SSP Podcast S2E4 Dont Compare The Beginning

Standing Stronger Podcast Season 2 Episode 4 That's right. It just keeps getting better and better. My name's Shannon. And I'm little Shannon. And this is the Standing Stronger Podcast. In case you didn't know, we have the same name. We do. The power couple with the same name. Can't beat it. I'm tired. Yeah, it's a little tiring today. We had a busy weekend. And when I say busy, I mean we celebrated one of our best friends' 46th birthday. Yeah. And I'm tired because we're two hours late. Yeah, we are two hours late. And that's just simply because I had a project that I had to get done. I had to finish the project. Right.

And that project, unfortunately, pushed over two hours longer than I wanted it to. But we're here. We are. So, yeah, we spent the weekend celebrating one of our really good friends' birthday. He turned 46. We are not that old. We just hang out with people that are that old. Yeah, we like to hang out with people older than us so that we feel young. Yeah, that's the goal of ours. But we are so excited because he had a huge water slide for his birthday party. Yeah. So, the guys come to set it up. They're like, oh, awesome birthday party. How old is your kid? He's like, my kid? That's for me, fool. Yeah. And it was a lot of fun. Lots of adults. Lots of adult beverages.

Lots of sliding and having fun. But you actually got hurt. I did get hurt. See, what happened? What had happened was it was a no kids zone. However, we hang out with older people. So, when you say no kids, the older people's grown up kids still get to come. Right. And they had some of their friends come over and Shannon and me and everyone else is there pulling up. Shannon's saying what to them? You have to go down the water slide to go to the backyard. Yeah. If you do not go down the water slide, you cannot enter. Therefore, they all had to go down to the water slide. So, this one kid comes and he's like, oh, yeah, I'll go down to the water slide.

Gets up there, does a front flip onto the slide and down. I'm like, hold my beer. Yeah, he was a lot better at it. So, me, six foot five, 250 pounds. I climb up the big old slide, which I could barely fit on the thing because I'm so wide. It was very narrow because I'm not that wide. And even for me to go up, I mean, it's obviously made for kids, not adults. I get up there and then I realize, holy crap, this is a bad idea. But I can't go out. So, I don't full on front flip, but I somersault front rolls down the slide. And now, if you're watching the live stream, you'll see when I look at her, I turn my entire body because my neck is killing me.

And it just so happened that my chiropractor got sick. So, he's been out for the past two days. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't cheat on my chiropractor, but I hurt so bad. So, I'm waiting. Mr. Dr. LaRocca, please get better because my neck is killing me. Yeah, it was fun. It was a good time. I think it's worth the pain. Yeah, it was worth it. It's feeling a lot better. I just can't pick up anything with my arm because it sends a shooting pain down my neck through my arm and everything else. It's kind of crazy. We agreed at that birthday party that whatever was there stayed there. However, everything we're talking about was between you and you. So, you did...

I'm not going to tell anyone else's stories. I just tell my story. Right, your stories. Like, Shannon called 911. Listen, sometimes you get a little scurred and you need the cop's help. Yeah, at 5.30 in the afternoon. Yeah, so we're all standing there. I mean, this is very early into the get-together and no one's making... I mean, we're playing music and stuff like that. And I see one of the neighbors through his fence, kind of like looking through the fence and things like that. And I'm like, hmm, I wonder what's up with the neighbor. Then the cops show up. And so, as soon as the cop shows up, I'm like, dude, your neighbor was right over by the fence.

I bet it was the neighbor who called the cops already and it's only five. He's like, no, my neighbors aren't like that. I'm like, well, someone called them. And they come rolling up and they're like, is there a Shannon Herrod here? Yeah, and then everybody just either drank so that they didn't have to answer. And then the ones that didn't turn to go, the girl. And they're like, no, we're looking for a male. And I'm like, yes. I'm like, that's crazy that everybody was willing to throw me under the bus. But they did say later, no one would ever believe that you did anything wrong. So, of course, they were looking for him. Yeah, so they called me over. They're like, sir, did you call 911?

I didn't even have my phone on me. I'm like, I didn't call 911. Yes, you did. And it's like, well, someone from your phone called 911, which baffles my brain how they can do that. They knew exactly where I was, what my name was, and not only what my name was, but I was a guy. So they had to have had a description of me all from my phone number, which is great. Or you're wanted for something. Or I'm in a lot of trouble, one of the two. But yeah, come to find out, we have a big speaker that Shannon uses for cheerleading, and she took it over there. And so her phone was connected to the speaker, and she went inside, so it disconnected.

