Perception is Everything…

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

thing which is what this one is. So thanks for joining us. Robert, what's going on this morning?

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Oh it is a beautiful Monday morning. Um what can I say? Technical difficulty. I did get a new brand new microphone just so we would have better quality, but which I can't use today. But nonetheless, just to let you know I'm upgrading a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

So yeah and I think that that might be partly my problem like I said I've I I did an in-person interview this week and you guys can go check that out if you want to go look on the YouTube page it is pinned in the comments but uh had one of my former students on here who is an entrepreneur. Shaping success is kind of entrepreneurial stories. Um and so switching where you know two people sitting back here and I got a couple other mics and my Mac needs an update but you know how that goes you go to go update the thing then it takes three days for it to boot back up because it's old. So anyway that's what that's what we're doing this morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

So the uh I mentioned this to you a couple weeks ago I found this post on uh Substack and it was I won't mention European woman really interesting well educated she made this post she said a society that pays a woman a half a million dollars a month to show her body on OnlyFans but only eight dollars for her mind on Substack is telling you everything about its future yeah that is that's interesting you know it's funny my friend Jay and I were talking about this this weekend and how um we have some friends who are you know I've been in the podcast game for this is going on 26 six years now right and there are people who look for certain things and I don't necessarily know that that is gonna matter no matter male or female.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Obviously there's a little difference in between what's going on with that um but people look for what they're looking for and if you're not offering what they're looking for then they're not gonna continue to go there and support you. It's kind of crazy. He was talking about like one of our friends is starting a YouTube channel right and I've had a YouTube channel and you kind of get what you put into it. You know I have a Patreon I have um subscriptions here on TikTok talk subscriptions not on not on Instagram yet because they have different rules on the way that they do things but people are going to support you if you give them what they want. And in that interesting scenario it's like OnlyFans right that's what they're looking for. And so you get that you know you have that choice but we all have different intellectual ideas and you have to make it entertaining for people and I'm talking about like YouTube in general like most people like I did an episode this weekend for Shaping Success Travis Revalley that has 45 views already on it the whole episode and we literally don't get like combined we get more than that with these two nobodies who knows know nothing but you have to reach your audience you have to be able to give them what they want but I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I mean tell me what you're thinking about this post and and and your thoughts well I mean you know it's well first off the average woman doesn't make a half a million a month so you know it's it's an intent of hyperbole at the highest level because um you know that that's just the dichotomy is huge for a reason. She's trying to provoke commentary and she's trying to grab attention but she does have kind of an interesting point. The point is is the difference between you know marketing yourself in a digital world as a woman you know marketing your body versus your mind and she's saying the dichotomy is so um wide that it should tell you something about the you know the underpinnings of society that society is not interested in a woman's mind it's interested in a woman's body and it's not society because we're I think we're really talking about men and she just didn't say men and and I and I get it um I'm I don't have an OnlyFans account so I really can't speak to that. But I I don't shockingly enough I do have a Substack account so I'm um you know kind of interested I guess in a woman's mind. You know this is a the dichotomy that we're always facing right it is we're we're in a we're in a time when when people are saying you shouldn't you know look at a woman for only her looks right