344 Brandon Eastman - Overcoming Life’s Challenges, Childhood Influences & the Magic of Mushrooms

Harry Duran [0:00 - 0:05]: So, Brandon Eastman, host of the Be Better podcast, thank you so much for joining me on podcast junkies.

Brandon Eastman [0:05 - 0:09]: It's great to be here, sir. Thanks for the invitation. I'm excited to chat with you.

Harry Duran [0:10 - 0:23]: I always have to. I'm reminded of how I need to step up my background games. You've got a really nice. You've got the lights going on, you've got the be better branding. I'm in an interim space here because it probably looks like I'm in a sauna with all this windows back here.

Brandon Eastman [0:23 - 1:07]: It's clean. Oh, man. Yeah, 100%. And the answer is no. I did not always have this background. It started in a two bedroom apartment where we took the extra bedroom, which was the home of all of our junk and storage and all that stuff. And I went on Amazon, and I was like, I knew I was going to do a podcast. I just needed the equipment. I needed to get the stuff. I ordered a dollar 50 desk, still using the same desk today. I ordered a blue yeti microphone, which, like I mentioned, is one of the greatest microphones still to this day. If you don't have, like, sure, sm, seven b or whatever. And I started recording videos, and I ordered these, like, curtains to put behind me. Like, I had a red curtain, a blue curtain, a green curtain, because even if you don't have an extravagant background, a clean background is better than extravagant.

Harry Duran [1:07 - 1:07]: Yes.

Brandon Eastman [1:07 - 2:02]: Like, I've had people come on the show and they've got the fancy office space, but they got a lot of junk everywhere. And then I've had people on the show, like, when Ben Albert started, he was in his bedroom and he kept it clean. And it didn't matter that there was a bed behind him because it was a clean space and all that. But eventually, three years into it, well, it was only a couple years into it that we moved into our new home, which is where I am now, downstairs in the office. And I kept the curtain for a while. I didn't have this microphone. And one day I got home, and my wife is like, hey, you should go down and check out your studio. And I was like, why? And she's like, just go check it out. So I walk downstairs, I see lights under the door, and I'm like, oh, my God, what's going on? I opened the door, and this appears. Everything here, I couldn't have done it without her, man. So it's, you just got to start where you are and then build where it is you want to go. And you don't even know where you want to go yet. But as you build, you'll figure that part out, you know?

Harry Duran [2:02 - 2:17]: Yeah, I can't wait to jump into how you got to where you are now, but let's rewind the clock back a little bit, talk a little bit about where you were. You know, let's maybe just think about, did you have plans for being in communication or broadcasting when you were in college, when studying this?

Brandon Eastman [2:17 - 4:27]: Zero. Zero. In high school, I was one of those kids that never went to the guidance counselor to figure out what happens after, right? So I'm a senior in high school now, getting decent grades, and I was a b student, a, in most classes. And I ask all my friends, what are you doing when you graduate? And they're like, I'm going to this school. I'm going to that school. And I'm like, when did you guys plan this? And they're like, we went to the guidance counselor. I'm like, I missed that appointment. I missed that announcement. So I started working right out of high school. I worked at Walmart out of high school, and I had no plans of being a broadcast or anything like that. And about six months into working at Walmart, I find this opportunity in sales, and I apply for this opportunity. I learned I'm going to make, like, ten times as much as I was making at Walmart, like, almost literally. And I start working for the sales job, and I fall in love with sales. At the age of 18, I start making really great money. I say I want to rise up in this company. I want to become the best salesperson. And for the most part, I did. I became the top salesperson and leaderboard. I moved into every level of leadership eventually. But when I was just in sales, Harry, I was making great money, but every other area of my life was practically in shambles. I had a lot of debt. I was a negative person. No one really wanted. No one would want to spend time with me, right? I was that guy that was like, why aren't you doing what I'm doing? You should do this. You should do that, right? I didn't understand social graces or any of those things, but I was really troubled at that point. And that was when I was 21 years old. And for those to give reference, I'm 30 years old now. So this is almost ten years ago. And I had a mentor come into my life, and he's like, brandon, you got to work on yourself before you can move up into any level of leadership. And I was like, work on myself? What do you mean? And he's like, well, number one, you're overweight, you're in debt, you're unhappy. He's like, start with your fitness, start with your body. And I did, and I made changes in my body and I discovered personal development. We can go into all this story in all the details, I'm sure, but I discovered personal development eventually. I said, I want to help other people make these same changes that I made. And that's where be better industries came from. That's where the be better broadcast came from. Just trying to help people who were in the same spot as I was just less than ten years ago.

Harry Duran [4:28 - 5:12]: I saw in some of the trainings you had on LinkedIn, I saw some NLP stuff and I saw some Dale Carnegie stuff. So I'm curious, you know, when you start to discover things like that early on, it's transformational. And sometimes you don't get the message when you first hear it. I remember I'm dating myself. My dad would have vinyl records of, I think it was like if it was either think and grow or the richest man in Babylon and thinking, you know, and so kind of like these at the time, I'm sure they were helping him. And I remember he would, like, call us down into the living room and we'd have to, like, listen to some of these things. And they didn't sink in at that time. And I think I applaud my dad for at least trying to put us on the path there. And I would come around to some teaching those teachings later on in life. But I'm curious how you found them and how they came across your path and what impact they had on you.

Brandon Eastman [5:12 - 5:15]: The quote, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Harry Duran [5:15 - 5:15]: Exactly. Yeah.

Brandon Eastman [5:15 - 5:51]: Right. So if you try to get the lesson before you're ready, the lesson's going to go right over your head. It doesn't mean anything for sure. It reminds me of when I first read how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. And I wasn't at a point in my life where it was relevant, so I just breezed through it. It didn't really matter much to me, but I needed it. When I was 21, I needed those lessons. And I remember the first thing that my mentor, the man I just mentioned, who was helping me out, the first thing he did for me is he handed me a book and he's like, you need to read this book. This book helped to transform my life and it will do the same for you if you take it seriously. And the book title was the Secret by Rhonda Byrne. And have you read it, by the way?

Harry Duran [5:51 - 5:52]: Yeah. Yeah, you have?

Brandon Eastman [5:52 - 6:53]: Okay, so you know the principles, law of attraction, what you think about you'll attract into your life. Thoughts become things. And I'm reading this book, and it only took me a few days to read it because I was really committed to it. And as I'm reading, it's saying things like, if you want to make more money, then just imagine that every time you get a bill in the mail, imagine that that bill is a check that was sent to you. And I'm like, this stuff is weird. I'm like, who's going to do this? How does that work? How could that make any sense at all? And my mentor was like, Brandon, you need to trust the process. So I did, and I went through it and I practiced what it talked about. I started going to the gym. And I say to everybody, if you're in a place in your life where you're unhappy or you're unsure, you're not sure where you want to go next or how you got yourself where you are now, go to the gym, work out, lift weights, sweat, do things that will push you out of your physical comfort zone. I believe if we push ourselves out of our physical comfort zone, it helps us get ourselves out of our comfort zone and other areas as well. And you look like a fit guy, Harry, so I'm sure that you practice that philosophy, too, right?

