Being an Introvert

Have you ever wondered why a cozy night inn often sounds more appealing than a bustling party? Or why do some of us find solace in the quiet moments, far from the maddening crowd? If these questions resonate with you, you just might be an introvert. Today, we're going on a journey deep into the world of introverts. The silent thinkers, the quiet warriors, were unraveling the challenges they face, busting the myths surrounding them and celebrating their unique strengths. Whether you're an introvert or just curious about their world, let's discover why in a world that can't stop talking, the quiet ones have some of the most profound things to say. I'm Joe, and that quiet guy peeking around the corner over there, he's Kurt. And we are dudes in progress. Hello, Kurt. Hey, Joe, my quiet little friend.

You woke me up from my slumber.

How are you, buddy?

I'm doing well. On a Tuesday evening, quite well. It was a beautiful day here in Connecticut, two days in a row. We don't get two nice days in a row around here. These parts too often.

Yeah. Happy Tuesday. I tell you, I'm going to be honest with you. If I had a. I know that we always do a win for the week at the end of our show, but if I had a lose for the week, I would. This would be my lose for the week. And this is twice that kind of a once in a lifetime event I just let pass by me. The first time was the eclipse. Perfect opportunity to see a full eclipse. It was right near our area. We could have driven maybe an hour and been in the full eclipse, whatever they called that at the time, 100%. And the full event, and dummy me, I scheduled a business trip to Louisiana that was like an 85% coverage or something like that other side of the world. I knew I could have. I could have done this. I could have done this trip anytime, right? And then it happened again this weekend, Friday night. We had the opportunity, way down here in Cincinnati, Ohio, middle of America, to see the aurora borealis, the northern lights. And I just dismissed it. My wife said, hey, you know, the northern lights, you're going to be able to see the northern lights tonight. And I said, no, we're not. Not way down here. We might. If you're up on top of a hill somewhere away from the city, you might catch a glimmer of it. And so we just went to bed, and I woke up the next, the next morning at 430 in the morning, like I do. And I saw a couple posts, couple Facebook posts from friends right around the corner, neighbors almost, that had this. This glorious, beautiful Aurora bore. Aurora borealis right behind their house. And I'm like, you dummy. I was pretty mad at myself, I'll be honest with you. So, I know I'm ranting a little bit, but I had to apologize to my wife, and we thought there might be another opportunity to see it again on Saturday, which. There was too much cloud coverage on Saturday. But if I had a lose for the week, Kurt, it would be me being a dummy twice in two months.

It's funny, my wife did the same thing with me, and she's used to me being dismissive on those things. What time is that thing going to happen? Oh, it's like 02:00 in the morning. Yeah. Well, okay, never mind.

That's really funny.

She stays up all night. She has a hard time sleeping. I sleep like a rock. It drives her nuts, but I love my sleep. I know. Hey, I watch the videos the next day.

That's what I said about the. About the eclipse. I said I just closed my eyes for four minutes, tried to get the same effect.

We did get cloud coverage for that. She was all hyped. She had the glasses. It was nice right up until. What time would that come out? Like 02:00 I remember. Yeah.

Two in the afternoon, something like that.

The weatherman has been really good this year. It seems like really quite doing a great job. Said the clouds would probably settle in about the time of the eclipse, and that's what happened. So we didn't get a really good. We would have had a decent view, but kind of saw it starting, but then by the time it was full. Yeah, clouds covered it.

I'm the memories are better than stuff guy, right. I'm the guy that. That wants to make memories, that is willing to set aside surface things in life, to experience a memory, to travel, to experience a memory. And I. I just completely dismissed it.

Well, you got a big trip coming into Portugal, though. You better improve yourself before you go on your trip to Portugal. I don't want.

I'll do better.

You know, when she asks you to.

Go see a big trip coming in Portugal. I do.

Well, whatever the exciting things you do in Portugal, when she suggests going to see it, go see it.

I think it's just the exciting thing is hanging out with me, with my wife for two weeks and without any obligation to do anything.