that there's more to a woman than her looks sure okay the question why do you wear makeup okay I mean we're we're we're we're understanding that there's there's there's lines of this from both sides right like one one woman might doll herself up more than the other but you're doing it you're doing it to what? You're doing it for curb appeal right the same thing you do with the house. Why do you when you get ready to sell it why do you create curb appeal? Why do you make sure that the lawn's done right and all that kind of stuff so you get a good first impression. This is we're a visual society and and I always make this point to people when I was doing research is we always were analyzing words and I said yeah we can analyze the words that's nice but do you see the big picture over there? I mean literally the big picture so um they run a headline that says whatever but the picture that's that big on the front page right takes up a third of the page is gruesome. I don't care how how you do it you the first thing you're not drawn to is the headline you're drawn to the picture that's gruesome. So we are visual creatures that's kind of the way that goes and so the reality is there has to be some kind of curve uphill but I get her point about the fact that maybe men don't value women for between their ears as much as we should. I get it. Yeah but but this is attention economy stuff where you're literally trying to just grab people's attention.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah and I you know I think that that's it's pretty crazy how um good morning people if you guys are joining us Cloudy thanks for the likes we appreciate it um this is the thing that we run into with a lot of things right I mean it's a we've talked about hate and or positive and negative content right like positive content is something that less people are driven to they're more driven to negative stuff. And so when you see someone get hit in the face with something you're like oh damn but then when you see someone you know hugging someone or being nice you're less to watch that because it's not as entertaining you know um which is funny that you talk about like makeup and things like that. We got into it with my daughter I don't know over Memorial Day weekend and she was talking about how we don't know what she has to deal with with what society tells her that she has to do. And it's like that's the problem. We sit here and we let society decide for us what we have to do. My wife you know and my daughter's obviously she's 12 and she's learning things and she's getting you know into what's going on with school and things like that. But like my wife puts makeup on very sparingly she looks great she does it and that's the way that I prefer it my daughter will go and like have you know a lot of eyeliner on or eyeshadow or whatever the hell it is don't ask me but like you can see the makeup you know and to me it's always been like less is more and my daughter acts like that's something that people are telling her she has to do and that's not really the case you know um they are doing that because they feel that that's what people want them to do not because that's what's actually asked of them. And I can't tell you what it's like to be a woman because I've never been one but I do I do things for myself right that you know they don't do like I make sure that I have I'm looking at myself in the screen right now but it's like I make sure that my mustache hair isn't going into my lip and I make sure that my nose hair isn't hanging out of my nose. I mean like these are all things that I don't like. It has nothing to do with what other people don't like and what other people notice. And that's the problem with everyone is that we're all different we all look different we all have completely different options but when when someone looks at you versus looking at me they may think that you're you know this handsome stunning dude and I'm just some ugly guy you know or I look like I'm you know I'm 45 but I look like I'm 50. And these are all things that people decide on their own but everyone has a different opinion on and you know what attracts one person to something may be different for another person.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah and I think the generalizations are just that and I think that's the challenge that kids face is they face these sweeping generalizations that aren't necessarily true because as a someone that likes to fish right you you design your bait for what you want to catch.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