Harry Duran [6:53 - 8:56]: No, totally. I think I'm grateful to be in this space where we're at now. And there's a, you know, the old school, like, weights are here. Like, there's a pull up bar, there's like, the weight bench. And, you know, ever since we've been into this, into this new place, like, it's. I just committed. And I've also been doing a lot of men's work. I've been talking a lot about on the podcast about this group called Sacred Sons. And I think it's really needed. And you can do, like, I've done therapy as well. So, like, I've gone through, like, a lot of the help. I look for help along the way. And like you said, I think the right teachers are showing up at the right time. But specifically, last year was really pivotal. Pivotal in terms of, like, doing more men's work and just that connection that you can only have in a container where there's men in a safe space to open up, to release. So there's, like, physical. We do physical combat and stuff, and there's, like, emotional release and it's been really powerful. I remember coming back from that and saying like just doubling down because I used to be in the CrossFit probably twelve years ago, 15 years ago, and that's probably when I was like in the best shape of my life. And then just coming back recently and the understanding that you lose muscle mass faster as you get older. So I just made a miss. Just really, just old school, like lifting weights Monday, Wednesday and Friday I think has been really helpful. And to your point, just working through that, you know, if you're doing a hard enough workout, that's where all your mental energy goes and so, and you can work through that stress that you have and it's just like you feel better. The endorphins kick in. The hard part is getting in there and thankfully, you know, we have the gym on site, we have a peloton as well, so that's helpful, you know, to kind of get some cardio going. So I imagine it's been the same experience for you. But just like in that moment, I remember in Crossfit I took a bolympic weight lifting for a while and at one point, you know, you're bench pressing, not bench pressing, like squatting. I don't remember what the weight was, but it was a lot. It was a couple of hundred pounds. And in that moment where you put that weight on your shoulder and you have to go down and then come back up, there's nothing else in your mind. It's like a singularity of like thought about. The only thing I'm thinking about is coming back up after squatting hundreds of pounds of weight and you got to do it.

Brandon Eastman [8:56 - 9:19]: Once you're down, there's no turning back. It's like, I got to do this. And then you do and you feel really good and you always feel better. People think, well, if I go to the gym, I'm going to be tired. It's like, no, when you go to the gym, you leave and then you're energized to do the podcast, you're energized to build the business, to spend time with your family. Like, it's a prerequisite to energy. If you don't go there, if you don't stoke the flame, then you're going to have no energy to operate from, you're going to have no fuel.

Harry Duran [9:19 - 10:20]: Absolutely. So you've got, you found yourself a mentor, you're going through these trainings, you're getting inspired, you're learning about the law of attraction, which is all, it's like all this stuff is in line with the journey I've been on. I've been on, like, a spiritual journey for, like, 2030 years. And I noticed one of your episodes. You talked to someone about, like, doing ayahuasca as well. So that's been part of my journey as well. So definitely, like, I wear my spirituality on my sleeve. Now, if you look at my LinkedIn, it says I'm the cosmic conduit for awakened souls ready to transmit message. So I'm just like, that's going to repel people as fast as it attracts people, because it's either for you or not for you. So it's nice to just be able to, like, speak the language with people who get it, and if they don't get it, then not your people, and, you know, and that's fine, too. So you're going down this path. Your mind has been, like, open to these new ways of thinking. You're changing preconceived notions about what you think life is about. You've got this sales job that you somewhat happy in and you're making progress in. So talk a little bit about that journey now as you're doing the development, as you're growing and you're moving it and thinking about where you want, what you want to do in your career.

Brandon Eastman [10:20 - 13:39]: So as I work on myself, six months later, I lose more than 60 pounds. A year later, I eliminate more than $20,000 in credit card debt. I see these massive shifts in my life. I feel better because for those who have had debt, and then you find yourself debt free, it is a liberating feeling. You breathe different, you talk different, you walk. Everything changes when you can get yourself out from under that debt, specifically high interest debt, like credit card debt, which is 20 something percent interest. So I had more money in my account. I felt better physically. I got a new wardrobe, which made me feel better in itself. And finally, I apply for leadership at this company. And my mentor was my boss, and he interviewed me, and I got the job. I became a trainer, and then eventually I became a sales team, lead over a team of about 17 people. And at that point, my boss never liked giving public speaking trainings. He never really liked giving the trainings. We had one a month. And I said to him, I said, hey, are you open to me delivering the next training that you're giving? And he's like, yeah, what do you want to talk about? And I said, well, I'd like to talk about my journey. I'd like to talk about goal setting and time management and discipline. And he's like, yeah, do your thing. So the first time ever that I'm putting together a training where I'm going to speak to 40 to 60 people. I think it was, like, probably in the middle there, about 50 people on the Albany team. And I've got notes upon notes in my notebook of, like, exactly what I'm going to say, what I'm going to do. Practiced it for at least a month. Practiced this over and over. And this is when I discovered my superpower. This is when I discovered what I love to do. And I'll tell you how. You know that it's your superpower. You just know, and I'll tell you how. But I gave the training, and I felt like I was in my element. I felt like my fire was burning. I felt like I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. People came up to me after and they said, brandon, I had no idea you could speak like that. And I was like, I didn't either. And I don't. If I look back, it would probably be the most cringey video I've ever watched, I'm sure, because you come so far and you learn so much. But at the time, it was the first time I've ever done that. So after I deliver this training, I think I want to do more of these. And I mentioned to my boss, hey, can I do more? And he gave me every training after that. So if you want something, you got to ask for it. You got to go for it, right? And I did. For the next six to seven months, I delivered every team training, and it opened the door for me to take it to the next leadership level. And over the next five years, I moved to one of the highest positions of leadership inside of. It's Verizon Wireless. I moved to one of the highest positions of leadership inside of Verizon Wireless for upstate New York, organizing all the conferences. We had our own podcast for the market, which is about 44 stores, 350 employees. So I had some podcasting experience before I even began, which is great if you can practice your skillset somewhere else where you get paid to do it, that's fantastic. So over the next five years, up until 2019, I developed my skills, did the podcast with them, and I said, you know what? I want to do these things for people and help people outside of this company. I want to help people all over the world. I want to be like these people that I've looked up to for the last five years. Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Jacko Willink, Robin Sharma, all these amazing people. And I want to start my own business. And I did. I took the leap, and I'm sure we'll talk about that, too, because that goes to the next part. But that's the story up until that point.