That is good. Yeah. You know, I was thinking about this as I talk about people going to even Disney World, which is this, amazingly, lots of things happening all the time and your expectations, really, you gotta be in control of your expectations. We do it all the time, my friends, that we think about Disney World. A new attraction coming out or new land or whatever it is, could even be a new movie. And I don't know how we build these big expectations up, but try to be balanced with your expectations, because you probably don't have a lot of information. I don't know why we get these that way. You won't be disappointed if it's.

I'm a very un itinerant vacationer. I just like to go and go with the flow, go where the spirit moves me. Talking about Disney, Kurt, you know, you're a guy with a. One of the nation's most popular Disney podcasts. Thousands of people listen to your. Your podcast. You have a tight knit community of a hundreds of people. Every week. You come on a show and you talk to guests, you talk to visitors, you talk to your community. You have a meetup a few times a year in different locations throughout the country, and you always give a speech or some kind of talk during those. During those meetups at work, you lead events that. Where you have to talk a lot, teach a lot, and instruct a lot and mentor a lot. So let me ask you this question, keeping all of that in mind, would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?

Boy, that was a leading question, giving all these qualities of being an extrovert. Kind of. But we've had this conversation. I've said it to many people, even in my community. You won't believe this, but I'm an introvert. I think that's my tendency. My prevailing self is more introverted than extroverted. But. And interesting enough, as we get through this a little bit, I think I had a real revelation with my community. And you. If you're building a community online or any other way, you seem to attract people that are like you, personality wise. Makes sense, right? They don't come because they hate me. Those people just make fun of me online, anonymously. But I remember being in the hot tub with one of my pals, Andy. We were staying. A couple of us were sharing a room up this beautiful resort, the Riviera. It was brand new. Went to the hot tub, and we started talking, and we had all these similar. He's in sales. As a matter of fact, he sells, I think, chimneys and fireplaces through a couple of retail stores. And I just kind of assumed he was an extrovert being in sales. But he started rattling off a lot of his interests like some of the books and authors that he liked and movies or things that we started talking about, like, wow, our similarities are like spot on. So I think he even, I don't know if. Correct me, Andy, if I'm wrong, but it seemed like we had a bunch of introverts that have a little bit of extrovert tendencies, is what my analysis was after that particular weekend.

We're going to talk a lot about introversion today and being an introvert. We're going to talk about the challenges of being an introvert. Misconceptions about introverts, the strengths of introverts, and some essential skills that the. That introverts probably need to make it through life successfully. You know, there's a doctor, Jonathan Cheek at Wesleyan College that did a big study on introverts. And I think the best way to clarify what an introvert is, it's about where you get your energy. It's not about being shy or antisocial. It's about where you get your energy from. Introverts, charge, recharge by spending time alone by themselves. They feel drained after lots of socializing, not necessarily because they don't enjoy being around other people. You enjoy being around other people? I enjoy being around other people, but it's more because their energy gets depleted and drained in social settings and it replenishes when they're by themselves in silence, in solitude.

Yeah. And I've heard this description before from a podcast. I want to say it's probably from my friend Cliff Ravenscraft, listening to him talking about this. And he was the first one said exactly in that kind of language about the energy level. And that so fits me. I was thinking even this past Sunday night, or even through a long week of interactions with lots of people, and I do. I do the podcast with you, I do my other podcasts. I'm interacting with a lot of people. Sunday night, I mean, I was ready to quit everything. Like I was just drained. And I know that feeling. And Monday is usually a good day when I'm really recharged and I'm ready to start doing my things to get all my podcasting and work things going. And I'm okay. Monday, after having that recharge, I just know I'm exhausted. People exhaust me, for sure.

It's interesting. I definitely have extrovert tendencies and I used to consider myself an extrovert, but I think, and I've never taken a test on this or an analysis, but I think I'm more introverted than I think I am. Right I think I'm more introverted than most people think I am. Even myself, because I do like quiet time by myself. Nothing excites me more. And, Karen, if you're listening, I apologize. Then when I know Karen's going to be out of the house and none of the kids are coming over, and I get a whole day, or even a few hours just to be by myself and maybe throw in a movie or cook. Cook up some really crappy food that I normally wouldn't eat and have that. That nice. That nice quiet time. Would you ever go to a movie by yourself?

