I my martial arts changed my life because my sensei was on me. He knew my potential, and he wouldn’t let me get away with it. And I, I’m so grateful for those people in my life. Because sometimes, excuse me. Sometimes we can’t see those things in ourselves.

Amr The Internet Guy 32:18
Yes. Take someone else to believe in you. To get you to think about yourself sometimes like you’re shy, or I don’t know, like, sometimes I have a 13 year old girl, you know that? Yeah. And sometimes she says, strange, like things that they’re not strange in their own. But I find them strange as a parent, but of course, because I’m not thinking like a teenager anymore.

32:46
Yes,

Amr The Internet Guy 32:47
she thinks that sometimes she’s too shy to show what she knows. Like, she doesn’t want to appear like a person who knows this or that. Because, like, it’s kind of almost like a fear of success. And I feel like what, why? Like, well, we all have our own self, if you do something, and you know, you do it well, what’s wrong with sharing it with the world, but I think at this age, I don’t know, they’re afraid to be criticized or bullied or, you know,

33:19
and they need that connection to the parent to continue to push them as they you know, share those kind of things. These insecurities are sometimes a limiting belief about ourselves exactly what is sabotaging behavior.

Amr The Internet Guy 33:33
And sometimes I cannot bust that limiting belief, only a third party like you can, because your connection with them is a little different than having fun. There’s other peers there. So there’s no, it’s kind of a safer environment, because everyone there is kind of doing it for different reasons. But they’re all kind of agreeing that this is good for them. As opposed to the regular school environment.

34:04
Exactly. And even as an adult to we need, we need those people. If we’ve never done something course they’ll need it. And I was one of the most shyest kids you would ever have met. And it was through life and experiences and then my training and then other things where I started to realize I could do anything. But I still started new things did stuff was on camera on fat consciousness any good. You know, how am I speaking, the more that you do it, you just have to do it. And you have to be yourself. You’re gonna have some people that like you. Some people aren’t and that’s the reality of it. But with your daughter, I have two young boys that I do some training with. And I just recently asked them to do some volunteer work and they’re quite quiet and a little bit Shai, and the experience of them through that. And then afterwards, the mom said to me, she couldn’t believe it. She said, like, he came home. And he’s like, yeah, Mom, this is awesome. And again, you’re giving me

Amr The Internet Guy 35:15
accomplishment? Yeah,

35:16
totally another opportunity for him to be the older kid to be in charge. Yeah, it’s a safe place to feel empowered. And with my training I always had that I go back to is that I had a teacher that continued to push me, I would take some risk, but then I can come back. And he would correct me. But he would never put me down. Yes, he would, he would consistently say like, you could do better at this. You can. And I knew it was coming from his heart there was it wasn’t from a place of being aggressive, or, yeah. But the honest truth is, and I’ve heard this many different times, we need those people in our lives, it takes a community to raise our kids. So all different experiences, and I’ve been through different training with other adults. And they had one specific person in their life that influenced them so directly, and what they had said to them in a PE class, because they would always show up late and feel like working out, this is boring. And the teacher looked at him one day and said, You know what, john, you’re lazy. And he looked at him, and he was like, he was shocked. And within about three or four weeks, that’s when he started to, you know, decide with that with someone else that said, you should just try martial arts, that’s when he went into martial arts. And that part change, but it was that comment, he didn’t want to be that person anymore. And so that was an outside person who knows what his parents were saying at home. Yeah. But that can really, you know, that can either go one way or the other for someone. But if we have respect for that person, it can change how we want to be, we want to be a good person inside, we want to be better. We just need someone to believe in us and to give us that push. And consistently, you know, be there if we’re going to fall? Because we’re going to make mistakes,

Amr The Internet Guy 37:30
of course, yeah. And this is how we learn kids

37:33
in the workplace, if all you ever hear is negativity,

Amr The Internet Guy 37:38
yeah, you’re going to be soaked in it. Yeah. And it will turn you to a negative person as well. Like, even if you’re the most positive person in the world, just being in that environment. Like we, in a lot of cases, I mean, I I worked in the corporate world for all my life. Only the past four to five years, I’ve been working for myself, but and I was lucky because in most of the places where I worked, it was a positive experience. But those negative like the times when I had the negative experience, it’s still with me till today. Like, you know, like when I had a bad boss, his photo is ingrained in my you know, brain. Every time I see a bad boss somewhere else, even if it’s not my boss, I automatically relate to that person. Because like, in the dictionary, when you open the bad boss page, there’s his photo right there. Yes, we don’t realize I have had my

38:40
Yes, someone can really affect how you how you feel about yourself.