Well, they grabbed my phone thinking it was connected to the speaker. That's what we think. No one owned up to that. No one owned up to that. That's the only thing. But you know, on iPhones, if you hold it a certain way or whatever, the emergency goes off. I think they put it back in the cup holder. It hit that sensor on the phone, and it called 911. Yeah, so I was wanted by the police this weekend. It was pretty funny. It was awesome. Good times, great friendship. Yeah, so they come rolling up, and Shannon's like, I get my phone. I'm like, oh, I called at 525. Shannon looks. She's like, it's 544. Where have you been? They didn't find that really funny.

But we were very grateful that they did show up in case of an emergency. Yeah, if that was an emergency, imagine. I think that's awesome. If you only have time to call 911, someone's still going to be able to show up. Yeah. So that's good. And they knew exactly who did. It was just crazy, all the information they knew. Right. Anyways, it was a good birthday weekend. Lots of shenanigans. On a geekier note, we now match. And when I say match, we're changing the name of our company to Metal Mouth Marketing. We're not. It's not funny. Yes, it is. We both have braces. She doesn't like being made fun of. I like to make fun of myself.

So we both have braces, therefore Metal Mouth Marketing in full effect. Hopefully not much longer. Yeah, she's about to get hers off. Then it'll be me with the brace face. Then she'll think it's funny. She's like, oh, look at the brace face over there. Brace face. But yeah, adult braces. Why in the world? We already talked about that though, didn't we? Yeah, we talked about adult braces last week, but I went through with it. Oh, because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it because of my front tooth. My front tooth got knocked out when I was a kid and had to have a root canal. And as I've gotten older, it's kind of gotten looser and darker and things like that.

So I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get braces because of that tooth. I might have to have that tooth removed and then get braces after I get that tooth fixed. But he's like, no, we can do it with what you have. We're just going to watch it. And yeah, I'm excited about that. Yeah, I'm glad that you were able to do it. And I can't wait to see the results because it's amazing. So we kind of waited a long time to tell you what we're going to talk about today, but we're going to talk about not to judge your beginning with someone else's middle. Yeah, well, I'm not very prepared today. I really, I'm like really tired. It takes a lot out of you to have adult fun and recuperate.

So my bad that we're not so prepared today. But well, if you wouldn't have told them, they would have never known. Well, I'm good off the cuff. So I would have just made up for your lack of not being prepared. Just kidding. Geez, Louise, this woman over here, she can't swing it for nothing. Go. All right. We're about This is our everyday life. And we feel that a lot of people just really aren't real anymore. We put on that cover to be happy and just not realize that we all go through stuff. We all have difficulties and it's what we do in the midst of that that brings us on top later. So with that being said, yes.

So the feedback that we're getting is like, well, you guys are like totally awesome, which I mean, I agree. Everyone, you're totally awesome. Sometimes, you know, whatever. Let's go. So, but then they're like, you know, the points that you guys are making, it's insane to me, like in what we're saying that it's taken some people that have talked to me personally, just it's taken them back to say like, well, what am I doing? What am I doing with my life? And that's odd. It is to have self-reflection. We want people to say, what am I doing with our life and move forward, but not say, what am I doing with my life? I'm a loser. Yeah. Because that's not the case. Right.

And if you, a lot of our friends obviously could vouch that in family that have been through the midst of our trials with us, you know, those weren't all happy, go lucky times. Take this podcast, for example, this podcast is in season two, four years after we started it. Right. So for one year we did, three years we failed, but then we got back on the horse and started saying, let's go. We're going to get back on and keep going. Our life is not peaches and cream. We have our ups. We have our downs. We have our low points. However, yes, we are successful. Yes, we have built a business that most people would love to have. However, it has not been perfect.

It did take someone to look at us and say, get your butt in gear. It did take us feeling kind of like crap, but our point isn't to make you feel like crap. Our point is to make you realize that you can start no matter where you are in life. The top has not yet been reached. As long as you're breathing, you can achieve more. As long as you're breathing with your health and your mental cognitively, whatever that word is. Good job. And again, you were just explaining to Faith yesterday, you know, in the sense of like, just because you know, she's starting back to school today and that's awesome. And she's going to be a teacher and that's great. And Shannon's whole point is that's awesome.

And if that is your passion, then go for it. But don't become so complacent and miserable in that profession when you can grow to something bigger. Like don't just close off your mind to like, I'm just going to be a teacher. And not that just being a teacher, I'm not. It's going to be read into, which is going to be made a point in a minute because I can't let that, my brain's everywhere today. So I'm not saying that just being a teacher, I'm not saying that. And if that is your passion and you're truly fulfilling that passion, then that's the whole purpose, right? Like that is the purpose. But just to settle on a job and realize, like the story you were telling was about a teacher.