Funny enough. No.

It'S interesting. I would, and I have.

Yeah.

How about eating? How about eating out by yourself? Just go to a restaurant by yourself.

That's really awkward for me. I asked that of my audience a lot of times. I've got a lot of people who like to do Disney World solo, and that is not me. So, I don't know, does that make me not an introvert? Maybe. See, that's what I mean. I have these tendencies that are don't fall in the category of introvert.

So there's a few things about me that made. That make me think I may be more introverted. Number one, I do like quiet time by myself. Number two, I'd like going to a movie by myself, an actual movie theater. I like going to restaurants and sitting there by myself.

But do you interact with other people.

Though, when you not in a restaurant? I'm just, you know, I'll interact with the waitress and I might gab her up a little bit or him up a little bit.

But what if you ate at the bar and there was a guy sitting there? You would. You would definitely strike up a conversation.

Yeah. Yeah, I probably would. Yeah, I probably would.

I'd be okay if I didn't. See, that's the awkward part for me. You know, when you're alone with. You're alone at a big gathering of a bunch of people, it forces you really almost to talk to other people. If I have someone with me, I can ignore everyone else.

You know, I think about a couple of Father's day ago. In fact, it's. It mean, it may have been the last Father's day. My wife was taking her dad on Father's day to a baseball game, to a Reds game. And my whole family was coming over that evening, Father's day evening to celebrate Father's day with me. So I realized that I had an afternoon all to myself on Father's day. Now, some people might say, oh, poor Joe alone on Father's day, I went by myself to Kings island, which is, of course, the local amusement park here that I love.

Yeah.

And I had blast, man. Rode rides by myself, walked around by myself, rode the rides. All the rides that Karen won't ride with me. Now, there's some. There's some challenges that introverts face, right. Particularly in cultures today that really put an emphasis and almost honor extroversion being an extrovert. Research shows that extroverted traits are often preferred in leadership roles and in the corporate world. The preference can make it tough, really tough for introverts to be seen and appreciated in the workplaces, which often favor outspokenness over contemplation. In fact, a Harvard business school suggests that, and that introverted leaders often deliver better outcomes when managing proactive employees because they listen more carefully and promote others ideas. Isn't that interesting?

So say that again. So the. They rather have introverts as employees.

Yeah. A study from Harvard Business School says that introverted leadership often deliver better outcomes when managing proactive employees because the managers listen more carefully and they tend to build up others ideas and promote others ideas. But we put so much honor on extroversion. The culture does. Don't you see that?

Absolutely. I feel embarrassed of myself. Introvertedness, a little bit. I kind of look up to people who are. My father's kind of gregarious like that in a social setting, for sure. My dad knows everybody. No matter where we go, he's met or knows someone from everywhere, and he'll strike up a conversation and with strangers in a social setting or just. Just out somewhere and just start talking, and people always get a laugh out of him, too. And so I've always admired that. The extroverts that can do that, people that built communities that they often speak of, the technical community that I was a part of. Of course, lots of introverts there. So some of the people that can be more extroverted, I think if you combine that talent to really be a leader with some of those advantages of being an introvert, it's quite a powerful combination to see people that can get up on stage and present complex topics and shake hands afterwards and make a lot of contacts. That's a really powerful combination.

Yeah. And I think if you're naturally an introvert, you need to work on more extroverted traits and learn from extroverts and learn how to work your way through a room and talk to people and have a coherent conversation. You're right. That can be very, very powerful. In fact, it's funny. I've managed hundreds of salespeople. It's funny because the most successful salespeople usually was the guy that. The unassuming guy in the background that just worked really hard. And we had this conversation earlier and think. I think I may have mentioned this in a recent show that worked. That just worked really hard. He kept quiet, kept his nose to the grindstone, and worked really hard. And those, for lack of a way of saying, those fools that just came in with, you know, back slapping and. And gregarious and loud and obnoxious, honestly, Kurt, they rarely did.

Well, interesting.