Amr The Internet Guy 38:48
Yeah, and you should add it. But sometimes it’s hard to control because you don’t know you’re not aware.

38:56
Exactly. And you don’t know yourself, you don’t know what you can say you don’t know if you’re going to and what I hear often and bullying is like I didn’t want to say anything because I don’t want to get fired.

Amr The Internet Guy 39:07
Yeah. You don’t know it’s bullying as well. Sometimes you think, oh, maybe they’re just having a bad day. Okay, we don’t. Everyone can have a bad day. But that doesn’t mean you take it out on somebody else. Like if you’re having a real bad day, don’t go to war.

39:23
Yeah. No, it’s part of it. And it’s, it’s over a period of time It keeps happening. So it’s not just one time we’re talking continuous and we’re talking a target. Yeah, or the target. And that behavior is aggressive. It’s, you know, remarks, comments, humiliation, putting the person down violating their rights, their dignity, and treating them. You know that you would look at how they would get away with this and people will look at and people will turn their head and go, I didn’t hear that. I don’t want to say anything, I don’t want to get in trouble. Yeah. And then it becomes normal. The issue is that is

Amr The Internet Guy 40:11
the other people in the room. Don’t take action either. Because sometimes the person who’s being bullied is vulnerable enough not to be able to actually face the bully, without help, and then the others who are supposed to help or just not doing anything, and we’re not asking people to stand up and fight, or insult somebody or you know, call the boss names or whatever, or the person who’s bullying but we’re just asking them to say like, Hey, you know what? This is unwarranted. Like, we don’t really believe that this person is x or whatever. So you know, we,

40:49
yes. And sometimes you might, that’s where you have to, obviously be aware of what you can do to help and what you can do what you can’t do. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Your HR person should be the person that you can reach out to for this. And also, like I said, W CB is an important one WorkSafe BC is part of that. And to be able to understand that you’re not alone. And to recognize that what it’s

Amr The Internet Guy 41:19
saying WorkSafe BC, most social media guys, don’t go on rant on Twitter, or like you, you put yourself in, in a bad position unnecessarily. And you could lose your right. Because it will be seen as an aggression done by you. Especially if the person’s name or the company name. But the best way is to let HR know and speak with WorkSafe BC and also practice something to release your own stress, because whatever happens to you is, is stressful. So yes,

41:55
yes. And that leader, you know, who knows what’s gone on behind the scenes, and you need to hear both sides of the story? Yes. And you need to know whether it is bullying or not. It needs to be defined that way. But that’s

Amr The Internet Guy 42:11
why awareness is very important. I mean, it’s good that some companies now are having some of these sessions whereby they get to understand their environment, and to work on, you know, having better connections at the workplace. And at the same time getting a workout. I mean, I like this kind of blend, that it’s it’s not only the body is the body and the soul body mind. And so I don’t know holistic.

42:35
Yes. These things.

42:38
Yes. And that’s what people love. But we have to understand how we speak to each other. And if you put 100 people in a room, and you put someone who’s the aggressor, they will find that person. Yeah,

Amr The Internet Guy 42:53
yeah. Just by their body language, even if they try to hide it. Yeah, I know, because he’s got sometimes it’s his nature. And sometimes these also, I mean, I don’t forget that the person who is an aggressor, probably needs help more than the others. Because they don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know why they’re doing it in most cases.

43:14
Yeah, they may think that, you know, I’m just passionate. Well, you’re not passionate, if your voice is like Mach 10, you’re yelling, and this is how you’re dealing with it on a regular basis. And everybody body’s afraid of you. That’s not leadership. That does not work that shuts people down. And right away, the brain shuts down and it’s hard for them to function they’re in fear. You need