Harry Duran [13:39 - 15:38]: So for folks that are in that transition space, I was in that similar space. And, you know, a lot of people, like, glamorize it. Like, oh, like, I took the leap and everything worked out perfectly. And then for me, it was just like I was in corporate for 20 plus years, you know, just in the nine to five. And I started my podcast in 2014, so I was kind of doing it on the side, and then the writing was on the wall with the consultancy job that I had at the time. You know, they had hired someone with a better skill set to do something was like in supply chain or something. I was doing, like, account management or something. And I was like, this is not my passion. Clearly, this person they hired, that's their passion. So the writing was on the wall. I was like, I got to get something going because I see what's coming. And that's why I started the podcast. And it's funny you mentioned Jim Rohn. You know, I hired a coach at the time, too. You know, I was paying him 1500 bucks a month. It was a lot of money at the time. And I remember the Jim Rohn quote because I came into, once you're in the world of digital marketing, you start to see all these people, and that quote of, you are the five person. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That one really was the most impactful for me because I remember joining the mastermind and being in this room with these six and seven figure entrepreneurs. And I was like, who are these people? Like, where did they come from? Like, you're in the nine to five. Like, you don't even realize this world exists. I always like to refer to it as, like, digital Narnia. I was like, holy smokes. Like, I didn't know. And I was swimming in the deep end for a long time. I felt completely out of my element, and I was like, but I gotta learn. I gotta learn from these people. And that's how I essentially started my podcast agency, like, a year later in 2015. And those people were my clients because I'm like, oh, they understand opportunity costs. They understand what an hour of their time is worth. They don't want to do all this stuff. And so I created a high end ticket offer for them. And, you know, since then, we've launched over 120 shows for clients but it didn't happen, like, wasn't like a step. Do this, do this, do this. You know, I just felt like I had to do something. And then I'm sure that's essentially what you were feeling. You were feeling some sort of push or pull, you know, whatever it was that you needed to do something, that the nine to five was no longer for you. So can you talk a little bit about what's happening in your inner world at the time?

Brandon Eastman [15:38 - 19:22]: Well, my inner world was exactly what you're describing. It was, I want to do more, but I'm not sure how to do more. And I realized I didn't have the skills. I didn't have the LLC, I didn't have the web, I didn't have all these things that I thought that I needed at the time. And I made at that time one of the greatest investments I could possibly have made. Looking back, it was the impetus for me starting the business, getting the website, creating my first products, eventually creating over three to five products that are still on my website. You can go check them out. And I'm happy to talk about product creation wherever it leads. But I made an investment in a course, and it was the first time I ever paid money for anything online. So, like you said, you had a coach that you paid 1500 a month. I also had a coach in 2021, so several years in. But before that, I bought the course. And the course, it's still out there. It's called the knowledge business blueprint. It's by Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi. And it's a fantastic course. It talks about how to package your knowledge, start a business and run events. Because my goal at the time was not a podcast. That wasn't my goal. I didn't even really listen to podcasts at the time. I watched a lot of YouTube videos. My goal was I wanted to run live events. I wanted to get a lot of people in the room and run events. And my first goal was I want to run a local event in the Albany area by going through this course. And I did. And I learned a lot from that experience. From that course, my website was created, my business cards, my first video content, my first pieces of content in general were me in my living room, in the apartment I mentioned earlier delivering trainings on how to set goals, how to be a better person, you know, what it looks like to be successful, all those things. And it led to my event. And I spent thousands of dollars marketing this free event, the first event I would ever do. I'm thinking there's going to be 100 people here, probably more. We got to make sure we have room. So I called the hotel. They broke down another wall to have more room in the space. And we get to the event after spending thousands and creating the website and creating the funnel. And there was twelve people in that room, and five of them were my family. So seven strangers. And I'm like, what is happening? I went through this course. I learned all these things, but it didn't work. And at the time, I'm like, I'm a failure. But I learned so much. I learned how to run ads. I learned how to put together a landing page. I learned, most importantly, what didn't work. And what I learned what didn't work. What didn't work was I didn't have a brand. No one knew who I was. Why would you want to go watch this person speak about how to be successful? You don't even know who they are, right? What have they done? Who were they to tell you how to do this? So I realized I got to build a brand. And that's when I went all in on YouTube. I went all in in 2019. I created three videos a week for several years, three videos a week. And eventually I brought on a video editor. And finally my friend comes and says to me, harry, he's like, Brandon, I love your videos. I love what you have to share. He said, but I would love to hear from other people, too, about what it looks like to be successful in different areas. And I said, well, I don't really know that many people that could talk. And he's like, well, I can help you find people. And he did. And he helped me find my first podcast guests. And it led to the next, and it led to the next, and then obviously it led to places like Pod match. And it gets to a point also where, like, Ben Albert connected us. You just meet people through connections and then those people become your guests. And that's really how the podcast started. It started unintentionally. And I found that this was my favorite part of the business, my favorite part of the business, the part of the business that generates the most leads. And not even just that, I think what I should have said first and what comes first is this is the part of the business that is creating the most impact because the people I love to talk to are listening to podcasts and this is a perfect way to reach them.

Harry Duran [19:22 - 20:03]: Yeah, makes a lot of sense. And we can definitely geek out on all things podcasting because that was obviously the genesis for starting this show. I'm curious now that you can look back, because they say hindsight is 2020. And you talked about this feeling of wanting to talk about your journey to help people, to show people this path. If you look back now, can you look at either influences that you had growing up, family influences, or where do you think that drive comes from? You did mention your mentor as well. But I'm just curious. I'm always. I love hearing about origin stories. And sometimes when you look back and you can point at certain points in your life or certain moments, or you're like, ah, okay, I can see how now, how that's played out in the future.

Brandon Eastman [20:03 - 23:10]: Yeah, excellent question. This might not be something that most people agree with, but I believe that all of us are born with a blueprint. And I believe that to an extent, it could be epigenetics, it could be genetics in general, it could be the universe, it could be spirituality. Who knows? But I believe that when we're born, we're this parcel, we're this human being that has these hardwired connections already in us to do certain things well. And I was born to a great family. Mother and father, they're still together to this day. They're still alive, which is amazing. I'm blessed. And I had a great upbringing, and my dad was a hard worker. He was a business owner. My whole upbringing, he's a construction worker, but he owned his own business. My mom worked. She did daycare. She was a waitress. They did whatever they had to do to make ends meet, and they created a beautiful life for themselves, especially considering my dad came from foster care, never knew his father. My mom didn't have the best upbringing. So these two lower class people becoming middle, upper class people through hard work, and I grew up in that family. And I noticed several things from a very young age, aside from learning from them that hard work is everything, you must take massive action. I believe in the law of attraction. Heavily believe in it. I love the principles. A lot of people take it in the wrong direction by just thinking of what they want. You got to think about what you want for maybe a few minutes, but then you have to take an hour of action for every few minutes you think about it, okay, you got to take action. And I always found that there was two things innately about myself that just came natural. I loved to teach, and I loved to talk those two things. And they manifested themselves in many ways. They manifested themselves in bad ways. When I was in school, getting sent to the principal's office for talking over teachers and they manifested themselves in great ways. I remember when I was 13 years old, I was a gamer, a heavy gamer, and quite literally I was a fat kid and I was also a heavy gamer. And I played this game called Runescape and a lot of people listening probably have heard of it. It was a giant game. It's still around to this day. And I created a YouTube channel where I made video tutorials of how to play the game, how to beat certain bosses. And they were not very good, but I built quite the following. When I was 13, 1415 years old, I had over a thousand subscribers. Some of my videos had hundreds of thousands of views. An average video would get 7000 views. And I didn't understand these things. I was just making videos because I like to teach and I like to do it. So looking back, I find that when we're in our younger ages, even our young teens, before the world takes over, before the 09:00 to 05:00 takes over, before all these things in life take over, you know what you want to do, you know what you're good at, you know what your abilities are. I always knew I was a teacher. I had a blackboard in my room when I was like six years old where I would write math problems and I wasn't even good at math, but I was teaching an empty room. So what were those things that you did back when you were a child? Were you always into fairness? Did you stop the fights? Maybe. You're a law enforcement officer, right? Were you a teacher? What is it that comes naturally to you? And remember that, because you don't have to discover what you're great at, you just have to remember what it is that you cloaked over with the junk that this world and other people have thrown at you.