That is interesting, isn't it? I'm not sure what to make of it. Maybe it was the industries that I've. That I've managed, but I just don't know what to. I don't know what to make of it. But I do know that there is a bias towards extroversion. There's a leadership bias towards extroversion. Uh, as introverts, I'm not saying we me as an introvert, because I'm. I'm not quite sure yet, dude, but as an introvert, we need to learn how to excel, uh, and. And maybe build a little more dynamic personality and to. Into move. To move forward through the. Through the workplace. What do you think about that?

Yeah. And the thing that keeps going through my mind is, yes, I'm an introvert. But in social settings, or more of even business settings, in school, when someone, the teacher asks a question in their silence, I'm the first one to blurt out something like, I cannot stand that silence of people being afraid to voice their opinion or get into a conversation. And I was always engaged more in school when there was a conversation going on. I can't sit there and be talked to.

That's very interesting. So you didn't. You don't do well with awkward silence.

Horrible.

If you're in a meeting somewhere and, you know, the leader of the meeting stops and pauses to think for a while or is trying to engage the group a little bit. You're saying that more often than not, if there's too much silence, you'll. You'll speak up?

Absolutely. Yeah.

That's interesting.

I was always the first person into a lot of these sessions. The learning sessions. Sit in the front row, ask questions. Yeah, I I don't. I guess on what is it? I'm also trying to not be introverted in some of these situations, especially when it's about learning something. I feel like I want to be engaged in the process, but in a social setting. If people, if we're there to do for a very specific purpose and people, all the extroverts go off track. Drives me nuts. I have no patience for them.

There are some real misconceptions, I mean, and I think we're talking about it here. There are some real misconceptions about introverts. There's plenty of myths about introverts that just, they're not true. For instance, many people think that introverts are shy or they're depressed. In fact, there's a doctor, doctor Laurie helgo. Her studies revealed that introverts simply prefer observing rather than participating.

I like to hear other people's opinions. I really do. I like, I'm very interested in hearing. I don't want to speak just for the sake of speaking.

And that's the problem. Right. I know people that just speak for the sake of speaking, just to. It's almost like they need to be heard. They need to somebody to hear their voice.

If I have nothing intelligent or interesting to say, I'd rather keep my mouth shut.

Right. And you're part of that. You're part of that misconception. You're not shy or depressed or something wrong or aloof. You just enjoy understanding your environment rather than just rushing in to be a part of whatever's going on, be damned. Anything else? Right.

It's awkward for me in a place with strangers, and this is the thing I talked with Andy about. But once I've been introduced and gotten past that piece, I'm fine. I enjoy the social a lot. Obviously, I built this community because I enjoy that connection with people that I've met online. And we have the same similar interact or interests. And so yeah, it's just awkward for me to get started now.

There are people that are just painfully shy, that just are socially awkward. They cant, they cant get beyond whatever is locking them up. And I dont think thats necessarily being an introvert. I think theres other things going on there than being an introvert. But many times, because introverts tend to be quiet, we think that they're shy or aloof, not engaged, or maybe, like I said before, maybe even depressed, sad. And they're not. They're none of those things. They're just people that are soaking it in, man.

I had a podcast interview last week. It'll be coming out in a couple of weeks. Someone who I've known in my community for over eight years, let's say, and I've met him in the parks and we've had a little bit of contact in conversation. I would have considered him shy and quiet, introverted, if you want to call him that. What an interesting conversation we had and how opinionated he was.

Really.

I told him, Bill, I have enjoyed this conversation. He disagreed with me on a bunch of stuff and it was all for fun. Right? It's all about just restaurants at Disney World. It's not, it's not like I treat it like it's the most important thing sometimes, but I'm only joking. I want to hear what other people think. I'm interested in their opinions. And we had a lot of things that were the same, but it was just fun to note. And yeah, talk to an introvert. You might learn something.

Introverts can be, can be really hard on themselves and it can affect their self esteem and their, their growth. By not understanding what drives them, what gives them energy, it can really, it can really stunt social growth, professional growth. Uh, if they, if they think that the only person that really counts as the gregarious man or woman over there doing the grip and grin and back slam slapping. Right. That's a great, I can't, I can't be that way. So I, I'm just not going to even try.