Amr The Internet Guy 43:41
to or or indifference, you can create indifference, like, you know what, I’m just gonna work for as much as they pay me, I don’t care. I this is the I used to talk about engagement in a previous life, before it became all tech. And the reason number one for including engagement is not having, you know, encouragement, or empowerment. Yes. Like, you know, they do a mundane job, they do it day to day, it’s boring. And they don’t actually see how they’re contributing to the betterment of their workplace because no one is telling them anything. Yes. And they could be playing a pivotal role like, in one of my past jobs, I managed the call center. It’s a very stressful environment, because people are shouting at my agents all day long, like nobody would call to say thank you, they only call when they have a problem. So my guys are at the end of being shouted at and, you know, people complaining at them all day long. So we needed to find ways to actually make this like a good working environment despite of the nature of the job. And there were Some things that we could be flexible with, and there’s some others, we can’t like, if, you know, if, if you’re working from 7am to 3:30pm, or whatever, seven, the phone’s gonna ring, right, you can’t come at 705. So I, I will not let you do that, right. But if you need to take a couple of days off for whatever you want, that’s fine. Like, you know, as long as I know who’s the replacement, and like, the scheduling is done, right? That’s okay. Like, you know, if I can help you with something like we celebrate our birthdays, and bring the cake and whatever, and after work hours, we will sit together and have a little bit of fun, you know, or we play a little bit of soccer here and there, girls, we’re not playing soccer. So we had to also find like, other things to do, like ping pong, or whatever, something that everyone can participate. And yeah, and some other call centers that were better funded than us, they had massage chairs.

45:59
Nice.

46:02
That’s great. And so you know, those are important parts of being able to help your team grow is to create an environment that they want to come to every day.

Amr The Internet Guy 46:13
Exactly. It’s like we were having fun at work, even though the calls themselves were not fun. But also, we would enjoy solving these problems. So So the challenge was that someone is going to call and complain. Number one, we want to have empathy, not sympathy. So that it doesn’t affect you as a person, you don’t absorb it in yourself, that it’s complaining, complaining, complaining all the time. Number two, is the challenge that they give you during that call that makes it worth it. Because like, you want to go now and find the solution. And then you call back the person with a solution and hear the sigh of relief. And then like, hey, we’ve done it, we’ve turned it around. Yeah. And that was that was like this is something that I it angers me when I’m as a customer, I reached out to customer support somewhere. Yeah. And I feel that they’re not either they’re not trained, or not empowered to take any decisions whatsoever. To me is not only bad customer service, you’re putting that person on the line for being depressed because they will see lots of stuff that they cannot solve, because they don’t have no one has given them the power or the authority to change anything. So what’s the point? Why have them? Why have a call center or an email support or whatever? That is just like a passing the buck? You know what I mean? Like they’re not? There’s no point. And I think it’s awareness, because people don’t know people who put these rules and how it works and whatever they don’t understand any better. Like,

47:52
I know. And we have to think about, you know, people come into work with a lot of things going on in their personal life that we don’t know about. So as I mentioned, one thing is to have empathy, and it is empathy towards each other and understanding and be compassionate about what someone’s may be going through. How could you help?

Amr The Internet Guy 48:09
Yeah, exactly. What can I do to make it better? Without putting myself at risk, or my job at risk, of course, so it’s not exactly,

48:19
yeah. And when you see that, from leadership, when it comes down to those skills, you start to feel that that person truly cares about you. There’s something about that for our workplace when we know that our boss has our back. And you feel like hey, I want to work for you. Because you really truly care about my welfare. My family. I’ve seen incredible leaders do amazing having your

Amr The Internet Guy 48:43
back for real man, you know, it’s not for show.

48:47
No, yeah. Not just because, you know, I’m supposed to be doing this as I want to look cool. Yeah, exactly. And impressed, you know, impress my friends. But your if you’re taking on that role, that role is you also are that role model to your team. And they’re going to come to you with all sorts of things. You need to be able to support them have your own support to outside of that, but it’s your character that’s going to shine. And know that time that their father passed away, and you said you know what, take as much time as you need.

Amr The Internet Guy 49:27
Yeah, exactly. Instead of you better be back to work on the new face all the like the heat for Oh, we’re understaffed and you’re letting this person take? Yes. But like, guess what they’re doing? They get back?

49:39
Yes,

Amr The Internet Guy 49:40
they’ll work their butt off. Yeah. And I believe that you need to give you ask them to stay longer or whatever, at any given time when you have like, you know, an overflow of things to solve that stay around. They’re not going to ask I mean, I’m not saying they should not earn over time, but what I’m saying They’re not gonna demand overtime, they’re not gonna like it. When they see that something needs doing, they’ll do it. Because like, you need it right? When you say you need this, I’ll do anything for you. Because when I want something, you’ll do it for me. Yeah, we know you, like you’re gonna do it for sure. So that is this trust. And those bridges between, you know, everyone at the workplace, and it makes it worthwhile.