And so I always say to people you know what are you trying what are you trying to catch? You know don't don't be surprised if you put out X bait that you catch X fish. Why? Because that's the bait you put out so we we always have to be careful that this overgeneralization of anything is just that it's an overgeneralization and it's not incredibly meaningful. Like I was listening to I know we're kind of wandering off discussion but we were listening to two guys who are set on the China Commission which is the commission was set up about 25 years ago to monitor our relationship and our business activities with China and they are bipartisan in the sense that of the people that are on commission half are a Republican and half are Democrat and how strangely enough on many many many issues they agree that it is not rancorous that what you see on TV is not a fair representation of the mechanisms. Now we're talking about just the issue of China we're not necessarily talking about the issue of abortion or anything else we're just talking about China on how to interact with China there's a fair amount of agreement when I say fair amount 80 90% fair amount agreement and that things get done and things move forward. And so that's not you know it is again the media's job to do to highlight fiction or friction.

unknown 10:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And they like highlighting friction so it doesn't I mean how good is the lead story hey today the Republicans and Democrats got along yeah yeah how how interesting is that story everybody just goes huh right it's much more much more interesting to when you hear mud slinging or somebody taking a stand or that's much more interesting than hey they got along we we moved this ball forward that's not what how the media functions and and as you pointed out you know that's not even how the humans function that we're you know that the person getting a hug you're like oh yeah that's nice oh man he just got a pie in the face oh geez that now we're really paying attention we've got to remember that we're we're driven we're humans right and we're being driven by certain things and the object of being really really good humans is to realize we need a balance and media doesn't media is not creating that balance it's not um it's not finishing and starting with the idea that hey you know we need to get along because we need to move the ball forward because hey we all exist in the same country and you know that that hate doesn't hate doesn't do us any good because we all live here you know like you you put your trash out and yeah I got my trash out of my house but to to trash my neighborhood doesn't help. It doesn't help my experience and that's the battle we all face is you've got to remember where the incentives are in the system. The incentives for that is to amplify that. Okay and amplify for example the issue that a woman gets paid a half a million dollars on uh uh to show her body off on OnlyFans is that really true I don't know what the data is but I'm assuming that every woman doesn't make a half a million dollars a month and I'm assuming right and so the point is is that again is hyperbole and so the thing that you're actually critiquing you're actually doing you're literally critiquing that which you're doing which is you're trying to create attention to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah yeah yeah and I mean that's that's kind of what Jay and I were talking about where we were we were talking about how um this one friend of ours it's like they're saying well you know people won't even download like your app or they won't even down or follow you on YouTube or subscribe to you wherever you know like they'll they won't do that. And it's like the problem is is that you're expecting every single person that you know to have the same opinion as you or do the same thing that you would do and you're putting that on them when it really in reality is your problem not their problem and that's the hard part it's like you expect you know in that whole scenario there it's like this person is not willing to do the same thing. Like did she do did she do an OnlyFans and not get the following you know I mean no probably not but she's talking about that how you can do that but you can't do this and and that's it. It's like we talk about this all the time it's yeah we are most likely you know positive content creators but if you sit there and you um and you look at whatever you're looking at um you know I was thinking about like Spencer Pratt like he's talking about how um he's he's running for the LA mayor right and he's running against Karen Bass and he's a he's running as a Republican but he's his whole family's a bunch of Democrats whatever blah blah blah blah blah Trump endorsed him. The media and this is what's great about him is the media is bringing up that Trump has endorsed him and he just says I don't care if Trump has endorsed me. I'm here for the people not for Trump. I'm here to take care of what's going on now not and what they want to do is they want to get a reaction from him so that he talks about how much he loves Trump or whatever so that he pisses everyone off and he's like no that's not what it's about this is about people taking a shit on the sidewalk in LA people getting handed out drug needles and having these um having supermeth and fentanyl and all those things these are things that they're that this is about this has nothing to do with who endorses me because I want to take care of this. But that's not what the media wants to talk about the media wants to talk about Trump because that's the headline getter right everyone hates Trump everyone likes Trump whatever it is that's the thing that's going to get him in there and he's deflecting that because he's trying to show his base that he cares about that that city.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Well you know and we've also researched this so this isn't us talking out our our you know from left field we've researched this and we realized that it is not about being right or left meaning media that for example Trump flooding the zone which was the idea that he creates so much turmoil that the media has to cover him and we looked at multiple quote unquote left leaning media and guess what? They were making editorial decisions on what to cover. Because if you have two papers that are basically the same kind of ideological and one's covering so much more that's an editorial decision. That's not a content decision. Okay so again this is not necessarily what everybody's saying it's what stirs the pot enough for readership and so you gotta understand after a while you're being manipulated. You're just being manipulated stop it. You know take a break take a breath get you know get off your high horse about Orange Man and just relax for a little bit and realize you're being played and you're being played because the incentives are all there for them to do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Yep. Yeah you and you look at the media that's I think the biggest thing is that we all don't look at it we look at it from the side of we love this or we'd love this we hate this or we like that you know and we don't make an objective look at it anymore you know when they come after when they come after Orange Man right for whatever he said they don't come after whoever else or they do come after whoever else and like there's a big uproar right now about the Biden thing. You know obviously we're a couple years into this where this debate goes down where Joe Biden looked super incoherent and a lot of people are like oh he did a great job and you're sitting there going what and then his own wife comes out and says yeah I said he did a great job because I wanted him to win essentially but I wondered if he had a stroke on stage when he was talking that way and it's like oh wow yeah I mean yeah that's those words literally came out of her mouth like I was like what's wrong with him but then you go and you look at what she said Joe you did a great job you answered every question they asked and you're like seriously you know you hate someone so much that you're trying to fabricate this lie in your head that he made sense and it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah that you know that that's sad because again I always take the attitude and you know that I've said it multiple times whoever's president's my president.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