Yeah. I'm not, I have less worth than that person. Yeah. I definitely have had that belief and it's something I have to work on. Absolutely. Even to this day.

Traverse, there are often great, great listeners and deep thinkers, innovative creators. They really thrive in those environments where they can concentrate and engage in thoughtful deliberation.

You know, I think of this skill that I have when I was picked for jury duty. I was picked for jury duty a couple times. One was when I was getting married. I think the jury duty was like the day of my wedding and then like the next, the next one was like some other really important event in my life that's like, are you serious? I got asked twice. But anyway, the third time I went and it was part of a case. And you know how the attorneys will question you and, and I was very confident in my answer. I will listen, I will deliberate. I will listen to all the facts. I'm analytical, and regardless of what my personal opinion is, I will be a fair juror. I'm very confident. And I got picked. That was a short.

No kidding.

Oh, yeah. And I was good. And I, you know, I think, I feel sometimes extroverts are really. We had this emotion. We talked about emotions. And I know my opinion of emotions wasn't exactly perfect, but I think people with extroverts are really emotional, and they fly. They fly off into emotional fits without really, too quickly.

I always say, you know, we're going to talk about extroverts in. In the. In the second part, uh, to this subject. Introverts and extroverts. Of course, it won't be in this episode, but when you need somebody to really take action, just get it done. Just go. Extroverts are really good at that.

That's right.

Introverts tend to maybe overthink a little bit, maybe overanalyze a little bit, and be a little more hesitant to take a step forward.

Right.

And sometimes, man, you just gotta get. You just gotta go. And extroverts tend to be. Tend to be good at that. Do you find that. That you, as an introvert or a self described introvert, you excel? Of course. We know you excel in the tech world. Right. But do you like writing? Do you like counseling? Do you like doing those. Those types of things where it takes, like, really kind of careful planning and sensitivity?

I'm not sensitive. I don't know if I'm.

You know what? You know what? We're on to you, Kurt. We're on to you, man. You can play that game all you want, that northeastern rugged individualism, but we're on to you, man.

I mean, one of the reasons I like my job in the tech world is I'm a problem solver. I like solving problems and helping people. So I don't know, that is a relationship kind of thing, I suppose. But I get a lot of dopamine hit from solving people's problems, which can't take all the analytical work that I guess I can see through a lot of things in the technical space.

We know that introverts naturally excel in many areas, Kurt. Right. We've talked about that, where their strengths are. But there are certain skills they can develop to navigate in what some might deem an extroverted world to be more effective. What do you think? Some of those things that they probably need to.

To work on, they should love to be socially active. Get out there and meet lots of people, networking. Learn from others. Don't be afraid of other people striking up conversations with strangers. I think that is one of the things I wish I could be better at. I try.

You were. Didn't you. Didn't you engage in Toastmasters many years ago to help you with public speaking?

Absolutely. We've sung the praises of Toastmasters. There's so many great things about Toastmasters program, the way it's designed has a very specific agenda. Yes, you get out in front and speak to people. You're there to learn how to speak standing up in front of people, but it's also about criticizing in the proper way others that are learning how to speak in front of people. And there's the social part of it. You get to meet people in a fun setting, a trusting kind of setting. That's me trying to push outside of my comfort zone, for sure. That's. That part of me who likes to be an achiever. That's part of my personality, to do those things that might not be comfortable for me, but try to do better of those. But, yeah, that program has a lot of those things. They even have a leadership program. They have two programs. One's for public speaking, and they also have a leadership program. A lot of those things are something. But it's great for an introvert to go into a program like that and really practice in real life. You're not learning it from a book. You're actually doing the things that you need to do to get you into those areas that you're not that strong in.

First of all, it's okay to be an introvert, right? It's okay if this is who you are, it's okay. But it's also okay to push those boundaries a little bit slowly and deliberately and. And either come out of that shell or crack open the shell or whatever it takes to kind of help you build those more extroverted tendencies. And there's more extroverted skills, and I think. I think it might be. Hmm. I'll have to think about this, but I think it might be easier for an introvert to develop extroverted skills than it is for an extrovert to develop introverted skills.