50:28
Well, let’s see where you spend a lot of your life.

50:32
So why not more than home? Yeah.

50:34
Then there being I mean, it’s different than it is now. Because we’re doing what we’re doing online. However, there’s, it’s still a connection, you still need to have that support. And at times you have to your team will be vulnerable with you? And how are you going to create a space for them not to come down on them, but to have those skills, those skills sometimes are not taught?

Amr The Internet Guy 50:59
Yeah, Devin, I don’t want to sound cocky or anything, but like, sometimes they’re just acquired. It’s a, it’s the life experience. And that’s why this is something important as well, because when we’re talking about coaching and training, every coach and trainer, they have a little bit of themselves in what they teach. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing it, right, it’s not. So. So this gives me like the segue to go back to the pre recorded and not pre record or not record the sessions. Because as I understand it correctly, the things that makes it work best is that personal connection, which people will not get out of a YouTube video, or a pre recorded session, which is okay, if it’s complemented by an in person over zoom or, or some other tool. But just to do a course on your own this like video based in some topics, not in all topics is not going to give you the same benefit.

52:09
Right. And it will take your level of what you’re offering to that next that next space for yourself. Sometimes, like you said, there’s time that we don’t have. But what I find most with people is they want to be able to connect to build a relationship. We do courses throughout the time, you’re going to get to know someone, and what I offer, you’re going to dig deep into sometimes some of these things that are going to pop up like a parent said to me, oh my gosh, Michelle, thank you so much for talking about conflict, because I really didn’t know what to say to my nine year old boy. And I knew that like I was on the right track in person to do it. It could still be online without it. Yeah. But in the in the essence, you

Amr The Internet Guy 52:56
can read about conflict, you can watch a video about conflict, but it’s like the real real life. Yeah. So I think like, if I’m talking about, for example, my industry, trying to help people to do more business online. So if I’m talking about coaches, trainers, consultants, yes, you could have your stuff online, and you can pre record some videos and and have people consume them without you being there. Because that’s also a good way to scale. Because there’s only one you write. And if you want to teach a million people around the globe, you’re not going to be able to do it without having things pre recorded. But to have the maximum benefit and the maximum effect and to touch the lives of those people who you want to teach. You still must complement whatever you have online on its own by lifestyle sessions, where you get to know the person because guess what, people don’t want to don’t just want to solve a problem. They want to solve their specific problem. And if you don’t hear from them, like if there’s no way to have this two way communication, you as a teacher trainer consultant wouldn’t be able to solve the problem 100% because you kind of this part of that problem that you don’t know about, you’re probably solving the general, the generic, yes, part of the problem, but not the personal aspect of it.

54:30
And everybody’s unique, and every situation is going to be different and things are going to pop pop up in the live session that would not pop up in a pre recorded session. And it it needs to be relevant. So I’ve done a lot of different training. I do a lot of different training sessions for my own personal growth. And they’re all like, if they’re with a group, and it starts out with five weeks of training and teaching I’m able to share some of them. I don’t want to be engaging. I’d rather just be watching, whether it’s the slideshow, but there’s always questions or q&a. And then the coach will follow up with me and say, you know, what did you think of this? And how do you feel about this and, and there’s always an engagement because I want to attain a goal for myself. So maybe for my kid, it’s I want to help them deal with their anger, or I want them to have more confidence, I hear that all the time. Or I want my team to help them deal with mental health right now, then, you know, with that, we want to be able to solve a problem, as he said, but still have a personal touch, just a hybrid.

Amr The Internet Guy 55:42
It’s a hybrid system. I don’t want to say it’s not the hybrid online offline. Now. It’s hybrid online, online. There’s no offline any more. And until the weather gets better, and we can all do it outside. But what it is good now, but what I’m meant to say is like, online, recorded and online live, so that that’s the hybrid I’m talking about. So we could we could give like we, in the elearning industry, we had another name, we didn’t call it hybrid, I think we called it. I can’t remember the term now. It will come to me later. Something which was instructor led,

56:25
yeah.