Harry Duran [23:10 - 24:06]: So important. And I think that's something that a lot of people lose sight of because I think what's interesting, when you start to look at, you know, what happens from a spirituality perspective. And I've studied Buddhism as well, and they talk about those first seven years, children are still in this like connection to the world. They came from mindset, so everything, their imagination is their reality, like, and so when they say they're talking to someone that, you know, it could be they have the connection, or when they say they can talk to the flowers or nature, you know, that they have a connection to that, you know. And so I think nurturing that is really important because that's really a developmental time for children. And a lot of times parents are like, oh, that's silly, or don't do that, or you shouldn't do this. And just, like, they're really, like, starting to shut down all these aspects of creativity that really just need the most nurturing at that time, because that's when they're developing what they're innately good at or, you know, discovering their blueprint, if you will. And so it's important and something that I think about a lot, no doubt.

Brandon Eastman [24:06 - 24:10]: I'm reading this book right now called the Artists way.

Harry Duran [24:10 - 24:10]: Oh, yeah.

Brandon Eastman [24:10 - 25:47]: It's by Julia Warren. I'm pretty sure Warren's her last name, but she says exactly what you just said as kids. Most kids today are not given the encouragement that they need when they want to do something new, rather than say, yeah, go try it and find out. We try to tell them what's happened to us and why they shouldn't do it, and we limit them. Right? And we stoke. The opposite of Stoke, actually. We limit their creativity, and they grow up into adults who aren't creative. They think being creative is something that only is there for a certain amount of people. But we're creative beings. We're meant to be creative. We're meant to create new things. We're meant to serve with our creativity. And that's really. That's, you know, whatever you believe God to be, that's God's work, is us expressing our creativity. Having conversations like this, like the words aren't just coming into our head, they're being channeled to us by whatever you believe. And I truly believe that when I'm presenting, when I'm doing an event, when I'm in one on one coaching, and I'm in, I'm present with that person in front of me. When you're lifting the weights and you're present in that moment, you are channeling God. You are channeling the universe. We are a vessel that channels the energy that is given to us by whatever this force is that you believe, and that energy is limited. And young children and these are things that just aren't taught to new parents. You don't get a parenting class unless you find one yourself. And then who knows who the teacher is, right? Maybe they limited their kids creativity. So you've got to learn for yourself by educating yourself. You've got to be educating. Jim Rohn said, miss a meal, but don't miss reading. Right? Read for 30 minutes a day. And he's absolutely right. You got to learn from other people's experience, and you got to learn from the right people.

Harry Duran [25:47 - 26:06]: You mentioned reading, which is something that's interesting for me because reading tied into productivity, and I'm always looking for ways to be more efficient and take more advantage of the little time we have throughout the day. Do you have a structure for how you consume content now? I'm assuming you got a lot on your plate, a lot working with the podcast and your business, but I get the sense that you're always the eternal student.

Brandon Eastman [26:06 - 27:53]: Yeah. So I still work in sales. I've been with the same company for twelve years to this day. And on my drive each day, I've got about a 30 minutes drive and it's mostly all highway. So I'll listen to audiobooks, I'll listen to YouTube videos, I'll listen to courses on the way to work, so I won't watch it, obviously, but I'll listen to it and I'll relisten it. This is a newer thing I've been doing the last few years. I relisten to everything. I'll listen to it once and then I'll listen to it again and again and again and again until I can practically recite what it is they're saying. Because a lot of us, including myself, will read a book, we'll go through it and we'll be like, yeah, I learned something. But then you read it again and you're like, whoa, I didn't see that the first time. I didn't see that. Oh, this is how this thing connects to this thing, right? You hear all these successful people talk about how they read books, like think and grow rich. These people didn't read it once. They read it over and over. Like, Bob Proctor had a copy of it from when he was a young man and the copy was all, it was desecrated and it was all torn apart and all these things. And he's like, I've read this book hundreds and hundreds of times, so I'll listen to audio. And every night before I go to bed, I just find that it works better for me. Before I go to bed, I'll read at least ten pages every single day. Even if I'm really tired, I'll get into bed, I'll open the book, and my energy is there, right? When I open the book, the energy is there. I don't feel tired anymore. I'll read ten pages minimum. Sometimes it's 20 or 30 if it's a good part of the book. And then I'll put the book down and I will go to sleep. So I love to read because I believe that reading compared to audio does something different to the brain. Although I believe audio is, to a lot of extents, even more powerful because you can do it everywhere. You can do it at the gym, you can do it in the car. I mean, everyone listening knows this because they're listening to it right now, probably at the gym or in the car. But yeah, those are the two ways that I like to consume content.

Harry Duran [27:53 - 29:00]: Yeah. I think what's been helpful for me is reading on Kindle, because I'm a big fan of. I don't know if you've heard of read wise, this app, it's a fantastic app. It's essentially surfaces content that you've highlighted previously. So. And you connect it to your Kindle. And so if I highlight a segment that's really resonating with me in a book, I'll highlight it in a kindle. It'll sync up to read wise, and then every morning in readwise, it says it'll refresh stuff that I've read, all my previous highlights from all the books I've ever written. And it also has an OCR thing. So you can scan, if you're physically reading a book, you can scan a paragraph and drop it into, like, your readwise queue. And then what happens with readwise is just resurfaces quotes. So every day you can pick, I want to do up. I want to research it ten snippets a day. And so you're looking at the ten snippets and every day as long as you have it as a daily practice. Now it's part of my daily practice just to read snippets. And that reinforces some of the stuff that you've learning. So I found that really powerful. And it's one of the reasons why I normally like, I like audiobooks, but I like the fact that being able to, like, have it in the Kindle so I can have a segment that I'm like, oh, I like that a lot. That's really powerful. Like, it really hit home and so. And then it resurfaces later when I do my readwise reviews.

Brandon Eastman [29:00 - 29:05]: I like that. That's really cool. Yeah, it's like, why don't we invent these things?