Yeah, a teacher who started a business who spent her entire career as a teacher because that is her passion. That's what she loved to do. However, what I challenge everyone to do is say, okay, you love teaching. How can you do it at a bigger level? So instead of just being a middle school teacher, how can you increase that? How can, and when I say just a middle school teacher, I'm not saying anything bad about that, but I want you to think bigger. How can you affect more? How can you impact more? Because you're there to impact the kids, to impact the future. All of those things are what you became a teacher for, is to make a difference. So how can you do it on a bigger scale?

And I learned about a company who the lady started as a teacher and she started making her own lesson plans and made great lesson plans. So she said, hey, I bet other teachers could benefit from these lesson plans. So she started selling the lesson plans. Then she found out that teachers actually love this and she built an entire business around it. Now her business does so well, she was able to retire from being a teacher, but now she's making a bigger impact as a teacher because she's helping so many more teachers and she now makes in a year what it would take her a lifetime as just a teacher to do.

And it's not all about the money, but now she's not only just affecting her class, but she's affecting thousands of classrooms around the country and around the globe probably because of the business that she started. So what I try to help you understand is don't think small, think huge because you are capable and you can do it. So if being a teacher is all there is and that's all you want to do, that's great. However, I challenge you to think bigger and say, okay, how can I make a bigger impact? Because that's what I want to do is make an impact. And this goes for all other professions as well. Instead of just stopping where you're at, think what's the next level?

How can I go further, affect more, impact more, and all of that good stuff? Yeah, we're going to get some hate mail on that. We got a lot of friends that are teachers. A lot of teachers. So that's not the point. Hopefully that did not get misconstrued. But again, somebody's middle to your beginning. Everybody has to start somewhere. Everybody's going through something along the way. And even though we're constantly going to go up and down, it's called life. But it's what we choose to do in those trials that are going to take us to where we want to go.

You could either continue to stay down in that valley and keep on walking and push through and push through and push through, or you could start seeing the positive side of things or pushing through and pushing up to achieve and get yourself out of that valley. And sometimes we have to be in that valley for a little bit longer than what we think to learn the lesson that you hopefully learn to apply later on. Right. And to give another example of someone who would not construe it as we're trying to pick on it or something, but let's take a doctor, for example. A doctor gets out of college, he goes and gets a job. Does he just stay working for another doctor in his practice his entire career?

Or does he try to take the next level? Does he try to start his own practice? Or does he continue his education and become a surgeon? All of those things, it's fulfilling what you want to fulfill in life, but not limiting yourself in where you can go, is what I'm trying to say. Right. And I think it's a good example, too, because there's, I mean, working with a bunch of doctors, like I've seen them start out, and I think that happens in a lot of professions.

And, you know, you're gung-ho, you want to make a difference, you go, go, go, and then you're like, yes, it's not all it's cracked up to be, and I don't want to pay employees, and I don't want to own my own practice, I just want to go and do my job. I've even done that at a manager standpoint. It's like, I don't even want to be a manager anymore, I just want to go to work, do my job, and go home. I don't want my phone to ring after that. I don't want anybody to call me with their problems at work. I don't want to deal with all that. I just want to go to work and do my job.

So no matter what level you're at, you know, you're going to run into that, but it's still of how far you want to push yourself in that moment. Right. And social media is a huge culprit because everyone wants to make themselves look as good as they possibly can on social media. So when you're seeing people's lives, you're seeing the best little snippets of most people's lives. There are some people that will reveal the pain, the heartache, and things of that nature, but generally speaking, you're seeing the best little snippets, and it's easy for us to compare ourselves to those little snippets and say, well, where am I compared to there?

And that's where you really start getting bogged down and can really take yourself into a tailspin or a depression because you're comparing yourself to someone else, and anytime you compare yourself to someone else, you're setting yourself up for failure. But at the end of the day, this is what it's all about. Don't compare you to someone else. It takes patience. It takes time, and it takes effort. If your life is not where you want it to be right now, if you get that gut feeling when you're listening to our podcast that my life sucks, then what you need to do is do something to change it. Find something that makes you happy. Right.

Start making the changes, and those changes aren't going to happen overnight. Gary Vee is so great about talking about this, but it takes patience. It's those small things each and every day that done consistently will continually build on themselves to give you the future that you're looking for or move you closer to the future that you're looking for. And here's what I've found. The happiness isn't in the stuff. The happiness is in the doing, and you're unhappy when you're stuck, when you're stagnant, when you're not doing, when you're not moving forward.