Oh, I think you're right.

We'll have to think about that. And now, I might do some research for the next one. But. But if you think. And when I think about the skills required for an extrovert or the skills that an introvert has, listening skills, contemplative skills, thinking deliberately and moving through a process, that's got to be tougher.

I'm tracking with you what you're saying. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm not sure. You know, I don't know. I mean, it's pretty. It's pretty painful for an introvert to really come out of their shell and. And break that ice and. And. And to move forward in a more extroverted way. I'm not sure which one. Which one it would be. But either way, accepting that an introvert, it's okay that you're an introvert and understanding these tendencies and using these strengths to your advantage, but also building, uh, building on more. More extroverted character traits is important as well. So, to wrap up understanding and embracing your introverted traits, your introverted tendencies, it's about recognizing and valuing those quiet strengths that bring value to your life. Whether you're an introvert or not, the insight can enrich your interactions and expand your appreciation for different ways of being.

Each.

Each personality type has its own unique set of challenges. We know that, Kurt, and it has its own set of strengths as well. But it's finding that. That balance and what works best for you. I did. I did do a little research into the top ten or so careers where introverts tend to excel. And I think you'll recognize number three, writer and author, scientist or researcher, it professional graphic designer and artist, accountant and or an auditor, a librarian, a counselor, or a psychologist, an archivist, somebody that keeps. Keeps records, a pharmacist and an engineer. I'm not surprised by any of those, are you?

No. They make a lot of sense, although kind of interesting to see writer, some creative things here, like the graphic designer and artist. I don't know that I would have thought of it, but it makes sense. And, you know, we've talked about creativity, so it's good to hear that my boys, part of people like me, are also creative people.

So that's interesting. I know a lot of people that in kind of the podcasting space, in the online marketing space, in the entrepreneurial space, and you would be surprised how many of those people are introverts. And I think it's because creativity comes before action.

Hmm, interesting.

I think you have to create something in your mind in order to take action on it. If. If you're not. If you don't have those introverted tendencies or those even those introverted moments, if you're an extrovert, you can have introverted moments. You can. You can develop that, right, in the same way that that introverts can develop extroverted tendencies. And we'll talk about that later. But. But I do think that the reason that so many creatives, in what seems to be a very public space, podcasting and an online marketing, many of them, I might even say most of them, if they would that have admitted it, are introverts, because I think creativity comes first.

Great perspective.

Something that you want.

Yeah. And I. It's, in my experience, things that I've been involved with, a lot of them came from technology, because the folks had to learn the technology before they could do some of these activities like blogging. There were times when creating web pages, you had to know a lot of technology. And so in my space, in some of the conferences I went to, a lot of these things, these social software came from technology people, Twitter and all these blog, well, podcasting, you really had to be quite technically sophisticated when it came out and it started to really, you had to hand write the RSS feed, I think, if you really want to get back to when. So a lot of those people were technical people that were doing some really creative things.

In an episode coming up, well talk about being an extrovert. I dont know if thatll be next week or the week after, but well definitely follow up with a similar deep dive into being an extrovert. But were going to wrap up right there, Joe.

This was very therapeutic for me. Very complimentary of something ive been ashamed of my whole life. Well, thank you for this topic.

So how about your win for the week?

My win for the week. Speaking of an introvert trying to work on is being an extrovert. As a matter of fact, just today I presenting, I presented a learning event for about an hour on an application that I built. We call it a use case, a business case. We described the business problem that we were solving and the app that I built. I went through all of its functions. So I'm speaking, although it's all virtual, and I'm showing my application and all of its features and functions and like 30 or 40 different people there and all aspiring developers in the technology that I work in, which is power apps. So I went really well and I like doing that again, I am pushing the envelope, trying to be a thought leader where I work. And even though I'm introverted, although I've been doing this, the thing that you'll learn as an introvert, the more you do and put yourself out there, the easier it is. The more public speaking you do, the more learning events you teach, it becomes, the more podcasting you do, the easier it is. But absolutely, that was my win for the week, Joe.