Harry Duran [29:05 - 29:58]: I'm glad someone else has, too. But it's interesting because people learn differently and I always forget what the terms are. But, you know, if it's. I don't know what the proper terms are for people who learn by watching, you know, if they're visual, people who learn by actually writing. So that's why they learned. You know, some of my coaches, he likes drawing models. And he gets people to like, okay, get a piece of paper out, draw a circle, draw a square, and just, you know, basic shapes. But there's something about people, like, writing physically and drawing models, and even models where you're describing, like, where are you in this journey? And the people is writing it down, and there's something powerful that happens. And I know you've studied some, like, NLP stuff as well. If people can, like, picture themselves in the model that you're drawing for them, they can see. They then know and understand, like, oh, I can see how you're paying this journey for me. And I've heard it described as if you can describe a person's problem to them better than they can, then they'll attribute you with the solution, which I think is pretty. It's pretty amazing, 100%.

Brandon Eastman [29:58 - 31:49]: There's something beautiful that happens when you put a pen to paper. And I've always been a major note taker, even in school, everywhere I've taken notes. And the book I'm reading the artist's way again. One of her main challenges that she gives you right from the beginning of the book is over the course of these twelve weeks. Because it's a book that takes course over twelve weeks. Every week's a different challenge. Okay, there's one. There's two constants. The one that I'll mention here is it's called the morning pages. And every morning she says, wake up an hour earlier, which I've started waking up an hour earlier, 05:00 a.m. Versus six, and write three pages of whatever you want every single morning. You could talk about what happened yesterday. You could talk about what you're going to do today. You can talk about what's not going well, what's going well, your goals, your work, your business, whatever. Just write. It doesn't matter what you write, if it's spelled correctly, anything. So, my notebook upstairs. For the last week, I've been doing this, and every morning I'm writing three pages. It takes me about 45 minutes to do this. My hand hurts at the end, but you're absolutely right by the second page, going back to what we said earlier, that creative universal force is there, and your hand is just floating across the page, and you'll write about things you never thought you'd write about. Like, I started writing my new book over the last few days because I'm like, I have nothing to write about. So let's start writing the new book. And it just floats off the pen onto the page and writing is so powerful because as you're writing things, you can only write so fast. So as you're writing things, your mind is keeping up and you're creating pictures and videos in your mind. And if you're familiar at all with NLP, then you know that we only think in terms of pictures and videos. Those are the only things we think of. So if you can help someone change the pictures and videos inside their mind, you can help them change their actions. You can help them change how they feel, their thoughts, emotions, everything. So it's a very powerful way to center yourself and reactivate your creativity if some of it has gone away over the years.

Harry Duran [31:49 - 32:14]: Awesome. I love that. Let's talk about the podcast. So you were doing YouTube videos. You had a friend who convinced you to start speaking to people. So how did you prepare for that? Were you familiar with interview based shows, or did you have a format you wanted to follow? I'm curious because there's a shift. Obviously, doing solo content is very different, you know, in terms of how you prep and how you think about content when you're having to then involve another person in the conversation.

Brandon Eastman [32:14 - 34:07]: Yeah, that's. There's no doubt. My first episode was actually an in person episode. It was one of my only. It was actually, I think, my only in person episode. I was traveling for work, and there was this top performing salesperson in the area that was at the same meeting I was. And I was like, hey, you want to record a podcast? I brought my camera, and he's like, yeah, let's go do it. And he's a good friend of mine to this day. We go to the hotel, we set up and we record, and it organically happened. He had a powerful story. It's one of my first episodes. If people go check it out, it's with a man named Paul Rankin. And it was fantastic. And I didn't really know what I wanted. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't really know what to do. I didn't have an editor at the time. I was really just figuring it out by myself, right. And I quickly figured out I hated editing my own shows. I hated doing all the things except for speaking to the guest, right. So I learned to outsource those things and bring other people in. And I've got one guy I work with who's fantastic, and he's our lead content developer at be better. But I realized I didn't know enough people in person to only do in person interviews. And I certainly didn't have the funds to fly out people to be on the show, bring them to dinner, all those things. That is a goal of mine for the future, but it wasn't possible then. And we're working towards that, by the way, which is really cool. But I went on a website because I realized I got to talk to people from all over the place. Because the good thing about a virtual interview is you're in Minneapolis, I'm in upstate New York. So we're hours and hours away. But we're having a conversation right now in real time, and people listening, they don't know. Right. They're not even watching. So we could be in the same room. You just don't know. So I went on matchmaker FM. It sounds like a dating website. I assured my wife it was not. And that's where I found new podcast guests. And I put my show up and I had conversations with people. And like we mentioned earlier, it just organically grows from there. Right. My first year of the podcast, we probably broke 5000 downloads in the first year.

Harry Duran [34:07 - 34:07]: Yeah.

Brandon Eastman [34:08 - 35:05]: And it was, if this was the graph. So for people watching, you'll see my finger. It was just a steady line going slightly, slightly up over time. But after the first year, it started to go more up. The curve started to curve more, and it started to go up and up and up. And after the third year, which 2021. So we just hit three years this march. We're over 200,000 downloads. We're almost at 400 episodes. It's funny you mentioned ayahuasca earlier. That was with Michael Thornhill. That was a great conversation. I interviewed him and his wife together later on, too. We talked more about it. My number one episode has 60,000 downloads, and it's on magic mushrooms, and it's actually on YouTube. It has even more on the podcast platforms. But it's my experience microdosing magic mushrooms. Okay, so what you discover throughout your journey doing this is people are more interested in one thing that you talk about than another. So talk more about the things that other people actually want to hear about, not just what you want to talk about.

Harry Duran [35:05 - 35:06]: Yeah.

Brandon Eastman [35:06 - 35:11]: So I've created several videos on magic mushrooms. It's just tough because YouTube's deleted several of them.

Harry Duran [35:11 - 35:11]: Yeah.

Brandon Eastman [35:11 - 35:23]: And it's discouraging. So I didn't make too many more of those, for obvious reasons. But you learn a lot about yourself, and you learn even more about what other people want as you do it more and more and more.

Harry Duran [35:23 - 36:20]: So given that you've introduced it, and we've had a couple of mentions of ayahuasca and plant medicine. What's been your personal experience with them? And just as a bit of context, like, I've been on a journey for many years. We talked about my spirituality, but also I've had several ayahuasca sessions with very powerful experiences. One in which I saw the moment that I selected my parents, which is pretty crazy. So I just knew that these two people would be allow me to have the experience here during this lifetime that I wanted. It was almost like I see myself as, like, a soul that was hanging out with all of my soul friends and be like, I'm gonna go do this on earth. And they're like, okay, but where are you gonna do it? I think these two people will allow me to have the experience I want to have. And then I picked all these, like, difficult life challenges. Like, so I always say I created this life because. Cause I wanted to. So I've had powerful experiences, and I've got a very respectful relationship with what they do. And I know it's a interesting and touchy subject for some folks, but I'm curious about what your personal experience has been.