And again I'll be happy to discuss policy but who's ever president's my president. That means Joe Biden was my president, Donald Trump's my president, Barack Obama's my president that's who my president is because I am I live in the United States of America and that's my president and I'm looking at the office not necessarily as I said before I salute the rank not necessarily the person. And so again the office of the president I'm I'm you know extremely respectful. And now let's talk about policy. You know what you just did don't care who you are was dumb or what you just did was amazing. I thought that was a great policy choice. I don't care which side you're on I don't care if I think because that's as an American I'm allowed to have that opinion I like or dislike the policy and I know that everybody gets into the personality part of this. And and and again go back to Orange Man he lights likes lighting the fire. He likes it. He likes stirring the pot again you know some of the things I hear I'm like really and I I mean I'm literally watching it come out of his mouth going okay well I see why you're doing that that's not you're not doing it because that's the substance of what you believe you're doing that because you know you're gonna stoke the media and I'm like okay okay super can we get back to the policy issue please yeah yeah and that's the problem I mean I think that a lot of times it is just like you said is trying to get it going.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

What's up Mina? That's the that's the goal is to light the fire right I mean that literally is it's like what can we do to get people talking and I guess we kind of and I don't guess I know we do this because it's kind of the same thing. We have these comments coming in on our clips and things like that. And it doesn't always clip the whole story it clips part of it and that's what we get we get the part where everyone is you know like the part that's going to drag people into making a comment right we want people in there you know we have we have people in the in the chat room right now and we're trying to engage them and get them to come in here and they may come in and they may see us talking about Orange Man and be upset or they may hear us talking about something else and want to stay. Like they have to decide that they want to be here and it's what they want to talk about. But it's it's really important to understand that what you see is not always the whole story. And people come correct or a lot of times with us when we're talking we have a conversation you and I will say something and then you'll be you'll play both sides of it. You'll talk about both sides of it or I'll talk about both sides of it. It's like okay I can see that this isn't going to work but I understand that this is what other people think what what we're trying to do is get people to look at the whole thing not just part of it. And I think that that's the problem. As we get in this society we're scrolling scrolling scrolling looking at what is the most important thing that we see or just the little you know the clip the target that we see and that's all we camp on. We don't go back and look at the whole story. So just like you said the headline you're looking at the headline you see the headline the headline is this and we don't get we don't get what we want.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah and I've caught more more flack on this on this podcast I've caught more flack for presenting a balanced argument. Right. No one even asked me whether that's my opinion or not I'm not saying that I'm presenting the argument as it's balanced. And they're like well how can you possibly believe that I didn't say I believed it. I'm saying that's what they believe. And I understand why they believe it. I've seen the research I get it don't necessarily agree with them but again putting a balanced argument together is basically saying anytime I do research I have to know what the other side of my research is you know I may say this is a cause I need to know what other things can be interfering and I also need to know what the opposite side is who's saying you know you're completely full of it. And that's okay. And that's okay. That's the point of being able to understand the interaction and people are like no you gotta only believe one thing and you got to hold the line I'm like no I I mean try to understand everybody's position. Now, again, it's funny.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

It's like I was I was thinking of this the other day. I was watching uh I was watching a commercial. You might see these OZMP commercials all the time, the GL1P, GLP1s or whatever the hell they are. Um, and there's this OZIMPI commercial, and this is with every pharmaceutical. If you really think about it, if you're actually thinking and you're watching, you're seeing it happen, it's like this is the only FDA approved, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Creates weight loss, it's for diabetes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, FDA approved. And then they get done, and right at the bottom it says, you know, it's good for weight loss, may cause dehydration, diarrhea, uh, nausea, vomiting, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So they tell you the very good thing that you want to hear because you want to lose weight, but they also don't tell, but they also tell you at the end, and they don't say it out loud, they show it on the bottom, or they do say it out loud, but it's really quiet, it's really fast, it's at the end because it's a disclaimer, and people don't understand that you know, these are other things that can happen. And when you're on a GL1P, it you could lose weight, but you could also have all these other issues, and it may not work for you. And there's no research of how long over time what this is gonna happen, just like you know, say like the COVID vaccine. You need to take this, we made it three months ago. We don't know what the byproduct of what's gonna happen with this, but we're gonna give it to you right away. It's the same thing. These are all things that we have to look at. We can't just look at this may do this, because it could also do that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Well, I mean, it my son and I talk about supplements and things. Why? Because we share the best guess is we probably share 50, 60 percent of the DNA. So what works for me is likely to work for him, but not absolutely certain. So he'll say something to me like, hey dad, have you tried this magnesium from this people? Uh really got a good result from it. And I'll take it because I'm like, oh, okay, cool. You know, I I trust the fact that and how it responded to your body. I take it and I go, there's no impact. Okay. But again, that that's us experimenting and understanding. Like, I'll say he'll say something to me about one of them made him ill, and I and it was one I recommended, and I've been on it for six months, zero effects. But again, everybody's different. Yeah, it takes yeah, it takes a moment.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, and everyone makes decisions based on that, you know. Like it just depends on what they're seeing right now. I had I had someone hop on here the other day who said, like, followed me, but then said, I can't support you because I've got all this stuff in the background, and you know, they're a former alcoholic, and I've got different types of bourbon back here because I collect bourbon. And it's like that's I understand that, and that's your choice. If that triggers you, then you need to not follow me. That's all there is to it. Absolutely. You you can base your decisions on a lot of things, but you have to make sure that you know you understand that your uh your opinion is your opinion, it's not right the fact reality.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