However, when you're moving forward, it's so much easier to be happy, and that's what we need to realize, and that's what I need to realize because I get stuck in procrastination then a three, and then a day full of, you know, getting things done, I feel great at the end of the day. So when you do, it makes you happy. When you do for others, it makes you even happier. That's one of the reasons why we love doing this podcast. Well, I'm going to go back a couple minutes from what you just said because I think when social media first started, people tried to make themselves look really good and like how life was so perfect. But listen, I'm just going to be really honest right now.

There's a lot of people that follow me that I would unfollow in a heartbeat, and then I just think to myself, like maybe I'll say something one day or post something one day that'll help change the mindset of that person because I would already quit social media because of the things that people project out there. And I mean like even before like all the political hoopla and all that, like that makes it 10 times worse. But I'm saying like some people's real life and what y'all put out there on social media, like I'm not saying you need to hide it to make everybody like think you have a perfect life, but there's some things out there that get shared that I just think are, hmm.

Maybe you need to- Those are the type of the people that most likely are not going to be listening to our podcast and are not doing anything to better their lives. They're stuck in the drama. They're stuck in being a child, and those type of people do exist. And those type of people are depressed because they've gotten stuck into a mindset of poverty. They've gotten stuck into a mindset of being limited, and they've got stuck into a mindset of drama, and that's what fuels them. They cannot fuel themselves through doing and success because they've given up on themselves. Therefore, they fuel their worth through the drama that they create. And those people do exist.

I do agree with that, but those aren't the type of people that are going to be listening to us, I don't think. Well, okay. We weren't going to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it. And this lady is very influential on social media, and she, in my opinion, and this is just my opinion. I don't want hate mail. I don't want people thinking I'm trying to hate on this lady because I listened to her for a really long time. I think she's really, really funny. And she had posted about a saying on her kid's wall, which where we're at, I've seen it a couple things. I know the high school's doing it, just different things, motivational quotes around the walls or in the bathrooms or whatever.

And so she is being really real in this moment and says that the quote says, start acting like a lady, and he will treat you like a gentleman. And she goes off, goes off. And now this is a person that can be very influential. She's very funny. She's a very positive person. But in that moment, she goes off about how, what does that mean? Tell my daughter that she needs to act like a lady. And she's just supposed to sit back and teach a boy how to be a gentleman. That's not her job. She's supposed to just be quiet and zip her mouth. Is that being a lady? What do you mean? And just read so much into this sentence that I'm going, how in the world did that take you there?

Because, again, in my mindset, I'm thinking, I project that every time I'm around those cheerleaders. Be a lady. There is a lot to be said in that. Boys need to be gentlemen. But being a lady and having that self-respect, I would never tell my daughter being a lady is not using your voice and not being courageous and not being brave or whatever it is. However, being a lady with your ta-tas hanging out the top or your hoo-hoo coming out the bottom and what, I mean, you've seen some of the social media posts that even in high school they're putting out and you're like, that does not represent a female the way a female needs to be represented. And I just couldn't believe it got taken.

And the comments that followed below it, it was enough to make me say, I'm out. I don't think I'm going to watch that anymore. Right. Well, you know. So my whole point to that is whether somebody is doing negative things on social media and that's how their life is or they could be very influential in the things that they're putting out there, it comes from both ends in my opinion. Right. Negativity definitely comes from both ends. However, in that specific example, making that post in her eyes was making her look good. So she wasn't doing something I don't think in negative context. She was doing it because that's what she believed would increase her authority in people's eyes.

And there's some people who are, that would agree exactly with what she said. We just come from a different mindset. There was a lot of comments below. I was actually shocked that I didn't see a disagreement. And I thought, maybe I'm the odd one. But to me, like, I got the statement. You know what I'm saying? I tell the girls all the time, you start having more self-respect for yourself, you're going to attract a different kind of gentleman around you. The worse that you're acting, you know, that doesn't make sense. The worse. How does that go? When you're acting. Badly.

You know, not like a lady and projecting yourself in a manner, you're going to attract that man that doesn't have his own self-respect or is going to respect you as a female. You know, and so that's, for me, is what that's saying. If you're a confident woman, well-respected and carry yourself like, you know, a lady, you're going to attract a guy that isn't a loser or a thug or a person that is going to treat you like trash. You're going to attract someone who is confident, who carries themselves well and wanting to do more. A gentleman, just like that. So it goes back to when we said you are the sum of the five people that you hang out with the most.

If you're hanging out with people that are trashy and doing drugs and not doing anything with their lives, most likely you're going to come out trashy doing drugs and not doing much with your life. And I think that's the bigger point that they were trying to make.