Brandon Eastman [36:20 - 37:29]: Yeah, I think it's becoming much less of a touchy subject, and I think it's much more of a curiosity now more than it's ever been. I mean, the fact that this YouTube video of mine still gets 500 views every other day blows my mind. Like, I didn't realize there were so many people out there who wanted to know about psychedelics and magic mushrooms specifically. And they're out there and they're in mass, and eventually it's going to be legal everywhere, just like marijuana is legal everywhere. And it took many, many years for that to happen, which is another story. But you gave me chills when you just said you picked your parents. You picked the life challenges you wanted to have. My friend Ben rants and raves about that. Not Ben Albert, a different Ben. He rants and raves about this book called the Journey of Souls, where this psychotherapist put people into a trance and hypnotize them, and they were talking about their past lives. And he found the same theme among all of his clients that he didn't even expect, where everyone says in their past lives and before they were born, they chose the challenges that they would have on earth. And Earth is like a proving ground to overcome the challenges that you've picked or that were given to you. So when you just said that, man, that's absolutely wild. Have you read that book?

Harry Duran [37:29 - 37:32]: I have heard of it. I don't I haven't read that one yet.

Brandon Eastman [37:32 - 38:14]: Very interesting that you say that. That's funny. So, yeah, I haven't had ayahuasca. I haven't tried that. I want to. Eventually, I'll go to Michael Thornhill's retreat and do that eventually. But I have done magic mushrooms a few times for the full dose, and I've microdosed for 90 days to see what that was. And that was a great experience. People can go check out the video for more information on that, but the full experiences I've had, we done one, my friend and I, Dustin, we did one heroic dose of magic mushrooms. And I was curious about this for years, but I was the guy in high school who was like, anyone who does drugs or scumbags, they're bad people. You never want to do these right. Everything the government tells us, I believed, right. And now I realize, well, maybe there's a reason they don't want us to have these things, but we won't go down that road. That's for another. Maybe another podcast.

Harry Duran [38:14 - 38:15]: That's another podcast.

Brandon Eastman [38:15 - 41:34]: Exactly. So I did magic mushrooms with him, and rather than go over every little detail, I learned several things from the experience. And what was wild is you realize that every living thing around you is truly alive. I remember the person who was sitting us. Trip sitting us. She came into the camper that we were in because he's got this beautiful music studio bus camper concoction. She brought in this fern, this leaf, and it sounds wild whenever I tell this story. And she's like, guys, hold this fern. She's like, when I was on acid, these things were, like, alive in my hands. So my friend Dustin grabs it, and he's holding it, and he's like, wow. And I'm thinking, what's going on over there? I want to hold the fern. And I hold it, and I held probably two babies in my life before I held this fern, but holding this fern was like I was holding a baby in my arms. This leaf was alive. Like, it was a big, giant leaf. And I was like, this is unbelievable. It was wriggling and squirming in my hands, and I was like, you got to take it back because I can't keep holding this thing. And that was one of the funny parts of the experience. But I learned several things, and they came to me as innate knowings. I don't know where they came from. I just knew them one thing. And let me preface this, because I specifically have mentioned God several times during this conversation. I'm really not a religious person. I'm not. I believe in God. I believe to me, God is this force that's all around us that causes the trees to grow, causes the grass to grow, causes the snow to fall. All the things that we can't explain, I believe is God. It's that mystical force that's ever present and always moving. I knew in that experience that I was God, and that all of us are God. We are all one. We are God. Why are there wars? Why do we fight each other? Why do we cause harm? We are all one being. I knew that to be true. And it wasn't like I was thinking of it. I knew it to be true. And it's hard to understand unless you've had an experience like this. But that's the first thing. The second thing was, I learned that nothing in life is urgent. Nothing is urgent. Along with, I'm sure, maybe even yourself. Correct me if I'm wrong. And a lot of other people who are on the path to achieve great things, and we have big visions. We're constantly thinking, am I moving fast enough? Is what I'm doing working? How can I make this go quicker? Why is that person there and I'm here? I want to go where they are. I had an understanding, as if it was a whisper in my ear, that nothing is urgent. You're on the right path. Keep doing what you're doing. And the third thing was a simple message of, keep helping people. Help more people. You are here to help people. Forget about yourself and help others. It was like something that was in my mind and being whispered in my ear the whole time. And since that experience, I was hooked. I said, this is what everybody needs. And there are studies. I mean, there's Stanford studies now of magic mushrooms where people who took them 60 days later, 90% reported, even more than 90%. 90% reported that their depression was gone after one full experience on magic mushrooms. So if this plant can do this, and really it's a poison more than anything, your body is fighting for survival. If this poison and plant can do this to us, what else can it do? What other experiences can we have to truly understand and know ourselves? And I hope that answers your question.

Harry Duran [41:34 - 42:50]: I know I kind of just opened up, like, a whole can of worms. Open up the rabbit hole. The spiritual rabbit hole is what I like to call it, but it's so fascinating. And I think I've been opening myself up to allowing the moments to happen that are just, like, either meant to happen organically and just having these conversations and you never know. I love holding the space for these conversations and not knowing where they're going to go. And. And I'm trusting now that the universe is putting people in my path or putting conversations onto this show so that they can get out, because I didn't idea that we were going to have this conversation. Yeah, but it's just amazing when you, like, are in the mindset where you're allowing things to happen in a way, you're allowing the buns to flow through and letting it happen and not restricting it, because for a lot of people, they could feel uncomfortable. And I think that what I get from what you're saying and what I'm trying to communicate to the listener is to test out being more comfortable in this space. It's a, you know what people like to call woo woo. And I think the people that use that phrase are people that are uncomfortable with spirituality, is what I'm convinced of. So I'm curious how your journey has been to just being more comfortable in your own shell speaking about this stuff because you've understand the impact that it's had in your life.

Brandon Eastman [42:51 - 44:22]: It was really difficult at first, and it was really uncomfortable because I didn't know how to talk about it. I didn't want people, I didn't want clients to see me talk about it because I didn't want. Because, listen, you can have great clients, but they're not going to agree with you on everything. And all of a sudden, you've lost a big client. But like you said earlier, you adjusted your LinkedIn headline, your bio, everything. And you said, it's going to bring me the right people. And it's going to bring me people who maybe I didn't even realize I'd meet as a result of making it like this. And that's the definition of marketing, attracting who you want, repelling those who you don't want. Yeah, and I didn't lose any clients. People at the company I work with loved it. The person I directly report to was like, he started calling me mushroom man, which I thought was really funny. And I was like, oh, man, he saw the video and now there's no hiding from it, man. I mean, that video, it's getting hits every single day. It's getting comments every single day. And I want to make more content about it. It's just a really sticky subject. Yeah, but you just have to do it right. And obviously you've got to be self aware enough if you work at a job where it's not going to be okay. Like you got to understand what's going on around you. You have to have situation awareness. You have to understand the politics of things. If I worked at, it's not really a corporate sales job I work in, but if I worked in corporate America, would they be okay with me talking about magic mushrooms? Probably not. Right? So you've got to figure that out for yourself. But it just happened to work for me, and I took a risk, and the risk paid off, and it helped to ignite my channel and grow my show. And sometimes you just got to take a risk, but take calculated risks.

Harry Duran [44:22 - 44:22]: If.