Amr The Internet Guy 56:26
That sessions with videos that are ready. So what do you do you send them the lesson like you send them for example, lesson one, they have to watch two or three videos, they’re all short, like kind of 15 minutes or 10 minutes each. And then at the end of the week, you do a live session with them. So it’s a live q&a. And then you can ask them about their experience. And usually do this with a small group, you can do it with 200 people on a webinar or a zoom call, like it’s not gonna work. Because you need time for each person to actually tell you what their thinking was, the question was the problem. And then what you do is, when you send them the lesson to now you know, the feedback from lesson one, so in your next live session, you can address the stuff that you didn’t address the first time, so it keeps getting better and better.

57:18
And I know there’s some organizations that I’ll do a lot of pre recorded, like fitness classes they offer online where they can go into like a library. Yeah, and they can pull those out. But all I often hear is what was so engaging in my martial arts that bring this back was actually is the actual experience of having your sensei say, you know, give me five more push ups right then and there. And it was a different feeling that and having that motivation, instead of it just being okay, well, I’m just gonna do this on my own.

Amr The Internet Guy 57:53
I think we hate to admit it, but we, there are some things that we have to get pushed in order to accomplish.

58:01
Yes,

Amr The Internet Guy 58:02
I’m one of those Actually, yes, there’s so many things in my head that I want to do. But if I don’t get the right motivation, and sometimes the motivation is a push, like a little bit, if there’s also like a very fine line between me looking at that push as something that I’m never gonna do. Because the way it was said to me is I perceive as negative. Or the way it was said to me was motivational, because whoever said it, is practically saying, I believe you can do more like, I know you have it in you, yes, you’re better than that you can do better if you just push yourself a little bit. And it’s kind of because there’s a cliche of in business, even as a solo entrepreneur, and I’m sure you’ve seen that, you know, many people would just talk about the hustle. But there’s a there’s a good talk about the hustle which is personalized. Someone who knows you like your coach or your business coach or life coach working with you, who knows you and your personality and your motivators. As opposed to watching gotta know Gary Vee talking about, Oh, you got to send your offer to I don’t know 1 million people, because it’s a game of numbers that doesn’t excite me. There are some things like if I hear a coach for example, talking, saying even mentioning the word seven figures, I switch off completely, because I don’t believe that everyone is out there to become a millionaire. That like the figures do not motivate everyone. They may motivate some Yes, of course we want to make money but like it’s not the main thing it comes from doing what you love. Yes. And and, you know, I don’t know we’re fortunate like we don’t go hungry, whatever, but like i i don’t think about money as the maybe it’s my Ah, I don’t know as the main motivator, maybe when I was younger in my 20s probably like, proving myself and making more. Because I want to get married, I want to have kids, I want to have a car and I want to have a house and whatever. But you soon realize when you reach my age now that is like, Oh, it’s not about money. It’s about leaving your mark. on this planet, he’s kind of it definitely gonna miss you when you’re gone. That’s the thing. That’s how I think of

1:00:28
it while and see it’s an impact. And I have a really great assessment tool I took many years ago called Strength Finders, if anybody ever gets a chance. What does it cool? Thanks. finders.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:00:39
Strength Finders,

1:00:40
yes. Okay. And what it did is it really made me realize that the number one strength I have is called significance. And I innately have to make a difference. Because that’s who I am. So everything I’ve done in my life, whether I worked at a bank, yeah, the fact that I ran, you know, other companies that I did, too, I was always in a position to lead, to teach and to heal, and know what the role was, I was still making an impact. And it was part of what I was here to do. And throughout lots of growth and lots of change. I continue to do that, because I know what my role is. And too, and that’s where you have to get to know who you are, what you like, what you don’t like, what,

Amr The Internet Guy 1:01:31
yes, what

1:01:31
you what you’re passionate about. But to me, the most rewarding thing was having a parent or having an adult or having someone I impacted years ago saying, Do you remember that conversation you had with me at the gym, and you said that I was more than just being someone that I was, you know, they were kind of just running like cleaning the benches and things and it was kind of a start for them? And I told them, I said, you know, you’ve got such a great personality. So why don’t you come and do some work with me. And they did. And it changed how they saw themselves and they were able to grow from that place. But it was making a difference it was being making a change for someone helping them being that person in the world that can just reach out and change someone’s life just like that. That’s what we do. And that’s very important. I