Well, my win for the week will come as no surprise. Whenever this happens, whenever an event like this happens, it's always going to be my win for the week. But this was a very special type of win for the week. I spent 3 hours with my youngest grandson at Kings island and he has unlocked the 40 inch level, which means big boy rides. He got to ride his very first big roller coaster. Now, there are those little roller coasters with the tiny hills that are made for little kids and toddlers. But this is a real roller coaster. It's called the Woodstock Express at Kings island. And it's. It's a roller coaster for younger people. But it's a roller coaster, a big wooden roller coaster, and it's a real rollercoaster. And we got the ride that together. So his very first rollercoaster ride happened with papa. How cool is that?

That is awesome. I'm getting jealous. I'm waiting for my grandson to arrive.

Oh, it's the greatest thing ever, man. It's the greatest thing ever.

How old is he now?

He is three.

Wow. Time just flies.

It sure does.

That is good fun. You got someone now you don't have to go alone to Kings island anymore.

That's true. That's true. That's true. How about a resource?

I don't even know how I stumbled across this. Oh, I know. I got an email from one of your favorite experts in the podcasting space, David Hooper.

I do know David.

He reviewed. Have you met him in person? I think you have.

Yeah. In fact, we know each other. I mean, yeah, he, we have the type of relationship that we might look for each other at a podcasting event, or we would definitely recognize each other and catch up a little bit.

You wrote a book. I know, the big podcasting book, something like that.

It's called really good book. Huge podcast.

Yeah, yeah. And he does a build a big.

Podcast, I think is the name of the.

That's right. He's got a podcast around that same topic. And he's got a newsletter. His newsletter came in my email today, and I noticed this $99 podcast studio. I'm jealous of anyone who's starting podcasting now, like ten years ago when I started. But there's so many gadgets. He had a pretty positive review for this focusrite vocaster, and there's a couple different versions. The one I'm looking at right now, you can connect two people. So if you're in a studio with another podcast, if Joe and I were sitting here together, we could use this. And you can get a nice microphone, get really excellent audio. If you can get the single version, you could connect it to your computer and get really outstanding audio. There's lots of features there, but go and read his review on that, and the link will be there. The $99 podcast studio studio from Focusrite. And they have a couple other different kind of versions you can check out or even little packages that come with microphones and other gear.

Now that's a true $99 podcast studio because it comes with the, it comes with the interface and it comes with the microphone, it comes with the cords that you need just about everything other than your computer, that everything that you would need. I'm familiar with this package. This is it. I'm glad you brought this up. If you're an aspiring podcaster, this wouldn't be a, this wouldn't be a bad thing to look into. Now I certainly have my, my preference for the zoom pod track, but man, if, if you were just starting off, this wouldn't be a bad choice at all.

The only thing I would be concerned with, and I didn't in my little bit of research today, I don't know if it do a mix minus, meaning if you are interviewing someone, would they get a little audio back and forth? I don't know. There'd be something to figure out if that was something you want to do. But if you want to do solo and you would just want to get some audio from your computer, it does say that. It does that just fine. But do your own research.

It's quality mic that comes with it.

Right?

Quality. Yeah. I'm glad you brought this up. This was a good one.

Thanks. I know you like gear. You have gas.

Yeah, gear acquisition syndrome. Well, my resource for the week is chat GPT just upgraded to chat GPT 4.0, not 4.04.0. And it's interesting how they did this. That's like a lowercase o, I think it's kind of a unique, interesting branding thing. So it's 4.0. Right. And it's, it's, it's really good. It uses a much larger language model. There's improved voice input and improved voice output, significantly better analyzation of documents and websites and images. You can tell it to look at a, look at a website and return a 200 word synopsis of that website or an outline of that website and it'll do it. It's really good. It analyzes images for you. And in fact, there's been some improvements to the chat GPT image creator dolly. Better memory. It remembers your style and your input preference. It's really, it's a, it's a neat upgrade. 5.0 is around the corner, or 5.0, but this 4.0 is really cool.

Boy, the speed of this technology improving and the change that we're experiencing is amazing. Is this already in your paid version of chat GPT? Yeah.

Yep. Yep. It's already there.

Fantastic.

Know you might fast, man.