Brandon Eastman [44:22 - 44:33]: If you've got kids who you're supporting and you don't really have any other opportunities, and maybe don't censor yourself necessarily, but be strategic about what you decide to speak on that you're passionate about.

Harry Duran [44:33 - 45:28]: Yeah, we're moving into a different time, and it's been happening over the years. So I've seen it, like, more and more. And just, I've always been fascinated with the metaphysical and esoteric, whether it's like the pyramids in Egypt, crop circles, it was just like light beings and starseeds. I would just go down all these rabbit holes, was like, what is happening? What's out there? The world is so much bigger than the galaxy, so much bigger than we can even imagine. So I think it's opening yourself up to the possibilities of what if. And I think that's happening more and more. And a lot of people have been talking about the solar eclipse energy, and I feel it because I've pushed myself to just go on IG reels, which I never do, because I'm just uncomfortable, just, like, talking extemporaneously about what is on my mind. But I felt like I had to move through that discomfort specifically on that one topic. And so now it's something that I'm doing. I'm hitting the ten year anniversary of this show, so it feels like a good time to just say, hey, look, I'm doing something uncomfortable to hopefully will push you to do something uncomfortable as well.

Brandon Eastman [45:28 - 46:10]: Jeff. Absolutely. You're always going to be trying new things. You're not always. You should be always trying new things, testing what works. Like, we just started posting YouTube shorts, and we already have the content, so we're like, why not create shorts? And it blew up our channel over the last month. Like, we've got, like, 26,000 views just this month alone. And, I mean, over the course of three years, the show got 200,000 downloads. So it's like, look at what work we can do every single month because of shorts that then bring people to your full channel so they can see the full episode. So trying new things constantly to get a different result and get a faster result. And I know I mentioned nothing is urgent, but if you're not growing, you're dying, right? So you've got to be growing in some way or another.

Harry Duran [46:11 - 46:14]: How have you grown over the years as a podcast host?

Brandon Eastman [46:15 - 48:22]: I learned a lot. I've learned the type of people I want on my show. I've become a lot more, I don't like using the word strict, but I've become a lot more aware of who I want to talk to. I've learned how to better talk to people. I've learned that just simply agreeing with people the whole time isn't necessarily the best way. I found the best episodes in terms of how much I liked them as well as how much other people liked them. Include controversy, right. Even if I agree, as an example, even if you say something I agree with, I would push back on it and I'd say, but what about this, Harry? And then you may, I don't know how you'd rack because I didn't do that, but you'd be like, well, and then you slightly get a little bit more aggressive and now there's energy going back and forth and that's good for a conversation, you know, like when I listen to my favorite podcasters, like Joe Rogan and even more so nowadays, Patrick bet David, if you're familiar with him, he is a debater. Like, he will just go back and forth. He has anyone on the show to talk to, anybody. And it's controversial and that's why people listen to it. So I've learned more what people want over the past three years, and I've also learned more how to monetize it over the past three years. At the beginning, you do it and you're just doing it because you love to do it. I'm still doing it because I love to do it. But I started asking myself the question, what if I could make money doing this while enjoying it? And I started to create digital products, and I started a coaching service and I started working with sales teams. And we're planning, and we're in the heat right now of planning a retreat for only past guests of the Be better broadcast, which is about 300 people for Costa Rica in October. We're bringing them to a mastermind retreat. We're going to have an amazing time for three days, four nights, and we're going to help each other grow our businesses. Right. So I've learned even more so that you can't get there alone. Like you said, you're the average of the people you spend time around. I've met over 300 people who've been on my show. I've been on probably around 100 shows like we're doing right now. So now I know you. You know me. We can work together. We can create something beautiful. So it's. You learn that you'll get somewhere faster if you travel together than alone?

Harry Duran [48:22 - 48:22]: Oh, yeah.

Brandon Eastman [48:22 - 48:25]: I think more than anything. So those are the few lessons I've learned over the years.

Harry Duran [48:25 - 48:39]: Yeah, I think that's an indigenous saying. Yeah. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go farther, go together or something like that. Let's get some ancient wisdom. Definitely in there. Loving this conversation. I feel like it could go on for hours.

Brandon Eastman [48:39 - 48:40]: Yeah.

Harry Duran [48:40 - 48:56]: So I'm really loving the energy here. I'm curious, trying to think about a couple of different paths to go, but I just want to be respectful of your time. I have a couple of questions that I ask people as we get towards the end of these conversations. The first one is, what is something that you've changed your mind about recently?

Brandon Eastman [48:56 - 50:49]: Oh, that's a great question. We talked about this before we filmed, but having starting a family changes what you want, and I don't think this is something I don't necessarily want anymore. But one of my goals since I started my business was I want to have giant events. I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to have a. Like, I went to GrowthCon in 2018, which is Grant Cardone's conference, and I went with friends, and there was 30,000 people in this stadium in Miami. I think it was the Dolphin Stadium. Don't crucify me if I'm wrong, sports people. But I went there, and I was like, this is what I want to do. And after starting my business and after doing the podcast and starting some products, some failed, some were successful, some still are, I've learned what I don't want to do, and I don't know if I want to organize an event with 30,000 people. Like, maybe if my brand gets there, not if. Maybe when my brand gets there, I'll have the opportunity to work with great people who, just like you, take podcasts for people and make them successful. Maybe some other person will say, I'll help you make an event. You just show up, and you do your thing. Right? That'd be great. But I found more. So I love the more intimate settings. I love taking, like we just mentioned, ten to twelve people to Costa Rica and really diving deep for three days with just ten to twelve people and really helping them make an impact. And I think one thing that I changed my mind on is not just helping people, but helping people who are using their voice to help more people. Right? Helping thought leaders and authors and creators. If you can help a creator, you're helping ten people or more. Let's say you're helping ten, you help 100, you've helped 1000. Right? How many creators can you help, and how many people are you helping as a result of helping them? And that's what you're doing. You're amplifying people's voices. You're getting their voice off the ground so people actually hear it. So I know you resonate with that. And that's even more so where I am now. If I can help teach and coach those people, what kind of world could we live in?

Harry Duran [50:49 - 51:25]: Yeah, that's wonderful. Wonderful thought to think of, to wake up with, which I think is wonderful. I want to actually just ask if you could share. You know, obviously we can go deep on a lot of this and we'll have all the links to all your stuff on the show. But there's a lot of folks that are starting a podcast who've been doing a podcast for years and just treating it as like a passion project. Out of the things that you had and done that have worked and not worked, you've mentioned some stuff that failed, some stuff that didn't work. If you think about it from an indie podcaster perspective, where have you seen, like, the most success in terms of doing something that can help you monetize the work you're doing on the podcast.