Amr The Internet Guy 1:02:28
think it’s somewhere behind you. Your head is covering it now. Is it only you can be you or something like that? What’s behind you? No One No One is you. That’s your power? Yes. Yeah, that that’s it’s very important. For me, this is like, an important message for every entrepreneur out there as well. Because we become entrepreneurs for a reason. Like, if you, if you went on and ventured into becoming a business owner to make money, chances are, you’re not going to make any, are you gonna make some, but with a very high stress level, and you will not be happy. So, but I’m sure that the vast majority of solo entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general, even those who manage multi million or billion dollar companies got into it because of an idea, they had to change something. And I don’t want to say change the world. I mean, it could eventually change the world. But in general, you saw an opportunity, you saw something that you felt your personality, and your skills, and some of your experience would help change it for the better. And then you get you got into it. And and this is the power that we have, as you know, individuals, and also collectively if we get together and because I hear I hear the word mastermind a lot. But most of the people who say it and most of the emails that are received are just cliche stuff. They’re not really like in in general, people are sending out these emails, don’t even understand what a mastermind is. And I don’t claim to understand myself, but my idea of it is that two brains are better than one, you know, if we collaborate instead of compete. And this is funny, because I work like somehow during the past year, more than 50% of my clients are web designers. So we’re supposed to be competing with each other like we’re we’re supposed to be like, Oh no, you either use me or use them. Right? That somehow we started to collaborate together and I’m loving it. Because we bring different skills and different passions to the table. Like there are many people out there doing design who are very visual, very creative, and I’m very functional. So I take care of the stuff behind the scenes and the back end that nobody sees the stuff that powers a website. Write the stuff that makes the email, when somebody fills a form on a website, it makes the email reach the final destination without ending up in spam as an example, or the stuff that makes a website load fast, not necessarily as a visual, I mean, I can handle the visual, but I enjoy the functionality better. So when I work with another designer, who wants to do like great designs that don’t want to worry about what happens in the back end, we make a great team. And it’s To me, this feels like a good mastermind, because like, we’re not in the same country, we’re not in the same location. But we’re like a virtual unit working together on a project to make something better for the website owner. And that could be their client or my client. So it’s kind of a, I love it more this way. And it’s more fun. Of course, as a solo entrepreneur. I’m not always locked on my own working between me and my computer, like, because of COVID. People who were already working from home, have had the life more difficult, because on those occasions when we used to get out and meet people, these are not happening anymore. Yes. We’re meeting over zoom now. So we’re still in?

1:06:18
Yes. And I, and I think really important to I can’t teach back in the schools, because we’re not able to get back. Yeah,

Amr The Internet Guy 1:06:24
the schools are wrong, but the school programs are not on.

1:06:27
No, I have that. So I had to make phone calls to the parents. And it was great. We were having more of a relationship that was being built through that. But what I found is that there was other people in the community is like yourself, who said, Hey, why don’t you run a camp at our gym, and my boys can be a part of this to make it happen. And I thought, well, this is great, we have the same kind of values and support. And it was just, it was a win win. They were getting it. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t the fact that it was just a one time deal. It was an opportunity to create, you know, community and to help other people through it. And I thought this is what this is, what works. And variance, there was all these different kinds of things that I could do now that I hadn’t done before, because of sometimes different other restrictions through the school. So there was lots of growth. And I continue to try to stay positive with that mindset of what we’re going through as a change, because there it is a big change in what’s happening. And to not continue to get down about it. But to keep looking forward. And to take one step, just one step forward. You can’t see the whole picture. But you can see parts of it. And indeed, yeah,

Amr The Internet Guy 1:07:53
I’m glad

1:07:54
we’re here to help each other.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:07:56
As I say, I mentioned the words, connections, and communication. And I’m glad we’ve never mentioned the word SEO at all, which is good. Because I there are cases when I completely disagree with SEO and search engine optimization. And there are cases when I think people are doing it wrong, not not the actual SEO part, but the understanding of what it does. Because if you think that Google or any search engine is gonna give you a business, hands free, you’re on for a big surprise. It’s not gonna happen. Even if you pay for ads and stuff, and Facebook advertising and whatever, there is nothing that will replace human connection, nothing. All these things are kind of auxilary stuff to maybe put you in front of more eyeballs, but they don’t necessarily connect you with people, right? You connect with people. So even if you have zero SEO, and you’re connecting with people, you have a better and more alive business than someone who’s just not communicating with anyone. Unless it’s through a computer. Yeah. So yes, I’m the online guy. But I’m telling you, your offline connections are way more important. You know, not like okay, again, when I say offline, they could be online like we’re doing right now. Zoom. Right? I meant we don’t have a computer between us now or like it’s not by email, or it’s not something that you’re reading off my website or that you found on Google. It’s a one to one. So use the technology, the technology is there. You don’t have to go take your car or take the bus to go meet someone anymore. Chances are your favorite coffee shop is closed yes or already complete because they’re only allowed to have a certain number of people. Yes. But use What’s there to just maintain good connection with the people in your community? And you’ll be sane and happier.