Oh, that's you know, that is one of the things people don't think about. I did watch a Microsoft. It's called the ignite program. They do, it was. They do it in person, I think, in Washington, where they're in Seattle, but they were talking. They spent a lot of time. The chairman of the board there, he was spending a lot of time on the infrastructure and all the improvements that they had to make to support artificial intelligence. And it's all about that speed because we take it for granted. You ask it a question and it rips off this answer in seconds. It's at a point where, like you said, improved voice input, but I'm sure it's improved voice output and how quickly it responds to you. Like you're having a conversation with no delay.

And it takes massive amounts of memory. The amount of memory that these large language models, these AI models, it's pretty amazing.

You can't even. You can't imagine. You really. It's so huge. Can't really understand it.

Right.

So cool.

How about your quote?

This is a quote I must have brought up before, but it's one of my favorite quotes of all time from one of the quote masters that we bring up a lot. But it is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark twain.

Mark Twain. That's a great quote. There's real truth in that quote. Have you ever been in the meeting? And there's that one person. We talked about it earlier. There's that one person that just blathers out anything that comes to their mind and without. Without really giving it any thought to what they're saying, just to bring attention to themselves. I love this quote.

Yes.

I don't know if we've used it in the past. If not, man, I'm surprised it took us this long to use it. But something tells me we have used this in the past.

It could have been my first one or two episodes because it is one of my favorite quotes of all time. And, yeah, it makes me feel better because it's when I feel that I want to do. Of course, unless there's that awkward silence and I'll say something stupid, too. What's your quote, Joe?

My quote? I'm not sure if we can really call it a quote, but it's more of an insight into this person. One of the wealthiest men in the world built a technology that we all either use now or have used, and it's the most, most prevalent social media platform there is Mark Zuckerberg. Now, I don't think any of us are surprised that Mark Zuckerberg might be an introvert, but he said about himself, I am quite introverted, and I have to gear myself up to talk to a bunch of people. And the reason I like this quote is there's no great wisdom in this quote, but it gives you insight into a man that has testified in front of Congress, that is, that has had to motivate his troops, had to paint a vision of what he, what he expects and what he sees the future. And he's somebody that has made some mistakes going to market with some products. He has had to talk a lot. He's had to present a lot. He's had to communicate his ideas, and he's very introverted, and he has to gear himself up to talk to people.

I don't get a lot. I don't know if I've learned a lot about him other than there is a great movie about the beginnings of Facebook. My impression, I could be way wrong. But to me, he seems like an incredible and really smart coder. And he coded up that original Facebook, like, in the dorm room just within a short period of time. So just technically just superior. But I think of people we talk a lot about Steve Jobs. I, you know, he's got to be an introvert mostly, but he was always out front and in your face. It's showing a lot of extroverted kind of tendencies. So it's interesting. I don't know. I feel like Mark Zuckerberg was thrown into it because Facebook took off so fast. He had no choice. He had to sink or swim.

But he learned.

Yeah.

And he's done pretty well for himself.

He got thrown in deep end of social media.

So there we are on introverts. And an episode coming up, we'll talk about extroverts. But as we, as we wrap up, Kurt, our website is dudes in progress.com. dudes in progress.com. if you want to reach out to us, if you want to talk to us, even though you're in, you may be an introvert. Our email address is dudes in progress.com. dot. We welcome you to come on the show. And if you have an interesting subject that you want to discuss, we've had a guest here and there. If you have an interesting subject that you want to talk about, we would love to chat with you about that. Dudes at dudes in progress.com. and if you want to explore our coaching services, you can certainly do that through dudes at dudes in progress.com dot Kurt. Here we go into next week. Remember, even if you. Even if you're the quiet one peeking around the corner, you still got to make progress. It doesn't have to be perfect, but progress is certainly better than perfection. So keep moving forward.

You learned. I learned a lot with you today, Joe. I'm not gonna be so dismissive of my wife next week.

First of all, easy. Don't pick that scab.

I'm the same way. I'm not. I'm saying that to me as much as you. And I definitely want to be more social and connected with more people as much as I can. Next week.

Talk to you soon, buddy.