You know, instead of, like you're saying, letting the boobies hang out and the hoo-hoo hang out, you know, cover them up, have a little modesty and leave a little to the imagination so the boys don't think that, you know, you're easy or just going to and have to actually put out some effort and open the doors for you and be nice to you because they know that you're not just going to give it to them for the sake of giving it to them. Like I heard, I'm not going to call her out, but I heard a conversation amongst teenagers and was like, oh, you went to go kiss me and I turned my head. Like I don't just kiss a boy, it's not my boyfriend.

It actually took me back to our story a long, long time ago. But anyways, like that's good. And so many people just don't get that. And then I'm going to take it to even a deeper level of the sense that I've said on social media before, we expect this generation to be so much better than what it is and not that they can't be, I'm not saying that, and they have to take, you know, they have consequences for their own choices and those are their own choices. But there is a generation that's coming up that is being led by adults. You know what I'm saying? That are not leading that generation in good, you know?

So what you're teaching your child, if you're going to, you know, put out there that it's okay for them to have their friends over at 14, 15 years old and, you know, party it up, like you're allowing these things to happen. I'm not saying kids aren't going to make that choice and do things on their own and that happens. I was one of those kids. Well, you know, a lot of people down millennials and talk about how horrible they are, where we should be talking about the people that raised them. Well, and that's my point. Like, so the mindset of, you know, the entitlement of like, oh, I should have the 5,000 square foot house because my parents do. Well, what was your parents' first house?

And I think majority of people would be able to say how their parents grew over the years and achieved and did more and did more. We all want to provide better for our kids. And I don't think there's anyone out there that would say differently. I want to give my kids more and give them bigger opportunities to see better things or, you know, take them places and things that I didn't have the opportunity for. In the same token, though, I want to make sure that they are given the same morals and values that I was brought up with because that is very important. So in the sense of, you know, do I want my son to have name brand clothes and this and that? To a point, you know what I mean?

I want him to have nice things. He ain't wearing Supreme. We don't have that conversation again. Oh yeah, he asked for it. I said, no. You know, you want better for your kids, but there's a difference in wanting that and teaching them those morals and values and then just giving them everything to where when they, you know, turn 18, go off to college, they're like, well, can I have the credit card to go with me and the brand new, you know, BMW car, because how else am I going to get around? You know, and it's like, well, when I went to college, I mean, I worked at the mall and that's what you can do. You know what I mean?

Or I think people start thinking like, oh, their workload is getting so hard, they really can't work. Why not? Did you? You know what I'm saying? Like, why is that any different for our kids? And by all means, like, everybody raises their kids differently. And I went on a big rabbit trail with all of that. Sorry. Squirrel. I know that was my job today. Right. Usually that's me going off on the rabbit trails. But she reined it back in. We're hitting 30 minutes, so we're going to wrap this bad boy up. Cool. What else do you have to say? Nothing. I just hope you guys have a great week.

Sorry that we're, I feel like we're unprepared because I was unprepared and I'm tired and I'm not going to be tired next week. Right. Nobody's birthday is this week. Here's the thing. Don't compare yourself to other people, because if you compare yourself to other people, you're going to be upset. It doesn't matter. I can find someone to compare myself to to make me feel like crap. Warren Buffett can find someone to compare himself to to make him feel like crap. We can all find someone who is doing it in our eyes better and faster than we are. We can only compare ourselves to the minute that just passed. So if you're going to compare anything, compare it to the day yesterday.

Compare it to the last hour. Compare it to you and work on steadily getting better on what you were doing. It doesn't matter where you are now. You can do something better in the future. You just have to start. It takes the first step to finish a journey. So take that step. We believe in you. We know you can do it. If you want to get more, visit standingstronger.com. Standingstronger.com. Make sure you like this podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to this podcast. Leave a review because it really helps us when you do that to help spread the message. If you're on Facebook, share it. Help us spread this word of standing stronger, doing better, getting better. We're not life coaches.

We're not gurus. We're just regular people trying to live the best lives that we possibly can. And doing a fairly decent job of it, but we're always going to get better. All right, and this podcast is brought to you by Standing Stronger Productions. Without it, we could not do it. So, if you know a doctor who needs to grow his practice, send them on over. Or her, yeah. His or her practice. Send them on over to Standing Stronger Productions. We help doctors leverage technology and the internet to grow their practices, and we do a really, really good job of it. That's standingstrongerproductions.com. Thank you.

Have a fantastic day, and as always, hopefully we'll see you on the beaches of the world.