1:10:10
Yes. And you will feel so alone. Yeah. And that’s an important part of what my work is about his people’s feeling of isolation, their mental health, for them to feel that they may have they need some kind of support, whoever that is. And I also need it to I need to be teaching. Yes, I need to be doing what my craft is as well, because it fuels me.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:10:38
So you know what it feels like you’re when you’re not teaching, and this happened to me before. It feels like you’re the best goal scorer on the team, but you’re benched. So you’re watching others play and you know that if you join the play, you’ll be scoring and then changing the result of the game?

1:10:59
Yes,

Amr The Internet Guy 1:11:00
but right now you’re on the bench, and it feels like ah, like you’re tied to that bench.

1:11:07
Yeah, someone’s got you stashed in the corner. And you’re like, Yeah, and I get a lot out of working with kids right now. And I’m doing a Saturday program and it fills me up so much, because that’s my only interaction with my teaching at this point. Besides what I do online, it’s a totally different feeling. But as we are continuing to make these changes, we need that we need that somehow in our lives. And it’s really positive. And I’m wanting to continue with that moving forward. So always having opportunities. I’ve got something coming up for spring break for grades six to eight. I’m going to do like a martial arts Cobra Kai camp, which is another kids all know love.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:11:53
Are you gonna beat them Miyagi door, the

1:11:56
wax on wax off? Great.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:12:03
I finally convinced my son, he’s 17 towards the karate kid. But he he’s watch Cobra Kai, of course, like Netflix stuff. They see that first. And then he was going to get his driver’s license. And there was something that Mr. Miyagi told Daniel at the time when he gave him the first car. He said that the paper like the license does not replace your eyes, ears on your brain. Here you go. You got to remember this when you’re on the road as a new driver. The license does not actually replace your eyes, your ears and your brain. And he’s doing it right. So that’s good. Am I happy that

1:12:44
Oh, that’s awesome. You know those people in our lives like our Sensei, and I have a my Sensei, which is teacher and Japanese, his sensei. He is he just two years ago got his highest level, which is the 10th degree. So once you get it’s a 10th degree. Okay, now there’s 10 levels of black. So once you get your black belt, you get second degree third. All the way up. He’s got the highest belt in the world.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:13:16
Wow. And that probably just like not many people, right? No, he’s mega difficult.

1:13:22
Also, who’s alive? Yeah. So it’s red and gold. And it’s one of the biggest accomplishments. He’s been teaching and training for almost 56 years. Wow. So he is that why

Amr The Internet Guy 1:13:33
you have a Mr. Miyagi?

1:13:35
Yeah, he’s, he is Mr. Miyagi. So it’s a wise one that says one thing to you, and you’re just like, okay, there’s something about that wisdom through all our lives, where our parents or grandparents, people that we looked up to as leaders that can give us those things. We need that. And even within all of my training and things that I’ve done, I’ve not, as I said, been able to move forward without having those mentors, those people that continue to push me and help me grow. So as I continue to do the work I do, it’s about that people need to be guided, we need to have support, because we have problems and things to solve when it wouldn’t it be nice if it wouldn’t, you wouldn’t have to do it on your own and feel crazy

Amr The Internet Guy 1:14:22
about it. Indeed. So yeah, that’s a good parting wisdom. Don’t do it alone. You always need, you know, someone that can help you. It doesn’t have to be like paid coaching or anything. It could be like one friend, someone who shares the same passions. Someone in your community locally or in your industry community, like I work with web designers, and they give me tons of ideas as well. Like, I learned a lot even though I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’m still learning. Yes, and and this is great. So Just find your comfort person, someone who can help you get things done and and help you, you know, navigate these difficult times. Thank you, Michelle.

1:15:14
That’s fantastic. We had a great, great conversation about everything that was relevant to what’s happening. Thank you. Really good.

Amr The Internet Guy 1:15:23
Yeah, let’s get things better.

1:15:25
And know that you know, we’re not going to be here forever. Oh,

1:15:30
I know. One day at a time, one day at a time, enjoy this life.