Brandon Eastman [51:26 - 54:15]: The first one is not going to be for everybody, although I believe it could. If you think about how you can make it work for you is outsource everything. Outsource everything. Whether they give it to someone like you who does it, or they hire a va, or they go on Fiverr. Like, I started on Fiverr, but I was spending a lot of money on Fiverr. I was spending dollar 40 an episode to get it edited, and then I was spending $12.50 for a thumbnail. And over the course of eight episodes a month, you can see how that quickly adds up. And I was like, I need to bring someone on who's going to be on my team. So in 2021, I went to a website called one VA away. It's run by a guy named John Jonas, and they are Vas from the Philippines, and they're fantastic people. And you can pay someone in the Philippines $350 a month. And to them that's like someone in the United States earning $4,000 a month to give you a comparison. So the guy that works with me, Errol, he's a key member of my team. I could not do it without him. You have to outsource the things that you don't like. If you don't do that, you'll stop doing the podcast. You can't do it all. Everyone who tries to do it all fails. It doesn't work. That's the main thing. Outsource it at the very beginning. You really can't do that. You have to find out what you enjoy doing. Some people, like, I'm a fan of Shane Dawson. He's a giant creator on YouTube, and Shane still edits his own videos because that's his superpower. That is not my superpower. My superpower is I love getting people on the show and having conversations with them. That's my superpower and the creating of the product. So if you're focusing on one thing, you're saying no to something else. So outsource the work that doesn't resonate with you as your superpower. That's number one. The second one, it's going to be a role. People are going to roll their eyes when they hear it. But surprisingly, people still don't follow this advice. And it's, you need to keep publishing, you need to keep going, you need to keep creating episodes. I think the stat, like a year ago was the average podcast gets to like seven episodes and then it stops. I'm curious to see what that is now. It's sad because people start it, they don't see the result they want and they stop. But you're not going to see results for a year. You're probably not going to see results for two years. You won't see great results until maybe five years. So you don't do it because you want quick results. You do it because you have a greater purpose and mission behind doing it. Your why is strong enough for you to keep doing it, but you just have to keep publishing and don't even look at the downloads for the first hundred episodes. And I know that sounds crazy, people will say, but you need to track it. You need to know what's working. Yes, I agree. Maybe check every 20 episodes or so. But if all it's going to do is discourage you, then what's the point, right? Get going, Mr. Beast said he made 100 videos before he even made his first great video that even did any level of success. So record your first hundred episodes and then determine what you want to do after that.

Harry Duran [54:15 - 54:24]: That's really good. One, two, starting point. Because I think people skip the basics because they want to get to the fancy stuff. So, last question. What is the most misunderstood thing about you?

Brandon Eastman [54:24 - 56:11]: I was and am frequently the guy that people come up to, and they say, you're always so happy, right? You're always in a good mood. How are you always in a good mood? Is the question. I get all the time, and I love that because it gives me an opportunity to maybe help somebody, of course. But people frequently misunderstand that the people you see who you believe are always in a great mood. They're not always in a great mood. And that's life, right? We all experience the range of emotions, but we experience some emotions more than others. So do I exper, like the other night, I was telling my wife, I was like, I feel really weird tonight. I feel, like, fearful and paranoid, and I never feel this way. And I think it's because I was watching this, like, really this dark documentary on YouTube that I probably shouldn't have watched. It was really bad. It affected my mental space, which just goes to show, everything around us is affecting us to a certain degree. And I'm not always in a great mood. I'm not always being better. I'm not always on top of my game, but I've trained the muscle enough to be able to do that when I need to do it, when I need to feel good, I know how to do it. When I need to show up as my best self, I know how to do it. And that's not me saying I'm being fake. It's me saying, I know how to turn it on when I need to turn it on. And I think that's the beauty and the essence of NLP, which, for those who don't know what that is, it's neuro linguistic programming. It's training your brain, it's training your language and your brain to create a physiological response in your body. And we can all feel the way that we want to feel when we want to feel it. You just have to train the muscle and learn how to do that. So to answer your question, in a long, in a short way, I not always the happy guy, but I know when to turn it on when I need to. And I know that if I'm not feeling good, it's not permanent. It's temporary. And if I continue on, I'll feel the way that I want to feel again.

Harry Duran [56:11 - 57:41]: Yeah, that's so important because I think in this age of, like, people seeing other people's lives on social and seeing people's best version of themselves, I think, you know, something that I've been conscious of is because, you know, sometimes I'm not having a good day, and the last thing I feel like doing is an IG reel. Like, I don't want to share anything. It's just. But I think it's just moving through that space and sharing the ups and downs. I've been doing it with my newsletter@harryduran.com. Publishing that for over a year and just sharing, like, stuff that's, like, bumming me out and just saying, like, oh, I just had a challenging, you know, experience with a client, or I'm having this personal thing that I'm going through. I've just been, like, working through my neurodivergence, you know, I just had a chat with my therapist, and I think those are the ones where I'll get the reply back to the newsletter when it goes out on Saturdays. Like, hey, thank you so much, from someone I've never even heard before. I don't even know. Subscribe and they'll just be like, this is exactly what I just needed to hear right now. So thanks for that. So I think to what you're talking about is just like, you got to share the highs and the lows. I believe we're all on this planet to share our stories, and we're all, I always, like, think of it as we're on the rungs of a ladder and we're learning from people, like, one or two rungs ahead of us, and we're sharing our journeys with someone who's, like, one or two rungs below us, and we're keeping that going as we grow. And then, look, I just learned this. How about this? And someone's learning from that. So I think, don't discount the message that you have to share with the world, because I think when you share it, you're going to realize that someone needed to hear that. So I really appreciate you, like, sharing that and being vulnerable throughout this entire conversation. And I really enjoyed our time together.

Brandon Eastman [57:41 - 58:05]: You just took what I said and made it sound ten times better, brother. So that's a great way to end. And I love where this conversation went. I hope it helps people. And you're a fantastic interviewer, brother, because I had no expectation of where we'd be going. I know we'd be talking about podcasting, but it went in a lot of different directions that I think are really valuable to podcasters, but to people everywhere. So thank you for facilitating this conversation, man. This has been great.

Harry Duran [58:05 - 58:30]: Yeah. And thank you for bringing all of yourself here, because a lot of times people are, like, worried about making themselves look good or what they should or shouldn't say. I'm just trying to create a safe space, and I think, thankfully, over the years, I've learned how to do that better and just be a better listener, better connector, and a communicator and focusing my attention and just getting the best out of my clients. So you can share your inspiring stories with my audience as well. So if people want to connect with you, learn more about what you're working on, what's the best way for them to do that?

Brandon Eastman [58:31 - 58:52]: Yeah, the best way would be go to Bebetter industries.com, and from there, you can find my YouTube channel, you can find other socials, all that stuff. And if you want to have a conversation, go on LinkedIn. That's where you can message me. We can start a conversation. And anyone starting a podcast, I'm happy to help. I'm happy to give tips or look at yours and give you advice. Anything like that. Just reach out.

Harry Duran [58:52 - 58:58]: I'm happy. Sounds good. Well, Brendan, thanks a lot. I really appreciate this conversation. Thanks. Shout out to Ben Albert again for connecting us.

Brandon Eastman [58:58 - 59:01]: Yeah, thank you, Ben. Thank you, Harry.

Harry Duran [59:01 - 59:03]: Yeah, I really appreciate our time together.

Brandon Eastman [59:04 - 59:05]: Right back at you, brother.