So and you can definitely appreciate the fact that that's triggering for them. Absolutely, no question. Totally understand. Hey, I appreciate the comment. And and one guy made a comment on one of my uh Substack posts, and first thing I said to him was, Hey, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I didn't I said, Let me push back against that and and suggest this. But the first thing I'm gonna say, because again, his comment was thoughtful, right? Yeah, the first thing I'm gonna say is, hey, thank you for your thoughtful comment, because it's the truth. I'm grateful because a lot of times somebody will push back against something I say and they're right. And it's okay. Thank you. You're right. I did, I hadn't read that. You're your man, thank you for the pushback, right? But when I but really believe what I believe and I've researched in something, I'll push back and say, hey, have you thought about I understand what you believe, what you believe, but did you read the whole article? Because if you look at the second or third paragraph, I address that. Okay. Again, but that's thoughtful interaction, thoughtful commentary between people, and totally understandable.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yep. Yeah, I think that's the big thing. I think that you have to be willing to look at, you know, you have to listen and understand. And it doesn't mean that people are wrong or right. Um we get a lot of comments and they don't know the whole story and they don't look at both sides of it, but we also look into the fact that if this is, you know, not what we want to hear, we're gonna go and look. If you said, hey, go read this article, and the one thing about Robert, and I have to say that I don't research a ton of stuff, but I do read the whole article, you know. Like I don't just look at the headline, I read the whole thing. If I'm gonna talk about it, I'm gonna have a little bit of knowledge on it. But with Robert, his job is to analyze and study and do those things, and that's what he's done his whole life. So he'll call me out, you know, on a lot of things because that's what we do. But you have to be willing to look at both sides of it. That's all there is to it. You can't just see this headline and just be okay with nothing, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Oh, this is all right. And be comfortable with being wrong. It's okay. Yeah you know, it's okay. You can change your opinion. Stephanie, good morning.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yep, good morning. Well, I gotta get ready for work, Robert. Uh, we had some technical difficulties. This is a TikTok live this time. I will post it once I can figure it out. It's not gonna get posted at the normal time. But we do this every Monday, 7 o'clock Pacific Standard Time. Uh, myself and Robert Watson. This is two nobodies who know nothing, dubbed by us because we made a comment and someone didn't like it. And uh, you know, I don't know. Maybe we're nobody, maybe we're somebody, but uh that's the that's the name. So, Robert, what do you got going on this week?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Uh simple week of working, um, getting ready to uh try to find a good PhD program.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yep. Substack, if you guys wanted to follow Robert, Robert, where can they follow that?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Um Global Strategy Institute.substack.com.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yep. I got a shaping success treasure valley episode that's live up on YouTube right now. You can find that in my bio. Go ahead and go check that out, and uh we'll have another awesome interview this weekend on Saturday. Go on live if you guys want to cruise and check that out. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. If you want to support the show, go to patreon.com slash West Tankerslee for as little as three dollars a month. You can support the show and help us keep it going. Robert, thanks again, and we will see you all next week.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Have a wonderful week.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

We'll see ya.